West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Morning Terry,

I was put off that method when I weathered a carriage I'd bought which had been done like that and the weathering mix got in between the glazing and the white plastic and looked really odd. It's a thirty second job just to slap a bit of matt white on the back.

How are you getting on with the new house?

[mick b]

Where the windows White or Opaque ? Or did they vary ? I tend to do mine Opaque, a spray with Matt varnish.

Southern Pride included a sheet of White sticky backed Plastic in their Thompson Side conversion kits.

[jwealleans]

Looking through the teak carriage photo thread, Mick, LNER lav windows do seem to be white, while the obscured glass in the RF and the GN saloon are more opaque. Of course those are preserved and they may have been replacement or recycled glass from who knows what source. Period photos are generally white in my recollection - we had a discussion about Barnum lav windows not too long ago and most of the LNER era photographs of them show white replacement of the frosted, crested originals.

[Dave]

I've looked at a number of LNER official photo's and all the LNER Gresley carriages seem to have white glass.
This has in the glazed opening vent a small clear oval.
Tompson toilets seem to be white, but the unvented corridor oval window is frosted.

[jwealleans]

Just a short session tonight - window transfers and handrails. The transfers are by John Peck - he does a standard set in the D10 range but also offers an LNER carriages only set. They're very fragile but look the part.



The corridor handrails which features on many LNER carriages are a highly characteristic and indispensable part of the build. Vehicles without them look bare. They're brass (except on catering vehicles, where they were chrome) and run at a level about half way up the door droplight. I use .7mm brass wire and PVA to attach them. The easiest way is to make up some spacers and use the ledge inside the carriage to set the height. This is all now drying off.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

House is going well, I'll put some pics up on my thread here.

manna

[65447]

I've looked at a number of LNER official photo's and all the LNER Gresley carriages seem to have white glass.
This has in the glazed opening vent a small clear oval.
Tompson toilets seem to be white, but the unvented corridor oval window is frosted.

Harris describes the post-war stock toilet windows as 'Opaline', which is the classification given to glass infused with additional chemicals or minerals to give it a colour, usually white. The resulting glass can vary from white to vaguely translucent, and this variation is evident in the uses in the coaching stock.

The toilet windows were definitely white, but the corridor window opposite the toilet could vary between white and almost clear, an example of the latter can be seen in this photograph of No. 1023:

[jwealleans]

I'm calling this one done bar tiny tweaks and running tests. The bar across the alarm gear needs painting (I'd forgotten to put it in) and I need some 5/8" 10BA bolts for the bogie to hang from. I'll look for those at Redcar this weekend. Footstep needs straightening on the compartment side as well.





I had to do a little bit of touching in of the cream paint - not sure whether the lining moved or I had my eyes closed when I did the first lot of cutting in. You can see the Precision Decals window labels. Door and commode handles are MJT. Corridor side handrail also needs a tiny tweak to straighten it up. The corridor connectors are fro a seller on Ebay. i used to make my own, but these are laser cut, so a better shape, more consistent and take about a twentieth of the time to make up and fit. I apply them with just a couple of spots of PVA so they can be replaced easily if damaged or I find a better solution.

[jwealleans]

While I've been building the carriage above, I've also been fiddling on with some other projects, some related and some not. Time to have a look at some of those.

I mentioned after the session on Graham's layout that the Hornby B17 was struggling with the (incomplete) Easterling set. I looked into adding weight and there isn't a lot of room. What there is is in the curve of the boiler either side of the motor. It is possible to stick a srtip of lead into the curve (I did this with a Bachmann K3, for example) but I was looking for as much weight as possible. In the end, I stuck some thin lead sheet at each side, but flat, so there was a void behind it. I sealed round the edges with the Araldite I used to attach it, then poured that tiny lead shot Eileen's used to sell in behind it, sealing that with runny superglue. It has done some good:



Unweighted B17 (this is Rendelsham Hall which runs on Grantham). The scale is flickering between 319 and 320g.



Not quite 30g added. It doesn't sound a lot but it did make a difference.



Rendelsham Hall would barely move the set, while Middlesbrough took it quite easily. However there are two more carriages to add, so the whitemetal B1 I have put aside might turn out to be a very sensible idea.



Testing threw up some unexpected problems - there was an intermittent short on the RF, which has been built getting on 10 years and ran round Thurston hundreds of times. That needs to be examined. What is satisfying in the photo above is that the difference in cream shades on the carriages isn't too dramatic. With a bit of weathering that will give the effect I wanted.

Another long running project for the Ely club layouts is a Hunt Special. We talked about this for years when we had Thurston (and did run one at it's very last show) but Hornby taking up GWR and LMS horseboxes (and Hattons selling them off very cheaply) along with Parkside's LNER kit, gave the project more impetus. I have 15 horseboxes and an SCV (for the hounds) gathered up, so it was time to think about the coaches. A couple of Kirk BTKs were available, but you'd need some First Class in the train. That led to the purchase of an MJT BCK on Ebay, ready built, and I've repainted that over the last month or so.

There is another problem, though - coupling. Coupling vestibuled carriages with 3/screw link couplings is a nightmare and generally to be avoided. However all the photographs I have of Hunt trains show vestibuled carriages in use - the better to allow access to lavs, I assume.


The solution came my way a few years ago. Through the good offices of my friend Ian Fleming, I bought a numebr of items from a collection acquired by 53A Models in Hull. Among them were a pair of vestibuled coaches but fitted with a homemade single link coupling which allowed them to be coupled to adjacent hook fitted vehicles. Here's a copy of one which I made:



The link is 9mm long and the end 2mm is bent up through 90 degrees. They will couple either with tweezers or a standard penlight coupling hook. Yesterday was the first time I'd tested them on a running train.



I found that, in the opposite to what I had thought, the cranked end needed to be at the carriage end or it derailed the following vehicle on curves, I think because it jammed under the downward projecting flanges on the vestibule cover. Turning it round allowed it to clear those.



The whole thing (about 2/3 of the final train) had a good jog round the layout and we settled on the best way round to have the couplings at both ends. Coupling was as easy as any other scale coupling device, so we'll be sticking with these.

For those who like their horseboxes, here's a clip of the train running past.

[Woodcock29]

Jonathan
Love your hunt train behind the D16/3. My horsebox train to the racecourse behind one of my stations is hauled by D16/3 8810, the engine that was recorded at 90mph. It only comprises 8 horseboxes and a full brake. I've got a few other horseboxes in passenger or parcels trains. I'm also planning a hunt train as I have about 11 brass horseboxes to build plus Dave Sutton's hound van.

I'm planning a visit to UK sometime next year. If my ideal time works out I'll be at York at Easter to see 'Grantham' but I'll have to wait and see how it works out.
Andrew

[jwealleans]

Morning Andrew,

Thanks very much. Be good to see you at York - I'm sure Graham will put you down for a shift or two if you let him know when you'll be there.

[Hatfield Shed]

...the Hornby B17 was struggling with the (incomplete) Easterling set. I looked into adding weight and there isn't a lot of room...

Both the B1 and B17 by Hornby suffer from this, and I have seen no report of how to get the mazak ballast out of the front end of the boiler to replace with a lead lump, so that they are no longer humbled by the B12/3. Should have some free time this week so I might just 'have a go'.

Lovely train formations!

[Hatfield Shed]

Have explored the B17, 260g loco only balanced between the leading and centre drivers as supplied. Could not release the chunk of mazak ballast at the forward end, appears to be glued in; but while attempting this the chimbley (N.B. correct term in the Stratford area) detached very cleanly, granting access to the smokebox void via an 8mm dia. aperture. There are voids for lead within the boiler sides as already explained above, also a couple discs of lead sheet can go inside the backhead moulding, and a piece of sheet on the cab floor and a 'wedge' under the cab floor extension.

I will go for the boiler side and rearward pieces first and assess; if that's there or thereabouts good to get the loco up to 350 g which is my standard for a class 5 rating it will probably balance in the centre of the coupled wheelbase which is an ideal to be aimed at. Any shortfall and a little lead can go in the smokebox as far to the rear as possible so the balance point doesn't move too far forward.

Hopefully the B1 construction will prove similarly amenable...

[Atlantic 3279]

Have heard "chimley" in these parts too, though from very few people, notably at Immingham, users including one person who also gets some "well known sayings" spectacularly wrong .

[Hatfield Shed]

I misremembered the Hornby B1 interior, no lump of mazak forward. Weighs 260g balanced just ahead of the centre driver. Whatever, it takes a useful 50 g of two shaped strips of lead in the boiler sides, and tomorrow, reckon I can add another 40 g with shaped pieces inside the backhead, on top of the motor. and on the cab floor.