Cwmhir - The camera never lies

[Darwinian]

2 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Do you happen to recall who supplied the Ynys Amman coal wagon kit? TIA.

I think it is a Slaters wagon. I have added internal strapping and it is shorter than my PD wagons which were Cambrian. I’m unsure whether it is a Slaters or Powsides ready lettered kit. I may even have done the lettering with Powsides transfers myself.

[Darwinian]

Progress on the D37 stalled while changed the cassettes for my fiddle yard as they were failing with the temperature fluctuations in the shed. Each cassette will hold a four coach train so approx 3 feet long and copperclad sleepers glued to the cassette with rails soldered to them.

On the right is one of my early ones, just a strip of 9mm mdf. These are OK as expansion of the  rails simply curves the mdf. but the stock can fall off too easily.

The mark two is on the left. Here 4mm mdf channels were used. Stock stays on but as you can see the expansion/contraction of the rails causes the soldered joints to fail. So I have gone to mark3. Four shorter lengths of copperclad sleepered track but with plastic flexitrack sleepers at the joins to allow movement and hold the gauge (2nd from left). Only the centre sleeper and the chaired plastic sleepers are stuck down. Electrical continuity provided by wire jumpers (3rd from left).  

 

The sides and ends of the D37 have been united into two L-shapes but that's as far as I've got.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Darwinian
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[Darwinian]

It's been a while since I added anything here as we have been away on holiday and then getting our children off to their universities. I have also been busy volunteering on the North Norfolk Railway.

Anyway a running session resulted in some pictures, hope you like them.

 

Ex Rhymney railway R1 No 35 arrives engine and van to clear the colliery exchange sidings.

 

And departs with its loaded coal wagons down the valley.

 

Aberdare 2671 on a test run from Caerphilly works brings in a short goods train including a GPV for the colliery.

 

 

The Aberdare failed with a drive train problem (intermittent short) and a failed tender drawhook (the Dingham loop was sticking)

The cause of the short is still under investigation. The araldite holding the Dingham on the tender had not gone off and had seeped onto the loop fixings making the coupling too stiff to operate magnetically. It was also not holding it in the bufferbeam very well so the hook has been removed for repair/replacement.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Darwinian
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[Siberian Snooper]

Without wishing to be picky, I very much doubt that the GPV would be coupled to the engine, unless possibly empty or being shunted.  I think the regulations require at least one if not 2 barrier wagons.

 

 

 

 

[Darwinian]

Decided to try to get some pictures of the Aberdare. Unfortunately it has developed a short so is not running at the moment. So I resorted to posing it!

 

Evening sunshine breaks across Cwmhir as an Aberdare shuffles about.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Darwinian
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[Darwinian]

The short appears to have been the motor terminals touching inside the body. However it then stripped the teeth off the first drive gear of the Loadhauler+ gearbox. I suspect I didn't have it meshed deep enough despite a clear warning on the instructions from High level.  I took some measurements of the Mashima I bought with the kit and a Mitsui N20 that I've acquired since and the Matsui is a little smaller. There are suitable fixing points on the gearbox so I've attached it and sure enough it slips into the firebox/boiler more easily (once i'd cut off the motor shaft at the terminals end and shortened the terminals. 

Replacement 1st stage gear and a new worm ordered from high level.

 

Further examination of the motor-less chassis found an occasional bind when running forwards. Just got to track the cause of that down now and hopefully won't strip any more gears.

[Darwinian]

A return of my modelling mojo over the last week has seen the D37 clerestory make progress such that all the main soldered construction is done. Just lamp irons, buffer stocks  and other end detail to do.

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Darwinian
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[MrWolf]

That's a wonderfully neat bit of work, almost tempts me to splash out on a simple brass kit.

[Darwinian]

It doesn’t half help having already done one and found the snags on that.

I remembered to add a representation of the turnbuckles on the truss rods too, but they hardly show.

[Darwinian]

This was one of those "why didn't I think of that before?" moments.

 

When building the clerestory roofs, I had found the main roof vac-formed plastic provided was a bit too narrow so had added a strips of plastic to form the gutters/roof edges and give a little extra width to cover the top edges of the sides. Being only 1mm x 20 thou these were a bit of a fiddle to keep straight. After battling with the first side on this coach the penny dropped.

Glue the roof to the sheet of plastic card, that way it stays straight and flat.

 

Leave to harden for 24 hours, then trim the roof away from the sheet. Result:

 

The upper gutter above is the one done this way.  There is a bit of camera distortion making it look slightly curved but it is dead straight in reality. A little more solvent applied where it seemed necessary and then it will be carefully sanded back to reduce the depth.

The bottom one was attached as a separate strip and you can see how it still wobbles a bit compared to the roof profile.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[Darwinian]

There should not be a cantrail like edge to the roof so I filled the joint and then smoothed it all off. The clerestory section needed similar treatment because I managed to cut one edge a little too short. After much filling and sanding back here are the two sections. There is a 40thou base plate glued to the top of the main roof to align the raised section. With the clerestory windows being blanked off there is no need to have avoid here, which makes life simpler as well as making the roof stronger.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[Darwinian]

It’s been a bit quiet on here, mainly because the layout shed has no power at present and filling and sanding coach roofs isn’t very photogenic.

In the past week I’ve also been sidetracked refurbishing the winter scene I built with our children’s help some years ago. The old street lights had failed and the windmill didn’t work. Modern street lights from layouts4u and a Matsui motor plus a bit of rewiring and scenic restoration later:

 

[Darwinian]

Hope you all had a good Christmas. 

I’m doing a spot of dining table top model building. Cambrian 6&1/2 plank Gloucester 15’0” P.O.

Takes careful trimming of the parts to get everything square.

The supplied brake mouldings sit a long way off the wheels so I’m substituting some old Masokits gear. Will have a set each side, not cross connected.

 

Apologies I cannot find the image for this stage of the build.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Darwinian
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[MrWolf]

I'll make sure to keep a mental note of that, there's just such a wagon in the Box Of Doom.

I find it strange that many of the Cambrian wagons go together really well, (including the much feared GWR six ton crane) yet others have sides and ends that fits where they touches and brake gear that's just plain vague.

I've got a part built LSWR van with really nice body details that is one strike short of becoming an air rifle target.

Do the sides overlap the ends, ends overlap the sides or are they equal? 

I had similar problems with an LMS van, which went together on the second attempt, but I'm not 100% happy with it.

I'm hoping that the ex Cambrian Railways opens behave themselves, there's not really enough budget priced pre grouping wagons available.

[Darwinian]

To be honest all of my rake of P.D. (see earlier in this thread) wagons have the same under frame as do a few other P.O.s built from Cambrian  kits. All of those have the brake mouldings from the kit and I don’t actually notice when they are on the layout.

However having started the upgrade on this one I might as well finish it.

[Darwinian]

11 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I'll make sure to keep a mental note of that, there's just such a wagon in the Box Of Doom.

I find it strange that many of the Cambrian wagons go together really well, (including the much feared GWR six ton crane) yet others have sides and ends that fits where they touches and brake gear that's just plain vague.

I've got a part built LSWR van with really nice body details that is one strike short of becoming an air rifle target.

Do the sides overlap the ends, ends overlap the sides or are they equal? 

I had similar problems with an LMS van, which went together on the second attempt, but I'm not 100% happy with it.

I'm hoping that the ex Cambrian Railways opens behave themselves, there's not really enough budget priced pre grouping wagons available.

Regarding the fit of parts I squared up the edges of the floor by rubbing on fine abrasive paper laid flat on the table. Then carefully checked the fit of the sides and ends making the sides overlap the ends at the corners. 

I put the body/floor together first, then fitted the buffer beams and lastly the assembled solebars. You do have to be very careful to keep the floor flat and level.

The buffer beams were a bit over wide and needed filing back at both ends to stand only fractionally proud of the sides.

They are also distinctly trapezoid in cross section but can be sanded closer to square as for the floor. The visible ends were finished off with a fine file to be as rectangular as possible.

[Darwinian]

Well putting together (soldering) the brake gear  took as long as the rest of the kit.

This is the "Before" style of brake on the PD wagons which are the same Cambrian Kits underframe.

 

 

And here the masokits version, although I haven't put the brake handle and it's rack on yet,  which are a marked improvement in appearance over the simple and rather chunky plastic kit ones. I assembled these onto a base plate made from part of the etched fret waste areas.

 

 

Masokits brake components do not seem to be available any more. I could have used the Bill Bedford ones as seen on the LMS D1666 kit shown earlier in this thread but I couldn't find them! I know I still have some left, no doubt they will turn up when i'm looking for something else.

Just got to do the second set for the other side now. No cross link as this represents a wagon that has had the second set added, having been built with brakes on one side only.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[Darwinian]

Completed gear compared to standard kit version (single sided in this case)

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[Darwinian]

So the open is done and I've also built a coopercraft 04 so back to some layout modelling.

Time to have a go at the Bread Oven. As the St.Fagans museum's bread oven https://museum.wales/stfagans/buildings/georgetown_oven/ came from Merthyr it seemed a suitable prototype to follow and my row of miners cottages would be about the same period as the Rhyd-y-car terrace.

 

Doing some rough scaling from a Modelu figure and the pictures on the Beamish museum site of a gentleman firing (?) theirs I came up with a plan for the model. I have tried to allow for the distortion caused by the viewing angle on the St. Fagans picture but might have made it a bit too wide across the front.

 

Here is a cereal card mock up to test the idea.

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[88C]

Making a card mock up is always a useful idea to get a feel for a building. I took this picture of the bread oven way back in 2015, was it really that long ago.

I don't if you have had any thoughts about the cottage, I used the Ancorton laser cut terrace as a basis and it saved a lot of work, even though I clad it with plastic sheet to get a better stone finish, there are some pictures on my Llanforen thread. I will get round to fixing them in place sometime!

 

Brian

[Darwinian]

That's a splendid photo of the bread oven and a better angle for modelling purposes than the one on their web site, thanks for sharing. It also helpfully shows the arrangement in the doorway so I can get on with modelling that now. i'll post a picture when I get to that stage. It will go next to the cottages on Cwmhir which are at present the scalescenes ones.

 

I have also made enough progress on the D37 for some more pictures. compartment end has the alarm gear, this is scratchbuilt from bits of wire. The chain connector housings were from square section brass rod, filed to half round and then slivers cut off with a piercing saw. The saw is then used to cut a small clearance slot in the flat edge for the cross rod to pass through.

 

 

And here is the whole coach with it's roof. The scroll irons need adjusting and the underframe needs a lower step for the guard, a gas cylinder and the brake rodding. Can anyone explain how the guard's brake would be connected to this?  Where in the guards area was the brake standard?

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by Darwinian

[Penrhos1920]

On 14/02/2022 at 22:23, Darwinian said:

Can anyone explain how the guard's brake would be connected to this?  Where in the guards area was the brake standard?

 

 

 

 

On the centre line of the coach, approximately in the middle of the lookouts.  There are several drawings of similar coaches here http://penrhos.me.uk/LowRoofs.shtml

[Darwinian]

The D37 Brake is coming along nicely and I've done the undercoats (Halford's rattle can etch primer on the body/bogies and standard primer on the roof).

 

This one will be in the normal late 20s Brown and cream livery, single black and gold line plus heraldic shields. 

 

My standard concoctions of Vallejo air acrylics for the main colours, although the brown has come out a little lighter than previously for some reason. There are about 4 airbrushed coats of each colour. Masking along the waist panels was done with Tamiya masking tape and then the rest covered with el cheapo masking tape.

 

So far so good. Forgot to do the clerestory sides brown though, doh!

 

 

[Mikkel]

Just spent a pleasant morning admiring your clerestory coaches (those that can be seen). Something to aspire to.

 

The communal bread oven looks like an interesting project too, I hadn't heard of them before.

[Darwinian]

6 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Just spent a pleasant morning admiring your clerestory coaches (those that can be seen). Something to aspire to.

 

The communal bread oven looks like an interesting project too, I hadn't heard of them before.

Thanks for your kind words Mikel. I will try to replace as many missing images as I can.

 

I was vaguely aware of the existence of communal bread ovens and was reminded by a piece on TV about the origins of the Lancashire hot pot.