First OO9 Steps?

[TangoOscarMike]

And this is how it all goes together. The central plate lives on the chassis, and will not normally be removed.

 

 

The running plate is held to the central plate with two screws from below.

 

 

And that's it. It's going to be a side tank, so it'll be straightforward to accommodate all those pieces inside the body.

 

 

I was considering making all this out of brass. This plastic version could have been a trial run. But this has been successful enough that I'm going to forget about the brass and just crack on.

Edited February 2, 2023 by TangoOscarMike
Restoring pictures

[TangoOscarMike]

The last phase involved some freehand plastic cutting, which isn't something I'd normally do. So to return to my comfort zone I've made a wonky paper mockup of a body, to get a feeling for general dimensions and proportions.

 

I'm imagining a 12mm diameter boiler - this is slightly larger, since I made it from gummed paper wrapped around a 12mm pen barrel. And the cab and tanks go all the way to the edges of the running plate, which makes the whole structure slightly fatter than planned.

 

On the whole I think it's more or less OK. But the last picture, from the side, makes the body look over-large, perched on tiny wheels. I see a few alternative ways of looking at this:

• It's fine the way it is, and a normal sense of proportion will be restored when I have hardware (valances, steps, buffer beams, maybe bigger cylinders) below the running plate.
• I could make the whole thing a little smaller, at the expense of making it harder to cram crew into the cab.
• I could try to lower the running plate. This will make the whole design more complicated.
• I could try to lower the footplate, creating a step in the running plate.

 

I would be grateful for your opinions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by TangoOscarMike
Restoring pictures

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2 hours ago, TangoOscarMike said:

The last phase involved some freehand plastic cutting, which isn't something I'd normally do. So to return to my comfort zone I've made a wonky paper mockup of a body, to get a feeling for general dimensions and proportions.

 

I'm imagining a 12mm diameter boiler - this is slightly larger, since I made it from gummed paper wrapped around a 12mm pen barrel. And the cab and tanks go all the way to the edges of the running plate, which makes the whole structure slightly fatter than planned.

 

On the whole I think it's more or less OK. But the last picture, from the side, makes the body look over-large, perched on tiny wheels. I see a few alternative ways of looking at this:

• It's fine the way it is, and a normal sense of proportion will be restored when I have hardware (valances, steps, buffer beams, maybe bigger cylinders) below the running plate.
• I could make the whole thing a little smaller, at the expense of making it harder to cram crew into the cab.
• I could try to lower the running plate. This will make the whole design more complicated.
• I could try to lower the footplate, creating a step in the running plate.

 

I would be grateful for your opinions.

 

 

 

 

Hi there.  You asked for some views.  Overall, I think it looks great and well proportioned. The one thing that stands out for me are the small cylinders (which you also note in your list above).  I’d be inclined to try and fashion some bigger cylinders, and see how they look.  I suspect you may well find that your first option - just adding the various ‘bits’ below the running plate - then works.  Hope that helps, Keith.

[BernardTPM]

At the moment it is clearly narrower than the coach. If you widened it slightly and had a new, cosmetic footplate hanging from the tanks and cab it would be easier the bring the height down. The existing footplate would need the two visible parts cut away, making it roughly T shaped, the new forward parts attached to the rest of the wider body, below their current height.

Cab height was not always generous, of course.

Here's a 'Large England' type loco I built on a modified version of that chassis circa 1980. The base of the new body is effectively a skirt all the way round.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by BernardTPM

[TangoOscarMike]

8 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

I’d be inclined to try and fashion some bigger cylinders, and see how they look.

 

Thank you Keith. I think you're right: whatever else I do, I must make bigger cylinders.

 

I've been avoiding this because when I modify RTR stock, I will go to great lengths to avoid permanent modifications (at this point in the project I can reattach the original body and the model will be unchanged). It's going to be hard to enlarge the cylinders without deviating from this philosophy. But one way or another, I must have bigger cylinders.

 

[TangoOscarMike]

Thank you Bernard. I really like your model, and I feel inspired to make a bit of an effort, at least, to lower my model. 

 

6 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

Cab height was not always generous, of course.

 

 

I've noticed this in many photographs - crew whose heads are brushing against the top of the cab entrance. The height of my mock-up cab is driven by Dapol figures - I will be removing arms and legs to put half-figures either side of the motor, but I don't want to have to adjust their height if I can help it.

 

[BernardTPM]

The visible cylinders on the Large England are plastic overlays that fit over the original Minitrix cylinders and tail rods and can be removed. I'll see if I can dig the model out and take a photo in dismantled state tomorrow.

 

[BernardTPM]

Two pictures of the underside, one with cylinder wrapper removed.

 

[TangoOscarMike]

18 hours ago, BernardTPM said:

Two pictures of the underside, one with cylinder wrapper removed.

Thank you Bernard, that's an enormous help. I think I know what to do next.

 

Also, hats off to the you of 40 years ago!

Edited November 22, 2021 by TangoOscarMike
hats off

[TangoOscarMike]

On 21/11/2021 at 20:34, TangoOscarMike said:

I think I know what to do next.

 

Perhaps "I think I now have terms of reference for my next phase of procrastination" would have been nearer the mark. Apart from buying some plastic tube for the boiler, I haven't made any progress on the locomotive.

 

But to keep myself going I've made another coach. This one doesn't have so much glass - it's third class.

 

 

I've made a bit more effort with the hand rail at the end, using two 3D printed knobs and a piece of mandolin E-string.

 

 

The gap between roof and body, on the left hand coach, is fortunately not a permanent feature. I must have dislodged the roof while arranging them for the photograph.

 

Edited February 2, 2023 by TangoOscarMike
Restoring pictures

[TangoOscarMike]

After months of procrastination, I've scuttled back to my comfort zone and designed a 3D-printed locomotive body (printed by Shapeways). Its vestigial structural running plate sits on the chassis as before, with a cosmetic running plate and footplate 3mm lower.

 

The attachment plate now includes an elaborate bracket that holds two cylinder enlargement wrappers.

 

I'm not entirely pleased with this. The proportions of the details aren't quite right (dome too small, perhaps), the body will need some filing, and the plate/bracket requires lots of fettling. I might have to detach or even abandon the cylinders. But I'm going to press on with it anyway.

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Lovely though the kit looks, I do have to agree the dome looks too small.  Be good to see how the build turns out, Keith.

[TangoOscarMike]

Well. There were times when I thought that I would have to modify the design and discard this first attempt. But in the end, with some filing and a shim, the body fits properly.

 

The bracket+cylinders piece was perhaps sound in concept, but the detailed design was no good - there was no way of getting it in place without breaking it. After reconstruction with bits of plasticard, and in a workable arrangement this time, the part is now usable.

 

The roof, on the other hand, is fine - no modification required!

 

 

The next step will be a coat of primer, after which it will actually be possible to see what it looks like!

 

[TangoOscarMike]

I've sloshed some black paint onto the cylinders, and I'll try to avoid removing this part from the chassis again. If I keep taking it on and off I'll end up breaking it.

 

This is how it looks with a coat of primer. From this particular angle the dome and funnel look a little small, but to my eye not too small.

 

 

The original locomotive is German - black with red wheels. The only way for red wheels to make sense in my locomotive is if the whole thing is red, so that's that for the choice of livery. In any case, according to my childhood reference material, most narrow gauge tank engines are red.

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

6 minutes ago, TangoOscarMike said:

I've sloshed some black paint onto the cylinders, and I'll try to avoid removing this part from the chassis again. If I keep taking it on and off I'll end up breaking it.

 

This is how it looks with a coat of primer. From this particular angle the dome and funnel look a little small, but to my eye not too small.

 

 

The original locomotive is German - black with red wheels. The only way for red wheels to make sense in my locomotive is if the whole thing is red, so that's that for the choice of livery. In any case, according to my childhood reference material, most narrow gauge tank engines are red.

 

 

Looking good - the dome looks much more like it at this angle and with some paint.  Agree too that red is a good colour for narrow gauge tank engines - mine began red too (it was repainted black for export to a US railroad, but that's another story):

 

 

(photo borrowed from my own Narrow Gauge thread)

[TangoOscarMike]

I've reached the iterative phase of painting, in which each session serves mainly to correct the errors from the previous session.

 

I've also started mutilating Dapol/Airfix figures for the crew.

 

[TangoOscarMike]

An experimental lining technique.

 

Four holes drilled in a piece of plasticard.

 

Cut out, and attached using the masking tape and superglue trick.

 

Drawn round with a marker pen.

 

As usual, it's worse than I'd hoped but better than I feared, and the camera is cruel. I'll see if I can tidy it up with some paint.