7mm Richard's 9f workbench

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Simon,
my flavour on the set up is the Mk4 Tam Valley receiver feeding a MX645 decoder. All motors are Mashima/Canon 1833 or 30. Power comes from four AAA rechargables of 1300AmpHr and feeds the receiver through the same type of voltage regulator as Richard uses. I did try a single 800AmpHr AA in a pannier tank - Power on and there is the sound, open the throttle and unsurprisingly it all goes quiet as the battery hasn't enough oomph. The power isolation switch is a pain to fit in to most locos and I am trying to find a micro one that can mount on a pcb that also supports the voltage regulator; this will cut down on the wire count. I tried reed switches for On/Off but they were unreliable.
The transmitter fits into the output ports of the DR500 and that is mounted on the wall above the layout. My 42XX potters around quite happily with 10 minerals wagons (line length limit) and I get bored before the batteries need a charge. I take my batteries out to charge and put them in a domestic battery charger.
T'other
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Back to the build

I have been working on the tender inner chassis' these tab together very quickly, the tricky bit though is to get the compensation beams working properly.

20210111_193102.jpg

Here are the 2 beams, the central support that they pivot around and then there is the separate bearing holders. I use this big broach to open the holes out in the central support and the beams. These holes need to be just the right size for each bearing, the bearings do vary slightly in their outside diameter.
20210111_193320.jpg
20210111_193607.jpg

The beams fit on the outer bearings in the central support but these are too long and need to be filed back so that the it fits nicely inside the frames, so that the central support can rock from side to side by about 1mm.


20210111_194247.jpg

That needs just a little more filing off the bearings

20210111_194418.jpg

You can see that the outer bearings just fit through the beams.

20210111_194551.jpg

Here it is all fitted and everything wiggles about as it should.

One thing I would say is that I find worth filing the sides of the beams and the front of them just to give them a bit more room to move in the fold up hornblocks.

Here is all four of them done


20210112_172235.jpg
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Simon T

My preferred method for charging steam locos is to fit insulated buffers to the tender and charge the batteries by either pressing it up against a buffer stop (suitably insulated) or crock clips on the buffer heads, it works well on the Ivatt and I will be doing that for the 9fs.

I glue the buffers to the buffer beam with araldite and a bit of cigarette paper to insulate them.

I find you can hide an on off switch in the coal, its not that hidden but enough for me.

Richard
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Simon

There is no risk double heading as the loco body isn't live.
I have just connected 2 sets of batteries together and that doesn't seem to cause a problem, so I'm OK with it.

Richard
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Richard,
Interesting idea to which I shall have a think. The size of the switch and the volume of wires isn't a space problem in a tender but in a 64XX bunker it does become an issue. I'm looking for a simple, small solution to the power regulation that will easily fit in a bunker. If it does that it should go anywhere. Having said that finding a simple, accessable place for the switch in the JLTRT Western is still looking for a solution!
Simon
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Richard,
Works on the 37 but not on the Western as there is a great big lump of something heavy in that part of the chassis. Everything else is taken up with bogie and I cannot find a space. The reed switches were an attempt at a way around.
After yet another afternoon fighting it I am on the point of reaching for a large hammer.
Simon
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Some more progress on the tenders.

MOK can supply some lovely metal wheel sets for the 9f, here are the tender wheels

20210113_173130_HDR.jpg

20210113_173154.jpg

And fitted in the chassis, it runs lovely over my deliberately poor test track.
20210113_173532_HDR.jpg

20210113_173543_HDR.jpg

The next thing I am progressing is the fitting of the bottom of the tank castings.

20210115_105125_HDR.jpg

These slide into the bottom of the tender like so.

20210114_184345.jpg

20210115_105048_HDR.jpg

The instructions tell you to make sure that the castings are straight or they won't fit, that is correct you really have to make sure that the castings are straight in all directions. This one isn't, it's out by a long way.





20210115_105157.jpg

It doesn't show that well in the photo but it is quite curved along its length, you really do need to look very closely at these and gently bend them straight. I also found that the flat part is too thick, not by much but enough to stop it sliding into the gap and needs a good bit of filing to thin it down.

Only 3 more to do !
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Having now got the tank bottom castings for all 4 tenders it is time to add the side overlays with all the rivet detail.

I always find these a tricky item to attach as they really need to be fixed in exactly the right place. There are no tabs to help with these either but they do line up against the edge of the tank bottom castings.

Here's the 1F tender

20210117_152059.jpg

These went on relatively easily, the problem turned out to be the tank top which hadn't gone on as centrally as it should have done.

20210117_152107.jpg

You can see that it is about 1mm too far to the right, even though there are 3 tabs holding it in place.

The instructions do warn you to tack solder this in place to start, but it came out easily enough and with a bit of cleaning up went back in just the right place.

Here's the first of the 1B/C tenders

20210117_152140.jpg

It needs a bit of clean up but it has fitted very well.

Richard
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
It's time to start cleaning up the tender bodies after adding the overlays.

20210119_175356.jpg

The instructions recommend filing the gaps between the tank castings and the overlays with solder, but I always wonder if this a good idea when you have done it and it looks like the above !

Anyway about 10 minutes with decent bastard file and you get this

20210119_180456.jpg

Then another 10 minutes with a clogged up cheap needle file gives this

20210119_181421_HDR.jpg

and finally a clean up with 240 grit wet and dry

20210119_181853.jpg

And you can do all this while keeping an eye on Virtual Railfan (on YouTube) Elkhart Indian is my favourite at the moment, there are 3 trains passing through right this minute !

Richard
 

Len Cattley

Western Thunderer
Yesterday was a good day on the tender front and I ended up with these.

View attachment 135643

4 basic bodies all ready for detailing, no prize for guessing which one is the BF 1F.

One thing that is not clear in the BR1B/C instructions is when to add the locker front (part 88), the first thing it says to do is to form the body and as this includes part 88 it is tempting to add it now. I would not, this requires considerable detailing with the addition of an 2 overlays on the rear the lifting links each made up of 4 etched parts and all the front detail, this all wants attaching first before it goes in the body.
Fortunately it wasn't too difficult to remove the 1 that I had already fitted !

Here's one waiting to go in

View attachment 135644

View attachment 135645

And this is what you need to add at the front.
The 1F instructions are different and make this a lot clearer.

View attachment 135646

If you are wondering what all the holes are in the coal space floor, it is because I intend to use battery powered DCC for these locos. The batteries will fit in the rear space but some of the electronics will need to go in the coal space.

View attachment 135647

Hopefully today will be just as productive.
Hi Richard, what DCC are you fitting to the 1C tender as I have one to do?
Len
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Hi Len

These 3 locos will have a Zimo MX645pu decoder with an ADAPLU board, this gives a maximum of 1.8amps output more than enough for a 6 Watt Maxon coreless motor.

Richard
 

Boyblunder

Western Thunderer
Hi Richard, what DCC are you fitting to the 1C tender as I have one to do?
Len
Lens SaS 9F Kit.JPG
Len, as mentioned previously I have the set-up Richard is using here for you when you are ready with Steve Baldock's smoke unit, however you need to make sure you have left access for it in the boiler and it needs a minimum diameter "tunnel" through the boiler spacers of 30mm. No problem if you don't want it because Richard will use it instead.
Robin
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
It has been a busy week at work but I have managed to make some good progress regardless.

This is where I'm upto

20210124_132151.jpg

4 bodies, 4 chassis and 4 sets of outer frames. I have to say that I think it is slightly easier to build the outer frames first and then add the overlays, rather than the other way round.

So the next big task is the springs and axle boxes for the outer frames. Now most kits this is just a one piece white metal casting but not here, there are 5 castings for each axle box / spring so a total of 120 castings over the 4 chassis !

Here's the first axle box on a frame

20210124_132209.jpg

And here are the other castings to go with it.

20210124_132238.jpg

These are beautiful castings but this does add considerably to the time it will take to build the tenders.
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
You need to have at least one, and if you ask Dave Sharp nicely he might even have a set of the S7 wheels left.
Richard (@richard carr), I did and he does. One less set now than Dave had before I made a telephone call. Peter has chosen a BR1G tender so if you could just build one of those as well....

Big problem for us is that a BR 9F was probably never seen on the West Highland line, so can we have running powers?

regards, Graham
 
Last edited:
Top