Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

Good friends Poly Bear and Pup Cam (Brian and Alan) arrived today for the usual 'entertainment'. It was great fun - three mates just 'playing trains'.

 

Poly brought along a couple of items..........

 

 

 

This DJH Austerity, bought recently from Clark Trains.

 

It's a fairly old example (note the etched overlay drivers), and, at first it struggled with a 40+ wagon coal train. A quick investigation revealed that 'the brakes were on' - too much pressure on the pick-ups, easily adjusted. Then, a drop of oil and away she bowled. 

 

A first on Little Bytham was...........

 

 

This Italian-marketed, Korean-built FIA Trains Ivatt diesel. Incredibly powerful and super-smooth, surely one of the best RTR OO locos ever?

 

 

My apologies for my less-than-satisfactory LMS/ex-LMS rake of carriages; there are limits to how many coaches I can build! 

 

 

Thanks, Brian, for bringing these. Thanks, too, Alan, for showing us that superb locking lever frame, and your hospitality at lunchtime.

 

Here's to the next time...............

 

 

[PupCam]

Many thanks Tony for inviting Brian and I over once again to come and play trains.     Wonderful fun and as ever a privilege to operate such a fine and well known layout.         

 

I'm pleased to report that for the first time a few of my trains were actually correctly signaled although the same can't be said of Driver Polybear who now has a record number of entries in the SPAD logbook.    

I might have to let him off though because number 10000 was such a beautiful model and very nice to drive.

 

Thanks once again for a splendid day.

 

Alan

 

 

 

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, 1471SirFrederickBanbury said:

As a quick note, I did figure out how to recreate some of the effects of heat.  I found that I could make a small working firebox in a 4mm scale Gresley A1 (which will be the first model I scratch build out of tungsten), where the exhaust fumes and ash will be piped to a central boiler flue of sorts, so that I can almost fully model the interior of the smokebox and also use a homemade smoke unit (using high density film industry smoke machine fluid) to be able to get something of a realistic effect, and still have space for everything else.  
 

This does though necessitate the use of a slightly smaller (than usual 130 type) high rpm motor, geared down heavily to keep everything compact and neat.  For the gearbox for that, I’m looking into the best way to make bevelled herringbone gears to minimise noise and friction, while maximising efficiency and power.

 I’ll also end up experimenting with both centrifugal and bendix (Dynadrive type) clutches, the latter of which, I figured out how to make an automatic, analogue working reverser, as I had a revelation about such a concept one day, and while a small motor under the cab would be more suitable for DCC, I still want to try the mechanical version for the sake of it.  
 

on a second note, that didn’t end up being “a short note” in most senses of the word

 

We await photographs of this magnificent model with bated breath!

 

 

[Bob-65b]

34 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

We await photographs of this magnificent model with bated breath!

 

 

I'm afraid I was convinced it was a late entry April Fool.....?

 

Edited August 2 by Bob Reid
Edit to fix my accidental posting in the quoted text :)

[1471SirFrederickBanbury]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

We await photographs of this magnificent model with bated breath!

 

 

First I’ll have to get a BCA jig borer back to where I live, so after I finish the holiday I’m on, I’ll post a photo of some sketches I did.  I’ve thought about a lot, and while I completely sound like I’m in over my head and insane, it should work, and I’m not going to stop perusing the idea until I can see what I’m looking for sitting in my very hands.

[Tony Wright]

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

Many thanks Tony for inviting Brian and I over once again to come and play trains.     Wonderful fun and as ever a privilege to operate such a fine and well known layout.         

 

I'm pleased to report that for the first time a few of my trains were actually correctly signaled although the same can't be said of Driver Polybear who now has a record number of entries in the SPAD logbook.    

I might have to let him off though because number 10000 was such a beautiful model and very nice to drive.

 

Thanks once again for a splendid day.

 

Alan

 

 

 

My pleasure, Alan,

 

Looking back, I should have taken a picture of that wonderful locking lever frame you'd made. Do you have one you can show, please?

 

Also, thanks (and to Brian, too) for buying those items I had for sale on behalf of a widow.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Roger Sunderland]

14 hours ago, 1471SirFrederickBanbury said:

As a quick note, I did figure out how to recreate some of the effects of heat.  I found that I could make a small working firebox in a 4mm scale Gresley A1 (which will be the first model I scratch build out of tungsten), where the exhaust fumes and ash will be piped to a central boiler flue of sorts, so that I can almost fully model the interior of the smokebox and also use a homemade smoke unit (using high density film industry smoke machine fluid) to be able to get something of a realistic effect, and still have space for everything else.  
 

This does though necessitate the use of a slightly smaller (than usual 130 type) high rpm motor, geared down heavily to keep everything compact and neat.  For the gearbox for that, I’m looking into the best way to make bevelled herringbone gears to minimise noise and friction, while maximising efficiency and power.

 I’ll also end up experimenting with both centrifugal and bendix (Dynadrive type) clutches, the latter of which, I figured out how to make an automatic, analogue working reverser, as I had a revelation about such a concept one day, and while a small motor under the cab would be more suitable for DCC, I still want to try the mechanical version for the sake of it.  
 

on a second note, that didn’t end up being “a short note” in most senses of the word

Fantastical stuff. I suspect this is as far removed from Tony’s view of model railways as is DCC control by smartphone!!

[PupCam]

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Looking back, I should have taken a picture of that wonderful locking lever frame you'd made. Do you have one you can show, please?

 

Not quite studio shots Tony but they're the best I could manage on the dinning room table with my phone.            My Pentax ME Super, twin Vivitar 286 flash guns and flash brolly set-up are sadly back in the previous Millennium and contemporary with the lever frame.      The fully interlocked lever frame was  built for the in-the-event still born S4 Clayton East, the first and only project of the tiny Mimram Modellers group. 

 

Built from an original Derek Mundy lever frame kit 2 additional levers were purchased and an extra 2 lever section of frame was added to get the required 16 levers.   The locking was provided by Alan Austin's Ambis Engineering components.     Great fun was had learning and understanding locking principles and then designing  and building the locking which is fully functional but, shall we say, far from robust - if a gorilla operator decided that a lever was going to move the quite frail interconnections would not put up much of a fight but so be it.     Unseen micro-switches operated by the levers controlled the electrically driven points and signals.    

 

A thoroughly interesting exercise.

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 3 by PupCam
Formatting

[Mark Laidlay]

I have a couple of diesel locos with old school (so Tony should approve) eddy current clutches, just like the speedo in a car built in the previous millennium.

 

They take some driving on a heavy train, initially the motor speeds up which is connected to a magnet (or one each end).  The magnet sits inside a non-ferrous "flywheel", so the flywheel begins to turn once the magnet revs are up enough.  Speed builds as the load eases and drops as the effort to move the train increases but the motor spins at the rate dictated by the input voltage.  It works just as well with DCC and sound as the motor revs and sound are linked to the power required to move the train, not the speed of the train.  If the train is too heavy there is no wheelspin, just revs.

 

They were available with a range of flywheel material giving different power, so a 1000hp loco will have material giving less power than a 3000hp loco irrelevant of weight, motor or gearing.

 

Mark in Melbourne

[Tony Wright]

6 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Not quite studio shots Tony but they're the best I could manage on the dinning room table with my phone.            My Pentax ME Super, twin Vivitar 286 flash guns and flash brolly set-up are sadly back in the previous Millennium and contemporary with the lever frame.      The fully interlocked lever frame was  built for the in-the-event still born S4 Clayton East, the first and only project of the tiny Mimram Modellers group. 

 

Built from an original Derek Mundy lever frame kit 2 additional levers were purchased and an extra 2 lever section of frame was added to get the required 16 levers.   The locking was provided by Alan Austin's Ambis Engineering components.     Great fun was had learning and understanding locking principles and then designing  and building the locking which is fully functional but, shall we say, far from robust - if a gorilla operator decided that a lever was going to move the quite frail interconnections would not put up much of a fight but so be it.     Unseen micro-switches operated by the levers controlled the electrically driven points and signals.    

 

A thoroughly interesting exercise.

 

Alan

 

 

 

 

 

Brilliant!

 

Thanks Alan.

 

As an aside, and I know that Brian won't mention this on here (but I will), and I don't know if he told you, but he's donated £50.00 to CRUK (£62.00 with grant aid). Just for my 'fixing' his Austerity! Generosity indeed; thanks so much Polybear. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[Tony Wright]

At last, the DJH Standard Five is complete!

 

 

 

Started at the beginning of this year, it's taken me far too long to build it, but is now ready to be painted.

 

Thorough layout-testing next..............

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

50 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Brilliant!

 

Thanks Alan.

 

As an aside, and I know that Brian won't mention this on here (but I will), and I don't know if he told you, but he's donated £50.00 to CRUK (£62.00 with grant aid). Just for my 'fixing' his Austerity! Generosity indeed; thanks so much Polybear. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

 

Thanks Tony - but no thanks are necessary; it's us that are grateful to you for your magnificent fundraising efforts on behalf of CRUK (any idea what the total raised is now?), as well as being kind enough to invite us to play trains 😀.  Oh yes, and for diagnosing and fixing my new acquisition at lightning speed whilst providing expert tuition in political incorrectness (I do believe that Alan has been showing worrying signs of straying off the straight and narrow 🤣).....

 

Kind Regards,

Brian

 

 

 

Edited August 3 by polybear

[PMP]

7 hours ago, PupCam said:

, the first and only project of the tiny Mimram Modellers group. 

 

Alan

Tell us where you live without telling us where you live! 🙂

 

Nice frame btw!

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, PMP said:

Tell us where you live without telling us where you live! 🙂

 

Nice frame btw!

We were based around the Welwyn Garden City / Welwyn area.  The river through this area is the River Mimram ….. Took us ages to come up with a name 🤣

 

Alan

 

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Thanks Tony - but no thanks are necessary; it's us that are grateful to you for your magnificent fundraising efforts on behalf of CRUK (any idea what the total raised is now?), as well as being kind enough to invite us to play trains 😀.  Oh yes, and for diagnosing and fixing my new acquisition at lightning speed whilst providing expert tuition in political incorrectness (I do believe that Alan has been showing worrying signs of straying off the straight and narrow 🤣).....

 

Kind Regards,

Brian

 

 

 

Thanks Brian,

 

I'll go through the figures with Mo tomorrow to give an indication of how much has been raised for CRUK. Raised by donations, such as yours (Mo and I only donate our time to the cause). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Excellent!

 

 

45 vans breezed round Bytham this evening at high speed.

 

Whenever valve gear is erected, I always have the fear that the potential is there for it to jam-up or fall apart. However, I'm lucky that it's a very rare occurrence with regard to Bytham's roster (would that I could say the same for some of the locos with outside motion which pass through my hands).

 

And, for comparison..........

 

 

No likelihood of the motion coming apart on this Roy Jackson-built DJH Standard Five. 

 

 

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Brian,

 

I'll go through the figures with Mo tomorrow to give an indication of how much has been raised for CRUK. Raised by donations, such as yours (Mo and I only donate our time to the cause). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

If I maybe so bold; that’ a very significant donation in its own right from what I’ve seen Tony.

 

Without your joint efforts many thousands of pounds worth of “stuff” would not get sold and hence the contribution from the percentage would not be realised.    There would also be many a bereaved family stuck with a load of that “stuff” with no clue as to what to do with it.
 

Keep it up, it’s an important cause.

 

Alan

[MJI]

As i get older, it comes down which charity to support.

 

I have always given a bit to RNLI, when i was young i used to collect door to door for cancer research.

 

Done some for BHF, diabetes, dementia, family wise, of course railway preservation groups.

 

But i don't know of any charities for some ailments.

[Bucoops]

43 minutes ago, MJI said:

As i get older, it comes down which charity to support.

 

I have always given a bit to RNLI, when i was young i used to collect door to door for cancer research.

 

Done some for BHF, diabetes, dementia, family wise, of course railway preservation groups.

 

But i don't know of any charities for some ailments.

 

My "chosen" charity has always been Great Ormond Street - I spent a lot of time there when I was very young.

[PMP]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

We were based around the Welwyn Garden City / Welwyn area.  The river through this area is the River Mimram ….. Took us ages to come up with a name 🤣

 

Alan

 

 

👍

I know it well, as a kid I used to catch sticklebacks in the section by the dual carriageway 🙂

[lezz01]

Kimmy and I donate on a regular basis to the RNLI, BHF, CPL and Helen House hospice in Oxford as they cared for our grand daughter, although she passed away at home. They were outstanding in their care for the whole family.

Regards Lez.

[thegreenhowards]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

Whenever valve gear is erected, I always have the fear that the potential is there for it to jam-up or fall apart. However, I'm lucky that it's a very rare occurrence with regard to Bytham's roster (would that I could say the same for some of the locos with outside motion which pass through my hands).

 

Good Evening Tony,

 

Never a truer word was said! I suspect that 75% of second hand locos with outside valve gear that I buy have that valve gear fail within a few circuits of a real layout. They have probably only run up and down a test track before!

 

I’m so grateful that you taught me how to build and rebuild valve gear. Particularly the trick with the oily paper when soldering pins on - that simple technique always impresses people when I show them.

 

Andy

[1471SirFrederickBanbury]

8 hours ago, Mark Laidlay said:

I have a couple of diesel locos with old school (so Tony should approve) eddy current clutches, just like the speedo in a car built in the previous millennium.

 

They take some driving on a heavy train, initially the motor speeds up which is connected to a magnet (or one each end).  The magnet sits inside a non-ferrous "flywheel", so the flywheel begins to turn once the magnet revs are up enough.  Speed builds as the load eases and drops as the effort to move the train increases but the motor spins at the rate dictated by the input voltage.  It works just as well with DCC and sound as the motor revs and sound are linked to the power required to move the train, not the speed of the train.  If the train is too heavy there is no wheelspin, just revs.

 

They were available with a range of flywheel material giving different power, so a 1000hp loco will have material giving less power than a 3000hp loco irrelevant of weight, motor or gearing.

 

Mark in Melbourne

Extremely interesting.  It sounds like it would perform quite similarly to a centrifugal clutch, with the exceptions being that I would imagine the magnetic slip clutch having slightly worse coasting, and I know that the only centrifugal clutches I’ve known to have been made (from Hobbytown of Boston) have rubber impellers and will eventually grip the flywheel, allowing (in that application) the immensely powerful motor to slip anything.  

I’m definitely going to try that idea for diesels, though I want to be able to slip the wheels on steam locos, so I’ll be ordering a clutch from Hobbytown of Boston soon, and seeing if I can add some sheet metal to the ends of the rubber impeller to prevent premature grabbing of the flywheel. 
 

on the other hand, I could use a Bendix clutch on the axle itself, completely cutting off any friction from the gearbox, while also causing a delayed, smooth start, so that I could could get the motor to a low rpm with the flywheel keeping it steady, then slow add the torque load to the motor, which sounds ideal to me.

 

I’ll make the first of the series, 4470 without any clutch (but still with bevel gears), 4471 with a centrifugal clutch (that I’ve now decided should be swappable with a magnetic clutch), 4472 with a Bendix clutch, and 2750 with a Bendix clutch, but with a worm drive to the axle to see which system is best in which areas. 

[polybear]

6 hours ago, 1471SirFrederickBanbury said:

Extremely interesting.  It sounds like it would perform quite similarly to a centrifugal clutch, with the exceptions being that I would imagine the magnetic slip clutch having slightly worse coasting, and I know that the only centrifugal clutches I’ve known to have been made (from Hobbytown of Boston) have rubber impellers and will eventually grip the flywheel, allowing (in that application) the immensely powerful motor to slip anything.  

I’m definitely going to try that idea for diesels, though I want to be able to slip the wheels on steam locos, so I’ll be ordering a clutch from Hobbytown of Boston soon, and seeing if I can add some sheet metal to the ends of the rubber impeller to prevent premature grabbing of the flywheel. 
 

on the other hand, I could use a Bendix clutch on the axle itself, completely cutting off any friction from the gearbox, while also causing a delayed, smooth start, so that I could could get the motor to a low rpm with the flywheel keeping it steady, then slow add the torque load to the motor, which sounds ideal to me.

 

I’ll make the first of the series, 4470 without any clutch (but still with bevel gears), 4471 with a centrifugal clutch (that I’ve now decided should be swappable with a magnetic clutch), 4472 with a Bendix clutch, and 2750 with a Bendix clutch, but with a worm drive to the axle to see which system is best in which areas. 

 

What scale are you planning to do this in?

[Tony Wright]

9 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Good Evening Tony,

 

Never a truer word was said! I suspect that 75% of second hand locos with outside valve gear that I buy have that valve gear fail within a few circuits of a real layout. They have probably only run up and down a test track before!

 

I’m so grateful that you taught me how to build and rebuild valve gear. Particularly the trick with the oily paper when soldering pins on - that simple technique always impresses people when I show them.

 

Andy

Good morning Andy,

 

I wonder why/how so many kit-built loco with outside motion have that motion so poorly-assembled. 

 

Certainly, as you intimate, I cannot get on with rivets (always too tight or too slack), and have employed the lace pins/paper/solder method for decades and decades (after nearly 50 years, DUKE OF ROTHESAY's Jamieson valve gear is still intact!). 

 

The worst example recently (about three years ago) of 'dodgy' valve gear was this................

 

 

Martin Finney A3 in EM Gauge; sold on behalf of a widow from a collection which cannot have turned a wheel in anger (the house was full of glass cases containing many kit-built locos, but no layout). It was the only EM example. 

 

Ideal, I thought, for Retford?

 

 

Indeed, Sandra Orpen bought it. 

 

Now, I say the 'worst' because it was one of the best in appearance; beautifully-built and beautifully-painted. Not only that, it initially purred along. Until, after a circuit or two of Retford (a 'loco-killer' according to Roy Jackson) part of the offside motion fell off! I can't recall if I fixed it immediately, but further reports from Sandra suggested drivers shifting on their axles and other calamities (Sandra, if you're reading this, I hope it's OK now - if not, a new chassis?). 

 

I was hoodwinked by this model because it looked so good. Who built/painted it, I have no idea. Why do so many beautiful-looking locos perform so poorly? Are they built only for a static life in a showcase? Oddly, some poor-looking things can run really well! 

 

The problem is, I cannot guarantee any loco I've not made completely. Those I make are guaranteed for the rest of my life against failure of workmanship, and will be put right FOC (I obviously cannot guarantee motors, but will replace them for the cost of the item - the B&M 0-6-0ST is a recent example).

 

Locos on Retford which are guaranteed for the rest of my life include........................

 

 

CLUMBER

 

 

And SUGAR PALM, now the property of Robert Carroll. 

 

In case I get too smug, take a look at the leading bogie axle in the panned shot of my new DJH BR Standard Five - it's not revolving!!!!!!

 

Regards,

 

Tony.