Mike G's Workspace.

jjnewitt

jjnewitt

Active Member
Mike that video was taken right at the end of the 60s or in the 70s. Full yellow ends weren’t introduced until 68/9. The loco could be pretty much anything. However it does look like a Vulcan build from the contrail grills which means it isn’t d6887 as that was an RSH build. I gave you a list of suitable locos for 63 earlier.

Just a note on headcodes. It’s likely that the loco in the video is displaying a local target rather being on a class 9 freight headed for the London division.

Sorting out the bogies was a lot of work. Some things are worth doing, this includes the headcode boxes... if you move them down it will look like a class 37. If you don’t it will always look wrong. Just go and compare the model with a photo of the real thing.

Justin
 
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Jeremy Good

Western Thunderer
Mike

Jim Smith-Wright did an article explaining how to lower the head code box in DEMU’s Update. It is on his website as well and is a useful guide to what is necessary. It makes a huge difference to the look of this version of Bachmann’s 37.

Jeremy
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
It's been quite a day and a lot of bad language has hit the walls of my study. Fitted the steam chest and the crossheads and slippers. The castings for the auto oilers were full width of the footplate - they needed to be about 1.5mm, to get everything to fit. And I'm still not out of the woods. The cross heads have significant rubbing on the slippers, much more than I'd like. So, this may well have to come apart for more work yet. On the plus side I've turned the support bracket and cylinders into one removable unit.

Anyway, here's a looksee.

IMG_2233a.jpg

Stay safe

Mike
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
A few videos of my engines running on my plank.





The last clip is the Std 5. More work on this is required as the connecting rod only just passes the front driver. P4 modeling file will be used to for this. The bogie on the Std isn't distributing the weight as I'd hoped - which is why the rear of these wheels is skidding...I think I'm going to use the same principle for springing as I did for the County. Also the pipe work from the auto oilers at the front of the engine are currently being etched and will be added later. None of these engines have earned a crust, they've only been up and down my plank. All will take the point work, which is really encouraging.


Hope this all works!

Stay safe

Mike
 
AJC

AJC

Western Thunderer
Well all the videos work, Mike! All pretty smooth, too. I do like a small prairie in black with a large totem. Is there anything planned to run 'em on (or, more interesting to me, in front of).

Adam
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Yeah, I'm planning on doing Hengoed High level. With the 3 differing levels. Hengoed on top, Ystrad line below and Cardiff mainline below that. Cardiff main is just a double line with no points - just end to end - usually DMU's 120 class in my time period . The Ystard and Hengoed are doubles as well and are joined by an incline.
My Grandparents house was on Park Road at the rear of the station and infront of the marshalling yards. My Fathers first pastorate was Hengoed as well, so a very personal project. I'll post the Templot files for you to see whats planned for my shed at the bottom of the garden - the shed is also in the planning stage. I've already taken delivery of the timbers for the first four points coming out of the station - laser cut.

4533, was a Pontypool Road engine and was a regular into Hengoed. The video I posted with the pannier in (7724, page 2), is the first authentic train to be completed. Taken from a photo, with the train leaving Pontllanfraith heading for Hengoed. The rails to the left of the engine are very interesting!

Hengoed coach001.jpg

Everything I've built over the last 5 years has been aimed at this project. The Brit, County and Standard 5 won't be used on this layout. And I'm not exactly sure what to do with them - after all the effort that's gone into them. Like all our models it's not just the time that goes into them, it's the passion in them as well and difficult to let go.

Still on my shelf of shame lies, 28xx, 8f and 42xx, these are also engines that ran over Hengoed. Plus a lot of 16t mins! If you watched all of the video from Utube you would have seen a Std 4 tank 80133 - that's done and ready. I've also built a couple of 56xx's, one of which will be pulling an M set in lined BR maroon.

Apologies about the washing in the background!

Stay safe

Mike
 
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Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
This week has seen some activity with coach bogies. 15 coaches worth. Bill Bedford sprung BR mk1 bogies to be exact. Here's the state of play so far.

IMG_2330a.jpg

All 60 wire springs cut to length - but I expect nearly all of them will have to snipped to get to fit properly. All 120 bearings soldered in place and all 60 wheels have had their B2B's checked. As I'm typing this all the springs are now in place and tomorrow will see the bridge parts soldered into place. Then the really tedious bit...putting the bearing carriers onto the springs!

All good fun.

Stay safe

Mike
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
So all soldered up and started to put the bearings in. Quite exciting really. 10 done and 20 to go. No failures yet, all roll freely off the edge of the desk...

30 bogies soldered.jpg

Class 37 diesel next, details to add, thanks to Justin Newitt it's already sprung and running. And yes, I'll lower the front...

Stay safe

Mike

Apologies for the photo, it looked better on the phone.
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
All 30 done and being delivered next week. Hopefully I'll pick up my Std cl 4 tank. Then it's onto the class 37 diesel. I've read Jim W-S account of the mods he put in and similarly I have to put new fan grills in - this is on his is excellent website - the one part of Jim's article I'm a little unclear about. Do you have to open out the diameter of the circle to fit the new one? Any advice please?

Today I spent 4/5 hours on my office PC, which is in my study, gazing at the Scalefour Virtual show. WOW! Absolutely loved it. Some great videos, some great articles and demos, it's all still available on their website - you can sign in as a guset (guest) if you're not a member. Recommended, there's some wonderfully inspiring stuff on there.

Stay safe

Mike
 
Mike Garwood

Mike Garwood

Western Thunderer
Not being a chap to hang around with projects, I dived straight into the 37. Mini drill and small cutter took out the head code box. What have I done, was the first thought! After I'd fixed it back in 1mm lower (yep, no mistake there all this for a height dif of 1mm!) I ended up with an A & B end that looked like it had had a flock of seagulls nest there for a month! So the following morning I set to smoothing things out. A long drawn out affair but this is where I'm at now. I have since sprayed the fronts with primer and more filler has gone on ready to be taken off tomorrow.
I hope to get the side grills and cab front windows glued in as well.
But, I've discovered a bigger problem with one of my new 56xx. Fortunately, not one that I've put in a video, on the second 56 I used my last DJH gearbox and this will be the last time I ever put one near my engines. The worm has split (its a plastic one) and worked free and despite trying to repair with locitie 501 it's come a drift and the engine won't run - obvs! I have a spare HL g/box but this means striping the engine down and taking the wheels off - something I hate doing, but it's got to be done as this 56, has the job of running in my B set. Another prototypical train that ran through Pontypool Road and Hengoed HL. So that's two trains I have completely finished...almost.

Stay safe

Mike

Class 37.jpg
 
AJC

AJC

Western Thunderer
Interesting observation regarding the DJH gearbox - having occasionally dipped into the court of Tony Wright on the other side (let's just say that it's more interesting as an example of human nature than any perspective on modelling as you know what Mr Wright wants from a railway long before you enter) - you'd never know that such a thing might occur* though it's always a risk with a plastic worm. For the price, however, that's less than ideal.

The Type 3 looks better for the work though, good luck with the filling and sanding.

Adam

* DJH being his brand of choice you see - there was a lot of praise for them (from the man himself) a week or two back.
 
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Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Mike,

I've got a couple of DJH gearboxes which I really like; although I've not had the troubles you describe. The gears are standard metric gears (usually 0.4mod IIRC), so fairly easy to come by. I've been known to replace the odd worm and wheel set in the DJH gearboxes to change the overall gear ratio.

Steph
 
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