Paul's workbench

[Atlantic 3279]

Did the same thing several years ago on my ex-GCR B4 (large bogie wheels and close-fitting outside cylinders), and extended the curved slot that Bachmann already provided in the Peppercorn A2 when producing various Thompson Pacific conversions with longer front overhangs. It also helps to steer the bogie wheels through close-fitting cut-outs in the main frames. It's a much better approach than spoiling the model bay hacking bits out of cylinder ends and leaving yawning gaps between the bogie and the main frames.

[nzpaul]

Hi All

Continuing with Graeme's EB1, which I've been plodding away on whilst all the other stuff is gong on.
Bonnets and hand railing fitted to each end and painting of the bogies and bottom frame. The centre section of hand rail will get cut away for fitting of the lights later.
I've assembles the bogies to the frame and completed the wiring including the Gaugemaster DCC25 decoder. Despite the warp speed capability of the Hanazono spud, this decoder gives very nice low speed control and load compensation so it runs pretty well.

Cheers
Paul

[Graeme Leary]

Hi Paul,

Already acknowledged direct the email you sent me but this on 'the public domain' (as I understand it is known).

Dave (humorist) has asked me if I'm got the overhead wiring system in place for the EB1's arrival so I better digiti extractum as it seems to be getting closer.

Much appreciated (and overawed!)

Graeme

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've not achieved much in the way of model making this weekend, I had the good fortune to be invited for a day out riding along with a fiend who drives for Kiwirail. Most of Saturday was taken up with a cab ride in a DL class loco on a freight train from Hawera back to Wanganui, not very fast but I got to see parts of the country reserved for train drivers and there just happened to be a button for the horn on the observers side of the cab so I was having loads of fun. Two loco's and 7000HP or so makes easy work of 650 tons as well, even on 1 in 40 grades.
What I have done is make some progress on the A2 tender, I'm not sure that conversion of a GC tender was the best way to go about this but at least it hasn't cost much. Everything has been done with economy in mind, so the wheels are the spares you get with a Hornby A3 (for the trailing axle) drilled out and fitted to some old Maygib axles, everything else is made up from plasticard and wire. The sides are a bit flat as the flare on top of the side sheets isn't flared enough and I've botched the shape of the wobbly bits at the front, but it "sort of" looks like what it's supposed to. On the bright side the top of the frames is level with the rear of the loco....fluke.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've just received one of those Hornby Q6 things from Kernow (good service too) and being aware of other people's experiences with motor issues I thought it might be a good idea to give it a run on the rollers straight away......Warning, this may go over a few people's heads, and those who have strong feelings about Consumer rights may want to stop here.
Immediately on applying power I was concerned that the loco drew around 150mA to turn over, this is unusual for modern RTR motors, they normally tick over at around 100mA or a little less. I persisted for a couple of minutes but no change and there was some speeding up and slowing down action going on. This kind of behavior is fairly common with old X04 type motors and usually caused by shorting of the commutator or a poor connection to one of the windings, I've also experienced the fault with a couple of Bachmann motors, all were fixable. Out with the toolbox and get stuck in...the motor was easily removed and also easy to disassemble thanks to the relatively large tabs holding the plastic rear brush housing in place. With the commutator exposed I used a sharpened jewelers screwdriver to scrape out between the segments. No real surprise, but between two of the five poles I found some sooty muck, most likely burned copper from poor cleaning of the com when the armature was made. I reassembled the motor and gave it a run and all seemed to be much better. With the motor reinstated in the loco I currently have it on the rollers running very smoothly and drawing about 80mA give or take, it's been like that for about an hour now, I was getting bored so I sat down to write this lot out.
I suppose to make a point if I haven't already...beware the Q6, there must be hundreds of these things with suspect motors floating around, can be fixed if you like tinkering though.
That lot will put you to sleep if nothing else.

Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Back to some proper work building locos. Graeme's EB1 has been progressing steadily and now only needs the pantograph to be more or less complete. Sounds simple enough but with the parts still sitting in the fret it would be one of the most frightening collection of components I've come across. One piece at a time, follow the instructions and try not to shake too much or drop anything....
The body is now ready to paint, well I've run out of parts to fit so that must be next.

Cheers
Paul

[Graeme Leary]

Those of you who have been following Paul's work will understand why I'm extremely pleased to have met him through the forum and then in 'real life'. Wanganui might be a 5-6 hour drive from Auckland but with work like this he's doing for me (Hallelujah) it will be nothing when the time comes to collect it.

Happy New Year all.

Graeme Leary

[nzpaul]

Geez Graeme, your making me blush...... All good, I'm happy to build it, kind of my thing really.

Anyway, along side the EB1 I'm still tinkering with my A2, things are going ok but a little compromised. The top of the tender lining has ended up too low as I followed the moulded seam of the original GC model, which I think is a bit low for a NER tender, end result being the tender letters don't line up with the cab numbers, not actually sure that they are supposed to but it's making me twitch a bit when I stare at it, I did it on purpose as the alternative of having the lettering too close to the lining looked really awful. On the up side I've managed to make my own smokebox door handles from 0.5mm brass wire and a tiny plastic washer, good low budget stuff. Also solved the rear trailing axle problem, it's an old set of plastic wagon wheels glued into position so that they don't quite touch the rails, importantly (for some) most of the flanges are still there, just cut away at the bottom to allow freedom of movement. It could be seen as a slightly more agricultural version of Hornby's idea but hey, it wont derail and it makes the loco easier to put on the tracks. Not far from being finished now, just some steps, air compressor and rods on the drivers side running boards to fit and that'll probably do.

Here's a comparison, remembering that the A2 is roughly 3mm too short because of the chassis I used, it's still quite a bit longer that an A3, skittle alley seems appropriate.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've hit a wall with the A2 now and this is as finished as it will get for the foreseeable future, I haven't got a compressor or any whistles in my parts bin so it'll have to wait until my next order to Wizard Models.
Front and rear steps and a suitable coupling now fitted, the collection of rods on the drivers side (which I think must have something to do with the valve gear and perhaps a rocking grate mechanism ??) done. A couple of coats of varnish have lifted the colour and it looks much better for it, Tamiya XF5 is very close to the Phoenix shade of Doncaster green apart from its flat finish and the varnish brings it to life. The crew are at work in the now glazed cab and the driver has his arm poised and ready to respond to any keen lineside observers, although the fireman is on a break and has taken his seat.

Cheers
paul

[JASd17]

The longer rod on the driver's side is the steam reversing gear.

John

[nzpaul]

The longer rod on the driver's side is the steam reversing gear.

John

I hadn't done enough research to know that they had steam reversers, very advanced, thanks John, you learn something new everyday.
I've started on the EB1 pantograph this weekend and all has gone well (so far). Here it is with the mounting rails and lower arms assembled. It only looks like maybe 10 or so parts involved now, but there were 41 components to assemble to get it that far, another another 9 and the head and upper arms will be done, I stopped here before I went cross eyed.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Woooohoooo.......VICTORY!!!!!!
Finally coerced my bow compass to do something I wanted it to do, draw some very fine white lines on wheels. This was a very cheap and cheerful compass but after considerable filing and mucking about with wet'n'dry I've beaten it into submission, and it drew some lines....the overwhelming happiness . I also used a fresh tin of Humbrol 130 satin paint, this may have contributed to the success.
The bogie wheels are from the Hornby chassis that will live under the streamlined B17 and had a tiny centre hole that helped a lot, but it worked. Now I just have to figure out how to positively locate the needle in the centre of the driving wheels and I'll be sorted.
Here's the pic for proof....I'm well pleased.

Paul

[Paul_sterling]

Hi All
I've just received one of those Hornby Q6 things from Kernow (good service too) and being aware of other people's experiences with motor issues I thought it might be a good idea to give it a run on the rollers straight away......Warning, this may go over a few people's heads, and those who have strong feelings about Consumer rights may want to stop here.
Immediately on applying power I was concerned that the loco drew around 150mA to turn over, this is unusual for modern RTR motors, they normally tick over at around 100mA or a little less. I persisted for a couple of minutes but no change and there was some speeding up and slowing down action going on. This kind of behavior is fairly common with old X04 type motors and usually caused by shorting of the commutator or a poor connection to one of the windings, I've also experienced the fault with a couple of Bachmann motors, all were fixable. Out with the toolbox and get stuck in...the motor was easily removed and also easy to disassemble thanks to the relatively large tabs holding the plastic rear brush housing in place. With the commutator exposed I used a sharpened jewelers screwdriver to scrape out between the segments. No real surprise, but between two of the five poles I found some sooty muck, most likely burned copper from poor cleaning of the com when the armature was made. I reassembled the motor and gave it a run and all seemed to be much better. With the motor reinstated in the loco I currently have it on the rollers running very smoothly and drawing about 80mA give or take, it's been like that for about an hour now, I was getting bored so I sat down to write this lot out.
I suppose to make a point if I haven't already...beware the Q6, there must be hundreds of these things with suspect motors floating around, can be fixed if you like tinkering though.
That lot will put you to sleep if nothing else.

Paul

Hi Paul,

Apologies I didn't see this sooner and hence avoid posting about an older part of the thread.

Thanks for your notes on high starting current and lumping running, I'll keep that in mind, as I've seen one or two of my Bachmann O4 chassis (which I'm sure you'll guess that with having the Q1, S1 and other projects on the go, i've got a few of haha) running a little lumpy. My motor knowledge isn't very good, though I do understand the need to keep the commutator clean, I just never expected a new one to need bringing up to spec.

Cheers, Paul.

[nzpaul]

Hi Paul
I've got a bit of experience with the O4 chassis as well so just a couple of things to check before you tear the motors down. If you have some rollers and an old school analogue multimeter, set up to measure mA, 250 or 500 mA scale and get the model running. If you see the current spiking momentarily high but with no particular rhythem then you could be looking at the fault that I described. My first suspision with the 04 chassis would be more likely pickup adjustment, the ameter will show this as a momentary drop in current or loss of power to the motor. Bachmann's short pickup strips are often poorly set up at the factory but are easily rectified. Also Bachmann fit a capacitor from each connection on the motor to the motor frame, nothing more than a short circuit that hasn't made it yet, get rid of them, the spark suppression capacitor across the motor connections is less of a problem.
Hope that's something useful for you to look into.

Cheers
Paul

[Paul_sterling]

Thank you Paul, that is very much appreciated.

Incidentally, when you mentioned adjusting Bachmann's pickups, what is your method please?

Thanks, Paul.