Stringfingerling

Here's the new little loco making it's way up the steep gradient next to the standard gauge station. There's still quite a lot to do it; I have started adding some decal rivets, which is very fiddly but it does seem to work. Some are due to appear on the buffer beams (if that's what you call them when there are no buffers). The sound is from the 14xx simmering behind the autocoach. The little NG engine will stay silent as it runs on DC. I did notice that the Kerr Stuart engine on the Sittingbourne and Kemsley railway really is almost silent a lot of the time.

I used white decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper. The background colours are printed on the white paper and the painted parts of the model are matched by mixing Humbrol colours.. That's fairly easy for me to do, because I paint (pictures) and I'm used to mixing colours. The lining itself was drawn up on Adobe Illustrator CS2 (which is now very out of date - there may be much improved facilities in the current version of the software), and the basic shapes were defined as rectangles with rounded corners. I overlaid a series of such rectangles in the order Cream/ Black/ Cream/ Body colour , stepping down a bit in size each time if that makes sense to you I had to cut out a hole in the decal covering the saddle tank to allow for the water filler, ditto the lining on the back of the cab, which you can't see. There is a large circular hole there which I believe was used to help with loading coal; that made the decal very flimsy, but it has gone on ok. The decal paper has a bit of an "orange peel" finish but that might be due to the way I used the spray varnish as much as the paper itself. I think by the time the loco has been finished with a slightly more matte finish and some weathering has been added, the orange peel won't really show.

I've done a bit more on the little 0-4-0 ... if you haven't seen any of my previous posts it's based on a heavily chopped up Hornby "Smokey Joe" body. I wanted to use a livery which bore some connection with the Corris Railway, even though in my version of History the Corris "main line" would have been replaced by standard gauge. The idea is that my little loco is working one of the remnants of the lines feeding the "main" line with the products of the few remaining slate quarries north of Aberlefenni. The original livery of the Corris locos is open to some question, at least the exact shade, so I have plumped for something like Indian Red, though it will eventually be weathered fairly heavily so the exact shade is not that important. I have done lining by hand many years ago with a bow pen, and the result was reasonably good although it took me ages correcting blemishes; this time around I decided to take some short cuts and use computer decal printing paper. I created the artwork for the lining in Adobe Illustrator and printed the results, allowing spare pieces in case of mishaps. The first mishap was not using enough acrylic varnish - result the printer ink washed off as I soaked the decals.. Second time lucky with a bit more varnish and patience while the varnish dried properly. Having applied the decals I mixed up Humbrol colours to match the plain areas of the decals. Here's the result so far. The photograph is very much warts and all!

My little Kerr Stuartish 0-4-0 has now had a coat of primer, probably before it was really ready, but I couldn't hold myself back. It has enabled me to see the worst gaps and blemishes, which I'm now busily filling with Milliput. I used Halfords Etching primer and it does warn you not to use it in humid conditions; I did, and the result is a bit orange-peelish, but I'm not too concerned about that as it will get a rub down with very fine wet and dry paper before I go any further. For those of you who looked at my last posting, I've added very large sandboxes to both sides, they are pretty huge, but they successfully hide the motor. My reasoning is that the loco is built for very steep wet gradients round the quarry it serves, and gets through a lot of sand. I've also added a balance pipe (I think that's what they're called) between the two sides of the saddle tank, and I've deepened the front buffer beam so that its lower edge matches the height of the rear one. Corris No 4 does have something a bit similar. I have added some of the metal strapping holding the cab together, using .3 x Imm brass strip from Eileen's Emporium. Bits yet to be added include couplings, guard irons, sand pipes, brake blocks and rodding, lamp irons, cab steps. crew, the big pipe that runs back horizontally from the smoke box on the Corris locos (whatever it is - maybe someone can enlighten me ?), small pipework etc etc , some rivet decals and the computer printed decals with the lining and some areas of the livery. It's never going to bare very close inspection, but it has succeeded in capturing something of the look I wanted and it is very satisfying to operate, as it runs really well. Some of the running quality, I think, is because I have ballasted it heavily with pieces of old lead type.

Once again, that's very kind of you Mikkel. I will be happy to do this when I've got a bit further. I have felt a bit reluctant to do it in a blow-by-blow way, because I tend to go along making methods up as I go, and I don't claim any great knowledge of working with the materials I'm using, but I do think I've spotted one or two technical tricks which could be useful to other people.

The nice things about using a drawing programme like Illustrator include: 1) you can be incredibly accurate without needing 20/20 eyesight 2) the lines can be as thin as you like 3) you can copy, paste pieces or repeat them at will

This is what I use at the moment; they work a treat, and its easy enough to remove the remnants when the part is cut out: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BZ2YOYK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you very much Dickon. I used brass because I liked the idea of being able to show thin metal edges and in some ways I find it easier than plastic card . I drew up the parts in Adobe Illustrator and printed them onto sticky label paper which was then applied to the brass sheet . I find that quite a lot easier than trying to mark out brass directly .

Wenlock thank you so much for your encouragement. That's very kind of you and I shall be posting some more photos shortly . I think I've been reluctant to post photos before this stage because of my weird and wonderful building methods but the loco is definitely coming together now and I I really enjoy seeing it Trundle up and down .

I've been meddling with loco building. My loco building skills are pretty rudimentary but I did once (25 years ago, when my eyes were better) scratch build a compensated EM gauge chassis for my Hornby 4-4-0 County and it worked pretty well. Those of you have been kind enough to follow my scenic developments will know that my railway is set in Mid-Wales and there was always the intention of squeezing a bit of narrow gauge in somewhere. The track is now laid, using Peco 00 gauge track with the sleepers respaced to look more like the real thing. My intention is that the track and sleepers will be pretty much covered in weeds, soil, etc when it's finished, as the narrow gauge is line is meant to look run down. To test the track and the horrifically sharp radius curves used to get into the storage area I needed a loco, and having looked at my grandson's Hornby 0-4-0's decided that would be the way to go for dipping a toe in the loco building pond again. It occured to me that I could use the existing saddle tank, smoke box/smoke box saddle to create something like a 0-4-0 version of the Kerr Stuart 0-4-2 used on the Corris Railway and subsequently the Tallylyn. It's probably best to draw a veil over some of my methods for fear of giving palpitations to the extremely skilled loco builders that crop up here, but basically this is what Iv'e done: 1) Chopped away the Hornby cab and part of the saddle tank 2) Built a new cab, bunker, boiler saddle from brass 3) Extended the running plates with scrap NS etch pieces 4) Used a pair of cylinders from a narrow gauge loco kit (I decided the rest of the kit was really not going to cut the mustard) 5) Used slide bars from a Hornby loco spares supplier 6) Filled in the gaps between the spokes to look more like the wheels on Corris No3 (which I know wasn't a Kerr Stuart loco). If anyone is interested in the gory details I have taken plenty of photos along the way, but there are probably much better examples to follow than mine. Having said all that, it does run nicely, after a fair bit of pick-up twiddling, quartering checking, back to back checking etc etc. Many many thanks to micknich2003 who very kindly offered to make the brass spectacle frames for the cab and did them beautifully. The plan is use printable water slide decal paper to do the lining and so forth, which should be an interesting experiment, as I can easily create the artwork needed, but that will have to wait until quite a few more details have been added.

That looks very good - thanks

That is really kind of you - thank you very much indeed. Details coming to you via PM. Cheers, Rob

There are four of them; internal diameter fixed at 6.5mm, external diameter 8.3mm. The external diameter is not so critical as the internal, as the holes for the spectacles have already been drilled in the cab sheets.

Thanks - that sounds good to me. Another one to try if I've got some tube of the right size. Ìll give it a go thanks

That's interesting, I've never tried that. Generally I get round the "grabbing" problem by working my way up the drill sizes in very small steps.

Thanks for the suggestion; I did do this a long time ago on another model, and it worked reasonably well, but it looked like what it was to me - filed down wire, and I'm trying to nudge my meagre metal working skills forwards a bit

The sharpened pencil sounds like a useful tip; the problem for me is often figuring out a way to hold the work piece when a vise (vice?) doesn't quite do the trick.

Thank you - that sounds good. I suspect you mean 8 rather than 80cm for the length of the handle

Thanks for that, I expect you're right. I'll try it your way My methods are very homespun and untrained, though I usually get there in the end.

I've read Guy Williams descriptions of creating these with a lathe - I haven't got one though. My alternative plan is to turn a roughly cut out disc of brass mounted in a cutting disc mandrel in my drill on a drill stand, and dragged against a file ( yes, with eye protection!) - until it is truly circular and of the correct width. I would then solder this disc to a larger piece of brass temporarily to hold the piece while it is drilled out to the correct internal diameter, using the existing hole from the cutting disc mandrel as a pilot hole. Finally de- solder from the holding piece of brass and clean up. Observations welcome or alternative methods.

Thank you very much, that's very kind!

Thanks very much! Its a real pleasure doing the colours on the stone. I like to use artist's oil paints some of the time.