Cwm Bach - A South Wales Branch Line

[Guest Isambarduk]

"sorry David Smith (Isambard UK)"

No need to apologise to me, Chris!   If it works for you - it works, and that's that.

David

[Guest Isambarduk]

Also, Simon cited a good reason not to worry about being offensive to engineers in the Dock Green thread: "Very little is sufficiently crude to be offensive to engineers - Shakespeare had us sussed out years ago - "rude mechanicals"
 
and I was an agricultural engineer so I have heard some rude words!
 
David (CEng MIAgrE)

[81A Oldoak]

Also, Simon cited a good reason not to worry about being offensive to engineers in the Dock Green thread: "Very little is sufficiently crude to be offensive to engineers - Shakespeare had us sussed out years ago - "rude mechanicals"

 

and I was an agricultural engineer so I have heard some rude words!

 

David (CEng MIAgrE)

And I was simple soldier for 15 years who had to deal with Royal Engineers. Still, it always amused me that the Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery had the same "Ubique" motto on their flaming grenade emblems. For the Royal Engineers it meant "everywhere", for the Royal Artillery it meant "all over the place."

[81A Oldoak]

In between packing Ixion orders for Telford and visiting the Andover MRS show today, I have done some more...yawn... ballasting...yawn...where's the Red Bull when its needed? For some extra excitement this evening, I fixed some cosmetic fishplates to the track and now need a tranquiliser to calm me down. I have also received some resin casting kit that will be used to make the retaining wall for which I have almost finished building the master panel. This will be the first time I have tried cold resin casting; I hope it works.

 

Regards,

 

Chris

[Barnaby]

Looking forward to some casting pictures.

[hartleymartin]

I did something similar to my 14" Barclay before deciding to completely disassemble it to rebuild the chassis with a new motor and gearbox and redo the paint job. I'll probably finish ot when the Sydney summer returns and I have tp worry less about Latin grammar and Metaphysics.

 

Another rmwebber (he knows who he is) very kindly turnes a set of 16" buffer heads to go into the original housings and I'm very pkeased with the result!

[81A Oldoak]

I don't enjoy building coaches and like painting them even less,  so when I had an unexpected windfall last year I commissioned a trio of JLTRT Bow-ended Collet coaches in early BR livery. The coaches were built by Heather Cavanagh, whose craftmanship and service I can't praise highly enough. Here is the Brake 3rd on Cwm Bach. I expect a couple of the coaches to make the occasional guest appearance behind my Ivatt 2MT on  enthusiasts' Specials.

 

I have built a GWR B Set from the rather basic Haywood kit. They were finished in unlined crimson and look attractive behind a pannier tank and will share services with the Lionheart 64XX and a paire of Lionheart GWR autocoaches. I think the B Set is visible in some of the early Cwm Bach posts.  I will also eventually build a miners' Paddy train from either Slater's 4-wheel GWR carriages or Slater's GWR Clerestories as used on the Glyncorrwg branch.

[steve fay]

They are lovely, I seen the build thread over on WT

The paddy train will be superb

[asa]

The coaches are superb Chris,Heather has done a fantastic job.

[chaz]

I don't enjoy building coaches and like painting them even less,  so when I had an unexpected windfall last year I commissioned a trio of JLTRT Bow-ended Collet coaches in early BR livery. The coaches were built by Heather Cavanagh, whose craftmanship and service I can't praise highly enough. Here is the Brake 3rd on Cwm Bach. I expect a couple of the coaches to make the occasional guest appearance behind my Ivatt 2MT on  enthusiasts' Specials.

 

I have built a GWR B Set from the rather basic Haywood kit. They were finished in unlined crimson and look attractive behind a pannier tank and will share services with the Lionheart 64XX and a paire of Lionheart GWR autocoaches. I think the B Set is visible in some of the early Cwm Bach posts.  I will also eventually build a miners' Paddy train from either Slater's 4-wheel GWR carriages or Slater's GWR Clerestories as used on the Glyncorrwg branch.

 

Beautiful coaches Chris, and I much prefer that livery to the later reversion to brown and cream (ducks rapidly and covers face with hands!). Love the "perched" guard - very nice touch.

[Barnaby]

Yes that's what makes it for me the casual guard surveying his lot, finely done.

 

Regards

[HeatherKay]

Lovely to see your coaches out of the box and on the rails at last, Chris. Thank you for the kind words, too.

[81A Oldoak]

Yes that's what makes it for me the casual guard surveying his lot, finely done.

 

Regards

The guard was Heather's idea; she is an artist as well as a superb builder. During the construction process we met at the Reading trade show to discuss and select the population for the coaches and there are some interesting cameo scenes in the other coaches. I'll see if I can get the camera at them. The guard is a well known casting and I have two others that I have painted myself ready for installation in brake vans. 

[Donw]

The coaches do look very nice Chris. a friend has a set of slaters coaches painted all over brown looks quite good for a Miners train. I have seen that Guard too he was in one of Alan Brackenborough coaches he lent me as I did have one to take to Guildex he also lent me a scratchbuilt 633 tank it ran so well I realised what rubbish mine were at the time. There was no RTR of quality those days unless your pockets were deep.

Don

[81A Oldoak]

The coaches do look very nice Chris. a friend has a set of slaters coaches painted all over brown looks quite good for a Miners train. I have seen that Guard too he was in one of Alan Brackenborough coaches he lent me as I did have one to take to Guildex he also lent me a scratchbuilt 633 tank it ran so well I realised what rubbish mine were at the time. There was no RTR of quality those days unless your pockets were deep.

Don

Any chance of a photo of the brown coaches?

 

Chris

[81A Oldoak]

There has been a burst of progress on the retaining wall that will act as a backdrop to the station end of Cwm Bach. This is a master that will be used to make the mould for the cold resin casting that I plan to use for making the six or seven panels that will be required. It has been assembled from Wills Coarse Stone. The joins between the panels, especially in the vertical plane, are too obvious. I will have another go with a soldering and sharpened screwdriver blade, but may be lazy and just conceal the vertical joints with a drain pipe and hopper.  The fencing is the PECO GWR product and very fine it is. Here it has been temporarily plugged into holes drilled in the capping along the top of the wall.

 

The next task is to create the mould, which is probably where it all starts to go horribly wrong and I end having to make the entire wall by hand. Anyway, I'm off to the annual Reinsurance Rendezvous in Monte Carlo tomorrow  - someone has to do it - and will be there until next Thursday, so modelling activity will be confined to monitoring the RMWeb on my iPad in the Hotel Metropole.

 

A bientot,

 

Chris

[ThePurplePrimer]

That coach really is fantastic but I have to agree that the guard is just spot on. If you didn't know differently you would swear the figure was made especially for the job.

 

Lovely

[Barnaby]

I like the wall Chris and the railings look very smart indeed. With regard to the jointing, when you make the mould it will be the reverse image meaning the join will be more pronounced. If you carefully trim the protrusion it will cause it to blend in [disappear] when you cast. It should be easier to trim the protrusions than try and make a hidden join on the master. I have a pair of curved blade scissors which I use for trimming close to a flat surface. Bit difficult to describe them so I'll post a pic here shortly.

 

 

 

Good success is assured I'm sure.

 

 

Regards

Edited September 14, 2014 by Barnaby

[81A Oldoak]

I like the wall Chris and the railings look very smart indeed. With regard to the jointing, when you make the mould it will be the reverse image meaning the join will be more pronounced. If you carefully trim the protrusion it will cause it to blend in [disappear] when you cast. It should be easier to trim the protrusions than try and make a hidden join on the master. I have a pair of curved blade scissors which I use for trimming close to a flat surface. Bit difficult to describe them so I'll post a pic here shortly.curved bladed scissors.jpgGood success is assured I'm sure.Regards

Thanks for the advice. I hope to get to it this weekend.

[chaz]

Chris,

 

I did see a superb retaining wall at a show, exhibited as a work-in-progress. It was about three feet long and tapered down - IIRC it was the front of a sloping ramp up to a station forecourt. it was assembled from Will's sheets. The craftsman who was building it had successfully cut and filled the joins in the sheets so that, once painted, the joins were completely undetectable. Sorry I can't remember more details. It looked superb.

 

Chaz

[81A Oldoak]

Chris,

 

I did see a superb retaining wall at a show, exhibited as a work-in-progress. It was about three feet long and tapered down - IIRC it was the front of a sloping ramp up to a station forecourt. it was assembled from Will's sheets. The craftsman who was building it had successfully cut and filled the joins in the sheets so that, once painted, the joins were completely undetectable. Sorry I can't remember more details. It looked superb.

 

Chaz

Interesting Chaz. I'll need to consult one of my actuary colleagues to consult his mortality tables to see if I have sufficient life expectancy to adopt such an approach.

[hartleymartin]

Is there not room for a stone support or "buttress" as often seen on churches? I would think that this is a good way to disguise the joins.

[Barnaby]

Chris just remembered a way to disguise the join by making it more obvious.

What is done is to have the Wills sheets just one panel wide and set them 1 forward the next one back, the next one forward again and so on. You then infill the gaps between the forward panel and the reward one with pieces of the same stonework making it look intentional. These bays can be suitable used for all manner of things from fitting electrical boxes in them to relief bays from passing locos.

 

A bit like this>>>

[Donw]

Interesting Chaz. I'll need to consult one of my actuary colleagues to consult his mortality tables to see if I have sufficient life expectancy to adopt such an approach.

My father was in Reinsurance he pointed out that once you reach a certain age your life expectancy increases as you get older not quite pro rata but nearly always about 5 years or more older than you are then. Think positive Chris.

[81A Oldoak]

My father was in Reinsurance he pointed out that once you reach a certain age your life expectancy increases as you get older not quite pro rata but nearly always about 5 years or more older than you are then. Think positive Chris.

I'm a reinsurance broker, albeit part-time these days. It's the tedium rather than the length of the job that's more likely to be the cause of death.

Chris just remembered a way to disguise the join by making it more obvious.What is done is to have the Wills sheets just one panel wide and set them 1 forward the next one back, the next one forward again and so on. You then infill the gaps between the forward panel and the reward one with pieces of the same stonework making it look intentional. These bays can be suitable used for all manner of things from fitting electrical boxes in them to relief bays from passing locos.A bit like this>>>

I think I might just hide the vertical join with a drainpipe.