James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

[S.A.C. Martin]

Excellent idea James. I have been looking at that myself for buildings and similar. Very nice effort all round.

[James Harrison]

Thank you; I have been tried out my overlay idea tonight and it seems to work. I say 'seems' because there's a slight warp or twist in the new sides (despite my leaving the full bottom half of the Hornby body in place as a brace). My idea of how to get around this is currently to build the internal bulkheads out of heavier plastic; maybe some 20 thou sheet laminated up to around 2 or 2.5mm. This would pull it back into line at roughly 1'' centres, and then I would hope that when I come to fit the glazing that this would also provide some lateral stability.

It struck me last night how this new tool is going to knock all of my older hand-built panelled efforts into fits!- I've obviously already started on rebuilding the clerestories but also the Parker stock on my list... the one carriage of that particular rake may well end up replaced before long too.

[James Harrison]

I managed to finish the computer-cut carriage.





Compared with my handbuilt efforts it represents not so much a vast improvement as a huge leap forward.



(New model on the left, old model on the right). I think the expense of buying the Silhouette Cutter is more than justified by that result; indeed I see quite plainly that I may now have added several more rakes of carriages to my project list.

[earlswood nob]

Evenin' all

The new sides look great.

Have you thought about building a box of clear plastic and fixing the sides to that?

It wouldn't be flush glazing but would be better than the glazing strip on the Triang/Hornby bodies.

MJT/Dart casting have a 10ft bogie in the pipeline which would be ideal for some of the GCR carriages in Dow vol3

Earlswood nob

[James Harrison]

I hadn't considered that, until you mentioned it. Actually, building the sides that way would reduce by about a quarter the amount of cutting necessary (which would in turn prolong the blade life).

The principle challenge I foresee would be to find an adhesive that would secure the beading to the glazing without 1) fogging the glazing material, 2) oozing out over the glazing and 3) whilst providing a secure bond. The beading is that much finer than the carriage side proper, so there's not all that much contact area to bond to. I think 'glue 'n' glaze' might fit the bill.

[cctransuk]

Spray adhesive?

http://solutions.3m.co.uk/wps/portal/3M ... Adhesives/

Regards,
John Isherwood.

[James Harrison]

That might be one to try as well. Thanks!

[James Harrison]

Whilst I've been having fun these last few weeks rebuilding some clerestory carriages using a silhouette cutter, I've also been addressing the fact that at the present I don't have a suitable suburban engine to haul them. A fair few express passenger types, but nothing really appropriate for slower stopping trains.

Now I have no shortage of the breed ready to go through the works; a Pollitt 2-4-2 and an atlantic tank amongst them, but my choice for a first backdated tank engine was an LNER A5/ GCR 9N 4-6-2. I think the main reason why I chose this one over the others was that it hadn't really responded well to my previous efforts at a repaint (which was into 1924 LNER black, the first time around).

The model itself is one I bought off of Ebay, a few years ago, and in my ownership has now been in three liveries; firstly LNER green (I don't think any A5s actually wore this colour at all....), then LNER black and now GCR green. It is a whitemetal kit, I don't know by whom, and weighs an absolute ton.

Alterations to the bodywork were minor, amounting to new cab side sheets in plastic card, removing the snifting valve, and fitting Kadee couplers fore and aft.

The repaint was performed by my usual method of grey undercoat in enamel paint, two coats of gloss brunswick green enamel, and a top coat of matt brunswick green acrylic. Lining was my usual odd mix of HMRS LNER lining for the tanks and bunker and homebrew boilerbands, with the added fun this time of homebrew bunker back lining and cab sheet lining- cut out from paper.

Well, enough of my waffling on; here are a few photos. I think that for a large lumbering beast it looks very graceful in its original livery.

[Mercator II]

A handsome looking model James, will look excellent on the head of the new carriages

[James Harrison]

Thank you! It's just a little aggravating that the camera is still playing fools and not focussing properly.

Next project is going to be a lavatory brake third clerestory (I've already fabricated the sides for this), and after that another run of PO wagons, and the the other two Graham Farish mainline carriages, then after all of that another locomotive. I'm generally trying for a more balanced output this year, as last year felt like I did precious little other than motive power.

[73082gibbers]

Thank you! It's just a little aggravating that the camera is still playing fools and not focussing properly.

Next project is going to be a lavatory brake third clerestory (I've already fabricated the sides for this), and after that another run of PO wagons, and the the other two Graham Farish mainline carriages, then after all of that another locomotive. I'm generally trying for a more balanced output this year, as last year felt like I did precious little other than motive power.

Lovely work recently matey! Looking forward to this BLT(?) Clerestory!!

[James Harrison]

Cheers! I've finished the second of the clerestories, it's trying to find chance to photo it at the moment... it has all gone very quiet, mainly because I'm working on a 1/700 HMS Dreadnought (and I had forgotten how long it takes to build one of those...)

Generally the plan remains to turn to some wagons next, and then back to coaching stock, and then back to locos, and then back to...

[earlswood nob]

Good morning al

When I first saw the above posting, I immediately thought of the L&Y 4-6-0.

Earlswood nob

[Manxman1831]

Good morning al

When I first saw the above posting, I immediately thought of the L&Y 4-6-0.

Earlswood nob

HMS Dreadnought wouldn't take nearly as long to complete as the Lanky variant, but it wouldn't be as chunky.

[James Harrison]

And I'm back! Building old battleships is fun but rather time-consuming...

First railway-related project then is going to be a Manning Wardle L-class contractor's engine built off of the running gear of a Bachmann Junior loco. I am hoping (very much building this as an ad-hoc 'as I go along' sort of project of the if it looks right it is right variety) that when finished it should look like the preserved 'Sir Berkeley'. Thus far I have bulkheads forming the smokebox and saddletank set up on the running plate; I think that the plan for this evening will be to finish the smokebox, build the basic form of the saddletank and 'maybe' start thinking about the firebox.