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GWMark

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  1. GWMark
    As I said in my previous post I am now less than a week away from my next Missenden weekend, this time I am down to do painting and lining with Ian Rathbone, so my plan is to try to get as many of my current projects ready to be painted, at least in some state. So I have spent much of the weekend, and last week, doing those last little jobs, you know, all those things you have been putting off because they are fiddly. In my mind at east none of them would take long, but of course I was deluding myself. I have to thank my wife for putting up with me taking over a corner of the kitchen and spending so much time on modelling, especially given it was the weekend of our wedding anniversary.
     
    The Black Hawthorn needed one little job, as it now ready for cleaning and primer, the Neilson needed more work, especially in the cab area, but that is now done, although I did note after taking the picture that I have still to add the makers plates. The under frame still needs work, it only has half of its brake gear for instance!
     

     
    The Duke I know needed more work, in particular I had been putting off the handrail due to lack of holes for the handrail knobs, but that is now done. The only thing left is the top feed - although to be honest it has been on once, but I detached it (broke it off) when adding the pipe run.
     

     
    After taking the picture I noticed it was not on the rails correctly, why is it you only see this when you upload the picture! I hope to add th topped, again, on Monday and do the pipe runs from it. I need to think of the best way to do the pipes, my issue was using stiff brass wire that as I bent it around the boiler put to much pressure on the topped and pinging it off. Maybe this time I will use fuse wire. the handrails turned out to be easier than I had thought, thanks to a tip I picked up from Tony Wright about how to mark out the positions.
     
    My next project was my NuCast Steam Railmotor, the main job to doing being the steps. After my last post it was suggested I look at the Dart Casting Autocoach detailing kit to get a set of the folding steps. So pending a decision on that I put off the NuCast for now in favour of a different Railmotor.
     
    Many years ago I picked up a Mallard 57ft Railmotor for £10 at an exhibition. It was part built but missing its bogies and all the white metal fittings. My thought was I could make use of some of the bits on the NuCast version, in particular the bits of valve gear it had. However that never happened and it has sat in a cupboard for nearly 10 years. Over time I have collected all, or most of the bits to complete this, but not actually started. I decided it would not take much to get the body ready for paint, with the thought I could paint it in GWR Lake and use it for lining practice, even if I would need to strip it later so that I could complete it. When I got it out of it's box it looked like this...
     

     
    First order was to clean of some of the tarnish and then make a start cleaning it up, removing excess solder, before adding body detail, after making sure I have added the captive nuts that would allow me to fix the under frame on after it was painted, and once I had made it! These things have a lot of handrails, so a lot of .45mm brass wire has been cut, bent and soldered on. A few of them still need a little bit of tweaking, but now they are all in place. As are the lamp irons, steps on the front and those that hang off the buffer beam. Also some buffers are now in place. Once thing I did discover was that the original builder had soldered the body together but glued the overlays for the droplights - the glue was not very good and did not stand being drilled into, these are fiddly to put back when the body is soldered together and the internal partitions are in place. Then I was struck with the idea of tinning the body side and using a rubber block to manoeuvre the droplight in place whilst looking from the outside. I could then apply the RSU to the outside of the body, having attached a clip on the body itself and generate enough heat to have the droplight tack solder themselves to the body. Then I simply applied the RSU on the droplight itself to get a permanent bond. This solved the problem of lining the droplight up and getting them soldered in such a cramped spot. By the end of the night it looked more like this
     

     
    As a footnote, whilst researching handrail positions for this railmotor I looked at lots of pictures and noticed the different door arrangement, some with single doors and some with double doors. So I need to look at a DK1 kit from Dart Castings to see if it is for the same door arrangement as my NuCast has, otherwise I might be back to square one on this one.
     

     
    I still may look at taking this, since my plan is to paint it in chocolate and cream, much of that work can be done without the steps in place, so maybe it will get some paint after all.
     
    In the few days left I want to at last apply primer to a few models, so I can practice top coating them, and hopefully have at least one I can use to do some lining. If that is to happen I really only have one more day to attach any more bits to these models. I also have a couple of ready to run body shells to play around with and a scratch build loco I picked up secondhand for £10 - that spent a few hours in paint stripper, so will hopefully make a good thing to experiment with. Maybe one day I fix it up and have it running again.
     
    What all this does prove, to me a least, having a deadline really does focus the mind to get things done. But even then I put things aside as "too difficult", like the second go at the top feed and those pipes!
  2. GWMark
    I'm not normally a builder of coaches, although there is no real reason for this, just that I got hooked on building locos and the occasional wagon. As part of my desire to finish some of those long started and put aside projects I pulled this Blacksmiths coach kit out of the cupboard. I was given this for Christmas many years ago and got as far as doing a fold and soldering the two ends before realising I had messed up by not putting the tumblehome in the ends. Annoyed with myself at making a mistake so early on it was put in a cupboard to be left for almost 10 years.
     
    So fast forward to 2017 and out it came, the ends were corrected and then the tumblehome added to the sides. The basic box was built, followed by the sole bars, buffer beams and retaining plates for the rocking W-irons. Steps have been added to one end. Last night I built the basic rocking W-irons, added the bearings and popped the wheels in. Now it looks like a coach and rolls up and down the track.
     

     
    Next stage is the under frame details, brake gear etc. plus the end details on the other end, but the instructions are unclear as to what is on the end without steps. It looks like there is some kind of pipe or bar across with the attachment points. However I have no idea if there are corresponding etches for any of this - the instructions simply do not say.
     
    Likewise the under frame detail is a little patchy in the instructions. The end wheels sets are covered in the diagrams and have enough detail to be able to work out how to build the brake gear. However the centre wheels are not shown, nor any of the casting locations. In fact the instructions are a fairly poor, difficult to read photocopy. Some the instructions have been cut off by the photocopier, ending in mid-sentence. There is a great part in the instructions that say "Attached as per diagram but" - it's anyones guess what the "but" might be! So some of this is going to have to be by guesswork or from interpretation of the pictures.
     
    If anybody has one of these kits with a better copy of the instructions or a complete model, I would really appreciate hearing from you.
     
    I would really like to get this to a stage that it can be painted soon since I am enrolled on the "Painting & Lining" course with Ian Rathbone at Missenden Abbey over the first weekend of March. If only I had planned better I would have more models ready for painting and not trying to do all those finishing touches to so many models in the next two weeks.
     
    EDIT: Since posting this I have now come across one photo of Diagram R2 in as built condition, http://penrhos.me.uk/Rdiags.shtml. This seems to show very little below the sole bar, certainly no brake cylinder or brakes of any sort. And not the very long take that comes as a white metal component in the kit. I must say I am struggling to find where to fit the tank that is supplied, it appears to be too long to fit between the articulated W-irons.
  3. GWMark

    Preparing for Missenden

    By GWMark,

    It's less than two weeks to go before the Missenden Abbey Spring Railway Modellers weekend. This year, in a break from tradition I am booked on the painting and lining course with Ian Rathbone. My chance to learn to finish my models from probably the best around. Although rather daunting I am looking forward to hopefully gaining some new skills. To this end I thought I should try to finish a few items to the state that I can try to paint them at Missenden, time allowing.
     
    My Black Hawthorn was already finished, or so I thought until I decided to clean it up ready for primer. It was then I notice I had failed to add the two T handle from the valves on the dome. So I drilled through the cab front and added these out of some bits of 0.45 brass wire.
     
    Next on my list was the Neilson, that I knew needed some more work to complete the cab detail, break gear and under frame. So I spent the last evening or so working on the cab detailing, I decided the under frame could wait, it was the body the I was more interested in painting. I believe that I now have the Neilson complete above the footplate. It needs the brake gear to the rear to be added, the clack valves below the footplate and some taps on the cylinder fronts.
     

     
    Next on my list of items to add those finishing touches to are my NuCast steam rail motor and the Duke.
     
    The steam rail motor needs some steps made up to replace the broken, and frankly not very convincing white metal ones. The real thing had complex folding steps on the passenger doorways to allow passengers on and off at locations without platforms. The white metal versions in the kit, which have since broken, where very simple and not a good representation of the original. There were also steps on the buffer beams to allow the crew to change the lamps etc. The kit makes no provision for these, but I am hoping I can adapt some etches intended for guards vans to represent these. The roof needs fair bit of cleaning up, but this could be done later, since the main body could be painted without the roof.
     
    The Duke needs a top feed, clack boxes, smokebox dart, lamp irons, cab interior fittings, whistles and handrails. The later being a bit of a pain since there are no handrail knobs positions marked on the kit. I also need to replace the middle step tread on the rear tender steps, sadly I was attaching it with the RSU and sneezed, the result was that the delicate half etched tread pretty much vaporised. Something I will have to learn to avoid in the future.
     
    Hopefully I will have time to get all these things sorted before Missenden. Then I need to think about priming all or some of them so that I can apply top coat at Missenden. Perhaps I should have started my preparations somewhat earlier!
  4. GWMark
    Following on from my previous post regarding the day Daniel and I spent in Princes Risborough working on valve gear, tonight I cleaned and degreased my eccentric cranks before having another go at attaching them to the ends of the crankpins. This time I used cyno rather than loctite and I appear to have had more success. So now I have all the valve gear attached and the rail motor runs with the rods all moving as they should, maybe not exactly as the prototype, but the best that can be arranged with this rather old white metal kit.
     

     
    I think it would benefit from a bit of test track that is more than twice it's one length - it hardly starts before it has to stop again!
     
    Most of it is original NuCast with the exception of the eccentric rods and cranks which have come from a Mallard Steam Railmotor kit. I picked up a part finished one with partial valve gear that I stole those items from before getting another complete etch of the valve gear that I will use to finish the Mallard kit. The NuCast eccentrics were too long and caused the valve gear to seize at the end of the stroke. This set works somewhat better, although there s still room for improvement.
     
    As said before I am really pleased to see this finally moving, it was the first kit I ever tried to make and gave up on it as too hard a job. It has been on top of a kitchen cupboard for more than decade now, seeing the light of day once before when I tried and failed to put the valve gear together. In the time it has been up there it has suffered a bit, the sides have bowed, a buffer got broken, steps bent and broken and the brass strip trussing broke off the white metal body sides. Once I had the valve gear working I started on some body repairs, replacing the broken buffer with one I picked up from CooperCraft at ScaleForum. I've also straightened the sides somewhat. The roof is currently in a bath of model strip, I need to clean up the joint between the two panel and repaint it. Hopefully this time making a better job of both the joint and the paint finish - I think my standards of what is acceptable have gone up since I did this the first time.
     
    The bogie guards need to be replaced and the white metal steps repaired or replaced with some more convincing ones, possibly made from some scrap etch. There are also no steps on the two ends, I might try to build some of those using the etching in the part built Mallard kit as a guide. The original kit just simply ignored the rather fine steps on the ends.
     
    One thing that made the valve gear a whole lot easier was using brass lace pins and soldering it together rather than the rather bulky rivets the kit came with. This was a tip picked up from Tony Wright at a Missenden weekend many years ago and put into practice first with the Mallard etch and now with the NuCast etch, albeit with a couple of bits from the Mallard etch.
     
    The running is not perfect, partly because the motor is not well retained so I suspect it suffers from not having a very good mesh on the worm, there is no etched gearbox, just a worm and gear on the rear drivers. The motor is only retained by some wire wrapped around it, I am going to have to come up with a better way of attaching it.
     
    At least for now I feel I have overcome the hurdle that had stopped the progress on this one. It does feel good not to give up completely, although I know it will never be a finescale delight, at least it stands a chance of running. And might soon join the long line of models Daniel and I have built that need painting - there is no getting away from it, I shall have to break out the airbrush soon - maybe as a New Year's resolution to not only finish building things, but actually paint them as well. Mind you, after painting comes lining, I suspect I'll need to work up to that one!
  5. GWMark

    Daniel's Various Project

    By GWMark,

    I realised after Captain Kernow's comment on my last post that I had not been true to my word and posted some of my son's projects. So this post is really to redress that. I apologies for the heavy photo content. These are things Daniel has put together either at the Missenden weekends or when he was at home from University during the summer.
     
    The first item has been here before, at least in incomplete form, it's the High Level Hawthorn Leslie that he has been building. All finally ready for painting.
     

     
    The roof is not attached yet, since access to the cab is needed for painting and installing the backhead - which is not in place in this photo but all done ready to go.
     
    The next item is a white metal kit he picked up a long time ago, the floors are plastic and I noticed after I took the picture the floor of the crane has come loose, so will need to be secured again.
     

     
    It's an ABS models kit, soldered together, expect of course for the plastic floors. Like me Daniel has an aversion to glue!
     

     
    This next item is somewhat braver, a Falcon Brass 6 wheel tool van. I've heard these kits described as unbuildable by others, but I think he can be justifiably proud of the end result. Again the roof is not attached it will be once the model is painted and glazed. He really enjoyed putting all that strapping on, the RSU got a lot of use. I think this makes a nice and somewhat different addition to any yard scene or P-way train. I think his idea is to add it to the crane and a couple of other vehicles he has planned to make a works train.
     
    This next item is a resin bodied kit from Dean Sidings, a Taff Vale C Class. The kit is designed to be fitted to a Hornby 14xx chassis, cut up a bit to fit. However the chassis Daniel had was of a different vintage and would have needed to be cut through the motor to fit. So that wasn't happening. Rather than buy another Hornby chassis he decided instead to make an etched chassis by taking a comment 14xx chassis, cutting of the leading wheel and building a trailing bogie out of bits of scrap Nickel Silver. This way he got to keep the ashcan at the right end and come up with a chassis that runs really well.
     

     
    And finally, this is Daniel current project. It was started at the Missenden weekend back in October. He also spent a day at the club modelling Saturday building the working inside motion that can be seen resting on the ballast in front of the chassis. It is a Martin Finney kit, now available from Brassmasters, for a GWR Hall.
     

     
    The working motion is a rather wonderful thing, and I have to admit I like it a lot and am thinking of doing the same for the new Saint chassis I am building. There is something rather pleasing about building all these little bits up and seeing them move. Of course he has not yet got to the stage of trying to sandwich it all in between the frames yet.
     
    Daniel tells me the wheels are temporary, sine they are slightly the wrong size. He has a set of Gibson wheels he will fit once he is happy with everything and painted the chassis. Neither of us like taking Gibson wheels on and off more than we have to. The blutak is also a temporary feature to keep the motor/gearbox aligned until the rest of the chassis is complete.
     
    There is a common theme with Daniel's projects, none of them are painted. He does have a plan for this, sadly it involves me doing it! To this end I have enrolled on the Painting and Lining course at the Spring Missenden Abbey Railway Modellers weekend. I'm not sure if I will get to paint many of them there, but Daniel tells me he is generously giving me items to perfect my skills on - no pressure there then!
  6. GWMark

    A day of mixed motions

    By GWMark,

    Today Daniel and I spent the day in Princes Risborough community centre at the club's modelling Saturday. We both choose to spent the day working of value gear, in my case the valve gear of my NuCast GWR Steam Railmotor and Daniel on the inside motion for his Finney Hall.
     
    In my case it was adding the cylinder covers, soldering the slide bars and adding the eccentrics. It all went really well, with the exception of the eccentrics that just would not stay attached to the crankpin end. I must have applied about 5 lots of loctite, but it just fell of at the slightest touch. I shall have to look into that some more. Despite this setback I'm really pleased to have seen the rail motor move, with all the motion down the right thing and the motor actually managing to move the large white metal lump. I'll do another post on this with some pictures/video when I get the eccentrics to stay attached.
     
    Daniel completed the second set of his Hall inside eccentrics - lots of eccentricity going on! Towards the end of the after it put it all together for a test run. It was good to see this, his first attempt at working inside valve gear start to move. The video below is a short clip I took of his test run using my phone, so please excuse the quality.
     

     
    The blutak is only there to hold things temporarily, it will all get taken off and painted before being finally fixed with loctite once the set of Alan Gibson wheels he has are added.
  7. GWMark

    Neilson 12" Mineral

    By GWMark,

    Not to forget my other project, and true to the promise I made myself about not starting new projects until I finished some of the ongoing ones, I have fitted the crossheads and connecting rods to my High Level 12" Neilson that I have been building at Missenden Abbey.
     
    It's not running perfectly yet, but I did some fetling this evening and have improved it somewhat.
     

     
    Still some way to go before I am happy and will attach the rest of the bits - I have assemblies for the brake gear and the 'Hubba Bubba" pipe and cab fitting ready to go in, but I would rather get the running sorted first. Some of the bits are a little delicate and the brake gear might just add confusion to the running issues.
     
    This is probably not far, in terms of what is needed, from completion, but the fiddling at this stage always seems to take longer than expected. I will probably share my time between this, the Nucast steam rail motor and another project to replace the chassis in an old Finecast Saint I built many years ago that has never run very well - but more of that story in a future post.
  8. GWMark

    An old project resurrected

    By GWMark,

    The very first locomotive kit, if you can call it a locomotive, was a NuCast Steam Railmotor. In retrospect this was a poor choice for a first kit and could easily have put me off kit building for life, but I have liked the look of the rail motors since I first heard about them and the guy on the exhibition stall where I purchased it said it was not that heard to make. Oh well, you live and learn.
     
    Anyway, I started on this kit back in 2004 (as far as I remember), managed to solder the body together but got totally flawed when it came to the valve gear. SO it went back in it's box for about 4 years. I then tried again, using a Blacksmiths etch of valve gear, but again failed to make the thing go together. So back in the box again. A couple of weeks ago I thought to myself I would give it another go, so out it came again.
     
    The body was looking a bit sorry for itself, it had been stored on its side in the box on top of a kitchen cupboard. Perhaps it got a little warm, or perhaps it was just sheer weight, but the sides had sagged badly and at some point the buffers had taken a knock, near mind those are both easily solved problems. So I thought I would start with that troublesome valve gear.
     
    I decided to try the original Nucast etch again, it was somewhat more substantial than the Blacksmiths one, but had mostly the same dimensions. It would also mean I could save the Blacksmiths etch for an etched version of the 56ft rail motor I picked up on an exhibition stand. This was missing the bogies, casting and a crosshead, maybe I could make a second rail motor out of this, but that will hopefully be another entry in the future.
     
    This time I managed to get the Nucast etch to go together fairly well, a little fiddly, but it did all fit, or at least I thought it did. Then I found the wheels I had, 16mm Romfords as recommended in the instructions, had too much throw and caused the piston rod to need to be cut so short to avoid going out the front of the cylinder that it would fall out of the rear of the cylinder at the opposite end of the stroke. So off came the Romfords and on with a set of Gibson wheels instead. That solved the problem.
     

     
    The picture above shows the assembled vale gear, except the eccentric has been removed since it turns out the eccentric is too long and would cause the gear to jam at each end o the stroke. Looking at the Blacksmiths etch the eccentric on that set is smaller. So now I have the choice of making the Nucast rod shorter or stealing the rod from the Blacksmiths etch. I think I will at least try the former so that I can keep the Blacksmiths set complete.
     
    The other things that still needs resolving are the cylinders, which do not line up and slope downwards to the rear rather than being level with the wheel centres. Also I need to do something about attaching the eccentric to the crank pin, since to ream these out enough to fit over the Gibson crank pins would mean there would not be enough material left on the little cranks. I also need to look at a better way of attaching the motor to the motor/bogie mount as well, currently it is simply held in place with some wire wrapped around the mount. I had thought to replace the worm and final drive gear with a proper gearbox, but it seems to run well enough and that would mean changing the way the bogie is mounted to the body.
     
    I have to admit that it is really nice to see this motor bogie trundle down the test track with the valve gear moving as it should. Hopefully it will not be long before I have a completed rail motor.
     
    Another slight confession, as I finish this I do now remember that I did start to make a K's kit when I was a teenager, back in the dim and very distant past. However that was never finished, it did convince me of my hatred for epoxy as a method of construction however. That effort is now lost forever thanks to a house fire in the late 70's. So when I say this was my first kit, it was my first kit following my reintroduction to the hobby.
     
    The thing that is encouraging about all this however is that I think it must mean I have got just a little bit better at building loco kits over the years. So maybe there is hope for me!
  9. GWMark
    ...or at least that is the battle cry when the day starts.
     
    This autumn's Missenden Railway Modellers weekend has come and gone again, all to quickly as usual. After some organisational changes the team did splendid job of organisation so that it was seamless to those of us that attend, a big thank you to them.
     
    My project this autumn was the continuation of a High Level 12" Neilson Mineral loco that I started a couple of session ago. Although there were some problems, well only really one, me. I managed to loctite the final gear off centre and had problems then getting it to run well with all the bits between the frames. Fortunately Tony Gee was on hand with his hammer and more courage than I have and managed to move the gear for me. As always with these things having the tutors there is a great source of knowledge and courage to draw on and means rather than simply give up as I might at home on my own I was able to move forward, albeit that I didn't dare wield the hammer blow!
     

     
    It is running really rather nicely now, with consistent walking pace speeds and only a slight wobble when going backwards at higher speeds. My excuse is the really thing was probably a little bit that way.
     
    We also had the 7mm modellers in the loco construction room this time, which meant we had two tutors, Kevin Wilson on the 7mm side and Tony Gee on the 4mm side. This was really helpful since it meant there was always plenty of advice on hand, not only from the tutors but th either attendees. I managed to borrow a really rather nice pillar drill from Kevin to drill out all the 0.5mm holes in my castings for the van area, something I would have struggled with otherwise. So although the picture above may not look that complete I have a whole set of sub assemblies waiting to go on. The dome, cab instruments, brakes and cylinders are all sitting in a little plastic box waiting there turn to be attached.
     
    Now it's a wait until March for the Spring weekend, next time I am planning to branch out and do Iain Rathbone's painting and lining course - it's probably about time I learnt to paint them!
     
    As has become tradition my son Daniel was also with me, his project of choice this time was a Martin Finney Hall, maybe I'll get around to posting some pictures of that project and the High Level Kit that he finished at the previous weekend.
  10. GWMark
    It has been a couple of weeks since my last post regarding the Mallard Duke. You may recall I had a bit of a problem with it that meant a slight rebuild and some remedial actions. That complete I have now done a bit more detailing, but more importantly I decided it was time to have it move itself along the rails. So I completed the task of making up the cranks, reaming them out and fitting them. After a bit of tinkering I had the cranks in place and quartered.
     
    I then looked at fitting the coupling rods. I decided I would used the Alan Gibson crankpin system, but instead of screwing into the wheels the screws go into the back of the cranks, a bush sits on the front, onto this is fed the coupling rod and then a nut added. Once the nut was tightened down it gave a fairly rigid fit, but I did have to countersink the cranks - somewhat hard after I had force fitted them on and quartered them. I did it with a burr in my mini drill without removing the cranks. I careful created a depression into the back of the cranks into which the Gibson crankpin sat. Partly this was required as if I left the screws proud of the back of the crank they caught on the rivet detail of the outside frames. It is all very tight in OO, I hate to think what it would be like in EM or P4 - lucky I don't work to those more exacting standards.
     
    After more tinkering it ran reasonably, I did have to replace the pickups again, the little sprung loops were exerting too much pressure on the wheels, so I went for more springy wire and reduced the drag the pickups placed on the wheels. Setting up the wheels on the axles was a bit of a chore, clearances are very tight and getting the same amount of axle either side of the frames was difficult.
     
    The next thing was to solder in the subframe that holds the inner frames in place and setup the fixing method for the frames. I also took the opportunity to add some lead in the firebox, the loco now sits happily on its wheels without the need to hang the tender off the back and will actually run as an 0-4-0 if the front bogie is removed.
     
    Other little jobs including tender handrails, vents, fixings and lamp irons. Both the loco and tender now have turned brass buffers, the sprung heads will be fitted after painting.
     
    The loco needs a top feed, pipe works for the top feed, clack boxes, lamp irons and the rest of the smokebox dart - once I make the part of have fitted no longer point at the sky! Not to mention of course the handrail, once the positions of rat handrail knobs have been marked out and drilled.
     
    Below is a video of it running, it is not perfect, there is still a slight tight spot I think, but it runs reasonably well.
     

  11. GWMark

    Duke relocation

    By GWMark,

    Just to close this sequence of entries for the bank holiday weekend and my attempts at fixing the mistake of a few years ago I thought I would show where I was in the process of getting the dome and chimney in the right places. Basically I had fitted the smokebox and boiler the wrong way around and this resulted in the chimney and dome being further forward than they should have been.
     
    Today I had less time than I had hoped, domestic duties meant the toolbox was employed on garden gates rather than etched brass models for most of the afternoon. Also I persuaded my son to get out his E2 kit that he started several years ago and to have a go at finishing it. So of course I ended up spending time with him putting pickups on the Wills etched chassis and spraying the body with primer for him. However I did get some time on my Duke, I filed off the front, incomplete, boiler band where the dome had been incorrectly fitted. I also filed a gap in the rear boiler band to make space for the dome in its new location. Then I soldered a new boiler band on to represent the front band, now a complete circle rather than having a gap at the top.
     
    Finally I made the hole for the plug of the dome to fit in before trial fitting the dome.
     

     
    I seems I need to file back the boiler band under the dome slightly more as it is sitting on the band rather than butting up to it. Also I need to tidy up around the chimney and polish out some of the scratches the filing has left in the boiler. The than that there are two small components to go back on the footplate in front of the smokebox door casting. Once that is done and the dome soldered in I am back on I will be back to where I was on Friday!
     
    I would much rather have spent my time getting closer to finishing this, but I am pleased that the issue was pointed out and also that I managed to resolve it. Certainly in the past I might well have had the reaction of putting it back in the box and it never seeing the light of day again - much as I did with the first two kits I tried to build. Rather than do that I vowed to do something about it and do it quickly so as not to get despondent with it. And I have to saw it has worked, so even if I can't say I made big steps forward this weekend, it kind of feels that way.
     
    It even makes me think I might pull out those first two kits I tried, a Nucast steam rail motor and a SE Finecast Saint. The former has major issues with the power bogie and the later has a strange shape to the footplate and a white metal chassis that doesn't run properly. Why I thought trying to build a steam rail motor was a good subject for a first kit I can now now believe. Maybe these will appear in a blogpost some time in the near future.
  12. GWMark
    I thought I would document the latest steps in my efforts to resolve the build issue with my Mallard Duke. As noted in earlier posts I have built it with both the boiler and smokebox the wrong way around. The problem manifests itself in the chimney and dome being in the wrong place. This entry is about my latest steps to resolve the problem.
     
    The smokebox is simply a wrapper on nickel silver and white metal formers, so was relatively easy to remove and will be reattached the other way around. The boiler was a bigger problem, it could have been removed and turned, but there was a cut out for the motor which would have ended up at the wrong end. So I will have to relocate the dome, which means filling a hole in the boiler where the peg of the dome went through the boiler.
     
    I had decided I would fill the hole with solder, but obviously the solder would just fall into the boiler, so I got a bit of scrap etch to put inside the boiler, question was how to get it there. My solution was to bend the brass to shape, drill a hole and solder in place a brass lace pin through the hole in the scrap brass. The idea was to poke the pin through the hole in the boiler I needed to fill so that I could hold the plate up against the inside of the boiler tube whilst flooding the hole from the outside with solder. The next issue was to get the plate down the boiler tube and into position. My solution to this was solder a length of brass wire to the underside of the brass plate and use the wire to manipulate the plate in the boiler tube. I used low melt solder for this joint with the intention that when I applied the heat to flood the hole with solder the brass wire would simply fall off.
     

     
    With a little bit of fiddling, and bending the wire slightly I got the patch in place and proceeded to fill the hole with the highest melting point solder I had. I deliberately overfilled the hole so that I was sure when I filed it back to shape there would be no pits. Rather nicely the brass wire fell off as hoped and could be withdrawn from the boiler. I now had a mound of solder with a brass pin sticking out the top and no more hole in my boiler.
     

     
    After cutting the pin off as low as I could the files came out and I spent a happy hour filing back the solder to shape, attacking it with a brass wire brush and then the dreaded fibre glass pencil until I have a smooth surface which followed the contours of the boiler.
     
    Next I started to put the wrapper back, this time with the hole for the chimney to the rear and not the front. It is not completely soldered in place yet, but it is looking a lot better than the low point I was at yesterday.
     

     
    I still need to finish attaching the smokebox wrapper, add back the footplate detailing I removed and then look at removing part of the rear boiler band and the two parts of the front boiler band before adding a complete new front boiler band. Not to forget of course fitting the dome in the correct location. However I now feel a lot more confident that I can get back to were I was, only this time with the chimney and dome correctly positioned.
     
    I had been dreading sorting this out, but actually it was not as bad as I feared, although it would have been better if I had built it right in the first place. You live and learn, but at least it was not a fatal mistake and often more is learnt by making mistakes and correcting them.
  13. GWMark
    If you read my previous entry you will have seen that I managed to mess up somewhat when I did the assembly of the smokebox and boiler on my Duke. Both the boiler and smokebox had been assembled the wrong way around, this resulted in the chimney being too far forward and the dome being on the wrong ring on the boiler.
     
    I had thought of two option, reverse both the boiler and the smokebox or reverse the smokebox wrapper and move the dome without removing the boiler. I have had to go for the second option as there is a cutout in the boiler bottom to allow the motor to slide in. If I reversed the boiler I would have this cutout behind the smokebox and it would be very visible.
     
    In looking back at the instructions the smokebox is formed onto white metal formers, so I had tinned the wrapper and soldered it on with low melt solder. The edge of the wrapper, where it met the footplate was soldered with 145 solder. So tonight I unpicked along the footplate, bending the wrapper back slightly with a knife blade. The I filled the smokebox with boiling water and with a little bit or gentle persuasion removed the wrapper and the white metal smokebox front. Dipping part of the boiler in the boiling water I also managed to get the dome off without removing the springs - I really did not fancy having to redo those, they were hard enough the first time.
     

     
    The picture above shows what I am left with. I will need to clean off the solder that was used to attach the dome, fill the hole that the peg on the base of the dome went into and add the missing bit of boiler band. Then I should be able to remove some of the rear boiler band, drill a new hole and attach the dome in the new position.
     
    As for the wrapper, it will need a little bit of work to remove some surface solder and to get it back into shape, but I hope I can resolver it the correct way around. Then refit the smokebox front and the two little fillets I removed from the front and hopefully I can start to move forward again. One thought had been to use the RSU as a way to reattach the former from the output, but I have never tried an RSU when it comes to attaching brass to white metal. Has anybody else tried this? Filing the I can just about get a soldering iron into the smokebox from below, at least I could do some from the inside.
     
    I've yet to come up with a method to fill the hole, any suggestions are welcome. I did think of using a plug of white metal that I could solder in and then file to shape. Not sure how well that would work.
     
    I have to admit I was sorely tempted to put this kit back in its box and move onto something else, but I decided that would be a bit defeatist and against my new policy of finishing this - but it was very tempting!
  14. GWMark
    I've recently made myself a promise not to start any new projects until I finish some of the part built, stalled projects. We will see how long that one lasts, but by way of a start on this new resolution I got my Mallard Models GWR Duke out of its box and have done a little work on it over the last week.
     

     
    Although it may not look like it has progressed much, there has been a fair bit of fettling going on. I removed the pickups I had put on before, they were a little fragile and prone to get caught and short on the body. It now has much neater pickups made by winding some springy wire around a small diameter rod to create a spring. It means the pickups are very much shorter and less prone to getting in the way or moving around and creating shorts. The rear wheels have the pickups mounted on the underside of the frames, the front drivers on the top surface of the frames. They still need a little adjustment, and I managed to bend one so have a short again at the moment, but I think they will work out better than before.
     

     
    I have also put some work into the balance, with lead added where possible and making the tender bear down on the loco to help move the balance aft. There is still some room in the firebox for some more lead, but I want to get some sheet lead to cut to profile rather than using the lead shot. I should be able to add about 5mm thickness of lead against the cab bulkhead - inside the firebox. Also by the time there is a white metal crew on the footplate I should have more weight to bring the balance back.
     
    The dome and safety valve went on, the former being a large white metal lump that had an adverse effect on the previously mentioned balance. The cab roof was rolled and soldered on tonight, along with the ribs underneath and progress has been made on the tender with the addition of the axle boxes and some white metal castings since the loco last graced these pages. I have also put the steps in place, although I managed to melt part of one of the etched steps (middle tread overlays) with the RSU when I removed the probe before taking my foot of the peddle - actually I sneezed so it was not entirely my fault. There is still need for a considerable amount of cleaning up to remove some of the excess solder. Also the fall plate has been put in place and the ride height of the tender and loco is now much better.
     
    I also found I am missing the tender tank vents, hopefully I'll be able to pick some up at Railex this weekend.
     
    I've started to make up the cranks ready for the fitting of the rods, but I want to get the thing balanced better before I put the rods in place. Drive is to the rear axle via one of Chris Gibbon's very neat gearboxes. this means I can keep all the cab detail whilst keeping the gearbox between the frames and nothings shows below the frames. The motor is a Mashima 1020 mounted vertically in the firebox - not sure if this will ever be up to pulling much of a load - we shall see.
     

     
    Still lots of little jobs to do, making up the last of the cranks, tank vents, smokebox dart, lance cock, more cab detailing, handrails, buffers, lamp irons, sand boxes, the list seems to go on forever and all that is before any thought of painting, transfers etc. Although my new resolution may not include painting as I might well go for a batch painting session or save up the models to take to Missenden and do the painting there under the expert's eyes!
     
    [Edit - addition of the two later photos to illustrate what I was trying to describe]
  15. GWMark
    I completed most of my Black Hawthorn at Missenden Abbey, however there were a few bits to finish off that I thought I would do at home, pipe runs, stays etc. Of course I didn't get around to it until today, needless to say those "little" jobs took a long time, very fiddly in places those pipes. However here it is, I think it is now ready for painting, after a bit of cleaning up.
     

     
    I added some lead shot in the smokebox before putting the door on and also in the base of the bunkers on either side. In all I managed to get the loco to weigh in at 84 grams. However that was with the backhead (white metal) not in place, so that might add another 5 grams, plus a white metal crew. Still I think it is not going to win any tug of war competitions anytime soon!
     
    I already have my next High Level kit underway, a Neilson Mineral, I do like these little kits, they are so well thought out and everything fits. Maybe I'lll post a picture on the progress of that kit next time I have it on the workbench.
  16. GWMark

    Return of the Duke

    By GWMark,

    Following a good weekend at Missenden Abbey with my new High Level kit I didn't want to just ditch the Duke in favour of the new kit. I had decided not to take it to Missenden this Autumn as there was little new to do on it and also the Black Hawthorn would fit better on my little shunting puzzle. It seemed sensible to make the most of the time with expert advice on hand to start something very different from my previous modelling attempts.
     
    So this weekend it was the turn of the Duke again. On Saturday evening I dusted off the Duke and set up my workbench on the kitchen table. Following a few hours last night and a few more on this wet Sunday afternoon I had managed to move the Duke forward a little. I built the four spring units and installed them above the driving wheels. The springs were a bit of a challenge to make, with the main body being a white metal casting, some little etched brackets for the ends and then wires to hang the springs on. The instructions call for the brackets to be bent into a U shape, wires to be soldered to the base of the U and the the white metal casting to be trapped in the top of the U. It was very fiddly and I soon dropped the idea of the plain wire in favour of some brass lace pins. The heads gave me a better area to solder to and made the whole thing a little more resilient. Getting the spacing of the pins right, and getting them parallel with each other and the dropper from the base of the casting was also an issue, so I made a simple jig to hold it all in place - having three hands would make this loco building business so much easier! Especially if they could be heat resistant.
     
    I also added the etched cab beading, handrails, treads on the steps and installed the chimney. I decided to not go with the solid white metal chimney in the kit, but rather choose a nice hollow brass one I had. There were two reasons for this; one it looked nicer and two is was lighter - given the balance issues of this 4-4-0 that was an important consideration. I am looking for an alternative to the big white metal dome next, anything to help balance this thing.
     
    I also turned my attention to the back head and cab detail. It turns out that my second hand Mallard kit has a few casting missing, so I had to build the back head detail of a scrap brass, handrail knobs and an etched regulator handle I found in my bits and pieces box. It now has a regulator handle that moves - just got to work out how to make it move as I open the controller up - or maybe not!
     
    Installed the springs was a little bit tricky, since the holes did not line up, the one in the photo on the front driver has a bit of an outward lean to it, I think I will need to take it off again and reposition it to stop this.
     

     
    It is really beginning to get there however, and does look the part. There is a lot of detail to add to the loco and the tender needs the rest of it's steps, toolboxes etc. I also have to sort out the tender ride height, fit the springs now that I have some new castings (there were only 4 in the box for six wheels) and arrange the coupling to the loco. I want to see how the balance of the loco goes before I attempt to couple the tender - there is room for some lead in the firebox, which may bring the back down enough that I don't have to hang the tender off the rear to make it balance - we shall have to see.
     
    These etches have been sitting in a box for a long time - they are dated 1975 I believe, it looks like they may become a complete locomotive before they reach their 40th birthday!
  17. GWMark

    Back to GT3

    By GWMark,

    Well, the New Year period has enabled me some time to get back to doing a bit of loco building. The project, a resin GT3 from Golden Arrow with the detailing etches from Bill Bedford and Ian (macgeordie) of RMWeb. Progress has been slow until now, as with most of my builds, being interrupted by other projects, electronics modules for club layouts and the general things in life that take away our time. However since getting home from a Christmas visiting my mother I have built the buffer beam, cab windows, cab steps and front grill of GT3 from Ian's etches. I already had the top grill, and tender detailing done. So now I need to do the brake rodding and the tender axle boxes. The final thing to do is to sort out a tender coupling - I have decided I want to keep the Hornby tow bar so that I can have electrical connectivity for tender pickups and possible lighting in the tender. I have already got fibre optics and LEDs for the front head code lighting, so I amy also add cab lighting and lighting in the toilet compartment. I have needed to add some weight to the tender to keep it down against the springs in the Hornby tender coupling, but I think I am going to have to do something to open the tender to cab gap up, otherwise this will never get around any corners. In the picture the side grill and the cab steps are just held on by blutac and the tender has a simple screw to couple it to the loco.
     

     
    Two areas I still need to think about are the bogie side frames, I am not happy with these and may just cut off the moulded springs and buy some cast white metal ones - anybody know what might be suitable? Also there are wheels guards on Ian's etches that I have to work out how to fit.
     
    There has been a bit of filler added to fill the air bubbles and to try to get a better edge along the bottom of both the loco and tender body. Not long now until it gets primed and hopefully any blemishes that are left will show up better and can also be filled.
     
    Hopefully within the next few weeks it can get painted, it depends very much on the weather. I plan to use Halfords spray cans, so it will avoid by issues with airbrushes, but that's a whole other thread!
     
    Mark
  18. GWMark

    Hot Spots & Speedos

    By GWMark,

    Continuing in my catch up of things I have done in the last 12 months…
    I am a bit of a sucker for gadgets, so when I came across a chip that offered simple and cheap WiFi I started to think about using it for model railway purposes. I found on ebay a little board that had the WiFi chip on it, along with all the circuitry needed to make the thing work, the ESP-01 board. It was available for about £4 from the UK or about £1 direct from China - I had to have a play. The chip in question, an ESP8266, is not just a WiFi chip but also an embedded microprocessor, with input/output pins and all the usual features of such a processor.
    So I came up with the idea of adding a rotation sensor to a wagon wheel and programming this chip so that it counted the wheel rotations, did a simple bit of maths to work out the speed and offered a website that gave the current speed, average speed and distance travelled. Almost everything I needed was already on the little board I could buy from ebay, all I needed to do was to interface a rotation sensor and write some software to download into the processor.
    Since I wanted to make this battery powered rather than rail powered - because I wanted to use it on both DC and DCC and wanted the peer to stay on when the train as stationery - I went for a rather large wagon to house the circuitry and battery, a Parkside Dundas kit of a GWR Mink G.

    The wheel sensor consists of an LED and phototransistor built in to a single unit, known as a photo-interrupter. I small brass strip was soldered to a 2mm wheel bearing and inserted on the axle of the wagon. A slot was cut in the bottom of the wagon, above the axle, for the sensor to poke through and the sensor built onto a small piece of stripboard with a socket for the ESP01 board.

    Every half revolution of the wheel the light beam is interrupted. So using simple maths, pi * d is the circumference of the wheel, the time between the beam being interrupted is measured in microseconds and hence the distance covered in the time can be worked out and the speed, allowing for the scale, can be determined. Remembering of course to divide the distance by 2 since the beam is interrupted twice per revolution.
    It was fairly easy to write the code that was to be downloaded into the little ESP-01 board, this basically allowed the board to connect to my household WiFi whilst at the same time being a WiFi hotspot of its own. This meant I could connect a laptop, phone or tablet to the WiFi hotspot housed in the wagon and use the wagon anywhere I liked. As well as being a hotspot the software was also a web server, so I standard web browser, such as the one you are reading this with, could connect to the wagon and display a page with all the data about the wagons speed and distance traveled.

    I still have things I want to do to this; the switch will be changed and made accessible without having to remove the roof, which is currently held on with a magnet. I want to replace the battery with a possibly smaller rechargeable one and have it charged via the track power - when it is available. I also want to add more to the software so that it not only has the current speed and distance, the speed and distance for the current trip but also for the lifetime of the wagon. The definition of "trip" is based on a configurable period of non-movement - i.e. if the wagon doesn't move for a given time, default 1 minute, a new trip is started. I also want to improve the configuration interface via the website it offers.
    The other thing I am thinking about would be to provide an application on my laptop that gathers the data every few seconds and draws graphs of speed, acceleration etc, just to see how comfortable we make trips for little passengers!
    Clearly this is just a bit of fun, but I can see a lot of other possible uses for this sort of cheap WiFi technology, especially for the likes of garden railways to setups in which lots of control wiring is difficult. These things are really a spinoff form the current buzz around the "Internet of Things", but I think us modellers can take advantage of this trend.
  19. GWMark
    Following our last visit to the Autumn weekend at Missenden I was sold on the idea of an RSU, fortunately I had a "significant" birthday a few weeks again and my wife bought (let me buy) an RSU as a birthday present. With about 3 weeks to go before the next Missenden weekend I as keen to try out my new toy. I did not want to go straight into attacking my High Level Black Hawthorn that I had worked on last time, so I looked around for an alternative. Fortunately I found a wagon kit I picked up a while back on a second hand stall, a Sprat & Winkle kit of an LSWR 8ton Cattle Wagon. It was a bit of a sorry old set of etches, badly tarnished and a little thin. So I decided it would be a good trial project to see how I got on with the RSU - expecting with all new tools that my first efforts would be pitiful and I would go through that period of thinking "why did I buy this" - but how wrong could I be.
     
    The technique I settled on was to first tin the small parts with a conventional iron and then use the RSU to attach them to the main etch. I had a sheet of mild steel and a few rare earth magnets, so I tinned the strapping and set to with the RSU. The results were way better than I could have hoped for on a first attempt, lovely clean, strong joints. No excess solder to cleanup and parts in just the place I wanted them. No more small bits getting swamped with solder or begin left attached to the iron when I took it away.
     
    The picture below is the result of two evenings of about 2 hours each, much of that time was actually taken up in cleaning the etches before tinning and removing/cleaning up the tags. I have done no work to remove any excess solder, this has only been washed to remove the carbon deposits from the RSU probe.
     

     
    I was pretty impressed with the results, more done to the quality of the tool than the workmanship, but it is exactly what I had hoped for. Best of all that job I hate most is now rendered less frequent, cleaning up surface solder. I still have a long way to go, and lots of experiments to try, but so far this is looking like a good purchase.
  20. GWMark
    Today saw the end of the Autumn Railway Modellers Weekend at Missenden Abbey. as is now the custom I attended with my son, now 17, for a few days of locomotive kit construction. This year the numbers of kit constructors was down, with people being seduced by the laser cutting, scenery, weathering and electronics side of the hobby. This meant there were two small rooms of us loco builders, we were placed under the care of new boy Tony Gee in a room with 5 other 4mm modellers, whilst next door Kevin Wilson presided other a collection of 3mm, 4mm and 7mm modellers.
     
    This year was a first of us, we both had kits from the same manufacturer, High Level. I had a little Black Hawthorn 0-4-0 industrial tank to put together and Daniel had his Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0, he had made an aborted start on a year ago on this but stopped due to lack of the correct size wheels. Both of these kits proved to be superb pieces of design that went together with no modification. Extremely well thought out kits with a great level of design. Daniel progressed well with his 0-6-0 frames, adding large amounts of dummy inside motion detail and brake hangers.
     

     
    HIs soldering has always been a little heavy handed, but is improving no end, with help from Tony and others, not to mention the benefits of more practice. Having a good kit to work on has help boost both his skills and confidence.
     
    I on the other hand took by frames to the point at which I really needed to paint behind the wheels so that they could be fitted before the remaining detail. The frames themselves are rather substantial Nickel Silver etches with some very nice brass overlays that fit beautifully around the axle bushes. The inside motion on this little 0-4-0 was somewhat simpler and because I was building it in OO I am unable to fir the firebox.
     
    So having taken the frames as far as I wanted by Saturday evening I turn my attention to the superstructure and build the smokebox and firebox areas. Very pleasing curves and some lovely little details around the bunkers.
     

     
    These two kits have proved to both of us the value of working on something that has been so well designed, it is very tempting to buy some cheap, secondhand kit from the 70's to get started with. However this might well prove to be a false economy as it is hard to tell if the poor results are due to poor kit design or lack of ability. I would not say that the High Level kits are easy beginner kits, but they certainly remove one variable from the equation.
     
    Away from these two models we also had an interesting time dropping in on the laser cutting and observing first hand the results one of the other modellers in our room could obtain with his brand new resistance soldering unit. It was the first use he had made of it and he achieved some really stunning results on some siphon sides, building up, multiple layers of overlays. I even managed to have a go with it myself, which was a dangerous thing for my pocket I think - I new have one of these on my modelling wish list!
     
    As for Tony he proved to be a knowledgeable, entertaining and extremely helpful tutor, he even brought along some really nice locos that Peter Denny scratch built in EM before I was born. Some amazing techniques when you consider the age of them. It goes to show how inventive good modellers can be when the materials are not available and how spoilt we are these days. Also thanks to Tony for bringing along a ready built Black Hawthorn for me to look at. I hope we see more of him at these weekends.
     
    Now we have to wait for the spring for the next Missenden weekend, hopefully we can find a time for a family modelling day or two between now and then so that we can make some progress of these fantastic little locomotives.
     
    Thanks to Chris Langdon and all the others that organise these weekends and to the various tutors that impart wisdom and bad jokes!
  21. GWMark
    The autumn weekend of railway modelling at Missenden Abbey is almost here again, once again Daniel and I will be attending. This time I am going to start a new project, the Duke is to a stage now that I think I can probably finish it at home, plus I am keen to start a project that will run on my little shunting puzzle. Therefore my plan for the weekend is to make a start on a High Level kit of a Black Hawthorn 0-4- ST.
     
    As part of my preparation I have started (several times) to read the very extensive instructions and examined the lovely looking etches. I had to take a picture of the etches before starting, and probably making a bit of a mess of them, since they do look so good. Chris really does do a good job of both the etches and the instructions.
     

     
    Daniel will be working on a High Level kit as well, having finished the 14xx chassis, his is a the Hawthorn Leslie, a kit that has been to Missenden twice before, both times work was stopped due to incorrect wheels being purchased. Doing it once is an accident, twice is carelessness - or so I tell him. Still his comeback is that his project has more wheels than mine this time.
     
    Anyway, looking forward to 2 days of uninterrupted, well almost, modelling.
  22. GWMark

    1701 nearing completion

    By GWMark,

    My "quick diversion" ended up like all my other projects, victim to my lack of time, or is the a lack of commitment leading to excuses why I don't have the time. Either way it took longer to get to this stage than I had planned, but now I have the little saddle tank running and pretty much finished, it just needs some lamp irons on the front and the brake gear.
     
    I am holding off on the brake gear until I have resolved a clicking sound, which I think is a pickup catching on a spoke, but so far I have not found the cause. When I run it upside down the noise goes away, so it is proving difficult to see the cause.
     
    The lamp irons are another issue, the sand boxes are so close to the buffer bean there is no space to mount them conventionally on the footplate. I need to try to see how they should be mounted, either attached to the buffer beam or the front of the sand boxes seems to be the two options.
     

     
    Sorry about the quality of the images, I think I need to get a better lighting setup.
     

     
    The roof and toolboxes are not attached, they will be painted seperately and then attached. Also the whistles will be added after the roof has been painted.
     
    A little green putty was needed to fill a few gaps, this still needs to be sanded back when it has dried fully.
     
    It will never be described as a fine scale model, but it has a certain charm to it.
  23. GWMark

    A Quick Diversion

    By GWMark,

    Partly from frustration and partly because I like to see things move I decided I wanted to do a little project that was going to be reasonably quick to get to a stage were I could run a loco. About 2 weeks ago, at Expo EM I purchased an unbuilt Wills Finecast kit of an 1804 GWR Saddle tank, last week at Railex I also obtained the etched nickel silver chassis from SE Finecast and some Gibson wheels for it. So on Friday evening I decided to make the chassis. These Finecast etched chassis go together really quickly and using my Avonside jig made a nice square chassis in no time at all, a Comet GB1 50:1 gearbox and a Mashima 1620 mated to t made up the power plant. So on Saturday morning I sprayed the chassis with etch primer and left for 24 hours. Meanwhile Saturday evening gave me a chance to start on the body. So far all was going I might have my running chassis in time to test run it at our club evening on Wednesday.
     
    Sadly Sunday did not go to plan and I had no time until the evening to touch it again. Still I managed to paint the chassis at least and solder a few more bits on the body. I like to only fit Gibson wheels once if I can, so wanted to paint the chassis before fitting the wheels for the first time. Monday evening was spent adding the wheels, making the motor fit and working on reaming the rods out to take the Gibson crank pins. Only a few hours, so it has motor and wheels fitted, rods on one side ready but not finished on the other.
     

     
    Maybe I will get time tomorrow to do the rods on the other side and add the pickups, if not then the test run will have to wait another week. Still I did cheat and have run it with a 9volt PP9 battery and the rods loosely fitted, it seems to run acceptably, but the proof will not be known until the chassis is finished. I am a little nervous about the crankpins since I had to drill the wheels as the holes for the pins were missing. It would be easy to have one of the crank pins out of alignment and end up with a binding chassis.
     
    The other interesting thing is what the prototype really is. It is not an 1804 Class saddle tank as it says on the box, nor is it really an 1854 which is what it was latter renamed to be. From looking at my copy of J H Russell I suspect it is really a variant of the 1701 class - maybe somebody out there knows for sure?
     
    As a quickie project, for some nearly instant gratification, it is not looking too bad - of course finishing it is another matter
  24. GWMark
    The weekend of the 8th, 9th and 10th of March saw the running of the Missenden Spring Weekend, the 31st year of the Missenden weekends. Daniel and I were lucky enough to have once again received the weekend as a Christmas present from my wife - I suspect this is partially so that she can get rid of us for the weekend and partially because she knows we both enjoy the weekend and it is a present that does bring "more junk" into the house!
     
    Normally we are unique amongst the modellers that attend, being the only father and son combination, this year we were joined n the Abbey Barn by another father and son duo also doing the "smaller scale" loco construction under the tutorship of Tim Watson. Although both of them clearly had more experience than both Daniel and I put together.
     
    My decision on which project to work on this time was once again the Mallard Duke. One of the things I had discovered was that the gearbox I built last time, to replace the first one that fouled the backhead, was preventing the body sitting down on the frames. I had therefore sourced a third gearbox, a High Level Kits Roadrunner+, this had the advantage of a very small final drive, allowing it to fit under the cab floor. Therefore Friday evening consisted of building this new gearbox, followed on the Saturday morning by fitting pickups, refitting the body and watching it run. Or rather spin its wheels mostly. Although fairly well balanced there is not enough weight over the rear driven wheels to allow that pair to drive the loco. The good news however is that the 1020 motor leaves space at the rear of the firebox into which extra weight can be added almost over the driving wheels. Adding the coupling rods will of course help as well.
     
    The rest of the weekend was taken up with adding detail to the tender, the beading strips, valances, tender side extensions, water filler, brake gear and water scoop. Perhaps not a very long list, but there were other distractions, such as great demonstration on painting from the master himself, Ian Rathbone, looking at other modellers projects, the coffee breaks, food and not to mention talking and drinking the real ale!
     

     
    The loco body now sits down correctly on the chassis, and the motor disappears nicely into the firebox. Pickups have been fitted to the top surface of the chassis for the front driving wheels and another set in the dragbox for the rear drivers. Everything is nicely hidden, with just a small slither of the gearbox visible if you look from a low enough view.
     
    Once again this weekend Daniel had planed to work on his High Level Hunslet, however not for the first time, we had the wrong wheels. He therefore switched back to the project he started at the last weekend in the Autumn of 2012, a High Level 14xx chassis. This still needed a good deal of construction, he had added the dummy inside motion last time, but still needed to complete the non-driven wheel arrangement, build the brake gear, add yet more detail and build the gearbox. All this he achieved, plus he built the gearbox for his Hunslet. He left on the Sunday afternoon with a complex chassis fully built, just in need of paint, final reassembly and attachment of pickups, something he could be proud of, even if most people will not actually see all that detail once it is placed under a 14xx body.
     

     
    So now another Missenden weekend is over for us, these weekends are something we both enjoy and is unusual in that it gives us an environment to do something we both enjoy without any distractions or family disagreements. It also gives us a chance to catch up with all those habitual attendees that we now call friends, plus meet those that come along for the first time. Hopefully we will be allowed to attend the October weekend and we will continue our association with the Missenden Modellers, if nothing else these weekends give our projects an enormous boost.
  25. GWMark
    It has been a while since I managed to do much (anything) to the little shunting puzzle, my problem has been that the layout had to go up into the loft in order to free the spare room for a visitor and has not made it down since. The problem being it is a big hassle to get it out of the loft to spend an hour working on it and then put it away again. Given the current weather conditions, and the amount of juke currently residing in the loft, the prospect of venturing upwards and doing work in the loft is also not very appealing. I was having the discussion yesterday when I said "I can tell you how long it is, I will look at my blog". It was then that I realised I had failed to document the last bit of progress I made, so in an effort to reawaken the enthusiasm I thought I would "back fill" the story.
     
    Soem years ago I started dabbling with RFID for train detection, this result in the production of a MERG RFID reader kit and has found use on a club layout. I wanted to also employ RFID on my little shunting puzzle, mostly because I wanted to use this layout as a testbed for ideas, but also because I thought it would be fun. The big question was how to link it into the control system, I didn't want something that just triggered slide displays like I had done before, I wanted to have it integrated. This layout uses the MERG CBus system for control, all the accessories, the DCC command station and the throttles are connected to the single CBus, so it seemed logical to connect the RFID to this as well. So the first task was to build an interface between the RFID reader and the CBus - those members of MERG that are interested can see how this was doen in the MERG Winter 2012 Journal. This gave me the ability to send a message to every device on the layout whenever a train passed over the reader, know the question was what to do with it.
     
    The layout currently has no dedicated control panel, instead it uses JMRI running on a laptop display a mimic diagram and control the points. The laptop has a connection to the CBus in order to allow this, so therefore the laptop and JMRI is able to receive the messages from the RFID reader. So my next step was to add functionality to JMRI so that it could understand the messages received from the RFID. Fortunately JMRI has the ability to have something called "Reporters", these are devices that report back train information to the software, they are designed for system like Railcom in DCC that can send train identification from block occupancy detectors. So I created a new one of these reporters to understand my new CBus message for an RFID tag read. The reporter allows a message to be placed on the control panel window when a report is received, this message can be tailored to contain any text you require for a given train identity. Since the layout also has block detection, once a train is detected using the Reporting, as the train moves from block to block, the report can follow it around the layout.
     
    The upshot of all this is that I now have an RFID reader on the single line that feeds into the sidings of the layout, as a train passes the reader a string is displayed that identifies the train. When it moves into the adjacent block the message on the screen will move with it, and stay with it as long as it is detected within any monitored block on the layout. When a second train enters it is also read and can be tracked in the same way. As long as both trains are not is the same block they will be tracked independently of each other. So I now have a mimic diagram that shows me not just what block are occupied but also the identity of the train in that block - just like the real railway does these days.
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