S7 scratch building

[airnimal]

Yesterday when I was assembling these W-irons the carpet monster ate one of the folks that slide in the bearings carriers.  So after spending far too long on my hands and knees I cut out another one from the waste etch these came from. After I had them all assembled them all up,

I lost something else and the same routine followed. I didn't find what I was looking for the second time around but I did find the missing folk. ******* 

When I get to the new house I think I will install low level lighting under the work bench to find all those missing small parts that seem to disappear without trace. 

When I assembled these units I had forgotten that I needed extra floor clearance below the wheels. So I had to modify the units by taking out a portion allowing the wheels to spin freely. 

[Johnson044]

I sympathise! The monster that lives under my shed floor must be sitting on a mound of small parts about the same size as the mound of gold that Smaug guards in the last Hobbit film.

[airnimal]

I haven't done  anything with the pair of wheels because I am short of a drawing. 

So i have been trying to sort out anything i don't have a use for. The early 4 wheel tender frames

for a Cromford and High Peak water tender are still here if anyone can use them because I am never going to get around to building one. 

I have found a cast trespass plate for the Cambrian railways from when I had a desire to model that railway from the turn of the century. Again it's free if anyone can use it. 

I was going to offer these coupling rods  but having checked the accuracy with some drills I find they are so poor I will bin them. I commissioned a chassis kit from a professional builder about 35 years ago for a small Sharp Steward Cambrian loco. I have made a start on the body with the footplate cut out ready for when the chassis kit arrived.  I built the chassis without the rods and when I put the wheels on the it didn't fit. So I checked and found that the wheelbase was out by 2 scale inches. I returned the kit to the builder who modified the chassis to the correct wheelbase along with the rods. When I opened the packet the rods had been shortened by cutting and resoldering them together but unfortunately a very poor job had been made and they promptly fell apart. These rods where returned and a new pair was made and these are the rods in the photographs.  By this time I became disillusioned with the project and scrapped the chassis but keeped the rods. Seeing how out of line these are they would never have worked. 

You may wonder why I used this builder when what I received was so poor was because he had make a  0-4-4t chassis for a friend and that worked beautifully. 

 

[Johnson044]

What a shame - the rods on the whole look pretty decent. I'm amazed that someone who is making some parts on commission would send them to a customer, presumingly knowing what a poor fit they would be.

 

The C&HP tender frames are exquisite. I can't give them a home, sadly, as they are beyond my level of competence and I would not be able to do them justice- I don't have a loco needing a four wheel tender either and they would just be added to the collection of maybe-useful-one-day bits.

[airnimal]

Johnson044, it seems as if I can't even give stuff away. I am trying to go through my boxes of bits and getting rid of stuff I am never going to use or likely want again.  I have disposed of most of it 

and there are still a couple of kits left. One is a brake van like the ones I am now trying to finish.  

Several have sat around in an unfinished state for far to long so I am intending to complete these before I start anything new.  That is the plan but I am easily tempted away like most of us. 

2 of these vans have new roofs made from Aluminium sheet covered with a piece of note paper glued on. I still need to add the tare weight and glass it the end windows before I get to weather them. One has suffered a small bit of damage that is being replaced before I can touch up the paint work.  Getting to the end of a build sometimes gets dragged out but having built 10 of these vans the motivation gets a bit lost. 

The other kit for sale providing I can post in the classified section is a NSR milk van similar to the one I built a few months ago. 

 

[Johnson044]

6 hours ago, airnimal said:

Johnson044, it seems as if I can't even give stuff away.

 I imagine I feel the same way about your models as other readers. I just don't think I have the skills to do your work the justice it deserves. If I could use one of your lovely components on a model I had started I'd jump but I don't have such a beast and it would mean another project - and I have so many! Also the thought of those beautiful parts being clogged up with big blobby lumps of solder or festering in a biscuit tin full of odd bits and eventually being lost would be awful.

[airnimal]

Not only can I not give stuff away I seem to struggle to sell stuff as well. I have advertised a couple of kits for sale both on here and on Western Thunder  without any joy. Both these kits are never going to be produce and still know one is interested. Perhaps I am one of the last dinosaurs modellers who are dying out.

While waiting for the completion of our house move which is being talked about by our estate agents and solicitors, will be before the end of this month. I do hope so so I can get settled in our new abode. I am dreading the actual move but it will be a big change in our lives and our very last home. 

So I have just started a new wagon to take my mind off the mayhem to come with a 15t NSR hopper wagon. The basic frame didn't take long to knock together before adding a set of modified white metal castings for the buffer bodies. I might get to make the body today but I have several jobs to do first regarding the house. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8 by airnimal

[ian@stenochs]

It’s not just you Mike.  I too have tried to reduce my stock of stuff I am not going to build but with limited success.  

 

10 years ago I would have jumped at the chance of an LNWR brake but now I realise that I don’t have a justification, or time, for something which doesn’t fit into my main modelling interest area.  I very much doubt that one would have been seen anywhere in the Ayrshire coalfield in G&SW days.  

Ian.

[airnimal]

I posted to early when I got distracted. 

Edited October 9 by airnimal

[airnimal]

Try again. I was going to post a few minutes ago and something happened and the next thing I posted without any photographs. 

I have built the body after doing several jobs around the house in readiness for our house move which could happen before the end of the month. There is only a side elevation in the NSR wagon book so the interior is pure guesswork.  This took several goes to get the plank lines lined up but I think the bottom doors are wrong. 

[airnimal]

I haven't done a great deal because we have had 2 of our grandsons over weekend.  

I have put the corner plates on and made a start on the brakegear. This with be made up from individual parts mainly from Exactoscale.  I have made a base plate in my usual fashions from brass angle screwed to the floor. Then once the first of the brakeshoes are soldered to this it's just a matter of building up the rest to make a very strong unit. I am using lace pins to line everything up before I solder it altogether.  

 

We are working towards packing things ready to move house which I am not looking forward to as well as getting flak from one of our daughter's because she and her husband think that we should move ourselves rather than getting in professional movers.  Having moved all 3 daughter's so many times over the years through all the universities and subsequent house moves that we just want as little stress as possible.  

[Johnson044]

I sometimes think the purpose of daughters is to give you flak. I've seen T shirts with "You don't scare me- I have two daughters" on them and I think I might get one. If you can find a professional mover then surely the stress of moving should be greatly reduced.

[Johnson044]

Beautiful workmanship as ever!

[hayfield]

17 minutes ago, airnimal said:

I haven't done a great deal because we have had 2 of our grandsons over weekend.  

I have put the corner plates on and made a start on the brakegear. This with be made up from individual parts mainly from Exactoscale.  I have made a base plate in my usual fashions from brass angle screwed to the floor. Then once the first of the brakeshoes are soldered to this it's just a matter of building up the rest to make a very strong unit. I am using lace pins to line everything up before I solder it altogether.  

 

We are working towards packing things ready to move house which I am not looking forward to as well as getting flak from one of our daughter's because she and her husband think that we should move ourselves rather than getting in professional movers.  Having moved all 3 daughter's so many times over the years through all the universities and subsequent house moves that we just want as little stress as possible.  

 

Having moved house twice before as I was nearing retirement we paid for a removal firm, money very well spent

[Northroader]

I’m a bit older, but certainly if you can get a good crew, professional movers is well worth avoiding the stress and hassle of trying to d.i.y.

p.s. This last weekend we actually completed contracts on the old house, we put it on the market in July, 2023.

Edited Sunday at 18:39 by Northroader

[chris p bacon]

2 hours ago, airnimal said:

getting flak from one of our daughter's because she and her husband think that we should move ourselves rather than getting in professional movers.

I build houses and have seen many people move themselves, the stress free ones are those that use a professional company to move. Some think the cost is too much but hiring vans and finding people to help on the day can be very hard and actually cost more in the long run.

My own experience of moving myself once, was half a dozen people promising to help on the day, they all turned up but after 3pm when I was already in the new house! luckily enough I had a couple of really good reliable friends who turned up early and got stuck in, I vowed that I would never do it again and have since used a removals company. The last move was 300 miles and was £2000 well spent.

 

Of course if your daughter and husband are willing to do it for you, then I'd take up their generous offer and go somewhere for the day while it happens....😄

Edited Sunday at 20:17 by chris p bacon

[Andy Hayter]

Our last two moves were done professionally and I would now never try to do it myself.  Admittedly both were international moves and the bureaucratic nasties were someone else's problem but the work input from ourselves and related stress was minimal.

 

If the daughters are so keen to avoid the pros getting involved, invite them to do it for their dear old mom and dad.  Then see if the DIY solution still holds sway.

 

PS and being in foreign and distant climes is no excuse

 

 

Edited Sunday at 20:00 by Andy Hayter

[Annie]

When my Mum and I moved out to the rural countryside where I still live now I still had a Heavy Trade Motor licence so I rented a lorry and moved all the smaller items and delicate and breakable stuff myself.  My brothers as usual were completely useless and didn't want to help. Looking back on it that was the last time I drove a vehicle of significant size (sigh).  All the furniture and heavy stuff I couldn't manage on my own we got a professional company to handle.  My Mum and I did all our own packing and all I can say is never again.  By the time we were finally moved in we were both exhausted and it took a week for us to get over it.  My Mum was 'promoted to glory' ten years ago now and as for myself the only way I'm going to move from here is in a wooden box.

If a fully professional packing and moving option had been available that certainly would have been the better way to go, but that kind of service is still rare here in NZ.

 

[Caley Jim]

Apart from removing much of the stress, there is also the fact that if anything does get damage/broken/goes missing it's down to the removers and their insurance.  Having said that, on both of our two moves we had some time between buying one house and vacating the other (you can do that up here - just as long as you can arrange the finances), so we packed and moved much of the small stuff ourselves (the daughter's horse trailer came in handy too!).  To watch these guys pack furniture into a van is an education in itself!  Like @Annie, our next move will either be with us in a box, or into a care home!  Hope it all goes smoothly, Mike.

 

Jim

[Simond]

When we moved to our current house, there was a gap of a month between our lease ending and the new house being vacant, so we lived at my M-I-L’s (with a small baby).  Whilst our landlord would not consider extending our lease, he was kind enough to allow us free use of the garages to store our furniture, etc. 
 

I arranged removals through a local company which offered appropriate insurance and guarantees, and on the day we were at the old house, waiting for the trucks to arrive.  A smallish truck turned up on time with a couple of blokes.  “Where’s the other truck?”, says I, “I told you there was 75 cubic metres to be moved”

 

”Oh, don’t worry, people always over estimate, it’ll be fine”

 

I opened the garage door.

 

he stood there open mouthed, “what’s that?”

 

”thats five metres this way, and five metres that way and nearly two metres high, by my sums, that’s fifty.  The rest’s next door”

 

there followed some frantic phone calls, and some extreme language…

 

it all ended happily but it was a long and tiring day.

 

 

There is no way on earth I would consider a DIY move now.  I’m in my mid 60s and I’m not lifting one end of a sofa (or anything else) into a truck.  And I’m not spending six weeks wrapping china in newspaper & packing stuff in boxes.

Edited Monday at 06:32 by Simond

[Johnson044]

The more I think of it, Mike, when we come to move from Dover (One day! One day!) we will store / move the small and precious stuff ourselves but leave the big things to be packed and moved by professionals. I'm never doing a big move DIY again. The last time was with a Renault Espace and trailer and many, many journeys with adolescents who did not want to help one bit. All a bit more willing and mature now but the (fairly) sensible ones have married and fled the nest. We'll probably have a huge cull of possessions, too.

 

The main issue is middle aged bodily failings- the prospect of sudden back pains and worse- in my mid-forties I helped a mate move house and the next evening ended up in QEQM hospital with a testicular torsion- which WAS NOT nice!

 

Please leave it to the professionals if you can!

[airnimal]

I have had more responses from  people on moving house than any other subject !

Perhaps I should start another thread on this matter and forget scratch building..... ho ho !

We have had 2 companies around to give us a quotes on moving which are broadly in line to what I was expecting.  We might get just one more to see if there is any difference in a large national company rather than the local ones which we have already had. I have been to the local waste disposal department this morning with another boot load from the shed and the loft. 

I am aware I have to be ruthless in getting rid of stuff bearing I'm mind my age and the likelihood of ever needing things again that have been collected over the years like a quality socket set and a battery charger from when I had motorbikes.  I am never going to have another motorbike again however much I dream. Then there are the railway books that need pruning which we all know are virtually worthless. 

 

I have soldered up the brakegear from strip brass cut on my guillotine. I do like strong metal brakegear which proves very robust. How many times on club layouts have you seen plastic kits with damaged parts which destroys the illusion of what we are trying to portray. 

 

 

[Compound2632]

30 minutes ago, airnimal said:

I have had more responses from  people on moving house than any other subject !

 

To take your mind off it, how about building another removal firm container? Or was the one you made a sort of premonition? 

[airnimal]

Stephen, I would like to do another container from another local firm near me. The one I made from Heaton Norris was also a coal merchant with depots at Heaton Mersey as well as Heaton Norris. 

 

I have done a small amount this morning while the good lady has gone to the hairdressers. 

I have finished the brakegear and started on the body ironwork with the curved ones made using a paper punch to cut the inside face. It is such a distinctive feature which pays dividends when it is correct. I must have cut about 6 before I was satisfied with the pair from this first side. 

[airnimal]

I have started to do the most boring job in building wagons,  adding the square bolts from bits of microstrip. It is always a tedious chore and I can only so many at a time. I have managed one complete side before I have a break and do something else. I haven't done the door catches just yet which I also find a bind to make and some of my wagons built years ago are still without them. 

 

We are still waiting to here from our solicitors who appear to go at their own pace. We were told we would be moving by the end of this month but that appears unlikely.  I am slowly packing boxes ahead of the move so it doesn't have to be done ai a rush.