Allingham at Exporail 2012

Well, we just finished exhibiting our club layout, Allingham, at Exporail: http://www.exporail.org/en/welcome-to-exporail/ A satisfying, if tiring, weekend of playing trains and entertaining the public.

For those forum members in the Montreal area, we are always looking for members, so if you have an interest in British trains, we welcome you. No experience is necessary; we have members at all levels of the spectrum and with a broad range of interest.

A few words about the layout:

We replaced our old layout "Rosedale" after it had done some 20 years of service and was really showing its age. This was an opportunity to stretch our legs so we chose an asymmetric design with a double track circuit and provision for a branchline. The large radius curve at the station meant that we had to make some points by hand, again pushing our skill level ever upward. Track is Peco code 100. Control had to be DCC and an NCE system was selected. Points on the circuit are actuated by SEEP motors and some are on stationary decoders.

Readers will recognise Metcalfe buildings and, again, pushing our skill level, Scalescenes buildings. The backscene is Townscenes with individual buildings mounted on foamboard and 3D elements added.

We also resolved to have working signals and these were developed by one of our members using a solenoid actuator system. The technology behind these is beyond me but they do work nicely.

Allingham is tentatively set in 1962 in the London Midland Region, in what used to be Cheshire Lines Committee country.

Now, for the branchline, we resolved that this would be finescale. Therefore the track is code 75 C&L with all points handbuilt on PCB. Point motors are Cobalt/Tortoise and all use stationary decoders.

Buildings are scratchbuilt in the main with a couple of kits, like the signalbox (Ratio) and station (kitbashed C&L).

The branch has two destinations: Stonefield Halt with a passing loop and Patchwick Station. This is set in the Western Region.

At the time we were naming the layout, the last three British WW1 vets (Henry Allingham, Harry Patch and Bill Stone) had passed away so we named our three stations after these men.

If you are interested in joining us please PM me and we can start the process.

I took some pictures at the exhibition:



Fowler 7F at the head of a mineral train



Station pilot Class 03 with it's runner



Black 5 with a parcels/mail train



Pickup goods pauses at the halt passing loop before proceeding down the branch



Class 108 DMU with passenger service to Patchwick



Pickup goods shunting



The small goods and coal depot at Patchwick.

I spent an enjoyable afternoon with the Jinty, making up trains at Allingham Goods and tootling down the branch to Patchwick. I was also delighted to let some children have a play. After a bit of instruction they actually operated the train quite well - I suppose its the video game training.

John Kendall

Useful Parts for Wagon Builders

by John Kendall

Most of us have built, at one time or another, plastic wagon kits.  Almost all of us railway modellers will have RTR wagons.  These generally have one thing in common, poor representations of the brake gear, particularly clasp brake gear.  More recently, and Hornby leaps to mind, wagon underframes are beginning to improve, with the latest GWR horsebox having exquisitely detailed brake gear.

Now, unfitted wagons have quite simple brake gear and kits and RTR examples are usually good enough.  Sme wagons had a rod connecting the left and right actuators but not always.  Some wagons only had brakes on one side - these designs would date from the late 19th century - the Board of Trade made it mandatory to be able to apply brakes from either side of the wagon, early in the 20th century, for safety's sake.

It's when we start getting into the realm of fitted (with vacuum brakes) wagons where things get dicey.  Some observations of kits:

1)  Brake parts being plastic and necessarily fine are fragile.
2)  Details provided in the kit are usually sketchy - you might get lump of plastic that's supposed to be a vacuum cylinder.
3)  There are usually no instructions provided as to how to rig the wagon's brakes.

So, what is the modeller who is serious about constructing good looking wagons to do?  Two things:

1)  Learn how the pros do it and find out what the prototype looked like.
2)  Obtain the necessary parts to supplement or replace those provided in kits.

So, first, I would recommend  that the modeller obtain books/DVDs on the subject.  Such as:

a)  The 4mm Wagon - 3 Volumes by Geoff Kent

http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/1874103038.php
http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/1874103240.php
http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/1874103976.php

b)  A Guide to 4mm Coal Wagon Building by John Hayes

http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/1874103488.php

c)  Official Drawings of LMS Wagons - 2 Volumes by Bob Essery

http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/1874103305.php
http://britishrailwaybooks.co.uk/books/ISBN/187410333x.html

All the above are published by Wild Swan, so check them all out.

d)  Right Track 13 and 14, Wagons, hosted by Iain Rice

http://www.model-railway-dvd.co.uk/right_track13.php
http://www.model-railway-dvd.co.uk/right_track14.php

Just a word of caution, Activity Media won't ship to North America for insurance reasons so you'll have to work around that somehow.

Next, where to get parts?  Easy, there are a couple of sources I can think of but I have the following in stock from Mainly Trains http://www.mainlytrains.co.uk/acatalog/by-mainlytrainsmiscsuppliers.html:

These are designed and etched by Iain Rice who is an authority on wagons.

Here's an example of a wagon I made some years ago.

This is made from a Chivers etched brass kit.  The kit comes with basically no underframe detail at all so I had to build it all.  This is an example of a through piped brake van - one not fitted with vacuum brake itself but where the guard can control the train brakes, and the van brakes manually.  The vacuum pipe is visible as are the yokes for the clasp brakes.  Safety loops are made from wire.

So, there is no reason to slavishly stick to what the kit and manufacturers provide.  With a bit of knowledge and a box full of bits you can make your wagons a cut above the rest.

BR Conflat L Build

by John Kendall

I started to build my Conflat L today.  It's another Bill Bedford kit and details can be found here:  http://www.mousa.biz/fourmm/wagons/br_wagons4.html

Mine is intended to be used as a runner for my Class 03 diesel shunter.  These locomotives needed something to trip track circutry that indicated there was a train on the line.  The 03 has a short wheelbase and it was found, in some regions, that it could "disappear".  Permanently attaching a wagon was a way around the problem.  Conflat A wagons were also used, but models of these are common and I wanted something different.

Pictures of these can be found here:  http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/conflatl/h1bf074b0#h1bf074b0

The first step in the model build is the sides.  The picture shows one I did earlier and the parts required to build up the side.

I'm glad I did these one at a time because there is a learning curve and I messed things first time around.  The great thing about brass is that mistakes can usually be corrected by desoldering and trying again - so it was here.

My first note is that on the piece 3rd from the bottom, there is a half etch that doesn't apparently do anything.  The half etch make that location extremely weak and, yes, I broke it on my first attempt.  You will see that I have reinforced it with some solder.

The solebar is made up of the first and pieces from the bottom.  The first piece is actually pictured with the front facing down.  The rectangular sections are half etched and will fold toward the viewer later.

Tin the second part and position on the first part.  Flux and apply the iron starting from the center and working out holding the piece down with a small screwdriver as you go.  Repeat for the other end.

Use a fiberglass pencil to clean up the work as you go.  This works well to remove excess solder.

On the third part, make a bend with the half etch to the inside (this is a convention in brass kits and will always be so unless otherwise specified).  To get a straight bend I used a largish file to hold one half of the part down while using, initially a chisel Xacto blad and later a steel rule to complete the bend.  Tweak it with some square head pliers.  There are tools to do this so shop around.

There's a short piece on the left that folds up about 30 degrees - solder this in place.

Tin the back of the 4th piece and place on the box you just made.  The location should be evident.  Sweat it in place as was done before.

Piece 3 has tabs which locate at the bottom of the solebar.  These should be soldered in place at this time.

Fold the top pieces of the solebar inwards and reinforce with solder.

There are 3 reinforcing pieces with holes in them (not shown in the picture).  These are soldered at the ends and one in the middle.  The instructions are clear on this.

3 July 2012

I completed the other side yesterday - much easier when you know what you're doing.  Today, I tackled the spring snubbers as follows:

1) Take down the etch tag by gripping the (oh so tiny!) piece in flat headed pliers and filing off with fine file.
2) Make the end bends first. Reinforce with solder.  Then using a piece of waste fret (about the right thickness I found) as a form, push down on both legs trying to exert even pressure. With the bent piece balanced on the edge of the fret, finish the bend with needly nose pliers. I found, with a bit of practice that I could make a reasonably square looking "hat".
3) Take off a really tiny (not more than 0.010" thick) piece of solder. Lay the hat on the bench and flux it. Hold down with a small screwdriver, pick up the solder with your iron and apply to the hat. With a bit of luck, the bends will now be reinforced.
4) Lay the solebar flat on the workbench. Put the hat in the center of the W iron (if it won't go, open the base of the W iron slightly until it does). Put a tiny amount of solder where the snubber will go (as in 3)). Position the snubber, flux, hold with screwdriver (about now I'm hoping to evolve a third hand) and apply the iron.

The final step on the sides was brake ratchets.  These consist of a a strip of brass, folded at stratgeic places.  I found it useful to make about half of the folds and then reinforce these with solder, and then to complete the shape.  These are finally soldered in place.  As usual, they are a fiddle but I seem to be getting better at this.

That is one cruel closeup.

The next phase is to assemble the deck.

Top view.



Bottom View.

This is all pretty straightforward.  The beams in the center fold up and are soldered in place as shown.  Make sure they are straight.  If I was to do again I would start the solder at the middle and finish at the ends.

There are spring retainers which fold up and get reinforced with solder.

There is no positive locator for the top deck - I did this by eye.  I added eight dabs of solder to the underside of the deck, positioned it carefully again (I bodged it the first time) and sweated it in place.  I then turned it over and did the same from the bottom trying to ensure that deck is lying flat on the frame.

The next step is to fix the sides to the deck.  I found the fit to be tight and did some fettling with a file to get to the point where the sides would sit down DEAD flat against the deck.  When happy, solder it all up.

There are 8 spring wire retainers.  Make sure these are in contact with the sides.  If they are not the spring wire will come adrift.

It's certainly not pretty at this stage but it is starting to look like the wagon and it does seem square.

6 July 2012

I got the brake gear done today.  This wagon is Automatic Vacuum Brake (AVB) fitted:

There are brakes on all four wheels that can be actuated either manually or automatically using vacuum power.

The brake assemblies make up in the same way as on the ballast wagon:
The brakes are a double thickness fold up, with brake shoes and crank sandwiched in between.  This, as usual, is a tad fiddly.  First, I tinned the brake shoes.  Then, I put the shoes in between the two halves being careful to position it correctly.  Use a convex file to get the curved profile of the brakes.  Application of the iron causes the solder to flow and for the parts to be bonded.  I positioned the brake assembly, first tinning the underside.  I made sure of the position by threading the supplied wire through all the holes.  Use a broach to open holes that are too small.

For manual actuation, there is a lever on both sides.  For mechanical reasons, one of these has a clutch.  I couldn't work out if there a particular side for the clutch.

For automatic actuation the is a vacuum cylinder which pushes on a rod that actuates the brakes.

The kit supplies two of each lever.  Take one plain and one clutched and bend as indicated in the instructions.  Installed with the handle through the ratchet and the hole over the brake rod.  Solder in place.

The kit includes a casting to represent the vacuum cylinder.  Make sure it is square at the top (mine wasn't).  You will need to drill a hole for the piston rod and use some brass wire.  I chose 0.020".

Strangely, there is no actuator arm, I sourced one from my bits box (a useful thing to have - see post 4 July).  Edit, 7 July - there is one, I missed it.

I turned my attention next to the deck and the container brackets.  These fold up at a 90 degree angle and have a tab which fits in a slot.  Getting these on was no easy task.  I finally found the better way was to:

a) cut a small piece of solder off the roll
b) flux the loctaion on the deck where you want to put the bracket
c) grab the bracket with needle nose pliers and flux it
d) position the bracket on the deck
e) pick up the solder on the iron tip and apply to the bracket.  Check that the bracket is square - it probably won't be.
f) reflux
g) hold the top of the bracket with something flat (I used a small file) and put the iron inside the fold of the bracket while pushing gently with your flat thing.  With good fortune the bracket should seat properly.  Don't push too hard or the bracket will break (I did this twice, luckily there are two spare brakets).
h) clean the excess solder with a combination of fiberglass pen, file and, where you have made a real mess, desolder braid.

7 July 2012

Today I turned my attention to getting the axleboxes and buffers installed.  Axleboxes are a breeze, they fit first time and all they needed was some superglue to secure them.

I had intended to try to spring the buffers, having failed in this for the ballast wagon.  However, when trial fitting on eof the buffer housings in the wagon, the spigot broke off.  That put the kibosh on springing.  I don't seem to have much luck with sprung buffers.  I'm also thinking that the 3D print material might be a little too fragile or perhaps the right word is brittle.  Plastic or metal would be a better choice I think.

Almost finished now:

Those wheels are Bachmann.  It runs freely and smoothly.

Fitting of the Kadee coupling is similar in concept to that of the ballast wagon:

After fitting the Kadee mounting pad, but not the coupling, it was off to the paint shop.  A primer coat of red oxide followed by black.  The protruding sides were painted BR bauxite.

The lettering on this wagon is very specialized, so I made my own.  It doesn't exactly match the picture that I used,  http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/conflatl/h1bf074b0#h1bf074b0, but it's not bad.

These pictures show the wagon in its' intended role - as a runner for my 03 shunter.  Note the lamps over the buffer beam, one red and one white, denoting staion pilot.

I had to spend some time faffing about getting the springs working freely and getting the wagon to sit square.

This cruel close up shows that I have some work to do on the 03 cab door windows.  I reworked them to be open so that the sound comes out better.

20 July 2012

Last weekend I had another go at fixing the windows:

A Rake of LSWR Coaches

by John Kendall

A friend of mine thrust a shoebox full of coach kits into my hands the other week with instructions to build them.  OK I said, but I've never finished a coach kit before.

This is what we are talking about:

The kits are here:

A typical kit contents:

Fairly standard.  You have etched brass sheets for the coach body and bogies.  There are also bags of whitemetal and lost wax brass castings.  The roof is vacuformed.

I have the wheels which arrived separately and these are being painted.

16 July 2012

After completing some wagons, I can now get back to these coaches.  First the wheels:

I'm not wholly happy with the white band, I'll have to think about doing better.

I started the underframe of the first coach this morning.

Nothing particularly challenging so far.  Bolt detail pushes out with an old scriber.  I don't have bending bars so getting the solebars folded up without too much distortion took a bit of tweaking.  The bolsters fold up with one end being located by a tab - no guessing, very neat.  When soldered up, the bolsters really improve the underframe stiffness.  Buffer beams fold up into a double thickness and are located by two tabs on the ends - again no guessing.

Next, the step or foot boards.  These have tabs that fold up and brackets that also fold up.  The tabs go inside the solebar, the brackets outside.

I started by locating the inside tabs and soldering these in place.  I turned that assembly over and found that the board is very wavy.  Place the underframe on a scrap piece of wood (note that there are protrusions on each buffer beam so the underframe must be supported on something shorter).  Hold the underframe flat and use the soldering iron to progressively desolder and reposition the brackets.  This may take take more than pass but when you're done, the board should be straight.

Next, take tiny amounts of solder cut from the roll and tack the brackets to the outside of the solebar.  Go back and spread out any slight excess of solder.  Clean up with a fiber glass pen.

Queenposts are next, these are whitemetal castings.  Now, I think everyone is a bit leery of whitemetal because if you linger with the soldering a fraction too long it will devolve into a blob.  Soldering whitemetal to brass is done as follows:

1)  Use a 25W iron, not the 45W iron that you would use on brass.

2)  Use 70C solder and Carrs Red Label flux.

3)  Tin the brass with 145C solder.

4)  Prepare the whitemetal by filing the oxidised surface clean and smooth.

5)  Cut small pieces of 70C solder.

6)  Position the casting and liberally flux.  Place a small lump of solder adjacent.

7)  Apply the iron to the solder and casting just long enough for the solder to melt and bond the casting.

All went well, phew!

Continuing with the assembly.

I shaped some wire for the trussing.  This was put into a slot in the queenposts and soldered in place.  With some trepidation, I soldered the wire to the queen post and then to the inside of the solebar.  There are drawings in 4mm scale in the instructions.

I then folded up the V hangers, making sure the etched holes are the right size by enlarging with a  fine broach.

The vacuum cylinders were soldered in place next.  You really need to read the instructions carefully to figure out where the brake components go.  Thread them onto wire as it goes into the vee hangers and solder in place.  There is more rigging to do but I will need to have the bogies done before I can finalise it.

17 July 2012

I added the cast gas cylinders, buffers and coupling hook today.  That's the underframe done bar some wire to complete the brake rigging.

You do have the option for gas or electric lighting.  For the electric option there are battery boxes and a cast dynamo.  I chose gas because the livery will be ca. 1912.

I tackled the bogies next.  You can get a compensation kit for this, but these will be rigid.  When you cut them from the fret, you get this:

Push out the bolt detail with a scriber.  Bearings are soldered into the holes.  Make sure you get them the right way round, fold is to the inside.  Fold the sides and ends up before the brakes - this way you get less distortion.  Reinforce the folds with solder.  Fold up the brakes and reinforce these as well.  If you are doing 00, you will find the brake shoes are not in line with the wheels - I suppose the kit is optimised for P4.

Add solder to the corners to stiffen everything up.  Check for squareness - if not, hold the bogie firmly on its' back on a flat surface and run the soldering iron over the folds.

Trial fit the wheels, check they spin freely with minimal side to side slop.  If there is too much slop, hold the bogie by the bearings and squeeze onto the wheels.  Touch the iron to each corner so that the sides tighten up.

These run nicely now.

I soldered the bogie compensation springs to the bogie, those castings to the left and right in the picture below.

I had to do a fair bit of fettling of the axlebox castings to get them to sit properly on the bogie sides.

If I had used the waisted bearings supplied, I would have had an easier time.  However, waisted bearings are more useful for sprung stock so I opted to substitute shouldered bearings.

I didn't solder the axleboxes because it would have meant soldering on the visible side which would have left a mess.  Instead I used super glue - for the first time on this kit.

A word on bogie attachment.  You will need to solder a nut to the inside of the bolster.  The trick here is not to get solder on the threads.  I did it by using a marker on the screw threads and using the screw to temporarily hold the nuts in place:

Here's the underframe married to the bogies:

It is riding low and the bogies have a tendency to foul at the moment - it does run freely.  I shall raise the ride and ensure the bogies can swing freely.

18 July 2012

I spent some time today fixing the ride height.  It turns out, for me anyway, that two washer (supplied) thicknesses are necessary, one to the bogie and one to the bolster.

By the way, make sure you run a file across the top of the bogie to ensure that there are no etch tags sticking up to catch as the bogie swings.

Another thing to note is that I soldered two pieces of 0.032" wire to one bolster to stop the coach from rocking.  The screws on both bogies should be loose.  You want one bogie to be free to move just up and down (left in the picture) and the other free to move in all directions.  This provides quasi compensation allowing the wheels to negotiate dips and irregularities in the track.

The last thing to note is that I attached the last piece of brake rigging.

Now to turn our attention to the body.

The instructions say to do the tumblehome using a piece of dowel and then make the top and bottom bends.  In fact it is better to do the bends first I think.  A bending tool would be useful but I don't have one so I resorted to my square nose pliers.  First though, I scored the bend line with a couple of passes of my Olfa.  This made things easier although I still made a bit of a pigs ear of my first bend.  Subsequent bends were better.  The inside folds were reinforced with solder.

The tumble home is very subtle and I found it easier to tweak between my fingers.  I fashioned a plasticard template to help make the tumblehome more or less consistent.

The ends look like this:

There is a double thickness tab that folds up on itself - this is soldered together.  The nuts are also soldered on using the screw and felt marker method.

I spent some frustrating time getting the droplights on.  These have to be soldered from the back but there aren't any cues as to whether they are centered or at the right height.  I did scribe some lines to help me but these were of limited usefulness.  The only thing for it is to get the droplight as close as you can by eye and tack it.  Check the other side to see where you are and if you missed, desolder and try again.

I took the completed underframe to the club this evening and ran it through the most challenging pointwork we have - it took these with ease.  I am well pleased so far.

19 July 2012

I decided today to look at a representation of interior.  I was inspired in this by an article by Andrew Lambert in MRJ 82.

I cut some 0.010" plastic card to be a snug fit, marked with a felt pen and taped the card behind the windows.  I marked the windows with a scriber and then cut them out with a sharp Xacto.

Following this I wanted to get the body soldering out of the way.

I soldered the guard duckets on - it was a bit of challenge to get them on square but I managed.

I then soldered the lower door hinges in place.  The etched holes should be cleared by inserting the end of an Xacto blade. 

Following this I soldered the ends.  These are located by fold down tabs on the ends.  Reinforce with solder, then clean them up with a file.  There are slots in the lower fold of the sides.  Again, clear these with a Xacto blade, make sure the tabs fit.  Adjust the tumblehome  and ensure there are no unsightly gaps between side and end.

Position the end tab in the slots, press down firmly (but don't buckle anything) and solder the lower corner.  Make sure the end is flush with the side.  If not desolder and correct.  To get the end to go in a bit, file of the corner of the tab so that the end can slide a bit.  Once happy with this first tack, tack the top of the corner.  Again make sure things are flush.  If not put the end on a flat surface and apply the iron while pressing down.  Once happy, complete the corner with a bead of solder.

Now, join the opposing ends and sides in the same way.

It took me some while to get everything as correct as I could.  I finished off with one of the etched compartment separators.  I'll come back to these later.

I thought I'd mate the body to the underframe:

Strangely, I had trouble with the screw holes in the underframe not lining up with the nuts on the body.  I say strangely because everything has fit perfectly up to now.  I've got to think that maybe it's me.  Anyway, holes were fettled and the body is on.

21 July 2012

Not a lot of visible progress yesterday, I've come to the point now where there is quite a bit of fiddly work.

I made some grab handles for the doors.

Roof:  the kit includes a plastic form that requires cutting down to fit the coach.  Once I had done that, I was pleased to see that it hugs the coach very nicely.

At the top of the picture is the raw forming.  The completed roof can be seen at the bottom.

I started by cutting the roof to length - actually a couple of mm over length.

Then I cut material from the sides using scissors (the shape is very awkward for a knife).  Once I got close, I had a brainwave and got my power sander out.  By holding the roof on the vibrating bed (tricky this) I got the roof sanded evenly and accurately.

Finally, I trimmed for the correct length.

Next, the roof was marked out for the ventilators and lamps with a pencil.  For this coach everything is on the center line.  Having determined the hole positions, I drilled them with a 0.020" drill to begin with.  It is easier to locate your hole with a small drill than with a larger one.  Large drills can slip before they bite.  I followed this with a larger drill, but slightly smaller than the castings.  Finally I used a broach to open the holes for an exact fit.  The holes were sanded on both sides and slightly countersunk by twirling a large drill bit between my fingers.

There are grab handles at the brake end.  These were marked and drilled.  A couple of pieces of 0.020" wire were bent to shape.

Before adding the castings, the roof was sprayed white.  I put tape on the roof to protect the finish - white gets grubby easily.

End detail:  The brake end has slots for steps which are not difficult to install.  I drilled holes for the grab handles but had to make them in two parts - it should really have been one piece.

The platform near the top of the end was soldered on with difficulty - I expect I did this wrong but it's on.

The other end has quite a bit of detail.

The instructions are vague on this point.  There is a light switch (a gas valve really I guess) about halfway up and an alarm at the top.  Dave at Roxey gave me some insight on the location of these.  Later on, I found a picture of a Midland coach end that featured these details (The 4mm Coach by Stephen Williams - Wild Swan).  My rendition was inspired by this.  I assumed a gas line entered the valve from the bottom and it continued into the top of the coach.  The alarm is connected to the emergency cord in the coach and opens the vacuum slightly when pulled.  This alerts the train crew to a problem.  Brackets are represented by thin strips of masking tape.  These were flooded with super glue and left to harden.

Today, I gave the components a bath in a baking soda solution to complete neutralising the flux.  I also gave them a wash in strong kitchen cleaner.

The underframe received some detailing:

I added footsteps near the guards doors.  These were a pain to fit and I probably should have done them earlier.  I added a strip of 0.020" thick plastic strip to thicken the footboard, as recommended.  This means I need to add yet another washer at the bogie fixing.  Vacuum steam heat hoses are supplied as lost wax castings.  These were soldered in place.

I have done the couplings - at the near end can be seen a loop of nickel silver wire soldered to a piece of PCB (ornately shaped to cater for the fixing holes and hoses.

At the brake end, I will fit a Kadee coupling to the bogie.

The coaches will run as a fixed rake - hence the coupling loop (the mating coach will have a wire hook).  The brake ends will have Kadees to couple to the locomotive and to enable the train to be separated from its loco if required. 

I had second thoughts about putting the plastic strip under the stepboards so I removed them and put strip on top.  At the same time I did a trial assembly:

28 July 2012

The assembly of the first coach is pretty much done now.  I added rainstrips and corbels to the roof.

I also painted the underframe black:

I wanted to paint the coach body but when I started looking at the paint I was given and a preserved coach, the "salmon" colours are very different.  I need to talk to my customer about how to proceed.

In the meantime, I have been working on the second coach, a tri-composite (2 compartments each of First, Second and Third, all with lav access - very modern).  I'm not going to go into detail on how this is done since the methods are the same.  I will say that the experience gained with the first coach made the second much easier going.

I do want to discuss bending.  The coach sides have two flanges each which require bending 90 degrees.  There is a half etched lined to facilitate this.  The recommendation is to use bending bars but, for the first coach I decided to just use flat nose pliers.  Mistake!  I very nearly ruined the model.  The coach sides are quite thin and will cockle very easily.  I managed to recover the sides but it was close.

For the second coach I gave a bit more thought to bending.  The first thing that occurs to me is that the half etched score line could be deeper to make the bend easier.  I scored this three time with my Olfa scrawker.  I then came up with this rig:

It's fairly self explanatory, the coach side is clamped between a hard surface and, in this case, a file.  Squeezy clamps would be better, but could I find mine?....

Carefully line up the fold line with the edge of the file (dead edge here) and clamp down hard.  I simply used my fingers to fold the flange up and a hammer to gently tap the fold up.  The first side can be seen.  Pliers can be used to complete the 90 degree bend.

The four folds were made successfully using this method:

31 July 2012

Today, I assembled the sides and ends.  The result so far:

Rather too much solder on the solebars - ah well.

10 Aug 2012

Coach No. 2 is all but complete:


No. 3 is well on the way.

To update the paint question.  I borrowed a friends book on the subject of livery:

"Britain's Railway Liveries, Colours, Crest and Linings", 1825 - 1948 by Ernest F. Carter.  Published in 1952 by Burke.  I'm kicking myself because I actually found the book on a used book stand and pointed it out to my friend who bought it ($4.50).

In the back of the book is an appendix containing colour samples of 50 colours.  The text frequently describes the recipe for the colour.  For example, in the entry for LSWR 1900 - 1905, it describes the "salmon pink" as "white lead - 4lb 5oz, burnt sienna - 3oz, venetian red - 2.5oz and middle chrome yellow - 0.75oz".

I was also given additional bottles of paint and thinners, so we're off.

3 Sept 2012

After exhibiting the club layout at Exporail two weeks ago, I took some time off from modelling.

To follow up on my comments above, at Exporail, I was delighted to find a copy of the above book which I snapped up:

As I mentioned, there is an appendix which contains colour swatches of livery colour:

No. 48 is the Salmon colour I will be using.  I think that the Bluebell railway coach is painted in a later Salmon Pink from around 1915.

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/1520.HTML