Jump to content
 

Ravenser

Moderated Status
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,562

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Ravenser

  1. Ravenser

    Payment on Account

    By Ravenser,

    Just before Christmas , Mallard60022 started a thread on "The first models I am going to build in 2010 are.., which you can find here: 2010 model promises
     
    As I said in there, I seem to have posted rather a lot of implicit promises - or at least pointed memos to self - just below in this blog. And as Mallard60022 has recently posted shots of his efforts to redeem his own pledge, I suppose I ought at least to post an installment payment...
     
    Well, for starters , the Walrus is done. Not painted , but done:
     

     
    Everything in white or metal has been added , and the bogies are replacements - current Cambrian 1piece items which are as easy to work with as the ancient originals were impossible . Quite a bit of work with pieces of microstrip, scraps of plasticard and bits of handrail wire was needed to cobble together an approximation of what was visible at the ends in photos in Cheona and Southern Wagons - it would have looked extremely denuded and empty if I had built what was in the kit and stopped there . I'm not saying it's spot on , or all there , but it's passable. And I'm rather pleased with the result. Not in any sense of cutting edge perfection - if I want to see its weaknesses I need only set it next to a Hornby Seacow and look carefully but in the bleaker more basic spirit of "we got a result" - an ugly draw ground out away from home for essential points . Ravenser, 0 - The kit, 0. I beat the kit , the kit didn't beat me... With all its limits, it will be able to sit next to a Hornby Seacow without too much embarassment - a decent weathered paint job can cover a multitude of sins.
     
    (I should stress this is an old kit - my example may be 30 years old - and has been retooled and replaced by Cambrian. Comments are not indicative of today's Cambrian range - other than the favourable ones about the new bogies,- but they may well be indicative of what you get if you dive into your club's rummage sale)
     
    One minor point - the Walrus has effectively decided that the early period Civil Engineers' stock from the crane train will get Kadees not Sprat and Winkle couplings. I can't get the S+W mounting plate under the platform without fouling the wheels - in fact I couldn't fit a full width mounting block under the platforms without fouling the flanges of the wheels. Thus a narrow mounting only , and therefore Kadees. Which means that a spare 31 or a 20 would be motive power and I can stop worrying about how I fit a decoder to the 29 which was never going to get Kadees - that little problem can be crossed off this year's list
     
    First cab off the rank in terms of projects for 2010 is a Ratio ex SR Van B , and I've made a start:
     

     
    This photo does reveal that I missed the top edge of the droplight , which is showing green , and that there is rather a lot of dust on the centre section - it will be washed off . The doors are not yet attached , which is why one has slipped. The bodysides and doors were sprayed on the sprue with Railmatch aerosol - the first coat was done when I was prespraying the PMV, and I gave it another coat at New Year. Unfortunately, the guard's doors are moulded on the sprue in reverse, so the back got sprayed. I painted the door fronts by hand in Railmatch BR blue - and it's come out gloss. I'm hoping a thin coat of matt vanish will leave it a near match for the sprayed version, and weathering will obscure any remaining differences
     
    I will need to touch round the etched droplights by hand which poses the same issue - again I hope differing materials on the prototype and a little matt varnish will deal with any difference
     
    Progress will now slow, as thanks to a link someone posted I've discovered that Roxey do etches for the bars behind the windows . This is infinitely better than messing around with cotton thread , though a hasty look at the relevant section of Paul Bartlett's wagon site suggests strongly that most Van Bs were grubby enough that you couldn't actually see through the windows. Anyway , an order is in the post to Roxey, and I won't be able to fix the doors in place finally till it comes
     
    I've also spotted in the instructions that the interior was largely a reddish brown - I was thinking of the guards compartments in Mk1s which I think were a greyish white. The photos on Paul Bartlett's site also suggest most of these vans actually retained their footsteps till the end, although a shot in the Cheona book indicates some had them removed in the late 70s (PMV seem generally to have lost them). Since trying to fill the slots in the solebar which take the footsteps would be problematic, this van will have the footsteps
     
    Over New Year I put a first brown undercoat on the sides of the two Ratio LNWR coaches. This doesn't mean that I've actually started them - I sprayed the sides for the Van B months before I started it - but I've come to the conclusion that Precision Umber , though in line with the darkest proposed interpretations of LNER carriage brown , is too dark. I let it down with some Precision Teak , but even that's on the dark side : I reckon I will feel most comfortable with a moderately darkened Teak rather than a lightened Umber
     
    And at St Albans I seem to have broken my resolutions to avoid filling the cupboard back up. Not only did I acquire a second hand Dapol wagon , which I take to be LMS dia 1892 - but repainted into a private owner livery and hand lettered on one side - but I also acquired a prepainted Slater's PO wagon kit from C+L "just in case" (it's much easier weathering an existing PO livery), and a wagon body for a spare underframe I have. Paul Bartlett's site only seems to have photos of these LMS opens which have been retrofitted with vac brakes by BR : I suspect as a steel underframe 10' wb type they may have been extensively targeted for this. So strip the current paintwork, add tie rods, vac cylinder and new fitted buffers and repaint. On top of this I've just ordered two wagon kits from Cambrian...
     
    I've made a little progress with the Pacer , in that I've largely removed the "black box " on the second car , but as this is the same work as I've already done on the first car , there's no point posting any pictures.
     
    And the replacement underframes for the 101 have turned up
     
    Focus.....
  2. Ravenser

    Payment on Account

    By Ravenser,

    I haven't updated the blog for rather a long time. The truth is that I've been rather quiet on the modelling front - but a bit less quiet than it appears.
     
    Now the prospective exhibition booking has slipped into next year, I'm suddenly feeling a bit disinhibited. All the things I couldn't really work on because they weren't relevant to a BR Blue period I can now work on again. So.…
     
    Some progress has been made on the wretched Coopercraft Tourist Brake Third this year. Unfortunately it is never going to be my best coach - there's been a further minor issue with the glazing - but it does now possess a roof, and that roof is now weathered and ready to stick down . Detailed post will no doubt appear at some point
     
    I've bitten the bullet and acquired two of the new Bachmann OO9 Baldwins . So the possible OO9 layout sketched here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-20376-shifting-sands/ is now a project not a pipe dream. The second Baldwin came as a bargain from Rails so I also acquired two Bachmann WD opens - on the premise that vans are more expensive and can be built from Dundas kits, with weight inside. Both locos have been run in on the DCC Concepts rollers I bought last year at Warley. I also now own a Peco brake coach in nondescript Indian red (shades of the NSWGR..)
     
    I have made further progress with the Airfix Trevithick loco. Unfortunately one shaft bearing gummed up and the motion sheared off the flywheel. I need to sort out reattaching it , somehow - having come this far , I'm not giving up on working motion. Another detailed post to follow....
     
    And I dug the part-finished Baby Deltic out of a box. That looked like a quick result might be possible , until I found this: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/137857-traction-tyres-repair-or-replace/
     
    And I haven't got hold of Kernow during the week, so the project is still stalled, although I have at least given the body a weathering wash this afternoon - the roof was already done. The motor bogie has at least been dusted off and oiled, and can be tested. Once this issue is resolved , it should be fairly quick to finish the loco
     
    And a strictly off topic distraction... During my holiday , the local WH Smiths had the first issue of a Games Workshop partwork . I thought £1.99 for 3 pots of Games Workshop paint and a brush seemed a bargain , so I got one - the "magazine" and figures effectively coming free. For the hell of it I read the painting instructions and painted the figures, in pursuit of developing figure painting skills . Something was learnt , though more colours are plainly needed to do the job properly. I was even tempted to pay another fiver for the next issue with three more figures, another pot of paint, and the basic items for games play - but as WHS didn't seem to stock it I didn't. Still, a good deal more than £1.99's worth of value has been obtained
  3. Ravenser
    Now to try the third part of the old ORBC. This contains several things I'm still working on or have only just finished...
     
    ORBC - Ravenser
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2497&start=50&hilit=ORBC"> original page on Old RMweb
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Sat Apr 25, 2009 11:30 am
     
    Time for a bit of an update. Contrary to appearances , there has been some progress on the modelling front.
     
    The Parkside PMV is painted , but awaits transfers. Finding something suitable is a problem as the Modelmasters sheets seem only to cover pre 1965 , or cream , and I'm virtually certain it absolutely has to be white for TOPS era. The same problem arises with the Ratio SR bogie brake which is likely to be next cab off the rank
     
    Meanwhile the 40' dry vans require weathering , and a coat of varish, and there are still a couple of hazchem flashes to go on the first tank container before the gloss cote is applied (the barrels are normally kept quite clean). A second one is well under way , as is the fifth 40'
     
    I've also been fighting a pretty grotty old Mendip Models kit for a 20' open top. The fit of parts was not good, and bits of the door locking bars had broken away. It took quite a bit of nervous cleaning up with files to get a passable fit of the parts and I did what I could to patch the pinholes here and there in the castings. All of this was done outside in the garden, up wind and with some trepidation and all files etc used were cleaned with a file card , and washed , at least twice (In other words I treated any resin dust as like poison) . I still thought I was slightly wheezy for a few days afterwards , though that might be for completely different reasons
     
    I've purchased a second 153, this time in Regional Railways , and this has had a TCS T1 fitted and has been recieving interior detailing (paint the seat backs/add Slaters figures) this week. Now all I have to do is add the Kadees - and do something about the underframe . The plain black plastic on this and the Central 153 increasingly niggles , so I have to touch up the the relevant bits in relevant colours , then weather suitably.
     
    Once that is done, I can think of tackling something fresh over the Bank Holiday weekend . I need to renumber the 57 - transfers have to be ordered but I have the plates - and weather suitably. There are a couple of Hornby TTAs that might be tackled. The two resin POA kits will definitely have to wait until the weather is fine
     
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by jim s-w on Sat Apr 25, 2009 12:53 pm
     
    Hi Rav
     
    White numbers will very quickly go off white as soon as there is any form of weathering. Not all vehicles were renumbered into tops straight away and there were ballast wagons around in the 80's without tops panels, usually with the tops codes painted on. If they were going to re-do the numbers they would just do the tops panels anyway, they wouldn't redo the original markings in white.
     
    You should be fine
     
    Jim
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sun Apr 26, 2009 10:02 pm
     
    Jim: thanks for the reassurance. An order to Howes for various transfers , including these , has gone in the post tonight
     
    Good progress has been made with the 153s - not only did I finish off the figures for the interior of the RR version, but I've weathered the underframes of both.
     
    In both cases , I used Railmatch track dirt, eased towards a lighter more orange shade with Railmatch brake dust as the main washes (enamel versions in both cases).
     
    However mixing them up as I worked resulted in distinctly different shades. Neither is unprototypical - as the 153 prototype photo thread shows , you get units with a distinctly ochre underframe and some with a more or less off black:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co....p;sk=t&sd=a" >http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=35689&st=0&sk=t&sd=a</a
     
    I've picked out minor details on the underframe in colour - notably the exhaust pipes which seem to be routinely a slightly pinkish shade , and the silencers which are either silver or buff/orange , and given second washes to area which have more brake dir
     
    The net result is that using the same paints at the same time , the units have gone in different directions:
     
    The Central unit towards a heavy coat of yellow/orange dirt
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=75508" alt="">
     
    here the silencer is in Humbrol Leather acrylic
     
    The Regional unit towards a much more new into service condition:
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=75509" alt="">
     
    This was already much darker and got very much less of a second wash. The silencer has had a wash of Humbrol metallic aluminium enamel .I still have to do the wheels on this though - along with exhaust weathering on the roof and above the gangways, and probably the perspex shields/door windows on the RR unit
     
    The balance of the last batch of mix ended up on the underframe of the PMV
     
     
    I'm rather pleased with the results actually
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:33 pm
     
    In the words of Dick Dastardly...
     
    Drat. Double Drat and Triple Drat.
     
    The order from Howes has arrived. There were two critical elements to this - the transfers for the PMV and the numbers for renumbering the 57- with a few other useful bits tacked on.
     
    What do I find - a credit note because the Fox Freightliner numbers are out of stock despite being listed on the website . And the Modelmasters transfer pack , whilst including transfers for the BG as a GUV, the BY and an "SCV" (not a TOPS code I immediately recognise, and from the number attached not a PMV) - does not cover PMVs
     
    Anyone know a source for post 1965 transfers for a PMV? Even if I try to concoct suitable numbers from what I've got, the dimensions lettering for shorter vehicles quotes 35'6, which is a good bit longer than a PMV...
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Mon May 04, 2009 9:09 pm
     
    I had aspirations for the weekend , but I got boxed in..
     
    The containers have been eating up an awful lot of modelling time over the last 6 months , and I'm still not completely done . We have 2 boxes almost completely finished, 4 more with full transfers applied (several will require weathering), 1 painted with transfers to go on shortly, and one tank nearly built requiring more paint :
     
    Here is the wretched resin opentop and sharp eyes may spot the amount of patching needed on broken door bars , though the pin holes aren't noticable. One end is slightly rhomboid rather than square . These are the sort of castings that have given resin a bad name
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=77358" alt="">
     
    And here's the one finished tank. For once the imperfections of photography flatter the result - you can't see my struggles with brushpainting a very recalcitrant gloss white to a decent finish, though it's not obvious at a distance over over 18 inches anyway..
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=77359" alt="">
     
    And here's the PMV, awaiting lettering
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=77361" alt="">
     
    I've at least managed to start something else - I've begun upgrading two Hornby TTAs , one of which was bought from a model shop in Grimsby many years ago for the princely sum of 50p second hand, and the other was Railroad . I have the bits in stock anyway, so the cost is minimal (Well I thought I had the bits till I found I'd run out of cast clasp brakes. An hours rummage unearthed some Comet etchs which are nil cost at this point but will be significant amounts of work)
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Dan Randall on Mon May 04, 2009 9:33 pm
     
    Ravenser wrote:
     
    "the Modelmasters transfer pack , whilst including transfers for the BG as a GUV, the BY and an "SCV" (not a TOPS code I immediately recognise, and from the number attached not a PMV) - does not cover PMVs
     
    Anyone know a source for post 1965 transfers for a PMV? Even if I try to concoct suitable numbers from what I've got, the dimensions lettering for shorter vehicles quotes 35'6, which is a good bit longer than a PMV... "
     
    Hi Ravenser
     
    Is this the sort of thing you're after....
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=77377" alt="">
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=77380" alt="">
     
    I too, struggled to find some PMV transfers in 7mm scale, so I drew up what I wanted in TurboCAD and sent it off to Robert Kosimider at Steam & Things
     
    <a href="http://www.steamandthings.com/" >http://www.steamandthings.com/</a>
     
    He re-drew my requirements using his preferred software and I believe they're now available in both 7mm & 4mm scales. The CCT version should also be available, so it might be worth sending Robert an e-mail. The numbers look a little different and came from a different source. With hindsight, I wish I'd included some of those on the artwork too.
     
     
    Regards
    Dan
     
    Edited for spelling mistake!
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Tue May 05, 2009 4:27 pm
     
    Thanks for this - it's exactly what I'm looking for . I'm going to have a further attempt to see if I can source some from Parkside - failing that, this looks like the way to go .
     
    I may need some custom transfers for another project so this is a useful link anyway
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by PMP on Tue May 05, 2009 9:14 pm
     
    I'll have a look on Pressfix Sheet 15, I think they may appear on there or be 'makeable' from the sheet. I've used Blackham Transfers to do rub down lettering before too, very good prices, turnround time and quality too
     
    <a href="http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/</a><!-- m -->
     
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sun May 10, 2009 8:09 pm
     
    I had the usual hopes of lots of progress and the usual outcome - the containers soaked up time like they were a form of blotting paper and not a lot got done. <br />I had wild visions of starting the SSA kits (thanks to the Fatadder for PNA dimensions) but that proved completely unrealistic - try the Bank Holiday weekend
     
    However the second tank is now finished , and I've managed to weather all the boxes that are going to be weathered. A little discreet drybrushing with a mix of track dirt/brake dust (about 2/3rds brakedust) which seems to be my favourite potion for weathering. This was followed by a very thin wash of a mix nearer 50/50 over the whole box to tone some of them down and add the general coating of traffic muck. I also added a little bit of almost matched patch painting on the P+O box. I'm quite pleased with the results , especially the P+O box which now looks suitably tired and worn - it should be 8-10 years old by the intended period . All they need now is a matt varnish coat tonight (Acknowledgements to gloriousnse's The Humble Box for photo reference )
     
     
    There's been a bit of progress on the two Hornby TTAs . I got as far as giving the first a spray with emerald green from an old Humbrol aerosol as a first priming coat. Unfortunately it displayed all the problems that someone was complaining about with spraycans recently , and the result was not good - it aloso looked as if I hadn't given a through clean sufficient to remove all traces of sanding dust. As a result I've spent quite a bit of time rubbing it down with a very fine flexigrit sheet and tidying up the filled areas where necessary (which is what primer coats are for...) . I've also gone back and added a little more filler where slight depressions were still showing up
     
    I still have to phone Parkside about PMV transfers - many thanks for all the alternative approach info to date.
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by PMP on Sun May 10, 2009 11:18 pm
     
    PC Sheet 15 does contain 'PMV' branding and you can probably cut and paste sections of the sheet to make data as per Dans picture. I wouldn't like to do it though so if theres a sheet ready to use, I'd take that just in terms of time saving.
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat May 23, 2009 8:05 pm
     
    Slow but steady progress has been made with the TTAs , and I got as far as a coat of some old Malachite green for one of them last night (I've forgotten where I acquired it, second hand - the brand is "gloy" - long forgotten I suspect) Apparently this is a decent match for BP green
     
     
    I've also been attempting a Cambrian Walrus kit, and impressions so far are that it is possibly the most awkward plastic wagon kit I've ever built. Mind you I may have led a sheltered existance. The body is built round the hopper , and there's virtually no way of using a trysquare to ensure anything's square. I've built it largely by eye so far, and I had to take it apart twice as it seemed the hopper moulding was a bit too wide. I had to let a scrap of microstrip into the ends to remove gaps (which will need a spot of tidying up seeing that the inside of the wagon is exposed. There is no floor to build round - the bogies are attached on 2 narrow bolsters whith pegs which do not line up with the holes in the sides which must be meant for them , and are too long anyway, so have to be removed. I've tried cleaning up the top surfaces - if the wagon isn't 100% totally square sitting on its top on the mirror this may reflect the top surfaces not the structure
     
    How I get Kadees on it will be interesting. The bogies attach by a basic plastic peg into a moulding with a hole not dead centre.
     
    In fairness to Cambrian-as-now-is, this is an old kit. I got it second hand , from material donated to the club from the estate of a former member - there were a number of similar kits and I'm glad I only bought one (perhaps he built one and left the rest..) The instruction sheet shows Cambrian at an address in Dyfed, and is a small typescript sheet with a few faint drawings , and one sentence of the typescript scribbled out . I wouldn't be surprised if it is 25 years old or more - the actual example I'm building not just the kit. On the credit side it comes with rub-down transfers for the data-panels , and I'm hoping that if the bogies come out ok I can get away with the rest , since on a bogie vehicle , the absolute squareness of the body doesn't determine whether all the wheels are on the deck
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Mon May 25, 2009 11:43 am
     
    Some further progress. As far as the TTAs are concerned, most of this has been further painting and rubbing down to minimise slight imperfections , although I've nearly finished one of the underframes
     
    I seem to have developed a standard recipe for these Hornby TTAs, largely derived from the short photo feature in Ian Rice's Improving RTR Wagons (Irwell - and I think now out of print , so bears repeating):
     
    Dismantle , glue the two halves of the tank barrel together. Apply filler to further disguise the end seam. Remove the plastic walkways , fill holes left . File or pare away the square edges of the base of the tank moulding to feather them to meet the chassis moulding. Fit A1 etched walkways . Remove the buffers , coupling mounts (snip with the Xurons) and moulded brake shoes . Also remove some surplus bits of the underframe piping (this really needs a photo to make sense but its mainly a few horizontal connections) . Correct the dimple on the roller bearings to a bump with a bit of sprue glued in the hole and rounded to shape with a file (You will notice this is not a finescale conversion...) . Drill out and extend with files the open area in the brake lever support bracket. Fit new brass Oleo buffers (A1 Models) and replacement clasp brakes . This will mean opening out the slot around the wheel in the underframe moulding to accomodate . Coupling hooks should also be fitted - I think I've got some somewhere
     
     
    In the process I've found I've not got quite enough Hornby 3 hole disc wheels left to do the Walrus and 2 x TTA and have hastily robbed a set of Romfords off another TTA lurking in the cupboard awaiting conversion . These are slightly smaller diameter than Hornby wheels : current thinking is that the two TTAs I've done in the past have Romfords, so the black Shell tank gets the Romfords for uniformity and the green tank (likely to be a singleton for use on Blacklade for the fuelling point) will get Hornby wheels. I've also run out of clasp brakes - I've got 2 cast sets and 3 plastic ones in the box - but have turned up 2 packets of Comet etched brake shoes, which can be sandwiched between strips of 20 thou plasticard to make up an equivalent.
     
    I think I've also run out of suitable airtanks , so another packet will need to be sourced.
     
    After careful examination the Walrus is not quite square , and at this stage in proceedings , there's nothing I can do about it, short of throw the thing away and start again with another kit and no guarantee it will be any better . I'm afraid I'm just going to struggle on, on the basis that no-one should suspect anything unless they go looking very closely for a problem. However I'll be sticking to the efforts of Messrs Hornby and Bachmann if I ever want any more ballast hoppers. I've tackled any slight gaps and irregularities with bits of microstrip and have at least got the big end support brackets in place and fitting at all points . The bogies are too wide as they come to take Hornby wheels and retain the axles, and never in a million years am I using the plastic wheels in the packet (I told you it was an old kit). I shall have to melt Romford bearings into place . I'm trusting that the slight play of the bogies from the body and the wheels in the bearings will deal with the fact the body isn't 100% square and the result will run properly
     
    Does anyone know whether Walruses had a centre divider in the hopper? The Sealion and Seacow do - the kit doesn't and I can't help wondering. Its going to be very visible from normal viewing angles if it should be there and isn't
     
     
    On a happier note I've started on a pair of Cambrian SSAs . These are a rather later kit than the Walrus (1992 to judge by comments in the instructions) and by this time Cambrian were trading from an address in Taunton. Fit of the parts is good, there are places for them to locate, mouldings have very little flash , there are part numbers on them and the instructions are extensive, with a detailed prototype history, and a set of clear well printed detail drawings
     
    One will be built with each type of chassis - leaving me a spare set of chassis mouldings for a Gloucester pedestal chassis 103.5mm long. This is spot on for a couple of the PNAs shown in the recent Burkin book - with different rib patterns and a different length to the Bachmann model. I even appear to have a photo of one myself:
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=79916" alt="">
     
    You will note this is a disc braked wagon, meaning no brake lever or clasp brakes to worry about (and no 3 hole discs..) The triangular support plates on the Cambrian solebar will need to be removed and replaced but that ought to be manageable
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:00 pm
     
    Despite the silence a bit of progress , although I seem a bit disinclined to get on with stuff at present - my get up and go seems to have got up and gone
     
    The SSAs are sort of finished. That is , they're built except for me sawing up the triangular section supplied for adding the debris fall plates, and sticking them in place. The corners aren't quite 100% perfect and will need slight tidying. I'm rather impressed by the neat design of the fold up wheel units which deliver built in compensation units, although getting them to fold right took 2 goes (I had to tighten the whole lot up with a second application of solvent and elastic bands to get free running) . Beware : once you've snapped those units in place , they wont come out again without damage
     
    The wagons, obviously , aren't painted or fitted with Kadees.
     
    And I'm really rather impressed by the quantity of alternative/spare parts left over , and their usefulness. This has sorted out the shortage of airtanks for the TTAs quite nicely
     
     
    On the downside, I can well understand the Fatadder's feelings that he can't face more than one EWS rebodied SSA conversion. My own position is that I'm going to need a rake of 6-7 scrap wagon (or at least the club project probably will) - and I don't think you can run these mixed with POA Blackadders. Therefore I suspect I shall take the "easy" way out and buy a 4-pack of Bachmann wagons to bump up the numbers (meaning spill plate conversion work across the lot , but little else) and an extra Cambrian kit for rebodied SSA conversion plus the extra bits for stock. However I suspect this is still , cumulatively, going to be a lot of work , especially on the weathering side. The club project is post privatisation and really a couple of wagons in EWS (plus 1 rebody) is the bare minimum I could credibly get away with so late.
     
    The two TTAs are making decent progress. Painting the green one has been a protracted process : I still have more to do and the quality of finish overall isn't quite as high as I'd hoped but the first transfers are on (and I've realised I need to add solebar plates for the hazchem labels). The fit of top and bottom isn't quite so perfect as it was before I pulled off the top thinking I'd forgotten to refit the weight (I hadn't)
     
     
    The second one just needs one bit of wire for brake yoke and an air tank then we are into transfers, patch painting and weathering. If you're wondering why I'm bothering with a lot of work on the old Hornby model - total spend to date is - about a fiver. All the wagons/materials/ bits/transfers etc are from stock bar one sheet of Fox tank numbers . And with the first transfers on the green one , its starting to shape up and with weathering should look quite good
     
     
    The Walrus continues to be a pig , and after various emperiments/bodges with one bogie last night I've concluded that there's no way forward with the bogies as supplied and I'll have to fit the side frames to some A1 H-frame etches I have dug out of the cupboard
     
    I also made a tentative restart on the WD road van the weekend before last as it was fine weather. I'm scared stiff of resin and the heath & safety precautions treat the stuff like a compound of depleted uranium and swine flu virus - only work outside, all castings + files subject to thorough washing /file card and repeat washing before being allowed back injside because of the safety risk from the dust
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:50 pm
     
    I managed to make some more progress over the weekend. Most of it was on the TTAs - I'm starting to think that one of the hallmarks of modern state of the art modelling is that it takes the best part of a week and a microscope to apply all the transfers
     
    This has prompted some questions and discussion about prototype subjects , and I'm indebted to Pugsley for pointing me at relevant info in another thread:
     
    <a href="http://www.rmweb.co....f=5&t=46978" >http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=46978</a>
     
    A hasty snap of efforts to date is attached:
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=87063" alt="">
     
    This shows the green BP tank I've been working on - it just needs current style warning flashes (which I don't have: I need to make up an order to Fox) then weathering. Oh , and brushing off to remove the dust that seems to have got on it. Behind left is "one I made earlier" which seems to have acquired an SUKO prefix number along the way (the 2 white stars are obscured) , and rear right, the Shell branded ex Railroad TTA . These brandings seem to be fine for the early 90s , and therefore it will be entirely in place as a fuel delivery when Blacklade is operating in 1985-90 mode - whereas the BP tank will suit c2005 mode . And as its circa 1992 , I can use the hazard flashes I've got
     
    I've also made some further progress with the WD road van - I'm finding myself seriously hampered by the fact I'm plain scared of the health implications of working resin and everytime I need to do a bit of filing and fitting - such as you'd do automatically with plastic in a few seconds, it means take everything downstairs , into the garden, thoroughly decontaminate workpiece and tools after filing etc
     
    Thus far I'm still avoiding the Walrus . Two preliminary attempts to assemble the bogies as they come failed , and the only viable way forward seems to be to stick the sideframes to A1 bogie H frame etches and bodge from there. This will give a wb which is about 1mm too long , but frankly its the only way I'm going to get buildable bogies
     
    The PMV has hit a further snag. I finally ordered the transfers from Steam and Things, and they arrived from S. Australia with startling speed on Monday. That was the good news . The bad news is they're way too big. The photo in Dan Randall's posting above matches the photos on Paul Bartlett's site : the transfers sit well within the triangle created by the diagonal. The transfers I've got go the full witdth of that end section and pretty well the full height of the van. I reckon they must be at least 50% too big . They're clearly marked 4mm , but I think they're actually 7mm scale. Having spent ??7-50 I'm not sure where I go now - I can't exactly send 'em back (I asked for 4mm , and it says 4mm on the sheet) , I''m no further forward and still have to source something. I'm not even sure I can off load them on the 7mm mob at the club - not sure if any of them model BR Blue
     
     
    Transfers and the cost thereof are becoming a sore point and will become a sorer one when I make up the Fox order. I'm up for ??7-35 just to change one digit on a "bargain" Bachmann 57- plus the cost of the plate . I've spent about as much on PMV transfers as on the kit, without result, and sourcing the hazard flashes for the green TTA will cost another ??4-20. Transfers for 2 EWS SSAs another ??10...
     
    Yes I know in theory I can use them for other projects. Its just I don't have or need a Freightliner 47 or 86 (nor can usethem). I'm not buying and repainting a Heljan 86 just to use a bit more of a sheet of transfers....
     
    Oh and there's no source for Railtrack brandings as seen on the PNA (possibly because of the fate of the company) All I can see to do is to cobble something together with dryprint on Fox plain waterslide sheet then weather it savagely (mostly they're almost obscured by rust and muck)
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:44 pm
     
    Well - two weeks on and the TTAs don't look to have changed dramatically . They do however now have hazard flashes, airhoses, a full set of other transfers on the SUKO tank, and Kadees (46 long centre ). All they need now is weathering
     
     
    The order from Fox has duly arrived (minus the Roof Dirt) and my FL 57 has finally been renumbered and acquired its new plates- now all it needs is weathering and we will have a pukka loco. The Fox transfers are a different weight of type (bolder, heavier) than the Bachmann printed numbers, so the whole lot had to come off - one digit produced a distinct unease on the eye, especially as the top of the 1 was formed slightly differently on the transfers and with 57 011 the two versions were side by side. Thanks to a tip from someone else, I used microset and cotton buds to remove the printed numbers
     
     
    Very little has been done to the Road Van ....
     
    As for the wretched Walrus , there's been other jobs ahead of it and I've gratefully accepted the excuse not to fight the beast, and I really must get round to sorting out the SSAs with their plating so they can advance into painting and couplings come off the bookshelf into traffic
     
     
    I also acquired a not-strictly-necessary second hand Parkside LNER van at the weekend, which will need stripping for a repaint and slight tweaks
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:18 pm
     
    I've finished weathering the TTAs . I'm not entirely sure of the result - I've either done a decent representation of some grubby wagons or a heavy handed misfire and I'm not quite sure which. It seems less satisfactory when the green one is caught in artificial sidelight. I may put some photos up in Weathering& Painting, but as photography will add another layer of distortion it may not really answer the question...
     
    Two and a half months for 2 wagons (admittedly with other things going on round them) . No wonder I don't get much done
     
    Now for handrails on the Road Van and spill plates on the SSAs....
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:00 pm
     
    There has actually been a bit of modelling round my way in the last month. The time has certainly gone in- whether much has come out is a moot point
     
    The TTAs are done, fitted with Kadees , and in traffic (assuming one running session counts)
     
    Was it really 5 weeks ago ~I was girding my loins for spill plates on the SSAs? Feels much longer...
     
    Anyway, the triangular plastic sections were cut and installed - I really don't want to do an EWS rebuild from this kit. We'll keep that to one , and do it from a Bachmann wagon...
     
     
    The SSAs are painted - one in EWS and one in blue/yellow. On reflection I should have painted the straight solebar vehicle EWS to be different from the forthcoming Bachmann release. However, the spill plates are different. Transfers have gone one - well almost. The blue wagon got rubdowns off an old Cambrian sheet that were not good - they tended to come off in bits. Fortunately this wagon was scheduled for heavy weathering - ie overall coat of chocolate brown muck . The EWS wagon has Fox - and making up data panels from individual numbers/letters is desperately slow. I still have the last digit of the tare to add, and Microsol has been invaluable for fixing stuff down so that it doesn't float away when the next digit goes on.
     
    The blue SSA is weathered, and during my holiday one of the few extra things that got donwe was to weather a few wagons - a Sealion bought cheap of DC Kits at Southwold, a Rudd , and my Limby Sealion. The latter required action to cut down the internal partion in the hopper to match the Seacows . The Xurons did most of the work , cleaning up with a file. The Walrus kit doesn't have one......
     
    Individually , I was quite pleased with the results. However put my three weathered ballast hoppers together, and quite sure any of them are right - they don't gel. I think a seperate thread in Weathering may be forthcoming, next time Blacklade goes up and I can take some photos .
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Tue Sep 01, 2009 12:35 pm
     
    Having failed to clear up the "outstanding items" over my holiday period, I was going to tidy up the loose ends and start something new over the Bank Holiday. Did I heck....
     
     
    I have been lettering up the PMV , which had stood forlorn on the bookcase while I tried to source transfers . I said a couple of months back:
     
    "I finally ordered the transfers from Steam and Things, and they arrived from S. Australia with startling speed on Monday. That was the good news . The bad news is they're way too big. The photo in Dan Randall's posting above matches the photos on Paul Bartlett's site : the transfers sit well within the triangle created by the diagonal. The transfers I've got go the full width of that end section and pretty well the full height of the van. I reckon they must be at least 50% too big . They're clearly marked 4mm , but I think they're actually 7mm"

    and I stand by that. They are almost certainly to 7mm , which probably means his 2mm transfers are actually right for 4mm..... . In all the circumstances I've done the best bodge I can. It seems from the Modelmaster CCT/GUV pack that some CCTs were lettered with the dimensions and the description split by the diagonal , using larger lettering. I've done something similar using the dimensions section of the oversize Steam & Things transfers, although it is still a bit of a squeeze, and I had to lose "max speed 70mph" . The bottom lines were taken from the HMRS sheet and actually relate to a BR CCT , so the tare is wrong. I took the letters NOV from the HMRS sheet and then noticed that the photo from Paul Barlett's site is actually headed NQV. Well - if I can read it wrong on a vehicle blown up to 7mm size, then I get away with it (there's no NQV on the sheet). The Railmatch rub down warning flashes are completely useless - I've had hardly any successes - and I eventually resorted to some flashes cut from an ancient Woodhead sheet, laid on a dab of gloss varnish to make them stick, followed up by some microsol. I now need to seal the lettering with satin varnish before weathering - I can't face any of the lettering breaking up under thinned washes
     
     
    Kadees have been fitted to SSAs and PMV - no 26s , which wipes out 75% of the ones I bought from Charlie Petty at Southwold. I've also added weight (lead sheet) underneath with araldite, and have got the SSAs up to just on 50g and the PMV slightly over. I suspect the PMV requires a bit more as its a long vehicle, but I'd used up all the araldite mixed , and would have needed to find some more scraps of lead in the drawer. A little bit of touching up of packing and screw with frame dirt, and a repair of the truss rod on the PMV - the wretched things keep getting caught and breaking . I also fitted cross rods between the clasp brake shoes with 45 thou handrail wire. On reflection I should have painted the interior (its apt to take a green tinge in sunlight) added weight inside before I fitted the roof - and fitted bars across the glazing. Hence It's going to have to have a heavy coat of dirt - including over the windows
     
    At a recent show I picked up a second hand built kit for ??3 under the delusion it was an LNER van. It isn't =- the underframe is BR clasp and some checking reveals its actually an LMS fish van. I've already built one of those myself... I would describe it as competently built by someone who didn't know what he was doing. That is - it's neatly assembled , and the chassis is perfectly square. He's taken the wrong chassis off the sprue (which contains both BR & LMS clasp underframes), and as bought , the van sides had curious horns at the bottom on the ends - parts of the sprue the builder hadn't realised he should remove...It was painted brown (wrong) with the roof and underframe left in bare black plastic.
     
     
    I've started a clean up . The horns have gone, as have the tension locks, and the cross shaft and rod from the brake cylinder have been added, along with cross rods to the clasp brake shoes. LMS vac pipes (ABS) have been added. Rainstrips were removed and one ply of tissue stuck over the roof with solvent for canvas effect - rainstrips reinstated with micro rod. The brown livery was rubbed down , two coats of Precision BR maroon applied and lettering from Modelmaster transfers applied (I had the paint and transfers left over from my own model). Bases to apply the S+W couplings have been built up with plasticard. It needs more weight - its turning the scales at about 37g ( my own kit kept derailing until Ifound it was lighter than all the other wagons on the plank and I glued more lead underneath)
     
     
    I've also made a start on a 40' container from C-Rail (also bought off Charlie at Southwold) . Box is built, a primer coat applied - I just need to spray it.
     
    Minimal progress on the road van - just a few of the handrails have been done. And as I had the soldering iron out to start on the Pacer, I've done the A1 H-frames from the Walrus. That's all I've done on that front.
     
     
    The Pacer project merits a seperate post - if only as a file note for myself
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Thu Sep 10, 2009 6:10 pm
     
    I should really post some photos of the PMV and fish van , and maybe the 40' box which has most of its transfers in place. Then there's the 29 which is looking like a tough job to DCC , so has been dropped from the list of current jobs...
     
    But I need to set down the parameters of the Pacer
     
    I've started trying to do something about one of the two Hornby 142s I own. They are currently stored unserviceable, as they won't go through the diverging roads of points (wheels are too coarse)and they have no decoders - messy , problematic hardwired installation on 2 motor units
     
    There are two of them , bought second hand: a chocolate & cream "Skipper" and a Provincial Blue unit.The Skippers were exiled to Lincolnshire immediately after their explusion from the West Country in disgrace, and there's a shot of a blue 142 passing Brocklesby in the mid 80s in one recent book.
     
     
    First survey of the units: both are double motored and need wheels replacing and decoders fitting. The Provincial unit was in worse condition , as it has a non-electrical coupling between the units (so 4 wheel pickup) and a screw had stripped the thread resulting in one motor unit flapping loose.
     
    A first attempt to fit Ultrascale wheels to the Skipper failed when it became clear significant carving would be needed to make them fit- and I carved the rear truck too much in the wrong place
     
    A Branchlines chassis kit has been bought (nearly 2 years ago)
     
    The intention is to give the Provincial Pacer a comprehensive job, with new chassis , and retain the existing mechanism on the Skipper - thus using the set of Ultrascales I bought at great expense
     
    First assessment of the Provincial 142 and work needed.
     
    Rewheeling is covered by the new chassis
     
    DCC installation - should be a lot simpler as only one motor, and therefore only one decoder, needs to be considered .
     
    No lights . As this is a second generation unit, really I should install them , especially given all the other work to be done on the unit. Express Models do a lighting kit , but this means wires between the vehicles . However a short unit like this could be kept perminently coupled and stored/handled as a single train without seperation??
     
    The Branchlines kit provides for pickup on two wheels each side, with chassis live. Not ideal. Adding extra pickups all round may mean another cable between the 2 cars... Or I stick with 6 wheel pickup? (Might there be scope to reuse the old Hornby pickups for the "extra" wheels ????)
     
     
    The interior needs some tweaking - it seems some of the partitions either don't exist or are in the wrong place. Repaint and add some figures. Hopefully the decoder won't be too obviously visible
     
    The cab front should be 3 deep window recesses in a thick solid front . Hornby model the top and bottom - but not the bits between the windows and it does affect the look . ??? Insert white plasticard??
     
    The warning yellow looks very orange and may need repainting
     
    Replace the moulded cab front handrail - wire melted in?
     
    I'm not going to attempt the handrails by the doors - I don't think I can make a better job.
     
    Since the unit is to be in 1985-90 condition, there's no need to change the 4 piece doors nor does it need roof pods
     
    I think perhaps I really ought to do something about the "black box" on the underframe. Its only a small one, true, but it really shouldn't be there. But then I have to do the same with the other Pacer... The weight is 50g , so I need to stuff that amount of lead flashing either between the solebars, or else possibly under the seating unit between that and the chassis. I don't think it will be prudent to reduce adhesive weight with only one driven axle. But should I lighten what will become the trailer?
     
     
    Replace the moulded exhaust (so I need to source a casting - on its own?)
     
    Fit decent representation of the gangway. It will help to disguise all the through wires......
     
    Do I attempt to reduce the number of ribs on the roof??? I really do not want to have to repaint the body - I can't possibly do a decent job on the sides , though patchpainting a weathered roof might not be impossible
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:10 pm
     
    Do you ever have a model that seems to be cursed? Or at least to be possessed by a cackling gremlin which is determined that no matter how you try this one is going to come out as a wretched failure?
     
     
    I have. It's a Southern PMV. Readers may recall episodes in this story to date, but now we can see it in its full malevolent perspective. First one of the roof vents pinged into oblivion - I had to improvise representative replacements. Then we had the saga of the transfers, or non-availabilty of same. Then I ordered special transfers from the remotest corners of the earth - only to find they were 7mm
     
    Here is a photo:
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....e.php?id=103381" alt="">
     
    Note the large size of the faint lettering (the only bit of the purchased transfers I used ) - and how it spreads across the whole panel . Now compare with Dan Randall's 7mm PMV above...
     
     
    Also the way the green interior shows up... (I should have painted the inside)
     
     
    I think I must have broken every one of those wretched plastic rod underframe tie rods at least once, and stuck them back together
     
    I've weathered it . The brown has picked out the planking lines in a lighter colour , which looks wrong... I weathered the windows . In the process two of them, being imperfectly attached, fell inside .
     
     
    I've tried making a replacement out of clear plasticard, desperately , to stick in with varnish, . When I'd finally got it just to fit , it fell inside . In shaking the van to get it out , the orignial windows started to appear. I managed to manoevre one back roughly in place , and seem to have stuck it there with brushfuls of solvent. In the process the other window seems to have attached to the back of it - I shook it loose and its now probably stuck to the floor somewhere...
     
     
    I shall now have to attempt to bodge a replacement window (I don't think I can get it properly inset - and the windows on these do not seem to have opened).
     
    Arrghhh
     
    Target condition is now something like this:
     
    Oh by the way the bit of the special transfers I used is now barely visible...
     
    <a href="http://gallery6801.f.../p46201342.html" >http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p46201342.html</a>
     
    Hopefully a further wash of dark grey with a tinge of dark brown will do the job - and not dislodge any windows
     
    Also the fish van. A much happier tale. Here it is , lurking behind the Sealion I weathered, before work started :
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....e.php?id=103390" alt="">
     
    and a very rough shot before weathering
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....e.php?id=103391" alt="">
  4. Ravenser

    Points Arising

    By Ravenser,

    Things are a bit heavy at work at the moment which is probably why this posting's three weeks late, but the wiring is finally done. Well, sort of just about.
     
    The new DS64 decoder is in , the NCE switch it is disconnected, the last two motors (Cobalt and Tortoise) are in , they're all wired up , and they work. I admit that one half of the slip is only about 98% reliable, but this was clearly the stiffest tie bar on the layout and always going to be the place where any intermittant incomplete throw was going to appear
     
    The whole lot is very tightly packed , as you can see - which was always the issue and why it took so long:
     

     
    The Cobart Blue seems slightly more positive in its operation than the Tortoises, even though I've now replaced the wire supplied by Circuitron with something thicker. Also very useful is the solder free connector block - if you have to disconnect or swap over wirews to reverse the direction of throw it's dead easy
     
    A minor benefit is that theboard is potentially self sustaining. Although the DS64 is powered by an independent 12V DC supply from the stabilised converter, and this requires the 16V AC feed from the other board, , in its absence it defaults to drawing power through the DCC data connection. This means the decoder works even without being connected to the other board. The Hoffman motor controlling half the crossover doesn't work (since this draws 16V AC) but the other 4 motors do
     
    The next stage, when things calm down a bit and I can have another play with the layout, is to draw up a panel diagram, showing which way is normal and reverse for each point and their numbers, to stick on the back or end of the layout. And once that's done, I can program Route Macros (a feature provided by the NCE system) for each possible route. So in future all I need do is key in the correct macro and an entire route through the layout comes off, complete with signals. The PowerCab supports 16 macros - there are a total of 14 possible routes on the layout . (For the curious - Platform 1 to fuelling point, FY branch, FY main 1, FY main 2; Platform 2 via crossover to pl 1, to fuelling point, FY branch, FY main 1 & FY main 2; Platform 2 straight ahead to FY branch, FY main 1 and FY main 2; Platform 3 to the three FY roads). Full entrance/exit route control with no extra wiring or cost, and no control panel at all
     
    I've also noted the wiring colour code on the back of a business card and stuck it in a suitable spot under the boards
     
    What hasn't been done is to install the ground signal under the bridge controlling exit from the fuelling point - it will be on the left of the track in this view, taken from the chair in front of the computer looking to my left...:
     

     
    This is because I've run out of contracts on the relevant point motors (the Hoffmann has only one, for the frog, and the spare contacts on the Tortoise at the other end of the crossover are used to switch the 16V AC supply to power the Hoffmann) . The only way to work the ground signal is as an opposed pair of LEDs inserted into one of the power feeds to the Tortoise: one LED will light if current passes in one direction, and the other if current is reversed....
     
    I also intend to install a spare Erkon 3 aspect signal + feather in the fiddle yard as a visible indicator of what routes are set, in an effort to minimise the risk of driving into a point set against the train, and I have to sort out the electromagnet I wired (and which doesn't work) and wire up the other two. I suspect the issue is that I didn't scrape the lacquer off the wires throughly enough to get good electrical joints- afriend suggested using avery large iron (I have a 70W in the workbench) to burn off the lacquer
     
    But I'm leaving thisfinal round of wiring for the moment - the next major task is going to be building the screen walls round the station , the last big scenic job outstanding. Then it's down to detailing, stock, and operation
     
    It should now be possible to use the layout as a programming track while in situ in the study - meaning I don't have to set the whole thing up in the sitting room first. I just need to get at a suitable power socket...
  5. Ravenser

    Postcards from the Layouts

    By Ravenser,


    Operational
    As Blacklade is effectively completed, and so is the Boxfile there isn't too much to post in the way of layout construction these days. Lockdown efforts have mainly been focussed on sorting out the litter of unfinished stock projects - and if the truth be known, drifting into one or two more. And those things have gone onto my workbench blog..
     
    However just to prove that the silence is not that of the grave, here are a few snapshots from when each of them was last up - "Pictures from an Exhibition" as it were.
     
    Firstly , the last time Blacklade was up. As well as test running the NBL 21 and having a Blue Period operating session I got some of the post-privatisation stock out of its boxes to check it still ran and give it a touch of maintenance. For some reason - probably that the 1980s are of more interest to me, and I have a full suite of stock for 1985-90 whereas there are one or two things I need to sort out for post-privatisation - I've not run as 2000-7 for a long time.
     
    So the Type 5s got an outing each :

     
    57 011 has always been a pretty reliable performer, and as my most compact Type 5 , is designated for fuelling point diesel traffic and engineer's trains in the post-privatisation period. Here she is test running the two green Railtrack opens to check they are fine. (They were.) I really ought to apply a little mild weathering to this one. The loco-hauled substitute set can be seen in the background.
     
    (This loco was bought as a return off the Bachmann stand for about £40, over a decade ago in the days when Bachmann sold their repaired returns off the stand at Warley and Ally Pally. I think the Fox transfers and the plates to renumber her added 50% to the price... Someone else in the group already had 57 010)
     
    And here is the other green Type 5:
     

     
    This is more of a ghost from my involvement with an abortive club layout project some years ago.  66 532 isn't really that suitable for Blacklade being a good inch and a bit longer than the 57. The container train has nothing to do with Blacklade: I acquired two FEA twins , a Realtrack "ball-bearing" twin and a pocket wagon and built and painted some C-Rail containers. Several of these containers are work-related from the days when I used to work for a carrier. The Hapag 20'OT is a resin Mendip Models kit that hung around in the cupboard for years. This is as many of the wagons as I could get on the layout.: they hadn't been out of their boxes for about a decade.
     
    And now for the Boxfile:

     
     
    Construction of a Parkside OHV steel High and reconstruction of a Slater's rectangular tank from my youth were written up here . However handsome is as handsome does - they were built to replace one or two existing wagons of questionable reliability in the Boxfile's fleet. So they can't be deemed fully and finally "done" until they've run through an operating session and behaved themselves. Here we see the rectangular tank in action, and as a bonus I've finally fitted coupling bars for Sprat & Winkle couplings to the Hornby Ruston 48DS I bought at Warley last year. It runs nicely - so I also have an extra loco in traffic.
     
    And yes, both wagons are good 'uns. They slide in and out of the back siding very reliably.  Which is something of a relief. The Ruston 48DS also runs nicely, at a very satisfactory and controllable speed for the Boxfile. There is too little space for it to run with the supplied runner wagon for additional pickup so occasionally it hesitates at a frog, but that can't be helped, given the nature of the loco and the layout. All in all I'm pleased with my purchase, and the price at which Hornby pitched it was excellent.
     
    But... on checking the two boxfiles which hold the stock, I find I still have five wagons "carded".  One - the LNER unfitted van - is at least serviceable if run the right way round. More damaging is what is carded. Total stock currently stands at 13 vans (incl Conflats); 10 minerals (incl 1 tank) ;  6 opens. The correct ratio for the layout is supposed to be 4 vans, 1 open, and 2 minerals for an operating session. In other words I have 6x the opens, 5x the minerals  - and only just over 3x the vans. And what is carded is 1 van, 2 Conflats, a Bachmann 16T slopesided mineral, and a Dapol 13T LMS open. At the most optimistic view, I have 11 serviceable vans when I should have 18-20 vans. One of those 11 is questionable, another is slightly questionable, and a third is a rather rough Lima van with a new chassis
     
    And every single RTR chassis - a Conflat, a 16T mineral and a 13T open - falls off entering the back road. That's a very sobering situation.
     
    Surveying the stockboxes I find myself forming some further resolutions to address all this. An old Hornby refridgerated van is being reworked as an ex NER vehicle. It now has a scratchbuilt underframe so I gave it some test runs without couplings using the Ruston , and it seems to run very reliably. Lurking on my bookshelf is the long-unfinished DOGA etched van kit.  These two should at least address the fact that I'm light on LNER vehicles. The kitbuilt chassis on the  Conflat V is tight and rigid. Melting in a bearing with a soldering iron to create a little slop at on end might fix it. And ferreting in my modelling cupboard turned up a Parkside LNER Conflat S kit, and a packet of Bachmann small insulated containers. Since I can clearly build a kit chassis so that it stays on the Boxfile while RTR chassis fall off, this would be a possible nil-cost solution. With a bit of juggling I think I can just about get this into the stockboxes as an extra.
     
    I'm not sure what I do about the RTR wagons to make them run, so if  this ultimately replaces the Bachmann Conflat A a further slot opens up. I have two old Parkside BR van kits in the cupboard, one of which might fill the gap. That would get me up to 15 serviceable vans - a roughly  50% improvement on the current situation, at nil expenditure. 
     
     I ought to think about adding a figure or two to the Boxfile: nothing too much , but just a touch of life.
  6. Ravenser
    I've been pretty busy on the hobby front in the last few weeks. The trouble is that it hasn't involved making any models....
     
    A few weeks back I was helping with the DOGA stand at a show in the Midlands, which meant a couple of days away. Very nice and hopefully productive, some nice layouts , and I was a good boy on the spending front.
     
    Then the following day someone from one of the magazines came over to photograph the layout for an article, which will (I hope) appear in the next few months. This meant that the week before my show trip was spent frantically tidying up the flat cleaning the layout and the stock, and sorting out one or two minor issues - a dummy point motor reseated so that it doesn't foul the underframe boxes on the coaches (which it was doing in one direction) , and one of the accessory decoders remounted - I'd initially fitted it with double-sided tape, which NCE and Tortoise assure us is adequate for mounting purposes, but it must have shaken loose on the way back from the show. It's now held on with two screws as well.
     
    I've written the article, and gone through it three or four times to ensure it reads as easily as possible, unnecessary words are taken out and as much as possible covered within the word limit (I could have probably filled another 500 words, to be honest). Copies of the photos came by post - I've done the captions and the whole lot has gone off to the magazine
     
    After that came the club show and two days of stewarding and help breaking down.
     
    I'm afraid the cheque book suffered this time - when working with the etches for the 128 I was reminded yet again that a bending tool for etches would be very useful. So I treated myself to the smallest size of Hold And Fold - I'm not intending to build any 7mm etched brass Pacifics, so that should be adequate for my needs
     
    And given the shakiness of Hornby I decided I would definitely buy a J50, as there's a risk this might be the only chance I ever get. It's not a loco I definitely "need" but I've occasionally toyed with the idea of a cheap Lima body detailed on some chassis, so - I grabbed an early crest J50/4 off a boxshifter at a good price. A bit of renumbering will be required but 68982 seems to have been allocated to Colwick, Immingham and Frodingham at various times. That will do - I just hope Modelmaster numbers are the same size as Hornby's tampo printing, otherwise I'll have to replace the whole number
     
    Then there's my embarrassing little purchase. Someone had a couple of second hand coach kits for LMS Portholes - punched aluminium bodyshell affairs that I thought were BSL, and a fiver for a Brake Third seemed a great bargain
     
    Unfortunately it's actually MTK . Next time, read the label
     
    Blacklade runs very smoothly with DMUs. We're more or less there with the 31s and loco-hauled trains, though the Airfix 31 is a little sticky - no doubt attributable to its mechanism (I am starting to wonder if a drop of oil may be needed again), and I have had very occasional thoughts that a 25 might be an idea
     
    But the steam stock still has some bugs to be shaken out of it. The L1's pony truck is a particular offender, though it seems this is a well-known issue with various fixes being tried.
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51794-Hornby-l1-front-bogie-derailing/
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/87326-Hornby-l1/
     
    (This is by way of a note to myself, so I can find the threads again) .
     
    I was somewhat less than chuffed to discover that Hornby's Fowler 2-6-4T has the same arrangement: that's supposed to be near the front of the queue for a decoder in order to improve the motive power situation
     
    And I'm even more convinced that the MERG accessory decoder must come out - rebooting the layout after a short is getting very tedious
  7. Ravenser

    Retail Therapy

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    Last weekend but several was , of course, Warley. Feeling a little buoyant after completing the Baby Deltic I went with a list...
     
    It was one of those occasions when you end up buying all sorts of things you didn't know you needed until you got to the show. And I didn't get some of the things I did know I needed.
     
    But the result of all this is a number of new projects opening up so -
     
    - The first cab off the rank is an attempt to follow the Baby Deltic by assembling a home-brew NBL Type 2 diesel-electric from bits. (That's a Class 21 in decimal money, but in 1958 TOPS was a long way away). I have long had a second-hand Hornby 29 body , bought for a couple of quid. The Baby Deltic used up the chassis and bogie frames I had bought for it - so I sourced some more from Peter's Spares
     
    But they didn't have a power bogie.
     
    So I went to Warley on the scrounge for a cheap second-hand loco to cannibalise for one. With the further thought that if I managed to get a Hornby 25 then the body is reckoned to be better than the Bachmann one, so putting it on Bachmann chassis is a known route to a 25....
     
    And I found a Chinese-production Hornby 25 in BR Blue with 5 pole motor and all-wheel pickup for £39.50 . Thank you!
     
    A tip-off from the Chairman on the stand sent me scurrying across the gangway to Shawplan for their etched NBL cab window surrounds - which radically improves the cab end of the Hornby 29. I also bought a suitable etched fan and a set of laserglaze windows for the Hornby 25. 247 Developments supplied NBL worksplates
     
    Dart Castings visited us to advise of a new etch allowing the fitting of couplings to bogies. I went round to their stand and bought a couple.
     
    And then there is the GBL Jinty which I've recently disassembled. I think the wheels on the Hornby 0-6-0 chassis - or at least their flanges -may prove a bit big for the moulded chassis. But an etch on Brassmasters' stand for a fiver, intended for the Bachmann Deeley 3F , offers replacement splashers for a larger wheel.
     
    I sourced a Zen Nano Direct for a Bachmann BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0, and a couple of other decoders from Digitrains , including a big stay-alive to help the 29
     
    Two weekends later was Peterborough. The list was shorter, but I still needed sheet lead. I took my part built 128 - or at least it's Replica chassis with a damaged supporting yoke at one end - and Replica fitted a replacement part for me for a modest sum - I bought a few small bits from them as well. That unblocks the 128 project , which I hope to finish in the New Year
     
    And I also managed to find a second-hand Bachmann class 25 , at a very reasonable £49.50 - probably because all the cab handrails were broken. But I don't care about the cab handrails because I have a Hornby 25 body....
     
    Also part of the Peter's Spares order was a Hornby Javelin motor bogie to repower the recalcitrant 155 with its seized motor bogie, and a Hornby Railroad 31 chassis frame . All I need is some suitable bogies so I have a mechanism for another of the stored Airfix bodies.
     
    I hope to make some inroads into the list of outstanding projects in 2019
     
    Meanwhile I think I have found a solution for the Baby Deltic's annoying tendency to stall. The culprit is almost certainly the deep flanges on the old-style Hornby wheels combined with code 70 bullhead track - removing prominent bits of ballast has eased but not quite cured the problem. After various wild ideas about somehow turning down wheels in a lathe I don't possess , I realised there was a simpler solution . A quick rummage in a box produced the remains of a packet of Bachmann coach wheels. Pinpoints were quickly sawn off and the wheels replaced on a trial Hornby trailing bogie .
     
    But I could have sworn there were 4 axles in that packet when I found it, and when I went back to do the next pair - there was only one axle left. I've had to buy another packet from the local model shop...
  8. Ravenser

    Route One

    By Ravenser,

    With DCC Installing the point motors and decoder isn't necessarily the end of the story. Yes, it gets the points working , but more than just that is possible, and yesterday I took the final steps in commissioning the installation
     
    Working the points one by one through the handset is a little slow and clunky . Probably no slower than flicking a set of switches on a DC panel, but just as liable to operator error. I suspect that one of the major causes of derailment and intermittant running on the average layout is the operator having failed to set some point in the route somewhere, and I'm no better at it than anyone else
     
    Much more sophisticated automated approaches are possible with DCC, and most of them cost a lot of money. In fact I believe several small building societies are now offering mortgages of up to 80% LTV for first time buyers of Railroad & Co software... Having been born in Yorkshire I'm not going down any route that involves several hundred euros and the installation of lots of special electronic devices sourced from someone unpronounciable in the Black Forest.
     
    Fortunately that's not necessary. The NCE Powercab - which is what I have - offers a feature called "macros" . These allow you to store instructions to up to 8 accessory decoder addresses , and send them as a single operation. There's even a nice prominent button labelled "macros" between "select loco" and select accessory". Just press it. type in the number of the macro and press return - and instructions to up to 8 accessory addresses can be sent at once (I'm being very careful in my wording here - both the MERG point decoder and the DS64 accessory decoder have 4 outputs and therefore 4 addresses . The Lenz LS150 has 6. And one output/address can work two points , typically as a cross-over. )
    The PowerCab supports 16 of these macros , numbered 0-15 (I presume the Procab does the same)
     
    Blacklade has 9 points (2 of which form a single slip), two point decoders, and 7 addresses in use - there are 2 crossovers, wired as pairs. There are 3 platforms in the station , one of which (Pl 2) can be reached by either front or back routes , 3 roads in the fiddle yard and the fuelling point. That gives 4 x 4 = 16 possible route options , though in reality it's only 14 , as you can't reach the fuelling point from platform 3 (the back platform) or from the back exit from Platform 2
     
    So each possible route on the layout can be given it's own macro which will fire all the points necessary to set it up with a single instruction. Full entrance/exit route setting - for nowt. 'Cos it comes as a standard feature on the Powercab....
     
    The first step was to check each point address and work out which way was Normal and which Reverse (these are the 2 options in NCE - Digitrax prefer Closed and Thrown). I drew a very crude panel diagram in pencil to record this - the standard convention being that Normal is a thick continuous line, and Reverse is a break in the line . Then I started programming the macros starting with macro 1 (Platform 1 to fuelling point) , programming the correct setting for each point in the route with reference to the pencil diagram. When route started to involve the slip it seemed like a good idea to run something through to test it and make sure I had the polarity right through the slip, so out came a153. Program macro , press button, enter macro number, hear points throw, run train. And so on steadily down the list of possible permutations
     
    After about an hour and a half I had a layout where I could set up any possible route in one go , just by pressing a button and entering a number . And the appropriate signals came off as well.. The 153 ran slowly and reliably back and forth across the layout.
     
    For ease of operation, I've written out all the macro numbers as a table on the back of an old business card and stuck it on the backscene at the station end. I've also drawn out the panel diagram neatly on two business cards , with point numbers, so that if I have to change points "manually" I do at least know which way to select on the menu . It doesn't really matter which way is Normal for a point so long as you know which option to select to set the point in the direction you want. The amount of time wasted trying each option in turn until the point moved was embarrassing, and trying to work out the number of a given point without aclear memory aid is very difficult - which is why the real railways put a block diagram with all the lever numbers marked in every signal box. I'd strongly recommend drawing out a panel diagram whatever your system, for these reasons alone.
     
    I don't usually do DCC techno- posts and this posting may leave folk with a different DCC system cold. However the PowerCab is quite a popular DCC system and I don't think I've seen any comment on using this particular feature before. Obviously 16 route macros will only go so far on a large layout, where there are more than 16 possible routes and some involve a lot more than 8 points; though I gather from another thread that great northern has been experimenting with macros on Peterborough North. However you wouldn't use a PowerCab to run a large layout anyway, and for the average small terminus 16 macros should be more than enough, especially if the fiddle yard is a sector plate or traverser. It really is a powerful feature to be able to set up any route completely and reliabilily just with a single entry , and the improvement in speed and ease of operation is dramatic
     
    Something similar should be possible on an number of other systems. The Digitrax DS64 accessory decoder supports "routes" at the level of the decoder itself. Unfortunately you can only set up routes involving points controlled by two different DS64s if they are linked by Loconet, the Digitrax cab bus, which means that you can only get comprehensive route setting thisway if you have a Digitrax system. I think Lenz support route setting , though I don't know any details and I have a suspicion it may even be available with the Multimaus
  9. Ravenser

    Safety Valve

    By Ravenser,

    This is by way of a moan... I'm trying to sort out various bits-and-pieces jobs, and one is to replace the Bachmann/ESU 3 function 21 pin decoder in the 150 , which doesn't support advanced consisting, with a rather expensive TCS 1344 21-pin decoder that does. I have no need whatsoever for 6 functions - it was just that 21 pin decoders are few and far between, and a DMU that won't work in multiple is rather a nuisence on a layout where operational interest is supposed to be boosted by joining and splitting the things
     
    (Memo to Messrs Lovatt and Kohler - consisting is a Useful Thing, and even your cheap decoders should support it. I don't give a stuff about Mars Lights, function mapping and flickering fireboxes, but I do care about Advanced Consisting in DMUs)
     
    Attempt one was an ignominous failure - I couldn't get the body off because the two small screws at the gangway end wouldn't come out , being too small for any of my jewellers' screwdrivers . Having bought a new set of jewellers screwdrivers from a local shop, for a couple of quid - this time with some very small ones in - I managed to get them out with a 1.0mm flat screwdriver . The screws, though crossheaded, were way too small for my smallest crosshead Phillips screwdriver (00 - what else - it seems crosshead screwdrivers are numbered like paintbrushes or model railway gauges...). Thankfully I hadn't mashed the heads fatally in the first attempt
     
    The game plan was to switch the Bachmann decoder into my nice new ROD 04 . The decoder sits in the tender and all you have to do is remove the tender top . Carefully poised upside down , using the packaging as a protecting cradle, out come the back 2 screws withb a 1.0mm flat , cos they are way smaller than 00 crosshead. The front two won't come out.....
     
    The ROD is not going to be up and running this Bank Holiday weekend
     
    A hasty check of the Squires catalogue reveals - in 3 pages of jewellers' screwdrivers - just one set with 0000 screwdriver , at £13.99 . Which I will have to order - tools, Bachmann locos, for the opening of....
     
    Question to Barwell - why are you fixing together parts of your models which lots of people will need to undo , using fastenings that require tools which are very difficult to source in order to shift them???
  10. Ravenser

    Served Up On A Tray

    By Ravenser,


    Boxfile
    This is by way of a short "statement of concept" note.
     
    The Boxfile (formally Whitefriargate Goods) has been out of commission for a couple of years, after the end of the fiddle yard track became damaged. At one level this simply means a basic and fairly straightforward repair. But it has thrown into sharper relief the main problem with this layout.
     

     
    That's the board joint. The two files are currently held together - when assembled - by fishplates connecting the tracks. This arrangement has proved vulnerable to damage of the exposed track ends, and it's a bit of a pig trying to slide everything together, as some of the track doesn't cross the joint at 90 degrees. It's very fiddly, and there's a risk of damaging the track.
     
    As a result of this setting up the 'file has taken 10-15 minutes of fiddling about, which is a serious disincentive to using the layout
     
    And when you've got it all together - the track joints across the gap are pretty rough, which has affected running
     
    When I was toying with the idea of building a tramway micro as a boxed diorama, using IKEA storage boxes (see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-18982-im-not-committed-to-building-this-you-understand-mark-2/) I noticed that there was a version of the product that was effectively a tray, and I had the idea of buying one and fitting the Boxfile inside it, permanently assembled
     
    This idea faded away when I discovered that IKEA weren't actually selling the storage item in question http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/119680-snack-boxes-are-back-at-ikea/ but has now resurfaced.
     
    I thought the stumbling block would be storage. At present the Boxfile lives in a storage drawer under the bed, along with two boxfiles containing all the stock, a small stash of modern N gauge which I ended up acquiring, the controller, light and some empty boxes. I had thought that if I mounted the complete layout on a tray it would no longer fit in the drawer.
     
    And the flat is very full, and there is nowhere else obvious to keep it.
     
    However some actual checks last night revealed that if mounted in a tray it should still fit.....
     

    (This picture may be some help to those folk who believe they "don't have room for a model railway")
     
    So it's game on.
     
    The intention is to use 4mm ply to construct an open-fronted tray to act as a frame around the assembled layout. This means in practice a flat piece of ply (tee-hee - the ply will have to come from Wickes or B&Q as the local timber merchant has gone) with strips of ply along the sides and back. The files can then be glued down inside, with the track properly joined , and the damaged piece replaced and relaid across the interfile joint
     
    I don't think the bottom of the files are entirely rigid anyway, so the whole thing may actually end up flatter. Sides will be 1 3/4" deep , as this should avoid some of the switches and DIN sockets . Holes will have to be drilled for the rest , and I might consider removing one or two of the entirely pointless section switches I originally installed
     
    The fronts and lids of the files would still fold up to provide a sealed and protected unit, but the layout would effectively be a single unit 29.5" long, meaning I could simply put it on a table, plug in the connectors, set up the light, add the stock and away we go.
    Some of the reliability problems at the joints would also vanish. No longer would trains auto-uncouple entering the fiddle track, or jolt across a chasm.
     
    The ply tray will probably be painted black - I have a tin in the airing cupboard, so long as it hasn't gone off
     
    And if the layout can be set up quickly and runs more reliably it should be used more. I can invest time in finishing off a few wagons, and maybe building up a Judith Edge Sentinel or two from the cupboard. A Peckett or a Barclay could be contemplated.....
     
    The DIY sheds beckon tomorrow
  11. Ravenser

    Served Up On A Tray - Dessert

    By Ravenser,


    Boxfile
    We left the Boxfile last time safely installed on its new tea-tray, but with the track joints still to patch, and scenery to touch up.
     
    The track joints were not at all good - they never have been. In the worst place I think there was a horrifying 4mm long gap in the railhead.
     
    The solution was a bodge I've used in one or two places on Blacklade, though not on quite such a scale. This is to cut a sliver of 40
    thou plasticard and superglue it in place in the gap. Once the cyano has thoroughly set - i.e. after an hour or two - trim it down to rail level with a sharp craft knife, and the gap is patched. The plasticard "railhead" will inevitably show white, but the patches are normally very short, and the wheel ought to be fully supported across what was once a void - with all the benefits that implies in running
     
    This is fine if you have a fishplate underneath. You then have a firm base on which your scrap of plasticard can rest , and to which it can also be glued.
     
    However thanks to my losing battle with the fishplates, in several places I didn't have that luxury. At least on the middle road (cue a photo so you can see what we're talking about) there were plastic insulated fishplates underneath, even if they didn't actually connect with one side.

     
    I managed to get scraps of plasticard in place and solidly set with superglue . I trimmed them down - the rail is now more or less continuous - but unfortunately this revealed that the track is not quite flat across this joint, and small 4 wheel shunters may stall at this point and need a touch of the finger. Admittedly it's a lot better than watching the Y3 claw itself out of a pit, like a WW1 tank crossing a trench.
     
    The final joint was rather more trouble, and desperate expedients were tried. I superglued a scrap in microstrip in the rail web across the gap, I packed the Gaping Void with scraps of balsa and bits of Exactoscale support foam , and once the Void was no longer bottomless I managed to superglue another scrap of 40 thou in place in the gap. I left it a couple of hours to set completely , and trimmed down the plasticard - fixed.
     
    The Exactoscale foam proved an excellent colour match for the ash ballast, and I packed the gaps . Then I managed to find the original black flock to sprinkle over it - and found that the original black flock was not a colour match with the rest of the "ash ballast". I had to resort to off-black paint let down with grey - and it still isn't a perfect match , though you won't notice this in the photo.
     
    The next job was trying to restore the rubbed areas of the Metcalfe cobbling . I tried a grey watercolour wash, in the hope this would penetrate the card, so that the colour would persist. Colour-matching again proved a little tricky - and how far it will resist continued cleaning we will see. But for the moment at least the damage has been patched up.
     
    Then I test ran a few locos - and was sharply reminded of the running problems with the Boxfile. Further action required...
     
    As Warley was only a few days away, I headed for the West Midlands with resolution, my debit card and a list. On the Saturday evening I returned with a DCC Concepts rolling road, and a new Tenshodo for the Y3 - the existing one being a hopeless case. Branchlines sold me a 26mm wheelbase unit, which they tell me is what it should take. This replaces a 28.7mm unit, which is what
    was recommended when I built it.
     
    The Knightwing shunter was given a good long run on the rolling road and is greatly improved . The Boxfile's worst two locos are now as good as the best..
     
    Then I started testing the wagons in a fit of enthusiasm - and it rapidly became clear that all was not well. To cut a long story short, I ended up testing all the wagons , and even resorted to generating a spreadsheet...
     
    The problems largely involve wagons derailing when entering the back road which serves the cold store and wagon hoist. Clearly this is not an issue caused by a dodgy joint between boxfiles. In principle it's a track issue, but it's exposing marginal problems with the wagons. And since "the rules of the game" require all wagons to go under the hoist first, the problems need to be sorted out.
     
    The spreadsheet logs wagon description, weight, wheel type, company, work needed, whether compensation units could be fitted, and performance - Go (meaning it runs consistently reliably in both directions through both roads, either way round), Go? (a slight query over reliable running), Marginal (it derails intermittently) and No Go (consistently derails in one or more of the permutations)
     
    When wagons stopped because of broken or missing couplings were added to the equation I had a wretched 14 wagons serviceable out of 32...
     
    Of 11 vehicles marked No Go or Marginal , 7 have Romford wheels. 8 of them weigh 35g or less - none weigh the full 50g, though several were only a little short
     
    A GE open weighing only 30g on Hornby wheels is Go. So is a compensated single bolster weighing 35g
     
    Action was taken. Three wagons have had broken couplings fixed and are back in traffic. Two more have been fitted with Sprat and Winkles and released to traffic. The Blue Spot fish , which looked a bit too big anyway , has been repainted rail blue and consigned to Blacklade; I've pushed on with the MICA which is to replace it , and which only needs varnish and couplings. A fish van has received Hornby wheels and been pushed up to 50g - it's now fine
     
    I aim to finish off a couple more wagons this weekend, but I now have 22 serviceable wagons (plus 3 more which are unsuitable for the Boxfile anyway)
     
    And so the current state of play....
     

     
    The LNER van has acquired its couplings, the PO coke has had a coupling mended, and the MICA awaits a varnish coat and couplings
  12. Ravenser

    Served Up On A Tray - Main Course

    By Ravenser,


    Boxfile
    The deed is done - or at least most of it. On Saturday I duly trotted off to the local DIY sheds. Unfortunately Wickes and B&Q locally do not cut timber , and Buildbase - who might - were closed. But a sheet of 5mm ply in B&Q was only £5.47, so I bought it anyway.
     
    Having got it home and marked out the cutting plan I discovered that if you heavily score the desired cutting line on both sides with a Stanley knife you can snap 5mm ply along the line much as you would do 40 thou plasticard. This is a great deal quicker, easier and more importantly neater and more accurate, than cutting it with a tenon saw.
     
    I rapidly had a base plate , two sides 2" deep, and a back 1 3/4" deep (the lesser depth being in order to clear some of the switches and sockets at the back )- the components are visible here
     

     
    I then marked out where holes needed to be drilled for the two switches and one socket that fouled the back and drilled accordingly - the DIN socket required a 20mm wood drill and some hacking with the Stanley knife. A check fit revealed that the holes needed bevelling with a knife to allow the switches free play - this was done before I started assembly, with one side and the back glued to the base with PVA. This was left to dry hard overnight
     
     
     
     
     
    The next day - being Sunday - I set about trying to sort out the damaged track, removing about 2 inches of damaged Streamline from the fiddle yard area. I have to say that getting fishplates to slide on to anything was a terrible struggle - I managed to write off the first bit of replacement code 75 in the process, and the second had its integrity maintained by soldering in two sleepers improvised out of PCB sleeper strip. In the heat of the struggle, I ended up with the two rails about 2mm out of alignment lengthwise, which created further problems - ie gaps at the rail joints.
     
    Possibly I might have done better by trying to insert a couple of PCB sleepers into the original damaged track to restore it. However as one rail had ripped out of the moulded clips over at least an inch and a half , that too might have turned out to be a struggle
     
    And in the process of checking alignment with the other boxfile , I found that one rail of the point had also come loose, and had previously been kept in position by the fishplate. As I could no longer get a fishplate on the relevant rail, I had to resort to inserting a half-sleeper of PCB strip and soldering the errant rail back into place, assuring the correct track gauge by use of a roller gauge
     
    You will gather that having separable boxfiles leaving the track ends exposed at the joint is not a great idea if you want long term reliability
     

    I managed to get the two files together (I got fishplates to join 3 of out the 6 rails!), and stuck them down in place on the plywood tray and stuck the remaining side in place. We then reached this stage:
     

     
    At this point I retired hurt to bed.
     
    Having applied a second coat of laquer black, on the Monday night I was ready to attempt a little test running. The results were mixed.
     
    Yes, everything was now quick to set up. A little paring of one hole, and all the switches worked without obstruction. The points all threw reliably and emphatically.
     
    And locos ran. They ran across the joints between the files as well as they had ever done - which is to say not especially well. Because the gaps on the rails were in places pretty horrible. As the photo below shows....
     
    Next step - patch up the joints with plasticard, and touch up any damage to the scenic - notably where the Metcalf cobbles had been worn by track rubbers

  13. Ravenser
    I've made further progress with the bodies, though it hasn't been without problems and blemishes , and I'm afraid the all third is definitely going to be the inferior model of the two. However the brake composite is thus far (fingers crossed) going pretty well
     
    All the sides have been fitted,without any further damage to paintwork. I then moved onto fitting seats, and here I made a blunder from sheer ignorance.I dug out what turned out to be almost all of a packet of Ratio coach seating strip which has been lurking in a scrap box for very many years. This wan't enough to cover all requirements for these coaches and the second set of MR suburbans , so some undignified expedients and a Comet interiors pack had to be resorted to... But I sawed up the Ratio seating strip in the mitre box, painted it a golden brown with hastily mixed acrylics and duly installed the seats in most of the compartments of the all third. I had a problem in one place where solvent leaked onto the glazing and marked the compartment window, taking a little of the paint with it. This was bad enough but it was shortly afterwards that I checked a few photos, and then photos of other coaches and realised that even in third class compartments you shouldn't really be able to see the edge of the seat protruding beyond the window frame. And you could..... With narrow panels between windows on the compartment side , thick plastic compartment dividers and narrow compartments, the Ratio seating strips were too thick. I had made the classic blunder of blithely assuming that Ratio's seats must fit all Ratio's coaches properly.
     
    I managed to extract the worst offenders (those where for one reason or another the seating strip wasn't entirely seated against the compartment divider) and filed these down from the back by rubbing up and down on a big coarse file on the workbench. I did the same with the seating strip for the compartments I hadn't yet fitted out, and for the third class compartments in the brake composite . Thus treated the Ratio strip was just about thin enough to just about sit behind the windows. But there was nothing I could do about those seats I had already installed which were firmly stuck in place. They are still visible behind the edges of the compartment windows . A damage limitation exercise , but not, sadly, a full cure . The brake composite is fine - the all third is compromised on one side. I have a feeling this set is going to spend most of it's life with the corridor side facing the viewer . For the first class compartments I used Comet seating strip , painted blue . I have no idea what colours the LMS - or even the LNW - used : post 1934, the LNER used brown moquette in third , and I had had quite enough of painting the coach in slightly different shades of mid brown, so I'm afraid I opted for an attempt to approximate the pre 1934 fawn moquette in third and blue pattern moquette in first.
     
    It was at this point that it dawned on me that I don't possess a single book on carriage modelling , and have in fact being flying more or less blind, guided solely by some very hazy memories of misbuilt Ratio kits perpetrated in my early teens and a section of a DVD by Tony Wright on detailing and improving RTR - though that involves some heavy duty reworks, it doesn't, obviously, say a work about building kits. I must have at least half a dozen books and DVDs by various people on wagon modelling, a similar number on reworking locos and building loco kits, books on scenery, buildings , painting ... But when it comes to coaches, I suddenly realise that the cupboard is almost entirely bare.
     
    Some Slaters figures were painted with acrylic and the tiny stump of an old paint brush . I took the chance to off load all the figures which are really not suitable for a modern image layout, so passenger traffic from Blacklade in the 1950s appears to consist very largely of nuns and National Servicemen
     
    I've also touched up the paintwork where required: it's adequete rather than a top class finish. It seems necessary to paint the leading edge of the tops of the sides, else slight bits of grey may show when the roof is fitted
     
     

     
    I've also made up the roofs - the two part lamp tops are a bit of a nuisence , and as I managed to damage two , I'd have been introuble if just building the all third. As it was, I had some spares on the other sprue. A point to watch for: although the understide of the roof marks different positions for lamps and torpedo vents for the brake third and brake composite, they've got the kit numbers the wrong way round. I drilled out the first two lamps in the position marked, fortunately checked them against the body before going further, and found they didn't line up with the first class compartments. They had to be hastily filled, and the holes marked for the other kit drilled out instead....
     
    Some thoughts on the kits as a whole, from what I've seen so far. These kits are significantly more sophisticated and elaborate than the very straightforward MR kits . There are the first signs of the unnecessary over elaboration of seperate parts which makes the Ratio Maunsell Van B kit such a laborious chore to build - two part lamp tops, two part floor pan, seperate duckets, corridor handrail and so on. The need to build up the interior and assemble the sides round this makes for more work and parts, but it also results in a strong structure , and makes the kit rather heavier , which is a useful bonus. The fit of parts is good. By modern standards things like metal buffers and metal wheels are desireable features. The kits are still pretty straightforward to build: there is nothing I can see technically difficult for someone familiar with plastic kits , and provided you work with care a neat result ought to follow
     
    I'm intending to build these kits as they come, but in one area I've had to deviate. Somehow I seem to have lost the sprue with the corridor connectors from one of the kits. A hasty rummage in the parts box turned up an MJT LMS gangway ,which I bought for some reason and have no other obvious use for. Since I'm building these coaches as a 2 car set, I'm going to fit the working MJT gangways in the centre of the set, with the fixed plastic mouldings at each end. I've therefore fitted a plate of 20 thou plasticard across the end of one corridor on each coach supported by a cross piece of 40 thou styrene across the inside of the gangway extension. This then will then form the baseplate for the MJT gangway - the other end gets Ratio's plastic moulding with endplate
     
    I've also weighted the coaches to get them over the magic 100g mark (4 axles at 25g/axle) . This is easy enough in the brake composite - two slabs of lead flashing on the floor of the guard's compartment , stuck down with araldite. For the all third it was more difficult , but I glued pieces of lead to the inside of the walls of the toilet compartments , and to the floor next to the toilet compartment , to balance that in the toilets. I intend to build both coaches with battery boxes not gas tanks , and if I need any additional weight there should be room to superglue lead sheet inside the battery box mouldings
  14. Ravenser

    Set 1 - Under False Colours - Pt.1 - Overview

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    Having rashly flung down the gauntlet and declared I'm thinking of running a third , not terribly authentic, period on Blacklade to give an airing to the bits of steam era /green diesel stock I seem to have acquired, I've actually made a start in the form of a pair of Ratio kits: two of the LNWR kits to be precise. The twist is that these will actually constitute the ER's contribution on the coaching side, until I lay my hand on some Kirk kits.
     
    I've rather fancied the Ratio LNWR coaches since they first came out . They were new products, they looked really rather stylish with those big windows, and I suppose they were a bit cool. As I went modern image in my early mid teens, there was never any scrap of justification for buying one - until I got involved with a small informal group locally. Amongst other things we were talking about building a small branch terminus, and because of others' interests it was bound to be steam.
     
    The LNWR seems to have embraced the concept of corridor coaches and gangwayed connections very quickly and with some enthusiasm. By 1893 they had commissioned a full train set for the 2pm Euston - Glasgow express - thereafter, for a generation "the 'Corridor'"(until the LMS formally named it "The Mid Day Scot") - and by the late 1890s they were building corridor coaches in volume for their own main line services, not just the WCJS. Ratio's range of 4 kits represent these , built from 1898-1903, and not extinct until after World War 2. I've always been surprised these kits never took off - there was a time when their MR coach kits seemed virtually ubiquitous and if you wanted a pre-grouping coach it was a Ratio MR kit or a Triang clerestory, but somehow I've hardly ever seen the LNWR kits crop up in layout articles. The prototypes feature in Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 - LMS , edited by David Jenkinson, as do the MR suburbans and the MR non-gangwayed express clerestories : and no doubt that's how Ratio came to choose all three types.
     
    The twist in the story comes in 1936 , when the LMS offloaded some of them on the M&GNJR, apparently along with some ex MR gangwayed clerestories which I think are available as kits from 51L Models/Wizard , and which are far too grand, sophisticated and expensive for me to consider... A few months later (October 1936), the LMS offloaded its interest in the M&GN on the LNER. Given that the LNER promptly scrapped most of the M&GN loco fleet -, and the LNER wasn't rich enough to indulge in extravagences like "scrap and build" - I think we can take it that the M&GN was in dire need of re-equipment by that point and the LMS wasn't prepared to stump up hard cash. It's pretty clear why the choice fell on these coaches for transfer. The M&GN was a lengthy cross country main line and its big passenger traffic was holiday expresses from the Midlands. A lot of those passengers were families making 3-4 hour journeys, and by the mid 1930s subjecting them to non-gangwayed stock without access to toilets was unacceptable. The LMS duly off-loaded some of the oldest corridor stock it had in order to "modernise" the M&GN, and since the MR came to corridor coaches much later and more tentatively than the LNWR , inevitably old LNWR stock was going to feature in the transfer.
     
    So some elderly ex LNWR and MR coaches ended up as LNER stock in E Anglia . Beyond this point we find ourselves peering into the mists of history - which are pretty thick and misty hereabouts. As a modern image modeller of Eastern leanings , my references for this are pretty scanty : 3 volumes of Historic Carriage Drawings, Harris' LNER coaches and the notes to the Ratio kits , prepared by a Mr P Millard. According to the latter "several" vehicles were transferred to the M&GN , but he doesn't say what. I have been shown a photo of an M&GN train from the mid/late 1930s with one of these coaches clearly visible , still in LMS livery . It wasn't a brake, and holiday expresses aren't obviously in need of lots of all firsts, so I think we can assume some all thirds were transferred. Whether any brake coaches were is anybody's guess: Historic Carriage Drawings does not even mention the transfer, and nor does LNER Coaches
     
    The Ratio instructions claim extinction dates of 1950 for the brake composites, and 1952 for the brake thirds, but 1947 for the all thirds, even though more of them were built than everything else put together. Historic Carriage Drawings gives an extinction date of 1953 for the all thirds, and says extinction dates for the other types cannot be established but all types reached BR and probably became extinct 1953-5. It's evident from one or two other entries that events in apple green territory are beyond the ken of LMS coach scholars, so these will be for the vehicles which passed from the LMS to the LMR
     
    It is quite possible the vehicles which passed to the LNER lasted a little longer. By M&GN standards, in 1936 these were relatively modern coaches. In late 1934, the LNER had set out to eliminate 4 and 6 wheel coaches - of which it still had several thousand - "except for third-rate branch lines, miners' and workmen's trains". What this meant in practice in E Anglia can be established by looking at some branch line monographs. Witham/Bishop Stortford trains were still 6 wheelers until 1940 , when they were replaced by ex GE 50' corridor coaches. The Thaxted branch retained 6 wheelers until 1946-7, when GE 50' corridor coaches were provided - working in 2 car sets. The Mid Suffolk became the last place in Britain served by non -bogie coaches (until the DoT inflicted Pacers on us) - here the 6 wheelers survived until a few months before closure in 1952, again replaced by ex GE corridor coaches working in 2car sets.
     
    Given this , it seems unlikely the LNER would have scrapped these ex LMS vehicles before the war. In fact it seems quite plausible that after 1940, when holiday trains would have been few and far between, and the M&GN section probably had surplus coaching stock, they might have been pressed into service to replace 6 wheelers on some very minor branch. Photos show elderly pre Grouping coaches as branch sets on many ex GE and ex GN branches in the early 50s - what probably swept them away was a combination of the first round of ER closures in 1951-2 plus cascading following the arrival of the first Mk1s in 1951-2
     
    So - a pair of ex LNWR coaches from the Ratio kits make a plausible E Anglian branch set on a very minor branch in the early 1950s. By that time they would have been in brown - on the GE, pregrouping stock was not given BR crimson, but was repainted in brown with BR lettering , and examples survived beyond 1955. When my local model shop closed down about 4 years ago I bought a brake composite and an all third , for use on the little group branch terminus project. All the other authentic options would have been difficult to source and much more difficult to build. I think they had been in the shop some time - one kit was the earlier version with plastic wheels - and they were discounted. I gave the sides an undercoat and , since it wasn't an urgent job, they sat in the cupboard , waiting for the branch terminus to happen first......
     
    As these two kits include the only kit for a brake vehicle I have , it seemed the obvious place to start. I have very little coachbuilding experience - a couple of Ratio kits in my early teens - and Ratio kits seemed an easy place to start. (That theory took a serious knock with the very over-complicated Southern Van B kit, which took me 2 years to finish)
     
    First stages are shown here. The exact shade of LNER brown seems to be open to question and photographic research. I bought a tin of Precision Pullman umber and another of LNER dull teak. The original idea was to mix up a suitable brown , but then I reflected that Precision paints don't cover half as well as Railmatch or Humbrol and I'd never match the colour for the second coat - or the second vehicle. So I gave the sides an undercoat in umber, in order to darken the teak top coat - and stopped there.
     
     

     
    On restarting last week it became clear that the undercoat on the brake composite was badly affected by nibs and whiskers . I don't have an airbrush , and neither colour is available as an aerosol can. The all third was ok, if not 100% perfect . So I gave the latter a coat of teak - and the brake composite sides got a coat of Modelstrip. The teak coat wasn't 100% perfect either: Precision paint seems to love to form tiny bubbles as you brush . I did the best I could. The brake was given a fresh undercoat of umber, and then teak over. Despite my careful cleaning/degreasing of the sides and cleaning of the brush on a bit of soap to rid it of any nibs, the finish still wasn't perfect - and all sides visibly needed a further coat. There is no way you can apply three brush coats of paint and get a flawless result. I have learnt my lesson and sourced a spray can of Railmatch crimson for all the other coaches, but with the LNW set , damage limitation is all that's possible
     
     

     
    These kits are slightly peculiar - at least to me - in that they are built round the interiors. In this they differ from the other Ratio coach kits I built long ago from the other 3 ranges. They also show early signs of the overcomplication which makes the Ratio Maunsell Van B such a laborious pig to do. I can't see that moulding the floor pan as two halves which join together with a kind of mortice joint is any improvement on the single piece floor pans found in the MR kits - unless there was an overriding technical reason in the design of the moulds, and since they produced a lot of earlier kits with single piece floores , I can't see it. Similarly, the all third corridor sides are two pieces with a tenon joint - though in the brakes these have to be two seperate mouldings , as the guard's van is in the centre not the end. However the fit of the parts so far has been excellent - the floor pan needs only routine cleaning of the edges and no packing or filing down has been required. In one or two places a few strokes of the file were necessary along the compartment partitions to get the side even. There are little locating pegs on the floor to locate the interiors (except for the toilets) - the all third has these pegs on the compartment side too, but the brake doesn't
     
     

     
    In the process of fitting the first side, stage by stage along the side, and holding it tight to the compartment partitions till the solvent set , I managed to get solvent onto the side with some damage to the paintwork . As "cracklature" was definitely not wanted, I have rubbed down the affected panels and they will need touching in - the damage can be seen on the photo . The compartment interiors have been painted with Tamiya Flat Earth acrylic, to avoid anything embarassing being seen through the windows. I am starting to feel that if I have to apply any more coats of brown paint to this kit I'll scream
     
    On the corridor side there are recesses for the glazing strip - why the glazing on the corridor side of the all third has to be 4 seperate recessed sections , when the brake manages with just two sections, beats me. The corridor handrail is a piece of styrene micro rod (more brown paint) applied between slots . On the all third, I made the mistake of using solvents at the retaining slots, As a result , I have marks on two windows just above the rail, where it wasn't 100% straight and capilarity drew the solvent where it wasn't wanted. Damn. On the brake third , I learned my lesson , and used the Revell Contacta bottle . In fact I've taken the heretical approach of using Contacta cement very sparingly applied as the first tack bond for the major pieces, with solvent applied to finish the join
  15. Ravenser
    This is a quick posting , just to record that there's been a bit of progress with Set 2 since I last reported on it , but mainly in the hope of flushing out some info to resolve a problem that is delaying progress:
     
    Here is the underframe of the Brake 3rd (the composite is identical) - I have played about with contrast on the image so you can see the framing . Posed on it is a Comet LMS battery box casting
     

     

    Two problems are immediately apparent . Firstly, the battery box casting is just a little bit longer than the gap between the cross members . Secondly, there is a cross member down the middle of the coach.
     
    The only photo I am aware of showing a MR suburban as converted to electric light ( in Historic Carriage Drawings 2: LMS) shows a vehicle with a centre mounted battery box, and a flat centre section to the trussing- an example of the sets produced for the London area, which differeed in this respect (and presumably therefore had a different layout of underframe cross members)
     
    There's also the question of the large gas lamp pots on the roof . Were these removed on conversion to electric light?
     
    I did ask the question in what seemed like the appropriate existing thread, here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51824-ratio-mr-suburban-coaches/ but it didn't draw any response
     

    Since then I've had another look at the various drawings in HCD 2 . Two things are obvious - battery boxes were always mounted to floor level , and LMS battery boxes are exactly the same size as LNWR ones. Both comprised two compartments for the batteries.
     
    Except that on some 65' WCJS clerestory stock there are two half-length battery boxes and probably some 2pm Corridor stock shows a short battery box (at least the photos of the brakes do, though the drawing doesn't)
     
    The only solution I can see at present involves sawing the Comet casting in half in a mitre box , and making good the missing side with 20 thou plasticard to produce 2 x single compartment battery boxes, one of which can be installed either side of the centre cross member. From first principles , this is the only way the LMS can have done it......
     
    Is any one able to shed any (electric) light on this one? I can't make up the underframe till it's settled, and I can't do the roofs until I know if the centre lamp pots should be there or not.
     
    In the meantime , the coaches have reached this point, with partitions, seats and weight installed in the brake.
     

     
    For the composite, I have made up a partition with lead sandwiched between plasticard (these were essentially all firsts with additional partitioning to narrow the third class compartments)
     

     
    I've also drifted into yet another project , which will be written up in due course - converting a Replica BG to an NRX container van using a Hurst Models etch I bought second hand years ago (The BG was an ill-thought out impulse purchase at Peterborough 2 years ago, so this is another nil cost /clear the cupboard project)
     
    On the credit side, the Dapol LMS nongangway lavatory brake third is finished, except for a bit of weathering
  16. Ravenser
    For my next trick, as they say, I have a pair of Ratio MR suburbans. These are intended to form the second set of steam age coaches on Blacklade
     
    The reason for selecting these is simple. In my early teens, before discovering modern image modelling , I perpetrated several Ratio MR coach kits . The best of them, replacing my first attempt at a kit , was this gruesome object . It's also pretty well the only one to have survived . I remember I was quite pleased with this at the time
     

     
    The worst of this is the dire paint job, and since money is a little tight at present , the idea was to strip it, patch it up as best I could and pair it with a newly built brake. A Ratio MR suburban 6 compartment brake 3rd kit has duly been sourced
     
    So now the weather is a bit warmer , and hile I still had a bit of time available it was subjected to Modelstrip overnight and cleaned up with a toothbrush under the tap.
     
    The roof had already come off , but as I cleaned it up most of the rest started to come away as well. I think I painted parts before assembly with this one , and I suspect elderly cement bonds may be affected by Modelstrip, especially if they were patchy to start with. With a bit of judicious encouragement , I was soon left with this:
     

     
    This is no longer an attempted patch up but a complete rebuild, though in terms of the final result that's all to the good . It also gets me round one potential difficulty , which was repainting with spray can paint - now the sides are seperate , or more or less so, and the glazing removed, they can be sprayed normally, along with the sides for the brake.
     
    Like Ratio's other LMS coaches, these vehicles are covered by Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 - LMS. The Midland built a number of batches of arc roofed bogie non-corridor suburban coaches during the Edwardian period for suburban services around Manchester (1903) , Birmingham (1907-9), London (1910) Nottingham (1911-13) and Sheffield (1912) . The last three batches featured 8' bogies, not the 10' versions depicted by Ratio, and those for London and Nottingham were 9' wide not 8'6"
     
    These coaches are, for a miracle, more or less authentic for a steam era period for Blacklade set in 1958. The Nottingham area coaches survived until 1957-8; the Birmingham area coaches until 1956-7: Blacklade Artamon Square would have LMR local services to both. It is extremely unlikely any of the ex MR suburbans ever recieved maroon, so these will be painted BR crimson
     
    Since a total reconstruction of the all first is now in hand, I can take advantage of the fact that the composites for Manchester and Birmingham sets used the same body as the all firsts , with three compartments reduced in size by internal partitions for third class . I have a Cunning Plan for using this fact to improve the weight , which is a major problem with these kits. Before dismantling , the all first weighed only 50g , which is about half what it should . No wonder my teenage Ratio coaches were not reliable runners
     
    A reasonable start was made on these kits while I had time available , and progress shots are shown here:
     
    The reconstructed all first - to become a composite

     
    and the new 6 compartment brake third

     
    Sides were prepainted with an aerosol can of Railmatch Crimson, 3 thin coats, and the improvement in quality of finish compared with the brushpainted LNW coaches is substantial
     
    The instructions urge you to start with the underframe . The all first has a very slight twist in the floor pan , probably caused by it's previous incarnation: I didn't quite manage to eliminate this in reconstruction, though it's possible that adding the roof will finally do so, and since there is inherently a bit of slop and rock between bogies and body, absolute squareness is less critical than with a wagon , where if it isn't square it won't run . The brake 3rd seems to be dead square
     
    I now have two bogies, one suitably cleaned up from the all first, and the second reconstructed from the heap of bits into which it had disintegrated. I'#m sure the bit of the sprue with the brake blocks was knocking around in my box of spare sprues for ages , but I have an awkward suspicion I eventually threw it out....
  17. Ravenser
    I haven't posted much recently in my blogs - but some modelling has been going on in dribs and drabs over recent months
     
    The two Ratio ex MR suburban coaches which are to form Set 2 have made intermittant progress and have now reached the stage shown:
     

     
    and
     

     
    The second being the recycled and rebuilt kit I originally made in my teens and which completely dismantled itself when I applied ModelStrip to it
     
    This is now a composite, with 4 first/3 third . Passengers have been painted with acrylics and added to all interiors - Slaters figures in the all third and Monty's Models pewter figures in the composite, because I'm fairly desperate to get weight in that, as there's no van in which to add lead sheet. Metal Hornby coach wheels have been fitted, and MJT whitemetal Mansell wheel inserts superglued in place- this adds a bit more weight
     
    The sides had a tendency to bow because I left the coaches for a few weeks before adding partitions - in addition I managed to warp one side of the all first (now composite) when I orginally built it, and I haven't quite straightened it completely this time around. This meant a little paring away of the top of the sides /rebate of roof in a few places on the brake to get the roof to sit properly, but overall the result seems acceptable
     
    The original plastic vents on the composite have been replaced with whitemetal LMS vents - I fitted the plastic torpedo vents the wrong way round at the age of 12 - and the gas pots removed
     
    The final major task will be battery boxes and vacuum cylinders - my two enquiries about how the battery boxes may have been done when these vehicles were converted to electric light have drawn no response, so I'll go with the logical solution, and cut a cast LMS twin battery box in half .....
  18. Ravenser
    Despite having two sets of coaches on the go already , I seem to have drifted into starting a third. Admittedly the LNWR set is almost done - just a bit of weathering still to do , and the new project is supposed to be a quick win....
     
    When, early this year, I decided to use various steam era kits and bits I had accumulated to operate a steam period on Blacklade I quickly found I was very short of brake coaches. As money was tight at the time , I looked for the cheapest options to plug the gap and bought a Ratio MR suburban brake 3rd and a Dapol CKD LMS non-gangwayed lavatory brake third. The latter cost the princely sum of £9.30 at St Albans show
     
    The original idea was that this would run with an unbuilt BSL kit for a Gresley steel composite. It was only later, on digging the BSL kit out of the cupboard, that I found that it was a corridor coach. Plans have since been revised , and I now intend to get a maroon Hornby Thompson CL when they are available in a few months time to pair with the LMS brake. The BSL kit will ultimately be paired with a Mailcoach/Kirk Tourist Brake third open kit which I bought at Ally Pally
     
    As a CKD kit this ought to be quick. However there are various improvements to make asit's an old model. I won't give a blow by blow account, as the ground has already been covered here:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64375-Dapol-ex-lms-non-corridor-lavatory-coaches-a-review-of-sorts/
     
    SE Finecast flushglaze was sourced at Ally Pally, and fitted with UHU. This is a substantial improvement. It's necessary to carve away from behind the curving "rail" at the brake end to get the glazing in. Arguably I should have taken this "rail" - actually the toilet filler pipe I believe - right off and replaced it with some .45 handrail wire standing proud of the end . But by this time I'd painted the ends , and I wasn't sure of my ability to form the necessary curve neatly and accurately - so I chickened out on this. The alarm gear on the other end is a bit flat. I'm sure etches and detailing bits must be available to do a better job (from Comet?) but I didn't have any and chickened out again. Arguably you could replace the moulded handrails on the sides in wire - but that would have meant a complete respray , and one attraction of the CKD route is a finish to RTR factory standard.
     
    The number is applied on the left hand side , and has no suffix letter. The Modelmaster Ms I had were visibly not in the same font as Dapol used on the coach, so I couldn't add them. Numbers on the left applied from mid 1949 to late 1951 according to Parkin's book on Mk1s : lack of the origin company suffix letter points to the first year or so of BR liveries, so as produced by Dapol the finish represents a vehicle repainted in 1949-50
     
    I did tackle the roof . The coach is supplied with the roof from the composite , so most of the holes for the vents are in the wrong place . I fitted ventilators into those holes that were in the right place, lined the moulding up against the drawing in Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 LMS , drilled pilot holes in the correct places , and filled the wrong holes with filler, which was sanded down with an emery board. Two and in some cases three applications were needed to get the holes filled absolutely flush. The new holes were then opened out with a larger drill and the vents fitted , with solvent/cement applied from the underside of the roof.
     

     
    The underframe was reworked largely in line with the pdf linked in the thread above, but I retained the truss rods and therefore the moulded regulator. Coachmann in this thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67996-making-use-of-Dapol-lms-coach-kits/ demonstrates sawing the back off the misplaced battery box and reusing it (they're tight with their brass in Lancashire). I tried, but my razor sawblade was too wide to allow me to get it in between the truss rods to make the horizontal cut . The plastic moulding had to be carved out, and as I had a Comet battery box casting I glued it back to front behind the moulded representation of the battery box front . Since most of the detail was at the top, and is therefore hidden by the solebars , and the whole thing is painted black anyway, this bodge is not visible . Comet whitemetal LMS buffers , vacuum cylinders and dynamo and etched V hangers and crossframes were added with superglue.
     
    Kadees have been added to the bogies :
     

  19. Ravenser
    Over the last few years I've been very consciously trying to rein in my spending on the hobby, and reduce the pile of stuff in my cupboard. Money has been tight at times, and a couple of short periods of unemployment have brought home to me that I have accumulated an awful lot of unbuilt kits and bits over the years, and that I have made very limited progress with building them.
     
    "Don't buy - build!" has been the watchword.
     
    I'm afraid that my good intentions have not been fully realised.
     
    To be honest Moral Restraint has turned me into a bit of a sucker for the cheap, elderly, and questionable.
     
    Yes, I bought a Hachette Mk1
     
    (And a Great British Locos Jinty and D11/2, and a Hornby 0-6-0T with a dubious shunter body in dayglo livery in order to motorise the former)
     
    The thinking was that this coach might become part of a "modern" mainline set for the steam period on Blacklade. Since the steam period is a not terribly authentic spin-off anyway I wasn't prepared to pay for a Hornby Railroad Mk1 , let alone a pukka Bachmann one. But a Hachette second with flush-glazing for a fiver wasn't bad - especially as I already had a NNK plastic Mk1 underframe truss in stock anyway.
     
    I fitted Hornby wheels and Kadees - and there the matter rested , with the underframe untouched and the coach in a box in the study
     
    The Hachette Mk1 was supposed to be paired with a Mailcoach LNER Tourist Brake 3rd kit which I picked up at Ally Pally for a very reasonable price from a trader a couple of years ago. Fancied the stock, plenty of seats, compatible gangways - seemed like a plan
     
    But then I learnt that those kits are not highly regarded, getting a decent result is thought difficult - and I had plenty of other, more urgent jobs to do involving things in Rail Blue. So there the matter rested....
     
    Until recently , when I thought I'd got a great bargain: an LMS Porthole Brake 3rd kit in the form of a
    punched aluminium bodyshell with bits - almost all complete said the trader, and just a fiver.
     
    BSL kits had a good reputation, and I used to gaze enviously at the Hobbytime adverts in the Modeller when I was very young, listing all sorts of wonderful pre-nationalisation coaches, all quite out of my reach.
     
    I was rather deflated when someone pointed out the MTK sticker on the header card. Aaarghh - garlic and silver crucifix, quick! But he assured me these particular were thought to be quite buildable.
     
    So I got it home, opened the packet , and took a look. You can see the contents here:
     
    First assessment: all the bits that should be in the kit are there except one of the guard's duckets. The coach requires an interior and wheels. I've a packet of Hornby wheels and a rummage in the boxes in the cupboard revealed I'd enough spare bits in the various Comet interior packs I have to cover a 4 compartment brake
     
    Second assessment: the quality of the castings is quite reasonable, given MTK's very dubious reputation. The buffers are a bit basic, but I have plenty of Comet LMS buffers left over from the Dapol Brake 3rd. The gangways are rubber and passable but I found a Roxey pack for two pairs of working LMS/GW gangways . Only one end needs to work, anyway. The vac cylinders aren't great but I found a generic ABS pack in stock which will be an improvement. I have Comet etched crossframes left over from the Dapol Brake 3rd
     
    So far so good. None of these upgrade bits will cost me anything extra
     
    The bodyshell seems to be 2mm overlength, but I'll live with that . A scale drawing is included with the kit, which might even be accurate.
     
    I've bought a Comet detailing etch which will give me hinges, a gangway plate and one or two other bits and pieces, plus a pack of 10 Comet guards duckets , said to be LMS/LNER. Total cost , just under eleven quid
     
    In the meantime, whilst I'm awaiting a pack of transfers from Modelmaster, attention has turned to the Hachette Mk1.
     

     
    As can be seen, I've dismantled it - unscrewing the 3 screws below (two of which are hidden under the bogies) proved an easier route than trying to lever off the roof. The solid trussing has been cut away piece by piece with Xurons - on my model the battery boxes and brake cylinders are very firmly glued in
     
    I sharpened up a fairly blunt chisel blade on a small oilstone to clean up the remains, and duly got Blood On My Hands when the blade slipped and my finger demonstrated that the sharpening had indeed worked. I do have a tin of Birds Custard Powder in the cupboard, but this one's staying in maroon
     
    I then glued in place the replacement underframe truss from Precision/NNK (4PM/022, and still available on their website), trimming around the battery boxes and with some fettling to get the brake cylinder shafts in place, and we get this:
     

     
    I really will get around to writing up the current state of the 155 at some point...
     
    I've also removed the end handrails and water-fillers prior to replacement in wire. The interior will be painted and populated
  20. Ravenser
    The Hachette Mark 1 has now been finished, with interior painted
     
     
     
     
     
    And here's the results. There is a problem , but it isn't obvious:
     

     

     
    When I was weathering the underframe somehow a touch of weathering wash got onto the sides. I cleaned it off with white spirit but the panel was still discoloured. I cleaned the whole panel back to plastic and revarnished - still a marked grey discolouration. I cleaned back and rubbed down with ultrafine gritpaper and revarnished - still clearly discoloured.
     
    I then found that Railmatch BR maroon is noticeably darker , and rather more purple. I brightened it up with some Railmatch Royal Mail red, mixed to a good match by eye, and repainted the panel.
     
    It's not an absolute match. In most lights you can't see a difference , and you can't see it on the photos. (It's the long panel under the 4 large windows on the left, by the way). But stick the coach under a fluorescent daylight lamp at a range of 6" and the side is pinkish and the patch is redder. And in some lights you can see a slight difference of colour between the door and adjacent panel.
     
    If anyone had patch-repainted a panel on the real thing after it had spent a while in traffic I reckon this is exactly the effect you'd get. But I can find no photographic evidence of such local emergency patching on coaching stock - and if it had gone near a main works they'd have done a full repaint. In the 1960s there were no graffiti or "tags" - that didn't start till the early 80s.
     
    So after feeling very pleased with how this had scrubbed up, I now feel considerably deflated with a bodged model. But I'm going to leave it "as is" for the moment because you can only see it if you know exactly what you are looking for and where to look. If I notice something when I bring it out again in a few months time having forgotten the incident - there's an issue. If I don't spot it and simply don't notice the issue when I'm not consciously looking for it - then it'll pass.
     
    While all this was going on, I got rather alarmed about the darkness and seeming purpleness of Railmatch BR Maroon. Especially as I'd just bought a spray can of the stuff for the Porthole Brake Third. So I dug the Coopercraft Gresley Tourist Brake Third out of the cupboard, gave the back of the sides a coat of Faded Rail Red - a nice pink shade, to boost opacity and act as an undercoat to relieve an over dark maroon - then one, two coats of BR Maroon on the front, carefully touching round the windows with a small brush - and yes it does need at least 3 brush coats for opacity, like Tony Wright said...
     
    By which time I'd concluded I was probably committed to building the thing. I know I can do a plastic coach kit...
     
    So far I've carefully built a set of Gresley bogies, and added a Comet whitemetal ducket, because I had to buy a packet of 10 for the Porthole Brake, which only needs 2
     
    Speaking of which, as promised here is the MTK Porthole brake kit as unpacked....
     

  21. Ravenser
    This is the story of a cheap and nasty kit for a cheap and nasty coach. Actually that's a little unfair - to the prototype
     
    In recent years Coopercraft , like the Cheshire Cat in Alice , has been slowly fading away. Two or three years ago, before matters reached the final stage of a Smile Without a Cat, I purchased a couple of kits from their stand at Ally Pally.
     
    One, the Kirk non-gangwayed LNER 51' full brake was a decent kit, and was built some time ago.
     
    The other was the Mailcoach kit for the Tourist Brake third . For some reason , these slightly unusual Gresley vehicles have always caught my interest - they were not teak, they were built for a rather different purpose, and they stood apart from the general run of LNER coaches in most respects. However they do seem to have been used in general service post war - and here was a plastic kit . Moreover I reckoned I could build a plastic kit..... Added to which, here was a mainline corridor brake with an unusually high seating capacity which might well appear on marginal duties like short portions .
     
    I'd heard one or two grumbles about the kit from the likes of micklner and Tony Wright - but I assumed that as their level of refinement as far above mine (and above what is being attempted with a theoretically quick 'n cheap fleet of coaches for RTR kettles) this just meant it wasn't really up to the standards of a Comet kit. Little did I know.......
     
    Firstly some comments about the prototype, since there appears to be little on the internet - the following rests on Harris' LNER Coaches.
     
    Once the Depression began to ease, LNER management decided it was time to eliminate the remaining 4 and 6 wheel coaches from revenue service. One pocket of this would found in excursion traffic where 36 sets of ex GN suburban 4 wheelers displaced by the Quad-Artics had been retained [The idea of KX to Skeggy in those makes Liverpool St-Cromer in a Cravens unit seem positively civilised....]. The LNER commercial management wished to compete with coach operators, and Gresley came up with the idea of some special modern excursion stock as a part-replacement. Five 12-car sets were ordered in 1933, each comprising two Brake 3rd Opens , four articulated all 3rd twins and two buffet cars. Four more sets were ordered in 1934-6 and one in 1939
     
    These coaches were all opens with low backed bucket seats, plywood paneling, and finished in a surprising green and cream . Interiors were cheap Art Deco, and by the mid 1950s a BR report was speaking of the buffet cars - by then in general service - as "truly very bad indeed". High backed seating seems to have been fitted post- war. The plywood panelling was liable to deteriorate badly and many of the coaches ended up replated with steel panelling. They finally disappeared in 1963-4, though a couple of buffets lasted on the LMR (who must have been desperate) until 1967.
     
    These coaches seem just right for a place like Blacklade
     
    I wanted to check the actual colour of Railmatch maroon jars against the Hachette Mk1 since patch painting was required. So - I did the obvious thing and hauled the Tourist Brake kit out of the cupboard. The sides are moulded in clear plastic with raised window frames and whatever opacity they acquire is given by the paint...
     
    The maroon was dark. I tried lightening it by applying a coat of Railfreight Faded Red (=pink) on the inside. And after a couple of coats of paint I found I was committed, and the Porthole Brake 3rd was laid aside unstarted.
     
    Matters have now reached this stage:

     
     
    I think this has now taken 4 coats of brush-painted maroon, and a certain amount of patching along the way. Tony Wright , who evidently has a higher-opacity red, only required three. In the circumstances it's a reasonable finish, but nowhere near sprayed standard. It's also had about three interior coats. The opacity still isn't all it should be around the window frames - painting these without getting paint on the glazing is very difficult, especially around the ventilators
     
    And I was several coats in and part-built before I realised there were long sunken marks at the bottom of the sides in several places (Perhaps the mould pressure wasn't quite high enough?) . I rubbed back and patched the worst of these with filler, then touched back in. Obviously I should have spotted these, and filled them systematically, at the start : I suspect they weren't terribly obvious on translucent sides - and of course I got stuck straight in to painting as a colour test patch.
     
    There is a pinhole in one of the door droplight windows. I've tried patching it today with some Microsol product - only to find the whole bottle has congealed over years in storage. That's been thrown out
     
    The seating provided seems to derive from longer (compartment?) mouldings , roughly sawn in half , apparently with a Junior hacksaw. Not having spare 2+2 seating available (the remains of some sawn up Mk4 interiors are not suitable here...) I cleaned it up as best I could , painted it and installed it, on the basis that you can hardly see the interiors of coaches anyway - so any unevenness won't be visible
     
    The battery boxes were mere facades. As a bodge, I've thickened them up with a piece of 40 thou styrene glued behind. I didn't feel up to the delay, and the cost of sending away for proper Comet ones, when the overall quality of the kit is so mediocre. "Lipstick on a pig" is the phrase that comes to mind. I has whitemetal Gresley buffers on hand so I substituted them. The Gresley bogies seem to have built up ok - I just need to get my head around fitting Kadees
     
    As I had bought a packet of 10 LMS/LNER coach duckets to replace one missing from the MTK Porthole kit , I used one here. It seemed a better proposition than the one in the kit
     
    Then there's the roof. After a bit of playing around and thinning the ends with a Stanley knife blade, I reluctantly concluded that the profile of the roof moulding supplied , and that of the ends and partitions simply could not be reconciled . I therefore bought an aluminium roof from Wizard Models . This will need to be cut to length, and then a suitable - and matching - rake back filed on every corner. So far I haven't plucked up the courage to attempt it.
     
    That is the current state of play. (And I've just realised I'm out of torpedo vents). The thing has been sat in a box for at least 3 months.
     
    This is not a particularly good kit. It's certainly the worst coach kit I've encountered - but as my experience has been confined to Ratio, Parkside, Dapol and Kirk, I've led a sheltered existence.
     
    I'm sure that the MTK Porthole must be better than this - though I may live to regret those words
  22. Ravenser
    We left this saga a couple of months back with me finding that the NEM pockets on the Hachette Mk1 were way too high, and that I therefore couldn't couple it to anything. Pro tem the Coopercraft Tourist Brake 3rd was coupled to the Dapol LMS Stanier  Composite from Set 5 and pressed into service as an improvised set:
     
    https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/21622-baby-deltic-released-to-traffic/
     
    I don't seem to have written up the final rounds of my bitter fight with the Tourist BTO. The Wizard aluminium roof was cut to length, filed back on each side at the ends, and stuck on with Evostick. The roof detail is plasticard strip, stuck on with superglue, and with a distinct tendency to break off. It may be a little heavy, but it was the best that could be done under the circumstances. The whole lot was sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer which proved to be too light, then weathered, patch-painted , re-weathered.. The body was patch-painted again, transfers and Modelmasters post 1956 lining were applied, and the whole thing was brush-painted with gloss varnish. Then the underframe was weathered.  A working gangway was added to one end , and we were done.
     
    It's not wonderful but it will pass as a layout  coach and to be honest, given the "quality" of the kit and the number of coats of paint that have to be applied by brush to get sufficient opacity, not much more could be hoped for from it. Very much better modellers than me have struggled to get good results with this kit. There is a metal kit available from Wizard Models , and if the Coopercraft kit is never seen again I doubt we've lost very much.
     
    So to the present...
     
    I went to Ally Pally last weekend , and by chance I came across a Hornby Gresley BCK in blood and custard at a silly price. After a moment's reflection it was too good a bargain to miss , so I bought it. (The awkward lack of first class accommodation in Set 4 and the fact these BCKs were intended as through coaches was also in the back of my mind when I bought it)
     
    I also managed to source a solution for the coupling height problem on the Hachette Mk1. After a lengthy conversation on the Keen Systems stand (during which I was repeatedly told that Kadee couplings don't work) I acquired a converter pack for a Bachmann Mk1, which is intended - amongst other things - to put the NEM pocket at the correct height. 
     
    I've never before dabbled with Keen Systems products. This is mainly because they are based on rigid fixed links between the vehicles, and that is not much interest to me when I run 2-car sets on a portable layout and want some flexibility in how I can deploy my stock. And the quoted ability to get a rake of coaches round first- and second-radius curves close-coupled is of limited relevance  when my tightest curve is 2'6" and the general radius on Blacklade is 3' or greater. In any case I fit working gangways to the inner ends of my coaches and my DMUs - and there's only one set of gangways in a 2 car set.
     
    Sadly the replacement resin close-coupler cams are nowhere near a drop-in fit for the Hachette, despite the latter's origin as a back-engineered "Bachmann knock-off".
     
    I had to file out the cam to get it to fit in place on the coach,  and of course the profile of the resulting hole isn't a great match for the taper of the Hachette original. Then I found the Keen Systems cam wouldn't seat correctly . This was because the head of the screw holding the coach together was fouling on it. Cue more filing to create a suitable recess to clear the screw head... Because you really don't want to breath in the dust created as the screwhead grinds away at the soft coupler arm....
     
    I thoroughly dislike anything that involves working with resin castings because of the health risks from the dust - and the huge awkwardness imposed by the  precautions you have to take as a result. All working of resin has to be done outside in the open, wearing a mask - with (of course) no modelling bench - meaning that every check or new round of fettling means running up and down two flights of stairs to the flat and though one or two doors with Yale locks. And the need to wash down and decontaminate the tools means carrying water jars and kitchen roll up and down as well. Not to mention the fact that washing your files thoroughly in water isn't exactly very good for them. Oh, and under normal circumstances it also means that resin items can only be worked on during British Summer Time or at weekends , otherwise it's dark outside.....
     
    Fortunately on this occasion I'd taken the day off, and the job was done reasonably quickly, without it (so far) killing me. I suppose white lead from dust-shot and PVA or working depleted uranium are much greater health risks. But this was one occasion where a drop-in fit would really have been appreciated.
     
    You will not be surprised to hear that I decided that sorting out one end for a Kadee was quite enough. This will be the end where the loco couples on, and the intention is to use one of the NEM plastic steam-pipes Bachmann supply with their Mk1s as the coupling within the set. This can adjust for the mismatch in NEM pocket heights between the vehicles.
     
    However this does mean that the Hachette Mk1 can't run with the Coopercraft BTO, which has fixed Kadees. It will have to be paired with the newly acquired Gresley BCK.
     
    So Set 4 as it was originally conceived is no more... Long live Set 6!
     
     
     
    (This isn't the end of the matter - I still need to resolve the mismatched scratch-set of Tourist BTO+ Stanier CK. And there is the question of blue/grey sets as well
     
    Here we take a detour through ancient history, set out in an earlier posting on my layout blog:   Flaxborough Almost all of that layout's coaching stock is visible in the photo , and it has all been in stock, pending reworking...
     
    One Lima CCT has been thoroughly reworked and written up. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/9843-a-small-parcel-arrives/
    I decided that all the lettering was really too much of a bind to do a second time, so I salvaged the Hornby-release body, swapped it onto an old Lima underframe as the next "donor vehicle" and disposed of the hybrid Lima body/Hornby underframe CCT on the club stall this weekend.
     
    I started trying to upgrade one of the vintage Hornby Mk 2 brakes (really a BFK) a few years ago but it rapidly became clear this is not a quick or easy exercise. Partial repainting will be required, the window openings need filing back....It went back in its box, and I decided I didn't have the moral fibre to do it twice. So the second Mk2 brake , still in its box, was also disposed of on the club stand. Thus the BCK is nil cost in terms of both space and money...
     
    In the course of time I have also acquired two sets of Comet sides (Mk1 BSO and CK), sundry Comet castings, a large pile of MJT and Bachmann bogies, assorted SE Finecast flushglaze and an unbuilt Kitmaster Mk1 SK kit. Not to mention a Tony Wright DVD showing carriage conversions and quite a few vague aspirations.
     
    When Blacklade runs as BR Blue , I use a 2-car loco-hauled set  composed of a BCK off the Bachmann stand and a Mk2Z TSO acquired when my local model shop closed down almost a decade ago. In the same closing sale I bought a Mk2a BSO, and a Mk1 BSK and SK. I have had various aspirations to sort out some more blue/grey coaching stock, but it has never seemed urgent - DMUs are a higher priority. 
     
    In steam mode Blacklade requires at least three 2-car sets plus a parcels train to operate - which explains why most of the carriage-building activity has gone into the steam-era stock. The dates on my blog reveal it has taken just over 6 years to reach the dizzy heights of five serviceable steam-age sets plus a parcels train.
     
    Building the MTK LMS Porthole Brake 3rd as a proper partner for the Dapol Stanier CK is still firmly on the agenda. But that means I need a new partner for the Tourist Brake 3rd to form Set 4. The best option, given what I have available, is to build a Mk1 CK using the Comet sides on one of the old Lima BG bodyshells, but to put it into maroon livery, not blue/grey. I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of spraying a single-colour livery like maroon, whereas the challenge of doing blue/grey properly , with its rounded corners and white lining, is a major obstacle to tackling several modelling projects. Most if not all of the Lima underframe will have to be removed, but I have all the necessary replacement bits in stock. It would be a chance to do a first "proper" coach conversion project, though obviously I'm not in the same league as Larry Goddard.
     
    And as a medium term project I could strip down the Triang-Hornby RMB, upgrade it as far as it can be reasonably taken, and put it back into maroon. Sandwiched between a pair of my 2-car corridor sets, it would  provide an instant 1960 5 car train...)
     
     
     
     
     
     

  23. Ravenser

    Set 5 - Quick and Slow: Part 1 Quick (I hope)

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    After a long while contemplating the idea, I finally bought one of the Dapol LMS coaches in CKD form . I prefer CKD form as it's a little cheaper, and as I'm going to work on the thing I am saved the trouble of finding out how to dismantle it. The intended victim is a CK in BR Blood and Custard
     
    The CK seems to be the pick of Dapol's ex Mainline Stanier coaches - Coachmann's expert assessment is here
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67996-making-use-of-Dapol-lms-coach-kits/?p=958249
     
    And it's also - perhaps not by coincidence - a notable omission from the high-spec range of Stanier coaches that Hornby produced a few years ago.
     
    Having decided to build the Mailcoach LNER Tourist Brake 3rd as a partner for my Hachette BR Mk1 SK (forming Set 4) , in part because their gangways match , I was left with an LMS Porthole Brake 3rd kit.The obvious question was what could it be paired with - and a Dapol CK seemed the cheapest and fastest answer. That would also provide some First class accommodation - something which will be conspicuously lacking from Set 4. Also conspicuously lacking from the steam stock is anything in Blood and Custard - because I don't feel up to doing two tone liveries myself . Getting a factory applied finish is therefore a big bonus.
     
    What needs to be done to these CKD coaches? The 60' underframe on the CK is basically correct - unlike the 57' coaches, which incorrectly have the non-corridor underframe . Detailing work is shown in the photo:
     

     
    The new whitemetal buffers aren't terribly clear, but they are there . I bought an LMS underframe pack and set of etched crossmembers from Comet at Stevenage , at the same time as buying the coach. The spare battery box casting will be donated to the MTK Porthole brake as an upgrade
     
    So to the body
     

     
    The first job - and the biggest "win" is flushglazing. I used SE Finecast vacuum formed glazing because Shawplan have not done this vehicle in their Lazerglase range - a surprising omission given that this is a decent model; and the only RTR option for a key type of vehicle. I also touched in the window edges in black to reduce the slab-sided effect - since my hand wasn't absolutely steady and the black line isn't absolutely perfect this is a double edged benefit, but it doesn't detract overall.
     
    The roof vents are a story of blunders . I "upgraded" with a packet of whitemetal torpedo vents. But... LMS official photos in Historic Carriage Drawings show shell vents on LMS Period 3 stock. Pothole stock - which was built under BR - clearly had torpedo vents , and so did the push-pull conversions of Stanier stock . LMS Period 3 vehicles in preservation often - but not always - have torpedo vents. I eventually found a photo of a coach on the ex GW Birkenhead route that seemed to have a mix of shell and torpedo vents - then I found a comment suggesting these were a special type of vents made at Wolverton.
     
    It looks as if some LMS Period 3 vehicles received torpedo vents at a later date , but how many, and whether it was while they were blood and custard, or only after preservation I don't know. By the time I realised there was an issue the vents were irretrievably stuck with cyano and the roof was painted a suitable muddy brown-grey, so I've left it. It may be right, after all.
     
    The interior was painted and a small number of figures added, though you hardly notice there are passengers in there.
     
    The plastic wheels were replaced by metal Hornby ones. I retained the Dapol gangway on one end, and used a Roxey pack to sort out the other . I say "used" advisedly , as most of it wasn't. To be honest the project stalled for a couple of months because I was scared of assembling the Roxey gangways , and in the end I looked at the etch, looked at the drawing and instructions, should my head in several places and only used the etched back of the gangway. The paper looked impossibly flimsy, and I used black card, but 5 folds proved too much and cased problems (read "derailments") on sharp curves , so I cut one fold away with scissors and reapplied the end plate. This was black painted plasticard - I used the Roxey etch as a gangway cover on the fixed end
     
    All it now needs is a weathering wash on the underframe
  24. Ravenser

    Set Two: Finishing Off

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    In the absence of better information, I reworked the underframe as proposed, sawing the Comet LMS battery box castings in half in then X-Acto mitre box, and plating the cut ends with 20 thou plasticard. The Comet vacuum cylinders were also installed , though possibly they could have been filed down to sit a bit lower. The completed bogies were fixed onto the composite and I had two completed coaches. They've come in at 110g all up: slightly more than the intended 100g (25g x 4 axles) , but a satisfactory weight to achieve good running. As the kit comes in the box, it would weigh about 40g and give lots of trouble
     


     
    A first test run on the layout when I was programming the decoder for the Bachmann Ivatt Co-Co revealed an unexpected problem - buffer locking at the brake end. I'd done all I could to close up the gap between the coaches with short Kadees but the intermediate buffers are about 4mm apart. Nothing can be done - and as I'd run out of suitable short heads , the bogie with the medium Kadee went under the brake end where the longer buffers would cover it.
     
    After the fight with the intermediate couplers it never occurred to me that a medium head would be too short. But the long shank buffers at the brake end are much longer and the knuckle on a medium head is a little way inboard of the buffer heads. It would be extremely destructive to attempt to remove the draft boxes and change the head - I'd probably find myself writing to Peco to source a pair of new bogies
     
    My intitial thought was that I'd have to remove the buffer heads with a pair of Xurons, tidy up and shorten the shanks a little with a file and glue the heads back on. A nasty bodge, but less destructive of authenticity than anything else - the buffers would simply look compressed. However the other evening I was combining programming of a decoder in my J11 with a bit of test running. and it became apparent that only the L1 actually had a problem with Set 2 , and then only at one end. (In fact I was able to swap Kadee 19 NEM longs for 18 Mediums on the Bachmann Ivatt diesel and it could still handle Set 2 without trouble).
     
    So I did the sensible ,easy, thing. The NEM Kadee at the bunker end of the L1 seemed to be slightly the shorter of the two , so I replaced it with the next size up. Provided the loco is run so the bunker end couples to the brake end of Set 2 , trhe problem is solved. The coupling at the smokebox end is in fact ok except through the curved front exit from Platform 2 via the crossover - at 2'6" radius the only curve on the layout below 3'
     
    The remainder of finishing off comprised lettering, weathering and vanishing, and here there were setbacks and disappointments . The coaches were numbered using bits taken from a couple of Modelmaster sheets for other things . After much poring over the sheets andHistoric Carriage Drawings 2. I managed to get a suitable number for a Birmingham area D501 6 compartment brake out of what I had, but I couldn't readily make up a suitable number for a Birmingham area D551 composite , and I ended up with a number falling in the block allocated to the slightly different Nottingham area composites. Then I realised I'd put the number on a panel at the brake end on both sides of the Brake - meaning it has left hand numbering on one side (used up to 1952) and a right hand number (1952 onward) on the other....
     
    I gave the sides a brush painted coat of satin varnish, as there are too many small windows to attempt masking , and then decided that perhaps I preferred the sides dead matt. I suspect really old wooden coaches at the end of their lives wouldn't have had any sheen. The one colour shot I have of ungangwayed stock in this livery (from Parkin's Mk1 book , taken at Bradford Forster Square , lurking behind a nice blood and custard SK ) shows them a rather brown and dusty colour , but I don't necessarily trust colour rendition in a photo of that age . However I wasn't really up for a second brushpainted coat , and in any case the matt varnish has had a few "issues" of its own.
     
    Weathering owed a lot to Humbrol's blue/grey wash. This is far too thick for my taste and was thinned with white spirit . I also added a little of the brown wash into the mix to represent traffic muck from below. The blue grey was used almost neat but thinned on the ends with excellent results - it approximates very well to a colour photo in Parkin's Mk1 book of the grubby black ends of a maroon Mk1 (A grubby black end in one red livery is going to be pretty similar to a grubby black end in another) With a bit more brown in the mix a similar wash was very effective in toning down the underframe - the brown in the mix was stepped up a bit more for the top surface of the footboards
     
    At about this point disaster struck.- I dropped the composite on the table. To my horror I found that one of the seats in a third class compartment had come loose - the roof is sealed irremovably in place and you can't get inside . Still worse, it was now the wrong way up and I couldn't seem to get it back the right way by shaking the thing. I seemed to be stuck with a beige blob at the window - admittedly , with a bit of care it didn't look much different from the other coloured blobs at the windows (my carefully painted Slater's figures) from a distance of 2 ' And the Kadee head had taken the force of the impact and the knuckle wasn't springing back properly. Just when I was starting to feel quite pleased with my efforts all the gilt was taken off the gingerbread
     
    Somehow - I don't quite know how - the wandering seat has subsequently managed to right itself and is no longer noticeable ./ And the affected Kadee head will still couple up - and as it's the end inside the set, it won't have to do much coupling and uncoupling anyway.
     
    Set 2 undertook its trials while I was programming and testing the J11 and a couple of photos show it in all its glory . (I know that a modern image layout isn't really the right setting for this kind of stock, but at least it gives me a place to play with it)
     

     

     
    The shiny roof is undesirable - unfortunately the Humbrol washes come up quite glossy. I resorted to a brush coat of Humbrol matt varnish , which swiftly became two coats of matt varnish. Then I had to remove the areas where it was drying white (too thick) with a brush loaded with white spirit, and finally touched up the remaining marks with a grey-brown compound of acrylic dry brushed. I'm now happy with the result.
     
    And just as I was putting the set away, finally complete - disaster struck again . One bogie dropped off the composite. Inspection revealed that the plastic pin through the plate into the bolster had become glued solid both to the mounting plate and the bolster - and had sheered neatly across , probably as a result of being required to flex while trial running
     
    Since I couldn't get at or replace the plastic pin, I resorted to an emergency bodge. A few years ago I saw someone's multiple unit where they had left the bogie loose and it fitted onto brass bolts protruding from the body as pivots. I don't recommend this approach - it seemed to cause a number of problems - but it suggested a desperate remedy. I found some thick brass wire - I think about 0.9mm diameter - and drilled a hole dead centre by eye into the two halves of the pivot pin - the bogie and the bolster - using a 1.0mm drill. A short length of the wire was super-glued into the hole in the centre of the bogie , adjusted by eye as near dead straight in both planes as possible and allowed to set hard. It gives a fairly tight fit into the bolster, so there should be little slop , but the bogie will fall off when I try to manoevere the composite into its slot in the stock box. I'll probably need to wrap this end round with tissue paper to keep everything together when putting it away.
     
    The Ratio bogie is designed to rock relative to the stretcher piece (which you don't glue in - it's just trapped) , thus taking care of any inacuracy in the for and aft plane . I just hope its ok in the lateral plane. I haven't actually re-erected the layout to re-test it
     
    Still , I've come a long way from where it all started , with this gruesome object
     

  25. Ravenser

    Shifting Sands

    By Ravenser,


    Layout schemes
    This is by way of a speculative post.....I've remarked before that it's been a very long time since I started a new project. Over a decade in fact. Between 2000 and 2007 I launched into 4 different layout projects, all 4mm/OO - Tramlink, a club layout project, the Boxfile, and Blacklade - but since then, nothing.
     
    I've recently resurrected the Boxfile - see postings here - and though I'm still hunting gremlins in the stockbox it's working a whole lot better than ever before. Proper systematic debugging will hopefully get it running with a high degree of reliability - in the meantime it's already possible to have a play at shunting as originally intended, quickly and with reasonable reliability (except for the couplings).
     
    Blacklade has been out a few times to shows and it works reliably as a home layout. The club project is long buried. So...
     
    A long time ago, at the end of the last century, I joined the 3mm Society. I acquired a little secondhand TT3 - a Brush 2 and a diesel shunter, along with some wagons and coaches. Matters got as far as an ambitious order for about 15 wagon kits from the 3mm Society, and the acquisition of a 3SMR J11 kit and an etched brass diesel shunter kit. A design for a compact urban goods depot was sketched, I built a couple of wagons which didn't seem to roll freely , and I bought about half a dozen of the then new Peco 12mm gauge points. At this point I got shanghaied into the club layout project, I became involved with a society, and what with Tramlink, work, commuting, etc. anything in 3mm was squeezed out.
     
    I'm still a member of the 3mm Society. It's a nice size. The padded envelope of wagon kits is still in the cupboard . The replacement armature for the Brush 2 is still in its packet somewhere.
     
    In the years since the idea of doing something with those Peco points has crossed my mind occasionally. A 3mm layout is one possibility , but what about OOn3 ?
     
    That means staying in my familiar 4mm scale - for which I have masses of stuff in the cupboard and elsewhere.
     
    Now narrow gauge and me are not a natural match. Because narrow gauge normally means OO9, and OO9 has traditionally meant rabbit-warren layouts dripping cute and twee - the Hobbiton and Munchkin-land Junction Railway, with a spur to Ivor the Engine's branch operated by an Eggerbahn railcar on a 9" radius curve using a Gaugemaster shuttle unit, the whole thing being built on a 4' x 2' board in four tiers of granite hillside, modestly populated by colonies of small pet Welsh dragons who eat buns from the tourists.
     
    I'm afraid I tend to penny-plain realism in muted shades of grey, and minimum gauge railways have never really gripped me. I like proper trains on proper railways doing a proper job - it's probably no coincidence that the narrow gauge locos that instantly appealed were the WHR's Garretts. I come from Lincolnshire, and Eastern England is a plain spare landscape with a notable lack of thatched cottages with holly-hocks round the door set amid rolling hills, nor does the Celtic twilight rise at dusk like a mist.
     
    My idea of a toy railway is Canary Wharf DLR. (I'm sure they must have used lithographed tinplate somewhere in the structure. Hipster-designer lithographed tinplate, of course.)
     
    But 3' gauge railways are another matter. The CDJR , L&LSR, and the Manx railways were serious and substantial operations. So were a number of Midlands ironstone systems. OOn3 means something a bit different (definitely a plus for me) and in prototype terms implies a proper railway which feels much more like a minor standard-gauge rural railway, doing a proper job. (There's also the faint possibility of what MORILL years ago called 3n3 - that is 3' gauge in 3mm scale, using OO9 track and N gauge mechanisms)
     
    This thinking has, over the years, led to the acquisition of a Southwold Railway van kit in resin, and a couple of ex MTK Isle of Man coach kits. Oh, and there's those Peco 12mm gauge points. But what might be modelled has been rather hazy.
     
    Only once in my life have I been to Ireland, and then only to Dublin, with a day trip by rail to Galway. (For much of my lifetime Ireland has been the island of bombs and balaclavas - I've never been to Northern Ireland and still feel no urge to go). Consequently I don't really feel any personal connection with Irish railways - certainly not enough to commit to the solid slog involved in building a OOn3 model of one.
     
    I don't really want to build an accurate model of a specific Manx prototype, and there isn't really space on the island to accommodate a fictitious one.
     
    There was no 3' narrow gauge in Wales, and almost no narrow gauge at all in Scotland. In any case granite mountains are not me.
     
    That leaves English 3' gauge lines, of which there are usually said to be two - the Southwold (closed 1929) and the Rye & Camber, a rather small operation abandoned in 1945 after the Admiralty had finished with it. In fact there is also the original Ravenglass & Eskdale (1875-1915) and a number of fairly significant ironstone systems in the Midlands.
     
    I have occasionally toyed with the idea that the promoters of the Mid Suffolk Light might have made it a 3' narrow gauge line, using Leek and Manifold style transporter wagons, in which case they might have focused on the proposed line from Needham Market via Debenham and with the reduced construction costs of narrow gauge have made it into Halesworth to link with the Southwold - the whole 3' gauge empire being inherited by a rather reluctant LNER (and no doubt worked very hard in support of the USAAF during World War 2)
     
    But the most tempting scenario involves "conjuring spirits from the vasty deep" in the general vicinity of the Dogger Bank.
     
    Long ago as a child I read that until the 12th or 13th century the coast of Lincolnshire was sheltered by low sandy islands on what is now the Dogger Bank - their loss began a cycle of occasional devastating storm surges across the North Sea, starting with the loss of much of Mablethorpe in 1283 and continuing down to 1953.
     
    Whether this is true I do not know. In recent years prehistoric archaeologists have conjured up a very much larger ghost, in the form of "Doggerland" - a vast region of low hills and plains spreading across what is now the North Sea until rising sea levels drowned it in stages in the later Mesolithic and early Neolithic:
     
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland
    https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/doggerland-rises.htm
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27224243
     
    What we know as the Dogger Bank represents the central uplands of "Doggerland"
     
    It's fair to say that modern archaeologists believe this whole area was under the North Sea thousands of years before the 13th century - but for the sake of a layout, we can envisage that two or three largish sandy islands continue to exist on the Dogger Bank down to our own day - thus permitting not merely Early English narrow gauge, but emphatically 20th century narrow gauge too.
     
    Whilst medieval Great and Little Dogger would have been inhabited only by a few wretched fisher-folk, from the 17th century onwards they would inevitably have been of great strategic importance to the Royal Navy and from the reign of William III through to the late 1950s there would have been a strong naval presence there. As well as being dotted with 18th century batteries and Napoleonic Martello towers there is also the famous Great Dogger Mole, an 18th century naval equivalent of the Cob at Portmadoc, which links the two islands and creates a sheltered anchorage for small naval vessels in the inlet which separates them - as legend tells us , this was built out of ballast stones brought from England in the holds of ships which came to Dogger to load barrels of the celebrated Dogger herring. Horatio Nelson's famous letter, written as a young lieutenant in 1776, in which he complains of being cooped up on "two miserable sandy islands containing a handful of mean houses and meaner inhabitants" has been rather generously rewarded by the signboard of a large pub overlooking Dogger Haven, the Lord Nelson....
     
    Railways came to the Dogger Islands as a result of hasty repairs to the Great Mole , and the construction of two new batteries, at the start of the Crimean War. A narrow gauge horse-worked line was established from Doggerport, up to - and across - the Great Mole, (and thus past Dogger Haven) and up to a suitable point on Little Dogger for the off-loading of stone for the new fort . This stone obviously had to be imported, since the islands have no stone ( and not many trees ), and afterwards the tramway was found very convenient by various parties, civilian and military, for moving stores, coal , herring barrels and the like around the island. It was upgraded to a steam-worked line in the early 1870s with a passenger service serving the islands' three main settlements and the naval installations - a small number of Beyer Peacock 2-4-0Ts and some 0-6-0Ts reminiscent of the R&ER being supplied.
     
    The naval arms race before WW1 saw it modernised and developed, and this accelerated during WW1 when the Dogger Islands were a key base for minesweepers and torpedo boats in the N Sea : indeed in 1917 the Dogger Light Railway acquired Britain's only narrow-gauge rail gun. Petrol locomotives appeared during WW1 and the railway's rolling stock was augmented by standard WD narrow gauge equipment, running on 3' gauge bogies.
     
    After a quiet period between the wars, the Dogger Light Railway was again at full stretch during WW2, but thereafter things began to run down and when the RAF Coastal Command base ran down in the late 1950s , that was the end.......
     
    Buildings - brick boxes. I have a number of Lincolnshire buildings in Skaledale form which could find a home on such a layout.
     
    I've also acquired several Dundas WD wagon kits. If I could get someone to produce a fold-up etch H-frame wagon bogie, to which you could stick the moulded bogie sides , they could convert to OOn3...
     
    But I have to admit that the new Bachmann OO9 stuff looks rather tasty. I don't quite see that you could regauge the Baldwin 4-6-0T. And nobody could accuse the Western Front in 1917-8 of being cute or twee.....
     
    Hmm.
     
    I have Stewart Squires' "Lincolnshire Potato Railways" - I knew his son at school. There is however a large gap between the handful of systems in the Tetney/Grainthorpe area and those in the fens or Nocton Estates.
     
    Suppose there had been some potato railways in the Marshes between Mablethorpe and Skegness. Chapel St Leonards has caravan parks - but it never had any railway near it.
     
    Suppose someone in the early-mid 1920s proposed a 2' gauge narrow gauge line from Mumby Road on the Mablethorpe loop to Chapel St Leonards, linking several private farm lines with the LNER , and offering a primitive service to holiday makers going to Chapel St Leonards - using surplus WD equipment (shades of the Ashover Light Railway)
     
    Hmm
     
    The only space that might be available for this would be if I finally decommissioned the old computer and removed the computer desk . That might give an L- shape about 4'3" x 2'4", with the short leg being a narrow ledge under the window sill.
     
    But 4'3" x 18" max doesn't really seem too promising for depicting low coastal sandhills or flat Marshland potato fields - both of which require a sense of flatness and openness
     
    Hmmm
     
    Somehow nothing has quite gelled on this one....
×
×
  • Create New...