Jakesdad's 6 wheel brake third O gauge coach build.

Ok, SWMBO has gone daddy sitting for a couple of days which gives me freedom to play trains and hopefully get my coach nearer to painting.
As I alluded to in another thread, I decided that I wanted to be able to remove the roof as and when I wished or needed so I got my thinking cap on and this is what I have come up with, not perfect but it works.
First I soldered an 8BA nut into a short length of brass tube, cut so that finished just above the height of the coaches floor. This was then pushed through a short length of flat brass around 10 x 35mm soldered to the coach roof and soldered in place making sure it was vertical in all planes.
I soldered a couple of short pieces of brass angle each side of center as braces as it flexed a fair bit.
This is it in place.

At the other end I soldered a short dog leg of brass rod and that fits into a very short length of brass channel with a small hole drilled into it.


And here it is in place.


I have also fitted the brakes but I haven't taken any photos yet as I may have to do some adjustments to get the suspension units to sit flat where I have soldered the cross member that holds the roof in place, we shall see.

Anyway thats all for now.

Cheers, Pete.

 

Yes that's right mate. I will use a similar method in my other coach but I will have to run it through the partition walls on that.

Thanks Gormo. They definitely could be better mind . The bluing mix is intended for steel but it will work on other metals. I found with mine that the colour will come off on fingers and the kitchen roll I used to dry them off after washing. However in position they won't get much if any handling.

Cheers, Pete.

 

The solder has darkened but not quite as much as the brass, I will take some more photos and post them up.
The compensation units will be soldered in from the inside, I will take some photos of them too.

Cheers, Pete.

 

I've had another session on the coach over the last couple of days. First job was to paint the wheels and once dry, assemble the suspension units and fit the wheels and axles.
I loose fitted them to the coach to check clearances, I found that they wouldn't stay in place when I turned the coach over, which I will need to do to solder them in place from the inside.

Now I remembered Paul Dundee printing off a jig to hold axles in line and at the correct spacing. Now I don't have access to a printer so I decided to fabricate my own jig from plastruct H section and angle.

And in place.

I had to pack the wheels between the cast springs and axle boxes to centre the units which seem to work spot on, won't find out until after painting to see if it all works..............

Cheers, Pete.

 

Thanks Rob. I'm not sure if they would have worked with the suspension units as the axle bearings are behind the wheels and the center axle unit is narrower than the ends to give the wheels lateral swing but for sure they would be very useful for wagon axles and seem a reasonable price too.

Cheers, Pete.