West End Workbench

[Atlantic 3279]

I was only 1 out......

[jwealleans]

He's certainly had an encouraging effect on the trainee shunters, although they've discovered fly shunting now so some of the more expendable wagons may have to come out...

Brake van has acquired the rest of the handrails, brake gear and had a coat of primer. There are some holes to fill (Graeme did tell me what they were for and I've forgotten) and then a coat of paint.



I found a nice roof shot of one of these in Freight Traffjc on the LNER but I haven't found a shot of the other side; was there the extra handle/step on the chimney side as there was with the D?

Conflats and containers are also coming along; here the two ex-LNER ones have had brake gear and body fixing brackets added and have since had primer.



The Bachmann ones have had the tiebar added and is here next to the Parkside one. The AF containers have also been tidied up and painted. John Isherwood's transfer pack contains some useful notes on adapting these to different diagrams including one I wasn't aware of.



I've also started adding the chain loops to these. Geoff Kent made his from plastic, but I don't quite have his mastery of that medium so I twisted some very fine copper wire round a 1mm drill. They're a bit overscale but from normal viewing distance that won't be so apparent. Once they're tidied up and shaped I think they're worth doing. The somewhat understated Parkside ones illustrate how much of a difference they make.

[Blink Bonny]

wow. I say wow. wow

[IAK]

Lastly, in one of those 'everything's setting/drying/waiting for parts' moments, I started putting this together. I don't know whether anyone else took Graeme up on his offer of moulded Toad E bits, but I did and here's what I've made of it so far. I've got a bit of fettling to do round the ends but not much and it feels well on the way already for not much more than an hour's effort.

And which bits are these he asks concerned he has missed something???
If they are resin then that looks rather nice...

[jwealleans]

You certainly have missed something... start here.

[IAK]

Hmmmmm...
How did I miss this I ask myself.
Suppose I've missed the bus then

[jwealleans]

I'd put that one to Graeme, if you haven't already, Iain.

In the meanwhile I've been lettering Conflats and containers and getting on with some other jobs which have been stuck for a while awaiting orders from different suppliers.



The open has had the container roped in and little one has finished his 16 tonner. Both need a bit of powdering before they're fully ready for action, but they'll be running at Manchester.



The two Toad Ds have acquired occupants. They're both demoted station masters from the Monty's range; I get very bored of the 'unfeasibly tall guard leaning out of the back of the van' which you see everywhere (although I do have one as well). One of them is very tall indeed as well, but he did fit with a bit of persuasion.



The Toad E has had the windows added. I'm still not sure this was the best approach as they're structurally not very strong, but conversely when will they have to be once the roof is on? I should also have painted the back of the Evergreen strip I used for the glazing bars but again once the roof is on you'll have to look very hard to spot it.

[IAK]

Already have and sorted mon...
And I have plans for a veritable frankenstein - resin and brass ahem...
Well all those Bradwell spare bits need a home

[jwealleans]

Well I shall look forward to that. In the meantime my low boredom threshold has kicked in again; somehow container securing chains didn't appeal so I went off on my next tangent this week.



In the immortal words of Dame Edna Everage, "Can you tell what it is yet?"

More later if I'm a good boy and get all the hedges cut while it's nice out.

[Atlantic 3279]

Well you could put a long brake van body on it, and go one up on the heavy brakes that the GN built on recycled tender underfames .

Now I see the relevance of the recent PM about the wheels. Evidently a tank engine, going by the long overhang behind the ashpan and the presence of rear guard irons. Must be 18 or 19mm wheels going by the spoke count. All appears very cleanly assembled thus far.

How many guesses do we get?

[Atso]

Break pull rods on the outside of the hangers... I'm going stick my neck out and say a J52...

Any prizes for the right answer?

[jwealleans]

No prizes, I'm afraid... after all there's another one on this forum for you to use to identify it.

[Robpulham]

Hi Jonathan,

Nice to see a loco on your bench for a change. Did you finally get to use your Hobby Holidays Jig?

[jwealleans]

Sorry, Steve, I wasn't specific... no, not J52.

Rob - I did make only my second use of the HH jig and was slightly distressed to find that one of the dummy axles was bent. It doesn't seem to have done too much harm though and I built the rest of the chassis using just the two outer ones. I have been using it as a rolling road quite a bit so it hasn't been gathering as much dust as you might think.

I'm at the 'pushing it up and down' stage as well having fettled the coupling rods this evening and will take it to Ormesby tomorrow for cornering trials. The W & T wheels have a very tight back to back and I had to thin some of the bearings down to get it to run freely. I will have to shim them out to get the back to back correct.

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm beginning to suspect that there's another one of them in Cork, with or without castings, and we're well overdue a contribution from the builder I have in mind .