BR and Industrial diesel shunters

[pete_mcfarlane]

We do have some RH(BTH) plates like this, how many do you need?

Am I right in thinking that there are two types - one for the bonnet end, and another for the cab sides and rear? 

[Michael Edge]

Yes, we have the radiator end one and the cab plates. These were from our 165DE kit for PWM650. Cab plates usually on the sides but sometimes on the ends of the cab.

[pete_mcfarlane]

In which case I'll probably need 1 x radiator plate and 3 x cab plates. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

The 48DS is now varnished, and fitted with couplers and glazing. The crew are painted and waiting for their coat of varnish to dry. They are a Monty's driver and fireman - these locos were designed to be single manned but one on each side will hide the motor. Being whitemetal they also add a bit of weight. I also need to source some replacement mesh for the front grill - I'll have a look on the Shawplan stand the next time I seem them at a show (their class 40 frost grille is quite good as a source of mesh, but I've used up my previous stash of them). 

[pete_mcfarlane]

The 165DE is ready for painting. 

I've yet to attach the resin lamp castings to the body (as they'll probably get knocked off when I'm painting) and the underframe details can wait until the wheels are fitted. 

 

Buffers are from Alan Gibson, with the based modified tot he rectangular profile that Rustons used. Cab roof curved to shape, and the exhaust fitted through it using the section of tube supplied. It's soldered to the cab front, and doesn't actually penetrate the bonnet. The rest of the detail soldered up pretty easily, I was expecting trouble with the steps (as I always find them to be a pain) but they pretty much flew together. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

The 48DS is pretty much done. The front grille is from a Shawplan class 40 frost grille and the crew are now glued in place. 

Having wanted a photo of DS1169 for the last 30 years (since I first saw a photo of it as a kid) I'm rather pleased with how well it's turned out. 

 

[Ruston]

Now you just need an 88DS to complete the set of the 3 main standard gauge Rustons.

[JeffP]

And a 165DE 0-6-0, of course.... in fact two, as there were two types. PWM650 which became 97650 was the prototype for the WR and was slightly different to PWM651-4, which became 97651-4. Cabs, the donkey engine and wheel sizes were different.

 

If this is 7mm, Judith Edge will son have a kit for PWM650 available and Mercian do one for PWM651-4.

[pete_mcfarlane]

Now you just need an 88DS to complete the set of the 3 main standard gauge Rustons.

An industrial 88DS is on my wish list, as I've a hankering for a few more Judith Edge kits. Especially after reading your book on the 48/88DS locos. 

 

But probably not until next year though - next up will be a High Level Barclay in P4 (with rolling of boilers, outside cylinders and compensation.......). At some point they need to be joined by a class 07 as well (or should hat be a 'LSSE' in Ruston's classification system?).

 

And a 165DE 0-6-0, of course.... in fact two, as there were two types. PWM650 which became 97650 was the prototype for the WR and was slightly different to PWM651-4, which became 97651-4. Cabs, the donkey engine and wheel sizes were different.

 

If this is 7mm, Judith Edge will son have a kit for PWM650 available and Mercian do one for PWM651-4.

This is 4mm - the 48DS is not much larger than a matchbox and I'm somewhat impressed that I've made it run so smoothly (although most of the credit for that probably goes to the High level gearbox). 

 

The PWMs were Western Region locos, so I'll struggle to justify one on my Southern layout, no matter how tempting a Blue one is. Ditto Number 20, the Western's 88DS. 

 

On the subject of BR Rustons, I did manage to have a ride recently behind one. This is ZM32 of Horwich works on the Steeple Grange light railway. Possibly the smallest ex-BR loco in passenger service.

[RThompson]

And you could model her also.

 

http://www.madge00n3.co.uk/rustonlb.htm

[pete_mcfarlane]

The all over wasp stripes would be 'fun'.

http://www.steeplegrange.co.uk/locos-zm32.htm

[pete_mcfarlane]

I've been slowly painting the loco over the last month or so. It's going to be in attempt at the standard factory finish, as this is what most locos seem to have originally carried.

 

The various books on Ruston locos talk of different shades of green being used over time, so I decided upon a darkish Olive green for mine and so used Humbrol SR Maunsell green. The lining should be light green/body colour/white, but I chickened out of that and just did the light green using a ruling pen. Here's a slightly poor shot of the various bits outside being varnished earlier on today. 

The wheels have also had a coat of red oxide primer. I decided not to use the supplied balance weights, and instead filled the approximate number of spokes with Miliput. This took a few goes to get it smooth, but looks more like the original wheels with their integral balance weights.

A said 'approximate' because the 3'3 1/2" Gibson wheels have 10 spokes, and they should be 3' 2" with (I think) 11 spokes. 

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm nearly there.

Wheels are now fitted, using my trusty GW models wheel press. Everything aligned perfectly, with no binding or tweaking of the coupling rods. The motor has now been glued in place with a spot of silicone bath sealant, and once that's set I'll add pickups and wire the loco up. 

 

After that it's just fitting small details - buffers, brake gear, air tanks and so on. 

Edited February 11, 2017 by pete_mcfarlane

[Ruston]

I like that you've done the lining on it. I can't even do that on my 7mm version!

[pete_mcfarlane]

I did cheat though, and only did the green line. The real light green/dark green/white lining is worthy of a pre-group steam loco. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

An update on today's progress. The loco now has buffers (Gibson 24" sprung) and 3 link couplings, and has been glazed. It's not screwed together in this shot, which explains any slight wonkiness. 

 

The chassis has been wired up, and pickups added. As I'm coming to expect from High Level gearboxes, it's slow, quiet and smooth. It navigated my (deliberately) wonky test track with no problems, despite having a very short rigid chassis. It just need some weight, the remaining small details painting and fitting, and then final assembly. This will have to wait until it stops raining, so I can spay primer the various small parts. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

The 165DE is now finished. The cab is glazed, and the roof stuck on with PVA (so I can get inside if necessary). The resin sandboxes are added, complete with sandpipes. And the carefully removed and stick back int he places they should be (trust me not to check that bit of the instructions). 

I really enjoyed building this kit, and I now have a liking for these industrial diesel shunters. I can see one or two more following eventually - probably more than I'll need for shunting the industrial siding on my next layout once it's built. 

 

[Martin Shaw]

Hi Pete

Now you've finished the 165, nice job, your going to hate me for telling you this. Post 24 you mentioned a hole at the front of the bonnet which you thought was for an alternative exhaust location, it is in fact the radiator filler cap. Sorry about that.

Regards

Martin

[pete_mcfarlane]

You're right - there is a filler cap in roughly that position on some of the Ruston 165s, although the diagram that comes with the kit does show the exhaust in that position. So yet more detail differences. I'm starting to suspect that almost all of these locos differ from each other in some way....

[pete_mcfarlane]

My next industrial diesel project:

It's a Hornby rod driven Sentinel in a hideous livery, bought cheaply from Hattons. I'm not sure what the official classification is for this type of loco, although my copy of 'A pictorial survey of standard gauge industrial diesels' describes a similar loco as type LBH. 

 

It took a couple of hours to strip it down, and replace the side panels with etched ones from RT models. I cut the sandboxes away from the plastic mouldings and glued them back in to place behind the etches. I've also drilled out the lifting eyes on the buffer beams. And that about it - the loco seems pretty well detailed as it comes.  

 

 

Today it had some careful masking, and a coat of etch primer on the new metal bits, using one of the rattle cans from Halfords.

 

Once that's done it's work overnight, it will have some read primer and then a coat of crimson. I have some Railtec Sentinel transfers, and a set of Shawplan laser cut windows to finish it. So this should be a fairly quick job, notwithstanding my usual glacial progress at painting models. 

[matto21]

Edit - just found the link to the original thread on the old RMWeb. I'd forgotten that I had initially started out using an 'Underground Ernie' motor bogie, which was then replaced by the scratchbuilt chassis, which was then in turn replaced again by the Black Beetle motor bogie - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=40956

Sorry for the highjack, but the "Underground Ernie" motor the Captain refers to now lives in my own version of his Knightwing Critter!

[pete_mcfarlane]

The Sentinel is now painted, including the Railtec transfers for the lining an Sentinel logos along with the etched sand box plates from RT models. I've also added the windows from Shawplan laser cut ones sanded down slightly to get them to fit (as presumably repainting the body has reduced the window openings by a few thou). It's now waiting for a driver to be painted, and then final reassembly.

I've also been working on a Mercian Hudswell-Clarke. I got this last year at the NEC, and their 4mm range is being run down so I'm not sure if it is still available. The 7mm one is, and this basically seems to be a straightforward reduction of the 7mm etches (for example, there is only one set of frame spacers). It's a bit of a curates egg, good in parts and not-so good in others. Good parts of some rather nice etched nickle silver components, bad points are that they don't always go together that well. 

 

This is the current state of things after 3 weeks of odd evenings.

Problems include:

• The etches are very thin. The bonnet was so thin it had managed to curve itself (in the wrong direction). Most of this was cured by rolling it to shape (not easy, as there are half etched rivets to be forced). I prefer the approach on the Judith Edge 165, where the curved top is a separate piece. On the plus side, nickle silver is a joy to solder - this is the first NS kit I've built, and it's a lot quicker when you can hold components together with your fingers (due to the heat not spreading) instead of having to devise complicated methods to hold stuff together with binding wires, cocktail sticks held in your 3rd and 4th hands and so on.

• The curved radiator is the same width (in the flat) as the bonnet formers. So when rolled to shape it isn't wide enough. I'm going to fill this gap with filler once soldering is complete, to avoid obliterating the rivets around it.
• The footplate valences were too short. New ones were made from brass section.
• The bonnet side doors have some very nice push out louvres. The only problem, is that you get 3 of one hand, and 1 of the other. So one of the doors is upside down. Hopefully nobody will notice when painted.
• The frame spacers were replaced with Comet ones, as they were too wide for OO. I have a feeling they'd be too wide for P4. You can see the width of them from the photo of the chassis, I've soldered one on top of the frames to give me something to stick the motor too with bath sealant. I also ignored the positions provided, as this would involve driving on the middle axle - driving on one of the end ones gave me more room for a bigger motor, int his case a Mashima 1426 and High level Loadhauler+.

• The coupling rods were a bit flimsy, but so far (with plenty of solder to reinforce them) I've not had any distortion. 
• The instructions were of the 'stick parts 1 to 3 together, then add parts 4-12' variety and there are quite a few optional parts for detail differences, combined with parts for the 2 BR versions which aren't needed, so I did get confused a few times. It does seem like these locos had a vast number of detail differences - toolboxes, headlights, steps and so on, just to confuse things further. 

 

The kit is also having a few replacement bits - some Slater's Dean buffers, which are the nearest I can find to the Hudswell pattern, and the handrail knobs provided are being replaced with the plain kind from Markits sold for WD locos. These will need holes drilling for them in the cab, because there weren't any etched ones. 

 

Lastly, the cranks for the jackshaft axles were made up using a spare EM axles from the Gibson wheels, pushed in to a 3.2mm hole in a block of softwood (drilled using my new Proxxxon pillar drill).

This was then oiled (to stop the solder sticking to it) and then the 5 etched pieces for each crank tinned, and then fed on to the axle and soldered together. I then used the drill to drill out the crank pin hole. The kit came with several sets of cranks for different variations of the locos, so I picked the one with the same throw as the Gibson wheels I'm using. They were then filed to shape, and reamed to fit the axles. Hopefully this, my first attempt at a jackshaft drive, will work.  

So in summary, quite a few niggling problems, but the kit does seem to go together with a bit of remedial work and it's not been a particularly time consuming build. Hopefully I should get it ready for painting next weekend. 

[pete_mcfarlane]

Not the greatest of photos, but it shows the Hudswell ready for a first coat of etch primer. I use U=POL Acid #8 in a spray can, which I got from my local Halfords. It's much less hassle than any other type of etch primer I've used, and there's no cleaning up afterwards.  

Handrails have been added (using Markits WD handrail knobs) and various bits of detail added. The castings supplied aren't the greatest, and the chimney needed a fair bit of fettling. I've also discarded the generic sandboxes provided, and will make my own of of plastic once the wheels are on. Since the kit proved now means of locating them, I've soldered short lengths of 1mm wire in to holes drilled in roughly the right places - the sandboxes can locate on to these. 

 

Next step is to fill/sand the various imperfections that the primer has shown up, in particular around the radiator side join (if you recall, the curved radiator etch wasn't quite wide enough). Then, it's on to painting - I've an airbrush on order, and will be experimenting with that first). 

 

[Northmoor]

On 23/10/2016 at 21:41, pete_mcfarlane said:

An industrial 88DS is on my wish list, as I've a hankering for a few more Judith Edge kits. Especially after reading your book on the 48/88DS locos. 

 

But probably not until next year though - next up will be a High Level Barclay in P4 (with rolling of boilers, outside cylinders and compensation.......). At some point they need to be joined by a class 07 as well (or should hat be a 'LSSE' in Ruston's classification system?).

 

This is 4mm - the 48DS is not much larger than a matchbox and I'm somewhat impressed that I've made it run so smoothly (although most of the credit for that probably goes to the High level gearbox). 

 

The PWMs were Western Region locos, so I'll struggle to justify one on my Southern layout, no matter how tempting a Blue one is. Ditto Number 20, the Western's 88DS. 

 

On the subject of BR Rustons, I did manage to have a ride recently behind one. This is ZM32 of Horwich works on the Steeple Grange light railway. Possibly the smallest ex-BR loco in passenger service. 100_0103.JPG100_0108.JPG

 

Some lovely work on this thread.

 

Seeing the above pictures reminded me of a photo found recently of me aged nine standing next to ZM32 at Gloddfa Ganol Museum, summer 1982:

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Northmoor
Re-attach photo

[pete_mcfarlane]

The Sentinel diesel is now pretty much done. It still runs, so my painting didn't jam up the nice outside coupling rods. I'm rather pleased with it.

The Hudswell is now painted and waiting for some weathering. I've now bought an Iwate Neo airbrush, and this was one of my first attempts at spraying a model. It's painted with Vallejo olive green, which has gone a slightly strange colour thanks to the camera on my new mobile phone. 

 

 

I chickened out of painting it in the elaborate factory livery (lined red or green) and so went for a plain green like this example at the Midland Railway centre. I've also used Railtec transfers for the wasp stripe buffer beams, and the rear lamp is from RT models (no idea why the kit doesn't come with one). . 

Speaking of preserved Hudswells, I went to the Middleton Railway last Saturday. I'd been meaning to go for a while, and amongst the various Leeds built locos on display are these two 0-4-0DMs, in the pre-war Red and Post-war green livery. You can see why I chickened out of doing the lining - it's worthy of any pre-group steam loco, and must have been a bit of a contrast from the relatively plain liveries of the main-line goods locos of the time. 

I'd rather like one of the 0-4-0s one day.....