4mm Pragmatic Finescale - stuartp's "00" workbench

[stuartp]

Well it's been a while ...

Midland Railway D516 Luggage Composite, converted to a Breakdown Train Riding Van:

In 2020 'The True Line', the journal of the Caledonian Railway Association, published a short article by George Russell on the 6 wheeled tool vans and riding vans built by the CR in the 1920s. This is not one of those (but watch this space...). One of the photos shows a CR tool van at Dumfries in the 1960s coupled to a rather un-Caledonian looking 6 wheeled coach. The CRA Forum identified it as a Midland Railway D516 luggage compo, it appears to have survived until the shed closed in 1966, and close inspection of photos and the drawing on the LMS Society website suggested it could be bashed from the Ratio brake third. This should be visible without nneeding to log in - Breakdown Vans - Caledonian Railway Association Forum

One of the photo captions in the G&SWR volume of 'LMS Engine Sheds' reveals that when not required for breakdowns it doubled as thd shed roster clerk's office!

This is the kit side marked out for cutting ...



... and glued back together in a different order:



However, it was 7mm short, the deficiency being between the inner first class and outer third class compartments. The panelling is of course wider to accommodate the wider first class compartment and I'd hoped I could get away with it. No matter, more sawing and a couple of slivers of scrap side were inserted. Most of the saw cuts were up the middle of panels, the damage being made good by filling then scraping back with a curved X-Acto blade before sanding with a slice cut from a fingernail sanding stick. Fortunately the real coach had acquired a lot of extra beading by the 1960s, none of it particularly symmetrical or even straight, so the worst of the remaining scars will be hidden.



All the moulded door furniture except the hinges was removed and will be replaced on those doors which survived conversion. The lower panelling was also scribed to represent the tongue and grooved boarding repairs. It sits on Bill Bedford sprung W irons (a first for me), blu-tacked on for now !

 

[stuartp]

The recent EMGS shindig in Wakefield, coupled with a trip to the seaside and a rummage in the junk box at the excellent Timeless Toys in Filey has resulted in this haul of ye olde waggone kits:



I'm particularly pleased with the two Cambrian kits, they're whitemetal kits of the LMS 'J' hanger chassis for express goods wagons, but with full detail between the solebars. Both will be built as BM (fresh meat) container chassis, that in the Lowfit kit doesn't need many bits adding to match the proper BM chassis and the Lowfit body will look fine on a Parkside chassis. More on that another time.

I started with the two 3H LNER opens. These are 9'0" wb 6 plank opens (the Parkside LNER open is a 10'0" wb 5 plank to a different design) but unfitted medium goods wagons were getting thin on the ground by the 1960s so both these were built fitted to match photos of vacuum braked ones in "Pre-nationalisation Freight Wagons on British Railways" (Larkin, 1977).

From L - R:



1. Modified to fit a Parkside chassis with BR axle boxes, representing a later 10'0" wb version vac fitted by BR. Morton brake gear by Bill Bedford, 18" buffers extended to 20.5" with collars by ABS. It still needs tie bars between the axleguards.

2. 9'0" fitted version built as such by the LNER with their pattern asymmetric brake gear from ABS, as are the 20.5" buffers. Brake handle from a Riceworks/Mainly Trains etch, end planks altered to represent the BR steel channel modification.

3. 9'0" wb unfitted version by Oxford, as it comes apart from renumbering, new couplings and fixing the brake gear.

 

[stuartp]

I still haven't finished any of the recent items on this thread or the study full of other half finished things, so it's obviously time to start something completely new

This has been sitting in a cupboard for nearly 30 years waiting for me to pluck up courage to start it. It's the London Road Models Caledonian Single, No. 123, coming soon to a manufacturer's press release near you. (Well it's bound to now I've started this). At least I can't cock up the quartering on this.



The Caley Single was one of four Scottish preserved engines restored and put back to work by the ScR in the late 50s and early 60s. It visited Newton Stewart in 1962 working a special down to Whithorn with 'Gordon Highlander', but the tender in the kit is for a later version, not the unique Neilson tender she was built with and which she used in preservation. The plan is therefore to use the kit tender chassis with new side frames and the body off the Triang model which was my second ever loco more than 50 years ago.


The chassis is compensated as is the front bogie, there is only about 9mm between the compensating beams so I have no idea at the moment how I'm going to motorize it, or how I'm going to get it (and in particular the bogie splashers) around 3rd radius curves. Being pushed along by a D40 may well be an option.

 

[stuartp]

Well this year's Christmas holiday project was going to be bringing a couple of Newton Stewart's boards indoors to wire them up, but there's now a pile of IKEA boxes temporarily in the space they would normally occupy. So I did this instead:



This is a North British Railway 20T brake to Dia 36B, built at Cowlairs in 1919 and photographed by none other than FW Shuttleworth at Newton Stewart in 1958, at which time it was presumably in use as a ballast brake. (I will be doing the Toad B as well).



The kit is by NBR 4mm Developments and it's gorgeous if a bit fiddly in places. Everything fits just so with minimal clean up and it includes variations in handrail and footboard. All castings are included but the outer W irons are not, an MJT 3 axle set (2299T) being required to complete. Early buffers are included but of course Newton Stewart's had Spencer reserve stroke buffers, on order from Wizard/51L.


It looks a bit rough in bare brass, I hadn't even cleaned the flux off when I took these and my soldering isnt the neatest, but it will get a good scrub and scrape tomorrow before I tackle the several miles of handrails.

The advantage with brass kits is that you can solder the weights in, these are eight penn'orth of posh minted ones.

 

[stuartp]

I've actually finished something !!

If I was building another I'd solder the handrails on while the sides were flat on the bench, there a lot of them and mine are a bit wonky in places. Paint is all acrylic, mostly Humbrol 64 then washes and a litte bit of powder.

The roof canvas is a sticky paper label sealed round the edges with cyano.

 

[stuartp]

A long long time ago on nights in a signalbox far far away I built two Cambrian Sharks. They came out reasonably well, largely because unlike the Dogfish bought at the same time the various kit parts were designed to butt joint firmly together rather than self-levitating in the correct position while the glue set.

I only got round to lettering one (Woodhead), the other hung around in the To Do pile for another 35 years until I thought it would be cool to convert it to an Oyster.

The differences are essentially:

Longer cabin
Shorter verandas
No full length lower footboards
No vacuum brake
LMS pattern buffers
Safety rails rather than doors on the verandas
No guard above / in front of the plough blade

Just to make things more interesting I decided to make the one-off 748700, built by Pickerings in 1939 so add to the above:

Wider duckets
No centre post on the veranda end.

The BR-built Oysters have other detail differences on top of these, all were 16 tons rather than the Shark's 20 tons.

It would be fair to say that doing this with an already built kit is by far the most complicated way of doing it. Jim Smith-Wright has done it thecright way round so if your Shark is sill in its plastic bag stop reading this nonsense and follow these instructions instead:

Oyster ballast plough – P4NewStreet

p4newstreet.com

For that reason I'm not going to give a blow by blow account, just post the pics.

This is the major surgery required, the entrances are further out.



Lots of bits sawn off ...



... and stuck back on. Handrails trimmed off, cabin extended and the framework reinstated with 60th square strip.


New buffers from Dave Franks at Lanarkshire Models & Supplies, duckets widened with 40th sheet, handrails reinstated from 0.33 brass wire and new lamp irons from staples.

 

[stuartp]

Finished, apart from safety bars on the doorways and weathering (and the roof glueing on).


And with the 35 yr old Shark:


Transfers on the Oyster are a mixture of Modelmaster and Fox. My prototype photo of 748700 was 'as built' in LMS livery so position is based on various published photos of other black Oysters

 

[stuartp]

And now for something completely different...

The Hawkshaw Estate Tramway has borrowed some interesting motive power to trip a couple of grain hoppers up to Portwilliam station from Wiley's Mill.

Even the bobby has wandered out for a look at, er ... whatever this is.




It's a Tri-ang Nellie of course, converted to something which won't fall off Code 75 track using the 06 chassis off one of the Steam Punk horrors Hornby was flogging off for £13 in their Black Friday sale.



There are no mods at all to the body and the original and still perfectly functional chassis is safely stored.



All the mods are to the new chassis, a bent piece of brass with a hole in it to pick up the original bunker fixing screw, and another bent piece of brass with cow horns soldered on from 1mm brass wire to pick up on the holes under the smoke box door.

 

[timbowales]

Now that's real "engineering" that is