murrayec

A very common logo in the car & motorcycle world https://www.google.com/search?q=wings+wheel+logo&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicrN_9s7reAhUB_KQKHVGcBw0QsAR6BAgGEAE&biw=1280&bih=891 There is a thread on here discussing the origins of the flying snail logo, where we came to the conclusion that the Persians came up with the winged logo for their God- Aru Mazda (could have spelt that wrong) and since then all have adopted it in some fashion.... Eoin

Date for the November Train & Model Fair;-

That was the other thing about the BR sides- they only came in 8'6'' from Dart Castings, and I built the bogies in 8'6'', so now I'll have to change them also- they are on order.... Eoin

While working on the bogie sides last week I was getting very irritated working with the BR Commonwealth sides! Fortunately while talking to my friendly railway historian and collector of all handy stuff for the modeller, he announced a laminate drawing had come across his desk, including a sketch of the bogie sides- excellent. So I 'bit the bogie', so to speak, and decided to change tack and develop up CIE Commonwealth sides, a scan was duly and gratefully received, imported into Autocad, traced, adjusted and prepared to CNC out two sets of parts to make patterns to make moulds from;- .5mm brass for the main frame bits. .23mm brass for the smaller items and the brackets for the suspension torsion bar. Those little bits came free from the tabs in the sheet- all were found! All the bits, I'm going to use M2 machine screws to make the suspension springs with a bit of 2.4mm copper pipe to mount them in and various sizes of brass pipe for the shock. The shock and torsion bar will be installed after the sides are cast- mmmh! I hope? After de-burring the .5mm sheet I set about soldering in .35mm PB wire to create bolt heads on the axle boxes, this was done on the back of the sheet held down on two strips of .23mm brass so the wire would protrude out the front. Nice little bolt heads after cleaning up the front. I then set about soldering the main structure together, there are 3 laminates in this construction and I left the middle one attached to the sprue to hold it better and then bits were clamped in the jig and sweat soldered on- top done first. Gave up at this point this evening while the going was good...... Eoin

It's a Brendan Kelly built model, a bit of a trade for work to be done on one of his Gauge 1 models It's motored up and does run but needs a bit of tweaking & finishing I love it Eoin

Hi Guys I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend, great to meet all I chatted with, and a big thanks to all that commented on the DARTs and the J10 and even a few orders taken. Thanks to the chaps of the MRSI for the hard work..... My hoard from the show;- I also picked up a few digital Loco drawing books from the IRRS boys for reference in up and coming projects Deposit in on my IRM Silver Class A Roll on next year! but need to save up again......... Eoin

Hi ken Say to etch the sheet you have CNC'ed above would take about 1 hour in .5mm brass, but up to 10 separate sheets (dependant on size of etching tank, my tank is small and takes 4 sheets) can be processed at a time, and these sheets could have 4 kits on them! A bit of the process on a bogie system here;- Eoin

Hi Anthony Yes your correct, you don't want to electrical short those, use a bolt and washers suitable that fit between and does not touch them- or using a plastic bolt is even better..... Eoin

Lovely stuff Ken I reckon etching would be far more economical on time for mass production, there is more prep work in making the etching tooling & UV exposure but once done one could clatter out etches in quantity in the same time a CNC machine would cut one. CNC cutting for one off and small quantity...... Eoin

Hi Leslie A source for brass would be good to know and would be appreciated I'm using shim brass from Healy Metals, it's hard and needs annealing to work it for curves but it's the cheapest way to buy sub 1mm brass. I have also got it from Eileens but again its hard and not flat- it comes off a roll and when annealing it wobbles all over the place, I gave that up.... Thanks Eoin

Hi Glover Your getting on fine, just one thing I see in the photo- does the snap button work with the way you have stuck it under the rocker? the male bit should be fixed to the bolster pointing downwards and the female to the top of the rocker facing up..... Eoin Hi fl Yes all the stuff I make is available, pm me Eoin

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