My Backwoods "Lancashire" has a number of modifications from the original. Some of these are because I couldn't get things to work, some are because I'm just perverse.
- Driving wheels - these have been replaced with the more substantial 2mm-axled wheels which seem to be used in most of Pete's 009 kits nowadays. The originals were the old pattern with 1.5mm axles (Alan Gibson? - not sure). I preferred the new ones as they seem to be more consistent and the more substantial axles are nice and meaty, although they do of course require the cranks to be opened out.
- Compensation - I couldn't get this to work very well, mainly due to lack of patience and an inability to solder properly, and eventually stripped it out and (carefully) fitted the chassis with new 2mm rigid bearings. Replacing the wheels meant I'd have had to do this anyway.
- Pickups - the kit is supplied with plunger pickups. I think these are also from Alan Gibson. It's a decent setup and I did get it all to work OK, although I ended up with quite a lot of wiring around the chassis. However, the new wheels are live on one side so they were whipped out and replaced with a simple PCB square with a phosphor bronze wire wiping on the drivers at one side. It's mounted on a hefty piece of brass soldered across the frames and tapped 12BA. You may notice in the photos that it has a second 0.8mm hole drilled through both - this is to take a locating pin to stop the PCB wobbling about and causing mysterious shorts (as if that would happen....).
- Valance - one of the footplate valances is original, the other is a replacement made after its original was destroyed in the making of "Adventures With A Resistance Soldering Unit - why it pays to read the manual". Hint - high amperages can vapourise thin bits of brass.
- Trailing truck mounting - I turned up a little boss to fit between the training truck arm and the cross member on which it's mounted to allow it to swing freely. I guess a suitable washer/bearing combination would do the same. You can just see it in one of the photos.
The current ensemble from above. You can
just see the pickup wiper wires.
The ugly details beneath, in which you can just see the trailing truck mounting boss.
Slightly disorientating shot of the chassis from beneath, showing new wheels and ugly green flux stain where I forgot to clean the pickup mount.
The current ensemble from above. You can just see the pickup wiper wires.
The ugly details beneath, in which you can just see the trailing truck mounting boss.
Slightly disorientating shot of the chassis from beneath, showing new wheels and ugly green flux stain where I forgot to clean the pickup mount.
3 comments:
Great Blog Chris...Very intersting content! You are the second modeler I've heard about that has removed the compensation from a Backwoods X-4-X kit... Sounds like the system needs a redesign.Thanks for taking the time to post your work.
Jeff - I think it was more my construction than the design that was at fault (in this case, anyway). If I remember rightly, I had trouble getting the nickel silver fulcrum wire to solder into the front chassis spacer correctly. I then left it for a while and when I came back to the kit, it was to replace the wheels. The new 2mm bearings were a nice fit into the existing bearing holes (i.e. the ones which originally allowed movement) so in they went, and the chassis was soldered up rigid on a piece of glass. The 2mm axles are much nicer to work with than the old 1.5's, even if it means enlarging the crank holes to a scary extent.
Well what you've done looks great...I'm building "Canopus" right now, and I changed out the drivers for something smaller, with a 2mm axle. I haven't had a lot of luck with 1.5mm axles for locomotive drivers. No matter how hard I try they tend to bend when pressing on the wheels and counterweights/flycranks...
Post a Comment