Fred Phipps Class 22 Build

[taliesin]

Hi folks, my hub is playing up so this might have to be quick, i am generally 50/50 when it comes to adding figures but in the cab of a 1/32nd diesel i figured that the space was big enough that it needed some filing,


Our chap on the left was bought over the phone as suitable for either steam or diesel, i reckon he could do something on a steam engine but on a diesel looks like he is in the second mans seat practicing his kung foo moves.
The other two chums are from Andrew Stadden, well known to the 7mm chaps but luckily he does a very limited range of gauge 1 figures. these two are supplied with alternative arms and a detached head which then need assembling and painting. I painted them according to the Corporate guide posted in another thread.



Here they are in situ, a rather portly pair who don't get the exercise that they used to get on kettles.
A vicious rumour is going around the shed, it is alleged that our two rotund chums have taken vital emergency equipment out of the cabinets and filled the spaces with pork pies, lard sandwiches and mars bars, the local ASLEF rep has been contacted,
In the meantime our two heroes stare into the fixed middle distance, as you might well do if you were varnished and fixed to a seat with araldite,
cheers to all, Rob, who is sort of online

 

[taliesin]

Our two chaps in situ, its a bit cramped in here Bert,


It was alright until you squeezed in here Fred,

cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

Today has seen consolidation more than progress, i have managed to glaze the side windows by our two stout chums and reassembled the bogies onto the chassis after allowing the paint to harden for a week or so,


The reason for doing this is that i am hoping to take it to a local track on Saturday if the weather holds, my intention is to get some solid running in to help run in the bogies and also hopefully to do some train marshalling to improve my "touch" with the radio control.


Whilst on the subject of radio control i was unhappy with the idea of holding the components in with double sided tape. The types i used were either not strong enough to hold things or so strong that removing components ran the risk of damage. When i went to the local model shop earlier this week for a few bits like paint and brushes the answer was staring me in the face, my local shop concentrates on the R/C type stuff, planes, boats etc.
On the shelf was a pack of velcro which was backed by a powerful double sided tape. The idea being that you fitted the double sided tape to the body and the component then used the velcro to hold the components in, strong enough to hold them but you can pull them off if required, time will tell i suppose.
I will try to take a video of some sort if possible, cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

The driver on the right needs some big sideburns for an authentic '1969/70' look...

...and if those two are considered 'portly'... ....

Ideally i would have liked a young second man with long hair, kind of a 5th member of Led Zeppelin, from pictures a common look at the time,
Although not exactly pot bellied, the two figures would certainly be "thick set" if scaled up to life size, i am not complaining, they were put there to fill a space and they certainly do that and i am glad of the availability of them as figures of this nature are thin on the ground in gauge 1, most available figures tend to be steam age and are holding shovels or standing. I know the answer is to make your own but to be honest i lack both the skill and the temperament to do that, likewise altering slot car pit bunnies, eighteen century soldiers and killer orcs etc, the usual figures in this scale.
Here is a picture of the B end interior which should give an idea of the space available,


I had to squeeze their knees in on both castings by 4-5mm and the driver had to loose part of his right knee, even so there is not much spare space once fitted, cheers Rob

 

[lancer1027]

Hi Rob,

Great looking cab interiors..

I know what you mean about "tweeking" the drivers. I had to remove both front parts of the foot on my drivers and secondman so they could fit my westerns.

Keep those pics coming

Rob

 

[taliesin]

Today saw D6322 on a track for the first time, probably the hottest day so far and for some reason Diesels seemed to be very popular, can't think why , anyway i started with a few wagons for half hour or so and she was a lot smoother than my jerky attempts on a yard of track, smooth take offs were possible, its a case of getting used to the R/C transmitter. Although i had turned the volume down the general consensus was that she was far too loud so i will adjust it again before the next time. The next running session a couple of hours later saw me hitch my seven Tower Brass MK1's on which to my delight she pulled with ease justifying the twin Maxon motors with ABC gearboxes,


Altogether i managed to run for about an hour and a half with no drop off in power, in real terms at the average exhibition or get together there is more than enough capacity in the batteries.



For those of you who can remember the earlier postings regarding the wheel sets the compromise seemed to work well, finescale wheels with 41mm back to backs, no derailments or bumps over the points although i ran quite slowly bearing in mind the "newness" of the mechs.
I did manage to get some video on the mob, if i can work out the mysteries of I Movie i will load it onto youtube,
cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

Hopefully a quick taster,

hope this appears ok, cheers Rob

 

[D6356]

Hi Sweet suceess from U tube - bet you are pleased load pulled an effective one. I really must get on with mine
thanks for encouragement
Robert

 

[Simon]

That looks terrific Rob, glad to hear the 41 + FS compromise worked too - hopefully some others in G1MRA will notice your success and follow suit.

Simon

 

[taliesin]

Just another piccy as i get my head around the video footage,


Robert, feel free to put up pictures of your own build on here, i find it spurs me on to get it done and i am sure others would be happy to see another on here as there will be some difference in finish, techniques used etc.

Simon, i should add that i had no problems on this track, only about two years old using Cliff's code 180 rail although the standard points etc, at some stage i will have to run it on some Tenmille code 200 and some old school wooden sleepered stuff to see how she copes.
It would be nice to think others might consider the wheels that we use but i think now Accucraft have entered the fray with their "lowest common denominator" steam roller wheels there just might be a whole new generation to educate , I won't mention the scale issues of the B4 tank here,

cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

My first attempt at video editing which is certainly the wrong word to use, as they say, things can only get better

Not gonna get an oscar or anything else for that matter but i hope you enjoy,
cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

A combination of heat induced slothfulness combined with my natural laziness saw little action last week however Saturday saw me at Larkrail enjoying the company of both Fred Phipps and Steve Harrod.
I had previously managed to muller one of the coupling castings working too late into the night, you really should stop after gripping a thin part with side cutters instead of the needle nosed pliers that you intended to use

Fred bless him bought along a new casting for me to try again. I was very fortunate to meet Steve Harrod AKA Mr Tiger Viking as well, Steve being the master builder of these kits and i spent much time looking at his fine models and asking questions etc, one item which had thrown me was a doofah on the front of the coupling, i still don't know what its called but at least i know how to fit it.
So today saw the couplings made up and dropped into some Birchwood Casey Brass Black,



And a trial fitting just for effect,



Everything seems to be small steps now but the small plastic bags of bits are starting to diminish

cheers to all, Rob

 

[taliesin]

Taking advantage of the day off i have pressed on and done a bit more, within the box were 16 round brass castings attached to sprue's which were something of a mystery to me but as i started to run out of plastic bags of bits i reckoned that they must be what are described as 'roundels for cab door handrails'.
I had separated these from the sprue's, cleaned them up and given them a quick spray of etch primer.
A quick chat with Steve at Larkrail confirmed that i had guessed right as to their purpose. Now these really should have been attached to the body before painting but luckily i found a pretty good match from the Citadel Miniatures range, somewhere out there in the universe is a race of homicidal Orcs the same colour as BR Diesels , which just might explain some of the decisions made by senior BR management !!
Anyway, this first picture shows a cab door with the roundels attached to one side,



Having fixed all sixteen on i have fitted one set of handrails, a tip from Steve was to substitute the supplied aluminium wire for nickel silver, i was able to find the exact size at Larkrail,



Knowing it's the detailing that makes or breaks a model and knowing that i am somewhat inclined to rush things, and bu**er them up, i will go back to the other handrails tomorrow.
Other work today included cleaning up and priming the door handles followed by cleaning up the buffer head castings and spraying them with the bake-on Hard Hat paint.

Cheers to all, Rob

 

[Simon]

This is great Rob, you are steadily moving towards a really good result I think.

Simon

 

[taliesin]

Thanks Simon, i hope it's all going to end well, managed to complete the handrails today, next job is painting the door handles, cheers Rob

 

[taliesin]

Another day and the job moves on a bit, all door handrails have been attached along with the pre-painted door handles,



Along with the bodyside access door handles,



Note also that the bodyside grill is no longer see through, another tip from that nice Mr Harrod, just black card washed over with a bit of brown then glued inside the body. Apart from looking the part it also hides a lot of the R/C gear as well, cheers Steve.

I suppose i should really get round to finishing the glazing next,

cheers to all, Rob

 

[lancer1027]

Looking very good Rob

Rob

 

[rosspeacock]

Looking very good Rob

Rob

+1 from me... excellent...

Regards Ross. .

 

[Toffee]

Here is a tester for a Sunday afternoon, In August 1971 we had a family holiday to Wales, one week in the south followed by a second week in the north and i would have been seven at the time. Although i only have faint memories including some narrow gauge my older brother (sixteen) who is also an enthusiast told me that i actually saw a class 22 working. He reckons we stopped at Newcastle Emlyn and the pair of us watched a 22 shunting wagons in the yard for a half hour or so. Now although this is just within the working lives of 22's i thought by this time that they were restricted to working in Cornwall or Devon.
So one for the more dedicated 22 follower, could i have actually seen a 22 at work or is my older bro talking b***ocks ,

cheers, Rob

Dear Rob,

Not wanting to cause a family rift but as someone who lived in Ammanford till 1966 (aged 9 !) and then in Cardiff all through the 1970's and a daily visitor to Canton and Pengam Bridge for 3 of them i would say less chance of a (working !) D63xx in Wales than working off Fort William :-(
I'm afraid that no S Wales depot signed them, a few worked into STJ now and then from Bristol (allegedly, but spotter myth also said 27's from Carlisle and 73's long before they really did !) You might have had a few drivers transfer across the Severn who knew them but that knowledge would have soon lapsed anyway. The reason that 63ers never came was simple....what was the need ? loads of Hymeks from STJ down to Carmarthen, loads of 37's to work unfitted coal and loads of Westerns which could (and did right to the end work anything, Milk, Coal, Parcels, Car Carriers, Class 1, Oil, Freightliner, LLanwern Iron -ore's (saw it happen ). There was no need in S Wales for a low powered branch line loco, shame really as i did like the old ' sad-eyes ' and used to just sit and watch them pootleing about Temple Meads on their funny wheels .
Kelvin is quite right (hi Kelvin ! ) about them in Oxfordshire, on spotting trips to Reading and London you would pick them up from Swindon all the way to Padd on just about anything (below a class 1) and of course there was the 4 pilots at Padd ( late 60's 0P01-0P04 ) which were all 63xx. Happy days indeed, i also saw them working around Worcester and Gloucester (always a few at Lydney for the Forest workings, buts thats as close as they came to home turf ). Now lots did come our way , but, big but, it was a one way trip to Cashmores for a razor job. ( i remember coming back from Bristol one day and our train drawing alongside 3 being pulled by a Hymek at Newport High St on the centre road waiting for a green, and thats the only time i saw any move on Welsh metals. By the end of their lives you had to go to Exeter to see any (Hemyock and Barnstaple workings ).
An idea that comes to me might be that you and your brother saw a D600 in the few weeks they worked off Pantyffynon before the call back to Laira and oblivion ? Not 71 i know but if true big bragging rights!!

John.
PS meant to say love the model, keep it up, i do so love all the Fred Phipps models coming to life on this site, i read 'em all.

 

[taliesin]

Thanks for that John, you have confirmed what others have told me both here and in conversation, cheers Rob