Collett

Very very very nice indeed. 1899 is listed in Russel as built in 1895, Lot 98. J.W.P. Rowledge's GWR Locomotive Allocations 1922-67 is a little more specific dating her as built in August '95 - so she's most likely a Leo, or possibly a Virgo. Rowledge lists her as allocated to Bristol in 1922 with final shed Taunton, so Farthing in 1919 seems entirely reasonable. She never made it into BR ownership being withdrawn in January 1945. Regarding the 'Great Western' insignia, I see on the Brassmaster's site that Lee Marsh's 7mm model of 1854 Class number 1888 (built Jan 1891, Lot 83, Aberdare shed in 1922) is not only sporting a 'Great Western' insignia but a garter crest along with a polished Dome and copper capped chimney. And very smart she looks too. Similarly, and back in the 304.8mm/ft scale, 850 Class 2012 is shown with 'Great Western and garter crest when posing with her shiny new pannier tanks in August 1910. Can't tell whether the dome is au naturale. I also mourn the loss of Eileen's Emporium having spent a few bob (but obviously not enough) with them over the years.... I can only recommend we all do what we can to support the suppliers such as Brassmasters, Alan Gibson Workshop and Wizard Models (to name but three) who stock and sell the numerous bits and bobs that make our hobby what it is. And a Happy New Year to all.

Looks as though someone's about to reach their century - a round of applause for Mikkel from the pavilion seems in order.

"There's a seaside resort called Blackpool, that's noted for fresh air and fun Where mister and missus Ramsbottom, went with young Albert their son. They didn’t think much to the ocean, the waves they was fiddlin’ and small There was no wrecks, and nobody drownded, in fact nothing to laugh at at all." I think it was around 1968 when a birthday party recitation of that song/poem/monologue earnt me a ten bob note. A measly 50p now it was untold riches to an eight year old back then when fruit salad chews were four for a penny (pre-decimalisation of course). Of course not forgetting Mr Holloway's splendid performance in 'The Titfield Thunderbolt', just to pull things back to a railways based theme. Lovely scratch-building, excellent work Sir.

Didn't anybody there know how to work a horse? They did a lot of the shunting back then. Or did the horses go out on strike as well? Merry Christmas everyone from Tier 3 Leicester.

Guitar manufacturers still use a colour called 'TV Yellow'. As with the cars and the white coats anything white in shot on the old black & white television cameras would 'burn out' the picture due to over exposure. Most of the well known electric guitar shapes, Fender Telecaster, Stratocaster, Gibson Les Paul and the Les Paul Junior were designed in the late forties and early fifties, so white guitars on ;Ready, Steady, Go' and similar shows had to be swapped for 'TV Yellow'.

Of a sort, yes, but I appear to have fallen down an Arduino shaped rabbit hole at the moment as I try to build an accurate UV exposure unit. “Though this be madness, yet there is method in't.” once said a Prince of Denmark, with a slightly West Riding accent. Window frames and wot-not are just the start, how else can I get a W3 cattle wagon with an 8'6" wheelbase or an open cab and bunker for the SE Finecast Class 517 kit?

Perhaps after first neutralising with Sodium Carbonate (washing soda)? That's the chemical used to develop the photo resist film that I'm currently experimenting with. Apparently it's the copper that is captured by the FC from the brass that's the nasty bit. I have a nice friendly recycling centre not too far from here so I will check in with them first. Entombed in plaster I imagine the copper would be relatively safe, but could still leach out if put into landfill. First very crude attempts with photo resist film didn't come out too badly, using a repurposed UV nail varnish drier, but the timing was rather hit and miss - mostly miss. The thinnest highlighted blue lines are 0.25mm so it shows promise. Fortunately all the blue resist will wash off with some Acetone and the brass can be used again (and again) until the results are satisfactory. Currently converting a picture scanner into a UV exposure bed controlled by an Arduino to get accurate time exposures and consistent exposure across the sheet.

Many thanks for the pointer to QCAD, I haven't come across the name before and having read through the spec sheet it appears to be more Engineering Drawing based than Inkscape which may be better suited to the drawings necessary for model making. I consider that Inkscape is primarily a Graphic Artist's tool, but has much better control over Vector Node positions and features such as guide lines than the drawing software that comes with the Silhouette cutter. Inkscape can get you started using vector drafting software but it has its drawbacks, as with any other tool, and the Online User Manual is pretty useless. One thing in its favour is a large number of online tutorials and it isn't a mountainous learning curve like I found Fusion 360 to be. The other software I am starting to learn at the moment is FreeCAD, which seems to be structured much like Fusion 360 for 3D design, my interest is mainly due to the recent changes announced for the Fusion 360 'hobby' license users. I'm going to download QCAD and see how well I can get on with it. This is my fret design for the windows and door of the GWR weighbridge office at Winchcombe produced using Inkscape, also the 'blueprint' for the building, Inkscape again. The main front window was a Yorkshire Sash arrangement, the side windows sliding behind the centre window allowing the Weighbridge Operator to serve the carriers through the window.

I agree that photo resist UV sensitive film remains the principal method of getting the fret design on to the brass sheet. However, things are moving in new directions and the pre-film techniques are still available but with the advantages of CNC tools with which to utilise them. Our cousins in the electronics hobby have been working on DIY printed Circuit Board production for years and can certainly show us much regarding etching techniques. The latest transfer method I have seen concerns use of UV sensitive liquid resin used in 3D printing - a thin layer of resin is applied to the sheet and exposed to UV using the LCD/UV screen from a 3D printer. After exposure the surplus (unexposed resin) is washed off leaving an etch resistant mask on the surface of the metal. As these LCD screens are limited as to size then the size of brass sheet would be restricted. Further - while still using UV sensitive film, a low power 405nm laser attached to a CNC frame, such as a desktop 3D printer, can be used to draw the design directly onto the photo-etch resist film giving a level of granular detail that is quite mind-blowing. An engraving laser (stronger than the 405nm laser) can be used to remove paint (or other etch resist) from a brass sheet, similarly a normal metal engraving tool can be used to scratch away the resist, suitable detail and accuracy can now be achieved with a low cost Chinese 3018 CNC machine or a 40W Chinese CO2 laser. StazOn spirit ink and Sharpie/Permanent Marker inks provide an etch resist on the metal surface - the fret image can be drawn directly onto the brass sheet (StazOn ink can be used in a lining pen) and the sheet etched once the ink has dried.

As chemical etching of brass is a 2D process then, to begin with, a vector image software such as Inkscape (open source - free to download and use) should be perfectly adequate. Inkscape permits files to be saved in a number of commercially recognised formats if a professional printed mask is required for transfer to photo-resist film. My initial attempts at home DIY brass etching have involved using a Silhouette cutter to produce a stencil mask on a 5 thou brass sheet that is then suspended, face down, in a Ferric Chloride/Citric Acid solution (see Edinburgh Etch). For a first attempt this has produced reasonably satisfactory results, although the Silhouette cutter has a definite limitation concerning the minimum width of features such as glazing bars, and the adhesive stencil/mask approach will also have a limit of circa 0.4mm, below which the mask could have limited adhesion to the brass and allow mordant to seep under the stencil. With fine features there's also the issue of the metal thickness to consider and the effect of cusping once the mordant has gone past the etch resist mask. Presently I am having some frustration concerning the transfer of artwork to the brass, either directly via toner transfer or as a negative mask to a photo-etch resist film. More experimentation required, but it appears that modern 'cheap' laser printers do not deposit as much toner on the paper as their predecessors, making the production of a UV opaque mask that much harder. I think I may need to enlist the services of professional printers as noted by Michael Edge (above) to overcome this particular hurdle and successfully transfer designs to a photo-etch resist film by exposure to UV light. An etch resistant mask is cut into stencil material pre-applied to the brass sheet (5thou) and weeded out prior to etching in an Ediburgh Etch - Ferric Chloride/Citric Acid mordant. The stencil has already been 'weeded' to remove the mask from areas to be etched. Freshly washed from the etching tank (a repurposed plastic take-away food container) - TIP: This is a single sided etch so a piece of transparent vinyl covers the back of the brass sheet to prevent etching on the reverse side. The sheet is suspended face down in the mordant, which better allows oxidation to clear from the etched areas. Using transparent vinyl/parcel tape allows you to see when the etch has broken through the sheet and avoid over etching. It also removes the need for tags to hold parts onto the fret - the backing vinyl holds the parts in the fret until released by soaking the fret in Acetone. Fairly satisfactory for a first attempt. The stencil seems to have slightly variable width of the glazing bars, I haven't measured them with a Vernier as I fear the jaws might just snip through - it is only 5 thou brass after all, but they are certainly <0.5mm.

I actually have some Shipton on Stour station building Silhouette files somewhere and cut out a lot of the paneling in 10thou plasticard. Then I put them away safely somewhere.... perhaps someday I will find them. The panels ended up rather like lace doilies. My plan was to paint before putting the layers together - so the Stone #3 frames would be clean and crisp over the top of the Stone #1 panels with the countless vertical laths. Rather than using solvent adhesive the intention was to use matt varnish to stick things together. That's still the plan. Shipston-on-Stour Station Building.Panels Print verion.svg

Looking for details on GWR timber station buildings I was reminded that Paul Karau's GREAT WESTERN BRANCHLINE TERMINI included a drawing of the original station building at Tetbury. As this was a line built by the GWR, opened 2nd December 1889 I feel confident in calling it a "GWR" building, although whether it was fabricated by GWR carpenters I couldn't say. Looking at the notes on the excellent www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr website regarding the wooden station at Stretton-on-Fosse "according to Messrs. Jenkins and Carpenter, was 'similar to others erected at various places throughout the GWR system during the 1880s'." Were these Swindon designed and built? Looking at the Paul Karau drawing it appears that the building consisted of four frame modules, 10ft wide by 12ft high: Type 1: Single Door in centre with side window - left hand Type 2: Double Windows in centre Type 3: Double Doors in centre Type 4: Toilets - ventilator grills in centre instead of windows There's also a panel as per Type 1 but with the window on the right hand. The one thing missing is a 'blind' panel (like the end panel) with no door or window. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to replace the windows in a Type 2 panel with planking. Anyway, a window or door-less panel would have been covered in poster hoardings so the detail is not material. The panels at the building ends are 14ft 4inch, at one end there is an entrance to the toilets with ventilation grill above and another ventilation grill set off centre to the right Tetbury Walls 1888 PDF File.pdf The road side of the building had six Type 2 panels and a toilet ventilator panel at the left hand end. Interestingly the photograph in GWBT shows an awning over both the platform and the road side (although narrower) with valancing all the way around. I have drawn up these panels in Inkscape V.1.0.1, hopefully the svg file I have attached is backwards compatible with previous versions. To those who don't have Inkscape, my apologies, but it's an invaluable free software and I highly recommend getting it. TETBURY 1888 - Front Back & Sides.svg While I have presented the building as per the Paul Karau drawing, each panel in the Inkscape file has been completed as a separate module, with frame and planking as separate objects in the drawings. Note - the Planking objects can be ungrouped down to the individual plank if required. It's therefore possible to rearrange the panels as you wish, although the top and bottom end nodes on the right of the frame would have to be moved 2mm to the right if needed for the right hand end of the building. As there was no roadside access to the building shown the drawing, a Type 3 panel with double doors could replace one of the six Type 2 panels, making a roadside entry to the booking hall. All the frames have been drawn 'left handed' with the principal 6inch upright on the left. All framing has been drawn with standardised 2mm (6inch) and 1.5mm (4.5inch) with 1mm transom timbers splitting doors and fanlights. I have printed off two copies of the pdf file with the intention of slicing them up and moving things around to suit my intended station building for Blandings Parva.

Thank you I understand about minimising the etched area, but the small panes in this case are 2.8x3.24mm, so a 1mm thick line would be fiddly to weed out and would only reduce the etched area by 1 sq mm. Not worth the trouble. As regards the larger holes, on the middle picture there are a couple of small rectangles of brass (I should have put them back in the holes for clarity), those are the centres of the 12.16x7.18mm holes where a 1mm inset was drawn reducing the etched area significantly. Using a backing sheet of vinyl holds the pieces in place, so no pieces float to the bottom of the tank and you don't have to half etch tabs to retain the pieces as you do with a double sided etch. It also stops the 5 thou brass becoming 2.5 thou brass which you really don't want.

I finally have an update on brass etching of windows, and the good news for Mikkel is that it involves a Silhouette portrait cutter. As Valerie Singleton used to say, you will also need... a Chinese Takeaway, a washing-up bowl, Ferric Chloride, Lemon Juice, hot water, garden wire and... some sticky backed plastic (vinyl). And of course some brass sheet, I've used 5 thou Albion Alloys from Antics. Degrease with Acetone (nail varnish remover) and sand the brass with a medium/fine grit paper circa 600 grit. Cover the brass with the vinyl and send it through the Silhouette to cut out those parts of the vinyl where you want the sheet to be etched, carefully weed out the panes and a border around the part. You don't need to leave tabs connecting the part to the sheet, this is single sided etching and you need to cover the back of the brass with a complete piece of vinyl, I would recommend this is transparent. You must make sure you thoroughly burnish the vinyl mask on to the brass, I used the glossy backing from the vinyl to protect the mask, but don't rub too hard or the brass will distort Eat the Chinese takeaway and wash out the plastic container. Put about two inches of warm water in the washing-up bowl - ideally it wants to be between 18 and 30 degrees C - one of those electronic aquarium thermometers is useful. Put the take-away container in the bottom and pour in about an inch of Ferric Chloride (diluted as necessary) and Citric Acid (Edinburgh Etch https://www.nontoxicprint.com/etchcopperandbrass.htm). With a piece of thick garden wire (plastic coated) bend a shape I can only describe as a Crank Shaft, this will be a handle to tape on the back of the brass sheet with transparent parcel tape. It should suspend the brass face down in the Ferric Chloride but not letting it touch the bottom. Agitate the brass in the solution by rocking it gently, lift it out occasionally to monitor progress. YOU MUST TAKE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS USING FERRIC CHLORIDE, EYE PROTECTION IS A MUST, RUBBER GLOVES ARE STRONGLY ADVISED. Work where a splash on your work surface is not a problem and likewise wear your gardening/decorating clothes - once Ferric Chloride gets on something it tends to stain it... forever. Ideally the solution would be agitated with a stream of air bubbles, but occasional rocking will also do, but be careful not to slosh the solution about YOU DO NOT WANT THIS STUFF IN YOUR EYE! BTW: You must not dispose of Ferric Chloride down the drain, it can be reused time and time again before it is exhausted. When that time comes it can usually be disposed at the local waste site that accepts used engine oil etc. Call your Council for details. Try to keep the water temperature (and therefore the solution) above 20 degrees C. Don't put too much water in the bowl, you don't want the container with the Ferric to float and possibly tip over. After about ten or fifteen minutes you should see that the Ferric is biting and the bare brass is indented and looks a deeper brown. After 30 minutes or so you might start to see the pattern coming through on the back of the sheet - this is why I recommend using transparent vinyl and sticking tape for the back. Keep gently agitating and watch the back, you don't want to over cook the brass or you might start to lose detail. When it appears fully 'cooked', remove from the solution and wash in clean water. As mentioned, you don't need tabs because the backing sheet will hold the pieces until you get to this next stage. Pop the sheet into a bath of Acetone and give the vinyl and tape a few moments to come free, then wash in water and carefully rub with a paper towel, hey-presto, your very own etched brass windows to your own design and dimensions. Cover the brass sheet with stencil vinyl and cut out the areas where you want the brass etched away. You could also cut out the stencil with a scalpel. Alternatively you can paint/draw the design onto the brass with a permanent marker (Sharpie) or Spirit Ink (StazOn). In fact there are many ways of getting the design onto the brass, check out YouTube for various options. There's an existing RMWEB article on this subject and CWJ makes reference to an excellent document by The Hollywood Foundry of Adelaide, South Australia who, sadly, are no longer on the web. I have a copy of at least part of that document and I'll see if there's some legal way I can get it put into RMWEB or Scalefour Society archives. Just located (11:00 04/10/2020) a link to the Hollywood Foundry documents - also note there's a thread/heading(?) opened 'Etching in 2mm - 2mm Finescale'. If something works at 2mm/foot it should certainly work at 4x the size in 4mm. The end result, a Silhouette cut pattern in brass. It may be possible to make the glazing bars thinner using other techniques, they're just a little under 0.5mm, but I daren't measure them in case the vernier jaws snipped through - it's only 5 thou brass after all. And finally, that all too revealing close-up after a quick coat of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer I hope folks have found this useful, interesting even. Remember, the chemicals involved can be harmful, but then so is a bottle of MekPak. Use common sense, keep this stuff away from pets and children, use eye protection and a pair of rubber gloves. Have fun.

Thanks for the pointer on the colour, coming to think of it "oxide" would be browner? Anyway it's a lovely colour. Ebay for Copper Craft - blimey I've just seen the prices! Trickle or torrent too rich for my taste.

Lovely wagons, that red oxide livery is much more appealing than the later grey. One thing puzzles me though. Where do you keep finding these Cooper Craft kits??? It has to be ages since they stopped supplying.. have you found a little time warp somewhere and keep popping back to buy more kits?

What an entirely bizarre and Pythonesque (or more likely Milliganesque) set of pictures. Even more intriguing is the explanatory text provided by Swindon Central Library - "A fantastic set of photographic images scanned from a set of extremely rare Ordnance Survey "Revison Point" books in our collection. Mostly from 1953 and 1954, these previously unseen and unpublished photographs have been of great interest to local historians and the subject of a fascinating talk by Andy Binks (Chair, The Swindon Society)." What? This provides no explanation whatsoever, what is the man with the pointer pointing at? And what is a "pipe nail"?

David, many thanks for that info. Being from the West Riding myself I can see that such a common sense arrangement would have originated oop North. Now fresh back from the yards at Winchcombe and Toddington on the GWRS https://www.gwsr.com/ I can report the following - 1: GWR 6 pane windows had panes 9.25" x 10.5" 2: The bricks on both sites were 9" x 3" x 4.375" (actually 8 15/16" x 3" x 4 3/8") 3: Mortar was sometimes thinner than the 3/8" based on the 10-12mm stated UK practice - horizontal layers (bed joints) between courses were found to be 3/8", but vertical (head joints) were 1/4" - Confirmed - on these brick dimensions only 1/4" header mortar would permit the centring requirements of English or Flemish Bond - an extra 1/8" would have your header bricks noticeably out of centre after more than 4 bricks or so. There were more details noted, but first I have to interpret my son's numerals and put things down on a drawing to make proper sense of them. My son noted the dimensions as I ran around quickly with the tape, shouting out numbers, and my dear wife sat in the car wondering what had become of her Bank Holiday Sunday drive in the Cotswolds. I was pleased to discover that my drawing of the Winchcombe weighbridge, based on counting bricks from several photographs, was only 3.52" out on width, 2.63" out on length and, amazingly, only about 1/4" out on height of the main walls. Frankly I don't think I'll be making any significant changes to the drawings. There appears to be another weighbridge building at Toddington, unfortunately inaccessible, which looks like a larger sister to that at Winchcombe. As a slight disappointment it appears that the actual weighbridge table at Winchcombe is a relatively modern' installation - '1945 - POOLEY' is cast on the plate. Nevertheless some interesting detail of the raised 'non-slip' (?) surface. See Henry Pooley & Son and W & T Avery on Wikipedia - I doubt that an earlier date for either company name would be considered unreasonable, and I would imagine these cast iron tables took a lot of punishment over years in service. Something I discovered at Toddington was what must rank as possibly the smallest signal box on the GWR - 95" x 63" with four (perhaps five, it was hard to see) levers inside. According to the info I have on the Tetbury signal box, that was 109" x 109", making Tetbury twice the size of this exampe on a square foot basis. I don't yet know whether it's an authentic building that's been rescued and relocated, but it should be just the job for my planned three turnout layout, working title 'Blandings Parva'. BTW: Tetbury is now happily serving as someone's garden man-cave - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316901/Railway-fanatic-dismantles-signal-box--transport-150-miles-rebuilt-garden.html),

Ian - really nice pictures, thank you. As Mikkel notes the 'standard'(?) arch topped window opening has not been used, and the use of a hipped roof rather than the usual open gable ends makes the building much squatter. But that standard three frame window is still in evidence, the centre frame standing forward so the other frames can slide behind. I can only surmise that this was a standard window set produced by one of the GWR's carpentry shops (No 12?) - I see from the STEAM GWR Museum https://www.steampicturelibrary.com/swindon-works/carriage-wagon-works/12-shop/ that they even had their own furniture made at Swindon. I hadn't expected that even the desks, tables and chairs were made 'in house' rather than bought in from specialist manufacturers.

You can say that again. Since so many railway buildings (and the surrounding architecture) were built of brick then some understanding of the mechanics of brickwork has to be useful. The human eye is attuned to looking for and seeing patterns, and brickwork certainly comes into that category.

Blimey, looks like stone mullions on those South Lambeth windows, very posh. I take it this is the two weighing machines office, (one either side of the building) at the South Lambeth Goods Depot site, so a different thing altogether to its poor country cousin at Winchcombe. I'd be interested to know the date of the South Lambeth site, rails in that area were London Chatham & Dover Rly on the 1892-1914 maps, the site with its corner facing Ceylon Street being filtration beds and a reservoir https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=51.48063&lon=-0.14298&layers=168&b=1 later https://maps.nls.uk/view/102903175#zoom=5&lat=5535&lon=3643&layers=BT Also I see it's Flemish bond on the South Lambeth Goods Depot brickwork.

Standard mortar between bricks is 10mm +/-3mm, 3/8" in old money which is 0.125mm at 4mm/ft or 0.005". Black mortar would have been lime or Portland Cement mixed with ash, which was free and plentiful to the railways. Sand cost money to dig and transport I have finished my English Bond brick paper for the main wall sections of the Winchcombe weighbridge. The problem is the Queen bricks that provide the correct spacing of the Headers once the row has turned the corner and goes from Stretcher face to Header. While Inkscape is great for sticking node to node as a vector diagram, it does mean that each brick (or rather the mortar on two sides of each brick) consists of 6 data points and the lines between them, so each time a 'brick' is duplicated or copied those 6 data points have to be recalculated - quite a lot of computing which makes it a slow job. I believe GIMP may be better suited, but that's another piece of software to learn. Etching has been problematic. Trying to use UV sensitive photo etch resist which involves a number of factors any one of which can impact on the result. So, I have just taken delivery of some etch resistant ink - StazOn, a fast drying solvent based ink, and I can theoretically paint/draw the etch resist straight onto the brass with a lining pen and brush. The alternative is to get a hi-res mono laser printer - tempting but a bottle of StazOn is 1/20th the price.

Excellent picture Tim, many thanks. I think I need to revisit the height of the chimney though, it appears I may have one or two courses too many?

Just to clarify - these dimensions have been based on some assumptions, such as brick sizes and thickness of window frames, and these assumptions have been applied to photographs of the Winchcombe building along with some logical 'short cuts' to make a working drawing and, hopefully, a build-able project. For example - building width is taken as 15 bricks + 14 mortar dividers, now I can see there are two columns of bricks, one beneath the 'P' of the 'No Parking' sign and another to the side of the drain pipe where cut stretcher bricks have been used - a full stretcher should span two headers and mortar, so my building width is going to be a little out. Then again, on the headers row there also appear to be some larger bricks used. It has been noted that the Winchcombe building seems quite a bit smaller than Leckhampton, which I measure at 52mm against the 45.5mm noted above. In brief, it seems unlikely that the etches would fit the kits Mikkel and Brinkly are building. Could I therefore recommend that a Lining Pen is used with enamel paint to draw the glazing bars on to acetate sheet that is then fixed to the outer framing of the window. Using enamel would give some depth to the lines, and would allow a line thinner than etched brass can easily achieve. Looking at Tim V's photograph's above I would doubt those glazing bars in the 9 pane window are much more than 1/2" to 5/8" wide, so that's 0.167mm to 0.208mm at 4mm/ft.