Paul's workbench

[NZRedBaron]

Doesn't look bad at all.

[Atlantic 3279]

If that P2 tender went together from scratch in as little as six hours you have astonishing skill.

[nzpaul]

Thanks NZRB, when finished I hope it makes it from not bad to very good, but time will tell.

Thanks Graeme, astonishing might be pushing the truth a bit, I'd happily accept "reasonably skilled" as a good description of where I'm at. I built it in 3 sessions of around 2 hours, it's a give or take number, but not far off 6 hours total. It's made almost entirely from 0.5mm Plastruct sheet, including the beading, which behaved very well considering how thin it was cut. I did use Humbrol Liquid Poly cement with a brush applicator, holding parts together and running the glue into the joint. I usually use Revell Contacta and found the thin brush applied stuff sped things up considerably.

Paul

[Pebbles]

If that P2 tender went together from scratch in as little as six hours you have astonishing skill.

I have an idea that it is a P1 type tender.

[Atlantic 3279]

You're right of course. What was I thinking? Were my typing fingers following instructions?

[nzpaul]

Hi All
With work on the A2 stalled, I've been working on re-finishing the C12 and also started another experimental project.
The C12 has had the boiler and tank tops resprayed and crew added, it will have to wait for the box of parts to arrive from Wizard's to fit some couplings. DCC decoder fitted is one of the cheap and cheerful Laisdcc types and performance with the Hornby Motor/Romford gears arrangement is quite acceptable.

With inspiration taken from Graeme K's A5, I'm going to have a go at building another C11 from scratch, although I'll use the GBL Director Firebox and boiler to speed the build up. So far I've assembled a working chassis from plasticard fitted with brass bearings and using an old set of Maygib wheels and another Hornby/Romford drive.The frames are cut from 0.5mm plasic laminated for strength with plenty of cross bracing. Pockets either side and between the axles are filled with lead shot and superglue to give it some weight. A pair of Hornby coupling rods have washers solders over the crank pin holes to fit Gibson crankpins. It's worked out surprisingly rigid and square and runs quite sweetly, not bad for something that has very little cost attached. I'd not recommend the Magib wheels though, they've worked out here but are very much a "get it right the first time" product. I started with 3 pairs of wheels and one set ended up ruined as they needed to come off again and they really don't like that idea.

Cheers
Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

I can see myself being hauled up in front of the court of laborious and expensive, properly-engineered, metal modelling purity for daring to encourage this "dirt cheap and easy to cut" plastic frames and "any suitable motor, gears and wheels that you happen to have" thing...

[Hatfield Shed]

I can see myself being hauled up in front of the court of laborious and expensive, properly-engineered, metal modelling purity for daring to encourage this "dirt cheap and easy to cut" plastic frames and "any suitable motor, gears and wheels that you happen to have" thing...

We can devise a good defence from the 'metal modelling purity' brigade, one of whom came up with 'a coat of paint hides a multitude of tins'. Just expand that to 'a coat of paint hides a multitude of things', and we have it.

Bizarre places to find motors,There's a couple of locos with a friend running on very good Buhler's scavenged from his mk1 Cavalier (MOT failure due to extensive body rot) from the wing mirrors of all places. Effectively unused, you set your wing mirrors once...

[nzpaul]

I remember an article in Railway Modeller from the late 80s or early 90s explaining the construction of various locos for a Great Western layout. One loco, an Aberdare 2-6-0 I think, was described as being sub standard due to its pladticard frames, indeed the author made quite a point of discouraging the method of construction.
Despite being tempted in the past to have a go on more than one occasion, said article and warning have always made me think better of it. Then, once again, Graeme builds a loco that disproves a commonly held theory. The trickle down effect of the associated write up pushed me over the edge to do the same.
Should Mr King be forced to face the consequences of pursuing this most unusual and unconventional construction method? I don't think so, in fact if two modellers can produce successful chassis from cheap and reasonably easy methods, it might encourage some others to have a go.....you never know.

Paul

[manna]

G'Day Gents

So much of my modelling is what is termed 'What is at hand', many of the motors I use are from the car industry (via China) most of the gears (via Hornby), wheels, ( whatever is available).

Many run very smooth and very quiet, the Q1 in particular, runs beautifully at walking pace on it's $2 Chinese motor

manna

[nzpaul]

I think there's a certain satisfaction derived from creating the proverbial "silk purse from a sow's ear".
Like you I've had a few things turn out better than the components used suggest they should. Having said that, a few have turned to custard as well. In writing about models for this thread it's fair to say I'm quite happy to share the things that have gone well but keep very quiet about the stuff ups. Perhaps some of those hard fought, but ultimately unsuccessful attempts could be just as interesting, I'm not sure????

Paul

[nzpaul]

Moving along with the C11. My original idea was to rework the GBL Director boiler but, after a dig through the scrap box I found the boiler to the old Hornby B12. The B12 boiler diameter matches the GBL firebox perfectly and also takes care of the barrel length and position of the boiler bands so a quick bit of cutting and glueing and the boiler is all but taken care of. The boiler is a little bit skinny for a C11 at 24mm overall, scale drawings measure 25mm so I'm guessing the 5'6" boiler is actually closer to 6"3" by the time the insulation and cladding is fitted.
Hopefully the missing 1mm won't be too noticable if I raise the pitch to compensate....

Paul

[Hatfield Shed]

I think there's a certain satisfaction derived from creating the proverbial "silk purse from a sow's ear".
Like you I've had a few things turn out better than the components used suggest they should. Having said that, a few have turned to custard as well. In writing about models for this thread it's fair to say I'm quite happy to share the things that have gone well but keep very quiet about the stuff ups. Perhaps some of those hard fought, but ultimately unsuccessful attempts could be just as interesting, I'm not sure?l

Custard department.
For a while I had OO outdoors (no room inside) just a two track representing the ECML stretch from Welwyn North to Knebworth in late BR steam operation, which is what I saw when a boy. This needed mighty locos, because outdoors the effects of wind and even a trace of water on the rails when dragging full size trains have big effects: fortunately Doncaster's mightiness department made his possible.

Because traction tyres on tender drives don't work outdoors I 'stuffed' the Hornby RTR models with salvaged drives from the old Mainline N2. Noisy these may have been, but they worked and delivered the necessary power, and with the body shells stuffed with lead the converted locos pulled very well. Just as this operation was coming to an end (moving house) my converted 9F, all 800g of it, 'failed' fairly convincingly, two wheels shifted on the axle insulators, rods ripped apart at the crankpin holes. Inspecting the three pacifics revealed more wear than I had expected, and a loose wheel on one, so the custard was looming for these too...

[nzpaul]

Because traction tyres on tender drives don't work outdoors I 'stuffed' the Hornby RTR models with salvaged drives from the old Mainline N2. Noisy these may have been, but they worked and delivered the necessary power, and with the body shells stuffed with lead the converted locos pulled very well. Just as this operation was coming to an end (moving house) my converted 9F, all 800g of it, 'failed' fairly convincingly, two wheels shifted on the axle insulators, rods ripped apart at the crankpin holes. Inspecting the three pacifics revealed more wear than I had expected, and a loose wheel on one, so the custard was looming for these too...

800g.....heavy beasty.
The Mainline N2 must have been the pick of the bunch by quite a margin. I've still got mine, original box and all. Noisey yes, but it still goes ok. All other Mainline locos I've had anything to do with were junk at best, particularly the Royal Scots and Manors....awful rubbish bin fillers. I don't own any by the way, just tried to make them work for people on a few occasions.

Paul

[Hatfield Shed]

...The Mainline N2 must have been the pick of the bunch by quite a margin. I've still got mine, original box and all. Noisy yes, but it still goes ok...

The motor was - I am given to understand - a clone of the MW005, and suffered from insufficient precision in machining which was the cause of the noise, and was definitely the best piece in the N2 mechanism. In short a good design compromised by low cost manufacturing.

I had the two then in my possession given 'the treatment' of replacement closely toleranced bearings, and the armature balanced, by the kindness of a precision machinist among my long ago colleagues. The transformation was quite something, and one of them still powers a much tarted up N2 under DCC control, smoothly and quietly, though not invisibly due to the eccentric choice of the motor position in the mechanism!