Sunday, August 10, 2008

On the workbench

I've been trying to come up with a solution to the scales biggest problem; a free running wagon/bogie underframe. I had recently purchased some top hat bearings and correct sized wheels from the UK ( www.markits.com). However, doing the math reveals that there have to be some big cutouts, and the bearings must be right out in the axle boxes to accommodate the longer than prototype axles. The answer came to me in the shower yesterday morning; inside bearings. Guy Williams ( GWR loco builder extraordinaire and sadly deceased) came up with this for locos 20 years ago, and its also been used in the railmaster 3-point wagon suspension system. Basically the axle runs inside a brass tube of the correct diameter and the solbars/bogie sideframes are just cosmetic. the only hard bit is filing down the axles to the right length. I quickly knocked up a jig and soldered up the bogie innards for the Ja tender.

I've also added some copper clad board so that I can attach some pickups (when I find my tin of phosphor-bronze spring wire, which I've yet to locate after out move 8 months ago. Maybe its sitting in the same box as my S scale A and Ab).
Also note in the background a test mech for a De. I still have some work to do on this, and will comment when it actually runs OK.

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