Garden Railway Forum

You can ask RH to not solder when you order, however, unless you are coal firing I don't see the point of you needing to open it.

Nor I, but it does take more effort to solder them than it does not to, so I wonder why they bother. There must be a reason: other manufacturers make them with opening smokeboxes. Mercer traction engines have opening s.b. doors even though they are pot-boilers!

Keith S:97792 wrote:... but it does take more effort to solder them than it does not to ...

I'm not so sure. If you were doing a batch of them with gas torch in hand I reckon it would be a lot quicker and easier to solder them than to make and fit a working hinge and a retaining clip or dart bar and then make sure the door opens and closes properly. An opening door can also complicate the painting process.

I guess I'm looking at it from the point of view of having built a kit; the job wouldn't have been any harder with or without the door. But I guess for making in batches, a quick solder job on a dozen at once would save a lot of effort over fitting doors. I guess. I'm looking at mine now, it has a soldered door but before it was soldered there was a hinge pin fitted. No dart though.

The battery was starting to go on the loco so while I had it apart to replace it I thought I would do some jobs that I have been meaning to do:

Removed all the flaking paint from her pipework (I prefer this look so will not repaint):


Made a start on her new roof:



Soldering and filing to cover the holes did take a while, might use Milliput in future as the roof does not get hot.

I have some small magnets on order so that the roof can be magnetised to the body when in place.

I have been very tempted with the Deltang RC gear since Rik started showing us all the benefits this system brings to controlling locos through his blog and now shop www.rctrains.co.uk

My concern with the system at the time was how was I to control the servo that operates the simulated drains cocks.  A few exchanges of messages with Rik and it all came together as the 'Inertia' control knob can be programed to operate an independent channel i.e. another servo.

So I ordered the RCT-Tx24 and RCT-Rx102 which all arrived promptly with loads of documentation to explain how to set it all up and re-program:

RCT-Tx24

RCT-Rx102


The smaller size of the Rx102 over the Roundhouse factory fitted RC plane Rx meant I could now fit a DC charging jack and battery with the existing switch harness all in one side tank!



The battery sits on top of the switch harness when the body is attached to the chassis.

My set up is configured so that:

Bind button = whistle
Direction knob = reverser
Inertia knob = simulated drain cocks
Speed knob = regulator

I tested today between the thunder and lightening and I am impressed with the finer control gained on the regulator over a RC plane transmitter joystick.  I also love the smaller size of the Tx24 and now I have the ability to control another 11 locos or accessories such as point or signal servos when connected to their own Rx and controller using a Picaxe chip or Arduino device.

When the weather improves I will post a video of the set up in action although if like me you have been wondering if Deltang would work in a live steam loco I can confidently say it does and you will not be disappointed with it.  My only regret is Rik did not set up RC Trains sooner so I could of fitted his gear to all my locos rather than traditional RC plane equipment.

So thanks for bringing your version of Deltang to market Rik, excellent products

Roof finished with magnets in place:

So I finally have a SSP slomo! It was a hard choice between fitting this to my Riverdale Amy or my first loco purchase my Roundhouse Silver Lady but as a gas loco is quicker to get running the SL got the vote.

The SL has a servo that operates the 'simulated drain cocks' which is a slide valve that directs the exhaust up the chimney or through piping under the cylinders. The RH factory servo rod occupied the space where the slomo needed to be fitted so a new one was made.

Mock up rod made from electrical wire:
Finished item with original rod pictured:
I need to paint the new wheels before fitting as the original insulated wheels cannot be used with a slomo when you run 32mm gauge.

New wheels drying, nearly time to steam her up!

I have reached live steam utopia

Very smooth performance.. Bravo!

Now that is slooooooooow - well done!

It all fits rather well...

Big smiles all round I imagine, Tom.
Grant.

Quite amazing when compared to the average SL video. Well done Tom.

Really smooth slow running! Must get a slomo or two...

JonPotter wrote: ↑Sat Jul 29, 2017 8:41 pm Really smooth slow running! Must get a slowmo or two...

Cannot recommend the slomo enough!

How do you think a SloMo-equipped loco would do for "mainline" running? When I run by myself, I love the idea of shunting a couple of wagons back and forth at scale speeds, but at club running days I'm pretty much stuck doing continuous running at constant speed. I'd be concerned that the SloMo would put increased wear on the motion and reduce run times?

big-ted wrote: ↑Tue Aug 08, 2017 11:32 pm How do you think a SloMo-equipped loco would do for "mainline" running? When I run by myself, I love the idea of shunting a couple of wagons back and forth at scale speeds, but at club running days I'm pretty much stuck doing continuous running at constant speed. I'd be concerned that the SloMo would put increased wear on the motion and reduce run times?

The slomo does not reduce top speed so if you feel the need to run your loco like a class A4 then you can.

I can push/pull my SL in 'neutral' with my finger so I would not be concerned with wear on the motion.

As for run times I can still get the loco to plod along at 20 psi with the gas turned right down.

I am so happy with the device that I have another slomo on order for my Riverdale Amy

Hi Tom, hi forum,

Not often do you come across a thread which matches what you're after so well...

Amazing job on your loco, by the way. My paint is all still sealed, in its packaging, until I get the proverbials to have a go!

You've done two mods which I am trying to emulate exactly on my Silver Lady:

• changing the factory RH r/c to a RC TRAINS receiver (already have a transmitter and, in a battery loco, a receiver)

• Fitting a SSP SLOMO (ordered, hopefully with me in January) with a replacement drain cock servo.

With the former, I'd love to know whether I can simply disconnect one receiver and connect another, whether it's just soldering that's required, and how to reprogramme functions and servo ranges of movement - if that's necessary.

With the latter, it'd be nice to have the dimensions of your replacement servo rod, what thickness and type of wire you used, and info on the connections at the ends of the rod.

I look forward to being able to contribute - when I know a bit more!

Cheers,


Alex