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PhilH

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Blog Entries posted by PhilH

  1. PhilH

    More progress

    By PhilH,

    A quick update on this project, which has not been one of my happiest. It has fought me all the way, the latest being that the Mashima motor seems to have died. I'm going to do what I usually do, which is exactly what I promised not to do, that is to leave it for a bit and do something else. I have to do this before the hammer comes out. It's a shame because I can see the potential in it. As the photo shows the rods are finished, the slide bars / motion plate assembly is straightened out and the broken bits resoldered.The rolling chassis runs quite sweetly with no tight spots, and the pickups and wiring have been fitted. Once the motor has been sorted/ replaced I will probably strip down the body to bare metal. Quite a few bits have to be fitted, and some missing bits fabricated.I have already removed the buffers as the previous owner replaced the supplied cast buffers with spring ones, however the backs of these foul the steps which need to be removed and some metal removed from the back of the castings as they are not flush with the running plate at the moment. I will get there in the end, but I think it would have been easier to build the kit from new.
     
     

  2. PhilH
    I manage to straighten out the slide bar / motion plate etch and the whitemetal piston rods, I drilled the holes in the crossheads for the 12BA bolts and was hoping to get the chassis / wheels/ motion assembled. On close inspection of the chassis though it was obvious that the paintwork was flaking away, it has been applied without any sort of primer, so I decided to disassemble the chassis and strip the paint. I'm glad I did as it became also obvious that the paint was literally holding some of the bits together, not least the wheel bearings which fell out in the Nitromoors! I shudder to think what I'll find if I give the body the same treatment, but I think that that is the route I shall be following. So basically I think that far from having a part built kit that I can spend a few hours on to have a running loco I shall be starting it almost from scratch. Never mind you live and learn. One thing I will say - I was staggered to find that this kit costs ??200, to be fair that's complete with everything (I think), it still seems an awful lot of money for what's in the box.
     
    I'm enjoying writing this blog, it certainly seems to be having the desired effect of keeping me interested in finishing something.Also despite me saying that it was basically just for me, I am grateful to those who do bother to look and especially to those who have left comments.
  3. PhilH
    I finally completed the coupling and connecting rods for the 7mm Barclay tank which I am attempting to complete. The history of this loco was that it was purchased on this forum as part of a job lot which comprised of the Barclay, some Peco track, a Marcway point, two Slaters wagons and a Connoisseur NE 4 wheel brake (all 7mm). The kits have all been started, but I think that the person in question (no longer on this forum I believe) perhaps decided that it was all a bit much for him and gave up on the project.
     
    Anyway I decided that as there was not a complete set of rod etches included that I would make some myself. I will have to do some for a part built Q1 which another member of the forum has kindly given me, so I thought that being used to making these things for 5" locos I'd give it a go. Oh boy. It's been a trying exercise to say the least, in particular as the machinery I have is geared up for much bigger things.A good example are the brass bearings which are 2.5mm dia over the body - trying to make these in my Colchester produced a lot of swarf and bad language as they pinged all over the workshop. Similarly trying to drill 0.7mm holes for the cotter pin representations nearly led me to abandon the whole project, drills breaking left right and centre in my large drilling machine and remaining stuck in the work - hence one of the rods has no cotter pin stubs.The wheels run freely without binding when the rods are fitted so at least I got the hole spacing right. They didn't turn out as well as I hoped they would, but never mind.
     
    The next job will be to try and sort out the slide bar / motion plate etches and the whitemetal crosshead / piston rod, which are both twisted and distorted, this will give me a complete running chassis to which I will then fit the motor and hope for the best. I'm undecided whether to leave the chassis as built, which is rigid, or give it a bit of vertical movement by elongating the bearings slightly and springing it by having some wire bearing on the axle.
     
    Hopefully a couple of photos
     

     

  4. PhilH
    Not a lot done this week as my first grandchild, Joshua Harding, made his way into this uncertain world. He's a little belter, much Thomas stuff will be bought soon. Now the excitement has died down, the connecting rods will be milled, the coupling rods are done. I will be posting pictures (when able) of the scale of the problem and the completed rods. The scale of the problem has grown after Winchester Railway Modellers' clear out, I have acquired the basis of my proposed O gauge plank, this being some track, 4 Peco points, a transformer, controller and some structures. The layout will be designed round these, so should be a fairly painfree process.
  5. PhilH

    The scale of the problem

    By PhilH,

    A blog by Phil Harding aged 60 1/6.
     
    As the title of this blog suggests I have over the years started lots of different projects and finished none. I hope by committing to a blog to change that - even if nobody bothers to look at it I hope that by giving myself the task of making regular posts I can actually achieve something to post with. The first entries over the next few days will simply be pictures of the various projects I have on the go. Subsequent posts would hopefully involve me actually doing something and posting the results. They won't be earth shattering in modelling terms, I am, certainly in the smaller scales, the original sausage fingered numpty. However, as I intimated before, this blog will act as much as a conscience stirrer for me as it will anything else, so hopefully it will be of some benefit.
     
    We shall see.
  6. PhilH

    First setback

    By PhilH,

    Well, I've spent a few hours trying to mill up some connecting and coupling rods for the O gauge Barclay, which I'm determined is going to be the first finished article from the newly focussed Hedge End works. But it was basically a cock up - I thought that I would make them somewhat finer than the etched ones supplied with the kit (but which were mostly missing from my acquired part built example) , but impatience coupled with problems setting up on machinery more geared to bigger things led me to reject the first efforts. I'm now undecided as to whether to have another go, or see if DJH can supply an etch of the parts in question. I am disappointed with my lack of care and resolve on this most minor of issues, I used to have the patience of Job when model engineering but it seems to have diminished of late. If I am to complete the numerous projects I have on the go (I will get some pics of those up here) I'm going to have to rediscover this virtue.
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