Stoke Courtenay

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Sadly I think it is going to end up rule 1:1. This is a new subsection of rule 1, where the facts are correct but potential in the wrong period setting although it pleases the builder and subsequently enhances the model's appearance. Basically; if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

looks like a duck and quacks like a duck

...it’s a character in the Railway Series?

[Neal Ball]

The videos are great thanks very much. Definitely adds another dimension to the layout.

[Ramblin Rich]

On 07/06/2020 at 14:48, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

. Basically; if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.........

 

22 hours ago, Regularity said:

...it’s a character in the Railway Series?

....it's a Gresley A4?

Or some bloke named Phil who's trying to model Seaton Junction...

[checkrail]

Here's 8709 shunting the yard at Stoke Courtenay.

The arrival of the pick up goods makes the yard look a bit busier than normal, with a number of coal, cattle and general merchandise wagons of various companies and vintages being dropped off or picked up.  

These were taken without the auxiliary lighting I often use.  Don't think I always need it.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Here's something on the workbench at the moment, to complete my Paddington-Penzance rake of 60 footers.  More about this when I manage to finish it.

 

Have since sprayed the sides brown & cream, but on removing the masking tape I found a waist stripe of grey primer where my positioning of the tape was less than perfect.  And it's probably a little bit too wide to be covered by the lining.  So back to the 'spray booth', aka large cardboard box.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

While I'm watching paint dry here's another video of passing trains at Stroke Courtenay.  Sorry about the wobble at start & finish.  The video button on the camera is very small and quite recessed - difficult to keep everything steady while jumping out of the way to grab the controller.

Looks like that shunting pannier has decided to run away at the end!

 

John C.

 

 

 

[john dew]

Hi John

 

I have enjoyed watching your videos

 

I can relate to the shortage of hands syndrome, Juggling with controllers, camera and making sure the trains behave themselves.....although I suspect the latter may not be a concern.....your trains look very well schooled.......in my case the moment my locos see a camera/iphone they  develop all manner of previously undisclosed foibles.

 

If you are not doing so already, using a video editor may give you a bit more time......start shooting earlier and then cut it until a couple of seconds before the first train arrives.....similarly at the end. There are a number of free video editors for Windows. I shoot with iphone/ipad and edit with ivideo (I believe this works with a Mac as well).
 

Best wishes

 

John

[Coach bogie]

On 10/06/2020 at 15:23, checkrail said:

Have since sprayed the sides brown & cream, but on removing the masking tape I found a waist stripe of grey primer where my positioning of the tape was less than perfect.  And it's probably a little bit too wide to be covered by the lining.  So back to the 'spray booth', aka large cardboard box.

 

John C.

Looks a D121. They were built for the Bristolian, but I have seen more images of them in the West Country than in the Bristolian rakes.

I had to trim my Comet sides slightly (most comet sides are deliberately over length) to fit the Bachmann/Palitoy body. 

 

I thought I had an issue with mine. When first painted, the choc/cream split looked like it was on the slant. It was an optical illusion because of the lower waistband and raised van windows. Force of habit - I nearly put the  guard branding in the chocolate panel and not the cream!

I look forward to seeing this one complete. I am impressed how you got the roof tanks off. NIghtmare job. There is also a D124 cross country van third, from Comet hat is a good fit to the Bachmann/Palitoy body.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[The Fatadder]

On 10/06/2020 at 15:23, checkrail said:

Here's something on the workbench at the moment, to complete my Paddington-Penzance rake of 60 footers.  More about this when I manage to finish it.

 

Have since sprayed the sides brown & cream, but on removing the masking tape I found a waist stripe of grey primer where my positioning of the tape was less than perfect.  And it's probably a little bit too wide to be covered by the lining.  So back to the 'spray booth', aka large cardboard box.

 

John C.

Is that a 60 or a 61ft side?  What was your plan for dealing with the difference in length between side and source coach?

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

Looks a D121.

Dead right Mike - a D121 it is!  And yes, I had to shorten the sides a bit to fit.  Think I lost a few from the lines of roof rivets when I got rid of the surplus water tank, but not noticeable after several coats of Lifecolor roof dirt from the airbrush.  Same goes for the revised arrangement of shell vents.  Thanks for the tip re the D124.  Must look that one up.

[checkrail]

1 hour ago, The Fatadder said:

Is that a 60 or a 61ft side?  What was your plan for dealing with the difference in length between side and source coach?

I just cut some off at the van end where there's plenty of blank space.  Only the experts will be able to tell.  (Though I think the Bachmann C77 donor coach should also be 61 foot rather than 60)

[checkrail]

That's a bit better. A coat of varnish to follow then to see if I can avoid making a mess of the transfers.  Going to be interesting putting the numbers and door brandings on the cream.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

This is a bit better too.  I knew something looked wrong about that C16.  I'd got my Fox transfers mixed up and given it loco shirtbutton totems - the coach ones are smaller. Fortunately the transfer came off pretty easily with careful prodding from a cocktail stick.  Looking at this photo perhaps a second application of Dullcote on the affected panel wouldn't go amiss. 

 

Have now got the transfers in separate envelopes clearly marked 'loco' and 'coach'.

 

John C.

[The Fatadder]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

I just cut some off at the van end where there's plenty of blank space.  Only the experts will be able to tell.  (Though I think the Bachmann C77 donor coach should also be 61 foot rather than 60)

that makes sense, the Bachmann one is a bit of an oddity in that they made it 60ft6 long so it’s wrong for both! 
 

That said, I much prefer the roof detail of the Bachmann model so I am rather tempted to Go down the same route.

 

sides are looking good so far!

[checkrail]

Hall pulls away from Stoke C.  as a 28xx hauled class D freight approaches.

 

 

 

John C.

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Now those are the pictures everyone should take/show, wow!

Edited June 12, 2020 by Bluemonkey presents....

[checkrail]

Here's one of Stoke Courtenay station taken from just above the footbridge.  The sunlight is real, flooding through the Velux just as I set up the shot.  Such moments are usually my cue to stand on the chair and pull down the blind, lest my scenery fades to grey.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Another view across the station.  Only when posting the last two pics did I realise that the branch starter had gone to 'off' before the prairie had even run round its train.  A little quirk of those Dapol signals, which sometimes operate themselves as you switch on power to the points & signals power bus.

John C.

[checkrail]

Here's 4073, finally commissioned into service this morning.  No, it's not Caerphilly Castle, it's a D121 van third of 1936, built with Comet sides on a modified Bachmann donor vehicle.  My main reference photos when building were figs. 255-257 on p103 of Russell's 'Great Western Coaches Appendix, Vol. 1', especially the first of them.

 

I wanted a van 3rd for one end of my Penzance express, for a change one that wasn't a Hornby Collett or a Centenary (there's one of those at the other end), and was attracted by the idea of something a bit different, with its low waist and the numbers and door brandings on the cream rather than the brown.  I also rather like the droplights with no doors on the corridor side, like some vestigial remains of a bygone order.

 

Here it is in the train, behind a Bachmann E159 van compo returning from Newquay.

 

John C.

[A Murphy]

That's a great looking coach.

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair

[number6]

Splendid. Those droplights without doors must have driven people to distraction at times - imagine being a bit 'worse for wear' hanging out the window fumbling for the door handle in the dark... . Maunsell stock on the Southern had lots of them too. There would be no ventilation on the corridor side otherwise I guess.

[checkrail]

I'd been putting off this conversion for some months as I wasn't sure what to do about the conspicuous surface-mounted door locks on the cream, or the fiddly door hinges, which I'd never tackled before.  By sheer serendipity I had nearly enough glue-on door locks left over from the D29 'Bettabitz' clerestory conversion I did recently.  These were trimmed to size as far as I was able, stuck down to a bit of timber with double-sided tape, then primed & painted.  When the paint was dry a sanding stick was drawn gently over the raised handle bit to reveal the brass. They were then glued to the coach side with Roket Odourless.  I made a couple of extras by drilling holes in a piece of black Plastikard, inserting Comet T-handles with a spot of cyano, cutting or fiiling off flush at the back, then cutting round the handle to leave a little rectangular base.  From the b & w photos in Russell one can't tell whether these locks were black or brown.  I've guessed at black. The splendid Comet illustration model just has normal T-handles with no attempt to represent these locks, but I thought they were too characteristic of the diagram not to include.

 

 

I glued the door hinges in.  They weren't as bad as I thought either, though I lost so many of the little devils that from a Comet detail pack that might have done four coaches I ended up with no spares left!  The Comet template that came on the fret, for drilling the hinge holes, was no use, its intervals not bearing much relation to this particular coach, so I used horizontal strips of masking tape to locate these, drilling where the tape edge crossed the door line.  Worked ok.  I was so exhilarated by this modest success that for a few seconds of insanity I also considered going the whole masochistic hog and putting in the door stops.  Then I realised that on this coach they were exactly in line with the low waist lining.  That was the get-out clause that saved me from going doolally.  But the little dimples Comet had put in to mark them were useful in positioning the lining.

 

As usual the lining is a thin strip of Tamiya yellow masking tape with a black line ruled on it with a fine marker pen.  I tried yet again with transfers, thinking it would be much easier on a flush-sided vehicle, but just couldn't get it straight.  My method does looks pretty crude close-up, but is acceptable to my eyesight from a distance.  (Blind men & galloping horses etc.)

 

John C.

Edited June 19, 2020 by checkrail
typo

[checkrail]

3 hours ago, number6 said:

Those droplights without doors must have driven people to distraction at times - imagine being a bit 'worse for wear' hanging out the window fumbling for the door handle in the dark... . Maunsell stock on the Southern had lots of them too. There would be no ventilation on the corridor side otherwise I guess.

Thanks number6. 

 

Ha ha - yes, indeed.  Can just imagine my younger self  doing that!  (Remembering - from the early 70s - waking up in a dead train at 3 am in a carriage siding at Guildford, having intended to get off at Surbiton around 11.45 pm.)  But for corridor-side ventilation why didn't they just put in airstream ventilators like they did with the compartments on the other side of the same coach?  And who would adjust the droplights anyway?  Weird, and does seem like clinging to tradition.  

[checkrail]

The Bachmann donor vehicle on which my D121 was grafted required a bit of work.  Most of this was to the roof, where the layout of shell vents needed changing and one of the roof tanks had to be removed.  This involved a bit of careful work with riffler files and sanding sticks.  It looked a bit of a mess at first but after a few coats of Lifecolor roof dirt it came out better than I'd expected.

 

 

The underframe got some new MRD sprung buffers at one end where the donor coach was missing a buffer, while the solebar footboards were carved off/added from Plastikard as appropriate to follow the footboard layout of the D121.  Finally the steps below the guards' doors were added from handrail wire and bits of Plastikard.  

 

 

I did have quite a bit of trouble getting the sides to lie absolutely flat and stick firmly to the coach even with superglue.  There's not a lot of clearance round the edges and I think the sides might have become slightly distorted.  One thing I have learned is that the tumblehome on coaches, whether pre-formed or not, can become slightly flattened through repeated handling in the various painting and detailing processes, even though I tried always to rest the upper half on a piece of dense foam.  I ended up using the microstrip false cantrail trick again on the corridor side, and think I might need to do it with the other side too.

 

John C.

Edited June 20, 2020 by checkrail
typo