Page 23 - May June 2000

crankpins were used as is. For these, the brass bushes supplied with the wheels were carefully filed down to just clear the bearing hole recess in the coupling rod. The hexagonal nuts were rounded to shape by placing both together on a 12BA bolt, held in a pin vice, and filed until they fitted into the coupling rod recess with clearance.
On inspection, I felt I needed to reduce the thickness of the metal at the rear of the flange to get it closer to the P87 profile. Looking for the easy option again, I decided to carry this out by hand using a flat needle file. But this turned out to be time consuming. On reflection I should have made an arbor for the wheels and gently skimmed them on the lathe. The gearwheel was then tapped carefully into place on an axle then the wheels put in place and quartered. I’m happy to do this by eye but a jig might be better for some. A drop of Loctite is recommended as I have known wheels such as these to slip out of alignment. The gearbox had to have a lot of plastic removed around the gear wheel to get the required ground clearance. This has exposed the gear but shouldn’t be a problem.
I’ve never been keen on wiper pick-ups but de-insulating the Sharman Wheels (or any plastic centred wheels for that matter) always needs care. A 36SWG copper wire was soldered (be careful) to the inside of the tyre and wound once round the axle, keeping the wire tight, and soldered to the opposite side of the tyre. Then the wire was snipped off and filed down at each soldered joint so that it didn’t affect the back to back measurement between flanges. There is enough tyre thickness to take solder but please be careful, the application of the iron has to be precise and quick. My advice is to practice on an old wheel first if you are not confident. Years ago I explained this method to Mike Sharman. He’s speaking to me now, but I can understand him not wanting to recommend it. Pools of melted plastic and angry letters come to mind.
on each end of the two shafts which were carefully cut to length using a carborundum disc in a mini drill. Take care with this as it’s easy to make the setup too tight or too slack. Aim for about 1mm free play. I don’t care to use Sunset’s plastic tube to connect motor to gearbox when the distance between them is so short. Unless there’s perfect alignment it can lead to nasty things like vibration and over-heating.
Finally the motion was re-assembled and the Walschaerts eccentric cranks aligned and carefully soldered into place. Most brass locos I have come across have a screw for tightening these but not so this model. It is a nuisance when stripping a loco down.
The tender uses NWSL Proto87 33 ins wheelsets which are insulated on one side only and are thus ideal for the job. A small amount of vertical play was introduced at each bearing using a fine pointed grinding stone in the mini drill again. I have found it a very desirable feature to have independent vertical movement of each wheel in Proto 87. Just relying on the rocking movement of the trucks is not sufficient to hold the track reliably.
􏰃 5 & 6 Ready to Roll
Useful Addresses
1. NorthWest Short Line BOX 423, Seattle, WA, USA
Tel: 98111-0423
E-mail: info@NWSL.com Website: http://www.NWSL.com
2. Sharman Wheels
Glan Henwy, Golan, Garndolbenmaen, LL51 9YU, Wales
Tel: 01766 530773
E-mail: sales@sharmanwheels.co.uk
Website: http://www.sharmanwheels.co.uk
3. Puffers of Pickering
7 Park Street, Pickering, North Yorkshire, YO18 7AJ, England
Tel / Fax: 01751 472762
E-mail: cparrish@dircon.co.uk
Website:
http://www.dataline.co.uk
(soon to be replaced)
4. Proto 87 SIG Rene Gourley Website:
http://www.proto87.org
5. P87 Pages John H. Wright
Website: http://home.freeuk.net/ nmrabr/p87/home.htm
NMRA British Region Website @ John Wright:
http://home.freeuk.net/ nmrabr/welcome.htm
John’s e-mail address is:
johnhwright@nmrabr.freeuk.com
And that’s it. I’m very pleased with the running of the A5. The electromagnets in use on ‘Federal Street’ require precise control of the locos and it has proven as good as my two P87 diesel locos when switching. All can crawl at the slowest possible speed which you need when working with Kadee couplers. As much lead as possible has been added and still have the centre of gravity between the coupled wheels. Pulling power is only around 30 grams but it’s easily enough to lug half a dozen heavily weighted freight cars along the layout.
Finally my thanks to folks on the PRR List and the Proto 87 List for their assistance and support. The internet is bringing us together and that can only be for the good of the hobby.
􏰂 3. NWSL idler gearbox, Universal couplings and steady bar attached to the Mashima 18/33 motor. Balance weights have been added to the wheels.
The gearbox needs to be constrained otherwise the loco will wobble all over the place when running (if it runs at all). This was carried out using a steady bar fabricated form 20 thou brass attached with 12BA screws tapped into the top of the gearbox. The other end was soldered to the motor’s mounting plate (see photo 4). NWSL Universal Couplings were fitted
STOP PRESS
As we closed for press we received the sad news from Jym Phillips that Maurice Sims died on May 17th, aged 83.
Maurice had been involved in the distribution of Roundhouse until quite recently, and is survived by his wife Peggy.
JUNE 2000 23