Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

How about: drill two holes very near the lower edge of each wing-deflector (at right angles to its general flat plane), position the deflector exactly as wanted on the (say plastic) smokebox and drill the holes through into the plastic, remove the deflector to the bench and solder a stub of tightly fitting brass wire into each hole, filing this off flush with the outside face of the deflector but leaving a decent length on the inside, then reposition the deflector on the smokebox (posed exactly as desired) with its new "pins" pushed back into the holes in the plastic. Glue the pins in place, and add a tiny bead of glue to the bottom edge of the deflector too. Fill joint and tart-up as desired. No added wires to be seen on visible rear faces of deflectors.

Some rivetting progress on the bogie wagon body:

[mick b]

Graeme
Sorry dont understand some of the method. Solder stubs into a plastic smokebox?
On my second A2/2 I soldered legs onto the rear of the scratch defectors using 0.45mm brass wire filed that as flat as possible to retain strength and then fitted. The front ones are visible if you look hard enough, its now with Jim.
On my first A2/2 using DJH etches with "legs in the design " straight fit totally invisible.

[Atlantic 3279]

remove the deflector to the bench and solder a stub of tightly fitting brass wire into each hole

i.e. in the deflector, not the smokebox...

[Atlantic 3279]

Today's postal delivery contained the test etches from Morgan, my partner in crime. Whilst "I would have to say that, wouldn't I?" might apply in this case, the appearance of the etches at a glance seems to me even more impressive than the pictures I've previously seen. I'm looking forward to putting them together.

[Horsetan]

Today's postal delivery contained the test etches from Morgan, my partner in crime. Whilst "I would have to say that, wouldn't I?" might apply in this case, the appearance of the etches at a glance seems to me even more impressive than the pictures I've previously seen....

The pictures were released on RMWeb as well!

[Atlantic 3279]

Well fancy that.......

About three hours last evening, including time spent "thinking myself back in" to the process, looking at the one I laboriously did earlier using the Comet gear, taking step by step photos, drinking coffee, and talking to wife and daughter about accommodation for a few days away, saw an A1/1 motion bracket fully assembled, off the chassis. Expansion links, radius rods, revers lifting levers, and eccentric rods are all attached. The main two layers of the con-rods are also united and tidied up. Later today I shall post pictures and aslo report on the process of uniting the new chunks of motion with the retained parts of the Hornby set-up.

A key point to check when folding up the main structure of the motion bracket is that the overall width MUST finish up equal to, or slightly greater than, the dimension across the valances of you assembled running plate. This will ensure that when the face overlays for the motion brackets are fitted, their tops can overlap the angle iron of the running plate slightly, as per the real Great Northern arrangement. I mention this of course because I failed to check last night, but a quick re-visit to this point this morning reveals that with just the lightest pass of a file to the inside edged of the protruding overlay tops, my bracket structure JUST complies with the necessary criterion.......

[Atlantic 3279]

About three hours more work, still "feeling the way" with the trial build, and I have two sets of fully assembled valve gear, fitted to the wheels and cylinders, working as it should. Along the way I've realised that although it isn't actually essential to refit the valve rods at all, for those who want to do that it would have been easier had the new radius rods included a forward extension piece of mock valve rod too. Trying to jiggle a radius rod (already attached at the rear to the expansion link), a combination lever. and a short piece of valve rod into position behind the cylinders, align the eyes, fit a pin and a paper washer, and then solder up in situ, all with the plastic rear valve crosshead guide partly in thw way, is possibly not the easiest of tasks. Fewer separate pieces would be a blessing. I haven't yet spotted a convenient way to avoid doing this job in situ, at least when it comes to completing the valve gear on the second side of the loco.
The big end holes in the con-rods (and the matching washers for those who choose to use them) are also a bit small and need opening out to fit - but far preferable to being too big at source and therefore a sloppy fit!
It looks like the rear ends of the slidebars when set at the correct angle down't quite fit up flush to the bottom of the motion bracket. I've doen some bridging with solder, but now that this potential snag is known I can see that there IS a way, at an early stage in the work, using the etched parts just as they are, to avoid having quite the amount of later difficulty that I did. I shall write the necessary dodge into the instructions!

[Atlantic 3279]

Etched front brake shoes and reverse reach rod now added. One or two interesting discoveries made about the way that things fit, but nothing utterly disastrous. Those etched A1/1 smoke deflectors appear to be a nice fit just as they come, so it would appear that Morgan's CAD work and my resin mouldings are adequately similar interpretations of what should be the same "truth" in the Isinglass drawing.

[45609]

This is all sounding very encouraging......

[S.A.C. Martin]

Looking forward to seeing pictures Graeme. Sounds like it's all going together rather nicely!

[Atlantic 3279]

A quick look at limited further progreess on panels and rivets on the bogie wagon body, now put on one side whilst I'm trying out the Pacific etches:

[Atlantic 3279]

A1/1 custom detailing etches. Images first, notes will be added progressively....
SINCE THESE NOTES WERE ORIGINALLY PRODUCED, A SEPARATE AND FULLY COMPREHENSIVE SET OF ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONS HAS BEEN PREPARED AND IS AVAILABLE FROM ME BY E-MAIL. IN ORDER TO USE SPACE TO BEST EFFECT THE IMAGES ORIGINALLY DISPLAYED HERE (AND LATER LOST DUE TO DISCONTINUATION OF REMOTE-HOSTING SERVICES) HAVE NOT BEEN REINSTATED.


Drill all pin-holes in main etch to suit the pins (or rivets) that you wish to use for assembly.
1. Fold main structure of bracket, all half etch lines on inside of bends, all folds 90 degrees at this stage. Check that overall width is at least as great as width over outside faces of running plate valances. Adjust "middle four" bends if necessary to achieve width. Also fold tabs at lower corner of add-on inner motion bracket pieces (only one shown). Reinforce fold lines with solder fillets.
2. Add inner motion brackets to main structure.
3. Feed a pin outwards through the small "middle" hole in each added inner motion bracket, passing the pin next through the pivot holes in (firstly) one radius rod, then one expansion link, then through a piece of paper, and then through the rear hole in the outer motion bracket. Push the head of the pin home, check that the items still pivot, then solder both the head of the pin and the projection through the outer bracket.
4. Trim off the outer projection of the pin. LEAVE THE PROTECTIVE PAPER WASHER IN PLACE FOR NOW.


5. Add the face overlay to each outer bracket, dealing with the turn-under of the lower part as shown

I didn't spot the need.....but it might have helped!
6. Now you can remove the paper.


7. Fit one full length pin (rear hole) and one pin shortened to about 2mm (front hole) to each lifting lever for the reversing gear. Note that the L-shaped lever goes on the left side of the loco.
8. Fit the long pin into the rear hole in the inner motion bracket, and the short pin into the slotted rear of the radius rod. It is expedient to model the mid-gear setting of the valve gear, in which case the lifting lever and radius rod can be soldered together in a straight line, in addition to soldering the rear pin into the bracket.
9. Add the eccentric rod (small end) to the inner face of the foot of each expansion link.
10. Also assemble the two-layer con-rods at this stage.


11. Try the new bracket in place on the loco. Have the Hornby motion set to hand ready for recovery of its re-usable parts.


12. The rear of the Hornby crosshead. The little end pin is indented deeply with a neat, handy cross. This gives a perfect starting guide for a small drill bit, rotated by hand in a pin-chuck or pin vice. My drill went through the crosshead much more smoothly than my drills normally pass through Bachmann crossheads, remaining on its true line so well that a full collar of crosshead metal was still present within the little end of the con-rod when the drill emerged. A slightly larger drill, and/or a file will remove enough of this collar to release the con-rod. Then file the back of the crosshead flat.
Also recover the slidebars, filling flat the top edges. Unscrew and un-rivet the return crank. Cut the dummy valve rod and the pivot hole from the front of the Hornby radius rod. Ease the plastic rear face of the cylinders away from the original A3 cylinder moulding, UN-BROKEN.


13. Fit and glue the cylinder rears into the new A1/1 cylinder casting.
14. Pin the little end of each new con-rod to the rear of each crosshead.
15. Pin together the combination lever (as outer layer) dummy valve rod (middle layer) and front of radius rod (inner layer).
17. With the cylinders loose but in position in/near its chassis-bottom slot, and the motion bracket loose on top of the chassis, slide the piston rods and valve rods into the rears of the cylinders and then fully locate the cylinders and motion bracket into their respective places on the chassis. NOW feed each slidebar into position, check that the crosshead has full freedom of forward and aft travel, check that the slidebars sit at the correct inclination, and see that the crossheads don't foul the leading crankpins. When satisfied, solder the top rear edge or the slidebars to the base of the motion bracket.

Not so easy to position the rear of the slidebars in mid-air and then solder up the gap!


But it can be done. Note that my slidebars are as far forward as they can go without obstructing the crosshead, yet their rear end still sits slightly aft of the foot of the motion bracket. The return crank can be added to the inside face of the large end of the eccentric rod at any stage. It is easiest to align and join these two parts while the valve gear is still on the bench, rather than on the loco. I added my cranks at a late stage, on the loco, simply because I was waiting to see, step by step, how the first set of etched parts fitted before adding extra parts that might compound any problems that I encountered.
Here are the new front brakes folded up, with face overlays for both the arm and (separately) the shoe added.


These slide in place with the supporting plate above the front end of the Hornby upper keeper plate. There isn't much room for error if short circuits and dragging on the wheel flanges are to be avoided whilst still having brakes that appear to be in the right places and which accept the original brake rigging. Morgan may be having another look at this aspect of the design. We'll keep you all posted!


There's a simple L shaped bracket to add to reverse reach rod (long leg at the top, flat, to glue to the undersie of the running plate) and a nice half-etch piece with three rivets to add to the rear of the rod to simulate the joint. Alternatively, forget the half etch add-on and press through three rivets from the rear of the main rod - they are half etched in ready for embossing. The rear of the the rod just glues to the side of the firebox below the S-curve of the running plate. My rod seemed spot-on for length.
The smoke deflector was a good fit too. I've soldered a small piece of angle to its bottom edge, on the inner face, to give a means of screwing it down invisibly on to the resin running late

The lower of those two images shows the first GN conversion, with adapted Comet valve gear and a resin smoke deflector. Sorry about any drunkenness of cabs - they are not yet fastened in place!

If you insist on looking at smoke deflectors head-on, this is how the thin-edged resin type (left, black) and the truly thin etched type (right) compare.


Right side of loco, still with its resin deflector


Left side in detail

[Atlantic 3279]

Attempted clarification of what I meant about drilling/soldering/pinning those small wing deflectors to a plastic or resin smokebox:

[mick b]

Etches look excellent.
Thanks for pictures of deflectors, doesnt change my opinion on having" legs" on the etch much simpler for same result, if not better result. The "legs" also provide instant location/fitting points for the etches, same for the A1/1 type too ( I will duck at this point ).

[Atlantic 3279]

With joints filled and a quick waft of red primer. No visible means of support....

NB: The smokebox used is a scrap one, the last item out of a mould that died. The ones I supply when requested have a complete and tidy front edge and are not distorted as this one is.