RAWRlab

Alright, it's been a long while since I posted here, in regular fashion, but I've finally had an adult job (in rail, who would have guessed) with adult money (hooray) in an adult house (take that, mum) with my partner (who tolerates, but does not appreciate, the trains), and lots has happened in four years. I took my models, made a bunch more, and built a Ffarquhar Station exhibition layout, which I've been posting to Tiktok and Instagram, and have taken on the Melbourne Exhibition Circuit Now, there's lots of posts to make about all of these models, and I will do so over the next little bit for those which I have good photos of the modelling process. For a starter, here's a model not pictured above - Edward: It started life as a mid-2000's Hornby 2P that I got cheaply on FB Marketplace. Noting that Edward, as illustrated in the books, has an LNER-approximate cab and a round firebox. Essentially, a D16 would do the job, but I'm about finding cheap things to make nice here, not paying hundreds for a modern / new D16. This made the mod list per the following: 1. Cut out the bellpaire firebox and replace with a rounded one. 2. Create a new cab with LNER style windows 3. Change the smokebox saddle to match Edward's illustrations Ah, firebox gone! I replaced the void with a cut-down piece of 15mm ID PVC pipe (which had a 21.4mm OD, the exact same as the 2P boiler, how lucky!) and some 5-thou plasticard. I cut the top of the cab off, and fashioned a new top with 20-thou plasicard (10 for the roof, as it bends easier), cutting out the windows as symmetrically as possible across the face of the cab. It's not perfect, but it's good enough. Ain't that the life lesson. I also cut down the smokebox saddle and replaced it with a piece of styrene pipe, which I'd cut into quarters. Somehow, that was the most difficult part of this whole bodge. Then, I puttied the whole mess together and sanded it down. Next was the spray with primer and paint blue. For this, I used vallejo azure blue, applied by brush. I used a tamiya red and black for the rest of the model, and an AK paints yellow for the lettering and numbering. As I've found it difficult to get access to custom transfer in my neck of the world, I've resorted to practicing my hand-painting techniques for lettering, numbering, and lining. Lining is easy-enough to do with masking tape. For letters and numbers, I'll create the bounds using tape, and go free-hand between. The finishing touch was the yellow lining for the windows, and he was done. I've gone for a dual-livery job on this model, and all of my recent models are done similarly. On one side of the model is the above 'technically correct' arrangement of numbers on cabsides / bunkers, and 'NWR' letting on the tender / tanks. On the other side is the recognisable TVS / RWS livery, with a big bold number on the tender / tanks and no 'NWR' lettering present. Hope you enjoyed. I'll post a few more of these modelling journeys in the coming weeks.

I’m also quite surprised that this turned into a jinty vs 57xx debate, because this Jinty was a donor chassis to a freelance body this whole time (yes, it fails the same way with the jinty body on, I tested that!) and I have and love my Bachmann 57xx, so I’m probably just going to source another one and use it’s chassis instead!

back -to-back is now the minimum that the axles got go. I assume that’s something just over 14mm. When the issue first arose, I got out my gauge and increased it from factory settings to standard, but that made everything worse! I should state that before I decreased it, the loco couldn’t do a curve at all, nor the points. I’ve got the crappy Hornby 2nd radius points designed for steamrollers, and the wheels were so fine that the engine had already mounted the frog before the guide rail could contain it. Now it will only derail with a heavy load on the curve, and can actually go the correct way through the points! I’ve had a double check if the wheels and rods against product images and everything has been put on the right way unfortunately. I’ll not that the travel of the axles was particularly stiff to begin with, but there’s nothing necessarily inhibiting it. Maybe some grease would help out to be honest.

Nah not off the axles - that said, it had been run in by myself and was well loved before I used it. the pickups are delicate, but I spent time bending them into the right place, they’re not catching and causing this, nor do they have enough spring in them to stop the axles traversing. All good points though!

Either direction, doesn’t matter. I can re-check the quartering, but the wheels don’t wobble at all when I apply power to the wheels in a loco cradle. And the slow speed is super smooth. I have taken the wheels off the paint them, and I’m thinking that maybe I accidentally switched the leading / trailing wheel when putting the chassis back together. Not that I believe the axles are different, but it could be something to try after checking the quartering.

A sparkling review definitely helps! If there are more people in the same boat, I might just sell mine and buy another when the opportunity comes

Hi all, Recently got a 2nd hand Bachmann Jinty. Multiple sites state that it can handle 2nd radius curves. I have a lot of 2nd radius pointwork and a large 180degree 2nd radius curve on my layout. Low and behold, I get the feller out of the box and onto the track and it goes in a straight line right off the 2nd radius curve. Has anybody else had a similar issue and been able to solve it? I decreased the gauge of the wheels (not modelling any finescale, so I can get away with that!) and that helped sometimes, but he still loves going in a straight line right off the curve especially on the gradient. It almost feels like the wheelbase is too long for 2nd radius, and they didn't give the axles enough play in the chassis. It derails every time on the 2nd radius crossover - and not in the pointwork itself, just at the inflection point. It's also got this issue where it feels like the engine is shorting when the axles are at their maximum displacement of the curve. No idea how or why it's happening, but it'll just stop and no amount of jiggling the wheels about and fixing the contacts will get it to get moving again. Just have to wait until he feels like it. Any help or advice would be much appreciated! Thanks, Alex

Wow SteelandSoot, your painting and modelling has improved so much! I've been checking into this thread for a while and this newest development is incredible. Keep up the solid work!

I, at some stage, acquired a non-operational, BR black mainline pannier tank (early crest, unlined) for spares / repairs. After cutting the dude apart I can suggest that it is unpainted black plastic, although I'm unsure what year the one I have was manufactured. If yours is the same paint job it's likely the same story.

I feel like I should throw out my mechanical engineering degree because I couldn't manage to synthesise the concept of a spacer. You've made me feel rightfully dumb, and I've never been happier to be an idiot. Thank you for the solution!

Nah runs terribly The drivers lock up, and I think it's got to do with spare amount shaft on the crank pin, which lets the connecting rods move laterally too much. This is due to removing all of the reversing/valve gear and the connecting rod to the rear wheel. Not really sure how to remedy, as I don't know how to cut the pin but keep the thread. I'm waiting for an affordable 4-6-0, motorised on the centre driver, to come up on Ebay. If I pull out the rear driving wheel and replace with a trailing wheel, then I'll have a loco-driven 4-4-2, and hopefully that will solve all of my problems Also looking for a cheap loco-driven 9F to come up to make a 2-10-4 tank engine like recently appeared in the pug-bash thread. Not much 2nd hand model rail activity in Aus at the moment though, so patience is my virtue.

Hi John, I claim little expertise compared to some members of this board, but I do have a piece of advice for making a new roof: Once you've cut a piece of plasticcard to the right size, get the curry tin again, and this time tape the piece on the outside, making sure that it's fully taped down around every edge. Then you can pour the boiling water inside the tin. The metal on the surface will get hot and conform the card to the curve of the tin, and you don't have to scold your hands to hold it down. You can replace the water when it gets cold, but it shouldn't take more than 2-3 hours for a good set this way Here's a diagram for clarity: Best of luck! Alex.

That's an interesting and well-thought-out plan to scrape together some custom locos with a purpose. I'll be watching keenly.

Whilst I wait for my James 3D print, I thought of what project I could do to keep things moving. I uncovered in my collection a wagon that I'd mostly forgotten about - a chibi SR utility van to match the aesthetic of the vans seen in the Thomas TV show. Here is the wagon that I uncovered (from an earlier photo in this thread) It was pretty toy like, made of thin, pre-scored plastic, seemed to be of dubious quality and proportions, not to mention the detail. I figured that my skills have come a considerable way since then, so I should try the whole endeavour again! I used a few reference images, with the essence of this carriage in mind; The main issue is that I don't know enough plastic-bending techniques to make the distinctive SR rooves, so I had to settle for a regularly curved roof. Using mainly 1mm thick plasticard, a knife for scoring, and staples for metal details, I came up with this: Which, with a bit of paint in the 'hull red' livery, sand brown roof, and red upper frames, came to this final product: I think the two models are a world apart mainly due to my accumulation of tools over the years. I have better knives to cut the card, a collection of files to create better edges, better glues to bond different materials, and a better idea of how to use all of them. I'm now very proud of my chibi-SR-utility van

Thanks for the pictures, that's super informative! I recon I'll covert the brakevan to a 2 axle set-up, but I'll definitely give that 3 axle set-up a go when I have some better tools for making wheel bases. (it can be difficult in Australia to get OO gauge parts like axle boxes, Wframes, bears, etc.)

Looks like we both had the same idea! (If that's yours, SkinnyLinny). Well, the cab section of it certainly worked, but I made a three-wheeled base that can derail itself on straight track, so I've got to re-think the chassis a bit. For an update anyway, I printed James, but the model was a little too tall and didn't fit on the chassis perfectly, so I re-designed the inside and reduced the cab height. Hopefully it all goes together nicely on the reprint.

I don't think I've ever seen anybody model this period of VR history (interesting also, is that I've also not come across a layout or modeller using EM to pull of the broad gauge for VR), and man are you pulling it off beautifully! Fantastic work so far

These new additions make the whole fleet quite expansive! So with a fleet this big...I might need a bigger engine. I had an old Bachmann 43xx which I've had rotting in my house for near on 8 years without being used. Taking off the main connecting rod and pistons...I think you can all see what this is going... and where's its already gone. I'm dipping my toes into my first foray of 3D printing. I'm worried that the model will be too tall, because the motor is already mounted high up on the chassis, but we'll just have to see how it comes together in the end!

Okay, so a bit of work has gone on, and I'll let the pictures do the talking over a few posts: Firstly, I decided to make another of my birdcage-style brake vans, this time on an old honrby BR 20T brake van chassis (foreground). I also lowered the cage roof on the original van, to be more realistic (background). Still have to touch up the paint on the modifications. Both have been weathered. Next, I had an ebay order come in, for 6 triang 7 plank wagons. I got the whole lot for $50 AUD, which is a serious steal over here. The ambition was to turn 3 in Ffarquhar quarry wagons, and 3 into NWR coal wagons. First I removed the couplings and wheels, and sanded down the chassis bottoms. Then I did primer. Then paint and lettering. The goal for each wagon was to have them each unique. So there were different combinations of inside colouration initially, and different lettering styles. The main differences were drawn in the weathering though. For each set of three there was a 'new' wagon, a 'moderately used' wagon, and a 'throw it in the trash' wagon. The strange brakevan seen on the right side was an experimental project. It didn't work...don't look at it. Firstly the quarry wagons: It was only at the point of gluing down the stones that I realised that wagons leaving a quarry would have cut stones. Lets not dwell on that. And the NWR coal wagons. Pictured also is the very original NWR wagon, which I took the old load out of and replaced with wooden planks for a bit of variety. Also added to the fleet was this old thing, the first ever wagon I repainted back around 2011 or so. Underneath is a Hornby Typhoon Tea wagon covered in a very thin vaneer of white paint. I weathered it up, gave it some black lettering, and now its good to go with the rest!

Looking forward to seeing the progress, and especially seeing how you've achieved the effects that make your right-hand pannier look so convincing! It's a great-looking locomotive.

I really like this idea - it's the kind of stuff that I trawl this board in search of. I do think, however, the front-heavy aesthetic of the loco could be retained with a little less overhang. Here's a bad MS-paint mockup to show how I think you could retain the look you're going for, whilst also making a probable-looking locomotive: This would involve cutting down the boiler and sticking the smokebox back on, as well as chopping off the running plate past the pistons and sticking the buffer beam on. Given that the buffer beam is hanging down from a relatively high running board, this could open you up to just extending it down well past the pistons, giving that wasp-stripe, big flat-face buffer beam like Austerities or Diesel shunters. Just a thought.

Spoiler alert, it wasn't loco weathering which came next. I decided to add coal to my empty wagons. I only had brown ballast - so yes, critique my impatience to going out and buying some better coloured fake-coal - I put the brown ballast in and applied glue. I'll paint it black once it's set, and hopefully it'll look right. Next thing, I found an old Hornby "Adler & Allan" wagon (you know the one, it has the gimmick of the opening wagon end to tip the coal. Seemed very fun when I was twelve) which had some cut up triang rail sleepers glued in for coal. Well, it was such a shame that there wasn't even time to take a picture. I had the idea to create a Ffarquhar Quarry Company wagon, and I had some gravel down the side-yard which would play the part of stone, so that's what I did. Yes, the glue is still wet on the stones. I hope that the ballast method of "spray water with a bit of dishwashing liquid, then drench in 3/4water to 1/4PVA" works for big gravel rocks! It makes me wish that I painted the NWR stock in grey, because the weathering actually shows up here! That hull-red is just a little too dark for anything I know how to do to show up. Cheers for checking in!

And it's all painted up! I've weathered the other stock. I still have to fix the lettering on this van, so I've left in unweathered for now. And now here's some bonus shots of all of my NWR stock. I've spent my time-waiting-for-paint-to-dry by fitting kadees to everything. My third choice of engine to make would always be James, but I think I'm hearing a nice little Ffaquhar layout coming on (when I have the space...a few years away), so maybe a Toby is a better idea. We'll see. And the two new wagons together Thanks for riding on this bodge journey. I'm not sure what'll come next - probably loco weathering, but I'm nervous to try it. Thanks for reading!

A quick update: I finished the construction of the Z guards van. To create the roof, I taped a size-cut piece of plasticard to a cylindrical glass jar full of water from the kettle, and left it there for a few hours. Boy, does that method work a treat. The plastic kept its new form, and the roof was very easy to put together. Next I spent my time adding details. I used staples for the handrails which run the van, bits of styrene strip for the rails on the face, and those on the roof. I got the buffers from a broken wagon chassis, and eventually added a skirt of steps to run the length of the van. I also added a chimney, which was cut down from some sort of detail on the bottom of the American coal hopper from which the bogies came. I made some grilles from scored card, too. Sprayed it in primer, and bam: Not bhed. Now just to paint her up.

I love the streamlined S classes, it’s a shame that none made it to preservation because they’re the epitome of Art Deco elegance that Melbourne had to offer.