auldreekie

If you do build this one, I shall be very interested to learn from your progress. I've never yet dared essay a soldered brass/ nickel-silver locomotive, and 52F promises some NBR delights.... auldreekie

Just to say that, despite the apparent lack of a "like" button, I hugely enjoyed your gallery of non-Edinburgh-based locomotives (not to mention the subsequent galleries, which DO allow for "liking"). An enormous exercise in nostalgia: many of the larger ones were old friends, from watching the locomotive changeover at Waverley on the southbound Aberdeen fish train (a regular spectacle on the homeward journey from school). I was fortunate, during a short trip to Edinburgh from the distant south, to catch a glimpse from a North Berwick train of No 9 preparing to set off for Tweedbank, so I am the more grateful for your record of that occasion. auldreekie

David, On reflection, all thirteen of the chimneys in the present "The Street" project are already clad, painted and capped, so that there's not much to be gained by taking another daylight picture, although I shall have a look in the morning and see if anything clearly explanatory can be concocted out of what is to hand. Meanwhile, here are a couple of shots which, if looked at closely, demonstrate: - the flashing round the pots (first picture, in which the styrene roof is as yet un-slated, and the thing above the clock is not a chimney but the base for a weather-cock - although similar considerations apply); and, - in the second picture, the styrene 80 thou laminations lower down the interior of the end gable: these are overlaid above by Slaters' "random stone" cladding (at the sides) and by SE Finecast vac-formed "random rubble" on the inner face, the visible bits of which have been painted to represent a mixture of red sandstone and whinstone rubble. auldreekie

I'll oblige with a photo as soon as I can get decent daylight conditions. As to perching on the roof: chimneys just don't. Think about it! But, if you perch them on the roof of a model, they do remain very vulnerable, with concomitant risk of damaging the roof also. I'd be surprised if you find a proprietary cast of a chimney stack which rings your bell, simply because roofs vary in pitch, so that a general purpose "perch on" stack wouldn't be feasible. The simple way round for chimneys which emerge from the ridge of a roof, or through the pitch (which is unusual unless the chimney is on an external wall) is to insert a partition wall wherever there is to be a chimney (as is likely in reality - an indication of care to be taken in the siting of chimneys relative to what lies beneath), then laminate the chimney on to an upward continuation of the partition wall. The roof needs to have a hole cut in it to accommodate the chimney, but this can be permitted to be a little imprecise, because tiling and flashing will subsequently obscure the joint as in the real world. Of course, any projecting string course(s) or oversailing capstone need to be left off until the chimney has passed through the hole. auldreekie

Chimneys: The Peedie product is pots, not stacks, but they do those nice octagonal ones (NOT the crown tops beloved of gardeners) which are fairly commonplace in Scotland but not (in my observation) in the deep south. I find the easiest way of making 4mm scale chimney stacks is just to laminate several thicknesses of styrene against the relevant wall, encase the thing in styrene brickwork or stonework sheet (or I guess brickpaper card in your instance), then cap off as appropriate, put in any appropriate string courses made by cutting a course or however many out of the overlay, glue on the hollow chimney pot and flash with miliput, much as with cement in the real thing. There's no need for the model chimney itself to be hollow, unless you intend setting an actual fire in a fireplace within, or employing a 4mm scale chimney sweep. That way, a really solid job results, which will resist firmly any future inadvertent attempts at decapitation. It's also easy to build them. It must be: I have 13 of them on the go right now....... Just to strengthen your resolve, a picture of a fair selection of my current thirteen chimneys in various states of production: auldreekie

Eric spared me the need to respond on the J83. As I remember, a decent little model can be made from the GEM/Lytchett kit: it's fairly "early cast whitemetal" (or it was so a few years ago), so quite a lot of work is needed with a file and sandpaper, as well as benefit to be had from working on the detail. But whatever compromises it makes are less obvious than those in the Hornby moulding. You have almost certainly twigged that the J83s sported a few detailed variations around such things as safety valves and their housings. I really like your general admin building. One point: I find that chimneys on buildings are horribly vulnerable features, so that it pays not to stick them on top of the roof, but to make them into upward continuations of either external walls or internal partitions, as appropriate (as - indeed - on the real thing). And have you yet rumbled the range of 4mm chimney pots made by Peedie Models, which are very useful in a Scottish context? Whatever was the use made of that "conservatory", I wonder........ auldreekie

David, I owe you an apology for my disappearance from this forum since April, just as it looked as if an end might be coming in sight for my version of the Haymarket coaling tower. I cannot easily believe that it has been so long, but summer activities have obviously been rather absorbing. Also thank you to Mr B for "liking" a post I made rather a long time ago. The coaling tower is not forgotten. I had reached something of a contretemps in thinking about how to represent the "base colour" of the concrete and, to the extent that modelling has been taking place over the summer, it has been diverted to narrow gauge - related activities in particular the painting of several buildings to represent various kinds of stonework. This has done much to persuade me that a large expanse of concrete just cannot be a seriously daunting prospect. So I hope to make a re-start sometime in the next few weeks. Delighted to see that progress continues on the (from a modeller's perspective) ancillary buildings on Haymarket 64B. I must confess to surprise at the troubles found with the general offices - I must read through the recent material with care to try to understand the better. And thank you, David, for your steer about York Modelmaking: I've been using them for windows and doors (simpler but more numerous than those for the Haymarket shed) and their product is great. One point of general relevance: I gather that it's drawing up the artwork which costs, rather than production of numbers of units: this may indicate the kind of task in which they are most economically employed. auldreekie

No criticism implied. I'm just thrashing around in my time-honoured manner..... auldreekie

------or is it just VERY sooty red brickwork in the upper reaches? I puzzle over why two different colours of brickwork would have been used in a pseudo-decorative manner in so utilitarian a building. But I certainly CAN see why, if one decided to paint over the mucky bits, one mightn't bother with the bits well out of reach....... auldreekie

David, I think that photograph suggests two different colours of bricks. The reason it does so is that the red part appears to be somewhat variegated in colour and to indicate darker (sooty?) pointing/cement between them. However, I am just a little dubious about this. It never occurred to me that the upper, blue-grey bricks were painted. But I have seen at least one colour photograph which looked as if the lower, red, bit had indeed been painted over. The effects in "your" photograph just could be due to dirtying-down of a coat of paint. I've not so far been able to satisfy myself as to whether or not the red paint (which I think, on the basis of photographs alone, did exist at some time) was applied over red bricks! Or when it was initially applied. I'll have a hunt around such reference material as is in my possession, but that cannot be for a couple of weeks, since I am some 100 miles away from it in the meantime.... auldreekie

Preferred it without the computer-chuff. But very envious. I reckon I'm three years minimum off anything remotely comparable...... Still fiddling around with paint mixtures..... What was the reason in reality for the two-tone brickwork in the shed gables? Was it grey-blue engineering brick throughout, overpainted brickish red in the lower two-thirds, or what? auldreekie

David, Yes. The concrete plus matt black (in small amounts, say 10%) looks like a possible way forward for the base colour for the exterior of the coaling tower. Unfortunately as regards rapid progress on the coaler, whilst awaiting the necessary paints and playing around with them I've plunged back into the completion of narrow-gauge monster locomotives. Just for the hell of it, here are two of the ones which are keeping me occupied: I'll return to the coaler very shortly... auldreekie

David, Thanks for your kind words. I find that anything to do with modelling is something of a learning curve. But that is in fact the real pleasure of the thing.... By way of example: I've been experimenting with colours for the coaling tower, in places where the results will be invisible once it is assembled. I tried Railmatch "concrete initially, and concluded that it will not do for this purpose. Its greenish tinge would do for more low-lying locations susceptible to mould/algal incursion. But not on this weatherbeaten and industrially-challenged monster, I fear. I also tried overbrushing roughly with "coal black" in the LH hopper. The result was awful. So I tried a 20% admixture of "coal black" to overpaint the mess in the hopper, as can now be seen. This might do as a base cover for the interior, including the upper hopper. I'll try a 10% "coal black"/ 90% "concrete" mixture to see if it might suffice as a base colour for the exterior, to be overweathered ad lb. But I suspect this may require more experimentation awhile before I settle to a method..... auldreekie

David, I've just caught up with you. I've been off doing other things whilst awaiting the paint to move the coaling tower forward. That water tank looks great. I shall take time to learn from your experiences with it! Not a lot to say for myself on the Haymarket modelling front, But it will restart ere long. auldreekie

Architecture with a good drawing board sounds like a very satisfying way of making a living. I had to make do with words, weighing evidence, and trying to persuade others to make about the same amount of effort as I took for granted....... Some parts of that were altogether a less analytic and satisfying procedure, although in retirement you come to realise that you'd learned some useful skills, not of a technical nature..... auldreekie

Yes, grids like that are really helpful. I have found graph-paper to be an extremely powerful analytic tool when drawing-up model locomotives prior to fabrication. Not only does the graticule itself provide a built-in discipline, but also it makes a basis on which the correlated side and end elevations can be translated into a plan view and then exploded into component parts for fabrication. I'm afraid I'm not into CAD,. but I'll settle happily for centimetric graph paper in place of a CAD package..... auldreekie

Quite a bit more thinking done about the sequence in which the stairways, stanchions and handrails should be assembled, and a painfully slow start made. It is very much still a work-in-progress, and it will be so for some time to come. Not apparent in the photograph is that all six machine-room windows have now been glazed. The sequence of events in putting together the stairways, etc IS really quite complex: you cannot sensibly just pitch in at one end and work up or down. There's also a need to work out exactly how it should be done in the model, even if this does not exactly reflect the real-world configuration. In particular, I shall when finished have used rather more stanchions than in the real thing, mainly to achieve greater independence between the handrails of the various staircases, and to avoid some of the more intricate in situ wire-bending which would otherwise be needed. It's also grand to be able to spend the best part of a day out of doors model-building in the garden...... auldreekie

Thanks, David. My tongue WAS well ensconced in my cheek...... A n update on minimal progress with the coal monster. Quite a bit (although you might not think so) of work done to the stairways on the jigger side. I had to await the arrival of another tranche of boat modellers' beautiful brass stanchions (which really are rather posher than is merited by the real thing - but I think they are the nearest I can get without disproportionate effort), and so I spent some time on activities related to my peculiar version of the narrow gauge. These stairways really ARE a beast to model. You need to be better than me at visualising in three dimensions if you are to succeed first time.... Most of this has been re-done at least once..... And I'm scarcely half way finished..... There will be some simplification of the handrails in due course, especially where in reality they continue from one flight of stairs to the next. I shall substitute extra stanchions, and hope that the cheating is not too obvious.... auldreekie

My word, that's a rocky part of Wiltshire in the background. None of the trains to Bristol goes through that bit! auldreekie

David, Thanks. The weathering will pose several challenges...... What's new? I look forward to hearing more about the water tank, which bids fair to be completed weeks (if not months) in advance of my shot at the coaling tower. Summer (well, spring) just MAY be coming on...... auldreekie

Rome. I'd envy you, but I have very bad memories of my missus being bushwhacked by two youths on a motor-scooter, and, much worse, of being treated by the filthy local police as if we had committed the crime. Come to think of it, we probably had, by reporting one of the mainstays of the local economy..... That's perhaps twenty years ago, and I have yet to revise my opinion that altogether too much of Italy is run by the scum of the earth..... I'd like to see the damned coal hoist finished also, but I fear that that pleasure is some time (weeks, not days) off. There are so many steps which are interdependent with others that final assembly keeps being put off. Not helped by the need on occasion to revise and re-do little jobs already "done"..... A flavour of what's been going on lately. A couple of shots at the hand-winch for working the selector flap. The first on the left was a general-purpose job. However, when I'd fabricated the tippler-side swinging beam assembly, it became clear that my first shot at the platform on which this winch and its operator would stand was too deep, it needed thinning down by 7mm. It followed that, for clearance, a skinnier special-purpose winch needed to be fabricated: it wouldn't need a very wide drum, as its task would be restricted to a few turns forwards and backwards..... The tippler side with the various sub-assemblies propped together to give an approximate flavour of how it will end up. The winch-platform can be seen within, as perhaps can the cosmetic inner face of the jigger-side to which it is attached. The curved-over elements at the top of the guides for the tippler have caused not a little head-scratching, as have the arrangements for securing the upper ends of the tippler guides. I have come to the working conclusion that it would make structural sense for the tippler guides each to be the visible part of a kind of truncated A-frame, of which the rear components would be anchored at the same level in the main structure as the heavy-duty brackets visible on the tippler face of the structure. The jigger side, with the various "landings" and platforms cut, drilled for handrail stanchions and attached; three main stairway components propped in place. It looks as if the modified Plastruct stairways will do the job. Each has had a couple of thicknesses (not widths) of microstrip solvented to each side and drilled as appropriate for handrail stanchions. I've done three lengths in this way, and it can be seen that, when fettled to length, there will be enough left over to fabricate the fourth and final stretch of stairway. I'm surprised to see that some photographs suggest that handrails were attached to both sides of the staircases. So there will be a pause in operations whilst I source enough stanchions to cover this eventuality...... Lying around in this picture may be seen the tippler-guide subassemblies, which now include a representation of that part of the rear legs of the putative A-frame assembly which would be visible above my representation of the upper "reception" hopper. auldreekie

Still propped together, but more progress than you might think. Some detail provided to main guide-rails and they are no propped in position. Demonstrating that the curved supplementary guides were too high, and the static horizontal beam linking them too deep. All three have now been rectified. That is to say, re-fabricated. Again. But I think we may now be close to a spot of tippler-side definitive assembly. With real solvent / glue...... auldreekie

Coaling tower. The tippler side of things has so far involved a great deal of hard thinking, trial and error. Virtually every feature of the "chasm" has had to be redone two or three times, whence an apparent slowness of progress. For example, the hand-winch platform has now had 7mm taken out of its depth, taking us back to only 1mm wider than the first shot. In consequence, the little winch previously fabricated cannot be accommodated (no doubt another use will arise on another project). Instead, a slim line special purpose hand winch is needed , to cope with the relatively small amount of winding backwards and forwards which will be required of it: The present state of play from this perspective: The main components/subassemblies on this face are propped up for effect. Nearly there, I think. The swinging beam is too high. Its "goalposts" will need to be shortened and, when that is done, the two angles between beam and goalposts treated to a pair of small gussets. It seems that I've not bedded the machine-room assembly down quite firmly on this occasion. No problem: it IS a decent fit. But there will be a small amount of filling and sanding of the occasional untidy bit, before the job is done. Next up, I think, will be completion of the main tippler guide-rails, now that I've worked out a credible (to me at least) configuration for the bit that's missing from the photographs...... auldreekie

Some relatively light relief. One 4mm scale hand winch in seven parts, to activate the selector flap in the coaling tower. The cosmetic inner surface forming the back of the to-be-visible tippler chasm, showing: - representation of inner surface of reinforced concrete framing with infill panels; - my guess at a railed hand-winch platform together with the winch - inner face of access door. The projecting bottom ends of the stanchions will be trimmed when the glue fixing them has had time to set firmly - probably overnight. The main main sub-assemblies of the tippler-side aspect are now beginning to come together, but there's still much to do in order to achieve a credible representation together with a good fit. auldreekie

David, My first reaction was to chortle with unholy glee. But really I'm glad that no lasting harm resulted. Keep up the good work...... auldreekie