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snitzl

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  1. snitzl

    Verne's Tower - Flying Machine.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Verne's Tower - Flying Machine.
     
    As part of Fun Town, I was thinking of modelling a hot air balloon that revolved around  the large tower, but in the previous blog on Mike Sharmans vertical boiler steam traverser,  Mikkel commented that the traverser was very much in the stye of Jules Verne in appearance.  This got me thinking about maybe modelling the hot balloon baised on something Jules Verne  might have designed, a web search was done and after browsing through many images a completly different approach was chosen. A small version of nautilus would be constructed that would be  crafted from a super light weight cast iron and also include an helicopters rotor to enable flight.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town will be a small table top layout that will include a market stall railway, overhead tram, animated figues, rotating Jules Verne flying ship,  hot air balloon, steam operated traverser and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.





















     
    Snitzl
     
  2. snitzl

    Fun Town - Ice Cream Wagon MKII

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town - Ice Cream Wagon MKII : Continuing with the crazy idea of building a few animated wagon's that would run on DCC for Fun Town's market.
    Determined to have an animated figure in this build, so I went for a tea drinking ice cream seller that also rotated his head as he eyed up potential customers. Things didn't turn out quite as expected, but the final result aint to bad.
     













     
    Thanks for Looking............
  3. snitzl

    De Snitzlton - Part 1.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    I've been working on a small 0:4:0 shunting locomotive for Fun Town's market stall's. I decided early on to design a new locomotive drawing inspiration from the transverse cylinder engine "Albion" and a small shunting loco De Winton. To make things even more interesting, the loco would be operated with DCC and include a DCC uncoupler with an animated operator and also, other as yet undetermined animations to be added as the project progressed. The project starts with a compensating chassis machined from solid brass featuring the same flexichas system as developed for the Flexichas Motor Bogies blog. Work then turns to body and reasonable progress is made before switching to the steam assisted uncoupler gearbox. The gearbox has been a real challenge for me and there are major issues yet to be resolved. To speed things along, I searched the bay for small motor's / gearbox solutions, chose a candidate and then purchased 6 units. First off was to determine whether the motor / gearbox unit was useful for model railways and then determine whether the gears were of any use for the 'steam assisted uncoupler' gearbox.

    During this project, I was reminded numerous times by JFK's famous moon speech : We choose to make these gears, not because they are easy, but because they were hard.




















     
     
    Regards Snitzl
  4. snitzl

    Fun Town - Arduino and Wiring.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Decided to cover this topic in a little more depth and detail after visiting one of my earlier blogs for some information, only to find it totally lacking in regards to the electric's and programming details for Arduino. Arduino is not something I work with everyday, the last time I tinkered was some 6 years ago in blog  'Funtown Micro Layout - Part 1', so this blog serves as a reminder to myself, for the next time I tinker. So began a re-investigation, what files did I use for programming previously, what was the name of that website I downloaded 'Arduino' DCC libraries and function decoder code from, where's that circuit diagram for connecting DCC to the 'Arduino' microcontroller board, the list goes on.
     
    I didn't write any code for this project (just changed the decoder address), everything needed was downloaded free from :-
    https://rudysmodelrailway.wordpress.com/software/
     
    Rudy provided the DCC libraries and source code for the function decoder.  
     
    int decoderAddress = 217; // 217 = Walls Module,Terraced Shops = 219,The Mart = 221, used for Building Lights.













     
    Thanks for Looking : Snitzl
     
  5. snitzl

    Ice Cream Wagon

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town - Ice Cream Wagon.
    Had this crazy idea about building a few animated wagon's that would run on DCC for Fun Town's market. The original thought's were to add movement to the 4mm scale humanoids that would occupy these stationary wagons, maybe a rotating head, guy serving ice cream, someone waving, rotating cog's / gears, steam cylinder's, and roof fan's. The animated wagon's would be similar in size to the market stall wagon's and form part of the same train.  With very little pre planning, I jumped straight in and made three very similar chassis with a common mechanism for the steam cylinder's and then later decided to concentrate on one wagon to see what animations were achievable in such a small space. This blog covers the construction of the first wagon and although I'm quite pleased with the end result, I'm a little disappointed that no animated humanoids were made in this first attempt, however, I do now have a few idea's to try out on the next wagon.
     












     
    Thanks for Looking..
  6. snitzl

    Fun Town - Replenish Wagon.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Here's a few images following the construction of a 'Replenish Wagon' for 'Fun Town', this wagon will supply good's to the market stall wagon's parked outside both 'The Mart' and by the 'Cattle Dock' area. The wagon carries it's goods in tray's that match those used on the market stall wagon's. Construction of the model is very similar to the market stall wagon's which have a split frame live chassis for DCC led lighting. Unlike the 'Market Stall Wagon's', care was taken to make sure that short circuits from the buffer beam's were checked during the construction stage, rather than later when the model was nearly finished. This is the first and least rediculous of a four wagon project.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town is a  small table top module that can be used alone or form part of a larger unit, it fit's like a jigsaw piece to the Walls Traverser Cover to create a small 36" x 18" layout over the top of Snitzl Town's traverser.
     
    Done so far : Overhead Tram, Jules Verne's Flying Ship, Steam Operated Traverser, De Snitzlton, Market Stall Wagons and a Replenish Wagon.
    Still to do : Steam Tram, Animated Wagon's, Animated Figue's, Hot Air Balloon, Interior racking & goods for the Warehouse and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.









     
    Thanks for Looking.
  7. snitzl

    De Snitzlton - Part 2.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    I've been doing a little more work on 'De Snitzlton', a small 0:4:0 shunting locomotive for Fun Town's market stall's. This blog covers the scratch building of the wheels, connecting rods, gearbox modifications, axles, mechanical parts for the steam assisted uncoupler and the animated and non animated 4mm scale figures. I probably got to carried away a little with one figure that seemed like a good idea at the time, but after a period of calm / settling down, this figure was destined for the layout instead.
     
    There are still issues to overcome regarding the steam assisted uncoupler gearbox that was covered in part one of De Snitzlton and these will be revisited in the next blog.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town is a  small table top module that can be used alone or form part of a larger unit, it fit's like a jigsaw piece to the Walls Traverser Cover to create a small 36" x 18" layout over the top of Snitzl Town's traverser.
     
    Done so far : Overhead Tram, Jules Verne's Flying Ship, Steam operated Traverser, Market Stall Wagons and Market Stall Engine with DCC uncoupler.
     
    Still to do : Steam Tram, Stall Replenish Wagon, Hot Air Balloon, Interior racking & goods for the Warehouse and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.


















     
    Thanks for Looking : Snitzl.
  8. snitzl

    Market Stall Wagons - Part 2.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Part 2 continues modelling of  the market stall wagons for Fun Town.
     
    If you've already read part 1 of Market Stall Wagons, then please skip past this intro text  to the images below.
     
    Searching the web for market stalls that actually ran on tracks and existed in our historic  past proved fruitless, I've no doubt that when this blog get's published on rmweb, dozens  of examples will turn up, if so, they might inspire further models. The type of market stall  required for Fun Town did exist as a road type vehicle and was available in model form as  a plastic kit by Wills, therefore the Will's model was used as a dimensional starting point. Although the model from Wills is based on a prototype of timber construction, the model  presented here is all metal. Raw materials for the stalls included 10thou brass sheet, brass tube, brass wire, steel for the wheels, aluminium foil for the canopy and a little solder.
     
    During construction of the stall's, a few other possible projects sprung to mind, perhaps a stall replenish vehicle, steam tram for the customers and market stall holder's during a market stall relogation.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town is a  small table top module that can be used alone or  form part of a larger unit, it fit's like a jigsaw piece to the Walls Traverser Cover  to create a small 36" x 18" layout over the top of Snitzl Town's traverser.
     
    Done so far : Overhead Tram, Jules Verne's Flying Ship, Steam operated Traverser and Market Stall Wagons.
     
    Still to do : Steam Tram, Market Stall Engine with DCC uncoupler, Stall Replenish Wagon, Animated Figues, Hot Air Balloon, Interior racking & goods for the Warehouse and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.
















     
    Snitzl
     
  9. snitzl

    Market Stall Wagons - Part 1.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Modelling the Market Stall wagons for Fun Town.
     
    Searching the web for market stalls that actually ran on tracks and existed in our historic  past proved fruitless, I've no doubt that when this blog get's published on rmweb, dozens  of examples will turn up, if so, they might inspire further models. The type of market stall required for Fun Town did exist as a road type vehicle and was available in model form as a  plastic kit by Wills, therefore the Will's model was used as a dimensional starting point. Although the model from Wills is based on a prototype of timber construction, the model presented here is all metal. Raw materials for the stalls included 10thou brass sheet, brass  tube, brass wire, steel for the wheels, aluminium foil for the canopy and a little solder. During construction of the stall's, a few other possible projects sprung to mind, perhaps a stall replenish vehicle, steam tram for the customers and market stall holder's during a market stall relogation.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town is a  small table top module that can be used alone or form part  of a larger unit, it fit's like a jigsaw piece to the Walls Traverser Cover to create a small 36" x 18" layout over the top of Snitzl Town's traverser.
     
    Done so far : Overhead Tram, Jules Verne's Flying Ship, Steam operated Traverser and Market  Stall Wagons.
     
    Still to do : Steam Tram, Market Stall Engine with DCC uncoupler, Stall Replenish Wagon,  Animated Figues, Hot Air Balloon, Interior racking & goods for the Warehouse and anything  else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.














     
    Snitzl
     
  10. snitzl

    Sharman's Traverser.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town - Sharmans Traverser.
     
    Mike Sharmans vertical boiler steam traverser appears briefly on a Railscene 2 video that  features one of Mike's earliest multigauge layouts with some of the most unusual locomotives,  rail stock and features history has ever produced. I remember reading in one of the monthly  magazines that lack of information would not prevent Mike from a loco build if one took his  fancy, building a scale model from a single photograph was quite acceptable to him so I've taken his concept a step further and built a model of Mike's model. When it came to the finer  modelling details, searches made online provided a few details but on the whole, very little exists on vertical boiler steam traversers. The finished traverser is set up for DCC and runs as you would run an ordinary loco, speed of the traverser is much much slower than expected, so alignment of the tracks is not the problem I thought it might be.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town will be a small table top layout that will include a  market stall railway, overhead tram, animated figues, rotating hot air balloon, steam  operated traverser and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.




















     
    Snitzl
     
  11. snitzl

    Monorail Part 2.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town - Monorail Part 2.
     
    In this, part 2 of the monorail tram design and development, a lot of effort has been put into reliable running and how it was or was not acheived. A decision was made in part 1 of the design, to keep areas of development that didn't work out in the blog, this was so that we can see how the final design was arrived at. Normally, when ideas don't work out,  I'll delete all the unwanted material, go back a few pages and hide all evidence to give the impression that all was plain sailing, but for me, this is rarely the case. Although the  tram featured in this blog is not based on a prototype, once this monorail system is complete
     and running is reliable, a search will be made for appropriate prototypes.
     
    What is Fun Town ? : Fun Town will be a small table top layout that will include a  market stall railway, overhead tram, animated figues, rotating hot air balloon, steam  operated traverser and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun :- after the demise of Kimberley, I need it.



















     
    Snitzl
     
  12. snitzl

    Monorail - Part 1.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Follow the development of a monorail for Fun Town in this part 1,
     
    Is it a bird, is it a plane, or is it just Snitzl Town's overhead tram.
     To be honest, didn't know whether to call this project an overhead train, engine or  tram, technically its not yet a train, so I opted for tram. It's actually been eight  months since my last blog, the main reason being that development of this overhead tram system has had a few major setbacks that caused me to take a three month break to sort out my workshop, replaced my old Southbend Heavy 10 lathe with an even older pre war  Boley & Leinen LZ4, made new countershafts for a couple of Pultra lathes and then constructed  new work benches. Enough of the excuses, this blog starts with the development of the monorail and ends with the archway supports for the rail, there's still a little more to come in part four of  Fun Town.
















     
    Snitzl
     
     
     
  13. snitzl

    Fun Town Micro Layout - Part 2.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town Micro Layout - Part II.
     
    Here's part 2 of a small fun type layout which will also be my first venture into DCC. The  main feature of part 2 of Fun Town Micro Layout has been the construction of wrought iron  railings from 10 thou brass sheet and 0.5mm dia brass wire. Never tried this before, so there was a little learning curve in the initial satges as the process developed. Before  starting the job, I purchased 20 x 0.5mm dia twist drills from the bay, expecting to break  quite a few of them but only broke one, just lucky I guess. I decided that part 3 will cover the developed and construction of a mono rail and I'm quite looking forward to that.
     
    For now, here's part II, hope you enjoy.











     
    Snitzl
     
  14. snitzl

    Fun Town Micro Layout - Part 1.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    Fun Town Micro Layout - Part 1.
     
    Here's the humble beginnings of a small fun type layout which will also be my first  venture into DCC. The layout will eventually include led lighting, traverser, animated room interiors, animated figures, overhead transportation and a market train that will consist of an engine and market stalls ( running on rails of course ).
















     
    Snitzl
     
  15. snitzl

    LSWR class T14 4-6-0 Locomotive.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    Brief Prototype History for the T14.
     
    The LSWR Class T14 was a class of ten 4-6-0 locomotives designed by Dugald Drummond for  express passenger service for London & South Western Railway, built at Eastleigh between 1911 and 1912. The T14 was not one of Drummonds better loco designs, they suffered from heavy coal and water consumption and the axle boxes ran  extremely hot. Later modifications included removal of the paddlebox type splashers,  raising the footplate and forced lubrication on the axle boxes. Maunsell modified the  boiler and installed a superheater, however, the locomotive still used a lot of coal  and water. In 1940, No 447's chimney required replacing due to wear and condensation and with no replacement available, a short stove-pipe chimney was substituted, there was a marked improvement in its steaming ability due to improved draughting and the same mod was carried out on the rest of the class. Livery under LSWR was sage green, with purple-brown edging and black and white lining. Under Southern Railway from grouping in 1923, the locomotives  were Maunsell's darker version of the LSWR Sage Green with yellow lettering on the tender and  black and white lining.
     
     Project History.
    The T14 was built to EM gauge and actually ran quite nice, but was missing its walschaerts  valve gear. The problem with the walschaerts valve gear on the T14 model is that a pair of  cylinders are located above the footplate and a pair of cylinders below the footplate, this  means that when removing the chassis, the walschaerts valve gear has to be partially dismantled.  Thirty years ago, this problem was given some thought and with a solution in mind the model  was partly rebuilt, but now some 30 years later, I havn't a clue as to what those  modifications were. Unless there's some hidden mechanism to remove the chassis, which is securely soldered to the body, I'm at a total loss as to what the next step was. After sleeping on it, a drastic dismantle with a large soldering iron produced three sub assemblies  and work then turned to rebuilding the chassis with it's sharman type suspension system.  On inspection of the incomplete mild steel valve gear, it was decided to start again in nickel silver, the grade of mild steel used on the original valve gear was very soft and the  amount of time spent finishing the job may be wasted, therefore, a large section of this blog covers the making and assembly of the walschaerts valve gear.
     
    Conclusion
    It is not intended to run the T14 on Snitzl Town other than to test its running and valve  gear mechanism, this loco is destined to sit on the shelf and wait for a more suitable layout  to materialise, at which point the loco will be finished, painted and lined.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  16. snitzl

    Coffee Pot Modifications.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    Modifications and detailing on Neilson & Co 0:4:0  Coffee Pot.
     
    After reading other modellers blogs, its seems that quite a few of us are plaqued with infinished projects syndrome, with incomplete models littering our shelfs. In my case, I  had scratchbuilt 16 locos and 5 remained unfinished, so a decision was made to try and get  some of them transferred to the done section. This scratchbuilt model of the coffeepot was  started some 30 years ago, but because of its racehorse like running qualities was put aside  and forgotten for a few months, then years. This just might have been a lesson in ' is it  worth scratchbuilding a loco when you have very little information '.
     
    This is yet another loco built to run EM gauge that needed modifying to P4. During the initial dismantle of the loco, I was a little surprised with the lack of gearbox and method I'd used  for the drive. If memory serves, the boiler had been turned on a lathe and bored out so that  the tiny ECM motor was a nice snug fit inside, then a worm and wheel were made that had the  same centres as the drive axle / boiler on the model. The boiler was turned to just over a  millimeter oversize to accomodate the ECM motor which later caused problems with interference  between the suspension springs, reverse lever and boiler. The model was originally built to a simple drawing found in F.C Hambleton's book, Locomotives Worth Modeling, but when making present  day comparisons with the model there were differences with the splashers and steps. Recent investigations have revealed that variations did indeed exist with regards to splashers,  chassis, steps, rear cab and no doubt, quite a few more, not to mention later revamp  modifications to the boiler, coal bunkers and enclosed cabs.
     
     


















     
    Snitzl.
    Thanks for Looking.
  17. snitzl

    Beattie Well Tank.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    Adding details to the chassis including springes, valves and lots more.
     
    History.
    Joseph Beattie was one of the old school locomotive designers who believed in a low centre  of gravity for his locos. Boiler centre line was kept naturally low, while well tanks  between the frames were employed rather than the higher side or saddle tanks. An whole  series of boilers and smokebox's were designed for burning coal instead of coke. The last six and the Nine Elms locomotives had square splashers reminicent of short side tanks  and the safety valve mounted on the middle ring of the boiler, instead of the first. The  last six locomotives built by Beyer Peacock also had larger bunkers.
     
    Drawing Information.
    The Beattie Well Tank is a very interesting loco to model with many physical variations  made over its 120 year life span. Drawing details for the model were taken from an article  by D Hughes, entitled ' Build a Beattie Well Tank ' in Model Railways - May 1982. This article is mainly about the construction of a Jidenco kit, but includes drawings for three variants of the Beattie and a few photographs. Second source of information came  from an article by C.J. Binnie in Model Railway Constructor - February 1970 which also  includes a 7mm scale drawing and a few photographs.
     
    Project History.
    The Beattie Well Tank is yet another one of those incomplete projects from many many moons  ago, it is hoped that when complete, this little loco will become part of the 'Snitzl Town' stud and will be privately own by Charles Rhodes Textiles. I usually model locos on a single  prototype, but in this case, a large portion of the model is based on No 33, the ' Phoenix ' , with the crossheads and crosshead guides taken from No 247.
     
    Modelling starts with the coupling rods, connecting rods and crosshead guides, all of which  along with gardening breaks and decorating, took what seemed like an eternity. Front wheels were destroyed when the chassis was partially stripped down so that additional details such as ashpan, well tanks and wheel guards could be added.
     














     
    Snitzl.
     
  18. snitzl

    Motor Bogie Design.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    Here's a  little design and development work on Flexichas Motor Bogies.
     
    Been thinking for quite some time about modelling a couple of motor bogies with Sharman type  suspension and although the idea I have in mind is new to me, I wouldn't be overly surprised  if the idea had already been done. Some years ago, scale flange wheels were fitted to all  snitzl rolling stock, which in turn made all of the fixed chassis locos unreliable due to  derailing. Presently, with the exception of two motor bogies, all rolling stock has been  modified to include the sharman type suspension system. This new motor bogie project will  be modelled as if by a deveopment engineer, components will be made from scratch, assembled  and modified as required, to overcome the unforseen problems that will probably arise due to  lack of initial design input. Starting point for the project will be to construct two enclosed  gear box's as described in the "Gearbox Madness" blog, one of these will be fixed to a  chassis, while the second is allowed to rotate about the worm shaft. The worm shaft will  require some support at one end of the bogie by some sort of bearing and we also need to  attach outer frames to the main chassis. Motor will be mounted above the worm shaft and drive transmission will be through spur gears. A second bogie, although of similar design to the first, will have much smaller worm and wheels due to the small diameter of the driving  wheels. Lets see how things progress.
     
















     
    Snitzl.
     
  19. snitzl

    Drummond's Bug.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    This project is to try and do as much as possible to finish off an L.S.W.R. class F9 4:2:4T.
     
    Brief Prototype History for the Bug.
    The bug was Dugald Drummonds inspection loco built by L.S.W.R. works at Nine Elms and  completed in april of 1899, numbered 733. Original livery for the loco was apple green  edged with chocolate with a black line edged either side by white. The saloon was painted  dark green / brown with the upper recessed panels in salmon pink, lining for the saloon  was venetian and gold. The roof when new was painted white which very soon became grey.  In December 1924, the loco was repainted / renumbered by the Southern Railway to 58 S. Wheel splashers for this loco were attached to the main frames. The Bug, besides being  Dugald Drummonds own personal inspection locomotive was used by Drummond, to travel  to and from work, withdrawn in 1940.
     
    This Project.
    This project is to try and do as much as possible to finish off an L.S.W.R. class F9 4:2:4T ,  Drummond's Bug. The story sofar : Model was scratchbuilt to EM gauge standards and while the chassis was virtually complete, the main body and attached saloon were missing a few details, interior of the saloon had zero detail and no glazing, why I'd painted the model  before some of these details were added is beyond me. The saloon section was cut down from  a previously etched southern elec fret and is not quite correct to prototype. These frets  were etched in an home made etching tank which was nothing more than a wooden box lined with  glass fibre, a horizontal paddle ( also of wood ) and a motor mounted on the outside. Artwork  was drawn overscale on a drawing board with ink pens in the old fashioned way. The resulting  frets were a little uneven with regards to depth of cut, some edges were undercut and in the  case of the bug, an area had not edged at all and needed machining which caused a small hole  in one of the lower panels. Chassis was later stripped down, rebuilt to P4, and included Mike  Sharmans Flexichas system and split frames on the bogies to improve electrical pickup.

    This project starts with a dismantling of the chassis into its main components and a study of a  7mm drawing by Ray Chorley in a copy of Model Railway Constructor dated August 1968 which also  includes a couple of BR photographs. During the models reconstruction, details are given on how  Sharmans Flixichas system were applied to this model and is explained with a simple schematic and  a look at the relevant features on the chassis components. I must make a point of thanking members  of rmweb for enlightening me with regards to the boiler injection system and its relevant  components with a special thankyou to gz3xzf ( Bryan Hardwick ) for annotating a drawing with  the information required ( topic can be viewed here ), therefore, a good chunk of this blog is  devoted to the machining and building of, these very small components. Once the chassis had been  rebuilt, only the rear bogie was wired as an electrical pickup to the motor because wheel splashers  on the front bogie looked to be a potential short circuit with the cylinders when negotiating curves.  The rear bogie proved to be unreliable and was modified to include additional wires sprung lightly on the axles. A very basic interior for the coach section was modelled, the coach was stripped of its paint and the missing roof lights and water tank filler added. The boiler also needed modifying due to a small error with the steam valve positions and this was also stripped  of its paint.
     
    Painting and Lining.
    Painting and lining are skills I've yet to master, I find them difficult, fustrating and the fact  that my hands are unsteady dosn't help. After many years of modelling L.S.W.R and Southern, a  decision was made that Snitzl Town would be free from such regional limitations and would not  belong to any given region at all. Snitzl Town would be a private concern able to purchase rolling stock from any of the regions and repaint them in Snitzl Town liveries. Therefore, in the world of Snitzlshire, we will assume that at great expense, Sir Archibald Snitzl purchased  the bug from his best friend, Dugald Drummond and had her repainted in the workshops of Snitzl  Town, Dugald Drummond will now have to find other means of transport for his 60 mile  journey to work.
     
    Snitzl's bug will now be used to run Archibald Snitzl to and from work, as did the original  bug for Dugald Drummond.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  20. snitzl

    Adams B4 Modification.

    By snitzl,


    Locos
    Scratchbuilt Em to P4 conversion with wheel rim turning for this L.S.W.R. class B4 Dock Tank.
     
    This second installment of Snitzl Works section covers the conversion of a scratchbuilt Adams  B4 in EM gauge to P4. The original model was built way back in the early 1980's to standard  gauge and a few years later converted to EM, so its taken a while to build up enough  enthusiasm to do this final conversion.
     














     
    Snitzl.
     
  21. snitzl

    Tenshodo 14:1 Worm and Wheel.

    By snitzl,


    Workshop
    I needed a Tenshodo type 14:1 worm and wheel for the current project I'm working on. The Tenshodo's were about the right size and would probably do the job, but a preference for metal gears prompted this sub project. The one thing that this blog demonstrates besides novice gear making, is how much time can be spent making side tracked components before work can begin on the job in hand. Now that the gears are complete, changes have been made in the main project that may render these gears as unrequired, we will see.
     













     
    Regards Snitzl
  22. snitzl

    Replacing Coupling Rods.

    By snitzl,


    Workshop
    Here's a couple of methods you can use for making replacement coupling rods.
     
    Its not unusual when scratchbuilding a new loco chassis to make the rods first and use them  as a jig to drill axle bearings holes or holes for axle bushes, but there are times when there's a need to make replacement rods. Here are a couple of methods that may be of use. The  first method is the simplest, but requires the use of either a milling machine or compound slide mounted on a bench drill. For those that don't know what a compound slide is, a simple  miniature version can be found on the GW rivet press, one slide moves the workpiece in the left /right axis, and the second slide moves in the forward / back axis, the workpiece is  moved by turning calibrated dial knobs on each slide. Compound slide tables can be added to any bench drill, you could even use a single axis slide from a lathe and bolt it to the  drill table. This enables you to move the workpiece a precise distance, so that one crankpin  hole can be drilled, workpiece is moved a determined distance, second hole is drilled.
     
    Second method requires the use of a lathe to modify a couple of axles that are turned  down at each end to the same diameter as the crankpin bushes.
     
    A third method not illustrated below is to use the loco's chassis as a drill jig.
     Clamping the chassis to some rod material and spot drill through the bearings to leave a tiny indent as a drilling guide. Problem with this method is that some bearing material will probably be removed unless an 1/8" dia shaft was used with a smaller drill force fit in the end of the shaft.
     




     
    Snitzl.
     
  23. snitzl

    Gearbox Madness.

    By snitzl,


    Workshop
    Geabox Madness illustrates the construction of different gearbox types.
     
    How many modellers do you know that make a closed gearbox for an Adams B4 only to find that  the motor intended for use with the gearbox has packed in, a modification is made to the gearbox  to later find that the unit will not fit in the intended B4 without surgery to the boiler, a  start is then made on a cradle type gearbox only to find the same, the end solution on the B4  can be viewed in another blog.
     
    This blog follows the construction of a simple enclosed gear box, an open cradle  type gearbox both with a P4 50:1 gear wheel and a 2BA screw for the worm, the third gearbox is an open frame type gearbox utilising gears extracted from some old  sigma camera lenses.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  24. snitzl

    Cutting Gears.

    By snitzl,


    Workshop
    Ever wanted to make your own worm and gear wheel ?.
     
    Here's how to make a simple 30:1 worm and gear along with a home made gear cutter,  both lathe and milling machine were used in the process.
     

















     
    Snitzl.
     
  25. snitzl

    Wheel Quartering JIgs.

    By snitzl,


    Workshop
    Brief introduction  and Wheel Quartering Jigs .
     
    Snitzl Works blog will illustrate and describe my efforts into modifications and scratchbuilding  of rolling stock / locomotives along with all the sub assemblies / components such as gearbox's,  gears, worms, wheels, motor bogies, wheel quartering jigs and will also include all the trials  and tribulations that can sometimes occur along the way, so perhaps this blog should be a guide on how not to modify and scratchbuild locomotives. I realise that this blog will only attract a  handful of rmweb members but I'd rather present these projects than stop blogging altogether.
     
    Brief History : First loco was scratchbuilt using very basic tools in a fashion described by John H Ahern in his book 'Miniature Locomotive Construction', later models were constructed  with the aid of an emco unimat SL which with its accessories can perform as a lathe, milling  machine and pillar drill. Time has moved on and I now have a workshop complete with traditional engineering workshop machines ( mainly company retro throw outs ).
     
    I started sratch building loco's in the early 1980's to the more common gauge of  16.5mm but after a few years a change to EM gauge was made and this involved modifying  six locos to the new gauge. A few years later a change from EM gauge to P4 was made  and this involved modifying fourteen locos to the new gauge, three of which have still  to be done. Signs of this modification can be seen on some locos in the gallery, you'll  notice brass chassis, painted body combination . Although I use the term 'scratchbuilt',  all loco's have commercial motors and most have commercial wheels and gears.

     All rolling stock has a fully compensated chassis system as described in Mike Sharmans  book 'Flexichas' , which is essential for reliable running in any gauge with true scale  tyre profiles.
     
    I hope that this blog will encourage others to venture into this most rewarding side of the hobby.
     
    The most influential sources of information on locomotive construction was a set of articles by Guy Williams in Model Railway Constructor which were later combined to produce a book : Model Locomotive Construction in 4mm Scale by Guy Williams. see also : The 4mm Engine - A Scratchbuilder's Guide - R.Guy Williams.
     












     
    Snitzl.
     
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