Mike G's Workspace.

[Mike Garwood]

Thank you chaps for the Taff Vale tip.

Those motors have the same problem as the CCTrans motors - they attach at an angle to the gearbox which makes them even wider. I tracked down the motors in the URL to Fleabay. £2.98 ea. I've sent for a pair...but they won't be here till Sept!!
The search continues for a motor that'll fit the High Level G/boxs properly....and doesn't make your eyes water or your credit card tremble. Ideally I'd like to find something that's 14mm/15mm wide on the face. Onwards and upwards!

Mike

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Is it possible to make new mounting holes on the gearbox so you can adjust the motor angle?

 

[Mike Garwood]

Is it possible to make new mounting holes on the gearbox so you can adjust the motor angle?

Dave
You'd have thought so wouldn't you? I did. They will fit flat with a little effort but at their widest point. The Std 5, the motor must sit between the frames, as there's a frame extension upwards that acts as the firebox sides. I think you can see this in the photo I posted. A 1420 will do it, but at £30 I think I'll do some more finger work on the internet before I give up. Course if I'd been clever all those years ago - I'd have put the motor in the tender and saved all these problems.

Mike

 

[Dave Holt]

Mike,
Can you not fit an extended gearbox to lift the motor clear of the narrow firebox sides or do you not want to take a wheel off at this stage?
I've put 1616 Portescaps in both my Std 5's - possibly using MJT replacement gearbox sides. If I recall, the motors are fitted from above the footplate, after the gearbox/axle has been inserted from below.
Hope you find a suitable solution.
Dave.

 

[Mike Garwood]

Mr Holt

Hope you're keeping well Dave? Can't wait to have another meet at Robins.

I can just get a 15mm wide motor between the frames. I've bought a couple of the extender g/boxes from Chris. It's getting a motor that's the problem - without feeling I should be getting a lot extra for the money. Remember when we bought Mashima's for £13...and that's 20 years ago. Motor technology has moved on. I'm not any sort of an electrical whizz but there has to be something the same if not better by now.
Anyway, when are we going to see that lovely Black 5 back and in colour?

Stay safe

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

Still waiting for a delivery of vacuum hoses for the 2251 (one month and counting), so, in the meantime my attention has been drawn back to my outstanding project - a Std cl5. 73024. As the weather was fine a couple of days ago I took the oppourtunity to put the matt varnish on the engine and tender and get their chassis done as well. The engine chassis has the Gordan Ashton springing units in it, this was my choice of spring torture for chassis prior to CSB's coming out.



The tender has it's lead added to it - that's why it's in the craddle upside down - you can just see the slices of lead through the frames. I've added the sand pipes to the chassis and I now have a motor and gearbox (completed and run in (High level)). I added the wheels to the tender chassis, only to find that I hadn't been very careful about setting the hornblocks in. Two sets of wheels were completely wrong. Fortunately, I had built another BR tender chassis from the Dave Franks stable, some months back. This had been destined for my Brit, which has a fold up chassis of my own design (no hornblocks to add - just bearings, they fold up as do the sides of the chassis) - it's no where as detailed as the LMS chassis, but after running trials I'm happy with it. I've still to add the water collector, but that will be soldered on after painting.



Below is my chassis, CSB's added.



So, I've got to wait to see if the rain stops before the end of September to get this other chassis painted and start the weathering of the engine and tender. I prefer to weather with enamels as you can take your time to decide if you need to add more or take some off. I find with acrylics - even with a retarder - you don't get a lot of time (if any) to do this. The down side of enamels is the smell. I don't mind it but the present Mrs Garwood does!
Todays' jobs will be wheeling and pick ups.

Stay safe.

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

Just a little experiment to see if I've got the hang of this :

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

It's been quite a week. The vaccum hoses turned up for the 2251 - now fitted and we wait for the weather to turn to get it weathered. The Std 5 has been thru some major re-building of the chassis. I got around to mounting the wheels on the chassis, coupling rods fitted, and wheels bound every qtr turn. Not good. Off came the coupling rods to measure the centres, yep all ok there. So, the problem had to be with the setting of the horn blocks in the chassis. Out with the Avondale jig, took my time to set this up accurately. Only to find that both front blocks were not parallel and neither was one of the rear blocks! It's not a surprise that it didn't run. In my defence I did build this prior to the jig coming on the market...
Re-built the chassis, inserted the hornblocks and rewheeled. Ahh the sweet smell of success, on went the coupling rods and I now have a free wheeling chassis. No binds anywhere and runs down an incline without being pushed. On went the brakes and balance weights. Hopefully in the next few days I'll get the oppourtunity to get the pick-ups done. One very happy modeller!



Stay safe

Mike

editred for smelling mistakes

 

[Dave Holt]

Mike.
Glad to hear you've now got a free running chassis. The rest is just cosmetic.
Dave.

 

[Mike Garwood]

I hope you've had as beautiful a day as we've had here in S Wales. I took advantage of the good weather and got outside with the airgun. These have been done with enamels, deliberately, so if I don't think it's right, I can tone it down or even take it all off. Having said that I've yet to find a photo of a clean Std 5 during 1957.
I'm going to have to check the video of the 2227 to see if I've got it right.





Comments welcomed - good or bad.

Stay safe

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

I wasn't really happy with the finish on the Std 5, so later yesterday I set to, to improve the finish. Started by taking most of the grime off on the boiler and tender. Then added some powders to add back. I've added coal to both tenders now. And fitted the wheels as well. The std tender is sitting too low, so that'll need some packing to get it right. I'm much happier with the way the engine looks now. As always comments welcomed - good or bad.



Stay safe.

Mike

 

[AJC]

Hi Mike,

I wonder whether there's any chance of some shots in better light? The only thing I could say is that the cleaning around the 'plate on 2227 looks a little 'splodgy', i.e. as though a cotton bud has done a circuit of the cab side around the plate. If that's come from a photo, fair enough, but the question is what the clearer would have done it for? My sense from looking at pictures of the real thing is that you'd either get a cleaned cabside, or cabside and tender side, or just the plate and a bit of polish around the handrails and cut out where the crew would have brushed/leaned on it, and the same for the tender. Similarly, the copper cap looks a bit shiny - the only 2251 I've seen like that is 3205 (obviously, the only one I've seen in the flesh, but the class weren't at the front of the cleaning queue, by and large!).

Adam

 

[Mike Garwood]

Adam

You're right about the chimney on the 22xx. I missed that when I worked on it. I'll sort that out with a brush. As to the cabside, I only intended to clear the cab number - on the original photo its completely lost, so I'm saying the new crew grew a concience . So that will be sorted with the airbrush. And at the sametime put the crew in the cab. 2227 looked pretty much like this, completely forgotten and unloved. I'll take pictures of the std 5 in better light tomorrow. There is a significant difference.

Thanks for the feedback - appreciated.

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

Better lit photo of the Std 5.



Comments welcomed.

Stay safe

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

Need some help please...

I have a completed sprung class 37 diesel - needs all sorts doing to the body yet, fans, grills etc...but it does run. How do I find out shed allocations for this class? I've looked on the web and none of the records make sense (to me). There is a video of one at Hafodyrynys colliery, but it's a very old video and the colour is a little off in places. So would the engine in question been in Blue or green? Impossible to tell with any certainty. The year is 1963.

Any help appreciated.

Mike

 

[AJC]

Need some help please...

I have a completed sprung class 37 diesel - needs all sorts doing to the body yet, fans, grills etc...but it does run. How do I find out shed allocations for this class? I've looked on the web and none of the records make sense (to me). There is a video of one at Hafodyrynys colliery, but it's a very old video and the colour is a little off in places. So would the engine in question been in Blue or green? Impossible to tell with any certainty. The year is 1963.

Any help appreciated.

Mike

In '63 it would have been green with absolute certainty (or not yet built - all were delivered in green, unlike the class 20s). This page seems clear enough and I think you probably want a number somewhere around D6900 and I guess the nominal allocation you'd be after was Canton or Landore: Class37.co.uk.

Does that help?

Adam

 

[jjnewitt]

I have a completed sprung class 37 diesel - needs all sorts doing to the body yet, fans, grills etc...but it does run. How do I find out shed allocations for this class? I've looked on the web and none of the records make sense (to me). There is a video of one at Hafodyrynys colliery, but it's a very old video and the colour is a little off in places. So would the engine in question been in Blue or green? Impossible to tell with any certainty. The year is 1963.

You could start with BRdatabase for the allocations. It will only be a starting point though. You will get either Canton or Landore for an allocation but a lot were outbased elsewhere. For example a lot of Canton's allocation were in fact shedded at Ebbw Junction, some others would have been at Radyr. Canton and Landore were the maintainance sheds not necessarily the running sheds. If you want something that worked over the Taff Vale Extension then you probably want a Canton machine.

All South Wales machines in 63 were green with small yellow panel. I don't know of any exceptions to this.

For 63 you want something below about d6911, however it's not as simple as that. The EE type 3s were built at either Vulcan Foundry or Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn (RSH) and there were differences between the two, most ovbious being the cantrail grills. Also some of the RSH machines (those in the range d6887-d6898) weren't in service until 64. The Bachmann model is a Vulcan foundry build. This means you want something in the following ranges:

d6829-58
d6869-78
d6899-d6911

The higher numbered ones obviously were't in service until late in the year.

When you're thinking about the detailing most of these seem to have been delivered with train heating boilers. A lot lost them early on to Brush type 4s but would probably still have had them by the end of 63. Your Bachmann model depicts one without a boiler. Also please, please, please lower the headcode box by about 1mm. It's the one thing you can do that will make the biggest difference to the look of the loco. The original Bachmann release (which yours is) is just too high and it looks completely wrong.

Most of this I could have told you when you picked up the sprung chassis.

Justin

P.S. Don't do d6904 as that's what mine's going to be!

 

[Mike Garwood]

Adam

Brilliant! The number is blurred on the video- apart from the last number - 7, but from that database I've managed to get the loco number...D6937. There are 4 alpha numeric numbers on the front of the engine - any idea what they signify? (I'm so ignorant over these things).

The engine started life in 64 and appeared at the colliery in 65. A little later than I'd like, but I'll take it. Green, yellow front. What's not to like.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Mike

 

[Mike Garwood]

Justin

Thanks for all that, really helpful. Having looked more closely - D6887 seems even more likely, looking at it's records. Moving the head code down seems hard work for 1mm. I think there's an etch I bought to replace that. So a bit of gluing, filling and sanding might be in order - if I can get the body off.

About 10.03 in.

Thanks for finishing the springing and putting the pickups on. But you could have mentioned this when I was holding your shed up!

I have also added some brown stuff to the Std 5, so it doesn't look as though it's got algae growing on the side framesof the tender!

Mike

 

[AJC]

Mike - Justin's reply puts the meat on the bones of what I could remember off the top of my head while feeding a 10 month (nearly) old.

The alpha numeric code is - or should be - the train description code/train reporting number in the format 1A01 (not on a Type 3 in the South Wales valleys, that!), where the first number is the class of train between 1, express passenger (defined somewhat generously on the 'Western even today and subject to massive variation; most services on the Kent mainline are reckoned class 2 regardless of how often they stop, services that stop more elsewhere - the Cardiff Pompeys, for example are *still* class 1. This made sense with a Hymek and buffet car, it makes less sense with an uncomfortable 166 calling almost everywhere and rammed with Bath/Bristol commuters*) to 9, unfitted freight. That's what headlamp codes would ordinarily give you. The rest is more complex and the Wikipeda entry is broadly right, as I understand it: Train reporting number - Wikipedia [EDIT - though as Justin's subsequent post makes clear, there were often local codes/targets - and South Wales was definitely one of these areas - details in the working timetables/sectional appendices].

Obviously it doesn't mean that what's on the front is actually the service being worked and as modellers, this is helpful!

Adam

* Why yes, this is a bee in my bonnet.