Bilton Junction

[Jon4470]

On a modelling note this is what the coach now looks like after more fiddling with the teak and then another coat of varnish.

 

 

and in close up

 

 

 

As a comparison here is a photo of the Hornby equivalent 

 

 

and in close up

 

 

 

I bought this from EBay for about £10 because it’s the only standard 1st class sleeper that I can find.....I can’t even find side etches for these. For me the big problem is the slab sided look - they have very little curvature to the sides. I wonder whether adjusting the location of the horizontal beading (just below LNER) in the photo would help to disguise this. It should be lower on the coach side and it makes the lower panel too tall. At £10 I might have a go! All the others that I can find are £25+.

 

Jon

[Jon4470]

Spent most of the day doing DIY ( bathroom ) but this evening put my mind to sorting out the internal corridor handrail. On previous builds I’ve soldered these on before painting.....and then spent time scraping paint off them! This time I decided to fit them after painting - which means glue. In order to give the glue some area to work on I soldered some scrap etch to the wire. Where the ends meet a door there is insufficient space for etch so I just bent the end of the wire over. When fitted the rail should fit over the glazing.......we’ll see.

 

 

Resting in place - on the outside for the moment 

 

 

 

Jon

[jessy1692]

That 'teaking' looks great Jon  top job!

James

[Jon4470]

Hi James

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I’m pleased with the results so far - still got the lining to do though!

 

There is always room for improvement and I still have a long way to go to match this however (posts right at the bottom of  page 2 show what I mean)

 

 

[jessy1692]

57 minutes ago, Jon4470 said:

Hi James

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I’m pleased with the results so far - still got the lining to do though!

 

There is always room for improvement and I still have a long way to go to match this however (posts right at the bottom of  page 2 show what I mean)

 

 

Ah yes i remember watching this thread as Mike was doing his superb job on that, i dont think you are too far off that finish Jon. Although im no teak expert! Id be doing it blue and grey haha!

Keep up the good work, any more plans for the gas works side?

Cheers

James

[Jon4470]

7 hours ago, jessy1692 said:

Ah yes i remember watching this thread as Mike was doing his superb job on that, i dont think you are too far off that finish Jon. Although im no teak expert! Id be doing it blue and grey haha!

Keep up the good work, any more plans for the gas works side?

Cheers

James

 

Thanks - that’s a big compliment. I’m glad that you like the teak finish. As for blue/grey....you could legitimately apply that to a sleeper or even a buffet car. Not sure if any other teak panelled coaches received that livery. Of course in my chosen era I could do blue grey.....the Coronation set maybe...

 

As for the Gas works rolling stock I might just start on one of the tank wagons ( pre war cylindrical). Various bits are lying around the workbench- so that would count as finishing off! (Which therefore passes my self imposed rule to make sure I finish things before starting a new project)

 

Jon

[jessy1692]

Ah yes it would have to be a sleeper or a buffet for my sort of era, think all other gresley coaches that were left we all in engineers stock in all manor of liveries.

 

Ill keep an eye open for the tank finishing, i really should get round to sorting my 009 wagons properly, the wagons i have are probably knocking on 10 years old now so due a revisit. Still waiting on RT Models working on his Barber kit, need to complete the quartet!

 

Best get my current projects finished first though...

 

Cheers

James

 

 

[Jon4470]

So this is the sketch plan of the tank wagon.

 

 

 

 

I drew this up over a year ago and tried to make the main chassis frame from plastic section. It wasn’t a Success as it warped. I then bought some brass channel to try again. This week I finally got around to having another go!

 

I ran out of brass section after creating 3 of the 4 longitudinal pieces.

Order now placed for more section!

 

The cylinder has been cut from a piece of 15mm copper tube. Might have a go at getting this fitted with ends and wrapped this weekend.

 

I have also been lining the coach and would like to get the glazing in this weekend if possible.

 

Jon

[AdeMoore]

Sounds interesting Jon looking forward to seeing the results with the wagon, copper brass and plastic a good mix.

 Cheers 

[Jon4470]

Progress with the tank wagon this weekend.

 

The frames look like this

 

 

So when the delivery of some more brass section arrives I should be able to insert one more lengths and fashion mounting points for the bogies.

 

The tank is based on a piece of copper tube. I then fitted plastikard ends

 

 

Ok so far. I then clad the tube in thin plastikard sheet......oh dear

 

 

 

Not smooth.

 

Time to ponder. I used contact adhesive and it was thin sheet. So three options are: different glue, thicker plastikard, alternate tube (maybe the pipe covers that go over the pipes leading into radiators?)

 

Time to think.

 

Jon

 

Edited February 2, 2020 by Jon4470

[Jon4470]

Visited B&Q at lunchtime to acquire these:

 

 

 

Shame they didn’t have a smaller pack as I only really need one or two lengths. I can see a weekend job coming up fitting the spares to the radiators in the house.

 

Cut to length one was fitted to the tank I started yesterday. I fitted two pieces over a second piece of copper pipe. Both of these now have the required diameter of 17mm and are smooth!

 

 

 

The real tanks were riveted and built up from three sections with the middle one being slightly larger. So I have glued some thin plastikard to the tank to represent this middle portion. Hopefully you can just see it under the masking tape that is holding it in place.

 

 

The tank is resting on the frames at the moment. Ultimately it will rest on three transverse cradles - so will be higher up than in this photo.

 

I have also filled the ends where there were gaps around the edges of the previously fitted plasticard ends. For this filling I have used knifing putty which I find quite easy to use. I hope it won’t attack the plastic.....who knows why I didn’t use the plastic padding filler that I’ve got!

 

If all this turns out ok then I’ll be smoothing and slightly chamfering the ends of the tanks. Then it will be time to create the cradles.

 

Jon

[Jon4470]

Making some progress with the tank wagon this week. The recently ordered brass channel arrived and so the frame was completed. I’ve also attached 10ba bolts as bogie mounting points. 

 

Finally two cradles were created tonight. So now the wagon looks like this

 

 

 

Pleased with this so far. 

 

Obviously plenty of smoothing and tidying up to do plus I need to create a third cradle to support the centre of the tank.

 

Before any of the plastic is attached to the frame I also need to make sure that all soldering is completed!  ( I think the main things will be supports for the footboard that ran down one side and also the end handrails and brake standards.)

 

Jon

[Jon4470]

 

 

I have a dilemma and advice is welcome!

 

I thought that the end handrails would be easy to form from brass wire. However when looking more closely at photos they seem to be made of angle section (see tank wagon on the right in the photo). I’ve got brass angle section but how do I bend it? Especially in the tight radius that seems to be shown in the photo.

 

 

[micklner]

Cut into sections of correct lengths, with 45 deg corners and then solder the corners together .  Solder short lengths of wire to the bottom of the straight uprights for mounting onto the body. Use a higher temperature solder for the corners.

[AdeMoore]

Looks like a bend on the right and a 90 right angle on the left John ?

Just needs a couple or 3 20deg 30deg vees taken out the lower side and then bent and soldered? Eh sounds easy I’m not so sure!

cheers 

[AdeMoore]

Looks like many more smaller vees than I Said 

or rollers they use on steel if you Google bending angle iron.

 Cheers 

[Jon4470]

16 hours ago, AdeMoore said:

Looks like a bend on the right and a 90 right angle on the left John ?

Just needs a couple or 3 20deg 30deg vees taken out the lower side and then bent and soldered? Eh sounds easy I’m not so sure!

cheers 

 

Ade

I think you’re right about the bend and right angle. Taking vees out and forming the bend is the way to try I think. The bending with rollers would need heat I think to stop the angle buckling.

The approach for the other corner would be as Mick describes.

 

If the bending doesn’t work I can always put right angles at both sides - who would know? (Apart from us)

 

Jon

[Jon4470]

Whilst i’m Banging on about bending things....

 

I’m trying to create the outlet pipe from plastic rod. This pipe leaves the tank horizontally, turns through a right angle along the chassis frame and, finally, through another right angle to go up vertically to about half the height of the tank. I’m hoping that hot water and a firm grip with pliers will make these bends in the rod - which is 2mm diameter.

 

The start of the pipe is visible on the right hand wagon (bottom left of tank)...along with the flanges that joined the sections together.

 

Jon

[Jon4470]

Storm Dennis is blowing away outside.....so some time for indoor modelling.

 

I’ve added the end handrails and the footboard that was fitted to one side only.

 

 

 

one end end of the handrail is right angle and the other is a tight radius curve.

I formed the curve by cutting out a v shape in the web and the curving the rail around a metal bar (spare axle!). I then filled in the gap with solder.

 

 

 

I’ve also made the middle cradle ... tank seen resting on the chassis below

 

 

 

 

Now to tidy everything up and glue the tank and cradles in....all the soldering is complete so this should be safe.

 

Jon

[AdeMoore]

Coming along nicely Jon, handrail ended up looking the part.

 

 Cheers 

[Jon4470]

37 minutes ago, AdeMoore said:

Coming along nicely Jon, handrail ended up looking the part.

 

 Cheers 

 

Thanks Ade.

 

It is a bit overscale I think.....but I didn’t have any smaller angle. I reduced the size a bit by filing.

 

Jon

[jessy1692]

Looking very nice, will be borrowing your ideas for these tanks at somepoint. Top job.

James

[Jon4470]

A few details starting to come together

 

 

Tank is now securely fixed. The inlet and out let details are being worked on.

 

Now in cruel close up

 

 

 

and

 

 

The “flanges” are washers created from plastikard. The blob of knifing putty will become the valve control....with a wheel added to the top. The vertical pipe is too tall and will be cut down. In reality the vertical pipe swung down to just below horizontal to discharge the tank contents into the mainline tank wagons below.

 

 

Finally just to show the scale of these wagons - here it is posed next to an open wagon.

 

 

Jon

[jessy1692]

13 minutes ago, Jon4470 said:

A few details starting to come together

 

 

Tank is now securely fixed. The inlet and out let details are being worked on.

 

Now in cruel close up

 

 

 

and

 

 

The “flanges” are washers created from plastikard. The blob of knifing putty will become the valve control....with a wheel added to the top. The vertical pipe is too tall and will be cut down. In reality the vertical pipe swung down to just below horizontal to discharge the tank contents into the mainline tank wagons below.

 

 

Finally just to show the scale of these wagons - here it is posed next to an open wagon.

 

 

Jon

It is amazing how big the gas works locos and stock were!

[Jon4470]

Construction of the tank wagon is complete! (As long as you exclude the bogies, that I don’t have in stock, and the rivets......they’re part of painting!)

 

 

 

 

I’m pleased with the result.

It does need some tidying up - I’ve probably rushed some bits. I’ll clean it and prime it next...and fill in some gaps.

 

Probably take a break from this one for a few days so I can look at it with fresh eyes. Then there is another of these to build - probably makes sense to do that while I can remember how I built this one!

 

Jon

 

ps Anyone know why one photo comes out nice and big and then the next two are small?