Charlie Strong Metals (and Watery Lane Sidings)

[Ruston]

On 12/02/2021 at 23:00, Northmoor said:

Adhesion is as much dependent on wheel profile as weight.  Are the back-to-back measurements OK?

They are. It was simply too light but it isn't now. I have filled the tanks with sheet lead and it has now come up to the same weight as the Hornby Peckett, and can pull the same load. I think a sound fitting is still possible, so it will go back in the cabinet until I can afford to fit sound to it.

 

The Attkinson Borderer, and its twin, are almost finished now. They need air hoses to be made and fitted, and then a bit of weathering. I may change the mirrors for some home-made versions that use brass wire instead of the plastic moulded ones. They are way too thick!

 

 

 

The trailers need weathering and rails, chains and blocks of wood to be added.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

Shocvans, loaded with tinplate from Ebbw Vale, are shunted off by one of the Shelby Group's engines.

 

A view from under Watery Lane bridge. Loaded containers, full of paint tins, leaving the Metal Box works.

 

Fuel oil for the heating system at the Metal Box works.

^ Airfix tank kit, with whitemetal Dowty buffers, from LMS. Brake gear uses spare Parkside parts. Rusting studs, that once held the ESSO sign, are made from short lengths of plastic rod.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Kevin Johnson]

Great pictures Dave. Are all the vehicles 1/76 scale on your layout.

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, Ruston said:

Fuel oil for the heating system at the Metal Box works.

^ Airfix tank kit, with whitemetal Dowty buffers, from LMS. Brake gear uses spare Parkside parts. Rusting studs, that once held the ESSO sign, are made from short lengths of plastic rod.

This thread has so many examples like this one, of achieving exceptional levels of realism by starting with common RTR and kits.  Lack of money need be no excuse when you can create a wagon that looks that good, from a kit costing little more than a fiver. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Northmoor

[Ruston]

I have been running my two brake vans with no lamps for a long time. Then I glued a single lamp on one end, which obviously isn't correct as there should be three lamps, but three lamps stand out far more than one and it would be a case of a van looking proper in one direction only - in the other it would look a bit silly.

 

I've been playing with 1mm dia, neodymium  magnets. The lamps are drilled and a magnet pushed into the back, with a corresponding hole drilled into the brake van and a magnet pushed in to the hole there.

 

The side lamp brackets cannot be drilled but a magnet can be glued on the inside face and the lamp fit on the outside face. With the magnets on the brackets painted rust-coloured, they blend in. I haven't shown the side lamps here because I only had two and one threw itself into oblivion on the shed floor.

 

If I ever find the other lamp, or buy a replacement, they can now be moved from one end of the van to the other.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

 

Industrialised. I think the real industrial versions had different cab windows but you can't have everything.

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Kevin Johnson]

Nice transformation Dave.

[Michael Edge]

I don't think there were any industrial sales for this type of 05, I think it was only built for BR, plenty of the earlier ones in industry though. It looks good anyway - no reason why they shouldn't have been built for anyone else.

[Ruston]

On 21/02/2021 at 11:34, Michael Edge said:

I don't think there were any industrial sales for this type of 05, I think it was only built for BR, plenty of the earlier ones in industry though. It looks good anyway - no reason why they shouldn't have been built for anyone else.

It's not actually my loco, Mike. I've done the alterations and weathering to it, and I've also fitted it with DCC sound. I am enoying using it and the sound prject sounds great, so I am tempted to have an 05. I don't know it it's that the flanges are too deep, or the back-to-backs are too narrow but it won't run on the section of track that's inlaid with setts, so if I do go for an 05, it will be the industrial version of your kit.

 

Some work on the layout itself.

 

I may have metioned earlier about fuel oil into the Metal Box works being an excuse to run a tank wagon or two. Here is the storage tank. I made the tank body ages ago and it's made by using scored plasticard, wrapped around one of those toothpaste pump thingies.

I have only just got around to making the handrails around the top, and the cast concrete bund, steps etc. It still needs an access ladder so a set of etched ladders are on order from Severn Models.

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

Ruston action at the scrap yard. This thing is a beast!

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Kevin Johnson]

Looks awesome with the block buffers. The Ruston looks at home on the layout.

[Ruston]

The fuel oil tank is finished. I added a safety cage to the etched brass ladder by soldering on some rings of 0.45 mm brass wire, plus three vertical lengths of the same.

 

 

The Ruston now has lamps fore and aft. They are cast whitemetal, from RT Models. The plastic oil container is a 3D print, from Hardy's Hobbies.

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Ramblin Rich]

I remember the Severn Valley bought a batch of Ruston 165s, from one of the West Midlands steel works that closed (Patent Shaft). I saw one alongside an 08 and thought how small it seemed, so a comparison with an 08, 165DS and 48DS would be interesting!

[The Lincolnshire Poacher]

On 14/02/2021 at 21:06, Northmoor said:

This thread has so many examples like this one, of achieving exceptional levels of realism by starting with common RTR and kits.  Lack of money need be no excuse when you can create a wagon that looks that good, from a kit costing little more than a fiver. 

What model making should be all about.

[Sandhole]

On 14/02/2021 at 21:06, Northmoor said:

This thread has so many examples like this one, of achieving exceptional levels of realism by starting with common RTR and kits.  Lack of money need be no excuse when you can create a wagon that looks that good, from a kit costing little more than a fiver. 

Totally agree.
I run Airfix wagons, detailed and modified. Being plastic, they are table top modelling.
Do not discount the origional Kirk kits, either. They might be a little 'flashy' but the wagons you can produce, with a little work, are great.
The whitemetal K's wagon kits are equally worthwhile. Mind you, they will,probably, be counted as collectors kits with a hike in price.

Edited February 28, 2021 by Sandhole

[Ruston]

Busy times at Charlie's yard.

 

I have been having a good operating session and had all the available scrap-carrying wagons out. I didn't even know how many I had until now. 27 wagons but only 23 loads to put in them. Some chain shunting was required.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Barry O]

The scrap area at Barnbow used to have heaps of swarf (machining armour plate does mean lots of very sharp swarf is generated) but very little in the way of plate offcuts. Lots of bits and bats of snall gauge pipework and the odd dud casting ... so your loads look spot on for variety and content Dave. Great work!

Baz

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

You need a figure scratching his head and wondering "where the hell did that lot come from?".

 

Mike.

[Ramblin Rich]

15 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

You need a figure scratching his head and wondering "where the hell did that lot come from?".

 

Mike.

More like, how the hell do I sort this lot out! Looks very close to gridlock (or whatever the railway equivalent is...)

[Erichill16]

3 minutes ago, Ramblin Rich said:

More like, how the hell do I sort this lot out! Looks very close to gridlock (or whatever the railway equivalent is...)

Bit of an inglenook puzzle!

[LBRJ]

The scrap loads really are spot on

No doubt from actually looking at the reality rather than listening to "model railway lore"

[Barnaby]

Those photos headed "busy times at Charlie's Yard" are spot on I have taken a copy of them for my ref file because the level of detail is both exquisite and typical of such a location. 

You show just how much detail you can add without it appearing awkwardly over populated if done carefully.

 

Great work Dave.

[03060]

8 hours ago, Barnaby said:

Those photos headed "busy times at Charlie's Yard" are spot on I have taken a copy of them for my ref file because the level of detail is both exquisite and typical of such a location. 

You show just how much detail you can add without it appearing awkwardly over populated if done carefully.

 

Great work Dave.

 

I reckon that if these photos were in B&W you'd be hard pressed to tell that they were of a model !

[Ruston]

Shelby Haulage, who shunt Watery Lane sidings on behalf of the Metal Box Co,. and who maintain Charlie Strong's fleet of lorries and locomotives, have turned to using oil to fire the steam locomotives. Waste oil, from oil changes on the lorry fleet, and from vehicles for scrap, is filtered and pumped into a storage tank. It is dispensed from a pump in the yard.

 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

Closed up for the weekend. There's only the man from Shelby Security, and his big, vicious, Alsatian there. The Alsatian loves industrial loco spotters but he couldn't eat a whole one.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by Ruston