brightspark

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.

Hello, Time to report in on Aprils activities...or lack of them. In my last entry I was getting rather excited about some new project arriving in kit form. Deliberately unnamed to create a sense of drama. I left the clue that Swaynton would need 8 of them thinking that some of you would come up with what the eight things are. However since then I realise that if you study the photos on steamweb http://www.steamweb.net/ that the prototype(s) only had five. There that should lead to some speculation. As a further clue...there was some activity on this and other rail forums almost a year ago with someone mentioning that they saw something at a model railway show that is on this weekend. As yet another clue I am on door duty at that show, so come and say hello. Unfortunately my plan to pick up the kit and to test the AJ’s that I had much problem with was thwarted by a sudden lack of transport. Oh well...so the collection of the kits was put off until this month. I now have them and have broken off from making up the first one to write this. I also had a nice two week holiday in Mallorca. A nice break from modelling and more importantly work. Which has been getting a little hectic recently. This was supposed to be cycle training camp see “any road cyclists on here†Last time that I was there was five years ago and it surprising to see the changes both good and bad that have taken place. Bad...The 'touristisation' of the monastery at Lluc. Parking now has to be paid for. There is an additional restaurant. A BBQ area with coach parties going there specifically for that. And the little cafe in the monastery now charging tourist prices. Bad two... The (not my video but found on youtube) now permanent with tourist cyclist cycling the wrong way and “Boris†lanes at the roundabouts encouraging cyclists to behave like this. Oh and the Roundabout just before Porto Pollensa. I used to enjoy the sprint for the town sign (just after the RAB when heading back to the hotel. I guess they made it safer by making it more dangerous. Good 1...The cycle lanes and Boris lanes. It has encouraged more cycling. A great way to see the island. There are now a lot more cycle hire shops and places where I can spares for my bike Good 2...the opening of old railway lines...with not with cycle tracks but...real trains. And modern electrics too! My guess is that a certain doctor and mp took a holiday to Mallorca in the sixties and made a few suggestions. When I first went to the island around 2000 there were two lines. The tourist train to Sollor and a main line that ran from Palma that stopped at Inca. I kept coming across old bits of rail line across the island. My mate once found an abandoned level crossing...by falling off on the tracks that crossed the road at angle. Of course it was only funny when he did on the way back as well. Anyway it is good to see that the Mallorcan's have seen a sensible way forward with their transport policy. It now looks like the lines have been restored and possibly may be extended. Does anyone here know? I don’t recall if there was an old line to Sa Pobla. There is certainly a railhead there now. Upon reflection I should have taken few photos. There always seemed to be a train at Sa Pobla. Other news is that Swaynton is featured in “Modelling the Southern†by Jeremy English and published by Noodle Books. http://www.noodlebooks.co.uk/index.htm There are a couple of nice pictures of the station building that I built. Jeremy has promised me a credit in Volume 2. Right ExpoEM this weekend. I am on door duty on Sunday. Say hello and have a guess. 8 what?

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?

Well at the last update I was getting ready for the Basingstoke show held on 10th & 11th March. So I was busy wheel cleaning and checking the wheels back to backs as well as fixing the broken buffers from the Southampton show and other repairs. I want to thank Western Star of this parish and his team for putting a great show. I think that we were in one of the “Hot†rooms. We had the little windows open to get some air in there. We had quite a few kind comments about the layout. I do get a great of pleasure being involved in what I think is a good crowd pleaser. I also note that some people have just stood and watched the trains go by for almost the whole sequence. That takes about 50 minutes! We also had a guest operator joining us for the first time, Alan Durham former chair of the Basingstoke club. He took a few shots and placed them on YouTube and the EMGS website. The first is of .I quite like this film for two reasons. The first is the shot into the light. I think that is quite effective and really this is the direction the light should be coming from on the model as the public side would be looking south. Do you think that we should move the lighting to the back of the layout? The second reason why I like this short film is that shows that I have finally managed to build a locomotive and get it to run! Hurrah for me. I will take this as another step closer to ‘making it as a modeller’ Alan has also posted some other shots of the layout. I like the sound effects and the photography in a charming sequence called . I guess from the comments that I have read about Swaynton is what people enjoy most about it...just watching the trains go by. The layout and stock ran faultlessly with exception of my M7 that had a test run and jumped off the rails and the ongoing problem with the Alex Jackson couplings. I am not sure what to do about the M7 obviously the new bogie isn’t behaving itself and needs more attention. However I have now made some progress with the AJ’s. Our thinking was that they may not be uncoupling because the electro magnet was not pulling the coupling down. There can only be two reasons for this; The dropper or armature isn’t working because either It isn’t magnetic. It isn’t close enough to the magnet (1mm above track height) It isn’t at least 1mm in diameter. 2. The electro magnet isn’t strong enough. To prove the first point, I had already started a programme of replacing the armatures on my wagons with paperclips and made a little jig that set the height correctly. The only problem is that modern paperclips are slightly thinner than 1mm. As the problem persisted I wondered if the smaller diameter really made the difference. I decided to add to my test track a small permanent magnet. I found that it would attract the armature but when set up (flush with the top of the sleeper) it still didn’t work. Figuring that a thicker wire might work I glued a second strip of paperclip to the armature. Sometimes this worked but not always. Hmmmm, maybe it is the second reason and my little magnet was not man enough for the job either? So I took off the magnets from the fridge. There are a number of magnets to be found here all at different strengths. I picked a nice big strong magnet and placed some track over it. And here gentle reader is the eureka moment....I put the wagon onto the track and started to roll it towards the magnet. Then I noticed that the wagon lurched toward the magnet and stayed fixed over it held by the magnetic pull of the steel tyres. So this means that you can have a too strong magnet. But the coupling still refused to move! So The Eureka moment is that the spring is too strong! So I re-read the instructions and found that I had overlooked the bit were it said that the coupling had to just rest against the stop. I guess that I was so worried about the coupling drooping that I over looked this point. So I have set up on my test track a small magnet (A bead from some magnetic jewellery). It is on a curved track (5 foot radius to check off set problems) and is set at sleeper height. Hopefully I have fixed it. But I can’t be sure until we get the layout set up again and we can try them out in the yard. With all this activity 76010 has taken a back seat. So the chances of getting it ready for Chatham are now nil. I have started to prepare the body and will do a later blog entry showing progress. Progress on other projects has also been halted by a new task that I have volunteered to take on for April and May and for I think that this will be quite exciting. It will come in kit form and there are eight of them! I haven’t been given the kit(s) yet so I am not sure what I taking on. The first time I was given a “kit†for Swaynton, it turned out to be a set of plans for the station buildings. The last “kit†I got was the basis of the signal box. That one arrived in the post with some drawings and a couple of distant photos. There were also some nice window etches and the start of the base. There was also a note attached saying that the base was wrong! So what are they? Well have a look at the videos and have a guess at what is missing. Oh and keep watching the blogs. Ah well, it will be an adventure. Got to go, my train’s about to leave.

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.

Well here is the latest news from Brightspark towers. In January I was part of the team that took Swaynton to the Southampton Model Railway show at Eastleigh. Thanks for all the kind comments posted. I particularly like Adams picture of the funny blue thing. When the show is over the bit that no-one sees is the repairs ready for the next outing which is going to be at Basingstoke this weekend. I guess at the last outing we had quite a high attrition rate. There seems to be a problem with alignment of the baseboards and the way that they move during the show. There are two reasons for this movement. The first is floor movement during the day as the audience passes by on a wooden floor and the second and greater reason is changing humidity and heat levels during the day. The hall that we were in was very cold in the morning and during the day a lot of bodies creates a lot of moisture. Those bodies also put a fair amount of grease and dust into the atmosphere and this builds up on the rails. That is why layouts have pick up problems in the late afternoons. The major point that suffered baseboard movement was the East Fiddle yard. To the casual viewer that is the Down yard or Bournemouth End. This resulted in several trains either derailing or even uncoupling as they left the yard and went over the joint. We find this highly embarrassing, but the viewers were mostly quite kind in their encouragement and interest. A consequence of this is that several wagons have missing buffers and a few have broken AJ couplings where part of the train must have caught on part of the structure. By day two we had to cut out some of the trains from the sequence. And here is a problem as some people couldn’t remember which ones. So we sometimes had coal trains coming out of the FY’s at express speeds! So it is all hands to the pump to replace those AJ’s. I am also checking the heights of the dropper pin or armature. These must be 1mm above the top of the track. I have found mine to be considerably higher. I guess that is why they don’t work on the magnetic uncoupler. I have replaced the buffers on the Parkside wagons with sprung buffers by 51L. I kept the moulded buffer body in place, and drilled a 1mm hole. Into which I inserted a 1mm O/D 1/2mm I/D brass tube that is glued to the body. Into this I insert the buffer shank making sure that I keep the spring under the head. Then close off the assembly with a short piece of tube glued to the tail of the shank. The appearance should be improved as the buffer heads are now going to be the correct 13 inch diameter. 76009 is also in for repairs. It got mishandled and part of the Walshearts valve gear fell off. I fixed it up on the saturday evening of the show but noticed that the real failure was not having a long enough crank pin. I must have cut it off slightly too short and hoped that the nut would hold it. I have stripped it down and replaced the screw. It now doesn’t seem to run as smoothly as before, but I have run out of time to do anything about it before the weekend. Meanwhile 76010 sits on the shelf. I am now in possession of a Dapol body for it. I don’t think it will be ready in time for Chatham...or the test track at ExpoEM. Finally as mentioned above we are going to Basingstoke. Swaynton is a late entry as another layout had to withdraw. Say hello please and take some nice pictures of the layout and post them here or on the Basingstoke page as my photography is rubbish.

I have not seen one of these kits expolded before. The ready made vee and switch rail certainly make life easier. Just as I learnt a method of doing this from scratch too. Keep posting knuckles.

Hi Knuckles, Yes it does. I will do a blog entry sometime as to how this works and a simple way of how to work it out. Like making your own track this can be quite satisfying. Templot is cheating...and also I don't have it. Well this is how I understand it to be. I would plot the position of the inner rail and pin it with dress pins. Then use the triangular jig to let the outer rail go where it wants. As others have pointed out, flex track and the moulded chairs are at a slight camber so your jigs will be tight if you push them all the way home. These jigs were designed for Joe Brook-Smith type track where you had to solder each chair. The rail was of course held vertical then. So when using the gauge I would only use it on the rail head. Otherwise there is a risk of the track narrowing. I think that Dave Holt has raised the same issue that I have, with regard to thinking in terms of set track. I used to do the same when I first started to make track (flexi-track wasn't available then) and quickly found that it was harder work than it needed to be. I now try to make track lengths as long as possible but making sure that the sleeper spacing is correct and use cosmetic chairs. I also score the top of the rail to simulate the joint. Flexi-track is now a huge boon to those of use working in EM and P4, unfortunatly it does not have keyed chairs. And if you are really pedantic there is a lack of choice over bolt pattern. I would like to lay some inside keyed track one day. The flexible peice of wood or nylon is great. Did I understand that you are physically bending the rail so that it is curved before building? If so I suggest that you could be creating some extra work for yourself. I would make the track by fixing the chairs and sleepers onto one rail over the sleeper spacing drawing so you end up with a fish bone structure. Then I would mark out the position of the inner rail using the co-ordinates above, that is (x/y) (0,10), (50,11.05), (100,14.21), (150,19.49), (200,26.93), (250,36.56), (300,48,44), (350,62.64), (400,79.24) putting pins into these points. Then I would lay the straight fish-bone onto the board and gently push it into postion against the pins. Then pin the other side of the rail. Then fix the outer rail as you have done before. When it has set I would be happy to let it spring out a little when installing as you are only really concerned with a minimum radius.. Keep pushing on, we are all here to help you. I started doing this when I was at school. I had no idea what I was doing right or wrong and had no-one to ask. So I was struggling for years. Andy edit; corrected the co-ordinates to the correct format.

Here is the answer to finding your accurate curve...plotting. Do you remember doing Math and wondering what use it would be? Well now you know. You need this little formula. y=A- √(A2-x2) where A = your radius. & x is a point on the x axis. This will then give a point on the /-y axis. Assuming that you don’t know what an x/y axis is... Draw a line and mark off points along it at 10mm intervals. This line is the x axis. Take the middle point and call this 0. This is called the origin. Working out from the origin, at each 50mm point measure upwards (the y axis) in order the following and mark in mm. Starting at 0; 0; 1,04; 4,17; 9,41; 16,78; 26,33; 38,10; 52,18; 68,63 Join up the dots and you have a 1200mm radius curve. This should give a curve 800mm long. Normally you lay the track with the centre on the 1200mm radius. If I run the figure again setting A at ± 10mm this will mark out the approximate position of the outside of the rail. i.e. where you can place dress making pins to locate the rail. On the same x axis points and using the same axis line (the first few points are below the x line); -10; -8,98; -5,86; -0,67; 6,64; 16,108; 27,78; 41,72; 58,03 10; 11,05; 14,21; 19,49; 26,93; 36,56; 48,44; 62,64; 79,24 Oh yes and measure your gauges, I struggled for years until I found that some of my gauges were not accurate. Another thought is that you may still be thinking in terms of ‘setrack’ ie you get track lengths only in terms of curves and straights. What you would have between them is a transition curve. The EMGS manual has a whole section on this.

I am thinking about FY's myself. The idea of vertical stacking has an appeal. Please keep posting with pictures. I want to see how this works out.

Hi N15, I am in two minds about getting the ends turned down to take the coupling rods. I think that it would certainly make life a little easier in setting up and Mr Rice indicates that this is the preffered method. However it has occured to me that the rods might bend as they are being forced into a position. My thinking for my method (apart from being too mean to pay to get them turned down) is that they are free to float and so by resting the coupling rods on top of the SS rods you get a report as to their location. Hi Adam, Are we going to see your Std 4 running on Swaynton?

Hi N15. I have not tried it with a compensated chassis. This being only the second chassis I have built using the jig and both being rigid. However as Adam said being a Rice derived idea it should do the job. But I would not imagine going down the route that Adam suggests of removing cut-outs after assembly. I would suggest that they are removed before and that the bearings in their housings are fixed in the same manner as above. I think that the critical areas are getting the frames parallel, perpendicular to the end plate and that the axles are the same and on the same centres as the coupling rods. You could say perhaps Parallel, Perpendicular and Precisely aligned. Is it possible to get another long P word in there? I agree with Horsetan the rivet detail is nice as well as the various holes in the frames (lifting eyes?) all sadly missing from the Comet chassis. However I am aware that Comet is intending to review their chassis soon. As for the cross heads...we will have to see. I did have some problems with the Comet ones. Perhaps I should take pictures of both to compare when I get to that bit.

The plan is to build a model of 76010 picking up on the errors made on 76009. There are some differences. 76009 was based on a Comet Chassis, this is based on a Branchlines chassis. This blog will record my progress both good and bad. Your comments and suggestions are welcome. Hopefully this will help anyone who wants to see how this chassis goes together or even want to see how to put together an etched chassis /kit. This is how I do it...this time around. It is neither right nor entirely wrong. So here is the starting point...Define the problem This will be a model of 76010 built in EM gauge as she was in May/June 1960. The target is to have this running at the Chatham show in June. But that looks really too close so lets set a more realistic target...the plan is to get the chassis rolling around the EMGS test track at ExpoEM in May. For the record I broke the seals of the pack during the Christmas holidays* so this is progress up to the end of January. Branchlines sell several packs for the Class 4. I will only be using two of them as the complete pack contains parts to make an OO chassis. The first pack is a chassis pack while the second is the detail pack. For the moment the latter will be put to one side. Here are the contents of the chassis pack. The next task is to read through the instructions which include a nice exploded diagram. Now we identify the parts on the fret and bag. Then it’s time for a little maths. Frame width! The etch is .018†(0,46mm) thick Nickel Silver. The frame spacers provided are; OO = 10,7mm EM= 13mm P4=14,6mm The spacers are tabbed and fit into slots on the frame. The calculated overall frame width for each gauge is therefore. OO = 11,62mm EM = 13,92mm P4 = 15,52mm Including the heads of the Romford bushes (0,8mm) that gives total width at the axle of OO = 13,22 EM = 15,52 P4 = 17,12 If I was using sprung horn guides then I could use the P4 spacers, however I am using the shouldered bushes so I will use the EM spacer. The next picture shows the frames cut out and cleaned up, the frame spacers (err these are the wrong ones...I told you to identify the correct parts and these are the P4 spacers), the coupling rods and the extra strapping for the firebox. (one side fitted) Another important thing to remember is that the half etch line goes on the inside of the bend. I forgot on some of the spacers. This is not a tragedy as I just have to fettle the tabs to get them to fit into the slots on the frames. The coupling rods are now made up as a matched pair. The centres are then measured and the driving wheel centres are checked to make sure that they are also at the same distance. In this case the centres are spot on so I go ahead and open up the holes for the axle bearings. Then the whole lot is set up on the building jig for assembly. This is a construction taken from the Ian Rice book on Loco Chassis construction. It is made from MDF. On the surface sits two sine bars. These are two steel bars that are square, flat and the same height. On top of these sit three 1/8†silver steel bars that are 12 inches long. These are threaded through the axle bearings that are loosely fitted into the frames. The 1/8†bars are held in place with Blue Tack and at the extreme ends of the bars rest the coupling rods. The chassis is then soldered together to produce this. I have soldered on a few of the nuts (but ran out of 2mm) and have also started on the pony truck. The tabs fitted nicely and after fixing the uprights I removed the small lip. I don’t think that you would need to do this for P4 and I have no idea for OO as to have to use the inner slots for the uprights and reduce the frame width. The next task is to purchase the extra nuts and the axle bushes. That will be at this weekend’s show in Southampton. I think that Eileen’s will be there. I will also have to order the wheels and various boiler fittings from Alan Gibson. Plus and I guess that this might be important...an Airfix/Dapol kit. Until next time... If you are at Southampton, say hello. Andy *Holidays being when RMweb went off line and we all had to find something to do. Aplos to AY

It has been some time since my last entry. I was going try and do an entry a week. Not for egotistical reasons, but to motivate myself into making models. For too many years I lacked the mojo for modelling. Sadly over the past few months the pressure of work over took me again and I could little more when I got home than to sit in front of a computer screen and admire other peoples work on RMweb. As it seems the trend on other blogs, I will do a wrap up of 2011 and some thinking out loud about 2012. Life has not been total desert from trains and in November saw myself meeting up with the rest of the local EM Gauge Area group for a visit to St. Merryn. It really is a pleasure to go and get a private viewing of this layout and to be given the control of a locomotive and told to go and play. I would like to share a few observations about operating this layout (driving trains) that may not be apparent to viewer at exhibitions. On leaving the station with a departing train you have to negotiate a steep climb. One of our members had to take several runs at it before he managed to do it without the train stalling. The turntable is small. I mean it is small. The T9 only just fits on it and by that I mean there is a millimetre or so leeway before the wheel flanges catch the passing rails when turning. This didn’t stop me trying to get a West Country on it though! Here is a picture of me playing trains. Photo Steve Carter. In my last entry on 76009 back in October, I bemoaned the fact that despite testing everything and thinking that I had got everything right, the engine decided to get stage fright and stopped working as soon as it poked its nose out of the tunnel that exits the Fiddle Yard. I have since fitted different pickups. These are Phosphor Bronze strips made by Slater’s. These have been soldered to the PCB’s and covered with a layer of super glue to try and prevent any further delaminating. This weekend we are taking Swaynton to the Southampton Model Railway Show and 76009 has an opportunity to redeem herself. One of the things we want to look at the Southampton Show is how to operate the goods yard. In a previous blog I asked for views on operation and was surprised that these not the same. If anyone who reads this is at the Southampton show, say hello and give us your thoughts. Our thinking is that we should run a prototypical shunt (pick up goods) but it must also be entertaining to the public. The big question is how? Looking forward to 2012, we have an invite to Chatham. I hope it is warm and dry this year. I have also been thinking about the new offerings from Hornby. The Maunsell Pull-Push unit looks nice and would go well with my converted M7 30111. This is the old Hornby one that I purchased many years ago. However as Swaynton is modelled on May/June 1960 I will be pushing it (or is pull-pushing it) a bit to run these on the main line. Commissioned by this date on the south western division are sets 608,609 & 613. I figure that these would all go straight onto branch line services. Unless someone knows different? The Bogie B Van also looks good although I have a Ratio one that is half completed. Both of these look quite good and conversion to EM should be quite easy. Finally as we all had a holiday from RM Web over Christmas, I present show and tell as to what I got up to. At Scaleforum I purchased a chassis kit from Branchlines and over the holiday I opened the packets and warmed the soldering iron. Yes I am going to have a go at 76010. My plan is to do a regular update showing the build of this. I plan (ha-ha) to have this running at Chatham. Good or bad, I will show what I do and look forward to your help and advice. Happy New Year and happy modelling. Andy

Could you give a bit more detail on your method of using ply sleepers please. Are you using any rivets and cosmetic chairs in the construction?

How about 125s with pantographs? Or steam boilers in each power car and some kind of turbine drive? Would have to think about the fuel source though.

The EPB looks like how I remember them.

I have done one of these and despite my best efforts still seems to have a bannana for a chassis. I put it down to an optical illusion. Windscreen wiper is only in front of the driver. My one only likes running in one direction.

I can sympathsis. The best advise I have been given is to measure everything. Start with chassis meause centres of holes, squareness etc. then coupling rods. And most importantly the crank throws on the wheels.

Looking through the colour pictures in various train books I would say that Circa 1960 post was white. Ladders black. The body of the signal (from top of post up Gray. Upper support rails at this height are white. Ref SW-steam page 20. This is the only picture I have found so far.

1960 Bournemouth area? Can I interest you in considering building an EM moduler layout?

I have used Wills sheets. I feather the edge by thinning it on the underside at the edge that can be seen. Yes there is a problem with the short lengths but, with a little care, they can be spliced together.

It's coming along nicely.

Today I have been mainly making chains. Well a chain. One of the many little projects lurking around the workbench is a Parkside Conflat and container. The turnshackle and hooks are from Ambis. The chain is made from 36SWG soft copper wire as it is the only thing that I had that was both fine and pliable enough. The shock absorbers are fine tube. Four of these hold down the container. I have to agree with Goeff Kent in his 3rd book on wagons. Conflats and containers look naked without the chains. Only three more to do...and the corner links on the container...and the links on the Conflat.