Paul's workbench

[Paul_sterling]

Nice work Paul,

Do i recall from my rather dim and increasingly distant memory that Bachmann themselves up-motored the A1 after the first couple years of production do to it being a bit erm limp?

Re. the upside down Q1, your hemisphere has more Robinson eight coupled Loco's in it, so I fear it may be my Q1 that is upside down haha.

Paul.

[nzpaul]

Yes, Bachmann offered a motor replacement for first run A1s, but I'm not sure that many on this side of the world ever received the upgrade. I'm pretty sure that they changed to a bigger motor fairly quick after this first lot were found out.

Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
With Covid19 lock down in force I still have to work but on reduced hours and essential stuff only, so no better opportunity than to build some things. The Q1 is still moving forward but then why not have many projects going simultaneously to stave off the boredom.
Somewhere on these pages someone built a loco running on a Triang chassis but with a modern motor secured to the chassis with Silicone sealer (I think it Manna's Edgeware thread ), I felt the need to give the idea a go ,so with a second Raven A2 in mind I've assembled an old Flying Scotsman chassis with a Mabuchi can motor and a set of Scalelink wheels. After setting the gear mesh with a bit of tissue paper squashed between the worm and gear and letting the silicone cure I've had it running on the rollers and it's surprisingly good, although a 15000rpm motor and 20:1 gearset will equal a bl##dy fast A2. If I can get this one to handle better on tighter radius curves than the first one I might be looking to do some more "trading" with Mr Leary.

As if construction another scratch A2 isn't enough to think about, I've wanted to do a copycat version of one of Graeme King's V2s for a while. Not having taken the opportunity to acquire one of Graeme's resin castings I'll be going down the Choppy Choppy route as per the prototype (more difficult, more work.....more fun). So far, using a GBL V2(Bachmann ripoff) and Triang A3 I've married this lot together, even at this very early stage it is a much more shapely V2. I dont have a spare chassis hanging around for this so I think a Comet chassis may be in order, although that might have to wait a while until the world starts to spin normally again.

I hope your all doing okay. Luckily we have this hobby, its good for keeping the grey matter busy.

Cheers
Paul

[manna]

G'day Gents

I tried the silicone holding a motor in place on the G1 (I think) it worked but I didn't use the tissue paper, so it was a bit tight and replaced it with superglue, the other problem I had was when under load, the silicone 'flexed' and the gears came apart, I think it was cause by using a standard type and not an stronger one, I'm going to try again, but using a 'Hot Glue ' gun, we'll see how that goes.

Another A2, bit over the top eh !!

manna

[nzpaul]

G'day Gents



Another A2, bit over the top eh !!

manna

Yep, here we go again
Parts made for A2 running plate, the fun part is coming up, getting them soldered together with some resemblance to the picture......ie: no leaning bits.

Paul

[Hatfield Shed]

...Do i recall from my rather dim and increasingly distant memory that Bachmann themselves up-motored the A1 after the first couple years of production do to it being a bit erm limp?...

A little late, but what happened as seen from this customer's perspective:

First production had a Kader motor of their ususal appearance, and a proportion of these lacked power and ran hot if made to work for a living. Cause, a faulty batch of wire used for the motor windings. A recall was offered for a replacement motor to be fitted. At the time I had two from the identified affected production, but both were roaring around my then layout weighted to 600g for pulling 14 coaches up the gradients, and displaying no distress. On this basis I did not send them in, and both the one I still have, and the one now with a friend, perform well to this day, so not a clue what the replacement motor was.

The next pair I bought had a Mashima 1430 motor. The one I still have runs sweetly to this day.

The next pair I bought had a Kader motor that looks like any other Kader motor. The one I still have runs sweetly to this day.

...Parts made for A2 running plate, the fun part is coming up...

The truly fun part is how to deal with the coupled wheelbase surely? Half a lifetime ago I recall the vexation of our club's champion loco builder as he set about the mechanism for a Pepp A2 in EM. Something on the lines of 'So who thought it was a good idea to put 6'2" wheels at 6'6" centres?' You will have noticed that the pivots for the brakes are right on the centreline plane of the axles too, in that nonexistent gap between the model driving wheel flanges. 'Tis the Ivatt Inheritance come back to haunt us...

[nzpaul]

Hi All
One of those days, I sat down to fit the hand rails to the Q1, smokebox hand rail done successfully then off to the cupboard to get another packet of handrail knobs.....oh poo.....never mind, moving on.
Yesterday I assembled the running board frame for the A2, all good on that score. I'll sort out fitting to the chassis next and try to remember to fit the front steps before anything else, so they can be soldered, the first one has them glued on, not really a problem but this one will be more robust.
There's skulduggery afoot with the V2, I'd swear that the boiler is drooping toward the front but all the measurements are ok, the front section of the boiler is parallel to the running plate etc etc, just when I look at it from low down it seems droopy.....some kind of weird optical illusion I think. Whats worse, it's only apparent on the left side, I'm not sure how I've managed to get that to happen....day 3 of lockdown and my brain wants to mess with me perhaps.
Crammed everything into 1 photo, saves space on the server.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've worked on the A2 today and fitted the front sections of the running plate and sorted out the chassis mounting. This Mk2 version has worked out much better that the first one with two 10BA bolts into captured nuts, no awkward clamp to locate this time. Now for the cylinders and front bogie and the effort to make it behave on hopefully 20" or at least 22" radius curves.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've struggled for years now to get satisfactory white lining onto the wheels of Green engines using my bow compass. Hornby recently made life easier with their Railroad B17 wheels by having a pinpoint hole in the middle allowing accurate placement of the compass needle.
Solving the problem for Romford/Markits wheels has been more troublesome but I might have come up with a workable solution. Having discovered that a household variety toothpick is a tight fit into the Romford square axle hole, I've cut the pointy bit off the toothpick, fitted the wheel and then located the centre with the compass needle. It require a bit of judgement but if you don't get it right the first time, turn the toothpick over and try again. This has allowed me to get a tidy line on the rim and hub although my compass is not quite good enough to produce very fine lines at the tight radius for the hub, still progress has been made and hopefully it can be of some use to others as well.

Cheers
Paul

[jwealleans]

I cut a slot into some MDF and clamp it to the bench such that the slot sticks out over the edge. You can then slide the axle into the slot and turn the wheel while holding your pen still. Whatever works best for you.

[nzpaul]

Aha....now all the secrets are coming out. I have tried a similar method to what you've described but failed to keep the pen steady enough to produce a consistent line. I guess that means you have much more steady hands than I've got, I kept getting that feeling that something was about to go wrong and of course that's exactly what happened. This compass method allows me to keep my cool a bit better.

Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Progress on the Q1, I've burgled the handrail knobs off a spare Hornby body and put them to use on this loco. Steps were made up from sheet brass and attached with super glue followed by epoxy. Having no proper safety valves, I fitted a pair of assembled Gibson crank pins and they look remarkably close to the real thing. From the limited amount of photos I've seen it appears that the smokebox had a handle and wheel locking arrangement as built, so I killed an hour or so making a wheel from a piece of 1/8" brass rod (good way to kill time while in lock down).
It would seem only one of these engines made it anywhere near "my area" so it will have to become #6139/9927 which spent some time at Eastfield. This is a Part 1 engine so the bunker on the model is a little long (part 2 type??) but I can live with it. Photo's are scarce so any evidence of it wearing the original number inherited from its rebuild would be appreciated.
Before the paint:

Cheers
Paul

[mossie]

I have a picture in my collection, front three quarter view, of 9927 with LNER cast plate on the bunker side. Unfortunately the picture is undated and the location not known, if you would like a copy let me know.

[nzpaul]

Thanks for that Mossie, sounds very similar to the photo I have of 9926 so I won't trouble you to send a copy, thanks all the same.
The 99## numbers were the post 1946 renumbering identities and what I'm unable to find in RCTS or any other books I have, is whether they had the numbers carried over from their Q4 identities, in this case 6139. The rebuild was done in 1942 so it must have worn a number, I just can't find any reference to what that looked like. If nothing comes to light I'll go with 9927, at least I know how that should look.

Paul.

[JASd17]

Hi Paul,

According to Yeadon No.6139 kept that number until the Thompson re-numbering.

There are 2 photos in Yeadon of Q1 tanks with pre-1946 numbers.

John