Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Atlantic, I think that it does make a difference, the wheels aren't "tucked" under the running plate so tightly, giving a more open look, I like it

Is the stepped out tender on 4009 from Bachmann or a home grown one

manna

[Atlantic 3279]

Hi Manna,

It's good to know that at least one person thinks that my time has not been wasted entirely. The stepped tender (or hearse as I gather Gresley disparagingly called them) is pure Bachmann.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all from a beautiful day in the Surrey Hills, who'd believe its a bank holiday?
The difference from the change of wheelsize is amazing. It reemphasises MichelAngelo's comment about trifles.
I always follow GK's methodology for conversions as I pick up tips for my own kit/scratch building attempts.
Earlswood nob

[Manxman1831]

Now that I've gone back and compared the 'before' and 'after' photos, I can see the difference and I do agree that the changes do make all the difference, particularly the finer valve gear.

[mick b]

Nice work , I must admit without the comparsion pictures I wouldnt have noticed. Have you changed the valve gear it looks the same to me ?

Was it worth it = yes its always good to win a challenge !!

[Atlantic 3279]

The K4 valve gear is unchanged from the Bachmann K3 valve gear. The pair of K3s have crude valve gear by comparison because, as I mentioned, they are actually sitting on older-style V3 split-block, split axle chassis.

Another change I forgot to mention was to the drawbar slot in the tender front. I've taken its bottom edge down by almost a millimetre to ensure freedom for the drawbar to descend enough to avoid having the weight of rear end of the loco riding on the tender instead of on its own coupled wheels.

[Atlantic 3279]

I've now managed to turn down the flanges to a matching height and reasonable profile on four sets of Hornby BFB wheels so that the diameter over the flanges is about 25.7 or 25.8mm. I have also created some full-frame-width tubes with 3mm bearings inserted, and have cobbled together a set of 3mm jig axles to allow me to use coupling rods to set axle bearing positions. You may be able to sense where I'm going with this......

[Manxman1831]

The Bulleid monster will live!!!

[Atlantic 3279]

It does! I still want to re-visit the setting of the gear on the driving axle but it runs smoothly under power and easily negotiated 2ft radius curves when freewheeling. Building up the necessary parts in thick plastic made it quick and easy. I hope the brass bearing surfaces and axle tubes will suffice to largely keep oil off the plastic, which will be painted anyway, especially if oiling is done only moderately. I'll strengthen, stiffen and ballast the chassis soon by filling its voids with lead shot and resin, then add some pick ups.
There's loads of room in the body for more weight too.

[60800]

No lettering I'm afraid, but I've dug out the numbers and you're welcome to some. These sheets are b####y expensive for the amount of transfers you get so I'd be sending the individual numbers. I still need to get round to renumbering that Wellington to Cheltenham...

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
Amongst the drawings that are in a book on the Leader project is a 4-6-4T which looks like a spam can, (possibly shortened) with side tanks and bunker. The wheels are 5'1 (same as the Q1?) and the rigid wheelbase is 16ft (7'6+8'6).
Earlswood nob

[Atlantic 3279]

Ta Blackout, I'll bear that offer in mind.

[Atlantic 3279]

It goes, it pulls and it has put on a lot of weight. If only those three conditions could easily co-exist in life too.....

[Tom F]

It goes, it pulls and it has put on a lot of weight. If only those three conditioons could easily co-exist in life too.....

Now don't go and jinx it Graeme!

[Atlantic 3279]

Mr Bulleid's engine didn't get much attention yesterday as I was busy trying to produce a website for my "real" professional activities. However, I had done a bit more to it during the week, including battle with the tender on Thursday evening, and this is how the loco stands at present:

There are still several jobs to do, and this was supposed to be a simple bit of fun! The tender was going to have some Hornby Bulleid wheelsets, bought for the purpose too, but they wouldn't fit between the frames and required either a new inside bearing arrangement or a change of axles. I filed the frames out to sufficient width for a first set of wheels but my cunning plan to ensure a simple free-running accurate fit in the tender when the new axles were installed resulted in damage to the first set of wheels. "Never mind" I thought, they'll still do as the floating middle set, so I tried to do the same modification with more care to a second set of wheels. Recurrence of the same problem kicked the props out from under that plan! A simple set of 14mm coach wheels went straight in between the unmodified frames and ran niceley in shoulderless pin-point bearings pushed into the original axle holes, so that's how it is going to be!
I've reinstalled the original cylinders and slidebars, plus the make-do con-rods for the time being just to see if it runs satisfactorily and it seems to do so. I do plan to replace with metal slidebars supported in the right place for the new wheel arrangement, along with (I hope) P2 (Thompson A2) con-rods. The void under the firebox and the hopelessly vulnerable plastic front steps are also areas that will receive attention.
With full scale wheel diameters the final skimmed flanges on the coupled wheels are, by my estmation, alarmingly small for OO gauge and a rigid chassis, but they do seem to still just manage to do their job, even on my track which is imperfect in places. Given that the relevant dimensions for Cock o' the North ought to be identical, I wonder what Hornby's solution to this problem will be? They won't be able to have typical Chinese-factory axle slop along with faithfully modelled dimensions! I do hope they won't go for under-scale wheels, stretched wheelbase or flangeless wheelsets.
I've hedged my bets a bit regarding guidance of the loco at the front end. leaving the flanges on the pony wheels full size and loading the truck via a springy wire, bearing on its flat upper face. The truck has to slide relative to the spring on entering a curve, with any luck tending to nudge the front of the loco in the correct lateral direction. I did try a pin either side of the spring in the top of the truck, so that it would supply definite centring force too, but this simply made the truck "cock its leg" on curves.
I think I'll end up springing the rear truck too, possibly adding auxiliary pick-ups in the process. Even with eight wheel pick up at present, simple logic tells me that at times the rigid wheebase may still have only three of its wheels in true contact with the rails, and if the lone wheel on one rail is on a dirty or dead spot the flow of juice will stop.
Enough waffle for now......