Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Sorry if I was the only reason you had to endure that!

But you didn't cause the smell, or the queue Steve. That parcel should by now have arrived, or at least a delivery should have been attempted.

[Atso]

Delivery has been attempted! Once again Royal Mail seem to have been foxed by the technical advancement of the doorbell...

I'll pick it up tomorrow, many thanks for putting up with the smell and the queue!

[Atlantic 3279]

Here's how I decided to bond the resin roof mouldings to the plastic sides of the coach. The first step was to solvent-bond a straight strip of 20 thou plastic about 8mm wide to the top edge of each side, keeping its own outer edge stepped-in slightly from the outer edge of the side in order to maintain the appearance of a nice shallow gutter once the roof is added. The 20 thou thickness becomes a part of the roof "proper" in the end, blended in, and restores height lost in sawing off the original master roof from its parent coach body.

These strips act as useful stiffeners for the side as the roof is fitted, their true straight edges being very handy, especially in the case of a side that has been disturbed and weakened by cutting and shutting. Once the solvent bond had become really firm, impact adhesive was used to stick the top face of each plastic strip to the flat, keyed underside of the roof. The body then feels nice and strong once again.

CK now with fan-lights to its doors, but still much else to alter and/or tidy-up:

I have at least perforated all of the clerstory lights on this one now. That job is easier once the roof mouding has had a few days for the resin forming the thin flash to become really crisp.

BFK or BTK still without added glazing bars but with door fan-lights now, as well as better sizes of Howlden style duckets, stepped-in van sides and roof bonded in place but not yet with perforated clerestory. Much to do to the underframe although wearing one new Fox bogie for evaluation. It may not show but I've also tried filing the buffer heads to change the ellipses to "race track ovals" as per GN coach buffer heads:

[jwealleans]

Now doesn't that look much better? I resent the 'bullying' slur, BTW - all I said was 'The chap who made mine cut them all out'. Smacks of LMF to me.

[Atlantic 3279]

Harrumph! More psychological warfare you see - he's having a go at my moral fibre now.

Hmmm........Where's my copy of the human rights act......?

[LNER4479]

Well whatever the rights and wrongs of the psychological warfare, the deception is that much completer with them fanlights 'sorted' Gets my vote every time (sir!)

[Atso]

Harrumph! More psychological warfare you see - he's having a go at my moral fibre now.

Hmmm........Where's my copy of the human rights act......?

Errrmmm, aren't you a mod now? Just kick the ill disciplined urchin off the forum and be done with it!!!

Right, anyone want to find me I'm hiding under the stairs - just done tell that Wealleans bloke where I am!

On another note, liking the fan lights!

By the way, some nice person sent me some T-shirts which I received with thanks today!

[Atlantic 3279]

Jolly good!

I've spent another fascinating hour and a bit this evening drilling and slotting fanlights into two more bodyshells, "finish-filing" will be done tomorrow in daylight when I'm not tired, maximising my chances of seeing properly and thinking properly!

I do have to admit that JW and others are right about the extra credibility this gives to the pre-group appearance of the converted coaches. Four of these wee beasties with individual variations will make a nice addition of "something different" to the layout. Too many these days are clone layouts, with standard Peco track and standard Hornby/Bachmann stock, even standard buildings and standard scenic treatments in a lot of cases, and whilst most of these factory products are now of a very high visual standard indeed, just presenting them in a different combination or geometry doesn't fully individualise a layout.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all
I am not knocking those modellers who collect ready made items. these days they can produce something good. However, I have always looked for something different.
These coaches are potentially filling a gap that exists for both pre-grouping and grouping modellers. To my knowledge, apart from a few etched kits, there are no pre-grouping carriages available for the LNER.
Hornby clerestories provide a route to GCR & NER clerestories, this thread adds another railway company's product.
So being selfish, the three companies that I'm interested in, are now covered.
I think it would be possible to produce some ex-GER stock from RTR items and we wait for someone to start NBR and GNOSR carriages.
The MGNJR fans can run Ratio coaches as I think it did use MR designs.
Compliments of the season to everyone
Earlswood nob

[Flying Fox 34F]

The M&GN ran all sorts of varied vehicles. According to the books, they only ran 6 wheelers on their own trains until the early thirties! In Mr Essery's book on locomotives there are several pictures of various LNWR and MR carriages lettered M&GN. Postwar they were painted brown and lettered LNER! Plenty for the modeller of South Lincolnshire and Norfolk railways to consider.
As for queues in the Post Office, i deliberately use village post offices to get away from some of the great unwashed!

[Atlantic 3279]

Although Jonathon has blown me into the weeds with his burst of coach building speed, I can at least produce some evidence to show that I haven't been sitting around either doing nothing or just typing controversial remarks about post-LNER rather than true-LNER modelling.

The potential GN coach rake still at the very least needs a forest of additional glazing bars, total revision of underframes to create turnbuckle trussing with posts in the right places, vacuum gear, and either gas cylinders or dynamos plus battery boxes, then a complete paint job, but here's what we have so far. For me, "proper LNER" models in as much as these depict the kind of coaches that that saw widespread use on the LNER while it actually existed, as opposed to being models of things that didn't appear until the LNER had ceased to exist.

With refurbishment of the six wheeler, this existing pair of luggage brakes would be quite at home behind the loco at the head of the train. Just the job behind an Ivatt Atlantic:

Followed by these (both sides of each vehicle shown for completeness):

[Flying Fox 34F]

Graeme,
Nice work! Will you bring them to Nottingham in March
Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

If you'd be kind enough to give me a reminder then the answer to that can be a definite yes. These are not otherwise the most obvious vehicles to bring along when helping to exhibit an early 60s Leeds Central all DCC layout on which none of my 30s locos can run, even as mad-hour interlopers, although 4479 could always borrow them for "mini Grantham" I suppose.

I fairly swiftly removed all of the original underfame detail last night, changing methods to "side cutters and sharp coarse file" part way through after a painful "finger and razor saw" incident which any fool, including me, could see coming a mile off (so why didn't I avoid it you may wonder?) ....
After an initially fruitless search for a "known" packet of split-pins to use as basic truss posts I then had an equally fruitless attempt at simply using stubs of 0.9mm wire and soldering the truss rod onto these in situ. Abandoning that as a bad job, I searched again for the split pins, found them this time, then found that they wouldn't do for the job as they were so hard that they broke when I tried to nip the eye of pin down tightly onto my truss wire! My trial by ordeal ended when I had the sense to make up the trusses by soldering the pieces of wire together whilst taped onto an accurate diagram on the bench. It was then easy enough to push the tops of the posts up into pre drilled holes in the coach floor and simply melt the straight ends of the truss rods into the plastic with a press of the soldering iron. That was a far quicker and more succesful method than any attempt to bend the ends of the rods upwards and match these to further holes in the floor. The melt-in method allows the visible parts of rod to stay straight. Any error in positions of bends or pre-drilled holes can put all sorts of bending stress on the rod.

[drmditch]

After an initially fruitless search for a "known" packet of split-pins to use as basic truss posts I then had an equally fruitless attempt at simply using stubs of 0.9mm wire and soldering the truss rod onto these in situ. Abandoning that as a bad job, I searched again for the split pins, found them this time, then found that they wouldn't do for the job as they were so hard that they broke when I tried to nip the eye of pin down tightly onto my truss wire! My trial by ordeal ended when I had the sense to make up the trusses by soldering the pieces of wire together whilst taped onto an accurate diagram on the bench. It was then easy enough to push the tops of the posts up into pre drilled holes in the coach floor and simply melt the straight ends of the truss rods into the plastic with a press of the soldering iron. That was a far quicker and more succesful method than any attempt to bend the ends of the rods upwards and match these to further holes in the floor. The melt-in method allows the visible parts of rod to stay straight. Any error in positions of bends or pre-drilled holes can put all sorts of bending stress on the rod.

Don't know if this helps, but I made my most recent representation of a trussed underframe by:-

-Making a brass plate drilled to take .9mm od brass tube for part of the queenposts
-Offer up the brass plate to the inside the coach floor.
-Drilling through the plastic base, and then removing the plate.
-Soldering in lengths of .9mm od tube to represent the thicker part of the post
-Re-inserting the plate plus partial posts into the plastic structure, and securing it with a bolt
-Extending the posts with .7mm brass rod.
-Cutting 2mm lengths of the .9mm tube, notched and drilled as junction pieces to take the truss rods. (in my case this represents the NER threaded fastening) This is harder to describe than to do!
-Preparing the truss rods each with two junction pieces
-Slipping the rods plus junction pieces into place and securing with quick visit from a hot iron.
-Shaping and securing the ends of the truss rods to fit behind the solebars.

There is a picture on page 8 of my thread, which looks uglier than it is!
This was easier for me than your method, because I'm not very good with a soldering iron - yet.
As practice I'm scratch building an ex-NER lowmac in brass - and it's teaching me a lot of lessons.

[LNER4479]

If you'd be kind enough to give me a reminder then the answer to that can be a definite yes. These are not otherwise the most obvious vehicles to bring along when helping to exhibit an early 60s Leeds Central all DCC layout on which none of my 30s locos can run, even as mad-hour interlopers, although 4479 could always borrow them for "mini Grantham" I suppose.

'Mini Grantham' will gladly host such a distinctive set of vehicles

'Ey up - I've graduated to being an N2