Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Knew I'd kept these files somewhere. One may even have appeared on here previously. Not sure which one prints best at the required size.

PIC00026.jpg (2.12 KiB) Viewed 4909 times

[Atlantic 3279]

What a difference the lighting makes to colour rendering in a digital (or any other) photographic image. First image taken in 5pm shaded daylight, second image a minute later after turning on the halogen lighting too, auto-exposure (and auto-everything else) in use in both cases of course. Actually, it's useful to see in digital images the apparent colours in two types of lighting, as well as just the judgement of the real thing by human eye. The colour on the new carriage body is clearly approaching the colour on the older completed carriage more closely after a second coat of my varnish & teak paint brew, and the change in lighting and/or means of observation doesn't reveal a drastic or bizarre discrepancy that wasn't apparent in other conditions. Once this coat is properly hard, I can experiment on one carriage end to see whether a slightly glossier clear varnish alone makes the new teak look that little bit darker and perfectly matched to the old, or whether I still ideally need to do a little more tinting of some sort.

[Quicksilver95]

Regarding the crests, I believed that they were removed under the LNER - is this false information?

[Atlantic 3279]

Sorry, I don't know. Does that information come from a reliable source?

If removal took place, was it planned widespread action at or around a particular date or was it just when required owing to damage or deterioration, and was replacement by plain obscured glass or were LNER crests substituted?

[jwealleans]

Looking through the Seabrook and other photographs I have, which are from the immediate postwar era to the 1950s, I have not found a single example of a carriage still carrying the GC engraved glass.

[mick b]

Banks simply says the LNER removed them , no date given, mentioned below a photo of a preserved version.

https://www.steve-banks.org/gcr/339-gcr ... -carriages

[Quicksilver95]

Sorry, I don't know. Does that information come from a reliable source?

Banks simply says the LNER removed them , no date given, mentioned below a photo of a preserved version.

https://www.steve-banks.org/gcr/339-gcr ... -carriages

I suspect that's where I remember reading it. As to the veracity or reliability, I'm happy for others to put me right either way. Would be interesting if anyone had any photo evidence either way of the 1930s period. Either way your Barnums are looking fantastic Graeme.

[Atlantic 3279]

It's an interesting point anyway, even if it is an unknown. Whilst it all depends on film emulsion, lighting, range and angle of view (all too often an oblique view behind a loco or further back in a train) plus the amount of grime on the carriages at the time, I'm now asking myself whether, in images that fail to confirm or refute the presence of '3's on the doors there is likely to be any form of proof either way regarding the window crests. A true side view of a freshly re-finished carriage in a 1930s official photograph might help to settle both points, but nothing yet suggests to me that such a thing exists.

[Chas Levin]

Knew I'd kept these files somewhere. One may even have appeared on here previously. Not sure which one prints best at the required size.
PIC00026.jpgPIC00027.jpg

Thank you Graeme, that's very kind of you; whatever the outcome of the discussions about their later removal, we're equipped for GC-era windows now

[Chas Levin]

What a difference the lighting makes to colour rendering in a digital (or any other) photographic image. First image taken in 5pm shaded daylight, second image a minute later after turning on the halogen lighting too, auto-exposure (and auto-everything else) in use in both cases of course. Actually, it's useful to see in digital images the apparent colours in two types of lighting, as well as just the judgement of the real thing by human eye. The colour on the new carriage body is clearly approaching the colour on the older completed carriage more closely after a second coat of my varnish & teak paint brew, and the change in lighting and/or means of observation doesn't reveal a drastic or bizarre discrepancy that wasn't apparent in other conditions. Once this coat is properly hard, I can experiment on one carriage end to see whether a slightly glossier clear varnish alone makes the new teak look that little bit darker and perfectly matched to the old, or whether I still ideally need to do a little more tinting of some sort.

Yes, this sort of lighting / shade difference can be quite disconcerting but as you say, very useful to observe possible differences in different lighting because in some cases you may show up a difference that was less visible in a first set of conditions. Clear varnish will also darken it further, but only by a tiny amount I'd think.

[Atlantic 3279]

After a third coat of my satin varnish / teak paint mixture I'm satisfied with the colour match of the new Barnums to the older ones. In the quest for maximum compatibility of appearance, especially given that the new ones have slightly lesser "top of side" height and slightly greater maximum roof height, I've deliberately added some material to the rainwater deflectors above the doors so that those match the style and depths of those on my older carriages. As a result of possibly knowing too much for my own good about the underframe arrangements of the real vehicles, I've also very delicately removed the brake gear and dynamo from one end of the frame and re-arranged things.

Also related to compatibility of appearance, I've investigated something that I expected to involve some complications, namely the substitution of the new style printed bogies for the much less detailed originals of the Jidenco vehicles. Measurements had told me that the frames of the printed bogies were significantly wider than measurement across the outside faces of the solebars, and I was worried that this wouldn't look at all right unless I narrowed the bogies or added the missing lip to the bottom of each solebar. What I actually saw when I tried an unpainted new bogie in place made me feel rather more optimistic, with very little of the bogie frame top face showing.

I suspected that by keeping the paint on the bogie top a true jet-black, without any grey/brown weathering, the slightly protrusion would go un-noticed, so I quickly painted one bogie to test the theory:

Near enough I think...

[nzpaul]

As long as you don't tell anyone, I'm pretty sure no one's going to notice..

Paul

[kimballthurlow]

Hello Graeme,
Thanks for showing these unique models.
Those ornate door handles show up well.
Along with the crested windows, they were a significant (if not iconic) feature of the real vehicles.
Kimball

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm still plodding on with those 3D printed Barnums. I am yet to complete the glazing and give the roofs final details / finish, but I have made progress with corridor connectors and "sort of progress" with the matter of couplings.

On my earlier Jidenco examples I had used Slaters Midland-pattern corridor connectors which didn't exactly match the GCR type but they are flexible as they incorporate a paper bellows arrangement and a working etched brass representation of the supporting pantograph arrangement on each side. I should emphasize at this stage that coach supplier Alan Rose had provided me with a full set of 3D printed corridor connectors as part of the deal, and those appear to represent the GCR type quite faithfully, but they are rigid and I prefer not to have large gaps between coaches to accommodate non-working connectors, nor do I want complicated couplings that are supposed to adjust the gaps to suit straight or curved track. I therefore tried to get some more of the Slaters items, only to find none in stock at any of the obvious retailers, no current price listed in the Slaters catalogue, and on contacting Slaters the information given to me was that none are available, none are in production, and no date has been planned for any further production.

Faced with that, I considered just using simple paper bellows with an end plate to aid the sliding action against adjacent connectors, but in the end, after considering one or two design ideas, I made up some that include a (very) basic representation of the metalwork on the sides too. Here are the parts and some stages in the assembly process. Paper bellows, plastic end plates, 0.45mm nickel silver wire, and tiny spots of runny super glue went into the assembly. The trick is to use enough glue to get a strong bond, quickly, but not so much that it soaks through the paper and glues the leaves of the bellows together. The bottom portion of each rectangular wire loop is left to pivot freely in a tube formed by gluing an extra slip of paper to one face of the bellows. The top of the loop is left to slide and pivot freely, trapped between the bellows and the end plate which are only glued together in other areas. The cutting, folding and the interlacing of the "fingers" of the paper bellows will be familiar to many, and easy enough to work out from the pictures for those who have never had a go.

After painting the wire black. One of the rigid 3D printed connectors also in shot (but not very clear I'm afraid) for comparison.

[Atlantic 3279]

As 3D printed sleeves for plug-in NEM type couplings are provided with the bogies for these coaches, I thought I should at least try the "simplest" option of plugging some miniature tension lock couplings into those. The first problem I found with this "simple" approach was that the internal size of each sleeve was significantly too small to accept the forked tail of a coupling. Only after patiently attacking each sleeve with two different files and a 1.7mm drill bit (mis-used) could I clip in a coupling without fear of damaging anything. The next problem I found was that whilst the coupling sleeves are very sensibly fixed to the bogie in an adjustable-reach slot, locked in final position by a small screw, I could not get the gaps between coaches down to anything like the figure I like unless I set the coupling sleeves to shortest reach AND installed the very shortest versions of the plug-in couplings. I'd actually like the coaches slightly more closely coupled, and I don't have enough of the very short couplings to complete the job even if I accept the current gaps, so I shall have to think about making my own couplings.
In this view, with the shortest couplings in use, the corridor connectors are just about touching but are not being compressed at all.