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

95% soldered - I use DCC concepts 100 degree solder for most white metal to white metal joins, although I have successfully used 145 for brass to whitemetal if the whitemetal part is large enough and the brass is pre tinned- ie soldering the etched sides to the whitemetal ends on my pair of MOGO's. Only once did I overdo the heat - one of the footboards is a fraction short, but overall I encountered no real issues, the usual rules of a clean, close joint, and plenty of flux being the key to a neat join.

Small parts are glued generally with Cyanoacrylate , with pva being used to secure the glazing

 

Its been a while since I have done an update, but a few thing have happened since I completed the brake van. I started work on the WD, and succeeded in getting it converted to DCC, and improved the tracking of the pony truck.. it sort of managed a 2nd radius curve. In doing so I became aware of some repair work needed, and a few runs in the paint work, so I started to strip it back. I also looked at the A5, and realised the front end needs rebuilding: not only is the front end skewed out of square, the smokebox door was put in upside down so what was originally going to be a simple repaint is now a fairly major job ...

Having sprayed those two with oven cleaner to strip them back I reassessed how the shelf was going - a few issues had emerged: my attempt at incorporating a 1.8m length of display track had meant a very short headshunt leading into it, and the decision to make a storage area above my desk on the adjacent wall meant a very sharp curve thru 90 degrees: while some models could manage it, derailments were common reducing the fun factor, and the tight curves precluded a few of the larger models in the collection. Some time spent in Anyrail proved that I could open up the curve, and correct the short headshunt issue, so easter was spent striping the layout and re-laying everything to the revised plan.

Some tests on my desk also showed that the DJH Gresleys could manage a 1200mm curve, as could the 7F. Even the E4 can manage it, just.. so this weekend was spent installing 8 pin harnesses and testing with my 2 Lokpilots..



As can been seen, all can just manage the curves, but all need some more tweaking to run perfectly smoothly: the A3 is fitted with a portescap, which is not a motor the Lokpilots deal with very well: I will eventually fit them with sound, and am a little nervous about the A3- the best sound file that I've heard for the Gresley's are those from Locoman, who unfortunately only creates sounds on D&H or ESU decoders - if anyone has any experience with these with Portescaps I'd be interested in hearing your opinion! (I may try a D&H on the V2,. and temporarily install it in the A3 to see how it goes)

In the meantime I may get a few silent decoders (Zen midi's?) to allow further testing

 

Its been quite a while since I last had anything to post - working full time is eating into my model making time, and what was supposed to be a quick repair /refresh as turned into a bigger job than expected!

As those who are on the face book page have seen, for the last couple of months I have been working on renovating my WD, and today she is basically ready for the paint shop (tho its quite possible that I'll find something I missed!).

The biggest changes I made were to hollow out the chimney, repack the boiler with rolled lead sheet and fit pickups to the tender. The original builder had extensively used Cyanoacrylate in the models construction so quite a few parts were loose, or detached completely. these were soldered back on, or replaced with brass as required.

While the intention is to fit her with sound, at this stage she is fitted with Zen Buddha Midi which will suffice until I get the $$ required for the sound card

anyways to some testing!

 

Thanks, I'm keen to get this one finished and being what she is, a simple dirty black she'll be

 

And finally done! - its been pointed out to me that whoever built the model originally had neglected to fit balance weights, and had installed the buffer beam backwards. I may yet attempt to retrofit the balance weights, but unless I do a strip back I will have to live with the buffer beam, but here she is, 90670 of York shed during the early 50's. I will install sound at some point, I am tempted to try the Locoman's sound file, so if anyone has any experience with his sounds on either ESU or D&H I'm interested in how you found them





Since taking these pics, I have, of course, removed the masking tape from the motor , and put coal in the tender! Some crew and fire irons will find their way onto her at some point too

 

Thanks Gary, I'm pretty happy with how she looks.. now I know about the balance weights they may annoy me enough to do something about them..

 

I would have posted this last week, the Dub-D did have a voice.. if only briefly ...

here she is fitted with an ESU Loksound 5 with locoman's worn WD sound file.. Shortly after this the card died so its gone back to be looked at - hopefully a warrantee job!

it sounded really good...



in other news I might have converted a couple of dieselel kits into an unexpected addition to the fleet .... arriving soon....

 

Thanks Gary

time will tell how ESU is going to handle it - I think its gone back to the UK service agent rather than the US on - Tony @ SteamsoundsAU has found the US agent rather unrelenting. In the meantime I've paid Tony for a second - so will have the Dub D back up and making noises rather soon - I've no shortage of options on reusing the old decoder so not a wasted effort - and will be nice to have a far north of England moment with the Dub D, J94 and a new stable mate all making a racket !

 

Hi Gary,

I've been getting Zimo's from Jarryd for the last couple of projects: the ROD and 3F were supplied from him. He's also been very supportive with the issue I encountered when re soldering the stay alive leads to the J69 ( bought direct from Digitrains in the UK) and again with the N9 when I slipped up and shorted it out! - I've also got a sound card on order from him for my Drewy eek: Stan has a deiselel!) and will probably get another Zimo for the E4, using Youchoos J15 so it doesnt sound exactly the same as the J69!

Basically I try to listen to a sample of the sound file and where there are multiple choices, will choose the one I feel sounds the best - hence getting the locoman file for the WD, and the plan to use his sound files in the Gresley's - His files seem to capture the 3 cylinder shuffle of the Gresley's the best, especially at speed where most digital steam sound files start to have difficulty - unlike internal combustion engines, the nuances of steam engine sounds , and the many variables affecting the noise they made , are almost impossible to replicate accurately

 

and there was an unboxing today