1980s BR era Lockdown projects

[37501]

Here are two projects that I have enjoyed working on over the last few months. The Hornby crane has been extensively modified to be a rough representation of a diesel breakdown crane.

The old Lima Class 37 is ready for a power unit lift. The engine and generator were found on a well known auction site and the 37 gutted out to make the engine room.

Both of these are to feature on a 1980s era layout that I intend to build this year...

 

John

[37501]

Pictures of the Class 37...

37209 was the first Class 37 that I saw, passing south through Dumfries in July 1985 on a Speedlink service. It was in BR blue at that time.
 

John

[37501]

Some photos of the crane during construction and early painting. Metal coach wheels have been fitted and a lot of weight. The jib has been lengthened and is forked at its pivot point which allows it to negotiate large radius curves with the crane body locked parallel to the underframe. 
 

John

[37501]

Scratch built these two mobile generators for my MoD train. Made to a totally fictitious design...

Built another one for the BR Civil Engineer. Made from plastic card and various detail parts from my scrap box. 

 

John

[37501]

Another one for the MoD train. I saw a photo online of a large wooden crate in an OCA wagon, looked like the kind of box we received Diesel engines in (16 Cylinder Paxman Valenta)  when I was in the RN. 
Had to have a go at making one. All wood, mainly coffee stirrers over a wooden core. The other end of the wagon now has a tarpaulin covered load in.

 

John

[Northmoor]

Very nice modelling indeed.  The gennys look convincing enough to me; how did you build the engine?  That looks like an interesting project as I've got a motorless 37 or two that I'd often wondered about doing something similar with.

[37501]

Thank you for your kind words. The Class 37 engine and generator was bought on eBay and listed as a Scalecast English Electric 12 CSVT in 4mm scale. It came complete, 3D printed and just needed painting. I am very pleased with it. The 37 needed quite a lot of surgery to remove the correct part of the roof and to add partial bulkheads at either end. I left the motor bogie mostly intact so had to box it in to hide that and the big gap in the floor. The turbocharger exhaust outlets need to line up below where the exhaust ports are in the missing roof. Best wishes with your future projects.
 

John

[33C]

17 hours ago, 37501 said:

Some photos of the crane during construction and early painting. Metal coach wheels have been fitted and a lot of weight. The jib has been lengthened and is forked at its pivot point which allows it to negotiate large radius curves with the crane body locked parallel to the underframe. 
 

John

That is quality!

[KDG]

12 hours ago, 37501 said:

Another one for the MoD train. I saw a photo online of a large wooden crate in an OCA wagon, looked like the kind of box we received Diesel engines in (16 Cylinder Paxman Valenta)  when I was in the RN. 
Had to have a go at making one. All wood, mainly coffee stirrers over a wooden core. The other end of the wagon now has a tarpaulin covered load in.

 

John

Those large boxes that military equipment is transported around in are called STC's. Special to Type Container. Each one is designed for the item inside. They always facinated me when I was in the RAF. There was an Engineering Authority team at HQ Support Command responsible for them as they were so valuable and they were asset tracked. As much design and engineering went into them as the components inside.

 

E.g. a Tornado windscreen could easily be picked up by 2 persons, but those 2 wouldn't be able to easily pick up the box. Designed to withstand extreme temperature like minus 30 to plus 50 degrees celcius, water tight unless submerged, able to be picked up by forks or crane. Rugged so will stand up to being in a 4 tonne truck across country. Some have valves built into them to equalise the pressure inside during air transport.

 

Your box and the gennies look great.

[37501]

Thank you for your information and kind words.

The inspiration came from one of Paul Bartlett’s excellent photos of the STC in an OCA wagon. It is tied down with rope and I am guessing, empty.

 

John

[KDG]

I forgot to say, the OBA's  are really nicely faded and grotty too.

[37501]

Thank you. The OBAs were done with brushed on thinned washes of Humbrol enamel - various shades of dirty brown using Matt black and Matt leather with white spirit. Excess is removed using cotton buds soaked with white spirit. An airbrushed fade wash of Humbrol 121 pale stone.  If used very sparingly, gives a sun bleached appearance.  
The wooden floor is achieved by painting on a solid base coat of a medium grey followed by several washes of browns to give the grain effect. This is finished with a light dusting of stone coloured weathering powder. 

[37114]

A couple of interesting projects, the 37 is very good.

[37501]

Thank you. More pics of the 37 showing the interior work to accommodate the power unit. I don’t think a Bachmann 37 would be suitable due to the large cast chassis block. I had enough of a challenge removing a part of one in order to fit an EM2 speaker. 

 

John

[37501]

More MoD wagons....

The long pods are for communication aerials, totally freelance design again.

 

[37501]

MoD wagons again. The train currently consists of 14 wagons which include 6 Warwells with Airfix Scorpions and Oxford Land Rover FC101s.

[37501]

And finally, a faded van.

[Max Legroom]

I like what you’ve done to the class 37. I’m sure I’ve got a Lima one somewhere that would work too.

[37501]

Hope your 37 surgery goes well. This was an impulse project that came about when I saw the power unit for sale. The 37 came next and the whole thing took about a week to complete. The cutting and filling of the loco body and chassis was trial and error.... I had to lower the floor at the non motor end to accommodate the power unit. This meant putting a washer between the bogie and fixing point so that the wheels would still turn. An extra 1mm is not noticeable.

[37501]

Started to build the tool van to go with the breakdown crane. This started life as a rather battered Bachmann Mk1 coach. One side has been completed by filling in the windows with plastic card and cutting out the recesses for the doors. Painted with Railmatch paint and finished with Railtec decals. Ready to make a start on the other side. Further work will see the gangways removed and filled to a smooth finish. 
Railway project time has been a bit scarce recently because the wife had me laying laminate flooring....

[37501]

Work continues on the breakdown tool van. The glazing has been removed from the coach and window blanks fitted. These were bought ready to fit but I discovered that some of them did not offer a flush appearance when the printing marks were filed down. This was rectified using window shaped pieces of 0.4mm plastic card glued on top.

The recesses for the doors were cut out and the set back doors fitted. Again using plastic card in 1mm and 0.4mm.

Some very small areas required some filler.

Doorway handrails fitted and the whole side smoothed off with fine wet and dry paper. 
A final check of the finish will be carried out over the weekend prior to spraying with enamel primer.

[37501]

Finally the tool van is structurally complete and painted. Now bearing  little resemblance to the blue and grey Mk1 SK it started out as. I am looking forward to applying a light weathering in due course. 
This has been quite a challenging project but I am very pleased with the result. 
Next up is a new Heljan Class 25 to weather and fit sound to...

 

John

[ess1uk]

Like your loads