pbkloss

In a previous post called 'modelling again' I described the trials of detailing a pair of Airfix Inter District LMS non corridors (now made in kit form by Dapol), tackled just before a house move. Now having moved, some modeling has resumed in the midst of the necessary work after moving in. So first in the queue was the local train..... Almost finished, I discovered that the underframes were the wrong way round on both coaches. This I found by looking at prototype photos in 'Modellers and enthusiasts guide to the Somerset and Dorset line' (Brian McDermott, pub. Patrick Stephens) photos on page 25 and 30. Not a quick job as reversing the underframe on each one meant that the bodies and the interiors needed cutouts in the floor at the reversed end to clear some Roco 40344 close coupling devices that I was trialling as inter set couplings at the inner ends of the set. (Because these were set at buffer beam height to clear the bogies they fouled the floor - I had already made the cut outs at the 'wrong' ends). Having done this they are back together and just need a coupling bar between to join the two. Outer end couplings are Dingham. Two photos show them with ex Bath GP Jinty 47465 posed on my test track.

Worse still -both under frames are the wrong way round :-( (from the same photo)

Aargh -looking at 'a modellers guide to the Somerset and Dorset' - it looks like I've got the brake underframe the wrong way round :-( ....this is from a photo at BGP of a two set made from inter-district coaches taken in 1954

Now mainly trains has ceased business anyone know if someone else has taken over production of their really useful etched parts?

(A repeat of my very recent Bachmann BCK entry by way of introduction ...) Whilst waiting to move house I've been doing a little modelling. I've temporarily abandoned my partly finished B-Set and turned my attention to a Bachmann maroon Mk1 BSK I bought partly disassembled at the last Expo EM member sales. This was supplied with a TSO interior but for the price I thought I can make a replacement interior - and its taken till now to start on it. The BSK is meant to be one end of a maroon named train set - the 'Pines' or the 'Devonian' for my location and period. So I've first decided to build the Interior before re-wheeling for P4 and changing the couplings. As mentioned in the BCK post, I used the BCK interior as a template for the BSK interior. This gave me the floor size, where the compartment wall cut-outs had to go and a rough idea of the guard's compartment layout. For more information I've been looking hard at the mass of information in excellent BR Mk.1 coach Yahoo E-list. I've found out so much, including many photos to help me build the interior. I've also used Google searches for Mk.1 coach interior and Mk.1 toilet interior (!) which has yielded useful images. I bought a second hand copy at the NYMR bookshop of the Ian Allan ABC for Hauled stock and emus 1958 edition which gave me pictures, numbers and (very small) diagrams for each Mk.1 type. I've since found via the Yahoo E-List more info on coach numbers, lot numbers, build dates and diagram books for download! All the info needed to choose numbers for a set running in the summer of 1961 (my modelling period). So, in the main, my Mk1s will be on B1 bogies and will have single glazed windows with some rare exceptions of coaches built in late 1960 / early 61 ... Enough of the Intro. Here are some photos of construction out of plasticard ... Here are some of the parts cut out .... and a shot taken during assembly ... now with all the seats built: with seats painted: A first attempt at building the luggage compartment using lint as the mesh - not successful and replaced! A second attempt with mesh from an 'organza' bag before painting now painted and guards compartment detailed .... the compartment side ... Now a view from the outside, organza gauze visible!: Here is a shot to show the white paint scraped off the 'frosted' windows, (lower) cf original white paint on BCK side (upper) viewed from the outside of an assembled coach: seen from the compartment side: (note the desk showing through the frosted window) Now a view of the compartments from the corridor side and from the compartment side, lining needs repairing!!:

Whilst waiting to move house I've been doing a little modelling. I've temporarily abandoned my partly finished B-Set and turned my attention to a Bachmann maroon Mk1 BSK I bought partly disassembled at the last Expo EM member sales. This was supplied with a TSO interior but for the price I thought I can make a replacement interior - and its taken till now to start on it. The BSK is meant to be one end of a maroon named train set - the 'Pines' or the 'Devonian' for my location and period. For the other end I recently bought a Bachmann maroon Mk1 BCK and I thought - I can use its interior as a template for the BSK interior. Well was I disappointed. I allowed for the fact that the interior would be vastly simplified - but not that the 2nd class compartment spacing was completely wrong! Looking hard through the corridor side windows it was obvious that the 2nd compartments appeared shifted to the right. Disassembling the coach and taking a ruler to the offending interior the problem appeared - the toilet compartment was too big by about 4.5mm, and each second compartment was 1.5mm (approx) too narrow. So - out came the razor saw and the knife. I've cut the two left most (from corridor side) corridor wall section out, separated them and inserted plasticard strip to increase the spacing. I've cut the corresponding amount off the toilet compartment to the right (from corridor side). Then glued the lot back together - and now they line up! And I've also filed much wider the corridor wall door windows, in the interior moulding they are much too narrow. I'ver also cut out the guard's compartment partition windows and made openings in the luggage compartment corridor partition and stuck mesh across the holes. Now, totally OTT and OCD, I'm going to detail the compartment interiors with remade arm rests, (to all the compartments as I'm renumbering from a WR to a LMR example), headrest 'wings' in the first compartments, mirrors and a vague representation of the reading lights.I'll detail the guard's compartment. I have scraped the white paint off the toilet and guard's 'frosted' windows, leaving a frosted effect so the toilet sinks and the guard's compartment desk will be visible as they are in the earlier builds. I'll paint the interior. I'm contemplating glazing the corridor partition so First and no smoking labels can be put on the corridor side compartment windows ... so here are some photos of the work so far ... corridor side partly dismantled: corridor wall in bits ... corridor wall reassembled .... Now when viewed through the corridor side windows the compartments line up!! More to follow!!

So here are the photos of 3650 with all those bright metal bits painted: Front 3/4 view fireman's side: Rear 3/4 view fireman's side: Front 3/4 view driver's side: Just maybe crew to add - it looks odd when it moves with an empty cab ....

I've made some progress on putting the final details (I hope) to my model of 3650, a BR period P4 conversion based on the Bachmann 57XX GW Pannier with an 8750 cab swapped from a K's kit. Fellow blogger Ullypug suggested that adding the sander operating levers at the front was worthwhile as they were so prominent a feature. Looking at the model at that stage I realised there were at least four other prominent features I had missed or needed to change: (1) the handrail at footplate level above the front step (2) the front lamp irons (3) the front windows (4) the bunker side hand rail on the fireman's side (5) replacement sprung buffers, actually Bachmann spares (plastic). Plus - I was not happy with the brake pull rods recycled from the original chassis so I replaced them with a brass version from a Perseverance Pannier chassis kit, (as I'll be turning that chassis into a 1854 Pannier chassis which had bent brake pull rods - a future project!). As for the sanding levers, they are bit over scale, from filed down nickel silver etch scrap, but painting them will make them less prominent ... Seems a lot of work on a 'fully detailed' pre-painted body, but then I only paid about £10 - £15 for it so can't complain. Here are some photos taken before painting all that added detail, cruelly enlarged: Fireman's side front 3/4 view Driver's side rear 3/4 view Driver's side front 3/4 view I'll post some more after a touch of dirty black and some red paint on those buffers, after I've added the little steps (sigh) ....

Here is progress quite a while later. I've flush glazed the windows, made frames to hold the window bars and representations of the 'things' behind the bars that look like either the back of shelves or the bars that CCTs had to lock down vehicles. Anyone know which these are? The roof is now retained by the top set of handrails, (Like many Lima model coaches, the roof and glazing are one piece, the roof painted. To accommodate the flush glazing, all the glazing material was removed apart from tabs for retention by the top handrails). To avoid using very small amount of paint, the window bars are white thread and the other 'bars' are unpainted plasticard strip. It seems these bars / strips were white at least in the BR period. The buffers were cut off and the stocks drilled out and MJT 18" heads and springs that MJT sell separately fitted. I haven't filed the buffer tops flat as the prototype, that will be done when I've summoned some extra courage! The photos: Interior shot and roof to show the windows bars frame (20 thou plasticard): Interior and roof top handrails loosened to show new method of releasing roof Now numbered, and top handrails attached. Just need to touch up the handrails .... and with a loco to shunt it ...

Dear All - and in the middle of a house move, decided that some stock needed working on before the move to keep me sane! So I found an old Lima LMS 42 ft CCT I had in a box, partly converted to P4. looking at the other entries here on rmweb it gave me some ideas for a little more work to do - so I added extra strips to the side (as most in the photos on the web have them), replaced the roof vents and am flush glazing the windows, not complete yet - and of course, replaced those little hand brake wheel with a Mainly Trains etched hand wheels. A coat of paint, finishing the glazing and putting in the window bars, re-fixing the roof using the upper handrails as anchors (this another story) and numbering to go! Here is progress quite a while later. I've flush glazed the windows, made frames to hold the window bars and representations of the 'things' behind the bars that look like either the back of shelves or the bars that CCTs had to lock down vehicles. Anyone know which these are? The roof is now retained by the top set of handrails, (Like many Lima model coaches, the roof and glazing are one piece, the roof painted. To accommodate the flush glazing, all the glazing material was removed apart from tabs for retention by the top handrails). To avoid using very small amount of paint, the window bars are white thread and the other 'bars' are unpainted plasticard strip. It seems these bars / strips were white at least in the BR period. The buffers were cut off and the stocks drilled out and MJT 18" heads and springs that MJT sell separately fitted. I haven't filed the buffer tops flat as the prototype, that will be done when I've summoned some extra courage! Still waiting on a touch up of paint and the numbers / load markings. Can anyone tell me if its 8 or 6 tons load(my best guess as I've lost the Railway Modeller article that described them. The photos: Interior shot and roof to show the windows bars frame (20 thou plasticard): Interior and roof top handrails loosened to show new method of releasing roof 3/4 view assembled side view assembled Now numbered, and top handrails attached. Just need to touch up the handrails .... and with a loco to shunt it ...

The later photos are the flush glazed versions with black (ink drawn) bars behind. Methinks a big improvement - rather cruelly enlarged!

sadly now in bits awaiting a house move ... and a dedicated train room!!

After a long break getting ready to move house, I've been able to get at the work bench again. The target - a couple of old Airfix non corridors, modelled on the LMS Inter district stock, to make my 'scratch' S&D local train. My excuse is - there was a pair of Period 2 Inter-district coaches running Bath Green Park to Bristol, they appear in a photo taken at BGP in 1954. From looking at photographs, some of the S&D local formations running from Highbridge to Evercreech had one of these with a more common Stanier or Period II non-corridor. Anyway, they were cheap and worthy of a bit of upgrading. So, under frames and interiors have been detailed, and the bodies flush glazed - only cheap and cheerful SE Finecast, but the appearance is transformed. I'm also using them as a test bed for inter-stock coupling ideas, (how to get a pair of P4 coaches propelled around a 3'6" bend ...) Here are the promised photos - the coach still have a few things to do, not least some more under frame painting and finishing off the numbering, and I hope class / no smoking labels in the windows. I'm not sure how successful they will be in the Se Finecast flush glaze windows both together, need some adjustment to the bogie pivots as you can see they are not straight!! will post some more when complete

I'll soon post a photo of my latest upgrade to this already beautiful model - flush glazing! takes it to another level - with black window bars instead of white too.

I'm amazed that no one pulled me up on my statement about the number of truss rods - its a bit of an obscure topic though! When I looked at the MRJ article on the A28 & A30 auto-trailers, I was gob smacked to see only two (outer) truss rods in the under frame details, because I had assumed (assumptions are bad) that all GWR coach under frames had four trusses ... not so it seems. A hurried search through every photograph in my Russell GWR coaches volume two showed .... two truss rods on every 57' and 61' Collett coach (as far as could be told allowing for the Swindon habit of blanking out backgrounds in official photos which can loose vital details). However FOUR truss rods are a feature of the 70' 1922 stock (understandably its longer and heavier) and the articulated 1925 stock. OK it will be out with the knife when I can bear it :-( ..... (photographic evidence suggests that all 70' stock had four truss rods, 57' and shorter had two in general). Under frame detail - a nightmare!

Oh and funnily enough a (speed) read of the article seems to overlook the issue of the end windows at the luggage end, (but I could have missed that)

I'm happy to say my friend had issue 9 which I've now borrowed. I've read the article and wow what a complicated tale of minor differences between the A28 (which my model should represent) and the A30 (which the Airfix body mostly represents) ... I'll post a view of the changes to my model when I get around to it!

thanks! I'll see if he has it first

I'd love to get a copy but its a long time ago .... any one know the date or MRJ number? I have a friend with a large collection of MRJs so maybe he has it!

One of my earliest conversions to P4 was my attempt to improve my Airfix auto trailer. I elected to try to make it look like the A28 as built in 1929 / 30 which involves pushing the recessed driver's door out to be flush with the body and cutting end windows into the luggage compartment. I swapped the bogies for Airfix 7'. However, I have not done any other work to the very inaccurate under frame - that awaits further work. I've numbered it as 170, which may belong to the previously introduced shorter (59') A27. Painted in 1928 / 29 chocolate and cream with a single 'orange' line (there is conflicting information about the colour of the dividing line introduced soon after the change to simple chocolate & cream in 1927. At first there was no line at all, then a single line - gold or 'orange'? All the handrails are carved off and replaced by wire. Needs flush glazing and new under frame. Springing the long buffers would help, and I have an idea how to do it ... (you may notice that one of the bogies got reversed -the step is meant to be outward!!) side view front 3 quarter view rear 3 quarter view with 517 converted from Airfix auto tank

I kid you not, I attempted to convert a Triang Hymek to P4. Why? because the body is actually close to scale and didn't take too much work to look half decent with wire handrails and SE Finecast flush glazing. The chassis was an entirely different matter. The biggest problem is that the Triang bogies are only a scale 8' 6" long - the prototype had 10' bogies. My solution? Bodge in the power and trailing bogie from a Lima 'Warship' and stretch the cosmetic bogie side frames. Not using the original couplings allowed me to model the air tanks under the ends (a very prominent feature). Still waiting the stainless steel numbers - this will be D7000, the doyen of the class, which uniquely had the buffer beam surrounds painted black - all the rest they were the light shade of green. I'm very happy with the conversion, she runs surprisingly well! Firstly a side on view - sadly the silver paint on the vent frames is wearing off already Then some cruel enlargements of a 3 quarter view: a front on view with all the pipes and air tank

This is my station area under construction - a fictional S&DR terminus at Weston Super Mare built on the site of the 1866 Terminus, which was superseded in 1884 by the opening of the Weston super Mare loop line. In reality it became a goods depot, and remained intact until the 1950s when it lost its overall roof, but then survived into the 60s. Now there is a supermarket on the site. So in my fictional scenario of the S&D building the B&E (Bristol & Exeter) proposed line from Wells to Bleadon junction (the opposite of what actually happened, the B&E building the S&D proposed line to Yatton), this is the S&DJR northern terminus, much better placed than the Bath extension if a lot less scenic and much less hard to work! The B&E had also offered the S&D running powers to Bristol during the various disputes over who would build the Cheddar Valley line. Just imagine if this had actually happened! No need for S&DJR 2-8-0s for example, or the Bath extension could have remained a single track and reserved for local traffic and freight serving the North Somerset coalfield. In fact, even if the B&E had offered running powers, the way Victorian railway politics worked could have meant that the GWR which owned the B&E made the charges so high that the Bath extension got built anyway - look what happened in the disputes between the LNWR & MR over the 'little North Western' which resulted in the Settle & Carlisle. The MR could have got the running powers back during the disputes in the early 1900s over the Bristol & Gloucester line. Goes to show that anything could have happened!! If the Cheddar Valley line became joint between the S&DJR and the GWR, construction of a curve at Shepton Mallet and a North to West connection at Bruton would give the GWR a much quicker route to Weymouth from Bristol. S&DJR trains would need a North to South curve at Wells to avoid reversal. To allow for the extra traffic, the original two platform terminus has been expanded to three long platforms and a bay. An overall roof looking very much like that at Bath Green Park is planned, built against the stone walls of the original terminus. Photo 1 shows the platform area in a BR 1960s period in the steam to diesel transition. Prototype Hymek D7000 (just lacking its numbers) is about to take a short express to Weymouth. In the bay an ex GWR railcar is waiting to follow on a local for Wells. Further left Jinty 47465 had been pressed into working a Glastonbury to Weston local. Pannier 3650 is shunting ecs. Photo 2 is a view over the station throat under construction. left to right the lines are ecs, down main, up main. It is designed so arrivals can use all three main platforms, but departures from the island on the left have to run wrong line for some distance before a crossover to take them back to the 'up' line. The central sidings can only be access by reversal ...

On the left is another 'quicky' P4 conversion using a Gibson conversion pack sold by the EMGS, and the source for the EMGS manual sheet for the conversion. It has been renumbered to 47465, a Bath Green Park loco in the 50s and 60s. On the right the first loco I've ever built, from scratch in plasticard running on a Perseverance etched chassis and Gibson wheels as S&DJR No.24 as running in 1929. If you look you can see the obvious height difference - because I didn't realise when making up the chassis that it was designed for a brass loco with very thin footplate - and my plasticard loco has a footplate over 1mm thick - so a bit more work there to lower the body before I add brake gear. The height is really critical if using Dingham couplings, it needs to be within 0.5mm for them to couple easily. The loco took over 20 years to finish as I began it as a student and then it languished incomplete for many many years! Note the chimney is thicker than the usual 'Jinty' chimney. Looking at the photo HC Casserly took in 1929 at Radstock of No.29 when brand new the chimney doesn't look thin - compare with 47465. some pictures of the Bachmann chassis during conversion

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a go! my 'Weston Super Mare' would be based on the 1866 Terminus given an new spring of life by being used by the S&D ... this is based on the B&E proposal to build a line from Wells to Uphill Junction instead of Yatton - seriously they did in the hope of countering the S&D proposing to build Wells - Yatton, though in the end the B&E built that line! If Wells to Uphill Junction got built the S&D would need a new terminus .... Photos of the 1866 terminus are rare ..... but I would 'rebuild' it with a bigger overall roof which looks remarkably similar to Green Park :-) but keep the stone walls on one side ...

Here is my simple upgrade to a Mainline (now Bachmann?) Period III (Stanier) 50ft Full Brake in BR lined Maroon. P4 conversion running on MJT compensation units, sprung buffers and Dingham couplers (I will have an overall roof so need some kind of auto-coupler). All handrails carved off and replaced with brass wire - question: should they be painted? If so how to get the paint to stick to shiny brass wire? (thinking - metal primers not kind to plastic, don't want to damage the really good paintwork on this model, practically how do I do it?) any hints and tips gratefully received .... The original upgrade with untouched glazing and here is a flush glazed upgrade, using left over SE Finecast windows from their Airfix lav NC window set ...