Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Never thought I'd need Origami in Model Railways, how wrong was I..............

Very nice work on those bellows.

manna

[Dave]

Well done Graeme, gangways are a complete bugger to get right, I use somthing very simiar, described somewhere on my pages.

[Atlantic 3279]

As part of the job of adding glazing to the new Barnum models I had to choose a way to represent the internal bars on the windows of the brake portion. I ruled these onto the interior of the glazing using a bow pen and brown paint which I hoped would almost match the appearance of the painted etched overlays that were provided with earlier Jidenco kits. After a first application, the ruled-on brown bars were still rather translucent, so when the paint had dried I ruled over them again. The lines have probably turned out a bit wider than they ought to be, and a re still probably not dark / dense enough to match the bars in the older model, but I've decided that they will have to suffice. I've added paper "etched crested window" overlays behind the glazing for the toilet / WC windows too, exactly the ones I previously used. As well as that, I've started creating some wire "loop and hook" couplings, compatible with small tension locks, with the short reach that I wanted.
After much renewed study of photographs, as well as Nick Campling's drawings in his LNER coach drawings book, I've also formed the opinion that I am very comfortable with the relative positions in which I fitted the tank filler, the torpedo ventilator and the two safety rails on the roof above each set of toilets / WCs on my earlier models, even if I don't know the exact distance of each fitting from the roof end and the centre-line. As the printed features on the new models were arranged more-or-less mirror-imaged compared to my ideas, and represented the safety rails rather heavily, I decided in the end to cut them all off, file / fill / sand as necessary to get a smooth surface and then fit new items in positions plotted to match my previous Barnums. One MJT shallow torpedo, one stub of 2+mm dia plastic rod, and two Rexel Bambi No 25 staples in each case did the job.

[Atlantic 3279]

After conjouring up some suitably short couplings and heavily respraying the roofs white to hide the alterations, the Barnums should now be finished once I've reinstated corridor connectors, applied transfers, varnished and weathered to match the previous pair. I've switched from the the printed buffer heads that Alan Rose supplied to a set of turned steel heads with soldered-on elliptical etched overlays, the latter kindly donated by Jonathan Wealleans as the official supplier was out of stock. Maybe the printed ones would have been robust enough, but the metal ones are certainly thinner, which is an advantage for close-coupling. I did consider various ways to spring the buffers on the new pair, but the thickness of the headstocks meant that very little of each buffer tail protruded on the inside, where I had it in mind to link them up to a springy cross-wire, and where I would also have had to fit something to preserve orientation. In the end I decided to simply fit them static, but fully compressed, allowing the softly springy corridor connectors to act as centre buffers. That will actually work quite well if I marshall the set of four so that the new and old vehicles alternate, the old ones having fixed fully extended buffers. Testing has shown that with the couplings set to allow the buffer heads to separate by just over 3mm under tension on the straight, the carriages will go around an unrealistically tight 2 foot radius curve, and can be propelled gently through a 3 foot radius reverse curve without developing buffer-lock. That all depends on the corridor connectors being long enough and springy enough of course...

[Woodcock29]

They're looking very good Graeme. I only hope I can make mine look as good. At least I won't need to try and match any existing models of Barnums!

One question - I would have thought they'd have black ends by 1930s. Maybe you've modelled them for 1920s?

Andrew

[jwealleans]

Surely as vestibuled stock they'd have kept varnished ends even after 1928?

[billbedford]

It's always useful to look at photos to see what the originals really looked like.

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Bill. A lot of tonal variation between the matchbords there. Something to consider, certainly, although to emulate that I'd need to pick out individual boards on four otherwise complete carriages, and I'm not acutely aware of seeing tonal variations like those in the usual oblique views of weathered vehicles in service. While you're tuned in Bill please, perhaps you, or somebody else, can answer the question I included in a recent e-mail to you, regarding the function of this printed part I found in one of three GCR six-wheeled carriage kits that you sent me.

[Atlantic 3279]

By the way, I'm sure that study of Bill's matchboard Restaurant Car image reveals that either the carriage painters, or the photographic processors, obliterated class designations from the doors, 3 to the left, 1 to the right. Was there an official change to "unclassified" for some or all of these cars?

[mick b]

Re the Restaurant Car , the photo looks very clumsly mainipulated to me . Not unusual they liked to paint backgrounds White as well on some photos.
Yes to some variation but not to that extreme.
Even the Top window bars have the same extreme variation in shades, surely one piece of wood for that section not the multi sections as shown.

[Chas Levin]

The coaches look lovely Graeme. The curved handrails either side of the doors look particularly good

[Dave S]

Even the Top window bars have the same extreme variation in shades, surely one piece of wood for that section not the multi sections as shown.

The match boarding will vary depending on grain density. The top is affected by the depth (and shine) of the varnish and there are reflections of whatever is behind the photographer.

[Woodcock29]

Jonathan is of course right in regard to my question on the colour of the ends. For some reason I was thinking of non-gangwayed coaches.
Maybe because I'm often still half asleep when I catch up on what's happened in the UK overnight for us.
Andrew

[billbedford]

By the way, I'm sure that study of Bill's matchboard Restaurant Car image reveals that either the carriage painters or the photographic processors, obliterated class designations from the doors, 3 to the left, 1 to the right. Was there an official change to "unclassified" for some or all of these cars?

The sliding ventilators were put in during the early 30s after the coaches had been displaced from mainline duties. So they were intended for secondary services, excursions etc and yes they would have been unclassed.

[billbedford]

Even the Top window bars have the same extreme variation in shades, surely one piece of wood for that section not the multi sections as shown.

Do you think Doncaster had 60' lengths of teak available for second-class carriages in the early 30s?