Learning by trial and error.. StanB's work messy workbench

It Moves Not without a small drama ( apart from the usual ones with small Nuts, bolts and washers ): I discovered I underestimated the clearances required between the rod and brake hangars.. oops.. all fixed now, and the sand pipes have been reattached for the 15th time

 

Having had a successful start in life, I started having issues with the locomotive struggling. This progressed until there was a total stall. Fearing I may have accidently knocked one of the drivers out of quarter ( Its fitted with original Slaters Press fit wheels) I dropped the rods to no effect. Dropping the centre driver out I soon determined that the right bearing was almost seized... A little work with some pliers, and a light oil, soon freed it up again, I figure something must have worked its way into the bearing. After running the chassis in each direction for a good 15-20 minutes each way, I thought I'd drop the top on for a bit...



oh, and I have to reattach the sandpipes for the 16th time

 

looking prettier, even if I keep knocking bits off . She's now got a lokpilot and she seems to run fine in reverse, but is a bit hesitant in forward, might have something to do with it riding high on the lead axle. Anyways will get her numbered and varnished asap. Hopefully I wont kill the whistle: I'm running out of them, but given its a 40 year old, very soft, 1 mm diameter casting it may not last, and yes, I had a lamp iron disappear this afternoon too,

 

Another Johnson just about ready to enter service: I'll fit sound as soon as I can, and she still needs her windows and water gauge glass fitted (i'm thinking of seeing if I can file one up from some clear plastic) but 3F 43449 basically complete.

I chose 43449 for 2 reasons: the rivetted cab which had been constructed with the tender during the early 80's limited the choices, and 43449 was a Normanton engine during the mid 50's so fits within my loose North Eastern 1950's Theme

 

Its been quite a while since I've done an update. Returning to work in a new job during its busiest time in the year has severely curtailed the time available to model, and I decided to clear an outstanding project thats been hanging around part complete, for decades.. a rake of 6 Slaters NER 20T hoppers. Not having any instructions, a prototype with unusual complications, and a few missing parts, a 7th was acquired to enable completion of the rake.

Attempting 7 at once was certainly an undertaking, but finally this weekend I got to the painting stage! I'll still need to get a set of buffers from Tower, so there will be one not quite finished until they get ordered but this is where they are up to. Livery choice was decided after referral to the upcoming Accurascale 4mm range so the plan is - 2 in early BR grey, 2 in very weathered LNER grey, and the remaining 3 in some of the transitional liveries Accurascale dug up. Other than having to make up some stencils for the NE I should be able to scrounge up enough lettering to complete the rake



With the end of these in sight, I'm tossing up between doing more work on the layout _ I need to sort out a few issues with a couple of point motors, and I need to do some more leveling of the track bed , or doing a quick repaint on an overly shiny, LNER liveried A5 tank that looks out of place in my display case. I've also got to do a pickup replacement job on my Johnson half cab: there's some interesting fireworks happening on the lead driver, which is making me reticent to complete its DCC conversion

 

More progress on the North Eastern Hoppers, Ironwork painted, Variations added to the grey shade ( mainly on the LNER grey ones) and Lettering painted onto the 3 intermediate liveried examples. I used a CD case to provide a hard, clear backing under the masking tape, and traced the N E from the transfers. I'll do the rest with decals ( hope the slaters tranfers are ok !) I've also done an undercoat on the bare wood interior: being undetailed these will be permanently in loaded condition , and will finalise that after lettering etc.



the 3F also got her voice this weekend, using the usual Zimo 450R with Youchoos 3f sound file from Buckanbool. No video in operation yet, as I discovered one of the floofs ( probably the one whose tail is ahead of the 3F) has been busy disconnecting things at the far end. a Job for next week!

 

Floof in question in pre-3F build days her name is Minnie, short for Minerva. She likes stretching up and sharpening her claws on the layouts framework

 

Ya, the little darlings are like that - 25 years of living with cats in the same house, and these ones have discovered the back door is made of a softwood... thankfully some Alfoil fixed that issue. I was actually thinking of fixing a sheet of something, foamcore, or light 3 ply under the layout to stop her getting to the wiring - my busbars are copper strip - easy to apply, neat and self adhesive, but not cat proof!

Thanfully the kiddoes aren't inclined to attack anything while it moves - maybe the mass of a 7mm scale model is a bit daunting for them, but woe betide anything that is in the way at treat time!

 

While waiting for the 20T'ers to dry I finally put together a demonstration/tutorial I videoed some months ago about how I repainted and weathered my Dapol 16T Minerals.

Hopefully this will be of interest to some

 

And speaking of weathering, and the 20 Tonners, weathering is done and they are almost ready for traffic. Since they are undetailed inside these will be permanently loaded, a job for another day

 

This weekend has been a bit of a mixer. During the week I'd separated the layouts 3 baseboards so I could pull them forward to gain access to the wiring (self adhesive copper strip - easy to use, but not cat proof) , and had repaired the wiring on the leftmost one. This weekend I repaired the centre section, and swapped out a couple of point motors that had forgotten who they were ( a feature not uncommon on the original Cobalt Ip's), so fingers X'd might have a full functional layout... although the odd random short and cutouts appear from time to time - I need to clean the track again, but I did have trains moving... watch this space.

In between getting frustrated tracking down breaks in the wiring, I also started a "little" project. Amongst the collection I'd inherited is this nice looking WD 2-8-0.


I'm not 100% sure of the origin, but it came in an Oakville models box Previous testing had shown it can make it around a set track curve - just, but the pony truck was lifting and needed help. To this end I replaced the rather flimsy wire that was supposed to guide the truck ( despite being free floating above the bogie pivot) with a strip of Phosphor bronze, and checked the B2B... it tracks much better with more downward pressure, and having aB2B of 29.4mm rather than the 30+ it originally had. While I had no intention to repaint her in the short term, but I probably will do at least a partial repaint - the original paint job has a few runs, theres some glue stains about the need polishing back and a few odd details have disappeared over the years ( I have the buffers, but a few washout plugs are missing) and in doing so I can backdate her a decade to the early 50's. I also rigged her with my usual 8 pin socket and currently have the temporary Lokpilot installed. I also discovered that the original builder must have moved up from 4mm - to add weight the boiler was filled with an eclectic collection of 1:76 whitemetal castings! I'll replace this with some lead flashing that I have, which will leave room for a decent speaker when I get to that stage.

Unfortunately as can be seen, all the running I've subjected her to, has dislodged one of the return cranks


which leads me to a question for the brains trust. Obviously this would be best soldered back onto the crank pin, but how does one prevent said solder gumming up the rest of the works? As I have an black 5 in the similar state, and will have the same issue when I rebuild my Ivatt 2MT any and all advice is welcome.

Finally, a very quick review of my Johnson half cab certified that the spectacular fireworks seen from the drivers of my Johnson half cab were dirty contacts, rather than shorting, I dropped the second Lokpilot in her so I now have another sound project ready to go - I'm thinking the Johnson 1P 0-4-4 file rather than the recommended 3F/Jinty file, which strangely enough is installed in my 3F - and after everything I did this weekend, barely tested although it was good at finding electrical issues!

and In cased theres any doubt I actually got something going...

 

This weekend, rather than start work on the WD - Still assessing how best to repair the return crank and need to get some large early BR crests, I decided it was time for a weekend project. Sitting in the Stash was a Parkside PC13 SR 12t box van to diag 1428, so here it is, basically ready for traffic - Although I did make a fluff of cementing the roof down and will have to touch up some glue residue .

 

New weekend, New project. While I'm waiting for some transfers for the WD and A5 repaints I figured I should push on with some wagon builds. Having finished the Parkside van last weekend, and wanting something with a little more challenge (and maybe baulking at the pair of 21T hoppers) I decided to return to the stash of ABS kits I bought last year..more opens? meh... a few bolsters? meh... a brakevan ? yup, a LNER 20 T Toad D it is.

Anyways today started with this ..


and ended with this



and yes the bench is getting messier

 

todays progress. I now have a running van. I did make life a little harder for myself by pre-emptively fixing the body down but I got the brakes installed with a little gymnastics, and a little trimming on the compensated end. In my search for some buffer heads I also discovered my monarch models version of this van was missing a number of body components, so rather than consider scratch building replacements (and there are far better kits available in 2024!) I figured I could use it parts donors for this one - I now have nice tinplate roof, and a brake standard together with a stove for the interior, which is far more open that I expected. Looks like there'll be a few interior pieces to knock up before I finally paint it all. Obviously externally the steps will need to be put together and I need to install the flooring, but I'm happy with a weekends work

 

And done, I have now got a nice shiny new LNER 20T brake van ....



it even has somewhere for the guard to make himself comfortable...



I even managed to get the stove's chimney more or less lined up with the roof's chimney!

Oh, and did I say shiny... not on my railway. Weathered and glazed ..


I also did a little work on the layout, replacing the single siding on the right with two, using the points out of a set track starter set, and relocating the original 6' streamline point to provide a 3rd siding, Handy to stable locos not in use. I also replaced two original Cobalts with new - one on the Y point under the van in the above pic - It didn't run at slow - it ran at a ridiculously slow rate, so was extremely painful centred in the layout - that motor now powers the streamline point - and still runs slow so its an issue with the motor. The right hand set track point also has a new Cobalt powering it - I'm not sure if the original motor has the forgetfulness of the old style motors, or whether there is an internal contact issue, but it was frustrating having it run fine when set up, but refusing to budge at a later time. Fortunately the series 2 motors that I have bought subsequently all seem to be behaving themselves, but now I have a motor than ran ok, but the set switch broke, a motor that doesnt know when to stop, and another that forgets itself... given that these were ebay purchases ( at basically the same rate as new), and I threw out the packaging ( as you do) this proved to be an expensive mistake.. c'est la vie..


on the upside I did confirm the ESU unit can throw 3 points at once, both sides of the Y lead into points, so now they are all synchro'd making operations much simpler. At this stage I am leaving the Left under manual control. I am toying with the idea of maybe extending the curve around to the right onto a new, narrow board, I might get a couple of sidings in front of the window, and I can set one up as a permanent switchable programming track, time will tell....first I need to do some more work at the other end of the layout, improving the function and alignment of the liftout bridge, and finally summon up the courage to put the traverser together over my desk..