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snitzl

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  1. 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.
     
  2. snitzl

    Ballasting and Wiring Tracks.

    By snitzl,


    Trackwork
    Construction for Snitzl - Track Ballasting and Baseboard Wiring.
     
    Cork tiles are cut into strips and glued with a latex based glue. The cork  tiles are also ground in an electric coffee grinder for the ballast. Discarded milk  containers make great cable ties and dental floss is used to loom the wires.
     
    Other than that, pretty conventional stuff.
     






     
    Snitzl.
     
  3. 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.
     
  4. snitzl

    Boat Warehouse Scene

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    The Boat Warehouse Scene.
     
    The boat warehouse scene covers construction of two simplified boats, packing cases, warehouse  crane, timber fence and a couple of items covered in previous blogs. The water is still receiving  repeated coats of varnish and PVA, as suggested in the RMWEB forums. Further attempts were made  at moulding street lamps as covered in the 'Cab Shelter Scene' blog which resulted in one more  street lamp for this scene. Its worth a mention that the water clear resin used for this purpose  has not hardened as expected and retains a certain amount of flexibility somewhat similar to  liquorice.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  5. snitzl

    Cab Shelter Scene.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Cab Shelter Scene.
     
    This blog features a horse drawn cabbies shelter, stone paving, winter tree's, shrubs, street lamp and a little more. In particular, the street lamp has been a bit of a problem.  Initially, I wanted to mould the lamp in water clear resin with fibre optic running through  the base and stand but found it impossible to fill the mould completely. Moulding one street  lamp per day, cutting the feed deeper and thinking, might have to addopt an alternative approach.
     
















     
    Snitzl.
     
  6. 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.
  7. snitzl

    Control Panel.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Construction for Snitzl - Control Panel
     
    The Control Panel front for Snitzl is made from 2mm polycarbonate, trade name Lexan. This material is extremely tough and is used for bullet proofing armoured vehicles and tanks, its also really nice to machine, drill file etc. Cab Control, which dates back to the early 50's is the method used on Snitzl and is explained in many books. Connections are  made by two D sockets mounted at the end of each board and looped through a tag strip with all wires connected.
     
    Therefore, the control panel can be plugged into any baseboard, ideal when working on a single board.
     









     
    Snitzl
     
  8. snitzl

    Controller & Power Supplies.

    By snitzl,


    Electrics
    Constructing the Controller and Power Supplies for Snitzl Town.
     
    The Snitzl control panel, controllers and power supplies are combined into a single  unit with interconnections made at the rear. The case for each unit being made by  laminating multiple sheets of black and white styrene sheet. The units are then mounted  inside a wooden frame which is protected on the corners by aluminium extrusion.
     








     
    Snitzl.
     
  9. snitzl

    Cranes for Snitzl Town.

    By snitzl,


    Misc
    Harbour Cranes for Snitzl Town.
     
    Detailing continues for Snitzl with the addition of two types of yard crane and  a warehouse pole crane. Images of these types of crane were collected from the web by searching google images. The model types chosen were Ratio's Yard Crane, Mikes Models GWR  yard crane and a real world warehouse pole crane. A majority of the work was done by hand  but a few components required lathe turning, milling, dividing head and bench drilling.
     


















     
    Snitzl.
     
  10. 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.
     
  11. 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
  12. 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.
  13. snitzl

    De Snitzlton - Part 3

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    First off I must apologize for the long delay in posting a blog, the truth is that for the time being at least, I cannot spend as much time as I'd like on model railway's. Therefore, after what seems like an eternity, here's part three of 'De Snitzlton'. This blog covers the design and construction of a trailing bogie / pony which I considered a last resort 'steam assisted uncoupler' method as I much preferred the original design that featured in Part 1, but this design failed to deliver. This blog also illustrates the construction and wiring of the locomotive to run on DCC.
     
    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 without DCC uncoupler.
     
    Still to do : Steam Tram, Stall Replenish Wagon, Animated Figues, Hot Air Balloon, Interior racking & goods for the Warehouse, Gantry Crane and anything else that may be appropriate, in other words, a bit of fun.
     
    Regards Snitzl
     















     
    Thanks for Looking.
  14. 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.
     
  15. 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
     
  16. 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............
  17. 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.
  18. 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
     
  19. 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
     
  20. snitzl

    Fun Town's Turntable.

    By snitzl,


    Fun Town
    This is yet another of those jobs that's been on the to-do list for a few years, yet, what prompted me to make a start on this project was the fact that I needed a turntable to showcase some of the rolling stock for future model railway video projects I'm attempting. Therefore, the project will exclude a couple of design components that I will illustrate but not include in the model.














     
    Snitzl
  21. 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.
     
  22. snitzl

    Guttering

    By snitzl,


    Buildings
    Short blog on the construction of guttering on Snitzl.
     
    Illustrates construction of a small wooden office, complete with guttering. No down pipes ,  but we have a gutter. I only use this approach now and then, usually a con-caved piece of  plastic does the job. There's also a variation on this thyme that's worth a look.
     








     
    Thanks for Looking..
     
  23. snitzl

    Houses for Chapel St.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    More houses, this time Chapel St, Kimberley.
     
    Last of the houses for kimberley build it series, hurray, I hear you cry or thank somebody for that.
     
    Again, a step by step build without comments for newbies of a house on Chapel St, Kimberley.
     
    I quite like this one, don't know why.
     





     
    Snitzl.
     
  24. snitzl

    Houses for Newdigate St.

    By snitzl,


    Kimberley
    Modelling houses on Newdigate St for Kimberley.
     
    Step by step guide for newbies.
     
    These builds are so similar to the large brick semi of Newdicate st, that I was in a  'do I, don't I' post situation. What the hell, its only 2 megs and some of the pics might  help clarrify what wasn't to clear in the earlier post. Illustrated below - A small semi and the school mistress house for Newdigate St, Kimberley.
     
    Again, the front of these buildings are only seen by the operator.
     
     











     
    Snitzl.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  25. 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..
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