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

[James Harrison]

I would be open to such an attempt, but the cylinders are off a Bachmann O4 and are plastic. I need to have a little think on this one, whether it's a case of replacing the cylinders and slidebars, just the slidebars or something else.

[James Harrison]

It's been more than a little frustrating for the last three or four weeks in that I've been unable to do any worthwhile modelling thanks to the kitchen being unceremoniously dumped onto the table during house redecorating. However, last night I was finally able to get something done, and two hours' work saw 'King Edward VII' finished. Yes, it really did have to spend three weeks that close to completion with nothing happening.

[James Harrison]

My next project is going to be a rebuild of my D6 no.5858 as she would have appeared in the last months of the GCR, as there is a rather nice photograph in the GCR 4-4-0 Yeadons book of her at Trafford Park.

So far my surgery has taken the form of forming a new smokebox wrapper and moving the smokebox front forward, reprofiling the splashers and replacing the original dome and chimney with case brass ones that kimballthurlow of this parish very kindly offered me a few months ago. The castings really make a huge difference to the appearance of the model.

[kimballthurlow]

Hi James,
I just loved the Robinson inward tapered chimneys.
Did the D6 start out as a Southern or LSWR T9?

regards
Kimball

[James Harrison]

Heheh; she started out as a random collection of parts. The tender was from a Triang 2P; the locomotive chassis and motor likewise. The boiler and smokebox was originally part of a Hornby Jinty (!) and the lower half of the boiler came from the remnants of a Ratio Midland 4-4-0 kit. Then thre was a lot of plastic sheet and paper used.

So it's a real amalgam of bits. However, I must admit the idea of starting from a T9 never even crossed my mind so I'm now intrigued to see if it could be done (my gut feeling is that the T9 might be too large, but who knows?)

[James Harrison]

I had the house to myself for the afternoon, so I decided to have a serious go at soldering.

Soldering and I have a 'history'; usually I pick the iron up by the hot end and then.... well I'm sure you can guess the rest.

A few months ago I decided to try to finally tame the art, and bought a couple of Brassmasters Cleminson chassis. My solering equipment is nothing really spectacular; one of those bog-standard £10 soldering kits you can buy off the internet auction site with a 40W iron and a little tube of solder, but it seems to have worked perfectly well for what I wanted it to do.





It's not perfect, it needs finishing off and I managed to flood one of the bearings with solder, but amazingly it runs well enough when fitted with Hornby wheelsets and I think it is that fact that it hasn't ended up a candidate for my Shelf of Terrible Mistakes that has encouraged me to have a go at building the other two chassis, just so soon as I get those new bearings and more wheels.

[James Harrison]

So I guess it is time to annoucne the 2017 Build Programme.

This year I have been able to backdate a reasonable number of passenger and mixed traffic engines into GCR livery and I have also made a sizeable dent in my list of rolling stock projects.

For 2017 then, on the loco front I will first be finishing the projects that can be done without needing to order in more parts or materials. These will be 4-4-0 #858 (which is already in progress), a second Jersey Lily and a second Immingham. I will then put in another bulk order for GCR numberplates, concentrating this time on freight engines.

At some point in 2017 therefore at least a few from the following list will be looked at:

-LNER J10 (x2)
-LNER J11 (x2)
-LNER O4
-LNER Q4
-LNER L1/ L3
-LNER M1

For coaching stock, my plans for 2017 are to finish off a pair of suburban rakes; I have one Ratio suburban carriage left to build and three clerestories to draw up on the silhouette cutter. I fact, I have several of the Hornby clerestories sitting around so watch this space- some might become parcels vans or I might decide to do more clerestory stock or.... who knows? I also have a set of Ratio 4-wheel carriages that I am converting into MS&L 6-wheelers using the Brassmasters Cleminson chassis. One of these is already in progress and the other pair will follow suit in due course.

For freight stock, my priority is going to be to finish off some Cambrian pre-grouping PO kits. I built four of them last year and I have three more to do. Moving on to GCR freight stock, I have a Dapol Lowmac that will be converted into an LDECR type, a pair of DS kits GCR bolster wagons, and some Bachmann LNER covered vans that I believe it will be possible to convert to GC types. I also intend to build a new 6-wheel brake van.

Time and finances permitting, I am also considering buying some Brassmasters GCR wagons. I'm not considering the bogie fish van as I have a few of those already, but the horsebox and the parcels van are appealing.

[James Harrison]

Work progresses with repainting. It looks rather more like the real thing than my first attempt did.

[James Harrison]

That's more like it!

The lining has taken the best part of a week to finish even with my usual omitting of the thinnest of it. Well worth it though. Now to finish this one,it strikes me that I need to fit the reversing lever, the vertical cab handrails, the vacuum pipe, whistle, oh and I think the bufferbeams would benefit from a new coat of paint, and then there is some coal and a crew to sort out and....

[James Harrison]

And... she's finished!



Possibly, I think, the best of my hackbashes to date. Well, this or the 11B or the 9P. Anyway; she's a rather beautiful little thing.

And now work can continue on the first of those six-wheel carriages I started just after Christmas.







Now the first thing I have done has been to separate the body and the chassis, paint the chassis matt black and scumbled some mid-brown over the bodywork.

[73082gibbers]

Loving your Teak approach James!! The ratio coaches certainly look good in Teak compared to Choc and Cream in my eyes! Just ads that bit of extra charm to them I feel, especially with the creamish plastic colour used on them initially.

Nathan..

[James Harrison]

Thanks; I was considering whether or not to paint the six-wheelers in the pre-1908 livery of cream and brown. I decided on the post-1908 teak eventually, partly because that's the livery of everything else but mostly because if I start painting little bits and pieces in the earlier livery I will, like as not, end up backdating everything again! (I've already gone from modelling the 1930s to the mid-1920s to c.1920 and I wouldn't relish backdating a lot of stock again....)

[James Harrison]

And about a week later the carriage has come on in leaps and bounds.

I've fitted roof ventilators, built an interior, fitted couplings and reunited the chassis and body.

Next stage: solebars and everything below solebar level. Probably starting with the solebars themselves and axleboxes.

[manna]

G'day Gents

Hey, you gotta like some of the loco's your knocking out, I do

manna

[James Harrison]

Thank you!

Once the current stock of etched numberplates are exhausted (I've got two sets- one for an Immingham and the other for a Jersey Lily)- once those two locos are done and off the to-do list- I'll be backdating some of my freight and small tank locos. So there will be more Parker and Pollitt machines making appearances in the thread- maybe (just maybe, and quite some ways off)- even a Sacre engine or two...

When working on older ex-MS & L carriages, and also now that I'm looking at old Triang Caley stock to build some 1904 50' carriages (which I think, on balance and reflection, they lend themselves to better than 1890s 48' Parker stock), I'm fighting what I think is a losing battle against finishing them in pre-1908 cream and brown. It would be nice, of course, to do that, but.... I've already cast my period of modelling back twice (from c.1930 to c.1925 to now c.1920) and these things are a slippery slope. Finish one carriage in brown and cream and I'd no doubt find myself before too long announcing another general backdating to the c.1908-1910 period.

Maybe, once I've amassed enough stock for the 1920-22 period, maybe I'll start a second set for an Edwardian period.