Flights of Fancy – Part 2
I ended the first part of this project by mentioning I needed some bits from Scaleforum. One of these was the injector which I modified a little from an Alan Gibson one. 
I also needed some firebox wash out plugs. Again Alan Gibson did the honours. It’s worth noting that they are not on the same places either side. The cab roof was just a bit of nickel silver rolled to the right radius and a few bits of strip for the rainstrips. The vent was filed up from Evergreen section. While on the subject of the cab the kit includes some bits and an etched floor. I found the handbrake column, if mounted to the cab floor as the kit was designed, gets in the way when trying to mate the body and chassis together so I cut it from the floor and mounted it to the body instead. The kit specifies that the reversing screw is mounted on the left side of the cab but, while hard to see in photos, it seems to be mounted to the right side so thats what I did.
With everything in place and being happy wit the fit of things the body was given another light undercoat before the missing rivets were added from my dwindling supply of Archers along with some from Railtec. Thankfully the flatirons dot have a lot of visible rivets.
I don’t normally take a painted but pre-weathered picture but this time I made an exception. I mentioned in the last post that because of the carzatti front axle the coupling rods seemed backwards to the norm with the joint ahead of the middle axle not behind it. When No.2000 was modified this remained the case. The kit has the coupling rods the normal way round with the joint behind the middle axle and I’ve never seen a model flatiron (in either 4mm scale of 7mm scale) that addresses this. I found 52f models do a set that have the right wheelbase with the joint in the right place so I used those instead. One little tip that seems really obvious but I’ve never seen anyone mention (perhaps its because it is obvious to everyone else?) is that I line up the coupling rod on this side with the orientation of the grub screw on the final drive gear. It makes accessing the grub screw simple should you need to in the future as you know where to stop the wheels rotation.
Below some pictures of the finished loco with my usual caveat of still needing coal and a crew. 
With her baby sister! 
Flights of Fancy – Part 1
Long time readers may remember this illustration I did a fair few years ago. At the time I was toying with the idea of BR Flatiron for Brettell Road. People who know anything about these locos will know that they only made it as far as 1938 before the lastof them went for scrap but my theory was what if they didn’t and made it another 2o years or so? After all we are all happy to bend the historical truth when it comes to places but why not locos too?
A brief history
Samuel Johnson of the Midland Railway had identified a need for a large passenger tank engine in 1903 and while a 0-6-4 seemed a logical progression of their 0-4-4 tanks several ideas and arrangements were put forward both before and after the design by Deeley was settled on. These ranged from a 4-4-4, a 2-6-2 with odd split side tanks, through several variations of outside cylindered 2-6-4’s and a 4-6-4. All of the class of 40 were built in 1907. As it turned out this was not a wheel arrangement that would become at all common in the UK. The front axle was mounted into a Carzatti slide giving extra play and resulting in a somewhat backwards arrangement of coupling rod with the knuckle joint ahead of the middle axle and not behind it as was the norm.
In early LMS days the class were fitted wit new superheated Belpair boilers resulting in a different firebox and being longer, the boiler now sticking out from the front of the tanks. The cab spectacle plates were also changed at the same time.
In 1928 loco No.2015 derailed at speed near Newark and a passenger on its train was killed. 2 more derailments occurred in early 1935. The first instance was when N0.2023 derailed at Ashton under Hill in February, killing its driver. 3 weeks later number 2011 was observed by railway inspectors operating between Leicester and Burton upon Trent only to itself derail 5 days later at Moira. Fortunately this time no serious injuries occurred. But the reputation had set in, the class were well known as rough riders on anything other than perfect track and were noted to run smoother going backwards.
An idea not completely without precedent.
The case for these locos lasting longer than they did is not without precedent. Class leader N0.2000 underwent some modifications to see if the riding could be improved. These were the replacement of the front axle arrangement with traditional springs (giving a different look) and an improved bogie with side bolsters. No 2000 was tested against an unmodified classmate No.2012 which itself had recent general repairs and not yet clocked up 1000 miles since. Both locos were considered to be in first class running order.
On the first test No.2000 ran between 35 and 50 mph before selling back to 35 and it was reported that the engine rode very steadily with no side movement reported of the trailing bogie. Test 2 saw No.2000 run between 45 and 50mph settling back to 45 with the same results. Test 3 was run at 55 and occasionally 60mph and this test was satisfactory enough to try test 4 where she was run over 60mph, reaching a speed of 67 before selling back to 65. It was reported that a slight amount of side oscillation developed and a slight roll but was still considered satisfactory riding.
No.2012 ran 3 tests. Test 1, 35mph occasionally touching 40 and the riding was reported as good with a slight oscillation and roll being perceptible on the footplate. Test 2 saw 45mph with occasional 47 and the riding was considered fairly good but with more oscillation and tendency to roll. The final test saw running at 55mph with occasional 60 and the riding was reported as rough with the oscillation and roll said to be pronounced and the front end having a tendency to develop an up and down surging motion.
Although the results of the modifications to No.2000 were good Stanier decided that the rest of the class were not worth altering and between 1935 and 1938 they were all scrapped with many of the (standard) parts going on to other locos. It was reported that many of the boilers were used on 4f’s.
But what if Sanier thought the modification were worth doing to the entire class? They were only 30 years old and many midland locos lasted much longer than that. As the boilers went to other locos they were obviously good so it it such a leap to think that a modified flatiron could indeed make it into BR days with only a slight tweak of history is it?
The Model
Luckily for us South Eastern Finecast do a kit for these loco’s and I’ve had one in the stash pretty much since I did the drawing above.
Starting with the bogie as supplied on the left and my modified version on the right. It’s been modified mechanically to provide basic springing on all 4 wheels and a basic form of sprung side control. As supplied the bogie is designed to be attached to a swinging arm much like the RTR guys tend to do. I didn’t really like that idea much if I’m honest.
The main frames modified with some spare Brassmasters inside motion bits. I considered there was no way you would be able to see working inside motion so just modelled the bits I felt you might see if you looked hard enough!
The cab Spectacle plate is a particularity weak point of the kit as it bears only a passing resemblance to the real thing, I made a new one from plasticard as can be seen on the right. If anyone wants the drawing for this (which I admit is a best guess on my part) it can be downloaded from here. The rebuilt cabs also seemed to have slightly longer roofs than the originals and little bits of Nickel strip were soldered to the corners to replicate this. 
Front view. The kit relied on an upper half of the boiler/smokebox merging with the lower half which is cast as part of the tank front and this forming the front of the smokebox. The end result wasn’t all that round so I cut it back and used a 22mm copper ring in its place Buffers are from Lanarkshire Models and lamp irons from Stenson Models
The rear view. The steps are cast into the rear of the bunker and where a little chunky. Also the top one was too low so these were replaced with some of my mk1 coach end steps. The window frames are from a Mainly Trains spectacle plate etch. Note the larger buffers on this end. 
The top of the tanks are vague as supplied with just casting for the water filer caps and 2 air vents that were related to the water pick up gear. In reality only 2015 had this fitted so they should be left off all other models of the class. This is my educated guess of what should be there but i do think there should be more clutter than this. Photos of this area are rare and so far I’ve only found 2
Progress will now need to wait until after Scaleforum where i need some more bits.
Its all gone a bit Eastern Region – Part 2
Earlier in the year I showed progress on a test build of the Brassmasters J17 kit test build. What follows is progress since then.
To be fair there wasn’t a huge amount left to do as I left it. One of the jobs was the business end of the brake gear on both the loco and tender. 
The other little job on the tender was the guard irons which had been missed off the test etch. These were fashioned up from scrap using a scaled image of the production etch as a guide. 
When I showed the side on view before I had managed to get the sanding linkages all wrong. This was subsequently corrected.
(Video © Tim Horn and used with permission) Then it was off to Tim’s for a few days work blocking in the basic greenery on North Elmham which was also an ideal opportunity to give the J17 a chance to stretch its legs. It was unweighted at this point except for a few pound coins in the tender. Attention then switched to getting Brettell Road ready for Scalefour Crewe and besides I thought it would be good for the loco to be displayed on the Brassmasters stand in the raw so to speak. However since then it’s now been finished off with the exception of a crew and some coal in the tender.
For part one of this little project click here
Post Scalefour Crewe reflection
Scalefour Crewe was an excellent show in my opinion and feedback from my operators was that they all enjoyed themselves (thanks for your help guys). Thanks to the show organisers for inviting us. The layout seemed well received and many people were kind enough to say nice things about it. We seemed to be quite successful in holding people attention throughout the weekend.
As with any outing theres aways a period of reflection on how the show went. The layout seemed to fight us a little in the morning but settled down. The main issue being the cassettes were causing a few problems.
There were 2 areas with the cassettes that need addressing. Area A is that any stock that wasn’t on the rails would strike the edge of the end stop supports and bring the whole train to a halt. It’s unrealistic to think that everything on a cassette will always be on the track 100% of the time as the cassettes are moved around. Thats the point of them after all.
Area B is an easy fix. Theres a bit of wire that holds the connecting rail (which is loose at the end) in line with the rail on the cassette and agains the guide rail. These bits of wire were too straight meaning the joining rail could go the wrong side and all the stock would fall off. A little more of an angle to the wire will solve that.
First approach to fix problem A was to shape the end supports so that stock doesn’t stop when it hits it. A few trials showed this to be effective but it merely gets the stock past the ends and it still stays off the track. Plan b was to make a re-railer from 30 thou plasticard so that any errant stock is pushed back on to the track. The advantage of this is that I don’t need to reshape the end supports at all as the stock is on the track as it runs off the cassette. This is just a rough proof of concept of course but if I fit one to the end of every cassette, as wagons will need to run of their own cassette and through the loco cassette that gives 3 opportunities to re-rail any rogue wagons and if they are still off after all that then they deserve to go back in the box for attention back home!
Above is a little test video. The brake van is running along the edge of the cassette before the join.
Aside from the usual small stock of wagons that need attention either through failures or just a general refusal on their part to play nicely we had a few issues taking stuff in and out of the yard. There were also a few clunks when running through the slip which is a dead giveaway that something is not quite right somewhere. So on returning home and when I had just 2 boards up, allowing me better access to the slip this has been investigated, tweaked and one of the check rails replaced.
A Bachmann brake van (straight wheel swap, no compensation) does the testing.
Artistic licence
This weekend I was helping Tim at Railex (helping in the loosest term – I was there anyway!) and had a very interesting chat with a chap about lighting on layouts. He explained that lighting is what he does and he was obviously somewhat of an authority on the subject.
Anyway the subject of this image came up, Apologies for posting it again, I get people are probably sick of seeing it but I have added a bit of rain as some people asked for it. He explained that sodium lighting on a scale of colour gives a very high spike in the yellow range and doesn’t output any other colours. For this image to have the colours it does it would need a white light source, I cant say its the moon because its raining! It actually does have a white light source as I have a string of dim-able LEDs on the wall of the shed that I use to infill my night pictures. He very obviously knew exactly what he was on about! People may have noticed that at night we sometimes see in black and white. It was something I was already aware about on a very basic level. Cameras are much better at picking up colour in low light than the human eye as anyone who recently saw and photographed the northern lights probably noticed.
So I could say that the above image has a certain degree of artistic licence to it. Or at least I could if it was deliberate but the reality is it wasn’t. I hate it when people throw the term artistic licence around to justify missing something or some sort of mistake after its been pointed out. It’s OK to miss things, just don’t try and claim it was deliberate after the event.
So by taking all of the colour out except yellow (and putting some back in for the lorry lights and inside the phone box) we have an image that more accurately depicts what you would see if you were really standing on a rain sodden bridge in the Black Country at the end of the 1950’s. Two questions now though, The first is which of the two is actually the more pleasing, or nicer image? and the second is anyone actually bothered?
3F and using a Brassmasters Easychas conventionally. Part 2
Much as I quite liked the accidental JPS tribute look of my 3F (Fans of retro Formula 1 will know what I mean) My 3f has now been painted and weathered.
I found this image of 43687 at New Street on station pilot duties around 1957. The loco was allocated to Bournville shed at the time so it seemed suitable to me. Image ©John Turner 53A Models of Hull Collection and used with his kind permission.
Below a few images of the finished model.
Just waiting for a Modelu crew to arrive. Does anyone know how the cab rain sheets were attached to the tender on these locos? Ive found several images of them with the sheets stored on the edge of the cab roof but none with them in use. I guess back in the day people didn’t go out to take photos of mundane freight locos if it was raining!
3F and using a Brassmasters Easychas conventionally.
Ive always quite liked the Midland 3f tender locos. They seem to be quite nicely proportioned, more so than the 4F’s that looked kind of tall and somewhat top heavy. A while ago in quick succession I picked up a Bachmann body followed soon after by a tender body and a Brassmasters Easychas for it. In the last week or so Ive decided to get some sort of progress on it.
So starting with the tender. I never had the Bachmann chassis and if its anything like most RTR tender chassis it will no doubt have all been a bit flat and kinda naff. Brassmasters do a detailing kit to replace the tender chassis completely so I used that. This is just built as per their instructions.
The rear end. Buffers are from Lanarkshire models as is the vac pipe. I think I’ll replace the lamp irons too.
On to the loco. If I had the original chassis then based on the 1F I did I’m confident you could have something up and running in a somewhat leisurely afternoon. If you use the Bachmann coupling rods and brakes you might not even need to fire up the soldering iron! However as I didn’t have the Bachmann chassis I decided to build the chassis up as a more conventional one by adding spacers left over from a High Level Models Jinty chassis kit. As the easychas caters for EM and p4 the EM spacers are perfect. If you don’t have any leftover Jinty bits though Alan Gibson do a neat little etch of spacers.
Before I show you the chassis though some decisions need to be made. The splashers suffer from the usual RTR problem of being too big. Brassmasters do a separate etch for ones that are the right size. The above image shows a comparison so you can decide if it bothers you or not.
As you can probably guess it bothered me so they were all replaced. The original footplate has a solid floor back to the front of the chassis casting so I cut that out. The new reversing lever is part of the chassis kit and the boxes on the side of the cabs have been thinned down by 2mm as per the instructions.
All this means that a little bit of rectification is needed on the body as it had recesses in the boiler for the original splashers that are no longer needed. I believe the Bachmann chassis block comes quite far forward so the base of the boiler was put back in using layers of thin plasticard. Theres not really much else to do to the body other than this.
Back to the chassis then – with the inside motion kit from the 4f – You didn’t expect me to leave a gaping hole did you? The gearbox is a high level loadhauler+
How the loco looks mocked up. I will leave the sandpipes until the very end as they will trap the centre wheels in place.
Going over old ground
Ive recently been doing a few revisions on the layout.
The first was prompted by a failure. It had always irked me a little that the above lamp was a little bit crude and the top wasn’t really the distinctive shape the lights at Round Oak had. Being at the back in a dark corner it wasn’t noticeable enough to invest any time into. However when it recently failed why not kill two birds with one stone? 
So after a bit of tweaking I’m much happier with it now.
Ground Signals. I originally used the MSE kits but I had found a few drawbacks. First thing was A few had took some knocks while cleaning the track. As they use a whitemetal casting for the main body and legs they really didn’t like this at all and were starting to look a bit bent and battered. Secondly as I had fitted lights there wasn’t a lot of room to work and I had just drilled out the lamp housing and shoved a nano LED in there with slightly mixed results.
One consequence of this wass more light bled out of the bottom than through the signal despite various attempts to fill the hole
So step in the Palatine models etched kits as a replacement. These are hopefully stronger and being an etch theres more room to position the LED in a better controlled way. I say more room but in 4mm scale ground signals are tiny but because of that even a slight gain is a big help. I modified the kits a little to make them work and drilled a couple of holes for the lights. Results are below
On the subject of signals Ive been playing around with resistors again to try to get the lamps a bit closer to how the real thing looked and less like a modern colour light. I think I’m there now.
Up on the road Ive added a few telegraph poles meaning I think I can call this area finished now. 
A revisit to my classic (or is that cliché?) scene. This time a wider verson.
Back to wagons – and a correction.
A while ago I did a batch of shock opens including an attempt at an ex-LMS diagram 1983 variant. Justin of Rumney Models noticed that I had used the same ends as the BR version with inset corrugations while the LMS wagon has corrugations that stick out. Something I had completely failed to notice myself. So that wagon had its top lip removed and renumbered back to a BR one. A new kit was brought (well a few actually – saves on postage!) and a second attempt made using cut down spare ends from a Parkside 12t van kit. The BR version is at the back. Theres a few other differences too like the bang plates for the doors, the shape of the panelling on the ends and the braces under the door.
The finished wagon in the company of yet another D2150 13t open.
The BR wagon has had a Rumney models sheet rail added and been mated with a clasp brake chassis to produce a D1/040 variant. Buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
Moving on to a couple of hoppers. 
First up the Accurascale 24.5t hopper which i picked up cheaply from a private sale on Western Thunder. It came in brown livery and with a certificate saying it was a limited edition number 061 of 500. If this sort of thing matters to you and you have one you will be pleased to know that your model is now even more limited being 1 of 499 (You’re welcome!). It was separated into its component parts (a process that had already started in the box) and the body resprayed. These are not a straight drop in wheels job as the axles used are a little short and theres a boss on the back of the W-iron, much like Lima was doing 40+ years ago. Its not a huge problem though as a few turns of a bearing cutter (I use Ed’s tool) and a little bit of thinning the boss down and off you go. I also cut off the NM pockets.
What is a little bit more of an issue is it doesn’t weigh anything, just 21 grammes out of the box. Obviously if you plan to run your wagons loaded no problem but if you want them empty (as did ) then a little bit of trickery is required.
My solution was to make new lower sides from 1mm lead. This brings the wagon up to 50 grammes. If you would like to follow suit I drew up a little cutting template which you can download from here
Another parkside 21 tonner based on a picture that came up on my facebook feed. (some of the wagons in the post are waiting a delivery of couplings you may notice). Theres often a discussion when these kits crop up that they are difficult to build but they really aren’t. The trick is to assemble a side and end as 2 pairs on a piece of glass with a cutting matt to ensure they are square, let these set fully before assembling the rest of the wagon and theres no problems Any slight gaps between the panels can be filled from the inside using Mr Surfacer 1000 liquid filler.
Now a few oddballs – this is an ex L&Y diagram 81 loco coal wagon from the old MAJ models kit. The kit is supplied with a wooden chassis which is correct for the earlier wagons but i wanted the later one so only used the body. The brake gear on these were a little weird to say the least
The plan is to have a short train of condemned wagons that is delivered to the yard as a trip working from Bescot. These are then to be collected by one of the Round Oak locos to be taken away for scrapping and the metal bits melted down in the furnaces. This is basically what happened and quite a few locos met their fate this way in real life. Unlike some of the more famous railway scrap yards stuff didn’t hand around for long so nothing from my scrap train will have any hope of reprieve sadly. The condemned markings are from Railtec,
Another victim this time a GWR diagram 04 open from the cooper craft kit. Like another Coopercraft kit I’ve built this has the bearing holes mounted too low meaning that the wagon looked like it was on stilts. This one has slightly odd brake gear as well. You can just make out the old GW branding.
The LMS traction truck has finally been mated with its load.
Also based on a picture that cropped upon my facebook feed is this Borail from the Cambrian kit. Making the load was far from the most interesting task I’ve ever done I can tell you and despite it being essentially hollow this wagon still hovered up 5 meters of rail!
Its all gone a bit Eastern Region
Over the last week or so Ive embarked on another test build for Brassmasters. This time a J17 kit thats been designed by David Barham. Its not really any use for Brettell Road but it would fit North Elmham (which I have been know to help out with).
The basic chassis build with a High level Loadhauler gearbox. The loco and tender use CSBs throughout. The kit will be supplied with both printed and etched brake shoes.
The tender subframe – Again with options on the brake shoes.
Chassis and footplate.
Tender with its outer frame.
The cab
Pretty much everything above the footplate and forward of the cab is catered for by a 3D print. Here I’ve made a start on the basic detailing
The tender body, like the loco, is a 3D print.
The detailed up chassis
The finished loco – More pictures below. This has been a pleasure to put together.
shuffling and testing.
A bit of re-jigging of the shed means I have been able to put all of the scenic boards for Brettell Road up together. Its 5 months since the Cradley show – Time flies doesn’t it?
Theres a few things to fix after the show. A couple of the points needed a check over as they weren’t totally reliable. I also found 2 dead sections that hadn’t shown up during the show so I fixed those too. 
The lights on the upper floor of this building failed before the show but after the building had been planted onto the layout. It was too close to the show to fix it before so this is something to look at now I have time. I also want to add a few yard lights and sort out the telegraph poles on the layout because as they stand now they don’t make a huge amount of sense.
The other thing to fix was the route setting on the main lines. Signalling purists are advised to look away now! Before the track and signals were all operated separately via the throttles with only the yard set up as a route. (My Digitrax system allows me to program routes into it.) So thats been changed for operator convenience so that throwing a signal sets the route as well. I know the route should be set then the signal pulled rather than this way round. You can set the signals to danger on their own but in case you forget the routes will set all the other signals to danger for you anyway. I hoping this will be pretty simple to use.
Since the show I have a small stockpile of new rolling stock to be tested. The rule is all stock must go everywhere without falling off, even though in this image only the middle road of wagons will go into the yard at shows. Of this little lot only 4 wagons were rejected and returned to ‘works’ for some fettling. These 4 have now been passed too.
Below, just some more traditional layout style pictures. 
Clay and sheets
One working that passed through the real Brettell Lane and kind of fascinated me was the St Blazey to Etruria china clay working. This service ran for years and was somewhat erratic in the paths it took. Usually going via Worcester, Stourbrige then Dudley before heading off to Bescot. Or it could go right at Stourbridge via Old Hill and (I think) Soho Junction. These routes avoided the Lickey but I’ve seen pictures of it going that way too in later years. When I was at University in Stoke it would often turn up at lunch time behind a pair of class 37s although it did switch to a class 60 in the time I was there.
So to have a clay train on Brettell road makes sense as a through service. I like the classic diagram 1/051 clay opens with their sort of cute, baby open wagon look about them. A little bit of rewriting of history is needed though as they tended to stay in Cornwall and not venture out to the Midlands. Brettell Road is set before the introduction of the clayliner service so my justification is that BR was trialing things out to see how they would work and thats good enough for me.
Ratio make a nice little kit for these and I was fortunate to find someone selling a box of 7 on Ebay for what basically worked out as a fiver each. The bodies go together well with a little bit of modification to make the ends fit. The kit features a somewhat crude attempt at a roller bearing and the brake levers are quite poor. It also includes cast buffers that aren’t all that great. So the bearings were replaced with MJT ones although my research showed oil axleboxes to be more common anyway. Brake levers are from the Mainly Trains etch, door bangers from Rumney models and buffers from Lanarkshire models. I did one as a test then built the other 6 as a batch.
Before I move onto the sheets a bit about the weathering. I followed my usual approach of a wash of dark grime followed by a spray of AK interactive dark mud. This was then all sealed with Klear before AK interactive white ink was used (in various levels of dilution) to give an overall effect of clay staining. You don’t want a fully weathered wagon at this stage, try to think of it as you are aiming for about half the effect you ultimately want.
Previously when I have done wagon sheets I make the sheet up with the ropes attached to it and then attach it to the wagon. This is a bit of a faff and sometimes the glue holding the rope to the sheet can give an odd effect so I approached this a bit differently. Roping of wagon sheets is a whole topic on its own and I will leave that too someone who has properly studied the subject but I just looked at pictures and coped what I saw. So the first stage is to attach the ropes (cotton) to the wagon – Tying it on at the visible ends and gluing to the wagon top with Loctite
This was then tided up by first sealing the knots with Zap Pink superglue. Theres no huge reason to trim the ropes inside the wagon but it pays to just keep things neat so they don’t get in the way later.
As mentioned before the sheet is made from black latex gloves (actually nitrile) and mine are a brand called Supertouch. They are a bit awkward to cut as the material tends to snag on the scalpel blade even if the blade is brand new. A method I found to work best is to stretch the glove over a bit of cardboard, make a template and to cut it using the handle end of the blade not the pointy end, pushing the scalpel away from you to cut. I don’t know why this makes a difference but it does! As i’ve mentioned in the past the material is black on the outside and a dark grey on the inside. I use the black side as its depicting wet conditions but the grey is good for a nice sunny day layout.
The sheet is then positioned in place, not forgetting to add weight inside the wagon and bulking it up with a bit of tissue first before gluing to the wagon tops in 6 places, about where the ropes are. Use Loctite and start in the middle (it sets very quickly) and remember to pull it taught as you glue the outer sides. This is one of those things were you probably need a bit of variation but you don’t want to force it. I find if I try to be as neat as I can, I’m not all that neat really and I get the variation by default.
Next stage is to glue the sides of the sheet to the ropes, again with loctite and again puling the sheet taught. I found holding it in place for 10 seconds was all you need. It pays to glue the sheet the side of the wagon at the ends at this stage
On to the ends. Another drop of super glue on the top and the sheet can be glued in place. The corners can be folded and secured in place and the last set of ropes glued into the sheet itself. 
The last ropes tied into place and tidied up.
The final weathering, back to the white ink (sprayed this time) with some additional grease stains on the underframe.
To break up the rake a bit I added a few 10ft wheelbase opens too. These are actually way more typical of the actual wagons used in the clayliners. The ex LMS Diagram 2150 I’ve featured before a few posts ago.
Likewise the ex LNE diagram 210 (although not this specific model)
A new wagon type for me is the ex LNE diagram 185. This was constructed from the body of the Cambrian kit C81 for the LNER 12ton 6 plank Open Wagon, With a Parkside 10ft underframe. Theres a few tweaks needed to the body as can be seen and theres an additional top support across the top of the door which is worth adding assuming you aren’t going to cover it over with a sheet that is!
Just need an enterprising transfer manufacturer to produce some sheet markings now.
More shockingly mundane stuff
As a follow on to the last post – more every-day wagons have rolled off the workbench. This time it’s a quartet of shock wagons.
Starting with the basics – Diagram 1/040 shock open from the Parkside kit. Built pretty much as supplied with the addition of a Rumney Models tarpaulin bar and a sheet from my now standard black latex glove.
Next ex LMS diagram 1983 from the same kit as above with the additional top lip on the ends and buffers from Lanarkshire models. You cant see it in the pic but I replaced the floor with scribed lead sheet.
EDIT – More info has come to light on these wagons and this one is wrong – see https://p4newstreet.com/back-to-wagons-and-a-correction/
A smidge more involved is this Diagram 1/038 shock open from the parkside kit for the standard (not shock) wagon. I shortened the sides by cutting sections out next to the middle section and mounted them on a new floor as the prototype wagons had a visible lip around the bottom.
Finally a diagram 1/219 shock palvan. A bit more involved again as I could use spare ends and a roof from Parkside standard 12t vans but the sides needed to be made from scratch. The chassis is the Red Panda kit.
Just some mundane stuff.
Just one of those every day, run of the mill style posts this time but with a few little tweaks to appease the wagon buffs.
Starting with the Parkside kit for the LNER 21t riveted coal hopper. Built pretty much as instructed but I did change the side stanchion plates for 10 thou plasticard as the ones in the kit were a bit chunky.
The spare brakes that came with the above kit were used to correct the brakes on my prototype 24.5t hopper I’ve featured before.
The humble D2150 13t open from the Parkside kit. The only real visual difference between these and the BR build is the small lip on the ends. A bit of 10×20 thou mictrostrip sorted that.
Ex LNER Diagram 210 adapted from the parkside kit for the Dia 1/120 wagon. The side stanchion were slightly reshaped as were the buffer beams while the chassis was replaced with spares from my scrap box.
Another bog standard affair, the D2039 ex LMS 12t van. This one was built from the Ratio kit with the addiction of the Rumney Models LMS van detailing etch (B105). It features the 3 part end for a super subtle bit of variety.
Finally something a little more involved. Before and after of the sides for a D2103 12t van using the parkside fruit van as a start point. The ends were scratchbuilt.
The good old Mainline LMS BG
The subject this time is this…
… the good old Mainline LMS BG. A great model for its time but not without room for a little bit of TLC. There is an error here that once you see it you cant un-see and that is that the underframe is too wide by 2mm. Ive talked in the past about looking at dimensional errors as a percentage. 2mm off over the width of a coach is a much larger percentage than 2mm over its length but theres an additional factor in play here and that is relationships. If the whole model was 2mm to wide you might (but probably wouldn’t) get away with it but when only part of it is, it just looks weird. Let’s be realistic here we are talking about 1mm per side but that 1mm means the edges of the solebar framing sticks out from the bottom of the body rather than tucking under it. Also the footsteps don’t line up properly but thats a minor thing.
So the options then. You could just replace the underframe with a Comet one but at the time they were out of stock and the trussing is a flat etch so no real improvement over the one already there. Or you could slice 2mm out of the centre of the floor and glue it back together. The issue with this is I don’t think the trussing itself is over width. To me the simplest solution was to make a new floor from plasticard (29.5mm x 196mm) and transplant the trussing from the mainline model. The new solebars are 4mm channel from evergreen.
So heres the model had already done on its new underframe. The bogies are Brassmasters with the original sideframes attached. Buffers have been replaced with more accurate ones from Lanarkshire models.
As is usually the way for me I got a little carried away. Why build one new floor when you can build several? Theres a few subtle differences here such as the roof vents and footsteps.
As with any grouping of things there tends to be one member thats a little bit weirder than the others and this is it. The diagram 1715 version. OK it looks kind of the same but the qay it was build was quite different and actually much more like the much later BR Mk2 in that the body was where all the strength is and it didn’t need a traditional underframe. The solebars themselves are also different in that the outer face is solid. Other variations are the positioning of the roof vents, bodyside beading (which comes in a whole load of variations on these coaches anyway), the extra rain strips and the full length footboards
This is the more normal side. Note the dynamo is at the opposite end to the more standard versions.
The other side is decidedly more odd with basically next to nothing there. It almost looks like the model hasn’t been finished. Note also the steps on the bogie.
Just a quick note to thank Mark Tatlow and Graham Speechley for their help locating images of the diagram 1715 version.
Back to business as usual
So back to business as usual then.
This is an ex LMS 12 ton traction truck which has recently been released by 247 Developments. The kit is a 3d print which is supplied as a body with solebars, W irons, brake gear and white metal buffers. The body was a little bit distorted (kinda like a spoon shape) but popping it in very hot water and weighting it while it cooled seemed to take most of the distortion out. The back of the frames needed thinning for p4 wheels to fit (I believe the kit has been changed to rectify this now). I replaced the sides with microstrip as they were a little uneven and added the safety loops and tie down shackles that were missing from the print. The supplied buffers were a little odd so these are Accurascale ones. Just need to do a load for it now.
On Brettell Road I have mostly used cast white metal vacuum pipes. Generally these have been fine but I have had some of the bufferbeam mounted ones break as they are slightly vulnerable. David Roome has now produced some 3d printed ones that are rubbery and a lot less susceptible to knocks. Im not replacing them on all of my wagons just as and when a white metal one gets broken.
Links
Cradley Show – Epilogue
My friend Tim has put together a short video of the layout from Saturday. It was late ish in the day and being in front of a window the layout was back lit so didn’t really get the full effect I was after. (Note to exhibitions managers – I actually want the dark bit of the hall no one else does!!) However it does show up the wet effects quite nicely. I need to be a little more fastidious with the dusting in the future.
Cradley Show 2023
Yesterday Brettell Road made its return to the exhibition scene in its extended form. The show went very well I thought and we all enjoyed ourselves. Theres a snagging list for me to work through, of course, but nothing major. The layout seemed very well received and we were honoured to be awarded the Frank Collins Award for best layout in show as voted for by the Cradley Heath MRC committee. Somewhat poignant for me as Frank had assisted me with info for the model of the Round Oak admin building before he passed away. I like to think he would have approved of my efforts. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves looking for the cats on the layout and and the strategically hidden lego Batman that the club provided.
Quick thanks to my operating team and the members of the CHMRC for their efforts.
(Pic ©Tim Horn)
Finishing touches
With a little over a month to go before Brettell Road is back on the road*, I’ve been finishing a few things off.
The last backscene is now in place so the road in the middle of the layout now gives the impression it goes somewhere. The Leyland Steer seems to have lost its licence plate somewhere.
The little back yard on board 2 is done – I wanted a used but not particularly looked after feel.
I realised I’ve not actually taken any images of this building in its finished state before now.
Princess Margaret heads back to the Wallows for the evening.
GWR railcar catches the last of the sun as it heads off to Dudley.
* The show is a local one on the 7th October. Click here for more info.
Back scenes done (well most of them anyway)
My Back scenes have been printed onto self adhesive vinyl and most of them mounted to the boards. Just the last one still to do. I used a local company who kindly did a couple of test prints so i could tweak the colours. Anyone local to Stourbridge area who are after something similar I can highly recommend them – SAC Graphics
Below is how it looks in something close to the intended light.
Haven’t done a bit of photoshopery for a while but i found a pic of a Deeley tank in a cloud of steam and thought I’d emulate it
simply back
Today, 21st June 2023 marks a small but significant date in the life of Brettell Road, in that it’s exactly 2 years since Tim and I first cut wood for the 2 new baseboards. I think it fair to say that a reasonable amount of modelling water has flowed under that particular bridge since that day and I’m now drawing in to the layouts final destination somewhat.
Drawing being the word as the big thing thats always been missing from any pictures of the new boards is the backscene. Long time readers may recall that this is an area of the layout that I have revisited on more than one occasion and, with every intention of this being the last time, I find myself deciding to get this particular subject closed off once and for all.
The method
The method I use is like modelling but in a 2 dimensional world rather than 3. Starting with drawing up the basic structure in much the same way as I do the modelled buildings.
Above is the basic drawing of a typical industrial shed. Think of it like a kit of parts. This is done in Adobe Illustrator and the rather bright colours are simply so that they are easily selectable at the next stage.
Which is to transfer the basic drawing to Photoshop where Scalescenes textures are overlaid and the bits ‘assembled’ into something resembling a basic 3d building. You will note theres no shading and no perspective yet. 
A different building showing some shading and some perspective. The image is still made up of separate parts in a folder so that I can fine tune it once applied to the finished backscene.
Of which this is the end board for the left of the layout. Some consideration, such as the metal fence, needs to be made for elements of the layout that will cross from the 3d world to the 2d one. The line the railway takes, under the bridge on the left is hinted at by the arrangement of the trees.
This is the view of the bottom of the hill on the left. Again the wall and the building on the right of the image are intended to match up with the 3d model.
And finally the middle bit of the 2 new boards. Based on images of the real Round Oak. Of course the point of all this is that its there but not really all that noticeable at the same time.
Revised fiddleyard
Ive mentioned before that enlarging Brettell Road would mean I need to build new fiddleyards. The reason for this is the way the cassette system worked was to have a recess in the board which given that the layout is now 2 tracks meant the old ones couldn’t really be made to fit. I also took the opportunity to make some improvements and the result can be seen above.
The boards are 6 inches longer and this time I’ve included a little barrier on the near side edge to stop anything falling off It never did but it was something that bothered me. 
View from the front. I decided that the Round Oak industrials running on the mainline was a no-no, so now they will appear from the right of the layout behind the warehouse. As the mainline drops away this means that i needed a different level for this bit.
With the cassettes I have also made some improvements. The originals use 9mm ply which as it was unsupported did bend somewhat. I now have 3 sizes instead of the original 2. A short one for locos, A medium one for units and a long one for coaches/wagons. I have made the long and loco ones reversible but I only expect to reverse some of the locos.
Pictured are the loco and unit versions. The base is 9mm MDF this time.
The little bits on the inner ends are for rudimentary buffer stops. This stops the trains running off the end but also adds a little security when lifting the cassettes so that nothing rolls off.
The way they connect is a tweak on my original design of using a bit of flat bottom rail on its side – positioned in the web of the running rail for alignment and electrical connection. Originally these were both sides and the rails on the cassettes were angled outwards a little for a good fit. Making the loco cassettes reversible main this wouldn’t work and so a small bit of 0.6 straight wire is soldered to the inside of the web to help with alignment.
You may be wondering what the little blocks are for in the first 2 pictures.
Taking a hint from Amlwch (a layout i used to help out with) I decided to make the storage of the cassettes integrated with the fiddleyards. This one will store the locos and units, the other one the long cassettes. Most of the braces slot in place meaning I can lock in place 8 unit cassettes with just 3 bolts and 16 loco cassettes with just 2. The less time spent faffing about at an exhibition the better!
Thanks as always to Tim for allowing me to hijack his laser cutters.
Heavyweights done
Just a super short post this time. The wagons featured last time are done and can be released into the wild.
Is it just me or do metal kits always just seem a bit ‘meh’ once they are painted?
A couple of WIP heavyweights and breaking the golden rule.
When my friend Tom kindly gave me the Ks kit for the Coral glass wagon (featured earlier) he also gave me another Ks kit for the 24.5t coal hopper. Further investigation showed that this was a kit that was based on the prototype B333000 which was not really like the production ones in that the ends were different. I suppose back in the day this was your only option however now you can buy 24.5t hoppers ready to run this strange little oddity might have a little value as something different from what everyone else is doing.
B333000 was one of 2 prototypes and was built at Shildon. The other B333001 was built at Ashford and it seems to heave been this latter example that influenced the production run. I believe B333000 was later used for experimentation of the automated doors used for MGR trains but photos of it are rare as hens teeth. Simon Bendall kindly supplied the only picture I had to work from.
So, breaking a golden rule I have had to make educated guesses about some of the details of this wagon. The underframe in Simons picture is very dark and looked to have been modified in some way. It was claimed the Shildon design was basically a taller 21 ton hopper and the lack of outer discharge doors kind of backs that up. So getting hold of a parkside 21t kit to use as a guide I set to work.
The hopper had some chunky mouldings on the inside of the corners that gave quite a positive location. But as I wanted it to be empty they had to go. I replaced the W Irons with Bill Bedford sprung ones (from my nearly depleted stocks) and Wizard model axle boxes. These were soldered in place as supplied and when I was happy everything was square the centre of the w irons was cut away to give an open floor. The end platforms were replaced with a bit of brass as the moulded ones sat on top of the solebars and were too thick. The kit had no hopper doors so these were made from plasticard using a parkside 21t hopper kit as a guide.
The finished wagon (well almost finished – I haven’t added the door mechanism handles yet) is a bit of a heavyweight in that its 78 grammes. About 50% more than my usual target of 50g.
The parkside kit built up. This is the opposite of the Ks kit as while i added some lead overlays to the inside lower hopper its a tad light at only 38g.
Moving away from hoppers I’ve also finished of the construction phase of this…
A David Geen milk tank which I was told by the man himself when I brought it was the last one! This uses a Rumney models chassis and has, to be honest, been a bit of slow burner. Its one of those kits that I just seemed to struggle to get any enthusiasm for but I’m pleased with it now it’s done. I thought the hopper was heavy but this weighs in at 88 grammes!