Jump to content
 

D869

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,350

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by D869

  1. D869
    ... but he hasn't done anything at all!
     

     
    Well looks can be deceiving. Actually quite a lot of work has happened on the 45xx over the past week or so but the overall appearance is not hugely changed. Let me put it another way... here is how it looked a couple of days ago...
     

     
    When I stopped work on this project I really wasn't happy with the way it was running. The worst issues had been solved but it still had pretty poor slow running and a nasty tendency to stall. All in all not a candidate for having its cylinders fitted or being sent to the paint shop.
     
    I was chatting with John Greenwood at Warley and the 45xx was one of the things we talked about. John suggested that the Nigel Lawton 8mm motor was a better option for slow running than the 10mm one. This surprised me. On getting back from the show I started by doing some sums and decided that the loco was already geared so that it should have better slow running than my Manor, but the practice did not match the theory.
     
    Job number one therefore was to actually get around to making the third of the three motor mounts that I'd originally intended. This was a pretty quick job and with the 8mm motor installed the loco was given a quick test and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it could now put in a much better slow running performance.
     
    The stalling issue was still there but now I had succeeded with one problem it seemed worth spending some effort on the other one. John also suggested top-acting wiper pickups. These were pretty easy to do, so I thought I hadn't much to lose by trying them. I tried them but couldn't see much improvement in the stalling issue.
     
    The obvious next step was Simpson Springing, but this was not going to be a small task. Anyway, the soldering iron was applied to the muffs and the whole chassis stripped down. The bearings were opened out to 1.6mm. The springs were made in the prescribed manner from some salvaged 'N' gauge coupling springs (does anyone else have a hard time getting these to straighten out?) and soldered to the insides of the frames. Of course the frames were already painted, so I scraped some patches back to bare metal, tinned these and the springs and soldered the two together. It's not pretty but it seems to have done the job.
     
    And so to reassembly... First I fitted the outer two driving axles using the quartering jig and checked that the chassis rolled freely. It didn't. It was binding with the cranks in the 45 degree position. To me this said that there was a quartering issue and on checking visually that seemed to be the case. I managed to shift the quartering on one axle and the chassis then rolled freely with the rods in place. Quite how this can happen when using the quartering jig I have no idea.
     
    Next I fitted the centre axle and tried it rolling without the rods. The centre axle didn't rotate. Hmm... either the axle holes are not in a straight line or the wheels aren't all the same size. Now I should probably suspect the axle holes but I was pretty confident about the thoroughness of my original assembly checks. I did another test using a ruler to roll along the top of the driving wheels and once again the centre axle didn't rotate. Even using two rulers (one on top and one underneath) the centre axle still didn't want to play. I couldn't find convincing evidence of a variation in size using the vernier calipers but using a micrometer and taking lots of measurements (the coning makes it hard to be sure that any one measurement is right), I decided that the centre wheels were around 0.3525 inches but most of the others were around 0.354 inches (guess whether my mike is imperial or metric).
     
    Scrap another set of muffs - just the outer axles though. I then mounted each wheel in turn in the mini drill and used 320 grit wet or dry to reduce the size. It took quite a while to do this but I'd rather take extra time than risk removing too much metal. Once the wheels were all a consistent size I repeated the ruler test and found that all three axles rotated nicely. The wheels were then cleaned up using progressively finer grades of paper followed by metal polish before yet another reassembly.
     
    Here's the rebuilt chassis.
     

     
    That's about it for now. An initial test as an 0-6-0 proved that the stalling issue was improved but not entirely eliminated. Re-fitting the pony wheels improved matters further. I still have some work to do to reset the pony wheel springs - these have all been either damaged or removed during the chassis rebuild.
     
    All in all a lot of work to get more or less right back to where I started but I now have a loco that inspires some confidence that it might actually be a decent performer when asked to do some real work.
     
    EDIT: a couple more photos of the pony truck springs for Jerry
     

  2. D869

    Warley 2014

    By D869,

    Back home now after our outing to our local mega-show. After a few comments from other people beforehand I was a bit wary of exhibiting at Warley but really enjoyed it. For sure, the NEC is a huge venue and this brings with it extra aggravation particularly during setup and packing up and for sure it was stacked out with people on Saturday but there is stacks of space behind the layouts and the food is good, even if the queue was a bit long. It was also great to spend some time again with the other 2mm folks.
     
    Here are a few 'behind the scenes' photos from Friday.
     

    Driving my car into the hall was a new experience. Driving out again we had to drive along one of the main aisles so I got to see Clarendon and Leicester South from a new vantage point. I'm not sure that drive through model railway shows will catch on though although it does solve the rucksack issue.
     

    There were white vans too. Especially worrying when they reverse up the aisle . I can't say that I'm a big fan of the lighting. It's not the camera. It really does look like this.
     

    Testing testing... oh dear . Friday turned out to be not one of our better days with all of the points on the MPD board refusing to respond to the correct button (or in most cases any button at all). John and Ian spent quite some time with their heads in the control panel. Fortunately they managed to get it working again before we left, although it meant that we were there rather later than we had intended. Not the best start to a show but fortunately things improved from there and the layout was pretty reliable with only fairly minor annoyances during the show itself.
     
    This morning a nice man called Mr Waterman interrupted our wheel cleaning to give us a plaque for the best modern image layout. Very pleasing given the standard of layouts at the show so thank you to whoever decides these things.
     
    I've posted some pics of other layouts on the show thread...
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/85146-warley-at-the-nec-2014-22nd-and-23rd-november/page-8&do=findComment&comment=1675581
  3. D869

    Getting Ready for Warley

    By D869,

    Some of you may have seen the two new signals over on the 2mm Workbench thread. Last night they were planted on the platform. Unfortunately I failed to photograph the little signal covering trailing moves over the carriage siding points before the station board was boxed up ready for Friday.
     
    Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the bracket signal covering the same points. The shunt arm covers the move into the sidings, the 4' arm into the platform and the call-on for use if there are already vehicles in the platform.
     

     
    I must get round to colouring those bits of insulation with something more subdued. The planking is a rather more stylish shade of wood effect than intended too!
     
    There are lots of other items of work done since our last outing including a lot of scenic work on the beach, a locally relevant boundary on the 'country' end of the layout, some further work on the backscene and some changes in the fiddle yard. I've probably forgotten some credits, so apologies to those involved.
  4. D869
    After a somewhat late night yesterday evening getting them finally assembled, the two chlorine tanks are now finished.
     
    Here are a couple of photos.
     


     
    Overall I am really pleased with the way these have turned out. They have taken a lot of effort to build, mainly in the initial etch design and the painting and final assembly stages because they are such complex vehicles. I have also discovered a few tolerance adjustments that will be included in any future builds.
     
    As Association members will know, the AGM and annual competitions were held today and the chlorine tanks along with the semi-bulk bromine tanks and a brake van won the John Barker trophy. Mr Smith of this parish also returned home with a considerable and well deserved haul of silverware.
     
    It was great to catch up with friends today too and see four lovely 2mm Finescale layouts for the same very reasonable price.
     
    Finally, a note of thanks to Dave Millward for kindly supplying measurements plus a DVD of a video that he took showing one of these tanks at Embsay from every conceivable angle.
  5. D869

    Logging On In Somerset

    By D869,

    Having a little early autumn interlude in Somerset now that number 3 child has departed the nest. Usual recipe... cottage, log burner, kits, books, local ales, walking, cycling, the odd visit to the local steam railway... 'oh, I didn't realise it was that close, fancy that eh?'.
     
    Also trying to see if I can do a blog post from the tablet, so anything might happen...
     
    Kit assembly with suitable surroundings...

     
    Suitable reading material. I've been saving this book for a suitable occasion. I must say that it does not disappoint... if like me you like photos of obscure railways in Plymouth. I haven't seen any mention of South Yard yet though. Maybe he is saving that for the next volume.
     

  6. D869
    A quick progress update on the Chlorine tank. The end stanchions have now been persuaded to go together and have been attached to the chassis, as has the brakegear.
     
    This of course also means that I can now try the tank in place along with some of the timber packing that goes underneath the tank and at the ends. The tank still needs a good clean out to get rid of the residual wax.
     

     
    The good thing about 3d printing is that it's a piece of cake to create the domed tank end and then subtract exactly the same shape from the timber packing so the two fit perfectly together. I also created a 'test' model in the 3d tool (OpenSCAD) so that I could import the outlines from the drawings for some of the main etched bits and check that the 3d and etched bits would actually fit together and get a rough idea what it would look like. The nice thing (if you're a programmer, like me) about OpenSCAD is that it's basically just programming, so it's easy to stick in a few 'if' statements and use the same model both as a 'preview' test like this and also to lay out everything with sprues etc ready to upload to Shapeways.
     

     
    As with the D600 bogies, I also did a scaled up mockup of the etches in card. This particular mockup is still mostly just a pile of bits of card but it did its job of checking that the main chassis bits would fit together and that the fold lines were in the right place.
     

  7. D869

    Octel 1957 Chlorine Tank

    By D869,

    So far so good with building the first of the wagons from my recent etch - a 1957 vintage Hurst Nelson Chlorine tank.
     
    I was impatient to try out the experimental version so that's what I'm building. So far it is going together as intended and the centre section of the solebars has achieved the skinny look that I was hoping to get when viewed from the top and the chassis seems very strong because it's got metalwork in all of the places where the real thing has metalwork.
     

     

     
    The extra bits of metal at the ends are to hold everything in place during chassis assembly and will be cut away quite soon.
     
    There are still plenty more challenges ahead, particularly assembling the complex ironwork that restrains the tank ends and attaching the complex end stanchion assembly to the underframe without unsoldering stuff that is already attached.
  8. D869

    Let's Get Physical Part 3

    By D869,

    Stretching the same title a little further, some new metalwork arrived with the postie today...
     

     
    The main items on here are a couple of chassis for Associated Octel 1957 vintage chlorine tanks. The two etches are different from each other because I want to try two different ways to put a tank wagon chassis together. One is (I hope) conservative and steals as many ideas as possible from other people's designs. The other design is intended (if it works at all) to achieve an even more spidery chassis, at the cost of a slightly more complicated build.
     
    Now I just need the solid bits for the tanks to arrive from a certain 3d printing emporium in the Netherlands.
     
    Other stuff includes an attempt to etch GWR square post signals for St Ruth and also some SR platform lamps (not for St Ruth) plus a bunch of other experimental items to try out the more tricky bits of some planned future etch projects. Oh, and some more D800 window frames with some fine tuning based on the results from the previous etches.
     
    All in all, there is a lot of experimental stuff on this etch, so it will be quite nice if any of it turns into real models.
  9. D869
    I think that a good time was had by all at the 2mm do at Kidderminster on Saturday. I certainly enjoyed myself and St Ruth performed with its revised control panel... when we weren't just nattering that is. I'm not sure how many times we got through the schedule, but I think it's far to say that the pace was more leisurely than normal. Another welcome innovation was the snazzy barstool provided by Pauline in the 'front of house' department. I also got to have a look in the new demo signal box that's being connected up just along from the museum.
     
    A few photos that I took on the day...
     

    We even bring our own punters these days! All part of the service.
     

     

     

    Mr Clifford spearheading the Association's new 'early years' initiative.
     
    Yesterday four of the St Ruth crew went up to the GCR at Quorn for the unofficial continuation of the 2mm do... along with Missy, 2mm Andy and Ed Sissling at least. The highlights for me were Kingswear in 2FS - a beautiful rendition of the place where my first ever train journey began, the 'Overlord' layout (more of a collection of models than a layout but some very fine models at that) and getting a run behind 'Gordon Highlander' on the big railway - marvellous sound even if it was running just one engine.
     





  10. D869
    ...and then there were two!
     
    The second bromine tank has now made it through the ordeal of the paint shop. Now I have a model of the tank that started my interest in Associated Octel, complete with its no nonsense lettering and skull on the tank end... and a further use of virtual modelling to make something real.
     

     
    Painting and prep... this time I used some IPA on a cotton bud for another round of cleaning the 3d printed tank. The print also needed a rub down with some fine wet & dry to try to smooth out the rough surface texture. This was followed by a coat of Halfords grey primer and another rub down, then red primer (in an attempt to get a warmer yellow final result), Tamiya white acrylic and Tamiya yellow acrylic. Once all of this was dry it had a generous coat of Tamiya varnish to try to get the surface as glossy as possible for...
     
    The decals!
     
    Lack of suitable decals is one thing that often puts me off building a vehicle. I've now finally taken the plunge and had a go at doing some custom decals for the Octel vehicles that I hope to build. Of course in 2mm scale, you need a lot of decals to fill up enough space to make the job viable, so I spent a lot of time in front of Inkscape preparing artwork for as many vehicles as I could think of. I then spent a lot more time in correspondence with John Peck of Precision Decals getting the artwork turned into something suitable for his ALPS printer. John was extremely helpful and patient and I'm really grateful for all of his advice.
     
    Anyway the fateful day arrived to stop tweaking the artwork and I hit 'send' on the final email. A week or so later the envelope arrived with the resulting prints. I have to say that I am extremely pleased with the results.
     

     
    Now the 'do as I say, not as I do' bit... I'd strongly recommend others NOT to start with full colour artwork. It's a lot of work to prepare for printing. Unfortunately that wasn't a possibility for the Octel vehicles so I had to jump in at the deep end.
     
    The next step was then to take a deep breath and take a scalpel to the pristine new decal sheet. I don't think I could have picked a worse vehicle to start on because every single bit of branding on this tank has something to make life difficult. The big info panel is a tight squeeze between the 'T' strapping on the tank, the lid edge is both curved and very narrow and the tank end is of course domed making it difficult to get the decals to conform... plus of course there is the surface texture of the FUD which tends to be rather rough. The shape of these tanks also makes it difficult to rub down effectively. Of all of the branding, lettering the edge of the lid is by far the most difficult job, so if you're thinking of doing one of these then choose a tank without any lettering on the lid.
     
    After two sessions courting disaster with the decals I finally got them all more or less where I wanted them. I think the low point was when I dropped one after soaking it, caught it and wound up with it stuck to my finger instead of the tank. Lesson: think more carefully about spares next time!
     
    Once dry, the decals on the ends looked reasonably flat using just Micro Set but I hit them again with Micro Sol and this got rid of the few remaining tiny wrinkles.
    Once all was dry the tank was sprayed with Testors Dullcote and left overnight to dry. Final assembly was also rather a fiddle. I've used Nick Tilson's extremely fine 'N Brass' container chains this time. They fit nicely into the lifting eyes on the tank and disappear through some holes drilled in the Lowfit floor but getting four chains fitted and the tank sat on its chassis all at the same time was rather a challenge. After several unsuccessful attempts to fit the tank with the chains already hooked on I eventually fitted the tank without the chains and then added the chains by bending each one in the middle, threading it and then pulling it straight again.
     
    I've still yet to see a photo of one of these tanks where the branding on the Lowfit is even visible, let alone legible so I've left the wagon unlettered again.
     
    The attempt to get warm yellow paint work doesn't seem to have worked. I think the previous tank has a slightly warmer yellow and that paint job was done straight on top of the grey primer.
     
    So now I just need to build all of the other vehicles that I've got decals for...
  11. D869
    It's quite some time since I posted the draft of the new signalling diagram on here. Since then we have been constantly debating over the right time to actually put the thing on the panel. It's always been easier to say 'right after the next show' but we've finally got fed up with all of the annotations, crossings out and other amendments on the panel so have got around to doing it.
     
    Here's the middle part of the panel showing the state it had got into after four years of 'clarifications' and amendments like the revised sea siding.
     

     
    The new artwork needed to fit the original panel, so we spent a lot of time checking the alignment. I think that we finally had three separate rounds of alignment testing before committing to the new plan.
     
    Naturally the job also involved John doing a complete strip down of the panel, so is not something that we want to repeat very often.
     
    The original overlay was printed on six A4 sheets or paper, stuck down and then varnished. This time around we decided to try getting it professionally printed. The print was also laminated with a matt plastic on the side facing us. Here's the print straight from the print shop.
     

     
    After a good deal of testing different glues using some scrap prints from the printers we decided on PVA so the panel was rubbed down, painted (the new overlay is not quite opaque enough to stop the old diagram showing through) and the finished print stuck down and left to dry. Once dry the holes were cut out, starting by shining a light behind the panel.
     
    Finally the switches were reassembled back onto the panel (John again) and it was ready for a test drive last Saturday. Here's the panel at the start of Saturday evening, almost fully reassembled with just the uncoupler switches still to do.
     

     
    We spent a few hours with the boards assembled doing an 'integration test' with the revised panel. Happily I can report that the panel still works (just in time for Kidderminster) and just needed a couple of switches swapped around. Here's the panel on test...
     

  12. D869

    Let's Get Physical

    By D869,

    No I am not about to enter a phase as an Olivia Newton John fan.
     
    What has been going on hereabouts is quite a lot of time spent staring at a computer screen doing what might be called Virtual Modelling. The intention is that this work will (one day) be turned into actual vehicles but there is still some way to go before then.
     
    Having recently finished a prolonged stint producing decal artwork (somehow these things always appear to be a lot less work at the beginning) I decided to spend a bit of time turning the output of some previous virtual modelling into a usable piece of rolling stock.
     

     
    The vehicle in question (the unpainted one on the left) is not particularly news - another Lowfit carrying a semi-bulk bromine tank like the one I built last year (on the right). The new one is intended to end up as the tank that appears in 'Diesels on Cornwall's Main Line' and which started my interest in Hayle wharf and Associated Octel. Consequently it needs to sit on the earlier (4 rib) variant of the Lowfit with LNER clasp brakegear underneath.
     
    There's not a huge amount to say - the body is a slightly fettled Parkwood kit. The framing on top this time is actually based on a real bromine carrying Lowfit albeit not the one I'm modelling - the book photo doesn't show the framing arrangement. It's cobbled together from various bits of styrene strip and I even tried out the Geoff Kent 10 thou cube trick to represent bolt heads. All I can say is that I'm not Geoff Kent and he has obviously had a lot more practice than I have.
     
    The chassis is a 2mm Association one and I'd have to say that putting it together was rather more of a battle than the other 9' and 10' wheelbase chassis kits that I've done previously. There are a lot of tiny holes that need to be opened out in order to get all of that brakegear to go together. I'm rather regretting a rash purchase of a multi pack of steel bodied 'High's now because they all need this kind of chassis.
     
    Anyway, this is now ready to be cleaned ready for painting. The 3d printed tank has already had one round of cleaning but still seems to be shedding some oily residues so it might be in line for an attack with IPA quite soon.
  13. D869

    Epsom and Ewell 2014

    By D869,

    We got back fairly late yesterday evening from Epsom so I didn’t get chance to post any photos last night.
     
    We had a good time at the show. There were some excellent layouts on display along with a good selection of traders. The digs and food were good and we also managed to venture into the mean streets of Epsom and track down some pints of St Austell ‘Tribute’ on Saturday evening. I’m sure that our operating on Sunday was much better for it.
     
    Unfortunately the journey down on Friday was not great – pouring rain most of the way and a crawl around the M25 in rush hour – over two hours from the bottom of the M40 junction to Epsom.
     
    It never ceases to amaze me though how things that have been tested back at base can still let us down at a show and result in lots of crawling under baseboards and dilemmas about whether to go and eat or stay and fix problems on a Friday evening. I’m not going to repeat the whole fault list here, but one particularly puzzling issue was the East crossover. We always run a loco around every bit of track as soon as the layout is set up. I did this on Friday evening (including the same crossover set both normal and reversed). Just as I was taking the loco back to the fiddle yard and about to announce that everything was OK I got a short circuit on the East crossover. We decided in favour of eating but it meant that there was extra work to do on Saturday morning before the show opened. The problem was fixed using a razor saw to open out one of the isolation gaps… but this bit of track has been working and pretty much untouched since 2010.
     
    Thanks to Ian Morgan and Dave Stratton for stepping in as guest operators on Saturday. I hope that you both enjoyed yourselves.
     
    Next up is the Kidderminster 2mm gathering in June. Between now and then our plan is to replace the control panel overlay and move some buttons that are in the wrong place. The panel is getting rather untidy now with various amendments stuck on with paper labels or scribbled on in marker pen.
     
    As usual a random assortment of photos...
     

    Lower Exbury - a small layout beautifully executed.
     

    Cornwall was well represented at this show... Diesels in the Duchy.
     

    Law Junction. Definitely not small!
     

    Purgatory Peak
     

    Clutton - very Pendon-esque.
     

    Penlan
     

    The afternoon lull in the St Ruth goods yard - the Carlisle goods waiting for its loco and the pilot waiting to pounce on the GUV when it's time for the sleeping cars to depart.
     

    The buildings near the Hotel with the junction signal off for a main line departure.
  14. D869

    Excuses Excuses

    By D869,

    Modelling chez moi has been on temporary hold for the past week or so due to a trip to see MinerChris in his new abode in Sudbury (not Suffolk!).
     
    We did manage to get out and about on several occasions and caught a few of the local activities. I'm no expert on these matters so I'm sure that others will know more than me.
     

    This is the view from Chris's local model shop - George's Trains - a mere 237 miles away in Toronto. Nice shop though.
     

    A freight on the CP mainline near Chelmsford (not Essex).
     

    Might've been a decent photo apart from the silver birches in the way.
     

    The same freight climbing the gradient out of the Sudbury basin.
     

    Another freight passing the yard in downtown Sudbury - too many little trees in the way again.
     
    I'm now back at my workbench albeit a little jet lagged but hope to see some of you at Epsom and Ewell this coming weekend.
  15. D869
    There have been one or two models that have had an extended stay in the paint shop over the winter. Since we have the Epsom and Ewell show coming up later this month, I have knuckled down and managed to get everything out of their various paint boxes and back together into something resembling models. There are still a few finishing touches to do here and there, but here is the latest crop.
     
    Just back together today is the second of the Stephen Harris 35T tank kits. A class A version this time in its original livery with the long company name. The weathering job tries to replicate the state of tanks shown at Fawley in an early 60s photo in Euslin Bruce's book 'Diesel Heyday' - plenty of road grime and the effects of spilled petrol but with the Esso ovals cleaned. Coincidentally the same photo also includes some very clean looking black tanks although these are bitumen tanks rather than the normal class B tanks. I can't imagine that they stayed clean for very long. Just four of these left in the gloat box now. I'm not too happy with the look of the ladder though - this was just chemically blackened so it needs a bit of work with the paint brush - maybe some dry brushing.
     

    My oil train is still kinda short...
     

    The latest Ultima Hawksworth - a brake third (or brake second if you prefer). The roof came out a bit shiny but it's removeable so it will get toned down next time the airbrush is fired up. Two of these kits still in the gloat box, plus one Hawksworth from the Higgs stable and a bunch of Colletts and Maunsells.
     

    The Hymek (or Lowmek) received some toning down with the airbrush while weathering was underway on other items. The idea here was to reproduce the fairly clean example on the front of Hugh Dady's 'Heyday of the Hydraulics'. I think mine came out slightly muckier but not by too much - 'light touch' weathering is not as easy as it sounds. I'm quite quite pleased with the 'not quite black' of the chassis though - much better than the 'plastic black' that it had previously.
     

    Finally the class 47 is back together with the body lowered as described in other threads on RMWeb and has been tested on St Ruth. It's definitely still 'on probation' so no work beyond the chassis surgery at the moment.
     

     
    That's it for now. The remaining work before the show will be boring stuff like couplings and so on.
  16. D869

    Slightly Less Duff

    By D869,

    Owners of Farish class 47s circa 2008-2010 will probably have read lots of words on RMWeb about the shortcomings of some batches of this loco. I am the proud (ahem) owner of one of those models - D1764 in two tone green with full yellow ends. This loco has been on the St Ruth roster since the 2010 Expo in Oxford and has, shall we say, never been a favourite with the operators, it being fiendishly difficult to get all 6 axles reliably on the track and seemingly having a remarkable ability to skip the rails even on those occasions when the hapless driver does manage to get it railed up correctly.
     
    It's pretty well known that there are two major issues - the bogie outer sits too low and the loco body sits too high. This posting is about the first issue.
     
    The simplest fix was done a long time ago - the bogie has mouldings underneath each axle gear which on my loco fouled the track when passing through pointwork, dumping the loco onto the dirt. The outers were unclipped and some big flats filed on the mouldings under the gears, leaving just the thinnest amount of plastic beneath the gear - holding it up to the light is a good way to judge this when filing. The guard irons were also pretty low so these had some plastic shaved off too. These simple mods were of course a huge improvement but after several more shows, its fair to say that this loco's record has been pretty mixed - some shows being spent entirely sidelined because it was still a pain to put on the track and its tendency to derail hadn't been entirely cured either.
     
    In the past few weeks I've decided to have another look at D1764 ahead of the Epsom show to see if I can cure it once and for all of its antisocial tendencies. The first step was a thorough reading of the various words posted on RMWeb, followed by a close inspection of the bogies with vernier calipers to hand. My conclusions were much as others have said - not only does the outer sit too low but all of the axles have too much vertical play. These two factors account for the difficulty in putting the loco on the track - the low sideframes mean that you can't see the bottom of the wheels comfortably while the wheels flopping around all over the place add to your difficulties when trying to put the thing on the track.
     
    The first step in solving these problems is to shave some plastic off the bottom of the bogie inner. This is straightforward enough but not quick.
     
    I decided that the outer axles had about 0.4mm of vertical freedom so I would remove this amount from the bottom. Before doing this the bogie has to be fully stripped down - a soldering iron to heat up the pickup sufficiently to soften the melted plastic pins that hold them in place and then push all of the gear pivots out (from the side that has a slight taper). Do this aver a tray - you cannot afford to lose any bits to the carpet monster! Finally I cleaned the grease off the bogie to stop it attracting filings. The bogie was then filed in stages, trying to get one section down to the right dimension, then another and finally joining all of the filed sections. In my case I was looking for 3.7mm high at the ends and 4.7mm where the first 'step' is.
     
    The photo below shows the first stage of filing the bogie - look at the left hand side between the axles.

    After thoroughly de-burring the bogie and cleaning all of the filings off by shoving Blu-Tack into it from every concievable angle I started reassembly, again over the tray. I found a handy way to get the pivots started back into their holes - hold the knurled end in a pin chuck and then push them in from the side where they are the tightest fit. When just protruding into the inner cavity, add the gear and then finally (free from the pin chuck) push the pivot fully home.
     
    Before refitting the pickups I added some wipers for the centre axle from 36SWG phosphor bronze wire... more on the centre axle later.
     
    The second problem that needs to be solved is how to persuade the outer to sit higher up. All the work so far has created the space for it to do so, but has done nothing to make sure that it will happen. I tried just re-fitting the outer and found that it was now possible to rock it from side to side... not what we want. I wasn't able to find much detail on how others had done this. My first attempt was to try to push the clips on the inner upwards by melting them with a soldering iron. The main result of this was the removal of a lot of the plastic from the clip - I don't think it really moved much at all. The second (and so far final) attempt was to add a piece of etch waste bent into an 'L' shape so that the foot of the 'L' sits in the slot above the clip. This had the desired effect but it makes the bogie rather a pig to assemble as well as deforming the outer a little. Suggestions for better solutions will be very welcome.
     
    Here's a photo of the bits of etch scrap in situ

     
    Finally a comparison photo of a bogie that's been 'done' (left) with one that hasn't (right). The difference is not hugely noticeable but it is there. There is also a lot less vertical play on the axles of course, but you can't see that in the photo.

     
    Initial running trials on South Yard have been successful but that's not a great test because the loco has passed tests there several times only to disgrace itself on St Ruth. It might get a run on St Ruth tomorrow.
     
    And finally... even with this modification the bogie still has some... err... character. As has been noted by others, the centre axle has more vertical play than the outer ones. You might think that the only concern here is that the wheels can flop around too much (which they can) but there is another problem. If you watch the loco carefully when running back and forth you will see that the centre axle will lift without any provocation from the track. The reason for this is that the centre axle is also part of the gear train to one of the outer axles, so the torque transmitted to the outer axle forces the centre axle to either the top or bottom of its range of movement. The result is that one bogie will always have its centre axle lifted, depending on the direction of travel. This could well be the reason behind some of the derailments. Shaving 0.4mm off the bottom of the bogie has reduced this problem but because the centre axle started with more play it still has some movement. The loco also has the 'body sets off before the bogies' issue when reversing direction. Oh well, one problem at a time!
     
    Oh, and if the loco starts to behave itself better then it might get treated to a lower body, some weathering and so on.
  17. D869
    More steamy goings on from my workbench. Now that I'm not frantically trying to make South Yard look less unfinished I've got back to some of the other items that have been in progress for a while. The main build effort amongst these is the David Eveleigh chassis for the Dapol 45xx. The various bits of this have been liberated from their paint shop boxes and put together in hopefully something resembling the right order.
     

     
    Under the hood is a Nigel Lawton motor coupled to the worm via a UJ with the intention of avoiding any end load on the motor bearings. The motor is on a removable mount - the intention being to test some alternative motors. In practice the only other mount that I've made (for the Association can motor) does not align the shafts quite well enough so the Lawton motor and mount is the only one that works.
     

     
    Everything going to plan? Not quite...
     
    When initially put together the chassis (as an 0-6-0) ran appallingly. In fact I had to wire up some jump leads to a borrowed diesel bogie in order to get it to run up and down a reasonable length of track at all. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that a new chassis ought to move freely without any lubrication (not that I'd leave it like that) but this one didn't. My first gambit was to give it 20 minutes of running in (on Taw Bridge up in the loft) with this arrangement and then lubricate it. The chassis didn't free up noticeably during running in but ran quite smoothly once the gears were lubricated. So it stayed like this for a week or two.
     
    The first test run after Nottingham was terrible - like it had developed a severe limp. This was quickly traced to a crankpin (on the side away from me) that had been bent. Straightening this restored smooth running but when tested carefully it still wasn't quite right - there was still some slight binding and when run at low speeds it always seemed to stall at the same crank position which seemed to be the same spot as the problem I'd had before lubricating it.
     
    I'd proved already that the problem was not being caused by coupling rod binding - the mechanism had the same tight spot even with the rods removed so I decided that it must be coming from the drive train. I'd already found a few issues with this and I still wasn't really happy with it, suspecting perhaps some eccentricity in the spur gear on the axle. Last night I spent a lot of time fiddling and fettling the drive train as a last ditch attempt to get the loco working properly short of a complete strip down and rebuild.
     
    For some reason my drive train just doesn't seem to have gone together as it should. First I found that the wormwheel was fouling the shoulder on the centre axle muff so I had to move the wormwheel slightly off the centre line of the worm to solve this. I also suspected that the same thing was happening with the spur gear on the axle and the shoulder on the wormwheel muff and had found during 'dry run' assembly that I could not fully push the spur gear up to the shoulder on the muff without it catching the wormwheel muff. You probably can't see any of this in the photo, but here's a photo from underneath anyway.
     

     
    This last problem could also account for the binding - rather than being eccentric the gear could have been slightly askew on the muff and still catching the wormwheel muff at just one point in its rotation. Resolving this without a strip down involved some leverage between the shoulder and the gear - probably not something you will see recommended in the handbook of correct chassis building practice.
     
    I also found while fiddling with the gears that there seemed to be a definite machining burr on the edge of the spur gear. If the burr was uneven then this might also have caused the binding - giving the same effect as an eccentric gear. Fixing this without stripping down was not going to be easy but I used a small screwdriver to wear away the burr at bottom of each tooth gap and a thin strip of wet & dry attached to a stick of plastikard to smooth away the burr at the top of the teeth... followed by blu-tack to try to hoover up any filings.
     
    I still couldn't see daylight between the wormwheel and the axle muff shoulder so I attacked the shoulder with a needle file (plus more blu-tack to remove the filings) until daylight was visible.
    To cut a long story after all of this poking and prodding the chassis didn't seem to keep stalling at the same point . After so many problems I'm cautious about saying that it's fixed but we'll see how things go.
     
    The pony trucks are another story. I wanted to pick up from both sides on each truck. I tried connecting a jumper wire but this caused too much 'steering' effect on the truck so it kept jumping the rails. It did prove that the pickup was much improved, so I wanted to persevere with it and set to thinking about how to transfer a bit more weight onto the trucks.... which made me wonder if I could kill two birds with one stone...
     
    I wasn't sure if this would work but it was simple enough to try it and find out. The current arrangement might be described as a Simpson spring but I've not heard of anyone using them like this. Mine are 36SWG wire soldered to the frame spacers directly above the pony axles. They head back towards the driving wheels before making a sharp about face to come back and bear on the tops of the pony axles. Some adjustment was needed to get the pony trucks centred and to arrange for a reasonable amount of springing but so far the results seem encouraging in terms of staying on the track and electrical pickup is now better than ever.
     
    The plan now is to fit some DGs and send it for a spell of testing before thinking about fitting the cylinders or doing anything to the body.
    Oh, and I need a new controller. The Lawton motor doesn't like my AMRs when pushed to anything above a crawl (although the quality of the said crawl is exemplary!). So far I've been using an experimental battery powered controller for testing it but this is not a long term answer - the slow speed control is particularly hit and miss with this gizmo.
     
    A few other things are gradually emerging from a long stay in the paint shop. The Hawksworth BTK is currently being subjected to my attentions with the lining pen
     

     
    You can also see the BG creeping into the frame. This is in for repairs because one of its bogies partly collapsed at St Albans. The bogie has now been strengthened with some brass angle and now seems very strong. I'd forgotten until recently that the BTK build and BG repair are related because I built a set of NPCS bogies with the BTK with the intention of swapping out the (long spring) bogies from the BG so that everything winds up on the correct bogies at the end of the process. My plan for tonight was to sort out the couplings ready for the bogie swap but then I got diverted to writing on RMWeb. A valid alternative to real modelling
  18. D869

    Nottingham 2014

    By D869,

    A few photos from South Yard's day out at Nottingham. A good day out was had by all and it was nice to catch up with some 2mm friends for the day.
     
    The layout worked well all day and I got lots of nice comments.
     

    The new backscene being cut out from its surrounding card. In the end I went back to watercolour because I'm too new to Acrylic and things just weren't going in the right direction.
     

    All packed up and ready to go. Very neat (not!).
     

    The layout on show complete with painted facia and sign. I managed to use some of that acrylic paint that I'd shelled out on by mixing it up into a fetching shade of dark green with some Howes thinners and blasting it through my third best (5 quid) airbrush to paint the facia. Surprisingly this worked out really well. I did try to keep the empty boxes under control but forgot to take any photos until packing up was in progress.
     

    The 2mm room. We did have some non Association people to see us (honest!) but this photo was taken almost at the end of the day.
     

    Richard Caunt's 'British Oak' inspired layout
     

    Richard Caunt's 'British Oak' inspired layout
     

    Bryn Davies' 'Colwyn Bay Goods'
     

    Bryn Davies' 'Colwyn Bay Goods'
     

    Laurie Adams working on parts for 'Yeovil Town'. A wonderful station. I'm really looking forward to that one.
     
    No photos outside of the 2mm room because I did not get out much.
     
    David Long is picking up the baton tomorrow with his 'Water Lane' layout. Hopefully someone else will post some photos tomorrow.
  19. D869

    A Sense of Place

    By D869,

    ... or maybe plaice!
     
    It's been bugging me for a while that South Yard has a rather dull backscene. It's also a bit low now that the new lighting rig is in position so I've been thinking about doing something about it.
     
    Now South Yard is a real place in Plymouth (or rather Devonport, Stoke Damerel or 'Dock' depending on how old fashioned you want to be). The name refers to the southern half of the Royal Naval dockyard and my layout is set just outside the dockyard wall. Having done a spot of research originally using an OS map, I noticed that there are some quite nice views of Plymouth Sound and the Cremyll peninsula to be had not far away from my setting so I thought that something along these lines would make for a nicer backscene.
     
    So in an idle moment a week or two back I started plodding around the area on Google Streetview to see if I could get the right perspective for my backscene. To cut a long story short, I can't. There is a hill in the way with an old garrison built into it - now a housing estate but a road leads down close to the dockyard wall and terminates on a quay. It's possible to drive Streetview down there and look out over the harbour. Cue the first set of screenshots. These also show the very edge of the old roofed slip inside the dockyard. I've been trying to figure out how to get this into the backscene but I don't think it will fit with the yard wall.
     
    In my notional world the station is near to the brow of the hill allowing the viewer to look over the top and see the harbour beyond so the quayside views are too low down. I found some views from a road on Mount Wise which are from a higher elevation - probably too high and not quite in the right place. Cue the second set of screenshots.
     
    Some cropping and stitching together with Gimp followed, then scaling to (roughly) the right width and printing onto two bits of A4 so that the result could be tried out on South Yard. I slightly squished the high angle photos vertically as a quick way to simulate a slightly lower viewpoint. The prints are black and white as recommended by Martin Goodall in his MRJ article on the Burford backscenes... also because the printer is playing up when used in colour mode.
     
    The photos were tried out at various heights to see what looked best. Here are the results...
     
    From the quayside - right location but too low down...
     

    A promising start if you ignore the white van etc!
     

    Lower is perhaps better
     
    From Mount Wise - higher up but not quite the right location. I also seem to have clobbered the coal yard office...
     

    Too high and distracting
     

    I quite like this one
     

    I like this one too - on the plus side it puts the end of the bridge in the sky but it loses some interesting parts of the waterside on the left.
     
    The eventual backscene will be a painted affair based on a combination of the two images - the viewpoint from the quay but with the perspective from the higher angle. One conundrum is how to deal with the edges where the backscene meets the road bridge and yard wall. Keeping the horizon low will solve the road bridge problem but the yard wall is a more tricky proposition.
     
    It remains to be seen how successful I am at turning these ideas into a real painted backscene.
     
    EDIT: I thought it would be good to see what effect the backscene has on South Yard's role as 'photo plank'. Here are the results. Perhaps a little distracting in the straight side-on view but not too bad otherwise... and I can always keep the plain backscene as a standby.
     



  20. D869

    Time for a Tidy Up

    By D869,

    Those of you on the 2mm_notices mailing list will have seen Edward Sissling's request for micro layouts to appear on the (bigger) Association stand at the Nottingham show next month. I've volunteered South Yard to attend on the Saturday (15th March)... since I pretty much always go to the Nottingham show anyway.
     
    ...all of which means that I need to do a bit of housekeeping in order to get it into a fit state to put on show. Here's a photo of it in its usual surroundings.
     

     
    As you can see it gets used as a parking area for any incomplete projects. At the moment there's a St Ruth signal that's in for some attention and various bits of other models that are currently sealed in anti-dust boxes (or rather... chinese food boxes) awaiting some further coats of paint (weather permitting) - an oil tank, another Hawksworth and the 45xx chassis. Oh, and there's a Toad belonging to MinerChris which he left with me when he departed to Canada. Apparently he's expecting it to be painted when he gets back. The class 22 is just... parked.
     
    Maybe I should have called this posting 'not quite on my workbench'.
     
    I've written myself a shopping list of jobs that need doing (like a general clean-up for a start). Just over 2 weeks to go... at least this way I'll know what I have failed to do when I show up in Nottingham with the layout not quite ready
     
    I hope to see some of you at the show. I'm not sure how much of the show I'll actually get to see though.
  21. D869

    St Albans 2014

    By D869,

    Well, 2014 seems to have arrived and after the usual last minute flurry of activity to get things finished, so did this weekend's St Albans show.
     
    It was great to see some of our existing friends and to make some new ones. I think that all of the team had a good time although you might have got a different answer if you had asked those of us on our backs mending the point motor at the goods yard throat during the Saturday morning session.
     
    The Sea Siding crossover also decided to develop a mechanical gremlin when we powered up on Sunday. This one is a real puzzle because it was fine on Saturday evening and the only thing that happened in between was a night in the hall under a dust cover. Fortunately the schedule hasn't been changed too radically by the new crossover and we could still remember how to operate without it.
     
    I think we'll be adding some lighting behind the scenes quite soon. We were on the stage so the lighting levels were low and the walls were black. Even with a couple of extra lamps that we had with us it was pretty difficult to see when anything small needed to be worked on. Swapping locos to the other end of trains in the fiddle yard was a particular challenge and I had to resort to my keyring Maglite quite frequently to check whether the wheels really were on the track.
     
    As has been mentioned elsewhere the hotel was very nice and the food was excellent.
     
    As usual, a few randomly taken photos. I started off with good intentions and took photos of a couple of layouts that were near to us... then I got talking to Julia... and then Jerry... and then it was time to head back.
     

    Hartburn. Apparently (unlike St Ruth) there really is a place called that.
     

    La Baraque. A chunk of France... from the Netherlands.
     

    La Baraque again
     

    A dismembered Dapol Western bogie for anyone (like me) puzzling over how to do a 2FS conversion. Note the square plastic axles (!)
     

    The view from St Ruth looking out. Missy is somewhere up there on the far corner of the balcony. The Association mob were out of sight down in the basement... probably for the best really.
     
    Next up (if I've got this right) is Epsom and Ewell. I'll update the sidebar thingy when I've checked that with John.
  22. D869

    Merry Christmas

    By D869,

    Merry Christmas to all of our readers in RMWeb-land. We hope to see some of you at St Albans in January.
     

     
    A word or two about the photo… I must thank Peter W Gray for the idea and the composition. The photo is inspired by his photo (published in the Jan 2005 'Steam Days') of 5015 Kingswear Castle waiting at signals to depart from Newton Abbot in January 1962. Peter's photo is lit by the lights of the platform where he was standing. The equivalent platform at St Ruth stops rather short of where it would be needed so there is some licence involved with the lighting of this scene. In fact I need to thank Chris for holding a fluorescent anglepoise to shed just enough light on the layout so that you can see the loco but without drowning out the lights from the signals or the signal box. If I'd been better prepared then we'd have had a couple of amber LEDs in the cab and under the footplate to reproduce the firebox glow seen in Peter's photo.
     
    We don't have a 'Castle' so the loco is 'King George V' built from a Foxhunter kit by the late Phil Kerr who also did the masters. It's a nice model but it doesn't really produce steam - that's been added in the edit.
  23. D869

    More New Things

    By D869,

    There hasn’t been a huge amount recently that has really justified a blog posting on its own but there has been plenty going on so here is a potted summary of recent developments and the covoluted paths by which they progressed through the works.
     
    Another Stephen Harris tank is now ready for the paint shop. This one is a class ‘A’ tank. I went for one of the early ones with the shoe suspension and without bottom discharge because that’s what the transfer sheet covers. On the whole though I’m thinking that I need to find some way to get away from the numbers on the sheet so that I can build a few other variations with the remaining kits. The early ones don’t seem to show up much in later photos which makes me wonder how long they lasted in their original traffic. I was trying to speed up my building of these kits… I started this one in September so I don’t think it’s worked.
     

     
    The first diversion from the tank was an Association BR 20T brake van kit. I felt that I was rather short of brake vans so this kit was purchased at the Expo in June. For the most part it went together as per the instructions. The only major departure that I can remember are the roof vents – the positions of the holes for these don’t match the drawing in Don Rowland’s ‘first half million’ book (nor do they match the photos) so I filled the holes with solder and drilled new ones further inboard. Oh, and it's missing the holes for the little handrail above the ducket on the chimney side. This van was ready for traffic at the Burton show, although I still need to do some weathering on it. Here's a photo of it next to its rather longer in the tooth friend - a cut down Peco model.
     

     
    During our half term week on Exmoor I finished the brake van and did a bit more on the oil tank. I then started on another Hawksworth that I’d packed as my ‘holiday project’ - a brake third this time. Needless to say I didn’t finish it over half term (not even close) but now it too is ready for the paint shop – I managed this one in just under a month which is not bad for me. Then I felt guilty about that tank and finally did the last remaining jobs before the paint shop. Here's a picture of the Hawksworth. It's sat on NPCS bogies just now - once painted these will be swapped with the BG which is currently sat on a set of long spring bogies.
     

     
    Having scored a minor victory over my coaching stock gloat box, a package of assorted Collett and Hawksworth kits arrived from Mr Higgs last week. I then took the obvious next steps - put them away for later and order a few more to go with them.
     
    D1051 has been running progressively more roughly (sounding like a bag of nails) and was finally declared a failure at Burton, seemingly unable to make a round trip from the fiddle yard to the station and back without conking out. On reaching home I took it to bits and after a good deal of trial and error found that one of the motor bearings had worn to an oval shape allowing the armature to rub on the pole pieces. I also found that one of the motor brushes had been running at 90 degrees to the correct angle for a long time, so the wear pattern on the brush was a sort of ‘cross’ shape. I had some spare bearings and brushes from BR Lines in stock, so these were fitted and D1051 seemed much more chirpy when tested on St Ruth last Tuesday.
     
    Having recently cleared two builds from my workbench, there must be room for two more. The plan is to make a start on the David Eveleigh 45xx chassis and also get another bracket signal underway for St Ruth. Whether these projects get finished without interruptions and distractions remains to be seen but here’s a photo of the 45xx etch with its frame bushes fitted.
     

     
    Oh, and I almost forgot… South Yard has finally gained its own lighting rig. This was inspired by bcnPete’s use of Ikea LED strips. I started out with a set of ‘LEDBERG’s which were nice but I felt that they lacked a little in terms of output for South Yard. I then started experimenting with various of the self-adhesive LED strips that can be had for few quid on eBay. At the moment the rig is extremely ‘Heath Robinson’ being constructed from foamboard in a way that allows it to be packed into the briefcase with the layout. The LED strips are stuck on with Blu Tack at the moment and the power supply has a peculiar daisy-chain of connectors and adapters. The photos were taken under ‘warm white’ illumination using (most of) a 1m strip cut into 3 parts. Judging by the above photos, the camera seems undecided regarding the correct white balance to use. More work is planned, including painting the facia panels – white is not the intended facia colour – and some rather better put together electrical bits.
     

  24. D869

    Burton 2013

    By D869,

    First of all an apology - no pictures this time!
     
    Yesterday we took St Ruth to the Burton show held in the brewery museum. I spent most of the day on the fiddle yard where it is at least possible to make eye contact with the audience so was able to talk to a few people. We had some favourable comments from the audience although behind the scenes things were not entirely going according to plan.
     
    Burton is a one day show so it was an early start, setup, do the show and pack up all in the same day. This meant we hadn't had time to check things over before the show opened and on starting to run the schedule we immediately found that four electrical sections in the station had decided to go completely AWOL for some unknown reason.
     
    The first half hour or so of the show was done with the lid off the control panel so that John could replace one of the PCBs. This meant that the operators were crouching on the floor whenever they needed to press a button on the panel. Even after that was dealt with there were other problems - the yard headshunt section remained AWOL for the whole show which made shunting the yard even more difficult than normal and the fiddle yard electrics were not their normal selves either.
     
    I'm still puzzled about how we can put the layout away in a working state after a 2 day show and then just 3 weeks later it has developed multiple electrical gremlins on boards that are separated by at least 8 feet.
     
    Anyway, I think we still enjoyed ourselves even though the day was a bit hectic. The bacon butties were very welcome in the morning but for some reason we didn't get any free beer vouchers, so maybe a point of improvement for the organisers there.
  25. D869

    Aldershot 2013

    By D869,

    Just back from an enjoyable weekend with St Ruth at the Aldershot show organised by the Farnham and District MRC.
     
    Getting the new sea siding crossover finished in time for the show was a bit of a struggle. We could certainly have used some more time to deal with the stickiness that always seems to happen as soon as new track is painted... and then again when it is ballasted. It managed to (mostly) make it through the weekend though.
     
    The other new items were a new goods yard shunting scheme to cope with the loss of the loop, Ian's new trees, Steve's mess hut and a revised backscene with a semi-3d effect.
     
    I think that John must have really burned the midnight oil on the backscene. It has been underway for most of the summer but last Tuesday it was completely white so it was a huge surprise to see it in glorious technicolour when the layout was put together on Friday night. It makes a vast difference to the visual impact of the layout. Here's John filling in one last bit of missing colour before the lighting pelmets went on. Is that a cup of coffee that I see on the beach?
     

     
    Chris also produced a special train to take full advantage of the new operational possibilities of the sea siding to show how the railway used the laws of physics to move empty coaches into the platform without the need for one of those costly loco things. It also produces some interesting effects if it isn't perfectly coupled to the loco when it departs for London.
     

     
    Thanks to Ian Morgan and David Stratton for stepping in to help out with operating the layout at short notice. Both of them got the hang of our schedule and St Ruth's controls very quickly and did a sterling job for the whole weekend. Thanks too to Mr Brummitt for delivering a certain trophy to us from far off Bolton and to the judges who awarded it to us. And finally of course thanks to Noel and the team for organising a great show.
     
    Next up... Burton on Trent in 3 weeks time. I think that the main work before then will be some more debugging of the new bits.
     
    A few photos of some other layouts that caught my eye. As usual my photos don't do them justice...
     
    Loch Tat - lovely colouring
     

     
    Brixcombe
     

     
    Westcliff
     

×
×
  • Create New...