Narrow Minded / Broad Minded

The most glaring fault on the Farish 45 'Peak' are the overwide bogies, presumably to allow sufficient wheel sideplay to negotiate 9" N gauge radius trainset curves. It's not a difficult job to narrow them down and improve the front end appearance.

In the picture below one side frame has carefully been sawn off with and X-Acto razor saw and tidied up with a Flex-I-File abrasive stick. The saw cut and subsequent tidying up removes about 0.75 mm of material, so the overall width reduction will be in the order of 1.5mm. However prior to doing this I drilled through each end of the frames, into the end cross members with a 0.3mm drill in a pin-chuck. This requires a steady hand and the drill keeping vertical and square, but can be done.



In the next picture the side frames have been glued back on using 5-minute 2-part epoxy applied sparingly. The previously drilled holes are used to peg and align the reassembly with 0.3mm N/S wire pins. These pins are cut off flush once the epoxy has set. The front sandboxes are seperate mouldings and can be prised off to access the front alignments pins.



This next shot shows the phosphur bronze pick-ups after darkening with Birchwood-Casey Gun Blue. The P/B had to be cleaned with a scratch brush and degreased with meths before the gun blue would 'take'



This final shot shows the wheelsets as turned down by Gordon Solloway and then darkened with Gun Blue. Many years ago I picked up a tip from Stephen Harris regarding wheel Back-to-Back dimensions in 2FS. The Association standard is 8.51mm. However more reliable running seems to result if a broader BtoB of 8.60mm is utilised. Side to side 'hunting' is reduced and the wheel flanges are less likely to want to ride up wing and checkrails, point blades etc. My homemade BtoB gauge is shown in the picture, a simple 30 minute excercise with lathe and milling machine. I made a small batch several years ago and gave them away to friends.

With the Farish wheels turned down and BtoB'd at 8.60mm, there is loads of side to side 'slop' when installed back in the bogie inner frames. With new style 'fat' Chinese Farish gears they cannot moves out of mesh ( a problem with old 'skinny' British Farish gears) but it can make railing the loco dificult if the wheelsets are not centred within the bogie. My solution is to superglue 30 thou black plasticard spacers over each axle position, and these are visible in the picture. These limit sideplay very nicely.



I'm presently working out how to add DG couplings! The 45 does not have NEM coupling pockets like the latest Farish offerings, which are so easy to convert to DG's.

Chips With Everything

With 'Niddbeck Bridge' not due out again until York next Easter  I'm taking a few weeks off from layout detailing and concentrating on locomotives, namely my Farish Drewry 0-6-0' shunter and my Derby type 4 1-Co-Co-1 'Peak'.

The class 44/45/46 'Peak' was first all-new Chinese made  Farish diesel, but  is not to the latest 'DCC Ready' standard of the 37's, 57's and 42 'Warships'. This means the chassis block halves need modifying to isolate the motor, house the decoder chip and route the decoder wires. This can be done using burrs in a minidrill and hand tools but I opted to do it the quick way in my Proxxon MF-70 mini milling machine. Farish chassis blocks are soft mazak zinc alloy castings and really quick and easy to machine.

The picture below show a chassis block half after machining. The top section has been milled out to house the decoder, a wiring route has been milled along, down and then across, and the area where the motor brush tag previously contacted the casting has been machined away.

The picture below better shows the smaller square area that has been milled away to clear the motor brush contact points.

These bare machined areas have subsequently been touched up with black paint to provide a degree of electrical insulation.

In my next post I'll show you the bogie modifications I'm making before reassembling the model.

A Scale Trackplan (At Long Last)!

Thanks to Andy Hanson I now have a decent trackplan of 'Niddbeck Bridge'.

I've not had a scale plan up to now!.The layout size was determined by the space available in the back of my estate car and the sheet size of the 'foam-core' board (60" x 40") that I could obtain, and the rest of it was only ever roughly sketched out before construction started. The geometry of the kick-back sector plates was worked out 'on the hoof' etc. Not ideal I know, but it seems to have worked out all right in the end!



My recent outing to Shipley Show brought some invites to exhibitions in the years head including York 2009, Wigan 2009, Rochdale 2010 and Birtley 2010, so I needed to draw up a layout data sheet and a decent track plan for these and other show organisers. Andy came to the rescue with this CAD trackplan which is far better than my amateur attempt in MS Paint !

I learnt quite a few lessons at Shipley. The layout peformed well enough but less can be said about my rolling stock. I spent the week before Shipley working on the scenics when I should have been servicing my locos and stock. Main problems were back-to-backs that had shifted after several years in store, wagon wheel rims that had come loose and DG couplings not at the right height, delay latches not falling back, iron dropper wires that had fallen off etc.

I was delighted that the uncoupler electromagnets worked, and worked well under DCC control on the Lenz LH90 knob based throttle. Not so easy on the LH100, but still viable. This aspect of DCC operation had been a worry to me but the outing at Shipley proved the concept - I really could operate the layout from several feet away by hand-held throttle only - no control panel, toggle switches or buttons, just wandering freedom!

Shipley also brought to light the need to protect the overhanging sector plates - this will be done by a simple modification to the support stand rather than the baseboard. I was lucky not to have one sector plate snapped off by a clumsy chap on a neighbouring layout, so lesson learnt. I also need to put a lip around the fiddle yard edges to prevent stock accidently getting cuff-swiped off the layout. I have some white plastic angle section to hand that will cure that particular problem.

Much work remains to be done scenically. The undergrowth and shrubbery needs adding along with more trees. The sleeper board crossing to the horse dock and coal yard needs adding and much detailing and weathering needs to be done. Plenty to keep me busy over the winter months!

NEAG Meeting Update

Today we were all treated to a powerpoint presentation by Bob and Les representing the small band of workers involved in the construction of Fence Houses MkII. Here they are just prior to the start of the 'show'.

Following the presentation, which was enjoyed by all, Chris Mills was conducting his own corner with interest centred on the painting of FMF 21t hoppers.

Can it be true? Was this picture really taken during tea.....! Thanks to Bob, Les and Chris.

And not forgetting the girls. Here in the kitchen are Audrey, Sue, Heather and Yvonne. Note the wine bottle...........!

Brafferton Update - 9. Pointwork Pti

After a brief hiatus (how many more can I get away with before 2010 I wonder) work recommences on Brafferton. The pointwork uses Bob Jones' etches for point chairs. These are sweated to the sleepers using the Blackburn jig:

Once seperated, the sleepers are then overlaid onto the standard Association template to achieve the necessary spacings and the straight stock rail soldered to each sleeper. This template has been superceded by a new one I believe:

As Brafferton is circular, I really need curved points; a straight one in the middle of a curve would stick out somewhat! To this end the partial point is carefully removed from the template and relaid as a curve using just a curve of the correct radius as a guide. The points will be of varying length and curvature as we move from the back of the layout to the front. The point underway at the moment is the tightest being at the back of the goods yard. It is a B7 with the formerly straight section being curved to 29" radius: 

With the Vee and both stock rails in place, the Switch rails are being inserted before finally the Crossing and the Check rails:

 

With I back wind, I hope to have this board complete for Bolton. Wait and see...!

Slow Train Coming

Ouch! No posts in September (not by me anyway)!

A wee bit of progress on Brafferton; mainly getting trackwork underway. James and I had a grand day out at Shipley; played with Alan's and Edward's trainsets and made several purchases, mainly for James' N Gauge layout.

I also succeeded in blowing the chip on the N8. Don't ask how, 'cos I don't know. Anyhow that loco is now chez Sissling for a partial stripdown of paintwork; the area around the cab roof was especially prone to damage. Once back home it will have to be rechipped...

I won't be able to make the meeting tomorrow, but bits of Brafferton will be at Bolton for those interested; whether I can make anything run is another matter!