7mm The Old Man's Workbench - tales of a rivet side

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
I am anticipating a rousing chorus of "about time too" and probably deserved to boot.

A model of a TTA wagon made from a NQLTRT kit, Heather obliged with a photo and the result is below.

TTA AGM.jpg

Thank you Heather for the portrait and thanks to Warren for the painting / lettering.
 
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Dog Star

Western Thunderer
... you need to make it dirty!
Are you sure :confused: ?

Were you in Millerhill Yard in 1987 when the wagon was photographed :) ?

Paul Bartlett's wagon website has a couple of dozen photos of Pickering-built TTAs in BP livery where the date and place of the photograph fits with our modelling interest of West Highland lines, 1987-1989 . Whilst some of those wagons are dirty there are a good number which are "clean" to varying degrees. The prototype for the model is reasonably clean in one of those photos... and definitely grubbier in a later image.
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Graham

Your wagon looks ex works, but even after just one day in traffic it would start to get some underframe dirt on it, take a close look at your photos, unless of course it really is fresh out of the paint shop.

It looks lovely though did you use the etch W irons ?

Richard
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Your wagon looks ex works, but even after just one day in traffic it would start to get some underframe dirt on it, take a close look at your photos, unless of course it really is fresh out of the paint shop.

It looks lovely though did you use the etch W irons ?
Richard, you are correct and the prototype photo does show both dirt to the running gear and to the top of the barrel. This model is the one which we started about five years back and so pre-dates your parts. There are another seven to do now that we know what to do!
 
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Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Richard (@Wagonman),

Sorry, no photos of the construction of the model so not able to pen anything about the build for the newsletter. Since there are quite a few more to do then there is a good chance that the photo-fairy can be persuaded to co-operate.
 

Wagonman

Western Thunderer
Richard (@Wagonman),

Sorry, no photos of the construction of the model so not able to pen anything about the build for the newsletter. Since there are quite a few more to do then there is a good chance that the photo-fairy can be persuaded to co-operate.


A detailed caption to go with the photo would be handy though... Also, do you have all the entries/results/etc? Please!


Richard
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Ever since we started building the JLTRT kits for the TTA wagons we have had continuing battles with parts made from whitemetal - the brake lever guard is a case in point. This part is "exposed" and fragile, failure rate is roughly 75% by the time that the model is ready for painting - seems to me that a brass casting is a more secure option. Talking with Chris Brown (@ChrisBr) we worked out a route that could produce the required castings albeit that route depended upon third parties.

Starting with what we had, an unused whitemetal casting, Chris prepared a CAD drawing. Comparison of the original part with a photo courtesy of Brian Daniels's (@Brian Daniels) showed that some changes to the drawing might be in order for the length of the guard and the arrangement of the stay between the lever guard and the axleguard. Further, Brian's photograph showed that the brake lever guard could benefit from being moved to the right to provide clearance between the stay and the axlebox (look at the placement of the guard relative to the rivet pattern on the solebar). This is the photo that was used for comparison purposes.

Brian Daniels TTA detail.jpg
Copyright Brian Daniels

Chris arranged for a trial print through Shapeways and I modified a part built underframe to (a) move the brake lever guard to the right and (b) introduce a hole in the axleguard for a spigot that had been included on the back face of the stay. Photos below show the JLTRT casting and our replacement 3D print.

An underframe with a JLTRT casting

074.JPG

An underframe with our 3D print

075.JPG
[the hole in the axleguard is from a previous use of the underframe and represents the fitting point for the original JLTRT casting, this hole shall be filled with solder at the same time that the brass guard is fitted]

Next step is to arrange for the production of castings. David White of Slater's Plastikard has the .STL file for use in producing a wax master, he assures me that the master is going to be used to produce a mould and that eventually I shall receive 20 castings (for Peter's kits and for Ian Roll).

I have been given an estimate of price, a firm price is awaited. Anyone else interested in this part? (Richard? (@richard carr))
 
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Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Scrufts' Jcn is going on tour.

Once upon a time in the west suggested Ian Roll (@Railwaymaniac). Go west young man said I to Peter. And so Scrufts' Jcn is heading off down the M4, turning south down the M5, leaving the fast lane at junction 20 and then taking an amble along leafy lanes to Tickenham village hall.

But not yet for the show has yet to open and that gives us time to complete the spring clean. I have been painting baseboards whilst Peter has been painting chairs. Back-scene boards have been added. Switch motors have been replaced. All of the electrics have been either replaced or renovated.

Scrufts' could have been entered in the recent S7 Group Challenge 33+3 or even the original Challenge 33... except the rules required the entry to be transported in a single family vehicle. This time the transport is care of Chris Brown (@ChrisBr), thank you Chris.

Finally, our stock situation is dire so motive power is care of Ian Roll with wagon stock care of Rob Thompson (@S7BcSR). Rumours abound that passengers may be conveyed on the inaugural running of Mk1s.

Tickenham village hall, October 6th, is the venue where much tea shall be drunk.
 
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Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
6th October is my 45th wedding anniversary and Mrs Daifly has determined that we shall be half a continent away on that day so may I put in a request now for copious photos and a report of the days fun at Tickenham please?
Photos of MY weekend will be available on request!
Thanks
Dave
Hi Dave,

congratulations, me and Mrs Ressaldar are ten ahead of you, but you are welcome to overtake on the inside if you wish:cool:

kind regards

Mike
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Scruft's Jcn. is in hibernation and so Peter (@Spike) and I are thinking about what to put on the Folding Table during escapes from the forthcoming Christmas Festivities. At the moment the favoured task is to build the bodies of some real shelf queens... some 7mm brass etch coaches which come in a flat brown box without worthwhile instructions - yes folks we are about to attack a brace of ducks, actually Mallards to be accurate. Whether we do a couple of 57' toplights or a couple of Dean 8'6" wide clerestories (hence not aka Slaters) is still to be decided although the popular (WT) vote might play a part in the decision.

So to the purpose of this post. We are both comfortable with soldering brass etches, Peter being quite happy to do MMP cats and dogs with his RSU, and we have built etch brass carriages before (only flat sided Scorpio Siphons). Our proposed Happy Holidays project involves turnunder and tumblehome. Further, reading much of Raymond Walley's website the recommendation is to build the sides in the flat and then to join to the ends. So if you are intending to build a 7mm coach with turnunder, what is your preferred method of forming the curve and why? Photos of your favoured technique shall be appreciated.

thank you, Graham
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi Graham,

The BB coach didn't have a bottomside angle or a tumblehome for the cantrail but I am pretty sure that I did fold it prior to using the method described on one of my builds I just can't recall which one. In reality there would be some level of folding of the angle induced by the tape as it starts the turnunder, it would just need to be completed once the turnunder was bent to your satisfaction.
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
The fear of forming the turnunder and the tumblehome are receeding under the influence of Rob's advice (@Rob Pulham).

Looking at the etches for the first carriage to appear on the folding table (change of intent here, a CPL Products for the GWR Toplight double slip) - there are no instructions at all.... so nothing about identifying parts or where parts go in the body. I can see a serious origami session with added Blu-tak on the horizon whilst I work out what is what and which goes where.

Anyone out there built a carriage from CPL etches and feel that there are words of wisdom to offer?

thanks, Graham
 
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Dog Star

Western Thunderer
In the four weeks which have passed since my last post I have had opportunities to discuss etch-coach building with Rob (@Rob Pulham) and Heather (@Heather Kay) plus an exchange of Qs and As with Raymond Walley (doyen of carriage builds here). So far so good and I feel comfortable with the initial stages of forming sides and ends together with detailing those parts. Thinking on things for the future and before I attach the sides to the ends with solder... might be a good thing to provide for glazing the body.

Peter has been adding glazing to Slater's GWR coaches by creating slots behind windows using a 10thou spacing layer - and a 10 or 15 thou backing layer - from styrene cut on his Cameo plotter. I am not sure this approach is going to work for etch coaches because of the perceived difficulty of sticking styrene to metal - certainly run-of-the-mill super glue is not going to be used because the "glue" layer peels away from the styrene.

What is the collective WT wisdom for glazing 7mm etch coaches?

thank you, Graham
 
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