Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Paul. But for the flying start offered by the printed body shells, I still wouldn't have a J21.

[Atlantic 3279]

A bit more progress on the J21 decoration: Taper case buffers now fitted but secured only with PVA in case of a desire to change them later. Primer on buffer beams over-coated thinly with Humbrol "matt" 174, stirred to death in preparation for use, and 24 hours after application it is still shiny and sticky!!! I wonder if it will ever dry, and if not will a spray over with satin varnish induce it to cure? If it refuses to comply, I'll have to clean it off with white spirit and try a different pot of red.

"Red/brown?" parts of cab interior overcoated thinly with a mixture of Humbrol matt 153 (some sort of red) and Humbrol satin 133 (a brown) which does seem to have dried, dull. I'm glad I found that the other red was still sticky before I chose my ingredients for the red-brown shade. Whether the change of shade from that of the bare red primer is all that visible from normal viewing positions is rather doubtful.
Cab floor boards given a thin streaky coat of Humbrol 29 (an earthy brown) to suggest weathered wood with ingrained coal dust, and the same done to the boards / planks forming the coal gate at the front of the tender coal space. Tender foot plate area very thinly dabbed with matt 32 grey to suggest exposed dull steel where all the coal shovelling, sweeping, boot-treading and the rubbing of the fall-plate (yet to be added) goes on.

And... having successfully demonstrated how to break off a corner of the front buffer beam, I've not only glued it back in place but I've added some L-shaped braces behind the beam ends, from 2mm x 0.3mm nickel silver strip, now also painted black.

[S.A.C. Martin]

It really is a very pretty little thing. Makes you wonder why this hasn't appeared RTR yet, compared with the (also rather pretty) J15. We're seeing a glut of LNER RTR at the minute so it can't be too far down the queue, one suspects.

Regardless of that - great work Graeme. Really does show the potential of 3D printing for other, possibly more obscure, classes.

[Paul_sterling]

Hi Graeme.

On the N9/N10, I have tried a different method for the bufferbeams, as they are by default a vulnerable gesture. The body of the buffer is modelled onto the beam, and includes an extended shank at the rear, like the markits buffers. However instead of the shank being circular, I merged its profile into the underside of the running plate, I this has made the N9 beams much much stronger, but slightly more restricted in choice of buffer. I'll follow up with pics.

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

That might solve the problem Paul, as the break in my case, somewhat predictably ran straight through the hole for the buffer. It did not come adrift when I was drilling the hole out to size, nor when I was either fitting or removing a buffer. Either it got a knock that I didn't notice, or a crack slowly crept through the material, as I eventually noticed that a piece was hanging on by no more than wishful thinking.

[Atlantic 3279]

Now blessed with an identity, whistles and coupling hooks, but still awaiting coaling, weathering, glazing and a fall plate. I've tried to position and space the transfers on the model exactly as Darlington works appear to have done, judging by various photographs. That does not match the spacing of LNER as offered on the HMRS sheets, nor do the figures on the cabside appear where I would instinctively have put them, just below the horizontal handrail. Some scaled measurements from photographs and a basic paper template as a guide proved very helpful.

The "1932" photograph of 289 that I've used probably still shows "Class C" on the buffer beam. I wasn't sure whether to bother with class details on the buffer beam of the model, since they are so small and can vanish with weathering or handling, but I decided to have a go, just for the novelty of applying an NE class designation instead of the group standard one. I was in doubt about the validity of "Class C" though if I tried to pass the loco off "as running in 1938" since it would by then probably have had another heavy repair at a time when Darlington had at last adopted the LNER classifications. Fortunately, just for once, misbehaviour of the transfers came to my aid and the "C" disintegrated as I washed off the carrier paper, leaving just a bit of ambiguous white in place. Now it is any class you'd like it to be...

I tried out an idea for a fall-plate that would look neat and last the course but neither flop down between the loco and the tender nor transfer vital weight from loco wheels to tender wheels. I wasted a lot of time on that for no result so I'll try something else later. Better news regarding the coupling hooks, which I thought might be awkward to fit with little free space behind the buffer beams: that close, but not quite touching fit of the underframes behind the beams made it a fairly simple matter to bend the cropped tails of the hooks to one side behind the beam, apply a spot of glue, and relax safe in the knowledge that the support offered by the underframe end would keep them securely in place.

[Chas Levin]

Beautiful result; very much enjoyed following the build too

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Chas, I'm rather relieved that it is now finished but for coaling, glazing and weathering. I may yet bore readers of this forum with a potted saga of the fall plate, once I've made some progress on other modelling tasks that have been stuck in the queue while I've been dealing with this "instant loco" project.

[Atlantic 3279]

In a shock development that nonetheless pales into insignificance compared to Greeglade's marvel of scale 4472 engineering, the A5 tank engine body that I started to improve and equip with a mechanism late last November has at last started to receive some lining out of its black livery. The odd thing is, that while photographs to hand reveal lining in all sorts of annoyingly inaccessible places (on a model with handrails already fitted everywhere and with relatively clumsy representation of the up-turned ends of its step treads) I cannot see any suggestion of lining to the front and rear faces of the cab. I'm tempted to think that the top and outside edges of those faces would be lined, and possibly / probably the angle between the cab front and the firebox, but confirmation is lacking. Is anybody able to say please?

"The Big Four in Colour" proves neither one thing nor the other; Several lined black locos, some with visibly lined cab fronts (including a freshly painted big NE tank engine), some clean ones with no visible lining there (e.g. two "Clauds"), some too grubby to give any impression, the latter unfortunately including the GC Atlantic which might have been a good guide to Gorton's policies.

[Atlantic 3279]

As A5 locos are sort-of topical all of a sudden, here's the almost finished livery on the Craftsman altered-body A5 that I was dealing with last winter:

Most likely to become 5007 or 5411, which apparently transferred back and forth between the London area and Bradford in 1937/38, unless I'm persuaded to go for 5165 or 5449, both of which moved to Colwick just before the onset of war.

J21 fall-plate saga not forgotten...

[Atlantic 3279]

My second idea for a non-collapsing but flexible fall-plate for the J21 involved producing something that, in vertical section, was an inverted rigid L shape. The horizontal limb of the L would be the visible fall-plate, the vertical limb would normally rest against the drag beam at the back of the loco, the whole thing being pivoted as nearly as possible at the corner of the L. With the tail end of the fall-plate riding on the tender, there would be almost no resistance to it being nudged upwards by any high-riding of the tender, without any tendency to lift the loco wheels. If the tender happened to ride low, or the two units were moved apart during handling, the horizontal part of the plate would not be able to descend so far as to get trapped in the gap between loco and tender.
I started out by trying to make the item quickly and easily, using some 3mm white plastic angle to give strength, and a thin black top larger than the supporting angle to give thin visible edges and a nearly-flush seating of the plate on the front of the tender. I couldn't produce a pivot at the very top-front of the angle, but I got close, using a goal-post shaped wire pushed through holes in the plastic angle and in turn through the drag beam of the loco, then bent over loosely behind the drag beam.

Unfortunately, although I had rounded the rear edge of the supporting white plastic angle, and subsequently trimmed the further-projecting rear edge of the thin black top plate to clear the various features of the tender-front on curves, the thickness of the white plastic angle prevented me from adjusting the drawbar to get the loco and tender as closely coupled as I wanted them to be. Had I trimmed more from the white plastic angle, there would have been very little left to support the top plate properly, so I scrapped the idea and re-made the whole thing in thin brass, shown below painted steely grey and black:

[nzpaul]

I'd really like to see the A5 and the other twin engine contraption (D7 ?) working in person. Sadly the tyranny of distance means that will remain a fairly impractical idea. Any chance you'd be willing to post a couple of YouTube clips up, just next time you're not busy doing something else??

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

I shall try to remember to have a go at that, if I can also remember, or re-learn, how to get in to my YouTube account and how to post a video...

[NZRedBaron]

If it's of any interest, I found out today that there were nine J21's that were sent to the GE section, and I even have the running numbers at hand.

[Atlantic 3279]

Well known I believe, certainly in print for many years in the standard RCTS reference book series for students / modellers of LNER locos.