Highclere - The layout that never was?

Hello.

Apologies for doing this at this time of the year, it has once again been on my mind now for a while and I wanted to open it upto friends to try and gauge others opinions....

For a while now I have been (once again!) thinking of scrapping the layout. Progress on it for a number of years now has been painfully slow and enthusiasm has been virtually non-existent. I have tried to put it into a number of pros and cons...

FOR

• Its always been my best work, I have tried my best to recreate something.
• I have invested nearly 10 years of work into the layout
• Its what I am known for and a good example of my modelling abilities
• It always seems to get invited to shows (even if I always turn them down!)
• It gives me focus to my modelling

AGAINST

• It takes up valuable space in my flat
• I have no interest in taking it to shows or operating it, just building it
• I cannot set it up at home so the only time I get to test it is at a show
• Its not 100% my area of interest
• I feel guilty if I work on things which aren't 'connected' to the layout somehow.

So, what do I do? As I mentioned above I don't have any real interest in the layout and haven't for a while now. I havnent got an alternative place to store it so its here semi-packed up in my hallway getting in the way as there is nowhere else I can pack it up. The thing is I cant really bring myself to throw it in a skip even where it seems clear to me it would be the right thing to do.

Thoughts, opinions, and ideas will be gratefully recieved...

Julia.

Copper Chimneys

Hello.

For a couple of upcoming projects of mine I needed a source of some GWR type chimneys. The original plan of mine was to use some bits from the excellent range of castings that Nick Tilson of N Brass produces. The thing is his castings are in Brass and I wanted to do the distinctive copper capped chimneys that so many GW engines had so this is my solution...

First I found some great little blog posts that Paul has done HERE which show in fantastic detail how he produces them. This seemed the ideal way to try making my own but, once again, they were Brass. My idea was then to do some research to find out what the best grade of Copper was to machine as there is a good range of alloys available, some of which are a pain to machine. The final decision went to some C109 Copper and was duly ordered via Ebay  HERE

Once the Copper had arrived and I have time I firstly scales a works drawing for a chimney which provided me with the dimensions I needed so then I promptly made a start. My plan was to make the whole chimney out of Copper so once it is painted the top could then be polished up, looking all GW.

Machining the Copper was a dream, it cut really well and left a good finish. For your information the plaster covering a cut isn't due to me being clumsy on the lathe, its from an earlier DIY job!

Above shows what they look like after being turned on the lathe. It took a couple of attempts to get some which I was happy with, the chimney on the far left of the picture is one of those failures. I decided to keep it so I had something to experiment with on the next step. The steel bush was also required for the next bit.

As per Paul's posts the next step was to hold the chimney in position and then form the base around a suitable bar similar to the boiler diameter. I used (ironically) the copper bar which was used to make the chimneys from and my manual milling machine.

So above are the finished chimneys. Thanks to Paul the whole thing went well and definitely weren't as daunting to make as I first thought. I now have much more confidence making bits for boilers.

Julia.

OK, its time to have a catch up on things.

Hello.

Its been a while I know but I don't want to end up posting about things that don't really deserve a post in their own right. I would much rather save up a couple of bits and put it all together into a single post. Then, hopefully, it makes my stuff a little bit more interesting. Im far from the the fastest of people to produce things. This weekend I was at the Railex exhibition and saw Mick and Alan who were aiming to produce a layout in a weekend, that amazes me as do anyone else who can 'knock things together' in a weekend. The 22xx engines of mine are a classic example of my speed. These were started over the Christmas break (2015 before anyone asks!) as a 'quick project' and as you can see below they are still very much work in progress.
Anyway, enough of my waffle, here is a bit of an update on the bits and bobs I have been doing...

Q1

In previous posts I have shown progress on some CNC machined wheels. These were ultimately for the Dapol Q1 which I attempted to convert a few years back. Anyway, this work then prompted a complete overhaul of the engine and the result of which can be seen below. The list of work was as follows...

• Re-wheeled with home brew CNC machined wheels.
• Replaced the intermediate gearbox with a new CNC machined body and MOD 0.2 gears.
• Replaced the coupling rods with a pair of custom etched ones.
• Replaced both CV joints with a couple of my designed and 3D printed joints.
• Reworked the tender wheels by replacing the steel axles (pin points) and insulating bushes.

Its lots better than the previous version by quite a bit, there are no more wobbly wheels anymore and it runs much smoother.  The engine has a slight bit of 'cogging' at slow speeds which I think might be a slight discrepancy between the worm and the worm wheel but I am in two minds if to strip and replace or see if a decent bit of running improves it. Next step is to fit a decoder.

22xx

 These two engines are turning into another 'slow burner' project (I cant really afford another one!). I must admit though that I am particularly pleased with how these are turning out and I can say that to date these two are the best engines I have ever produced. Currently I have been working my way through the brake gear for the engines and once this is done it will be onto the tender brakes. Sadly the plastic brake bits you get with the tender 'kit' from the association doesn't seems to fit so I put together an etch for the brakes so I just need to work out how to fit them.

Rivet Press

This is the latest thing off of my workbench. There are a few future projects where I will need something to form rivets so I came up with the idea for this tool.
Its based upon a pair or parallel jaw pliers which were produced to punch holes in metal. The advantage of using these is I could remove the bits designed for punching holes and replace them with some bits to form rivets. These were turned up on my lathe from silver steel and hardened. The 'pointy bit' is adjustable using a M3 thread and locknut so the rivet pliers can be adjusted to suit various thickness's of metal. I am happy with the resulting formed rivets on standard 0.2mm thick Nickel Silver sheet and I am looking forward to using it in anger sometime in the future.

So you lot are now upto speed on what I have been doing. There are a few other bits and bobs in the pipeline but I will post about those when there is enough progress to show you all.

Julia :o)

P.S. Highclere is due to go to the CMRA show in Stevenage Jan 2017. I'm feeling the pressure already!

Boxpoking about

Hello.

So what have I been upto since my last post I hear you all ask. Well, I have been mostly CNCing stuff.

I have a Dapol Q1 which has been treated to a conversion a while ago. For those of you who remember it I ended up writing an article for the Model Railway Journal which ended up in issue 211. The problem was that I was never happy with the results. While the engine did run it wasn't upto my standards as the wheels were a kind of hybrid of dapol and 2mmSA.

As with many things in life, the older you get, the more knowledgeable you get and this is a classic case. Since my last attempt at conversion I have rethought an approach to producing the wheels for another attempt at getting something I am happy with. This time armed with a CNC mill I made a start...

This is how the wheel started off. A 3D model of a scale wheel with a 2mmSA rim attached, from this I can generate a CNC programme. In my previous post I showed how I turned up the blanks from Paxolin and added the association rims.

The wheel blanks were clamped in a rotary table and clocked with a dial test indicator to ensure they were centred correctly. I had a frustrating time getting the DTI to fit the milling machine because of the depth on the Z axis wasn't enough. This meant I had to make a little bracket (seen clamped to the mill chuck) which was a pain.

Once the wheel was centred the programme was then run. The milling cutter is a 0.5mm slot drill which conveniently was suitable for all the milling and drilling operations. The programme took about an hour per wheel. It seemed to take forever to do all 7 (6+1 spare) spread over a number of evenings.

And these are the result to date. The backs need tidying up a bit on the lathe but other than that the next step is cutting some axles and fitting them to the chassis.

Am I happy with them? Definitely, they look like Boxpok wheels and fingers crossed they are an improvement on the previous attempt.

Julia.

Not gone, back once again.

Hello Folks.

Wow, was it really October last year when I made my last blog post? Doesnt time fly when you get on with things. With many of my other projects, enthusiasm comes and goes, thoughts appear and ideas are tested. To be honest the vast majority of the time it doesnt feel like I have enough to warrant a blog posting so instead of waffling on about nothing in particular I do try to save up things a bit to hopefully make the blog posts interesting.

So, what have I been upto since my last blog post I hear you all ask? Here is a summary of the bits and bobs I have been playing with, it might be interesting to some? I really hope at least a single person gets some inspiration from it all...

1. GWR 22xx

 This has been a project that has been ongoing for a bit now. I restarted it over the Christmas break as the layout was once again packed away for the festivities. As per pretty much all my projects the starting point was a scale drawing which was then added into AutoCad where the size, shape, and gearing was worked out. In the particular case of these engines the CAD drawings were then imported into Inventor (my 3D package of choice) where I have a nice little plugin that converts the 3D into G code ready for my CNC.

This is the setup. As you might realise from the majority of my photos my workbench is basically my PC table so when the machines are out the PC takes second priority.

This is an image of the CNC chopping up some PCB material. In this instance its a sideframe for one of the tender chassis. The cutter is a 1mm diameter Carbide slot drill (for those who are interested!

Once all the bits I need are cut out its then a case of soldering the bits together as per a etched chassis. They are accurate enough not to be reliant upon the axle holes to line everything up.

This is the resultant of the tender bits an bobs to date. The motor is a 2MMSA component. These two chassis are destined for a dapol 22xx tender body.

And this is one of the chassis to date. There is still lots to do which I work through once I have figured out what to do. Its the first tender engine I have built replacement chassis for so there are new challenges for me. I have designed a little bracket on the engine that means the worm can be easily removed if needed, to me its an essential part of a chassis.

2. Q1

I have decided to remake the wheels for my converted Dapol Q1 engine. The originals didnt run as concentric and wobble free as I would have liked so I have made a start on a new design.

The first part of the idea was to turn up some wheel blanks which use standard 2mmSA wheel rims. The blanks are made from a Paxolin type of material bought on Ebay, the rims are glued into position with a spot of loctite.

These are the blanks to date ready for profiling. The three on the right are scrapped parts which didnt 'turn' out right (it happens) and as you might have noticed I have seven passable wheels so there is a spare just in case of future errors.

More will follow on this as I make progress.

3. Mamod

A bit of a curved ball this one but at a toyfair over the holidays I picked up this for the total sum of £35.

The original thought for this was to replace the chimney and lave it at that but of course its changed now. As my confidence with the machines I own is growing the ideas are starting to develop, so there are some small plans for this now. It doesn't involve making a chimney though, does anyone know where I can find one?

4. P.C.

OK, so not modelling but worth mentioning. Over the holidays I invested in a laptop PC. This is a departure for my as previously its always been a desktop PC. The BIG advantage is that I now have CAD-TO-GO and recently tested this out at the ST Albans show where I demonstrated my CAD work. It seemed to go down well so hopefully I will be doing more of this at shows in the future.

Right, I think thats this blog up to date now. Let me know what you think...

Julia :o)

Before and After, Opinions Needed

Hello.

I have taken a couple of the wagons that have been mentioned in previous blogs and subjected them to a bit of weathering. This time though, I have changed my approach and tried out a selection of the newish Humbrol washes to see what sort of results I can achieve.

Below are a couple of photos showing before (left) and after (right) to show what I have achieved. Now before I carry on with the remaining wagons I thought it would be wise to post this and canvass everyones opinion first. Apologies for the not-so good quality photos but hopefully you can get a good enough idea on what they look like.

So, what do you think?

Julia :o)

An Insomniacs guide to the SVR Autum Gala 2015

Hello.

I thought I would add an entry to my blog about this years Autumn Steam Gala, this is a must see event for me. The difference is that I have suffered a bit from Insomnia for a while now and to sleep in my van parked in the station car park has somewhat eluded me. The mixture of change, excitement, and late nights all come together to make it next to impossible for me to get any sleep, unfortunately this year wasn't much different. I did still really enjoy myself though...

I arrived at Kidderminster Station on Friday around 1pm. To my surprise I also noticed that the entrance to the car park had a sign in the way saying the car park was full along with a smartly dressed guy standing next to it. The smart guy said that the car park was indeed pretty full but fortunately he let me pass saying I might be able to squeeze my van in somewhere. This to me was a bit unusual as I have never seen the car park this full before, I thought to myself 'this is getting to become a popular event'. Anyway, I managed to park up and went for a wander around that station while waiting for Andy to turn up.

There was a nice collection of engines on view already, the 14xx and autocoach was a pleasant surprise too.

Then of course there was the Royal Scot engine. I have never seen one before and I commented that it looked a very well proportioned engine. The engine looked superb and it fitted in to the railway scene really well. The whistle was a bit naff though! Once Andy has arrived and we had had a browse around Kidderminster we then headed off to the next station along Bewdley to get some fish and chips.

I don't know exactly why but am guessing that the Royal Scot engine had drawn in the crowds but there seemed to be a generous collection of photographers out and about. Above you can just about see Britannia pulling into Bewdley Station.

It looked good in the early evening sun. The weird thing though is what they were coupling it up to.

I guess there is no reason why such an engine would be used to pull a freight train, it just looked a bit weird to me though. Anyway, once that trundled off into the distance it was time to walk into town and get a fish and chip dinner.

Once we got back it had got suitable dark enough for me to have another bash at some nightime photography. It is sort of the highlight of the event to me, the fact trains are running 24 hours over the 3 days. The only trouble is I had 2 problems, the first is I forgot my remote shutter release thingy and the second is I am a bit rubbish at taking nightime shots. The above photo is an early attempt and it came out weird considering it was actually this dark...

Now that is the sort of picture I am happy with. The crowds had disappeared by now (don't know why) as it was now around 7pm so getting into a good position to take a photo was no trouble at all. Also having a new camera (Canon 700D) made it much simpler to experiment with settings.

Of course using long exposures makes it really hard to catch moving things, or more correctly things that decide to move when you are mid way through an exposure!

I know I said it before but the whole place just oozes atmosphere in the dark, I just love it! Anyway it was time to head off back to Kidderminster jut in time to see this leave...

It was then time to say our goodbyes for the day and settle in for the night.

So. I was at a steam railway, it was 2.30am and I couldn't sleep at all. So I did the obvious thing, get out of bed, grab the camera and go and take some photos. It was very quiet and serene until a train arrived but even they were trying to be quiet. The rest of the night was spent watching TV and cursing at myself for not being able to sleep, things weren't too bad until around 3-4am when the tiredness started to catch up with me,  it felt like I had to make a decision, do I get some sleep and risk sleeping late and missing a chunk of the next day or stay awake and grit my teeth and get through the rest of the day. I chose the latter this time.

At around 6am the place started waking up again and I was out and about with my camera to catch the morning chores.

It was a bit foggy on the Saturday morning, great for getting some nice atmospheric photos!

The morning progressed and the queue for the morning breakfast train grew longer.

As the day progressed the weather perked up and it ended up being a lovely autumn sunny day. As a result of the previous nights escapades I did struggle a bit, especially when I was sat on the train keeping my eyes open but I didn't let it ruin the day out. Saturday was a day to travel along the line visiting the various stations.

Royal Scot was looking resplendent in the sun.

There seemed to be plenty of people willing to get soot in their faces. I even noticed some safety goggles for sale at one of the stations.

I have now worked out why some southern engines had such large chimneys! This was Sir Keith Park doing its best to help along global warming!

We bumped into Will J and Tom E at Arley Station. Will was wowing the crowds with his models and layout of Victoria Bridge. It was nice to catch up with these guys once again.

While outside there was the opportunity to see scenes like this, they are not that common.

The workshops at Bridgnorth Engine Shed have always been fascinating to me. I wouldn't like to operate some of the machines though, they looked downright  scary. At least I could recognise what they were though.

And this was the final photo I took at the Gala. It was really nice to see autocoaches being used how they were meant to be with all the remote operating gear working.

And so that was the end of the day. I left Kidderminster for home around 6.30pm on the Saturday worn out and tired but very happy. It had been a thoroughly enjoyable 2 days indulging myself in one of my passions regardless of sleep or not, to me it was really worth it. A special thanks goes to Andy H too for keeping me company and being patient with me too.

I say this every year and I really hope at least one person will take my advice. If you haven't tried it out yet then go to the SVR autumn gala, OK it can be busy at times but to be surrounded by steam at night on a working railway totally transforms the whole experience. The atmosphere of the railway just comes alive, go there and soak it up!

Julia :o)