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richbrummitt

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  1. richbrummitt
    Back in the spring (installment 5) I had got the wheels turning again, albeit briefly. I since solved the problem of passing the pick ups through the footplate and onto the motor and had the engine on the track rather than a direct power supply for the first time since the body upgrade started.
     
    The motor is retained in the lower visible part of the boiler, which is removable with the footplate. The tanks and smokebox cover over this. The worm mesh is separated every time the body is removed. This being the compromise for modelling the bottom of the boiler and the balancing pipe between the tanks. I contemplated several solutions and consulted the 2mm ZAG on the possibilities of passing track voltage from the chassis to the lower body section before realising the solution of phosphor bronze tangs sticking up vertically with suitable bends to bear upon some very thin double-sided copperclad sweated to the insides of the firebox forming the a contact pad. These tangs take up space either side of the worm - not yet used for anything else - and there is room on the pad to have the motor wires soldered on in the future.
     

     
    The pads have some temporary (thick) wires on to attach to the motor wiring until the final fix
     

     
    It was not working so well though, even with some weight added to aid pickup. I reasoned that either the ebay coreless motors are awful or something else was up with this previously operational chassis. It turns out it was a bit of both! I indulged in a Tramfabriek motor to prove the point on the motor and there was obviously more torque available. This was a strong step in the right direction and with some loctite holding the worm on the shaft in place of superglue the motor was turning the wheels or stalled. This chassis must have rather suffered at my hands during this body re-modeling since the movement was not as smooth as I recall. Particularly when going forwards the engine will not start smoothly, requiring extra voltage from the controller and then shooting off a little quickly. There is some noticeable gear or grinding noise, not much, but more so in the forward direction. I've tried a number of things:
     
    Separating the wormwheel from the second stage reduction along the axis of the idler in case there was some interference with the teeth Removing further material from the backhead Additional mass (to try and aid pick up but it seemed only to make the stalls worse) Clearing the gears, in particular the worm (the spur gears were done originally), of any burrs Tweaking the worm mesh Wiring the controller directly to the motor  
    It was getting closer but not good enough to avoid the stalling. The engine sat back in a drawer until I felt less grumpy about it. 
     
    I again sought the help of friends for suggestions or advice. @queensquare suggested to give it a good wash in some cleaner (IPA) and if that didn't sort things then action should be what I feared: it was time to go backwards until the problem could be found. Remove the body and motor; get back to a rolling chassis. Check. Then: coupling rods off; secondary pick ups off; and if still all is not well then wheels out and start over. 
     
    After a good clean the coupling rods and secondary pick ups are off. The former retained, the latter (now just bent and manky looking phosphor bronze wire) binned. 
     
    It was rolling reasonably well after this brutality, but perhaps not quite perfectly. I have put it all back together for wiring the motor directly to the controller for another test. Unfortunately lack of materials halts progress now because the long lengths of wire I had used previously now seem inflexible enough to tell whether smooth operation has been achieved; the wire is influencing the engine on the track.  I've ordered some wire for Ogbourne and added some extra wire with many thin cores and the thinnest insulation I could find to the order in the hope it is extra flexible. 
     
     
  2. richbrummitt
    A short entry - a stub if you like just to conclude this series of entries on the Mink F build(s). 
     
    Paint was from my usual citadel pots. Transfers from Fox (usual disclaimer). I used gloss before and after the transfers followed by a matt coat. All by brush. I had greater success with transfers than I have had previously so it must be technique learned. Some final toning down of the transfers (they’re always so white) is required, along with chalk marks &c. 
     

  3. richbrummitt
    I was found recently wishing that I had posted this blog entry some years previously such that I would have had the information contained within. Back before Coronavirus, a job change, my wife going through childbirth, a house move, and a job change I posted this entry. 
    The subject of that entry has since been finished, painted and lettered but I never did write up how I got there. People who had printers wanting files to test volunteered to print something and I had the 3D file. That gave me two more to make. Looking back to my blog and under the completed model left me scratching my head - a lot - because it was not immediately obvious how I'd completed the under-gubbins. The bogies were obviously association parts for GWR plate frame bogies and there was a 'floor' with queen posts and truss rods that seemed to agree with a fuzzy memory of cross drilling small diameter brass rod but I really wasn't sure where I'd obtained the Vs from to support the cross shafts for the brake and the brake handle. Those for the latter looked to be created/fitted in a rather odd way. I went about making some components.
     

     
    The 'floor' was snipped from 0.010" n/s sheet and marked for the various holes and slots thought necessary. I planned to make the queen posts by fixing 0.3mm n/s wire through a slot each side made with a piercing saw (#0/4 blade is about right for width) covered over with small bore brass tube 0.3mm inside and 0.8mm outside diameter. The hole for the vacuum cylinder was made off set from the centre line. The centre line helps with aligning the central V hangers. I took the V hangers from a 2mm association etch for an underframe with GW DC brakes (2-361). These were a bit long so I elected to fit them above the 'floor', even more so by doubling over the material to space them further upwards. This meant making slots for the Vs to pass through. The length of the floor was made to set the length and angle of the truss rods when fixed to the outer corners. The truss rods were made by cross drilling 0.45mm brass rod. I found this could be achieved by flattening the rod between small nosed pliers where the holes are to be. Holding the rod in an engineers pin chuck and securing that in a bench vice I marked for drilling with a point from dividers. Without this the 0.3mm just wanders over the not-quite-flat flattened section of rod. Also in the above picture is the beginning of the brake pull rods. The crank is shaped around 3 holes drilled in a line in a part of the donor etch material waste. It was left long at one end until the first of the pull rods was fixed in place to make it easier to hold and then filed to the shape seen. Not seen are brake handles (also from the donor etch).
     

     
    The central Vs fixed in place with the vacuum cylinder (also 2mm shop part). The Vs for the brake handle cross shaft needed to be mounted above also and that required some manipulation and reduction of the one end of the 2mm chassis etch donor. This is the end that originally had 3 hangers on (the other has just 2). If it looks wonky that's because it is - the hangers on the Mink F are isosceles triangle instead of the right angle of the etch - they've been bent appropriately and the joins reinforced with solder.
     

     
    The remainder of the brakes (less handles) fitted and trimmed in an assembly order that made sense ensuring that the movement makes sense for applying the brakes: It's' something that I tend to spot and I've seen two many (at least one) models where if it were possible to move the brake lever/handle and the brake components then the brakes would not be applied, in fact quite the opposite. I always leave the handles themselves until last when test fitting to the body and the wire is left long here to facilitate. The brake linkage shown in the previous photo was cut to make the line from the cylinder to the cross shaft as well as the link between the cross shafts.
     

     
    The queen posts were positioned in the slots made in the floor. First I bent a right angle into some n/s wire 0.3mm diameter with a long tail across the floor aligned with the slots. The first bend provides some location where it is fitted tight within the slot. The second bend is made up through the slot after fixing the first side in place. The small bore tubes all cut to the same length are placed over and the truss rods over them secured down whilst held tightly. The ends are bent sharply downwards outside of the queen posts and fixed to the ends. No measuring required since that is taken care of by the floor already. 
     

     
    Now trimmed to length ready for a trial fit. 
     

     
    Checking the clearance and also the ride height. The bogies are running on the brass top hat bearings supplied with the bogie stretcher etch. The larger side is on top. The smaller side is filed back significantly to reduce the amount of slop so the bogies do not fall as far when placing or lifting the wagon from the rails. The filing can be best achieved by using a piece of material with a ~5mm hole around 2mm deep to place the bearing into whilst filing. Everything is still loose for now; the bogies are only secured once since their lower cross pieces will not endure repeat bending.
     

     
    Checking the ride height against something to hand. The siphon has been out of the box since it needs the roof refitting. This has been an excellent point to try out printing a load of milk churns. It must have taken a fall at some point since the buffer is an odd angle. 
     

     
    Securing of the bogies. This view hopefully shoes better the arrangement. A 10BA bolt is fitted from above the bolster printed in the body. Then 2 packing pieces from the bogie stretcher etch fit over that with the filed bearing next, then the bogie. A washer is required above the nut. There are four appropriately sized holes on the bogie stretcher etch (arranged around the part number etching) suited to this purpose that just need cutting out. I made a little nut spinner type tool out of the filing jig for the top hat bearings since it is has already served the primary purpose. With a little tweaking I found it was possible to adjust this to grip the nut for transferring, which made what is usually quite a fiddly job easy.
     
    The 'Dean' square style buffer housings with oval heads are filed up from coach buffer turnings whilst holding in a pin chuck. There are some lovely looking castings available in the 2mm shop nowadays, I think resulting from the efforts  of @-missy-, but I've always done mine this way since before they were available. Couplings will be fitted after painting. I've undercoated the bodies two different colours in the hope the final shade will vary a little. I think the grey is too light even for faded GWR grey?
     
    I said last time I only intended to make one of these Mink Fs. The GWR only built 8 so I now have nearly half this wagon stock in model form. Whilst I really do not plan to make any more - even though I do have another body to hand - this should now be here if I do come to need it again in the future and hopefully it has been interesting and or useful to others. 
  4. richbrummitt
    I started researching the details that are left to add and continued fabricating small fiddly things like brakes then the realisation: before I get much further with the detail I should ensure that it will actually work. 
     
    Something that I should have done before soldering anything to it was gap the PCB footplate on the bottom to maintain the isolation of the split frame chassis. This was completed without destroying anything much of what was already attached. The valances came away in two places where the tack soldering gave way.
     
    I removed some further material from the side of the firebox such that the worm mesh can be checked and the packing adjusted until it looked right. There is just a little further material to be removed from the packing at this stage.
     

     
    The hole is well hidden from view once the top is on. You'd have to be close up at track level, and looking upward, to see it. 
     

     
    Soon some testing must take place and that could mean playing trains. Buffers and couplings will be needed for maximum enjoyment. With the help of Steve and Nigel I found some buffers in the 2mm range that have the partial taper of the 'Churchward' type. They're not perfect - no step and the mounting plate is circular, not square. Looking at the above photo I can see the footplate is no longer a straight line and the join where I put the valance back behind the front step is quite obvious. Cruel are these photos at multiple times full size. Something that had been bugging me was the reversing rod. It was previously too high, slightly above the splasher. Photos suggest that it goes behind or the splasher is relieved to allow it to fit so I removed and reattached it lower down. I think it might be a little short now. Maybe the engine is in reverse gear?
     

     
    As previously estimated only a small amount of packing was required - less than 0.010" - fixed and filed down. Easier this way than trying to lower the motor. Had much more packing been necessary for mesh additional material removal would have been required from the tank/boiler casting (what's left of the Farish body on this). 
     
    With some superglue fixing the worm in place and a few volts applied to the motor wires I have observed the wheels turn once again. This was somewhat brief: After several full rotations the superglue bond gave up. Perhaps some further investigation required to see if this is a real problem or just poor gluing.  
     
  5. richbrummitt

    Frankenpannier V

    By richbrummitt,

    Time working on this has been reduced since going away at half term and building some baseboards for a 5' radius test track type 'layout' to enjoy with my son who is, fortunately, train mad. 
     
    Honestly it is those wiggly bits of pipework immediately in front of the cab below the tanks that I am avoiding. N Brass Locos have an ejector/injector casting but it does not look like the wet type that existed on pannier tanks when compared to photographs. 
     
    I have been focusing my efforts on the chassis instead. First off I checked the fit of an 'engine' in the boiler/tank space.
     

     
    This is held in place by the brass tabs left on the boiler lower portion being adjusted until they grip the can of the motor sufficiently. The motor is a 7x17mm coreless type from eBay. The firebox has been cut down as much as I dare on one side to check the mesh of the worm, which is infinitely adjustable by packing the motor fore and aft to suit. An initial look at this suggests that it will require minimal packing to get the mesh on assembly just right. The motor will necessarily remain part of the body to allow the bottom of the boiler to be modelled. Also visible in this view are the filed to size and shape sandboxes, which were drilled out to accept the lids. The latter began life as flanged crankpins. 
     
    The front guard irons have been reinstated. On 645/655 class the guard irons are on the ends of the brake pull rods but this engine has been so Swindonised by this time in it's life that the picture shows separate front guard irons. I wish I never cut them off because they are so far from the wheels now.
     

     
    Moving onto brakes: This was another job that I had been putting off since I saw a photo of the particular engine I had selected because the Swindonisation had also extended to replacement of the original inside brake pull rods to those wiggly external ones that I had hoped to avoid by building a 645/655 class. Oh well! 
     
    The original brakes that I had built for the original conversion were problematic and of the incorrect type. A new set were filed out of a set of frames that I was not going to use. There are/were two options with the 57xx replacement chassis; one for middle axle drive and one for rear axle drive. The former requires compromise with the gears visible if you want to avoid a skirt to the boiler (as the Farish body is cast). The latter is/was available as a separate etch with frames that can be substituted to allow the drive to be completely within the firebox - though machining of the body casting is necessary to get a motor in the boiler/tanks. I was never going to use the other set of frames and they had a convenient set of holes for the brake hangers at the correct spacing - I just had to mark out and file around them.
     
    A brake subassembly was built up around a second chassis as a jig. If I was building the whole kit from the beginning I would do it this way again. Surely I will build another pannier tank at some point and so this frame assembly will not be wasted. I do not like soldering anywhere near the wheels since the tyres are steel and I have suffered problems with rust. (On the independent recommendation of three people I now have a dehumidifier in the workshop, which will hopefully make a difference.) 
     

     
    This method also allows the brakes to be a completely separate assembly that will allow better ease of maintenance in the future should it be required. The downside is that only way that I could think of to attach it is by the copperclad between the brake pull rods with two screws into an additional frame spacer in the bottom of the firebox/ash pan area. Where the pull rods are outside of the wheels this will mean that the copperclad is visible between the rear coupled wheels. I'm not sure how intrusive this will be once painted and therefore how I feel about it. Next steps include cutting the assembly free by severing the ties at the top of the brake hangers and assembling the whole. What is left of the cut wire can be unsoldered and cleaned up to use the frames again for the next brake assembly and a further pannier tank.
     
    The photo below shows the corresponding location for the screws in the chassis. Nuts are soldered to the top of the additional frame spacer, which was necessarily soldered in place next to the wheels as I did not fancy removing/replacing them. 
     

     
    A packing piece of insulating material 1mm in thickness is needed between the chassis and brake assembly. A further interruption to modelling is about to happen: Christmas...
  6. richbrummitt

    Frankenpannier IV

    By richbrummitt,

    Following on from the previous installment a kind friend provided the image I was looking for of the target engine in early 1920s condition. There are several Swindon features to incorporate, particularly on the chassis, including reinstatement of the front guard irons. More of that in a future installment. 
     
    With the cab and bunker erected I moved my attention onto the boiler. Appropriately sized tube was cut to length and a balancing pipe for the tanks bent and attached before being tacked to the partial firebox to check height and level before creating the material to support the front end and further fixing.
     

     
    The balancing pipe was made from tube and so some wire was inserted to reduce distortion on the sharp bends.
     

     
    The boiler had to be cut away to allow the tank casting - I probably cannot justify calling it a body anymore - to fit. A reversing lever was formed and fitted too. It will be mostly hidden by tool box and handrail. 
     

     
    In a bits box I found some No. 1 toolboxes and various other castings from N brass locos that will assist greatly with progress around the footplate.
     

     
    I felt these needed some filling to reduce the prominence of various features. The unfettered versions is top right, subsequently treated to similar condition as bottom left. I cut and filed some lumps of brass 2x2x3mm for the front sand boxes too and trial fitted them with the tanks. The safety valve cover is a replacement part since I destroyed the first one after drilling it out too much.
     

     
    The toolbox height was felt to need some further reduction by more filing before final fit. One fitted I returned to the cab. A 'small backhead' was also in the bits box and this was fitted in place. More filing required to clear the gear train but that is now hidden - a great result.
     

     
    The cab floor, which I may have mentioned previously had to be adjusted. Fortunately it was still a loose part since I need to add a few more details to it before final fixing. The photograph shows the underside.
     

     
    I don't think the gaps will be visible normally 
     

     
    Whilst filing I also adjusted the rear cab steps to the style shown in the aforementioned prototype photo. Here's the current status.
     

  7. richbrummitt

    Possibilites

    By richbrummitt,

    The boards for a layout mentioned in my previous entry 'Name Change and Moving On' are predicated on fitting Burbage Wharf on 3 boards 650mm long and 450mm wide with a fiddle yard behind and end boards with full transition curves down to a minimum radius of around 2'6" to allow good running of a mixture of trains at appropriate speeds. This is obviously a longer term project but it could be built a board  or two at a time and have operational potential. Despite being a single siding on a double track main line it has plenty of operational scope, I believe. The east end board will have a single siding with a headshunt and the west end, with the single slip would allow for inglenook style operation with or without the length restrictions (these could be created by temporary obstruction). It would also make a really great photo plank. The boards are sized to fit in the cupboards under my workbench for more convenient storage. The only decision I haven't made yet that is required before starting the scenic boards is exactly where the track should lie in the depth of the landscape i.e. the distance from the board edge to the railway. This is somewhat related to the question of whether the Kennet and Avon canal should be in front or behind the trains, or rather which is the display side. Either orientation has it's pros and cons not least because the length is split in 3 and joins in water are going to be obvious. I printed a quarter size plan and made a half size model but neither have helped me come closer to a decision. 
     

     
    The plan. Top is the 'original' layout before doubling with my plans laid out over the top. Below is my adaptation with the siding shortened to fit the space. The trailing crossover to the siding from the down line is still at a similar distance from London but with the double line this shortens the loop.
     
    The half size mock up has the goods shed made up out of multiple layers of the same box used for the rest of it. The other light brown 'lumps' are the cattle dock and the signal box (which should be larger but the pieces were a bit small to stick well). These two views are from the south so the canal is behind the railway.
     

     

     
    The only photographs I've seen (2) are taken from the overbridge in this direction. Only from higher up is the canal visible though.
     

     
    Looking from the north with the canal in front of the railway. Two baseboard joins in the water and the goods shed in front of the trains perhaps not the best viewing experience?
     

     

     
    Also covered previously is the prospect of a DJLC (Diamond Jubilee Layout Challenge) type layout. Littlemore was started for the Golden Jubilee. The size requirement is smaller - 600mm x 9.42in. Something small that could use the numbers of horseboxes and siphons I have - sounds like my requirements would lead down the same path that Mikkel went with the first of his Farthing layouts; The Bay. I've long admired Mikkel's work and have an interest in the Lambourn branch since assisting with operating this 2mm layout. Books covering Newbury as a station are on my bookshelf for no apparently good reason (maybe until now). The number of horseboxes I still have in hand to build are quite possibly more than would usually be useful on many layouts. I've made a model of this too, full size, although some of it is badly proportioned. Primarily I wished to get an idea of whether the canopy would damage the view of the layout since the human eye does not scale and whether the other view blockers could be effective to hide the exit and transition to the backscene. 
     

     
    I grabbed some stock from in the house so we've got Gordon's coaches (Minitrix Gresleys now twice repainted) and Percy's mail truck. They're good enough for a representation of size but not Great Western at all. Sorry. The only finished GW coaches I have were finished by Dapol so still not so appropriate.
     

     
    The idea would be to reuse a significant chunk of Littlemore. Ignoring the curve the layout is very similar. The track layout is reprinted from when I drew the plan for Littlemore over an import of the period OS map and the platform is the matching shape also. The additional siding for a loading dock would mimic Mikkel. Much of the rest is closer to the prototype. The siding on the run around should go behind the platform  with the building on, which is a bit wide. If the additional siding is to be kept then I think I should move it closer to the other lines, similar to the arrangement on the other side for Winchester. This would close up the corner that currently has nothing in it because in reality it is the entrance/exit road and yard for the up side.
     

     
    The signal box (top right, above) would block the exit to the fiddle yard. This means shortening the platform from the ~400ft of the prototype. The canopy in this mock up is longer than it needs to be. It could be around half the length and end just beyond the building opposite. I think this would be closer to the prototype. It's hard to tell sometimes from the available photographs. The lighter coloured block emerging from the bank and retaining wall is the water tank. The engine house is conveniently omitted from the modelled area somehow.
     

     
    Above a view from the fiddle yard end and below a couple more views.
     
     


     
    Being smaller this feels like it could be much more achievable in a reasonable timeframe but it is still a step backwards/sideways. Another possibility would be to actually finish Littlemore, possibly transposing it whole onto three shorter boards so that it stores in cupboards. (It's currently on two boards each around 1m long that were permanently joined). Tim Vs comments on the previous entry have really made me re-evaluate (again).
     
    Thoughts welcomed.
     
     
  8. richbrummitt
    Those that have followed this content over the last decade will be aware of a layout called Littlemore. It was seen operational with hardly any scenery at the 2mmSA 50th anniversary event and following that as a static demo at Peterborough in 2011. I worked on it some more since then, but not in the last 6 years. It's been sat in my new workshop for the last 4-5 years and been erected once. The latter event revealed that a number of Cobalt motors have failed (about half). Despite making the workshop large enough to erect it in it's entirety it is a tight fit and when folded and stored the design is such that, whilst compact, it only fits in the middle of the floor to one end of the free space. It would be most convenient if it would fit into the cupboards under my work surfaces but that would require a major reworking of the boards. When I built it I made some bold choices - by which I mean untried, untested and novel - and these have come to be problematic as time has passed and progress tried. Truthfully my attention and interest is on other things, and indeed some friends already know what my future plans are regarding a layout. 
     
    There are no plans to move house (hopefully ever again) and the workshop is established. One good idea for storing the layout is, I think, to be able to store it in the cupboards under one of my work surfaces and swap the layout with various machine tools and other items so that some or all of either the scenic section of a layout, or the tools &c that take bench space can be out at one time. This will create space in the workshop and should make it more pleasant and habitable. If I am starting over with the baseboards then I am starting over with a layout. Today that would not be the same layout since I now desire different things out of the model: Large engines (my favourite being 28xx) on reasonable length trains where rule 1 doesn't need to apply from something in most trains. I have a soft spot for brown vehicles (horseboxes/siphons &c.) and a branch line can only justify so much of that stuff and possibly none of some of the wagons in my stock box. I don't need a model of a station. A siding is mandatory for doing some shunting for operating sessions at home, but beyond that I really just want to see the trains run. (I must be one of those people for whom the layout is a means to display the trains.) For this reason I'm also completely sold on the idea of a roundy layout rather than a fiddle yard to fiddle yard set up - not necessarily for home use where a bit of shunting and use as a grandiose photo plank is what I am looking at, but - for any exhibitions it might attend. I've taken delivery of the baseboard kits already and at 650x450mm for the main scenic boards, 650x300 for the fiddle yard boards they are all portable enough, although they may not all fit in the car at one time with the end boards if more than 1 passenger is present.
     
    Littlemore is therefore at risk of being no-more. I feel that I should be more sad to break it up than I think I would be and considered storing it in the loft. Doing so would allow time to make a decision and maybe one day retrieve it and complete it. It was disheartening when I last erected it and found that it needed a bunch of work to get it back to an operational state. Last year there was the call for layouts to be built as a challenge to get something smaller built as a possible entry into getting something going in 2mm, either as a stand alone layout or as the beginning of a larger project for the 60th anniversary event. I've thought a lot about what I could make, decided over and again that I would not or could not build something in the space or time available, and done nothing. I am still tempted to try though. Due to a clash of dates the event has moved back a week meaning that it might be possible for me to attend. I've thought again about a layout, which could potentially reuse a portion of the trackwork from Littlemore to give me a start. A rough calculation on weeks remaining and average modelling hours per week gives a product of around 180 modelling hours remaining. I estimate that's about the number of person-hours that goes into a Great British Model Railway challenge layout during the show. It is evident that they use a large amount of RTP along with their pre-built items. Not only would I like to aim for a higher fidelity I have failed miserably to work to deadlines and do not like to rush things when they are meant to be for pleasure. I still think that maybe it is something I should do as a preparatory prior to the larger project to have something achievable in a short amount of time. 
  9. richbrummitt
    With the bunker in place it was on to the cab next. First of all though some business below the footplate: steps. I wanted all the steps to be uniform section. Rather than try to bend neat channel up from flat sheet I reasoned to have a go at filing the required section from a piece of brass bar given how small they are. The whole bar was clamped in the vice for ease of holding whilst first the channel was formed. 
     

     
    A serious of slits made to create individual step 'fingers' with a fine piercing saw.
     
     
     

     
    These were then fitted in place. 
     

     
    A basic firebox has been bent up and soldered in place and the side beading on the cab has also fitted. The cab beading started as a thin etch strip, which was drilled close to the end to accept the handrail wire. The strip was shaped and adjusted and readjusted and adjusted some more with tweezers and small smooth jaw pliers until the shape matched closely with the cab side sheet before carefully soldering in place. A dimple was drilled into the footplate to locate the handrail and I started soldering there. (My first effort commenced with soldering the beading and caused a separation of the handrail - beading join and a fruitless search for ~10mm of 0.3mm dia. n/s wire on the floor.) Carefully the beading was held in correct alignment and soldered a little at a time until it was all in place before filing back to nearly flush. 
     

     
    A detail that I noticed when poring over photographs is a detail on 645 class that does not seem to be present on any other type of pannier tank is that the footplate is cut away at the top of the cab steps so I've done the same. (The front guard irons will need to be cut off since I haven't seen a 645 class with any of those.) A cab roof has also been cut rolled and fitted. The final size adjustment was made by filing after fixing in place. I pondered whether fitting this now would restrict access for fitting further detail (springs, reverser, backhead, floor, &c.) but of those details that will be visible around a fireman and guard they are the larger items and the backhead will need to be glued in place anyway since I plan to use a steamprint/NBS one from shapeways, which is plastic. Here's the current status with the chassis and what's left of the Farish body balanced. 
     

     
    A replacement safety valve bonnet is on order, and with a chimney and buffers it will be smaller and smaller details. That said the new motor mount (with the tanks lowered the old one will no longer fit and is unsuitable for modification) and body fixings are fairly major details still to be sorted and I shouldn't put them off much longer. 
     
    According to a thread I found the other day but can no longer locate there is a picture of my chosen engine (769) in Locomotives Illustrated 118 on p19. I've not yet found a copy but I would be very interested to see the picture if anyone knows an alternate source of the image...
  10. richbrummitt

    Frankenpannier II

    By richbrummitt,

    Following discussions on the previous entry I reasoned to construct a cab before making a decision about the tanks being close enough to the right size or completely unusable. I also went looking for a suitable engine in RCTS i.e. one that would have the potential to be on the lines of the ex. B&HER, on which more another time. The 645 and 655 class were originally Wolverhampton engines and most of them stayed 'North'. From locomotive allocations I've got 769 and 1804 at Bristol, which is a close to the B&HER as I can get. 1801 and 2701 were at Severn Tunnel Jcn. Of these the Severn Tunnel Jcn. engines were the first to have panniers but not until 1920. 1804 didn't receive them until 1926 - a little late for me - but 769 was adorned such at the end of 1922. That's in my post WWI to start of grouping modelling period and hopefully avoids me going full scratch build to create a saddle tank! According to RCTS 769 also had top feed at some point. Arrgh: I already filed this off the tanks I've got left over from the Farish body I've now discarded most off. 
     
    Looking at plenty of drawings and pictures of the cab the first thing that struck me was that compared to the cabs on engines in the Churchward era the side profile of the cabs is very much different. I made up a new file for the milling machine and after much head scratching to work out why I wasn't getting sensible output from the stepper motors I eventually got some new cab side sheets cut out. For some reason the tool list in my CAM software had replaced itself and I was trying to run at a feed of 15000mm/min, something the motors just won't keep up with, rather than around 120. This should have been really obvious when reading the .nc file, but I also had a duff version of the file I was comparing to with speeds that would also cause a huge number of skipped steps. I cut and filed up a cab front, soldered in position, and cut another large chunk of the Farish body away (the portion inside the cab and bunker) so that it could all fit together. The cab spectacles are probably a little undersize. I haven't found a definitive dimension and it's much easier to make them larger than try and put some metal back!
     


     
    The chimney - which was the incorrect tapered type - has been removed and the tanks lowered. This means that at present the body no longer fits on the chassis; the motor mount fouls the inside top of the tanks. Comparing with pictures the raised firebox on the 57xx was new with pannier tanks for that time. It was off with the safety valve cover, which didn't survive being centre popped out of the fixing hole, and more filing to get the firebox closer to flush.
     

     
    I am starting to wonder if the tank top with the plate over the tanks is representative of pannier tanks of the early 1920s. I've also filed back the cover for the lubricating? pipework into the smokebox and the tank vents. Oh, to find an above view. Maybe it is better to carry on in ignorance? I'll need to do a new smokebox door in time regardless because the moulded one is too flat, and quite possibly should be the earlier style with a dished front and a circular rim/border.
     
    Whilst I continue to search in books (I've gone through several likely tomes off my shelves without finding anything yet) there are plenty of other things that this engine will need. One such prominent item is the bunker. I followed some dimensions from drawings but couldn't reconcile the width with pictures. I'm absolutely convinced that the bunker at it's narrowest is as wide as the cab and the flares protrude beyond that profile even though the dimensioned drawing of a bunker I was looking at, presumably for the original bunker size, has a width much less. Did they get wider with time? They definitely got larger in other respects. I hope that I don't need to remake this narrower later on.
     
    I made the bunker from etch waste. I always save the edge pieces. The lower portion was made first with two parallel bends made in a precision vice, carefully measured to be the correct separation to create a bunker the same width as the cab. The sides were made overlong and then made to length after bending. The flare was made, again held in the vice, by gripping with smooth jawed pliers around a 3.5mm drill bit to create the large radius curve. I've not made such a shape before and had read that the corners a tricky many times. I concur they are interesting for all the reasons I've read about. I cut a front and fixed it in place to make a rectangular tube and soldered it onto the footplate in the correct place. The extension was made in a similar way but bent with an increased corner radius and width to match the size of the flared bunker top. Copious amounts of solder were added here - something that's easy to do with multicore - to allow for material to file back and hide any small gaps, especially on the aforementioned corners where there are some tears from forming the flare. The sides are trimmed to length and shaped after fixing.
     

     
    The cut out visible in the cab front is to clear the worm gear, which just protrudes into the cab but should be hidden well enough by the backhead.
     
    A couple more pictures of the current status. Rat tale files have been used to clean up the excess solder and finish the corner shape. Whilst I'm still looking for that photograph that shows the tank tops there are still plenty more jobs around the footplate to be getting on with, and I need to create a new motor mount to allow the lowered tanks to fit over the chassis.
     


  11. richbrummitt

    Finished Goods

    By richbrummitt,

    Some of the wagons started several years ago as chassis for an article have finally been finished. The Minks are done. The Opens are waiting for inspiration on a good way to make the sheet supporter parts, having made a few false starts already. With them is my 'cliché' from two entries back (started around 5 years ago). It has been painted a long time and is now lettered. These are all done with Fox transfers which, aside from the time consumed assembling the numbers from individual digits, I have got along with rather well. 
     

     
    From left to right: Mink A, diagram V14; diagram V1 (second lot), V4 (a short one) and V5.
  12. richbrummitt

    Frankenpannier

    By richbrummitt,

    Way back when Chris Higgs offered me a test build of the conversion chassis for the Farish pannier tank I always knew that it should have a new footplate. Alas I've had an almost complete chassis under an entirely unmodified body for around a decade. Moreover for my intended time period I also knew the body would require some changes beyond detailing to represent one of the predecessors of the 57xx class. 
     
    The photograph below shows how far I got in two days. Day one was spent machining off the cast running plate, followed by marking up and cutting out a new one. I used 0.4mm double sided copper clad with a view to providing the chassis insulation for the split frame in the underside of it. I also removed the top feed and various other details from the tanks. More than half of day two was spent making the splashers. First turning a couple if fat tubes with appropriate inside diameter and soldering a disc to create the front face. I got three splashers out of each of two discs.  The coupling rod was used to mark off the splasher positions along the running plate. After soldering in place some awkward material removal remains under the splashers to create space for the wheels. What remained of the day allowed me to get a start on the buffer beams, valances and steps. All these are fretted and filed from n/s sheet. At the moment the rear is over long since I haven't finalised the exact engine and/or bunker size to determine the rear overhang. 
     

     
    Putting everything together I have some obvious dimensional differences. The can side is from a 28xx and dimensionally a little lacking in height.  The tanks are I think still too high - as is the running plate, I think - but I can't get them much if any lower. Oddly the buffers appear to be the correct height against other rolling stock, which is weird. I've also cut the rear steps too short by around 1mm. The firebox still protrudes too much. There's quite a lot left to do but I need to ponder these dimensional issues before progressing further.
     
    I deliberately haven't disclosed the class of engine. Maybe we should have answers in the comments. For those that don't remember or are new here (it has been 5 years) I'm aiming for early 1920s condition, which perhaps makes working this out a little harder. 
  13. richbrummitt
    After an offer to Rabs of a file to try on his (then new) printer rather a lot of time passed and after an almost near miss with the postal service a little package arrived through the door recently with a bright orange one of these in it.
     

     
    The detail is comparable to some of the finest stereolithography that I have witnessed from professional bureaus. I know Rabs has spent quite a lot of time tweaking and practicing, refining the machine and the process and it has been worthwhile. The next picture shows a close up.
     

     
    The stepping is visible but was quickly cleaned up with some small fine sanding sticks over the course of an evening, trying to avoid destroying the rivet detail. They were all there in the CAD file The upper end was the worst but being the end it will usually be less visible than the sides and I think it will be okay but not perfect once painted now I've smoothed it out. Under 9x magnification the rivets seem to have distorted here but they are barely visible to the naked eye at 2'.
     

     
    The resin is supposed to have similar properties to some injection moulded plastics. (I didn't ask which ones, because it isn't important to me, sorry.) It is a little brittle and I have lost one of the buffer housings already, along with a small amount of the headstock. This, I suspect, is due to the very thin wall thicknesses. I don't know what I was thinking when I modelled them because I can't use the buffer housings that remain: this type are too small to drill such that they will accept a shank and head when the shank is 0.5mm. It will be back to brass for the buffers in due course, and I have some small repairs to make.
     
    I had considered using this as a master for resin casting a few more of these but there were never many of them built and their size meant they were not very useful except for bulk volumes of traffic, which were often conveyed between major traffic centres under darkness. They would be great for anyone craving a 47xx that gets one. Except for that they are a bit of a GWR modelling cliché. At least my model of a branch line isn't a terminus
     
    So for the moment I'm continuing on as a one-off. I have built the bogies up to check the buffer height and having used nearly all the packing pieces on the bogie etch it's looking pretty good so far.
     

     
    The GPV at the right hand side shows quite clearly why you can't produce one of these from two iron mink kits.
     
    To be continued...
  14. richbrummitt

    Seven Up

    By richbrummitt,

    I felt I had free reign when I set up my workbench again to get out and start or re-start whatever I liked. The bench is temporary for the moment, because I want to rearrange the furniture to move my groaning bookcase next to a supported wall. I have been good though: most of the items on it were part finished when I packed them. The only 'new' items out are some 4 wheeled coaches and I'm convinced that it is much better to build these alongside some other short coaches that I started a long time ago.
     
    You may have seen these etches before on the What's On Your Workbench thread in the 2mm section of the forum.
     

     
    They cover pretty much every variation of the particular kit that has a body or body kit in the association shop. I built them for an article that the magazine editor now has in hand ready to assemble. (It's very picture heavy.) Hopefully it will be of use to someone.
     
    This left me with 7 wagons to make. Some of the more modern variations were subsequently chopped about or cut down to suit my requirements for models. First up were a few more resin Minks. These really are lovely and whilst a little more expensive than a plastic kit they really are very lovely. I said that already, sorry.
     

     
    From left to right: V5 (centre bonnet vent added, DC1 brakes); V14 (DC3 fitted); V16 (DC3 unfitted); V4 (DC1).
     
    Some Opens of various types and styles.
     

     
    From left to right: O5 (DC1 - uncommon with this brake and much more likely to have ordinary lever); O2 (DC2 fitted, clasp - also uncommon); O9 (DC2 fitted).
     
    The middle example is an LSWR 8 plank with the second top one removed. It will look a lot less untidy once it has a tarpaulin on, otherwise I'd be making more effort to cover my tracks. Some vacuum pipes to be added, along with replacing the ties between the W irons on the V14 and O9, although it is possible to find examples of fitted wagons without these they are the norm.
     
    Here are some cruel close ups because I was having fun getting better acquainted with a 4x lens and liking the results.
     

     
    V14 again. Nice buffers. These weren't available when I put together a V16 previously. I should have made an effort on a self contained buffer ages ago but Julia helped us all out. Thank you.
     

     
    V4. Is this roof okay? It's on the fret labelled 16' Mink roofs and the lines match up to the features but I cannot find a picture of a Mink with this type of roof in the many books I've trawled. Mex roofs are like this but I've not seen a single Mink and I'm concerned about creating an aberration.
     

     
    That awful plank gap again. Look at the chassis instead
     
    Having made a good bunch of coupling links for these I've finally taken many of the photographs I need to explain how the couplings are made. Unless I get distracted again that will be written up soon.
  15. richbrummitt

    Nothing to See Here

    By richbrummitt,

    Previously there was a 'workshop'...
     

     
    and then there was none...
     

     

     
    Don't worry: most of it ended up here just before Christmas.
     

     
    What didn't is in the garage. Once it's unpacked and sorted out I'll be back to it. I'm keen to do so but other areas of the house have taken priority. Fortunately there are no big jobs to undertake so it should be soon. The first decision will be which project to take out of the box first.
     
    There is a clue to a future short, (I hope), diversionary project in that last photograph if you know where to look and what you are looking at. I'll probably be starting a thread on it in due course.
  16. richbrummitt
    What might have been the last vaguely sunny evening of the year was used for getting the undercoat sprayed out in God's own paint booth. I am still working on a representation of the lake livery, which I personally think should be darker than most renditions I have seen. A mixture of a dark brown and deep red from the citadel range was used in this case.
     
    I thought I had all the details added and then, upon opening the white(ish) colour for the roofs, I realised there were no rain strips on the models! These were added in micro rod. You do need to have a plastic roof to solvent weld them on but they were easier to complete, and neater, like this than any other way I have tried for this detail.
     

     
    A couple of days later and the vehicles had livery and weathering completed. The picture below was taken at the 2mm AGM in Bolton and is the property of Mick Simpson (reproduced here with permission).
     

     
    I can't remember punching the rivets out on Mansel wheel inserts previously but on this larger than life portrait they do show. Unfortunately the short cuts I took with some of the brake details do too.
     
    According to the excellent articles in GWRJ on modern horse boxes 411 was delivered on the first lot of N12s during 1915 and 19 was delivered as part of the third and final lot of N12s before the end of 1918 so a workaday representation of the lake livery is appropriate for my c.1921 period and I'm reasonably happy with the final colour.
     
    With these finished it must be time for a rummage for the next project...
  17. richbrummitt
    It's been a while due to reducing this sprawl
     

     
    to something that was presentable. There was a concession to keep one desk for now (by the window) and so I have this week finally manage to squeeze a few useful hours furthering the odd project not currently mothballed.
     
    The horse boxes had a number of parts made or cut from the frets with the potential for loss when packed and I wanted to get them fitted. I had originally planned to finish these for next weekend and am now on a promise to myself to get them ready for mid-November.
     
    I've managed to get the buffer beams laminated and fitted along with the buffers, whitemetal castings, steps (why must NPCS have so many steps?), and brake rods. The chassis are now very nearly ready for paint with only couplings and vacuum pipes now required to complete.
     

     
    You may notice a small improvement in the close up photography? I treated myself to a 4x macro 'filter'. The man in the shop suggested this was the most cost effective way of photographing small items whilst retaining a decent depth of field that is not evident in the next picture.
     

     
    Much work remains to finish the detail on the body; not limited to the emergency cord detail and the handrails on the end with steps.
     
    Finally a reminder of how far I've already come...
     

  18. richbrummitt
    Despite the lack of posts I have got some work done. Much of it has been drawing bricks and stones but I still haven't got anything finished enough to print out and put together as a final version. Various draft station building have been trialled however. I have also made a pair of signal posts that await fittings and assembled some MSE arms to go on them. An order to Minx microdrives has provided the hardware to make them move when finished, along with bounce, and the interlocking for the lever frame has arrived from Australia this last week.
     
    The most visible work has been the terraforming. I started over with many areas to get a look I was happy with around the station area at the right hand end when compared with photographs. To the other end I have distorted reality to allow the contours to fall slightly such that rail level and slightly below rail level pictures can be taken. This was not possible with the previous shallow cutting for the whole length and will make the scene more visually appealing. I had been considering my options for adding the grass in the garden and embankments.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    This will possibly be the final entry for some time because sometimes life just gets in the way. Neither my wife or I wished to live in our current home forever but when we re-negotiated the mortgage last year we expected to be here a couple more years at least. I even managed to finish some projects off last year that have been ongoing for several years (since soon after we moved here in fact). It is highly probable that we are now in a situation to move to the kind of place we would love to have and that should we decide to have one be a family home. We have a need to de-clutter regardless but the time feels right to do this so we are very seriously looking at moving home in the near future if we can find a buyer and the right property becomes available.
     
    The spare bedroom is therefore required to appear like a spare bedroom again rather than a room for my tools and part built model train collection so it will have to be carefully ordered, packed and stored. I have no idea where I am going to store the layout yet and have considered whether starting over on it would be such a bad thing. There are a huge number of things that I didn't plan and the making it up as I went along could have worked out far better.
     
    It is unfortunate that I will have to break some of the commitments I made to exhibition managers but with this happening I do not see how I can possibly achieve what had been agreed as an acceptable standard of completion to present.
  19. richbrummitt
    I haven't given up! This evening I've put together one of the new range of buffer stops available from the 2mm SA.
     

     
    The etch folds in half to make up double thickness portions. A Z-fold makes the alignment of the three 'rail' portions to be joined quick easy. A choice of wood (represented by six thickness' of etch) or rail cross beams are supplied on the fret, but nothing looks quite as good as wood as wood itself. Using wood for the cross beam also solves the problem of isolating one rail from the other had the etched parts been used.
     

     

  20. richbrummitt
    A lack of posts over the last few weeks has been down to a lack of progress worth sharing. I've spent quite some time trying to get a system of operating the TOUs going over and over the options, trying and failing and re-thinking.
     
    Initially I used wires linked directly from the switches to the TOUs and when these were removed in favour of the lever frame I intended to use some kind of mechanical system and installed a crank arrangement to lead out from the frame.
     

     
    Servo arms were drilled out and mounted on telescoping brass tubing. This was connected to different control rod systems. The first wire in tube system from Model Signal Engineering was, in my opinion, very poor. There was a lot of clearance in the tube and a large input movement would be required to have any useful output movement once the slack is taken. This is worsened by every curve required. Sadly the movement from the lever frame and crank arrangement is not very large and although by not nearly the same margin the problem was found to exist in higher quality systems marketed as model aircraft control rods.
     
    I had a brief interlude considering servos based on some ideas I found on rmweb3
     

     
    The servo is stripped of it's control and microswitches with diodes are used to create the end stops. Although they would be cheaper than point motors there would be a lot of fabrication required that I don't have time for and I hadn't figured out how it would be possible to incorporate much, if any adjustment so I did what I should probably have done from the outset; dug deep and bought point slow motion motors.
     

     
    I went for cobalts because they are slow motion with a long springy actuation and a smaller footprint. I still had to cut them up a bit to fit them in where needed in this baseboard construction that, whilst it seemed like a good idea at the time, I continue to regret.
     

     
    The thing keeps consuming wire. I've moved the rest of the control to the front of the layout too. It should be possible to see from the photographs that the switches for the uncoupling magnets that I intend to need one day are recessed into the front.
     

     

     
    I had to have a good chop about to create access to fit the microswitches in the lever frames. This was not fun. What was worse was that initially I wired them up like am SPDT toggle but the common on a microswitch is not in the middle and so this didn't work. It took me a while to realise why the readings on the multi-tester did not make any sense. I had to unsolder and resolder the connections in these little apertures.
     

     
    Don't worry: I can hide the mess behind a facia covering of appropriate coloured mount board.
     
     
    It still didn't work. I checked the fuse and there wasn't one. When fitted I found that it worked and what's more I wired the first motor up the right way around first guess The feed is half wave AC provided by using diodes on the connections to the microswitches to avoid adding a further power supply to the layout. This winding on the transformer is shared with the electromagnets, but the power requirements for the point motors is not high and I think there will be enough juice to go around.
  21. richbrummitt

    Bricking It

    By richbrummitt,

    Aside from running out of ideas and being in desperate need of linking a lever frame with my TOUs so that I commence scenic work I have been slowly putting brick after brick individually in various walls.
     
    I have a plan to produce my own brick paper 'kits' for the three station buildings (station building, signal box and weighbridge hut/goods office) on the computer using photographs of actual bricks arranged to proper bricklaying practices in as much as I understand them before printing them on sticky backed papers and wrapping them around a laser cut former. The latter so the sizes of the building and openings are more accurate than I can cut by hand. Fortunately drawings of the station building appear in the OPC line history and the signal box is a standard type that is covered in the Ericplans book. The weighbridge hut/goods office is similar enough to the one in this book to have just the West window changed for a smaller one, as indicated by pictures.
     
    I began by getting frustrated wrestling with GIMP until I realised that a vector graphics program was what I required. I downloaded Inkscape and got moving reasonably quickly after digesting a few tutorials. It is quite tedious work and initially I wanted to get a feel for how long copying and placing individual bricks would take but things have progressed reasonably quickly and some re-use is possible. For example opposite sides can never be seen together so you only never need draw one side of the building before making allowances for the window openings. No-one would know that the bricks repeat unless they read this!
     
    Thus far I have the weighbridge hut/goods office structure brickwork completed and have made a start on both the signal box and station buildings. The first step was to draw out a side and end. I drew these polygons with no border so that the line width does not need to be considered. I wasn't going to attempt to use the brick photographs as it was because of matching up the tile and patterning issues. I planned to use the bricks but not the mortar. I drew the mortar outlines in an off white colour as a series of rectangles. These brick outlines have no fill and the outline is a scale 3/8". I used four sizes - stretcher, header, queen closure, and a header plus stretcher for 'corner bricks'. When drawing these you need to consider the thickness of the mortar outline. The error is tiny but over the length of a building the error accumulates quickly. Inkscape allows snapping to the bounding box and to use the centre of the outline for the bounding box rather than outer edge of the line. This makes putting the 'bricks' together really easy. It is tedious though and at the moment there is only the mortar. Once I started drawing the bricks I found that I needed to adjust the sizes of the walls slightly to fit the bricks but these really are small alterations.
     
    Once you have all the mortar drawn in it is time to add the texture. I cut out the individual bricks from a texture available freely on the internet that had a colouring that I liked. I used paint to do this and copied each brick into inkscape as a separate bitmap. Try to use just the bricks and not select too much mortar. Resize the brick textures to the size of stretchers, headers, &c. and then duplicate and add the bricks. Using the snaps align them to the mortar outlines and then place them on a layer behind the mortar.
     
    Here's a crop of what it looks like

     
    I've printed this out onto paper and built it up around a shell of mount board to get an idea for how this method will work.

     
    and placed it in approximately the right position in the yard.

    It requires the glazier and tiler to visit now.
     
    I think this will work well and so am continuing to work on the other buildings. The bridge is taking some time because each brick also requires rotating to fit the arch. A lot of time will be saved painting things later though and I really quite like the effect. I must work on making the corners more square though.
  22. richbrummitt
    The TOUs are finally finished. A little jig was made up to quickly and easily bend consistently sized dropper wires in left and right hand forms. These are long enough to fully engage the brass tubes fixed to the moving sleeper (no longer visible) but not so long that they have any chance of causing a short by touching the brass housing of the TOU. They are then fitted and carefully soldered to the underside of the switch rails.
     

     
    Once painted, ballasted etc. they it should be near enough invisible. The only part that remains on display is the small amount of wire protruding under the stock rail that prevents the toes lifting.
     

     
    A series of specially adapted hair grips are used to hold the various parts in the right place and ensure an adequate switch rail gap whilst soldering. A steel rule is used to check that the switch rail and stock rail have the head at the same height. The first side is fixed easily but then this must be held a half millimetre from the stock rail to ensure an adequate gap and the other side clipped to the stock rail. With all that checked and held the join can be made with a fine tip on the soldering iron whilst the dropper is held up under the stock rail with tweezers.
     

     
    Here's what the arrangement looks like for making the second join. The steel rule, rather usefully, happens to be 0.5mm thick.
  23. richbrummitt

    Making an Exit

    By richbrummitt,

    After the emotional strain of the switch surgery I needed a break and considered what else needed doing soon. I wanted to plan out the right hand end of the board and make sure there was space for the planned signals to fit around the major engineering structure that is Sandford Rd overbridge.
     
    I measured up and comparing to photographs in my reference books marked and cut out a portal from mount board. This was duplicated by using this as a template. In my memory the road wasn't particularly wide and so I made a spacer to make a dry run.
     

     
    It didn't look nearly wide enough and it turns out my memory deceived me regarding the use of traffic calming measures at this location. I had thought that there was a single footpath and that pinch points controlled traffic to a single file over the bridge. I had estimated the width as less than 20' on this basis. Looking at photographs in a local history book and my own photographs it is clear that I was mistaken. The pinch points are either side of the bridge but there is plenty of width. There is still only a footpath on the side nearest the station.
     

    Looking North
     

    Looking South
     
    Remeasuring the available space on the baseboard I settled on a width of 60mm over faces. This allows space for the signals each side of the bridge to be accommodated on the baseboard.
     
    A good deal of cutting and several scalpel blades later I had a full kit of parts, excepting the wing or retaining walls. I've 'upgraded' to a Swan Morten No.4 handle recently and it is preferable to the X-Acto No.2 type knife I have used for many years. I won't be giving this up but now have a choice depending on the suitability for the task at hand.
     

     
    An hour later they were fully assembled.
     

     
    I can be somewhat impatient at times and used superglue for speed of assembly. I will likely go back and strengthen the assembly before finally securing to the baseboard but there is a way to go before that time yet. Painting and ballasting are two operations that will be difficult to accomplish unless it can be removed! It is placed temporarily for the moment to see that it looks okay.
     

     
    The over high coach nearly passes under. I really ought to swap the wheels for 6mm ones.
     
    Now I need some sticky backed ashlar stonework in the colour in the photograph that follows
     

     
    This is the best picture I could get of the bridge without trespassing. The path I was on two years ago when I took this is so overgrown now that it is not easy to get to this location any more but it offers a better glimpse of the prototype than is possible from the deck.
  24. richbrummitt
    No update last week because after I had fitted the first of my revised TOU mechanisms and feeling good about it I moved on to the others only to discover that the rebates in the other board were not as deep by 0.8mm!
     
    Oh-oh!
     
    I had to make the rebate deeper somehow and really didn't want to be rebuilding the switches. Inspiration came to me quickly and I was able to achieve the unthinkable in a reasonably short space of time.
     
    I used a 3mm graver for the one nearest the board edge where the facia was not in the way but there was no way I was going to fit the graver in the other spaces without grinding 75%+ off the length and resharpening. Another bit of useful quick thinking occurred. I really have excelled this week. Taking out the Minicraft and an abrasive wheel I set to work on a 3/16" tool blank to create a makeshift graver with the same section as the square section brass. I stoned the end off and set to work.
     

     

     
    The switch blades were removed for safe keeping and the rear siding was broken away carefully with a chisel for re-fixing later to improve access. (The rear siding needed to be realigned anyway so this wasn't a hardship.) Using a block of wood behind the blunt end provided a sizeable handle and prevented bruised and dented fingers. The tool could also be used as a check for depth because of it's shared size with the brass section.
     
    A couple of hours later and all the TOUs were installed. I fixed them with a couple of dabs of cyano before driving the pins in through pre-drilled holes. I treated myself to a pin pusher, which made fitting the pins much easier. I managed to go right through into my finger in one place. 1/8" is probably the limit of my pain threshold for such an incident.
     

     
    The switch rails are now back in place so that I don't lose them. They will be fixed permanently once again in the very near future. The woodworking to mount all the operating cranks to fit to is coming along nicely and two lengths of telescoping brass tube have been almost entirely consumed making the pivots. This has been achieved over several days because there is only so much pipe cutter action that my wrists will take at once, aside from the inherent tedium of round and round and round and...
     
    To avoid getting demotivated dug in crawling slowly forward on the uninteresting aspects I've painted up the lever frame in the correct colours in between. Some of the catch handles are stiff now. I expect once some of the paint has been worn away by the drop boxes it will start to operate more smoothly once again.
     

     
    I also stumbled upon the ring that I cut to go around the turntable. Rather than misplace it for a further two years I cut it carefully to fit around the rails and gaps and fixed it into position.
     

     
    TTFN.
  25. richbrummitt
    Thank you again to everyone who voiced an opinion last week. It is now too late to change my mind because the levers have subsequently been installed at the up/Thame/left-hand end of the layout and I'm not planning on taking them back out, ever.
     

     
    The front profile of the board has also been finalised to be a gentle slope downwards from the road overbridge to below rail level at this end. The ground is not below the rails at Littlemore but I think this makes most sense for incorporating the lever frame as low as is possible and into the ground contours. It should make viewing a little better, rather than looking into a cutting, and defintiely improve the possibilities for photographing trains.
     
    I'm currently mulling over exactly where one of the signals is to go and what to do regarding the interlocking; I really want to make the operator use the FPL levers but that isn't a straightforward electrical problem with a single line unless someone with more elctrickery skill has an obvious answer? The only way I see it working at the moment is a compromise where the FPL has to be engaged to pass onto and beyond a switch on the through route. It is likely that the only locking required is for the FPLs and at the minimum one signal so the mechanism for that should be straightforward enough. A thought that did strike me was to include all the signals off the layout too and have proper locking but I haven't got enough levers and because it isn't a block post and many moves must have been signalled by hand back in the real world it would not work as well as I might like anyway.
     
    Once the levers were installed and whilst I finish my considerations regarding the above I began building some additional structure within the baseboards to create the lead up-and-out from the frame. I plan to achieve this by using a surplus of servo discs and arms drilled out and mounted onto brass tube, which in turn will rotate around a brass tube or rod fixed to the structure.
     

     
    You should be able to make out the loop on TOU that has been installed above the lever frame. A relatively long wire from a servo arm, driven by wires from the lever, will pass through this and take up any excess movement in it's deflection.
     
    I had cut away the top couple of millimetres along the sleeper ends and whilst the glue was out I have added on a ledge immediately below this level to create a small ballast shoulder and cess. The following photo shows the scene whilst the glue dries. The ledge is on the front edge only at this point because the rear is met by either the platform or the yard. The latter will have a covering of dirty filth up to sleeper level rather than ballast proper.
     

     
     
    The wood bridging to the front edge is not permanent: it is a makeshift clamp.
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