Hello is anyone there?

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Jim · Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:38 pm Post subject: Hello is anyone there?

Where's everyone gone?

Jim
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'If you're a friend of the captain you wipe your hands on the sails'

Ron Wallman · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 7:25 am Post subject:

I am extremely busy Jim.
I expect that you are like me and find things in the back of the car after the children have been in it. On returning from a shopping trip in Britain on behalf of my wife to get Christmas cake ingredients and similar fare I found this behind the driver’s seat. It is not mine!

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Ron

James · Fireman Joined: 05 Feb 2008 Posts: 98 Location: England

Hi Jim

Likewise I have been very busy of lately! Anyway, how is your loco coming on?

Jim · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 9:11 pm Post subject:

I wondered what had happened to that loco. I must have absent mindedly put it in the back of your car Ron. Rolling Eyes

Seriously though it looks very nice, I'm rather envious.

We have just come back from a trip to Orange (600kms there & back) to give the Mk1s a test run both in terms of transporting and track running.

The transporting system worked well with a thorough work out on a cross country short cut called Swampy Creek Road! In the course of 300 metres I discovered exactley which bits could move and which could fall off! Luckily there was no serious damage and we arrived safely with the coaches intact at Orange Model Engineers where they did have a bit of foreign look among the local rolling stock. The return home was much less dramatic and a new transporting system is already on the drawing board.

Boadicea wise, I have marked out the locations on the smoke box for the regulator, whistle and hand rail knobs in preparation for drilling. I used a copy of the works drawings to spot the correct locations for these items as the Spinks drawings just didn't seem to 'add up' when compared with photographs of the real thing.

My problem is I have too many things on the go. The coaches are continually calling from one side of the workshop that they would like more details added while on the other side the loco is saying 'No do my boiler next please' . It's a very hard life!

Have a wonderful Christmas Ron and James and the rest of the membership. Don't stint yourselves on the Christmas Pud.

Kind regards

Jim
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'If you're a friend of the captain you wipe your hands on the sails'

Ron Wallman · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 5:25 am Post subject: Hello is anyone there?

The locomotive is not mine Jim! It belongs to the ex-boss of my friend in Britain.

I have the tender and 15 kilo of parts that the owner does not know where they go plus papers etc making an all up weight of 112 kg and part of the 637 kg total I had on board on the home run from Britain. Cooking ingredients are heavy! The car is now somewhat elderly but easily managed 130 kmh on the autoroute. The Ford Galaxy never did handle very well and is exactly the same when loaded; it just goes like a slippery pig.

As the owner is 86 and never built anything like a steam locomotive before, is not a club member, has no support such as even a lathe and Modelworks have gone bust he is stuck. Amongst the people they know I am the only one with machinery, track and possible know how to get the thing to run.

Unfortunately I am a bit weak and felt that if I was 86 and in trouble I would be very happy if someone could help. However it was decided that millions of e-mails to assist from France would never be as good as me having the locomotive here. I also anticipated that I would try and buy a machine hence would be in Britain at the end of October with a car. The British side got the act together and everything was ready to be loaded. Never has my friend got organised like that before!

For the first time in forty years it snowed in October the same evening as I arrived and then froze bringing down trees and power lines, closing roads and some commercial centres. I managed to get crossings through the fire damaged tunnel and yet another difficultly in the trip as there was fewer crossings and bargain prices suspended.

At least my kind of luck did not change.

Once back here in France I had to get machinery out of the car and the last item was the locomotive as it should be last in to become first out. The locomotive spent a couple of days out in our garden shed until a place was ready for it in my workshop.

Mean while my wife organised what I call a Bl..dy Tupperware party and wanted parts of the kitchen refitted rather than clean what we have. I also have pining machinery and snivelling baby wagons that want their bodies made and what little organisation I had in my workshop is totally disrupted.

Let me be honest and say I do not finish jobs as I should because finesse is not appreciated in France. Finishes are soon scratched and one is sworn at for taking too long to do a job. The Modelworks Britannia opens up whole new horizons in awfulness. For example; the return crank screws fouled the eccentric rod hence the locomotive could not even turn a wheel and the bogie is a millimetre over gauge. The latest fault I found was a valve sleeve nearly half a millimetre out of round and why there is a fatal leak when I tried to run on compressed air. I bet I will continue to find faults despite the page long list so far. I have been e-mailing a weekly report back to my friend to pass on to the owner and it makes grim reading. Against that I am finding out what is wrong and slowly correcting.

With all these activities going on I do not have much to report on the forum as I am running around like a blue” appendage” fly and have what is known as the red queen effect.

I had hoped to get my ore cars finished by the end of the year and I have hardly done anything towards them due to other jobs coming in. I thought retirement meant working away and getting jobs done. It seems that people think I have got nothing to do and are finding work for me. What I need is ten years with absolutely no additional work to clear the back log and even then it could be a close run thing.

I take the opportunity to wish you all season’s greetings.

My wife has made some British style Christmas cake and the local French have already polished the first one off. This has suspended casting as she is using the cake mixer for cakes and not its true purpose of conditioning foundry sand. At least any remaining sand has been cleaned off the mixer and any traces that got into the first cake appear to have gone. I guess they also like the old time Wayne film, “True Grit”.
Twisted Evil

I have attached a shot of the fouling problem and the regauged bogie.
Ron

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Ron

Jim · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 12:34 pm Post subject:

Oh Ron what can I say?
It all sounds one complete cockup! At least you managed to get the mixer cleaned of foundry sand.

John Johnson, The Briannia Builder has kept a very detailed account of his building of a Model Works Britannia. If you're not familiar with the site it is well worth a look:

http://www.geocities.com/britanniabuilder/

Trying to build or complete a part built model is really a daunting task as you're picking up where others have left off while correcting mistakes and poor workmanship such as cap head screws to hold the return crank! No wonder you have been 'silent' on this site.
On brighter note I like the thought of the French showing a bit of grit though I'm not sure if currants and raisins would be of help when you do your next mix of foundry sand.

I'm sure that all will improve with some hot pud and brandy custard washed down with a few glasses of mother's ruin

All the best for Christmas,

Jim Smile

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'If you're a friend of the captain you wipe your hands on the sails'

Ron Wallman · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject: Hello is anyone there?

Hi Jim,
Yes I have been in contact with John Johnston. He is amazed of an out of round bore report and says he check his when he strips down for painting. It might well be the reason for leakage problems on at least three other kits. If I have put my finger on one problem then I will be pleased to have helped.

The bogie out of gauge problem is common.

I have an order for Ø25 mm PTFE from MK metals and Tracy Tools a Ø23 reamer. What I am thinking of doing is trying to bore and then hide my poor machining by slipping a reamer down to complete the finish. With any amount of luck the two bores will at least be the same diameter. Like John Johnston, I am going to try PTFE piston rings. I will wait until orders arrive to be sure that any cock up will be mine and not a failed order. I cannot say when I will have a go at the Britannia again.

My wife wants the kitchen sink changing and the house pipe work makes the Britannia look like the work of a saint. I leant the two vital elements of the trade from a from a real old timer plumber who was told pay your plumbing business debts or go to jail. He went to jail and wrote off the debt. He smoked and drank so much that he was never fit enough to be ill. He was a great cloth cap character and would cast gargoyles in lead if he got fed up with ordinary work. The two secrets of plumbing are; water flows downhill and it ain’t all water.

There is not much chance of anything to put on the forum for a bit.

I attached the same shot as I sent John showing a feeler gauge jammed in the out of round gap. Note it is only one side and the bobbin sits and slides happily in the other alignment. It is not being forced up by the feeler. Telescopic gauging suggests a 17 thou error on a Ø22 mm nominal bore.

On Christmas fare the new London tram livery has a lime green front so that if anybody has too much it won’t show.

Great, my wife has just come in with several six packs because they cost more but are cheaper per litre. It has not dawned on her that the cans are 33 cl and bottles 25 cl and once opened have to be consumed. Add a couple more weeks to Britannia progress.

Ron

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Ron

Jim · Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:58 pm Post subject:

That photo is amazing. I pity the poor souls who bought the kit as a 'bolt together and it will run' project.
Sadly a lot get trapped into thinking that it would solve all their problems of getting on the track if they bought a loco in a ready to run state when in fact owning a model steam loco or traction engine also requires the skills and gear to maintain them.
Keep your chin up Ron and as we both know getting steam into the cylinders is easy getting it out again is where the problems start.
The ales sound good. I find a good ale very helpful in solving problems. The more ales the more problems solved.

Kind regards
Jim
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'If you're a friend of the captain you wipe your hands on the sails'

SillyBilly · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:13 pm Post subject:

My apollogies for deserting you all, to be honest I've only just got 'back in' to the 5in gauge thing after the New Year, I'm hoping to keep it up 'till around Easter when I'll have to concentrate on getting through my GCSE exams, but after that, should be a summer of steam for me!

I've just started building my first ever item of 5in gauge stock a coal waggon/driving truck (FfR style) as part of my school work, I'll upload a shot of the 3D design once I've done the final version Smile

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Cheers,
William
Joys of Life Railway Revival
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www.billsrailpics.fpic.co.uk

Jim · Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2009 11:31 pm Post subject: