Alan's Workbench

[Patrick Davey]

The Ballynahinch branch train has got a bit lost!!!

Fantastic Alan, just fantastic!!!

[Galteemore]

These are exquisite. Lovely little scene at LQ too.

[David Holman]

Yep, I seem to be dribbling...

Don't how the lining goes, but did it on my MGW coaches by using a gold gel pen on the raised beading. Alternatively, leave well alone - they really are splendid.

[jhb171achill]

3 minutes ago, David Holman said:

Yep, I seem to be dribbling...

Don't how the lining goes, but did it on my MGW coaches by using a gold gel pen on the raised beading. Alternatively, leave well alone - they really are splendid.

The easy "get-out" clause is that in post-war years, many carriages (like also on the NCC) were turned out with no lining! So there's a prototype for (almost) everything..........

[Mayner]

On 1/12/2023 at 2:03 AM, Tullygrainey said:

The BCDR Oldbury coaches are just about finished bar some minor tweaking.

All aboard. The roofs are detachable so that drunk passengers can be helped back to their seats if they fall over.

 

The bodywork should probably be lined out but I don't have that sort of courage.

 

A little bit of light weathering has helped blend body to chassis...

 

... and Diesel No.2 has something appropriate to haul at last.

 

Mind you, what it's doing at Loughan Quay is anyone's guess.

 

IMG_9006.mov 42.86 MB · 0 downloads  

 

Really astounded by Alan's productivity rate, completing so many exquisite models of unusual prototypes at such a rapid rate.

[Tullygrainey]

The recent announcement by Marks Models and Hornby of an intention to produce a model of the ‘Irish’ Jinty prompted me to rummage in my future projects drawer for an old, much abused Hornby Jinty and an etched Jinty chassis kit from High Level, both of which have been in there for a while, originally acquired to build that very thing - an Irish Jinty, either in NCC or UTA livery. Time to dust them off....

 

The chassis kit is intended for the Bachmann model but I'm hoping the Hornby shell can be persuaded to fit. It's fairly basic compared to the more recent Bachmann but would probably repay a bit of work. Brassmasters do a nice detailing kit for it.

 

The High Level chassis etch is a work of art and a thing of beauty - crisp and detailed in nickel silver. It almost seemed a crime to plaster it with solder and fingerprints. But, hey ho, eggs and omelettes. Off we go.

 

Fixed bearings for the rear driven axle and compensation for the other two using hornblocks. The spring detail is made up of two additional layers laminated to the back of the one etched as part of the chassis frame. Their presence made removing the hornblock cutouts a bit tricky. Nearly managed to fold one of the frames in half... 

 

but once all the spacers were in, the whole thing became reassuringly rigid. And straight. There's a lot to be said for photo-etching.

 

York Road, here we come.

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike 84C]

I think that converting a  BR jinty into an NCC one is more like removing detail than adding it.     

I shall look forward to seeing your finished loco.

 

[Tullygrainey]

51 minutes ago, Mike 84C said:

I think that converting a  BR jinty into an NCC one is more like removing detail than adding it.     

I shall look forward to seeing your finished loco.

 

Cheers Mike. It's more about replacing things like clunky plastic coal rails and cab steps with finer etched parts but you're right. Over time, they did shed their vacuum gear among other things.

[Tullygrainey]

Today was all about coupling rods. 

To ream or not to ream? There's no question. All those holes have to be made bigger to fit crankpin bushes or rivets.

 

Each coupling rod is split near the centre crankpin bush and the joint is articulated.  Each length of rod is made up from 3 laminations, such that one ends up with a tongue on one end and the other one is forked.

To help keep the laminations in line whilst they're sweated together, I use a lightly vaselined crankpin bush through the holes at one end and a cocktail stick through the other end where I apply the soldering iron and work towards the middle. Then I change them over and repeat.

To finish, I clamp the rod lengthwise in the vice and run more solder along the top edge. This gets filed back to give a nice solid looking edge. Sometimes. 

The tongue slots into the fork and the joint is made with a small, nay tiny, rivet which needs to be soldered in place at the back without seizing it all up. Very fiddly and all a bit fraught. Was glad when it was done because it meant I could start breathing again.

 

High Level Hornblocks. Nice design which folds up and doesn't need any soldering but in my experience they need a fair bit of fettling to make them slide smoothly. The sides of the bearings need polished back a bit in order to fit between the cheeks of the hornblocks. Fine emery does the job and I have used Brasso in the past to give them a final shine, always remembering to wash it off afterwards. 

 

Next job is to solder the hornblocks into the chassis, using the rods to help position them. Expect tears.

Alan

 

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Hats off Alan, you have great patience and workmanship.

[David Holman]

Tasty!

[Tullygrainey]

Hornblocks now in place, aided by a Poppy Woodtech jig. Normally I put two hornblocks onto an axle with a small coil spring trapped between them and then slide the whole thing into place from below, the coil spring helping to trap the hornblocks against the chassis frames. However the etched-on spring detail below each cutout got in the way again and made that impossible so the whole job was a fiddle, compounded by one horn block ( the last one - it's always the last one!) which refused to sit straight and needed to be given a severe talking to. Anyway, job done, I hope.

 

Next, the brakes, prominent members of the Little Things Sent To Try Us Club. Three bits in each one plus a short bit of brass rod to hold them together.

 

However, High Level chassis kits often have a clever arrangement for building the brake rigging which produces a completely detachable rig and if you follow the very detailed instructions (a full A4 page of text) to the letter, it works a treat. The process uses the chassis as a jig with cross rods pushed (but not soldered) through the frames at the top and through the brakes at the bottom.  The brakes are then hung on these and soldered to them.

 

The pull rods are then slid onto the bottom cross rods and used to position the brake pads clear of the wheels. Pull rods are then soldered to the bottom cross rods. 

 

Finally the top cross rods are cut just inside the chassis frames on each side and the whole brake rig can be unsprung from the chassis and reattached the same way, making painting/future maintenance easier. Fiddly to do but brilliant! (The bottom cross rods still need trimmed back in this pic).

 

Gearbox next

Alan

Edited December 28, 2023 by Tullygrainey

[David Holman]

Now that is very neat indeed - both in terms of concept AND execution.

[Tullygrainey]

A temporary rest from soldering to offer up chassis to body. Because the High Level chassis is designed for the Bachmann rather than the Hornby model, I expected to have to arrange new chassis mounts. What I hadn't bargained for was the Hornby shell being about 3mm shorter, front to back, than the Bachmann and thus 3mm shorter than the chassis that's meant to go inside it.

I didn't really want to carve bits off the chassis so plastic surgery was the better option. Most of the shortfall seemed to be at the front, the running plate being shorter beyond the smokebox door so Hornby Jinty got a nose job.

 

I'm hoping to model No 19 towards the end of its working life around 1962, by which time it was in UTA livery and had shed vacuum gear and coal rails. I've now removed these and added a few extra details.

 

Responding to treatment - the Jinty, not me.

Alan

Edited January 4 by Tullygrainey

[David Holman]

Nice, very nice!

Just as well you are not modelling 5'3 though, as a fair bit more surgery would be needed. From what I remember, even the full sized version had issues with wheels and splashers because of the broad gauge.

[Tullygrainey]

More Jintrification. The extension to the running plate did the trick and the chassis now fits inside the body shell. 

 

Gearbox next. I always approach building High Level gearboxes with trepidation but with care, they go together very nicely and work beautifully. This one follows the usual High Level practice of a fold up frame with gear wheels rotating on 2mm steel shafts. Final drive is to a 1/8th inch axle running in brass bearings. Ratio is 80:1 in this case. A little jewel. 

 

This particular example is designed specifically for the Jinty chassis and has projecting tabs on the frame sides which fit into slots in one of the chassis spacers. This anchors the gearbox and stops the motor riding up under power. Simple and effective. Beats the rubber bands and bits of duct tape I usually use.

 

The instructions recommend these Gibson wheels and the kit provides etches to model the balance weights. These have been epoxied on. 

 

 After wheeling up but before trial-fitting the rods I ran the chassis through some pointwork under finger power and it kept de-railing for no obvious reason. Picturesque language was used until it emerged I'd fitted it with EM axles instead of OO ones. It worked better after that was sorted. 

 

First test of the chassis under power. Looks promising.

 

 

[David Holman]

So reassuring when things work as they should. Never heard of that gearbox tab before, yet so simple. Am inclined find a way of adding it to future builds. A couple of bits of brass, soldered to the outside of the gear box, engaging on a bit of brass wire fitted between the frames might do it.

 

[Horsetan]

On 4/1/2024 at 8:03 PM, David Holman said:

...., even the full sized version had issues with wheels and splashers because of the broad gauge.

Wild Swan's LMS Locomotive Profiles book mentions that, rather than cast new wheels, they turned the existing driving wheel castings around so that the backs were now the fronts, with a flatter face than previously. This had the side-benefit of automatically rendering the converted wheelsets suitable for the wider gauge, with just the tyres to be fitted in the normal way.

[Tullygrainey]

As usual, a chassis that ran smoothly when the rods were held on with temporary bits of wire insulation proceeded to develop tight spots as soon as the crankpin nuts went on. All it takes is a wheel not quite square on the axle or a crankpin not quite straight in the wheel - or both. An afternoon of fettling (and swearing) bred them out, more or less, mainly by gently reaming out the holes in the rods. A squeak also developed which I couldn't track down for ages. It turned out to be coming from the rolling road. One of the rollers had seized!

It looked at one point as if the rods would clash with the brake rigging but they clear each other by a smidgen of a fraction of a millimetre.

Still need to contrive pickups - probably phosphor bronze wire bearing onto the wheel treads. Tomorrow.

 

All the body detailing is just about done. Almost ready for paint. In the end I didn't order the Brassmasters detailing pack. Elements like coupling rods, brake rigging and chassis detail are already provided in the High Level chassis kit, I don't need coal rails or vacuum pipes for this one and I was able to slim down the plastic steps to an acceptable level with a file. That really only left the chimney and the plastic Hornby one looks ok to my eye.

 

Edited January 15 by Tullygrainey

[KMCE]

That's a damn fine project - nicely done! 

I feel your pain with the rods, I've been there many times - I'm sure someone somewhere will create a tee shirt for it....

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Beautiful piece of work

[David Holman]

10 hours ago, KMCE said:

That's a damn fine project - nicely done! 

I feel your pain with the rods, I've been there many times - I'm sure someone somewhere will create a tee shirt for it....

Got a drawer full, if anyone's interested!

Looks great.

[Tullygrainey]

Jinty chassis fitted with pickups - 31swg phosphor bronze wire soldered to bits of printed circuit board...

 

...and first trial run under its own steam. It's actually a quiet runner. The noise is coming from that green Thomas Hill diesel in the background. 

 

Halfords livery. Painting has progressed a bit further since this. More pics soon.

 

Edited January 25 by Tullygrainey

[Galteemore]

Great stuff Alan - lovely runner. Not a bad layout either ! 

[Tullygrainey]

Thank you David. The layout is a little four-footer built on an old Ikea shelf. It has two independent shuttle arrangements (from Heathcote Electronics) which allow 4 locos to shuttle back and forward all day. Gives me something to watch whilst I shout at the latest build project. 

[jhb171achill]

10 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

Thank you David. The layout is a little four-footer built on an old Ikea shelf. It has two independent shuttle arrangements (from Heathcote Electronics) which allow 4 locos to shuttle back and forward all day. Gives me something to watch whilst I shout at the latest build project. 

I've been thinking about just such a thing, but in a rural setting with a G class or 0.6.0 and half a dozen old goods vans.........

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Lovely little loco and a nice tidy layout, fair dues.

[David Holman]

What other gems do you have lurking away, unseen? Love the idea of a scenic shuttle to test stuff and as an antidote to construction woes. Am already wondering what I might do with a 5'3 and 3' diorama. Broad and narrow gauge transfer sidings perhaps?

 A simple, but inspirational concept. Those of you with lots of model locos but no layout to run them on take note.

[Tullygrainey]

The strays waifs and orphans of the Shuttle Plank.

 

 

[David Holman]

 Such a great idea. At its most basic level, there is surely nothing to stop anyone fixing a metre or so of track to a bit of wood, then wiring in a shuttle unit, so you can enjoy your loco of choice running back and forth. You can buy shuttle units that will slow down before stopping and reversing, but looks like Alan has used simple stop/start modules, with this bit being hidden off scene.

 It is very much a high end model, fully scenic, with multiple tracks [which is wonderful], but don't see why with a bit of ballasting, basic scenics and a printed back scene couldn't make a simple but nonetheless satisfying back drop to enjoys your models, while all manner of other options are surely possible.

 I think we should all have at least one of these!

[Tullygrainey]

UTA Jinty no19 is just about finished. Lining out was the usual challenge to regular breathing and took a number of days. Fox provided the lines, Railtec the UTA crest. The number plate was bought a while back from Narrow Planet (now Light Railway Stores).

 

While waiting for transfers to dry, I made up some fire irons and a shunter's pole from scrap etch and wire. These will find a place on the running plate.

 

No 19 now has a Hatton's DCC chip, probably the last thing I will ever buy from them now. It took a whole afternoon of fettling to get the little brute running tolerably well. In my experience DCC is much less tolerant of faults than DC and small ones that wouldn't trouble a DC loco cause a chipped one to stutter and sulk. As this one did.

A few tweaks to the pickup wires improved things but then the chassis started locking up solid.  It turned out to be caused by one brake shoe making contact with the back of the coupling rod and jamming the centre axle, one wheel up, one down. Took a while to spot that one but a little bit of filing sorted it. 

Mounting the chassis in the body added more woe with running becoming erratic again. At rest, one wheel on the centre axle was sitting just clear of the rail. Eh? This shouldn't happen with hornblocks and a compensated chassis. That's the whole point of that malarkey - to keep all the wheels in contact with the track. Turned out the pickups on the front wheels were fouling the inside of the splashers and pushing on the wheels, stopping the compensation working properly. That took a while to find too. Shortening the pickup wire and grinding a bit out of the insides of the splashers wasn't enough to fix it - another hour gone. Eventually, raising the bodywork fractionally with plasticard packing on the chassis mounts cured it. 

A bit of weathering helped to tone down the lining and move the model closer to how the prototype looked circa 1962.

 

 

Edited January 30 by Tullygrainey
Typo

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Beautiful model, well done you on your work and your patience.

[David Holman]

Fab and, for obvious reasons,  I also feel your pain!

[Tullygrainey]

Another Jinty. This one required a good deal less work as it's a bog standard Bachmann Fowler 3F which started out in BR livery and is now masquerading as NCC Y Class no 18. Railtec supplied the livery and Humbrol the grime. I have a photo of the prototype looking even grubbier than this.

Before...

 

.. and after.

Don't suppose they ever appeared together like this. I assume they both got the livery change at the same time.

[Galteemore]

It’s actually more than likely there was an overlap Alan. Lovely work. I do like black Irish tank engines….These two did sterling work until the SLNC came to the UTA’s rescue  

Edited February 2 by Galteemore