Jim Martin

Ben

Very interesting. I need to order some more bogies and ferry fittings etches from TPM / ATM soon, so I'll enquire about the u/f mouldings when I do that.

Paul

Thanks. I must admit that I didn't make notes at the start of the project, but it occurred to me that it might be a good idea before it was too late to remember what I'd done. I now have pages and pages of notes and little diagrams. The other three wagons will be built in a single batch, hopefully without going down some of the blind alleys that I've followed with this one.

Jim

Jo

Thanks. I have the MR article with me as a key reference while I'm working, along with a set of drawings that used to be on the SNCF website. These show some differences from the article. In particular, there are two different types and the ones that are 12.29m long overall are shown as having the asymmetrical underframe that I've built into my model. Unfortunately, when you try to get to this page now you just get an SNCF page header and "Erreur 404: cette page n'existe plus". I remember your model well. Have you ever done anything about weathering it? Your eye for colour is so good that I'd be fascinated to see what you made of the browny-grey that the hoods take on.

I've already learned one important lesson here. In my last posting, I said that the lettering panels would be mounted on pads set into the filler. In the event, I decided to fix 30-thou panels (i.e. 10-thou thicker than the hood supports) directly to the structure, thinking that I could sand around them and be left with panels standing slightly proud of the hood. You can see how chunky they look in the photo. This has proved to be a Bad Idea: the panel gets in the way of the sanding and the sanding ruins the definition of the panel edge. I'm cutting off the three panels that can still be removed and replacing them with 20-thou mounting pads, as originally planned. The one that's too deeply embedded to do anything about will be filed down with the filler around it until it becomes a 20-thou pad by default. That'll teach me to try and cut corners.

Jim

Ben

Thanks for the kind comments. I certainly agree with what you say about the wagon sitting level: My KFA, on which slow progress has been made since I posted some photos of it on the old RMWeb, lurches over to one side at the drop of a hat. In truth, that model has some other issues (serious warping, about which I intend to post on the forum once the IHAs are out of the way) which I need to fix first, but once it's finished it'll need very careful ballasting to get it to stay level.

I'm intrigued by the TPM tippler underframes. As well as the IHAs I want to build a pair of JSAs, which are rebuilds of redundant tipplers: what does the TPM u/f consist of? If it's a spine with outriggers that end in those angled tabs that are visible beneath the wagon, then they might save me some time and aggravation.

Started on the hood supports this evening: they're all marked out and the first couple are in place. I should have some photos on Sunday.

Jim

Actually, thinking about it, it will end up a bit taller. The white board only represents the main block. It sits on a ground floor framework of pillars, and then there is a open air viewing top floor by the look of it. So perhaps another two or three inches. I might need to trim a bit off the block.

 

G.

Ah-ha! But won't the track and the signalling centre be sitting on top of a viaduct, which will largely cancel out the increased height of the building, so you won't have to trim anything off it?

Jim

That other building looks like New London Bridge House, if this site's to be believed:

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=3&id=newlondonbridgehouse-london-unitedkingdom

Good luck with this, although I can't imagine that this is the Last Great Project for you. At the speed you work, I'd have thought that you'd have polished off most of central London by the end of the year!

Jim

Having had a look on Google Maps, the real thing looks to be about 200' long. I guess from the proportions of your model - particularly the length of the single-storey bit on the left - that you've reduced it a bit, but it must still be what, a foot long in N?

Jim

Well when I saw the first picture, I thought that it was going to be a Southern "glasshouse" box, but judging from the second photo you're going for something of a more recent vintage. Is this based on a specific prototype?

Jim