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  1. BWsTrains

    #17 - More Cut and Shut

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    First step - a plan. Following in others' footsteps is a great help especially when they share their resources. So I have Diagrams of the LSWR saloon (1869- remodelled 1889) and a 4 compartment coach both in the 24' 6" length of #17.

    Ratio 612 (a Diag. U4; 26' 10" composite) is a suitable starting point, the main issues being to shed the extra width of the First Compartments and create the central saloon. Unlike #15 where saloon had its own entrance and no thoroughfare, #17 had access from the compartments at each end as per #1520 on the Bluebell Railway
    LSWR 1520
    From Wikipedia Commons - at the above link
     
     
    Following on from the blueprint, the first step is to carefully cleanup the surplus items on the moldings, in my case the door knobs and grab rails as well as some flash. This is shown below with just one more door's fixings to be trimmed.
     

     
     
    The bottom pair shows side 1 after all the required cuts and several joins have been made. The "X" marks where the other Saloon window will be created by cutting away the current panel area. Minor off-cut inserts are still required to complete the first saloon window frame.The as yet uncut other side is shown for comparison, 9mm longer than the end product.


    Compared to my other cut 'n shut on #15 this is relatively easy because all the side components are from the same source. #15 used sections from 2 different Ratio Kits which were a poor match and caused a lot of issues.
     
    Another useful reminder to self, when assembling side #2, mirror it along side the first by inverting as shown here:
    Particularly helpful when the sides are asymmetric as in this case otherwise it's hard to visualise the reverse assembly order for the second side. Here side #2 just needs the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle to be cut to fit.

     
     
    The remaining tasks are now done, the spaces for the two saloon windows each side were cut out completely and a new upright for between the two panes cut from the surplus stock to hand. These are best fixed in place with a thick paste made from surplus sprue and limonene, about the consistency of toothpaste. This has a good combination of features - gap filling, high tack but enough give to enable careful positioning.

    I'm lucky to have one decent photo of #17 showing that after refitting for WC&PR service the ventilators ran the full length of this coach, unlike the others. Some fairly soft 0.5mm PS sheet was perfect for this job, easy to score at close separation. The insides of the coach walls were reinforced with a 0.5 * 3mm strip of more rigid PS.

     
     
    All major components have been reshaped to the required sizes and just a few notes here for future reference.

    Sides: An omission in my #15 assembly was to add additional material to the ~1mm flooring attachment strip. Here a second 1mm * 1mm PS strip has been glued on top as this gives a very positive surface to glue the side to the floor. It can be seen below the 3mm strengthening strip I'd added earlier.

    All door furniture holes were pre-drilled before priming

    Sub-chassis However carefully measured out it's an immutable law of nature (in my universe anyway!) that it won't be perfect. I think my cutting + filing are to blame for leaving the floor 1mm short after gluing back together. This is only obvious when put together alongside the cut down sides. No matter, a simple 1 * 1 mm PS strip was glued on one end to make up the shortfall. Some kits can have variances of this magnitude # and it's always worth checking before gluing!

    Ends: faux handrails were trimmed away. This is tricky as they are barely 0.3mm above the surface, best erring on side of underdone and then errors spotted when priming than gouging too deeply (note to self) which is hard to repair

    Roof: even with 9mm cut out, no need to rework the rain Strips as the match was fine. Priming shows up any minor gap filling needed at the join.

     
    Note re image reload Apr 22: These lost images were reloaded, some now display inverted but that is a step to far for me to fix up.
     
  2. BWsTrains

    #15 - Completion; #16 - an update

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    The balance of the #15 build project was adding the various roof and piping accessories and the access steps. WC&PR having mostly rail-side stops these were an essential.
     

     
    Moving on to #16, a five compartment all Second also ex LSWR. The dimensions of the Parkside/Ratio GWR Kit 610 differ slightly but are near enough for my needs, hence the build was nothing remarkable. Here it is shown with the seating and the typical "open window" settings as usually seen when in operation. This is now on hold while I move on to #17 which requires major Cut and Shut surgery.
     

     
     
     
  3. BWsTrains

    #15 - Construction continued - Detailing the Chassis

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    Originally I'd thought no further than using the under floor detail parts from the Ratio Kit. However a visit to Dart Models for some detailing parts which I did need, pipes, ventilators, lamps etc. set me off in another direction altogether.

    #15 is documented as having a dynamo and it can be clearly seen on the left side to the left of the middle door. However no battery box is visible from either side so I haven't bothered to add one!

    The Dart dynamo is a neat 3 part white-metal kit easily assembled and shown here along with the added V hangers and brake control rods. While I've no details of the setting of this, the helpful 3D graphics of the new Genesis coaching stock provided me with a very good idea of how it could well have been configured.
     
     
     
     
     


  4. BWsTrains

    WC&PR #15 built from Ratio GWR 4 Wheel Coach Kits

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    WC&PR #15 and #17 both being 24' Saloons present similar challenges, requiring resizing and mixing / matching parts from suitable kits as well as creating the larger Saloon windows. 

    For the novice tackling projects of this sort there's a lot of useful information about the kits, prototypes and construction in an article by Mikkel at http://www.gwr.org.uk/proratio.html
    and MikeOxon on RMWeb Backdating GWR Coaches

    With a good photo of #15 to hand, suitable parts from Ratio 612 (4 Compartment Composite) and Ratio 613 (2 Compartment 3rd Guard Brake) were identified

     
     
    Photo reproduced with the Permission of Weston-super-Mare Library and the WC&PR Group
     
    The middle image is of a trial mock up from photos and bottom image shows the RHS components before final gluing; rose markers are elements from Ratio 613, green from Ratio 612. In total 7 segments make up the approx 10cm side. As can been seen in this photo even after with careful cutting, the parts from 613 tended to warp slightly even with firm clamping to a supporting back strip. This was later addressed with Milliput and sanding back.
     
     
     
     
     
  5. BWsTrains

    #15 - Construction continued - The Sides and Interior

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    Completing the two sides required the shaping of the large saloon windows followed by the usual steps of filling and sanding back the multitude of joins. With hindsight I should have carved off the molded handrails and door handles earlier but as a first time effort I was happy with the overall outcome. Finally some 0.5mm PS strip was cut to shape and scored to make up the missing ventilators.
     
    This shows the sides after painting and transfers.

     
     
    The Second Saloon has its windows half open which appears to have been the norm during operations. Delays with progress updates have been due to waiting on supplies from the UK. Meanwhile the interiors were fitted out in the Company colours, deep Blue cloth for 1st Class and Red / Black moquette for the Saloon 2nd. The strip running along the back side was to hold the two halves of the cut chassis together. It became part of the Saloon seating but won't be seen in the guards Compartment.
     

     
     
    Now with parts to hand the sides and ends were finished and assembled.
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
  6. BWsTrains

    Heathfield - Church and Village Playground

    By BWsTrains,


    Westown-Heathfield
    These two I've grouped together as they sit side by side in the town so tend to appear together in my photos.
     
    The Metcalfe Norman Church requires little comment. I've added interior lighting of which more later, then regretting not using coloured cellophane behind the glazing to give greater effect. In the end I dialed down the soft LEDs to low current and painted over them (to little effect). It is one of my favorite models, from the building challenge to the final product.
     
    What else would I do differently? I'd use the Scalescenes pantiles sheet which gives an excellent result for slate roofing, some flashing is also required.
     

     
    The playground has an interesting story.
     
    There was a vacant patch of land at that spot and my elder Melbourne granddaughter (5 or 6 at the time) said the village "needed" a playground and THAT was the perfect place. As she had substantial artistic skills even then, I asked her to draw what she wanted, she in turn promptly supplied detailed plans for the various elements.
     
    From memories of the playgrounds of my youth plus some research gave me the basic designs for the equipment. We all must remember that heavy galv. tubing used as framing. The end result was greeted warmly.
     

     

     
    Then it wasn't too long before a new design was offered up by young "C" - "Birthday Party time". This was to be the first of many happy and productive collaborations between the generations as Weston-Heathfield developed and changed shape.
     

     
     
     
     
     
  7. BWsTrains

    Heathfield Station and Surrounding Hills

    By BWsTrains,


    Westown-Heathfield
    In my fictional Quantocks setting, Heathfield Station is a tiny spur off of the West Somerset railway, near the southern end of the hills. My highly restricted space means prototypical settings are impossible so I made do with what I had available.
     
    The station has a service often worked by an Autotrain, in these shots operated by pannier 6424.

     

     
     
    Heathfield station sits in an idyllic spot alongside the Heathfield River, presently cascading after some heavy rainfall in the hills. The sheep appear unfazed.
     

     
    More photos will follow in due course, seem to have run up against my upload limit.
     
     
     
     
     
  9. BWsTrains

    Heathfield Village -1

    By BWsTrains,


    Westown-Heathfield
    The space I allocated to the village falls inside the main track loops and is a modest 600mm * 800mm providing me with a challenge to develop a realistic but not cramped setting. The core was a series of Metcalfe buildings, cottages, the Norman church and the Stone-built Wayside Station Shelter (now discontinued), later supplemented by a scratch built manor house and various minor items.
     
    These were early steps back into modelling and I soon became dissatisfied with the look of the original cottages and rebuilt them by overlaying Scalescenes printed stonework more typical for my setting. The dry stone walling so common in the region has DAS stones for topping and Scalescenes dry stone walling for the sides.
     

     
    The garden is loosely based on my Grandfather's as best I remember.

     

  10. BWsTrains

    Westown-Heathfield - some background

    By BWsTrains,


    Westown-Heathfield
    Westown - Heathfield
     
    Having come back to modelling after a long absence, this has been a learning experience.
     
    I’m not aiming for perfection; I want the layout and individual settings to look plausible at a macro level. “I do enjoy making a miniature world where trains go to and fro”
     
    I wanted to capture the sense of place and settings of my home county Somerset; set in the context of the railways I knew and loved as a child.
    I wanted to engage my 6 grandchildren in the building and operations as much as possible. I’d done this with my 3 children 30 years ago and it was a most rewarding shared experience that I wanted to repeat.

    While I strive for accuracy when I can, I’m not a slave to achieving prototypical outcomes. For example, my desired operations in my confined modeling area demanded track configurations never seen. Nor can my locations bear more than a passing resemblance to real places.
     
    I've chosen a 1930s West Country setting with both town and rural components, designed to capture the essence of the time, the trains and places rather than strictly adhere to prototypical metrics. I call this place "Westown - Heathfield" very loosely based on Weston-super-Mare (my home town) and a Quantocks village.  Presently the time and date is Winter 1936
     
     
     
     

  11. BWsTrains

    WC&PR - An Introduction

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    I know of three models of the WC&PR, one each in O and OO gauge feature on here. Both have detailed and excellent representations of Clevedon Station and yards and Ullypug's Weston Ashcombe Road teminus which I know very well was captured with great accuracy. This left me very little incentive to try and capture any part of WC&PR in a layout, the bar having being set so high already.
     
    I decided instead to go in depth with the rolling stock from the last three years 1937 -1940 before closure. It narrowed the field down substantially while leaving me interesting research to complete and a challenging range of wagons and coaches to kit build 
     
     
  12. BWsTrains

    DCC and Stay Alive Power for WC&PR #4

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    My default modifications for small wheel base locos is to add a suitable Stay Alive and replacement wheel wipers. The DCC fit required a small Chip, the ZIMO MX622 which can be externally wired to the SACC 16 for Stay Alive function. The Chip is a tight fit between motor and body in the old style Hornby Terrier.
     

     
    The Stay alive and a decent set of Caps fit neatly on the cab floor / in the bunker once the modest bunker weight is removed.
     
    Wipers are added as per the Standard method given me by Barry Ten (thx again!). Operations over the longest double curve Insulfrog is now excellent.
     

     
     
  13. BWsTrains

    Detailing the Hornby WC&PR Terrier – Part 2 The Pipe Work

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    Seeing promotional photos of the Dapol / Rails version of my loco helped me appreciate how wrong my base model was, mostly by omission but also how striking all the external “plumbing” work can be on these lovely locos. No two A1Xs appeared to have the same pipe configurations but fortunately excellent photos of the prototype No 4 gave me a suitable starting point.
     
    The various missing parts were cut from Brass rod and as they were copper in the original, I set about some simple electro-chemistry to copper plate them. The pink of the fresh metal quickly oxidises to the normal brown of copper oxide once removed, natural weathering.

     
     
    At this point the main additions are in place but the grossly oversized Salter Valves are still pending

     
     
    Then added, being positioned correctly nearer the steam dome and downsized by more than 50%.
     
    There are several minor extra additions required including Cab control pipes and Westinghouse fittings, of these more later.

     
     
     
     
     
  14. BWsTrains

    Detailing the Hornby WC&PR Terrier – Part 3 Completion

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    Just a couple of minor detailing jobs and a tidy up of the underside electrical contacts were all that remained to be done.
     
    Westinghouse and vacuum braking pipes has been added to the buffer beams and Steam heating. The grossly oversized Hornby exterior brake rodding has been removed and replaced. The finished product:
     

     

     
     
    The phosphor bronze wheel wipers were tidied up to improve positioning and operation, replacement of brake rods was in progress at the time:
     

     
     
    And the finished Terrier went out for a run.

     
     
    Photos reloaded 6 Apr 22
     
  15. BWsTrains

    The Coaches - some Background

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    WC&PR had a diverse range of Coaches during its forty-three years of operations but the best known are #15-17 which were the main operating stock in the final years. These were originally built for the LSWR by Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon. Two (#15, #17) were 24' 6" Saloons, #15 being a Brake Saloon, dating from 1869 (Beattie) and I have a suitable diagram for these. The last #16 was a LSWR 30' Five Compartment all Third from 1879-85 of standard MCW design.
    For those interested in more details, Peter Strange’s book on the WC&PR and the Col. Stephens Society provide good background. The coaches were lit by Electricity (from dynamo in #15), steam heated and gave a comfortable ride (no doubt aided by the legendary slowness of operation!). They are synonymous with the WC&PR and feature in the BBC programme on the Railway’s story.
     

     
    Reproduced from the out of print book “Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway", by Peter Strange ISBN 0906294 19 3 Published 1989 by Twelveheads Press, with the approval of the publisher.

    It is these three interesting coaches which I'm in the process of building from Ratio GWR Four- Wheeler Kits. A good challenge for a first time kit basher.
  16. BWsTrains

    Detailing the Hornby WC&PR Terrier – Part 1 The Bunker

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    The many limitations of the old Hornby Terrier model are well known and some fall beyond being worth fixing. The main problem is the model represents the much earlier (pre-1920s) A1 Class whereas both WC&PR Terriers were rebuilt and reclassified as A1X Class while still owned by the LB&SCR.
     
    Most visual of the errors are the sandboxes of the A1 type incorporated above the front splashers, on the model these are solidly built plastic moulding in the main body and along with an extended boiler would require radical surgery skills beyond my grade. All the same I figured it was still worthwhile addressing as many of the other omissions and errors as I could with a view to having rather less of a “Pig’s Ear” of a model.
     
    First up the Bunker / Cab areas.
     
    Both the rear window grills and cab grab rails are solidly molded in the bodywork and hence grossly over scale. These and the original Coal bunker rails were replaced. The upper array of Tantalum Capacitors of the Stay Alive fits snugly into the enlarged bunker space custom fitted into the rebuilt upper bunker section.
     

     
    Frame 2 has my original effort using incorrect spectacle grills, replaced with the correct configuration in the completed job.
     
  17. BWsTrains

    An Ex LB&SCR Terrier - some background

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    The WC&PR had no less than 17 locomotives in its 43 years of operation and it would be hard to find a more diverse range of small wheelbase traction power anywhere. Under Col. Stephens management this motley selection (which must have been an engineer's nightmare) were effectively replaced in the final years by two of his beloved Terriers which did most of the hard work up until the line's closure.
     
    The first, acquired in 1925 was the ex- LBSCR No 43 "Gipsyhill" which became the 3rd or 4th WC&PR loco to be named "Portishead". By 1936 a further crisis arose with "Portishead" needing urgent and extensive boiler work. The Railway purchased a 2nd Terrier No  53 "Ashtead" which became WC&PR #4 and the mainstay of the final years of operations.
     
    My interest in the WC&PR was rekindled when Hornby released a reissue of Terrier WC&PR #4 a few years ago as so despite all the model's many limitations I had to have one!   New releases from Dapol and Hornby were not on my radar at that time.
     
    With time my interest in the railway and also in kit and model modifications increased and I eventually decided to se what I could do to rectify the worst failings of the 40 something year old molding which Hornby had retained. The following posts cover the work done over the last year or so.
     
     
     
  18. BWsTrains

    WC&PR - Goods Stock part 2 - ex-MR 5 Plank Wagons

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    Peter Strange lists 14 5 plank wagons all ex-MR in the WC&PR goods stock but it is clear from the available photos in his book that the sources of these were varied. At least two none MR wagons can been seen in the available photos, including #21 which is most clearly not ex-MR (H/T Compound2632).
     
    Those confirmed to be ex-MR stock from photos include #3,#5, #6 and #7. As best I can tell #3 and at least one other ex-MR 5 plank were D299 with the later Ellis 10A axle-boxes.
     
    The Slaters Kit 4027 provides an easy route to D299 MR 5 plank wagons of the correct vintage and I went ahead on this basis. Construction was straightforward but I fell into the minor trap of the newcomer as the kit has one crucial flaw pointed out by Compound2632 in his Topic on D299. This caused my buffer bars to be placed 0.5mm to high relative to the sole bars but once done there was no undo and it's only obvious to the experienced eye. If I build another I'll know better.
     

     
    .
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
  19. BWsTrains

    Stones and Blocks from Air Drying Clay

    By BWsTrains,


    Workbench
    Nothing particularly novel in all this but I've designed a jig which suited my purpose of mass producing blocks of varying width and constant height. The original technique came from Physicsman as used for his Fell walls on Kirkby Luneside 1/2.
     
    The materials used were:
    The base - a piece of laminated chipboard with a high quality relatively smooth finish. This is important because then the clay in the template mold doesn't stick and can be easily lifted out once cast but still wet.

    The sides - strips of plastic venetian blind slats, 3mm thick, UPVC filled with calcium carbonate. These are tough and can be cut easily with a knife and planed dead square with a hand plane. As I was going to need different widths of clay strips, the second side was made easily moveable, held in place by two screws. 
     
    The dimensions chosen suited my need, building a block veneer over a suitable former. Hence the 3mm was the depth of the veneer covering, the block width became the height of the blocks in the covering wall. The advantage over solid full depth blocks being several, quicker drying / more economic use of clay / lighter end product.
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
  20. BWsTrains

    WC&PR - Goods Stock part 1 - ex-MR Wagons - 3 Plank

    By BWsTrains,


    Weston Clevedon & Portishead Railway
    WC&PR started out with a few ancient pre-1870s wagons of unknown origins but under the management of Col. Stephens they acquired a significant number of later better quality stock, mostly 3 and 5 plank wagons and one ex-GER covered van. Most of the later WC&PR plank wagons were old MR stock which became surplus when in newer production series they updated the initial designs with several improvements and changes. Peter Strange in his book lists 24 numbered Open plank Wagons (WC&PR #2-12, #14-16, #18-27) and attributes them all as ex-MR stock.  
     
    A large amount of valuable help has been given to me by Compound2632 in untangling the mysteries and fascinating history of these supposed ex-MR wagons and other wagons of the era as reported in the following pages. Without his assistance much of this would not have been possible for me as a rank beginner.
     
    The first issue addressed was wagons #14 and #19, reported by Strange as ex-MR 7' wheel base 3 plank wagons and with a photo supplied. The considered view is these ware ancient and do not correspond to any known MR wagon. They remain a mystery and probably date back before records of production were kept. 
     
    Moving on the the ex-MR 3 plank wagons this shows the target, MR D305; Drg 213 from 1887

    NRM DY 2490, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum
     
    The Slaters kit (Drg 1143) for the MR wagon captures most of these changes and so needs backdating to become a Drg 213. Fortunately for me these were easy modifications:
     
    The Buffer Head-stocks of Dia 213 were extended and sloping, effectively incorporating the door stop blocks as "built in"
    8A grease axle-boxes vs a later 10A model
    Brakes / brake lever only on one side
    A re-positioned number-plate
    The first two were easy; 1) some 0.75mm Plasticard glued to the existing Head-stocks and shaped once set; 2) a few careful snips to reshape the axle-boxes (fortunate I didn't need to go the other way!)

    The braking system was easy as the majority is added during the kit build, the number-plate I assumed was either removed or painted over at WC&PR so I did the latter.  This photo before final finishing
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
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