Modbury

[Ian Smith]

With RailEx just a few weeks away, I have finally "finished" the 45xx (although it still awaits its number plates, which are on order from Narrow Planet).

 

A couple of photos of her to close this element of the project that is "Modbury" ...

 

 

There is a little bit of touching up of the paintwork still to do (which only really becomes apparent when you take a photograph of your model!!!)

 

Another side project that has just been completed is a "Rulley" (cart) for my coal merchant ...

 

Some time ago, I picked up an N gauge Shire Scenes Coal Cart from the Dart Castings stand at an exhibition.  I had never built the kit because I felt that the type of horse drawn vehicle it represented was a little to ornate for a sleepy South Devonshire town coal merchant.

Internet image of the N Gauge kit

 

A look at the various parts included in the kit indicated that I could with a little adaption make the sort of vehicle that I felt would be in keeping for my fictional coal merchant.  I built up the bed and underframe of the cart as per the manufacturers "instructions" (although I decided to employ soldered construction rather than the advised super glue).  The central divider and name board along with the balance scales I discarded.  However I used the "head board" to make a lower head board and a tail board (as you can see I have absolutely no idea what all of these various bits of a horse drawn dray/rulley/cart are actually called, but hopefully you'll understand what I'm talking about!!)  Once soldering was complete, the model was washed and primed and finally given a coat of red before being "muckied up".  I purposely built up the model as two parts - (1) the leading wheels and associated underframe carriage parts (including the shafts that the horse goes between), and (2) the rear wheels, underframe carriage and bed of the vehicle.  The idea being that I could then orient the steering part to wherever I placed the model on the layout.

 

I was going to try to paint my coal merchants name on the head board, but before making such a rash decision I decided to have a look through my transfer stash to see if anything might be of use - I new that I had some ancient Woodhead pressfix transfers that almost certainly would have lost their sticky.  Luckily, and most surprisingly, the transfers still stuck, so my merchants name was built up from some sub-1mm lettering (and a full stop) from the sheet and secured with a coat of matt varnish.

 

A couple of chains (of twisted fine wire) were added hanging down just in front of the rear wheels (I think they were a form of hand brake, allowing the wheels to be tethered to prevent rotation).

 

For a load, I made up some sacks from milliput, the tops of which were sliced off (to provided a flat face onto which I could glue some coal pieces) and once stuck together and painted dirty black, the coal pieces were affixed with gel type super glue.

 

Photos of this little addition to the layout :

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

 

 

[Mikkel]

Congratulations on completing the 45xx, Ian. It is excellent. The cylinders alone!

 

Very nice finish on the horsedrawn wagon too, chain and all. I like "rulley", seems to be a Yorkshire word?

 

 

[CF MRC]

On 30/04/2023 at 13:35, Ian Smith said:

 

 

 

 

A couple of chains (of twisted fine wire) were added hanging down just in front of the rear wheels (I think they were a form of hand brake, allowing the wheels to be tethered to prevent rotation).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The chains would attach to a U shaped steel slipper shoe that would slide under the wheel when going down hill. The dray-man would put it under the front of the wheel  whence it would slide and hence brake the waggon.  It could also act as a chock when parking. There are probably many variations on this theme. 
 

Tim

Edited May 8, 2023 by CF MRC

[Ian Smith]

With my modelling mojo finally returned, over the last few days I have been working on a Worsley Works coach that I started several years ago.  The coach is a D37 Brake Third with a clerestory roof, and I had put it to one side after erecting the sides and ends because I was not happy with the guards lookouts (some refer to them as "duckets").

 

Over the last week or two, the lookouts were removed, and re-attached so they no longer look quite as wonky as they did.  The main roof is cut from 0.005" brass sheet, and the area where the clerestory would go was cut away so that I could get the iron in when attaching the clerestory roof.  Once the clerestory sides and ends were attached to the main roof, another piece of 0.005" brass was cut and rolled for the clerestory roof - this was the very devil to form as being narrow trying to roll the 3-arc profile required tasked the patience somewhat!!  The rain strips are simple lengths of straightened copper wire soldered in place - tacked in the centre, then occasionally around the arc, once happy the solder is flowed so that the whole rain strip is secure, and the excess trimmed from the ends of the coach.

 

As is my wont, I sweated the G commode handles in place and fitted the door handles by soldering from the inside - both types of handles being provided on a little N Brass etch.  Once all of the painting is complete, these handles will be scraped back to bare brass before the protective coat of varnish is applied.  I prefer to have these types of thing firmly soldered in place, and as the model is built, it gets several good scrubs with cream cleaner so any poorly affixed ones come adrift long before the model enters the paint shop (luckily, this rarely happens anyway).

 

The lamp tops are some simple turnings from 1.5mm nickel silver rod, and once secured in the holes drilled to accommodate them the pipe feed was soldered in place along the roof and down the end from 0.2mm nickel silver wire from Albion Models.  Finally, thin copper wire is soldered from the lamp top to this main feed and the excess cut away.  The brake tell-tale on the end of the coach is also formed from the Albion Models straight 0.2mm wire, tiny loops being formed in the ends before being filled with solder.

 

Below are a couple of photos of the coach body, it is now ready to enter the paint shop (hopefully the primer coat will not reveal too much that needs attention!!) :

 

 

Thanks for looking

Ian

[Ian Lilley]

Great work as usual,Ian.I am plucking up courage to get a couple of Worsley Works D37's and a C15 to form a short rake.Some months ago John Aldrick showed me  photos of some 10' Dean Bogies he had made using modified Association Pullman bogies which gave a very good representation and I am intending to do the same,but wondered what you intended using?

 

Ian Lilley

[Ian Smith]

2 minutes ago, Ian Lilley said:

Great work as usual,Ian.I am plucking up courage to get a couple of Worsley Works D37's and a C15 to form a short rake.Some months ago John Aldrick showed me  photos of some 10' Dean Bogies he had made using modified Association Pullman bogies which gave a very good representation and I am intending to do the same,but wondered what you intended using?

 

Ian Lilley

Ian,

I was lucky in that Richard Brummitt furnished me with a set of his etchings for a pair of Dean 10’0” bogies. I have added springs and axleboxes from my own 8’6” Dean bogie etches. Richard’s etch includes laminations to build up the volute springs which I think I will use. Brake gear will also be poached from my 8’6” ones. Step boards will be fabricated from some strips of step boards that I included on my 6 wheel coach etch to fill up space.

Ian

[Ian Lilley]

Thank you Ian,now you mention it I seem to remember reading somewhere, several years ago, that Richard had produced Dean bogie etches.Looking forward to watching your progress which should give me guidance in my own efforts,

Many thanks,Ian Lilley

[Nig H]

On 11/05/2023 at 12:08, Ian Smith said:

Ian,

I was lucky in that Richard Brummitt furnished me with a set of his etchings for a pair of Dean 10’0” bogies. I have added springs and axleboxes from my own 8’6” Dean bogie etches. Richard’s etch includes laminations to build up the volute springs which I think I will use. Brake gear will also be poached from my 8’6” ones. Step boards will be fabricated from some strips of step boards that I included on my 6 wheel coach etch to fill up space.

Ian

The Association will hopefully be releasing kits for 8' 6" and 10' Dean bogies probably September-ish. These will be etched frames with 3D printed volute springs. I'm waiting for one final test etch before going to production.

 

Nigel Hunt

[richbrummitt]

12 hours ago, Ian Lilley said:

Thank you Ian,now you mention it I seem to remember reading somewhere, several years ago, that Richard had produced Dean bogie etches.Looking forward to watching your progress which should give me guidance in my own efforts,

Many thanks,Ian Lilley

2012 it was. Amazing how time flies! I’ve done a few re-runs since, most recently this last year. I have a few in hand if you’d like a pair PM me. 

[Ian Smith]

A little reminder that Modbury will be at RailEx, Stoke Mandeville, Aylesbury this weekend (27th -28th May 2023) - http://www.railex.org.uk.  There is a good presence of 2mm finescale layouts on show (Freshwater, Kyle of Lochalsh, Bath Sheds & Modbury), along with various other delights in a variety of scales.

 

An Up local passenger train of 6 wheeled coaches headed by Metro tank 615 departs from Modbury, while a pick up goods hauled by a Dean Goods pauses at the signal box awaiting the single line token before it can proceed towards Plymouth.

 

Hope that some of you will be able to come along to RailEx and say hello.

 

Thanks for looking.

Ian

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Ian Smith

[Compound2632]

Looking forward to seeing all these tomorrow morning!

[richard i]

I am looking forward to catching the layout in the flesh for the first time on Sunday

i have been an admirer for a while..

richard 

[Johndc120]

Beautiful layout, I came back to see it a few times. The way you run it kept it busy too which was more than could be said for some of the massive layouts there

 

really great modelling and the highlight of the show for me

 

John

[tapdieuk]

Hi Ian

Modbury looked fantastic. I am always spotting details/textures, its inspiring. 

Will

[Ian Smith]

Been a bit side-tracked recently (see later in post), but yesterday I decided to tackle something that I've been putting off for ages - loco buckets.

 

Inspired by Trevor Pott's article in the latest MRJ (No. 297) on his Aberdare loco (and the small details he's made to accompany it), I decided that I really couldn't put off adding some of these details to my own locos.  The accompanying drawing of a bucket shows in the article shows them to be about 1'0" diameter at the rim, and about 1'0" high overall.  

 

To make mine, a length of 2mm diameter nickel silver was chucked up and a taper turned with the cross slide set to some 4 degrees.  A 1mm milling cutter was used to bore into the embryonic bucket, then a graver was poked into the hole to widen it out to give a thin lip at the rim.  A piercing saw was used to part the bucket from the rest of the rod, and the bottom of the bucket then addressed with a fine file to bring the height down to about 2mm.  The handles were formed from some 41swg (0.112mm) phosphor bronze wire which was tinned before forming into a long U shape around round-nosed pliers.  The tails of the U were cut off appropriately, and the tails then soldered to the outside of the rim of the bucket - to assist in this tricky operation, the bucket was sunk into a hole in a piece of tufnol (not sure of the exact size of the hole as it was one of many that that particular piece of tufnol has in it, but suffice it to say that the bucket protruded from the hole by about 0.5mm and was held firmly).

 

One of the pair of buckets made so far.  The enormous rule gives an indication of the true size of the bucket!!

 

The other bucket made has already been hung on the tool hook on the rear of my "Buffalo" saddle tank.

 

Another view of the "Buffalo" with its full complement of bits and bobs hanging on the tool hooks on the bunker.

 

Now to the real reason not much else has been done!!  As can be seen in the photo above, the tank engine is not sitting on a length of baulk road track!!!  I have started to make myself a little "test plank" - quite some time ago I built the board from a piece of 4'0" x 6" x 4mm plywood using some strips of MDF for the frame.  And there it had sat with me debating whether I actually needed a test track given that Modbury is permanently set up in my living room.  However, a couple of weeks ago I noticed the board leaning up in the corner of my spare bedroom and decided that I really ought to do something with it, especially since I had bought some Easitrack and etched chair plates to try out.

 

The original plan was to knock up a test track consisting of a run-round loop with a single siding off the loop, and indeed that is what I have started to lay.  However I have since developed the idea a bit, so have amended the Templot plan so that the original single loco release point at the end of the loop is now a crossover giving me an extra siding parallel to the loco release, giving me a plan similar to West Bay station at the end of the Bridport branch.

 

West Bay Station

 

My thinking now is that I could eventually incorporate this test track into a wider scenic board, and to help facilitate this potential end game I have re-aligned the original siding so that diverges slightly more to make use of more of the 6" width that I have available.

 

A general overall view of what has been played so far, and also shows how the siding deviates from my original plan.  At the time this photo was taken I had not stuck the engine release crossover and additional siding gained in place.  As can be seen, my preference is to build my track work in situ, which on a board this size is probably just as easy as building it offsite!

 

Finally, a closer view of the completed turnout built using the various normal, slide and check rail etched chairs available from the Association.  Looking at the photo, I realise that I have still to fit 2 chairs this end of the crossing nose, although these will need to be butchered a bit as there isn't enough room for 2 ordinary chairs to fit end to end.  One thing that may be noticeable in the above photo is that I am laying my Easitrack sleepers individually (rather than in the panels of 6 that they come on the sprue on) - As this is a test track, I wanted to see if I could lay the sleepers such that I would have prototypical rail lengths with appropriate sleeper spacings.

 

That's all for now, thanks for looking

Ian

 

[Donw]

I will be interested to see what you make of it Ian. I would suggest sliding at least one rail into the chairs would help with alignment. I presume you fix them down in a length. I think the GWR was using about 40ft lengths which would be about 16 to 20 sleepers depending on the exact spacing used. 

As for the buckets just superb.

 

Don 

[Ian Smith]

Just a heads up. My train set, Modbury, will be making its last appearance of 2023 at the Portsmouth Model Railway exhibition on Saturday 18th November (Admiral Lord Nelson School on Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT).

 

 

 

 

Ian

[Compound2632]

40 minutes ago, Ian Smith said:

Just a heads up. My train set, Modbury, will be making its last appearance of 2023 at the Portsmouth Model Railway exhibition on Saturday 18th November (Admiral Lord Nelson School on Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT).

 

Last! No!

 

(Can't make this Saturday, unfortunately.)

[Donw]

Looking forward to seeing it again Ian especially the steam railmotor.

 

Don

[Ian Smith]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Last! No!

 

(Can't make this Saturday, unfortunately.)

Panic not Stephen. It’s only the last exhibition for this year. Currently, it should be at Loughborough and Swindon next year.

Ian

[Mikkel]

I never get tired of your Modbury photos, Ian. 

 

Do you know the dates for Swindon 2024? Can't seem to find them on the webpage.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Ian Smith said:

Panic not Stephen. It’s only the last exhibition for this year. Currently, it should be at Loughborough and Swindon next year.

 

Ah, relief.

[MarshLane]

5 hours ago, Ian Smith said:

Just a heads up. My train set, Modbury, will be making its last appearance of 2023 at the Portsmouth Model Railway exhibition on Saturday 18th November (Admiral Lord Nelson School on Dundas Lane, Portsmouth, PO3 5XT).

Ian

 

Ian,

You really cannot describe Modbury as a train set!  Wonderful and superb piece of landscape modelling containing a 2mm to the foot railway yes .. but train set no!!!  Hope to see it at exhibition sometime, but it was great to spend a few hours with it when you attended the NMAG meeting. It shows the skill of your modelling to perfection.

Rich

[Donw]

it was good to see Modbury yesterday. Superb modelling.

 

Don

[Ian Smith]

Thoroughly enjoyed the Portsmouth exhibition!!  With just Steve and myself operating for the day, I don't think either of us managed to get a good look at the other exhibits.  However, the short time I spent away from Modbury proved that the show was an excellent one with a variety of good quality layouts/scales on offer for the public.

 

Unfortunately, within the first few minutes of running it was noticed that my Dean Goods had an intermittent short, so we had to deploy John Russell's somewhat out of period Collett Goods for the day, but it is such an excellent and reliable runner that we'd have run it anyway!!

 

I didn't manage to take many photos of Modbury (and unfortunately none at all of Nigel Ashton's wonderful Drwys-y-Nant), but here are the few I managed :

 

An overall view of the scenic section before the public were allowed in.  Steam Railmotor just departing towards Newton Abbot.  Once again, the SRM attracted a lot of interest and favourable comment.

 

517 tank in charge of a short cattle train departing Modbury.

 

Prairie (later 45xx) draws a short Plymouth bound pick up goods over the embankment into the station.

 

A closer view of Prairie and leading wagons of Down Goods train.

 

Finally, fellow 2mm Association member and friend, Richard Brummitt, provided me with a surprise gift ...

A rather beautiful "Beetle" - a diagram W4 Prize Cattle Wagon.  Richard said that he took my artwork for the W1/W5 cattle wagon and amended it.  I think that is a gross understatement as the only bits recognisable from my original work are the ends and the drop flap side door!! He has 3D printed the body, and "cobbled together" the running gear from various bits of etch.  The result is simply stunning and to say that I am thrilled is an understatement - Thank you Richard!!  Unfortunately, because Richard uses 3 link couplings (!!!!) on his stock I wasn't able to run it on the day as it will need a set of DG's fitting.

 

Thank you for looking.

Ian