Time to build a railway...but where?

[Big Jim]

Spot on, did you have to resort to the old Brown envelope stuffed with pound notes? It's fairly traditional in parts of Wales.......

[ge_rik]

Spot on, did you have to resort to the old Brown envelope stuffed with pound notes? It's fairly traditional in parts of Wales.......

The Taffia eh?

Glad to see the towns fathers are getting on with the job.
Grant.
PS I think there's a case of Nepotism by the Jones family.

Looks like all the Jones females have the hots for Peter. I think he should watch out for stalkers.

Rik

[Big Jim]

The Taffia eh?

Or the Baaaaaader meinhof gang.

[markoteal]

Sir Tom Jones to cut the red ribbon????????

[jim@NAL]

fantastic looking buildings peter

[Peter Butler]

Thanks Jim.... loving your latest too!

[Peter Butler]

HAPPY CHRISTMAS....... well it is as far as I am concerned.
I am most fortunate to have a number of extremely good friends who are generous with their gifts. On this occasion one of them decided he was unable to continue with a kit which he had recently bought and started, but his mind wandered to other things and this project came to a halt.
Would I like it? ...... would I ???????
Bear in mind I don't do kits but make my stock from scratch, so this is quite a challenge, however, I'm up for it.
So, what is it?

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As you might expect, the detail is incredible and some of the parts minute so I am learning new skills as I go. I'll keep you informed of progress.

[tom_tom_go]

If I had friends that's the kind I would like!

These are meant to be the most detailed model of a WD Baldwin to date so looking forward to seeing it built and running.

[ge_rik]

Wow! That's some friendship - and some loco! Will await the result of the application of a bit of Butler magic with anticipation.

Rik

[Just Julie]

Wow Peter, what a gift, looking forward to seeing it completed.

[LNR]

Lucky fellow, as others have said looking forward to seeing this project move ahead. The detail does look incredible.
Grant.

[Peter Butler]

No doubt about it.... the detail is superb but I am concerned about its ability to withstand garden usage.
On receipt I discovered the wheels wouldn't go round... always helpful I think! The 3 axles go through 'H' section keeps which slot into the frames and rise and fall as basic suspension. As they were stiff, each side was stuck at a different height causing the axles to lock in their bearings. A file soon sorted that one.
The front bogie was a different matter altogether. The chassis is designed to go round 4'6" radius curves but this one only liked straight track! On inspection I discovered the sideways, spring loaded, self centring system, built into the bogie was solid, preventing any lateral movement at all. I'm hoping I have now resolved this too. It is a shame having to undo some of the work already done but I guess this is part of the reason the previous owner gave up on it?
Tomorrow I will test the chassis on my track and make sure it can now negotiate the circuit, possibly with a little help from a propelling loco (as recommended by Slaters)
An interesting project for my first brass kit.... I am a little out of my comfort zone but learning fast.

[Peter Butler]

I have never thought of myself as having a fistful of sausages during modelmaking before but this kit has opened me up to new skills which I am tackling for the first time. I have said so many times.... 'I am not an engineer!' but there are basic engineering works required to assemble the Baldwin. Some of the cast brass parts in particular require filing, drilling and polishing to make them fit, particularly where moving parts are concerned. Luckily I do have soldering experience, which is an important structural element in the build.
As for the 'sausages', they show up particularly when attempting to assemble parts with nuts and bolts..... 14BA! I never heard of 14BA before let alone tried to handle them. They are so tiny I can't see nuts held between finger and thumb, they disappear into the skin. The way to fit nut to bolt is to use sticky stuff, eg. BluTack on the end of a cocktail-stick to start threading. The picture attempts to show the size against a mm rule.....

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Slow progress but movement in the right direction.

[philipy]

I did use 16BA back in my limited foray into 2mm Finescale. Guess why I decided to move up a bit? Havng said that 14BA is fairly common in P4 and I still use them occasionally. I find that finger gease and pressure is often enough to stick the nut to a finger end for long enough for the thread to bite.

[LNR]

Using all the above methods, I still find myself grovelling on the floor frequently looking for the nut I just dropped.
My grandfather was a magician, and I find I am following in his footsteps. I am able to pick up a small nut, walk a short distance to use it, to find that I have made it disappear.
Good luck Peter,
Grant.

[FWLR]

Just caught up with all the Notifications Peter left to me 37 in all, left yours to the last, well it was next to last on the list anyway. WOW Peter those buildings are absolutely brilliant, love the Pink Pub, noticed the windows are leaning the same way has the wooden framework...brilliant. The other two are excellent also.
(Not done any work at all on anything for nearly two months with having the viral infection in my left lung, coughing so much it has kept me awake, so consequently no energy at all.)

You are so lucky to have that Slaters kit to build Peter, I need a good friend like that

[GTB]

As for the 'sausages', they show up particularly when attempting to assemble parts with nuts and bolts..... 14BA! I never heard of 14BA before let alone tried to handle them. They are so tiny I can't see nuts held between finger and thumb, they disappear into the skin.

BA threads were originally developed for scientific instrument use and the smallest size in the range is 25BA, which is ~0.25mm in dia., with an ~0.4mm hex head. How they make a thread that size, or a spanner, I've no idea........

16BA is the smallest BA thread now available commercially, but I've never found a need for anything smaller than 10BA when building locos, even when I was working in HO scale. I do find the reduced hex head sizes useful in garden scale though and often use 10BA screws with a 12BA size hex head for cosmetic reasons.

I prefer to use nut drivers for small hex screws/nuts and for handling 8BA and smaller I put a blob of blu-tack in the hex socket of the nut driver. Easily replaced when it gets dirty and it picks up the nut then keeps it steady until the thread engages. I've lost a lot less small BA hex head screws and nuts on the workshop floor since I started using the blu-tack.

My workshop floor is smooth concrete painted a light grey and it gets swept regularly, but somewhere down there are enough BA fasteners to build another loco......

Regards,
Graeme

[Peter Butler]

Slaters do recommend using a 14BA spanner but I failed to find one of any description on eBay. Fortunately I have managed to fit the bolts using the method described earlier and there are few left to fit.
I am now getting on quite well with the remainder of the kit and the chemical blacking for brass which I ordered has arrived.

[GTB]

Slaters do recommend using a 14BA spanner but I failed to find one of any description on eBay. Fortunately I have managed to fit the bolts using the method described earlier and there are few left to fit.

Fairly typical of UK kit instructions in my experience.................

Roundhouse have the decency to include BA spanners in their chassis kits, but like the BA spanner sets on Ebay, they stop at 11BA.


Eileens Emporium mostly cater for the P4 brigade and list BA spanners from 8BA down to 16BA, which look like they are laser cut. They also list nut drivers down to 16BA.

https://eileensemporium.com/index.php?o ... Itemid=189

Graeme

[Peter Butler]

Steaming ahead (sorry)..... I have 'engineered' the cranks and valve gear to slide and pivot well, completed soldering the etched brass components, which raised an issue with some small parts already fixed in place with epoxy, that is, they all fell off! The 'brass black' has been applied but, despite all the preparation work, I'm not best pleased with the result. However, it is just a primer so paint will cover any areas of exposed brass. I have cleaned all the brass body parts and used an etch primer, followed by matt black spray paint and I'm quite satisfied with that....

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The bunker has a large brass lamp positioned top centre and I spent a long time polishing it before spraying, so here it is still masked....

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Unfortunately, due to poor indoor lighting the colour is not a true likeness, but you get the idea.
Just to show how mad this kit is, the underside of the cab is fully detailed where no-one will see it.....

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The resin tanks are held in place with a fancy brass cage and the batteries are expected to fit in the space between them and across the boiler. Oh no they don't!!!!! The motor supplied is 12v and I want to fit 10 AA rechargeable batteries in there.... a single pack will not go in so I have ordered a 4 battery pack and 6 single batteries with solder tags to make up into a configuration (not available) which I think will fit. The three packs will then be connected and should work well.
So far I am struggling to think where to fit the switch and re-charge socket before all the body parts are permanently attached.
All good fun for a first attempt at brass loco building...... an 'entry level' kit it aint!!!
Edit.... forgot to include the picture of the tanks and frame.....

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