Class 15 - one of mine.

One thing I've never owned in the 21 years I've been trading is a model of my very own. In fact I don't think I've owned a loco that I could call my own in nearly 30 years. I've built over a 100 but they've all been for other people or as demonstraters, some to raise money. This Christmas I decided that was going to end and a stock check earlier this year unearthered two class 15 kits. So I put one aside for me. This is going to be mine!

These days I'm not a great builder, and the fact I've been using the wrong solder for years doesn't help. But with 143deg solder and some advice from proffesional builders and Pauls great work on here, felt a bit more confident.

I started this morning and so far four hours work has produced two sides, two headstocks and two parts dropped on the floor which I can't find.

The initial construction is laminating the etched side frames together. The 15 had a distinctive array of rivets and so when I designed the kit felt this was the best way to reproduce them. They need to be carefully aligned and wire through the holes each end helped this. It was then a case of adding the flanges which can be quite fiddly.

Finally I constructed the headstocks and after dinner will be putting them together and hopefully having it running.

 

Tonight I worked on some of the sub assemblies and also prepared the first fix required to get the bogie running. This involved soldering the motor bracket to the centre stretcher and then one of the headstocks. The design forces the motor to the outer side of the axel which is unusual. The reason for this is so that the upright motor clears the cab. When mounted it will sit quite nicely in the compressor housing. I haven't bothered fitting Delrin chain because I only have a small layout, but it can be easily fitted and you can see the rebates in the stretcher to allow the chain to pass through.

The motor plate sits into the notches and slides up and down to get a perfect mesh and allows a number of gear ratio's to be fitted. Here I'm using Markits 26:1. You can omit this whole assembley and fit a motor and gearbox unit of course, it's not critical to the structural integrety of the bogie. The wheelsets (Roxley Mouldings 3' 3") were primed and left to dry. Once they're painted I can put the bogie together.

Lastly I made up the rather fiddly brake guards. These sit under the hangers and protect them against damage. They can be seen on the prototype quite clearly.

 

Generally I fix the motor with worm to the motor plate then position that on the bracket. I then centre the gear on the axles and mesh to two together using tissue paper between to get a good seat. I'll do this later - you'll see it. On the Classs 26/27 you would use a motor/gearbox combination.

 

That would look nice in mine but I kept things more simple. Here is the motor/gear set up as designed with live chassis and nickle silver wipers on pospher bronze strip as pick ups on the insulated side. The first thing I do is add some extra tabs to the Mashima connecters as they are a bit on the small side. The two extended wires will go off via a connector block to the other motor. I test ran it and it works a treat.

Bonus point of the day was not doing my usual trick of mixing the live/insulated wheelsets and thus causing a short - I'm getting better.

 

Now the 26 and 27 are sorted I was able to return tonight to a couple of hours doing some real modelling. And so put together the other class 15 Bogie.

I also changed the order in which it's constructed. After laminating the sideframes I then added the axlebox guides and the the two vertical stiffeners. This helped the placement of top and bottom flange that creats the 'C' beam construction. I found this was a far quicker way of construction.

This answer the question why I don't test build before I write the instructions as it's the eigth time I've built this type of bogie and have only just realised this way's better.

 

I struggled to solder for years and years until I discovered 143 Deg material. I haven't looked back allthough I still need to improve.