My new project - London K class trolleybus in 1/43

[hayfield]

Forgive me if I have missed something, but will the trolley bus be a static model or motorised?

 

Would be a rather stunning scene watching it move through a street scene  

[PhilJ W]

On the subject of wheels, the way to tell an AEC trolleybus from a Leyland was the rear hubs, the AEC's were chrome plated, the Leyland's were painted.

[Ceptic]

.

Many thanks for inviting me onto this topic, Mister Spoons

 

These photos were taken in 2011, during a rush visit.   Apologies for the fuzzyness. (You may need 3D glasses for some of them !  )

 

 

I wonder how many will be modelling these, fitted with trolley booms, in 79 years time ?.

 

All the best,

Frank.

[bobster]

Nice pics Frank - I prefer the 1935 design    - I suppose its all down to what we were brought up with.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[Mister Spoons]

So many questions to answer here today, so apologies if I miss responding to anyone,

 

@ Hayfield; initially a static model, but it has been built with motorisation in mind using chopped-up Faller Auto components, I need to see if I can produce a working Ackerman steering rack to suit, the parts are small enough to fit unseen beneath the floor.

 

@ Western Star; to begin with I found the image of the fabric which was a small sample but there was enough to copy/paste until I had created sufficient material to cover all the seats, see here for a jpg of the result; the file I created is bmp but weighs in at 92mb!!!

 

 

And here's the real thing.

 

 

@ Ceptic; very nice pics, some of the detail shots I managed to miss on my visit, thanks for posting!

 

@ PhilJ W, thanks for the info - I'll be painting mine rather than polishing through the paint back to white metal so they don't look too polished..

 

Cheers for now,

 

David

Edited April 24, 2014 by Mister Spoons

[Mister Spoons]

 

This is a simple jig I built for making the seat backs; to have cut 30 seat backs identically would have been rather tedious, so I think the ten minutes or so putting this together was worthwhile.

 

 

Then I cut some strips of 40thou plasticard......

 

 

Slid the strips into the jig, four at a time.....

 

 

Made the diagonal cut first, pressing down on the strips rather than pushing them towards the 'stop'

 

 

End result- sufficient seat backs, all the same size (with one exception) with the same angle on the inside edge.

The exception? That's the seat marked 'R' which is the rear nearside seat upstairs, the blind box sticks into the inside slightly so I made that seat a fraction narrower to compensate.

 

I'll be making the seat cushions the same way, they will all of course require hand finishing, to round the edges and round off the top corners.

 

Ill then make an assembly jig so that I get the back angle relative to the cushion the same on all those seats; thinking of something like a Scrabble rack.....

[Coppercap]

This location is shown on the film, as the vehicles approach a brown building on the right hand side which was the GPO Telephone Exchange - about 18 seconds from the beginning. 

 

 

 

Lovely job so far! 

 

Anyway, that's Wheatstone House, redundant and now no longer in use, and sold by BT to developers, so it won't be here for very much longer. Luxury apartments are planned on the site.

I'm not aware that it was a Telephone Exchange as such (at least, not an automatic telephone exchange - it may have had some manual boards), and I worked there occasionally in the dismal repeater station (Chiswick B, in the basement during my PO apprenticeship in the late 1970's. Great view of the flyover from the roof! All bar the basement of the building was empty by then, and I never found out what the above ground floors were actually used for.

 

Mum loved the trolleys (lived at Brentford End, on the 657 & 667 routes), and the previous trams made her sick, due to the pitching and swaying. Have to take her to Sandtoft some day............... 

Edited April 29, 2014 by Coppercap

[Mister Spoons]

@ Coppercap; I am fairly sure that prior to the introduction of STD that Wheatstone House had been a full Telephone Exchange, see here on page four, it's just a reference to the building:

 

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/130185744/THE-WEST-CHISWICK-and-GUNNERSBURY-SOCIETY

 

and here:

 

http://www.bhsproject.co.uk/Market.shtml

 

I am guessing at this, but perhaps it lost its primary function when the dialling code for the area ceased to be CHIswick and became 01-994 - as I recall this was mid-1960's.

[ThePurplePrimer]

I am really enjoying watching this - thanks for sharing it

 

Can I ask how you did the louvers in the front grille ?

[ThePurplePrimer]

Hi PP,

 

I think Post number 40 gives the answer you seek.

 

B

 

Thanks - I had missed that

[Mister Spoons]

 

Detail painting underway on the exterior.....

 

 

And the rear dome ......

 

 

While this is drying I'll turn my attention to the roof and assemble the seats.....

 

@ ThePurplePrimer http://www.archertransfers.com/SurfaceDetailsMain.html

 

14inch louvers are what I ordered, pricey but good! I really could not match that uniformly sized louvre using plasticard strip!

Edited April 30, 2014 by Mister Spoons

[bobster]

Coming along nicely David - Good work.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[Mister Spoons]

Glad you're enjoying the build Bob!

 

 

Here's a question...... Does anyone know what these are?

 

OK; Headlight rims.... London trolleys had a fairly distinctive headlamp;

 

 

I created the black edge with a fine brush (see post #62 second pic) and the rims are from the jewellery section of Hobbycraft

 

These rings are obviously cut through so a few minutes with a soldering iron and some low-melt solder made them complete circles, these were bonded to glazing material with superglue round the outside - do it from the inside and the clear material goes foggy..... this was my second attempt :-)

 

Once the superglue had fully cured I trimmed the lamps from the material with nail scissors and then pared down the glazing from behind so that the glazing is a plug-fit in to the headlight socket. The rim then remains proud. I know that the rims are a little 'heavy' but my eyesight precluded me from attempting anything finer......

Edited April 30, 2014 by Mister Spoons

[Coppercap]

Wow, it's looking simply fantastic now!  B) 

 

I know it's off topic, but: 

 

@ Coppercap; I am fairly sure that prior to the introduction of STD that Wheatstone House had been a full Telephone Exchange, see here on page four, it's just a reference to the building:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/130185744/THE-WEST-CHISWICK-and-GUNNERSBURY-SOCIETY

and here:

http://www.bhsproject.co.uk/Market.shtml

I am guessing at this, but perhaps it lost its primary function when the dialling code for the area ceased to be CHIswick and became 01-994 - as I recall this was mid-1960's.

 

Chiswick Exchange proper is itself in Barley Mow Passage (down the end of the lane beside the Post Office in Chiswick), and was CHIswick (which became 01-994-XXXX), and pre-dated Wheatstone House. Brentford was served by ISLeworth (01-560-XXXX), at Busch Corner, as was built about the same time as WH. Seems that in the past those who didn't really know any different called any non-mail GPO building a "Telephone Exchange". Even the Ordnance Survey people get it wrong too, often showing small rural exchanges as "pumping stations" (and vice versa!). Maybe there were grand plans for the building that never materialised?     

[Mister Spoons]

Wow, it's looking simply fantastic now!  B) 

 

I know it's off topic, but: 

 

 

Chiswick Exchange proper is itself in Barley Mow Passage (down the end of the lane beside the Post Office in Chiswick), and was CHIswick (which became 01-994-XXXX), and pre-dated Wheatstone House. Brentford was served by ISLeworth (01-560-XXXX), at Busch Corner, as was built about the same time as WH. Seems that in the past those who didn't really know any different called any non-mail GPO building a "Telephone Exchange". Even the Ordnance Survey people get it wrong too, often showing small rural exchanges as "pumping stations" (and vice versa!). Maybe there were grand plans for the building that never materialised?

Interesting info there Coppercap; I used to partake of the occasional pint in the Barley Mow (and the Steam Packet, Star and Garter, Bell and Crown....) and lived in Chiswick until the late '70's.......

[Mister Spoons]

 

Detail painting carries on apace; all the cream bands are now applied and the very thin black band around the tween decks area completed; this was done by drawing lines using a Rotring Pen with different nib widths, the very narrow lines are 0.25mm, and the thicker ones 0.35mm, once this ink is dry it is completely waterproof, a coat of clear varnish increases the durability and seals the decal film as well as the pen lines.... the headlamps have been fitted and very pleased I am with them too! I will attempt to create a tiny one for the foglamp but am not hopeful!

 

 

The rear mudguards and wheelboxes are also painted.

 

The roof has been worked on; using a variation of the 'former technique', this involved cutting pieces of packing material, in this case thin balsa wood, and glueing them between the roof formers, apart from the second bay where the packing was made with plasticard - the reason for this is that the trolleypoles fit on to this area and whilst balsa is wonderfully light, strength is not one of its qualities.....

 

The roof was then built up with thin skims of filler to keep the heat down (filler gets warm/hot when curing) and avoid warping the structure.

 

 

Work has also begun on the trolley gantry, there's a few joints to be 'made good' with filler, but I'm quite pleased with the gantry, which was built using laminations of shaped plasticard from the Evergreen range, there are a few small gaps to be filled with good old Isopon P38, but although there's much work to do on the roof, here's a shot of 1253 at the LT Museum:

 

 

There will be differences in the roof gear on my model as 1253 is a K2 and 1058 (my chosen subject) was a K1; the main difference between the two types was that K1s had the earlier heavy round radio suppressors, and K2 vehicles had a later, lighter type.

[Mister Spoons]

 

I've had a couple of things to do this week; I had to collect my ex-London Transport Gibson ticket machine from having a little work done on it; it now prints tickets in pre-decimal currency! I have managed to get some more work done on the trolley too, I'm working on the roof equipment currently; above is the 'roots' for the trolleypoles - as they are going to be proper sprung poles the foundations need to have some structure.

 

I cut a pair of short tubes which were filled with Isopon P38

 

 

These were then drilled with a 1mm drill bit as a pilot hole; I'm not sure how thick the pole pivots are going to be, but having drilled the pilot holes, the final holes will be easier to drill correctly. These little roots were then added to the roof with superglue, and the added parts painted brown to match the rest of the gantry.

 

 

Then I added the flat plates that are under the trolleybuses in the pic of the real thing; see my last post for the roof shot.......

 

 

The shell has also had some attention too; I've started painting the interior, although it's not easy to see in pictures. I've painted the body side panels brown, a coat of matt followed by a coat of satin which gives a pretty good finish; the window pillars will be done dark green, and as with the satin brown I'll mix my own shade of green using Humbrol enamels. The interior panels of most LT trolleys were finished in Rexine, when built many had a blue upper deck, but by the end they were brown and green 'on top' as well as 'inside'.

 

 

Here's a shot with the roof 'plugged in' Not bad....

 

And finally for now, the decal set ready to apply; I realised that the Typhoo tea ad I originally did was incorrect - yeah, I know; Anorak! If you have a look at the video of LT Trolleybuses I linked to, at 1:52 there's a short scene of 1058 rounding Shepherd's Bush Green and the nearside ad is of the style I've now made. In fact the only ad you don't get to see in that 10 or 15 seconds of film is the rear, and I've found a pic of the hindquarters with the Autohall Car Hire and spot ad, as well as the offside Pearl ad.... The Devil is in the detail, as they say.......

 

 

In case anyone is scratching their head regarding a 'Gibson', this is mine, complete with a pair of tickets, 1/- adult and a 6d child, which is about right from Shepherds Bush to Kew Bridge in '62; a total of 7 and a 1/2 pence in todays money....

 

[mezzoman253]

Oooooh! The 687 from the Princess Alice, Forest Gate. They used to change over at Wanstead Park station south of the bridge. I was about 7 years old then and I can still smell the interior now.

 

Thanks for rekindling those memories, great stuff.

 

Rob

Edited May 10, 2014 by mezzoman253

[bobster]

Great work David, very nice.

 

Cheers, Bob.

[SRman]

Running a bit late here as I started to do this last week, but here is all of the video footage I took at the LT Museum in February 1999 that includes any part of the trolleybus (the wheels are visible behind the showcase with models in, towards the end of the clips). I hope it may be of some use to somebody here. Sorry about the noise - there were rather a lot of school kids around at the time I visited! 

[Mister Spoons]

 

I've had a few odd short sessions over the past couple of days and decided not to post until I had some substance; the staircase is coming tgether; each tread and riser has been cut and now elements are being glued; 10 thou plasticard used for these, once they are dry I'll join them all together and add the staircase facing.

 

 

The platform floor has been cut from an embossed plasticard that I have had in the bits box for at least 15 years! The edging will be painted matt black to represent the rubber of the original. The floor itself has had a thin coat of Humbrol #62, deliberately streaky to replicate wood - once it's dry a wash of dirty black matt to add wear....

 

 

Some decals have been applied to the shell; the destinations have been given a coat of gloss varnish, and when I get the glazing installed over the next few days the blind boxes will be glazed too. I've also made the reflectors which were quite prominent on the London trolleys after 1956; LT ha to attach these on each and every vehicle to comply with Construction and Use regulations, similar units were used on RT buses - I'll bet LT were none-too-pleased to have to spend money on vehicles with a maximum 3-5 years service left....

 

 

A full frontal showing 1058 in her current glory; starting to get some character now! I'm happy with this, and cannot put off constructing all those seats any longer :-)

Edited May 12, 2014 by Mister Spoons

[bobster]

Nice work David - Any news on tests with the lighting.

 

cheers, Bob.

[Mister Spoons]

 

I've weathered the platform floor using watered down acrylics and the result is quite pleasing...

 

Also in the pic is the staircase; now complete and test fitted (and a fiddle that was!), in the end I have had to compromise by the front being in two pieces - on the real thing it is a single smooth curve; I'm debating whether to use a smudge of filler to fill the right-angle, I did attempt to replicate the curve but after a couple of attempts decided it simply was not going to happen.

 

I have made the toolbox that will be fitted in the cubby hole under the stairs, and there's also a couple of the lower deck seats in the shot; the thought of producing all the seats in one go was a little mind-blowing so I'm doing the lower deck first, and the uppers at a later date!

 

I'll pop a pic of the shell up later; I'm currently picking the window frames out with dark matt grey; it thins the sides out nicely

[Mister Spoons]

 

Window frames completed now, apart from the upper deck on one side; here's a couple of seats completed - as this is a technique I've not used before I expected a snag or two; the main issue is the laser printing, although sealed with a coat of matt lacquer you do get minor flaking when you cut the upholstery decal into useable sized pieces, this is minimised by using a fresh scalpel blade and any flaking can be touched up with paint, or as I did, a green cd marker as it is very fine and water (and varnish) proof. I have added the missing curve to the front of the staircase, and given it a basic coat of brown matt. The next coat will be a mixture of satin and gloss so that the finish is not too shiny....

[Mister Spoons]

@ bobster; I have had a play with the lighting strip, and even with a few coats of amber clear lacquer they are still very bright, I am going to have a go with fibre optic and if the proof of concept works I'll hide a pair of LEDs under the long seats adjacent to the rear wheels, and a small battery under the floor......