I've finally got round to making the roof for this loco, a job that I've been putting off for a while. The roof is etched oversize, you're advised to 'trim cab roof as shown on drawing'. There is no drawing. Why was it not etched to size in the first place I wonder? So I went down to Rowsley to have a look at the preserved 05, only to find that it had been moved to Manchester for the winter...
Anyway I rolled the roof, placed it on the loco then trimmed it until it looked about right compared t
Adding weight to small locos is always tricky. Further complicated in this case by the need to put as much weight over the rear axle (remember that this is only driven on the rear axle) as possible for traction purposes.
I use aquarium plant weight, which is lead strip 6mm wide and .9mm thick. I know that lead flashing is cheaper but using plant weight is more convenient to chop up into small pieces. I sometimes use liquid lead as well (I didn't on this loco) if I can make a 'box' to keep it in
The owner of this loco wanted Kadee couplings fitted. I've little experience of using these but I do have some US stock, usefull when gauging coupling height. Obviously there's no room for a NEM socket under the loco so another fitting solution had to be found. I was sent some Kadee 'European' couplings to play with, which have a long 'tail' and are, I think, designed to fit into NEM pockets. The 'base' part of the Kadee was shortened as much as I dare, allowing for the screw hole.
My soluti
Forming the bonnet
The first thing I did was to anneal the brass bonnet by heating it until it turned to a straw colour over a gas flame (cooker). I can never remember whether you're supposed to allow the brass to cool naturally or quench it in water, I just go with the former option. Works for me... Then I soldered one edge of the front panel to one side of the bonnet;
Then I rolled the bonnet around the first corner, using a 3.5mm drill as a former;
Gently rolling the bon
DS1169 was a Ruston 48DS, one of two owned by British Railways (the other one was built to 3' gauge and worked at Beeston sleeper works). Originally supplied to Bristol Aviation Company it was taken into BTC stock in 1948 and used for shunting civil engineering stock at Folkestone, then it spent a period working at Broad Clyst sleeper depot before moving to Yeovil in 1962. It was withdrawn in 1971. Info taken from 'The Diesel Shunter' by Colin Marsden.
I've been asked to build a model of thi
I've knocked up a basic interior for the loco from odds and ends. I used some photos that I took of the cab of the Heritage Shunters Trust's 05 for reference. I'm not modelling a BR loco but I think that the basic cab layout was the same for industrial versions.It has been simplified, I feel that adding every detail would result in the control desk looking too cluttered.
Most of the interior has been made from plasticard offcuts apart from the seats, which are plastic 'L' section suitably cut d
I dug out my Dapol Austerity today, quite by accident (I was looking for some wheels...) and found myself working on it for the first time in many years.
I fitted the Gibson EM wheelset thats been hanging around with it, lopped off the centre steps and carved off the smokebox door dart and numberplate. Then I looked at the thing and thought 'do I really want to finish this loco?'. (Note that I had that thought AFTER fitting the new wheels!)
The thing is, I like Austerities. But I'm not sure if
A package arrived in the post a couple of weeks ago from Robert of RT Models containing the test etch for a simple chassis designed to power a Ruston 48DS, either the popular A1Models kit or the rarer Impetus kit.
Its designed to be very simple to build and to use a High Level Slimliner+ gearbox with a Mashima motor.
Here's the nickel silver etch;
And folded up;
The drive is to one axle only, the other features simple compensation, the axle pivoting on the 'V' and running in
I've been adding the finishing details to the bodywork.
On the bonnet tops I've attached twelve hatches. Some early Hunslets have lots of little hatches, some have a couple of larger ones. To make an accurate model a photograph or drawing of the bonnet top is neccesary, I have neither and this isn't an accurate model so I guessed. (Sorry proper modellers!). An airhorn has also been soldered to the cab front, I used the RSU for this and the hatches (I like my RSU!).
The airtanks under the footp
The chassis for this thing is finally up and running, although I've yet to fit the pick-ups.
Before fitting the chassis together I sprayed the wheels and chassis, masking off the important bits, with car primer followed by a coat of Precision 'Frame Dirt'.
Wheels are lathe turned Romfords from the West Coast Kit Centre. I've used Markits axle nut covers to improve the appearence of the wheel centres. Gearbox is a High Level Loadhauler+ with 108:1 reduction and the motor is a Mashima 12/24. Whe
Just a quick update on this one. I've added the handrails and bonnet catches using .33mm brass wire and Gibson short handrail knobs. I used the RSU to solder the wire and knobs in place from the inside by cutting off a small piece of solder, placing it where needed then using the RSU to make the join. I've never tried this technique before and it works quite well. A pic,
Note that the bonnet catches are all out of line, this is deliberate (honest!). The cab handrails and door handle sti
I decided to give the loco some buffers the other day, which was not as straightforward as you'd think, something to do with one hole in the bufferbeam being .6mm lower than the other... I needed to open the holes out to 3mm to suit the Gibson buffers that I'm using so whilst one hole was simply opened out with a broach and tapered reamer the offending hole was moved upwards using a round file and broach alternately. Here's how it looked before I started, the low hole is on the right;
H
Somehow I thought there was something missing when I was putting the chassis together - the kit doesn't include sandboxes. To get the size and shape right I went to visit the Heritage Shunters Trust who are at Rowsley behind Peak Rail. They have a very nicely restored 05 and after asking permission and giving a donation I was allowed to photograph and measure the 05's 'boxes. The H.S.T. are really nice people and the site is worth a visit.
To make up the 'boxes I first laminated 3 strips of
Reading Chris Nevard's recent blog entries on his Hornby Austerity reminded me that I've got an unfinished Dapol one hidden away. So I thought that I'd dig it out and have another look at it. This one is based on 'Warrington' and has the fibreglass chimney, denoting a loco fitted with an underfeed stoker, but will be repainted at some stage. It still needs regauging to EM.
One of the mods that I've done to it is to drill and file away the square strengthening bracket behind the pipework. A simp
Its taken 5 attempts to make up the flycranks for this loco. The etched ones are, to my eyes, too flimsy looking being laminated fom two layers and I wasn't convinced that the throw matches my wheels. So I made up some more from .065" brass. The second pair I wasn't happy with, too narrow, the third pair I got the crank throw wrong, the fourth pair I snapped a tap in. Today I finally finished the fifth pair, not perfect but I can't be bothered making another set! Here's a pic of the second(?) pa
This one has now been varnished (Phoenix Precision ready to airbrush satin enamel) and is almost finished. The filler caps, air filter and exhaust were painted off the model and added after the green top coat was applied. The interior was brush painted, a job I always hate, with Citadel 'Bleached Bone', which is a nice cream colour, before the handbrake stanchion was fitted. To paint the radiater grill I used several coats of Citadel's 'Badab Black' wash to get into the grill without clogging up
Today I decided to fit the brakes to the chassis. I wanted them to be removable for ease of maintenance and painting. I'd already soldered lengths of .5mm rod into the chassis for the top crossbar, with hindsight I should probably have used .7mm. The first step, after opening out the holes in the etches, was to solder one shoe to a length of .7mm rod. I drilled a .75mm hole into a wood strip to help position the shoe at 90 degrees, as seen here;
Then the other shoe was threaded into pla
Last year at ExpoEM North I treated myself to a London Road Models Resistance Soldering Unit. Yesterday I decided that it was about time that I set it up.
Opening the box reveals a big grey unit, a couple of leads, some carbon rod and a set of instructions. The big grey, rather heavy, unit has two leads coming out of the back, one with a mains plug on it and the other with a footswitch on the end. The two other leads plug into two of the four sockets on the front of the unit, different combinat
More work in the paint shop this week. The narrow gauge 48DS is now almost finished, its had its final coat of satin varnish and just needs glazing. The main body colour is Revel acryilic Bronze Green and the frames and roof Precision Dirty Black. A pic;
The Nonneminstre Fowler Resilient has had a coat of satin varnish as well. Main body colour this time is Humbrol Brunswick Green, again with Precision Dirty Black for the frames and roof. This still needs its interior painting and the b
I haven't touched this one for quite some time. A few 'problems' with it made me put it to one side for a while. However I got fed up with looking at it in the display cabinet unfinished and now I've decided that its time to look at it again. I have most of the parts to finish it so theres really no excuse. I'm not going to be able to make a great model from it but I'll try to make the best of a bad job. Its not going to be an 05, just a generic industrial (the 05's were based on a Hunslet indus
Another loco that needs finishing is my OO9 Fowler diesel. So last night I fitted the sandpipes which are bent up from .7mm brass rod, cabside handrails (.45mm brass) and rainstrips. These were made from 1mm brass angle which just needed cutting to length. All material is supplied with the kit although I used Gibson wire for the handrails. Still to be fitted are the exhaust, fuel and rad. fillers and brake column, these will be glued in place after painting. Some pics;
Showing the sandp
No much happening on the loco side recently. I've decided that its high time that my n.g. 48DS was finished so its been in the paint shop (spray booth in the spare bedroom...). After priming (etch first followed by car acrylic, both from aerosols) the bufferbeams were sprayed with Humbrol Signal Red. Then the main bodywork was sprayed in Revel Aqua-Color Bronze Green before the roof was sprayed with Phoenix-Precision Dirty Black. All the paint so far has been acrylic thinned with de-ionised wate
The kit comes with a multi-stage 108:1 gearbox, designed specifically for this loco. Its etched in nickel-silver and is used with a Mashima 1220 motor. The gearbox is easy to fold up and assemble but cutting down the motor shaft caused problems, see here.
A pic of the gearbox;
And a couple of pics of it in the frames;
You can just make out the idler shaft and gear for the 'Illusodrive' jackshaft (the flycranks aren't physically connected to the con. rods but are driven of
Well its been a while since I posted anything about it (I've been distracted by Ruston rebuilds and 16T mineral wagons (I'm building a batch of 4 from Parkside kits)) but I hadn't forgotten this one. Since my last post about this loco I've soldered the bonnet (tab and slot), front bufferbeam, exhaust shroud (again tab and slot), steps, air horn and air tank (under the cab) in place. A couple of pics;
Everything went together well apart from getting the steps square but that's down
I found this, my only piece of O gauge stock, in Mum's attic whilst nosing around up there last week. Its a Peco kit for a 16T mineral with bottom doors. I built it over 15 years ago at a guess. If I remember correctly the kit went together extremely well. Buffers and drawgear are sprung, as is the running gear with working springs moulded in a soft plastic. As I haven't posted anything in this blog for a while I thought that I'd photograph it and post the pics here. And here they are;
