Nile

As mine seems to have gotten lost in the epost, thanks for that. update: it turned up today, but still dated Friday. Must have gone the long way around the internet.

Hello Dan, that was eight years ago , I'm doing well if I can remember what I did last week . However looking at another example of the same type of wagon it looks like the key to getting it apart are the clips on the underside between the wheels. Release those and the body should be freed and separate into its constituent parts. A small flat bladed screw driver should do it.

I would like to assure all those that would like to complain about ads. and vids. that I am seeing the same slowness here at work, where the company firewall blocks all ads. (and some sites).

Over on the chassis I've added the pipes from the sand boxes. This created a problem with the brake gear, limiting its movement and thus negating my previous work. I did two things to fix this - bend one pair of pipes slightly to increase clearance, and remove the outer spacer tubes from the middle set of brake shoes. This gives just enough room for the brake shoes to clear the wheels when pushed fully forward. And then for the hell of it I added the steam pipes to the rear pair of pipes, using some .3mm NS wire. Only having two hands I used a blob of white-tack to hold them in place while soldering. Just about visible. Needs tidying up. I wont bother with the other ones as they would trap the brake gear and be mostly hidden by it anyway.

It's been up and down for nearly a week for me, both at home and work. I reckon all the hot air from the Hornby section has finally gotten to the servers.

Mainly Trains did lots of gear, have a look here .

Back to the body now to add some extra detail - brackets for the fire irons on the tank top. A bit of guesswork here as clear views of the tank top are rare. When I finally looked in my big book of Midland locomotives vol.3 I noticed that the reversing lever linkage sits outside the frame, rather than inside where I'd put it. Since this can be seen I set about fixing it. Easiest way was to cut away the original and fit a new one, the remains of the old one won't be visible. Just as well there are a few spare cranks on the etch.

These locos have NEM355 coupler sockets, so you can plug in standard 009 couplings (with loops) available from both Bachmann and Peco. If you have any recent 009 stock you could just borrow the couplings from them.

Next the brake gear, and more complication. To make the brake gear removable I've used the method others have employed of attaching short lengths of tube to the chassis. The tops of the brake hangers can then locate into these. Then I decided I wanted to be able to remove or refit the wheels without removing the brake shoes, by allowing them to move out of the way. This involved using rods and tubes rather than just rods for the assembly. The pull rods are connected by tubes. The shoe hangers are linked by rods that pass through the tubes and are free to rotate. There are tube spacers between the hangers and pull rods. Putting it all together here are the brakes in there normal position: And here they are clear of the wheels:

This project has gone a lot further down the road (EP samples) than the E1 ever did (not even CAD) before it was dropped by MR. Extended production lead times seem to be the norm these days, so we just have to wait.

All the right parts, but not necessarily in the right places.

Could it be an assembly error? If so could it have been avoided by design? Anyway it wouldn't be an Oxford wagon without at least one booboo. It helps divide the modellers from the collectors.

Thanks for the praise, still plenty of opportunities to mess things up though. Offering up the chassis to the body revealed a problem with clearances for the rear drivers in the cab front cut-outs. Might be ok with Gibsons but these Romfords were touching the body. A bit of filing solved the problem, a bit awkward as it's inside the body, which is why it looks a bit messy. I also filed away the lip where the cab front meets the cab floor, to make more room for the gearbox. [looking down into the body at the front of the cab] - Onto the boiler, this is the original saturated one. I wanted to be able to see the bottom of the boiler through the tank cut-out, so I made that up out of the part that is intended for the superheated boiler. The cut away section at the rear is for the motor. Note the rods at the rear of the boiler that locate into the cab front. When fitted (temporarily) to the body the boiler underside is just about visible through the cut-out. The downside is this is going to make painting more complicated.

Maths! R2 = 263.5mm Length of sleeper = 17mm therefore overall diameter of a circle of R2 track = (263.5 x 2) + 17 = 544mm add in one ST-1 = 544 + 87 = 631mm X add in six ST-1 = 544 + (87 x 6) = 1066mm Y based on the radius being measured from the middle of the track.

I think you could emulate the curviness along the long sides by using flexitrack there, but keep the setrack curves at the ends for convenience.

Have you seen the new 009 layout project they are doing in Hornby Magazine? It started in the January issue. Similar to what you are planning, but 2ft longer.

The Comet (now Wizard) ones are 10.5mm. Mainly Trains ones (now also Wizard) are 11.5mm. 9.5 would be very limiting for gearbox choice.

In the last photo the motor mount is a temporary arrangement, to work out its final position I would need to build the body, so here goes... Dave has already covered the build in detail in his own topic, so I'll just show some of what I've done. How to solder things together at right angles accurately? I came up with this, finding another use for a magnet, which leaves both hands free. Some time later most of the body was together. As it's visible I made up the reversing lever linkage from various parts on the etch.

0.4mm

Depends how thick the frames are. The important dimension is the overall width, which on the one I'm currently building is 12.75mm.

In the Feb. RM there is a news item about a new manufacturing facility at Beer that opened on 1 December 21. It's mainly being used for pointwork assembly, so good news for those waiting for these items.

To power it I've used the suggested High Level gearbox combined with a cheapo Mitsumi motor off ebay. To test this setup before fitting pickups, which will be much later, I've used the truck that comes with the Hornby 48DS as it is fitted with pickups. This strange combination did actually run.

There is a spacer under the pivot, but there is enough room for the beam to move. It has about +/- 1mm movement at its ends.

The etch includes both rigid and jointed rods. If you scroll back a bit you'll see which ones I've used.

I've got an old Wills model, built by someone else, that I was going to try and back date. I wont bother now, but I'll be reusing the Romford wheels from it. The good thing with these modern kits produced with CAD is they go together nice and square, once you've worked out which spacer goes where. The coupling rods confirm all is good. Axle holes were then enlarged for bearing fitting. With the old wheels fitted to new axles the result was a free running chassis, hurrah. Initial indications are it will manage a 2ft radius curve, the limiting factor is bogie movement.