I recently purchased a Double Fairley from Shapeways and have ordered 2 chassis from Neville at Ndrive but am looking at options as to fit them to the body. from Press Studs to fixing a bolt under the smoke box, is there anybody with any experience of this or similar issues?
Any help would be most welcome.
Happy Modelling in 2020,
Regards,
Ian H
So long as it does not interfere with uncoupling for instance, there are tiny magnets that seem to be used for clasps for pretty much everything these days from handbags to posh boxes of chocolates. With a similarly small magnet or a small iron pole piece paired with it the magnetic field is unlikely to extend far.
I think I've seen them used on model trains for this purpose but they are definitely used to hold down canopies or hatches on RC model aircraft and my son used really tiny ones to hold weapons to Warhammer model soldiers. Other model railway application seen of a friend's layout is a detachable linkage for removable semaphore signals.
I've bought from First4Magnets, but there are plenty of other sources such as eBay.
https://www.first4magnets.com/ (https://www.first4magnets.com/)
When I have built articulated locos using two chassis I built a small frame out of strips of brass for each chassis fixed at the front with the pivot above the worm.
These were in turn fixed to another brass strip that was fixed to the body.
However the main problem when using two chassis is getting them both to run at the same speed, with one going forward the other backwards.
You may also find that the top of the motors on N drive chassis are too high for the loco body.
Brian Meldon
Can you provide the link to the page on Shapeways for this body, please. Then we cab have a look at it.
As Hugh suggests it's a little difficult to advise without seeing the body but as a general point about using press studs these seem to work better when soldered on to a brass structure - like the link between a brass coach body and brass bogie as on Worsley Works kits - and I think that this is to do with the steel springs in the press stud loosing some of their temper during the heating process that results in a more 'flexible' pivot. Another advantage of press studs is that unlike a nut & bolt there will also be a rocking element to the available motion, both fore & aft that will help if the loco is going to be going up and down any gradients and side to side which, if some stops are used, can give the loco body a 3-point compensation system.