Cwm Bach - A South Wales Branch Line

[CME and Bottlewasher]

I have bedded in the loco shed and added details to the MPD area on Cwm Bach. The fire-irons are from the Ixion Hudswell Clarke. There is still much to do in this area including a privy for the loco crew and a small diesel oil refuelling tank for the Fowler 0-4-0DM. All of this can proceed at a slow pace, especially as delivery of the Minerva Pecketts gets ever closer.

Lovely work Chris, very inspiring - as always.

[Barnaby]

Chris, that engine shed looks like it grew right up out of the ground.

Love the touch of the tossed down engine boiler/ash cleaning tools by the track side.

[81A Oldoak]

Chris, that engine shed looks like it grew right up out of the ground.

Love the touch of the tossed down engine boiler/ash cleaning tools by the track side.

Thanks for the compliment. The inspiration for the fire irons was a colour photograph of one of the Sentinel locos allocated to Radstock S&D. I noticed that the fire irons were, in most cases, bent, and that the looped handles and part of the stem were showing as bare steel where they were held when in use. The steel effect was achieved with a light application of Humbrol Metalcote Polished Steel enamel paint 27003. As I have written before, almost everything I do is inspired by colour photographs of the real thing.

[chaz]

The groundwork is first rate. I particularly like the piles of ash - makes me wish I had a shed for my estate locos - alas no room.

[81A Oldoak]

Things have been quiet form the past fortnight. The memsahib and I returned from a joint birthday trip to Barbados, which was very hot and agreeably lazy. Unfortunately, the 2'6" Barbados Railway closed in 1937 and there is very little to see. I don't think much will get done on Cwm Bach over the next month. The Minerva Pecketts are on the production line and we are arranging the shipping. They will be at Reading on 5th December so drop by for a quick fondle.

[Barnaby]

I got to make my mind up for my Christmas/Birthday treat which loco to add to my stock roster be it a Terrier or Peckett or maybe a rtr Jinty.

I have been spoilt with the Fowler both in its build and the EDM add-on of dcc sound, superb model so for those reasons and in the manner as spoken by AS the Peckett "you're de-sired".

 

Due to pick up my new car on the 5th but have been told it may come a week or two sooner so if so we'll pop down to Reading to look and compare and maybe even buy, if not I'll place a paper order.

 

Thanks, but I'll decline the fondle offer though. 

Edited November 12, 2015 by Barnaby

[Simond]

I think he meant the loco...

[HeatherKay]

Another progress update on 4250.

 

Work has been progressing towards fitting the motor to the chassis. Before that could happen, the monster had to be adjusted in order to squeeze the frames round my minimum 5ft 6in radius test track and not derail. 

 

 

To allow the rear driven axle plenty of swinging space, some etched bolt detail had to be sacrificed. You can see the outline of the wheel, and everything within that arc was likely to cause problems with catching in the spokes if a tight curve was encountered. Although you can see the detail is missing, it's mostly hidden by the cab steps and other sundry details in the vicinity. I think that's a compromise worth pursuing.

 

 

I needed to test if further modifications were required, so now seemed a good time to sit the bodywork in place. However, because I have chosen not to trim the crankpins back at this stage, they catch on steps and slidebars, so this ungainly situation had to do! The good news is the chassis rolls through the minimum curve dead slow. The bad news is the rear wheels might still touch the frames, but that can be dealt with by a thin strip of styrene glued up near the top of the wheel arc.

 

After I fitted the motor and gearbox and found it ran fairly nicely, it was time to contemplate pickups. I was considering wipers on the tops of the wheels, but since Chris had already opened out holes for plunger pickups I decided to go with that. As Slater's pickups have nylon bodies, I therefore needed to finish most of the hot soldering work before fitting them. That meant the brake rigging.

 

 

I like to be able to extract the brake rigging where possible. To aid this I use 14BA bolts soldered into the holes in the frames. Short brass tube spacers are then fitted so the brake shoe assemblies always slide back to the correct place. They are retained by 14BA bolts.

 

 

This shows the idea. The pull rods and cross shafts underneath will hold the assembly together so it can be unbolted and gently prised away if future maintenance requires dropping wheelsets.

 

 

The brake shoe assemblies are made from three lots of etched parts. A half-etched back, centre and half-etched front. Looking at the real thing, the hangers have a characteristic recess between front and back, probably because they might well be fabricated around the shoes. To simulate this I filed away the centre part to leave a recess when assembled. 

 

I use black styrene sheet superglued to the shoe face and rear to try and eliminate the chance of metal contact with tyre and flange, and avoiding shorts. Because JLTRT used the correct locations, this meant a bit of gentle carving to avoid the brakes being on all the time. 

 

 

A finished pair of shoes, showing back and front. Black styrene is chosen because if wear occurs due to contact it won't show.

 

I haven't taken photos, but I've more or less finished assembling the rest of the brake rigging. I'll hopefully remember to show it in the next update.

[81A Oldoak]

Coming along very nicely Heather. In contrast, I am working on a couple of outside privies for the convenience of the staff at Cwm Bach's signal box and the loco depot.

[Jintyman]

Coming along very nicely Heather. In contrast, I am working on a couple of outside privies for the convenience of the staff at Cwm Bach's signal box and the loco depot.

I think it's Duncan Models who actually do a nice privy in whitemetal. They even do a bloke sat on, reading the paper too!!!

 

Heather's doing a lovely job on your loco.

 

Jinty

Edited November 15, 2015 by Jintyman

[Osgood]

….

 

Heather's doing a lovely job on your loco.

 

Jinty

 

While Chris is doing a lovely job on his loo…….

[keefr2]

While Chris is doing a lovely job on his loo…….

 

Too much detail ?!

 

Oh, I see you mean the model outside privvies...!!

[MarcD]

We have just done a simple brick privy. see Scratchy bottom thread.

 

Marc

[81A Oldoak]

While Chris is doing a lovely job on his loo…….

In my army days it was called a "shovel recce".

[chaz]

In my army days it was called a "shovel recce".

 

Got any photos? - of the models I mean not.....

Edited November 15, 2015 by chaz

[81A Oldoak]

Here is a photo of the first of the boghouses. The main structure is 0.8mm birch 3-ply. The framing is made from rectangular cocktail sticks that I bought on a holiday in Spain for use as fence posts. The roof is plasticard that will be painted with a mix of panzer grey paint and talcum powder to represent tar felting. The flap hinges are cut from Evergreen polystyrene strip, but after looking at the photo, I may stretch some sprue to make a fine filament to represent the actual hinge on the flaps. I will paint it tomorrow. The other boghouse is setting and will be ready for the roof and details tomorrow. I am not bothering with interior details. The Duncan Models privy costs £15 and I estimate the cost of the ply-wood used for this project to be 4p per privy. Now, how about DCC sound?

[81A Oldoak]

I have compiled a gallery of photos on RMWeb depicting the Cwm Bach story without the commentary. It can be found here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3798-cwm-bach-by-chris-klein/

 

Regards,

 

Chris

[CME and Bottlewasher]

Another progress update on 4250.

 

Work has been progressing towards fitting the motor to the chassis. Before that could happen, the monster had to be adjusted in order to squeeze the frames round my minimum 5ft 6in radius test track and not derail. 

 

IMG_2449.jpg

 

To allow the rear driven axle plenty of swinging space, some etched bolt detail had to be sacrificed. You can see the outline of the wheel, and everything within that arc was likely to cause problems with catching in the spokes if a tight curve was encountered. Although you can see the detail is missing, it's mostly hidden by the cab steps and other sundry details in the vicinity. I think that's a compromise worth pursuing.

 

IMG_2454.jpg

 

I needed to test if further modifications were required, so now seemed a good time to sit the bodywork in place. However, because I have chosen not to trim the crankpins back at this stage, they catch on steps and slidebars, so this ungainly situation had to do! The good news is the chassis rolls through the minimum curve dead slow. The bad news is the rear wheels might still touch the frames, but that can be dealt with by a thin strip of styrene glued up near the top of the wheel arc.

 

After I fitted the motor and gearbox and found it ran fairly nicely, it was time to contemplate pickups. I was considering wipers on the tops of the wheels, but since Chris had already opened out holes for plunger pickups I decided to go with that. As Slater's pickups have nylon bodies, I therefore needed to finish most of the hot soldering work before fitting them. That meant the brake rigging.

 

IMG_2471.jpg

 

I like to be able to extract the brake rigging where possible. To aid this I use 14BA bolts soldered into the holes in the frames. Short brass tube spacers are then fitted so the brake shoe assemblies always slide back to the correct place. They are retained by 14BA bolts.

 

IMG_2473.jpg

 

This shows the idea. The pull rods and cross shafts underneath will hold the assembly together so it can be unbolted and gently prised away if future maintenance requires dropping wheelsets.

 

IMG_2474.jpg

 

The brake shoe assemblies are made from three lots of etched parts. A half-etched back, centre and half-etched front. Looking at the real thing, the hangers have a characteristic recess between front and back, probably because they might well be fabricated around the shoes. To simulate this I filed away the centre part to leave a recess when assembled. 

 

I use black styrene sheet superglued to the shoe face and rear to try and eliminate the chance of metal contact with tyre and flange, and avoiding shorts. Because JLTRT used the correct locations, this meant a bit of gentle carving to avoid the brakes being on all the time. 

 

IMG_2475.jpg

 

A finished pair of shoes, showing back and front. Black styrene is chosen because if wear occurs due to contact it won't show.

 

I haven't taken photos, but I've more or less finished assembling the rest of the brake rigging. I'll hopefully remember to show it in the next update.

Lovely work Heather, but in photo 2, something seems wrong with the boiler and tanks, cant seem to put my finger on it though

Coming along very nicely Heather. In contrast, I am working on a couple of outside privies for the convenience of the staff at Cwm Bach's signal box and the loco depot.

Fingers and everything else crossed there then Chris (just when one thought it was safe to come out of the privy and that all the puns had gone!)

 

Too much detail ?!

 

Oh, I see you mean the model outside privvies...!!

Im feeling a bit queasy now!      

 

Here is a photo of the first of the boghouses. The main structure is 0.8mm birch 3-ply. The framing is made from rectangular cocktail sticks that I bought on a holiday in Spain for use as fence posts. The roof is plasticard that will be painted with a mix of panzer grey paint and talcum powder to represent tar felting. The flap hinges are cut from Evergreen polystyrene strip, but after looking at the photo, I may stretch some sprue to make a fine filament to represent the actual hinge on the flaps. I will paint it tomorrow. The other boghouse is setting and will be ready for the roof and details tomorrow. I am not bothering with interior details. The Duncan Models privy costs £15 and I estimate the cost of the ply-wood used for this project to be 4p per privy. Now, how about DCC sound?

Inspiring work Chris - how about a small, cheap MP3 speaker with whatever err 'sounds' you wish to put on it?

 

What sort of cr@p details are you planning to include?

 

Atvb,

 

CME

[chaz]

I have compiled a gallery of photos on RMWeb depicting the Cwm Bach story without the commentary. It can be found here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3798-cwm-bach-by-chris-klein/

 

Regards,

 

Chris

 

Very nice indeed. Loved the slideshow.

 

The Gallery feature is an excellent facility - given that the photos have already been compressed how much work is it to do this? I am quite tempted to do one for Dock Green...

 

Chaz

[81A Oldoak]

Very nice indeed. Loved the slideshow.

 

The Gallery feature is an excellent facility - given that the photos have already been compressed how much work is it to do this? I am quite tempted to do one for Dock Green...

 

Chaz

Chaz,

I spent about an hour and a half selecting and uploading the images in batches. I was probably quite inefficient, but I wanted get the photos in the right order. It will be easy to keep it up to date from now on.

 

Chris

[Derbys65]

Excellent as always Chris , need to get my stuff uploaded , building too many things at moment

[81A Oldoak]

Excellent as always Chris , need to get my stuff uploaded , building too many things at moment

RMWeb is a by-product that should not intefere with actual modelling. When I started I thought I had to post every day to stay on page one, but I'm more relaxed nowadays and have even allowed Cwm Bach to slip to page 3 or 4 on occasions.

[chaz]

RMWeb is a by-product that should not intefere with actual modelling.

 

Quite right, but I use RMweb as a motivator. Posting "look what I did" entries in the evening, or early the following morning, does help get me making more progress, but the tail (tale?) should not wag the dog.

Chaz

[railwayrod]

Hi Chris.

 

I too have become more relaxed over the matter of letting The Ramchester Chronicles slip to page 2 or 3. Like you at first I wanted it to stay on page 1 but it does become a bit of a chore especially if you have little to say. I also agree with Chaz that the RMweb does often provide the impetus to keep modelling. This is particularly true if the thread in question has a good following as people want to know what is happening.

 

Rod 

[CME and Bottlewasher]

RMWeb is a by-product that should not intefere with actual modelling. When I started I thought I had to post every day to stay on page one, but I'm more relaxed nowadays and have even allowed Cwm Bach to slip to page 3 or 4 on occasions.

 

 

Quite right, but I use RMweb as a motivator. Posting "look what I did" entries in the evening, or early the following morning, does help get me making more progress, but the tail (tale?) should not wag the dog.

Chaz

 

 

Hi Chris.

 

I too have become more relaxed over the matter of letting The Ramchester Chronicles slip to page 2 or 3. Like you at first I wanted it to stay on page 1 but it does become a bit of a chore especially if you have little to say. I also agree with Chaz that the RMweb does often provide the impetus to keep modelling. This is particularly true if the thread in question has a good following as people want to know what is happening.

 

Rod 

I agree with all that you say fellas, RMW inspires and motivates and yet shouldnt dictate, I view it like a virtual model-railway club and therefore its a one evening a week type thing (albeit a few minutes every other day spread over a fortnight), yet it shouldnt take over from the pleasure of model-making, Re being at the top table/page one, I gave up worrying about that sort of thing a long time back - bigger fish to fry.

 

Keep up the good work all!

 

Kindest,

 

CME