brightspark

Yes I use it. I haven't seen it for sale these days so check out builders skips.

You need the type that looks like an E in section. The slider is a PCB and you solder two wires up through the board to the point blades.

The slider sits in one of the slots normally the top one the bottom slider is used for screw heads.

I think the article you are after was written by my good friend JD Smith (it is the system used on Swaynton) in MRJ 131. I don't have a copy to confirm but the article appears on the index.

Thanks Bodmin 16.

I wonder if I can convince her to do special orders on the train cakes.

Went there last year. I still have to post the photos that we took.

It is worth going and you will spend the whole day there.

Did you do the behind the scenes tour?

I went to Hamburg last year. Lovely city. Pre book the Miniatur Wunderland tour in English (unless your German is up to speed). The tour is worth it. Also arrive early. Is it a school holiday? if so very early.

Other things to see are the tunnel and St Micheals Church. The Bunker looks interesting but I don't think you can get in.

I note that the riding style of the cycle is very Dutch, i.e. seat far back and low, wide handlebars etc. I wonder what scope there is for other positions. Racing bike, touring bike even mountain bike. Perhaps with the rider standing on the pedals during a descent?

Reminds me of the old cartoons that appeared in the RM back in the 1960's

But go on give it a go.

This sounds quite complex. Why not have a magnet running on a track under the road board? Or have I missed something?

I agree with Linthorpe, less is more. However, as a thought why not keep the line (1), but have it abandoned and overgrown. It might give you that sense of space and deriliction.

Nice. I wouldn't worry about losing the detail when sanding it down. The detail is raised on the modelwhere it should be either recessed or flush on the prototype.

Well mostly, some customers save money by having round head rivets on the rear of the aircraft, but the the front. So check out pictures of the prototype.

Are we going to have a thread of Spitfires and Hurricanes now?

Well done. Looks perfect. My first attempt was awful. I still have though as a little reminder of my first big jump away from "shake the box" modelling.

But did you enjoy it, and would you do it again?

The tie bars are not that strong. The wire comes loose in the rubber tube.

Our method is to solder two dropper wires onto the point blades to go through the baseboard. the are soldered to a PCB strip running in a curtain rail.

Not Comet?

I hadn't considered Comet.

I think you're looking at a PDK kit (expensive), or trying for a spare Hornby one on eBay.

I would consider a Hornby. But not being a West Country expert I wouldn't know which one to go for.

However I do have an Airfix kit...

Hmm perhaps I should do a blog or forum article in the Southern section before I hijack this blog entry.

Ullypug, this conversion should work, so keep looking and thinking about it. It has to be something simple and therefore fixable.

I will confess that after doing the conversion that etched chassis look a lot easier.

This is one of the reasons I am doing etched chasis and a Airfix/Dapol body for my BR 76XXX standards rather than convert a R-T-R. It also isn't just the chasis, but the work on the topside as well to bring it up to spec.

I am planning to do Lapford, but only using the Hornby Body and tender. Chassis will be from the EMGS stores, Gibson or even scratch built. (by the way can anyone recomemend the correct tender to use for 1960 with Raves still in place).

However the conversion does work. Not sure why you are getting binding on the cylinders though. the only problem we detected was the short throw of the Gibson wheels and you have covered that.

Keep plugging away.

This is fiddly enough in 4mm.

Fantastic effort.

We decided that black was not a suitable colour as it takes the eye away from the model.

I recall from my art lessons that strong dark and lights lead the eye to the start point in the picture.

So we went for green. Agreed a dark green, but I think that this works because it is closer to the natural colour.

However recently, having attended a few shows were there are no barriers (and we put up a perspex screen) I wondered if there was a better way.

I think that the problem is that there is likely to be permanent way or features toward the front of the baseboard. Lets call this the structural baseboard. I was thinking that perhaps the area in front could be filled with a non-structural baseboard. I like the idea of an angle, but I was thinking of something springy with basic scenery (nothing breakable). Although you would still have that vertical drop at the front in whatever colour you desire it does move the foreground would be away from the model. This would also give a depth of field.

Does this make sense? It sounds ok in my head.

The front of the bogie is very neat.

I fudged mine and hid it all under black paint.

The single thickness front rod is an interesting idea. It is tight there even in EM.

Looks good.

With regard to my comments on your last entry. The first picture really shows how far inboard the bearings are.

On my conversion I filled in the gap between the bogie halves with some liquid lead held in with araldite. It adds sufficent weight to keep it on the rails. The original (that featured in the photos on the worksheet) is as yours and does derail at slightest fault on the trackwork.

I shall follow progress with interest.

Yes a round hole is easier. But a square hole aligns the signal.

An advantage of using 7/32" square tube is that it fits into 1/4" square tube. That is what we fix into the baseboard.

I have just got myslef a Hornby one...and was thinking that the half finished Ratio one still needs completing. Thanks for the inspiration to get it done. It's just when now.

I followed the EMGS sheet exactly as is. So the replacement drawbar was made as in Para 4.1 and Fig 4.1. For those that do not have access to the EMGS manual (it is worth joing the EMGS for this alone even if you model in P4 or OO) the drawbar is made from 0.020" brass* with centres at 15.5mm. Then used the original Hornby wipers, fixed with araldite to maintain the tender pick up.

It has been suggested that the pin could be moved but this may compromise stength and reliability.

*With hindsight we would now specify HH Brass.

Drain cocks by RT look good. I did mine with Copper wire.

The one thing that I picked up from the Clag site was that it stated that the piston rods were almost fouling with the front of the piston block. We found that the piston was more likely to fall out the back! I wonder if there differences between batches of chassis. I think when Doug (JDS) did Ottery St Mary he had to cut away the rear pony truck as the whole thing was solid.

RT, The EM sheet suggests cutting the Hornby brake gear in half down the center line and fixing it with a screw and washer was our solution. An etch would be more elegant.

Andrew, are you going to shorten the drawbar as well? It is worth it.

Andy

Having done the conversion to Create Coombe Martin from a Wilton (from the original notes by JDS) I have some further notes to add. This is because CM failed with a worn out chassis very quickly and another conversion "Ottery St Mary" by JDS also started to have some problems.

These notes apart from the first should help overcome these problems.

When glueing the front bogie try and add some liquid lead into the void. It really helps with the trackholding.

Right now the problems we found.

Look out for those Gibson Wheels!!! They have been in production for many years but no one has noticed that the crankpin throw is 4,5mm instead of 4,00mm! This wasn't identified when the manual sheet was created. The slidebars are just long enough to cope with the extra travel but piston rod barely enters the cylinder. We have added some additional glands of brass tube to ensure reliable movement.

We have also found that my conversion (Combe Martin) suffered exceptional wear on the driving wheel bearings. We have not looked at the original coversion (Wilton) yet to see if the same has happened there. It sounds happy (no knocking sound). We also found that wear had occured on the bearings of another similar Hornby Conversion "Ottery St Mary".

Out thoughts are that this wear could have one or more contributing factors.

These may be;

1. The bearings are quite a way inboard, even for OO. (I have lost the note I had as to what was measured 12mm is in my head but could you measure and confirm?) But the widening of the wheel base may have just pushed the axial loading of the bearing too much especially if the coupling rods are tight or not quartered correctly. (It was an early build for me and I think that I might have done one or both of these errors.)

2. The bearings (when the models were stripped for investigation) were found to be able to rotate in their bearing holders. A simple fix is to glue them into position. This worked on "Ottery St Mary" but "Coombe Martin" was too far gone and required major surgery.

3. Lubrication. Make sure the bearings are lubricated with a light oil. I definetly didn't use a light enough lubricant. I now use Singer oil. Tip, if you can't get through a hyperdermic needle then it is too thick.

The front end improves greatly with the addition of drain cock pipes and filling in the space behind the bogie wheels.

Further fixes on Coombe Martin that I must do are.

Add proper coal to the tender

Add a canvas sheet between the cab and tender.

Add crew.

Congratulations. A worthy winner. Also thanks for showing me how you use the DCC on this layout.

I wonder how this trophy will affect the direction of the hobby.

It is interesting that you say that there was a later batch of HST's were made without the guards window. I was under the impression that the guards compartment window was blanked off on existing units.

Did I hear correct?

Bogie now painted and hardening in the airing cupboard.

I was trying to figure out how the stone guards (if that is what they are called) mount at the rear.

Has anyone got a picture of the back end of an M7?

(I will put an appeal in the correct forum.)

So as I don't know what the back end looks like...well it's all black and mainly out of sight...I painted the whole shebang black.

Hopefully it will be written on my badge. I just have to remember to look at it. :-)

Wheel cleaning done...but yesterday I opened a box containing the M7 with a note from myself reminding me to look at the leading bogie wheel. This is the old Hornby M7 with the long wheelbase. The same chassis was used for the L1.

I had relied on the cast bogie only adding false side plates to take the width out to 15mm for EM. The wear has occured where the wider wheel base put an extra load on the bearing.

So last night and tonight I am making a new bogie. I am writing this as glue cures.

Right back to it.