Friday, September 23, 2011

Brakes and balance weights

Brakes and balance weightsTaking a break from narrow gauge matters, I've been back working on the C15 engine. Maybe I'm missing the smell of burning flux !

Assembling the brakes is simple enough, there is a hanger into which a shoe is soldered. Since both parts are etched in nickel silver, tinning the parts, holding them together and then heating the lot worked well with nice clean results.

Attaching them to the loco itself was carried out using an acid free flux as I can't stick the chassis in the sink to clean it off. Once hung, the rigging goes on underneath and all seems to fit very nicely. It doesn't seem to align very well with the handbrake lever but I suppose you can't really see under the loco so this won't be a real problem.

What is a problem is that the balance weights don't seem to fit the wheels very well, The curve on their outermost edge and the inner curve of the wheel don't match and just like when I travel on a tube train, I certainly do Mind the Gap.

2 comments:

Radical Believer said...

Acid free flux sounds useful. Where can I get some?

Phil Parker said...

Carrs Red label flux. Gaugemaster also do a version but the Carrs (in my opinion) is slightly better although both work fine.