4mm An EM Workbench: Mini-Signwriting (rough)

[AJC]

You’re quite right on both points, Fraser, and as soon as the boy is properly in bed (as opposed to sleeping on my shoulder) I’m going to attend to them. The angle at the operator’s end I’m especially annoyed about because I’ve made the parts and completely forgot about fitting them.

Adam

PS - the nature of the mouldings are such that you really can't fill the pressed ribs properly until you've painted the thing/paint it properly with the filled ribs correctly done. It is done now, but the Miliput must set before I can do any more.

 

[AJC]

Insanity, it’s often said, is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. It’s usually attributed to Einstein, but doing the same thing multiple times with simple tools and expecting a truly consistent result is almost as silly. I’m not sure the great physicist was daft enough to attempt to batch build four Palbricks in 4mm scale. Even Geoff Kent stopped at three and he’s better at this than I am. Dragged back from the depths (I think they're in here somewhere a house move or two ago) is my own dabble with madness, a Palbrick A and three Palbrick Bs.



I've now done what I should probably have done in the first place and built the loads which are structural. The ends of at least a couple and suffered from a spot of warping in storage but the chassis are all true. The difficult bits are still to come, the lift out side panels and the clamps but these can be built off the pallet loads, I think. It may not be for a while, however...



The fun thing about Palbrick Bs is that some were Morton-fitted and some had 8 shoe BR brakes so I've modelled one of the latter and two of the former. I need to straighten that tiebar, too.

Adam

 

[matto21]

Really nice! I was tempted to scratchbuild a Palbrick a while ago, but thankfully got distracted by a load of other random projects!

 

[AJC]

Really nice! I was tempted to scratchbuild a Palbrick a while ago, but thankfully got distracted by a load of other random projects!

There’s an etched kit now - I’d reckon that learning to solder is a better option!

Adam

 

[AJC]

In a break from tracklaying, here's a long term shelf queen which - and this makes me feel a bit better - was someone else's shelf queen first. Ultimately this loco must date to perhaps the early '90s when Bob Alderman was still working in EM. His intention was to put a new chassis under a Mainline standard 4 and to reuse the valvegear. The frames are Comet, I think, and I have two left hand ones so Bob's first loco must have had two right hand frames. So I was gifted the bits - Sharman drivers, Ultrascale pony wheels, and a rather battered Mainline body and tender. And I did a fair bit to it, but then Bachmann and Hornby produced modern versions! So back in the box it went, as the PhD and work took priority (and besides, it was a bit big for anything I had space for). But since Bob died last year and I now have the makings of a layout that might occasionally need such a thing and Yeovil Town shed had a few, 75003 has popped up again.

The tender has been done for absolutely ages and is basically the Mainline effort detailed:



The photo is a bit naff, and ages old, but since it looks the same, let's move on. The frames look a bit battered and hacked about, but remember, they're meant for the Mainline body and... I'm using a Bachmann spare which is a rather different, and much better detailed, beast. That said, I'm going to revisit the plastic pipework and 75003 had some eccentric lamp irons on the front (SR position on the smokebox, but GWR pattern which meant discs had to be hung off them: 75xxx Class 4 4-6-0 | 75003 1964c Verwood near Wimborne) so these need to be added.





You might be wondering about all the cut outs? Well, like Bob, I'm planning on using RTR motion and cylinders, this time the excellent set produced for the Hornby version of the Standard 4 4-6-0 available as spares. They're much less faff than any of the Comet or Gibson versions and look a lot better than the Mainline set. Simple beam compensation here and a bogie pivot running in a slot with a spring offering side control. So, yes, this loco contains elements of all three RTR versions of the type which amuses me, at least.



The bogie is Comet with modifications (new spacer, 3 point compensation, not that there's much point in that!). So next is sorting out a way of restraining the motor and making it go. Perhaps the Frankenfour will get finished this year?

Adam

 

[Mike Garwood]

Looks Great Adam...but why the choice of bauxite primer? I agree about the look of the valve gear, I haven't been brave enough to see if it would work in P4. I can't see any reason why it shouldn't - can you? This is another type of engine that's in a waiting room.
Look forward to more.

Stay safe

Mike

 

[AJC]

After an awful lot of nothing much some more wagons. The first is really a bit of set-dressing for the layout, an old wooden-bodied mineral with an open door to be parked up in the vestigial goods yard or for coaling one of the industrial locos. More or less straight Parkside, this:



Note that the brake is on, but not fully on, something that seems quite normal. The second is more like hard work, a Parkside Pipe. The body is a very nice moulding indeed, but the chassis less so, being generic (and thus having the wrong axleguards) and also lacking the various ancillary details, like brackets, door springs, door controllers, etc. This is roughly the halfway stage:



As @Overseer has spotted the curb rail should be inset slightly, though unlike his 7mm example, the 4mm version seems to be the correct height (more here: 7mm - Pipe dreams). There are many, many more details yet to add, which may explain why I've only built one of these before: they take a lot of effort. These include lots of tie-down/rope cleats (there were three different patterns, often mixed on each wagon), lamp irons, door chains, door controllers and probably one or two other things I can't remember at this precise moment. The one thing that is complete is the brake rigging. This Pipe was one of the early batches that had Morton clutches and push rod brakes. Most had lifting links, others LNER-style 8-shoe brakes and the last built had LMS-style 8-shoe brakegear which seems like a lot of variation for a type which numbered just shy of 2,000 wagons. All these variants can be seen in Paul Bartlett's galleries, as ever: BR 12ton Pipe Wagons SOV ZDV ZDW ZGV ZRV ZSP

Adam

 

[AJC]

In between other things I've treated the mineral to some paint. They'll be lettering, too, at some point, followed by full weathering, but in the meantime, note the shades of 'black'.





Adam

 

[AJC]

This is verging on the whimsical, but why not? I happened upon the fact that Powsides did some suitable transfers for a Croydon coal merchant that happens to share my surname (no relation) and so the die was cast. Now the transfers are actually for a GRC&W five plank - I suspect on hire - s0 this is profoundly unlikely, but it's my model and it'll be well-faded and -weathered in time like the earlier 'Staveley' wagon I did. The instant 'lift' adding letters gives makes a significant difference and it's much more exciting than the other (dull) ongoing modelling project which is making track panels for a Salmon.





Now, as penance, some plain wagons to make up for all this exotica.

Adam

PS - the merchant was actually 'Chapman and Sons' but well, there's only the one in this family.

 

[AJC]

And here we are, the somewhat worn (I know how it feels) mineral formerly owned by Chapman & Son complete and ready for lack of service:





I should probably add a bit of coal in the bottom...

Adam

 

[AJC]

Having seen @Overseer's gentle nudge in the form of his very nice 7mm model - 7mm - Pipe dreams - I thought I should press on and complete my slightly different example of the same breed. I remember why, though they're a class of wagon I like, I've only built one before as they soak up hours of modelling time on tiny details which add up to the whole.



This particular batch had a lot of rope cleats and some notches cut in the bottom plank to accommodate them along with SR-type disc cleats on the planks themselves. These are all from Rumney Models etches and were well worth the effort but we'll have to see how it looks under paint.

Adam

 

[AJC]

I've spent the last few days catching up on some weathering work - prompted by the sun coming out - and I'll post the results over the next few days, but here's the first, a pair of aging hoppers right at the ends of their lives which we've seen before. First, the trend-setting SECR ballast hopper converted from a Hornby Trout. Here's where we started:



And here's the result - not all down to Hornby, of course, but I wouldn't have done this without them.







Parked up next to it is something that was more of a battle, GWR P7, painted and lettered to emulate one photographed at Evercreech Junction in 1959.





Adam

NB - these images appear more orange than the wagons do in reality. Annoying, they make the effects less subtle than they actually are - the perils of having no proper photographic set up.

 

[AJC]

Thanks to dad the SR 8-plank has its brakes, but has had to be put to one side, along with everything else while we attend to damp in the living room. That said, I found this on that auction site it's probably best not to mention. Perfectly standard Slater's rectangular oil tank built for EM, I think, but with the wheels put to 00 for a sale (fair enough) because the brake shoes are spaced for the wider gauge. I paid what can only be said to be over the odds for it because of the superb hand lettering, replicating one of William Butler's fairly substantial, Bristol-based, fleet. Just the thing for Roads Reconstruction's siding at Podimore or for Ilchester gas works.





Below the solebar things aren't so good. It can never have run that well because one axle is substantially off square and obviously the brakegear has taken a bash or three over the decades. I'm not at all keen on the Smith's coupling hook, either, but this is all easy to sort out. A bigger problem - which I am choosing to simply ignore - is that all the various renditions of Wm. Butler's rectangular tanks (lots of RTR versions about) are based on Chas Roberts official views during and after rebuilding with lots of extra insulation, per this one in the HMRS collection: Insulation of rectangular tank wagon. Chas Roberts wagon built for Wm Butler, Tar Distillers, Bristol. Order#:1619, 1648.

Getting that right would miss the point of the purchase, that lovely lettering job, so I'll be conserving that as best I can and fiddling over the details. I can build a 'proper' one or two later as POWSIDES do the transfers (and I have a set).

Adam

 

[Gerry Beale]

The Butler rectangular tank wagon is lovely - why do I never see anything like that on 'that' auction site?

You may be interested in one of my recent wagons which is also from the Slaters kit. I found a Ted West photo of this wagon taken at Yeovil Gas Works in 1948 and Dragon Models did the dry print lettering for me a few years ago - I have only recently got around to putting it together. The cover for the replacement tank manhole was salvaged from a damaged Bachmann tank wagon and I replaced the buffers with sprung buffers from Lanarkshire Models. I replaced the running gear with MJT W-irons and Wizard axle boxes and springs as mine also had running issues as first built. The tar deposits are done according to Martyn Welch's Weathering book and look satisfyingly 'sticky'.

Gerry

 

[AJC]

A bit dramatic, but the first steps toward a more robust, finescale model. Because the ownership plates were too thick and on the huh (as they say in Norfolk) they had to go and they took the vees with them. I’ve reinstated them with Masokits etches and will add new levers and brakes when time allows. New buffers and hooks fitted; new manhole and axlebox covers, the flat front types, like those on Gerry’s model because I don’t want to wreck the rather brittle W irons, next.



Still quite charming I think.

Adam

 

[AJC]

The Butler tank is coming on. As you can see, new brake gear from a hotchpotch of sources (I've run out of lever guides), a new manhole, buffers, axlebox covers and straps.






As noted above, it's not an accurate model of the tank as the Chas Roberts officials used to determine the livery depict. It is, however, probably an accurate model of the Butler tanks as built by Chas Roberts when they were new without all the extra lagging. This gives the modeller a bit of a conundrum and here you can see what I've done, which is to make detail modifications to make an accurate model of a Chas Roberts tank with accurate lettering which may not have appeared in the period of my model, but which preserves the good bits of Slater's kit and the excellent work of the original builder. Whatever, I'll add the Commutated Charge symbol and star in yellow and let it be. It will be the first tank wagon model I have completed in decades! To satisfy my inner pedant, I'll make a lagged example in due course, but that will be a scratchbuild, with POWSides transfers. And then, well, there's the question of the fleet Roads Reconstruction owned...

Adam

 

[AJC]

Ready for repainting: I've found a couple of (non-matching) lever guides, added a clamp to the manhole lid, rivets applied and, in an experiment, a representation of the cast ownership plate on the solebar with a bit of wire for the frame and 5 thou' for the lettering. I think that's fairly effective



Not too shabby, I think?



Adam

 

[AJC]

The Butler rectangular tank wagon is lovely - why do I never see anything like that on 'that' auction site?

You may be interested in one of my recent wagons which is also from the Slaters kit. I found a Ted West photo of this wagon taken at Yeovil Gas Works in 1948 and Dragon Models did the dry print lettering for me a few years ago - I have only recently got around to putting it together. The cover for the replacement tank manhole was salvaged from a damaged Bachmann tank wagon and I replaced the buffers with sprung buffers from Lanarkshire Models. I replaced the running gear with MJT W-irons and Wizard axle boxes and springs as mine also had running issues as first built. The tar deposits are done according to Martyn Welch's Weathering book and look satisfyingly 'sticky'.

Gerry

View attachment 146021

As it happens, I was back in Somerset for a few days the other week and dad had borrowed a collection of HMRS journals from Yeovil MRG which yielded (among other things) a piece on the wagon fleet of Roads Reconstruction by Mike King. This included what must be the image you mentioned, but also this, of T. 4 in the fleet, also at Yeovil gas works. It's a funny looking thing, and much older than T 11 - the image is included here for reference (happy to remove it if there are any objections, Ted West's copyright reserved here):



Could I resist making a model? No. I happen to have a Slater's chassis for something in the drawer, of early RCH spec' and that's fairly close, but, at 15' 6" over headstocks still a bit long, going on the relationship between the W irons and headstocks so I trimmed it bac to 15' which seems more or less bob on, in proportional terms. So far I've built the tank from 60 thou' and made a start on the end bracing and tie rods along the top an we're already on the detailing. I'll worry about the lettering later...



A characterful little thing, isn't it?

Adam

 

[AJC]

The fleet develops and grows. Having bought transfers for one of Butler's tanks before I stumbled upon the hand-lettered beauty, I thought that I might as well build a wagon to put them on. It's only when you look closely at the Chas Roberts works pictures (here: Search results for: 'butler') carefully that it becomes apparent that these tanks are quite different to the Slater's kit.

1. They're much bigger. Why? Well apart from being heavily lagged, which makes them wider and taller.
2. The chassis is to 1923 RCH spec', which is also longer and wider than the 1907(?) spec' of the Slater's kit.
3. Oil axleboxes (per 1923 spec')
4. I have no idea how the tanks were constructed, because you can't see them under the lagging, so it's not clear whether the wagons in the pictures were new builds or rebuilds. The cladding plates are riveted onto a framework but are evidently light sheet - there's a lip around the top which suggests that the tank top was inset - there is evidence of a relief valve and catwalks on top.

So the obvious starting point is one of the many models of an RCH 1923 spec' mineral. I found a 5 plank for the purpose which is good, because this comes with a narrower solebar which means the body mouldings will not be wasted: in time I'll just put some etched W irons under it. Here's a comparison between the two:



All dimensions guestimated from known figures (solebar depth, mostly). The original tank has yet to be weathered. As for T. 4:



It's coming on. I have to add lots of boltheads and fit diagonal stay rods, along with sundry other details, before priming and adding transfer rivets. @Gerry Beale - No luck with lettering transfers - I may have to draw up/commission some (which would commit me to my own model of T. 11, I suppose).

Adam

 

[AJC]

Moving on with the detail that makes these things so interesting. Strapping, stays and boltheads in the case of Butler's tank. I'm probably ready to start on detailing the top now:



More stays, safety loops and dozens of bolt heads on T. 4 (I've straightened the brake lever guide):



Adam