Life in a Northern Town

[Captain Kernow]

Nowt wrong with t'angle on roof from where I'm sitting!

 

[Neil]

Moving on from hacking plastic I broke out the soldering iron, pliers, piercing saw and files to make these things.

 

 

Incidently the soldering iron is one which cost me three quid about thirty years ago, it's had lots of hard use, it's my only iron and saw me through a spell building copper clad custom pointwork as my near full time job. It's on its original bit. Anyway, what are the things I've been making?

 

 

 

They're point levers for those yard points which would have been worked by individual levers in real life. However they are not accurate copies as they don't pivot, they slide too and fro, and in the wrong plane too. What they do is to give the same sense of setting the road when the train arrives rather than a whole route being set from a lever frame in the signal box by a person remote from the train. There will be some points on Northern Town which would have been controlled from the box in real life and these will be motor driven from a lever frame on the model.

[Re6/6]

They look excellent Neil. Very robust. Just what could be employed on Balcombe. The current method of point control is the old school wire-in-tube (piano wire in brass tube) and using quality slide switches from RS Components. Not cheap but very robust and 'commercial'. Nothing like the cheapo rubbish that the model trade palms us off with.

 

The weakness is the cu/clad tie bar actuation. This design looks potentially what we need.  Thanks!

[Neil]

The tarted up Triang is now finished. since the last photos the brickwork has been painted and weathered, the chimney finished and the glazing installed. Here it is on Northern Town, not in its intended place as the head of steel hasn't reached the yard throat yet, but this image should give a feel for how it'll eventually fit with the railway.

 

 

One bit I was pleased with is the concrete cancer breaking out on one of the roof corners. The roof is a laminate of two layers of 60 thou plasticard, the corner on the lower layer had reinforcing bars from fuse wire solvent welded in a grid, the upper layer was nibbled away with craft knife and files. The rest is just paint.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Just time for a quick round up of progress as tea is almost ready. First up refurbishment of a Slaters NER hopper, a ready built gift from Martin Wales, I've reset some of the joints, done a bit of filling, attached handrails and tension locks and at the moment it's part way through the paint shop. The photo shows it at an earlier stage of completion.

 

 

Secondly I've made a start on installing the point levers shown a few posts earlier. They still await the associated micro switches fixing in position. The screws only arrived a couple of hours ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

It's always cheering to finish off a project. Today I was fortunate to have an easy win to ward off the gloom with the ex NER hopper ready for its transfers.

 

 

Last night I'd gloss varnished the patches where the numbers were to be applied so this morning it was out with the transfers, followed by a coat of matt varnish. Once dry a splodge of thinned grey over the transfers toned them down and helped blend them into the body. It's not perfect or particularly finescale but it is a pleasing wagon which I can use to vary the appearance of coal trains on my layout.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Also progressing alongside the hopper has been an ex-LMS steel van from the Cambrian kit. I built it six or seven years ago but never got round to finishing it. Originally built for EM gauge I had to replace a missing buffer and brake lever, pop in some OO wheelsets and equip it with tension lock couplings. The body already had a coat of grey applied but everything else was in virgin plastic. Yesterday after the basic paintwork was in place I embarked on weathering the van. I thought I'd use the opportunity to describe the simple process I use for vehicles that rust.

 

 

 

The left side and the door show the first stage where I apply small amounts of a home brewed dark rust shade (a mix of Humbrol 100 rust and 33 black) applied neat. By the time I've worked round the van it should have dried sufficiently for the next stage shown at the right hand side. I use a quite stubby, thick brush, lightly dampened with white spirit to pull the rust patches down the side of the van. The keys to this technique are that there should be very little white spirit on the brush, that the brush must be kept clean and that overworking the area should be avoided. It's not a precise technique that can be measured and planned, it works best when you're tuned in to exploiting the happy accidents when a rust patch begins to look 'right'. You might also notice that the run off nicely stains and darkens the underlying base coat a shade or two; for this reason I always paint wagons a shade lighter than I intend them to end up.

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2019 by Neil

[Ruston]

On 18/11/2019 at 12:22, Neil said:

The tarted up Triang is now finished. since the last photos the brickwork has been painted and weathered, the chimney finished and the glazing installed. Here it is on Northern Town, not in its intended place as the head of steel hasn't reached the yard throat yet, but this image should give a feel for how it'll eventually fit with the railway.

 

 

One bit I was pleased with is the concrete cancer breaking out on one of the roof corners. The roof is a laminate of two layers of 60 thou plasticard, the corner on the lower layer had reinforcing bars from fuse wire solvent welded in a grid, the upper layer was nibbled away with craft knife and files. The rest is just paint.

 

 

 

 

I love the detail of the rusty rebar in the concrete roof. I don't think I've seen that modelled before. Excellent!

[Neil]

Leading up to Northern Town all my UK standard gauge stuff was EM gauge, post steam, pre Tops. Because of this much of my Northern Town stock has been freshly purchased rtr stuff. Thanks to this I now have a variety of reasonable looking freight trains far quicker than kit building or modifying commercial products would have given me. Ultimately I prefer to use items that I've done some work on, like the repainted and weathered coal hoppers described earlier. It's more rewarding witnessing your own creation than that of an injection moulding machine. I now have time to attack a big backlog of projects and the stash of bits and bobs hoarded over the years. The LMS steel van and NER hopper are just the tip of the iceberg, much else is squirrelled away waiting for it's moment under the spotlight. Next to see the light of day are a trio of BR banana vans. They are the ex Dublo or Wrenn mouldings released in body only format by Dapol. Their underparts are from the Red Panda stable, bought many years ago when I lived in York and put to one side until a suitable project would necessitate their use.

 

 

The body mouldings are supplied in raw pale grey plastic. Here I've already given roof and body coats of grey and red Halfords primer. What is difficult to make out is that the funny raised plate between the left hand end and first bodyside stanchion has been filed flat; a later photo shows this far better. The first job on the underframe was to fit brass bearings into the rear of the axleboxes.

 

 

This was complicated by the bearings (a gift from a friend) being slightly oversize at 2.2mm diameter. The rear of the axleboxes were drilled out with a 2mm drill wiggled about to take a little extra off the sides (I have no 2.2mm drill) and the bearings reduced in depth by filing using the white plasticard jig shown. Putting a blob of plastic weld into the axlebox holes a couple of minutes before pressing the bearings in softened the plastic sufficiently to get the bearings to properly seat down. 

 

 

While the solvent was setting  I stuck the buffer beams to the ends of the body. I found that on offering up the sideframes they required shortening to fit between the buffer beams. I filed a few strokes at each end of the sideframes, constantly checking for fit. Somewhere around four to six strokes each end seemed to do the trick. The sideframes were then glued in place with the wheelsets in, trying to ensure that they would allow free running with minimal sideplay and were not splayed in or out. Once satisfied with their placement I popped the wheels out and made sure that the sideframes were not splayed. Over the years I've found that leaving the wheels in while the solvent weld hardens tends to splay the sideframes out leading to too much side to side slop in the axles.

 

 

Once confident that the joints had set firm I sprung the wheels back in and tested for free running.

 

 

This is as far as I've got up to today, next up will be the brake gear and coupling mounting blocks.

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Neil

[Neil]

The banana vans now await gloss patches where transfers will be applied. I've not been idle though as this quickie has whisked through the workbench in the last few days. Starting out as a Lima CCT in Tartan Arrow livery it was repainted many years ago but of late I've been increasingly unimpressed by the deeply inset windows and badly fitting roof.

 

 

So the saw and files came out. I cut round each individual window and set them into the sides as flush as possible.

 

 

The roof was treated to some cast whitemetal vents instead of the blobby mouldings before being painted and stuck back on.

 

 

The van windows were treated to a coat of filth and my now standard Bachmann tension locks fitted using Parkside mounting blocks. Not a glass case model by any stretch of the imagination but an improvement over the original.

[Neil]

Having a few projects on the go at the same time works well for me. I prefer to paint and weather using enamels; these days I've worked out that a good three or four days drying between coats works best, particularly for the weathering stage where lots of thinners gets sploshed about. Not quite there yet with the banana vans but almost so.

 

 

The roofs are now fixed in place, getting the basic painting done separately meant that it was very easy to get a sharp edge, but to stop errant dribbles of solvent getting onto the van sides I decided to not fill in the entire floor so I could glue on the roof from inside.

 

 

Since taking the photo I've added a small mini section of floor which just supports the vac cylinder. From all sensible viewing angles the void is not noticeable.

 

 

[Neil]

Over the last couple of days I've brought the banana vans to a finished state. Here they are posed on Northern Town.

 

 

Also time to introduce the yard pilot.

 

 

It's by Bachmann but of some vintage and cost far fewer pennies than the latest model. It's had two lots of fettling to get it to run well but at last it's running as well as it needs to, being on a par with my Heljan 05, the alternative yard pilot.

 

 

 

 

[Neil]

Over the past few days I've been blending a Triang coke wagon with some old Trackmaster chassis parts. New Hornby wheelsets and some brass bearings also feature in the recipe. Here are a few photos showing what I've done so far.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BernardTPM]

Ironic, I think, that those early Pyramid-based chassis actually had the correct buffer height (long gone by the time they brought the NER hopper out). Very early ones even had closed axleboxes!

[Neil]

On 13/01/2020 at 23:11, BernardTPM said:

.... Very early ones even had closed axleboxes!

 

Mine does now.

 

 

While the Milliput was out I also filled in the gap in the buffer beam.

 

[Neil]

Late last week the coke wagon spent a little while in the paint shops and now looks like this.

 

 

It's now resting, waiting for couplings to arrive and for the rather rough coat of light grey to harden off some more before I attack it with a swift dose of weathering.  Meanwhile I've been cobbling together another brake van for the light railway side of Northern Town.

 

 

It's not finished yet but the bulk of the work is done. Details of the build can be found in this separate thread here.

 

 

[Neil]

Anyone looking at my pile of things to finish off late last year wouldn't have been surprised to see the generic 6w full brake appear on Hattons 'to do' list. Mine started out with a bargain bin K's GWR full brake body and a Hornby 6W sausage van bought for little more from e-bay. To be honest the wurst wagon arrived to satisfy my curiosity about a potential cut and shut involving Triang Thompsons to create a 6w BZ van. In the end it didn't seem viable so another freelance bodge beckoned.

 

 

In its original state the buffers end up far too far from the rail head. I took out the links which join the axleguards and the couplings together and binned them. The centre axleguard unit was trapped in place with home made plasticard brackets which allowed it to slide side to side but not fall out when lifted up. The end axleguard units were unclipped and the 1mm high pads they sat on chiselled down flush to the underside of the chassis. This drops the ride height by 1mm, still too high but better than before. Still to do are footboards which should further disguise the ride height and a trip through the paint shops.

 

 

[Mikkel]

Very nice! It's for the light railway I assume. Any plans for the livery?

[Neil]

16 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Very nice! It's for the light railway I assume. Any plans for the livery?

 

Thank you. It is indeed for the light railway and it will be finished in green with white panels to match with the passenger stock I've already built for this part of my miniature empire.

[BernardTPM]

On 22/01/2020 at 18:05, Neil said:

To be honest the wurst wagon arrived to satisfy my curiosity about a potential cut and shut involving Triang Thompsons to create a 6w BZ van. In the end it didn't seem viable so another freelance bodge beckoned.

 

I'm doing one of those that way... slowly!

 

 

The dimensions work out quite close, though in the spirit of the trains it will run with I won't be flush glazing or anything fancy like that. The toplights still need reshaping.

[Neil]

That's impressive stuff Bernard, a proper plastic jigsaw of component parts.

[BernardTPM]

Thanks Neil. The square cut out sections were a window; the joins here now made good and I salvaged a wagon label clip (not yet attached) from a T-H brake van body. Pondering what to do with the toplights I was thinking a bit too scale for a while, but given the profile is compromised anyway I've decided to go with a '1970s' style model so they (and the end windows) won't be flush glazed. And there's enough bits of sides left over to do a Brake Composite too.

[jazzer]

On 04/01/2020 at 10:40, Neil said:

Over the last couple of days I've brought the banana vans to a finished state. Here they are posed on Northern Town.

 

 

Also time to introduce the yard pilot.

 

 

It's by Bachmann but of some vintage and cost far fewer pennies than the latest model. It's had two lots of fettling to get it to run well but at last it's running as well as it needs to, being on a par with my Heljan 05, the alternative yard pilot.

 

 

 

 

 

Some lovely modelling going on there. 

What “ fettling “ did you give the Bachman ? I have found all Bachman’s, even new seem to run far better for a good   Wheel/ pick-up clean but I’ve never gone further than that. Its really difficult, in my experience to get a steam Bachhy to crawl done to a smooth stop. 

[Neil]

45 minutes ago, jazzer said:

 

Some lovely modelling going on there. 

What “ fettling “ did you give the Bachman ? I have found all Bachman’s, even new seem to run far better for a good   Wheel/ pick-up clean but I’ve never gone further than that. Its really difficult, in my experience to get a steam Bachhy to crawl done to a smooth stop. 

 

Thank you.

 

The J72 was a second hand purchase so I mopped up a lot of surplus oil, tweaked the quartering and cleaned the commutator, clogged with a mix of oil and carbon.  I need to strip it back down, not because it doesn't run well, but because I must have put the motor in upside down as it now runs differently to the rest of my stock and how it did before.

[Neil]

Work on Northern Town has moved back to the layout proper. Upstairs in my playroom I have the beginnings of the coal drops being glued together. Watching glue set is no more interesting than paint so while I wait for more photogenic developments I'll show you how far on both the brake van and coke wagon I've got.