Train spotting at Finsbury Square

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, 31A said:

 

Of course!!

Lifebuoy or Wright's Coal Tar?

[31A]

55 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Lifebuoy or Wright's Coal Tar?

Green.

 

[PhilJ W]

White or green but with cracks filled with dirt.

[31A]

Moving on, time for some painting.

 

I have sprayed the brass upper works with Halfords etching primer and then Railmatch BR Cream, and picked out the green bits with Humbrol No. 76, which is what I use for Eastern Region buildings green.  It wasn't always easy to make a neat demarcation between the green and cream bits, so quite a bit of touching up with either colour was needed before I was happy with it.  As usual, things look worse in a photo!

 

 

The windows have been glazed using thin clear plastic - the packaging from the Ratio staircase kit.  The nearest sliding window is still conspicuously absent, so time to do something about that.  The MRC drawing of Biggleswade box shows a ground floor window at the back, but this doesn't come with the kit so that had to be made as well.  For both windows, the glazing bars were ruled onto clear plastic with a bow pen.  I find Railmatch enamels idea for this as they flow easily from the pen without any thinning.  Then for the sliding window, I painted the curved part at the top, and for the ground floor window I cut a rectangular frame from 10 thou plasticard.

 

 

The picture above also shows my painting of weathered yellow brick; basically I spray the whole thing with Humbrol No. 93 Desert Yellow, then bring out the brickwork by dry brushing over with a mix of matt black / dark grey / chocolate.  Further weathering later will tone it down.

 

Other items not shown yet include the window cleaning boards that go beneath the front and non-door end windows.  These are from strips of etch scrap brass (the drawing says the real ones were 11" wide), and I made brackets from straightened out mini staples.  I didn't know how well they would solder, but it went OK.  In the past I have used wire for these, but thought the staples would look more like flat section bar.  They were also painted with the No. 76 before being inserted into holes drilled into the brickwork.  The top surfaces have since been painted as bare wood.

 

 

[Jamiel]

On 04/02/2022 at 22:11, mullie said:

Stretching sprue over a candle anyone?

I do it for making wiring on the outside of buildings, telephone wires, cabling and also fine details on rolling stock. I think that all my buildings have a bit of that.

I first encountered it in the instructions for making a WW2 vehicle, maybe a US army lorry, to make the radio antenna. Like others have said that would make it a technique from military modelling.

Hold the sprue above the flame and bend back and forwards to see how soft it is. Pull slowly for a thick wire and steadily for a thin one. Don't put the sprue in the flame, that doesn't work.

On a different point, it is really good to see someone else using a thin ply base covered with plastic brick cards for buildings, it makes for a very strong laminate. Lovely work on the signal box.

Jamie

Edited February 7, 2022 by Jamiel

[A Murphy]

Ship modelers quite commonly use stretched sprue for rigging.......

 

Alastair M.

[31A]

Fiddling about some more with the inside bits; all the furniture is now stuck in place and I've found a couple of bods who look as though they might belong in a signal box.  Also the window cleaning boards have been painted as unpainted wood, and fixed in place.

 

So this is the view you'll never see when the box is in place.

 

 

And this is what it might look like when it's finished, if you were able to see the front.  At the moment the upper part, and the staircase etc. are just temporarily in place.

 

 

Work on the roof is a bit held up at the moment.  Firstly because I want to spray it before I stick it on and it hasn't been the weather for using aerosols outdoors, but more importantly because about two years ago I bought a packet of very nice chimney pots from Dart Castings, at the Lincoln show at Newark I think.  I believe they sell them in packets of six and I only used three, but so far the other three have refused to reveal themselves....

 

[Wheatley]

Ooh - a Black Mac ! Working straight up to the boxes either side then....

 

That's really nice :-)

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by Wheatley

[31A]

Still moving gradually forwards with this signal box.  It seems there is quite a lot of work in making signal boxes, or at least there is if you insist on making bits you can't see.

 

Anyhow, the top bit is now fixed to the bottom bit and the staircase and loo have also been fixed in place, but the roof hasn't.  I have made some plumbing and rainwater goods from various bits of brass rod and fuse wire.

 

 

 

The roof is just about done, apart from the chimney pot which still hasn't turned up.  I may have to make one!  As I mentioned, it is made from Wills slate sheets; the ridge tiles are two strips from a sheet of 7mm scale brick embossed plasticard and a piece of styrene rod on top.  The flashing round the chimney is made from wine bottle top foil.

 

 

In terms of making things you won't be able to see, I have made a (pretty crude) representation of an Instrument Shelf, which will hang from the rafters above the lever frame.

 

 

 

 

[lezz01]

It's a lovely box Steve well done mate.

Regards Lez. 

[31A]

52 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

It's a lovely box Steve well done mate.

Regards Lez. 

 

Thank you Lez, glad you like it.  Bit more to do yet!

[31A]

By way of a change from Signal Boxes, I have been playing around with one of the new Bachmann V2s.  With no disrespect to St. Peter's School, 60847 only gained separate cylinders quite late on but New England's 60845 fitted the bill for my layout better, so there was a change of identity.  Only changed one digit on the cab sides (with Methfix transfers), and the excellent 3D printed number plate transfers from Rail Tec made changing the smokebox number easy.  I had already given it a new metal drawbar between the engine and tender, in order to reduce the gap and also make the side view a bit better, but apart from that what a lovely model which in my view captures the elegant power of Sir Nigel's masterpiece.

 

 

[wilks]

On 02/02/2022 at 21:41, 31A said:

But it hasn't all been retail therapy - there has been some modelling as well!

 

After over 20 years I thought it was time Finsbury Square had a proper signalbox.  Up to now, the signalling has been controlled from a very old Heljan kit.  It's still available today and now part of the Gaugemaster range, but they persist in describing it as a Great Western signalbox, whereas in reality it's quite a decent model of a Great NORTHERN Railway 'box; in fact it's probably based on the drawing of Biggleswade (South) 'box that was printed in the Augsut 1975 MRC.  The 'box at Finsbury Square is at the front of the layout with its back to the viewer so the plastic kit wasn't too much of an issue, although the roof slates are a bit chunky.  It looks a bit worse for wear now though!

 

 

Anyway, in 1992 D&S Models brought out an etched kit for a very similar 'box (or at least the top part of one), and I bought two.  I used one to make a smaller 'box (two thirds of the length) and put the other one away.  I decided its time had come, and I still had the spare 'third' from the first kit, so I would be able to make a longer, and suitably imposing, box for this layout.  As Finsbury Square is not a real place, the signalbox has an element of 'freelance' about it, but the overall dimensions come out very similar to those of Leeds 'A' box at Leeds Central station.

 

Here are the main parts set out.  Obviously one end had to be separated from the front.

 

 

And spliced and basically assembled:

 

 

With this kit you're on your own for the brick base, and the roof.  Hoping to make a solid base, I decided to use 1.5mm ply with Slater's brick embossed Plasticard laminated to it.  So here's the kit of parts for the brick base.

 

 

And braced on the inside with square stripwood.

 

 

And here is the woodwork finished, and the soldering likewise.  All the windows, the door, barge boards and finials.  Also the handrail round the front and sides.  Unfortunately there is one sliding window frame missing!  I'd nicked this when I built the first kit to make an extra window in the back.  I'll come back to that later!  The brass bit isn't fixed to the wooden bit yet, and won't be for a long time.

 

 

Great piece of modelling, Can you still get the D&S kit?

 

 

[31A]

29 minutes ago, wilks said:

Great piece of modelling, Can you still get the D&S kit?

 

 

 

Thank you; glad you like it!

 

Not as far as I know.  I had an idea that it had passed to another supplier; many items from the D&S signal parts range are under the Model Signal Engineering brand from Wizard Models, but I don't think the signal box is part of that.  I thought it might have gone to Churchward Models who do (did?) several other brass signal box kits, but I can't see it there either, unfortunately.

 

[wilks]

On 25/02/2022 at 23:15, 31A said:

 

Thank you; glad you like it!

 

Not as far as I know.  I had an idea that it had passed to another supplier; many items from the D&S signal parts range are under the Model Signal Engineering brand from Wizard Models, but I don't think the signal box is part of that.  I thought it might have gone to Churchward Models who do (did?) several other brass signal box kits, but I can't see it there either, unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the response. I couldn't see it in the Wizard, MSE or the Precision Paints range of kits.

 

Happy modelling.

[wilks]

Through the LNER Modellers Group I have been alerted to the D&S signal box kit on ebay, which I have purchased.

 

Thank you for your help.

Edited February 27, 2022 by wilks

[31A]

57 minutes ago, wilks said:

Through the LNER Modellers Group I have been altered to the D&S signal box kit on ebay, which I have purchased.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Well done, hope you enjoy building it!

 

[31A]

Well I think the signal box is just about finished now.  The weathering turned out a bit more extreme than I intended!  Still, steam age buildings couldn't have always been clean.

 

The excellent laser engraved name boards from Scale Model Scenery finish it off nicely, much neater than I could have made myself.

 

https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/lx093-oo-laser-engraved-signal-box-nameplates-oo4mm176-1081-p.asp

 

And I even managed to find a "PRIVATE" sign for the door on a sheet of printed notices.  The chimney pots still haven't turned up though so I'll have to deal with that later.

 

 

 

This is more the view that will normally be seen on the layout.  It will need a bit of scenic 'bedding in' obviously, but I suppose I ought to have a go at some point rodding first - such fun!

 

 

It could probably do with some 'stuff' around it like a coal bunker, for a start.

 

I wonder whether anyone's got any details of old-style location cabinets / relay / battery boxes - the sort that were made of wood and stood on concrete legs, for example?

 

[leopardml2341]

Bl@@dy marvellous work - well done Sir!

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by leopardml2341

[Mallard60022]

Superbio Steve. I shall look at the various Box Pictures on You Tube or those modern media things as you can too.  I am sure Dunsignalling will know some stuff but he did work on the Premier Mainline of course but Many boxes were Cream and Green.

P

[Mallard60022]

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/83030-train-spotting-at-finsbury-square/page/35/#comment-4759140

P

[Mallard60022]

https://old.signalbox.org/gallery/gn.htm

P

 

[Mallard60022]

[Mallard60022]

[Mallard60022]