Monthly Archives: October 2018

The Poole Model Railway Exhibition – This Weekend

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This week’s post will simply be a quick preview to the upcoming Poole Model Railway Exhibition which is this weekend, Sunday 4th November 2018.

It’s been a busy few weeks getting ready for the show which was why I was unable to post anything last week.

This year we have some great layouts coming including:

Arnold Lane – O
Bournemouth West – OO
Earl’s Court Model Railway – OO
Exton Quays – OO
Hillbrow – OO9
Holcome – O
Horsethief Bridge – N
Llaniog Town – N
Shillingsford – OO
Stephens Lane MPD – O
Trenance – OO
TWA Dale Estates – O
NTRAK Modular Layout – N

As well as demonstrations from:

Andy May
DCC & Computer Control
Slim Gauge Society
The Spetisbury Station Project
The Swanage Railway

Plus trade support from:

Aspire
Ian Shave
Model Railway Solutions Shop and Baseboards
RailRoom Electronics
R&T Model Railways
Ray Heard
The Second Hand Railway Book Shop
And the Poole Clubs own stand

The exhibition is at:

Poole Grammar School
Gravel Hill
Poole
Dorset
BH17 9JU

Next week I will be back on with the R-T-R C-855 build.

Upcoming Shows

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This week’s post is a short one as I’m busy getting several ready-to-run models finished for customers.

But what I can tell you is parts of my club’s US N Scale layout, ‘Solent Summit’, will be at the Newbury model railway exhibition.  Hosted by the Newbury Model Railway Club, the exhibition is to be held on Saturday 27th October, at St Bartholomew’s School on the Andover Road.  You can find out more here.

The weekend after on Sunday 4th November is the Poole & District Model Railway Society’s exhibition in Poole.  This year the show is sponsored by Model Railway Solutions and although ‘Solent Summit’ will not be there, there will be plenty of US N Scale with both ‘BNSF Horsethief Bridge’ and an N-Trak layout. With many other great layouts on show, as well as traders, there’s something for everyone including a layout for the children to have a go.  Plus, not to be missed, is the spectacular ‘Bournemouth West’ which will be making its second exhibition appearance and debut in Dorset.  You can find out more about the show here.

In next week’s post I should have some more to share with you for the C-855 build.

Dapol N Gauge Class 73 Replacement Drive Shafts

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This week I have another new replacement part to share with you, this time for an N Gauge Dapol Class 73.

The Dapol Class 73 (Pre DCC-ready version), as shown below (stock Dapol photo), has a central motor which powers both trucks or bogies.  This is now common practice on all N gauge diesels.  Because the motor is fixed to the chassis and the bogies rotate a linkage or drive shaft is needed to transfer the power.

The drive shafts connect the brass fly wheels on each end of the motor to worm gears on top of the gear towers in the trucks.  The drive shafts have a ‘cross’ on each end which fit into slots in the fly wheels and worm gears.  This arrangement allows the gear towers to rotate while still being driven.  Below you can see one of the original drive shafts with the crosses on the ends.  The particular model I’m working on came to me with a missing drive shaft.

The drive shaft was then drawn up for 3D printing and designed for Shapeways Smooth Detail material (formally known as FUD).  I use this for its accuracy and strength as it’s a hard acrylic plastic.  As there are two drive shafts in each model I made a set joined together by a figure 8 loop to keep them together while in production.  The loop is not actually connected to the drive shafts but the holes are not big enough for the crosses to pass through.  The loops can simply be cut off.

The test print came out very well with nice crisp detail.  As the material is translucent its somewhat hard to photograph.

With the loops removed you can see the drive shafts are almost identical to the original injection molded part.

The new shafts can then be fitted into the locomotive.  As their the same shape and size their a direct replacement and work perfectly.  You can see the drive shaft replacement on the right is also sloping down.  This shows how this method of connecting the drive shafts allows of a lot of flexibility in the alignment of the two ends.

A pair of drive shafts for the Dapol Class 73 are available here.

Normally drive shafts are different lengths for different locomotives even though they are made by the same manufacture.  This is because when locomotives have a different wheel base its easier to change the length of the drive shaft than alter the motor design.   If you have a locomotive which needs a replacement drive shaft and you can’t find one send me a message via the contacts page and I can probability help.

N Gauge Peppercorn A1 Replacement Bell Crank Covers

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This week I have another new replacement part to share with you for an N Gauge Bachmann (Graham Farish) Peppercorn A1.

These locomotives, as pictured below (Bachmann stock photo), are fairly new and therefore not a lot goes wrong with them.  They are fantastic runners.

But from time to time parts can come off and get lost, and that’s what happened to this one.  Where the eccentric rod connected to the bell crank Beckman have secured the rod with a plastic molded part with two pegs as shown below.  These parts are opp-handed so they are different for each side.

Drawing the part is fairly simple, as I had one to copy, and I’ve joined both parts together to make them cheaper to print and keep them in pairs.

The new parts, which being transparent are very hard to photograph, came out very well and are almost identical to the original.

On the locomotive below you can see the eccentric rod hanging down.  The two holes under the running board receive the pegs on the bell crank cover.  The hole nearest the front of the loco pins the eccentric rod.  At the end of the rod is a plate with three holes; the middle hole is oversized to allow the plate to rotate in on the pin.

With the original cover fitted, as shown below, you can see how it all fits together.

On the other side the new 3D printed part fits in the same way.

This 3D printed part has one of the pegs ever so slightly, and I mean 0.3mm, too low on the cover.  This causes it to appear to be at an angle.  I’ve corrected this in the model file.

Once painted with a matte acrylic black, the new cover fits right in with the locomotive.

For symmetry I changed the other side for a 3D printed part as well and again it fits right in.

Upon test running, the locomotive is as smooth as when it was new.  A pair of replacement N Gauge Bachmann (Graham Farish) Peppercorn A1 bell crank covers can be found here.

Next week I’ll have another new replacement part to share with you and then it’s back to the projects in hand.