West End Workbench

[LNER4479]

Great work JW - fiddle yard ready and waiting to be filled up and camera poised...

[great northern]

My goodness! Many hours of devotion and hard work have gone into producing that line up. Beautiful, Jonathan.

[jwealleans]

Still here, still building brake composites. The end does appear to be in sight, though. Once these are all done, I'll be concentrating on getting the rakes we refer to as Teak Set 3 complete ready for the Grantham Show in September. Once that's done I'll be working on other things. The second set, set 5, will be finished some time next year.

 

So this is the last of the D134/175 Brake Compos:

 

 

This will be 42874 of 1936 which is the Lincoln carriage in Set 5, second time round. I have a feeling this one is detached at Grantham, so it will need Kadee couplings (or NEM pockets at least) fitting. I have some Bachmann bogies for that purpose.

 

For Set 3 there are 4 outstanding vehicles to complete.

 

BTK 41355 (D37A) of 1936 is the Hull portion of the Up working.

 

 

In the down working there should be a D114 BTK, 41360, destined for Harrogate. This will be substituted by this newer D212 BTK.

 

 

Finally I've started BG 4034 of 1929, This works both ways, to and from Bradford, but oddly (and authentically) isn't at the end of the rake but one coach in from the end in each direction. Do you recognise this one, Baz?

 

 

These are (fairly obviously) Kirk kits, but with Paxolin floors so the underworks can be soldered on and solebars from 1/8" Evergreen channel.

 

There's going to be a delay in getting the 8'6" bogies for these from Dart Castings (the sharp-eyed may notice that they're all photographed on the same pair of bogies) so apart from the BG (8' Fox) and the BCK with Bachmann ones, we may end up waiting on those.

Edited September 22, 2018 by jwealleans

[Barry O]

Still here, still building brake composites. The end does appear to be in sight, though. Once these are all done, I'll be concentrating on getting the rakes we refer to as Teak Set 3 complete ready for the Grantham Show in September. Once that's done I'll be working on other things. The second set, set 5, will be finished some time next year.

 

So this is the last of the D134/175 Brake Compos:

 

 

This will be 42874 of 1936 which is the Lincoln carriage in Set 5, second time round. I have a feeling this one is detached at Grantham, so it will need Kadee couplings (or NEM pockets at least) fitting. I have some Bachmann bogies for that purpose.

 

For Set 3 there are 4 outstanding vehicles to complete.

 

BTK 41355 (D37A) of 1936 is the Hull portion of the Up working.

 

 

In the down working there should be a D114 BTK, 41360, destined for Harrogate. This will be substituted by this newer D212 BTK.

 

 

Finally I've started BG 4034 of 1929, This works both ways, to and from Bradford, but oddly (and authentically) isn't at the end of the rake but one coach in from the end in each direction. Do you recognise this one, Baz?

 

 

These are (fairly obviously) Kirk kits, but with Paxolin floors so the underworks can be soldered on and solebars from 1/8" Evergreen channel.

 

There's going to be a delay in getting the 8'6" bogies for these from Dart Castings (the sharp-eyed may notice that they're all photographed on the same pair of bogies) so apart from the BG (8' Fox) and the BCK with Bachmann ones, we may end up waiting on those.

Very nice JW as it looks a lot better than when you acquired it. Of course mine are all in maroon(!)  ...

 

baz

[jwealleans]

Meanwhile, back at the bench, some vehicles have now moved to the paint shop. You can see how rough the teak finish can look when part way through the process. The BG looks much the best, the only difference being that it's had a coat of varnish.

 

 

 

 

I have run out of bits for the other BTK (buffers and roof vents) so that's waiting for Dart Castings to send their next delivery through.

 

Most of this week's effort has been on this:

 

 

Great Northern D218 BCK (3-3). I acquired this from Mr Pulham of this parish when he went all Senior on us and I confess to having looked at it a few times and then put it away again. There are no instructions with it - not having built a Kemilway kit before, I don't know if this is the usual state of affairs. What you do get are very detailed drawings and a very thorough list and diagram of what's on each etch. I'm afraid I shall be a great disappointment to the kit designer as I've already altered it so it assembles in my preferred fashion, I've decided life simply isn't long enough to attempt their roof and I shall probably substitute MJT cast bits for a lot of the underpinnings and leave the rest off. Respect for including all those bits, but I haven't the time, even were I so inclined, to work out where they all go, especially when they're invisible in traffic.

Edited September 24, 2018 by jwealleans

[trw1089]

A nice lot of coaches there Jonathan, especially the full brake.  Your running out of bits and pieces is one of the things that has me a little worried about getting into coach building, especially as takes a while to get stuff all the way over the pond to Australia. Grantham is certainly going to look the part with all that teak stock of yours running about.

Cheers

Tony

[jwealleans]

Thank you, Tony.  Running out of bits is really my fault, although Dart Castings have been a bit slow with my last order.   If you start with complete kits then almost everything you need will usually be in there and you only need worry about wheels, couplings and paint.  Given that I use MJT and Comet components interchangeably (in the main) you also now have the advantage of being able to order Comet bits from Andrew at Wizard Models, who does seem to have the knack of somehow knowing what you want and getting it into the post before you even ordered it, so it arrives almost instantly.

 

I pick up odd bits from Ebay so rarely order a complete kit, it's generally down to an oversight or having forgotten to check stock of something when I do run out.

[jwealleans]

Steady progress - this is a busy time of year other than at the modelling bench - has brought us closer to finishing. I'm still waiting for my last Dart Castings order - disappointing, that - and my colleague Mr Bolton hasn't advised as yet that he's fired up his Silhouette cutter and produced my interior partitions. Plenty else to get on with, though.

 

 

I did read the Kemilway instructions and then largely disregarded them. The result is still a nice looking carriage. Not much more can be done to this until the torpedo vents turn up. I can't even order a packet from Andrew to finish it off as the Comet ones are smaller.

 

 

BG just needs the handles and handrails fitting and a back putting on the battery boxes.

 

 

 

TK and BCK awaiting bogies. The corridor handrail in that TK has sagged, I see.

 

I spent much of today making corridor connectors, which have been missing on most of the carriages since I ran out last year. I haven't counted round but if I haven't made enough now then I shan't be many short.

 

I've also been dressing and painting seats:

 

 

First class need the antimacassars adding. I've tried to represent the moquette patterns for pos-1930 stock but the red-pink one has dried far too pale and needs doing again. The LNERCA don't seem to illustrate samples on their website, but there are some shown on a display board on Pickering station. It was too dark to photograph when I was last there so these are done from memory.

Edited September 24, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Someone commented while I was down at Ely helping with the show that I hadn't been posting as much as usual. Well, I have been busy and travelling for work recently, but fundamentally I haven't been doing anything new, just more of the same. However, not wanting to disappoint a clearly eager public, I made sure I took some pictures last night. I had a session a couple of weekends ago making corridor connectors. This was the last thing a number of carriages needed, including some which had been otherwise complete for a while. You've seen them all before, but I like looking at them, so here they are coupled up to check clearances and the like and in no particular order:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still in works is the Kemilway GN BCK although the body is largely complete. It really only needs internal handrails and signage. In the background is the 5 compartment BTK, the last of this batch of carriages and now making its way through the paint shop.

 

 

Note the naked bogie. Dart Castings have changed the design of the etched 8'6" bogie, doing away with the 'figure 8' hole which allowed two positions for the bearing and etching only one. This has the effect of making the bogie about half a mil higher - not much, but you can see that it shows on the photo. It also means that bogies are no longer interchangeable across the whole of the stock and given the design of Bill's couplings which I use, means that a higher carriage will lift a lower one slightly off the rails, making it easier for it to derail. I know there were height variations on stock, but on models it looks odd. Anyway, they've kindly agreed to make me some more of the old design, but these things take time to come through. That means I currently have five carriages 'awaiting bogies'.

 

Edit, 14-03-16 - Dart Castings have advised me that following client feedback they have revised the above and gone back to the original design. I have always been happy with the bogies they supplied and continue to use them under everything I build.

 

 

These ought to be ready for Grantham in September. Visible above is the same diagram of carriage from 4 different manufacturers, nicely consistent in appearance. They are fairly readily distinguished when seen close up.

 

On the subject of bogies, I need to be able to fit Kadees to some of these carriages to allow for engine changes, detaching, etc. I've obtained a couple of packs of Bachmann Gresley bogies from my friendly local model shop and have been working on getting them consistently level with the MJT ones and then fitting a NEM pocket.

 

 

This involves cutting out the centre and lowering the level of the central part, then using the gap at one end (where the original tension lock coupling went) to house a NEM pocket. The standard screw-on pocket holder from a Bachmann wagon was too low, being designed to go under a wagon buffer beam. Fortunately a friend gave me some moulded in ones which he'd cut out of a wagon floor and which therefore sit much higher above track level. That was the idea I needed, so a donor wagon was ripped mercilessly apart (it would have had - will have - 3 links fitted anyway):

 

 

The coupling mount and base were files down to fit the roughly triangular slot in the bogie and then attached. You can see in the first picture that I've added a layer of plastikard over the top of the hole to give more 'land' for the coupling to adhere to.

 

 

After that the presstud has to be soldered to some small pieces of brass (scrap fret) such that it just sits above the level of the central bolster.

 

 

It's a bit of a fiddle, but ultimately these will go under almost any carriage and allow them to be coupled/uncoupled as the whim of the Grantham timetablers dictates.

Edited September 22, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

I had a day on wagons yesterday, what with the weather being foul and the carriages being almost as far along as I can get them.

 

First a couple of repair jobs for Ormesby. This approximation of a GC open is from a Cambrian kit. I broke this taking a wheelset out to check the BTB, the W iron simply snapped off. It had plastic bracing up the back so I suspect it may have broken or been stressed before. Anyway, this was easier than I thought it might be; remove the opposite axleguard and replace with Wizard Models fairly new pregrouping W iron etch. I hadn't used these before and they were very easy to make up and fit. One slight issue was that the hole in the rocking unit is a very slack fit over the long tabs on the fixed pivot. I had to put a slight twist in these when bending them over to prevent the axle being able to go out of square to the track. I also had to widen the gap between the solebars to allow the unit to rock freely.

 

 

Next an LNER Insulated van with a similar problem - this one broke apart in traffic, the whitemetal W iron having failed.

 

 

The wheels on these are 14mm, so it was a Comet rocking axleguard unit for this one; first though I had to build a platform inside the wagon to mount it to. Removing the brake shoes widened the gap between solebars, but I had to extend that further. There is still a ledge around the inside of the van, so a piece of 60 thou making a snug fit was Araldited in with reinforcing pieces above to hold it in place. The rocker unit will then be attached to this.

 

 

There was space inside the rocker to glue the cast brakeshoes in place, with a small amount of shaving for clearance.

 

 

Other than that it was largely a case of picking up whatever was closest to hand and getting on with it. It must have been a shock for this LSWR bogie bolster to be worked on, I haven't touched it for months. It now has lashing rings and buffers and some painting as well.

 

 

We're off out with Thurston again at the end of July (for positively the last time this time) and I like to take something new each time, so I've made a start on titivating a BR bogie bolster. I can't remember where I picked this up (Hereford Model Centre rings a bell) but I don't have much more in mind than a weathering and adding chains to it. If there are any other glaring issues with it which are worth resolving, please let me know.

 

 

I also had this kicking about - MOY were the largest coal and coke dealer in East Anglia and their wagons were seen everywhere. So there'll be one seen on Thurston before long. I thought it was a Bachmann, turned out to be Mainline, so the sides need thinning down a bit and I may well discard the horrible chassis and knock something better up from the spares box.

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by jwealleans

[31A]

On the subject of bogies, I need to be able to fit Kadees to some of these carriages to allow for engine changes, detaching, etc. I've obtained a couple of packs of Bachmann Gresley bogies from my friendly local model shop and have been working on getting them consistently level with the MJT ones and then fitting a NEM pocket.

 

It's a bit of a fiddle, but ultimately these will go under almost any carriage and allow them to be coupled/uncoupled as the whim of the Grantham timetablers dictates.

 

Hi Jonathan, you may already be aware of this, but if you need to fit couplings with NEM pockets to anything, I find the mounting blocks for Bachmann NEM couplings sold by Parkside Dundas (PA34) very useful; being moulded in styrene they can easily be adapted and glued to all sorts of underframes, bogies, loco chassis etc.

 

http://www.parksidedundas.co.uk/acatalog/PARKSIDE_DUNDAS_FITTINGS.html

 

Very nice work with the coaches - keep the pictures coming!

[jwealleans]

Cheers, Steve, I think I had seen those but they had slipped my mind.  TBH it's really my being tight and recycling things here - I remove the proprietary couplings from any RTR stock I buy and usually make them up into little packs of 10 which I then sell on the club stand when I go down to Ely.  These I had lying about and so it made sense to use them.  The one Peter gave me which I used on the bogie solved a potential height problem which might have been quite tricky as most fo the mounts seem to have quite a thick base on them.

 

It would be much easier if Bachmann put NEM pockets onto their Gresley bogies, but the last lot I bought all had tension locks moulded on to a long cranked fitting which screwed into the bogie.

[jwealleans]

I may be a bit late to the party, but what an excellent tool the Silhouette Cutter seems to be. I hate to think how many hours I'd have taken to make these otherwise. Thanks to Paul Bolton for drawing them up and cutting them out for me.

 

 

While those were drying, another project which has been in limbo for a while. Meat containers. Some may recall the container and flat I made some months ago and which Mr King kindly cast up in resin for me. I made a start on one of the flats this evening.

 

 

The flat is finely cast but fairly frail, so I reckoned it will need some reinforcement. I have 6 to finish, so three will be done one way and three another to see which works best. This one has had brass angle araldited down each side behind the solebar to keep it straight and rigid.

 

 

MJT units on top, slightly shortened at each side as if they sit on the angle the buffers are a midge's too high. The brakes are from the invaluable Mainly Trains etch.

 

 

... and with a container in place. Being short wheelbase (9') and very light, it's a bit skittish and will need plenty of weight adding once detailed. I've a mind to use the Comet wagon underframe on the other 3 as it seems to me to offer a rigid support for the fairly thin floor and body. Has anyone used them?

Edited September 24, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

So, some more wagons this evening. Mr. King's container and wagon are looking much more the part - time for me to get my finger out and make the transfers.

 

 

I've also been working on some coal wagons. I was told we didn't need any more for Grantham for the moment, but I thought these two deserved to be pushed up the queue.

 

 

 

I haven't seen much comment on the Bachmann grain hoppers considering how many people were waiting for them. Mine came last week and having had them to bits (of course) I don't think they're a bad job at all. The underframe has a void moulded in to form the hopper bottom, which is ideal for liquid lead.

 

 

The body comes apart and has a seam along the top of the stanchions which has caused some adverse comment. I found one of mine had a larger gap than the others, which was rectified by taking the top off and fitting it back the other way round. The seam all but vanished with some plastic weld run into it.

 

 

This has been repainted and renumbered using CCT's sheet and based on an official photo on the RMWeb thread with no black patches. I may acquire some more of these if and when they lose their novelty and start to come down in price a bit.

 

Some back burner projects are also approaching completion. This was another party I came to very late, the Dapol/Hornby Magazine Stove R. I think this was in a bargain bin at Hereford Model Centre. It's had the correct size wheels and a repaint and wil go in the Thurston parcels train.

 

 

As you can never have too many, this is also for the Thurston stock, another Hornby LMS horsebox. Not much needed here, brass handles, roof painted, a quick varnish and ready for weathering.

 

 

Finally another LMS horsebox, this one a second hand buy at Wakefield last year. Brass, I think from an MSE kit and nicely built. Just needed a repaint, rewheel from EM, better couplings and there you go. This one will go into the Grantham stock.

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Grantham running weekend looms and it's time to get things ready. All those pretty locos we've seen on the Grantham thread won't look half as good if there's nothing for them to pull. I spent what time I had at the weekend working up transfers for this:

 

 

I had to do them again as the formatting on the ones I drew up some months ago had gone screwy. I see the number has fallen off the flat. There's no varnish on these yet - the Crafty Computer paper film is a bit thicker than the professional ones but half a dozen light coats of varnish flattens them in nicely.

 

The other job is checking the carriage formations and making sure couplings are at the right ends, Kadee bogies available where required and so on. Tonight I went over Teak Set 3.

 

 

The set starts as the 10:15 KX - Leeds. Here we see the leading GN BCK for Harrogate, the Leeds Twin with reduced accommodation for this purpose, BFK/BG for Bradford and the final BTK for Hull. That's a temporary carriage - the final 5 compartment BTK is awaiting bogies from Dart Castings.

 

 

Here is the up return working, 17:30 Keeds - KX. I've parked the loco at the wrong end of this, having read the consist backwards. The far BCK for Hull should lead, followed by the BG working back from Bradford, the Twin, then a portion (BTK - TK - BCK) from Harrogate.

 

A useful exercise in that it reminded me there were no end corridor connectors on the Quint, I have some footsteps to paint, one or two bogies to swap around and some interiors to fit. Tomorrow, time and weather permitting, we'll do the same for set 5.

Edited October 26, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Courtesy of LNER4479, the insulated container and flat running on Grantham for the first time over the weekend. Chains and shackles from Ambis.

 

 

Now all I need to do is complete the other 5 by the end of next month.

Edited October 26, 2018 by jwealleans

[31A]

Has the Conflat lost its lettering, Jonathan?

[jwealleans]

That's the unlettered side, Steve, but some of it has fallen off the other side. I've increased the size of the lettering slightly but I'll have to be careful to varnish over it in fairly short order when I reapply it.

 

I should have paid more attention when Graham was taking the photo as he's also got the one chain which needs tensioning in shot. Still, it will remind me that it needs doing.

[31A]

Oh, I see!  

 

I wondered how you'd done that tiny black lettering, as much as anything - presume you had some transfers made specially, or something?

[jwealleans]

I did them myself in PagePro and printed onto Crafty Computer paper.

[31A]

Thanks Jonathan, I must get around to acquiring some of that!

[jwealleans]

Thurston is out at the end of the month, off to the seaside (Southwold) for its last show. I like to try to take something new each time we go out and there's been quite a bit of RTR which is appropriate recently. Just off the bench, I photted these in the garden this evening.

 

 

The Bachmann grain wagons. I'd like to think that now these are out all the horrible Wrenn and Dapol ones will disappear. Probably not.

 

 

Bogie bolster, now with load attached. This has gone out of focus, not quite sure what it's decided to concentrate on. I'll try to do a replacement.

 

 

LMS horsebox. I like this, don't be surprised to see some more appear. I have a photo of 14 in a hunt special in Suffolk, so there's no reason why not.

Edited October 26, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

This week I've been doing a bit more weathering here and there:

 

Hornby J15 reworked. 65467 was the loco in the Ian C Allen picture of the Chipman weedkilling train which gave me the idea to model it, so I was always going to end up with that one by one means or another. It has been repainted and weathered, had S & W goalposts fitted and now just awaits crew and a little bit of final dirtying up. It looks a bit high at the cab end as well, I'll have to have a look at that. Spot this one shunting the yard at Southwold.

 

 

 

 

LMS Stove ready for the parcels train. This needs a bit more work - brakes for a start, but I've misfiled the castings I bought - but it will get an outing at Southwold anyway.

 

 

I'm pleased with the MOY wagon, even if it is still a foot too long. This has also had an S & W goalpost fitted at one end so we can use it as an adaptor vehicle. I see the camera has slipped it onto soft focus - Perhaps trying to hide that bent lever guard?

 

 

Pair of unfitted vans. The left hand one can run on both Thurston and Grantham. That is from a K's kit, with replacement brake gear and roof. The right one is an adapted Parkside and will go onto Grantham, for which a Kadee box has been fitted.

 

 

Couple for Grantham - the gas tank sits in the yard looking decorative while the jubilee wagon may be seen heading south depending on final selection.

 

Edited September 27, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Been beavering away the last week or two but nothing terribly visually interesting - Dart Castings delivered the bogies I've been waiting for.

 

 

Nice as they are, there's only so much you can say about assembling MJT bogies.

 

I did build another pair for this to run on:

 

 

This 52'6" luggage brake is required to be added to/removed from a train at Grantham and so has Kadees mounted at both ends. Height gauge kindly lent by Mr. Oliver.

 

There's a weathering queue forming for Grantham and this is currently at the head of it:

 

 

It's had a repaint and renumber and will get the treatment shortly, as will the O4 just out of sight and another which I took delivery of on Monday.

 

Final preparations for Thurston are all but complete - this had been repainted for Grantham but when I went looking for numbers I find it''s a 1947 build, not late 1930s as per the Parkside instructions. So a rapid redeployment to East Anglia has followed.

 

Edited September 22, 2018 by jwealleans

[cctransuk]

 

One observation - it would not have been suitable for pre-Nationalisation use anyway - it's got BR axleguards.

 

For that matter, in very early post-Nationalisation livery - no black patches and LNER lettering style - it is highly unlikely to have been fitted with BR axleguards.

 

Sorry - such details stand out to me, but I know many would consider it nit-picking - which it is, really!

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.