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Graham's Workbench

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irishthump

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  • 1 month later...

I had been planning to buy a few Hornby timber wagons but after seeing this thread http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1212-Four-Wheeler-Timber-wagons I decided to go the scratchbuilt route.

 

I had a few of those horrible Hornby Railroad range tanker wagons so I decided to use the chassis as it looks roughly the right size.

I cut away most of the underframe detail.

An old paperclip makes some passable brake gear and makes the chassis look a little less bare!

I removed the tension lock couplers and used filler to make a suitable mounting point for a Kadee No.5 coupler.

Coupler mounted...

The wagon bodies were built from styrene.

Fitted to the chassis and given a coat of oxide primer, weathering to follow...

Hardly prototypical but I think they'll look good on the layout!

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Edited by irishthump
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Well, close to 42'9" anyway!

 

I had a few Hornby Railroad flats which I decided to cut-and-shut.

Here's one glued up...

A couple after the glue had set (I used 5 min epoxy).

Some buffers made from filed-down tacks.

Added some styrene detailing and Kadee couplers.

All four finished and sprayed with red oxide.

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Edited by irishthump
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Nice scratch building work on the timber wagons. Looking good. I have to get the finger out and do a rake of my own sometime soon. Really looking forward to seeing the finished article. Good thing about these is you could build a prototypicle length train without breaking the bank (errr too much). Nice work on the flats too, It really does lift it above the Hornby Railroad original. Reminds me of another project on my 'to do' list :facepalm:

Tom.

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  • 4 months later...
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I recently picked up a Supertrain 142 from Wrenneire and a sound equipped decoder arrived in the post for it yesterday so I thought I might take a few pics of the installation process for anyone who isn't familiar with it. It's really not too hard and this might be useful for anyone comtemplating it.

 

First pic; 142 with the body off.

 

You'll notice the handrails are still attached. I could never get the hang of removing these and as you know they are a bu**er to put back on! As I mentioned on another thread I have found a way around it. First remove the front cab (the one at the opposite end from the roof grill. Now, you have to remember to release the handrails from the cab to allow you to pull it straight up, you may need to use a very small flat screwdriver to help release it from the body first.

Once that is done I turn the loco upside down (you really need a foam cradle for this job) and release plastic tabs that hold the body on from underneath. It's easier to see/access them if you remove the bogie sideframes.

 

The tabs are clearly visible in this pic (yes the orange coloured body really helps to locate them!)

 

The main body and other end cab can then be removed. Remembering again to detach the handrails from the cab sides.

 

Next job is to install the speaker. I'm using a base enhanced speaker which as you may know will not fit under the body without a lot of work. The metal chassis block needs considerable filing down to make enough room. I'm not prepared to do that under any circumstances! Gareth from MSB recommended this little tip which is to remove the back of the speaker housing:

It is easily done with a small flat screwdriver and it doesn't effect the sound in any way. (At least not to my ears and I have tried the speaker with and without the back casing.)

 

Like this the speaker is a near perfect fit on top of the metal chassis block. It can be secured with silicone or blue tack. Just be careful of the wires under the speaker, I pushed them down too far and they ended up rubbing on the drive shaft and making an awful noise. I had to remove the body again to correct it!

I trimmed the speaker leads as I didn't want them getting in the way when trying to refit the body, then soldered them to the connection points on the circuit board. These are clearly marked "SP+" and "SP-", red goes to "+" and black to "-".

Then it's a simple matter of plugging in the decoder, or so I thought! All my other sound equipped 141's have Zimo decoders which fit fine, but this one is a ESU Loksound which is slightly bulkier than the Zimo. I notice when I plugged it in that part of the decoder was touching the circuit board....

 

I wasn't sure if it was metal-on-metal contact but I didn't want to take the risk of a short circuit, so I placed some plastic tape on the circuit board to be safe.

 

It's normal packing tape, which insulates fine but I will have to keep an check to make sure it isn't affected by heat from the decoder.

 

And speaking of heat... Ventilation is an issue with dcc as the decoders generate a lot of heat in operation. I found that on the 141's the roof directly above the decoder could get quite hot, most likely because of the space inside the body being so tight. My answer to this was to drill out the exhaust outlet on the roof of the model! After all it's supposed to be a hole and I found that once I did this the body sheel didn't get anywhere near as hot, in fact you can feel the warmer air escape through it. How's that for prototypical! :D

 

 

I then gave the loco a quick test before replacing the body and cabs. Then it was time to play! I'll post a video of it in action soon...

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Edited by irishthump
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