Kirley's Workbench

[kirley]

Irish Rail Timber Wagons

 

One of the earliest wagons I converted was some Hornby Freightliners into Timber Wagons, a matter of cutting out the middle section, sticking it together and adding the log pallets and ends.  Recently I noticed these wagons were starting to curve up at the ends and a friend suggested I use the Hornby KFA wagon which has a diecast body.

 

 

I got one and shortened it to 62’ 9” length.  The original wagons had got damaged along the way so I decided to try and repair them at the same time. 

 

 

First thing I did was apply some heat using a hairdryer and I managed to straighten the bodies.

 

 

The new Hornby wagon had plasticard ends and log pallets added.

 

 

 

 

Repairs also carried out on the old wagons.

 

 

The new and repaired wagons got a coat of red ochre 

 

 

 

The most tedious and lengthy part of the project was constructing the timber loads.

 

 

Cutting the ‘logs’ and sticking them to foam to reduce the weight took hours and hours.

 

 

 

Always pleasing to get them finished and give them a run on the layout.

 

 

 

 

Could do with a few more to make up a realistic rake, maybe 'someone' might bring out a 62' 9" bogie flat wagon in 3D?

 

[NoelG]

What a clever recycling project with great results.  They look fab.

[Glover]

And the frustrating thing is that most people will ask, 'how did you make the wagons?', not how the logs were made!

Nice job Kirley.

 

Cheers,

 

Glover

[pat141]

Nice job Kirley.

I built one of these wagons with timber but one was enough.

[kirley]

47' & 42' Flat Wagons

 

I got another batch for bogie flats from Neil.

 

LX 47' bogie wagons

 

Different coupling construction to cope with the longer wagon.

 

 

Once your get the couplings sorted the rest is straight forward.

 

 

 

LP 42 bogie wagon

 

Slightly different approach to fixing the coupling.

 

 

 

LP 42' bogie wagon with spark guard plates.

 

 

 

LP 42' bogie wagon with round buffers

 

 

 

All I need now is some 62' 9" bogie wagons.....

[NoelG]

Looks great Kieran. What did you use for the white styrene NEM pockets you've glued to the bogies? Are they scratch built, or cut from rectangular box section tubes?

[kirley]

Noel they are 3 x 4 mm rectangular styrene tube.

[kirley]

TDM J15 Build

Or The Ever Lasting Project.

 

That’s how it feels, I put a low bid on a Terry McDermott J15 brass kit on ebay thinking I would not win it but of course I did.  The blurb said the seller believed the kit was complete except for motor and gearbox but as it turned out some parts were missing.

The instructions were type written; well the kit was of 1986 vintage and extremely difficult for me to follow but I was helped out considerably by another modellers post on one of these builds, see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/8611-studio-scale-models-irish-j15-4mm/.  My thanks to 5XP, without his pictures I would have been lost.

 

This is the kit as received.

 

 

I started on the locomotive but ended up with difficulties with the chassis, but more of that later.  I cut out the Tender pieces from the fret that last Sunday we had sun, (could it be the end of our summer?)

 

 

Chassis almost complete just to add the outside brake pull rods after painting.

 

 

 

To be continued.

[tmcg1959]

Fair play to you for giving it a shot, looks good so far. I admire you!

[kirley]

Added the body.

 

 

 

[pat141]

That looks like a 10,000 piece jig saw, good luck.

That's why i went for the oo works j15. A heavy price but all the work is done.

it might have taken me a couple of years to build that.

but the tender looks good.

[Mike 84C]

I missed that one in auction! Your build is looking good, please keep posting. I am sure a Bandon Tank will be along soon.

[kirley]

Thanks Mike, I got it last November and have been struggling with it since April, I think it will be a while before I tackle a brass kit again.

[Mike 84C]

Hi Kirley, pm me if you like and we can have a chat about any problem areas. I am not an expert!!!

[Mike 84C]

Hi Kirley, did your man work his magic and were my thoughts of any use?

[kirley]

Thanks Mike for your prompt to update this thread.  The difficulties I had with this build, besides working out the instructions, has been mainly of my own making.

 

The main frames were .03 mm brass so not the strongest. I tried to put on the gears without ensuring a tight but movable fit that resulted in gears that would not go fully on nor come off.  I managed to remove them but ended up with twisted mainframes which I tried to straighten. The connection rods would not rotate properly so a friend suggested making new frames.

 

 

I had to cleanup the frames to use them as a template for the new ones.

 

 

 

He has a milling machine but his first go was not fully successful as the rods hesitated in one spot.

 

 

Another set of main frames was made last week and was successful.

 

 

 

 

Brake rods and brakes added (real fun) and ready for the etch primer.

 

 

Meanwhile work continued on the body and has progressed to this stage. 

 

 

 

 

A successful test of the motorised chassis carried out.

 

 

[Eoin Murray]

Excellent Kirley

 

Almost up and running, I like the timber wedge on the motor!

 

I learnt a new tip on etch priming- only lightly spray it onto the brass so that you can still see through the paint, apparently the etchant works better this way, rather than a full opaque coat......

 

Eoin

[tmcg1959]

Kieran,

 

I can almost hear a sigh of relief when you got this together, very patient man. Well done.

[pat141]

That's looking good, well done.

What's up with the cab, it's got a bit of a slant on it? from that angle anyway.

[kirley]

I was hoping the slant was not so noticeable but obviously I was wrong.  I was far on in the build when I realised my error and by that stage I was just so scunnered with this build I could not face unsoldering the whole body section to attempt to straighten the cab, so there it is warts and all.

[pat141]

I thought you were going to say it was just sitting on but not soldered. That's a pity.

Maybe you might have another go at it.

[kirley]

J15 No. 104

 

At last I've struggled to the end and have produced something which is not pretty but goes and it will do until OO Works release their J15 locomotive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pat141]

That  looks really nice.

I like the colour, what did you use?

[kirley]

 

I like the colour, what did you use?

 

Sorry Pat for the delay on replying, I used a matt black and mixed some Humbrol 67 [grey] into it until I got a shade I liked.  Don't ask for measurements I do my mixing in the cup of the airbrush and what is left over is put into a glass jar for further coats or touch-ups.

[fletchj1]

This is my own version of the J15 (an SSM kit).

 

At the time I put together this one I was informed that the smoke box was to be black rather than the grey which itself is not all that different from Kirley's.   Is that correct?.

Jeremy.