Blast from the past...

Last weekend I visited my parents.  They are a handy place to stay for a weekend at the Warley Show and it's good to catch up with how they are getting on.

As I was leaving, my father thrust a couple of boxes of railway stuff in hands, with words that he was clearing clutter out of the loft :-)

Much of it is pretty ancient Tri-ang and Hornby, and will be heading straight to Ebay as a job lot just as soon as I've photographed it and typed up the listing.  However two items caught my eye, and I'll be hanging on to:

On the left is the very first whitemetal kit that I built.  I think that I was about ten or eleven years old at the time, and had received it for Christmas from my cousin Robert Chester-Lamb, who was (and still is) running Bearwood Models.  In those days he actually had a physical shop in Bearwood, which was quite distinctive as it had a full-size GWR signal outside the shop on the pavement!  Sadly I can't find a picture of it online :-(

I recall that the wagon was an ABS kit.  It was a standard GWR five-plank wagon.  I clearly had pre-Grouping pretensions then, as I lettered it using the 1900s style of livery.  Actually, I recall that the livery was chosen because it was not hidden by the tarpaulin.  And the reason for the tarpaulin?  This being the first whitemetal kit that I'd ever put together, I had put the soldering iron bit straight through the side of the wagon whilst soldering the corners together, and needed something to hide the hole!

I clearly had as much grasp of engineering principles then as I do now, as the (supplied) pinpoint axles were running in the holes in the backs of the axleboxes, with no brass bearings.  It's a good job that it was in OO, as the axles won't stay square for long!

The wagon on the right is a Mainline hopper wagon.  I remember what a step forward these models (and Airfix/GMR) were in detail compared to the rest of the Hornby models that I had on my layout.  So what do you do with the best wagon that you own?  You weather it, of course...

Actually considering that I had no idea, apart from the fact that it must be rusty, it's not too bad with splodges of Humbrol "Rust" splodged on and worked in.

I'm not getting rid of either of these models.  They're going to be safely tucked away in a box.   I don't think that they will find a place running in P4 in a GER setting in 1911, but some things you just don't want to see go... 

Cheers
Flymo

A small crisis of identity

As well as painting the main parts of the Coffee Pot, I also need to finalise an identity for it, and finish the appropriate number plates.

In the High Level kit, there are actually etched brass plates for all of the locomotives in the class that were built: the original four by Neilson, and the later four by the GER itself. Due to the choices that I made whilst building it, mine is not one of the Neilson engines.

This gives me a choice of four possible numbers that fit the body style. I have painted up the plates for locomotives 227 and 230.

Number 230 is the more famous one of the two, becoming famous as the Stratford Works shunter, and often displayed by the LNER at public open days. It was fitted with various accoutrements for the role, such as a Westinghouse reservoir, from 1916. As I'm setting mine in 1911, then it would still match the model as I've built it.

However I'm tempted towards numbering it as 227, just because it's less in the public eye

The number plates have been filled in with a couple of thin coats of Precision vermillion paint, and left to harden for three or four days. Then the plates were separated from the etch, the tabs filed off, and the surface polished to bring up the brass finish.

This is done on a very fine sanding pad. I picked up a set of these at last year's Warley Show, and they really are quite nifty. They range from 1500 grade to the one that I'm using here, which is 4000 grade. It produces an almost mirror-like finish.

The pads are backed with a soft foam, which means that you can use them easily on curved surfaces, and also rinse them out after use under a tap, which brings them back to life. A very worthwhile acquisition for just a few quid.

Cheers
Flymo

Time for a test build

Now, where was I? Ah yes, putting it all together.

Chris's instructions recommend that before you start painting, you do a test-build of the main groups of components to ensure that they all fit together properly. It makes a lot of sense, as my experience proved. And so to the lesson learned...

When I came to bolt the chassis to the body, everything lined up perfectly. The only trouble was that I couldn't seat the M2 fixing bolt properly because the head wouldn't fit past the protruding end of the compensation beam:

 

So (you can guess what is coming next...) the solution was to reach for the trusty Dremel with the "angle grinder" disc in it. I'm afraid that there is only a blurry photo of this, but a little discretion is probably best for the nerves of some:

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After this, the way was clear. There were only a couple of small nicks on the inner faces of the mainframes. Nothing structural was damaged, nor even anything visible:

In the previous picture, you may have noticed a trace of blu-tack in the slot of the bolt head. This is my standard trick to ensure that they are held by the screwdriver and placed in the right location. It also reduces the cost of modelling by cutting down on the number of replacement purchases necessary to cover those sacrificed to the Carpet God. I literally smear a small amount of blu-tack sideways across the head of the screw or bolt and it fills the slot up nicely, enabling this to be done:

And as you would expect from a High Level Kit, it all came nicely together. Here are a couple of pictures of the finished thing after the test assembly. All of the major parts are together, except the cosmetic ones like the backhead detail and brake rigging:

Attachment:

 

And so on to the paint shop...

Cheers
Flymo
 

Counting back...

One of the "problems" of today's state-of-the art kits such as the High Level Coffeepot is the sheer number of parts that they contain.

The etched sheets alone have 123 different components listed.  That doesn't include the multiples of the same part number, nor the (thoughtfully provided) spare of certain small bits that are added in anticipation of sacrifices to The Carpet God.  And it doesn't include the multitude of castings in whitemetal and lost-wax brass either.

So I was thinking that I was reaching the end of the "build" stage and still had a number of components left on the frets.  Helpfully Chris provides pictures of the parts and their names and numbers in the instructions.  Matching back to these, I was able to eliminate all of the remaining parts as relating to other locomotives in the eight-strong class except these:

The long bits are the reversing rods, which are not fitted until the chassis is mounted in the body, so they were okay.  The small bits that look like steps, are steps...  I missed the bit in the instructions that said that they should be fitted.

So a quick whizz of the soldering iron, and they are in place on the front of the bunkers.

Next is the trial build stage, to ensure that everything goes together before painting starts.

Cheers
Flymo

Not forgotten...

I've managed to do a little modelling in the last few days, but had scarce time to document anything.

I haven't forgotten the Ulpha Light Railway whilst I've been finishing other projects.  And I was moving motorbikes around in the garage this evening when the last rays of the late afternoon sun caught the layout.

The quarry's industrial Pug moves a few wagons around under a threatening sky, to form tomorrow's early morning freight train.  I hope that it doesn't start to rain...

Cheers
Flymo

Getting there...

The Coffee Pot continues to progress...

Last night saw sand pipes going into the body, left over-length at the moment so that I can shape them and trim them back when the wheels are fitted.  On the front end went the coupling hook - and Exactoscale one which initially I thought looked overscale.  Now that it's fitted in place, it seems to have just the right amount of heft to it.

I realised that I hadn't fitted the front lamp irons on the buffer beam either, so those went on.  At this point, the right hand side dumb buffer promptly fell off!  It was better that it happened at that point than after the paint had gone on the locomotive, so I only swore a little bit, then put it back on.

The photo with an appalling depth of field does at least give an impression of how it looks:
 

Back with the chassis, the last proper soldering job was to add the drain cock detail to the bottom of the cylinders.  Again, this is a usual highly detailed High Level confection of etched bits and fine wire.

I differed from the instructions slightly.  It was a little too difficult to drill all three holes in the cylinder bottom to locate all three wires into it.  I could probably have done it with a 0.4mm drill in the pillar drill if I'd wanted to.

So what I actually did was drill the hole for the central wire, and used that as the locating anchor.  The wires at the two ends were then tack soldered in place, which seems to hold them strongly enough.  Certainly if the model is knocked in a way that disturbs them, it's going to have bigger problems than a bent wire!

I realised afterwards that I'd taken the picture before cleaning up the remains of the solder paint.  The final result is much neater and reflects Chris's thoughtful kit design.
 

After this, the body had a good scrub and went into the ultrasonic tank, and I started work on the fold-up gearbox.  More to be done on that this evening, I hope...

Cheers
Flymo

Back to the Coffee (Pot)

It's been a busy few weeks, resulting in a lack of modelling.

However inspired by the sight of Will Litchfield's almost completed GER Coffee Pot at Scaleforum last weekend, I was provoked to start work on mine again and move it to completion.  Picking up the trail through the instructions, I was pleased to find how little there was to do.

The first task was to repair the damaged crossheads that arose during a very frustrating slidebar/wooly jumper sleeve interface.  I still won't go into detail of this, as the thought brings me out in a cold sweat.

The other impressive thing about Will's locomotive is the weight, for something of such a small size.  Will explained that this was because he had packed the saddle tanks with lead, as well as the bunkers.

I'm intending to leave the bunkers as they are until the final assembly is complete.  My worry is because they are distinctly to the rear of the rear driving wheels, adding weight may unbalance the front end, and make it less good at roadholding in curves.  However there was something that I could do about the tanks...

I started by cutting a length of 70 degree Carrs low melt solder into small ingots.  These were introduced into the spaces in the saddle tanks from inside, and flooded with flux.  The introduction of a hot iron with a large bit resulted in the solder flooding the space.  I was able to build up successive layers until the tank was full.  I then turned the loco onto the other side and repeated the exercise.


 

Having done both sides, the weight of the loco body is now a much increased 71 grams.  The next steps are sand pipes and cylinder lubricators - more fiddly work. 

Before that was a trial fit of the chassis.  This shows that there is actually much more space in there for the mechanism and DCC chip than I expected.


 
I hope to make further progress (and give the whole model a good clean) tomorrow evening...

Cheers
Flymo