Tullygrainey

Today was all about coupling rods. To ream or not to ream? There's no question. All those holes have to be made bigger to fit crankpin bushes or rivets. Each coupling rod is split near the centre crankpin bush and the joint is articulated. Each length of rod is made up from 3 laminations, such that one ends up with a tongue on one end and the other one is forked. To help keep the laminations in line whilst they're sweated together, I use a lightly vaselined crankpin bush through the holes at one end and a cocktail stick through the other end where I apply the soldering iron and work towards the middle. Then I change them over and repeat. To finish, I clamp the rod lengthwise in the vice and run more solder along the top edge. This gets filed back to give a nice solid looking edge. Sometimes. The tongue slots into the fork and the joint is made with a small, nay tiny, rivet which needs to be soldered in place at the back without seizing it all up. Very fiddly and all a bit fraught. Was glad when it was done because it meant I could start breathing again. High Level Hornblocks. Nice design which folds up and doesn't need any soldering but in my experience they need a fair bit of fettling to make them slide smoothly. The sides of the bearings need polished back a bit in order to fit between the cheeks of the hornblocks. Fine emery does the job and I have used Brasso in the past to give them a final shine, always remembering to wash it off afterwards. Next job is to solder the hornblocks into the chassis, using the rods to help position them. Expect tears. Alan

Have a great Christmas everyone. Hope the bearded bloke delivers the goods. Cheers, Alan

Beehave!

Cheers Mike. It's more about replacing things like clunky plastic coal rails and cab steps with finer etched parts but you're right. Over time, they did shed their vacuum gear among other things.

The accessory output on your Gaugemaster Combi is perfect for driving solenoid points motors.

The traditional bog standard point motor was/is the Peco PL10 which slots into the bottom of the point with a rod fitting into the hole in the tie bar. it has 2 coils which when given a quick burst of power, move the rod and throw the point. It needs an AC power supply of around 16 volts. Many analogue controllers have an 'accessories' outlet which will do that job. Each points motor needs 3 wires, one feed to each coil (the red and black wires in the pic above) and one common return (the green). The common return can usually be a single wire which daisy chains round the layout from one motor to the next. In the diagram above, each 2-way centre off switch can also be replaced with 2 momentary push buttons - the idea is that the coils just need a brief squirt of power to activate them. Continuous power would burn them out. I find a quick jab on a simple push switch works the best and is fairly intuitive. Thought the blurb above says you need a capacitor discharge unit, you could probably manage without one unless you're trying to throw more than one point at the same time. Advantages: Relatively cheap and cheerful. Peco can supply wire harnesses which slip onto the terminals thus avoiding the need to solder the wires on. Disadvantages: Each motor needs wired back to the control panel where you've sited your operating switches. However, your layout is small so that shouldn't be a big problem. The action is sudden, rapid and noisy, not slow and progressive like when using servos or similar. If using electrofrog points, a switch needs to be added to change the frog polarity as the point change over. (You're using insulfrog points so not a problem) Good luck with your build! Alan

Yay!! Perfect pebbledash

The recent announcement by Marks Models and Hornby of an intention to produce a model of the ‘Irish’ Jinty prompted me to rummage in my future projects drawer for an old, much abused Hornby Jinty and an etched Jinty chassis kit from High Level, both of which have been in there for a while, originally acquired to build that very thing - an Irish Jinty, either in NCC or UTA livery. Time to dust them off.... The chassis kit is intended for the Bachmann model but I'm hoping the Hornby shell can be persuaded to fit. It's fairly basic compared to the more recent Bachmann but would probably repay a bit of work. Brassmasters do a nice detailing kit for it. The High Level chassis etch is a work of art and a thing of beauty - crisp and detailed in nickel silver. It almost seemed a crime to plaster it with solder and fingerprints. But, hey ho, eggs and omelettes. Off we go. Fixed bearings for the rear driven axle and compensation for the other two using hornblocks. The spring detail is made up of two additional layers laminated to the back of the one etched as part of the chassis frame. Their presence made removing the hornblock cutouts a bit tricky. Nearly managed to fold one of the frames in half... but once all the spacers were in, the whole thing became reassuringly rigid. And straight. There's a lot to be said for photo-etching. York Road, here we come. Alan

As you say David, a shedload of variables all waiting to trip you up so no mean achievement to get it working so well. A fine bit of work!

Great start. Looking forward to seeing this develop. Keep posting!

Beano is right. If you don’t need sound, any generic decoder will do the job as long as it has the correct number of pins to match the socket in your loco. Have a look at the DCC Concepts website. They have a useful range of decoders and also a plug-in stay-alive system which avoids the need to do any soldering (though you may not need stay-alive, given the sort of locomotives you’re using). I’ve been using them for a while now with no problems.

Apologies, it's probably me causing some of the confusion here. The carriage, a Brake 3rd, currently parked at Brookhall Mill (possibly full of drunk passengers) was built from a Bill Bedford etch that had lurked in Patrick's projects drawer for about 10 years. The same kits are now rebranded as Mousa Models products and available from them. Wizard Models do seem to stock some Bedford etches, mostly detailing stuff like brake levers and W irons, but not the Mousa carriages. None of those detailing bits appear on the Mousa site so could they be older remaindered stock? PS: Just checked the Wizard site again and I notice most of the Bedford items are 'out of stock' which does seem to suggest a product line being run down

No, JB, it’s made from a Bill Bedford etch

Just brilliant!

Stellar stuff David! A lot of inspiration, invention and graft involved in creating those cylinder/slide bar/crosshead assemblies - I make it at least 35 separate bits in each one, counting the bolt heads which I love - but the results are definitely worth the effort required. They really look the part.

Oh dear! Lady Luck doesn’t seem to be playing ball with you these days David. I wonder why the stage 1 gear wheel was self destructing. I’ve occasionally had a shaft come adrift from its housing at one end, making the gear go out of mesh. I use superglue to secure the shafts and sometimes it doesn’t take. The first indication is usually lumpy running. The cranks look well. Making those was painstaking, I’d say.

Masterpiece, Patrick. I can smell the damp and mould and hear the rainwater dripping from leaking gutters.

I know the received wisdom is that the actual angle doesn't matter so long as it's the same on all the axles but I'm not sure how far you can stray from 90 degrees before it starts to affect the running. If your drivers are running smoothly David, then I'd say you don't have a problem but it's an interesting question.

Every tool in the box, and then some! Looks familiar. I know that sinking feeling when something you've spent hours on suddenly looks to be scrap but excellent recovery David. That was an extra hurdle I'm sure you could've done without but you seem to be back on track again. All part of the learning curve I like the idea of the keeper plate. Worth the time and effort required I think.

That is a very impressive piece of miniature engineering John. I begin to see how tricky it is to make that particular wheel configuration work properly. So many variables! On 98's tender, do the wire keepers for the front and middle axles also provide springing or is there something else in there as well? Alan

What's the white convertible just visible below the Humber? is it a Ford Zephyr or Zodiac?

All this fishy talk is just a red herring. The real issue is what sort of service* the church will have. * steam or diesel?

Still needs a new suit I see

The BCDR Oldbury coaches are just about finished bar some minor tweaking. All aboard. The roofs are detachable so that drunk passengers can be helped back to their seats if they fall over. The bodywork should probably be lined out but I don't have that sort of courage. A little bit of light weathering has helped blend body to chassis... ... and Diesel No.2 has something appropriate to haul at last. Mind you, what it's doing at Loughan Quay is anyone's guess. IMG_9006.mov

Thanks Nelson. The figures are a mixture - Some whitemetal ones from Dart Castings (the Monty’s range) and some plastic ones from the Dapol (the old ex-Airfix) passenger set. Dart also do a whitemetal passenger set - a 14 figure job lot similar to the Monty’s range but of lesser quality and considerably cheaper. They’re in the mix as well. They’re pretty crude but since they’ll be tucked inside an unlit coach, they don’t need to be perfect