Walker Diesel Class F - ECMbuild in 4mm for OOn3

[murrayec]

Hi all

Well still waiting for the bogie parts, but in the mean time I got the second bonnet up and running and also started on some of the small detail bits

Exhaust pipe components- aluminium tube with soldered brass mounting brackets

A bit of moulding done to create the bonnet headlamp bodies- the trusty Model T van was used, a nice set of lamps on the front, did not want to wreck the part so I did a mould around the lights still on the radiator grill! it worked

two lamp bodies drilled to take little LEDs

Ladders, other exhaust n brackets, the horns, and the side bonnet radiator water filler caps- all brass

I'm thinking of making up my own motor chassis for this project, but unfortunately I cannot show a sketch, today my workshop PC decided to melt one of its drives and the walker directory was in that sector, fortunately I could back up most of the drive and thankfully I had done a system backup last month, unfortunately the edit to the drawing with the chassis design was only last week and it did not get saved in that backup, and again- fortunately Windows has a secret directory that backups get saved, even incremental! I got almost all the data back from here and it needs a few hours drawing and I'm back to last weeks version...... Backups guys, is very important

anyway, brass etched bogie with Mashima motor on top n pulley drive all hung off a PCB chassis plate, I've setup a drawing of the bogie frames to make a mould, this includes connection rods & crank counter weights to be etched in brass- i'll make contact again on supply of these parts and then make a decision.....

Eoin

 

[David Holman]

Sharp, neat, clean as always!

Must remember the lamp casting trick in future.

[murrayec]

So you thought I'd forgotten the Walker!

No word back from the supplier on bogie parts since March?? so I decided to fabricate my own- based on the rubber band drive idea I'm working on for the N 141.....

The drawing was completed for the bogie frames, bogie bolsters, motor system, fuel tanks, bogie sides, cranks, and crank counter weights- all to be cnc cut from .3mm NS sheet;-

A close up of the parts, all the cutting worked out fine with a 1mm end mill and the half cut done with an 45deg engraving tool for the fold lines;-

The chassis plate was cut out of .7mm PCB board with engraved lines to position the fuel tanks and bogie bolsters when soldering on, one of those D shapes will be pressed out for the motor pulley drive to go through to drive the bogie ;-

All the parts removed from the sheet and on the right is the motor bogie frame cleaned up and about to be folded, soldered and wheeled- though need to make a few long axles as we have outside cranks. There are 110 parts to make up the wheeled motor bogie with side-frame details, I have only cut out parts for one set of side-frames, if all goes together OK! I will be making moulds from these for casting white metal sides;-

So a bit of processing over the week end........

Eoin

 

[Colin R]

Hi Eoin

There is a good reason why you haven't heard back from Malcolm Savage, he is no long with us he died about three or four months ago I think.

The good news is that some one is thinking about taking over his range, so hopefully it won't be too long before his bits become available again.

 

Regards

Colin

I must get on with my own Class F loco model at some point.

 

Edited August 10, 2018 by Colin R

[murrayec]

Hi Colin R

That's sad to hear,

I thought something was wrong all right, I got no reply from my follow-up emails... so left him alone.

Eoin

[WRENNEIRE]

13 hours ago, Colin R said:

Hi Eoin

There is a good reason why you haven't heard back from Malcolm Savage, he is no long with us he died about three or four months ago I think.

The good news is that some one is thinking about taking over his range, so hopefully it won't be too long before his bits become available again.

 

Regards

Colin

I must get on with my own Class F loco model at some point.

 

JASUS.........

[Andy Cundick]

For headlamps try Road Transport Images,they do 3 different sizes in 4mm.Used them on my F when i built it.Andy.

[murrayec]

I have been working on the bogoies over the last few days, the cnc half cut folding lines in the parts were not deep enough and this caused a few problems folding and getting things straight! Here are a few photos of progress;-

Axles and drive shaft were cut and sized from 1.5mm piano wire, and a pair of chassis jigs were made to get the crank weights and rods to line up.

Folding, jigging, and soldering up both bogie frames required some fettling as mentioned above, but eventually they came together.

This is the motor bogie with it's running parts, the axles are sleeved with brass tube to bring them up to 2mm dia for the Tenshodo gear set.

and this is the first test assembly, everything worked out OK, except for the gear meshing- it's just a tad loose and will need a bit of adjustment, I reckon it will run but there is a chance the plastic gears could be stripped so I will de-solder the drive shaft bearings and adjust the holes to get it just right. It's a nice little unit and I'm looking forward to giving it a test run.....

Eoin

 

[KMCE]

1 hour ago, murrayec said:

so I will de-solder the drive shaft bearings and adjust the holes to get it just right

Eoin,

 

Consider changing to larger gears on the axles?  Problem I had with the 495 was the kit came with a 23 tooth gear rather than the 20 tooth needed - difference in diameter was c. 1 mm but too large to fit the gearbox I had.   

Might be enough to pick up the slack - re-cutting the chassis and moving the bearings up will be pain!!

 

Ken

[Mayner]

4 hours ago, murrayec said:

I have been working on the bogoies over the last few days, the cnc half cut folding lines in the parts were not deep enough and this caused a few problems folding and getting things straight! Here are a few photos of progress;-

Axles and drive shaft were cut and sized from 1.5mm piano wire, and a pair of chassis jigs were made to get the crank weights and rods to line up.

Folding, jigging, and soldering up both bogie frames required some fettling as mentioned above, but eventually they came together.

This is the motor bogie with it's running parts, the axles are sleeved with brass tube to bring them up to 2mm dia for the Tenshodo gear set.

and this is the first test assembly, everything worked out OK, except for the gear meshing- it's just a tad loose and will need a bit of adjustment, I reckon it will run but there is a chance the plastic gears could be stripped so I will de-solder the drive shaft bearings and adjust the holes to get it just right. It's a nice little unit and I'm looking forward to giving it a test run.....

Eoin

 

Branchlines produced a 17:1 Miniature gearbox kit with 1.5mm input & 2mm output shaft which may be an option of you cannot get the gear set to work.

The business no longer has an active web presence but continues to trade through the magazines and at UK exhibitions.

PO Box 4293,  Westbury, Wiltshire  BA13 9AA

01373 822231

The Branchlines gear box is fully enclosed moulded in nylon with brass worm and nylon gear wheel, so meshing should not be an issue.

I bought a pair several years ago to re-build the chassis on a County Donegal railcar

[murrayec]

I built one of the bogie frame sides as a test of the cut-out parts, some mods will be required as things did not work out as expected from the drawing, mainly allowing tolerance for the fold lines- the drawing will be adjusted!

This is the main frame, horn blocks, spring hanger brackets and sand box folded up ready for soldering.

All soldered, the hornblocks have worked out a bit fat, because of the reverse fold line, I calculated the tolerance for the bend the wrong way round! The sand box has a little 4mm scale steel valve rivet soldered in for the cap, and the leaf springs cleaned up ready for soldering.

Leaf springs soldered on, a 1mm brass tube is soldered to the end of the springs to create the bracket connection to the hanger rods, these rods are removable to install the lower coil springs- thats next...

One can see the hornblocks protrude out beyond the springs and the lower bracket, they should be flush with the spring! I will complete out the other side and assemble the frames on the bogie and see how these work out, it will push out the crank weights n rods a little bit but it may not be a problem with the overall appearance.

Eoin

 

[murrayec]

Springs On!

Made up little .4mm NS coil springs for the suspension on the bogie sides. Lying a bit sideways at the moment!

These are the components for the bogie front with the guard iron brackets and chain hooks.

Fitted up and ready for soldering, three .4mm NS wire bars will be soldered across the brackets.

and now that a set of sides are complete it's time to test fit to the bogie??

As suspected earlier, the hornblocks stick out further than intended and the pre-cut axles stick out only a smidge- not enough to get the crank weights on, the weights are .6mm laminates which means the axles need another 1.2mm. New axles will have to be cut, or, but its time to decide to proceed on this way or go back to cutting revised parts. There are other other issues that new cut parts would resolve...

It's a cute little mechanism though and loads of fun doing!

Eoin

[jhb171achill]

VERY nice.

[murrayec]

Walker chassis bits.

Some of the underframe parts were cleaned up and prepared for soldering- two diesel tanks and one set of bogie bolsters.

This is the holding set-up for soldering the bolster parts together, there is a 1.5mm hole through the base parts, a 1.5mm aluminium rod is inserted to keep alignment and the clamp fingers hold it all together- leaving the hands free to do the soldering.  

The motor bogie drive shaft bearings were adjusted to improve the gear meshing to the axles, this was done by broaching out the holes after the bearings were removed, it needed about .3mm adjustment and the bearings were soldered back in- good mesh now. A top-hat axle bearing is soldered on the top of the bogie for pivot fixing to the chassis plate, the motor will hold the bogie in place?

Underframe parts cleaned up and sat on chassis plate, the cut lines provide positioning and the parts will be eventually soldered on.

The chassis plate and bogies assembled and motor installed

The motor bogie pivots nicely in place and the motor holds it together as expected! with a bit of side tilt n all. You probably noticed the chassis plate is up-side-down!

A test run will be next on the chassis, but I have to hold off as the axle gears have to be glued on and I'm not at the final axle length stage- I've made some mods to the bogie side frames so new parts need to be cut first.

Eoin

[murrayec]

I know a man whom will be delighted to see this, I promised to post these up when we last meet at the Stillorgan Show!

After several attempts on getting the bogie side moulds to work it was eventually successfully, the patterns were to complex for gravity feed white metal so I had to fill in around some of the pattern detail with epoxy and drill several vent holes in the final mound and out these popped;-

Drilled the axle holes and the lower suspension spring hanger holes on the finger plate.

Test fitting the lower coil springs n hangers.

and popped onto the axles to see how it looks.

Deadly!

Another 3 sides to go and I think its fitting time and can eventually bolt the chassis together and give it a test run - fingers n toes crossed!!

Eoin

 

[murrayec]

The Walker Diesel Loco build got a bit of attention over the last month or so, after making further mods to the bogie sides the extended axles were cut n sized and all the gear was set up to build the bogies;-

The gears were glued in with Loctite, small brass sleeves also around the axles on the inside of the bogie to hold the wheels on centre and stop them shorting on the bogie frames.

I decided to glue the sides and stretchers to the bogies with epoxy, it was a bit problematic getting the soldering iron into the space between the wheels and the sides, also it would be easier to dismantle if required- so epoxy takes time and that means a jig to hold every thing in place for the glue to set. MDF, styrene card and a screw clamp- sit the bogie in the space in the middle and screw down to hold.

I first used .7mm steel rivets to join the cranks to the connecting rods, soldered at the rear with a bit of tracing paper between so the cranks would not get stuck also.

This proved problematic when fitting the crank assembly to the axles, there was a slight misalignment with the centres of the rods and after several attempts of de-soldering and making adjustments I changed tack and settled for 14BA screws n nuts to fix the rods to the cranks, which made the job a lot easier to get them adjusted. Only drawback is we now have nuts to hold the rods which on final fitting will be filed down after Loctiting.

The body was attacked next with the radiator filler caps being soldered on the bonnets, these are small brass turnings from the lathe.

Then the bonnets & cab were soldered to the running plate and cleaned up for a test fitting to the chassis. I couldn't resist sitting the assembly on the chassis and taking a first look at the loco with it's wheels on.

Very close to painting stage, just have to put the under-frame parts on the chassis, set-up and check the electrical pick-ups which will be installed after painting.

Eoin

Edited February 18, 2020 by murrayec

[Garfield]

Fantastic work, Eoin... I do love those wee F Class locos. It's a pity none survived.

[murrayec]

Thanks Garfield

Have to agree with you there- such a pity

Eoin

[jhb171achill]

42 minutes ago, murrayec said:

The Walker Diesel Loco build got a bit of attention over the last month or so, after making further mods to the bogie sides the extended axles were cut n sized and all the gear was set up to build the bogies;-

The gears were glued in with Loctite, small brass sleeves also around the axles on the inside of the bogie to hold the wheels on centre and stop them shorting on the bogie frames.

I decided to glue the sides and stretchers to the bogies with epoxy, it was a bit problematic getting the soldering iron into the space between the wheels and the sides, also it would be easier to dismantle if required- so epoxy takes time and that means a jig to hold every thing in place for the glue to set. MDF, styrene card and a screw clamp- sit the bogie in the space in the middle and screw down to hold.

I first used .7mm steel rivets to join the cranks to the connecting rods, soldered at the rear with a bit of tracing paper between so the cranks would not get stuck also.

This proved problematic when fitting the crank assembly to the axles, there was a slight misalignment with the centres of the rods and after several attempts of de-soldering and making adjustments I changed tack and settled for 14BA screws n nuts to fix the rods to the cranks, which made the job a lot easier to get them adjusted. Only drawback is we now have nuts to hold the rods which on final fitting will be filed down after Loctiting.

The body was attacked next with the radiator filler caps being soldered on the bonnets, these are small brass turnings from the lathe.

Then the bonnets & cab were soldered to the running plate and cleaned up for a test fitting to the chassis. I couldn't resist sitting the assembly on the chassis and taking a first look at the loco with it's wheels on.

Very close to painting stage, just have to put the under-frame parts on the chassis, set-up and check the electrical pick-ups which will be installed after painting.

Eoin

Wowwww!!!!!

[Galteemore]

Amazing work, Eoin. And in 4mm, too! Could easily pass for a much larger scale 

[David Holman]

Oh my!

And there was me thinking it was 7mm scale!

[connollystn]

Great model. When it comes to modelling, unfortunately for me, I've two left hands [for left handed people, the equivalent is like having two right hands]. This thread is similar to watching 'How Things Are Made'. It's great to see a model right from development stage through to the finish. When's the next episode?

I wonder would there be much of a market for models of narrow gauge railways in 00?

[jhb171achill]

11 hours ago, connollystn said:

Great model. When it comes to modelling, unfortunately for me, I've two left hands [for left handed people, the equivalent is like having two right hands]. This thread is similar to watching 'How Things Are Made'. It's great to see a model right from development stage through to the finish. When's the next episode?

I wonder would there be much of a market for models of narrow gauge railways in 00?

Maybe 15 years ago, most of the Irish models on sale now, both in kit and (especially) RTR form, would have been financially viable for a manufacturer. Now is the golden age of Murphy Models, IRM, Provincial, SSM, 00 Works, Silverfox, all according to taste, and others.

I believe that the day may come (but not yet) when n-g stuff might be viable. Look at the 009 scene. In the 1980s when I started 009, you could only get highly expensice Austrian, Swiss or German stuff RTR. Anything British or Irish meant either scratchbuilding, or very crude "British" outline kits. Now we have absolutely superb RTR stuss.

I suspect that a generic RTR van, as seen on the CDR, West Clare and so on, a T & D cattle truck, a Donegal / West Clare Walker railcar and perhaps a Donegal or Leitrim coach or two might be a start. In locos, a Dingle tank or a Donegal class 5 would be probably the most viable.

I'd love to see it - though if it ever comes about, I suspect it's years ahead.

A few years ago, even current Irish stuff was all confined to the 1970-present period. Now we are seeing 121s, "A"s, kits of A, B101, B141 and so on, plus RTR steam with Roderick's excellent U, UG and J15s. We now have Leslie's great range of wagon kits, probably undreamable within the last fifteen years.

Here's hoping.

To all Irish manufacturers, kit and RTR alike: congratulations, thank you and keep it up!

[Galteemore]

Certainly good times for Irish modellers. On this trajectory there’ll be an RTR Dalkey atmospheric train in 10 years !

[LostCarPark]

Fantastic bit of modelling. For some reason, whenever I see brass, my brain thinks O gauge or bigger. It's only in the shots of you holding a part that I can really appreciate the scale.

[murrayec]

Thanks guys for all the great comments.

Fixing of body to chassis was worked out, I settled on a brass tab at one end and a M2 counter-sunk screw at the other with the nut soldered onto the body. Everything is so tight for space the screw has to be installed in the chassis plate before the bogie is bolted to the plate!!

Jigging up to solder the fuel tanks and bolsters to the chassis plate.

Done.

Front NS ladders being soldered up, which will be soldered to the buffer beam- if one can call it that?

Vac pipes soldered up using .5mm brass wire, .8mm brass tube bits, and guitar string.

Well then- except for the coupler system, it's ready for painting. So I joy-rigged the after painting parts- headlamp, exhaust, horn, vac pipe, handrails and the Walker Brothers front plate to take a few naked photos.

Eoin

[jhb171achill]

Mighty stuff!

[David Holman]

A little jewel. Beautifully done.

[Sentinel281]

Really great, congratulations to that beauty!

[Georgeconna]

Cracking Build Eoin.

[jhb171achill]

That is absolute true masterpiece!

.....but...... things might have been different:

 

[Colin R]

If you are in to OO scale Irish 3ft or better known as 00n3, then there is a growing number of kits, both in brass and 3D print.

The biggest problem is finding a RTR chassis for the locos, however there are a few TT gauge chassis about on eBay and other such places, but most of the kits come with the chassis frames, so you just have to find the wheels, bearings, motor and gearbox to complete.

Worsley works are more scratch aids than full kits.

Branchlines do a number of Irish/IOM loco kits.

Narrow Planet does a couple of 3d Print bodies for 009 but they can be put on a 12mm gauge chassis if you fancy building one.

If you look on the Shapeways website, there are now a few more Irish kits for 00n3, but once again you still need a chassis.

I should also mention Roxey Mouldings for mainly their IOM stock but these kits come with everything, wheels, bearing’s etc.

On another thread I am trying to find some more details about the Cork and Muskerry railway stock, there is a lot more mystery about this one railway than all the others put together.

I should also mention that DJH do a Breton Tank in HOm, but I am not sure how much it is or if it is still available.

Also there are a few British Industrial 3ft gauge locos about to come on the market, they will be 3D print so will require a chassis to fit.

I should also mention Alphagraphix’s with there card kits for OOn3.

I think that just about covers what is available, but once a number of working chassis become available, I would like to think some of you guys will be building Irish based 3ft narrow gauge layouts.

 

Colin R    

[murrayec]

I started to add colours to the Walker last week.

After a good clean down with W5 the bogies were masked up as the wheels are now fixed in and I did not want to paint them, the axles, and the drive gears in the motor bogie. All parts were stuck on sticks to hold in the hand while painting.

First a very thin coat of etch primer. Slightly over did it on the body but it was very hard to spray into the detail without this happening- could still faintly see the brass underneath!

First undercoat after leaving the etch primer sit for 2 days.

Then a little bit of filling on the body and ready for a second undercoat.

Second coat done and now for some colour. 2 coats of satin black to the chassis, bogies and coupling rods.

Tomorrow the body will be green.....

Eoin

 

Edited May 12, 2020 by murrayec

[popeye]

OMG can't wait for the green.

I alway think once the paint goes on it changes the whole appearance.

Beautiful. 

[murrayec]

14 minutes ago, popeye said:

OMG can't wait for the green.

I alway think once the paint goes on it changes the whole appearance.

Beautiful. 

Yes, I've been waiting for this moment for a long time.....

Eoin