Bogie Maintenance

More fettling of the stock has been going on this week over at Himself's place.

Our Merddin Emrys has had its bogies out so that the couplings can be changed from the chunky ones we used since it was built for the brass Greenwich design which is standard fit on all our carriages and wagons now.

There have also been a couple of bogie upgrades for the Barns.

Observation Car 100 and its one time running mate 124 have been treated to a pair of my own design of brass and resin modern FR bogies.

There are still a lot of our older carriages which need these so I will have to pull my finger out and cast a few more soon.

Meals On Wheels

The bits I needed for the bogies for 125 arrived in the post and half an hour with a soldering iron, a set of broaches and some superglue later the new Service Car is on wheels.

The bogies and the door unit will almost certainly require some adaptation in order to get around the curves on Dduallt - or at least at the 'bottom end' where there is the cut in on the frame.

It may be a while before this can be done because the layout has been taken down while Himself works on the fences on Bron Hebog.

At least now, though, I can fit the truss rods and all the gubbins beneath the carriage and be sure they don't hang down too low.

122 Upgrade

Fitting proper-sized modern FR bogies to all the modern carriages is going to be a long-term project, but Himself has begun with one of the carriages that shows them off to advantage - Stefco's one-off 122.

These are the bogies we make up with brass frames etched by Narrow Planet, fitted with 'top hat' bearings which then have resin castings with the axle box and suspension detail fixed on top.

So far we have them fitted beneath all the Superbarns, the rebuild of prototype 116 and a couple of the most recent Barns I've made to replace to older models.

Quite a way to go then...

Cornering

The process of fitting the our new full-sized FR bogies to the Superbarn fleet is complete so a test run was in order.

You may remember that I've blogged previously about how we had to make some alternations to the under frames on the carriages to increase the bogie swing so they could negotiate the tighter curves on Dduallt.

They were tested being pulled and propelled around the spiral so it looks like they are fit for traffic again.

Swap Shop

One of the more mundane jobs on the workbench at the moment is a re-bogieing programme on the Super Barns.

The final two are going through the process.

Because these bogies, which we make ourselves,  are much longer than the Dundas-based mash-ups we've been using since the we started scratch building FR carriages over 25 years ago, they don't have enough room to swing under the body and Himself has to carefully hack away at the underframes so they can run on the tighter curves on Dduallt.

We still have a mountain to climb, though.

While we'll soon have the Super Barns all sorted, nearly all the rest of our modern carriage stock will need to be tackled.

That's more than two dozen carriages, I reckon.

This is going to be a long road indeed!

Wiggle Room

No it's not a radical new design of carriage - although it's an interesting idea - it is in fact the chassis of our latest Superbarn 117 on test.

The purpose of the test run is because we've discovered that these carriages, fitted with my own design of proper-sized FR bogies, do not have sufficient swing to traverse the tightest curves on Dduallt.

Previously, when we have run superbarns on the layout, they have all been fitted with Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol bogies dressed up to look (not a lot) like FR carriage bogies.

Although the new FR bogies were fitted to carriage 119 it had only run on Bron Hebog, where the geometry of the curves is more generous.

The root of the problem is the way the frames are inset below the doors at either end - a consequence of the designer attempting to squeeze the absolute maximum amount of carriage into a loading gauge designed for horses and slate waggons!

Himself has been hacking away at the underneath of the chassis to give the bogies a little more wiggle room.

He sent me this picture, but now I think about it I realise that he didn't actually say whether or not it was a success....

On Its Wheels

There's been a little bit of progress on 150 although it probably looks rather more significant that it is.

I've finished off the bogies by adding the bolster strip to bring them up to the correct height and added the Greenwich couplings.

This involves soldering them on which is always something of a hit or miss affair, and this time it was very much miss.

In fact what should have been a 5 minute job stretched to over an hour and involved some burned fingertips.

(There might also have been some bad language too were in not for the fact the children were within earshot.)

The difficulties were due to the unusually inward positioning of the front bogie which means the tongue on the bogie frame to which we can usually attach the shaft of the coupling was not long enough, so I had to try to solder on an extension.

I lost count of how many times I had to re-do it because the coupling and its enormously long shaft was not sitting straight, or the coupling head was too near or too far away from the end of the carriage, or the everything overheated and the previous joint fell apart as I was doing the next one.

I got there eventually, however, but it would not surprise me in the least if Himself takes one look at it and decides to do it again.

He'll do it better, of course.

Top Hat-Trick

I have deposited the body of 150 with Himself so he can form and fit a brass roof for it.

There's not really much more can be done on it until that's in place and then I can add the front window pillar.

A roof will also make it properly rigid because the unsupported top of the body sides are still quite vulnerable.

In the meantime there are some other important jobs I can be getting on with, such as making up the bogies.

I'd delayed doing this because I was 1 top hat bearing short, but when I dropped the carriage off with Himself I was able to raid his stores and procure an unopened packet.

Thus restocked, and with an otherwise empty evening ahead of me, I decided there would be no harm in a little forward planning so I made up three sets in total and cast the resin detailing bits to go with them.

So as well as a set for 150 the plan is that another of them will go under 125, the new service car, which will be my next project, and Superbarn 118 which you may recall I already have the resin body shell parts cast for.

That should keep me out of trouble as the nights draw in this autumn.

Don't Forget The Bogies

There I was thinking I was almost done with 117 and ready to hand it over to Himself to knock up a brass roof and solder up some of the pesky Superbarn handrails (he hates it when I make him do those) when I realised I hadn't made up the bogies yet.

These days all my new FR carriages are being built with our own design of authentic FR carriage bogies using a fold-up brass base (produced for us by Narrow Planet) and some detail castings which I turn out to glue on top.

'Top Hat' bearings are soldered into the frame to hold the Parkside Dundas wheelsets and they run like a dream.

These pictures show the bogies folded and soldered (top) and then with the castings pushed on and glued into place (below).

The final stage, which is not shown here, is to add a section of 80" styrene on top of the stretcher so they can swivel beneath the chassis properly, but equally you could to this by putting a deeper pivot on the chassis.

Greenwich, Meantime

I've had a change of plan with what to do next on the carriage.

Instead of adding the vacuum pipes I got out the soldering iron and added the couplings to the bogies the other night.

We have standardised with the fold-up brass Greenwich couplings on our rolling stock and they are the default option for any stock I am building for a client too.

Among their advantage is that it is very simple to re-position them, you just apply the hot tip of the iron and melt them off and fix them back in place.

I don't know what the client has planned for his Disco Car yet, and whether it will ever run on a layout as part of a train, so it is hard to know whether to set them in a close-coupled position or not.

So I have played safe and set them very generously so to reduce the chances of things like the corridor connections or the vac pipes locking with those on any other stock it is coupled do.

It's possible, after all, that it may make a guest appearance on Dduallt or Bron Hebog one day.

Beginning At the End

Usually the bogies end up being the last thing to get made on a carriage project but this time they're the first thing I've done on the Disco Carriage.

This, you may recall, is something I'm doing for one of our exhibition operators who was involved in operating these musical specials.

The 'disco' was set up in the original carriage 121 (since scrapped, alas) which had its tables and chairs stripped out before being transformed into a narrow gauge nightclub.

You can read about how it was done here on his blog.

I've started with the bogies rather than the body because I haven't yet had the chance to scale down my drawing for the carriage which is in 7mm.

But I had the bits in stock for the bogies - which are my own design of brass frame and resin overlay - and it seemed a good idea to put them together so that I could at least say that I had started the project.

Beautiful Barns

Four years after they were built our latest pair of Barns are almost ready to join the fleet.

For those who are not dedicated FR carriage-spotters - and we are a select bunch - I should explain that what we have here are models of 105 and 106 in their current condition.

105 is the last of the truly original 1960's Barns, although it is seen here after a very comprehensive rebuild with a toilet in place of its 1st class compartment in the centre and new style half windows replacing the orginal louvres - it was the last of the carriages to retain these I believe.

It still bears witness to its original, and somewhat pioneering condition, when it had a chemical bog at the bottom end of the carriage - there is still an extra window pillar to be seen on the seaward (or engine)side of the carriage.

106 is a total rebuild of the original carriage with a completely new body but to the same outline.

It was followed by another new Barn, 107, before the advent of the super-sized, Super Barn design.

Both these carriages are running on my new brass / resin FR bogies (available to buy from Narrow Planet, by the way) and they just require the fitting of brass grab rails and a coat of varnish to be declared fully finished.

Bonus Bogies

There was a bit of a misunderstanding when my latest order of bogie frames was being etched.

As well as a fresh sheet of SAR bogie frets (to put in the kits destined for the FR shop)I also ordered the first production run of my new modern FR carriage bogies.

The first of these has been on test under our new Super Barn 119 and it ran very well on Bron Hebog at Dinas.

The bogie swing clearance is at its absolute limit on the curve into the fiddle yard at the Rhyd Ddu end but we can probably do something about that.

So we've decided to go ahead and order a whole sheet, which is roughly A4 size.

For whatever reason Steve (at Narrow Planet) received two sheets back from the etcher, with a total of 56 pairs of bogies.

That is far more than we will ever need so between us we've decided the best course of action is to keep half for ourselves and attempt to sell the rest as bogie kits.

This is why I have been preparing a master for a mould with four bogie frame castings on.

It it turns out OK I am going to try to cast around a dozen for him to take to ExpoNG later this month and see whether we can shift any.

Bogie Brainwave

I don't experience many moments of genius but I did the other day.

It came when a set of redesigned etches for the modern FR bogie arrived from Narrow Planet.

The first stage of completing these is to make a master for a resin cast of the running gear and suspension.

I'd already gone through this process with the first test piece, and although it only took me a single evening to make the pieces out of styrene and fix them into place on one of the brass bogie sides I was not overly enthusiastic about the prospect of having to repeat it.

And that's when I had my brilliant idea.

The styrene bits are were superglued onto the brass, but because of the properties of the bond between those materials it is often possible to slice them apart leaving them relatively unscathed.

I wondered whether it would be possible to get the axle box and suspension bits off the original master so I could simply glue them back in position on the new etch.

And it worked!

So now I have a new master to make a revised mould from.

The difference with this new etch is that everything above the axle boxes has been moved up by 1.5mm which will make it easier to use the bogies as a direct replacement for the old Parkside Dundas ones we currently use.

It also looks much more like the real thing, but since when has that been a major consideration?

Bogie Bodge

I received my first test set of blank FR carriage bogie etches a while back and this week I got around to doing something with them.

The first stage is to sacrifice one of the etches and use it as a template for various structural details such as the axle boxes and suspension which I add on with styrene.

It is a little tricky as I use superglue to fix it to the brass and it is the most unforgiving of solvents.

This then becomes the master from which I create a rubber mould.

After leaving the rubber to set for a day I was able to start casting the first copies.

4 are required for a pair of bogies and they all turned out satisfactory at the first time of asking.

Next go back to the brass bogie frame, solder in the 'top hat' bearings and fold up the frame so it looks like this.

Then the castings, which have been cleared of flash and the holes for the axle boxes reamed out, can be pressed into place and glued on. It's so simple!

I've made it sound as if it all went perfectly, and in a way it did, but very early on in the process, right from the moment I offered up the first styrene axle box to the brass frame I began to suspect we hadn't got the size / shape of the etch quite right.

On its own the outline of the etch looks right enough but as the details went on it became clear that they should have been made taller with more frame above the axle boxes.

Then when I placed one of the bogies side by side with the Dundas Vale of Rheidol bogie which we have been using up until now it became crystal clear that they need to be taller and the stretcher where the bogie is bolted onto the carriage is much too low for it to be a like-for-like replacement.

So I think we're going to have to go back and get the etch redrawn and go for a MkII design.

I'm not in any way upset about this. All design is a process of trial and error and I take inspiration from the memory of our late friend Stefco who I'm sure would have thought noting of tweaking and trying again to get things right.