The Yard - A small industrial layout in 7mm

[Greengiant]

Work on the Ford Thames continues. The rear axle casting has been milled out, a test 3D print of the motor mount and axle holder was fitted to prove the concept.




From above showing slots left for mudguard mounts. When the rear bed is in place, none of this will be seen.


Next up was to mill out some of the original front axle mount. This was going fine until the belt snapped in the mini pillar drill.


Investigation suggests the original orange belts are weld joined and not the best. I have sourced a couple of nitrile belts which are not welded and they should be here next week.


Martin

 

[Greengiant]

More work on the Ford Thames. This time removing metal to make room for the steering mechanism. The bulk was removed with a fibreglass wizzy disc.




The remaining stubs were removed with a Dremel bit held in a pillar drill, plus a light clean up with a file.




Unfortunately while gripping the vice firmly that was holding the chassis, I broke the tailboard! Easy enough to fix with some small brass angle, just annoying.




Then I had to get the front wheels off the axle, for this I used a back-to-back gauge to prize them off squarely with even force applied across the wheel face.




Once off, the main part of the stub was removed with a saw, just leaving a stub to grind off. I tried this in the lathe, but the jaws would not hold the wheel firmly and squarely enough to stop the burr pushing it into the jaws.

The solution was to clamp the wheel to a piece of MDF using four flat head screws. The MDF could be held firmly while using the pillar drill with the burr in the chuck




Next job is to 3D print front wheel hubs to hold the roller bearings and mount these in the wheels, then print the steering mechanism.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Currently getting ready for our next outing with the layout this Friday and Saturday at Rapido Railex in Maidstone.

Neale has done a great job converting the Ford Thames to RC, I just need to do the pretty bits, which will be an initial job that will need to be finished off fully after this weekend and before the NEC in November.

Although a big lorry, it was surprisingly awkward to get everything to fit. The battery protrudes through the existing floor, I need to make a new sub floor, which will them clamp the battery to the chassis.


Body off, showing the 3D printed battery holder ring and the steering servo.


The underside showing the 3D printed front axle assembly, the steering servo, on/off switch, battery isolation plug and socket and rear axle drive bevel gears. Still to refit is the spare wheel and carrier which goes over the rear mounting screw. We have found the tyres are not a tight fit on the wheels and come off easily! I will need to use a light smear of epoxy to hold them on.


I have made a start on removing the lettering using Brasso wadding. Will then buff up with T-Cut and weather.

https://flic.kr/p/2qiCF6R

Martin

 

[Dog Star]

Those tyres are uni-directional, each tread pattern ought to be fitted in the same way, ideally for forward direction of the vehicle (the driver's front wheel is correct, the vee pattern pushing water /mud away from the centre of the tyre as the wheel rotates).

Rgds, Graham

 

[Osgood]

Those tyres are uni-directional, each tread pattern ought to be fitted in the same way, ideally for forward direction of the vehicle (the driver's front wheel is correct, the vee pattern pushing water /mud away from the centre of the tyre as the wheel rotates).

Rgds, Graham

Correct for non-driven tyres (in this case front)?
For driven tyres I believe the passenger's side outer rear is correct?
For driven front axles it's a choice between traction and road-holding.

 

[Dog Star]

For driven tyres I believe the passenger's side outer rear is correct?

If we are not sure... paint the thing yellow and then red card it (I think that the current arrangement of the twin wheelsets is a MoT failure).

 

[chigley]

mot excempt

 

[Greengiant]

Good spot on the tyres, sadly the model came with the tyres ‘handed’ the same.
Martin

 

[Dog Star]

The tread pattern looks just like Bridgestone of the late 1970s... or maybe Firestone SAT from circa 1980 - I used both of those brands at the time.

I think that a tyre had an embossed arrow on both sidewalls arranged so that, when fitted correctly, the arrows pointed in the same direction (if you could see both sidewalls at the same instant), for example, towards the front of the vehicle.

 

[Greengiant]

The railway has bought its first narrow gauge steam loco, this could be an expensive mistake, early testing found it would not run on the inset track sections.

Only about 5% of the track is not inset, none of the other locos have this problem, so some head scratching occurred.


On flipping the loco over it was discovered that the front re-railing bar was at an odd angle!


Loco has been sent to the workshops to see if a fix can be made. I suspect the bars may be removed altogether.

While there, something else needs resolving, even on the short test on the 12 inch section of normal track, the drivers could not get on with the F2 braking and the excessive inertia, this was making the controlled shunting required, very hit and miss, literally at times!

Needs to be sorted with just five weeks now until the NEC show.

Martin

 

[PhilH]

While there, something else needs resolving, even on the short test on the 12 inch section of normal track, the drivers could not get on with the F2 braking and the excessive inertia, this was making the controlled shunting required, very hit and miss, literally at times!
Needs to be sorted with just five weeks now until the NEC show.
Martin

Martin, Have you tried F20 - Shunting Mode ? I think this should eliminate or at least reduce the inertia.
Braking on F2 won't bring the loco to a stop unless the throttle is reduced to zero before applying F2.

On my similar loco CV3 (acceleration rate) is set at 40, CV4 (deceleration rate) is set at 110. You could set these much lower, or down to 0 should give fairly instant response to the controller.

 

[Greengiant]

Martin, Have you tried F20 - Shunting Mode ? I think this should eliminate or at least reduce the inertia.
Braking on F2 won't bring the loco to a stop unless the throttle is reduced to zero before applying F2.

On my similar loco CV3 (acceleration rate) is set at 40, CV4 (deceleration rate) is set at 110. You could set these much lower, or down to 0 should give fairly instant response to the controller.

Phil, thanks, I shall look into that. I don’t like inertia when shunting, especially when you have a target area of about 40mm for uncoupling. Makes it harder when you do the Kadee shuffle to uncouple.
Martin

 

[John57sharp]

Despite all of the above, she looks very much at home there.

John

 

[Greengiant]

The Yard features in the latest edition of Hornby Magazine, flying the narrow gauge flag.



Meanwhile, work continues getting ready for our appearance at the NEC in a couple of weeks.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

I have at last got around to sorting out the Quarry Hunslet.

The re-railing bars have been removed.

Not a fan of the F2 braking and unworkable for shunting on The Yard.

I have done some research and found setting CV309 = 002 to 0 deactivates the brake key.

Other changes I made:

Acceleration CV3 = 44 changed to 10
Deceleration CV4 = 110 changed to 10

This makes it workable, need to try it on the layout rather than test track tomorrow and see how it behaves. Then may tweak CVs 3 and 4 to taste.

Just under two weeks until the NEC show now. The paperwork for this show has been a bundle of fun!

Martin

 

[simond]

Strange, I really like the F2 brake…

 

[Greengiant]

When you are doing this 100+ times a day trying to target a 40mm magnet to do the Kadee shuffle it becomes a pain.

Martin

 

[timbowales]

When you are doing this 100+ times a day trying to target a 40mm magnet to do the Kadee shuffle it becomes a pain.

Martin

Model railways are supposed to be fun?
If things are a pain to do perhaps you aren't doing the right thing?
Just saying........

 

[Greengiant]

Model railways are supposed to be fun?
If things are a pain to do perhaps you aren't doing the right thing?
Just saying........

Hence why I have deactivated F2 braking, predicting it would have been a problem doing this over two days of a show.

 

[timbowales]

Ah, your post gave the impression that it was the whole operating thing that was hacking you off, not just the presence of the "brake" function, not what you intended to convey perhaps?