Portchullin Tatty

David

Markits do (or at least did) produce a P4 axle?

I use them and a set of Markit wheels during the chassis builds as the self quartering function takes one of the unknowns away during a build.  It means that you only ever need to put the Gibson (or other) wheels on once at the end of the build.

Mark

Have you thought about making the tender body as an etch, there is a depression where the coal slope is and I would suggest you need the thinness but also robustness of the brass to make a durable but convincing tender flair?

Looks good David; you have at least one sale!

You need to get the dirt out Robin; there are a lot of clean locos in the stud now!!

The last Dave Franks chassis I completed was constructed as a split chassis with cast brass AG wheels.  It was pretty simple to do but does lead to a little loss of the brake operating gear but this is invisible under the front footsteps.

Very fine

Hi Dave

I will be embarking on one of these before too long too.  

However, I decided to decline the use of the compensated bogies provided in the kit.  I have never been a fan of the split bogies that Alistair Wright designed.  Instead I have designed a sprung bogie based on my standard Fox bogie.  You can see some pictures of the artwork in my 8 June post on the Scalefour Society forum https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=1345&start=275#p76129

It will be interesting to see how the two solutions compare!

Mark

I wonder what 'too many railway books' looks like. 

Simple - no such thing!

Do you have a "mint gauge"?  Reference RSG in the Scalefour Society's stores.

It is a very useful tool for finding misalignment through turnouts or tight to gauge sections.

you are making me feel guilty, I must finish mine.

You have given me a four year head start and still might beat me!

Hi Ant,

Nice to see this emerge; they are beautifully ugly locos!

If you follow my blog, you will see the efforts I have made with a 4mm scrap tank.  I really must get on and finish this and get a second test etch done (although I hear that PPD have closed down due to Covid).

One challenge you will face is that there are no known widths for the loco.  Eddie Bellis (the author of the drawing in my father's book) produced what he did from a face on diagram as that was all that there was available.  I based my drawings on the Drummond Passenger tank as this made sense in terms of the magnitude of the locos are similar - I think it works when you see the 3D model photographs.

I can share with you the information that I have (which I warn is not that much!) and the artwork drawings, contact me off line?

Mark Tatlow

If you get the opportunity to do the line that runs past you to North Vancouver do take it; it is amazing.  The passenger trains stopped a while back but if you ship all your employer's product by rail, get chatting?

To be fair, the other lines in BC are pretty amazing too!!

Andy, what is the source of the stonework?  I don't recognise it?

Also, was the roof really laid with pantiles?

Wonderful locomotive (real and model!)

That i a fine model Dave; i particularly like the weathering.

18 hours ago, ullypug said:

Yes that’s correct Mark. In EM the reduced  back to backs also don’t correlate to the holes in the W iron base. Having used them before I was aware of the problem hence my soldering to copper clad then cutting an enlarged hole with the mini drill.

Hmmmm, I arrived at a similar conclusion; a lot of additional work (actually a complete replacement for me as I tried to grind them and ended up damaging them.

I will talk to Derek about this the next time I see him as the mods to the artwork will be very straightforward.

Looking at the chassis, am I correct in you have encountered the same problem with the Bill Bedford NPCS W-irons that I have?

This is that with the larger wheel and the slightly reduced depth from the underside of the solebars to the axle centre point, the wheel rim ends up rubbing on the side of the base plate?  You seem to have soldered the unit in place and then ground out the baseplate where the wheel rims are?  Is this correct?

The NPCS w-irons need a redesign in my view!!

Mark

Very neat and very characteristic of the scottish lines.

I like the Comet chassis because they are all CAD drawn and thus the leap of faith in relying on their accuracy is smaller than the leap of faith of trying to do it myself!!

What I actually do is use digital calipers to carefully measure the centre to centre distance of the rods and then the hornguides (measure the minimum dimension and then the maximum before averaging them).  The hornguides are, as etched, fractionally tight anyway so a couple of strokes on the sides are required and if you have measured before hand, you can apply these to the appropriate side.

I find this quite effective and I would steer people to Comet chassis for their first taste of chassis building as a result (although Mousa Models have similar characteristics).

What I do find with the Comet approach is that their little springs can bounce out only too easily.  I have soldered them on the top of the bearing but have since designed a little carrier to work on the Comet hornblocks (something similar from http://website.rumneymodels.co.uk/miscellaneous)and use CSBs.

The inside motion looks fun; must have a bash at this and it is useful to know that Brassmasters sell it separately.

Looks pukka Andrew!

Surely that is a job for photo etching?

Snap:

https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/11/24/oxford-rail-north-british-jubilee-wagon/

https://highlandmiscellany.com/2016/12/18/improving-the-oxford-rail-north-british-jubilee-wagon/

I found the buffers were a bit long too and I note that there are no works plates on the Newbattle version; both easily fixed.

Beware the multi-port connectors as they are not rated that high and I have managed to burn mine out.

See link to my blog for proof!  https://highlandmiscellany.com/2017/04/15/two-steps-forward-and-one-back/

You will be OK with lower currents no doubt, but I have ditched mine. 

Mike,

A caution I would offer is that I find that boilers that have been half etched can be very thin and prone to damage.  Be very careful when you drill the boiler to accept boiler fittings/handrails etc as the pressure of the drill bit can deform it.

I now either discard the half etched boiler and make a fresh one from brass tube or use the tube and wrap the half etch boiler around this.

I would be hesitent to use wallpaper size to secure the template to the boards.  It is likely to be a water soluable glue and this prone to re-releasing if it gets wet? 

Perhaps go over with something like Resin W, as this soaks through the paper it will impregnate the cork below too?

Pete,

Contact me offline, I have measured up Thurso's train shed - it is not as small as you might imagine..................  Must get around to finishing that drawing to enable me to settle down and make it.

If Richard has not already offered, he has a fair few photos of it in the 1970s