Golden Fleece 30

I know the 60:1 was tight, it seems they need different centres to the 3/8" of the 30:1 set. I did file small slots on the mount and thankfully due to the mount I designed once the mesh seems okay I can solder it to the backing plate that wraps around the motor end keeping just two small holes and no slots. Anyone any ideas on the 60:1 centres? Garry

Hi Nigel, My motors are open frame 9.25 wide and 16 long and 20 long, 2 of each. The magnets seem quite strong. I know I will mostly be using them on an end to end layout when it is finished, approx 25' long but odd times I will have a continuous loop working. I can say most locos only do 4 or 5 circuits but at the speed these heat up that would be less than once around. The gears are standard Romford 30:1 and 60:1 I guess the test will be when a chassis is complete and running? Garry

I thought that too David but it is what was written in the 3mm society handbook which someone gave me a copy of. I wonderd if the very small magents might need replacing if I cannot remag them, failing that adding small neos to them. Garry

Has any one any experience of the small open framed Mashima motors? I have some and they all run hot/very warm even not mounted to a gearbox. I have read someone said they are designed to run hot which I find strange. Garry

The internal coach bogie frames and the gear box etches came today. So far I have just had time to fold up a gearbox and try it out. The only issue seemed to be as I wanted it the width of the cog wheel the sloping sides stopped the worm going down the shaft properly. A few seconds with a file cured it and it seems to run very well, the centres set at Romfords recommendation of 3/8". All I need now is a chassis to try it out on. With the others, I can file the recess before folding the sides. I have also had etched a washer to solder on the outside of the axle holes to give more bearing surface, and, a plate that can be fitted between the gearbox and motor then folded over the top and bottom of the motor if necessary. Garry

My mistake David, just opened the packet and the bogie axles are plain steel with one wheel of each pair having a nylon bush. I will see how the look and can swap later if necessary. Garry

I will most likely use the Jackson ones like on my A4 David. I have never had success with insulaxles, wheels not on square, axles bent or hole to big lol. If I can get suitable transfers that I like it will hopefully be in lined black. Garry

My best bargain yet I think. A brand new (was un-opened) BEC Compound loco and tender kit with Romford wheels, gears and motor all for £23 plus £3 postage. To be honest this did not come up in any of my searches and I caught sight of it looking through non interesting things, that is most likely why there was only one other bidder and me. I will probably not use the chassis and get a nickel one etched to suit, especially as I already have an assembled body to strip and make a chassis for. Garry

The 3 cars of the EMU are primed and the roofs are finished. As I have no grey primer in stock a white plastic primer has been used. Only a thin coat applied which shows the maroon through making it look pink but will suffice for when I find a suitable green. Hopefully I will get chance on Friday to look at some colours and hopefully find one to my liking. The mounting bracket shows the shape I decided to use, the single front fold rests on the end lip in the coach floor and the reverse fold is long enough to clear the large centre hole to allow screws to hold it in place, nuts will be soldered in situ before assembly. Garry

For those of you who are interested in repainting your TT I received this yesterday from Modelmaster. Good news as I do like their 00 nameplates which at the moment I have used on my TT A4 and Deltic along with their 00 Diesel numbers. Modelmaster As well as replacing the ranges above with new items, we're making 3mm Scale and 7mm Scale Nameplates & Decals, the first of which will be locomotive lining (7mm Scale) and 3mm & 7mm Etched Nameplates, all of which will appear very soon. Garry

Now we have the powered centre car for the EMU. This is a standard Suburban which has had one end cut out for the DMU motor bogie. A nickel strip has been bent up and screwed to the coach, this has the motor mounting/holding slot cut into it. The roof needed one interior end cutting to fit around the strip. The end screw will later be countersunk into the body. I could actually be tempted to make it a 4 car EMU so may as well spray a fourth coach just in case. Garry

Too true, but, unfortunately I have only seen one pair come up (since I resurrected my TT last September) and was outbid by quite a considerable amount. That is what gave me the idea in the first place when I saw those although I think they were the slight angled fronts like the Tri-ang 00 version. I would have still loved to have won them though. Garry

Here is a wagon bogie that was done. The wheels (approx 900) are thankfully all the same size as Tri-ang in diameter and width so as you say there was no material to be removed. With the new idea the wheels will be pushed to the 10.5 back to back and then the axles cut flush with the outside so again there will be no casting to file off. Here are the etches for the tenders and bogies which are the exact same method for the wheels to drop into the slots and a tab folded over to keep them in situ. Garry

As I am in the process of doing some Southern stock I wanted a suitable green. Over the years the SR (BR period) had a few different shades on each type of vehicle. I did read it was mixed on site as stock green therefore there were some variations. Southern Malachite is too light for me, late SR coach green (Olive) too dark as is DMU/EMU green (even darker than steam loco green). I wanted what was early EMU lighter green. With non available I therefore decided to try and "mix" while actually spraying. The result below is from 4 or 5 passes of Malachite green and immediately 2 or 3 passes of late EMU dark green. This looked too dark for what I wanted and immediately gave another couple of passes of Malachite again while still wet. I was worried that a lot of paint had been sprayed on at once but thankfully everything seems okay. The sides have dried to an acceptable shade for me and below you can see on the top of the paper is Malachite (one press only it is lighter still after a few passes), the coach sides now dried, and at the bottom the very dark EMU green. All I can hope is my EMU will turn out in a similar fashion when it comes to it. Garry

I have already done a few a different way as the You Tube videos show using single Jackson wheels bought and placing them on a Bachmann axle. I did have to drill the axle boxes out slightly for the different sized axle. The axle was pushed through one side, fibre washers placed to stop shorting, one wheel, then the other and some more washers. It saved having to remove any material from the bogie or wagon frames. I have made the internal frame method for my Atlas bogies and tenders which work well so thought these would work similar on the coaches. Hopefully this method only requires one hole drilled and tapped in the base and that is it. Most of my coaches have had their solebars painted black and others will follow as and when time permits. The BR repainted and lined Tri-ang Mk1's and Suburbans were actually done in the 1970's and only varnished last year when resurrected. That Blue and Grey coach has come up very well and makes you wonder why someone would paint it in Brown and Cream when that livery was available already at the time. Garry

The thing is Ray WHY is it just the spray heads from new tins of varnish only? I have Railmatch colour spray cans from being last used 6 months ago (and never cleaned) yet they do not produce any bits at all when used. It is only the varnish, new or old, that gives any issues. Garry

A general question, why when I use spray can colours I get a 99.9% lovely smooth finish, but, when I use a spray can varnish I get a 100% finish with odd bits in it? There is never much in the way of bits but it is never as good as the paint finish. Garry

Ray, the 1950's Tri-ang EMU was not a bad shade to me. Garry

Hi Ray, I have a spray can of the Railmatch green but wanted the earlier lighter shade which they dont do. DMU's were always the darker shade but EMU's had variety. The Dublo version is possibly too light. I have made my own version of coach green today for the Kitmaster Mk1's by spraying the darker EMU on and while wet a light coat of Malachite on top to brighten it, the Malachite was too light for me. The SR mainline coaches had a couple of different shades too I think and I am not keen on the darker olive version. Garry

After spraying 5 more Kitmaster coaches (3 green, 2 maroon) and still waiting for a spare Brush type 2 to use its roof on my type 4 I thought about starting another project, an SR EMU. This will be a 3 car suburban EMU, 2 drivers have had 3 windows cut out in the brake ends and a smaller one on each side between the door and end. The second door attached has been removed leaving a single drivers one. The centre car will be fitted (hopefully) with a DMU motor bogie so pushes one vehicle and pulls one in either direction. At the moment it will be plain BR Southern green (lighter shade) but I may put small yellow panels on depending on its looks when finished in green. The DMU itself will become a fully freewheeling set to be attached/detached to another unit. Garry

Not at all Nigel, there is primer and finish coat with approx 12 passes of the cans, I just keep spraying till it looks good with sometimes the finish coat having a second set of passes (4 or 5). One or two windows may be tight to push in, thats all, but finger and thumb on either side and then no problem. However, the brush painted one in Blood and Custard did give rise to issues on some windows and that was after one coat only. They all fitted as such but the build up on the corners and a couple of edges came to the front of the window after pushing it in which looked poor so on those corners or edges I just gently used a sharp blade to cut away what had shown up. If you look carefully at a close up of the coach you can just see which corners were affected. Garry

The first five coaches all with roofs screwed down, but need spraying when time and weather permits. As I have a few of the Restaurant cars, 3 in the first 8 and 4 in the new lot of 6, I am making some up just as standard open coaches. As Restaurant cars go 1 is in maroon, 1 in Blood and Custard and I will do 1 in green, the rest just plain. The next item to work out is a new internal bogie frame for the metal wheels to give free running vehicles, I will get these etched to drop into the Tri-ang bogie. Garry

I had thought of that Ray but decided that some roofs are curved quite a lot and did not want to take the risk of making them up only to find the pull may have been too much. I never use Mekpak preferring the Plastic Weld for anything I do. I have the EMA but also use Carrs Butanone which is what I used on my 3-rail track to weld the centre rail chairs to the sleepers. Garry

Here is the method I think I will be adopting to fix the roofs down. Two screws through the roof, these are 8BA to give the nuts a good flat surface. Due to being countersunk the nut on the inside would not fully tighten so a washer was used. These nuts are "spacers" as the main bolt at 1" is too short still. The long screw is tapped into the brass plate and then this is held onto the two roof screws. The long screw then goes through the base and has a nut fixed to it. All I need to do now is maybe use some Araldite where the plate and nuts are under the roof and paint in the correct dark Blue/Grey roof colour. Garry

Hi Ray, They actually don't show after the primer has been put on so not had to use wet and dry (YET lol). Thanks for the word "stress" that is what I was trying to think of. I think with my Blood an Custard coach I should have used the incorrect yellow/black/yellow lining too as it would have been easier to put on, and, cover up the freehand edges between the colours. I may do another (or two) in this livery and see if I can get the spray cans from the shop in Hull I use, or look at my car ones again. I have used various shades in the past but love the richness of this one. There were two varieties on BR which were slightly different, Blood and Custard and Crimson and Cream, one of which was called Plum and Split (not spilt) milk. All preserved coaches seen, and yours I think, are the slightly more "orange tinted" shade. I am glad you never used a BR roundel on yours, a lot of people copy the preserved ones which are incorrect, the roundel only came out with maroon liveried vehicles and used on some named SR green and WR Brown and Cream train coaches, maroon coaches had them frequently named or not. Garry