Small diversion - High Level Mineral 0-4-0

[Paul Willis]

Question regarding loco crew.

Would a small industrial tank need two loco crew? I would imagine one bloke could handle shoveling and working the little beast?

Does anyone know what the usual practice might be?

Hi Neil,

I think that you'd be justified with whatever - it's your railway after all

Seriously, I've just had a browse through a photo album entitled "Industrial Steam" by Ian Allan, which I happen to have out on the bench for livery research for my Pug. In the photos that show working locomotives, a fair number of them show two crew (and one even shows three!) visible on the footplate.

Thinking about it, even if the driver also combined the firing task, it would be very useful to have a second man to hop off, open gates, apply brakes, uncouple or whatever. Indeed, a couple of the pictures show just this sort of thing.

So yes, I'd say that it was entirely plausible.

HTH
Flymo

[David Knight]

Neil,

I've managed to coax my Neilson up to 93.6g by adding strips of lead sheet to the pockets inside the tank and a roll of lead in the pocket of the boiler just abaft the smokebox, I think you have a flywheel in that space. I have a Gibson crew of 2 that added about 5g to the total.

HTH

David

[Paul Willis]

I've managed to coax my Neilson up to 93.6g by adding strips of lead sheet to the pockets inside the tank and a roll of lead in the pocket of the boiler just abaft the smokebox, I think you have a flywheel in that space. I have a Gibson crew of 2 that added about 5g to the total.

If we're getting all competitive about this...

I can't match the weight of the Neilson, although I'm quite pleased that the Dapol plastic Pug body, plus High Level chassis, comes in at 72g.

Do we have any other contenders?

Flymo

[David B]

Kadee pliers: http://www.expressmodels.co.uk/acatalog/Kadee_Couplers.html at the bottom of the page, but currently out of stock!

This is a British site. They are based near Loughborough.

David

[David Thorpe]

Do we have any other contenders?

I'm currently building a High Level Hudswell-Clarke 0-4-0. When I can work out how to get the wheels on properly (I know, silly but true and surprisingly difficult) I'll try adding some weight. As we've just had some roofing work done I've got plently of lead but I'm not at all sure that there's going to be any room for it anywhere!

DT

[Paul Willis]

Do we have any other contenders?

I'm currently building a High Level Hudswell-Clarke 0-4-0. When I can work out how to get the wheels on properly (I know, silly but true and surprisingly difficult) I'll try adding some weight. As we've just had some roofing work done I've got plently of lead but I'm not at all sure that there's going to be any room for it anywhere!

If it helps, on the Pug I have lead sheet:

- under the cab roof
- inside the coal bunkers in the cab
- behind the buffer beams (helped by having dumb, not sprung, buffers)
- between the chassis frames, between the cylinder block

I thought of packing the smokebox, in front of the motor, but not knowing exactly how much length I would need to coil the motor power wires from the pickups in there, I thought better to lose a few grams than create running problems.

When I've got it finished and painted I really should take it back to the NLG test track and see how many wagons it will pull

Flymo

[nberrington]

Name that man

Well, after much posing, I settled on this lad. He looks rather good with a hand on the regulator. Originally a Dart Castings figure (I think). I lopped off the hand and re-sculpted one holding the regulator handle. For good measure I gave the lad a mustache.

How all I need is a suitable name. Perhaps folk want to weigh in on naming a tin head with green hand, who is set to drive the Neilson.

[Paul Willis]

Name that man

How all I need is a suitable name. Perhaps folk want to weigh in on naming a tin head with green hand, who is set to drive the Neilson.

Percy Thrower...

Flymo

[Andy W]

Could this be Patrick Wainwright?

[David Thorpe]

Could this be Patrick Wainwright?

Excellent. Genuine Laugh Out Loud.

DT

[nberrington]

Further adventures of Patrick (Pastie) Wainwright to follow. No one is sure how the nickname arose - possibly his pale complexion (so unlike his contemporaries in the open cab locos), or his fondness for the Cornish pasties the widow Mrs Ethelbert would pack in his lunch at the boarding house.....

Adding liquid gravity

Some of you have had nasty experience with lead shot expanding, resulting in abandoning it's use, or resorting to buckets of cyano. I have a real aversion for cyano, and recently took to a new method - namely low viscosity resin. The photos illustrate the concept.

[nberrington]

Sandblasting

The loco and chassis had their trip to the sandblaster today. I have a small Badger hobby sand blaster. I used 80 grit Aluminum Oxide at 90 PSI. The effect is dramatic - the brass appears dull and slightly rough - paint can key in well. I then prime the model with acid etch primer.

[nberrington]

Works Grey

Everything now ready for the paint-shop and assembly.
One week to go before the big reveal in Toronto.
Getting tight ....

[nigelcliffe]

Did you know that the packing density of spheres means that "liquid lead" has about the same density as "solid brass". A member of the 2mm Scale Association wrote an article on the maths/geometry some time ago. Essentially, the gaps between the spheres is never filled in, remains as voids, so the density is surprisingly low.

Chopping and shaping solid lead is the answer; not a difficult thing to do with a bit of lead flashing (builders merchant or a building being demolished).

- Nigel

[nberrington]

Looking a little like a Midland loco

Not intentional, - I had planned on drab black. However, the little loco is for my wife, so her choice of colour prevailed - imitating the Hunslet 0-6-0 loco (Cunarder)that visited Swanage about 15 years ago - red and black. I decided to dress it up with some lining.

Feeling very much the heretic, I have however rationalized that this is a private industrial loco anyway - so the owners might have wanted something snazzy...

[nberrington]

Sneaky Pick-ups

Having blown the idea of plunger pickups, I scratched the old noggin, and came up with this arrangement.
Using the holes intended for the plungers, and trimming the insulated bushes back flush with the frames, phosphor bronze wipers are fed from small strips of copper clad.
I suspect one will be able to tweak the tension on the wheels to avoid excessive friction.

A Digitrax decoder is hard wired to the motor, and will be connected up to the front copper clad.

[David Knight]

Hi Neil,

Very tasty paint, sorry, livery you have. By way of encouragement your engine's cousin in its native habitat.

Neilson pug at Nether Upton.jpg

BTW are you still in the market for that brass safety valve cover?

Cheers,

David

PS, snow gone yet?

[nberrington]

Hi Dave

Lovely little loco isn't she? Nice job Dave. Strange you chose red too!

I got caught up in the moment and glued the safety cover in place. (So - no thanks on the valve cover.)
Snow ? - balmy place - we had 18 degrees on Friday and a snowstorm this morning!
(In MAY !!!!!!)

I think it is a government plot to keep me from voting tomorrow.

P.S - I've booked my flights for Saturday - see you in Brampton!

Neil

[MarkS]

Today, in Brampton, Ontario, the two little Neilsons were found together on Nether Upton.
It appears that Patrick Wainwright is still nowhere to be found...

[nberrington]

Well, we had a great day out in Brampton. I suspect the only 3 P4 modellers in a very large area.

As luck would have it, I had a Tuesday night catastrophe with the wheels on the Neilson. Word of caution here - the clearances are tight - so I overdid it a tad and had the coupling rods pretty snug - and then I introduced ....... heat...... (I suspect this is why locktite was created!)

My usual trick of a spot of solder on the crank-pin nut is, well, a singularly bad idea in this instance. The right back wheel now has a crank-pin which is out of true, and in fact loose, managing to back itself into the hornblock.To compound all this, I don't think they run entirely concentrically.

The conclusion of this sad tale is an urgent call to Ultrascale to get a new set of drivers (in the hope they will run a truer than the Gibsons), and loco that doesn't yet run. Dave wins the challenge to have the loco up and running for the show. His version runs like a Swiss watch, and is a joy to see. They did nevertheless look quite handsome side by side, even if the body was plonked on askew for the shot. It doesn't actually usually sit at that rakish angle!!

The kit is fantastic. Everything fits. Don't try and use brutane for anything - it goes together superbly. The only bugger up is my own doing. (Never take a soldering iron anywhere near a Gibson driver.) The service from High Level is first rate - even at these long distances. I would recommend this kit, and the designer anytime.

I'll update the final model once the new wheels hit the deck.

[DougN]

Neil have to agree with you on that one. Chris has done a great job to get a new gearbox for my Q6, a Mashima 1420 and a black hawthorn. To me in Australia in about 5 days! It was a nice surprise when bringing the milk in this morning to find the package nestling into the door frame...I think it was cold only 3 degrees this morning here in Melbourne! So it will have turned up yesterday but no one had opened the front door earlier!

Doug

[hollybeau]

I realise it is a while since anyone added to this thread but I am building the same loco and have found it very helpful as an adjunct to the otherwise comprehensive and detailed High Level instructions. One point is not clear however from the latter and I would be grateful to get the thoughts of others, and particularly those who have succcesfully built this kit. My problem concerns the fitting of the crankpins to the front wheels. The High Level instructions advise that clearances behind the crosshead are tight but I wasn't expecting it to be measured in gnat's crochets! In S4 it advises turning the top hat bush around (i.e inserted from the front). Later on it says to put on the crankpin nut. However, I cannot see how this can be done as there just is not the room. The diagram in the instructions suggests that no nut is applied (which is at odds with the instructions) and I can see that filing down the crankpin flush with the face of the bush will allow the motion to work. However, what stops the coupling rod from coming off when it is not behind the crosshead? This seems to be the arrangement in the above photos. Before I cut the cylinders and motion bracket down the middle and solder in 1 or 2mm wide spacers can anyone enlighten me?
Thanks in advance,

Bryan

[David Knight]

Bryan,

It is all a matter of shaving bits off wherever you can to get the creature to work. The first job is to reduce the thickness of the coupling rod to a single layer and IIRC that is outlined in the instructions. I then thinned the back of the bushing to about 0.010" and trimmed the bearing surface down until it just stood proud of the coupling rod then finally I filed the crankpin nut down until it sat level with the raised portion of the coupling rod. All of this sounds a bit imprecise but I'd rather not take things apart to measure now that they're working Long story short; it can be done, just take your time. Would a pic help?

Cheers,

David
(happy Neilson owner)

[DougN]

Have to agree David, I had exactly the same problem with the Black Hawthorn. I did what the instructions said too, open the rod out to allow the Gibson nut to be turned around and form the bearing.

I have thined down all the rods/cross heads and I still have problems. I think this may be because I filed away the second thickness on the back of the rod after fabrication then opened out the hole for the Crank pin. Even when using a reamer it did catch and deform the rod. Ie the boss area whiped round and stretched at the joint between the 2thicknesses of rod.

Once work has calmed down I will have another go at fixing it! May be over the christmas break!

[David Knight]

Bryan,

FWIW here are a couple of pics, they may give you an idea of where you have to go (or where I went).

First a general view;

Neilson front bearing.jpg

Then a lower angle of the same thing;

Neilson lower angle.jpg

HTH

David