I think that's it...

After watching Jezzer, James and Stuart on the seasonal Top Gear, I returned to the workbench last night to do some more on the Y14.  I must have got in the metaphorical steam of things, as it was 23.58 when I soldered the last lamp iron into place, and dunked  the body into the ultrasonic bath.

And I think that this is it.  I believe that I've got in place every detail from locomotive no. 643 that I could identify on the photographs in place.  I used a picture of 642 for the port-side, and even between apparently sister engines in the class, I noticed one difference, in the number of handrail knobs on the side of the smokebox.  There is a lot of GER standardisation, but very little consistency!

So here are some pictures of it.  The blotchy colours of the metalwork are due to the use of Acidip then neutralising Rinse to clean off the flux and oxides.  It isn't actually that bad in real life...

Comments and criticisms are all very welcome.  I know that the whistle is absent from the side of the safety valve, as that is polished brass and won't be fitted until after painting.  Also, I know of two very small errors in the style of the components fitted, when compared to the prototype photos.  However I'll keep those to myself unless someone spots them - they really are very, very minor.

Flymo

Santa Claus arrives early...

Or at least the postman does.  Bringing with him the etches for my Great Eastern Little Sharpie 2-4-0 kit.  This is from PeterK, part of the Kemilway portfolio:  http://www.kemilway.com/peter-k.html

Having virtually forgotten about it, being some fourteen months since I placed the order and the cheque was cashed, I gave a random phone call to Kemilway, when I remembered last week. Part of the overall delay was due to me having moved house in August, and the first delivery sometime after that wasn't swept up in our postal re-direct.

But now I have it!  The next step is to review what suitable castings are available from Alan Gibson to complete it, and put it into the Works queue.

One picture from the Kemilway website of what the finished model should look like.  

Despite the delay, I'm really looking forward to building it...

An evening's work...

Making progress is great when you put your mind to it.  For once, I had an evening with very little in commitments to do anything.  We were staying in to wait for a friend who is coming up from Bristol for the weekend, so I retired to my modelling desk to get started on what was initially quite a daunting set of details that I'd identified.

The kit instructions are generally quite vague at this point, and there is only a single exploded diagram of the locomotive that shows *everything* that is in the kit, regardless of period or option.  Points that I came across on the way, and that I include for the education/amusement/despair of you, gentle reader, include:

- The Westinghouse pump mounting bracket does not have an identifiable location to fit to the kit.  It isn't visible on the instructions, nor any of my photos.  Logically really, as it's hidden behind the pump itself.  So I concluded that it can only go behind the lower part of the pump, as to be behind the upper would interfere with the reversing rod.

- Getting the lower ends of the pipes from the clack valves and the Westinghouse pump fixed firmly to the footplate promised to be problematic, as I didn't want to leave a visible gap at the end of them.  I solved this by flooding a blob of low melt solder onto the footplate, then fixing the pipe into this.  I could then use the tip of a scalpel and some needlefiles to pare back the excess solder until only a pipe-width remained.

- Most of us have an excess of different solders in our tool kit - USE THEM!  Last night I used four different types.  These are all from Carrs/C&L (no connection, just good quality stuff) and were 188 solder paint, 179, 145 and 70 degree.  Use each in its proper place and the job is so much easier.

- Details of what I believe are the sandbox operating linkages are not included in the kit.  I made these up from a couple of spare AG short handrail knobs and some 0.45mm straight wire.  They curve under the boiler, where it appears that the operating linkages to the cab run on the prototype.  I think that they are an extra detail that is rather quite convincing.

- Bending the front curve of a handrail is an absolute sod!  I've always struggled to get this even on any loco that I've built (not that there have ever been more than three of them before this), and of the correct radius.  This one isn't perfect, but it's not too bad, and I seem to have got the "elbows" to bring the length of wire back down the boiler side in roughly the right places.  I did it with a series of very small wreaks in AG straight wire using snipe nosed pliers.  If anyone has any other tips or methods that they can share, I'd very much appreciate it.

So what is the result of all this labour?  Here are a couple of (slightly blurry, as they were shot using the grey natural light this morning) pictures of it:

 

There are still a few more external details, such as pipe runs and hinges, to be fitted, but it's starting to look much less clean-lined than before, but is a workmanlike, good way.  Maybe some more to be done this evening, but in the meantime it's Christmas shopping!

Starting the detailing

So, to make a start on the fine detail of the locomotive.  The picture below shows my initial stage:

Thanks to Adrian Marks of the GERS, I have photos of the left and right sides of sequential locomotives from my intended production (1899) batch of the Y14.  They are also in roughly the correct period.  You'll see that I've printed them off at A4 size.  I've then ringed each detail that I can see on the locomotive and that isn't already on the model.

Some of these fittings already come with the Alan Gibson kit.  Some I will have to make from scratch.  And so to the soldering iron...

Well, I've just booked myself on the Missenden Modellers Weekend.  That's 11-13 March 2011, in deepest Buckinghamshire.

Now I really *must* get on and finish the Y14, as I started it at last year's course, and it's going to be so embarassing if I'm *still* working on it :-(

To the workbench (after dinner and a glass of red wine, that is)!

Getting things moving

After another couple of weeks of no real progress on the demo board, yesterday I had chance to start work on it again.

I'd already obtained from Maplin some terminal posts and a rotary selector switch as components, so I was ready to go with drill and soldering iron.  The interesting thing about the Maplin rotary switch, if anyone is contemplating using one is that although they are sold as (in this case) a three-way by four contact switch, this appears to be defined by the position of a tab-washer inside the switch.  This can be moved to give a different number of clicks.  This presumably gives a different number of discrete selections.  I didn't test this with a multimeter, but is worth exploring if you think that you have the wrong component for the job in hand.  Oh, and I found this little gem out when the switch fell apart after I'd taken the locking ring off to install it.  So be careful!

Anyway, this is how it looks from above the baseboard:

The nearest posts, by the switch are the ones that take the power feeds.  I will produce some proper wires for a controller with banana plugs, rather than the temporary flying leads that I use for testing locomotives at the workbench.  The far posts are for the power feed to go in for the point motors.

And this is it underneath:

I'm using a piece of copperclad sleeper strip as a wiring bus, so that I don't have to try and fit all of the return feeds into a single point or onto a single component.

And so if I get chance today, it's on to finishing off my first Turnout Operation Unit, and seeing if it can be installed.

Tracklaying (nearly) finished...

A friend gently chided me this weekend about the absence of blog updates.  He has a point - when I'm modelling, I tend not to think of the computer, and when I'm sorting out things on the computer, I don't get any modelling done!  The excuses are not relevant though - I should just get on and do both!

There has been progress in the last couple of weeks though.  The Scalefour Society stand was attending the East Ham Finescale Show, thanks to time dedicated to by Terry Bendall, Mike Ainsworth and Bob Bourne.  However I helped out on Sunday, and I was determined to take the demo board along.  There were three reasons for building this set of track.

Firstly was to proved that after a few years away from active modelling, that I could still build track that worked!  Well, subject to wiring it all up, I think that I succeeded in this, and I certainly learned a few lessons of what NOT to do.  More on these in a separate post...

Secondly was to give myself a small test-track that was more than a rolling road and 12" of straight track.

And thirdly, and the reason for the diversity of track types on it was to show to people new to P4 modelling that there were now a whole range of track solutions available, ranging from the "shake the box" kit that is almost like RTR (but not quite!) to the more traditional ways that are still valid. 

So I set myself the goal of finishing the tracklaying in time for EHFS.  I managed that during the week beforehand, and was able to take the completed board along with me.  This is the track fully laid:

The diagram beside it is the key to the actual types of construction.  This will be smartened up when I have learned enough Templot to re-draw the board using that software.  The next shot is down the length of the board, showing what are hopefully some flowing curves.

And finally, just to show the reason for taking the time and modelling effort of modelling to P4, an A5 turnout alongside a similar dimensioned OO Peco turnout.

The next steps are the wiring and point motors...