James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

[James Harrison]

Better late than never I guess; it took me a few weeks to reinstate the paint job that Humbrol clearcote had destroyed in 5 minutes...

Anyway, presented for your delectation is GCR #424 City of Lincoln, modelled as running in August 1922.







The lining on the cabsides and tender is a little off, but I can live with it- I know now what needs changing for the next loco to be backdated (which is going to be Sir Clement Royds).

[James Harrison]

I must be on a roll with these repaints; 'Sir Clement Royds' has been finished.





It would appear that the waterslide decals have played up with the coat of PVA I give my models as a sort of low-cost low-risk protective 'varnishing' coat; it looks worse in the photographs than on the model but it appears that the wetted decals have made the PVA run a little. From experience, a second coat of PVA will rectify matters.

The lining, as an experiment, I made myself. The original plan was to print it; unfortunately the printer had other ideas and it came out a little underdone. So I masked it off and painted it on by hand instead. For a first attempt it looks quite acceptable; I'm sure the method will improve with practice.

Currently on the kitchen table are two projects; firstly a Smallbrook Studios LSWR/ ROD road van (nearly finished) and secondly a return to some good old hackbashing- converting a Triang Caledonian coach into a GCR Parker all-first.

[James Harrison]

And here is that LSWR road van.





Treated with respect, it is a simple enough kit to build- so there's not much to say about it. I decided not to use the supplied brass wire for the handrails, not being in much of a mood to drill what felt like a million tiny holes in the bodywork, so I used some plastic rod instead. I found a few castings were warped, and broke when I tried to put them back to the right shape- hence the L-section plastic strips in the corners. Finally, the roof as supplied as a flat piece of styrene that defied all attempts to get it to take a nice even curve. Whilst scoring it *yet again* with a scalpel, I managed somehow to cut right through it, and it had to be discarded. The roof was then made from a piece of paper, folded back on itself for a double thickness. Much easier to curve!

I am told that although allocated to the GCR, none of these vans were actually bought by the Railway, and thus never appeared in GC markings. The plan therefore is to finish it in WD/ ROD markings and livery.

[kimballthurlow]

Hi James,
I am following with interest (and some wonder) at your GCR modelling.
I am looking forward to the Parker coach, as I have often wondered if that Triang model could be the basis of a GC model.

Just a question. Is that a London and South Western brake van?
I do not know the history of that deployment on the GC, and would be interested to hear more.

regards
Kimball

[manna]

G'day Gents

Some good looking modelling going on here, the 3D brakevan sounds a bit brittle ! and with axle ends on the tenders, being visible, could some small bits of plastic card be cut and glued on the axleboxes, if they rub on the ends of the metal axles, may be a dimple on the inside of the new cover.

manna

[James Harrison]

Hi James,
I am following with interest (and some wonder) at your GCR modelling.
I am looking forward to the Parker coach, as I have often wondered if that Triang model could be the basis of a GC model.

Just a question. Is that a London and South Western brake van?
I do not know the history of that deployment on the GC, and would be interested to hear more.

regards
Kimball

It is a London & South Western diagram 1549 road van, which were chosen as a standard design for the ROD in World War One. I'm afraid all I know about it is what is written on the instructions!- and a bit of a discussion on RMWeb in the pregrouping forum, the upshot of which is that they most likely were hired by the GC rather than bought.

Rather than quote that thread verbatim I'll link to it:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... by-the-gc/

As it would be unfair and unethical to pass off information from other, more knowledgeable persons than myself as being my own.

There are, apparently, a few photographs around of these vans on various parts of the LNER post-1923. It is known that the GE bought some, but that leaves us questioning why then some appear on ex-NE and ex-GC lines post-grouping.

G'day Gents

Some good looking modelling going on here, the 3D brakevan sounds a bit brittle ! and with axle ends on the tenders, being visible, could some small bits of plastic card be cut and glued on the axleboxes, if they rub on the ends of the metal axles, may be a dimple on the inside of the new cover.

manna

Thank you. The ends of the axles I hadn't noticed!- I think another instance of something passing me by on the model but jumping out in photographs. I shouldn't think there would be any issue with plating over them; I did something similar to good effect with my GBL Director.

[James Harrison]

I've bought a few new locos from an auction site; the first to arrive is a GCR class 13 4-2-2.

It is a very lovely model.







It appears to be whitemetal, but I don't know of any kits available for the Pollitt single wheelers. My plans for it I think will be to fit vacuum pipes and some coal in the tender, and I may add a kadee coupler to the tender. That last point I'm not too sure on, as I fit my kadees at bufferbeam level which would damage the model. I may go down the Triang-Hornby route and do a converter vehicle with a small tension lock on one end and a kadee on the other.

[kimballthurlow]

I've bought a few new locos from an auction site; the first to arrive is a GCR class 13 4-2-2.
It is a very lovely model. ..... the Pollitt single wheelers. ...

Wow, I always wanted one of these. Thanks for the photos.
Having only seen them in grainy black and white, this looks even better than I imagined.

regards
Kimball

[Kestrel]

It looks good as it is. At least it hasn't got mis-shapen black and white lining all over it.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I like the look of the Pollitt single.

If it is made of white metal, it may be a conversion of a DJH J10. There is a very small splasher at the front of the cab. Also the tender look likes the one supplied with the J10.

I've wondered about doing the conversion myself, but a single wouldn't fit in with the rest of my fleet.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

Technically it doesn't fit with my fleet; by my chosen period (c.1920) they were fitted with a longer cab roof and a Robinson chimney. However I like it exactly how it is so am happy to keep it as an anachronism (which is also going to be the case with the Pollitt 4-4-0 when it arrives).

It's providing the kick up the proverbial to get on with some appropriate stock for it to haul at any rate!

About a year ago, I was able to buy a Triang Caledonian composite off of Ebay for a few pounds. It had been painted brown and lettered LNER and it looked vaguely North Eastern, which was what originally picqued my interest.


When it arrived I thought that the sides looked well enough but was disappointed to find it was fitted with BR Mk.1 ends, roof and undercarriage, so it went onto a shelf whilst I had a think what to do.


Whilst idly flipping through my copy of George Dow's Great Central trilogy for ideas of rolling stock to build, in Volume 2 I found a few line drawings of 1898 Parker stock which looked as though they could be bashed from the Triang Caley coaches. A little more research produced 4mm scale drawings in copies of Railway Modeller from the late 1970s/ early 1980s.


This being a first attempt I decided not to go for anything overly ambitious- the carriage as bought most closely resembles a Compartment First, so that is what I decided to model.


I didn't note down any measurements or take photos of where to cut up each side to get the right number and arrangement of compartments, or windows on the corridor side!- as there are any number of ways these sides can be cut up and reassembled I think anyone following my example would most likely prefer to make their own decision on where to place cuts.





After a few evenings' work I had two sides...

On the reverse I had to use some plastic sheet as a sort of spine to give strength to the sides.

I had to then carefully file out the windows to get them to the right size, using the moulded beading as a guide, and once this was done I removed the beading entirely with a file and sandpaper. I need to replace it with new beading from plastic strip.



I cut a section out of the middle of the underframe (before I did this I removed and discarded the trussing) and then used more plastic sheet to reinforce the new joint.



And I have removed all of the detail from the ends of the carriage and reprofiled the roof line to produce the distinctive flat down the middle of the roof.

[James Harrison]

This last week I've taken delivery of a couple of engines. (You know how it is- you go months without buying an RTR model and then three come along at once...)





First off a Pollitt 4-4-0 express engine from the 1890s, from an old DJH kit. It has a rather curious metallic paint finish which I'm in two minds about. On the one hand it has been nicely done, on the other it rather jars when placed against a loco in the right livery.





Secondly a Pollitt 0-6-0 goods engine. This is another DJH kit (this one is still around). I shall need to renumber it, line it out and put Great Central markings on it, but other than that it's ready to run.

[James Harrison]

The current project... a 45' Parker All-First.



To recap. The original donor vehicle is a Triang 'Caledonian' carriage that was a good 50mm too long, had the wrong detail at both ends and the wrong roof profile. The windows and the compartments can be worked with but the windows require attention as they're too small. I cut the carriage sides up and rearranged them to get the window layout I needed, then used a file to widen the windows to something approaching the right size. I then had to leave off the project for want of 0.5mm styrene strip to form the beading.

And now we can pick up again! The aforementioned styrene strip having arrived I've been able to make a start on the beading. This I anticipate to be something of a chore; it takes quite a while, the strip has to be cut accurately, when it gets picked up it has a tendancy to ping out of the tweezers, and it is so fine that the glue tends more to melt it than anything else. So last night I did the lower half of the corridor side and then called it a night. I'm debating how to go about the upper half, as there is less beading there but rather more panelling. It may become a partial overlay of 0.5mm styrene sheet more than anything else...

To get a better idea of what I am building, I decided to give the carriage side a coat of primer. Previous to this I was laying white plastic on top of maroon plastic, which had been painted first red, then green, then a mucky brown colour. Concentrating on it tended to send my eyes crossed.... now it is all one colour I can see more clearly what I am doing!

[earlswood nob]

Good morning everyone

Well done in getting a D6, James, they are like hen's teeth. I picked one up as part of a job lot a while ago, but haven't built it yet.

The colour of your model looks unusual. I imagine it was done with car-spray.

The J10 is a nice looking model. I think it was one of the better DJH kits as I seem to remember that it had a decent chassis.

I look forward to seeing the Parker coach finished.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

Good morning everyone

Well done in getting a D6, James, they are like hen's teeth. I picked one up as part of a job lot a while ago, but haven't built it yet.

The colour of your model looks unusual. I imagine it was done with car-spray.

The J10 is a nice looking model. I think it was one of the better DJH kits as I seem to remember that it had a decent chassis.

I look forward to seeing the Parker coach finished.

Earlswood nob

It took me a couple of years, and three or four attempts, to get a DJH D6. Last year I pretty much gave up hope and had a go at semi-scratchbuilding one; now that I have a DJH one as well I can improve my homebrew example using the kit as a guide. I can't comment on what was used to do the original paintjob on it, beyond the notion that it has to go. It just jars too much...

I've made a start on the compartment side of the Parker coach; the lower half of the beading has been attended to. (The end of the beading is in sight!) Then I just have to sort out the windows, the roof, the interior... it will be a nice model when it is finished but it has to be said it is an awful, awful lot of work to do. I'm anticipating building a rake of three (all first, brake third, van composite) eventually, but it remains to be seen whether my patience and attention span lasts that long.