murrayec

This month's Fair date;-

A Class G2 chassis required coupler rods, brakes, wheel weights and electrical pick-ups. On arrival, with brass etched rods and brake shoes- though I'm using my own Tufnol shoes as these insulate the wheels and one can have them right up against the tyres! After a plan of action was worked out the parts were cut- brake hangers/rods and wheel weights from .35mm brass sheet, pcb board was machined for the pick-ups and the Tufnol shoes. Milling flats on the frame spacers to provide a seat for the pick-up boards, the frames were also drilled for the mounting pins which hold the brake shoe hangers. Brake parts almost assembled. Soldering the laminate coupler rods and cross brake rods. Wheel weights epoxied on and a flat was milled on the motor axle to seat the gear wheel grub screw. A 10x6mm dia brass rod downstand was made and bolted to the front frame spacer to provide a seating/fixing for the front axle pick-up board. The pins for the brake hangers were also soldered in. A 4mm long tube is soldered on the pins to hold the hangers in position. Wheels back on, the brake gear was soldered up and the coupler rods fitted. The brakes are removable to access the wheels. .45 NS wire pick-ups were bent up and soldered to the pcb plates and all was wired up to the motor. And finally test running the completed chassis. A few tweaks are still needed on broaching out the coupler rod bearings, but it's ready to go off to it's crew for painting and fitting the body. Eoin

Me to! Every so often in the process when things fit one sits back and thinks 'did I really make that' These moments drives one on through the mundane repeat process for the next eureka moment! Eoin

Main chassis parts and the wheel bearings have been machined for the new chassis described above;- Chassis frames being machined out of .45mm nickel silver sheet. All the parts removed from the sheet and edges cleaned up. The coupling rods are in two parts and have been half cut for the overlap on the centre crankpin. The frames have been half drilled .5mm for embossing the rivets and a few .5mm holes drilled through for construction alignment pins. Also the front and rear frame spacers have tabs which fit in corresponding tab cuts in the frames which should aid construction. The two front axles run in full frame width brass bearings, cut from 4.74mm (3/16'') brass rod. The bearing rods are drilled and reamed to take the 3.1mm (1/8'') axles. Flats are milled on the sides of the bearing rods which will fit into the slots in the frames to allow up n down compensation movement and stop the bearings from rotating. There is an old 3.1mm axle in the bearing to stop the vice pressure deforming the bearing. Bearings complete with an axle test fitted. An oiling hole is drilled in the centre of the bearings and the centre axle bearing is 1.5mm shorter than the front to allow a bit of side-play for the curves! Next will be a bit of riveting, folding, fitting & soldering. Eoin

He could paint CIE on the side Eoin

I reckon it's a tension winch, for pulling fences or holding down! The fact it has wire on the drum, it's last use was most likely on a fence. A lifting winch would have gears to lighten the load on the operator, and a much larger drum to hold long cable...... Eoin

In the final throws of the J15 '170' rebuild;- All parts top coated, lacquered and left sit for a week to harden off. Gauges were completed and epoxied onto the backhead. All the cab bits going in. Chassis assembled and ready to run. Final assembly will happen over the weekend, some paint touch ups need to be done and it's just about complete!....... Eoin

@Colin R The kits are still available, he has;- 1. Backwoods Donegal Class 5 Kit. 2. Backwoods 6 goods wagons made up. 3. Backwoods Donegal Rail Car kit. He's watching this thread so if you express interest he will PM you about details. Eoin

I'll contact him and come back to you. He took them back to sell them, don't know if he had a buyer? Eoin

Sorry Colin - they were Backwoods CDR kits, with all the Walkers I stuck in Clare Eoin

A partly built/converted C&L 4-4-0 tank locomotive also OOn3 requiring some treatment.... .... and two West Clare tank kits went back Eoin

No. 2 sooner than I thought! These parts arrived in at the Train & Model Fair this morning...... ...... here we go again! Eoin

After several hours tweaking and running- the loco started to run OK in both directions, so the final bits were installed- the lights;- Fibre optics for the marker lights and mini led for the headlamps. A bit tight for space in there so the leds were done by soldering the resistors in line and not using a board like the marker light system. The chassis wires take up the remainder of the space! Lights up. The other marker light is the red rear light which has a bit of red painted on the end of the fibre. The loco is complete. And the boxing photo. This project was a very good exercise in building a scratch chassis and scratch motor drive for the smaller scales, a few things I would do differently if I have a go at another one ....... not for a while! Eoin

Love the bird shite on the cills Eoin

Sharpened and adjusted

I finally got to the painting stage on this project. Just a few small things to do first;- Loco front guard irons were soldered onto the chassis and bent into shape. The last bit of piping, for the steam gauges, needs to be glued onto the backhead so I turned up 2 gauges from 3.8mm brass rod on the lathe, here the gauges are being drilled to mount the pipes. The gauges are marked off on the bar in the lathe and its then transferred to the drill, always start the drilling with a centre drill- just a dent..... and then finish with a .6mm drill bit. When done the bar goes back on the lathe for parting off the 2 gauges..... Parted off and pipes bent up in .5mm soft copper wire, I'm going to leave the gaugesin brass finish so will be stuck on later, for now their used to position the pipes while gluing the pipes on. All the bits. Now ready for painting, chassis have been sand blasted and wheel tyres masked off and all stuck on sticks! Etch primer done. And these are the gauge faces n water glass, their covered in transpaseal to protect the paper, they will be cut out and stuck on later after painting is done. Eoin

Looks like the pumping system could work! Excellent job Eoin

The first 2021 Train & Model Fair of 2021 will be on Sunday May 23;- No booking required, do use a mask, we don't expect large numbers but if there is over 10 people in the room please wait outside until someone exits. The traders will direct the situation if needs be....

I have to agree with that entirely...... could go on with more but I wont Eoin

@Georgeconna lovely detail in that winch Eoin

@Mayner I reckon you right there, I'll wait for SSM to come back on my query and see if they have replacements drivers. Eoin.