Scalefour Forum

Doug, I had some dealings with a Proscale V2 some years ago which came to me for repair after some altercations with the Post Office, and I remember clearances being tight at the front end. It worked just fine so the original builder must have sorted some kind of solution. Without seeing the engine ...

Last time I bought some I noticed the axles were brass, something to do with Kadee coupling magnet attraction. Just have to be a little more careful with them. They are also just 14mm diameter, which nicely matches the size of Hornby ones. I am also fond of Ultrascale wheels, having acquired a goodl...

I couldn’t agree more with Tim’s comments about wheels. Truly concentric and wobble free wheels are the first port of call on a voyage to decent running. So often I see vehicles wobbling along when they should be gliding, whether they are suspended or not. People may well be trying to cure a problem...

David, what you suggest sounds interesting, but I couldn’t comment on precise specifications, because I have never gone to the lengths of measuring track defects, I go by eye. If things don’t look clean and level, then I would rectify it. Of course to put things right entails using a straight edge a...

My feeling is that if carriages happily stay on the track around the layout, and if they only derail on deliberately imperfect test trackwork, there is no need to take on a lot of extra work. After all, trains will be running on a layout where presumably efforts will have been made to correct any re...

Thanks Neil,

As you say, very expensive, so I think I will do without it. the little router gadget looks more interesting though...

Philip

Your ‘super cutter’ looks interesting, more than just a knife blade. Can you please tell us more about it, and what it can do?

Philip

I have some old tyres from wrecked wheels, so I choose a diameter slightly bigger than the moulded centre I want to remove. I then place the wheel face up on top of the old tyre and tap sharply with a small hammer and a punch, usually a pin punch used upside down. This spreads the load over the whee...

Hi Bernie, Yes, a chamfer is a good idea. When I skim a wheel centre I always take the sharp edge off the front of the moulding, and clean out the inside of the tyre in case there is any swarf in there. The thinking is that possibly the inside of the tyre might be a fraction less than a sharp right ...

The Gibson wheel driving wheel mouldings don’t have a recess to accept the rim of the tyre, at least all of those I have had here don’t. The thin rim of the tyre just butts up against the centre. If a recess was turned the face of the tyre would be virtually flush with the spokes which wouldn’t look...

Tim, Yes and no. I would not contemplate building a chassis for an engine that wasn’t compensated (or sprung or whatever you prefer) as getting it to sit absolutely flat on a surface plate is difficult. It doesn’t matter quite so much with EM as the flanges are a bit deeper than our turning burrs. A...

I did notice that the engine was assembled, and can understand your reluctance to totally dismantle, but where such a problem has manifested itself I think it would be difficult to effect a lasting repair without at least taking the offending wheel off. I presume that the wheelsets are trapped in th...

Never going to need this on the railway, but how do you do the sea? Especially the wash from the MTB?

Wonderful modelling!

Philip

I always pin the screw in the wheel where it is the centre crankpin if there is Walschaerts about. I drill a 0.45 or 0.5mm hole, using the slot in the screw as a starting point, through into the wheel and then insert a wire pin. This in addition to cyano on a few threads of the screw nearest the hea...

Andrew, just use a parallel sided burr or mill in a mini drill, run quite slowly and with eye protection. Sweep the burr from side to side and gradually reduce the thickness of the splashers or whatever. Keep an eye on the front face as well as you will see tell tale signs of breaking through before...

Allan, thanks again. Lest this should sound like two old pals congratulating each other perhaps I can expand a little by revealing that the camera I use at Scaleforum (Leica V-lux 4) is not my favourite camera for this sort of work, often preferring my old Canon S3IS, which has a smaller sensor and ...

Allan, thank you for your comments about the Burntisland photos, you are very kind. And many thanks to you for cleaning up all the backgrounds; I can do a bit of this in Photoshop but I don’t have your abilities, so it was good of you to agree to help out. Had I known it would take you so much time ...

I have had a TBM 220 for years now and it is a lovely little machine. The KT70 table looks as though it might be a suggestion for a birthday or Christmas present!

Philip

Regarding the usual throws and exceptions, they weren’t limited to the GWR. The LSWR used 9” throw on many engines, the 4-4-0s, 700s & M7s etc.

Philip

In early 1967 there was a series of articles by AJ East In the Model Railway Constructor about scratchbuilding engines. I think it was 1967 but I threw lots of old magazines out a while back. In it he described a method of using two mirrors, held at about a 100° angle to align an Archimedean drill t...

I have about the same amount to lay, but looking at mine the web is much thinner than the sleepers. I shall loose ballast mine after testing, so I think the ties should be covered by the ballast.

Philip

Tim, Looking at your workbench thread, it looks to me as if the wheel has been inserted into your turned jig face down, and when the jig is turned the other way around for the wheel to be drilled through the jig, the wheel is actually being drilled from the front. Can you clarify please? Or tell me ...

Dave, I'm with you here. I think it's much easier to see what's happening if you drill from the front of the wheel, it's easier to have the wheel flat on the drilling table, and if the drill is running at a reasonable speed and you take it gently the drill ought not to follow the dimple, after all i...

The best way to avoid these awful fibres is not to use a fibreglass brush. The pencil kind are the worst, and I found they can fly, as Phil has just said. I largely gave up on them years ago in favour of a Garriflex block. Or a EM Society/DOGA track rubber. They clean the metal just as well and only...

Thanks for the suggestions Dave. I have always used a tiny drop of retainer, just in the top thread of the nuts, and so far had no problems with the stuff going further down the crankpin. I do make sure there is enough clearance behind the nuts, so that shouldn’t be a cause, but once in a while one ...