Graham's Workbench

[irishthump]

PS: IT, where did you source the sprung buffers?

 

They are Hornby class 31 buffers. I got them from Peter's Spares on Ebay.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hornby-X9313-Class-31-Set-Of-4-Sprung-Buffers-/321311699047?hash=item4acfab7067#ht_1607wt_1040

[Jim]

Brilliant

[irishthump]

Wow! I didn't realise how long it had been since my last update on my workbench but here goes...

 

After almost 2 years the A class is nearing completion! Truth be told I did the basic paint job not long after my last post, but I only recently got around to applying Weshty's excellent decals.

 

 

 

 

I still need to install the glazing and wipers, add the buffers, bogies and fuel tank detail and install the Loksound decoder.

Edited June 8, 2017 by irishthump

[irishthump]

Here's a shot of the finished chassis.

More weight has been added in the form of steel plate which was fixed to the sides of the motor. I also installed a PCB from a Hornby class 56 to make it easier to install lighting. I just plan on having operating running lights at first, the PCB gives the option to add working headlights at a later date.

 

 

For the lighting I made a small PCB for each end of the loco. The PCB's have micro leds soldered to them for the running lights. These were then cased inside styrene to help prevent light bleed, I plan to use fibre optic strands to illuminate the running lights when the rest of the loco is finished.

 

 

Here's a quick shot of the interior of the body shell. I used styrene to build mounting points at each end for the Kadee couplers and the speaker was installed in the roof grill and sealed with black mastic sealant.

 

The chassis seems to run great so far. I was initially worried about hauling power as it's significantly lighter than an MM 141 but when I tested it it hauled 5 MK3 coaches without a problem.

 

Hopefully I'll have some more progress to report by the weekend!

Edited June 8, 2017 by irishthump

[murrayec]

Looking great,

 

I was wondering what had happened that no posts appeared for a while

 

been busy

 

Eoin

[Sulzer201]

Well done Thump, that A class is looking fab and is a superb runner. The weathering is top notch and makes the GMs look as real as their big brothers! The HST is also a top job and great recycling idea that certainly looks a possibility for older style SF As and Cs. Skilled and wonderful work and a joy to see.

[irishthump]

Well done Thump, that A class is looking fab and is a superb runner. The weathering is top notch and makes the GMs look as real as their big brothers! The HST is also a top job and great recycling idea that certainly looks a possibility for older style SF As and Cs. Skilled and wonderful work and a joy to see.

 

Thanks for the kind words, Sulzer!

[irishthump]

Looking great,

 

I was wondering what had happened that no posts appeared for a while

 

been busy

 

Eoin

 

Yeah Eoin, up to me tonsils but not in anything railway related unfortunately!

[irishthump]

Ok, very nearly there!

 

All glazing, buffers and detail parts have been attached, sound chip has been installed and is working fine but needs to have a suitable file loaded to it. I also attached steps to the bogies, these were made from repurposed HO caboose ladders. Here's some pics of 019 sitting on the tracks....

 

 

 

I had a bit of an issue with the lighting. Specifically, the Hornby PCB that I used is wired with a negative common as opposed to a positive. My homemade led boards were wired positive so they had to be scrapped. I installed the boards and soldered in the connections. To prevent light bleed I gave the boards and leds several coats of primer then drilled small holes in the top of each led, fibre optic strands will be fitted into the marker/tailights when all else is done!

 

Here's a couple of pics of the chassis with the lights activated:

 

 

[Gortalainn]

Wow, she's looking good! Nice work!

[DiveController]

Looking well now!

[JasonB]

Great job all over,looks very well

[irishthump]

Finally got the fibre optics fitted for the lights and installed the sound decoder, so it's all finished bar the weathering!

 

Here's a quick video of it in action shunting a few bogie flats. As you can see the slow running is very good. The soundfile is actually an EMD 567 rather than the 645 that was fitted to the A class but I think it sounds pretty good, please let me know what you guys think....

 

[video=youtube;ih9y-3Lr-gc]

Edited June 28, 2017 by irishthump

[popeye]

That look's and sounds great Just a bit of weathering and it

will be complete.

[burnthebox]

Totally Awsome irishthump & the slow bit ain't got anything wrong with it, if anything to me it's dam near perfect, but she's very CLEAN.....

BTB

[Dhu Varren]

Sounds pretty good to me. I played around with various sound files for my A Class, and ended up using an EMD 567 sound file, as it sounded better than the correct EMD 645 one.

[murrayec]

Hi

 

Excellent,

 

sounds great, even at a distance

 

Eoin

[irishthump]

Sounds pretty good to me. I played around with various sound files for my A Class, and ended up using an EMD 567 sound file, as it sounded better than the correct EMD 645 one.

 

That's what I thought myself DV! Did you get your own A Class finished?

[Dhu Varren]

That's what I thought myself DV! Did you get your own A Class finished?

 

No IT, it is still a work in progress. I scratchbuilt the chassis two years ago, http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/4531-Chassis-for-001-Class, more as a challenge, and fitted the body, but it is on the back burner for now.

[DiveController]

Looks, moves and sounds well. Very nice job, Graham! Enjoyed that video

[Mike 84C]

It; that is excellent I love the sound and lights. But far too clean! I wonder how long till we get a Crossley sound file?

[Noel]

Finally got the fibre optics fitted for the lights and installed the sound decoder, so it's all finished bar the weathering!

 

Here's a quick video of it in action shunting a few bogie flats. As you can see the slow running is very good. The soundfile is actually an EMD 567 rather than the 645 that was fitted to the A class but I think it sounds pretty good, please let me know what you guys think....

 

[video=youtube;ih9y-3Lr-gc]

 

Fab-U-lous. How did I miss this post. Super result Graham, especially the chassis and paint job. She runs better then any model A class I've ever seen. Love the sound. Which horn track did you use?

[irishthump]

Fab-U-lous. How did I miss this post. Super result Graham, especially the chassis and paint job. She runs better then any model A class I've ever seen. Love the sound. Which horn track did you use?

 

Thanks Noel!

Yes it runs better than I expected. The only gripe was that I wasn't able to rig the headlights to a different function on the decoder so I just settled for the marker/tail lights.

I'd have to check which horn I used, but I plan to change the brake sound anyway as it sounds a bit naff!

[irishthump]

Well over a year since my last update and I've finally got some more work to show!

A couple of years ago I had made a rake of 42' container flats by converting Hornby freightliner wagons but was never happy with the lack of detail so I decided to try and improve them a little, so I scratchbuilt some brake cylinders and rigging from styrene.

I also picked up some white metal buffers and vacuum pipes from Genesis kits.

 

Finally I added Weshty's brake wheels using brass wire and popped on some metal wheelsets.

Still far from perfect, but overall a big improvement IMHO.

Edited June 20, 2022 by irishthump

[irishthump]

I had been toying with the idea of fitting body mounted Kadee couplers to all of my Irish Locos. I'm not a huge fan of the NEM couplers and I wanted to add all of the buffer detail to my locos. The Irish locos are a bit of a challenge as most of them don't have a huge amount of space under behind the buffer beam and I was reluctant to perform major surgery on them. But after some experimentation I found a method that's as painless as possible. I'm not reinventing the wheel here, a couple of forum members have done the same with slightly different approaches.

First up is the MM 141. I am using Kadee 141 whisker couplers (handy to number to remember). These have an underset shank which places the coupler head at the perfect height when the draft box is fitted to the underside of the cut out in the apron of the loco. Unfortunately the box is too long and will interfere with the bogies but there's enough clearance at the back of the box to allow it to be trimmed.

Here's how it looks afterwards with the coupler inserted.

I next made up some mounting brackets from brass strip. A hole was drilled and tapped to accept a screw for the coupler box.

The coupler attaches like so and the face of the bracket will be fixed to the back of the loco apron.

The small mounting tabs for the apron insert need to be removed to allow the bracket to sit flush. 

 

The bracket is fixed to the back of the apron. I used superglue for this, if I find it's not strong enough I can use epoxy but I've had no problems so far.

The NEM pocket on the bogie sideframes needs to be removed. A sharp blade takes care of this. Some of the purists among us might wince at this so avert your eyes!

The bogie frame back in place. It looks tight but there is plenty of room, the shaping of the coupler box and bracket provides clearance.

A quick check with the Kadee gauge shows that it's spot on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2018 by irishthump

[irishthump]

The process is pretty much the same for the 071, but it's a little more hassle as the sideframes are harder to remove and are slightly bulkier than the ones on the 141.  This makes space a little tighter so careful measuring is needed. They also seem to be made of a harder plastic than the 141's sideframes so are more difficult to cut.

 

The 201 was interesting; I originally tried to mount the coupler box to the pivoting NEM pocket but this made the coupler sit way too low so I made the decision to remove it. I used the exact same process as the 141/071. While there is a little more room to work with the couple box still needs to be trimmed.

Again the coupler height is bang on.

So I've taken the plunge and fitted all of my Irish locos with the Kadees and I'm very happy with them. The running is excellent and I haven't had any come away from their mountings yet even though I had doubts about the strength of the cyano glue. Hopefully over the next few days I'll get the aprons and buffer detailed installed on a few on them.

[Noel]

Thanks for posting. Nice work. Another interesting variation on Anthony's approach a few years back.  I like the idea of the kadee whisker couplings when body mounted as they have more free movement that NEM variants which are really only designed to be bogie mounted except on short two axle stock. Are you planning to fit the valances around the couplings?

[irishthump]

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Thanks for posting. Nice work. Another interesting variation on Anthony's approach a few years back.  I like the idea of the kadee whisker couplings when body mounted as they have more free movement that NEM variants which are really only designed to be bogie mounted except on short two axle stock. Are you planning to fit the valances around the couplings?

Yeah  I don't particularly like the NEM couplers, they can cause problems when you mix them with regular, body mounted couplers. I run lots of US stock on my layout and they're all fitted with body mounted Kadees. They run very reliably.

Yes I plan to fi all the valances and buffer detail as soon as I get the chance.

 

[irishthump]

 

Made a start on fitting the valances to the 141's. First a notch the width and height of the coupler needs to be cut in the valance.

Since the mounting holes for the valance are now covered by the coupler the pegs have been cut of the insert and a couple of pieces of styrene will be used to fix it in place. These were attached with cyano glue.

Like so.....

Plastic filler is then used to fill any gaps and is sanded smooth.

A bit of paint and job done!

 

[irishthump]

Scratch built (ish) CIE break van....

A combination of a Dapol kit, some styrene,  And an old Hornby break van.

I also added leds for the long side lights and added a keep alive circuit to prevent flickering. Power is provided by bronze strip pickups on all 4 wheels.

The old Hornby chassis makes it sit a tad high but I can live with that. Overall it’s not particularly accurate but it’ll certainly pass the 3 foot rule!

Just need some decals are weathering to help disguise the flaws....

 

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by irishthump

[Galteemore]

Looks good - especially the characteristic verandah ends. A small bead of filler along the roof/side gap would help a bit perhaps.

[Noel]

Oh that looks very nice Graham. Any photo of the pickups? Looks the part and very CIE. It well exceeds the 2ft rule.

[irishthump]

2 hours ago, Noel said:

Oh that looks very nice Graham. Any photo of the pickups? Looks the part and very CIE. It well exceeds the 2ft rule.

The pickups are a simple set up. Phosphor bronze strips glued to a styrene block fixed  under the chassis.

 

 

[irishthump]

Here’s another one of those “on a whim” projects that every modeller is guilty of...

 I have an old Hornby HST which I re-motored a few years ago. It ran well but I was never completely happy with it. I wanted to find a replacement chassis that I could perhaps shoehorn into the body. I had a Bachmann class 25 chassis which happened to have the correct wheel spacing on the bogies but was too short. I ended up cutting and lengthening the metal frame and fitting it to the original plastic under frame on the HST. I then fixed the side plates from the original  bogies to the Bachmann ones. I also had to lengthen the front drive shaft with styrene tube. It runs smoothly but is  a little noisy, but since I’ll eventually install a sound decoder I don’t think it matters too much!

First pic is the original chassis and motor bogies.

Second pic shows the Bachmann chassis and bogies fitted into the original body with the bogie side frames also fitted.

Last pic is the finished loco next to the dummy car from the same set.

 

[irishthump]

Just finished weathering a Bachmann Class 20. 
Done mainly with washes and a little airbrushing on the bogies.