Leaderboard

Exploring the blog concept with a view to maintaining a record of weathering processes, materials, tools and techniques. Entries will be sporadic and entirely dependent upon time and memory.

Fairly self-explanatory this; for some while I've been toying with the idea of altering the bridge over the three tracks as seen here: The existing girder bridge was all right, and I've lived with it for a good while, but I've gradually become dissatisfied with it and have been considering alternatives. The front-runner at the moment (not that there's much competition) is a brick arch structure which would take the road over the rails in a gentle hump, with one large arch for the main line tracks and a smaller one for the goods siding. Clearance is tight, though, so I thought I'd made a card profile to get some idea of how it might look: The narrower arch is a semi-circle, whereas the wider one is a three-centred arch which gives a little more headroom. My concern was that the pier between the two arches would have to be too narrow, but, allowing for tight clearances, I don't think it looks out of place, at least in this mockup. In practise, I'll have to make the main arch slightly wider to accommodate a run of point-rodding, with the tracks slightly skewed away from the center-line. I very much like the idea of the smaller arch being as tight as feasible, which would in turn place running restrictions on which locomotives could and couldn't traverse that siding. A final consideration might be to make the bridge symmetric, with another small arch on the right side of the main lines, which would permit a trailing siding off the down line. As with the girder bridge, the new structure would be built on a slight skew to add a bit of visual drama and help draw the eye into the scene.

Half a year has slipped by since my last post on this blog! I remember those heady days, exploring the possibilities of my new Silhouette cutter, when a week between posts seemed a long time. This model has been a different challenge and there have also been many distractions, including a persistent virus infection through the so-called (very cold) Spring and then, more pleasantly, the arrival of a second grand-son. I have always described myself as an 'impressionist' modeller, so venturing into Broad Gauge territory has been a culture shock. Most BG models are 'true scale' and built to precision standards, which have left me in awe of the engineering expertise displayed in most of the models I have viewed. My own scratch-built 'standard gauge' models were very simple, based on a folded platform, which formed a solid base for the 'upperworks'. Broad-gauge engines need to be approached in a different way, since there is a lot of 'daylight' between the widely-spaced frames and everything can get very 'floppy', without suitable bracing. I learned all these things the hard way and came close to giving up on several occasions. 'Floppy' frames I also thought I had made a big mistake in adopting the Hornby wheels from 'Lord of the Isles', since these are over-size but do have the merit of the correct number of spokes (24). Despite turning these wheels down as far as possible, they remained over-size and, with a four-coupled chassis, the discrepancies mount up, in terms of overall length. When I compared the dimensions with the drawings, they seemed excessive but, when I overlaid a photo of my model over a side-on view of the prototype 'Coeur de Lion', I found. to my surprise. that the model seems to have captured the overall 'look' of the prototype rather well Overlaid Photos Another aspect of my model that I found unsatisfactory was the excessive width of the splasher-tops, where I had erred on the side of caution when considering the clearances around the driving wheels. Their construction had been a very 'fiddly' task, so I did not relish the thought of taking them all to bits and starting again. Fortunately, I found it was quite easy to 'slim them down' with the aid of a sanding drum on my mini-drill, so another concern was averted. In my last post, I described the need for some 'inside motion' to fill the yawning gap between the frames. Adding this also provided the means, through the motion plate, to add some necessary stiffening between the widely-spaced mainframes. In order to provide sufficient rigidity and alignment while fitting these inside components, I hit on the ideas of using temporary spacers at the axle locations, by means of long fixing bolts, with multiple nuts, to define the separation of the frames all along their length. Temporary spacers These temporary fixings allowed me to solder fixtures between the frames, including the footplate at the back-end and the motion plate, amidships, together with a substantial buffer beam and drag box at the two ends, all in good alignment with one another. At last, I could see a way of mounting the boiler onto a suitably rigid chassis and so I decided that it was time to start to fit the 'cosmetic' overlays; now with reasonable confidence in achieving a satisfactory final outcome. The firebox-boiler-smokebox assembly was all derived from the Broad Gauge Society kit for the Gooch Standard Goods. Overlays are provided in this kit for both the smokebox wrapper and the front face, including the smoke-box door, to show the various rivet lines. Rather than risk melting the main solder joints in the underlying structure, I decided to attach these overlays by means of superglue, after carefully cleaning all the mating surfaces, to ensure good adhesion. Most of this detailing went smoothly enough, except for the wrapper at the top of the smokebox, where the large hole for the funnel made it difficult to form a smooth curve, without the thin brass sheet developing a kink. With Smokebox Overlays I think whoever designed the sand-boxes for the prototype engines must have been aiming to set a challenge for the builders! Not only do these boxes nestle against the curved splashers over the driving wheels but they also follow the curve of the footplate as it rises over the leading wheels. I addressed this challenge by making the boxes 'origami-style', folding a small piece (14 mm x 12 mm) of brass sheet, marked with the curves around which the edges of the finished box need to fit. I then cut out the outlines using jewellers' snips. Sand box template Once folded, to make an open-backed 'box', I filled the inside cavity with modelling putty, to form a rigid structure. I then glued the box in position onto the curved footplate Sand Box in position Another small pair of components to be added are the inclined supports for the boiler, placed just ahead of the sand boxes. I glued thin strips of brass to the sloping edges of the motion plate, which I had already soldered between the frames. So having come close to 'giving up' several times, I have completed all the major components. There are still several rods and levers to be attached and then it will be time to hide much of the brass-work under a layer of primer. On these early locomotives, however, there will still be quite a lot of brass 'on show', which will need regular polishing. Hopefully, my next post will show something resembling a completed model

Had a great day today with Steamer58 from SiF (I'm a member too) who is on his massive vacation from the USA. Today we were at the GCR/Great Central Railway. Lovely day for it too. Anyway, it's the first time we met up and the day was fun. Cheers mate. Whilst we were there we ventured to the swapmeet. More like a car boot sale but I picked up some hyper bargains....and I mean hyper! Ok, here are the two pictures. One as an overview and another close up. The 3 N Gauge coaches are the old LIMA ones with the 'pizza cutter' wheels, although the flanges were not the worst and they STILL run well on my FiNetrax code 40 rail. Bonus! I was thinking I'd have to buy new wheels. So, as you may know going rate for RTR coaches of the new tooling variety in N Gauge typically are £30-40 - damn steep. Older ones are typically £20-25 per coach. I 00 Gauge modern coaches are usually £45-55 now. I refuse to pay more than around £35 per coach and again you can pick up medium quality coaches for around £20-25 a shot. I'm happy to pay this price for a coach seeing as you need a rake of them. So, old, less realistic, scaled and detailed...BUT! They were £10 each and after I spent a while looking at different coaches 'umming and arring' the guy made a move and said I could have all three for £25. Nice £5 off. Yep. Deal. Well happy. - The Gresley Teak coaches are an even better story. They are the old Teak coaches probably from the 60's & 70's. I own about four anyway but the colouring on them is too light and the Hornby Railroad ones are even lighter. I LOVE the modern new tooled teaks but again for £50-60 per coach you can forget it. What the guy done here is paint them or varnish them himself. Now he in my opinion hasn't done a bad job. They look better than the standard ones and certainly look weathered. Having recently been down the SVR and observed/rode the real coaches they are a more brown and sienna type colour. When varnished they look splendid almost going orange and when weathered they look even more brown and matt than these. As you can see they are a bit rough around the edges and the roof has brush splash marks, but I have a modellers eye and see the potential. So I looked at the set and asked him how much they were, he looked under them and saw a 6 written on a circular sticker and he said "£6" then almost straight after said "But I'll do the set for £20" .... I was already beaming with £6 let alone £5. Aarrr, gooaaw on then!! £20 bloomin quid. He either is very generous, has no idea of model railway pricing or mistaken the 6 for a 9. I'm going to neaten them up and gloss varnish them and I'm sure the result will be grand. Brought them in preparation for my NWR layout. Progress on support structure is slow but getting there.

Being from County Durham I do have a soft spot for ex LNER locomotives. Helping to "play" with Herculaneum Dock (owned by Mike Edge) I have become more interested in ex LNER (and ex GC ones especially) so ... a Bachmann J11 was purchased while it was on a Rails Low price sale. New DG couplings fitted and a bit of weathering and... I then had an opportunity to buy an ex Wills K3 in lined BR Black. Again a DG coupling fitted to the tender and a gentle wash over with some inks and powders and.. Voila! I will go back and add a bit more weathering when I get a bit of time. baz