Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[jwealleans]

Cast inserts are available (used them with Hornby wheels with no difficulty).

Wizard Models will sell you Mansell wheelsets in all the popular 4mm gauges.

[Hatfield Shed]

Handy information, thanks.

[MikeTrice]

Yes, Markits do them as does Alan Gibson.

[Atlantic 3279]

Seems I have no great excuse for failing to Mansellize my wheels.

[Hatfield Shed]

Yes, Markits do them as does Alan Gibson.

This goes to show just how few kit wheels I have needed to purchase, since clearing out Kings Cross Models remaining stock of MGW wheelsets and bearings while they were closing down. A very good purchase that, the quality remembered long after the price is forgotten, and there are still the last few eight spoke wagon wheels remaining.

[Atlantic 3279]

Brake gear now fitted. In order to put the shoes at what appeared to me to be the correct height to clasp the wheels, I had to put a couple of layers of 1mm plasticard between each of the brake sets and the floor. As well as the bits around the vacuum cylinder I've also made-up and glued the buffers lightly in place for the time being. An L-shaped piece of 0.7mm brass wire inserted into a hole drilled in the solebar and glued to the underside of each lower stepboard seemed a good idea to reinforce those exposed lower corners too.

For the highly observant (as I should have been) it will be evident that I have paired up my half-sets of brakes wrongly on this carriage, but I'll get them right on next two. If you look closely at the half-sets, the yokes correctly lie at two different angles in each proper full set. In reality of course the pull on the two yokes has to be at a different level, so that the upright lever connecting the two (which is partly modelled on one type of half-set) will pull them in opposite directions.

I'm wondering whether I shall need to do something to counter this up-turn I've now noticed at one end of the roof before I fit it....

[Atlantic 3279]

All I've done since the above is to start the preparation of the other two underframes in matching fashion while the right tools are to hand and the method is fresh in my mind, so there's not much new to see. I've had a look at the way the new carriage runs too, and although I've had no derailment yet it does appear to me that either the middle springs should be softer or more weight ought to be added to prevent any tendency for rocking on the middle axle when the track isn't dead-level.

Here's quick glimpse of the way it compares with, and differs from, my D & S model of the same diagram, from something like 15-20 years ago.

[Atlantic 3279]

Getting the suspension units working freely and smoothly, rather than stiffly and notchily, has proved rather more difficult on the D.303 luggage brake underframe than it was on the D.245 third. The underframe doesn't seem to be any narrower but I spent a lot more time trying to clear material out of the axleboxes so as to get deeper recesses with smooth faces. The printed resin itself seemed less consistent in quality, hard in places (in fact brittle enough to fracture if too much force was applied) yet still soft and slightly sticky in other places - though not within the axlebox structures as far as I could tell.
Anyway, it IS working now, and I've managed to make the middle suspension slightly softer than the end sets.

[Atlantic 3279]

Third underframe sprung and wheeled-up last night. Enlargement of holes to accept my "old-style" bearings freely was intermediate in difficulty between the previous two. More progress later today I hope.

[Atlantic 3279]

While casually repeating the processes I'd used on the D.245 third to fit up the underframes on the other two vehicles, I eventually noticed last night some quirks that I might well have detected earlier had I been observing properly and thinking hard enough about the geometry.

Firstly, for the short-bodied D.303 luggage brake, unless you make modifications it will be impossible to fit both the brakes and the interesting magnetically attached, functional, mock screw couplings that Bill supplies. Those have quite a large oval mounting that should locate on the two pips under the floor, set back from the headstock. The picture below shows that those pips are well clear of any competing features on the long underframe of the D.154 luggage composite (lower, shown without its brakes) but are tight up against one edge of the brake set on the D.303 (upper). I also found that the roof of the D.303 would not fit initially. The row of clips on each side of the underside of the roof extended too far and had to be trimmed back by almost a millimetre each end before the clip would go comfortably between the ends of the body.

For the D.154 luggage composite, I fitted my pieces of black plasticard to lower the brake units down by the necessary distance from the floor, and then looked in amusement and disbelief at the fact that I had failed to notice that the grey raised ovals on the floor, around which the brake units almost fitted on the other two carriages, are not in this case over the axles, or anywhere close. A bit of adaptation to my fitting technique had to follow....

As it turned out, unlike the D.245 kit which had only the wide brake sets a plenty, the 303 and the 154 included both full-width and OO sets in the right quantities, so there were some positive points. I've even put them in correct pairs, the right way round as far as I can tell.

[Atlantic 3279]

No couplings yet but I’ve just been propelling those three six-wheelers through a couple of sets of crossovers, with ends protected from buffer-lock or from interference between stepboard ends, the three sandwiched between a famous little blue tank engine at the rear and a couple of brass coaches up front to provide some resistance. Two out of three just managed to behave without any derailments, but without added weight the 245 third, with or without its middle wheelset had a trip into the ballast several times in one place where the track is uneven. Adding weight solved the problem completely, making the suspension absorb the irregularity.

[Atlantic 3279]

All holes for handrails and commode handles were drilled in those GNR six wheelers a couple of days ago. Two days this week have been taken up with residual "day job" matters, but I hope that is about the lot now. Mr White's J37 received further attention last night and now boasts one of those "chip" thingies that is (this time) still in full working order as of now.
All I need to do is to regain some enthusiasm and energy after dealing with the "day job" stuff and I shall be able to push forward with the 6 wheelers and, while it remains cool, some of the accumulation of resin casting work that waits to be done.

I've also been giving some vague thought to means of preventing buffer lock without spoiling appearance or hindering access to three-link and screw couplings. A single straight wire across both buffer heads really doesn't seem ideal.....

[Atlantic 3279]

In case anybody was wondering (in which case they possibly need something more important to occupy them) the Doncaster-Green Pimpernel here has not fallen victim to some awful fate, nor gone into hiding, but work on the GN six wheelers has been paused so that new resin castings to complement an etched GCR self-trimming tender can be prepared, along with a repeat supply of boilers and fittings for large-boilered GC 4-6-0s.

Service will be resumed as soon as is comfortably possible.

[Atlantic 3279]

And another thing: a four-way chin-wag via Skype last Friday evening involved some study of a photograph, which, with subsequent further thought, has fairly convincingly confirmed the allocation to the GN area by 1932 of a former East Coast Diner that Hoole's book records merely as having been disposed of to the NB area after completion of its stint on ECJS services. I won't say more at this stage, as it may be a nice piece of information for a first appearance in a future issue of the LNER Society journal.

[Horsetan]

.....new resin castings to complement an etched GCR self-trimming tender can be prepared, along with a repeat supply of boilers and fittings for large-boilered GC 4-6-0s...

To be honest, I was interested in this development