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Strand and its trains


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3 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

Ten coaches is 303'6" of train, bearing in mind that they are close-coupled. That's 48" rounded to the nearest inch in 4mm scale. Add 35' (5.5" in scale) for a tank engine, and a bit of dynamic space and it fits on a 60" cassette. That's OK for exhibiting, but for home running I would probably limit the cassettes to 48", so only 8 coaches.

 

The big question is whether a model of an SECR tank-engine (Q class or larger; no runty LCDR engines) can drag the train up Bedford Street bank. I would like to know this before committing to the track plan, but that requires me to break precedent and finish the train. Plan B is the other history where the line climbs away from Strand going north and crosses Seven Dials on viaduct. That brings the gradient down from the wrong side of 1 in 50 to maybe 1 in 80. I'm almost minded to go for viaduct over tunnel anyway, despite previous plans. 

 

 

I think the Westerham branch calls for a Q, IIRC.

 

12 minutes ago, Regularity said:

If you have separate loco cassettes, you simply move them from one end to the other, and don’t need to turn the whole train.

That was the point of Chris Pendlenton’s original design.

 

That is what I'd like to do on CA

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14 hours ago, Regularity said:

If you have separate loco cassettes, you simply move them from one end to the other, and don’t need to turn the whole train.

That was the point of Chris Pendlenton’s original design.

Yes, that's probably how I'll arrange things. On Strand, it's important that the main-line trains not be turned, as the through coaches have to stay at the proper end.

 

The point of reducing the fiddle yards from 60" to 48" for home operation is to fit the layout into the house, not to tame the unwieldy size of the cassettes.

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14 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I think the Westerham branch calls for a Q, IIRC.

SER kits do etches, but not castings, for a Q in 4mm scale. Provisionally, I expect to buy this kit and print the missing bits. The price is £30 for the etch if ordered on long lead time.

 

Falcon did etches for a Q1 but not the original Q. Did Westerham have the rebuilt kind?

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On 22/05/2020 at 11:40, Guy Rixon said:

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Much brass, very train. This is an audit of the train that started my whole SECR thing, back in the '80s.

 

A very good-looking set. I like the idea of building a train that takes (intentionally or not) decades to build. A bit like planting a tree and watching it grow.

 

19 hours ago, Regularity said:

If you have separate loco cassettes, you simply move them from one end to the other, and don’t need to turn the whole train.

That was the point of Chris Pendlenton’s original design.

 

Thanks for that, I have seen the idea floated occasionally but never the original design. I see that he described the concept in MRJ issue 27, 1988. 

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1 minute ago, Mikkel said:

Thanks for that, I have seen the idea floated occasionally but never the original design. I see that he described the concept in MRJ issue 27, 1988. 

 

One might almost see the style of Chris Pendleton's articles as a forerunner of your own, @Mikkel. He told a good story, oozing with local colour.

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The brass body is of the GV van is now complete. Detailing was tricky, as the tails of all the handrails lie very close to the louvres. Were I to make another one, I think I would reverse my usual approach, detail the sides and ends in the flat, then assemble the body with lower-melt solder.

 

I need to decide what to do about the roof. I had intended to use the vacuum-formed plastic from the kit,  but it's horribly thick in the centre and that would show badly at the end. I may replace the plastic with ply planks covered in paper, in which case I need to add some wooden inserts to which the planks can be fixed.

 

The lovely thing about these vans, in condition of 1909, is that they weren't lined.

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I learned something today: if I'm going to spray enamels after spraying acrylics, then all my painting gear needs to be super cleaned to remove all traces of the acrylic. Otherwise, badness.

 

I was spraying the purple-lake body-coat on my Grand Vitesse van. The first coat was good, but I thought that a second coat was required. I stored the pre-mixed paint while the first coat dried, in a plastic jar that had previously held acrylic colour. There was enough acrylic residue to curdle in the enamel paint and deposit crud on the model.

 

I need to examine the mess in good light tomorrow. It may be that I can rub down the bad patches and then spray a third coat of clean paint to complete. Or I may need to strip and start again. It's a brass model, so stripping is probably feasible.

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I have salvaged the painted van, I think. I bought a Tamiya, 2000-grit sanding-sponge and was able to run down the bad panels without grinding through to bare metal. A coarser abrasive would have cut through too easily and 2000-grit paper, without the sponge backing, would have been harder to control. The trick is to avoid sanding the paint on the mouldings and the sponge is good for this. I'll know if it's worked sufficiently when I repaint, hopefully this evening.

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The repainted van. The finish is not the best, but will do well enough. I'll leave it to cure for a few days before varnishing and transfers. I can't get the paint to stay on the top of the end handrail, and I wonder if a brassy look, polished by the railwaymen's hands, is plausible.

 

The underframe, as noted above, needs information from a GA to add the fasteners on the solebar. HMRS cannot supply at present. If anybody has this drawing and would be be prepared to scan it for me, I'd appreciate it; I'd buy a print from HMRS later, so they don't lose the revenue. Otherwise, I may try and screen-capture the information from HMRS' catalogue.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Three revelations today concerning the painting.

 

Firstly, the airbrush was spattering because its nozzle had split at the tip. I replaced it; they can be had urgently on Amazon Prime if one doesn't mind the price hike.

 

Second, the old, split nozzle was still crusted with enamel paint, even after cleaning. The only way I could shift it was to poke in something sharp ... which is a good way to chip the nozzle tip. A pox on all enamels and their NTC thinners. If only I had a good alternative to my enamel mix for purple lake. I ordered some Tamiya colours to try some mixes.

 

Third, the replacement paint was already on hand, unappreciated. I tested the new nozzle using Vallejo model-air "Hull Red". I'd originally bought this as an approach to purple lake, but abandoned it because it seemed too bright a red. It turns out that the paint changes colour with the depth of coat. A thin test-spray on white paper is very red, almost crimson. As the depth increases, the effective hue becomes darker, bluer and browner. After three lightish coats, it's almost indistinguishable (in daylight) from the enamel mix. I think it might be, quite literally, a purple lake! If it stays the same colour when dried, I shall bin the enamels. I just need to find spraying parameters that atomise the Vallejo paint well.

Edited by Guy Rixon
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4 hours ago, Guy Rixon said:

It turns out that the paint changes colour with the depth of coat.

A known, and noted, characteristic of lake colours...

...although I am glad you have been reminded of this important fact.

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35 minutes ago, Regularity said:

A known, and noted, characteristic of lake colours...

The late John Boyle advised me to undercoat CR coaches in black as it produced a richer tone to the purple brown.  See the results in my recent thread on building one of his coach kits.

 

Jim

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New paint arrived today. The Tamiya "Hull Red" is a very close match to my enamel mix. Looking at the paint splodges directly, I can't see a difference, but the photo reveals the acrylic to be very slightly browner (c.f. the Vallejo Hull Red, above, which is redder). Since it would be sprayed as a light coat over red primer, I expect the final result with the Tamiya colour to be about right. And Tamiya paint is easier to spray than Vallejo, for me at least.

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Not entirely trusting the paint splodges as a reference, I sprayed a test-strip. Tamiya Hull Red on the left, Vallejo Hull Red on the right, Precision mix in the middle. Primer is Halfords red. Sprayed over primer, the acrylic colours actually look a poorer match for the enamel shade. The Vallejo colour is the better match, but that's because it is darker; it's still too brown.

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This is what I'm after; the van body shown a week ago, but now lettered and varnished.  If I can do this in acrylics I shall be very happy, but I'm not there yet.

 

I have quite a lot of coaches to paint soon. I shall probably just use up my enamel stock, but I might also buy some blue shade from Vallejo and try for a better mix.

 

The Hull Red looks as I imagine the base coat for the purple lake of the full-sized coaches. It might do well for the SECR's later brown livery.

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According to the book on the subject, the GNoSR purple brown was obtained with a grey primer, followed by brown undercoat and then 3 coats of crimson lake, the latter being a bit translucent, it meant that the brown came through a little bit. Don't know if this helps, but you never know!

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The SECR specification --- I have access to a specification for a PBV c. 1900 --- is similar, but calls the top coat purple lake rather than crimson. It also identifies the undercoat as a lake colour, and requires two coats of top vanish over the purple. Since lake pigments are precipitated dyes, a wider range of colours is feasible than with mineral pigments. My guess is that crimson lake and purple lake really were different colours.

 

At this stage, I'm happy with the colour I achieve with enamels. It's synoptic with the Gospel according to Bachmann and the Acts of the Preservationists. It's a nice colour, both lined and unlined. Nobody still living has seen the original colour (discontinued c.1912), so plausible guesses are fine. I just want to remake that colour in paint that's more cooperative and less inclined to eat my liver.

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1 hour ago, Guy Rixon said:

At this stage, I'm happy with the colour I achieve with enamels


Not surprised: it’s a really good colour. Whether it’s authentic, I have no idea, but it has the right ‘hard to put your finger on’ period feel.

 

I worked for a while in a building that has a Grade 1 listed exterior and a number of Grade 1 listed parts of the interior, including a suite of rooms that are unaltered since built in 1928/29. When they were redecorated, the restorers went back to original “purple brown” paint on the skirtings and door frames and had it replicated. It’s a colour that looks different with every change of light and shade, so good luck with it!!

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I now have an acrylic match for my preferred purple lake.

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It's shown on the square test-panel in the top right of the photo. This picture also shows that in non-optimal lighting a lot of distinct mixes become indistinguishable; but in good light, I think I've got as close as possible.

 

The recipe, using Vallejo acrylics is as follows.

 

5 parts Hull Red

3 parts Flame Red

2 parts Dark Blue

2 parts thinners

2 parts flow improver

 

I don't know if the thinners and flow improver are changing the perceived shade, but they drastically improve the finish. The vanish does affect the perceived colour, in that matt finishes of this paint look systematically browner.

 

I'm now in position to paint an entire train, once I get the old paint stripped off.

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  • 4 months later...

Having done nothing to models over the summer and early autumn (because not physically where my railway stuff lives), I now have some progress for both the 27' coaches and the Grand Vitesse van. Here's the brake prints:

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These are orders of magnitude easier for me to fit than brass assemblies. They are accurate models of the SECR rigging c.1898. Best of all, they can be fitted, by gluing, after all else is done and the wheels are in for good; this lets me include the pull-rod that runs below the axle.  The plan is to fix them to the chassis using "tacky glue" so that they can be pried off unbroken if I ever need to drop the wheelset.

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I am increasingly drawn to the elevated railways of NYC, the precursors of the subway system there. I'm building up a pin-board of other people's images of that system.

 

I would like Strand to show some of the same visual effect, with spidery lattice viaducts along widened streets. There is some scope for that in the current plan, where the railway crosses the Stand itself and the opened area between Agar and Bedford streets. It would, I think, give a much nice feel to the layout than endless yellow-brick viaducts. However, I don't know if iron viaducts would have been considered in the early 1860s; the NYC railways were made somewhat later, when the metal was cheaper.

 

The real scope for the extended, iron viaduct is along the length of the re-imagined Tottenham Court Road, replacing the cut-and-cover tunnel there, as far as the junction with the Met and the tunnel under Euston. I could even build that as a second layout, using the stock from Strand. Might even finish that one before I pass away. :D At least it has no junction work to obsess over.

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