Mr Simon's 7mm workbench - currently Leeds Convert Tram

[MrSimon]

Ah brilliant thanks, I found some online and they're on the way!

 

Today I finally joined the two halves of the bottom deck together, and started building the downstairs seating:

 

Here is the seat base skeleton built on to the floor unit, being tested for size in the saloon

 

Next I made the seatbacks, double layer of Bristol Board with the top rounded smooth.  I put some supports in and then glued the seatbacks to the seat bases.  When they were set I took the floor/seat unit out so they can be painted.  I also need to make the cushion pads.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've finally got the ground floor in one piece   At the start of last week the pack of Slaters passengers came - there's quite a variety of eras represented in the pack, so there'll be a fair bit of milliputting going on before the tram gets filled up.

 

Like the rest of the interior, the seat backs etc needed four coats of woodstain to match the windows and bulkheads.  I couldn't resist cutting a passenger free from the pack just to see how bit O gauge people are... pretty big aren't they!?!  The seat pads were sanded to shape from 3mm balsa.

 

 

I painted the pads and the arm rest the same colour as the seats upstairs - I wish I'd chosen a slightly different colour to differentiate from the painted wood colour, so these might still change (doubtful) After the seat pads were dry I ran glue round the inner edges of the saloon and then fitted the floor/seat unit.  The protective plastic will stay on the windows until I am ready to join the two decks, just to keep them clean!  Now its time to start working on the end platforms...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

A bit more progress - slower than I would have liked, but progress none the less...

 

I tought it was time I got started with the end platforms.  I seem to remember the ones I made for the original Beeston Airbrake taking about nineteen minutes, but these seemed to take forever!  I measured from the plan and then from the model... handily, each end is a different length (so skilled)  I cut the floors out, and then laminated them to a thinner piece of board to make them thicker.

 

I rolled the dashes and then glued them on to the front of the platform floors.  I left them long so they can be trimmed to size, then I added a second layer on the dash, for strength - I can't remember if I did this last time, it must be what added all the extra time.  The ring of board is for the windscreen sill, it stops the inside of the dash becoming a massive gloop of filler when the glazing is fitted. 

 

For added strength Terry Russell reccommends running PVA woodglue round the inside of the join between the dash and the floor.  It doesn't make a very good picture, it should completely vanish when the platform is all painted. 

 

At the end of the first session I couldn't resist having a look at the tram with a platform.  I had a whole panick that I'd made the platform too wide, but on closer inspection of the plans it seems that I was putting it too close into the centre, I hadn't reasided that the side of the dash sits in front of the tumbleholme, rather than inside it, if that makes sense...?

 

Today I glued on the dash-sill bits, strengthenned the sill with woodglue and filled and smoothed the join at the front.  I started measuring out the windscreen sheet, which involved me realising that the platforms sit further below the main body than I had thought.  The bottom of the screen windows is level with the saloon windows, and there is quite a big blank part above the screen, where the board of trade light is and the join with the upper deck - and I've not quite worked out how I'm going to sort that yet.

 

As usual, it needs a bit of fettling, I don't know whether to make this again the right length, or alter it to be the right lengh (because of the hash I made of fine bit of engineering on the top deck I need to make each screen individually to match the upper windows) but its good to see the front of the tram, even if its just balancing.

 

I've got to go online now and find loads of pictures of the bit around the door

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

 

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

I've had another go at the end platform, mainly to see if I could use the screen I'd cut out or if I needed to start again.  Great news, it did fit afterall   So I trimmed the bit off that was protecting the end and stuck the screen onto the dash.  While this was setting I did a spot of head scratching to work out the best way to make the rim around the top of the screen match the top deck... so I turned it all upside-down.

 

Once it was upside down I decided that a thin board and filler based moulding was the best option, so I glued formers to the outside of the screen, and then one thin piece of board to to form the curve:

 

Strips of bristol board supporting the curve.

 

I left the curved piece too long so that it could follow round to the doorway

 

The difference in floor levels between the saloon and the platforms make this stage of making trams that bit more tricky #shouldhavedoneahorsefield

 

A rather dull view, hopefully showing what I meant in the last post about the platform and dash sitting outside of the tumbleholme... if that makes sense.  Once I've finished with the screen I'll have a think about how best to fill this gap.

 

Once the glue had set I filled in the gaps between the screen and the trim, and used masking tape to hold the curve to shape against the top deck.  Once it has set I will be able to smooth the filler down and start painting this platform.

 

While the first send was setting I thought it would be a brilliant opportunity to start the second platform.  I knew that the ends were slightly different lengths because of my shoddy workmanship on the top decks, and I (as noted in the last post) thought it was only 1 millimeter longer than the first platform...:

 

...its actually 4mm longer, so I'm not totally sure if I should start again or graft some new bits in.  I think a new plaform might be the answer, just because the curve on the dash isn't very good... what a pain

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[Southernboy]

I can see you had some trials and tribulations there Mr Simon - but nothing that has deterred you and ultimately it all adds to experience towards future projects.

 

Obviously still some way to go but I think this is looking like a fine specimen already. I can't wait to see it completed.

[MrSimon]

Thanks Mark, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it completed too! 

 

There has definitely been a massive 'learning curve' element to this build - I think the chosen prototype is a good mix of traditional and streamlined construction - The platforms/cabs have been a right pain though, I'm definitely going to have to think of a way of making them differently... none of these problems in N

 

Just think, when I've finished all the construction, I've got to line it

 

Cheers

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

I seem to have spent a whole session on the door, dash and screen... and achieved very little!

 

The cab taped in place temporarily so that the other side can be 'fillered' to shape

 

Next time I make a tram I'll make it with a cab roof, to keep everything to shape  I trimmed the bottom of the dash slightly, I've not taken any from the top of the screen yet, I wanted to fill it first so I didn't accidentally cut anything vital (the last window pillar is only tacked on at the moment, so its sort of ok that its at a mad angle)  The glazing will stiffen the screen, but I need to paint the pillars and the surrounds first...

 

One problem I've found is that the dash is slightly too wide, so there's a larger door recess at the front than there aught to be for it to be right at the saloon end - and I've found it hard finding pictures pointing towards the screen end of the doors.  I don't mind making it up, but I want to make it up as realistically as possible, if that makes sense?

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've been crawling along with the tram - plenty of coats of paint - and I think I need to start again with the cabs, just to make a pair using the lessons I learned from the first (which warped slightly when I painted it - shouldn't have been so quick to paint it) actual progress you can see has happened this last few sessions, which can all be seen in this picture:

 

(My camera was flat so I had to use my phone; on hipstamatic of course)

 

As you can see I spent a bit of downtime at work the other day making some destination blinds, I took the best guess I could with the fonts I had on word and settled on 'GulimChe' in bold as the closest match to a picture of 345 I googled. The curved glazing is from a Dapol box, and the destination blinds were glued in with Kristal Klear. I know it seems odd fitting the destinations now, but I need to put the interior in (including the destination box) before I can do the roof.

 

The next bit of progress you can see is that I fitted the 'bumper rail thing' at the bottom and the lining strip at the top of the waist panel of the lower deck, and today I painted the light blue undercoat on the lower deck. Maybe tomorrow it'll be dark blue!

 

In other news I realised I need to make new seat backs for the top deck - the ones I made were too low... So this tram might get nice new upholstered seats, which will be quicker to paint and comfier for the people of Leeds.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

Its been a while since I updated this, but I've been working away - I've been aiming for an hour each night at my workbench, but I've missed a few while the weather's been hot.

 

The main focus of activity on the tram has been the cabs.  I decided to use the cab I already had as a pattern for a pair of matching ones, adding aroof to strengthen the top and the sides. 

 

I almost put in a cut out for the stairs, but I decided that this would compromise the strength, so I didn't.  Obviously this tram being how it is (a slightly wonky learning curve) one cab is longer than the other, so everything for each cab has to be numbered.

 

One dash setting, with both windscreens - they were cut to length when I'd offered them up against the dash.

 

Two new cabs.  The only bits left to make in board now are the stairs, and the roof in balsa.  I've started painting the inside of the dash, and I need to paint the window frames first so I can glaze it to make it less fragile.  So many coats of white...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Wowza it's been a month!

 

I've not forgotten the tram, its just that coats of paint and rubbing paint back down are really un-photogenic - the dash's are now dark blue and the cab screens are ready for glazing... I'm not sure why i didn't do it at the weekend...

 

What I did do at the weekend, that I could take a picture of was the upstairs seats.  I'd made these ages ago but they just weren't quite right - the backs were too low.  So I made new ones:

 

The new seat backs are upholstered unlike the old ones, and they're tall enough to be visible through the windows.  I'm not sure how many passengers to add, part of my wants it to be well loaded, but at the same time I'm very lazy about painting them and I don't know how much weight the tram'll take.

 

I need to finish the seats at the top of the stairs, possibly with rails along the top.  Once these, the destination boxes, and a few passengers are done I'll be ready to do the roof - and work out how to use balsa wood!

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

All very exciting - I've finally got the seats stuck fitted to the top deck, it seems to have taken forever to get this far!

 

I painted the corners of the seatbacks to look like handles After so long it looks strange removing the film from the back of the windows upstairs - and it also looks strange having the cabs glazed:

 

I can't tell if the glazing is distorting the shape at all, I think not, but I won't know until I put it all together... which is a pain.

 

I meant to do the stairs and the destination boxes this weekend - but I didn't get them done

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

So then, 11 months later!

 

The tram lives in my desk, so I keep doing tiny bits and bobs on it, like endless coats of white paint.  A few months ago (OK, maybe before easter) I decided it was time to motor on a get it finished, so I started to make the stairs.  I'd made stairs before on my first attempt at a tram, and they turned out fine first time.  This was obviously a fluke because after six attempts these were the best I could come up with:

 

I'm not sure how obvious the spiral or the twist are, but they spiral and twist.

 

Obviously I swore a little and went back to the N for a week or two to think about what I'd done.

 

Last weekend was the Festival of Tramway Modelling in Croydon, which handily is a direct train journey away from Olympia, much simpler than Ally Pally!  I went armed with cash to do some damage to the trade stalls... there weren't many, but KW trams were there and had everything I needed to kick-start work on the tram.

 

Steps!  Much better than my hand built efforts, I'm assuming the extra weight won't cause too much of a problem.

 

Headlamps!  And I bought some controllers.

 

I decided not to line the stairs, and also not to build handrails for the stairs (but if I refurbish the tram in the future I will fit some - I just want to get it finished) but here they are painted and fitted this morning, I need to get some hand brakes.

 

All of the paintwork needs touching up.  For some reason I find painting it harder than painting in N.  I also need to find a better way of painting brass... I'm pretty sure Leeds corporation wouldn't have used gold on their headlamps.

 

This afternoon I took the plunge and glued the cabs onto the upstairs floor.  The downstairs saloon is just placed in to make sure the cabs are in the right place.

 

Here it is after the glue had dried and I decided to turn it the right way up for the first time.

 

The next job is to make the doors.  I've decided the drivers should be fully closed, but I'm not sure about the rear - maybe half open?  The cab would look much more complete with the handrails.

 

I bought some advert transfers, they need to be applied onto white so I repainted the advert panels this morning.  The whole tram is going to need a lot of painting.

 

I can never tell if its all looking square.  I think its looking a bit wonky from the lens distortion, but it might be wonky.  I have some thin ply to cut the cab supports and bumper from, and I need to do some work on the lower saloon, then I'll be ready to get hold of a truck and do the roof.  All scary stuff...

 

Lots to do (and I'll try not to leave it a year)

 

Simon

[Southernboy]

Good to see an update Mr Simon, I had recently wondered whether this project had hit the buffers.

 

In some ways it seems a shame to have the doors closed as the platform detail will then be hidden (and especially now you have some nice controllers and stairs!).

 

Out of curiosity, what are you planning to do for the trolley - ie. buy something out of a box / make it yourself / sprung to run under a wire?

 

Now you're progressing again any thoughts on a diorama or small layout to run this and any future trams on? 

[MrSimon]

Thanks Mark! I still can't believe I've been moving it around my desk for 11 months with only a few coats of white to show for it - time flies in London!

 

I think the cab details should be visible - the windows are 2cm tall and on two sides so even with the door shut there'll be plenty to see, but I know what you mean about closing them. Leaving the rear one open would be best then can have the best of both worlds. I'm still undecided about whether to fit a trolley pole or a bow collector; it will probably be a bow because I want a mixture red and blue trams (and Leeds had fully switched to bows by the time they changed to the red livery), but either way I'm buying it in.

 

Eventually there will be a small layout; but not until I've built 5 or 6 trams and moved to a bigger flat. Secretly I'm looking forward to having a go at a 40s/50s street scene in 7mm

 

How's that cinema coming along?

 

Cheers Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

I've started making an effort to spend a bit of time at my desk every night to motor on with the tram - and other projects - quicker than just snatching a few hours at the weekend.  

 

Here is my desk as it normally is during the week, but I have the flap closed to try and keep the dust out.  The tram has almost been in place there for 2 years.  I've been told I need to clear the desk so it can be painted, but I'm holding out as long as I can... 

 

Tonight I tried to neaten up the top deck white, after I went over the edges with the blue slightly on Sunday.  Painting large areas is really hard, this tram is the largest thing I've ever built.  The instruction book called for glossy card for the ceilings, I drew a blank trying to find it at the weekend but some arrived in the post today (enough for me to ceiling a whole fleet) so I can make a start at anchoring the lower saloon in place this weekend.

 

I might even make a start on the roof...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello Everybody!

 

Today I started two new things for the tram.  I decided to tackle the doors, i thought they'd be pretty simple.  The doors on the convert cars are of a similar design to those on the Horsefields, so I drew out the doors based on the Horsefield drawings and pictures of 345 at Crich.  I designed them as a glazing sandwich.  The inside of the doors are blue, and the outside blue and white, which has made applying the livery tricky.  I've painted the inside of the inside blue so it doesn't show white through the glazing, I'm hoping I don't get all wrapped up and paint the wrong thing the wrong colour!

 

On the right, the inside of the closed door stuck to the glazing after being painted enough to finish without getting paint on the glass.  On the left, the bits that should form the open doors of the other end.  I'm using thinner glazing for these so they don't look massively thick when folded back (but the closed doors will use the thick glazing for strength.  The lighter blue is the undercoat I've been using.  I'm not sure if its doing much good with acrylics...

 

After sticking in the toplight glazing in the lower saloon I reached for the balsa to stick locating batons to the top deck floor.  Instead of doing anything with the batons I accidentally cut out the roof... and then started shaping it:

 

It's taking a long time, I probably need more scratchy sand paper or something.  Also, shaping the roof is highlighting just how wonky the tram is - one side is much rounder than the other, so it will only ever fit on one way round... hopefully this wonkiness won't be noticeable from above.

 

 

I'm about a quarter of the way round and I think it's going to take a lot of fettling to get it uniform.  I'm not sure if I'll need to go round a second time to get the rim thinner.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I'm pretty happy with this weekends progress, even if nothing is actually finished.

 

The doors are built, but I've not finished the painting yet. I think most parts have one more coat of blue, and all the white needs a second and maybe a third coat. Then the sides facing outwards will need varnishing. Left to right, the fully folded back door (this will be on the saloon side of the open end and the two doors will be glued together), the partially open door (the control side of the open end), and the fully closed door (for the closed end) I'm pretty sure I need to fit handrails to the fully open door, but I'm not 100%. The ends will also need a frame fitting on the saloon sides of the doors, as well as handrails and used ticket boxes on the saloon ends, and they need painting blue.

 

After another hour of sanding I got the roof sanded into shape:

 

 

 

Next job for the roof is to get the last of the balsa dust off, then give it a coat of sanding sealer and then make any corrections. After that I need to add a built up ridge around the front, with a thing for the trolley wire. On the underside I will need to fix a rim round the outside for the walls to glue to, especially where the ends flare out slightly where they meet the ends. I also need to gouge out a thin channel for the pick up wire (but I've not decided which way I'm running it yet)

 

These excellent looking adverts came from Tramads (trades.co.uk) yesterday. (In real life the colour is slightly different, my desk lamp seems to have altered it specially for this photo) I've got another pair of adverts in an envelope somewhere, I need to decide which ones to put on this tram - maybe the yellow ones?

 

I even managed to get some bits done on my N gauge too... Lots to do!

 

Simon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

So pretty much as soon as I hit send last week I ran into the other room an test fitted the closed door:

 

It needs trimming slightly and then frame will need adding once I've permanently fitted the lower saloon (and there's a few more things to do before that happens.  This weekend I seem to have done a lot of finishing off jobs.  On Monday I stank the flat out with some sanding sealer on the roof especially so I could fit the front rim bits this weekend (which is the one job I didn't do)

 

First job this weekend was fitting the lower saloon ceiling.  Here are the batons to hold the saloon in place.  Next I stuck on a piece of glossy card (which seems to have dodged all attempts at taking a picture of it) to form a nice glossy ceiling.  

 

Next I fitted batons to the top deck, to the sides and the ends to keep the roof in place.  As you can see I decided to paint the upstairs ceiling rather than use the glossy card - I thought the ends would be too hard to form with card.  There's also a channel for the power wire.  It might be a little visible when the bow is fitted, but that's OK.

 

I started to run the power wire down through towards the truck; unfortunately in the convert cars there isn't anything that handily goes floor to ceiling so it had be tucked behind window frames etc.

 

I accidentally knocked some of the seats, so I took one side of seats off and refitted them.  Now the other side looks a bit droopy.  I'm not sure whether to re-fit the other side.

 

Touch wood, I think I've finished the interior of the top deck.  I even took the grey film off the insides of the windows.  There's nothing I can do now on the top deck until I buy the bow collector, then I can finish running the wire and permanently fit the roof.  

 

Its beginning to feel like the tram is finally coming together...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

[Southernboy]

Very nice Mr Simon.

 

The upper-deck floor-planking shows up to good effect in the second and third to-last photos.

 

I expect you'll add a motorman and conductor, and was wondering if you plan to have passengers too?

[Red Devil]

Simon....just a thought on the bow collector, they are very easy to make up from wire and look a touch finer than some commercially available ones, I make my own in 4mm....

 

I may be able to help out if you don't fancy making one, seeing as you've got Andy's adverts the Leeds tram modellers on RMweb have to stick together... 

[MrSimon]

Very nice Mr Simon.

 

The upper-deck floor-planking shows up to good effect in the second and third to-last photos.

 

I expect you'll add a motorman and conductor, and was wondering if you plan to have passengers too?

 

 

It turned out much more prominent than I'd hoped; especially as 345 doesn't seem to have them! I'm going to put some crew in (but I need to buy them still) but I'm stalling over the passengers. I've got some Slater's seated passengers to paint but some will need hacking into 40s/50s clothing (they look a bit Victorian for postwar Leeds), so the tram might be running quite empty.

 

 

Simon....just a thought on the bow collector, they are very easy to make up from wire and look a touch finer than some commercially available ones, I make my own in 4mm....

 

I may be able to help out if you don't fancy making one, seeing as you've got Andy's adverts the Leeds tram modellers on RMweb have to stick together... 

We do indeed! I was going to ask you about transfers for crests and numbers... Would it be easy to make a sprung bow collector? I want to power it from the overhead so I'd pretty much planned on using a Terry Russell bow, but if I could make it myself that would be great.

 

Really looking forward to putting the transfers on - I just need to finish inside the cabs, paint a few passengers and fit the lower saloon so I can finish the last bit of painting around the advert panel and fit them. Such a short list...

 

Cheers

 

Simon