West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

I shall if you wish to see them again - and another little surprise our Colonial friend left me.

[Scottiedog@5]

No smut on Sunday, please

[moore43grm]

I used the same reference for my take of the tank wagon, used an old Airfix Shell tanker and Modelmaster transfers just before the PowSide transfers came out

[jwealleans]

Today was the first running day of the year on Dave Scott's Ingleby. As requested above, I took along one of my newer wagons.



Do say if this becomes tedious? Not because I'll stop, unless my sense of humour has evolved beyond sniggering 12 year old, just so I know.

It came along with a companion...



This is what Jesse inadvertently left me. It's a GW 27' 6 wheel timber truck. In telegraphic terms, it's a BEAVER.

I'll let you make your own punchlines.

Wickham Market is at the Ely Show in May for its first outing since 2019. Most of the stock has been in storage for the same length of time, so Dave kindly allowed me to test run some of it today. First up, the horsebox part of the Hunt Special, now at 15 HB + 1 SCV. They're a mixture of Hornby, Parkside and D & S.







For those who know him, yes, that is David Geen in the background of picture two. Pleasure to see him after some while and in better health than in recent times.

I also took along some of the passenger stock. All of thes have been seen before, but some of it is way back in the depths of the thread.



Hornby SR gangwayed van.



51' third from the MJT kit. It looks as though some of the foam padding in the tray has found its way onto the carriage end.



D 265 Lavatory Third, a card kit kindly given to me by an RMWeb member.



D 244 CL. This is from Bill Bedford sides on MJT components.

Mr. Job (Dave) also brought along his Stores Vans.









Finally, if you can stand the excitement, I also brought an assortment of parcels stock which we ran as two trains and recorded on video. You'll also get to see some of Dave (Jobling's) lovely wagons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga-sbCltpaQ

[Chas Levin]

What a feast for the eyes - thank you for posting all these, Jonathan! I particularly liked the D244 CL and Dave's Stores vans.

I can't make up my mind what to say about Dick and Beaver, except to say that they sound like a comedy duo from the Kennt Everett TV Show...!

[Dave]

Thank you Jonathan for your kind comments on my wagons.
We had a good time playing and having a good chat, it was nice to see David Geen again.

[jwealleans]

Just a word to let anyone planning on attending that Mr King and I will be manning the LNER Society stand at York Show on Monday, ably assisted by Mr Jobling. Dave will also be there on Sunday.

Also, moore43grm, my apologies for not seeing your post. If I'd known Modelmaster had done the transfers, I'd have had one years ago. I'm not sure whether I can bring myself to weather mine, though.

[moore43grm]

Not a complete transfer like POW Sides but cut from individual letters off a Modelmaster sheet. The side not photographed is not as straight !
As for weathering, it's a personal choice and I am still learning.

[jwealleans]

To be honest that's probably less faff than a Powsides transfer. I am learning to live with them, but I still loathe them.

In between being very busy with other things, I have painted and lettered the Tube wagon. Someone asked for a comparison to other similar types, so here it is:



Jim's monster dominating the centre, with a 51L NB Pipe wagon to left, NuCast Longfit to right and a Chivers LMS Tube behind. It's a beast. I am going to have to think of a decent load for it.



In among this and other odd jobs, a 51L G2 van which came to me because Dave was having a clearout. it was incomplete, but Andrew does all the bits so easy enough to finish off. This is the matchboard sided one which is now in the David Geen range. I had one already which is fitted, so this is unfitted. There was a discussion about roof doors on RMWeb, so this is how this one is done. Canvas doors usually only had a frame over half the roof and just concertinaed up inside it when opened. That said, I have seen at least one picture of one of these with the runners extending right over the width of the roof. The whole thing is done with Evergreen strip, 40 x 30 thou for the frame and 20 x 30 for the laths. The canvas is Rizla paper painted black.

[jwealleans]

Quick job to keep myself occupied last night. I was having a tidy up and found a Bachmann Lowfit I'd picked up from somewhere. I have a completed whitemetal car looking for a home, so i thought that would be the ideal thing. The bodies on these wagons are a very good representation, but the underframe is a fiction, being something in the range they just decided to use. I robbed the underframe from a Parkside van kit (PC61) and then added details as usual. I think I've shown this conversion before and it's quite well known, but there are always new people reading a thread.





Body securing brackets from 20 x 60 thou Evergreen, buffers from Lanarkshire Models, vac pipes from MJT, the rest just .45 wire and bits of plastic from offcuts. What you may just be able to see is that while the body was in the flat, I shaved off the cosmetic lashing rings in the corners and drilled a hole so I can make wire replacements to tie down the load to. You can also just make out the lamp iron these had on the buffer beam.

I've built up the van body and will make an underframe for it. Have I missed something obvious or does no-one do a 9' fitted LNER underframe? I think all the previous vans I've ended up with after doing this Lowfit conversion have ended up being unfitted.

Another job to bring to completion - SEF K3. During lockdown there was a sudden influx of these onto Ebay and having decided I fancied one I forgot about it and bought another. After some shuffling of tenders and cabs between that and the cheap Bachmann one I had from Hattons, I had 227 (the Hulburd gear fitted one), 1125 which made its appearance at Harrogate, and what was left. Looking at the loco and tender which remained I found a suitable candidate from photographs and so we now have No. 120. This almost made the cut for Harrogate but there just wasn't quite time. I've fitted the last of the tender pickups and given it a test run today and it was fine, so it's on to detailing, weathering and crew. I need a smokebox dart (should have bought some at York) and not much else, really. The rear body fixing is missing, that's why it's sitting cab high.



You can see the car intended for the Lowfit in the background and also the PD van body to the right.

[mick b]

Wizard do the Mainly Trains underframe etch for 9 and 10 ft wheelbases.

[jwealleans]

I'll be using that for the brake gear, Mick - I was thinking more of the complete underframe kits which Parkside and more lately Cambrian have started doing.

[kimballthurlow]

Thank you Jonathon for the description and pictures of the Lowfit build.
I have almost completed a Parkside PC61 and was unsure how the brake gear went in place.
The Parkside kits are very useful and not too expensive for parts and as a basis for conversion.

Kimball

[Woodcock29]

Jonathan
The only one I'm aware of is the old 3H 9' chassis that was available separately many years ago. I managed to get one from a deceased estate just before Covid arrived. I was going to say a couple of years ago but I realise it's 3.5 years since I got the chassis! It's going under an LNER refrigerator van that's been printed here in Oz. The prints have the steel underframe that most were built with but I fancied one of the first batch which had timber underframes.
Andrew.

[mick b]

I'll be using that for the brake gear, Mick - I was thinking more of the complete underframe kits which Parkside and more lately Cambrian have started doing.

Jonathan
What is the difference between the "new" plastic underframes, and the Mainly Trains etch with cast Vacumn Cylinders? .

I rarely buy plastic kits nowdays, and I didnt know they had been revised.