DJH model building

[Walkingthedog]

I like the humour. I guess if you don’t laugh about your mistakes you’d throw the model out of the window.
Keep it coming and I look forward to the end result.

[one man and his dog]

So since I last wrote what has happened? Tidings of gladness and great joy, I've had my first covid jab!

Now to more mundane things. The copper rivets turned up, they were a bit long but copper is soft enough that it was very easy to nip off the excess length using side cutters. Also peaning over the ends was easy and if it was slightly overdone a bit of oil and moving the parts soon had it loose again. So much easier then using the rivets supplied by DJH. My one concern is that being copper will they wear quickly? I'm hoping to avoid that by using lots of oil! Now, another point. With each set of valve gear, 6 rivets are required. Two for the bit between the crosshead and the radius rod, two for the bit between the radius rod and the crank on the driven axle, and two more to connect these assemblies to the radius rod. It's these last two that were "interesting". How the thump can you rivet the ends over when the radius rod is already soldered to the model? For the first side I gripped the rivet in a pair of pliers then squeezed with all my might. All I can say is they are working even though metal theory clearly indicates that this should not work. I short rod in compression should bulge in the middle, not at the ends, but it worked. For the other side I did something totally different and a lot less scary. I used 1mm brass nuts and bolts. Drill out the holes to 1mm, put bolt through the holes with the bolt head on the inside, spin on the nut to get just the amount of play you want, apply solder to bolt and allow to run into the nut/bolt interface. When cool snip off excess length of bolt and file flush. Worked fine and you'd have to have pretty good eyesight to see that the nut looks a bit big. Definitely the way I would go if I was ever doing this again but I'd get 0.8mm bolts next time. I've checked and they are available.

I've also put the body on the chassis and checked that everything runs, finally I've worked my way through the last of the parts list and added all the delicate little bits that I decided to leave to the end. I've put on the Ramsbottom valves, and the steam pipes. I've left off the headlight because originally she didn't have this fitted. What I have not fitted are the brakes. The reason for this is - the instructions say nothing about the brakes until the very end. The very last line, before the instructions for the Tender, "Fit brake gear (89) x 5 pairs being careful that they DO NOT touch insulated tyres." Now this seems a bit strange to me, the chassis has already been painted, the wheels fitted, how can I ever solder on the brake shoes with paint and wheels in the way? With hindsight I should have fitted the brake shoes before painting and before the wheels were fitted. I'd fit one wheel each to two axles, slide these axles in then solder the brake shoe between them. If they contacted the tyres then a bit of heat from the soldering iron and they could easily be adjusted. Repeat as required. Another lesson in case I ever put myself through this experience again.

So what next? I've ordered a DCC chip and some phosphor bronze wire for the electrical contacts to the wheels. The kit came with some bronze strip which appeared far too flimsy to me to be any use. If anyone else knows how to get it to work I'm interested! Currently the model is in my shed waiting for some Araldite to set. The motor didn't have any way of fixing it to the chassis, fine in one direction but in the other the motor rotated about the axle which isn't very prototypical! It's now araldited down to the chassis and I hope it holds when the glue has set. I used the same glue for the pick up board and any balance weights that had fallen off after I first tried with UHU. Next time I wouldn't bother with anything other than Araldite.

That's all I've got for you now, hopefully I'll be able to let you know how she runs on the track in about a week.

[one man and his dog]

Well I worked through the last of the instructions, soldered on every detail I could and fitted the electrical contacts to the insulated wheels. That was a bit of a game. I had some 1mm phosphor bronze wire and that was too stiff. I had some 0.4mm phosphor bronze wire for handrails and things and that was too flexible so in the end I glued on two more contact strips so each wire only had a short span to cover.

I was going to attach a picture but for some reason my computer isn't recognizing my camera. I then purchased a DCC chip with sound, speaker and stay alive capacitor. Soldered it all up then took the model upstairs to see how it ran. It ran but without any sound! No idea why not, Digitrains always test their chips before sending them out so I was pretty confident the problem was my end but I couldn't fathom out the cause. Anyway, I ran the loco until it derailed and the reason it derailed was because the valve gear Crank Rod had detached itself from the wheel. Solder it back on and try again. Same result. Solder it back on and watch very carefully when running the loco. Something is wrong. Further investigation and it is apparent that the body is fouling on the Radius Rods! I cut off the offending spurs with side cutters. Replace body and it is fouling the Expansion links causing them to jamb. Cut the top off the Expansion links. The Crank rods are still removing themselves from the wheels and they have been resoldered so many times that it's all a bit of a mess. OK, desperate situations call for desperate measures. I remove the cranks and expansion links completely. She runs a lot better now and suddenly the sound card starts working. Things are looking up, I attach the tender. She runs OK but there is definitely a tight bit somewhere in the running gear but I can't determine where, also she's coming off the track a bit too much. Then the wheels stop working but the sound card carries on. What is even odder is that I can propel the loco by hand! There's a worm gear on the motor so how on earth is that happening? Pack it in for the night.

This evening I remove the body to have a look inside. The worm on the motor shaft has disappeared. No wonder I can drive it by hand! I can't find the worm on the track and even if I could how could I get it back on securely? I could get a new motor (£82.50) but to get it installed I'd have to remove the third axle which means removing the con rods and how on earth would I do that and get them back on and working correctly. Faced with having to buy another kit complete with wheelset and motor (£386.87) I made an executive decision.

I quit.

If anyone else is thinking of going down this path I'd make two suggestions.
1. Get photocopies of all the assembly diagrams so you can scribble on them and have them available to see while also having other bits of the instructions available without having to keep riffling through all the paperwork.
2. Do NOT follow the instructions. Decide which bit is the most robust and solder that on then move onto the next thing. I've already described the situation with the brakes. If I was to do this again, and I'm not going to, I'd fit the valve gear last of all, possibly even leaving it until the painting is done.

I know DJH have a good reputation, and the instructions may be adequate for an experienced modeller but I'm new and I found them inadequate in a number of ways. DJH may not mind too much losing one customer but without new modellers coming on stream how is the hobby going to thrive?

Hope that helps.