Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Mike 84C]

Thats a mega sized pump on a small loco! And didnt the US Army do a tank to tender conversion on one of the Davenports or a Baldwin that ran on the railway at Fort Bragg? I'm sure I have seen a photo of one, maybe In Touretts book on US Army locos?

  Mick

[Nile]

Time to wake this topic out of its hibernation.

My freelance railways really need more coaching stock. A cheap and easy way to achieve this is with the old Triang/Hornby clerestory coaches. The downside of these coaches is that they only produced a brake third and a full first (labelled as a composite). I'm going to try some experiments to see what other types can be produced by cutting them up.

My first attempt is to make a 6-wheel all third from the passenger section of a brake third by cutting out and removing the guards section.

 

The roof was shortened to match, the rainstrips removed and replaced with micro-strip.

 

Roof and body together.

 

The cut end of the roof needed rebuilding to match the other end.

This coach will eventually get a Brassmasters cleminson chassis.

 

I'm also trying to make a bogie all third from two brake coaches, as should be obvious from this photo.

Some of the leftover parts may also get used for a full brake.

[kingfisher24]

Time to wake this topic out of its hibernation.

My freelance railways really need more coaching stock. A cheap and easy way to achieve this is with the old Triang/Hornby clerestory coaches. The downside of these coaches is that they only produced a brake third and a full first (labelled as a composite). I'm going to try some experiments to see what other types can be produced by cutting them up.

My first attempt is to make a 6-wheel all third from the passenger section of a brake third by cutting out and removing the guards section.

01.JPG

 

The roof was shortened to match, the rainstrips removed and replaced with micro-strip.

02.JPG

 

Roof and body together.

03.JPG

 

The cut end of the roof needed rebuilding to match the other end.

04.JPG

This coach will eventually get a Brassmasters cleminson chassis.

 

I'm also trying to make a bogie all third from two brake coaches, as should be obvious from this photo.

05.JPG

Some of the leftover parts may also get used for a full brake.

Very nice work, i have also seen similar conversions done using the Hornby gwr/mr corridor clarestory coaches and they look good, if you take the remaining brake sections from the coaches used here you could make a full brake??

 

Gary

[kingfisher24]

Sorry i only half read the post before posting my reply.

 

Gary

[Nile]

Painting the bodies is a slow process but there has been some progress.

There's still more to do, the blue needs touching up in places and the handles need some brass paint. And that's just the outside.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Nile

[Nile]

Moving things along this update will mostly concentrate on the shorter coach.

For the interiors I've left the short coach dark brown, as the longer one was mixed I've painted it a lighter brown that matched one end. HMRS transfers have also been applied.

 

For seating I'm using 3D printed parts (in bright green ABS), after cleaning up and filing to fit they are painted the appropriate colour, 3rd class red in this case (using up some old Humbrol paint).

 

New glazing strips were fitted before gluing the seats in. You can just make out where I've filled some holes in the floor by the matt paint on them.

 

And then I got around to painting the handles with brass paint.

 

[BSW01]

Just found this thread, and I'm impressed with all the work you've done, particularly on the locos.

I shall now keep watching this thread with great interest.

[Nile]

My original plan was to use a Cleminson chassis under this coach, but at Railex last month I found this on the Comet/Wizard stand.

They've been refereed to by others before, but this was the first time I'd actually found them. I thought it was worth trying them as they work out much cheaper.

 

One unit was assembled and tried for fit. Plenty of room.

 

With two units assembled I checked the ride height with my no expense spared buffer height gauge.

The mounting parts will raise it slightly. The axlebox-spring units are also from Wizard, some that I bought last year for just such a job.

 

The mounted unit is held in place by a brass rod which also acts as a pivot for this one. The one at the other end has packing pieces under the ends to stop it pivoting.

 

All three units in place. The centre one allows the wheelset to move sideways using inside bearings. It is glued onto the underside, the others can be removed by withdrawing the brass rods (they still need brake shoes).

Edited July 2, 2016 by Nile

[Nile]

Things didn't quite go to plan when I fitted the wheels, the centre wheels weren't turning.  I found that the rims were rubbing on the base of the W-iron unit. The solution was to open out the holes already there, after I'd prized it from the coach underside.

 

When I first glued it in place I'd used a bit of packing (about 20thou) to try and get it at the same height as the other units. This time I omitted the packing to allow the centre wheels a bit more vertical movement. Everything seems to be ok now.

[Hesperus]

Looking really good.

[Londontram]

Hello Neil coming on really well, I'm in the middle of building a diagram 83 Caledonian 6 wheel CCT at the moment and work to a similar system with my wheel sets. I use one fixed axle on one end a sliding axle in the center and a rocking W iron at the other and I've found leaving the center axle very slightly higher than the two outer ones seems to help my one in its running, I just wish I could build mine as cleanly as you do yours still that's the problem with working with half a lb of pork sausages on the end of your wrists.

Very much a blind man on a galloping horse job I'm afraid, the tie bar (As on the original) across the W irons on the first picture acts as a spring for the rocking axle which is on the left in the first picture and helps to tame it somewhat the slight deflection in the tie bar in normal running at normal vision lengths is not readily visible.

   The body is an inkscape drawn and silhouette cut scratch built body.

 

[Nile]

Some nice work there with the Cameo cutter, something I've yet to try.

This update is a bit late, I've been distracted by an Oxford cattle wagon.

The outer wheels need brakes, 51L make a set to fit these W units but I didn't know that when I bought them. I'll get some next time when I buy more W-irons. But for now I've used bits left over from the Brassmasters chassis, a bit fiddly to assemble but it works.

 

I used plastic rod to link the shoes to avoid any possible shorting. here is the chassis with some other details added.

 

Fuses for gas tanks again. They only just fit.

 

Vacuum cylinder from pen barrel plus bits of plastic rod.

 

And then I painted it black.

[Nile]

With the underside dealt with I added some details to the ends. Pipes from 51L and couplings from Roxey.

 

The last bit of extra detail needed was some lower footboards. To support these I made some brackets from square nickel silver rod, glued into holes drilled into the floor.

 

The footboards themselves were made from 20x79 and 20x40 thou micro-strip. Here is one glued in place before it was painted.

[Nile]

To stop the centre wheels dropping out when the coach is picked up I soldered some brass rod across the ends of the slots the axles ride in. Easily removed if I need to removes the wheels.

 

With the roof clipped back on the 6 wheel coach is now finished.

 

The lower footboards are maybe a bit too high but will do.

I'll be finishing off the bogie coaches after I've dealt with a certain cattle wagon.

[Nile]

I'm now going to show what I did to the new Oxford Rail LNER cattle wagon. Although nicely detailed it has some issues that need addressing. The model is of the 9ft wb vacuum braked version. These were quite rare in LNER days and all were either scrapped or converted to 10ft wb by the 50s. As this model is in BR livery I decided to convert it to 10ft wb, and also add the missing vacuum cylinder.

This is the chassis as it comes, lots of nice detail but no vacuum cylinder.

 

The buffers need to be pulled out to release the chassis from the body. Some of the details also need to be removed, most simply pull out. There is also a metal weight that needs to be removed, held in by two screws.

 

The chassis ready for surgery. The brake levers can also be removed, but that may result in the guides being damaged.

 

I cut 2mm off each end made a cut across the middle with a razor saw.

 

The two half’s need to be 4mm apart. I drilled new holes for the screws 2mm inboard of the originals and screwed and glued the weight back in. When the glue had set I filled the gaps with plastic card.

 

For the brake cylinder I used the end of a pen barrel that was the right size, with some brass rod inserted into a drilled hole.

Some of the brake parts need modifying as they are now further apart, I used some 1mm square plastic. The piece in front has a 0.5mm hole drilled in it so it can be threaded onto the cross rod, it will them link to the cylinder.

Like this.

On the solebars the door springs need to moved so that they still line up with the plates on the doors.

On the edge of the floor there are two recesses per side, These line up with 8 small clips on the body, in 4 pairs. The inner ones of these pairs need to be removed to allow the chassis to fit. The remaining clips may need trimming.

 

With the body back on we now have a more plausible 10ft wb cattle wagon.

 

But the body also has issues that will be tackled next.

[autocoach]

Brilliant bodging surgery on a somewhat imperfect RTR model. The techniques are important to me not that I expect one would have found an LNER cattle wagon in Padstow in 1947.  I find rebuilding RTR a satisfying pleasure to make it more accurate. 

 

I actually like what Oxford has done with their brake gear. I still have a few Mainly Trains etches to replace the gross thick and undetailed representations on RTR and some kits.  I just wish I could get the OR brake gear as separate parts. 

 

best

Edited July 16, 2016 by autocoach

[Nile]

The body has two main problems:

The upper partition notched planks are missing - this is easy to fix.

The two sides are the same, rather than being handed (or mirrored) - this needs a bit more surgery to fix.

 

To fix the first problem I used some 30x30thou microstrip, using the notches in the lower plank as a guide. The third notch is hidden behind the diagonal strap.

 

You could stop there if you never turn the wagon around, but I wanted to fix the other side as well.

On the other side the partition notches in the lower plank need filling. I've used bits of microstrip and filler.

 

On the ride hand side I cut out the lower plank, removed 1mm from its top and cut notches in it before gluing it back in place. I also added the top notches as per the other side.

 

As I was giving this side of the wagon a different (LNER) identity I removed the markings by scraping them off with a curved scalpel blade. Matching the original paint on the model was more of a challenge as I didn't want to repaint the whole thing. None of my paints was a match, so I tried mixing my own. Using Humbrol acrylics I started with 70 brick red, then added some 62 leather, 60 scarlet and 63 sand, ending up with something close enough to use.

 

This was also used on the solebar on the chassis.

 

On the chassis I noticed there is a safety loop in the middle. I've added this using some 10x20th microstrip.

 

I painted the inside of the body light grey.

 

The final bit of detail needed is the partition. Some planked plastikard plus 20x40th microstrip.

 

Painted dark brown and fitted into the end notches, it's glued to the internal ribs to stop it falling out.

 

A new identity for this side of the wagon using HMRS transfers. I like to be able to run different eras.

 

Weathered with a wash of black paint here is the finished model.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Nile

[James Harrison]

All that billing and cooing by certain parties how the model is basically so wrong as to be good-for-nothing scrap, and yet it can be rectified so easily (at least, you make it look effortless.  I'd probably hopelessly bungle it). 

[Wickham Green]

Brilliant bodging surgery on a somewhat imperfect RTR model. The techniques are important to me not that I expect one would have found an LNER cattle wagon in Padstow in 1947.  I find rebuilding RTR a satisfying pleasure to make it more accurate. 

 

I actually like what Oxford has done with their brake gear. I still have a few Mainly Trains etches to replace the gross thick and undetailed representations on RTR and some kits.  I just wish I could get the OR brake gear as separate parts. 

 

best

Absolutely no reason why you wouldn't have found an L.N.E.R. cattle wagon anywhere on the U.K. standard gauge network - cattle wagons been Common User since 1927  ......  well, most cattle wagons had : not those of God's Wonderful Railway - they always had to be different !

[Removed a/c]

Looks great, not a conversion. I think I could do but thanks for explaining the process. 

 

 

 

Regards 
Scott 

[autocoach]

Absolutely no reason why you wouldn't have found an L.N.E.R. cattle wagon anywhere on the U.K. standard gauge network - cattle wagons been Common User since 1927  ......  well, most cattle wagons had : not those of God's Wonderful Railway - they always had to be different !

Thank you.  I might try one just for the fun of rebuilding an Oxford RTR based on Niles excellent effort. Kit and RTR bashing is an aspect of the hobby I really enjoy. Creating a 10 foot chassis would be good practice.

 

However, Padstow had a large fish dock but no cattle dock or pens so a LNER cattle wagon along with the impending Hornby Maunsell/Bulleid SR cattle wagons will be for the "collection".  I think there was a cattle dock at Wadebridge and there was one for certain at Bodmin (SR) so if I ever get to build the dream layout they will come out of storage and take their rightful places. 

Edited July 18, 2016 by autocoach

[Nile]

Back to the coaches, and their bogies. These are the older Triang type held on by rivets, which were removed and discarded. I made new mounts from those that came with some GBL models, they are just the right size. The ring on top of the bogie was filed down almost completely to lower the ride height.

 

Some 0.5mm brass rod will stop the bogie dropping off.

 

On the spliced coach (third class) the join was strengthened with some brick plastic card. On both coaches the truss rod unit was cut up and glued in more prototypical positions.

 

Brake gear made up from bits and pieces, this is on the first class coach.

 

Brake and steam pipes from the 51L range.

 

 

# GBL = Great British Locomotives, if you don't know what that is look in the 'other magazines' section or google it.

[Londontram]

Neil, on the join on the underside of the carriage you've used brick plasticard. Do you recommend any particular bond to give the best strength across the joint? ie English bond or Flemish bond or I've got some stone effect do you think that would work, up until now I've always used plank effect plasticard but am always open to trying something new. Steve   

[Nile]

Heat getting to you too Steve?

[Nile]

A bit more done. Roxey couplings added to the ends.

 

I added footboards to the bogies using microstrip (20x79thou).

On the bogie on the left I had filed the central boss down too far, so I've added some thin plastic card as a replacement.

 

The interior of the third class coach was given a uniform coat of brown before adding the glazing and seats.

 

This is the first class coach assembled.

 

And this is the third class one.

 

I've glazed the clerestories with glue'n'glaze.