The Reading and Squamish Light Railway Stock Thread

[big-ted]

Heh. My cat takes a pretty dim view of anything that interferes with her eating/sleeping schedule. She has a hard life...

One thing I can't decide is whether or not to paint the end handrail on the coach. It looks a bit odd to my eye having the steps in black and the handrail in brass...




Frames built, lightly rubbed down, and thoroughly cleaned in hot soapy water. Important holes and threads masked out.

Having done that, I think I'm going to clean them with heavier duty degreaser before I paint them, just to be safe.

[big-ted]

Current state of play as of Sunday night:



Frames painted with Dupli-color self-etching primer and perfect match universal black top coat. Wheels and outside cranks installed.

One of the rear cranks seems like it's not on completely straight, despite my best efforts to line the g-clamp up correctly. We'll see if it binds with the connecting rods on. If so I guess I'll have to bring it in to work and use the big vice (with rubber jaws!)

[big-ted]

Lots pf progress last week. As of Sunday night, this is where I'm at.

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Rods and cylinders fitted. The valve gear is fitted to one side, but unfortunately, in my enthusiasm to make the most of my having the apartment to myself Friday night, I failed to heed the warning of the instruction manual, overtightened the expansion link bush, and broke it. So I've only been able to fit the valve gear to one side, and I'll have to order up a replacement from Roundhouse in the morning...

In the meantime the smokebox, roof and lubricator are all painted in Plastikote matte black engine enamel. Tomorrow I'll see if I can pick up the top colour. I'm hoping to go for something like FR Victorian Maroon, but getting something in a BS paint code isn't going to happen here without going to a very specialist auto body shop, so it'll be something that looks 'pretty close' to my eye.


I'm certainly having a lot of fun so far!

[LNR]

Good luck with the paint colour Ted, I tried for the same colour when painting my Hunslet, biggest trouble I found was getting an auto colour that wasn't iridescent. Shame about the link bush, that would try my patience waiting for a replacement.
Grant.

[big-ted]

Yep, that's the problem I see with a lot of the paints designed to match specific car paint codes. I called a specialist autobody store this morning and, helpful as they were, their systems in Canada don't recognise BS paint codes. The closest thing he could get was a navy blue colour! That said, I'm not picky about it being exactly right, but I haven't yet found a sufficiently dark maroon that isn't actually brown...

Roundhouse may be the most helpful company I've ever dealt with. Replacement bush is in the mail and en route to me in Canada. In contrast, I'm currently trying to buy my Dad a birthday gift from Curry's and you wouldn't believe how difficult they're making it for me to give them my money.

One thing that has surprised me about the build so far is that everything is assembled dry. I would have thought that some parts would want oiling before assembly, and that fittings like the crank pins would be crying out for some form of retaining compound on them. However, in light of my ham-fistedness and breaking the link bush, I'm going to follow the instructions to the letter from now on!

[artfull dodger]

Its looking good, yes one must be careful when tightening anything that is hollow, be it a banjo bolt on the steam turret or the bushings on the expansion link frame bushing. Looking good otherwise! Can't wait to see the body color. My friends lined black Pearse Countess is due here to my house today Have to regauge it for him to 45mm. My own green Pearse Countess will be here later this week or next, along with 2 Brandbright bogie coaches all done up and filled with people. Cheers Mike

[big-ted]

Hmm. RAL 3007 looks like it might be pretty close...

[GTB]

Hmm. RAL 3007 looks like it might be pretty close...

This website will return a list of colour matches between various international colour standards.

http://www.e-paint.co.uk/Colour_alternatives.asp

RAL 3007 doesn't get a mention, but the US color standard FS595 has a maroon that is near, but not a perfect match. The only close match is AS2700 R45 maroon, which is not surprising, as AS2700 was originally based on BS381c.

Here in Aust. 'heritage' colours are popular and most paint suppliers have some dark reds in their range. If this also applies in Canada, there may be something suitable available. The steam railways used colours that would now be classified as 'heritage' colours.

Ordinary solvent based synthetic enamels will stand up to the temperatures reached by the bodywork on these models steam locos. Your chances of finding a heritage colour like maroon available in an engine enamel is pretty small.

If you have a paint shop locally that can make up colours using the IEC l*a*b* colour space, the website has that data on each colour shown.

Regards,
Graeme

[big-ted]

Some super helpful information here, thanks Graeme. I'll spend some time next weekend going around paint shops armed with the above!

[big-ted]

I have a line on Pantone 439 C in a paint that is apparently 'high durability for sign use.' That's likely my best option so far.

All this paint research has made me realise I may have used the wrong stuff on the chassis. Roundhouse, interestingly, recommend acrylic on the frames, but enamel on the body. The stuff I used on the frames is described as an 'acrylic lacquer,' which seems like it might not have the highest durability to oils and handling. I guess I'll see how it goes. No way I'm stripping it back now!

All this paint stuff is such a black art!!

[artfull dodger]

Painting is definatly a lost art to many. And painting from rattle cans never will equil the factory Roundhouse job, which has more "hardener" in the paint, giving that nearly indestructable hard glossy finish on the factory painted engines. When I do build my next Lady Anne, I am going to have a friend that paints cars professionaly paint the body for me. I will give him the pint of paint and he will do the proper hardener mix and then bake it in the paint booth when a car is in there baking. That wont be for a year or two, I am set for motive power for now. Mike
"

[tom_tom_go]

Just caught up with this one, building a loco in an apartment must be a first on here so well done!

One of the rear cranks seems like it's not on completely straight, despite my best efforts to line the g-clamp up correctly. We'll see if it binds with the connecting rods on. If so I guess I'll have to bring it in to work and use the big vice (with rubber jaws!)

I don't want to piss on your parade but this may come to bite you in the bottom later so I would get it sorted now by using a vice with rubber clamps as you mentioned.

[LNR]

Afraid I agree with Tom completely Ted. The rear cranks have the long crank pin so anything out of true is excentuated, even worse than the other cranks. Personally I would be taking the offending crank off, and examining it under magnification if necessary, to make sure you haven't picked up a corner or burred it in some way. There's not a lot of metal in that area and it is easy to drag a fragment of metal down to the shoulder to prevent the crank pulling down square.
Grant.

[GTB]

All this paint stuff is such a black art!!

Paint formulation is a science, but applying it is still a craft and with any craft there is no substitute for experience. They don't pack that in a spray can.........

Traditionally, signwriting paints were a high quality enamel and so would be suitable for bodywork. If it is an acrylic, it will soften when it gets hot.

Provided the paint you used on the chassis was an auto acrylic it be OK. Roundhouse use two pack auto acrylic over an etch primer on their RTR models, which gives a very hard and chemically resistant finish, but you need the right gear for that.

I'd also agree with Tom, if you haven't yet sorted out that axle crank, square it up now, while you can still get at it without dismantling the loco. Not sure if rubber jaws would work, as I use aluminium safe jaws on my bench vices. A couple of blocks of wood might be better if you don't have aluminium jaws available.

Regards,
Graeme

[big-ted]

Thanks all. Good to know the paint on the frames should be ok. Yep, the crank was removed and straightened. Bizarrely, pressing it on as far as it wanted to go resulted in it becoming crooked. I pressed it on with a vice as far as I could without it getting crooked, tightened down the screw, and that seems to have held it straight. Trying to wobble the pin by hand couldn't budge it, so I'm hoping it's ok. I do still worry that the crank pin screws and crank pins themselves would benefit from some loctite but, again, I'm doing everything by the book now!



Smokebox now assembled and footplate painted, but I can't really do much more this weekend since I'm still waiting on the expansion link bush. I could start soldering the body but I need to practice on something first since I've not soldered with a torch before. I think I'll try and build another tin plate tipper wagon since I have plenty of tinplate saved up.

[big-ted]

Just for the hell of it, my full 'train' as it stands:

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The coach received it's insulated wheels and buffers courtesy of Garden Rail Specialists. As luck would have it, I had to leave he 3D printer at work making a laser enclosure over the weekend. It was fairly trivial to add my attempt at some carriage lamptops alongside the enclosure, so hopefully the printer doesn't crash over the weekend and I can bring those home on Monday.

The tipper wagon is still waiting on some smaller wheels to downsize it a bit, but I don't think it looks out of scale, despite claiming to be in 7/8ths scale, so I'll make a few more at some point.

Buffer beam and buffers fitted to loco, and cheesehead screws painted with Humbrol enamel to match the buffer beam. Boiler and smokebox just rested on for now whilst I wait on the expansion link bush for the other side.

[big-ted]

Lamptops and plugs out of the 3D printer. The plastic lifted at one corner which has lead to some distortion, but I have three usable sets, so I'm happy.

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The printer I used is fairly basic, so gives a rough surface finish, but with some primer and sanding I think they'll be fine.

[artfull dodger]

The only part of building my Roundhouse kit that was stressfull was drilling and pinning the return crank on the rear axle. I still have the 1.6mm drill bit, used it when I did the cranks on Sammie! Looking good so far! Mike

[LNR]

Just for the record, I haven't drilled and pinned any of my return cranks and they have never troubled me. I did discover the Hunslet looked out of whack some time after its only derailment. It was still running OK, and as I time my locos a different way to that suggested by Roundhouse, with a vernier calliper, I don't have to open the valve chest to put it right.
Grant.

[artfull dodger]

The Pearse and Merlin return cranks are also not pinned. But I suspect that RH does this to help the live steam beginner by not having to worry about knocking the return crank out of proper position. Setting the timing on both my Pearse and Merlin are done with calipers and taking measurements at certain points of driver rotation.