RMweb Gold lezz01 Posted February 26, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 26, 2021 Nice work Steve. Regards Lez. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted February 26, 2021 Share Posted February 26, 2021 3 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said: can you order a 7th set of custom transfers? Transfers for these are on one of the Cambridge Custom Transfers sheets - most probably the ex-LNER NPCCS one, but if John happens by he might tell us. Since AFAIK there's never been a kit, I always assumed John must have built himself one at some time. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chas Levin Posted March 9, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 9, 2021 On 25/02/2021 at 12:08, 31A said: Here's a thing you don't often see modelled. The latest Great Eastern Society Journal had a picture of a BR CCT, that was converted from an ex Great Eastern Railway suburban coach. It's quite an elegant vehicle, as parcels vans go. There were two types, bogie CCTs and PMVs. They were quite short lived, the CCTs were converted in 1956-7 and withdrawn in 1962-3. Originally they were used on the Anglo Scottish Car Carrier service and some had big lettering on the sides to that effect. I unearthed this, which had been lying in a drawer for too many years: It's a few millimetres longer than the vans in question (2mm at each end - does that sound better than saying 4mm?), but the profile is just about spot on to the drawings of GE coaches in "Historic Railway Carriages". I decided to have a go at using it to make the CCT version, which naturally has end doors. The PMV version might have been less work, but I suspect they retained the curved under ends which the Grafar coach doesn't have. I didn't have any drawings to work from, but by re-scaling the BR outline drawing in Longworth I was able to get the sizes and positions of the doors. So I cut sides from 10 thou plasticard; normally I would have used thicker but I didn't want to make the coach much fatter than it already was. Droplight frames were also made form 10 thou., and holes drilled for handles etc. I then cut away bits of the donor's sides that coincided with the new windows. The seats are part of the body moulding, and had to be nibbled away in a couple of places so as not to be too obvious from the outside. Bearing in mind that they were made from thin plasticard, I stuck the sides to the body with Dl Limonene solvent which I hoped wouldn't melt and distort the outsides. I'd scribed the outlines of the doors on the ends, and then built up the end door detail from Evergreen strip, rod etc. I copied a Lima CCT for this (the doors seem to have been very similar); in fact I did consider cutting the ends out of the Lima van and inserting them into the Grafar body, but that seemed too much like extreme surgery! Door handles were made from wire and brass pins with the heads squashed, and with the body temporarily back on the underframe, it looked like this: The underframe is a modular construction in four parts, which made things easier in some ways. The bogies have the correct wheelbase and are pretty much spot on in other details, so didn't need much doing to them. They have a particularly nasty tension lock coupling moulded on one end, but the other end has mountings for a 'standard' T/L coupling, so I sawed off the integral ones and attached Bachmann short couplings at the other end (the holes needed enlarging slightly. The wheels that came with it were pretty nasty too, but a rummage uncovered enough suitably - retro Romford Jackson wheelsets (new enough to have pinpoints) which fitted nicely into the bogies and have produced a very steadily running vehicle. Underframe details were mainly guesswork based on the aforesaid drawings of different GE coaches, and photos. Some of these vans seem to have kept more of the lower stepboards than others; I decided to model them inn full as they are quite a distinctive feature. So step boards were made from etch scrap; truss rod posts from split pins and wire insulation; hand brake wheels from a 51L Models fret. On the end sections, some nice turned brass buffers (from a packet labelled Cav'ndish Models), and drawhooks. I looked in the usual places for some proper GE buffers, but the GE seems to be poorly served for coach bits. The brass ones I've used are reasonably similar, the bases should be square - if I ever find some better ones, they could be replaced. From there, it was all downhill really. Other underframe details (Battery boxes, brake gear, dynamo) were arranged as best I could guess from the photos, using various castings soldered to a metal sub base which was then glued beneath the body. The roof had all the moulded ventilators removed. Rain strips on these vans also seem to have differed; some retained the original long ones whereas others had them replaced with short ones above each doorway; I retained the long ones. The modular construction meant the different elements could be sprayed separately, which was a bonus. Transfers were HMRS Methfix, but I had to compromise a bit. The real vans were labelled CCT(E) but I had to be satisfied with CCT. The tare weight markings on the sheet are for BR standard vans so the TARE 25T is a bit of a fudge, hopefully doesn't look too bad, and the dimensions in the tiny insignia also apply to BR standard vans but are only legible under a very good magnifying glass! So there we are, something a bit different! In the lower picture the outlines of some of the original windows are visible but in reality this isn't normally obvious; some pictures of the real vans show that the new panelling wasn't always too smooth, anyway, Excellent project Steve, I agree with others that it's great to see older stock - that might not otherwise ever emerge from the drawer - converted and re-used like this and it really looks the part. I have a couple of similar ideas brewing, so this is quite inspirational... 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted March 9, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted March 9, 2021 2 hours ago, Chas Levin said: Excellent project Steve, I agree with others that it's great to see older stock - that might not otherwise ever emerge from the drawer - converted and re-used like this and it really looks the part. I have a couple of similar ideas brewing, so this is quite inspirational... Thank you, Chas! When I started measuring up the Grafar coach I was quite surprised by how well it compared with coach drawings in general, although a few millimetres short for the LMS coach that I believe it was intended to be based on. I think I originally got it with the idea of making a representation of an ex GE non gangwayed coach that had had its beading replaced with flush panelling, but as far as I know it has the wrong number of compartments for any Great Eastern coach, so I'm glad to have found a use for it after all. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandhole Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 12 hours ago, 31A said: Thank you, Chas! When I started measuring up the Grafar coach I was quite surprised by how well it compared with coach drawings in general, although a few millimetres short for the LMS coach that I believe it was intended to be based on. I think I originally got it with the idea of making a representation of an ex GE non gangwayed coach that had had its beading replaced with flush panelling, but as far as I know it has the wrong number of compartments for any Great Eastern coach, so I'm glad to have found a use for it after all. I'm of an age to remember when the Graham Farish oo coaches first came out. I had a five coach corridor set which, I'm afraid, I got rid of. I still have my four coach suburban set, now rebogied with Bachmann LMS bogies. The Farish bogies literally wore out. I didn't think I'd be able to put bearings in them. As a stand alone set, I'm very happy to run them alongside more 'scale' models I have built. They are a 'Belt and Braces' set. All of the same quality. They are part of my model railway history and I love 'em. If you look at the superb model of Liverpool Lime Street, you will find rakes of Farish suburban coaches running. They have the origional bogies that have been fitted with bearings. RESPECT. Chris. 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post 31A Posted April 2, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted April 2, 2021 A couple of recent arrivals, in the shape of two new Pacifics from Hornby! I never imagined the Thompson Pacifics would ever be produced in ready to run form, so I was amazed when Hornby announced the A2/2 and A2/3 models, and was not disappointed. These have to be the best Hornby locos I've seen; the amount of detail and in particular the rendition of the valve gear and motion lifts them to another level in my view. I know some have had issues with build quality, and indeed mine needed a few slight 'rectifications' but nothing I couldn't take care of. I chose to add 'proper' lamp irons to the tenders so that I could hang lamps on them, although in reality only 'bottom middle' is likely to be used (for 'Light Engine') as they have no (usable) couplings on the front. The biggest issue for me was the very pale shade of green that Hornby have used for these locos. Luckily, both were New England engines at the time of my layout, a depot that wasn't known for being able to keep its engines spotless, so some heavy weathering has rendered the green more acceptable. So here are 60505 and 60523 posing for the camera in the loco yard: At the other end of the scale, I've been reading David Larkin's recent book about ex Private Owner 12 mineral wagons that passed into BR stock, and was inspired to dig out one of the few Bachmann wooden mineral wagons and have a go at it. This was in Gloucester RC&W livery; it isn't in the book and I couldn't find out any other information about it in other books that I have, so beyond the fact that it says '12 Tons" on the side, I don't know much about it. It was a Bachmann Collectors Club item a few years ago - don't tell any collectors! Anyway, it probably isn't 'collectable' any longer. The number was chosen at random from a Modelmasters transfer sheet. 25 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold lezz01 Posted April 2, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2021 That valve gear is really nice isn't it Steve? Lovely weathering mate. Once again I find myself feeling jealous of you weathering skills! Those Thompsons look really lived in! Regards Lez. 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted April 2, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 2, 2021 11 minutes ago, lezz01 said: That valve gear is really nice isn't it Steve? Lovely weathering mate. Once again I find myself feeling jealous of you weathering skills! Those Thompsons look really lived in! Regards Lez. Thank you Lez, glad you like it! Yes, the valve gear is a huge improvement on the earlier LNER engines I've got. I don't think I appreciated all the detail until I started doing the weathering, and it makes it easier to see once it's done. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post 31A Posted May 6, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted May 6, 2021 No updates for a little while; I've been having a blitz on ground signals. I needed four to cover the main shunting moves, and two more for the goods yard sidings which I may come to later. I'd made some LNER type 'upper quadrant' discs for a previous layout, using the Model Signal Engineering kits, but I'd only managed to make the discs rotate but not get the weight bars to go up and down. On this layout, the signals will usually be viewed from the side, or behind, so I wanted to make the weight bars move. Also, I thought the MSE white metal 'stems' might be a bit vulnerable to track cleaning rubbers etc., so I thought I'd try and make something a bit more robust. As well as the MSE kits, I referred to the drawings and article in "Model Railways" magazine, April 1972 which also covers the making of some very detailed models of these signals. I decided to make one as a 'prototype' and then do a batch of three mass production style, to get the batch of four done in one hit, or almost. On the real signals, the stem is made from 6" x 3" steel channel. I didn't find anything suitable to make this from, so I filed down some 2mm x 2mm U section brass channel from Eileen's Emporium to make 2mm x 1mm. The spindle for the disc passes through the top of the flanges of the channel section (there isn't really a tubular bearing, as depicted by the kit). The bracket for the lamp is made from a bit of 2mm x 2mm T-section brass angle, again from Eileen's. The spindle for the weight bar is a piece of wire soldered at right angles to the stem; there should really be another T-section piece above this, to form the bearing for the weight bar, but I thought that would be pushing the 'fiddlyness' a bit too far; however more of that later. So here is the stem for the prototype model. The actual base is a piece of 2mm x 4mm brass strip; the nearer hole (countersunk) is for the 10BA fixing bolt, and the operating rod will come up through the other hole. The "cosmetic" base is a piece of brass 4mm square, with a hole in the middle for the stem to pass through. The holes for the disc spindle are very close to the edge of the flanges of the brass channel, so I've soldered some etched washers to the outer sides to make a bit of a better bearing. The weight bar is two etches sweated together to double up the thickness, for robustness and for the same reason I soldered an etched washer over the bearing hole in the bar. The etched washers are from the ever useful MSE Signal Post Fittings set. Then going on to the mass production of the remaining three signals, the picture below shows two 'stems' finished, with an MSE whitemetal one beside for comparison. The left hand one doesn't really have quite enough of the stem below the "cosmetic" base to allow for the thickness of the cork underlay plus representation of the fixing timbers, so I had to put some packing under that one when I came to plant it. Below is the piece of brass channel in the process of being filed out to make the stem of the third one, with the bearing holes already drilled in it. To the left are some "cosmetic" bases filed out of a strip of brass. Next shows parts for three of the signals. In order to double up the weight bars, I've re-used some of the etches from the old signals, and also re-used the lamps from those signals. So far so good, but then came the backlight blinder etches. These need a (relatively!) large hole to go over the disc spindle and a small hole for the link to the weight bar. There is a dimple etched for this hole, on a lug at the very corner of the piece. Despite being as careful as I could, I had about a 50% success rate at drilling this hole out. So I did what I probably should have done in the first place, and soldered a strip of etch scrap (N/S as it happened) across the back of the blinder etch, and drilled both holes through that then filed it back to the shape of the etched part. So now I was able to start putting them together. The link between the weight bar and the backlight blinder is a piece of 0.3mm brass wire. I needed something to keep the weight bar on its pivot, so I drilled a hole in the end of the same piece of N/S strip that I'd used earlier, cut it off and bent the end through 90 degrees so that it lay within the 'web' of the channel section. So now there was a representation of the bearing, after all! Here are the three finished and painted. The one on the right doesn't really lean over - the camera lies! So then I turned to making them work, and making the underground gubbins to allow them to do so. This is similar to how I operate semaphore signals; a bracket cut from a piece of 15mm x 14mm aluminium angle and a crank made from brass and scrap rail. The bracket has four holes in it (all different sizes), along the top tapped 10 BA for the fixing screw that passes through the signal's base, 4mm dia. to clear the operating link, and tapped 8 BA for the other fixing screw. On the other side, tapped 6 BA for the crank's spindle. The crank has a 6 BA nut soldered to it. The weight is 3 layers of sheet lead 10mm x 10mm, soldered to an arm from scrap rail. The top of the vertical arm rests against the angle when 'on' to form a stop, and the 'off' stop is the outer end of the crank resting against the angle when 'pulled' (the crank pushes for 'off'). The signals were set up on a piece of plywood before being planted on the layout. The link from the crank to the signal ends in a loop, which is clenched over the weight bar and pushes it up and down. The crank is connected to the lever frame by braided fishing line attached by a hook to the hole in the vertical arm, and incorporating a spring (old Biro) somewhere in the run to allow for a bit of 'over pull'. So here are three of the signals in place on the layout. I'll leave them like that for a while just in case anything goes wrong, then 'plant' them properly later. If you've got this far, well done and here are a couple of little videos to watch: https://youtu.be/u4lNzTTlEvc https://youtu.be/46juStGwUD4 14 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold lezz01 Posted May 6, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 6, 2021 Very nice Steve. I do like a working ground signal mate. Regards Lez. 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted May 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 7, 2021 Just magic Steve. Love the 'bounce' too. A work of intense concentration I bet. P 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted May 7, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 7, 2021 42 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said: Just magic Steve. Love the 'bounce' too. A work of intense concentration I bet. P Thank you, Phil! I'm afraid some "non RMWeb" language was used at times!! 2 2 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chas Levin Posted May 8, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 8, 2021 Excellent work Steve, they look terrific! Ground signals are on my to-do list so this was very interesting... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post LNER4479 Posted July 7, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) Very enjoyable afternoon playing ... er ... operating trains at Finsbury Square. Great terminal station to operate, with lotsa luvly semaphores controlling the movements So engrossed was I that I nearly forgot to take any pictures at all ... However, when this apparent chance encounter happened it was too good to miss. A4s '3 and '13 meet. A little while later, '13 backs away to shed as an N2 departs with a ubiquitous suburban working. Lots of lovely buildings and all round railway atmosphere. And not forgetting the ground signals. Very impressed with the simple but effective weights to give a satisfying clunk-thud to accompany their operation. And not a milli-volt in sight! I think Steve and Peter Denny would have got on rather well. Edited July 7, 2021 by LNER4479 21 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted July 7, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 7, 2021 17 minutes ago, LNER4479 said: Very enjoyable afternoon playing ... er ... operating trains at Finsbury Square. I think your post has shown me more of Finsbury Square than I have been able to see in one place before. It all looks magnificent. I have to conclude that 31A, with his very selective photography, is actually rather modest about just how good the whole layout truly is. No need - this is mustard! 1 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted July 7, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7, 2021 27 minutes ago, LNER4479 said: Very enjoyable afternoon playing ... er ... operating trains at Finsbury Square. Lots of lovely buildings and all round atmosphere. And not forgetting the ground signals. Very impressed with the simple but effective weights to give a satisfying clunk-thud to accompany their operation. And not a milli-volt in sight! I think Steve and Peter Denny would have got on rather well. Thanks for coming over, Graham - it was great to have someone else to operate ... er ... play with the layout, the time seemed to go really quickly. Glad you enjoyed running it! Thanks for putting the pics up, too. 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted July 7, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7, 2021 8 minutes ago, Oldddudders said: I think your post has shown me more of Finsbury Square than I have been able to see in one place before. It all looks magnificent. I have to conclude that 31A, with his very selective photography, is actually rather modest about just how good the whole layout truly is. No need - this is mustard! Thank you for those kind words! I think I crop the pictures that I take quite drastically to cut out unwanted background stuff. Also I tend to take photos by putting the camera / phone down on the baseboard in the absence of a tripod, particularly as the lighting isn't very good and long exposures are called for. Graham's hand held ones have come out very well, though! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted July 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7, 2021 The newish CLS's look really good Steve. I can't remember seeing A4s in the sequence before. Excellent. P 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post 31A Posted July 30, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 30, 2021 Modelling has been a bit slow lately and what there's been has mainly been making brass coaches for other people. Anyway by way of some light relief, I thought I'd make a Ratio GWR Open High kit. It must be about 40 years since I made one of these and I'd forgotten what a good kit it is; this must be one wagon kit that it's impossible to put together unsquare! But as usual, I couldn't resist a few tweaks. I've recently taken to replacing plastic brake levers with the nice etched bits from Wizard Models under the 51L banner. I think metal ones look better than plastic (although the Ratio ones aren't bad), and are also stronger. So I've used the 51L parts for the brake levers, brake lever racks and V hangers. As the GWR used a ratchet type brake lever rack I filled the etched holes for the pin down type with solder, but couldn't think of a way to represent the actual ratchet. I kept the plastic brake shoe / push rod mouldings from the kit, but replaced the safety loops with brass ones from the same etch. A piece which most kits omit, and so did I until recently is the stay that ties the bottom of the brake lever rack to the axleguard. It's fiddly to do, but as well as looking better it seems to make the whole thing a lot more robust. I drilled a hole in the end of a piece of strip and soldered a peg of 0.45mm wire into it; this goes into a hole drilled in the axleguard. The strip is then bent so that it sits behind the bottom of the brake lever rack. Then taking a sharp intake of breath and with the steadiest hands possible, very quickly soldered to the back of the lever rack. Holding it with tweezers between the rack and the peg helps provide a bit of a heat sink, but you don't want to hang around with the iron! Then finally cut off the strip flush with the edge of the brake lever rack. The Ratio buffers always seem a bit flimsy, so I got some suitable metal replacements from Lanarkshire Model Supplies. The holes in the headstocks need to be opened out to take these and there isn't much 'meat' below the buffers so I was aiming for a push fit; unfortunately one of them needed a bit too much 'push' and I managed to snap off the buffer head whilst pushing! Despite rummaging around in my Stores (and bearing in mind that wagons with odd buffers weren't unheard of) I couldn't find a suitable replacement but I did find a packet with four steel buffer heads in. So I snapped the heads off the other three buffers, and drilled them all out to take the steel heads. I wouldn't normally have bothered, but I think they do look better for it. I replaced the plastic 'door bangers' with ones made from 1mm brass strip, bent to sit in the web of the solebars and at the top to pass through a hole in the solebars, to make a strong fixing with glue on the inside. The drawhooks are also metal, this time from an Ambis fret as it happens. Here's a couple of pictures of the unpainted model, showing all the additions. The buffer nearest the camera in the second picture got sorted out later! I painted the wagon with a Humbrol No. 64 from a rattle can, then picked out random planks in different shades of grey and weathered over that. The inside was painted similarly but first painted with a base coat of 'wood colour' mixed up from Humbrol 29 / 121/ 67. The kit was a new Peco / Parkside one that includes transfers, but unfortunately only for GWR livery; luckily I found a suitable number for this kind of wagon on a Model Masters sheet. So here's the finished thing; a nice simple project spread over a few days. And a gratuitous extra shot taken in the Loco Yard, just because the Peco Bull Head rail looks so much better than the old FB Streamline! 20 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted July 30, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 30, 2021 Classic bit of wagon work Steve. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold lezz01 Posted July 30, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 30, 2021 Very nice Steve. Lovely paint job mate. Regards Lez. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chas Levin Posted July 31, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 31, 2021 Lovely job! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzer Posted July 31, 2021 Share Posted July 31, 2021 I can’t think what adjective would describe this layout. Words like superb, excellent, and breathtaking seem inadequate. It really is , too my mind one of the most outstanding layouts I’ve ever seen . 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 31A Posted August 1, 2021 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted August 1, 2021 On 31/07/2021 at 21:34, Chas Levin said: Lovely job! On 31/07/2021 at 21:47, jazzer said: I can’t think what adjective would describe this layout. Words like superb, excellent, and breathtaking seem inadequate. It really is , too my mind one of the most outstanding layouts I’ve ever seen . Thanks both for those kind words! I didn't think it was really that special myself, but glad people seem to like it! 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted August 2, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 2, 2021 13 hours ago, 31A said: Thanks both for those kind words! I didn't think it was really that special myself, but glad people seem to like it! It is small things such as this that makes the hobby such fun to do and watch Steve. 4 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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