Entry posted by Jon020
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I really must find a taller driver
Cabbing it
A few weeks ago I decided to try to do something about the void that is the interior of the cabs. Normally, once the bodyshell is attached with the glazing, not much is visible, but I think that some resemblance of the bulkheads would be good to have. Then whilst browsing a well know auction site one evening I found a photograph of some 7mm Deltic cab detailing components for sale… and this formed the basis for my idea. I de-bodied one of my earlier deltics (55008) which with the 21-pin chassis and lights has a rear cab bulkhead… and whilst the accuracy of this is somewhat questionable, I knew that it fitted well, so the shape could be a template. I cut a similar shape from thin plasticard, and added a second layer to give more strength as a laminate. I then cut out and attached a thicker centre section to represent the cabinet section… onto which representations of the cabinet doors were added, plus a few other details all in plasticard. The doors into the engine room were etched into the plastic and holes drilled to represent the windows. Short sections of tube were added and filed/drilled to represent the window surrounds. The base of this was shaped to sit over the bogie spigot housing and flat sections fitted into the bottom upon which the bulkhead would stand. Small chamfered sections reinforce the attachment.
Forward bulkhead sections were crafted in the same way and attached to the front of the flat sections… and finally the representation of a folded curtain added to the bulkhead behind the driver… made from a plasticard strip scored and cut and bent to represent the curtain folds… it’ll do! It’ll need a little trimming to ensure a good fit and allow the body to sit properly on the chassis, but my intent is to leave these a tight-ish fit so that they can be lifted out when the body is removed, to allow better access to the bogie spigot screws in case these need to come off again.
Picking my bogies’ details
I then started on the bogies. The first challenge was to source some better brake cylinders. Much has been mentioned of the moulded offerings on these and the class 37 bogies and they really could be better. The option I plumped for was to source some Hornby class 50 bogies (Abbiegails) and use the cylinders off those. These are easily removed, just carefully prised away from their bogie sides with a sharp blade and put away for safety. Unfortunately, I found that I’d need three class 50 bogies to cover two class 55 bogies (!) The front cylinder on the class 50 is buried inside the bogie step and therefore not useable; now my Illustrious needs some more cylinders!
To remove those on the class 55 bogie takes a steady hand and very sharp blade. I didn’t enjoy this task as the plastic is quite soft and doesn’t take to being sanded very well… the sharp blade won through in the end though. I then also drilled out the brake actuator lever slot… which is quite shallow on the Bachmann bogie: Drilled out with a 0.6mm drill and carefully filed with the point of a needle file to shape. Eventually these were back filled with a slither of plasticard attached to the back face. To fit the cylinders, realising that glue may not hold to this plastic well, I drilled a 0.65mm hole to accept the front spigot of the brake cylinder (having cut the other one off)… enabling a tight fit that the glue would secure well.
I attacked the front of the bogie, removing the moulded nudge bars and re-profiling the front of the cast frame to allow the fitting of the etched towing brackets. Finally, the class 50 bogies relinquished their nudge bars and these were slightly reshaped and glued into the front slots on the bogie face. I’d almost be persuaded to consider some steel T section to bend into shape and attach for these… but the difficulty I had plasticising this on a bit of flat steel led me to decide that this may be too tricky to try with my limited skills… and whilst I thank those that offered their advice, I opted for the easier route and used the plastic ones… which are (at least) far better in positioning than the Bachmann moulded offerings… although they won’t be as robust so some care will be needed. Chris Pendleton’s sprung class 55 bogies (MRJ##) are excellent… but this is several steps away from what my meagre skills will be able to emulate. Still, there’s always weathering to distract the viewer and thereby hide various imperfections ;-)
To finish off the brake cylinders, the hydraulic pipework needs to be represented. For this I drilled a 0.35mm hole into the front face of each cylinder… near the inside edge, and inserted some 0.25mm steel wire.
Once the cylinders were installed, these wires were bent to shape and secured on the inside face of the bogies with glue… once painted, I think that these will look ok.
Finally, 0.4mm holes were drilled inside the web pieces to accept a bit of bent (hook shaped) wire to represent the bogie attachment hooks. These were shaped as for the body hooks and glued in place from behind as before.
More body surgery
After a little constructive criticism was levied (thanks DMH… honest!) I set about removing the moulded cab handrails with a thin sharp blade (Swann Morton No.11)… sanding the final mouldings off and replacing these with 0.4mm wire secured into 0.4mm holes drilled into the cab sides. This latter part was quite tricky, and whilst the results may look ok once painted, it wasn’t as easy as I’d expected; perhaps I was tired!
Thanks to Brian Hanson’s fotopic pages, some new images identified the windscreen washer jets, which aren’t always obvious in most photos. These were made from short lengths of 0.6mm brass wire with the ends filed to a slight angle… glued into 0.6mm holes drilled in the rear of the bonnet tops. I’d considered making these from short tube sections (as they are in real life)... but in 4mm this was a bit of an ask, maybe in 7mm it could be done. One day, maybe…. No Jon don’t even consider it! The wife will not be impressed!!!
I then dropped the bogie height a little more… removing a little more material on the top of the tower pieces… shaving a little off the top of the securing crews as well… This is as low as they’re going to go now… so it’ll have to do.
Finally, the brake levers were fitted into the pre-drilled holes and I fabricated the bogie steps, adding plasticard brackets to attach them to the bogies (something to add Brian?) The kickplate for the speedo-fitted bogie was made from plasticard, and steel section was used for the brackets. The speedo pickup and cabling still needs to be fabricated and the mileage recorder…
I also need to contemplate the sanding pipes. First thoughts were to hollow out a 0.8mm diameter rod, progressively up to a final clearance with a 0.6mm drill, to accept the elastic (thanks to James H) that will represent the pipe. The plastic rod (about 5mm length) will be attached to the brake hangers, using a short piece of plastic strip to angle it down towards the wheel/rail interface. That’s the plan, we’ll see how that goes and photos will follow.
I’ll then move on to the fuel tanks – do not be alarmed…. be afraid, be very afraid!
Let’s see how brave I’m feeling!
P4 musings
On a separate note, I recently browsed and printed off some of the “getting started†pages on the Scalefour website (www.scalefour.org), and then found time to sit and read these whilst eldest was having his swimming lesson. I’d made the decision some months ago for this Deltic to be P4… and have equipped it with some fine ultrascale wheels… but that’s as far as I’d got. I will get some C&L bullhead sleepers… to fit the rails I originally bought as complete OO track that went on my photoplank…. I had two lengths spare, so I may as well reuse these… or just get some more complete track. However, whilst that’ll do to sit the loco on… it will have no real operational use; it’ll be for display only. The idea of constructing my own turnouts was causing me some sole searching… yes it was the right thing to do for realism… but was it really something I could achieve? I have to admit that the article in Model rail this month did little to allay my concerns… but then I read the Scalefour stuff and whilst this might have simplified the process… I was left with the feeling of “of that’s all right then†and the impression that it’s possibly not as bad as I thought.
Therefore, to the authors of these papers I am grateful for the explanations and to scalefour for providing this information on their website.
I need to work out which turnouts I’d want to use (the alpha numeric designations are something I think I understand… but I just need a common reference to work from)… I’ll be looking to shunt some long CO-CO diesels, so I’d want to avoid the short turnouts, but don’t need the long turnouts for main lines… my locos will be restricted in the degree of bogie rotation due to the brake levers and bogie attachment links, but I expect that there should still be something to suit.
I suspect that I should look to join scalefour and possibly seek-out my local AG for some sane advice… but I’d be grateful for any comments in the meantime.
Thanks for reading… that’s all from this Deltic fan for now… just now looking forward to savouring the howl of 800 miles of twin Napier Haulage in three weeks time on the ECML!
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