craigwelsh

Its a pity no one does proper GWR 2-bolt slide chairs due to the difficulty of moulding them.

Craig,Yes it is a pity but I don't see why you say its to difficulty to mould them, they seem to look no different to other type.

The bolts are on the centreline as is the bolt through the stock rail.

You sort of have a right angle meeting as below:

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This can't be moulded in once piece so would need to be done in two pieces or something. I was hoping Exactoscale would do them, the other end is also distinctive where its rounded.

Thanks for that, I have the revised version of that jig. I think you use it by filing off the back of the rail to its taper and then putting the blade against the jig inversely bent to form the curve when bent back the correct way.

That slip is very nice and thanks for the closeup of the switch.

Its a pity no one does proper GWR 2-bolt slide chairs due to the difficulty of moulding them.

Any chance of some closeups on the pointwork, the pictures on the Scalefour website are a bit blurred.

I'm wondering what the jig for curved switchblades is as I have one type that Jeremy has now sold via Scalefour Stores. Are they loose heel on your layout or GWR flexible types?

I sadly didn't get to Scaleforum in 2005 so haven't seen the layout in the flesh.

Another way of dealing with the bowing is to scribe the door panel lines in deeply and bend the sides along these door lines before its assembled. It'll keep the slight outward bend when finished then. I did this successfully on all of my Parkside wooden body minerals previously.

That shelf will look excellent when populated

Dick doesn't use Templot and he seems to draw these things quite quickly (his double junction was in the current MRJ). I tend to draw mine like this as well now just in AutoCAD and not by hand.

I've never had the chance to sit down and learn Templot and I guess Dick hasn't either and had no need to when he finds it quick by hand. I know Templot could do these things and probably quite quickly once learnt.

Thanks for the pointer on the sleeper gap, I probably will shove the sleepers up a bit when I fill in the gaps and replace the initial ones that have the rivets a bit off now the gauges have been on it.

I'll try and write up a manual template creation sometime as people might find it interesting to compare.

A turnout is made of two parts, a pair of switches and a crossing. The REA set of standard parts (used by everyone apart from the GWR/BR WR from the mid 20s, broadbrush speaking here!) basically had A,B,C,D,E and F switches getting larger radii each time and crossing of 1 in4 etc. B7 being B switches with a 1 in 7 crossing. These switches are flexible - rail flexes, older switches had a loose heel and rotated. I have an LMS book for designing the stuff and it gives the radii you could fit each set of bits into and the length of the closures - bit between the switches and the crossing.

GWR/BR WR didn't have an A switch but kept loose heel for that and did have stuff equivalent to B-E switches then went for 30', their crossings are also a bit different. GWR Switch and Crossing Practice by the GWR study group is the bible, C+L sell it.

So when are you building it a colliery?

David,I would not worry too much about the fitted wagon forming the head of the train, when first introduced the NCB shunters backed by their union refused to couple up the fitted stock so a compromise position was taken and they ran as unfitted anywhere in the train! Not sure when all this occured but I distincly remember reading it and there are loads of photos to back it up.Cheers Tony

I've read a couple of notes that when they did couple them up they tended to leave the instanters in the 'long' position or not do up the screws and break the pipes anyway. Cardiff docks had great big metal beams between the rails too for the coal hoists that happily stripped all of the fittings off the bottom too!

With the slope sider the sides were actually one piece of bent metal as built and do there wasn't a join between the slope and the upright section, its where the later 'fixed' Bachmann release (not the early one with the odd proportions) scores over Parkside. Some were later plated up to the bend line anyway though.

Thanks for the comments on the night shots. I would be the first to admit that my efforts come no where near yours. As a matter of interest, what is the name of the software you use to merge shots to increase the depth of field.John

You can use Combine Z5 or one of the newer releases linked to to do this.

http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZ5/combinez5.htm

Thanks for the kind comments.

 

Tony: Beware! Mr Waterman has probably trade marked all uses of those letters - like the use of the word "Virgin" by another entrepeneur.

Ah but Tony went for t'Northern version . With apologies to people in the north who get annoyed enough with Michael Mcintyre doing that..

Craig: It might be the camera settings. With a zoom lens, it's tempting to fill the shot without paying much atention to the focal length that results - and, of course, this can affect the perspective of the view. The other thing is that I loaded the photos out of sequence. I took shots 2 & 3 with just the station board on its own. I then placed the adjacent board, with the coal drops, and took photos 1 & 4, so the view really is shorter in the 3rd shot! Sorry for any confusion caused!

 

Dave.

Doh! Well you certainly caught me out with that one! I was suggesting the view followed quite a few prototype shots anyway in making the platform look shorter.

The other thing worth remembering is that the stripes aren't quite right - they didn't generally go all the way from corner to corner but stoped short with squared ends. The Airfix mineral was apparently a 1961 release so its half-century will be next year.

 

Adam

They didn't stop short of the corner as they didn't aim there (generally and officially noting Pennine's point), the line stops at the top of the end door and is a diagonal from that point to the bottom corner of the section. See : http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p52574486.html for a new example though most of Paul's pictures show the same after some use.

I don't tend to use a transfer for the line but paint between two lines of masking tape giving me something that distresses a bit better. The basis of mine is Bachmann or Parkside though as i'm not old enough to have a cupboard of Airfix costing pennies . Wooden minerals this year though in general, steel next year once i've done the chassis!

That does look good, especially the 3rd picture with the train in the station. The foreshortening apparent in the station shots compared to the overview of the board is interesting to note.

Pity we couldn't magic up some buildings for Slattocks with the track running again but we have to design them yet .

We seem to have a similar taste in locos - although rather far from GWR elegance, the Köf is such a great little loco! If only we had flywheels fitted as standard in UK outline RTR locos.

In many cases though a flywheel just messes up the back-emf of the chip and you're better removing them.

I notice in the third photo that your Tortoise point motors are wired using coloured ribbon cable. May I ask are you using the Tortoise's internal contacts for the polarity changing for the vee's and if so are you using one or both sets.

Nope, new microswitches are screwed to the front of the units as these are the older Tortoise with poorer contacts inside and most of the ones on show have nice black lines across the board. I'm hoping the ribbon cable has a couple of wires to each terminal for current capacity but i'll need to check. A couple had been wired backwards for the original junction but all will now be standardised on one pinout on the 9-way D to allow quick swapping the the case of failure.

With the boards laid out it certainly goes to show how big even the most basic of railway facilities really is when modelled without much compression.

The coal staithes should make an interesting highlight at the bottom of that descending ramp.

Is the station inside of the deepest part of the curve Nick? If so then it should look very good with a curved front and the straight back.

Any pictures of your latest wagon building?

You haven't finished your 4 coach yet never mind the pines

I want to see your wagons running on the incline on the 15th eh .

Morgan's point about demo'ing is a pertinent one, must admit I felt pretty rewarded the first time I did it. You do get info yourself though too.

You can tell the show hasn't opened, that demo table got rather less tidy once the modelling started! I did like the idea this year with groups of demonstrators from different projects/eras going over their techniques.

I managed to build a decent batch of wagons bits while manning the table and flog some of my own etches too so I can't complain too much about working when I paid to get in

Thanks to Morgan for going over some of the features on offer in NX4 for decent 3D drawing, I got a copy out of the cupboard in work today to have a play with.

ps Its recommended someone gets Paul an apron for next time so he doesn't need to spend as much time hunting in the carpet . Still i've seen the items in question successfully rediscovered and in the right place now..

When I trained on diesels in 1971 as far as I remember there was no rule about which side the lights should be lit only that if travelling light engine on the main line you must have one white light displayed at the front and one red at the back. When shunting in a yard or in station limits you must display one red and one white at both ends.

 

Peter.

With the 14 the lens itself was red on the left so you had no choice of which one to turn on if using the built in lamps.

The lamps are great to etch as even the prototype ones were build from a folded up sheet of metal looking at the drawing for them!

I do like those fishplates - could have done with some like that recently! Presumably attached with a quick dab of the iron, but how do you keep them aligned nicely when attaching them?

Horizontally aligned each side by the way they fit the web, aligned to each other by the positioning of the tweezers between the bolts when they are held in place to sweat on.

The running on Friday was actually powered through these fishplates along which are only soldered to one side of the joint, the other side being a tight sliding fit. Impressive how well it worked actually though i'll soon get around to finishing the droppers on that board and drill some holes underneath to thread the new bus bars through.

windows look very good, don't remember seeing any windows that clean mind!

John Bruce.

Yes don't worry they will eventually be weathered a little where the windscreen wipers don't cover though it was more the flat glass look and lack of fingerprints I polished them up for!

Not as far as I know re the curved window doors Craig. All three versions I have are the square corner so I wasn't aware that Hornby had done the round corner when I did the prototype. Ta for the heads up, I'll have to mention it to him to add on.

 

I agree the opening door 'furniture' does need removing too, I noted that it was obtrusive once the Shawplan windows were in, and also removed the whole of the Hornby glazing which as you say means refitting the internal boxes and details. Did the rest of the glazing fit ok? I'm assuming all Hornby have done is change the door molding ...

I haven't fitted the rest yet Paul though its definately the same cab apart from doors. I looked at my other 08 as i'd thought they were both the same but its a 3250 as you used so I may swap this cab onto that with the doors swapped over for now and look at doing the later type door one again when Brian has done the bits, might have to send him the doors to measure and try while i'm at it.

The door hinges on the bodyside panels are also different, my later one has the internal hinge strapping while the one with square window doors has the external hinges so i'll change bodies as well as cab doors.

I was in the NRM on Saturday looking at their 08 in the tent and noted how large the framing is on the droplight. Hornby hasn't modelled any frame on those windows so I may check with Brian about doing a smaller window with an etched from for those instead. I'll post a picture of what I mean sometime. I also got some detail on the coupling rods and that device fitted to them which seems to be an attachment to a speedo.

Hi Craig

No need - I just wondered if there was a way of taking the bogie apart. So the gear is just loose then?

 

Cheers

Jim

I think they heat weld the two halves together during assembly though you could take them apart if you really wanted to. Probably better to replace the whole thing with brass though if you were going to do anything serious.

Yes currently just loose though its a really snug fit in the hole and the plastic is quite soft stuff anyway. I did try drilling the shaft but got the pilot slightly off so i'll leave getting it correct for now!

I'll spend some time on it when I eventually P4 it but its the 37's this is most applicable to for me.

Hi Craig

 

What bogie is this? I have had a look at my bachy 47 but cant see how you get the bogie apart to get inside to fit the relocated gear.

 

Cheers

Jim

Its one of the original release 47s with the 57 underframe. Mine now has a D1500 body as opposed to the FYE body I swapped with Pixie.

I removed one of the axles of the idler gears then took that gear out and that allows room to put the old gear up into the hole. You need to file down the plastic from each side of the gear before it can be pushed in. This plastic was to take out the slop when fitted to the axle.

I didn't take an intermediate stage picture with the idler gear out but would take it apart again to do so if you want?

The other bogies were BR1's btw. The number series aren't the same.