Focalplane's Workbench (mostly 7mm)

[raymw]

Thanks, Ray, Looking at the drawing in #140, I now recognise the significance of the dotted line, looks like a 1/4 inch recess. (I guess at the top left corner in the photo, they would notch out the edge of the plate, looks like the edge is right over a rivet.)

[Focalplane]

I really like building locomotives and rolling stock, but I have realized that time isn't necessarily on my side.  So I have splurged (is that a real verb?) on a train that I remember well on the North Warwickshire Line. Basically a Large Prairie Tank pulling a Suburban 4 coach set.  Like almost everything else I am modelling this is a part of my youth (and before).  My father commuted to work every day from the Lakes Halt to Moor Street Station and I took the same train many times as we did not have a car.  For some reason I remember two things like they happened yesterday.  First, the large Prairies always seemed to run backwards.  They didn't, of course, because of the traverser at Moor Street.  Second, the traverser at Moor Street.  Even before I became a trainspotter the traverser was an object of interest.  Happily warwickshirerailways.com has several photos of the traverser.

 

Later on, when a trainspotter, I came back from a day at Tamworth to find City of Truro on static display at Moor Street.  Us kids were allowed to clamber all over it I am happy to report.  Years later, for my 60th birthday treat, I actually drove the same locomotive on the GWSR.

 

So I have gone for some RTR.  I know there is a large Prairie kit or two out there, but I have three unmade boxes of locomotive parts already, so Heljan will win this one.  And the coaches (from Dapol) will be a "welcome" change from the Midlander rake.  Plonk and Play!

 

Actually I am really enjoying building the Midlander rake.  I did quite a lot of work today but nothing much to photograph at the end.

 

Stay tuned.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Focalplane

[Focalplane]

I have a few months to determine exactly which one my large Prairie will be.  For the North Warwickshire Line it really has to be a Tyseley loco as I don't think any were officially assigned to Stratford (WR) shed.

 

On one of my daily perambulations across the French countryside I had this idea of a model of Earlswood Lakes, at the summit of the North Warwickshire Line and where bankers were uncoupled to return down to Stratford.  But the station would be too long to model in 7mm scale unless I was a record producer, which I am not but sometimes wish I was!  Earlswood was where I grew up, right next to the canal top up reservoirs for the Stratford Canal.  I had to walk across the dam to catch the taxi (!) to school in Soil-y Hill.  Imagine, three kids sitting one on top of the other on the front seat of Mr. Davies' Austin 20 taxi, with six more behind.  Health and Safety was yet to be wrought upon us.

[Tove]

If you ever do decide to build Earlswood lakes or another North Warwickshire line  station and need some field note`s,then i can get some for you as i`m only about three miles  away from there.

And i don`t know when you were last in Earlswood or the surround area,but on the solihull side, thing`s are changing rapidly...and not for the better.

But at least you can still get a good pint in the Bull`s head or a cider in the Bluebell......not taht you would have done that before school!!.

 

 

Brian.

[Focalplane]

Thank, Brian, for your offer.  Somehow I don't think Earlswood Lakes will happen, just a pipe dream based on nostalgia.  After several decades I went back to the family home in Earlswood and did not recognize the house or the layout of the rooms, it was almost a different building!  There were a lot of changes even back then (around 2003), not the least being the M42 had cut off the road I planned to take to get there!

 

According to the write up on warwickshirerailways.com the rules governing banking trains up from Stratford were quite complicated, with passenger trains requiring the banker to be placed between locomotive and carriages.  Perhaps for this reason not many trains were banked.  But it would make for an interesting model!  This photo shows the banker (a 2251 0-6-0) pushing a Castle and pulling an express!

[steveNCB7754]

Thank, Brian, for your offer.  Somehow I don't think Earlswood Lakes will happen, just a pipe dream based on nostalgia.  After several decades I went back to the family home in Earlswood and did not recognize the house or the layout of the rooms, it was almost a different building!  There were a lot of changes even back then (around 2003), not the least being the M42 had cut off the road I planned to take to get there!

 

According to the write up on warwickshirerailways.com the rules governing banking trains up from Stratford were quite complicated, with passenger trains requiring the banker to be placed between locomotive and carriages.  Perhaps for this reason not many trains were banked.  But it would make for an interesting model!  This photo shows the banker (a 2251 0-6-0) pushing a Castle and pulling an express!

 

Swap the locos in your link photo, for a 2P (in front) piloting a West Country and it could be an Ivo Peter's shot of the 'Pines Express', south of Bath.

 

Steve

[Focalplane]

Thanks, Steve, but isn't there a difference?  The 2P was piloting the West Country.  A lot easier to attach/detach the 2P from the front and leave the Bath-Bournemouth train intact.  That's what I don't understand about the North Warwickshire Line rulebook.  Perhaps the management didn't want banking?

[Focalplane]

The Large Prairie has a prototype, courtesy of Philip Hawkins.  It will be 4175.  Why?  Because it is here, three tracks from my future Castle, 5070.  Notice, it is running bunker first, like they "always" did!

[Marshall5]

 

 

According to the write up on warwickshirerailways.com the rules governing banking trains up from Stratford were quite complicated, with passenger trains requiring the banker to be placed between locomotive and carriages.  Perhaps for this reason not many trains were banked.  But it would make for an interesting model!  This photo shows the banker (a 2251 0-6-0) pushing a Castle and pulling an express!

My understanding is that it was a general GWR rule that the loco with the bogie or pony truck had to lead irrespective of whether it was the pilot or train engine.

Ray.

[Focalplane]

An interesting day today.  The wind nearly blew the wooden shutter off my study/workroom window while I was concentrating on some fettling.  So I fastened it back down and went into Narbonne to stock up on food and visit my favourite bricolage.  Nothing special was needed, but I did go into the next door supermarket, one of those huge hypermarkets, and found something I have been looking for, a plate glass "kitchen counter protector" for one centime under 10 euros and it fits my workbench perfectly.  Moreover it has a sensible pattern that doesn't include fruit and vegetables.

 

Then back to the apartment and a bit more work on the Sidelines LMS Period III open third.  Practice certainly helps, some of the tricky bits on the last coach have come together a lot more easily, mainly by pre-assembling the ends (an idea passed on by coachmann).

 

I can also recommend, again, the Cif substitute I bought back in England.  Zep Commercial Fast 505 Industrial Cleaner and Degreaser.  Spray it on brass, leave for two minutes, gently brush the muck off and rinse.

 

I also received four train headboards from Severn Mills Nameplates.  The Midlander can be finished and painted before being mounted on the Jubilee.  The other three are The Inter-City (one day a David Andrews King, I have the driving wheels already), Pines Express for my Bristol based Patriot (45506, still a box of parts) and Cambrian Coast Express for my David Andrews Castle (5070, still a box of parts).  There are two more Birmingham named trains I had forgotten about when I placed the order, the Cornishman and the Devonian.  I am not really a fan of the Southwest (personal reasons) so that is why I conveniently forgot about them.  The Cornishman is really needed, though, as my Castle would have pulled it down the North Warwickshire Line, and it is featured on the Philip Hawkins painting, Summer Saturday at Snow Hill.

[Focalplane]

All these planks I keep reading about and following have me thinking - a dangerous occupation, to be sure.  I have Legge lane as a showcase/test track for my locomotives.  Long coach rakes have no place in an engine shed but cry out for visiting test tracks or, the ultimate, a garden railway.  But I don't have a garden!  But at least they help me to learn more about trains rather than locomotives.

 

I also have two wagons and a brake van kit as yet untouched.  The wagons are from Dapol and are very nice if they come complete (no answer for three weeks on a missing buffer spring by the way, very disappointing) and cry out for carrying more than coal to, and ash from, Legge Lane.

 

So what about a small shunting plank?  It would have to be portable and fit in the back of my Peugeot 2008 with the rear seats folded down and could be two baseboards with a hidden sector plate or three baseboards, one being an off scene sector plate.  My immediate thought of a theme would be a North Warwickshire colliery as I have good access to research (warwickshirerailways.com, Peter Lee's book, etc.).  Choice of locos would be easy, particularly if Modern Outline Kits were to produce an ex-GWR 15XX kit as three were bought by Coventry Colliery (including the one now preserved on the SVR):

 

 

I remember the 15XX class working coaching stock at Paddington, a job for which they were well suited.

 

But if there is no 15XX, then there is a huge choice of industrial locos per se.  I have sent off an inquiry to MoK to find out the status of the proposed kit.  I suppose this post is partly an inducement for others to also support the manufacture of this kit!

[daifly]

Choice of locos would be easy, particularly if Modern Outline Kits were to produce an ex-GWR 15XX kit as three were bought by Coventry Colliery (including the one now preserved on the SVR):

 

But if there is no 15XX, then there is a huge choice of industrial locos per se.  I have sent off an inquiry to MoK to find out the status of the proposed kit.  I suppose this post is partly an inducement for others to also support the manufacture of this kit!

 

In his advert in the latest G0G Gazette (Feb 2017) Dave Sharpe at MOK announced: 'Our next kit will be the 15xx. Work has begun and we hope to have this finished in time for Telford".

Do try to keep up at the back!

Cheers

Dave

[Focalplane]

In his advert in the latest G0G Gazette (Feb 2017) Dave Sharpe at MOK announced: 'Our next kit will be the 15xx. Work has begun and we hope to have this finished in time for Telford".

Do try to keep up at the back!

Cheers

Dave

 

Well, Daifly, I am keeping up!  Just received an email from Dave Sharp with the news that there should be something concrete in 6 months time.  More requests can only speed things along.

 

by the way, I have not seen the latest GOG Gazette, it's delivered to my UK address.  But thanks for the good news, I have replied to Dave that I am "in".

[Focalplane]

A quiet week spent in Paris, celebrating our wedding anniversary. Apart from travelling by train to and from Paris and using the RER/Metro while there, we also celebrated the event at Le Train Bleu, the well known restaurant at Gare de Lyon. This was quite special in every way, food, service, ambience, location. In short, memorable and recommended.

 

Yesterday morning we hunted down a model shop by the almost same name, Le Petit Train Bleu. They only specialize in N and HO and also had no aerosol paint at all. But I did buy some Woodland Scenics coarse ballast.

 

The return journey was typical TGV service though a problem between Nime and Montpellier caused a ten minute delay. This section is currently being upgraded by a new LGV line which will knock some time off our 4-1/2 hour journey. I was able to buy the cheapest advance purchase ticket, called Prem, for €42 each first class with senior card. What a bargain!

 

Travel on TGVs is also more enjoyable than elsewhere in Europe because there is a definite ettiquette - soft voices and use of phones in the vestibules only. With the relative quiet and rhythm of the train at high speed I do find sleep comes very easily.

[Focalplane]

Back to the workbench today after a gap of just about a week.  Still on Sidelines coach kits, I went down to the local post office to retrieve two parcels, each containing a Sidelines Porthole coach, my replacements for the Mark 1s from JLTRT which have gone on the back burner.  The current Sidelines build, an open 3rd, has started to be pulled together, but it is too soon for a photo.

[Focalplane]

Not that much progress but building a Sidelines Gauge O coach does take time.  I spent much of today simply fettling the 4 buffers for one coach.

 

 

The buffer head casting needs a lot of fettling and the buffer housing needs a lot of opening up.  A bit of both might seem a good compromise, but it is easier to drill out the housing and this also means the shank on the buffer remains stronger.  Even so, a lot of careful work is involved.

 

Having got a good sliding fit, the next thing to do is to drill the shank to take piano wire for the Sidelines springing technique.  The springing also involves the coupling hook assembly and is a neat solution though it does consume a lot of time flling down the components.  I'll show how the springing works later.

[coachmann]

The buffer head casting needs a lot of fettling and the buffer housing needs a lot of opening up.  A bit of both might seem a good compromise, but it is easier to drill out the housing and this also means the shank on the buffer remains stronger.  Even so, a lot of careful work is involved.

 

Having got a good sliding fit, the next thing to do is to drill the shank to take piano wire for the Sidelines springing technique.  The springing also involves the coupling hook assembly and is a neat solution though it does consume a lot of time flling down the components.  I'll show how the springing works later.

It does indeed take up a lot of time and I didnt think it worked all that well in the end. I certainly wasn't going to start soldering the spring wire into the coupling hook after the coach had been painted and all-but finished, so i fitted better screw couplings and glued the shanks into the buffer housings. Had I continued with 7mm I would have bought self-contained sprung buffers. 

Edited March 12, 2017 by coachmann

[Focalplane]

It does indeed take up a lot of time and I didnt think it worked all that well in the end. I certainly wasn't going to start soldering the spring wire into the coupling hook after the coach had been painted and all-but finished, so i fitted better screw couplings and glued the shanks into the buffer housings. Had I continued with 7mm I would have bought self-contained sprung buffers. 

 

As I will show later, I do not include the coupling hook in the buffer springing as suggested in the instructions, this being outsourced and using its own spring.  The piano wire is simply soldered to the underside of the coach floor.

[coachmann]

As I will show later, I do not include the coupling hook in the buffer springing as suggested in the instructions, this being outsourced and using its own spring.  The piano wire is simply soldered to the underside of the coach floor.

Good idea. I still have two un-built LMS kits so if I build them instead of selling them as kits, I'll do as you suggest.

[Focalplane]

It would appear that I have slowed down a bit on the modelling scene.  Unfortunately that is the truth.  First, the weather here in southern France has tempted me out doors.  My wife and I spent a terrific day earlier this week walking in the Pyrenees west of Perpignan with blue skies above and wild flowers at our feet.  Then on Wednesday I took her to Montpellier to fly off to grand daughter Susie's birthday party (she is the one who has great promise as a modeller).  I then stopped off at FB Systems model shop in Bessan to find very little of interest except some very good two pin connectors at an excellent price.

 

Today I attended the co-proprietor's annual meeting of our "condominium" and came away with a headache from listening to French discussions that really should have been of interest - my working days often involved technical meetings in French but at least we used PowerPoint to help communicate.  The French can speak very, very quickly, leaving me in the dust, so to speak.

 

Anyway, I came home to struggle with some modelling and gave up after drilling holes in the aluminium roof of my latest Sidelines kit, a D1999 open third that will run next to the kitchen car.  Hopefully I can pick up where I left off tomorrow while the Six Nations comes to a conclusion.

 

I had a bit of a surprise two days ago.  My order of a Birmingham Division 4 coach suburban set (by Lionheart/Dapol) has arrived in the UK a month ahead of schedule.  The associated large Prairie will not arrive for a few months.  These will be my first RTR Gauge O products.  Early BR livery as usual.

[Jintyman]

 

I had a bit of a surprise two days ago.  My order of a Birmingham Division 4 coach suburban set (by Lionheart/Dapol) has arrived in the UK a month ahead of schedule.  The associated large Prairie will not arrive for a few months.  These will be my first RTR Gauge O products.  Early BR livery as usual.

 

 

Just check with Dapol Paul, they rang me the other day to say mine were in stock, but when I questioned the nice lady, she checked and told me that no, mine would be April as originally thought.

Maybe worth a ring?

 

Jinty

[Focalplane]

Just check with Dapol Paul, they rang me the other day to say mine were in stock, but when I questioned the nice lady, she checked and told me that no, mine would be April as originally thought.

Maybe worth a ring?

 

Jinty

 

Well, I have already had a dialog with Tower-Models and they say they did have a few BR coaches in their consignment.  We will see what happens when they are delivered on Tuesday.  Just as well they are not being delivered to France!

 

See their home page for latest news.

 

Fingers crossed!

 

Paul

[Focalplane]

Somewhat rested after yesterday and I have already made some progress with the Sidelines Coach.  I hope to be able to spray primer later today but right now the wind is blowing through my outdoor spray booth!

 

Earlier this morning I went to look at the outside of a detached contemporary villa which is for sale.  It offers most of the requirements I need, including a garage with workshop and a small landscaped garden perfect for a 7mm outdoor layout.  Property doesn't sell quickly in this part of France so I am not going to rush to view but if it is still available in May we might just contact the agency.  The good news is that it needs very little work so the focus could be on modelling not renovation.  We did enough of that in North Wales last year!

[Focalplane]

A day of rugby (well done France!) and some modelling.  The Sidelines Open Third is assembled apart from the seats, etc. which will have to wait until after painting.

 

First, a photo of how I spring the buffers:

 

 

Piano wire is bent to shape and then the centre is soldered to the floor.  The coupling will be fitted separately.

 

Next, the base of the coach with partitions:

 

 

This needs to be painted before the seats can be fitted (they are ready).

 

Next, the roof needs to be glued to the sides and ends, it is placed in position for the photos.  This has needed more fettling than my previous Sideline builds but it is now a nice tight fit.  I will glue it in place in the morning.  Here is a three quarter view:

 

 

And another pose off the turntable:

 

 

I am quite pleased with this one.  As Coachmann has observed, these coaches need quite a few hours to assemble - the bogies needing basically a day.  I have two more, both Porthole Period IIIs and I am thinking of building these as a small batch.  But first I need to clean up this coach and prime it.

 

Before I do any more coachbuilding, though, I have two locomotives to complete, they have been ignored while this coach took priority.  The 14XX needs final touches and transfers, the Compound needs much the same plus a DCC module.  Hopefully I can source one I like when in England in April.  I do have an older Olivia's sound chip as a backup but it is truly "generic", basically an LMS 4F.

[Focalplane]

Still blowing a gale at 4 am but the weather reports are predicting perfect spraying weather mid Monday morning when La Tramontane turns around and becomes Le Marin! This should also be a time of low humidity as Sunday is predicted to be sunny, dry and windy with no air coming off the sea.

 

I use two weather forecasters, Accuweather and Méteo. The latter, being French, has more data on the wind and issues alerts according to the expected wind strength. The people at Accuweather, on the other hand, must live in a generally calm environment!

 

So today I will try to get everything ready for when the wind drops.

 

Edit: 11 am: A temporary lull, or did they get it wrong? Currently gluing the roof on, but I can now spray the chassis while the glue sets.

 

Second edit: 3 pm: The wind is back up to strength and still from the northwest, so went for a walk instead. The coach roof has been glued on sp I can now clean it up ready for priming tomorrow.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Focalplane