Minor Points: Annie's layout projects.

[Annie]

30 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

Great minds think alike, I think that has to be my favorite illustration Peter Barnfield created. Personally I think its the Wantage track plan or at least inspired by it with the passenger platform and train shed on the headshunt of the loop. Maybe a Owd' Ratty Manning Wardle would fit on that Tri-Ang Jinty chassis...

Yes I think it was very much inspired by Wantage and it's my favourite Whimshire illustration as well.

A Manning Wardle would be very nice indeed and I shall have to give some thought to that.

[Player of trains]

I'll wind my neck in after this opinion but the Universal points sound like a good deal if you can get them and want too. With the track you found in store it'd be pretty ideal, the old wren track always looked a bit coarse to my eyes but utterly fantastic for O.16.5 with its wider sleepers and rails flush to the sleepers as opposed to the Triang Series 3/4 track with the narrower sleepers and raised rail. 

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Player of trains said:

I'll wind my neck in after this opinion but the Universal points sound like a good deal if you can get them and want too. With the track you found in store it'd be pretty ideal, the old wren track always looked a bit coarse to my eyes but utterly fantastic for O.16.5 with its wider sleepers and rails flush to the sleepers as opposed to the Triang Series 3/4 track with the narrower sleepers and raised rail. 

That was my thought too that the coarse scale looking Wrenn points would look fairly reasonable as On16.5 points.

 

Presently slightly distracted by a Bing LNWR clockwork engine that seems cheap enough at the moment, but is likely to soar to heights beyond my oxygen level once the race to own it starts up.

Another distraction is a fairly ghastly Lionel 'O' gauge 'Devious Diesel' which seems to have a very nice 3 rail 0-6-0 electric mech underneath its awful bodyshell.  Its 'buy now' price is surprisingly cheap considering some of the rough old tat that folk are asking a lot more money for.  In truth I should ignore it as I don't actually have a pressing need for a 6 coupled 'O' gauge mech and besides I'm supposed to be building a On16.5 layout that needs my pocket money a lot more.

[Annie]

 

My anti-heroic UnDead Elf queen character from the Elder Scrolls computer game 'Oblivion' has been temporarily shoved off removed from my computer's desktop in favour of this view of the station at Plumbury Bagott.  While I don't want to replicate the wooden buildings to an exact degree for my own layout, it would be nice if I can be inspired to create something along the same lines.

Before I gave up on layout building when my brain went 404 I'd ordered 10,000 coffee stirrers.  I wonder what I did with them.....

[Player of trains]

Had a good hunt though the boxes and found the wagons, a lot more than I thought, we definitely over produced for that first show but you don’t know until you try, I think I must have six vans in stock…I thought only five were produced. Whoops

 

 

 

 

the brake gear is fitted separately in all these wagons and they take most makes of OO wheels, the GVT had two makes of 4 ton open wagon by Midland Carriage and Wagon and the more local Cambrian wagon co, the difference in brake gear is really the only visual difference, MCW mounted the operating axle for the brakes directly to the solebars whereas the Cambrian WCo fitted the brakes to proper V hangers. 
 

 

I’m remembering how these vans were made now too, the main body was printed in resin and the roof is made from filament material, says how long they’ve been in the box haha.

 

 

The one ton wagons are a more obscure prototype from the GVT dating from when the initial motive power was single digit horsepower. I hope they’d fill your cuteness quota Annie. They did stick around for loco haulage and mostly carried cut slate or coal when the four ton wagons took over, even carried tar tankers for the “granomac” traffic which humorously did not fit the wagons so the doors needed to be chained shut around the tank for conveyance. Fingers crossed that was new information and I’m not looking like a total lemon haha. Do ignore the out of scale scenery the layout just happened to be the best photography plank, Alnogg happens to have gained an 3ft Railway which funnily enough I’m rebuilding based off the Plumbury Baggott illustration. 

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Player of trains said:

Had a good hunt though the boxes and found the wagons, a lot more than I thought, we definitely over produced for that first show but you don’t know until you try, I think I must have six vans in stock…I thought only five were produced. Whoops

 

 

 

 

the brake gear is fitted separately in all these wagons and they take most makes of OO wheels, the GVT had two makes of 4 ton open wagon by Midland Carriage and Wagon and the more local Cambrian wagon co, the difference in brake gear is really the only visual difference, MCW mounted the operating axle for the brakes directly to the solebars whereas the Cambrian WCo fitted the brakes to proper V hangers. 
 

 

I’m remembering how these vans were made now too, the main body was printed in resin and the roof is made from filament material, says how long they’ve been in the box haha.

 

 

The one ton wagons are a more obscure prototype from the GVT dating from when the initial motive power was single digit horsepower. I hope they’d fill your cuteness quota Annie. They did stick around for loco haulage and mostly carried cut slate or coal when the four ton wagons took over, even carried tar tankers for the “granomac” traffic which humorously did not fit the wagons so the doors needed to be chained shut around the tank for conveyance. Fingers crossed that was new information and I’m not looking like a total lemon haha. Do ignore the out of scale scenery the layout just happened to be the best photography plank, Alnogg happens to have gained an 3ft Railway which funnily enough I’m rebuilding based off the Plumbury Baggott illustration. 

I like that photography plank you chose 😀

 

And I'm seriously amazed at how nice your collection of On16.5 goods wagons are.  They are really lovely and they will be perfect for what I want.  Heck i seem to have something in my eye, - thank you, thank you very much for this.

 

Edit:  I don't quite understand why people at your first show didn't snap them up and buy all you had, but then I suppose On16.5 isn't quite as popular as 009.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Annie
More words needed.

[Annie]

If anyone had bet money on whether I was going to buy that Lionel six coupled mech hiding under that dreadful Thomas 'Devious Diesel' bodyshell when I said I wasn't going to, - then you might be in the money. 

I made up my mind that I wasn't going to buy it and then the vendor inexplicably dropped the 'buy now' price by $NZ50.00.  What was even more strange was that he lived on the other side of town and drove over to my house and delivered it to me the moment I'd paid for it.  It was in its original box in almost brand new condition with all its accessories and instructions too. 

Possibly the fact that I almost immediately pulled it apart makes doing that even more despicable in the eyes of the worshippers of a certain little blue engine.  Compared with some of the old Lionel 4 coupled mechs I've got that are real heavy metal this 21st century Lionel mech uses a lot of moulded plastic in its chassis.  It's also got a whole lot more wires and electronic things inside it than my old 1950s Lionel mechs as well.

 

 

The original bodyshell is basically Gauge 1 sized while the 6 coupled mech is definitely 'O' Gauge.  If someone was really keen and put the work in they might, - just might be able to make a decent Gauge 1 model from this bodyshell, - but I definitely won't be doing it.

 

I've got a Leeds 'O' Gauge bodyshell for a 4-6-0T and that's what I want the 6 coupled Lionel mech for.  Some of the extra unnecessary plastic bits might need to be sawed off the chassis to get it all to fit, but I don't see that as being a big problem.

Somebody in the past had stripped my poor old Leeds loco of every useable fitting that could be removed so the poor old thing is in a bit of a state, but its bodyshell is still straight and undented so I think it's worth bringing back from the dead.  A friend in the Hornby Railway Collectors Association, basically gave it to me for nothing along with a bodyshell for a Leeds 0-4-4T. 

The 0-4-4T bodyshell is in a slightly better condition, but I was a bit upset when I found that a lovely Bassett-Lowke 4 coupled clockwork mech I had wouldn't quite fit into the Leeds bodyshell. 😢

 

 

Leeds 'O' Gauge 0-4-4T

[Player of trains]

Thanks Annie, really I think we just started in the wrong place trying to replicate existing wagons, the thinking was to replace the old rather innacurate Peco whitemtal kits of GVT and L&B rolling stock, as well as this I think there was still some prejudice to 3D printing around 2019-2020 on account of Makerbots sullying early home 3D printing for a lot of people with overpromised quality back in 2013-16 which really I can't blame them for. Makerbots are bizarre little things. 

 

Leeds is a new maker to me but the Lionel mechanism would fit brilliantly I imagine, is it a pure AC chassis or does it run on AC with a rectifier to DC, I don't know all that much about Lionel. Both of those engines are very sweet though, despite the liveries I think they have a rather distinct Irish flair too them, especially the 4-6-0T, it looks like a Cork, Bandon and South Coast loco.

 

[corneliuslundie]

Just a thought, but the GVT is starting to reappear (Steam Railway No. 540). Will there be a resurgence in interest   the GVT and might sales of your models take off?

Lovely models anyway.

Jonathan

[Player of trains]

17 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Just a thought, but the GVT is starting to reappear (Steam Railway No. 540). Will there be a resurgence in interest   the GVT and might sales of your models take off?

Lovely models anyway.

Jonathan

 

Its possible, I am actually heading that way for their open day in later this year, as it is now they are just taking up room, have done for several years now so happy to pass them along

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Player of trains said:

Thanks Annie, really I think we just started in the wrong place trying to replicate existing wagons, the thinking was to replace the old rather inaccurate Peco whitemtal kits of GVT and L&B rolling stock, as well as this I think there was still some prejudice to 3D printing around 2019-2020 on account of Makerbots sullying early home 3D printing for a lot of people with overpromised quality back in 2013-16 which really I can't blame them for. Makerbots are bizarre little things. 

I can remember the early days of the 3D printing revolution when kits to build 3D printers were pouring out of China and Europe and how we were promised wonderful states of surface finish on models that turned out to be nothing short of lies.  Certainly what we are seeing now is very good as is evident in your own models.

 

1 hour ago, Player of trains said:

Leeds is a new maker to me but the Lionel mechanism would fit brilliantly I imagine, is it a pure AC chassis or does it run on AC with a rectifier to DC, I don't know all that much about Lionel. Both of those engines are very sweet though, despite the liveries I think they have a rather distinct Irish flair too them, especially the 4-6-0T, it looks like a Cork, Bandon and South Coast loco.

Leeds Model Co or Leeds Stedman is not so well known these days.  The bodyshells I have are for their generic series of 'O' Gauge locomotives that were painted in a variety of liveries with fittings such as chimneys, domes and safety valves being changed to suit.  They did also make some almost scale model locomotives as well that were of better quality.

The main reason why they aren't seen for sale very often these days is that the Marzac alloy that they made the chassis from was not the best and it would eventually swell and crack and break up.  You'll find that most Leeds models that are still running either have a handmade replacement brass chassis or else a mech from some other make of 'O' Gauge loco.

I like that picture you posted of a Cork, Bandon and South Coast loco by the way.

 

The original Lionel mechs from the 1950s that I have are AC with wire wound field windings, but this new mech seems to be fitted with a conventional DC can motor with additional electronics to enable it to run on AC.  I haven't really investigated it all that much yet to see exactly how it works.  My own 'O' gauge engines run on DC, - so if it's possible to make this 6 coupled mech do the same I'll be doing exactly that.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Annie]

This is another item from Smallbrook Studios that I'm going to add to my shopping list for next month..

Some of my old 'clockers' with broken springs might live again.

 

[CKPR]

Now this new project I am liking very much ! Of course, you know that you really should be using clockwork...

[Annie]

2 hours ago, CKPR said:

Now this new project I am liking very much ! Of course, you know that you really should be using clockwork...

Oh boy do I ever have clockwork engines.  I have a large drawer full.   For a long time I only collected clockwork engines, - and amongst my collection I had a really nice Hornby '101' tank engine that ran sweetly enough that it was possible to shunt with it; - then the spring broke and one of the HRCA members offered to repair it for me and it was never the same again after he'd done with it.  😟

With the difficulty with getting replacement  springs these days a battery conversion is about the only option.  Smallbrook do an 'Improved' upmarket version as well with finescale metal wheels.

 

[Annie]

The only item of rolling stock I haven't had any luck with finding in On16.5 scale is a sheep or cattle wagon.  I 'borrowed' this image from the Accucraft website to show the kind of wagon I had in mind.  It doesn't have to be a W&L wagon as there were plenty of other open topped cattle/sheep wagon designs about on narrow gauge lines.

If I could find a decent drawing I might even have a go at making one.

Edited May 19, 2023 by Annie
can't spell for toffee

[Player of trains]

I've got to stop weighing in like this 😄 I have the 16mm WLLR drawings at home Annie, I'll see about getting a photo or a scan of the sheep wagon to you, although I'm partial to the Rheidol method of stick them in an open wagon and throw a net on top myself.

The sheep wagon is a really simple model to make if you decided to use Tinkercad. I would personally make a standard upright and cross beams for the walls and cut and shut the different sides out of that. The best bit about tinkercad is its very easy to copy and paste parts between workbenches and before you know it you have a catalogue that looks like the spare parts department at Darlington with 120 boiler designs. 

[Annie]

7 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

I've got to stop weighing in like this 😄 I have the 16mm WLLR drawings at home Annie, I'll see about getting a photo or a scan of the sheep wagon to you, although I'm partial to the Rheidol method of stick them in an open wagon and throw a net on top myself.

😀😄🙃😊

 

8 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

The sheep wagon is a really simple model to make if you decided to use Tinkercad. I would personally make a standard upright and cross beams for the walls and cut and shut the different sides out of that. The best bit about tinkercad is its very easy to copy and paste parts between workbenches and before you know it you have a catalogue that looks like the spare parts department at Darlington with 120 boiler designs. 

Seriously if you have got a drawing you could send my way I would be very grateful.

It's been awhile since I last messed about in TinkerCAD, but I was certainly impressed with how easy it was to use and I think if I was going to make a success of creating anything in 3D software I think TinkerCAD would be it.

[Annie]

Well so far my bids on the universal Wrenn points have gone well with two right hand, a 'Y' point and a left hand curved point now successfully mine.  It's just five more to go now.

There still seems to be a fair bit of this type of Wrenn trackwork around and most is in good condition, though often needing a good clean.  Plainly any kind of traditional model railway ballasting method are a big no-no due to the fibre base.

 

I had a very sleepy day yesterday and ended up not doing much.

 

 

http://www.wrennrailways.org.uk/Adverts/March60.jpg

Edited May 21, 2023 by Annie
Um.........

[Annie]

 

I'm still looking at the Bishop's Castle track plan from the OS map and generally frowning at it.  There a lot of things I like about the plan even though I'm not going to be building a true representation.

The Bishop's Castle Society has an old photo of the timber built engine shed which I will be copying though and more than likely the carriage shed as well.  The society webpages are an interesting read, - especially the pages on the restoration of the brick weighbridge and office building.

I had a go at trying to plot the trackplan out to suit my proposed layout board at 78 inches X 28 inches and made an utter mess of it due to being sleepy, so I think I'll just adapt the late Iain Rice's trackplan instead.

 

(Colourised image from the Disused Stations website)

 

[Hroth]

5 hours ago, Annie said:

Well so far my bids on the universal Wrenn points have gone well with two right hand, a 'Y' point and a left hand curved point now successfully mine.  It's just five more to go now.

There still seems to be a fair bit of this type of Wrenn trackwork around and most is in good condition, though often needing a good clean.  Plainly any kind of traditional model railway ballasting method are a big no-no due to the fibre base.

 

I had a very sleepy day yesterday and ended up not doing much.

 

 

http://www.wrennrailways.org.uk/Adverts/March60.jpg

 

How about assembling your track on the baseboard and pencil the outline of the trackbed around it. You can then remove the track and paint the outlined area using some mottled stone effect spray paint.  It'll give a ballasted effect without using real ballast and getting the fibre base soggy.

 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

 

How about assembling your track on the baseboard and pencil the outline of the trackbed around it. You can then remove the track and paint the outlined area using some mottled stone effect spray paint.  It'll give a ballasted effect without using real ballast and getting the fibre base soggy.

 

That sounds like a really good idea, - thanks!

[Annie]

Picture courtesy of the Bishop's Castle Railway Society.

[corneliuslundie]

Ah, but the bus means that the train was cancelled. You don't want that to happen!

Seriously, towards the end the last train was more than often a bus, if I have read correctly.

Have you seen the model of Bishops castle being built by the Society? There is quite a lot about it in most issues of the newsletter.

Jonathan

 

[Annie]

Attempt at resizing an 009 Cattle Van to On16.5 in TinkerCAD

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

For tall, thin cows?

Hast, coat . . 

Jonathan