David's Workbench

[Northroader]

Usually you’d get a chimney towards the rear, over the boiler. The nature of the intermittent working is such that you couldn’t rely on the blast from the cylinders to create a draught, so you’d have a fairly tall stovepipe, hinged for loading gauge clearance, and the steam exhaust would be from a plain pipe on the back corner of the cab. Before each lift you’d want the cylinders warmed up, so the crankshaft would be run before getting engaged, and a shower of hot water coming out of the exhaust.

[David Holman]

Many thanks!

 Was wondering where the steam exhaust went. The cab roof is only temporary, but will be drilled out to take a piece of brass pipe from the top of the boiler. Amused myself yesterday evening going through my spares boxes (just the six of them), looking for castings to adorn the boiler. Guess like most, I never throw anything away, so came up with quite a useful selection of taps, valves and the like. Most of these vertical boilers seemed to have a few scattered around, plus the all important water and pressure gauges. On the model, they will barely be seen inside the gloom of the cab, but hopefully will create an impression. That's the plan, anyway!

[David Holman]

Various bits of detail have been added to the crane, then it was given a coat of spray primer. Looking at photos on the web, I got an idea that the corrugated body might be wagon grey, with the boiler, winch and jib black. Thinking about it, it would have been easier to spray the whole thing black first, but instead decided to brush paint and the Precision matt black I used still hasn't fully dried two days after application.

 Anyway, the first couple of pictures show the boiler, which is a piece of aluminium tube from an old roller blind. Made a conical top from 20thou plastic, then used plastic filler to adjust the shape. Details came from the spares collection, plus some Archer rivet transfers.
 

 Decide some rear access doors might be appropriate on the body, in case the rear of the boiler needed attention & these were quickly made from more plastic sheet. Cab steps also came from the spares box, along with a hook each on the buffer beams. An operator figure was added to the cab, while the roof has been given a small extension at the front.

 I've used elastic thread for the jib cable, carefully wrapped around the main winch drum and threaded up and over the jib to a piece of white metal, fitted with a home made hook. The weight of the white metal is enough to keep the elastic thread straight & have since used this method to replace the cables on my Airfix/Dapol crane.

 

Am now thinking that I may spray the whole crane black, as adding weathering, rusty highlights and so on may well work better than the current grey-black combination.

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by David Holman

[murphaph]

Love that boiler. Brilliant.

[Northroader]

What are you using for bait?

[David Holman]

Really big worms!

[jhb171achill]

On 6/1/2023 at 7:56 PM, David Holman said:

Various bits of detail have been added to the crane, then it was given a coat of spray primer. Looking at photos on the web, I got an idea that the corrugated body might be wagon grey, with the boiler, winch and jib black. Thinking about it, it would have been easier to spray the whole thing black first, but instead decided to brush paint and the Precision matt black I used still hasn't fully dried two days after application.

 Anyway, the first couple of pictures show the boiler, which is a piece of aluminium tube from an old roller blind. Made a conical top from 20thou plastic, then used plastic filler to adjust the shape. Details came from the spares collection, plus some Archer rivet transfers.
 

 Decide some rear access doors might be appropriate on the body, in case the rear of the boiler needed attention & these were quickly made from more plastic sheet. Cab steps also came from the spares box, along with a hook each on the buffer beams. An operator figure was added to the cab, while the roof has been given a small extension at the front.

 I've used elastic thread for the jib cable, carefully wrapped around the main winch drum and threaded up and over the jib to a piece of white metal, fitted with a home made hook. The weight of the white metal is enough to keep the elastic thread straight & have since used this method to replace the cables on my Airfix/Dapol crane.

 

Am now thinking that I may spray the whole crane black, as adding weathering, rusty highlights and so on may well work better than the current grey-black combination.

 

I'd say if you just weather it as it is - and weather it seriously!

Quite often, in those days, things like that were a reddish colour too, where they had been painted with red lead. When weathered, this ended up a dull, dirty-looking pink. I remember sheeting like that also, which was galvanised, thus a silvery colour when new, but faded and weathered to a drab dirty greyish colour.... any of those, I daresay, would suit - or even one panel in one, in the rest another! Cosmetic finish was low priority on such equipment.......

[David Holman]

The crane is approaching completion now, with just a few tweaks here and there - plus a pair of axle boxes on the side I'm not showing! The component parts are shown below - separated for painting and weathering.

 After four days of waiting for the Precision paint to dry, decided to take a chance and over paint it with Humbrol and [fingers crossed], this seems to have worked, so as they are both enamels, looks like the Precision tins were missing something. It certainly wasn't a case of not stirring them enough. I've used a mix of matt black with No67, dark grey - the same as I've used on the Acla's hull. As you can see, most of the crane is this very dark grey now, apart from the red buffer beams and the light grey interior of the cab.

 The rest of the pictures show various angle of the model - as much a bit of 'proof reading' as anything. Weathering powders have been used extensively - burnt Sienna [for rust], black for soot and coal dust, plus pale grey which I find helps tone things down and avoid making the colours too stark or bright. Remaining jobs include the aforementioned axle box castings, some coal dust on the cab floor and maybe some lettering - though haven't decided what yet. Northport Quay No1 maybe? Alternatively, I've got a selection of brass name plates I could use - or I could just leave things as they are. 

 The workbench needs a serious tidy up now and Fintonagh is off to a show in Guildford next Sunday. After that, a carry case for Acla is required, so I can take it to next month's club competition & I might just make it a display case as well. One thing for sure, there is always something new to look forward to!

[Galteemore]

Looks fabulous and subtly careworn!

[Tullygrainey]

Perfect!

[David Holman]

Very little to report of late - I'm in the process of converting all my stock to Alex Jackson couplings, in the hope of making operation on Northport Quay easier. To be honest have always thought AJs looked a bit of a nightmare in 4mm scale, but are potentially more straightforward in 7mm. However, first I needed to understand how they work and that means making some first, though Gordon Gravett helped at the recent Tonbridge show. Much easier when you can see actual wagons and in particular how the couplings are fixed to the wagon body.

 Very much work in progress though.

 Meanwhile, my GS&WR 2-4-2T, built from the Alphagraphix kit won the loco shield at the annual club competition last night, while the coaster, Acla, won the non-railway and overall shields, which was rather nice, especially as the overall standards were really high this year.

[Flying Snail]

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

 Meanwhile, my GS&WR 2-4-2T, built from the Alphagraphix kit won the loco shield at the annual club competition last night, while the coaster, Acla, won the non-railway and overall shields, which was rather nice, especially as the overall standards were really high this year.

Congratulations! 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Flying Snail

[David Holman]

Alex Jackson Couplings

 It's been a while, a couple of months in fact. Not all of this time has been spent on the AJs, but this has been pretty much the sum of my modelling efforts this year, which have at times driven me nuts!

 For those of you not in the know, the AJ coupling was developed by the man himself, way back in the last century. In many ways, it is very simple - a piece of sprung steel wire has three bends put in it to make a hook. However, setting this up and fitting it to your stock can be a serious pain in the primary orifice. Undoubtedly easier in 7mm scale, would certainly not recommend it in 4mm, unless you have serious masochistic tendencies.

 The basic elements are shown below. Note, none of this has ever been available ready made, while there are all sort of adaptations possible as well. In 7mm scale 28swg [0.4mm] steel piano wire is recommended [problem number one, straightening it]. Using a simple jig, the first bend is 180 degrees, followed by 30 and 60.

 The front view, shows the hook tilted at 45 degrees, though this is not a bend, merely how the wire is mounted. The latter requires a small block glued in the centre of a wagon, to which a piece of copper clad sleeper is glued and the wire is soldered to that. Fiddly and not fun, though am getting better at that bit. The lower diagram shows how the coupling is operated - you hook a U shaped piece of iron wire over the coupling wire & an electro magnet can be used to pull the coupling wire downwards as shown below.

 The great thing about this [and why I'm torturing myself] is that once uncoupled, vehicles can be pushed anywhere you want without coupling up again. Yes, other systems offer this, but AJs are very discreet, almost invisible from some angles and having looked at various options, I've decided that I'm going to make it work.

 The tools required are pretty basic - mainly various type of pliers, plus the wire. I've used a piece of brass to help with making the bends. The top wire is 1mm brass, which I use to help get my head around this, while the middle wire is the actual hook.

 The pictures below show the first train that I've equipped with AJs for Northport Quay, along with an electromagnet, almost hidden in the track. Note how discreet the couplings are.

 Below are three pictures of how the coupling wires are mounted underneath wagons. The brake van has one at each end, but most stock will only have an AJ at one end, and some none at all, as trains will run in fixed rakes. Hopefully, you can see how the coupling wire is soldered to the central block, also the U shaped dropper wire which is attracted to the magnet in the track. The second, brass U shaped wire is a simple limiter to stop the dropper going too low and catching on the magnet.

 Finally, a picture of my control panel. The three red buttons are push to make switches. The first one on the top line is for locos to uncouple and run round. Top right is the uncoupler for the small fiddle yard acting as the pier. The lower middle button is the most important magnet though, because this is where most of the shunting takes place. 

 In the case of the G class shunter, it arrives in the loop and then pushes its train into the left hand siding, picking up the two wagons there, with the brake van sandwiched in the middle. The G can then pull all five wagons back into the loop, then [using the middle magnet], leaves the brake and two wagons from the siding on the 'mainline', by the controller socket. The incoming wagons can then be pushed into the siding, then the G can move its return train back into the loop, before running round, ready to depart.

 I'll leave you to work out how a freight to the pier is shunted - though a clue is that you use the right hand siding and the train arrives in the platform, not the loop.

  I think I'm getting there & have fitted AJs to the two trains which will do the shunting in my 1950s period. Need to do the same for the 1900s period. Only eight AJs for each train, but it has taken an average of an hour per coupling because of all the faffing about, getting things wrong, many rude words etc. Hopefully, things will speed up now, not least because there are eight other trains to fit, though these will only need four couplings each. It all adds up though and then I'll need to test everything on NPQ - thus far testing has been done on Belmullet...

Edited March 13, 2023 by David Holman

[Tullygrainey]

I knew AJ couplings were tricky things to make and set up David but that looks seriously challenging! However you seem to be well on the way and the end result will be worth the effort. Most coupling systems look cumbersome so the idea of (almost) invisible ones is very appealing not to mention the clever delayed uncoupling action. It will look like magic to the uninitiated 

[Galteemore]

Excellent work David. Really appreciate you showing the nuts and bolts of this. What’s the procedure for mounting to locos? 

[David Holman]

Much simpler, thankfully! Only one coupler needs to work with the dropper wire to a magnet, so a shorter coupling wire is soldered to any convenient point on the loco chassis. Even just behind the buffer beam should work, though on my J26 there is a front frame spacer which is ideal.

[David Holman]

 It's been quite a few weeks, but I've finally finished fitting all the Alex Jackson couplings to the stock that needs them to operate Northport Quay. Bending 64 pieces of steel piano wire doesn't seem that much work [and indeed isn't], but fitting them, along with testing has certainly taken a lot of time, while all my stock boxes have needed adapting to protect the coupling wires while travelling to shows.

 There is still more testing to do, in order to fine tune things, but [fingers crossed], the basic moves of running a train into the station, stopping, then setting back slightly to uncouple the loco before running round, seems fine and this is the case for about two thirds of all trains. There are four goods trains which have rather more complex moves and it is these that will no doubt need more practice in the coming months. Talking to Gordon Gravett, who helped me with Fintonagh at the recent Nailsea show, found he uses a 15 volt transformer to power his electromagnets on Pempoul and Arun Quay, so have invested in one myself to replace the 12v plug in I currently use.

 The pictures below show one of my stock boxes [actually an A4 box file], newly divided up for one of the goods trains and showing the pieces of thick card being used to protect the coupling wires. I mostly use these box files for rolling stock, with 'Really Useful Box Company' plastic containers for locos in twos and threes, depending on size.

 So, what next, I asked myself? Northport Quay now needs to have its presentation sorted & was pleased to discover that I should be able to reuse the pelmets, lights and fascias from Belmullet's sole outing, while NPQ was designed to use the beams and trestles from Fintonagh. Just as well, because storage space in my workshop is ever more limited...

 There are however, a few other things in the pipeline - the E class 0-6-0T I mentioned in my Irish Models thread and then a host of goodies for later in the year to start re-imagining Fintonagh as a Swilly/Donegal branch. For this, I've got some of the Alphagraphix card kits of Swilly coaches and Donegal wagons, plus a couple of railcars [all bargains at just £3 each], but in mentioning my next project to proprietor Roger Cromblehome, he not only found some white metal chassis for the coaches, but other stuff as well, including Donegal Wagon chassis, three open wagon kits and even a drawing for the chassis of the Andrew Barclay 4-6-0T: the importance of the latter being that Worsley Works do a body kit in 7mm scale! 

 So, having spent my entire model making time with never more than a couple of unmade kits in store, I now have loads - itches that are going to need scratching! A few examples are shown below: I use the card kits as drawings to scratch build models in plastic, or make my own resin castings if multiple examples are needed.

 

[Tullygrainey]

Plenty to keep you busy there David!  Good luck with the project(s). Look forward to seeing the results. 

[J-Mo Arts]

I never realised he made those kits! Oh no...

[David Holman]

A bit of woodwork

 Not my forte by any means, but needs must as the adjustable metal trestles I've been using with Fintonagh will not fit in my car alongside Northport Quay when it goes out to shows. One option would have been to add folding legs to each of NPQ's baseboards, but they are heavy enough already - as is the sliding/rotating fiddle yard from Arigna Town, which is also being used.

So, a bit of head scratching and scribbling came up with a pair of wooden trestles which will fold flat and enable me to use the folding beams from Fintonagh with them. These beams also give me a 60cm/2ft space to put a small fiddle yard at the other end to represent the pier siding.

 Nothing special about the trestles - I reused some 2x1 from an earlier project, along with some steel hinges and 5mm ply that was also spare, so they haven't cost me anything  [this time]. What I have done is added some small spacers to the top of each trestle to keep the beams apart.

 The beams are also hinged in the centre [necessary as they are 9'6 long overall] and locked by two 6mm bolts. They are additionally kept apart at each end by two plywood plates, which also serve to stop them moving longitudinally.

 Lugging various layouts to over 100 shows over the years gradually teaches you the importance of being able to secure things for transport, while also minimising the number of trips to and from the car. Re-usable cable ties hold the two trestles together and [fingers crossed] they only take up half the space of the Screwfix metal ones. 

 Fintonagh has an outing to a show at Welwyn Garden City as the end of April, so will be able to test the new trestles with that. With a bit of luck, they will save me another few minutes setting up and knocking down time too.

 

[David Holman]

Alphagraphix/Tyrconnel E Class

Made a start yesterday on my new loco kit, following the arrival of a set of Slater's wheels. This etched brass kit is good value at £120, although being 7mm scale you quickly find that wheels/motor/gears doubles that. For those of you unfamiliar with these things, you get several sheets of etched parts, along with various castings for chimney, dome, buffers and the like.

 I always start with the chassis, on the basis that once this is rolling nicely, then the rest of the kit is merely cosmetic. Here the AlphaG kits really come into their own, as the chassis is a one piece etch, which simply needs folding to shape, though before doing this, the axle holes need opening out to take the wheel bearings. I use a tapered reamer for this. Then you just fold the frames up and then bend the spacers into place. Half etched lines mean everything lines up neatly, so that in half an hour or so, you have a chassis! OK, it now needs everything soldering in place, but that is easy, because the pieces are already partly joined anyway being a single etch. 

 After that, you solder in the six wheel bearings. The kit is designed for both 32mm [0 gauge] and 36.75mm broad gauge. As I model the latter, this means soldering the bearings inside out, which gives the right spacing to go with the extended 34mm axles.

  Slater's wheels require a bit of work to set up. A wheel nut [tightened by an Allen key] fixes the wheel to the axle, but before then, you have to screw in a 12BA bolt as part of the crankpin assembly. Easily done as a hole is pre-moulded into the wheel boss. A top hat bearing goes over each bolt on to which the coupling rods are slid & the latter are then held in place with a nut and washer.

 I usually find that the axles can be a slightly tight fit in the main bearings, but a bit of gentle work with a round file quickly sorts this out. So, in just over an hour, we have a nice, rolling chassis.

 Coupling rods come next & these are invariably etched in two or more layers that need soldering together. A couple of panel pins in a piece of plywood holds things in place while you do this.

 Fitting the coupling rods is always fiddly, as the top hat bearings, nuts and washers are tiny and easily lost. You also have to make sure the driving wheels are fitted correctly, with the usual convention being that those on the left hand side are 90 degrees forward of those on the right. Inevitably the crankpin holes in the coupling rods need opening out a little, so a bit of trial and error follows, but the AlphaG artwork is so good that this is rarely much trouble. What is a bit of a faff with pretty much any etched kit is that you now find the wheels and rods are repeatedly on & off while you clean up the chassis, fit things like guard irons, brake gear & of course the pick ups and motor gearbox. However, knowing the chassis rolls nicely definitely eases the pain, because there are few things worse than a model loco that doesn't run properly.

 Time spent so far about three hours.

Edited April 16, 2023 by David Holman

[Galteemore]

Excellent David. Most useful tutorial which will hopefully encourage others to have a go! It’s a great little kit and an ideal intro to Irish 7mm.

Edited April 16, 2023 by Galteemore

[KMCE]

Looking very nice, and I do like the way the chassis comes together as a single etch.  Would be a nice idea for my kits, however as I model in 21mm and most folks want OO-gauge, this would not work; although it could work if I fix on one gauge with the other gauge requiring separation of the parts - that's got me thinking now!!

Out of curiosity, how do the slaters wheels work for 32mm or 36.75mm gauge given they are a bolted affair - do you have to select the axle length when ordering?

Ken

[Tullygrainey]

Thanks David. Really useful info. You make it sound very easy. A rolling chassis in three hours is brilliant. My current efforts to get that far, admittedly in 4mm which can be fiddly and eyesight-challenging, has taken 3 weeks! Mind you, half of that is probably looking for lost tools and searching for the bits the carpet monster has stolen

You're tempting me toward 7mm.

Alan

[Mayner]

41 minutes ago, KMCE said:

Looking very nice, and I do like the way the chassis comes together as a single etch.  Would be a nice idea for my kits, however as I model in 21mm and most folks want OO-gauge, this would not work; although it could work if I fix on one gauge with the other gauge requiring separation of the parts - that's got me thinking now!!

Ken

I designed the MGWR 2-4-0 kit  with a single piece fold up chassis for OO that could be assembled in 21mm gauge as a conventional chassis with separate frame spacer.

I designed the GSWR 52 Class with a conventional chassis with OO & 21mm frame spacers.

The majority of my customers are experienced kit or scratchbuilders or people who want a model of a particular loco regardless of the chassis design.

Interestingly I sold more MGWR 2-4-0s than GSWR 4-4-0s most likely because I produced 3 variations of the 2-4-0 kit and only 1 variation of the 4-4-0 rather than the fold up OO chassis.

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Mayner said:

I designed the MGWR 2-4-0 kit  with a single piece fold up chassis for OO that could be assembled in 21mm gauge as a conventional chassis with separate frame spacer.

I designed the GSWR 52 Class with a conventional chassis with OO & 21mm frame spacers.

The majority of my customers are experienced kit or scratchbuilders or people who want a model of a particular loco regardless of the chassis design.

Interestingly I sold more MGWR 2-4-0s than GSWR 4-4-0s most likely because I produced 3 variations of the 2-4-0 kit and only 1 variation of the 4-4-0 rather than the fold up OO chassis.

As a happy owner of a Midland 2.4.0 I highly recommend it!

[David Holman]

9 hours ago, KMCE said:

Looking very nice, and I do like the way the chassis comes together as a single etch.  Would be a nice idea for my kits, however as I model in 21mm and most folks want OO-gauge, this would not work; although it could work if I fix on one gauge with the other gauge requiring separation of the parts - that's got me thinking now!!

Out of curiosity, how do the slaters wheels work for 32mm or 36.75mm gauge given they are a bolted affair - do you have to select the axle length when ordering?

Ken

You have to buy the broad gauge axle as an extra, Ken. Must have spent a fortune over the years as they are £5 each. Rumour has it, Slaters will exchange one for the other, though not sure they'd be happy to take my 30+ spares all at once...

 The official back to back is quoted as 33.98mm, though that has always been 34mm to me. Works well enough with Code 100 rail too.

9 hours ago, Tullygrainey said:

Thanks David. Really useful info. You make it sound very easy. A rolling chassis in three hours is brilliant. My current efforts to get that far, admittedly in 4mm which can be fiddly and eyesight-challenging, has taken 3 weeks! Mind you, half of that is probably looking for lost tools and searching for the bits the carpet monster has stolen

You're tempting me toward 7mm.

Alan

The carpet monster eats 7mm stuff too, Alan! However, it is a very forgiving scale to work in, especially when doing broad gauge. Very addictive too, mind...

[Patrick Davey]

Excellent as always David.  That loco is a lovely prototype.

 

[David Holman]

 I'm sure all kit and scratch builders have aspects of the process they love to hate. Anything fiddly for one - especially if it requires more hands than you were born with - and various times during construction when you find something doesn't sit right, no matter how careful you've been. Add in my latent ability to fit anything 'handed' back to front and rude words are inevitable...

 The footplate starts off simply enough - a nice flat etch, with just the outer sides of the four splashers to bend up. The inner sides have to be cut from the fret next, but tabs and slots help you solder them without too many problems. However, the splasher tops are the first items where you need more hands. If I was making several engines with 4'6 drivers, then it might have been worth cutting some sort of inner shape from wood, to rest the tops on, but I just tend to plough on, getting singed fingers and broadening my vocabulary. At least bending the brass to shape is easy. Tip: always use a smaller diameter rod than the curve you are creating.

 Turned out I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by leaving the tops until after I'd fitted the inner tank sides. These give you something else to rest the part against & having originally fixed them about half a millimetre out, I had to take them off anyway.

 However, before that comes the cab front, then the inner sides of the tanks. Next is the cab rear, which needs the coal plate adding & best then not to solder it back to front as I managed! Notice the simple tools which can help no end - lolly sticks or bits of thin ply to stop fingers getting singed and the all important sprung hair grips to hold things while you are soldering. Being aluminium, these are ideal as this metal is pretty much impossible to solder.

 I've never been very neat or tidy with soldering and use far too much of the stuff, but it helps a lot if you can do most of the main seams from the inside. Likewise only spot solder long seams to begin with, as joints are much easier to redo if [when in my case] you get it wrong to begin with.

 The cab sides, bunker and tanks are large etches, needing just a single fold for the tank fronts. The latter are radiused, but a series of half etch lines on the inside make this nice and easy. The rear bunker piece is done the same way. Just as well, because the next steps are to fit all the beading and the piece that goes round the cab opening is a right swine to fit. Trial and error, singed fingers and more rude words again!

 So, there we are. About five hours for these bits, taking us up to eight in total, with at least an hour less if I'd got things right first time...

 

[Tullygrainey]

That's coming together very nicely David. Five hours well spent I'd say. Undoing and redoing is all part of the fun experience.

Splasher tops are a pig aren't they! I've found that fitting them straight and true is only half the battle. Making sure the wheels don't short inside them later is the other part of the task. The small details are a trial too. I've seen tiny bits on etches which left me thinking "They're having a laugh. How could anyone see that never mind fit it?!"

Please keep posting this build. I'm really enjoying it.

Cheers, Alan

P.S.  Aloe Vera sap is very soothing for singed fingers. I keep a plant on the window sill

[Northroader]

I’d be inclined to advise fitting the footplate to the chassis as soon as it’s formed, and checking the slots clear the wheels all round, the siderods clear on rotation, then adding splashers and getting them clear of the wheels. Then go on to spectacle plate, tanks, etc.

[David Holman]

Indeed, already on to that! Clearances on the splashers are fine, but the frames need half a millimetre taking off each end to fit inside the buffer beams. Still waiting for the motor hear box though...

[David Holman]

A personal take on AJs

Whisper it quietly, but I at last seem to be getting to grips with Alex Jackson couplings. Others more careful and precise than me would have mastered them by now, but it does feel like I'm getting there.

 The thing about AJs is that it is not just the couplings themselves, but the whole wheels and track relationships too as it seems everything needs to be in order for them to work. Am guessing that P4, Scaleseven or even S scale would work best with them as finer tolerances no doubt help with alignments. However, 7mm fine scale is a reasonable compromise, as long as you make sure of various key elements:

• Track must be well laid. Any imperfections, both horizontal and vertical can cause problems - so I guess I should be grateful for this, as it is making me fettle everything to the best standards I can.
• Curves need to be smooth too. On Northport Quay, all four points are 6' [1.8m] radius, but nevertheless, I've had to address a couple of kinks because they were stopping stock from coupling properly.

 As for the AJs themselves, the articles I've read seem to tell you about angles and ways of mounting, but not really why they are so important, so for what it is worth here's my take on matters;

• The hook has two key bends. Neither appear to need absolute accuracy, but the 'nose' at 120 degrees is important because when the dropper wire is pulled down by the uncoupler magnet, this bend is what causes both hooks to go into 'over ride' and mean that vehicles can be pushed to any given point without coupling up again. The downward bend of the hook is likewise crucial to this and I've found its length to be important too. Indeed, too long and the couplings will not pass each other to disengage.
• The couplings' alignment must be on the exact centreline of each vehicle and the height must likewise be consistent on every vehicle.
• The dropper wire must also be the right length - no more than a millimetre variation or the magnets will either not be able to attract the wire, or will foul the rails.
• Screw/three link couplings need to be kept out of the way so as not to impede the coupling wire moving up & down.

  All of this I've discovered through what seems endless testing. Fortunately many of the operational moves are quite simple: the train arrives and stops over the platform magnet. A slight reversal is enough to uncouple & then all the loco has to do is run round and couple up at the other end, ready for departure. Simple, but very satisfying to do 'hands free'. 

 The shunting move for the left hand siding has been described in the Layout thread. The right hand siding is kept free so that wagons can be swapped with those in the pier fiddle yard. Fingers crossed, this move is now pretty successful too. A few more tweaks, but almost there, subject to keeping everything aligned of course - but that is why the stock boxes have been adapted to keep the couplings safe.

 Am now looking forward to getting back to the E class, especially as the motor gearbox has arrived.

 

[KMCE]

An area I have been thinking about for a while as the Spratt & Winkle coupling I use are limited in terms of stock direction.  All wagons & locos must face the same direction, and running around bunker first does not allow coupling to the rear of the train as their is no hook on the loco.  Some time ago, I ordered the Alex Jackson Bending Package from Dart Castings to make a start, but haven't got round to it yet.  I was planning to equip the proposed DSER stock with AJ couplings and leave the GSR stock with S&W as there would be too much hassle to convert all wagons & locos; that's the plan anyway....

 

This may provide the impetus needed to have a go!  Well done sir!!

[David Holman]

Thanks Ken, am sure you are well equipped to deal with AJs in 4mm scale, where there is a need for a bit more precision. A bit like signal mechanisms, most of the operational side is hidden - in this case under the vehicles' floors. In 4mm scale, hinges (using hypodermic tube) seem preferable to the basic spring wire in 7mm, while the fixing point, especially on a four wheel wagon is almost at the opposite end. At least loco couplings are simpler, with just the basic hook.

  Found that getting into a routine worked best, so I made up all the hooks at once and likewise the under wagon fixing points. This made setting up each wagon feel simpler and needing less time. I can now fit a wagon in under half an hour.

  Like you, have no intention of fitting AJs to every wagon and coach. Mine are set up in rakes of two or three with an AJ at each end and three/screw links in between. Also, I had the same problem with Dinghams as you have with S&W. AJs require care, but their advantages repay that. I put three electro magnets on Northport Quay, but have found I only need two to cover all the moves. I also like the way you can uncouple while moving so there is less importance in terms on trying find the exact place of the magnet. On Fintonagh, using Kadees and rare earth magnets, you have to spot a 3mm 'window' from up to 2m away...

 Perseverance very much the key!