Tavistock (GWR)

[John Brenchley]

The Yard Crane (4)

 

In the two weeks since the last update, the yard crane hasn’t progressed very much, other than to solder the sides to the base and to the other cross pieces nearer the top plus make some modifications to the base pieces.

 

As supplied, the etch comes with a sub floor that is designed to sit about 1.3 mm above the main floor and for the first crane, I installed this as per the instructions.

 

However, from looking more closely at Julia’s photographs it appears that this sub floor only existed at the front of the crane and stopped just behind the main pillar.  In fact, the photos also suggest that the main floor did not extend past the column either, but I drew the line at removing this part of the floor as I needed something substantial to keep the sides fixed together.

 

Also, there is a slight triangular extension of both the main and sub floors at the front of the crane, between which there is a heavy ring of metal.  I’ve no real understanding as to what this did and the kit does not make any provision for it.  However, for the second crane, I thought I would try to incorporate it.  The left and centre pictures below show this feature.

 

 

I used the exiting sub floor, turning it round 180 degrees so that there was spare metal at the front and filed the triangular shape that extends beyond the front of the crane.  I retained the position of the large etched hole near the front so that I could use the pillar to help locate it.  A small bit of spare etch filed into a triangle was also added to the front of the main floor and another piece of etch, bent into a ring was soldered in between.

 

Finally, the right-hand picture above shows that there was a vertical cross piece maybe a foot or so deep at the back of the crane, right at the bottom and this was replicated with another piece of spare etch as nothing was included in the kit for it.

 

The pictures below show the crane body soldered together and incorporating the extra bits described above

 

 

The next stage will be more interesting to do as it involves adding the various wheels and gears that make the crane body so distinctive.

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[IWCR]

The "Heavy ring of metal" is a guide roller, the crane frame sits over a tapered cast iron post, this fits into the socket at the top of the frame (see middle picture).  The tapered post is fixed to the ground and dosnt rotate, the frame rotates around it.

The base of the tapered post has a flat section which forms a track for the guide roller. The visible roller will take most of the load when the crane is in use,  there will be (likely) 2 further rollers at the back of the crane frame in a similar position which stop the frame tipping in this direction, they do not take much load and would be of a smaller size.

 

Pete

[John Brenchley]

Christmas Greetings

 

Best wishes to everyone from Perth (the one down under)

 

 

Not a snow scene as its summer here in Australia and we don't get snow in Perth.

 

In fact its bright and sunny and we are heading for a high of 42C this afternoon - said to be the hottest Christmas day ever recorded in Perth (too hot for this Pom)

 

Best wishes

 

John

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, John Brenchley said:

Christmas Greetings

 

Best wishes to everyone from Perth (the one down under)

 

 

Not a snow scene as its summer here in Australia and we don't get snow in Perth.

 

In fact its bright and sunny and we are heading for a high of 42C this afternoon - said to be the hottest Christmas day ever recorded in Perth (too hot for this Pom)

 

Best wishes

 

John

Same to you John - a nice 30deg over here in the East!

[AlfaZagato]

Merry Christmas, y'all.

[queensquare]

5 hours ago, John Brenchley said:

Christmas Greetings

 

Best wishes to everyone from Perth (the one down under)

 

 

Not a snow scene as its summer here in Australia and we don't get snow in Perth.

 

In fact its bright and sunny and we are heading for a high of 42C this afternoon - said to be the hottest Christmas day ever recorded in Perth (too hot for this Pom)

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

Merry Christmas John, it’s about 4 degrees here, cold, damp and grey!

 

Jerry

 

[John Brenchley]

The Yard Crane (5)

 

The kit instructions for fitting the various gears say to start with the “rachet gear and handle”, pictured on the left below.  It is to be positioned “against inside of r/h body side, handle nearly horizontal”.

 

However, from viewing the middle picture below, I think there may have been a misunderstanding of the handle position possibly caused by a misinterpretation of the side elevation drawing.  Certainly, there appears to be a handle in line with the top of the gear, but as per the middle picture, there is actually a separate shaft just above the gear with a handle each end, but these handles are on the outsides of the crane body (one is visible with the end painted red in the picture).  To represent these handles, I drilled extra holes in the sides and added the cross shaft and simply bent each end at a right angle.

 

In her model, Julia used a proper small gear, much thicker and more suitable than an etched one. Not having anything suitable to hand myself, I made use of the etched gear, having first trimmed off the handle.  It’s really too thin, but at least serves to fill in the space and add to the general cluttered appearance inside the body.

 

The right-hand picture shows the finished effect with all the various cross shafts added plus a thin shim of brass to represent the vertical link between the two shafts.

 

 

Moving next to the left-hand side, this basically comprises a lower wheel (the brake drum) which is attached to the brake lever below it plus an upper gear wheel and housing above it (referred to as the left-hand gearbox).

 

The left-hand picture below shows how it all should look, with the top part of the brake wheel just visible behind the gear wheel.  However, the way the various etch layers are assembled causes the brake wheel to be completely hidden as can be seen in the other two pictures.

 

 

To prevent this, I cut away parts of solid cover piece to create a crescent shape to cover the bottom part of the brake wheel and a quadrant shape to go behind the right-hand side of the gear wheel.

 

The pictures below show the revised assembly.

Although I may appear to be critical of some aspects of the kit, I must also give credit to the quality of the etching – as an example, the gear wheel above can be seen to be beautifully etched.

 

The gear box on the right-hand side of the body assembles without any need for adjustment and is an excellent representation of the real components.  The multitude of rivets are of course missing but in this small scale, I’m not going to worry about them.

 

 

The final part of assembling the crane was to add pully wheels and the chain protection bracket to the jib.  The instructions suggest using wire for the bracket but from looking at Julia’s pictures it seemed as if the sides of the bracket were in fact narrow angle rather than rod – producing such small angle would be too hard but I compromised by using some narrow strips of 5 thou nickel silver with a piece of wire soldered across the top.

 

The long tie rods appeared from pictures to be flat strip so again I cut these from some 5 thou sheet rather than using the wire supplied with the kit.

 

To get the angle of the jib correct, I laid it and the base on top of a 2mm scale copy of the drawing, lining them up carefully before soldering the two together.

 

 The completed second crane is below – just needs the dreaded chain to finish it off.

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[John Brenchley]

The Yard Cranes (final)

 

So finally, the yard cranes are complete.

 

For the chains, I experimented with trying to create loops (ala Jim) but as he found, couldn't create a long enough length that didn't keep breaking.  In the end I took the simple approach and twisted two lengths of wire together.  The wire is probably older than I am as I inherited it from my father, masses of it wound round a large wooden cotton reel - some softish, I suspect mainly copper wire but with a dull purple colour coating that can be scraped off by dragging the wire through a fold of sandpaper - perhaps it was originally intended to be used for motor winding.  Its about 0.25mm thick.

 

The finished chain is a bit soft so is not easy to keep straight, but stiffer wire like phosphor bronze was a bit too springy to stay twisted.

 

The cranes were given a substantial clean up in an ultrasound tank and then sprayed with an undercoat of Tamiya grey primer and a top coat of Montana Colours MTN 94 matt spray, London Grey, leaving 24 hours between coats.

 

Weathering started after a further 24 hours with a wash of diluted dirty grey enamel and then the following day some dry brushing was done with various mixtures of grey, brown, red and maroon matt Humbrol enamels to create dirt and rust patches - trying to keep it quite subtle as I wanted the cranes to appear in reasonably good condition.

 

The chains started off with a coat of darker grey than the crane followed by dry brushed with touches of the rust colour.

 

A couple of pictures below are taken from each side of the layout with the cranes in position in the goods yard.  

 

 

 

And finally a more distant picture to include the River Tavy below the station .  In conjunction with making the water tank and yard cranes, I've gradually been moving along the embankment adding more vegetation.  Working from left to right, I've now got about half way along, following the recommendations for the various tree positions discussed in earlier posts.  One of the gaps between clumps of larger trees allows this view of the goods yard.

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[David Bigcheeseplant]

I have just picked up on this thread, fantastic work.

 

Just one thing I have picked up on is that the GWR type 5 signal boxes were generally built entirly in blue brick rather than red brick on your model. I had a look at colour photos of Tavistock and yes the box is in blue brick.

 

David

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, John Brenchley said:

The wire is probably older than I am as I inherited it from my father, masses of it wound round a large wooden cotton reel - some softish, I suspect mainly copper wire but with a dull purple colour coating that can be scraped off by dragging the wire through a fold of sandpaper - perhaps it was originally intended to be used for motor winding.  Its about 0.25mm thick.

Lovely job, John.

 

I have stacks of similar wire, my father was a physics teacher in the 1930's -early 50's!  The brown coating is varnish and the wire would indeed be for winding coils for the likes of motors or solenoids etc.

 

Jim

[John Brenchley]

4 hours ago, David Bigcheeseplant said:

I have just picked up on this thread, fantastic work.

 

Just one thing I have picked up on is that the GWR type 5 signal boxes were generally built entirly in blue brick rather than red brick on your model. I had a look at colour photos of Tavistock and yes the box is in blue brick.

 

David

Hi David

Thanks for your comments on the thread.

Yes, you are correct about the Tavistock box being made of blue brick.

I cannot recall if I had the colour pictures in GWRJ No 17 at the time I built the model signal box.  The camera I have has a tendency to enhance colours a bit too much so in reality the bricks are a bit duller than the computer screen suggests - probably more like brown brick than red brick but I agree they could probably do with a bit more purple in them.

Best wishes

John

[John Brenchley]

4 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Lovely job, John.

 

I have stacks of similar wire, my father was a physics teacher in the 1930's -early 50's!  The brown coating is varnish and the wire would indeed be for winding coils for the likes of motors or solenoids etc.

 

Jim

Thanks Jim

Its quite possible that my spool of wire goes back that far as well, though I don't know why my father had it as he wasn't into models or electronics. 

Best wishes

John

[John Brenchley]

The Footbridge

Tavistock had a fairly standard style of GWR footbridge spanning the three tracks between the up and down platforms, immediately adjacent to the station building and trainshed at the Launceston end.

 

It had open girders and supports below each side landing, wooden planked sides to waist level for the lower staircases, metal sides for the upper stairs and the walkway over the tracks plus the standard GWR corrugated iron roof.

 

Luckily, I had several useful photographs that could be used to estimate dimensions plus I also borrowed a copy of A pictorial History of Great Western Architecture from the local library, and this contained scale drawings of similar (though not identical) footbridges.

 

Some pictures of the actual bridge are below

 

 

 

The model was constructed from a mixture and nickel silver, brass and plastic.

 

The information sheet below was put together to illustrate the construction method.  2mm Association members will have seen it before at the time of the Association’s model competition but modellers from other scales who read this blog may find it more informative than a lengthy written explanation.

 

 

 

To enable easier access for track cleaning, the model can be separated into four parts – the two side staircases, the over track walkway, and the roof.  Eventually, the two sides will be glued to the platforms but for the moment, the bridge just rests on the layout.

 

A couple of pictures of the completed model taken outdoors are below plus some of it in position on the layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best wishes

 

John

 

 

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by John Brenchley

[The Great Bear]

This would be great to get this detail and accuracy in 4mm, but in 2mm - excellent modelling. The last picture is great.

[John Brenchley]

32 minutes ago, The Great Bear said:

This would be great to get this detail and accuracy in 4mm, but in 2mm - excellent modelling. The last picture is great.

Thanks Great Bear

 

I have to admit that as originally taken, that picture was rather dark.  Luckily, Photoshop has a feature to allow lightening of the shadows and darkening of highlights.

 

The camera was at the end of the baseboard, looking the whole length of the train shed.  The picture was then cropped to close in on the footbridge..

 

Other than changes to the shadows, cropping and occasionally adjustment of the white balance, I don't make any other adjustments to the pictures though my Olympus  camera does have a tendency to produce images that are a bit brighter than they should be.

 

Best wishes

 

John

[John Brenchley]

 

The embankment and the trees

 

Back in August last year I asked for help as to where it would be best to place the trees on the embankment and river bank at the front of the layout.  Readers may remember that there has to be a compromise between the actual location with its dense mass of trees and the model which has to allow for visibility of the buildings behind the trees.

 

There were lots of useful comments and bécasse kindly put together this suggestion to move trees around to create groups that were less evenly placed.

 

 

Six months later and in amongst other modelling projects, the vegetation has been completed.  Below is the finished embankment from approximately the same camera position.  I don't think I quite stuck to bécasse's suggestion though.  There are fewer clumps of trees and each group is a bit more loosely spread out.  A lot of smaller trees and bushes have been added in between and ground cover vegetation added as well.  Possibly the spacing is still a bit too even though probably less obvious as I didn't think about it till a study of the picture.

 

 

The aim has been to create "viewing windows" between the trees.  Below are some closer pictures taken through these various windows.

 

Starting off are two pictures taken through the far right hand window above the stables.

 

 

 

Moving to the left, the next window is in line with the footbridge, allowing the two pictures below.

 

 

 

Finally, two pictures taken in front of the goods yard.

 

 

 

I have two more buffer stops to install as can be seen in the above picture.

 

 

The latest little bit of modelling I have done was to put together a Langley white metal kit for a coal wagon which can be seen in in the foreground of one of the pictures above.  Being white metal, the model is a bit crude, particularly when compared with some of the magnificent carts recently added to Copenhagen Fields.  I did change it a bit as I wasn't too happy with the sharpness of the corners of the wagon base nor the sign board at the front.  I filed off the sides of the wagon and replaced them with plastic strip, also replacing the sign board with one cut from plastic and using thin wire for its supports rather than the thick white metal ones.  The name was typed up and reduced to size in Photoshop and then printed on highest quality paper on a printer at work which gave a sharper image than my cheap laser jet printer.  The names are simply glued to the plastic.

The article on Tavistock in GWRJ number 17 has the following information on coal operations at the station "Other Merchants included Thomas Bailey of West Street, Alf Butcher, Bill Fellowes, Green and Snell. Bailey had a shute at the back of the goods yard which fed supplies to his own yard below".  The low level lane at the front of the layout  (today named St Johns Ave) lead to some of the coal merchants' buildings below the coal siding at the Plymouth end of the station (to be modelled on the next baseboard) so it seemed appropriate to use the name Thomas Bailey on the cart.  I have no idea what period he operated and it may well have been post WW2 but in the absence of any other name, his was the one I chose and it seemed appropriate to site the wagon on the lane, driving away from his yard with a few sacks of coal on board. I didn't use the seated coalman that came with the kit so Mr. Bailey himself is from a box of Preiser plastic people.  He started out as a road worker with a shovel which had to be cut off and his hard hat was cut down to more the shape of a soft flat cap. Reins were added from dolls hair.

A rather cruel close up is below.  Maybe one day I'll find a better quality model, either etched or 3d printed but at the moment this one just about satisfies the 2 foot rule.

 

 

Best wishes

John

 

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by John Brenchley

[gwr517]

John,

I love the layout of trees and undergrowth. Your 

views are really effective.

Doug.

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Fantastic. Love it.

[John Brenchley]

27 minutes ago, gwr517 said:

John,

I love the layout of trees and undergrowth. Your 

views are really effective.

Doug.

 

 

26 minutes ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

Fantastic. Love it.

 

Thanks very much Doug and Matt.

 

It took quite a while and did get a bit tedious at times but it certainly changes the look of the layout.

 

Now I just need to smarten up the bushes behind the station building - repeated leaning over them has severely denuded them of leaves.

 

Best wishes

 

John

[Siberian Snooper]

The new trees and positioning are a lot closer to the prototype now, without being overbearing, great work!

 

 

[John Brenchley]

31 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

The new trees and positioning are a lot closer to the prototype now, without being overbearing, great work!

 

 

 

Thanks very much

Its good to get confirmation from someone living nearby who's familiar with the location.

[bécasse]

I suspect that your ultimate rendition of the tree and other growth along the river bank is very close to how I would have ended up had I been doing it. It both looks natural and provides good viewing windows of the railway that lies behind it.

[John Brenchley]

23 minutes ago, bécasse said:

I suspect that your ultimate rendition of the tree and other growth along the river bank is very close to how I would have ended up had I been doing it. It both looks natural and provides good viewing windows of the railway that lies behind it.

 

Thanks bécasse, much appreciated.

 

[Caley Jim]

I agree with the others, John.  Despite having no knowledge of the area, my first impression was how natural it looked.  The dead and fallen trees are a nice touch which just adds to that.

 

Jim

[brianusa]

Lovely work all round.  Many years ago, I was lucky enough to wander around the station area in its last years.  Sadly, didn't really appreciate it all then, so thanks to the quality modelling I can visualise it once more.

    Brian