murrayec

Hi Glover If you need more info on doing them let me know and I can post some helpful tips? Eoin

Hi John It's from the Midland Railway Centre DT12 & RFA12, www.midrailcentre.com it's a few bob but after looking at making my own I felt it was worth the investment and save me time! If thinking of a purchase I recommend going for the extra set of clamps, it comes with 4 but with the 4mm rolling bar it's not enough! the bar was flexing and getting pushed back so I had to add two extra clamps to hold it. Eoin

The roofs and parts were CNC cut for both coaches in .25mm brass sheet;- Roofs, coach partitions, some roof spars to aid fixing the sides and roof, roof steps, door foot steps, and bogie out riggers for the bogie sides. Rolling the roof on mouse mats and using a strip of ply to apply pressure in the centre of the bar- lots of annealing here! First curve done. Jigging up for the turn down curve, my drawing template was used again to position the brass!! And done, annealing the brass for each side really helps. Partitions and bogie riggers cleaned up and ready..... Till next time Eoin

The sides were removed and cleaned up;- Part of the sprue was retained at the break compartment doors, this was reinforced with a dab of solder. The side tumble-home was worked out from my template drawing and the sides jigged up for folding One side done, looks good! Both sides done, even better! Break compartment doors required the reveals to take the shape of the sides, out with the piercing saw. Reveals folded, not shown her but the door head was folded out also. And soldered in.

The chassis parts were cleaned up and marked out for the bolsters, door location, and then soldered up;- I added in cross braces to the truss and the boxes had to be trimmed down to fit between the floor and the truss, I also reinforced the slots left in the chassis from folding down the truss by soldering in scrap brass. These are the body fixing brackets with soldered M2 nuts, they will be soldered to the coach ends.

Hi I'm building two Worsley Works scratch aid CIE Laminate Coaches for a chap- a Break and a Standard. Here is the build on the break coach so far;- The WW Kit- ends, sides & chassis, the rest you got to come up with yourself. The ends were set up with a template drawing to drill holes for the roof access handrail and the home spun brass steps to be soldered on. All soldered on and cleaned up, test fitting the Keen LMS corridor connectors. MJT 8'6"rigid frame coach bogies, MJT NEM 362 coupling box, MJT wheel bearings and 12.6mm wheel sets coming together. MJT BR 8'6" Commonwealth bogie sides. Bogies rolling, bolsters ready to go onto the chassis, need to make parts to fit the sides on which will push them out to Irish gauge!

Hi JB Sean Ryan is the Gauge N guy- he was in the front corner at the Train & Model Fair on Sunday. Phil McHugh does the American trains, he is usually at the Fair but was absent this Sunday. Eoin

Hi Anthony I use EVO-STIK or Araldite, but I suppose any epoxy glue would be fine. If buying EVO-STIK or Araldite I go for the screw on cap tubes- the double syringe option has many problems, it's fine when new but as it gets older the quantities come out unbalanced! Eoin

Hi Anthony Here is one way of fixing it- remove the broken pivot from the chassis, insert a brass or plastic bolt through the hole and epoxy it in, epoxy a washer or two in the centre of the bogie to get the height right and to allow the bolt go through the washers, when set- slide the bogie onto the screw with a washer put on a loose nut so the bogie can wobble n rotate, loctite the nut when your happy with the fit;- Eoin

Train & Model Fair this coming sunday

Hi fishplate7 Yes I've done that- if you check out here on how to do it;- The staff catcher is a tricky one, I use the 'flop' type mould- lay the two halves out, fill each with the chemical plastic and flop them together trying not to trap air in there. The catcher is fine detailed and very delicate when made with the chem plastic, quite hard to clean up after moulding but when stuck on the model its grand.... Eoin

Stunning Brendan never does anything by 1/2s Eoin

Hi Guys Just to be clear on the NMRA advice about weight- generally their rule is being applied to long 'Cars' as they call them, we have coaches! The NMRA's idea of adding more weight if experiencing problems, is to do with long cars and mainly with bogie running gear- because of the transverse buzz over curved track! 2 axle 4 wheel wagons are not referred to and 35grams total weight is adequate- if still difficulties after that its down to- track, wheels, couplers, and general straightness of the model- ie;- all four wheels sit on the track and the model when pushed lightly will roll along without de-railing Eoin

Hi Joe 18 to 27 grams max should go into a wagon- no more unless you want to burn your loco motor out! If you still have problems with de-railing it's down to bogie, or coupler, or track problems! Run one wagon behind the loco with weight in it try 18grams first- if that works ok keep it hooked up and couple on another- test that and see if it runs ok, go through all wagons testing like this with the same working one hooked to the loco, connecting the one to test to it, and then you will find the problem..... Eoin

Date for the next Fair;-

Hi sayhall27 For a first kit ever build- I would recommend starting with something a bit simpler and smaller- wagons, vans or for a little more complex to test the skills- a SSM guard van... don't cost to much for practising on, these are generally quick builds, so finish quickly for best gratification when starting Here is a quick generic shopping list;- Chassis;- Motor & Gearbox Bogies Bogie Side Frames Bogie Electrical Pickups Wheel Sets Couplers - for two coach units use electrical couplers Buffers Hose pipes Underframe details- Battery box, Dyno, Break Equipment, Water Tank, Fuel Tank, etc.... all depending on the level of detail you want Corridor Connectors Steps Directional Lights Screen Rain Wipers Horn Interior;- Seats Corridors Fittings? People Interior Lights Body;- Roof - if not in kit? Roof Vents Rain Strips Roof Bands Door handles Hand Rails Glazing Other detail parts as required? Decals I think I've covered most things, but if not I'm sure it will be added I also recommend some research on model building and the trains your going to build- Ian Rice books are a must and George Dent's books on building Locos and his second book on rolling stock. There are loads more out there to choose from. Tools! plenty of tools. Building models is great fun Eoin

Looking great John

Eek is right! I generally stay away from screwfix I just found a few appropriate springs in the scraps box, they are now earmarked for a little project on the lathe. Thanks Eoin

I agree with George, do not buy the Microbox sets- every bit under .6mm is as blunt as hair-clips. Though drill bits from expo tools in the small sizes are excellent and generally come ten in a pack- a pack is the same price as the .3mm in Eileens For the best tungsten carbide and most economical I use CNC drill bits from Amazon, again a box of up to ten bits is the same price as one .3mm in Eileens, post is free in the UK and I use addresspal for €3.75 to here, here is an example of what you get;- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Carbide-Dremel-Jewelry-Engraving-Circuit/dp/B072R2YP13/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1537461593&sr=8-4&keywords=cnc+drill+bits Borithe, post or send us a link to that set of punches? Eoin

Walker chassis bits. Some of the underframe parts were cleaned up and prepared for soldering- two diesel tanks and one set of bogie bolsters. This is the holding set-up for soldering the bolster parts together, there is a 1.5mm hole through the base parts, a 1.5mm aluminium rod is inserted to keep alignment and the clamp fingers hold it all together- leaving the hands free to do the soldering. The motor bogie drive shaft bearings were adjusted to improve the gear meshing to the axles, this was done by broaching out the holes after the bearings were removed, it needed about .3mm adjustment and the bearings were soldered back in- good mesh now. A top-hat axle bearing is soldered on the top of the bogie for pivot fixing to the chassis plate, the motor will hold the bogie in place? Underframe parts cleaned up and sat on chassis plate, the cut lines provide positioning and the parts will be eventually soldered on. The chassis plate and bogies assembled and motor installed The motor bogie pivots nicely in place and the motor holds it together as expected! with a bit of side tilt n all. You probably noticed the chassis plate is up-side-down! A test run will be next on the chassis, but I have to hold off as the axle gears have to be glued on and I'm not at the final axle length stage- I've made some mods to the bogie side frames so new parts need to be cut first. Eoin

Fooling the eye.... Eoin & CM

Don't forget the Fair is on this Sunday

There was a thread a while back on Youghal Station with some info that may help;- Eoin

Hi David These guys do a unit for just under £200.00 http://www.rosewarnejunction.me.uk/RAS_Sound_Systems.htm Kato unit;- https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kato-22-101-Analog-Sound-locomotive/dp/B00QUMHMNK A dcc sound card, speaker, and a simple dcc controller would cost you around the same amount- wire it up and stick it in a mdf box and away you go! Another option is in the audio device systems, one can buy a small audio recorder like an mp3 player- they come with buttons for looping and playing sound files that one loads up from your computer. There are also apps for mobile phones for doing this, allied with a bluetooth speaker you could have a Rocking Railway Sound System- RRSS!! Eoin