brian777999

Evergreen make a 3.2mm square tubing (4.5mm diagonal). The wires should fit inside that easily so I think I might buy some and give it a try. It is not until you try to light a building do you think about where the wires will go !

The fans are easily dispensed with but the louvred roof will be staying as it would be too much trouble to get rid of it now. Anyway, I have seen similar things on all manner of older industrial buildings. I was initially thinking of having the rail line run through the shed. The platform would become a loading bay for trucks. Perhaps I should go back to that idea ?

Update : this is an old engine shed that has been converted to a goods shed after steam was phased out  .

Here is my result so far : two engine sheds will be joined together to make one longer goods shed. I removed some of the back walls from each kit and these will be glued together soon. Now vehicles can pass straight through and I have added internal loading platforms. I used the special roof/end pieces as extra bracing in the roofs. I think I will have to add some more beams in the ceiling because I want to put four LED's in there and I will need something to hang them off. It will be a bit tricky hiding all the wires. (Any suggestions are welcome.) I am waiting for some fine weather to start airbrushing and painting ; still a lot more work to go yet. The platform and ramp is also by Dapol.

Update : putting the plastic sides in the sun (sandwiched between the glass and an aluminium plate) seems to have worked. The sun was out today so I was able to make a good attempt at flattening out the warping. The end result is not perfect but still better than using hot water.

I will also follows PatB's recommendations and use internal bracing and struts when I build it

This is my attempt to flatten warped sides. I have sandwiched one side between a sheet of glass and a sheet of aluminium. Now if the sun will come out for a few hours I will find out if this works. It has been raining here all week.

NOTE : I have tried soaking it in hot water then reshaping it but that does not help much.

1 hour ago, sncf231e said:

About half of the people I know are Railway modellers, so it must be about half of 8.000.000.000 worldwide and some 35 million in the UK.

Regards

Fred

So that's why second hand wagons are getting so expensive now !

I want to  join the two engine sheds end to end to make one long shed/factory. Will I have to move the roofs slightly to allow the two ends to butt up flush with each other ?

NOTE : the sides are badly warped and they are a real to get straight again ! Even placing them in hot water for 15 minutes then clamping overnight between two flat surfaces does not help much.

I have been running the loco all day and it now runs very well (even with fly cranks fitted).  I was worried that I was wasting my money on these new axles but it has turned out well. If anybody else has a badly running class 04 then this is worth trying.

Is this a new or an old loco ?

The new axles have arrived today ; they are a very tight fit. I know the principle of quartering and I was able to do it with the older loose-fitting axles but I am having no luck fitting and quartering the new axles. Has anybody done this before to the class 04 and do you have any tips ?

1. NOTE : at this stage I am leaving the fly cranks disconnected. Maybe I will try connecting them later if I can get the loco to run smoothly with the new axles.

2. NOTE : I am doing this without a back to back gauge as it has not arrived from the UK as yet.

UPDATE : I have disconnected the tie rods. That makes it much easier to set things at 90 degrees but with out a back to back gauge it is difficult to get the distance between the wheels correct. I might have to wait.

FINALLY : I have had some luck. It seems to be running much better now. Disconnecting the tie rods did the trick as it allows you to see through the wheels and use the holes to set the wheels at 90 degrees. I may also have a go at reinstalling the fly cranks... although that could be pushing it !

On my old 04, the rods are solid and I have disconnected the fly cranks but it still runs badly. I am expecting new axles to arrive any day now so I am hoping that fitting these will improve the situation. If it does not then I may pull the whole thing apart : split chassis and all just for the hell of it !

No, I did not snip off those small link wires. I did not see the need as they all work just fine the way they are. If I encounter problems in the future then I might have to look at that again.

If it ain't broke...

2 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

I'm glad you found the point easy to modify. The little bit of extra wiring makes them not RTR when used like this, which is why they are sold as they are.

I am a bit puzzled by that : I did not modify them at all. I did cut off the long thin wire underneath the sleepers because I was told that was only used if point motors are to be fitted. Other than that, all I did was fit IRJ's to the V section. They were pretty much used straight out of the box. 

Whatever you use to paint the RTR wagon, give them a good wash in warm soapy water first. It will help your paint to adhere to the wagon as some of the coloured plastics seem to be quite ''greasy''. 

And so was I until I tried them but if you want slow running through the points with small shunting engines then I think you need electrofrog points. They are so easy to wire in DC but I cannot comment on DCC.

Yes, it all works well back and forwards now. I was surprised how easy it was to wire the electrofrog points. I was a bit doubtful when I bought them but now I would never use anything else. I will try wiring up the shuttle circuit

 later.

1. Could this power source and this PWM be combined to use as a train controller ? I would have a qualified person check it out before actually using it !

2. Could the reversing switch and supplied potentiometer on the PWM be replaced with a centre detent potentiometer (centre off like the H&M controllers) ?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/131384581126?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&fromMakeTrack=true

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DC-12-24-36-48V-60A-PWM-Motor-Speed-Controller-CW-CCW-Reversible-Switch/163328680990?_trkparms=aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818142525%26meid%3Dd9775af0ef2f4c05933cf9cf48f5d6f5%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D112713952838%26itm%3D163328680990%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebWithBBEV2bDemotion%26brand%3DUnbranded&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851

I am building my first layout using DC. There is one complete oval of track which joins to a long straight section running behind it. I was intending to install an automatic reversing module for this long straight so a shunter would move slowly from one end to the other, stopping about 30 seconds at each end. There are two electrofrog points installed on this section with the required insulated joiners. Would that stop the reversing circuit from working ?

The fly cranks have been disconnected ; that was plan A. The replacement axles and the back-to-back gauge have not arrived yet. But if replacing the axles does not work (plan B) is there a possible plan C that I can try ?

The canopy glue is excellent ; glued items can be removed but you need pliers to twist and pull to do it. That should be good enough to hold Kadees in place. I have started using this glue for other things too.

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Have you tried this one, allegedly sticks those slippery plastics, such as Polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP)

 

https://www.selleys.com.au/products/adhesives/minor-repairs/selleys-all-plastic-fix/

 

And this one being a 2 part version

 

https://www.loctite-consumer.com.au/en/products/superglue-all-plastics.html

 

Can't say I've tried either product, so hope they don't waste your money!

I have not seen the Selleys product before but I will take note of it. The Loctite version (available from Bunnings) is my next choice if the canopy glue does not work as suggested above. 

Update : the canopy glue seems to be holding quite well. I will leave it overnight and test it again tomorrow.

Thanks for the tip. I already have a bottle of that which I had forgotten about. I will give it a go today. I also tried PLASTIC MAGIC yesterday but it is useless. Anybody thinking of trying that can save their money. It won't even glue styrene to styrene !

I am in the process of fixing some Kadees to the underside of some old Hornby wagons. These wagons seem to be made of that same 'greasy' black plastic. I have tried the usual Revell polystyrene glue, superglue and Araldite but none of them will hold. I often use an M2 socket cap on vans where the screw and nut will not show on the inside of the van but these wagons or Lowfits and it cannot be hidden. There must be some sort of glue that will hold. What is the actual plastic they used on those old Hornby underframes ?

NOTE : I live in Australia. I am thinking of trying Loctite plastics bonding system. Has anybody tried that yet ?

https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/products/fix/super-glue/loctite_plasticsbondingsystem.html

Very odd : I received the second of my class 04 shunters today and this one runs very well even with the fly cranks still connected. I hope I can get the first one to run as well as this when the new gear set/axles arrive.

I bought two of these class 04's from ebay before I discovered how bad they were. The other one still has not arrived from the UK yet. Out of curiosity, I have ordered a spare set of axles/gears from Peters Spares. I want to see for myself if I can get one running reasonably well before ditching both of them into the scrap box. I will clean the wheels and gears with soapy water then apply a small amount of Araldite (super strength has a 6 hour setting time)  to the metal axles before insertion into the plastic axles. A back to back gauge is also on order.

Quartering : Is the right hand side supposed to lead the left  on UK locos ie. loco facing to the right, right hand side will be at 3 o'clock and the other side will be at 12 o'clock ?