A4CML

On 08/07/2019 at 13:43, PaulRhB said:

Look great, with the decals could you get some Solvaset under them? Damp them down and prick them in a few places so it can get thru underneath and snuggle them down? Just looks like air underneath so probably they are a bit old and stiff. 

Thanks Paul. I did use Microsol/ Microset at the time frustratingly. I'm still wondering if the surface wasn't gloss enough. 

On 08/07/2019 at 13:37, JimFin said:

Look superb in my opinion - its a fascinating period with the rapid switch to hydro power and motive power developments. I have a lovely Ferro Suise / Joe Works G4/5 that would compliment them beautifully - but waiting for a new valve link to be etched, they are VERY fragile, fractured in the middle of the crankpin hole.

Thanks Jim, as I said really enjoyed building them and they pushed my painting abilities. I seem to have acquired another FS set so may be able to juggle the supplied numbers to make an A10 and B2062 ( or B262 for pre 1911 to more properly match my era) if I did a bit of cutting and shutting. Not quite sure what to do with the van D 4052 as it was a later 1928 build so not quite in my era. 

Yes a very interesting period even during steam when the RhB was rapidly expanding and consequently learning the limitations of it's motive power. Unfortunately I'm not a big lover of catenary but do find the early electric locos to have a certain archaic beauty, 

I have to say I'm a little envious of your FS G4/5, I may be tempted one day. I do hope the repair goes well!  

12 hours ago, JimFin said:

You could try "Metre Gauge Railways in South and East Switzerland" by John Marshall - it was a 1974 print  but still fairly easily available via Amazon and other places.

Can recommend this too.

Pt 2

Some more lovely brass castings for the bogies.  They are screwed together - you can just see the screw heads on the middle bearer, and also from underneath on the end bearers. There is also just enough room to solder on the brake blocks.

They were painted assembled then carefully reassembled with the wheels put in.

Test fit of the bogies.

The end platforms are a separate set of etches and brass castings, a bit of  a fiddle to get together with the lifting foot step over the coupling. This would probably been a bit clearer with photos before painting but can't go back now. Very delicate when exposed without the roof on!

As I'm in the mood for posting a few things on RMWeb at the moment I thought I'd share this with you good folks. 

I'm not sure what started this but I ended up with a Weinert DR gepackwagen kit. I enjoy building brass kits and was between projects so as I perused ebay one evening I spotted this kit. It's a bit of a leap into the dark subject wise - I've always had an admiring eye for the big tank engines on the HSB but have little real knowledge. So a bit of a learning curve especially with german instructions.

All the parts are cleanly etched. The main body is ready folded so saved some time. The ends were added, the inset side doors and a few outside details which soldered well after a bit of a clean up followed by a coat of Halfords primer.

The instructions (good old google translate!) recommended gluing the whitemetal underframe to the floor but I decided to solder it. It is quite flimsy and needed quite a lot of gentle straightening before I was happy. There are some lovely brass castings for the end steps and brake detail which were also soldered on with some guesstimated pull rods. What google didn't tell me was I'd put the floor on upside down. In my ignorance I thought the etched-on wooden planking should upwards. I only realised this  when I came to attach the body when some screw holes didn't line up. The planking can't be seen unless you turn the model upside down - oh well, needless to say I decided not to unsolder it all. The underframe was then primed and painted black.

So as promised some photos of the finished articles, A1102, B2060 and F4052 - couldn't resist adding Preiser people. Can't seem to find anymore of these 1913 passengers unfortunately .

The photo below shows a comparison with the Ferro Suisse factory built B2061 which I was trying to match, I think I'm 95% happy. My version has a slightly yellower tinge to the green I think but I can live with that. One problem I had was the decals didn't attach 'invisibly' . I'm not sure if they are a bit old (40 years) or maybe the surface wasn't glossy enough. Of course FS managed it perfectly......

The FS B2061 is lightly weathered mostly noticeable on the roof, will have to get some passengers in it.

Looking at these photos again that reminds that the rail (Tillig code 80) looks quite chunky, not really sure early RhB track would have such a big section, may have to experiment with code 60?  I'm not entirely convinced by the Bemo type couplings either. Something else to think about. 

And for those who like underneaths.

And the complete rake look quite nice together, might have to double head on any sort of incline as they have some weight to them!

All in all I really enjoyed building these coaches and am getting to grips with my chosen era of the early RhB given I've only recently got hooked on it. I realise this is basically a historic rake so may not fit in entirely but I can run a historic service can't I ? 

Apologies for the tardiness of the reply Jim, I'm a bit of an erratic visitor to visiting and posting on RMweb. I had a trip to Switzerland at the beginning of March which confused things abit. There was also a EM gauge job to do and a Weinert HOm DR Gepackwagen kit wormhole I started to disappear into …..

Yes, I did contact Thomas earlier in the build and he gave me some advice re colours, essentially he mixes his own shade which appears to be more of a slightly darker blue green.

To complicate things a little more I acquired a Ferro Suisse B2 2061 on which the colour did appear to be close to Precision BR loco green so I determined to use that for matching consistency on these models as they will more than likely run together. My own attempts to mix a suitable green left me dissatisfied but more recently I have used  a 50:50 mix of BR green and Humbrol 88 Deck Green on a scratch built F series Gepackwagen body which I'm happy with.

So the built coaches are seen below before painting and very enjoyable it was too. Lots of lovely brass to solder!

A 1102

B 2060

D 4052

A 1102 interior

The interiors are etched brass too and another deviation I made was to cast the seats in 1102 in resin, the originals were whitemetal so would have made the finished coach very heavy.

Those handrails are attached to the platform ends and hence very vunerable. 

I have some pictures of them painted but not great quality.

Quote

You should have a look at Thomas Kestenholz's site

I cannot recommend Thomas's site enough, personally a great inspiration for steam era RhB.

Chris

20 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I greatly enjoyed this year's show, as I have every year I've been; as always nothing but top quality layouts on display. I'm very lucky to have such a show taking place only 15 minutes' drive away. 

 

I spent several hours at the show on Saturday and went back for an hour or so this afternoon, primarily to spend longer watching Hope-under-Dinmore. This was probably a mistake. There's some wonderful stock on the layout - I particularly appreciated the 3-cylinder compounds - a Greater Britain and, my favourite, a Class A 0-8-0. There's plenty of goods train action but I'm afraid that's where, after a while, a hint of dissatisfaction set in. I was reminded of the remark made by a non-modeller but ex-spotter friend of mine after we'd spent some time watching Keir Hardy's Wibbenshaw at RailEx a few years ago: "not enough 47s". He said he'd love to have been spotting at a location with such a variety of diesel classes but it simply didn't reflect reality. Now I'm a bit of a pre-grouping goods wagon enthusiast so am climbing on my hobby-horse here but modelling early 20th century wagons has made me try to find out more about how they were used and to look at what was typical. What I've come to understand is, that before the Great War, there should be very few "foreigners" and very few "specials"; apart from private owner coal wagons, the scene should be dominated by the standard open wagons of the operating company. Around 1905 over 70% of Great Western wagons were standard opens of various vintages, well over half of which were 4-plank wagons; I haven't worked out proportions for the LNWR but D1 1-plank wagons, D2 2-plank wagons, and D4/D9 4-plank wagons constituted a high proportion of the stock. Vans of any sort should be very much in the minority - no more than 10%. And lots of those opens should have sheets on them - don't waste scarce funds on fancy wagon loads when an amorphous lump of wood will do just as well.

 

I can perfectly understand that on a group layout using stock from various members, what is run will reflect the preferences of the individual members. But since such effort has gone into creating a layout full of such well-researched period detail, wouldn't some evenings spent building a few dozen GWR and LNWR open wagons just be worth it for that extra touch of realism? Now, I admit that a key kit here - the Coopercraft O5, that can, by building it with conventional rather than Dean-Churchward brakes, represent the 24,000+ earlier 4-plank wagons, is out of production, so some Ebay patience is also needed, but the LNWR wagons are readily available. 

 

Although I'm an adherent of the cult of the ordinary, I do enjoy whimsy - this year in the form of a red-painted Cambrian cattle wagon with suitably smoking livestock. 

This one? Took my eye too

At Filisur 1.3.19 with tail traffic

I couldn't upload anymore pictures for some reason. Second attempt here goes

Given the kits are probably 30 or so years old they are still quality with some lovely detail parts. A good start was made with all the parts fitting nicely on the whole.

I started with the van as it was slightly simpler having no interior seats to build. I diverged from the instructions slightly by adding some door bumpers on the exterior. I also made the roof removable by adding a cross bearer and adding  2 nuts to the roof for retention by added screws which may be just visible below. This was to aid painting. In hindsight I wish I'd made the doors slide too.

The above also shows the underframe with the various details added. The steps are lost-wax castings and took a bit of patience to fit nicely. There's no end handrails yet as they attach to the ends and were very delicate. One axle has a rocking beam for some degree of axle compensation.

Now with the handrails added and end couplings and brake handle attached making sure the body is round the correct way. [Yes I did get it wrong on another coach! :( ] I added the centre buffer after painting.

Pretty much complete now bar wheels and buffers. I also added some retainers on the inside ends of the roof to support the very flimsy vertical handrails. I just love those brass hose and coupling castings . Although not shown in these photos, I later added some separate gutters from brass wire as I wasn't happy with the etched line along the edge. It also gave a better apparent fit between the roof and the body side.

Evening all,

So, I'm a little further down the road with regard to RhB coach kits in HOm. Last year I acquired a Ferro Suisse 3 coach kit pack for some coaches which are part of the RhBs Historic Collection which run from time to time on special runs on the system. I started building these some time before Christmas and thought I'd share a few photos of their construction. I found a few pictures to help with the build.

I started on this baggage van first. This appears to be a picture of the van in the time period the kit is based on. 

I believe this is the same van after a rebuild, note the rounded windows and longer body and underframe - essentially the same as the Bemo model and how it is in use today as a Bar.

Can't promise there will be a Routemaster on Milton Quays at the MKMRS Exhibition but the Station Hotel has it's own bus service 

Hi Jim, it will be great to see how you built this, it's very much up my street being interested in the RhB of this era ie steam locos and no catenary. I've been thinking of building a layout something along these lines recently. It would have to fit in the back of my estate car for transport so approx. 3' x 5', although due to a growing collection  I'm guessing it will have to be a bit bigger now so maybe double that! I'll be interested to get any tips on track and scenery etc,

Regards, Chris

They are Busch Schnee Tannen 6466

Loving this thread Very inspirational as I've 'accidentally ordered' a Kato Glacier Express set and might need something to run it on so has got the old brain juices going. I had a trip to Switzerland in February so wanted a little reminder. Can I ask where you got the trees or did I miss that?

Thanks for the info chaps,

Chris

Hi all,

I've recently become more seriously interested in the RhB, in fact I've started building a coach kit.

My primary interest is RhB pre-electrification, ie steam era early 1900s. I've acquired a few items and judging by rtr models the green used on coaches, baggage vans etc seems close to (bizarrely) BR Loco green. Anyone out there have a closer or more definitive idea for a colour match, preferably out of the tin for consistency?

Regards,

Chris

Hi John,

I've been following this thread with interest and admiration for the quality of modelling so much so I've been encouraged to dig out a few of my own older 16t models and try a bit of weathering etc. These are a good few years old now and of various vintages. You were talking about the missing lip at the bottom of the Airfix body and I'm attaching a few pictures including a Trix body I added to an etched Chivers chassis (on the right) which appears to have this lip moulded on. The original chassis was ditched as it was quite crude although it had metal wheels and would roll for miles! I always thought the Trix body was a little more refined than the Airfix but was not without it's problems (see second picture) and was probably why I decided to re-chassis it. I think finding more bodies would be like finding hens teeth!

The wagon on the left is an ERG kit mounted on a Parkside chassis I think. Looks like the brake gear needs repairing.

As I said the Trix body isn't perfect as you can see with the end on picture where it looks like the end door is quite narrow compared to the Airfix. The overall body dimensions look to be exactly the same though. ERG left, Trix middle and Aifix right.

I suppose one could graft another end on but I suspect it will stay as it is and only be viewed side on in a train! There are a few other problems with the various models of my own doing but my excuse is I was young! Now where are those other Airfix kits .....

Regards, Chris

Just caught up with this thread. I've often thought on my occasional visits to Barmouth that it would make a great subject for a diorama or layout. Congratulations on pressing on and making it a reality. The bridge looks great and with a few boats (and the occasional dolphin!) dotted about the scene will come to life in my mind at least.

Lovely work George, I'm a fan of the B4's too so much so that your thread has encouraged me to get mine finished.

Unlike yours, it's 4mm/EM and built from some parts I bought on e-bay as I wasn't aware of an available etched kit. I've had the wheels for years thinking I would have to scratchbuild one too one day.

It needs a few more bits and pieces and weathering to finish it off yet but had a trial run out as EXPO EM in May.

I had a few clearance issues with the crosshead etc so whilst it was in the 'shop' for rectificaton I took a few pics.

Here's the workings

I've used a High Level 108:1 gearbox and Mashima

The next project is on the go now too!

I'm loving the look of the trackwork too, just the sort of challenge I would enjoy as well. Looking forward to seeing a trackplan and also some more info about the Ilfracombe end. Good stuff!

I think it would be the wife swearing if she caught me doing this on a ceramic hob!

Probably!! Cant do any more harm than a solid saucepan 'tho!

Thanks Kenton

 

Am I right in thinking 0.3mm is roughly 10 thou.Don't want too thick as I don't really have facilities for annealing brass (no gas flame or blowtorch) so just something that will roll nicely without being so thin it creases.Or is there another way of annealing brass?

Hi Guys.

Before now I have annealed brass (and nickel silver) by using the flat hob on my electric cooker. This seems by chance to heat it to the correct temperature when on on full. I then allow it to cool naturally in air. As the sheet is thin, this does not take vey long. One point I would make is that it's an advantage to leave brass half hard on occasions as it is less likely to deform under pressure ie fingers.