Tullygrainey

We have a footplate. 15 thou brass with a double thickness for the buffer beams. Valances are 1.5mm x 1.5mm brass angle. The next stages will involve curves Onward and upward (hopefully) Alan

Rugger and rowlocks!! And muck too. They don't fix much, those words, but they do at least reduce the likelihood of a resort to the big hammer. Sorry to hear about your tribulations David but you seem to be getting the measure of them. Hang in there. All the best.

That little loco has real charm. Lovely work.

That's coming together very nicely David. Five hours well spent I'd say. Undoing and redoing is all part of the fun experience. Splasher tops are a pig aren't they! I've found that fitting them straight and true is only half the battle. Making sure the wheels don't short inside them later is the other part of the task. The small details are a trial too. I've seen tiny bits on etches which left me thinking "They're having a laugh. How could anyone see that never mind fit it?!" Please keep posting this build. I'm really enjoying it. Cheers, Alan P.S. Aloe Vera sap is very soothing for singed fingers. I keep a plant on the window sill

After a succession of one step forward, two back and some quite frankly grumpy behaviour, I’ve got this far. There was the adventure with the crankpins that unscrewed themselves and fouled the chassis, meaning the wheels had to come off again. Then there were a number of failed attempts to devise pickups. Not to mention the stutter which had no obvious cause. There was a point when the big hammer almost came into play before sense prevailed and I realised it was way past my bedtime, it is after all only a hobby and these things are better deferred until after at least one breakfast. Anyway, it runs tolerably well now. From what I’ve read, there are two main approaches to mounting bogies. The late Iain Rice, whose published guidance I have consistently relied on, favoured a pivoted arm, sideways control and even on occasion, compensation beams. Guy Williams, the other scratch-building guru, advised a central pivot in a slot below axle level, plenty of weight in the bogie and leaving it to take care of itself. The latter sounded easier (it wasn’t) but that’s what I ended up doing. My bogie has a central frame - an open topped box with a slot in the bottom to allow swivelling and sideways movement. It’s also full of lead. The side frames which carry the wheels are pivoted midway between the axles so the wheels can ride the bumps (what do you mean, your track doesn’t have any bumps?). The whole device is mounted on a vertical shaft attached to the chassis. This has a soldered washer above and a plate below the bogie frame to control up and down movement and stop it tilting. It’s taken a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing but it seems to work ok and hasn’t shown any tendency to derail so far. I’m going to lie down now.... Alan

Thanks David. Really useful info. You make it sound very easy. A rolling chassis in three hours is brilliant. My current efforts to get that far, admittedly in 4mm which can be fiddly and eyesight-challenging, has taken 3 weeks! Mind you, half of that is probably looking for lost tools and searching for the bits the carpet monster has stolen You're tempting me toward 7mm. Alan

There's a fair bit of that around here too! I seem to get through a lot of fibreglass pencils

So I keep telling myself

As an inveterate user of those Wills sheet, I should have recognised them! Water tower looks great. I like the idea of watercolour paper render. Will steal that at the first opportunity

A bit more progress with Number 29. Some nice wheels from Alan Gibson... Then, some paint on the frames, gearbox in, wheels on and quartered using my trusty G.W. Models wheel press and quartering jig. A great little device that takes some of the agony out of a tricky job. Wouldn't be without it now. Rods held on temporarily with bits of wire insulation. We have a chassis that rolls under finger power without any tight spots. That's a relief! Motor in and under power, it shuffles along very nicely. chassisrun.MOV Now, about that bogie.... Still travelling hopefully, Alan

Lovely stuff as always David. The scribed stonework on that engine shed and the signal box is spot-on. And I'm a fan of your painted street scene backdrops. There's a coherence to all your work which creates not just a layout but an atmosphere. Inspiring.

Plenty to keep you busy there David! Good luck with the project(s). Look forward to seeing the results.

Probably BCDR Patrick but who knows. If we ever make it to the painting stage, that'll be the time to decide

No. 29's chassis is now assembled. it needed a fair bit of adjustment to the spacers to get it sitting straight and level, working on a glass plate. The frames are long on this one and a bit too floppy for comfort. They might have been better made in beefier plate. However, now the spacers are in, it's rigid enough, I think. I used my Poppy Woodtech chassis jig for the first time to fit the hornblocks, using the fixed rear axle bearings as the datum and working forwards, one axle at a time. Was all thumbs with it at first but once I'd got the hang of it (that is, read the instructions), it worked a treat. The long axles help minimise the errors. Some pretty sloppy soldering around those hornblocks. It was tidied up later, honest. Compensation beam fitted with its pivot tube... ...and slotted into place in the chassis. The 1mm brass wire it pivots on is soldered to the chassis at one end, being careful not to solder the whole thing up solid. Gearbox and wheels next and I'm still pondering how best to mount the rear bogie. I have a plan. (cunning? Not sure, yet) Alan

My usual method for making a compensation beam for the 2 floating axles on a six-coupled chassis is to use a length of 0.7mm or 1mm brass rod soldered at right angles to a tube rotating between the frames on another, fixed, brass rod, thus: The beam is soldered onto the pivot tube after the horn blocks and wheels have been fitted and is then fettled (a polite term for ‘bent with pliers and swearing’) so that it makes contact with both axles and the chassis sits level. This last bit can be a bit of a trial, especially if the beam is hard to get at, thanks to frame spacers getting in the way. For this chassis, I’m trying the method more often found in etched kits, that is, a beam cut from nickel silver sheet like this: The challenge is to get the pivot in the right place so the beam is in contact with both axles because once made, the beam can’t be bent like the brass rod, no matter how much you swear at it. This is the method I used. It needs to be done after the frame pair has been shaped and the axle holes have been pilot-drilled but before the horn block cutouts are done or the 2 frames separated. 1. Cut and shape a beam from 2 layers of 0.015” nickel silver sheet soldered together. The shape isn't critical but it needs to be long enough to bridge the two floating axles. Establish the centre point and drill a 1mm pivot hole. 2. Ream out the axle holes on the frames to be a tight fit on 2 axles (not bearings), 1/8th inch diameter in this case. 3. Insert two axles into the holes and rest the beam across them so that it makes contact with both. Hold or clamp it in place. 4. Using a 1mm drill, drill through the beam’s pivot hole into the frames. The holes thus drilled in the frames will locate the pivoting cross tube in the right place when the frames are assembled. The beam will make contact with both axles and the chassis will sit level. Yeh! Assembling all these bits is next. Getting it all straight is always bit of a challenge. I anticipate more swearing... Alan If at first you don't succeed, use a bigger hammer

Lovely stuff David

I had a very prompt response to my email request to the Ulster Transport Museum but unfortunately, they weren't able to turn up anything in their archive relating to BCDR 0-6-4T Number 29. However, having already made the rods, I'm going to push on with a chassis anyway. Who knows what we'll end up with. It'll be fun ( won't it?). I'm using a High Level Loadhauler gearbox. I think these little devices are hard to beat. The motor also came from HL. The chassis frames are in 0.015" nickel silver, cut and shaped as a pair then separated. The rods were used to mark out the axle spacing. Spot the deliberate mistake - the bits that had to be let in thanks to cack-handed cutting out in the first place One fixed driven axle and compensation on the other two, using hornblocks and a beam. Hornblocks and sliding bearings are MJT, from Dart Castings. I've never built anything with a bogie before so we'll see how that goes Travelling hopefully, Alan

Good idea Patrick. That should work well.

I always felt the quayside at Loughan was a bit too pristine for a working harbour so it's been cluttered up a bit... The good ship Wild Rose seems to have drifted off. That'll teach them not to tie her up properly. A few more hidden corners round the back. Nobody about. Must be lunchtime. Alan

What a great little film! Absolutely full of interesting detail. Really enjoyed it. Many thanks

Go for it!

I've had one of these on pre-order with Hornby since it was first announced - June 2021. I despaired of ever seeing it so I built the Judith Edge kit in the meantime Alan

From what I've read, Number 29 was ordered from Beyer Peacock in 1922 and delivered to the BCDR in September 1923. By 1950, the Ulster Transport Authority was the custodian. They renumbered it 229 and it was finally withdrawn in June 1956.

Many thanks. I came across those yesterday while browsing. They'll be very useful.