Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

G`day Folks,
I did a little bit of work on the DMU chassis this afternoon before the heat nearly melted me out there in the shed.
The motor support repair has set rock hard and I`ve filed it to shape, sanded it and painted it Black.
Tested it prior to painting......the motor moves freely and stays in place as it should when lifted off the track.
Phase one complete.
Phase two on the same chassis, one buffer beam is stuffed. I could glue it and try and patch it, but I think it`s better to just remove it and make a new one.
Instead of dissolving into a pool of sweat out there in the oven ( shed ), I took some measurements and came inside and designed a new buffer beam on my drawing program.
I will print out the results......glue them to card....cut them out and use the Superglue method to fix them in place.
I have new spring loaded buffers of a suitable size to fit when ready. There are enough to complete the project.
I`ll attach my buffer beam file below in case it`s of any use to any forum members.
Gormo

 

Thanks Vinylelpea......
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Just some update photos for you.
I`ve taken to working inside today.....the heat is building up early in the day and we are supposed to achieve 41 C here in Gormoland with the prospect of a storm later on.
I don`t fancy dragging all my gear inside, so it may be a day for other activities instead.
So all I`ve done today is remove that broken buffer beam that I mentioned in an earlier post.

So here are some pics of the motor support repair........now painted so that we won`t see any white bits when the loco is given close scrutiny.




It approximately matches it`s original partner at the opposite end of the motor bay.




And from underneath




And this is the other end of the chassis with the buffer beam removed. The right hand step also needs repair. It`s snapped halfway through, so I will probably remove it and then glue it back in place. As it is, it probably will not pull down enough to sit nicely in the horizontal position.....so taking it off and gluing it back on should sort that out.





So folks, the more I work on this project, and slowly discover all of it`s little cracks and missing bits, the more I am convinced that this model has been dropped on the floor at some time in it`s life.
It`s unfortunate, that a quite nice model, has come to this, because it seems that one of the previous owners has taken some trouble to detail some areas of the model and add passengers inside the coaches.
I have repaired a loco that had a similar fate some years ago, and that turned out to be successful, so I am quietly confident with this project.......it will just take time......there`s no point in rushing these things.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
I`ve manufactured and fitted a new buffer beam, which replaces the original damaged one, and fitted some spring buffers into it as well.





The buffer beam was printed from my drawing program,and then attached to 1mm card on the rough / porous side, with a glue stick.
Once that had dried sufficiently, I coated the printed area with Superglue and allowed that to penetrate and dry before cutting it out.
It`s also had a coat of Matt Black.

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I have also filled a minor chip on the front of the body with some Tamiya putty.





The pick up bogie was taken apart and the electrical contact parts were cleaned.






As you can see, they really need a clean.





Then it was just popped back together to get a feel for how it`s going.









The glue stain is barely noticeable now and could be passed off as weathering.




I`ve also been looking at the bogies, especially on the power car, and evaluating the difficulty of fitting the Keen system as suggested by Pete. I really don`t have the room I reckon, due to clearances and lack of room on the bogie or up under the end of the body.. I`m going to have to fudge something for this connection, so more thought required......I`ll sleep on it.

Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
I`ve managed to move forward a little today, although I`ve come inside to the aircon for now as it`s very steamy outside.

Well the hard part is done now on the power car. It`all cleaned up, patched up, refitted and ready to go. I was keen to go with Pete`s suggestion on the the Keen coupling system, however on this vehicle, it`s a no go......there`s very little room left to play with. the power car still needs a driver and maybe some detail on the new buffer beam, however the chip on the front has been repaired and sprayed over. I need to re -fit a step as well and some screw link couplings,





So as purchased, the original couplings had been removed and the only method of connecting a second vehicle was by the screw link coupling that was fitted. That`s all well and good if the power car is only pulling, however pushing was a different matter and pushing caused buffer lock.
So I`ve come up with a simple wire hook and eye system that visually is OK and practically is very effective regardless of direction of travel. It`s also easy to attach the vehicles and remove them for storage if necessary. The vehicles with have a hook at one end and an eye at the other end. This allows me to remove the center carriage and still be able to connect the power car to the dummy to run a two car set if required.
This is the rear of the power car with an eye fitting directly into the end of the motor bogie.





This is the hook end of the center coach, again fitted directly into the end of it`s bogie.





This is how they look fitted together and as I said earlier, it`s easy to connect them up together.





Where the wire passes through the bogies, it has been Superglued into place so that it stays in the one position and doesn`t float around. You can see here also that the carriage on the right has not been cleaned up yet. It also needs a replacement buffer beam and new buffers at each end.




So that`s where we are at the moment........still a way to go




Here is a video of a test run done to prove the couplings can handle the job, especially when pushing through complex point work.



Gormo

 

Thanks Pete,
I had a bit of a browse and found an image and I think I know what you mean.
The wire couplings I have at the moment work well and I will stick with those until I try some experiments with what you suggested.
The difference between the two types, apart from the visual is that mine are attached to bogies and the Bill Bedfords appear to be mounted under the bodies.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Pressing on with the DMU restoration.
Working on the middle coach now which isn`t too bad.
It had a broken buffer beam at one end and that has been removed as per the pic below. It also had no buffers at all and it needed a good clean. Apart from that , all was good.




So here is the new buffer beam ready to go on to the end of the chassis. Holes punched out for spring loaded buffers.





And here is the buffer beam fitted





Painted black and with buffers added




Re-assembled......this is the new buffer beam end





Other end





And there you have it.




That just leaves the dummy power car to be worked on now. There does not appear to be too much wrong with it, but we`ll know more once I open it up. It needs to be opened up to clean it anyway. I usually take the body and the glazing to the kitchen sink and give it all a good wash. The glazing cleans up pretty well but you have to be careful how you handle it. The plastic is getting on in years and is a bit more brittle now than when it was first manufactured.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

Gormo

 

Thanks for sharing that Paul,
I`m not sure about the plastic content.........whatever it is.....it doesn`t like being dropped. I dread to think what would happen if we dropped any of the new models on the floor, especially steamers. There is so much fine detail to get shattered all over the joint and then there`s the fine little electrical joiners and DCC chips.......Oh boy!!!...it doesn`t bare thinking about.
Anyway, the Dummy Power Car is still yet to be done. It`s needs buffers at one end, a good clean, the yellow paint on the end needs a fresh coat and there is a hairline crack in the roof, not sure what I can do with that yet without doing a respray on the roof. We`ll see...
Gormo

 

Thanks Pete,
Yes it can PUSH through all the worst of the point configurations without buffer lock and or derailing, so that`s the major battle won..
Just need to sort out the detail on the Dummy Power Car and we`re done.
Gormo

 

The final installment Folks for this old DMU,
Unfortunately the Dummy Power car was not 100% successful and so it still has minor blemishes.
The Dummy car must have been part of the tragic leap of death that this set performed at some time, and it sustained a split in the roof at one end, which traveled down through to the windscreen divider on one side.
Normally I would have repaired the lot, however I have held back with the windscreen area rather than test my luck and possibly cause more damage.
The reason for this is that the previous repairer in his infinite wisdom, decided to glue the windscreen in, which in turn created a brace for the cracked roof. Sound logic normally, however he accidentally glued that end of the body to the chassis in the process.
I had a hell of a job to release the parts, but finally succeeded. I tried releasing the windscreen, but it was starting to shatter as I eased away at it.
So I thought it best to go no further. Instead I filled the crack in the roof with Tamiya putty and this morning I re-sprayed it to as close a match to original as I could get.
There was some minor buffer beam repair sorted out with the putty once more and some Superglue. Original buffers had to be glued in because they kept falling out.
The bonus I can take away from this imperfect model, is that it was very cheap, it runs very well and looks about 90%.
On balance I should be happy with that.
Some pics of the final result.

The dummy power car at the bottom right hand end. The crack went from the front right hand end along past the second set of roof vents. Now invisible.




The simple coupling system running off the bogies, works like a dream.





Power car end and now ready for duty







I still need some drivers and some more passengers and need to attached screw couplings at the ends, but basically I can do that at my leisure, so to all intents and purposes....it`s finished.

Gormo

 

Thanks Ron,
The Reverend`s rule is now invoked.........
Gormo

 

Oooh Gary...
Beeching is not a four letter word, but it should be in my opinion.
Doctor Beeching and his ideas about railways are not welcome in my railway room.
The steamers are still, and always will be a part of my railway and you can never have enough platforms or enough yard space or trains for that matter.
I mean Gary.......this is an empire I`m building here .....I have no time for the Beeching`s rationalization concepts.......I`m going to have branch lines running off branch lines and possibly more branch lines running off those again, and I`m going to start removing roads so that the model people will not have any other option than to use the trains.
Mind you, my little Grandsons want more roads and car parks for the model cars .What they don`t know won`t hurt them...
Let`s get fair dinkum` and give Beeching the flick and run whatever we want..........Hah !!!!....
Gormo