Friday, August 04, 2006

Quick change on the workbench


Valve Gear
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
With one project leaving the workbench, the space is quickly filled by another. This time I have a 7mm scale, O Gauge rebuilt Battle of Britain. The locomotive is complete, it just needs a little tidying up.

The first job was to have a good look and see what is needed. The most obvious work is with the chassis. Brake gear is loose, valve gear is bent and the paint needs a fair bit of TLC.

The brakes weren’t too bad. It was only the rear shoes flapping in the wind. Soldering didn’t work so some good strong glue did the job instead. With all the paint and dirt plus the mass of brass I was never going to get enough heat into the joint without damaging something. I did replace some wire which makes for a nice solid job.

The valve gear was straightened and then I took the time to fettle it a bit by removing some excess lumpy solder that was present in a few places. Valve gear is very important to the look of a locomotive. If it’s wobbly it looks wrong. On the prototype those rods are big think lumps of steel. Anything bent represented a Very Bad Thing.

Paining comes next, what’s there is lumpy and flaking off – the model has done some miles but with a bit of work it’s going to be ready for many more.

No comments: