Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Those four Bachmann fish vans equipped with variety pack couplings all had the same running number, which wouldn't look good if pedantic observers were around. As Jonathan (and others?) have found, economical single digit changes to the running numbers are not facilitated by Bachmann's print sizes, the factory numbers being larger than even the largest 5" bold style offered on the HMRS sheet. I didn't want to spend time at this stage doing full renumbering, but after checking previous posts on this site, including valuable information provided by the learned Nick Campling, I found that the whole of the 174800-99 number range was suitable for these vans, and after a bit of thinking I came up with a bodge.

A little scraping with the tip of a knife blade, possibly followed by a touch-in with white paint on the tip of a 000 brush turns a 9 into an acceptable 3, and removal of the 4 then replacement using the upright of the H form one of the HB insiginia on the HMRS sheet gives a 1 of the right height in the right place. I don't think simply scraping away the unwanted bits of the 4 would quite do the job, as the spacing would be odd.

[Nova]

Excellent work, I think with a coat of matte varnish and some light weathering the alterations will blend right in

[drmditch]

Thank you. A very useful technique!

[2512silverfox]

Graeme

I am sure that on wooden under frame vehicles the buffer stocks should be red oxide not black. Nonetheless wonderful mouldings and beautiful finish. Another variation is that some of these vehicles, often quite randomly, had replacement open spoke wheels.

If anyone wants to match other vehicles by fitting 'FISH' plates (or 'FRUIT' for that matter) they are available from the old Kings Cross range of etched plates.

Nick

[Atlantic 3279]

Thank you. I shall try to do something about the colour of the buffer housings in due course. The point has come up before, but I missed it this time in my haste to prepare things for the coming weekend.

[Daddyman]

I have a simialr issue to you with Adblock, Graeme - it seems to log me out of this forum. But I've also found an interesting feature on Adblock: one can turn the service off for a certain site. Obviously, you don't want to do that for Photobucket, but I've done it for rmweb, for example. I think the ads on there are fair enough, and I don't want to deny advertisers who don't take the p the chance to make a living. Having said that, the first advert I got when I turned Adblock off was a certain transfer manufacturer, from whom I've got about £200-300 quid's worth of transfers that aren't fit for purpose, and that made me reconsider my benevolence....

I've never used Photobucket so don't understand the advantage, but I use IrfanView (free download) to edit photos. It's very easy to re-size stuff.

Well done on the tender!

[Atlantic 3279]

By way of a taster, in readiness for the long overdue return to the P2 conversions that have been frozen in time in trial form for the last two years, here's a little bit of alteration work I did on the pony truck of Lord President yesterday. I gather also that Hornby’s uniquely unhelpful design of flick-action short-radius pony truck was causing bother on one of my P2s, on Grantham's wide flange-way code 100 track at some stage during last weekend's show at the NEC. I hope this will solve any problems.

In the first image you can see most of the work done. Mickey Mouse's ears have been cut of the front of the keeper plate, just ahead of the first set of spring hangers. and the plastic transverse ridge between those hangers has been trimmed away to leave a flat surface. The two metal pips on which the pony truck originally pivoted have been sawn / filed off. The short M2 screw in the front of the keeper plate has been removed. The pony truck frame has been extended rearwards and a new central pivot hole drilled to coincide with the vacant hole in the keeper plate, with the pony truck in its original position. Care was taken to ensure that the front of the truck did not foul any part of the lower-rear of the front buffer beam. A new, longer M2 screw has been employed as the pivot. Because the screw hole in the chassis block seems to extend down all the way back to the factory in China, I couldn't use a screw that would bottom-out in the hole. Given that the screw must no nip up tight against the pony truck frame, and shouldered screws don't grow on trees in this part of the world, I had to find some arrangement that would allow the screw to tighten up in the threaded hole but leave the pony truck loose. It was also desirable for the screw still to clamp the front of the keeper plate. I know that it is NOT good engineering, but a slim M2 nut super-glued onto the screw has done the job, also acting as handy spacer to allow the truck to sit level.

This shows the truck in place and reveals the extension piece used, this simply being two layers of 0.040" thick plasticard about 17mm x 6mm, bonded together. After filing the paint off the rear part of the lower face of the truck, I simply super-glued these in place. You can form your own opinion of whether I should have made the extension from metal instead, and/or whether it should have been screwed as well as glue for additional security. I'm not expecting it to fall off unless somebody (such as me dropping a case full of locos) is very rough with the handling of Lord President.

Once the truck was pivoting freely on the new screw it became evident that the rear corners of the original frame needed to be notched with a file, otherwise there was a risk of them touching the flanges of the leading coupled wheels, possibly causing an electrical short circuit.

[Woodcock29]

Hi Graeme

The key issue with the Hornby pony truck arrangement seems to be its ability to swivel much too freely.

One of our local BRMA members, Michael Kent, came up with a novel idea for reducing its tendency to swing by dampening its movement with a piece of spring wire.

This was written up in our quarterly journal The Clearing House in March 2014 at the beginning of my term as Editor.

I reproduce the key text below:
How to Improve the Current Hornby Steam Loco Pony Truck

Essentially what Michael has done is provide a degree of side control to stop the random flopping around of the pony truck.
Michael has glued a piece of suitable spring wire underneath the pony truck with a free fit in a housing underneath the main chassis keeper plate to the rear of the truck. In this instance Michael located the free end into the channel in a 3mm piece of Peco set track sleeper glued to the keeper plate. This provides a degree of freedom at the tail end but the springiness of the wire ensures the pony truck remains central unless it is going around a curve. Clearly the degree of spring in the wire is most important and it might take a bit of trial and error to find the right wire. But a good solution to something many modellers have grappled with. See photo below on an L1 (Photo Michael Kent)

This method requires no surgery and appears to work quite well so - I have applied it to one of my Hornby locos with a troublesome pony truck.

Andrew Emmett

[Atso]

You're probably right that you should have made the new bits of the pony out of metal and screwed them into place. However, given how wonderfully you models always seem to run, how much of a big deal is it!?

I like your spacer method using a nut and I think I might pinch that in the future; it'll certainly to help prevent me losing M1 screws quite so often!

Unrelated to your current builds: I've discovered that with a bit of work, the Farish 5MT could be adapted into a reasonable Atlantic. My initial tests show that the chassis (with the rear wheel set removed) will happily pull eight old Farish Pullmans around a 9 3/4" radius curve. However, stability while running has suffered and I was wondering if you had any suggestions how I could improve this.

Many thanks

[Atlantic 3279]

That spring control idea for the P2 pony truck looks good for a model that tends to stay at home and either stays on the track or is only handled by the person who knows the model. I suspect it might not be so good for locos that travel to shows in cases, getting bumped about, and which get a lot of handling on and off the track by those who might not realize that there's a nicely set-up spring wire that should not be deformed beyond reasonable limits. Maybe it would be a further "good thing" if the loco, when at rest between running sessions, sits on straight track rather than on a tight curve which could induce a permanent re-shaping of the wire. Obviously it all depends on the type of wire used.

Given the amount of handling that locos get on Grantham, and the wide flange-ways on its pointwork, I would think twice about springs that encourage the pony truck on an already long loco to go in a straight line. I'm not saying they wouldn't work, but I'm more comfortable trying the "neutral" centre-pivoted free-floating truck.

Regarding the cut down 5MT chassis used in the Atlantic, are there any pictures to show what the arrangements are please? What if anything is guiding the new trailing wheels?

[jwealleans]

I did something similar with my L1, which then behaved itself on Thurston's Code 100 track. The problem with that was not excessive play, but the opposite, it wouldn't return to the straight position after a curve.

Where exactly on Grantham was your Cock misbehaving? I have my share of the sharpest pointwork and apart from the curve into the end sidings, where all the 8 coupled locos derail, I don't remember having any problems.

[Atlantic 3279]

I don't know where the trouble arose and which of the P2 trio was the culprit, but Red Leader himself mentioned that it was giving repeated grief.

Since the centralising spring wire is so simple to add, the fairest thing will be for me to alter one of the other two locos in that way then we can run a three-way trial.

[Atso]

Regarding the cut down 5MT chassis used in the Atlantic, are there any pictures to show what the arrangements are please? What if anything is guiding the new trailing wheels?

Hi Graeme, thanks for the response. At the moment there isn't a trailing wheel arrangement which thinking about it (based on your post) is probably the problem! Farish and Dapol have both moved to split frame in recent years (which works well in N gauge) and I'd like to try and use the trailing wheelset to pick up power... I'm going to have to have a think about how to achieve this as the bogie/pony wheels currently available aren't split frame.

[Nova]

Hi Graeme, sorry to divert the topic all of a sudden, but I've found something for your consideration in regards to your resin models, particularly in regards to moulding them. I've recently come across a product called "Blue Stuff" from what I can gather it's a blue resin or gelatin-like material intended specifically to be used for moulding and casting. but most importantly it's reusable, becoming soft and pliable, but not totally dissolving, in hot or warm water

Here's a link to the video (I'm not totally sure if YouTube videos can be embedded): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZLXLaidjQ

Maybe this could be of use with smaller parts such as reverser levers...


or get a lot and cast an entire bodyshell

[Atlantic 3279]

Do I gather that this is in fact just a material for making the moulds, rather than for the resin castings? It might well work in situations where the master part will no be deformed by pressing the mould making material into place. It would be good for large pieces with deep relief or undercuts if it doesn't retain enough enough flexibility to allow the mould to be peeled-off the master part, after which of course the mould has to spring back to true shape. Ability to press the mould making material into recess from all angles could of course solve problems with complex shapes that trap air pockets when liquid mould-making compounds are poured over a master.