Garden Railway Forum

Andrew wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 3:49 pm Some of these would look nice Rik, original R&E 3' 4-wheelers - and they're straight-sided with square windows and beading, no pesky curves to cut... Just a little project for when you've finished those sand hoppers...
Andrew.

You little devil, Andrew ....... tempting me with a juicy photo! It just do happens I bought up the spare stock of laser-cut panelled coach sides from Mark Addison when he gave up selling his Maddison coach range. I've been wondering what to do with them ........

Rik

You didn't take much arm-twisting Rik!

I've had some success here with my cunning plan to recreate the distinctive axleboxes the NWNGR used on some of their smaller wagons... While chatting with my son, it occurred to me that Lego pieces would do a decent job of making the basic shape I needed - I wasn't sure that how I could make that work with 16mm wheelsets, until I came across a website dedicated to Lego train-makers. They've discovered that a 5mm roller bearing (intended for model cars, I think) is a push-fit (well, hammer tap) into a standard-sized Lego hole - and I found that I could buy those bearings with a 2mm hole, which would work with Cambrian wheels and axles.

Here are the bits:


And here's the test wagon we hastily knocked up on my son's bedroom floor:


Success! So far so good, and - as you'd expect, I suppose - it looks like it will be incredibly free-running...

Next up is turning the various bits of Lego I purchased into something a bit more realistic looking...

Cheers,

Andrew.

Brilliant idea Andrew.... I have been searching for a supplier of suitable bearings but not found one so far, please let us know where you got yours from.

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Fri May 10, 2019 10:19 pm Brilliant idea Andrew.... I have been searching for a supplier of suitable bearings but not found one so far, please let us know where you got yours from.

Yes please do Andrew. You have come up with something that most of us have in our cupboards. I know we have for when the Grandkids come round......

Glad you think it's got potential...

The bearings I used were these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10pcs-2x5x2M ... xy~hdR23kX

The Lego pieces came from a supplier called Gray's Bricks, via a kind of eBay for Lego called Brick Owl...

I put the axleboxes together this morning, adding some plasticard, biro inner and - of course - nail art gems to come up with these:



They're outside at the moment waiting for a coat of primer to dry...

Cheers,

Andrew

Thank you Andrew, there's a whole new world out there..... it could take days to browse the sites but I will certainly give it a go.

There's a lot of Lego out there, isn't there?!

If it helps, the bricks on the left are the ones I used, stuck together as demonstrated in the middle:


I knew what I wanted, from looking at my son's collection, but even so they took a bit of finding, and I had expert assistance! To use the proper Lego terminology, the bricks I used are a "LEGO Dark Stone Gray Plate 1 x 2 with 1 Stud (with Groove and Bottom Stud Holder) (15573)" and a "LEGO Dark Stone Gray Technic Brick 1 x 1 with Hole (6541)".

There's a 2 x 1 version of the brick with the hole too, which could be handy for freelance axleboxes. Or bogies?? If it were hidden away you could possibly make a whole Lego sub-frame, which would certainly make it easy to get things nice and square, never normally a forte of mine!

The piece on the right is a "LEGO TECHNIC Pin Connector Plate 1x2x1.67 Grey (32530)" - I bought 20 but didn't use them in the end. I still think they could be useful sometime - inside bearing mine tubs maybe??

The pair of wagons I'm working on at the moment are coming on nicely - pictures of progress tomorrow, I hope...

Cheers,

Andrew.

This all looks interesting Andrew.
Two quick questions if you don't mind.
What glue do you use on lego, does it work with normal plastic solvent type 'glues'?
Does lego take paint?

Thanks Andrew. You have come up with a solution that will help so much with our scratch building.

Now where are those wheels....

Brilliant - in at least two respects (maybe three given the use of nail art gems ). This could open up all sorts of possibilities.

Rik

philipy wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 7:29 am What glue do you use on lego, does it work with normal plastic solvent type 'glues'?
Does lego take paint?

Lego is moulded from ABS, so normal hobby paints will stick, but not all of the solvent cements used for polystyrene will work.

My favoured glue for ABS was always Plastruct Plastic Weld, the one with the orange label, which made a very strong joint, but I can't get that anymore. Deluxe have Plastic Magic and Tamiya have a solvent labelled ABS Cement. Haven't tried either yet, as my last bottle of Plastruct cement still has a bit left.......

Regards,
Graeme

Thanks Graeme. I routinely use PlasticWeld for Styrene and ABS, so thats no prob. For some reason I thought lego was made from one of those slightly flexible plastics that are pretty inert.

Yep, glue and paint have both worked fine - I used Revell "Contacta Liquid" and Poundland primer and paint...

Both wagons now have running and coupling gear attached, so I took them into the garden for a quick picture but was joined by this very friendly photo-bomber:


Believe it or not, Hendricks (from up the road...) is only the second most stupid cat on our street...

Having shooed the cat out of the way, I managed a more sensible picture - although sorry, the Lego axleboxes don't show up very well!


Painting next...

Cheers,

Andrew

I think those photos demonstrate that you can't tell the axle boxes are made of Lego

All you need for our axles boxes now that you have shown the way Andrew...

philipy wrote: ↑Sun May 12, 2019 3:52 pm For some reason I thought lego was made from one of those slightly flexible plastics that are pretty inert.

Some brands are. Some of the cheaper bricks are HDPE, which won't take paint, or glue.

Graeme

Andrew (and anyone else)
Two new additions to the WHR carriage fleet on the LVLR have been finished. Carriages 23 (summer carriage) and 39 (toast rack) are modelled after their current appearances. 39 is currently awaiting couplings.
These two carriages can also be used with some of our other F&WHR locomotives without looking odd, primarily the NGG16 (23) and the Angus Double Fairlie (39).
Currently also finishing the NWNGR brake van to go with the wagons and the two NWNGR carriages.

The quality of the stock speaks for itself, but I love that middle picture, the oblique shot looking along the line into the distance. Beautiful!

Having stock just sit in the morning sun is atmospheric in itself! They're currently sat there, might run an engine (Model Tryfan probably but Yeo could do with some more running in...) whilst I carry on with some wagonry; currently building a WHR bolster set and a NWNGR brake van!
Both of these are currently at the derailing/painting stage and should be ready this summer to join the three coal wagons (two NWNGR and one WHR liveried). Some slate and flat waggons also exist; did the NWNGR run slab waggons?
The Blue Wrightscale Baldwin is currently waiting assembly; hopefully the WHHR will hurry with 794!

Nice....