Scalefour Forum

Here's a better shot of the Black 5 keeper. Caprotti_Blk5_keeper_001.JPG At the time of the photo, I thought the brake rigging was inexorably entangled with the keeper due to the stretchers passing between the sand pipes and their support brackets. I later found it was possible to wiggle them apart ...

Hello Bryan. If your wheel sets are removable, then I assume you have a keeper plate of some sort to retain them in the frames? Perhaps you could attach the sand pipes and their brackets to the keeper and have the upper end/sand traps a loose fit into holes in the bottom of the sand boxes? These sho...

I take your point, Jol. My thinking was to try to even out the three sets of connecting rods and valve gear, which will create a certain amount of resistance to rotation. My earlier model of Rebuilt West Country class, Taw Valley, has 120 cranks and runs very smoothly indeed. Dave, the odd wheels on...

Even the original axle has proved too short but Ill have to live with it. With hind sight, it might have been better to swap the middle and rear axles, but it's too late now as I'm not inclined to take wheels off once fitted. The crank pin bushes have been made up and they, together with the couplin...

And then there were six.

Went with the original axle as the two spares I found were too short!
Dave.

Front and rear driving wheel sets have been prepared and temporarily fitted into the chassis. Some minor trimming of the crank axle balance weights and the adjacent frame spacer/keeper plate cut-outs is required to ensure nothing catches at the extremes of the axle box travel. Probably, with the loc...

Ivan, There's not much to see, unfortunately - as the attached (slightly out of focus) photo shows. Scot_049.JPG I drilled four holes, 0.6 mm diameter, in the edge of the webs, passing through the axle and crank pin. These were opened out to about 0.62 mm with a number drill, to suit the nominally 0...

Thanks, Robin.
I've now turned round the recalcitrant axlebox and re-tried the extended axle jigs and rods and all is OK, so no harm done. Phew!
Dave.

Hornguides now fixed into the frames. Here we see the chassis set up in my Avonside Works jig, with both sets of rods in the extension pins, just for good measure. Scot_045.JPG Scot_046.JPG And making extra sure using my extended axles. Scot_047.JPG And with the crank axle in position. Scot_048.JPG ...

Axleboxes and hornguides have been assembled, matched and suitably marked so they can be kept together when fitted to the chassis. Also, the crankshaft has been built up and the previously shown eccentric attached to the RH web. Scot_044.JPG The crank is not the one whose photo started this thread. ...

Well, I have finally got round to making up the coupling rods - and the connecting rods, too. I've also been working on the crankshaft and eccentric. The former is in final assembly stage whilst the latter is ready to fit once the crank is finished. Here are the rods and eccentric. The eccentric is ...

Well, it turned out not to be the coupling rods next. I decided to assemble the MJT gearbox conversion instead. The replacement sides were tried in place using the brass rod originally used to align the inside cylinder as it was the right size for the frames and the gearbox sides, prior to fitting t...

The reverser linkage and shaft for the inside valve gear has been fitted, as have the bogie mounting spacer and ash pan sides. The bogie mount has had to be altered to give clearance for the inside cross head and drop link. The ash pan sides are replacement for the kit items because 46109 had a rock...

Thanks Howard. Glad you're enjoying the ride. Well, I've committed now; the inside cylinder has been fixed into the frames. The motion plate is still loose, but the layer that located the rear ends of the slide bars has been attached to the plate and the central hole opened up to allow the cross hea...

The inside cylinder has been trimmed to fit between the frames, the slide bars fixed to the cylinder and the whole lot trial fitted in the frames. Nothing soldered, yet. A simple jig has been made to help align the cylinder/slide bar assembly with the centre line of the front axle and is seen in sit...

Although this is still not my intended next job, some further progress has been made by assembling the frames. You'll notice I've also changed the title of this thread to reflect its new status. A few modifications, especially to the keeper plate/springs unit, to accommodate the inside crank and ecc...

Bullet bitten and con rod created. It went from this: Scot_021.JPG Two layers of the Brassmasters Fowler 4F rods (their model uses large eccentrics rather than a crank axle to provide some cross head motion), to this: Scot_022.JPG Component parts laid out on the jig used to assemble the rod with the...

The eccentric rod, expansion link and radius rod have now been assembled. Nothing accidentally soldered solid for a change!

Con rod next, perhaps?
Dave.

Some progress and a bit of a set-back, today. The eccentric rod has been made by modifying the rods from the Brassmasters Fowler 4F valve gear etch. The length has been reduced and a pivoted arrangement provided so the rod can fit over the eccentric sheaves allowing the crank axle to be fitted and r...

A start has been made on the inside valve gear with the production of some of the rods and assembly of the front portion of the gear. The anchor link is from a spare Brassmasters Black 5 etch and the combination lever and radius rod are from the same source, but modified by cutting the laminations t...

Doug,
When weighting the loco, especially where the weight is in the boiler, do take care to get the balance of the loco right as it's very easy to make it front end heavy, by packing the boiler and smokebox. Much harder to get weight behind the motor/gearbox.
Dave.

Some progress over the past few days since the drop in temperature has made the modelling room more habitable. The support bracket for the expansion link has been made and is seen here loosely placed in position on the motion bracket. It's dimensionally right but only representative in detail. Scot_...

Glad you're not modelling either of them in that condition.
Looks like good progress is being made but, as you say, finding out how and where for some of the smaller details are arranged can be quite difficult.
Dave.

The inside crosshead, complete with the drop link has now been made. It is based on a Brassmasters brass casting from the Fowler 4F kit, modified to provide the drop link necessary of the Scot inside motion. The resultant item is not strictly a scale replica of the actual part, but is an approximati...

The first component for the inside valve gear has been produced. But what is it? Scot_003.JPG Well, it's the support bracket which carries the inside gear reverser wey-shaft and the lifting arms. Here it is roughly (very) placed against the main frames. It will be attached to a narrow frame space wh...