Thunderforge

I like coming up with silly and funny names, and always have an ear out for something new, but I think there needs to be a mix of this at exhibitions. I really respect the modellers who recreate scale models of a certain place at a certain time, but a bit of comedy in another layout can catch the attention of a layman over, say four scale miles of Settle & Carlisle. Colourful little Inglenooks with a cute theme can be a great gateway drug!

Here’s the painted box van. Not mounted on its chassis yet. Anyone guess the theme in running with? I’ve never been very neat with hand lettering, so I spent an hour carefully cutting a stencil for the arc, which bled so much that 90% of it is repainted anyway. You live and learn...

Here’s a finished one! Apart from the landing gear and some rivets of course. Painted using acrylics and washes, then weathered with hairspray ‘n’ chalk pastels, something I’ve never tried before. The canvas covered load is just bits of wood under some tissue paper coated in PVA and paint. I think I’ll file the coupling hook rounder, it looks worse on this wagon because there’s less wagon there to hide it. But I’m jolly happy with a wagon which has only cost me the wheels! :-)

The Southern Railway of Northern Ireland, stopping at Buggleskkelly, Ballybunion, Ballymeanie, and all the other bally places...

What about the wonderful Railway Ribaldry by W Heath Robinson? Its something I've never seen modelled, but would offer so much potential for fun. Move over Rowland Emmett!! It would be easy enough to model, just make everything out of white DAS modelling clay!

Cool, I’ve always had a soft spot for parcels vans, the brass handles and fittings are icing on the cake. :-)

It would be fair to say that 92% of my railway modelling comes down to drawing track layouts on scraps of paper. They litter my house, trouser pockets, desk at work, even the empty loo rolls on the shelf in the bathroom end up embroidered with a pattern for 'Kings Landing Terminus' or 'Minories inside an oval'... But anyway, I've seen track plans for different eras, obviously DMUs only need a single line whereas steam often needed a return loop, turntables etc., but I can't recall ever seeing a REALLY early track plan. I'm thinking Stockton & Darlington era, when they were learning it all for the first time. Does anybody have any links to truly ancient track plans? I can't say I'm going to build anything, but at least my doodles might be a little more well informed! All the best, Thunderforge

Thanks for the tip, but for the moment I'm going to use Peco RO-1s which come with brass axle bearings. I'll bear that in mind for future though. :-)

As I’ve been making these I’ve kept a note of the measurements and printed the template parts onto a plate. I’m now batch building five wagons. Also I found some brass eyelets which sit around the nails to make better looking buffers.

I've got Peco RO-1s, I'll wave a magnet over them and let you know! :-)

Seems like a a good idea, I'll have a think about that. We're quite used to squabbling here, so no worries on that front! :-)

I'm a bit sceptical myself, but I was thinking of using resin. And if it doesn't work for wheels I'll use the resin for wargames figures!

Thanks Hallmodelspares, I'll look into those. I'm going to have a go at casting some wheels as well!

A signal happened today. I tried to use aluminium for the post, but it split when I tried to crease it, so I used card. Then glued a large nail up the bottom (!) and glued that to a two pence piece. The signal itself is two layers of aluminium with a layer of clear plastic sandwiched between them. I’ll paint the circles green and red (or whatever the correct colours are). The signal arm is glued onto a thin nail which pokes through the post. A trip to the charity shop tomorrow will hopefully result in some round beads so I can finish the top. The question is, do I hang it with washing?! Edit: it does look rather small compared to my wagons, but it’s roughly 21feet, which would have had a four foot signal arm. Maybe next time I’ll make a bigger one. Although if I make too many signals I’ll need to make a turnout to justify having them- eeek! Scary!

Thank for the link to this LNWR18901910, they're great! Something I'd like to do myself, one day. Have you any Lime and Custard carriages for the Wild Nor'wester? :-) Also I appreciate the square buffers on No. 4!

Thanks John Ks, that's helped a lot :-)

Thank you Happy Hippo. I’m new to all this so not quite sure what you mean in the third para. Back to back is the gap between the inside of the wheels, so the wheels would slide on and butt up to those shoulders, I’ve got that bit. But I can’t quite work out how the shoulders on the bearing ends would look. Are they angled at all? Also I assume steel is better to use for an axle than brass?

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I’ll ask here anyway. If I wanted to make my own axles for 7mm wagons, what angle is best to cut the ends to? If they were going into Peco brass bearings? All help appreciated!!

Thanks Nearholmer, I’m always inspired when I see things like this, hopefully it will inspire others. I never have any money and 7mm looks impossibly expensive at first glance, especially compared to what you can pick up in OO scale! But I thought I’d see how much I can do myself and I’m doing good so far. Ideas include making resin cast wheels and pinching smoke units out of cheap toy trains. I’m drawing the pattern pieces up on the computer so I can print out these aluminium plates with the templates already on them. Initially to help myself by not having to redraw them, but if anyone is interested I could probably do a copy for a couple of quid. Night all!

I folded up a tiny leaf spring and axle box!

Further thought on the undercarriage, I’ve sketched out a new design. Not sure of the best way to keep it all square though, I’m not familiar with how this is done in brass kits. Any suggestions welcome! Finally I was worrying about the couplings I’ve made, being folded aluminium filed into a hook shape and glued on the front. Too much tension and the glue might fail. So I got a bit of iron wire and bent it into shape, hammered flat and filed a bit, through a hole in the buffer beam, a sharp angle and glued to the subframe. It’s a lot stronger but a bit overscale. Maybe I’ll use thinner wire on the next one? Or try soldering the ali hooks in place?

The entire fleet! I think I’d better order a Clydesdale for shunting duties for the moment, I watched a video on making hay bales out of twine and sellotape earlier and I’m itching to have a go.

Quick trip into the Iron Bridge model shop in Exeter and I’m now armed with a set of Peco RO-1s and a yard of flexi-track! I’ve cut ... things (W-irons?) out of ali and folded them round to make brackets for the brass axle-boxes. I’m really paranoid about losing the little brass ends, but I don’t want to glue them in as this is just a trial. Then tack the both of them, carefully measured distance apart. 63mm between axles centres, right guys? It occurred to me AFTER I’d done all this that I should use a single piece, joined together for a fixed distance AND to ensure it’s all parallel. And carefully I rest it upwise on the track... and it wobbles! Well not too badly, but room for improvement haha!

Looking forward to it! :-)

We have exactly the same table, and that’s a fair great lump of engine you’ve got there! Looks awesome, oozes oily power