Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Erm, P4 is well out of my range of experience, but....supposing that a rigid Bachmann K3 chassis with axle holes simply pillar drilled out to 1/8th inch is no use (either because you won't cheat a bit and use EM flange depth or because you don't have laser interferometry available to assist you in laying dead level track), then could Mr Bradwell help you out with some compensprungated K1 chassis bits, and could you marry these to adapted Comet V2 valve gear? The latter would have to built with multi-layer expansion links of course, or you'd never hear the end of it

[45609]

<sniggers in the corner>

[45609]

Ivan,

A few suggestions off the top of my head. Some valid, some may be total bull.....

Dave Alexander does a K4 kit....I have a feeling the chassis may be etched but not 100% sure.
Could a DMR K1/1 or K1 chassis be adapted?
Adapt a SEF K3 chassis kit?
Adapt a Bachmann chassis as Graeme suggests. It can be done. I've jigged up and milled spring pockets and hornguides into a Hall 4-6-0 chassis.

However all of these options are probably going to need increasing levels of engineering skill to pull off. It depends how much of a glutton for punishment you really are? I'm afraid I'm a hopeless case having just come in after an evening on the lathe and milling machine making some wheel fitting tooling.

Cheers....Morgan (your resident P4 nutter)

[Horsetan]

Ivan,

A few suggestions off the top of my head. Some valid, some may be total bull.....

"....but never mind, I'll just open my mouth and see what comes out...."

Dave Alexander does a K4 kit....I have a feeling the chassis may be etched but not 100% sure.

Is etched. Not designed for P4.

Could a DMR K1/1 or K1 chassis be adapted?

Ever tried getting kit spares from DMR?

Adapt a SEF K3 chassis kit?

I've had a look at this as well. The late great Alistair Rolfe designed it, and it's got the lot - forked joints, 3-layer expansion links, and has P4 spacers.

Adapt a Bachmann chassis as Graeme suggests. It can be done. I've jigged up and milled spring pockets and hornguides into a Hall 4-6-0 chassis.

I don't get on well with solid block chassis.

....probably going to need increasing levels of engineering skill to pull off.

....of which I have none, but I do have massive amounts of mindless optimism and a passion for hybrids. Which reminds me that I opened a wardrobe earlier, and the half-completed hybrid V2 fell off a shelf. I caught it in time.

....an evening on the lathe and milling machine making some wheel fitting tooling.

I'd actually like lathe lessons. I have a Unimat 4 that just needs a new set of belts.......

(your resident P4 nutter)

And I'm the other one.

[Atlantic 3279]

Presumably the SEF K3 kit is the winner by a mile then? No problem getting etches and selected castings from Dave Ellis if you don't want the full kit.

[IAK]

Adapt a SEF K3 chassis kit?

I've had a look at this as well. The late great Alistair Rolfe designed it, and it's got the lot - forked joints, 3-layer expansion links, and has P4 spacers.

Did he?
Did he do anything else of that ilk for SEF?
I know I have to contact SEF for some N5 bits soon

(your resident P4 nutter)

And I'm the other one.

Ahem... Guilty as well too M'lud...

[Horsetan]

Presumably the SEF K3 kit is the winner by a mile then? No problem getting etches and selected castings from Dave Ellis if you don't want the full kit.

It's got to be at least part of the way, hasn't it? The K3 frame top line is perhaps a little too high for a K4, but there may well be a way of shaving this down.

In a brief moment of clarity this morning, I even spotted that the shallow reverse curve on the A3 footplate moulding (where it coincides with the leading splasher) almost exactly matches that on the K4. I can see a lot of cutting and shutting for the B17 footplate as I graft that A3 section in.

Adapt a SEF K3 chassis kit?

I've had a look at this as well. The late great Alistair Rolfe designed it, and it's got the lot - forked joints, 3-layer expansion links, and has P4 spacers.

Did he?
Did he do anything else of that ilk for SEF?

The Maunsell Mogul and "River" tank chassis etches were Alistair's work. I think the "W" 2-6-4T and the Metropolitan "K" 2-6-4T are also his. He had already done some design work on an all-new "new-build" U class mogul by the time he died; Dave Ellis mentioned that he would need to spare some time to review the pattern-making and see what else needs to be done to bring it into production. Southern modellers have long been denied an accurate new-build "U"; the DJH effort is out of production now.

Basically, the more complex SEF kits are the ones more likely to bear Alistair's hallmarks - have a close look at the relatively recent original "Royal Scot" kit; the chassis is not greatly different from the one that Brassmasters supply for their rebuilt Royal Scot.

If you see an etch with the name "Precision Miniature Arts" or "Modeltec" on the perimeter, it's most probably Alistair's artwork.

(your resident P4 nutter)

And I'm the other one.

Ahem... Guilty as well too M'lud...

Three's a crowd

[IAK]

Aye but dare we mention blue engines powered by smelly liquid?

[Horsetan]

Aye but dare we mention blue engines powered by smelly liquid?

As it happens, I need to find another centrifugal clutch for the one I'm building...

[Atlantic 3279]

Aye but dare we mention blue engines powered by smelly liquid?

I hope you've put your fine in the swear-box!

I've now tinkered around to put some basic door hinges onto the bogie wagon body. Very little of the hinge is actually visible from the side of the wagon, so I haven't wasted time producing perfect works-of-art. If you insist on turning the wagon upside down, as in the image below, the plainness of the hinges is revealed! The hangers for the brake handles are now present, as little hollow triangles cut from 20 thou plastikard and bonded at right angles to a base plate that vcan be stuck to the bottom of the wagon body. Casting replicas of these should be no problem. By good fortune, rather than by careful planning, when I decided to see how a Parkside diamond frame bogie might also fit this wagon, all went well: simply a case of trimming the bogie mounting plate so that its narrower dimension fits the recess in the central girder of the wagon, then trim a couple of mm off each end of the plate so that it interferes with neither the coupling nor the trussing. The ride height rather miraculously appears to be spot-on as supplied, when using the same Gibson 10.5mm wheels that I fitted in the Cambrian bogie. The Cambrian bogie, as you can see, finished up needing a couple of layers of 30thou plastikard on top of its mounting plate to set the correct ride height. I've finally got around to fitting the axleboxes to one of those too. Prior to doing that I thought I'd better do something "proper" and permanent to keep the bearing cups in the right places. Left free, they drifted too far apart to control the "slop" when my Gibson pin-point axles are inserted, and the one-piece bogie frame is of course non-adjustable in width. I needed to put a washer of at least 10 thou plastic behind the shoulders of each bearing cup to limit the end-float of the axles, which still spin very freely (in fact 15 thou washers or maybe even 20 might have been better still).

[60800]

I can just imagine forty of those slugging along behind the baldwin

[WOOTANG]

blackout
good job you can because atlantic doesnt haha

[IAK]

Quality modelling mind

(sitting in naughty corner...)

[Dave]

Is that you Mr King in I think it was this months Model Rail with an article on making boilers. If so well done.

[Robpulham]

That bogie wagon is getting better by the day. I quite look forward to seeing the first casting.