Nearing the finish line - toplights and bow end stock
The last job on the toplights prior to weathering and final detailing (bits that have fallen off in handling, etc) was to add numbers, so with my transfers sheets out I decided to complete the same task on the Hornby bow-end stock I covered earlier:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63159-bow-ended-stock-roof-handrails/
While I had the bow-ended stock out on the workbench again, I decided I couldn't live with the visible seam between the sides and end of the brake, so (as I'd done with the composite) I used filler to conceal the join between the mouldings as best I could. I should have done this the first time, of course, but the first coach was a bit of an experiment to see how I went. Rather than repaint, reline and reglaze the entire coach again, I tried to do this work in such a way that I could get away with only selective repainting of the ends, especially as I still had the original paint in stock. It took a few coats and some varnishing but eventually I got the crimson and cream to blend in with the old finish pretty well. I didn't even bother redoing the final few millimeters of lining.
The coaches have also been fitted with Spratt & Winkles at one end and Keen couplings at the other, of which more anon.
The toplights after numbering:
This is a permanently coupled rake with Spratt & Winkles at either end, which I'm now standardising on. I use a simple piano wire drawbar between the two coaches which works well on my 30" curves and allows the corridor bellows to remain in contact. Having spent quite a bit of time fitting Keen couplings to various items of my stock, I'm now coming round to the idea that the simpler drawbar system is actually preferable since it looks much less obtrusive and still allows adequate close-coupling. The Keen couplings are actually an excellent product, but it's just with my eye-level viewing they're a lot more obvious and clunky than they used to be on my old layout, where I was looking down (and where the curves were tighter anyway). I don't really regard myself as a finescale modeller, but I've become much more intolerant of heavy couplings, and so on, now that my layout is set at eye-level, and the S&Ws seem like a good compromise between appearance and functionality.
Anyway, the bow-ends will normally run in a 3-carriage rake with a Bachmann Collett coach making up the set. At the moment this coach is also equipped with S&Ws at one end and Keen couplers at the other.
Here's all 5 coaches coupled up, making a nicely varied WR corridor train, which I hope would be plausible for cross-country or secondary services:
And here's the same train with a loco on:
These coaches (other than the Bachmann one, which is straight out of the box) have been real labours of love, so it's nice to see them running in service. The bow-ends go back to my childhood - they've got to be 35 years old or more - and as I mentioned in the earlier blog post, the toplights have been on the go for ages. As I mentioned to my wife, I remember working on one of them during the Beijing Olympics!
Edit - Artizen kindly sent me a tweaked version of the above photo, which does look a lot better, doesn't it? My own snaps are a bit underexposed - I think I had the wrong white balance setting at the time I took them.
cheers, and thanks for reading.
- 10
4 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now