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Great Southern Railway (Fictitious) - Signalling the changes...


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2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Ah bother, I hadn't noticed that - does that mean that my Cambrian D1410 (as pictured above) is, strictly speaking, a post-war one?

 

Not sure about post-war but, I concluded, unsuitable for c. 1902. There is a Brassmasters / Martin Finney kit that has the earlier, wider planking.

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Hmmm, An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons, Vol. 1 states "Variations in body planking were extremely common, many vans being noted with a combination of 6 1/2" and 8 1/2" timbers. In general, it appears that early vehicles and those built before World War I had wide planksm those built or replanked subsequently receiving narrower timbers."

Either way, a narrow-planked one certainly couldn't represent the whole of 1900-1910.

I've just had a look at the online instructions for the Finney kit, and gosh, that's rather more work to build than the Cambrian one! For the price difference, I might build up the body of the Maple Models one I have, and use the roof and underframe from a Cambrian one... The Maple Models one is definitely of the wider-plank variety, as shown below.

20200623_124529.jpg

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Well I managed to get a chance to do some lasering today; with social distancing, only one person can be using the equipment in that room of the Hacklab at a time. The 1872 24' composite got lasered, and I've spent a pleasant hour or so building up the underframe and the bodywork. Unfortunately I've messed up the floor piece, and the solebars are far too far apart, meaning that the wheels simply drop out!

However, the carriage can be built with only that one part being replaced, so I'll likely nip in and re-cut that part at some point in the near future. I'm really happy with the footsteps - the steps themselves are a bit chunky due to the use of 1mm MDF (a 3" thick footboard would be pretty chunky!) but I lasered small holes in the upper footsteps and slots in the bottom ones to allow me to thread lengths of 0.5 x 0.75mm microstrip through, both to represent the fine strip supports but also to stop the long, thin MDF footboard from bending over time. The footboard is glued to the axleboxes, which is strictly inaccurate, but compared to the oversize footboards I think it's forgivable!

20200625_230858.jpg

20200626_002103.jpg

Edited by Skinnylinny
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So a fresh look at that carriage this morning revealed two things. 

 

1. I'm very happy with the paneling and beading. 

2. The whole thing has been cut at the wrong size. The 24' carriage is 27' long. No wonder the wheels didn't fit! These carriage sides should be the same height. 

 

20200626_084001.jpg.ef6dc77ec374c496fee574251a8a5944.jpg

 

I've redrawn the file with a rectangle around the components of known size so that I can resize it all correctly and try again. Frustrating, to say the least! 

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There was a free slot at the lab today so I've been in and recut the carriage. I think this says all I need to about the size difference. 

 

20200626_121409.jpg.16d96fb7fe423bb672f9f58308f1e3df.jpg

 

The walk in was not too bad in the heat as it's along the old Innocent Railway trackbed, mostly shaded by trees and with a lovely long, cool tunnel. The temperature in there must have been in single digits. Lovely! 

 

20200513_102538.jpg.7df81835d3448839ddedebe24ef91fb2.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

There was a free slot at the lab today so I've been in and recut the carriage. I think this says all I need to about the size difference. 

 

20200626_121409.jpg.16d96fb7fe423bb672f9f58308f1e3df.jpg

 

The walk in was not too bad in the heat as it's along the old Innocent Railway trackbed, mostly shaded by trees and with a lovely long, cool tunnel. The temperature in there must have been in single digits. Lovely! 

 

20200513_102538.jpg.7df81835d3448839ddedebe24ef91fb2.jpg

 

 

Much neater than my efforts.

 

I may be reduced to begging. 

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42 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Much neater than my efforts.

 

I may be reduced to begging. 

 

Well, I've just been told by the boss that I'm continuing on furlough for at least the next four weeks, so I could possibly be persuaded... I seem to remember that you were after some LSWR 42' carriages as well?

I think we're getting somewhere here...

20200626_141832.jpg

 

Note that the body is just plonked onto the underframe (and not even level!) at the moment, as the underframe is about to go and be sprayed black as I work on the body. Today seems to be a very productive day (I wish I had more of them!)

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Beading finished, and a coat of primer really brings everything together.The end steps are missing - apparently I forgot to add the little tags that hold the parts to the "sprue" card, and they disappeared into the laser cutter. I didn't notice until I had built it. Oh well! They can always be added later.

 

20200626_192918.jpg

Next stop, paint shop for salmon and brown... 

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A quick update: There won't be any new laser-cut things for at least two weeks, as I'm self-isolating. I've no symptoms, nor does anyone with whom I've come into contact.

One of my friends has recently been made homeless. She was living in Germany, and has somewhere to stay in Edinburgh from Monday but spent last night sleeping rough, as she doesn't feel safe in a homeless shelter, and hostels are all closed. I've offered her my couch but as she has to self isolate for two weeks (having come from abroad) so must I for the next two weeks. 

Not to worry, I have plenty of food in the cupboards, unbuilt kits on the shelf, and half-finished projects to work on, as well as a few games on the computer which I haven't touched in far too long!

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18 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Not to worry, I have plenty of food in the cupboards, unbuilt kits on the shelf, and half-finished projects to work on, as well as a few games on the computer which I haven't touched in far too long!

 

Well, by the end of the fortnight your friend should have become proficient in at least one of those activities, if not already so. I'd encourage the second item in your list!

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Haha, she is only here for two days - that's how long until she's been able to get proper accommodation (i.e. not sleeping on my sofa!).

Work has been continuing on the 24' composite, and it's now painted up on one side, needing just the bolections mouldings and droplights picking out. I've used some 5&9 Models Stroudley buffers, the long shafts and curved shanks of which very closely match the diagram in Weddell. 

As this carriage will be running in a fixed rake, it'll be getting screw links at both ends (the rake will, like the Stroudley set, end in a tension-lock)

 

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Edited by Skinnylinny
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On 29/06/2020 at 04:51, Skinnylinny said:

the stress has been far outweighing the enjoyment.

 

Good on you for taking stock and re-adjusting. We are supposed to do this for enjoyment after all!

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5 hours ago, Jack P said:

We are supposed to do this for enjoyment after all!

A good reason for being very careful when your hobby becomes your job!

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Thanks all for the support. It's been a rough week - my friend whom I put up reported having a fever and a cough starting the day after she moved out from here. She immediately ordered a COVID test, which came back negative today, to both of our great reliefs! 

The practical upshot of this is that my self-isolating is now at an end, a full week earlier than expected! I am going to celebrate by going for a walk, and possibly by getting a sausage roll from Greggs. And then, I intend to shut myself in my room again, and do a whole load of CAD work for laser-cutting. 

It also looks like furlough may be partly coming to a close for me - I've been invited back to work on reduced hours next month. I'll be discussing with the boss on Monday and we'll see what that might look like. 

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Well, a lovely relaxing few days has been spent with my partner (as we're an extended-household bubble-type thing, what with each of us living alone) and I've been gently CAD-ing away on an 1894 LSWR covered carriage truck. Being built after the Regulation of Railways Act 1889, I would have expected these to be fitted with vacuum brake, but the drawings show only a single-shoe hand brake, with no mention being made in the text of Weddell of vacuum brakes being fitted. A similar, 1860s design shows an even stranger combination - again a single-shoe hand brake (with a huge, 15" wide wooden brake shoe!) on the inside of one wheel, with a completely separate system of vacuum braking acting on the outsides only of the four wheels. 

Add to that the fact that the book says only that the authors can't pin down the colour that horseboxes and carriage trucks were painted in, nor do they have lettering details for the covered carriage trucks (not even if lettered in white or gold, though a suggestion that horseboxes may have been lettered in white)... and this is going to be rather an exercise in plausible guesswork as far as modelling goes.

395023110_LSWRCarriageTruck.JPG.12f8738b3afd6171ee29b6b072b1fab9.JPG

Following on from the success of using Plastruct strip for the footstep supports on the 24' composite above, the wheel-plates (not sure of the correct term there?) over the buffers will be Plastruct 0.5x6.4mm strip, allowing a thinner plate than 1mm MDF, but with more strength than card. I still won't be using it for structural bits, as I can't laser it, but this is a case of using different materials to suit their strengths.

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Regular readers may remember that a page or two ago I was bemoaning the lack of D-ended LSWR open wagons in currently-available kit form. Well, I've decided to do something about that. 

As @Compound2632 pointed out, there are 4- and 5-plank variants of the D1309 open wagon, and I have gone for a Fox-pressed-steel-underframed, sheet-rail-fitted, 5-plank variant for now. I might end up doing a 4-plank wooden underframe version at a later too, as a fair amount of the detail components look to be similar, including large amounts of the underframe fittings (easily the most fiddly bit of the model to CAD).

1668639140_D1309SteelUnderframe.png.b3f2c26f3f02838d0d0635e5807d143e.png

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The 3D print will require a bent wire tarpaulin bar, as this will be far too fine to print nicely and have any sort of strength.

I'm especially pleased with the pleased with the distinctive Panter axlebox covers, which pivot at the top to allow access for lubrication without removing the cover, which just swings to one side. There's a small compromise there on the 3D model, where the cover is made rather thicker than scale, but only towards the solebar so hopefully once painted black that shouldn't notice too much. 

I've been chatting with someone with access to a somewhat better 3D printing set-up than my own, and if there would be interest, and this design works out well, we might be able to produce a run of these as kits.

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IT BEGINS!

While my woodworking might not be great, I've now managed to fit alignment dowels between two of the baseboards, and clamped the boards together. There's a bit of a gap, but nothing that can't be solved with some Polyfilla (which incidentally will be arriving later today, along with some new printer Resin). This does, however, mean that I can now start tracklaying on the next board, and even on building up the platforms.

20200712_155404.jpg

[Edit: I messed up my calculations when building the platform, and had it 18' wide. I've trimmed it a bit to 12' wide, and I think it looks much better]

I'll be going down the cheat's route for this, using Peco platform edging (although with added brick plasticard), with Wills paving slabs sheet tops. I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the Wills sheets - there are a few slabs which are decidedly wonky, and the cracked ones put me off a little, but they are at least the perfect thickness and add a decent bit of strength to the platform itself. I might later try to repair some of the cracked slabs with some filler, which ought to be easy enough. The photo also shows how I intend to hide this board joint, with a removable barrow crossing, which will hopefully come all the way into the goods yard.

Working with the Wills sheets isn't too bad, but it took a fairly big leap of faith to start working with them, as my first (and last until now!) experience of them was buying two house kits, aged about 11, to go on my newly-built baseboard for my first layout. I had successfully built a Hornby Dunster signalbox and GWR footbridge, and was ready to try something a little harder... I'd never heard of Wills Craftsmans kits before. They never did get built, as they were far beyond my skills at the time.

I've also been doing some running trials and have come to the conclusion that I don't want to mix bogie and 4-/6-wheel stock in trains unless the shorter coaches have large-head buffers. An attempt to run a 42' LSWR bogie coach and the 24' LSWR composite through my double slip led to buffer locking 7 times out of 10, even when being pulled. This is not helped by the early design of buffers on the composite, which have rather small heads, and long shafts.  

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7 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

I'll be going down the cheat's route for this, using Peco platform edging (although with added brick plasticard), with Wills paving slabs sheet tops. I'm not quite sure if I'm happy with the Wills sheets - there are a few slabs which are decidedly wonky, and the cracked ones put me off a little, but they are at least the perfect thickness and add a decent bit of strength to the platform itself. I might later try to repair some of the cracked slabs with some filler, which ought to be easy enough. 

Why is modifying something which suits your purpose to make it better suit your purpose cheating?

As for the Wills sheets, there is an element of caricature about them at times, and the relief tends to be a bit deep. Knowing this, you could sand the surface a bit to flatten it out somewhat, then do som repairs with filler as you suggest.
 

Quote

The photo also shows how I intend to hide this board joint, with a removable barrow crossing, which will hopefully come all the way into the goods yard.

That will leave you both edges of the crossing exposed, and with several removable pieces to lose or damage because you forgot to remove it (don’t ask how I know this). Why not lay the crossing so that one edge (furthest from the platform) is aligned to the baseboard join?

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 Not sure I understand what you mean by "leave both edges of the crossing exposed" - the crossing would be at rail height, so above the ballast. I'd expect both edges to be exposed. I have a checklist for "things which need to be removed from the layout" but I appreciate that the bits might get lost/forgotten/damaged.

I agree about the relief being a bit deep on the Wills brickwork. It mostly doesn't seem too bad on the Victoria Stone paving slabs, but I'm still going to give them a going over with some filler in various places as I say. I will want enough of a groove for a wash to pick out the gaps between stones.

I don't know why I felt like using the Peco platform edges was cheating - as you say, it's modifying something that's convenient for what I want. It's just kit-bashing! Platform building continued apace last night while watching Gary's stream, and more bits of barrow crossing were made up, although I'll be moving those points away from the board edge a bit, and extending that last section. Apologies for the mess!

20200713_082935.jpg

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1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

Apologies for the mess!

Mess!  You call that a mess.  Plainly you are a rank amateur at making a mess.  Keep at it though and by the time you're my age you'll be able to make something worthy of being called a mess.

 

Seriously though nice work, - the platform is looking good and will be much better once you've been able to work your magic on it.

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Thanks, Annie! I mean, I say "mess", I do tidy up to some extent before taking photos! 

Well the postie has delivered another box of goodies! This time some wagon kits from @TurboSnail: Two of each of his SER opens. One of each to be painted in somewhat battered SER red, the other to be in slightly cleaner SE&CR livery (one might end up with the transitional SE&CDR lettering if I can find a photographic example).

20200713_111004.jpg

I may have got a touch excited and built one of each... 3-part kits, these were lovely to build, The detail on them is very impressive, right down to the embossed "SER" on the axleboxes of the D1346 3-plank. Seen here with my D-ended ex-SER wagon (which needs a new brake lever. The D1328 coal wagon in the middle also needs a brake lever making up from plastic strip. 

20200713_120737.jpg

I feel like, with the exception of the SECR van from Rails (which I'm eagerly awaiting!) and an SER brake van or two, that's probably most of my SECR freight stock requirements met now, which is nice. Then again, an Implement Truck for my Keil Kraft Aveling & Porter 12-ton roller could be very nice as well...

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