(This has been a slow burner...)
(https://i.imgur.com/LUo0WGl.png)
Many moons ago (ten years or more) I was helping out behind the Sales stand at a model railway show (in Telford if memory serves correctly. Brian Guilmant mentioned that he was going to get some Atlas "N" Shays, and would I like to put my name down for one? Well, how could I refuse? And a little while later, I was the proud owner of a rather ugly (I thought) N gauge loco.#
(https://i.imgur.com/xEtAY1U.jpg)
I put it in the "pending" box until I decided how to convert it to 009 - and until I had plucked up the courage to take it to pieces.
Then around 18 months ago, Garry Whiting told me of a designer on Shapeways who produced a set of printed parts to convert the loco to H0n30
Prairie Locomotive Works LLC Here is their site https://www.shapeways.com/shops/prairielocoworks?section=Hon30+Coffee+Creek+Light+Shay&s=0 (https://www.shapeways.com/shops/prairielocoworks?section=Hon30+Coffee+Creek+Light+Shay&s=0)
The kit comes in four main "parts"
Bunker - a choice of two (I chose the smaller with flared sides)
Cab - a choice of three (I chose the wooden one)
(front) boiler section - this part is available in steel, which the site recommends for weight - so I go that
Frame - a combination of footplate and boiler. Printed inside this are a number of smaller items that have to be separated; chimney, headlamp, headlamp bracket, turbo-generator and a bell.
I put off sending for the items for quite a while, then decided to give myself an early Christmas present.
The plastic parts were soaked for 24 hours in White spirit, then washed and dried, the steel item was cleaned then primed with metal primer. I was a bit disappointed with the quality of finish of the metal item; it was nowhere near as "sharp" a print as the image on Shapeways shows - and it gave me some grief in the build.
There is also a small print containing an assortment of chimneys and a couple more headlamps.
(https://i.imgur.com/ER2yerN.jpg)
These are the main parts after painting with a base coat; there is very little space inside the cab when it is on the frame, so I decided it had to be painted and glazed before assembly.
(https://i.imgur.com/nDV8SJ8.jpg)
Meanwhile the body of the Shay is held on with four small screws; removes these (and one of the couplings!) and the body lifts off. At each end is an LED and resistor for the N-gauge lights. These have to come off as they can't be used for the H0n30 body.
(https://i.imgur.com/kbkkeLl.jpg)
This just shows the main parts dry fitted and placed next to the chassis.
The frame has four holes supposedly to allow it to be fixed to the chassis using the original screws. I could get only two at a time to fit, so I used the rear two holes. The body is a fairly tight fit on the chassis anyway.
The headlamp prints are designed for lights, so I decide to try to add directional lighting.
(https://i.imgur.com/yJjpIna.jpg)
I stuck in a couple of surface-mount LEDs (prewired!) using Glue N Glaze. I later painted the reflectors white (should have done that first!). Then the lamps were glazed with a skin of Glue N Glaze.
(https://i.imgur.com/1gOy8oV.jpg)
Here we are nearly completed. I managed to break the supplied headlamp bracket, so I replaced it with a piece of styrene strip. As far as I can tell, there is supposed to be a hole vertically down the boiler just behind the smokebox door, to take the wires for the headlamp; it existed only as a couple of dimples on my piece, so I routed the wires around the smokebox and along the surface of the frame next to the boiler body and through a small hole I drilled in the front of the cab.
There is a base for the rear lamp on the bunker - with a proper hole. The wiring for the LEDS meets up in the bunker (which I had half-filled with "Liquid Gravity") along with a 3.3k resistor. Two short fly leads connect to the rear of the chassis where the original rear light was connected.
The bunker is tacked on with a couple of drops of Glue N Glaze - so it can be removed easily required in the future
Very nice, Hugh. I will be checking out the Shapeways site.
Question - Is Glue and Glaze like canopy glue?
Jeff S.
I had problems during the build with the chassis refusing to run when the steel boiler parts was in place - I found that it was shorting out the drive current where the conductors stand proud of the chassis just in front of the front flywheel. Unfortunately, a layer of sticky tape was not enough and I finally resorted to raising the body by 2mm from its allotted position on the chassis. The knock-on from that is that the couplings are lower than they should be. Oh well...
Quote from: Jeff Schumaker on February 11, 2021, 14:34
Very nice, Hugh. I will be checking out the Shapeways site.
Question - Is Glue and Glaze like canopy glue?
Jeff S.
It's a white glue-like substance that dries clear; you can pull it across small openings (up to about 6mm?) and with care the skin stays put and dries, forming a window. I use it to stick clear plastic for glazing windows. Plus it's a good general purpose adhesive which I find sticks metal, plastic, wood and paper.
Thanks, Hugh. It sounds a lot like canopy glue.
Jeff S.
Somehow I feel Shays are wacky enough to fit nicely into Angst-Lesspork - am I right?
Quote from: Tom Haythornthwaite on February 11, 2021, 17:41
Somehow I feel Shays are wacky enough to fit nicely into Angst-Lesspork - am I right?
It _is_ steam! and I do have soft spot for these sort of locos!
:)