Darwinian

Aberdare getting there. Annoyingly the Vallejo satin varnish when sprayed has produced a grey/blue cast. I think this is my iffy spraying technique, probably got the pressure too high or overloaded the surfaces. Anyway, the weathering should take care of it as I was planning on making this one well work stained. Vab glazing next though.

Pit props... A bit of bodging to try out an idea. Wooden kebab skewers for the logs, easily cut by rolling under a sharp blade. Cereal card box for the bulk. Just a test build so only one side/end done. Too tall here, the uprights are out of gauge.

Painting of the Aberdare is underway. I’m using Vallejo Air acrylics and mixing my own match. For 1906-24 GWR green I have use Cam. Green and Black in a 5:2 ratio. Here is the result in daylight with a tinlet of Phoenix precision for comparison. Needs another coat but looks good enough to me. Finish is a bit grainy, that was the Halfords etch primer for some reason.

Masokits did an etch for the DCI brakes. Unfortunately the GWR brake etches are no longer listed https://traders.scalefour.org/masokits/ It may be worth asking?

Re. Fatter sheep. The ones from the air fix farm stock set are much chunkier and include a ram but not grazing poses (unless I’ve lost those). Below Airfix on left, Prieser on right, with a modelU shunter for comparison. Langley models do some sheep too, used to be a pick your own selection item at shows. I’ve often looked at them but had sufficient for my needs already.

Here is the replacement drive. Motor is slightly cogging (3 pole might, well be a cheap clone version) but still a marked improvement on the old set up.

While I wait for the primer to harden I’ve started a refurbishment. I built this M & L GWR county tank 30+ years ago. The drive set up never really worked well and pickups were unreliable. I know they never got near S. Wales valleys but I like them so am keeping it for old times sake. The early Alan Gibson wheels could not be pulled off so the axles has to be sawn through. The large Marshima motor was held in by bath sealant which had leached down into one flexi-chas bearing so that wheelset had to go to so I could clean it up. Replacement High level “road runner+” and Mitsumi cheap motor. New AGW driving wheels. Here are the main bits before starting. Old wheels/ gearbox on the left.

Last jobs on the Aberdare today. I had to wait until after my week away to order some short handrail knobs from Alan Gibson Workshop. Only now do I appreciate how different suppliers produce different knob lengths but call them the same. So here I’ve used 2x AGW short on the firebox. 1x Eileen’s Emporium Medium on the cone. 2x supplied with kit Medium on the smokebox (look to be same length as AGW Medium). Obviously the same both sides and an Eileen’s Medium for the smokebox front. I formed the front handrail curves around a small screwdriver shaft and a pen body. Best one I’ve ever done I think. Not perfect radius perhaps but at least it’s even and symmetrical.

So far a little careful tweaking of the double slip has rendered it reasonably reliable (good enough for home use) so long as I make the moves that were planned and don't try to shunt long runs of wagons in daft directions. The Aberdare + tender goes round all the bits of the layout that it should but not the very tight turnout to the short spur next to the good shed. If I was planning to exhibit (which I'm not) I would rebuild the first turnout at the station throat and the double slip as a single unit. They were the first pointwork I built and have a few rookie errors. They also have a very short joining length between them which doesn't help in keeping everything straight and level.

No I had the loco drawbar testing on the tender hook. I realise I hadn’t thought through the loco - tender contact clearly. 6 wheel pickup with compensation on the loco should be fine. Thanks for the offer of help.

Bit more done on the Aberdare. I gave up on the American pick up system as I could not get reliable contact to the tender without having issues with the tender staying on the track. Wiper wires now fitted to the insulated side. I also fudged the whistle mounting. The instructions say to cut the whistles off their straight stems then drill 0.3mm and fit wires bent to a sort of P shape. I didn’t think I could manage that so turned the whistle manifold upside down and just bent the turned stems at a right angle.

Now collecting the loaded wagons from the goods shed. And off into the headshunt before setting back.

Late afternoon pick up goods brought up the valley by 850 class pannier 1931. Photographed by from the goods yard by Dai-the bread on his rounds, collecting flour from the goods shed. Moving the brake van off the rear.

Cranks duly assembled. I built up 3 laminations and added a washer on the back to provide clearance for the hornblocks bottom strap which fouled the crank otherwise. There are 4 laminations in the kit but that left no side play. The washers are only 1/2 thickness. Crankpins countersunk in and soldered in place. The cranks were carefully reamed out with a taper reamer until a test axle could be pushed half way in. Then I mounted the cranks in the GW quartering jig and squeezed up onto the loco axles as far as I could. Checked the first two axles ran smoothly with rods on. All being well I put the axle across the vice and forced the cranks fully home. I have soldered them from the front face as well just to make sure. I suspect the force fit will be sufficient anyway. Here’s the first axle done.

Jack D48, my apologies I misunderstood your comment. When I looked at the cross piece in Penrhos' image I had assumed that the thinner strip spaced away from the main beam was to hold the bolt in place, perhaps by having a smaller hole than the bolt head. I also assumed that the nut bolt on the right simply had a top hat type bearing on to act as a stronger tube for the bolt to go through, That may be my interpretation rather than the actual set up used.

You can see the components in the earlier picture of coaches under construction. A standard brass nut is built into a plasticard box which is glued into the roof as shown. There is a stout plastcard beam across the carriage which has a trapped bolt in it (Centre front right of picture). The bolt can be reached by a screwdriver (long shaft jewlers type I presume) via a corresponding hole in the coach floor. Nuts and bolts readily available eg. Eileen’s Emporium. It’s a very neat solution, wish I’d thought of it. I will be using it in future coach construction.

Hopefully it won’t come to that. I do have some nickel silver sheet but no pillar drill and it still doesn’t solve the fixing to axle issue.

There is a recent topic in the kit building/ scratch building section on soldering outside cranks to axles. I think that’s what I did on my Bulldog, although it ha Ultrascale wheels. From those discussions I think I will give it a try first. If I can keep the cranks close to an interference fit I should be able to solder them without the quartering moving. I use a GW models quartering jig to set them up.

I have exactly this problem. Some of the Gibson cranks on my Aberdare have split soon after fitting (they were purchased in 2007 so age might be a factor). The Finney (now brassmasters) kit includes etched cranks that laminate together. They are meant for stepped ultrascale axles. If I carefully ream them out to be an interference fit on the Gibson axles I guess I can solder then onto the axles? If not what type of loctite would be suitable?

Tender now running nicely. I took some metal off the back of the pinpoint bearings at the compensated end and substituted a length of blunt ended 2mm rod for the pinpoint middle axle. Then disaster, hooked it together with the loco on Cwmhir, applied power, whirrrrr but no movement. I thought I’d forgotten to tighten the grub screw on the final drive cog but no, the outside cranks on the driven axle were loose and one had split. Looks like the plastic Gibson cranks aren’t up to this job. Only option I have is to try to adapt the etched, laminated cranks intended for Ultrascale stepped axles. Any other ideas?

That’s really developing nicely. I especially like the station building. As a resident of Norfolk I’ll follow this with interest. J15s are just such dainty engines (says an avowed GWR enthusiast), always a joy to see the NNR J15/Ywhatsit one

Found the short on the tender. The cross wire between the frames holding the rearmost pair of brake hangers had come out of its locating hole on the insulated side, allowing the brake shoe to touch the wheel. Repositioned and super glued and all is well. Now to sort out the wiring clearance. Then I can try to run it in a bit as the mechanism isn’t as free running as I’d like. Although it’s not been lubricated yet and with outside bearings as well there are a lot of bearing surfaces.

Problems arise. I fitted a current carrying hook with additional spring wipers to the tender and wires to the loco motor. Here’s the business end of the hook. On electrical testing there’s a frequent short circuit in the tender. An insulated wheel rim must be touching the the bodywork somewhere. I also cannot get the loco motor/gearbox into the body now the wires are on. More fiddling and faffing needed. Encouragingly the loco chassis seems to run OK when the motor is wired directly.

I just claim it’s on a trial/shake down run up the valley to Cwmhir from Caerphilly workshops. I doubt an Aberdare made it up a valley in Rhymney territory otherwise. Especially as it has to return tender first. My 28xx and ex-ROD 2-8-0s are really pushing that excuse but I do like big freight engines.

Progress update. Putting it all together part 1. I assembled the tender although the tank/footplate doesn’t sit fully down on the frames. Will need to take a bit off the tops of the springs as they catch on the valances . Also no allowance was made at the rear of the frames for the buffer housings projecting through the buffer beam. I had to resort to filing off about 2mm from the frames. It doesn’t show behind the steps anyway. Here are loco and tender standing on 3rd radius but only just. I doubt the loco will really be able to grind round as the flanges are tight to the railhead. Good job there are no curves quite this tight on Cwmhir.