18 gets new chimney and dome for xmas in July

A new chimney and dome gifted by a friend were attached to the 18 class this week.
Certainly starts to look the part.

Some more work soon.

FS and 18 class progress

The FS is finished for now. I might do some further detailing once it gets some brothers and sisters.

The 18 class will get a new chimney and air compressor at some stage as well as other work but at the moment it has done quite a few scale miles, now running very smoothly. The experiment of the solder filled pick-ups initially gave me a model with poor electrical contact, unable to complete a lap of a friend's layout. I  applied some powdered graphite to the wheels as a temporary fix and the model has not hesitated since.

A carriage story

Having purchased a Col Shepherd 'kit' for an FS some time back I thought I might make a start (in between work on the 18 class).

After a good deal of procrastination I decided to make the sides out of laminated cardboard rather than use the supplied ply. How to do the rivets held me up for some days until I took the easy way out and just imprinted them with a ponce wheel. It would have been a long and laborious job to push them through from the rear with a pin or dab on spots of Tarzan's Grip. From normal viewing distance the coach looks steel sided so that will satisfy me.

Still a lot of work to be done inside and out but at least I am satisfied with the methods I used and know most of the mistakes not to make next time.

18 class body started

The body for the 18 class is proceeding. Footplate is 60 thou for strength . The rest is mainly 40 thou and 20 thou.
The boiler is a suitable piece of plastic pipe with 5 thou boiler bands.
Chimney and dome are some of Col Shepherd's brass turnings. The chimney appears to be for the original version and it is in the process of being modified to the later standard version. Both are attached with screws and still need work.
Plenty of work to go. Cab roof is at this stage intended to be removable and be the location for the speaker.

I am using the article from AMRM 1963/64 for dimensions however the porthole windows were put in the wrong place as a result of dodgy info supplied in another publication and some cut and fill was required to correct the error.

It has been some time since I have posted here due to other commitments.
I have had some time over this xmas to get stuck into one of my loco projects , namely one 18 class.
The body and chassis are now well under way. The chassis is made from 60 thou styrene with Slaters wheels, bearings and a Roxey gearbox/ Mashima 1830. It is running smoothly at first trials so should get better with some wear. This is my first attempt at a full plastic chassis and it was far easier than soldering a metal one up.
My pickups are phosphor bronze with a solder filled loop. This is my first use of a loop ( from a suggestion in the Connoisseur Models handbook) as I normally use 20 thou brass without any loop.

** The Slaters wheels I chose were 7848SD

Only a 41 class, 30 tank, 2 off 48's and a CPH to be finished after this is completed and my current batch of part built locos will be done ;>)

Post Xmas Update

No photos this posting as I left the camera at home.
A short trip to visit friends in Lismore (terminated before I got trapped by swollen rivers) was enjoyed last weekend. The first day was spent wiring up a radio throttle and a collection of portable throttle sockets for my host's Lenz DCC system. This all worked first time so we moved on to showing how the scratchbuilt points could be wired for maximum reliability. I was rather jealous of the 35 or more points he had recently made ( including single and double slips). They were well made. Tests showed them to work perfectly with his AMRA profile wheels and to accept GOG Fine with some wheel drop at the common crossing. While all this was going on my X200 was getting a good workout pulling long trains far in excess of prototype around one of the loops - amazing what a CD loading motor can achieve.
The next day we enjoyed looking at another friends efforts at building up his stock of 2-rail compatible equipment by making castings from some of his 1950's era models. His two new 48 class cast off his original brass model were showing signs of progress after suffering some cut and shut to improve them after he noticed some signs of mould shrinkage.
Later we all returned to my host's to run some trains with us all contributing to the consists.
Among the new stock on display were my three latest S wagons. One an O-Aust kit and the others based on O-Aust, GME and scratchbuilt parts.

A Suspended Tale

Some time ago my first O gauge stretched out into the yard. After some time it was obvious that while the AMRA standard wheels were more than a match for the ups and downs that developed, the one or two sets of British Fine profiled wheels spent a lot of time in the dirt.
With the need to expand outdoors once again I have been very hesitant; given my change to Fine Standard wheels as the norm for my stock. There are many options available to provide flexible suspension for 4 wheelers that will hopefully return the reliability I had with the larger flanged AMRA wheels when it came to vertical deviations. All these cost money and/or extra complication. In the end I tested the results of simply deleting the brass bearings to provide some flexibility. Nothing new, been done in other scales for decades. I have a test track where deviations can be dialled in by turning screws. Wagons with sloppy bearings...no derailments, dead square wagons with no slop... derailed almost every time. Result, bearings being removed from all wagons. I might well get some accelerated wear in the whitemetal W irons but I am prepared to live with that. To assist I have rounded of the ends of the axles, filled the axle holes with powdered graphite and removed most of the extra weight previously added to assist track holding.