TimC

Giles - Great! Many thanks.

Giles It'll get finished, no fear of that - there is already another vehicle waiting for conversion....... Thanks for the tip regarding the headlights. Now while I think about it, I'm guessing that you removed all the glazing, wipers and mirrors prior to respraying the cab - do they come off easy? Also the old axle hub on the front wheels did you remove this prior to filling with milliput?

Didn't get as far as I hoped yesterday but at least I made some progress. The lorry put up a fight when it came to dismantling. The small screws are not slotted or cross headed but an unusal indented triangle style and while all but one came out easily enough, the one under the cab was a real basket to get out . After stripping the model down I was going to build up the front wheels with milliput but having the lorry at the club rooms and leaving my milliput at home was not going to get that job done so I've started opeing out the space for the motor gearbox and bevel gears. Just need to open out the space for the servo. Hopefully next week will be more productive......

Martin Very nice - should be plenty of room to put the road / rail gear too .... I'll get my coat..........

At the Thornbury show most years there is a bus layout - the kids love it! It works on a derivation of the Faller system though so it is not RC.

If you get the RC road vehicle bug really bad then you could take it a stage further and model a typical goods yard in the 21st Century....i.e. a supermarket!

Hmmm, your 100:1 ratio is supposed to give 120rpm at 6V - which you would think would be about 80rpm at 3.7V so say 8.5mph scale speed. I got my motor off eBay so I'll have to test it at 6V and then maybe 12V to see what speeds I get. I suspect it isn't the spec as described. I've got a growing list of projects I want to try with these motors so I'll find a use for it no doubt. I got my bevel gears from Technobots too - dangerous website that - lots of interesting looking stuff.......

I think you maybe right regarding the 12V and I did wonder whether the transmitter reset itself. Anyway, we'll get there in the end, at least I've spotted the issue prior to installation.

Giles, the motor was allegedly a 6V 100rpm but I doubt it (!) so I've ordered three others - all 6V one each at 300rpm 400rpm and a 540rpm. The 1970s era Mercedes truck I have my eye on has smaller wheels than the Ford Thames so I'll need a faster drive in any case. I've got this right haven't I? 32rpm on a 3ft diameter wheel (ish) - 32rpmx3.142(pi)x3(2r)x60(minutes)=18097.92ft/h; 5280ft in a mile; therefore 3.42mph This afternoon while waiting for some information for some work I was supposed to be doing I had a read of the MLP2DSM transmitter manual (as supplied with some indoor helicopter) and I must check that mine isn't set to 'low' responsiveness (press down hard on the right hand side lever - similar to the action to bind the receiver which uses the LHS lever). Thanks for the tip regarding the load bed, I haven't yet had a good look on how it comes apart.

Well yesterday was a productive one down the club. I made up a battery charger for the LiPo batteries. Its a very simple circuit (purchased as a kit off eBay) which I've adapted to give a variable maximum current output and I've also added a meter so I can ensure that I don't 'cook' any of the batteries. It just needs 5 minutes with the label machine now to finish it off. The steering blocks didn't take too long to fashion from 5mm square brass. I'll solder them all together with solder cream and a quick blast from the RSU and trim down the pivot posts to a shorter length. I'll leave the steering horns off for now so I can play around with these to see what works best in due course. Giles used shouldered bearings and I've some on order (from China) so they'll take a bit to arrive so I'll just go along with these plain ones for now. At this stage, I'm not really fussed if I find that I need to remake these parts - its all part of the learning curve. After all this is just a test build as I model BR Blue era (early 1980s) so I'll get this one sorted and keep an eye out for a more suitable vehicle for my era. The lorry is a tad bright and I don't really like the 'body' on the back. I'll get the mechanism sorted then worry about the cosmetics but I've got some BR Maroon and BR Green in a Life Colour paints pack that I've got no other use for so I guess it will end up one or the other. My motor/gearbox that does 32 rpm equates to around 3.5 mph so I've ordered a faster motor to give me 10 mph - should be plenty for layout use. Next week, I'll start disassembling the lorry and beefing up the wheels to take the bearings. Its the Club AGM next week so I'll only get the morning but watch this space.....

Very nice Dave! I especially like the bufferbeam weathering where the 3 link has swung side to side - very nicely done!

Giles Thanks! However, this is my club project so I'll only get to work on it on Tuesdays - I've got other home projects that I must crack on with at the moment. I'm hoping my mate Jim ('Flubrush') is going to give me a hand with some machining on the steering blocks so it'll depend too on how that goes as to the speed of completion. Yes, we'll certainly meet up at some time and try to avoid getting crushed by Pugsley's Unimog!

I've got the RC bits lashed up and all working. Binding the the receiver (I used a DT Rx43d-2-v5) and the Blade transmitter (picked up as a spare from Midland Helicopters, £20 plus P&P) was just a case of simply following the instructions. I'm very impressed with the precision of the control and those little motor gearboxes are very torquey - I'm now planing to use two of them in 7mm Ruston 88DS 4w shunter I'm going to build. The tape on the motor shaft was there so I could gauge the actual speed (32rpm with this particular battery) so I can calculate the road speed of the vehicle. Hopefully, postie will not be too long with the lorry and then I can move onto the mechanicals.

Giles Great shots - most helpful. Do you drive both wheels then on the rear? I know there was previous discussion over just driving one wheel to act as a 'quasi' differential. I'm guessing you've not found this necessary.

Batteries were this afternoons area of research. There is a very useful primer on LiPo type batteries here. http://learn.adafruit.com/li-ion-and-lipoly-batteries It is clear that these types of batteries are not to taken lightly and their ability to catch fire if not charged/treated correctly is a real issue. There is a chap on a well known auction site that is selling a LiPo Battery Back Up Charger kit (for Raspberry related projects) for a few quid - I've ordered one but then I'm happy soldering a few bits together and may add an ammeter and some switching so I can vary the charging current. I've also ordered an iPod Nano 1st generation replacement battery (same as Giles has used). Motor/gearbox, servo and bevel gears arrived this morning in the post - not bad as they were only ordered yesterday afternoon. A few things to play with while my Ford Thames finds its way to these shores.....

Giles Many thanks. I spent most of yesterday evening looking on-line at the various RC videos including the Deltang ones and I've already started getting a few bits as I'll certainly have a go at an RC lorry. I'll let you know how I get on.

Giles I can watch that video clip over and over again! Now, I've been through this thread again and I feel that slippery slope of yet another project I want to do. However, I've no knowledge of the RC world (as yet ). What transmitter do you have? Could you get away with just a two channel 2.4GHz set (steering/drive)? Thanks in advance.

Looks the biz! Very nice.

Here are a couple of pics of Pixash Lane I took at the 2012 WestonSM show.

Somerset Lane (well, half of it) had a trip out to the Bristol O Gauge Show on Sunday as part of the Sodbury Vale MRC Stand. It is appearing in its entirety this Saturday, 26 January 2013, at the Sodbury Vale MRC Show at St Mary's Church & Church Hall, Yate, BS37 5BG. See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66352-yate-model-railway-show-26-january-2013/ Other RMweb favourites will be there too - Wales Rails Rain & Steel, St Juilot, Whitney Euston and many other layouts too. If you are in the area come and say hello! [Edit - It helps if I use the Church's postcode and not mine at home!]

I wish! Brian would have cleared my kit backlog in a blink of an eye compared to my speed of progress. Maybe whats on the list for next year....

Jeez - Its been a while since I've posted anything on my workbench thread. I'll try and get a bit more organised with some photos over the coming weeks. The 3 CCTs are now awaiting paint shops - they are 99% complete just a little bit of fettling to get the roofs to fit on no's 2&3 and post painting work like the glazing to do. I'll take them down to the next AGOG meeting for a spin around the test track. Over Christmas, I started 3 JLTRT Class 37s. I plan to build the bodies in parallel then I'll tackle each chassis in turn. These will be 37088, 37187 and 37210 - all in circa 1981 condition. Progress to date has been slow as I've tied up with helping to sort out the forthcoming Sodbury Vale MRC Show in Yate, on 26 January 2013. I'm hoping to get a better run at my modelling projects once the show is over. Somerset Lane is finished (well all my bits are finished.....) and, as we've no immediate plans for another layout, I've got a few projects in mind to do during club time in the near future - so watch this space.

Great looking layout! What is the parentage of those grain hoppers? BTW - that link to the old story just takes me to the RMweb forums homepage.

Brian Can you please bring your 37193 to Bristol - the one with JLTRT Ploughs. Thanks

Looking good Dave! I love my RSU too - I use the C&L solder cream but even though its 'no clean' I always find that it leaves a greasy residue so the etches need a rinse afterwards. The creams are expensive but you use very little and there is very little wastage (ie more solder around the joint than necessary).