7mm Skinhead

[farnetti]

I put a couple of pictures on 'What's on your workbench' a few days ago and a couple of WTers thought it was worthy of a new thread. I may prove them wrong but here we go.

I rarely go to the other place but when I did a few months ago I found an unstarted Class 31 kit going for sale at a nice price and snapped it up.

On inspection all seemed O.K. apart from slightly bent corners on a couple of etches and distorted resin cab ends. These were down, I suspect, to the seller having looked at the kit throwing away the expanded polystyrene normally used to pack it.

I will flatten the etches as I need them and I dunked the cab end in some hot water where they (nearly) resumed their correct shape.



These are a couple of photos of where I am with the body so far.

The instructions suggest staring with the resin cabs first. These have tabs which slide into gaps between the body sides and the inner cab ends (not yet folded up). This means I can use that gap (along with the roof profile gap) to ensure the resin cabs are the right shape. It also occurred to me that this temporary fitting could provide a way of painting the whole exterior before fitting out the interior of the resin cabs, especially the windows.



These show the various laminations of the louvres, on the left is is No 1 end, on the right windows, No 2 end and engine room door. Lower photo shows No 1 end soldered up before fitting to body side.

The nickel silver etch at No 1 end won't be fitted until after painting, same with the windows as glass is trapped between them and the body sides.

I should have explained earlier that this is to be a green engine with white/grey bands and lower yellow end panel, circa 1960-64.



This is the underfloor equipment, bit more to do.



And the first body lifting hole, cruel enlargement, looks quite neat to the naked eye.



The rest of the lifting eyes and under floor castings.



And some of the remaining body detail to fit. I am not looking forward to those parts 25, they are tiny and need to be laminated, and then fitted into the body sides. I suspect epoxy rather than solder may be involved at some point.

Apologies for the quality of my photos,

Ken

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I wouldn't worry too much about the louvres as not all appear straight as seen on my photo below at York in late 70's early 80's. Although not skinheads.

 

[oldravendale]

Hi Ken.

You probably have pictures aplenty, but these might fill a gap. Both my copyright.


D5508. From Stratford Tube Station platform. 28 August 1965.


D5547 with D5594. Stratford Works. October 1960.

I'm increasingly pleased that I took photos of diesels in the early days.

I'm looking forward to your build, even though a confirmed kettle man.

B

 

[farnetti]

I wouldn't worry too much about the louvres as not all appear straight as seen on my photo below at York in late 70's early 80's. Although not skinheads.
View attachment 66528

Thanks Dave, it appears that the louvres did get bashed about a bit as did the horizontal bars inside the body windows, my time period means probably less so.

The two larger ones pivot from the top edge and are easy, the other five pivot over the centre line and are tricky. The pivots need to be scored to allow them to rotate, too little and they won't, too much and they will come away from the surround. Necessarily there is limited clearance between them and too much fiddling will result in the second scenario.

Ken

 

[farnetti]

Hi Ken.

You probably have pictures aplenty, but these might fill a gap. Both my copyright.

View attachment 66535
D5508. From Stratford Tube Station platform. 28 August 1965.
View attachment 66536

D5547 with D5594. Stratford Works. October 1960.

I'm increasingly pleased that I took photos of diesels in the early days.

I'm looking forward to your build, even though a confirmed kettle man.

B

Thanks for these photos which are interesting. The first, D5508, is very much how I wish to portray my build although I can't use that loco as it has no louvres to the engine room doors.

The destructions suggest that in most cases the roof walkway was not full length in most cases on this batch D5500-D5519, I only found one photo of the roof and it does have the full length walkway, D5503.

Another other interesting thing about these two photos is that D5547 has the larger louvres in a closed position which I haven't seen before, does anyone know if they were adjustable.

Ken

 

[SteadyRed]

I really hope Dave Parkins offers this & his other loco kit again.

Will follow this build with much interest.

Dave

 

[farnetti]

I really hope Dave Parkins offers this & his other loco kit again.

Will follow this build with much interest.

Dave

Me too, I would like a 40 but not holding my breath.

Ken

 

[TheSnapper]

I don't wish to hijack this thread, but does anyone (Brian?) have a photo of the roof of these locos, prior to the class being re-engined with EE units. (pre 1963?)
I'm particularly interested in the Mirlees exhaust ports.

Cheers
Tim

 

[oldravendale]

Sorry to say, Tim, that those are my only two photos of class 31s without roof boxes. At the time I was taking railway photos I never imagined anyone would be interested in they new fangled diesel things!

I'd suggest a trawl on line. I've just googled and found a plethora of photos but whether there are any specific enough to meet you requirements I don't know. In the meantime here are a few from various publications so definitely not my copyright. Provided in the interests of research only.

B

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Seeing all this reminds me of my first model locomotive was the Triang Cl 31 no. D5572 in BR blue. Bought at Everybodies Hobbies in Ipswich in 1972 for the princely sum of £4.35.

I had £5.00 birthday money and wanted the Cl 37 at £5.00 but my dad persuaded me to buy the Cl 31 instead as I could also purchase a van as well and still have change from the £5.00!

 

[TheSnapper]

Thanks for posting the photos etc Brian.

Tim

 

[auld_boot]

Really enjoying this thread, thanks for posting.
Ref exhaust ports, it seems to me that Triang did a pretty good job of it all those years ago! As seen here (scroll down a little way).

 

[TheSnapper]

Really enjoying this thread, thanks for posting.
Ref exhaust ports, it seems to me that Triang did a pretty good job of it all those years ago! As seen here (scroll down a little way).

Hi Darren

Thanks for posting and for your PM.

Maybe I'll have to buy an old Tri-ang bodyshell & copy that!

Cheers

Tim

 

[farnetti]

Further progress.
The body is now finished, waist bands and vertical strips applied, and other small items. Most difficult were the parts 25 from the previous post. I had already decided disaster wound ensue if tried to solder them and first cut half of them from the fret and superglued them to the other halves while they still on the fret. Then remove them, one at a time and glue them into position. I used Loctite 480, hence the black stains but having an element of rubber may resist future knocks.



Both bogie chassis made up with Slaters wheels turned for S7 by Colin. Cutout on the nearest for an ABC motor and gearbox with Delrin chain to the far axle.



These are the basic parts for the cab floor/buffer beam.



And here they are assembled. I thought I would do these now to see how they would fit because of my concerns about the resin cabs.



And here they are. It is not apparent from this photo that curve of the roof is not quite symmetrical. I cut the former from the left hand one to see how it would conform to etched brass inner cab end and was very pleasantly rewarded. So will change my order of work to more closely follow the instructions and remove the inner cab ends from the body and solder them to the cab floors.



And the current state of affairs.

I am aiming for radio control Dcc operation so only the motor, decoder, battery and supply board, transmitter and receiver to go.

Does anyone know of a cheaper hobby?

Ken

 

[delticfan]

Nice work! I like the resin cabs.

 

[farnetti]

I have soldered the cab bulkheads to the floors and added the etched and cast detail, conduits and piping still to go. Cab heaters are added to the floor but seats will wait until after painting. There are also stands to solder on each side which house the windscreen washer and horn controls but won't fit these until the floor and cab seat up-stands have been faired to the inner resin sides. Black residue is Loctite 480.


Next are the control consoles which fit to the front of the up-stands, again not until after fairing to the resin cabs. Again black residue still to scrape off. Heater and demister switches still to add. Also the panel gauges but these not until after painting. The control levers seem overscale, lost wax would have been better but no doubt added significantly to the cost of the kit and won't be seen much anyway.



I should probably add the buffer detail next, looking at how much of what is supplied is necessary, don't need the snow ploughs or ETH for instance.

I'm thinking of D5520, there are photos of it at Rugby, on the LMR, so could have been sent South. There is also a photo of D5666 and D5667, shedded at March, passing Berkhamsted in 1965 so 31's didn't stay within the Eastern region (that's my excuse).

I have started thinking about the bogies and this an area I am rather uncertain about. The inner etched frames fold up fine, options for motor mountings and space between the outer frames for S7 wheels.

The outer cosmetic sideframes are castings, as are the end crossbeams which are just a butt joint between the sideframes. They must obviously be at 90 degrees.



The outer frames sit at each end over these crossbeams which can then be permanently fixed to the brass inner chassis but this would not allow wheel removal later.

Dimples have been provided in the cross beams to allow the brass chassis to be screwed to the crossbeams but they don't align, however, I think this can be rectified. I am not sure, though, whether repeated screwing and unscrewing into a casting will work in the long term and because of the misalignment I don't think there is space for an insert.


My main concern are butt joints between the sides and ends. They need to be 90 degrees horizontally and vertically. Because of the amount of cast detail on the side frames there will be a lot of weight hanging off these joints. I have never soldered castings before (scared of melting them) but I don't think epoxy will do here. Thought about internal L brackets screwed in plus epoxy but not sure as there castings are only 3mm thick.

My latest thinking is fix the cross beams to the etched chassis and make sure they are aligned. Then use small diameters screws through the side beams into the end of the crossbeams to hold everything in alignment and then solder.

Any other ideas and especially thoughts on soldering castings would be very helpful, I have a few leftover castings with which to practice.

Ken

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Ken
When I built the bogie frames for my DJH 47, I was worried about the strength of the joins. I soldered with 70 degree solder and the iron set to 240 degrees. However, I used LaCo flux as usual. The joints were very strong and one frame withstood a fall from the workbench
My JLTRT Hymek frames were much the same and came out very strong. Just make certain everything is scrupulously clean before soldering (including the solder!)
Really enjoying your build!!

 

[farnetti]

Hi Ken
When I built the bogie frames for my DJH 47, I was worried about the strength of the joins. I soldered with 70 degree solder and the iron set to 240 degrees. However, I used LaCo flux as usual. The joints were very strong and one frame withstood a fall from the workbench
My JLTRT Hymek frames were much the same and came out very strong. Just make certain everything is scrupulously clean before soldering (including the solder!)
Really enjoying your build!!

View attachment 67777

View attachment 67778

Thanks for your advice which seems to mirror my experiments below. The 47 bogies are very nice and the weathering is very convincing.

Been practising on leftover bits from other kits by the same supplier this afternoon. 70 degree solder worked best for me also and 250 degrees but out of habit used Carrs green label, anyway a strong joint and I didn't melt the castings. Also filed out the holes on the etched brass chassis to match the indents on the cross members, and drilled them 1.4mm. A 12BA screw then self taps through this, and with a washer above the enlarged brass hole should hold the cross member in place completely square and allow removal later if needed. The cross beams both in place should then provide a seating for the sideframes and then I can check all is square in plan view.

If all is O.K. I still think I will drill holes through the side frames and into the cross beams for countersunk screws to hold all together and check and adjust the vertical alignment before using my newfound skills to solder all together.

Get dinner and then order some screws, next post will show all this and the finished buffer beams.

Ken

 

[Andrew Thompson]

Not sure whether you have seen this build but may help 31-002.jpg

Andrew

 

[farnetti]

Not sure whether you have seen this build but may help 31-002.jpg

Andrew

Hi Andrew, I have seen it and the other builds on that site, all of them very helpful. Is it still active, there doesn't seem to be any new content?

Ken