I very much enjoyed your article in the October BRM regarding the freelanced OO9 engine. I was so taken by the project when you teased it earlier in your blog that I actually ordered a chassis myself. It's currently sitting on my desk, atop a bottle cap (for novelty's sake; it is amazingly tiny) while I decide what to do with it.
While your article is up to your usual standards, I wonder if you could elaborate on the couplings? What make are they, how are they mounted, recommended height, etc. I have some frets of Greenwich couplings laying around which I'll probably utilize, but I'm curious what your approach was.
No problem. The couplings were a bit of a bodge if I'm honest. In an ideal world, I'd have used Grenwich brass versions, but I couldn't find my fret of them. What I did lay my hands on was a set of Bemo plastic versions. A bit clunky, but better than nothing.
The coupling shanks were shortened and then poked through square holes made in the buffer beams. Height was determined by running a wagon up to the beams and marking the hole. I have node idea what the "correct" height is, but they seem to work OK.
The hole is quite tight but a dot of superglue keeps them in place.
Jeremy responds:
Thank you for your response. I think I'll have to do some experimenting
with a temporary footplate. From looking at your construction photos, I thought
the couplers might have been modified -- there's not much room between the
chassis and the buffer beam.
If I can, I'm hoping to find someway to make the chassis swappable between
whichever body is needed or fancied. I'd have to review your article again, but
I believe you just boxed it in with styrene as opposed to being permanently
fixed. Or if I misread that entirely, that's at least the approach I thought I'd
try.
4 comments:
Coupling height gauges are made by Greenwich (etched) and RT Models (resin). Of the two I prefer the RT Models version.
Yes the RT resin one is what I use - and with a spot of blutak you can hold the coupling at the right height as it's glued in place if using Narrow Planet Bosna.
I don't fit loops to the locos, as it makes shunting easier!
You can see a whole range of locos on my blog (http://paxton-road.blogspot.com) - I generally use RT Models couplings (the Penrhyn and Harrogate ones) or the Narrow Planet Bosna that I designed. We were talking about doing another Narrow Planet one with a more British style.
It's also worth mentioning, as I don't think your article did, that the motor in this tiny chassis isn't rated for 12v; it's only rated for 6v if I remember correctly. So anyone intending to build a model around the chassis should probably fit a resistor to avoid burning out the motor. With a poor DC supply you could get away with just being careful with the dial but a modern PWM controller would supply the full 12v in bursts which could easily kill the motor.
The resistor is mentioned in the instructions with the chassis but you are right, I should have put something in the article too as people probably don't read these.
Having said this, the loco seems happy enough on a basic DC supply but it won't last turned up high. Mind you, it looks like I'm going to be able to run the whole layout off a 3V battery as one of the other chassis that should be in use needs hardly any volts...
Maybe I should say it's a coreless motor. That seems to the bogeyman of the day making "modellers" throw thier hands up in horror at the moment.
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