richbrummitt

I thought so. It didn't look in the picture like there were any special arrangements. Thank you for confirming. I'm working on the basis of 0.5mm or so each way will be enough for 2FS standards with a 19' wheelbase on sensible (not 9") curves.

I'm interested to see how the articulation works, and down to 9" radius. I'm guessing that it has much to do with the amount of play that N standards allow.

I'd be tempted to rotate the platform road such that none of it is not parallel to the baseboard edge. This would also have the benefit of smoothing out the line and producing more flowing track. Perhaps the centre of rotation could be the end of the platform road and the right hand three quarters of the middle board stays as it is. Everything should still fit in as it is now.

I've wondered whether I should have a larger layout now I have a bigger car.

Can you also fit a workbench in the back along with the layout, bed and kitchenette? You could live in it then and not pay rent or mortgage

Was this on Jerry's layout last weekend, or was it someone elses?

It does mean I'll ditch my plans to do exactly what you have already achieved and wait (but not too long please) for your offerings to be finished...

The only things to cross of my list of amendments now are the roof profile and to sort out an alternative chassis arrangement to the cleminson one. It should still be possible to make the kit using one of these if desired, however the wheelbase is very short and should lend itself to a 4 wheeled chassis with a centre axle that can slide sideways a small amount in each direction (a little over 0.5mm should be sufficient for a 2' radius). Progress has slowed to a stop due to an infection, which is preventing me from doing anything that requires concentrated vision for more than a short period.

I would have thought that for Calne you would be looking for a yard full of the slightly larger, lesser wheeled, Siphon Cs. I had thought about doing the O5, O6, and O8 or O9 diagrams next to allow a milk train with the characteristic height and width difference between vehicles.

Thanks for checking Andy, and to you also Chris for all your help. I'm going to await solder cream.

So I guess usually less than 1 second.

I'm always getting sizzle and smoke!

I've got my brother to pick up some 179 solder cream for me from Antics (it was highest on the google search results), because he works at the Coventry branch. I should see him in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime I might make myself an odd shaped bit and play with some multi-core on right angle joins, rather than laminated, to try and observe what is happening better.

I have one of your toads built with 0.3mm n/s wire stirrups for the thin footboards put together with this paste and they ultimately won't stay together when handled, but they could just be too fragile. I also built a pair of MR coke hoppers with it and they've gone a bit grey and crusty around some of the joints since they've been sat (maybe 4 years or more?) I daren't attack them to see if they will actually stay together. I really want to get to a solution so I can build the rest of these MR kits and to make it easy to finish GWR/RCH style axleboxes, as there is nothing to locate the final layers.

As an indication and example how long are you typically on the pedal to form a laminated joint in one place between 2 pieces of .010" n/s.

Thanks Chris.

I tried no flux first because I was certain that solder paste is solder 'bits' suspended in some kind of carrier that contained flux. I have Eileen's own 188°C solder paste. The other solder I have tried is generic 60/40 with rosin core, which I use for almost everything usually.

I had success with the RSU Andy had with him at Railex in putting together some coach bogies, but that had already been set up. I usually work hot and fast with a normal iron too (to avoid singed flesh).

May be I need to turn the thing up further and spend less time on the pedal. Do you have a measurement or value for the setting that you use on your RSU? I have a high and low current setting on the input side to choose from (this was part of the original electrical set up) and then I have 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4.5 voltage outputs. I haven't measured the current because I don't have the equipment to measure AC current this high at home but there is a good chance that there is some kit at work that would do it because we have projection welding equipment.

You are right 25" came first followed by 16", however there was not space in-between the framing on these vehicles for 25" letters. Slinn (GWR Siphons, HMRS) claims that they were painted as big as could be fitted. I'm sure I recall this backed up in another source (possibly Great Western Way). Looking at pictures they can't have been a huge amount bigger than 16". Maybe 18"-20".

You learn so much the first time you do something. As frustrating as it feels to consign sweat to the bin with tears starting again can sometimes be the best way forwards.

Best wishes for v.2.0

Have you designed the chassis, or is it one of Bob Jones' Cleminson chassis?

Yeah it's one of them. I did think about a chassis with just a small amount of centre wheel movement, which is how I made my n gauge 6 wheeled stock back in the day, but this provides what I believe is a fully compensated and articulated track following ability.

The axle boxes are white metal ones (with the springs cut off). You would struggle to use etched ones because here they have to move independently from the springs.

Finished (if that's the right word) product looks good to me, despite whatever bugs you need to fix in the building process.

 

 

 

Only obvious thing that I can see wrong with it is that the lowest gap should be planked between the feet of the two 'X's - apparently to allow the painting of "G" and "W" there (according to Russell in Great Western Coaches Part One).

 

On a second check, the arc of the roof looks too rounded, should be flat in the middle (which would probably be a little more difficult to fix than adding the missing part-planks).

 

Look forward to seeing the final product at some future date.

 

David

Thanks. This is the good side. There is a really ugly part of the lower plank where the bend lines went badly wrong on the other side.

The in fills were added to allow the 16" lettering style to be applied. Before that they had 6" G.W.R on the upper planks. I've been thinking on how to include these without compromising what is there for anyone who wants them without. This isn't an omission or a mistake and they could be added reasonably easily by the builder.

You are right that the three arc roof is not three arc-ed enough. It should be flatter in the middle and more curved at the sides. I made my best guess at this and it looked okay on the CAD screen, or so I thought, but it doesn't look right. If you look again at the photographs of real ones you will also notice that the chunk of wood for the lamp iron to fix to on the end is on the wrong side. I have no idea how I got this wrong, but checking your own work is a minefield.

Ok things might not be quite right but how many people would notice? And as a prototype you would expect there to be some tweaks that need to be made. I think that it looks lovely and would consider one or two even if I can't justify them.

If I can get it right then I should. If it was little things I would leave them. Designing parts and assemblies as a day job I am used to changing and tweaking to make the first one into a good final product. I know they lasted into BR as ENPARTS vans so I don't see how they can't be justified. Everyone drinks milk, no? Apart from having a soft spot for brown vehicles I read that Tiddington had a large volume of milk traffic and photographs seem to show a large number of churns adorning the station, backing this statement up.

Very impressed with the body sides are they one pice or are they made of overlays.

The framing is full thickness with locations for the strapping (I still have to check these for fit) that fold over the full thickness horizontal planked layer. Afterwards the tags are removed at the top. The sides fold up from the floor and the ends work a similar way, fitting inside the sides.

(edited for typo. early wagon lettering was 6in tall.)

Thank you all for your input thus far. Main entry has been updated with additional information for those helpful people to peruse. Hopefully the answer is there somewhere...

Hope you manage to solve your mystery soldering problems

Thanks

siphons?

You win one point* All will be revealed. The test build of one of the frets reveals quite a number of areas to fix before I could even consider them suitable for general consumption. I can get them together but there are a couple of very obvious thing wrong with them so I will have to go back and do them properly.

*points are not redeemable for anything, but maybe you feel better about yourself just for a short moment.

Rich,

 

It might be worth cleaning the nickel silver with a sanding stick or a fine file - I sometimes find that the scratch brush isn't brutal enough when cleaning etches, especially if there is some sort of coating on the etch.

 

Other than that, I don't know what to suggest!

 

Andy

It seems strange. I thought that I had pretty good results when I tried your (dad's) RSU at Railex. What voltage is it set to out of interest? I don't know if that will be any help, but maybe, just maybe?

I've only tried nickel silver so far and have cleaned the material with a scratch brush.

For a return plate I've got a terminal ring screwed to a 4mm thick gauge plate with a 5mm bolt. I thought that could be a problem so tried the trick with cooking foil as a thin metal layer that's not so good at heat conduction on top of something insulating (an offcut of hardboard in my case). I can burn the parts and the tinfoil. I could try some brass, but nickel silver is favoured in 2mm by most kits (including my own that I just got back from the etchers). I prefer soldering n/s with a normal iron.

I'll believe you about there being 68, it seemed like more!

I suspect that the real thing had wheelslip if not driven carefully with a load on like that.

I know that one guy operating a 2mm layout in the past got into a bit of an argument with the poor guy as he commentated about a class 47 diesel moving on the layout when it wasnt and the guy operating was determined to let him know!

I'm sure I know who you mean and would be surprised to find out that it wasn't his prize winning class 48 that was wrongly identified.

I've only built the Macaw B from Stephen Harris but it is very well thought out. I've got loads of stuff that needs painting and am so easily distracted by another project.

So, tell us, how did you make the handrails with their one piece appearance? I've only made the early style vans so far and they have the handrails in 4 separate pieces. I was thinking of doing them in two pieces and hiding the joint at the handrail knob. (That is when I get around to building the rest!)

I think that Pete was advocating the use of artists card or mounting board. The latter is quite substantial, but certainly flexible (within reason). I think it's around £3 a sheet in our local craft/art shop so a minimal investment if you find out it doesn't work.

Definitely seeing some good progress on here. Keep it up.

@ All: Thanks for the positive comments.

@ Donw: This wagon doesn't have any couplings yet, although there are hooks as part of the original mouldings. I've to decide whether to try and cross drill them or cut them off and replace with etched ones.

@ Kylestrom: The shackles are from an N Brass Locos fret of container securing chains.

@ devondynosoar118: I have a couple of sheets of this thin wood that my late father in law gave me a few years ago. It's about 0.5mm thick. I would expect that you would find similar in a model shop catering for aeroplane modellers.

@ Andy: I won't dislike you. Cutting the parts out was trivial in comparison to fixing them. I made a jig so that I could accurately and consistently cut the width I needed to have. I could cut several hundred pieces of wood 40mm long and 1mm wide in an hour with the jig. The parts on the link look nice and don't appear to have the burnt edge that I've encountered on every laser cut part I've seen. The photos are quite small though so it may just be that they are not visible. I may well do some sheeted timber loads in open wagons in the future. There'll be far fewer pieces in them though and I'll probably do them the same way.

I think I'd still add the diagonal bracing. It will reduce any possibility of warp.