4mm Far North Line
- Thread starter Ben Alder
- Start date
Kevin Derrick
New Member
Thanks for the photos of the Jones Goods in British Railways livery, what happened in the chassis department for this one with your dislike of non RTR mechanisms, as I too fancy doing one but I am put off by the chassis side of things.
Thanks,
Kevin
Thanks,
Kevin
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Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
Swallowed my pride and used the kit one. How long it will last, with its whitemetal crossheads and piston rod , is open to question but it goes round my curves, albeit with its prototypical flangeless centre driver, and is treated gently. I have a Lochgorm chassis kit as a back up but don't want to go down that road unless I have to.
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
A long overdue track cleaning session was done - Garriflex and a coating of De Luxe Track Magic worked wonders; followed by a marathon clean up of every engines drivers, the wheels, not the poor s**s suck in their cabs for eternity, with Deoxit proved an eyeopener. The amount of gunge it removed, esp from the rear faces was astonishing, and the resultant improvement in control response, esp slow starting and stopping was a real suprise to me. All locos had a quick check up as well, with tweaks as necessary to pickups and little needing to be done jobs that had often been ignored as they still ran OK. Now they all run a lot better and have had good canters round the layout, which must have come as a shock to one or two of the more backward ones, who don't really have a place here. here are a couple of shots taken during it.
Seeing them all laid out like that brought home the extent of my kit building/ Hornby bashing of the last few years. apart from the RTR "pets" and the few diesels, just about all are home grown to a greater or lesser extent. There are ,I think, three that are more or less out of the box in this lot, and a further four or five are on the workbench getting their Hornby T9 mazak rot attended to.
Seeing them all laid out like that brought home the extent of my kit building/ Hornby bashing of the last few years. apart from the RTR "pets" and the few diesels, just about all are home grown to a greater or lesser extent. There are ,I think, three that are more or less out of the box in this lot, and a further four or five are on the workbench getting their Hornby T9 mazak rot attended to.
Kevin Derrick
New Member
Thanks, I was wondering, the wheel centres are a problem on these and a few others off the Highland, sadly. I have even contemplated tender drive (yes I will go and wash my mouth out with salty water) for one of these to keep as much friction off the chassis and rods as possible. Like yourself it might be time to bite the bullet on this one as I don't see any RTR in this department ever.
What seems to be the problem with Hornby T9s and mazak breakdown?
Kevin
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
The T9 problems are well documented over on the 'web and Modelrail, but basically the motor mount and holding plate disintegrate in some cases - as can the chassis acc to Peters Spares. My three are, I think the motor housing only so I have got a lost wax casting Peters have made as a replacement. I'll maybe report back on my progress with this once I get under way, but first I'm going to skim through the topics about this to get a broader pic. I have nine T9's running in various guises and so far three are showing signs of this malady.
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
Further to the above an alteration to the watering facilities has taken place. The existing tank is a cut down Airfix GW one and the dimensions are not really consistent with the actual HR one but it is something that I have lived with rather than tackle making a more scale version. However, I happened to come across a modeller who is working with 3D printing and he kindly offered to produce one for me. After some tooing and froing he did a tank that I have used at Helmsdale and further discussion with him resulted in his making a tank and tower based on the one at Garve, which was drawn up in the Fifties. This is smaller than the Thurso one but apparently easy enough to alter dimensions to suit my needs. This is what arrived - I got him to omit any wall details but he is going to incorporate stonework on his version.
And with some work done.
The striations are painfully obvious in the images but are almost invisible to the eye and in the general context of the layout are not apparent at all.
Finally, a couple of it in situ. It has just been plonked in place and with being a solid base is not sitting snug in places, so I will have to bed it in - easy enough as the surface of the yard is 1/16th cork and can be removed easily. I normally do not bed buildings down so they can be shifted for photography without leaving an obvious footprint but I'm not getting away with that here!
And with some work done.
The striations are painfully obvious in the images but are almost invisible to the eye and in the general context of the layout are not apparent at all.
Finally, a couple of it in situ. It has just been plonked in place and with being a solid base is not sitting snug in places, so I will have to bed it in - easy enough as the surface of the yard is 1/16th cork and can be removed easily. I normally do not bed buildings down so they can be shifted for photography without leaving an obvious footprint but I'm not getting away with that here!
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
Another project that has been sitting almost finished for a few weeks now is another "what if" - this time an ROD 2-8-0 that the HR debated purchasing after the Great War that came to nothing but here did, and over the fullness of time adopted some native features - round buffers, tablet catcher and Peter Drummond's copy of his brothers watercart tender. They were nicknamed Hielan Roddies after their mixed origins by their crews.... 
I have not got round to colouring the drivers or applying any weathering but I thought showing it on screen might jildi me up on this matter.... Here it is hauling empties to the Brora coal mine for filling - I have taken some geographical liberties here to justify such traffic passing through Helmsdale. The usual double sided transfer trick has been applied again on the engine.
I have not got round to colouring the drivers or applying any weathering but I thought showing it on screen might jildi me up on this matter.... Here it is hauling empties to the Brora coal mine for filling - I have taken some geographical liberties here to justify such traffic passing through Helmsdale. The usual double sided transfer trick has been applied again on the engine.
Ian@StEnochs
Western Thunderer
Good to hear your getting a ' jildi' on! Good to see a good Scots word getting an airing too. Oh and the modelling is good too.
LarryG
Western Thunderer
The 04's allocated to Scotland were 'cut-down' with 1' 3" chimneys and flattened domes and the roof ribbing changed for flat bar. None ran in Scotland after WW2. Why not just pretend a few of the original 16 Scottish members remained in Scotland in BR days. Probably not as much fun as the Watercart version though....
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
Thanks, but AFAIK, it is Indian Army slang, and was around during my youth. We did have military members of the family - one fought in the Indian Mutiny so it might have passed down but the expression was more widespread all those decades ago.
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
The 04's allocated to Scotland were 'cut-down' with 1' 3" chimneys and flattened domes and the roof ribbing changed for flat bar. None ran in Scotland after WW2. Why not just pretend a few of the original 16 Scottish members remained in Scotland in BR days. Probably not as much fun as the Watercart version though....
You know me - an inveterate interpreter of alternative timelines. I do have an authentic loco roster but I find these possibilities fascinating .....
Overseer
Western Thunderer
And the Highland wouldn't have needed to reduce the height of the RODs, at 13'2" they were lower than most of the Highland's 20th Century locos such as the Castles. The River class had to have nearly 6" removed from the funnel and dome to fit the 12'10" Caley loading gauge.
LarryG
Western Thunderer
The only thing was, they had to pass through Scotland to get from England to the Heelands...
Ben Alder
Western Thunderer
They took a meandering route avoiding tight Caley tunnels ...
Couple of shots of Highland tranquility here, showing the Helmsdale tank and two Hurley's - the two wheeled luggage cart that most Highland stations possessed, again from a 3D printer. Taken quickly with the phone, where its lack of depth of field is too apparent. There is an option for shooting at different focal points and a subsequent stacking to get a better image but I don't bother with that as I can use the Canon which copes with that. The footbridge is also from the same source.
Couple of shots of Highland tranquility here, showing the Helmsdale tank and two Hurley's - the two wheeled luggage cart that most Highland stations possessed, again from a 3D printer. Taken quickly with the phone, where its lack of depth of field is too apparent. There is an option for shooting at different focal points and a subsequent stacking to get a better image but I don't bother with that as I can use the Canon which copes with that. The footbridge is also from the same source.
