Tales from the Tinkering Table - Brinkley Works

[Nick Rogers]

Right, as many may have read, I had a bit of a crisis of confidence with my modelling. It's already discussed in another thread, so I won't rehash it here.

I thought if I wanted to build both Peter Tavy and Horrabridge to P4 standards, I needed to prove to myself that I could build locomotive chassis. I opted for a simple 0-6-0 57xx chassis. Over the years, I've acquired a couple of Perserverance chassis kits so thought it would be a good starting point for a newbie.


4679 was a Laira locomotive for a long time, so I selected her to be the locomotive.


Armed with Iain's chassis book and the MRJ articles, which are almost as old as I am! Set about building the chassis.

I fitted the bearings first with a simple solder tack and set up my Avonside Jig to the wheelspacing of the chassis before cutting out the hornblocks. I wanted to compensate the chassis, but Tim and others advised doing this first, which helps ensure a true chassis.


Hornblocks cut out with a piercing saw.



Rods assembled. The hornblocks were fitted at this point. I used the original Perserverance ones, which are alright, but next time I would certainly use High Level ones. These are very much of their time.


Chassis assembled. Yep, The screw spaces will need an extra bit! Never mind, I can solder that on at a later point.


Ultrascale wheels fitted just roughly at this stage to check it ran smoothly, which it did.

Stupidly, I didn't take any photos of building the gearbox or quartering the wheels with the GWR jig. But I found the GWR wheel quartering jig was incredibly useful.

The gearbox is a High Level RoadRunner+ with 45:1 gearing coupled to a Mashima 1626 motor. It seems to run very smoothly. The chassis hasn't had any running in. The gearbox and motor had a few hours on the bench, which I really think helped bed them in. I had planned to use a Portescap, but there was no way it would have fit in the space behind the cab. I think this was quite good, really, as it forced me to build a gearbox.

Ultimately, I'm extremely proud of what I've achieved with my first compensated chassis. It runs smoothly, with very little noise. The next stage will be to fit the pick-ups. I think I will go for simple wipers, but I'd be interested to see what other people have done. Please do feel free to comment and share stuff on here. I think we all learn!

Thanks for reading. More to come soon!

Best wishes,

 

[ullypug]

Well done Nick. Percy chassis are definitely of their time and HL hornblocks are a definite improvement for next time. Simple wipers would be fine. I’ve always tried to keep these a minimum of 25mm long if using straight 0.3mm brass.

 

[Jon_T]

That looks great, Nick. When you talk of 'the MRJ articles', which ones do you mean please? My copy of Iain's book is well-thumbed, but further guidance would be welcome!
Many thanks
Jon T

 

[Lyndhurstman]

That looks great, Nick. When you talk of 'the MRJ articles', which ones do you mean please? My copy of Iain's book is well-thumbed, but further guidance would be welcome!
Many thanks
Jon T

Hi @Jon_T
I think it may have been Parts 61 and 62. I may be able to excavate them later, if you haven’t got access to them.

Issue 62

Model Railway Journal - fully searchable online index.

www.westernthunder.co.uk

Cheers

Jan

 

[Nick Rogers]

Well done Nick. Percy chassis are definitely of their time and HL hornblocks are a definite improvement for next time. Simple wipers would be fine. I’ve always tried to keep these a minimum of 25mm long if using straight 0.3mm brass.

Thanks, Andrew. I've got a second Percy 57xx chassis to do, which I think I'll do straight after this one. However, the hornblocks will definitely be substituted for newer ones. I have a High Level 57xx chassis kit on the shelf too, and why I didn't pinch the hornblocks out of there still alludes me! Brian has used the original Percy ones on a couple of part-built locos I've inherited from him, which I think I'll carefully upgrade when I get round to finishing them off for him.

Do you fit the wire pickups to the tops of the wheels as whippers on the treads, or lower down touching the backs?

Cheers,

 

[Nick Rogers]

That looks great, Nick. When you talk of 'the MRJ articles', which ones do you mean please? My copy of Iain's book is well-thumbed, but further guidance would be welcome!
Many thanks
Jon T

Hi @Jon_T
I think it may have been Parts 61 and 62. I may be able to excavate them later, if you haven’t got access to them.

Issue 62

Model Railway Journal - fully searchable online index.

www.westernthunder.co.uk

Cheers

Jan

Thank you, Jon. As Jan has shared, 61 and 62 are the reference articles. Lots of bits have been upgraded and Jim has done a lovely job recently with his pair of panniers.

Best wishes,

 

[ullypug]

Thanks, Andrew. I've got a second Percy 57xx chassis to do, which I think I'll do straight after this one. However, the hornblocks will definitely be substituted for newer ones. I have a High Level 57xx chassis kit on the shelf too, and why I didn't pinch the hornblocks out of there still alludes me! Brian has used the original Percy ones on a couple of part-built locos I've inherited from him, which I think I'll carefully upgrade when I get round to finishing them off for him.

Do you fit the wire pickups to the tops of the wheels as whippers on the treads, or lower down touching the backs?

Cheers,

I’ve done both, but I find that wipers lower down bearing on the back of the flange works best for me. The pickup doesn’t need to be straight and can be bent round brake gear etc. The last couple of mm can be bent round into all sorts of shapes…
But top acting wipers work too in wire or phosphor bronze strip as do side acting wipers in wire. I’ve used phosphor bronze for these with an induced coil of a couple of turns round a 1mm drill bit. Hobby Holidays used to sell some PB wire with high beryllium (?) content to reduce sparking if memory serves (but it frequently doesn’t!!)
Good luck and we’ll have you building CSB chassis in no time!

 

[Jeremy Good]

Nick,

I’ve done a couple of these now and like Andrew use pickups bearing on the back of the wheels.

If I recall correctly doing top acting wipers gave some clearance issues around the splashers on the Bachmann body. You will probably need to scrape away a little of the plastic moulding to get more clearance for the crankpins and coupling rods on the underside of the chassis moulding.

Looking good so far and looking forward to seeing progress.

Jeremy

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Good to see that you got a working chassis so easily. The one principal thing that a chassis has to do is collect current, which relies on the wheels touching the rails. Rigid chassis only ever collect on three wheels while every wheel on a compensated or sprung one can.
It really annoys me to see experienced model builders advocating a solid chassis when getting that one position right is so difficult especially for the beginner.
Compensation ensures all your wheels follow the rails even if you get a twist on your frames.
Ian.

 

[Bulldog3444]

Well done Nick.

I think that High Level hornblocks are the best, but the Perseverance ones are OK provided you ensure that there is no slop.

With regards to pickups I have tried various options - top wipers, back of the tread wipers or edge of the tread. I think that the ones which are most reliable/ need less cleaning and adjusting are those on the edge of the tread. I use 0.35mm phosphor bronze for these.

Ian

 

[DavidB]

Good work, Nick. Well done. I am in favour of top wipers where they can be fitted, for example in a tank engine. Splashers are a problem because of the limited clearance. I bend the end of the top wiper in to a small 'loop' over the edge of the flange as this prevents the pickup wandering off the tyre and provides a little more rubbing surface. The pickup is also better protected from being accidentally caught on anything and bent.



Elsewhere, I like to make a small spring and have the pickup rubbing on the edge of flange, preferably on the upper part of the wheel if I can (or as high as I can get it) where it is less likely to be caught and bent. On my photo the pickup is a little too long and I cut it back.



I use 0.35mm phosphor bronze wire and for the springs wrap it around a 1mm drill.

 

[Nick Rogers]

Thank you for all the comments and advice, gents. Lots of food for thought!

 

[Nick Rogers]

Greetings,

It has been a while since I've posted much. I have slowly been getting on with bits and bobs in the background, which has mostly involved finishing items off. Mostly wagons, but some parcels and coaching stock too.

This afternoon, I started the body for a chassis I purchased serval years ago. It was the work of Paul Iliff for his and Ian Harrion's Evenstow layout. The body provided wasn't the original one, so I had a rummage about in my stash for one. I purchased said you'd for £4 off ebay many years ago. It was part of large batch with the wrong printed number. I bought four in the end, one of which has already become 4658 (a Laira loco for much of the 1950s).

Based on plates I have in stock, I opted for 4679 as the next shed mate to build. The majority of the components for the project can be seen below.


I like to work from photographs and have this lovely mid 1950s image of 4679 on shed at Laira.


Various detailing parts can be seen here: smoke box dart, Finney lamp brackets and handrail pillars fitted above the step - I think this is my lease favourite job.


I really don't like how chunky the whistle shield is on these Bachmann models. Generally, I have settled on ModelU replacements. I opened up the roof vent to give the loco a bit more character.

The chassis can be seen in the background. It is a Perserverance example, with Gibson wheels and a Portescape/MJT motor/gearbox combination. It runs very nicely. A future project can be seen hiding behind thr BR van...


As this loco will spend half of her life in reverse, I decided to open one of the rear cab shutters. A lot of work with a drill and careful filling to open it out was required. When tidying up with the Swan Morton, I managed to 'nick' the left door. A curse word, which I won't repeat, was used in frustration! However, a small amount of filler should set that right. 7709 and 3629 can be seen lurking in the background. Both are detailed examples I worked on during Lockdown - that feels like a lifetime ago now! I really must replace the coupling on 7709...


A final shot shows what an improvement the etched lamp irons make. One is slightly out of true, but I suspect a slight 'tweak' will rectify it.

Since taking these photos, I have fitted the sanding gear and the eagle eyed reader might have spotted I removed the sanding gear caps. These have been moved back to a more appropriate place.

Next week's work will involve little tweaks to the body, fitting the roof vent cover, mounting for the smoke box numer and removing the GREAT WESTERN lettering. 4679 is earmarked for a full repaint into BR black livery. Early crests will also festoon her tanks.

Right, off to order a suitable crew from ModelU.

Thanks for reading.

All the best,

Nick.