Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Knuckles]

Looking pretty.

I don't know if you have finished this yet as sand pipes, guard irons, whistles et al could be added, plus you may have further plans but thankyou for doing such a neat job.

 

PM your way...

 

EDIT: For others the latest pic is on page previous.

Edited May 19, 2016 by Knuckles

[Nile]

There's still more to be done, next is a way of connecting the loco to the tender. I made a coupling from some 0.9mm brass rod, it is stuck into the chassis just below the back of the cab and locates behind the front of the tender. To reduce slack to a minimum while maintaining a useful gap I made a buffer for the front of the tender from some bits of plastic. The gap is bridged by a fall plate made from some checker plate (Shawplan) with a thin brass rod soldered along one edge. This rod is long enough to locate behind the cab handrails, there are two bits of rod either side of the fall plate to keep it central.

 

The fall plate can lift up, it can also fall out if inverted.

 

 

The buffer is easier to see after painting it black.

 

 

This is how it works, without the fall plate in place.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Must admit with the amount of scratch built fall plates I have made out of plastic card and real card I never thought of the obvious in making one that actually functions...and so easy to do too.

 

Great job. I didn't make one for my initial builds but think I will now.

[Nile]

When I built the tender several years ago I didn't add any brake gear (Ratio doesn't include any). I've now fixed that using plastic brake shoes from Gibson plus some plastic and brass rods.

 

The pull rods aren't glued or soldered in place, so can be removed to allow the wheels to be extracted. The paint should stop them moving about.

 

At the back I've added plastic guard irons, a brake pipe and coupling. It should be a screw coupling but I'm keeping them for loco fronts where they can actually be seen.

 

 

Real coal was added not just to the top but also the coal hole, and some dust below that.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Not much progress since last time, I've added a reverser lever made from some scrap brass (leftovers from a kit). I took the opportunity to take some photos of the loco and tender together.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

I didn't know Alan Gibson made stand alone brake shoes. Nice job on the brake mods for the tender.

 

Loco is looking beautiful.

 

Other than maybe sandpipes and a whistle what is there left to do? It's looking pretty finished already.

Edited May 30, 2016 by Knuckles

[Nile]

Rather than make new coupling rods I've tried to improve the look of the existing ones. I've filed down the end bosses to match the washers.

 

 

This was the result. The screw heads could do with improving.

 

 

Sandpipe made from brass rod. I couldn't get it to work going behind the brakeshoe so it goes round the outside of it.

 

 

I then took the opportunity to take a photo of it on Wyndal along with a coach.

 

Not bad but there was still more to do.

For the whistle I've used a printed part (in FXD) from the same shop as the loco.

 

 

I took another look at those 10BA screws on the wheels. The heads were too thick, and they looked just like screw heads rather than bolts. To improve things I filed down the head to remove the slot, then filed the round head into a hexagon. The screw was held in a pin vice while doing this, the end of which has 6 sides.

 

 

To improve the operation of the coupling rods I soldered the washers onto the end bosses.

 

This should increase its strength and reduce wear around the holes.

 

This is the view with the bits back in place.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Londontram]

Sorry Neil I've only just caught up with this thread, once again a most excellent job with another lovely loco at the end of it. Steve

[Nile]

I'll return to this loco later with some better photos. Meanwhile it's time for

A Wagon Interlude.

 

I bought this Ian Kirk kit for a LMS bolster wagon from RMweb Buy&Sell some time ago, an old but useful kit.

The kit was in good condition, the only issue I had was that the floor was a bit bowed. My attempt to straighten it resulted in it breaking into five pieces, the plastic was a bit brittle. I was able to stick all the pieces back together straight with the aid of the solebars. The joins are just visible in this photo.

 

 

With the sides and ends in place everything is still square.

 

 

On the underside some bodging is needed. The brake gear parts are symmetrical, which is wrong. This was often the case with old kits as it was easier/cheaper. Here I've fitted one of the brake shoe parts the wrong way round to make them handed. This isn't ideal as the brake shoe detail is only on one side of the part, but will have to do.

 

 

One brake lever needs a cam mechanism added, I used a small bit of plastic rod for that just below the end of the lever.

 

This may not be correct for this wagon, but prototype photos have proved to be scarce. So less wrong than the kit rather than correct.

 

The lashing rings on the ends of the bolsters were made up from the supplied plastic rod. Brass rod would probably have been easier to use but I wanted to use the parts from the kit, or at least try to.

 

 

Underneath I added some bits of lead for weight, and some Kadee no.26 couplers.

 

 

Painted in BR livery with some old but still usable Woodhead transfers. The numbers may not be correct but are close enough for me.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Looks a winner to me. Liking the wood effect.

[Nile]

After that wagon interlude what I really need is more coaches. I'm doing some RTR conversions in my other workbench topic, here I'm going to use some Ratio kits.

For suburban trains I find the Ratio 4 wheel coaches ideal. The starting point here is a mixture of some I built years ago, some partly built ones I bought second hand, and some new kits. The ones I built years ago only need a new top coat of paint and some transfers. The partly built ones were mostly in good condition but had a few small parts missing. The photos below show a rebuilt coach next to a new build one.

One of the rebuilds didn't have the underframe parts, so I had to make replacements. For the brake shoes I used leftover Brassmasters parts glued to plastic blocks.

 

 

They were a bit vulnerable until I added the rods.

 

 

For the gas tank I found that a spare mains fuse was just the right size, here glued to another block of plastic. It should look ok when painted black.

 

 

I made a brake cylinder from bits and pieces, the blue came from an old pen barrel.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

I think we better rename you King Pragmatic.

 

Very good use of cheap household junk in a convincing way. 

[Nile]

The coaches I built long ago have interiors made from Ratio seating parts. The rest needed seats and partitions, for these I've used 3D printed parts like those I used in the Triang coaches. Here they are painted and glued into a third class coach.

 

 

As before I've used HMRS transfers meant for LTSR coaches. You can't actually make out the lettering on the crest so I think it looks ok.

 

 

For those missing the vacuum pipes I've used LNWR ones from Wizard/51L. The coupling is the Roxey one I've used before, but this time with the shorter centre link.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Coaches are gorgeous in blue. Rarely seen.

 

I think I'll definetly be doing seats for my next ones.

 

Also being blue are they loosely Furness based for your fictional theme?

Edited June 23, 2016 by Knuckles

[D3489gibson]

The coaches look fantastic fella! Nice job!

[Nile]

Also being blue are they loosely Furness based for your fictional theme?

 

I ended up recreating the Furness livery quite by accident. All I can say is great minds think alike!

[Nile]

And now for some photos of the finished coaches.

This brake third was one I built years ago which is why it has Kadee couplings. I'm in no hurry to remove them.

 

 

This one was partly built.

 

 

Two third class coaches, one was partly built and the other from a new kit.

 

 

 

 

And finally the first class coach. This is the other old coach that I had already repainted.

 

On the other side is the 'main line' livery which some suburban stock was repainted into post war.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

This is what they look like when they are all put together into a train.

 

 

A closer view of the thirds in front of Wyndal signal box.

 

 

Did I say they were finished? Well not quite, following on from work on my other coaches I decided to add steam heat pipes.  I used some copper wire that I happen to have lots of for these.

 

 

 

And that should be it, unless I think of something else to add. And I've still got those Midland coaches to finish off (coming soon).

But before then, another detour...

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

And now for something completely different. I started this Nonneminstre Models kit of a Hudson-Hunslet 2ft gauge loco a few years ago, mainly because it's one I've actually driven. It's designed to go on a Tenshodo spud chassis but I built it as a static display model by making a copy of the spud from plastic card. Having recently developed an interest in 7mm scale I thought I would have a go at motorizing it, but not using a spud as I want it to be 14mm gauge. This is what it looked like after I had removed the 'dummy spud' and control stand.

 

 

Without the spud there is a big hole in the cab floor, so this had to be filled with some plastic card.

 

 

There are some reinforcing pieces on the underside.

 

As I couldn't see any way to reduce the gauge of a spud without wrecking it (plus I think the spud isn't very good) I came up with another solution using parts from a Halling chassis. More on that next time.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

I worked out a way of powering this loco using the wheels and gears from a Halling chassis and a Mashima 1015 motor. The motor needs to be mounted on the underside of the black plastic, to do this I made a mount from bits and pieces. The base is nickel silver, to this are soldered two straps of brass.

 

 

This is the 1015 motor in its mount with the Halling gears.

 

The ends of the straps were tack soldered to secure the motor. It should be possible to undo this if I ever need to remove the motor.

Here it is in place under the loco. There isn't much clearance for the flywheel.

 

 

To hold the wheels I made these from 40thou plastic card.

 

 

This is how it all goes together.

 

The wheels have been re-gauged from 16.5 to 14 mm and some spacers added each side of the gears to limit sideways movement

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Knuckles]

Pretty cool. I've used the same motor mount technique before to good effect. A little more bodgy is to use a styrene belt and glue it, that sedms effective too.

 

The speed at which you go through your projects is impressive.

 

Also that is one odd looking flywheel although it seems a good hybrid with the gears.

[DLT]

Once you try narrow gauge, there's not going back.....

[Nile]

To get this thing moving it needs some wires. These came off a redundant DCC wiring harness.

 

 

It also needs pick-ups, made from some PCB strip and phosphor bronze rod.

 

 

The motor mount was then glued to the underside, and the pick-ups fitted.

 

 

The right way up on my test track,

 

on which it ran succesfully.

One problem I found was with the pick-up block. originally held in place with double sided sticky tape the turning force from the pick-ups was too great and it worked loose. The solution was to glue it in place on the motor, not ideal but it will have to do.

After that I painted the visible bits black.

 

 

Now to finish off the body.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

This is the control column I'd removed at the start of this rebuild. The throttle and clutch levers are held on by brass rod pins and can move.

 

I repainted the throttle lever black before refitting the unit back in to the loco. The end of the lever attaches to a rod from the engine.

After that I added the handrails.

 

 

The prototype has a tall vertical exhaust. To make this I used - some brass rod bent 90 degrees, brass tube for the top, two bits of plastic tube for the middle, one inside the other, and some washers for the ends of this middle section.

 

 

After putting all that together I got a bit carried away and made the flappy cover thing for the end, using some phosphor bronze strip and a tiny disc of plastic.

 

 

Painted black it was stuck into the hole in the side of the engine.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Nile

[sej]

A gorgeous bit of work Neil, love the flappy cover thing!

 

Cheers

Simon