West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Anyone direct me to any sources for the interior colour scheme and/or interior pictures for the Sentinel? Nothing has turned up in my library. I do have the Yeadon, but not the RCTS volume (if there is one).

[PGBerrie]

The Sentinel Railcars are in Part 10B of the RCTS Book - lots of pictures of the outsides, but only one of the interior. Fig. 69, Diagram 93 car, Nettle. It has three seats on one side of the aisle and two on the other. The upholstry is diamond pattern with dots in the middle. The car has curtains at the windows, luggage racks on both sides and strap-hangers. The lights have rather nice glass lampshades. I think that the interiors are detailed in the text, seat arrangement etc. but not the upholstry - I only took a quick look. There is also an immense amount of detail of where they operated.

Peter

[jwealleans]

Thank you Peter - someone on RMWeb had pointed me to the same book at more or less the same time.

I've had a quick scout around but that volume seems to be one of the rarer ones. I'll get it ordered from the library.

[jwealleans]

Posts from me have been a bit rare lately but I haven't been completely idle; the N8 went back into service last week and here she is entering and leaving Pilmoor station.

[CVR1865]

A very good job sir. What is the rolling stock, are they Gresley 51-footers?

[jwealleans]

Thank you. They are indeed Kirk Gresley 51' stock.

[Robpulham]

It looks well worth the effort Jonathan.

[jwealleans]

It was really a case of needs must once I'd dropped it into the Nitromors and it fell to bits, Rob. It has scrubbed up nicely and it's a credit to the original builder, whoever he may be.

Tonight has seen some progress on a few other projects before I start something new. The Sentinel is in white primer before I apply the cream. I've filled in a few of the gaps around the roof as well. Steps have been added - they've taken a thump or two by the look of it - and the floor painted. I think clearances around 3' curves may be tight but it'll be a couple of weeks before I get down to the club again to try it out.

[jwealleans]

Since the last post I've been travelling quite a bit which always means plastic kits. The Sentinel has not been completely neglected, though: it's now painted and has acquired an identity.



Cheers to Mick B for the transfers for the name. The lettering on the HRMS 4mm sheet is too big, so these are from the 3mm sheet, a nuance we picked up from Neil Ripley. Anyway she now awaits glazing; the interior is on hold while I see what's available to make these reversible tram seats. I also need to consider the drivers' steps; they need to go onto the motor bogie as it won't go round corners otherwise. The cosmetic sides mask the BullAnt fixing screws, so they will also have to be removable. None of this is impossible to overcome, but I need a clear evening to sit down and do it.

I have been mainly spending time on a project which I picked up on RMWeb - GWR horseboxes. We have a project for a Hunt special on Thurston and someone had told me that if you scribed planks into the ends of the Parkside horsebox, it made the previous diagram. Paul Marshall-Potter then showed that with the Lima body and Parkside chassis you could make a very nice model of the next diagram. So that was that - I had to have a Lima horsebox. Before I found one I was offered a Triang one which a friend had started to convert some years ago and never finished. So then there were 3 - although I didn't want the Triang one in the end, he'd been kind enough to offer it so I thought I'd complete the conversion before I returned it. It's taken me a couple of weeks in hotels to get them this far:





Top two are the Parkside (left) and Lima (right). I missed a little trick on not packing the solebars up under the Lima one so it's a fraction low. I'll finish that one as a 'tired' vehicle. The one which has surprised me is the Triang - although it's 2mm overlength it doesn't look too grossly out of shape and the two major flaws - the raised beading instead of grooved planking and the roof - were very easy to overcome. I drew a knife along the raised lines and then dug out a groove with a scrawker. There is a small gap to fill in on the upper sides where two doors are shown instead of one. You can see the slightly lighter plastic. The roofline was filed down until the Parkside roof fitted and it's now the right height.

All three have had steps fitted and are now ready for paint.

Finally a couple of kits I picked up at Redcar at the weekend and decided to try to get done for Thurston's next trip out to Taunton:





Top is a Roger Chivers LMS Twin Bolster - like all his kits it took less than 20 minutes put together. If only they all fitted like these. Below a BR Lowfit, but with LNER brake gear as per the first batch of 1951. Red Panda, an impulse buy from the DRM stand mainly because I had the tractor and wanted something to put it on. I pinched the underframe from an LNER Conflat.

The Fergie 35 - lovely machines, I was driving one last weekend - I bought in East Kent Models while I was away. It needs a chimney but is not bad apart from that. I've given it a wash of a darker grey to bring out some of the detail. There's a lovely picture on Paul Bartlett's site here which I had in mind when I bought it. I also know how to rope it on as well, now.

One thing that did bother me was the very clumsy steering wheel; a trawl through the RMWeb archive reminded me of a thread I'd seen on road vehicles, so here it is later with the remains of a Bill Bedford handwheel and a lace pin instead.



The seat is still a bit crude but I may put a sheet or bag over it.

[jwealleans]

Last update from me before some more travelling; in between showers (perhaps in between dry weather which has forced me to work outside?) I've managed to get a few things closer to finished:



I'm pleased with this. It was a bit of a spur of the moment idea but went together quite quickly.



Looking at the photos I can see this needs the wheels painting and some of the copper wire I used to attach the chains darkening. The chain came from a stand at Hartlepool - I really can't recall what they were called - and is the finest I've ever seen available commercially. It's American (of course). There was no name on my packet but if I see it at a show again I'll make a point of remembering it. The same stand was at Doncaster this year - my apologies to them for forgetting the name if they happen to be reading. The pipes used to be attached to a flag which one of my kids brought home - from the Tall Ships, IIRC.



This was a buy at Hartlepool as well. The ABS flat I've had for a while but the load is Duha which Durham Trains were doing at a knockdown show price. The Duha stuff, for those not familiar with it, is hugely impressive, quite expensive and in the main too modern looking for me. I thought I could get away with this one.

Finally the main focus of attention in preparation for Thurston's next trip out in October; a GE Restaurant Car from Dan Pinnock's new production. I've made a start on this a bit blind as I'm struggling to find pictures, if anyone can point me to any. The only one I keep finding is E669E which was different to all the others. Anyway, this will be on hold while I'm away so I can do some trawling and ask a few knowledgeable people.



It's gone together nicely up to now - I do like the way he's doing his bogie fixing in these coaches - but we've reached the point where I'm going to have to depart from his instructions to make it fit together in my preferred manner.

[jwealleans]

I realised I'd omitted the horseboxes in the thread title from the update. They're about done and ready for weathering. The Parkside one turned out a bit more of a fiddle than usual as the roof was slightly bowed and despite my best efforts warming it and strapping it firmly to straight things it remained bent. With a bit of strip cemented in the gap won't be too obvious.

[Atlantic 3279]

Nicely done, including the couple of gems created from rather dubious RTR sources.

What's the yellow primer/undercoat that you've used please? You appear to have used it on all materials - does it adhere well?

Just a thought, but I hope that the scope for DCC "authenticity" never extends to DCC aroma as well as sound - I don't think I'd fancy a strong "horsey" whiff from a race day special, or something unforgettable from the Grimsby to South Wales fish train!

[M Gair]

Hi Jwealleans,

Like the N8, nice job running on Pilmoor. I'm looking forward to seeing Pilmoor in the flesh so to speak. Next May my wife and I will be in the UK and will be visiting Ormesby Hall. I remember seeing it in Model Rail a few years ago.

I have just painted the teak on a Gresley 61' full brake.

Mark

[9E]

With regard to the restaurant car have you tried the HMRS photographic collection? I was looking into these vehicles a few years back with a view to one day modelling a Liverpool-Harwich boat train and found a few useful photos of both these vehicles and the various coaches they were paired with. The photo lists are available on the HMRS website. Once you've brought up the monochrome BR list just stick in RKUK in the "find" box and it should take you straight to them. If you find any other good sources I'd be interested in knowing what they are.


Simon

[Bill Bedford]

The only one I keep finding is E669E which was different to all the others.

All the GER diners were different to all the others. They seem to have built them in batches of 1 or 2. What diagram is it?