Jump to content
 

Dave Holt

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,069

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Dave Holt

  1. Dave Holt
    Since my first post on this new loco, I've made some progress with the cylinders, lubricators and associated pipework.
    The Comet kit design incorporates the top part of the cylinders into the running plate etch with the cam boxes and reversing links mounted above. It is intended that the cylinders are attached to the chassis in the normal way. However, completed examples of the model I have seen have struggled to disguise the join line between the cylinders and cam boxes which does not exist in the real thing.
    I couldn't see why the whole cylinder/slide-bar assembly couldn't be permanently attached to the running plate mounting plate and become part of the body, providing the connecting rods can be removed from the crank-pins to facilitate spliting the chassis and body. That way, the joint line can be as unobtrusive as possible. This arrangement did present some cylinder alignment issues but I overcame these with a couple of simple jigs to ensure that the projected cylinder centre line passed through the axle centre of the driving wheels.
    Whilst access is fairly easy, I decided to fit the lubricators and complete their associated oil distribution and steam heater pipework at this stage. Normally, I wouldn't start to add this type of detail till much later in the build and after I've got the loco running but it's done now.
     
    Here we see three views of the lubricators and oil pipework. I use 0.2 mm wire for these. Still overscale but a lot finer than many people seem to use. The pipes to the left-hand cylinder and slide bar cross along the top of the frame spacer. On some of these locos, the pipes were clipped to the outside face of the front splasher. That would make lining of the splasher very tricky, so I found a suitable example (44741, a Longsight engine) which had them on the top, curved surface after it's 1952 overhaul.
    These shots also clearly show how the cylinders have been fixed to the running plate rather than the chassis.
     

     

     

     
    The cylinder lubricator (the forward one) has a steam heating supply to thin the sticky steam oil for ease of pumping. On these locos, this supply was taken from the steam lance cock on the RHS of the smoke-box. It can be seen making its way down and along the top edge of the saddle, then aling the footplate and over the splasher top to the front lubricator. To allow the boiler to be removed (for painting and lining), the pipe is split at the front of the reversing shaft bracket on the running plate.
     

     
    Finally, an overall loco shot showing my sketch diagram for the lubricator pipework. The routing was mainly gleaned from photos in the Wils Swan loco profile book for these locos. An invaluable source of information including copies of some of the key drawings.
     

     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt
    My Caprotti Black 5, 44741, of Longsight depot, is now finished. The last job was to add plain boiler bands to the firebox and some extra weathering to bring it more to the condition these locos seemed to exhibit in regular service, i.e. filthy. This work was done, as was the whole painting, lining and weathering, by good friend and fellow P4 modeller, David Clarke. I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with the finished loco, which I think really captures the rather ungainly appearance of these locos. a study into how to transform the rather elegant normal Black 5 into an ugly duckling!
    Here are three photos of the finished model.
    First a couple of shots taken on my short length of test rack in the modelling room:
     

     

     
    And here a photo by David Clarke during a recent visit, showing the loco standing near the signal box on "Holt":
     

     
    Dave.
  3. 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.
  4. Dave Holt
    The Caprotti Black 5 has been making steady progress over the past few weeks. I started the chassis ages ago but only since (almost) finishing the Crab have I really concentrated on finishing off the Caprotti.
    The rear sand boxes and all the sand pipes are still to do, along with the front guard irons on the bogie.
    I joined the Leamingtom MR Society earlier this year and have been able to try the loco out on Clarendon (a bit out of place on an early 1900's LNWR layout!). This has shown up some issues regarding the front bogie wheels rubbing behind the cylinder drain cocks and motion brackets/front brake hangers on tightish curves and some points. I've filed various bits away to try yo solve this but only another running trial will tell if I've succeeded.
    Here a a few photos of the current state:
    A couple of overall views, side on and front three-quarters,
     

     

     
    Rhe front platform height on Stanier tenders was adjusted to suit the class of loco they were attached to. The Comet kit platform is too low to match the cab height of the loco, so a 1 mm thick piece of plastic card has been added to get somewhere nearer the correct arrangement.
     

     
    Dave.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Dave Holt
    I recently had a near disaster with the Caprotti Black 5 when I accidentally knocked off and nearly lost part of the rather delicate lubricator drive mechanism at my local club meeting. Fortunately, a colleague spotted the missing parts under a table - I was convinced it had come off at home whilst packing the body up, otherwise quite a bit of extra work would have been necessary. Anyway, it turned out not to be as hard to put right as I had feared and, indeed, the repaired drive is both stronger and actually more realistic than before, as I have added an internal stiffening rib missing from my original effort. Silver linings and all that.
     
    Buoyed up by the success with the lubricator drive repair, the chassis has been completely disassembled and given a coat of Precision Paints single pack grey etch primer. The instructions stress the need to be sparing with it, but the paint in the (brand new) tin has the consistency of syrup, so constant dipping of the brush in thinners was necessary to get a thin coating. Here are all the bits, except the motor and screws, laid out after priming. Mating surfaces and parts invisible on the finished loco have been left unpainted.
     

     
    Dave.
  8. 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.
  9. Dave Holt
    Further to my last posting, the motor has now been fitted and the DZ126 chip fitted and all wired up. Pleasingly, the loco ran the correct way, so there was no need to change CV29. After changing the chip address to 4741 (loco number 44741) I've set the acceleration to 20 (out of 31) and deceleration to 3 (out of 31). This enables a fairly smooth acceleration whilst retaining good control over slowing and stopping. Experience has shown that excessive deceleration values makes fine control on a dead-end layout rather hazardous!
    In the photo, the chip is attached to the rear of the motor body by a thin layer of Bluetac(?) and the wires well tucked in to fit withing the loco firebox. The tin of paint balanced on the front of the chassis is simply ballast to compress the light springs within the front bogie, to avoid short circuits via the brake blocks. Normally, this function is performed by the loco body.
     

     
    Dave.
  10. 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.
     
    .
  11. 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.
  12. Dave Holt
    I've made some further progress with my PenBits sprung bogies for the Class 40. The modified Bachmann drive gears have been fitted to the new Gibson axles and the pony truck frames have had the axle bushes opened out to 2.4 mm ( from 2 mm) to accept the extended axles that I recovered from my part-completed Lima Class 40.
     
    Here are the three driving and pony truck axle (for the second bogie) The gears have been drilled out by a friend to be a good push fit on the axles, but I applied a smear of Loctite Bush Retainer, as a precaution. The pony truck axle has been reduced to 2 mm diameter in the centre to make sure it clears the truck retaining wire:
     

     
    Next, the first bogie with the wheel sets and springs fitted. I'm pleased to report that it pushes along very freely, so all that hacking about of the gear train, which caused some trepidation, appears to have been successful. Mind you, testing under power will be the key. Regarding power, the kit instructions describe a pick up system using shorted out wheels on opposite sides of the two bogies, but I don't really fancy trying to solder wire to the wheel rims (seems like a recipe for melted wheel centres to me) so I'm going to fit conventional wiper pick ups. Two pick up mounting bus-bars have been attached to copper clad pads to facilitate the pick up wires (still to be made and fitted). These bus-bars have to be in two parts because of the articulated inner chassis, hence the blue insulated wire loops connecting the two sections. There will also be a further jumper wire on each side to take the power up to the bogie mounting piece. From there, the original Bachmann arrangement connects to the loco circuit board via sprung contacts:
     

     

     
    The second bogie has now been assembled to the same stage, so they have been fitted to the loco for trial pushing through some point work, prior to fitting the pick-ups. Here are three shots of it at the yard throat on the layout. After an initial derailment, possible due to not having all the wheels properly on the rails, it has pushed successfully through the double slip and even round the extremely tight connection to the mill siding. It wouldn't be expected to go round there during operation.
     

     

     

     
    No excuses not to move on to the pick-ups now and then test under power.
     
    Dave.
     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    I left the Class 40 with the bogies wheeled and the loco test pushed through some of the yard throat point work. Since then, pick-ups have been added and the loco rendered operational, though not without some trials and tribulations.
    My clever plan for the pick-ups proved a bit too clever for its own good. The mounting bus-bars were just fine as were the simple phosphor-bronze wire pick-ups for the inner wheel sets but those for the outer driven axles gave lots of problems with shorting out on the bogie mounting units. This resulted in a brief period of near despair when I thought I had blown the DCC chip or the control unit or both as on first power application the whole thing went completely dead after moving only a few millimetres and the hand set had a flashing display I just couldn't get rid of. Perhaps old bods like me just shouldn't try to mess with new technology. In the end, it turned out I had simply failed to press the reset but had tried unplugging, cancelling and all sorts of futile actions.
    The solution involved moving the pick-ups to the outer side of the wheels and re-bending them to try to clear the mountings at the extremes of the suspension movement. In the end, I also had to file some mouse-hole shaped cut outs in the mounting stiffeners on the under side.
    This appears to have finally solved the shorting problems and I now have a fully functioning chassis - at least up and down my short, straight, test track. I'm intending to give it a longer running in session on the North London Group circular test track next Monday. In the mean time, I also attached the Bachmann cosmetic bogie frames. making quite an improvement to the appearance of the loco and providing mounting points for the Alex Jackson coupling hooks.
    Still got most of the piping and other details recovered from the Lima project to fit to the new frames. The Bachmann moulded plastic air pipes on the bogie front plates have proved particularly fragile and vulnerable to handling damage and will be replaced by the brass wire versions I made for the Lima.
    Since sorting the electrical problems, I have to confess to the rather childish pleasure of running the sound, repeatedly going through the start-up sequence and then leaving the loco idling for ages with that characteristic warbling whistle, so redolent of these locos. I imagine the sound will be switched off after a few laps of the test track, to avoid me being pummeled to a pulp by angry NLG members, driven to distraction!
    Here is the loco in its current state:
     

     
    I've just been advised that the painting and weathering of my BR Standard Class 2 tank is now finished, ready for collection tomorrow. David Clarke has sent some photos showing the result. I have to fit the windows, coal and a crew to finish it off. It looks like some minor adjustments to the return crank positions might also be required, although it might just be the angle of the photos and crank positions. We'll see:
     

     

     

     
    Thought I might have a go at the Rumney Models sprung chassis for a couple of BR 16T mineral wagons I've had for a while. Just preparing to start shows just how little I know about wagons. Help! They look trickier than locos.
     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt
    Work on the sprung chassis for the Class 40 has progressed with the PenBits etched brass kit assembled and work on modifying the Bachmann drive units and bogie frames started.
     
    The PenBits chassis went together perfectly, with virtually no adjustments required other than minor filing to get various sliding parts to give a nice fit. This was mentioned in the very comprehensive assembly instructions available on the PenBits web site, so came as no surprise. I didn't bother trying to download or print off seventy-odd pages but just browsed on line as I worked - fortunately, my computer is right next to the work bench.
     
    Although I've stated that the chassis is sprung, it's actually a mix of springing and compensation, with pairs of axles sprung using guitar string wires which are able to pivot in their mountings for the primary (on bogie) suspension and the bogies resting against secondary spring wires under the bogie mounts, again able to rock in the fore-aft direction. It all sounds rather complicated but actually goes together nicely with a bit of care and by being methodical, also being careful not to mix parts up between the two bogie assemblies.
     
    Having done all the soldered parts, I had to move on to the modifications needed to marry them to the Bachmann parts. That's where the deep breath came in. It's quite daunting to have to start chopping up the workings of a £200 r-t-r model, knowing that there's no going back or manufaturer's warranty available.
     
    The following photos show aspects of this recent work.
     
    First, the Bachnamm drive train has to be dismantled and sawn into two pieces, with a sliver removed to allow articulation between the axles. This shows the result with the gears re-fitted to the larger piece and the bass transmission linking box in the background.
     

     
    The remaining gears are inserted into the brass housing and the two sections re-connected by the final gear and its pin. Also visible is the bogie mounting with part of the Bachmann bogie mounting arrangement glued into the top.
     

     

     
    The articulated drive train was then dropped into the etched bogie chassis just to check nothing was catching on something else. When the springs are in place, the plastic drive train will be held further up inside the brass chassis.
     

     
    Next the bogie mounting was dropped over the bogie, again to check for clearances/clashes. Once the secondary springs are in, the mounting will sit higher up, giving even more clearance.
     

     
    So far, everything appears to fit as it should with nothing catching or binding.
     
    I can't really do much more with the trial assembly till I've put the driven wheel sets together. The Bachmann axles have to be taken apart to release the drive gears and these then have to be bored out to fit the full width 2 mm axles. A friend who does clock and watch making has very kindly offered to do this on one of his small lathes, so they are with him just now.
     
    The trial assembly has allowed me to have some ideas about pick-up arrangements. Clearances require removal of the existing Bachmann phosphour-bronze strips. The PenBits instructions are based on shorting out the wheels on one side of each bogie but I don't fancy that and need to find suitable positions for conventional wiper pick-ups.
     
    The final bit of work has been to start to get the plastic outer bogie frames ready to fit to the PenBits mountings. This entails cutting out the various cross struts and the base of the moulding and removing the coupling mount. The inner end strut has to be removed after gluing the frames to the brass mounting assembly. I've also cut out the holes where the extended axles of the front truck poke through. Suitable axles have been sourced from the part finished Lima conversion, mentioned below.
     

     
    I'm rather disappointed by the Bachmann frame mouldings and some of the jumper cable details, which are way over scale. Years ago, I part finished Lima Class 40 in P4 and, to be honest, the bogie detail is far superior and much crisper. I'd also put on all the hoses, pipes, front bearers and even the AJ couplings, so I intend to try to reclaim and re-use some of these parts. The photo below illustrated the Lima and Bachmann frames (the Bachmann is neared the camera, so looks larger, but they're both the same size!). I broke one of the cab steps off the other Bachmann and these are much better than the Lima, being separate mouldings, but I'm not sure we've progressed much in the twenty years or so separating these products.
     

     
    Dave.
  15. Dave Holt
    Coachman's nightmare has come true - when a little known enthusiasts' special arrived at Delph (aka Holt) consisting of an 8 coach rake of southern region stock hauled by re-built West Country class, 34027, Taw Valley. Strangely, this rather unusual occasion was not well recorded at the time and no photos appeared in the railway press of the day. However, photos confirming the event have recently come to light and a selection is attached to this post.
     
    The arrival of this train also answered an outstanding question as to the length of the run-round loop at the station. On this occasion, 8 BR Mk1's were safely accommodated in the loop. Normally, the operating department limited holiday excursions to 6 coaches, generally of 57' ex-LMS stock, but made a special concession for this Southern train.
     

    The train has arrived and pulled up to the buffers to allow passengers to de-train from the 5 coaches which fit in the platform. Those in the rear 3 will have to walk forward to alight.
     

    Taw Valley simmers quietly in the platform.
     

    Having pushed back the stock, clear of the run-round points, Taw Valley has drawn forward again, ready to run round. The sun has come out to briefly bathe the loco in brightness.
     

    An overall view of the scene, taken from a hillside across the road and river.
     
    What did I say in the previous post about fantasy?......
     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    Having been putting this off for some time, I finally knuckled down and have fixed the coal drop deck and sloping wing wall in position. Some minor adjustment to the end of the track on the adjacent board was required to align the rails, mainly to correct a slight difference in height. This was done by re-soldering the rail attachment at the end sleeper, where it is soldered to the head of brass nails which pass through the rivet holes in the ply sleeper. After a couple of goes, as satisfactory result was achieved, as checked by rolling a 13 ton steel open wagon (visible in the photos) over the joint. Actually, there wont be much stock movement over this section of track, but it's best to have the alignment to a good standard.
    Fixing the deck wasn't quite a straight forward as it might have been due to a slight degree of warping and bowing of the deck timbers. A general purpose glue (similar to UHU), a pile of weights at each end and a final dose of super runny cyno appear to have done the trick. Time will tell......
     
    Photos show the deck and wing wall in situ, after fixing. Also a more general view over the station area with the deck in place.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    Following some final adjustments to the deck sections (some time ago, I accidentally broke the deck into two pieces by dropping it onto a quarry tile floor!), I have now got the fit to my liking and have made a final dry run with the assembly. Now it's take a deep breath and fix it in place on top of the pillars, permanently. I've not quite decided on the best adhesive, yet. The options appear to be PVA, Uhu or epoxy. The deck is wood and the pillars a mix of wood and plastic, on the contact areas.
     
    Here are a few rather poor quality photos of the deck in place. I think more lighting or the flash would have been beneficial!
     
    First, a plan view. Some of the cross beams are missing and will be added once the main longitudinals are fixed
     

     
    Some views from the front.
     

     

     

     
    Mmmm! That angle-poise lamp does look a bit out of scale!
  18. Dave Holt

    Delph - Coal drops latest

    By Dave Holt,

    Due to personal reasons, I haven't done much modelling in the past 7 months, but some slight progress (and a bit of regress) has been made with the coal drops. The latter was caused by my dropping the deck unit onto a quarry tiled floor, causing it to disintegrate such that the two longitudinals carrying the rails are now separate items which will have to be fixed to the supports individually.
    The progress has been to make the hand-rails for the deck and do the basic painting prior to fixing. On balance, I think it's probably a bit too dark as heavily weathered wood seems to be a silvery grey colour but I have no idea what the actual Delph drops looked like in this respect.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt
    Have made a bit of progress with the coal drops, recently. The stone retaining walls and brick support pillars have been painted and are almost ready to be fixed in position. I've also added the deck to the top of the structure - hand rails still to go and also some support beams and other bits underneath the deck.
     
    First set of photos show the parts painted in as-built condition. The pillars are brick with ashlar stone bearing pad inserts. These all look a bit garish but were later toned down to a sootly/coal black. Think I might have overplayed the engineering blue bricks on the corners of the pillars i the paint swatch on the tin lid looked much more like the colour on a photo I took of the real thing, before it was demolished.
     

     

     

     

     
    The walls and pillars were then heavily weathered using a process kindly suggested by Peter Leyland, as used on the marvellous building he's built for the layout. Basically, the base colour is allowed to dry really thoroughly, then the whole surface is painted matt black and this is wiped off before it has dryed. Unfortunately, the photos have come out a bit dark, but give some idea of how they look. Maybe a hint of green moss round the steps, later?
     

     

     

     

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    Wow! It looks like I haven't posted anything since last December. I suppose that's because there hasn't been much to share of late. I finally finished the construction of my Jubilee, which is now away being painted and I have also recently finished off the Caprotti Black 5. The last items on this one being the sand pipes and their support brackets. This loco is now ready for painting and is shown below.
     

     
    As for the layout, sadly there's been almost no progress since I completed embossing the cobble stones in the goods yard and coal drops. However, a friend and colleague in the 35006 P&O restoration team has kindly turned two alternative mill chimneys in wood. You may recall that my original intention was to replace the actual mill at Delph with a much more aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) mirror image of the Regent Mill at Failsworth; one of the reasons for changing the layout name to Holt. I subsequently decided to revert to the original mill, at least for the initial presentation. As I will be placing the mill and other rear scenic features on separate "hang on" boards, there remains the possibility to have alternative versions of mill. The attached photo shows the huge difference in size and style between the two mill chimneys. The larger, tall one is for the Regent and is a scale 210 feet tall (quaintly, the original architects drawing specifies this as "70 yards"), and the much smaller one is for the actual mill, reflecting the difference is boiler plant for the vastly different sizes and power of engines provided. Obviously, both will need to be covered in brick and stone/brick paper, respectively, in due course.
     

     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    One of the problems I've created for myself is that the layout is being/has been wired in a way that means nothing can really be tested without the control panel being connected and so far I had not made any progress with this item. I've now made a start sing a panel case bought from Squires.
    I must say, it has a sort of 1950's Sci-Fi film laboratory (think Quatermass or Blob from Outer Space type of thing) look to it in my view. However, since the layout is set in the '50's, that might be quite appropriate.
    Progress to date has mainly been marking and drilling for the various switches and LED's and fitting the plug & socket (2 x 25) for the connections to the layout and 2 x 5 pin DIN sockets for the main DC and DCC controllers. The two large rotary switches select the main or yard controllers or DCC for the two track sections (main/platform line and loop/yard).
    The point and signal switches are set out like a signal box lever frame and have appropriately coloured levers.
    Still lots to do, but at least work is under way.
     

     
    Here's the panel with the lever frame and section selector switches fitted and holes drilled in the mimic diagram panel for an isolation switch and various LED indicators.
    Here are skectes of the two panels.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt
    Slow progress (all my progress seems to be slow!!) has been made with the control panel. The mimic diagram is complete, including lettering using Letraset transfers (applied by good friend, sign-writer, Phil Taylor - his work is much neater than I could achieve). The diagram was drawn using coloured permanent marker pens.
    Wiring of the lower part of the panel containing the various tag strips and a small circuit board with a couple of relays (extra switches for the diamond crossing polarity and some signal interlocking), diodes to generate half wave rectified supply to the Tortoise point motors and bridge rectifiers to provide nominally 12 v DC to power the relay change-overs and the panel LED's, is almost complete.
     
    A couple of photos show the current state of play.
     

     
    An overall view of the control panel with the completed mimic diagram. The lever-frame amd track section switches previously shown have been removed from the lower section to facilitate application of the Letraset lettering.
     

     
    A view of the lower panel compartment showing the wiring - mainly on tag strips. Feeds to the layout are via multi-pin D plugs on the right hand side. Coming in on the left are 16 v AC (power to vitually everything!) and 18 v DC (for AJ uncoupling magnets) feeds and connectors for either DC or DCC controllers and the conection to the DCC power unit. Going off shot at the bottom is the bundle of wires which will conect to the switches and LED's on the panel facia.
    The coil of white wires are for the bell code ringer circuit.
    Top centre is one of a pair of 3 amp thermal trips in the feeds to the track sections (but not yet conected - hence the coils of blue wire adjacent). I've heard tales of major problems resulting from track short circuits recking controllers, melting loco wheels, etc., especially with DCC giving up to 10 amps, so hopefully these trips will help avoid that.
  23. Dave Holt
    Well, as best I can tell prior to functional testing, the wiring is complete. I've tried to be methodical and careful, but even so, I had to undo various cable ties and the spiral sheaving a couple of times to add extra wires which I'd missed first time. Testing under power will start shortly - probably next week, after a two day visit to the Wells show over the week-end. I just hope it all functions as intended as I don't really fancy fault finding or any re-wiring!
     
    Here are some photos of the completed panel:
     
    First, the external view showing the finished mimic panel, lever frame switches and DC track selection switches.
     

     
    Second, a view of the panel base unit and the inside of the two sections of the front panel, showing the wiring arrangements.
     

     
    Finally, here's the power supply unit which supplies 16 v AC to the panel, and then to the base-boards. Inside are two Guagemaster transformers wired in parallel. Both the mains side and output side of each transformer is protected by fuses. The track power feed from the panel are each providied with a thermal trip in case of a short circuit across the track going un-noticed.
     

     
    Dave.
  24. Dave Holt
    After what feels like a lifetime of back-aching effort, leaning over the board to focus my magnifying head set thingey, I have now completed fitting the cosmetic chairs to the point on the current board. Not only did thids involve cutting each chair in half to fit round the rivet, but also reguired lots of grinding of the rivet heads either side of the rails to enable a snug fit for the chair halves. On some, I didn't quite achive this, but the overall result is quite satisfying. I did consider only fitting chairs to the visible side of the rails, which would have halved the effort, but in the end I decided to fit both sides - must have too much time on my hands!!
     
    I've also experienced some problem getting the point blades to throw over fully, especially on the diverging road. This was causing derailment of the loco front pony truck when travelling in the facing direction. This seems to have been solved by increasng the Tortoise throw to near maximum and an adjustment to the operating link to the TOU.
    Photos show the completed point with BR Standard Cl2 tank being used to test the throw of the point. Also a close-up of the loco in its part completed condition.
     

     

     

     

     
    Next to do on the track on this board is represent the rail joints by cutting through the rail head at the appropriate locations to represent 30 foot and 60 foot rail lengths. Intending to use a slitting disc on a flexible shaft drive for this. Then it's cosmetic fish plates.
     
    Cheers for now,
     
    Dave.
  25. Dave Holt
    Well, crabs are generally said to scuttle, but that's sideways, so it's not unreasonable that forward progress is fairly slow.
    Following the conversion work on the ex_GCR push-pull coaches, I thought I ought to try and finish off some part completed projects which have been sitting around for quite a while. One such is the ex-LMS Crab, which is a Bachmann body on a Comet chassis and a Comet brass tender, together with a Brassmasters detailing kit. The original idea, inspired by the demonstration version on the Comet exhibition stand, was for a quick production based on a straight forward assembly of the chassis kit for P4 gauge. Needless to say, I couldn't go through with that approach and ended up adding lots of extra details and some missing bits, all of which added extra time.
    So, in a mad bout of renewed enthusiasm, the final details have been added to the chassis and body and a bit more work done to the tender. There, the only outstanding parts are the cab doors. I've assembled the Brassmasters doors with working hinges and am dallying with the idea of springing them open but need to obtain some fine phosphor bronze wire to make the springs. A trial with 0.33 mm brass wire proved the geometry but was too stiff.
    On the loco, which sits on coil springs, I have had a bit of fun and games getting the weight in the right place. Initially, I added too much in the front portion of the boiler, causing the front driver springs to be nearly fully compressed. It was a mighty struggle to get the weight back out, having glued it in rather too well. That made things much better, especially after I managed to squeeze a bit more lead in the firebox and some under the cab roof, but after I fitted the the front pony truck, which is also lightly sprung, I found the reverse problem! Now the rear driving springs were fully compressed, so I had to re-fit part of the boiler weight and remove the lead from the cab roof to get a reasonable ride attitude. Compensation is a lot less bother!!!
    Anyway, here it is in its current state. The loco still needs overall weathering and the tender remains unpainted till the cab doors are sorted, but definite progress.
     

     
    Dave.
×
×
  • Create New...