Announcement. Chassis Jig

Sorry, all sold out.

___________________

I have been banging on about an announcement for a little while now. 

Well, today is the day, i won't make you wait any longer.

so without further ado.
From
Pine Road Models

Here it is

Chassis Jig

Above is what is included in the box.

After recently getting into building a few locomotive kits. The age old method of placing chassis frames onto a piece of glass to get them flat and square just didn't seem to work to well for me. 

Trying to hold everything together while you solder it up and using the pins to line things up with the coupling rods just didn't seem good enough for me.

There has to be a better way.

I had been thinking about this for a while. There are a couple of chassis jigs on the market but very expensive if you are only building the odd kit.

While driving down the M40 early one morning it suddenly struck me. After lots of thinking and drawing out i found someone to make a prototype. 

Hey, this actually works.

It is made from stainless steel so that fluxes shouldn't attack the steel and is nice and heavy to stay put while you are fiddling.

The Jig comes supplied with 3 pins

The Chassis Jig will take any Chassis up to 25mm wide (including bearings) front to rear axle centers 130mm and takes 1/8 inch axle.

It is ideal for

 3mm scale, 4mm/00/EM/P4

Those of you that build Locomotive kits, these photo's are probably self explanatory. If you take your time and make sure everything falls together there is no reason why you shouldn't end up with a perfectly flat, square and perfectly running chassis.

I have had a batch made to sell, so if anyone is interested in buying one.

 Please contact me via the contact form on the right hand side of this blog.

For the time being i will sell them the old fashion way via a cheque they retail at 

£79.95+£4.50 postage for UK residents.

Outside of the UK Please contact me for postal rates.
I have added a Paypal Button 
Please Note!
Paypal Button is for UK orders only, i cannot afford to send outside of UK for £4.50

They are also available through.

https://modelrailwaysolutions.co.uk/
and now
on eBay here

  

So to more Photos.

The idea. 

Your start point using the hole on the left.

Chassis jig and pins

Place first set of bearings on pins, use one frame side to roughly line them up.

Chassis Jig, pins and bearings

Place both chassis frames and the second set of bearings on the pins and push them through.

If the frames don't sit on the bearings naturally then you have just found how accurate using this jig can be.

File the holes so the frames just slot onto the bearings.

DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING

Use the coupling rods that came with your Loco kit to centre your axle

You can now solder the bearings to the frames

I found it easier to push each frame and bearings to the inside edge of the jig to solder the bearings in place 

I use a 50w Antex soldering iron and 188° solder with plenty of flux

Chassis Jig

You are now ready to solder the frame spacers in place

Chassis Jig

I'm not saying using this jig is any quicker than any other method but it does hold everything flat, square and true.

Any question please contact me on the contact form

I am just a Modeller that came up with an idea to help other Modeller's 

Electrotren, Golden Valley Hobbies, Hornby Hobbies 0-6-0

Well, talk about extremes.

 Yesterday we had a 9F today i picked up this after a little jolly to Weymouth Railway exhibition.

Not knowing a lot about these i was sort of wondering why i had bought it while driving back home. Is it Electrotren, is it Golden Valley Hobbies, is it Hornby Hobbies. The last is what it says on the back of the box

So your asking yourselves, well, why buy it then. If i could answer that question i would but haven't a clue

I thought it might come in handy on a "Light railway" or "Industrial Line"  perhaps one day.

Getting it out of the box (no i hadn't even done that) it actually looks pretty good. A bit leaning towards the "Train set" type of thing but ok.

Lets see how it runs! I have to say, it's very good it has crawled around Pine Road for the last hour or so and has not stalled or stuttered once.

Trawling through Google to find something about them, i then found this  Scroll down the page a bit 

I feel a Project on the Horizon.

I think also there was a similar SR engine with a similar axle arrangement but without getting the "Bible" out i'm not sure ,Class 756???? 

Annoucement soon now, not much longer.

Happy Days.  

A Bachmann special Purchase

The Bachmann 9F

I've been looking out for one of these for sometime now. Not that it fits in with anything on "Pine Road" or "Parkstone" But when Bachmann bought the model out a few years ago i some how missed out on getting my grubby little mitts on one.

Now, when i was little and i mean little, Dad use to carry me down the garden (said when i was little) to watch the Pine Exspress go through, not that i can really remember these family episode but it must have been a sight to see. 

Moving on Fifty or so years..... REALLY!

So, there we are trawling through ebay this week and blow me, there she is No 92233 Pines express. Now, have you had that feeling deep inside when you think OMG i have to have her. Not that i usually get like this but pulling over in to the services as the auction is about to end to see weather she is mine or not is perhaps taking things a bit to far but needs must and all that.

20 seconds..19..18..17....... 5...4..3..2..1" Congratulation you have won this item". Me, walking around Tothill Services with a big smile on my face. (sorry boss, this is the real reason why i was late Thursday night).

Item was duly paid for and a man in a red van delivered her on Saturday morning. Oh what joy. Happy Days!

Isn't she gorgeous. Somewhat out of place on Pine Road but it's my Railway 

Bachmann 9F 92233 at Pine Road

Turns out she originally came from Holt Models and is in as new condition. Suitably factory weathered.

cab and tender

I think perhaps she could do with Donald Beal looking out of the window

Valve gear

and you can't knock this valve gear.

She will live in the glass cabinet with a few other special purchases and allowed to stretch her legs during Happy hour.

Don't forget about the announcement soon to be made unless you are at Weymouth railway exhibition this weekend then you may have already seen it

That's all folk's from a very happy bunny.

Kathy Milatt model maker

I have noticed in magazine "the how to" series of articles are not always self explanatory, a series of photo's doesn't always cover everything, you sometimes get to a certain point and are left scratching your head, How is that bit done then ? I'm not knocking magazine at all they are very good and without them i would not of built Pine Road to the standard that i have achieved.  I am one of those people who likes to watch demonstrations at exhibition. i just find it interested to see how other people do it.

These day's you only have to ask "Youtube" and no doubt someone somewhere has  made a video on just about everything you could have imagined.

I came across this young lady who certainly knows her stuff. definitely worth a look, she has been modelling for some time (settle down now, not that sort of modelling). Her name is Kathy Millat  and shows all sorts of techniques. She also has a blog Here

Parkstone "named"

Well, it's official.

Parkstone has been named at last.

He has done a crackin job on this alluminium sign

Today, something a bit different.

 A friend of mine has been doing this up for the last year or so. I think he has done a cracking job on this Suzuki GS400 twin, especially seeing that most of the original parts are obsolete now.

 Dumped in the back of someone's shed for some considerable time it has come up a treat. The frame and tank were resprayed, new shocks fitted. The silencers are for a slightly newer model but unable to get any originals he had to make do for now.

Sounds sweet as a nut a good job done.

Backscene's

I always find backscene's a bit of an issue, what to do and what will fit. Trying not to have roads running off in to fields and river's end up running in to a house or wall. Trying to disguise this in some way with a tree or such like can be difficult.

Different modellers have come up with various solutions to this over the years, if your good with a brush, you can paint one or some preferred to paint the whole thing gray/blue and some with fluffy clouds added just for effect.

Pine Road had one of the commercially available products i think from international models. but again it was times 2 so some parts of it are repeated, again a problem with the river disappearing into a field. The whole scene fitted in well with a Dorset countryside so an allowance was made.

Then. came along "Parkstone" a real place with a rather exceptional view over looking part of Parkstone Bay and Brownsea Island. Now what do we do.

I had to think about this one, how to get that view on a Layout 3.5 meters long and a backscene height of  250mm above baseboard.

 A chat with a guy who has now become a good pal who turned out to be a phographer, can this actually be done, oh yes it can, he says,  (oh know it can.... moving on) tell me what you want and i will sort something out for you. After a visit to a local viewpoint, (it twas a bit misty that day looking out on them there hills).  i think this has greatly added to the effect, it really looks as if you are looking in to the distance, he came up with what i can only describe as remarkable. Yes it's bits and more bits Photoshoped together.You can find his site Here, he's called Alan
        He knows what you are looking for and also knows stuff about trains. Your not going to get a Bespoke backscene for 30quid but if your looking for something special it's worth looking in to, you'll pay 100 odd quid for an engine but don't leave that backscene at the back, bring out in the open and make it a big part of your layout. You know it deserve's it, what would  it be if  Carlsberg  made one ????


So could this be the age of the "Backscene" well i mean, we had the revelation of "static grass" then we have had Delux materials, a new way of making rivers. Of course DCC, but the poor old Backscene has been left behind (oh dear it doesn't get any better) at the back and in the dark (and probably fed on mushrooms).

These are not the best of picture's but it gives you an idea. Promise to get the proper camera out very soon and take some proper pics, the layout is in front of a window so hard to stop the sun shinning on the lenz. I have some blending in to do here and there but i am very pleased with the way it has turned out.

  

Stone walling

After visiting The Christchurch Model railway Exhibition. There was a layout their that took my fancy.

I have real admiration for layouts where someone has actually built something and taken time to do it."Tan-y-llyn" is one of those layouts. The stone walling really caught my eye, scribed into modelling clay, each brick is then individually painted.

 My phone doesn't take the best of pictures so please excuse the quality but you get the idea. Do i need to say any more other than this is SUPERB

Engines of Pine Road

Hi all

Thought i would share with you some of the engines used on "Pine Road" Actually it's probably all of them. As the layout is based in West Dorset, there are leanings towards the Lyme Regis branch as some of you are already aware.

 This was the first engine i ever built from a PDK kit, with some help from a great friend of mine who set me on the right "track" of building engines. The Adams Radial, now, lets not forget that i built this a long time before any announcement from Oxford or Hornby.  

Adams Radial 3520 at Pine Road

Well if you've built one, you might as well build the other one that was used on the line.

Adams Radial 3125 at Pine Road

your little Terrier courtesy of Hornby No 2662

Terrier

Another Terrier but this time courtesy of Dapol. This runs really well but is extremely noisey.

And the other Terrier

You just have to have one, don;t you. Hornby's crackin M7

I used the excuse that an odd engine may be sneakily borrowed occasionally from th S & D.

It's an Adams 02. This is the one from Kernow, won't say anymore.

There's a pattern emerging here. 

Two Terrier's, Two Radials, Yes, it's another of hornby's M7

Another Adams, but a T9 This thing is gorgeous.

  

Not really in keeping with West Dorset but i couldn't resist.

It only comes out during "Happy Hour"

Drummond Class 700. Again not a regular visitor

It was cheap, so i bought it.

Would you say that a 4F is to the LMS as an M7 is to the Southern

An N Class courtesy of Bachmann and a new chassis. One of my favourite engine's,  This had real problems when i bought her, a virtual strip down and rebuild and she runs like a dream. 

Is this the "ARK" it would appear that they come in pairs on this layout. An Adams ( i like Adams engines) 02. Another engine built by, yes you guessed it, me. I have to say that she creeps around the layout all day long without a stutter, Who needs gear trains, thought that was what connecting rods were for!!!!!

As in previous post there is an Adams B4 on it's way, oh and an Adams A12, now i am looking forward to having a go at that one.

Yes, and the announcement to be made. If you kit or scratch build engine this could be for you.

"That's all Folks"  

Mixed Traffic October 2016

This quarter's 3mm society Mixed Traffic magazine is out.

There is an interesting article by Geoff Helliwell on a new approach to gearboxes and drive trains especially suited to small engines.

John Sutton's article on "Didn't Have a Drawing" makes it up as he went along

Servos for Semaphores by Trevor Lloyd-Lee.

On the midland in BR days.

Another brilliant read. I have to say, it's almost worth joining the society just for the magazine but i don't think it will be long before you are having ago yourselves

Also, The sad news of Bruce Smethen who passed away in July. I had many a book from him otherwise known as Geoff Gamble books. He was a hythe of information and honoured for his modern image modeling.  

Model cars

Found these in our local model shop and couldn't resist.

Made by EFE, we have ourselves a Triumph Roadster 20TR and a rather impressive looking Triumph Vitesse MK11 convertible

For £1.99 i thought it was a bit of a bargain. With the original box in reasonable condition. I can't seem to find out much about them and when they were in production.
Still crackin little models all the same.

A BIG Thank you

Since i started this Blogspot back in April of this year (2016), it was just done as somewhere to post my shenanigans. Some of the "web-forums" are great for allsorts of information, but i found when you post something it has probably disappeared down on page 5 some where never to be seen again.

Well, i would like to shout out a big THANKYOU to everyone that follows this blog.

 After 53 post, (this being number 54) and just over 1000 views and no there not me, i worked that one out i am "chuffed" to bits.

Keep viewing and i shall keep posting my shenanigans on here.

Just to keep the excitement going (contain yourselves now) there will be a big announcement in the next few weeks that could possibly help a lot of us old time modellers. A little project i have been working on.

Well, thanks again all