West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Cheers, Pete. They're a bit fiddly for my rather ham fists - probably be better with a hold and fold, when I treat myself to one - but they certainly look the part. I have asked Andy for his pictures of the van (see the Hull Show thread) and if he's agreeable I'll pass them on to you if you want to use them.

 

This is port #25 - I'm hoping Page 2 will start now as people have apparently starved to death waiting for Page 1 to load ....

(photo download speeds at fault, not RMWeb).

Edited June 23, 2013 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

So, here we are on Page 2. While some paint dries I've started another kit, which has been hanging around since early summer but was unavoidably delayed. It's a Bill Bedford Great Eastern Clerestory Lavatory Composite. Drawn and pictured in Nick Campling's carriage book.

 

Very early days with this one, so here's the kit laid out as it came in the packet

 

 

.. and a short time later with the door seams graven into the lower panel, tumblehome formed and the hinge pieces ready to be attached to one side.

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by jwealleans

[jonhall]

I think these must be newly loaded, as I don't remember seeing them before (although the search function is so poor...)

 

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10546895&wwwflag=2&imagepos=36

 

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10546894

 

Jon

[jwealleans]

I think you're right, Jon, I haven't seen those before either. I'll have to have another search myself.

[jwealleans]

A little progress with the CL - sides now have the hinge sections fitted, steps added to one end.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

I had a request on the LNER forum to go into detail with this coach so here it is. I have had a bit of time before Christmas and today to crack on with it and it is coming together as I hope you'll see.

 

I had got as far as preparing the roof and clerestory, the main thing I had been asked about.

 

 

Bill supplies bracer/forming pieces for the roof which were soldered into place. I had some trouble bending the quite sharp curve of this roof and it will need tidying up. Conversely as this coach will be towards the end of its life some irregularity won't be the end of the world.

 

 

The clerestory itself folds up from a one piece etch with these cross pieces to space and brace it. Already quite solid and square.

 

 

This was then tacked to the roof piece. I did have some trouble with the ends, which are a separate piece and weren't as high as the clerestory sides no matter how I tried to get them to fit; I had to attach about half a mil. of scrap etch on the bottom to fill a gap. No photo, I'm afraid.

 

 

The tabs on the clerestory sides locate into slots on the roof - here it is all in place, a satisfying first time fit and very much better than the floppy mess I had with the Peter K kit.

 

 

Finally, I will make the clerestory removable to glaze after painting (or if the glazing ever falls out). I drilled a 2mm hole through the roof from underneath, making sure to mark the underside of the clerestory with the drill. The mark was then used to site a 10 BA bolt which is soldered into place. I usually use some 1/4 " ones you can get from Eileen's, but I seem to be all out. These will be trimmed later. The nut then screws up from underneath and hold it in place. The complication with this coach are the ventilators which look like plates attached to the roof along each side of the clerestory. I intend to solder these to the roof and make them a snug fit against the removable part. It shouldn't be coming on and off very often.

Edited October 3, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Back to the sides today, once I'd reattached the roof rib which came off when I was washing the whole thing down.

 

Droplights were the next job. I generally hate these as I get them both cockeyed and too high/low. However the vertical formers for the hinges also serve to locate the droplights vertically, so all you have to do is decide whether you want them open, closed or at a point in between.

 

 

There were two too few droplights. This wasn't a problem as I have plenty left over from the GE rake I built last year and I wanted to do something different with the lavatory windows. Nick Campling's book shows one open, revealing that it is a hopper window (it is hinged at the bottom and opens inwards from the top). I wanted to show this on the model and so a bit of scrap etch and a spare droplight and away we went.

 

 

Droplights done, I went to grab handles. I do these last so I don't risk deforming them by pressing on the back of the side when working on something else. They're slightly cranked at the top then curve in towards the side as they go down. I bent them up from .33 wire and then used a bit of card to space them off the side and soldered them from the back. It's also worth going back over all the holes you drilled out in the sides at this point as you may well have filled them with solder, droplight (if open) or both.

 

 

Once these are done, grind/file/sand the back of the side smooth. That will help when you glaze the coach and also ensure that the sides fit over the floor, which has a small fold up section at each side which holds the sides straight. It was now time to put sides and ends together. Bill provides these fold up bits of etch to help attach sides to ends.

 

 

That done, I moved onto my own method of attaching body shell to floor. I put a brass strip with two captive nuts across the end of the coach and then use 10 BA bolts up though the floor to fasten it all together. I found that the lower attaching bits above fouled my brass strip so I ground them off again at this end.

 

 

I could have attached sides to roof, but I wanted to give it all a thorough wash first. I also still need to attach the vents to the roof. I moved on to the floor. This is quite thin brass and has become curved across its width while still in the etch. I expect attaching the internal partitions and buffer beams will help straighten it out. Here all I've done is attach the bogie mounts - captive 8 BA bolt inside - and make the holes to screw up into the body to marry the whole thing up.

 

 

Finally here it is looking much more like a coach. Note that I haven't put all the end gear on - alarm gear and the like will be attached after I've soldered roof to body as there's too much of a likelihood of it falling off if I put it on now.

 

 

Last thing is another scrub in shiny sinks and into the airing cupboard overnight. Only one of the grab handles came undone, so I must have had a good day with the iron.

Edited September 10, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

First thing today was to attach body to roof. This was done from one end, then tacking the roof at each of the bracing ribs, alternating from side to side to keep it square and ensuring that the roof and the other end still met. I didn't see the need to seam the solder all the way along as it's quite rigid and there are no visible gaps as it is. I usually put some .75mm angle along this joint to hide any irregularities and straighten the sides, but there just isn't a cornice on this coach. As it happens it all fitted together really well.

 

 

Next the interior. Bill provides all the transverse bulkheads which go right across the coach, obviously intending that they be used to brace the body and the roof be removable. My method makes that impossible so you have to remove the part of the partition which would foul the tumblehome, as below. I have to do this with al my coaches and I've found that the gap inside is almost impossible to detect even if you're looking for it. On a layout it's invisible.

 

 

The partitions were then built up and tacked to the body. Between these and the buffer beams they've straightened the transverse arch in the floor.

 

 

I made up the bogies next. These are 247 Developments HR stepless as I was advised they're the nearest to GE you can readily obtain. I was a bit disappointed with them - they were way out of square and I had to extend them sideways a long way to get even 24mm axles to fit and turn freely. They still need steps adding. Here I've also added the buffer beams and buffers - 51L L & Y coach buffers, again the nearest you can obtain commercially. There were two laminations for the buffer beams - I know that in the past I've found the thickness of brass Bill uses a bit flimsy for buffer beams but these were fine once made up. The body is also very rigid now it's all built up and soldered together.

 

 

Put together it's starting to look much more like the finished article. It sits about half a mil high, which needs working on. I've added the vents on the roof - the GE were a bit tight when it comes to ventilators.

 

 

That will be it for tonight, then I have the joys of the underframe to move on to. Which brings me to my last point - unidentified bits on the etch. Perhaps anyone with more knowledge of underframes than me might help: what are these bits for?

 

 

I can see the stepboards and supports (bottom and upper centre) - these were removed by the 1950s so won't be used. Brake linkage arms I can also pick out. The four items with a triangular end and hole I can't identify, nor the bits centre right - are they battery box supports? There were also some parts I assume were for use with Bill's own bogies to space the body to the right height and allow some lateral and fore and aft movement. I've used those with the 247 bogies by soldering them to the underside of the bogie mounts to allow the bogies to rock, one for and aft, the other side to side.

Edited September 10, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

I've spent a bit of time contemplating details (and jigsaws!) over the last couple of days (that and the shower blew up, which is more modelling time wasted...)

 

The end drawing in Nick Campling's book is a composite of the two ends, I've decided. All the photos I have (6 different coaches, including the one in said book) show steps and handrails at one end, alarm and electrical gear at the other. Bill has etched up the kit with everything at the one end, but it's no great hardship to move the alarm and switch gear to the other. Most of the pictures I have also show two more torpedo vents over the luggage compartment, but I have two good shots of one in this condition, so that is what it will be.

 

 

The underframe had had truss rods and dynamo added. Battery boxes I made up from plastikard and they'll be stuck on once it's been primed. Brake cylinders were in the bits drawer; 51L or mainly Trains, probably.

 

 

While I had the plastikard out I started to make up bits for the interior. I usually have these removable, but as the partitions are soldered in I'll probably build this one in situ.

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

A quiet and hangover free day today and I hope the rest of the year is as productive. I've got to the stage with the coach where I need to leave it for a few days for the paint to harden and to be able to pick out the details I've missed when I next look at it. Bill B kindly pointed out what the unidentified bits on the etch were so I've added those in. I added the stepboards to the bogies last night and primed everything so it can harden off for a week or so. Door vents were superglued into place after the etch primer on the body.

 

 

So, today I turned my attention to what was actually supposed to be the project last Christmas. Now you can imminently get them off the shelf there may not be too many more of these built:

 

 

Nu-Cast Sentinel Shunter, available (in this case) from Sherwood Models in Nottingham. Mine was just south of ??30 - I see tonight they're up to ??32.50. I have two of these in the kit pile, the other being a Crownline brass one. Now there's one on the way (and I shall have to have one) it's time they were built, otherwsie it may well never happen. I was more organised about things this year and early in December I contacted Geoff Baxter at Hollywood Foundry to sort out a power unit for it. He was very helpful and about a fortnight ago this arrived from down under:

 

 

I've heard good things about these BullAnt units and I was not keen on the Spud or even Black Beetle for the Sentinel after seeing the poor performance of the one we have at Ormesby. This has a Mashima 1020 and a 38:1 belt drive (as recommended). As the kit is designed for a motor bogie there's a certain amount of modification to do, but I measured up the kit and specified a 26 mm fixed transverse 'batwing' mount. The kit has a large whitemetal piece which solders to the underside of the running plate, arches up inside the body and has a fixing hole for the bogie in the centre. I dispensed with this piece and made two small brass plates with 10BA captive nuts which I attached each side of the running plate. They were filed back so that the body is an interference fit on top. Hopefully the picture makes it clearer:

 

 

With the fixings in place the assembly was checked for height and plastikard packed under the running plate until it corresponded to the buffer jig (another useful little Bill Bedford item).

 

 

The packing was then glued into place and the whole thing checked again. The motor fits under and inside the body shell quite comfortably.

 

 

 

The unit must have taken a knock on the way over as the batwing was bent when it arrived and the motor isn't straight on the chassis. I haven't had the chance to run it in yet so we'll have to see whether it's survived OK. A quick test with two wires seemed to show it running freely enough. As you can see below, there's plenty of room within the unit to add lead sheet ballast (important as I've removed a fair bit of weight by dispensing with that whitemetal lump).

 

 

Once you've got that bit working, it's quite straightforward to solder on all the extra bits and make it look like a Sentinel. Here it's all just posed as I need to wash the chassis before I Araldite the body and lead into place. Disappointingly the kit seems to have a shorter wheelbase than the real thing (presumably to suit the Spud?) so one axlebox doesn't line up at each side. I have a plan, but it's no more cunning than painting it all black and running it in dim light. There are a few details to add; pipe runs along the solebars, handrails and the roof hatch, which I will try to replace with something more realistic than the lump of plastic which comes in the kit.

 

 

Some other items which have passed over the workbench this week, mainly catching up with all the plastic kits I started when travelling late last year:

 

Ex- L& Y van. An MAJ kit I bought at Middlesbrough show earlier in the year. This one has been built as the version with the roof door.

 

 

I finally applied the transfers to the other ferry van I built in the late summer. This just needs handrails (they go through the transfers in a couple of places) to finish.

 

 

This is not usually my thing, but it was in a job lot of kits I bought from a mate in the Ely club. I started to do the transfers but the HMRS sheet doesn't seem to have the right size 'GW' so I may try the Old Time Transfers which I believe are made for this kit.

 

 

These are for the Ormesby Hall Corfe layout, finished in the (fictitious) livery of our local coal merchant using HMRS transfers.

 

 

Finally, the new Cambrian Midland van, also for Corfe.

 

Edited September 21, 2018 by jwealleans

[micklner]

What primer are you using on the coach ?

 

I agree re spuds never had any luck with them my Sentinel Railcar stripped the plastic gears on two with consumate ease. It nows has a Black Beetle and so far its good.

First decent picture I have seen of a Bullant looks very nice. Are you adding some lead as it looks like its going to be very light ? !!

 

Mick

[jwealleans]

Hi Mick,

 

You must have posted before I added my edit - there is plenty of space for lead sheet and I will be adding some fore and aft. I haven't weighed it yet, but there are weighting recommendations in the BullAnt instructions. I will miss the club night on Monday, though, so it may be a couple of weeks before it gets a run out.

 

I bought a BullAnt Major at the same time to use in my railcar kit. If that's a success I'll suggest we adapt the Ormesby one the same way. We can't use it on the automated shuttle at the moment as it goes like the proverbial off a shovel one way and an arthritic tortoise the other.

 

The coach has had Halfords Filler primer on the outside (the garish yellow) and a pale yellow on the inside - what you can see at the bottom is overspray from the pale yellow. I'm going to try it in Larry Goddard's recommendation of Precision Track Dirt.

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Mick,

 

You must have posted before I added my edit - there is plenty of space for lead sheet and I will be adding some fore and aft. I haven't weighed it yet, but there are weighting recommendations in the BullAnt instructions. I will miss the club night on Monday, though, so it may be a couple of weeks before it gets a run out.

 

I bought a BullAnt Major at the same time to use in my railcar kit. If that's a success I'll suggest we adapt the Ormesby one the same way. We can't used it on the automated shuttle as it goes like the proverbial off a shovel one way and an arthritic tortoise the other.

 

The coach has had Halfords Filler primer on the outside (the garish yellow) and a pale yellow on the inside - what you can see at the bottom is overspray from the pale yellow. I'm going to try it in Larry Goddard's recommendation of Precision Track Dirt.

The sentinel is a nice looking kit - Mrs P although encouraging me in almost every way draws the line at me doing any whitemetal kit that isn't pewter - not good for my health apparently. I do have a couple of ABS NE hoppers tucked away though

[jwealleans]

First trials this afternoon after it was all Araldited together. It all runs very smoothly and quietly, I must say. Details have been added to the bodywork (and yes, I have restuck that water filler).

 

 

There's a fair bit of lead gone into it and it weighs 130 gm. We'll see how that translates into traction the next time I go down to Ormesby.

 

 

The track it's on may be of interest; it's been a bit of a bugbear of mine that the rolling resistance of some of the stock we have is too great. I had the track on a batten which I used to hold stock being worked on; I've simply attached it to another piece of batten at an incline of roughly 1 in 36 (it drops slightly less than an inch in 34"). It may be unscientific but it's a standard we can work to. If stock won't roll down the incline without being pushed, it's not free running enough. Most of my stock passed except those items I thought didn't run properly already, which seems to prove the point.

 

Edited October 5, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Seems to have been a while since I updated. I've had to move on to some more portable projects while travelling again. Anyway, here is where we are with what's on the WB at the moment:

 

 

 

Sentinel is about complete and just needs coal and a crew - who are drying in the airing cupboard as we speak. I added the very prominent guard irons and blacked the wheels. I can see that the front pulley of the BullAnt and the flywheel will need blacking as well. As mentioned elsewhere it's haulage capacity is impressive.

 

The L & Y van is done - I may add some short bits of rope where the roof door is attached. I don't know a lot about these so I'm happy to be corrected if there's anything wrong.

 

 

The coal wagons for Corfe are also done and the loads for them are under way. The different names are due to my inability to remember two initials for more than (apparently) a couple of days.

 

 

Also for Corfe this Macaw which had lost all the bolster pins on the near side. I replaced the former plastic ones with some .7 wire with a taper turned onto it. Hopefully anyone being clumsy with it now will do themselves a nasty injury rather than break a pin off. The rest is just as Ron Rising built it.

 

 

A couple of blasts from the past: I must have finished these shortly before we moved house in 2006 as they've never been weathered and I'd forgotten I even had them. They turned up in a box over the weekend. One on the left is a Genesis LNER open, the other is (I think) the GC gunpowder van from 51L. They can go into the next weathering batch now they've seen the light again.

 

 

Finally the next project up and intended to be done for York; SBAFB (Belgian) Hcf ferry vans. These are a resin casting by Jon Hall which I'm backdating from his 1970s version. I have 6 to do: this one has had almost all the side detailing done so I can get an impression of how it looks and experiment with some of the bits I have to make up.

 

 

The GE coach still isn't quite finished; I had to make good the roof/clerestory join (memo to self - don't clog the holes up with roof mixture next time) and then it took a dive off where it was drying and fell down the back of the water tank, sustaining some damage when recovered. This week should see it done, though.

Edited September 21, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Now we seem to be back on a more even keel, here's how I spent some of the time between wondering what Andy and Jim were up to.

 

 

The coach just needs door handles and then it can await the next weathering session. It's been a bit of a trial with all the painting problems I had with it but I'm pleased with it now it's done. The contrasting 'E' (Fox where the rest are HMRS) has worked well, but the rest of the number shows how difficult I find it lining up those LNER numbers. Since this was taken I've taken advice and repainted the vent covers brown. It helps the appearance of the coach enormously and so they're staying like that.

 

 

I've already posted this in it's own thread; this is the new Jubilee coal wagon from Andrew Hartshorne. I built it last weekend but hadn't got round to photographing it. It does still need the interior painting and it's had that tare weight straightened up since as well.

 

 

The main project now is these Belgian ferry vans by Jon Hall which I hope to complete for York. Here the body casting is shown with the floor mounting arrangement. The body shells aren't quite square - I'm not sure whether this is a casting flaw or the resin working slightly. I have seen the master and it looked square to me. Anyway, the floor is mounted on two large plastruct angles secured to the sides. They're set slightly further up the interior than the top of the solebars; this is to help set the ride height of the vehicles, as it's easy to pack the W iron assemblies down, but would be very hard to move the whole gubbins up if they rode too high. This and all the other details are secured with cyano; Jon warned me it grips very well, but a very thick type does give you a minute or so to move things about.

 

 

It's only one step in the process, but getting them rolling feels like huge progress. I now have four mobile and two more to go. They're mounted on Bill B's springing units with brake shoes from the LNER fitted etch from Mainly Trains attached. There was quite a variety of W irons on these - the drawing and two photos I'm working from each show a different W iron - so what you see here is one with the BR plate type and one with the RCH 1923 type. I'll end up with a mixture of the two.

Edited September 21, 2018 by jwealleans

[Chivers Finelines]

Hi, I keep trying to send you a PM, but it keeps failing!!

 

its reguarding this picture....

 

 

Would there be any chance I could have permission to use it? to promote the re-released Chivers Kit??

 

Many thanks

Matt Chivers

[Ravenser]

Some very nice stuff.I've built the NuCast Sentinel , twice , one for me and one for someone else. Apart from it being a lengthy job to clean up the whitemetal and get the corners smooth and the roof to fit well, I found the Tenshodo very unsatisfactury .Occasional wheelslip running light is emabarsssing - it looks very pretty but it's not a terribly good shunter on the little plank . The bull ant has got to be a lot better.

 

The relevant RCTS volume suggests that the wheelbase was slightly adjustable because the system of taking up slack in the drive chains involved moving the axleboxes. About 3" difference seems to be indicated

[jwealleans]

Cheers, Ravenser. I have a Crownline one which I'll build as a Y1 (fewer grilles) and will certainly put another BullAnt in that. In the meantime I still have a larger one to try in the railcar and will probably reuse that idea as well if it's successful. I've heard that Spuds are not great and Black Beetles give better results. As and when I get round to the NE railcar Allen Doherty's just done I will probably use a Black Beetle in there.

 

Matt - I've had 3 PMs and replied to them all and I've now also emailed you via your website. You're more than welcome to use the picture.

[Chivers Finelines]

Matt - I've had 3 PMs and replied to them all and I've now also emailed you via your website. You're more than welcome to use the picture.

 

Everytime it said they failed, not recieved any back, I'm sure we shall be flooded with pm's when Andy gets all the problems ironed out.

 

Good news is I have recieved the email with no Problem!!

 

Thankyou very much for the permission.

Matt.

[jwealleans]

Haven't posted for a while but I am trying to get a few things finished in time for York. These have been accomnpanying me on my travels and are getting close to finished - tonight they had a coat of primer so I can pick out anything I've missed or botched:

 

 

This is what they look like close up, allowing for some variations in detail. You can also see where I mercilessly butchered Jon's castings:

 

 

I see this one has a cockeyed footstep. It's also down at one end; I managed to get some glue into the workings of the sprung W irons on some of these.

 

I also want to get this in shape to run in the same train. The load is a piece of sponge with black paper for sheets.

 

Edited September 21, 2018 by jwealleans

[Rob Pulham]

The ferry vans look the business Jonathan - have you any room on Thurston for anything else these days, you must be amassing quite a collection of various types of ferry van by now.

 

The black paper and sponge look very effective on the long low - is that cotton that you have used to represent rope?

[jwealleans]

Thanks, Rob. We did extend the fiddle yard a couple of years ago and I've taken that as a personal challenge... I don't think I've passed the limit for a single train yet, though. I ought to build a brake van before long for it.

 

I pinch the sheets from pads the wife or children have, with a mix so the shades of black are different. The thread is just brown thread from Lord knows where. I put a couple of small wire pegs under the floor to tie it to so I can get it fairly taut. I have been told that if you soak it in dilute PVA it shrinks slightly and tightens, so I'll give that a go.

[Rob Pulham]

Did the ferry van trains have a special type of brake van or one from the home fleet so to speak? Not that I have any interest in modelling any but I do find what you are doing with them quite fascinating, especially the sheer number of different types that came across the water. It seems just a given these days that you see everything from the continent on our roads and railways but you don't imagine that it has been so for 60 plus years.

[Fat Controller]

Did the ferry van trains have a special type of brake van or one from the home fleet so to speak? Not that I have any interest in modelling any but I do find what you are doing with them quite fascinating, especially the sheer number of different types that came across the water. It seems just a given these days that you see everything from the continent on our roads and railways but you don't imagine that it has been so for 60 plus years.

The Southern built bogie brake vans (the Queen Mary type, similar to those made by Bachmann) for express perishables traffic from Dover and Southampton. The former included lots of perishables traffic in ferry vans. The LNER used their standard 20t brakes. Apart from trains from Dover to Hither Green, Hoo Junction and later Paddock Wood on the SR, and from Harwich to either Temple Mills or Whitemoor on the Eastern, entire trains of ferry vehicles would have been pretty unusual. By the time the vehicles reached the furthest extremities of the network, the ferry vehicles would have been in very small numbers in mixed freight services. There were exceptions- in BR days, services to and from Cornwall had a disproportionate number of ferry vans in the formation, as empty vehicles from around the UK would be sent there to get back loads of china clay to the Continent.