Yorky D's Küchentisch - Jonny half-a-job...

[Yorkshire Dave]

This is utter bonkers... as I do no have any 7mm Italian rolling stock for a layout .

I started building a carcass from left over 2mm ply and card for another 7mm scale Brill branch style station building in order to make the creosoted shiplap variant as seen at Westcott.

However...... the old neurons misfired and I built this instead to experiment with the Redutex textured building sheets.

So I ordered some stone wall, red herringbone brick and pantiles and here is the result so far. I'm waiting on a delivery of pantile ridge tiles from Spain to complete the building. It is resting on it's foundations at the moment hence the gap.







The doors do open

For the station name board I found and downloaded a suitable Italian Art Deco font/typeface.


Red herringbone brick used for the floor.


And in keeping with the silliness I downloaded the Pompeii House of Mystery Fresco to decorate the interior walls.


I did make up a later style of Italian station name board.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The ridge tiles have finally arrived from Redutex in Spain and have now been applied to finish the building.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I was looking for suitable tram to use with the stone station I built earlier and ended up purchasing two 1/48 scale Corgi Birney streetcars/trolley cars/trams* (*delete which does not apply . Then I checked whether any of these cars were exported - which they were but to South and Central America, Australia and New Zealand but not to Europe.

And a Bachmann On30 streetcar was purchased..... more on that one later.

The Corgi Birneys are unpowered and I decided to make up two chassis - one to use the SDMP gearbox and the other to see if I can build and fit traction motors.

Firstly I made up two identical chassis from brass. Both utilise 4mm scale Alan Gibson hornguides and hornblocks.

This is the completed version with the SDMP gearbox and a 10 x 20 coreless motor from Tramfabriek. The small motor was used as the car only has to haul itself. As usual the CV joint is neporene tube and a ball bearing. The wheels are Slaters the Selsey Railway 14mm carrying wheels with the 1/8'' axles made for P48. At present the wheels are set at 32mm track gauge. I only have to press them in line with the axle ends to regauge for P48.





The chassis under the Birney car which I have stripped down and repainted to make a Pacific Electric (PE) car which fits in with my liking for SP/SSW. As the motor and gearbox sit proud of the top of the chassis this meant cutting way part of the interior floor. The sideframes are not fitted here as the Slaters wheels are too wide, however when the wheels are move in to P48 gauge the sideframs will fit. Which is all academic as I'll be making traction motors for this car following my later experiment.


The second Birney car is powered by traction motors I made up using the the CLAG website as a guide.

In this case two coreless 8 x 16 coreless motors together with belts and pulleys from Nigel Lawton were used. The motors are supported in 9mm OD (8mm ID) tube and the 2mm axles are supported by ball race bearings within a 6mm OD (5mm ID). Again, Alan Gibson hornblocks are used and in this case 3mm (2mm ID) tube was soldered in the 1/8'' hornblock hole to carry the 2mm axles......

A classic case of bodgery for UK modelling where there is always an imperial to metric (or vice versa) conversion required somewhere - a right royal pain in the posterior .....



Here the traction motors sit within the chassis.


Hornby 4mm 14.1mm diameter coach wheels were used as these are coarse enough to be very close to P48 standards. Here the traction motors are on 1:43 O scale axles and just fit within the Corgi sideframes. I'll be making up four more traction motors to P48 gauge for these two Birney cars.


The powered chassis sits under the car without having to butcher the interior. This car will also end up as a PE version.


....and finally....

.....the Bachmann On30 streetcar. Which started out as one of these...



I did a bit of reasearch and this is based on the streetcars built by the John Stephenson Car Company of New York and being an older style streetcar it lends itself for conversion to an early European tram - which is what I'll be doing.

The first thing to do was to regauge this from 16.5 to 32mm which was quite easy as Bachmann used 3mm axles. All it required was some 3mm (2mm ID) tube, 2mm steel shaft and Hornby 4mm 14.1mm coach wheels.

2mm steel shaft was cut to the correct axle length and then sleeved into the 3mm tube. The tube was cut to length so when the wheels were pressed on they gauged themselves. Prior to this the gears were carefully removed from the original axles and pushed onto the new axles. As I used 14.1mm wheels some of the gear casing was filed off the keeper plate to maintain ground clearance.



The regauging also meant the sideframes had to be moved out to the extremity of the body sides. However there is no detriment to appearance as early standard gauge trams were often the same width as the trucks.

The tram has been stripped down and undergoing modification. I'll be making new wider steps and front windscreens to totally enclose the car.

 

[Steph Dale]

Neat work, Dave,

How do the traction-motor drives run in this configuration? How's the slow-speed control? As we discussed on Friday, I've got a couple of HO-scale CSD/DR vehicles that need drives and this really appeals.

Any chance you can detail the components used, please?

Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

My primary railway interest is in electric traction and I've decided to build this little number for a small switching layout.

It is a Judith Edge 7mm kit (rescaled from 4mm) of one of the small Siemens-Schuckertwerk BB 600v DC overhead electric locos used on the since closed Harton Colliery Railway since 1914. I was reading a bit of the history - rabbit hole #1 - of the Harton Coal Company and it turns out they had German shareholders - hence the Siemens-Schuckertwerke and AEG locomotives together with the DRG style catenary masts.

I first thought it may have been a Siemens & Halske loco but Seimens & Halske moved their high voltage work to Schuckertwerke (who specialised in high voltage equipment) when they aquired them in 1903. Researching Siemens & Halske and Siemens-Schuckertwerke history was rabbit hole #2.

Since my build of the Met Bo-Bo a couple of years ago I had forgotten how tedious the preparation of parts was - de-cusping. Anyway this is the state of play thus far. And apologies in advance for my 'back of the class' soldering .......

I deviated from the instructions and replaced the cast resin headlights lights with some 4mm ID tube as I will make these working.... I was tempted to install additional central headlights in the cab fronts DB style! The bonnet covers, of which the hatches were made up from laminates, are not yet fixed as access is required to fit the buffers and make up the lighting circuit board.




The coupling is a combination of the CPL SR screw coupling and plain links.


The drive - as usual more experiments. The traction motor housings are made up from 1/8" and 1/2" ID brass tube soldered together and the coreless 12v 12 x 10 motors are from Nigel Lawton. The 1/2" ID brass tube gave me a 12.7mm ID as I couldn't find any 12mm ID brass tube. The gears are from a cheap 200 piece set picked up on fleabay. Again Alan Gibson 4mm scale hornblocks have been used which is another deviation from the instructions.

I haven't tested it yet and know it will run fast which I should be able to control once I have fitted a DCC decoder. Slaters 2'6" wagon wheels are used which is 762mm - generally this type of werklok had 750 or 800 mm diameter wheels.


This just shows how diminutive the loco is compared to a LT hopper wagon.

I'm waiting for some buffers as the ones in the kit are cast resin (as are the axleboxes) and there is also the pantograph to build.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

This is a couple of evenings work.

Building the pantograph....




It is built up from nickel silver etch and wire - mostly as per the instructions but....

From working with pantographs in HO scale I added a height restrictor to prevent the pantograph resembling a witches hat in profile.


Added a cross brace from brass tube - on the prototype this is just a bar. The ends of the upper arms clip into this.


It is only temporarily mounted on the roof as is the roof on the model.


The roof requires it's arc flattening to match the cab ends. The collector reaches a scale 17 ft above rail height with this small loco and when I get around to building a layout for this I'll have the contact wire at a scale 15 - 16 ft above rail height.


It'll look a whole lot better with a green body, black demarkation line on the bottom line of rivets above the running plate, red underframe and pantograph....

 

[mickoo]

Electrifying.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

An update on the Siemens Lok.....

I wasn't happy with the traction motor drive experiment as I could not fine tune the motor drive parameters in the decoder. Not to be deterred I made up a motor block from brass strip and scrap etch.

A Mashima motor from my stock was used together with some cheapo Chinese gears and 2mm ball race bearing together with Slaters 2'6'' wheels and 2mm steel rod for the axles. Once the gear, 2mm ball race bearings and the Alan Gibson hornblocks were installed the Staters wheels were pressed onto the axles. This 'block' is suspended in the inner frame using Alan Gibson 4mm scale hornblock guides. One axle has a +0.5/-0.5 mm rocking movement to accommodate uneven track. This was achieved by elongating the holes in the frame to allow the ball race bearings some movement as they are friction fitted to the 2mm axle.



It has been painted with AK Interactive Gen3 acrylic paints and glazed. The axleboxes supplied were, quite frankly, poor resin castings and to overcome this I filed some whitemental wagon ones I had in the spares box to the Siemens style.

The cab fittings and lighting is yet to be installed and the lenses will be made up from slices of 4mm acrylic rod and utilise small surface mount LEDs....... and there's a few additional details to add.






I'll be making up some tramway style catenary masts from sleeved brass tube....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Faffed around this afternoon making up a simple 600v DC tramway mast....

.... just knocked up from some wood, bits of square brass tube, 3mm, 2mm brass tube and 1mm brass rod.

The insulators are 7mm short handrail knobs which when painted will look like insulators. The wire is 24 gauge copper wire on a reel from a craft shop - however I'll probably use 0.33 mm tinned copper wire for the contact wire.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Made up some more tramway catenary masts.

Another three wooden masts built the same way as previously. Here are the completed masts photographed on a table which is exposed to the elements. The one on the right is a pull off for a section of curved track



Some detail - and the weathering the steps were:

- Initially the wood was stained with a wash of black and burnt umber artists oils and white sprit.
- Ironwork was painted in gunmetal.
- Once dry I painted the masts with a wash of ivory white.
- After drying I applied another wash of black and burnt umber as above to accentuate the grain.
- Again once dry, I lightly drybrushed the mast with a very pale grey.
- Finally I added some rust and a very pale green wash to some areas of the masts.

The insulators (7mm scale short handrail knobs) will be painted once the masts and contact wires have been installed.











In addition two masts were constructed from sleeved brass tube and 1mm rod. The green insulators are from Sommerfeldt.







I'm waiting on a delivery of some M4 threaded brass rod to insert into the base of the masts to provide a fixing for installation. Which is why there is a section of brass square tube at the base of the wooden masts to prevent the wood splitting.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Picked this up on a well known auction site as the only bidder.... (however my Elok of choice would be the E44).

A DB Br E69 Bo Elok which was originally introduced in the Pola Maxi range in 1969.

This extract is from the 1972 catalogue found in conrad-antiquario Katalogarchive who have a host of other early model and toy catalogues.

The range passed to RaiMo then on to Biller-Bahn - available as kits and no longer produced.



And the model.... which I believe is built from either the RaiMo or early Biller-Bahn kit. Surprisingly the model has nice sprung buffers.



The drive is an original Albert Munz Modellbahnantriebe developed for the kit and is milled from a lump of brass with a brass side keeper plate to hold in the spur gears with a Faulhaber motor. Complete with traditional (then miniature) incandescent bulbs.



Alas the model has one fault - it's 20mm too long over the body and I think it was a scaled up version of the original Fleischmann HO model E69 (below). I cannot do a cut 'n' shut to shorten the bonnets as the body has been stretched over it's length resulting in a longer cab.



Scale HO E69s were produced by Roco, Brawa and Märklin/Trix (E69 02/03); Piko and Fleischmann (E69 05) and Westmodell (E69 04) before rebuilding into a steeple cab. The original E69 04 was one of two similar locomotives rebuilt from one half of this prototype. As can be seen from this website the other rebuilt loco resides in the Technikmuseum am Anhalter Bahnhof, Berlin.


However, the chassis and wheelbase are correct - the side came off in my hand, honest guv (I scaled up a drawing I found on t'interweb).


What makes me believe this is an early RaiMo or Biller-Bahn kit is the Sommerfeldt Stromabnehemer. The head on the model (left) is flimsier than the later version (right).



What to do .... build a new body to scale.... and shorten the upper part of the chassis to suit....

.....or leave the model as is for sentimentality since these were introduced by Pola while we were stationed in Germany and my dad (then attached to RAF Strike Command Meteorological Office) was on the verge of purchasing these O gauge models. Instead he bought HO - Märklin Hamo* Br 24, Fleischmann Br 70 and a Liliput Br 38. * Hamo was the Märklin 2 rail range at the time.


Mmmmmm.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Carrying on with this....

These recently landed - both by the same author with the GeraMond publication predating the EK book.



Although there were only five locomotives classed E69 all are different - rather like LBSCR Terriers! Upon further reading E69 02 and E69 03 were modified from their original LAG condition in 1936 and 1939 respectively. Later again in 1954 when they were converted from 5.5kV AC to 15kV AC by DB. The louvres appeared after 1936 (1939 for E69 03) which were subject to variance during works visits.

It was also interesting to read the Murnau-Oberammergau electric power was supplied by a hydro power station built along the line in 1905 .

Anyway with further faffing I removed the moulded handrails, steps and brake gear which will be replaced in due course along with air tanks, plumbing, etc.



At this point I removed the lower portion which makes E69 02 look like the original LAG lok before the 1936 rebuild increasing the overall height. ...looks better proprotioned in this state.



However, an Event Horizon beckons.... which I'll have to think about before crossing .

I have worked out with 8 cuts centred around the cab I can reduce the body length by around 10mm... (leaving the chassis and sill intact and without hacking the drive chassis block) - ideally I need to lose 20mm. Shortening the drive chassis will be difficult as the solid brass Albert Munz Modellbahnantriebe was designed to fit this model and would require sections lopping off each end to retain the sprung buffers and couplers.

Loss of rivets is not an issue as I can replace these with the Archer Decal rivets or even easier - leave it as the pre 1936 LAG lok with no rivets.



A correctly scaled model would entail a new scratchbuilt body and drive chassis.

While searching t'interweb for E69s and industrial electric locos this nice looking Postamt Berlin E-lok popped up among others....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Didn't take much convincing to step beyond the Event Horizon.....

The E69 has duly been sliced and diced and managed to lose 9.5 mm from the overal body length - which is now 11 mm rather than 20mm too long. In addition the overall length of the chassis and buffer beams was reduced by the same amount.

Paint has been applied to the wounds to see if any remedial work is required.



Here's the einst und jetzt.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I wasn't too happy about the running of this - not quiet enough, .... and the cheapo Chinese gears split on the axles.



So I found some Tenshodo 14:1 gears in my stash and used these instead. It did mean a bit of dismantling and re-assembly. The opportunity was taken to utilise a Tramfabriek 10x20 coreless motor which has 1mm shafts, make a new motor mount and making the cab floor removable.







It now runs a lot sweeter and quieter, in fact the only noise is from the wheels on the track.

 

[Robin A]

Hi Dave
Excellent thread. Enjoyed the Judith Edge Siemen build and the designs for the masts.
I'll be incorporating some of those ideas for my section of industrial electric.

Rob

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I'll be incorporating some of those ideas for my section of industrial electric.

Thanks Rob, plagiarism it what its all about..... . I'll post some photos of the finished masts when I get them taken.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Received today - acquired for the princely sum of 300 coins of the Queen's realm.

Two HO locomotives - Roco USATC S160 and Fleischmann DB Br95....


Now to order a traction tyre free driving wheelset from Fleischmann spares. Fortunately it's not the centre driving wheels .

 

[allegheny1600]

Hi Dave,
Phew! That’s an excellent price for those two, I would have said you’d be doing well to get just the Roco 2-8-0 for that figure, let alone the large meat man engine! I’m sure they were around that figure when they came out and it looks as good as new.
Well done.
John

 

[GrahameH]

Most definitely a real bargain.....enjoy !

Although I no longer model in HO specifically K.Bay.Sts.B I found the Fleischmann loco's to be almost bomb-proof and extremely reliable and Roco's offerings to be highly detailed and excellent runners too.

 

[GrahameH]

I wanted to comment upon your DB Br E69 Bo Elok which interested me.

It reminded me of a project I intended to do using various items I'd collected to attempt a model of the following ( can't recall which website it came from but very useful images )





I do like oddball loco's and this would have fitted right in !

I still have the Kay Bay coaching stock and odd mechanicals so maybe one day ?