TSD's Workbench - SECR and Industrial modelling

[Compound2632]

5 hours ago, Tom Burnham said:

I've read that the lead-based grey paint used tended to darken gradually by reaction with sulphides in smoke and the atmosphere generally until it was practically black.

 

But were SE&CR grey engines varnished? That might make a difference, as it would be the varnish discolouring rather than the paint itself...

 

Can of worms!

[Tom Burnham]

Just checked. The slate grey paint was actually zinc based, not lead.  Neither it nor the short-lived wartime economy green were varnished.

[TurboSnail]

To anyone who's been asking about my 3D printed loco bodies, there are now a whole bunch available to buy via https://www.oakhillworks.co.uk/products, as well as some of the wagons I did a while back. 

 

Apologies for that brief commercial interlude, now back to modelling whatever obscure things I can find...

[BlueLightning]

11 minutes ago, TurboSnail said:

now back to modelling whatever obscure things I can find

 

and then getting those obscure things on the website 😛

[AlfaZagato]

I'll keep that link.   Maybe when I catch up on some of my other projects I'll import something.

[Northroader]

Very nice, I’m sure, but they’re all 4mm, I presume?

[TurboSnail]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

Very nice, I’m sure, but they’re all 4mm, I presume?

 

Yes (for now)

[TurboSnail]

Reading through a book on Manning Wardles, it turns out some O Classes were built with 4ft wheels rather than the standard 3ft 9in. With a wheelbase of 6ft 3in + 5ft 9in, that makes it close enough for my purposes to fit a Terrier chassis (4ft wheels, 6ft + 6ft wheelbase) and gives me something to tackle over the holidays!

 

[AlfaZagato]

Go for it.  Would be cool.  Especially with Rapido doing an 'I'

[TurboSnail]

I'm wondering what I could do with the chassis to improve it a bit for this application.

 

I don't want to go down the route of swapping wheels, though I might be able to 3D print centres for the existing wheels.

 

The conrods could potentially be replaced with a set from the old-style Terrier, as they're a bit chunkier.

 

I think my donor chassis has metal brakes, could swap those for wooden blocks (or find a wooden-braked chassis).

 

I'll probably also swap the motor and add a flywheel to try and tame the shunting speed a bit, same as I did on the Fletcher Jennings J

[TurboSnail]

The dog took me for a walk yesterday, and I managed to convince her that she'd enjoy tramping round the woods at Folkestone Warren looking for any traces of the original Warren Halt station. This was in all likelihood a futile exercise, but we both needed to burn off some Christmas excess...

 

The current station (or at least the remains of one of the platforms closed in the 1980s) is still visible, however, that station dates from 1924 and is therefore not pre-grouping enough for this section! From looking at NLS maps, I think that the original alignment was further north by about 30-40m, before being buried in the 1915 landslides. Buried by up to 65ft of material in some areas, which was why I suspected the trip might be slightly pointless, even with a Border Collie in tow to sniff out any signs!

 

The approximate site of the old footbridge (marked in red on the map):

 

We did, however, find a large section of what looked like a cutting, marked in black on the map, in roughly the right location for the old alignment, and some foundations of something (a concrete culvert and a section of wall/foundation) in the blue-ringed area. And we both got some good exercise and made it home without the cliffs collapsing on us, so I'd call it a successful trip!

 

NLS maps link of the area: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.8&lat=51.09661&lon=1.21167&layers=168&right=osm
Worth looking at your local area and seeing what you can find!

[TurboSnail]

I made a few tweaks to the Ruston 44/48 kit prior to re-release, so felt I needed to test build another one. Done in a few hours over the weekend, I now have the Heinz version (green - with the bigger radiator header tank) to go with the "as-built" (blue) version I made a few years ago when I originally designed the body. A fun little quick build, as opposed to some of my projects which can go on for years... more on one of those later.

 

[TurboSnail]

It's a bit of a mix up, this loco - I combined a 14" and 16" Barclay a while ago to make a Grant Ritchie 0-4-2ST, which I still haven't completed. This loco uses the leftovers from that project, so it's a 14" with some heavier-duty elements. The cab is a 3D print based on "John Howe" at the Ribble museum, the chimney is a spare from the Grant Ritchie project, the bufferbeams are extended with plasticard and the dumb buffers are offcuts of oak. I still need to add some brass cab spectacle frames, but I haven't had the etches for that done yet.

 

I wanted to use this loco as a test for further home-made transfer experiments, this time using clear paper instead of the white backed I had used before. That meant I needed a relatively light colour body - it's slightly less garish in person! The lining and lettering were again based on "John Howe" and came out ok - the yellow lining suffered a bit, but the stronger colours came out fine. There is some silvering in places, but not too much and hopefully will become more or less invisible if I ever get round to weathering it.

 

 

[DenysW]

A propos of nothing, and just because I'd drawn it up, I present the (rough) gradient profiles of the London-Manchester (London Road) pre-Grouping options. Data is from mixed sources (none of which were perfect) and includes a couple of bodges on each line to get/keep the elevations in line with physical reality.

 

No wonder the Midland didn't want to start a 'Race to Manchester'. Other Midland profiles (to Manchester Central) possible, but all go via the same Peak Forest summit.

 

 

 

[TurboSnail]

One of the more recently completed locos, a Howard petrol shunter - I've got plenty of long-term stuff on the go and wanted something I could do in a day, so this fit the bill nicely. Nice simple enjoyable modelling without having to work out why everything doesn't fit properly!

 

[TurboSnail]

I build too many locos.

 

Well, if such a thing is possible. But in the absence of space for a bigger layout, I'd like somewhere to put them on display rather than hiding away in boxes. I've got a display cabinet but it's a bit dull having locos against a grey background, so I'm challenging myself to build a few small dioramas this year. Hopefully this a) is easy enough to complete, being relatively small projects and b) distracts me from making so many locos!

 

The first one is underway, and is meant to represent a fairly generic industrial site, with an old brick building one end and a later extension at the other. I've got a few doors and windows to add before putting the track in - which will be home to my Barclay 0-6-0 and Hawthorn fireless locos... and maybe the recently announced Rapido ones too!

 

I'm already being distracted by thoughts of what the next display could be...

 

[TurboSnail]

Showing the overall layout - I've got a few more bits to print out and the buildings need weathering before doing the ground cover

 

[TurboSnail]

I was reminded why I don't weather things very often - the left end wall of this building ended up with some obvious black streaks from the weathering powders. The back wall isn't great either but I can't really do much about that, the end wall is small enough for me to attempt a repair. The photos show, in order - first attempt at weathering, painted over with mortar colour, coloured back in, and second attempt at weathering. It's still not great but better than it was, at least.

 

 

 

 

 

I was planning for some 3D printed bits to go in while doing the ground cover, but my printer has finally given up the ghost, so this project will be on hold for a bit while I replace that.

[TangoOscarMike]

On 24/02/2024 at 12:30, TurboSnail said:

I was reminded why I don't weather things very often - the left end wall of this building ended up with some obvious black streaks from the weathering powders. The back wall isn't great either but I can't really do much about that, the end wall is small enough for me to attempt a repair. The photos show, in order - first attempt at weathering, painted over with mortar colour, coloured back in, and second attempt at weathering. It's still not great but better than it was, at least.

 

 

Well, I like the overall effect (before and after the repair). I can see why you didn't like that streak, but I reckon you could have left it (or disguised it by adding more) without getting especially near "dirty industrial building" territory.

 

You didn't actually ask for suggestions, but here's one anyway. I can't detect any variation in brick colour - a bit of that (subtle or un-subtle) would be pleasing to my eye, and would probably improve the realism. 

[TurboSnail]

2 hours ago, TangoOscarMike said:

You didn't actually ask for suggestions, but here's one anyway. I can't detect any variation in brick colour - a bit of that (subtle or un-subtle) would be pleasing to my eye, and would probably improve the realism. 

 

Suggestions always welcome - bit late to add any more to it, but it is a bit more varied to the eye than to the camera. One of the issues of my modelling space is that in winter it doesn't get much natural light during the day, which makes all my photos come out a bit dingy if I don't wait for the next day!

[TurboSnail]

With my old Anycubic Photon having given up the ghost (screen glitches meant it wouldn't print properly) I had the choice of repair or replace - normally I'd go for repair, but I've already done this repair on this printer once before, and technology has moved on so much in the 5 years or so since it first came out, so I have now replaced it with a newer model.

 

The print shelf is looking a tad smarter now! I'm not planning on upgrading my tupperware though...

 

 

Some of the first things to be printed on it were some bits for the diorama, including this pipe bridge and the flanges and valves for the pipework (the pipes themselves are aluminium wire). I'm pretty happy with it so far - it's not streets ahead of the old printer in terms of overall part finish, but there are noticeably fewer errors in prints, less warp and it's much faster.

 

[TurboSnail]

I found a good excuse to start another project by picking up a cheap C Class at the Alexandra Palace show - a well-used example with glue marks, some lining missing and apparently a few running issues.

 

 

All I really wanted from it was the tender, which will get repainted at some point anyway. I'll be able to find another use for the chassis and it seems to run ok on a 9v battery, so I'm sure I'll be able to fix it up.

 

The tender, with a minor modification to the electrical connector, couples up nicely to another Bachmann chassis (and it runs so the wiring must be the same). I will need to add some tender pick-ups, as the loco chassis only picks up off the drivers.

 

 

This is likely to be quite a long-term project, but my hope is that this will eventually become the proposed SECR Atlantic - when the first batch of D Class locomotives were suffering from corrosion and priming issues, Wainwright drew up plans for an Atlantic in case the D Class could not be made to work satisfactorily. Water softening solved the issues so the Atlantic never advanced.

 

I have a basic line drawing from the RCTS "Locomotives of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway" book, but haven't tracked down anything better yet - if further drawings are unavailable I might fill in the details using D Class parts as they seem similar.