sleeper

I agree, a very good days work, looking good so far

Hi Mark,

It's good to see some of your work coming through, you're doing a good job on this one.

I didn't realize how complex a subject coaches could be until I started researching for another project, to me a coach was just a coach.

I don't know if they'll be of help  but I've posted two links below, the southern group one may be the wrong region but it contains some useful history of Mk 1 coaches. Comet models have some useful PDF files on construction methods too.

Cheers Rolyl 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_coach_designations

http://www.srg.org.uk/Default.htm

One can only watch, agog, at this work of art, congratulations

sorry, to us cockneys anything past Watford is 'up north'. Staffordshire if I'm correct. I had a look on the web yesterday trying to work out the cheapest option, flying to Manchester, East Midlands or Stansted and on from there by train/coach. Which day is best Saturday or Sunday? or would I need both?

Thanks guys for the kind words.

Mark, I took note of your comment in the previous post about some kind of diorama and as I don't have a layout the next best thing was part of a diorama I used in a competition on the NRM forum, sadly it never got used due to none of the other entrants finishing   so I pulled out. I agree, I think the photo plank is a good idea but as I haven't stuck to any particular theme I wonder what form it would take, maybe just an engine shed surrounded by trees as a backdrop.

Pete [N15], the comments you are indeed flattering, going by your skills. I'm actually quite pleased with the rods on this one I had ideas about them but thought they might be far above my capabilities, they aren't perfect but a fairly good start. What's next? well the garden is in need of some tlc especially with the alternate rain and sun we've had here in France so far this year, the triffids have arrived!

Avonside, I agree with your comment there is plenty of bits that are wrong compared to the original Dubsy I can spot at least 10. Unfortunately there aren't many good photos on the internet the two I worked ftom were somewhat blurred, a lot of the detail is modelers licence I'm afraid. It would be nice to see the real life version at Foxfield's gala I'd have to give it some thought because it's 'up north' it might prove difficult to get to from here in France.

Wow what a smasher! you've certainly tamed this little beastie Pete, It will look really mean once it's painted, can't wait.

You can get so much more detail in 7mm than you can in 4mm, maybe when I've done more work with brass I'll have a go at 7mm, not at the moment though my proficiency needs to improve more yet. 

Beautiful workmanship again Pete, Those crosshead nuts are so much more professionally done than my crude attempts in my current blog entry.

I think you'll get away with the difference in height of the axle and it's box, after all you don't view your layout on all fours with your nose on the carpet and backside up in the air do you? or do you?

Hi Mark,

Yeah I only finished this entry about 10.30pm UK time last night that's probably why you didn't see it. I agree with you, when the detail starts going in and again when doing the little paintwork items is always the most rewarding, the model starts to come to life.

The drive shaft that rotates the crane has a brass flywheel, this was the section cut out of the chimney to reduce it's height I thought it might serve a purpose and kept it, I didn't think it would be quite this soon. The end inside the cab is a handwheel from a cab detailing etch from Mainly Trains and the con rod from another etch of hand brakes or reversers or something, the con rod pivots on a bit of 0.45 brass wire, the shaft is 1.0mm brass wire. I made the tank filler from a blank punched out of 0.5mm plastic card with a hole punch, this was mounted on top of a short length of 3mm plastic tube, the handle is a paper staple bent up and trimmed, two 0.5mm holes were drilled and I fixed it with superglue.

The cab handrails were rather tricky as they-re mounted in the edge of the rear panel of the cab. This was only 1.00mm thick, 1.5mm wide and 1.5mm deep, I used a 0.5mm drill at an angle because the drill chuck made it impossible to drill straight down.

The rod had to then be bent before sticking it in the bottom and when I fixed the cab roof had to be threaded through pre-drilled holes in the roof, then trimmed and filed flush.

Just a few of the intricacies of this build which could have gone in the main page but I thought too much detail might be a bit boring for someone reading through.

Mark thanks for your continuous support with my projects it makes it so much more worthwhile. I welcome anyone's comments, criticisms, or suggestions, so don't be shy.  

cheers 

Roly 

Hi Mark,

thanks for the interest in this particular entry, no I couldn't give up now I'd always be wondering how it might have turned out.

My perseverance is also largely driven by the investment in materials which is surprisingly high when you add it all up. I've had a sneaky preview with the crane in place and I agree with you in that it will be an interesting model when finished, sadly the finish won't be as immaculate as I would like it to be, I think I need to upgrade the spraying area as I've yet to produce a dust free finish

Pete,

That's a beautiful paint job, not a speck of dust in evidence, the humidity out there may work against you sometimes but maybe it helps to lay the dust too, or is it you have a super efficient missus?

Hi Pete,

I'm very very impressed with the skill with which you're rebuilding this model and indeed all the others in your portfolio. Your plumbing certainly passes muster, as an ex plumber I know just how difficult it must be to get those offsets right, especially without a bender to measure from. I've seen so called experienced plumbers do worse.

Well done mate, keep it coming.

Regards Roly

Hi Pete,

As always your work is immaculate, having just started my first brass chassis build and already running into trouble I really can appreciate what you are achieving.

With regard to the rusting problem you are experiencing don't forget your new house being just completed still contains gallons of water and will take ages to dry out completely. Years ago builders recommended you didn't decorate for at least six months because of this. Gentle heat and plenty of air circulation might help.

Please note after a couple of days I scraped the surface with my thumbnail and it left some minor bruising to the finish so to be safe try it on some scrap plastic[painted black] first.

I saw this loco on its first steaming, good luck with it!

Dava Hi,

I've seen the first steaming on You-Tube, just a view from the front as it trundled up the line for 200 yds and back again.

Did you get a good look at it? If so maybe you can help me. The loco was only designed to carry 5cwt of coal apparently.   from one grainy picture I have there are what looks like coal lumps laying on the 'nearside' of the footplate, suggesting the coal was carried in a bunker which may have formed part of the 'nearside' tank. The water capacity was I think only about 400 gallons, something small, so that could easily have been carried in the 'offside' tank.

Can anyone clarify this for me please?

What scale is this, please?

It's as near to 00 gauge as I can get, bearing in mind the image I'm working to was the original image that I'd worked out as being 6.6mm-1ft reduced by about 40% thus making it 4.4mm-1ft. In fact compared to a Dapol kit built pug it's not far out. I used Microsoft paint which isn't the most sophisticated of programs, so it's only approximately 00. Unfortunately I don't have a better program on my computer. Maybe I need to spend some of my pension on something better, but which one, is there an all singing all dancing piece of software?

Maybe someone can recommend something.

I'm no expert either, but the general principle was polished steel pre 1906, and as per Mark's description after 1906.

 

See http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesloco1900.html

and http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesloco1906.html :-

Thanks guys for the info and links.

I've looked on Wikipedia and found this history

"The Liskeard and Caradon Railway was exceedingly successful while mineral extraction boomed, but it was entirely dependent on that traffic and when the mines and quarries declined, the Railway followed. From 1909 [the year that Lady Margareth was built] the railway was worked by the Great Western Railway, but its days were already numbered, and it closed in 1917, its track materials being removed in aid of the war effort."

So it looks like the handrails need to be green as Mark states, a bit of a pity really because other than  the brass handrails it's quite bland, maybe when I get the named and number plates they'll brighten it up a bit.

Thanks guys for the kind words of encouragement.

Aberdare.

Jim I'm glad you've got your scratch builders hat on now, go for it. The shots through the Loup were purely random, I erased more than I kept because they were too out of focus. you can see on one shot the side of the cab is blurred but the inside is in focus, just need to get the distance right.

N15 class

I hadn't thought about static being the reason for the dust in the paint, good point. maybe the paint swirl over the plastic builds up the static, some kind of grounding strap required?

46444

Hi Mark, thanks for the comments, I spent some time reading through your blog, you're certainly a dab hand with the weathering. Regarding the handrails do you think they'd look better painted green to match the body or brass coloured?

Mikkel

The problem I had wasn't apparent when uploading the photos and attaching them but afterwards.

When previewing and submitting the post there were no photos just Icons, which, when clicked upon didn't do anything.

I tried posting them one by one in a separate entry - no problem. It was due to me trying to post too much content at once, a lesson learned for the future. Thanks for the offer of help.

I've learn now, you can't add too much content into these entries, the poor old RMW server won't take it, so in future I need to split it up more. I'm sorry if it's spoiled your reading of this blog.

Hopefully future entries will be 'as they happen' making for shorter entries the last few have been posted in retrospect making for large files of text plus numerous photos.

Jim [aberdare]

I hope my blog helps to give you inspiration with your forthcoming build.

Mark [46444]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the kind comments again.

It only seems like I work fast, in reality it's not like that. The entries for these last three projects have all been made retrospectively.

I took these  photos as the models progressed. They were originally posted on another well known railway modelers forum but they failed to arouse much interest there, largely I think because it seemed to me that the members were more interested in 'playing trains' than building models.

At first I was hesitant to post on this forum due to the high degree of knowledge and modeling skills exhibited, but now my own skills have improved slightly I thought I'd 'have a go'. So future blogs will probably be at a more normal pace.

Steve at Narrow Planet does seem very helpful, he emailed me concerning the DF plates just to make sure he had the right info.

Gwrrob

Hi there,

Thanks for the kind offer, I already have three photos, the one I've used for this project is of the pre - GWR rebuild  I also have two copies of the pro-rebuild photos. From what I've seen most of the kits are based on the updated version, only one kit build photo I've seen depicting this earlier version.

I wondered why you have filed in the space between the boiler and the footplate?

I assume you meant to say 'filled' ? if so, in the photo of the prototype the space under the boiler appears to be filled in, there's certainly no daylight showing through.

I've been able to find very little data online relating to this loco so there's a certain amount of guess work involved. Another contributing factor is that this being my first ever scratch build I'm more concerned with ' how it turns out' than if all the rivets are present, that can come later as my skills progress [hopefully ascending].

Yeah I've checked out several articles with images and it should have black plates with the GWR livery, and yet Jackson Evans who's plates I used make some classes plates in black only and some in red and black. In this case they supplied either, in my ignorance I happened to choose red because the original paintwork was done in red. Funny old game  rivet counting!

Anyway thanks for pointing it out, I'm not going to be altering it because I don't want to ruin the paint job. On the other hand I could possibly fix black plates over the top, hmmm maybe! 

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the positive comments they give a lot of encouragement.

The nameplates aren't readily available as far as I know, at least on all the model shop websites I've checked, but lonely planet do custom made plates and I have a set on order with them together with sets for the Double Fairlie in one of my previous entries.

I'm working on the next instalment now by the way.

Hi armchair modeler,

If you look at the title of this blog it says ' my contribution to recycling old bits and pieces'. That in a way answers your query. That's not to say I will always recycle bits, I have a fancy for building a brass kit but my skills aren't up to being successful as yet. Brass model kits are very expensive, indeed the one you mention is

IIRC "Merddyn Emrys" has always been "ME" - "Taliesin" was what is now "Livingston Thompson" in the NRM in York.

 

Still, an interesting series of articles! :-)

RJS thanks for pointing out that inaccuracy, I stand corrected, the offending edit has now been removed. 

Love it.... I have an idea to make a sort of N gauge equivalent made from a couple of spare Dapol terriers, for no other reason than 'because they are there!'

I did at one point consider doing an 009 layout based on the Festiniog Railway but when I compared this 00 body with the bogies on an old N gauge class 42 'Hermes' there's no way it would have worked, the wheels on the 42 are only 7mm and the body would have 'bottomed out' due to the dropped middle section being too low. Maybe the terrier chassis could work. Give serious thought to the width of the running plate if you do it cos there's a big difference in the width of an N gauge chassis and the average 00 gauge body.

A interesting project that has come out surprisingly well, considering the unpromising looking body you started with.

 

That really is crying out for some finer wheels to be fitted.

 

Could I also suggest (with no criticism intended) that you could improve it further by extending the straight line along the bottoms of the side tanks.

 

Overall though I admire your skill in getting it to look like the USA tank and your imagination in even seeing it in the initial model in the first place. I'm sure I have one of those sitting in a scrap box somewhere that I haven't known what to do with.  

Hi,

Thank you guys for the kind words of encouragement,

Looking back on photos of this project I can see that the wheels look somewhat 'chunky' to say the least, I'll have to get it out and have a look at it in reality. The wheels I used were the old Triang solid spoke ones not the daintiest I agree.

When I'd completed this project one of my regrets was that I hadn't filled in the cut out at the base of the tanks as you suggest SR, looking at photos of the prototype the bottom of the body carries through in a straight line.

It wasn't so much my imagination that spawned this model, I didn't know what make it was, I hadn't seen another one [on Ebay, which was my main source of info back then] untill someone on another Forum suggested it was based on a 'USA Switcher' So I did a Google search and bingo, came up with a photo of one of this class that is preserved on the Bluebelle line, and on which this model is based. Further research then came up with a copy of the original plan and so this project was born.