Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[Limpley Stoker]

5 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've found this interior:

 

Didcot Railway Society

 

 

And a similar one in this link: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/article.php/120/no-190-collett-auto-trailer

 

That's car number 190, the old Airfix model is number 187 and with some upgrades should represent an A30

 

The model's interior certainly suggests that:

 

World of railways.

 

I will of course be going daft painting the interior and wishing I could get the seats out for a proper job.

I’ve been a bit obsessed about flush glazing since the awful Triang TT Mk1 ( more like Mk .75) coaches when I tried sellotape over the body sides!

 We are spoiled by todays RTR coaches like the Hornby Hawksworth offerings . I was pleased with the Shawglan laser glaze windows for the  autocoach but they are fiddly to fit accurately and I didnt bother with the quarter lights after one effort. To disguise the thickness of the plastic sides I used a water soluble brown fibre pen to darken the window reveals. Easy to erase ectopic ink with a moist finger !

Edited March 24, 2023 by Limpley Stoker
Correction

[MrWolf]

That makes a big difference darkening the edges of the body. I think that I will order the Shawplan glazing, but not bin the original 3 inch armoured glass just yet.

 

I've fitted the handles to the battery boxes, handbrake mechanism to the driving end and painted the floor Humbrol 234.

That was the nearest I could get to what I thought the linoleum floor looks like without mixing something.

 

A second opinion wasn't much help as she thought it looked "whatever colour tuna chunks are"...

 

[Winslow Boy]

Canadian pink salmon to me Rob.

[MrWolf]

12 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Canadian pink salmon to me Rob.

 

Shh. Don't tell her, otherwise it will get all Indiana Jones, as in:

 

"Millions will perish and the armies of darkness will march all across the face of the earth..."

 

Connery said that, with some prophetic conviction too.

 

 

[CoombeTown]

Another vote for the Shawplan flush glazing, the large windows are very easy to fit. For the quarter lights I used Deluxe Materials Glue'n'Glaze.

 

The quarterlight are the right size to apply the glue at one end then pull across with a cocktail stick.

 

[KNP]

Shawplan for me every time as they fitted to this coach with hardly any work.

 

[MrWolf]

13 minutes ago, KNP said:

Shawplan for me every time as they fitted to this coach with hardly any work.

 

 

That looks great, hard to believe that any of these are the same old coach.

What did you use to secure the glazing?

[KNP]

23 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

That looks great, hard to believe that any of these are the same old coach.

What did you use to secure the glazing?

Thanks

Deluxe Glue 'n' Glaze, found it had great gloopy adhesion and if you got some on the glazing easily removed with a cocktail stick.

[MrWolf]

Thanks for the info, I have some of that, I've been using it for the buildings, so this will be a first using it on a vehicle.

[KNP]

Use very little of the glue and and I if I recall correctly left a little gap at the corners so the glue could spread when glazing pressed in.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2023 by KNP

[MrWolf]

The infamous steps are the most fiddly part of the upgrade kit.  If you follow the instructions and cut the pivot rods at 16mm, you can get one end in the vice and start soldering.

 

Superglue works too BTW, but I wanted to annoy myself...

 

You set the top rear pivot at 85deg using the provided template and work outward.

I am hugely impressed that I got everything to pivot, but typically, they don't need to and will be fixed in the retracted position when on the coach. 

The big bracket with the untidy solder is hidden behind the solebars.

 

 

Paying attention to the instructions and other people's warnings, this is how much you cut away from the moulded steps! The top tread and hinge knuckles are retained:

 

 

What I found fiddly was the bits of controls around the driving end buffer beam.

Clearly whoever drew the diagrams is a Contemporary Artist, "It's not about the the marks I make on the canvas, it's the thought behind the marks...." 

 

Famed Critique de l'art Monsieur Le Loup, paced in front of the canvas, arms folded tightly across his weedy chest as if expecting to be attacked by the artist, who was panting for even faint praise from the great man....

 

Finally, he plucked thoughtfully at his ridiculous goatee as if in deep thought, before turning slowly to the artist and whispering earnestly:

 

"But you have to agree, nobody else can tell what you were thinking and it looks like sh!t......?"

 

Anyway, it's finally gone together.

 

[Limpley Stoker]

That looks comlicated and cussworthy in its construction ; my Dart detailing kit was so old there were no brass parts so thankfully no replacement steps.

[MrWolf]

It's not that bad at all.

 

Brake gear being assembled.

 

[MrWolf]

There's been a slight hitch with the brake gear, due to 80% me making assumptions and 20% the drawings being rubbish.

You may wish to wander over to the Tyteford Halte thread in order to point and laugh.

 

Never mind...

 

Our hero fought his way onwards across the lifeless desert, arriving two days later at a godforsaken outpost in a dried up river bed named Brazir Al Shawadi Wadi....

 

 

Exhausted, he virtually fell off his bike and into the command tent, clutching a blueprint marked "Eyes only".

In a parched croak he delivered the vital message:

 

"They've got the bloody drawing backwards..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[Neal Ball]

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

There's been a slight hitch with the brake gear.....

 

....They've got the bloody drawing backwards..."

 

 

 

Really? - OMG - Do I need to print off both threads in order to get a decent set of instructions when I start my Autocoach project?

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Really? - OMG - Do I need to print off both threads in order to get a decent set of instructions when I start my Autocoach project?

 

Not at all, it was a SNAFU due to a failure to RTFM and apply the Seven P Rule.

 

I had wrongly assumed that the Airfix outer V hanger was in the correct place. It is on one side, but not the other. Viz:

 

 

The right hand (or driving cab end). V hanger should be where the brass item is laid on the floor, not where it's moulded, because that puts the brake cylinder where the other large battery box should be.

[MrWolf]

What it should look like. Driving end is to the right in this picture.

 

 

The drawings are okay . There's a number of areas which should be much clearer, but the only real fault I have found is that the plan shows the battery boxes stood right back from the truss irons whereas in fact they are almost hard up to it.

 

 

[Tortuga]

At least it wasn’t too hard to sort out?

[MrWolf]

On 28/03/2023 at 08:10, Tortuga said:

At least it wasn’t too hard to sort out?

 

Not really, but there were a few moments of thinking that one slip and it's a write off!

[MrWolf]

More twiddly bits being fettled and fitted.

 

Here are the corner steps with the step itself folded up and the bits of pipework for the locomotive end of the coach:

 

 

The 0.8mm hole I drilled in the buffer beam to make fitting one of the pipes easier:

 

 

The step support arms bent up as per the instructions and drawings. The locomotive end steps on the left and the driving end steps on the right.

 

[Limpley Stoker]

My ancient detailing kit had whitemetal end steps, and of course they were the first things to fall off. Would it be possible to melt these into the underframe with a soldering iron - might be more secure than cyanoacrylate ,

[57xx]

All this conversion work reminds me I really should get round to placing an order with Shawplan. I was going to get the autocoach glazing, some for a B set, some for Toad and possibly something else that eludes me right now. But then I'd have to remember which box I put the Dart Castings detailing kit...

 

If I have enough brass angle left over after doing the Siphon kits, I might consider using that to replace the Airfix offering. But then that would mean I have two underframes to finish before I can get on with the autocoach. Haiya.

Edited March 30, 2023 by 57xx

[MrWolf]

Old Lima railcar? 

[57xx]

4 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Old Lima railcar? 

 

Thank you, that will probably be it!! I also need some spare buffers for it I think, luckily on another thread someone sourced some the other day.

[MrWolf]

I chickened out of melting the steps into the plastic. I know that a number of people have recommended that for handrails, but I've never been that successful with it.

 

As @MAP66 is confined to barracks with some sort of jungle fever I'm hanging back a little with the autocoach project.

 

However the chassis is together enough to apply paint and fit the bogies.

 

 

One thing that I should have mentioned is to check the bogie pivot points on the chassis for moulding flash. Both mine had it which could be a source of the Airfix wobble going through points.

 

Locomotive end:

 

Driving end:

 

The metal wheels have added some useful low down weight as well as better running.

 

Sitting in the sidings after further tests (Think of those Hotwheels toys...) with the weight refitted. I've often found that these are bent, it's easy enough to straighten them with a small growl.

 

Stripped out body trial fitted. The only thing to be aware of is the position of the small pipe above the coupling hook on the locomotive end which may foul the bottom edge of the body a little.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by MrWolf