murrayec

I have been hacking away on the Hibernia Loco build which featured way back in my 'murrayec projects' in the Workbench area, I have decided to carry on showing the build here. If you want some background info on the project here is a link;- So after building the test plastic-card chassis I made a few adjustments to the drawings and then sat on the project due to the workload back then. A couple of months ago I started back at it and set up drawings to mill the parts from .5mm & .25mm brass sheet to build a brass test chassis and other components which will be needed to test fit out and to use to make moulds for white metal castings. I have also set-up a brass tube boiler and machined up a firebox former from 30mm dia nylon bar, again when the fitting is done on the firebox the former will be used for moulding the final unit. The boiler will be worked out when the motor and gearbox are installed. That's the fire hole in the back, the lower section is the ash-pan and the side cut will hopefully allow the chassis by! Last week the milling started on the chassis parts, cylinder base & heads, valve gear, bellcranks, and the nameplates in the .5mm brass;- This chassis has inside and outside frames, with the slot & tab frame stretcher construction I reckon .5mm will be plenty strong? Bellcranks are half depth milled to give the cast iron look, and in the footplate stretcher one can see the .5mm dia chain drilled holes to be opened up into slots for construction- the chassis frame tabs will stick up through these. Again half milled nameplates- can't wait to see these painted and the brass text all shined up. Next will be .25mm brass splashers, footplates, smokebox, smokebox doors, and more chassis fittings......... Eoin

Hi There will be an overhead Gauge O track! in the new museum with 4 'non-Fry-made' trains running, but unfortunately not including the 121 loco. Eoin

Hi All KMCE's 'Wicklow South' will be paying a visit to the Fair this Sunday, a great opportunity to see the amazing diorama, locos and rolling stock- not to be missed..... Eoin

Hi controller That chip only has 2 switch-able functions! the green wire & the purple. F2 not staying on sounds like your controller is set for momentary switch like a toot on your horn! need to refer to the manual to switch that off, or remap what you want to switch to F3. If those red lights are directional loco rear? they should be switched by the directional wires- directional light wires are white for front & yellow for rear. One has to wire up so that the white & red lights alternate depending on direction. Then you have 2 function switches to play with- use one of these for cab light, and for maximum coolness wire up the cabs for the two functions and then only the front cab light can be switched- in each direction. Eoin oops! an 08 only has one cab- even better a free function switch!!

Hi Leslie I'm down for 4 but I'll take a Five Pack..... Eoin

Hi All, Just a reminder of the Train & Model Fair is on this coming Sunday. Eoin

David As PP says above 'Brilliant to see Fintonagh in motion', the locos in motion, the depth of the buildings and back scene are just stunning. Eoin

Excellent Ken, that looks great I cant help noticing the perspective of the photo under the bridge- do you use Photoshop, if so do you know the 'distort' transformation with the four handles at each corner- tug on those and you can change the perspective to be more in line with the laid track and platform. Pulling the top left corner would be a start, would be a trial n error exercise but I reckon it is worth doing! Eoin

Hi Guys Evergreen do 2.5mm (the largest) Quarter Round ref; 250, which would be ideal for the corners of the tank, if one was to stick a horizontal styrene strip to the inside top edge of the sides one would not notice the internal square sides of the Quarter Round. Eoin

Re; Water Tank Structure. On reflection! no discerning Railway Man would spend his good money on my first submission so this morning I revised my guess to a more economical solution, this is the kind of way plastic tanks are built today and am sure it came from the past;- Curved corners to the outer sheets would add significant structural capabilities and could lead to even more cost savings for the Railway Man- like the photos of the green tank above! Eoin

Tony 1 sqm of water weighs 1 tone approx, which puts some pressure on the sides especially at the top, so I reckon it might have bracing on the inside- angle iron verticals and horizontals with angle iron diagonals in this kind of fashion at a guess;- Note the diagonals go from inside bottom to outside top! Eoin

@Peter I did get prints back on Friday but it's not looking good for the show- still having problems with colour. The top print is what came on Friday but the orange/tan is way to light and some of the detail is missing, the print under I received back in July- the orange/tan is great but detail was missing, adjustments have been made and its back with the printers.... Eoin

Galteemore I did a search on the Guild Forum and came up with this;- '' Mr Donaldson's locomotives are covered in Slide programme number 57 'Ralph and Drew' with a commentary by Mr Bill Scott'' You could order the slide disk for the cost of copying & postage and check out if he built it- that's if its on this? You could also post the question on the Guild Forum- this is the thread;- The O gauge railways of Ronald Shephard and Drew Donaldson Eoin

'What to do with broken or worn files & hacksaw blades' I don't break many files but when it happens I throw them into the scrap box- for the future! - and the future is now...... When setting up the cnc machine I had a few messy starts working out the system, ending up with a few sheets of metal not fully cut or the machine stopped half way through, lost it's settings and could not pick-up where it left off so a new sheet had to be done. I tried to cut the parts out with a scalpel and a Stanley knife but tough going!! What's needed is some small chisels, so into the scrap box and out with a broken file (it's hardened steel so as long as its not overheated while grinding it will keep its hardness) two chisels were made from the one file- a big and a little;- The set-up for grinding, it's what I use for sharpening the lathe & drill tools, a standard grey fine wheel is mounted with the Veritas table and its sliding fitting for sharpening screwdrivers and chisels. Chisels made and honed time to test, done on a lump of lead from the fishing days- the lead gives support to the parts and allows the chisels through with minimum distortion to the parts. As you can see in the shot above the parts are not fully cut out, it worked a breeze, just had to chisel around the parts and through the tabs. Below is a photo of the Walker coupler rod after been cut out without any distortion. While you have your bench grinder out a broken hacksaw blade is ground into a 'Scrawker' a grove cutting tool for brass n styrene. A wooden handle will be fitted somewhere along the way but works great as is, I use a glove though. Very useful tools..... Eoin

@Galteemore Can I suggest you push the loose wheel on over a piece of tissue paper laid over the axle end to hold it fast until you are sure of good running before you use Loctite- just in case more adjustments are required.... Another thing I would do, though you may have done this, is to allow some more side movement in the axle with all the washers on in the photo above- the drive axle should be held with minimum side play but the other two should have a bit of play. Eoin

spudfan They built one for the Fry Layout in Malahide Castle, it was no. 130 - it could be that one! Chances are slim it will be displayed in the new museum.... Here is a link to a few photos of one that was built in later times but owes it's heritage to Leinster Models I believe? (this link might encourage wrennie to update his photos in the thread);- Eoin

http://www.wheeltappersdccsounds.co.uk/index.html I like these guys, they use ESU chips which I have the programmer for so can add or change things! Eoin

Hi John Great trains & lovely countryside. Eoin

Galteemoe Single wheel drive chassis are notorious for bad running, it's one reason why a lot of modellers stay away from single wheelers! In my view the key thing is to allow the chassis to pivot around the driver axle and have one of the other axle suspended (which seems to be the way your chassis is set up), the suspended axle can be done with this axle's bearings in vertical slots in the frames which are then allowed to move up and down, the bearings are held in place by a suspension spring fixed to the chassis and passed through a tube soldered to the top of the bearing! Kind of what David was suggesting above..... I have a sketch which is not identical to your situation but if you study it and use the principle it should lead to a reasonable running chassis Eoin

David I could send some briquette ash, I also have the fire lit! Eoin

I know a man whom will be delighted to see this, I promised to post these up when we last meet at the Stillorgan Show! After several attempts on getting the bogie side moulds to work it was eventually successfully, the patterns were to complex for gravity feed white metal so I had to fill in around some of the pattern detail with epoxy and drill several vent holes in the final mound and out these popped;- Drilled the axle holes and the lower suspension spring hanger holes on the finger plate. Test fitting the lower coil springs n hangers. and popped onto the axles to see how it looks. Deadly! Another 3 sides to go and I think its fitting time and can eventually bolt the chassis together and give it a test run - fingers n toes crossed!! Eoin

Hi Guys They might be a bit thin on Irish loading gauge, though may not be a problem for most.... especially when run on their own! Eoin

Hi David The micro strip looks the best- a lot of cutting n sticking though. What about Gauge N ash ballast with a small scattering of Gauge O ballast in and around the track like the Leiston photo and then weathered? Eoin

@Dave Dawes Hi @WRENNEIRE is the man for Murphys 141s, 071s, 201s and are convertible to 21mm with a bit of jiggery-poke!, he's good for rolling stock also, IRM's new wagons are also convertible and I believe it's inbuilt in the forthcoming Class A loco- don't know about Murphy's forthcoming Class 121 loco yet As you will see in Galteemore's link you will have to make your own 21mm track or pay someone to do it Eoin

Thanks popeye I believe the crew will be doing that, among other things, I was not asked Eoin