Adventures In Worldbuilding

[Player of trains]

It's that time of year where I make a thread again to start properly posting modelling in and try not to abandon. Hi I'm Alec and I've made a few threads before but I'm determined to keep this one going properly, like my name the previous threads are a visit to a much younger person who really didn't know what they were doing!

 

The setting for my railways is the Island of Tumm, a fictional Crown Dependency and later republic in the North Sea set where Dogger Bank exists. I had set up a thread for the island in the Pre-Grouping modelling forum but the island has had such a significant remodelling and rewrite I think its easier to start over and with a far more general thread. The island has a mix of standard and narrower gauges and even historically broad gauge although this was all lifted by the 1890s aside from in an industrial capacity.

 

Much of the economy is centred around gas and oil production with a healthy coal and peat extraction business. Plenty of intercity/town passenger workings as well as holiday traffic, as well as agricultural, general goods and specialised traffic like chemicals. 

 

 

 

Most of my models are a variety or kitbashes or modified models but I'm trying to work towards fully printing completely freelance or off the shelf builders designs rather than directly kitbashing existing models and falling into a trap of not making a cohesive looking fleet and just locos from anywhere and everywhere with different safety valves put on them!

 

And to start off the thread, directly flying in the face of all that is my current project rebuilding a Hornby J15 into a semi-generic 0-6-0 goods loco for the Chevrilshire & South Coast Railway with a distinctly Drummond like flair, the loco is almost finished aside from numbering, the most glaring thing is needing to fill the hole in the front of the running board where I popped the frame extension out of when dismantling the loco.

 

 

The new fittings were designed in my usual method of tinkercad and printed on my Photon Mono the new smokebox door and wing plate was the last thing made for this model, originally I just glued on a wheel dart seen in the top corner as well as a sandbox that was canned as well.

 

 

New footsteps were also printed after managing to loose all but one of the originals but I think it works towards helping loose the GER basis. Said GER heritage is why I decided the wheel dart didn't work and I fully removed and replaced the smokebox door.

 

 

 

This photo shows the fitted out loco and with the test print for the new tender, The Wordsell tender is too distinctive and needed replacing,  @Corbs has several of these tenders if you'd like to check out their thread to see some excellent examples of them painted up. It's a generic victorian tender but with a slight lean towards Beyer Peacock practices, this loco is intended to have been built on island at the company works in the town of Tetre but the company has several beyer products on the books, the intention being that they just copied the existing tender. Said tender was a little gunky as it was printed in solvent washable resin and I had to just rinse it with water so a proper one is being printed when new water washable resin arrives tomorrow.

 

 

For now though the loco is nearly done and is mostly in the original BR black but touched up with citadel Abbadon black and brass bits and pieces like the dome.

 

 

The crew are Andrew Stadden figures, made from the Edwardian Enginemen pack and I am genuinely pleased with how well I've managed to paint them (at least by my standards)  these figures are very detailed and I cannot recommend them enough. 

 

Next up a quick project to fit in around the last week of university, I recently picked up though a friend in Canada this gorgeous brass kit of a hand crane. Its a Trax kit, an Australian company, made for them by KM models in Korea and somehow ended up in Canada and now here with me in the West Mids. The kit itself is a model of a Cowan's and Sheldon 10 ton hand crane of which one is preserved in Australia having been used on the Sydney and Panmetta railway nicknamed the Hernia! Being Australian it is HO scale but the buffer height works fine with my existing models and if nothing else serves to make it even cuter.

 

 

It is in need of some basic repair, the brake rigging on the match wagon needs a piece refitting, the jib rest seems to have been soldered on broken off and poorly superglued back on then broken off again so that needs tidying up. The counterweight needs the guide frame fixing and the crane itself needs the frames fixing with a new screw otherwise the wheels will keep dropping out. 

 

 

 

None the less it is fully posable with all the gearing and winch assembly working flawlessly, it borders on miniature engineering. The most obvious absence is the handle for the winch and a few other details like coupling hooks. Livery wise I'm just planning a basic black with white highlights on the jib where needed, I'd love to detail this too, sleepers and tools stacked on the match wagon which will be a very fun job to CAD up and print. 

 

Cheers for taking a look and there's a real backlog to post so watch this space. 

[Player of trains]

Bit of an update on the 0-6-0, fully lined now but setbacks because my cat decided to bat it off the window sill means it's without a roof again. 

 

 

None the less I'm very happy with it, just need to finish off some plates for it, number and works plates but I'm still debating if it I want to give it a name or not being a lowly goods engine. 

 

 

 

 

The lining is by Corbs and I'm not the greatest with microsol and set but its better than my first attempt and the film will be less noticeable once its weathered and dulled down. 

 

On a slightly more narrow gauge note I've been busy rebuilding and repainting a Bachmann double fairlie, brand new printed cab and chimneys and the yellow I use for my narrow gauge locos. 

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to my Heljan Wardle (which at the same time has been mauled, depending on perspective, with buffers).

 

 

The yellow I use is Rover Inca Yellow in rattle cans from Halfords, I promise its not as sickly and bright as it appears in photographs. 

 

 

It also got its bufferbeams at this point I'm planning to run the railway Campbelltown style with both sprung buffers and chopper couplings for mostly working with colliery stock which I've been busy adding dumb buffer blocks too.

 

 

 

The lining is HMRS LNER loco lining which I think goes very well with the yellow paint, I have long ran out of corners but I actually prefer the right angles now I've lined the loco.

 

 

 

 

The nameplates and Fairlies patents plates are also printed, number plates are not happening until I know where the engine will properly sit on the company roster but will probably be No.8, I've got some whitemetal crew figures but I'm likely going to purchase a set of figures from Modelu intended for the Fairlies https://www.modelu3d.co.uk/product/11200/ . It might be a bit mad to rebuild a fairlie in this way but I'm very very chuffed with the final result and can't wait to keep at this into the new year.

 

[OliverRowley]

Wow sounds great! 

Loving the rebuilds, they look wonderful!

 

Any chance of seeing any other members of the fleet?

 

Ol

[Player of trains]

Thanks! I've not got a huge amount built in the way of other locos for the Island, at least not in OO. I recently treated myself to a Bachmann Baldwin which I'm finishing up like Unicorn and just finished lining it yesterday. Now just waiting on some suitable light to photograph it in.

[Player of trains]

And here that Baldwin is! I managed to find a cheapish 542 for this project as I was never bothered about the working headlamp more getting a black one to repaint as it would be a shame to repaint a more elaborate livery like 540 or Sid.

 

 

The poor thing found itself swiftly dismantled and all laid bare for painting.

 

 

The rear cab extension is printed and just glued to the bunker.

 

 

It's been a relatively simple repaint in the same livery as my fairlie Unicorn with yellow cab and tanks and leaving the boiler black.

 

 

The rods got a coat of red which I think really helps them pop out compared to the tanks and the black wheels.

 

 

The buffer beams are more of an experiment, they're printed and fit onto the existing buffer beams and over the 009 coupler, rather than paint them all red I decided to see what varnished timber would look like with only the shanks painted red. The varnish effect was done in the same way I've done it on the teak coaches that make up my passenger fleet. I like to think the little people that populate the layout borrowed a few lengths of spare teak from the carriage shed to fit the bufferbeams to the baldwin.

 

 

 

The Lining has been done the same as on Unicorn and was far more irritating and time consuming... you can probably see in the photos that some of it is peeling or not properly stuck and I'm doing my best to flatten that with microsol and set. The fireiron hooks have been improvised from some spare coupling hooks from a Dapol pug kit (does this make it a pugbash?), I suppose they're a bit heavy duty but they'll be loaded quite heavily when I get around to it as the Baldwin is going to be the railway's banker at the Cavalier's Stand bank and as such it'll have all sorts of useful gismos and bits and bobs stashed on the engine as well as its irons. Chain, a pick, deck chairs, the essentials.

 

I hope this repaint isn't too egregious like the Fairlie and I do wish I had better lighting in my home, my house faces north south which is why I'm always chasing the best light or under harsh LEDs, never a good spot. 

[OliverRowley]

Looks brilliant! Amazing what a new pair of buffer beams and a few extra details could do to change the look of a model!