Modifying Ratio Clayton Clerestory coaches

[Nick Lawson]

Buffers and Couplings

 

My original aim was to construct fixed rakes of coaches with some kind of close coupling internally and Sprat & Winkle (SW) couplings for the ends. Firstly, the ends:

 

I have one second hand loco with a “high” SW bar set in the buffer beam and have previously fitted some wagons with this high coupling which requires cutting a slot in the buffer beam for the hook. This time I decided to try a “low” SW coupling, below the buffer beam. I had acquired the http://www.5522models.co.uk/   etched mounting plate for this. This etch provides 8 mounting plates. (pic1) These fold up to sit behind the buffer beam and replace the original SW mounting plate. The fret provides a bending jig for the wire that you provide, although of course you have to make your own arrangements for bending the loop to match the length of your buffers. I had to dig out a small soldering iron to reach into the confined space between the fret and the S&W paddle.

 

Recapping earlier episodes, I have three different types of bogie to play with: Brassmasters, MJT and Comet 8'. I had intended to use the chassis with MJT bogies on the ends of the rake as, in contrast to Brassmasters' open-ended product, they have an end themselves which would be visible at the rear of the train. However, it became obvious that this bogie end would obstruct an SW coupling hanging beneath the buffer beam, so I decided to allocate the chassis with Brassmasters bogies to the ends. After all, they would be sporting an unprototypical SW mechanism that would be far more noticeable than the bogie itself.

 

The next problem was the buffers. The SW coupling hook has to reach out past the buffer heads. These coaches have big long buffers and the standard SW hook isn't long enough, so I adapted one by drilling a new pair of pivot holes about 2mm further back and cutting back the paddle a similar distance. (pic2) This alters the balance of the hook, so it is necessary to weight the rear paddle a bit more heavily. I discovered the hard way that it would be better to add the weight to the upper side of the paddle where it would be out of the way and less likely to foul the bogie underneath.

 

I intend to use sprung buffers for the internal connections, but for the rake ends I used a set of cast brass fixed buffers - because I had them; and the SW couplings should mean they don't have to work. These buffers came from Branchlines with one of their kits (still in the stash). These castings appear to include the mounting on the buffer beam which is already moulded on the Ratio kit, so I pared back the plastic buffer beam before fitting them. This loses the moulded bolt heads around the buffer base, which are not modeled on the brass buffer. I'm not going to try faking these in.

 

S&W couplings use soft iron links to pull the hook down when passing over a magnet. Making up a 3-link chain is one thing, but I still need to make an acceptable soft-iron "screw-link" dropper.  Pic3 shows a completed coupling worked by my temporary bodge dropper. It also shows the as-yet unfixed Branchlines buffers in their raw state. They are quite square in outline and need oval-ing and flattening.

 

So now I can at least join two coach chassis together, if only the wrong way round. Pic 4 shows this. In the intended use there will only be the single hook at each end. It also shows I've used chunkier (0.4mm) wire loops than the specified (0.3mm). The couplings are pushed together and the hook and bar matches the buffers on the inside of the curve. The hook on the left was my first attempt, modifying a hook which had already been twisted up , so I was a bit cautious about trying to cut it back , but I'll see if I can remove a bit more from the protruding front of the paddle.

[Nick Lawson]

Comet bogies reprise

 

I said earlier that I had two pairs of comet 8' bogies for these coaches. These consist of a brass chassis and whitemetal cosmetic sides. I've built these in stages with some variations. For completeness, (not necessarily in chronological sequence):

 

One pair was built with the separate Comet springing kit https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/carriage/c57/. This actually just controls the level of sideways roll on the coach. I didn't bother with this for the second pair.

 

The whitemetal cast sides were originally designed for full whitemetal bogies. You have to remove a large quantity of metal off the back in order to glue the remainder onto the brass chassis. This weakens the centre such that it is hard to get everything straight and level in all three planes at once. Mine aren't!

 

In addition, some of the castings were appreciably too short by ~ a couple of mm. In the end I sawed them down the middle (through the already weakest part!); stuck each end on with a gap in the middle; and bodged filler in between and behind, including the brace bar between the axleboxes. I'll see how this latter holds, but if it doesn't I may resort to cutting off the severed bar pieces and glueing on a new length of rectangular section bar. I found it hard to get the filling right, or more particularly to sand it down level without taking everything else down as well, so it is a bit rough.

 

Hopefully the extra twiddly bits below will help draw attention away from this roughness 😀:

 

On the first pair of bogies I had faked in brake yokes under the ends, but not in the middle. This was because I had 4 Bill Bedford etched fold-up yokes left over from something else and thought "why not?". For the second pair of bogies, I bought a Comet brake yoke etch https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/wagons/c51/   and soldered lengths of straight brass wire between pairs. I found Carrs' hot tape really useful for holding a yoke still on the bench so it was only my hands wavering about! (pic1 - which shows I was approximating the length of wire using a Bill Bedford yoke which then went elsewhere). Engineers will be shocked, but the length is not critical as the bends in the wire give some margin for error.  More shocking still, I have made no attempt to model any other part of the brake gear, so the assembly has "no visible means of support" or anything to pivot on.

 

Having soldered both yokes it was quite easy to bend the wire twice to an approximate fit to dodge the axle and span the brake blocks already on the bogie, The supplied yokes have square ends so it is necessary to file them down to a point. I then realised I'd forgotten to open out the etched holes on the brake blocks but managed to rectify this. As the yokes bend easily it is possible to bow them while you insert the ends into the blocks and then straighten up afterwards, giving a decent mechanical join. Having done one yoke the wire can be adjusted to allow the second yoke to line up with its blocks. (pic2) If confident everything is fixed firmly, this assembly can be left as-is, allowing removal at a later date. Being less confident, I put a spot of glue on each yoke end. I recently caught up with an old thread elsewhere in which @Jol Wilkinson had advocated GS supplies hypo. https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/gs-supplies-hypo-cement-9ml/5662311000.html?sw_skipfooter=true and had a tube to try. It is fairly quick setting but not as quick as superglue. In my case the fine applicator tip stuck to the cap and came away from the tube so I've had to resort to applying a spot with a pin.

 

More obviously, I have added footboards, which help mask the nasty cut-and-fill to the whitemetal, where present. These were scratch-built from scrap brass etch - my first attempt at this, so quite pleased with the result. In fact I am still working on this for the second pair of bogies. Because the Comet bogie sides are variable in length, these footboards have to be made individually to fit. The brassmasters' CCU etch (used for other coaches in this set) provided some nice lengths of suitable brass for this! The whitemetal sides can be drilled for the support stanchions, given a sharp drillbit. 

Anyway (pic3 ) a fairly complete item, but some fettling and painting still needed. This bogie is actually one of the first pair in terms of basic construction, so sporting the sprung coach supports but not the cut-and-fill sides; but it is part of the second pair in terms of brake rigging, due to dodging about on my part from task to task.

Pic4 is a cut-and-filled whitemetal side which I slapped some paint on to see how visible the filling looks. I'll leave this a bit while I make up my mind!

[Nick Lawson]

Sprung buffers

 

My intention is to keep these coaches in permanently coupled rakes, as closely coupled as possible; so sprung buffers are essential. Wizard used to supply sprung MR oval buffers, but sadly these are currently unavailable and look like they will be so for some time. I do have some Slaters sprung buffers which are operated by a leaf spring fixed to the back of the buffer beam, but haven't had much success with them even on the kits they were designed for; so I went shopping at expoEM in May.

 

Firstly I bought a pack of MRD ready-assembled sprung MR wagon buffers, which they thought would be suitable. However, the whitemetal bodies of these buffers were too large in diameter for the Ratio buffer beams. It would have been necessary to open up the holes in the beam until there was almost no plastic left to hold the buffers, which I thought would be asking for trouble.

 

Happily I then sourced some self-assembly Keen-Maygib (KM439) round-headed MR buffers from Branchlines; who then directed me two stops down the line to Brassmasters who in turn supplied an etch of nickel silver oval buffer heads.

https://www.brassmasters.co.uk/images/Accessories/Oval buffers.jpg Of course I then failed to realise until I got home that I'd need some different flux to solder the NS onto the steel buffer heads, so that was a follow-up trip to the web.

 

Even more happily, when I had all the kit in one place, it turned out to be much easier than I'd expected to file down the steel heads and solder the ovals to them, although I then found I should have washed off the flux residue as some rusting ensued. (pic1)

 

The Ratio buffer beams still needed opening out to take the 2mm buffers, but this was less than the MRD product. The buffer shafts have to be threaded through minute helical springs, which mostly worked. If possible, poke the shaft into the spring inside the packet to minimise bids for freedom. Having inserted the shaft into its body to the desired depth, the back end needs to be bent over to retain it. It is then an art form that cries out for a jig to get all the buffer heads set to the same depth.

 

Additionally as model oval-headed buffers will of course rotate, it is necessary to prevent this. Stephen Williams' 4mm coach vol1 had prepared me for this. Small strips of plastic either side of the bent over end of the buffer shaft are easy to fix, provided you first ensured that you bent the shaft exactly perpendicular to the long axis of the oval, to allow the strips to be fitted close either side of it. (pic2)

 

Pic3 gives the general effect with an incomplete body plonked loosely on top. Comparing this with the back cover of Lacy & Dow vol1, these buffer heads look  a bit too wide, but I'm not going to fiddle with them right now.

[Nick Lawson]

Some experiments:

 

My cut-and-shut Midland D492 (formerly a 2nd hand, damaged Ratio D499 Brake 3rd) has been moving forward in a distinctly Lambeth Walk fashion.

 

Firstly I had some Slaters buffer spring strips which I don't really like, but discovered that the surrounding (phosphor bronze?) strip is just right for faking up fine lamp brackets and gas cut-off bars. (Shades of small children at Christmas - throwing away the toy and eat the wrapping paper).

 

I also had a Wizard detailing etch which included a pair of rounded brackets to support the brake tell-tail mechanism.  (pic1) However, only one pair, so I thought I'd use them as a pattern on some scrap etch. At this point I spotted that the remains of a comet MR bogie etch included rounded shapes of just the right size.  (pic2) Happy bunny. Some fettling later, I then created an assembly with two home made brackets with a chunk of plasticard for the centre box strung freely on a length of wire. I cut a pair of semaphore "paddles" from scrap etch and soldered to the ends of the wire. My technique for this was to cut notches into the inner side of the paddles and file points on the ends of the wire. Then, with paddle and wire taped to bench with point located in notch, apply solder. This worked very well. I then mounted the finished assembly on the end of the coach and was well pleased.  Two steps forward.

 

A while later I was engrossed in some other work on the coach body when I carelessly gripped one end and broke both semaphore paddles off. At this point I discovered that the wire was now immovably fixed into the centre "box" as copious MekPak had softened the plastic around the wire. "Drat, drat and triple drat." One step back completed. (pic3)

[Nick Lawson]

As the last pic in the previous episode shows, I have been having a go at detailing the roof.

 

The salvaged kit had both roof sections immovably welded together so initially I wasn't going to try adding in strips to represent the clerestory window frames. (Something I have tried on another of my half-built kits). I didn't succumb to this temptation until after I had fitted the gas light tops and ventilators, which is the worst possible order to go about this!

 

I then tried to fit gas pipes running along the base of the clerestory and found that if you stick strips on the side of the clerestory there is then insufficient room to run a pipe behind the gas light tops. So I ended up cutting lengths of wire and fitting them between the backs of the gaslight tops. I then applied scraps of paper as securing brackets as per Stephen Williams' technique.

 

Lastly, I went for it and added the grab handles to the clerestory top. This is the Midland's  "mark II" pattern, with individual handles above each gas light top, rather than the earlier full-length-of-the-coach-top pattern. Looking at the result, I think I should have used finer wire, as I did for the handles above the end steps.

 

I need to flat down the paintwork which is distinctly blobby in places and recoat.

 

I'm not sure the best finish to represent the clerestory glass.

[uax6]

Its a bit late now, but you may want to consider removing the heavy drip moulding and replacing it with a bit of brass wire, it will look much better as its actually quite a small moulding in real life. I use 0.45mm for mine.

Find the mid-point of the arc and put a dab of superglue there, then put the middle of the wire into it and let it go hard. Then you can put a dab at the ends and pull the ends down into the glue and hold it there until it goes off. You get a good arc, and you can then run superglue down the wire to cement it firmly to the roof.

 

Andy G

[Compound2632]

I use 20 thou x 10 thou microstrip, on edge:

 

 

A dab of Mek at the centre, then at each end, check it's sitting on a natural curve, then allow Mek to run along by capillary action.

[Nick Lawson]

@uax6   @Compound2632 I agree mine is overly chunky.

 

Somehow I feel I am going to be having another go at it....

[Nick Lawson]

@uax6@Compound2632Thank you for saving me from myself! I've removed the offending strips and am applying the smaller microstrip as prescribed by Stephen, but secured with superglue as prescribed by Andy. This coach is quite elderly and the plastic has become brittle. It doesn't really respond well to Mek any more. 

 

It already looks better. Of course I now look at four other roofs under construction... Nurse, scalpel please.

[Nick Lawson]

Looking at my careless workmanship above I concluded that I was getting bored with this project, so I'm doing something else for a while. "I'll be back".