hartleymartin

It seems to sit well with my semi-freelance CHG brake van.

More styrene strips and angle section from the local hobby shop today. Cab is making swift progress. Still pondering wibdows in the cab doors, but now all the detail sections are on I think it would be too much. I'll make a decision once I hit it with a coat of grey primer tomorrow.

I'm thinking the next time I get my hands on one of these Atlas diesel mechanisms, I might do a J70/Y6 tram loco body on it. My true love is always with steam locos.

Mock up of cab reusing part of the Atlas cab, just for the side windows.

I need more 2mm angle to finish the cab. I thought I had another packet of the stuff, but it was just 2mm strip. Only other question is whether to put a window in the door or not.

Mock up of cab reusing part of the Atlas cab, just for the side windows.

Fabrication of the cab under way. Something inbetween a Hibberd Planet and a Ruston 48DS or 88DS in design.

Buffing plates on. Trickier job than I initially thought. Starting to look like a loco now.

"Planot" No. 5 ex-Coney Hill Light Railway with baby brother under construction. No. 5 is 18'6" over headstocks and the newby is 15"0'. I reckon the new cab should keep some family resemblence with No. 5

Found the old cab, somewhat damaged, in the parts bin. Cut out the sides and I'm thinking of reusing them. Before I get too clever, I did think of making two separate cabs so to masquerade as two locomotives, but I might decide on one as the keeper. Not sure if I can use these cab sides since the doors are 35mm tall and 11mm wide. A bit of a tight squeeze even if the are 1:48 scale.

Latest work on the Atlas Diesel conversion. Narrowed the footplate from 63mm down to 56mm (now scale 8ft wide). Also built up the side frames to length. Near enough to the same profile. These will largely be hidden either by reinforcing plats for the buffer plates and/or steps for the shunter. Just new cab, buffing plates, refit mechanism and paint to go.

I'm keen for these coaches. I can see these being very popular among those who like to model light railways a la Colonel Stephens.

A bit of threat necromancy: I've finally got my own conversion under way. More information is in my own O gauge thread: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88300-my-o-scale-stuff/page/12/&tab=comments#comment-3606238 My Hudswell Clarke and Manning Wardle look on, doubtful of the usefulness of the newcomer, specially since it has not yet been fully-assembled!

I've also done a little more work on the Bachmann On30 coach. to break it down to components for the rebuild into a standard gauge coach. The Selsey Tramway Falcon coaches were 37ft over buffers, so this won't be too much smaller. I might even have some similar white metal bogies somewhere:

I was originally thinking I might be able to put the motor section under the hood, but it would be too tall. If I could have done that I might have modelled an open cab, but that idea got nixed once I did all the measurements. It would probably work for a larger scale something like 1:35, 1:32, 1:24 or 1:19, but I don't want to go that way. My thoughts are to make it look like a baby brother version of the "Planot" I acquired from you a few years back. The only parts missing from this project are the chassis keeper plate and screws to hold it on. I've got all the other odds and ends for it: Buffers, styrene for cab and buffer plates, tubes and pipes to make the exhaust, a horn casting... I think the only thing I don't have in stock is the paint. Model railway projects have had a severe blow to the budget since my car battery finally expired, so I'll be focusing on projects that will use my stockpile of materials and parts.

My own Atlas Plymouth 0-4-0 Diesel shunter is gaining traction after I found most of the parts and put them into one project box. The footplate is now 105mm long, a scale 15ft and the wheelbase is near enough to 35mm scale 5ft that it doesn't matter. The hood is about 42mm long and the cab will have to be about 50mm long and 42mm wide to fit over the rear chassis block section which houses the motor. My hack-saw job to shorten the chassis block was a bit of a hack job and I'll have to probably add some lead weight at the hood end to stop ot from doing wheelies. If I had access to a vertical milling machine i would reduce the size of the chassis block in the cab section but I'll just paint it black and jam some crew figures in there.

I knew that someone would know the fully-detailed answer to it! Here in Australia we switched to flatbottom rail quite early on. I'm sure I have an article or something in one of my books that will explain the decision, but I suspect that it was a lot to do with it being cheaper and easier not having to make all the chairs and that we never really had high-speed lines like the UK, being a colonial railway focussed more on goods for export.

If memory serves me, the Peco Code 124 is in reality code-100 flat bottom rail with a larger head so they could use the same rail-joiners as regular Code 100. This was something done a heck of a long time ago when modellers would not have cared about this detail, but for those who want true bull-head in miniature, there is rail available. While bullhead rail was originally same top and bottom with the intention of being able to turn the rail over to get more useful life out of it, in practice it was found that the chairs would cause wear and the rail could not be used as intended. Thus, it became common for bullhead rail to have a larger head to extend its service life.

There are some great possibilities for an 0-4-0 conversion of the Atlas Plymouth shunter. Gives you a 5'0" wheelbase, though the hardest part is hacking up the huge slab of metal of a chassis block.

If you feel like some miniature tram engine building, I fancy this Hughes unit might be a fun little project: You can get a suitable motor bogie from Steam Era Models in Australia with a 28mm wheelbase and 32mm gauge, though the wheels are HO profile. The axles are 2mm diameter, so you can slip those wheels right off and put slater's wagon wheel sets on.

Just a thought - check that your access to the couplings are not obstructed by the tram-shed, or perhaps think about making it hinged or removable for easier access. Also, if you want to have some tram-car coaches, take a look at the Bachmann On30 streetcar. If you use inside bearings, it is possible to put them on slaters wheels with the axle ends trimmed down.

Industrial layout - a pipe gantry of some sort. Locomotive water tower on top of a brick base. A water tower similar to the one on Boxer Bay Railway would fit the bill: http://boxerbayrailway.blogspot.com/2017/09/ His is a skytrex kit. There are three different water towers you might want to consider: https://www.ogauge.co.uk/58-water-cranes-tanks-and-towers

If you don't mind having it as only a background item, you can get various ones in 1:50 scale: Not everyone does it, but if you put it behind the trains, you can get a little forced perspective by using 1:48 or 1:50 scale models. https://www.ebay.com.au/p/Joal-243-Model-Front-Loader-JCB-435/1325084782 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Joal-243-JCB-435-Four-Wheel-Loader-Diecast-1-50/122075971639 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JCB-467-WLS-Front-Loader-1-50-Scale-by-Motorart/312254145077

Another post I made some years ago makes reference to my having 2x left and 2x right points. I have 3x right and 1x left point there. So, what happened to the other LH point? (Probably buried in my garage) I know that I have another because I cut the LH point down to make a cross-over with closer track centres, originally with a tramway layout in mind, but the flange ways are too big for it to work in that application.

On the topic of a "not a product announcement" I wouldn't mind having those options or even spare/conversion/customisation parts, since I want to model the two locos that ran at Camden, then Carlingford, then the Yass lines!