Reo Railbus

[Madman]

I like it also. I also prefer the single color on the awning.

 

[trammayo]

Thanks for your comments all.

 

[trammayo]

Had a go at making a headlight. I used a piece of 1/2" copper pipe (still Imperial sizes here). I made it into a hole punch by filing around the outside to form a sharp-edged chamfer.....

A piece of scrap packaging provided the lense material ......

Then I cut this end off the copper pipe (using tube cutters) leaving a cut with a burr on the inside of the tube. Good practise would normally be to deburr the pipe but I wanted it to remain as cut. Then I cut it again to the right length for my headlight and deburred one end to allow the clear plastic to be shoved in.....

It was quite a tight fit but I carefully pushed it inside and this resulted in a convex shape to the lense ......

A coat of white paint inside for added reflection and it was on to the lampholder.
This was a white plastic screwcover base with the hole slightly enlarged to take the 5mm Led. A hole was drilled to take the wires which were then fed through before soldering to the Led. One this was done, the wiring was pulled back through leaving the assembly ready for the headlight shell....

The last pic shows it lit up. I have set my headlight at a slight angle because I believe the driver would want to see the track.....

So that went well but, when giving it its first coat of paint, I turned the railbus over and the still attached battery holder fell out snapping the soldered connection. I'll have to wait for the paint to dry. A case of more haste, less speed.

The clear plastic was a very tight fit

 

[Madman]

Excellent. A case for using what bits are laying around ones shop.

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Great build, very interesting!

One thing I'm not clear on, is how did you attach the wheels to the power axle? In the photos it looks like the geared axle is much narrower than what the wheels came with.

 

[trammayo]

Excellent. A case for using what bits are laying around ones shop.

Thanks Dan - needs must!

Hi Ray. The wheels are the standard Bachmann product and I just punched the axle through the wheels using a vice to support the wheel (then catching the other wheel with axle before it hit the deck ).
I cut the axle down on the motor/gear unit using a junior hacksaw, removed any rough ends and pushed on the the wheels - the axle diameter being identical. Whilst I knew that the wheels would withstand this treatment, I wasn't so sure that the the gear wheel would remain a tight fit if I swapped over axles (and I would have still had the task of removing a wheel and the axle spacers).

 

[playmofire]

A very effective solution to the lamp problem, Mick.

 

[trammayo]

Thanks Gordon.

The light still works but its the battery holder that's cream crackered. Could have sworn (as I frequently do) that I had a few 2xAA spares - like a bag full - but having searched house and shed ....... I think I'll have to fit a seperate switch.

 

[playmofire]

I'm sure I've got some 2 x AA battery holders. PM me your address and I bob one in the post.

 

[trammayo]

Thats mighty kind of you. However, after my last post, I've ordered some from Component-Shop.co.uk - 22p each + vat (without switch) - and some other bits and bobs. They were far cheaper than ebay and will be a tad quicker than Hong Kong (says he hopefully).

Thanks for your offer though

(I tried to give you some stars but made a mess of that too

 

[playmofire]

Thats mighty kind of you. However, after my last post, I've ordered some from Component-Shop.co.uk - 22p each + vat (without switch) - and some other bits and bobs. They were far cheaper than ebay and will be a tad quicker than Hong Kong (says he hopefully).

Thanks for your offer though

(I tried to give you some stars but made a mess of that too

Always glad to help if I can, Mick. And I seem to have acquired three stars which I don't think I had before, so that must have worked.

 

[tramcar trev]

I like the clever way you made the "Lens retainer".... very smooth...

 

[trammayo]

Apart from spelling lens wrongly, it was a combination of intention and luck! I hadn't the patience to make a bezel and, as I pressed the plastic in, knowing it was a really tight fit, I noticed it begin to distort. As I reached the end of the tube, I liked the effect!

And, as I typed in the above, your stars have increased Gordon (without me doing a thing )

 

[trammayo]

Had a go at making an engineer to drive the 'bus. Chopped up one of the 1/25th Chinese figures (some more on order - thanks to a pointer from Peter Bunce).

I've chopped up an identical figure once before so I didn't get any problems. Superglue really sticks the bits together exceedingly well - the plastic will break before the joint does!

After trimming the shoes, chopping out sections of his thigh, and remodelling his left arm, I added a hat. The brim was cut from a 2 litre milk container and glued over his head. Then I used some modelling clay for the rest. The milk bottle came in hany yet again for the seat back (with ply seat), and conical cap off the superglue was remodelled to make the seat's pedestal.

I made a wedge shaped footboard and a small plywood control panel. I added a brake wheel to the panel. I also mixed a little more paint to touch up with (needs some satin varnish to finish.

He's a bit young looking, but looks better from a distance! Some of the figures on order will be used to populate the carriage portion.

 

[playmofire]

He certainly looks very relaxed about his job, Mick, and a good selection of colours for his hat,jumper and trousers - quite rural.

 

[trammayo]

He certainly looks very relaxed about his job, Mick, and a good selection of colours for his hat,jumper and trousers - quite rural.

Plenty of rural inspiration out here

Anyway, as it is still intolerably cold outside, I pondered what could I work on inside the house? The rear of the ?bus needed lights and I looked around to see what would do the job. I have a number of Switch Lanterns from Aristo points and I figured that they were nearly identical to the lanterns fitted on Aristo cabooses and the like.

First thing to do was to cut the mounting stem and part of the base to decrease the overall height.

I re-arranged the coloured lenses (once you have prised one out it easy to use a small nail and shove the others out from the inside) to give a red to the outside and rear (with a green to the ?inside?) and a hole for the 5mm Warm White Led. The Led was a loose fit, so a drop of CA glue secured the light into the lantern. Then a dab of black paint to obscure the back of the Led.

I had thought of mounting the lanterns at the rear of the roof and made a couple of brackets from some galvanised wire. The bracket would have been secured under the canopy roof and would have cleared the awning. The tails from the Led would have pierced the awning but, as the lantern would have been virtually up against it, the wiring would have been inconspicuous.

However, I thought that the lights might get knocked off during transit, so I decided to fit them at the rear of the saloon. It seems there were no ?hard & fast? rules as to the location of the tail lights ? virtually every US Railbus had them fixed to different parts of the vehicle ? and side-mounted ones would have fouled my loading gauge in the trailer!

What was the best way of fixing the lanterns in position I wondered? Then I decided that a couple of 1mm holes for each pair of tails would do the trick. This was done easily with the help of a pin chuck. So with the Led secure in the lantern body, the tails shoved through and a dab of superglue added, that side of the job was done.

Now they need wiring up. I coloured the positive tails (so I knew which was which) as I might shorten them and clench them over to make them even more secure. When all is wired up, I?ll try and take a picture.

 

[tramcar trev]

Getting more impressive by the installment

 

[trammayo]

You're too kind Trev.

Well I had a go at connecting up the lights (temporarily) to see what they'd look like in the dark (or twilight at least). I took some photos yesterday evening and put them in my file this morning. Internally the saloon has one grain of wheat bulb but will have Leds fitted when I fit the battery box and switch. I'm reasonably happy with it. So here's my usual quality pics;_

 

[lone ranger]

Very nice Mick

 

[tramcar trev]

Splendid!