7mm JF's assorted stuff.

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
I'm currently building a GWR colour light gantry for Steve Fay's Ranelagh Bridge layout. Here's the progress on the main structure so far.
The main supports, all scratched from brass..
IMG_1924 (750x1000).jpg
IMG_1929 (750x1000).jpg
The crossbeam, again all scratched from brass/NS
IMG_1955 (1000x750).jpg
IMG_1956 (1000x750).jpg
A carefully arranged lash-up to show the size of the thing. It was wobbling gently at the time!
IMG_1943 (1000x750).jpg
More soon
JF
 

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
On the basis that you can't have too many parcels/newspaper vans and the fact I picked one of these kits up S/H for a very good price, here we go with a JLTRT GUV.
I'll start with the bogies. Included with the kit are a pair of cast whitemetal BR1s .
After a bit of fettling to remove flash and to get the axleboxes to fit in the guides, these are the components
IMG_4045.JPG
I'm not normally keen on adding the extra level of complexity that is working suspension but it looked like this was provided for so I decided to give it a go. The axleboxes have a little indentation in the top surface as a guide to drilling out a hole for a coil spring and a little pin under the leaf spring to locate it.
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Once the castings are fettled, which includes drilling out any holes that need clearing and all parts are checked for fit, assembly takes little more than a few minutes. I used 145 degree solder and a rather weedy 12watt soldering iron!
IMG_4048.JPG IMG_4049.JPG IMG_4050.JPG IMG_4051.JPG IMG_4052.JPG IMG_4054.JPG IMG_4056.JPG

A quick trial fit of the wheels/axleboxes without springs

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I used Slaters buffer springs. To maintain constant springing all round I drilled right through into the axle bush holes, clearled the swarf out, fitted the bushes then rested the springs on the bushes.

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Seems to sit OK leaving about 1.5mm of travel. This will probably disappear once the body is on so may need tweaking.

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The keeps are cast a bit out of register and a re just pushed on for now. Once painting is finished they'll have a length of N/S wire soldered between them and be superglued on.

Heres the pair of bogie frames painted with Halfords black primer then Matt black.

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IMG_4065.JPG

More soon (honest!)

Jon F.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Well done on springing the bogies, it does make a big difference.

Just out of interest, are the bogie sides the correct length with regard to the axle centres? Sadly the JLTRT Gresley 8'6" bogies are incorrect by quite a lot. I reckon the masters were made to 100% size rather than taking into account the shrinkage in the casting process.

Don't get me wrong, they look great, but the bogies are the wrong dimensions.

Would be interesting to know.

JB.
 

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Well done on springing the bogies, it does make a big difference.

Just out of interest, are the bogie sides the correct length with regard to the axle centres? Sadly the JLTRT Gresley 8'6" bogies are incorrect by quite a lot. I reckon the masters were made to 100% size rather than taking into account the shrinkage in the casting process.

Don't get me wrong, they look great, but the bogies are the wrong dimensions.

Would be interesting to know.

JB.

JLTRT seem to have a few issues with dimensions.

Good point, but if they aren't, they're making a pretty good job of looking OK to my untrained eye. I'll wave the measuring stick over them tomorrow!

Regarding Gresley bogies, I believe Premier Components are about to re-stock on the Lightweights.
Jon F.
 

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Well done on springing the bogies, it does make a big difference.

Just out of interest, are the bogie sides the correct length with regard to the axle centres? Sadly the JLTRT Gresley 8'6" bogies are incorrect by quite a lot. I reckon the masters were made to 100% size rather than taking into account the shrinkage in the casting process.

Don't get me wrong, they look great, but the bogies are the wrong dimensions.

Would be interesting to know.

JB.
The total length of the bogie frame is 99.5mm and the wheelbase is 58.75. Not sure if it scales out correctly but more salient is the fact that the tiebar between the axleboxes on the model bogie is intended to be a rod. Being none to observant to the finer details, I was quite happy with this until I looked at a few pictures and realised the real thing (well, in all the pics I've seen) is a flat bar....
NQLTRT!
JF


Edit..When I spray painted the bogie frames, I used (for the first time) a black primer from Halfords rather than my usual Acid8 etch primer before a top coat of matt black. Needless to say I forgot to mask off the rubbing surfaces where the axleboxes fit. Some serious effort was needed to remove the unwanted paint from this area so I can only presume the black primer is excellent on whitemetal! Usually I manage to knock a bit of paint off during handling but it's all stayed on this time.
 
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AJC

Western Thunderer
The total length of the bogie frame is 99.5mm and the wheelbase is 58.75. Not sure if it scales out correctly but more salient is the fact that the tiebar between the axleboxes on the model bogie is intended to be a rod. Being none to observant to the finer details, I was quite happy with this until I looked at a few pictures and realised the real thing (well, in all the pics I've seen) is a flat bar....
NQLTRT!
JF

The bogies are BR1s so should have an 8' 6" wheelbase (58.5mm in 7mm) so that's not too far away at all and yes, the tiebars on these are definitely flat.

Adam
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Adam,
Your maths isn't quite right, 8'6" scales to 59.5mm at 7mm/ft. Or at least, I hope it does; as that's the dimension I've used for my bogies!
Steph

Quite right. :oops: In my defence, multiples of 7 are not something I generally have to worry about. Still, that's no excuse for not being able to add 3.5 to 56...

Adam
 
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Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
A little progress on the GUV. All the major body components are now trimmed up and a trial fit showed they all fit together perfectly.

I have fitted all the handrails and door handles, the longer ones made from short bits of flattened 0.8mm wire.
IMG_4185.JPG

Managed to remove most of the brass castings from their not inconsiderable sprues and started the process of cleaning them up ready for fitting. There are one or two bits I have yet to identify and as there are only a set of CCT instructions in the kit, along with quite a few generic Mk1 instructions, I'll need to do quite a bit of research to find out the exact positioning of all the underbody gubbins.
IMG_4184.JPG IMG_4186.JPG
The base plate supplied is for the BG as well as the GUV but I would imagine there are quite a few differences.
I haven't chosen a prototype yet but which ever it is will be BR1 bogies and vac braked. I fancy one of the ones that ran on the newspaper trains out of Man Vic but weren't they modified with gangways etc?
The buffers have cleaned up well but I will probably fit them locked up as I think the vehicle may end up with Kadees at least at one end!

I haven't finished the bogies yet as I still need to make the tie bars up from strip and sort a way of making them removeable should the wheels and axleboxes need to come out for any reason.

The roof vents supplied were plentiful and of several designs but there was only enough of one type to make a matching full set! I fitted them wherever the marked holes were...hoping they are in the right places:rolleyes:.

More soon

JF
 

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Ever onwards with the GUV.
Tie bars made up and fitted. I've used some 1.8 x 0.4 N/S strip fastened on with 14BA bolts tapped into the outer axlebox guides . The inner ones are pins just for location and are soldered to the tiebars.
IMG_4188.JPG IMG_4189.JPG IMG_4190.JPG IMG_4191.JPG IMG_4192.JPG IMG_4193.JPG


Next up was the chassis trussing. It's made from fairly robust brass and even after I scored the fold lines a few times it almost defeated my "Hold&Fold" hence the slightly dodgy folding.
IMG_4196.JPG IMG_4197.JPG

After a singed finger or 2, this was the start of the construction

IMG_4198.JPG
A bit of resin trimming was necessary to get the trussing to slot in and superglue used to retain it ...for a while.

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The contact points are a little small and after 1 or 2 came adrift I decided a couple of little helpers were required. After the rest of the truss plates were soldered in it was out with the 14BA bolts again....

IMG_4201.JPG

More soon
JF
 

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Well, it's GUV shaped and on wheels. It's pretty much solidly sat hard on the springs so I'll fit a coupling to it and tow it round the layout for a few circuits to see how it rides over our worn PECO P&C.
IMG_4203.JPG IMG_4207.JPG
I still need some more info about placement of all the various undergubbins as almost every picture I've seen shows different sizes and different locations of this and that. There's still a few castings I can't ID yet and that's before I find out where they fit (the spares box probably)
I think there's an incorrect battery box included in the bag of bits too.
I've emailed Laurie and he's going to send me some of his research pics so I'll get back to the signals for a day or two until I can sort out the details.
JF
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
There's still a few castings I can't ID yet and that's before I find out where they fit (the spares box probably)
If you can put up some images of the "unknown" castings then Heather (@Heather Kay) or Bob (@Bob-65B) or me can try to help.

I hope that Bob can offer solace and support about the underframe fittings... for the moment you may wish to contemplate about:-
* the fitting of handbrake and guard's steps impacts upon where some items are placed, eg. steps and battery boxes;
* the length of the BG underframe versus that of Mk.1 corridor stock... means that the BG trussing is shorter... and less space for items such as dynamo / vac cyl.;
Mk.1
I expect other WTers who are partial to Mk.1 stock might be interested in the information that you receive from JLTRT.
 
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Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
Thanks DS!
Right, I can identify the battery boxes but I think maybe I should have 2 smalls rather than 1 big/one small.
IMG_4209 (1024x768).jpg
The smaller castings, not sure but I'm guessing the tiny one is the DA valve.
IMG_4208 (858x1024).jpg
Regarding the handbrake wheels.; I know there's one on each side but are they opposite eachother and linked or offset and independent or maybe linked some other way?

My chosen prototype (from the Parkin book) W86479 doesn't seem to have any steps at all but obviously in the book there is only one pic of one side so not sure where various bits go under the other side.

These are the pics Laurie sent to me...

GUV 138.jpg GUV 139.jpg GUV 140.jpg GUV 141.jpg GUV 142.jpg GUV 143.jpg

Jon F.
 

Bob Reid

Western Thunderer
Apologies for the late entry to this Jon - here's the brake arrangement. The two handbrake wheels lie directly opposite each other.
SCES2972_B-Merge.jpg

Two things to remember with this BR drawing - the drawing as a whole was scanned over two parts - the odd steps you might see in the bottom of the image are my poor attempt at merging the two scans into one. Secondly as with all drawings the plan view is from above - not the most natural way to look at the underframe when sticking bits onto a model underframe! I'll add the electrical equipment layout later today. If there's anything needing questioned or "blown up" to make easier to read just shout. Also note that most of the left side Brakegear around the brake cylinder (identical in arrangement but on the other side) has been omitted for clarity....
 
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Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
That's superb thanks! I'll have a good look at that tomorrow as I've just got back from a day at the Bluebell Railway. Happy and a bit knackered now...
JF
 

simond

Western Thunderer
You'd have to think that a bird's eye plan view of the underframe might not be the most rational way of drawing something to be assembled in real life either - unless of course the underframe & associated gubbins was actually assembled more-or-less completely before the floor was assembled to the chassis.

I never saw a chassis assembled in my career in the railway vehicle industry - just axles, brakes & bogies.

The model looks great.
Best
Simon
 

Bob Reid

Western Thunderer
Jon, see the attached images.

There were originally two layouts for the electrical equipment. As built they had a 6-cell battery box on the regulator side and a 12-cell box on the dynamo side. Those built from early 1959 (Lot 30565 & vehicle No.86655) onwards had the battery size increased - the regulator side box moving up to a slightly larger 7-cell version (the dynamo side box remained as built). The JLTRT kit seems to correctly have one small box for the regulator side - covering up to 86654 and your chosen vehicle 86479 and one slightly bigger 12-cell box for the dynamo side. The change to the 7-cell version, although it won't affect your model, necessitated moving the battery box further out and nearer to the distant bogie.

Regulator Side - Early Vehicles (up to 86654) 6-Cell Battery Box
28994818611_7e1601d231_b.jpg86253-CW-23072016-1 by Rich Mackin, on Flickr

Regulator Side - Later vehicles (From 86655 on) 7-Cell Battery Box
15850524672_4739a523b8_b.jpgS86728_CJ_12-4-80 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Dynamo Side - all vehicles 12-Cell Battery Box
9270731546_738ca76277_b.jpg93470_Stafford_1986 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Note; In the MMP kits David appears to provide the correct battery box for the later versions and Heljan in the RTR department, the earlier version.
 
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