WHISTLE FOR MY WLLR EARL AND COUNTESS

N

Nibbs

45mm Gauge, 16mm scale narrow gauge garden railway
The one short coming of most ready-to-run live steamers is the lack of a working whistle.
The Accucraft Welshpool locos are beautiful but with all those ungated crossing to cross they need a good whistle.

After speaking with David Bailey at DJB Engineering
(http://www.djbengineering.co.uk/new.html ) he very kindly offer to see if it was possible to fit a working whistle to one. I lent him The Earl and the results was great.

I have subsequently bought a kit and had a go at fitting a whistle to The Countess. It was easier than I thought. I have no engineering skills or special tools but with care I was able to fit it with no problems at all.

Now all I have to do is get a servo fitted to work the whistle from the remote control.

Anyone got any ideas or suggestions?
Cheers!

Keith N. (Nibbs)
 
Keith, yes, it's not too difficult - assuming you have radio control already. If you do, which system?
 
Hi Graham,

Very many thanks for getting back so quickly.

The locos have the system as fitted by Accucraft. It uses the Spektrum AR6100 receiver on the loco and the DX61 controller.
The receiver has three spare channels/sockets labeled AUX1, GEAR and ELEV but I have no idea which of these relates to all the switches and buttons on the remote control.

I am assuming that if I buy a servo and somehow attach it to the whistle lever and plug the servo in one of these spare channels I can operate remotely but I have no idea where to get the servos or how to arrange the linkage between it and the whistle.

Any help or advice you could give would be most welcome.
Many thanks in anticipation.

Cheers!
Keith N. (Nibbs)
 
Keith, Your assumption is correct. I also use the DX6i with an AR6100 on my Lawley.

The servos are sold for any r/c purpose and they will all plug into your receiver and work. There will be as many views on those as there are on what is good and bad about everything else. You will need a relatively small servo as the loads to pull the whistle valve are not high. Then find somewhere to mount it where you achieve the correct throw and make a linkage to go through the hole in the whistle valve lever.

Do you have a model aircraft or boat shop near you? Best is to go and look at a few and tell them what you want to do. Even take the loco. Expect to pay £5 to £20. You usually get what you pay for but not always. I buy mine from ebay and model shops. Metal gears are probably good to have although I use a cheap (£5) and very small plastic gear servo for the whistle on the Lawley because I happened to have one and it works fine. You will also need some fittings and again the best way is to see what they have in the shop. If you don't have a shop, PM me and we can see what we can sort out by post. I have a box of bits. It's quite a challenge to do it by mailorder until you know roughly what you want.

I have an Earl and am just putting r/c in it. The hole in the footplate may well allow you access for the servo linkage, depending on how they have fitted the regulator servo. If you have a photo that would help. They may not have thought about the whistle servo when they fitted your servos. That is why I like to fit my own r/c.

As for which channel, I started by using the gear switch on Lawley but have recently moved it to one of the proportional channels. That means I have better control fo the valve rather than just an on/off switch.

I am a big fan of DJB whistles (and the service from David) but I haven't yet come to terms with the big cloud of steam which will emanate from under the loco.

Hope this helps.
 
Go for the smallest servo you can for the whistle. The whistle valve has practically no resistance to moving, so you don't need a high torque or metal geared servo.
 
Depends if you ever manage to stall it Doug. That was what I did as I was installing. Weak servo, one big stall, dead. Less likely now - it hasn't happened to the second one.
 
Hi Graham,

Thanks again for you prompt reply.
Yes we have a model aircraft shop at Royston (about 20 miles).
Am planning a trip there tomorrow to see what I can find.

I will get the digital camera out and get some photos of one of the locos so you can see how the r/c was fitted.
Everything seems to be quite accessible except for the servos that work the regulator and the forward/reverse mechanism which are in the tanks on each side. To get at these you would have to completely dismantle the loco, but it means the cab is fairly clear and fitting a servo for the whistle should be possible on the off side and yes the hole in the floor is very useful. I ran the pipe for the under floor whistle through it without any problem.

I quite like the cloud of steam that comes from the underneather when you sound the whistle. Looks like Thomas the tank engine on TV where the steam comes up from a hole in the track I think!!

I'll let you know how I get on and will put some photos up when I've done them.

Cheers!
Keith
 
Hi,

As promised here are the pictures showing the r/c and whistle fittings on my WLLR Earl.

The first two show the view from the top side and top back with the cab roof removed. The third picture shows the linkage from the servo in the side tank to the regulator. Picture 4 is the view from underneath showing the location of the receivers etc and the last picture (for Graham) shows the space in the cab under the whistle lever where the servo could be fitted.

Hope these are helpful.

Cheers!
Keith N. (Nibbs)
 
Anybody got any photos of their whistle/servo linkage for the Countess please? There doesn't seem to be a lot of room for a servo.
 
Do I take that as a "No" then? :rolleyes:
 
Hi Bob,
I've been waiting to see the reply to your question too! I believe Mike Ousby (of Acme Engineering fame) has fitted an r/c whistle to an Earl/Countess. I thought I sent him an e-mail asking him for details but I can't find it in my "sent" folder now, which may explain why I didn't get a reply!
Steve
 
Cheers Guys, I'm not sure I'm too much further forward, I was hoping to avoid stripping all the cab and tanks off. Interesting that he used a cable rather than a rod to pull the valve. Might just borrow that idea.
I need to get one or two other projects (not G scale) out of the way and get back to it.
 
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