96RAF Posted January 29, 2020 Share Posted January 29, 2020 A bit like the buses in Malta then Ken.The driver sat offset from the steering wheel with rosary beds hanging from the mirror and it was the same mantra - this bus is under the supervision of god. He must have been on his day off whenI travelled with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 yes rob and as we have touched on before people in the services have there own lucky charm my father in law painted his mothers name in white lettering on the sides of his tank when in the desert at Al Alamain. Donald Cambal had a teddy bear in Blue Bird when making his high speed runs on water./media/tinymce_upload/e3b7aaae5046b6223c9ffacccd620bd1.jpgLooking through my box of bits I found the parts which with some cutting and filing might produce the wheel set needed under the cab area./media/tinymce_upload/296dab3090b3b1c1d3ec3c7e2c4bc780.jpgThe first job is to machine out the centre of the Hornby wheels and insert the spokes/media/tinymce_upload/76fae57ef98f49c21c36d0be7341799a.jpgi will have to make some changes to back end of the chassis no doubt but need to build the wheel set first and see what happens on bens and the like./media/tinymce_upload/0ad030bdfaeb4726e6cca3eb2beea88f.jpg You can see from the picture here the standard Hornby tender wheel on the right and the same wheel after the machining process./media/tinymce_upload/a47f70ef037bd322351af866ae755623.jpg With the wheels pressed back on the axles along with the axle boxes I can now start to work out how I’m going to make this set of wheels up .First as said they will have the ability to pick up power from the rail thereby spreading the load over more wheels and to make sure the contact with the rail is good a small leaf spring will be fixed to the frames of the bogie and become part of its pivot point and at the same time transmit the power to the chassis earth.The idea behind a pivot is to allow the wheels to swing left and right as the engine encounters bends in the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Nice to see the engineering processes in work Ken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 It does pivot on the RTR versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted January 30, 2020 Author Share Posted January 30, 2020 WTDIts fun how different people find the same problems it's like reinventing the wheel or is it why the Russians Concord after wind tunnel test looked the same as the British one yes with no eKen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted January 30, 2020 Share Posted January 30, 2020 Glad you are persevering with it Gowest, one of my favourite locos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 2, 2020 Author Share Posted February 2, 2020 WTD yes your right theres nothing like this engine they look right and i love to watch them roll by with the regulator shut and all you here is the tap tap tap of the vacuum pump a great engine yes i must make this one work?so on we go. /media/tinymce_upload/4f3fb1779460dad255dd7ebe39bbabc4.jpgCutting 2 sections from the Hornby tender frames will save some time and with some changes might just make the rear boggy wheels that I need to complete the chassis along with all its wheels.I do want to make these new wheels to add as pick ups for the power to the engine this way the load of 6 amps can be distributed more evenly and avoid hot spots in any one section of the power train.I find one of the best and easy ways to constructed items like this pony truck is to use some double sided printed board it is not only an insulator but can be soldered to steel or brass and make for a much stronger construction./media/tinymce_upload/1b253a2f5b1a33368f265f28d2a40894.JPGIn the picture here are the 4 main components the 2 brass Hornby side frames and the 2 printed board end plates you will see I have filed away the copper clad area in the middle of these 2 boards both sides as we need to insulate the brass section of the frames to pick up the power./media/tinymce_upload/fc37ac8d40903b867fb8eb1f3a7c9909.jpgAfter the soldering I ended up with a very small box shape and the next thing needed will be the wheel pick ups and for these I will be using the Hornby tender type as fitted on the A4 and A3 engines these will be bent at each end and will have holes and screws to fix them in place./media/tinymce_upload/722707bbe9eed6b199c1e465bd4f0eb4.jpgto stop the axle boxes from falling out of the frames 2 small brass strip fixed by 4 screws should do the job. /media/tinymce_upload/0d7165f1776308774464b4fbde4e6429.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/52ba86501fcde4c93de52196142d87d3.jpgNow a way to fix this little pony truck You can see from the picture here that the fixing bracket has an L shape section cut in the copper printed board this it going to be the pick ups power take off point the large area of copper around the hole will have a brass boss soldered into it and a screw holding the complete assembly to the chassis the small square section will have a wire soldered to it taking the power up to the termination board.It all looks like its going to work but time will tell already I have lost the area for my warning light system as the chassis in the area has to have a half round section cut away for these wheels to swing under the chassis.I will have to check out what space I have plus the boiler fixing needs to be made smaller as it might get in the way of the wheels as they track under the chassis/media/tinymce_upload/0ccf5eb0a3d8857fec186a6cf0e6908e.jpgThe front wheels are just a Hornby set that I had which need no real change and will be a straight fit./media/tinymce_upload/b14dc96c4b73c6640226cf9f8c91a3f1.jpgWith the engine and all its wheels in place now starting to look the part and again with the body on. /media/tinymce_upload/77ce914832dcf7e1791ad5c37475213e.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 That has turned out to be nice compact live steam installation Ken - well done. Compare with the Mallard installation - sorry the pictures are not flipped to match direction. /media/tinymce_upload/266a32839665d5c09ec622e091827714.png /media/tinymce_upload/dccf0406c95a60a28a77e4e7eb68f010.png Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 3, 2020 Author Share Posted February 3, 2020 Robi would love to see Hornby build a new engine for there 100 year anniversary what would live steamers like to see????ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 You could be right there Ken, maybe Hornby missed a trick by not having an anniversary live steamer. It would have been mega-expensive though. Was the Rocket the first Hornby live steamer, it was gas fired from memory as opposed to electric heated. It would be a challenge in 00, but the ultimate anniversary live steamer would have to be something really iconic. Garrett, Double Fairlie, that strange Indian double drive compound thing that was also a Thomas the Tank Friend. You guess is as good as mine as you seem to have done so many of the obvious candidates - any suggestions from the members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Probably something that you have spent many hours building, that's what usually happens when you scratch build something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 4, 2020 Author Share Posted February 4, 2020 My thought would be a LMS Duchess as it has the same wheel centres and in the hope that Hornby carry enough spare parts to build a small quantity and using an existing mould to produce the high temperature plastic body Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 With the rear boggy complete and fitted to the chassis this part went well for a change and my ideas for this part to be not only flexible so that it could move from side to side but would also take power from the rails so that a lesser load could be distributed over more wheels. Also I wanted this boggy to be built in a way that would make its removal a simple job with one screw and without the need to unsolder any wires also when using wires for connections the continuing movement of the unit would break the wires in time so the design drawing here shows how one wheel takes power to the fixing screw which holds the unit on to the chassis while the other wheel takes the power to a contact that as the boggy swings from left and right tracking across a contact strip and the power here is taken to the termination board above the servo motor.In building this part I have lost space for my small indicator lamp idea so this part had to have a rethink./media/tinymce_upload/1730aa3ee3f0e903a3d1079c3b311eec.JPGThe idea I came up with was to file away the back of the oil lamp as in the drawing here and glue a smd red LED into the back of the lamp with wires then repaint white.With this idea the indication could be no light to say the regulator is shut and the light only comes on when the regulator is open or the light could be dim when shut and the light gets bright when the regulator is open./media/tinymce_upload/69904949e81523703d53e80443c2b153.JPGThe leads from this lamp will have a 2 pin plug again so that removing the body will be easy with no wires to unsolder. This small connector can be under the coal in the tender area./media/tinymce_upload/3976a4ca03b0f3ea0fd2f59300cb70e3.jpgHere is the finished boggy and you might see how I intended it to work with the hole for the fixing screw which acts a one of the power take off points and the coil spring contact at the other end this spring will also keep pressure on the wheels so that they make good contact with the rails and also its contact strip./media/tinymce_upload/f541608e7f6c8ef4a3cbc759114a1c87.jpgYou can see here the wiper contact on the contact strip, the red wire will take the power up to the termination board the black wire goes to the regulator open switch or pressure switch in the front of the oil tank.The other 2 wires and the small 2 pin socket are for the rear oil lamp./media/tinymce_upload/ed3ddc51a8013322a802c5860d5c5828.jpgThe other good point about the T shape contact strip board is I made it from double sided Printed board and so on the other side I put the components for the oil lamp LED which you can just see in the picture above./media/tinymce_upload/78961df3926c148f3a853abe26755861.jpgThis board will also have 2 holes drilled in each end for fixing the body to the chassis/media/tinymce_upload/f0da00d5f5c270b8aae97d6ae6d38582.jpgThe lamp LED under test all worked ok no problems here at the moment but you never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog RJ Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Very clever, nicely done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Better and better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 I am amazed by your work. Considering the amount of time it has taken you to get it running, I'd have thought you would have just glued a non working light on to the bunker. 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 Yes I might in some case just glued the lamp in place with out the LED as you buy them but with live steam you need to know at what point the regulator is opening otherwise you stand a good chance of the engine roaring off and crashing at the first bend.What was the comedy film where they started the fire in the boiler of a tank engine and then went on to discussed a railway event by placing there watches on the rail in front of said engine but had left the regulator open the engine moved off running over there watches ?no prizes but will maybe show just how old the people are that follow this build.Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 "but will maybe show just how old the people are that follow this build." Age is just a number, trouble is it's a big number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 Just watched the clip on YouTube and bought the film for £1.99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 WTDthe best thing about getting old is you can whistle and clean your teeth at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 I know you should see the state of the bathroom window. 😆 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted February 23, 2020 Author Share Posted February 23, 2020 Well still battling problems with this engine like when on the track things look to be ok then the controller trips out so this loss of power means no steaming till the problem is found and corrected which could be one of many faults and this was with the body off when the body is fitted this could also throw up some problems. So no video or likely hood until the power to the engine can be fixed./media/tinymce_upload/e8cb9a04cdfe6e6f57633a2e409d76d9.jpgAlso when the body is on the complete engine looks like a dragster a bit high at the back than the front and if a coach is run up behind the engine the buffers are out of line. Looking into this problem I found that the safety valve was hitting on the inside of the water tank.The safety valve as a unit could not be lowered in the chassis any more with out causing more problems so the only thing to do was to look a little closer at the Hornby safety valve and see if it could be shortened just a few millimetres./media/tinymce_upload/38cc212edb076b0757d16cf6ae08ba4e.jpgThe first thing that I noticed looking at the valve and you might see it here in this picture that the valve stem is sticking up about a millimetre higher than the rest of the valve body. Had the engine been built with the valve fitted like this there was a good chance that body would have jammed the stem into the valve and a possible over pressure occur./media/tinymce_upload/3d987cb4643077b0d8dfc28f974bc1f3.jpgTaking the valve down into its component parts it did look as if just a few millimetres might be achieved in shortening the valve.So here are the parts in question. The nut which sets the valve opening pressure.The spring.The valve with its rubber seat.And the valve body.As I do have a couple of these safety valves so if I find it doesn't work out I have nothing to loose./media/tinymce_upload/956e6827b4578a74968d42518ba96555.jpgLooking at the nut there is enough meat in the thread area to machine off a good 2 mm and it still have threads to locate it in position once again.Of cause if the valve is to be connected in some way to the brass bonnet on the top of the boiler then this assemble will have to be looked at again but at this time I just want to see the engine run under its own steam including stopping and starting./media/tinymce_upload/46b0ca2686bca24cc5a5129b0391f236.jpgThe valve needed to have a good chunk removed as said it stuck up way past the complete unit and I wanted to make sure when it lifted it still never came past the top of the valve nut so I machined off 3 mm./media/tinymce_upload/b30649ad707e9893999c323654051fa5.JPGThe body was next and this I thought to give the clearance I needed when the body was fitted would be to chop off at least 3.5 mm.And after the parts were made to these new dimensions the unit was once again fitted together and a check was made on this new valve it all seam to be ok so it was fitted to the engine as in the picture here./media/tinymce_upload/a7947e0d0692cb6c8c824485ac83206c.jpgAnd this time when the body was fitted the buffers were more inline. So can move onto the electrics again a find this fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 Thanks for the update. 10/10 for perserverence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted February 23, 2020 Share Posted February 23, 2020 All good stuff Ken - very interesting.A bit of reinventing the wheel but this time making it round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Go_West Posted March 13, 2020 Author Share Posted March 13, 2020 /media/tinymce_upload/f189020beb319706e34004f2e23096ea.jpgWell I found a few faults with the electrics and made suitable corrections and at last thought I might get a steam run now and see if the engine would run?So with it filled with water and steam oil placed the engine on the track to steam up all seemed to be going well then the Hornby controller started buzzing at me now I thought what’s wrong now.This engine has been throwing up problems from the very start so was this small compact design not going to lend itself to a tank engine but then an inside cylinder GER S69 was a challenge./media/tinymce_upload/c0d83b4bd6fa82c7af8cee2c75319395.jpgAfter the engine had cool down I took the body off the chassis to investigate why the controllers buzzer was showing a fault.And there it was the small termination board where all the motor and heater wires were soldered to had got so hot that one set of wires from the supper heater had unsoldered them selves (see picture of the wiring above).I put this down to the fact that the length of wire from the heater to the printed board was too short and the high temperature generated was travelling down the wire and unsoldering the joints on the printed board.A total rethink was needed to correct this fault and use longer wires which would fix the problem the only location that would be cooler and have enough space was a section of chassis under the water tank./media/tinymce_upload/ebae2eb9ac2f935776f7650b9af2a8d1.jpgThe engine was striped down so that it could be set up in the mill and have a 3/8"slot drill type milling cutter run in from the back end of the chassis to machine a slot in the top of the chassis the thickness of the printed board about 1.5 mm and an 8BA thread added for the fixing of this new termination board in position see drawing. /media/tinymce_upload/435f0ac4a306e9144456441914fe359b.jpgHere is the new board in position on the chassis held in place by the 8 BA screw./media/tinymce_upload/cb12e0384d7b0722512feb932f2293b3.jpg/media/tinymce_upload/272d80fde4593cad04d1b7a9fabb7396.jpgAs this board was in a different position now on top of the chassis not below the contact arm of the rear pony truck was remade as it needed to be a little longer to reach the copper under side of the PCB./media/tinymce_upload/dee04e633e4bc6387fe96cebbd7121b7.jpgWith the body in place as in this picture you can see how the new PCB fits into the rear end of the body nicely./media/tinymce_upload/7dfe2273406e08da3094469e3eaef448.jpgLook closely at this picture and you will just see the motor control board hiding down inside the chassis. Plus the black and red wires coming from this board to the 2 pin plug fixed to the top part of the right hand side of the termination board./media/tinymce_upload/067cf512b83d8207398e31c3a350b7db.jpgThe main power lead soldered to the right hand copper pad which will be one of the two power connections the other being the far side pad which picks up its power from the chassis earth via the 8BA screw./media/tinymce_upload/0982c56da37b889a571cda9c849f2d01.jpgNow in this view and with the tender water tank in place you can see all the heater wiring is now well away from the heaters and will now be in a much cooler place and should not come unsoldered. i need to tidy up the wiring and keep it away from the wheels then i will try once more to get this engine to run? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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