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Ben Alder

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  1. Ben Alder

    Improving Peco points

    By Ben Alder,


    Category
    For better or worse, I have stuck to 00 gauge all my modelling life, apart from a brief trial of EM about thirty years ago, which foundered on the twin rocks of chassis replacement and point building. I just did not have enough spare time ,or indeed interest in tackling PW, to devote to the hobby to achieve anything worthwhile in a wider gauge, so since then have used C&L plain track and Peco points along with Tracklay underlay. This was covered in a blog entry here- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/62/entry-10836-tracklaying-with-tracklay/ -and I am pleased with both the cosmetic and running qualities of this product. The points however, with their flatbottom rail and vestiges of chairs really showed up in photos, breaking the continuity of flow to the eye.
    So, after some gentle pushing, I decided to apply cosmetic chairs to the points, which has made a considerable visual improvement to them. I posted a thread entry on this work some time ago, and here is a link to it - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/75560-cosmetic-alterations-to-peco-code-75-points/ - which shows the work done, but thought it might be useful to have it here where it might be easier to find. This, and a tidy up of the extra plastic at the business end of the points makes a real difference to the overall look of things. Here are a couple more shots of trackwork to show this.
     
    Edit
     
    Reinstatement of images, in no real order, but better than nothing...
     

     
     
     
     
     
  2. Ben Alder
    The need for a decent UK outline turntable at Thurso was eventually solved by using the kit from LR Models and I thought I would add a few words about it here about it here, not really a blow by blow account but some observations, as it is something that most would build once, I would have thought, and thus have no fall back experience to draw on.
     
    The kit is a nickel silver etch, and obviously well designed and thought through - I encountered no real problems with it, but it does need a good deal of precision and care in assembly in order to function properly, so I approached it with more care than I often apply to stock builds, reading ,and mostly following, the instructions to the letter. They are well written, but need going over a few times to get an overall picture, and might have benefited from a few images for clarity; at least I would have found this useful. However, a bit of searching threw up this topic, which was most helpful in my build.
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97785-london-road-models-50ft-cowan-sheldon-turntable-4mm-kit/
     
    This is what you get in the box, along with sufficient bits and pieces of brass and plasticard to finish it off.
     

     
    The sides are two layers sweated together, and holes are provided to put brass rods through to keep everything aligned. I put everything with Carrs 188 degree solder paste which gave a solid easy join with little extra overrun and was easily cleaned up.
     

     

     
    The table deck and sides are removeable with electrical contact for the rails coming through the pit rail and carrier wheels, so these need to be isolated from the main decking with layers of Plasticard and are attached by screws to allow some degree of adjustment. I had to open out the holes in the carriers slightly to get everything aligned, but this was because I managed to get the holding nuts slightly off position when soldering them in place. Not a big problem, but indicative of the care needed all the way through.
     
    The carriers and the T shaped drive shaft holder and bar that the deck sits on.
     

     
    The carrier wheels as assembled off the etch- layered and soldered together. They then need to be filed down to a finished diameter, and as smooth contact with the rail is critical, I realised that hand finishing was not going to give a consistent surface. Also in view is the box that drops over the brass rod and which the table sides and deck is soldered to.
     

     

     
    Being no engineer, I cobbled this assembly together, and fixing the wheels into the mini drill, I reduced them to the required diameter. Homespun, but it did the job.
     

     

     
    I managed to forget to photo the deck assembly, but it all went together without hitches and the wheels were jiggled to keep in contact with the rails by trial and error. The whole table is held in place on the rod by two bushes that are located at the end of the slot in the box - I was a bit unclear about this from the instructions, but got advice from LRM and LNWRmodeller, which cleared things up. They can be placed either inside or outside the box, with a tiny clearance, as sen in the second photo.
     

     

     
    There is a plastic pit available, which I used. It's fairly flimsy, and I did think of reinforcing the base, but in the event it proved unnecessary A brass bush is placed at the centre and care is needed to get this exact, although the base is marked as a guidance. Then it is a case of fixing the guide rails in place, again to precise placing. I made use of a Metalsmiths jig supplied with his T/T kits - I don't know if LRM supply one, but it would be easy enough to make ones own. Once the first couple of chairs were fixed it was a case of setting and gluing around the circumference two or three chairs at a time, letting them set before the next set glued.I would advise a strong solvent for this - I used one that did not have enough grab - some came away when I cut isolation gaps in the rail later, so Plastiweld was run round them with the jig in place which did the job properly if adding a few days delay to it all.
     

     

     

     
    Eventually it was tested, fettled and fitted on the layout, and the drive motor fitted to the shaft. this is a motor /gearbox combination and gives a slow rotation speed ,but without any indexing. As the table is right in front of me I can align by eye, and is not really proving a drawback. The motor is attached to a strip of brass and screwed to the baseboard as shown.
     
     
     
    This set up took some work to get a smooth rotation, thanks to crossbeams being in exactly the wrong place, resulting in the whole length of the strip being used. I would far rather had the fixing holes much closer together as the strip has too much flex in it, and might need work done to it yet, although it is working well just now. Finally, a couple of shots of it in place, looking quite at home on a branch line.
     
     
     
     
     
    All in all, a pleasure to build, and supplies something that is essential for UK modellers - a pregrouping turntable suitable for secondary services.
    Edit
    Reinstatement of what images I could find, in no particular order, but better than nothing. Hope this is of help to someone...
     

  3. Ben Alder
    I thought I would give a background to the terminus of my new build, which is based on, and called,Thurso- furthest north station in the UK. Using an actual name is of course a hostage to fortune, and some alterations to the layout have been made, but I have endeavoured to retain a degree of fidelity, albeit in the usual,for me, cramped site. The track layout is as it was in steam days, with the exception of the engine shed, which has been placed 180o to the original,and is a two road shed, as opposed to the single prototype. A photo of the model will show the general set up- the goods sidings have been reduced in length to try and keep a sense of proportion and to make shunting more practical.
     
     
     
     
    Some of the historical reasons for the station- a mix of actual and 4mm I'm afraid.....
     
    I have supposed that the construction of the line north of Helmsdale took a different route from reality, and carried on up the coast to Wick, providing a service to the scattered coastal communities- the interior of Caithness and Sutherland being either farmland or empty, to all practical purposes. From there it proceeded to Thurso along the actual route, with a station at Georgemas or nearby- Hoy maybe, to serve Halkirk, the only village along the way apart from Watten, also a mile or so from the railway. Once at Thurso, and over the years, a branch was put in, as was planned, to Scrabster, a port two miles from the town, and very important during the wars. This is still, on the model, rail served and a daily shunt is carried out there.
     
    There were also proposals for a line to Gills Bay, an historical crossing point to Orkney, which would have probably struggled to justify its existence, but an airfield was built at Castletown, a village that had large flagstone works, during the war, and it is interesting to imagine that this was retained as a civil aerodrome post-war, for Thurso, giving an excuse for a passenger service and scope for freight as well.
     
    The other option is to look west, to Melvich, some dozen miles away and head of the Strath that has Forsinard half way down-where large sheep sales take place each August, and once an important traffic for the railways, and the subject of a planned branch from Forsinard .As, in my world, the railway didn't venture through the emptiness of Sutherland, it would have been logical to put a line from Thurso along the north coast, where there are some small settlements, to Melvich, which could have become the mart site and a railhead for transportation of sale beasts. The building of Dounreay in the fifties along side a Fleet Air Arm airfield could also be a source of rail traffic, so with a stretch of the imagination, there is a lot of operating potential here. I have roughly sketched out where these lines would have gone here.
     

     
    As Thurso outgrew Wick, and generated far more traffic, I am planning having main line trains departing the station with Black Fives and a half train of coaches- to join up at Wick, along the lines of what happened at Georgemas Junction,rather than have the branch engine do the connection as actually happened, with the "proposed" branch passenger work in the hands of older engines, such as a Caley 0-4-4T or a Stanier 2-6-2T, both of which were in service at Thurso over the years. In this part of the world some Highland stock lingered on later than reality, so Small Ben's and Barney 0-6-0's can be seen, alongside some of their Caley replacements such as Pickersgill 4-4-0's and 812 class 0-6-0's. The shed at Thurso would look after their engines on a day to day basis, but Wick would remain as, historically, the larger shed with more facilities and attend to coaling and most engine servicing.The sparse main line passenger services will be added to with some local Thurso/Wick workings, with some of the 4-4-0's as motive power.Rather more intensive workings than the real thing, but IMMR after all! (and I have far too much stock....)
     
    Edit
     
    The layout thread was so compromised by the forum image loss that I closed it and might do something about it if I find the time, but a parallel thread was posted on Your Model Railway, with the same details as here, so the whole story can be found there, if in an attenuated form. Also on Western Thunder from about seven years past, again from now and again. with the same titles.
  4. Ben Alder
    As a companion piece to the other station on the layout, I will lay out the background to Helmsdale, about half way between Wick and Inverness, and an important staging post in steam days. It has the usual two platforms, typical HR goods shed with minimal goods facilities, but most interestingly for modellers, an engine shed where the Dornoch locos were maintained and some elderly pre-group engines were used for banking and PW duties. Until the end of steam, some services started/terminated here, so there was often a Black Five around, and the mail coach and restaurant car were removed from northbound trains, so spells of activity did occur.It was latterly a crew change-over point, but until the Black Fives arrived, with the capacity for a full run to and from the end of the line, engines were changed here on nearly all trains, so with some modellers licence, some extra interest can be added to the workings.
     
    The railway was the employer in Helmsdale- I have seen the figure of seventy quoted, shared between motive power staff, PW, and the usual station requirements. This local site has some interesting photos showing the station in its heyday- http://www.helmsdale.org/station.html - the second one shows a dozen enginemen; the title stating that these are only some of the men from there. Certainly the shed was better equipped than most wayside depots- it had a fitter and boilersmith to attend to the branch engines, washouts and running repairs were looked after, with apparently little need for visits to Inverness.
     
    A couple of photos to set the scene.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I have omitted the main station building and half the platform length to fit the space available, and also to get some openness at the north end, rather than have the whole area filled with platforms- the shed site is as it was but different! Due to the room, I have had to move the turntable further up into the shed area and reposition the sidings somewhat, but it does retain something of the real thing.The shed building was a real one-off - the Highland tended to have "house" styles for their buildings, but this shed conformed to nothing- it was a hotchpot of horizontal weatherboarding and corrugated iron, with seemingly random apertures placed in no order. The roof and vents are often seen in a tattered state and doors appeared and vanished over the years. As a result of this, I decided to not bother with a scale model of the shed as such, but based the model round the Ratio curved roof as used on their coal shelter and carriage shed, and used board and batten as the woodwork, in common with every other HR timber building. This sin apart, all the other buildings are copied from photographs and,apart from some corrected mistakes along the way,are passable replicas of the originals. The turntable at Helmsdale was replaced in 1948 with a 60' model- mine is a Roco model, Anglicized as far as practical due to a lack of a decent UK version.
     
    From my studies of this station it seems that the shed facilities underwent an upgrade in 1948, with brick messsheds and huts being built, along with the new turntable. The mess shed is similar to those erected by the LMS in 1943 at Aviemore, Tain and Wick to improve conditions for loco crew on lodging turns, and must have been appreciated by the engine crews, but by the time they were built here the need for them had largely vanished, with the increased traffic workings gone, and the long decline of the railways beginning.Post war allocations saw the last of the Small Ben's and latterly one or two of the Pickersgill 4-4-0's here, along with a Caley 0-6-0, and I am broadly going along with this- there is not a lot of scope for what-if's here, although I suppose I could imagine a distillery trip working - Brora has a distillery, and perhaps the brickworks and coal mine might generate some traffic as well.Helmsdale had a fishing fleet at this time- nothing on the scale of Wick or the east coast ports, but there was a loading bank at the south end of the station for fish vans- these would have been attached to through freights, I imagine, but perhaps sometimes a special working might have been needed......
     
    Edit
     The layout thread was so compromised by the forum image loss that I closed it and might do something about it if I find the time, but a parallel thread was posted on Your Model Railway, with the same details as here, so the whole story can be found there, if in an attenuated form. Also on Western Thunder from about seven years past, again from now and again. with the same titles.
  5. Ben Alder

    Bodging Ben Alder

    By Ben Alder,

    An apposite title in both sense, as this is a cobbling together of 54398 Ben Alder, the last Highland Railway 4-4-0, which was withdrawn in 1953 and set aside for preservation, only to be scrapped in 1967 as it had a replacement Caledonian boiler, so was deemed as unworthy of saving. A great loss to the Scottish preservation scene, I'm afraid.
     
    Anyway, in common with a lot of modellers of my generation, I have a stache of whitemetal loco kits dating back thirty odd years, and also painful memories of trying to put them together and then persuading the often laughable lump of metal that passed for a chassis block into a moving object. They were usually configured for an X04 as well, and in my experience, un-runnable. I must add that building engines and chassis is not my forte, and is done only as a means to an end, although I have built two or three Comet ones that worked well enough. These days, however, the current R-T-R puts my efforts to shame.
     
    Over the past few years I have on occasion taken some of these onto the workbench and had a few half-hearted attempts at breathing life in them, but have always given up and packed them away again- my only successes to date being the two Caley tanks- the 0-4-4 and 0-6-0, both of which having commercial chassis. More work has been done on a Caley Pickersgill 4-4-0 using a Hornby T9 chassis, which is quite accurate, but I haven't managed to get it to sit right, and had been sidelined again. Just a while ago I came across Kingfisher 24's gallery (link at bottom of post)of his loco conversions, much along the same vein as myself, but with more output , and include a Small Ben conversion using the T9. This was something that hadn't really clicked with me as the driving wheels are too large and the boiler is about 9mm too long, but his pictures showed he had captured the look of the engine. So, spurred on by this, and the knowledge that I don't have the luxury of letting decades pass by while I decide what to do any longer, the kit and Hornby chassis were taken onto the bench and the butchery began.
     
    The Southern and Highland Drummond 4-4-0's are very similar, fortunately, and the removal of the smokebox and reprofiling of the cab sides went a long way to changing its appearance, and the addition of the kits smokebox and chimney shows the start of a Ben.
     

     

     
    The next stage was to add the boxes to the front splashers and because I wanted to retain the Hornby tender pick-ups, shorten the T9 tender to a more suitable length, as seen in these pics. The cut out piece of the tender is leaning against it in the second picture.
     

     

     
    The tender underframe had to be trimmed back a bit to fit the shortened body.
     

     
    And a view of most of the work done, with it sprayed with black to show any imperfections that needed filling- plenty there . I opted for the engine as it was in the latter half of its life with a Caledonian boiler, so all the original Hornby fittings were removed. The boiler and dome is a casting, so I took the lazy way out and just filed and filled the dome into something approaching a Caley shape.

     
    Getting there- the tender has the kit sideframes fitted to it and my usual Tony Wright loco/tender coupling is in place.
     

     
    The kit smokebox is devoid of rivet detail, and I thought of leaving it like that, but when I posted the first pictures of 54398 up here, the only three people likely to know that immediately spotted their omission , so a remedy had to be applied. This came in the form of Archer transfers of 3D rivets, little bits of resin on a carrier sheet, and designed for the military modelling side of things. The catalogue was very interesting, the levels of detail and precision would put some of the diesel detailers to shame- I took a pass on the human eyeballs sheet for example.However, the rivet sheet is worthwhile, and I can see a lot of uses for it, and here is a shot showing them applied, along with guard irons and pipe attached. I put a coat of Clear on the loco and floated the transfer on while wet and some Microset after, then when dry, matt varnish, followed by more weathering to tone it down. The curved rivets on the front had to be in two's or three's, but it doesn't take long, although I should have taken the paint back to the metal to see what I was doing, as putting black rivets on to a black background was a challenge to my diminishing eyesight, but it was worth doing.
     

     
    Transfers came from Modelmasters, and I put the smokebox number onto a strip of plasticard to provide some relief. A rather crude photo shows the method used.
     

     
    And finally, the completed conversion on shed, minus the lower half of the front coupling I never noticed before I posted it up here in my layout thread It'll be replaced soon. The only other work to be done is to replace the Hornby drivers with Markits wheels to get rid of those awful traction tyres, and am waiting for these to arrive. I decided to stick to the T9 diameter rather than have a correct size looking lost in the splashers, and just accept the fact that the whole thing is a bit beefy compared to the original, but at least I now have something running rather than living in a cupboard for decades. Whether this is the ruin of two good models or an acceptable compromise depends on ones viewpoint, but I can live with it.
     

     
    Addendum.
     
    The traction tyred axle has been replaced with a plain set of wheels from another T9, and the engine now runs very smoothly. There is enough grip without these tyres for my needs, and it pulls a couple of coaches and eight or nine wagons without any problems. I had to resort to using this method as the axle diameter of the T9 is not a standard- it measures up at c1.6mm- and I did not wish to ruin its good running qualities by my attempts at increasing the diameter. I would have attempted this if it were an enclosed space but as it is a half open one it is beyond my engineering capabilities.
     
    Here is the link to Kingfisher 24'sgallery.
     
    23/2/13 Edit.
     
    Recent work on another Small Ben conversion made me realise that for some reason I had made the sandboxes too large. These have been trimmed down, and now give a more proportioned look to the loco. A photo is included to show the difference.
     

  6. Ben Alder
    The Radial chassis as produced by Hornby and Oxford  has potential to fit several Scottish 4-4-0's with a bit of work. Here is how I adapted some to suit my fleet of locos - I used the Hornby one as a basis  even though it took more work, as the Oxford version shows the motor fitting under the boiler and although this can be altered it meant extra effort so I stuck with what I was familiar with. The wheels of the Radial are 5'7" in diameter - undersize for the widespread 6' variety that several classes had fitted, although over the flanges it does come out at that so a pragmatic fellow could leave them as they were, if they could accept the protruding bosses that the Radial has on them, as seen here. Unfortunately there is insufficient clearance  behind the splashers of HR locos for these so I had to rewheel the chassis - the boss is part of the wheel and I didn't attempt to reduce it but this is something I might play around with using some spare  Radial drivers.
     

     
    The dismantled Hornby chassis.

     

    The small and large protrusions either side of the chassis have to be removed for an inside cylinder model - the smaller ones are left for an outside cylindered version.
     

     
    Done - this also removes part of the motor mount so I glued the motor in place with Evostick and left it to dry for a few days, and this has held well, with no problems during extensive test running. Here is a finished one on the bench. I kept the bogie pick ups and when running will have tender pick up as well, but being firmly in the DC camp I removed all the extraneous wiring and connected direct to the motor. At the moment I am still relying on the sprung pin contact in the chassis for electrical continuity from the drivers while I was fettling it all but will probably hard wire this at a later date now I am satisfied that everything is working well.
     

     
    The driving gear was swapped from the Radial to the Five axle - it is offset on the Radial and so doesn't fully fit over the knurls on the replacement axle but with some Loctite it holds well enough. Due to a lack of Hornby crankpins at the time I used BA screws, cut down, and Markits bogie wheels and as much of the rear of the chassis to suit the body being used was cut away. There is a good deal of trimming away needed from the brake blocks and ideally they should be shifted  a mm or two but the existing fit is a good solid one and I doubted whether any glued one would be as robust so left them alone in situ, in a reduced form.
     
    All in all, a very useful chassis for bodgers, and open to further adjustment as seen here. None of the chassis seen on the bench are as of yet running finished - severe case of modellers inertia - but a Loch class with outside cylinders is , and has proved  a smooth runner. Here it is with its new chassis - it previously had a T9 one which was too large.
     

  7. Ben Alder
    Another thing I have been asked about is the painted stonework on the layout. I did show it somewhere in the threads, but it is buried in the depth of the various pages thereof, so I will give it a seperate airing here.
    It is lifted directly from an article Alan Downes had in the MR, I think, some years ago. He described it using enamels and Colron wood dye, which I did initially, but now use acrylics as the layers. Here are a couple of shots of the finished work.
     

     

     
    Now painting a small retaining wall on the recent roadworks. First coat is a sandy shade(originally Humbrol 94 enamel, although I think they do it in acrylic as well)
     

     
    When dry this is given a coat of umber and then wiped with a tissue while wet to remove excess. This is the layer that was originally Colron Georgian dark oak or walnut- I can look out the tin if anyone is interested in the exact shade.

     
    Then, a similar process, but with black acrylic applied and wiped off.
     

     
    Finally, repeated, but with a c30% dilution of cream as above. Usually one coat does, but I sometimes go over it again in places where too much might have been removed or left, until th required effect is achieved.
     

     
    This takes no time at all with acrylics- I left the first coat to dry overnight as it was rather cold in the attic, but the remaining covers were done over an hour or so in between other pottering about. I use a range of acrylics from Miniature Paints, a somewhat obscure brand, but very good, as my main colours for this sort of work as they are fairly thick and opaque. The various stage pictures show the colours relecting light differently, as I didn't think of taking them from the same angle , but the general idea is there.
  8. Ben Alder
    Tried my best to ignore CofT, but the various images here were too much to resist, so on the basis that it ran in Scotland in the 50's and that I saw it at Aviemore on its recent trip One was ordered up. It certainly is a lovely model and I do like the adjustable loco/tender join- tender pick-up is a bonus, and long overdue IMO. This is something that I add to all Bachmann locos as a matter of course and I would like to think that it is to be a standard from now. Certainly its more important to me than an over-detailed cab that is all but invisible when a crew is fitted.I had some problems with de-railing when running tender first, so took it apart and discovered that tho only extra weight in it was the cast coal on the top, which meant a rather high C of G, so this was discarded and lead added to the chassis top. The sockets for Dcc were removed to give a flatter base for the lead and this now runs perfectly.Looking at various You Tubes and stills of the current engine and applying the 3' rule led me to paint over the bright handrails- it was just too toytrainish for my eyes- and a very light dry-brushing was applied to the brake gear etc. Smoke box,roof and running plates were toned down with an acrylic mix, and it is now in service on excursions and the occasional light train as per ScR's use of HR 103 on the Kyle line.Just what the 60A footplatemen think of the GW's idea of crew comfort remains to be heard!

     
    The socket simplified with pickups and motor leads joined.
     
    Then with lead added.

     
    Next a balsa former for the coal load.

     
     
    Lastly, three shots of the finished job.


     

  9. Ben Alder

    A Caledonian duo

    By Ben Alder,

    Following on from my completion of the Highland 0-6-0's my attention turned to a pair of engines that became a trademark of much of the Highland section in its latter days of steam- A Pickersgill 4-4-0 and a Macintosh 0-6-0, both of which proved very useful additions to the motive power department and which stayed till dieselisation.Once again, these are venerable white metal kits from Nucast and DJH respectively, and have been unavailable for some time now, but were part of my strategic reserve of models for the area in case R-T-R versions weren't released Well, it has proved a wise move and I am working through them methodically now. The double build of the previous two proved quite practical, so I decided to build these side by side as well, which seems to work for me- any hiccups with one can be puzzled over whilst attending to the other, rather than packing the problem away as was often the case before.
     
    It dawned on me that this burst of activity is the first time I have built WM kits for nearly forty years and most of them are of the same vintage, with many of the attendant quirks that characterised these releases, but different standards and expectations were the order of the day then.
    One great step forward though for me has been to finally master white metal soldering, and most of the construction of these two has been this way, and very enjoyable it has been too....
     
    To the models- the 4-4-0 had been started before and packed away at least twice, wheras the 0-6-0 was a straight build from the untouched kit. A look at the boiler and footplate casting as it came- at least it is a fairly solid base to work from- the HR footplate was very flimsy and twisted at the slightest provocation.
     

     

     
    As before, R-T-R chassis were used, a T9 for the bogie and a Bachmann pannier for the 0-6-0. The T9 was almost an exact fit but the other is a bit of a compromise, and involved hefty carving away from the splashers and footplate to get the coupling rods to revolve freely. Fortunately the thickness of the castings and the generous clearance allowances for the coarser original Romfords made this possible. The pannier drivers are also a bit underscale as well, but to the eye on the layout it passes as acceptable.
     

     
    The 0-6-0 body ready for motor fitting- a small amount of filing and trimming back of the firebox area was needed, but compared to the amount needed on the smaller boilered HR ones this was one of the easier bits of construction.
     

     
     
     
    Assembly proceeded, with much perusing of images of the two types, and use of my trio of solder, superglue and 90 second epoxy can be seen in this photo. I found epoxy handy in boiler and fittings fixings- things like domes and chimneys could be tweaked into the correct position while the glue sets. However, problems soon appeared with both engines. The bogie engine turned out to be squint, with one footplate half leading the other by a mm or so, but showing up as out of squares all over the engine. Now, I don't know if it was a casting fault or a built in mistake by myself in the original gluing together, but the whole assembly had to be dismantled. I thought I might lose the whole casting, but to my relief it came apart more or less intact.
     

     
    It was from here on that the soldering iron became the preferred tool of choice as I discovered the hole filling properties of 70o solder and lashings of Powerflux, and the home made extractor fan started earning its keep. I managed to square up the chassis and after that there was little to note of with the 4-4-0. Everything went together with little problem apart from getting things square and in the right place, which involves studying pictures of the real thing as the instructions were of little use except to photograph WIP on
     
    Eventually body work reached a basically intact state and much buffing and cleaning was done to get rid of decades of oxidation and general grime, and then work started on the tenders.
     

     
    The two types had a plethora of pipes and fittings on them, esp. the bogie and I decided to make at least a representation of this on the bodies. Fortunately, both types have been well photographed in colour, so much poring over the like of Keith Pirt's Scottish volumes and others was done. It turns out that hardly any two had the same arrangement, so I did enough to pass muster although I basically used specific pictures of 57585 and 54491 as prototypes.The bogie engines had Westinghouse brakes, as did some 0-6-0's, but 57585 wasn't fitted as such, at least in my period.Two views of the bogie loco with pipework here.
     

     

     
    As an aside- the cab backhead casting- an example of 1970's detailing
     

     
    When I started the tenders it became obvious that there was something far wrong with the 0-6-0's one. Here it is as supplied and tacked together
     

     
    and after modification.
     

     
    Starting with a complete ignorance of CR locos, I soon discovered what a minefield this subject can be- lots of variations on a theme, usually blithely dismissed under the catch-all phrase of Jumbos. They seem to have had common access to tenders and fittings, and trying to pin down what went where proved too much work for a one-off job. I finally settled for 57585 which had steam and vacuum fittings and a smaller tender than that supplied. This was achieved by cutting down the existing one and using a strip of plasticard to pass as a patch repair that lots had to disguise any rough bits. The tendertop flare was sadly underdone as well, so much filing away of metal and some brutal bending of now very thin WM was needed to remedy this.
     

     

     
    Eventually, with this cured, progress was uneventful and tenders were ready for priming.
     

     

     
    I decided to model 54491 with the cab doors closed- a rarely seen feature of the real thing, but as there is a lot of chassis showing in the cab I thought this might disguise things a bit. I also added rolled up cab weathersheeting, which can just be seen in some of the layout photos.
     

     
    One final hiccup with the 0-6-0 showed up after priming- despite looking at dozens of images of the real thing I had glued on the chimney supplied with the kit at the start of the build, but only noticed its apalling shape at a very late date. It can be seen in this image.
     

     
    and in this workbench shot, where a prototype pic is in the background. Anyway, a replacement CR one was found and fitted.
     

     
    They had two coats of Humbrol acrylic primer and three of GW Chaos Black, with 54491 then lined out with Pressfix transfers. Weathering was confined to a dusting of well thinned Humbrol no.79 through the airbrush for this one, and 57585 received the same then about ten following coats of variations of browns, greys and black added to the basic mixture till it had a subtle mixture of shades passed over lightly to give a well worn look.
    At the time of writing I still have to tidy up the cab numbering of 57585- a gloss varnish adhesive base still shows up in photos, and needs some disguising.
     
    Lastly, a couple of the engines in action during their running-in turns.It was an interesting build and has given me two useful specific engines to add to a growing more accurate roster.
     

     

     

     
    November 2013- addendum.
     
    The Bachmann chassis as originally fitted was too far out, even for my lax approach to the odd mm or two, so has been replaced with a C class version, which is more or less the correct spacings. Additional work was also done to the body work after even more shortcomings were noticed with this kit. A copy of a booklet covering the restoration of 828 showed up errors in cab cutout shape and spectacle glasses. The attached photos show this,so a bit more filing was called for to remedy things.
     

     

     

     
    Replacing the chassis involved some butchery in the cab area as the motor is set further back than the pannier, so a spare T9 backplate was fitted to hide this. Brutal stuff at this stage, but its amazing what a coat of paint can disguise....

     

     
    And finally, in service and looking a bit more like a 812....
     

     
    Addendum Dec 2017
     
    To bring this up to date, I eventually tired of the flaws in the 0-6-0 and with the advent of the Hornby 700 did a rebuild of this loco into a more presentable CR 812. The original 57585 had its chassis removed and the kit one built without a motor and the loco went to an elderly gentleman who had an interest in Thurso based engines to spend its retirement in a display case alongside other 60D residents. He has since died but the family are retaining the collection as a memory of their father. Here is a shot of the replacement conversion at work. It has since this photo had a replacement chimney fitted.
     

  10. Ben Alder
    As part of my backwards motive power movement my attention turned to the Highland 0-6-0 "Barney" class- very similar to those other Drummond locos on the CR and their Southern cousins, the 700 class. These engines were part of the Highland scene for the first half of the last century, but suffered from a mass transfer of the last survivors to the Glasgow area in 1946, in exchange for the Caley version that saw out steam here. So, another bit of modellers licence involved here again, I'm afraid.
    I had originally started one of these kits about twenty five years ago, and made a complete mess of it, but fortunately it was my sole attempt at WM soldering, so it proved salvageable, much to my suprise. I had been looking out for another one of these over the years, and a couple of months ago one appeared here in classifieds, and was promptly snatched up. My delight at securing such a supposed rarity was tempered when I discovered a 2003 date inside it and a visit to the DJH site showed that it was still available , but nevertheless it was enough to get me going after my Ben alterations.
     
    What follows proves I am not an engineer and in fact perhaps shoudn't be shown to the world at all but it has enabled me to get another two engines going.I have built chassis for engines before through necessity, but the current R-T-R releases are far better than my abilities to match, so Bachmann pannier ones were used as the driving force. They have dimensional differences but I am going to live with that, as I have stopped fretting about the odd mm or two in the wrong place.
     
    In my searches for a lost something I came across one of my builds- most of the four or five others were disposed of, but I kept this one for sentiment- the Mainline original that created such a stir when it first appeared. It has a compensated beam chassis and watching the wheels adjust to any track irregularitaries still gives me pleasure at my efforts.
     

     
    When I got the new kit I delved into the the recesses and dug out my previous effort- it was badly built and had suffered somewhat in kicking around the cupboard, and my original plan was to scavenge it for fittings for the Ben, which then turned into a rebuild with a plasticard footplate, but after a good soak in boiling water most of it came apart and I realised that the model was in fact still buildable, at least to my standards The following pictures will show what ensued. As it was found, after soaking, and with the footplate resoldered.
     


     


     
    A rough trial to see if the chassis would fit inside the body- it did by turning the motor vertically and much filing and widening of the firebox, but it isn't obvious in the finished state.
     

     
    After that work was straightforward, assembly a mix of solder, superglue and epoxy, with most of the effort going into filling and smoothing, until they reached a more or less satisfactory state.
     

     
    A good scrub with Jif and a coat or two of GamesWorkshop Black spray saw them ready for the finishing touches.
     

     

     
    The original tender was made up with the end bearing Romfords in place so I left it as was, and it runs OK, but the newer one had a Comet sub chassis fitted. As of now, I have broken the habit of many years and not fitted tender pickups, but this may yet be done. A crew was added to both engines- the one shown is, IIR, an American white metal pair that have been lying around for years.
     

     

     
    The tender was coaled on both with a lump of Das clay as a former and then covered with coal
     

     
    Alterations to the chassis- motor turned in its cradle, thanks to a topic in forum that alerted me to the possibilities of this chassis, and the outside brake rods removed with a hint of cross rods and some crudely shaped guard irons to finish it off.
     

     
    I didn't take any shots of them in plain black, but hereis one of 54398 to give an idea of before.
     

     
    Weathering was the usual drybrushing of underframe grime colours and various shades of grey on the footplate, smokebox and cab roof and tender top, folowed by airbrushing of layers of diluted acrylics in different mixes to try and give an unkempt look. My start point is Humbrol no.79 followed by about ten or so variations on the original by adding a selection of browns and greys to it and lightly brushing over. This is done with very light coats and can be seen in this shot of a trial burst on a newspaper.
     

     
    There you have it, a photo of watching paint dry Anyway, to finish, a couple of pictures of the running engines. 57695 is the battered original and 57697 is the later one- it has a Caley stovepipe chimney as per the prototype, but none of these engines made it to a crest, and the tenders are wrong for the period- the box at the rear was done away with, but as I've said before, this is Kylesku, not Kyle of Lochalsh, and things turned out differently here.
     

     
     

     
    Well, another collection of compromises, with more to follow, but it has been for me an achievement to at last have smooth running appropriate motive power for the layout after years of taking boxes out of cupboards and putting them back again. These kits may be crude by current standards but we must be grateful for them at all- I have waited in vain for decades for Scottish engines from the R-T-R's, and without these kits I could never have had Highland locos for my layout.
  11. Ben Alder
    The latest incarnation of Hornby's Caley coaches suffer from the drawbacks of their origins; namely a representation of the two preserved coaches attached to their now dated Mk 1 chassis, still with no interior and those brass nuts holding the whole thing together. In the past I have attempted to blend the sides with a more appropriate vehicle, with none too much success, so when the Caley 123 train pack appeared I gave it little attention. It is the same old tooling, and although the engine now has a better motor, it has also acquired traction tyres, which is not a move forwards. However, the decoration is first class, and I got a set with the intention of doing an upgrade to the engine, but came to the conclusion that it was beyond practicallity- not for the first time BTW. The announcement of City of Truro finished any further ideas of modifying 123, but I was pleased with the coaches finish, and decided to do something with them.
     
    What follows now is not for the purists- but it gives me an acceptable coach for a minimum of that most precious ingredient- modelling time- and once again involved my stockpile of old Airfix LMS bodies and chassis. Rather than adjust the length of the body and damage the finish, I decided to leave the body as it was. The first line was to join two Airfix underframes to the correct length, but it proved easier to keep the Hornby chassis and fit Airfix ends and roof, to hopefully give a more pre-grouping feel to the whole thing.

    The coach was dissassembled and all underframe detail removed, and the new ends fitted.

     
    Trying out the new profile roof.
     

     
    A comparative shot of the two diffferent end profiles- I think it does make the character change.
     
    An interior was also added, but I forgot to photograph this before I stuck the roof on, so here is one of a old Mainline coach that is also being titivated- the old Peco kits being used. To be honest, its hardly seen, but I know its there.
     

     
    Two shots of the interiors as seen from outside- it is better than seeing straight through originally.
     

     

     
    Some shots of the finished coaches in service, and showing a before and after comparison as well.
     

     

     

     

     
    As I said, a very crude approach to coachbuilding, but it does make the most of the best bit of the original, the finish. I have been pottering about with some other coaches as well, and these will be here soon.
    Richard
  12. Ben Alder
    A small bit of scenic work has been going on at The Mound, to provide a bit more scope for photography. There was little landscaping in front of the branch line, which limited what I could do with the camera, so an extension was knocked up to hopefully remedy this. In common with other recent work it overhangs the baseboard structures , so is made of Fomeboard for lightness. Once built and braced this is surprisingly robust, and to date has stood up to the usual knocks and bumps with no real damage.
    One or two pictures to set the scene- what existed before, showing the small amount of scenic area. These are real warts and all views, with the layout seen in its squashed reality, so please excuse the mess and cramped conditions.

    And the add-on backscene that I was trying out to add more viewpoints.


     
    Construction is self-explanitory.




     
    The control panel had to be re-sited- each connection needed lenghtened; fortunatally the main controls are at Kyle, which would have been a nightmare to alter.

     
    The base was filled with a diluted PVA soaked torn newspaper mulch and coated with Polyfilla readymix and then given a sealing coat of green acrylic.

     
    The ground cover is various static grasses, applied with a Grassmaster, built up in layers until I felt I had done enough. The inital dusting was put onto a coat of acrylic and further ones were held in place with a mixture of Copydex or spray glue(PVA based from a pump bottle) as required. The copydex was better at adding small additions of grasses- I found that the sprayed glue went where it shouldn't, even with masking.



     
    Two shots of grass growing


     
    A close-up of a bush of some sort- Woodland Scenics foliage covered with Noch leaves.

     
    And long grass at the lineside fence.

    Finally, as it is at the moment; I am still tweaking it and doing some gardening here and there, but it gives a bit extra to the scene.
     


  13. Ben Alder
    Coachman is to blame for the following assaults on the new Hornby Gresleys- his always informative coach blog encouraged me to return to an abandoned coach that I had decided was beyond redemption.As with the LMS coaches, others have led the way- Larry and Tony Wright both having sewn seeds that led to this.
    Basically, the new Hornby coaches are so full of faults that they are of no use on any layout that pretends to work to current standards of detail and authenticity, which is a shame, as they are well made, but wrong. Their failings are well detailed elsewhere, so I will just show what I did to try and upgrade mine.
    The first one I had was a sleeper in teak, and attempts to remove the glazing caused so much damage that I eventually removed the side and fitted an Ian Kirk moulding in its place- a backward step in many ways, but at least it has something like the correct profile. The chassis was narrowed as Coachman suggested, and the result was a great improvement on the factory offering. Hornby,s plastic is very soft and cuts easily, but there seems to be no problem joining it- poly cement doing the job OK.
     
     
    This was the state of the original side when I gave up on it.

     
    I was going to do no more with these coaches, but Coach's ideas sent me to that clearing house in Liverpool, and two bargains were obtained for further work - a crimson and cream sleeper and a maroon RB. I liked the idea of forcing a tumble home into the sides, but the glazing strip was too thick to do this, so I managed to either remove it completly or slice through it below the window level, allowing the body moulding, which is quite thin, to take a shape. The sides were Evo-sticked, as was the chassis where it met them, and when dry the two were put together, with the shape holding along its length. To date the sleeper is running, but the buffet is lagging behind as removing the glazing cracked some windows, so some juggling was needed to hide this. As I only need to see one side of any vehicle this is not a problem for me.
     
    Some WIP pics.
    The RB body with glazing removed to curve the lower body.
     

     
    A trial fitting of the C/C sleeper showing the changed sides and then a before and after of the ends.

     

     
    This is the Ian Kirk sided coach as running.


     
    And an end profile of the two together- although the further away one is a bit blurred, the profile runs the length of the coach.

     
    All in all, an interesting few nights work if the originals can be obtained cheaply enough, but like the LMS ones, not something I'll be making any more of. This is an example of the chaotic conditions of my workbench. Actual modelling takes place on a pull out tray and I give it a tidy-up before the next big idea, in theory anyway.
     
    A couple more shots to show the difference this hacking about achieves. I borrowed an out of the box teak to give a visual comparison.

     
    And the original and the modified versions.

     
    I rest my, and Coach's, case.
  14. Ben Alder
    The original releases of the Hornby Stanier, while good models, were blessed with a very dull finish that did not sit well with my other Stanier stock- Comet sides on Airfix cores, and finished with a mix of cellulouse and acrylic spray paints, so they have sat for some time waiting for attention. I will begin by saying that nothing I have done has been original but a straightforward crib from an article in MRJ some considerable time ago, but AFAIK there has not been much said here about this, so I have recorded my efforts.
     
    The basis of the process is T-cut, which is applied and buffed off, and which leaves a lovely glossy surface that matches other stock far better than the original finish. Apart from a tiny bit of lining on one coach it did not affect the surface at all, although a Bachmann coach did lose most of its particulars in the process, but that is easily sorted.
     
    Some pics of WIP.
    Firstly some before and after views of the glossing up.

     

     

     
    Once this is done the next stage is to tackle the prismatic effect of the thick glazing strips. The original article suggested black but I found a crimson worked better- all the clear glazing has to be painted to improve the visual effect - as shown here.


     
    The improvements can be seen in these shots.
     


     
    Finally,two shots of in service vehicles- one of the modified carriage alongside an original, albeit not too clear, and of the two I did running together.


     
    This was a straightforward piece of work that made a big difference to the models- I also put some Peco interiors in place- and they are now on the layout instead of lying in a cupboard, which is what should be. One less task to do. I don't know if later batches of these coaches had the same problems as I didn't buy any others, being happy enough with my existing hybrids, but it has transformed these two anyway.
    Richard
     
    This is the polished side with the glazing painted over.
     

  16. Ben Alder
    An exercise in housekeeping here- a gathering of various topics I've posted, to help track them down as required.
     
    Thurso rail traffic in the 1970's- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61664-thurso-rail-traffic-in-the-early-70s/-
     
    Fort William rail traffic in 1972- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61633-fort-william-in-1972/
     
    A wagon miscellany at Ferryhill in the early 70's- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/61890-a-wagon-miscellany-at-aberdeen-ferryhill-in-1975/
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