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Confessions


JDaniels

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Firstly, I have to apologise for the absence of any blog entries. Life as they say overtakes you sometimes and I've had a number of issues to sort out, most notably an aging mother and, more recently, mother-in-law having to go into care homes. We now have yet another house to empty at a time when I should be at my modelling desk. Still had two good walks this year, another part of the SW Coast Path and almost all the Cotswold Way (weather interrupted).

 

I did notice in my prolonged absence a number of interesting blogs, I would love to have contributed my two pennyworth but it's a bit late now.

 

Now to my main confession, readers of my blog may have noticed a photo of a GWR U4 compo in lake livery painted by Geoff Haynes. This though was actually only one coach of the three coach set that worked the Blagdon branch. I have sets in both the elaborate and simplified chocolate and cream liveries but as my preferred modelling period is the early 1920's it was essential that I had a set in the lake colour in use at that time. I wanted this set to be more realistic than the others so used the highly detailed Mainly Trains chassis and for the brakes the Shire Scenes sides. The Ratio sides are fine for a T47 brake third but it was the T36 example that was used on the Blagdon branch (and many others). This has three rather than two compartments. If you think about it a train with four third class, two first and two second compartments is hardly representative.

 

Geoff understandably painted the sides prior to fitting the glazing and the grab and door handles. All I had to do was fit these when they came back in their immaculate lake livery. I did have misgivings on this score, justified as it turned out.

 

The composite was fairly straightforward which is why it appears in a past blog. The plastic sides, flush on the inside, meant I only had to cut one length of glazing for each side and this could be secured with liquid poly. The holes for the door and grab rails had already been drilled and these were easily fitted. I used etched handles, the grab rails are not really that realistic as the etching process results in a flat section rather than circular but the prospect of bending brass wire into the correct shape and uniform for every handle was to my mind impossible.

 

On to the brake thirds which of course had Shire Scenes etched brass sides. As I think I mentioned earlier, the droplights are a separate etching fixed to the inside of the coach so the glazing has to be sectioned, one piece for each pair of adjoining windows, another for each droplight. Stupidly, I thought I'd use cyano to fix the glazing and guess what, I got it on the paintwork. Even more stupidly, if that's possible, I used cyano to fix the door handles and grab rails. Yet more adhesive on the paintwork. If someone was cruel they might think it funny looking at me running around like a headless chicken trying to wash the cyano off. Of course it damaged the expensive paintwork so feeling rather chastened I quietly packed the two bodies and the separate chassis in an ice cream tub thinking maybe one day I'd have another look at them. I did seriously think why am I pursuing this hobby.

 

They languished in that ice cream tub for some time until recently when I decided to have another look at them. At Expo EM I bought a tin of Precision Paints GWR lake which, as luck would have it, was the paint that Geoff used as it was an exact match. I had another look at the glazing, some of which had come adrift whilst some others were cloudy where the cyano had got on them. I replaced the missing and the worst of the cloudy glazing with new but this time using Araldite which doesn't go everywhere. Turning attention to the handles, I used the Comet etch which is a little wider than some of the other handles on the coach (I was reluctant to take them all off and start again) but has the advantage that it keeps the correct shape. I'm not sure where some of the etched grab handles came from so  they are a bit of mix and match but you'd have to look very closely to notice this. Maybe one day I'll replace the ones that don't match.

 

Mating the bodies to the chassis for the first time I was encouraged that the sides didn't look as bad as I first thought. The grab rails effectively hid the cyano on the paintwork and applying thinnned down paint to the damaged areas did quite an effective job. At last I'm now able to show the three coach set for the first time, the photo shows it standing at Blagdon's platform

 

IMG_5016_opt.jpg.20f651b8616fa3162249e05eb5b5aaa7.jpg

 

The two brake thirds are numbered 951 and 952, the ones used at Blagdon from 1902 to cessation of the passenger service in 1931. Whilst close examination will reveal the flaws, at normal viewing distance these aren't visible (neither is the detailed chassis!).

 

This wasn't the only disappointment I had. I've been experimenting with track construction using ply sleepers and rivets to represent flat bottom rail spiked directly to the sleepers. This has not worked as for some reason the spacing of the rivet holes in the ply is not that for EM gauge. Also it's difficult to get the holes in the correct position on pointwork, the exact position of the rails using the various gauges does not conform with the position of the holes drilled using the template. If I was using chaired track I'd certainly use the EMGS points and trackwork (incidentally the reason EMGS membership has increased dramatically) but for flat bottom spiked track it's back to copper clad again. This is much easier to use and by scraping an old piece of hacksaw blade over the copper sleepers I've been able tomake a representation of the grain. So far this has gone reasonably well but until the EMGS stock again the wider point sleepers work has come to a halt. One encouraging point (no pun intended) is that by taking great care over the crossing V's stock runs very smoothly through the pointwork. I replaced the wooden sleepers one by one, unsoldering and then offering up the copper one so I didn't have to dismantle the point. The intention is that the track will be the basis of a new Blagdon over two boards to accomodate any downsizing.

 

Like the Siphon C, it's been good to finish the unfinished. The last unfinished kit I have is the GWR 2021 0-6-0ST, now reintroduced by SE Finecast. At Expo EM I brought the chassis so that might be the next thing on the agenda.

 

 

 

 

 

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No apologies needed, we all get bogged down with RL.

 

I stopped using cyanos anywhere near glazing a while back having made a mess of it all. I now use glue and glaze which does not frost stuff and can be wiped off with a wet cotton bud. 

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Sorry to hear about your troubles John. The coaches look very nice in the photo though. Four-wheelers in lake livery is a rare sight, I hope we'll get to see some more of them. 

 

The walks sound nice. We don't have much of a walking/hiking tradition here in Denmark (it's mostly flat fields!), so I've often thought it would be nice to do a walk somewhere in Britain.

 

Quote

me running around like a headless chicken trying to wash the cyano off

 

Yes, I recognise that! Those moments are actually a bit comical when you think about it :)

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Many thanks for your comments. I have to say I like the lake livery which somehow looks dignified. Those not that familiar with the GWR assume that the coaches were always chocolate and cream but for nine years lake was used whilst in the four years or so before that all over chocolate was used. I suppose that railway photography became more widespread in later years and hence chocolate and cream predominates in published material. I do recall though seeing a photo of a rake of immaculate 4 wheelers in Brixham station and thinking how smart they looked. I need to be careful though as during this period "brown" vehicles were also painted lake, perhaps an excuse to buy another horse box?

 

Dave, yes I've learnt my lesson using cyano. I started using Araldite again and although the longer drying time is an inconvenience this has the advantage that you can reposition things. it also acts as a filler and whilst the instructions require equal amounts of the adhesive and hardener it doesn't seem to matter too much if the mix isn't quite right. I find using a cocktail stick ideal for ensuring the glue goes where it's wanted as well as for mixing.

 

Mikkel, the coaches do look a lot better than I expected them to. I think we perhaps get too hung up over detail or flaws that aren't visible at normal viewing distance. I like having variations in liveries; modelling a small station means that not much stock is needed and it's therefore easier to cover a number of different periods.

 

Finally, if you get the chance Mikkel do come and try some of our walks. I meet walkers from all over the world who come here, one advantage we have is what are called public rights of way. If a path has been established over the years it becomes a public right of way allowing a person to walk along a footpath or bridleway over private property, a right enshrined in law. This means that you don't look at the countryside from a distance, you can go into it and experience it.

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Yes it's on my list! (which is growing by the day). 

 

That photo of the 4 wheelers at Brixham sounds good. I think there's a similar one from Uxbridge too. But where? I wish I could do a Google search in my books and magazines!

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On 31/10/2019 at 21:51, Mikkel said:

Yes it's on my list! (which is growing by the day). 

 

That photo of the 4 wheelers at Brixham sounds good. I think there's a similar one from Uxbridge too. But where? I wish I could do a Google search in my books and magazines!

Hi Mikkel,

 

Yes I've been raking through my railway books and of course I can't find it. The photo was looking along the platform with the carriages on the right, all in the lake livery and spotlessly clean. It must be in a book that you wouldn't expect it to be in.

 

There are very few photos of the 4 wheel carriages. Not surprising really as the photographers of the day concentrated on the more spectacular main line scene.

 

 

 

 

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