7mm The Derby Line - Rolling Stock

[dibateg]

Work chugs along on the workbench - finished off the pacifics. I'm now experimenting with Vallejio acrylics, after using enamels for a long time, I now find the fumes quite noxious - as well as complaints from the domestic authorities. So the new chimneys were touched in with acrylic black. The paint covers well, although it seems to be scratched more easily than enamel.


I now thought I'd escaped 4mm, but I seem to have volunteered to make the signals for Bala Junction... ho hum. In the meantime we were having trouble with some of the Tortoises that were reused off Barmouth Junction. We couldn't get any connection through the internal switches. So a couple needed a strip down and the contact areas cleaned up. This one must have been in an important location as it's obviously seen a lot of use.


The other 7mm projects have stalled at the moment, I'm hoping to get the necessary bits at Kettering...

 

[dibateg]

It was great to see so many familiar places at Kettering, I still didn't manage to catch up with everyone that I wanted to!

I'm working on 4mm scale signals at the moment for Bala Junction.

Refurbishing ex Barmouth Junction ones:-


And making new ones. It's a good stretch of the skills to go back to 4mm, trouble is - if you breath out too quickly all the bits disappear!


There is a rather complex arrangement of two adjacent posts, with brackets and indicators...


They will look better when they are painted!

 

[dibateg]

Well they did get painted:-



Some are already planted now!

The J11 project had stalled a little - waiting for some available time and I couldn't find a casting for the slotted handbrake link - although I think Laurie does one actually. In the end I had a spare half hour and experimented making a slot by chain drilling and then using an old drill as a slot cutter by hand. That would have been a DLOS question no doubt. Not perfect, but it does the job and most of it is hidden behind the step... I now just need to put a pin in that hole at the end of the vac cylinder crank.

 

[Dave Holt]

Looks OK to me. I find that, sometimes, etched brake pull rods (which I often replace by round section wire) contain slotted holes for the stretchers that can be re-purposed for this sort of thing.
You seem to have made lots of progress with the signals and I look forward to seeing them in place.
Dave.

 

[dibateg]

I don't really like having sealed boilers and I thought it would be useful to be able to access it to install a speaker or weight. So I came up with this solution for a removable smokebox door. Its tight enough not to rattle loose....

 

[simond]

That’s another “how stupid of me not to have thought of that” ideas

Filed away (see what I did there) for future reference

 

[dibateg]

The signals have now gone in at Bala Junction, just temporarily fixed in place. It's going to be a fiddle connecting them up....

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

I don't really like having sealed boilers and I thought it would be useful to be able to access it to install a speaker or weight. So I came up with this solution for a removable smokebox door. Its tight enough not to rattle loose....
View attachment 164439

View attachment 164440

I use that system too as I like to keep the smokebox separate from the boiler to ease painting and need access to the joining screw. I drill a couple of holes for pins to locate the door in the correct orientation.

Ian.

 

[Richard Spoors]

I first came across the concept here Martin Finney 7mm A3 and used it to squeeze an ESU V5L into the boiler of an F7 V2!

Richard

 

[dibateg]

Nice work Ian! Thanks Richard!

This time of year, I tend to be busy with outside stuff and out on the mountain bike whenever I can, so the workbench takes a bit of a back seat. The rain has driven me indoors, so having exploited the previous warm weather to do some spraying, I was able to start re-assembling the J11. I've had to try and remember how it all goes back together and to find all the parts, which is usually easy as I am quite organised, except that I seem to have lost the completed backhead, which has disappeared off to outer space.... Several determined searches have not found it. This has never run unpainted... so a simple 0-6-0 should be easy shouldn't it? I've already rectified several 'issues'! I weather the frames before fitting them out.

 

[mickoo]

Tony, is that an ABC gearbox?

You might want to pop it out, throw in a dummy axle, oil and run at around 40% for a few hours, I've had a couple now where I chased erratic running and tightness for hours in the valve gear and quartering, only to find it was tight spots in the gear box. Infuriatingly one was at BDC so it had all the hall marks of tight rods and quartering; it was only after I undid the grub screw to turn the wheels by hand and then re-affix that the fault moved and I found it.

I've also had several slaters wheels with slipped hubs so give them a little twist and see if any of them twist a bit on the axle.

Looking good though

 

[dibateg]

Thanks Mick -

I shall check those out! It is reasonably smooth, but definitely needs running in.

Cheers
Tony

 

[dibateg]

The J11 trundles on to completion and now she has an identity. I don't think I've ever seen a photo of one as clean as this.. I forgot to check the fit of the buffers in to the housings, so there was a bit of an annoying fiddle to get them in and working. Just ready now for some track tests, then on to be weathered and finished..

I still haven't found the back head...

 

[Lancastrian]

Vey nice Tony. I see you've been fighting with tender flares as well !

Ian

 

[dibateg]

Its a bit hot for model making, so up early before it warms up, and repairs, mods and new signals for Bala Junction...

 

[dibateg]

The signals are all working on Bala Junction now - just in time for a running session - apart from that wonky one in the middle, which we have both broken in turn... They have now been bedded in and the bases disguised.


In the meantime I've continued with the Thompson BZ, which contains more and more Sidelines parts.. Ends, battery boxes, dynamo. buffers and jumper cables.. - yes - the jumpers do look a bit short!

Just a few odds and end to finish off...

 

[dibateg]

The spray shop is still warm enough to do some painting:-

 

[dibateg]

I'm confined to the workbench having at long last caught the lurg. There is another background task that I return to from time to time and that is a JLTRT Gresley Full Brake. I have made up some resin kits in the past, but I do prefer working in brass. I'm not sure now that it should have two sets of battery boxes and I think the lower guards steps should be a lot longer. I don't think it will have quite the fidelity of Heathers lovely models. Back to the research...


In the meantime I've sprayed and then stripped again the BZ. I still had some JLTRT spray can left, but the finish was rather orange peel. Does it go off after time?

 

[dibateg]

There - thats better, down one set of batteries. There is vague shiny bit of brass underneath representing the heating pipe moister trap. That will disappear one its all painted black under there. I've also made a longer lower step for the guards door. the other thing left to do, is to remove the alarm gear mouldings from the roof - I don't think full brakes needed that. Laurie ( I wonder how he is? ) at MM1 kindly swapped the bogies for 8 foot ones for me.

 

[dibateg]

Nearly there - odd bits of touching in to do. I need to hide that yellow wire. I won't be weathering it until the spring. Now I think the cylinders should be lined, 1264 was so dirty in the '60s it was difficult to tell, although I won't be doing it that dirty. Painting and lining by Paul Moore. She needs a full track test before I fit a DCC decoder. 1264 was a Colwick engine, often seen hanging around Nottingham Victoria.


There are still the cab seats to do, and other bits to finish off in the cab.