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About this blog

This blog complements my Pre-Grouping Blog by covering my modelling activities in the Broad Gauge era of the Great Western Railway.  As with the earlier blog, I intend to cover the various methods by which I construct elements of the Broad Gauge scene.  For more background see https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/17705-a-different-type-of-railway/

 

Entries in this blog

General

Aeolus Chassis and Tender

I constructed the chassis for my Aeolus model from several separately printed components:   Outside frames, with rivet detail Inside frames, with splasher tops Front Buffer beam, linking frames Rear drag-bar and footplate, linking frames   After printing these parts, I fused them together by welding the seams using a fine-tip soldering iron set to 200°C. This proved easier than I expected, partly because the PLA plastic has low thermal conductivity, so i
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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An Ugly Duckling – Part Two

As I commented to @Mikkel, following my previous post on this project, this bit of modelling was a spur-of-the-moment idea after a fallow period when I was lacking imagination.    It was triggered by a post on @Annie’s thread about modelling one of the B&ER 4-4-0ST engines but now I’m not sure whether this is the prototype I want to model. While thinking about the possibilities, I came across an appraisal of Broad Gauge 4-4-0ST engines in an early issue of the Broad Gauge Society m
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Creating a ‘Freak’

I completed the draft of this post just before RMWeb went off-line, during its transfer to a new hosting service.  I have made more modelling progress during the last 10 days, so will upload a follow-up article, once I have seen that the current post has settled down in its new home.   Last year, in May 2021, I wrote a post in my blog called ‘From the Stars to Fire Fly’. I drew on contemporary illustrations by E.T. Lane to show some of the engines to which I referred. I now find myself
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Fire Fly class - Part Five

Adding some details   After a rather intensive period of model building, I’ve slowed down a little, while other activities have called for my attention. The train of early Broad Gauge vehicles, including the Posting Carriage etc. still raise a smile as I pass by them on their shelf. They are, however, still waiting for their engine, so I need to press on with my ‘Fire Fly’ class model.   my three recent GWR Broad Gauge models   I always find that momentum is ea
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Easy-Peasy Carriage Build

Easy-Peasy Carriage Build or ‘How to build a carriage with no drawing, no measuring, and little time’   One of the vehicles I wanted to add to my collection for use with my ‘Firefly’-class locomotive was the early type of 6-wheel ‘open’ 2nd-class carriage. There is a full-size replica at Didcot Railway Centre, as shown below:   Didcot Railway Centre – Replica ‘Fire Fly’ and train   At first glance, those panelled sides might look to be a modeller’s nightmare but 3D
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An Ugly Duckling

Having been inspired by a recent post by @Annie, I’m having a go at creating a 3D-print of one of those ‘ugly-duckling’ 4-4-0STs, much liked in the West Country as very successful engines.   As usual, I’m applying ‘quick and dirty’ methods, to create as much as possible by extruding ‘bodies’ from existing drawings – in this case those by Ian Beattie, reproduced in the Broad Gauge Society magazine ‘Broadsheet No.73’   I imported the front-elevation drawing as a ‘canvas’ into ‘
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An Ugly Duckling - 3

If my last post was about ‘making choices’, the subject of this one is definitely ‘rivets’. These earlier engines seem to have been covered in the things so, thank goodness, 3D-printing software tools have come to my aid in reproducing them all. In fact I only had to draw one or two and all the rest were produced by tools such as ‘pattern on path’ which instantly created long rows of the things, following the contours of the surface on which they are placed. There must be at least 350 rivets on
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Cautionary Tales

Accuracy of Drawings   In an earlier post, I wrote: “I used the same method that I described in my previous post to extrude the saddle tank from a drawing – this time a pencil sketch by F.J.Roche, reproduced in the ‘Broadsheet’ article. This drawing was useful for the front elevation but I feel the drawing in Mike Sharman’s compilation by the Oakwood Press is more dependable for the side elevation.”   Some recent correspondence within the Broad Gauge Society (BGS) e-group sug
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A Coal Wagon for Bullo Pill

When I started to build my model of one the Broad Gauge ‘Bogie-class’ engines, it was purely on a whim, because I was attracted by their jolie-laide appearance. At that time, I thought they were South Devon engines, generally confined to the West Country.   I had brought my model close to completion when some further research revealed that they were also familiar engines in the Bullo Pill area, which was exactly where I had started my Broad Gauge modelling!   My model of
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‘Sir Watkin’ for Bullo Pill

As the end of another year approaches, I’ve been looking back over the last few rather strange years, very much influenced by the Covid-19 virus. As it happens, 2019 was also the year when I acquired my 3D-printer and embarked on a new phase of model-making. Lock-down provided me with ample opportunity to practise 3D-model making.   A couple of years before that, I had moved my attention to the Broad Gauge era of the GWR, following the discovery that several of my wife’s ancestors work
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A Year in Retrospect

Last year, as 2020 drew towards its close and we prepared for the holiday season, I showed a collection of my North Leigh engines ‘on shed’. I think that, at that time, we were all hoping that the difficulties caused by Covid would soon be over. Sadly, as another year draws to its close, we are still in a period of uncertainty, waiting to learn what sort of threat the latest variant may pose.   Whatever else has happened, I have found plenty of time to practise my modelling abilities w
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Into the New Year

A New Year opens up all sorts of new possibilities!  I spent much of last year discovering what I could do by means of 3D printing.  In fact, it now seems as though almost any prototype is within my reach – at least in terms of static display models.   I have given one of my recent model photos, the ‘early photograph’ look, as shown below: ‘Argus’ and ‘Rob Roy’ at Bullo Pill   The only additional model I have printed since my last post was a 4-wheel tender for ‘Argus’, w
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Creating a Pantechnicon

Even after a long career in research, I am still frequently surprised by the new information that emerges from small beginnings!   After completing my Britzka model, I placed it on my BG carriage truck model for some photos. The Britzka was rather a tight fit between the truck rails, so I went back to Eddy’s Data Sheets from the Broad Gauge Society (BGS) to check the dimensions. It turned out that it is my carriage at fault and I shall revise my model to make it a little narrower (easy
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Bodies & Components

I’ve had one or two messages from people who say they have enjoyed reading through my blogs. I should therefore sound a note of caution, especially in the field of 3D printing – my posts follow my own, often halting, progress along a learning curve and I still feel myself to be a long way from an end-point. I was looking back at some of my earlier designs and although they came out reasonably well in the end, my methods were something of a ‘dog’s breakfast’. I hope you won’t repeat too many of m
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Fire Fly Class – Part Four

Angled Spokes   I ended the previous part of this series by noting that my next subject would be wheels. This subject, once again, raised questions as to what were the real facts! An ‘official’ GWR drawing shows alternate spokes sloping in opposite directions between hub and rim, as below :     Drawing of ‘Firefly’ Driving Wheel   On the other hand, another ‘official’ plan view of the frames shows one set of spokes fitted radially, while the other set is
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From the Stars to Fire Fly

It’s been a wet Bank Holiday here and, stuck indoors, I found myself thinking about what it was that made the ‘Fire Fly’ class so special. The following notes reflect my musings:   After all, these engines looked very similar to their immediate predecessors, the ‘Stars’ that the GWR bought from R Stephenson & Co. This similarity is obvious in the first engine photographs ever taken, which include ‘Polar Star’, outside Cheltenham shed in the late 1840s.   ‘Polar Star
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