trying to detail a Railroad Class 08

[stu357]

I started building a small Layout for me and my daughter a couple of years ago.

This was after a 30 year break in railway model making.

 

Here's the layout

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73104-small-folding-00-layout-re-kindles-interest/

 

 

it made me remember how much pleasure I used to get way back when I was building rolling stock for my old layout. There’s just something about watching models you made moving past!

 

So back to the present and I bought a couple of Hornby Railroad 08s so Chloe, my daughter, had some shunters to use.

 

 

I put handrails on, radiator pipes, smaller couplings, flushglaze windows, filed down the front steps a bit and gave them a drs blue repaint. I masked off the wasp stripes and left them alone. The decals are printed on crafty computer paper.

 

 

actually this one ran beautifully. It was a originally a battlezone and I thought with these couple of details they would be OK for now.

 

From what I’ve read over the past couple of years, I know what everyone thinks about railroad 08s

 

Looking at the real things, and the Bachmann and Hornby superdetail models it doesn’t take long to come to the same conclusion yourself!

 

I bought a Bachmann and a Hornby SD model.

WOW how much have RTR models come on!

I think the Hornby SD wins hands down over the Bachmann BTW.

 

So at this point even Chloe is asking why her shunter has “really bad wheels”

 

by now I had also acquired an old Lima 09 and measuring it I thought the wheelbase looked correct, but the body is really out. I wondered if I could mate the two.

 

 

Here's the railroad body

 

 

I also managed to buy a few more Hornby SD 08s from ebay that had been badly treated. Ranging from completely smashed to missing the front steps. in fact All missing front steps! I found you can fit the Hornby brake rodding to the lima chassis (its exactly the same wheelbase. And the con rods will fit with some romford crank pins.

 

with some plastic trimmed off the bottom of the body, sat on a lima chassis with Hornby con rods.

 

two locos wired together for smoother low speed running. The rear one with Hornby con rods. Front still with lima rod, both with Hornby SD brake rods

 

 

close-up,

 

 

These photos really show up the overlength cab and long front overhang.

But I was reasonably pleased with these 2 at first.

after looking at them for a while I decided I could do better.

 

I also now had a few superdetail models with no front steps. I decided to make some replacement ones that were stronger.

 

 

Filed up a Hornby railroad set of steps,

 

 

I had been experimenting with small castings, so made a few copies of my steps,

and also had a go at soldering up some rear steps from scrap. Not entirely successful!

 

 

these steps are definitely stronger than the originals but I may have compromised the width a little.

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[stu357]

heres my steps used to repair on of the Hornby SD models,

 

 

 

and the brass soldered up rear steps

 

 

 

and another with a quick repaint with both replacement steps,

 

 

and last, one that didn't need as many steps but is made of so many parts of others, I had a spare plastic chassis part left over, the bit with the sole bar and buffers, more on that later...

 

 

I had modified a few lima chassis at this point, and about now I couldn't help having a bid on a job lot of broken Hornby railroad class 08 bodies

 

So now I had loads of steps, chassis, bodies, I wanted to have another go at a railroad 08.

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[stu357]

We travel up to Doncaster to visit the in-laws quite often,

where we always have a trip to the station to see what’s going on.

That's why these next 3 08's that I am currently working on are all from the Wabtec yard.

 

So I started with the Battlezone / dinosafari bodies,

shortening the cab and re-detailing the roof.

 

 

 

Filing out the windows and doors to accept castings of the SD doors.

 

 

smoothing off hinges and Hornby's paint guide lines.

 

 

lhs locker box fitted,

this one has the sole bars from the railroad model and the buffer beams from the Lima.

this was a much easier way to fit the buffer beams so that the Lima chassis will clip under the railroad body.

there is still some of the body to grind out inside below the right hand window and the metal strips that hold the brushes in need to follow the contours of the motor case.

 

here are some of the parts I made up or cast off existing models,

 

 

some of the smaller details like filler in front of the cab I shaved off the lima body.

and then made lifting eyes from .3 wire and plasticard.

 

 

right hand vaccum exhauster box fitted

this one uses my original idea of the whole buffer beams and sole bars from the Lima 09.

 

 

handrails and water pipes from .3 wire,

 

 

looks like I should use less superglue round those sandboxes!

These have the Hornby con rods fitted and brake rodding.

The brake rodding and Lima chassis seem impossible to glue together, so I had to add a small pin into the chassis to make sure it stayed put..

 

 

 

I'll post more progress tomorrow.

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[stu357]

A couple of weeks ago we went to a Thomas the tank engine weekend at the Spa Valley Railway, Chloe loved it, especially the staged races between Thomas and the resident class 10 Colonel Tomline (dressed up as Devious Diesel)

 

Colonel Tomline at Spa Valley

 

 

“Why haven’t we got a diesel to race” she asked.

Well it just so happened I had acquired another Hornby Super detail Chassis which I had managed to get operational with a new set of wheels. And TBH even after all the work (as everyone knows!) the Lima chassis won’t match up to one of these. So I thought I could put one of the more detailed bodies on the SD chassis and fit the Lima one under the spare SD sole bar and buffer beams that I had left over (mentioned previously). Then mod another railroad body to create a new model of Coolnel Tomline that was more child proof.

 

Body with sole bars and buffer beams removed.

 

 

shortened cab.

 

 

new roof panel made by poking a pin round the edge of some thin brass scrap.

 

 

I did some but not all of the work on the other three.

 

 

I used .45 wire for handles and left the moulded handrails, less bits to break off. I didn’t bother with lifting eyes.

 

 

water pipes, just glued on the front, I made brackets from filed down handrail knobs on the others.

 

 

II drilled the existing lights to thread wire through. On the others i filed off the lamps completely and replaced them with castings made from a parts bin one.

I then cut the entire centre out of the SD chassis plate and all the top off the Lima chassis and fitted the two together. It had all gone out of line and twisted the motor mount when the glue had dried. So I spent ages re-profiling the motor cradle in the lima chassis. It works OK now. Plenty good enough for racing Thomas!

So I then fitted the body to the chassis using the 2 original front screw holes into plastic tubes glued inside the body and made 2 locating clips inside the cab, added some of my steps

 

 

Then the decals were printed on Crafty Computer Paper from our own photos from the day out. (I should have trimmed the port emblem better!). The radiator cowl sides are just decals, (I’ll be using that technique again) His face is another waterslide transfer I printed. It is on a removable radiator cover held on with blue tac. (Can be quickly turned into Colonel Tomline instead of Devious Diesel!) I tried to add some relief by pushing the nose out from the back and carving the eye areas out. I’d say the most difficult bit of the whole thing was getting his face decal on. Chloe is still complaining about the creases in it!

Then I added some SE finecast Flushglaze windows to finish. The rear windows go in well and thets all I used on all of them, obviously, where I opened up the side windows I had to make my own.

 

 

There are no rear steps on in these pics, In the end I used the brass ones I made for strength. For the others I have made more from Styrene strip, not as fine but far less hassle than soldering the others!

So here He is, about to race a rather dusty Thomas. (due to the gearing he always wins!)

 

 

Its great putting photos on here, I've just noticed I forgot to paint the inside edge of the steps!!

 

Right, that was a pleasant interlude, It may seem like it was exactly the same as before but it felt like a break.

So.... back on with the Wabtec 08s

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[andyman7]

I really like these.....since the advent of Hornby/Bachmann 'superdetail' 08s, the original Hornby model has in general been written off as a hopeless case, but your posts show what can be done with it. Good old fashioned modelling/bashing!

Edited November 25, 2013 by andyman7

[stu357]

Thanks andyman7.

I even start to feel sorry for these models that have fallen from favour!

I've got a load of Hornby class 37 on the go too!

[stu357]

Heres the decal sheet I made up for the wabtec etc 08s

 

printed on Crafty Computer Paper.

I've had good results with the laser paper and inkjet with a coat of laquer on

 

 

these are mainly photos of the real thing manipulated in photoshop and scaled by scanning the body I'm working on and making sure the decals fit where they should.

 

Stu

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[ess1uk]

great looking 08s

[hallmodelspares]

cool models the gronks look better then they ever have

its such a shame that Hornby went for simplicity first with the 08 and finished

now with the super detail model we see today

[andyman7]

cool models the gronks look better then they ever have

its such a shame that Hornby went for simplicity first with the 08 and finished

now with the super detail model we see today

To be fair the 'Railroad' version is base on tooling from 1976 (and the Thomas versions use the 1956 tooling!)

[hallmodelspares]

good point the later was so it had the uncoupling arm feature when it used the flyingscot centre chassis

[stu357]

To be fair the 'Railroad' version is base on tooling from 1976 (and the Thomas versions use the 1956 tooling!)

Yep, one of these says Triang/Hornby moulded underneath!

 

Stu

[stu357]

I've got the paint and decals on now. They are seriously lacking weathering now though

 

 

I,ve added loads more images into a gallery,

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3016-Hornby-railroad-class-08s/

 

I'll see how that works before I add more here.

 

Stu

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[stu357]

Just worked out how to link to my own gallery, instead of photobox!

 

so

here are the other two,

 

 

the lamp brackets are a bit short and my halogen front rear lights seem a little small. might have to re-think them before weathering!

 

 

Stu.

[sandwich station]

Some good looking models there Stu, your giving me some ideas.

[stu357]

Not done much on these recently they are still "nearly finished"

 

I did have a go at making some better lamp brackets, bent up from phosphor bronze pickup strip.

 

 

when I looked at images on where to place these I realized the back of the cab on 08648 was wrong.

you cant look at too many photos of your prototype!

 

so now I've moved some decals, added the strengthening ribs, a better scale halogen light and the lamp brackets,

 

 

Bit happier with that,

Ill get round to weathering something one of these days...

Edited January 23, 2017 by stu357

[stu357]

Its a while since I did these.

 

with the price of a Super Detail chassis I always use tham now. They run so well!

 

But,

I have had a Bachman chassis lying about for a while, and when I aquired a coulpe of Wrenn bodies recently,

an idea formed!

I keep seeing pics of the DB ones painted in red, this seemed like a good idea!

there would be less moulded in detail to file off a wrenn body

here we are so far,

shortened cab, horndy doors (yes, I know in my excitement I've glued them in backwards!) and a panel off a lima 09 to fill in the hood moulding hole.

 

 

 

these bodies are made of a really good plastic. It files so well and glues with solvent nicely.

I was starting to think this was a better way to go

Then I realised the body is proportionaly more like a Lima one.

with the cab shortened its too short for the newer chassis.

 

So its on hold till I work out where to add the extra 2mm......................

 

Stu.

Edited December 21, 2014 by stu357

[ess1uk]

I've just picked up 2 shunters that need a little work.

I will be coming back here for tips.

[stu357]

Well, 2mm added, so project continues!

 

the proportions of the wrenn body are not as acurate as the old Hornby one though.

 

As they are so cheap I cut the center out of the grill area of another one and spliced it into the body I was on with.

The bit of lima hood was discarded and another 2mm longer portion was used on top.

 

 

I removed all the hinge straps, then added a casting of the left side boxes that I'd made for the previous ones.

 

 

It might just work this!!

Edited January 2, 2015 by stu357

[stu357]

bit of progress on the Wrenn based experiment, but first though,

 

I re-thought the steps I'd made in an earlier post.

I had made up some front steps from a filed down set of railroad ones, I cast them and added hand rails. they were designed to fit on my modified railroad body / lima chassis and worked OK for that .(see somewhere above!)

 

I realised that they were way too short so cast up some more and spliced two together and re cast them. Because they are more likely to go on a newer Hornby chassis now I can cut the top part off and use the handrail mounting holes on the original chassis.

 

here we go

 

 

first off casting with air bubbles! they are not exactly super detail but are quite sturdy.

Edited January 18, 2015 by stu357

[stu357]

RE above, do you think I need a new cutting mat!!

[stu357]

So here's the progress on the wrenn body,

 

cab strengthening bars on the back.

roof hatch (piece of drinks can, I ve been saving off cuts of etches so I had some thin metal for plates/ hatches etc now I'm using drinks can!)

lifting eyes (.3 wire folded over and squashed)

rivets, till now i've been making a hollow with a pin and dripping a spot of superglue gel in (the ones on the engine cover) but I got hold of some Archer transfers recently (the black dots on the roof) they seem very fine to me, but actually more like the Hornby sd ones

Oh and I turned the door round!

 

 

here we are on the chassis.

 

 

body has now had glazing, handrails and some tissue paper stuck on the filter panels on the bodyside. Most of the 08s I've seen seem to have a lot less texture in this area than the RTR models show. I've decided this will be 08907 and that shows a very fine mesh.

the bottom few holes in the wrenn radiator side have had a cover over them and I cut in another at the top (I think there should be another but I cant fit it in!)

 

 

so this is the Bachmann chassis,

I filed down the coecting rods to make them more acceptable,

added a few pipes and cylinders from brass wire and plastic off-cuts

fitted my new front steps

and found some brass buffers that look a little like the ones on 08907 (they were in a job lot of bits I'd aquired, the pack said 40p on them!)

 

thats it for now, I've got to choose a red and make some decals next

[stu357]

Well, a couple of lunchtimes on Photoshop and some crafty computer paper, I now have a range of Decals.

 

with the price of these sheets of paper I've tried cutting small bits off and using just the amount I need, Many printer jams ensued.

now I just fill half a sheet up so I've got loads of spares!

 

 

It took me a while to find a big enough image of the Bescot logo. I thought it was two KFC ckicken legs, not a saddle, at first!!!

 

Stu

[Horsetan]

.....The brake rodding and Lima chassis seem impossible to glue together, .....

 

That may have something to do with the grade of plastic that Lima infamously used - greasy, slippery, and practically impossible to glue.....

 

I was also having a look at whether the much distorted Lima body could be hacked into a closer approximation of today's Hornby SD variant - rough body comparisons can be seen here

 

Wait 'til you stumble upon the old Kitmaster 350hp shunter kit. In the days when a properly accurate RTR 08/09 was unknown, Tim Shackleton once spliced the major parts of this to the rear section of a Wrenn/HD cab.

 

Now there's an idea for you! 

Edited January 21, 2015 by Horsetan

[stu357]

Thanks Horsetan,

Yes. I have looked at a few Kitmaster ones. Not bought one yet, but its on the cards!!

 

You should do the Lima one. I reckon it might be more of a challenge though.

It looks to me like the Lima body also has height issues. there’s about 1mm missing out of the whole engine cover area and 2mm out of the height of the cab compared to the Hornby ones.I must say though the Wrenn body lacks a bit of height.

 

Your comparison image reminded me I've been meaning to put a similar image on of some of the body shells I've collected. Just for a bit of info really, So here it is....

 

 

1 top left Bachmann                                                                   2 quickly shortened railroad
3 shortened cab wrenn on bachman chassis                             4 Lima
5 one of my detailed railroad ones on a Hornby SD chassis      5 Wrenn
7 Hornby SD                                                                               8 Hornby railroad on lima chassis

 

In that same gallery there is also a quick re-proportioning job i did on a railroad shell tonight. (no2 in the above image) It took me about 2.5 hours

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3535-quick-reproportioning-of-a-railroad-08/

Hope someone finds it useful

 

Stu.