Scratchbuilt diesel and electrics, who else makes these?

[Steamport Southport]

The only diesel (or loco in general) I've ever tried to scratchbuild was copying an article in Your Model Railway to build an industrial shunter. The version in the article had a scratchbuilt chassis and I just used a reversed Smokey Joe chassis and enlarged the body to fit.

 

It was the Armstrong Whitworth diesel that High Level now make.

 

http://173.254.28.51/~highlev3/chris/Pages/armstrongpage.html

 

Let's just say it didn't look anything like that. It looked more like it was O:16.5 scale. My excuse was I was only about 14. No idea what happened to it.

 

I also had a few failures trying to make coaches out of plasticard. It's trying to get everything uniform that was the problem. Thankfully you don't have that problem with etched brass.

 

 

 

Jason

[Clive Mortimore]

I am not so sure.

 

I find layout wiring fairly easy, but I know many who find it difficult. There is nothing wrong with this. Minds just work differently.

Iain,

 

Can you make a lineside hut out of plastic card? A wagon is only a lineside hut on wheels. A coach is only a lineside hut with lots of windows and on wheels. A loco is only a lineside hut on wheels with a motor.

[Pete the Elaner]

Iain,

 

Can you make a lineside hut out of plastic card? A wagon is only a lineside hut on wheels. A coach is only a lineside hut with lots of windows and on wheels. A loco is only a lineside hut on wheels with a motor.

I have tried starting a few buildings from scratch but always got stuck on something & never completed one.

So my answer to that would have to be no.

 

Maybe I should explain further:

It is not so much the ability to finish them off but I get to a point where I simply don't know how to do the next bit. I have a building on my current layout which needs a flat roof. I don't know how to do this so it has been roofless for over 2 years now. Usually, switching to a different job allows my mind to come up with a solution when I'm not consciously thinking of one, but for this it has just not happened.

It was the same with the platform surfaces on my last layout. I was not happy with anything commercially available because none had the correct coping slabs. I tried cutting sections of plastikard but they didn't look consistent enough. I eventually broke up the layout & started on a new one without getting any further with these.

 

I joined a club fairly recently & hoped to get involved with buildings...but their biggest layout desperately needed electrical work done, causing faults & severely limiting operation & had a deadline when it was book up for a show. None of the members there seemed to acknowledge these issues, possibly because they didn't know how to push forward with fixing them. I felt my only option was to get cracking with wiring & have been so busy with it that I have had no time to look at a building.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Pete the Elaner

[MJI]

Well done for trying Martin, It doesn't matter which route it takes to get the end result and I have seen some of the stuff you have posted on here and it is good.

 

I now stick to components and use them.

 

Tempted to try scratching a Swindon 120 with Replica glazing though on Lima floors, unless I can find accurate brass sides.

[MJI]

The only diesel (or loco in general) I've ever tried to scratchbuild was copying an article in Your Model Railway to build an industrial shunter. The version in the article had a scratchbuilt chassis and I just used a reversed Smokey Joe chassis and enlarged the body to fit.

 

It was the Armstrong Whitworth diesel that High Level now make.

 

http://173.254.28.51/~highlev3/chris/Pages/armstrongpage.html

 

Let's just say it didn't look anything like that. It looked more like it was O:16.5 scale. My excuse was I was only about 14. No idea what happened to it.

 

I also had a few failures trying to make coaches out of plasticard. It's trying to get everything uniform that was the problem. Thankfully you don't have that problem with etched brass.

 

 

 

Jason

 

Coaches, tried a MRC plan for a LSWR Ironclad gave up with wobbly sides.

 

[Steamport Southport]

Coaches, tried a MRC plan for a LSWR Ironclad gave up with wobbly sides.

 

 

Snap!

 

That's the exact coaches I was trying to build from plans in MRC. I wanted something different from the Ian Kirk kits available at the time.

 

People like David Jenkinson made it look so easy....

 

 

 

Jason

[Gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

I'd forgotten all about this scratch built contraption, not a locomotive as such and not conventional diesel or electric either, but a gas turbine with two coaches inbetween.

 

It is made from rolled .030" plasticard glued to profiled bulkheads with .060" top and bottom to form the roofs and undersides. The cabs are fabricated from .040" plasticard with complex curves sanded and filled until the correct shape finally appeared.

 

The windows are BR dark roof grey with two coats of varnish which then had masking placed over the painted areas and the windows cut out with a scalpel, the aluminium was applied over the masked windows which in turn was then masked off for the blue stripe. Peeling off the masking was twice as good as usual because there were two colours underneath. A happy effect was that the thickness of the paint layers gave a very slight relief around the windows.

 

The lettering for APT-E are O gauge TOPS wagon code letters.

 

The power is from a Grafar class 91 with a bogie removed and put into the other end and the articulated bogies are Grafar B4 bogies that have had articulation pins attached and cosmetic parts stuck to them.

 

I built it for David Forshaw and may be seen on either of his layouts, Burshaw or Nine Mills.

 

 

Before you ask its N gauge and it doesn't tilt, we had enough bother at first getting it to go around tight curves and not derail over point work !!!

 

Gibbo.

[ColinK]

I’ve made several freelance diesels for my 7mm narrow gauge layout (0-16.5). Never had any plans, just take a RTR chassis or motor bogie and build a body round it. Great fun.

[Signaller69]

Hi Folks,

 

I'd forgotten all about this scratch built contraption, not a locomotive as such and not conventional diesel or electric either, but a gas turbine with two coaches inbetween.

 

It is made from rolled .030" plasticard glued to profiled bulkheads with .060" top and bottom to form the roofs and undersides. The cabs are fabricated from .040" plasticard with complex curves sanded and filled until the correct shape finally appeared.

 

The windows are BR dark roof grey with two coats of varnish which then had masking placed over the painted areas and the windows cut out with a scalpel, the aluminium was applied over the masked windows which in turn was then masked off for the blue stripe. Peeling off the masking was twice as good as usual because there were two colours underneath. A happy effect was that the thickness of the paint layers gave a very slight relief around the windows.

 

The lettering for APT-E are O gauge TOPS wagon code letters.

 

The power is from a Grafar class 91 with a bogie removed and put into the other end and the articulated bogies are Grafar B4 bogies that have had articulation pins attached and cosmetic parts stuck to them.

 

I built it for David Forshaw and may be seen on either of his layouts, Burshaw or Nine Mills.

 

DSCF0221.JPG

DSCF0240.JPG

DSCF0241.JPG

 

Before you ask its N gauge and it doesn't tilt, we had enough bother at first getting it to go around tight curves and not derail over point work !!!

 

Gibbo.

Excellent work on the APT-E, ingenious! Is that the prototype Leyland coach I see on your workbench (4mm)?

[Gibbo675]

Excellent work on the APT-E, ingenious! Is that the prototype Leyland coach I see on your workbench (4mm)?

Hi Signaller,

 

Well spotted Sir !

 

PM on its way should you be interested.

 

Gibbo.

[gobbler]

Ive got this book

 

Ive fancied having a go at a class 20 myself. Do you have any other recommendations on a good source for 4mm drawings?

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Clive Mortimore]

Ive got this book61G8OUrt-JL._SX362_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

Ive fancied having a go at a class 20 myself. Do you have any other recommendations on a good source for 4mm drawings?

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Hi Scott

 

There are the Russell Carter books, early (British Rail Mainline Disesls, published by Ian Allan) and later versions. The drawings do differ.  The BR Diagrams on the Barrowmore club website.

 

Other drawings I have collected over the years

 

BR Equipment, by David Gibbons, Ian Allan 1986 Page 44

BR Class 20 Diesels, Michael Oakley, Bradford Barton, 1981

British Rail Fleet Survey 4, production types 1-3, Briam Haresanpe, Ian Allan 1983

Model Rail, October 2000

Railway Modeller November 1982

Modelling Railways Illustrated February 1996

 

A quick comment on drawings, they are as good as the information the draftsman has and her/his skills in reproducing that information on a flat piece of paper (or computer screen).

[Traintresta]

On 31/08/2018 at 17:16, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi All

 

Am I the only twit who has made his own diesel locomotives?

 

I have started but never finished electric locos but that was because of a change in direction in my modelling.

 

Why?

I’m curious to know if you built your own chassis or used an RTR one? I’m guessing from the colour of the bogie frames that you at least crafted those?

[Clive Mortimore]

27 minutes ago, Traintresta said:

I’m curious to know if you built your own chassis or used an RTR one? I’m guessing from the colour of the bogie frames that you at least crafted those?

One has a Tenshendo motor bogie and the other has a Mehano US loco underframe that almost matches.

Tenshendo , I am not sure who if any, imports these now.

Mehano, is  a Slovenia company, there products are on the cheap side of the US model railroad market. They do some nice European locomotives.

 

Most of my own models have a Hornby or Lima power bogie running in a scratchbuilt chassis.

Hornby power bogies for a pair of BTH Type 1s

 

 

Another Mehano or Tyco (it has Made in Yogoslavia under it) for a North British type 1

 

Projects that are still on hold following the introduction of the Heljan models.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Clive Mortimore

[cheesysmith]

If you are wanting to build your own class 20, I would start with the Lima model. The chassis is a good runner, better with a few mods, like pick ups. The body is interesting, as it looks like a class 20, despite every body panel and door being the wrong size. 

 

I have wondered if a better class 20 could be made by rubbing down a Lima body and adding details from scratch.

[Clive Mortimore]

10 hours ago, cheesysmith said:

If you are wanting to build your own class 20, I would start with the Lima model. The chassis is a good runner, better with a few mods, like pick ups. The body is interesting, as it looks like a class 20, despite every body panel and door being the wrong size. 

 

I have wondered if a better class 20 could be made by rubbing down a Lima body and adding details from scratch.

I have run both my Lima and Bachmann class 20s together on my layouts and to be honest, even knowing how wrong the Lima one is, when working they both look like Choppers.

 

Now your suggestion of correcting the Lima errors sound like a project I would do just for the fun of it but if someone is after a reasonable looking class 20, get a Bachmann one. It might be a tad more expensive but it is worth it.