What's on your workbench?

[Will Hay]

Now complete, albeit waiting for glue to dry on farm personnel and livestock.

[atom3624]

Nice job.

Bit of fencing would help perhaps?

Layouts are never finished!! grinning

Al.

[Twintop]

Good news, I have found the thick washer/collar that fell off the Tri-ang 2-6-2T on the layout. However, the reason for the screw working loose is that the crankpin can rotate in the wheel, so I need to glue it for a second time. The other side seems fine. It is disassembled and cleaned ready for the glue.

I have replaced the centre axle bearing/gear on the second Ivatt 2-6-2 T but the wobbling persists so I think as plastic wheel inset is swollen that will be the problem, so will have to cut away some spokes as glueing does not seem to work. I will persist but it could be just general wear in the valve gear.

[threelink]

Hi Twintop.

I had this problem on the Triang 2-6-2T and found that the crankpin had been pushed too far through the wheel. The end of the crankpin is D shaped and this sits in a D shaped recess in the back of the wheel to stop the pin rotating. All I had to do was push the pin back into the wheel making sure that the D section sat snugly in the recess. I found that if the crankpin D is not in the recess, the pin is too short and the screw holding on the coupling and conrods constantly unscrews itself. It might be worth checking the crankpin on your loco to see if it is the same problem.

[Twintop]

Threelink, many thanks for that great information. I had noticed that the crankpin was D shaped on the inside end. I will have another look, but as they are replacement Romford wheels, I doubt if there is a D shaped recess for it in the wheels - but hopefully there is ! If not it will have to be glue, but it is awkward just setting it to the right angle so the valve gear works OK. However, I did do the other side OK.

Re: the Bmann Ivatt 2-6-2T, 41313 - my persistence has paid off. I had another close look and the plastic inserts on the centre driving wheels were both swollen a little. I have cut most of the spokes similar to the Bmann Std 4, and this second Ivatt is now running wobble free, so I am really pleased at that. The outer driving wheel inserts are fine. It has been on a running in turn, local passenger with 3 Tri-ang MK1s in Maroon - 2 BSK sandwiching a CK. So I now have three engines recently back from the "dead" so am very happy, but it has been many, many hours to sort them out. Tri-ang 2-6-2 T here I come !!

[threelink]

'Fraid I'm not familiar with the crankpin arrrangements on Romfords. I hope you get it all sorted soon. As a matter of interest, did the Romfords cause the loco to ride even higher than normal? I would like to re-wheel my Triang locos but am wary of anything that might increase the ride height. I substitute 3 and screw link couplings for tension locks on all my Triang locos and rolling stock but get frustrated by the overheight buffer beams. It can be very difficult to get buffer beams to a nearer correct height.

[Twintop]

Threelink - the 3MT 2-6-2 T does ride higher. On 11 March Rana answered my query on this - it seems like the original wheels were Jinty ones so were undersized. My Midland 3F 0-6-0 43775 also rides higher. That does run well though, especially as I added tender pick-ups. I can still couple up despite it being higher.

The main difficulty I found was changing the centre wheelset gear to the new Romford axles. When I bought them they offered centre wheels with half depth flanges, but they are no use as there was insufficient play for on the curves, so they swapped them over to flangeless ones. They did say this might happen and were happy to change them. This was over 20 years ago !

The issue I had with the gears was that I was wary of forcing it on in case it sheared, so opened up the hole in the 3MT, but then the friction fit was not tight enough. I did araldite it on and that worked OK.

On reflection, I should have put the axle in the freezer and warmed the plastic gear up and that would have been a better method I think rather than a pure press fit. The spare 2-6-2T I have has a metal gear wheel, so that would likely be better so you may have one of those earlier models.

I am not sure if the Britannia rides higher, but will have a look in due course.

[Rana Temporia]

It would depend on which Britannia you have. The very first version had the smaller diameter Princess wheels and fitting scale wheels will make it ride too high. I had an early Princess that I got in a junk box with B12 wheels fitted. They looked better but the loco was several mm higher than a standard one. If you have the later version then scale wheels shouldn’t make much difference to the ride height.

[threelink]

Thanks, Twintop. I have worked out a way to get scale height buffer beams on Triang stock so I will be re-wheeling some Triang locos. It's a fiddle to get the buffer beams lower on locos but it can be done. It involves some small loss of realism but I'm not a rivet counter so it doesn't bother me. If you can post a photo of your re-wheeled 2-6-2 tank I would love to see it.

Thanks to you, too, Rana T. My Brit is a mongrel using all sorts of ancient parts, mostly Triang. The drivers are fractionally undersized but it looks ok at normal viewing distance - in fact, for a total expense of just £10.06 for all the parts used to make it, it looks downright astonishing - even if I do say so myself. I've got some nice scale drivers in my spares hoard so I shall have a look at re-wheeling it.

[Rana Temporia]

My latest ‘fixes’ are these two Trackmaster/Tri-ang clockwork N2 locos. One had been painted an odd green colour and the other was typical of the Tri-ang version of this loco in peeling gloss black. I stripped both down to bare metal and then primed them. The gloss black one has been finished as I think it would have been when new but still needs the numbers adding. The other is a Neverwazza as an LNER version was never made. I know the number is wrong, I only realised after I had done it.

The LNER one’s chassis is fine and once it’s been varnished it’ll be back on it. The other has a damaged key hole and I have a spare cog but it’s a real pain to swap them over! I’ve done it before so now waiting for a dry day with time so that I can make a jig to wind the spring up. They have a lot of power!

I have also added an original Trackmaster one in the background.

[Bulleidboy]

Hopefully, the first of a rake of three Bulleid coaches to get interior lighting and may be passengers. I actually managed to get the body off without breaking any of the corner clips - that's a firstgrinning The clips in the middle of the chassis cracked, but I have superglued those back together. I have watched the latest (27/3) update of Dean Park Model Railway on youTube, and will try the same method for installing the lighting, although I will not use new wheelsets, but will install the DCC Concepts axle power pick-ups. I have found there are always some useful tips when watching a project being undertaken and completed before attempting it yourself.

[GWR LNER fan 4472]

I recently got a pre-owned Bachmann 56xx to do up to look exactly like the one I had the chance to drive a few years ago. I've wanted to do this ever since that day, but haven't had the time, skill or money to trust myself to do that until now.

Extremely minute detailing hasn't bothered me before, I just like trains that look good and mostly like the real thing. This project however, I wanted to do it properly, so I set about analysing our photographs from the day and listing all the alterations I'd have to make to the model. Fair to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. That was until I caught myself literally counting rivets! I really hoped I'd never become a Rivet Counter, but here we are. It's not that bad to be honest, I'm not criticising manufacturers for not having the correct thickness of cab window framing or whatever, but this one project I wanted done properly.

Detailing includes (but not limited to): Renumbering to 5637; welding mark along the tanks; painting under the running board black, sections of brake pipes red/black where needed, rear cab shutter doors black, buffer beam ends red, rear lamp irons black/rusted and a few cab details in red/brass/green (not gone too overboard, as cab isn't that visible); black weathering power on top of boiler, around the smokebox, tank tops and the front buffer beam; slight rusting on tank tops, coupling rods, steps, handrails and lamp irons; painted a section of off-colour patchwork to the bottom of the right hand water tank - not sure what the story was with this in real life, but it was there, so I've included it on the model. There's a bunch more stuff I've done, but those are the more obvious ones.

It's not perfect, it was never going to be with my current skill level, but I'm very happy with the result. The shed code worn on the day isn't produced by Fox Transfers and turns out wasn't a 'real' shed code anyway, rather one the East Somerset Railway has chosen in preservation years. I instead purchased 88C and 86C shed codes, where the loco would've been based in the livery back in the late '50s/early '60s. I found when the model arrived that the shed code from factory is actually 88C anyway, so now I have spares for future locomotives (only one loco in my current collection that could potentially use one...).

I'd still like to paint the cab interior into the creamy-beige colour rather than black, add headlamps, headboard (not currently produced, could be done with card), fireman's tools to the tank top and maybe reinstate the sand pipes (broken by previous owner), but I'm very happy with the current result. I've done a general weathering on an Airfix kit loco before, and renumbered and painted small details on a class 37 before, but this I'd say is the first I've both weathered and detailed to photographs.

Here it is. I've included some of our photos of the real thing for comparison. May be several posts to come :-)

[GWR LNER fan 4472]

[GWR LNER fan 4472]

[Brew Man]

Nice pictures. Thanks for posting.

[Twintop]

No progress on the Tri-ang locos.

I have had a failure on a PECO med radius streamline point at a crucial part of the layout, so I took it out and now there is no access to the Up relief line from the two bay platforms and the platforms 3 and 4 through lines. The bays and platform 3 can still route to the branch. So, services are much reduced, how realistic is that !

Looking at the point, it seems to have lost the spring retainer, although it is a different design to another I have so I am unsure what has happened or what bits are missing. My points are up to around 30 years old so the plastic does go brittle on them now and again. I have not mended it as I had a spare and have cleaned that up and done my modification of soldering a wire between the fixed part of the blade and the outer rail. This supplements the sprung connectors under the rails that normally transmit the current and are a constant source of failures for me. As I have analogue cab control wiring, the fact that the points do not isolate when switched does not matter. Not worth removing points just to do this, but I do when they start failing too much. I may as well do the adjacent point as well as that will be easy to remove from the layout.

I have also been servicing the Hornby Class 110 3-car in green with speed whiskers. A buffer and corridor connection were missing but I had them amongst bits I collect from the layout that fall off rolling stock, but at the time never know what they are off, so they are back on. How the corridor connection fell off I do not know, but a lug is broken ! A good clean - the roofs get filthy in the loft - and oil and the unit is ready for the layout again. I am amazed how well it runs as it only has pick-ups on two wheels each side. This must be around 30 years old. Still looks fine to me.

 

[Fazy]

At the moment on the work bench is a L&YR class 25 from London road models. It’s quiet a nice build. Goes together very easily compared to some kits I’ve built.

[The son of Triangman]

Reworking prototype colour light signal pcb's for O gauge signals, need to make a few component changes.

[morairamike]

I have Train Tech light strips in my carriages, MLV, 2-BIL. These are excellent and on the MLV and 2-BIL also allow you to wire random flashing LEDs to the 3rd rail shoe and on other carriages a flashing tail LED where applicable.

When the train moves off they turn on. When the train has been stationary for a while they time out to save battery drain.

However when not on the layout and stored in a suitable place any vibration turns then on.

I did fit isolation switches to the carriages etc, accessible from outside to isolate the battery. However the battery holder is still inside the carriage, so you have to dismantle them to change the battery. This, in one or two cases, lead to broken clips on the carriage bodies.

To prevent this I am now fitting external battery holders, with on/off switch, to the underside of the carriage. This allows the battery to be changed without dismantling the carriages. They look like underside parts.

[96RAF]

Extension to both ends of the high level Up platform and moving the starter signal along a bit to suit. Work in progress.

[Brew Man]

Work in progress should be an alternative name for this hobby. Looking good though, Rob. I'm currently battling with Gaugemaster uncouplers, (I think de-couplers sounds much better). They're great once adjusted correctly, but I'm finding doing that a right pain. According to the instructions you are supposed to drill 3.5mm holes to accommodate the shaft and centring pin of the ramp. Well in my experience that is never going to work. The shaft itself measures just over 3mm and I'm finding 5mm only just workable, with 7mm being better. Grrrr, rant over.

[81F]

Currently I have a LIMA class 33 with a split coupling on the dummy bogie. I have a spare dummy bogie (without a pickup) somewhere that I should be able to cannibalize, but can I find it...!

[81F]

At the moment on the work bench is a L&YR class 25 from London road models. It’s quiet a nice build. Goes together very easily compared to some kits I’ve built...

 

 

@Fazy

 

 

Very nice looking model. Sadly I do not have the skill to do an etched brass kit like that. It took me 3 attempts (and kits) to build a Parkside-Dundas Glyn Vally open coach over a period of 10 years and even then I couldn't fit the foot boards!

[Twintop]

A black Hornby J94 late crest 68080 for a clean and oil - I am working through all my engines, about 6 down and 50 to go ! I worked out how to get the body off and the weight above the motor. Everything held together with screws so very straightforward. I also glued on a centre step that had broken off.

After I had finished I happened to look in the box and was amazed that there were superb, clear instructions with good diagrams for removing the body, where to oil and also replacing the motor ! It said of course that the motors were good for 150 hours and then replacement motors were available from Hornby Service dealers but I guess that no longer applies.

I have also cleaned and oiled two BMann class 25s, a green D7645 and Blue D7667, plus I have a class green 24 ready to do as well D5011. I have oiled the axles on the 4 Tri-ang coaches I have just obtained. Three had steel wheels on already and I have changed the wheelsets on the other one. I also changed the badly damaged roof on one. Not really sure why I bought 4 more maroon MK1s as I have plenty of coaches already. I never had any when I was a boy as I went straight onto three CKD blue/greys in around 0ctober 1966, ending up with 7 blue/greys whilst I was a child.

I am also looking to make one good Tri-ang R113 drop side wagon from an existing one I have with a missing side plus one I have just bought with a damaged side. I have some metal wheels to use as well. The later one has donated a buffer as well and the weight will be a useful spare.

I am also bracing myself to try and spray a blue/grey buffet car side into BR Maroon as one I bought a few weeks ago has two sides that are the same ! I may experiment on a rake of three poorly painted coaches I have first. The fact that the coaches dismantle so easily will be a good advantage when painting them.

So, nothing dramatic, but it is all great fun of course !

[The Doc]

I am currently completing three Ian Kirk Gresley coaches which I bought going for a song off ebay.

They needed bogies (I had some in my spares box, including a couple from Hornby Railroad Gresleys. Buffers came from some scrapyard Triang coaches, and the underframe truss rods were made from thick brass wire and split pins. various other fittings came from my spares box.