7mm At the Western End of F7

[Dave Bowden]

Hi Simon

Reading this in a sweltering 29 degrees on Vancouver Island makes me wish I was back home and working on my current models.
Keep it coming please.

Dave

 

[SimonT]

Are you just soldering the keeper plate on or is there enough meat to drill and tap a thread?

Adrian,
they are simply soldered onto the horn while fettling. The logic is that the process of soldering the horns onto the frames and then soldering on the springs below make it impossible to remove the keeper plates unless the springs are unsoldered. Instead I remove the screws from the Slaters wheels and thus remove the axles laterally during the fiddling stage of making the chassis run smoothly.

Alternatively, the bottom flange of the horn is .95mm thick, so there would be room to insert a piece of 12BA thread and to solder it in with a high temp solder or fix it with stud lock.

Dave,
will do. I'll report next on attaching the horns to the chassis.

Simon

 

[SimonT]

After a little delay, here is some more on the chassis.


As you can see, things have got a little out of hand and I have fitted more than the horns. The brake hangers are left-overs from two JLTRT super detailing kits for the 52/72XXs that are at various stages of build at the moment. I am rather futtled with the lack of 12BA screws in the horns. The working springs are 4mm x 3mm steel springs from Eileens and only held in place at the top by the pip on the horn and by axle box and bottom keep. All move nicely now that I have polished them using the stainless steel hob cream polish that I picked up at the supermarket in place of the unavailable Brasso.

The only fly in the ointment are the rear sand boxes as they are to wide to slide between the cab steps. The pipe mountings are in the correct place, it is just the outer faces are too far out. Phone Laurie!

So wheel turning next or shall I pass it off as a S7 loco that secretly runs on finescale wheels? Ssshh, no one will ever know!

Simon

 

[pete waterman]

Dave reading your notes I wish it was 29 here then I could move my workbench outside and switch the heating off!

 

[Ian G]

Heating is for wimps & is expensive wear a coat

Ian G

 

[mickoo]

So wheel turning next or shall I pass it off as a S7 loco that secretly runs on finescale wheels? Ssshh, no one will ever know!

Simon

No they won't, well not with out very close inspection

I've used finescale out of the packet and apart from one switch on Love Lane they ran fine, I do though take a bit off the rim diameter, mainly so I can get the brake hanger brackets inbetween close coupled drivers and prevent shorts.

Are the sand boxes designed for OF frames? in which case you might have to trim a mm or so off the back faces to compensate for the wider S7 frames.

Looking good so far

 

[SimonT]

Wheel decision delayed as the lathe DRO batteries are dead!

The frames are OF, which makes it more puzzling. All but a few of my locos are built with OF frames for the simple reason that I will need to sell them in due course and the market of S7 modellers is made smaller by the number of blighters who spend their time modeling those damn Yankee trains. (With apologies, of course, to Jim!)

 

[SimonT]

Time for an update on the 8750, and this is me going backwards!


Earlier today, I was thinking that I would be applying paint this afternoon. There is small problem I discovered this afternoon in that I have got the brakes wrong. Influenced by recent work involving the 94XX GA, I decided to use some of the left over JLTRT brake mountings shown in front of the chassis; these are attached to the frames. Looking through the Pannier Papers for this type of loco I made the awful realisation that I was totally wrong following this path. The real 57XX locos have U shaped mounts that are bolted onto brackets that stick out from the frames. The pooh bit is that the holes for the wrong mounts are about 1.4mm diameter and the brakes need .9mm wire to align the brackets and brakes. So here I am fitting appropriate tube into the holes which I will then have the feather in before making the brackets and mountings.

Is it time for a rant and rage about kit manuf ........ZZZZ!

Onwards
Simon

 

[Scale7JB]

Looking very nice though Simon, the spring castings are lovely..

JB.

 

[SimonT]

At the Leeds Show I picked up my first RTR models since boyhood. They are a Heljan OAA and VBA. They are both in the purple Railfreight livery and at least one of them will receive the early livery. They are intended to be a swift increase in airbraked stock for The ARSE. So, courtesy of Iphone photography, ....

The OAA lying on it's back for the first job of the S7 conversion. The Heljan axle is 2.4mm diameter, not an obviously easy size to adapt to. However, there is a really easy solution. Peartree bearings fit into the Heljan bearing as an easy fit. So ....

The Peartree bearings are secured with some bearing lock inside the Heljan bearings. Simples. The one disturbing thing I have discovered is that the build is poor with large gaps, poor positioning of small components and glued joints that are very fragile. I tried all the plastic solvents on the shelf and none of them worked - rather like the Heljan version of gluing. I am now using epoxy to secure things as they come loose.
I am just starting on fitting Dinghams so that The ARSE can be operated hands off at Warley. The layout still needs the electromagnets fitting and then lots of testing to ensure everything works properly.
Simon

 

[SimonT]

Glues that do not work! The epoxy won't bond to the plastic. Does anyone have experience of gluing the Heljan plastic and which solvents work? I might have to find a tube of Airfix.....

Simon

 

[Dog Star]

How about one of the adhesives for use with car bumpers? Something like a CA with accelerator although not the typical Pacer / Zappa product.

 

[Pugsley]

EMA Plastic Weld will stick it together, I had to re-stick a myriad of components on my vans.

 

[Dog Star]

EMA Plastic Weld will stick it together...

Simon,

If Plastic Weld works then the material used by Heljan is likely to be ABS or a derivative of ABS.... so what plastic solvents did you try before the epoxy resin?

 

[SimonT]

Martin, Graham,
I think the plastic could well to be an ABS so the Plastic Weld should be the answer. Interesting that your vans fell apart.
Simon

 

[SimonT]

Martin,
the Plastic Weld has worked wonders. Should we recommend it to Heljan?
Cheers
Simon

 

[Pugsley]

Might not be a bad idea...

I do sometimes wonder what such a large collection of different solvents says about me

 

[Scale7JB]

Martin,
the Plastic Weld has worked wonders. Should we recommend it to Heljan?
Cheers
Simon

They probably use it already, but the financial director has only allowed one dip of the brush every 20 minutes to cut manufacturing costs..

JB.

 

[oldravendale]

They probably use it already, but the financial director has only allowed one dip of the brush every 20 minutes to cut manufacturing costs..

JB.

B****y accountants.

B

 

[Ressaldar]

They probably use it already, but the financial director has only allowed one dip of the brush every 20 minutes to cut manufacturing costs..

JB.

that is what is known as evaporating profits!

cheers

Mike