Simplex 40hp railmotor

[Yorkshire Dave]

I haven't being doing much serious modelling for ages (if you can call this serious) and I bought this kit at Cleckheaton this year as a back up locomotive for a proposed industrial shunting layout set during WW2. I shall also be installing an ESU Loksound mini sound decoder using their VW Drasine sound profile and their 'keep alive' power pack....



I intend finishing it as intended - for standard gauge.

Opening the box reveals the following....



plus a packet containing other bits such as replacement axles, wheels, screws etc together with this set of instructions.



.....12 pages of A5 in small type covering all variants of the Simplex railmotor and not the easiest to follow . I'm afraid, after writing procedure manuals for my employers, there are kit instructions out there which leave a lot to be desired. I am a advocate of using diagrams and photographs within instructions to ease construction.

I read and re-read the instructions several times in order to make sense of these, especially trying to identify the parts. In the end I spread the less obvious parts on a sheet of paper....


Anyway continuing with the kit the first thing I noticed were the pizza cutter wheels. To me they looked too wide...... so I set about narrowing these with a home made template.



After and before....



After narrowing these closer to an S7 tyre width I found out why when I tested them over my track - they fall into the frog . I'll just have to build the new layout to finer standard .

The kit is designed to fit on a Tenshodo drive bogie and replacement axles are also provided. I fitted the gears from a Tenshodo replacement gear set rather than remove the gears from the HO wheelset. The gears, washers and wheels were fitted to the axles and checked with an NMRA O scale gauge.



As I fitted some washers to limit the sideways movement this meant I had to carve the Tenshodo keeper plate to accommodate these.



A PCB stretcher was made for the pick ups and this fits in the channel where the HO bogie side frame mount sits.



The completed motor for testing.

Now for the body and this is as far as I have got.... the side panels and floor unit.





David

 

[Steve Cook]

Great prototype Dave, I'd like one for rattling up and down my garden line (albeit in 16mm rather than 7mm).
Who made the kit out of interest, the box appears to state abs models (with fully illustrated instructions) while the instructions themselves read Wrightlines - is there a behind scenes link?
Like your idea of identifying and laying out all the parts though, I'd have to have something with dividers and a lid for the moments of clumsiness that crop up form time to time
Steve

 

[Ian G]

There are a few of these at the Midland railway centre in bits.

Ian G

 

[decauville1126]

Great prototype Dave, I'd like one for rattling up and down my garden line (albeit in 16mm rather than 7mm).
Who made the kit out of interest, the box appears to state abs models (with fully illustrated instructions) while the instructions themselves read Wrightlines - is there a behind scenes link?
Like your idea of identifying and laying out all the parts though, I'd have to have something with dividers and a lid for the moments of clumsiness that crop up form time to time
Steve

This is one of several 'permutations' of the 40HP Simplex produced originally by Kay Butler under the Wrightlines banner which then passed to Adrian Swain when she sold the complete range on. So hence the Zero-Zephyrs box label but Wrightlines everything else. And in it's turn Wrightlines was the original trading name of Russell Wright who then sold the business on to Kay (I think!).

 

[Steve Cook]

Thanks for the explanation / history lesson decauville1126, appreciated
Steve

 

[Overseer]

Adrian Swain will be able to confirm, but from memory Adrian made the patterns and actually produced the kits, presumably commissioned by Wrightlines. The standard gauge version was always branded ABS Zero Zephyr while Wrightlines sold the narrow gauge versions.

I didn't like the look of the strangely shaped wheels, and liked the fact that they are brass even less, so used the Tenshodo wheels on the long axles instead. They work fine on S7 even though they are RP25 code 88, so narrower than they should be. My one, which has appeared on WT, has run on 4 or 5 S7 layouts without any problem. Brass wheels are asking for pickup problems and poor performance.

 

[Les Golledge]

Adrian Swain will be able to confirm, but from memory Adrian made the patterns and actually produced the kits, presumably commissioned by Wrightlines. The standard gauge version was always branded ABS Zero Zephyr while Wrightlines sold the narrow gauge versions.

I didn't like the look of the strangely shaped wheels, and liked the fact that they are brass even less, so used the Tenshodo wheels on the long axles instead. They work fine on S7 even though they are RP25 code 88, so narrower than they should be. My one, which has appeared on WT, has run on 4 or 5 S7 layouts without any problem. Brass wheels are asking for pickup problems and poor performance.

Hi Dave,

If you can find a copy of the following Model Railway Journal it has an article by Martyn Welch on his build of this kit:- Issue77, Page54, Motor Rail Simplex Tin Turtle 7mm.
I too have built one for Scalseven & it runs wery well it has run a couple of times on the S7 Westcourntry groups test track and is dwarfed by a 5 plank open. Unlike Martyns did in his article I only fixed the petrol tank in place and set up the remainder of the interior before removing it to be fitted after painting. This allowed me to solder the end panel in place by the petrol tank by passing the soldering iron through the open end and with no engine or radiator fitted I was albe to solder the radiator end panel in place by passing the soldering iron through the openings in the sides where doors fitted to some models. I think I soldered everything ecept the brake wheel & roof.
I should still have the wheels from the spud so I will try fitting them when I find them, thanks for the sggestion Over seer.
Regards,

Les.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Thanks for the magazine reference Les. I'll look for this at the carriage museum at Ingrow in their large room selling all back numbers of railway and model railway magazine.

I've been thinking about the end panels as these will be the last items to be fitted (probably use epoxy) after installing a sound decoder and speaker.

Also purchased these from Staples today. A set of small boxes with lids - mini storage crates - and small 'post it' notes to store and label parts during loco, rolling stock construction. This will prevent me accidentally launching the parts I laid out the parts on a sheet of paper.





So far the construction has been soldered and here's the latest and I sort of followed the instructions but not necessarily in the right order.











Looking at the pictures now the descriptions are a bit Pythonesque.... Part 83. The locomotive's naughty bits...

David

 

[Les Golledge]

Hi David,

On the Scaleseven Group website there is a Showcase of photos of S7 models, two of the photos show my Simplex buffer to buffer with a West Country & one shows it on it's own, on this page:-
http://revo.scaleseven.org.uk/index.php?id=42
You can see just how big the West Country is compared to the Simplex.
You don't need to be a member to view the Showcase pictures.
Regards,

Les.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Many thanks Les

I've has a look and it's really a diminutive loco against the West Country. A nice simple finish in oxide. I plan to finish mine in an unkempt olive drab state. By the way I also picked up a copy of issue 77 of the Model Railway Journal.

David

 

[InvernessTMD]

Going slightly OT, those small "really useful boxes" are great, I have a few and they have various types of Kadee and spare foliage for exhibition repairs (rather than take an open packet of the stuff which is asking for trouble!).
I could do with some more as well!

 

[Osgood]

Thanks for the magazine reference Les. I'll look for this at the carriage museum at Ingrow in their large room selling all back numbers of railway and model railway magazine…..

I got stuck in there for hours while killing an hour before collecting something from somewhere. Great old boys manning the museum. I've no idea now what had taken me that far from home but I do recall being exceedingly late over the prime target…..

 

[Simon]

Great to see this build, we could do with a bit more "small and whacky" around the place, especially useful and accessible in terms of getting some more larger scale modelling going on I reckon.

Another favourite of mine is the Motor Rail that operated on the Burneside paper mill tramway, alongside a 48DS. There are some fabulous pictures of it on the Cumbrian Railways Website at:

http://cumbrianrailways.zenfolio.com/p199522743

Simon

 

[decauville1126]

Great to see this build, we could do with a bit more "small and whacky" around the place, especially useful and accessible in terms of getting some more larger scale modelling going on I reckon.

Another favourite of mine is the Motor Rail that operated on the Burneside paper mill tramway, alongside a 48DS. There are some fabulous pictures of it on the Cumbrian Railways Website at:

http://cumbrianrailways.zenfolio.com/p199522743

Simon

Both the locos from Cropper's Tramway that worked into the paper mill at Burneside and and also on their internal line linking Burneside Mill (still in use) to Bowston Mill (now replaced by housing) and finally Cowan Head Mill (also now housing but with some original buildings) have survived.

The MotorRail 4w petrol loco, also known as Rachel, is with the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway in their exhibition hall in a seemingly perpetual 'work in progress' state. The Ruston 48DS went to Carnforth where it became 'Flying Flea', but now resides stored in the Fawley Hill Railway collection of Sir William McAlpine.

 

[daifly]

Great to see this build, we could do with a bit more "small and whacky" around the place, especially useful and accessible in terms of getting some more larger scale modelling going on I reckon.

I'm happy to oblige!
http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/small-and-whacky.3670/

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I was sailing around Ireland (Strangford Lough, Ardglas, Bangor, Glenarm) last week and took a trip on the train from Bangor to the Transport Museum and Folk Park at Cultra. Amongst the exhibits I was surprised to see a WW1 Simplex on display minus it's seat and radiator. Apologies for the poor photographs as there was no natural lighting in the museum and they were taken with a small pocket digital camera with a loss of depth of field (which is another story....).









And the makers plate which I'll reduce to fix to my finished model.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A little bit more has been done to add the smaller details.

The fuel tank, grab handles, roof supports, fan and brake stand were soldered.







The door angles were glued on with cyanoacrylate (superglue).



After this I sprayed the model with Tamiya grey primer and subsequently Games Workshop chaos black.

Then proceeded to add the radiator detail. This was soldered in and I realise there's nowt like doing things out of order. I should have added the radiator before painting c'est la vie.





Then the engine outer cover, handrail/safety bar and the exhaust pipe together with the bit I could not work out.







The roof was painted and detailed separately. I also added a locating collar for the exhaust pipe pin from a 4mm Alan Gibson crankpin bush.





That's as far as I have got now. The next thing to do will be the engine details....

David

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Made a mess of this posting - the attached file should not be there but never mind it's the starter handle socket.

David

 

[Steph Dale]

It's alright; no one noticed . You could always delete it!

Steph

 

[Peter]

Hi,

Following on from Simon’s comment “Great to see this build, we could do with a bit more "small and whacky" around the place, especially useful and accessible in terms of getting some more larger scale modelling going on I reckon.

Another favourite of mine is the Motor Rail that operated on the Burneside paper mill tramway, alongside a 48DS. There are some fabulous pictures of it on the Cumbrian Railways Website at:

http://cumbrianrailways.zenfolio.com/p199522743”

Here is a contribution from Australia.

http://tdu.to/40379.msg?sid=178290

http://tdu.to/40381.msg?sid=178290

Regards,

Peter