Adam's EM Workbench: Farewell for now

[Worsdell forever]

Don't forget a nice rug to keep it cosy in there.

[Adam]

Mission accomplished! Canal Junction 'box complete, if not 100 per cent finished, before I disappear on holiday for a week. The remaining jobs include the bobby himself, his transport, and Wordsell's rug. Oh, and installation on the layout!

 

The final jobs included glazing - I used CD cases which were structural as well as functional - overlaid with etched window frames from AMBIS. These were intended for Midland Railway 'boxes but serve just as well for LMS versions (well, some LMS 'boxes - later and seemingly more common versions had squared top corners) albeit with most of the glazing bars removed. All these serve to make it look just that bit different.

 

 

The CD case also served for the frosted window for the toilet door, with it's framing scraped together from fragments of 10 thou'. Here is it in cruel close-up before painting. Only the operators will ever set eyes on it...

 

 

All this is in preparation for the appearance of Yeovil MRG's South Junction at October's Taunton Railex. There are a few more jobs I need to do for this but this is the biggest, and - I think - the most satisfying.

 

Adam

 

 

[Bulwell Hall]

Mission accomplished! Canal Junction 'box complete, if not 100 per cent finished, before I disappear on holiday for a week. The remaining jobs include the bobby himself, his transport, and Wordsell's rug. Oh, and installation on the layout!

 

The final jobs included glazing - I used CD cases which were structural as well as functional - overlaid with etched window frames from AMBIS. These were intended for Midland Railway 'boxes but serve just as well for LMS versions (well, some LMS 'boxes - later and seemingly more common versions had squared top corners) albeit with most of the glazing bars removed. All these serve to make it look just that bit different.

 

Complete_001.gif

 

The CD case also served for the frosted window for the toilet door, with it's framing scraped together from fragments of 10 thou'. Here is it in cruel close-up before painting. Only the operators will ever set eyes on it...

 

Toilet Door.gif

 

All this is in preparation for the appearance of Yeovil MRG's South Junction at October's Taunton Railex. There are a few more jobs I need to do for this but this is the biggest, and - I think - the most satisfying.

 

Adam

Absolutely lovely model Adam - it just reeks of the LMS!  And I love the hammered glass in the toilet door.  Very well done.

 

Gerry

[Adam]

Absolutely lovely model Adam - it just reeks of the LMS! And I love the hammered glass in the toilet door. Very well done.

 

Gerry

Thanks Gerry! The hammered glass is simply the textured surface of the back of the CD case: I've used it smooth side out. Not that anyone will see it, but that's not the point. I'm looking forward to getting it installed.

 

Adam

[Captain Kernow]

The box just shouts 'LMS' and is excellent. It also says 'Blea Moor' to me, having visited that particular location many years ago under the cover of working for BR in the area for a while. As far as I can recall, the frame was against the back wall in that box as well.

 

Is this a former LNWR box, Adam, or an LMS-designed one?

[Adam]

The box just shouts 'LMS' and is excellent. It also says 'Blea Moor' to me, having visited that particular location many years ago under the cover of working for BR in the area for a while. As far as I can recall, the frame was against the back wall in that box as well.

 

Is this a former LNWR box, Adam, or an LMS-designed one?

Hi Tim,

 

It should resemble Blea Moor because it's the same type of 'box - though Blea Moor has a brick base and is half a bay longer - and it's an LMS design which was more of less the Midland design, but with a pitched roof favoured by the LNWR rather than the hipped gable of the Midland -hence the use of Ratio's kit for the Midland box as a starting point. There's a very useful collection of these on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/groups/2079274@N20/pool/page1

 

These shortish versions were rare, but not unknown and mine owes much to Claydon L&NE Junction 'box which is shown in one of the first posts on this build up the thread somewhere. Here, in fact: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jonhazan/3263344107/

 

Adam

Edited September 2, 2017 by Adam

[Adam]

Here we go. Weathered - using washes of thinned enamels, mostly cleaned away almost immediately with a clean brush loaded with more thinners - and ready in a week or two, for installation.

 

 

Most people will only get to see the back...

 

Adam

[Enterprisingwestern]

Here we go. Weathered - using washes of thinned enamels, mostly cleaned away almost immediately with a clean brush loaded with more thinners - and ready in a week or two, for installation.

 

Finished.gif

 

Most people will only get to see the back...

 

Adam

 

Hope the first C doesn't fall off.

 

Mike.

[Adam]

Another building now, albeit rather smaller. This modest breezeblock building is based on a similar structure at Yandles sawmill in Martock, Somerset. I've hand-scribed the blocks (yes, really - it's a tiny building) onto 1.5mm plastic sheet. This is also meant for South Junction, and will be a petrol store for a lineside sawmill. This function is currently performed by a grounded van body (Ratio SR uneven plank van). As with most such 'modelerisms' this is fine in theory but unlikely in practice - a van new in the '40s shouldn't be decrepit on the lineside a decade later. On the lineside, perhaps, just, but not decrepit. Yes, there was a BR meat van, too at one point (but that's been replaced by an early GW van - this wants a new roof...). So, here's the real thing:

 

 

Stage one (if I could have laid hands on some Will's breezeblocks, I'd have used those):

 

 

Moving on to the more or less complete structure with a couple of holes cut to represent the vent bricks - to get the correct relief I'll cut a couple of squares of 40 thou'. The roof is a bit of AMBIS corrugated copper sheet secured on with epoxy.

 

 

Adam

 

 

[Adam]

After a bit of a gap - and a week or two after the event - the civil engineers have been working for S&T at the Canal Junction end of South Junction and are making one heck of a mess. Before they arrived, all was quiet, even though a train seems to be due.

 

 

Such appearances may be misleading since not five minutes later:

 

 

A little later still, a chunk of plywood, some bits of mounting board to the good, some improvement may be discerned.

 

 

Holes and gaps filled with DAS which turns out to be somewhat premature; another couple of layers of board proved to be necessary. At close of play on day one, however, some sense of the eventual scene is visible.

 

 

Come day two, S&T have declared themselves satisfied, the coal bunker has been located, and all are waiting on the civil's team to sort out the landscaping. There is a need for a bit more walling (and a path/some access steps down the bank) but that's down to dad...

 

 

Adam

 

 

[Adam]

The landscaping works are now more or less complete though the fencing isn't. Getting there, however...

 

 

Adam

[Adam]

The first substantive work on my Cambrian SR Borail for quite some time; the shackles are from a 51L etch (I didn't buy enough; there's 16 each side so I'm 8 short...) which are much finer and hopefully more durable than the mouldings Cambrian supply. These are mounted on the ends of spare etched links from Masokits screw couplings - I have loads of these and they're exceptionally useful - superglued into 0.5mm holes. The shackles were squeezed into place and soldered in place ready for the finished wagon to have its load chained on. Those axleboxes need a bit of fettling to better match the real thing, I think.

 

 

Up top, I've replaced the bolsters themselves with something that better-matches the drawings in SR Wagons IV - several different thicknesses of plastic strip - the rubbing strips on the outer edges are 5 thou', the sockets 10 thou'. There's some useful prototype pictures from the example at the Bluebell (which has gained a plank floor in preservation) here: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/cw_news/s57949_repairs.html

 

 

Adam

 

Edited November 12, 2017 by Adam

[Enterprisingwestern]

Copycat!!

I angled the axleboxes and filled the gap with De Luxe materials gunge.

Those 2 buffer pictures have been sent somewhere north of the border to see if there is a chance.

 

Mike.

[Adam]

Another project in the bogie bolster line is this Warwell. Why the Oxford version? Well, while the Hattons one is more accurately liveried, has better detail below the frames (where you can't really see it), and a greater range of options for the subsequent conversions into bogie bolsters, flats, etc. As it happens, it's a Bogie Bolster B conversion that I'm after which Oxford don't do. Partly I chose this one because the buffers of the Liverpudlian product are naff, and partly it's because the bolsters aren't very well-defined and aren't correctly mounted - they were riveted to the frames on the real thing rather than bolted on top of the deck planks (so yes, I reckon I can do better) and also that there's a reasonable price differential, increased by not having to buy replacement buffers... For a straight Warwell, the Hattons product is probably the better model, however.

 

 

The livery on this example is utterly bizarre and may - charitably - be replicating something seen in preservation. The white buffer heads are especially interesting but since I'm going to repaint the thing completely, no matter.

 

So here's the basic conversion. Both the Hatton's and the Oxford have bogies which are too narrow and I have attended to this in a rather ugly way which I wouldn't recommend and thus won't explain in detail. The frames have been re-spaced by an ugly arrangement which relies on epoxy rather too much for my liking. It'll be fine, but it's not reliable enough to use as an example to anyone! The wheels are the originals reduced on the minidrill and placed on spare 26mm pinpoint axles because the real wagons have 'lowmac'-size wheels and I had none in stock.

 

 

Now we come to the butchery. I wasn't happy with the thickness of the planks on this and since I'm planning on the bolster conversion I needed to provide spaces around the bolster supports and so:

 

 

The way this model breaks down is that the running gear is mounted on a separate floor pan which, once levered out (it's secured by a pair of screws amidships) allows the centre to be hacked out and the planks to be trimmed and filed back to frame top level. A new sub-floor will be added between the frames and a layer of scribed 40 thou' with cutouts for the bolster bases which will sit on said floor. Planks also need to be laid a little way up the ramps, too so the remaining plank has gained an overlay to bring it up to height.

 

 

Meanwhile, at the ends, vac' pipes and couplings have appeared. So far so good.

 

 

Adam

Edited December 22, 2017 by Adam

[Adam]

A few Southern bits (quartering the Peckett having driven me quietly round the bend...). First the tricky, fiddly job of making a dozen bolster pins/posts for the Borail, a job which custom etching would be a better bet. Since I'm only doing one of these, however, I can live with it. Masokits do something ideal, were they a different shape, so I'm making my own, laminated from two layers of scrap etch - it's stronger and easier to work than thicker sheet would be and, experience suggests, should be more resilient - and lots of filing.

 

 

Having layered up a few roughed out blanks, I've stuck them down for final finishing. Much work later...

 

 

I've formed a strip of shim around the foot of each pin to replicate the pocket these things sit in - see here: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/srborail/h32065011#h32065011 - and trimmed to suit. I drilled a couple of holes at the top and soldered pins of 0.45mm nickel silver wire before supergluing the whole thing in place. Three down, nine to go. Tomorrow. They seem surprisingly secure which is good.

 

 

Adam

[jwealleans]

Don't Wizard do something like those pins, or are they not the right size?

[Adam]

On 03/12/2017 at 06:36, jwealleans said:

Don't Wizard do something like those pins, or are they not the right size?

 

Yes - the same etch the shackles came from. They're far too small and rather pointy. Masokits do something nearer the right size for the Borail, but more suitable for BR- or GW-built bogie bolsters in shape. The other factor is that you only get 10 on an etch and I've only got one etch in stock! I used them on my BDA conversion:

 

 

 

Adam

Edited February 4, 2023 by Adam

[Adam]

The SR brake is now ready for (and indeed, has had a bit as primer, here and there) painting and touching up. I must say it's quite refreshing to have got somewhere near finishing something...

 

 

Underneath all I've done is to add a safety loop over the brake linkage from a spare staple and add brake yokes and their safety loops (Bachmann supply these, but my model seems to have lost them - no matter). Side on, and it's a bit more obvious where the work has gone on.

 

 

 

The axleboxes have been sorted out with new covers of the right size, the springs opened out a little and three links fitted. Above the solebar, Masokits lamp irons have replaced the moulded ones at the end with the lamps - these have had a spigot soldered onto them which greatly increases the security of the lamp fixing (the side lamps are whitemetal castings from Lanarkshire Model Supplies). These are rather nice, as is the SR pattern tail lamp on the veranda end from Modelu. Meanwhile, the ends have been gently liberated from the body and the upper halves undercoated in white. In some cases, BR painted van end panels cream and bauxite regardless of the condition/colour of the van. I've no idea why this should have been or whether this was an affectation of a particular works. Here's another SR van so-treated: http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/srbrakevan/h1CED6493 - I've seen pictures of ex-LMS, and BR standard vans so treated and I reckon it looks interesting so why not?

 

 

Adam

Edited February 4, 2023 by Adam

[Adam]

I haven't managed to take a decent picture of the van in its fully painted condition, but here's the next occupant of the paintshop waiting its turn and, inter alia, the reason I wanted to model this particular wagon type. It's one of Mr Bulleid's better innovations, the cast steel bogie as rendered by Barry Parks of Cambrian. It's not bad at all, but I wasn't made keen on the axleboxes.

 

 

The axleboxes were angled back with a large file, a strip of 20 thou' added and the the ears for the covers snipped out. A strip of 10 thou' went on top and some 5 thou' details superglued in place with bolt heads from the usual tiny cubes of plastic sheet.

 

In case anyone's wondering, the wheel centres were sculpted from Miliput since these wheels (Maygb, I think) were simply plain turnings. Not altogether satisfactory but it's done now.

 

Adam

[Adam]

One Southern brake, ready to weather, or at least, it will be once I've lettered another couple of vehicles and can have the weathering paints out for other purposes. The two tone van end paintwork shows up in a nice subtle manner, I think.

 

 

Note that the Modelu and LMS lamps sit quite nicely together which is as well, because I have another couple of vans to complete.

 

 

Adam

 

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by Adam

[Yan]

Nice work. I've one Cambrian to build and a Bachman to convert and upgrade so many thanks for showing your progress on this Van.

[Adam]

The latest project off the production line (haha) is a refurbishment of one of my earliest surviving models, built just after the kit came out (I think the kit was bought from Chris Challis at RailWells). Withdrawn from service a frighteningly long time ago with the disintegration of the plastic footboards I meant to simply replace those with metal ones and yet, and yet... handrails in 0.45mm wire, brakegear falling apart and lacking in detail? Could I live with that? No.

 

Like many such things, as a consequence, it's just sat in the bottom of a box file for ages though I did sort out the footboards - using perhaps the second or third set of L section bought for the job - and replaced the wheels (having pinched the originals to go under something else; finished that, whatever it was!). It emerged during a sort out and I've finally sorted out the detailing that's been wanted for the better part of a decade.

 

 

 

The lamps are from Lanarkshire Model Supplies and ModelU; the coupling was improved as part as the improvement operations. The originals had single thickness etched hooks and unsoldered links and had fallen apart. It now has an etched Instanter and double-thickness hooks from AMBIS.

 

 

 

Side on you can see the new strapping - reinforcement retro-fitted to the prototype - and the witness mark, just visible, where I'd put the axlebox covers on upside down. New handrails, too.

 

 

Much, much better, I think and once it's all set, it'll be ready for a repaint and relettering. The track panel it's sat on, by the by, was intended to go on the SR Borail; I should have thought to check they'd fit - the bolster pins get in the way. I guess I'll find a use for it at some point... The question, I suppose is whether this was worth the effort? The kit is still available, after all, it's relatively inexpensive and I could easily have started again and produced a neater, crisper result. Bachmann will sell you something very similar, of course, but I'm satisfied and the guilty conscience is salved, just a little.

 

Adam

Edited February 4, 2023 by Adam

[ullypug]

Very nice. It's good to see you modelling again!

I get a lot of satisfaction these days by refurbishing older models that I'd previously built or acquired from others.

Case in point being half a dozen wagons from Ratio, Cambrian and Coopercraft I picked up for a quid each at our local EM group on Thursday.

[Adam]

While we're on a roll, last sighted a bit over a year ago, one composite iron ore hopper. It's got a bit busier under there since this shot was taken:

 

 

And now, it looks a bit more like this:

 

 

And from the side:

 

 

It's getting there - the worst of the soldering is done barring a few fiddly bits that are part of the door gear. 

 

This is not a great kit.

 

Adam

Edited February 10, 2018 by Adam

[Enterprisingwestern]

That link takes me to a strange page Adam.

 

Mike.