Simon's workbench

Simon

Flying Squad
Thanks Mike, it's a bit of a relief to have it back - even with a snagging list for its next trip up to Swindon:rolleyes:

Anyway, I got down to the shed tonight for a bit of metal bodging with yet more etch waste, my aim was to produce and fix two bolsters to the 122 chassis.

I've managed it, some of the soldering isn't too pretty but all is fixed securely and squarely in place and I reckon the holes are on the right centres too, or close enough:p

The "top view"

Chassis 004.jpg

And from underneath

Chassis 005.jpg

Next up are more cross pieces in old rail towards the centre of the chassis and cutting out and fitting of buffer planks to each end.

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Feeling inspired by the hut and it's ability to add atmosphere to the garden lunacy, I have started work on arguably the key structure for the line...

First off the hut, utterly utterly finished, just needs finish painting.

Boxes 003.jpg

After much book re-reading, deliberation and cutting and pasting of bits of paper to work out proportions, here are the four main sides for Launceston Road signal box fabricated, Wills Finecast English bond brick sheets impact adhesived to 40 thou styrene sheet.

Boxes 001.jpg

It's an "LSWR Type 4" but with a pitched roof, more S&D than North Cornwall but I really like the look of this style. Loads left to do but it's a decent start:thumbs:

Simon
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
Feeling inspired by the hut and it's ability to add atmosphere to the garden lunacy, I have started work on arguably the key structure for the line...

First off the hut, utterly utterly finished, just needs finish painting.

View attachment 43616

After much book re-reading, deliberation and cutting and pasting of bits of paper to work out proportions, here are the four main sides for Launceston Road signal box fabricated, Wills Finecast English bond brick sheets impact adhesived to 40 thou styrene sheet.

View attachment 43617

It's an "LSWR Type 4" but with a pitched roof, more S&D than North Cornwall but I really like the look of this style. Loads left to do but it's a decent start:thumbs:

Simon

The SR used a Type 4 box in Bodmin. So you are fine they did get down that way.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Thanks Peter, many "type 4" boxes down there but all with hipped roofs (I think)....

Well it could still go either way, but this evening I have been mostly strengthening the front wall and building in the brick reveals. From my architect's drawing I know I'm aiming for a 9" thickness on the upper floor and 13.5" on the lower storey. Here's the (hopefully) anti-warping strengthening from the rear:

Box1 003.jpg

And here's a view of the box mocked up, momentarily held together by sellotape.

Box1 002.jpg

The actual size is a bit smaller than my plan in the background, owing to a cock up on the cutting of brick courses in the right place, but still bigger than Moorewood which is my inspiration. The window in the back is an addition for the signalman to see the Bude branch.

I have a copy of the contractors drawings for Moorewood which are brilliant for detail and it is interesting to compare the drawing to the photographs of the actual box as built. There are a number of differences, the biggest being the construction of the actual box having the frame "back to traffic".

My box will have its frame in this configuration and also, like the contractor back in 1914, I am replacing the arch over the locking room window on the drawing with a concrete lintel:p

Quite an enjoyable exercise so far.....

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Modelling has taken a bit of hammering this year, what with one thing and another, but in the last couple of days I have made a start on the roof for the Spurn Hudswell, very nearly a whole year since I last touched it.

Basic shape formed by solventing and chivvying various sheet pieces of styrene of various thicknesses on top of the basic roof shape cut out of 60 thou sheet.

Car1.jpg

After two applications of Squadron white putty, second now drying.

Car2.jpg

The next stage will be sanding to a better shape before adding more filler.

It needs some wheels too, but in the meantime I've bought some 3D printed bits from Arun Sharma for another railcar itch I'm going to have to scratch, he's given me a copy of a very useful drawing of the subject too.

Quite when anything will ever get finished I really don't know:rolleyes:

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
A couple of filling and sanding sessions later I reckon the shape I want is there. It's actually hard to see just what the roof is doing shape-wise from the photographs, so this is my best guess. I will next apply some knife stopper to the remaining defects and use wet and dry to finish the shape off. The it will be making some framing that will locate and maybe secure the roof on to the body - before it goes banana shaped:rolleyes:

Roofed 003.jpg
Roofed 005.jpg
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Last weekend saw me attending the G1MRA AGM with Steve Cook, whilst Steve bought a tar tank I purchased some buffer stop castings from Ken Martin.

Enthused by Steve's company I have managed to get the buffer stop built up, here it is tonight, all finished and with the brass blackened with Carr's solution.

Stop1.jpg

The photo shows a brass pin has wandered out of the face of the buffer plank, I will attend to it tomorrow:rolleyes:

The hut has had a bit more paint thrown at it.

Hut1.jpg

The Hudswell railcar has progressed a bit more, it now sports a radiator grille thanks to Steve's donation of some fine gauze - no photo taken though.

Simon
 

Dan Randall

Western Thunderer
That's spooky Simon - I put this Ragstone ex GWR buffer stop together a few evenings ago....

IMG_20151026_012750898.jpg

I used Exactoscale chairs and some C&L ABS sleepers that I'd distressed some years ago. I've since realised that the chairs on the first three sleepers should have keys on the inside too, so I'll attend to that soon. It's in primer now and just needs a piece of microrod between the uprights and some suitable painting & weathering.

My inspiration came from this rather careworn SR example at Eastleigh East Yard....

IMG_20141202_132122982.jpg



The "concrete" colour on your SR hut is very convincing - how did you achieve that please?


Regards

Dan
 
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Simon

Flying Squad
Hi Dan, that is a very nice piece of work. Without wishing to denigrate the G1 casting, it also shows how much more fidelity to prototype smaller scale models have:confused:

Thanks for the comments about the grey, although it needs a lot more work as it is not light enough yet and needs the almost "speckled" appearance the material gains as the weather wears away the matrix and exposes the stones. It is just the usual halfords grey primer, I'm afraid it gets used on just about everything around here!

Simon
 

Dan Randall

Western Thunderer
Hi Simon

I never would have guessed it was simply Halfords grey primer, as it certainly looks (to me), like new concrete in the picture. It should certainly provide a good basis for any ageing processes you have in mind.

I'm pretty pleased with the Ragstone buffer stop - there's daylight in all the right places, unlike the very long in the tooth Springside ones I bought years ago, which are now en route to a landfill somewhere in Wiltshire!

How's that Gloucester DMU coming on?


Regards

Dan

 

Simon

Flying Squad
The buffer stop awaits its plank painting and an iron for a lamp, it has otherwise had a dose of "real rust" (which worked really well this time) and then been placed in a tray of creosote, which has soaked the sleepers but also wicked over the rusted rails.

Wheels 009.jpg

In time I think rain and UV will "burn" the creosote off the rails and allow more rusting.

Andrew Vines came around last night with the two "Tower" BGs he's working on. Maybe it was a rush of bood to my head, but we took the wheels out, went down to the shed and I put them on my lathe and skimmed off the back faces and took a bit of the flange off. After supergluing all back together at a wider back to back, both coaches now run perfectly through my pointwork:cool:

Feeling suitably encouraged, last night and this morning I have been attacking other wheelsets and have actually achieved something useful. Lacking in finesse and the flange profile and size varies a bit, but here are the 3 hole wheels from my G1MCo mineral wagon which can now be re-fitted, replacing the currently spoked wheels.

Wheels 005.jpg

I have also made some Tenmille split spoke lowmac sized wheels perfectly useable (no pictures) but have pinched the axles to go with some O gauge wagon wheels (suitably drilled out) which just about do the job for the Hudswell Clarke railcar, which is itself pretty much ready for paint.

Carwheel.jpg

I ought to try and make some buffers for it....

Wheel turning wise, the best news is that I have managed to "ScaleOneify" a Slaters wagon wheel, and my method doesn't stress the moulded centre and so will work on all of their wagon wheels:)

Again there is a certain lack of finesse, but they work and I think look a lot better than the original item, pictured to right.

Wheels 006.jpg

Right, back to the rest of life....

Simon
 
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Matt.S.

Western Thunderer
Don't worry too much about creosoted rails, a few years ago a colleague was looking into a couple of repeat TCA failures on the 150 fleet, they were always returned to the shed after failing first thing in the morning on a drivers prep. It took a long time to realise that when the buffer blocks had been fitted they contractors had painted them in situ and just enough of the surrounding rail for the leading bogie to sit on.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
A brilliant day in the company of Steve Cook, D6319 and the three green Mark 1s were was the star of Groundhog day again, and in the shed we were exploring the lathe. It's not pretty (this is the axle I was making when you left Steve) but here is a functioning (non driven) axle and wheel assembly for the Hudswell railcar. I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory a second time with this one in terms of its accommodating the Branchlines gearbox I have purchased for the project, but am happy to report that a third attempt was more successful in this regard, and possibly a bit better finished along its length.

This will all make sense to Steve if no one else:p

Wheeled 002.jpg

These home grown axles mean that the Scaleone-ified Lowmac wheels can have their original axles back and I am hoping they will be suitable for Dave's French railcar project.

Simon
 

Steve Cook

Flying Squad
Good on you for getting out again after dinner, practise makes perfect when it comes to flying lathes :)
Pleased to hear the third axle has come out OK, perhaps over summer (when the grinding wheels are fitted) we can sort out some tools to give a better surface finish.
Thanks for looking after me while I was over, had a good run back home and now just sorting out everything after a Christmas away - hoping to get back out on my lathe this afternoon :)
Steve
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
Pleased to hear the third axle has come out OK, perhaps over summer (when the grinding wheels are fitted) we can sort out some tools to give a better surface finish.

I was just thinking that the next time I get anywhere near da shop, I could drop in with a bottle of cutting fluid which might help as well. You will need to find out if your family can live with the smell - my wife could just about live with me after a session on the lathe cutting steel. :)

Jim.
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Thanks Jim, I need all the help I can get.

In the meantime, here is the slightly better finished new driving axle. Note the neat brass spacer behind the wheel, I had to make that as I'd cocked up my carefully measured shoulder:rolleyes:

More positively I turned it and bored it out 2mm from a piece of redundant mains connector:cool:

Door4.jpg

Simon
 

Simon

Flying Squad
I can't remember when it was last mentioned, but today I finally finished the Slaters PO wagon kit with a blowing over of Upol primer.

Talking to Ian Pope at Fred Lewis's excellent Newgog show on Saturday, he said that quite a lot of 1907 spec wagons survived to the end of wooden bodied stock on BR. They wouldn't have had grease axleboxes though, so this morning I cut off the Slaters grease axleboxes and grafted on some Neil Butcher whitemetal oil axleboxes. Technically they are L&YR pattern but I'm sure all sorts were used in wagon repair shops in the real world.

They make quite a difference to the look of the wagon, here it is on the yard throat hardening off in the sunshine.

piperoof4.jpg

Painting and weathering next...
 

Simon

Flying Squad
Top coat spraying of PMV and reworked Mk 1 has comenced, phase two on this Wednesday night. In the meantime I am working on a buffer stop for the bay at Launceston Road, the design to follow that used in the North Cornwall bay at Halwill and at Bude too. It's a more modern (1920s?) design that uses cut and plated rather than bent rails and has what looks to me like a bolt shearing shock absorbing design to compensate for its lack of "heft" compared to traditional stops. In later years the timber was replaced by skeletal sections of rail at Halwill and Bude.

I made a drawing based upon the known height of the buffer plank but with everything else estimated from photographs, I think it's about right.

All cut out and soldered together.

Hal1.jpg

On its base, note that the structure is bolted to rails set outside of the running rail on this design.

Hal2.jpg

And with its buffer plank and associated bracketry, I hope I've got the length right, they were shorter than those on more conventional bufferstops.

Hal3.jpg

Lots of bolt and nut detail to add now!

Simon
 
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