5&9Models

Thanks for the link Burgundy. Full casting article now available, very handy!

Thanks sem34090, and thank you DonB for the motor gearbox suggestion. I'll have a look, order one (or more) and see what I can squeeze it into! Cheers

Thank you. I wrote an article about white metal casting for the Modellers Digest of the Brighton Circle some time ago. I think you're idea is a very good one so I'll see if I can find it and post it on RMWeb...watch this space!

London & Greenwich Railway - Royal William – Part One The London & Greenwich Railway opened for traffic in 1836. Built on approximately four miles of brick arched viaduct, it was the first Railway to serve the Capital. Royal William was L&G No.1, built by Charles Tayleur & Company to Stephenson’s ‘Planet’ design. Although there is a fairly well known tinted drawing of this locomotive, we are lucky to have a drawing from the Vulcan Foundry archives, which confirms (or otherwise) the accuracy of the more familiar image. Combining both sources provides a fairly good guide and certainly enough information to have a go at building a model of this little engine, which in my opinion is a historically significant locomotive and deserves more attention. Scratchbuilding such a small loco in 4mm scale throws up myriad problems to be overcome. The first and most obvious is how to squeeze in a motor and gearbox where it is clear there is ‘nowhere to hide’. Building in EM helps as in 00 gauge the wheels would foul the boiler. I chanced on a small 12v motor and spur gear box on a well-known internet auction site. It was only a few pounds with free delivery from China (if you are prepared to wait a few weeks). The shaft output speed is a mere 100rpm. This may even prove to be too slow in the long run, however, it will not be required to take charge of a top link express so it’s just as well. With a bit of fettling I managed to shoehorn it inside the brass tube boiler with a slot cut in the bottom to accommodate one of the larger spurs and the pinion. A ‘new old stock’ Romford worm and wheel gear set was rescued from the scrap box. The worm was bored out to push fit onto the 3mm output shaft of the gearbox and the pinion sleeved to fit onto a 2mm axle. I don’t know what the reduction ratio is but it’s very crude and needs to be as the gearbox provides all the reduction you could ever wish for. I expect if the engine was set against a snail in a race it would lose by some margin. The second obvious sticking point was the wheels. The spokes are round, straight and sport a small decorative ball about half way along each one. Cleary proprietary wheels would not do, but could at least provide a steel tyre. I started with a driving wheel at 5ft dia., or 20mm in 4mm scale. A 2mm axle bearing was used as a hub to which twenty 0.7mm brass wire spokes were soldered. I then threaded a small nut and bolt through the centre and mounted it in a drill chuck on the lathe. Very gently the spokes were marked at the correct length all round and then trimmed to length. Tiny brass wire rings were made from some wire, which once graced a rather nice bottle of red wine (do they do they to stop the bottle escaping or persuade you to spend more?), and these were threaded on each spoke and spot soldered in place. The rim and tyre of the wheel were butchered from a Gibson driver, the rim being cut from its spokes and filed to take each new spoke before the whole lot was glued in place. Finally the hub was filled with Chavant and the completed wheel, sans tyre, was placed in a mould to be cast in whitemetal. I then turned my attention to the leading wheel. This is 3’ 6” or 14mm with 14 decorative spokes as per the driver. Choosing a small enough hub was a problem so instead I did away with the idea and soldered together a series of V shaped pieces of wire set inside a hand bent rim of the correct diameter to fit inside a steel tyre. These were soldered to a single full length spoke already soldered to the rim. The resulting blob of solder in the middle forms the hub. Under close inspection the spokes don’t quite line up but hidden behind the outside axlebox and frame this will not be an issue. The whole wheel was then clamped in the lathe chuck and the centre drilled out. Once done, the wheel joined the driver in a mould and both were cast in whitemetal. The freshly cast wheels were popped back in the lathe, re-drilled, trued up and generally tinkered with until they ran smooth and true, The final job was to fit them into their steel tyres, de-grease and etch prime. The last job will be to fit nylon insulating bushes to the centre to isolate them from the axle. Pick up will be in the usual way from the back of the tyre. Other major sections of the loco such as the smokebox, firebox, chimney and frames were fabricated in styrene and cast in whitemetal. The need to create as much tractive ballast in such a small engine is paramount and by casting the bigger parts as solid lumps it should help a great deal.

Hi, So sorry, i seem to have completely missed your reply. It sounds really exciting. I've had some Bury Wheels made already and have cast some duplicates in white metal to play with. I'll happily send a set if you want? Chris

Stunning work as always. I guess it doesn't need lots of words to explain it, 'a picture paints a thousand words'. Thanks for sharing.

Lovely! Was it tiling or were they perhaps glazed bricks?

That's looking really good. The sky is very effective and I love the fire. Well done!

Lovely work, super impressed with the windows, they look great. I think the tiles look about right too

Very interesting blog Ian, I've contemplated this method many times but never actually tried it. Looking forward to the painty bit...!

Breathtaking! Absolutely wonderful work, thank you for sharing it.

Lovely work as always Mikkel. They really look the part. Chris

Thanks folks. The earlier blog about the wagon turntables was on 7th Jan 2017. You should find it amongst my older blog posts. Hope that helps.

Thank you Ian! Dave John, if you would like to send me your email, I'll photograph the masters and forward a pic. It's a Highland Railway 8ton 4 plank open wagon. Chris

Thanks very much for your encouraging comments. I've already started on the next loco. Perhaps I'll try a bit by bit blog as it develops.

Thank you. I just love modelling early locos, it's never an easy journey but always worth it. Thankfully this one runs well, my little SER coffee pot is an awful runner, mostly due to the fact it only weighs a few grams and there's nowhere to hide any weight. Hopefully the Bury should be ok, I'm planning to cast most of it as solid lumps! Incidentally, I have some masters for a lovely little Highland Railway wagon. If I get round to making a mould and turning it into a kit it might well suit your layout?

In the Summer 2016 edition of the Brighton Circular I posed a question regarding the identity of a loco illustrated in Samuel Brees' 'Railway Practice' 1846. His claim that the drawing was of London & Croydon Railway locomotive 'Croydon' was clearly an error and thanks to the perpetuation of this mistake by E. L. Ahrons and others, it's identity has never really been queried. Thankfully my article sparked a bit of debate and some excellent responses were written in subsequent Circulars. Unfortunately the conclusion was that we know what this loco was not, but who built it (if it was ever actually built) and the Railway it was built for remain a complete mystery. When I started the model, I was happily convinced it was 'Croydon' built by Rennies for the New Cross incline, and on that basis I determined to complete it. However, now it's somewhat enigmatic and I think I like it even more! The model itself is in 4mm scale to EM standards. Power is by a slightly modified but very sweet running (thanks to the benefits of running it in long before installation) Portescap RG4. The motor is a sliding fit inside the brass tube and veneer boiler, with the gearbox hidden inside the smoke of driving the leading axle. The second axle carries flangeless wheels as per the drawing and the trailing axle and tender wheels are wagon/coach wheels since these are appropriately more dainty than loco/tender wheels: all wheels are Gibson. The frames are cut from brass with 5thou styrene overlays to allow for rivet detailing etc. I confess I struggled a bit with the construction of the motion, the first incarnation was chopped off and started all over again as it never ran smoothly however much I swore at it! The assorted round bits were turned in the lathe, I wouldn't want to tackle a loco like this without one. It all dismantles into sub units; the boiler with motor and gearbox which can be slid out if required. The outside frames with motion and smokebox etc. And the inside frames with the final drive gear, wheels etc. The tender is entirely conjectural. There is no tender illustrated with the original drawings so I made one up (which was great fun by the way) based on standard practice for the period including a lever operated brake which I imagine was almost entirely useless! Sprung buffers and a bunker full of real coke complete the model. The smokebox front is very odd indeed. I've kept to the original drawings which show a convex front bolted all the way around. Either this is a very early attempt at streamlining (unlikely) or simply another error. Surely the cleaner was not expected to undo 48 individual bolts just to brush the tubes?! I completed the model on the last day of 2017 so 2018 is clear for the next loco. This will be a Bury Goods 0-4-0, watch this space....!

Lovely scene! Reckon Nancy could do with a hand cutting that grass.....

Thanks for a very interesting post. I always look forward to your blog posts. Best wishes for Christmas and the new year. Chris

That looks very, very nice indeed! Chris

Thanks Mikkel, Perhaps I need to persuade her to build a layout to go with it. She's actually a very skilled Dolls House modeller so I think she'd make a pretty good job of it too!

I have subsequently been educated by Simon Turner and can now reveal that the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (forerunner of the Grsat Central) was the line the collieries were adjacent to. Apparently the MS&LR fed coal from various collieries in the South Yorks area onto the GNR at Doncaster to be conveyed Southwards etc. Please excuse my hopeless ignorance in these matters, it's a good job I'm giving the wagon away, then I can't be asked any more questions about it!

Ah, excellent question. To be honest I have absolutely no idea. I'll try and find out, if only to spare my own shame...!

A slight departure from my usual 1840s stock, but I was given the masters to cast into a kit and also a set of transfers to go with it, so it seemed rude not to pursue it to completion! The wagon is cast white metal in 4mm scale from some excellent (as always) masters by Simon Turner of the Birghton Circle. I don't profess to know much about South Yorkshire collieries, or the South Yorkshire Coal & Iron Company. The wagon will never run on my layout as it is in fact a Christmas present for my sister since her surname is conveniently Silkstone. I was also given a set of masters and transfers for a Nunnery wagon but that one will have to wait until after Christmas; I don't know any nuns! I thought I'd share it here before it's mounted on a plinth in a little perspex display case. I do appreciate this makes me sound like some evil taxidermist )aka Nicole Kidman in the movie Paddington)?!

Very, very interesting blog as always Ian. They both look to be very handy little power units. As usual you have inspired me to make some time to complete my own current early loco project and get round to updating my blog. Thanks for the inspiration!