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Building a pair of Class 309 Clacton Units


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Hi all,

 

Following on from the 4VEP thread earlier in the week, here is the progress with the project to build an 8-car Clacton Express, class 309, in revised Network SouthEast livery.

 

This is for a friend of mine who lives in Colchester and commuted on them every day; some while back he sold me a couple of kits that he thought he would never get around to (a 6-car TransPennine DMU and a 6-car Swindon InterCity DMU) at a knock down price, so I decided to make the Clacton Units for him.

 

The main parts are:

 

          Mk 1 donor coaches from the current Replica Railways models range.  These are available from the manufacturer for a good price, along with lots of other useful parts for this conversion.

 

          Etched Brass Sides from Worsley Works

 

          3D-printed cab ends by PH Designs - they are very fine indeed and available from Shapeways.  https://www.shapeways.com/product/PG5TYVCEF/309-cab3?optionId=57069592&li=marketplace  This is the one for units with a pantograph well directly above the cab and with the later style of cab window, but the other versions are available too.

 

          Replica Railways motorised chassis.

 

Pics in the next post....

 

 

Edited by 74009
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The first step is to remove all the raised detail from the plastic coach bodies, then enlarge all of the window apertures so that the gaps correspond to the windows in the etched sides.  It's worth spending a bit of time comparing the bodyshells you have with the etches in various combinations, to determine which arrangement will require the least cutting.  

 

This is a process that takes great care - the plastic is soft but quite thick, especially below the window line and a new, sharp blade makes it easier.  Always cut away from your fingers as the blade can easily break out. 

 

I also remove all of the roof detail at this stage, including the moulded ribs which are too prominent on most r-t-r Mk1s, except of course for those that don't have them at all.

 

 

 

1.jpg

2.jpg

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The bodies are fixed to the chassis by three clips along each side.  These are very deep and the bodies have to be massively flexed to get them on and off - this is fine as they are because the plastic is particularly soft and pliable, but it wont be possible to bend them enough once the brass sides are fixed on.

 

What I do is remove the end ones pretty much altogether, and reduce the central ones down to 1mm or so.  It's still enough to hold the bodies on and it's (hopefully!) not like any model of a 309 is going to be handled in the same way as an off the shelf plastic model might be.

 

If necessary, a little strip of plastic stuck into the sides towards each end, aligned with where the top of the chassis will be, is plenty to locate it and stop the chassis pushing up inside - but usually the step boards will do this anyway.

 

 

3.jpg

Edited by 74009
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The printed cab ends include the first inch or so of the bodysides, which is also present on the Worsley Works etches. so the etches have to be shortened to suit.  It's very straightforward - the etches need to be cut down the first door line.

 

You could alternatively remove part of the 3D printed cabside, but I think that will be more awkward as then you have that lozenge-shaped cabside window to deal with, which is inset and at a slight angle.

 

I am not sure whether the cab ends were designed with any particular manufacturer's Mk1s in mind, but they weren't a bad fit with the Replica ones; it just takes some time and patience with a file to get the best fit you can.  One of them was more troublesome than the other three for some reason, and on that one I ended up sanding off the rainstrips and re-instating them with a single piece that wrapped around the end.

 

 

4.jpg

5.jpg

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6 minutes ago, 74009 said:

The bodies are fixed to the chassis by three clips along each side.  These are very deep and the bodies have to be massively flexed to get them on and off - this is fine as they are because the plastic is particularly soft and pliable, but it wont be possible to bend them enough once the brass sides are fixed on.

 

What I do is remove the end ones pretty much altogether, and reduce the central ones down to 1mm or so.  It's still enough to hold the bodies on and it's (hopefully!) not like any model of a 309 is going to be handled in the same way as an off the shelf plastic model might be.

 

A little strip of plastic stuck into the sides (near the ends) where the top of the chassis will be is plenty to locate it and stop the chassis pushing up inside.

3.jpg

That's a very good tip on how to locate and hold the chassis. I have a 4-TC to do in the same way - Replica Mk1's and MJT brass sides - so very useful, thanks.

 

John.

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The pantograph well is just a matter of a couple of vertical cuts in the roof down to the rainstrips, with a plastic card floor.  I had a couple of pantograph well ends in stock - I think they might have been from Britannia Pacific models - so for one unit I could use those and for the other I used plastic card. 

 

The pantographs are probably not exactly the correct pattern but they're what I had available.  Roof detail shots of 309s are not that easy to find.

 

7.jpg

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Here's something that I'd never thought of. 

 

I recently built a No Nonsense Kits 2-EPB and the supplied diagram that showed where all the ventilators and other roof detail went was in the form of a scale size sticker, so you could just stick it to the roof and drill through.

 

A quick trawl online and I obtained some A4 sized repositionable labels, so now I can make my own stickers for the same purpose.

 

I actually drew a template in Photoshop which includes the edges, centre line and a grid, and now I can just print them off and draw in all the detail positions with a pen, then detach it from the backing paper and stick it on.  Do make sure you use repositionable labels though as the permanent ones will be difficult to get off again and will leave adhesive everywhere.  

 

A bonus is that the paper helps to stop the drill from slipping as you start off the hole.

 

8.jpg

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I was lucky to be able to take them for a test run on the layout of the Chatham and District Model Railway Club - performance of the Replica Chassis was very good indeed.

 

 

 

 

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I've done a bit more work in the pantograph area now.  As mentioned before it was difficult to find roof images and those that I did find showed, as is often the case, that there were inconsistencies both in the content of the pantograph well and in the positioning and number of ventilators.  As the units were built in different versions and have undergone a fair bit of reformation and vehicle substitution, it was no surprise.

 

This is what I've ended up with, although I do now suspect that all of it should have been mounted on a separate rectangular frame.

 

19.jpg

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So now it's on to the nightmare that is Revised Network SouthEast livery. Something that's in my mind is that the unpainted aluminium window frames are going to be very prominent against the dark blue, so I have to decide how I'm going to deal with that.

 

The window frames are identical to those in a refurbished 4-CEP (as in the image) and I do have some very nice etched stainless steel ones, produced by someone on here I think, to suit a Bachmann CEP. Unfortunately though they're *just* too small for the apertures in the 309 etches. It's literally a hair's breadth, but in this context that's all it takes.

 

I think the original poster did say that he would make the drawings for the stainless steel etches available so if I can find the post again I'll see if it's possible to obtain them, and get some more etched that are just a tiny bit bigger.  More to follow on that.

 

 

 

 

11.jpg

12.jpg

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Very nice, but you're painting them the wrong colour ;-) 

 

I built a pair a few years back now, a refurb in Jaffa Cake and an unrefurb in blue/grey, I used Bachmann Mk1s as the basis and all the alterations were done with plasticard. Those cabs you have used look very good.

 

PICT0017.JPG.9661bf747f241d078bd28665d792c98b.JPG

 

Edit to add, I took a whole bucketload of photos of the undergubbins of the preserved pair at Coventry just before it closed, they are on my Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/dagworth/albums/72157688411123114

 

Andi

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On 08/08/2020 at 22:49, cheesysmith said:

Make sure you chose the correct unit to model, as some had the trailer car toilet removed and the door moved to the end, with the small window inside for extra seating.

 

Got one or two of these to do myself.

 

Hi Cheesysmith,

 

I wondered whether anyone would notice that.  In fact I've already been in discussion with Worsley Works about there being two TSO types and me needing the other one, and I'm waiting for replacement etches to arrive.  I've got two more plastic bodies already prepped and it'll be a simple substitution.  The two vehicles that I take out (which are actually suitable as 4-CEP trailers) will be reused in a preserved Hastings unit 1001, and in one of the Connex '3D' units that had a CEP trailer inserted.

 

From the evidence I've seen at least, all of the units where the TSO retained the end toilet are also the ones with a pantograph directly above the driver's cab - i.e. the ex-2 car versions.

 

Best regards

 

Stuart

 

   

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8 hours ago, Dagworth said:

Very nice, but you're painting them the wrong colour ;-) 

 

I built a pair a few years back now, a refurb in Jaffa Cake and an unrefurb in blue/grey, I used Bachmann Mk1s as the basis and all the alterations were done with plasticard. Those cabs you have used look very good.

 

Edit to add, I took a whole bucketload of photos of the undergubbins of the preserved pair at Coventry just before it closed, they are on my Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/dagworth/albums/72157688411123114

 

Andi

 

Hi Andi,

 

Thanks for the link - lots of very useful detail information there.

 

Yes if they were for me I'd go with Jaffa livery :)   I do have some to build for myself but they are the unrefurbished version from Britannia Pacific - so will be in Blue & Grey.  However I will be doing some Jaffa 4-CEPs before much longer.

 

Your Jaffa unit looks very nice - how did you deal with the aluminium window frames?

 

All the best

 

Stuart

 

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Can you do the window frames with a silver Sharpie and a steady, well-braced hand?

 

Excited by the possibilities of 3D printed cabs, etched sides, donor chassis / subframe - just wish there was an equivalent of the Replica Railways motorised chassis for N gauge!

Edited by BusDriverMan
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15 hours ago, 74009 said:

Your Jaffa unit looks very nice - how did you deal with the aluminium window frames?

From memory the surrounds were painted silver before the windows were fitted (and the windows still fall out of the damn thing!) 

 

The hopper windows are actually the original glazing filed down and polished on newspaper. Cheapskate I am! 
 

Andi

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  • 4 months later...

Hi all,

 

It's been a while since I updated this thread, so here goes.  Progress has been a bit slow and has mostly been concentrated on the paintwork and interiors, plus the unpainted window frames.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I had some very nice etched stainless steel window frames designed for a Bachmann 4 CEP by another member of RMWeb, David Crow, but they were just a tiny bit too small to fit the Worsley Works brass etches.  I contacted David through this forum and he very kindly sent me his original artwork, so that I could amend it slightly to suit.  Some very careful measuring of the CEP window frames I had and the Worsley sides indicated that increasing the size of the frames by just 1.6% in all directions would be enough to make them fit.

 

Images below of the CEP frames and what the drawing looks like.

 

Frames.jpg

Screenshot 2020-12-14 175335.jpg

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One of my friends is a graphic designer used to working with Adobe Illustrator files, and he was able to increase the size by 1.6% pretty quickly.  At the same time he re-arranged the sheet to remove the elements that weren't required (refurbished CEP guards van area etc.) to allow for more frames of the various required types on the fret.

 

The file was agreed with the etching company in mid-November and the expected delivery time was 6 weeks, so hopefully the new etches will arrive in early January.  I'm considering how best to stick them on without risking getting glue on the paintwork - they're incredibly fine.

 

Many thanks to David Crow for his generosity in making his CEP artwork available for updating to what was needed for the 309.

 

 

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Something else that was mentioned earlier was the change to the fenestration of the TSO during refurbishment, when the toilets were removed and the positions of that window and the end door reversed to allow for 4 more seats in the saloon.  The replacement etches have arrived from Allen at Worsley Works now so those two vehicles are constructed and waiting to be painted.

 

Paintwork has been troublesome - Network SouthEast livery is never easy - but there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

 

First colour to go on was the cab-end yellow.  This transformed the appearance of the cabs and began to reveal what the completed units would look like.

Yellow.jpg

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I found this official NSE diagram of the paint scheme for a 4 CEP, giving thicknesses for all the various stripes along with the radii of the curves.  I reckon a 309 would have been the same - they were closely related units - so I went with the same dimensions.

Livery diagram.jpg

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First bodyside colour on was the red, followed by the grey.

 

Bonus points for spotting what else I'm building in the first image.

 

Masking is tricky, especially for the curved upsweeps - more on this on the next post.

Red.jpg

Grey.jpg

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I tried a number of different ways to achieve the curved upsweeps.  Initially I tried flexible masking tape for the thin white line but this wasn't very successful.  It was possible to get the tape into the right shape, but over the next few minutes it gradually tried to straighten itself by increasing the radius of the curve.

 

I then started experimenting with cutting the required shapes out of bigger pieces of tape.  For this I used a tool I got on line from a company in Romania.  It was tricky, but with practice I found that I could cut out what I needed.

 

For the thin white line between the red and the grey I found that the Japanese masking tape in the image, although not advertised as flexible, could nevertheless be persuaded to take the required curve.

 

The white masking tape along the top edge in the final image is the flexible tape, which turned out not to be much cop for straight lines either.  The adhesive is quite gooey and messy and I won't be using it again.

 

 

Tool.jpg

Tape.jpg

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20 minutes ago, 74009 said:

 

 

Paintwork has been troublesome - Network SouthEast livery is never easy - but there's a light at the end of the tunnel now.

 

First colour to go on was the cab-end yellow.  This transformed the appearance of the cabs and began to reveal what the completed units would look like.

Yellow.jpg

Just do them Maroon.......the only colour I remember them in as I use to travel on them every day from Shenfield  to Colchester to College.........lovely machines they were.

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