StephenF

Spectacular, beautifully done 👌. Hope you get the glitch sorted …

Thanks Jazz, I’ll try and set the motion up with the cylinders unsoldered so I can get them out for painting. At least it’s a Black 5, there’s a list of unlined ones in the book, thank goodness. Cheers.

Jazz, As a (very) part time modeller, I’ve long enjoyed looking at your thread, great work and super pictures! I’m finally getting a rebuild of a kit (Black 5, P4, rc) towards finishing. Seems fairly smooth running, though valve gear still to be done. I’m just not sure how to paint the chassis. I can drop the wheels out, but the cylinders eg are soldered in. Do you use a brush to get round them, or hang the whole thing and turn it round? Also, how do you finish wheels, motion etc.? I expect you have someone who does painting ,lining, weathering etc? Photo attached of my original build, no paint on chassis. Any hints much appreciated! Steve

Or call the hgv guys (Pikey, Otherplanet, Giles eg). They’d have what it takes I expect. Cost you an arm and a leg though, shouldn’t wonder...o(

Ok, next job, convert a recovery truck (heavy duty). With a winch etc.

Here’s the progress so far. It’s a bit smarter looking than the Seagull, with a little panel for the switch and charging socket. The steering looks to be toed out, which I will fix, and the servo arm is out of line with the axle which is not ideal, but I can’t do much about it. There’s not enough height space for it. I’d like to use a stepper motor, but the Deltang/Micron rc receivers won’t do that (yet). Anyway, it does steer, so I’ll leave it for now. Also, I’m waiting on a higher geared motor, this one is too slow. I know everyone’s longing to see the test drive, but you’ll just have to wait....

You can just see the plates which will hold the axle fixed underneath. Getting the exact right position was trial and error. This was really the most difficult part of the build, I will put up more photos of the complete job soon.

So as to have enough support for the steering axle, I fitted a brass plate that extends in a narrow strip down the centre aisle of the seating moulding like so:

Hello, all the photos on my old thread seem to be non functioning, so I’m starting a new one. After a long break over the winter and spring, I finally got back to modelling, specifically finishing the Leyland halfcab I started last summer. In case you missed it, my first diecast rc conversion was this Burlingham Seagull: The Leyland was tricky in comparison, quite a bit smaller and with a serious problem at the front. The mudguards are part of the baseplate which has to go in the bin in order to fit the motor, axles, servo etc. Also, there is very little support at the very front for the steering axle. So I cut the mudguards off and glued them directly to the metal body:

Hello Ray, thanks for asking! The short answer is no. As always, I have been off doing other things, and getting distracted. That’s why the last bus took ages...:) I have made some progress though. You were quite right, the front of these kind of buses is quite difficult, owing as you said to the lack of strength. Also, the wheel arches are part of the baseplate, which must be removed for a steering system. So I have cut the arches off, and glued them separately to the casting. I also needed to remove quite a bit from the insides, so the wheels would turn. (See photos) On the seat moulding which is the main chassis, I made a brass plate which runs down the aisle and extends forward to hold the steering axle. As you said it’s pretty tight, and took a bit of time to get right. I have had the steering axle in, also have just about done the rear axle mounting. I’ll post more photos sometime.... Quite a lot left to do, and not much spare time at the moment, but I will get to it eventually! regards, Steve

Looked pretty smooth operation to me, I have to say. I thought the lorry movement was a bit abrupt, could do with slowing down more gradually. Just imagine those tiny little 1950s brake drums struggling to make themselves felt... super work anyway.

Thanks. So you could have a simple pickup system that provides most of the power, but no hesitations or flat spots. And no need to wire points up either. Has anyone any ideas about under layout sound? Then you can have a bass subwoofer that wouldn’t just be white noise. I know people have very different opinions about that. But could it be linked to the loco speed? Or would you have to have a separate system like the Soundbyte app? Sorry if this is a hijack trainkid! But very good question....

Hi there! Not sure I understand. Surely a big part of using RC is to not need to pick up from the track? Do these Bluerail thingies work via Bluetooth alone? That would be interesting...

Very nice engines too. I was wondering whether to use the Radiomaster for trains, or the Tx22. Handy to have separate transmitters in any case...

Yes, sounds good. I have spent a ridiculous amount of time putting bearings in wheels so they run true, and on the halfcab I brilliantly managed to glue two up completely. I have worked out a method which I’ll describe when I post next, but probably about 6 hours to make an axle, and then there’s mounting it right. It’s certainly time consuming, but it does get quicker with a system. 20+ vehicles, you’ve got enough for a small town! But you need a bunch of people/transmitters to have them driving about at the same time. Or use Faller type system...maybe there could be an automated radio control traffic system run by computer. Then you could have a couple of people driving independently, trying not to hit or get hit...!

Noooooo (shoots self in head). Seriously though thanks Pikey, but I enjoy making things like that, and I’m just doing another for the halfcab. I did buy a Faller axle a while back and thought it was a bit weak, don’t know if that’s what you meant by issues? Anyway, it keeps me off the streets as they say! Or they used to.... when I was a lad some years ago.

Hello Ray! I agree it’s all very tight, but I’ve cut away the subframe right up to the axle mounting. I’m hoping to use the red plastic flange directly in front of the axle as the front axle pivot support. The steering axle will be right behind that, with a rear support behind it. Then I have to have the servo. I’ll make the axle directly, and see how it fits. Maybe get some supporting structure on the underside of the bonnet, or extend something from the seat moulding, which is really the subframe. It all has to be removable in one piece, so probably the latter would be best. Your points are interesting, it does look like I’ll have to cut away some of the rear inner face of the wheel arches, but the wheels must pivot tightly. So the key is to get the kingpins as close to the inner face of the wheel as possible. There are pictures of that in the section above, dealing with the Seagull. Solving the problems is where the fun is isn’t it? Are you going to do wire in the road then? I’ll come and have a look....:)

so this is the next project:, a Leyland halfcab: Preliminary hacking is done: It's smaller than the Seagull, so not really space for the big 520 battery on the ceiling. I'll use a 200 so: I'll probably re use the red wheels on it I think, but maybe skip the double wheels on the back axle, unless there are howls of disapproval.... this is a narrow bus! I have more of the black wheels I used on the Seagull, but they are fairly inaccurately drilled and I had to discard several before finding ones that were good enough.

Oh good, thanks. I ‘ll take a look!

Thanks Giles, I’ll look them up. I also thought the dummy jack was a good idea, but in the long run you’d lose it.... I’ve been looking at Radiomaster, the Tx8 is not available anymore, except a few 2nd hand. Tx12s are though, at £65-75. Tx16s are £150+. So maybe a Tx12...

Jig for drilling the axle. Going through into the wood meant I could glue the three parts together held true by .9mm wire, which is what the kingpins will be. (Started cropping these pics, they're huuuge) Axle glueing, obv. A bit sideways this one: This is the rear axle mounting. I wanted to use the tiny ball bearings like at the front, but although they say they're 1.5mm inner diameter actually they're more like 1.3 or 4. So no way to get the 1.5 mm axle through, and I couldn't think of a way to open them out. So I used 2mm top hat bearings, filled them with solder and drilled them back out to 1.5. Whitemetal bearings, just like the big ends on my old Norton! That's all folks!

As promised, some build photos... I used a drill bit to make sure the wheel bearings were ok before the glue set... Wheelhub is 1.3mm aluminium, that stuff you can get from the metal section at B&Q. It's soft, and easy to shape, but strong enough for making this kind of thing. I left the axle stub long so it would be easier to file round. Difficult to work with 3mm lengths. Hub finished. The holes in the wood were for holding the wheels tightly so I could bore out the centres on the minidrill stand.

Thanks otherplanet, yes, I love the stuff. I'm a bit primitive at the electronics, hope to pick it up from you guys. Like flashing lights :)

So the question I had was: I have simple 3 pin 2.5mm pcb mount stereo sockets on the way. I want to connect the tip to battery +, the ring to battery - and the sleeve to the rx. So when I want to charge I use a stereo jack from the charger that connects to the tip and and the ring. When I want to run the bus I use a dummy jack that connects the tip and the sleeve. Will this work? What bothers me is the possibility of a short circuit while inserting either jack. And should I have ordered sockets with normally closed switches? I didn’t know there were different ones till I started looking at wiring diagrams... Electronics is not my strong point!

Thank you Corbs and Giles! Giles, I noticed somewhere that you had gone on to a better transmitter, it does sound good. Inertia was distinctly lacking watching the video again, and easier programming would be nice. It would be difficult to alter the servo arrangement in the way you suggest. I should really have tried it out, but it was such a perfect solution to put it in front of the axle that I thought I’d cross other bridges when I came to them. I was surprised how smooth the N20 was though. At least it goes well, so my inner accountant might just ok a smart transmitter!