GWR AEC railcar Ultrascale wheels revised pickups

All the chassis is finished and tested and proves to run smoothly at all speeds and over my entire track work, which is not the best laid in the world! I am now going on the re-spray the body shell after the festive season. 

GWR AEC railcar Ultrascale wheels.

Today I collected the wheel sets from Ultrascale, really nice they are nickel silver tyres on insulated centres. 

This does mean I have to make new pickups which in the grand scheme of things cannot be a bad thing. First the trailing bogie was stripped and the new wheels pressed onto the axles. 

A strip of vero board and two vero pins make up the base of the pickups

In the time honoured method a strip of phosphor bronze is soldered. The pins serve two purposes one to locate the board and two the transfer the current to the inside of the bogie.

Doh! School boy error placing the pickups on the underside did not leave enough clearance to negotiate the points without fouling. A revised design has been implemented and clears the pointwork.

GWR AEC railcar con’t

The motors arrive from Finland with a spare pinion, rather than glue the motor as suggested I opted to make a skeletal frame to mount on the existing flange where the brush gear was located. 

The large lump of bar has been replace with a shorter length of lead to allow room for the decoder and the DCC socket has been fitted ready for conversion.

 
The wiring soldered into the respective pins on the Vero board tested with a blank plug on DC, I also added an extra pick up to the trailing bogie time now it’s to insert the chip and program.

 It runs after a fashion but the Lima wheels do not like Peco code 75 pointwork! I have to wait for a few months for my Ultrascale products replacement wheel sets I hope that will stop the clatter over the track.

Buffer beams will be populated with hosed and hooks after the wheel conversion is done.

LNER WD austerity 2-8-0

Another arrival today on Pix Valley is an ex LNER WD austerity 2-8-0, picked up yesterday at the exhibition a reasonable price from Keith’s model railways for £70.  One minor snag was the pin on the tender failed a small length of 2.5mm polystyrene rod purchased for the peppercorn A1 which suffered from the same issue.

After an hours running in this afternoon was spent stripping the loco and hard wiring a chip then fiddling it all back in the boiler, in any case its job done and tested. Running well just a few tweaks to the CV’s I’m considering investing in a SPROG II, but not just yet, if anyone reading has used one I would like feedback.

0-6-0 WD Austerity “Royal Engineer”

Finally it’s chipped and running, the name plates are fitted. Tomorrow is the 32nd Annual Model Railway Exhibition Etonbury Academy, Stotfold Rd, Arlesey SG15 6XS this will be my first show as a helper if anyone reading this is there say hello. Hopefully I can ge a few items off my tick list fingers crossed.

Rawcliffe delivers

Arriving today on Pix Valley is an ex GWR AEC railcar, unfortunately the driver was arrested at the MPD for carrying illegal passengers! The model is Lima which will be re-motored when the motor arrives from Finland. A DCC socket has been made ready for conversion.

0-6-0 WD Austerity “Royal Engineer” and new airbrush

My replacement Gravity Airbrush arrive this morning £14.98 how can they sell them so cheap? Saying that it worked a treat; 3 coats of green on “Royal Engineer”. Detailing the black on the smokebox and running plates took up most of the late afternoon.