London & North Western Adventures (in 2mm)

[garethashenden]

Up to now I have dabbled in 2mmFS without a cohesive plan. I've been tempted over the years in various directions and have some finished wagons to show for it, but without a layout to use them on they're all languishing in a box. I now intend to build a layout and construct rolling stock to suit. As may be surmised from the thread's title it will be LNWR themed, but post grouping. I have no objection to modelling in multiple scales, but I try very hard to avoid overlap. So with the goal of avoiding duplicating my P4 North London c.1903 efforts this layout will be c.1930 and rural. I have ideas of what the layout will be, bust first the rolling stock!

 

I started building a Coal Tank a few years ago, as did many people. The reduced etch was produced along with a separate chassis kit. I need to dig it out and finish the fittings. Haven't done much with it since early 2020.

 

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to do something in 2mm, which is a feeling I get sometimes. I went into my gloat box and came up with an etch for a LNWR 2-4-0 Jumbo and the appropriate wheels. This seems like a good place for me to try out the Association's new 30:1 gearbox. I have struggled in the past with gearboxes, so I ordered 3 when they were first released. I started with the body, a questionable idea but what I wanted to do. The footplate, splashers, and cab all went together pretty easily. Then it was time for the chassis. The 0.005" brass that the etch was made from didn't seem like the sturdiest thing to make a chassis from, but I'm afraid I have overcompensated. I found a source a few months ago for phosphor bronze sheet, and instead of ordering 0.020" I ordered 0.032". Should give plenty of bearing area, but its too thick for my shear. Well, it can cut it, but not without warping it. So I used a saw instead to cut two strips, sweated them together, then added one of the etched chassis sides on top. Using that as a guide I drilled the axle holes and cut the frames to shape. The rods were drilled at the same time, so they should match, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I assembled the frames with pcb narrowed down to 6.3mm, then assembled the gearbox. It went pretty well, but I had to try a few muffs to get one that was a good fit. Some were smaller than the hole in the gear. I decided to include "Simpson springs" in this chassis, which is the first time I've used them. Every bit of extra pickup helps...

 

[Sithlord75]

Watching with great interest.    If you're interested, I've a bunch of .stl 3D printer files for bodies to go on the LNWR chassis which Shop 2 sells.  For the 1930s this includes the D21 and 22 Cattle wagons, the D84 Open and the D103 one plank wagon.  I think the D1, 2 and 6 were all gone by the end of the Great War.  

[garethashenden]

23 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Watching with great interest.    If you're interested, I've a bunch of .stl 3D printer files for bodies to go on the LNWR chassis which Shop 2 sells.  For the 1930s this includes the D21 and 22 Cattle wagons, the D84 Open and the D103 one plank wagon.  I think the D1, 2 and 6 were all gone by the end of the Great War.  

That would be great! I saw they were listed on the 3d CAD exchange. I'll send you an email.

[CF MRC]

On 13/02/2022 at 23:24, Sithlord75 said:

Watching with great interest.    If you're interested, I've a bunch of .stl 3D printer files for bodies to go on the LNWR chassis which Shop 2 sells.  For the 1930s this includes the D21 and 22 Cattle wagons, the D84 Open and the D103 one plank wagon.  I think the D1, 2 and 6 were all gone by the end of the Great War.  

Nice to see the etch going together Gareth. I think it will be the first. 
 

Tim
 

 

[queensquare]

 

 

Looking good Gareth. I picked up one of these etches having  come across this picture of a Jumbo returning from a trip to Bath in 1930 - an actual picture of something unusual visiting Bath is more than enough of an excuse to build one!

 

Jerry

[Sithlord75]

24 minutes ago, queensquare said:

Looking good Gareth. I picked up one of these etches having  come across this picture of a Jumbo returning from a trip to Bath in 1930 - an actual picture of something unusual visiting Bath is more than enough of an excuse to build one!

 

Jerry

Hijack - but possibly worth it for Gareth.  Any ideas where I might find drawings of said engineer's saloon?  The best part about those kind of coaches is a) one is all you need and b) they can turn up literally anywhere hauled by practically anything!

[garethashenden]

Well when I get my time machine working Mr Webb and I are going to have a little talk about clearances. He was very inconsiderate of the needs of future modellers when he designed these splashers…

[Nig H]

3 hours ago, garethashenden said:

Well when I get my time machine working Mr Webb and I are going to have a little talk about clearances. He was very inconsiderate of the needs of future modellers when he designed these splashers…

He's not the only one. It seems to me a number of CMEs are completely indifferent to the needs of 2mm scale modellers and the issue of tolerances when designing their wheel splashers. I think they expect us to remember to check the splashers are far enough apart for our wheels when starting on a loco, and make suitable adjustments if necessary.

 

Nigel Hunt

[Caley Jim]

It's not just splashers!  You'll see from my 417 Class topic that the outside frames on 'Crewe types' were put far too close together!

 

Jim

[tapdieuk]

 

 

Snap....

That looks a much better Jumbo than my own attempt. I have tried to build a chassis for it. But I made a mess of it, putting it down as part of the learning curve. 

The Coal tank looks really good. Any thoughts on how you are going to lining them out? 

 

Will

 

 

 

[2mm Andy]

9 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Hijack - but possibly worth it for Gareth.  Any ideas where I might find drawings of said engineer's saloon?  The best part about those kind of coaches is a) one is all you need and b) they can turn up literally anywhere hauled by practically anything!

 

Depends which saloon it is (it's a tad difficult to identify from one grainy photo which mostly shows an end in shadow...!). IIRC there is a drawing of a 6 wheel saloon (possibly the one preserved on the Kent & East Sussex Railway) in this;

 

https://www.lnwrs.org.uk/Sales/portfolio15.php

 

Andy

[garethashenden]

Looks like the chassis needs to come apart already! I went to push the wheels all the way in, so I can see just how bad the splasher problem is. When the wheels are tight against the frames, the back to back is 8.8mm. Should be 8.5. They turn, but not exactly freely. So I need to thin the spacers a bit more. Guess I hadn't quite done the math correctly. Right at 8.0mm over the frames now, should be closer to 7.8mm.

[garethashenden]

3 hours ago, tapdieuk said:

 

 

Snap....

That looks a much better Jumbo than my own attempt. I have tried to build a chassis for it. But I made a mess of it, putting it down as part of the learning curve. 

The Coal tank looks really good. Any thoughts on how you are going to lining them out? 

 

Will

 

 

 

That looks good to me! I haven't thought too much about the lining. I need to pick a prototype at some point soon. I'm not sure how quickly LMS repainted them, I know a few made it into red, which is tempting. Most of them were gone by 1930, so I need to be somewhat careful with my choice. 

[drduncan]

Does it have to be 1930? Could late 20s, say post 1927 give you a little more flexibility?

Duncan

[garethashenden]

19 hours ago, drduncan said:

Does it have to be 1930? Could late 20s, say post 1927 give you a little more flexibility?

Duncan

It can probably be flexible, ‘27-‘32 or thereabouts. 

[garethashenden]

Before I get much further with the locomotive I want to start on the tender. I think it would be good to get the locomotive and tender running together, before I do something with the locomotive that would later need to be undone with the tender.

When looking at the tender etch, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a tender body etch as the chassis bits are few and far between. There are six trapezoidal pieces that are supposed to attach to the underside of the tender floor, and two solebar etches. That's about it for the tender chassis. This does mimic the prototype, which had a very open tender chassis, but doesn't help if I want standard 2mm chassis construction. I went back to my phosphor bronze sheet and cut two more strips. These were sweated together and then marked out. I laid out the 6'6"+6' spacing and drilled the axle holes. Then sawed around them mimicking the shape of the etched parts. The two frames are sill soldered together, but will come apart soon.

 

I'm going to pull out my bag of motors and see what looks promising. There's not a lot of height available, and I need to plan for a decoder in there somewhere. Not sure I really fancy trying to cram in a sound decoder, but I may give it a few moments thought. I also need to decide if I want to build the tender as its own thing, or hang it off the back of the locomotive. The latter can transfer some weight to the rear driving wheels, but I'm not sure the best way of accomplishing it.

[garethashenden]

I’ve been working away at this but not posting regular updates. I now have a tender! The body is not yet mounted to the chassis, but it looks the part at least. Once I have it mounted I’ll figure out a drawbar etc. not too far off from seeing it run potentially.

 

[garethashenden]

IT Runs!!! Needs more weight though

 

 

[garethashenden]

I have returned to working on the locomotive body and got it to a point where it looks like a Jumbo. I used the kit's etched boiler. At first I tried to use a piece of tube, but cutting it for wheel clearance was proving problematic, along with shaping the firebox. I annealed the etched boiler and rolled it to shape. Unfortunately its now quite soft and delicate as a result. But still, it works. I fits properly into the body, but is hitting some part of the chassis, so it looks off in the pictures. I'll figure out where its not fitting, fix it, and then work out how to attach the body to the chassis. Probably one screw at the front, into the smokebox. 

I received a bunch of castings from N Brass yesterday, for both this and the Coal Tank. So I dug out the Coal Tank to see where exactly things had been left off. They are pictured together. 

I need to tidy up the workbench. The useable space has been decreasing recently...

 

[CF MRC]

These fireless engines were all the rage at Crewe…

 

Tim

[garethashenden]

3 hours ago, CF MRC said:

These fireless engines were all the rage at Crewe…

 

Tim

I’m not sure lighting them on fire would improve things, but you’re the expert…

[DavidLong]

On 25/02/2022 at 01:10, garethashenden said:

I’ve been working away at this but not posting regular updates. I now have a tender! The body is not yet mounted to the chassis, but it looks the part at least. Once I have it mounted I’ll figure out a drawbar etc. not too far off from seeing it run potentially.

 

 

Hi Gareth. That motor looks a little chunky for such a low profile tender. Would it be worth trying one of Sven's Tramfabriek motors such as the 0716? Being coreless they would also certainly give smoother control, especially at the lower end of the speed curve.

For a small sound decoder have a look at the new Zimo MS500, it is very small. I think that the way sound decoders are going the problem is going to be more finding space for a speaker.

 

David

 

 

[Nig H]

3 hours ago, DavidLong said:

 

Hi Gareth. That motor looks a little chunky for such a low profile tender. Would it be worth trying one of Sven's Tramfabriek motors such as the 0716? Being coreless they would also certainly give smoother control, especially at the lower end of the speed curve.

For a small sound decoder have a look at the new Zimo MS500, it is very small. I think that the way sound decoders are going the problem is going to be more finding space for a speaker.

 

David

 

 

Hi,

 

A smaller motor would help align the u/js better too.

 

Nigel Hunt

[garethashenden]

The motor is a little bit big for the tender, that's true. I have also seen numerous pictures of Jumbos with ridiculously high piles of coal in the tender, so I think it will work out ok. Maybe it will get changed though. Aside from size, this is an excellent motor. 6 pole coreless with loads of torque and nice and smooth. Only 6V, but that's easily accommodated by the decoder.

[sej]

Hi Gareth, lovely locos!

Where did you source the Coal Tank etches from please?

 

Cheers

Simon