relaxinghobby

I've run out of plastic strip so have used coffee stirrers to build up suitable timber baulks. Using PVA Everbuild 502 Wood Adhesive I've glued the stirrers into pairs. This make of glue in it's handy yellow squeezey bottle and nice dispensing cap which seems to keep the air out of the bottle and not get bunged up with dried glue. Makes it easy to apply the right amount. The label says it cures in 10 minutes but I leave it over night before I do anything. Then trimmed and sanded to the dimension that seem right for the model, 4mm by two stirrers thick. Wood to metal bonds made with superglue. Based on some photos of old tanker wagons I've built up the wood to support the tanks. Parts are random from some table top sale of odd bits and broken wagons back in pre-lockdown exhibition days. I've got a couple of tanks, this plastic one is I think a Triang TT scale one. Tank fixed in place with an 18 by 3mm self tapping screw. The chassis is an old Hornby I think, metal, I've cut various protrudencies off and the old couplings, this was a converter wagon it had Triang on one end and Hornby-Doublo on the other. I'll change the wheels later for finer scale metal ones, I've got none in stock at the moment. Still to do strapping details and end baulks. Parts in preparation, bottom left hand corner some timber which is 4 stirrers thick.

Thanks to Jim for the pictures of these prehistoric tanker, small and old. I can build a few more ancient tanker wagons for the fleet, my criteria is that they have to be different in size and shape to any current RTR models. Since most tankers seem to be painted black the outline shape is the important criteria to go for. Since by the 1930s the tanks where built up to the loading gauge anything representing older prototypes would have to be noticeably smaller. Looking at the old photos here above and I think the Bristol Docks Railway or Devonport dock railway can't remember exactly, this is an exercise in combining chassis and bodies to make new wagons.

Good to see a completed kit. I guess it's the Golden Arrow resin body kit on a Hornby chassis. Is it with the big old motor driving the front wheel or later type with a small motor driving the centre wheel. With mine the main problem was bubbles in the resin which need to filled and sanded even. I later replaced my centre wheels which had rubber traction tyres, with ones from another Hornby chassis with metal tyres and full depth flanges.

Big Steam. It's all be done before, imagineering and discussing the types of locomotives that could have been. In this case to carried on improving the timings of West Coat trains between Glasgow and London. How to get more power than and haulage traction than the last big loco the Coronation class pacifics. From 1971 The Railway Magazine page 83 and O.S. Nock's article on improved west coast steam superpower. This example uses a post 1940's King type boiler, eight coupled wheels, a streamline casing and a large eight wheeled tender to avoid having to use pickup water troughs at speed. It comes with a good pedigree of imagination of practical locomotive men who worked in the age of steam.

His Lordship has a new locomotive, for the garden estate 2 ft 3 inch narrow gauge line. If Her Ladyship can spend her allowance on cattle breading and ridiculous great bulls form far away he can spend the estate allowance on something practical. Although perhaps an 0-4-0 or six couple tank would have been more practical than a replica of the new mainline singles now speeding with the finest expresses west from Paddington he has always admired all that rich green paint and shiny brass work. When the telegram arrived telling his Lordship of it's arrival up at the junction he bagged the inspections brake and organised a special trip goods up the line to collect it. Here it is being brought into Arkwright Mills yard by a mainline loco and will be collected by one of the light railway engines for the final trip to it's new home at the estate. Fortunately the new red brake van has arrived from the coach builders so the expense of hiring the GNR engine can be set against the need to bring down the new brake to the yard. How practical is a single wheeler for a small narrow gauge railway will we see. It is of course an old die-cast Lesney model made in roughly N gauge long before N gauge had been invented, I guess the small scale was waiting in the modellers collective subconscious, waiting for the development of small enough motors to make tiny moving trains possible. Here in the photo it is riding on a re-vamped Hornby-Dublo metal flat wagon. With some plastic break gear and Bachmann miniature couplings added. Now it's here it's looking decidedly second hand, perhaps a bit of touching up the paintwork before Her Ladyship get to see it for the first time. I've just measured the loco it has 11.2 mm gauge wheels, or at least outside the flanges so a little bigger than N ? The GNR saddle tank running the trip goods is a toned down Hornby 1980s very shiny J 52 in Great Northern livery. Some matt green on the wheels and two coats of Humbrol matt varnish over almost every where else and some half black, half silver on the coupling rods give a toned down look compared to the factory shiny chrome look. The two brake vans are part of my enthusiasm for small breaks, the compartment one is based on a LSWR prototype and adapted from an old Mainline model and the red one is a proper scale model, scratch built body on a widened Lima H0 brake van chassis. The drawing can be found on the Plymouth and South Western Junction Railway website. https://brucehunt.co.uk/plymouth devonport and south western junction railway/pdswjr goods stock.html Waiting for transfers and varnish

The loco has gone to the paint shop, a clean dust free margarine tub and is already in basic grey. So this photo is now an historic record. Some work still needs to be done, a few corrections to tender. That gap at the bottom of the tender side where the metal meets the black base of the tender. Some sort of railing or door at the loco end. This is based on a Midland Railway tender which had two vertical stanchions on the front foot plate to stop the crew falling off. The coal load, where every one has been giving me advice on how to hide the motor. Working on this model away from any other meant that I had lost a sense of it's size or scale, it seemed to be to big. Not to worry, compared to this 20th century 0-6-0 it is definitely a small Victorian era engine.

A type popular overseas but never caught on on British railways a long boiler 2-4-0. Robert Stephenson built many long boiler types for the Continent and other British locomotive builders sold then too. This is a model of a Sharp Stewart standard built for the Spanish railways. Seen here with a LSWR T9 maybe on the long branch line to Padstow down in far Cornwall. Maybe SS where trying to sell some as suitable for the long cross country line in the rolling hills of the West Country and it was undergoing trials. Also trying out the built up tender, a short type seen in Australia. After all British loco builders of the time sold across the globe. The T9 seems to awaiting repair to it's clack valve. As a model the 2-4-0 and it's tender are proper scale models to 4mm scale so it can be accurately compared to the slightly bigger T9. They are all built from bits and bobs, a Tri-ang cab, Lima and Airfix boiler bits, a metal chassis meant to motorise an Airfix Pug, etc, etc. Such a loco when on a free loan from a British builder hopping to sale some un-bought stock and get it off the books could have lent it to a home railway, as a chance to flog off a loss. Such a little loco could have pottered around some branch line for a few months un-noticed by any railwayiac photographer of the day and escaping history. Just distracting myself before a visit to the dentist.

Still have the little Spanish Style 2-4-0 to finish. Pushing to finish this tender for ages but could not think of a way to make a curved top edge, trying several schemes to cut strips of tube which ended up with wonky edges so they would not sit straight. Then noticed this edge on a pop top freezer box. several makes are available check edge styles for modelling possibilities. This make of plastic freezer food box with a pop top lid the curve top edge is just right for a 4mm tender and it is easy to get a straight cut by sliding the knife along the flat side of the box. No makers name on this box but you can use it in the microwave. Close up picture reveals the ugly truth, gaps at A and S shock me to realise the end piece is slightly wonky. The harsh reality of close up photography. The coal hole is anything but square. There staying like that, they will be invisible when the tender is coupled up behind the loco. The thicker white plasticard top allows for a little step at A and C which gives good location for the curved strip. Back to the 4-4-0. First attempt at spectacle plate windows edges, by cutting tiny strips of plasticcard but this green variety has broken apart, too brittle perhaps ?

Developed a system to have the white metal tender top be removable, a soldered on tongue of metal that fits in the slot made by Airfix in their rear buffer beam and a screw at the front up the link to the loco. All the white deposits are from the acid flux I used, the little yellow pots by Power Flow from a plumbers shops, even after the parts have been washed the white persists. It can be rubbed away later with a pot scrubber. Soldered some off cuts of w/m along the sides to attach the coal mound to later. The second tender was another loco drive adaptation, intended for my Tri-ang 3F to Midland Johnson 2F. Another 90 % finished model which got abandoned for some long forgotten reason. Whilst looking for parts for the 4-4-0 I found it and maybe will finish it if I can find that missing wheel set. These tenders are from the old Ks Midland spinner kit, they seem to turn up second hand now and again.

The worst job in model railways is handrails. Trying to match the little posts and cleaning out the holes breaking drills, handling stuff which is too tiny tiny to pick up unless you use tweezers then they ping off somewhere lost forever. Which glue to use, matching the drill size to the wire, remembering how to use a Vernier Calliper to measure and compare thickness. I think these handrail pillars are Alan Gibson they needed cleaning up and the holes opening out with a 0.3mm drill for my bit of wire. How they manage to manufacture such small items in the first place is amazing. The details are almost to small to see.

Manage to catch some sunshine which is always the best light to show detail and close ups. With spring coming along nicely my photography window, more time as the sun shines on that side of the building more giving more time with good light for photography. So some more views for yous. The die cast loco, although crudely moulded see photo of the front footplate and buffer beam for example. I think it has potential and some careful filing down of things like that hump over the buffers might give a usable model, cut some windows with a mini drill and grinding wheels perhaps? Looks like a Hornby chassis could be made to fit just cut off that metal lump ahead of the motor. ++ The white metal kit in close up, space under the boiler. Again the Hornby chassis if the metal lump is cut off could fit, perhaps some more surgery to it, file down the top to go under the footplate. I had thought of converting this one to a Johnson Midland railway tank, the one with the lower side tanks around the cab doors and narrower side tanks. Possible, maybe. ++ The red plastic bits are the remains of an old project to convert an early Triang Jinty into it's narrower Johnson predecessor, as you can see it did not work. The plastic is a very hard one that resisted the normal polystyrene kit glues. A Triang R52 body again. Seeing it cut up like this reminds me of an argument about introducing new plastic loco kits like the original Airfix and Dapol continuations, whilst there are plenty of second hand bodies around, these cut be cut up and the bits turned into new types. Consider them as a kind of kits.

More tender progress. Found it, the tender not the meaning of life, still looking for that. It was right by my elbow behind a little box at the side of the workbench somewhere close by but I did not expect it to be there so I looked every where else but there. Now where is that pin chuck so I can do the hand rail holes. See the inside of the corners.... there are support strips that are part of the molded sides. To clear these and get the original weights up inside I have had to do some trimming and sawing. Still has most of its adhesion weight. Next step is to devise a way to fix the metal top to the plastic chassis. The weights are held by screws to the motor and lower half of the tender, the original Airfix way of fixing. There is a second tender conversion from my abandoned Midland 2F, which is where I stole the weights from, some earlier raid has also taken one of the wheels, this is the fate of unfinished and stalled projects they tend to get raided for odd parts now and again and can be whittled away. How to fix the upper metal tender top to the lower plastic chassis, it must be removable for maintenance.

When is a Jinty not a Jinty, here are 4 models which is the most accurate, probably number two from the top with the red roof, and the most modern model a Bachmann repainted to industrialise it for a private railway scheme. Top one is a Hornby, no a Triang R52, I had to check, nicely painted in Southern green and fits onto the current Hornby chasssis. Any chassis as underneath there is a central slot for almost any size of motor and chassis block. Third down is a white-metal version nice and heavy and would enhance the haulage power of the current lightweight Hornby chassis but needs a lot of modifications to either the chassis or body so they can fit together. The lower one is some diecast toy, looks the part until held against truer models and then is shown to be much shorter, is it H0 rather than 00 or just a toy makers impressionistic engine. They all await in the scrap box for some sort of new life. Apart from the Bachmann Jinty which cam as a runner and so far remains a runner. One feature that does not show up in the photos is the differences in width. In the same order as the picture we have; 34 mm across tanks 35 33.5 29.5 So length and width varies, keep them separate and no one will notice? And which range did the white-metal come from ?

A sort of show and tell of my thought process which seems to be a picture base palaver for my little brain as long as there is only one picture at a time. A paper and pencil sketch of the wagons I hope to produce. I've been trying to upgrade the old brain to 3D CAD, only getting as far as 2D drawings in Inkscape or Corel Draw type application programs. Still have lots of jobs to do to finish off the 4-4-0, smaller ones like adding details like handrails but I can't find my pin chuck, first I could not find the small drill bits, I've got them now but have mislaid the pin-chuck also the much larger tender, a fist sized lump. How? That will teach me to tidy up the workbench. Frustrating, especially if I spend time and try to hunt them down. It's better to do something else the missing bits will turn up in due course. So I've got this old Hornby J52, old motor type, and shiny plated coupling rods and wheel rims. So I've been using Sharpie pens to colour them in, the pens are spirit based so the ink sticks and several coats can be built up getting quite a strong colour. The chassis type has the sprung wheels under the motor magnet and chunky plastic gears.

When where the first oil conversions of steam locos? Would it be a wheeze to apply to a pre-grouping tender drive model set in the 1880s, as far back as that. I vaguely remember reading that the Great Eastern Railway had some the oil burners, their oil was a waste by product of their carriage gas lighting gas production plant. Later oil fired loco conversion would appear if the price of coal compared with oil made it favourable to the accountants.

Despite mine being an 00 model I think I used the em spacers as I wanted the frames as wide apart as poss to get a wider gearbox in, one of the High Level high geared ones sa I wanted a super slow loco for a shunting plank. With 00 wheel and track standard there is enough sideways movement between the wheels and rail-head. I needed no side-play in the driving wheels but I narrowed the chassis over the front wheels into a Y to allow lots of side pay there. The leading wheel chassis holes are opened out to clear the axle twisting, whilst it is held and rides in a central 2mm bearing sold for tenders and is held in place by a U shaped wire spring. This was idea was copied from the Mainly Trians 2-4-0 chassis for there little Welsh loco. Not so much constructed with side play as much as just a sloppy fit between the wheels. It can grind around radius 2 curves in an emergency and is happy on PECO 2 foot radius points. Apart from shortening the rear a little because I shortened the rear bunker a bit, the rest is assembled as the instructions. No fancy chassis tricks and no jigs. Markits wheels. Because I went for the open cab look it did not have much room for a motor and I went for a short motor and tall gearbox combination. I did not use the etched cab floor that was offered with the chassis just used all the white metal parts form the body kit which gave a slightly high floor.

Don't worry printers are far more accurate than any wobbly hand and knife combination. This is done on a Samsung laser about 3 years old. The biggest problem was learning the drawing application, Inkscapes way of doing it seemed so counter intuitive to someone bought up with paper and pencil. Then persuading all the operating system, the printer drivers and stuff which try to improve your finished work as you pass it down the line to the printer. App changes the finished work of art to become printer ready, then the operating system, Microsoft in this case changes it as it passes it on to the Samsung printer-driver which then modifies it as it sees fit, then the printer gets it and tweaks it slightly to fit the paper or some cleaver thing. Techno Chinese whispers gone mad. So I could never get my plan printed to exactly the proper size. Always draw two lines say 40 millimeters in an L shape so you can check the size of the printed drawing, all that hand along processing seems to change the outcome and you can end up making something to say 3.8 mm or 4.1 mm to the foot. Grrrrrrr. In the end I found if you used the Inkscape option to convert the drawing file to a PDF option the procession of printing apps would leave the dimensions alone and I could have my scale drawing dimensional unmolested. Colours are great they let you keep track of different bits, try different options on your particular PC and printer combination. I go for 0.2 mm lines on the original drawing, they seem to give good results. I just cut along them with my eyesight that's as good as I get, still gives far better result than by wobbly pencil and set square. Some trial and error and repeat as you learn your set up. Only the dustman needs to know about the less successful ones.

Waiting for loco parts so switched to wagon building or at least cutting out the pieces. A few months ago I drew up some parts on Inkscape a computer drawing app. This will print exact square shapes far better than I can ever manages by hand, using set square and rulers. Using the computer gives a better more accurate way of marking out materials for me, I find. So I designed a kit for a simple open wagon which is really just a series of rectangles. Starting with some sort of original drawing, usually from a magazine, it is scanned in and using the Inkscape App's tracing and drawing options the sides ends floor can be copied out. Using the app working in layers once you have complete say the sides and ends you can freeze them from being affected and then on a layer above marking and design planking and then on another layer above that add details like hinges and strapping. You can also work out the dimensions of each part and allow for thickness of materials and layers. I've also made a modified wagon from a pent roof design with triangular ends to round ends so I can get several different wagon shapes from one basic design. So they all look a bit different when in a train together. I have no digital controlled laser cutter or knife cutter, wish I had so the final cutting stage of the drawing is finished by hand, so all the shapes are printed out onto a piece of A4 on a ink jet or laser printer. I had enough room on the paper for 2 wagons and some loco side tanks I been working up as a separate drawing. The photo shows after the paper is printed out and stuck to a sheet of 20 thou or 0.5 mm plastic it begins to fall apart as the lines are scored this is OK just scoring the lines means they are transferred to the plastic below and can be cut through later. I used dry stick glue which just about hangs on to the plastic provided you lightly rub down the plastic sheet with some glass paper so a bit of roughness is made to provide a key. Hopefully I'll get a set of parts that all fit nicely together. Cutting through the paper and scoring the plastic below. Sketch of the hoped for wagon on left. Loco parts for a small tank, trouble is it's some months since I made the drawing and I forgotten which parts go where.

After Father was thrown in jail for espionage Mother took the children north from London IIRC from the book. Their rented farm house was somewhere hilly, consider the adventure with the runners broken leg in the tunnel under the hill. The landslide when the cutting collapsed onto the track. In the book there was also a busy canal, see the adventure with the baby and fire on the canal boat. The regular train carrying the Old Gentleman every morning to his office in a major town. What were the accents of the local people, Perks' accent may not be local as railway servants moved around to peruse their carrier paths. West Yorkshire would be a good location for the above geography. Did E. S. Nesbit the real Mother base her story on the area she knew and lived in? In a fiction battle between authors with some autobiography in their books, would E.S.Nesbit or J.K.Rawling win.

Some slithers and fillets of plasticard glued on to form the edges. Spectical holes still wonky. I filled in the space over the left hand splasher, looking from the back to front of the lococ photographs of the real thing show the top of the round splasher behind the cab side, in the model it was too easy to squeeze in the sides so I cut and small rectangles of plastic to make a front and top. Not prototypical but makes the model stronger. Thin strips of plastic are cut from thin sheet with a knife and steel rule.

So this project is slowing down it is in danger of being put away in the margarine tub of doom. If I push on I could finish it perhaps. Making a drawing or sketch to plan the next steps helps get over the slowing down. I need to work out detailing for the body, things like firebox door, handrails and cab edges. Here is my sketch plan. By the way I have used one of those 4 colour Bic biros my second most favourite type of pen. Now the white metal tender top is finished, at least as far as the main shell, I also found the original metal ballast weights form the 2P tender and spent time sawing of the corners and odd protuberances so they would fit under the smaller and thicker white metal shell. The weights are leaden, I was sawing off so much I was worried that I was loosing too much weight but when all parts are combined the tender is satisfactorily weighty. It should be able to handle a load of 4 or 5, 6 wheeler coaches it's intended job easily

Progress with the tender body, the sides and front and back came in a plastic bag of junk and bits, the lower part representing the chassis sides had been cut away so it will fit onto the Airfix chassis. There where some flat sheets of white-metal in the bag but did not fit anything so I've trimmed them to fit as a top to hide the motor and floor at the front. Looks like the sides are high enough to hide the motor almost completely only a small heap of coal will be needed, should not look too improbable. To cut the white metal flat pieces like the forward pointing bit here I prefer to score with a heavy craft knife and straight edge, score both sides, then snap. The cut edges can then be cleaned up with a file.

I thoroughly recommend the Underground Ernie chassis, I shortened one as much as I could and fitted a home made plasticard body on top to produce a Climax style logging loco. Which was a type of gear driven Bo-Bo steam powered machine. My model has as much lead shot over the driven bogie as I could fit in. It is a nice slow runner and controllable. She can propel several wagons up the slope to the coal drops very easily. 5 out of 5 for Ernie. Non powered end next to the wagon, looks like the coal merchant has a load of coal delivered in a hired wagon from Stewart and Lloyds.

Cylinders now in place, 2nd time around as they where blocking the cab steps. I've re glued the as close to the wheels as I could and found some narrower steps probably from a kit. The wagon is there to show just how small such a locoas this is. Smaller than the Hornby LY pug and much small than the old Hornby Smokey Joe saddle tank so they would not be suitable for motorising this one.