Exhill Works and other adventures in 7/8ths

[John Besley]

Made up a batch of lamp brackets and fitted these with a tiny rivet drilled through and loctited all in place, next made up a SR route indicator disc, turned down a disc from 12mm brass bar, formed a bracket that was soldered onto the back of the disc, drilled two .05mm holes and using some fine copper wire formed the loop handle this was then soldered up.

 

 

Need to make some more headcode discs along with a BR tail lamp... (I do have an original full-size one under my desk...)

[SteveyDee68]

8 hours ago, John Besley said:

Made up a batch of lamp brackets and fitted these with a tiny rivet drilled through and loctited all in place, next made up a SR route indicator disc, turned down a disc from 12mm brass bar, formed a bracket that was soldered onto the back of the disc, drilled two .05mm holes and using some fine copper wire formed the loop handle this was then soldered up.

 

 

Need to make some more headcode discs along with a BR tail lamp... (I do have an original full-size one under my desk...)

Getting closer and closer to the paint stage … I wonder what colour you will chose?

[Graham T]

12 hours ago, John Besley said:

Made up a batch of lamp brackets and fitted these with a tiny rivet drilled through and loctited all in place, next made up a SR route indicator disc, turned down a disc from 12mm brass bar, formed a bracket that was soldered onto the back of the disc, drilled two .05mm holes and using some fine copper wire formed the loop handle this was then soldered up.

 

 

Need to make some more headcode discs along with a BR tail lamp... (I do have an original full-size one under my desk...)

 

Lovely workmanship as ever John!  I don't suppose you have a source for 0.5 mm drill bits?  They are one of the most common sizes that I use, and seem to be very easy to break...  All of the suppliers I've seen just do them in packs with assorted other bits, which I don't need.

 

 

[PaulCheffus]

13 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

Lovely workmanship as ever John!  I don't suppose you have a source for 0.5 mm drill bits?  They are one of the most common sizes that I use, and seem to be very easy to break...  All of the suppliers I've seen just do them in packs with assorted other bits, which I don't need.

 

 

Hi

 

Squires Craft Tools do a pack of 10 drills of the same size and do 0.5mm
http://www.squirestools.com/catalogues.htm
 

Cheers

 

Paul

Edited November 22, 2023 by PaulCheffus

[Graham T]

That's great - thanks very much Paul.

[John Besley]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

Lovely workmanship as ever John!  I don't suppose you have a source for 0.5 mm drill bits?  They are one of the most common sizes that I use, and seem to be very easy to break...  All of the suppliers I've seen just do them in packs with assorted other bits, which I don't need.

 

Look at Tracey Tools website .... I just pop in to them as they are local to me so don't bother with the website

[John Besley]

7 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Getting closer and closer to the paint stage … I wonder what colour you will chose?

 

Difficult choice.... paint is there to stop it going rusty... part of me says unlined black and part says mid green and lined out... it needs a BR(S) number but can't decide what series to use a spare number following on from a Z tank would work..

 

It's going to slightly weathered as well to represent an engine that is clean and looked after but used for its living, I do have an idea...

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by John Besley

[John Besley]

I will knock up a dummy boiler and some platework to test out my paint weathering  plan before I am committed for real

[John Besley]

Started to set up the driver - He was visitied by an ex 72A Exmouth Jct driver to see how he was getting on... so I can get his profile right allowing me then to make his seat cushion,

 

 

Then looked at the cab fittings and realised id’ forgotten to make up a blower valve, found a suitable casting for the body and a spare handle in the parts bin along with some copper wire silver soldered this up, having done that finished off the hydrostatic lubricator by fitting the sight glass from a strip of Perspex along with drilling through for the tube itself then counter bored the glass to fit the filler nut in the top of the tank.

 

 

back view showing the perspex 

 

 

front view as seen in the cab

 

How on earth i'll get everything in the cab is an ongoing puzzle

 

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by John Besley
Trypo

[John Besley]

Following some extensive reconstructive surgery youll be pleased to hear our driver is now in recovery having had two shoulders replaced, two new hips and knee joints along with an ankle replacement, to help him feel better he’s been given a nice drivers jacket...

 

 

Next he needs a decent seat cushion...

[John Besley]

Made up a seat base cushion and finished off a couple of odds 'n ends then taken the plunge, well the loco body, tender and driver (who incerdently now has a BR cap badge that is 5.6mm x 2.78mm cut out of a 10thou plasticard strip) in a warm sink with washing up liquid to clean them off ready for the primer coat...

 

Getting exciting now

 

Next puzzle is where can I get 7mm BR passenger livery lining for a green loco along with cabside numbers, Tottom etc. This is the most daunting part of all - the lining out

[JeffP]

Fox do 7mm lining.

[John Besley]

Many thanks for the tip Jeff, Ill dig into this shortly

 

Gave the loco body and tender a initial blow over with grey primer to show up any flaws in the work so far once these have dried for 24hours ill sort out one or two areas ive spotted.

 

And in other news I made up three sets of chopper couplings for future stock I have in mind, including a start made on a boige gondala - i'll let you guess what this sides are from...

 

 

Still a lot to do but needed to try it out to check for clearance and seting up the coupling heights., so far so good.

[lmsforever]

I really enjoy seeing your modeling especially the figures and their faces they add another dimension to the very interesting locos etc  ,it must make modeling fun thanks for some very interesting modeling.

[John Besley]

4 hours ago, lmsforever said:

I really enjoy seeing your modeling especially the figures and their faces they add another dimension to the very interesting locos etc  ,it must make modeling fun thanks for some very interesting modeling.

 

Thank you very much, I find it an imersive world that doesn't take life too seriously - I try to build things that are 100% feasible and accurate mixed with intresting characters that add another dimension.

 

I showed some pictures of the workshop to an engineer this week at one of the sites we look after - he thought it was a real workshop not a model... That's a result!

 

The site is closing down next year so I made sure I started to measure up some of their equimpent to build,  including a 1947 Cincinnati No4 vertical milling machine I want to build over Christmas ... walking round the 40 acre site vast chunks of it are now a ghost town with production stopping on December 8th and most of the staff going on the 22nd and all of a sudden we are getting orders for emergency light upgrades... seeing the way it's being run down gives me a feel for what the end of steam was like for the shed crews, footplate staff etc

 

Much of what I've built leans on this particular site, oneday when we move house further sections will be built - I have one or two ideas up my sleeve

 

Anyway If I built a 'real' model railway I'd get so hung up on the details I doubt I'd enjoy it- it would have to be a SR  BLT  1960 / 62 in the Westcountry 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by John Besley
.

[John Besley]

Pretty much finished the Gondala, added a angle iron on the lower body side and a stiffing plate underneath, added on angle end platework to brace up the ends, remade the pivot pins and soldered in a 6BA bolt to secure the boiges to.

 

 

The story goes that Exhill Works found a redundant water tank and cut it up for the sides to build this on a scrap coach chassis, that way they could have a longer general purpose wagon,  behind the workshop resides more spare boiges for another project...

 

In reality the sides came from a Triang Big Big Train Gondala I found on ebay that someone had already hacked about, I cut it down each side to lose 10mm and re assembiled the remains, made up a set of boiges by overlaying some Hornby BR Mk1 coach boiges in 60thou plasticard and fitted these with steel wheels. The roller bearing axleboxes are my own castings as are the chopper couplings.

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by John Besley

[John Besley]

On 29/11/2023 at 08:30, JeffP said:

Fox do 7mm lining.

 

Help please

 

Does anyone know the width of the lining

 

My boiler bands are 4mm wide, this will be a determaning factor in the final detail I will be useing large 7mm totoms for the tender as these will work out at around 12" long in scale and looking for 8mm high cabside numerals

 

update 

 

Gauge 1 lining is 2mm wide and cabside numerals are 8mm

 

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by John Besley
Correction

[John Besley]

Bit the bullet and order up a set of FoxTransfers BR 1948 - 1968 lining transfers for Gauge 1 (10mm) and here is the loco and tender now in primer - the loco now sports a wooden handle to hold the boiler by while spray painting and finally a tin of Halfords Ford Laurel Green has been purchased...

 

 

oh and the gondala is now in red oxide...

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by John Besley

[John Besley]

Everything is on hold for the foreseeable future following a accident on the M5 outside Taunton on the way home last evening when a car pulled out of slowmoving traffic straight into my path... airbag deploying smashed my left wrist in plaster for about 6 weeks...

 

[JeffP]

Wow.

Hope all is ok.

🙃

[Keith Addenbrooke]

So sorry to read this - but thankful it wasn’t any worse.  Hope your wrist heals quickly, Keith.

[Gedward]

 

Awful news. Take care John, wishing you a speedy recovery. 

 

[Fishplate]

I hope you (and the van) recover quickly.

 

Best regards

 

John

[SteveyDee68]

It’s that time of year, when the urge to be home 30 seconds earlier overcomes common sense and drivers do plain STOOPID things…

 

Sorry you’ve been in the wars - rotten timing too, leading up to Christmas. Can you make a claim for “lost modelling hours” against the other driver’s insurance?

 

Hope you heal soon and it doesn’t give you too much hassle.

 

Best wishes

 

Steve S

Edited December 6, 2023 by SteveyDee68

[John Besley]

Many thanks for your thoughts, I am having an op tomorrow all being well to put a plate in my wrist and pin it back as it should be - currently my left arm is compressed as the wrist joint has disintegrated

 

As regards the van I think it's been written off 65750 in 18 months... on 3 year lease .... apparently everything has now been emptied out of it and into a cage at work.

 

Ironically 6 years ago to the day my Transit van I used at my old firm was written off in a head on crash on the Taunton Minehead Road that one was 2.5 years old and had done 185000