7mm On Heather's Workbench - Multiple Maunsells

[Heather Kay]

Thoughts are beginning to turn to sorting out the interiors of the coaches. I have a cunning plan I’m keen to tryout.

I have thoroughly confused myself today, trying to pin down what sort of things were going on inside Maunsell coaches by the 1960s. I assume the interior panel work would have pretty much remained as built, but I can’t believe seating would have survived some three decades in service without being recovered at some point.

The Southern Railway Email Group web site has some useful colour photos of the Maunsells preserved on the - I think - the Bluebell Railway. The vehicles are preserved in Southern Railway livery, and appear to have had interiors restored to match the original build. The interior shots of first and third class compartments are down the page linked here.

As it happens, I found a Flickr album of various seating moquette swatches. Some are suitable for early SR and BR (SR), and you will find the Bluebell Railway moquettes in the set. My question, though, is which of the numerous patterns is most likely to have been used when refurbishing these coaches after the Second World War?

I’m sure one of you Southern fans will be able to advise. Ta.

 

[Heather Kay]

The fourth and final underframe begins. This is another 6-compartment brake third.

 

[Heather Kay]

Cheers John!

Things have been plodding forward. That Life thing has rather got in the way a bit, but progress has been made on finalising underframe details (cast footboard brackets) and the end details. Today's post is about the latter.



Right at the start of this thread, I think I mentioned the end detailing as moulded by Slater's was a bit two-dimensional. It’s a sort of Slater's trademark, but it does rather let the side (or end) down when you consider the lovely cast end steps that surround them. I hope you can make out my scribble to show the basic dimension for remaking various holes after carving off the passenger communication gear and the lighting connectors. There is a minor dim I’ve missed, but I’ll cover it when I come to it later. I drill right through the end for the CPL parts as they have long pegs, but just drill little dimples for the CRT parts.



Here are the replacement parts. CPL's exquisite and delicate cast GWR passcomm bits. It’s set 1c Brake Telltales, which I have found is the closest match to the equipment fitted to BR Mk1 coaches, and suits these Southern designs quite well with some careful adjustment. To be correct, the little butterflies at the ends are the wrong way round for Mk1s, but nobody will notice. The lighting connectors are rather lumpy but quite adequate brass jobs from CRT Kits. They’re a gazillion times better than the weedy flat things originally moulded by the Big S.



Having carefully excised the CPL bits from their sprue, and cleaned out the holes with a 0.55mm bit - a half mill would do, but I find the extra 0.05mm helps a bit with fitting - the first job is to modify the valve box and down pipe.



The down pipe is very thin and easily broken, but with care and taking things very slowly, it is quite possible to adjust it to take on the correct bends. You can see how it runs down close to the strip outboard of the gangway. It also is too long, but that can be easily dealt with by application of cutters.



With the box and down pipe glued in place, I’ve positioned the other parts so you can see how they fit on an end they were never designed for. The saving grace for us is the Pullman gangway these coaches were fitted with. The top rod carrying the turning motion to the opposite side runs through the top of the gangway, and is lost to view. This is the same on Mk1s. The short butterfly rod on the left needs to be shortened further, as does the one on the right. Let’s step through methodically.



Here you can see the left butterfly rod has been shortened, and the casting glued in place. The mechanism to pass the turning movement has also been trimmed and carefully adjusted to fit. The top rod has been trimmed back to the angled strip, for reasons explained earlier. The dimension I missed in my sketch is the location for the upper rod bracket from the angled strip: it’s 3mm, both sides.



The right butterfly rod is tried for size. You can see the lovely cast bracket has to go, which is a shame but it’s all in a good cause. Once happy with the length, the rod is glued in place. Note the rod has to stand away from the coach end by almost a millimetre along its length. This is so it slots into the down rod that goes on next.



Now the right side mechanism is trimmed and fitted. There. That didn’t take long, did it!



And here we are with the lighting connectors and the cast steps and bits fitted. For the period these models are intended to represent, the toilet fillers formed pipes down to track level, à la Mk1s. When these modifications were made, the long step that sat across top of the gangway was removed. This is why I haven’t fitted the etched brackets that Slater's do provide. My cursory survey of photos shows that most of the other steps remained, so I’ve fitted them. I believe some were removed during overhauls, but I couldn’t find an example to follow. Besides, I like the steps. It’s all part of the overall fussiness on coach ends, and one of the things I like most about building rolling stock.

That fussiness, or busyness as Dickens might have said, also extends to the underframe. I like underframes. I like all the bits and bobs that go to making up an underframe. I found another detail I hadn’t spotted before, and I’m going to make them up and talk about them in the next post.

 

[Heather Kay]

Remember those thin bits of scrap etch from the bogie kits I said might be useful?



These?



Take two 50mm lengths, one 48mm and one 40mm, and you can make brake rod safety loops.

Stepping back a little, I was peering at photos to work out how and where a pipe, which Slater's supply as bent plastic rod, is supposed to run down the back of one of the footboards. There’s no hint about where it comes from, goes to, or whether it was steam heating or vacuum braking. Anyway, I couldn't, and still can’t, see any evidence of such pipework outside the underframe solebars, so I’m going to leave it off the models - unless you know better, of course. Be that as it may, while peering at the photos, I noticed the brake safety loops arrayed about the underframe.

Need I say more? I like busy underframes.





I worked out there were four I could be certain of. One each end, aligned roughly with the centre of each reservoir tank, to catch the weight shaft end of the brake rod should it come adrift. There’s already a loop on the bogie, if you remember. I could also just make out another pair, slightly different lengths, to catch the centre rod that joins the two ends of the gear together, the one that runs behind the battery boxes. I can assume there are smaller loops to catch the brake van handbrake linkage, too, but I’m not too bothered by those - yet!

I will add a simulated dynamo belt before things get painted. I haven’t found evidence of a dynamo safety chain like those on Mk1s, so that will be left off. Anyway, off to fit the remaining underframes.

 

[Heather Kay]

I’m still here. I’ve been plodding through odds and ends, like sorting out the buffer extension collars.



I am still hazy about how these coaches will be made into a formation. I mean, I’ve got three brake coaches! The reasonable assumption is brake 3rd + Compo + Brake 3rd, with the Brake Compo as an ad hoc tacked on the end. So, each Brake 3rd has extended buffers at the brake end with collars deployed, compressed at t'other with collars stowed. The Compo will be all compressed and stowed, while the Brake Compo will be all extended. Extended ends will need the full pipework and coupling nonsense, while compressed ends still need to be decided.

I think that makes sense.

Anyway, Slater's provide a very fine chain for the collars. I still think it’s too heavy, so I’ve resorted to fine wire twisted up. It’ll be fine under a coat of gunk.

 

[Heather Kay]

Is the honeymoon still a week behind the 'fridge?

We have been upgraded to behind the chest freezer.

Today, Life and its bottomless bag of spanners is playing a big part. All kinds of shenanigans going on, mostly being sorted satisfactorily, but which will leave me feeling vaguely unsettled for the rest of the day.

I realised I hadn’t taken any overview photos of the coaches.



Let’s see if I can get this right. This is a D.2102 BTK Brake Third.



This is the other D.2102 BTK from the corridor side.



The fancy end of the D.2301 CK composite.



D.2301 CK, wide view compartment side.



A slightly lower angle that more or less shows that lovely fiddly stuff under the frames.



Finally, the D.2401 BCK brake composite. This is the "strengthener" coach, and has all the end details save for the couplings.

Still a fair bit to do, but I think the paint shop beckons early next week. I have to admit to feeling pretty good about these models. They’re turning out just fine.

(Famous last words!)

 

[Heather Kay]

Apologies for the silence. I’ve been taking a little time off for domestic and personal stuff, as well as mild diversions into model fire engines. The appetite for faffing about with the coaches is taking a while to return, but my brain cell has been attempting to work out fixing the roofs.

So, experiments with magnets. This is the second version. You can see a strip of old biscuit tin in the end of the roof, and a shelf with a pair of neodymium magnets glued to it. Experiments have shown magnets are resistant to most adhesives - - so I think embedding them in a pool of epoxy resin might be the long term solution. Still, proof of concept and all that, it does actually work and holds the roof in place. I will need to add guide strips to ensure the roof remains aligned correctly, but now I just have to repeat the method for all the coaches.

 

[Heather Kay]

Right, magnets on order. Time to think on couplings.

This is one of those things I’ve been leaving, in the vain hope some obvious solution would appear. Sadly, it hasn’t. Time for some tests.



The most obvious solution is to use what Slater's provide, in other words the cast knuckle and coupling hook arrangement. As it turns out, with the gangways in place - which, if you recall, on the real thing provide most of the buffing action - it would actually work. The biggest problem is the act of coupling the coaches together. Because the cast knuckles are not working in any real sense you can’t simply push the two vehicles together to latch them. One has to be carefully lowered on the other, and that isn’t easy with the gangway blocking right above the coupler.



The client's original intention was to use fixed cast pipework like this. This would also work, but involves some surgery to the ends of the underframes. It would also need the knuckles to be permanently joined, and perhaps glued to one coach, probably the one with the connecting pipework attached, so the illusion is complete.

Having had a chance to play, the first option, using the kit parts, behaves like the real thing. There’s give in the coupling, and movement sideways and back and forth between the gangways. The only hardship is coupling/uncoupling, and simulating the brake and steam pipework. The second option would be more rigid overall, but that may well be an advantage when, for example, propelling vehicles.

A solution, then, remains elusive. More testing, required.

 

[Heather Kay]

Oh dear.



If you remember, the last brake third I put together developed a distinct downward bow to the floor. Attempts to rectify the problem seemed to work, but when it came time to fit the roof, it was apparent the downward bow had not been dealt with. Rather, the bow had transferred to the body sides as well.

Peering at the thing this morning, it became obvious the only way to correct the fault was disassembly. Hence the pile of plastic parts.

Luckily, I have made a properly poor job of the epoxy resin mix, and it didn’t take long to free the truss bar ends, remove the step boards, and generally get the underframe down to the barest minimum. Current thinking is to score through the joint on the floor, and slice through the solebars where they join, set the floor upside down on my glass plate, apply significant weight and flood the joints with MEK.

Not where I expected to be, but something that really needs to be dealt with now rather than ignore it.

 

[Heather Kay]

I was going to prime things over the weekend, but Life sort of had other plans. Nothing to worry about, it was just I went off and did something more interesting and slightly less messy instead.

My goal today was to tick off a couple more items on the snagging list.



First, do some minor adjustments to a pair of the Slater's knuckle couplers. The twisted wire represents the fine chain you can see on various end photos. The outer ends of two vehicles have been assigned the full drawbar detailing mojo.



Taking careful heed to turn my reference photo upside down to match my work piece, here is the van end of the composite brake.



Back up the right way, and that looks reasonable. There’s sufficient slack in the "chains" to allow the coupling hook to be pulled out against its spring so other non-buckeye vehicles might be attached. It’ll be a right fiddle, and I don’t suppose it’ll ever happen, but it would be possible. The loco end, though, well, that’s another kettle of fish.



This is the outer end brake third. I reckon that looks okay. A good dose of grime under there and all will be well.

Having consulted again with the client, I will be leaving well alone on the other drawbars. No extra slotting required, as the client will do the necessary to allow fitting of the semi-permanent couplings he’s having made. That’s all good, because I can fit dummy buckeyes for the portrait session at the end of the job.

At the end of last week I measured up all the windows. It would seem that there’s a lot of panels the same size, but when you get down to it one or two odd sizes sneak in when you’re not looking! Hopefully I shall be able to cut out the glazing without too much wastage. I may make up little ziplock baggies for each coach to store the glazing in until it’s time to fit. Incidentally, can anyone give accurate info on which compartments were non-smoking? I can only find one drawing in the King book that clearly shows such info.

Oh, just remembered! I need to tidy up the body side and end joins. That’s my next job, then.

 

[Heather Kay]

Primer goes on roofs and compartment assemblies!

(At last. )

 

[Heather Kay]

I couldn’t get gloss BR (S) green, so satin/dull it is. This is the compartment sides all done - well, first coat at least. The corridor sides will be later this afternoon, then I’ll let things harden before seeing what the damage is!

 

[Heather Kay]

So what new software have you gone for Heather ?

Being a Mac user, and very ardently anti-Adobe for numerous reasons that go back to the company killing Macromedia FreeHand, I’ve been holding out using Apple Aperture. I shoot in RAW, and the software acts as processing and a digital asset management system (DAM). Think of Lightroom, only not by Adobe! Anyway, Apple announced some years ago they were stopping development. There’s a fair few of us hold-outs that have been lucky that the software has kept working reasonably well through a couple of OS updates, but it is comprehensively broken by the last but one. While Apple has continued to support the OS version I’m stuck on with security updates, it won’t last forever. Aperture has also become a little unstable, usually when doing dust spotting and minor retouching. I would like to be running a newer OS, as other software I use may well in time require features my current OS doesn’t support.

Now, my processing needs are not huge. I generally only do some white balance correction, mild sharpening and exposure, cropping and straightening. I mostly use Aperture to manage all the files, sort things into albums and so on. In theory, Apple's free Photos app can handle all that, so I’m starting to move some of the modelling library over there. For new RAW editing and DAM work, I’ve got a program called RAW Power, which cost me the princely sum of thirty quid. It’s developed by someone who actually used to work for Apple on their imaging software, and it’s the nearest I’ve found to Aperture in all the looking I’ve been doing this past couple of years. Like the best software, it uses the operating system for all the heavy lifting - Apple has comprehensive support for dozens of digital cameras and all their myriad file formats. I’ll use RAW Power for processing images, and handling my landscape photo libraries from now on.

I've also been pointed at an open source software called Dark Table. That’s free, and does look very powerful. I may have a play at some point, but for now, I’m starting on moving various libraries about, clearing out cruft and tidying things up. That may well take me some time, so I’ll do a bit every evening. I will retain the Aperture libraries as a kind of backup, and luckily I’ve got a couple of elderly Mac laptops that will run Aperture well enough to find a photo archived somewhere.

That was a bit long-winded, and quite off topic!

 

[Heather Kay]

Painting the interiors.

I made a slightly better effort with the compartment dividers. They are fairly obvious through the windows. For the insides of the sides, if that makes sense, I didn’t need to take quite as much care. A suitable colour will be adequate.

I came across the colour combination as a happy accident, really. You can see preserved coaches on this web site, and I’ve used this as inspiration and a guide.



Having already painted (and repainted!) the compartments, here is sort of how I went about the basic colours. I used Humbrol acrylics, because I had them to hand and wanted to see how they fared. A rough base coat of 71 Oak was applied. I followed this with 93 Desert Yellow, applied with a ratty nylon brush on the light panels as a grain effect. It barely shows, to be honest. Of course, with care, it would make sense to draw the brush along the real grain pattern directions, but I’m too hasty for that!



No 186 Brown seemed to be a suitable shade for the orangey appearance of the varnished wood. Happily, brushing it on it is translucent on the first coat or two, and let’s the lighter Oak shade show. Painted directly on the grey primer, it much darker and flatter. Having almost exhausted my pot, I switched to 62 Leather, which I ended up using on all the sides where the precise colour was less important.



As you can see, I haven’t been particularly careful with application of the orange coat. I hope it is enough to give an impression of the grain patterns of the veneers used. Once the paint has hardened, I will apply a satin varnish coat. This will have the effect of slightly darkening the paint and hopefully giving an appearance of some depth. We shall see.

Having given the luggage ends a coat of green paint, it was too dull. I’ve rediscovered a brighter green shade in my paint box. I’ll have to go over them again in time.

 

[Heather Kay]

*whoosh*





Tedious, fiddly, but I think that is well worth the effort. All the little reflections back and forth with the side windows will make it quite interesting when these coaches are all together.

 

[Heather Kay]

The trimming shop has been busy. The upholstered side cheeks by each seat are next on the agenda. I think I’ll just do the corridor side ones, as they’ll be most likely to be spotted.

 

[Heather Kay]

I noted the walls in the first class compartments were upholstered/padded. A few minutes adjusting my seat moquette drawing got me this. Now, do I need to do the other side of the compartments? Will it be visible? I think I’ll have to test.

 

[Heather Kay]

Some more quick work on the pooter, with some suitable images "found" on the intertoobz.





They’ll pass in the gloom with the roof on.

 

[Heather Kay]

I need some advice from the more Southern orientated members, please.

I’m beginning to work out lettering for these coaches. I have numbers, and a set number, and I know where such things are supposed to go. This isn’t an issue. What I need clarification on is the colour. I know lettering followed the standard BR pattern of cream/gold in the first stages of nationalisation. By 1960, this is said to have changed to yellow. Is this correct?

A further question arises regarding load branding on brake vans. A rummage around the web isn’t a lot of help, as most clear photos of Maunsell coaches are of preserved vehicles, frequently in SR livery. Photos do show, however, a tiny bit of script by the luggage doors, near the bottom of the side panel, that reads "Load 1 ton" or "Load 2 tons" or similar. Now, Mark 1s had a much more comprehensive script, but I have so far failed to turn up examples of Maunsell brake coaches sporting such. Any guidance would be appreciated.

 

[Heather Kay]

Yay! The first brake third gets grot on the underside. I’m masking the body using cling film and as little sticky tape as I dare. I really don’t trust the low tack tapes not to lift paint, and always expect the worst.