“WASHBOURNE”

[Edwardian]

TBH, I’ve never seen Chinchilla dust, you’ve got me there. The nearest I’ve got to that is moggy ranching.

 

I think it's the business.

 

I started using it coloured with paint to represent NER ash ballast on Miss T's school project. I have started using it on CA and will probably use it to surface the yard.

[Northroader]

Whoops, shaky fingers!

Edited January 24, 2019 by Northroader

[Northroader]

The platform has dried out, and I’ve stripped the paper retaining strip from round the edge, also the collars round the dowel holes. I forgot to mention that the paving slabs being paper and card, had previously had two coats of flat varnish, to try and help stop fading, but also protecting them from penetration by the glue solution. Trying the station building in place and I found gaps round the bottom and rocking, so I gave the station area a light rub with the surform. I was pleased how this went, high spots just went in a shower of loose sand, but the rest remaining firm, giving a nice even surface, smooth, grainy, and porous, and the station could sit level. As we discussed, it’s a question of slightly changing the sand colour. I usually do colouring with pva washes, same as the backscene, so I mixed some light grey, and started putting this over. I found that a thin wash didn’t do much, so I made it a bit thicker. Putting this on, I was getting a colour change, without the paint clogging up the open texture, but the wash and the stiff bristle brush was loosening the surface sand, and little crumbs of sand and paint were forming, so I pushed on without staying too long anywhere. It dried out well, and the loose crumbs brushed off, and I had kept the surface look I wanted. Having the edging slabs protected by the flat varnish also meant I could just give these a wipe to get paint splashes off. Try just a tint with some pastel chalk dust? On a flat surface the chalk powder will stay and just smudge into a thin coat when you go over it with a dry brush, but with a porous surface the powder goes into the little holes, and it won’t smudge with a brush, so I had to brush some water over to disperse the powder. Anyway, I like the look of where I’m at now, so stop digging a deeper hole, I think.

In the meantime, great excitement as the “Great Chieftain Special” arrives at Washbourne, a deputation from the Orpheans is waiting to greet it, clutching their tin plates. One of their number, the Honourable Miss Alexandra Pullmann-Chopps, seated, will exercise her literary talent, giving a “Poem to a Pud”.

Edited January 24, 2019 by Northroader

[Nearholmer]

Looking very good.

 

Interesting that the colour you've ended up with is very similar to the "grubby donkey" colour that I've used. It started as 'scan and reproduce' of an ancient Bassett-Lowke platform that I have, because I thought it was the 'proper BL colour'; turns out its actually the proper BL colour after 90 years of dust and grime, and isn't much like the original at all!

 

I've only been to one real Burns Night supper, a long time ago, when a Scots acquaintance got me very, very drunk on 'the wine of the country', so the ceremony has pretty bad memories for me! Trust that The Orpheans will exercise a greater degree of self-control.

[Northroader]

Grubby donkey, good description, I like it. We were invited to a wedding in Scotland some years back, Galashiels in the middle of winter. (The place was cut off by a blizzard the week after we went) The do after was in a small village hall out of town, complete with a “haggis” in a large bulk catering version, dancing reels, and, dare I say, small glasses of a golden fluid. Bus back to civilisation the next morn, and emerging from a daze on Waverley platform. Grand trip.

[corneliuslundie]

I asked at our liocal pet shop about chinchilla dust but they didn't stock it. I'll have to find a pet shop in Shrewsbury, me thinks.

Jonathan

[Northroader]

Meanwhile, outside the loft...

Edited February 1, 2019 by Northroader

[Donw]

We have had between 4 and 6 inches of the white stuff. Garden railway folk often rush out to get snowploughs working but I suspect that much snow would be too much 

 

Don

[Edwardian]

We, too, have had a dusting of snow, but I confess, though the temperature has dropped, I have yet to wear an overcoat this winter.

 

[Caley Jim]

We had a couple of centimeters on Tuesday, which has partly gone, where the sun got at it.  As the temperature here has gone down considerably - -6°C at 10:00 this morning - what is left is frozen hard!

Jim

[Andy Hayter]

Had a few centimetres hare as well in the deepest South, but turned to rain today and immediately froze on contact with the snow/ground - ice-rain.  I am deferring tomorrows journey to the supermarket because the road conditions may just be a bit "interesting" - 2000ft drop over around 5 miles.  Going down can be interesting, coming back impossible. 

[ChrisN]

6 hours ago, Northroader said:

Meanwhile, outside the loft...

 

That is not bad modelling but it is not totally convincing.  ;-)

We have had a few inches here but it is quite soft and it should not freeze tonight.

[Marly51]

On 1/24/2019 at 10:53 AM, Northroader said:

The platform has dried out, and I’ve stripped the paper retaining strip from round the edge, also the collars round the dowel holes. I forgot to mention that the paving slabs being paper and card, had previously had two coats of flat varnish, to try and help stop fading, but also protecting them from penetration by the glue solution. Trying the station building in place and I found gaps round the bottom and rocking, so I gave the station area a light rub with the surform. I was pleased how this went, high spots just went in a shower of loose sand, but the rest remaining firm, giving a nice even surface, smooth, grainy, and porous, and the station could sit level. As we discussed, it’s a question of slightly changing the sand colour. I usually do colouring with pva washes, same as the backscene, so I mixed some light grey, and started putting this over. I found that a thin wash didn’t do much, so I made it a bit thicker. Putting this on, I was getting a colour change, without the paint clogging up the open texture, but the wash and the stiff bristle brush was loosening the surface sand, and little crumbs of sand and paint were forming, so I pushed on without staying too long anywhere. It dried out well, and the loose crumbs brushed off, and I had kept the surface look I wanted. Having the edging slabs protected by the flat varnish also meant I could just give these a wipe to get paint splashes off. Try just a tint with some pastel chalk dust? On a flat surface the chalk powder will stay and just smudge into a thin coat when you go over it with a dry brush, but with a porous surface the powder goes into the little holes, and it won’t smudge with a brush, so I had to brush some water over to disperse the powder. Anyway, I like the look of where I’m at now, so stop digging a deeper hole, I think.

In the meantime, great excitement as the “Great Chieftain Special” arrives at Washbourne, a deputation from the Orpheans is waiting to greet it, clutching their tin plates. One of their number, the Honourable Miss Alexandra Pullmann-Chopps, seated, will exercise her literary talent, giving a “Poem to a Pud”.

 

Useful information about your platform technique. I didn’t varnish the paper texture used in my first N gauge model attempt. I  had to overcome the problem of the PVA ‘fixing’ of the platform texture from soaking the platform edge. Ahh - love a good MacSween’s haggis! Passed their shop in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh every day on my daily walk to the Links in the 1950s

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, Marly51 said:

 

Ahh - love a good MacSween’s haggis! Passed their shop in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh every day on my daily walk to the Links in the 1950s

There are none finer in my opinion.

[Caley Jim]

22 minutes ago, AVS1998 said:

On the matter of haggis, I'm afraid you'll ne'er convince me to try it (although Linny and I spotted some haggis spice chocolate while I was visiting, so that might well change...)

You don't know what your missing, Alex!!   

 

Jim

[Northroader]

I’m keeping busy, but I agree with Alice, what use is a book without pictures? and there’s not much happening that would make a good picture for the thread. The paint shop has four 0-4-4T going through, and I’m looking at something for them to pull. There’s a nice laser cut kit for a signal box coming along, then there’s an eBay misadventure that’s needing a lot of TLC, with a train forming for that.

A month before Christmas I went to the GOG Reading Trade Fair, and come away with two Slaters sixwheelers from the bring and buy stall. A finished coach painted for a free lance line, which is getting a repaint, and a half done milkvan, abandoned just as it got to the running stage. This week I thought I really must give them a run, and this showed up some problems, one with the chassis suspension, one with the track, so at present I’m sorting those out. (Most of my stock is four wheelers, and performs quite well) The moral is, if you’re doing pregroup passenger working, get a sixwheeler or more, and check the interaction as soon as you put any pieces of track down. Sooo.. talk amongst yourselves for a while.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Northroader

[Compound2632]

Four wheels good, six wheels bad?

[Northroader]

The last fortnight we’ve had the patter of tiny wheels, as I try out my sixwheelers, and to be fair, they try out my track. On this aspect, they pointed out that the transition off the cassette and onto the main line was poor, so I’ve improved  that. On a flat baseboard, you should be able to get the track laid decently, but the trouble arises at joins, in this case coming off the cassette on to the main board, which is in, out, shake it all about for most moves. Probably in part it’s due to having a 18” wide plan on a 16” wide board, as the flow of the platform line off the cassette could be better. I’ve increased the size of the copper clad fibre board which supports the end if the platform track, which has plastikard packing under to bring it to the same level as the rails. The rails are soldered to this, and a brass tube and rod go on the outer face of the web to locate with the tube on the cassette rail. This works well to give positive location, and to feed electricity to the cassette. A check rail on the inside of the curve has been added, to counteract any wheels wanting to keep straight on as they leave the cassette, and it is better. Funnily enough there doesn’t seem to be same problem going on to the loop track, probably the cassette can be aligned better.

 

[Northroader]

Continuing the story, time to look under some sixwheelers, first off a pair of my old ones, scratchbuilt for an Irish Line. Contrasting them with a sixcoupled loco, the wheelbase for a loco is around 4.3”/108mm, and for a coach is 5.8”/ 148mm. Generally I build my locos with an uncompensated chassis for the drivers, just some float allowed for the carrying wheels. As long as the driver flanges are all touching down to start, they can run quite well on my track. With a coach the extra length does allow track irregularity to become more of a problem if the wheels are mounted rigidly. If the centre wheels sit on a hump, the leading wheels can rise off the rails, and then it’s only how deep the flanges are that can save the situation, which is where coarse scale modellers score over finescale. Because of this I like to have the centre pair capable of deflecting, with some springing.  Then in plan view having the outer wheel sets sitting on a curve, the centre pair have to have plenty of sideways displacement allowed for, much more than a loco needs. 

These two underframes meet these needs in two different ways. The one chassis, at the bottom, has the outer wheel sets mounted using Slaters components, one fixed to the coach floor, the other on a rocking mounting, common to a lot of their wagons. Then the centre set has inside bearings, with plenty of side movement, and springy brass strips to keep the wheels in contact with the rails.

The other chassis has a fixed wheelset mounting at one end, and the other two wheel sets mounted as a “bogie”, allowing plenty of movement. Both these work well, I think I prefer the non bogie one of the two, just because it’s easier to put the coach on the rails when the wheelsets are hidden behind footboards.

[Northroader]

Next is my Slaters milk van, which has been giving trouble. This design is a really elegant job, all mounted on a flat floor. The outer axleguards are all dummies, forming trays in which the inner axleguards slide sideways. Two thin flexible wires run the length of the wheesets, passing through a series of small lugs in each component. This retains the inner sets and links them in such a manner that displacement of the centre  wheels to one side moves the outer sets to the other. I couldn’t say what radius this allows it to get down to, it must be the best of the vehicles I have for this. Trying out with other ones made me decide on a radius of around 6’./1900mm? as being on the safe side for sixwheelers.. The centre bearings have been deepened to allow some deflection, with springing from 28 swg phosphor bronze rod (from Slaters)  I haven’t finished it but it is quite light and will need weight adding. Since I’ve modded the milk van, I’ve done the track work, and the Slaters coach I have, which is finished and has a heavier body, is performing quite well without having anything done to it.

[Northroader]

Finally, a look at a Jim Geown (Connoisseur) coach which is nearly finished. The outer wheelsets just solder to the solebars (whitemetal, TRICKY, big wave of relief when I tried it on a flat surface and all the wheels touched!!) He just allows a bit more clearance around the centre journals, but I added a piece of floor across the middle of the coach to support sprung inside bearings, to leave the outer as dummies. In essence the wheelsets are fixed to the sides, and the sides are joined to each other by the ends. There is no full floor, which saves material, but it can leave the coach susceptible to twist, as I found when test running, as I had built it “flat”, but I found a “twist” had appeared. It’s just a case of grabbing opposite ends and putting a “set” in to counteract until it’s flat again, otherwise mounting one end wheelset to rock and give three point suspension. The other feature which has occurred is that the couplings will probably need a campaign, checking alignments and lengths, as this affects the movements to a lesser extent.

[Nearholmer]

Fascinating stuff.

 

This traverser-alignment business is definitely an area where things can get very tricky, so you have my very best wishes with getting it "spot on".

[Northroader]

Thanks for the best wishes, Actually looking along that first photo you can see it’s not quite tangential, there is a slight kick in it. Everything has happily gone over it until the six wheelers appeared, and now there’s a check rail gone in, they’ve started to comply as well. Just as well I’m not into something like P4, I’d never be able to claim I’m working to a hundredth of a millimetre.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Northroader

[Mikkel]

Interesting comparison of six-wheeler arrangements, thanks for posting that. How typical that the neatest looking one - milk van - is also the one giving trouble!

[NCB]

All very useful. I'm contemplating some 6 wheel stock. I used a Cleminson arrangement on a couple I built a long time ago which worked fine and would go around 12" radius curves in OO, but I was able to stick a massive weight on the middle axle to keep it on track. I'm dithering between a modified Cleminson, not too disimilar to your Slaters milk van, and a bogie arrangement as you have above. This is 3mm/ft and I doubt springing or weighting will work for the middle axle, hence the choices I've narrowed it down to.

 

Nigel