Ben Alders workbench

[Ben Alder]

Thought it was about time I started a workbench thread here for my various distractions that never seem to shrink in quantity no matter how many are completed.. First off, a quick look at the recent gas tank I built for Helmsdale. The HR gas tanks were an elusive species, seeming hardly ever photographed beyond glimpses in backgrounds and drawings are non existent, so a degree of supposition was called for. The HR wagon book has next to nothing on them and the LMS one has drawings of a smaller one than seen on the FNL. They appear to have been done on an ad hoc basis using old underframes in many cases so based on what I had gleaned, and knowing there was little chance of being pulled over any shortcomings,I decided to make what could have been a difficult job a lot easier by using commercial wagons as a base. A Chivers six wheel chassis and two Oxford tanks provided the raw material for the job - the chassis was built as suggested, with the dummy centre wheels, and runs fine as such - I had previously done two fish vans with working centre axles but due to a lack of floor in this one to give a fixing point I stuck with the cop out method. The two tank bodies were cut and shut into the required length and fitted to the chassis.
I had managed to find one clear photo of a tank at The Mound along with three or four better details shots of others, all different,and the wagon I put together has features from all of them, so it is a case of what Roy Jackson said - it's better than the one we haven't got - but it passes muster for me. I didn't take many construction pics of it as it was a straightforward build, but here is the gist of it.



And it on the layout....

 

[Ben Alder]

The BR Prairie started off as two leftover 82xxx bodies that were spliced to give a longer body and then the gaps patched in with plasticard and Milliput and married to an extended 2MT chassis with a cheaty Hornby style fixed rear pony as it proved impractical to do a pivoted one easily, and TBH, once running it isn't too noticeable. I could have spent more time on the body, but the whole thing took long enough anyway, and once on the layout close up discrepancies vanish, and bench work is a means to an end for me rather than the whole purpose of the hobby, although I spend far more time at it than operating . Here are one or two WIP's - I am guilty of not taking enough progress shots but when in the throes of a build completely forget about such things.

Being a tank, the 82xx body had its underside mostly missing so a good bit of patching was required. I added the firebox part to the build as well but that was after the first pics were taken and played about with domes to hand before I decided on a suitable one; what is was originall, I don't know - it came from the spares box, which dates back to the Eighties and a previous spell of such work when the likes of Crownline fired the enthusiasm of bashers for this sort of thing.
Lastly, the loco in service.