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GWMark

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  1. 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]
  2. GWMark
    The 72xx that have have been building for quite some time now has progressed a little more since my last posting here. For some reason I only ever seem to work on this when I go to the Missenden Weekends, so one or two weekends a year makes for slow progress.
     
    The job tackled this year was to get the chassis moving under power - this took somewhat longer than expected, mostly because it turned out that not all my insulated wheels were! I'm sure you can guess how I discovered that one. A lot of time was also spent in fine tuning the chassis, effort that was well worth it. It now runs so smoothly and slowly that I'm really pleased, I measured it at a scale 3 miles per hour without any stalling, on clean track. I've also done some trimming of the rear of the cylinders to allow it to take the curves on the club layout, Hinton Parva. I've had it circulating the 32 foot layout, but at slow speed it takes several minutes to do so, it moves at a real crawl. It helps that it has pickup on 8 wheels, a big motor (Mashima 1632), a 50:1 gearbox and no shortage of weight.
     

     
     
    It also proved it power when I sent it down the wrong road and it pushed 6 Bachmann collets and the mogul on the front out of the siding - the mogul was unpowered at the time! I really should have keep an eye on it, but it was taking so long to get around I got distracted. The chassis has been painted, at least behind the wheels, and the brake gear added. Unfortunately the sand box casting where such a mess I decided not to use them. Thankfully a quick email to PDK has got some replacements, so I need to simply add them and the missing rear guard irons and then that is the chassis done. Then it is some final detailing of the body and time to paint it. Maybe it will get a coat of paint before the summer is out
  3. 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.
     

  4. 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
  5. 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!
  6. 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!
  7. GWMark
    As a bit of a diversion I also built this back in March.....
     

     
     
    I purchased it as a used kit at Astrolat, the "chassis" had been built and I just had to finish it and build the interior and body. These went together very quickly, most unlike me. Unfortunately the wheelset was P4 - how did I not notice that one! So I ended up cutting the axles, big mistake, one is now too short and the back to back is a little too small - need to replace the axles some time.
     
    True to form, I may have got to this stage in about 2 weeks, but then I left if or 2 months before getting it out to photograph and starting to think about finishing it - don't panic - I've found another diversion now so the danger of actually finishing something is passing again.
  8. GWMark
    I've done a bit more work on my 72xx, steps have been added, vacuum pipes, smoke box door and a coupling loop. So I thought it was time to see if it would pull anything. So it went back to Hinton Parva tonight, I borrowed the coal rake normally pulled by one of the two Garretts at exhibition and off it went.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqXNVKTKNzM
     
     
    It seemed to manage with the 68 loaded coal trucks, but did have a bit of wheel slip if not driven with care. Still a bit more work to do before it is ready for painting, but it is getting closer.
  9. GWMark

    New Challenge

    By GWMark,

    Obviously I don't have enough unfinished, or un-started, projects, so this weekend I decided to try something I have bean meaning to have a go at for a while - making my own track. To be precise A C&L B6 turnout kit that I have had on the top of the cupboard for nearly 2 years. Why did I choose now? I have no idea, other than I had to wait for some paint to dry on my 72xx, you know what they say about paint drying!
     
    Anyway, after 2 evening, about 8 hours, I now have this....
     

     
    One more switch blade and the check rails to go. However it is rather pleasing that I managed to push a wagon through this with no derailing or binding. It is not the best looking effort ever, but it may actually work and that is a lot better than I had hoped for on my first attempt. Of course it will probably fall apart when I take it off the template - a case of it really being held together with sticky tape maybe!
     
    Mark
  10. GWMark

    Transfix disaster

    By GWMark,

    Tonight was going to be the night I got my 72xx to a runnable state, buffers, plates, a little paint touching up, coal, crew and transfers, Not too much to ask.
     

     
    It went fairly well, I had the buffers in place, the plates attached, the cab interior finished, except for crew and the transfer went on well. The I noticed my mistake, I had spaced the lettering differently on the two sides. Looking at my picture in Russell of 7240 I decided it was the side with the most spread out lettering that was wrong, the R was too far forward.
     
    No problem, the transfers have only just gone on, a little spot of transfix and I can probably get them off and use a couple of new letters. So on went some transfer, wait a minute and use a blunt cocktail stick to see if the W would move.
     
    Well the transfer letter didn't but the paint did, right down to bare metal. So now I have a loco with plates etc attached but in need of some respraying. I was not happy, I can tell you...
     

     
    ...new words may have been learnt if it wasn't for the fact I was alone in the house at the time.
     
    The paint sequence was Precision Spray Etch Primer, from a can, two coats. Followed by Lifecolor acrylic, several coats. Is this a combination known to give problems? I was a little surprised it went right down to bear metal.
     
    So now I have to think how best to repair the damage. I don't really want to strip the model completely if I can avoid it. Although I suspect I will as a minimum have to repaint the entire tank side, maybe from the cab door to the front of the tank. If not I suspect the join between the old and new paint will show up badly.
     

     
    Any comments, suggestions etc would be gratefully received. Unfortunately I am going away for work tomorrow, so will have to leave the loco like this for a while. I don't know if that is good or bad. Plenty of time to keep kicking myself for being so stupid as to get the transfer spacing different on the two sides. Looking at the photos here I am not sure now if I was right in my assessment of which is wrong either.
     
    The undamaged size looks too close, but the looking at 7240 the R should not be under the tank filler. I was using the rivet lines on the tanks a guidance, maybe they are not right?
     
    We learn best by our mistakes, but I would rather have no learnt this particular lesson at this time. I had hoped to take this loco to Doncaster with me, but I don't see that happening now. It will take more than one night to sort this out.
  11. 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!
  12. GWMark

    Cylinder slope

    By GWMark,

    I think Horsetan is right, there is not enough slope to cylinders, this view shows them better.
     

     
     
    A little more progress last night, I really ought to get on with the chassis however.
  13. 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.
  14. 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!
  15. GWMark

    Command & Control

    By GWMark,

    Progress has once again been slowed due to a combination of work, domestic and revision issues. One of the reason for doing this layout was as a joint project with my teenage son, sadly he is in mid-GCSE season, so is unable to do anything other than revise at the moment. So I am restricted to doing things he has no interest in and sympathising over the revision. Hence no scenic work has taken place and I have spent a little bit of time assembling the electronics that are going to run the layout.
     
    In my original plan for the layout I wanted to use it as a means to try out some different ways of doing things, so it will have a control system rather more complex than is really needed for a simple shunting puzzle. Partly I feel justified in trying things out on a small layout rather than jumping in with some big project and then deciding I had taken the wrong approach or simply wasting large amount of time and money. However it is also a case that I enjoy the electronics side of things anyhow and want to have a use for some of the neat ideas that are around.
     
    The trains are definitely going to be driven via DCC, but all the accessories and the interface to the DCC is going to be handled by the MERG CBus system. With such a small layout I don't really get or need, some of the advantages of having a layout control bus, but I still think it is simpler longer term. For those that do no know, CBus offers a way of sending messages between bit of electronics on the layout. This means that using the same pair of wires you can send a message to control some item on the layout, and also get status back from other items. You may think you have heard this before, when people preach the "DCC - two wires is all you need" message. But this does something different, it works both ways, allowing feedback as well as control. It does not replace DCC on the actual tracks however.
     
    The picture below shows the things I have built already...
     

     
    Starting at the back left, I have 4 block occupancy detectors, each one will support detection in 2 blocks, so this gives me 8 detection blocks. They are actually a MERG kit, DTC8, with the original circuit board cut up to give me four separate pairs. They are not CBus kits, but will provide input to a CBus module.
     
    To the right of these are a pair of DCC distribution boards I have built. These are basically terminal blocks mounted on stripboard. The DCC bus is connected at the two ends, one for bus in and the other for bus out. This is then connected to a pair of four way terminal blocks. this allows for 4 dropper pairs to connect to the DCC bus. There is also an LED and resistor on the board, this allows an indication that the DCC bus is functional to as far as this distribution board. I have done it this way as I do like like the idea of bare wires to run the DCC bus, once is one way I have seen people tap onto the bus. The other approach I have seen, using scotch-lock connectors also seems a little hit and miss to me - other may get on with it, but I personally am not keen. Therefore I am wiring by DCC bus through a set of distribution boards that allow be to connect droppers in a "hub style" network. The LED is part of my obsession with having diagnostic aids for when things go wrong.
     
    The next pair of boards to the right are a couple of MERG kits, CAN-ACE8 to be precise. These are general purpose input boards that will taken inputs from the block occupancy detectors and other sources and send them along the layout control bus - the CBus. This will let be sense things like point settings, train detection and possibly also switches on the front of the layout that viewers can operate. Each board allows 8 things to be sensed and will translate the state of these 8 items and send CBus messages whenever they change - e.g. a train enters or leaves a section. Other CBus modules can then act on this information.
     
    Below these boards are a collection of RJ22 interface boards that will be used to plug the control panel and the handheld controller into the CBUS. I have yet to build the MERG hand-held, this is the most daunting kit as it requires surface mount soldering.
     
    To the left is the MERG DCC command station, this is one of the few that I have tested out, and it works brilliantly. It is driven from the CBus and connects to the track with an inbuilt 1A booster. I have not yet got the external booster kit, I need to wait for MERG to get the kit back in stock. However I will probably not need more than the 1A from the command station anyway - this is only a shunting puzzle.
     
    To the left of the command station, and connected to it via CBus, is a USB interface - this is how I tested the command station, I sent CBus commands over USB from JMRI - using an iPhone as a throttle, to the command station and hence drove trains from the iPhone. This will be attached to the layout to allow JMRI panels to be provided for point control and mimic diagrams etc. Also I will probably have the JMRI setup for driving trains with an iPhone as well as the dedicated handheld controller. One thought is to have a touchscreen and display the mimic diagram on that and hence set points etc directly from the touch screen.
     
    The next board along is an LED driver - this will go into the dedicated panel and provide all the indications as to what is happening on the layout. Again connected by CBus, so just 4 wires have to go to the panel. This board is capable of driving far more LED's that I will need for such a small layout.
     
    Next we have a simple power supply board that will give me a source of both 5 volts DC and 12 volts DC - I need to produce a few more of these, since this on will only give me 1Amp of each voltage. I need a 12 Volt DC source of 1.5 Amps to drive the uncoupling magnets. I also need an interface between the CBus output module and these magnets - so yet more circuits to design and build. Although this should be fairly simple.
     
    To the left and below the power supply board is a CANSERVO8 board - this connects to CBus and allows 8 RC servos to be controlled. Three of the servos will be used to change the points whilst the others will be used for animation effects on the layout. I already have a setup for an animated figure and am looking into putting a moving crane of some sort on the quayside.
     
    The last two boards to the right of the servo controller are a panel switch board and an auxiliary output board. The panel switch board, along with the LED driver, will be inside the mimic panel and will take all the inputs form the push buttons and send them out as messages on the CBus, thus forming the other part of the panel.
     
    The aux. output board allows 8 accessories to be driven by the CBus, messages from any device on the bus can thus cause things to turn on or off on the layout. Five of these outputs will be used to control the uncoupling magnets, whilst the rest will perform functions like controlling the lights on the layout or operating other accessories.
     
    As well as these boards I have also been building the mains power supply, it will delivery 2 x 16V AC circuits to the layout and is in a separate plastic box, well insulated with short circuit protection and supply status indication built into it. The idea is that the mains stays on the floor in an isolated box and never comes anywhere near the layout itself.
     
    I also have some ready made frog juicers that I will use to switch frog polarity, these really are a bit of a luxury, since looking at the CBus way of doing things it would have been a lot cheaper to switch the frogs via relays that are triggered by the same CBus events that trigger the point motors (servos). However I wanted to try these out, and with only three points it is not a huge expense.
     
    One things I have to look at is how the frog juicers will interact with the block occupancy detection, I may have to live without detection on the frog, which is a little bit of a shame.
     
    I still have a few more circuits to build, the hand held controller, uncoupling magnet interface and probably another CBus output module. Then it is a case of wiring the layout up with this lo, once I have mounted all the boards, and building the control panel. I think the GCSE's will be over before I have done all of that and I will be chased up by Daniel to get a move on - oh well there never is enough time in this world.
  16. GWMark
    I attended the Amersham model railway show on Saturday with my teenage son, and he came away with a purchase. A part finished Cotswold kit of a 72XX! Now, I wonder, is he trying to outdo Dad here!
     
    Anyway, the upshot is that my planned day of working on the PDK 72XX got highjacked, first by household jobs like fixing a leaking tap, but then by aiding Daniel get his 72XX chassis working. By Sunday evening I had lost my work area and tools to Daniel who was busy soldering whitemetal steps to his new 72XX kit.
     

     
     
    Now with school term starting again in the morning, maybe I'll get to build while he is doing his homework. Still I guess he could be doing worse things at thirteen than soldering whitemetal together.
     
    Mark
  17. GWMark

    GT3 and 72XX progress

    By GWMark,

    Well, for one reason or another I have not got a lot done recently or posted very much here on RM Web. I have, in the past 6 weeks made a little progress on a few projects however. My GT3 has got to the stage of painting, well primer at least, but will need some work still to sort out the blemishes the primer is showing up.
     

     
    I went on the Missenden Abbey weekend again this year and made some significant progress with my PDK 72XX kit.
     

     
    Hopefully I will get more time available to me now to complete some projects, for the past 12 months I have been making the trip up and down to Cornwall from Bucks about twice a month to visit my mother who was ill, however she has past away now so I will have some more time on my hands - once I've got some of the jobs around the house cleared from my wife's list.
     
    Mark
     
    I completely forgot about another project I started, it was meant to be something fairly quick to just keep up the momentum. However it was after I had got to this stage, shown below, that I realized I had twisted the footplate when I soldered the tank sides on.
     

     
    I think this one is destined to be dropped in a bowl of hot water and I'll start again. Still it was only one evenings work.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. GWMark
    Having just returned from another weekend of modelling at Missenden Abbey I intended to write up my progress on my workbench thread, then, last night I looked at it and realised I have not made an entry since the last time I was at Missenden, back in the Spring. This got me thinking, my plan had been to show off the progress with the model I had taken and talk about the events of the weekend, but I soon began to think that this gap in my workbench was more indicative of something else, at was at that point that domestic duties overtook me and the updated was curtailed.
     
    It is not true to say that I have not done any railway modelling since the spring, I have a layout thread that proves otherwise, baseboard building, track building and laying, electronics construction etc. It is true that since the summer started all I have managed is to build an RFID CBus interface and do a new point control board for the panel of Fisherton Sarum, so not a lot and not what many people would recognise as modelling.
     
    This this made me think, is the reason I enjoy these Missenden weekends the fact that I get almost an entire weekend of nothing but time to build my models or do I get more from it?
     
    It is certainly true that if I would try to sit down on Friday evening at home, spread all my tools around the kitchen table that I use as a workbench, and concentrate on nothing but my models until Sunday afternoon, only stopping for meals and to sleep, I would very soon find that I was either deeply unpopular or worst within the house - in reality it would never happen. Also I would feel guilty about it and stop, clear-up and generally not concentrate on the modelling tasks. So from that point of view Missenden offers me something I could not get at home. But is this the only thing that makes me go back again and again?
     
    In the feedback session at the end of the weekend Chris Langdon came up with a quote that is rather apt, "Missenden is like a country club" - it is true that the surroundings in the Buckinghamshire countryside are rather nice - the Sunday morning coffee break on the lawn watching the red kites soar around in the crisp autumn sun was rather pleasant. There is also the fact, that as a serial attendee it is a time to renew friendships with others that you see maybe twice a year.
     
    The other thing about Missenden, and perhaps the one that is most obvious, is that you have experts tutors on-hand to take your problems to or ask questions of. This year was no exception, but saw a slight change around and was perhaps all the better for it. I always do the same thing at Missenden, and have done for a number of years now, 4mm locomotive construction. When I first went, it was Tony Wright that was the tutor for this session, after the well known and sad events in his private life. He was followed by Tim Shackleton for the last few years, this bought a new perspective on some aspects and was an interesting change. This Autumn, the 4mm and the 7mm locomotive construction took place in one large room, this meant we had two tutors on hand instead of the usual one per subject. The 7mm group was nominally tutored by Kevin Wilson and the 4mm by Barry Norman - in reality these two where shared between the two groups. Kevin was a new name to me, and I had to say was excellent at what he did and showed a lot of patience with Daniel, my now 16 year old son, who is also a serial Missenden attendee. Barry was better known to me for his scenic work, but this weekend proved to me that there is a lot more the Barry than the scenery side of things - his skill and advice proved to be my saviour when I discovered that the cab I has attached to my Duke back in the Spring was not square.
     
    When I reached one of those despair moments at the thought of having to dismantle the whole thing Barry stepped in with some help and advice and we managed to square it up without having to restore to major deconstruction work. The result is pleasing and allowed me to progress a little more with the Duke.
     

     
    I also replaced the gearbox with one that would not intrude into the cab of the loco, this also turned out to be a little harder than expected and took the entire Friday evening and spread into the Saturday morning. Progress on the Duke may not look spectacular, but I turned a bit of a corner with it, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.
     
    The other aspect of the weekend, and one that I hinted to above, was the attendance of my son Daniel. Although we share the hobby, and go to exhibitions and clubnights together it is rare that we sit down next to each other for an entire weekend and work side by side and talk without the usual teenage issues - I know he will hate me for saying that! He also progressed on a new project, a High Level 14xx chassis kit. He made of lot of use of Kevin time, so much so that he became known within the group as "Kevin's shadow' by the Sunday morning.
     

     
     
    I think that for a still relatively novice modeller he did a pretty good job of what is a complex kit to build, I will leave that to others to decide however since I am probably slightly bias.
     
    So what are the most precious things from the weekend that I refer to in the title of this post? Probably not the part complete model I walked away with, although that is important, but more the time away from all the pressures of "normal" life, the "quality" time spent with my son, the friendships of Missenden and the ability to call on some quite extraordinary talent and experience within the hobby.
     
    I really enjoy my weekends at Missenden and hope they can continue for years to come - I realise of course that a time will come when these are solitary outings for me, but I want to make the most of sharing these experiences with my son while I can. A big thank you to those that organise the event, I would encourage any of you who are maybe thinking about taking part in this or similar weekends to take the plunge - I know I was unsure at the first one, but now look forward to the next one every time.
  21. GWMark
    This weekend saw a start on the baseboard building process and a realisation. The baseboards are going to be built using the Barry Norman technique of constructing beams from two lengths of 4mm ply (5 foot long and 70mm tall) with 18mm block of 70mm square blocks of softwood sandwiched between them.
     
    To start with progress was a little shaky, with some uncertainty as to whether this would be strong enough. The first 5 foot beam was made up, with a block at each end, two equally spaced blocks for cross members and three smaller packing pieces to prevent the unsupported lengths from flexing too much. The blocks are glued and stapled to one length of ply, and then the other length of ply is glued and stapled to the other side. The whole thing seemed a little flexible and not all that straight, so the first beam was weighted down on the kitchen floor and the glue allowed to dry over night on Friday. The idea to see what it would be like when dry before committing to making the other beams. I should not have worried, by the morning it was dry, reasonably straight and more rigid that I would have ever thought. Above all it was very light, just what I need for lifting the finished board up through the loft hatch. The last thing I want is to heave some heavy weight board 8 feet into the air every time I want to get it up or down through the loft hatch.
     

     
    I learnt from this, and the other 5 foot beam and the 4 cross beams were clamped into the workmate to make sure they were straight before stapling. Saturday morning saw all the other beams made up and the top cut to allow for the two levels. At this point work stopped to allow the glue to cure before cutting out the drop in the side beams that will accomodate the river bed.
     
    It was at this point that a realisation occurred, the proportions of the board, laid out in the garden, did not look remotely like the drawing I had - something had gone wrong. Going back to the computer it very quickly became evident that I hade made a stupid mistake. When doing the track placing I had been playing with how to cut up an 8x4 sheet and had accidentally left the length set to 8 feet and not 5. At this point I felt rather stupid and rejigged everything for the smaller size, sadly it looks less generous and open now, but I think it will still provide some entertainment.
     
    Nothing was done on Sunday, apart from the purchase of many assorted bits and pieces to put on the layout - we spent the day in Alexander Palace! The evening did allow some time to complete some CBUS modules and also to start the building of a turntable controller, although that is for a different layout and is to repay a debt.
  22. 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!
  23. GWMark

    Starting point

    By GWMark,

    Like many, no doubt I have been thinking up ideas for layouts for years without actually getting as far as making a real start on any before moving on to the next idea. Until now I have satisfied my desire to run stock by making use of layouts at my railway club or using the "test track" that I have constructed in the loft at home. Originally this "test track" was meant to be a layout, but a combination of mistakes and over ambition has consigned it to being a 24 foot by 10 foot double line oval with storage sidings and a few other features, but nothing that would make it a layout. The time has come to tackle something less ambitions on which I can try out some of the things I have been wanting to do for a while now. Therefore the thought of a little shunting puzzle style layout was born. The idea is that Daniel (my son) and I will build it together and both use it to increase our skills and test out ideas.
     
    We have a few constraints, the only real storage location at home is in the loft, so the baseboards must fit through the loft hatch. So 2 foot is about the maximum width of a board, fortunately height in the loft is not an issue, so the length can be more generous, but I want something that will go in an estate car with relative ease. The boards also need to be light enough to be lifted into the loft. Therefore this first board is going to be 5 feet by 2 feet, actually 1524mm by 610mm as far as the wood yard are concerned.
     
    Plans have been drawn up, based on an ignlenock design with an added headshunt.

    The concept is a set of sidings alongside a wharf, with the line entering from the left though a wooded area. The land to the left of the wharf will slope gently down into the river, whilst the wharf itself will have a section dropped down to accommodate a barge or similar alongside. I want to avoid a totally flat layout, but equally I not not intend to set it in a mountainous location.
     
    The things I want to try out on this little layout are:
    Hand built points - I have made one so far and it looks ok, but only time will tell on the running side.
    Servo motors for point motors - again I have experimented and they seem to work fine.
    Use of the MERG CBUS system for control
    I want to ply with JMRI for a panel, and may even go as far as a touch screen
    Mimic diagrams with track occupancy detection fee back
    [*]Creating some scenery, and making use of my static grass machine. So far I have concentrated on rolling stock and electronics for club layouts, so I would like to branch out a bit.
    [*]Add some working accessory, such as a small crane powered by some of the servos


    This weekend the wood has been ordered, in fact I have ordered two sets so that I can have a second baseboard ready for when we want to move on to the next project. The baseboards themselves will be built using the Barry Norman technique of 4mm plywood top and beams made of 4mm ply sandwiches. There is enough in an 8 by 4 sheet of 4mm ply to allow me to build a flat top 3 foot board to act as a simple fiddle yard - probably cassette based. Whilst not big this would allow a few small goods trains to be made up off scene and then driven in to be shunted.
     
    As for a name, I think we will name it after the source of the little wooden coffee stirrers we plan to use to face the wharf. These came from the coffee shop on board Independence Of The Seas, so we think we might christian the layout "Independence Wharf".
  24. 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.
  25. GWMark

    72xx In Motion

    By GWMark,

    As promised I did a little video last night of the 72xx moving on Hinton Parva. It's not the best video ever and it is a little short, but it does show it moving.
     
    http://youtu.be/xWOIUcAB2Fo
     
     
    Later I had it doing circuits of the club test track, it was taking 10 minutes to do one circuit, I'm not sure of the size of the test track, but I think it is about 20 feet by 10 feet. Now all I need to do is finish it, there's that word again, "finish", I must look it up some time, something to do with Scandinavians I think
     
    Mark
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