30th April 2020
I’ve found that my diversions into road vehicles recently span both the New Street and Brettell Road workbenches. So I’ve set up a third workbench section just for vehicles.
A simple little project
RTR wagons
I’ve been looking at a few RTR Wagons recently from Bachmann.
Slope sided mineral. I really like the chassis design on this one as the brake gear is separate and for P4 can be moved out to line up with the wheels with just a little bit of trimming. As well as my usual gouache approach for rust I’ve also tried out some weathering pencils from AK interactive. I won’t go into any detail on those as yet as I’m still getting to grips with them.
Bachmann’s presflo’s are a lovely little model with just a change of wheels, couplings and buffers required. The buffers on these were very odd and I’m not really sure what they were supposed to be so I have used Accurascale ones in their place. I’ve also added more weight as they hardly weighed anything as supplied.
Im not a huge fan of textures in weathering as I believe they often look too heavy in 4mm scale but on these wagons the dry concrete could often look really caked on so i used talc in wet paint as part of the process.
Return to the roof
A while ago I showed a picture of the framework for Brettell Roads new roof. I was going to have this done for Scalefour North but given the Covid-19 crisis the show was canceled and the urgency to get it done went with it. However I have turned my attention back to this with thoughts on the material.
The first material I brought was just too heavy so i didn’t even try to use it. The weight wasn’t something i had really considered. This is the second material, much lighter but it let too much light through. On top of that my efforts were too scruffy and would have bugged me if I left it.
So this is material 3 – Much happier now and with the help of my wife much neater as well. The image shows it before I finished the front off and the supports will obviously need to be darkened.
The above image shows the lighting on the layout pretty much as the eye sees it. Not as dark as before but still obviously night time.
25th of April 2020
Long time followers may remember my project to build a 15xx tank loco. This is as far as I got but this may hopefully change as Warren shepherd who does a kit in 7mm scale is considering a 4mm scale version. http://www.warrenshephard.com/gwr.htm
He needs at least 24 firm sales to make it viable and expressions of interest are being collected on the GWR modellers Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/921387308231483/?ref=share
Project Coronation – Tender part 3
Moving on to the tender body…
Brassmasters supply a basic sub structure with different overlays for the 3 main types of tender found behind a Duchess.
This is the coal shute and front bulkhead assembly.
The 2 sub assemblies test fitted together.
A few more road vehicles – Back to the defender.
Of the 3 cars i did last time the Land Rover defender was the easiest. That’s before I encountered the phenomenon of the Land Rover enthusiast. At least as bad as the VW enthusiasts and enough to give the most ardent P4 modeller a run for their money I was (in a very polite way and from several sources) informed that it was wrong as in a too late version.
Friend and fellow Calcutta Sidings operator Brendan supplied the above image of (one of) his. Turns out the Oxford one is a ford engined one and you can tell by the different bonnet shape (not sure why i didnt notice this). These were introduced in 2007. Also Brendan’s didn’t have a sunroof and the roof ribs were different.
So the bonnet ‘hump’ was ground down and the new raised bits added from 5 thou plasticard. The sunroof was filed and new ribs added from microstrip. The wheels came from a RAC version again from Oxford Diecast.
A few more road vehicles.
Been tweaking a few more road vehicles starting with fitting better wheels (from RTI) to a couple of old cargos. The WH Smiths lorry seems to draw a lot of attention at shows and for many people sets a time and place quite specifically.
Next up another little batch from Oxford diecast waiting form my usual treatment…
… which is to paint the inside of the window apertures and wheel arches black and a quick spray of matt varnish before some gentle weathering. I might see if i can get some more standard looking wheels for the Land Rover.
The Volvo (760) required a bit more effort as out of the box (on the right) it did not capture the look of the real thing very well at all. The solution was to file the windows so that they are much deeper. I enlarged the windows of the Rover 3500 too but not by anything like as much. Wing mirrors are just a bit of microstrip.
Bashing Buildings
When it comes to building I admit I tend to just get on and scratchbuild them. Part of this is due to ignorance of whats actually out there but recently I picked up a couple of Wills kits and have had a go at these instead.
First up is the kit for a lamp store. You actually get 2 in the kit and these are for the slightly different GWR design but can be adapted to something more ‘midland’ pretty easily by shortening the sides to form a 6ft square structure. I cut out the door and remounted it flush as well as replacing the roof with thinner plasticard. On the other end I added a few extra window bars (see below).
The other kit was for the ‘station garage’ which i have chopped about to give a industrial looking wooden building. The roof again is plasticard (the wills stuff is quite thick) and the vents are from unit models.
More vehicles
In the absence of Scalefour North I have finished off a few vehicles that have been lurking near my workbench for a while now.
Starting with a couple for New Street. A Ford Fiesta and Range Rover from Oxford Diecast. These follow my now standard approach of blacking in the window frames and wheel arches before a coat of matt varnish and some subtle weathering. On the fiesta i turned the wheels down a little and binned the little plug in numberplate as it stuck out to far. For the Range Rover its worth chopping off the mounts for the screws that hold it into the box.
Moving on to Brettell Road. On the left a BMC FG lorry. This is a combination of 2 FG lorries from different manufacturers. The body and chassis come from a Chinese company called Best Choose. Initially these look a lot more detailed than the base toys version but there’s something not quite right about the proportion of the cab so I replaced it with a detailed Base toys one instead.Wheels are from RTI and i don’t fancy doing the glazing again any time soon.
The van is a ford 300E from the Classix range.
Finally a Fordson tractor (Oxford Diecast) modified with a front loader from the Dapol JCB kit. Quite a neat little project this one.
18th March 2020
Scalefour North canceled.
Like many (if not all) shows at the moment Scalefour North has been cancelled. Below is the statement from the Scalefour Society.
Scalefour North Cancellation
As many of you will know, the Committee took the position that Scalefour North would go ahead this year unless the event was cancelled by the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School or that Government advice changed from what it was when our decision was made. That situation has now been reached with today’s Government statement by the Prime Minister to avoid all non-essential travel and non-essential contact. Whilst we all enjoy our events, they cannot be regarded as essential in the wider scheme of things, hence our decision to cancel.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to James Dickie and his team, who have put in a lot of hard work to organise this year’s event, unfortunately all now in vain. I would also like to thank those members who have expressed their support for the Committee at this difficult time, it is very much appreciated.
Given the expected peak of Coronavirus, our AGM must be in doubt. We will, of course keep you posted.
John Chambers
Chairman.
So Brettell Roads next outing will be Railex Northeast in July which is currently still going ahead. I will update here if this changes.
Brettell Road 2
As the song goes, regrets, I’ve had a few but unlike the song I am going to mention them. With Brettell road pretty much finished off thoughts have turned to what to do next. Before anyone asks, New Street isn’t calling me back at the moment.
Brettell road was only supposed to be a play thing for home, but much in the way of New Street which started with the idea that you could model the western end station throat in 8ft, Brettell Road went a little bit wrong.
It was designed like an exhibition layout but not as an exhibition layout if that makes sense. In the urge to get something done and 1950’s midland railway practice being alien to me at the time there was one major aspect of the track plan that I have always regretted. You see, for those like me who didn’t know, the Midland had a thing about facing points, especially coming from passenger lines onto goods loops and yards. What they preferred was a single slip and the train would pass the slip. Back up through the slip onto the wrong line before proceeding into the yard. Had I known this at the time (or more accurately been bothered to find out!) I would have done the Brettell Road main line as double track and used this arrangement. For the operational interest as well as its not really something you see done on models.
The other regret is about proportion. You see for an exhibition layout that’s 16ft overall but only 50% or 8ft scenic I feel the proportions are off. If it was 24ft with 16 ft scenic then a viewing ratio of 66% sits much better.
And so, presenting Brettell Road part 2. An extension to the original incorporating a station and yard based very loosely on the real Brettell Lane. Doubling up the track on the existing 2 board is still a none starter but with minor adaptation to the track work at the left hand end of the original I can get the single slip in and get in the operational interest I missed the first time. The yard will rise slightly to be level with the platforms which is something I’ve borrowed from the features of the yard that was at Kings Heath. I plan to do the station in the very last week of service to keep with the run down feel (hey no one really expected this to be pretty did they?)
A quick win, relatively speaking.
With my ongoing Duchess build my thoughts turned to a little quick win project (also with Scalefour North coming up at the end of March). I said relatively speaking in the title because a few years ago I would have likely considered this quick win as a bit of an undertaking but there you go. When we were at the Wakefield show with Moor Street, my attention was drawn to a cheap Lima GWR small prairie tank loco. They were not common at all on the Stourbridge to Wolverhampton line but their larger sisters, the Large prairie were somewhat a mainstay of the line.
I know Hornby are doing a new model but a dirt cheap Airfix example was found (none runner) along with a comet chassis and I set to work.
Stage one – body detailed and the chassis built. I modified the pony trucks a little and sprung them using a method outlined by Dave Holt (see here). The original smokebox door was too small and a few extra details were added to the body. After this picture was taken I also reduced the height of the safety valve bonnet.
A quick blast of grey primer and a liberal(ish) dose of archers rivet transfers and the body was read for the paint shop. A few images of the finished result follow.
Why we still need books.
Although they have apparently been around for a while now I’ve only recently come across the Locomotive Portfolios series of books from Pen and Sword.
Presented in an almost square format and hard backed at 250 or more pages they seem well detailed and have a very large number of pictures (some in colour). From what I’ve seen so far I will be keeping an eye on this series.
While on the subject of books one of this things that had drawn me onto Brettell Road and away from New Street for the last few years is research. Its a side of the hobby that I really enjoy and I feel that New Street was becoming less about learning stuff and more about producing stuff. That’s not to say I knew all there was to know, far from it but I would go as far to say I had a pretty good idea where to find stuff.
With Brettell road it was all familiar but at the same time so different and its this that has drawn me in. Its a railway I knew but clearly didn’t know at all and it definatley ticked my learning stuff box.
One thing that really surprised me is the reliance on books. Its easy, now we are well into the 21st century to think we can get all we need online but the truth is that is far, far from the case. Yes the internet is great but when you are a somewhat detail obsessed railway modeller looking for a specific thing its next to useless. The information just isn’t out there in the digital world and i wonder if it will ever be? We will always need books.
Project Coronation – Tender part 2
The tender chassis is now effectively done – Not a lot else to say really so here’s some pictures.
Right hand side
Rear end
Front, or loco end.
Project Coronation – Tender part 1
I’ve moved away from the loco for a while as the next stage of the build is the cylinders and I don’t have the castings i will need for them just yet. So attention has shifted to the tender.
The first stage is the outside sub frames – a simple box really. The kit allows for springing or internal compensation. I’ve opted for springing.
Underside of the tender showing the sub frame, brake gear and water scoop gear. A little fiddly but its been fun to build so far.
December 15th 2019
We had a good show at Wakefield in November with Moor Street. The layout picked up a prize for the wagon hoist which was great. Next outing for us will be Wakefield again in March for Scalefour North with Brettell Road.
Project Coronation – loco chassis, part 2
So progress continues on my Coronation build.
The front frame is as far as I can go for the moment. (I don’t have the cast bits for the loco yet. If you are wondering about the cylinders they are a separate sub assembly.
No problems with the pony truck so far. The kit provides for both the earlier and later types. This is the later one.
The bogie is compensated. As the bogie is the only part of the loco that traps the wheels in place I have used some old/rejected wagon wheels for the moment. I ideally only want to put wheels onto the axle once if I can.
Without the wheels in the way.
I couldn’t resist a temporary mock up to see get a better feel for the loco. I’ve used a High Level Road runner + gearbox. The main drivers don’t have their springs in place yet so its sitting a little off at the moment.
Project Coronation – loco chassis, part 1
I am currently embarked on building a test build of the forthcoming Brassmasters Coronation or Duchess kit. Way before I got distracted with Brettell Road I always thought that if Brassmasters ever did a Duchess i would have a go at building one as 46235 ‘City of Birmingham’. Well now they are and so I am!
Of course its a personal opinion thing but I never really liked streamlined steam locos. While the Duchesses were a little more thoughtfully designed than the god awful GWR efforts I always thought they looked a bit like an upturned bath tub and have to admit the A4’s did look a fair bit better. However with the streamlining taken off the Duchesses were ‘it’. The steam locomotive version of the Concorde moment. To my eyes, at least, the pinnacle of steam loco perfection.
Anyway enough hero worship and on to the model. Starting with…
The main sub-frames. The loco frames come in 3 sub sections related to the wheels. A driving wheel section, a pony truck section and a bogie section.
The chassis upside down, test fitting the main coupling rods.
The main frame with the brass overlays fitted.
The front or bogie area sub-frame.
More to follow.
Local Flavour
This post can best be described as a taste of local flavour if not the full meal itself.
Anyone familiar with railways in the Stourbridge area will be aware of the Parry People Movers that operate between Stourbridge Junction and Stourbridge Town. Little 4 wheeled railbuses that spend their days shuffling along the UK’s shortest passenger branch line. The line itself is still jointed track meaning the ride is somewhat best described as lively! While famous now for these little vehicles Stourbridge didn’t really embrace the railbus idea the first time around, The line begin operated by autotrains and GWR design railcars at the time railbuses were being tried elsewhere.
However as Brettell Road is a loose interpretation I have gotten hold of a Heljan one as a nod to the little people movers. This was always going to be a nice to have rather than a need so having kept my eye on eBay for a cheap one, just on the off chance, this AC version popped up as a non runner with a dodgy motor for less than half the price the runners were going for.
The motor was replaced with a small Mashima I already had. One of the drive shafts was bent out of shape too but as these little models are very heavy for their size I binned that and now its just powered on one axle. For what it needs to do that seems absolutely fine.
I’ve fitted a Zimo MX634D decoder in the space in the roof linked to a TCS KA2 stay alive hidden behind the door and weathered it, The wheels are Branchlines 3ft using the original gears and bushes. You do need to grind a little bit of the chassis away to get them to fit. A couple of passengers and its good to go.
Same idea – different generations!
Another bit of local flavour. The yard crane at the real Brettell Lane was a bit of a chunky affair. In line with my upcoming demo at Scaleforum on making the most out of older models, I’ve come up with this representation using the Airfix dockside crane as a start point. The jib is scratchbuilt from plasticard. I’ve only seen a few distant pictures of the real thing so this is very much a loose interpretation.
J94 Project – Done!
When I picked up my nearly finished J94 kit it came with an already assembled Branchlines Gearbox. Try as I might I just couldn’t get on with it. For some reason it seemed to have very little torque but this wasn’t sacrificed for speed as it didn’t really have much of that either (perhaps the energy was being used up by the noise it generated?). So admitting defeat I swapped it for a High Level Road Runner +. What a difference that made!
Another little problem I came across was the lack of space between the inside motion and the springs I fitted on the front 2 axles. I had used a short handrail knob in the same way that the advocates of CSB systems use but it was all just a little bit too tight for comfort. So I ditched that and just soldered a couple of springs to the inside of the chassis – Number 10 guitar springs for the center axle and number 12 for the front bearing on the top of the axles. Anyone with any kind of knowledge of how things should be done are probably reading the rest of this post from behind a sofa but it works so that’s fine in my eyes!
Anyway its done so here’s a few pictures.
Here’s a very short video of the inside motion at work
Below are a few evening images.
Another little video – this time a spot of shunting. There’s a few stutters which I am hoping a little more running in will iron out.
Finally one of those unplanned shots you sometimes get when you are focussing on something else and they just catch your eye. A simple line up of coal wagons.
J94 project – something a little different.
Several years ago now DJ models appeared with much fanfare (Although only in one place if we are being completely honest) and announced a brand new J94 model. This was of interest to me as 2 of them were used by the NCB in the local area. While it would have been a nice to have I was never going to go for the RTR effort but i did hope that if it was good enough it might see a few unstarted Brassmasters kits appear which would be a little more up my street.
In the end this didn’t really happen so the idea was kind of abandoned until the good folk at Brassmasters mentioned they had a unfinished test build of their kit somewhere. Money changed hands and a slightly different style of project was formed to what I’ve done in the past.
So this is what i was presented with (albeit with a Giesel chimney that i replaces with a RT models casting) and a little box of spare parts. I’ve never finished a half started loco kit before and with no instructions and not knowing what bits I didn’t have it was going to be a bit of an adventure.
The easy route would be to just add the body detailing and finished what I had but the chassis was missing most of its representation of valve gear and I didn’t have any of these bits in my little box of spares.
The chassis as supplied.
My friend Les supplied me with a copy of the original instructions (which sort of helped a little) and members of the Scalefour Society forum kindly provided pictures of the etches, some finished models and some prototype pictures so I set to work.
The detailed up body, using prototype pictures as a guide.
The Chassis. I used a Brassmasters inside motion kit, shortened by 3mm and simplified. The prototype locos seeming to have a much more rudimentary arrangement than the LMS locos the Brassmasters kit is intended for. I also couldn’t use the original central pivoted rocking beam compensation so I have sprung the front two axles from a central pivot on either side instead.
What ever happened to…
Way back towards the start of this project I posted the above image. The little black tank wagon at the far end was a Peco wonderful wagon kit and avid follows of this little adventure might notice nothing has really been said of it since.
It was pretty quickly joined with a companion and the pair have been lurking near my workbench ever since. Well now they are finally done and ready to go. Modifications to the original kit were to replace the w-irons with Bill Bedford ones. New ladders from Stenson models and new handbrakes from Ambis. I didn’t really like the mounting rods as supplied so these were replaced with 0.6mm brass tube. The ends being flattened with pliers. The walkways came from my spares box.
The crane has its runner from a Cambrian kit. Its a little freelance is based loosely on an image of a similar but steel wagon I found on Paul Bartletts site at Bescot. The steps are spares from a Bachmann class 25.
Before i settled on the Cambrian route for the crane runner I found an image of a diagram 1/001 lowfit that caught my eye. Built by BR they had a LNER style body on an LMS style chassis. Bachmann do this RTR but the chassis is completely wrong so its been replaced with a Parkside one. The mineral is diagram 1/119 21 tonner from The Chivers kit. (Tim had some lying around when I last went over). This wagon would be very new in the Brettell road period. This is also the upper end of my build it rigid approach to wagon building. Any longer wheelbase than this and I tend to go for springing.
Speaking of Tim we have been working on a curved version of his display shelves with a few design tweaks such as the more solid locking of the ends and little clear ‘buffer stops’ for the ends. The 4mm scale versions are ready to go, see Tims website.
Finally a co-bo on a parcels train for no other reason than why not?