Chris-GNR Workbench

[Chris-GNR]

Hello all

 

I'm involved in a group at Shipley Model Railway Society building a layout in EM of Clayton on the Queensbury Lines (Bradford). The layout is in its early stages so not much to report on that yet, but my plan is to document as best i can the the building of the locos & rolling stock i have for the layout.

 

I might start by first saying that after a 15 year brake from the hobby to pursue girls, music & beer i'm now 30 & have two boys 2years & 5years (both mad on railways) & a lovely wife, life has slowed down to just the right pace to pick the hobby back up again. My modelling experience as a 'youth' was a bit of RTR modification & building the odd Parkside wagon so not really pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Now back on the model railway track my intentions are to try build all the locos & stock i want & to keep things as finescale as i can make them.

 

Anyway enough wittering on about me & down to the modelling....

 

First out of the blocks is a New Southeast Fincast N5 kit, i bought this at Warley show 2012 & it sat in its box at home for about 6 months then, i plucked up the courage and started it, my first loco kit.

 

I decided to start with the chassis & having read the print off the clubs copy of Iain Rice Etched Chassis Construction book i felt confident. I'd made my mind up to go the compensation route & using High Level horn guides & blocks i started. I cut out the half etch square around the leading & middle axle holes for the horn ways & then soldered up the frames using the EM frame spacers, i used a long piece

of 1/8" bar through the rear axle bearings as a guide to help with squareness. To get the horn blocks in i

used some London Road Models tapered axle jigs through the horn blocks & placed the assembled rods on the end of the axle jigs to get the right wheel spacing.

 

I was given some romford wheels of correct size to use while constructing the chassis, it will end up with Gibsons.

 

I have cut out a square slot where the rear axle goes to allow for a radial truck which i built from scrap etch off cuts held in place with a piece of guitar wire to keep it central & also acting as a spring keeping the wheels firmly on the track.

 

I picked up a high level load hauler+ gearbox second hand from a show for £3!!! but was missing the worm so i called Chris at high level & he was more than happy to supply a new one. At the same time i bought a mashima 1420 from him for the N5. After a bit of forward planning i realised the gear stretcher part of the gear box was a stage to long to fit in so i cut off the first stage of it & reassembled it to the next stage along the stretcher.

 

Pickups, pickups, pickups.........so many options & everyone seems to have their own way & some people have success where others fail & vice versa. Split chassis really appealed but i felt this might be a leap to far for my first loco kit, so, i settled for wipers but i wanted something a bit more stable than the standard thin phosphor wire on the back of the flange. I came up with the idea of using very thin 1mm wide phosphor bronze flat strip. I started by making six small rectangles from copper clad approx 1.5 x 5mm & glued them vertically to the inside of the frames inline with the tyre of the wheel & soldered fine wire linking them electrically. Then i cut the phosphor bronze strip to about 20mm lengths & bent them to an uneven 'U' shape appox 3 x 3 x 14m & soldered the short leg to the copper clad strip allowing the bottom & other leg to go over the top of the frame & down behind the back of the wheel tyre. Not the best photo of the pickup arrangement but its the only one i have that shows how i've done it. This is the chassis ready for painting.

 

 

I'll have to leave it there for now, i must go & do some work.

 

Many Thanks

Chris

Edited January 7, 2015 by Chris-GNR

[Jason T]

Having seen this in the flesh, I can attest that it is a work of art and a credit to Chris's skills not only as a kit builder but also his ability to think outside the box.

 

Nice start to the thread mate

[Chris-GNR]

Hello again....

 

Jason, very kind mate, very kind. Just a shame its broad gauge other wise it could make a strange era bending guest appearance on Bacup....

 

That new pic Andy has posted it insane, looks amazing.

 

Chris

[Chris-GNR]

Right, what next.......after getting the pickups so i was happy with them i moved on to making one on the feeds to the motor double up as a support to keep it in place. Using a short length of flat brass soldered to the motor terminal down to the little connecting plate i made for all the pickup wires & motor connections to meet made from a small square of copper clad.

 

 

Before it was ready to paint i fitted the sand boxes & made up some sanders from .7mm wire & drilled & glued them in to the sand boxes. I first removed the wheels & radial truck & cleaned the whole thing with isopropyl-alcohol & a cotton bud then taped up the horn blocks. After a single coat of grey primer i followed it up with two coats of matt black. Once dry i ran a reamer through the fixed axle bearings to clear any paint that got in & scraped the paint off the pickups, refitted the radial truck, checked the horn guides were free from paint, refitted the horn blocks & fitted the gibson wheels. I had already had the Gibsons on before painting which is not recommended to be taking them off & on too many times but when they were fitted for what i knew would be the last time i used some blue nut lock on the axle & the crank pin nuts once happy with the quartering.

Thats more or less it regards the chassis any thought or questions please ask.

 

Now the body.........

 

The body is white metal but dose have some loverly etched brass overlays for the tanks, cab & bunker sides & bunker back.The overlays i fixed them to the white metal tank sides using a rapid set 2 part epoxy.  After cleaning all the white metal parts i did many dry runs putting it together & was quite disheartened by how a lot of the parts didn't fit at all that well, the worsted being the top & bottom boiler halves not lining up & having a huge seam line from the mould along its length. The only way i could see to fix this was to fit them together the best i could using low melt solder & a regular 25w iron, but had to sacrifice one of the boiler bands. A lot if filing & scraping later i had a round boiler that fitted to the ruining plate & side tanks square & true.

To replace the missing boiler band i used an Alan Gibson Loco Boiler Band which comes on a fret of 15 half etch strips, very handy.

 

I fitted a lost wax safety vale cover in place of the white metal one & the same went for the chimney, Alan Gibson sprung buffers & remade the little riveted plates on the sides of the smoke box saddle from some scrap etch off cut. Just before painting decided to create some reversing gear to go under the boiler to fill the fresh air under there. I made this from a collection of wire, thin bar & some brake gear cranks & other scrap & off cuts, i don't claim this to be totally proto typical but its based on what i could make out from the photos in my Yeadons.  

 

Here it is at the Bradford end of the layout ready for paint.

 

Moments before painting all cleaned & ready for primer.

 

 

Doing all this blogging lark won't leave anytime for actual modelling, best crack on. More later.

 

Regards

Chris

[Jaz]

just followed Jasons link here. Looks impressive.

[Sasquatch]

Hi Chris.
Thanks for taking the time to post this excellent thread. Am wanting to get into loco building as I'll need a J6,J50 and a couple of N2s for my OO version of Queensbury!
I've made a start on the layout which will form part of a bigger railway. So far only two buildings here is the finished signal box.
 
Regards Shaun.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Sasquatch

[Chris-GNR]

Shaun

 

Signal box looks fantastic mate!

 

Regards the locos your wanting London Road Models do an etched kit for the J6 which will make into a fantastic model but its maybe not the best candidate for a first go at loco building. Likewise Connoisseur did a 4mm range of kits (now not available) & a J50 was one of the locos they did. Very rare now, i have one i picked up on eBay which is going to be built for Clayton. J50 have i seen you have made a start improving one of the Lima bodies? I think with the right tweaks you can turn round a very nice model. Will you keep the Lima chassis? The latest Hornby N2 is supposed to be a fantastic model & i'm sure with a couple of refinements will really look the part. I'm not sure about in BR era but you might need to remove the condensing gear depending which ones you intend to model. 

 

Keep up the good work

 

Chris

[Chris-GNR]

Painting.....

 

This is my first go at painting & weathering a loco so being a bit nervous about it i found every excuse under the sun to put off doing it, so, i started other things like D&S etched coaches (which i'll get round to talking about on here ), a Mainly Trains J52 chassis kit (in '00' for another layout at the club) & scratch building a chassis for a B16/1 just so i didn't have to think about painting the N5. But, seeing as my loverly wife had bought me an air brush for Christmas & i'd not used it yet it felt about time to stop being a wimp & just do it.

 

Not really being set for Air Brushing i made a little spray booth form a box file, some bendy card & a 12v fan from a knackered DVD player. Also made a little turn table from some MDF off cuts with a coax cable screw 'F' connector in the middle of them acting as the pivot, it sounds a right bodge, well it is but it works.

 

 

I used humbrol No1 grey primer well mixed & thinned before putting in the gravity feed airbrush. I did two lightish coats checking i'd covered everywhere & then left it to dry for a couple of days. It came out rather well & i must say although only primer i felt quite chuffed, no pun intended. My initial intentions were to be a dull/oily gloss finish with matt smoke box because i think i'm right in saying in the earlier LNER days locos did receive a bit more attention regards cleaning than in BR times. But the thought of gloss paint i found a bit to scary so settled for humbrol satin black again well mixed & suitably thinned which when dry came out really quite matt, not what i'd expected ,so, this made me change tackt a little & i thought umm, up north, west riding, winter, always raining, grimy smoky mills & coal dust everywhere, no, matt is fine & i'll try weather it accordingly. Weathering was done mainly by dry brushing & just boding hear & there with dirty thinners & varying levels of dirty black, dark grey & a little bit of white.

 

So here it is done, just needs a crew & i think i might remake the cab roof with some thin nickel silver sheet to try get a thinner look to it but other than that & Fitting AJ couplings its done.......

 

 

Many thanks for now

 

Chris

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2014 by Chris-GNR

[Chris-GNR]

Good evening all.....

 

Just a little taste of what i plan to cover next, i don't have any pics taken from the time of building so i'll dismantle where possible to show what I've done. So we have:-

 

 - D&S GNR 51' Luggage Milk Brake LNER Diagram 310  

 

 

 - D&S GNR 29' Parcels Van ( Luggage Fruit & Milk) LNER Diagram 331

 

I should get chance tomorrow to follow up on this with any luck.

 

thats all for now........... 

 

Chris

 

 

[Chris-GNR]

Right then......

 

I'll start with the 29' Parcels Van as thats the freshest in my mind.

 

Being new to kit building & very new to etched kits i felt it best to just follow the instructions as best i could, which doesn't give for a very interesting start to a wright up about my efforts but D&S kits are so well designed & made there is little need to do deviate from them, that said i have made a few amendments along the way & have had to come up with ways of doing certain things that to a newby aren't that obvious.

On this particular kit you have one end & a side all as one piece & the other end & apposing side likewise. This dose help regards getting the body made up square & true but did at times get in the way. But before all that you need to create the Tumble home on the lower portion of the sides, there is, like a lot of things in modelling many ways to do this, the way i have come to favour in my (two) coach kit building experience is by using a small polyethylene cake icing rolling pin, i acquired mine from my wife's cake decorating tool kit. Using this particular tool is not totally essential, any round rolling pin like item such as an aerosol can, plumbing pipe off cut or, a rolling pin will do the same job. It will help if the radius of the rolling pin is slightly less than that of the tumble home, the brass will spring back giving the correct radius. The method is once the side is removed from the etch &   cleaned up lay it down flat right side up & lay a piece of (18mm) masking tape along the length of the bottom edge of the coach side overhanging it by half the tapes width.

 

Next to turn over the coach side, having the adhesive side of the tape now facing up & roll the rolling pin towards you over the coach side allowing it to adhere firmly to the tape making sure its square with the edge of the coach side. With the rolling pin now firmly stuck to the tape slowly roll it back away from yourself pressing down firmly allowing the coach side to form a radius around the rolling pin. Using the coach body end piece to check the radius until you're happy they match.

 

(These pics are taken using a different kit just to help illustrate the process)

 

Before bending the end to 90deg with the side i fitted the steps to one end & the two overlays to the guards end, folded the top & bottom flanges that allow the sides to sit on the under frame & roof on top & gave all the areas that once bent would touch a good clean up with a fibreglass pencil & tinned them with solder. I folded over the end & got it square with the side using a small engineers square & soldered up all the ares that made contact.

With the end now folded & soldered up it became a bit awkward to work on so for jobs like this i have an old cork sanding block which is ideal for this kind of situation. The lower door panels & lower ventilated panels are all separate & are soldered one at a time to the coach side. These need a curve giving to them to match the now formed tumble home, i used the same rolling pin to do this but used my fingers to bend the panels over the top of it getting each one to fit well in the hale etch recess. The door window frames solder in place from behind as do the door hinges, once all that was done

it was time for the guards duckets. These fold up quite nicely from a single piece & like the lower half of the coach side has an inlay panel for the lower half. This has a 'S' curve to it so to create this i laid the panel on the ducket & using a short piece of 1/8" bar as a rolling pin used the shape of the ducket  to form the required shape. After fitting the duckets in place i then fitted the panels.

 

 

That is more or less where i'm at with the body, door handles, handrails, window bars & roof to do next.

 

More on the under frame later.

 

Chris

 

 

[Chris-GNR]

Hello all...

 

Many thanks for all the supportive Likes & rates on my thread thus far & i'm always  up for answering any questions or discussing any bits i might have glossed over.

 

Sorry for the long brake, i just haven't been able to find the time to sit down & continue with the thread, or very much modelling for that matter.

 

I'll try & do a bit more later on tonight, also plan to start a topic on the B16/1 i'm building which i've scratch built a chassis for & converting to the body from a DJH B16/3. More on that soon.

 

Regards

Chris

[Nelson Jackson]

That engine is a wonderful model, the finish is also really nice, well done.

[Chris-GNR]

Cheers Nelson.

 

It could be better but for my first go i'm happy with it.

 

I'm just struggeling at the min to find the time to sit down & carry on with the thread. Any free time i get i'm straight in the modelling room to get some modelling done, it amazes me how much some blog & manage to produce so much. I suppose theres no rush.

 

Thanks again to all...

 

Chris

[Chris-GNR]

Morning y'all...

 

This is what has been keeping me from posting very much currently, my London Road J4. I started it at the end of july & have not had the chance to dedicate to much time to modelling so i5s not to far on but i wanted to get it looking somthing like a J4 in preperation for the Shipley show in two weeks which i'm doing some demo-ing as part of the Clayton team. I think i'm going to focus on the chassis as part of the demo.

 

 

Cheers for now......

 

Chris

[clecklewyke]

I'll need a couple of N2s for my OO version of Queensbury!

 

N1s, surely?

 

Ian

[Clem]

Hi Chris,

Just wanted to say how impressed I am with your modelling on this thread! When I was little, my brother who is ten years older than me, used to buy the odd Trains Illustrated which I used to filch and read. One of these was the June 1956 issue which contained an article on 'The Queensbury Triangle'. So from the age of about 7 onwards I was aware of this fascinating system of lines linking Bradford Keighley and Halifax. You're probably very familiar with the extremely well written article by J F Oxley and D R Smith which showed a number of pictures of N1s on 2-coach passenger services, a J50 on a goods and a Bridlington excurion being double headed by a J6 and an ex GC B6. It struck a chord with me then as it had a similar GN feel to my local line sadly now gone almost 50 years. So I've been following your thread with great interest.  I did once visit the site of Queensbury (about 1980) and there was quite a bit remaining then including a footbridge but I understand little now remains.

 

You're producing some wonderful stuff and I look forward to seeing how Clayton develops.  The N5 is first class and your J4 is coming on great - it reminds me that I have several London Road kits to tackle myself. Any up and coming plans for an N1 or a J6? 

 

Regards

 

Clem

[Chris-GNR]

Evening Clem

 

Thank you for your comments, very kind.

 

My main focus is obviously on Clayton but the line on a whole is so interesting & i can understand your interest starting at such an early age. At Queensbury now there is next to nothing indicating a railway had ever been there, very sad.

 

Regards whats in the 'to do' pile for Clayton, personally i've a London Road N1, C12, Connoisseur J50 & a J52 witch will be a mix of a Mainly Trains scale chassis (which is excellent, i've built one in 00, very impressed) & the body from an old Westfields etched brass kit, some extra detail will be needed as the kit is a bit basic. I'll most likely end up getting another C12. As a collective i'm quite sure all bases are covered with umpteen N1s & C12s (round & square tanks) a couple J6s, J50s, J52s & an N2 & J39 or two. My N5 plus another. One of our team who is penning artwork for etches to create some of the carriages we needs is planning to design his own etched kit to create a GNR Q1.

 

Whats at the top of your LRM to do kits?

 

Cheers

Chris 

[Clem]

Evening Clem

 

Thank you for your comments, very kind.

 

My main focus is obviously on Clayton but the line on a whole is so interesting & i can understand your interest starting at such an early age. At Queensbury now there is next to nothing indicating a railway had ever been there, very sad.

 

Regards whats in the 'to do' pile for Clayton, personally i've a London Road N1, C12, Connoisseur J50 & a J52 witch will be a mix of a Mainly Trains scale chassis (which is excellent, i've built one in 00, very impressed) & the body from an old Westfields etched brass kit, some extra detail will be needed as the kit is a bit basic. I'll most likely end up getting another C12. As a collective i'm quite sure all bases are covered with umpteen N1s & C12s (round & square tanks) a couple J6s, J50s, J52s & an N2 & J39 or two. My N5 plus another. One of our team who is penning artwork for etches to create some of the carriages we needs is planning to design his own etched kit to create a GNR Q1.

 

Whats at the top of your LRM to do kits?

 

Cheers

Chris 

Top of my London road list is a J6 (I've got a stockpile of 3 built up over the years!), although I'll probably not get to it for a while. I have already built three and a half Nucast J6s and you can get a good model from them but whitemetal is never as fine as etched brass. But being a one-man band I'll be concentrating on the layout over the winter and it'll probably be next spring before I can get to it. I'm just finishing a twin articulated set at the moment. I'm afraid I haven't your speed or standard of modelling it seems to be taking me an age to finish off. What period are you modelling - From what you have said so far I would guess 1930s. My layout will be based around 1955 plus or minus a year. The Q1 sounds interesting. I think I have an old Cotswold kit for one buried somewhere in the loft. I like your 29' parcels van - the GN flat roofed 6-wheel and articulated stock are very attractive and if I ever tire of 1955, it may be nice to vary the period to be able to include some teak and GN stock. 

Are you going to the EMGS Manchester show next week? 

[Chris-GNR]

Clem

 

Yeah i'll be there all day saturday & plan to come back sunday with my two boys for a few hours.

 

Bang right on the period 1928-35. Forgot go say i'm not aware of the Trains Illustrated artical, i'll have to hunt a copy down. Althoug the images you have described sound fermilliar. Do you have a copy of A.Whitaker & B.Cryers' The Queensbury Lines book? its a great source if info & photos.

 

Cheers

Chris

[Clem]

I'm hoping to go on Saturday. If I do, I'll photocopy the trains illustrated article for you if you like.  Yes I have got a copy of Bob Cryer and Alan Whitaker. I've just dug it out of the bookcase and refamiliarised myself with it. Great cover photo!  Clayton had a strange looking signal box didn't it? 

Anyway, I'll let you know for definite later in the week about Saturday.

 

Regards

 

Clem

[Chris-GNR]

Hello again Clem

 

That would be fantastic a copy of the artical if you dont mind. I'll keep my eyes peeled for you.

 

Yeah its signal box was quite an odd one,

 

 

I'll have to get the full story regards is strage constuction from a fellow member of the Clayton team but i'm fairly sure its a series of extentions to allow for visability of the signals.

 

Cheers for now....

 

Chris

[t-b-g]

Clem

 

Yeah i'll be there all day saturday & plan to come back sunday with my two boys for a few hours.

 

Bang right on the period 1928-35. Forgot go say i'm not aware of the Trains Illustrated artical, i'll have to hunt a copy down. Althoug the images you have described sound fermilliar. Do you have a copy of A.Whitaker & B.Cryers' The Queensbury Lines book? its a great source if info & photos.

 

Cheers

Chris

 

We will be running a GNR loco or several on Church Warsop at EXPO EM North. A couple of Stirling locos plus a J6 and a C12. That is in addition to a collection of GCR types.

 

The J6 was built from the test etch of the Norton/London Road kit by the designer, the late Malcolm Crawley.

 

Lovely to see some GN and GC modelling!

 

Tony

[Chris-GNR]

Afternoon Tony

 

Looking forward to see the layout already, be good to see Malcolms' J6 & all the other GNR delights.....

 

I'll have my N5 with me to show a couple of people so i'll have to make a point of saying hi.

 

Cheers

Chris

[PenrithBeacon]

See http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=ISBN0852068077&y=12&x=83 . I thought it might be a good addition to my library - expensive!

 

Or I could try this http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t11_11&qi=tt43oVA8FvgoSqXIt41A7GHddaM_1410283646_1:3389:7777&bq=author%3Dalan%2520whitaker%26title%3Dqueensbury%2520lines%2520dalesman%2520railway

 

Think I'll pass although the subject is a good one

 

Regards

Edited September 9, 2014 by PenrithBeacon

[Chris-GNR]

See http://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=ISBN0852068077&y=12&x=83 . I thought it might be a good addition to my library - expensive!

 

Or I could try this http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl&st=sl&ref=bf_s2_a1_t11_11&qi=tt43oVA8FvgoSqXIt41A7GHddaM_1410283646_1:3389:7777&bq=author%3Dalan%2520whitaker%26title%3Dqueensbury%2520lines%2520dalesman%2520railway

 

Think I'll pass although the subject is a good one

 

Regards

Afternoon

 

When i was first looking for my copy i couldn't find one for anything less than £30ish so i just kept looking on ebay & amazon & eventually i got lucky on ebay & won a copy for £12.

 

If its a subject you're wanting to research i would say its a must. 

I have a few other books that cover the Queensbury Lines but without the same depth as the, dalesman 'The Queensbury Lines'.

They are: Bradford Railways Remembered (A.Whitaker), Great Northern Railway in West Yorkshire (Martin Bairstow) & Classic Steam a series of five books by the yorkshire post where there is the odd mention & photo.

 

Cheers

Chris

                 

Chris