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brightspark

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  1. brightspark

    76009 the Tender

    By brightspark,

    Well after frightening myself about 76009 not being at Eastleigh in 1960...it was, so the money spent on the etched plate is not wasted.
     
    Right, work on the engine now comes to a rest. I have adjusted the pickups and now the engine purrs along the test track quite smoothly.
     
    For those interested I have three tracks on the test board.
    The first is a straight track with a few lumps on it so that you can detect if the chassis is square (it will jump off the track) or if, as it goes over a hump, one of the wheels is not collecting current.
    The other two tracks are curves. The first is at 1500mm the second at 1200mm.
    The design is for a main line radius of 1524mm or 5 foot. So it must be able to negotiate 1500mm and it would be nice for it to get around 1200mm. It does both but it is on the limit at 1200mm. Perhaps nect time I will make the frames a 1/2mm narrower.
     
    Now to progress on the tender.
    I have made up frames, marking out the centres from the Airfix axle box centres. I measured these as being slightly different to the published drawings.
     
    The cut down section at the front is more than intended as I was trying to get the height adjustment right, before realising that the error was not here.
    I have attached a picture showing a close up of the cab roof against the tender top with the little tender roof missing.
     
    Also is a picture of the modified tender front. (apologies for the poor quality). I have filled in the windows and removed the door hinge plates (I can't think what else to call them, answers on a postcard).
    For those interested I have also attached a picture of the inside of the tender showing the body mounts.
    The plasticard onto top of the frame is a height adjuster.
     
    Next job is to make the pick-ups and paint the frame. Oh yes and blacken those wheels.
  2. brightspark
    So here we are approaching Expo EM at Bracknell.
    My plan was to have had the complete model built or at least minus a few finishing touches by this weekend. I imagined myself proudly showing off a beautiful model that purred around the test track getting admiring comments.
     
    So what do I have... well little has changed since the last blog entry. I now have the tender picks ups fitted to the chassis but only seem to have the options of either having the pick-ups touch the wheels or having the wheels go around.
    I have also to shim up the height of tender coupling so that it doesn't lift the leading wheels off the ground.
    There is a also a clunking noise from the valve gear but only when the engine is in reverse
    So all is not lost, I can at least get the basic chassis rolling around the test track.
     
    By the way anyone is free to test out their EM or P4 locos and stock on the test track this weekend. Note that only EM and P4 stock works...
     
    While I have not been doing much to the actual model I have been busy with some research. Mrs Brightspark and I went to Yorkshire over Easter where I was treated to train immersion therapy. We stayed at Pickering (Bridge House B&B...recomended, right next to the station, good breakfast). Running up and down the NYMR was 76079 so I took one or two pictures especially of the tender height. I am not sure that those warning signs are original.
    I also had a stop over at the NRM and had a visit to The Search Engine. This is a fantastic resource and I spent an hour or two looking through the oficial drawings of the Type two tenders as well as a few drawings of the 76000's. I have ordered up some of the drawings and await their arrival. Hopefully these will arrive by the weekend.
    I will be with North West Surrey Area group at Expo, we are demonstrating and trying to get local members involved.
    EM member or not, if you are attending please drop by and say hello.
  3. brightspark
    Well much excitment at Brightspark Towers today.
    My drawings from the NRM have arrived.
     
    It is a shame that the just missed Expo where they could have answered a few questions that were raised. But more of that in a minute.
     
    I was at ExpoEM on the North West Surrey Area group stand. The plan was that we were there to encourage local members of the EMGS (and to encourage non members to join) to get involved with the local area group. Contact details are in the EMGS newsletter that was enclosed with your programme. Non-members are also welcome to attend. It was also nice to meet a few of the RMWeb crowd.
     
    76009 seemed to attract a lot of interest. RMWebbers spotted it becuase they saw the pictures I posted, but others came across and at some point in the conversation said "I've got one of those somewhere". It seems that this humble little Airfix kit is sat in many cupboards awaiting the day of construction...will they ever see the light of day?
    A large number also seem to have a Kemilway Chassis waiting to be attached as well.
    A few people asked my why I was starting with an Airfix kit and not going with a Bachmann RTR and converting it. The answer I give is that although converting an RTR is fairly easy a new chassis is easier as I get more room to fit motors gearboxes etc.
    Anyway while at the show I took the chance to vist Alan Gibson for a few bits and pieces. They do a range of lost wax brass castings for BR Standards (as well as other companies). Their website has a handy chart...unfortunatly this lot cost me £42.00! I then went to Branchlines as he does the Safety Valves. Then came the hunt for working out where the little blobs go. It is here dear reader (if you get this far) that I found out my lack of knowledge on bits of steam engine. However a few passers by where willing to give a hand.
    So we are looking at the Steam manifold, that is the big square thing on top of the boiler in front of the cab, and the photos seem to show a whistle fitted around this area. The plastic blob from Airfix has the whistle mounted to one side that can't be correct so a search ensued in trying to find a picture of this area.
    First stop is to raid Roger Carpenter who was sat next to me. Sadly he has only one photo of a 76XXX and that was in the distance. I then rembered that I had a magazine picture taken from a bridge showing the engine approaching (Steam World Apr2011). Yes it showed the top of the engine but the Safety Valves were letting off steam obscuring the whistle area. So I asked Colin on the Alan Gibson stand where does the whistle go, remember that he hadn't sold me a seperate whistle in the bits and bobs, and the first assumption was that it was one of the sticky out bits on the casting. He looked through his stock and found that he only has a vertical whistle that fits behind a chimney (there is a little picture in the bag). A quick check of Derry (BR Standards pt1&2) revealed why. Alan Gibson once did a kit of the 73xxx class, that had a whistle behind the chimney, 76xxx had them on top of the boiler and they were horizontal. So all the Alan Gibson components are specifically for the 73xxx. Next a trip to Comet and £2 lighter had me a horizontal whistle. The excited crowd now proffered advice that there was what looked like a boss on top of the casting (a round blob) so is this were the whistle goes? The Comet Whistle (as does the Markits) has a boss at the base and this looks like it fits onto the boiler.
    Well as I started this with the news that I have drawings, one of them shows the pipe fittings around the cab and more importantly where the whistle fits.
     
    I also took the model to the test track. I am pleased to report that it went around quite happily in both directions. Although at speed it did jump off. I put this down to a lack of weight, a rigid chassis and a little kink and uneveness in the track.
    Oh and the where does the whistle go? It's a BR Standard, it's like pinning a tail on a donkey.
  4. brightspark

    76009 the roll out

    By brightspark,

    So 76009 has finally rolled out the paint-shop and had its final fittings applied.
    So it is already to be pressed into service.
    It's first outing is scheduled to be at The Tring show next weekend.
    http://www.tdmrc.co....adRail2011.html
     
    Here are some pictures of the finished engine.
     



     
    I am quite pleased with the pipe work around the boiler.
    I purchased Alan Gibson fittings, mainly because I didn't realise that Comet did these as well and in a pack.
    Some of the Gibson parts I couldn't use because they just wern't right for this standard. Remember that BR Standards are quite often anything but! So I had to make from scratch new fittings. The other thing I found is that the lost wax brass casting are a swine to drill with a 0,5mm drill. This I do to try and get a good location for the pipes that are soft copper wire from Eileens.
    The whistle was also the result of disatisfaction. The only Horizontal whistle that I could find on the market is by Comet, but it looks too long. So I made this one up with some 1mm O/D tube on 0,5mm wire. It looks more like the photos of the prototypes.

     
    Finally I added the rubber seal between the cab and the tender.
    The first batch of standards had a terrible draft that went down the drivers neck and caused a lot of coal dust to be blown around the cab. This was eventually resolved with a redesign of the cab and the introduction of type BR2A and BR1B tender. The latter of which had a heavier axle loading than the engine!
    The interim solution was to fit the drafty Standards with a rubber seal between the cab and the tender. I made this out of thin paper (computer paper) that I folded every 1mm. I noticed that the prototype did not have many folds and this made life easier for making the arch shape at the top of the seal. When I had a nice springy paper seal I then painted it black. this cuased the whole thing to go a stiff as board... so the bits that I had missed with the first paint were filled in with black ink. When dry I worked the seal by 'wiggling' it in and out so it got back some of it's spring before glueing onto the tender.
    I then had to add some more weight to the front of the tender as the seal actually lifted the front wheels off the track.
     
    Finally after the final fitting and test run, a coat of matt varnish is sprayed onto the top of the engine and tender to try and give a uniform dusting of light paternaster. No heavy weathering as the layout s set in June 1960.
     
    If anyone gets to Tring please say hello, and if you take a picture of 76009 please post it on here.
  5. brightspark
    The last entry found me in state of excited antisipation. I had at last manged to finish an engine that happily trundled up and down my little three foot of test track on the straight and on a curve of four foot radius. It had also been around the EMGS test track and seemed to meet all of the criterea needed to say that this was a runner.
    With the Tring show coming up, I carefully cleaned the wheels gave it a good oiling and packed it away ready for it's first public outing.
     
    As usual we disregarded the fomality of have a test session as the layout worked fine at Tuanton a year ago.
    We set up Swaynton on Friday evening and not having any power couldn't test it or 76009 until the morning.
     
    We had a few little teething problems with the layout (I will do another blog entry) so 76009 had to make her inaugural appearance in service.
    Now at this point I always have a feeling of trepidation as every loco that I have built, never seems to work on the layout unless someone else has totally rebuilt it. So confident that I had tested it and covered all the fualts found on previous builds I was ready to record its first progress and my first successful locomotive build on video.
     
    There once was an engine called 76009,
    who was afraid of the show,
    it went into a tunnel and squeeked through it funnel,
    I'll will never ever go!
     
    (with apologies to the Rev Awdrey)
     
    I won't post the video. As all it shows is an empty track before panning across to an elbow poking at a black shape. then there is some muttering before 76009 is lifted off the track.
     
    It left the Fiddle yard ok. But when it poked its nose out of the tunnel it stopped. It was as dead as a dead thing could be!
    I checked the controller settings and made sure that no-one had created a short on the track. The controller was showing a red light and getting hot! Indicating either a seized mechanisum or a short!
     
    I took the engine to a table at the back of the layout and turned it onto it's back. Nothing seemed amiss so I unscrewed the locking screw on the driving gear to test for any binding. The wheels turned freely (except for the usual click that I couldn't trace). I tightned the screw and checked for a short on a meter. Hmmm no problem. I then put a piece of track on the upturned engine connected to a battery. The wheels went round fine and the rail shot across the bench.
     
    So if there is no short, the chassis is free running and when power is applied the wheels go around, then it should chug up down the line?
     
    I placed the engine on the track again, this time in the yard so as to elliminate the original controller. The engine is still dead and still shorting!
     
    So I ask the question (to anyone within earshot) why can I never get a locomotive to work on this layout?
     
    When I get home I start to check over 76009. I manage to knock it with my elbow and send the whole thing crashing to the floor.
    Hmmm that didn't help much.
    The cab was smashed off and I wonder if I have twisted the frame as the front pony wheel was jammed into frame and the front buffer was bent. As I recovered the bits off the floor I found that the boiler had come adrift and all the fancy pipework was coming away.
     
    I was now starting to get a little dispondant with this project.
     
    However the bodywork is not too bad and has almost been repaired. the chassis seems to be flat.
    I stripped the whole chasis down and this is what I found.
     
    I had soldered the pickups to PCB strips that I screwed onto the underside of the chassis. I had seen other people do this and it seemed to work. However the copper part of the board had delaminated. So when the model was upside down the PCB strip was laying in place with the pick up against the wheel. But when on the track it flopped down slightly and was shorting against the chassis. Grrrr.
     
    On consultation with the 'experts' it would seem that I had used the wrong type of PCB board! Now not being an electrical engineer how am I supposed to know that?
     
    Which brings me back to the one question,why can I not get get a locomotive to run on this layout?
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