West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Thanks very much for that, I'll have a look at that site.

A very successful weekend in Ely and now looking forward to taking Wickham Market out in 6 weeks or so. It was a packed day and I didn't end up taking any photographs, I'm afraid, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I've had a change of era since coming back: to break off from the 1950s stock momentarily, I've started work on the scratchbuilt C1 I acquired earlier this year. I'd like to get this into a state to be used on Grantham at Newcastle the week after Spalding. We'll see how that pans out. For the moment I've removed the old mechanism and replaced with a High Level large coreless motor and 40:1 Road Runner plus gearbox, which is what I've used in all these up to now.



I'm waiting on some wheelsets before I fit pickups and get it all running. In the meantime there was detailing to do on the bodywork. The builder intended this to be a C1 in original condition, whereas I will finish it in 1930s LNER livery. I will not be undoing his work to move boiler bands and washout plugs as I fear that woudl be too destructive. It's fundamentally a lovely piece of work and I want to enhance it as far as I can.



The tender had a triangular piece missing from the corner flare which had to be reinstated and then the lifting eyes made and fitted.





On the body, working forwards from the cab, the whistle actuating lever was loose, the pipe or spigot at the base of the firebox wasn't present, the oilboxes had come off when the glue failed (now soldered), one set of steps was missing and had to be remade and there was no lubricator. I also added the lifting holes in the front of the frames and reattached the smokebox where it had broken away from the saddle.



Round the front, I moved the smokebox handrail to the higher position and filled in the old holes, removed the cast dart and added a brass one and reapplied the top; lamp iron, which promptly fell off again. We'll try that again tomorrow.

[Chas Levin]

Lovely looking model, I must say, well worth the work you're doing. I think this would be called a 'sympathetic restoration' in the antiques trade, wouldn't it?

[jwealleans]

I rather hope so, Chas, although I don't think this has ever been painted so I plan to go much further than the original builder or builders managed.

[jwealleans]

Back to the C1 this afternoon, rather later than I had hoped. The top lamp iron seems to have slipped through a wormhole even though the bench has been totally unattended since Wednesday. I reverted to my default length of flattened wire. I also realised we'd need a snifting valve. On the prototype the chimney was moved forward to accommodate that but that looked a rather awkward and potentially destructive task, so I decided to just fit it in what space there was. Not having a cast valve, I put a blob of solder onto the top of a 12BA bolt, turned it down in the minidrill and then soldered it in place. It's slightly too high but looks fine from three feet.



The tender frames needed replacing - the wheels were brass with plastic centres and really thick axles, much thicker than the usual 2mm. In addition the builder had drilled the holes right down in the bottom of the frames, not leaving enough room to fit 2mm bearings. I would usually order a set of frames from Alan Gibson, but Colin Seymour mentioned at EM North that he's having trouble getting hold of the brass for them. I looked at Wizard models and found a 6'6" x 6'6" set from Comet. That puts the centre axle 1mm out, but painted black and at speed you'll never notice.



I will have to do some fine height adjustment once the whole thing is together but for the moment it runs very freely and has room for pickups on top of the wheels, where I like to put them.



It's getting perilously close to having paint applied. I want to add some more detail to the tender front and the loco needs the motion brackets making. I'm picking up some 2mm rail from a friend on Tuesday for that. Once the loco is primed I'll apply the very prominent rivets on the smokebox saddle. If anyone can see anyting else I've missed, please say so now, I shan't be offended.

Now, regular readers may have noticed that I'm quite partial to a C1....



I did think I had one of every kit which had been produced for them (plus a couple of scratchbuilds). Then I saw this on Ebay last week. It's clearly, from both box and castings, an old kit. Does anyone know anything about this manufacturer? There's nothing online that I've found up to now.

[rob]

....a loco well worth saving,look forward to the finished work!
...I'd seen that Milmod up too and was wondering about its provenance!

[jwealleans]

I'm still none the wiser - MilMod seems to be a commonly used name and there's still a producer of military kits using it today. I've found nothing about this outfit although I gather there are mentions in the Railway Modeller archive.

Put the C1 aside today and went back to the faults list from last weekend in Ely. Some very old favourites passed over the bench.



65388 was the first loco I built for Thurston, probably over 20 years ago now. I spent ages looking for photographs in that pre-Yeadon era and then when the Yeadon did come out I found two glaring errors with it. Still, it's as I built it and still running. The fire irons had come off the tender, which was an easy job, but we'll try to get that fireman standing up better and there's a buffer head gone off the tender as well.



I'd had 62526 so long I couldn't remember what I was supposed to be doing with it. It's a club loco which I had renumbered. It has now had goalposts fitted as it worked the (S&W fitted) branch train on occasion. I'll weather it over the week.



The tank is from the Chipman weedkilling train. The tanks all have pipes which connect together and run to the spray van and the bit of wire had dropped out of this one. I took the opportunity to touch up some paint as well - it's getting on 20 years since this train was built as well. The Ks Grano had lost a coupling, two minute job.



The BCK from the Hunt Special had some missing glazing - a combination of some I'd missed and some which had dropped out. Again a very quick fix and this will also be weathered this week.

[jwealleans]

Time seems to be marching ever nearer to the next shows and there's less progress with things than I might have hoped. Still, I have completed a couple of weathering jobs. Both 'in service, reasonably looked after but used' kind of condition.



61535 is the Hornby B12and a lovely model it is. I had to have one when they were released, though as I already had a Crownline and a Coopercraft one it will probably remain a singleton. Coal and fire irons after the weathering; I have a crew but they won't be painted before November.



62526 is a club loco which we have on record as working to Framlingham on more than one occasion. A handy standby if the branch loco should fail. The Hornby Claud is another lovely model, but again I was already replete with kit ones so my own (62597) will remain an only child.



Considering the options if the branch loco (67230) failed, I was reading the Peter Paye book on the Framlingham Branch last week and he mentioned that an F4 was sometimes sent from Ipswich with the goods. Back in 2013, on page 57 of this topic, I obtained a NuCast F4 from somewhere and refinished it as 67182, which was Ipswich's only F4 after Nationalisation. We didn't use it much on Thurston and I remembered that it ran backwards, but looking it over last night it looked a simple job to swap the insulated wheels and pickups to the other side, so i did that this evening. It was all going swimmingly until suddenly the motor developed a dead short and the thing is defunct. It's an X04 of indeterminate age and I reckon a winding has gone. It will return, but not imminently.



Finally the scratchbuilt C1 is progressing through the paint shop at the moment. I sprayed the wheels at the weekend and added the black tyres this evening. In case anyone else is doing something similar, this is how I do it: the wheels is slotted onto a Romford axle which goes through a hole in the MDF work surface. It's just close enough to the edge that I can rotate the wheel with the fingers of my left hand while applying black paint from a stationary brush with the right. The paint was a bit rough, actually, but once the white line is applied I can tidy it up.

[Atlantic 3279]

Time seems to be marching ... ... and there's less progress with things than I might have hoped.

I seldom find otherwise.

[Pebbles]

I may have it wrong, but I believe that the Milmod kit became WSM. They had a J6, D2,N1 and C1 in the range, in addition I came across a fret of their coupling rods. I came across the Kit in W&H about 30 years ago, looked in the box and ran! The castings are/were very crude. As an aside, Tony Wright
built, and may still have, a J6.

[jwealleans]

I believe that the Milmod kit became WSM.

I rather hope not - I have a WSM C1, built by the late Phil Giffen of Ely club and it's not great. The bulbous firebox is the giveaway and I have to say the Milmod castings didn't look like that. It's unlikely to see the light of day any time soon in any case.

(Photo Tony Wright)

[jwealleans]

Something of a bitty update as I've been working on preparing for two shows on successive weekends.

Grantham is at Newcastle in 10 days time, so the last of the notes from Bristol needed attention. The steel 5 set had had one or two issues with corridor connectors tangling and the odd derailment. Some judicious addition of weight and end covers has hopefully seen to that, but while I had it out I realised that one carriage had never had the grab handles fitted. Either that or every single one had fallen off. Easily rectified.



I'd also had a report of one wagon in the shunting stock as a serial derailler and the gas tank which resides in the south end pilot spur was looking a bit tatty. A bit of weight in the wagon - couldn't find any other faults - and the gas tank retaining straps have been repaired and painted. They really need replacing with brass strip in the future.



Paint was applied to the C1 and a start made on lining it out.



The chassis was reunited with the wheels and motion and checked for free running.



Pads for pickups were then added:



Once those had set, the mechanism was added and the whole lot test run.



I would never have bought a Hornby rolling road, but having inherited one I find it very useful and easier than reconfiguring my Masterchassis each time. It's very unlikely that this loco will be ready for Newcastle: I've had problems with both replacement bogie and tender chassis (from Comet) not being free running enough and they need remedial work. I think I also need to remove material from the rear of the cylinders to allow the bogie to pivot enough as it can't currently manage 3' curves.

What will be going for the first time is this Hornby Empire of India. It's the least photographed or mentioned of the Coronation locos and was on offer in the summer at less that half price from a place in Germany (? - I don't even try to understand). It's had replacement lettering from the 247 etch and has since been weathered and crated ready for Newcastle.



The more immediate event is Wickham Market at Spalding this weekend. I found that I had bought and forgotten about some etched smokebox plates from Brian at 247.



I've used these for a long time and been very happy with them. Unfortunately he is not currently offering the bespoke service, so I had to look around for a different source. I learned that Railtec, of whom I have heard good things, offer a service printing these in resin. I ordered one and was very pleased with it when it arrived. Unfortunately before I could then apply it it was gathered up, envelope and all, and sent off to the recycling bin. A replacement arrived today, just in time and I think very much looks the part.



Applied much like a waterslide transfer, athough in this case I slid it from the backing, dried it and glued it in place with varnish rather than paint over it as I would with something like a rivet transfer.

If anyone is planning to visit Spalding then please come and say hello - I expect to be shunting the yard most of the weekend, so you'll have trouble missing me as I'm standing in front of the layout. It's generally a good show and hopefully we'll learn a great deal about the layout and its operation as well as entertaining people.

[jwealleans]

Just a reminfer that Grantham is at Newcastle Show this weekend if anyone is planning to visit. Do come and say hello.