Much doodling at Earlswood

[mick b]

Its not that dear compared to your own efforts . Take off the price of the rods and the gearbox( included with the chassis) and the other materials needed for the homemade chassis it comes out at around £25. I have only built one of his NER tender chassis so far which is excellent quality.


Like most hobbies model railways is far from cheap.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
As Mick says, modelling is not cheap.
I regularly look at the 52F site as it gives an indication of which models are available from Dave Alexander. They are good looking chassis. I didn't notice that they come with gearboxes (High Level by looks), however as I'm an individual basket, I like choosing my own gearboxes as I often fit different ratios.
I have used a Mashima 1624 with 40:1 gears in my A8, whereas 52F supply 54:1 and recomend 1620.

I tend to choose gearbox ratos by what work I think the loco would perform:

Dock shunting Y8 108:1
Hump shunting T1 108:1
Banking U1 80:1
General shunting J72&J52 80:1
Shunting/trip freight J50 60:1
Freight J39 54:1
Passenger 40:1

If I put a motor bigger than a 1628 in the rebuilt W1, I may well use 30:1 gears as the motor will be slower revving.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
I haven’t done much serious modelling over the last week. I have been mixing music for disco bookings. The income from these should help finance building a layout. I wonder what my new neighbours think if they notice the flashing lights and loud music coming from my place as I try out new mixes and light sequencing. The A8 is marking time as I can’t decide which running number to model. I like modelling locos from South or West Yorkshire in the 30’s, and there were A8s at Neville Hill, but they were all fitted with bunker hopper extensions. The question becomes; “shall I model a loco without a hopper extension, or shall I attempt to make an extension from sheet brass”?
The postman arrived early yesterday with a packet from Branchlines, and like a big kid, I had to open it and try out the contents. I raked out a box from my rountuit shelves and started building a chassis.

Some of the experienced modellers may work out what the loco will be. A slight modification to a High Level gearbox and we have the motor mounted.

Rods and pickups should be sorted early this morning, then it’s off to the Surrey History Centre to check out some dodgy ancestors.

Earlswood nob

[Manxman1831]

Hush-Hush, or rebuild?

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
After posting the above bulletin, I was shocked to realise that the motor/gearbox combination was pointing the wrong way.
I was even more shocked with the details of my ancestors that I found at the Surrey History Centre.
Back home, needing a drink, I reversed the motor in the chassis and it still fits.

I must now call round my sister’s to discuss the family revelations.
Earlswood nob

[jwealleans]

Er, different chassis, EN?

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
I moved onto the third of my experiments to fit a Mashima 1830 into a loco.

The motor just squeezes into the firebox.

A pic taken from another angle shows the motor in position.

There are three Gresley locos (four, if you count the U1) that produced power way in excess of the other classes; the P1 with booster, the P2, and the rebuilt W1.
I have used the Mashima 1628 in my A3, A4,V2, and B17 etc., and they run beautifully, and seem to be quieter than the one loco that I have left with a Portescap.
I wanted the most powerful locos to be MORE powerful than other locos of my collection. The U1 was easy, it has 1624s at either end, a load of lead in the boiler and will shove anything backwards. When I built the Kays P2, many years ago, I used a Pittman DC70 to replace the first of the horrible Kay HP2M motors that I had come across. The slow running was marvellous, but it had a low top speed. It would have made a terrific hump shunter, but I don’t even think Thompson would propose the use of a P2 on such work.
Use of the DC70 sparked me into thinking about using an O gauge motor in an OO loco. I recently decided to try a Mashima 1830 and ordered one from Branchlines. I planned to make a motor bracket with the wider mounting screw holes and solder it to a High Level gearbox. This is the piece of brass seen in the first pic. However, it was not needed, and thin washers soldered to the High Level box seem sufficient.
I found that the gearbox needed to be raised high to clear the driving wheels, as the motor was too fat to fit between. I chose a Roadrunner plus with the drive extender and it gives the option of moving the position of the motor to suit requirements.
I was surprised and pleased to find that I could squeeze the motor into the Hornby A3 body, which will eventually be converted into a P1 body following Atlantic 2879s thread on the other side a while ago. I shall have to find plenty of spaces to put lead in the Hornby body to give it sufficient adhesion.
If anyone is interested; the Mashima 1830 fits easily in an A4 or B17/5 body. It would also fit into some large tank locos.
Earlswood nob

PS The waffle about music and genealogy, whilst true, was just to cloud the issue.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

I'm going to enjoy this build.

I've never been able to find Graeme's, P1 build on the old RM Web.

manna

[Atlantic 3279]

2879????

Try this link Manna, it takes you to the work in mid-flow but I'm sure you can navigate back and forth from there.
http://rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php? ... &start=350

[earlswood nob]

G'day all
Oooops....at least 2879 was an Atlantic (post 1946). I don't know where that came from. A touch of dyslexia showing through, or perhaps dementia.
Thanks 3279 for the link to the P1 build. I had cleared my desk and lost the scrap of paper it was written on.
Don't hold your breath for the model Manna, I have so many projects going at the moment as well as too many modelling ideas.
My build will be slightly different to Atlantic's. I am going to build it with the booster, hence my experiment to see if a larger motor fitted. I have a Dave Alexander A1 tender top which is the right size with the front plate sloping backwards. It just needs modified side sheets, a chassis, and sideframes.
It is going to be difficult to get enough lead in it for good (super) adhesion. I shall have to get some of those extra heavy crew that Atlantic must have used.
Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
The W1 is progressing slowly as I’ve a lot of other diversions at the moment.
The SEF loco chassis is one of the easiest and best that I’ve built.
The tender chassis is the first fold up one that I’ve ever constructed.
I had to rethink how to put pickups one the tender chassis, and eventually drilled and inserted two brass rods through the chassis, then superglued a strip of 0.5mm plasticicard to the chassis, adding a short length of plastic tubing to the brass rods. A short length of brass tubing was glued over the plastic tubing and phosphor-bronze wire soldered to the brass tubing for pickups.
I drilled out the brake rodding holes to accept tubing, into which I will insert brass wire to support the brake shoes.

I'll post pics of the loco chassis when I do a bit more to it, but it's fairly standard apart from the big motor.
Now to spend an hour or two looking for a hotel in the New Forest for Halloween. My G/F would have been burnt at the stake, if she'd lived 400 years ago, and I'm descended from smugglers in the area, so we should meet some interesting spectres.
I'll see if I can find a copy of "Ghost train", to play on the car stereo.
Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

Good afternoon all
I finally got back to some modelling, after spending a lot of time with some Yeadon’s registers that arrived yesterday.
I trial fitted the brake shoes to the tender chassis, and soldered the connecting wires onto the pickups.

I then removed the brake gear and smeared the shoes with araldite and put aside to cure. It’s strange how 5min epoxy takes 24 hours to harden.

I then decided to build a chassis for a C7/2, which I intend making from two D49 bodies. I thought I’d make two chassis at the same time, and use one for my DJH C7. I then discovered that the C7/2 was longer than the C7/1, so I decided to make only one.
Usual method for chassis construction, two strips of brass soldered together and pilot holes drilled for driving axles. I then soldered 9mm wire into the holes to act as jig to make the coupling rods. When using Gibson universal road for a four coupled loco, only half the etch is used, but don’t throw the rest away as what’s left over will make the central rods for an eight coupled loco.

The axle holes were then drilled out to accept bearings and the frame filed away to clear the bogie wheels. The hole just to the rear of the driving axle holes is for the pivot to allow the trailing axle to move in a vertical plane, and the small notch in the bottom of the sideframe is limit the vertical movement (this may have to be enlarged). The trailing axle will be held in a tube with Gibson 1/8 to 2mm reducing sleeves to act as bearings.

Tomorrow is another day as they said in a famous film.

Earlswood nob

[Atlantic 3279]

Not sure about that "9mm" wire , but I think I get the intended meaning .

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
Well done, Atlantic, spotting that. I shall have to remember to use 45mm wire for the handrails.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
I made a little progress yesterday, I corrupted some files on my hard drive, and spent the rest of the day restoring them I did spend some time on the C7/2.
I remembered to drill out the brake mounting holes before separating the chassis sideframes and made the pivot to allow the trailing axle to move up and down.
The two D49 bodies were chopped and filed to length. They were joined with Bluetack for the pic.

There is still plenty of jobs before gluing the bodies together; the firebox sides have to removed from around the front splasher, a boiler bottom piece needs to be made, and the cab sidesheets modified.
I will use the cylinders, slidebars, and crossheads from a Comet D49 chassis, with the sideframes to be used for an old GEM D21.
Earlswood nob