New Years Resolution; finish those half made kits.

[relaxinghobby]

I've had this one for ages, a cheapo American style switcher, either a model of a Baldwin or ALCO prototype.

Question is can I use it as an imported loco on my pre-grouping layout? Is it too modern?

I'm sure I've seen an old photo of just such a loco busy shunting a dock side either in South Wales or maybe

Ireland.

 

Some American built loco's where imported during the locomotive famine of the late 19th century and early 20th.

 

The model railway world is a buzz with the new Hornby Peckett shunter, by all accounts it's a lovely little model and a good moover too. Money's a bit short at the moment so I've looked for an alternative. This inexpensive model made by ............, I've lost the box. I think it was a tenner.

 

Like the Peckett it is an 0-4-0 saddle tank, heavy, has a two stage gear train, separate wire hand rails and a head light!

I bet the Peckett does not have one.

 

I've got to add some European style buffing gear and my type of couplings.

 

A quick google for "0-4-0 switcher" found lots of helpful photos which I have distilled into what details I can add.

 

Edited February 12, 2017 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

517 loco. The crew have been prepared for the cab. Left hand is a Prieser warehouse worker leaning on a crate. Right hand is a Frankenstein made of bits of Dapol, and the missing leg so he can be glued against the motor housing.

[relaxinghobby]

 

The 517 modified 14xx is just about finished, one of the sand pipes in front of the leading wheels was too long and scraping the rail head at points. The crew are now in place doing their best to hide that big box in the cab, what can it be?

 

The flash illumination has made the lining look yellow and the green a lighter shade. This has turned out to be a controllable model and can be used for shunting. It has a weird behaviour, that is the control spring holding the trailing wheel down compresses and then boings up again, I think that is the correct technical term, as the loco runs along. I don't know why, I've managed to squeeze in more weight than in the original Hornby loco and most of that is ahead of the middle wheels. Should I cut one circle of the spiral spring to soften it.

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

For those who know the chassis. The weight cut off at the front has been replaced by lead in the boiler behind that white plasticard, more lead shot inserted in odd corners, so it is much heavier than it was in it's Hornby version, so why does the rear spring not do it's job properly?

Boing, boing.

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

I found or noticed tiny writing under the front coupling, it's a Lifelike model.

Here's the work done so far..

Chassis on right shows the large cast grey block and equally large brassy motor, old style this was made long before modern neodymium magnet motors. These two objects balance the weight fore and aft equally.

False floor added to cab so I can put a couple of crew in there. It's all black plasticard so difficult to photograph.

I think it's a Lifelike brand, which I think is a cheep version of Riverrossi, like Hornby's Railroad range, the more expensive version would probably have the more complex Walschaerts valve gear.

[relaxinghobby]

Bit of forensic help needed here with my Pullman banana shaped roof from posting #26.

 

Weeks of soaking in screen wash did not affect the paint, but a few days in caustic soda solution, 100g of crystals in 1 litre of water did the trick.

 

 

Dig in to reveal this; the dark bit is the original clerestory roof and the white is where I built up the profile with plasticard.

 

 

Anyway it warped over a few years despite being screwed to the coach body which has remained properly cuboid. See the brass screw adaptors on the underside.

 

 

 

Any amount of gentle flexing does not bend it back, the roof remains rigidly bananoid. Can I copyright that word?

 

 

What to do with it? if it won't bend, bin it and scratch build a new one.

If so how to do that.

I modified this one because attempts at scratch building had come to nothing, but that was before RMWEB.

[relaxinghobby]

 

Some more detailing, buffers being added and some hand rails. The front bufferbeam had to be extended upwards to take the buffers. Since this picture was added the couplings have been fitted. The sort of coupling sockets for the US style coupler has been packed out with plasticard to get the Bachmanns to the correct level.

 

It will have a ritual bath and etch primer painted onto the chromed rails and wheel rims. The enamel black I use did not stick at all.

Edited March 11, 2017 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

 

I will try and finish this one next as it is the first unfinished model in this thread, which perhaps I should rename as “I’ll finish then someday....”.

 

 

 

This is a card board kit from Alphagraphix, and is basically a colour picture of the four side of a horse box that you have to cut out glue to some salvaged Christmas cards and form it all into a box. I built the chassis up with brass W irons and Cambrian plastic wagon sides. The strapping is carefully cut out with the sharpest knife you can get, or if you are a bit cheapskate like me you can hone the blade on an oil stone. So the sharp knife does not rip the cardboard but cuts out the tiny, thin, pieces cleanly.

 

The kit is for the 3 foot Irish narrow gauge railway Cavan and Leitrim but despite being narrow gauge the body is large enough for use on the standard gauge.

 

I used some dried out prit-stick to fix the strapping, it's come loose whilst handling the model for these photos so I'll have to find some better glue. I'm going to have to paint this model anyway, so the glue stains don't matter. The big problem is how to make the corners good?

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

 

Now all the strapping detail has been cut out and stuck on. A really sharp knife is the essential tool in getting a neat edge on the postcard grade card use here. Honing the edge on an oil-stone is the method to use. Some craft-knife sets come with one like this cheap Work-Zone one I got from Lidl.

 

I can't find the remaining printed details to cut out and overlay so I've just cut out strips of card and stuck them on following the printed pattern on the basic body shell. One of the troubles of taking so long to finish a kit is that parts go missing or separated in the piles of modelling fallout and other half made kits.

 

The card is uncoloured but I am going to paint it anyway.

 

I've switch to using Rocket card glue I had, expensive compared to woodworking white PVA glue but it does not seem to cockle the card and it's quick drying, and I've got the remains of a bottle under the sink.

[Graham456]

Going back to your bouncy 517, from your discription the spring is to weak, not to strong so do not cut a coil out.

The torque as you pull away if that's the right terminology is compressing the spring, eather get a new one or place a packer under it some how!

[relaxinghobby]

Thanks  Graham456

 

I've had a quick look at the spring in the GWR 517 tank, it seems stiff enough, I don't think I've cut some of the length off.

One change I did make was to replace the wheels with the rubber traction tyres on with plain ones from a Hornby spares

suppliers. I think these are factory seconds and slightly eccentric which may be part of the cause of the up and down

bobbing the loco exhibits as it runs along?

[relaxinghobby]

 

Pullman roof

An attempt at a new roof for the Pullman like coach? An earlier item in this thread and neglected since then. At the Nottingham exhibition there was a demo by a guy building O gauge coaches from balsa wood, veneer and sub millimetre thick ply. LNER teak style wooden coaches for which these techniques gave good looking results. I was show how to make clerestory and Pullman style roof with their raised centres and rounded ends. I am going to try the method here.

 

 

Digging out the model again I found this other roofless project and thought two rooves at once would be just as easy as one?. A balsa ceiling can be seen in the Pullman.

 

Then this turned up, a wooden profiled roof from a damaged wood and cardboard kit acquired 2nd hand, so I've used it to save time on this already modified Graham Farish body which has already lost some compartments. The bogies are ratio plastic kits built up and re-enforced with extra plasticard.

 

 

The pre shaped roof was cut to length with a razor saw, rubbing a bit of candle wax on the blade made the sawing easy and the ends had to be gently whittled away with a craft knife to fit over the coach. Some under floor detail next and I need to find the dimensions of the centre raised section for the Pullman.

[relaxinghobby]

Old Graffer coach

 

Progress has been very slow lately, but here it is what has been achieved.

 

 

A picture of the coach up on it's wheels. You see the white filler in that great big gap where the too ends have been joined, it is stopping the roof from sitting down snugly, sanding and fettling required. The couplings stick out beyond the buffers a bit so will need adjusting somehow.

 

 

A detailed piece of balsa wood with some odds bits of detail fitted and glued to it to give it the look of a busy underside, it will need some sort of truss rod arrangement I think, to look the part and needs devising some sort of screw or some thing to attached this piece.

 

 

 

These old Graham Farrish coaches were sort of generic 1930s type, this one has lost some of the end details so I have tried to smooth it off a bit.

 

Black is a hard co;our to photograph, the camera seems to see it as a dense black shape.

Edited May 13, 2017 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

 

A bit more work achieved. The under floor detail of truss roods and tanks has been developed. Sections of wood glued in with super-glue.

I've also added some wire to the brake cylinder to look like brake rodding but this is almost invisible behind the outer derail.

I'm afraid I will always belong to the " if it looks OK at 3ft ( about 1 metre ) it looks OK on a working layout"  camp. I'll never be a fine scaler, not got the patience, must get the model finished, quickly !

On the left is a Ratio Midland Rly clerestory roof moulding which will provide the roof lamp detail.

 

I've a problem with that Revell tube of Plasto filler,  it's very plaster like when it dries out, a bit plastery and it started to crumble and fall out of the wide gap in the body sides. I tried reinforcing it by smearing it with super glue.

 

 

To come next, how to fix the couplings and also how to hide the wood grain in the wooden roof section, ( not yet worked this out ).

 

Find some seated figures.

Edited May 17, 2017 by relaxinghobby

[mike morley]

In the early days of this thread I made a comment about the problem of forgetting what still needed to be done if you put aside a half-built project. 

Well, I've just resumed work on an RT Models chassis of an Austerity tank that I started a couple of ago.  I built it, primed and painted it then realised I'd made an error so gave it a dousing in a bath of Nitromors, then realised the problem would not be that easy to overcome so put it aside and . . . and . . . and . . .

 

Okay, so why did I put it aside?

 

I fitted the rear sandboxes, but not the front ones.  I know that was for a reason, not simply a case of "not getting a round tuit", but can I remember what that reason was?  Can I hell!  I also know that the sandboxes problem was not the reason why the project as a whole was put side, but - again - I cannot remember what that reason was.

I have no doubt that if I fit the front sandboxes and repaint the chassis both problems will manifest themselves immediately, but I'd really rather not resort to doing that so continue to scratch my head and rue the failing memory that accompanies advancing middle age,

I'm told bladder control goes next . . .

Edited June 3, 2017 by mike morley

[relaxinghobby]

Maybe I'll resurrect this thread putting up some of my “forgottens” made me get on and finish them. Especially with any help and encouragement from other forum companions.

Some times the old projects where little more than wishful thinking, some kit parts I thought I could convert into something else. Usually something bought on impulse from a second hand stall at an exhibition thinking I could change that or that looks a bit like a …....... Sometimes even more ethereal than that just a plan or photograph that inspire a start on a model, Any way the process of photographing and posting them gets me thinking about how to solve any problems with the help of you people here on the forum many old projects were finished.

 

Here's one. I had several Airfix cattle wagon kits without any chassis components, what if I modified them into something else smaller vans. After making drawings of a small LNWR van to help me learn computer aided drawing I though perhaps I could cut them down to the same size?

 

The sides ends are cut off each side, rubbed down on coarse sandpaper to get the bevelled angle to match the corners on the ends and then the two end parts and the doors are assemble on a short strip of plasticard to make one whole side.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

Cattle wagon running parts using shortened sole bars from an old Slaters chassis kit to represent 8ft 6 inch wheelbase, one side glued on, I'll have to cut away some of the red Airfix floor moulding to allow space for the new position of the wheels. This means gluing 4 separate sole bars in place so each has to be carefully positioned so the wheels can run true. After a dry run one side is added and the 3 rd W iron opposite, when all is OK and after the glue has set some the 4^th W can be added, any gaps filled later.

 

 

The Airfix kit had a lot of play value, did any one get those original two half axial wheel sets to run at all? At least you could park it out of the way at the end of some siding on it's non rotating wheels and play with the opening and closing doors. The legacy of that is you get giant hinges on the moulding and strange openings here and there. I'd rather fill these by wedging and gluing in scraps of p-card than filler that goes hard and drops out later.

 

 

From this angle you can see the brown and grey Slaters parts, those buffer beams are beginning to bend backwards as the glue dries out. The top right hand corner shows where the detail has been restored, carefully cutting the triangular corner post from the discarded end of the shortened wagon side and gluing it in place to restore the corner to being a square.

 

Dapol wheels sold as spares.

[relaxinghobby]

Some more work on the cattle wagon.

 

 

Preparing for the couplings I build up layers of plastic to make turrets to hold the couplings at the right height, the black against the red plastic of the chassis wagon floor.

Couplings are glues to a strip of pcard.

I've also wedge a few slithers of white plasticard behind the buffers at the end of the solebars to push the buffers back into a vertical position.

 

 

At some exhibition club stand I luckily found and brought some ancient styrene Kenline strapping strips, you can get the equivalent in brass etches theses days but for plastic models it's easier to glue on the plastic ones. I'm not sure what sort of strapping such a short wagon would have so it's got vertical on one side and diagonal on t'other

 

 

Here it is with the lid on. I'd thought I'd practically finished it but this close up photo reminds me I have not done the brakes yet.

 

The roof will be glued on with a minimal touch of glue when after the model is painted, so what colour would the inside of a cattle wagon be? Same as the outside or left as bear wood or white with lime wash disinfectant?

Edited June 25, 2018 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

Here the cattle wagon has it's brakes on, a primitive single shoe type.

 

I've also started a conversion that I've long intended to do, a 4 wheel milk churn wagon cut down from the longer 6 wheel version. It's based on a GWR prototype of what became known from it's telegraph code of Syphon, an ideal branch line passenger luggage van.

 

I'm using an old K's kit here.

( Should it be K's or Ks ? )

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used various parts to make up my own little kit, the yellow sides and ends with all that lovely detail are Ks. The grey floor is a Ratio I think, it's been in the spares box a while, I could have just used a flat rectangle of plasticard but this was the right thickness to fit in the slots in the sides and has some under frame detail that helps stiffen things a bit. The black foot boards, springs and axle boxes are a single Ks moulding from the Syphon kit, the false ceiling is a rectangle of plasticard on which I will build up the roof. You can't see daylight through the sides yet as there are some layers of balsa wood and card holding up the ceiling to the correct height whilst I construct the roof.

Edited July 6, 2018 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

pl sing

rooves roov

rooves roof

roofs roof

 

I want to go to Pepperland where the spelling is easier, kidda. ( It's the 50^th anniversary of Sergent Pepper, it was on the news this morning).

 

Rooves have always presented a bit of a problem, especially for vans and coaches. How to get an arc roof even and unwarped over the whole length of a vehicle? Don't even get me started on Pullman clerestories.

 

Maybe its the spelling even that's difficult.

 

 

This time I used a premoulded roof from a van kit rather than trying to bend a rectangle of plasticard into submission. You see I find this aspect of model building difficult.

The kit roof has a slightly too high an arc so I've scored groves along the length of the underside about a millimetre apart, like planking. Rather than risk cutting all the way through I did not use a knife but one of those pointy tools to score the grooves. The sort that comes from a little blade and handle set, a cheapy from Lidl.

 

 

 

A flat rectangle of thicker p-card makes a false ceiling and holds the vehicle sides apart with longitudinal height spacers glued to hold it up under the roof.

 

Diagram

 

Those at positions a, yet to be fitted.

 

The roof will not be glued to the van body but will be a plug-in to make painting easier.

 

 

The wheels that come with the Ks kit have a tube at the back, not see-ble in this photo. They are slid onto the pin pointed axle and glued up solid. This gives a longer axle than that used in the present and so the axles boxes are further apart so for replacement metal wheels some sort of mod will have to be concocted.

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

Some detail work on the milk wagon, some Merit I think milk churns glued to a scrap of card and dropped onto the floor so you can see the outline of their form through the wagon slatted sides.

 

I've also added some brake detail from spare parts these where not included in the original Ks kit.

Edited August 19, 2018 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

Rough modelling of a Grand Vitesse express goods train. I have these continental vans from “Made in France , Jouef , For Playcraft”, see they’re proper continental, kind of appropriate for Grand Vitesse stock, turns out they are a good size for UK outline in 00.

The doors slide to increase play value I guess, I could recreate the guards van scene from the First Great Train Robbery Starring Shaun Connery and Donald Sutherland, all top hats and moustachios.

The guard stands in the open doorway of the gold bullion van, played by Micheal Elphick, with the train chugging along as they winch bags of loot onto the roof.

 

 

Comparison with a passenger brake van using ratio 4 wheeler sides, they are a good height and width,

 

 

I've fitted various 12mm wheels using a bearing drilling tool, that was done ages ago and then no further progress made.

This brings the buffer height up to 00 standars. Some repairs to the roofs and buffer beams are needed and drilling new buffer holes for 00 spacing, the original buffers where far to tiny probably because of their toy status, appropriate sized buffers would have been too long and easily broken off by kiddies.

 

 

Buffers and couplings fitted, for my era I don't have to worry about brakes and and hoses. Buffers are a mixture of what ever I've got, red and black ones from Bachmann Thomas and Billy ranges, they were on the locos, why I dunno. Metal one from Wizard models. Couplings mounted on towers of layers of plasticard, built up, or down until the correct height is achieved.

 

[relaxinghobby]

The above models of vans and milk van are all in the paint shops and whilst they are drying out, here is another pair of vehicles that need finishing.

]

 

Jouef van---Ratio GWR 4 wheeler---orange end of these coaches.

 

So these coaches are now multimedia, not just plastic injection moulded but one has a wooden buffer beam from a coffee stirrer, a bit thinner than normal but just the right thickness to make a new a buffer beam. This was meant to be a quicky job to see how these toy coach bodies look when mounted on some long wheelbase brake van chassis. A bit like the Foxfield Railway North Staffs coach bodies that they found as chicken sheds out in the woods and have put onto modern wagon chassis to run again. This so called quicky has taken years so here is an attempt to finish them. They are small for 4mm coaches but about the right width at 31 and a bit mm and low to the gutters, but OK for early coaches, the only problem is the roof profile they should really be a bit flatter for the early years.

 

Using brake van chassis means they come with foot-boards, suitable for the early era. I've used a spare roof lantern lookout as I made two for an earlier passenger brake project and chose the best for that leaving this one. Here it is mounted mid roof, Irish railway style.

Edited September 11, 2018 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

 

Some more work on the US  Baldwin or ALCO type switcher from #51.

 

Does anyone known if the gears can be swapped for slower running, I vaguely remember reading about this.

As a cheap starter loco I am hoping that they used standard sized industrial nylon cogs? So easily changed about.

[relaxinghobby]

I've found this PLV and a motor bogie from an exhibition rummage sale that perhaps could make a tender drive one day. The centre wheel is not powered just comes along for the ride, the outer driven wheels almost match the van wheel base, it looks like the tall ring-field motor is going to fit under the roof. The hacking process has begun.

 

Bit of model railway archaeology going on here, it's an H0 model mounted on an 00 brake van chassis from Mainline. Which has been cut in half, the centre removed and glued back together to match the length of the van body. I got this van because although it is of a Continental prototype the raised lantern roof lookout seemed to look old fashioned and British enough to me especially if the body is mounted on a higher 00 foundation. Now here comes the archaeology, as I dig down into the model to make a space for the motor and found these mods I have no recall of doing them. That's the mystery, did I do the work or did I buy it like this?

 

 

You can also see a wagon load boiler being built up from tube and a Hornby 14xx smokebox.

 

Theres always stuff to finish and ideas to try out.

 

 

This what it's for, to push around this little loco. A tankerised 3mm static model of a Crampton.