It has taken me longer to build these than it took St Rollox. So, a few pictures and a bit of video of the rake in service.
A bit of video, they move quite well.
All things considered I have found this to be an interesting build. There have been challenges which meant t
It has often been said that the camera is the harshest critic. I tend to agree with that so I thought I would post a couple of photos of completed sides to see how they look in the context of the layout before going ahead with the other two.
So, here we are.
Diagram 96 all third, compartment side.
Diagram 94 composite, corridor side.
Those look reasonable to me, apart from the dust. Getting there.
I have been making slow but steady progress. When I started I knew that it would take most of the summer, so I’m happy just pottering on with it all, learning as I go along.
A few details. This is the luggage rack assembly, with the mirrored compartment wall. The brackets were a very fancy design, I have simplified them as they are less than 4 mm long. Not difficult in itself, but I have 64 of them to make.
Seating is provided in the kit b
A bit of progress. Four bodies are now on frames and I have been playing on the layout to iron out any running issues.
I wanted to try and get it to look as if the coaches are properly coupled. Even with springs I found that screw couplings didn’t really keep the buffers together on curves, and I wanted the buffers to compress to take up and rattle.
I came up with this. Essentially half an aj on a diamond spring it is stiffer then the buffer springs but can be extended to
A blog in several parts, due to photo size.
The kit is designed so that the body folds up from the floor in two halves jointed at the floor centreline, with quite large gaps to be filled with card. The corridor wall is then soldered in. I thought about this and decided it worried me. The sides fold inwards about 5 mm at cantrail height narrowing the aperture to get in and do the interior. I made coaches this way in the past and it was a real hassle getting in to add details and glaze
I have now made all four underframes. Perhaps not in itself blogworthy, but I thought I’d share a bit of silly video. No couplings so I can’t pull them round, but with bit of tape to stop the buffer bodies locking I can do a push test. I’m happy with the way they move, the bogies do seem to follow the rail well.
The buffers are made up, but a few tests needed to ensure I get them just where they can spring correctly.
Electric lighting for rail
A bit of progress on the project.
The first underframe. Relatively straightforward though I fixed it down to a flat board when soldering to prevent distortion. The kit provides for a variety of the brake systems fitted during the life of these coaches but for my period the simple westinghouse arrangement is correct.
Some slight removal of the lower edge to clear the wheels on a curve, but that can’t be seen from the side.
A row of bogies re
Over the last couple of years I have made a fair number of wagons, still not enough but I can now run fairly representative goods services. However folk may have noticed that the passengers are poorly served by just two rakes of coaches, and both of those are a bit shorter than they ought to be. So time for a bit of coachbuilding.
The Grampian Corridor Stock, built 1905 was really the CRs finest. Large proportions, very comfortable with great attention to ride and insulation, electri
Way back in the 1980s I made one of these from a John Boyle etch ( it is labelled Decent Models No 74 ). I used standard CR parts and it made up into a nice van, but back then I lacked information so a lot of the basics were just wrong. It has been stored a long time but I was having a sort out, rediscovered it and decided to have a go at bringing it up to standard. A day in the brake fluid followed by an attack with the flame torch and I had a new kit to make.
So what exactly is it
According to the 1907 wagon census the Caledonian had 1861 pig iron wagons, of which 1300 were to Diagram 16 in various build lots to either 8 or 14 tons. Certainly the CR moved a lot of pig iron from furnaces to steelworks and foundries, but these wagons were used as a sturdy one plank dropside for anything that needed moved. One of those wagons that turned up everywhere and is very useful for forming short rakes on the layout.
These two are from the whitemetal 51L kit, they go tog
Well, there they are, painted and in service. Firstly a couple of photos in harsh artificial light, the colours may look a bit more natural in real daylight. Overall I’m happy with them, though the spring suspension system doesn’t seem to hold the track as well as I’d like. A bit of running and it might bed in a bit. I haven’t added any weight, lets wait and see if it is needed.
A couple of shots of them in a train .
A useful week, both chassis up and running so on to the bodies. My first concern was the buffers. The whitemetal ones supplied are ok, but they are solid and they don’t have a footstep. Magnifying the best available picture of the D11a I am sure that they did have a welded on footstep. So I opted to use a L+Y buffer which is very close in shape to the CR one and solder a footstep to it. More solid than the whitemetal one, and of course it will give me working buffers. Here is one in progress.
For various reasons this one has taken a while to finish. I had a bit of a fight with the lettering, harsh closeups show my errors.
I wanted to weather it as photographed in the wagon book with the lime getting well into the grain of the timber. That was done with rotring white ink and powders, my lack of weathering skills shows up, but it gives the right overall impression I think.
A few pictures in the on the layout;
Back at the bench again. The Caledonian built 40 Dia 25 lime wagons from 1886 to 1888. They were essentially a Dia 22 mineral wagon with a roof.
The CRA do a drawing of it, which gives the wb as 8’6’’. I don’t think that is correct. The Dia 25 is essentially a Dia 22 mineral wagon with a roof, and they are definitely a 7’9” wb. The Diagram book gives the Dia 25 wb as 7’9” as well.
So I scanned in pics of both types of wagon, scaled them to size and superimposed t
The D38 glass well wagon has given me a challenge but I’m reasonably happy with the overall result.
The support frame has a slight lean, but it is only really noticeable in closeup and square on photos. As specials I think the wagon would be in good condition for the Edwardian era, it is in its first decade in service. I therefore just gave it some very light weathering.
If someone has any transfers a scale 1” high that say “OIL” then I’ll buy some. those 3 dots above the
The main assemblies for the wagon are now largely complete.
Frame has been detailed, spring castings should have more leaves but those look ok to my eye.
Body has the sides fitted. and the floor is planked. Note the holes in the body sides. I think these were to enable the screw clamps to be tightened up when used at a lower level, together with a pair of clamps at the bottom of the well.
The fiddly bit was making the support frames.
I seem to be in a wagon building mood these days. Dunno whether I’m locked down, locked up or or which tier of the cake I’m on, so wagon building is a cheap and time consuming activity.
Now it might be argued that I’m getting my ratios wrong again, too many unusual wagons and not enough of the bread and butter diagrams. I’d agree, but the fun is in the odd stuff. I therefore decided to have a shot at one of the 1896 built D38 glass well wagons. Decent pics in the wagon books and a di
Well, there we are, a slap of paint makes all the difference.
Rivets are Archers, easy to apply and they make a big difference on a model like this. No idea what is under that sheet, but it is heavy so this wagon moves as if it does have 16 tons on top. The chains and shackles were fiddly, but add to it all I think.
Catching a bit of evening light.
You can see that this wagon is properly sc
Progress on the 670 is delayed at the moment until I get the parts for the gearbox. Can’t be helped, difficult times slow things down.
Anyway, I need to build something. I had a browse through drawings and books and settled on a D27 Machinery wagon. ( the CRA does sets of wagon drawings on a cd )
So with a bit of luck here is one I can make from the stuff I have. The body is laminated from 10 thou styrene cut on the silhouette. Bit of an odd wagon, big plates on the sid
I have been relaxing a bit, doing some layout maintenance and just running trains. All is now running smoothly and I can sit back and watch…..
Well that was the idea. One of the problems with having a real good clean up of the railway room is that you end up with a nice clear workbench. All the tools put away tidily, the materials stocked in the right drawers. Yes, well. They say nature abhors a vacuum. I think we should change that to plasticard abhors an empty workbench.
The painting and lining seems to have gone fairly smoothly with this one. I used the same double transfer technique developed for the Grampian Corridor stock which helps. Certainly not as sharp as an expert painter could achieve, but I know my limitations.
I have painted the interior in a simple fashion and added a guard and some parcels, mail bags and a tandem. Very little of that can be seen , but it gives the impression of use.
Anyway, a couple of posed pictures.
Well there we are, No. 203 in service. It looks all right from a distance, but harsh close ups show my lining inabilities. I did try some of the 2 part Fox transfers where you overlay black on a red/white line, but I just couldn’t get them to look right. The CR red/black/white was subtle with fine lines, hopefully one day a transfer maker will take pity on us.
Then again what matters is how it runs
Time for spring cleaning so I have given the railway room a good going over this week. Dust accumulates and I’d rather be making stuff but if I don’t keep on top of it I will have twice as much to do as all the stock fills up with fluff. Not to mention all the points, signal and things that just seem to jam up if you don’t.
However essential cleaning is it cannot be described as photographically interesting.
This is a LNWR D 466 open carriage truck made from the 51L etch
Another year passes.
I was running some trains and in my head as the carriages drew level with the platform I heard the guard shout,
“ This is, er is ….. Um, well dunno where we are really, but we have arrived……….”
Yep, I have never got round to making any running in boards, so I though I had better address that pronto.
There we go, now we know where we are.
The 670 Class leaves Kelvinbank yard in the winter g
Another year passes. At a first glance it might seem progress at Kelvinbank has been slow, a few wagons made and an old loco refurbished. However from the perspective of me enjoying the layout the major step forward has been the building of a lever frame and sorting out the signalling system. So some pictures on that theme.
1 class No. 2 heads east towards Kelvinbank. The home is off if a correct route is set out of the storage yard and the section switches are set properly. The dist
