Learning by trial and error.. StanB's work messy workbench

Thanks Rob, I'll see if he will send it to Aus as I could only find new ones locally at about $100 when I looked the other day - I have a rather large plate of glass on my workbench which I do use reasonably frequently - if anything it may be a little too large but it does the job. As it happens I managed to fudge it with a square - I measured off where the handrails should be once I'd set the backhead and cab.

Progress on the body has been steady this weekend with the major components now soldered up - its starting to look like a locomotive now! The only real area i had to do some fettling was the cab front and splashers to fit the boiler and backhead in. Any other issues were more of my making - one of the joys of that solid boiler is that it hold heat for quite a while and things will move if the solder hasnt solidified !

anyways here she is. There's quite a bit of clean-up still to be done so excuse the mess...

Right hand side - as with the N9 the multi layered smoke box claimed another drill bit- the enlarged hole will be used to epoxy the handrail knob in place - with steel handrails I think it'll be strong enough The firebox side extensions fitted well, but oddly enough, I had little difficulty getting the left hand side down, and the right fought me every inch of the way.. oh well... its in. I still need to put a little bit of filler in the seam and smooth them back but it looks like I managed it ok..

the cab, Still need to install the floor, I'm not quite sure how it is meant to fit - its U shaped so i dont know if its meant to point backwards or towards the firebox. its also a tad too wide to fit between the splashers so I'm tempted to make a new one!

I'm also going to see if I can make a believable cab from the kit parts - it was easy enough to round off the back head a little - to put in a seperate back head would have meant shortening the boiler by 4-5mm and probably much more fettling to get it to fit so this will be an interesting exercise




finally with chimney, dome and cab roof sitting in position , we have something resembling an engine!.


I might try and get the chassis up and running next - although with press fit wheels this will be fun.. I have yet to decide how best to approach rear of the cylender block and I need to put in a front to the fire box - the kit came with two very small plates to put in leaving a very larger gap , presumably so the drive can go to the middle axle. I was thinking of inverting the motor and driving it from the rear axle so if that works I may be able to fill the gap quite substantially - and put a more extensive impression of the valve gear and con rods in !

 

Its been a while since I last had anything really to update. Progress on the J25 has stalled a little - I successfully milled out the frames to take a set of Slaters Horn blocks, fitted them, then sort of stopped... partly because its getting quite warm on my room on these summer days and partly because I wasn't too sure how best to fill in the gap between the frames. Anyways I'm thinking I may put in come cranks and make at least the con rods move - That will mean cutting an axle but its worth a try...

to do so also means I needed a few supplies which wont be here until after new year...

I did, however, sell a couple of Westdale Pullman carriage kits which has meant I could install sound into the Austin 7 reusing the now repaired ESU decoder that was originally in the WD reblown with Locomans Heavy LMS goods ( ie 4F) file .

so here she is, making noises...



I also did a video showing her motion moving a little closer ...



I've also ordered a Zimo MS450 from Bucckanbool for the A5... That should be here in January so things might be getting a little noisy around here.

Finally, a few months ago I had bought a Canon 1833 w 40:1 gearbox from Footplate.. Its now in the Johnson 1F, replacing the original open frame (Pittman?) motor, and she runs.... mostly.

I am still having intermittent shorting issues, which may well be related to having only one set of wheels insulated so I 'm thinking I may have to cut the spokes on the live side and add pickups there. It also has a habit of derailing on certain points.. which is a nuisance, Not really sure why, maybe there isnt quite enough sideplay on the drivers , but I'm determined to get too the bottom of it - ah well, the joys....

Anyways everyone, I hope 2025 brings you new model making adventures, Happy new year !

 

Hi Rob

I had considered eccentrics- its how my brother schemed up the working motion in the 7F but I'm thinking cranks will be easier to make- I also think the big end might be simpler as well.

I also need to fit a representation of valvegear between them too, but I'm not planning to make that work. Anyways, still a little way off so may yet change my mind!

 

Its definitely pretty open in there!


so cranks are probably the best solution. I've still got a couple of other kits with the same (early ) press fit wheels so have extra axles if I make a mess of it - My only real concern ( newbie over confidence ?) is soldering the assembly together - will high temp soft solder be enough, or should I look to silver solder?

 

Hi Rob
Thanks for the tip about Bakers - I have a bottle that I've been carting around for decades, but its still available through our hardware chains. I've bought some 1/16 brass strip to make the cranks out of, the plan is to make the cranks out of that, and use 1/18 to form the big end and straps around a 1/8 crank pin - hopefully that will be solid enough

fortunately I managed to mill slots for slaters hornbocks in the frame, was a little harder than that of the N9 as the frames had been assembled and soldered up at the same time as the tender, but it all seems square. Being an older kit the wheels (slaters or maybe even Maygib?) are press fit, so the crank axle will have to be the one I set my quartering off but I'll deal with that when it happens - I know I will need to get some Loctite as I recently did a test fit, and one wheel wouldn't retain its quartering/gauge.

I've also created a minor issue on the tender : I found the chassis was rocking on the body slightly, and in trying to correct that, have created some serious drag on the outer axles , so I need to drop the wheels, and correct that too.. I finally ordered a 3/16 reamer last week so can hopefully open up the bearings a fraction when I reset them - The leading two have also worked themselves loose, so I may add retaining/springing wires to add some degree of flexiblity to them too - all good fun

 

Hi Rob,

Drive is off the centre , with the motor (RG7) vertical between that and the last axle

speaking of motors, I picked up a mashima 1833 with a 2 stage 33:1 gearbox the other week - its a fraction too wide to fit between the hornblocks on the J25, but I'm thinking it might work well for the B16, hanging off the last (fixed) axle - I think I'll use 3 point compensation as designed on her

and last week bought the Gladiator Q6 kit that steamline has been tormenting me with for a few months! It'll be interesting to compare how the design of it differs from the B16 and Q5 - I found a few notes about it on the GoG forums so there's a few references about building it to refer to

looks like I'll be busy building some NER big engines for a while (just as well I cant really come up with any reason for Q7 to be south of Darlington)

 

Fortunately with the tanks and sandboxes running the drive off the centre axle isnt too obvious on the N9, and I daresay I probably tried running it off the rear axle and gave up - I'm certainly going to run the drive from the rear on the J25 with the motor mounted vertically but I'm still having a period of "writers block" on it at present. As it tuns out I may have picked up a J39 at a reasonable price, so hopefully find my mojo reworking that into a starbeck machine...

Your comments about the lack of coal space on the Haywood kits is interesting - There's a D20 out there at present that suffers the same issue, tempting as its a very good price. The tender would need a complete internal rebuild, but apart from being incorrectly numbered and needing some additional detail the locomotive itself looks like a good basis for something - the hardest thing would be finding a Northallerton or Starbeck D20 still running with its original smokebox door in 1950 - a few did manage to keep them until withdrawal so not an impossible task...

now having bought the Q6 kit, a J39 and a couple of Gresley coaches it may be a bit of an ask in the short term ..... Anyone in the market for a DJH Clan kit?

 

The J39 and friends arrived earlier this week. Despite this weeks heat I did manage to do a little surgery to get a Zen Buddha into the boiler , so at least she runs. There's a few little jobs to do, but nothing that will take excessive time, other than sorting out the transmission noise!



She also came with a couple of friends all Ian kirk built Gresley carriages - a Full brake, a BTK, and a TO. The two brakes were originally from a set of 6 and are fitted with Kadees on the insides, and screws on the outsides. The TO has magiclips so I will need to change it when I get to working on it - I'm tempted to stick with kadees but am open to suggestion.

The finish on the TO is also not as good as the brakes , so I'm tempted to give it a full repaint, maybe even back to teak, but with a BR E prefix number - I have photographs that shows that this was a thing, and will definitely fit in my period of choice






I discovered after taking these pics that the roof on the BTK is removable! well done to the originally builder..I fear I may need to quietly do some serious disassembly on the TO to repaint it

speaking of period of choice, and only just fitting in, is a pair of BR MK1 suburbans.. currently at Heathrow waiting a flight...

 

thanks Gary,

I know Kadees arent bad at all, although they don't generally suit a UK setting - I just ran the two brakes thru my tightest curve without issue, so will fit the TO and my Stanier 3rd with them - I really dont like my chances of coupling them up with screws .. Ellis Clarkes working buckeyes work out at about 15 quid/pair so will add up very quickly!

I also had a look at the TO, whoever built it wisely tacked the roof to the body, and the body seems to be secured by the buffer shanks solebars so it wont take too much to open up - the glazing seems to have suffered some overspray so a replacement wont go astray and I can fit lighting and passengers as well.. I may lift the roof too and see if I can replicate the friction fit the brakes have to easily access the lighting - looks like I will be learning how to wire up and light a carriage at some point soon!

 

ya - the folding bit is what makes the EC's are so expensive!... nice, but I havent won lotto yet!

Ya the plan is LED's although I know nothing about electronics.. and I know that DCC makes that an interesting exercise