Chris Williamson

Tinkering - Part 5 Prelude. One other tinkering project has been on the back-burner for a while now. I've made progress in fits and starts over some months on a Dundas DM29 4-wheel coach kit. But having fitted couplings and thinking the result lacked a little something I was inspired by the likes of Nile's NG Modelling to go a bit further and add some extra details. Having got so far, I still felt something was lacking. A browse of the Roxey Mouldings website provided the answer and the order duly arrived in the post today. I needed some door handles. The handrail knobs are for an experiment aiming to solve a soldering problem on another project in another thread.

The Joy of Tinkering - Part 4 Well and truly Tinkered (apart from the need for a little filler and a bit of a clean-up) and awaiting progress to the Paint Shop. Construction of The 009 Society Open Wagons completed. A joy to build. Why have one when you can have a rake of three.

Tinkering - Part 3 Basic chassis completed. Wagon body completed. Coupling construction underway. Just remains to assemble these parts and add brake details and door stops to suit.

Tinkering - Part Two I love tinkering. I much prefer it to having to complete a substantive task. Such things are better left for another time or day. 🙂 Next up, The 009 Society Open Wagon kit by Colin Ashby. The kit is beautifully moulded with the absolute minimum of flash and very crisp details. There's a range of options on parts for the brake or brakes. The Top Hat bearings are too large to be fitted. However, it is possible to fit waisted bearings if they are first set in 30 thou plasticard packers. I drill four x 2mm dia holes, chop into four pieces and then use a drop of solvent to set the bearings into holes. They are then best left for at least a day to set solid. At that stage the excess can be trimmed as the two examples on the LH side of this photo. The inside faces of the solebars then need the raised, moulded, bearing surrounds to be removed with a sharp blade. and a pilot hole to be drilled using the point of the moulded bearing as a guide. In this photo all the bearing packers have been trimmed, and the top solebar has been trimmed and is being drilled. The bottom solebar is still in its original condition. A 1.5mm dia drill is used to open out the back of the axleboxes so as to take the bearings. With care, it's possible to do this without running the drill out through the front face. Worst case, a little plastic filler will hide any over enthusiasm with the drill. The bearing, mounted in its packer, can then be stuck in place. if the packer has been trimmed sufficiently there should still be daylight between the top of the axlebox and the underside of the solebar. All four bearings fitted. Stretchers added to one solebar. I replaced the plastic Peco wheels supplied with the kit with the equivalent metal wheels from Dundas.

Great to see you too Mike. As ever, you can't go anywhere on the Island without bumping into someone you know or being seen by them! A film you might like if you haven't seen it: The Northern Lights - BBC Alba archive film footage 1969 - YouTube A modern intro (with subtitles) to an old b&w film. Puts our boat trip into perspective. Well worth a watch. No railways here. But I gather some Rock lights had cable tramways.

And still the 'Great Distraction' rolls on, the Domestic Authorities now being concerned that it might not be over by Christmas... To add to that, I've been floored by Covid for over 3 weeks and, while I'm on my feet again, its effects are not going way in a hurry. So, for some light and occasional relief: I joined The 009 Society early last year. One of the perks of joining was a free members' exclusive single plank bolster wagon kit. I built the body and then stopped to think. A couple of Nine-Lines kits I'd previously constructed hadn't gone well. One ended up three-legged and one with the pinpoint bearings set too tightly to turn freely. The issue, to my mind, is with the need to fix the solebars to the underside of the wagon at the same time as fitting the wheels. The challenge is to both ensure that everything is square and level AND that there's just the right amount of play in the bearings before the solvent has set. I found it a well-nigh impossible task. Post-Covid, with time to reflect, I thought about attempting to apply a technique I'd previously used in constructing a wagon kit for my 15mm IoMR. Obviously a much larger scale. Could I repeat in 4mm scale on such a small wheelbase? First step was to very carefully drill out the pinpoint bearings in the solebars and fit brass top-hat bearings. There's just and only just enough material to allow that to happen. I worked slowly opening the holes out by no more than 0.2mm at a time, very delicately using a small round needle file for the last fractions of a mm. The second step was to cut and fit stretchers between the solebars. Fitting the top-hat bearings had narrowed the space between the solebars and so the lugs on the underside of the floor would set them too far apart. I determined the width of the stretchers by holding everything together and measuring. Easier said than done. I glued the stretchers to one of the solebars and set aside until set solid. It was then possible to offer up the wheels and the other solebar to check the fit. The stretchers were then trimmed to suit and the remaining solebar stuck in place. The assembly could then be checked for level - all four wheels in contact with the rails - and squareness. Once set solid, the chassis could be tested on the track. Turned out there was still a little too much slack in the bearings for my liking. However, the benefit of this construction allowed me to cut one of the solebars from the stretchers and very carefully remove a fraction of a mm from each. Repeating the assembly resulted in a perfect fit. The wagon body could then be stuck down onto the chassis, Greenwich Couplings added to packing pieces under the floor and the remaining kit details added. Chassis Assembled; slots cut for Greenwich Coupling fitting; locating lugs on underside of floor trimmed to suit chassis assembly. You can't have one without a second! As part of my subsequent order, I also purchased some other Society kits. More on those another day, but for now, to say I've been very impressed. If you haven't already, then go on, join The 009 Society! It's worth it just for the kits. Bolsters fitted. The uprights you have to supply yourself. I've used some 1.6mm dia steel rod. Some spare rail makes up the load; I've got some chain I must dig out to secure them. Rattle-can spray priming still to come, followed by painting.

What next after the K seriers cattle wagon? My Branchlines order also included a 2-4-0 chassis kit and a 5-Compartment Brake-Third (F45/6). I’d also ordered a Foxdale Coach from Roxey Mouldings. An order placed with Eileen’s Emporium left me waiting for both a Hold & Fold jig and a Chassis Squared jig. I contemplated both the coach kits and, having re-read the instructions several times over, elected to explore the possibility of something less complex. The considerable number of small parts in both these kits was overwhelming. A Roxey 1876 Guard Third duly arrived in the post. Plenty of small and fiddly parts, but the chances of completing a satisfactory assembly looked rather more likely for a first attempt / learning experience. Here’s the bogie assembly. Construction used a mix of Eileen’s 180 solder and 180 solder paint. Retiling the bathroom has provided a good supply of substantial leftover ceramic tiles. After a bit of head scratching and abortive tweezer use – at least soldering allows you to keep trying until your happy with the end result – I hit on the idea of holding small components in place with Blutack.

My young self was forever overambitious when it came to model railway projects. The resulting frustration was, perhaps, one of the reasons I gave up in the end. So, a determined effort to keep it simple this time and not attempt to run before learning to walk. The Branchlines wagons were the obvious starting point and availability at the time of ordering limited my choice to the K series cattle wagon. Care is needed to get the solebars glued in exactly the right position. The spacing between the solebars is critical to free running. Being made of white-metal, accurate fettling is required to ensure a perfectly straight edge that's glued to the underside of the wagon body. In the same respect, attention has to be paid to cleaning any flash from the body. I had to resort to a sharp blade at least twice before I was happy that my endeavours hadn't resulted in a wagon that wouldn't roll freely or that only stood on three of its wheels at any one time! Here's the end result of my first effort, as yet unpainted and with couplings still to be decided.

Two Feet is Good, Three Feet is Better – to pinch an expression from the Isle of Man 15mm Group on Face Book. As I mentioned in my last Balley-yn-Eas post, while the Great Distraction has been underway, I've been exploring the possibilities of another project. In part, this is the result of having nowhere to work apart from a small corner of the garage. For those with back issues or access to the on-line archive, the IoM Model Railway Group’s 4mm Castletown station featured in another publisher’s magazine, Railway Modeller- part one in Sept 1993 and part two in Dec 1993. This is a left-over piece of test track that I found in the garage during a big clear-out over ten years ago. Built by my late father, I never had the heart to throw it out and so set it to one side. This year, for a variety of reasons, I’ve been tempted to have a go at kit building and see if I can develop the basic skills needed to successfully construct Branchlines and Roxey IoMR kits. More to follow in due course.

The 'Great Distraction' continues. However TT fortnight has seen something of a lull in building activity on the house. That's given me some opportunity to pursue an activity that will become the subject of another thread in due course... Today though was dry and sunny enough to allow the motorbikes and camera helicopters to be noisy outside while I did a little priming with a rattle-can in the garage. The scratch built large hoist wheel has finally been mounted in scratch built bearing castings and can now be appreciated in its final position. And a (rather poor) view of some painting previously completed and some still underway.

I've been greatly distracted by supervising the construction of an extension to our bungalow since the New Year not to mention re-roofing the entire building. The good news is that I'll get the small spare room for the railway at the end of it all, whenever that is... Meanwhile I had the opportunity to do a little modelling yesterday. Having failed to find anything suitable, I'd been pondering how to construct a large hoist wheel for the frame at the end of the Engine House walkways. Inspiration came suddenly when I remembered an empty plastic tube which had a suitably thick wall. More hours spent on a tiny detail.

Such lovely work! Do you already have a post describing how you achieve such a precise finish to the paintwork? There's not a wavy line in sight, anywhere, which leads me to suspect either a cunning technique or witchcraft.

The construction of the kit differs from the original. Something I wish I'd spotted before starting. The original appears to have been built as three sheer legs, with timbers added to link them once erected. In the interests of simplicity of construction, the kit builds the two sides flat, as the previous post. This does affect the look of the completed frame. Retrospectively, I've attempted a few minor modifications in an attempt to rectify this. Progress so far: The wheel still needs to be glued in place and I've yet to shorten the legs to allow the completed frame to fit the intended site.

Still thinking about the best way to mount the servo for the Beam Engine. Meanwhile, Christmas brought this: I'd previously seen this kit in photos in Chris Nevard's blog. When I'd first taken an interest, Scale Link listed it as being discontinued. However, a recent Google search for photographs of the original Racecourse Colliery mine - I'd been researching a scratch build - turned up the Scale Link catalogue showing the kit as available once more... Craftline Models Canal Boats & Accessory kits.1:76 (OO)-scale (scalelink.co.uk) As the kit contains a good number of ancillary details, in the form of white metal castings and brass etchings, I thought I'd take a chance on it fitting the intended site. So first off, a carboard mock-up taken from the drawings with the kit: As I suspected it might, the frame proved just a little too large, in plan, for the space available on-site. However, with a bit of modification - truncating the left-hand end of the frame as seen in the first photo and the right-hand end of the frame as seen in the third photo - everything will fit, albeit this is going to be a very crowded scene; though the few surviving photographs of the Foxdale Mines do appear to suggest this isn't far off the mark in reality. And so to work, cutting and gluing: I'll keep all the frame legs full length to aid assembly and perform the requisite surgery to suit the site once complete.

I had thought to literally ‘motorise’ the Engine with something suitably geared driving a cam connection. An on-line trawl didn’t return any likely sources for what I had in mind. The 009 layout, Pen-y-Daith, built by Mike Buttell, appeared in Railway Modeller some while ago. That led me to buy my first copy since about 1981. Flicking though it again recently, I was drawn to one of the small-ads at the back that then led me to an oscillating server controller: servo for model railways (heathcote-electronics.co.uk) Both the speed of operation and the two end points of the throw are programmable as well as a switchable function to allow continuous oscillation! Arrived here last week. Testing now underway! Sorry, the short video clip I took exceeded the 10 MB limit, so it's a photo only here, unless, following an edit to this post .... ... You want to follow the link here to the clip uploaded to YouTube:

John, You're quite right. It is how we all learn. At the moment, I'm sat at the back of your Art Class wondering how I'll ever hope to develop the skill and talent you have on show here! The colouring of that fence is just perfect to my mind.

The prototype build of the frame in the previous post proved that the cross-member supporting the ends of the walkways was too short. So, frustratingly, a rebuild was required. At least the railings could be salvaged as a single entity: Since then I've been working on the timber cladding for the otherwise open end of the Engine House structure above the Bob-Wall. This also proved challenging. As made up, the width of the beam assembly didn't leave a great deal of room , either side, for the remaining elements. The opening around the beam needed to be wide enough to accommodate its weather screen and allow clearance for movement. And then there's the two doors, one opening onto each walkway. It's taken a while to put something convincing together as well as adding some of the finishing details to the beam itself. This is the current state of the build. Further work is required. Front on: From the operators side:

That drawing board takes me back! Hard to see in the shadows but it looks just like the one I used when I started work at the tender age of 16 years old - Junior Draughtsman on the princely sum of £25 a week . Is there a big counterbalance weight at the top of the parallelogram arm that carries the square? Mind you, the bike I rode to work one was maroon rather than blue.

Regarding the backscene for the gap, another possible suggestion to add to Keith's very good observation: A capped brick wall, to at least the height of the eaves of the brick shed. This could incorporate brick pillars or buttresses at regular intervals to break it up a little or it could be left plain. A closed pedestrian gate and/ or a closed main yard gate might possibly be added as too? As ever, "less is more" is probably a good guide unless you are intentionally looking for a very crowded scene.

The expletives that were associated with the activity of mocking up this frame are unprintable! There were too many angles and clamps to manipulate at one time with only one pair of hands. Anyway, the exercise eventually allowed me to determine the shape and size of the structure I was looking for. On reflection, life would have been so much simpler and a result achieved far more speedily if I'd only thought to make a cardboard template or two first. Another learning exercise. More to follow in the next few days...

Mike, Will the Chris Nevard photos be published anywhere? He does take magnificent pictures!

The Engine House walkways that run either side of the Beam are under construction: Decking next:

Thanks Mike. Two things started this off: A Douglas Shed tour by one of the volunteers; Your posts of Pen-y-Daith. So I could hold you responsible !

Construction of the new building to sit at the end of the shed is all but complete and the exterior has been primed, along with the shed and the big chimney. The Engine House is still WIP and will be for a while yet. The new building was needed to hide the small piece of 2" x 1" that anchors the plywood surround at the corner. I'm not quite sure of it's true purpose in real life: a wagon lift or a covered shaft, perhaps? Anyway, it's the sort of structure often to be seen in quarries and on mine sites. You can see two of the screws holding the 2" x 1" in this view: A more general view: And a view of the setting within the mine workings:

An update to follow when time and photography allows regarding a new building to sit at the end of the shed. Meanwhile, back to the Engine House. This is still Work In Progress. The quoins as first attached: Once the 'sharp blade' has done its work tidying up and adding 'texture': Finally, a gentle run over with the curved back of a tapered half-round needle-file so as to soften the work of the blade: