Paul's workbench

[Daddyman]

Thanks, Mick - the J36 had the same silly fold-up chassis which has no spring detail, and leaves no room for invisible pcb pads for the pick-ups. I was considering one of their Thompsons but presumably they're the same? If so, I won't bother.

Yes, I should have sent the J36 bits back, but I wanted it as a holiday project, and it arrived just a day before I set off.

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've spent the afternoon making a start on the GEM C10 kit that I picked up last year. The kit only caters for the C10 so one of the first jobs is to make some alterations to the running plate so I can have "Waverley" in C11 condition. To achieve this I decided to cut the running plate just in front of the crank inwards and then completely in half at the rear, then realign both sides to make a straight line. This will mean I have extra work to do on the cab later in the build, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
The cast chassis supplied actually measures up nice and true so I'm tempted to use it, although I'm not sure my favoured Comet gearbox will fit so it may end up as a pattern for a scratch chassis, again I'll see what happens when I get to that bit.
Photos of assembled boiler (bit of a sod this one, warped castings), modified running plate a cast chassis.

Cheers
Paul
Edit: speaking not good England.....

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

One learns a lot from this Forum.

I hadn't realised that the C10 and C11 had footplate differences.

Personally, I do not like cast chassis, and usually replace them with scratch brass plate chassis, which gives plenty of room for gearboxes.

I have seen pics of NBR Atlantics with tender coal rails along the front of the tender, which would make interesting modelling.

I look forward to the next phase in the kit's construction.

Earlswood nob

[Daddyman]

Be careful with this, Paul: every one of these I've seen built up has the boiler tilted skywards at the front. But perhaps you've already come to that point, with the warped boiler - could this be the cause of the problem?
Good luck!

[Atlantic 3279]

I'd like to see this turn out well. The NBR Atlantics certainly please my eye.

Are you not at all tempted to get the basic chassis up and running first, while the running plate is still bare, so that you can ensure a good mutual fit and sufficient clearances while everything is still highly visible and fully accessible? I've had much frustration in the past when trying to find reasons for short circuits or mechanical interference underneath complete bodies.

[nzpaul]

Should be OK with regard to the boiler sitting level, keeping a close eye on things as it goes together. So far the boiler sits level with the footplate when offered up, how it sits on the chassis is another matter.
I'll certainly keep the parts separate until the chassis is up and running, already noticed very close tolerances between wheels and splasher cutouts so it will require some filing to open things up a bit.
Thanks for the advise all the same, I really appreciate the concern and willingness to help. I'm also rather keen to see this one work out, the Reid Atlantic is easily the most impressive of the bunch but I'm aware that I have my work cut out to properly capture the look of one using this kit.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Happy new year,I hope 2017 finds you all fit and well.
For anyone who might be wondering how the Reid Atlantic is going, it's going slowly and I don't have much to show at the moment. I have built up a gearbox and run it in but I've made no more progress on the loco. In its current state it's ideal as a work in progress example for a loco kits seminar I've been talked into hosting for my clubs February meeting.
In the last few months all I've achieved is the assembly of an Eastern Express 1/72 scale S6b (originally the Frog kit I'm lead to believe). Done as a "keep my son company while he builds an Airfix FW190 at the kitchen table" project, lots of fun really and a few extra not provided details thrown in just to add a level of frustration.

The other distraction occupying my time lately is an A3 from the spares box. I decided to have a go at this to try out some bits I was curious about, and to use up some of the bits in my scrap box. The chassis comes from an 80's R398 tender drive Flying Scotsman and the X04 is of unknown age but in good condition. These chassis' are almost identical to the older R850 loco driven A3 but have the addition of brass bearings for the axles and a plastic keeper plate but the motor mounting and gear slots are still there. I've used a set of W&T wheels fitted to 9/64" Romford style axles with the gear Locktited to the centre axle. The other new part I've tried is the Markits return crank assembly, as the picture shows its a fairly chunky piece of kit, upside: it seems indestructible, downside: it looks like that.
The valve gear is a spare part from Hornby's current A3, with coupling rod and eccentric rod holes opened up to fit the Markits crank which is almost, but not quite the same size as a Hornby crank pin boss.
The chassis has done about an hour or so on the rolling road so far and all is ok. The W&T wheels had a bit of a wobble to start with but are tweakable so now running reasonably true. The Markits cranks is a bit ugly but should last a lifetime without any problems I would imagine. I'm not sure if this chassis will go into service or just remain a curiosity piece,it might make a good Club layout mule.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Back to work on the C11, not much work, but important stuff. Motor/Gearbox and wheels fitted to the supplied cast chassis and fitted with the cast rods as well at this stage. I found that, like the D34, this Gem kit would sit too high on its chassis if not corrected so I've filed about 1mm off the top of the chassis where it meets the running plate which corrects the fault, not completely but at least the buffers will meet up with another loco's and not look silly.

I've assembled the cylinders and crosshead/connecting rods and I'm concerned that the rods are too short and the cross heads will part company with the slidebars so I may be making some new parts from leftover Comet bits I think. I'll let you know how it goes...

Cheers
Paul

ps: Here's a video clip of it running for anyone who might be interested...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwOHeehI3so

[Daddyman]

Interesting, Paul. Thanks for posting.

By the way, did you know the RM printed an Ian Beattie drawing of a C10/C11 (combined)? It's Feb '99 if you can find one on ebay or some such. Don't be dissuaded by the fact that they call it a C12! May be some use to you.

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Well, the worries about the connecting rods being too short turned out to be real, thankfully the slide bars and piston rods are only brass wire inserted into the castings and I found I could wiggle a little extra length out of them so all has turned out ok. A bit of running on the rolling road and it still runs nicely. I've fitted some brass wire to the chassis on which to mount some brakes, things will be very tight behind the slide bars so I'm hoping that'll work out. Bit of a trial fit with the boiler to see how it's going to shape up, time to crank up the soldering iron again soon.

I've also been mucking about with some alternative Teak finishes as well, this one is based on a blog I found on rmweb, using orange as a base with brown and yellow graining, not sure if its better than the old way, certainly different but not sure yet whether or not to commit a complete coach to the treatment.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Further assembly of the C11's body. It's time to start dealing with the consequences of the decision to built a C11 instead of a C10 with large gaps to fill in the front of the cab and the roof.

Continual trial fitting of the chassis to check clearances between the wheels and splashes hasn't thrown any unexpected problems into the mix. Can't help but notice the very North Eastern appearance of the cab.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
One of the noticeable features missing on most of the C10/11's built from this kit (when searched on google) are the brakes and ash pan under the rear end. There is one picture that can be found where the builder has fitted the brakes, but I wanted to capture the heaviness of the firebox end of the loco that is missing from an un-modified build. The solution I came up with was to attach some plastic sheet to the trailing truck assembly to represent the ash pan and have it move around with the truck to maintain the locos flexibility.

For the brakes I've used a pair of hangers/shoes from a Mainly Trains etch and made up the rods from wire, I've kept the assembly close to the frames so there's no interference with the wheel set, the brake shoes are a bit too far away from the wheel rims, but its a compromise I'm happy to live with.

The whole lot so far looks like this, I think I'm winning the battle, long way to go yet though.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
There's enough wheels fitted to this thing to call it an Atlantic at last. The leading bogie has been fitted with 13mm wheels, the instructions suggest 12mm but the full size machine had 3'6" wheels so I thought I'd risk the close tolerances to try and get a better looking model.

I've used another Hatton's decoder for control, this time the DCR8 mini, it has the same ratings as its bigger brother but less functions so ideal for people like me who don't care for sound and smoke.

I've made a start on the tender and was confronted by this rather ugly "coal" casting, this will require modification to leave only the portion behind the coal plate. The tender will also require additional coal rails as the tender only represents a very early version if it in fact is accurate at all.

I've had a change of heart regarding naming, I now prefer to have "Midlothian" as it was the one that almost made it into preservation.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Once again the application of lined green has provided hours of enjoyment, with multiple moments of near panic. The Phoenix Doncaster green decided it would give a nice "fluffy" finish with the first coat which required much sanding with 1200 grit wet and dry to rectify, second coat went on ok, still not sure what went wrong.
Lining is mostly Presfix transfers with the cab done with the bow pen. the transfer sheet has two (why not 4 )splasher transfers that are very close to the correct size so thankfully I had a few lining sheets on hand, the black outer lining needed some filling in but it worked out ok.
Sadly the naming transfer sheet that came with the kit was useless, they disintegrated on contact with water so I guess they were just too old (1970's at a guess) so I've contacted Modelmaster to see if they can help with a set for Midlothian, fingers crossed.
I've done some track testing up and down on the kitchen table and so far it looks like it should perform very well, it crawls along slowly with no tight spots or weird noises. The loco weighs 365 grams as it stands so I think it should pull a reasonable train, possibly equal to a Hornby Pacific, hopefully better.

I've haven't got much further with the tender, only as far as removing the coal part of the casting and fitting the rear deck, I'm awaiting some brass rod to arrive to make up the coal rails. The tender fitted to 9875 had 3 rails all the way around the coal space and an half round cage/shield at the front, should be fun to solder that lot.

Cheers
paul

[Atlantic 3279]

Blimey! I blinked and missed it. At one point there was a partly built kit, now there's a fully painted loco. Well done!