Alan's Workbench

[Mol_PMB]

Beautiful work! Thanks for the inspiration. As for the track gauge, I think it’s worth it. 
Mind you, I haven’t yet built much track. We could really do with some basic mouldings for 21mm flexitrack! 

[Signal Post]

Stunning work Alan, just stunning.

[Mol_PMB]

18 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Wow x 3. What a treat. Beautiful little engine which runs as nicely as she looks. Well done indeed!! Backheads are interesting, and I think you’ll get away with this one. There are often far more dull and unobtrusive in real life than modellers portray them (inc myself before I took the trouble to look at the real thing). This is one of my pics of 131 last year. Note how dull and non-shiny it is. None of the bright red and brass fittings we often see modelled……and as for out of scale gauge, your craftsmanship distracts away from that. 

That disembodied hand on the left looks like something out of a horror movie  

[Galteemore]

1 minute ago, Mol_PMB said:

That disembodied hand on the left looks like something out of a horror movie  

Shades of the Addams family….he was a real living person, honest 

[Tullygrainey]

3 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

That disembodied hand on the left looks like something out of a horror movie  

I'm still trying to work out whether the two items in the centre of the picture are oil cans, teapots or mugs.

[Galteemore]

18 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

I'm still trying to work out whether the two items in the centre of the picture are oil cans, teapots or mugs.

That depends on whether you enjoy drinking oil or applying it as a lubricant  Loco tea mugs tend to be white enamel. The colours may denote different grades of oil. For certain high temp applications, for instance, you need to use heavy grade steam oil which won’t separate under heat. A memory from my days in 16mm live steam when we used heavy oil for cylinder lubing and light oil for bearings. 

Edited Friday at 20:07 by Galteemore

[Mike 84C]

From my days of buying said oils from Morris Lubricants of Shrewsbury, the stickyness/temp range is measured in centistokes and the higher the number the higher the steam temperature the oil can cope with. I believe rape oil is added to help the stickyness needed for valves and pistons.

I had not thought about that subject for 25yrs!

That little backhead needs some asbestos tape secured over the piping from that right hand injector not a piece of old rag!

[Mike 84C]

Just looked at the little video of No6, stunning! I have engine envy! And my swmbo, who is a train person liked No 6 even better pulling its coaches. The bar has been raised higher!

[leslie10646]

Terrific model, Alan. I had to smile when you announced that you were going to fit a sound chip.

You're on a safe wicket of course, as no-one alive will know what she sounded like and certainly not me - am I the oldest here? I was four and living in the Sergeant's quarter of Carrickmore RUC barrck when she was withdrawn!

Downpatrick Loop line platform for your next layout so that you can show her rolling through with the Golfer's Express on a Saturday?

[Tullygrainey]

8 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Terrific model, Alan. I had to smile when you announced that you were going to fit a sound chip.

You're on a safe wicket of course, as no-one alive will know what she sounded like

Ha Ha, thanks Leslie. Yes, I knew I was winging it with this one but came to the same conclusion. For the time being, number 6 is impersonating a LSWR Beattie Well Tank.

8 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Downpatrick Loop line platform for your next layout so that you can show her rolling through with the Golfer's Express on a Saturday?

Have you been talking to @Patrick Davey? He's lined me up to build the BCDR ex-Royal Saloon next. He'll be packing me off to Downpatrick with a tape measure any day

[Mayner]

Brilliant model Alan, I guess I'll have to learn to stop worrying and fit a DCC chip to one of my 2-4-0s 

I wired a number of my 2-4-0s for DCC with a socket in the tender (similar motor and gearbox to yours) but ended up with fried chips, though they run fine on DC.  

[Galteemore]

52 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

Ha Ha, thanks Leslie. Yes, I knew I was winging it with this one but came to the same conclusion. For the time being, number 6 is impersonating a LSWR Beattie Well Tank.

Have you been talking to @Patrick Davey? He's lined me up to build the BCDR ex-Royal Saloon next. He'll be packing me off to Downpatrick with a tape measure any day

Roger makes a 7mm kit which also means he has working scale drawing which might help you …he’s very amenable….. 

Edited Saturday at 09:19 by Galteemore

[David Holman]

At least it is a 2-4-0, so a Beattie Well Tank should be fine for sound and good luck to anyone trying to replicate the original

 As for the model, to steal a quote from Strictly: one word, three syllables: fab- u -lous!

[Tullygrainey]

6 hours ago, Mayner said:

Brilliant model Alan, I guess I'll have to learn to stop worrying and fit a DCC chip to one of my 2-4-0s 

I wired a number of my 2-4-0s for DCC with a socket in the tender (similar motor and gearbox to yours) but ended up with fried chips, though they run fine on DC.  

Thank you John. I wonder what caused your chips to fry. That sounds like very bad luck.

[Mol_PMB]

One way to fry chips is to inadvertently feed track volts into the output connections to the motor. With metal models, especially if the chassis is 'live' to one rail, there's a risk that a wire to the motor can accidentally contact live metal, if it gets trapped or the insulation becomes damaged.

Over on RMweb there are ongoing arguments about whether metal models should be fully-insulated for DCC to reduce this risk.

[Tullygrainey]

I must admit I tend to wrap the chip in masking tape and cover all joints with heatshrink sleeving but it’s all too easy to trap a wire and break through the insulation when bolting everything together. 

Edited Saturday at 18:50 by Tullygrainey

[David Holman]

Mmmm....,  been there and got that t-shirt during my own dcc phase. Surprised in a way that the chip makers don't fully insulate the things in the first place - especially the sound equipped ones which are well into three figures.

[Mayner]

On 2/2/2025 at 4:42 AM, Tullygrainey said:

Thank you John. I wonder what caused your chips to fry. That sounds like very bad luck.

Initially though the DCC Concepts 6pin chips were not capable of handling the current draw & friction from a combination of Mashima motors & High Level gearboxes. One chip blew when testing the installation on DC after approx 30 minutes running, but ran fine on DC when I removed the decoder & fitted a jumper in the DCC socket.

Didn't burn any more chips but poor running with 6 pin Digitrax and TCS decoders although when tested motors did not exceed the decoder current rating. Locos are wired similarly with a DCC Concepts harness with a 6 pin socket in the tender, motor insulated from the chassis power pick up on one side from the loco with return through the tender.

My worst experience was burning out several chips on evening about 25 years ago while converting some N Scale locos to DCC. This was back in the day before "DCC Ready" locos when it was necessary to mill/grind away part of the chassis block and hard wire the decoders to the locos. Digitrax graciously replaced the zapped decoders. I still have my collection of N Scale locos though the chips may be well past their use by date and have not been run in about 10 years!

[Tullygrainey]

The long and the short of it. One of the inspirations for the building of No.6 in 4mm and a source of many clues and references was this 7mm version built by Tony Ragg using the Alphagraphix kit as the basis. Contrasting interpretations of BCDR green!

[David Holman]

One (fairly) straightforward Alphagraphix kit v a total scratchbuild. Fine work by Tony, but no contest in the difficulty stakes, methinks. As for colour, one is clean and ex works, the other has been cleaned with the proverbial oily rag, but both look stunning.

[Galteemore]

I was composing just such an answer! As a veteran of 4 Alphagraphix loco kits I quite concur.

[Tullygrainey]

I’ve no experience of building in 7mm apart from one diminutive narrow gauge scratch-build and a few O:16.5 conversions using proprietary OO chassis but I’ve recently had a chance to look quite closely at a variety of standard gauge 7mm locomotives, both kit-built and scratch-built. What I’ve seen suggests to me that while 4mm work can be described as model making, some of the work that I’ve seen in 7mm approaches miniature engineering, especially when it comes to things like suspension systems, gearboxes and working inside motion. Respect!

Alan