Ruston

Thanks for posting those. Here's a video, found by Arthur, that I think is worth sharing.

Correct! You win a cigar. Apparently they're called multi-faceted ingots. Here's one in a forging press - http://www.ellwoodgroup.com/images/77-ton.png

Don't worry, Mickey. It just means one crane in each building so your grandad (and the unions) would approve. Can you tell what it is yet?

Now, apparently, molten steel wouldn't be transferred like this as the teeming ladle would be moved from the electric arc furnace, by gantry crane within the same building, to the foundry. But my excuse is the buildings are seperated by the canal so I've used my modeller's licence to have molten steel transferred by rail. The teeming ladle is freelance, based on general photos, and scratchbuilt from plasticard and a lid from some household goods or other and a thing that once contained Slaters 7mm couplings. The bogie is freelance but loosely based on one that carried a charging clam at Brown Bayley's works - again built from plasticard. The buffers are turned brass and were rescued from an old wagon. The ladle is, of course, removable from the bogie.

Cheers, Mickey

Considering this is supposed to be just a stopgap until I can get on with the big O gauge layout I'm getting right into this! Arthur has been a great help with aspects of the industry but I need some more general information pertaining to OO gauge/4mm scale. I've not had anything to do with it for so long that I haven't a clue about what's available and who supplies what so thanks in advance if anyone can help with the following... Stillages - steel cage type (for various engineering stuff) - ISTR etched brass items being available but I've no idea who supplied them. Buffers for wagons - suppliers? Window frames/drain pipes.gutters for industrial buildings? 1960s/early 70s fork lift truck? Figures - 1970s period, suitable for a steel works? Chain link fencing?

Setting out the outline of the main buildings and seeing that there is enough space for road vehicles to turn etc. Work has also begun on the canal bridges and tow path.

Thanks, Mark. That reminds me that I need to fit a tie bar between the axle guards... and some footsteps. I've fitted and tested the uncoupler and I'm pleased to report that it works. I am, however, going to change the wooden dowel for a turned brass cam follower so it will definitely drop under its own weight and I won't need to pursue the spring idea. I've also fitted the Gaugemaster electro-magnetic uncoupler. It works well but I really don't like the horrible buzzing noise and vibration that it makes. I still have 4 more uncouplers to add and at least two of them can be operated using my own system but the position of others in relation to point motors and/or baseboard framing means I may have to come up with something else because I don't like the Gaugemaster things.

Thanks, Giles. There are people far better than me at it but I'm at a point where I'm happy with it and can achieve a consistent finish across the board. Mind you, I'm not yet happy with weathering wooden-bodied stock but, fortunately, there isn't much need for it on this layout.

Today's efforts... I gave the trackwork a spray of a suitable base coat and also painted the rest of the baseboard top. Spot the difference? After I posted the pic (page 2) of beginning to hack to baseplate off the 24-ton hopper wagon, Mark Saunders later pointed out to me that the model is 4mm too long, both in overall length and in wheelbase. I'd been caught out by RTR! I'd already rebuilt and weathered both wagons but it was now niggling at me that they were so wrong. I had planned to leave it until I could get hold of a couple of Parkside 9-ft. chassis kits but today I was fortunate to get hold of a pair of second hand but unmolested Bachmann slope-sided minerals. One a M.O.T. bauxite version, with double brakes and end door, and the other a grey BSC tippler with brakes at one side. The BSC chassis was swapped with one from under one of my other mineral wagons and the M.O.T. one removed from the body. The Bachmann chassis isn't suitable for a chassis where the top of the solebar channel is visible so I added strips of plasticard. The V-hangers are also different from those on the hopper so I added tiny strips of plasticard to the solebar to rectify this. The main problem with the alteration is the cutting out of 4mm of bodywork from the hopper. Having studied BR diagrams it appears that the extra 4mm has been put into the model in the centre panel so just two cuts with a razor saw are needed. The first cut is made next to one of the stanchions and the other is made on the now long panel end. Both halves are checked and adjusted by a little sanding and then placed, inverted, on a granite table mat and MEK run into the joint. The smaller triangular pieces have already been cut off and glued on when the baseplate was removed but they had to be broken off and glued on again. I'm happy with it now and can sleep at night again knowing it's the correct length The original chassis will be used for another Palbrick and the second chassis will go under an old tank wagon body.

I said that making individual pigs would be tedious and it was! But in the absence of any better plan, and the avoidance of spending money on resin casting, that's what I did. The idea, suggested by Fat Controller, of using sprues is what I used. The sprues from a Wills 'varigirder' bridge kit being flat and wide enough for the machine-cast pigs that Arthur supplied the info on. I cut the lengths, filed the ends and then filed a notch halfway along. They were then stuck to a false floor, painted with a mix of gunmetal and grey paints then dry-brushed with orange to represent a light rusting around the edges and to highlight the individual pigs. I've also rebuilt and repainted the Langley Scammel Highwayman. The glazing is flush and was done by putting masking tape on the outside of the cab and painting micro krystal clear from the inside. When the stuff had set I peeled the tape off. The sticky surface of the tape isn't perfectly smooth to the windows ended up with the appearance of a matt finish so I gave a coat of gloss varnish to the outside to restore the shine.

Regarding the uncouplers, I think it's a lot of money for what they are so I'm experimenting with a home-made manual uncoupler. It's made from plasticard, a bit of plastic tube and some wooden dowel - all stuff I have lying around. The eccentric will be fixed to a length of rod, which will be rotated to push the cam follower up. The rod will run front to back of the baseboard so will allow operation from both sides. All I need now is a bit of springy wire to fit in the hole in the dowel. This will retain the uncoupler and also pull it back down when the eccentric is rotated back to the normal position.

I've got something to run! After an almighty battle with the 3-way point, a faulty point motor and a faulty Peco switch housing (on the same 3-way point, which made it all the more difficult to trace the problem!), I completed the track and point motor wiring and ran the Sentinel. I've got more wiring to do for the uncouplers (only bought one so far to test the system) before any ballasting or scenics can begin. At the moment I'm using an old Gaugemaster hand-held controller, powered by some old 16v AC transformer that I got for a quid. I may go DCC at some point in the future as the layout is wired in such a way it can be easily changed.

I wondered when you would get around to building this one, Giles. I remember you showing me the bit that you'd started so I'll follow this with interest.

Today's project has been the building of a Palbrick A (conversion from a 13-ton fitted medium goods) for the carrying of refractory bricks for re-lining the electric arc furnace in the foundry. The body is all plasticard and plastic strip/section on a Parkside chassis.

Thanks, Arthur. According to Trevor Mann's British Railways Unfitted and Vaccum-Braked Wagons they had a planked floor. This is also shown in the diagram that appears in Don Rowland's first half million book. It's the Dia. 1/005 wagons that were for hot pigs and had a steel floor that sloped toward the centre line.

About what size would the pigs be, Arthur? At the moment I'm wondering how to make wagonloads of them and I reckon that making individual pigs from plastic strip would be incredibly tedious so I think that making a pattern is the way to go. But I don't want to go the the expense of buying resin casting stuff so I don't know what to make the moulds from, or what material to cast them in.

Thanks but I'm going to stick with the tension locks. They're a lot smaller than when I last did OO and as the loco will always be at the same end I'm having just the rear with a coupling and on the wagons I've removed the hooks from one end. It's slow progress on the layout itself as it demands time and a dedication to tackle it and keep going so I can only really do it at weekends, whereas I can dabble with wagons in between work. So... I've built a Dia 1/004 Pig Iron wagon. The body is scratch-built from plasticard and sits on a Hornby 27-ton iron ore tippler chassis. I managed to find two at £9.00 each - a saving of £6 on the list price. The tipppler body isn't wasted and now sits atop a Bachmann 16-t mineral chassis that I got off ebay for a couple of quid. This is to be an internal use only wagon (in box in background). And here's the Sentinel all done. I'd like to say a big thank you to Arthur for kindly providing the transfers and the inspiration for me starting this layout after seeing his own BSC-liveried Sentinel.

That doesn't sound good, Paul. Maybe I'll just stick to tension locks then.

I've made a start with the wiring. And I've been hacking wagons. A pair of Dia 1/161 24-ton Iron Ore hoppers will be used for limestone traffic. But first to remove that annoying baseplate on which the hopper body is mounted! With the body now mounted directly to the chassis and the supports reattached it will now be repainted in a shade of grey that is less green and weathering added. I've also come up with a method for making removable tarps for these and the sand wagons. Next on the agenda for the baseboards will be drilling holes for whatever method of uncoupling I end up using. I was considering the new Peco point/signal motors to somehow raise/lower an uncoupling ramp but I'm having other thoughts now. What's brought this about is the accidental purchase of what are shown on the packet to be Bachmann DMU couplers. I picked these up thinking they were the usual wagon type tension lock thingies but although they fit in the pockets of Hornby and Bachmann wagons they are very different. They have a steel loop that drops over a raised plastic lip on the opposite end. So I'm wondering if a length of steel wire was soldered on they could be operated with electromagnets under the baseboard, as on N gauge couplers and so there's less to go wrong and nothing sticking up between the rails... Here's a link to the items I mean

I've been looking at the Parkside website and it looks as if their 26-ton tippler kit is the 10ft. wheelbase flavour so I'm not sure it fits the bill. Meanwhile... I dug this out of storage. It's in need of restoration, not to mention a good clean of the wheels. It's a DJH class 02 but some Yorkshire Diesel-Hydraulics of a very similar type were built for industry. I may even have a bash at converting the appearance to that of a Diesel-Electric. Well, I can't have a Sheffield-based layout without a Sheffield-built loco, can I?

Thanks, Arthur. What about using sheeted 24-ton (Dia. 1/162) hoppersfor the limestone? I'm sure I've seen pictures of those in limestone traffic. It would allow the use of another wagon type and I'm a sucker for rusty BR wagons. I've also had an idea for making a Dia. 1/004 pig iron wagon. The frames and brake gear look to be almost identical to that of Dia. 1/180 Ironstone tipplers. So I could use the chassis from the Hornby tippler (Unfortunately the Bachmann version has the wrong brake gear - most unfortunate because it's about six quid cheaper than the Hornby version!) and scratchbuild the pig iron body from plasticard.

Yesterday evening I built the Double bolster wagon, painted and weathered it. The lettering was made up using Photoshop and printed onto plain white paper. With the black rectangles taking up most of the panels it doesn't really show that they stand out from the surface. I'm afraid the photos aren't very good due to poor lighting. If the sun comes out at the weekend I'll get them outside and take some more. And weathered a few more wagons that I have acquired in the last few days. I've taken a different approach to these than I usually do in O gauge. The main reason being that, apart from the Double bolster, they are RTR,painted and lettered and so I'm not starting with a blank canvas as with O gauge and kits. One difference is the paints used - I normally use enamels but this time have gone for acrylics Starting with an O gauge 16-ton mineral I would paint it all over in a rusty paint, apply Maskol, paint the top coat and peel the maskol off. With the 16-tonner on the right (pic above) I put some scratches in it with the end of a panel pin and then painted over the scratches with Tamiya brown as is, straight out of the pot. This was then wiped off the existing paintowork but stays in the scratches. Other, more general areas of rust and lighter, less pronounced scratches, were lightly painted on and/or dry-brushed. Then, before the paint is absolutely dry, I brushed Mig pigments over the painted rust. The pigments stick well to new paint but can be easily brushed from the relatively shiny surface of the factory finish. The 16-tonner on the left was given an overall coat of paint but some paint was taken off the door end stripe with a cotton bud before the pigments were applied. The frames of all the wagons are given a light, almost dry-brushed coat of Railmatch 'frame dirt' before applying pigments. I find it neccessary to put some paint on otheriwise the pigments don't stick to the black shiny plastic that these RTR wagonframes are made of. The Bogie bolster was given a coat of Humbrol 110 to the decking and black pigment brushed around the edges with a small paintbrush and worked in towards the middle with a broad brush. So, I've got 16-ton mineral wagons for scrap for the furnace, bolster wagons for billets for the forge and have a couple of sand tipplers on order but what wagons to use for limestone? And... I presume the sand traffic would be sheeted? If so, would the sheet be folded up and placed in the wagon for the return trip?

Thanks, Arthiur. I had bargained on being able to get pig iron wagons from Peco but although they do them in N and O, their website doesn't list them in OO - how odd. In fact I'm quite surprised at what else isn't available in OO! I suppose the foundry side also requires sand for the moulds?

You never know, Paul. At least this one is easily transportable and operated from the rear, so it would fit with being exhibitable. Depends on whether or not I make a pig's ear of it, I suppose...