Keith's workbench.

Lately everything about this build has slowed down somewhat, partly due to going to the Newark show, and both SWMBO and Daughter commandeering me for various jobs, but also due to a "suck-it-and-see" approach to the internal cab ends of the body, and a method of securing body to chassis when completed. The castings of the supplied multiple working leads and connectors were rather poor, with some bits missing altogether, but fortunately the body which unexpectedly came with the chassis luckily provided these, easily removed and re-used with a spot of Superglue, so one problem solved. I decided that the best way of sorting the cab 'interiors' was to also re-use the ones that came with the chassis, although some surgery was called for to get these to fit, especially the motor bogie end, where space was particularly tight. After several 'cut-and-shut' operations, I arrived at a suitable fit, the problem having been compounded by the LED and leads for head/tail light at each end. Normally, I would fit cab lights and I also would have attempted to squeeze in head and tail code lights, but due to a combination of lack of space, lumps of casting in the way and wanting to fit driver figures at each end, I had to give up on that idea. After fixing the cab interiors in position, I closed off the base of each interior with thin card, painted grey, hopefully preventing light spread into or below them from the LED's. As can be seen from the pic, LED leads are now ready to solder onto the decoder plug, and for chassis to body fixing, I've drilled and countersunk a central hole in the 'fuel tank' of the chassis, and will drill and tap a corresponding hole through the metal central box of the body base, another problem solved. The observant will also notice that my 'standard fit' Kadee's (No 19's in this instance) have now been fitted to the chassis, not long now before it's all together and ready for a bit of weathering!
Keith.

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Yes, it pays to get the right connections Pete, bit expensive if you get it wrong, white smoke is ok when the Vatican choose a new Pope, but not good from a DCC decoder!

Keith.

 

Well, just about completed this build now, though more thought has gone into it since my last post. I decided I would after all attempt cab lighting, so soldered leads onto a couple of SMD LED's not much bigger than a pin head (Not easy when you have "Sausage fingers!"), slit the card backs I'd previously fixed onto the cut-down cab 'interiors' salvaged from the old Lima body, and slid them in having sandwiched them in a layer of clear sellotape to prevent any short circuits. Positioning them with a battery connected to the leads so I could make sure they were where I wanted them, I glued the LED wires in place, left them to set, then later connected using the green and purple decoder wires,- good job the decoder was a 4 function, despite being a 'Hornby' one. Leaving the body hanging beside the chassis on the rolling road, I then programmed and tested to make sure all was ok before fitting body to chassis and securing with a central screw. Borrowing SWMBO's kitchen scales, I thought I'd just check the weight of the completed model against my remotored Lima bodied version, and my E6003 Hornby one. The MTK bodied one weighed 423 grams, remotored Lima one 390 grams, and E6003 Hornby one 363 grams, making the MTK one heaviest of the lot, so no extra weight needed, and in fact it pulls very well. Pic shows MTK on the right, Lima on the left, part-way through a bit of weathering.

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Using the Hornby chassis saved me some work and possibly expense too, as I might have been looking at quite pricey motor bogies otherwise. I now have some castings intended as fuel tank, compressor/braking areas left over, and a metal bracket which I'm surmising would have been the mountings for the bogies, plus a set of bogie side frames and other oddments which doubtless will come in handy for any other builds I might attempt. As I use Kadee's, it's not really feasible to fit brake pipes etc each end as they'd get in the way of the bogies swivelling. My final fitment was a set of 'Extreme Etchings' DP45-10 pantograph windscreen wipers to round things off, and at this point, I must thank Brian at Shawplan for being so helpful and obliging. He's based at Langley Mill Nottinghamshire, about half a mile from where our Son lives, and He very kindly allowed me to collect direct from him rather than bother with mail order, as we passed through on our way to regular Thursday afternoon 'childcare duties', saving me both time and money. Anyway, to round things off, below is a pic of the completed loco with a few Pullman coaches attached and lit on the layout. That's about it for this project, getting ready to start my GT3 model, but having been tempted yet again, there's another 'RTR' mini project in the pipeline before GT3........watch out for more from the workbench!.
Keith.

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