My Q&D N gauge desktop, 25T Covered Bogie Wagon

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Loctite 609 Retaining Compound is what I've used successfully in the past.

[PGBerrie]

Loctite 609 seems impossible to get over here. In the end I tracked down some Loctite 648, which should be much the same (it's green), but will fill greater gaps. Anyway I have now fixed the gear wheel and am letting it cure before I put the chassis together again. Sorry no pictures, but my mobile is hopeless for close-ups. Instead I thought I would post these:

N Gauge Society Kits 16 and 19

The 21T Hopper Wagon has the etched brass detailing offered by the N Gauge Society which basically comprises the steps, the handrails and chassis end floorplates (not quite stuck down in the photo), end strut reinforcements and hopper operating handles. It went together quite well, but the brass handrails were tricky as some very small holes had to be drilled - needless to say I managed break a couple of drills, which is why I now possess a small handheld chuck. I put lead under the chassis where it couldn't be seen and a real, removable coal load inside.

The 21T Mineral Wagon was bought by the N Gauge Society to prevent it being lost (no doubt someone can tell us the original manufacturer). It was extremely simple to build and there is plenty of room underneath for lead weight. It also has a removable coal load. Both were sprayed in bauxite primer, then light grey. The hopper was blackened with artists' chalk, the rust effects on the mineral wagon were made by applying thinner and scaping with a cocktail stick, then artists' chalk again. I took inspiration from Paul Bartlett's wagon pages.

Peter

[PGBerrie]

I put the loco chassis back together again today and ran it successfully on the rolling road. I also stuck the tender chassis to the tender using Pattex "Power Easy" superglue, which I found at the local DIY store when looking for the loctite. It's a cyanoacrylate that takes about 60 seconds to harden, so you can restick if you don't get it right the first time. Then I did a little weathering with artists chalk using my picture of 64182 as guide. Since the chassis was such I tight fit, I filed down the external magnets a little more, and this time the loco body went together much easier. I've still to add details, so I've not soldered the wire from the tender yet. I've also not tested the running with the body on, although I did some filing around the wheel arches to improve clearance. Here's how things look now:

Peter

[manna]

G'Day Gents

That looks like a J6 to me, congratulations

manna

[PGBerrie]

It's a long time since I posted anything here. Progress on the J6 has halted - I liked Atlantic's idea of using a miniature plug to connect the electrics of the tender and loco together, found a likely candidate, but have not bought any yet. I also started assembling another batch of D&G couplings, but then the weather turned wet most weekends, so I could not solder on the wire droppers - I prefer to solder outdoors. I'd like to build a jig to do this, as I find it very difficult to align the dropper with the coupling loop - has anyone found a solution to this problem?.

My Christmas project was to build three more N Gauge Society 21T hopper kits, but I got side-tracked working out the N gauge wheel diameters, boiler diameters and wheel spacings for LNER and BR locos. Still I have managed to get so far:

N Gauge Society 21T Hopper with brass enhancements

Needless to say I pinged one of the hopper discharge supports into Nirvana and had make a wire substitute. Actually, I have just found it quite a way from my work desk, so updating this thread has been worthwhile! I'm hoping BB's "Back to Basics" thread will tell me how to handle tiny parts.

Peter

[Atso]

Peter, it is good to see another N gauge modeller resurface. I found recently that life has a horrible habit of getting in the way of modelling!

I don't know how I missed your last post on the J6. It looks very much the part and as a testament to the builder! My only criticism is that while you've got the colour correct, the lettering and numbering is all wrong, needs 'LNER' on the tender for a start! Joking aside, good luck with sorting the electrical connection.

The picture of the hopper kit looks like it is progressing nicely and I look forward to seeing the rest of the build.

[PGBerrie]

Time flies! The hoppers are now painted - which I did before putting the body to the chassis - weighted and waiting for transfers and couplings. The gussets, which are still grey, also need touching up. The hand rails come as an extra to the kit and are definitely something for which practice makes slowly perfect - unfortunately I ran out of handrails before achieving perfection. It would have been nice if the brass frets had included extra hand rails, discharge handles (which are even more difficult to get right, as you can see) and some of the other tiny bits which tend to fly around when tweezered. Still the overall effect is OK and from normal viewing distance you can't really see the botches!

This time I got the right set of transfers from the N gauge society, but I have noticed that all the hopper numbers have a "K" behind the B number whereas most of the photos I have seen don't. Can someone tell me when the "K" and "N" (for 24 Tonners) suffixes (suffices?) came in and what they meant?

Peter

[PGBerrie]

Apologies for resurrecting this thread, but I've something to celebrate!
I retired about two months after the last entry (i.e. at the end of May 2013) but despite having enough time to do some real modelling the magic went. Perhaps because modelling had always been a way of relaxing after work. The only thing I did in three years was to put D&S couplings on the coal train I was building. I have bought new stock and continued to go to my module group's occasional weekend running sessions - but using my hands to produce something new - not on.

Then at the start of this year it clicked again. I have a fiddle yard that I build about 20 years ago for an exhibition and which was used in most group sessions and exhibitions. Over the years it became too small - we now have trains of up to 30 wagons - and was too bulky and heavy. At the start of this year I decided to build a new on with more space. I started in March and it had its first outing this weekend.

The group has single track and double track modules - the double trackers are in the minority and have a dearth of curved modules. I built the fiddle yard for double track operation with a curved throat module that has a junction to the single trackers. The single slip was an afterthought when I remembered that sometimes there are only single trackers at a session.

The fiddle yard is worked by route selection (diode matrix) and has four isolated sections on the loops and two on the sidings (except for the short ones in the foreground. Polarity is automatically changed according to the entry or exit route selected. There were some teething troubles with the single slip because I used Peco switches, which are very sensitive to correct alignment. These will be changed for a Conrad flip-flop module which triggers with the point voltage pulse. I've used these on double slips before and they work very well.

One down on the weekend was the breakdown of my Dapol B1 - it looks like the connection to the piston mechanism was severed - perhaps because I bent the rod when putting it on the rails. Has anyone and idea how this can be repaired?

Peter

[Atso]

Hi Peter,

Great to see you posting again. The fiddle yard module looks interesting and I love the trackwork that'll lead into this.

Sorry to read about the Dapol B1. The piston rod is plastic and I've found that the connecting rod separating is generally due to the plastic rivet on the back failing. I've found repair these plastic piston rods impossible (although the Farish metal ones can usually be saved - at least for a little while). I'd recommend giving DCC supplies a call as they are now Dapol's official spares and repair people: 01905 621 999. I've purchased some spare parts from them in the past but haven't made use of their repair facilities but others have reported good feedback elsewhere.

Hope this helps and look forward to seeing your next project.

[PGBerrie]

More module building since the last post. This time two curved modules that can also be used with the fiddle yard. These were cut and shut from the previous fiddle yard boards. Originally I cut the track bed on the first module for two opposing crossovers, then after I had screwed everything down realized that I only needed one - that's why it does not have a smooth transition curve.

I foolishly decided to add a river to this module - and even more foolishly put in the river bed before building the bridge. My excuse is that my module group is exhibiting in two weeks time and I wanted the netting in place. Four foot is a long way for an N loco to fall! I found a nice bridge on Internet: Holme East Waver.

I found the fencing rather unusual and wanted a brick structure. It's not going to be an exact copy as there is 6 mm of track bed to disguise. I started the bridge itself and after two days work got it finished.

Peter

PS: Photo credits can be found at http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thela ... /bpn38.jpg

[PGBerrie]

Between Christmas and the new year I built the supporting walls for the bridge using 1.3 mm Bristol board. The dimensions for the height at either side were taken from the baseboard, hence the slight difference between the sides.

After the new year I added the approach walls and brickwork. I usually use Slater's N gauge brick plasticard, but this time I took some self-adhesive stuff which I think I bought from an American guy at the Stuttgart N Gauge Convention some years ago. It looks OK, although you have to be careful when aligning it. A final bit of weathering with artist's chalk and a flat brush with hard bristles and it was ready for building into the layout.

I built it into the module this afternoon - no pictures as yet.

Peter

[PGBerrie]

After the last post I started covering the netting on three of the modules with couple of layers of newspaper strips. Using paper was a suggestion from one of my fellow modellers, who gets extremely good results with it. Unfortunately it did not work very well for me and the paper lifted from the netting in places when it dried (my friend uses expanded polystyrene as a base, as I found out later).

As we have an exhibition in two weeks time, I did the last module with my usual method of plaster bandages, which worked wonderfully. I stripped the paper off the second module I need and gave it the same treatment. Over the weekend I started on the ballasting and scenery.

As there is not enough time to do everything before the exhibition I decided to concentrate on the module ends. I use Woodlands materials which are sieved onto a layer of white glue - first earth blend, then various greens. The whole is then sprayed with water containing a drop of washing-up liquid. I then use a hypodermic needle to carefully dribble dilute white glue (1:3 to 1:4 and a drop of washing-up liquid) across the prepared surface. The hypodermic gives more control than the usual dropper.

For the ballasting I just tap the material into the centre of the track with a folded piece of cardboard, tamp with my finger then brush forward to remove any remains from the sleepers and the rails. The outsides are done in the same way, but a small brush is used to free the sleepers. The ballast is then given the white glue treatment as described above.

Peter

[PGBerrie]

Time flies! I've been steadily building new modules and adding the scenery but am now running out of green blend. The local model shop says it will be in at the weekend, but then they said that 4 weeks ago. Although the cellar is the coolest place to be at the moment (we're in the middle of a heat wave), I decided I had to build my brass bogie bolster and fish vans at some time. Before attempting it, however, I decided to build these to get back into practice:

These are 16T Mineral Wagon body kits (Diagram 108) bought from the N Gauge Society Shop a long time ago. So long, I've forgotten what they really are and I cannot check because the N Gauge Society no longer sells them and the 2mm Society won't let me on the relevant pages.

They might both be 2mm Society kits but there are slight dimensional differences. There are six wagons to build, four welded and two riveted. The chassis will be Peco 9ft steel.

Peter

[PGBerrie]

A bit of research in Don Rowland's and Geoff Kent's books revealed that the 2 mm Society kit is probably a Diagram 109 riveted wagon. As the accompanying photograph in the former shows a pressed steel door, I decided to build both this way for variety. The second kit makes two Diagram 108s, one with flap doors, the other without. The ones without flap doors were apparently first produced as repairs in the 1970s, which is too late for me - is this right? So I'm going to pretend that despite the incorrect end doors and not quite right side doors, it's a Diagram 102 and put bottom door markings on it. This is N scale and to quote Joe E Brown "Nobody's perfect".

The 2mm Society kit went together well, but the Peco 9ft chassis had to be shortened a little. The other kit had integral buffer plates on the end pieces, but I decided to cut these off with a razor saw and add the reinforcements at the fixed end in plasticard later. It occurred to me after I had done this that I could have just used the solebars in the Peco kit as I do have some brass buffers, but there would still have been some messing about to do on the buffers. The next step is the painting.

[Atso]

Looking good there. The Peco 9' wheelbase kits does lend itself to easier adaptation than the one piece 10' chassis. Have you considered joining the 2mm Association and purchasing their etched wagon chassis that have been designed to fit these bodies? They're a little time consuming but really very nice once made up. The association also sells axles to convert Farish wagon and coach wheels to the 12.5mm axle lengths used by the etched chassis.

I'm looking forward to seeing the bolster wagon and fish vans - just be careful and take your time with the fish vans, there are few, if any, registration points and everything has to be lined up by eye (under a magnifier in my case!). I've recently discovered that I have some drawings for the GCR bogie fish van, etching would lend itself very well to that vehicle...