Jons Workbench

[43179]

Nearly but not quite - my grass needs a trim!

 

Jon

[crompton 33]

Thank you so much for posting that photo , its exactly what im trying to recreate - ill have to dig out my Bachmann 158. I stood by that fence looking at 50s many times when I was little.

Do you have any photos of the pair of snowploughs by chance

 

Regards

 

Jon

Hi john. I have No Photos of the snowploughs. The day i took this photo i got round all of the shed .

[crompton 33]

Just found this Ex Laira DMU taken by me.

Edited July 15, 2015 by crompton 33

[43179]

a quick post tonight - transfers applied to the crane , plus wasp stripes painted and some other bits added on.

Etched handrails are supplied with the kit but are very fine so will go on at the very end.

 

TFN

 

jon

[P.C.M]

That crane looks superb Jon. Excellent work mate.

 

Cheers Peter.

[43179]

Hi ,  

well its about time I showed something actually finished  - first up 47328

 

jon

 

[Steadfast]

Might only be a duff but that's seriously nice modelling! Love the multicoloured fans.

 

jo

[43179]

And 33207

 

tfn

 

Jon

 

[43179]

Hi Jo - Thanks - it was a nice loco to do  - I didn't replace the mesh on the 47s roof grilles- but to make up for it i found some etched fans in my bits box and painted them different colors and popped them in. The yellow one has red tips on the blades which I saw on a 47 somewhere , so nicked the idea!

 

tfn

 

Jon 

[43179]

last one tonight , to make it a trio   56037 in Construction Livery  -

 

 

This started life as , well ,  56037 in construction livery , but unfortunately Hornbys rendition of the triple grey livery was terrible - The lower rail grey being more like green than grey - and the upper flint grey far too dark.   you can see how it originally looked here; http://www.ehattons.com/35875/Hornby_R3052_Class_56_Co_Co_Diesel_56037_Richard_Trevithick_in_Railfreight_Construction_Liver/StockDetail.aspx

To fix it I carefully masked off the sector logos and the roof and ends then resprayed the sides . Fox plates and Plaques and some light weathering and now it looks a bit more presentable. Well , nearly. I really need to tone down the orange jumper fittings on the cabs. Overall I think its turned out a pretty good 'rescue' of a bad Hornby  

paint job.

 

tfn

 

Jon 

 

 

 

[NickL2008]

Must agree Jon, Hornbys shades are just wrong, noticed this myself, when I was doing my 56032, into 56025, the Roof and the lower grey were both wrong, even the middle band is too dark also. But looks a lot better after the repaint, are you not going to replace the sunken Grills? should finish the model off nicely

NL

[rob D2]

Now I never spotted that on '032. Good eyesight !

[43179]

Good evening , years ago when I was small and had a paper round I remember spending some of my hard earned £12 that week on the Lima Catalog  - I cant remember the year but the cover had a Yeoman class 59 on it , and I've always wanted one as a result.  My local modelshop had a nice cheap one that was as new , and a silly price  so I snapped it up, the idea is to make it run nicely  and make the chassis a little more 3D -  I'm not going for a full rebuild or repaint , just a quick job to make best use of what Lima has done, and use up some of the spares in my bits box along the way. Whats most important is this thing runs smoothly and can pull a train, so the Italian pancake has to go!  sorry if this post goes on a bit - i often do stuff and don't document it, so trying to make up for it with a proper 'how to'  

 

Very Silver! , I'm thinking keeping it ex works - its 59001 so I also get to fit the little bell on the cabfront.

 

I've chopped out the plastic infill around the fuel tanks , battery boxes and cylinders -the detail on the ends of the cylinders isn't bad , so I've left it all there and just carefully pierced out the plastic infill around them

 

I've cut away the extra box section on the chassis that formed part of the motor bogie pivot - so now the solebar is the correct shape - this extra box section present on the chassis means the bogie sideframes have sections missing at the ends for clearance - with the chassis hacked , I can add those missing bits to the bogies.

 

The sideframes have been chopped of the bogies and on the top two, you can see grey plastic where I've started filled in the missing sections of the sideframes, other than that. They'll probably need a little bit of filler later .

 

 

Now to find a replacement drive system 

The class 59s have a very distinctive unequal axle spacing , along with a few other locos - including 56s. The axle spacing is different between the two locos but not by a huge amount , so in model form I think I can get away with it.

A quick offer up , and it looks promising:

A quick visit to ebay and i got a 56 chassis cheap , that will donate lots of parts.

 

 

The 56 side frames simply pull off , now to figure out how to attach the Lima sideframes and get them all aligned correctly , and securely.

First off though, the chunky Hornby wheels have to go , they are nearly as coarse as the old Lima wheels from 20 years ago - luckily the 56 wheels are too big for a 59 anyway so they have to be changed anyway to keep the ride height correct.

 

Transferring the Hornby gear to the new wheels -  my little back to back gauge, by pure luck, also lets you set the gear at the correct offset on the axle. 

I prefer to remove the non insulated wheel from the axle as I find it easier to replace accurately. I refit the wheel to the axle with a tiny spot of Loctite 603

 

I've used nice 14mm black beetle wheels which are the perfect as a 59 has 3'6" wheels 

 

Rather than try and glue mountings pegs/pins directly into the Lima sideframes ( to replicate the way the 56 sideframes attach) I decided to make a set of removable mounting pads separately, so the Lima sideframes can be attached to those and adjusted later.

The pads are just some rectangles of 1.5mm plasticard with two holes drilled , and some plastic rod stuck in with MEK - I used an old back to back gauge to make sure the rods were stuck in square . I also reamed out the tubes on the bogie gear casing so my new pads plug in smoothly but aren't a tight fit like the original sideframes were. I expect ill want to take them on and off a few times to get everything right so a loose fit is better.

 

Bogie sideframes fitted to the mounting pads - I used slo-zap so i had time to adjust them - but I did make a little jig to glue the sideframes on level and at the correct height. In this piccy you can see now I've filed away the excess mounting pad to the shape of the 'frames.

 

The sideframes need a little bit of filling where i added the missing bits earlier -  while the filler goes off I turned to the chassis. On the left ive cut a slot in the chassis floor for the gear tower to clear and pass through. the original trailing bogie pivot hole is reused , just enlarged so the Hornby bogie pivot fits. On the right there's already a nice big hole where the pancake motor was - I've just added a block of plasticard and drilled for the bogie pivot.

I've taken the Hornby 56 motor and its mounts and bolted it to the clip that used to retain the old Lima ballast weight - On the motor I've replaced the telescopic drive shafts with those from a Hornby 50 (has some in my spares luckily , as the shafts on the 56 wont be long enough. The shafts simply-un clip at the universal joints .

 

...and this is it so far -  clipped in place the motor is suspended from the old ballast weight clip - this keeps the motor nice and low and the drive shafts run horizontally to the bogies - something I always aim for if i'm building a chassis. Nothing to do with performance, it just looks nice

 

part 2 , tomorrow , hopefully i'll get the bogies on and see how it all 'sits'  - I want the model to have the correct stance of a 59 - on the real loco there is virtually no gap between the solebar and the tops of the bogies so that's what i'm aiming for, I'm not expecting it to be right first time but hopefully I've made things so its easy to adjust Thanks for reading!

 

tfn

 

Jon 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steadfast]

Nice work there Jon. The 59s are a loco I have a lot of time for. Can't believe the first four will be 30 next year!

 

jo

[46444]

Hi John,

 

Some lovely modelling.

 

The Class 59 rebuild is looking brilliant. I'm not sure if this link for Cannon & Co is worth looking through especially the fuel tank detailing kit for EMD units.

 

http://shop.cannonandco.net/category.sc;jsessionid=E533B84BAF4AFDC4F3248EC30C59A664.m1plqscsfapp01?categoryId=17

 

The quality of the mouldings are superb and can be sourced on eBay for a few pounds from the States.  Because the cost is under £50 you won't pay any import tax.

 

Look forwards to further progress.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited July 27, 2015 by 46444

[43179]

Thanks for that link mark -  I'd forgotten about cannon;  just had a nice time on their website  In the whole scheme of things it would just be far more sensible to model north american and make the best of all those lovely aftermarket parts. Norfolk and Southern of course!

 

tfn

 

Jon 

Edited July 27, 2015 by 43179

[43179]

a bit more on the 59 today- 

while painting a few other things I've given the silencer a quick shot of red oxide and some rust to get the weathering on that started - i also gave thew bodyside grilles a light coat of grime,

 

 

assembled the bogies onto the chassis - both bogies needed spacers , as a both ends the pivoting points on the chassis were too high up , so the solebar hit the bogies . I found some little round plastic spacers on a southern pride sprue - and seen to be the right thickness for the job.

Now, I think it 'sits' just about right:

 

and there's 'daylight' around the bogies/underframe equipment in all the right places

 

A quick look at the body - the glazing in the windscreens is very prismatic and doesn't help the face of the loco - making the windows sort of appear undersize. 

 

Ive cut some new stuff from slide glass - very carefully!!  and made some new windscreen wipers , modified from some lima class 101 parts. Just need to cleam my fingerprints off the glass which kind of spoils the effect at the moment. 

The new glazing does show up the thick bodyshell so ill need to paint the inside edges of the window openings  - probably in light green to match the rest of he cab interior color.

 

That's all for now , though I couldn't resist balancing it (it's oo gauge,  wheras Laira is P4) on Laira 

tfn

 

Jon 

 

 

 

[46444]

Wow! 

 

That's looking good Jon.  Those air tanks and fuel tank look brilliant.

 

The Cannon website is good and the detail parts I've used are superb.  North American modelling is very addictive and with all the quality aftermarket detailing for units you can really get stuck in. Perhaps a NS challenge for you one day awaits.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[43179]

Proper Locos

[46444]

Proper Locos

 

Yep! Can't beat Details West products either.

 

Out of interest Jon what's the number of your Departmental Grey Class 08.  I lived in Plymouth for 5 years in the 1990's (1993-1998) and recall a grey 08 at Laira.  I  also remember the Class 50's lined up on the road and the viewing area.

 

I've an EFE Western National Plaxton Pointer (With Badger logo) sat here on my modelling bench.  A Wessex Class 153 or Regional Railways version and an 08 and there's the making of a micro layout!!!!  Did Class 150/2's work in Devon at this time?  I remember Regional Railways Class 158's and even Class 101's in Regional livery at Laira.

 

Thanks for a bit of nostalgia in this thread and some great modelling.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[43179]

 

 

Out of interest Jon what's the number of your Departmental Grey Class 08.  I lived in Plymouth for 5 years in the 1990's (1993-1998) and recall a grey 08 at Laira.  I  also remember the Class 50's lined up on the road and the viewing area.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Hi Mark , sorry its been a while since I've updated on here -  the 08 is 08648 - I think there was more than one grey shunter at Laira at the time (maybe wrong) but 648 was an easy spot as it had high level pipes and an odd colored panel on top of the bonnet, oh and different buffers at each end too. I love all the little differences you find on 08s.  

 

The 150/2 were around , and I remember brand new class 153s arriving, looking very smart in new Regional Railways livery - while most of the 150/2s were still in the older 'Sprinter' Livery , and they looked a bit grotty by comparison.

 

tfn

 

Jon

[43179]

Hornby Collectors club members and fans of the royal family look away now 

 

this is -  or was , 67026  Diamond Jubilee - the collectors club LTD edition -  that I'm now ruining to turn into something else. If you know your 'skips' then the black cabside window panels should make it obvious which loco its going to be. 

Lots of careful masking and paint feathering for this one . Hopefully I wont mess it up, as a replacement will cost rather a lot on ebay 

 

 

tfn

 

Jon 

[crompton 33]

Hi Mark. Laira (LA) in 1995 had 08641/645/648/663 all in Grey with a black door's hope this help's .

[46444]

Hi Mark , sorry its been a while since I've updated on here -  the 08 is 08648 - I think there was more than one grey shunter at Laira at the time (maybe wrong) but 648 was an easy spot as it had high level pipes and an odd colored panel on top of the bonnet, oh and different buffers at each end too. I love all the little differences you find on 08s.  

IMG_2706.JPG

 

The 150/2 were around , and I remember brand new class 153s arriving, looking very smart in new Regional Railways livery - while most of the 150/2s were still in the older 'Sprinter' Livery , and they looked a bit grotty by comparison.

 

Hi Jon,

 

Thanks for the information-much appreciated and really helpful.

 

Your model of 08648 does look superb with lovely tonal variation in the grey and a real attention to detail.  

 

I'll look into finding an 08, RR Class 153 and Class 150 in the coming months.

 

Thanks once again and look forwards to progress on Class 67.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Arpleymodeller]

Hello Jon, 

 

Absolutely superb work, after looking through the pages of your different projects I am very impressed at the high standard of finish you are able to achieve on each and every one of them. 

 

Do you have a thread for your layout? 

 

Regards

Lewis