[pedromorgan]

I ordered a GT3 at ailsbury and it arrived a couple of days ago. experience has told mee that you really need to grab curiosities like this when they come around or you may never see them again. i love the unusual prototypes.

The castings are generally pretty good. there are a few bubbles along the bottom of the chassis valance. the cab and tender are both very nice. the only real weak spot is the intake grill. i dont think i can live with the supplied one and i'm going to have to etch a replacement.

It needs a hornby class 5 chassis but i may go for a comet instead.

I'm really not very good at getting loco chassis to work smoothly but i have been looking at the jig from hobby hollidays. it looks like a really nice piece of kit and would certainatly help me to get evrything square.
http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/masterchassis.htm

Peter

 

[pedromorgan]

I know what you mean richard. but how come i always make such a complete pigs ear of it??!!

i have 2 loco's that i am very proud of that are basicaly finished except that one wobbles like its doing the time warp after 6 pints and the other where no matter how hard i try i just cant get the 6 wheels running freely with the con rods on.

My first steam loco kit was a garrett (stupid i know!!) which actually runs ok. except that it grinds to a halt with more than about 4 wagons on the back!!

Next came lion.
I thought i had improved and i wanted to have a go at outside frames! (big mistake!) the trouble was that with outside frames you looke the inbuilt quatering that you get with romford wheels. maybe a quatering jig would sort it out. but having come down from a garrett, failure to get 4 wheels turing freely was a real downer!

And finally came the W1. i was thrilled with the way the body went together. i realise its not quite square but neither are the castings. and its good enough for mee. but the chassis was a complete nightmare. i tried about 20 times to get the 6 wheels running freely. my motor and gearbox runs nicely but as soon as i put the conrods on the whole thing suddenly aquires 20 units of alcohol!

I have a turbomotive chassis waiting for me. but i dont really want to touch it untill i can get the W1 working properly.
Peter

 

[pedromorgan]

Hello folks

Thankyou all for the advice. i have taken it all in.

QUOTE (Richard Johnson)I think I know you well enough to say with the best of intent "because you gave up on them", not because they couldn't be tweaked into life
For all old kits - chuck the gearboxes and get some new ones from Hi-Level Kits - they are sublimely smooth.
For the Garratt and anything with an old motor - the K's motors are especially rubbish - replace with Mashima - preferably one each end on the Garratt.
For possibly wonky connecting rods. Get a couple of sets of Gibson "universal connecting rods" - these are in several parts and can be made up in different lengths. build them up with precise spacing on a jig made from crankpins set into an alloy or wood block.

For the turbomotive - Just dump the K's chassis and get a princess chassis kit from Comet. Turbomotive = Princess to all intents and purposes.

Richard

PS: Re the LNER Hush Hush... If you don't mind the positive suggestion.... get rid of all the whitemetal boiler bands totally and replace with scotch tape bands (the cloudy looking sellotape stuff - put a strip on glass and cut the bands with a new scalpel blade). They really do stick fine and definately won't lift after painting is done.

Hello richard.
after the garrett and lion i invested in the branchlines chassis building jig but although it does hel to allign the axle bearings, it dosent help with the crankpin holes on the connecting rods.

I have always used markits/romford wheels but i have trouble getting them square on the axles. (i dont mean quatering i mean getting them running true when they are on the axles.)

I have always used branchlines gearboxes but i find they are a bit rough and sound like a number 17 bus. i will try the high level ones. i understand they use helical gears. i asume thats the main difference.

I havent decided on the whitemetal boiler bands. i definatly dont want to keep the whitemetal ones but people keep telling me about a tape they ise in aircraft modelling that has a metal finish.

For turbomotive i have a comet chassis sitting waiting but no wheels for it yet. its actually a dean sidings loco not a kays. the castings looke very good.

QUOTE (34C)Does the kit specify a Hornby black 5? The prototype was built on a BR standard 5 chassis IIRC, and that might make the chassis for that a better choice in terms of fidelity.

So definitely worth investing in the 'how to' of kit chassis building, but only in my opinion when there is no good RTR alternative, (provided of course that RTR meets your modelling standards). This last purely on cost grounds: price up what the etched frames, wheels, crankpins, motor, gearbox, rods and gear will come to. It will likely be more than buying the complete RTR model, and you can sell the unwanted components from the RTR item to reduce the price further. As an example the chassis from Hornby's Railroad A3 or A4 will make your W1 a runner for £50 outlay and a couple of hours adaption work.
The kit specifies a class 5 chassis.

thanks for the advice on the RTR chassis. i may well do as you say with the W1. after the garrett and the lion i had a loco that had a huge cavernous boiler and i wanted to make the most of it by fitting a huge motor. unfortunatly i then got the problems with allignment.

I have an O gauge chassis to do soon and i have an eye on a backwoods minitures 009 Darjeeling B class!

Peter