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It's nearly five years since I added anything here. Sorry about that.

On my layout, I am trying to depict Caledonian buildings without having to start from scratch. I have done a bit of kit bashing and share my station building with you, now.

I started with the Ratio station building with a view to 'Caley-fying' it by adding  wider, stepped gable ends, modelled on Forfar as seen in a photo that's constantly for sale on eBay. The kit front and rear are assembled as per instructions. The canopy is modified a little and the gents' enclosure not used. The main work is in fabricating the new ends. I used Wills Coarse stone (SSMP200) which comes in 2mm thick sheets. I augmented them along the stepped gable by a similar amount to give a good thickness to the tops of the walls. This took some time, care, filing and filling, but seems to have worked in the end. Louvres are manufactured from micro strip for the loft windows. A new roof is fitted and covered in Metcalfe slates, which come with the Cut Stonework M! pack. New chimneys are added but the Ratio chimney pots are used. 

It all took quite a while but much less than if I had to start the front and rear from scratch. I have no connection with any of the products.

Best wishes, Graham

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I hope no-one trips on the added paving slabs. The compensation could be crippling!

I am pretty sure it will. You can cut very tight spaces with one. Anyway, all that might spoil is a sheet of card or plasticard so have a go. I have made a 00 scale coach bogie with one and it has very tight corners on the end of the springs.

I was a student in the Department of Town and Regional Planning at Sheffield University in 1968 when 'Jimmy' James joined us as Professor from his job as Chief Planner at the Dept of the Environment. He was a great enthusiast of the environment of Britain. 

Thanks for this exciting tutorial, Jason. I am trying to use your process to make a Fox bogie for Caledonian stock. In Inkscape, when I select all outside edges plus sprues and click path-union, they do not become one mass but retain dividing lines. I am also finding that the edge curves are then represented with a chord line across from one end to the other even though they have been drawn using 'edit path through nodes rather than as a quarter circle. Please can anyone advise on what I am doing wrong? Thanks, Graham

Would be nice to see some photos Graham especally of the build process if you took any.

 

Steve

Here it is but I am shocked by the imperfections shown in the photo! It still needs final finishing and painting but, now I've seen the bumps, more wet and dry will be employed! The chimney is straight - it's a close-up photo issue. I think the cab sides have been a reasonable modification. Best wishes, Graham

Interesting link - food for thought me thinks, thanks

Hi Folks, Sorry to dredge this up from such a long time ago. I recently bought a DJH Jumbo kit from a guy who was obviously selling off unbuilt kits that others could use better than he. I found it quite reasonable to assemble, certainly easier than my BEC 700 conversion. On the engine, apart from the splashers being too narrow, the only real black mark I found was the cab. The side shape seems to have been squashed below the waist and elongated above. I made some new ones out of brass. On the original all white-metal cab, the roof sat up there like a fascinator at a wedding. Once I'd made the cab sides, for which the Crassoc drawing was essential, I filed the edge of the roof down and it fitted fine. The tender was another matter, though. Three hands and a degree in juggling seem to be essential but it did all fit together eventually, and filler helped! Maybe I haven't any experience of really good loco kits yet so am easily pleased! Best wishes, Graham

My wife tells me that there are more things in life than model trains.

 

At least I think that's what she said.  I wasn't listening.

Surely not! Graham

This making 'two for each stage' has hit a high (or is it low?) point. I have been trying to make the rear bogie wheel for the Dundee Bogie as part of the fixed chassis and the front one as a pony wheel so that the cylinder didn't get in the way of the front wheels' movement. I made a mini fixed chassis for the rear bogie wheel but it wasn't a success. So, I will have to make a new set of chassis 'sides' with the rear bogie as a front fixed wheel and find a better way of hanging the cylinders. I may move away from the Oxford Radial tank cylinders and make new ones in metal using a Markway crosshead set and screwing the cylinders to the chassis sides. It's a bit of an engineering challenge for me, though. It's been put away carefully but I'm going to pause until I feel up to it. Meanwhile, the trackwork beckons. Best wishes, Graham

HI, Yes, well spotted. The wheels still have to be taken off for painting, etc., so I am overlooking it for now. The crankpin nut is a bit of a beast to get back on so I am leaving it until then. Graham

I've given my Dundee Bogie a buzz with primer which shows up the blemishes but lt brings it together for the first time. There is strange whitening where the filler is and round the smokebox/boiler join. I'm puzzled about the latter as there is no fastening there, it's just a push join. The splasher tops are an obvious challenge. They are plasticard to avoid shorting and needed filler adding. The dummy cylinder top above the footplate shows plasticard layers coming apart. 

I'll be getting the wet and dry out now.

Best wishes, all. Graham

Thanks for all the helpful discussion. I have just used a Smith's sheet crumpled, then soaked in water and folded round a balsa load on the wagon. I then wrap the whole in cling film 'vertically' over the top and bottom and then 'horizontally' with a narrow strip to push the folded ends into place. Left overnight, they can be unwrapped, eased off and glued back to the load and to the wagon sides and ends. Simples!

Regards to all, Graham

I applied weathering at different intensities to each side yesterday, mainly reflecting the coal dust that must have surrounded and overwhelmed these wagons.

Here is the original (in the centre with added grime) and one I made earlier on the right. The John Watson Ltd awaits a coupling but I have removed the excrescence designed to hold the original coupling. It also needs a crossing on the T of "Ltd" on one side but I'll dot it in with white paint and then add grime to it.

I have read many of the rather negative posts on POWsides transfers, on various chat sites, but I must admit I'm hooked. If I could afford it, I would buy up these lovely little Oxford wagons (usual disclaimer) and have whole trains using the 18 or so Scottish wagon sides they produce. 

Thanks for all the 'likes' chaps. Best wishes, Graham

A digression into rolling stock. I wanted to test whether POWsides transfers could be used on the Oxford NB or PO coal wagons instead of the now obsolete (?) PS01 from Parkside Dundas. These can be bought for £9.50 ready made with wheels, which is a good price in my books. I'm not from Yorkshire for nowt!. First job, after taking off the horrible couplings, is to pull out the buffer heads and superglue them back in. Otherwise, the carpet monster will have them!

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The original needs light sanding to get rid of most of the lettering so that it doesn't show up under the new paint. I take off the coupling and saw away the downward accretion to which the coupling is fitted with a piercing saw being careful not to stray up into the buffer beam. The sides are then painted in the ground colour recommended on the transfers. 

The lettering is just like letraset of fond memory to this former student of Town Planning in the 1960s. My dear wife called it a degree in colouring in but it was really in using letraset and the wonderful shading transfers we used to overlay on tracing paper. It has a propensity of leaping off the sheet onto anything on which you apply a slight pressure but it does need fastening at the top with masking tape over the wagon side. Some of the sides come with a check mark at the centre. Then, get out the biro, choose a starting point and rub gently over each letter in turn. And voila! Except the very bottom lettering on tare, etc., isn't great. Never mind. It will be so gunged up when weathered that no-one will notice at a quick glance in a low light!

All it needs now is weathering. I have an acrylic spray in anthracite which is slightly grey. It can be used to gently cover the sides with a fine mist as a start. More to follow.

The 125 Dundee bogey has been dismantled and reassembled, and now has cylinders that don't bind the wheels too much. More of that later, too. 

All good wishes, Graham

Great to see you back to posting, Steve. I do like the way you adapt things to do what they weren't intended to do. Hope all is well with you, Graham

Good to have you back offering your invaluable help all the way from Brazil. Graham

I've just ordered, and received with great promptitude, a 4mm Lochgelly set of transfers. They are made for the PS01 kit which is a Scottish end and side door wagon with those lovely round hinges over the top of the door end. I tried them out on an Oxford Diecast model which comes in grey as a NB wagon and in red with three different PO sides - all very good in themselves at £9.50. I sanded off the lettering, applied two coats of red oxide paint, and then a coat of gloss varnish just on the sides. The transfers themselves are only for the lettering; the background colour must be in place first. They will present no problems to those who used Letraset in the 60s and 70s. Four years at university studying town planning, which my dearly beloved regarded as a degree in colouring-in, set me up not only for an easy ride but a trip down memory lane as the backing sheet bellied and curved as the letters came off one by one under pressure from a biro. I used masking tape along the top to keep the sheet in place while it bellied uncontrollably but the letters fitted nice and straight. One or two of the smaller letters pre-empted the pressure of the biro and fastened themselves down unaided, so watch out for that. There is a line with a triangle on to show the bottom of the wagon and the centre point but be careful it doesn't attach itself or, if it does, clobber it with a sharp knife. Any mistakes in the lettering can easily be lost (and were) under the liberal coat of grime (black paint much watered down) that followed matt varnish on top. I find a very light misting with an anthracite spray paint starts the process of killing the bright colour, especially white, and the paint completes the job with focus on the parts where the letters might have come astray. You can even lose whole letters if you like.

I'm looking forward to more, there are 18 Scottish POW sides to add to the Oxford three.

Graham

Yes, please do. It's these little tips that make it possible to extend ourselves and tackle new problems. Best wishes, Graham

I've just found this and am lost in wonder!

Thanks for this, Peter. I have used your Scratchbuilding (the way I do it) to learn loads of new techniques. Those of us without engineering backgrounds haven't learned that a dark colouring on brass etc.,before marking out shows up the scribe marks, or soldering scraps together to make four of a small piece, or (the best yet) cutting straight lines in brass with a stanley knife! Thank you so much for such great advice freely given. Graham

It's been a while since I posted anything. Problems have occurred and been overcome, I think! The most difficult bit so far has been modifying the O2 cylinders/slidebar unit and attaching it to the chassis. So far it's superglued to a horizontal plate which fits in the top of the conrod splashers and is bolted to the front of the main chassis. There isn't room for the bogie to swing at all so I will have to think again. I've used plasticard for the tops of splashers again. I'm not happy with the tender buffers yet. They are rather low even though the tender floor and frames seem right. I made a whole new set of frames to get the correct height but have to leave a bigger space above the Caley Coaches tender axlebox springs than in the prototype. Could they be the wrong type? The tender leans against the rear of the loco to add adhesion and I have packed lead in, even to some snippets within where the coal will be added. The main items still to add are the cylinders above the footplate and the brakes between the drivers. 

Thanks for all your encouragement, Best wishes, Graham

Hi

Here's the link to Lochaven I wont go into detail as my thoughts are well covered there but suffice to say its a small fictional coastal terminus on the Callander and Oban line hence the reason locos like Cardean and the Grampian coaches wont be viable.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/122717-lochaven-a-caledonian-coastal-branchline/

 

The NBR 040 was a commission project initially just to draw and cut the parts but the more I do the more it looks like I'll end up doing most of it

 

Yes I know what you mean about the splashers but learning more about the Silhouette has convinced me that I'm now at a stage where I can do them, the rest of the loco is once you strip it back to its bones fairly conventional the only concerns I have is around the valve gear/front wheel getting that all to work in such a confined space though the first thing I'll do is go back and have a look at Graham Tipple and his Oban Bogie build which if I recall right has a similar valve gear layout with the double frames

Hi Steve, Lovely engine and ideal for a silhouette cutter, I would think,

My 179 Oban bogie has inside frames and single slidebar pistons but is at that jaunty angle. I am currently struggling with the cylinders and slide bar  units on a 125 Dundee bogie (horizontal and partly hidden)  and am cheating by using a Hornby Well tank cylinder/slide bar/connecting rod unit from a well known spares supplier. I am also considering changing tack as the throw of the connecting rod on the 6'8" wheel on the125 makes the Hornby slide bars only just long enough and they might pop out in use. Also, they seem to be plastic so may be a bit flimsy when bashed around to make them fit my 125.  I've just received a Markits crosshead which could slide beautifully on 1mm square nickel silver slide bars. I think I'll run it a bit and see.

Well the tender looks right which is half the battle, its a single slot chassis which is correct for the jumbo (Did you open the slots up from a twin oval slot chassis?) Anyway I wouldn't loose sleep over it as the difference is only 1mm  on the model.

 

Oh dear Graham that will teach you to leave well alone with the motor connections lets hope your friend can rescue it sound like the motion will be better anyway.

 

I've recently picked up a DJH class 55 and today a arrived a DJH class 439 so I've got some major loco kit building ahead of me. As well as that I've got two more Jumbos to build but thankfully I've got two Jameson brass tenders already so that will cut down some work there That should keep me going for a few years busy busy busy.

Sorry to miss this for a few days, Steve. You seem to have found a treasure trove of engine kits! My Jumbo tender is new from the footplate down apart from the buffer beam, draw bar and top of steps. I tried to take a slice out of the 123 tender frames but it didn't look right and was quite weak. I thought a Caley Coaches tender frames and the outside frames cut out of 10 thou brass was a better way. I still have to weigh it down a bit. How much do you think a tender needs to weigh to keep it on the rails in front of a train of three or four coaches? 

Best wishes, Graham

Hi Steve, I used a Caley Coaches tender chassis even though it is 6'6" x 6'6" and I think the Jumbo was 6' x 6'. It needed slight shortening. The outer frames are my own cutting out.

I've just had a minor crisis on my Dundee bogie chassis - pictured

I took the motor off to redo the electrical connections onto those absolutely minute tabs that stick out the back of a mashima 1024 motor. Well, it seems I tarried ere long and the blighter disappeared inside the casing! I took it down to the Blyth and North Tyne Club and left it for a younger member with better eyesight to open it up and rescue it if he can. 

I've taken the separate frames over the bogie off it while I work out how to fasten the three quarters of the cylinders that sit below the footplate. I have bought a pair of Hornby Well Tank cylinders, crossheads, slidebars and conn rods from Peter's Spares and am modifying them to fasten to a nickel-silver sub-frame which sits up in the top of the side rod splasher and screws to the front spacer on the frames (extreme right of the picture. The well tank parts are just the right size and much finer than I could make. All will be revealed soon.   

Best wishes all, Graham

Well it has been a long time. I decided to take a photo of the jumbo at the partly painted stage to show how it is proceeding. I have been focusing on a Dundee bogie after a kindly member of CRASSOC gave me some splasher frets but have been finishing the jumbo in a rather desultory manner in the background. Here it is with some painting glitches to sort out and still a bit of work inside to stop the coupling rods hitting the over-thick white metal body. I have some frets for finer side rods and may use them instead of the Hornby one. The curved member behind the coal bunker on top of the tender broke off and needs adding. Thanks to Steve (Londontram) for the Hornby123 single tender which I have cut down and added a brass chassis as it seems to be on tip-toes leaving the footplate much too high. It still needs front steps.

Thanks for looking in, Graham