The Taddington branch of the LNWR

[MarcD]

Not being cheeky but is the small LNWR gunpowder on of our kits?

 

Marc

[Argos]

Marc,

 

It is indeed, it's a nice little kit and I'm pleased with outcome.

I just need to finally sort the lettering and apply some weathering (it's a bit bright at the moment.... )

[MarcD]

It look very good.

 

Marc

[Argos]

I know I said I was going to restart work on the 5' 6" tank whilst the shunter was in the naughty corner, but operating the layout gave me an appetite to do some of the scenery work.
 
Running trains into bare sidings looses something, even if you know what will be there eventually.
 
I have made a decision to embed the second siding in setts (this was actually the original plan) so a set of wooden buffers seems appropriate.
 

 
These were fashioned out of balsa to the standard LNWR sizes given in LNWR Liveries. The chaired sleepers will be replaced with PCB ties and the levels brought up with balsa as the adjacent area, this will provide a base for DAS clay prior to a lot of scribing!
 
Having a cattle dock spot needs a cattle dock (the next couple of kits in the pile are cattle vans...)
Most layouts I see seem to have a robust stone built cattle dock. I do wonder how widespread these were? Certainly towns and cities where large amounts of livestock would be brought for slaughter would certainly have large facilities, but sleepy backwaters that handle small quantities for the local farming community?
I seem to recall seeing a wheeled wooden ramp used in locations with no dock. The model I am building is based on the facilities at Farthinghoe on the Verney Junction to Banbury line. Conveniently there is a drawing of the facility included in Bill Simpson's history of the line. So far the platform has been built in low relief. The gates and fencing need adding. (I realise the rail buffer has the rails the wrong way round, it has since been removed to be corrected...... )
 

 
 
 

Also I've finally got round to building the yard crane. This sort of fits the position I had planned, I might cut the back off the platform to move the crane further from the tracks. The kit is a 5t LNWR crane from Duncan models, It is still be finished but I've posed it here to get a sense of whether the position suits.
 

 

All in all pleasing progress.

 

 

[Argos]

A session at the workbench today finished off the crane and the cattle dock.

Well almost finished, I've no thin plastic rod to replicate the hinges on the cattle dock so that'll have to wait until I get some.
 
As part of the learning curve I used timber for the cattle dock, a mixture of ply (C&L point sleepers) balsa and matchsticks from the local craft shop. I wouldn't bother with the matchsticks again as they are too dimensionally varied and the finish is a bit rough, still, the finished model looks ok from a distance. It'll look better once darkened down with paint and wood stain. In future I'll stick to plastic.
 
 

 
Whilst building the cattle dock I got out a kit for a D21 medium LNWR cattle van I had in the pile. This was to check dimension etc.........well.... might as well assemble the body as it's out.....Well......If I add the axleboxes and wheels I can check the height....might as well sort the inside out as I have the plasticard and drills to hand.... Oh look I've only got the brakes to add and it's finished........
 

 

The roof has been left off to enable the interior to be painted.

 

Classic line from the kit instructions dealing with the brakes "you'll have to use your imagination how to do that bit......!"

 

 

[Argos]

 

It lives..........again!

With a new smaller motor and gear box purchased, assembled and installed the shunter is ready for letting down from the naughty step.

I ran her for half and hour in both directions on DC last night so should be ok on DCC, I just need to find a stand-in chip as the original is away at TCS for repair. 

 

The smaller motor fits nicely in the body, although I'm glad I chose a 40:1 gearbox as it does rev higher than the original Mashima 1824.

The body now just drops on.

 

I've started to finish the body, a bit of work still needs doing (buffers and coupling being the most obvious). When I sprayed the Buffer beams I masked all the top of the body, unfortunately some overspray has got in from below as I didn't mask the bottom; lesson learned there! The black needs touching up a bit and the buffer beams still need lining.

 

In a future plan the shunter will be a station pilot so I wanted her "bulled up" a bit. In fact prior to 1900 many LNWR engines had various bits burnished, including in some instances the chimney caps (no copper clad here thank you!  ). Other items including tank cladding edges, splasher edges, handrails and smoke box door handles.

In the photos below the number plate and crew are added temporarily to complete the effect, the crew still need their painting finished.

 

I am still not sure about the chimney, which admittedly needs toning down a bit with some black wash.

 

Does she look like it a nicely cared for engine, or tart's boudoir?

I thought I'd put it to the vote.........   

Edited January 13, 2016 by Argos

[ChrisN]

A nicely cared for engine to me. Looks good.

[LooseHead]

Those shots do show just how frighteningly insubstantial the frames were on the 4ft shunter; makes one wonder how on earth they coped with the tractive forces.

[Poggy1165]

I love those little engines. They have a real charm about them. The funny thing I have noticed as I have got older is that I am less drawn to massive, glamorous things like the P2, and more to small, ancient locos. Maybe this is because I have come to realise that in a small space, big engines look a bit silly, and also, in 7mm scale, small engines tend to be notably cheaper.

 

Mind you, I shudder to think what it was like actually to work on a thing like that, especially in February in the chilly highlands around Buxton. I think an extra muffler might have been in order.

[Caley Jim]

 

Mind you, I shudder to think what it was like actually to work on a thing like that, especially in February in the chilly highlands around Buxton. I think an extra muffler might have been in order.

You'd certainly need your seemit oan, (and probably at the best of times)!

 

Jim

[Argos]

Thanks for the responses,

I've given the chimney cap a black wash which has toned the effect down, so I think it'll stay burnished.
 

 

The lighting makes the colours more glossy than they actually look. The rest of the paint has been touched up so she is almost ready for service (once a new decoder is fitted.). Coal in the bunker and fix the plates, buffers and couplings. Then the brakes just need fitting on.
 
As regards the frames, you are right Loosehead, they are insubstantial, but then the design dates back to the early 1870s and I would guess they were not expected to travel far. I would presume weight reduction would be a benefit as they would be expected to work industrial sites and wharves where the permanent way would be of questionable quality and strength.
 
Poggy, the folk of Buxton where hardy but I'm sure they would have appreciated more protection. Open cabbed locomotives were not removed from the Buxton depot serving the Cromford & High Peak until 1907!
 
There is a story of a driver who used to walk 7.5 miles from Buxton to Whaley Bridge (Prior to the line being extend to Buxton, opened in 1863), working his shift and then walking home. This would be a good two and half hour walk over long hill on top of a 10-12 hour shift, sometimes kipping down in the shed if the shift went on too long. He caught pneumonia, attributed by the doctor to working on an open footplate in all weathers (I'm sure the long cold walk home didn't help either!).
 
But you try and tell the young people today that.......... 
 
So here are a couple of likely victims posed in front of the cattle dock:-
 

 
Again the colours are more muted in actuality.
 
Finally the crane has been painted now, it just needs the base stonework doing. I have also found a couple of pictures of these cranes, all are using chains rather than cable so this will need to be added.
 

[Argos]

Lesson learned #57

 

When programing a loco, even with temporary decoder, if it runs opposite to the controls (forward moves the loco back) change it using the programming.

This saves getting confused and running full speed into the buffers.......

[Poggy1165]

Could be worse, you could have a four foot drop just past the buffers. At least you've tested them to destruction, and identified a need to strengthen the bally things. Accidents do happen even on real railways. 

[Argos]

On the plus side I originally secured the buffers in place before staining them.....which means there were bits I couldn't get to with the paint brush and so were left bare wood.

 

I can now full paint them before rebuilding....

 

silver linings and all that........

[Argos]

I just thought I'd let anyone reading know that progress will slow slightly for the next few weeks (not that has been exactly break neck!).

 

I start a new permanent job mid-February and have just been given 3 weeks freelance work starting tomorrow, to good to resist!

 

I will be working away from home so no access to the work bench apart from weekends.

[ChrisN]

The like is for work, permanent, money, not that you are away from home and not modelling.  Hope it goes well.

[Argos]

Thanks Chris,

Things were looking dicey before Christmas, I turned down two job offers as I was close to being offered two others I preferred. Both of these recruitments then got stopped!

All's well now though.

Ironically the day after I accepted the permanent post I got calls offering me two other positions, drought to flood in 24 hours!

[Argos]

After a bit of  lay off I managed to get a couple of hours at the workbench.
 
I've turned my attention to the 5'6" tank as this has sat around part built long enough!
The build stalled because I wasn't happy with various elements of the kit. Mostly this was me wanting more detail than was supplied with the kit (It was only cheap so this is not a criticism), however one issue is a fairly fundamental failing.
 
The gap between the inside of the tanks in the cab is 30.5mm. This falls between the rear drivers, 0 Gauge back to back? 29-29.2mm, they are never going to fit! 
I found this out after wondering why the body would not fit the chassis once I'd fitted the tank insides.
 
 
 
Two brass strips were tinned and soldered together, the thinner edge will form the thickening in the tanks.
 

 
This view shows the additional strip added to the left hand side, I managed a neat join with this one.
 

 
Finally with the inside tank side soldered on, The body now fits the chassis nicely with no rub on the drivers.
 
I also took the opportunity to fix the chimney (in so doing notice the dome was slightly off so this got repositioned) and the pipework and handrails on the LHS.
Sods law, the tube I used for the pipework is 3mm too short for the RHS pipe, I did try to stretch it but the brass is a bit hard.......

 

 
Frustratingly none of the etched hole are in the right place for the pipework or the handrail (it does warn you in the instructions) so this took a bit of faffing and there are a couple of holes to fill.
 
Finally the shunter got its brakes (not finally fixed as I want to change the pick ups).
 

 
I've also finished detailing the cab, although I can't help thinking it's a bit sparse. I haven't been able to find any cab photos circa 1890. There are some modern ones of the preserved loco but I'm not sure what were additions by ICI (the industrial owner). Mind you I would guess they would be fairly rudimentary.
 
Can anyone see anything missing?

 

Edited January 31, 2016 by Argos

[Argos]

Simon,

 

that's odd I can, I did try posting them differently so I didn't the repeats at the bottom of the post. I'll re-post them if anyone else can't see them.

 

Thanks

[Andy Hayter]

I can't see them either - so please, if you can, repost them.

 

Thanks

[Argos]

Ah!

 

I have just refreshed the page and they've disappeared..........!

[Argos]

Just added the pictures in my usual manner so they should now be viable to all.

 

Apologies.

[Caley Jim]

I can't see them either - so please, if you can, repost them.

 

Thanks

I can see them OK, and they are repeated at the bottom of the post.

 

Jim

[Andy Hayter]

Yes I too can see them now - and they look good.  Thanks Argos for doing whatever it was you did.

[Poggy1165]

I remember Bob Essery writing some years ago about the difficulty of building a 4-4-0 (of a particular kind) in 7mm FS and how it was easier in S7. I didn't really understand what he was parroting on about until someone showed me a part-built model of a GC D7 that had stalled because of the same issue. Then it clicked.

 

There are (some) definite advantages to S7. If I was starting from scratch, had a room big enough for 12ft curves, and was an engineer instead of a hopeless bodger, I'd be tempted that way. But of course FS has its advantages too. It's roughly equivalent to EM, and that's good enough for me.