blog.jerm.ca

Due to work delays and a much needed vacation, blog service will resume this Friday.

ERIF QGPGQ

Whoa. Double update, all the way!

Two projects for one post, that’s not a bad ratio. In fact, as I’m writing this I’m also working on another build. Go me.

Continuing on in the build log of the new locomotive (No.4); once the chassis/frame was completed it was time to move on to the structure with the plan of continuing building the sub assemblies, then paint, then assemble. The cab went together as easily as the chassis/frame did, except that I had a lot more right angles to get… well, just right. Bigger pieces, too. A set of square clamps intended for just this purpose helped things along. The cab is a simple construct with a front and front sides and a back with two very small sides for it, as well. The back-sides were the most difficult to attach with the clamp on account of their small stature.

This cab is the first I have with spectacle style windows. Like the rest of the pieces, these too are laser cut and very crisp, requiring only a minimum of trimming and filling. The spectacles themselves are white metal castings. There’s quite a few such details on this model, including the axle boxes, grill, exhaust and control panel. I spent some time that day cleaning up the castings and while they did require more cleaning up than the plastic components, it certainly wasn’t an ordeal. The kit also seems to come with cast handrails for the cab, but also separate and distinct brass fittings for the same purpose. I suppose I’ll probably opt to use the brass for a cleaner appearance and also just for having the brass. Brass is to railways what chrome is to cars.

A second project (though completed at a different pace, chronologically speaking) is a flatcar based on what I hope to be a prototype for a standard chassis. As I’ve mentioned before, as much as I love the Ezee range of rolling stock, it is diminutive, even by narrow gauge standards. To remedy this, I’m setting about building my own wagons and the first step in doing so is to design a chassis that is standard for everything I build (except where not applicable).

The chassis is a pretty simple design based off an article in Garden Rail by John Rogers (Bodgelling For Beginners, May, 2008). It’s basically five pieces of plywood – two solebars, two buffer beams and a floor. The hardware, surprise surprise, is all from I.P. Engineering. What can I say? I’m a sucker for a great manufacturer.

I’m immensely pleased with how it turned out but it’s not exactly the same as the subsequent design. Instead of having the floor of the wagon a key structural piece of the chassis, I’ll be assembling using three frame spacers in it’s place; one in the middle and one at each end, behind the buffer beam. I think if I’m going to make several of these chassis – which I will – I’d be best off to build a jig. So that’s the next step. I have the hardware to build two more wagons and to evaluate the chassis design one will be a covered van and the last a simple coach.

Simple, by my definition, will include internal lighting and seats, I think.

But nothing ever really is simple, is it?

IP Engineering seems to hold a monopoly on rolling stock and locomotive sales to the CSLR. Some might wonder if there’s an exclusivity agreement in affect, negotiated in some shady Turkish cafe. But the truth is that IP make a fine, quality product at a fine price and I believe in supporting good businesses. So it will be of little surprise to anyone that under the Yule/Christmas tree was another IP Engineering kit. Only this one is made of something called “plastic”. A strange, pliable yet stiff material that bonds with a noxious smelling cement. All smart-assery aside, this is the first kit from IP I’ve assembled that isn’t laser cut wood. I had some concerns about that initially; working with wood is quickly becoming second nature to me. But so far…

So far I’m loving the plastic all over again. The latest offerings in IP’s Ezee line (which is wood based) come with the laser cut pieces still attached to the sheet leaving the customer to seperate them by cutting strategically placed sprues. I wouldn’t necessarily call the procedure difficult, but it’s not easy, either. The little tabs of plywood can be surprisingly difficult to cut through. In plastic it’s a whole other story and the knife slices easily through the sprues. For that reason alone I’m already loving this kit.

The kit? Oh, this won’t do. I’ve gone two paragraphs and I haven’t even mentioned what the kit is yet. As much as I love the Ezee range, the models are small even by narrow gauge standards. The kit in question is IP’s Lucy – a small, but larger locomotive in SM45. This represents a move up to a more standard loading gauge that resembles a real, operating railway and not a park train or an estate line. The Ezee range coach, for example, scales to roughly five feet high on the side. Following the philosophy of there’s-a-prototype-for-everything, I’m positive that somewhere at sometime there was such a small vehicle in revenue service (which I represent), but something that small is more likely to be found brightly painted and trundling around the local zoo.

Back to the build…

No.4 (name to be determined) is being built in chunks into sub assemblies each time I visit my parents on Sunday. Since this is a larger build and just a little more elbow room is required this makes sense and I’d rather have everything concentrated in one place, especially when it comes time to paint (an activity for which my apartment is not suited for in the slightest). The first subassembly was the chassis and the frame. Most – actually, all – kit’s I’ve put togethor at this point have had the axles ride on bearings inside the axle boxes (journals) themselves. No.4 is different in that the axle boxes are merely decorative. To that end there is an inside chassis and an outer frame (my terminology). The axles ride on inside bearings mounted in the chassis while the axle boxes are mounted on the sole bars of the frame at the same spacing as the axles. I made a small error in this assembly (while following instructions, I might add).

Chassis and frame, presented in an inverted state for illustrative purposes.

The included documentation instructs to set the sole bars 10mm back from the edge of the frame. Following this, I found that left far too little room in between for the wheels and had to break the fresh weld to reposition them. I’m going to be documenting this build weeks behind actuall progress and because a few weeks have passed since I completed this step the details of the incident have faded some. But I believe the reason for this mistake is that the instructions are written assuming you’re building the kit to 32mm gauge and not my 45mm gauge. Don’t hold me to that, but that spacing would give ample room for a 32mm axle.

Next step: The cab

End note: Also, I found at the bottom of a box the alligator which I thought I hid out in the garden two years ago and haven’t seen since; presumed missing.