“WASHBOURNE”

[Northroader]

Agreed, Don, Modbury is a beautiful layout. It’s a dilemma, isn’t it? Pick a scale where you can get the full scenic picture for somewhere looking really good, but the models are awfully small, or go for happy size models, and then struggle to squash them in a nice setting. There’ll never be a perfect solution, I’m afraid.

[Donw]

I know my desire to capture operations at Dolgelly  would be easier in a smaller scale but I have 0 gauge kits in stock for locos and some stock not to mention a lovely Small SS 4-4-0. That is one of the attactions of this thread. Capturing the atmosphere in a small space.

 

Don

[Edwardian]

4 hours ago, Northroader said:

Agreed, Don, Modbury is a beautiful layout. It’s a dilemma, isn’t it? Pick a scale where you can get the full scenic picture for somewhere looking really good, but the models are awfully small, or go for happy size models, and then struggle to squash them in a nice setting. There’ll never be a perfect solution, I’m afraid.

 

It's remarkable hard to find a happy medium

 

[Compound2632]

Well, if I could see the future, I'd be pretty miserable. Especially if I was a BG enthusiast c. 1850.

[Northroader]

That shouldn’t stop you trying to capture the appeal of the scene as it was. You could say the same about steam in the 1950s, yet I dare say the bulk of the inmates of RMweb are doing just that.

[Regularity]

51 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

It's remarkable hard to find a happy medium

You've met me.

Is a cheerful (extra-)large OK instead? 

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

It's remarkable hard to find a happy medium

 

 

Well going by the labels in my shirts and jackets I am a medium and reasonably happy. MArion said she has planted some in the garden. What a strange world (or strange not of this world if you like). I have the impression those like the one in the picture were nearly all con artists and arranged trickery so probably quite happy until they were caught out.

Nice to see you is post accounts mood. Is this the Lawyers equivalent of the silly season?

 

Don

[Northroader]

One job that can go on for evermore is me completing unfinished models. I’m having a blitz on GWR NPCCS right now, as you do. First off is a six wheel milk van, which I picked up at a second hand stall at a GOG show some time back. It’s a Slaters kit that was about three quarters finished. The particular thing that appeals to me is the design of the underframe to accomodate the six wheel layout. It’s very well thought out, although too complicated to replicate on a scratch build. While I was at it, I araldited some conical milk churns inside, these are white metal castings from Skytrex. They’re heavy and expensive, so there’s just a few close to the sides to give a hint of the loading.

 

To go with this is the original four wheel version of the Siphon. This came a set of resin casings for the body from the BGS, the only standard gauge job they do, although I suspect the stock might have run down by now. More aralditing, and it was teamed up with a Slaters 11’ wheelbase chassis, which fits nicely, although it’s a wood frame rather than the iron frame, but it’s got a nice set of buffers, and a dark coat of Windsor Brown and some footboards cover a multitude of sins. The rest of the milkchurns went in here.

 

These two were paired up with a four wheel brake/luggage van, etched brass from Scorpio if I remember correctly, to make up a nice little set. These were marshalled up, and I did some test runs which just proved the siding point needs more attention. It’s just as well I concentrated on the rolling stock, as I was thinking of ballasting the track in, and that would have got in the way of correcting the point.

 

Now all I need is some suitable motive power, and I can create this set up.

[Nearholmer]

Very likeable little train, and a truly excellent book, a good combination.

[Donw]

that looks like the Scorpio V5 van with the siphons. I do like that train. Yes proper track testing is essential before ballasting apart from being fun.

 

Don

 

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by Donw
typo

[Mikkel]

Another wonderful set. Especially the V2 and short Siphon. Short stock rocks! 

 

Edited August 1, 2020 by Mikkel
This post was edited in the interest of conceptual rigour

[Northroader]

Yesterday it was 31C in the shade here, far too hot to do anything much, but today it was down to 26C, and I was able to get a bit of progress in. Don will be pleased to know Little Washbourne is mutating very much as he predicted, and I also wrapped up GWR NPCCS work with another two specimens.

The sixwheeler luggage van is now finished, from a BGS etched brass kit. Main point of interest is dealing with the sixwheelerness of it, so a look underneath.

The outer axles are mounted rigidly, but the centre wheelset just comes along for the ride. It’s made up very like a loco pony truck, with a pivot at the RHS end to a transverse member. A strip carries the inside bearings, the outer journals being trimmed off. Another thick strip of brass is bolted to it , forming a deadweight to keep the wheels on the rails, gravity being more certain than springing. The pivot is a sloppy fit so as to allow the wheelset to rock. Another transverse member carries a retention loop to limit how far the unit can droop if the van is picked up. The backs of the dummy wheelsets and solebars had a rub with a small grinder to give the wheelset enough sideplay.. This the van now it’s painted and weathered.

 

 

Next up is another van, which started off originally as coaching stock, but was downgraded to act as a goods brake van, trundling round the West Country to 1892. Another BGS kit, another sixwheeler, so another look underneath:

You can get an etched kit from BGS to make up an underframe, but I made one up from brass strip. This time the LHS axle is fixed rigidly, and the other two axles are on a compensated bogie on a centre pivot, giving bomb proof running. The thing I like about this kit is the outside framing, which is cut out in a wonderfully precise manner. All that is needed now is lettering when I can find some information on that.

 

Putting the two vans together to illustrate design progress over a roughly forty year space.

 

Then another small composition, showing the attraction of pregrouping railways in general, and broadgauge railways in particular, a kind of Broadgauge Bagatelle, using the musical term, if you wish.

 

 

[Mikkel]

Much more than a bagatelle I think!  I especially like the weathering on the PBV.

[Annie]

Lovely, - absolutely lovely Mr Northroader.

[Donw]

Oh so entrancing. Lovely models.

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

Indeed.

 

Character, character, character.

[Compound2632]

I don't know much about broad gauge wagons but the brake van seems to be similar in construction to the standard gauge vans built from 1889 onwards later given diagram AA3, and the ancestor of the common Toad. Did the design appear first as broad gauge vehicles? Life in service must have been no more than a very few years.

[Northroader]

I saw the brakevan running on a broadgauge layout and really fancied making a copy. In the twilight of the broadgauge a lot of the main line expresses were running with convertible carriages, standard gauge bodies on wide platform underframes, and they had a very distinctive look which I liked, and here was a brake van with the same look. I’m in the BGS, but fairly recently, so I don’t have all the data sheets, just the revisions as they come out, and just the recent copies of the very informative “Broadsheet” magazine. I’m sure this van must have appeared in an edition somewhere previously, but I just worked off a photo I took of the model. It looked, as you say, like the standard Toad, so I worked on a second hand Peco kit I had bought cheaply. The constructor had assembled it with a cement type of glue luckily, so it fell apart when I stuck a craft knife in the joins. Then it was just a matter of making a wide deck and headstocks, long axles, and reassembling, this time with solvent, so I’ll be unable to rebuild it back if it proves I’ve barked up the wrong tree! One variation from the model which might prove wrong is that I’ve placed the horizontal handrail on top of the deck, rather than back on the body side, which ought to be more practical for a shunter riding the stepboards, and the model does have a “best side” for photos, it looks slightly broken backed from the other side, after the tweaking it’s had.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

Aha! I hadn't twigged it was a convertible but having looked again I see it is.

 

I'm trying to get to grips with converted broad gauge wagons, as I'm sure there must have been a good few around ten years after the final abolition - certainly photographic evidence for 1-plank wagons and even your tilt wagon.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Compound2632

[Northroader]

With goods wagons I think it would have been counterproductive to go for narrow body convertibles, I’ve never seen any examples, but there were quite a lot of rebuilds of ordinary broad gauge to standard gauge instanced, in the “bible” there’s a picture of one which I’ve backtracked into a broad gauge model, and a data sheet I do have gives details of SDR bonnet wagons being rebuilt, like the one popping up in your thread. I would like to try one of those in standard gauge, but I wouldn’t want to mess up a broad gauge job like the one I’ve shown, it’s not a Peco cheapo, and there’s an awful lot of rivets for a scratchbuild.

[Schooner]

On 09/08/2020 at 21:10, Northroader said:

 

Glorious...

 

On 09/08/2020 at 21:10, Northroader said:

 

 

 

...and gloriouser

[Annie]

The BGS data sheets (conveniently available on USB key) show late period convertible open wagons and they are all Broad Gauge size, but designed so that they can be readily converted to coal cart gauge narrow gauge standard gauge.

I have a B&ER iron goods brake van already, but what I would particularly like is a Broad Gauge version of the AA16 if such a thing existed.  The BGS data sheets only have the convertible 'Toad' which isn't a lot of use to me since I'm staying out of the 1890s.  (presently attempting to banish horrible mental images of convertible toads from my mind)

Simply making an AA16 wider on the basis of a wild guess is very likely to lead to all manner of errors and mistakes.

 

My digital version of an AA16.

[Northroader]

It would be nice to have the outside frame brake van running as a narrow body convertible, but it doesn’t look as if there was such a thing. The old luggage van six wheelers are great, but of course you have to start from scratch with your virtuality.

[Annie]

I have both an iron bodied and a wooden bodied six wheel luggage van Mr Northroader, but I was hoping that there might be something else between them and the 1889 Toad convertibles.

Once the Broad Gauge started to fall out of favour nothing much new was built until the 1880s leaving a wide gap where a lot of older rolling stock was being patched and repurposed to other use, but nothing new was being built.  It's not a big problem though since I'm mostly doing things with the Minehead branch and the iron B&ER brake van I've got is good for that.

[Northroader]

 

Just finished off another van that’s been hanging around. It’s from Invertrain, with Port Wynnstay on the wrapper. The body is formed from resin castings, with white metal trimmings for the running gear. It goes together quite well, and the roof over formers, using a thin plastic sheet with vee grooves, does very well. I can put it in my “Flower of Scotland” collection, with the NBR items.

 

Little Washbourne is filling the space in the middle of the loft quite nicely, and I’m pleased with the way it’s turning out. Of course it’s now knocked on the head the bold rationalisation plan announced last year, probably a good thing.

 

As to Washbourne itself, I’m rather stymied at present. There’s a new replacement point ready to go in, but I’m holding back to do it for now, until I’ve got L.W. nearer operating, and I can see how it shapes. There’s a microswitch required, but I’m hesitant to go anywhere for now, just keeping my head below the daisies until the plague passes. The only trips this year have been the occasional outing to the G.W. Hospital on behalf of myself or the missus. Seaside, Model Shows, Train trips, just a blank for now.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Northroader