Garden Rail 314 - October 2020

[Phil Parker]

 

Contents

 

View from the end of the platform

 

Rush Hour on the Little Angel by Andy Taylor

 

Regauging Hogwarts Express by Ben Bucki

 

Building a Drewery railmotor by John Mileson

 

Getting all fired up by Mark Thatcher

 

The Woodland Cottage garden railway by Dave Skertchly

 

A Merry time at Merryvale by Mark Thatcher

 

Beeston Castle from Thermalite blocks by Rik Bennett

 

The Lyme Regis Radials by Alan Macfarlane

 

Product News

 

Mailbox

 

Diary Dates/Next Month

 

Just what the vicar ordered by Vaughan Collier

 

[Huw Griffiths]

Another great issue - I particularly enjoyed the Drewery railmotor build.

 

This probably doesn't surprise anyone who knows me - especially since an O gauge build loosely inspired by one of the NER / LNER petrol inspection cars has been on my build list for some time now.

 

At this point, I should probably add that various issues are likely to keep it on my build list for some time yet ... .

 

However, for anyone unfamiliar with the NER / LNER petrol inspection cars, there's a thread about modelling them elsewhere on this site: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/146170-nerlner-petrol-inspection-car/&tab=comments#comment-3620972

 

 

I've suspected for a while that a simplified version of LNER 23768 or 23769 might not look too out of place on a garden line somewhere - perhaps with a bodyshell made from "Palfoam" (a rigid uPVC foam) or even "lasered" from thin wood.

 

OK - I doubt if I'd build one of these in a "garden scale" any time soon - mainly because I don't have a garden line. However, I suspect it could actually be quite a straightforward and satisfying build (especially with a couple of minor mods - like replacing the cab / saloon bulkheads with a panel with windows either side of a door - or "cheating" with the curved tumblehome, instead having straight lower body panels set at a slight angle).

 

To be brutally honest, I don't even know the most used nominal scale for models to run on (eg) 45mm track. I'd guess somewhere in the region of ~ 10mm / foot (presumably not too far removed from multiplying O gauge dimensions by a factor of about 1.5 - but I might be very mistaken). Even where to find cheap motor / gearbox combos and wheels defeats me - although I can't see issues like these being too much of a deterrent to anyone really determined to build such a model.

 

In case anyone's wondering why I'm trying to compare model dimensions to what they might be in O, I'm most of the way through drawing up panels and overlays in this scale in my home computer - so rescaling would be relatively straightforward. Due to some of the material thicknesses I've encountered, I could also imagine building in a large scale being reasonably straightforward.

 

However, please note that I'm definitely not trying to get anyone else to build something I'm not planning on building myself. Just because I suspect that something might be buildable, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm expecting anybody to build it.

 

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[Phil Parker]

G scale tends to be a little elastic. Officially, 1:22.5 - although there is correct nomenclature, all sorts of scales are described as "G" when they actually mean "Runs on 45mm gauge track."

 

Foamboard, the plastic-face sort, would work well for the railcar. As you say, it's a very interesting build. The sort of model that gets in because I quite fancy building one myself.

[Huw Griffiths]

I guess I was making the mistake of thinking in terms of 1435 mm prototype "standard" gauge - when many of the real prototypes for "G scale" models would probably have been closer to metre gauge (well, many of those that actually existed, outside some modelmaker's imagination, anyway ...).

 

As for whether there'd be any point in me rescaling my drawings - well, to be honest, I'm not sure.

 

I don't actually have a garden layout - and I don't see any prospect of this changing - so I'd have nowhere to run any model. In other words, this is really a bit of an exercise in "thinking aloud". However, if I were to build such a model, I'd be faced with some dilemmas:

 

If built to anything like standard gauge, a model like this would probably be dwarfed by a lot of RTR "G" models - how much of an issue this would be varies, especially for anyone who runs LGB models of early standard gauge US Diesel locos. I also wonder if the likely scaling factors might not yield particularly "clean" panel edge cutting outlines on overlays etc. I'm not sure - but I'd be wary.

 

Meanwhile, if I were to just double all the "O Gauge" dimensions, I'd get a model railbus with a standard gauge body on a chassis effectively reguaged to very slightly less than a metre - probably not too ridiculous, if not actually prototypical ... .

 

Of course, there'd also be the minor issue of me not knowing where to obtain suitable drives and wheels - at a price I'd be happy to pay - bearing in mind that I'd probably never have anywhere to run the thing.

 

In other words, for me, this is really little more than "thinking aloud" - so, even though I suspect that a "G scale" test build might actually be easier than an equivalent scratchbuild in O (or 4mm, for that matter), it probably won't get built (well, not by me, anyway).

 

Meanwhile, the O gauge version is a completely different matter - I know what parts I intend to use - I've already got these parts - and I've got a pretty good idea of what I'll need to do.  (Similar comments could also be made about other projects on my build list - but I digress.) The real issue here is time, when I'm not busy doing something else.

 

Returning to my drawings, like (I suspect) many people, I've rescaled lots of published drawings over the years - sometimes in computer drawing packages - sometimes when printing or using a photocopier. It isn't usually difficult to do - but I have sometimes encountered unexpected issues, especially if the original drawings or scans are less than brilliant:
 

Drawings are sometimes printed to different vertical and horizontal scales. If you've ever modelled European HO, you might have encountered "1:100 length" coaches - well, I've sometimes found something similar with published drawings.
 

Straight lines and right angles in drawings don't always come out as such in scans (or even in published drawings, if the originals weren't flat when they were being scanned etc).
 

In some really bad cases, sections of drawings might be missing, or scales might vary wildly between different sections of the same drawing.
 

The vertical and horizontal edges of drawings rarely run parallel to the edges of scanner "beds" - what might start out as a clean, crisp, vertical or horizontal line on an original drawing might suddenly end up blurred or acquiring "steps".
 

In the thread I referenced in my earlier post, the same drawing of the 1912 NER / LNER cars also appears in a number of books. In addition to the issues I've already mentioned, I also encountered other issues in one version I scanned - in the side elevation, the horizontal scale reduces slightly as you get further above the solebar - also, a number of details were missing from published drawings (especially below the solebar, on end elevations. Just to make things even more interesting, some details myteriously seem to move around on some drawings - like door handles changing sides between drawings, or the start and end points of the doming on the clerestory roofs being shown as different between ends (unlikely, I would have thought).

 

At this point, I could imagine some people dozing off - or imagining that I must be keen on the sound of my own voice. In fact, this couldn't be further from the truth.

 

Many experienced modelmakers would be aware of potential pitfalls when working from published drawings. Meanwhile, people like me might have less experience of building acceptable models - but we might be used to working from published drawings / other information, or doing research from books etc. (In my case, this is due to an engineering / higher education background.)

 

Right now, I'm actually working on several projects - all at the "preparing computer drawings" stage. You might think this would be easy - just scan, rescale and print the drawings to my desired scale - then ... relax. I'm afraid not.

 

For some of these, it's actually easier to start from scratch - generate key "elements" to a known scale, then replicate and position these as needed, before playing "join the dots". This is certainly the case for one project for which the published drawings were printed across the bindings of books and magazines - and for another in which the published drawings change scale as you move along a drawing.

 

I don't pretend to be a "Master Model Railroader" - or an expert draughtsman.

 

Thankfully, I don't need to be either. There are plenty of drawing packages available for use on home computers. If you know how to use one of these, it's perfectly possible to produce drawings good enough to lay onto models (to use for positioning bodyshell sections), or to stick onto sheet plastic (to use for cutting).

 

All I really need is enough time (I wish) - preferably at times in the day when I can really concentrate (yes, right).

 

I guess it might be a while before I come up with final versions of drawings I'm actually happy with ... .

 

 

Huw.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Huw Griffiths