Countdown to Christmas - an Australian Advent Challenge

[65179]

1 hour ago, Sithlord75 said:

10th December

 

Back to making something for someone today.  In this case a LMS D1663 van for @2mm Dabbler.  I drew the CAD for the .stl file following some suggestions by @65179 and Michael asked what would he need to do to get some prints. I said he’d need some chassis - what I meant was he could have the prints but what Michael did was get twice as many chassis!  So I’m going ten chassis and prints for him in BR livery and ten for me in LMS.  Other vans to be done are some D1808, D1812, D1814, D1828 and D1832As.  
 

No decals as yet as I haven’t designed the BR ones.

 

 

What scale are you doing them Kevin? You'll need a plan for the D1814s if they are 2mm as they were at least mostly fitted and thus had the 8 shoe fitted underframe the Association supplies as 1:148 only.

 

Simon 

[Sithlord75]

They’ll be 2mm as drawn Simon, but can be tweaked to 1:148 if needed, however running them in the same train may not look the biz.

 

Cheers

Kevin

[Sithlord75]

11th December

 

I showed the ZAG meeting this morning the LNWR D103 I was working on for today - the plan being having gotten the parts all together and painted during the meeting this morning, I would put the decals on later (possibly during the brief session of test cricket - the West Indies lasted less time than England's Quarter Final today...) but when I went to put the transfers on I discovered I'd run out of lettering for one plank wagons - well not quite as I've a special set for the D13 which hopefully will be painted and decaled in the next couple of days (wife and children permitting).  Still, putting the decals on doesn't take very long and I regard wagons as finished once they have reached the painted stage - ie no longer belonging to the North Somerset Light Railway.

 

This wagon is my own CAD top on the Association 9'9" chassis - they were used well into LMS days as conflats and I believe many survived in this role to BR - I'll need to sort a few more to go behind my Class 28 which is on it's way.  The brake shoe is in the correct position - it is the angle of the photo which suggests otherwise!

 

[Sithlord75]

12th December

 

Whoa, halfway there... (go on, some of you will have sung it!)

 

Today I got back into the Something for Someone zone and put some paint on the K wagon I did for @VRBroadgauge - whilst I was at it, I did the last couple of wagons on his list and got paint on the lot.  Just need to organise the (very) small lettering and these'll be ready to ship down to Wodonga.  Not enough axles to sort that part out - Bruce is doing the assembly of those and rather than post them to me for me to post them back, he gets to fit them.  He really loves that job....

 

Thought I should arrange them in a kind of Christmas tree patten - possibly works better if you look at it upside down from the UK.

 

 

[cctransuk]

23 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

11th December

 

I showed the ZAG meeting this morning the LNWR D103 I was working on for today - the plan being having gotten the parts all together and painted during the meeting this morning, I would put the decals on later (possibly during the brief session of test cricket - the West Indies lasted less time than England's Quarter Final today...) but when I went to put the transfers on I discovered I'd run out of lettering for one plank wagons - well not quite as I've a special set for the D13 which hopefully will be painted and decaled in the next couple of days (wife and children permitting).  Still, putting the decals on doesn't take very long and I regard wagons as finished once they have reached the painted stage - ie no longer belonging to the North Somerset Light Railway.

 

This wagon is my own CAD top on the Association 9'9" chassis - they were used well into LMS days as conflats and I believe many survived in this role to BR - I'll need to sort a few more to go behind my Class 28 which is on it's way.  The brake shoe is in the correct position - it is the angle of the photo which suggests otherwise!

 

 

I'm afraid that these 9'-9"WB wagons were not used for container traffic under BR to any significant extent - their sub-ten foot wheelbase would certainly have precluded this by the time that the Co-Bos were around.

 

CJI.

[Sithlord75]

13th December

 

I didn't get to do anything during the day today (summer holiday chores and my wife has come down with her traditional end of school year illness - basically needing to sleep to recharge so I was on keep the kids quiet) so no work until this evening.  With that in mind I decided I should have a look at a second horse box from the etches @VRBroadgauge did for me.  I chose the LNER D351 (ex GNR) which is depicted in Tatlow's NPCCS on Page 78 (left hand drawing).  Took about two and a half hours to run out of bits on the etch but this was interspersed with messages back and forth with the designer.  Probably a two hour build for the second one - particularly as I now have worked out a bit of a game plan.

 

The battery on my Dremel ran out so I havn't run a wire brush over it to remove the excess solder and the roof hasn't been fitted.  Owing to the need for vents and what have you I am thinking about 3D printing a roof to plug in so I can glaze with glass first - and have the torpedo vents etc already printed in place.  I also need to find out what colour they were - I assume brown or a faux teak finish.    

 

Bruce drew up the D352 (right hand drawing from the same source) which I plan on building on Thursday evening - Something for Someone tomorrow.

 

[Sithlord75]

14 December 

 

@nebnoswal and I used to hold a knitting club on Thursday evenings but at the behest of Management we have moved it to Wednesday evening and tonight was only the second time we have convened to knit at the new time.  As it is an even number in the Advent Countdown I set out to do Something for Someone.  The question is, whilst I knew what the Something was, who was it really for?

 

What I did, was build a Midland Railway D326 Deep Case Wagon using the etches designed by @VRBroadgauge following a challenge (request?  Dunno really - one of them can tell us) from @Nick Mitchell who has an interest in the esoteric wagon I believe.  This one took a bit of doing as I only had the drawing and a couple of pictures contained in Essery's MR Wagons Vol 2 to go on - Bruce gave up writing instructions for me for his etches when he realised I never read them!  I did send some pics to him during the build asking for advice but given he drew these some months ago, he couldn't remember what his thought process was!  I'm going to build a second one for either him or me - this one is either going to be for me or him I think as Nick is getting his own etch.  I'll write some notes when I do the second one (after Christmas) based on what I have learnt (I didn't learn this but was reminded tonight for the first time in a while, that touching the pointy bit of the soldering iron with your finger is a very silly thing to do!)

 

Anyway I think it has come up well - I'm going to put coupling hooks and three links on it (and the second brake lever which wasn't on Bruce's info but is definitely there in the picture I have) and then draw up some decals (anyone interested in having one of these beasties will get a set of decals thrown in - we're nice like that) and then it will be put in the display cabinet carefully labeled "Dr Nick's Folly" as that is what Bruce and I have taken to calling it!

 

[65179]

Where's the rest of the Wellington?

 

Well done managing to put that together Kevin, and a nifty bit of design Bruce given the great big hole in the middle where all the helpful stuff to hold the axleboxes the right distance apart should be.

 

Will it survive a rough shunt with a 9F?

 

The strange wagon I've been looking at recently is the LMS D2027 OCT. A wonderfully out of place thing for the pre-nationalisation railway in the UK.

 

Regards,

Simon

 

 

[VRBroadgauge]

6 hours ago, 65179 said:

Where's the rest of the Wellington?

 

Well done managing to put that together Kevin, and a nifty bit of design Bruce given the great big hole in the middle where all the helpful stuff to hold the axleboxes the right distance apart should be.

 

Will it survive a rough shunt with a 9F?

 

The strange wagon I've been looking at recently is the LMS D2027 OCT. A wonderfully out of place thing for the pre-nationalisation railway in the UK.

 

Regards,

Simon

 

 

Apparently this beastie is surprisingly strong. It becomes integral once it's soddered together.

Unlike the dreaded 3DP it will stand the test of time.

I'm slightly impressed with myself.

[Compound2632]

7 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

14 December 

 

@nebnoswal and I used to hold a knitting club on Thursday evenings but at the behest of Management we have moved it to Wednesday evening and tonight was only the second time we have convened to knit at the new time.  As it is an even number in the Advent Countdown I set out to do Something for Someone.  The question is, whilst I knew what the Something was, who was it really for?

 

What I did, was build a Midland Railway D326 Deep Case Wagon 

 A model of one of those has to be a minor miracle in any scale! in 2 mm...

[Nick Mitchell]

1 hour ago, VRBroadgauge said:

I'm slightly impressed with myself.

 

I'm more than slightly impressed.

I may have suggested it as a bit of a wind up, but I should know better!

I'm also impressed with how Kevin's put it together.

I can't wait to have a go at building one.

 

Now... what sort of tricky load could it be carrying?

[Sithlord75]

13 minutes ago, Nick Mitchell said:

 

I'm more than slightly impressed.

I may have suggested it as a bit of a wind up, but I should know better!

I'm also impressed with how Kevin's put it together.

I can't wait to have a go at building one.

 

Now... what sort of tricky load could it be carrying?

I think the result is that Bruce now knows he can design etches for practically anything.  
 

As for a load - none of the pictures I’ve seen show them loaded and I’d imagine they’d be very specific types of loads.  Mine is staying unloaded.

[VRBroadgauge]

1 hour ago, Sithlord75 said:

I think the result is that Bruce now knows he can design etches for practically anything.  
 

As for a load - none of the pictures I’ve seen show them loaded and I’d imagine they’d be very specific types of loads.  Mine is staying unloaded.

2023 will be the year of the locomotive. I'm willing to have a crack at just about anything.

I like the fact that we can build things that haven't been done before - particularly in this country. It's very gratifying.

But having said that I'm happy to do things for my pommy friends or if there is a specific need. I had a bloke that I met at an N scale convention ask if I could do a 2FS 2' gauge 0-6-6-0. I didn't say no....

Most challenges accepted.

[65179]

2 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

I think the result is that Bruce now knows he can design etches for practically anything.  
 

As for a load - none of the pictures I’ve seen show them loaded and I’d imagine they’d be very specific types of loads.  Mine is staying unloaded.

 

There's a 1939 view of a loaded one in Essery's Midland Wagons Vol.2. It's equipped with the baulks shown in this drawing (although the real one has the cross timbers within the eagon wheelbase):

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201547627820

 

with some sort of A framing as a load. Nick will enjoy doing the roping. More fiddly than some of his valve gear.

 

Simon

Edited December 15, 2022 by 65179

[Sithlord75]

15th December 

 

I didn’t have a lot of time today what with ferrying kids around (summer holidays down here) and doing some welding jobs for one of the LAG guys (he’s collecting Saturday) so I dug up a started but not yet completed LNWR D88 van and got it sorted and primed.  Bit of a let down after the MR D326 I know but they can’t all be exciting challenges - most wagons were boring everyday jobsworth types!

[Compound2632]

13 hours ago, Nick Mitchell said:

Now... what sort of tricky load could it be carrying?

 

11 hours ago, 65179 said:

There's a 1939 view of a loaded one in Essery's Midland Wagons Vol.2.

 

See also Midland Record No. 22 for two photos of another one loaded with a steel fabrication in an open-work wooden packing case.

 

The 1880s/90s 40 ft case wagons of the same general type as these were built "for the conveyance of large cases of wagon work for shipment", according to the C&W Committee minutes.

[Sithlord75]

16 December

 

I got in early today and did a private owner wagon - and then realised that it was an even date, and I should have, if following my own rules, done Something for Someone - oh well.  Rules are made to be broken!

 

This particular wagon has its origin from Shapeways - specifically some LNWR wagon bodies which @Chris Higgs designed.  However, I found when I went to make it as a LNWR wagon, the file was incorrect - it should have had rounded ends, not flat ones.  No worries as Chris kindly sent me the corrected .STL file so I could print my own but what to do with the bodies?

 

I've got four and rather than waste them I thought about making them Private Owner Wagons - after all, these seem to come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.  As part of the grand plan, I designed some decals to suit (a fictional firm of coal merchants) and sorted the wagon by building a 9' wheelbase chassis, painting the body with a rattle can I chose at random.  It was while all this was drying (nice day for it down here) that I realised the date.  Anyway, I finished it off.  Pretty happy with the result.  The AG part is my wife's initials, KP mine.  We both love York.  When I took the picture, I hadn't added the coal load but had fiitted the former for same.

 

 

 

Doing the Challenge tomorrow is going to be interesting - we have the SEQAG Christmas lunch (with the Hon. Sec. of the 2mm SA joining us) and then we are going away for the evening.  Hopefully I'll find time to do something.

 

 

 

[Sithlord75]

17 December

 

SEQAG Christmas party today so lots of talk about modelling, particularly with Matthew Wald who had escaped Cornwall for Queensland and brought some of his models with him.  At least one of the AG members was heard to be muttering about wanting to give the card-built wagon bodies a go so we shall see what develops there.

 

In the end the combination of a much later finish than we had anticipated, the excitement of the first Australian Test Captain to send the opposition (in this case South Africa) at the Gabba since 2000 (or anyone since Nasser Hussain thought it was a good idea in 2003 - in both cases Australia won comfortably) in - vindicated by SA being rolled for 152 with Australia 5/145 at stumps - meant the previous plans for the evening were scraped and so a proper build oppotunity came my way.

 

I decided to do the second of the two GNR Horseboxes which @VRBroadgauge drew up for me - the D352.  Contruction was straight forward, and I'd run out of etched bits (still have to put the footsteps and brake leavers on - plus add a couple of bits from the spares box) just on two hours after starting.  

 

 

Once again, this hasn't been cleaned up with the wire brush - just put through the ultrasonic cleaner to remove the flux.

The pair of them in the same orientation as the drawings in Tatlow.  Very happy with the results.  Still none the wiser as to what colour they should be, but they look ok in North Somerset Light Railway livery.

 

[Compound2632]

They should be Great Northern horsebox colour.

 

BTW I hope i didn't put you off that Midland medium cattle wagon - would be interested to see it!.

[richbrummitt]

5 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Still none the wiser as to what colour they should be, but they look ok in North Somerset Light Railway livery.

 

Tatlow (the blue one - NPCS drawings) has the answer? I’d guess at brown, like the varnished version of whatever wood they used for coaches. 

[Compound2632]

Ask a member of the relevant line society: @chris p bacon, what was the livery of Great Northern horseboxes in Great Northern days?

[chris p bacon]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Ask a member of the relevant line society: @chris p bacon, what was the livery of Great Northern horseboxes in Great Northern days?

 

Oh Lord, now I have to fire up the brain cells....

 

I've always understood them to be 'Brown' (similar to Teak) as they would run with passenger stock, but I'll check my notes ....when I can find them!

[Sithlord75]

18th December (a little late!)

 

I had planned on posting every day (I mean what's the point of an Advent Calendar if it misses a day?) but unfortunately, I managed to wind up with one of those 24 hour bugs which come and go just after lunch yesterday (about when the South African team was two wickets down and still 63 runs behind) and the progress I had made up until that point on the LSWR 21' horse box (Tatlow again)@VRBroadgauge had designed for me (and for @Laurie2mil although he didn't ask!  We think he may find a use for a couple) was halted until I was feeling better today.

 

As I have come to expect from Bruce's designs, it went together very easily, and it'll make another welcome addition to my horsebox fleet.  

 

[Sithlord75]

19th December

 

Playing catch up on the Calendar - and trying to get as many things finished to send to @VRBroadgauge via Noswal's Courier Company before Christmas (opportunity to utilise the services of same was suggested at the weekend) had me back into the VR wagons and another M type cattle wagon was the result - I've lost count on how many of these I've soldered now.  I know I'll need to get some more paint tomorrow as having painted almost 50 wagons for Bruce so far, I seem to have run out!! 

 

[VRBroadgauge]

12 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

19th December

 

Playing catch up on the Calendar - and trying to get as many things finished to send to @VRBroadgauge via Noswal's Courier Company before Christmas (opportunity to utilise the services of same was suggested at the weekend) had me back into the VR wagons and another M type cattle wagon was the result - I've lost count on how many of these I've soldered now.  I know I'll need to get some more paint tomorrow as having painted almost 50 wagons for Bruce so far, I seem to have run out!! 

 

I believe there's about 30 of these beasties... I plan on taking a class photo over christmas and posting it.

Edited December 20, 2022 by VRBroadgauge
I'm old and I forgot...