High Peak Junction

[TT100 Diesels]

Thanks for the continued interest.

 

I will switch over to the layout side of things again, we have already covered the track plan, track, baseboards and electrics up thread, so its time to dig a bit deeper. I would like to do a tour of the layout buildings snd structures and just say a little bit about what was copied and what was free form but where the inspiration came from.

 

Again, I have explained a bit about the yard / shed end buildings and structures up thread so we can move on down the layout, but before we do, a quick peek into the old steam shed, now refurbished with a diesel fuel point rig.

 

 

 

Its a bit gloomy, sorry, I have since installed lighting.

 

[TT100 Diesels]

So carrying on down the layout,

 

Building and structure wise, we have:-

 

 

 

On the right hand side, a long low retaining wall with rough ground behind up to the back scene. This very loosely represents ( and was inspired by) the real thing in place between Sheep Pasture Bottom and running along to the Wharf Shed transhipment area with the Cromford canal. In teal life, this would very roughly be where the station is on the layout.

 

 

Looking in the other direction, there is a break between the station end wall in the first pic and the second wall which runs to the layout representation of sheep pasture bottom (yard end). Reason for the gap with trees is two fold, first to break up the monotony of one single sized retaining wall and second, to allow for the base board joint (layout removal mentioned up thread).

 

 

 

A general view of the station end. The main running line curves round to the fiddle yard via the cromford canal aqueduct then tunnel just behind it. This is of course a work of fiction, in reality the canal would run along the front edge of the layout were I to attempt a copy of the real site, but as this layout is "inspired" by Cromford Wharf / HPJ and surrounding area, that's okay for me. However, what I did try to do is base the aqueduct and tunnel mouth on the near by real aqueduct by the south portal of Lea Wood tunnel. Obviously, its no copy, but keeps the "flavour" of the area.

 

Because of the horrendous train set style curves, out came the smoke and mirrors again, everything in this end of the layout follows a general curve.

 

I will try to zoom into some of the detailed features over the next few posts, give everyone a rest from Derby Sulzer pics!!!! For a while anyway.

 

Thanks again for the continued interest shown in my layout

[TT100 Diesels]

Looking more closely in the station area, 

 

 

We have the station forecourt building. This is a copy as near as I could manage of the stone building that still exists in the Wharf Shed area. It has shutters closed and locked so I had to guess at the window bars. Also the wills stone sheet is 4mm scale. So the stones are about three times bigger on the model than on the real building. Otherwise, I scaled of photos so within reasonable limits it is more or less a copy.

 

 

Building In place with the work progressing on the inside of the curve module. The track down to rail level is a nod to the track that comes down to the wharf shed area from the A6 at the real location. Bit tenuous but all part of the scene.

 

Looking up behind the station approach road, the ground rises up to the canal, again all the walling curves, keeping the smoke and mirrors going, to visually alleviate the adjacent train set style curves. A half relief lock gate can just be seen, this was based on a photo survey of Dallow Lane lock ( think that's its name from memory)  on the Trent and Mersey canal at Burton on Trent. The flag stones etc are carved into DAS clay. 

 

 

Looking down on the canal and aqueduct over the railway. Mainly foam board construction. Lots of layers of olive drab green paint and some gloss varnish on top to represent a dirty canal. Afraid at the time my skill set did not run to resin water effects, still doesn't  to be honest!

 

 

Probably a better view of the ongoing construction stage. Can see the front of the lock a bit better.

 

I will leave it there for now, need to check out archived photos again, but will endeavor to focus on the main structures and buildings.

 

Thanks again for the interest in this thread.

[bradfordbuffer]

On 22/06/2023 at 21:03, Red Devil said:

Rather like the 24.... Apologies for the slight thread hi jack, I won't do it again, but whilst waiting on my 24 I decided to start knocking up the drive for it....I've been messing about with dead rail/radio control for a while so thought I'd try that in 3mm. This is one of the two bogies quickly lashed up to a battery and receiver to test, I'm happy enough with a single axle drive on each bogie as they're not going to have to haul that much, so motor is a 12v rated Nigel Lawton mini motor driving through a compact Romford 40:1 gear set. RC is from Micron Radio Control...Gauge on this one will be 14.2mm. Again apologies for the hijack, just thought it may be of interest.

 

hi really nice.... bonkers  to see it whizzing along the kitchen worktop is it compensated to overcome bread crumbs and chunks of cucumber? whose motor bogie is it?  have you tryed the locosnstuff he can do 14.2mm see link of mine

 

regads 

 

G

 

 

[Phil Mason]

I love track plan. I've never seen anything like it before, it's truly original. Yes, it's a master stroke to shove the 'precious things' to each end and create all that space in the middle. I can see that. But the track plan is inspired, giving, as it does, continuous and end to end running for both passenger and freight, as well as a stabling point. It's both minimalist and sufficient at the same time. How you came up with this straight off I'll never know. 
 

 I'm convinced that many of us are still suffering from 'plan of the month' syndrome of the 1960s and '70s. These always had far too much track in any given space and often only room for an operator with an eating disorder. 
 

So, on that note, how big is the access well in the middle? Is it to be used or merely to access fiddle yard problems? 
 

One think I've noticed, are there any plans for a footbridge from the booking office to the platform? I suppose they'd put in a lift nowadays and a huge structure with ramps! Had anyone modelled something like Barnetby? I know you're supposed to be able to see if from space but would it fit in a modern house? Z gauge? T scale? 
 

I digress. Wonderful modelling here, all beautifully blended. The selection of what to include is just right. And it's a great choice of prototype backstory giving a reason for proper trains. And it's got blue stuff and it's set in the North...I'm dead jealous and you should be very proud. 
 

It all reminds me of Leek Brook Jn (the other side of the Peak District). Or was this taken on your layout?

Edited June 23, 2023 by Phil Mason
Typo

[TT100 Diesels]

Thank you Phil for a very kind and generous post above, and for the continued interest from folk who are dropping by.

 

In answer to your questions, I make the following points:

 

Track plan

It evolved fairly quickly from all the other design constraints placed on it such as trying to inspired by something like the real Comford Wharf minimal track plan, needing a bay platform facing the Buxton direction for terminating passenger trains, wanting to indulge in a turntable, wanting to shove a small station platform out of the way from the yard bit, which is the real focus of the layout (freight and light loco operations).

 

Other drivers were the less is more ethos, and the use of mock ups during the design stage and then for further buildings and structures development. And of course, the layout board size itself as the overall constraint. I have used the word a lot up thread, but it was all about compromise in the available space, then erring on the less of everything.

 

I look at the track plan pictures up thread (raw track laid down) and honestly, to me it just looks like it could be a train set, especially with those curves, so how I dealt with them to trick they eye as far as I could was another constraint. Its partly why the platform ended up shoved into one of the train set curve areas so I did not just have 2 tunnel mouths one at each end of the main straight.

 

Operating well

Originally conceived as the main point of operations, to allow access to the fiddle 

Yard. But I quickly found that overall, I preferred to operate from the front of the layout and can lean over to cover off about 80% of fiddle yard requirements from the front. So I generally duck under into the ops well occasionally, mainly to do a proper sort out in the fiddle yard.

 

It was also a requirement for the build to allow reasonably comfortable access to a large ish area of the layout, and is useful now for things like track cleaning. It also enables a view of both station and yard from a different perspective.

 

Station footbridge

I had always envisaged a nice big footbridge from the station approach road area to the platform and was limbering up to tackle a scratch build lattice job. However, I just could not get any scheme to work. I did loads of mock up work, but it just looked too contrived and most of all dominated the station area.

 

So in the end I decided that not having one actually enhanced the overall "look". Its kind of a reverse of most layouts, rather than I need this that and the other, I quickly realised at the building and structures development stage, what can I do without. I really pushed less is more, and I would rather have the spacious look.

 

Passengers can of course access the platform by means of the barrow crossing, a constant bugbear for the yard shunting staff who are having to accommodate this need!!l Pus, its a real back water, its more like a staff halt really.

 

You photo is lovely, but its got me thinking, I really can't decide if it is the real thing posing as a model or a model posing as the real thing, and is it really at High Peak Jn? I'll never know............😉

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by TT100 Diesels
Grammar

[Phil Mason]

Thanks for your  reply but I was wondering how big the well is (in feet or whatever) and if you think it's sufficient? 
 

It's interesting about your "what can I leave out?" philosophy and even more fascinating that this doesn't necessarily come naturally but you have to make it happen with mock ups etc. I'm sure your measured approach has paid off but I'm amazed that it's all come together first time. 
 

Yes, of course compromise always comes in. I've written about this for my club mag. It starts with materials (plastics etc) and size constraints but goes right through to perspective and viewing angles as well as perception of texture and colour. Wait a minute, there's a name for that. Modelling! 
 

Thanks very much for sharing and putting your art in the public domain. It's an inspiration and refreshingly different. 

 

PS I'd put the footbridge alongside the road bridge, but I'm probably wrong. 
 

 

 

[TT100 Diesels]

Sorry Phil, I forgot to measure it up. The operating well is 1'6" wide by 2'6" long. It is a bit tight but it was kind of designed to fit me in it! And I am small build for a bloke.

 

Its a good job the road bridge has not got a bus on it, or should I say in it, because its a canal aqueduct! Station footbridge wise, I have long since abandoned the idea and am happy now with the "look".

 

Cheers for the suggestion though.

[Phil Mason]

Ooops! Hadn't noticed that. Modelling water as well? Ambitious, but well done! 
 

As I'm always leaving it to the last minute to catch a train, the lack of direct access disturbs me. Think I'd miss a few trains. 
 

I love the stonework, though, and even a small extra bridge over the headshunt would cover some of that up. 
 

Yes, it depends on whether one wants an 'operating well' or just emergency access. I find it's one of the most important areas and one rarely written about. Once again, you seem to have got it right first time. 

[TT100 Diesels]

Picking up on the station end again, we will carry on with the layout tour.

 

The signal box. This is LNWR style box as they took over the C&HPR. The box is based on Parsley Hay box, its the same length. I counted up how many levers I needed (can't remember at the moment) but it was approx what Parsley Hay had, so it should fit the bill. 

In this pic, still awaiting paint and weathering of the steps. Since it got finished externally, I have added lighting, with the wiring hidden in the stove chimney. Still need the lever frame and other gubbins making and fitting.

Structure was based on a foam board frame with 4mm plastic embossed brick and wood panelling, but I am happy with it for 3mm, looks okay to my eyes.

 

The imposing stone retaining wall at the end of the layout. This was inspired by the huge stone retaining wall that in real life sits between the current Matlock branch and the Cromford Canal above it, in the vicinity of the current HPJ workshops visitor centre. I realise that is another of the more tenuous inspiration pieces, but it is still part of the general area jig saw to me.

No prizes for guessing it's multiple Wills 4mm stone walling sheets butted together. I got rid of the vertical joint lines by working in a little DAS clay and scribing the mortar joints in it. I can't claim I thought of this clever little technique, I picked it up while speaking with the structural modelling genius, David Wright, at an exhibition.

 

 

The platform building. Based on the LNWR country station modular design. Mine is modelled as a decrepit structure, still in use, but way past its sell by date. The canopies are just structural skeletons, the glazed panels removed because they were unsafe. The old BR red platform signs which probably would have hung under the canopy were simply removed and slapped onto the end elevation. Note the mix of old and new BR signage, a right old mix and match. By the late 70's structures like this started to be swept away and replaced by bus shelters.

My justification for its continued existence is the adjacent signal box, the toilets are in this building! Plus the adjacent freight centre and booking on point, so HPJ men are up on the platform a lot waiting about to relive incoming crews. So a bit of local staff "pressure" helping to keep the facility open. I blame too much armchair modelling for this sort of nonsense......

Again, foam board base structure with plastic card outer shell which was then planked out with plastic card planks cut out of a sheet. Took ages to do. Look carefully and it can be seen that the structure is curved. Again, part of trying to mitigate the train set curves and thus severely curved platform. Seemed a good idea at the time, also meant I had to individually tile the roof as it was curved.

 

Most of the platform surface was slabbed with metcalfe 4mm card slabs, but stuck down with pva. The edging slabs were full size, but the inner slabs were all cut down to make a smaller size. To be honest, it is not such a good compromise, their all a bit too big for 3mm. I do remember spending ages experimenting with weathering washes to try to tone it all down somewhat. The tunnel end of the platform used a fine grey ballast to represent a gravel surface.

 

I have some chairs and 3mm scale figures yet to add, plus need to add station name boards.

 

 

This picture shows the construction of the platform, plus an example of one of the mock ups that were done as part of the final development. The above scheme was rejected, it was one of about five iterations of mock ups for the inside of the curve scenic module.

 

I will leave it there for now.

 

[TT100 Diesels]

A quick drop back into loco modelling again, this time a look at the Baby Deltic.

This was a Lincoln Loco's resin body moulding, pre dating the 3d print stuff. It has my scratched up chassis and underframe module and extra body detailing. It sits on a pair of LL 3d print power bogies.

 

So, the main "kit" of parts, Class 20 power bogies (robbed off my cl 20 build), resin body, scratched up chassis with liquid lead hoppers filled up for tractive effort and my scratched up u/f module. I did some cab interiors as well but dont have a pic.

 

Water, fuel tanks and reservoir tanks and piping module in place. Had to trawl through a lot of pics to get to grips with what to build.

 

 

Starting to come together now, detailed up buffer beams, toy triang coupler on the other end, screw shackle on the cosmetic end in view. Horn grill, lamp irons, nose hand rails, headcode panel packed out to correct a deep recess moulding, front windscreens opened out to corect size to improve the look. Cab doorway moulded hand rails scraped off and wire ones added. Solebar footsteps added. 

Opposite side of u/f module showing the battery box side is shown to advantage.

 

All done ! Copied pics of the real loco on both sides, first time I had to do faded paintwork weathering plus the usual road grime. Hand cut flush glazing was fun, 26 on here, ended up actually doing 32 with 6 losses. 

 

 

Warping history ! D5901 was modelled specifically to backdate operation of my tribometer test train to 1975. 97201 is in 1980 painted livery, so they never came together like this in real life.

Of note, I also modelled another COV-AB in freight brown to properly backdate to 1975, see 3mm scale what's on my 3mm workbench thread for pics etc. Apologies, this pic showing the 23 before being flushed glazed.

 

Once again, thank you to everyone who is enjoying this thread and to the kind folk liking etc.

 

I hope this remains interesting.

 

Edited June 25, 2023 by TT100 Diesels
Spelling and note on glazing in last photo

[TT100 Diesels]

Time, I think to drop back in time looking at a bit more layout / layout build at the station end of the layout.

 

 

Looking towards the canal aqueduct with the bay platform and yard headshunt stop blocks. Hard to imagine that some dead end fiddle yard sidings are tucked away immediately behind that imposing stone wall!

 

The main running line curves right under the aqueduct and through a short tunnel into the fiddle yard. With hindsight, I probably only really needed the aqueduct and deep cutting, it is quite hard to actually view the tunnel mouth.

 

 

 

The easiest way to show the tunnel mouth at this end is to include this pic of it as a finished scenic module, before it was glued into place for evermore.

No prizes for the stone retaining wall (wills OO), but the tunnel mouth was scratched up from a foam board shell with DAS clay smeared over and let to dry. The stonework was based on pics of the real  south portal of the near by Lea Wood tunnel. Although the real one is double track sized so again some rule 1 comes into play. Slaters OO plastic embossed brick is bent round to form the tunnel lining. I may as well not bothered, its impossible to see unless one makes a big effort!

 

 

Tunnel mouth in place and the higher ground being worked on above it, the cocktail stick marking a tree fitting hole. The drone is hovering over the canal aqueduct to get this picture.

 

 

 

Aqueduct scenic module finished and ready for gluing into the layout. Its a chopped up peco OO plate girder bridge kit on foam board piers, clad in wills OO stone wall sheet. The stone abutments at bridge level are wills OO fine dressed stone sheets.  Joints / edges hidden / blended with DAS clay worked into the mortar joints.

 

So, that is a little bit more of the layout tour, including some peeks into the build, I hope its of interest.

 

Once again, thank you to all who visit for a quick look and those who add a like etc.

 

[Red Devil]

On 23/06/2023 at 22:51, bradfordbuffer said:

hi really nice.... bonkers  to see it whizzing along the kitchen worktop is it compensated to overcome bread crumbs and chunks of cucumber? whose motor bogie is it?  have you tryed the locosnstuff he can do 14.2mm see link of mine

 

regads 

 

G

 

 

Hi, sorry missed this, no, very crude with no compensation for granary bread or any other edible! Bogie is 'mine' I find I can knock them up relatively easy and it keeps overall price down. I have in the past tried some locos n stuff drives and thought the NLA Tenshodo replacement was an answer for my projects, but ended up building my own stuff after trial with motors/gears and rc hit upon something that worked for me.

[TT100 Diesels]

Continuing at the station end of the layout tour / construction,

 

 

The canal, formed from three separate scenic modules. Unable to take this picture now the full back scene is in place. The first canal scenic module was the aqueduct, see up thread. That set the overall positioning. Next up was the occupation bridge module.

 

The bridge in half relief was designed to butt up to the back scene. A foam board shell with DAS clay smeared on and stone work scribed in. The parapet was slaters OO embossed brick. The overall scheme was a "copy' of the cromford canal occupation bridge that exists between Gregory Tunnel and Whatstandwell, thus keeping the local theme going. Canal and towpath based on foam board sections.

 

In situ and scenics in place. I added a suitable picture of a canal, resized to keep it "going" beyond the bridge. Luckily, I had a photo of the Caldon Canal which I took from under a bridge, perfect! (and lucky).

 

Final scenic module was the lock and pound section. Again, foam board based. 

 

Scratch built lock gate and paddles, the cobbles were scribed into DAS clay. The clay work on the canal and adjacent tunnel mouth was the first time I ever tried working with it, but it is very handy for small bespoke features. Based on pictures of Dallow Lane lock at Burton on Trent.

 

I think that is about it for the canal stuff now. 

[TT100 Diesels]

Time for a quick dip back into T&RS modeling, with a look at the DPU. As explained up thread, this was comprehensively refurbished, taking it from as built green livery and condition (as purchased), to circa 1980 blue livery and configuration.

 

As bought condition.

 

 

Following my comprehensive repairs, refurbishment, repaint and weathering.

 

Thanks again for the continued interest and likes etc.

[bradfordbuffer]

21 hours ago, TT100 Diesels said:

Time for a quick dip back into T&RS modeling, with a look at the DPU. As explained up thread, this was comprehensively refurbished, taking it from as built green livery and condition (as purchased), to circa 1980 blue livery and configuration.

 

As bought condition.

 

 

Following my comprehensive repairs, refurbishment, repaint and weathering.

 

Thanks again for the continued interest and likes etc.

Ahhh that's better banger blue!

[TT100 Diesels]

Happy to be of service Mr Buffer !

 

But yep, totally agree, the blue period is my personal favorite (with an honourable mention for LL blue).

 

Cheers

 

TT100 Diesels

[TT100 Diesels]

Time to finish off the layout tour, so its all covered in the first 2 pages of the thread.

 

Still at the station end, the water crane. 

 

 

Scratched up from bits of brass rod, plastic tube, embossed brick sheet and a bit of stripped off wire insulation.

 

 

Painted and weathered, its loosely based on the one at Barrow Hill.

 

 

There is a completed pic of the platform building up thread, but this is a quick peek into its construction. Foamboard shell, two thickness of plasticard, all the outer planking individually cut. No glazing in the canopy, just the supports, a very run down look. And curved to try to blend it into the very tightly curved platform. 

 

So that is it really for the scenic side of things, as I have gone a bit deeper at the station end but not the yard end, I may add a few general construction shots of stuff at that end in due course.

 

And will look out some pics of the fiddle yard, especially as I added more sidings last year.

 

Thanks again for all the interest and likes etc. 

Edited July 3, 2023 by TT100 Diesels
Spelling

[Cowley 47521]

This is absolutely brilliant work and really quite inspiring. I’ve really enjoyed reading about it.

[TT100 Diesels]

Thank you Cowley 47521, you are very very generous and kind with your comments.

 

Honestly, I just try to learn and do better as I progress. Obviously, there is a mountain of brilliant stuff on RMweb, but I went to a lot of exhibitions and looked at every layout to see how folk did stuff. And asked a lot of questions. I learnt a lot from the people who I am grateful to for taking their layouts out on the road.

 

Not being able to buy locos from Hornby et al certainly means I have to approach things a bit differently, and have to understand I can't reach injection moulded and factory painted levels of fidelity, but I do work the "compromise" element of modelling to the max.

 

I am really pleased you enjoyed the layout tour and some of the T&RS modelling in this thread so far and you find this inspiring.

 

Thank you again for your interest and very kind words.

 

Cheers

TT100 Diesels

 

PS And my ongoing thanks to folk who drop by and to those who are interested enough to like etc.

 

[TT100 Diesels]

A quick peek at the fiddle yard and the later additional track, then it will be back to a closer look at the T&RS.

 

Back in 2016 with just the track down. The fiddle yard to the right hand side. 3 through roads and 2 long sidings. 

The shortest through road mainly kept clear as a run through / run round loop as its too shot for the freights, which max out at 12 x 10' wb two axle wagons and a brake van. This is the max capacity of the scenic side yard head shunt plus a shunter loco so defines the rest of the layout really.

Lots of isolated sections, with the 2 long sidings being split into 4 sections each, 3 of each are 1 x diesel main liner long (average) for loco storage.

 

More storage space was required, so, last year, a major capacity increase was added, there was enough room to add a crossover on the far rhs, into a long head shunt and equally long kick back. Operationally, its  can be a bit of a jig saw puzzle, but does at least give quite a bit more on layout storage.

 

Looking the other way. The main running line curving round to the right (at the far end) also effectively doubles up as the main head shunt for the fiddle yard. It has nearly the full 180 degrees of the turn before emerging out of the short tunnel scenic break thus allowing this useful facility.

The siting of the new crossover was all about finding a useful location that was not needing a lot of existing wiring moving and avoiding bracing timbers/ point solenoid conflicts.......my good friend "compromise" again!

 

[TT100 Diesels]

So, its time to drop back into loco's again. This was my first effort in 3mm, the venerable Triang Brush Type 2, the only mass produced rtr main line diesel. It started out as a skinhead pilot scheme Mirrlees engined class 30 example as produced by Triang. 

 

Going back to the early days of the layout in 2016, the main jobs I undertook were to lower it as it has a large gap twixt bogies and body, make the external mods to represent a later EE engined class 31, add some front end detail and repaint to rail blue.

 

 

First job was lowering. The body is also an integral chassis. The power bogie on the right mounted into the plastic between the rad fan grilles, seen here with that section cut away and a new plasticard mounting point added. Similarly, the non powered bogie on the left had its plastic mounting opened out to allow clearance for the centre pivot casting. A new mounting point of plasticard is fitted. The thickness of the original plastic cut away is the same as how much it needs to be lowered, which turned out to be rather convenient.

Both new mountings were initially secured by mechanical fasteners in clearance holes so I could adjust the positioning of the bogies correctly, then accurately mark the positioning, remove the fasteners and bond in place.

 

 

This shows the difference between a standard Triang 30 on the right and the loco being worked on (lowered) on the left.

 

 

Next job was the 30 (Mirrlees power unit) to 31 (EE power unit) body mods. The lower part of the centre door requires a grille, see top, started to chain drill out the new aperture. The unfortunate bodyshell below it is the grille donor, the smaller of the main rad fan grilles is perfect, correct number and pattern of louvres. Both were cut out from one side.

 

 

The first of the two grilles has ben let in, contrasting with the unmodified as built Triang 30 on top. The other grille is for the opposite side.

 

 

The other obvious EE conversion external feature were the exhausts. As built Mirrlees on the right. These were carefully shaved off on the left hand roof and EE style exhausts made up from plasticard.

 

That is about the pic limit so a convenient point to end this post. More Brush 2 chopping about to come......

 

In a foot note to the lowering, I worked from photos of real 31s to achieve the right body to bogie gap (and look). However, it actually makes the loco look lower than my other subsequent loco builds, the more I completed, the more obvious this became. I am not quite sure which is correct, but as I only want to achieve consistency across my fleet, last year I added packing washers to this lowered 31 to half the amount of lowering, so it is a compromise between the original lowering and the big gap on the as built Triang loco.

 

[Cowley 47521]

24 minutes ago, TT100 Diesels said:

So, its time to drop back into loco's again. This was my first effort in 3mm, the venerable Triang Brush Type 2, the only mass produced rtr main line diesel. It started out as a skinhead pilot scheme Mirrlees engined class 30 example as produced by Triang. 

 

Going back to the early days of the layout in 2016, the main jobs I undertook were to lower it as it has a large gap twixt bogies and body, make the external mods to represent a later EE engined class 31, add some front end detail and repaint to rail blue.

 

 

First job was lowering. The body is also an integral chassis. The power bogie on the right mounted into the plastic between the rad fan grilles, seen here with that section cut away and a new plasticard mounting point added. Similarly, the non powered bogie on the left had its plastic mounting opened out to allow clearance for the centre pivot casting. A new mounting point of plasticard is fitted. The thickness of the original plastic cut away is the same as how much it needs to be lowered, which turned out to be rather convenient.

Both new mountings were initially secured by mechanical fasteners in clearance holes so I could adjust the positioning of the bogies correctly, then accurately mark the positioning, remove the fasteners and bond in place.

 

 

This shows the difference between a standard Triang 30 on the right and the loco being worked on (lowered) on the left.

 

 

Next job was the 30 (Mirrlees power unit) to 31 (EE power unit) body mods. The lower part of the centre door requires a grille, see top, started to chain drill out the new aperture. The unfortunate bodyshell below it is the grille donor, the smaller of the main rad fan grilles is perfect, correct number and pattern of louvres. Both were cut out from one side.

 

 

The first of the two grilles has ben let in, contrasting with the unmodified as built Triang 30 on top. The other grille is for the opposite side.

 

 

The other obvious EE conversion external feature were the exhausts. As built Mirrlees on the right. These were carefully shaved off on the left hand roof and EE style exhausts made up from plasticard.

 

That is about the pic limit so a convenient point to end this post. More Brush 2 chopping about to come......

 

In a foot note to the lowering, I worked from photos of real 31s to achieve the right body to bogie gap (and look). However, it actually makes the loco look lower than my other subsequent loco builds, the more I completed, the more obvious this became. I am not quite sure which is correct, but as I only want to achieve consistency across my fleet, last year I added packing washers to this lowered 31 to half the amount of lowering, so it is a compromise between the original lowering and the big gap on the as built Triang loco.

 

Interesting stuff.
How do these locos run with all of the modifications? Do you get any problems with them wobbling etc?

[TT100 Diesels]

Yes I do get a little wobbling sometimes on any of my Triang 31 bogie based locos. Not from the method of fixing the bogies in to the bodies but from the actual powered wheelsets.

 

The trailer wheelsets have solid steel axles and plastic wheels (solid true running qualities)  but I dont use them in the trailer bogies ! I get spare (second hand) power wheelsets from the 3mm society spares shop,  which have the nylon axle and gear wheel and metal wheels, so I can add extra power pick ups to the trailer bogies.

 

Some of these wheelsets wobble anyway but I have to pull the wheels out a tad to clear the flangeways in Peco HOm pointwork, so probably magnifying any nylon axle out of trueness in the process.

 

Comes with faffing about with 1957 designed kit. And it was all manufactured before circa 1967. "Full Fat" did not exist in those days....Yet more compromise....

 

But having said that, the mechs are c 60 years old and still going strong apart from throwing new carbon brushes at them. So its not all bad news.

 

[TT100 Diesels]

Lets crack on with the 30 to 31 conversion. 

 

 

This underside view of the body / chassis shows a bit more of the work that was required. The white plasticard to the left and right are the new bogie mounting points needed for the lowering job.  As a result of lowering, the two bogie inner locating and rotation limiting slots required some material removing from the mouldings. A lot of filing as it was awkward to get at.

 

Because of the holes cut into the centre bodyside doors to fit the extra grilles, the underfame module locating tabs were lost, so new plasticard ones were added. This still needs to be removable to access the roof securing screw. You need the roof off to access the bogie securing fasteners.

 

 

Its in primer, this view shows the front end additional detail that was added.

 

Top of nose doors, 0.3mm dia wire handrail added, plus windscreen washer jets covers from plasticard. Level with the lower headcode discs, two footsteps were drilled in and opened out slightly.

 

Then on the buffer beam, representative MU jumpers / sockets from plastic, brake pipes and draw hook from wire. 

 

 

 

Finished. Wire cab door handrails aldo added. Painted and weathered and all windows were glazed with "glue and glaze". this was in the days before I had started to do hand cut flush glazing. Its parked next to a standard Triang 30.

Of note, my loco was finished as 31109, one of the 20 ? skinhead blue star 31/1s. I had 1975 era photos and it still did not have the boiler filler and access steps plated over, so is good for 75.

 

 

Fast forward a few years and for an old Triang TT loco, it kind of scrubs up okay.