A Southern Workbench in the frozen North. Current projects; 00 Gauge LB&SCR Balloon Coach, N Gauge Stroudley 4 Wheelers

[SR Rich]

Hi Dave

Thank you for identifying the motor and your advice on a suitable motor/gearbox combination.

We are now looking at he high level site and printing out the templates.

I looked at Ray Norwood's thread, what a lovely job both on the Q1 and W class.

Edited April 10, 2015 by SR Rich

[Norwenglish]

Hi Dave,

A quick question from me, we have now been sitting spending most of the afternoon discussing gearboxes and motors, and I was wondering if there is any rule of thumb to follow when selecting a flywheel to go with the motor?

 

Thanks,

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

New project! After spending my easter doing some wood carving for a local museum I was able to buy one of these:

 

 

Quite exciting as it's my first time soldering anything other than electrical wires, and last night I did my first bit by soldering the bushes for the driving wheels into the frames.

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

Another update on the 02.

 

The frames are now soldered together and the bogie has been assembled, and the whole lot has been pushed up and down a test track and rolls very freely. 

The test track is another project that we are assembling, so we can test rolling stock over points and try out scenic techniques before moving onto a small layout that we have planned (for which a thread will definitely be appearing in the future!).

 

I have to say, the soldering isn't as difficult as I first thought and I'm very happy to have gone ahead with trying it. Although there must be something addictive in the fumes, as I don't want to stop soldering now!

 

The body has spent a few days in an acetone bath to loosen the pieces which were held together with epoxy, luckily this worked and they have been cleaned off and I am now working on dry fitting all the parts together and doing a spot of filing and filling here and there to enusre a nice close fit.

 

 

Stuart

Edited April 27, 2015 by Norwenglish

[Norwenglish]

Slowly making progress on the O2.

Today I have done the very fiddly job of soldering the brake gear, certainly a good amount of explicit language used with burnt fingertips, pieces disappearing and reappearing and parts not staying in place after being fixed.

Despite the 'problems' I'm still really enjoying the whole first time soldering a kit experience and am already keeping my eyes peeled for the next project, and hopefully with practice I will one day get to a skill level similar to some of the more well known modellers on here

 

Here you can see I have done the Brake Gear as a seperate assembly that can be easily taken off if needed.

 

This is how the chassis now stands, just needing a few more coats of red on the inside of the frames, a clean up of the black and a coat of paint on the wheels (not sure whether to go black or Olive Green).

 

 

Stuart

Edited September 16, 2015 by Norwenglish

[Norwenglish]

A few quick questions for anyone 'in the know', were the inside faces of bogies also painted red? Or was it only on the main frames?

 

Also did all engines in olive green passenger livery have their wheels painted green?

 

Thanks in advance.

Stuart

[SRman]

All of the photos I have seen of Olive/sage green SR locomotives suggest that the wheels were always in lined green.

[Norwenglish]

Thanks SRman!

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

Unfortunately work has come to a halt on the O2, as I need to order a motor and gearbox for it. Luckily we recieved our Narrow Planet order yesterday, so I have now stuck the numberplates onto the Q, R1 and Prarie, quite nice how just putting these little bits of etched brass adds to the look of an engine!

 

 

 

 

Stuart

Edited May 24, 2015 by Norwenglish

[Norwenglish]

Just a quick update from us seeing as we havn't posted in a while!

 

All modelling has currently ground to a halt since my last post due to us being extremely busy with our other main hobby/ commision work, but during our evenings and free time we have been working on this;

 

Finally starting our first layout, which is a very exciting prospect, and I expect a thread will be appearing on here in the not too distant future.

 

I have also been building a little scenic plank as a tester of how to do stuff, which Dad has kindly added some signs to.

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

Well the layout has now been started, and can be read about here; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102832-a-slice-of-southern-in-norway/

 

This unfortunately means it will still be a while until we have any kit building updates, as the layout is taking up most of our time and space in the hobby room at the moment so that we can access it from all sides while we work on it, but we have added quite a few exciting kits to our project boxes over the summer, and a friend has asked me to build him a small saddle tank as his first english engine, which will be an exciting and interesting project.

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

A short and not so exciting update from me today, but while waiting for some electrical components to arrive for the layout the other day I threw together this:

 

It's a Diagram 1386 20T Mineral Wagon from Slimrails. Have to say I'm quite impressed with this kit, went together very well, and is probably one of the best wagon kits I've built in my (limited) railway modelling experience, just wish they produced more Southern wagon kits!

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

Time for another small (especially in this case!) upate from me.

 

I mentioned a few posts back about building a small sale tank for a friend, well it has now been finished and been tested and collected, and here it is;

 

An N gauge Peckett E class, the livery is completely fictional as my friend chose his own colour scheme and came up with the name after we went through the GWR wagon transfer sheet from HMRS. Have to say it was quite a challenging build for me, but very enjoyable, and it goes together quite well next to his collection of german N gauge stuff.

 

The only downside we found was when testing over points the wheelbase is too short for picking up power over the plastic parts around the frog, so I'm now going to build a wagon with pick ups to be attached to it.

 

We will also hopefully have a big update on the layout thread soon, Dad has taken lots of pictures of our progress, so it's now just a matter of pinning him to the computer until he has posted them

 

Stuart

Edited November 4, 2015 by Norwenglish

[Norwenglish]

Just thought I would pop by to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to anyone following this thread. There also may be an update soon, as I've managed to already get a christmas present built and ready to be painted over the weekend.

 

Stuart

[Fat Controller]

A short and not so exciting update from me today, but while waiting for some electrical components to arrive for the layout the other day I threw together this:

 

It's a Diagram 1386 20T Mineral Wagon from Slimrails. Have to say I'm quite impressed with this kit, went together very well, and is probably one of the best wagon kits I've built in my (limited) railway modelling experience, just wish they produced more Southern wagon kits!

 

Stuart

They are lovely kits; almost no need for adhesive, the fit between parts is so good. They did do a 14t SR ballast (Ling) and a 20t one (Tunny) as well, though these don't seem to be on their list at the moment. The newer Cambrian kits merit a look as well; no shortage of SR stock there, and most use a one-piece underframe.

[SR Rich]

I have added one item of rolling stock to the collection over this Christmas period.

 

This is a kit of Billington's 20T goods brake ( SR dia 1575) I have build over the last few days, finished in pre 1936 southern livery.

 

 

 

Here's another picture with the goods brake at the rear of a short goods train.

 

 

 

That's it for now.

[Norwenglish]

They are lovely kits; almost no need for adhesive, the fit between parts is so good. They did do a 14t SR ballast (Ling) and a 20t one (Tunny) as well, though these don't seem to be on their list at the moment. The newer Cambrian kits merit a look as well; no shortage of SR stock there, and most use a one-piece underframe.

 

Last time I looked the other kits were there, just there was no pictures for them, and I'm sorely tempted to order some once funds permit.

Also funny you should mention the cambrian kits with the one-piece underframe as I recieved 2 LSWR 8-planks from Dad for christmas and these were the first time I've not had to go through the trouble of gluing solebars to the underside of floors and making sure they're parallel. They are also built and nearly finished alongside 2 of the 20T Mineral Wagons, so once I have remembered to charge the camera I'll be posting some pictures.

 

Stuart

[Tony Teague]

Just discovered this thread and worked all the way through; very enjoyable and great modelling.

I have built a number of the Slimrails / ex-Chivers kits, including the 20T SR mineral wagon, 20T SR ballast wagons, 15T SR ballast wagons and LMS Long Low wagons and I agree that they are amongst the best for the close fit of parts, ease of construction and good-looking results.

Tony

[SR Rich]

Quick update.

Two people seemingly working hard .

We are finishing of some open wagons in different liveries, pictures of these wagons will be posted when they are finished.

[SR Rich]

Going slightly off topic

 

I was at work today and found this.

 

 

 

I am pretty sure this is a light weight rail, this picture was taken in a cellar of an old house and holds up the floor above (just like we would use steel beams today).

[Norwenglish]

Speaking of wagons, here's what I've been upto over christmas and can be seen applying transfers to in Dad's picture.

 

SR D1316 8 Plank Open

 

Two of the 20T Minerals that we have been discussing.

 

Lastly, I have done one of the SR Match Trucks with Load kits produced by SE Finecast, which I have to say was also a very nice kit to build. The solebars almost lock into the bufferbeams which makes it another kit that could just hold itself together!

 

All the above need now to finish them is the couplings added.

 

I also have another D1316 8 Plank, which I am doing in LSWR livery, although it is currently waiting for a transfer sheet to arrive so that the last touches can be added.

 

Stuart

[Norwenglish]

Long time since we've had an update on here, most of our modelling time has been spent on the layout and hopefully we will have an update on it's thread by the end of the week.

 

A little stock building has been done though, Dad has made quite a few items of stock in the past few months, and I have built a Tar Wagon kit from SE Finecast (picture below), all it now awaits is some transfers to be ordered from POWsides for it to be completed.

 

I was also wondering if anyone could help me identify the wagons pictured below. I'm guessing they are all GWR, as they have been inherited from my Grandpa who was a GWR follower, but I have no idea if the liveries are correct or what they are for.

 

The biggest one seems to have alot of underframe similarities to some Ian Kirk kits dad has and dwarfs the rest of our stock, the middle one shares alot of common underframe features that are on Parkside kits I've built and the box van is made by ratio, but I can't find anything on their site that looks like it.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

Stuart

[SR Rich]

Hi all

I have not been idle since the last post, just not so good at posting stuff.

 

I have started on a yard crane for the layout, I bought a kit to build, then saw a picture in a book (Southern Wagons volume four) and then decided to use the kit for parts.

So here is progress so far.

 

Here is the side frames of the crane , being made from plastic card, the round pieces are where various shafts will locate. The piece of wood (ash) on the left will be the jib of the crane.

 

This is a dry run to see that the pieces fit together properly and getting the right height and angle for the jib.

The jib is hexagonal along the length, towards the end it is shaped to take the support arms and right at the end it is rounded to look like a pulley between the white plastic discs. Any parts that are grey are from the crane kit, all other parts are made by me .

 

 

This is the beginning of actually gluing bits together. The jib here is complete with strengthening bands, foot steps and the piece to hold it between the frames.

 

 

A bit more progress, all the shafts in place and the wheel that would rotate the crane. Now ready for final assembly.

 

 

 

The next couple of pictures show the assembled crane from different angles.

 

 

This shows well the guide/supports for the lifting chain.

 

The next thing is to paint the crane, now this where I could do with a little help, does anyone have any idea what colour, if any was a standard for Southern Railway yard cranes. This next picture is one I took last year at the Kent and East Sussex Railway, I know the KESR was always an independent railway and so not part of the Southern, but I like the colour scheme.

 

 

 

Please feel free to comment or ask any questions, we don't bite.  :)

[DLT]

Lovely work.

Dave.

[SR Rich]

Thanks for your kind comment Dave.

 

I, like Stuart have been busy building a few wagon kits, adding to the ever growing rolling stock list!!!

 

We will start with a Cambrian SECR 7 plank wagon ( SR D 1355)

 

SR 5 plank wagon D 1347

 

 

Two 40t ballast hopper wagons.

 

 

Bullion van with a Maunsell paint scheme.

 

 

And finally for now a track cleaning wagon.

 

 

 

That's it for now, more to come on the crane soon.

Edited March 20, 2016 by SR Rich