This Blog describes the ongoing development of a 16mm scale 45mm gauge garden railway situated in the North West of England, UK from 2004 to the present day.
During the build, I had a major problem with the layshaft. The only flycranks I could find (from Garden Railway Specialists - GRS), had 8mm offsets but the cranks on Tollemache's drivers
had 10mm offsets. I solved the problem at the time by slotting the
connecting rod to compensate for the 2mm differences at each end of the
rotation.
This, of course, meant the motion was very sloppy which was
especially notable when the loco was running at low speed. I don't have
any video of this - I wonder why.....?
I searched websites of various suppliers (eg GRS, Essel, Roundhouse, Brandbright)
to see if anyone was marketing flycranks with 10mm centres, but to no
avail. I considered making my own from brass, but precision metalworking
is not one of my strengths. Then, inspirationally, I remembered that I
had recently acquired skills in soldering whitemetal (see How I constructed an IP Engineering Plate Frame Simplex). The GRS flycranks were whitemetal.
The head of the crank was excised with a razor saw.
The
ends of the two pieces were coated in flux, tinned with low-melt solder
and then joined together with a 2.5mm fillet of solder (0.5mm to allow
for the width of the saw blade).
The solder was then filed to shape - et voila, one fly crank with 10mm centres!
The
slotted connecting rods were discarded and two more connecting rods cut
from brass strip. These were then bolted on to the wheels and to the
new flycranks which had been quartered and fixed on to the layshaft with cyano gel.
The motion is now a lot smoother and so I am more than happy to video the loco moving slowly while, for example, shunting in the Copper Mine sidings.
As you can see from Progress Report 32 and from more recent posts, I have been fairly busy over the summer adding the finishing touches to various projects which had been started through the year. I like to keep more than one project on the go at any one time. Often, something I'm constructing needs to be left for a few days while the glue or paint sets, so having something else to get on with is useful. Also, when working full time, I've have had to seize moments to do a bit more modelling whenever time permits, often (as at this moment) I'll do some modelling (or blogging) while watching TV in the evening. Having a range of projects on the go means I can choose a job which is most appropriate for doing in the living room. For some reason noisy jobs (eg sawing) or smelly jobs (eg gluing or painting) don't seem to be too popular with the other half when she's trying to watch the telly. Anyway, the projects I am currently working on are:
Chipping, repainting and detailing the Barclay loco;
Finishing off the Hunslet loco kit;
Weathering some LGB tippler wagons.
Chipping, repainting and detailing the Barclay loco
As can be seen from Progress Report 26, the Barclay loco was in hand painted brown livery when it was bought secondhand. It therefore needed to be repainted in Brunswick green and lined in gold to bring it into line with the loco liveries for the Peckforton Railway. After rubbing down the loco I decided it wouldn't be necessary to apply undercoat. What I hadn't realised was that the solvent used in Humbrol acrylic aerosol paint acted as an effective paint stripper for the paint used originally on the loco. This meant I had to do some extensive additional rubbing down, priming and undercoating before applying three coats of Brunswick Green, rubbing down between each coat to try and achieve a half decent finish. The finish is not exactly perfect, but it is not bad considering what it was like before.
The black was repainted by hand with (water-based) acrylics. The next job is to apply gold lining with Trimline adhesive tape.
A Massoth L chip has been wired in and the loco has been programmed to DCC No. 2. Nameplates (BEESTON) and number plates have been ordered from Alan Briggs and will be added once the paintwork and lining has been finished and sealed with clear varnish.
Finishing off the Hunslet loco kit
The bodywork has been constructed (See How I constructed a Hunslet from a GRS kit) and it is now at the painting stage. I find painting the most daunting part of the kit-building process and, for me, it is the most time consuming. The Peckett was around 18 months in the paint shop as I kept trying to improve upon previous mistakes. One of the difficulties I've yet to overcome is spray-drift. When painting one side of a model or round the curve of the boiler or chimney, excess spray drifts on to previously sprayed areas and dulls them down. If I find a solution, I will be delighted (and will share this with the world at large!)
Weathering some tippler wagons
With two trains of eight tippler wagons (actually I have nineteen tipplers, but have decided that eight wagons per train plus guards' van is more manaegeable for the passing loops on the line). I have slowly been accumulating these through eBay until I've now reached the optimum number. I've always planned to weather these mainstays of the line as they have very heavy useage. So far, I've managed to weather one set (see How I weathered some LGB tippler wagons) using Scenic Rust.
Couplings
I've also permanently coupled them in rakes of four wagons. As these trains are unlikely ever to be split and shunted separately it seemed wasteful of couplings to have them loose coupled. It also released loads of LGB couplings to act as spares for other stock. I decided not to permanently couple all eight together. If one wagon falls off the line on the elevated section, it would take the other seven with it - as I found from experience and, of course, sods' law prevailed - it was in the hidden section which is the least accessible. I'm wondering how long I will contine to be able to squirm into the undergrowth on my stomach commando-style.
At this stage I have decided to stick with LGB couplings as standard on the line. Although they are not realistic, they are reliable. I have several R1 points and a few curves equivalent to R1 on the line and so need something which will cope. I've decided also to add hooks to both ends of all stock. Despite my best efforts there are some dips in the trackwork (particularly at the end of the swing bridge) which means that the hooks can drop out of the adjacent loop. In addition, I have a reversing loop which could result in some stock becoming reversed, ending up with two hookless bars being presented for coupling.The release of the couplings from the tipplers has enabled me to have sufficient spare hooks for any future additions to the rolling stock.
I bought three coach kits from Mark Addison of Maddison Coaches (no longer trading). Although Mark made them for SM32, he modified his bogies for me to run on 45mm track. These kits had been languishing for some time awaiting the urge to construct them. When I realised I would either have to modify the platforms at Beeston Castle and Bulkeley to accommodate the Accucraft W&L Pickering coaches I bought last year or modify the coaches, I decided to construct the kits to see if they would solve the problem.
Following the excellent set of instructions which accompany the kits, I firstly tidied up the pieces with a file and some sanding blocks:
The first stage of construction was to glue the exterior framework to the sides:
Next, the seats were added to the compartment partitions and ends by gluing them into the relevant slots.
The partitions were then glued on to one side:
and then the other.....
Then the base was fixed into place:
and the end frames were glued into place.
Next, the frame for the roof was assembled. Two side members were super-glued to the curved upper sections of the partitions:
to make the frame:
Once dry, the side members were planed and sanded to match the contours of the roof:
and then the frame was super-glued to the pre-formed roof:
The rain-strips were then trimmed to size and glued to the roof, following the marked-out guide-lines:
The roof was test fitted to the body, with a few small adjustments with a sanding-block.
Attention was turned to the underframe. The buffer beams were fixed to the ends:
and then, to accommodate the wider bogies and R1 curves, the ends of the side members were thinned:
Before fitting between the buffer beams. In addition the bogie mountings were glued in place:
After test-fitting the bogies and working out the how the couplings would be fitted (I prefer the couplings to be attached to the bogies (see below)), the buffer beams were rebated to allow the couplings to swivel with the bogies.
Next, I slightly enlarged the holes for the door hinges. These were supplied with the kit as whitemetal castings:
The hinges were inserted and then fixed in place with a dab of thin superglue
The door vents were superglued above the doors...........
and the vents for the gas lamps were fixed in place on the roof:
..... as were the steps and handrail:
Painting
The stage of kit-making I least look forward-to is painting. However, it has to be done so I do the best job I can - which usually takes me ages. Mind you, the more I do the more I learn.
The first step was to varnish the inside of the campartments and the underside of the roof. On reflection, I should have done this earlier, maybe before the floor was added, as trying to varnish beneath the seats was somewhat difficult. I used a polyeurethane varnish with an antique stain. I did contemplate adding some detail to the interiors but as the roofs are removeable, this can be done at a later stage.
Next, the windows were taped over with masking tape. This was done carefully to try and ensure that no gaps were left for the spray paint to seep through.
The roof was then taped over.........
....and the coaches were given a coat of primer. One coach was spray-painted with Plasitkote primer whilst the other two were brush painted (as I ran out of spray). One reflection, I should have bought another can of spray. I found it's much more difficult to get an even coat with brush painting. The primer tends to pool in the mouldings which must then be removed before the final coach can be applied. It makes the job much more complicated and more time consuming, and affects the finish.
Once the primary was dry, it was sanded with fine wet & dry paper and three coats of car paint were applied using rattle-can aerosol sprays from Halfords. I used Rover Damask Red, which seems to be close to a maroon finish. Before the final coat was added, the previous coats were sanded smooth with 1200 wet & dry paper, using a small wooden block:
Once the maroon paint was dry I removed the masking from the ends and masked off the sides with tape and newspaper. Again I learnt from experience to leave the paint to dry for at least 24 hours. On the first coach I put the masking tape on before the paint was fully hardened and took the sheen off the surface (another rub-down and final coat needed!).
The ends were then sprayed matt black (another Halfords aerosol). The roofs were also sprayed at the same time. Two coats seemed sufficient.
A day or two later, making sure all the paint was hardened off, I re-drilled the holes for the door handles and drilled holes for grab handles and fixed these in place with superglue. Although the kit was supplied with cast whitemetal handles, I bought some brass castings from Brandbright as I felt these looked a little more classy. The castings needed the minimum of cleaning-up and do look impressive.
Finally, waterslide transfers from GRS were added to the doors.
and the sides were sealed with clear gloss varnish.
The footrails were then primed and painted matt black, before being screwed to the bottom of the coaches using the screws and spacers provided.
The ends, roof and footboards were sealed with matt varnish and the glazing was added to the windows. This is provided a a single strip which slots in between the compartment dividers and the sides.
The bogies
These were supplied without wheels, which were purchased from Garden Railway Specialists. The bogies are constructed to provide compensation (much needed on my trackwork).
However, they were designed to operate prototypically and swing independently of each other, rather than being steered through the couplings. Given that I have some R1 curves on my railway, I decided to play safe and add some brass extensions to the bogies on which LGB couplings could be mounted.
For each bogie a piece of 1"x1/16" brass strip was cut to a length of 80mm.
A 2.5mm hole was drilled 15mm from one end and two 2mm holes were drilled at 24mm and 31mm from the other end along the centre line.
I decided to superglue the strip to each bogie rather than soldering - my soldering skills with brass is not wonderful! Bachmann LGB style couplings were fixed to the end, using self tapping screws, and a coat of matt black paint was applied.
The bogies were then screwed beneath the coaches.
Testing
Now the fun part. The coaches were extensively tested over all parts of the line to check clearances.
When running the coaches in a train for the first time, I was perturbed to find the controller kept cutting out. Somehow, the coaches were shorting-out across the rails. A close inspection of the bogies revealed that the insulation of the centre of the wheels purchased from GRS was recessed and hence the rim of the wheel was making contact with the brass bush of the bogie.
What was needed were some small insulated washers. An extensive search of various bits boxes failed to reveal any and so I would either have to order some or make my own. Being impatient, I decided to go for the second option.
Firstly, a 2.3mm hole was drilled into the thinnest plasticard I could find:
The base was removed from a paper hole-punch and the plasticard was inserted and manoeuvred until the hole appeared in the centre of one of the holes in the base of the hole-punch:
The washer was then 'punched' from the sheet. This procedure was repeated until I had accumuated sufficient washers:
A washer was then fitted over the protruding axle stub (journal) on each set of wheels .............
................... and these were then inserted back into the bogies:
The coaches were then successfully test-run again, this time with no short-out problems.
I realise that these washers will have a limited life-span. Plasticard is a fairly soft plastic and hence will probably wear fairly quickly. I will seek out a source for fibre or paxolin washers in the meantime.
I want to add a few interior details and maybe some lighting, but in the meantime this rake of coaches fills a long overdue gap in the line's rolling stock roster:
