Skinnylinny

Well, I tried to straighten the crankpins and I suspect I ended up damaging the wheels. A quick order was placed with Scale Link, and some plastic ones have arrived with which to replace them, along with fresh, straight crankpins, and a "proper" Romford screwdriver. Mine had gone missing, and I suspect that "bodging" the crankpins into place with a pair of pointed tweezers hadn't helped. A friend at the Hacklab offered to show me how to use the CNC milling machine, so we tried to mill some coupling rods out of steel, but didn't get very far, choosing instead to work with aluminium. This still came off the mill with a ragged edge, so I suspect more research needs doing on feed and tool speeds, but some tidying up with needle files has shown that with the replacement wheels and milled rods, a smooth-rolling chassis resulted. The wheels were thus painted, rods fitted (using superglue to hold on the retaining washers, rather than solder, for fear of melting the plastic driver centres and messing up the running again!) and the loco now runs on my temporary test track (some setrack and a 9V battery). A fair amount of weight has been stuck into the boiler and smokebox, using tyre weights and Liquid Gravity. I'm looking forward to testing it with a proper controller on a club layout, to see what it'll do, but I may end up adding tender pickups too, if I can get them to work without adding too much friction. The A12 is never going to be a heavy hauler! So, what's the next project? Well, CAD-wise, I've started work on something a little different, American even! A Baldwin Class 8/18 C 4-4-0, specifically Eureka, no. 4 of the Eureka & Palisade Railroad, built in 1875. This locomotive is one of the early engines in the Railroads Online computer game, and I've fallen in love with it as a classic early American 4-4-0. While the prototype is 3' gauge, I'll be bending reality (and dimensions!) a little to run with my On30 stock (on scale 2'6" gauge track). I'm not looking forward to scumbling that wooden cab, or figuring out how best to represent the large expanses of polished brass, though!

Jack, Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately the Poppys jig is only available for 1/8" axles, and because of the gearbox I'm using 3mm axles for the A12. What I really need is to find some kind person with a lathe to turn me a set of 3mm diameter "toothpick" type axles which I can use to set the lengths of the coupling rods! Painting of the loco continues in preparation for the arrival of lining transfers. One side is just about painted, with the other side in progress. The Hornby Adams buffers have now shown up (in a place I know I emptied and searched several times!) so these have replaced the Bachmann ones fitted.

If you pop up a photo of the instructions in French, replying to this post to "ping" me with a notification, I'd be happy to translate. 😀

An attempt was made to assemble coupling rods from the Gibson "Universal" rods set, but due to not having appropriate jigs and bits (and possibly also due to having bent crankpins which I had somehow not noticed!) running is... lumpy to say the least. I'm going to have another go at the coupling rods with another set of etches I have found, but this will have to wait until I've got my hands on some 3mm diameter coupling rod setting-up axle thingies. That said, it looks quite nice posed on "Yetts o' Muckhart", the new Edinburgh & Lothians MRC layout, which will be making its exhibition debut at the Glenrothes show on May 14th and 15th. The appropriate buffers have somehow gone missing, so some Bachmann ones are currently taking their place. As seems to be expected from 0-4-2s, this loco is going to need quite careful balancing in order to get any haulage capacity whatsoever. The smokebox will be *filled* with lead! Some spring cleaning of the flat has also taken place, with the result that the layout is now much tidier than it has been in a long time. Some scenic work might even happen soon!

Still no sign of the Phoenix Drummond green paint, but by a strange co-incidence, I did find some Railmatch LNER Doncaster green, which is a very close match(!) - close enough to be accounted for by less-light-fast, hand-mixed paints, in my opinion. A light weathering, once finished, will hide this variation further. The loco went down to the club last night, and was given its first few coats of green, and the chassis was wired up, although I forgot to bring the coupling rod kit, so while the chassis so far runs rather nicely, smoothly and quietly, it doesn't go anywhere! Apologies for the terrible lighting there, with the rather strange colour cast from the infrared heaters at the club. A better impression of the colour can be got from the photo below, with a Hornby M7 repainted with Phoenix Drummond Green: The plan for Thursday's club night is to try to get the coupling rods done, get some weight into the boiler, and see how she runs properly!

Well, the grey primer has now been "lifted" somewhat by the addition of some black paint to provide an approximation to a "photographic grey" livery, until I can find the Phoenix Drummond green and purple brown paints! Then will come the fun part of carefully picking out pipework, springs, axleboxes etc. Apologies for the messy edges, I was making sure that I got the black right up to the edges, to prevent any unpainted grey spots showing through once the green is applied!

Indeed there is, although too late for mine, too. Plus I believe it's a lever-reverser type, rather than a screw-reverser, and not dual-fitted, so... I've now added some rather nice etched coal rails which @Corbsdrew up for me and stuck on a test etch he was having done. I think they add a nice touch of finesse to the tender, while not being hyper-fragile as 3D printed ones would have been. The loco chassis has now been painted, and DCC Concepts pickups added (although tweaked slightly to reduce the friction from them bearing on the wheels). The trailing wheels have now also gained some rudimentary springing (a piece of wire bent to a "Z" shape) to keep them on the rails. I still need to make up some coupling rods from the Gibson universal etch, and wire up the pickups to the motor. I'm excited to see the chassis run! I'm very glad I modelled the dummy motion - it fills a gap that had bugged me, without it being a solid block under the boiler. The occasional moments when a flash of red under the boiler catches the light really improve the appearance of the loco, and should be even more noticeable when the grey is replaced by green, purple brown and black.

What's this, some actual physical modelling from me? Well, kind of... A while back, I started on CAD for an LSWR A12, and it got as far as a first draft print, which was test-assembled and even ran (briefly!) on a club layout: Well, a fair bit of tweaking of the files has been going on behind-the-scenes. I wasn't happy with the printed rendition of the Adams buffers, so they have been removed, to be replaced by spring ones from the Hornby Adams Radial. The space between the frames was very empty, and quite visible, so some dummy motion has been added. A few tweaks for strength (the steps have been thickened slightly to prevent the snapping that can be seen on the bottom cab footstep). Various small changes. Well, everything has finally come to a head. Train Times model shop in Eastbourne have recently started offering a 3D printing service, using a resin printer but with higher resolution than my own. What a difference that printer has made. The prints arrived yesterday, and I've already added handrails, and primed the model. The surface finish is much smoother than my own printer, and much more consistent. There are some very slight print lines on the boiler, dome and chimney, and I'll possibly give the dome and chimney a light sanding, but the lines on the boiler are fine enough that they should disappear under a coat or two of Phoenix Precision LSWR Drummond Green (from my experience painting 3D prints). The lighting for this photo is rather cruel! As can be seen, the motor mainly occupies the firebox, giving me a nice big empty boiler to stuff with weight, which should help with both the balance and the haulage capacity of the loco.

Thanks, Jack. I can't lay claim to all of the SECR open though - I was part of a team for that one! I worked on the bodyshells, someone else did the underframe (and a fantastic job he did on it too!), and yet another person designed the printing artwork. To say nothing of the skilled people in China who actually moulded, assembled, and painted the thing!

Hi Peter, Unfortunately, while the SECR ones were decidedly in the style of the Midland brakes, there are quite a few differences: The Midland ones didn't have the heavy end stanchions on the veranda ends, where the lamp irons are mounted on the SER/SECR ones. There are other details such as the different number of side planks between MR and SER/SECR design, different side handrails (the horizontal MR ones were split into two sections, where the SER ones were one continuous rail; also, the MR vans had an additional, lower handrail.) There were other minor variations as would be expected given they were being built by different companies: Axleboxes (MR and SER using their own patterns), different suspension mountings, no rainstrips on the SER/SECR ones... It all adds up! For me, the most obvious changes would be the ends (the lack of vertical stanchions on the planked section of the end of the Midland brakes, plus the wooden support in the middle of the veranda end "window" opening of the Midland brakes. An additional, lower, side handrail would also add much more Midland styling.

Well, I suppose that's another cat breaking (or should that be "braking"? No, this is the pre-grouping section...) out of the bag. Personal modelling time has been restricted a little by work (although given the prototype, I don't really mind!). I'm just heading home on a train from Sheffield, after a fantastic but thoroughly exhausting day at Rails of Sheffield's new shop launch. It was great to meet customers, and I finally got to see and handle the 3D print from an early version of the CAD for the Wisbech & Upwell tramcar. It's very different holding the model in my hands, rather than seeing it on-screen, where I can zoom in and make things H-U-U-U-G-E! The SE&CR brake van project kept me busy for a while, and it's something for which I'm very much looking forward to seeing the finished product. After all, I already have a C class in Wainwright livery, and a partially-built O class in SER lined black. That's two brake vans I'll need straight off the bat! Then maybe a double-ended one just for variety's sake... I can't resist, I'm sorry - I'm going to share one of the renders of the CAD work so far... To say I'm rather pleased would be a bit of an understatement! It was great to meet the team at Rails, and to talk to customers. It took a lot of self-control not to spend lots of money in their second-hand section, but I think I got away with it!

Regarding the couplings: When most people who work in 00 or H0 say "NEM pockets" what they mean is the rectangular pocket to the standard NEM362. The standard specifies various things including the height, width, and length of the pocket, its location, and how far back from the buffer faces it should be. Unfortunately, following the standard exactly would require the NEM pocket to occupy the same space as the outer axles (!) so we looked at the NEM363 standard (intended for use in restricted space) - which most people know as the triangular dovetail often seen on the end of the NEM362 pockets in the UK. Unfortunately, Kadee don't seem to offer an NEM363-compatible coupling yet. As you can see, it was a bit of a case of "danged if you do, danged if you don't!", but we wanted to strictly follow one of the standards rather than have something "close but not close enough for compatibility". Edited to add: Taking off my Rapido hat and speaking just as a modeller, while I'm not aware of Kadee offering an NEM363-compatible coupling yet, a French company called AMF87 appears to offer a kit which uses the coupler head off a Kadee NEM362 coupler, and provides a NEM363 attachment. I have no experience of this kit, though, so purchase is at your own risk! https://www.amf87.fr/prestashop/attelages/917-a265-interface-d-attelages-nem363-kadee-4000000012078.html

Not much of an update. The funeral is next week, and I'm planning to pop into the office while I'm visiting. A little modelling has, however, been done this week. Just a little. Two more Andrew Stadden figures have been painted for the layout. Not perfect, but certainly good enough to only need a little touching up before going onto the layout. Seen here with an out-of-the-packet Model Scene porter. I'm not sure he'll end up on the layout at all, but if he does, he'll be getting a repaint and probably hidden in a dark corner of the goods shed! I think the chap in the blue waistcoat needs a trip to the barbers, his beard is rather raggedy! Ah well. Eventually they'll join this lot on the platform: The waitress came as something of a surprise when she arrived - I was a little short of getting free postage on an order from a model shop, and they were offering "get one random Noch figure for £1", and she was the one that arrived. I wonder if she could appear in the window of one of the nicer houses, maybe adjusting the curtains or something. She certainly seems nice enough that it'd be a shame to hide her away like that rough-and-ready porter!

Hi Mikkel, The buildings look wonderful, as ever. It's reassuring that your approach to the platforms (Peco sides, brick plasticard and Wills paving) is the same as mine - means I can't have gone too far wrong! This may be digging things up from many years back, but I don't suppose you happen to have any close-up photographs showing the relief and detail on the Langley retaining walls? I've been considering using these for Linton Town, but the lack of any decent photographs to be found makes me cautious, as I'm picky about such things as brick bonds, which restricts me from using the Hornby Skaledale or various laser-cut options, and I'm not a huge fan of printed card for brickwork. Thanks! Linny

Really glad to hear you have somewhere wind-, water- and vermin-tight. Moving sounds like it was one of those "Wouldn't have chosen to do it, but it's for the best" things. Besides, if the new home is that much drier, that can only be good for the longevity of Castle Aching and its card buildings.

Those I have I've listed in bold, ones in the club library are in italics, and I'm currently negotiating a price on the underlined. I also have Railway Mechanical Engineering (vol. 1 & 2) from the Gresham Publishing Co (published 1923 but still useful!), and Private Owner Wagons of the South East by John Arkell, and various magazine articles. Plenty of information, just need to sift through it!

I've just had a look through that, Chris. That looks fantastically helpful, thank you! I'm fairly certain that 1887-spec wagons would have been plentiful in my time period, and I reckon with enough poring over photos, given the details in that document. The 1907 specifications I have mostly been able to glean from the Ince book, but the document suggests that there are more complete specifications in the Essery, Rowland & Steel book, so I shall look into getting that.

Thank you - I've come across this page before, but unfortunately all the drawings are 1923 or later. Thank you - I've a couple of these kits and they do provide a lot of variety, but it's not a specific wagon I'm wanting to replicate. With the layout being based in a fictional town, I'd like some local private owner wagons, but I'd rather like to have them be accurate models of real designs rather than the Cambrian approach of a Gloucester underframe under everything! The 3D printer beckons...

Hi all, I've been fascinated by wagons and carriages for a while now, and I seem to be developing something of an interest in earlier private-owner wagons. As my layout is set between 1900 and 1910, that really discounts most of the ready-to-run wagons out there. From what I can work out, the Hornby 6-plank wagons are reasonable approximations to Gloucester 1907 15' 6-plankers (at least on the old chassis, before they gained bent V hangers!), albeit with no internal detail. The 3-plank dropsides on the same chassis seem reasonable, also. In terms of wagon kits in 4mm, there are the Cambrian kits for various builders' bodies (albeit all on Gloucester underframes!), and the Slaters ones (again, Gloucester!) to represent RCH 1907 wagons, but! I'd really like to get some variety in my wagons. I'm aware that dumb buffers would still have been about in 1900-1910, but in rapidly-diminishing numbers. I'd really like to model some of the earlier wagons. I imagine there are also plenty of variations in bodywork between builders. References-wise, I've got my hands on the four Bill Hudson Private Owner Wagons books, Private Owner Wagons from the Ince Waggon & Ironworks Co., Private Owner Wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Co., Ltd., Private-Owner Wagons by Peter Matthews, Private Owner Wagons of the South-East by John Arkell... There are some questions I still haven't been able to find concrete answers on, though: - What are the differences between 1887 and 1907 RCH specifications/designs? - Are there any visible differences between 8, 10, and 12ton wagons, other than potentially the number of leaves in the springs? - Are there any useful sources of drawings of pre-1923 PO wagons beyond the above-listed books? I'm aware of the Pope/Turton Private Owner Wagons, a {n}th Collection books, but from what I can tell these are mainly photo collections. Anything that shows different styles of bodywork, internal details etc would be much appreciated! - Which were the "biggest" PO wagon builders? I know there's a lot of reference material on Gloucester wagons, but that doesn't necessarily translate to them being the most common. Charles Roberts, Gloucester and BRCW seem to be the most common builders in my references, but it also seems to vary depending where in the country one is looking. Hurst Nelson doesn't seem as common in southern England, for example. Many thanks in advance!

Hello all, It's certainly been a rollercoaster of a month. Modelling has been happening, albeit slowly. I've had another go at the lining on the LB&SCR G class. Still not perfect, but I'm getting happier with every attempt. The current state of affairs looks something like this: It's certainly a vast improvement from when I first acquired the model! There has also been a little more On30 stock acquired (two boxcars, a coach and a "combine" (luggage brake, roughly translated!) although these have all arrived in various "Christmas" liveries, and are gradually being repainted into something more sombre. The coach and combine may be shortened somewhat as they feel very long. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/710042704884793414/960133323810807828/20220331_190009.mp4 The peak of the month came with the arrival of some SE&CR open wagons from Rapido. I was a part of the team that designed these; indeed, they're my first RTR product, and I'm rather proud of being part of the team. Reviews have generally been positive, which is always a nice confidence boost. However, some bad news arrived a few days ago, of the passing of my grandmother. I've taken some time to visit my family, which is doing me a lot of good. A nice gentle trip out into the Scottish borders, and even their cat remembered me and came running down the stairs to greet me (which, given I've not seen the cat in at least 3 years came as a surprise!). Things are starting to settle down a bit now, at least.

I think the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway pips it to the post, with locos available from Heljan, carriages, wagons, and brake vans from Peco, and even some RTP buildings by Bachmann. All in pre-grouping guise! But as for standard gauge, maybe? Does pre-1923 GWR count?

I think the Linton & Barnstaple Railway pips it to the post, with locos available from Heljan, carriages, wagons, and brake vans from Peco, and even some RTP buildings by Bachmann. All in pre-grouping guise! But as for standard gauge, maybe? Does pre-1923 GWR count?

Interestingly, the research I've done actually suggests the double-cross-rail is at the end that previously had a veranda - the drawings show the end wall being rather lower at that end than the new "standard" double-ended ones, so it looks as though the second, higher, cross-rail was added to bring the old end up to the same height as the others! I assume this is because as built, they only had hinged bars, rather than doors, over the veranda sides. Once the doors were added, they'd want to bring the end up to the same height. The stove and handbrake standard positions pre-and post-rebuild support this, as do the T-shaped strapping on the rebuilt vans, where the new veranda had to be attached to the existing bodywork. This is at the single-crossbar end.

The Midland ones didn't have the heavy end stanchions on the veranda ends, where the lamp irons are mounted on the SER/SECR ones. Plus other details such as the different number of side planks between MR and SER/SECR design, different side handrails (the horizontal MR ones were split into two sections, where the SER ones were one continuous rail; also, the MR vans had an additional, lower handrail.) There were other minor variations as would be expected given they were being built by different companies: Axleboxes (MR and SER using their own patterns), different suspension mountings, no rainstrips on the SER/SECR ones... It all adds up!

Down at the club tonight. I also picked up a Hornby LB&SCR full brake for the princely sum of £22.50. It's 8 feet too long, but with some chopping... The panelling still won't be quite correct but it should look rather better! Now for lots and lots of sanding to get neat joins!