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Whatever happened to British Oak?


2mmMark
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I’m looking forward to seeing British Oak at the 2mm Scale Association Diamond Jubilee event at Derby on 18-19 June.
http://www.2mm.org.uk/DJubilee/index.html

I’ve found this thread really helpful in understanding how to build a small but interesting project in 2mm FS. 
I may even decide to try…

 

Dava

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On 20/03/2022 at 21:11, Dava said:

I’m looking forward to seeing British Oak at the 2mm Scale Association Diamond Jubilee event at Derby on 18-19 June.
http://www.2mm.org.uk/DJubilee/index.html

I’ve found this thread really helpful in understanding how to build a small but interesting project in 2mm FS. 
I may even decide to try…

 

Dava


It's currently on my workbench, undergoing a programme of works. To be done:

  • Scenic texturing, trees bushes etc.
  • Canal barge to be completed, I have a basic 3D print of something suitable
  • Jinty & Austerity to be completed
  • Rolling stock to be weathered.
  • Backscene to be painted, well more accurately the "endscene"


 

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Some of the RMWeb downtime was put to good use.  I found British Oak on the scanned OS maps available from the National Library of Scotland.  These are from the 1904 survey map, published in 1907.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=53.64799&lon=-1.54860&layers=168&b=1

A rather more extensive layout than that I've modelled. I believe the area was used as a coal stacking ground and it looks like there were two loading staithes at this point in time.  It's also rather flatter than I have represented.  The Midland line that crosses the branch is still under construction at this date.

701074_BritishOak1904-1907image1.JPG.f15c20acadfd27c7a2096a1b579af92a.JPG

 

304651537_BritishOak1904-1907image2.JPG.72f64cf93bacab20bcb4364e78346b2d.JPG

Edited by 2mmMark
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On 01/04/2022 at 11:55, 2mmMark said:

Some of the RMWeb downtime was put to good use.  I found British Oak on the scanned OS maps available from the National Library of Scotland.  These are from the 1904 survey map, published in 1907.
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=53.64799&lon=-1.54860&layers=168&b=1

A rather more extensive layout than that I've modelled. I believe the area was used as a coal stacking ground and it looks like there were two loading staithes at this point in time.  It's also rather flatter than I have represented.  The Midland line that crosses the branch is still under construction at this date.

 

 

 

 

Apparent flatness may be because some of the area (W of the British Oak line) is labelled as "spoil heap" so lacks contours drawn through it, and may have been altered several times.

 

The modern OS maps show about 20m height between the canal and the L&YR line. 

 

 

- Nigel 

 

 

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22 hours ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

Apparent flatness may be because some of the area (W of the British Oak line) is labelled as "spoil heap" so lacks contours drawn through it, and may have been altered several times.

 

The modern OS maps show about 20m height between the canal and the L&YR line. 

 

 

- Nigel 

 

 


The prototype also has the advantage of not needing to hide turnout & uncoupler magnet controls!

I'm not sure where this image originates from but it shows the bleakness of the area.  I also have an NCB subsidence plan that Paul Lunn (dzine here on rmweb) shared with me and that shows the much simplified track layout.


1979437394_BritishOak2.jpg.ee9ce7d0494e7024ff1b2ab5799705df.jpg

The loading staithe was totally rebuilt circa 1967/68. The new steel girder staithe I've represented was built alongside the old wooden one, so the track orientation will have changed as well.

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So back at the workbench.   The Austerity has progressed nicely.  The body is reassembled with the new components shown a while back and I also added a new turned brass chimney.  New handrails are planned.  Austerities are quite tidy locos externally so there's not a huge amount of detail to be added. In any case, the Farish body has some shortcomings in the cab area so there comes a time when it's sensible not to over-polish the,  erm...    "33 & 1/3rd"

 

More fundamentally, pickups have been added from 0.3mm phosphor bronze wire and lead sheet has been inserted the body, increasing the body weight from 23 grams to 36 grams, a useful increase.

 

20220405_165811a.jpg.25ca839c4bff41cbb88f3cdaaf367f5b.jpg

 

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As hoped the new Tramfabriek motor has vastly improved the running so the work has been worthwhile.

 

 

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In my typical grasshopper way of working,  some work's been done on a barge for the layout as it seemed a bit daft not to have something that represented the whole raison d'etre for the scene.

 

Casting around for some quick options, not much was found. Langley do some narrow boat castings but they're very small.  Others I found, from Artitec for example, were much too big.  Then on eBay, I found some 3d printed models that were the perfect size but very crude, with all the deficiencies that early 3d models were noted for. 


20220408_131858a.jpg.3f08b01c7e29cad70f9fff5dd6291d71.jpg

 

Fortunately, it was a simple printing and there wasn't a lot of detail to lose when being smoothed down.  3 coats of Halfords Plastic Filler/Primer filled a lot of the lines and sanding down with wet & dry paper used wet gave a decent result.  A further coat of primer and some more sanding gave a satisfactory finish.

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The coal-carrying area was built up and details added. The plan is to add some coal loads using shaped foam covered with crushed coal.  The windows will be painted dark grey and clear grazing sheet will be added afterwards. 

All of the plastic sheet & strip came from a pot of odds & sods that I collect as work progresses.

 

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This is a useful way to use up all those leftover off-cuts from other projects.  I'm also saving a fossil fuel product from going into landfill. 

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More progress on what's possibly the signature loco for British Oak, 47445, the Orange Jinty.   The chimney, dome & safety valves are being replaced by N Brass castings as the originals are not quite right.  The overwidth splashers need to go as well.  The easiest way to do this was in the milling machine.

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The insides of the tanks were milled out to make room for lead weight.  The comparison below shows the difference.  Mazak being an alloy of aluminium and zinc, it's strong but not particularly heavy.  Placing lead sheet in the former tank area gives a lot more weight in exactly the right place.

 

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Next job was how to make good the metal removed to narrow the splashers.  Milling then cleaning up with a file left the areas shown below.  A little bit of an awkward area to fill.

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A couple of arcs of 10 thou brass were cut out and slices of PCB sleeper were soldered in place then filed to fit the holes exposed in the footplate.  Solid blocks of brass could have been used but the PCB was very close to the size required. It has the advantage of being quick and easy to file to shape. 

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The chimney, dome, safety valves and splashers were glued in place. I used the spigots of the castings to give a strong joint.  From under the footplate, superglue was run in and around the join, then activated with the activator spray.  My preferred superglue is from Screwfix, it's good value and has a long shelf life in the bottle.  I've found other brands to become rather unusable very quickly.

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The Jinty body now looks a lot better with the new parts. The extra weight plus the remotoring with the Tramfabriek motor (described earlier) give it the good slow running performance I am looking for.

Two final jobs are to fill in the bottom of the boiler between the smokebox and front of the tanks, and to fit a sandbox in front of the right hand splasher.

20220413_170533a.jpg.98faeb2d897f24bfab60e2ef867614b3.jpg

Once that's done, the Jinty & Austerity will make a visit to the paint shop.

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5 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Will it be like current preserved locos in as much as being available for layout visits?

 


I'm sure this can be arranged!  I'm intending to bring all my various small locos.

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38 minutes ago, MrSimon said:

Hi Mark, great work on the Jinty - how wide are the splashers now?

Many thanks

Simon


Thanks Simon, on the original casting they are 16mm from face to face, on my loco, they're 12.5mm face to face.  Possibly still a bit wide, definitely bigger than true scale but much less prominent than before. The extra width was never necessary in the first place, even for N gauge wheels.

As the basis for a 2mm finescale loco, the current production Jinty is a much better proposition. The body is better and the chassis is an easy conversion using the Association parts. Even so the chimney & dome don't seem quite right.

 

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If you can find one, the Gem whitemetal kit was about the best 2mm scale version. I remember seeing one (possibly built by Phil Kerr) with a scratchbuilt chassis running beautifully on the newly built Luton Hoo section of Chiltern Green at the MRC's Easter show in Central Hall in 1982. It was that what persuaded me to join the Assocation at the show.  A mere 40 years later, I'm close to having my own Jinty finished.   Actually, tell a lie, I did have a couple of Lone Star pushalong versions as a kid.

I'm not an LMS modeller but to me, and I suspect many others, it's the archetypal 0-6-0 tank engine, perfectly proportioned in every respect. It's very tempting to make another in a more normal livery to replicate the one I saw on Luton Hoo. I have a Gem kit stashed away.

Better not get distracted, I have some scenery to get done!

Mark

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17 minutes ago, davidgallen said:

I don't think the dome is too bad even though it's the standard LMS "flat top" dome instead of the more elegant original Midland bell dome. The chimney, however, certainly looks tapered. Very odd.

 

Agreed the dome is fine, the more rounded Midland style dome is wrong on the Jinty. The chimney, however is very undernourished and benefits greatly from being replaced. 

 

Jerry

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3 hours ago, queensquare said:

 

Agreed the dome is fine, the more rounded Midland style dome is wrong on the Jinty. The chimney, however is very undernourished and benefits greatly from being replaced. 

 

Jerry


I think there's a variety of domes been used on Jinties over the years. 47445 definitely has a bell-type Midland dome.  The one I used was thr L&Y 2-4-2 dome sold by N-Brass.

The Tri-ang moulding also has the same dome.

A classic case of needing to model a specific loco from a photograph.  I wonder if they ever got switched in the works?


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Mark, that boat doesn't look at all right for the Calder & Hebble Navigation which had quite unusual boats 14 foot wide but only 57 foot long (restricted, as usual on canals, by lock sizes). This website has some useful photos and, knowing the basic size, it shouldn't be difficult to make a decent model.

 

By the way, the locos look impressive.

Edited by bécasse
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4 hours ago, bécasse said:

Mark, that boat doesn't look at all right for the Calder & Hebble Navigation which had quite unusual boats 14 foot wide but only 57 foot long (restricted, as usual on canals, by lock sizes). This website has some useful photos and, knowing the basic size, it shouldn't be difficult to make a decent model.

 

By the way, the locos look impressive.


To paraphrase Captain Mainwaring, well done I wondered who'd be the first to say something like this.


I'm aware that the boat isn't right, having posted some photos of the actual location right at the start of this thread but unfortunately, a boat of that size wouldn't fit the canal space on the layout and at this stage it's impossible to alter the landscape.

 

When it comes to what'll be shown at the 2mm Expo, it's either this boat or an empty space.  The boat scales at about 70 foot long and 8½ foot wide.

In any case, rule 1 applies.

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Just a shot of showing where scenic progress is currently.  Quite a lot to do but thankfully it's a small area.  I'm doing quite a bit of reading up on static grass techniques.
 

20220419_161901a.jpg.17a7cc25fc41a23e63b836132704302c.jpg

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The management of British Oak have been concerned about fossil fuels for some time and have been seeking a replacement.  They have also been faced by the illogicality of moving wagons to and from the unloading point which either remain empty or full.  Explaining this wasteful process to shareholders at the AGM would be challenging.  Fortunately, a replacement has been found. 

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It's an artifical material often used in computer packaging.  The combustible properties are not yet known but will be marketed under the slogan "Let's Keep The Foam Fires Burning!"  It's also a much cleaner material, far less prone to the annoying dust that coal produces.

OK, that's enough of this rubbish.  When I built British Oak, I neglected to make it work properly for unloading coal. In order to make up for this heinous oversight,  a method of representing laden & empty hoppers is needed.  The answer came from a block of quite dense packing foam which protected some hard disks I'd ordered. Shapes were carved to fit the barge and the hopper wagons.  Those for the barge are a tight push fit but the ones for the wagons needed to slip in and out easily.  This video demonstrates the general idea.

 

 

The photos below are pretty self-explanatory.  The magnetic wand is left over from a sliding uncoupler experiment. A steel dressmakers pin is pushed into the underneath of the foam, the foam compressed slightly, the pin is cut short flush with the compressed foam, the foam released and hey presto, the pin vanishes.

The key thing is to make sure the foam is easily removed from the wagon, otherwise the whole wagon gets lifted up.  To acheive this the foam was lightly sanded, the dense nature of the foam making this possible.  On its own. the foam looks reasonably like coal but the next step is to try a coating of crushed coal to see how that works.

 

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I use this black, anti-static foam as a basis for my coal loads, and staithes. Roughly cut to shape and then a thin layer of real coal glued on. Any gaps in the real coal are not noticeable, and the foam is a lot lighter than a full load of coal.

 

IMG_20211105_190939

 

 

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Time to crack on with scenery and end any prevarication. The best approach seems to be to work upwards from the ground level in layers.  With this in mind, the area around the staithe has been treated with some gravel/earth mix and spilt coal, to replicate what I'm seeing in photos of the prototype.  As the staithe was rebuilt, it looks like there's an area of ground that was cleared and stayed rather bare for a while with just a scattering of weeds.  A mixture of ash and a fine brown sand was made up to match photos, sprinkled onto a layer of wet PVA glue, then sealed by dropping on a very much watered down PVA mix with some isopropyl alchohol added as a wetting agent, rather like track ballasting. When dry, this holds down the texture very strongly.  The same was done with spilt coal.  There's a bit more to do around the base of the staithe as it looks like it collected into piles when dropped into the barges. I'll make these from the black anti-static foam mentioned previously. This should be a neater way of making things untidy, if that makes sense. The spilt coal might need a coat of matt varnish as it's quite sparkly in places.  It's genuine crushed coal from Attwood Aggregates.

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This comparison with the earlier staithe shows the change that has taken place and it's also a useful reference for the adding the long grass and vegetation.

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Next step was to make some ground cover to go in before the static grassing of the layout. Again, I believe this helps bed everything in and more closely represents nature with grass growing up about other vegetation.

I did get some ready-made scenic mats but they're a bit coarse. Fine for larger scales but not really suitable for 2mm.

 

This meant starting from scratch.  As a basis, my favourite material is 3M Synthetic Steel Wool - ironically 000 grade. This is just about perfect, a nice drab colour, a fine texture which can be teased out and amply strong.

 

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What I do is pull a pad of the material apart, ending up with two thin layers.  Then PVA glue is applied to the side which has been pulled apart as it's randomly rough.  The best way to apply the PVA is with the fingertip, trying to coat individual strands of the mesh.  It's then dipped glue side down into the scenic dressing mix, which is various types of ground-up foam with some very fine sawdust added to give the effect of dead leaves.  The two "scatter coats" are from Jack Kine Scenics, so I've had these for a while now - possibly nearly 30 years and the lighter green are Carrs Tree Leaves from the same era.

 

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The photo sequence shows the process.

 

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Varying the glue coverage varies the amount of scatter and if there's a bit too much, it's easily brushed off to thin it out a bit.

 

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A lot of people use hairspray but I prefer the more robust bond of PVA.  It's a little bit more time consuming to apply but it helps with the longevity of the finished scene.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by 2mmMark
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A few photos of the home-made foliage mats in situ.  Still looking a bit raw but they'll bed in when surrounded by grass.


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