Nifkin's Bridge Part Deux - The Lengthening!

[sulzer71]

24 minutes ago, 97406 said:

The irony is that I could have swapped ends with my second 37430 model if the timing had been right. This was the one that became 37678 in red stripe livery.

Sods law eh

[meanach]

Looking at an eBay acquired mint 430 (£145) it looks to me like the centre lamp iron above the head code box is wrong ? It’s the same as the 2 below . And yes, I have a spru of old Vi trains lamp irons. It’s still surprising that in this age of 3D printing that nobody has come up with anything newer.

[sulzer71]

37 minutes ago, meanach said:

Looking at an eBay acquired mint 430 (£145) it looks to me like the centre lamp iron above the head code box is wrong ? It’s the same as the 2 below . And yes, I have a spru of old Vi trains lamp irons. It’s still surprising that in this age of 3D printing that nobody has come up with anything newer.

Looking online it does appear that 430 has a standard lamp bracket , I believe the correct type is on the Vitrains sprue

[97406]

I've completed the work on the chassis of 37194. Now wondering if I should get another 37/0 to go blue as the RFD looks great on it and the cast bogies limit the possibilities in BR blue. Perhaps I should  get the departmental grey or dutch example, or see if there's a cheap Kernow William Cookworthy to be had. Regardless of what livery it ends up in, it will also get Laserglazed windscreens in due course and weathered to a degree with Shapfell staying ex-works.

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by 97406

[sb67]

@97406 Just caught up with your thread, got to say the 37's look mighty fine! Not sure which livery I prefer, growing up with BR Blue that's my default but I do think Red Stripe and Triple Grey suited them to a tee! 

Your weathering looks great as well, all good stuff! 

[97406]

1 hour ago, sb67 said:

@97406 Just caught up with your thread, got to say the 37's look mighty fine! Not sure which livery I prefer, growing up with BR Blue that's my default but I do think Red Stripe and Triple Grey suited them to a tee! 

Your weathering looks great as well, all good stuff! 

 

Nice one! I’m the same. I just remember the green/blue changeover period and then I lived through the seemingly endless years of BR blue. The explosion of new liveries in the 80s helped make up for losing the Rats, the Peaks and the 40s, but by the 90s things were less interesting to me with fewer classes of locos and privatisation looming. They say the optimum number of 37s is 1 greater than the number you actually have at the time!

[97406]

194 is now complete with Laserglaze and light weathering applied to the body. I'll get another one to go into blue when the price comes down as well as an Accurascale 37140 on order..

[woodenhead]

On 14/07/2023 at 07:58, 97406 said:

 

Nice one! I’m the same. I just remember the green/blue changeover period and then I lived through the seemingly endless years of BR blue. The explosion of new liveries in the 80s helped make up for losing the Rats, the Peaks and the 40s, but by the 90s things were less interesting to me with fewer classes of locos and privatisation looming. They say the optimum number of 37s is 1 greater than the number you actually have at the time!

When I was growing up I saw a steady stream of 24s, 25s, 40s and 47s - this was in the 70s.  In those days a class 37 or a class 31 in Manchester was exotic not the norm, I can remember the 11pm double headed class 37 freightliner from the North East than ran M-F to Trafford Park with a them purring past my home.  On the odd occasion I might also see a class 56 working off the CLC line at Trafford Park making it's way back to it's Eastern region home light engine.  A Peak hauled train would be either the Newcastle services at Victoria, the Harwich Boat Train or early on a Sunday metals service from Irlam Steelworks to somewhere in the east.

 

Then slowly the 31s and 37s took over....

[97406]

1 hour ago, woodenhead said:

When I was growing up I saw a steady stream of 24s, 25s, 40s and 47s - this was in the 70s.  In those days a class 37 or a class 31 in Manchester was exotic not the norm, I can remember the 11pm double headed class 37 freightliner from the North East than ran M-F to Trafford Park with a them purring past my home.  On the odd occasion I might also see a class 56 working off the CLC line at Trafford Park making it's way back to it's Eastern region home light engine.  A Peak hauled train would be either the Newcastle services at Victoria, the Harwich Boat Train or early on a Sunday metals service from Irlam Steelworks to somewhere in the east.

 

Then slowly the 31s and 37s took over....

 

Yes, Rats, 40s and 47s were the mainstay where I grew up near Skelton Junction from the last few BR green example until the mid 80s. Then 20s and refurbished 37s took over in the late 80s on the ICI hoppers.

 

The junction is a shadow of its former self, but there is this video that feature it and a few historic pics. 

 

 

[woodenhead]

I used to go to Northenden Junction some evenings to watch the MGRs go by.

 

We were both influenced by the same sorts of train then 🙂, must be why I like Nifkins BRidge - it has that Manchester architecture about it....and 40s

[97406]

6 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I used to go to Northenden Junction some evenings to watch the MGRs go by.

 

We were both influenced by the same sorts of train then 🙂, must be why I like Nifkins BRidge - it has that Manchester architecture about it....and 40s

Nice one! It’s where I grew up. A couple of mates’ houses backed onto the CLC line, one just where the chord of Skelton junction diverges from the CLC line just to the West of Moss Lane Bridge, and the other just to the east, where there was a loop. The sound of the 40s idling was most memorable. Navigation Road was the local station with the bouncy castle 304s with their dusty seats, not to mention the Chester train which was normally a 108 DMU which used to go straight into Oxford Road before the Metrolink. Growing up there is what got me into railways.

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, 97406 said:

Nice one! It’s where I grew up. A couple of mates’ houses backed onto the CLC line, one just where the chord of Skelton junction diverges from the CLC line just to the West of Moss Lane Bridge, and the other just to the east, where there was a loop. The sound of the 40s idling was most memorable. Navigation Road was the local station with the bouncy castle 304s with their dusty seats, not to mention the Chester train which was normally a 108 DMU which used to go straight into Oxford Road before the Metrolink. Growing up there is what got me into railways.

I was christened by the soot of an 8F going along the Fallowfield Loop.

[meanach]

I like your style of weathering. When you weather the Bachmann 37 bogies do you take them off or leave them attached? 

[97406]

22 minutes ago, meanach said:

I like your style of weathering. When you weather the Bachmann 37 bogies do you take them off or leave them attached? 

I brush a sparing coat of frame dirt and let it dry, then I overspray with brake dust enamel.

A little thinned black sometimes goes on the top. The outer faces of wheels get brushed with the loco upside down in a cradle and a 9V battery to turn the wheels.

Edited July 17, 2023 by 97406

[97406]

16 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I was christened by the soot of an 8F going along the Fallowfield Loop.

Steam ended a few months before I was born, so it was Dinting or Steamtown for that sort of thing.

[97406]

[97406]

I ended up getting myself a Dounreay and have resprayed the main body blue. As for a prototype, 37130 used to hang around Buxton in the 80s and also had round buffers which adds to the variety a little.

So off with the headlights and headboard clips are  now required. To create these, I used some 2 part silicone putty and used 37194 as the pattern. Body filler applied with a cocktail stick goes into the mould and hey presto! One example can be seen on the post it note with a circle drawn around it. Once I have completed smoothing and patch painting the ends, they will get epoxied into place and painted yellow to match.

 

[meanach]

Did you strip the grey first or spray over it?

[97406]

13 minutes ago, meanach said:

Did you strip the grey first or spray over it?

Just rubbed it down as much as possible with fine wet and dry and sprayed over 4 light coats of blue. This was due in part to a shortage of IPA in the works, so need to get some more! The detail is still nice and sharp though.

[03060]

On 30/07/2023 at 19:04, 97406 said:

This was due in part to a shortage of IPA in the works, so need to get some more! The detail is still nice and sharp though.

 

Hello @97406 Just as a matter of interest, where do you get your IPA from, please ?

 

I have rather a lot of N gauge 37s to modify, some involving full repaints and whilst I can potentially get some Industrial IPA from work I would prefer to buy a proper bottle of it first so that I have a suitable container in which to keep it and transport it. I once tried Boots chemist but the assistant didn't know what it was.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[97406]

10 minutes ago, 03060 said:

 

Hello @97406 Just as a matter of interest, where do you get your IPA from, please ?

 

I have rather a lot of N gauge 37s to modify, some involving full repaints and whilst I can potentially get some Industrial IPA from work I would prefer to buy a proper bottle of it first so that I have a suitable container in which to keep it and transport it. I once tried Boots chemist but the assistant didn't know what it was.

 

Regards,

Ian.

 

From here, Ian. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Isopropyl-Alcohol-99-9-Pure-50ml-1L-2-5L-5L-5-Litre-Cleaner-UK-IPA-Isopropanol/124205883633?pageci=52106ce8-c186-46a6-90ac-4eddc7a3a699&redirect=mobile

 

Just reminded me I need to get some as it’s payday, so all good.

 

Thanks,

 

Tim

 

[97406]

There you go. Just needs paint.

[Southwich]

56 minutes ago, 97406 said:

There you go. Just needs paint.

You’ve done a brilliant job on that - great work!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

[97406]

22 minutes ago, Southwich said:

You’ve done a brilliant job on that - great work!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

Thanks, Will. Both ends are done now, just waiting for the glue to set thoroughly. I'd estimate about 60% of the mouldings didn't come out too well, but it's easy to repeat until you get a set of nice crisp ones. They're so tiny that they don't take well to being fettled once free of the mould, so they need to be cast correctly in the first place. The use of a cocktail stick to pack the mould out with body filler works well.

 

I first used the approach to cast class 40 axleboxes and springs to go into a kitbashed Class 40 when I was in my teens, though I used bathroom silicone for the moulds and a Mainline class 45's bogies for the patterns. Sadly the model got sold so who knows, it may still be out there somewhere.

 

Tim

[97406]

Probably my last 37 for a while until the HTG 37714 lands, this was resprayed from the Bachmann Dounreay, and the nose ends tweaked as per the earlier posts on this thread. An enjoyable one to do, this was.