7mm Miscellany

[simond]

Yes, Mick, mine too.

I believe they apply a high frequency, high voltage AC over the top of your DC traction voltage with th3 intent of break8ng down any resistance in the chain of connections, and possibly also rattling the armature of your motor too. I presume it’s got no real waft, as frying children went out of fashion back in Herod’s days, but it might perhaps be able to cook the front end of a decoder.

I’ve still got one from my N gauge days. I’ll stick it on a ‘scope just for interest’s sake.

Atb
Simon

 

[Jinty 52]

Peter,

I've just noticed in your earlier post today, you said that the etched chassis in the Scratch build Jinty was by Jim Harris.
In fact it was supplied to me by Jim McGeown of Connoisseur Models a few years ago. He kindly supplied me with two chassis etches.
I still have one spare and one of these days I will check to see if it is suitable for anything else.

 

[Jinty 52]

Hi Simond,
I believe that they superimpose a high frequency signal over the dc current which in the words of the techies, ionises the gap between the wheels and the track, restoring the current flow thereby preventing the loco from stalling. The original version, the Relco was demonstrated on Tomorrows World many years ago.

It can be switched out on my layout and a good test is to run a locomotive at extremely low speed with the device switched out. If the loco stalls (which is rare on my layout), and I switch it back on the loco moves off again. In practice I leave it switched on, but it only activates for a millisecond if a break in electrical contact between the wheels and motor is detected and switches off again once current flow to the motor is restored.

I have over 30 O Gauge locos (I think) mostly built by PAD that use a variety of motors including coreless and I've never had a problem with any "rattling" of the motor armature with the electronic cleaner switched in. However, coreless motors and some of the more modern motors supplied today don't like "feedback" controllers and make strange noises and rattles if you try to run them. I'm pretty sure that "feedback" controllers are not suitable for use with these types of electronic cleaner either.
They won't fry a child, but if you switch it on with no loco on the track it will activate and if you put your hand across the track you will feel it!

Time to get back to the Engineers Inspection Saloon I'm currently building...…..I've only had the Sidelines kit for ten years or so!!!

Mick

 

[P A D]

Then time you not only built it, but time you started a thread on here!

 

[Jinty 52]

I'll think about it...…..

 

[simond]

Hi Simond,
I believe that they superimpose a high frequency signal over the dc current which in the words of the techies, ionises the gap between the wheels and the track, restoring the current flow thereby preventing the loco from stalling. The original version, the Relco was demonstrated on Tomorrows World many years ago.

It can be switched out on my layout and a good test is to run a locomotive at extremely low speed with the device switched out. If the loco stalls (which is rare on my layout), and I switch it back on the loco moves off again. In practice I leave it switched on, but it only activates for a millisecond if a break in electrical contact between the wheels and motor is detected and switches off again once current flow to the motor is restored.

I have over 30 O Gauge locos (I think) mostly built by PAD that use a variety of motors including coreless and I've never had a problem with any "rattling" of the motor armature with the electronic cleaner switched in. However, coreless motors and some of the more modern motors supplied today don't like "feedback" controllers and make strange noises and rattles if you try to run them. I'm pretty sure that "feedback" controllers are not suitable for use with these types of electronic cleaner either.
They won't fry a child, but if you switch it on with no loco on the track it will activate and if you put your hand across the track you will feel it!

Time to get back to the Engineers Inspection Saloon I'm currently building...…..I've only had the Sidelines kit for ten years or so!!!

Mick

Many moons ago, when I was maybe 7 or 8, I was unwell, and confined to bed. I was obviously on the road to recovery as when my Dad got in from work, I insisted he build a layout on my bedroom floor, which, probably after tea, he did. I had a collection of secondhand HD tinplate 3-rail, including the mail coach, whose control switch (15 V AC) he gave me whilst the Duchess of Atholl hurtled around improbable corners at impossible speeds.

For reasons unknown, I put the switch in my mouth...

I remember it vividly. It was one of these.



A memorable lesson, shall we say “it tingled somewhat”?


Simon

 

[oldravendale]

It's this sort of reminiscence which should be documented. It's a tiny part of social history but it's what we all did.

For my part...... I was gifted a Trix Twin layout - well a circuit and single siding - for my 7th birthday. (To my continued chagrin, and he never knew, I lusted over Hornby OO, but I suspect Dad was an operations, not a scale man, and two locos on the same track was a wonderful thing. However, he continued to buy track "for me" and I (or he) eventually ended up with an quite extensive layout. One day he bought a bit of second hand track which had this strange metal slide in the middle. It was one of the operating tracks for the tipper wagon which, coincidentally, I'd been gifted. Sadly I didn't have the operating switch but discovered that, by diverting a pair of wires from the controller I could make work. Which I did. Unfortunately ))) I left the wires connected over a lunch time and, when I returned to my railway, found that there was a significant scorch mark in the newly fitted at great expense lounge carpet.

I borrowed Dad's razor and tried to thin the mark out, but it didn't work. For ever thereafter we had this strange, approx 3" x 2" dell in the carpet by the fireplace. Strangely I didn't get a beating - I believe that, in those days, it was seen as a part of growing up, and boys will experiment, won't they?

Didn't do me any harm, and this twitch is purely coincidental....

God bless you, Dad, where ever you may be.

Brian

PS Apologies for hijacking this thread - and my reminiscence isn't even 7mm.......

 

[P A D]

No worries Brian.

Possibly burning down the family home through miss use of model railway equipment, is well worth the digression. You must have been posher than us growing up, as we only had lino. Would that burn more than the carpet I wonder.

In any case, if your dad hadn't left his toys on the carpet, you wouldn't have been playing with them, so technically it was his fault.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[P A D]

Been away from home all week on the wrong side of the hill near Preston, so no workbench time. However, I came across some photos in my image file of my finally completed LNER Thompson L1. I built it some time ago before I was a member on WT and for those interested the built is written up here:-
Gladiator 7mm LNER Class L1 2-6-4T

To complete the build I added the plates a few weeks ago and here are some shots of the finished article. First a couple of shots of the chosen prototype taken from Yeadon's register. 67742 was the only member of the class to receive the largest BR totem on the tank sides, although only had if for a few months in 1949. To my eye, it looks much better than the smaller one applied to the rest of the class, which looks lost on those big tank sides.




There's no shed plate in the above photo so that's how I've done it.




At the time of building it, I came across Scale7JB's wonderful build on here, which was quite inspirational. My only regret with mine is that in attempting to modify the assembly of the valve gear to set if in forward gear, I encountered problems and took the easy option and put it in mid gear as designed. With outside valve geared tank engines, I might build one some time with one side in forward gear and one in reverse. You can't see both sides at the same time, so with a tank engine it will be in the correct setting more often than having both sides the same. That said, I did add the cut out in the running plate above the expansion link for it to pass through, instead of cutting off the top of the link above the pivot as suggested in the instructions. You can't see it in the photos, but the movement is visible as the loco passes by.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[LarryG]

Funny thing about copying a prototype is that the real loco looks correct and the model looks wrong. It's probably because we are used to seeing the small totem on these engines. Lovely model and finish.

As an aside, is there a set curve that O gauge modellers aim for? I mean do they aim their locos to go round 6 foot radius or something that doesn't entail too much hacking?

 

[P A D]

Hi Larry,
Many thanks.

I know what you mean about the large totem. However, I never saw these locos in the flesh and never paid any attention to them in the literature. When I got the kit, I bought the Yeadon volume on the class and looked on the internet for period photos. What struck me was how small the BR totem was on such big tanks. When I saw 67742 I thought it looked better (personal preference), and went with that. I think the dome is not quite right when compared above, but on the tracks it looks the business.

As to the curves, 6ft min radius is a rule of thumb for 0 gauge. My brother's layout biggest curve is just under 6ft and this will go around that easily as well as some of the smaller curves. The smallest curve into the cattle dock is under 5ftand it wont go in there. In the past I tested an Acorn Brittania, Acorn RB Merchant Navy, Acme A4 and Seven Models Duke of Gloucester on the big curve and they all went around OK. They were of course an indulgence on my part and too big for Mick's railway and were all sold to fund other purchases. I still have my Gladiator Dutchess, Finney 7 A3 and A4, but my intention is to sell these also. Let's face it a Pacific on a branch line terminus doesn't work and they barely cleared the run around point.

Between us, Mick and I have various 0-6-0s, 2-6-2s, 2-6-4s, 2-6-0s and a Black 5, and they all negotiate all of the curves, apart from the bigger locos which don't like the smallest one. Some filing behind cylinders etc was needed on some of the bigger outside cylinder locos, but nothing untoward.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[LarryG]

Hi Larry,
Many thanks.
As to the curves, 6ft min radius is a rule of thumb for 0 gauge. My brother's layout biggest curve is just under 6ft and this will go around that easily as well as some of the smaller curves. The smallest curve into the cattle dock is under 5ftand it wont go in there. In the past I tested an Acorn Brittania, Acorn RB Merchant Navy, Acme A4 and Seven Models Duke of Gloucester on the big curve and they all went around OK. They were of course an indulgence on my part and too big for Mick's railway and were all sold to fund other purchases. I still have my Gladiator Dutchess, Finney 7 A3 and A4, but my intention is to sell these also. Let's face it a Pacific on a branch line terminus doesn't work and they barely cleared the run around point.

Between us, Mick and I have various 0-6-0s, 2-6-2s, 2-6-4s, 2-6-0s and a Black 5, and they all negotiate all of the curves, apart from the bigger locos which don't like the smallest one. Some filing behind cylinders etc was needed on some of the bigger outside cylinder locos, but nothing untoward.

Thanks, this is very helpful indeed, although the 6' radius thing was something I suspected. Ellis Clarke Trains test all their used locos on this radius. If I am to buy secondhand kit or scratchbuilt locos, I would have to set aside 12 feet of garden for a 6' radius loop. Going around the perimeter of the garden would take up far less ground but would involve a number of lifting flaps. They in themselves would not inconvenience Mrs G., but neither would they please me if one was left up in the path of a train! So it looks like I will have to limit my purchases to r-t-r which will go around Peco settrack (3' 4" radius or thereabouts).

When it comes to choosing the unusual, I once painted a commission for a well known shop and the shop owner could not sell it afterwards because it was in full GCR livery but it carried the early short-lived L & N E R insignia. It was correct, but no one wanted it.

 

[simond]

would have to set aside 12 feet of garden for a 6' radius loop.

You’d want about 6” more...

I believe the “ 6’ rule “ was on the track centreline, though if I can, I aim for 6’ on the inside rail. Probably makes no significant difference, but either way, you need to allow for the width of the stock and any overhang due to the curve.

It’s not difficult to arrange interlocking of flaps with track power, using microswitches, for example, to prevent accidents. Less easy with keep-alive on DCC, but you can limit how long they act for.

Atb
Simon