atom3624 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) Well ... I received a new, full can of my favourite Motip clear varnish: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274811108471 a week ago. My routine is to ensure the surface is 'prepared' - basically clean, dust free and free from greasy fingerprints, I shake the rattle can thoroughly for 3-5 minutes, inverted as well, then I warm it - typically on top of a boiled kettle - for 5-10 minutes, shake again. During this time, I'll have masked where I don't want - normally cab roof, smokebox (for normal-looking locomotives, not for streamlined), chassis, cylinders, all glazing, and along the top of the tender. Then I set up where I spray, with good access to all areas, I test the can sprays cleanly, then ... I spray, in a clean, continuous motion ... very lightly ... perhaps 7-8 seconds to do locomotive and tender - job done - I walk away (corrective actions are not possible, but may seem tempting in areas which may appear a little light). I return perhaps 45 minutes later. This I did with 72010 Hengist - came out perfectly. This I did again with 2007 PoW - one layer only - absolutely perfect!! A beautiful sheen and not super glossy. Perfect. I'm sure there's the odd flaw somewhere, but for me it's excellent and looks miles better. High voltage decals are now sealed in and the varnish has not affected them. Al. Edited July 27 by atom3624 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) Job #2 !! Fit motor #3 into my 'Railway' B17 I renamed 61663 Everton - yes, that team, another story!! The 2nd motor had started to run erratically, slowing occasionally, using higher current loading, then OK, then not ... all signs the motor needs replacing. I don't have the time/patience/equipment to pull the worm and/or remove the cap and check/clean the commutator expecting there's still life in the 'contact surfaces'. Replacement motor was received 2 days ago, 4-pin plastic plug gently teased off the socket in the tender without incident, but one wire does seem a little short. Old motor out, new in, polarity checked, soldered up, but the wire with the longest throw ... was that shorter wire needed to travel furthest, to the top of the motor - I cannot plug in that plug with the drawbar set on the 'operating placement' more distant hole in the drawbar!! I did the sensible thing, and left it alone. Brainfart time!! One wire - bottom - needs less distance, one - top (the shorter one on mine) - needs more. I unsoldered, turned the motor around, then re-soldered - job done! The shorter wire is now at the bottom of the motor - shorter throw. Plenty of wire for the plug now. Perfect and running well. Al. Edited July 27 by atom3624 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 (edited) I thought it was time PoW 2007 did some work, so here she is, on the rails hauling 9 Hornby teak coaches. Initially she started coming off the rails - which she never did before. A quick investigation and the socket in the tender being part of 'the drawbar' was 'dislocated'. A quick removal of the tender base and it was easily relocated with no loss of the spring. Another photo of her as well: Edited July 27 by atom3624 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simmo009 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 Currently renumbering R053 B17 to 2830 Tottenham Hotspur. Really nice etched replacement name boards from Fox Transfers, fit exactly on the plastic inserts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert -348404 Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 I’ve been going through all my fleet of locos and been adding smoke flickering fireboxes and hm7000bluetooth decoders all are loco drive so everything else is in the tender including the decoders today I’ve modified very old triang mechano a4 Golden Fleece as seen in the pics and video have have one more 4/6/2 to do then the next big challenge will be four 0/6/0 tank engines as I’ve had to put relays in all the others for the smoke generators this is going to be tricky fitting it all together with decoders and speakers IMG_5513.mov 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 My Scale Link parts have arrived! Scale Link parts for Swingback Church Pew I decided to explore using brass bearings for the pin point axles, as I was concerned about wear. These have a conical cup to suit the conical point of a pin point axle. The hornblocks will require some change to fit the bearings in. Scale Link parts for Experiment The carriage wheels and axles are supported by brass bearings (bushings). Now that the parts have arrived, critical dimensions can be measured and the model updated to permit it around an R2 438 mm radius turn. Exciting stuff! Scale Link Parts for Twin Sisters Although the model will only use one motor, two are here as well as two of the gear sets. Spare parts are a concept that begins at the beginning. Wheels, axles, crank pins and crank bushes, as well as tiny motor fixing screws have arrived. Twin Sisters also needs to go around an R2 curve. Further, the gear dilemma written about in the thread is now resolved. The gear is considered an enveloped gear set. Lots of parts to measure and install back into CAD. Details will be in the individual threads, rather than here. Updates to come Bee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 @WATB, I have deleted your duplicate posts as requested but how did that happen? Is there anything we need to do to prevent this or were you a bit too impatient! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 10 minutes ago, RDS said: @WATB, I have deleted your duplicate posts as requested but how did that happen? https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/forums/topic/36317-odd-behavior-resulting-in-multiple-resubmission/?do=findComment&comment=393056 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDS Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 Ok, thanks but the lesson to be learned is: only one press of ENTER is required! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 I love it when a big bag of bits arrive! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 (edited) Thanks Rana. I find this to be quite invigorating and daunting at the same time. Invigorating, because I have actual bits of kit, dimensions can be measured, the model updated. This will bring me closer to a functional model. Daunting, because I may have to re-engineer some parts of the CAD. One example is the bull gear that the worm gear meshes with. I assumed straight teeth, not enveloped helical teeth. Because the envelopment prevents any lateral compliance, getting Twin Sisters around a 438 mm curve requires the 1st and 3rd axles provide all compliance. Further, the chassis cannot shift when the first and third axles contact it. I assumed straight teeth and point contact. This permits lateral compliance. Enveloped gears do not. I have to re-think that part of the design and modify the CAD. Bee Edited August 2 by What About The Bee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 I had mentioned my BR L/C 46256 SWAS in a previous post somewhere, so decided to pull her out again - perhaps the glasses were a little 'rose tinted' - not a bit!! What a superb-running locomotive. The only 'fault' is she's a pedigree racehorse so doesn't do long crawls very well, but running better than I remember. Main reason was I'd lifted out City of Chester, which wasn't running so well. I 'de-gunked' her and relubricated, plus added as much weight as I could where possible and adjusted the front bogie as much as possible without risking derailments (through lack of weight on the bogie wheels) and after a good hour or so's running she's not far off SWAS now. CoC is also one of the locos I fitted a glowing firebox led to, so she's even got a little more to offer! Interesting day. SWAS is on show next to where I sit now - got nothing to prove on the tracks!! Superb. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Seems like it's been a day of the non-streamlined Coronations!! Lifted out City of Liverpool. Some traction issues again, so managed to squeeze in some more lead, like I had with City of Chester. No problems now, and running basically as well as SWAS after a little clean and lube!! Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 11 Share Posted August 11 I try to rotate the major rolling stock, as well as the locomotives 'every so often' - depending upon when I've time to do it as well as when I think there's a need to change. The Bachmann HHA Freightliner hoppers several locomotives have found easy, others had major problems with, had all wheels removed, pin-points cleaned, sockets cleaned, gapped, then put away ... till next time. The same was done with the Bachmann TEA bogie oil tanker wagons, and they were given a good run, then 'parked up' in the sidings ... and my super detailed Virgin HST set (2 + 8 ) are now on the rails - wow, this set flies!! (and I know it's slightly slower than my Pendolino set!!) Busy day! In between I cleaned the car, de-weeded part of the garden patio and mowed the lawn - who said it was a rest day!! Al. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rana Temporia Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 I had some time this evening so decided to finish off this little engine that’s been waiting for just such an opportunity. It’s sold on Shapeways as an Andrew Barclay ‘Ogee tank’ designed to clip straight onto the Hornby inside cylindered 0-4-0 chassis, the designer also does a ‘Box tank’. I had a spare Bachman Greg (Percy) so decided to use that to have the outside cylinders on it. This created more work than I expected and I still managed to get the cylinders around 2mm further forwards than I intended, the pistons just stay on the slide bars but it really does run superbly! I just need to add some couplings now. The original model is a bit bare, to hide the mechanism I closed off the area under the boiler and added springs and pipework from photos of the real thing which I think has done the trick. That open cab needed a driver so I added one from a batch I bought off eBay which are actually 4mm scale rather than 3.5mm, hooray! If I did another I would use the intended chassis as it’s taken much longer than I planned and needed a lot of trial and error. Still, a useful little engine and a change from a Smoky Joe! The 16t mineral wagon is there to give an idea of size. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 (edited) That looks great RT! I've had my Bachmann Sir Frank Ree (LMS 5530 parallel boilered Patriot) out today - just about to put onto the rails when I saw one of the cab doors hanging off ... a little drilling and replacing of a handrail and all was sorted. Another beautiful looking locomotive - continuing in my 'West Coast' theme ... running very well as well. Al. Edited August 20 by atom3624 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted August 21 Share Posted August 21 (edited) I've been sorting out other stuff including getting my holiday stuff ready, but a product is under redesign at present. Going to make the base for this product and stamping tooling for a start. It involves getting heavily into CNC/G Code alas, but I have set up a friends CNC machines decades ago so a bit of a head start. Edited August 21 by The son of Triangman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 Lovely to see SoT market research and reintroducing old / needed products. Great job - really helps keep some classic model locomotives 'on the rails'. Today I simply checked over, oiled, added loco crew and added as much weight into the body and tender where possible to the K1 I received today, then ran her forwards / backwards, reversed, then had her running for a couple of hours. As seen on Sam's Trains' video, not a continuously good crawler, but quiet, very smooth and a very, very good running model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 Strange one this ..... bear with me!! I've observed Sam in Sam's Trains has a few 'untouched' dotted around his layout, but there are apparently OO scale figures you can purchase for peanuts from China - I bought 100 knowing what was coming. I deselected the worst offenders - many seem to be LS Lowry Chinese basketball players - matchstalk men and women but 26-27mm tall (equivalent to 6'6" - 6'9" which normally is highly unlikely), but about 40% are more reasonable - still much cheaper than other options. I'm now working through these, doing what Sam didn't, and painting them in more typical colours, and they're not half bad!! Al. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 More 'little people' have been painted up and placed on the platforms, to just add a little character - there were perhaps 3 or 4 before, now there's 20+. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 Purchased within 5 minutes of the K1 which arrived last Thursday, the detail pack arrived today! Fitted this evening, and after various efforts, weathered to some degree. Front steps can be - and were - fitted without interference for the locomotive to take the curves. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 I'm continuing with some more of those Chinese-sourced matchstalk men and women. Given a good splash of paint here and there, they look more than halfway decent. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 One part of the detailing kit on the Bachmann 94xx recent purchase was proving difficult to fit - the 2x (L/R) cab doors. They're actually brass/etched for fineness. Many / most Bachmann locomotives, particularly tank engines' rooves can be removed - with extreme caution! I did find 2x tiny screws under the body and tried, but nothing happening here. With screws removed I tried gentle, firm tugging in every 'normal' direction and no movement, so replaced the screws. Crew were inserted through the door gap, then it came to the door fitting - actually to slide into slots - not happening, hence why I want to remove the roof! This was where I found they were etched parts as a solution was to trim the sides - thinking to slot in the bottom part and perhaps glue the sides. 10-15 minutes' later and they're in - tight fit at the bottom, handles in accordance with the diagram, and realigned - without glue being necessary - much safer!! Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 This is the 94xx Pipes under the cab I don't want to permanently locate other than the single central mounting dimple, so will always be close to this, when zoomed in. This means it'll be easier to remove the body if needed. I lubed up, so should be fine for a few years' operation anyway. Otherwise it's a superb locomotive - worth purchasing. Heavy and with good traction. Al. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Chimney top's now been 'dirtied up' now - way too shiny - little 'splash of matt black', so looking better than ever. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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