Sheffield Exchange, Toy trains, music and fun!

[Sandhole]

On 20/01/2022 at 13:43, cheesysmith said:

 

 

I must find something less boring to watch

The BIG one that wasn't preserved!
One of my favourite Diesel locos.
I'm sad, I have three different variations of the Heljan model.
My Q Kits Falcon, which was finished by my Dear Friend Coachbogie, now, has pride of place in retirement.
chris.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

I have two Falcons, one in early livery which is a Silver Fox kit on Lima 31 bogies and the other is in its BR green livery, just some scraps of plastic card and Tri-ang Type 2 bogies. I might get a Heljan blue one to run on the Pig.

 

[cheesysmith]

But have you got the Pullman cars to go behind it for the master cutler?

 

In other news, I am thinking of changing my tag to COVID kid.

 

Yes, got it again. Love having kids of school age. You are guaranteed to catch anything going round.

 

Other than the stiff knees, which might be me, it is like a bad cold with a nasty headache. And you end up sweating more than Gary glitter in Mothercare.

 

The only sympathy I need is the fact I cannot use this enforced absence from work to model. I am stuck in bed keeping warm.

[Clive Mortimore]

6 hours ago, cheesysmith said:

But have you got the Pullman cars to go behind it for the master cutler?

 

In other news, I am thinking of changing my tag to COVID kid.

 

Yes, got it again. Love having kids of school age. You are guaranteed to catch anything going round.

 

Other than the stiff knees, which might be me, it is like a bad cold with a nasty headache. And you end up sweating more than Gary glitter in Mothercare.

 

The only sympathy I need is the fact I cannot use this enforced absence from work to model. I am stuck in bed keeping warm.

Yes to Pullmans.

 

Oh poo!! on the Covid front.

[Andrew P]

14 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I have two Falcons, one in early livery which is a Silver Fox kit on Lima 31 bogies and the other is in its BR green livery, just some scraps of plastic card and Tri-ang Type 2 bogies. I might get a Heljan blue one to run on the Pig.

 

I notice that your request to borrow my Ballasting device and Grass Flocking machine has gone astray.

If you would like to re submit it, with an enclosed FEE, I will get my Man Servant to deliver it to you.

[cheesysmith]

Forget the ballasting. I think we need some paint on his chop shop bodying. I volunteer some BR blue. Got to love BR in the 70s. If it belonged to BR it got painted blue. now the companies cannot even have a set livery and regularly "rebrand" themselves (thinking first and stagecoach ).

[Clive Mortimore]

31 minutes ago, cheesysmith said:

Forget the ballasting. I think we need some paint on his chop shop bodying. I volunteer some BR blue. Got to love BR in the 70s. If it belonged to BR it got painted blue. now the companies cannot even have a set livery and regularly "rebrand" themselves (thinking first and stagecoach ).

BR blue, you mean ICI blue.

 

Blue is one of the least stable paint colours and use to fade very quickly. In the early 60s ICI was able to manufacture a blue that faded a lot slower. The chairman of ICI was a bloke called Dr Richard Beeching. Soon afterwards Dr Beeching became chairman of BR and his role was to reshape BR which included the corporate image. It might be just coincidental that BR adopted the same blue that ICI had started to paint its wagons.  

[Clive Mortimore]

42 minutes ago, cheesysmith said:

Forget the ballasting. I think we need some paint on his chop shop bodying. I volunteer some BR blue. Got to love BR in the 70s. If it belonged to BR it got painted blue. now the companies cannot even have a set livery and regularly "rebrand" themselves (thinking first and stagecoach ).

Part 2. Cheesy did you travel regularly then? Not sure if my frequent journeys made me fall in love with BR. 18th birthday, I was heading home to have a drink with my old school mates. I spent a couple of hours watching an 08 shuffling Derby class 127s at Cricklewood from the broken down train. Arrived in Bedford in time for one beer before taking my drunk brother home....he had a great night with my mates.

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Andrew P said:

I notice that your request to borrow my Ballasting device and Grass Flocking machine has gone astray.

If you would like to re submit it, with an enclosed FEE, I will get my Man Servant to deliver it to you.

All in good time. Layout will be finished by 2028.

[Andrew P]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

All in good time. Layout will be finished by 2028.

Cheers Clive, I'll book the Train Ticket and a Hotel, do you have an actual Month or day in mind?

[Clive Mortimore]

23 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Cheers Clive, I'll book the Train Ticket and a Hotel, do you have an actual Month or day in mind?

January, 10 years after the first train ran on Sheff Ex.

[Clive Mortimore]

On 24/12/2021 at 11:50, John Tomlinson said:

 

I'm very interested to see how you've done these, as when I looked at mine none of the proportions seemed to work!

 

Maybe I'm just thick, and will dig out the coaches again to understand what you've done, as these 65ft. jobs are just what I was hoping to make.

 

The new Hornby Gresleys are, as you say, badly flawed in the bodyside shape, and also in the initial issues the horizontal beading that sits part way down the lower panel was too high. It's also been pointed out ( by Andrew Headstock),  that the chassis are rubbish with the solebars being too far apart. So the idea you can make a good model of one by adding brass sides doesn't really fly. If you have one put it next to that rather nice Kirk BSO you show above and the flaws are very clear.

 

Prolific and awe inspiring  level of output from you in the posts above!

 

John.

Hi John

 

Eyes down, look in, here we go.

 

The first thing is to decide what you are going to build. I am going to make an all door SK diagrams 23 (9ft wide) or 115 (9ft 3 ins wide), and an end door SK diagrams 155 or 298 (the main differences being the internal layout of the toilets).  To make these I require 3 shortie CKs and as it turned out some bits from the spares box.

 

 

The three coaches disassembled.....didn't photo the glazing or interiors, I have a huge pile of the stuff. The interiors will be reused one day.

 

I start taking the sides off (or it taking the roof off?) by scoring a few times along the top edge of the cornice. With the LNER models I use the top of the cornice so there is still some meat above the windows. On the LMS coaches the cuts are below the gutter.  After a few strokes with the craft knife I then turn my attention to the moulded inner ends, working both from the inside and outside I score where they meet with the sides until the knife cuts through. It is still attached to the roof but will snap away with a little pressure from my thumb. 

Inner end removed

 

I now go back to the sides and do a few more scores and snap the side away from the roof. I have found that then Chinese made blood and custard coaches snap cleaner than the rest. The British made blood and custard and the maroon coaches leave a slight jagged edge. All the teak ones leave quite a bad jagged edge, in must have something to do with getting the teak finish in the pre-coloured plastic.

Side being removed from the roof.

 

After taking the sides off it is time to mark them for cutting. But first remove all major burrs

 

A note about scoring these coaches, it is quite easy for the knife to slip so be careful, not only can you mark the model badly but you can hurt yourself. With one side I was removing the knife unexpectedly went through the join of the roof and side. My index finger acted as the brake for further downward movement and in the process I cut it on the burr I had created.

 

Always good to have some music to listen to, goth band form Italy,

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

Marking out.

 

In the Nick Campling LNER coach drawing book there are half sides of both types of coach, so I scanned them in and flipped the half sides on center line to give me both sides of both coaches. As I had used the Campling drawings I am not sure if my working drawings can be posted on here for copyright  reasons. I will post them if someone can be sure that they come under the use for educational purposes where only a section of a book is used.

 

I lay the drawing on the work bench and with a pencil start to mark where the cuts will be. I do this by lining up the windows of the model side with the drawing a put a pencil mark on the drawing and the corresponding place on drawing. These are numbered or lettered as I go along. One side being the number and the other the letters. As I was doing two coaches the all door SK was prefixed A and the end door E.

 

Sorry for the blurred image but I hope you can see where I have marked so the loo window ends up where it should not where Hornby put it. This will be A1.

There will be a small gap so section A2 is marked. Remember I marked A2.

 

Next is A3, thankfully the four compartments of the CK match the four this end of the SK. A4 is the four compartments from second CK compartment side.

The last two parts the loo window and the paneling at the other end are marked. That is the corridor side done.

 

The corridor side is a bit more complicated as the windows need to be 18mm not 16mm as made by Hornby.  So it takes bits of the second and third coaches. See the jagged edge on the teak coach side....I hadn't removed the burr.

 

The end door coach used as many of the unused bits from the all door coach and some spare parts as well as the corridor side of the third coach. That is why parts were prefixed.

Before cutting I swear loudly as I cannot find by set square, after recovering from the detritus on the work table I draw lines square with the bottom of the coach, as that is hopefully strait aligning with the marks on the top of the coach, these will be the cut lines. 

 

 

We stay with countries on the Mediterranean, moving to Spain

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

Cutting and Shutting.

 

At some point before shutting I cut two 3mm (approx) by the width of the sheet lengths of plastic card which to stick the sides to.

 

Yes I can count there are four strips, I was building two coaches.

 

I have a thin and slightly flexible 6 inch ruler which I use as my straight edge. I place it over the coach side and press down above and below the coach and the ruler takes the shape of the coach. I then do a few sores with my craft knife and snap the side. For small sections and were cuts are very close to windows I hold the side in a pair of flat nosed pliers with the edge of the pliers on the score line of the small section or the window side of the score line. I would liked to show you me cutting but I ran out of hands to hold the camera.

 

When all parts are cut a do check that I have cut them to the size on the drawing....I have been known to cut in the wrong place. It also shows me where I have made a wonky cut, despite marking out with a square. Look at the join between the two big pieces.

 

 

The parts laid out ready for gluing. All obvious wonky bits are sorted out at this stage as well as any burrs.

 

I glue the first section on to the 3mm strip about 1mm from the bottom edge, this is how far the chassis goes up into the body.

 

 

I add the next sections, ensuring that I minimise any gaps using a range of files. Some times if I think too much material is going disappear in the process I leave the gap to filler much later.

 

 

 

As I go along I check that I don't end up with a wavy line along the middle of the side. The wibbly-wobbly top or bottom (we all like a nice wibbly wobbly bottom) can be sorted but windows or beading that looks like a roller coaster cannot and notices.

 

The side glued and shut.

 

From the rear, not the top is not straight but file is handy.

 

 

One finial check before the glue sets too hard. I use Revell Contacta Professional as I find it has a reasonable capillary action but unlike liquid cements doesn't set straight away. 

 

Using my heavy 12 inch rule and some weights I lay the side face down on a flat surface to fully set This helps with making it flat and straight. It does not guarantee it won't warp later on.

 

How a bout an oldie

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

Now the other side, the corridor side. With its big windows it is easy to bu88er things up. I have to do loads of checking as I go along.

 

Bits ready to be cut. As you can see many are marked for the end door coach. 

 

Wonky cuts, get the files out to align things.

Ah that looks a bit better.

 

 

All the parts look ready for gluing.

 

 

 As with the compartment side I checked that the middle of the side wasn't turning out like a gradient profile of railway line. 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

Not all goes to plan.

 

Once I have done both sides I check they are the same length. Normally one is a tad shorter less than a millimeter and depending which one I can slice the same amount off one end of the other side and no one notices. WHOOPS.

 

 

On inspection I had forgotten to put A2 in between A1 and A3. I did say remember A2.

 

 

 

I was able to rectify my error.

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

The end door coach sides were done in much the same way.

 

The compartment side cut ready to be glued.

 

Same with the corridor side. I did change the bits I was using, a few more out of the spares box at the right hand end which has left me more whole 16mm windows for other projects.

 

The first Skating Polly song I heard, it is hard to believe Kelli was only 15 when this was recorded.

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

The chassis mods, well to make it correct length.

Now I done this the wrong way round, never mind.

 

I removed the truss rods ready for cutting in half forgetting to cut off the foot boards.

 

 

Foot boards cut off, see what I mean about knife slipping. The chassis is cut in half, with a razor saw. All the little protrusions to hold the weight in place are removed. 

 

I cut a 40 thou piece of plastic card 70 mm by 30mm, this is used as the extension piece. 

 

 

If I were to glue it as shown it would be too short. I slap the glue on and because it doesn't set straight away I can pull the chassis to it required length. My accuracy with getting each coach side 240mm (scale 60ft) is hopeless but being 1/2mm or even 1mm too long or short does not show readily, especially when the blighter is moving. 

 

 

How I perched everything for the photo doesn't show the chassis is now the right length for this coach.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[cheesysmith]

You have let the secret out of why we listen to music whilst we work. It covers up the colourful phrases when the knife goes into your finger again

 

[Clive Mortimore]

To top it all now the roof.

 

I cannot cut roofs square despite my best efforts.

From my previous efforts I have a shortie roof cut in half which I will match with one that is half length plus 12mm. The next coach will have the off cut added to a bit half length plus 24mm, the next after that half plus 36mm  and the last one half plus 48mm. After that the rain strip stops nearly lining up.

 

 

To aid my marking out I have a bent bit of brass, in fact I have two but lost the other one only to find it in one the dogs beds, they are under the workshop tables.

 

 

See what I mean about my cutting of roofs. Luckily there was excess material so I was able to make a better join.

 

 

I use the heavy 12 inch rule to keep the roof straight.

 

 

I cut  a 20thou bit of plastic card 12mm by 30 mm to join the two halves together. To get into shape I use the handle of a needle file, rolling it on my thigh.

 

 

 

I don't glue the two halves together until I have got the body sorted, as I might need to take a tad off...yes I have made a roof too long.

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

The next bit is to start to make it look like a coach.

 

One of the ends is now glued to one side. The bit of spare coach is at the other end is to keep things squarish because the coach end is resting on the bottom of the gangway.

 

 

The other side is glued to the end.

 

You guessed what the next bit would be.

 

 

I then plonk it on the chassis to see if sits OK on it.

 

Roof test, fits OK.

 

The compartment side, the roof is only plonked on before final fixing any gaps will be sorted out the best I can the flood with filler.

 

 

The end door coach waiting to be bunged together.

 

If you are getting bored this will wake you up.

 

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

 

The end door SK corridor side. I might need to take a tad off the roof as it seems to hog.

 

The compartment side.

 

What will I do with the ends, roof bits and chassis.

 

 

A steel body long under frame CK. Compartment side.

 

 

Out of focus corridor side. Side made from plastic card. I still can't master the silhouette cutter's drawing program so I hand drew it and cut it.

 

 

Here it is alongside an earlier model of a teak paneled CK. It has the other half section of roof as used on the all door SK. 

 

There should be a line in this song about to dream the completion of my coaches.

 

Edited April 11, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[Clive Mortimore]

A song for tonight, it is such a pity they broke up.

 

 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I cannot cut roofs square despite my best efforts.

Mitre block?

[Clive Mortimore]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Mitre block?

I have one but the slot is too wide and the razor saw manages to wobble all over the place. Hopefully I can buy a more suitable one at the Doncaster or Glasgow shows.