Lima Carve Up

[relaxinghobby]

 

Most of this train is of Lima origin and has featured else where on this forum but the pictures of their construction have gone in the great photo storm that annihilated them in April.

The loco which must be on some sort of running in trial as it does not have all it's handrails of even buffers yet. It is an H0 4F with some larger wheels from a Hornby Jinty and a larger plasticard cab so the 4mm crew don't bang their heads. Contriving to be a sort of late 19th century generic 0-6-0, possibly inspired by early engine designS of Robinson, maybe the locomotive Shannon of the Waterford and Limerick Railway or Parker's 0-6-0 of the Great Central Railway J9.

Edited May 8, 2022 by relaxinghobby
mistakes

[relaxinghobby]

 

The coal wagons are about 2/3rd of the Lima H0 mineral wagon. About 2/3s chopped off and a new end, the sides sanded flat and wider planks scribed on. These are about the least pure Lima here solebars and W irons and springs are from a Ratio kit chassis and brass etched strapping from Mainly Trains, buffers from Dart Castings I think.

 South Wales coal wagons are the prototype, how did they get away with the shorter than RCH specified 7 foot 6 wheelbases. I have not attempted the busy sign writing found on these wagons yet.

 

 

Included is a Cambrian Kits 10 ton wagon kit of the early 1900s RCH pattern for size comparison. The brake van is from drawings on the Plymouth, Devon and South Western Railway web pages. Scribed Evergreen plastic sheet is glued around the basic box like body of the Lima H0 British Railway brake. This gives a very near fit to the drawings, The chassis is the Lima brake again cut into quarters and reassembled so it is wide enough to take some Dapol 12mm wheels, and shortened from the middle.

 

 

This shot shows the details better especial the very thin planking on the brake van.

Edited May 8, 2022 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

The Lima yellow van.

In 00 it's outside dimensions match drawing in Alan Prior's book on old wagons and trains, page 50.

Layer up the sides with Evergreen planking sheet and their cut strip.

Chassis cut down the middle and glued back wider so that some Dapol metal wheels can fit. These bigger wheels also bring the buffer height up.

 

 

 

Layer, layer, layer.

 

Doors have come out a bit wonky, they are leftovers from a cattle wagon scratch-build. Getting the tapered end stanchions tapered is difficult, they are built up from two layers of slightly triangular pieces of 0.5 mm card. So small it is difficult to get all the little parts to nearly the same size. Once they are firmly glued on I hope I can gently file down so they match.

Edited May 21, 2022 by relaxinghobby
Re-do

[relaxinghobby]

Picture of prototype here

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small brake van from the Wenfordbridge and Bodmin railway created after this old picture when the W&B R was still an independent and isolated railway. So it had it own standards, for instance lower level for buffers and smaller wheels it seems from this ancient photograph.

 

So we have here the Lima H0 GWR van. De-verandered and re-roofed. The original planking was kept unchanged and some vertical strips added from Evergreen for the heavy framing. I can't remember what chassis I used, not the Lima one. It looks like a widened narrow gauge one. And 10mm wheels to keep the hight lower.

 

 

From the photo of the original it has always confused me how the guard gets in and out. the doors are at the end but there does not seem to be a platform, he would have to jump down straight onto the track, hazardous when done between the buffers.

[relaxinghobby]

More detail and roof doors.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

There is nothing as embarrassing as a close up photo to show how bad my modelling and painting is. Seems like I can't get the paint into the grooves between the planks. Not just with one colour on the brown van but also on the grey one too.

Can I blame the paint? Is modern paint in the little tins as good as it was in the old days? Is my brush too big. Should I have used thinners,? Either way it looks like a third coat is needed for both vans.

 

 

 

So here is a line-up of models for inspection, the good and the bad. Amongst others a modified Hornby van to make some sort of refrigerated van and my Lima carve-up with it's new layer of planking and strips glued on to make outside framing that fits in quite well with the others, what was an H0 model is actually taller than the brown LSWR van which is the only proper scale height model here.

 

Also look at that gap under the roof on the brown one. I could not get the roof nestled down onto the top of the sides, it is now glued into position look at that massive gap above the central door.

 

 

 

Just there in front is a model of a NBR jubilee mineral wagon. It seems so small yet it conforms to the plans I have, it looks wrong. Too small. How can I check accuracy? The size would make it a 7 ton capacity wagon. I drew it out on in the Ink-scape app and printed it up on 0.6 mm cardboard so the sides seem very thick. But one advantage with cardboard is that you can distress the sides a little, I mean pull them out a bit to give that beaten up old mineral wagon look.

[John Tomlinson]

With your paint, I'd suggest you need to thin it a bit (but not a lot) so that it will penetrate down into the spaces between the planks. I don't know if you brush or spray, I'm guessing brush, but thinning will help paint reach all the more difficult to get at parts by running a bit more freely. Paint quality, well that's a $64m question as the ingredient chemicals tend to change over time not least due to regulations. For example all Humbrol is withdrawn at present because it was found to contain something that in extremis caused respiratory problems, and so we'll either lose the range or it will be re-formulated.

 

With the roof on the brown van, it appears that the edge where the gap arises has a step in it, it isn't straight. Geometrically there's no way in that circumstance that you won't get a gap. You could try to glue a thin sliver of plastic strip to the edge, then sand down to make it straight, but that risks damaging your paintwork either with the glue leaking or by the sanding action.

 

John.

[Colin_McLeod]

Interesting work @relaxinghobby. Shows what can be done with a bit of modelling skill and an inspiration for me to dig out some neglected wagons of my own. Thanks for sharing.

[relaxinghobby]

On 08/05/2022 at 16:43, relaxinghobby said:

 

The coal wagons are about 2/3rd of the Lima H0 mineral wagon. About 2/3s chopped off and a new end, the sides sanded flat and wider planks scribed on. These are about the least pure Lima here solebars and W irons and springs are from a Ratio kit chassis and brass etched strapping from Mainly Trains, buffers from Dart Castings I think.

 South Wales coal wagons are the prototype, how did they get away with the shorter than RCH specified 7 foot 6 wheelbases. I have not attempted the busy sign writing found on these wagons yet.

 

 

Included is a Cambrian Kits 10 ton wagon kit of the early 1900s RCH pattern for size comparison. The brake van is from drawings on the Plymouth, Devon and South Western Railway web pages. Scribed Evergreen plastic sheet is glued around the basic box like body of the Lima H0 British Railway brake. This gives a very near fit to the drawings, The chassis is the Lima brake again cut into quarters and reassembled so it is wide enough to take some Dapol 12mm wheels, and shortened from the middle.

 

 

This shot shows the details better especial the very thin planking on the brake van.

Lurking around my hard drive I've found a few pictures of the work needed to adapt the Lima coal wagons into shorty primitive types in the train above.

So the green is the original Lima coal wagon. Detail sanded smooth and new planking scratched on.

 

The iron work is mostly brass from a Mainly Trains etch I think. This gives a much neater look that my home made strapping cut from thin plastic, usually take away coffee lids. My straight cuts are never very good straight cuts. The brass detail does not look at all ragged.

 

Chassis is made up of cut and combined ratio kits I think or one of the kits makers perhaps

Slater's ?

Cast white metal buffers at one end the other was dumb. Brakes from bits and pieces of plasticard and kit sprue following a photo as a guide. Wizard Models are the website to check for all these little details.

 

Edited November 11, 2022 by relaxinghobby

[relaxinghobby]

At last I've got a prototype to remake the Lima H0 coal wagon into. It's narrower and shorter than the later 12 ton standard coal and mineral open type. I've found it's nearly a perfect match for an old Caledonian Railway diagramme 22 8 toner.

 

Trim the top off and beef up the chassis.

 

The dividers are used to score a line about 2 mm down from the top, then keep on cutting along the line with  a heavy Stanley type knife. Two slabs of 30 thou' or 0.75 mm plasticard are marked out and scored for planking and stuck on. this widens the body just about enough.

 

 

As the glue sets I've packed out th e insides to give a slight bulge.

Cutting the distinctive end framing has not gone well the very thin 20 thou' or 0.5 mm and relatively weak card has broken so I used it as a base to glue on square section plastic strip to build up the framing.

 

The height of the Lima chassis is built up with a layer of 0.75 mm plasticard, the U channel style sole-bars are filed in with scrap bits of card. Buffers used to support the dumb buffers.

 

 

[Barclay]

On 28/07/2022 at 18:40, relaxinghobby said:

 

There is nothing as embarrassing as a close up photo to show how bad my modelling and painting is. Seems like I can't get the paint into the grooves between the planks. Not just with one colour on the brown van but also on the grey one too.

Can I blame the paint? Is modern paint in the little tins as good as it was in the old days? Is my brush too big. Should I have used thinners,? Either way it looks like a third coat is needed for both vans.

 

 

 

So here is a line-up of models for inspection, the good and the bad. Amongst others a modified Hornby van to make some sort of refrigerated van and my Lima carve-up with it's new layer of planking and strips glued on to make outside framing that fits in quite well with the others, what was an H0 model is actually taller than the brown LSWR van which is the only proper scale height model here.

 

Also look at that gap under the roof on the brown one. I could not get the roof nestled down onto the top of the sides, it is now glued into position look at that massive gap above the central door.

 

 

 

Just there in front is a model of a NBR jubilee mineral wagon. It seems so small yet it conforms to the plans I have, it looks wrong. Too small. How can I check accuracy? The size would make it a 7 ton capacity wagon. I drew it out on in the Ink-scape app and printed it up on 0.6 mm cardboard so the sides seem very thick. But one advantage with cardboard is that you can distress the sides a little, I mean pull them out a bit to give that beaten up old mineral wagon look.

Your Hornby van is actually a fairly accurate model (above the solebars at least) of a Hull & Barnsley Railway refrigerated or ventilated van, so not as generic as you might think! (Mine shown below with a new chassis).

 

For scribing planks I have found a cheap scraperboard tool to be fantastic - it leaves a really smooth groove.

 

 

[Paleopotato09]

6 hours ago, Barclay said:

Your Hornby van is actually a fairly accurate model (above the solebars at least) of a Hull & Barnsley Railway refrigerated or ventilated van, so not as generic as you might think! (Mine shown below with a new chassis).

 

For scribing planks I have found a cheap scraperboard tool to be fantastic - it leaves a really smooth groove.

 

 

I've repainted a few as North Eastern refrigerated vans since the NER did buy the H&B in 1921. They are a what if creation.