DLT

First try at fitting pickups to the tender bogies involves bent and twisted phosphor-bronze strip, acting against the backs of the flanges. So far so good; pickup is ok, and the pressure is light enough not to cause braking. (The wipers still need final trimming to length) The weight of the whitemetal tender ensures good rail contact as well.

I now need to work out how to get power to the loco without having wires connected between the loco and tender. Current plan is a drawbar made of curcuitboard, and more wiper contacts.

Dave.

The castings for the tender are very good. Apart from straightening out the slab sides and the cleaning up and squaring of some of the edges, they fitted together witha minimum of fuss and soldered beautifully.

Once again I made a plywood cradle to support the body and make handling easier.

Tim supplied a pair of Bachman bogies to use instead of the whitemetal items in the kit, mainly I think due to their having an integral coupling. The only modification required was to add two new mountings to the tender, turned from 9mm brass rod.

One particular requirement is for tender pickups, so I'm experimenting; starting with some small circuitboard plates.

On 09/10/2010 at 19:17, Rob Pulham said:

It's looking superb Dave, definitely silk purse!

Thanks very much Rob; but to be fair to the kit, it wasnt exactly a Sow's Ear to begin with!

Sorry this thread has been a bit quiet lately, but I've not been idle so its high time I kicked it into action again.

Following the discussion on the front bogie, I've added some guardirons to the front end.

Well I've been a bit quiet lately, but not idle. Progress has been slow but steady and its time for an update.

The kit makes no provision for brakegear whatsoever, but Mainly Trains supply an etch of SR loco brakehangers to fill the gap.

Brake rodding was fabricated from .7mm brass wire; a bit on the heavy side perhaps, but it makes for a robust assembly, and you can hardly see it once installed.

The underside view shows its mounting; the front end is screwed to an extra frame-spacer between the front drivers. The pull rods touch the inside of the frames, providing sideways alignment, and the rear and centre hangers have a rod passing right through them and the frames. This will need securing , preferably not permanently. The front hangers have no rod through the frames, I thought the proximity of the Romford flanges was asking for trouble. So they float in free space.

The photo below shows that the brakes still need a little filing and tweaking. Once blackened I will smear a bit of araldite on the faces, to provide insulation incase they touch the wheels

Valvegear all went together without any real problems, (once I had filed it all down a bit) by the solder/paper spacer method using the supplied rivits. One thing I didnt like was the expansion link and radius rod mounted on the free end of a 14ba screw held by one nut. I added a second bracket with a captive nut so that the rods sat between the supports.

Unlike many kits, ths one has a working valve-rod sliding in and out of the cylinders, although you can hardly see it. Not only is this more authentic, it supports the combining lever and radius rod, so no need for an extra supporting bracket from the frame.

Next job is the tender.

Cheers,

Dave.T

Hi Mudders,

Looking great, love the latest photos.

Dave.

Fair enough about the weight thing, makes sense if the loco isn't sprung.

 

Just looking at your side control though, surely that's the wrong way round from the pivot to guide a loco into curves, at the moment as the front turns, it pushes the frames in the opposite direction. See a} below.

 

I think, (and am willing to be proved wrong ), what you need is b}

Hi Mouse,

I can see where you are coming from, but remember, any movement is rotational around the pivot, and my diagram additions in red should show the effect of the side forces on the frames. The bogie always swings back to the central straight position.

Steph is quite right, both setups will work correctly.

Cheers, Dave.

Fair enough about the weight thing, makes sense if the loco isn't sprung.

 

Just looking at your side control though, surely that's the wrong way round from the pivot to guide a loco into curves, at the moment as the front turns, it pushes the frames in the opposite direction. See a} below.

 

I think, (and am willing to be proved wrong ), what you need is b}

Err... let me think about that one. It certainly pulls the bogie into line.

Nice work Dave, though I'm surprised you kept the w/m bogie. I think I'd have rebuilt it from brass as I did with my SEF M7 to stop it looking quite so clunky.

 

Hi Mouse,

Replacing the bogie was considered, but the casting was pretty good; reasonably square and with axle slots parallel in all planes. (Unlike some I've seen) It could do with a bit of cosmetic attention to the front end and perhaps the sides (where visible under the cylinders) but nothing too drastic is needed.

Besides, the whitemetal gives it some much needed weight; always a plus point.

All the best,

Dave.

The pivot arm for the bogie was a rather flimsy bit of bent whitemetal, so I've replaced it with a stronger length of brass strip.

While I was at it I added some light lateral springing, using fine 15thou nickel silver wire. Those at the back of the arm bear against the inside of the frames.

This prevents the bogie flopping around all over the place, and helps to guide the loco into curves, reducing the front footplate overhang

I see I've managed to break off one of the whitemetal guardirons, but I was probably going to replace them with brass anyway.

Dave.T

What type of "U" do you want to build? New-build, or rebuilt "River"? Big differences between the two types, as you know, in footplate height and width, and cab width and shape, and these are areas which have never really been properly covered in the modelling press, despite Tim Shackleton's effort to list all the detail differences in MRJ (issue 112?) at the time that Bachmann released their "N". Size of footplate splashers were different, and I think boiler pitch was also different.

 

The Roche "U" drawing has errors in it, although at least he got the driving wheelbase right!! He seems to want to depict the "new build" but then sticks in a number of "rebuilt River" features on the same engine which is just misleading. Beattie drawing has similar errors and no measurements on it!

Yikes, now you're worrying me!

We havent got as far as thinking about the details; apart from the fact that its destined for a West of England mainline layout, and therefore most likely to be an Exmouth Junction or Salisbury based loco.

Thanks for all the info, most of which I was NOT aware of:( the U is not a loco that I've studied. Yet!

All the best,

Dave.

As I've already said, the DJH cylinder castings are some of the best I've seen. They slide on to the outer ends of a cast "T" piece, and end up at the correct position and inclination.

As Horsetan has already said, the body of this kit is about 3mm too short, but it all looks in proportion (to me!) However this meant that the cylinders fouled the drop-footplate section, so I've moved them back a fraction by shortening the T-piece. Sawing through it and fitting it back together shortened it sufficiently, and explains the strip of brass thats re-inforcing it. This strip also fills the gap between T-piece and footplate, so when the body is screwed on, the assembly is properly clamped in place.

Motion brackets are "S" shaped, and looked a little delicate, so I've re-inforced them with extra strips soldered in vertically. The photos should make it clear.

Dave.

The loco is looking well. Pretty obvious are the casting feeds......right on the edge of the running plate on this loco! Why some manufacturers do that is beyond me as they are difficult to remove is such areas.

Quite so; and one of my least favourite aspects of whitemetal locos. Not only is that edge awkward to clean up, its very vulnerable to damage as well. Hence I normally leave finishing the edge until last.

Cheers,

Dave.

Cylinders are assembled, with new slidebars, and Romford crosshead assemblies. Of course the usual problem with front-bogie logies appears, there isnt room for the bogie to swing between the cylinders.

Fortunately theres plenty of surplus whitemetal that can be removed from the back of the cylinders without adverse effect. Then the limiting factor for bogie swing will be the front footsteps.

It does look extremely odd without the bogie.

Cheers,

Dave

I have to say how impressed I am with your work so far, especially the lowering of the boiler. However, I have always felt that DJH kits of Maunsell locomotives are let down most of all by their dreadful chimneys, domes and safety valves (all are too tall). Have you just positioned these at present for the photos and are you going to replace them later on?

 

JE

Hi JE,

They are only lightly fixed in place. I've already given the safety valve mounting good re-shaping, but I thought dome looked reasonable.

Not sure if I can make any alterations to the chimney; I might look for a replacement, it depends what my friend wants me to do.

Can you recomend a source? There was a very nice chimney in the PDK kit, but I dont know if he does spares.

Thanks,

Dave.

The cylinder castings are some of the best I've seen; they're cleverley designed, well detailed, and the correct size and shape.

No need for excess amounts of filing to get them square!

The exquisite machined crossheads from Romford fit them perfectly. I will be replacing the slidebars though.

Dave.

Thought you were going to replace the whitemetal smoke deflectors with brass or n/s ones?

That was an initial plan, but the cast items are fine, and they can be tapered down to a thin front edge. Once I'd tried this out I thought they looked perfectly allright, and saw no real need to replace them.

This loco is going to earn its keep pulling trains on a mainline layout, and in that situation I doubt if the thickness of the castings would be particularly noticeable.

Hope to have another update over the weekend.

All the best,

Dave.

Once again some equisite work and puts my S15 to shame (although in my defence it did start off as a aprt built aquistiion) The lower boiler position although subtle does make a difference and it is amazing what a difference just the buffer beam overlay alone makes.

 

I agree that the machined clack valves from Markits are lovely and use them myself on all new builds these days. I can also recommend their machined crossheads too.

Hi Graham,

Thanks for your comments. Its amazing what an improvement the boiler mods have made; it really did look odd stuckup in the air with a yawning cavity underneath. I've also made the boiler removable for painting etc. Easily done, as the rear end slots into the cab front, locating it nicely. All that was needed was one screw up through the footplate and a captive nut in the smokebox. I located this about 1/4inch behind the body/chassis fixing screw position (which comes up through the middle of the cylinder block, also to a captive nut in the smokebox)

I have been supplied with a set of Romford crossheads, and a superb bit of engineering they look too. Just as well, as the crossheads in the kit are (rather poor) whitemetal castings; Whitemetal moving parts are a bit of a no-no in my book. Having said that, the cylinder castings are excellent, and of an ingenious design.

Cheeers,

Dave.

Some progress to report with the DJH S15. Once a working chassis was achieved I carried on with the bodywork. One glaring error was the boiler shape; its pitched too high, the bottom should be flush with the footplate. All this needed was some attention to the smokebox saddle with a large file. The smokebox itself though needed a bit more work; the front end was splayed out like a trumpet, and it was egg-shaped in section with the sharp bit at the top. Some rather more careful filing got it to shape, but at the expense of the rivet detail. Hence the need for the new riveted brass wrapper. At the same time, a rivited overlay was produced for the plain whitemetal bufferbeam

When the photos were taken the smoke deflectors were only balanced in place; the handrails need fitting first, as the deflectors have to fit underneath, but just touching.

Also visible are the exquisite machined brass clack-valves from Romford/Markits, although I think the attachment holes in the boiler need to be a touch higher.

Thats all for the moment, rest of the boiler fittings to do, and then back to the chassis.

Bye for now,

Dave.

I briefly owned one of these kits - one of the very few I've sold on because I didn't think I could use it without substantial correction. I found the footplate on my sample to be a bit on the short side by about 2mm, for example.

 

The PDK etched & resin effort may be a better bet nowadays, although I hear that Dave Ellis at SEF has been planning the S15 for a long time. He can certainly re-use the boiler and firebox out of the existing "King Arthur" kit, as (Maunsell) S15s had the same boiler, so that saves some time and money on pattern work. Will need a new smokebox casting and footplate, though.

The DJH kit is definitely out on a few dimensions; I'm curing some of the obvious problems, but the main brief for this model was "build the kit". There were some problems with the boiler casting, but apart from that the general proportions look pretty good.

Thoughts are turning to a U Class, DJH do one, but does anyone else?

Thanks,

Dave

Hi Chris,

 

No problem, will sort some bits out to show you.

 

That does raise a good point - I will sort out a photo tutorial to post here, but need to get some more sea foam to show properly. Most of the sea foam that I have left is mostly squashed and not a great deal of use, particularily for reasonable looking trees!

 

Richard

I too would be interested, those trees look excellent. Obviously I'm looking at a 7mm version, is it the same method as you used on Brayford?

Cheers,

Dave.

Its high time I kicked this thread back into action, and my latest SR loco project is a DJH S15. Now a lot has been said about DJH kits, much of it un-complimentary, and up until now I've had no experience of them. So, I was pleasantly suprised to find that the S15 seemed to be a pretty good kit all-round; certainly a lot better than my previous project, the SEFinecast W.

The brief for this model is fairly standard, 00, Romford wheels, rigid chassis, Mashima motor, HighLevel gearbox (Loadhauler Plus) and as many wiper pickups as possible.

The chassis is designed for a large open-frame motor, with a worm & wheel on the middle axle. I modified the frames by filling in the motor cutouts, and widening it to accomodate the Highlevel gearbox. Some hefty washers are provides as part of the chassis etch, their purpose being to reduce the sideplay in the driving axles, but by placing these washers inside the frames, to widen the spacers, sufficient width is acheived for the gearbox. The photos should show this, but its not clear.

Thje bogie is simple but effective; the wheels ride in slots, but I replaced the fixed whitemetal keeperplate, with a screw-on version made from circuitboard. (might be useful for pickups later)

The next photos show the chassis as far as its got. Conventional wire pickups scrape away at the insulated Romfords on one side, and with the addition of coupling rods it runs very nicely.

The whitemetal T-piece is the rather ingenious mounting block for the cylinders.

I always build a cradle to support the footplate during construction, makes handling easier and keeps it flat during assembly. Its especially neccessary here, where the footplate is a rather flimsy whitemetal casting.

The boiler is pitched too high, the bottom should be flush with the footplate with no daylight showing; it awaits the attention of a large file! With the different motor asrrangement, I should be able to fill in some of the rather prominent boiler cut-out.

I will probably make the boiler removable, it would be impossible to paint otherwise.

I'll post more when theres something to tell.

Cheers,

Dave.

Hi

For change not working on the layout, I decided to make a removable load for one of the wagons - see below. A rectangle of plasticard was cut to be a snug fit into the wagon and scribed to represent the planking. This was then painted 'dirty wood'. A piece of cling film is then fitted into the wagon, with the plasticard inserted and then the ballast added, which is glued in place by soaking with watered-down PVA (add a drop of washing up liquid). The sleepers are then pushed gently into the wet ballast. The other details are glued using a little neat PVA. then left to dry before lifting out and carefully pulling back the cling film.

 

The wagon was weathered using Games Workshop acrylic paints either dry brushed or washed into (to get the paint into the crevices).

Thats terrific Mudders, really looks the business.

Cheers,

Dave.

Hi Richard,

Thats superb, what a difference you've made with the Grassmaster. The colours are spot on as well, whose fibres were you using?

I was impressed by the demo at the RM members day, but can't for the life of me remember the details!

I've a couple of questions regarding the technique in general; How long did it take to achieve that finish? And did you apply it on top of the existing foliage (which looked like Woodland Scenics/Greenscene) or did you pull it up and start again?

The effect you've acheived is most convincing; as you will have layout at the Barnstaple show, can you persuade Darren to set up a demo alongside?

All the best,

Dave.T

As you can see, I've been making slow progress.

 

Richard

Looks pretty fast to me Richard!

The whole thing looks terrific; I particularly like the brick wall backscene, and I'm interested to see how you get on with the Grassmaster.

Still hoping to get to the Barnstaple show.

All the best,

Dave.

Thanks for the kind words re my photo...

 

I can't recall whether there was an article, but the Dave Rowe layout was (I think) called "Exbridge Quay"

Dave & his wife Shirley both produced some really wonderful models.

Shirley was famous for her superb trees, and Spanish layout, called something like "Catalyuna" or "Catalunya" - appologies if I'm not totally accurate with the spelling.....

 

"Exbridge Quay" didn't have real birds of course...

but a few models of seagulls, which "flew" around, by being suspended on very fine fishing line!

 

A motorised pulley-wheel rotated - and was connected to another pulley (un-motorised) via fishing line.

The seagulls were suspended from the line, on added "branches" of very fine line. On one pulley, the line went round it several times - thus the gulls appeared to circle one end of the scene!!!!

 

If that's not enough to convince you of Daves excellence......

The scene was a harbour - which used actual water!

And get this - the tide went in & out! (Using a system of water tanks underneath the model!)

Ships "docked" in the harbour obviously had to move up & down with the tide!

 

Buildings and scenery were sublime, railway operations were sparse,

but that did not matter.....

A swing-bridge in the foreground opened + closed, slowly....

...but a man in an adjoining hut was to be seen operating the crank mechanism!!!

 

I kid you not!

Wish I had some pics of this wonderful layout, which did the circuit back in the 80's / early 90's..

If you do find an article - please let me know...

 

Cheers

Marc

Hi Marc,

Exebridge Quay appeared a few times in Model Railway Journal: In the first Compendium (brief photo survey), in issue No,14 (building construction) and in the third Compendium (sailing barge construction)

I'm sure theres been a major photographic article somewhere, but I can't remember where.

Not sure if this helps!

Dave.T