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Dave Holt

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Blog Entries posted by Dave Holt

  1. Dave Holt
    Finally got fired up again today and went over to the work-shop to retrieve two more boards for equipping with point motors, AJ uncoupling magnets and wiring. Based on how long it took to wire the first board, I expect to re-emerge some time next year!!!
     
    Took the opportunity to trial fit the coal drop deck with the boards assembled. This revealed the need for a bit of trimming to length which was done. Unfortunately, there's been a slight warping of the main timbers, so this will have to be sorted on final attachment. That explains the slight vertical misalignment between the deck rails and the siding rails at each end, visible in the photos. Some rail ends also had to be cut back to avoid them touching at the board joints.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt

    Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109 - Pt 8

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Well, the Scot is now complete except for some details to be added after painting. The last parts to be added were the smoke deflectors which, to my eyes, make quite a difference to the overall look of the loco.
    Here it is, connected to the tender, prior to disassembling to cleaning and painting.

     Dave.
  3. Dave Holt

    Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109 - Pt3

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Quite a bit of progress has been made on the chassis. Despite some setbacks, this has now reached the stage where the inside and outside valve gear is all complete and temporarily fitted. The outside cylinder/valve gear assembly still need the rear cylinder relief valves re-fitted (I had to remove them because they were interfering with full forward travel of the combination levers) and drain cocks to be added.
    Here we see nearly everything reassembled to see how it looks and check for any clashes.

     

     
    Dave.
     
  4. Dave Holt

    Brief up-date

    By Dave Holt,

    I see it's been over a year since my last posting on here. To be honest, I find the constant pop up adverts which now appear a constant irritant, so am less inclined to participate.
    Anyway, I have made some limited modelling progress during the gap. Nothing on the layout, but work has been done on locos.
    We left the Ivatt tank at the stage of making the injectors. This and all other work on the chassis is now complete. It is currently stripped to its component parts, ready to be painted.


    I left it like this in anticipation of demonstrating at this years Scalefour North which, inevitably, never took place due to the corona virus. No progress has been made on the body. I was pondering whether to cut out and replace the boiler with a spare cast white metal DJH and decided to re-start another loco whilst I made up my mind. Well, it's still not made up and the other model is now well on the way to completion!
    This latest project is a Brassmasters Stanier Black 5 - 45232, of Newton Heath.
    The basic frames had been assembled years ago but had not been wheeled. It has now reached the stage of the loco being complete, except cab glazing and fixing the cab roof, both of which have to be done after painting.

    The tender is also well advanced but not yet finished.

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    Progress has slowed recently due to warm weather and some health issues. However, the loco is now complete except for the smoke deflectors and cab side cinder guards. The tender is well advanced, the main outstanding tasks being fitting the axlebox/spring castings and completing the front platform and draw bar.
    Here we see the current state of play.

     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt

    Future project?

    By Dave Holt,

    Having run out of steam getting the Black 5 chassis painted and not sure how to proceed with the Ivatt tank, I thought I might do some planning (scheming) and some preliminary work on a future project - a Brassmasters Re-built Royal Scot.
    To add interest and a bit of a challenge, I decided to fit the model with working inside valve gear. The kit provides most of the prototypical frame stretchers but makes no provision for the inside cylinder or valve gear. My representation is not going to be exactly to scale but should be a fair representation using as many spare etched and other parts from various kits and left-overs, modified to represent the Scot parts as near as practicable.
    Here are a few photos showing progress to date.
    Frame plate marked out for inside cylinder

     
    Inside cylinder laid roughly in position.

     
    Inside cylinder with front section of valve gear in position.

     
    Rear portion of valve gear, temporarily inserted into the mounting bracket, which will be attached to the rear face of the (kit) motion plate.

     
    Connecting rod fixed to the cross head and located in the cylinder. Again, front portion of valve gear attached.

     
    Dave.
     
  7. Dave Holt
    Have laid the track across the coal drops for the layout. The deck beams are obeche strip spaced at 20 mm centre-lines. The track uses Exactoscale functional bridge chairs fixed to the wood using Plastic Weld solvent. For added security, there are brass locating pegs at three places along the length on which the chairs plug and the last two chair positions at the base-board joint are soldered to brass panel pins for strength. Had a minor setback when after all was fixed, I noticed I'd put one of the chairs on back-to-front, so the key was in the 4 foot! Luckily, it was on the rear track, so with a bit of scalpel work i managed to make the visible side look like an inner jaw and no-one will be able to see the lack of a key on the far side of the rail! I only found my mistake when I slid the track gauge along and it bumped over something!
     
    Final fixing will be left till I've added the decking, hand rails, etc and also done the cosmetic parts of the drops area and cell dividing walls/support pillars.
     

     
    View of the whole deck section with rails attached. The extension along the front edge supports the decking walk-way and hand rails.
  8. Dave Holt

    Black 5 update.

    By Dave Holt,

    Not much progress, but the loco and tender are now connected. The loco and tender kits are from different periods of design and manufacture and the adjustable draw bar supplied with the loco is far too long for the later tender. The fault really lies with the tender because the draw bar pivot is far too close to the buffer beam whereas the earlier tenders were about scale in this respect. The more recent tender is not easily modified to correct this aspect, so the only solution was to make a hybrid draw bar using the etched bar at the loco end and a new part, incorporating a formed eye, made from 0.8 mm brass wire at the tender end. It took a couple of goes soldering the two pieces together to get just the right pivot centre distance so that the rubbing blocks touch but allow the required movement between loco and tender. Although the gap between loco and tender is almost scale, the fall plates on the loco do not land on the front platform on the tender, so some further work is required on this aspect.

    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt

    Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109 - Pt4

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Apart from the motor/gearbox torque restrainer and the pick-ups, I think the chassis is now complete. The last cosmetic items fitted were the front foot steps and bracing struts and the two injector overflow pipes.
    All the parts have been re-assembled, partly to check the assembly sequence. After inserting ten 14 BA screws into the keeper plate, I discovered that the eccentric strap cannot be fitted into the sheaf unless the axle is partially withdrawn from the horns - somewhat frustrating but, hopefully, I'll remember for the future. With the keeper plate split in two (a mistake I now realise) and entwined with the brake rigging and the exhaust injector steam pipe floating around, it's a bit of a fiddle to get everything into place so the screws can be fitted. Three pinged out of the tweezers but were later retrieved, much to my relief.
    Here we see both sides and the under side and top.

     

     

     


    Dave.
  10. Dave Holt
    Powered up the wiring of the first board using various jump leads to connect 16 V AC, a hand-held Pentroller and a second controller to swith the point motor. Ran my part finished Ivatt Cl 2, 2-6-2 tank up and down the platform road, then transferred everything to the loop road. This has a point giving access to the siding which runs along the side of the goods shed. Was able to switch the point using the second cpntroller and found that by chance, I'd wired the route indicating LED's correctly for the diverging roads. Had to do an adjustment to the Tortoise travel to get the point blades to sit hard against the stock rail for the siding, in order to get reliable running in the facing direction.
     

     

     

     
    Photos show an overall view of the test with the Pentroller plugged into it's socket on the facia of the board. The adjacent socket is for the DCC Xpressnet connection. Also seen is a close-up of the facia showing the point switch, route indicating LED's (with the diverging road set and the LED illuminated) and the red button is for an Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet. Lastly, a view of the loco taking the diverging road. Now for the rest......
     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    I thought it was about time I got back to some modelling. My arm/shoulder is still recovering, but i have sufficient movement to use small tools, etc., without over stressing it.
    So, I decided to fit the DCC chip as part of the finishing off process. This required separation of the chassis from the body, taking care not to damage the paint or weathering. That's not to say some minor touching up will be required by the time I've finished. The chip used is a Digitrax DZ126, the current nearest to the DZ123's I've tended to standardise on in all my recent locos. The (spare) lighting wires were cut off close to the encapsulation, just leaving the four traction related wires. Actual fitting was very easy as I had already fixed four copper-clad pads to the side of the gearbox, one each for the two pick-up connections and the motor terminals. In the temporary DC operation, short bridging wires linked the relevant pads to connect the pick-up wires direct to the motor. It only took moments to un-solder the bridging wires and connect the appropriate chip lead. The chip will just rest freely inside the boiler/smokebox when the loco is reassembled.
    The photo below shows the attached chip and chassis.
     

     
    Dave.
     
  12. Dave Holt

    Some recent progress

    By Dave Holt,


    P4
    Following the near completion of the Royal Scot, I have been working on the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tank which has been on and off for literally years. Mods and detailing of the body has come quite a long way, though there is still more to do.
    However, this loco and the Black 5 model have reached the point where the chassis have had the basic painting done and the chassis both re-assembled. Further weathering will be required to give some variation and blend with the weathered bodies, some time in the future. I'm holding off fully finishing these locos as I want to have them part dis-assembled for my loco construction demo at this years Scaleforum.
    Here are the locos in their current condition.

     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt

    Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109 - Pt2

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Since the previous post, the brake gear, under cab pipework and the basic footplate have been assembled and temporarily assembled, as shown in the last photo. This is the current state of play.
    Pipework underneath the cab - complete except the injector overflows.

     

     

     
    Chassis and footplate assembled.

     

     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt
    In a comment on part of my blog, Coachman mentioned making model of a digram D333 ex-LNWR non-corridor brake third. Here's my attempt at one of these (part of my fictional non-push-pull local train) which was made from a 51L Models kit, modified to represent the version with just two end windows. The model is not yet complete - lacking the glazing and buffer heads. Model was painted and numbered by Coachman - and very nice, too!
     

     

     
    The odd contraption visible at the left-hand end is a cast coupling bar (one of Bill Bedford's, if I recall).
  15. Dave Holt

    Rebuilt Royal Scot, 46109 - Pt5

    By Dave Holt,


    4 mm, P4
    Progress continues at a slow(ish) pace. Since the last entry, the main visual change has been fitting the boiler (still loose at the moment), which required the removal of quite a lot of resin to pass over the motor and sit down on the splasher tops/footplate.
    Recently, I've been working on the lubrication system, sand boxes/fillers and some initial boiler fittings.
    Here's a couple of overall views of the loco in its current state.

     

     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    Although the track and electrics are far from complete, and the control panel and fiddle yard not even started, I have been thinking about scenic aspects of the finished layout. Following on from the coal drop wing wall, my thoughts turned to the retaining wall alongside the road as it curves round and up to the road junction near the station entrance.
    Study of a photo taken before the road layout was changed, looking towards the station masters house and down the road to Dobcross and road elevations shown on a site plan have convinced me that I had made the road slope up too steeply so that the road level outside the afore-mentioned house was far too high. Over a period of a few weeks, this has been eating away at me until I have been driven to try to improve matters.
    It would have been an awful lot easier to get it right in the first place because chopping the finished boards about to lower the road surface has not been the easiest of jobs. It's still not absolutely correct, but a lot better than it was. Due to some interference of immovable bits under the road surface, in the end I was able to lower the extreme top end of the slope by about 20 mm and generally blend this in to the original slope over a length of about 350 mm. The new arrangement is shown in the photo below. Some idea of the lowered road surface can be gleaned from the edge of the strip of wood visible at the end of the goods yard area. Originally, the right hand end of this strip, now suspended in mid air, was fixed to the sloping road. Now there's a gap of about 10 mm.
     

     
    Having corrected this niggling problem, I can now make and fit the various buffer stops to the station board roads. Except for the track which goes through the goods shed, these are of the rail built, BR standard (ex-GWR) type, despite Delph being ex-LNWR. The goods shed road had a masive timber baulk stop which looks like it was some locally produced replacement, possibly for a damaged rail built version. Although this stop appears in the distance in several photos, the detail isn't really clear, so I'll just have to make a best guess. No doubt someone will know better after it's built!
     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    I'm working on the point operating mechanisms for the layout just now. In the connections from the Tortoise motors to the TOU's, I'm intending to fit omega loops or Z sections to allow for any over-travel of the motor output bar (I'm using the Exactoscale conversion units). Any suggestions about suitable wire gauge and approximate dimensions to be sufficiently flexible not to wreck the TOU/switch blade actuators but still hold the switch blades hard against the stock rails?
     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    The model continues to develop.
    The boiler is now fixed to the footplate and all the lubrication pipes, lubricators and atomiser are done, as is the brake ejector and associated piping - except the steam pipes from the cab.
    Here's the current state of play.

     

     

     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    It's been a while since the last entry, so I thought I'd just give a brief up-date. Not very much that's photogenic, but steady progress has been made with the electrics on the first board section. Most recently, I've been assembling the jumper cables and connectors which will link this board to those either side. Besides the two cables at the ends of this board (B3 in my notation), I've wired the mating plug connectors and jumpers for the adjacent boards (B2 - with the station throat pointwork and B4 with the station and the control panel ). It's quite laborious work and requires great care to ensure the correct wires go from the plug/socket pins to the appropriate tack on the base board. A check with a multi-meter appeared OK, so hopefully, everything is in its correct place.
     
    Photos show the completed B3/B2 jumper wired to the tag strips and illustrating the storage clips which keep the jumper cable safely stowed for transport.
     

     

     

     
    Now to the other end!
     
    Dave.
     
     
    Jumpers at the other end now also attached. Too many wires for a single (37 pin) plug, so two x 25 pin connectors used here - one socket and one plug on this board to prevent connecting the wrong ones together. Not all the pins used on one as there are not 50 wires!
     

     

     
    That's the electrics done on board No.3 except for fitting one Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet.
     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    I'm getting there! All the track in the station area except that across the coal drops is now in place. Still to do is application of cosmetic chairs on the pointwork, but I'll leave that till after wiring and trial running - so some time off, yet.
    On the coal drops, the track support beams are made and I've mounted the functional supports at the cell devider pillars. These will be clad in brickwork and the three sides of the whole arrangement in coarse stone, prior to fixing the track structure in place. Well, that's the plan!
     
    Latest progress photos:-
     

     

     

  22. Dave Holt
    Today, a construction worker engaged in reinstating the railway at Delph station site discovered a tortoise buried beneath.......
     
    OK, in a slight break from the coal drops (awaiting more plastic supplies), I decided to mount and connect the first point motor to the TOU on the only turnout on this board. On fitting and attaching the droppers from the switch blades to the pre-made TOU I found that the blade opening at the tips of the blades is slightly over the scale 4.5". I think I'll live with this (hard to correct anyway, without making a new set of sliders) as it's better to have a larger than smaller gap for running purposes. I then fitted and connected the Tortoise point motor with the blades/TOU and motor drive set in the mid-stroke position. I then adjusted the throw of the actuator to give a fairly firm pressure in the closed position. Being the first time I've fitted on of these, I'm not sure how to judge the correct amount of over-travel at the motor (how much bend there should be in the actuating spring steel wire at full throw). Advice on this from experienced Tortoisers would be welcome.
     
    Here's a couple of photos of the under board installation.
     

     

     
    The motor is mounted on an Exactoscale adaptor plate, which in turn is screwed to a mounting pad fixed under the board. All the motors are set along the back edge of the boards, clear of the track above.
     
    The operating rod from motor to TOU passes through a mouse-hole slot in one og the strengthening ribs under the board. This connecting rod is actually a length of rail from some Peco "OO" flexi-track purchased specially for the purpose at the recent Leamington show. P4 friends operating Amlwch took great pleasure in taking a compromising photo of me carrying said track in it's distinctive bag. "Traitor" was one of the words used.....
     
    Dave.
  23. Dave Holt

    Track creeps onwards

    By Dave Holt,

    The snail's pace addition of track continues. The main running line has reached the (country) end of the platform and the yard tracks progress slowly. Since these photos were taken this afternoon, I've extended the coal drop road as far as the drops and the mill siding as far as the connection to the buffer stop track.
     

     

  24. Dave Holt

    A bit more progress

    By Dave Holt,

    Still no actual track laid, but I am edging slowly towards it! To provide some strength to the track at board joints, and hopefully prevent rail end damage during assembly and disassembly of the layout, I'm fitting a couple pf ply sleepers where each track reaches the end of a board with brass panel pins driven into the board top rather than the usual rivets. This is now complete except for one end of one board. After that, I need to partially cover the turnout operating unit holes to just leave a slot for the actuating wires to pass through, locate the TOU's under the boards and then track laying can start. Here's 3 photos of recent progress.



     
    Dave.
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