Much doodling at Earlswood

[Atlantic 3279]

Fear nothing, I think that might be right.....

[earlswood nob]

G'day

Right in one "ten ten".

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
This forum seems to be quiet at the moment. So here is a pic of the B3/2 body balanced on its chassis with the motion bracket also resting on the chassis.

The front driving wheel brakes will be behind the motion bracket, so they will have to be fitted before the motion bracket is fixed to the chassis.
My crazy projects always seem so simple when they are conceived, but increase in difficulty very rapidly.
Earlswood nob

[Woodcock29]

Hello

Fitting of brakes should not be too much of a problem for you as it appears you have used slightly undersize driving wheels. I have attached photos of my Valour built in 1992 from a Ks B2 kit. I used Romford 27mm 20 spoke drivers which apart from having the crank in line with the spokes are correct (of course they're not available now except maybe on eBay). Because the first and second drivers are so close fitting brakes was almost impossible. The brakes for the middle driving wheel are actually only fitted to the brake rigging at the bottom - there is no actual support at the top! I took the same approach on a B2.

In respect to the brakes behind the motion bracket you can just see one of these in the photo from the rear. I suspect I fitted them to pins already inserted into the frames after the motion brackets were fitted. My motion bracket is made up of layers of plastic sheet to give the full thickness of the casting with a brass tube inserted into the front as the piston rod guide and pieces of N gauge rail filed down and inserted as the slidebars. They seem to be fairly robust.

,

I might have to go through all this again as I plan to build a B7 one day.

Woodcock29

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
Thanks a lot, Woodcock, for the advice.
The wheels are Markits (Romford 26.7mm) so are slightly smaller than your's.
I have used strips from the edge of Nickel-silver frets to make the slidebars.
I will post pics later, when I finish the cylinders.
This B3/2 is paving the way for a conversion of a Kay's B2 to an original B3, followed by a B7. I intend building a B7 with the later vertical sided cylinders, to provide a contrast with the B3.
If my attempt is half as good as your's, I shall be happy, and the B7 will be better as I learn from my errors.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

I'm loving your B3/2. I've got Lord Faringdon on my 'when I get around to it' pile (a scratchbuilt Ebay bargain of last year). I'm watching to see how you get the motion brackets sorted- they're one of the bits I've got to replace on mine!

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all or is it?
Another day with black clouds and heavy rain forecast. Too dark for modelling, so its music and research today.
For JH, a pic of my trial piece for the B3/2 motion bracket. The round plate is a cylinder end from a Comet cylinder pack, the slidebars are from scrap Nickel-Silver frets, there is a short section of tubing soldered into an enlarged hole in the cylinder end. There is also a length of 1mm square rod to strengthen the assembly and provide something to solder the cylinder end.
On the actual bracket for the B3/2 I have fitted a staple shaped length of brass wire to represent the stay at the rear of the bracket, which passes through and will be fixed to the rear end of the slidebars. The Comet crossheads have had the piston rods removed and replaced by a longer length of brass rod.

B3_crop5.jpg (47.13 KiB) Viewed 6076 times

I hope this is of use.
There are umbrellas going by, so it must have started raining.
A depressed Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

Afternoon all
I managed to get a work break in the gap between showers.
The motion bracket has taken shape. It is tricky to solder the small pieces together so I leave pieces long to give me something to hold, and cut them to length when finished.

Another view from the other side.

It’s now in the soda wash to clean it up a bit.

Earlswood nob

[drmditch]

Very nice! It is tricky isn't it! (see my latest post below). I find making jigs with slots in mdf and plywood helps.

Is it possible to ask the constituents of your 'soda wash'?

[James Harrison]

Nice work there; I can see why the original motion brackets on mine were big clunky things in plastic!

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
The soda wash is merely Soda crystals bought from the supermarket. I use it to wash off flux residues etc. However, the motion bracket went into the wash before I soldered the rear stay to the bracket and slidebars. I also have steps to solder to the bracket as well. I use scraps of wood to act as formers for building such tricky (for me) items.
Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
Progress is slow, but should speed up as I’ve put an order in for wheels/motors/gearboxes etc to finish some projects.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they use to say in the western movies, I bought a cheap Kay’s LBSCR Terrier for conversion to a LNER loco.
I don’t have drawings of either a Terrier or the loco it will be converted into, so I’ve taken some measurements from pic in the RCTS green book, and converted them into 4mm scale.
The Terrier superstructure proved to be too short for the project, so I’ve made a new footplate from brass strip. The sidetanks weren’t long enough, so I’m having to make an extension which flows into the cabsides. It was going to need new cabsides anyway as the Terrier sides are recessed compared to the tanksides.

The pic shows the new side compared to the Terrier side.
No doubt some will be able to identify the class that I’m building.
Always remember, I have no engineering skills, other than overconfidence in my own ability. The techniques that I’ve learnt, come from this Forum and the people who contribute. I have difficulty in sawing a straight cut, but I’m getting better. If I can attempt these locos then anyone can.
Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
There has been a little progress as I’ve been suffering from diversions due to Six Nations rugby and Winter Olympics.
The replacement plasticard sides for the Terrier have been made and the cab doors represented by a piece of plasticard fixed to the inner side of the cab.

The Comet Terrier chassis has been soldered together and fitted with 14mm wheels, a High Level Humpshunter 108:1 gearbox, and a Mashima 1015 motor with a flywheel. At the moment it looks like driving the rear axle would be preferential.

Now to resort to planning as a big black cloud is overhead and about release precipation. I need to sort out how I am going to represent the cylinders and slidebars

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
Things have been a bit busy and not much modelling has been done lately. However, today I’ve been able to relax and make some progress on my dockshunter.
My attempt to use the Comet Terrier chassis has been abandoned as it needed lengthening and heightening, and I decided that it would be simpler to build a new chassis from scratch.
I first made a jig for the assembly of the frames. I soldered ta Comet Terrier coupling rod to a length of 1/16 brass strip used the crankpin holes to drill three holes at the correct spacing (24mm+24mm) for the Terrier chassis. The coupling rod was then removed and put aside for future use. The three holes were then drilled out and tapped to receive a 6BA screw. Three 6BA screws were inserted into the holes to be used to line up the bearings of the chassis frames.

The jig is reusable for any chassis construction which has 24mm axle spacing. I have several strips of brass drilled to useful axle spacing. Eg 29mm+36mm is good for GNR locos and 32mm+34mm is good for NER locos.
I then cut two strips of brass for the chassis side frames and soldered them together. The Comet Terrier coupling rod was then soldered to one side of the frames and a pilot holes drilled using the crankpin holes. The coupling rod was then removed. The holes were drill out to 3.5mm and then made slightly larger (using a broach) to fit axle bearings.

The standard Comet assembly procedure was then followed to add spacers, fix the bearings and insert the Mashima 1015 with a Humpshunter 108:1 gearbox between the frames.
The chassis was then assembled onto the chassis jig using Comet Jig spacers.

The final drive bass gear is not yet fixed to the axle, and the chassis rolls well on the test track.
Now to make the cylinders etc., before doing more work on the body.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

’day all
I’ve finally got back to modelling after a few weeks of back trouble which made it painful to sit at and bend over my workbench. However, I have done a lot of research during this time and now feel qualified to speak on a range of diverse subjects that nobody else is interested in.
I decided to start with something simple. Rebuilding a D49 model in my roundtuit cupboard. The model was bought for a good price and came with a Comet chassis, and I didn’t realise how bad it was constructed until I disassembled it. The valve gear was in an incorrect configuration and there were things like 10BA nuts acting as spacers. The motion bracket had been drilled out to take a screw. The hole was too big for the bracket and a screw had been soldered to the remains of the bracket, a nut added and soldered onto the screw. The inner pivots for the motion bracket were missing. The side frames were OK after disassembling, but I decided to put them aside to use in a old BEC D11 which has sat in its box for around 40 years.
I had a Comet D49 chassis in stock which was going to be used on another project.
The chassis is well designed and goes together easily. A Mashima 1620 with a High Level Hiflier 40:1 gearbox were fitted.
I drilled out the Comet cylinder ends and fitted a length of tubing to act as a piston rod guide, showing a piece of to tubing to represent the gland

The loco body had been assembled with epoxy, solder, and superglue, and is currently soaking in Nitromors to disassemble completely.

I would be pleased if anyone can identify the motor that came with the model.

Now to go for a long walk, which is a pleasure that I’ve missed for a while.

Earlswood nob