7mm BR Diesels

[Healey Mills]

A weekend off from loco building and instead a little Wizzo action....

D1015, south bound at Plymouth:



On arrival at Penzance prior to a few cheeky beers in a local hostelry:



On the way home, charging (literally) along the coast at Dawlish:



That was one superb railtour and D1015 has certainly left a marked impression upon me. Utterly awesome locos and I only wish I could have seen more of these locos in the 70s!!

Right.... back to loco building.

Cheers
Lee

 

[deltic17]

Just caught up with this thread - fantastic BRBlue work - 10/10

 

[Healey Mills]

Good grief I can't believe it's been so long since I posted here. I have been busy with several projects... sadly the ZZA plough has taken a bit of a back seat though.

Well just to prove I've not been idle here's a few pics of the latest builds:















Sorry but some of the photos aren't of very good quality. I've been waiting for a decent weather day to take piccies outside but as the winter seems to be upon us I don't think there's much hope of that for sometime.

One nice detail bit that has been added is the fuel contents gauge:



These are Railtec decals which I had made and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with them. I've been adding them to my other 40's too and that includes the boiler fuel contents gauge.

Still a few more locos to build and I shall try to post more often in future

Cheers
Lee

 

[richard carr]

Lee

They both look great, at this rate you will soon have all 200 of them !

I like the fuel gauge decals, are railtec selling them ?

Richard

 

[Healey Mills]

Lee

They both look great, at this rate you will soon have all 200 of them !

I like the fuel gauge decals, are railtec selling them ?

Richard

Ha, I think I'll go bananas before I get to complete all 200!!

I haven't seen the gauges advertised as of yet on his website but if you drop Steve an email I'm sure he will provide them.

Cheers
Lee

 

[Healey Mills]

The next couple of 40s are progressing nicely too:



Hmm, must remember to file down the engine exhaust ports!!





Adopting Mr Grumpys method of soldering the bogie fixing bolt to the hinge plate... not the neatest of soldering but it does the job. The locos are made so that I can switch them to split axle running as soon as I have enough, but in the interim they run with pickups only on one side on opposite bogies. I guess I should install plunger pickups for the other rail on each bogie too.

I have often wondered how much weight the JLTRT cl 40 would pull in it's 'as bought' design with the resin bogie chassis and weight added. Something I shall test to destruction at some point, guessing that the buffer beam will give out first of all. Perhaps one day I would like to make a replacement chassis for the bogie out of a substantially thick brass etch... but that's a project for another time.

Maybe the ultimate problem with getting locos to pull heavy loads is getting the traction, i.e getting enough lead weight into the things along with speakers, decoder and smoke generator. One loco weighs in at 3kg but it's not been tested to see what load it can pull. Lots to do and ideas to toy with

Cheers
Lee

 

[Healey Mills]

While waiting for some parts for 40152 I made a start on changing another locos front. The horn grills on the nose of the headcode version were changed for the DJP etch grills that come with their Diesel Loco Detailing set.

Starting with this (headcode discs not cleaned up yet either):




After a quick whizz over with a scalpel and some wet and dry paper the etches are merely glued in place:



The etch horn grills were different in diameter from the JLTRT moulded ones by approx. 0.2mm. Initially I thought that the difference would not have been noticeable and therfore leave the other one alone. However, on inspection.... not that lucky!! So it's off with the second grill too. I must admit I think as they are not identical anyway it would have looked odd:



Just in case you're about to type... 'You've got one of the grills on wrong'..... the loco is going to be 40024

Right, I should get back to 152 now.

Cheers
Lee

 

[Healey Mills]

Still working away on the 40s..... and hopefully my etches will be here any day now so that I can get the last parts added to 40024, 082 & 152.

I've managed to get 40024 to a point where it could really be made ready for a coat of etch primer, I guess I should start blanking off the window orifices and sealing the cabs!! However, before I start applying paint I want to add the bolt heads for the name plate. I won't be putting a plate on but the bolts were so obvious on the named locos... and then the name will be a decal.



Other last remaining parts prior to painting are the kick plates, boiler acccess hatch and the diagonal braces across the Radiator grill... only a 5minute job to be honest.

40082 has had the boiler exhaust port surround removed in readiness for a blank to be fitted and will also need some blanks to be fitted on the buffer beam where the steam heat pipe used to be. I've also filled the boiler pressure relief valve recess too.



The front most axle has been removed just for ease of access but the assembly is all there and has been tested and works well. Once I know they move freely I remove them and tape the assembly so that it can't slide out. As for 40152, that just needs an etch for the headcode surround and the buffer beam steam heat blank fitted too.

Hopefully the next set of photos will be of blue 40s

Cheers
Lee

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Lee,
I'm loving your 40's ! I had a look over the big diesels on the JLTRT stand today and thought it would be so easy to get sucked back in
The 47 was on display but the class 50 really grabbed me! Oh and the 33......
Are you going to flirt with any further class of loco? (Apart from the 20!)

 

[Healey Mills]

Hi Lee,
I'm loving your 40's ! I had a look over the big diesels on the JLTRT stand today and thought it would be so easy to get sucked back in
The 47 was on display but the class 50 really grabbed me! Oh and the 33......
Are you going to flirt with any further class of loco? (Apart from the 20!)

Hi Richard,

Yes they are quite addictive kits aren't they? I think the JLTRT 47, when released will be a big hit as many people do seem to like building the variety available from the class.

I do have several 37's to build amongst others so soon my thread will have anything but class 40's in it... much to everyones relief I'm sure I have two more 40s to build then onto other classes... so watch this space.

I'm enjoying your latest build, building kits in brass still utterly amazes/ impresses me.

Cheers
Lee

 

[Cliff Williams]

Lee make a long L of brass, bolt the long section to the top of the chassis, the short end of the L rests vertically right behind the bufferbeam, cut it back so it is not proud at the top.
Cut a slit in this end. Fit screwlink so the spring , washer and cotter pin are pushing on the rear of the brass.

You have now made a load transfer beam, stops the risk of ripping the 40 buffer beam off. You can't trust the glue on a load.

 

[Healey Mills]

Lee make a long L of brass, bolt the long section to the top of the chassis, the short end of the L rests vertically right behind the bufferbeam, cut it back so it is not proud at the top.
Cut a slit in this end. Fit screwlink so the spring , washer and cotter pin are pushing on the rear of the brass.

You have now made a load transfer beam, stops the risk of ripping the 40 buffer beam off. You can't trust the glue on a load.

Hi Cliff,

Funny you should post that..... I made exactly the same item on Wednesday last week and to my amazement managed to suspend rather a lot of weight from the bogie frame too

The long part of the L that you describe also doubles to hold some nice lead weights into the bogie frame as well

Thank you for your hints and tips!!

Cheers
Lee

 

[Healey Mills]

Another busy day and fuelled by the fact my etches arrived to add a little extra detail to the JLTRT class 40. A big thank you to Pete Harvey for his help in swiftly producing a very nice set of etches for me :



So far 40082 has received most of the etches with the boiler exhaust port blanking plate:





Then the boiler fuel gauge blanking plates (there is one each side on No 2 end):



Finally the steam heat pipe outlet blank on the buffer beam (this is only 1.5mm diameter):



I then spent several hours removing the headcode box surround, as moulded on the JLTRT cabs:



This was replaced with an etch to represent the metal band that holds the glazing in situ:



I decided I'd finish the day off by completing the cab consoles of 40024 & 082:



Time for a beer me thinks!!!!

(Sorry about the quality of some of the photos but I used the camera on my phone as I was a bit busy )

Cheers
Lee

 

[Healey Mills]

Amongst all the other jobs today getting the locos ready for spraying I finally managed to get the nameplate bolts done on 40024. These are 0.5mm Hex Plastruct rod and at the moment stand 0.5mm from the loco body side.... I guess this might be about right (from memory) as it will equate to about 22mm bolt head depth on the real thing. If you know exactly what they were please feel free to post here. Anyway, here's a couple of pics:



Looking along the bodyside:



Last bit of work to do tomorrow is clean the bodywork, blank off the windows and cabs. Then I can start spraying!!

Cheers
Lee

 

[mickoo]

Looking nice....as usual.

Just a small useless piece of information, the bolt heads are not for the nameplate, the nameplates had threaded stubs on the rear which passed through the bodyside and were secured with nuts on the inside. Once the name plate was removed it left holes in the bodyside so the easiest thing to do was stuff a bolt in from the outside and fix in place with a nut on the inside.

So, in short, bolts on class 40s in later years are simply there to fill the holes and were not used to secure the nameplates.

And no, I don't know what size they were but 22mm is close enough

MD

 

[Healey Mills]

While my other 40's are drying following a coat of etch primer, I figured I should get those that were 'complete' running smoothly in anticipation of a run out which I've been invited to. Most of the day has been spent fettling the locos and checking their running over two peco points and bending some flexitrack into a radius to ascertain the minimum curve that they can negotiate. Initially when running they all had a terrible squeak that emanated from the pony wheel... nothing a blob of oil couldn't sort out. They now run so quiet and smooth.

Once all complete they posed for a piccie (40126, 009, 060 & 118):



Cheers
Lee