7mm The Derby Line - Rolling Stock

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Western Thunderer
Thanks Adam - nice work, it does show that a plastic moulding can give a greater feel of depth to the vents.

I've been pressing on with the GUV and I suspect that David won't like this! I decided against using the cast door hinges and used 6941 etched ones instead as I wanted a finer appearance. The door handle is Sidelines and the latching handle scratched up from brass wire bent with a sharp angle and the face filed flat. That's just my take on the kit, no criticism implied.
Ooh! Look at all those horrible solder blobs on the inside - don't worry those will be ground off for the interior to drop in. The roof is not easy to fit, and I know Heather had trouble with the one for th RMB. It is all etched extremely accurately, so there is no room for error! Are my skills up to it? Once I've resolved that, it will be cleaned up.
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Here is a real GUV for comparison.
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Western Thunderer
It took a while to get the roof to fit on to the body and I found it to be a little flimsy, even when located on to the tabs at the tops of the sides. I also managed to achieve a slight bow, so there was no way it would sit down in the middle of the coach. So I put some 'U' section stretchers across with some threaded bar to go through holes in the floor. There are 8 of these, the stretchers support the roof and sides and prevent bowing in when the coach is picked up. With a little patient tweaking it will drop straight in and the roof can be drawn down nicely. There is some fiddling to make sure the long tabs don't drop down the outside of the side and potentially scratch the paint when it is on... Having the rods inside what should be an open vehicle, is a nuisance, but with modelling there are inevitably compromises at times.

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Yorkshire Dave

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
dibateg said:
Having the rods inside what should be an open vehicle, is a nuisance, but with modelling there are inevitably compromises at times.
Click to expand...

If it works and is hidden it's a compromise worth making. After all years ago we put up with Tri-ang Hornby Mk1 coaches with two visible bolts holding the roof on.
 
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Western Thunderer
After a break of a week or so I'm finally back at it and it was time to tackle that roof.

So after a prolonged struggle this morning:- The downwards projecting tabs are supposed to drop between the inner and outer skins. I don't think there was any way that I could manage that, because the interior either flopped too far in or too far out against the side. Also the interior, with no partitions, tended to flop inwards at the top. So I put stretchers across the tops ( as Heather did ) to hold the sides apart. This allowed me to remove those tags and rely on the upwards pointing tabs to locate in slots in the underside of the rainstrip. I also made some hefty floor strengtheners out of thick nickel silver. These were soldered on the inside of the floor to stop it distorting when the roof rod nuts are tightened. There is room under the interior floor.
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Western Thunderer
Whilst the MMP GUV is away being painted, and my GUVs are awaiting a decent spell of weather, I'm on with the next commission, a JLTRT Warship D602. I started with the bogies and first thing that I noticed is that the Warships didn't have the flange that is on the big box bits at the outer end. A Google image search confirmed this, so I took them off. I'm assuming the bogies are similar to 10000 and that loco did have them. I'm enjoying the build and its a nice change to be wielding the superglue rather than a soldering iron.. and its going together nicely.

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Western Thunderer
In the meantime I've put in the laser cut glazing ( which fits a treat ) and masked up ready for painting. I'm in the process of adding the cast details to the noses. Yes - I broke the spigot off one of the white metal castings - I had it upside down. I'll drill out and make a brass wire post for it to sit on. I'm enjoying this!
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Some of the spigots on the castings are a bit short for me, so I file them a bit longer from the sprue if I can. Then they are cut off with a piercing saw. Resist the temptation to use cutters, they tend to distort the spigot too much and it won't then fit easily in the intended hole.
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Western Thunderer
So here is a picture that shows more detail on the bogies. The middle and outer axles have Slaters plunger pick ups with shortened springs. Wipers are used on the motor axle. The middle axle is floating and is sprung with wire which rests on groves filed into the axle bearings. A short length of 1.5mm square brass soldered behind the flange fits in the slot and prevents the bearing from turning. A delrin chain is used to connect the outer axles, the cog on the motor axle had to be narrowed by cutting some off. The motor/gearbox is a Slaters GB13. A pcb pad on each bogie is used to distribute the power. The side frames are held on with nuts and screws. The right hand one will have them fitted shortly. Just a few final details to add, bits of pipe etc..
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Western Thunderer
And on to the next project. The text on the etch will give it away, this will be interesting as it's been enlarged from 4mm - the spacers are marked 'OO', 'EM' and 'S4'.
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This model will have to traverse 4 foot radius curves. So the first task is to temporarily lash up the frames to see what will work. There is a lot of overhang on my test reverse curve.... The Mark Wood wheels are quite tight on the rail, so there will be some careful work to make sure it works properly. I'm so glad GW engines don't have front steps...
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Western Thunderer
Meanwhile - on with the frames, a picture into the light I'm afraid. I made up the coupling rods to set the chassis jig:-
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Lots of lovely brass to work with:-
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Sometimes, something with a spigot has to go in a hole that is larger. So to avoid trying to line the thing up on a sea of hot solder, I either use a short length of tube to sleeve the item, or if there is no tube of the right size I make a ring from suitably sized copper wire. That then helps with the alignment.
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Western Thunderer
It's all coming along, there are quite a lot of laminates to apply and I've been doing as much work as possible on the cab before putting the roof on. There is a rather untidy arrangement of fold ups that represent the vertical section below the cab floor and to the right of the side sheet. I've replaced that with one piece of strip. The reverser stand seemed a little wide, so I've trimmed a mill of that. There are some very nice cast cab seats that will tip up. More solder cleaning off to be done of course..
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Western Thunderer
I like to get the principle components made up before adding the detail. The smokebox front casting was slightly larger than the etched ones, so a skim in the lathe cured that.Don't worry the front is not fixed in yet. The firebox is easy enough to make up with care. I'll use the disks to set the diameter of the round components, and use a joining ring - a test one in the back ground will be used to join the smokebox on. I wanted the backhead to be removable, so that it can be installed after painting, so studs pass through in to the firebox. Cone boilers are always difficult to form, so I used the hamfisted method of sliding it radially as it pass back and forth through the rollers ( with cardboard on the detail side).
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I needed more information, so a trip to Bridgnorth turned up, not one, but two manors! I was lucky enough to find a guide who had time to show me around the loco's. So I made a suitable donation to the loco fund - I think it's bad form to rock up, take a load of photos and then clear off without making a contribution to all of the hard work these guys have done to restore a pair of cracking engines - and I'm not even a GW man... Urgent refreshments were then required in the Railwayman's arms...
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Western Thunderer
I constantly check as I go along to make sure everything is square/ in line etc, but this didn't show up until everything was screwed together. I noticed that the top feed had one shoulder higher than the other in a form of dismissive shrug. I didn't fancy torching out the boiler end disk again to rotate it a smidgen, so resorted to slotting the holes in the front of the firebox. It wasn't out be very much, and only needed a rotation at the cladding of a bout a 'mill or so. That fixed that. The smokebox is just a press fit into the font of the boiler at the moment. I'd love to give the impression that I get it all right first time...
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For some reason the casting that represents the part of the saddle that has all the bolt heads was too short. So I cut it in the middle and filled the gap with some flat brass sprue ( from Griffin fire irons I think ). The join will hidden be behind the steampipe. It's only soldered to the smokebox so that the boiler can come off. The oil feed covers on the smokebox differ from the preserved locos to the arrangement in the late 50s - its always worth checking contemporary photos..
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Western Thunderer
Family events have rather held up progress, but I'm back on it now and have made up the cast bogie. This is so that negotiation of curves can be tested. Most of the body is complete - I've yet to tackle that chimney... Boiler is just plonked on - hence the gap. Once I'm happy it can get round corners, the chassis detail can be added.
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3 LINK

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Western Thunderer
Hi Tony,

Yes they certainly look the part, do the wheels and axles have a similar style of fitting like the Alan Harris type?

Regards,

Martyn.
 
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