Mister Spoons

Absolutely right there Phil; I have just had a quick read-up on this and as a result of high numbers of dewirements in comparison with the trams they replaced a solution was sought - Diddler 26 was trialled with larger trolley wheels the size of dinner plates, which must have looked VERY strange - shame I cannot find a picture of these.... Anyway they proved ineffective and number 14 was fitted with the metal skates with carbon inserts which proved successful, and all existing vehicles were retrofitted with these, and this system was specified for all new vehicles, the first of which were the Phase one vehicles for the 657/667 and the 654, together with the Bexleyheath operation. Apparently when there was adverse weather conditions the carbons needed replacing daily! @ asa, John Lewsey; thanks for the compliments guys, it has been a thoroughly enjoyable build with plenty of challenges, with some still to come; I am starting to look at the motorisation aspect, and although it's not likely to begin before our holidays I have sourced an accurate diagram for my next trolley project which is the L3 class which was latterly used at Fulwell after the Q1's were sold to Spain. All the evidence suggests that most of these were quite battered by the time they arrived at FW in comparison with the K's at Isleworth which had been very well looked-after by their previous keepers.... I have little experience of weathering so may take the soft option of modelling one of the dozen or so L's that were transferred in from Finchley Depot for the last few months, as FY looked after their charges like first-borns..... I've learned a huge amount from building 1058 in terms of techniques and materials that were not available when I built the Brussels car, as well as having a few of those 'If I was going to do this again I'd do it differently' moments.... Ah well, I guess I'd better get my head down and start on the upper deck seats, all twenty of them!

A busy day spent constructing the trolleypoles; these are based on the PC Models/Alan Kirkman OO Scale pole kits but substantially modified to look more like the ones fitted to the K class, and most other UK trolleys. The fret is tiny; and the trolley wheel a microscopic item, I cleaned out the holes that I was going to solder wire into before cutting the parts out, redrilling to 0.6mm to suit my use... These parts are the pole components I am utilising. I had an idea how they would go together and be functional - but basically 'made it up as I went along' The crosspieces added; I looked at pics of the roofgear on the real thing and of the Russian diecast which look pretty effective Assembling the pole and the swivelling base together.... Once assembled the poles were painted all over with Gun Blue which blackens the metal chemically; they will need a few treatments as the effect is a touch patchy, but I thought that using paint may clog the springs and thought this might be effective The eyes on the long end of the springs were soldered and drilled to 1.3mm to fit the crosspieces, I'm trying to source springs with smaller eyes.... The main body of the work done, just the trolleyheads to go..... Trolleybuses generally used skids rather than wheels; I've used the wheel but only a a guide where to file the groove that would/will carry the wire. This was a very fiddly procedure and being so small the solder joints would melt when adding parts, even on the lowest setting! Got there in the end though; the wire tails fit down the trolleypoles they are very fine tube, 1.2mm OD and 0.6mm ID, and the loops underneath were used to retrieve the poles in the event of dewirement - each vehicle carried a long bamboo with a hook on the end to facilitate this, slung in a carrier underneath the vehicle. nearing completion, just one trolley head to fit, and then....... Test fitting! Poles up.... And poles down I'll be making a few refinements to the poles, primarily with regard to the springs and crosspieces, I've also fitted the power cable which you can see on the roof, just behind the gantry! A long day but quite fruitful........

That is a very fine piece of work there Pete, clean precise and crisp looking, I don't expect my soldering to look like this......

Cheers for the input there guys; I picked up the kit from Screwfix which has a range of 30-70w equivalent and it does seem a well-made piece of kit with no leakage on filling; if I get along with it building the poles I'll keep an eye on Maplin offers etc, and if I don't get along with it I have always got the tradition electric iron to fall back on.... Thanks again, Mr Spoons

I still waiting for a pack of assorted springs to arrive to construct the trolleypoles, the actual pole kits arrived yesterday and look like a promising basis for what I have in mind; I also ordered some brass rod and tube which arrived this morning 0.4mm brass rod, and 0.6 and 1.2mm tubes, all three will telescope together, and I'm looking at building something like these, which are a 1/43 diecast model of a Moscow trolley, the poles are quite superb and the manufacturers website has some pictures, which along with some sent to me by Bruce Lake (builder of the 4mm scale trolleybus layout called The Ridings)will prove invaluable! Until the springs arrive I can't really start these, so I'm off to Screwfix to get a gas soldering iron kit; does anyone out there have experience of these? Regards Mister Spoons

Continuing with the roof equipment (and putting off the evil moment of assembling all the upper deck seats!) Here's the hooks for the trolleypoles, curved strip of 15thou with brass wire hooks. Airbrushed with Tamiya matt brown acrylic, and seen here with the roof-mounted radio resistors - these are worn-out button cells plundered from the cats laser toy! A few minutes careful rubbing down to get rid of the stamped information on top, followed by a coat of Halfords spray primer then finished with Tamiya flat black from the airbrush.... I really don't think I could have produced these so perfectly from plastikard, and they are spot on in size and thickness.... Trolley hooks test-fitted but not glued; the curved bit is a touch too curved but the glue will hold them in place as the plastikard is quite flexible. The roof equipment, again not glued but shown for effect - I'll not cement the resistors in place until the trolleypoles are built 'just in case', and I'll be adding some cabling too! And the view from the rear - I also added the lever for the emergency exit and what I believe is a grab rail - just above the emergency exit - I assume that this was possibly for the use of repair crews to access the poles but ambling along the planking, but that is pure guessology there, I will have to check with Hugh when I visit him in a couple of weeks....

Just a few bits and bobs accomplished today; the main component being the trolley planks, this is made from some very elderly Slaters Plastikard strips; bought from Harrow Model Shop around 1999! The cross pieces are .060x.060 Evergreen from t'internet!!! The green item is the cab roof, which will also be the upper deck front floor and will have an overlay of planking type plasti as with the lower deck. The two black things are the circuit breakers which are mounted on the cab roof above the drivers head....

HaHa John, I am really enjoying the build, and am definitely looking at building an L3 Only a matter of 12/18 months newer than 1058; but a massive leap in technology - 1058 and its fellow K class vehicles were quite conventional in terms of construction, separate body built on a traditional chassis; the L classes were early examples of chassisless construction and acquitted themselves pretty well, lasting until the final day.... Note the streamlined upper deck front windows, and the radiussing of the side window corners...... so much more going on under the skin though! I already have a 'victim' in mind based on photos in my 'library', but it will not be 1521, the preserved 'last trolleybus'; but a very anonymous long-scrapped vehicle that I can assume ran past the end of my road many times during the last year of its long service life...... Handrails now installed on 1058..... And on the real thing; 1201...... ...and a pic of 1348 as a comparison! A slight difference in bulkhead treatment.

Just a couple of handrails today, the platform bulkhead rail was a real fiddle as the shape has to be spot on, and the knob ends have to fit in the pre-drilled holes at the right angle, I threaded the two knobs on and then formed the rail around them....... Once the shape was right, the knobs were slightly crimped to stop them moving and the rail removed for painting; a coat of matt white followed by a coat of gloss The rear platform rail was simpler Two 0.45mm holes were drilled into the edge of the platform wall (tricky!) and the the rail was bent to suit; I added the feet from .015x.030 styrene strip, and now the rail is painted it looks quite prototypical..... That's all for today as Wallander is starting shortly......

Passengers eye view of 1058; upper deck windows are now all glazed, so I am now waiting for the handrail knobs to arrive and the trolley pole kits, I will be fitting up the cab roof over the weekend and building some seats for 'upstairs' now that 'inside' is complete.... It's quite realistic from the 3/4 perspective.... again I've tried to get a picture as would be seen by a 1/43 person (assuming our cat didn't get him first :-)

December 1962! I would hope that London Transport would have claimed back the 6 full months after abandonment..... I thought that May '62 would be too 'tidy'.

The front end of 1058 is now completely glazed; I used the thin glazing material for the lowers (which actually are a full height window pane) and plugged the droplights in from outside as with the drops on the side windows. Aside from adding wipers and mirrors, and picking out the ventilators over the cabs (using a fine 0.18mm Rotring nib on clear decal film as my hands are not steady enough to draw freehand!) the frontal aspect is finished, I'll leave these small parts until the very end as they are by their nature going to be fragile. I'll also leave the external adverts too as I have concerns about durability and don't want to mess them up by over-handling..... I'll be making up the small items and upper deck seats etc. next as I'm waiting for handrail knobs and to hear back from the supplier of trolleypole kits - these will be adapted to look more authentic for a trolleybus than they make up out of the box.

Nice bit of local colour there about the exported C class vehicles PhilJ W, having seen pictures of ex-London RTs in Ceylon/Sri Lanka in a state of advanced distress like this.... I can imagine that a wood-framed 20-year old trolley would have decayed rapidly especially under attack from voracious termites, the picture I have seen of a C in Georgetown looked quite chipper, but a fresh coat of paint can cover a multitude of sins.....

@ michnich2003; a nice idea there, possibly one for the future and larger scale project - in London and probably elsewhere they attracted the nickname of 'Silent Death', the lack of noise was quite possibly a contributing factor to pedestrian deaths, especially in the wartime blackout! The loudest sounds were the clack of trolleyheads over special overhead work (frogs, etc.)and certainly in London the motor generator set, crews were instructed to turn off the motor generators on terminus layovers particularly in the suburbs, in a spirit of 'good neighbourliness', and when changing crews outside depots. I think a problem would be triggering sounds at appropriate times, random generator and brake compressor sounds would be fairly easy to achieve, but I don't know how overhead noises could be triggered on-vehicle, rather simpler I reckon to have the sound trigger being a tiny gap in the overhead just before a frog, which when bridged by the trolley head would complete the circuit for the 'clack' sound...... I have a huge Aristocraft PCC tram about two feet long, which is very suitable for onboard sound and a few folk have posted videos of their installs on Youtube, worth seeing! @ leopardml2341; a very attractive vehicle there! I wonder why they were rebodied after only six years, do you know? A few Londoners were rebodied but this was generally due to war damage, some 'shorties' (B class 60 seaters) ended up being stretched with new chassis too so the only thing left of the original was the fleet number! A couple of the chassisless vehicles were rebuilt on conventional chassis too. The A-suffix bodies were poorly made of substandard wood which necessitated a rebuild after only a few years to eke out a longer life.... The B and C-suffix were much better and some lasted until April 1960, withdrawn for their non-standardness rather than inadequate construction or materials. Having completed the lower deck seats I have now fitted these, bringing to a close the major construction of the lower deck, there's a few handrails etc to construct and fit, I'm looking at 4mm scale model railway components as such as the shoulderless ones sold by Alan Gibson, which take a 0.45mm wire. Anyway, my method of seat installation... The 'ladder' method.... the outriggers are not as deep as the long pieces to take into account the textured floor planking which as with the full sized vehicle is only fitted in the aisle; the floors either side are a type of lino.... The crosspieces on top are to give the correct tilt to the seats and ensure they are all at 90 degrees to the uprights... the longitudinal part being marked in accordance with the drawing to get the spacing right. Then the seats are added, lining up the outer edges with a metal ruler; I used Revell polystyrene liquid glue in preference to my usual Plastic Weld as it allows for moving components for a while before setting. Once the glue had set the seat bottoms and ladders were painted with Humbrol 67 dark matt grey, apart from the lower edges to allow for a good glue bond to the floor And the view from outside; the yellow strip in the window is the 'Buses for Trolleybuses' poster; the first decal that has beaten our laser printer; it is simply too small to be readable! The effect is ok though. The seat ladders are not noticeable with the roof on, once the upper deck floor is in place the lower deck will be quite dark and the seat mounts will be invisible..... I hope!

and now with added handrails! I used 4 brass picture tacks and drew a line between pairs, thus getting two rails per 'circuit', all identical-ish! not perfect by any means but pretty fair I think; guess it's time to wrap up for tonight as it's a 6am start at work for me tomorrow; and there's a glass of Merlot here with my name on it...... The seats will be mounted on a strip in the style of white-metal bus kits but a bit more subtle; the purpose being to ensure perfect spacing and uniform height and angle, I have the seating plan which shows the location of seats in relation to window pillars - the tops of the handrails on the lower deck are just below window level and stand just above upstairs, and a support will extend beneath each seat from the strip, so the seats are held securely

I've done a little job today that I was not really looking forward to; Lower deck seats completed apart from the top handrails, I refined the technique a bit and saved quite a bit of time. Assembly was done on a homemade jig to ensure the backs are all at the same angle and it seems to have been a success! The problem I experienced with the first couple was the edges of the decal flaking a little on cutting and the difficulty of touching these blemishes in; what I did was touch the blemishes in with a Staedtler Lumocolor fine waterproof marker before soaking off, additionally I coated the seat with PVA and sealed the decal once in position with PVA too. Then any further touching up was done with the marker, in preparation for a coat of matt varnish to complete the job once the PVA has totally dried. The cut-out in the rear seat back is to clear the rear wheel arch which is right-angled where I should have angled it (remember I said earlier in the post that there's some things I'd do differently? That is one of the main ones!) The handrails will be formed on the simplest of jigs - two brass picture tacks bashed into a spare piece of hardwood, with a pencil line to indicate where to cut 'em so in theory they should all be as alike as two peas in the proverbial pod...... We'll see!

The final piece of glazing fitted on the lower deck - nearside cab window cut, fitted and installed! The fit of the front cab windows is pretty good I think; the overhang looks right when viewed from this angle compared with poor old 1499 above..... Time to hang up the Excel knife for the day as I have to collect Mrs. S from Acton shortly; sadly no 655's to Clapham, or 660's and the only 607's are the limited stop service to Uxbridge!

Just a catch-up picture - this shows the miniature posters over the windows, installed on the lower deck t'other day. They are reductions of the real thing! These are the strip posters that LT applied in the last few weeks of trolley operation; I have no idea if the wording is 100% correct but I can't find an original for stage 14 but the style and format are correct as they are based on an original poster from stage one, bearing in mind the scale size for this will be around 15mm it should pass, I will be printing these mirror image on clear film and then painting over the words in yellow as these were attached from inside They were pasted into the top of the penultimate window on the nearside, as demonstrated in this rather sad image...

As I said on Thursday I decided that I had to redo the front screens, a couple of hours work Friday evening saw a great improvement, again using dilute PVA to attach the glazing; the lowers took a great deal of time to get right and at close of play I was not satisfied - probably not the best idea to work on 1058 after a long days work....... Saturday morning saw further work, test fittings and much tutting and coffee until The lowers are plugged in from outside and the uppers reworked for an improved fit; there is a very slight gap on the drivers side still but I can use a minute smudge of quick-set epoxy to even it up, lose the microscopic gap that remains, and then a light brush of Humbrol #19 which should not shrink when drying. The glazing was glued using epoxy this time as it is the 'final cut', I could not begin to work out how much time it has taken to get these right, but I thought as the front is the 'face' of 1058 it had to be done to the best of my ability......

Front cab windows are installed now, I am about 75% satisfied with these as I feel that the lowers would be better as a plug as per the rear platform and emergency exit.... There's a slight gap between the uppers and lowers which would be remedied by changing the lowers, and I am not 100% happy with the uppers as the drivers side does not fit perfectly so I could ( and probably will) rework these on Saturday morning..... They are fitted with PVA so hopefully will come out cleanly.

I've added the last two cab components (brake pressure warning system and the 'chunk'-no idea what its function is...) and tried to take a pic of these but they are too small! I have also fitted the lower elements of the front windows (note the tax disc, LT should get 6 month s back on that) and cut the uppers; the red framing is proving a mare, to get it thin, and even on both sides, I have wiped the paint off four times but effort number five is looking good. Using Tamiya acrylics (alcohol-based) for this as they are quick drying and smell of vodka. Once they are fitted I'll post a pic, maybe tonight, more likely tomorrow. I'll be turning attention to roof equipment next.

Last update of the day; the major cab equipment is installed and some of the cab glazing too; I'll be glazing the front lower screens from this sort of perspective with long pointy tweezers - the uppers will have the frame painted on and will be attached from outside as the upper opening section overhangs the lower.... Finally the nearside cab window will be fitted, once some small pieces of gear are placed, the low pressure flag to the left of the panel and a black chunky item on the floor to the right of the changeover switch column. The instrument panel is a photo of the real thing; a little fuzzy and indistinct but as it's only about 6mm across I'm happy with it - also note the poster on the bulkhead, a reduction of the real thing, taken last weekend at EATM. I've also added a variety of similar in-house posters over the interior side windows; pics of these to follow......

A couple of small objects under construction; the cylindrical thingy is the battery/trolley changeover switch; LT trolleys had a bank of batteries allowing them to operate 'off the wires' for a very limited distance; the drivers seat has been built, and the reverser lever added to the seat base, that's the little black lever on the far right - barely visible in the picture below Additionally in the lower picture is the switch panel, this is located over the offside wheelarch and below the front side window, I've laminated two pieces of 80 thou back to back and once the joint completely set I'll file to fit the appropriate location, and fit some representations of the switches etc.... hoping that the thin glazing material will pop through the letter box today so I can complete the cab and glaze it.

That would be Phil Bertram I believe Jeff; I've tried unsuccessfully to get in contact with Phil through an email address on the David Bradley website; if you could locate a current contact mail address for Phil maybe you ask him to get in touch as he built those very credible trolleypoles in 4mm and I'd be interested in picking his brains on the subject

You are spot on there Phil, Walford Arches by Tony Chlad; There was a couple of articles on this in the model press in the mid 90's, and it looked amazing! I've done a quick search for images of this super work but found nothing, although a layout called Ridings also looks wonderful; see here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bruce.lake/Layout+Vehicles/Ridings.htm I've asked the builder of this for some info and invited him here to take a look at 1058