West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

I built the J72 chassis over the weekend. Interestingly the smaller wheels for this loco - also from W & T - were spot on for gauge unlike the larger J71 ones. I had to make a new fixing bracket for the rear of the loco as the Wills fixing arrangement is completely different. Some spare etch from Arthur's J73 - satisfyingly robust nickel-silver - did the trick. It's within tolerance in terms of buffer height but I think the front needs a small amount of packing. I also hadn't noticed before now that the safety valve cover leans forward.

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

I've only had the odd half hour here and there at the bench this week and the main job in view is a pair of High Level gearboxes, which are better done in a single session. So I've been picking away at this a little at a time.

 

 

It was given to me by a member at Ormesby part built and incomplete. I had to strip it back so far - hence the damage to the ducket, the traces of Squadron Green and the replacement strapping - and also make new stepboards. The upper ones are brass angle soldered to two cross pieces which are superglued to packers under the floor.

 

I had more of a grapple with it last night and tidied it up a bit more. Filled in a hole in the roof, replaced the upper strapping with some of the correct width, fixed lamps (I'd never noticed that the Parkside moulding has one bracket wrongly positioned), lamp irons, ducket bottom repaired. I think it can have a coat of primer.

 

 

 

This evening Mrs W has been hosting a party to which I was not invited... so I now have one gearbox built and running. It's nice to see everything move together as it should; this will now be stripped down and painted before the crankpin washers are soldered on and pickups fitted. It's a Mashima 1224 and High Level Roadrunner + 54:1. I've put the drive extender on the RR + behind the axle so there's plenty of room for a flywheel. You lose the cab interior but with doors moulded closed and a crew member leaning from each side of the cab it won't show.

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

This week I received a package from John Peck at Precision decals. This was to finish off a build which has dragged over almost 18 months, although to be fair I think they're among the most complex vehicles I've scratchbuilt. The artwork for the transfers I did myself in GIMP, not without some difficulty after I upgraded to the latest - seemingly quite buggy - version. However once sent through I had them back in my hand in three days and for the very reasonable consideration of a tenner.

 

 

Above is the type of van which is preserved in the NRM, although the colour of that one is apparently like nothing they ever wore in service. These are both painted using colours sourced from a French supplier, so hopefully they are something like accurate. One is in original pre-1938 PLM livery, the other SNCF brown.

 

 

These were scaled down from the dimensions of the larger vans using some HMRS photos which at the time were all I had. Predictably, about 3 weeks ago I came across a drawing with basic dimensions on the web. Too late now... These seem to have appeared after the war and carry what I think is a later style of SNCF lettering but before the UIC standards came into being.

 

 

While I was knocking up a sheet of white lettering I revisited the CCTs I built last year and included the missing legend for those.

 

 

... and while I had the box of transfers out I caught up with these which had been painted for some months; the horsebox is D & S but lettered using the Parkside transfers for the same vehicle. These BR ones don't look so bad; the LNER ones in the pack, to my eye at least, look way too big.

 

 

While everyone else was at the football tonight I put washers and pickups on the J71 chassis and it's ready for the rolling road once the Araldite sets. It's a bit lumpy yet, but with a bit of running in and a flywheel we should get it something like.

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Much of the weekend was spent on the J72 chassis, but that would just be more of the same photos. The J71 has now been fettled and partly run in and has had chassis - body fixing and coupling hooks fitted. There is a bit more work to do to increase clearance behind the front steps on the offside, I may need to thin those down a bit more or resite them altogether. I had to raise the rear by about 1.5mm, which I did by enlarging the original holes downwards and then filling the upper part with bits of plastic. It would have been easier to do this before fitting the rear buffer beam. Here it is shunting a few trucks on the test track. Load tests are to follow tonight and then brake gear and final detailing before the paint shop.

 

 

For those who may be interested (one or two people have mentioned that they've the same conversion kit to start) here are the motor/gearbox/flywheel and pickup arrangements.

 

 

 

There are one or two details to fit - boiler clacks and whistle being the most obvious - and I need quite a few bits for the J72 which were missing when I bought it. I can see that Arthur will be hearing from me shortly.

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Bits and bobs ordered from Arthur and Mainly Trains, so I have a couple of days to get the J72 chassis put together.

 

Took the J71 down to the club tonight; I've wired it up back to front (careless) but the haulage test was a success:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpzUpWXVjr0

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7naEC38Bls

[jwealleans]

Good day yesterday; a lunchtime then evening session got the now painted J72 chassis up and running and she moved under her own power for possibly the first time ever, certainly the first time in a good few years.

 

 

There's still much body detailing to do and I think the bracket at the rear needs to be moved up a bit; I thought she was nose down standing on the track, but comparing to the J71 I think she's stern up.

 

I think Robert Forsythe says this kit was introduced in 1959 and I believe this is quite an early one - it had brass plates either side of a whitemetal chassis block and a motor unlike any Ks one I've seen before. It also cost 99s 5d when new. I think two builders may have had a hand in it as it has been soldered so far and then other bits have been Araldited on. Whatever, I'm getting an inordinate amount of pleasure from the idea that it's going to be completed after maybe 50 years in the building.

 

While that was on the rolling road I added the brake gear to the J71. Now, this was the only bit of this chassis I had trouble with; the shoes were too near the wheels on two of the three axles and when I added the pull rods they moved the shoes all over the place in relation to the wheels. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had the same trouble?

 

 

I've just added the shoes, suitably filed down, and won't bother with the rigging. Some of it would interfere with the pickups anyway. This loco is now going to be 326, one of the first 10 J71s built and the last withdrawn, according to Yeadon, after 74 years service.

Edited October 17, 2018 by jwealleans

[mikemeg]

 

While that was on the rolling road I added the brake gear to the J71. Now, this was the only bit of this chassis I had trouble with; the shoes were too near the wheels on two of the three axles and when I added the pull rods they moved the shoes all over the place in relation to the wheels. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had the same trouble.

 

If you're using the Mainly Trains chassis conversion kit, which I did on both a J71 and J72, then the pull rods on the J71 kit were of different spacings. Try just holding both pull rods together and just check for any spacing differences. I found it impossible to fit these pull rods and get a brake linkage which looked right and, as you have found out, which did not move the brake blocks either too far from or too near to the wheel rims.

 

I made new pull rods for the J71, eventually.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[jwealleans]

Cheers for confirming that, Mike. I couldn't see any way I'd got it wrong so it had to be the etches.

 

The J72 is the Comet etch so (hopefully - I haven't tried it yet) there won't be the same problem.

[jwealleans]

Came home at lunchtime to find a small package from Arthur on the mat... the last parts for detailing the J72. So here it is after a short session at the bench tonight.

 

 

Handrails, sander operating rods, smokebox wheel, lamp irons, tank vents - another difference between J71 and J72 - worksplates and the cylinder oil reservoir, which is that item behind the centre lamp iron on the buffer beam. It's a bit large, but a GN pattern whistle was the right shape. From Arthur, boiler clacks, sandbox fillers and mainly the tank fillers.

 

The tank fillers really are items of beauty. I almost wish I'd hung on for a set for the J73 now.

 

 

I've put boiler clacks on both locos - J71s all had them to start with, J72s as they acquired boilers from J71s. I think they give a bit more character and backdate the loco in appearance. I had to fill the hole for the whistle in, it was too big, so that will be added tomorrow.

Edited October 17, 2018 by jwealleans

[Rob Pulham]

Superb castings Jonathan, they really add to the final picture.

[jwealleans]

Thanks, Rob, but the artistry is all Arthur's.

[£1.38]

I am finding it difficult to see where "Arthur's" contact details are. Wherever I look, I keep going round in circles without actually being able to find any information. Does he sell to the general public, or is it just amongst friends?

[jwealleans]

Arthur (Kimber) is a member on here as ArthurK - there are posts from him in this thread, around the time I built his J73, or there are several threads by mikemeg on building his loco kits.

 

He trades as Northeastern Kits and has a thread in the Smaller Suppliers area here.

 

I'm sure he'd be happy to sell you any of his excellent products.

Edited July 9, 2012 by jwealleans

[ArthurK]

Thanks, Rob, but the artistry is all Arthur's.

 

Not Correct, the artistry is that of a friend of mine. He makes many of the masters but wishes to remain anonomous. I am very thankful for all the help that he has given me.

 

Contact me by PM or Email to CharlesArthutK@aol.com

 

For those that have been patiently waiting the Q5/2 is just about ready. All it needs is a check through the instructions. I have a first batch of twelve all waitng to be packed.

Any interested in this (or any of my castings) the please get in touch. Next will probably be the A6 and also its unrebuilt form the NER 'W' 4-6-0T.

 

I still have theQ5, J77 and J73 available and, I believe, a single J24.

 

ArthurK

Edited July 9, 2012 by ArthurK

[jwealleans]

He ... wishes to remain anonymous

Whoever that masked man is, Arthur, we're very grateful and admirative of his skill.

 

Tanks have been through the paintshop this week after brakes were fitted to the J72: both are now all but done. Glazing, buffers, coal and crew and we're there.

 

 

 

.. and here they are with slightly bigger brother, the J73 I built last year.

 

 

Just in case you thought I'd been slacking, this has been on the 'build something in a week' thread. A very characterful vehicle which anyone running pre 1933 can get away with. These go for quite a bit on Ebay, but are still available new from David Geen. I started it on Thursday last.

 

Edited September 26, 2018 by jwealleans

[micklner]

Nice line up.

 

I presume the LMS vehicle is a CCT ?

[jwealleans]

Yes, Mick, Midland Railway D 304 CCT. It's a Micro Rail kit and the etches were dated 1983.

[Jol Wilkinson]

Came home at lunchtime to find a small package from Arthur on the mat... the last parts for detailing the J72. So here it is after a short session at the bench tonight.

 

 

Handrails, sander operating rods, smokebox wheel, lamp irons, tank vents - another difference between J71 and J72 - worksplates and the cylinder oil reservoir, which is that item behind the centre lamp iron on the buffer beam. It's a bit large, but a GN pattern whistle was the right shape. From Arthur, boiler clacks, sandbox fillers and mainly the tank fillers.

 

The tank fillers really are items of beauty. I almost wish I'd hung on for a set for the J73 now.

 

 

I've put boiler clacks on both locos - J71s all had them to start with, J72s as they acquired boilers from J71s. I think they give a bit more character and backdate the loco in appearance. I had to fill the hole for the whistle in, it was too big, so that will be added tomorrow.

 

Beautiful brass castings but sadly that close up shows that the whitemetal kit doesn't live up to the same standard.

[jwealleans]

I would have been more surprised if it had.... we should have come a long way since 1959 (and some manufacturers have, of course).

[jwealleans]

Now that's appropriate, when I read it again; here's something from a range which had a long way to come.

 

 

Acquired just about started at Middlesbrough, it fell under my hand yesterday teatime and was complete (i.e. I'd used up all the parts) just after 10.

 

Today, when I when I sat down to look at it again and engaged my brain, I realised that what it looks like is a Toad B with Toad E duckets. This may have happened, there may be a photo somewhere, but I've never seen it. It also needed a good deal more doing to it before it could remotely be called 'finished'. So today the iron came out again and we set to making it look like something which might have been seen in reality.

 

 

The duckets were replaced with more accurate cast ones (these courtesy of Scottiedog, which seemed apt as he sold me the kit in the first place). I'd already decided that filing down the brass bar provided for the end uprights was too much of a mug's game, so I made those out of 60 thou square Evergreen. The insides of the verandah have been filled in with scribed plastikard, the extra small side handrails removed, strapping added and the buffers replaced with something more accurate from ABS. The rest of the handrails, fixed lamps and lamp irons and we won't be very far away.

 

I haven't dared measure it, though.... after all, under all that, it's still a Jidenco kit....

Edited September 29, 2018 by jwealleans

[Rob Pulham]

That looks significantly improved Jonathan. I was looking at the earlier photo on the LNER forum but was distracted from noticing any details by the EM gauge discussions.

[jwealleans]

Over on the LNER forum, someone commented that a Toad B might have been repaired using the pressed steel duckets, I had that thought rattling around the recesses of my mind and I have located why; there's a picture on Page 61 of David Larkin's Pre-Nationalisation Freight stock on British Railways showing just that. Larkin says that the wooden ducket version mainly ran in Scotland and the pressed steel one was used in England. I have no idea of his sources for this assertion and it will be interesting to see whether Tatlow 4B casts any further light. The single volume Tatlow which now lives on the WB doesn't mention it.

 

From a modelling point of view in Larkin's photo there is matchboarding above and below the ducket which I don't have on the model and might not have wanted to try to scribe on even if it had come to me in the flat (which it didn't). So I'm sticking with the wooden duckets. It's been through a first coat of paint; I've decided to do this one early BR for use on the Ely layouts.

 

 

Another little job which came across the bench last night; we who spend all our time building kits tend to forget sometimes how good RTR stock is these days. This caught my eye at (I think) Nottingham. In about half an hour it's had the moulded end handrail replaced with wire and painted, the couplings replaced with 3 link and the roof painted with my grey-and-talc mix. A waft of matt varnish and subsequent weathering and it won't look out of place at all.

 

 

I have seen a picture of the wagon on which this is based - can't remember where, of course - but I'm pretty sure Salt wagons weren't pooled in WW 2 and weren't nationalised so this can be run into the earlier part of the BR era. I expect someone will put me right if that's mistaken. If anyone can point me to the picture, the jury's still out on those buffers as well.

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

A little project which has kept me busy for a couple of evenings last week and this. One of the features of the Pilmoor layout at Ormesby Hall is the automated shuttle which runs up and down the Pilmoor - Knaresborough branch line (in fact, in and out of a cupboard). For all the time I've been a member, this has been worked by a G5 and push-pull set. A Sentinel railcar has sat in the sidings behind Pilmoor station and seldom moved. The reason is very apparent if you tried to drive it - it went like the wind in one direction and staggered along like a movementially challenged tortoise in the other. This apparently being due to the state of the 'Spud' which propelled it.

 

When I built my version with the BullAnt aboard, it was suggested I might like to do the same with this one. However, in order for the remote controller setting to remain the same, so the operator could alternate between this and the G5 without having to climb into the cupboard, it would require a much higher gearing. I spoke to Geoff Baxter about this and he - top marks for being straight - said we'd be better off with a Black Beetle. So a BB it was and it came through commendably quickly from motorbogies.com.

 

This is the state of the railcar when examined:

 

 

The roof popped off very readily to reveal a wandering internal partition, bits of glazing hanging off and the roof itself had a very apparent join in the middle. Glazing which was still attached had blobs of glue all over it:

 

 

... at least swapping the bogies would be very simple, they just screwing up through a brass plate in the floor at the boiler end of the car. If only.

 

A Black Beetle, as I then discovered, is quite a bit higher than a Spud.

 

 

All was not lost, however. The large plate from which the motor bogie hangs is screwed to another smaller plate, tapped 8 BA on the other side of the floor. So reversing the two plates would bring us back into line. The constituent parts are shown below.

 

 

It wasn't quite that simple; I had to pack the plate up another 60 thou inside the car to get it level, which in turn meant that the screws weren't long enough and had to be replaced. Then I had to radius the leading edge of the hole to allow the bogie to pivot. All that done, though, it worked as we hoped and under test so far has behaved very well. The cosmetic sides were removed from the Spud and EvoStuck to the BB, both level at the second attempt.

 

 

Glazing was replaced except where I had to retain the supplied pieces with painted curtains. These had a coat of Klear to restore a bit of a shine then were replaced using less and less apparent glue and lined up with the window frames this time.

 

 

Partitions and crew were replaced from whence they had come. I've also tidied up the joint in the roof and will repaint it. The roof will have to come off if the bogie is to be removed in the future but we'll just have to live with that. I did contemplate fitting pickups to the other bogie as well, but I think we'll give it an extended run first and see how it performs.

 

It's a shame this kit is no longer available, but if ever a vehicle was suitable for a plastic moulding or even an etched body, this is it. It might even run quite happily with a Spud then, instead of chewing them up at the alarming rate they do.

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[jwealleans]

Right, a bit of a retrospective this evening. I've been fiddling on with a few things, mainly weathering and nothing really worth posting. One of the items I finished off, though, was a container flat for the fish train for Thurston. Not desperately momentous except that it was the last item of rolling stock for that train - the train is now finished. Again, not in the sense that any model which is used is finished as there will always be maintenance and repairs or improvements to make. In this case it's quite simply that the stock box for fish vans is full, as (almost) is the road in the fiddle yard, so it's unlikely I shall build any more for it. It's been developing since about 2005 along with the rest of the stock for the layout and will also work on the replacement which the Ely club have already started building.

 

So here is a stroll along the train parked in and almost filling my test track.

 

 

The train engine is a Bachmann K3. Bought from the well known string bound parcel emporium when they first came out, renumbered to an Ipswich engine which features often in Dr Ian C Allen's East Anglian books, detailed and weathered. It ran mechanically unaltered for a long time, but the last set of additions to the train, the containers, required the addition of a fair amount of lead along the boiler either side of the motor and in the cab roof. It handles the 21 + brake which now makes up the consist with no problem.

 

 

The leading van - cast, like all the first few vehicles - is an LMS D1664 van. This is an ABS kit. As the layout is set in the early BR period (1947-55) this has not yet been repainted into BR livery, though it has the M prefix to the number. LMS vans were quite common in the East Anglian ports from very early in BR days.

 

 

The next pair are at the very end of their working lives - an ABS LNER outside framed van and an ex-North Eastern F6 van from 51L. Penny numbers of these made it after the war and the ABS one would most likely have been converted to general use by now. I have a thing for outside framed vans, though, and the GE kept stock years after anywhere else would have scrapped it.... Neither has or will receive BR livery or lettering. I was pleased with the effect I got on the 51L van with the older lettering showing through. It's slightly small but under normal lighting doesn't show up as well as on the photo so it's less obvious.

 

 

Next the first set of container flats I put together. I acquired some Bachmann Conflat As and I've also built a pair of David Geen GW ones, an H6 and an H7. These are whitemetal so they can go fairly well forward in the train without fear of being pulled off by the following wagons. The picture shows how similar these vehicles were; Bachmann BR version first, followed by the H6 (9'wheelbase as opposed to 10') and then the H7. The containers are Bachmann repainted and renumbered using the pack available from Cambridge Custom Transfers.

 

 

Immediately after the containers an LMS d 2059 fish van (Parkside) - there are two of these in the train. Then the LNER 12' WB fish van. This is very much the staple of the consist and was where it all started. I bought a job lot of 5 off Ebay and repainted and detailed them. The kit is available from Parkside, but I think these are Cotswold as they have whitemetal solebars. There are differences between them - different shades of brown, patch painting, one still in LNER livery - but they are intended to give a certain amount of uniformity to the whole train.

 

 

In among the 12' wheelbase vans are a couple of the older 10' ones. These are cut down from the longer Parkside kit although they will be available from Bachmann sometime in the future.

 

 

The LMS 6 wheeler from Roger Chivers was just irresistible when it came out and gives some visual variety while not being massively different from the LNER vans which surround it. The other D2059 is marshalled next to it.

 

 

Getting towards the rear (I didn't photograph all the duplicates) there is an LNER corrugated end van. This is the Parkside kit and is derived from a photograph in the Cheona LNER wagons book showing one in Darlington Works with FISH plates fitted. The less usual position of the plate is also from that photo. Next to it a Cambrian LMS d1885 van, cracking kit of a distinctive prototype. It looks quite different with the side vents, short wheelbase and white upstands indicating a through piped vehicle.

 

 

Two more containers, as above, one on a Bachmann Conflat A and the other a Parkside Conflat S. The S should have the steel chocks in place to hold the container. The chains are made from Roxey shackles, fine chain and a length of Evergreen rod for the shock absorber.

 

 

Lastly the Dapol brake van with Monty's (I think) guard. A full set of lamps - he can be confident he won't be looped anywhere.

 

 

... and it all fits nicely into the box ready for Nottingham in March.

 

A couple more little jobs which might be of interest; I seem to have acquired a number of 4 wheel Passenger Brakes, largely as parts of job lots. I have three in teak livery and so thought it would be nice to line one. Makes an already attractive vehicle really eyecatching. This one is a D & S kit.

 

 

This was one of the very first etched vehicles I built, also from D & S and shows me how far I've come with kit construction in that time. For these purposes I was more concerned by the fact that both solebar and cornice were black and so both have been corrected with Humbrol 62. There are some markings to go on the solebar and then a varnish and light weathering to blend them in.

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans

[micklner]

Nice Vans.

 

The last picture the colour for the solebar is very pale? Mike Trice recently recomended Humbrol 62 for solebars.The tin I have is a totally different colour much darker.