Fun with a razor saw

I picked up the 1000 grade abrasive paper from Halfords a while back Kevin, together with a couple of always useful cans of grey primer. The aluminium coloured components behind the driving cab will be the white metal roof mounted gas lamps, sourced from Dart Castings.

Some progress today and as it’s my birthday, I was allowed some time off from weeding and generally tidying the gardens in readiness for our first guests next month. This was a good time to try and complete detailing the ends, so the front received a gong mounting plate and foot-steps, still leaving the lamp irons, vacuum pipe and windscreen wiper to fit. The rear end as always, will follow along soon.



The unusual angle of the above photo is a result of suspending the body vertically from a partition on a steel rule. This facilitated the fixing of the steps, precariously positioned with the aid of small dollops of ‘White-tac’ while the superglue set. One is not upsidedown however, it's just the way Swindon did things!

I used some scraps to make a regulator arm and brake column for the driving compartment and then built a sub-frame with a rear cab wall, scribed to represent horizontal timber cladding and added a folding seat and a door to the luggage compartment. I’ve selected a driver from numerous candidates, who is currently under the butcher’s knife for height and arm adjustments in order to reach all the controls, then he’ll do just fine.




Next up were soleplates and step boards. After considering several options, I finally settled on two vertically staggered back to back angle extrusions. The 3.2mm angles best capture the prototype and the upper angle was glued to the underside of the floor and holes drilled in the floor for the bogies. I’ll be taking measurements from these holes, then fitting reinforcing plates to the lower angle (step board) while on the cutting mat, before fitting them.

Having looked again at the K’s bogies, the old castings from a generation ago are hardly crisp and additionally needed step boards adding, so I dug out a pair of 3D printed Dean 8’6’’ bogies with step boards from Shapeways and with a set of pin-point bearings and wheel sets popped into place, they look and roll just great and will answer nicely.




I’m back to work tomorrow, but will try and squeeze in a visit to the railway room.

Bill

Hi Bill.  Excellent.  The Shapeways Bogies for your project are they very good? or just okay. “ I don’t  think if I stayed in the hobby for all the years that I was doing other things “ I could reach your standard. You ended with the phrase      â€œ I ‘m back to work tomorrow “ ,  me, I am not fit for work, that is why I gave up my plot, and the garden is like a jungle.    Best wishes.  Kevin.     PS When I was driving , admittedly for LT/ TFL, all the trains had driving seats on the left, likewise BR

Firstly Bill - Happy Birthday !!!

Secondly, your "day off" was very well spent - the results look brilliant.  You have my permission to crack a celebratory bottle now - only to keep the dust down you'll understand.

Hot and humid here today - did you have the same ?

Very kind words and thank you Kevin. I think the Shapeways’ bogies will probably work very well, as they already roll through a pair of facing points smoothly with just a gentle push and with little resistance.

Bearing in mind the trailer is graduly becoming of good weight as the build progresses, I really think it will run rather well. I hope the 3D printing ‘grain’ is not very noticeable when painted. The only downside is the Shapeways’ units at over 6€ each, are not inexpensive. I will order another set though for the matching intermediate trailer, so they all look the same.

247 Developments are out of sock of these units, but I’ll try a pair for a future project to see how much better they are than my old K’s ones.

Like yourself, I’ve also only recently returned to railway modelling following a long break due to proper work! However, all business activities are now carried out from home, so escaping to the railway room is always a possibility.

Bill

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Firstly Bill - Happy Birthday !!!

Secondly, your "day off" was very well spent - the results look brilliant.  You have my permission to crack a celebratory bottle now - only to keep the dust down you'll understand.

Hot and humid here today - did you have the same ?

Bonsoir et merci Peter,

We had a lie-in and then strolled hand in hand up to the market to buy fillet steak and enjoy a meeting of like minded souls for wine and nibbles. The steak was helped by an excellent local red to banish those last traces of dust and poly solvent!

Hot, but thankfully not as humid as of late today and next week should be fun.

Best,

Bill

I would guess the molds for the K's bogies were rather worn by the time yours were made. A lot of (relatively) newer Airfix kits also have issues with fit and sharpness.

Hi All.   Fifty odd years ago , I purchased a new Airfix Loco Shed ,on my return to model railways , I purchased the same “ type “ of shed sold with Dapol packaging , that too has suffered the same plight . Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Bill , bearing mind my lack of ability to complete a kit, and considering my love for Southern and BR ( S ) I will rest on my Laurels, and that may put a spring in my step. When I returned to model railways , an early purchase was aHornby Push Pull Set, no doubt that has critics, but for me, for the time being I will see if I could run it, as a “workers special” on a plank, a bit far fetched?  But I could build a fiddle yard or something of the ilk?   Best wishes  Kevin

I have that same Airfix kit Kevin, bought, built and painted 40 years ago and it still looks good today, just not very Great Western, so it remains a happy reminder of my youth.

It is your railway, so set yourself achievable goals and enjoy the hobby in a way which suits you and you alone.

Remember . . . it's good to run trains, as it brings smiles to lads of all ages.

Best,

Bill

Hi Bill.  Thank you for the words of encouragement . The Dapol version of the Loco Shed , is well at ground level, but just under the “ eaves “ the height of one wall isn’t up to standard , calls for a bodge up?  Best wishes. Kevin

Just a little work today in chopping up and reassembling a driver. The unlucky chap was a crudely painted Bachmann figure, facing front and centre, so just right for an auto-car driver. He was cut off just below the waist, then lost both arms and then a good few mm in height from the bottom of the torso and his feet. When he could see through the window, he was positioned on the cab sub-assembly to get the correct length of arms to reach both brake and regulator.





A fuse wire armature was used to locate the left arm, as it has such a small contact area for glue, while the right was shortened and glued at the elbow to the body, with filler added to reconstruct an upper arm. I just need to snip off the excess fuse wire from his left arm, add a little filler, then paint before he can take his place at the helm.

The roof was finished today and is now ready for painting.



I decided not to add destination board backets, as the roof detail is full enough already and these brackets had been removed from many trailers. Grey paint should blend the detail, particularly the rain strips, into the structure.

Other detail parts arrive with my friend on Wednesday, including the oval buffer heads and a lining device I found on-line, which I hope should improve my chances of achieving a decent finish in the painting stage, which is not far off now.

I’m only going to finish off the driver and roof painting before taking a week off, switching from trains to cars, as we fit a newly rebuilt engine into an old Austin 7 and fettle away until it hopefully goes well enough.

See you soon(ish).

Bill

Goodness, no modelling for just over three weeks! State of play as of today, is that all detailing has been fitted and now ready for painting. However, we have been very busy with our holiday cottages, gardens and pool, as imminent visitors are on their way this weekend and then we are fully booked for all of June and July.

So I carefully packed the driving trailer in a bubble lined box and methodically put materials, adhesives and tools away in readiness fof further modelling towards the end of the season.

A little more research today however, solved the mystery, to me anyway, of the white stripes often seem on GWR and BR Western Region autocoach driver’s front and sometimes side droplight windows. 

These were to alert loco crews to the presence of the adjacent windows, particularly during coaling the bunker. The lines were painted on the inside of the window, often at different heights to other coaches and the droplights sometimes had white lines painted either horizontally or vertically.

More on the finishing stage of this kit bash, but alas, probably not until September.

Have a great summer everyone and I’ll be back to lurking for a while!

Bill

Hi Bill  Good Luck with the busy season ahead of you.  Kevin

Well it's September and I should have left for the UK a few hours ago, but then the drains backed up, so I've spent a few hours emptying the pumping station, unblocking the sewage pump and infilling the whole thing, then taking a long shower. Fortunately, the gite guests were out to a leisurely lunch. 

Anyway, off soon and back in a week, when the Clifton Downs set will be unpacked and I'll get stuck in again.

I'll be going to the big GWR event at the Swindon Steam museum next weekend and looking forward to seeing their King, Castle and City locos in the flesh. Hope some of you will be enjoying the spectacle too.

Speak soon,

Best,

Bill

Hi Bill   That does seem like a very good show. Large gauges are okay, but not really my thing, unless I had a “Barn” of a Railway Room, and pots of money to spend on it,  I’m having enough trouble fitting OO gauge in the space available. Now if you were  taking Clifton Downs to the show??  That would be another story.
Best wishes. Kevin

It's a model railway show Kevin, but with added attractions  :)

Bill
 

Hi Bill. I shall have to give it my serious consideration .  Best wishes. Kevin

Goodness, how time flies! It was late April since I last did some modelling and following a wonderfully long and hot summer, it’s time to once more set up my workbench and get back to building railway stuff.

I’ve not completely neglected railway passion, as I’ve been refurbishing my garage/workshop with new roof insulation, ceiling and a long overdue rationalisation of the concrete floor levels, all with the intention of pampering the old cars even more than usual, as well as making space for a dedicated railway room built into one end. 

On the acquisition front, I now have a sufficiency of kits to keep me busy for a couple or four years and of particular interest is a Class 517 loco body and chassis kit to push and pull the soon to be completed Clifton Downs set. I need to find a wheel set and suitable motor and gearbox in due course.

The Clifton Downs build has been tremendous fun and has pushed me to seek higher build standards and I’ve today enrolled for an airbrush weathering course at Pendon Museum next February and have a suitable compressor, spray booth and accessories ready to go, but will wait until after the course before buying a quality airbrush. 

A recent UK trip saw me in a favourite Eastleigh model shop, where I got chatting to a couple of fellow modellers and thought for a moment that I might escape without buying any stock. Silly thought I know, but one chap, recently of Model Railway Challenge infamy, introduced me to a partly hidden bin of new older stock and I found three Hornby open PO wagons at seven quid a pop, which will look great when weathered and then I asked to look at a brace of the latest Peckett W4 0-4-0 loco releases. The black BR one was, well, black and a tad boring really, while the leaf green works liveried example brought a huge smile to my face, so I’ll just add a private siding to the layout somewhere! 

So, normal modelling practice will re-commence shortly, so speak soon.

Best,

 Bill

PS. I later noticed on my AC Models receipt, that the above purchases, including the Peckett, were discounted by a further 10%. This was not asked for, or notified at the point of sale, but was a lovely surprise from a good, honest and helpful local model shop. It also brought the W4 down to the same price as Hattons, although I was able to handle the loco and save on postage to boot. Well done AC Models of Eastleigh!
 

Hi Bill. Good to hear from you. You got to put yourself forward to get anywhere these days, good luck with the modelling, but, don’t forget to keep in touch with YMRC from time to time.  Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Bill,

just came upon this topic thanks to the promo in the sidebar. A most timely discovery given the work I'm doing on WC&PR coaches and it set me wondering do you have finished photos of the Autocoach? It was getting very near completion at the time of your last post.

Regards,

Colin