Scalefour Forum

Secondly, one or two of the spring carriers appear to be a bit loose on the springing wire. Is there any reason that, having ascertained that the wires are of the correct diameter, I should not solder the carrier onto the wire? And similarly, becasue the wire on one side keeps trying to escape from...

Waisted bearings also vary in depth, between manufacturers and between batches from the same manufacturer. Traditionally, Gibson bearings tend to be shallower and Markits/Romford bearings deeper. The BB axleguards sold through Eileens need the shallow bearings and those in the Mousa kits generally n...

I suggest waiting to see the new Rails model, or reviews of it, before choosing. There is some pre-release discussion of it on RMWeb. The Rails terriers missed the Christmas boats from China and are now expected in the new year.

Thank you, Guy, for the helpful back history of these wagons. It is threatening to turn into a bigger project than I had anticipated (as usual :D ). Does anyone do the correct axleboxes and roof ventilators, please? I think I can sort out the handbrakes (famous last words). John Actual SECR P-type ...

My grateful thanks for the replies. I am intending to backdate my example by applying some large "SR" transfers and removing the small 'SR' letters. It may be a case of painting them out. The other problem will be couplings. The model includes moulded on scale(?) hooks, but I do not know ...

Concerning the SECR No.2 axleboxes: these were a Maunsell-era design of oil-lubricated box and were widely applied to SECR wagons with 3'1" wheels. The No.1 axlebox was from the same period and was used on wagons with 3'6" wheels, but precious few of those were made in Mr. Maunsell's time....

If replacing the axleguards in this model you'll need to salvage the SECR No.2 axleboxes as, so far as I know, nobody makes separate castings or prints for these. The model comes with AGW wheels in OO. I suggest just swapping the wheels for P4 and seeing if it runs adequately with fixed suspension. ...

I'm amused and a bit concerned that this appears to be a problem which is only soluble by the ownership of a decent drill press. Better not tell new members that until we got their membership free. More seriously, while I do admire the engineering skills many of you exhibit, I do think we might nee...

I'll have to see which of those references I have John to see if I can make out the set-up on the wagon out-shopped in 1941. Looking at the modelling options it seems that there is a DC3 underframe in the Morgan Design list (for X5/X7) that may be ok for this wagon in its later condition. Thanks ag...

Two things I've learned for tracking escaped parts: always double the search radius from your first guess, and use a UV torch. Small things bounce much further than people expect and shiny NS sometimes shows up brighter in short-wavelength light.

Work out the circumference of your turntable and base the speed of rotation on the walking pace of the man pushing the turntable? Yes. I suspect that tangental speed was even slower than that, but walking pace is an upper limit for a model; anything faster looks wrong. I've seen films of full-size,...

Amongst the Loctite retainers, it looks like 603 is better than 601 anyway. Advantages: - 50% bigger maximum bond-gap; - lower viscosity, making it easier to distribute in Exactoscale wheels; - high oil tolerance; - bonds imperfectly-cleaned surfaces; - good at bonding non-smooth surfaces. (informat...

One advantage of the proper retainers is that they expand on hardening, centring the wheel on the axle.

You could also try and assess the smoothness of ride from the vibration spectrum. You'd need to know, or discover, the signature of a lurch in the frequency spectrum, and you'd need an on-board accelerometer to obtain the spectrum. Small accelerometers with wireless connection are available. I sugge...

The trackholding experiments published previously in MRJ all involved a vehicle free-wheeling down a plane through various types of pointwork and imperfect track. One hundred runs were done for each vehicle configuration and the number of successful runs tabulated. I see two improvements to that. On...

Interesting. I need a wagon traverser for my eventual layout, and I'm wondering whether that above-ground kind would be better than the kind that moves in a pit. The sprung flaps at the entry and exit points might be a bit hard in 4mm scale. I can't see why Curzon Street would need a powered travers...

Shapeways have recently got themselves some DLS machines and are offering prints in urethane methacrylate and rigid polyurethane. These sound like suitable material for wheel centres. I'd expect them to have better structural strength than Shapeways' "detail plastic" and much better finish...

It looks very interesting. The combination of three different electrifications is attractive. How high is your staith above the river? IIRC, the RL Harton High Staithes were quite high up, certainly too high for a bank down to dock level. The latter - which I like, BTW - is more like Harton Low Stai...

The capacity printed on the battery is interesting. Probably enough to take a loco through an exhibition day.

Thanks Noel, that's a reasonable assessment and I'll darken my handrails in due course.

More immediately, I need to fix the roof being on the wrong way round and put the chimney is over the cabin.

For the AA7s, there are no early photos at all, so it's tricky. The livery on this van is an extrapolation from a later style. Dunno about the handrails, I can't work it out from the information I have. On GWR Toads generally, I see white rails where there are large initials, but there may well be m...

The Toad finally got finished, or as near as. IMG_5707.jpg Having decided to represent the parts of the body stanchions parallel to the body, I'd bottled out of actually making these parts for years. In the end, I did them from plastic strip with rivet decals and it was very easy. I can see the shad...

One set please. Either size of axle is OK, as I haven't bought the rest of the chassis bits yet.

As to white metal sprung buffers, I was an early adopter here too and I agree turned steel buffer heads, fine springs and solder don't mix, but surely the buffer shanks get fixed to the wagon during basic assembly, and the buffer head and springing are practically the last job be done long after th...

Previously I have made the wheels a tight fit in the tyre with a bit of glue so they stay put. I have used Gibson tyres in the past but if I can get tyres CNC machined the I would design the tyre so that the centre has a more positive location. The fit I can get on an axle is similar to that of a G...