ChrisN

13 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

But has it? 6-7 is the Little Italy Restaurant and Vespa Italian Restaurant is at 9a. In between is an anonymous doorway, which on some versions of Google street view is a heavily panelled black door, with a circular shuttered opening protected by a metal grille. Is that 9 or 9b or is it the mysterious no 8?

All in London gives Little Italy's address as 6-8 but the their own website gives 6-7. All in London suggests another 'nearby' restaurant as Il Padrone at 6-7 Irving Street! 

If you Google '8 Irving Street Leicester Square' it comes up with Wox Takeaway, which is not there now.  If you go to street view it is not there, but if you go back to 2012, it is to the left of that doorway.

Yes, Green Sreet is now Irving Street, and No 8 has been subsumed into the Restaurant next door.

Things have been happening, although of course as usual, not very fast.  

I am not going to mention the point wiring, as although in theory it is finished only 4 out of 12 points work, and another 3 just buzz.  I will have to work through the switch end, but it will be a slow process, so I will do it when I have nothing else to do, or feel like a change.

Oh dear, the coach has measles!  No, not really.  These are four laminates, and they were done in two sets of two.  I am using @uax6's method, and he suggested to stop the build up of volatiles from the solvent, that the outer two layers should have holes drilled to let them out.  The first two layers of the end are under glass.

This is of course just a side project, so I have been getting on with the station building.  ( I am trying to find an excuse to start painting, horses, vehicles, people, coaches........)

Every picture is worth a thousand words, except this one.  One thing I need to do better on the next building is to make sure that the sides of the roof do not butt and leave a V between them, as below:-

To fix that I took some of my stash of coffee stirrers and slit them into square strips and and then glued them into the gap.  The top picture shows that.

I then went to my local builder, Weetabix.  (Those who do not get British TV, Weetabix is a breakfast cereal, and they used to have an advertising slogan, 'Weetabix the builder.')  Now @westerhamstation uses the corners from these boxes for gutters, but I am not convinced, but, the other way round they have a nice ridge, so I thought they would be perfect for ridge tiles.  They were measured and cut.  Measured carefully, cut carefully, and as individual tiles it is not quite true to say they everyone was different, but it seemed like it.  When a number had been glued down with PVA I took my metal rule and paper knife and leveled them off.

And in close up.

I wondered why I did not just score them deeply but not cut through, so I would have a strip.  The porch was done like that.

It looks a bit cleaner, with an add on at the far end.  You notice that the slates are beginning to bubble a bit.  I am not sure what I am going to do about that.

Barge boards.  I took some thick card and measured the roof end, and drew it out on a corner of thick card.  Fortuitously the roof sides meet at 90 degrees.    The depth of the barge boards is 5mm.  I offered it up and found out that the two sides were different lengths.  (Yes, I had forgotten.)  I remeasured, redrew and this is what it looked like.  

One end.

And the other.

They have since been shellacked, boards have been made for the front and the finials prepared, but that is for another time.

If you have been, thanks for looking.

7 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Thanks, they are showing for me, both in my original post and your reply.

Can anyone else see them?

Nick,

Fine for me, and have been from last night.

17 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

 

Depends on what you are buying. Here is a E48 brake compo. It is how the B sets were born as certain divisions coupled them in pairs and Paddington developed the idea further.

Roof, sides, ends, droplights, look outs, floor and solebars. Major bonus on all the roof sections is the rainstrips etched in. Door hinge holes etched through. Note all this is flat and you will have to form tumblehomes etc. Slot and tab underframe makes assembly easier. This was a request from David Geen and myself. Even other kit producers use him.

 

 

 

Here is a similar for the Dreadnought tea car - note the extra doors. No roof with this one. The truss rods are not appropriate to the Dreadnought but I asked Allen to include so I could add to Comet 70ft underframes for the correct four sets. This was a request from me from minimal information. Try finding this is the books but two of them existed.

 

 

Full clerestory bodies give you the parts to produce as here before any other parts were added. Of note, the clerestory roof is slot and tab with strengtheners and  rainstrips etched in. By far the simplest clerestory roof sections I have ever made. I do not have a close up but you should get the idea from the lower image. The underframe is assembled from the Worsley clerestory body parts etch. The castings v hanger, truss you have to add yourself. I used Hornby Deans on this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally there is the sides/ends etch to use on rtr. This is the D33, another request from Jason Brumby and myself. Allen even produces as this, as here, to fit the Hornby body, or a full body if you prefer. This coach had three phases in its' life and Allen produced all three including plated over panels for the final version based on an image I had supplied. What A guy.

He also produces the sides for C16 to fit the Hornby and make it look how it should for post 1910. Hornby used the original drawing and the original window layout did not last long. If you are new to this the C16 is a great starting point. I have a chap here who has just made one for the first time. He only used the sides and made a great job of it. Personally I use the ends as well.

 

 

Again, I must stress they are not marketed as kits but body parts. In addition the gauge of brass used is very strong (compared to some I have in stock only slightly thicker than paper-UGH).

Worsley works started as a cottage industry for the 3mm/TT market. The 4mm stuff came about as enough people asked him for 4mm versions.

 

GWR list here

 

http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/4mm/4mm_GWR.htm

 

Hope this helps

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

Thank you Mike,

That is a very comprehensive answer.  I model 1895 Cambrian so mostly I am interested in tri- composites, or actually tri composite brakes.  I have a side project, which is to build the 10:02 from Paddington to Birkenhead, which has a through coach to Barmouth Traeth Mawr, which would be a tri composite brake.  So very useful and it gives me much to think about.

4 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Good to see that you appear to be resolving the problems with the Silhouette, Chris.

Gives me some encouragement for cutting some coach sides myself.

Nick,

Of course once I have made a successful cut of a GWR prototype then I will upload them if you would like them.  Mind you, your layout is very modern so my stock might not be what you want.

16 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

 

My kit builds are in the hundreds now, only due to collecting the kits before I was in a position or skilled enough to make them. Shaggy dog story time!

 

First of all. I only really needed to make the coaches. My Dad was a master at loco building but had no interest in coaches, so we became a good team. I made the coaches - he made the locos to pull them, even If I did have to make several LMS and LNER trains for his varied tastes. I started making in my teens when Dad bought me a couple of Westdale shells, then a Mopok Hawksworth to cut my teeth on.

 

I tend to model complete trains based on photographs. When I moved to the North East I was lucky to find one of the Great Western in the 30's authors living local and my education really started and I was able to make up a plan with accurate train formations.

 

I did not model much, in my early 20's due to careers, house, car, wine women and song etc but I did start acquiring kits and bits. I was too late for the first run of Hayes but in trying to find them I discovered other ranges, such as Micro rail clerestories and Hammond. The to 'build pile' had begun. I was able to get most of the Tony Hammond sides and became obsessed with TPO trains due to the large range of TPO sides he produced enabling me to build the complete 1910 and 1934 trains.

 

I always new about the BSL range but, pre internet information relied on ads in mags. I had bought some from shows but was fairly ignorant about the range. When a friend started farming near Swindon, we had day off rail trips and ended up in Eames of Reading one day who had almost the entire range on the shelf. I bought the complete Torbay express over time and that was the first full train I built. As these with glue construction, I started making them at work lunch time, rather than going to the pub. A week of lunch drinks = 1xBSL money wise. I had an hour a day for over twenty years making BSL's at work. When my work colleagues got bored with mocking me, one of my finished artists kindly drew up the coach interiors (he also introduced bow pens to me) based on the old Peco ones, which I had printed up on card. More time saved and could be made up at lunch. I learnt a lot about light and shadows from the ads I was producing which highlighted how important, door hinges etc were, as your eye  picks up the shadow rather than the hinge itself. This is when my modelling really started. Finishing was advanced courtesy of my brother, being a motor mechanic, bringing a spray tin of Triumph honeysuckle home, asking 'is this the same as GW Cream?' He showed how important primer was and I have used car sprays ever since. When painted I used to line them at work with a discarded bow pen, which I am still using 40 years later. Owned a air brush for a short time but not for me.

 

The most coach bizarre link came when through work. It was still the days of letter press zinc blocks. I was at the processors one day and the chap etching the blocks for the ad being worked on, told me about a guy he made train bits for, when he worked in Birmingham using zinc blocks. He kindly made some calls and then the Trevor Charlton range (how many new of him?) expanded my toplight range significantly. Ironically my Dad knew and had worked with Trevor but the train connection was never made. My first Charlton was a H13 and no-one else has ever made it as far as know. This started a new obsession with dining cars- I  have built over 30 now. 58 diagrams - still a few to go. Example of Charlton zinc below-toplight D45.

 

Another milestone was moving jobs to Macclesfield and bumped into Derek Lawrence who lived not far from there. we had conversed before, at shows and I was invited to his workshop where he introduced me the the BSL range NOT listed including the entire GWR articulated train which he eventually sourced for me.

 

I have to give a very special mention for Allen Doherty of Worsley works. I would not have the variety of clerestories if it were not for him. My recent output increased significantly with his range of body etches (note not kits). Several in his list came about because I asked if he would consider producing with some drawn specifically to fit rtr bodies  speeding up building time -  Thanks Allen.

 

I am quite nocturnal and for decades I was able to model was done when everyone else had gone to bed. An hour or two a night and progress can be swift. Whilst exiled in Oz, I have all day to model and am turning out a coach week, without painting. For the first time, I am off plan as I keep coming across kits at very reasonable prices that I cannot resist. They have 'table sales' here and some real gems turn up.  then next one is July 30th, in Brisbane with nearly 70 booked tables, I am told, so the unbuilt pile might get bigger. Time to raid my wife's purse.....cash only at these doos.

 

So yes- I probably have loads

 

Mike Wiltshire

Mike, What an interesting story.  I tried modelling at lunch time but my staff thought I was skiving.

The Worsley Works etches for clerestories.  I have looked at his site but it is not clear what you get.  Could you explain please and what do you have to do to the chassis?  I intend to use my Silhouette cutter to make  coaches and I have an E25 in progress but I am under orders to do scenery but a quick aside never hurt anyone.  Honest guv.

Thank you and thank you Neal for my interruption.

7 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Good to see you've solved it Chris, whatever the problem was. The list of things that have affected my machine's cutting include:

 

Condition of glue on cutting mat (small slips), condition of cutting mat surface (from deep cuts), quality of blade, condition of blade, glue on blade (from touching mat), material dust on blade, fixing of blade (if not 100% firm), density of material (can vary even on same product), coating of material (from manufacturer), depth of material, material of material, temp. of material (left in sun), and a number of issues with the drawing.

 

Of course, the human hand has equally many issues, including how the day has been!

 

Mikkel,

Thank you.  I am not sure it has been solved but unless someone else wants a Cambrian Third Class Saloon built in 1860 and survived until the GWR spotted it, there is not going to be an issue.

Looking at your list of problems maybe I should just try getting my scalpel out.   😀

14 hours ago, Sasquatch said:

It's always worth trying different methods, that's how discoveries are made! Placing the glued-up parts under glass is a good idea especially when laminating thin plastic card. I've run into problems with that before whereby things warped and wasn't sure why.

These mishaps led to experimentation with different glues including slow set cyanoacrylate. That led to the discovery of using ordinary card instead of plastic because when that is laminated with the super glue it forms quite a ridged structure and there's no warping.

 

Wonderful modeling as always Chris with in-depth explanation.

 

Regards Shaun.

Shaun,

Thank you.  

Yes the reason that the laminates are under glass is to help alleviate warping.  In theory there are five layers and received wisdom is that it is less with an odd number of layers, but although I have cut five, there will probably be six as there are struts to hold the last layer at a distance from the other four..

Card on card seems interesting, maybe I could make coaches from that, if they will cut properly.  I understood that using shellac made card quite stiff as well  .I will experiment with super glue between card and plastic.  I am told a contact adhesive would work but you have to be careful about pressing on the plastic.  All my finish surfaces are embossed plastic so I probably could not go to card completely for buildings.

So today I thought I would try the easy option, that of cutting the side without the top of the window, which would mean cutting that myself, but at least I would be in control of that.  (Why not cut the whole thing yourself I hear you say- not now I have a cutter!)  I also found an old sheet that I had not cut, only scored, and it seemed to be perfect.  Well, marked out correctly but no where near cut through.  Also, the plasticard was in landscape, so I wondered if I had cut it with the sides vertical and not horizontal.  I doubt that I did, but I decided to cut two sets of sides, one horizontal without the top of the window and a complete vertical set.

Now being a good scientist, well a passable one anyway, I know that you should only change one thing at once.  Now @MikeOxon had queried if the plastic was slipping.  I thought not, but I checked the roller and although I think it was locked it was just a little off so might have been not tight enough.  I looked for fresh plasticard and found a sheet that said 10 on it.  (I mark all my sheets it makes it easier, honest.)  It seemed a little thick but I checked it against some known 10 thou and it seemed alright.

I set the printer to cut and it did not go quite through.  I thought that maybe it had only done one pass, but no, I had set it to two.  I checked the thickness again and it was thicker than 10 thou.  (Must have grown during cutting.)  I think it must be 15 thou.  I have only bought 15 thou for use by my wife and I thought that was all stored upstairs.  Never mind, I just had to carefully remove the windows and panels.  So how was it?

It worked!  These are the sides that were cut horizontally.  Not perfect, but at normal viewing distance.....

This is the one without the top of the windows cut.

I am a little disappointed, as I have not really found out what the problem was.  It could have been,

1) Due to being cut on thicker card

2) Due to my completely locking the roller

3) Being cut horizontally

I am leaning towards 1.

So, time for laminations.  Top two layers on each side laminated, and bottom two sides on each side laminated and all placed under glass for three days to hold them together and keep them flat.

They are in there.  The ladies of the Dolgelley Temperance Association are quite pleased and in lieu of actually sitting in it decided to sit on top and wait.

I have the impression this will be a quick build, but as soon as I thought that I took myself off and gave myself a good talking to, as there is always more to do than think.

If you have been, thanks for looking.

As you know I always see one project to its bitter end before starting another.  In the light of this I have not only been wiring up my points, (a few wires short of a signaller's picnic), and putting ridge tiles on the station building.  I had some time the other evening, a late evening so not the time for physical modelling, so I tackled the Cambrian Saloon Third.  If yon remember I had used standard Silhouette shapes which when it was cut, was a bit wobbly on the straight lines.  

What I had to do was break the shapes up so it meant between corners deleting the straight lines between them and redrawing them, so a shape has separate sides and round corners.  To do this I copied each type of shape then changed the colour of the shapes I was going to replace.  I modified the shapes I had copied and then pasted them back onto the diagram.  This way the new shapes are exactly on top of the old ones so everything is in the correct place.  I then selected the colour I had changed the original shapes to, and deleted them, leaving the modified diagram behind.  Today I cut it.

Mostly fine, much better than last time, except for the top row.

I have not bothered to cut out all the windows.  You would not believe that all the lines on the diagram are actually toughing, also we have some wobbles.  It is noticeable that the thin lines for the end panels are in fact alright.  Before trying to modify again I thought I would try cutting this again with just one pass rather than two.

One pass does not cut through.

Received wisdom is that thicknesses between lines of 0.5mm should be alright.  The lines between the windows and panels are 0.5mm or a little larger.  I obviously need to make this gap wider.  On my MSLR coaches the gap was about 1mm, so I will try and go towards that.  I can either,

1) move the panels up a bit but there is not much room,

2) narrow the panels but they are only about 2mm to start with, or

3) move the windows down, but that would mean moving them all in unison.

Fun times ahead, and remember, this is a late night occupation when other modelling is not happening.

In other news the G40 and E25 will need similar major modifications, and how the lights on the clerestory will cut I do not know.  Perhaps I will have to think of another way.  Perhaps I will have to cut the square lights by hand.

Thinks, if I do not cut the top of the windows, but did those afterwards by hand, would that work?  Umm.

If you have been, thanks for looking.

44 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Is this not putting the cart before the horse? Or the horse before the cart? Or something that expresses inappropriateness...

 

Surely first has to find the appropriately-sized cart for the job in hand, then looks for the right size of horse (or horses) to pull it?

Stephen,

It is a play on words as you probably realise, what should be read as Small 'Horse Cart', I have read as 'Small Horse' Cart.  Strange name anyway as I have seen them referred to as dung carts or farmers carts.

More horsey stories.  Inspired by this picture I bought these:-

Carts for small horses.  On the right is a Langley tumbril which will also find employment somewhere on the layout.  These were not very expensive and are made from card.

They give you double the amount of wheels and springs, and the springs are marked only on one side, so I assumed that you glued two together.  The instructions are quite good but do not tell you to do this, neither do they tell you that there are excess parts.  As it is card I started by using 'Tacky Glue' which I have used for card before but it gives no time for adjustments, so I went to PVA, which was mostly ok.

Fairly early on with the first one.

You can see the double springs.  I did wonder why they did not fir the whole designed for them.

I finally twigged when I realised there were 8 hubs and you only used 2 of them.

The second one is on the left, with single springs and single wheels.  

They are not particularly robust.

View from below.  The instructions say to glue the hubs on first, near the start of the build, but actually this can mean the hole in the wheel gets filled with glue and you have difficulty fixing the wheel on the axle.  Double wheel and springs are obvious, must use that one for heavy trunks.

I think, although not completely certain, that I have enough horse drawn vehicles now, and they will be finished off and painted at my leisure.  I just need to find enough horses, although I may need to cut some about for different poses.  I always wanted to be the first to model a nosebag, but @Mikkel beat me to it by several years.  (Not even a photo finish!)

If you have been, thanks for looking.

On a more serious note.  It would appear that the green is darker rather than lighter.  Also, who made the model?  Depending on who it was makes it more or less reliable.  There is a model of a Cambrian loco made by apprentices at Oswestry and it is painted in a black/green, or rather Invisible green.  I would think that they would know what the colour should be and possibly used works paints.  

I think as ever you will have to go with, 'the balance pf probabilities' and not 'beyond reasonable doubt'.

I would like to point out, unless you live in Homer's Springfield, radioactive vomit is the same colour as ordinary vomit.  No, don't ask.

18 hours ago, MrWolf said:

18 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

I've made a few more interior panels for the autocoach and the driver figure that was on back order from Modelu has arrived along with some other goodies for both locos and the layout, so I've begun painting those.

 

 

There may be some danger of catching up with @MAP66 on this project at last.

 

Or maybe not!!

 

 

Would not any self respecting engine driver at this time be wearing a shirt and tie?

I think Rapido need to be congratulated on this project, as not only is it moving the timescale back but there were thousands on PO wagon liveries and getting the ones that suit people must be a nightmare.  I model the Cambrian so I would need PO wagons from Mid and North Wales, plus collieries and coal factors from the Ruabon Wrexham area.  I also need single sided brakes but apparently either 5 or 7 planks.

Do any of the wagons on offer meet those criteria?  Sadly no, but why should they?  Does that mean that I will not be buying any?  No, of course not.  I think this initiative should be not only applauded but supported, so I shall see which collieries/ coal factors might have made it to Mid Wales without any photos being taken.  ( I shall talk to Mr Price my local coal merchant and see if he can help.)

On 29/06/2023 at 16:35, Compound2632 said:

There were plenty of builders building 16' 0" over headstocks 10 ton wagons in the 1890s.

I assume mostly 5 plank and single brakes though.

2 hours ago, brumtb said:

Thanks Chris, did you see the Cambrian loco?

Tony

Tony,

Yes I did thank you, but it is after my preiod.

If the 1907 RCH specs were the consolidation of good practise from previous years, and I am told that the POW Sides Charles Roberts wagons are fine for my period, if I find a suitable Rapido one with split spokes and single sided brakes, would it be alright for 1895 mid Wales?

44 minutes ago, brumtb said:

Thanks Neal, its not as bad as some (e.g. the 517) but still needs a fair bit of smoothing and probably a number of brass boiler fittings.

Tony

Tony,

Hope this build goes well.

It is an interesting web site, I had not come across them before.

We briefly discussed butchers on my thread, and how one had an archway to the back, probably to get to the same type of building as round the back of the one shown above.  Here is another butchers apparently taking a delivery, but once those animals find out what is happening it could possibly be mayhem.

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

No, both dimensions are out. 

Can you increase the print size by single percents?  You could try 105% and work from there.

1 hour ago, Edwardian said:

So here's the really odd thing.

 

I drew up the engine shed by hand and used this version as the template for the components.

 

Then I imported into GIMP for texturing.  

 

Now, it just so happened that I decided to make a change to the office front after I had textured it, replacing the card panel. This is why this section is in (B&W) texture, but it came out the correct size.

 

Similarly, I had no problems with the station building. Here there is an un-textured section, the Gentlemen's loo and Porter's Room. There was, again, no size discrepancy between the textured and un-textured parts.

 

 

Obviously I have checked and double checked the settings to ensure the cover layers for the engine shed is the right size. Whether I print at "actual size" or 100%, it makes no difference. Too small!

 

 

Before contemplating fiddling with the files, I thought I might as well try printing out at 101%. This came out too big!

 

I have tried 2 PCS, the printer driver of one of which had some button to disable an App, which resulted in it printing a bit larger, but still not full size. 

 

!

 

More head scratching to do.

 

 

 

Am I right in saying the height is correct, but it is too short?