Paul's workbench

[Dave]

They are looking very good Paul.
You only have a couple of weeks to finish the V4 loco for Mike, he will be back in NZ soon.
I will tell him on Tuesday when we meet that it will be finished.................
Enjoyed the chat tonight a lot covered.

[nzpaul]

Good to see progress and quality.

Even when using a couple of pre-curved layers, bonded together, thin plastic splasher tops seem to show an irritating tendency to go flat

You noticed that....bugger , quite right though, pre curved by pulling a long strip of plastic under the edge of a ruler then glued to the side and cut to size....still a bit flat. I'll have to try and hide them with lining trickery later on.

They are looking very good Paul.
You only have a couple of weeks to finish the V4 loco for Mike, he will be back in NZ soon.
I will tell him on Tuesday when we meet that it will be finished.................
Enjoyed the chat tonight a lot covered.

Thanks a lot Dave, I really appreciate your help in ensuring I'm only under a little bit of pressure. Can you let him know he can pick up his K2 at the same time....... Errr, maybe you shouldn't tell him that

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

At the risk of teaching you all to check your drawings properly, could I suggest Graeme that you think about following the prototype,
and add splasher end caps to withhold the item. In general, and certainly on the GNR, they were a piece of angle which was shaped
to fit on the footplate and then bent to the shape of the splasher top.

They are shown on many Isinglass drawings.

Paul

Yes, you're quite right Paul, I had noticed that in reality many locos had external iron/steel angles at the ends of the splashers, but I've omitted them from models. They are not particularly noticeable in many photographs. When studying the photograph showing lining on a black D7 it was noticeable that the splasher top lining finished at a higher level above the running plate than did the lining of the splasher faces, because the not-easily-seen angle irons were in the way. I did at least try to put the lining in right place, just as if the non-existent angle irons were actually there on the model...

[john coffin]

Thing is it is easy to forget that the engineers on the railways faced a similar problem in constraining flat sheets
of metal that had been beaten, or hand forced into a shape or place that was not natural.
To ensure that the constant heating and cooling of the loco in motion did not cause these pieces to fly off,
they restrained them. You are right Graeme, they are often missed, but if trying to ensure that plasticard
which is made flat can keep the new shape after creating, why not follow prototype practice.

Paul

[nzpaul]

Work continues on the Edge V4, I wouldn't say at pace, but plodding along at a consistent rate. It's a complex wee beastie but I think the end result will be quite sharp. I'm almost sad that it will end up in BR black, but that's the required livery for the layout it's destined for and I'll take the utmost care to do a nice paint job. I've always though V2s look alright in lined black so maybe it'll look nice.

paul

[nzpaul]

Bogie for the C11 done, so an Atlantic it is at last. In the spirit of keeping it as cheap as possible, the wheels are from the spares box, 13mm Hornby left over from an old B17 that has a new life as something else. The bogie frame is cut from 1.5mm brass and spacers made from .5mm brass sheet.

As 9881 Borderer, this one will be most appropriate for a Hawick inspired layout.

Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
The Judith Edge V4 has made progress with the rolling of the smokebox and fitting the boiler, just the firebox to sort out and my first completely scratch built boiler will be done. Still a long way to go on this and thanks to a dose of Covid I've not done any more for a week or so.

Covid has only been a mild illness for me but comes with some weird symptoms including complete loss of taste and smell and lack concentration (brain fog I think they call it). To that end I've been working on what was supposed to be a simple project. I've had this old Bachmann V2 since 1992 and it's always been a slightly wobbly and inconsistent runner. Having used it as a club open day mule, it had become very inconsistent and unreliable. Some may consider it a foolhardy idea, but in an attempt to make it run nicely I'm fitting the split frame chassis with a set of Hornby B1 wheels and bearings. To fit the axles to the existing axle slots the Hornby bearing were installed into lengths of 1/4" plastic tube then the outer of the tube lathed down to fit into the chassis slots.

The centre axle with gear will require a level of precision that I'm not quite up to at the moment, but so far it's going to plan. The Hornby wheels certainly look nice under under what is an old dog, if it works out I might have to give it a birthday.

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

If you get satisfaction from the resurrection of old, worn models then what right have others to criticise? It's your time and money, you use it as you like.

[Hatfield Shed]

...To fit the axles to the existing axle slots the Hornby bearing were installed into lengths of 1/4" plastic tube then the outer of the tube lathed down to fit into the chassis slots. The centre axle with gear will require a level of precision that I'm not quite up to at the moment, but so far it's going to plan. The Hornby wheels certainly look nice under under what is an old dog...

That's a novel method, I shall follow this with interest. If it comes off you will probably have the smoothest and quietest split chassis V2 ever. There was nothing wrong with the can motors in Bach's split chassis, put to work in a well aligned and more closely toleranced mechanism you may find the model moves with considerably more brio than was ever seen in Bachmann's clatterbang V2 mechanism.

And here's hoping that your personal brio makes a rapid return too.

[nzpaul]

If you get satisfaction from the resurrection of old, worn models

I can't stand broken engines, even if they're a bit borderline like his one, I have a compulsion to try and fix it.

There was nothing wrong with the can motors in Bach's split chassis,

Agreed, this one has a FK130 can motor which I think has a 5 pole armature given how slowly it can tick over. I'm not sure when Bachmann started using their own motors but this FK type is very powerful, even at 30 odd years old, certainly more powerful than the motors found in the chassis upgrade V2 (not sure about the latest ones),04 or WD among others.
Forgot to mention that I fitted a brass bush to the intermediate gear to stop it from flopping about on the chassis spigot. I suspect much of jerky motion it had developed may have been caused by the gear loading up against the worm. With the bush fitted it cant go anywhere and stays in constant mesh. Hopefully there wont be any bad consequences when the driving axle gear is reintroduced.

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

Steve Kearns, who worked with John Houlden to produce and exhibit the former Gamston Bank layout, rejuvenated / improved some Bachmann B1s in a somewhat similar way, but in his case I believe he bushed the axleways with various sizes of aluminium tube, then fitted "normal" steel axles and insulated wheels. I presume that he also isolated the motor terminals from the two shorted-out halves of the chassis block. He certainly fitted wiper pick-ups to collect current. The use of at least an outer tube of plastic when bushing the axleways appears to me to save some effort.

[nzpaul]

Hi All
The V2 is more or less completed as far as the re-wheeling goes. To fit the old Bachmann gear to the axle required drilling out the existing square hole to 3mm. I started with a 4mm centre drill to establish a round hole on centre then changed to a normal 3mm bit to finish. The axle bearings are held in the same plastic tube but cut to fit the width of each frame half and secured with a spot of glue once I was happy with the gear mesh. Pickup were made from springy wire soldered to vero board in the same way I would set up a kit chassis.
To suit the B1 wheels the return cranks were also changed to Hornby type, purchased as spare P2 speedo drive cranks
Here's a short YouTube of it running on the rollers .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdBIIcbtw2s

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

No wobble apparent. No tight spots evident. Seems like a win.

[Hatfield Shed]

...FK130 can motor which I think has a 5 pole armature given how slowly it can tick over...

https://www.datasheet-pdf.info/attach/1/1676675233.pdf
Mabuchi don't want to tell us how many poles the commutator has, and I certainly cannot detect by feel as it is turned over, so probably skew wound too. Until one fails I won't be able to look inside, hate to ruin a good motor. I asked on the old MREmag if anyone had ever looked inside a failed one, and the only answers were 'what failures?' which confirmed its robustness.

I can't stand broken engines, even if they're a bit borderline like his one, I have a compulsion to try and fix it...

I got all the life possible out of the split chassis mechanisms on their original parts; what is ultimately life limiting is the plating wearing off. Once the tyres are largely showing copper, with some of the mazak casting showing, pick up falls away so badly that salvaging from the mechanism the motor, side rods and cylinders, split axle trucks and tender wheels, for repurposing, was the way I went.

Never yet seen a report of success in resuscitating one with new steel axle wheelsets, seen several attempts over the years. Watching this thread with interest.

[nzpaul]

Never yet seen a report of success in resuscitating one with new steel axle wheelsets, seen several attempts over the years. Watching this thread with interest.

Success with the V2 is now a matter of longevity, it runs well but still has to prove itself under load for a decent amount of time. I'll take a video of it doing some work next time it's out.

The V4 project is progressing well, the boiler now has a firebox, ejector and hand rails.

As if I've not got enough to do already, I'm making another plastic chassis project. This time an F7, should be a piece of cake...
So far the chassis is assembled and fitted with brass bearings. Power will be provided by a Mashima 1024 driving a Comet GB5 50:1 gearbox. I'm not sure what the rest of it will be made of yet, must admit to enjoying working in brass now that I have a set of rollers to form boilers accurately.

A couple of these engine worked around the Waverley route, so a justified GER interloper.

Paul