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11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

No problem! Start here and work your way down the page:

Happy to answer any questions in my topic.

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

No problem! Start here and work your way down the page:

Happy to answer any questions in my topic.

Hi, very interesting and enlightening.  I enjoyed reading the thread.  Thank you very much.

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The best livery too, especially with a train of crimson-and-cream coaches.

 

I'm intrigued by the geometry of what I assume is a lift up section.  Could we have a closer look please?

Regards

John

10 hours ago, Chuffer Davies said:

With regards the quartering of friction fit plastic driving wheels I personally have a fairly simplistic approach which has never caused me any concerns.  It has previously been documented on WW that the wheels on opposite sides of a chassis do not need to be at exactly 90 degrees offset.  It has been confirmed that the prototype 120 degree offset associated with 3 cylinder locomotives can be successfully made to work in model form.  The 90 degree offset is therefore a cosmetic rather than mechanical constraint, and wIth that in mind:

 

It must be said that it is critical that the axle hole spacings exactly match those of the coupling rods.  Get this wrong and you are pretty well doomed to fail.  When building models with rigid chassis it is hoped that the alignment will have been guaranteed by the manufacturing process.  If building compensated or sprung chassis which utilise horn blocks and guides it is essential that every effort is taken to ensure that these are spaced accurately and that the guides are vertical.  Some sort of jig will be critical to achieving this.  Personally I have the Avonside jig that was available from Eileen's Emporium but pretty much any jig will do, although some are easier to use than others. 

 

Once the axle bearings are all installed, the first stage is to fit all the driving wheels at roughly 90 degree offset (by eye).  As a rule the right hand side crank pins lead the left hand by 90 degrees but this is not an absolute rule for all prototype locomotives, but I always apply that rule on my models (Rule 1).  As a rough guide if the wheels have an even number of spokes then the spokes on opposite wheels should be in alignment, whereas for wheels with an odd number the spokes should be midway between their opposites. 

 

I next fit the coupling rod to all the wheels on one side only of the loco, it doesn't matter which side is chosen.  The wheels are then rotated so that all the crank pins are at approximately either top or bottom dead centre.  I now turn the chassis round and check the alignment of all the crankpins on the side without a coupling rod and make any adjustments (again by eye) until all wheels appear exactly aligned.

 

I now fit the other coupling rod and check for any tight spots when turning the wheels by hand.  Nine times out of ten the wheels will turn without tight spots.  If there is a tight spot then before doing anything else I recheck that all the crankpins along one side still look to be in alignment making any adjustments as I go.  If there remains a tight spot then if the loco has more than two axles, then it is normally possible check the rotation of the chassis two axles at a time.  If the coupling rod is rigid throughout then you will need to remove one or more axles from the chassis leaving the driven axle and one other.  Check if the tight spot still remains, try adjusting the quartering of the non driven axle to see if this cures it, but if there remains a tight spot then set the quartering to minimise the tightness and then attempt to see which crankpin holes needs opening out to cure the problem.  I never adjust crank pin holes with a broach, I always elongate the crankpin holes (on the non driven axle) with a rat tailed needle file, one way or the other depending upon which side of the crankpin hole the crankpin is pressed up against.  This takes some very careful investigation to make sure the hole is elongated in the correct direction.  Once the tight spot has been eliminated on a pair of wheels I then introduce the other axle/s one at a time and repeat the process knowing that if the new axle has re-introduced a tight spot then the issue must be with the wheels on the new axle.  This can be quite time consuming but it is important to be patient and to only remove material from a crankpin hole once you are certain this is required and even then only take a very small amount of metal each time and retest to confirm that this is improving the situation rather than making it worse (in which case you've got the wrong crankpin).

 

This is very much my approach and others may do it differently.  I do see this as a bit of  a black art, and definitely a skill that can only be acquired through personal experience.   It is always better to get the hornblocks correctly spaced in the first place and then you will not need to adjust the crankpin holes at all. 

 

Regards,

 

Frank

I'm really pleased to read this. I only came to the hobby during covid, but I've built a few loco's and saw an old Jamieson Jubilee chassis for sale and decided to buy it.  A match made in HELL!!!

I used 9.5mm spacers from Markits with screw inserts and tested it for being square by putting a 12" length of 1/8 brass rod through the middle axle on my modelling mat. It was absolutely spot on over 11 inches .

I put a Mashima motor with high level gearbox in (which runs smoothly and quietly out of the loco with axle and wheels fitted)) and Markits wheels with a Comet motion set.  My first rod literally fell on. I couldn't stop grinning!!  However, on the other side I had to enlarge the holes and eventually had to do the same on both sides, the holes getting ever larger..  After much bad language I eventually got it to run smoothly at very slow speed but when I accelerated it sounded like a bag of spanners!!

To cut this short I then replaced absolutely everything(and I mean everything) and decided not to enlarge the centre hole (Driven) at all, but to elongate the others.  Sadly, with the same result.  I'm going to take it to the club tomorrow (BELMRC) and hope Messrs Hewitt and Robinson can help.  I think I'll have to bush one of the axles. I checked the middle one for square and assumed the outside two would be accurate.  I suspect it isn't.

I now have much time ,effort and sweat in this and it's fought me very step of the way but I'm not going to be beaten.

Cheers

John

PS. I was "Super D" in my early forum days.

Thank you all very much for your replies.  I shall watch the uTube "ultrasonic cleaner" and the Horolene looks interesting.  I had also thought of trying dunking them in white vinegar.  Anyway, I'll let you know how I get on.

Cheers

John

I've recently been given a collection of loco and tender kits.  They're really well built and I'd guess probably 70's vintage and all are brass/nickel with the occasional bit of white metal.  The chassis are old type motors with thick rimmed wheels, so I'd like to put new (Comet) chassis (What's plural for them?) under them, and get them running again.

My problem, as you can imagine, is that the brass is now almost black and I'd like to get them clean enough to paint.  There are too many to do by rubbing/scrubbing type cleaning and I'm looking for something that I can use as a "bath" type solution.

I've used Dettoll to remove paint but not sure if it will do this.  I've also tried Coca Cola as I remember cleaning coins with it when I was a youngster, alas. this doesn't seem to work any more.  Probably something to do with Safety, 'elf and Welfare.

It's quite a collection, with Black 5, Crab, Fairburn, several 0-6-0's and lots of tenders, mostly Fowler with a few Staniers.  Just as well, because I've built several 4F's ( I used to be Super D before the crash, but couldn't get it back afterwards, so re registered with this monicker) so any Help / advice/ suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Regards John.

Sorry, didn't mean to shout!

HI TONY. I'LL TAKE A COUPLE OF THE MASHIMA 1620 'S PLEASE,

Have you tried Alan Gibson?

I've recently had some vinyl flooring done.  There are  several offcuts which are ideal for track underlay.  3mm thick, good quality. It occurs to me that it may well be cheaper to do a deal for offcuts with your local flooring shop than to buy cork at todays prices.