4mm An EM Workbench: plastic steels

[AJC]

Pushing on, what I'm choosing to call Canal Junction 'box (the junction really is under the canal) has acquired a roof, or rather, roofs. The toilet roof is separate and built in which may cause a certain amount of fun later on as the toilet door was glazed and painting this neatly could be fun. Thankfully the glass was frosted so I can ignore any thoughts I might have about modelling the bowl and so on - the door will be made from clear plastic with some sort of overlay, probably made from self-adhesive label: watch this space. The main roof is removable and will remain so. What you can see is 40 thou' with a sub structure of 60 thou' - I did some roofs of similar size about a decade ago and these are still warp-free so I'm fairly confident this will survive just as well.





In other news, you should note that the locking room door has gained a sill and a start made on the veranda rail. I probably ought to think more about the window-cleaning platform before going too much further: the fumble-fingered chaps in P-Way will do their damnedest to knock them off...

My favourite scene from South Junction looks from a lineside scrapyard behind the existing 'box, but really needs a bit more in the way of junk to hide some of the more unlikely contents; a Foden steam lorry and bits of railway signalling equipment for a start! Hence this, idly imagined to be the gaffer's Ford Zodiac Zephyr mk 1 rolled in some unrecorded accident and dumped in a corner of the yard. This really is a bit of a modeller's cliche but one used unrepentantly here. It's a Pocketbond model, bought as a detailing project but unfinished owing to an indifferent paintjob. So, roof bashed in with a hammer, a dose of rust and a renewal of the two-tone paintwork and here we are: still with its whitewall tyres and chrome trim, you'll note.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Not a huge amount of time this week but some relatively small things have been done. The most significant thing is the steps - missing from the bits I got but no matter, they're pretty easy to make.



You can also see that I've added a walkway over the rodding (ok, where the rodding *should* be, but likely *won't*). The bargeboards and their beading have been added and the next step will be fascias and guttering.



From the front we get a better sense of the footway which ends where it does on the left because there's boarding across the tracks in order for the bobby to collect the single line token from trains which once came of the branch. I've knocked those boards up as well but you'll have to wait and see on those.



The reason for the boarding is that the only available space for the water butt - standard issue - on this cramped site is at the far end of the box!

More as and when.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Today's sundries - the aforementioned water butt, together with guttering and downpipes (these from the Ratio kit). Note that the stoves in these LMS boxes were generally by the windows with the frame at the rear so the stovepipe pokes out from the front. The various interior bits are on order, despite the fact that most of them being will be more or less invisible when the 'box is eventually installed.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Roof's coming on, half slated - normal office copier paper, in fact the last sheet of someone's copy - solvent-welded in place and sealed with diluted PVA.



I'm very glad this is a small building! I'm still pondering ridge tiles; cock's comb were what was specified, but not what was always fitted. I'll probably go with the sort shown on the roof of Willesden no. 8, here:

Willesden No8

Onwards and upwards.

Adam

 

[AJC]

A few little steps; slates, ridge tiles and so on.



Here's the completed roof, with ridge from 10 thou' as is the flashing around the stovepipe, welded in with solvent. I've managed to paint the roof today, but it's only dry now that it's dark! Also pottering onward are the small details that all 'boxes need. Here are the levers (Springside):



Arguably somewhat crude, but the levers are painted according to the track and signals. Note the spare levers... Less crude are these cast iron signs, very nice etchings from AMBIS Engineering. The quarter mile marker will replace the existing one which is 2' 6" away from where it should be and, being plastic, won't survive being moved, while the Beware of Trains/Trespass notice will find a home somewhere near the yard - there's another couple to go with the 'box itself.



Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Here's the completed roof,

Until I saw the earlier photograph I wouldn't have expected the stove chimney to be at the front of the box.

Neat work on the build .

 

[AJC]

Until I saw the earlier photograph I wouldn't have expected the stove chimney to be at the front of the box.

Neat work on the build .

Thanks Dave. Having the frame at the rear of the box seems to have been relatively common (and more so than I might have expected - most BR-built boxes on the SR and GW and, seemingly on the LMR, seem to have been set up that way, for example - for visibility?), and so, presumably, were stoves by the windows.

Adam

 

[AJC]

This is all a bit unexpected, but with something so Midland as the signal box on the go it made some sort of sense that I should have something Midland(ish) to run of South Junction to go with it. Now dad already has a class 20 (and the bodyshell of another - the chassis now thinks it's a class 22) and the things hunted in pairs, presumably because they wouldn't shift owt else. So why not have two? And thus, why not make them different? So this is a Scottish one - it'll be D8074, in fact the first scrapped - with the inset in the cab side and the attendant big windows shown in this picture at Bescot D8074 Bescot Slide 1370




Here's the nose, [EDIT - that handrail has now been sorted] and below, the cab:



I intend that this will be rather grubby and well, that bodyshell, I have plans for that too...



Adam

 

[AJC]

Some signal box sundries: the instrument shelf (I think that's about right for a junction box - instruments for up and down lines and one for the branch) which will be hung from the roof and, of all things, a swarm of scooters, one of which will be plucked out for use as the bobby's personal transport.





Both more or less straight from the packet, Springside and Dart Castings respectively.

Adam

 

[AJC]

I gather from over there that MRJ 255 has made an appearance in Bath and, presumably, will shortly elsewhere. This being the case, I can reveal that my second piece for the Journal describes the birthpangs of this wagon, a Lowmac WV. Thanks to @Overseer for producing the transfers and to this edition's editor, Karl Crowther, for asking me to do it. Based on Simon's description this sounds an excellent issue full of fine modelling (ok, so much of it in EM, but what of it?) - and my lowmac. I'm pleased with it, I hope anyone who gets to read the article enjoys it.



Adam

 

[john lewsey]

Really nice modelling (All of it )

 

[AJC]

Really nice modelling (All of it )

Thanks John.

Don't anyone hold your breath - I'm at least one house move away from having the spare shelf space to accommodate anything to put these on - but:



A couple of crossovers, or at least the templates for them (that bottom right has been around for *quite some time*). Slightly eccentrically, the bottom one is an A5 B6 pairing while the top is a pair of A5s because, ladies and gentlemen, we're in industrial mode and I can because I say so.

The top pairing will be rendered in flat bottom rail with, once I've worked out how, loose heel switches. Much useful guidance for anyone contemplating anything quite so daft can be found here: http://o14group.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/O14_track_articles.pdf - This is the work of @jc2001 and I reckon that quite a bit of his effort and thinking in building narrow gauge pointwork in 7mm will transfer across to standard gauge items in EM, so thank you to John in advance. Still, that can wait until I've sourced some suitable rail. Moving on a bit:



Try not to look too closely at the chairs, they're from a rather mixed bag of C&L/K&L bits acquired some time back with some lost wax brass slide chairs bought at EXPO EM at the toes. Of course, I'm now out of slide chairs of any stripe...



That's all for now.

Adam

 

[AJC]

One crossover - more or less - complete (I've run out of chairs, and stretchers can wait until I have something to lay the track on), so the other has started.



Here's the plastic one, through which the available stock rolls quite nicely. That being successful, I've moved on to crossover #2, in copperclad with Brassmasters baseplates. I'm still getting a feel for how this will work; my thoughts are that putting a few baseplates in at the ends, then soldering in the rail before slotting in the remaining baseplates will be the approach I take, but that will have to wait until I've managed to get hold of some suitable flat bottom rail.



Adam

 

[AJC]

A couple of little Bank Holiday jobs. First is revisiting a Wychbury Loco Works (latterly, Mercian - hand-drawn by Pete Stamper, I think) X Class Peckett. This came from a club member's estate and is built, in part, in memory of him: John wasn't really a modeller, but he was full of good intentions and, as a Bristolian, had a fondness for Pecketts, Avonsides and other products of Bristol's engineering companies. It's not bad, but is of its time and requires a bit of fettling to get a reasonable drive train inside and some additional detailing. In fairness, the extent of that will be relatively limited since most of it is there albeit with a bit of finessing. Soldering is, er, less than invisible...



Also on the go are a couple of wagon projects, one of which is this Parkside 24 1/2 tonner. It's an interesting observation on British Railways, the National Coal Board and Britain in the '60s in general that the last BR-built batch of these were built in '64* at exactly the same time and in the same works(!) as the Hop ABs, latterly HAAs. This (the large, steel-built, tippler discharged mineral wagon) is a design concept that really dated from the late 19th century...



This is a representation of an early build of the 24 and a half tonner so it has plain bearings and will get one door spring for each door. There's quite a lot that's still good about this Parkside kit, the body in particular. The chassis needs work, however, but this is the minimal-intervention approach: new buffers, axleboxes and the brakes stretched to get nearer the wheels. The push rods have overlays from AMBIS Engineering etches and make a big difference. I should have finished the solvent work by later today and final detailing should be finished some time later this week: I really need to get a few of these things ready for paint; the workbench is getting crowded.

Adam


* The final examples were turned out by Pressed Steel in early 1965.

 

[AJC]

While fiddling around with the second crossover I'm building - and more of that anon - I found that I had more rail offcuts than I had an immediate use for. One feature of industrial track I've always been interested in is the informality with which sidings end; piles of ash, sleepers half buried at rail ends, various forms of stops, some from catalogues, some home brewed. Here's one of the latter:





I'm not sure whether users could buy rails like this ready-curved or whether they were the project of the work's forge and it doesn't really matter. I simply heated the rail on the gas ring, allowed it to cool and tweaked it round to match the curve of a 12mm wheel with pliers. The rail felt the need to twist and so had to be straightened out - with a 50 per cent failure rate - which means the bends are not as neat or even as one might wish, but then, I suspect this was a feature of the real thing...

Adam

 

[Lyndhurstman]

While fiddling around with the second crossover I'm building - and more of that anon - I found that I had more rail offcuts than I had an immediate use for. One feature of industrial track I've always been interested in is the informality with which sidings end; piles of ash, sleepers half buried at rail ends, various forms of stops, some from catalogues, some home brewed. Here's one of the latter:

View attachment 67448

View attachment 67449

I'm not sure whether users could buy rails like this ready-curved or whether they were the project of the work's forge and it doesn't really matter. I simply heated the rail on the gas ring, allowed it to cool and tweaked it round to match the curve of a 12mm wheel with pliers. The rail felt the need to twist and so had to be straightened out - with a 50 per cent failure rate - which means the bends are not as neat or even as one might wish, but then, I suspect this was a feature of the real thing...

Adam

Hi Adam,

Nicely done. I've always liked these curved stops. I get the feeling they were quite common in some areas, and not in others. I would think they were made by a contractor or the railway themselves, as the oomph needed to impart such curvilinear cuteness must have been quite something. If this is the case, then I daresay they were joined to the straight ends using rail joiners - hidden beneath the surface, of course. And maybe a spreader bar, too..

Anyway, Good Stuff.

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

Hi Adam,

Nicely done. I've always liked these curved stops. I get the feeling they were quite common in some areas, and not in others. I would think they were made by a contractor or the railway themselves, as the oomph needed to impart such curvilinear cuteness must have been quite something. If this is the case, then I daresay they were joined to the straight ends using rail joiners - hidden beneath the surface, of course. And maybe a spreader bar, too..

Anyway, Good Stuff.

Cheers

Jan

Thanks Jan - it occurs to me that most outfits with the need for something like this would probably have the capacity to produce them by some means or another. The rail is very light in section (code 55 so c. 65lb per yard equivalent). Needless to say, having produced this, I can't find the picture that inspired it...

Adam

 

[AJC]

Slightly to my surprise, I've done more on the Peckett; detailing stuff - laminating springs, replacing the reach rod for the reverser and adding the splashers and, importantly, buffer beams which, full-size, were enormous pieces of wood represented in the kit with rather shrunken whitemetal castings so I epoxied the supplied etches onto some thick copperclad which was then soldered to the ends of the footplate. Cab beading, spectacles and coupling hooks before I have to worry about making a sub assembly out of the boiler and saddle tank...





In the meantime, the soldering iron has died, so until the new element turns up...

Adam

 

[AJC]

News from the miniature Altlas Locomotive works residing, not in Bristol, as nature intended, but in west London. Like many kits for smaller locos of a certain vintage, this kit is intended to have a body in one lump with a tiny motor mouthed vertically in the firebox: in 7mm that approach is more sustainable in 4mm so I've embarked on a touch of redesign in order to mount the motor in the boiler, possibly with a flywheel.

The basics are well-established: the boiler/saddletank make one assembly, while the cab/footplate make another. As, deigned, there's no positive location at the front - hence the elongated hole in the footplate to accommodate the securing screw in the base of the smokebox. The bits of L section served to mount the boiler on the real thing but serve as location on the model, as will the piano front for the cylinders later.



The saddle tank is more problematic, but not really through fault in the design of the kit. The way it was supplied is an issue, however, since the pre-rolled wrapper would have to be flattened in order to rivet it before being re-rolled. I wasn't even going to try to do that and will, when the time comes, apply rivet transfers. Before that comes, though, I'll need to add a layer of shim to form the centre ring of the tank - this a characteristic Peckett feature. Note the somewhat battered bottom edge: this will be disguised...



Putting the two together looks a bit like this:



It does sit properly when screwed down, honest!

Adam

 

[Les Golledge]

The top pairing will be rendered in flat bottom rail with, once I've worked out how, loose heel switches. Much useful guidance for anyone contemplating anything quite so daft can be found here: http://o14group.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/O14_track_articles.pdf - This is the work of @jc2001 and I reckon that quite a bit of his effort and thinking in building narrow gauge pointwork in 7mm will transfer across to standard gauge items in EM, so thank you to John in advance. Still, that can wait until I've sourced some suitable rail. Moving on a bit:
Adam

Hi Adam,

For loose heel switches read the following thread especially the first post:-
Building Yeovil Pen Mill in EM - Trackbuilding topics - Forums - Templot Club
This shows hinging bullhead rail, so should work well for flat bottom rail.
I intend to use this with broad gauge bridge rail in 7mm.
Regards,

Les.