Unimat SL slow speed motor bracket.

One of the many accessories available for the SL is a replacement motor bracket fitted with an additional idler pulley set (part number 1280). This is used to give two additional slower speeds, these being 155rpm and 300rpm (with the standard bracket fitted the slowest speed is 365rpm).

Fitting is a straightforward swap, but another small standard belt is needed. Removing the bracket is covered here.

Here's the standard bracket;

Note that I've had to cut away part of the wooden base to clear the new bracket.

Both parts side by side;

And the new bracket fitted;

In the above photo the machine is set at 155rpm.

Paul.

40 years without a motor.

As I've mentioned before I inherited a quantity of Hornby Acho and Jouef from my Grandfather after he passed away in the early 70s. A recent re-organisation of the loft saw me digging out and looking through my modest collection. One loco in particular stands out, mainly because its never had a motor fitted whilst in my care;

A handsome loco, its in rather good condition partly due to the fact that it rarely left its box as it had no motor and therefore no play value. I've decided that its time for it to move again.

On scouring eBay I found this Dutch liveried loco, advertised as a poor/non-runner, which I thought might provide spares;

But although having a similar bodyshell the running gear is completly different. It has drive to one bogie only, whilst my Grandfathers loco had drive to both ends. It seems that Jouef at some stage developed a drive system that powered both bogies, and then fitted that system across its range. But, it looks like only on bogie type was developed, which was a short Co-Co unit unsuited to this type of loco. So, my Grandfathers old model, which is fitted with the superior drive unit, has the wrong type of bogies fitted. In the photo below the blue loco has the correct bogies and the green loco is fitted with bogies that are too short;

A good look around the 'net shows that the short bogie is in fact the type fitted to Jouef's model of CC40101. So one was aquired cheaply in the hope that it would provide the rest of the missing drivetrain. But alas no, it had single bogie drive. However, it did donate a pinion to the blue Dutch loco above;

So, after a bit more scouring I found a second silver electric, this time with both bogies driven, but with an even worse bodyshell (in fact it looks like mice had been nibbling it!);

So, both my Grandfather's loco and the second silver job were stripped down and the motor (a coggy 3 pole job) swapped over;

The silver loco also donated its drive pinions, along with a retaining 'c' washer, a bulb, part of the pick-ups and both couplings. The motor has been cleaned, oiled and I cleaned the the brushes by rubbing the working faces on wet and dry.
Here it is on test;

The drive on one of the bogies is a little tight, hopefully it'll loosen up. If not there's two spares that can be used. Note that only four rollers are used, despite the loco being a Co-Co the middle axles on each bogie don't actually do anything, in fact the wheels are a smaller diameter than the outers.

And a last photo, still on the rolling road but now with the body and couplings fitted;

The rolling road by the way is made by DCC Concepts and is modular, in that by fitting different spacers 9mm, 12mm, 16.5mm and 18.2/18.83mm gauges are covered.

Some, perhaps those that are used to my more 'serious' modelling posts, might consider this exercise to be a monumental waste of time. However, seeing this loco run for the first time in the 40+ years that its been in my posession has given me a great deal of satisfaction. I'm sure that my Grandfather would be pleased as well.

Paul.

Another Road/Rail Runabout.

Here's another runabout spotted in Buxton today;

 This one's a bit more upright than the John Deere conversion previously featured;

I'm not sure about the make, but the design is rather neat;

Two folding trolleys accompany it;

I like!

Paul.

Rushby's Resins Battery Electric - part 1.

A nice simple kit for the summer.
Some may have noticed that there's been little activity on this blog for a couple of months. The summer tends to be the busiest period of the year where I work so I've been doing rather a lot of overtime. Now this is good for the bank balance but leaves me little time for modelling (or much else) and if I do get some spare time I'm either working on the house or I'm too tired to concentrate. I haven't lost my motivation however, which is where this particular build comes in. I wanted something simple on my workbench, requiring few tools, yet something that would still be interesting.

This kit, designed and cast by Neil Rushby as part of his 'Rushby's Resins' range, should fit the description. Its inspired by (but is not a slavish copy of) this battery electric loco used on a dam maintenance line in the Italian Alps, but modified to fit on a Kato 11-104 chassis. There are only three parts, a one-piece body and a pair of buffer/couplers, all cast in resin. So its a nice looking loco, it sits on a chassis that I've never used before (although its commonly used in OO9 circles), and its also the first resin kit to grace my bench. Here's the kit, along with the Kato 104;

Its nice to see that the kit is packaged in a box which will hold the finished loco.

Here's the body in primer (Hycote white acrylic), along with the cut down Kato;

Instuctions for this kit, which for once I followed pretty much to the letter, are online here. I did use files rather than emery boards though, simply because I feel that its easier to achieve a crisp edge with a file. A little filling was necessary (especialy where I slipped with the needle cutting out the windows...) in a couple of places, nothing serious though. At this stage I prepared the window glazing (cut from .040 sheet) and glued lead strip under the bonnet ends.

Top coat is Humbrol Gloss Yellow 69 from an aerosol. Ordinarily I'd use an airbrush, but mine is currently buried in the loft (along with most of my books and a fair amount of other stuff), and anyway using a rattlecan felt like a nice quick option. This is the first time that I've used an aerosol for the top coat, and in places the paint is a tad too thick where I've had to rub down and re-spray, a result of my inability to paint anything with any degree of success;

As can be seen the Kato has been stripped down and the visible parts sprayed body colour, to help blend body and chassis together as suggested in the instructions. I've also blackened the shiny shiny wheels with Birchwood Casey 'Super Blue'.

A little more work is required to finish it off, unless I decide to strip the paint off the body and re-spray it.

Paul.

Bench grinder.

If you own a lathe sooner or later you'll need a bench grinder, not only for sharpening existing tools but also for grinding up new ones. Living in a small terraced cottage with no suitable outbuildings to store and use such a tool posed a problem, temporarily solved by the lend of a small Wickes brand grinder from a woodturner friend (thanks Stuart). This was mounted on a plank (actually a shelf) so that it could be clamped onto a Workmate, which worked rather well as it could be used in the garden. So when the time came to return the borrowed grinder I had an idea of the size of machine that I wanted and had solved the problem of using it without getting grinding dust in the house. Of course using a power tool in the garden means that I can only use it on dry days.

A trip to Machine Mart in Sheffield saw the purchase of a 6" wheel Clarke CBG6RZ. I could have bought a less powerfull machine as my lathe only uses 6mm square cutting tools, but at some stage I might need to grind something larger;

The first job was to bolt it to a piece of 18mm plywood so that it could be clamped onto my Workmate;

Then the tool rest and gaurds were bolted in place. The eyeshield gaurd bracket is held in place with a screw and a washer;

I wasn't impressed with the supplied M5 washers, so for added security I've replaced them with penny washers;

I'll be swapping that crosshead screw with a cap head before long as well.

Here it is ready for use;

I've already got a few jobs lined up for it.

Paul.

Even more accessories for the Unimat SL.

The Unimat SL was designed to turn wood as well as metal with the addition of a few extra parts. A proper swivelling toolrest could be fitted, which meant stripping down the machine and removing the bed bars so that the saddle could be replaced with the hand tool rest. Much simpler though is part 1201, a simple hand tool rest which just bolts onto the saddle in place of the turning tool holder;

Here it is fitted to my machine;

The wood is just a short piece of dowelling that I've been playing with. A gouge tool can be seen resting on the bed bars, this is a Unimat 1 'Cool Tool' (their description, not mine...) item and is as cheap as it looks. But size wise it suits the machine and it does the job although it did benefit from being resharpened on an oilstone. A lot of folk would make up such tools from old files etc., but I don't have any to spare.

Whilst the tool rest is a genuine Emco item the next accessory is an aftermarket part. This is a drilling depth gauge, this just clamps around the quill lever and is marked in 1mm increments;

This came via Ebay from Mundford Machine Tooling, and will prove usefull for drilling a series of holes to the same depth.

Paul.

A ride on the Poppy Line.

What to do when holidaying in North Norfolk and the rest of the family are having afternoon tea? (Tea and cake is fine, but afternoon tea sounds rather too formal for my liking.) Simple, find a steam railway and go for a ride. This year it was the turn of the North Norfolk Railway (last year I rode on the Wells & Walsingham), so last Thursday I hopped in the Landy, drove to Holt, and caught the 14.45 to Sheringham. £12 got me an all day rover ticket, plus an extra £2 to take Big Dog and Small Dog with me.

I rode behind 76084, a smart lined black 4MT, one of three steamers on duty today. I did see the Y14 as well in passing, which looked rather splendid in pre-grouping livery.
The service was well attended, hardly suprising as its the school holidays, but there was still plenty of room in the coach, just as well as Big Dog likes to spread himself out in the gangway (thankfully he's not that big, in fact quite small for a Springer, and most folk seem to like him).

First stop was Kelling Heath, a request stop for a holiday park, and then on to Weybourne. Here can be found the main sheds, a busy place with plenty to see. As we went past I was seated, so I decided to make sure that I stood by the door on the way back with camera poised poking out the window (I tend to alternate between sitting and leaning out of windows). Black Prince stood in the open recieving attention, a 31 sat idling and someone was busy steam cleaning a large important looking casting.

Heading towards Sheringham there are grand views of the sea, and of the off-shore wind farms. The line passes a golf course before entering the town. Looking at the folk playing I wondered how many balls ended up in the four-foot. I disembarked (I refuse to use the term 'de-train') so that I could watch the 4MT run round and photograph the vintage train sitting in the yard, which included a Wisbech & Upwell coach. Getting back on the train proved troublesome, Big Dog somehow managed to mis-judge the step and fell down the gap between coach and the platform. I had to drag him out by his collar (at least until I could get my other hand under his belly), luckily he was unscathed and quickly recovered from the shock, probably helped by the others passengers making a fuss of him. He's quite stoic really...

Heading back to Holt I failed to photograph the yard at Weybourne as a young girl stood at the door where I wanted to stand, but she seemed to be enjoying the ride which can only be a good thing. Some railway enthusiasts would probably have been rather peeved, but we should remember that having a bit of knowledge about railways doesn't make us any more important than anyone else on the train.
Back in Holt I shut both dogs in Back'o'Landy (windows open and water bowl full) so I could mooch about unencumbered with the camera for a while before heading back to the cottage.
Anyway, enough waffle, here are some pics. First up a couple of those 'leaning out the window' shots;

Lineside hut;

Sheringham;

Vintage stock;

4MT;

Back to Holt, running round;

The last two services of the day were run by DMU, seen here pulling in to Holt;

Its a 'mix&match' two car;

Finally a couple of wagons. First an interesting tool van;

And finally, a full size Wonderfull Wagon;

A good day out. Apart from the ticket all I bought was tea and a sandwhich and a couple of old Railroad Model Craftsman magazines (more about them later perhaps).

Paul.

Playing With Trains by Sam Posey.

I found this book by chance on Amazon, and thought that it might make good holiday reading. I was right.

Sam Posey is an American model railway enthusiast, ex-race car driver and sports commentator who grew up with Lionel trains. When his son was born he embarked on building a layout that they could both enjoy together, the story of the layouts construction forms the first part of the book. The writer becomes obsessed with the layout, which starts out as fairly freelance but morphs into something larger based on the ill-fated Colorado Midland, taking sixteen years to finish. The story follows his early attempts, and frustrations, his finding help in the shape of Rolf, who works in the local model shop, to the layout being featured in Model Railroader (twice), and his diagnosis with Parkinsons.

The second part of the book sees the writer visiting several well-known modelers to try and understand how they tick. The book shows us that there are two camps of modeler is the States, those that concentrate on scenery and are content to just watch trains go by and those that put realistic operation first and foremost (although its interesting to note that the operation guys featured have layouts with first class scenery). He also takes to the rails himself, driving a Baldwin which he describes with great emotion.

The book is highly readable, so well written in fact that I finished it in the first two days of my break.
My copy came from across the ocean, cost me whole ten pence plus £2.80 postage.
Recommended.

Paul.

A bigger road-rail cherrypicker.

This interesting piece of machinery has been sat next to the A6 in a layby north of Dove Holes for a few days;

I've been driving past it all week, today I headed out on my bike with the camera after work to have a closer look;

Its four wheel drive and the rail wheels are driven by friction from the tyres. Here's a closer look at the drive roller;

I note that its not road legal, this layby is next to and accesses the Buxton - Manchester line and often has road-railers in it (usually excavators) which are delivered by low loader.

A last look;

Its certainly more impressive than the last road-rail cherrypicker that I photographed.

Paul.

OO9 Ruston Proctor part 5 - couplings, a new chimney, and a repair.

Couplings on OO9 locos are always going to be a compromise between being prototypical and functional. Of course using the usual Bemo type of couplers limits our choices, but to me choosing the right style can either make or break a loco. I feel that the best aproach is to try and follow the protoype as closely as possible, within reason. Several styles are available from the trade, in whitemetal, 3D printed and etched, but nothing that comes close to the type fitted to these locos. To my knowledge two types of coupling gear were fitted to Ruston Proctors, either two dumb side buffers with a pin and link between, or a central buffer with a hook either above or below. In either case the buffers are formed from flat bar.

I decided to make up a central buffer from scrap etch. First job was to find a piece of etch with a suitable section that can be cut out (to save a lot of filing...), like the section marked out in the photo below;

Then I made a sketch of the coupler followed by a rough prototype, to prove the design. After refining the design its simply a case of filing the off-cut to size, drilling a couple of holes (.4mm), then bending the brass to shape. For the ninety degree folds I followed etched kit practice by using a triangular file to make a fold line. The curved bends are formed with round nosed pliers. Here's one made up and the other still flat;

I've started using a pair of spring dividers for marking out, as seen in the (very poor) photo above. That pair came from China via eBay, and are as cheap and nasty as they look. Still, they do the job. I've replaced one point with a piece of brass rod, so they can be used as odd-leg or Jenny calipers for marking out a line parallel to an edge.
The couplings have been chemically blackened with Birchwood Casey Brass Black, which has taken so nicely that I'm going to leave them in that state and fit them after painting. Here they are blu-tacked onto the 'beams;

Note the scrap couplings in the photo above, I don't always get it right first time...

I've given the body a light squirt of acrylic car primer as I've started to smooth down the print, using rubbing sticks, files and a three-sided scraper(!). Whilst doing so I managed to damage the cab rearsheet. Handles are cut-out either side, which look far neater than the handrails fitted to most locos. One the right hand side I managed to break the handle, the print being quite thin and fragile in this area. My solution was to file away material above and below the damage, and then cyano a piece of brass rod into the filed area, which in turn is blended in with a file;

Both sides don't quite match, and a little filler is needed to blend the repair in further, but hopefully it won't look too bad once painted. Frosted Ultra Detail is an odd material to work with, its quite brittle and hard, feeling more ceramic than plastic. I'm not sure that I like the stuff.

Printed boiler fittings never look right to my eye, even if they're the right shape there's always an issue with surface finish, so I turned a new chimney on the Unimat. Actually I turned two, as the printed job looked pretty good I made a straight copy, but when I compared it to photos of the real loco it didn't look at all right, so I turned up a second chimney after making a sketch from the drawing in the Parkinson book. Its actually quite a subtle shape, convex above the lip and concave below. Another lesson learn't, when making new parts don't automatically copy the part thats being replaced but go back to the prototype. Here it is fitted;

Of course it isn't really a chimney but a vent for the engine cooling hopper.
To improve the running I've replaced the .315mm phospher bronze pick-up wire with 36swg (.193mm) wire, which obviously is springier.

The next job is to sort out axleboxes etc., as well as finish off the interior.

Paul.

OO9 Ruston Proctor part 4 - lower bodywork.

As the body print is for the upper body only eveything under footplate level has to be scratchbuilt. I've used plasticard for the frame sides and bufferbeams.

The loco has a dropped cab, so the rear of the frames have a cut-out below the cab doorway. It took me two attempts until I was happy with the shape of the cut-out, first of all I tried marking out the plasticard, but I wasn't happy with the result so for the second attempt I tacked both frames togther with a little solvent (a little too much actually, they were a pig to seperate...), then made a reduced photocopy of the drawing from the Parkinson book, which was glued to the frames;

Then of course the rest was just easy file work. A semi-circular cut-out was also needed to clear the flywheel casing (the semi-round part under the body sides).
Note the extra material on the body in the cab doorway, this needed to be cut away before the frame sides were fitted. I cut one side first, cyano'd the frame side in place (along with the rear bufferbeam), then did the same with the opposite side. This meant that the cab backsheet was supported at all times;

Frames were made from .030" sheet, but for the bufferbeams I used .020" with microstrip for the channeling. It took three attempts until I was happy with the front 'beam, on the first go I drilled lots of .35mm holes and started glueing in microrod for rivet detail but wasn't happy with the result, on the second attempt the 'beam bowed due probably to me using too much solvent. Both times I made completed units to glue straight under the body. On the third attempt I only added the middle and bottom detail strips, fixed the 'beam onto the body, then finally glued the last two pieces of microstrip in place;

Also added at this stage is the cab floor, and I've made a start on filling in the cab interior.
Footsteps are a single piece of brass cut from scrap etch fitted into a step filed into the rear frames;

Now the frames need detailing and buffer/couplings fitting, and the cab interior finishing off.

I've use cyano (Bostic Glu&Fix) for all styrene to print joins, epoxy for brass to styrene and solvent for styrene to styrene.

Paul.