Locosnstuff

Useful Bits

Small Diesel Coupling Boxes

By request I drew a copy of the coupling box used on Simplex locos, it is 4 slot and a 0.7mm pin goes through the hole to hold the coupling link in place.  For prototypical industrial use, fiddly and no auto coupling, but they do look right.

The two on the left show them straight from the printer, the one on the right has been filed flat to remove pips and the hole cleared with a drill.  They measure 12mm wide, 10mm high and 3mm thick, £1.00 a pair.  I can make other types if there is a need.

Dick Kerr PE axleboxes

Designed for use with the Worsley Works etches and 3D resin printed, available in 7mm scale or 1/35th.

Set of 4 for £2.00

Diesel parts

Taken from my Hudswell D29 kit, they are useful on any diesel and I have used several for detailing other diesels with no cab interior.  These are straight from the printer with attachment points still showing, they can be filed or sanded flat.  These are in 7mm but they can be made in any scale, I already have drawings for 16mm ones.  Prices are from £5.00 a set and vary with scale, you can have individual parts if you want from £2.00.

Garratt cylinders

I call these Garratt cylinders as they were drawn for a Garratt I am scratch building.  They suit large locos as they measure 14mm across the end covers, the cylinder part is 12mm diameter and height of the valve inspection cover is 15mm.  Location is with 2 pegs on the rear, just drill holes in your frames to suit.  The 3 pegs underneath are automatic drain cocks, quite common from the 1920s onward.  These were designed for a chassis with outside frames, I can make an extended version for inside frames by adding 1.5mm to the mounting face.

Garratt cylinders with brass tube for piston rod £6.00 a pair

I have suitable single slidebar crossheads to fit these at £4.00 apair

Wheel Fitting Jig

Like many others I always struggle to get wheels onto axles, plain axles are not so bad as they can be done in a vice, pinpoint axles being the worst as you have to not damage the points as well.  I often take 5 minutes per axle gently tweaking the wheels to get them square and to gauge so I thought about some kind of jig to do the hard work.

A one shot jig that assembled both wheels in one go would be nice but a different one would be needed for every gauge, and I deal with 7 or 8 gauges so this is the next best thing.  You get a base plate that mounts in a machine vice and a spacer for each gauge you use, the standard kit will come with 16.5, 14 and 12mm spacers.  To use it you will need a vetical drill, vertical mill or an attachment that fits a lathe, and a suitable machine vice to hold the base plate.  It works like this -

1 - Fit the axle in the chuck and lower towards the base plate, lining the point up with one of the drillings.  2 - Place the spacer with a wheel on top over the drilling and bring the axle back down pushing it throughthe wheel and spacer into the drilling until you feel it bottom out.  3 - remove the axle and refit the other way round and repeat step 2.

The wheels should now be fitted squarely and to gauge.  Note that this only works with standard 26mm pinpoint axles and wheels of 2.5mm thickness, which mine are.  For other axle lengths or wheel thicknesses different spacers will be needed which I can supply by calculating from the axle lengths, wheel thicknesses and gauge.  There are 3 drillings in the base plate, this is because they will wear in time and this gives you 3 times the length of use of the jig.  Also some might find it better to solder the spacers permanantly above a drilling, then you can have 3 gauges per jig.

From the 4 pictures you can see the first wheel lined up and ready, after fitting it, the second wheel being fitted and the wheelset shown being checked on a vernier gauge, fortunately it was a 14mm gauge set I was hoping for.  When you first try it, it might take a few minutes to do the first one, when you get the idea they can be done in less than 30 seconds each.

I can supply these for £12.00 each with extra spacers foc if ordered with the jig

Locosnstuff is owned by Mark Clark of 12 Adelaide Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 4NJ, UK

You can contact me at borsig1958@gmail.com anytime or on 01634 575081 before 8pm