This is a catch up installment on D604... and quite a long one. I was quite keen to get it into a presentable state so that I could use it at TINGS, so that meant no mucking about on RMWeb for a little while.
In the last installment the basic shape of the bodyshell was completed but the detail was yet to go on. There is a lot less to add to the class 41 than the class 22, but there was still some work to do.
The roof has most of the right things in the right places. Unlike the 22 there i
A second installment of the D604 build...
In the previous episode the body was just starting to go together but was still short of quite a few important external panels.
Next step was to fit the nose ends. Unlike the class 22, these are far from flat so they had to be bent to the correct curve. This was tricky for a couple of reasons. Firstly there is no good reference to use to find the 'correct' curve, so I had to judge this by studying photos.
The NBL factory photos showed that th
The story so far... as regular readers may remember, we are at a point where we just about have enough locos to run the schedule at St Ruth. Recent additions from my direction prior to the Nottingham show earlier this year were a Farish Warship and a much modified Western, both in maroon.
A long time ago I promised myself that I would not be building a class 41 Warship - these were the very first WR hydraulics and were rather outside the WR's hydraulic concept, being the result of a politic
I'm hopeful that the Hymek (which you may recall had failed prior to Warley) is now on the mend.
In our previous installment, I'd got hold of some spare worm wheels from BR Lines and installed them in the loco but this had not cured the uneven running which I still thought was caused by the wormwheel skipping on the worm (hence the trashed original wormwheel)
We have AbRail coming up on Saturday, so I finally got back around to looking at the problem... with visions of needing to make ne
The full brake has now been handed over to the operating department.
The painting sent somewhat less than smoothly (this is normal for me). A coat of Halfords primer from a can was followed by an airbrushed coat of precision maroon. This went on very well and I was very happy with the nice smooth satin finish... except... there were a couple of bits of dust that embedded themselves into the finish in quite a prominent place.
I thought the best option would be to remove the offending
The full brake is ready for the paint shop, all bar a few bits of fettling.
I don't intend to write a blow by blow account here - after all the kit comes with instructions, so I'll stick to the main places where I have gone 'off piste'.
Unlike David 71's build, I opted for using solder for all of the brass to brass joints. I stuck to cored electrical solder plus Carrs Green Label flux because I find this stronger and less messy than using lower melting point solder pastes.
Footboards
The class 22 is in the paint shop (scary) so something new has taken its place on the workbench - an Ultima kit for a Hawksworth full brake.
These coaches survived well into the 1970s in rail blue, so this will fit neatly into my chosen period. I also happen to think that the Hawksworth coaches are some of the finest looking coaches ever built, so I don't need much of an excuse to build one. I'm planning to make life difficult for myself by painting it maroon and using my new Bob Moore linin
After being on the back burner for a while to make way for the completion of D604 and work on the next signal for St Ruth, I finally got round to doing some more on the Ultima Hawksworth BCK that I started in October.
The coach is now ready for the paint shop (I just corrected a typo there - 'pain shop' - quite appropriate really). Although the coach is ready, I don't think it will be going near any paint for a little while - it's too flippin' cold and dark out there.
For the most part,
Fresh off the workbench (as usual, that means almost but not quite finished!) in time for ExpoFest.
These two probably don't quite sit well together... geographically they both carried loads to or from the Hayle Wharf branch but the Esso tanks appear in late 1950s photos and the Bromine tanks around 1970.
The 14T class A tank is a 2mm Association kit with Alclad paint (thanks to Mark 46444 for the tip) and Cambridge Custom Transfers.
The Bromine tank is my own 3d print sat on a Parkw
I thought I would introduce South Yard by concentrating on what it is for so here is a picture of South Yard set up in the holiday cottage that we rented last week for our half-term holiday on the North York Moors.
I don't claim any originality in any of South Yard's ideas (or the title of this posting) - the main inspiration came from David Mallott's 'Chapel Wharf', particularly his idea of having a layout that could easily be taken on holiday to provide entertainment in case of inclem
Spent a pleasant day today at the DEMU Showcase in Burton helping out on Jim Allwood's Welton Down along with fellow Midland Group member John Russell and lapsed member Richard Lake. Thanks to Jim for inviting us and the show organisers for putting on a good do.
I thought I'd take a few trains to play with but having precisely zero appropriate items to fit in with the 1990s Network South East theme, I just had to take along some inappropriate ones.
First up, I thought I'd hijack Jim's co
A former member of the Midland area group recently donated his box of unfinished projects and other bits and bobs so that the group members could make use of them. I picked out a part built Gresley BG which looked like a nice model which was crying out for someone to finish it. I have a bit of a soft spot for parcels stock.
Some photos and words about progress to date...
The coach as retrieved - basically two sides, two ends and a floor
I don't know much about its origin - this is
Having been temporarily chucked back together for AbRail, the Hall is just back from an extended spell in the paint shop having its paint job generally finished off and some weathering applied... just in time for St Ruth to go to Macclesfield this weekend.
My plan for the 'paint job' was to wash over the Dapol GWR green (or it it US Army WW2 geep green?) with thinned Precision BR Green, doing my best to avoid the lining. It's kind of worked, but it took a few more coats than I had hoped
A quick update on this project.
The chassis is now pretty much done barring a few odds and ends like couplings and attention is now turning to the superstructure.
Again there is not much to say about the chassis build - it went together as per Nigel's comprehensive instructions... although I do prefer to get things running and tested at the earliest possible stage whereas the instructions save the installation of the worm until quite late in the day.
One part that did prove niggly th
I've been struggling for a while to think up a catchy title for this one. It was originally intended as a Christmas project which would obviously have been 'Deck the Halls' but I didn't actually get around to starting that soon so the moment was lost.
For old times sake, I waited until the loft was again at sub zero temperatures before testing the Hall on Taw Bridge. I wanted to check that the coupled wheels would negotiate crossovers successfully (they did) and that it could pull a train -
First of all, apologies to anyone expecting 2FS content. Let's just call this a summer special.
Today was a sad and a happy occasion. The builders arrive tomorrow to start work on our house extension. This means that the patio section of my garden line will have to close. Today was the final day, so I had to run a special.
On a happier note, I've been beavering away (re) laying the track on the North side of the garden where the track gets the most sun and consequently would never stay t
Modelling chez moi has been on temporary hold for the past week or so due to a trip to see MinerChris in his new abode in Sudbury (not Suffolk!).
We did manage to get out and about on several occasions and caught a few of the local activities. I'm no expert on these matters so I'm sure that others will know more than me.
This is the view from Chris's local model shop - George's Trains - a mere 237 miles away in Toronto. Nice shop though.
A freight on the CP mainline near Chelmsfo
A couple of items that have been stuck in the paint shop for a while.
First up is a BD container. This is from a Parkwood kit that was sat in the gloat box for ages. It's sat in a steel bodied high - also from a Parkwood kit. The chassis is a 2mm Association etch.
I've hankered after a container in the later BR 'door to door' livery for a long time and have now finally got round to doing one. It may be possible to get commercial container transfers but I was doing some custom decals for
Fancying a break from slaving over a hot soldering iron I thought I’d have a go at a job that I’ve been failing to ‘get around to’ for a long time – making some loads for my mineral wagons.
Naturally I thought this would be easy, but maybe I was wrong.
The first bit is very straightforward - cut some rectangles of black card to fit inside the wagons and glue some lumps of foamboard and card underneath them to hold them at a sensible height. Then (assuming a fairly level load) coat the to
It’s been a while since my last posting in which I was having a fairly trying time persuading the Atlas chassis to look like a model of something that has been made in Glasgow rather than the U.S. The news is rather better now, I’ve been gradually ticking things off my list of jobs and the loco is now stripped down and ready to go to the paint shop.
A few more details…
The Bogies
You may remember from my previous posting that I hadn’t been able to get hold of the Wo
Progress continues on the class 22, albeit rather more slowly now that the days are longer and I'm often out and about enjoying the nice weather for more of the evening.
This posting is rather an interim update to say that "I'm still here" rather than a blow by blow account of particular bits of the model, mainly because I don't think that I've done much that is really 'finished' since last time. No photos either, because the appearance really hasn't changed noticeably.
Attention has now
The body gains its buffer beams, valences and roof panels.
... and I promise to write about something else one day
Buffer Beams
As far as I can tell the method of assembly intended by the Worsley Works kit involves two false cab floors to be soldered to the main body and a separate chassis built around a floor unit with two cutouts, presumably for motor bogies. The floor unit and the cab floors have etched holes, so I guess that the idea is that they should be bolted together. The si
Progress continues on the class 22, but at a rather slower pace now that I'm working on the detailing of the nose ends. There's a lot to do here (and it still isn't finished) and it's definitely a place at which the Worsley Works scratch-aid kit becomes more scratch than aid.
The Prototype
The nose is another place on the class 22 where a lot of detail variations appear. I won't attempt to cover all of them here. The most obvious is the presence or absence of headcode boxes. These were n
It Lives!
This is a quick update with some good news about my class 22 - this afternoon postman brought me an Atlas MP15DC that will provide the chassis for the class 22.
It had taken about 5 weeks to arrive from New Jersey. I was rather beginning to think that it was never going to arrive and wishing that I'd just found a nice Farish class 20 like everybody else does.
Naturally, being a patient sort of chap, after a fairly cursory test to make sure that it wasn't dead, the body was
The roof detail goes on...
Choice of Prototype
So far I hadn't really done anything that had limited the choice of loco that I could build, but on reaching the roof that was about to change because this is one place where there were lots of variations.
The pilot scheme locos D6300-6305 were ruled out because they had a different layout for the louvres and doors on the sides and would need a different body etch. They also had a much simpler roof layout than the production series locos
