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

[James Harrison]

Thank you. I say they're finished but I know how I am for returning to past projects at a later date and further working on them.

It would be safe to say that it would not in the least surprise me if a few years from now these carriages are running around with new interiors, wire handrails, extra detailing added and the like....

[James Harrison]

My current project is to backdate a Millholme Models B5. It had originally been built by a previous owner as a B5/3 but with GCR boiler fittings. My aim is to return it to circa 1920 condition.

The first thing I did after separating the loco body and chassis was to put the former in a jar of paint stripper, where I left it for a few days before cleaning it off and scraping it down.

The big problem with trying to alter or rehabilitate kits is that the instructions have usually been discarded by the previous owner, and thus it was this time too. So I had to go very carefully, which paid off as parts I thought would have been soldered turned out to have been glued, and vice-versa. Parts that I thought would be hollow castings turned out to be solid billets, and parts that I thought would have been a single casting turned out to be made up of two or four pieces.

My vague idea to remove the 2mm of excess height was to use a pair of draughtsman's scribers to gently, carefully and slowly scrape out a 'trench' of sorts through the metal, and cut it out that way, but that turned out a none-starter so after marking the metal I turned to a hacksaw instead for the main cuts. I'm glad I started with the scriber though; I doubt I would have gotten neat straight cuts otherwise.

The upshot is that after a few hours' work last night I succeeded in cutting down the firebox and smokebox saddle by 2mm each and managed to reassemble the model.



The largish lumps of material in front of the model are the billets of metal I had to remove. I'm now going to consult my reference works to confirm the pattern of safety valve for the circa 1920 period, and ascertain whether the pipe to the smokebox is appropriate to that period. After that I think the major part of the work is done and all that should really be left is a repaint.

[earlswood nob]

Evenin' all

I like the B5.
The B5s had Ramsbottom Safety valves until superheated with raised boilers.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

I think I have a set of Ramsbottom valves in a spares box, somewhere. I distinctly remember taking them off my D9 when I rebuilt it with Ross Pops a year or two ago.

[earlswood nob]

I try and keep my spares organised and kept in multicompartment boxes, but it doesn't work.
I put the spares in small plastic bags with a named label, but I run out of spaces in the box, plastic bags, or labels.
It's like bookcases, you can never have enough. Everytime I get a new bookcase it fills up, and I need another.

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

I thought I had one spare set of Ramsbottom valves.... I think when I put it away in the box it must have been nesting, as I find I have one set of two-column type and two of four-column, plus four of the Robinson encased sort. Amongst a lot of bits and pieces and other boiler fittings.

[James Harrison]

Finished! (Well, the first few days of work on it did see the lion's share of the work done).

As usual I have left off the more delicate red parts of the lining; maybe another time when I can do it without botching the thing.

Now on for the next project- I have a pair of Ratio carriages that have been sat in their boxes unbuilt for quite long enough.

[James Harrison]

I did a little more work on the B5 (after declaring it finished).

The tender; fitted a buckeye coupler and plated over the coal rails. The locomotive; added the reversing lever and picked out the smokebox door dart and hinges in silver.





Then I directed my energies toward the Ratio kits.

The first one I am looking at is an all-first. Most of the work involved consists of changing the bogies. I discarded the ones provided with the kit and settled on Coopercraft 8' Gresley bogies. I bought these a few years ago- and am glad that I did! I understand that presently mail-order from Coopercraft is suffering technical difficulties.



To get it to sit right, the lump moulded on the top of the bogie has to be sanded back. Then the bogie bolster and the carriage floor have to be drilled through. Finally the bogie is secured to the carriage via a screw.



This done, the rest of the carriage can be built as-per the instructions. I will of course be adding an interior.

[Tony west]

There is an article on adapting these kits to a GC(ish) appearance such as you are doing in an old RM circa 1979, by Eddie Davis. I can email a copy of it for you.
Cheers Tony.

[James Harrison]

I would be very interested in a copy of it thank you Tony. (I intend building a few more rakes of these after the intial set of five so if there is a way of making them closer to GCR types I'd be up for giving it ago).

Continuing with the all-first, having built the body I built an interior using designs and specs from an early issue of 'The World of Trains' from 1992.



I didn't go for all-out detail, considering firstly how small the windows are, secondly how there is no carriage lighting and thirdly therefore how difficult it will be to see anything at all in there once the roof is on.



So with the interior then dropped in, it was ready for the roof, which I fitted a few minutes after taking this photo.

[James Harrison]

With the Ratio all-first finished, I turned my attention to some Parker stock. I had a go at an all-first a few months ago, but since then I've had a think about how to go about modelling these distinctive carriages and am now coming at them from quite an unexpected direction.

I'd bought some Hornby clerestories intending to do a simple repaint job, but then somebody on RMWeb showed a photo of one they'd hackbashed to a corridor vehicle, which involved cutting away compartment windows to create larger picture windows. Lightbulb moment.

Consulting drawings in Railway Modeller from 1980 and 1981 suggested that it would be possible to create decent lookalike models of the all-first, van composite and brake third, and possibly the buffet car too. The easiest conversion is to the all-first, which is where I began.

You start off the clerestory coach and a pair of Gresley coach ends, which need to be cut down by 1-2mm on each side to suit the narrower clerestory body. Then I cut the clerestory coach ends away, choosing as my cut line the outer edge of the outer compartment windows. This created a set of neat square cuts that made it easy to fit the gangwayed ends into position. Once the glue had fully set I broke out the needle files to remove excess material off the gangway ends below the waist of the carriage to reintroduce the tumblehome.

With that done, attention turned to the windows. On the corridor side, the central three compartments lost their window mullions, creating three large picture windows instead. On both sides of the carriage, the door droplight frames were removed, creating three equally-sized windows to each compartment. The ventilators, door handles and excess beading was carefully filed away with a needle file; a very ticklish operation! On the outer compartments two of the three windows were blanked off; the remaining window will eventually become the WC window.

Work then moved up to the roof. I started by fitting a ;arge piece of scrap plastic into the roof; this not only strengthens and stiffens the component and the whole carriage (the particular plastic used by Hornby on the carriage is rather flimsy), but keeps the roof in one piece after the next operation- cutting away the clerestory.

Well, that's about the sum total of progress to date so I guess it would help if I add a few photos.

[kimballthurlow]

Hi James,
That is a nice job on creating a Parker coach.
I did the same thing on a Hornby/Triang clerestory, but did not get to use the Gresley ends - a master stroke.
I will await your final roof treatment, as I have yet to do mine.

Kimball

[Atlantic 3279]

Intriguing. Depending on overall width, if the roof defeats you I may have something that would help, if shortened.

[James Harrison]

Thank you, I'll keep that in mind. I do have an idea for the roof, just no idea whether it will work or not- all part of the fun!

[James Harrison]

I've finally broken out the camera and taken a few pictures.





So; to recap; this started life as a Hornby clerestory carriage...

I dismantled it, cut the ends off, fitted new gangwayed carriage ends (Gresley type from Hornby), cut the clerestory off the roof and made good the resulting hole with plastic sheet and model filler. I removed some small areas of the beading and down one side cut away the window mullions too. New beading was then fitted where necessary using pieces of 0.5 x 0.5mm plastic strip (I must order some more of this).

Now for the progress since!

I have painted it teak brown all over; an undercoat of a yellow/ orange colour then solid mid-brown all over. I haven't attempted any real scumbling effect this time, my thinking being that as these carriages would originally have been painted, when the livery change to teak came into effect the carriage shops would more likely have opted for a simple brown paint job rather than the effort and expense of stripping the carriage bodies back to bare wood. Of course, if somebody knows different then please do let me know.

Bogies and wheelsets were reinstated; the original Hornby fittings were used throughout. Underframe trussing and gas cylinders were also refitted; again the original Hornby bits. Not quite right, but then if I were building a millimetre-perfect model I wouldn't be starting from a mass-produced toy. It looks the part, anyway.

The roof had a couple of holes and gaps and a noticeable lip in it as a result of being lashed together from several pieces of plastic; I glued a paper covering over it to produce a nice level surface ready for painting and detailing.

My usual buckeye couplings have also been fitted. I still need to rebuild the ends of the underframes and add an interior.