Oz7mm's occasional meanderings - 5" Gauge Met Bo-Bo

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Aside from Love Lane, there is other stuff, not least my rather slow efforts to but build a layout (in S7) of New South Wales Railways in the late 1950s, early 1960s.

A long dormant project has been a 5" Gauge Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric loco. The castings and other parts came from Steam & Diesel Castings by Dan Jeavons, now retired. My friend and neighbour, Malcolm Ewen, of the Chelmsford Society of Model Engineers persuaded me to dust it off and we now get together on Thursday afternoons to work on it. He recently completed a Maxitrack Class 25 which arrived much more complete than the Bo-Bo (the chassis is virtually complete) but he wanted to make a decent job of the body - perhaps not S7 standards - and I helped with some etchings and laser cut glazing.

This week we hit a milestone on the Bo-Bo and have completed the first of the bogies with the exception of the shoe beams and pickups. The second is not too far off as well and it's a very pleasing point. It feels like we are coming on to the home straight. The bogie design follows the prototype quite closely with working leaf springs on the axleboxes and coil springs which act to dampen movement between bogies and superstructure.
Bogie 1.jpg Bogie 2.jpg
John (the other JB)
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Glorious, John. These were really characterful locos and I never tire of seeing them in model form.

Please keep us updated.

Brian
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
One thing that set us back a bit was that the motors were larger than allowed for in the original design. Packing it all between the frames became a game of finding a few thou here and there until it all fitted and didn't seize up. Keeps us on our toes I suppose.

John
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Batteries it shall be Dave. 2 car batteries which bring the overall weight up to about 70kg, which is considerably heavier than my wife.

Like Old Ravendale I have a particular affection for these locos, coming from the same part of outer London as he does. On my way home from school (Farringdon - Northwick Park), I was peering through the open side doors of one at Baker Street when the driver appeared and asked if I would like to see inside. After the tour he asked me where I was going. "Harrow-on-the Hill," I lied. "Close the door," said he. I don't think the noise in the tunnel to Finchley Road would get past today's H&S inspectors.

Later I got to know them better through doing the artwork for Ken de Groome's 7mm kit. The "research" involved a day on the heritage loco, Sarah Siddons, in preparation for a Steam on the Met day. The diagram was Ruislip Depot - Neasden Depot - Amersham - Harrow-on-the-Hill - Amersham - Harrow-on-the-Hill - Ruislip depot - they are very thorough with the testing. Seven people on the loco and one of them said to me "I can't believe I get paid for this". My thanks to Alan Neale of the Bristol 0 Gauge Group (and LU) for making that possible.

For the record, this one will be No.8, Sherlock Holmes in LT livery. Unlike most 5" gauge locos I will attempt a gentle degree of weathering.



John
 
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oldravendale

Western Thunderer
"Like" is simply too small a word. I'd watch them from Northwick Park itself, where the Met/GC crosses the LMS/LNWR. Date was when the "South Yorkshireman" still ran from Marylebone, usually behind a V2. Same loco in and out. If I'd only known then what I know now......:)

Brian
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Aside from Love Lane, there is other stuff, not least my rather slow efforts to but build a layout (in S7) of New South Wales Railways in the late 1950s, early 1960s.

A long dormant project has been a 5" Gauge Metropolitan Railway Bo-Bo electric loco. The castings and other parts came from Steam & Diesel Castings by Dan Jeavons, now retired. My friend and neighbour, Malcolm Ewen, of the Chelmsford Society of Model Engineers persuaded me to dust it off and we now get together on Thursday afternoons to work on it. He recently completed a Maxitrack Class 25 which arrived much more complete than the Bo-Bo (the chassis is virtually complete) but he wanted to make a decent job of the body - perhaps not S7 standards - and I helped with some etchings and laser cut glazing.

This week we hit a milestone on the Bo-Bo and have completed the first of the bogies with the exception of the shoe beams and pickups. The second is not too far off as well and it's a very pleasing point. It feels like we are coming on to the home straight. The bogie design follows the prototype quite closely with working leaf springs on the axleboxes and coil springs which act to dampen movement between bogies and superstructure.
View attachment 119164 View attachment 119166
John (the other JB)
Impressive :thumbs:
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
John,
Does this mean a 5" track build around your garden :D.......I know your good at Templot but !

Col.
Colin

A friend of mine has a 5" track in his garden about a mile away. Building another one might be a bit over the top though I guess one could be built in our field. We should get Susie to get her Ordnance Survey gear out and see if the levels would be OK. Malcolm's Britannia, Class 25 and Simplex could also visit.

Or perhaps not.

John
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Interesting - how is it operated? Is it radio control or was there some access to the switch gear at one end, or was it a plug in switch box arrangement?
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
The innards look a bit odd on that one Dave. Here is the state of play (and has been been for a decade) of the body on mine. Ken de Groome pretty well insisted that I cut and lower the roof panels to accommodate the ventilators which he profile milled for me.

Sorry about the poor quality pictures - it's late.

John

Body 1.jpg
 

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Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
While Covid-19 has put the kibosh on the regular Thursday afternoon sessions on the Bo-Bo, I have fallen for another distraction from the Australian odyssey. A friend, known to all and sundry round here as Barefoot Steve, lent me a collection of photographs bequeathed to his group, of railway subjects in our local area. Most were taken in the 1960s and the photographer has helpfully written quite a lot of information on the back of each print.

A lot were taken at Hertford East station. There are a lot of pictures of individual wagons, but of particular interest to me were the pictures taken of vehicles in the parcels bay. There is amazing variety, with vans from all the big four companies as well as BR vehicles. The one that stood out to me was this

SR Van right s.jpg

Originally built in 1936 for the Night Ferry train to Paris, it went into general stock in 1956 as S1 (one of three built), and was repainted in Southern Region green livery.

The Southern Railway developed the design into the BY van for which Slaters make a kit

Slaters BY.jpg

However the body panels of the Ferry Van look much more like the PLV van for which Slaters also make a kit, so I got a set of sides and ends from Slaters to do a cut and shut. The PLV is only 30' long while the BY and ferry van are 36' which is why I based it on the BY kit to get the correct underframe

Slaters PLV.jpg

The roof would have to be a scratchbuild. The result is that we end up with a complete BY body which could make a store somewhere on the new layout to succeed Love Lane.

Episode 2: The cut and shut

I made more cuts than was necessary on the first side. This is the second side before and after cutting

Untouched-1200.jpg
Cut side.jpg

To make decent joins I took a tip from Susie and milled the edges to get them square and clean. You really have to go in very small cuts. Because of the extra length and the fact that there is no plain planked panel as long a the one on the ferry van, the only way was to scribe some plastikard.

The guard's door is inset and I laser cut this in card to get a decent painting surface. To ensure that the side would be the exact length required I attached the ends to the floor and the re-assembled side parts to the floor and relevant end. Then I build the frame for the guard's door and finally milled the scribed plastikard until it was an exact fit. It didn't help that the floor moulding was slightly warped.

It all looks a bit rough and ready at this stage though I did prime the left hand end to see how visible the joins were - they weren't.

Side 1-1200.jpg

I hesitate to show the inside. Side 2 was neater. Still, it won't be visible.

Inside m.jpg

Next episode - the ends

John
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
John,

I hope you haven't done two sides exactly the same....? :oops:

The guard's doors are opposite each other (not diagonal) and there's a window in the guard's compartment on the other side. With the variances in panelling, plating and framing, modelling any of these SR vans can be a fraught experience. I like what you're doing here though - I already have the parts here ready to go, for when I've finished the time machine*.

You'll have a PM shortly...

Steph

*I'm not aiming for time travel, just a way to produce more of the stuff!
 

Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
Not quite Col.

Steph, Side 2 is indeed a mirror of side 1 BUT.... I did forget the window. I have one photograph of that side so a bit of reconstruction is now needed. I look forward to the PM.

One day I'll build something straight from the box - I'm sure it's much easier.

John
 
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