Am a bit frustrated with gear problems at the moment so decided to vac the layout and railway room. Emptied the bag on the vac first so that anything in it would be only from the layout or floor. Afterwards when sifting through the bag found dust, fluff, bits of solder, small pack of small screws, bits of polystyrene, 4 dummy point motors and wait for it - yes just one coupling spring. That I think only because I had tacky waxed it to a coupling. Where have all the others gone? One of lifes (modelling) well documented mysteries.
Dave
One tip I picked up was to dip the end of the spring in a blob of superglue and then stick it to the little pip on the coupling.
Quote from: ESPANTRAINFAN on December 19, 2013, 10:17:58 AMWhere have all the others gone? One of lifes (modelling) well documented mysteries.
Dave
You never heard of the Carpet Monster, Dave............. ;)
Quote from: Dorsetmike on December 19, 2013, 10:22:20 AM
One tip I picked up was to dip the end of the spring in a blob of superglue and then stick it to the little pip on the coupling.
I spend part last night doing the very same to a full HST rake as part of the re-livery project that I'm working on. That's one less rake to worry about. :)
Those coupling springs look massive to me now after getting to grips with the Dapol Easy-Shunt springs!! :goggleeyes:
Cheers Jon :)
Mike,
I had heard of glueing the springs to the couplings but somehow I read superglue but my brain heard epoxy resin, in its more famous brand name, and couldn't be bothered. Problem being having to mix a bit for every spring and doing one loco at a time or having lots of locos/rollong stock stripped and mixing a lot of glue. A recipe for disaster I thought. Anyway thats why I used tacky wax but I'm not sure it would work on every occasion. I will use superglue next time. Doh!
Dockshunter,
The Carpet Monster must be going through ecological change. I don't have carpet in my railway room and in fact none in the house, just a few rugs, because of living in very dusty Spain. Maybe I will have to re-home him with one of you who have carpets. Only thinking of his welfare of course LOL.
Jack,
Seeing as my stock isn't doing much rolling at the moment I might have to start a rolling programme of gluing springs/couplings.
Jon,
I've got enough problems with springs etc this size! Maybe I'm overdue for a visit to Specsavers. The nearest one is only 150 miles away in Benidorm!
Thanks for the replies guys. Some made me smile others gave me support - like a well made truss - so I'm told!
Ah yes, the incredible flying springs, in pursuit of which we indulge in 'Spring Chasing' - the railway modeller's favourite sport...
By way of a possible solution (and one which I have used after loosing several of these expensive little items)
When assembling couplers (especially the MTL variant, I have found that it is ALWAYS helpful to place a white or cream -coloured DOUBLE BED SHEET over both the table /workbench one is sitting at and the floor in the immediate vicinity.
The Sheet acts as both a 'neutral' backdrop and, because of its large size, as a 'catcher' for the 'escapees'.
As we know, the springs can fly for a considerable way, but, being copper, and of a copper colour (at least in the case of MTL couplers), show-up well on the sheet when they tire of flight and land.
At that stage one merely (but carefully) looks and retrieves the errants.
Hope this helps.
The easier way of taking couplings apart is by using a large freezer bag, put your hands and coupling inside, no need to upset the misses by using a bed sheet. :D
fKomata,
Thanks. a good idea but the missus wasn't impressed. I keep getting her thinking she's going senile by taking things she's "sure I left it there" to my railway room anyway! I think they probably fly a little bit further anyway and end up under cupboards and the layout etc. I think we probably need to place ourselves in a bubble of some kind. Mind you I'm sure a lot of people think railway modellers live in a bubble anyway.
Jack,
I think I can get away with taking a freezer bag once in a while. I tried that tip the other day but hadn't got a freezer bag with me so used a bag which was about 9 inches long by 3 inches! Not easy but it did work.
At some stage I'm going to make a spray booth from a big plastic storage box and an extractor fan. Maybe I can put some hand size holes in the lid which would otherwise not be used and take things apart inside the booth. Remembering not to have the fan on of course.
Dave
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=6767.0 (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=6767.0)
:thumbsup:
Paul
:hellosign: Paul,
:thankyousign: for the link to your excellent tutorial. Yours was the tutorial I had seen and amendeded in my brain to read epoxy resin! I actually glued some springs to couplings last night but just laid the spring and coupling on the sheet of glass I use for soldering on. Of course they also stuck to the glass but came off quite easily. the couplings The next ones I adapted your idea slightly and put the coupling in my mini bench vice.
The next problem I have is with getting the springs to stay in the pockets while putting both halves of the loco together. I have has springs that have gone outside the pocket without my noticing and becoming damaged. Now that the spring and coupler are joined this is slightly easier. :idea:Thinking ahead If I put the coupler in the vice I can close the loco around the spring. Thats the theory anyway. I'll give it a try tonight and report back
Dave
It adds a whole new meaning to 'Spring Cleaning'. :D
:) LOL. Yes you're right. I hate cleaning. Don't mind ballasting!
Dave
Just experienced this for the first time! Who knows where mine went, last one I got a close-up as it shot past my head over my shoulder. Just as well I didn't really need them on that loco! I might see about getting some spares for safe keeping, just in case though LoL.
RST,
Welcome to the WTPSG Club = Wheres that pesky spring gone!. Spares and Paul's tip above are a good idea. I'm sure it won't be the last time
Dave
Then there are the pesky brushes and retaining springs and brushes! Spent too much time looking for the brushes that wouldn't go into the hole. Whilst on all fours with the torch looking for the brushes found some two coupling springs. Funny couldn't find them when I was looking for them! You know how when you want to use the springs they have rolled themselves together in a heap in the corner of the bag? Whilst I had a few minutes spare I took them all out off the bags and placed them on the end of wooden toothpicks. Saves them rolling together again and you can slide them off the stick into where they need to be
Quote from: ESPANTRAINFAN on December 29, 2013, 10:56:05 PM
Whilst I had a few minutes spare I took them all out off the bags and placed them on the end of wooden toothpicks. Saves them rolling together again and you can slide them off the stick into where they need to be
But they wreak havoc on your fillings :worried:
Bet they would too. What is really wreaking havoc on my fillings is the teeth gnashing and grinding whilst on my knees looking for the pesky things. Lost two fillings this month! I could get a nice loco for the price of two new fillings
Got around to start laying the tiles in my railway room yesterday. I've had them a year and out of sight under a table. I couldn't even remember what they looked like! Marvellous! A mottled sort of copper/bronze colour would you believe. :doh: Now what can we think of that are that colour??!!! No prizes for guessing as the clues are in this thread. :searchingsign: umpteen times ::)
May I ask why you feel it necessary to use capital letters for your topic headings, you must have noticed that no one else does, and on forums using all capitals is looked upon as shouting or an expression of anger.
Just thought you may not be aware.
Robmag,
Yes simply because I was taught at school and later in my Army promotion exams that headings and titles were in capitals. If it offends anyone I will use lower case but I must admit that when I see some posts which don't have capitals when required, in names etc, it does stir me just a bit.
Dave
Quote from: ESPANTRAINFAN on January 05, 2014, 03:00:06 PM
Yes simply because I was taught at school and later in my Army promotion exams that headings and titles were in capitals. If it offends anyone I will use lower case but I must admit that when I see some posts which don't have capitals when required, in names etc, it does stir me just a bit.
An interesting reply for sure!
On the internet writing in capitals has come to mean shouting. I'm not sure the history of this, but probably has something to do with the pre-WWW era, when text was not formatted in any way, so what you saw on your computer screen was just plain lower case and capital letters. No underlining, no italics and no colours. So if you wanted to stress something, you'd write in capitals.
The downside to capitals is they're harder to read even though they're easier to recognise (a seeming contradiction but true). Lower case letters can be read faster and more accurately, whereas sentences in just capitals need more processing before they can be understood. So where a single word is recognised instantly, like "STOP" or "DANGER", without processing, you will often see all capitals being used, but rarely in situations where the reader needs to process the sentence to extract meaning.
Using capital letters mid-sentence is a grey area. In my professional writing I have some publishers who insist on it for the names of animal names, while others insist as strongly you don't use them. Strictly speaking it's wrong, in English anyway, but putting key words with a capital letter in the front, such as Song Thrush instead of song thrush makes it easier to see what the sentence is about. I believe German does this anyway, but in English, only for a very few words, mostly proper nouns.
Cheers, NeMo
Hi Nemo,
Yours too is an interesting reply.
I am a dinosaur from the pre WWW era. Or should that be pre www era so that may also contribute to my take on the matter.
My understanding is that a document has a heading in upper case to make clear to the reader of the subject they are about to read whether it is on paper or on a screen.
I agree that the unnecessary use capitals in the main body of a document is wrong and has become recognised as shouting on the internet but I do not see anything wrong with their use in headings.
Anyway I capitulate! I'm from Yorkshire so what do I know about speaking or writing english.
Dave
If it came from army use it probably was shouting.
I'd prefer normal text but it's the content that matters!
Etched Pixels,
Of course the army still has a use for shouting but man management was part of the promotion exam even when I took it!
I agree the content of a post is what matters. I don't know why people need to comment on harmless things like this. For all people know I might have been shouting and angry.
If I was the sensitive sort I might have taken exception to Robmag's post but I'm not and I live and let live.
Happy posting.
Dave