4mm An EM Workbench: Mineral allsorts
- Thread starter AJC
- Start date
AJC
Western Thunderer
They look very nice Adam and it sounds as though it will be worth making the effort to go to Taunton this year. The last time I attended was way back in 1998
I might well accompany the layout myself - it doesn't get out much, which is a shame but it will also be good for some of our stock to get an airing and, of course, there's nothing like incentive to complete the odd minor thing.
Adam
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
AJC
Western Thunderer
This is the joy of renting chicken sheds! There aren't nearly so many buckets per square metre in CS2 as there were in CS1... The home before that (the now demolished Foundry House) and before that, the attics of Coker Court, were less than adequately temperature-controlled too. At least this one offers level loading.
@Pugsley - I can't recall the year, either. I'll let you know.
Adam
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
Not really.
I'm sure if WWII and nationalisation hadn't intervened the Southern would have reduced their steam locomotive fleet to a handful of classes (a plan which Bulleid commenced) while they continued with electrification of the ex LBSC and SECR sections. And with the dieselisation (10201) of the West of England services steam could have well ended on the Southern in the 1950's.
AJC
Western Thunderer
Absolutely and my tongue was - ever-so-slightly - in cheek there Dave; I'm a great admirer of the Southern and its attitude to economy and punctuality in particular. I'm interested to compare SWT's approach to sorting out Waterloo this coming August and the Walker-esque gusto with which it's being approached with the Western's lamentable suburban services* and approach to electrification - a worthy heir to the WCML modernisation screw up - a mere century after the South Western and Brighton pointed the way.
* Seriously - where else but on the 'Western would two-car trains (the successor to the Greenford auto') routinely run into a main London terminus in morning and evening peaks in 2016? Having recently moved into the Western suburban zone I was utterly astonished by that - oh, and the design of Ealing Broadway station. Dear me...
Adam
AJC
Western Thunderer
Talking of the Western, here's a picture of my completed diagram O30, the Western's steel open as photographed at Reading in '65, retro-fitted with vacuum brakes c.1957 (or so). Weathering is an experiment, using the so-called 'hairspray method' with salt used as the primary masking agent. It's worked well enough, but I need to have a further think about how I'd do it next time. Lettering is by Cambridge Custom Transfers and the end result is quite pleasing, even if it is yet another special...
Adam
Adam
7mmMick
Western Thunderer
Hi Adam,
The open looks great. I like this method as it seems to achieve a much more subtle effect than the Maskol approach and the results often don't look uniform, which IMO the Maskol approach can. I may try this on some Western Steel opens I'm working on. Can you recommend any relevant materials. I had in my mind I'd dig out an MRJ with the details in but as is often the case materials change/become unavailable etc..
I'm always quietly watching from the sidelines, lovely work
ATB Mick
The open looks great. I like this method as it seems to achieve a much more subtle effect than the Maskol approach and the results often don't look uniform, which IMO the Maskol approach can. I may try this on some Western Steel opens I'm working on. Can you recommend any relevant materials. I had in my mind I'd dig out an MRJ with the details in but as is often the case materials change/become unavailable etc..
I'm always quietly watching from the sidelines, lovely work
ATB Mick
AJC
Western Thunderer
Crikey!
AJC
Western Thunderer
Hi Adam,
The open looks great. I like this method as it seems to achieve a much more subtle effect than the Maskol approach and the results often don't look uniform, which IMO the Maskol approach can. I may try this on some Western Steel opens I'm working on. Can you recommend any relevant materials. I had in my mind I'd dig out an MRJ with the details in but as is often the case materials change/become unavailable etc..
I'm always quietly watching from the sidelines, lovely work
ATB Mick
Hi Mick,
Thanks! I cribbed a couple of online tutorials - this is a bit more advanced than what I did:
Basically, apply a rust colour - I don't think it really matters which, or what - coat with a matt lacquer (I used Halford's) and allow to dry overnight. Add a coat of (cheap) hairspray, sprinkle salt (use more than you initially think is right), add a bit more hairspray and allow to dry (I used a hairdryer for this). That being the case add an acrylic top coat. In 7mm a rattlecan would probably be fine, in 4mm, I think it probably applies a bit too much paint. Once dry - it needn't be 100 per cent set - wash off the salt and to enhance the effect, chip away a bit more as desired using water to soften the acrylic paint.
I've added some washes of enamels and some more dry-brushed rust which works, I reckon for a wagon with precious little paint on it.
Adam
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AJC
Western Thunderer
Just off dad's workbench is this (and the re-chassised Bachmann 64xx that accompanies it), a reworked interior of the Bachmann Hawksworth auto trailer. As supplied, the floor level is rather higher than the prototype (true of pretty much all RTR coaches in 4mm) and this is really rather noticeable owing to the number of windows - the floor comes up to just below the sills. Dad's solution was to take the supplied interior, cut out the seats, and to mount them on new sub-floors of 40 thou' plastic sheet with another layer of 40 thou' between the reused mouldings and this sub floor to raise them up. The results are shown below:
Note that the ceiling has also been painted white though without the nicotine stains and smell recalled from his experience of them in service and on the early days of the Dart Valley - he was one of those who painted them chocolate and cream.
Hopefully this detail view should demonstrate the work done. It's taken a bit of time but the results are worth the effort. It does require a driver, though passengers are perhaps optional!
Adam
Note that the ceiling has also been painted white though without the nicotine stains and smell recalled from his experience of them in service and on the early days of the Dart Valley - he was one of those who painted them chocolate and cream.
Hopefully this detail view should demonstrate the work done. It's taken a bit of time but the results are worth the effort. It does require a driver, though passengers are perhaps optional!
Adam
LMS Signalbox (Ratio/Scratch)
AJC
Western Thunderer
Having mentioned the Taunton show, the inevitable examination, tidying up and corrections that no one has bothered with up until now. For reasons which escape me, some time ago an extra 2'6" of board was added and one of the consequences of this is that the junction on the operators right to a disused branch and controlling access to the up yard is a bit more than a scale quarter mile (and we know this because South Junction has appropriate quarter mile indicators at measured intervals). Always on the edge of the reach of mechanical rodding, it's now much too far and we need to address this. The site is immediately behind this Midland bracket which has lost the arm on its right hand doll with the closure and partial lifting of the branch - in fact, it is now wholly out of use having been replaced by a colour light. If it is to remain in situ, I'll need to add a couple of white crosses...
So the obvious things required are the site to be cleared, fence moved, retaining wall constructed, and a 'box built to suit. That pill box* will also have to move, because its field of fire will be directly into the bobby's back (the entrance faces the field...). Under instruction from the Divisional Civil Engineer and chief Signalling and Telegraph planner - dad - I was informed that the new box should be something different to South Junction A cabin, a standard Midland Railway structure, recently refurbished. One of those (concrete) quarter mile markers can be seen by shiny new coal bunker. Some oaf has already knocked a couple of bricks out of the coping...
* In fact it's been in totally the wrong place for thirty years: it will be redeployed to obstruct the road.
His initial suggestion was that it should be something with a flat roof - think Tri-ang - or possibly rebuilt Midland. The issue with that is that the Tri-ang one is probably a bit modern and we still run some pre-Nationalisation stock. So with some delving on the web and with reference to Graham Warburton's very useful tome on LMS signalling an LMS standard box (basically the Midland design, but with a simple pitched roof) allowing the use of Ratio's kit, suitably-modified. A second hand example without a roof turned up on ebay and the result thus far can be seen below:
This is rather small for an LMS box - imagined as a replacement for an earlier Midland 'box destroyed in some forgotten accident - most seem to have been of two bays like the existing 'A' box but there were some of this halfway house size:
Claydon L&NE Junction 850112 by Jonathan Hazan, on Flickr
The small site and neighbouring embankment mean that the bobby gets an en-suite! I've ordered some etched windows from AMBIS and I've made a start on some of the ancillary structures; the coal bunker:
And finally, for the moment, here's a sense of the complete scene.
Adam
So the obvious things required are the site to be cleared, fence moved, retaining wall constructed, and a 'box built to suit. That pill box* will also have to move, because its field of fire will be directly into the bobby's back (the entrance faces the field...). Under instruction from the Divisional Civil Engineer and chief Signalling and Telegraph planner - dad - I was informed that the new box should be something different to South Junction A cabin, a standard Midland Railway structure, recently refurbished. One of those (concrete) quarter mile markers can be seen by shiny new coal bunker. Some oaf has already knocked a couple of bricks out of the coping...
* In fact it's been in totally the wrong place for thirty years: it will be redeployed to obstruct the road.
His initial suggestion was that it should be something with a flat roof - think Tri-ang - or possibly rebuilt Midland. The issue with that is that the Tri-ang one is probably a bit modern and we still run some pre-Nationalisation stock. So with some delving on the web and with reference to Graham Warburton's very useful tome on LMS signalling an LMS standard box (basically the Midland design, but with a simple pitched roof) allowing the use of Ratio's kit, suitably-modified. A second hand example without a roof turned up on ebay and the result thus far can be seen below:
This is rather small for an LMS box - imagined as a replacement for an earlier Midland 'box destroyed in some forgotten accident - most seem to have been of two bays like the existing 'A' box but there were some of this halfway house size:
Claydon L&NE Junction 850112 by Jonathan Hazan, on Flickr
The small site and neighbouring embankment mean that the bobby gets an en-suite! I've ordered some etched windows from AMBIS and I've made a start on some of the ancillary structures; the coal bunker:
And finally, for the moment, here's a sense of the complete scene.
Adam
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Dan Randall
Western Thunderer
The concrete colour on the pillbox is very convincing.
Regards
Dan
Regards
Dan
AJC
Western Thunderer
The concrete colour on the pillbox is very convincing.
That's probably Bob Alderman, c. 1983! Unfortunately, when relocated it'll need a repaint - there's a great splurge of bright green pain up the back of it. I reckon faded camouflage colours would be plausible; some were certainly so treated.
Adam