7mm Ressaldar's Inspection Saloon workbench

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
So as not to create too much alarm among the older members by actually making a workbench post for the first time in what seems an eternity, I thought that it should be along tried and tested lines - oh no!! not another Inspection Saloon goes out the cry - yes is the answer, but with a slight difference...........................

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this is one of the BR Wolverton 1959 builds to Diagram 1/550, which is basically the LMS Diagram D2046 with the windows and door on one side of the small saloon re-configured from 'window/door/window' to 'window/window/door' and the central window in tboth ends made into a fixed light as opposed to a droplight.

P1000744.JPG

All that remains to be applied prior to painting are the air horns and the control box? and supplying conduit that ran from a point adjacent to the lamp irons up the window mullions to the roof and then went ................ where? My take would be to an alarm bell or similar in the 'Guards' room. If anybody knows where the conduit actually went, I would appreciate hearing about it.

The kit is a standard Sidelines D2046 with a special 'one off' side and ends supplied by Malcolm Binns. The livery is likely to be that of Regional Railways at the time when the 'headlight' was not fitted - early 90's or it might be Blue/Grey.

ex GWR Q13 in Inter-City livery is not too far behind.

regards

Mike
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi Mike,

As Richard says, it's good to see you back at the bench. We saw you from afar at Leigh but each time we planned to say hello you were busy. Perhaps we may get to catch up at Doncaster.
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
I should have included this picture

999503 Newton Heath 29 June 1993

showing the conduits and 'control boxes' adjacent to the inner faces of the lampiron brackets, as I said, any information as to use and where the conduit went on the roof would be gratefully received.

regards

Mike
 

Cliff Williams

Western Thunderer
Hi Mike
One and the same!
My friend was responsible for having this brought up for use on ScotRail and it was condemned with asbestos inside.

I will set you up a Dropbox link and send it over so you can see it at Perth, when it still has Bristol on the side.
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Cliff,

many thanks, I have seen photos of it back at Old Oak Common, with the red stripe overpainted with light blue, which I think was applied whilst in Scotland - with paint bought at a local B&Q!

kind regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Better late than never, I have now completed the Orion Q13 Inspection Saloon apart from some touching up and possible weathering to the chassis.

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Guards/kitchen side, long handrail still to be bent to shape, the transfers are by Precision Decals and the orange stripe is Trimline Tape, paint is Railmatch and the curtains are from Peter Cowling

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the heater vents are by Shawn Kay (Easybuild) and the figures are Omen Miniatures - track plans still to be glued onto the tables.

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The transfer was applied in 'two word' lengths and butt jointed to maintain the spacing.

It will be getting a good workout at the Club this evening - pulled by Railfreight liveried 37.674

The Diagram 1/550 is not far off completion, hopefully out of the shops by this time next week.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Seemingly, the digital gremlins had gotten into my camera yesterday, so I have taken advantage of this afternoon's 'even dullness' resulting in these:

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last nights running session was successful, so just the odd touching up to do and then on to the EWS Diag 1/550.

cheers

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
I found the answer to my query in post #6 regarding the 'destiny' of the conduits on the roof

37141 at Newport Godfrey Road

by sheer chance when looking for photos of 37.674 - a great find for the rest of the roof detail as well, but I don't think that I will be doing DM45026 with the three lights though!

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
(almost) finished at last! This is the BR version of the ex LMS Diag D2046 Inspection Saloon, built at Swindon in 1962 to BR Diag 1/550.

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This is the corridor side which is identical to the ex LMS Diag D2046 Inspection Saloon

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Close up of the front end, all of the transfers seen here are by Precision Labels, the ETH is from JLTRT and the orange band is from Trim Line. The 'cable on the ETH is as supplied but I will be experimenting with some 'Shrink wrap' to see if I can get a better result.

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Here we see the revised elevation - the left hand end (small saloon) is now a mirror image of the other side. The EW&S and the logo are from Fox Transfers. The step ladder is scratchbuilt based on photographs found on Flickr.

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Precision transfers again.

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Close up of the revised window and door arrangement, I have as usual put track plans on the tables.

Nearly all of the photographs that I have seen of DB999504 in this livery have white faces to the wheel treads, whilst that is fine as it was being manoeuvred around the yard in and out of the paint shop, but I wanted it a few weeks into service hence the grimy rims. The oily treatment to the springs, axle boxes end such areas on the bogies will be applied next week as I now have to get my stock ready for tomorrows Wirral OGG Open Day. It will also be populated when I source suitable figures.

regards

Mike
 
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Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
While waiting for the paint to dry on the D2046 Inspection Saloon, I decided to take the bull by the horns and try my luck using a friend's Metalsmith guillotine to chop up the sides of another Sidelines kit to hopefully end up with this:

LMS Inspection Saloon At Hebden Bridge (Michael McNicholas)

which is one of the two ex LMS 50' Kitchen car conversions that were carried out in 1959 and whilst similar quite similar to the LMS Diag D2046, do have quite a few differences - location and spacing of doors and windows, individual angled rainstrips over each of the doors and a fixed centre light in the ends as opposed to a droplight.

I had a couple of spare sides from the producing the EWS liveried coach so one these became the cut and shuffle 'Corridor' side for this build, together with parts from one side of the Kitchen Car kit and the other side is used for the 'Guards' side, just needing two of the four foot wide windows reducing in width and these 'infills' will come from the second cannibalised side.

I had marked out the main side to be cut up and checked that the sum of the width of the individual pieces came to the magical 350mm and not having previously used a guillotine I had a few practice chops on some spare etch and not having lost any fingers in the process 'went for it' resulting in

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the Guards side at the bottom, just needing two inserts to produce the right effect

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and the Corridor side made up of seven individual pieces with a sliver to file off at the end of piece G.

The plan is to solder a narrow brass strip (form the excellent Eileen's range) behind each join and then form the tumbleholme in the usual Sidelines manner. More fun to come whilst waiting for more paint to dry next week.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
The paint has now dried on the Diag D2046 and the transfers applied

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all the usual culprits used on the finishing

Air horns from MMP
ETH from JLTRT
Transfers from Precision Labels
Lining from HMRS

but the paint for the body (cellulose) was from aerosols made up for me at a local car paint outlet and I have been most impressed with the finish. The chassis was Halfords satin black then over sprayed with Railmatch Frame Dirt followed by Hobby Holidays engine grime over the axlebox covers, springs etc.

A breather now until the New Year to programme the BR Diag 1/551 and the S&T conversion.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Now that the 4MT tank is more or less finished - (the water capacity plate arrived today and will be applied over the weekend) I can now return my attention to the Diag 1/551 Inspection saloon 'cut and shuffle' exercise that I started last year.

I decided that the way forward was to finish the sides and ends before the chassis and bogies on the basis that if the 'cut and shuffle' didn't work out then I had not wasted my time of the rest of the kit. So the Ersa was fired up this morning which has resulted in

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from this

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I built a jig that was long enough to take the full length of the side and peeled off each of the pieces from the masking/carrier tape in turn, cleaned them up, held B against A and against the jig, applied heat and moved on C to B, etc left it all to cool off, then cleaned the excess solder off with a scratch brush, brushed off the arisings and then sprayed a witness coat to check for any tell tale lines, which fortunately, they were not too bad. So stopper putty was applied which seemed to be going off in this heat as soon as it was out of the tube, that was then left to harden off.

In the mean time, attention was turned to the 'other side' which as you can see, needed two of the four foot windows to be reduced to two foot. I had cut out three pieces (includes a spare - 'just in case') when I had had use of the guillotine, which just needed to be trimmed to fit. The opening lights were removed from the four footers and the corners made square rather than radii. The new infill panels were then soldered in, cleaned up and again witness coated and stopper puttied and left to dry.

The stopper was smoothed down and again witness coated and the results are shown above. The ends are next up, a question of marking out and forming the three identical windows, unlike the ex LMS Diag D2046 saloons, there were fixed centre windows in lieu of droplights on these two conversions.

Hopefully, more to come soon.

regards

Mike
 
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Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Now that the 4MT is out of the way, I have made some progress on the Inspection Saloon over the last few days, in as much that I have now fitted the centre fixed lights to the ends. I obtained a couple of blank D2046 ends from Malcolm Binns at Sidelines and using the etched D2046 ends from the kit as a pattern, drew round the inside of the fixed light window openings as a guide for the replacement fixed lights. Measured up the rectangular opening meant for the droplight and superimposed that rectangle over the previously drawn fixed light shape. I then milled out the new fixed light openings and then using a piercing saw, cut out the rectangle and then spent a couple of hours with fine files fetling them to be a good fit within the opening and then soldered them in place.

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both ends - before and after, but before any cleaning up

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end 1 after cleaning up.

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end 2 from the outside and before cleaning up.

Next step is to fit sides to ends then make up the box and fit the roof - hopefully next week.

regards

Mike
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
....a week is a long time in model making as well as in politics!!

Much water has passed under the bridge since July and I have just about stayed calm, mainly sitting on the bank waiting for the mojo to float pass, and strangely, since that injection in the arm that is Telford, I have reeled it in and carried out the task in the last line of the previous post:) having put it off for far too long - mainly because I do not like using Bostik.

The chassis and bogies were completed last week and the body ends screwed on, giving a good 'platform' for the sides to be added. The roof was then offered up to the box only to discover that my assumption that it was already cut to length was out by a mere 12mm and having put the vents and filler pots on, I thought that disaster was staring me in the face and major surgery might be needed, but thankfully, there was sufficient 'slack' at the small saloon end and the repair only required two vents to be removed, which as yet have not been replaced.

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seven into one will go - 1

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seven into one will go - 2

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the guards side with the two outer small windows formed from standard 4' windows

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revised end now with a fixed light in lieu of the droplight

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test run being propelled by 37193 on the inner circuit and no buffer lock.

The fittings on the ends and roof will be the next task, then inside the body and making the furniture.

I have decided to finish it in Blue/Grey and fit the Southern Region reporting panel at the bottom of the central fixed light with 'RT' at the leading end and unlit red panels at the trailing end. Transfers already in stock from John Peck at Precision Decals.

regards

Mike
 
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