Modelling the M&CR's branch lines in EM gauge

[CKPR]

Thank you, that's really appreciated. The end brakes and levers are adapted from the set of NER brake parts sold by Wizard Models/51L. The brakes themselves had to be shortened at each end and the levers had the pivot holes filed with solder as they were in the wrong place. The brake racks were carefully melted into place - there is a slot on the end of the 51L NER hopper kit but I had overlooked this on my wagons, hence the rather drastic approach! 

Edited July 1, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

The C&WJR coke wagons are now pretty much completed,  with just the coupling chains and monkey tails to add. There is probably some more lettering I should add to them but I'll need to find my other C&WJR wagons to work out the details of the numbering and tares. Not as quick to build as I initially thought earlier this year and definitely no more 4mm scratch-building of wagons for me! The wagons in the background are the first of the O gauge stock for 'Seahouses'. I am trying to go for an old-fashioned O gauge feel here and I'm quite pleased with the results so far. I'll report on these on my other thread when I've finished hand-painting the lettering - I've no 7mm methfix lettering and waterslide /press fix transfers didn't seem to be effective  in the larger scale. 

Update - old pressfix transfers can, of course, be used as per  methfix ones. 

Edited August 31, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

It's been a long time since there was any reference to 'Mealsgate' and so here are some pictures of it in its current form. Don't worry, it's not being scrapped but just stripped down pending the next phase of completing it as a cameo layout a la Ian Rice's 'Trerice' (yes, I've just read that book of late).  Essentially,  we are demolishing the small barn that was earmarked for my railway room in order to extend our house to accommodate one of the aged Ps. To compensate for this, Mrs CKPR-to-be has offered me the other sitting room in our house as a room for my hi-fi system and model railway activities. This means that 'Mealsgate' and 'High Blaithwaite' will have to be domesticated and refurbished as shelf mounted cameo layouts. The first step in this process has been to remove the legs and then look at how 'Mealsgate' can be reduced in length and width, hence the hatched areas marked out on the boards.

[CKPR]

The next step will be to change the right-hand point leading to the goods and carriage sheds (on the right hand hand side in the photo above) for an equivalent left-hand  Marcway one. The then foreshortend sidings will lead into their respective sheds, which be in semi-low relief (possibly with cassettes at the rear ?). The line to Allhallows colliery that curves away sharply from the loop line will be straightend out and will lead to another cassette. For any one who is wondering, 'High Blaithwaite' fits on the end [the middle line is technically the running line of the Bolton Loop but in reality it saw  little use east of Mealsgate] and will also be rebuilt as a cameo layout for stand alone use, which should please Phil @SteamAle as it will be available again for the CRA stand.

Edited October 5, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

As is painfully obvious, my scenic ability runs to spraying the trackwork black ( yer actual ash ballast dontcha know !) and painting the rails a nice rusty railway colour. I actually mastered static grass on 'High Blaithwaite' but a  general railway ground /yard colour and texture so far eludes me - please don't suggest anything involving polyfilla, I can't stand the stuff on model railways !

[Caley Jim]

13 minutes ago, CKPR said:

.... but a  general railway ground /yard colour and texture so far eludes me - please don't suggest anything involving polyfilla, I can't stand the stuff on model railways !

Me neither!  Have you tried DAS modelling clay softened by soaking a chunk in water for a few days until it has the consistency which suits your purpose?  It can be coloured with powder, poster, or acrylic paints, can be moulded to shape as it dries and can be re-softened with some water to blend in the next area if the first has dried.  You can either spread it with a spatula or, if diluted to the consistency of double cream, spread with a wet No. 6 artists brush.  It has the benefits of being light in weight, resilient and easily repaired.  It also takes water based paint well.

 

See some of the results on my Kirkallanmuir thread  - link in my signature.

 

Jim

[CKPR]

Thanks Jim -I've got some DAS in stock so I can try this very easily.

[Caley Jim]

46 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Thanks Jim -I've got some DAS in stock so I can try this very easily.

What I do is place a few chunks about the size of a walnut into a large yoghurt carton, cover them with water and put the top on.  Every 24 hrs or so take the top off and chop up the chunks as they soften.  Stir it a bit each time until it eventually becomes homogeneous.  If it's getting too stiff, add some water. If it's too thin add another chunk of DAS.  I also usually stir in a little PVA just to give it better adhesion.  Dampening the surface slightly before you apply it can make application easier, especially if you're just applying a thin layer over a road or yard surface.  It always dries very much lighter in colour than when it's wet, so don't be afraid to add a lot of black and/or brown to it.  If a left over mix dries out, just add water and repeat the above to make it reusable.

 

Jim

[CKPR]

But what has become of the 'last great project', namely Cockermouth? Well, the original intention when the converted barn was in play was for a glorified tail chaser with Aspatria (in its  1976 form) on one side and a somewhat simplified Cockermouth passenger station on t'other with sneak off cassettes / hidden loops. Mealsgate would naturally have connected to Spattry. Say it not in Gath or the Pregrouping forum, but my class 25s, 40s and 47s would then have been able to peramble around with long freight trains heading to and from West Cumbria in the 1970s. That they might have met a pre-1914 Furness engine hauling a long train of empty NER hoppers back to Carlisle was a risk I was prepared to take ! No more I fear but like Mr McCawber, I'm confident that something will come up and everything will turn out fine.

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by CKPR

[ChrisN]

2 hours ago, CKPR said:

But what has become of the 'last great project', namely Cockermouth? Well, the original intention when the converted barn was in play was for a glorified tail chaser with Aspatria (in its  1976 form) on one side and a somewaht simplified Cockermouth passenger station on t'other with sneak off cassettes / hidden loops. Mealsgate would naturally have connected to Spattry. Say it not in Gath or the Pregrouping forum, but my class 25s, 40s and 47s would have been able to peramble around with long freight trains heading to and from West Cumbria. That they might have met a Furness engine hauling a long train of NER hoppers to Carlisle was a risk I eas prepared to take ! No more I fear but like Mr McCawber, I'm confident that something will come up and everything will turn out fine.

 

 

It must be very disappointing, however, I always say, (although I have not said it to my children), that being kind to your parents is a time limited option.  I look forward to the other projects that you now have planned.

[Edwardian]

5 hours ago, CKPR said:

 like Mr McCawber, I'm confident that something will come up and everything will turn out fine.

 

 

Or, indeed .... 

 

 

[CKPR]

When I said no more scratchbuilding 4mm mineral wagons, I wasn't ruling out kitbuilding and here's  the next 'quick' project. Here are the parts for fourteen Smallbrooke Studio NER P1 chaldron waggons for the traffic from Allhallows colliery to Maryport docks. Only five parts to each wagon but these are resin kits and involve using superglue, two of my least favourite materials (along with polyfilla, of course) and so  I'm going to try using Thixofix for the main build of the body and chassis. If I can get these done by the weekend, I'll have another go at Mealsgate station building.

Edited October 5, 2022 by CKPR

[Compound2632]

11 minutes ago, CKPR said:

Smallbrooke Studio NER P1 chaldron wagons 

 

These kits, like the Accurascale rtr models, are designed for the 00 back-to-back dimension and hence compromised in their proportions. How do you deal with this in converting to EM, where you can in principle get closer to scale pitch of the solebars and hence dumb buffer centres? (A good 2 mm further apart than in 00 but still too close together by 1 mm or so.)

Edited October 4, 2022 by Compound2632

[CKPR]

In a nutshell, an awful lot of washers ! I already have a rake of six of these waggons and they ran well at Mealsgate's only exhibition outing a few years ago, which surprised me given how crude the "bearings" are. Then again, I bought the last of the old Eames S&D chaldron waggon kits (which have the same problem for we EM gaugers of being designed for HO, sorry, OO gauge ) from King's Cross Model Railways in the mid-1980s and proceeded to build them with three point suspension. In retrospect, it was a complete waste of time and effort as it made next to no difference to the running.

Edited October 5, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

As for the dumb buffers, there was enough overlap between those on the various chaldrons and the lower set on M&CR No.17 - more by luck than good judgement I suspect. I did warn you all that my modelling was a bit impressionistic !

Edited October 4, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Very sad news that Iain Rice has died - I started reading his articles back in the late 1970s and along with Ian Futers, he was my main inspiration and go to person for finescale railway modelling. His interests in pre-grouping, independent and light railways and above all on that all elusive atmosphere and genus loci all chimed with my motivation for railway modelling.

[D-A-T]

That’s very sad news.

He was one of, possibly my main, modelling inspiration. 

RIP Iain.

[WFPettigrew]

On 04/10/2022 at 23:02, CKPR said:

In a nutshell, an awful lot of washers !

Quick question as I prepare to use four or maybe even five washers each side to pack out an 00 inside bearing unit* to the P4 B2B, is there any benefit in soldering/otherwise sticking the washers together?  I am scratching back at memories of O Level Physics, whether lots of rubbing surfaces will introduce more drag than just one on the inner and outer faces of a mega-washer, or not? Afraid the memories of aforementioned are rather dim and uncertain, so hoping an empirical approach will help resolve matters!

 

All the best

 

Neil 

 

* bought because Dart Castings had run out of P4 ones, and feared it could be 3 months before they could re-stock given the upheaval in the etching market at present. 

[CKPR]

6 hours ago, WFPettigrew said:

Quick question as I prepare to use four or maybe even five washers each side to pack out an 00 inside bearing unit* to the P4 B2B, is there any benefit in soldering/otherwise sticking the washers together?  I am scratching back at memories of O Level Physics, whether lots of rubbing surfaces will introduce more drag than just one on the inner and outer faces of a mega-washer, or not? Afraid the memories of aforementioned are rather dim and uncertain, so hoping an empirical approach will help resolve matters!

 

All the best

 

Neil 

 

* bought because Dart Castings had run out of P4 ones, and feared it could be 3 months before they could re-stock given the upheaval in the etching market at present. 

Hi Neil

 

Strictly empirical in the case of my chaldron waggons as I used a sandwich of brass washers with old fashioned Peco fibre washers on the inside with the whole lot being soaked in Jarvis 'Model Oil'. It's just what I had to hand and these days, I would inclined to use either Greas'em or molyslip as the lubricant, both of which probably warrant a Father Ted style "careful now !"

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by CKPR

[CKPR]

My tuppenceworth on Hornbys TT120 range is to observe that the date of the end of the original Tri-ang TT3 range was nearer to the end of the pre-grouping era than we are to the end of TT3...

[WFPettigrew]

On 09/10/2022 at 14:44, CKPR said:

Hi Neil

 

Strictly empirical in the case of my chaldron waggons as I used a sandwich of brass washers with old fashioned Peco fibre washers on the inside with the whole lot being soaked in Jarvis 'Model Oil'. It's just what I had to hand and these days, I would inclined to use either Greas'em or molyslip as the lubricant, both of which probably warrant a Father Ted style "careful now !"

 

 Thank you.  Will see what I can come up with!

[Edwardian]

16 hours ago, CKPR said:

My tuppenceworth on Hornbys TT120 range is to observe that the date of the end of the original Tri-ang TT3 range was nearer to the end of the pre-grouping era than we are to the end of TT3...

 

What I like about 3mm scale is that it is 3mm scale; the size of the stock etc is a very satisfying size and is the ideal compromise between 2mm and 4mm being mid-way between the two! So, were 3mm scale with 14.2mm track being produced, I'd be tempted. I don't find the smaller 1:120 scale Peco is promoting to be tempting. If I were to be tempted to a Continental scale, I'd go for 3.5mm. 

[t-b-g]

22 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

What I like about 3mm scale is that it is 3mm scale; the size of the stock etc is a very satisfying size and is the ideal compromise between 2mm and 4mm being mid-way between the two! So, were 3mm scale with 14.2mm track being produced, I'd be tempted. I don't find the smaller 1:120 scale Peco is promoting to be tempting. If I were to be tempted to a Continental scale, I'd go for 3.5mm. 

 

I have looked long and hard at 3mm scale and 14.2mm gauge in those moments when I just fancy trying something a bit different. I have seen a few of the etched kits available that the 3mm society has produced from reduced 4mm kits and they look lovely.

 

Then reality kicks in and I decide that working in 2, 4 and 7mm scales is probably enough and that I should concentrate on finishing what I already have on the go.

 

It will be a long time before kits are available to give a good selection in the 1:120 range, especially for a pre-grouping enthusiast. So it would mean lots of scratchbuilding, whereas there is a decent range available in 3mm scale.

Edited October 12, 2022 by t-b-g
Repetition

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I have looked long and hard at 3mm scale and 14.2mm gauge in those moments when I just fancy trying something a bit different. I have seen a few of the etched kits available that the 3mm society has produced from reduced 4mm kits and they look lovely.

 

Then reality kicks in and I decide that working in 2, 4 and 7mm scales is probably enough and that I should concentrate on finishing what I already have on the go.

 

It will be a long time before kits are available to give a good selection in the 1:120 range, especially for a pre-grouping enthusiast. So it would mean lots of scratchbuilding, whereas there is a decent range available in 3mm scale.

 

Should I ever win the lottery, I will expend vast sums to produce a RTR 3mm scale 14.2mm gauge range, perhaps with an S Scale range for those who would like to go a little bigger! 

 

Until then, I'll stick to 4mil OO!

[CKPR]

As a former dabbler in S scale, I realised that  (a) I came to it too late in my modelling life and (b) I'm too indolent to do it properly. And I'm showing my age when my first thought about Hornby's new TT system was will they do Tyneside electric stock so I can do Minories in an NER stylee ?!

Edited October 12, 2022 by CKPR