Well merry Xmas to you all!
It’s been quiet, but modelling has taken place. Two commissions have made their way off the Work bench recently. A Bachman 3F that was a saga, mostly due to problems with the wheels being loose on the axles. Nuff said.
The D16 went well after I managed to solve the problem of getting the gear wheel to stay put on the axle. Having tried pretty much every glue to hand without success I drilled down between the gear teeth and through the axle, inserting a bit
I blame Gareth.
It all started with an innocent remark that I thought just betrayed our Yankee friend's touching ignorance of real railways: 'Aren't you going to paint your pre-1904 wagons red?
'Of course not,' I replied brimming with confidence 'Red was only in use until the mid 1890s so I don't need to.'
'Are you sure? I thought the Great Western Way said the balance of probabilities was on Red until 1904...'
'Nonsense. See.' I showed him the pages from the bible.
'Not th
The Empire Mills project's next phase is, as I may have blamed Gareth for in the past, back-dating the china clay dries to the Edwardian period, which means it needs a new set of china clay wagons. I managed to find an interesting picture of what appeared to be a line of china clay wagons which had peaked ends and a solid roof - rather like salt wagons. Gareth, clearly in a mood of contrition, found a drawing of such a wagon belonging to the West Of England China Clay company. It looks like it w
A while ago I posted some pictures of wagons that were being contructed for china clay traffic, both GWR and PO. Amongst the images were a pair of GWR O13 china clay wagons, painted, lettered, but not weathered.
I dedcided that I would weather one (92971) quite lightly, the other (94100) more heavily. To weather wagons, I tned to dry brush and use acryilic paints.
First, 'light rust' was lightly dry brished over the underframes using a mop headed soft brush.
Then 92971
Here are some snaps from the latest outpourings from the Wagon and carriage workshop (or workbench...).
First are a pair of GWR V6 iron minks. They are Ratio kits, but the very dirty 37508 has grease axleboxes while the reasonably recently out-shopped 69721 has oil 'OK' axleboxes. Both are in the GWR 25" lettering for the period after 1904. Its my intention to build at least another three - 2 in the pre-1904 G. W. R livery, again with oil and grease axles boxes photographic or documentary ev
This Parkside kit has been slwloy moving from the errecting shop through to the paint shop and the signwriter has recently finsihed lettering it.
The kit has been slightly modified, with representations of the brake rigging for the clasp brakes (ABS castings) have been added, as well as Coopercraft/Blacksmith ethced grills behind the windows.
However, the CCT has not (yet) been compenstated - if running trials indicate compensation of this long-wheelbased vehicle will help
In a well ordered and just society I would be able to blame Gareth. The fact that I can't is annoying me somewhat and I think that deep down he (Gareth, whose default fault assuages so many wrongs and set backs) is avoiding any blame just to vex me. But I suppose then he is to blame for something...
On that happy note on to the dirty wagons that are 'fresh' - if that is the right word - from the paint shop.
It's worth remembering how dirty the old railway was (and the modern one is
Having forgot to pack the weathered O13s when I headed off to the club yesterday evening, I thought I'd best photograph something I did have in the stock box - some POs that have just had their final coat of varnish.
One of the problems with modelling PO wagons in Cornwall (and pre-1914 to boot) is the lack of photographic evidence. So, in order to keep the Empire Mills china clay dries and the industries on my own slowly gestating layout supplied with coal, I have made a few assum
Prior to starting this blog, I had been working on a number of wagons for my own, as yet unborn, GWR Cornish branch line. Last night I took some of them along to SHMRC and posed them on Hope-under-Dinmore.
Many of the chain clay private owner wagons were from the POW sides (pre-printed on salters/coopercraft bodies) - and very nice they are too. Very helpfully, POW sides will also change the running numbers for you, so you don't have duplicates - inevitably I only realised this after it was
It all started innocently enough - a gentle enquiry from a fellow club member about whether I'd be interested in converting RTR stuff to EM - not for him, naturally, but he'd had an approach from a third party and was it something I'd consider? Oh and I'd get paid for it too...
Well as an EM modeller, I'd done a few RTR re-wheeling jobs including a GWR City for the Sage of Fareham so I said yes.
Here is the GWR City I did for the Sage of Fareham. I swapped the Bachmann 3000 gallon ten
Its been a while, but I've not been too idle....
Commissions have been keeping me busy (or as busy as a 2+ son and a 10 month old daughter allow) with P4 dominating over EM for the last few months (but I'm due to pick up a loco for converting to EM at the weekend.
The Bachmann Hall was straightforward, although huge amounts of filling was needed to fit the P4 wheel sets to the tender.
The Gosport Guru also prevailed on me to convert 3 Bachmann L & Y radial tanks as a rush
Quite a while has passed since the last blog entry - I've been busy, but as the project progresses so the law of diminishing returns sets in: the closer you get to finishing, the longer it takes to see meaningful progress as details and testing take time, without the obvious leaps forward in progress that can be made early on!
The observant will also notice that 2322 is now 2525. This is because the interesting arrangement of cylinder covers (or lack thereof) at the front of the smoke box wo
While continuing to work on the loco and tender chassis I have started compling the list of modifications that will have to be made to the body for it to represent 2322. As a reult I have been diggin around for information on the Dean Goods. The first point to note is that there were two different widths of footplate. Before 2450 they were narrow, after 2451 they were wider. Having run a ruler over the martin Finney drawings it looks like there is a scale 3 inch difference between wide and narro
While I have been mulling over the horror story that has been 2811's progress (or lack of it) since the early summer - as detailed in The Locomotive shop- 28xx no 2811 - I have been making slow but steady progress with 2301 class or Dean Goods class no 2322. The loco is based on the familiar Mainline/Hornby model - a bit long in the tooth, but capable of making a high quality model, especially with a replacement chassis (essential if you work in EM or one of the even wider 4mm scale gauges...).
I converted this loco a few months ago - actually it was done behind Westcliff at the Watford show and took about 3 hours or so for the basic conversion, so it was running on Westcliff, thanks to Richard Butler's indulgence, towards the end of the Sunday of the show. The only problem (not that its really a problem, the conversion was so easy) was I sort of promised to do one for Richard when he manages to find the correct wheels in amongst his bits and pieces cache in exchange for a stock box!
After the last entry about 788, I was ready to test fit the wheels and coupling rods to check that everything ran freely. (2811 is currently my chief problem child and I'll post about this when there is something positive to say.) I used a GW wheel press and quartering jig and was expecting this stage to be a complete doddle. Unfortuantely, the reverse was the case. Fitting the wheels and rods was striaght forward, but when the chassis was tested under finger power a tight spot was noticed. Wors
As I discovered I had run out of crank pins a pause has been forced in 2811's progress. So I decided to have a renewed crack at the Nucast Armstrong Standard Goods.
Russell's locomotives of the GWR gives 2 nice pictures of 788 in pre 1906 livery - all glorious lining and indian red frames etc. Also 788 has a belpaire firebox which might give an extra mm to hide the motor and gearbox, always a problem with wasp waisted Victorian or Edwardian locos!
The original Nucast kit had a
This is a preemptive blog post.
Gareth, who delights in pointing out my errors, omissions and oversights (for the good of my soul and development, naturally), is - I am convinced - at this very moment penning a massive missive asking oh so sweetly, but with hidden barbs of reproach, what has happened to the the locos mentioned in previous blog posts. 'After all...' I can imagine him writing 'you've done all those other conversions that you talked about today, what about the others?'
A
Right, 4321 was supposed to be a quicky. But...
The BR black body was repainted proper green, and made ready for lining. A replacement tender (with the correct unstrengthened underframe obtained - it was a Hornby 3500 gallon spare, the type used on their 28xx or a Star) was obtained.
The Perseverance chassis went together without any problem, the cylinders were rolled up, everything fitted where it should. I was busy feeling pleased with myself and loudly announcing my chassis building p
It has been quite a while since my last post, and even longer since my last update on 2811's progress - aside from some sulphurous mutterings in other posts which just may have indicated I was vexed and discontented.
The causes of this winter (well autumn) of discontent were various:
First, there was the tender issue expounded on at length in my last blog entry. In particular the rewiring to match the loco wiring was rather timeconsuming and is seems that Hornby used spit to solder the ele
The crank pins have arrived and I've managed to escape to the workbrench for short periods over the last few days.
The coupling rods have had Alan Gibson brass coulping rod bushes soldered in place to reduce the rather large holes in the Hornby coupling rods down to somthing appropriate for Alan Gibson crank pins. At the same time the chemical blackening was gently buffed away using a glass fibre brush.
The rods were then put to one side while I worked on the driving wheels. First,
While mulling over the top feed issue, the tender issue, and summoning up the courage to start drilling holes in the spectacle plate - and above all because the laser cut plasticard side frames had arrived from Ultrascale - I have decided to make some progress with the chassis.
Stripping the chassis was not as traumatic as I feared and the wheelsets, coupling rods, and cross heads gently slipped out of the chassis into a heap on the floor.
The sandboxes were removed too, a
While a 28xx is probably a bit big for a china clay shunting layout - a viewpoint I struggle with - the Hornby model of the straight framed version looked lovely so I had to have one.
The Hornby model is of 2812 in 1930s condition so not only will it need to be converted to EM gauge, but also back dated to 1912-ish. The early locos were builtg with short coned boilers, not the top feed fitted long cone of the Hornby model. However, the early locos started to receive D4 long cone boilers from
I'm up to part 6! Oh now depressing...
Anyway, having had a good moan about 2811's chassis (not at all a) kit, I thought some photos were in order. I also have sorted out the over long slide bars so everything now seems to turn as it should by hand.
You can see in the image below the amount that has had to be trimmed.
The dreadful sliding washer arrangement on the pony truck can be seen here.
Anyway, now for more testing and another update in due course.
While I confess time has been limited, I have also made some significant progress with 2811.
Assiduous followers of this blog will remember that this has not been a happy tale to date. I now have a rolling chassis - well almost. The slide bars are too long and as a result the connecting rod strikes them jamming everything up nicely. This should be cured very soon with snips and a file.
The Comet chassis 'kit' has failed to impress. I think the best way of describing it is a number of sta
