The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[RichardG]

These are the parts to fix onto the model after painting.

The model ran perfectly at Bury St Edmunds (5th October), but has now developed an intermittent tight spot. This is not periodic; it does not relate to the rotation of the wheels. Rather, it seems to be associated with the rocking front axle. Severity has varied according to whether the model is on the track, held up in the air or held upside down; and whether the motor is running forwards or backwards.

Today, I found one front crankpin here was a little crooked (how?!) and I have straightened this up, and opened up the hole in the associated side rod by about a thou. The tight spot has stopped tripping the ESC in the r/c controller, but a hint of it remains. Perhaps a wheel is touching a brake shoe! I will call a halt for a while, and revisit this with a clear head.


In the meantime, the body and chassis are screwed together and the buffer heads are installed for running on the layout. The safety valve cover is sitting loose for the photo, with a coat of primer to give a hint of that fashionable “printed” look


Still pleased with those coal rails.


Somehow, this view of daylight lifts the whole model. I cannot get this sort of view with a monoblock chassis.




Thank you to everyone for all of your support as this build has gone along.

 

[RichardG]

I want to build a few scenic models to reduce the count of unbuilt kits in the stash. The idea is to tackle the models I can build in a day or so.

What could be simpler than a modest bench seat to make a start?


This kit from DMR Models looks suitable. A timeless design and nothing to tie it to a specific railway.

There are no instructions and no illustration of the assembled model. More challenging, there is no half-etching to show you where the parts end and the fret begins. Needless to say I got this wrong in one place and had to use a length of shim stock as a replacement for a part I thought was fret during the cutting-out.


For the middle upright, I cut a groove in the underneath of the planks to help me put part in the right place. A few half-etched lines would have helped.


I have ended up with one of those rather uncomfortable seats with a gap in the back.

Those who know Heybridge Basin will understand why the seat goes here, it is sheltered from the blasts of easterly winds.

 

[RichardG]

I bought this kit a few years ago. If it included some wire to make the details then this is lost. I have an etch and instructions.


With two true right-angles folded into the etch, the fourth side does not line up. The external corners on the top do not meet up either.


I broke off the fourth side and put it back in the right place, and added scraps of wire to build up the wonky corners. So there are seven parts in the frame here, not two as the designer intended.


Then I realised the levers are rather intricate to assemble. A two-lever frame will be correct for the location on my layout, and I certainly don’t want to make two levers with no purpose.

So I cut the model into two pieces to turn it into a two-lever frame. It would be daft to try to re-use the second side because it didn’t fit properly the first time round. So I added a new side oversize and trimmed it later.


It will be wise to make the levers movable in case of inquisite fingers. I can solder them both onto the pivot rod, or maybe squeeze in a spring or some pvc tubing between them after painting.


So, a simplified model. I have my doubts about the longevity of the levers. Nickel silver would be stiffer.


The marks from the wandering drill bit will disappear after I lower this into the ground .

There are just 15 parts in this model; eight from the kit and seven from me.

 

[RichardG]

I can include a point position indicator on the layout to help suggest the period being represented when no trains are in sight. This design by McKenzie and Holland rotates on a vertical spindle and was used by the nearby GER and other companies.


The first task is to drill a hole vertically through the base. This means a hole 0.75 mm diameter and 12.4 mm long, through a piece of white metal.

I find, if I hold the work in my fingers and start to feel it getting hot, this means the swarf is melting and forming a slippery coating on the bit. Stop and clean up and restart. I used Wahl clipper oil as the lubricant. I don’t think it really matters whether you use oil or silicone or just about any body fluid, just use something and keep on replenishing it.


The 0.75 mm hole in the base is a clearance for this 0.7 mm wire which forms the spindle.

The lamp housing is missing its third lens, so I took a brass panel pin and turned down its head to make something which looked a bit like a lamp lens. I was so pleased with this so I removed the cast lump representing the second lens and worked up another pin to match.


The business of fitting this onto the layout and arranging its linkage to the associated point mechanism are for the future.

 

[RichardG]

I have a secondhand kit for a five-ton crane to take me most of the way to Christmas. I am unsure of the provenance of this kit - the instructions are from The Wagon and Carriage Works of Hoddeston, while the box is from Meteor Models. I guess one company/trader bought out the other.


Really this is two kits in one box.

There is an option to build the crane as a yard crane but I already have one such crane (from the Peco kit) so I want to try for a mobile crane this time.

Everything seems to be present except for one coupling link; but there are no spare parts. The curious insulator-shaped casting bottom left is six small wheels. The other parts are fairly self-explanatory.


At the outset, the crane mechanism looks more logical than the Peco one.

The kit portrays an imaginary wagon, “based on prototype practice but amalgamating ideas from several prototypes”, and the only illustration of the finished model is the tiny sketch above. So in the end I guess I cannot really get it too far wrong

 

[RichardG]

With the W-irons adjusted, the castings for the springs fit rather well.


The buffer stocks are cast in solid metal, so the first task with these is to bore them out to accept the buffer stems. This means, create tubes in white metal with a 0.5 mm wall thickness. I managed three, the fourth one just fell apart. So I re-built it with some brass tube.


The kit includes four blocks of white metal to complete the ends of the headstocks. These blocks are too fat, too wide and too short, so I used square brass instead. The solebars are deeper than the headstocks, maybe this will show up less after painting. Or maybe I should shorten the brass blocks.


The W irons remain asymmetric. Those on the side with the brake have this open slot below the axlebox; those on the other side have the slot hidden behind the axlebox.


I want to paint the chassis before I attach the decking.


A temporary assembly. The model stays balanced both with and without this 1 oz weight.

I am told, this kit is “of its time”. Experience is starting to tell me, this means some parts will be wrong, or have a low specification, or not fit at all; and I should expect to make some improvisations. This is certainly the case here, and I feel I have making a corrective action at almost every step. Some people revel in this, while I tend to think the manufacturer should have tried harder. Still, no-one was holding a gun against my head telling me to buy the kit or indeed to build it.

Supposing the chassis is black and the crane is a darkish blue-grey, this ought to look fine on the layout

 

[RichardG]

Will you fit rail clips, or some other means of support - for when the crane is lifting?

I am not sure about rail clips. I don't know what they look like.


This end of the layout hasn't appeared in many photos. It is supposed to represent a small yard run by the navigation company.

The mobile crane might look good here, supported on beams and blocks like this prototype.

In which case I need not worry about rail clips, though it would be good to learn about them all the same.

 

[alastairq]

Sorry Alastair but I want to pass on this one. Magnets able to hold hoses together won't hold the jib with a load. But maybe next time, there could be tiny hooks and eyes to secure the two sections of the rods.

The magnet size was a suggestion...I didn't know how 'big,' or 'small,'' the stay links are........I suggested the air hose thing simply to illustrate just how small these magnets can be obtained.
I have some fairly small diameter magnets, and two stuck together do take some 'pulling apart,' so to speak.

 

[RichardG]

I took the mobile crane along to NEEGOG on Saturday, where it ran well. It’s always cheering to receive compliments and someone from WT told me “the model looks better than it does in the pictures”. So I guess it is best to not put up any more pictures of it for a while!

Moving swiftly on to Sunday (yesterday) I took ‘Lady Marion’ and the unpainted ‘Quintus’ along to the Kloggie’s Christmas event at Runcton Holme. Our host’s test track has received a substantial overhaul since the summer time, and so guard irons no longer bottom-out while traversing the dips at rail joints.


Seeing the Manning Wardle near to mainline locos always reminds me, the space I have at home will always restrict me to light railway and similar subjects.


This van was far too good to pass by. It is from the estate of a modeller who reached the age of 94. Built from the Ragstone kit.


The GER applied this livery from 1909. A back story will need some imagination . . . at the moment I am thinking of munitions testing off Osea or Northey Island. This practice being short-lived because of the nuisance to shipping.

 

[RichardG]

I am less happy to realise I haven’t built a wagon for over a year, yet I have five unbuilt kits to choose from. I also want to extend “Heybridge Basin” and give it a cassette-based fiddle yard.

I have posted reviews of progress at the anniversaries of the Heybridge Railway project getting underway in October 2021. This year I forgot so I am stretching “Year Four” through to December. Future reviews can be at Christmas time too.


I have these items of new stock to show for Year Four. This doesn't seem very much for 15 month's effort, though I refurbished two wagons built by others and painted Nellie the crane tank along the way. The horse box (Gladiator) was quite involved - about half of the detail parts need to be fabricated by the modeller. The H2 in comparison (Connoisseur) was a complete kit.


‘Heybridge Basin’ now has a fiddle yard and a lighting rig; also some scenic models ready for painting. I disposed of the first water column and made a better one to replace it. The scratchbuilt C53 is from Peter Thompson.


The running-in board is now at the correct end of the station, and set forward to reduce shadows onto the backdrop. The backdrop board is still in gloss magnolia, so if I can control shadows on this then I should be okay when it carries a backscene. The challenge with this layout, and one which I keep putting off, is to finish it off while keeping a bare and open appearance.

The most glaring omissions from the project are still some wagons for use by E H Bentall for their agricultural products and cars; and indeed a sample Bentall car. If I can apply myself to these, I expect I will be happy with the results. The difficulty is making a start. A GER brake van has been on the list of “essentials” since the project began too.

The models which give me the most pleasure are the ones from kits where I have added details of my own design, and the ones built by others which I have refurbished. The rail clamps on the mobile crane are a sort of modelling where I am especially happy with the result. I am making things from raw materials, the models are indicative but not really scale models, and I am working up a simple kit in my own way.

The stash of unbuilt kits is now down to nine wagons and one loco, and there is a year to wait for Kempton. This show is my greatest risk of impulse-buying. The plan for 2026 is to try to alternate between the kits I want to build as designed, and those I expect to alter and build my own way. It would also be good to improve the fiddle yard, this needs some shelves to hold cassettes to make it more workable.

 

[RichardG]

Having bought a catering pack of coffee stirrers for the mobile crane, I want to try another model where I can use them to some effect. The new model is a flat wagon, there is no specific prototype but the underframe is a standard Charles Roberts one from Slater’s. I imagine E H Bentall bought a damaged wagon secondhand and stripped it down to the floor. So this is a private owner wagon, as distinct from the stock of the Heybridge Railway.


The Slater’s underframe parts are curious for plastic mouldings because they don’t align properly all the way round. I put styrene shims in three out of four corners.


I am using Revell ‘Contacta Professional’, this softens the Slater's parts enough to let the plastic flow into the wood grain and then set. I think the Contacta is a bit more aggressive than the usual Plastic Weld and Mek-Pak.


There is a feel good factor here, though soon to be removed by adding ballast weight.


This time I pulled the wheels off their axles. Blackened the axles (heat to cherry red then quench in cooking oil) and cold blued the sides of the tyres.


The W irons don’t fit properly either - they are too close together. I countersunk the bearings into the mouldings but next time (if I remember!) it would be better to set the solebars further apart.


The lead shot is fixed with CA glue and then encapuslated in epoxy glue, this filed flat to neaten things up a bit.

I want to try painting this underframe before I add the second pair of W irons and the wheels, because I think the masking will be a lot easier.

This is an implement wagon (unfitted) not a carriage truck (fitted). So it can be a match truck with the mobile crane, or marshalled next to open wagons carrying long lengths of timber; or it can carry motor cars within the confines of the Heybridge Railway(*). But it cannot form a part of the Bentall’s exhibition train, which needs to be fitted throughout.

(*) This wagon could carry motor cars further afield, but this would leave the railway unable to use it. So I think it is internal use only.

 

[RichardG]

. . .

View attachment 250598
I have ended up with one of those rather uncomfortable seats with a gap in the back.

Those who know Heybridge Basin will understand why the seat goes here, it is sheltered from the blasts of easterly winds.

The bench seat is my first model to finish for 2026.

I have discovered, I can spray primer from rattle cans in the bathroom. I am working inside a large carton to contain the overspray.


The stench lingers for an hour or more after painting a tiny model like this, but I can keep it out of the rest of the house by closing the bathroom door. Other uses of the room must be planned.


As far as I can make out, the business of fixing these down is a 20th century practice. This one can stay loose for the time being.

This looks so much better than a plastic moulding! This particular model really underlines why I am so happy in 7mm scale - I could not cope with assembling something similar in a smaller scale.

Happy New Year to everyone.

 

[RichardG]

So, a simplified model. I have my doubts about the longevity of the levers. Nickel silver would be stiffer.

I have painted the lever frame I built two months ago.


The lever frame has gained a nut as a spacer between the levers. The levers still move, I think this is sensible for when someone tries to move them.


I remember studying the levers to see which way round they should go. I still got the blue one back to front.

I know I will make this sort of mistake again, however hard I try. The best solution I can think of is to take photos earlier on, just to check things. I doubt a magnifying glass would let me “see” the problem.


Still, the model has a reasonably "scale” look to it and, in spite of my fairly drastic alterations, I am very grateful to Model Signal Engineering for making the kit available to buy.

 

[RichardG]

Posed over a convenient hole in the baseboard.

Mangapps museum have one of these or something very similar, I might remember to take this model along on my next visit.

If I painted my models when I built them then this Workbench thread would be a lot less fragmented . . .


I had the presence of mind to solder a brass tube onto the bottom of the point position indicator. So I have something to hold the model when I glue it into the layout.


Yellow paint is a strange product. This took four coats, the white took one.


This is a somewhat contrived scene, but I want a point position indicator to help to show the period of the scene.

I am not a student of signalling and if the indicator should be somewhere else do say! The two sets of points are worked independently. I want to make the indicator move with the blades of the Setrack point and I expect a servo is the easiest way to do this. I doubt I will want to try for a mechanical linkage.


Here is a similar-looking signal, photographed at Mangapps on 23 August 2023.

 

[RichardG]

This is an implement wagon (unfitted) so it cannot form a part of Bentall’s exhibition train (a future project). This carried passengers and needs to be fitted throughout. The wagon might find itself pressed into use for other purposes on the railway (e.g. as a match truck), but these uses will be of a secondary nature.

Finishing off the RCH flat wagon . . .


The primer is the new version of Halford’s grey primer. If I hadn’t read some quite critical reviews of this I doubt I would be able to tell the difference. The fumes from the new formula are less pungent and disperse sooner.


I thought the chassis was flat but one W iron has needed shims to keep all four wheels in line. I have my doubts about the long-term stability of a styrene chassis with a wooden floor and no bracing from a body . . . I can only wait and see.


The Slater’s brake parts are moulded in black plastic. I couldn’t really see what I was doing fixing black onto black so I used some spares moulded in grey, these were left over from a rectangular tank wagon. This was the second model I posted on WT!

The moulding for the brake hangers is rather short and sets the brake shoes about 1.5 mm away from the wheel treads, so I did a cut and shut with the various parts and closed up the gaps. I think this looks better, but really I think brass is better for such intricate assemblies.


The Slater’s coupling hooks are too thick to fit into the slots in the headstocks so I used some etched brass hooks instead.


For the avoidance of doubt, I don’t get on at all well with springs, especially the tiny Slater’s ones. Such springs never seem to have much effect in my short trains so I won’t miss them. The buffer stems and the coupling hooks are set solid in Araldite.


The colouring on the coffee stirrers is Colron wood dye (“English Light Oak”) applied by brush in a really thin coat. I rubbed the side of a soft pencil over this, the graphite leaves a silvery sheen to suggest bare wood starting to weather down.


I have plenty of unfinished models behind me so this time I will leave this as a model of an unfinished wagon. With no superstructure I can try it with some out of gauge loads.

This wagon was supposed to be a filler to keep me busy for a few days between Christmas and New Year. It has taken me another week to get through it. I would have never written this four years ago, but I now find brass so much easier and more satisfying to work with. I am rather glad this model is done.

 

[Osgood]

...
Rob has suggested having an air compressor to pair with the oil engine. I think this would be better, though it might need a fresh wagon all of its own . . .

You need to develop the business - I give you BENTALL MARINE.

This will of course entail dredging the basin (an excuse for a steam-powered dredger at the quay), but it would provide the necessary justification for heavier loads for that wagon which will ensure it either keeps flat or develops a bow in the right direction (down in the middle).

So, how about a new-fangled marine diesel engine?



You're gonna need a bigger crane though.........

 

[RichardG]

Having got some of my own doubts off my chest, here is an ACE P2 running at NEEGOG on 10th January.


The interesting thing about this is, the build is by the youngest member of the group. He was just 17 when he started, this was three years ago. Plenty of Isopon or similar around the front to make the right shape and join the parts together.


All four driving axles are sprung. The mounting for the rear pony truck is strange, but works really well.

Certainly inspiring to me, I am full of admiration for this.

 

[RichardG]

I built this oil lamp last November. I wasn’t sure whether it has enough modelling content to make posting it worthwhile, but I have realised I need to either share the photos here or get rid of them!


The lamp lens seems to have been cast from a clear resin. Whatever; it makes building the model a whole lot easier.


The LED supplied is a wonder of miniaturisation but its light output is too blue for an oil lamp.


The new bulb is one sold for use with a high frequency lighting unit. When it is under-run, its light looks quite like an oil lamp.


I am intrigued by the brass tube seemingly running through the length of the lamp standard. This must have been placed into the mould before the metal was poured around it.


The extension tube is here to help to wed the lamp onto the ground. I would have soldered this into place had I remembered to add it before passing the wire from the bulb through the model.


The model is now on the platform at Heybridge Basin, near the entrance. The cat is sitting where it blends into its surroundings.

The plan is to connect this lamp (and another lamp) through a DC blocking capacitor onto the track. So the scenic lighting can be switched on and off along with the HF coach lighting, with no additional wiring on the layout.

 

[RichardG]

I noticed some red paint on the front coupling hook in my last post and the black Sharpie is still drying

When I built my Y14 I used 10BA screws and nuts for the crankpins. 10BA screws seem like a good idea because there is enough meat in a Slater's wheel centre to tap a 10BA thread and lock the screw in solid. But the 10BA nuts look a bit toylike, not so good.


It is always nice when someone makes a promising suggestion on WT and it works out for me first time. In this case, @Rob Pulham suggested taking 12BA nuts and opening them out to 10BA. So you get the appearance of 12BA fitting and the security of a 10BA crankpin. This is what I have done here.

I used the three-jaw chuck on the lathe to hold the nuts, and the tailstock chuck to hold the tapping drill and the tap. I suppose this guarantees a square and concentric job, but I'm sure a pillar drill would work just as well, with a machine vice to hold the nut and the drive belt removed to cut the thread.

The 10BA nuts have been bugging me for ages and it has taken an easy evening to sort them out and take the photos.

 

[RichardG]

I have indulged myself in a little "cheque book modelling" in the form of a GER horsebox. This one has been built from a kit by D&S Models.


The build includes a rocking axle, this is at the end with the groom's compartment.

I will confess, I have had a copy of this kit for well over two years and I could not get my head around the instructions. So now I have a worked example to copy.