jim.snowdon

Isn't it just! The 3-way points are in fact a back to back set of 3-way stub points, making, in effect, a triple-slip - three routes in and three routes out, and all combinations in between. It's the first example of that arrangement I have ever come across.

Jim

Neat, but it does look awfully like the chain is going to rub on the side of the gearbox, which may not be a good thing.

Jim

Well Jim, purchase of a JLTRT kit is not compulsory!

 

One of the benefits of our forum is that it can feature the equivalent of a product review (a sort of trip-adviser for kits?). So, having discovered that the buffer rams are cast in brass you can make an informed choice. Good isn't it?

 

Chaz

Quite. I was thinking of buying one of his Southern Railway vans, partly because the brake and planking options that weren't covered by either Parkside or the now defunct Freightman kits. I probably still will, as JLTRT will be at the Bristol Show, and at least now I have a better idea of what I am in for. So, yes, the forum does have its benefits

Jim

So PW has resorted to casting the buffer heads in brass instead of having them machined from steel like everyone else (excepting the few kit makers who still think cast whitemetal is acceptable) - Or is this just another example of a kit maker doing everything to avoid having to buy something in? At least now I know what to expect if I buy one of his expensive kits, if only for the experience.

Jim

Thanks for the tip on the jig. It's just a pity JLTRT couldn't do what almost everyone else does and put a 12BA thread on the tail of the buffer stem when it was machined.

Jim

Are we talking 7mm or 4mm scale, as I didn't think Slaters ever did any carriage kits in 4mm.

Jim

I was always told that loctite had great tensile strength (i.e. - hard to pull apart), which is why the old commercials could show a guy hanging by his hard-hat.  But, they're not great in shear strength (i.e. - sliding apart)

 

That's why you really need pins as well as loctite.

 

(says the guy who once built a cranshaft by pinning together and then sliver soldering...)

 

BTW - that commercial might have been US only.  Here's the ad...  

As far as I am aware, Loctite was originally developed as a thread retainer, in which application it is there to resist shear forces, which it does rather well. The issue with these adhesives, to my knowledge, is a lack of peel strength, which is quite different from shear or tensile strength.

As far as the crankshafts are concerned, if the Loctite is doing its job, the share of the torsional load borne by the pin is negligible; if the pin was taking the majority of the load, the Loctite bond would have had to have failed.

Jim

It would be nice if Pete got round to making the Chowbent kits that he acquired available again, rather than swallowed up in a black hole, rather like abs in Poole.

Jim

It's not the metal casting manufacturers who need to invest, but our pattermakers. Although metal components can be made by 3D printing, they aren't usually as small as those we use, and it is hardly a mass production technique. Where its value lies, at least for our hobby, is in making plastic masters from which moulds can be made for resin or metal castings, either whitemetal or brass.

Jim

I assume it would be lifted from the wagon with slings and a crane (or a fork-lift), hence the timber baulks under the crate. The rope ring rings are there to secure the crate in position.

Correct in one, and I would assume that the baulks under the crate are actually part of the crate.

I raised it only because a surprising number of modellers (obviously not yourself) don't seem to have the first clue about how loads are secured on wagons.

Regards,

Jim

Are those rings for tying the load down to the wagon, or for lifting it up? If the latter, i would be surprised, as I would expect the weight to be taken at the bottom of the crate, ie underneath the load. Packaging for shipping isn't usually made to be structural, other than underneath the contents; the sides and top are there to keep people out, and a tarpaulin would be used to keep the weather out, if necessary.

Jim

Who said the camera never lies. I'd rather it was an illusion than an oops moment.

Jim

Don't panic, but is the far end of the exposed axle longer than the near end? It might just be an optical illusion, but I can imagine the dark mutterings if you soldered it up and it was off centre.

Jim

And the balance weights; and the excess length on the crankpins amd it doesn't pay to look too closely at the cab interior (and I don't mean the missing backhead). The vacuum brake hose on the front end doesn't look so wonderful either - it looks just like a piece of wire with more wire wrapped round it. I would be surprised if there is not a suitable brass casting that could have been adapted to fit the location.

The rest of it (the other 95%) is pretty good though.

Jim

Sandy,

Thank you. It's what I suspected, given that you have only one front handrail knob. I never like this aspect of loco building, unless it is one of those sensible prototypes where the front section of rail is separated, as in MR/LMS practice. 

Regards,

Jim

Sandy,

Now that you have soldered in all of the handrail knobs, how do you fit the hanrdail where it passes across the front f the smokebox?

Second, and I won't claim to be an expert on these locos, but it appears that you have the handrail going straight over the top of the firebox washout plugs. I appreciate that it was not at all unknown for the draughtsmen in the Drawing Office to forget the practicalities of some fairly routine jobs, but I can imagine that having the plug directly under the handrail would have gone down a bomb with the shed staff from the extent to which it would get in the way of removing and reinstalling them on boiler washout days.Regards,

Jim

A loco I know well, having had to reduce the width of the chassis one stretcher at a time in order to give it enough sideplay (in fact to give it any sideplay at all) to go round curves. Like our mutual friend, I shall be waiting with anticipation to see how impressive it looks once in its proper colours.

Jim

The conductor rails are coming along nicely - a little more work to do on the positive side ramps, but that looks to be in hand.

Well done.

Jim

Sandy,

At three feet, and once painted, I take your point. The camera, used close up, can be a cruel critic. As you might have guessed, my approach to modelling follows the three-foot principle, and whilst I can appreciate the skill involved in three-inch modelling, as it were, I don't have the time or patience to get into detailing at a level that is, essentially, wasted on the viewer.

I agree over the buffers - the comment was a bit of a dig at the shiny buffers that I see endlessly adorning expensive collector  and commission-built models, more particularly in the post WW1 era, when the employment of engine cleaners started to become an expensive luxury.

I shall look forward to seeing it wearing its proper colours,

Jim

Sandy,

That's come along nicely, and I notice the upgraded brake pull rods. Photographing in bare,metal can be a bit unforgiving, and rather shows up the fact that the brake shoes are held on by virtual pins. Admittedly, once blackened and weathered a bit, the hole where the pin should be will not be as noticeable. I presume the buffer heads are still somewhere in the works being blackened.

Regards,

Jim

M&M do what appears to be a quite respectable set of these cast bogies for their Bogie Bolster E kit.

Jim

Tony,

If you asked really nicely, it ought to be possible to obtain a pair of the brass slidebar and crosshead castings, along with the rear cylinder covers, from the Snowhill WD.

Jim

Much, much better, and I will assume the unfinished bit to be the detailing on the positive rail.

Happy to have helped,

Jim

Sandy,

The usual method for dealing with outside brake rods and cranks was to joggle them downwards, rather than outwards, as this maintains much more of the strength. A check on the few photographs available of the Lochgorm tanks confirms that the rods were indeed joggled downwards. A tolerable enough job in the loco works, where the bending could be done by the smiths with the metal red-hot, but a bit of a pain for us modellers, unless the rods are either etched or cut to shape the hard way.

Interestingly, one of those photographs shows Lochgorm itself in 1922 with solid wheels on only the centre set - the other two have normal spoked wheels, albeit with total or partial infill in the spaces opposite the crank. It also shows a dome/safety valve cover that is so off-plumb that no modeller would believe it.

Back on the brakes, are you going to fit something to represent the pins that hold the shoes to the hangers? (The hole is a litlle obvious.)

Regards,

Jim

It is Jim, but also quite satisfying although, judging by the present kit I am building, I'm not so sure that I shouldn't be doing another refurb!!!! This kit is awful. I have had to modify just about every part I have fitted so far. I'll post something on it in the near future.

Regards

Sandy

More of an incentive to scratch-building then than an aid?

I'll be patient and wait for your posting to see what this horror was.

Regards,

Jim