Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Nile]

No RSU, just a 50W iron with a variety of bits. Tining and solder paste helped. I think I did better than with the brake van, but there are still small gaps at the ends where the sides and ends meet. This could be down to the design not being quite perfect, not a big problem and easy to fill. The important thing is it's square and straight.

[Nile]

Moving on to the underside I fitted the axle units first, then the solesbars.

The fiddly bits have also been fitted to the body.

 

The brake gear consists of one shoe and a lever bent to fit around the yet to be fitted axlebox. The vertical guide thingy is a left over from a 51L kit, this kit has a plain strip of etch to be bent to shape. The brake lever is free to move, which will make painting it easier.

 

The vertical castings on the ends are the same as used on the brake van, which explains the cut outs at the bottom. They needed trimming to fit here.

Time for a clean up.

[Nile]

Much primer was sprayed at the weekend, some ended up on this van.

[Nile]

I managed to get the paint and transfers on during the week, plus a little bit of weathering and matt varnish. This is the result.

It's accompanied by the ex SER van for a reason, I've replaced the oval ventilators with some round ones I found amongst some coach parts I had stashed away.

[Nile]

I've still got some more Cambrian kits to build in the pile, plus more hidden away in boxes, but I'm going to do some coaches now and wander into the mysterious (to some) world of 3D printed models. We need more than just birdcages to run this railway.

Simon Dawson (rue d'thingy) has drawn a three car push-pull set. I ordered the all third to see what I could do with it.

This is the WSF print as it comes.

The single set of ventilators is puzzling, so I removed them.

After much painting and sanding to get a fairly smooth finish I sprayed it with red primer.

[Compound2632]

Are those buffers or mushroom stools? I don't quite understand the urge to make the entire model in one piece or even all as a 3D print - different materials suit different components. I like Mike Trice's "basic kit" approach. 

[sem34090]

Nice! Shows that WSF isn't all that bad...

 

The reason I get buffers printed onto the model is because, quite simply, I haven't got spare cash to be splashing out on Buffers.

 

That said, I appreciate that some people would prefer to do the latter, and I intend to offer models both with and without buffers.

[wagonman]

 

PPA_01.JPG

The single set of ventilators is puzzling, so I removed them.

After much painting and sanding to get a fairly smooth finish I sprayed it with red primer.

 

 

 

I don't know the prototype at all but just wondered whether the ventilators could have been fitted to the 'smoking' compartment?

Edited March 19, 2018 by wagonman

[Nile]

The other coaches in the set have vents above all compartments, so I've done the same with this coach (I know they are the wrong type). The sides were sprayed with Vauxhall Brazil Brown, masked, then the roof sprayed with grey primer.

[Guy Rixon]

Nice! Shows that WSF isn't all that bad...

 

The reason I get buffers printed onto the model is because, quite simply, I haven't got spare cash to be splashing out on Buffers.

 

That said, I appreciate that some people would prefer to do the latter, and I intend to offer models both with and without buffers.

 

The buffers for this particular coach would not be expensive as separate prints. £3.72 + P&P gets you the buffer guides for the entire train, with some spares. (Disclosure: my product, sold at a small profit to me.)

 

PS: that's assuming that the motor-fitted coaches had either the normal LCDR buffers or the long SER pattern. If they had short buffers for close coupling, then those are not in my range yet. The short buffers may not be available anywhere, although Branchlines used to do castings for the equivalent parts on the close-coupled 4-wheeled stock.

Edited March 22, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[Guy Rixon]

I've still got some more Cambrian kits to build in the pile, plus more hidden away in boxes, but I'm going to do some coaches now and wander into the mysterious (to some) world of 3D printed models. We need more than just birdcages to run this railway.

Simon Dawson (rue d'thingy) has drawn a three car push-pull set. I ordered the all third to see what I could do with it.

This is the WSF print as it comes.

PPA_01.JPG

The single set of ventilators is puzzling, so I removed them.

After much painting and sanding to get a fairly smooth finish I sprayed it with red primer.

PPA_02.JPG

 

That's the best finish I've seen on a WSF print of a panelled coach. How long did it the sanding and priming take?

[Skinnylinny]

I spotted another model (not the 3D-printed one, I don't think!) on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Society website's modelling section (Gallery 3) which shows a P class with the push-pull set, and it looks to be the case that the loco-end coach has only one set of ventilators too! Either Rue D'Etropal and this modeller were working from the same flawed drawings, or this might actually be correct.

 

[Nick Holliday]

I spotted another model (not the 3D-printed one, I don't think!) on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway Society website's modelling section (Gallery 3) which shows a P class with the push-pull set, and it looks to be the case that the loco-end coach has only one set of ventilators too! Either Rue D'Etropal and this modeller were working from the same flawed drawings, or this might actually be correct.

 

PushPull.jpg

The drawings aren't flawed. Photographs in Mike King's PP book, which has the drawings, show the single pair of vents on two sets identified. One has it next to the loco, other with the vents at the further end.

[Guy Rixon]

The drawings aren't flawed. Photographs in Mike King's PP book, which has the drawings, show the single pair of vents on two sets identified. One has it next to the loco, other with the vents at the further end.

 

Having just looked at said photos, I see that the train is formed 3rd-1st-Bk3rd, but the brake-3rds used to be brake-2nds before the PP sets were formed. Therefore, I speculate that the ventilators are where the LCDR put them, unmodified by the SECR, and that they were originally over 1st, 2nd, 3rd-smoking and guards compartments, missing out the non-smoking 3rd-class.

[Nile]

Hmmm, this is getting complicated. Seems they were economical with their roof vents. And yet it looks like they fitted electric lighting during conversion.

It was the lower body panels with the tumblehome that needed the most effort to get a smooth finish. Print lines are visible in the original photo, it took many iterations of painting and sanding before they disappeared.

[Nile]

The Halfords paint has a nice glossy finish, perfect for these Fox transfers.

 

After misting on some matt varnish I turned to fitting some glazing, and found an issue. There was a raised surround around the droplights (maybe to maintain wall thickness) that would prevent a continuous glazing strip laying flat. I managed to carve these away with a scalpel.

 

After touching up the paint on the insides I glued the glazing strips in with drops of glue'n'glaze along the top. Compartment partition were made from card. The first one was made with guess work and trial and error until I got the shape right. This then became the pattern for the rest. They are glued to the roof with PVA, with some extra blobs of glue added to their bottom corners later.

[Nile]

It's about time I updated this. I considered trying to add seating to the compartments, but it would be a lot of effort for something that would be very hard to see so I didn't bother. I cut some bits of card to fill the gaps in the floor. These rest on the bottoms of the partitions inside, and are secured in place with a few drops of PVA at the corners. The Romford wheels add a bit of weight to the model.

 

The brake units made up of Comet parts, 0.4mm brass rod and strips of card, held together with super-glue gel.

 

These were glued in place with some PVA.

[Compound2632]

Have you fitted brass pin-point bearing cups inside the axleboxes? And... how does it go round curves?

[Nile]

1. No, the axles are just the right length. As it's made of nylon it shouldn't wear out. The ride height is correct this time.

2. It goes through Peco large points just fine, the new bullhead ones. This is mostly due to the amount of slop inherent with OO wheelsets. I've no idea what sort of minimum radius it will negotiate, the middle wheelset could be modified for tighter curves if needed.

[Nile]

Some more details added. Emergency brake gubbins made from brass rod and bits of plastic, all painted black before sticking to the coach end. The actual indicators on the ends will be fitted last as they are quite vulnerable.

 

 

At the other end some handrails.

 

 

Door and grab handles (T handles from Roxey).

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Guy Rixon]

I'll be interested to see how you manage the "ears" on the emergency-brake indicators. Last time I did these things I made them from fret waste soldered on and filed to shape in situ. Probably not a viable approach with a nylon body. I wondered about crushing the ends of the rod to make the ears, but couldn't get it to spread widely enough.

 

Do you by any chance have information on how the pipe up to the emergency-brake-indicator gear was connected to the train pipe, for LCDR stock? There seem to be a variety of ways to connect this up in carriages in general.

[Nile]

I don't have any information on the brake gear on these coaches. I'm going to leave fitting any more detail until I have more information.

[Nile]

I made the indicator 'ears' from 10x20 thou microstrip, painted red and stuck to the ends of the brass rod with some super-glue gel. Not the strongest arrangement but these aren't going to be handled much (probably). I took these photos after a bit of a dusting to clean it up. The couplings are from a Bachmann coach.

 

 

 

As that seemed to go quite well I added the other two coaches to my next Shapeways order. Here is the complete set together, they are sitting on a crossover made from the new Peco Bullhead points.

 

 

Before starting on them I changed the vents on the first coach, these are Midland torpedo vents from 51L.

 

This was done before the posts about the vents above. I'm going to leave them as they are for now, more info is needed about the roofs as it looks like I also need to add electrical conduits. These coaches may stay as a work in progress for some time.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

Pardon my ignorance of the prototype but I note the long buffers on the brake end of the third brake and on one end of the third. I presume these were built to operate in close-coupled sets and that the first (or is it a composite?) has short buffers at both ends? And no end steps? (Vide the discussion about steps on Midland 6-wheelers.) It seems to me slightly odd that a close-coupled set should have a brake at only one end or were these sets BT/C/T//T/C/BT with scope for loose vehicles in the middle according to traffic requirements?

 

I'm looking forward to finding out how steps are arranged on the brake end, with its stern gallery windows.

[Gareth Collier]

I believe these sets were used on push pull services so the brake also accommodates the driving position.