Jon4470

Hi Mick I have a couple of easily available photos. my A2 model ended up like this…(I know you should not model a model🙂) One of the missing photos was this.. apologies that it’s a poor quality photo I’ll have a dig around to see if I have any other photos….especially the B16. Jon

My offering for budget modelling is something that I played around with over the summer…. Bought at the York show for the princely sum of £3… This the old Triang brake van. I wondered if it was possible to make a representation of the NER V4 brake van. The result was this.. The dimensions were actually closest to the (unique) prototype of the V4, so that determined the running number. All meant as a bit of fun for just a few pounds.

For the front windows I used plastic sheet (Slaters I think). I attach the plastic using double sided tape (that stops me smudging glue all over the place🙂). I fitted two pieces- one for the two open toplights and one for the main windows. You can see this here For the opening toplights, I created two “tabs” with a horizontal score line at the top. These tabs are just under the width of the window and can then be pushed through. Like this Because the front is white metal, and therefore thick, I had to make the tabs over long to compensate…..,this version is my second attempt😀 For the main saloon I used the sheet supplied with the kit- this had curtains pre-printed on them. They don’t look too bad but they are a bit short!

Hi Chas Thanks for comments and interesting questions. I haven’t really thought too much about fixing the roof. The current situation comes about partly because I used to just follow the instructions and partly because of the fit of the parts in question (or my assembly of them). For my current carriage builds I attach the roof to the body sides. The main reason for this, is that I find it easier to make sure that there are no gaps between the sides and roof when the fixing is permanent. I then bolt the floor pan to the body. If I was starting this kit from the beginning then I’d probably follow this approach. The situation now (with the railcar) is that the roof relies on some lugs to hold it in place. Additionally, there are some gaps between the roof and the top of the sides. These are partly because the roof isn’t held down tight and partly (mainly) because the top of the sides aren’t totally flat and horizontal. I think that I’ll be using some plastic strip to disguise the gap i.e. placed slightly inboard of the roof edge and behind the side - thus blocking light bleed through. I think that magnets will then be the easiest retro fit to hold the roof in place. If they are strong enough, they’ll help to minimise the size of the gap as well. Another alternative will be a nut and bolt approach to holding the roof in place. This is where planning ahead would have helped😀. I’m not sure that I now actually have any suitable spaces for the bolts on the under frame …at least spaces that mean that the bolt isn’t visible through the body. Plenty to think about!

I can’t quite believe that it has been nearly a month since my last post! I haven’t been idle though….2200 a.k.a. Surprise is nearly complete I got a bit frustrated by the the panel lining🙂. The horizontal black line between the green and cream was straight forward….and is virtually invisible…..just like in the photos 😀 For the panel lining I decided to use green…..and to only attempt single panel lining. (It’s possible that the panel lining should be black, but I thought that black would dominate too much). My first panel lining wasn’t good enough though…so it all came off…and nearly took the cream paint with it! After a couple of days I had another go and it was ok…but the corners weren’t very neat. I then tried just “dotting in” the corners…and left things for a few days. When I came back to it, I thought it was ok…not perfect but ok. So then I decided to crack on. If you zoom in on the lining there are plenty of imperfections….but the larger, whole unit views look ok to me. I plan to weather this model gently. Some of this will be to capture the dirt that built up in the panelling…especially at the boiler end. It will also help to cover some of the lining wobbles and smudges 😃 I managed to fit open cab windows at the front and will add some frames by just painting some cream edging. (The windows at the other end are closed by the way) The name was made up from pieces of the other names on the transfers that came with the kit. These are very old….and some disintegrated as I put them on….naturally this included an “R”….and I didn’t have a spare! So a few other letters were sacrificed for the greater good of the model😀 The interior is fitted .. and even has a few passengers. I went with a “fawn” colour for the seats (Matt brown). I think red would also be suitable. The edges of the seat were picked out in “mahogany “… the same as the interior sides were painted. It’s all a bit rough and ready but it’s not too noticeable through the windows. Next steps are to test it thoroughly to make sure it still goes around curves etc, to weather it, order a crew, and also to find a solid way to attach the roof. I may try magnets for that last item. All in all, this project has been a bit of a diversion … but I’ve found it really pleasing to get an unloved, incomplete model into service finally.

Completely crumbled when I saw this…….email sent! Logic went something like this: interested in history - especially 20th century naval history …… yep Modelling interest 1938……..yep Area of interest LNER north eastern area……yep Always wanted one of these gun sets……yep Modelling Leeds Northern route………er, unlikely to see one of these Rule One triumphs………oh yes😁 Looking forward to seeing this trundling along…. Jon

Like the kettle/ teapot! 🫖

Nice to see an update…….in particular nice to see Barber coming along so well. I agree about the new cab. I understand why it was modified but I think it spoils the look of the loco. Still, at least the loco is still running!

Hi Chas I have assumed that these wheels were black. However, I don’t think that I’ve seen any written reference to their colour, one way or the other. The green and cream excursion stock had a similar colour scheme to the railcars. This excursion stock had teak centres to the wheels (according to Harris). Having said that, when looking at photos this evening, I can’t see the teak paint on excursion carriage wheels….the under frames are too dark to make out the details! I don’t think green centres to the wheels is very likely……logically they’d be black or teak. Hope this helps.

I was following one of these just recently….possibly the same one? As you say, should be “interesting “ but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. As for those pieces…..I’ve checked the instructions for Arthur’s J24, and the only possible options that I could see for the “boxes “ were either the inside valve gear slides or the flanges at the bottom of the firebox (probably too think for these though). As for the “ cricket stumps”….no idea..sorry.

I also tend to use the Tap holder (as @chris p bacon suggests) to hold and turn broaches. My broaches have a square section of the shank just below the plastic handle which the Tap holder will grip. Some of the plastic handles have disintegrated on my broaches. So I have also used the pin vice that @cctransuksuggests…especially for the smaller broaches. For opening up to a large hole I also have a tapered reamer…..to use with care as the hole can get rather big very quickly🙂

Agreed all the cab windows (front and side) seem to be open on all photos of the railcars in action. I guess that is the result of having a boiler in the cab….nice and toasty! Your comment is a timely reminder to me that I need to have a look at the front windows and see if I can model them open (without damaging the existing build). And, of course, just complicate it I’ve just painted it all…….. The cab door windows will definitely be open-with the crew blocking the line of sight into the cab.

Hi Chas I would agree that they look like vertical bars. I used 12 on my railcar….which I hope I counted correctly from the photo that I’m using. I’m sure you are aware, but just in case🙂, I think that “Expedition” has opening toplights in the passenger compartment. Not sure if they are replicated on the side etches that you are using? They certainly weren’t present on the NuCast body, which meant I chose a D97 example to model.

Expanding on the subject of carriage interiors a bit. (I think that I must be in a thoughtful mood😁) I’d really like to spend some time reading up on the available sources, so that I could create proper interiors. I think it would be an interesting exercise to try and produce really accurate models of the interiors- right down to the colours, table fittings etc I’d like to produce accurate seats - possibly using 3D printed versions (I know some are available online - but it would satisfying to produce them myself). All in all, my feelings are that these would interesting subjects that are time intensive but relatively cheap! So, I’m saving these projects up to use for retirement projects😁….and hoping that my eyesight, fingers etc are still up to it whenever retirement finally happens!

A couple of other thoughts about these bars - nothing earth shattering though🙂. I cannot remember if the window bars were fitted from new. I imagine that they probably weren’t and that the necessity for them was learned the hard way. In modern day parlance, I would bet that there were a few “near misses” and maybe a few “reportable incidents”. From a modelling perspective though, this is yet another time where it is preferable to have a dated picture of you chosen railcar ( easier said than done sometimes 🙂). I have seen railcars with horizontal bars, vertical bars and also both combined. Thankfully, I have a photo of number 2200 Surprise….

Thanks for the kind comments. I believe that the bars were fitted to protect those windows (and therefore the passengers🙂) from breakage when carrying out tablet exchanges.

I don’t normally bother with interiors on carriages. This is partly because they aren’t really that visible on a moving carriage (especially compartment carriages), partly because they are a subject in their own right (and which I’d like to research properly before making models) and partly because making the interior will extend the build length .. a bit of laziness! On this railcar, though, the interior is definitely visible. My kit build had already populated the driving compartment at the opposite end to the boiler. However, there were no bits left in the box for the boiler end. On photos, the boiler and other pieces of equipment are not clearly visible in the cab…..but what is obvious is that something is there. I therefore decided that a representation of the main equipment would be sufficient. I put this together with odd bits of tube, wire and some plastic sheet… This used 15mm copper pipe for the boiler which, as you can see, did not easily solder to the brass floor😁. Since the floor isn’t visible, I don’t think the solder blobs are a problem! The seating in the main compartment were fabricated out of plasticard. The seats are mounted on a plastic sub floor. This will allow me to paint the railcar interior sides without the seats being in the way. Similarly, I’ll be able to paint the seats more easily when they are outside the body. These seats are very rough and ready. However, I don’t think that will be obvious once the glazing is in and the railcar is moving. The sub floor is also carrying a partition that was not included in the kit. An overhead view shows everything resting in position. The bogie pivot is held in place with a piece of wire placed through holes in the pivot tube. This stops the power bogie from falling out every time that I pick up the railcar….how do I know this🙂 The blue wires are from the pick ups on the non powered bogie. They’ll be shortened and soldered to the power bogie once the painting is done. I’m thinking that I will place the crew by the cab door windows. Most photos seem to show these windows open and, sometimes, it is possible to see the crew with their elbows resting on the opening. In model terms the crew would nicely block any view through the window and cover up the gears etc. On a side note, it seems to me that the driver must have driven the railcar from a position by the door I.e quite a long way back from the front window. There was very little space around the boiler and also, the controls in the quadrant seem to be designed to be operated by a person standing near the door. This all seems strange to me simply because I’m so used to seeing multiple unit drivers being right up front.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on the railcar in small, but regular, modelling sessions. I think I now have everything (that I plan to do) done. This is with the exception of the handrails - these will be fitted after painting. Overall the railcar now looks like this A view from the front highlights the distinctive vacuum pipe connection…and also the internal cab details. Looks like the “Weir”pump in the right hand window is drunk! I ended up epoxy gluing the window guards in place and a close up view shows the results….which I think look OK. I’ll be interested to see if the glue between the bars gets highlighted by the painting though. The underframe at the front has the engine details in place. The brass rod from under the cab seems to be part of the brake arrangements. And there are two little drain pipes as well. The angle brackets on the solebar are from plastic angle superglued in place. Brass would look better but would be a lot more work I think. It will be interesting to see what these look like after painting…hopefully they’ll recede into the background a bit. And, finally, I had lost one of the supports/ rests for the open coal hatch doors. So I made one up out of a couple of pieces of brass etch. This is meant to approximate to the shape and size of the other three white metal versions. Hope you like it in this slightly “battered and bruised “ state. I’m certainly pleased with it…..after all it now works having spent years locked away in a box🙂 I’ll do another post to show the interior.

That’s a nice looking locomotive

Hi Ian Nice to see that brake van and it’s looking good! Seems strange that they produced a kit of the one off prototype though. I suppose it could just be because there’s a very clear photo of it. ref you question on the soldering of the handrails then I have two suggestions. You can use fine grade files to remove the excess solder (it’s usually possible to get the file into most areas). This can test the strength of the solder joints though🙂. It is the safest approach on the white metal. Or you can try to spread out the solder (as long as there’s not too much in the first place). For the brass to brass connection put flux on the brass handrails, add the iron at brass soldering temperature …. just until the solder melts….it should spread out just as if you are tinning the brass. Do remember to hold the horizontal rail in place until the solder solidifies. For the brass to white metal joints put the flux in the hole in the white metal and touch the iron to the solder. The flux should help it flow into the hole. I tend to use a fairly high temperature for this…but don’t dwell with the iron, especially on thin pieces of white metal. To be fair, I would use this as a back up plan….the files are probably best on white metal. This is all similar to the approach suggested by@MarkCfor the initial construction. Jon

I’ll try filing a flat on the wire…..I’ve used 0.3mm wire I think so it is quite fine. It did occur to me that half round wire might have been a better idea…but too late now😀

Hi Chas I’m agreeing with @micklner on this one….gluing is the best option I think. The chances of me drilling 24 holes each side in a straight line and equi-distant are low. Then I’d have to do 24 very neat solder joints on brass to white metal…..(there isn’t a lot of white metal on the window frame either….so a big risk of melting this) I think that if the sides were in the flat and were brass etches then I might give the soldering a go. I think the plan there would be to build the bars up like I have, tape them securely in place on the side, look at them carefully to make sure that they appear correct and then adjust if necessary. Then solder. Alternately…..if I had an RSU…..😀

So, the weather has been lousy today……which means some modelling time😁. This is much better than repairing a window…which is what I’ve spent most of my week off work(can’t really call it a holiday) doing! I’ve progressed the railcar quite well…..but I was always pondering how to do the window grills. Borrowing the idea from @micklner of using railings - but not having any in stock - I tried to create my own version. I soldered the vertical pieces to a horizontal bar. The best that I could do was …..well, not very good! Even using a spacer it was very difficult to get even spacing and parallel bars. Any attempt to adjust thing just unsoldered everything😠 Basically I figured that the mark one eyeball was the best judge of what looked correct……but how to hold everything in place while still being able to adjust the bars? Then I hit upon an idea…blutack. I used a spacer for the first three bars and then did the rest by eye. Once happy with the spacing I pressed them into the blu tack and then soldered on a horizontal piece…in one hit. (the observant might notice that I lost one bar in the process 😁) Now the question is how to attach to the window frame? I think that there are two options (after scraping off the paint on the window surround and evening up the bar lengths at the lower edge). I could try to solder the bars onto the bottom frame….and then the top. Hopefully I can be quick enough with the iron to avoid unsoldering any previous joints as I go. The other option that I can think of is to use runny superglue. Not as strong as soldering but less risky. Anyone got any other ideas? One other bonus of the blu tack is that the imprints are still there…so the second grill should be a bit easier to align.🙂

Impressive results there Chas!

Work on the cylinder heads has progressed. I was quite pleased with this….but something was nagging at me. The cylinder heads were slightly too big. This resulted in the right hand cylinder being too far to the right of the door post.. This photo is also one of those rare times when the photo looks better than the reality🙂. The left hand cylinder was ready to fall off……..which it duly did straight after the photo. I had a re-think……and swapped over to plastic (although I did reuse the brass pipe). This is a cruel enlargement……. I found it easier to shape the cylinder heads and get them to the correct size. They are glued onto the piece of plastic in the background. This give some solidity to the arrangement before the pipes are fitted. The flanges on the pipe are made from scrap etch on the right hand end and 0.3mm wire for the other two (I know these are supposed to be square flanges but I don’t think they will be very visible anyway). The copper wire that is sticking out of the brass tube was something I inserted to stop the tube creasing when I bent it……there is a small crease on the bend…which started before I put the copper wire in😃. In situ the assembly looks like this The cylinder assembly is just blu tacked in place because there is a set of steps to go in front of this lot…..which need to be fitted first as the will be soldered to the solebar. Finally, a reminder of what I’m trying to represent There’s some sort of rod linkage running along the bottom of the solebar and the angling down slightly across the front of the cylinder heads. It looks like it ends at the brake V hanger….or possibly at the construction slightly to the right of the V hanger. So that’s another bit of underframe detail to add!