What's on your workbench?

[atom3624]

One of the most detailed locomotives Hornby has made in the last 15 years (guess) is the rebuilt Royal Scot.

Beautiful replica of a fantastic locomotive, but VERY easy for things to go pear shaped!

I've got 2 - the 2 preserved ones - 46100 Royal Scot and 46115 Scots Guardsman.

46100 or Scottie as I call her had been performing brilliantly, so it was time for 46115.

All seemed well, running as smoothly and quietly as Scottie, then she just falls off the rails!!

I've had similar experiences with an A4, so immediately checked the brake rigging - all seemed OK.

Nothing doing - derailing, even slowly (not falling - no, no damage fortunately!).

I then noticed one of the brake hangers on the keeper plate was loose - was this catching?

I removed, cleaned, and reglued the hanger / brake shoe - rigging removed - and left all day to cure, Superglue or not.

I replaced the rigging, and replaced the keeper plate, and ran it - BINGO!! Job done!

Both Rebuilt Royal Scots running perfectly!

She's been running for the last 45 minutes, half power, so will be coming to rest fairly soon.

Al.

[What About The Bee]

I just picked up large lot of Threaded Rod, manufactured by the JI Morris company.

Ranging in size from 2-56 all the way down to 0000-160. 0000-160 threaded rod is 0.021" in major diameter. I've gone through the JI Morris catalog and total the value at $385 USD, not counting the plain rod in the lot, just for the threaded rod. Total I paid, including tax and shipping was $30. A steal. The seller had no idea! Ha!

Bee

[Fazy]

On the work bench are 6 tankers waiting for transfers these are basically Hornby tankers butchered and set on Cambrian open frame’s giving them a more prototypical look. A long with a Falcon Brass chemical pan wagon. Which was a little tricky to build Being Falcon brass but has built a nice little wagon in the end.

[Rana Temporia]

I had half an hour so got out a box of clockwork Thomas locos. Every time I buy a job lot there seems to be one of these locos and I have a mint one so don’t need them but decided to check them over. One of the mechanisms was jammed solid and another was hardly running but a bit of sewing machine oil and all was well. I have also made one good body out of two damaged ones using some solvent I would probably get sacked for if I’d used it at work. One is still missing a funnel but as they are probably going back into the box for a while I’m not too fussed. A good half hour!

[atom3624]

Moving from Hong Kong to the Bahamas .... !!! yum

Converted a Bachmann later tooling Jubilee '45611 Hong Kong' into '45596 Bahamas'.

It included blinging it to the maximum - gloss lacquer, wheel rim clean up and also remove the single and insert a double chimney. 'Chroming' the cylinder caps. Rename and number of course.

Not perfect, but quite pleased with the result.

The cylinder drains need a bit of colour.

Al.

[Guildfordboy]

To The Duke 71000 - was there a photo to go with your post below, as I have the same issue with my Merchant Navy tender :

The loco & tender upturned. This reveals brass brake hanger ties between the brake hangers either side of the loco. The shortened coupling between engine & tender. And if you look carefully, outside the front & rear tender wheels are little white plastic inserts. Test running of the model revealed that the sideways play in the tender axles was too great. This allows the tender to wobble from side to side rather unrealistically. The sideways play in these axles is however necessary if you run the engine on the extremely sharp curves of any clip together track system. My minimum 5ft radius curves allow me to solve the problem by adding these plastic inserts.

[Guildfordboy]

To The Duke 71000 - was there a photo to go with your post below, as I have the same issue with my Merchant Navy tender :

The loco & tender upturned. This reveals brass brake hanger ties between the brake hangers either side of the loco. The shortened coupling between engine & tender. And if you look carefully, outside the front & rear tender wheels are little white plastic inserts. Test running of the model revealed that the sideways play in the tender axles was too great. This allows the tender to wobble from side to side rather unrealistically. The sideways play in these axles is however necessary if you run the engine on the extremely sharp curves of any clip together track system. My minimum 5ft radius curves allow me to solve the problem by adding these plastic inserts.

[Going Spare]

Unfortunately, The Duke has not posted on this forum for a long time and is therefore unlikely to see your question.

[atom3624]

As indicated in my recent purchases, my workbench has been quite busy.

'L' plates are on in several disciplines, but every day's a school day as they say.

I've had mixed results with Humbrol spray varnishes, normally considered paint temperature and preparation.

I have a spray gloss lacquer which has worked well-to-brilliantly on several locomotives, but which failed on a couple of Black 5 bodies - not happy, but as there's a few of them now, I've decided to bin the bodies - don't have time / patience to strip, repaint and line, so a pity there - but I've a couple of spare chassis, which will help in time.

A couple I've been working on, as well as the Coronation purchases, have been a few super-detail Black 5's, with the intention of renumbering to those preserved - care being taken to select the correct boiler-type donors!

I've been using Fox Transfers' '9-inch' numbers - which are the correct size - not 8" or 10", which are the normal options!

Reading the Fox instructions, obviously there's an 'understanding' somewhere, I also purchased brush-on Railmatch Matt, Satin and Gloss varnish pots.

Renumbered a top-feed boilered '5' to 44871, after a test on a 'binned' body, 44871 is now a success. Great runner too.

The extra varnish helps seal in the transfer, or it'll simply wipe off once dried! It works.

I've used an early logo, BR lined body / tender top-feed boilered model - looking good so far. Drains and crew fitted, locomotive 'bang' plate also, with 3-link / hook at the front.

Extra weight in loco and tender.

Busy times, outside of work, and finally getting some locos out of the 'works department'!!

Al.

[atom3624]

Looking at the 'created 44871' Black 5, this is one of those without the elongated slot for the front steps - bogie will catch on curves, so I'll have to 'adjust' them 1.5mm further forwards - then she'll be fine.

Al.

PS: Slightly later-bodied Super Detail Black 5 models have a little tab on the steps, as always, but an elongated slot in the body permitting forward mounting of the steps.

[Rana Temporia]

Just bought some Playcraft spares off eBay which included most of two class 29 chassis and a coach. I have re-assembled the chassis and been able to crate one complete one with the later PECO type couplings and part of one with the earlier Lanal type couplings. There were parts from at least three locos here with the full chassis having bogies with both the early brass and the later plastic gears. Both motors run like new ones. The turquoise nail varnish is the closest colour i could find to the original used by Playcraft/Jouef to lock the nuts on top of the drive shafts.

I was very happy with this purchase and now have a complete spare chassis for when one of my locos is playing up. As I use the PECO couplings the other bogies are of no use to me but I might keep the motor as a spare. I also have no need for the coach as I have a full set of those produced by Playcraft. Great fun!

[ModelerXYZ]

A hornby Henry which seems to have the motor disconnected from the wheels in the drive mechanism. I haven't really had a proper look at it yet, I just know it don't go when it should. The motor is turning the wheels are not.

[atom3624]

I forgot how huge those Playcraft motors were.

Brother had a Playcraft set - 29 and a black 0-4-0 tank engine with red wheels.

Al.

[Rana Temporia]

Atom3624, they are huge and act as a flywheel so if you stop the power suddenly they coast for quite some time!

The class 21/29 (different grilles on each side, if you have one have a look), the black 0-4-0 and the SNCF pacific all used those huge motors originally but were later replaced with the smaller standard Jouef motor which is OK but not as good as these. I had one of the later Pacific’s and swapped the rubber band drive chassis for an earlier one. Much better running!

[atom3624]

Hi RT - I remember just that with my brother's!

Is there hugely more power available than 'modern' powered locomotives - just curious why such a big motor was installed?

Al.

[Rana Temporia]

Atom3624, they aren’t that powerful but are highly efficient being designed to run off batteries. The class 29 chassis is basically that of one of the French locos that Jouef produced and can be found with several different bogie frames as used on the various OH electric locos that they made. The original version of the OH loco was 6v and had a power bogie with a large can motor that drove through a gear train very similar to that used in the 0-4-0 tank loco. The later versions of this (and other locos) had the large central motor that drove both bogies despite only having current collection from one. Then Jouef started to use their smaller motor and both bogies were graven from a lay shaft, originally using gears and later a rubber band and then they stopped bothering to use the drive to both bogies and just did it to one. They also originally used brass gearing later replaced by plastic and then rubber band, actually a traction tyre! The original ones with brass gears and all wheel drive with the big motor are the best.

The pick up system is good when it works but is usually where the problem lies with non-runners. Brass rods touch the split axles at one end and springy brass contacts at the other, that make contact with brass pads on the main chassis. The motor isn’t wired in but just touches some brass pads. With the wheels contacting the rails as well that is a lot of contact points to go wrong. 10 mins with a fibreglass pen usually gets things running again! Here is a bit from an early catalogue!

[Rana Temporia]

First decent day when I had the time to solder outside so my backlog got underway. Most were just re-connecting wires, replacing brushes and cleaning contacts but the Dublo tank that I bought last week suddenly stopped and when I investigated the ‘brushes’ or strips of brass had disintegrated. I took some brushes out of an old car fan motor and soldered them to what was left of the originals, it now runs perfectly down to a crawl in both directions. All now running well although two of the Continental power bogies are missing the suppressor.

[atom3624]

I fitted a firebox glow led to my 'previous model' super detail loco drive Princess Elizabeth, which had (note 'had') been a superb runner.

Suddenly, with the disturbances of rewiring inside, etc., I'd upset the fine balance between a superb running locomotive and ... a disaster!

She started popping off her slider and a pickup 'finger' started poking through the main driver spokes .... not happy.

The extended weekend has now permitted me to realign the pickup fingers and better locate the piston rod crosshead / slider mounts.

Early testing in progress for now, but initial signs seemed positive.

Next she started derailing - seems I had 'fine tuned' the front bogie and must have straightened it during the time it had been removed ... another 10-15 minutes' fine tuning later and this seemed resolved, but I'd taken too much weight off the drivers ... more fettling and she now seems 'OK' but could be better - loco pickups need a little fine tuning still - may leave for now.

Al.

[81F]

Been going through the bit box and have finally managed to assemble a Matt Albert Hall although it actually has an X04 rather than X03 powering it. All I need is a suitable tender.

I am also working on Kneller Hall. I have a body, a chassis but missing a pony truck and cylinders with GWR lining rather than the Alber Halls BR type which is more common on eBay.

I have a Third X04 powered chassis from a Hall but not too sure what toi use it for

[Rana Temporia]

If you don’t have the cylinders for the spare Hall chassis you should be able to fit it to a GBL B12. I paid 99p for mine and used a B12 chassis Which is mostly the same. I’m not sure if the plate at the front of the hall is different though.

It involves cutting a slot above the buffer beam, drilling a hole for the screw and cutting out enough plastic to allow the chassis to fit in place. I think it took less than an hour to have it up and running and the tender body fits straight onto the Tri-ang chassis.

[atom3624]

I recently purchased a 'new condition, old fabrication' Bachmann J39. It's one of the infamous 'split chassis' models.

I 'surface lubricated' where might be obvious without pulling fully apart, and ended up with an erratically performing model.

Construction is 'tidy but rugged' so full-servicing is quite easy, so I pulled it completely apart, thinking my fresh lubrication had simply gone where it shouldn't, insulating areas which should make contact.

A full stripdown, then reassemble later, cleaned and dried where possible, removing old hardened grease, she's still initially not amazing.

The motor, tested removed, then installed in the chassis only, is perfect.

I had a Heljan new-tool 86 hauling 16 carriages at the time and simply tagged her on the back - 10 seconds later, and whatever it was, gone. Been perfect every since, hauling 11 LMS super detail Hornby carriages easily - perhaps a total of 3 hours so far.

That Heljan 86? If you can, don't hesitate, just get one - they're fantastic!!

Al.

[ModelerXYZ]

Hornby Henry is still there, but the 125 has been fixed, and has now made its way back to the layout.

XYZ

[atom3624]

I purchased an 'as new used' Bachmann Sir Frank Ree Patriot.

It is one of the 'latest uprated older' parallel boiler models - 21-pin DCC ready, tender pickups. Runs, or was running very nicely.

I had used it perhaps for 6-8 hours on the track, not much, but the other day the early signs of imminent motor failure materialised - typically a sudden slowing, and an arcing sound. I'm guessing this relates to brushes wearing down and no longer are able to make full-on contact.

A replacement motor has been received from Bachmann, and I'm gently 'bedding in' the brushes at low powers, before fitting - seems healthy enough, so should be fine later on.

Al.

[Fazy]

well I taken a Hornby patriot to bits and we’ll be slowly putting it back together has something new. Should be ready In time for one of the RTR producers to announce a new model.

[Rana Temporia]

Are you building the body from scratch?