NeilHB

A productive evening has seen another three-plank open emerges from the ETCo Carriage and Wagon Shop at Elsbridge, this time one of the lesser spotted dropside variant (only a handful were built): Another simple exercise in plastic sheet and strip, I’m finding building wagons quite therapeutic at the moment: Having a common chassis design across all of my ETCo wagons means that it’s fairly easy to crack on and batch build them: I’ve got the basic chassis parts for another two opens also cut out tonight, so I can progress those tomorrow.

PM on its way Marc with the relevant articles attached.

Marc, I shall follow this one with interest, I’ve long had an interest in the R&C and have been mulling over ideas to model it one day. Iain Rice produced a set of drawings of the Box Tank locomotives as part of his Tregarrick series of articles in the late 70s/early 80s, and there was also Wheal Louise from Practical Model Railways in the early 1980s. I’ve got scans of all of these if you want a copy of them.

I sorted (read bodged) some 8’6” wheelbase brakegear over my lunch break today, and thus the main construction work on the latest ETCo three-plank open is now complete: I just need to drill lots of holes and add the bolts from plastic rod now, but that can be done over an evening or two. A couple of photos showing the evolution so far of the ETCo three-plank opens: I probably shan’t build any more of the dumb buffer variety, but the other two examples will gain at least a couple more of each. I think I’ve seen drawings for a dropside three-plank too, must have a look in the archives at Elsbridge again!

Thanks Corbs. I suspect some of the older three-planks in my 'verse will have been pensioned off to the Croarie Stone Company when that opened, alongside the ex NER Ironstone hopper seen a few pages back. A good excuse to build a few more I think

Thanks Annie, I will do a bit of research later today and see what other delights they had that would be suitable. I suspect I may well have been influenced by your railways and tramways on the three-plank opens.

Thank you Annie, I much prefer the SECR crimson over the green livery, and wish I’d chosen it sooner than be honest! That is a lovely looking Horsebox - which railway company is it please Annie? It may have to work it’s way into the built queue. I’ve still got to add the strapping to this one Marc, as he does now include it with his kits. I agree about the fragile nature of the MDF for the axleboxes, I broke all of mine when fitting them! Thankfully a fab of superglue and the (somewhat flimsy) spring assembly was secured in place. Last night I started on another ETCo three-plank open wagon. In my head the three-plank opens are the mainstay of freight traffic on the tramway, and there have been several batches of them built over the years. The newest example represents a later batch, with different axleboxes etc, and will be fitted with two-shoe brake gear, rather than single shoe like the other three-plank opens. I think I’ll probably need about another half-dozen or so of this type, plus a few other wagons to give me a good representation of the tramway company’s goods stock: Brakegear to sort tomorrow night, and then I need to drill lots of holes for the plastic rod to represent bolts…oh what a fun task that will be!

Another hour or so’s work this evening has seen the main construction on the ex GCR Milk/Fruit Van completed: Later on, we see it attached to the rear of an incoming passenger tram: After arrival, the van is detached from the rear of the passenger tram, and shunted down to the milk/loading dock at the end of the headshunt: Here it will be loaded with churns etc ready for taking down to St Pedrocs Dairy at Elsbridge.

A rather productive couple of hours at the workbench this evening. First up was my Wellsworth & Suddery Railwah Horsebox, this came in for a repaint as I decidedly ultimately that I wasn’t happy with the green colour scheme: I much prefer this colour now (SE&CR Crimson). The next item on the workbench was a Sixteen Mills laser cut kit for a GCR Milk/Fruit Van. I started with this at 8.50pm: And by 10.15pm I had this: Its a rather nice kit, though the sides/ends will need a bit of plastic strip as they don’t quite meet, despite all the tabs/slots being in the right places. Tomorrow I shall finish off adding the small details and sorting ok the roof. This will end up in ETCo Blue, being a Milk/Fruit Van owned by the tramway company.

Me too! Paul has modified the sound from the Minerva Peckett for this (altering the timings of the chuff to reflect that this is a vertical boiler), but the bell is one of the standard sounds. I just need to fit an actual bell to the loco now!

Elsbridge Tramway Company No.1 “Godred” has been away for some time for repairs, but has now returned home and is seen here shunting at Ffarquhar Road as part of his running in trials: In reality he went off to Paul at EDM Models for sound fitting. Paul has done an excellent job fitting sound and stayalive into what can only be described as a flipping small space! Stuff work for the afternoon now, I’m off to play trains!

I tacked the station building together tonight so that I could see what it looked like on the layout. It fits in very nicely, and will do the job quite well for the top terminus of the tramway: Obviously this meant that I needed to pop some stock on the layout to see how it looked together! ETCo No.3 ‘Gerda’ arrives with a passenger tram: Later in the day we see ETCo No.4 ‘Sigmund’ with a goods tram (ignore the incorrect plates, they’re just temporary):

Sacrilege Annie, that poor unsuspecting Furness locomotive! I must admit though it does look good in blue.

Thanks, but I’d appreciate it though if references to the TV series weren’t posted in my thread as it’s not something I’m interested in replicating. I have settled on a colour scheme for the station building, as per my previous post I’m going for a green and white colour scheme. I applied the first coats yesterday to one side and end, and am liking how it looks so far: Another coat of each colour needed, and then perhaps some gentle weathering to reflect a timber building that’s been in existence for a few years.

They really are rather nice Annie. I could have quite happily bought a few more of his kits but I don't have the room on the layout sadly! I'm just trying to decide on a suitable colour scheme for the Elsbridge Tramway Company buildings at the moment; the current thinking is a Green (either Brunswick or Bronze on the horiztonal board and window/door frames) and Cream (vertical boarding) colour scheme.

Last week I treated myself to a few bits from 422 Modelmaking, and these arrived yesterday morning. He produces some rather nice 7mm scale resin kits for buildings, coaches and wagons (for both standard and narrow gauges), plus a range of accessories. These are all nicely cast, and for a very reasonable price too. I wasn’t happy with my attempted scratchbuild for the station building, so the first item to land in the basket was his ‘Timber Station Building Kit’: I also purchased his Corrugated Iron Provendor Store kit, which will do nicely as the basis as the Farmers Cooperative Society Lockup on the front siding: Some platform sections also arrived too, some of his narrow gauge ones for the main tramway platform as I wanted it to be fairly low to the ground: And a couple of standard gauge sections for the loading/milk van dock and the farmers cooperative loading/unloading point: Last night I finished off the roof on ETCo No.3 “Gerda”, and then had a little play around on the layout looking at some different viewpoints for photos:

Valvegear and main steam pipe now in place: A fun little exercise this morning using plastic tube and rod. Boiler fittings next and then I can finish off the roof and get it all painted. The finish line is getting nearer!

Some actual cut and stick modelling today, starting to sort out the cylinders for ETCo No.3 “Gerda”: Valvegear to sort next using tube and rod. Once painted black it won’t be too noticeable but I’ll know it’s there!

The waist and upper body panels on the ex W&U bogie Tramcar have now had their first coat of ETC coaching stock white: Plenty of touching up to do, and I need to decide what colour to paint the droplights. Current thinking is Indian Red which would tie in nicely with the tram locos.

The modelling mojo has been decidedly absent the last few weeks, but it seems to have returned in force tonight. I’ve managed to get the first coat of ETC blue on the ex W&Y luggage van and bogie tramcar: And made a start on painting the interiors of the ETC open wagons: Hopefully the modelling mojo is here to stay for a while, as I’ve got track to lay!

They look lovely Linny, and I really do like the colour scheme!

Some good progress this week in that I’ve now got the pattern makers dowels fitted to two out of the three boards (thanks to Andrew Young for the loan of the necessary drill bit to open the holes out in the board ends). I just need to remove the last pair of pattern makers dowels from the old Duddon Bridge boards and then they can be fitted to Ffarquhar Road. As that’s not exactly photo worthy, have a couple of photos from earlier in the week when it was market day in Ffarquhar: I would not want to be the crew on market day, when a full three car set plus luggage van is required, particularly with one of the four-coupled vertical boiler trams as motive power. Let’s just say the journey up the valley would have been interesting, particularly on the steep gradients up to Ffarquhar Road!

I will - you were rude. Plain and simple. I really can’t be bothered to argue with you, as you’ll only win with experience. I did thank Jonathan - the first word of my response was “Thanks”. Next time I’ll put it in block capitals.

I actually found your response quite rude and condescending! I did says thanks to Jonathan for providing the link (and therefore allowing me to get the contact details), and noted that although the address for D&S hadn’t changed, I wouldn’t know that as (having previously pointed out) I couldn’t find my copy of his catalogue that I had! Being a 7mm scale modeller I wasn’t surprised to have not come across the resource before, given that it solely catered for 4mm scale. Therefore I am able to come to the same conclusion as Andrew!

I’ve had it happen a few times Annie - eBay can be a strange place when listing stuff. The last time I listed a couple of 7mm scale wagons it decided that they should go under photographs… Luckily I spotted it before I submitted the item for listing!