Cwmhir - The camera never lies

[Darwinian]

I've been back to working on the open wagons. Hopefully I will get them ready for their ex-works photo next week.

 

I sat down to apply the lettering to the GWR 04 wagon only to find my Pressfix sheet had run out of GW letters the right size and Tons Tare scripts. Quick online order to Fox transfers was delivered in two days.

 

The ability to slide the GW letters around is a definite bonus of waterslide transfers. I do however find that compiling the wagon number and Tons Tare using waterslide transfers is a lot more stressful than Pressfix. The bits that have been applied tend to lift and shift very easily. Luckily I do have enough Pressfix numbers left to do the numbers on the wagon ends, that are always more of a faff as you need two hands to hold the wagon and another two to apply the transfers!

[Darwinian]

As promised: In more or less ex works condition.

 

The P.O. wagon has been hand lettered for a brewery in Cwmhir (fictitious of course) and is actually a nod to our daughter (one for our son done already). The lettering on that was done with a Posca pen (0.7mm) for the off white and a 0.4mm black permanent marker for the shading.  Both vehicles were brush varnished with Galeria acrylic matt varnish. The Posca lifted a liittle so I made sure any streaks were downwards.

 

The 04 had been gloss varnished with another Windsor and Newton varnish and needed two coats of the matt to knock it back.

 

[Darwinian]

For the first time for nearly 4 months trains were running again into Cwmhir.

5223 arrived up with a 6 wheel toad to collect the colliery fulls from the exchange sidings.

 

The shunter uncoupled the van. (Dingham coupling being operated by a buried permanent magnet).

 

 

And 5223 ran forward into the loco release.

 

 

Much to my surprise everything worked until one combination of point settings produced a short. After a frustrating few minutes trying various switch throws to see if the point motors were not going fully home to change the frog polarities I remembered that in hot weather the expansion of the rails was causing a short where the rails either side of a baseboard joint were touching when they were not supposed to. Sure enough slackening off the inter board catches solved the problem, so I will have to remove a little fro those rail ends. 

[Darwinian]

Back to the wagons.

The GWR open is just about done, although I may revisit the weathering, it's a bit uniform.

 

 

The fictional P.O. needs buffers and I had planned to put steel heads into the plastic mouldings but the heads are out of stock everywhere I've looked so I ordered some cast buffers with integral steel heads from Wizard Models and have cut and drilled off the plastic buffer housings. The fading lettering looks a bit more believable in reality, the camera is cruel.

 

 

[Darwinian]

The D37 has now had the livery applied. Black/Gold lining is from Fox and the rest from the HMRS Pressfix. I find the tiny numbers really difficult to apply in the waist panels and these are about as good as I could manage. Both sides shown prior to application of a protective coat or two of satin varnish.

 

[MrWolf]

Very nice job on the coach sides. Inspiring even but I'm not really looking forward to applying transfers to mine though!

[Darwinian]

Thanks MrWolf, and I didn’t tempt fate by showing them as the satin varnish has gone on nicely. 

Still plenty of opportunities to botch it all doing the glazing, interiors or weathering. Gulp.

[MrWolf]

I always make a point of remembering the old saying:

 

If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing wrong and several times over....

[Darwinian]

So the D37 is approaching the home straight.

Completed bodywork just needs some detail painting and fitting the commode handles (hmmm.)

 

There is a basic interior to provide compartments and a guards area all done in plastic card and ratio  seat mouldings. You can see that the "smoking" signs are oversize for the widows but they look better than a blob of paint and the rub on, early period ones I used in the past are no longer available.

 

 

Once this is done I will be making use of my MERG membership and building the servo operated signals. Learning curve on the horizon!

[Darwinian]

Most details of this are going to be covered in my thread in the signalling and infrastructure section however i'll put some images of the main stages here.

 

So after much fiddly soldering and making small components here is the basic structure for the starter signal. It will be LED/fibre optic illuminated and will be powered by servo.

 

[Darwinian]

OK so this is nearly the end for the D37 build. I have added the grab handles and handrails but I'm not happy with a few and will redo them.

 

However I did knock up a coupling bar to look the part as the other connector in the set is a Bill Bedford cast equivalent. His is more detailed than mine but doesn't seem to be available anymore.

 

Much to my surprise this one works fine. It's just cobbled together from bits of brass wire and tube.

 

 

The larger tube on the right is tapped 10BA to take a bolt from inside the van end. The other end fits into a hole in the floor immediately behind the buffer beam of the adjacent carriage. 

 

 

[Darwinian]

Nearly there on the D37.

Commode and door handles fitted along with handrails. The door handles are etched ones and I think perhaps I should have put them the other way up. The stalk is a bit obvious in this photo at this angle.

First pass weathering applied, the roof on this one is going to be pretty grimy but not so dirty that the underlying colour changes completely disappear.

 

[Mikkel]

Looks great. So that's a C19, C10 and E37. A nice trio. Will there be more in this set? 

 

[Darwinian]

On 17/10/2022 at 22:08, Mikkel said:

Looks great. So that's a C19, C10 and E37. A nice trio. Will there be more in this set? 

 

The set is to be C19-D37-C10 as a bit of variety from the top and tailed van formations. However I do have this to add as a strengthener?

 

 

There is also a set of sides and ends for a Falmouth Coupe in my kit stash but what I'd really like is an ex-rhymney carriage.

 

 

[Mikkel]

Ah, that's another lovely carriage. I have always liked the extra interest that a strenghtener provides. I suppose they should be modelled full of school children or market goers, although it would look odd when the carriage is sat in the siding!

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by Mikkel
Typos

[Darwinian]

I was about to order some of the Hatton's Genesis six wheelers as the ones with torpedo vents on the roofs look remarkably close to the early 1900s Rhymney ones. Then I checked and discovered that only a few survived beyond 1926. The all third is a down-graded second too which I don't think the Rhymney ever had. 

 

Spent the money on a bargain Peckett B2 to help out in the colliery instead. I do need to get on with those signals, I almost have a working prototype for a post mounted rotating disc. 

 

[Darwinian]

As well as a load of household DIY to do I seem to have fallen into something of a signalling wormhole recently.

The results of that are shown below. The signal isn’t yet connected to its servo but the MERG servo controls work and the switch on the test rig will activate the servo.

 

I wish all RMWebers and their loved ones a very happy Christmas.

[Darwinian]

Under the Christmas tree for me this year were more servos from my son and from my wife an additional loco for the colliery work in the shape of a Hornby Peckett B2.

I found that with very gentle scraping with a sharp scalpel (almost no downward pressure) it was possible to gradually remove some of the numbers leaving the underlying green intact. It will be fitted with either some of my remaining Dingham's or Flippem couplings which I have ordered to see if they will be more successful on longer overhang vehicles.

 

 

 

[Darwinian]

It's been a while and the signals are taking some effort. However a first attempt somersault has been linked up to the servo and much to my surprise it works. Although possibly not quite as smoothly as it could. I just need to glue the lamp case on over the fibre-optic "flame" and then attach the LED holder/connector to the other end.

 

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

That looks excellent, a top piece of miniature engineering and my only criticism would be that it's reminded me that I parked the part built working lower quadrants for my layout over a year ago now.

I really should be installing them while I can still get at the relevant parts of the layout.

[Darwinian]

Thanks but I have to admit I’m not relishing trying to drill the vertical holes through the baseboards nor wiring them up. Still got to build the rest too 😳

[MrWolf]

I'm not relishing drilling holes either, especially as much of the scenery is complete. Must admit that I forgot about the damned signals until now!

 

Oh well. Never mind....🙄

[Darwinian]

Just a quick update on the D37. I was able to obtain some Mallard/Blacksmith etches for the parcel door's droplight grills. Here they are being fitted using a blob of micro Kristal clear each side, which should be enough as they are very light.

 

[Mikkel]

These are very good I find, it makes a big difference to the appearance that they are so fine. I don't have many left, do you know who/if anyone markets them now?

[Darwinian]

12 hours ago, Mikkel said:

These are very good I find, it makes a big difference to the appearance that they are so fine. I don't have many left, do you know who/if anyone markets them now?

In theory they would have gone with the rest of the Blacksmith range to a certain Somerset firm. No news on that range's future for a while. Mine were kindly provided by another RM Webber who happened to have some. I have been unable to find an alternative.