Class 43 GNRi Gauge O Repair Works

[murrayec]

Recently on the bench was this GNRi Class 43 requiring driver wheel and bogie pick-ups, also a bit of a clean up. It's a 'Northstar Design' kit and quite well built, but the thin NS etched chassis frames and the lack of frame spacers down low allow quite a bit of flex. The 4 driving wheels do not sit level on the track!

After taking a good look over it, a plan of action was worked out-  a new bogie truck mounting system was added to the list.

First I tackled the driver wheel pick-ups by removing the old system, these were squidged between the frames and the back of the wheels on a pcb board way thicker than needed and the wire stiff as a builders plank, one can see the mark on the frame between the wheels where these were mounted. The poor motor must have been using up all it's torque to counteract the pressure!

A brass frame spacer was made up with captive nut soldered on and then soldered between the frames just in front of the motor. I used this spacer to try and get the four driver wheels level while soldering it in- it still titters a bit! A pcb board was cut out to fit to this spacer and travel down the sides of the gearbox to take the .45mm NS wire pick-ups.

A few little repairs were done to the missing sander pipe and the back break rods were soldered to their corresponding brackets with little brass dress pins cut to size- Hickeys you know are a great source of modelling components!

Then the wire pick-ups were bent up and soldered onto the pcb board, the wires had to rise up to get over the frames and under the break rodding without shorting, the electrical wires were also soldered on to the board.

Next was to do the same with the bogie truck, but first I sized up a spigot to mount the bogie bolster to, turned on the lathe with a shoulder to pass through the bolster with a screw n washer to hold the bogie on. A bit of trial n error was needed until I got the shoulder depth right so the bogie wheels were just about level with the drivers with some play for the spring around the spigot to give a bit of suspension to the bogie truck! Then the chassis frame cut-outs for the wheels needed some filing to stop the wheels fouling the chassis and causing a short.

Bogie mounted with its pcb board epoxied on and the NS wire pick-ups installed.

Next was to give the bogie a bit of side play, so I milled a flat on both sides of the spigot and filed the truck bolster hole sides into a rectangle - slightly out of focus in the photo but it is rectangular. This arrangement gives ample side play for 1030mm radius curves.

Bogie done, motor wired, and time to test run.

I took six photos of the running chassis and afterwards when selecting from them for this post I noticed that the coupling rods always came out in approximately the same position.

I gave the loco and tender bodies a bit of a clean up- the person that put on the decals was quite liberal with whatever solution they used and I felt it really interfered with the finish of the model- elbow-grease, buds, decal softener and loads of water did the trick.

Done

The crew will have to attend to a few small matters......

Eoin

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by murrayec

[popeye]

Another great job, a nice loco. 

Will you touch up the paintwork?

 

[murrayec]

12 minutes ago, popeye said:

Will you touch up the paintwork?

Thanks popeye

I believe the crew will be doing that, among other things, I was not asked

Eoin

Edited October 7, 2019 by murrayec

[Galteemore]

Lovely job, Eoin. I love those small GNRI 4-4-0s -so elegant !

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Galteemore

[Sheldrake9er]

Nicely done - looking forward to finishing it by touching up the paintwork.

[Sheldrake9er]

Re decals - guilty. Incredible fine work. I stand in awe.

[leslie10646]

Thanks for the master class, Eoin, great to see real model engineering!

I have had similar work done to my 00 Terry Mac's S Class which after a lot of work will now pull eleven GN coaches. I went shopping for bits with my loco man - it's a Black Art!  Watching Mr High Level Gearboxes picking out all the little parts to do the job was an education.