My coming out of Lockdown workbench

[Penrhos1920]

So this is 1001 post !!

 

It feels like ages since I last posted here.  The workbench itself has not seen much action as the Peckett conversion to EM has stalled.  The Hornby wheels are probably, maybe not, to wide for reliable running on EM track.  And no one sells suitable replacements, right number and type of spokes.  So I'm not sure what to do.  But I haven't been idle.  I've been sat at my PC and I've been working on some GW Crocodile wagons, or at least the artwork for etched brass crocodiles. 

 

I've also been working on some other locos.  I've bought the frames for 5 ANDR prairies from the estate of a modeller in Canada.  So I've been drawing up bodies for them.  First, the one-off Kitson.  Fortunately there was a really good drawing in Model Railway July 1978 so this has been relatively easy.

 

 

 

The second loco is the Hawthorn Leslie.  Built in 1920 makes it brand new for the Penrhos era.  Again this has been relatively simple as there was a good drawing in Railway Modeller December 1994. 

 

 

The remaining prairies are all Beyer Peacock design and that's where I'm struggling.  The best drawing is the GW weight diagram in the Russell book.  But it is completely different to the drawing that was in Railway Archive No.5.  So it's a lot harder.  I've sent an email to the Science & Industry Museum as they have some Beyer drawings, but I'm not hopeful as I'm guessing their staff are furloughed?  The plan with all these locos is to 3D print most of the body and etch a few details like cab spectacle plate and smoke box wrappers.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Penrhos1920

[Darwinian]

I’m not sure how helpful or not this is but.....

My hand-built track is finescale 00 so has similar clearances to EM. I’ve opened the wheel back to back on my Hornby W4 Peckett to 14.8mm and it runs through all of my point work fine. 

[Penrhos1920]

42 minutes ago, Darwinian said:

I’m not sure how helpful or not this is but.....

My hand-built track is finescale 00 so has similar clearances to EM. I’ve opened the wheel back to back on my Hornby W4 Peckett to 14.8mm and it runs through all of my point work fine. 

 

So is your flangeway 1.0mm?  I think that's the main issue for EM, then of course there will be clearance behind the crosshead......

[Darwinian]

3 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

 

So is your flangeway 1.0mm?  I think that's the main issue for EM, then of course there will be clearance behind the crosshead......

Yes my flange way is 1.0mm but I don’t have an issue with the cross head of course.  

[Penrhos1920]

There's almost a little progress to show for the last 3 weeks as there was the previous 3 weeks; even though I've had a lot of time for modelling.  Not long after posting the Hawthorn prairie drawing I realised that my time with Autocad must come to an end.  The licence will run out in September and short of getting a dodgy one off the dark web I can't afford to pay the subscription to continue its use.  I've previously tried SketchUp and Fusion but with little success.  So I’ve turned to Blender, but after 2 weeks of serious trying I’ve come to the conclusion that it isn’t a proper Cad program, but that it’s going to have to do.  Thanks must go to @JCL for his two threads about drawing a loco and buildings with Blender; without them I won’t have got even this far.

 

 

The problem is that I sometimes can’t fathom out how to do the simplest of things.  The viaduct brick arch is a classic.  As drawn the brick arch drawn anticlockwise, I cannot work out how to get the first brick to be at the top of the right-hand wall.  I've tried putting the whole arch in an empty cube.   I've tried putting the initial brick in different places.  Eventually I want alterate row os strechers and headers as per the English bond walls.

 

 

The loco I’ve been drawing is a Mersey Railway Beyer Peacock prairie.  It’s taken the best part of a week to get this far in Blender.  In Autocad it would have been only a day, probably less since I’ve copied the cab over from the Kitson drawn in Autocad a couple of weeks ago.  What beats me is that there are loads of tools and methods available, but drawing the base of the chimney is so difficult.  In autocad I just draw a side and front profile and draw a circle around the top of them and the LOFT command does the rest.  I can’t find anything similar in Blender!

 

 

[Darwinian]

Just a follow up on the W4 Peckett. Further running of my OO-FS gauge widened W4 has shown up an occasional jamming of the front crankpin against the cross head on one side. I have fitted a couple of 10ba washers, cut to clip over the axle outside the bearings. I took the chassis out and baseplate off then swung the front axle over to the back so that I could slide the bearings to one side and press against the chassis block to fit the washers. No lateral movement or jamming now but it’s mighty close.

[Penrhos1920]

I can’t believe that it’s a month since I posted.  I have been modelling, but I can’t exactly say busy modelling.  Although there have been plenty of shards of plastic flying around the room and the carpet goblin has been particularly busy!  What I need is a faithful Modelling Elf.  Here’s the latest output.  I’d be interested to know if you can see what the starting point was for these.

 

Here’s a clue as to the next project.  A second clue is that built straight out of the box the kit is wrong, but correct that error and you can build 3 different diagrams and with a bit of pushing the envelope towards scratch building, a fourth diagram is possible.  A fifth is also possible, but that one was a one off.

[drduncan]

I think the lower photo is of the Coopercraft loco coal wagon. As to the diagrams I’d have to check the bible and I’m on child riot prevention at the moment so sneaking off to the attic workshop to consult my books is out.

Duncan

[37079]

The top ones look like the bodies are based on the Ratio LMS medium goods, chopped about to varying degrees. I love a good wagon bash - looking forward to seeing how these turn out.

 

Mike

[Compound2632]

I'm glad someone's having fun with old Coopercraft loco coal wagons as whenever I go looking for 4-plank wagons Ebay is awash with the blighters.

[Penrhos1920]

Yes @37079 they are bashed from the old Ratio kit.  I bought 5 body only kits in with a large box of kits on eBay.

 

@drduncan is also correct.  I’ve got 8 coopercraft loco coal wagons on the go.  The kit is meant to portray diagram N13 but it 2mm too narrow and the corners are square not round.  Fixing them both isn’t too difficult but very tedious.  By changing the buffers and doing the width and corners as N13 you can make diagram N19.  By changing the buffers and adding corner strengthening plates diagram N20 can be built. These 3 diagrams are all easy to do and I’ve done a few in the past.  The extra challenge this time is make some diagram N21.  Which was basically N20 plus a bit taller.  The GWR had 250 to 300 of each of the 4 diagrams so I plan to have approximately equal numbers of each on Penrhos.

[kandc_au]

13 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

  The GWR had 250 to 300 of each of the 4 diagrams so I plan to have approximately equal numbers of each on Penrhos.

Will you have room for anything else on the layout?

Khris

[drduncan]

10 minutes ago, kandc_au said:

Will you have room for anything else on the layout?

Khris

I was thinking just that too!

[Penrhos1920]

3 hours ago, kandc_au said:

Will you have room for anything else on the layout?

Khris

 

Ha ha.

 

There will be a lot of wagons on Penrhos.  Half size scale length trains are 30-40 wagons.  It’s a good job that I like building wagons!

[Penrhos1920]

Look what the postman has brought !!  Presents.  Well not proper presents as I've had to buy they, but it is a nice box from Shapeways.  And for the first time ever I think I can say that I'm more than 95% happy with what has arrived.

 

First up I have some GWR Self Contained Buffers for wagon by @Guy Rixon.  These are for a future GWR vans project where I will be fitting 13" steel buffer heads.  But I'm wondering whether they can be fitted with 16” or 18” heads for bogie wagons?  For some of my Crocodiles and 40t loco coal wagons?

 

 

 

 

Next up also for some GWR vans are OK Axlesboxes and wagon buffers by @billbedford.  These are also for the GWR vans project, there are a lot of Coopercraft van kits awaiting the knife!

 

 

 

 

Next up are some GWR Dean 10' bogies by Stafford Rd Models for the coaches that were started only a year ago at the beginning of Lockdown.  I've only bought 2 pairs as I already have another whitemetal pair for the third coach.  I like these, but I'm going to have to fit stepboards and I'm worried about making strong joints to this plastic.

 

 

 

 

And now the next item out of the box are some detailing parts for my range of etched GWR Crocodiles that should be appearing soon.  There are the bogie springs and I've just noticed that there are only 2 instead of the 4 required.  Then there are 8 axleboxes, 4 rectangular buffer housings, 4 circular buffer housings, and lastly buffer heads/shanks.  I'm still waiting for the etches to arrive but as soon as they do I'll be pushing everything else to one side to get on with them.  I've got sufficent etches ordered and printed bits here to build 2 off C11 crocodile and 2 off C4 (one of each varient) but I must check that I have the correct Cambrian bogies to hand.  The C11 was the second most common design of crocodile (10 built in 1906) after the C12 (12 built in 1909) which I've built a pair from the old Mainline RTR and the C4 was third in the popularity stakes ( 6 built in 1909 during the transition phaes from type V to type VI).

 

 

 

 

And last up is the roof and chassis for the ANDR coaches I've been taking an equally  long time over.  The roof has been modified to fit around an etched body.  4 corner screws will allow it to separate from the body.  Half of the holes are for ventillators and the other are for lamps, all are whitemetal castings.  Inside the roof will be 8 tiny leds for the lights including 1 over each veranda.  The chassis is in 2 parts as it will be built 'inside' the bottom of the body.  I don't know what this has been printed in.  I thought I'd ordered white strong flexible, but it's something shaded grey and you can just about see the layers have been made diagonal in the first photo.

 

[Guy Rixon]

The grey parts look like PA12 which has a surface finish between WSF and FUD.

 

The GWR self-contained buffers can be fitted with larger heads: you just use the parts with 1 mm rams and sheath them with the bushes provided on the print, as you'll need to do for the 13" heads. The buffer guides won't admit 2.5 mm rams as there's no way to print the guides thin enough. Thanks for buying and I hope they work out for you.

[Penrhos1920]

What I don’t know is if the body was the same for the 13” and 18” heads?

[billbedford]

12 minutes ago, Penrhos1920 said:

What I don’t know is if the body was the same for the 13” and 18” heads?

 

If you mean the bit behind the head, then yes. Both appear to be both a nominal 0.9mm. (one's 0.85 and the other 0.89)

[Penrhos1920]

There’s more action on the work bench. The loco coal wagons are starting to take shape.  I don’t use the Coopercraft floors.  Instead I put a piece of 10 thou flush with the bottom of the sides.  I use some 15 thou as spacers under the location pegs on the ends. Then a piece of lead covered by another piece of 10 thou.  This method gives a solid body that weighs just right.

 

As I said earlier these kits are too narrow so I splice a piece of 30 thou into each corner.  The N13s & 19s have rounded corners.  The N20s & 21s have square corners with rivets.

[Compound2632]

How thick is your lead sheet? I have a roll of ⅛" flashing that would do for very many more wagons than I'm ever likely to build. It's fine when hidden under a load or sheet but not so useful for an empty wagon, although a bit can usually be fitted between the solebars.

[Penrhos1920]

The lead in about 1.8mm.  So the floor is about 2.4mm total thickness.  The biggest problem with this is that the bottom 10 thou styrene allows the solebars to flex more than usual and some extra rigidity is required.  Best done by adding a couple of crossmembers.

[Penrhos1920]

More goodies in the post this morning.  Looks like I’m going to be busy.  I’m putting the coal wagons on one side and starting on these etches.

 

Edited May 15, 2021 by Penrhos1920

[Penrhos1920]

Just to say that I'm currently working on the Crocodile etches which I've written about in a different topic: