A modern takeover
If you can call diesels modelled as they appeared 30 years ago modern, a few have escaped from New Street and ventured to Brettell Road. They have since been rounded up and shepherded back to their own world! 
More progress on the warehouse
Work has progressed on my warehouse. Starting with bedding in the building and adding the now familiar neglected feel to the end of the sidings. Just need a light airbrush of general gunk colour to tie it all together. 
I’ve installed the second floor which means the final lighting for the first floor is also in place. I used self adhesive copper tape instead of wire and found it made things so much easier. Something ill definitely be adopting for the other floors and buildings
Finally a couple of pics of the Deeley tank parked up for the night. 
The what if factor
What if? We all do it at some point usually with regards to layouts. What if such and such place had a railway or this branchline stayed open to the diesel era? What if Clapham junction was a bit smaller so that it could fit on an 8×4 sheet of plywood? Where we don’t seem to do ‘what if’ as often is with regards to the stock itself and this is where I am heading with this post.
One of the few steam locos that appealed to me before I started Brettell Road was the Midland Flatiron or ‘hole in the wall tanks’. Although not a great success the designed by ruler and no other drawing aids look of the things appealed to my interest in things that look less than pretty. While they made it to the LMS and were reboilered by them (you can tell by the square firebox and the protruding smoke box) the last of the breed went for scrap in 1938. But what if they didn’t? What if at least one managed another dozen years? I could have one on Brettell Road then!
Of course the armchair experts will delight in pointing out that its wrong but we seem happy to basically make up history for locations, why not locos? Id be interested in people’s thoughts on this.
Wanting to see how one would look in BR livery I got my digital crayons out and drew it. I think it looks quite smart myself.
Prototype picture ©Warwickshire Railways and used with permission. www.warwickshirerailways.com
Deeley Done
Aside from a few little details, adding a crew and grease on the buffers, The Deeley tank is now complete. Just got to make it look wet now!
More brass bashing
I’ve been busy fiddling about with more etched kits. This time a Brassmasters kit for the Deeley 0-4-0 tank engine. It’s all gone together pretty well with just a few areas that needed a tweak or 2 to get right (if that’s down to an error in the kit or my ham fisted effort to bodge it all together ill leave up to you). For the benefit of those who might want to try the same kit i’ll share my findings. On the valve gear the connecting links (part A36 in the kit) are too long and needed reducing in length by about 1.5mm. While the eccentric rods (parts A37 and A38) are also too long and needed shortening by about 3mm. I didn’t bother using the supplied buffers and new etched heads and replaced them with some A1 models sprung oleos. (part A81) Don’t worry as I know the real loco didn’t have oleo buffers but the A1 models ones don’t look much like real oleos anyway.
I found adding the rear lamp irons to be a bit of a faff and lost some anyway. Its much easier to use a bit of fine strip to form a lamp iron with a long foot so that you have something to hold on to while soldering them in place. I decided to make the roof removable by soldering some scrap etch to the edges so that it can be gently sprung into place under the sides. Brassmaters supply the sides for the earlier flush sided loco as well as this one. I prefered the look of the later ones as it looked more antiquated somehow.
I’ve never done valve gear before. The instructions say that valve gear rivets make the job easier but I elected to use brass pins with the heads filed down and located out of view. A slip of cigarette paper and a drop of oil means that the whole lot doesn’t solder together in one big, rigid lump. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out if I am honest.
One of those finished things posts.
The advantages of working on more than one project at once is that, firstly, I don’t get bored and secondly every so often you seem to finish a lot of things together. This is one of those instances with several things that have featured recently have reached the finish line sort of together.
My loading gauge has been painted for a while but now its been planted too. I love stuff like this as its one of those things that I hope disappears into the scene and becomes unremarkable. Perhaps once in a blue moon someone will notice it but, much like the real thing I like stuff like this just to be ‘there’. It’s not supposed to get people’s attention. (don’t worry about the big gap under the wall – that’s not been permanently attached yet)
My Ford Thames and Austin A40. The colours of the Austin have a somewhat obvious Birmingham influence. Cartwrights was a furniture store in Brierley Hill but I have no idea if they used Austin vans or even if they had any road vehicles at all. 
This was a quick win project – Started life as a Bachmann Coke wagon which I imagined was sold to Round Oak and had the coke rails removed. I just liked it because it had a local livery and i’ve never done a distressed private owner before. The lettering was attacked with one of those brass brush wheels in a mini-drill and then the wagon was weathered. The w-irons needed a but more work with the mini-drill and a burr to get the wheels in but this was really minimal effort modelling! 
And so to the big project of the last few weeks – the DE2 shunter. I have to admit I didn’t relish the thought of painting its striped livery but by using some 4mm making tape from a company called Jammy Dog it wasn’t too bad at all. (click here for their website) A few more pictures below.
This is the sort of train I had in mind for the loco – Pushed up the hill with the loco at the rear and no brake van. I will need to add a shunter to the front wagon at some point.
Finally another moody shot of the Jinty heading out of the yard on a train of vans.
Yorkshire Engine DE2 part 2
I can call the build stage of this project complete. The chassis is all wired up and runs and all the little fiddly bits are in place.
Yorkshire Engine DE2 part 1
Part of the plan for Brettell Road is to have an off scene steel works, the real Round Oak was (is) just down the line from the sidings at Moor Street. I plan to use the sidings at Brettell Road as an exchange sidings for this and I like the way that a lot of the uphill workings on the old Earl of Dudley’s railway had the loco pushing trains up from the bottom of the hill so I want to replicate this on the model. My choice of motive power for these workings is the Yorkshire Engine company DE2 0-4-0 diesel shunter, of which Round Oak had a fleet and would be pretty new at the time of the model. Not that the loco’s in such an environment stayed new for very long mind you. Luckily Judith Edge do a kit and this week I set to work.
The kit breaks down into 3 sub assemblies. The chassis, the footplate and the body. It all goes together pretty easily due to the good design of the kit. It has a simple rocking compensation built in and I decided to use it as supplied. The above picture shows the main soldering work complete with the fiddly details stage to come next. 
Losely assembled but not bolted together, I will be getting the chassis running with a high level gearbox and Mashima motor. 
Rear view. The kit provides a resin bonnet top and sandboxes along with a little cover for the handbrake which is mounted on the rear of the cab on the right hand side under the window. I cant find any evidence for this being on the Round Oak examples so I filled the recess for it with a bit of scrap etch and filed it smooth. You can just make it out in the picture.
There was a suggestion that these loco’s first appeared at Round Oak in a plain Yellow livery but I cant find any evidence for this being the case. If anyone has any it would be much appreciated.
A technological rethink
A while ago I wrote about the benefits of using modern techniques and processes, specifically laser cutters. However I have sort of come to change my view on this a little recently. You see, if you are doing more than 1 thing that is the same then laser cutting can offer a distinct time-saving. If however what you are doing is pretty much bespoke then the extra effort is, I have concluded, not really worth it. Take my retaining walls for Brettell Road. I did draw up the larger one but it took for ever. It turned out to be much quicker and easier to just get some sheets of embossed plasticard and get stuck in! I have to admit those that protest on forums that laser cutting is cheating really don’t have a clue what they are talking about because it’s a lot, lot harder than the old way. 
These walls use Slaters bricks and I have done the top row by cutting individual blocks from evergreen strip and gluing them in place. Even taking the time to do this (Which isn’t exactly taxing but is long-winded) these walls didn’t take all that long to do.
Wagon building continues and I have amassed a fair few now (probably enough for Brettell Road if I am honest). This is a diagram 1/019 BR medium goods wagon from the Parkside kit which, as is customary for their stuff, pretty much falls together out of the packet. The usual extra bits and bobs have been added to the underframe. 
On the left a BR 13 ton steel open again from Parkside while on the right a 13 ton sand tippler from Red Panda. I originally built this for Amlwch but never actually ran it on that layout so it can go here instead. It’s good to see that the small but useful range of Red Panda kits have recently resurfaced from Parkside. 
Finally this is pretty much what I hope Brettell Road will be all about, dark and wet! It’s always been my intention to depict a rainy night somewhere in the Black Country and this is the first time I’ve really been able to get an image that illustrates what I am looking for.
A return to the panniers
Progress on my 2 pannier tank projects has continued with the 94xx body reaching the paint stage. Bachmann has recently announced a new RTR model of this class but i’ve never been one for waiting for someone else to do things for me. Those who know me will know that my interest is in the making things side of the hobby rather than the amassing stuff side and besides there’s always something new in the pipeline somewhere so if you want the latest and greatest, you will forever be waiting for it to arrive. Nothing wrong with that of course and i’m sure having all the very best offerings from the trade will result in a magnificent layout, even if its only forever in someones head!
The 15xx tank has been a bit more back and forth. Someone kindly pointed out that the roof of the cab I had used was too shallow so this has been swapped for the roof from the original 94xx body. It did need shortening a little as the 94xx cab is bigger. The roof detail on the 94xx is nothing like so that was all replaced with more archers rivets. I also spotted that the rear cab windows are much further in than the way I had them (and the 94xx) so these have been changed too. Incidentally the Ian Beattie drawing in the April 1985 Railway Modeller also had the windows in the wrong place too so it wasn’t just me!)
For such a small class there’s a lot of variety. the cab door handrails were shorter originally and one class member (1506) seems to have had both long and short at the same time. The lower smokebox handrail also seems to have been added later (perhaps when the steps were changed) and 1503 seems to have had straight horizontal handrails on the rear of the bunker rather than the L shaped ones the rest of the class had. These were also mounted lower down for some reason. It just goes to show the old mantra of work from a photo of the loco you are modelling as close to the date you are modelling it that you can find.
Riveting stuff
The title does not refer to the quality of this post, don’t expect anything like the screenplay for Inception but there might be a very minor cliffhanger ending! The title refers to what I have been doing, riveting the cabs of my 2 panniers.
The Hornby cab I used for my 15xx had no detail really so the rear window framing was added from the Mainly Trains etch. The rivets are the water slide ones from Archers which have been around for a while now. They make the whole task quite enjoyable but they are a bit tricky to use. The main problem is they come off very easily. You can overcome this by working in small areas and sealing them with Klear (or Humbrol Clear) to protect them while you work on the next bit. The other tip is don’t be too adventurous. It’s very tempting to try to add a nice long line of rivets in one hit but the transfer tends to break so I find it best to work with strips of about a dozen or so (you can even count them if you like! You might be the first person to actually do this in the history of ever mind you!).
The detail on the Lima 94xx cab is much better but oddly when it comes to the rear it doesn’t match the rest of the model at all. It’s almost like an early EP sample and when the final model was completed, the guy charged with doing this area pulled a sickie! As with the 15xx, archers rivets, Mainly Trains rear windows and bits of strip metal and plastic were used.
While work will continue on the 15xx (Handrails next) contrary to my last post the 94xx will now take a back seat while a third party looks into doing a chassis for it. (That’s the minor cliffhanger bit you see?)
revisited class 86 – the body
Having stripped off most of the old detail I have now got effectively back to where I started! I have replaced the headcode box sandbox filler covers and TDM sockets with my own etches. The headlight was removed and re-attached straight (Yeah I know) and the jumpers are from a Hornby 50. One thing I didn’t pick up on last time was that class 86/4 had a single body mounted lamp iron like a class 87 and not twin buffer mounted ones like a class 86/2. Not sure why I never noticed this before.
Next project – revisit an old class 86
One of my early electric loco projects was this class 86/4 built using the Craftsman conversion kit. There are several areas that I need to look at but I am hoping I can avoid a complete repaint on this.
First up the chassis, It will need converting to a Bachmann warship drive as per the rest of my class 86 fleet. I’ve covered this in other places but never on my own site so I will give a few tips on how this is done. The blanking plates for the bodyside clips are visible so they will need looking at and the sandbox fillers are the early type. The headcode box will need replacing as will the TDM cables and MU boxes (Spare Hornby class 50 ones at the ready). Also the handrails are too chunky and the bufferbeam detail will need redoing. Finally I will need to knock up another reworked Sommerfeldt pantograph which is something I have been meaning to cover too.
First stock for Brettell Road, finished
I’ve been busy finishing off some stock for Brettell Road. Starting with some wooden opens.
The Tube is an old Colin Ashby kit and is sprung with Bill Bedford springing units. I think you can get a kit for these wagons from Chivers now. These wagons have been weathered to look wet but you cant see it in the picture.
Back to the loco that started the whole project my GBL Jinty. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Soldering on
I’ve had an enjoyable few days soldering stuff. Not random bits of brass to make bits of overhead but proper kits, designed by someone else!
Starting with this rather nifty lever frame from the Scalefour Society. One of these can often be found on their stand at shows and it’s pretty hard to resist having a play with it. At one point I thought of getting one just because it’s nice! Now with Brettell Road I have an excuse!
It’s build as per the instructions. The kit allows for additional micro switches to operate point motors but in this case I’m planning a purely mechanical system.
Next up the High Level chassis kit for my Jinty. As supplied the kit is designed for traditional compensation but I wanted mine sprung. The current fad for continuous springy beams seems like a lot of faffing about (I admit I’ve never tried it) and doesn’t really replicate what I see on real locos. The idea of equalised beams seems a whole lot more simple, uses less bits and is what the real thing does, (ok not a Jinty but think of a class 47 bogie).
Other than that I followed the instructions and for my first ever etched chassis I was surprised that it only took 2 afternoons to get it all together, I’m not sure why I thought it should take any longer to be honest. Obviously there’s a bit more to do yet, balance weights and pick ups.
Above a quick mock up of how it all looks. The steps don’t come with the kit and are from the Brassmasters detailing kit I used earlier. It’s something a bit different for me and it’s really nice that someone has done the thinking about it stage for you. Makes a change from assembling a load of unrelated bits and having to figure out what to do with them!
Peak performance
Those who have been following my efforts for a while now will know I really like class 45’s. However the model ones seem a bit lacking in performance especially when it comes to road-holding. The problem is usually down to the pony trucks which are really just along for the ride in a flopping about kind of way. I wonder if RTR steam loco’s have the same problem? The problem is to my mind two-fold. 1 – staying on the track, they are just too light and while there’s some rudimentary springing its more of a token effort than a real attempt at a solution. 2 – no side control, a pony truck should lead the bogie into curves and without some sort of side control thats just not going to happen.
The solution? These rather natty sprung pony trucks from Rumney Models. They also provide side control and a handy ballast box to get some much-needed weight in there. For more details see www.rumneymodels.co.uk
The image above shows progress on the embankment section. I can’t claim any expertise in modelling nature as it’s not something I’ve come across much before however a while spent looking at local plant life for the “what” and Gordon Gravetts book on the subject for the “how” has produced something I’m quite happy with although I am undecided if the nettles are a bit bright. I drew a quick fencemade from sleepers and Tim kindly laser cut it for me for the top of the bank. I guess it does mean that Brettell road will be set in early October mind you. If you haven’t got Gordon’s book yet then its well worth finding a copy.
I’ve made a start on some wagons. From the left are a Cambrian 5 plank open for which I found you need to remove a bit of material from the base of the w-irons for P4 wheels. Then there’s a Ratio Van and open (I’ve never built Ratio kits before) The open is really too old but I have a plan for an off scene steelworks (sort of Round Oaks ish ) so I will use this as an internal user. Followed next is a Parkside 7 plank open, simplicity itself and a Bachmann RTR van- this was supposed to be a quick win picked up from the bargain bin at Modellers Mecca but conversion to p4 was a bit more than just sticking wheels in with material needing to be removed and new brakes added from MJT. Right at the end is a Peco wonderful wagon tank. Quite advanced for their time with working buffers and springing. In reality the springing is a bit too hard to be of any real effect so I will fit some Bill Bedford sprung W-irons.
Finally back to where it all started , the GBL Jinty. The body has been detailed with bits from the Brassmasters kit, some parts from Markits (and London Road Models as well as some home brew parts such as lamp irons from brass strip. I haven’t done any work under the footplate yet as I need to look at the High Level chassis next.
A spot of reading
Been doing a spot of shopping, first up are a couple of new(ish) books by Kevin Derrick and published buy Strathwood. I’ve always liked class 25s and 45s so the these books are right up my street. A4 hardbacks and full colour they are essentially picture books with a very brief intro. That’s fine with me as other books dealing with the technical sides of these locos are already out there and do we really need a repeat? Besides pictures appeal to my, ‘what does it look like, I don’t care how it does what it does’ approach to things.
What I like about these 2 books is that effort has been put in to showing different livery variations and in the case of the Peaks nameplates (including the painted ones). Add in there’s some nice New Street shots in both and I’m more than happy.
£19.99 each website
Sometimes an impulse buy can lead to a whole load of trouble. In this instance I’ve always liked Jintys and indeed I scratchbuilt a body for an n gauge one as a kid. It was a bit rubbish to be honest, ok a lot rubbish and the fact that it was scratchbuilt couldn’t save it from the bin! However the Great British Locomotives collection have just done one and for less than a tenner I couldn’t resist!
This is how it came out of the packet although I did reattach the bufferbeam so that it was straight. The magazine isn’t really one, more of a stand alone article but I was surprised that it’s quite well done with some good images and illustrations.
In the real world steam wasn’t allowed in New Street in my era so the above would never have happened but it’s good for a little flight of fantasy.
The problem is I’ve found myself looking at the Brassmasters detailing kit, as well as the High Level chassis kit. Also thoughts of a small diorama based on some sort of industrial setting and set at night (and in the rain). This is not a good thing!
back to the Gronks
Once the springs and hangers were added to my class 08’s I started looking at other things that could be improved in the frames area. 
The obvious thing missing from the Bachmann model is the speedo drive but its dead easy to add from a few bits of evergreen strip. There are also some holes in the frames that Bachmann missed so these were drilled using photos as a guide.
On the other side the missing holes were added as well as a drain cock – this was simply made from a brass pin with the head filed down, a bit of fine tube and a bit of brass rod. Fiddly but a nice quick improvement project.
Give them what they want.
I had a request for some more pictures of AC loco’s under the roof. Actually under the roof is perhaps the only place I can take a half decent photo of electric locos and units as you can’t see the missing overhead. Previous images have either used the plank, been cropped less than ideally to hide that the overhead isn’t there or have just relied on the viewer to fill it in for me!
A few more depart the workbench
47474 is another lima model. This one coming to me from the original roster for Amlwch as 47476. I kept it as brought for years as it was obvious that quite a lot of work had gone into it at some stage. (click here to see it in its original form) However for New Street it needed a few modifications to fit in era. I didn’t want to redo the whole loco as I wanted to keep as much of the original model as I could so I focused on the front ends.
The windscreens needed changing as per my other 47’s (it definitely stood out along side one that’s been modified) so these were the customary Extreme Etches offering. I also replaced the side windows with more etched from Brian as well has the headcode box. The headlight is from Replica. In my era 47476 had lost its water tanks hence the change of identity to 47474.
Also off the workbench are 2 of the 3 class 86’s I showed earlier, the third is waiting for its nameplates and chassis. Powered by the usual Bachmann Warship 86102 features Hornby class 90 sideframes and a spare underframe box from a scrap 87.
86260 is another tribute loco being named after Driver Wallace Oakes GC. To read his story click here.
To see more pictures of these pair go to the class 86 page
Variations on a theme.
With 3 more class 86’s working their way along my workbench some thoughts on variety might be worth sharing. Eagle eyed folk will spot that the one on the right is a class 86/1 while the others are class 86/2 but I have omitted the chassis for this exercise as that’s the big difference between the sub classes. It’s not even about the detail differences (TMD cables, headlights, extra door handles) but what I want to focus on this time is the livery. All three are, of course, Intercity livery and yet all three are different. The obvious difference is the amount of yellow on the fronts but the more subtle difference concerns 86260 and 86242. Aside from the front 86260 is actually the same as 86102 with the numbers the same size, data panels and nameplates in the same place and the double arrows on the bodyside. 86242 however had slightly smaller numbers, data panels behind the cabs, nameplates mounted centrally on the body, over the white stripe, and no double arrows.
Things get even more tricky if you consider that a year or two before the period my layout is set 86242 had the same livery treatment to the front as displayed by 86102. All this goes to show that you should really work from a photograph of the loco you are modelling taken at the time you are modelling. As I have said before, model what you actually see, not what you think you know.
Sticking with variations on a theme some thoughts on couplings.
The good old Kaydee, reliable easy to use and most importantly faff free in use. I use them between coaches and multiple units. Problems to my mind are as follows
- If you want them to work as intended (with magnets under the track) then you need to mount them too low for 4mm scale – this looks awful and to be honest from a visual point of view not much better than the current crop of smaller tension locks. By that I mean it jarrs to me that the coupling is kind of floating in mid air and not really attached to the vehicle in a way that makes any sense.
- Not a lot of UK stock uses buckeye couplings for coupling locos to trains, or should I say not a lot of uk stock used to use them. In my era it was pretty much EMUs and class 33/1’s and 73’s (the latter not completely unheard of at New Street but very unusual.
- Now this last one is the one that modellers have been ignoring for years – they don’t actually look much like a real buckeye coupling.
The first one is easy – dispense with the hands free and mount them through the bufferbeam where they should be. Mid rakes it not a problem to use Kaydee as, like i said at the start they are reliable and faff free but on the front of an EMU there has to be something better. There is and its called the Sergent coupling.
I have been aware of these for a few years now but only just got round to getting hold of some. The difference is, to me at least, like chalk and cheese with the Sergent coupling looking like a copy of the real thing. The Kadee looks almost toy-like by comparison. For those wondering they are not compatible and the way they work is different – the Sergent has a tiny ball bearing inside which holds the knuckle shut. This is released by using a magnet on a wand (from above) but in reality as I am not planning to do a lot of shunting with EMU’s I am using them purely for their cosmetic benefits.
8th August 2013
Just a short update this time. There are several new images in the class 25 gallery as well as a new picture in the class 50’s. Click here to go to the class 25 page.
There are also several new pictures to look at in the coaches section, click here
Revisited Locos part 3
Well these 3 are done. The original picture is recreated below.
Much happier now, in the end I did a full repaint on both clasa 25’s. I’ll add more pictures of the 25’s to their page over the next day or so.
While the 25 roof fan mod is an improvement over the Bachmann original the difference the Extreme Etches fan grill makes to their Peak is a bit more drastic!
I never realised just how undersize the original fan moulding is. This one is much easier to fit though as the entire fan and its mounting ring is the size of the opening for the new fan.
Finally I know I said id wait but as I was respraying the 25’s in blue I did the Newspaper GUV too. Below is the result.
