murrayec

Some photos taken at the last Fair;-

Hi John It's home spun.... Here is a link to a description of;- Eoin

Here are a few shots of a soldering clamp and support board, made from 9mm MDF with a hardwood upstand and 90 deg fence. Threaded inserts are used for screwing down the clamps and an arrangement of clamping bits I use is shown, I use a strip of frying sheet to stop the parts sticking to the MDF, as you can see the MDF gets scorched- hardwood would be a better material. The unit is sacrificial, so holes can be drilled for a new clamping arrangement Eoin

Thanks lads Yep it will be at the Bray Fair tomorrow, although it is dismantled!.... Eoin

Hi I do like battleships...... Eoin

Rivet detail soldered on the steps with a quick clean up Rear chassis spring and horn block detail was next, these white metal castings were all out of shape and quite hard to get flat. They were prepared for sweat soldering onto the chassis with 140 deg solder on the brass and 70 deg solder on the white metal. The horn block covers were soldered with 70 deg solder. To minimise spreading solder all over the brass I marked up the location with a pencil, solder will not freely pass over a graphite line so is handy for this job. The parts are sweated on to the brass by using the iron on the inside of the chassis and not near the white metal, if more solder was required the 70 deg was used. All done with the tender coupler installed Eoin

Flying Scot Springs, breaks, steps & stuff... Springs were next, these are fiddly etched laminations that were cleaned up and sweat soldered with 180 deg solder. Some cusp filing is required in areas before soldering- as once stuck one cannot get a file in at these areas. One of the spring assemblies has been modified with the horn block arm cut off! this is required for the suspension modification I've done to the kit, 3 more will be cut as per.... The break castings were cleaned up and found to be poor castings on one side, the mould was off centre when cast and caused a step in the casting. When offered up to chassis and wheels, the castings were fatter and touching the flange of the wheels, a slight mod was done with the edge of a file to thin the shaft and allow clearance for the wheels. All done and ready to go onto the chassis after I set up the electrical pick up arrangement. The long break push rods where mangled in the previous build and took quite a bit of work to straighten out- but it worked! Next was missing part making- the rivet detail on the driver steps, and a tiny footplate support were missing for one side and these had to be made The trick to punching out fine rivet strips is to stay away from the edges of the sheet, this minimises distortion and helps to give the proper shape, once punched the strip is cut to close size, it's flattened, and then filed to size. A light filing on the top of the rivets give a good match to the etched ones from the kit- the middle strip is the home made one!

Hi All Next Fair is coming up in a week n halfs time;-

Hi This mornings project was to make the smaller applicator, I found a 170ml pill jar with a screw on lid (medical buzz again!) which works with the 40mm pipe. The outlet is 40mm and will give more accurate placement of grass around objects on a layout. I also recessed the switch a bit and used flush counter-sunk screws to insulate the fingers a bit better from zaps when switching the unit on n off..... Eoin

Hi All Here are some photos of the first layers of scenic going down;- Dyed sawdust with PVA was spread out over the grass areas, this covered that loud flock we used previously around the timber yard and Southern Track, it looks a lot better now. A layer of 2 types of contrasting fine flock was added for highlights and variation in the base layer- more will be added as the sawdust dries. Up close shows the sawdust works really well, you can also see the fine contrasting flock throughout. Next in this area is the brambles and static grass in scrub n overgrown fashion. This area is the pond/swamp thing, harking to the Murrough and the Reed Beds on down towards Wicklow Town, so it will be some reeds n brown water for this area. We've only got the bridge up and the council is already digging a hole in it! And the Greystones Permanent Way Inspector out closing the gate! Eoin & CM

Hi Possibly some of the only original surviving tram tracks, in the Dalkey Tram Yard, they also have the back-end stairs of a tram (not sure if its original)sticking out of the restaurant building- but could not get in to take a shot, twas all locked up!! Eoin

Tony I thought you were punning! It still works if you sold them over the tinternet... Eoin

Excellent Kirley Every time I see those trains I think of Flash Gordon and Emperor Ming! I think its the star and the moulded headlight on the front, thats the connection.... Eoin

Have a look here;- https://www.google.ie/search?q=dublin+trams&client=firefox-b&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPne-vuvPOAhXmDcAKHa5zC7YQsAQIUA&biw=1261&bih=883 Eoin

Hi All Thanks for the great comments, I get all excited myself when stuff comes together on the bench, but when posting it up and hearing others great comments is the icing on the top... Thanks Eoin

.....and that rivet shot The furnace bracket epoxied on. The white metal splashers were cleaned up and epoxied on after they were lined up with the wheels when the position of the footplate was settled on- one can spy the under side of them in this shot. It's now looking like a loco Eoin

....and then we did a bit of work on the footplate, cleaned down of cyano, straightened up, and filed down to fit around the motor- about 1.5mm had to be taken off each side. Drilling out various holes- this one is one of the 4 deep lugs that the chassis mounting screws turn into, this has to be done on a machine- no way by hand, the footplate is die-cast akin to mild steel and even a bit dicey with a freehand pistol drill. The boiler rivet detail was done with small brass rivets, pop it in and a drop of cyano under and done, the instructions would have you messing with .5mm wire, gluing in, chopping off, filing little domes on each one!! See next post for photo!! They look very well The boiler was cleaned down of cyano with fibre pen and acetone- it's ok on this plastic. The moulding lines were removed with the fibre pen, this works very well I reckon a better way than in the instructions- with files, masking tape and sandpaper. I decided to have the boiler detachable from the footplate, mainly for painting n decal reasons and made up a brass bracket from etch leftover, two 2mm holes drilled through the footplate and bolted on. The furnace end will be epoxied on to the wings of the bracket, and then the whole can be unbolted n removed- the front is bolted on as per the kit. All the white metal castings for the boiler were cleaned up, the chimney and dome were the worst. The chimney was drilled out to open it up- nothing worse than a solid one on a model. A corresponding hole done on the smokebox. The snifting valve, brass rivet detail under, and the chimney are epoxied on now but the safety valves and dome will be stuck on after painting n decals are done. Next few shots are of the front buffer beam and buffers being soldered together after all cusps were removed and parts cleaned with fibre pen. I decided to have the buffers and mounting shanks removable for painting so the beam was used initially as a jig to solder the shank assembly with paper between to protect against soldering the whole. 7mm brass wire for the rivets was trimmed and pushed through the paper into the beam jig and all was soldered- the paper worked. The smokebox door was damaged in transit and required a bit of flattening and filing on the surround to straighten things up, a bit of filling will be done at the painting stage. All holes were drilled and the brass handrail was installed- 140 deg solder thinning on the brass and 70 deg lead solder to stick it to the white metal. The dart is missing from the kit- I'll make one up in brass at a later stage. and.......

Don't know about yours, but our guys keep things very neat... Eoin

Hi All Don't forget next Sunday in Bray....

Hi All Here are a few shots of the first test of the applicator on some scrap MDF- sawdust flock with 2mm static grass and 6mm static grass tufts, and a few rocks for flavour.... The unit works great, though the dispenser head is a bit large- if a smaller container was used there would be more control. But very happy with the results and will work with it as is.. Eoin

Underwear being installed;- Eoin & CM

Hi I have one in my display DART for the shows, it's been running for 4 months now without any difficulties so I have placed an order for 10 of them.... One thing I noticed is when powered off the function settings are stored- the Hornby chip doesn't do that! Eoin

Hi Here is an extract from the Ground Floor drawing above, I calculate the extension area at 133sqm and have indicated a 'Layout' (toned light brown) in the centre of this area with less than adequate public circulation! The layout area in this configuration would be 56sqm/620sqft - not ideal as the public would be on top of the layout with the lack of circulation- no barrier space. Items in my opinion lacking in the proposal; Due consideration not given on the extension design in relation to the width of a Gauge O layout, mainly the width of the extension to provide good Layout space with good viewing aspect to all sides of the layout, decent public circulation and barrier space. No consideration given to the running of a layout- 'Workshop and Storage Facility', this will be required for the running/setup of trains and construction/maintenance of all running parts of the Layout. And especially the care and maintenance of the Fry Models- this could also be a feature of the museum? Poor consideration given to the extension design, this should be an integral part of the museum visiting experience and should also be in more architectural agreement with the Casino House design- as the Casino is not to far off a railway scene in gone by years and so it is with the Fry Models. They should capitalise on this and bring the new building into the Railway Layout and compliment the Casino House design. Poor consideration given to public facilities, the layout seems to indicate outside toilets- I cant believe this is the intention, so I must be reading the drawing incorrectly. I hope! Poor consideration given for staff facilities. One also has to consider that these layout drawings were prepared for the Part 8 public notice of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 - 2015- and may go through design reviews/revisions before construction. Eoin