Gibbo675

Or thirty six depending on how you count them. Gibbo.

Hi Clive, You are just showing off now !!! Gibbo.

Hi Phil, I'm not that daft, I used the word 'reputed' for good reason, not that I would trust The Ministry of Truth [Wonkipedia] for any reason at all ever !!! Who actually knows one way or another whether or not Die Glocke existed, such legend may well have quite a bit to do with the fact that Kammler's research establishment was top secret and after Patton's army secured it I doubt that they were falling over themselves to expose all the top secret things that they found. Amongst other things television guided bombs, fuel air blast bombs and phased array radars, to be fair a lot of the stuff now in military use generally. Die Glocke or no Die Glocke, quite a strange tale all the same. Good luck with your thread ! Gibbo.

Hi Phil, I didn't know that but I did know that the Skoda factory was the centre of General Hans Kammler's technology research centre known as the Kammlerstab. This would be the reason it would have been targeted and also why the US Third Army of General George Patton headed that way instead of toward Berlin. The Kammlerstab is reputed to be the origination of an electro-magnetic device known as Die Glocke. Gibbo.

Hi Martyn, The foot boards have certainly helped in cheering up the great big brake blocks of the Hornby chassis. I had been wondering what you were going to do with about the brake blocks, an ingenious solution that looks a whole lot better for it. Gibbo.

Hi Folks, The bogies for the class 84 have been receiving attention although I'm not altogether happy with how they are turning out. As you may appreciate sticking any thing to the polythene type plastic that a lot of bogies are made from is tricky, so I elected to screw plates into the bogie side frames and stick the external spring bolsters to these plates. Unfortunately the rest of the bogie did not stand up to scrutiny when looking at pictures or worse still next to a paper template made from the drawings have. I have as a result decided that complete new bogie side frames are required which I shall have to scratch build, the parts made so far shall be reused. I may need a day or two to rev up to this all the same. shewing the difference in the side frames juxtaposed to the correctly sized paper template and also the method of attachment of the spring bolsters. Gibbo.

Hi Rodent, If you are good with a soldering iron, Mike Edge does a kit of said contraption. Gibbo.

Sad News Folks, In the light of the incident at Stamford exhibition I posted this upon the thread linked: "How about this for an idea; I would gladly use my skills to assist in the replacement of any item that has been lost or damaged and donate it to anyone that would wish to take me up upon that offer. There are plenty of us within RMweb that have a great variety of skills and specialities that may be put to good use and I am sure that between us all we could make a contribution somehow. I'm sure that efforts could be made in either in the manufacture of replacements or the repair of damaged items. Would there be anyone that has the ability to organise a list of items that may be created and gifted to those that have lost out in this ? Is there be a suitable method of correlating what skills are available by those that may wish to offer so that those affected may make requests of assistance ? Should anyone affected wish to see the standard of my work please view the link below, also should anyone wish to make a request for anything to be repaired or replaced then by all means send a PM and I shall do what I am able at my expense." There are a few regulars visitors on this thread that have skills aplenty to offer and would hope that you might join with me in offering a little of your time to assist. FACTA-NON-VERBA ! Gibbo.

Hi Folks, How about this for an idea; I would gladly use my skills to assist in the replacement of any item that has been lost or damaged and donate it to anyone that would wish to take me up upon that offer. There are plenty of us within RMweb that have a great variety of skills and specialities that may be put to good use and I am sure that between us all we could make a contribution somehow. I'm sure that efforts could be made in either in the manufacture of replacements or the repair of damaged items. Would there be anyone that has the ability to organise a list of items that may be created and gifted to those that have lost out in this ? Is there be a suitable method of correlating what skills are available by those that may wish to offer so that those affected may make requests of assistance ? Should anyone affected wish to see the standard of my work please view the link below, also should anyone wish to make a request for anything to be repaired or replaced then by all means send a PM and I shall do what I am able at my expense. Gibbo.

Hi Mike, You are quite correct, the inner set of wheels were originally connected via a gearbox and by the centre section of rods. Latterly only the outer sections of rods remained to drive the outer sets of wheels which were not connected to the gear box. The reason behind the removal of the centre sections of rods was that the two systems of connection set up harmonic resonance that caused troublesome vibrations between the rods and gear box. This page will explain much better than I am able: http://www.paxmanhistory.org.uk/paxfell.htm Gibbo.

Hi There, Funny you mention the route as described in your post, I live in the Eden Valley and just today a leaflet about the proposed dual carriage way improvements for the A66 was put through the letter box. It would seem that the route is a useful one road or rail. Gibbo.

Hi Rodent, Let us all be thankful that we are not on the "Imaginary friends" thread ! Assuming for comedic purpose that such may exist, perhaps I could start one ? Gibbo.

Hi Folks, This evenings work has included steel wagons and AC electric locomotives. First I fitted the wheel sets to the second batch of wagons and had myself a line up photograph of all ten of them. I still haven't painted the silver around the buffer shanks as I wasn't feeling up to such tedium today, other than that they are complete. BAA and BBA wagons. The AC electric locomotive work involved AL1 E3013 and AL4 84 009, the first job was to paint the roof insulators of both locomotives with BR Maroon paint as it seems a good colour for the job in hand. The next job was to fit some .040" plasticard strips to the insides of the body of E3013 to locate the top edges of the cut down Hornby AL6 underframes so that they locate vertically setting the buffer height correctly. I measured the depth of the underframes and they are 7.5 mm and so I cut a gauging strip so that I could position the strips at the correct distance from the bottom edge of the body sides and also parallel to the bottom edge. The strips are there should you look carefully ! Locomotive mounted upon its bogies. The AL4 requires a different approach as the bogies are adapted Lima class 33 bogies, the trailing bogie has a plate that will locate into pockets glued into the body with small screws to secure it and the power bogie will use a press-stud glued to the top of the motor and some guide strips front and back of the the bogie. This method works well although the bogie has a tendency to fall out should care not be taken when lifting the locomotive. The location hole for the press-stud can just be spotted although the pockets for the location of the trailing bogie plate have not yet been fabricated. Locomotive balanced rater than mounted upon its bogies. Gibbo.

Hi Tom, What I would do with your slight gap is to glue an appropriate sliver of .010" plasticard to one of the joint faces, you may be able to gauge the thickness in the way a feeler gauge is used. Once cured pare down to the required profile with a scalpel blade and then, If necessary, sand back to size to achieve the required fit, Gibbo.

Hi Folks, Here are the almost complete BAA and BBA wagons. The transfers have been applied and now require matt varnish to seal them and tone down the black paint upon the bogies. All of the steel carrying wagons will have various small details picked out such as the silvering on the buffer shanks and the yellow of the axle box covers with then only the wheels to fit. The transfers on the BBA wagons were cut and shut from the Railtec BAA transfer set, don't look too closely or you may well spot that the numbers of the two wagons are of the number series of BAA wagons ! General view of the second batch of three BAA and the two BBA wagons. Closer view of one of the BBA wagons. Gibbo.

Hi Tom, Here are the result of some Hornby four wheeled coach cut and shuts that ended up as properly bogied versions of Annie and Clarabel coaches for my nephews. The underframes are heavily chopped Mk1 underframes rather than the six wheeled type that you are going for. Gibbo.

Hi Folks, If any state institution or corporate entity advertises their product that cost millions to develop as either, easy to use, cheap or even free, then it is very likely that YOU are the product that is to be sold. Gibbo.

Hi Steve, I had forgotten about that one and so decided to look it up, it is a chunky little locomotive and I think you are right that it would go well on the Electrotren chassis. Gibbo.

Hi Julian, I previously resisted the temptation to be so pedantic as to note that the aforementioned Hawking fellow is now deceased and as such no longer understands anything at all within the realm that which we currently occupy, perhaps in another realm, but not this one currently. Not sure where that puts me in all this silly nonsense, but not to worry overly deeply upon it all the same. Gibbo.

Hi Tom, The concept for the coupling adaptors seems great although I haven't glued the extension bracket arms into place. The only thing I have to say about them is that they seem a little fine in section and seeing how easily the sprue runners snapped off I feel that the extension bracket arms may benefit from being beefed up slightly. It would be inconvenient should they become broken due to a derailment. I would say anything between half and a full millimetre would be more than sufficient in both width and depth respectively. Having looked at the clearances available I would say half a millimetre depth would just clear the axle and perhaps quarter of a millimetre to the outsides to just clear the wheels and three quarters of a millimetre to clear the bogie pivot. I haven't any couplings to fit to the bogies for I don't actually use such couplings although I don't see that as a problem as far as assessment goes. I know you have said that you know that the dimensions are correct, as are the running heights for the pockets so that detail should be fine. As for brass bearings I shall work out some dimensions for you in the next couple of days so that you may adapt your CAD files. With regard to the running of the bogie, should they be fitted with brass bearings that are correctly dimensioned and set then they ought to behave as any other bogie or wagon fitted with brass bearings. Knowing that the actual structure of the bogie print itself is certainly as strong a s the Hornby bogie of the same type there is no problem with regard that criteria. Gibbo.

Hi Chaps, I have used both the black nylon wheels that Hornby fit to their Freightliner flats and some 10mm diameter Alan Gibson wheel sets. Both types work perfectly fine as far as I able to ascertain, the only comment I would make is that the conical pockets are likely best for the Hornby black nylon wheel sets, although should anyone wish to use the metal axles of the Alan Gibson wheel sets then brass bearings would be no doubt better for prolonged or heavy use. I feel that it is rather up to Tom to decide if he wishes to adapt his CAD program to produce a bogie that accepts brass bearings which have nothing more than a 2mm X 2mm diameter hole instead of the conical pocket currently used. The two types of bogie could easily produced also, I would have to research the sizes and clearances to allow for such an adaption and see if the distance between the bogie side frames is suitable as it is or whether it requires adaption also. I'm sure that it would be an easy thing to sort out , as Tom says, just the time and effort involved, but it is Tom's time and effort so it is entirely up to him. Gibbo.

Hi Tom, Most of the filing was to remove a minute burr along the top edge of the grooves and also the small pips left by the sprue runners, so not much trouble really. Gibbo.

Hi JDW, Not entirely my idea, Tom had a quite a lot of input and also more importantly drew it up on his 3d CAD. Gibbo.

Hi Folks, Here is the latest from the Cartic-4 project, there have been some air tanks fitted and also the trial print of the bogies with NEM pocket adaptors have been removed from their sprue to see how they go together. My 3d printing specialist Tom sent over the air tanks which are printed in a sprue of six. They are glued into locating holes drilled into the centre section of the outer end wagons fitting neatly up to a cross member and just clearing the bogies. Shewing the position of the air tank, note the air tanks and bogies on their sprues in the background. The air tank glued into place with the locating pegs yet to be trimmed off. Also in the same package were a test print of a sprue of five bogies with adjustable adaptor brackets for NEM pockets as shewn in the previous posting. This particular sprue is as a compliment to the Cartic-4 kit. The grooves required a very slight amount of filing so the the brackets would locate easily. Shewing the range of adjustment of the brackets. I plan to get on with the drawings for the brass etchings that will form the hand rails, ladders, &c. as soon as I am able. In other areas of activity I have second coated the latest BAA and BBA wagons with Bauxite paint, I may well apply some gloss varnish for the transfers tomorrow.

Hi Folks, Here is the latest from the Cartic-4 project, there have been some air tanks fitted and also the trial print of the bogies with NEM pocket adaptors have been removed from their sprue to see how they go together. My 3d printing specialist Tom sent over the air tanks which are printed in a sprue of six. They are glued into locating holes drilled into the centre section of the outer end wagons fitting neatly up to a cross member and just clearing the bogies. Shewing the position of the air tank, note the air tanks and bogies on their sprues in the background. The air tank glued into place with the locating pegs yet to be trimmed off. Also in the same package were a test print of a sprue of five bogies with adjustable adaptor brackets for NEM pockets as shewn in the previous posting. This particular sprue is as a compliment to the Cartic-4 kit. The grooves required a very slight amount of filing so the the brackets would locate easily. Shewing the range of adjustment of the brackets. I plan to get on with the drawings for the brass etchings that will form the hand rails, ladders, &c. as soon as I am able. Gibbo.