Last week a small package arrived containing whitemetal buffers... duly fitted and painted, the first of the Ashbury carriages can now said to be complete.
Considering how it started out as a flat cardboard static kit, I think I am justified in saying I am satisfied with the result. I have been able to get it to run, I have fitted an interior, I have fitted glazing, I have added a degree of depth and surface texture and the beading and panelling, I have added wire handrails and roof f
I fitted some whitemetal torpedo vents (from Dart Castings), and used plastic strip to form rainstrips. Then I started to paint the roof.
I also built the turnbuckles in plastic sheet and strip. I didn't follow the Metropolitan carriages for this, but rather a drawing of some early MSLR bogie stock in Volume 2 of George Dow's Great Central. The reason for doing this of course being that I intend this finished rake as being a facsimilie of the MSLR bogie stock of the late 1870s/ earl
The body now has been glazed, had some seats fitted, and has been secured to the chassis.
There is still a lot of work to do. The underframe needs detailing up. The bufferbeams haven't even been started. The roof needs ventilators adding and then repainting. And there are a number of rough edges on the body that need attending to. But we're getting there.
Whilst the kit was still in one flat piece, I fitted wire handrails. Then I scored the roof at 1/16'' intervals and rolled the body up. I've had previous experience of cardboard roofs trying to flatten out, so I scored it to counteract that tendency and to give a smoother curve.
I found that the arc length of the roof was slightly too long; so I removed a 1/16'' strip which cured the problem.
I fitted all of the bulkheads and the spare carriage ends from both kits to give 6
I had long ago decided that a flat finish would not satisfy me, that I would prefer to introduce the beading and panelling onto the carriage sides. So I bought a second kit and butchered it for the panelling. It is a fairly tedious process cutting it out of course but I think it is worthwhile. There were so many white edges after it had been fitted though that it was just as much work to set about completely reteaking the model as it would have been just to touch in the exposed card edges.
In my last entry I casually mentioned that I had started work on some ex-Metropolitan Ashbury carriages. These are card kits by Street Level Models/ CDC Designs, which I bought several years ago and which have been sitting in the rainy day stash ever since.
The first step was to cut out the windows and paint the resulting white edges.
The main reason these kits have sat unbuilt for so long is because I have been trying to find some appropriate running gear for them. The bogie wheelb
So, this evening my first task was to complete the 1B. This amounted to adding the loco number to the bunker rear and painting the safety valves and whistle in brass.
Then, that done, I remembered to take a photo or two of my previous project- the GC 4-wheeler all first carriage.
And then I was in a position to start a rake of CDC Models Metropolitan Ashbury carriages I bought a few years ago, which have been hiding in the rainy day pile since. I'm considering lettering
And, let the lining commence.
Now just to do the cabsheets. And the back of the bunker. And add the coat of arms and insignia. And the brass numberplates. And....
Four or five years ago I bought a Dean Sidings L1 kit, which I built and finished in mid-1930s condition and livery as that was my period of interest at the time. (The construction of that kit was one of the first projects I documented on this blog, if anybody feels like going hunting up the original build- the photos have long since been deleted but it was a simple enough build).
Of course, since then my interests have moved back 15 years or so, soI decided that it was about time my L1 be
Well, it started out as a 6-wheeler, but, erm....
I got as far as having the chassis backbone and the outer axles completed, whilst I working on the centre axle the W iron broke away. I suspect that as it broke off along a half-etched line, either the etch had gone too deep, or I was little too exuberant in bending it, or I bent it back and forth once too often and it snapped. I was having difficulty with the iron, in that it wasn't heating right down to the tip but rather only to abo
The last few days I have spent racing through some of the smaller jobs. A new boiler handrail was fabricated, footplate steps reinstated, a new whistle was fitted and I built a new buffer beam.
Well I braced the cut-up pieces of the tender with some offcuts of plastic sheet, applied some model filler and then smoothed back and hoped for the best. Then I cut down the moulded coal and tender top to fit the new slimmer tender and fitted that into place to further try to hold the whole thing square. I need to fabricate a new tank top, but largely have been able to re-use the original whitemetal castings.
As can be seen here. You can also see that I have been able to salvage a
After another session, I have the basics of a tender hashed out.
This started life as a Robinson tender behind a Director, however with the coal rails removed and some of the width cut out of it it's not too far off the Pollitt 4000 gallon type. I then set about securing the loco body to the chassis.
Wooden block in the smokebox, hole drilled into it, then a brass woodworking screw re-uses one of the body fixing positions in the chassis to screw into the wood block.
So I got a nice sweetly rolling chassis after a little bit of trouble, it turned out one of the coupling rod pins had gone out the back of the wheel and was catching on the chassis block. That sorted, I moved onto the tender.
My my my, what a little minefield that is.
Turns out there are three different types of tender. The first 40 of the class were fitted with a Parker 3080 gallon type. Then the following 60, built across the way at Beyer Peacock, were fitted with a 4000 gallon te
The Ebay entry was rather forthcoming. "Whitemetal LNER J10, non-runner, spares or repairs" it read, as I recall. This was a few years ago- the exact wording may have been slightly different- but from the photographs it looked a promising option. The bodywork didn't look too bad, it had the wrong tender, and there was the problem that it didn't work- but I felt it had potential and a few days after seeing it I put in a low bid and, surprisingly, won.
When it turned up I separated the bod
I've been a bit busy...
Well, that's the loco finished....
... and whilst I was at it I cracked on with the pair of wagons I bought (both Parkside Dundas kits, went together like a dream in half an hour....)
The better part of two years ago, to celebrate my being deemed sufficiently proficient to be let loose on her Majesty's highways without supervision, I went on a roadtrip to North Wales. Somehow or other I managed to come back with a narrow gauge loco and a couple of wagon kits.
And there the matter rested, for a little while, whilst I sourced a suitable chassis and other things got looked at. Well, I've recently decided that my to-do list is too long.... and that I'd be better off gettin
This last week or so I have been building the last of my rake of Ratio suburban carriages.
So, that's a full rake of five of them now- two four-compartment brakes, two all thirds and an all first. Would I build some more? Yes. Would I build them soon? No, probably not. I have plans to do a set of clerestory carriages (I've done four and have another two or three to do), some six-wheelers (two done and one to build), some of the mid-Edwardian 50' stock.... all of those, first.
Hot on the heels of #871 comes #858. She started out variously as a Triang JInty, 3F and 2P, has now been rebuilt twice and I am very, very happy with the result. This time in the works I have replaced the splasher beading, replaced the valve chest cover and rebuilt the tender top.
I've completed both of the Pollitt 4-4-0s, so I suppose all that is left to do is to take some nice photos of them.
First up then is #871, which I have modelled as running circa 1913 and which is a DJH kit.
