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Dave Holt

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  1. Dave Holt
    I've now completed the modifications to the two coaches (apart from the AJ coupling at the loco end) and have painted the new bogies and also the coach underframes. Probably at bit of weathering on the sides, ends and roofs, when I set up my airbrush - warmer weather allowing work outside or in the garage, I think.
    Here are the coaches in their current state.
    First, the brake composite non-driving trailer:
     

     
    and the 12 wheel driving trailer:
     

     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt
    Well, it's cooled down somewhat recently and I've finally got down to a bit more modelling after nearly two month hiatus. The final details still outstanding were the lamp irons and fixing the smokebox front.
    I actually did the latter a couple of weeks ago during the hot weather and failed to spot that some Araldite has squeezed out and covered some of the rivets round the top half of the wrapper. I have been worrying about what to do about this and had come to terms with leaving it for fear of damaging the white metal casting. To help this decision, I painted the local area matt black to see how it might look on the finished model. However, today, I tried a stiff fibre-glass brush to remove the paint and noticed the Araldite seamed to also partially rub off. I also noticed that the residue of adhesive in the mixing lid had set to a sort of rubbery consistency rather than hard as glass - perhaps i didn't use quite enough hardener? Anyway, this prompted me to try scraping it with the back of a scalpel blade which resulted in the excess peeling away, leaving the cast rivet detail unharmed. A bit of good fortune on my part.
    The lamp irons are another custom etch from Rumney Models, which fold up to represent the correct pattern of irons for the smokebox top and bunker rear. They're rather fiddly to do and have a tendency to ping off into the far corners of the room. I needed five but lost two to the carpet or somewhere. Luckily, Justin had etched seven irons in a set so I was just able to get all that were needed from one etch.
    After fitting the irons, I have reassembled the body and chassis so that the speedometer drive could be bent back into the correct shape, having been moved during handling.
    I'll leave it for a couple of days to let everything cure before cleaning up ready for it's trip to the painters.
    Here are a few shots of the assembled loco.
     

     

     

     
    And the other side, with the front plates and door handles temporarily fitted.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt
    Phew! Superb weather but rather too nice to be stuck indoors doing any modelling. Even now (ten past eight), my modelling room is uncomfortable as it gets the sun all afternoon and evening. So, I've been mainly out in the garden reading and having my meals al fresco. Looks like this might carry on for a few more days.
    However, I did make some further progress with the Standard 2 tank before it got so hot. Using the second batch of custom etched parts from Rumney Models, I've made the cab roof, lubricator drives and fire iron rests. Still got some lamp irons and the shed/SC plate mounting to go, then it's complete. The roof is just temporarily clipped in place and will not be fixed till after painting, glazing and fitting the crew. This latter is a bit of a dilemma. As a push-pull loco, it should have driver and fireman in the cab when loco first but only the fireman when pushing (as the driver is in the driving trailer coach). I'll probably go for the two on board.
    I took the loco body out into the garden and took a few shots showing the new parts, hence the strong shadows.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  4. Dave Holt
    Progress on my Standard Class 2 tank is at a temporary standstill, awaiting the final etched components. In the meantime, I've been fitting the injectors to a model Crab belonging to a good friend.
    What I anticipated being a very straight forward detailing exercise proved to require rather more tricky and extensive work to achieve the required outcome. The loco consists of a Bachmann body on a Comet chassis, built to P4 standards. Interestingly, its one of the rotary cam poppet valve fitted examples but I'm not sure whether it's the Lentz or Reidinger type.
    The original chassis construction is beautifully neat and rather better than I normally achieve, but lacked the injectors and any of the underneath piping which I normally include. Furthermore, when I got down to it, I found that the brake arm supports under the cab had been fitted as per the totally wrong Comet kit instructions (located just inboard of the main frames instead of close together near the centre line), which resulted in one of the brackets being just where the exhaust injector should fit. The pick-ups on the rear wheels are also rather close to the injector and piping positions but I managed to live with that.
    Anyway, the first thing was to move the brackets inboard to the correct spacing (whilst still leaving access to the rear body fixing screw). Easier said than done. The brackets were found to be "L" shaped and soldered into the chassis side frames and what appeared to be a frame spacer was just fitted between the brackets. As a result the whole assembly came away from the frames in three pieces upon unsoldering. Definitely not what i expected. So, a new, full width frame spacer had to be made and fitted, to which the slightly shortened brake support brackets could be fitted.
    Of various options available, I opted to use Brassmasters lost wax brass castings for the injectors.
    The exhaust injector, together with all its associated piping (various diameters of brass wire) was mounted on a removable base plate which is attached to the new frame spacer with a 14 BA screw.
    The live steam side was a bit more tricky as the injector and overflow are fixed behind the cab steps (part of the loco body), whereas the piping is attached to the frame spacer, again using a 14 BA screw. Unfortunately, the Brassmasters casting is the opposite hand to the type normally fitted to LMS locos, so the positions of the steam supply and overflow had to be reversed by cutting off the existing flanges and providing new parts on the other side of the body.
    Getting are the bits of wire bent to the right shapes and correctly located whilst soldering in position required quite a few abortive efforts before final success was achieved. Praise be to Blutak!
    Here are a few photos showing the end result.
     
    Three shots from underneath, showing the two injectors, pipes and representation of the water hoses from the tender,
     

     

     

     
    And a side-on shot of the fireman's side, showing the exhast injector.
     

     
    Thoughts now turning to completion of my Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tank, also a Bachmann body on a Comet chassis. These locos were the basis for the later BR Standard versions, so lots of similarity to the loco recently featured. Plenty to do on it to keep me off the streets and out of pubs - well, some of the time, anyhow!
     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    Yes, I have made some progress with the Standard 2 tank, but it seems to be at a glacial rate. Various details have been added but it has also involved re-fitting bits I've managed to knock off (probably not very well attached in the first place) or having to move existing parts that interfered with new, additional items and in a couple of cases, removing new bits because they prevented re-assembly of the whole thing. Definitely a case of two steps forward and one and a half back!
    Some of the newly added parts are custom etchings very nicely made by Justin Newitt of Rumney Models, based on my fairly rudimentary sketches. Thanks Justin - they fitted beautifully. There are still some more parts to come, including a replacement cab roof, but the ones fitted so far are the wheel balance weights, brackets which support the push-pull vacuum actuators and the tank support straps.
    The push-pull apparatus is now completed, as best I can, including most of the associated piping and a representation of the electrical jumper cables, front and back. The only parts of the original kit which have survived are the vertical leg of the outside steam pipes and the vacuum diaphragm actuators mounted on the smokebox sides.
    Parts still to do are the top, front and the bunker mounted lamp irons, fire-iron holders, lubricator drives and the cab roof. The smokebox dart, number and shed plate will be fitted after painting (by David Clarke). I might need to do a bit of filling and sanding on the drop sections of the footplate at the front.
    Here are a few photos of the current state of the loco. I also need to re-fit the speedometer drive which I managed to break off during handling of the body.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt
    In anticipation of a visit on Monday (tomorrow) by some friends to view and play with the layout, I've had each board out and set up on trestles to clean the track. To my slight surprise, I discovered that on two of the boards, the rail heads still had paint on - Halfords grey primer and rust coloured enamel. I'd completely forgotten that I had never cleaned the paint off after ballasting and re-doing the rails. Just shows how long it is since these particular boards have been out. Boy, did it take some scraping off after that amount of time. Fairly back breaking too, as the trestles don't really put the track at a comfortable height to extended work like that. Anyway, all done now and, hopefully, decent running will be obtained.
    Having the boards up did provide the opportunity to pose a loco for some photos, so my Crab and ex_LMS period II coach in carmine and cream were posed, emerging for the scenic break over bridge/short tunnel.
     
    Here it is arriving, tender first, with the empty stock for a wakes special.
     

     
    And here with the return working a week later.
     

     
    Looks like the crew forgot the lamps on both turns. Funny that no signalmen stopped the train as a result!
     
    Dave.
  7. Dave Holt
    Following a request, and for those who are interested in such detail, here a some further photos of the chassis components.
     
    First, the frames. Nothing particular to note really. Suspension is a centre rocking point for the front axle and twin beams for the centre and rear. Horn blocks are London Road Models cast items. Pickups bearing on the tops of the wheel treads, hidden behind the tanks and the valve gear.
     

     
    Three views of the keeper plate. This has now become permanently entangled with the brake gear since the front brake stretcher passes between the front sand pipes and their support brackets. Besides retaining the driving axle boxes in their horn guides, the keeper also carries the dummy springs, ash-pan and sand pipes. The four hair pin shaped wire thingies are the pony truck side control springs. It's fixed to the frames by a number of 14 BA screws.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    Having recently completed three larger types - a Crab, Jubilee and Stanier Caprotti 5, all potential holiday excursion locos but not really true to prototype, my thoughts have shifted to the next project. I have two part built Class 2, 2-6-2 tanks, one Ivatt and a BR standard type. In real life, these were used on the regular push-pull passenger trains in the last years of operation, in the mid 1950's.
    Both are in running condition but incomplete. A state they've been in for umpteen years whilst I've messed around with larger, generally inappropriate locos. . in terms of detail, so I've decided they really must be finished off before I start anything new.
    Each is in a different state of completion but on balance, I decided to work on the BR standard version first. Work has now started - given a boost by being housebound by the recent snow and freezing weather.
     
    The loco consists of a modified DJH body mounted on a Comet chassis. Initial work has been to finish off the chassis by adding the dummy driving axle springs and mountings, the brake gear, ash-pan and hopper operating gear and the sand pipes. The valve gear assembly and the two pony trucks were already completed, so only the body remains to finish off. The main issue with this item is that the kit is 2 mm too short in the cab area. Unfortunately, the loss of length (why do they make that sort of mistake?) is distributed in front of the cab windows, in the cab opening and also behind the cab opening. Correcting this accurately was just too over-facing, so I opted to cheat by simply stretching the cab opening to give the correct overall length. Of course, that means the cab roof no longer fits - Oh hum!
     
    The photos below show the current state of the major component parts, as described above.
     
    First, the chassis. Since the body kit is designed to include the front and rear sections of the main-frames, I opted to keep this arrangement, so the main chassis finishes at the front of the cylinders and under the cab, behind the steps and sand boxes. To permit assembly, the brake gear is split into two sections and is removable to give access to the pony truck pivots. There is a removable keeper plate which incorporates the dummy springs and sand pipes (the rear sand boxes are part of the body). I deliberately fitted the dummy springs inside-out as they are etched with a small number of very course leaves whereas the real things had 12 or 14 fine leaves which probably can't be seen in the gloom and at normal viewing distances, unlike the crude etched lines.
     

     

     

     
    Next we have the body, which is in two parts - the footplate, tanks and cab section and the boiler. A certain amount of detailing has already been done, especially below the tank and cab sides, but these parts now represent all the work needed to finish the loco off. This includes the push-pull gear, front end pipework, lamp irons, tank fillers and restraining bars and that dratted cab roof.
    First the footplate/tanks/cab assembly:
     

     

     
    and the boiler:
     

     

     
    Next we have the completed cylinder and valve gear assembly, which also includes the motor torque reaction links to stop the motor/gearbox trying to rotate round the axle. Also in this shot are the pony trucks:
     

     
    The pony trucks were made from Brassmasters etches. However, on the 2-6-2 tanks, one of the trucks (the rear one on the standards, but generally the front one on the Ivatts) was of the swing link side control type rather than the spring side control type represented by the Brassmasters etch. This was done by modifications of some of the etched parts and some scratch built parts. The difference in appearance of the two is shown in the final photo:
     

     
    Hope that lot is of some interest.
    There will be a short break from this project to get the track cleaned on the layout, ready for a visit by a group of friends next week.
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    Not much progress with the layout - although I have now fixed the coal drop retaining walls and deck support pillars to the base-board.
     
    Last Saturday I helped (?) friend Dave Clarke and the regular team (Simon & Jim) with his Amlwch branch layout at the Derby show - as fiddle yard operator - I didn't trust myself to operate out front!
    The normal green/blue era diesel service was was disrupted from time to time by a typical Delph Donkey formation, consisting of Fowler 2-6-2 class 3 tank loco, number 40056, with an ex-LMS Period II open third non-driving trailer and ex-LNWR M15 driving trailer. Steam era trains to Amlwch were more generally Ivatt class 2 tanks with non-corridor push-pull coaches, I think - at least towards the end. Nevertheless, the Donkey train looked perfectly at home and it was nice to see it run on a finished layout. Loco needs finishing and the coaches weathering. Must do something about the acceleration inertia/starting voltage though - the controller could be set to full and the loco didn't move for about 10 seconds and then smoothly accelerated. Took a bit of judgement to stop in the right place too. Perhaps deceleration inertia is not such a good idea on terminal layouts!
     
    The following photos show the train simmering at the buffer stops following arrival (being a Fowler class 3, it was probably having to get it's breath back!!!) and also approaching the station area.
     

     
    40056 at the buffer stops.
     

     

     
    Approaching the station.
     
    Thanks for the invite, Dave. I really enjoyed myself and I hope folks enjoyed the Donkey ride!
  10. Dave Holt
    Now that the Jubilee has gone off to be weathered, I've started to prepare my Stanier Caprotti Black 5 for painting. This entails stripping it down for degreasing and to give access for painting. The disassembly is quite complicated and has to be done in a specific sequence to get access to various fixing screws. Due to the short cab sides and exposed, open type steps, the pipework under the cab has had to be split between the footplate unit, the chassis mainframes and a separate carrier plate at the rear end. In order to dismantle the loco, first the tender is disconnected, then the pipe carrier plate is removed to reveal the screw which hold the footplate to the chassis. As built, the boiler can then be removed from the footplate as it was fixed by two screws under the saddle and by a pin engaging in the cab front at the firebox end.
     
    Here are the main components after separation. The chassis will be broken down into its component parts for me to paint shortly.
     

     
    The separate pipe carrier also has the rear section of the brake rigging attached. The brake pull rod and the exhaust steam injector pipe plug into their mating parts on the chassis brake rigging and keeper plate, respectively.
     

     
    Here's the footplate unit. You can just about make out the Caprotti drive shaft sloping up towards the saddle area. Also visible, with the circular spiral on the end is the valve actuating pipe running from the dome to the cylinders. In a previous post, I explained the thinking behind fixing the cylinders and slide bars to the footplate, rather than to the chassis, as one might expect.
     

     
    My friend, David Clarke, who is going to paint and line the body, has advised that he would prefer the boiler and footplate to be supplied as a single unit so I have now fixed them together with Araldite, which is curing as I write. Once set sufficiently, I'll trim off the excess which has squeezed out and fill any remaining gaps.
     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    My Caprotti Black 5 has gone for some finishing details and David Clarke has kindly sent me some rather enlarged views of the loco, prior to the work. Overall, I think the model stands up quite well to these larger than full size photos, although there are a few blemishes and omissions apparent.
     

     

     

     
    Best wishes for Christmas and New Year,
     
    Dave.
  12. Dave Holt

    Delph - Locos on tour

    By Dave Holt,

    I took my three latest completed locos to pose on Clarenden at the Leamington Club, last night. Here they are being serviced in the loco shed after arriving with excursion trains from the North and also seen departing for home with a return working. Hopefully, they look better here than on the shelf in my modelling room!
     
    Here they're seen on shed in various poses:
     

     

     

     

     
    44741 and 45701 are seen double heading a return working past Scrubbs Lane West Box:
     

     

     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    The replacement side has now been affixed to the tender using Araldite Rapid. I'm pleased to say that the new side is completely flat, with no visible ripples or indentations. In fact, it's better than the other side, so should paint up nicely. Phew! That was all a lot easier and quicker to put right than I had feared.
    The new side is shown below:
     

     
    side on, and
     

     
    at an angle, hopefully showing the side completely flat.
     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt
    A problem has been identified with the right hand side of the tender for my Caprotti Black 5. The whole kit is a Comet product and the tender sides for this part welded type are very thin and rather flimsy, due to being half etched to provide the rivet pattern. During assembly of the second (RH) side, I pressed a bit too firmly to hold it against the internal structure for soldering. The result was a rippled effect where the lines of the framework showed through. Considerable time was spent trying to rectify this by "panel beating",so to speak, and the result didn't look too bad in raw metal. I thought I could live with the remaining marks, especially as the loco is to be heavily weathered.
    However, once the tender was painted with a gloss finish (to help seat the lining transfers), it looked absolutely awful.
     
    .
     
    It was obviously pointless proceeding with full painting and lining, as no amount of weathering could possibly hide that amount of damage. So, David Clarke has stripped the paint from that side and returned the tender to me for rectification. To be honest, once stripped back to bare brass, it didn't look nearly so bad but a replacement side is to be fitted anyway. I'm not sure if Comet can supply replacement sides, but I bought a whole tender body kit as the easiest option.
    The original intention was to trim away the damaged side close to the bulkheads, fire iron tunnel and front piece and then file off any remaining raised rivet or beading detail. However, on closer inspection and the discovery that the side was not well attached is certain areas, I change tack and decided to try and remove the existing, damaged side entirely. This proved not too difficult although it got quite hot whilst unsoldering some of the joints and asbestos fingers would have been an advantage. Once the side was off, the underlying structure was filed flat and any remaining bobbles of solder removed. Here is the resulting tender body with the now totally destroyed side lying in front.
     

     
    Since the photo was taken this lunch time, I've prepared the new replacement side and fixed the two hand rails, ready for reattachment. The new side will be glued to the body, possibly with a few solder tacks for added security of attachment. Hopefully, I'll get this done later in the week so it can go back for painting sooner rather than later. Oh well........
     
    Dave.
     
    .
  15. Dave Holt
    My Jubilee, 45701, Conqueror, has now been weathered by friend, David Clarke, ready for me to finish off. Cab glazing, crew and DCC chip to be fitted, the tender coaled up and the cab roof fixed. For some reason I haven't yet identified, it has developed an intermittent short when running forward which it didn't have previously. A quick check of loco brakes and sand pipes hasn't shown anything out of place, so some further investigation will be necessary.
    Here she is in her current state:
     

     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    The chassis for my Caprotti Black 5 has now been painted and re-assembled, apart from fitting the motor and DCC chip. The latter will be a Digitrax DZ126, a tiny, fully encapsulated item, which will be held to the motor with some Bluetack.
    A couple of similar looking shots of the painted chassis are shown below:
     

     

     
    Close examination reveals one of the twin rear equalising beams and the single front one extending from the front coupled axle to the centre of the front bogie. The gearbox is an extended High Level driving the centre axle and prevented from rotating round the axle by the loose anchor point behind the rear axle. Various pipes can be seen between the frames, which match up with continuations either under the chassis or under the boiler/footplate unit.
    The cetre crank pin retainer on the side seen has not been painted as the lubricator drive return crank screws on, outboard of it.
    The body/footplate unit and tender body are off the be painted and lined next week, so it's all coming along quite well.
     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    Not too much progress with the layout or locos recently, although I have painted the cobbled area in the goods yard. I've been putting this off, fearing I'd wreck all the effort of hand scribing the setts. The initial results confirmed my fears had been well founded, but a couple more washes with very diluted black have blended the patches in a bit. I'm still not completely happy but hope it doesn't look too bad to others.
    In the lull, I've posed my Jubilee on the part of the layout currently erected, to illustrate a future operation. In the photos below, the Newton Heath shedded loco, in unusually clean condition, has arrive running tender first, with the stock for a sea-side excursion train and is seen in the process of running round its train, prior to departure......
     

     

     

     

     
    The loco will be going off to be weathered shortly.
     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    My Brassmasters Jubilee, 45701, Conqueror, has been painted and lined by good friend, David Clarke. It's now come back to me to be re-assembled and various smaller items attached before it goes back to David to be weathered.
    The attached, very poor quality, photos show the re-assembled loco ready for some test running prior to the weathering.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt
    Except for the buffer heads and final finishing, my Brassmasters Jubilee in now structurally complete, ready for painting, except......
    More problems have arisen, so it's currently a series of ups and downs.
    Final assembly and attachment to the tender has confirmed that the fall plate(s) will have to be omitted or heavily modified. As modelled, they probably work fine with the Stanier 4000 gallon tender, but with the Fowler 3500 they are too wide and long. This results in them jamming under the cab doors and contacting the filler plates that surround the brake and water scoop columns, preventing any angular movement of the tender relative to the loco to follow curves. I could trim the fall plates to miss the filler plates, but that would still leave the cab door issue. I'll have to see about that.
    I've previously mentioned the DCC chip problems and partial recovery and I confidently expected coupling of the tender pick up wires to the loco would help improve the loco response, but it hasn't really improved matters, so, presumably, it's not just a pick up issue. What is worse, is that now everything is connected, electrically, I seem to have introduced a dead short in the reverse direction only. Since it shorts one way but not the other, the short must be due to some movement withing the pick up arrangements, possibly due to the loco suspension. There doesn't seam to be a mechanism for the problem to be with the tender pick up arrangements, so I'll have to investigate the loco. At present, the motor is only constrained from movement by the (quite stiff) connecting wires and I've noticed that the front brake blocks are perilously close to the wheels, so they will be my first bits to check out. There isn't a lot of clearance between the brake hangers and the rear wheels of the bogie, so any stretching of the front brake pull rod will have to be done very carefully, so as not to transfer the problem!
    The other area to look at is contact of the wheels inside the splashers. Perhaps when the loco pushes the tender, the draw-bar forces tend to push the rear of the loco slightly to one side, causing the drivers to touch inside the splasher. Mind you, for that to cause a dead short, something on the other side would also have to be touching at the same time.
    Isn't fault finding so much more of a challenge that building in the first place?
    Anyway, here are three shots of the loco before it comes apart to investigate the above issues. I've even temporarily fitted the front number plate (45701) and shed plate (26A - Newton Heath). Unusually, my chosen loco remained at this shed for nearly its whole working life, returning after works visits.
     
    Side on
     

     
    traditional front three quarters view
     

     
    and, finally, a rear three quarters view.
     

     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    My painted and weathered Crab was returned home this afternoon and very nice it looks to me. The apparent strange angle of the front steps in the last photo I posted which raised comment was, happily, an optical illusion or due to barreling of the camera lens.
    Here are some shots of it parked in front of the Jubilee.
     

     

     

     
    Now to fit the DCC chip and front AJ coupling. I'll have to try to source the correct shed plate - Farnley Junction, 55C.
     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    I've previously posted about my ex-LMS Crab model, which uses a Bachmann body on a much modified Comet chassis with a Comet tender. The previous photos showed it with the un-painted tender but it has now been painted and lined, the number changed and the whole thing weathered by good friend David Clarke. Here it is more-or-less complete.
     

     
    Since the photo, the odd bend in the brake ejector pipe has been improved by correctly locating the vertical pipe through the hole in the running plate.
    Front AJ coupling to make and fit, then conversion to DCC and coal in the tender.
     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt
    Yesterday was just one of those days. A little progress with the Jubillee but a series of set-backs, sufficient to make me want a few days away from it!
    The progress was in successfully cutting back the rear edge of the cab footplate to clear the front of the tender, fitting the fall plates and some guide pins that hold the pivoted tender doors in place whilst allowing movement on curves. I also fitted the whistle to the cab front, although that bit leads into one of the set-backs.
     
    In anticipation of the painting and weathering of the loco, I have been refreshing my memory of the necessary assembly sequence and found that the motor must be attached to the gearbox before fitting through the footplate/cab, then the motor wiring attached and finally, the boiler fitted over the motor, plugged into the cab front and fixed to the smokebox saddle from underneath. I also needed to find a suitable space for the DCC chip - not easy as the resin boiler is packed with lead sheet to give tractive weight and balance on the locomotive springs.
    I had dallied with connecting the motor up for DC operation initially and fitting the chip later. However, I decided to fit the chip straight away as I have had the loco running successfully on DC previously. In the end, I was quite pleased with the motor/chip installation, although the soldering wasn't my best after struggling with bits coming adrift when I added the next wire. These photos show the arrangement without the boiler. The tender is not coupled in the first shot and fits closer to the loco than illustrated.
     

     

     
    The first set-back came when I tried to programme the chip with its proper address (5701) which involves first setting CV29 to accept four digit addresses. On doing this, after swatting up from the various instruction manuals, I got an error message. Furthermore, the chip appears to be totally unresponsive despite trying both the new address and the factory default address of 03. Now I'm not sure if there's a chip fault - nether had any previous trouble with the Digitrax DZ123 type, before, or if the problem lies in my Lentz DCC control unit or throttle. Further checking of wiring, etc., is in order before I rip the chip out.
    The second set-back resulted from fitting the whistle as this now prevents fitting of the boiler till I've ground away loads more of the inside of the firebox. Previously, the boiler just squeezed over the motor with the back end clear of the cab front. Now, with the whistle protruding from the cab, the boiler has to be about six or seven millimeters further forward, to clear the end of the whistle and the thinned down firebox sides no longer coincide with the motor body. Oh well, out with the rotary burr.
    The final set-back was the disintegration of my illuminated magnifying glass that I need to see what I'm doing. The mazac castings that grip the lens/light unit broke, causing the lens to fall down, suspended only by the power cable, luckily without hitting anything but effectively ending any use of the unit. A smaller, cheaper replacement has been ordered but will take a week or so to arrive. I do have an Optivisor head set, but find it hard to get on with and also a lack of bright illumination to see the detail in my modelling room.
     
    Hopefully, all these issues will prove no too difficult to overcome, in the end.
     
    Dave.
  23. Dave Holt
    Contrary to my last blog entry, the sand pipes proved not to be the only outstanding work. I realised that I had not represented the drive to the mechanical lubricators. On the Caprottis, this takes the form of a triangular swing link driven by a return crank on the RH driving wheel. Whilst I had provided the mounting bracket under the foot plate, I hadn't really thought out how to represent the mechanism or how to actually fix it to the loco structure. This proved to be rather more testing than I would have wished! Unfortunately, the parts provided by the kit didn't replicate the full size version accurately enough for me, so whilst I did use the drive rod (which I had to lengthen), all the rest was scratch built.
    As with my BR Standard Caprotti, I made no attempt to make the final drive to the lubricators work, just the lower part of the swing link.
    My initial attempts were quite successful and I had the pivot mounting soldered to the loco bracket and the swing ling made up and pivoted in the mounting. The drive rod was stretched (by combining sections of two of the kit parts. Then things went horribly wrong and I nearly gave up.
    In trying to open out the bottom holes in the link, the whole assembly came adrift from the loco. So much for my soldering quality! Well, access for the iron tip was very restricted.
    Next, when trying to solder the pivot pin for the rod in the bottom of the swing link, I managed to not only solder the whole lot solid, but the swing link itself partially came apart. Half an hour cooling off was needed before I could face trying to rectify it all and recover the parts.
    Needless to say, I was rather more careful the second time.
    Anyway, after all that, I have managed to get it all on and working, giving a satisfying waggle of the link as the wheels go round.
    Here's a photo of the finished arrangement. If you look closely, you can just make out the splice in the drive rod near the swing link end.
     

     
    Still got those sand pipes to do. Then it's ready for painting, I think.
     
    Dave.
  24. Dave Holt
    My Caprotti Black 5 is now complete except for the sand pipes, which are awaiting so custom etched support brackets. So, whist I wait for them, and inspired by a recent discussion on RMweb about Jubilees, I thought it would be a good idea to dig out my partially completed Brassmasters version. I started this loco at least 15 years ago and put it to one side when I reached a minor sticking point with a cosmetic detail. Up till that point, I had a strict policy of not starting a new model till the current one was complete but broke my rule and started something different - a BR 9F, I think; although it's so long ago I can't really be sure. Ant way, numerous locos have been built since but the Jubilee never came back out of the box till the last week or two.
    I was pleasantly surprised how far I had actually got and the loco has now been completed except for the builders, number, shed code and name plates - 45701 Conqueror. The tender, a Fowler 3500 gallon type, is less advanced, being the basic structure. It also had a slightly low ride height issue with the continuous springy beam suspension - probably caused by a modification I had made to the kit design - and which I am currently working to correct.
    Here are a few shots of the loco as it stands. The resin cast boiler has turned a much darker shade over the years, ot it's the result of lots of handling with grubby fingers.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  25. Dave Holt
    A further trial run took place on Green Street, prior to an operator training session. This showed that the mods I'd made had not really solved the problems with the front bogie, which still derailed on some pointwork and reverse curves.
    To try to effect a cure, fairly drastic tweaks have been carried out. The front end of the cylinder drain cocks has been bent outwards slightly and the support brackets filed to wafer thin. To give clearance to the rear truck wheels, the slide-bar supports have been cut away using a small slitting disc in a mini-drill. I'm not really sure why this has proved necessary since the prototype wasn't similarly cut away, but it appears to have solved the bogie problem and isn't too obvious unless you look for it. I also found that one of the pickups was touching the ash pan intermittently, so some coats of super-glue were applied to both components and allowed to dry to a hard film (making sure the pickup wasn't fixed to the ash pan!
    Following these mods, the loco was free wheeled trough various bit of point-work on Holt, including the tight track leading into the mill siding, without any derailment of the bogie wheels stopping rotating. So far, so good.
    Today, yet another trial run on Green Street confirmed that the latest mods appear to have solved the problem. There was a derailment issue on a particularly severe reverse curve through a double slip where sometimes the front bogie axle took the wrong road and other times it didn't. Perhaps some lubrication of the bogie side bearing pads (after painting) would enable the bogie to slide sideways more easily.
    Anyway, I'm sufficiently encouraged to carry on with the remaining details now the running has been proved.
    Dave.
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