009 modeller at sea

[duttonbay]

I would have thought that a blackening agent might have difficulty getting through plating. And wouldn't Carr's flux result in corrosion?

[Gerhard Novak]

Blackening of steel parts is normally done by dipping them hot into mineral oil. If you repeat this process 2 or 3 times - and you heat up in between with an open flame -  the chain should be black.
You have to know what the material is - not to overheat it - as you may melt it. I don't know if it works with brass - the chances of melting it are for sure bigger.   
This kind of blackening doesn't lead to the parts sticking to each other and the cover of oxidized oil is also a corrosion protection. 

Don't blame me for any health and safety issues - this is what they taught me at the engineering college in the 70th ....

[tedp]

Thanks, Gerhard - health and safety probably are no concern if you don't repeat the process too often!

Problem now is that the bits of chain are already in the styrene train, so I will probably have to find something else. Or the train will melt....

Corrosion by the Carrs is the least of my worries since it can be countered by washing the compound out of the chain. However, after soaking it for an hour or so I saw no improvement. I think I'll have to risk the paint method suggested by Hugh. I may be able to reduce the sticking by adding a bit of graphite at the end of the drying process.

[tedp]

I tried thinned paint on the chains, but as I expected it will stick the links together. Adding some graphite will unstick the links to some extent, probably better after they have dried for 24 hours. However, I found that a black permanent marker will do much better. I tried it on the second rake of wagons and it works.

Here is one of the second quartet of wagons being prepared. Note the styrene strip on the 'buffer', and PVA glue bolt heads to each side.



After painting the 'rubbing strip' and the bolt heads on the buffer:



Dusting graphite on the strip and rubbing the wagons together will produce a slippery finish looking like steel:



Each chain is five links long. Four might suffice, but I chose five. After having learned the hard way, I decided to mark the sixth link with an indelible marker to prepare for cutting with pliers. In the process I discovered that a permanent marker is better to blacken a chain than paint!



Here is a chain prepared with wire 'split pins' ready for attaching to the wagons. The split pins will be inserted in each hole and touched with a soldering iron to seat them home. A dot of CA gel on the top will secure them:



Finally, I made a short video of the 8-wagon coal train taking up the slack on the main line just out of Inverlochan. There is about 20mm of slack in the entire train - the guard in the brake van must experience some nasty snatches:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG8R8a_INaI

[Gerhard Novak]

Very nice effect. I like the train in your video.

[tedp]

Thanks, Gerhard.

I remembered this wasn't the first chain coupled train I had made. Almost 40 years ago, I had a coal train built of 1970s card train tickets. Several of these ran on Lima N gauge BR coal wagon chassis - the chassis are still around as they were used for 8 of my present-day coal wagons. There was a string of small coal wagons built on Egger and Minitrains skip chassis. Having a lack of N gauge couplings at the time, I connected them into one or two chain-coupled rakes. I just found them, very scruffy and run-down, but typical of my 1970s models. I believe I built these at sea, so they have a place in this thread.

Here is a 1977 photo showing my coal train behind the Garratt in its original guise, on the first version of Rae Bridge. The wagons I refer to are fourth etc from the engine:



And this is what they look like now. I believe they haven't been on the layout for 25 years, but after I fitted N gauge couplings, they ran perfectly:



Note the bent card strips used as centre buffers:



These, also, were connected using cheap jewellery chain. But I'm afraid they are a little rough compared with the new wagons...  ;)

[Krizzy]

Ted, I have used chains on rakes of slate wagons and also a rake of Parkside GVT opens for many years as you have described. I too found five links just about right for the gap between the wagons and the rounded headstocks buffer up to propel them.

Roger

[MickT]

Maybe a little rough - but full of atmosphere and character!

Mick