Elmham Market in EM

Reader mode
adrian

adrian

Flying Squad
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Definitely on the home run now. All of the footboards are fettled up and soldering in place. The original straps for the short footboards weren’t strong enough or long enough to act as sufficiently stout fixings so I cut them off and replaced them with brass strips cut and folded to the right size, then soldered on to the solebars. The second side went together much more quickly than the first, having applied the learnings from the first!

I’m now looking at the final details, which seem to be lamp irons, lamps then the roof, which I will make out of plasticard.

Photos attached.

Nigel

IMG_3479.jpeg

IMG_3480.jpeg
 
Lyndhurstman

Lyndhurstman

Western Thunderer
Nice work, and a nice rake, Nigel. There's something 'real' about whitemetal, for me. Maybe plastic is too precise. I must get my D&S GNR 8-wheeler out of the Woebegone Wagons storage area (a box :) ) and see if I can beef up the footboard supports...

Cheers

Jan
 
Dave Holt

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
They do look very good indeed. I imagine that a lengthy rake of such wagons would be a haulage challenge but for shortish trains the mass will give a solidity to the running.
Dave.
 
Herb Garden

Herb Garden

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
Definitely on the home run now. All of the footboards are fettled up and soldering in place. The original straps for the short footboards weren’t strong enough or long enough to act as sufficiently stout fixings so I cut them off and replaced them with brass strips cut and folded to the right size, then soldered on to the solebars. The second side went together much more quickly than the first, having applied the learnings from the first!

I’m now looking at the final details, which seem to be lamp irons, lamps then the roof, which I will make out of plasticard.

Photos attached.

Nigel

View attachment 209155

View attachment 209156
Click to expand...
You should have a go at those 'excellent' wood and brass mixed media kits for GER opens next ;)
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Dave Holt said:
They do look very good indeed. I imagine that a lengthy rake of such wagons would be a haulage challenge but for shortish trains the mass will give a solidity to the running.
Dave.
Click to expand...
Thanks Dave. They will be mixed in with a whole bundle of (suitably weighted) Parkside, Airfix and other plastic kit built wagons so will be fine for the Stratford St James branch freight as well as the Elmham Market pick up goods.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I finished adding on the lamp irons and lamps last night and sprayed a coat of primer over all three whitemetal wagons. I then found a suitable former (an old sugar tin from the looks of it!) to wrap the plasticard around, tape it down and run under boiling water to create a roof out of plasticard. It is now detailed and ready for fitting when I have finished painting then glazed the van.

Nigel


IMG_3484.jpeg
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
The last couple of evenings have been spent painting. I realised I had amassed a total of nine wagons plus the brake van that I have now brought to a state of readiness for painting so have been blitzing them; wagon grey and bauxite last night and dirty black and roof grey tonight. Still quite a bit of tidying up to do, then numbering and finally, if I can bring myself to do it, weathering. Some photos attached.

Nigel


IMG_3489.jpegIMG_3488.jpegIMG_3487.jpeg
 
76043

76043

Western Thunderer
Brake van looks great, any details on the other wagons we haven't seen on here? (Well I don't think I've seen the minerals and fitted stock?)
Tony
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
76043 said:
Brake van looks great, any details on the other wagons we haven't seen on here? (Well I don't think I've seen the minerals and fitted stock?)
Tony
Click to expand...
Thanks Tony and you are quite right about the other stock. They are mostly (apart from a D&S cast van that is put together with superglue) Parkside kits (one or two are ex Ratio) with no real modification (apart from Alan Gibson wheels if they were old kits) and a bit of liquid lead hidden in the underframe to give some ballast. If I am going up to Wales for a few days I tend to take a kit or two up with me and progress them. There is nothing really special about them and they will be added to the general Elmham Market fleet.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
When I took a look at the brake van today after the paint had dried I saw there was a bit of carry over of the black up into the grey. I have touched it all up but the hand painted bits seem to be slightly paler than the airbrushed areas, so weathering to cover this up is going to come sooner rather than later. I’ve also painted the detailing (handrails, handbrake wheels, lamps etc.) glazed the windows and fitted the roof. Couplings still to be fitted then numbering and lettering added before weathering. Current state of play shown below.

Nigel

IMG_3501.jpeg
 
LarryG

LarryG

Western Thunderer
Whitemetal wagons are not everyone's cuppa tea. I have memories of weighty goods trains and then fitting pinpoint axles only to see the damned things chattering off on their own down the sidings! But full respect to those who still persevere with 25 watt iron and low-melt solder. :)

The coaches are nice and it must be a relief to know you can spray them brown instead of having to mess around with scumble or enamels and graining brushes.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
LarryG said:
Whitemetal wagons are not everyone's cuppa tea. I have memories of weighty goods trains and then fitting pinpoint axles only to see the damned things chattering off on their own down the sidings! But full respect to those who still persevere with 25 watt iron and low-melt solder. :)

The coaches are nice and it must be a relief to know you can spray them brown instead of having to mess around with scumble or enamels and graining brushes.
Click to expand...
Thanks Larry and with your comments on the coaches coming from an experienced professional like you I appreciate the compliment. Yes, definitely easier not having to worry about teak effects!

On the operation of whitemetal wagons, I think time will tell. I have fitted a lot of them with sprung buffers and that might help or it might just make thing worse. I’ll have an operating session in a week or so and report back!

I spent much of yesterday evening taking the bottom links off the wagons under construction and replacing them with steel links. That was a result of feedback from the last operating session with the NW Surrey EM group when ‘observations’ were made about the ease of coupling and uncoupling with and without magnetic links.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
So I have been adding numbers to the wagons I have been building recently but it isn’t a job I enjoy and I have found it has been sapping my modelling mojo somewhat. As an antidote I took some of them out to the layout and had a play. After the usual initial maintenance bit on the track I ran them behind one of my J15s (an Alan Gibson kit and the first etched brass loco I made, albeit now on its third (flexichas this time) chassis but still with the original Anchoridge motor and flywheel) and ran the Stratford St James goods. Very cathartic! I then took a couple of videos of the train rumbling through Elmham Market on its way to Stratford St James, both attached as links.



Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I think I am moving into the area of displacement activity. As a way of avoiding putting more transfers on wagons I have picked up an old project to build a pair of houses on the other side of the road from the station building. There still exist, on the road out of Lavenham towards the station, three pairs of these houses and a judicial use of Google Earth enabled me to get some screen shots and prepare some elevations.

There the project stopped while I worked out how to create the window frames. A chance conversation with Gavin Thirkell of Stonebridge Structures at a recent expoEM resulted in an exchange of emails with dimensions, then drawings and finally a complete set of windows and doors beautifully cut in modified acrylic. By that time, however, I was moving ahead with the push pull project and so there matters rested until this week when a general antipathy towards applying transfers caused me to pick the building project up again. If I’m totally honest as well, my eldest son and his girlfriend are coming down for the weekend and I know if I haven’t made any progress on the Elmham Market scenery he will take me to task…

The elevations have been marked out on 40 thou plasticard and I’m now into window (and door) cutting mode. The two photos attached show, firstly a screenshot of what I am aiming for and secondly, where I am at the moment.

Nigel


IMG_3514.jpegIMG_3513.jpeg
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
What's New?
Top