7mm On Heather's Workbench - one final time, with feeling

[Heather Kay]

On their wheels at last!



The tie bars are simply wire poked through holes drilled in the axleguards. The guards, being cast, are immensely thick and over scale, but that’s an advantage here. Parts, again, were missing, such as the inner axleguard thingies. I happened to have some spares from a previous build. i doubt they’ll be noticeable under normal circumstances. Several of the brake hanger lugs decided to break. Happily, most were on the bolster side and won’t be expected to handle any brakes. Some deft low-melt soldering repaired them - but I expect they’ll ping off again before I’m done.



Until the frames are painted the axle keepers remain unfitted. Here’s the selection of plastic brake shoes, with four adapted as a test. I’ll leave them off the frames as long as possible, due to fragility, or in hopes something better might turn up.

Anyway, that’s enough bogies for the C31. Attention should return to the underframe construction and figuring out how to fit the bodies to the floor.

EDIT: I forgot to say I’m also going to be scratch-building step boards. They need to be formed from brass strip. I’m building up to digging out the machine tools to convert some brass channel into the right shape.

 

[Heather Kay]

If I could just settle down and get on with these builds they’d be finished all the quicker!




Step boards are provided as lengths of copperclad. Stubs of brass wire are stuck in loads of holes you drill through the floor moulding. Deft soldering to avoid damage then follows.

What you can’t see here is I have also assembled the etched headstocks, and cleaned up the tie rod etches. I took the precaution of using the etched parts to locate the queen posts. If I’d just followed the moulded dimples, everything would have been out of place.

I'm still plucking up the wherewithal to sort out the brake cross shafts. I know what I need to do, and how to go about it. It’s just getting started. Then there’s working out how to actually attached the bogies to the floor. It feels like there’s something missing somewhere to make the pivots strong enough to work sensibly.

Onwards!

 

[Heather Kay]

Starting to become three-dimensional at last. I can’t keep putting off that brake stuff, so I’ll probably get stuck in this afternoon.

 

[ovener]

Using copperclad board (PCB) is a neat idea - strong yet solderable underneath, and it's material I understand. Thank you Heather! I'm learning so much here.
Richard

 

[Heather Kay]

I think I’ve answered my own question, but I thought I’d check with the WT massive.

This C31 is running on the so-called "fish belly" bogies. I believe the brake levers and push/pull rods on these bogies went under the axles. This has a bearing on attachment of rods to the cross shafts, in that one of the shaft castings in the kit is wrong.

Am I correct in my assumption, and that I need to perform surgery?

 

[John Palmer]

Does this HMRS drawing help (click the image for an enlarged view)? As I read it, the linkage that operates the four shoes that clasp each wheelset includes a link that goes over the axle, but the pull rod that couples the two four-shoe clasps on each bogie goes under the axle, and is an extension of the pull rod from the V hangers.

 

[Heather Kay]

Hello. I took most of December off, and as ever it’s proving difficult to start the workbench up again!



Consequently, this is as far as I’ve got with the underframe. The truss bars and queen posts were done before Christmas. I’m still to work out how to fit the bogies. This week, I’ve been attacking the brake assemblies and the headstocks. I ended up rebuilding the brake cross shafts as I found the cast parts hard to reconcile with the actual layout. I cut the levers out and used some suitable brass tube and wire to make new shafts. I always find the lumpen vac cylinders don’t fit nicely, hitting something they shouldn’t. I’m afraid I’m past caring about such problems, so they are fitted where they fit. Still to be beaten into submission are the vac relief valves (?), the steam vapour trap, and the various rods that go to the bogies. The headstocks are about ready to glue in place, and the substitute dynamo can be fitted, too, after I’ve added some electrical wiring for it.

Even though this commission is my last, I am finding it really hard to be enthused by it. Perhaps it’s the time of year, added to the sad news my father died suddenly last week. That sort of thing does bring about lots of introspection. I do try to keep my mind occupied, so I hope I can make some further coach progress in the coming weeks.

(There is no need to offer condolences, thank you. I appreciate the thought, obviously, but I wasn’t fishing for sympathy with my family news.)

 

[RichardG]

as I found the cast parts hard to reconcile with the actual layout

What a beautiful way to put things in amongst such a sad time.

Heather everyone here will be thinking of you during the weeks and months to come. Do let the modelling take its own course while you give yourself some space.

 

[Heather Kay]

I’ve managed to get some more done. I’m trying a regimen of three days per week on "work", then the rest of the week dealing with domestic life and having fun - when I can.







The vacuum brake stuff has been glued in, and the dynamo fettled and given some cabling.

I still haven’t come up with anything sensible for the bogie mounting. I rather think I might end up just filling the slots with epoxy resin, and seeing where that takes me. Anyway, the plan today is to complete fitting the headstocks, arrange buffing springs and fit the couplings and battery boxes. That’ll more or less complete the underframe.

 

[Heather Kay]

Getting there. The steam heat trap is in, battery boxes in place, waiting for cyano to set before mixing some epoxy resin to make the fixings more sturdy. The headstocks are on, buffers temporarily fitted while I remind myself how I made springs last time round.

I have found some scrap strip I can use for safety loops, too. I can begin working on the bodywork soon.

 

[DavidB]

I have found some scrap strip I can use . . .

A greatly under-valued resource. It can save one a fortune in small strip metal and is invaluable for scratch building.

 

[Heather Kay]

Trying very hard to be enthused by any of this. On Monday I made footboards up for the bogies. Today, I am going to get very bored making brackets from scrap strip. I only need twenty.

I discovered that I cannot fit brake hangers and shoes to the bogies - at least not in a way that looks right and doesn’t simply bind the wheels up completely.

Now, please send any spare enthusiasms you might find in my general direction. Thank you.

 

[Matt.S.]

Heather, I can sympathise with you - I haven't really been enthused for a round a year, and having to professionally care about trains makes things harder. If you find the answer please let me know - I'm on a countdown to get something running before mini Matt arrives in September and shed time vanishes.

Good to see some neat scratchbuilding, shame to hear the kit is still fighting back!

 

[Heather Kay]

My prototype brackets were right first time, so it was just a case of copying them.



The, soldering brackets to steps. Next, soldering assemblies to the bogie frames. That might not be today.

 

[RichardG]

Now, please send any spare enthusiasms you might find in my general direction. Thank you.

Heather I have a brake van I built without any footboards. You have fired up a little enthusiasm inside me to get round to doing them and so, if I put them off until the autumn, please accept my unused surplus enthusiasm to tide you over in the meantime

 

[Heather Kay]

Ugh. Finally.



The step boards have been soldered (low temp stuff) to the bogies. I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but I have reasons.

I think the next stage is a dose of primer again, then install the wheelsets and axleboxes, and get the underframe and bogies covered in my patent Underframe Grot colour.

As an aside, Life here is slowly righting itself. The final bits of adulting are under way, and my personal health problems have begun to recede sufficiently that I can start to think about taking part in the wider world again. If I can get my mojo under sufficient control, I really ought to be able to complete this trio of coaches in short order. I had thought that at the end of last year, sadly, and predicted they would be done and delivered by the end of March. Oh, folly.

 

[Eastsidepilot]

.............Oh, folly.

I don't spell it like that ! ...how's the aircraft going Heather ?

Col.

 

[Heather Kay]

...how's the aircraft going Heather ?

They’re not at the moment, mainly due to more grown-up stuff going on. There is planning and research happening, though. I think I shall revisit the Stirling with a different kit, and there’s a Merlin-powered Wellington to build.

 

[Heather Kay]

Today, I reprimed the new works. Then I fettled axleboxes so things were a slightly sloppy fit. Finally, the wheelsets were trapped in their hornguides by the keeper plates. Obviously, this leaves the axleboxes and keepers unprimed, but I can live with that.



I need to work out the correct centres for the bogies for the C31. The moulded floor has a slot, designed for different bogies with differing wheelbases.

I suppose the next stage will be getting the grot on these bits, then I can start to look at the bodywork.

Does this mean my mojo is back? I hope so.

 

[RichardG]

I suppose the next stage will be getting the grot on these bits, then I can start to look at the bodywork.

I thought the rules said, we have to leave every model for a year before painting?