'The White Rose' is Revealed

A vintage photo of a 15" gauge Bo-Bo diesel 'The White Rose', mid to late 20th century, location unknown...

I can now reveal the completed A1 Models 3D printed diesel. Why the name? Well 'Royal Anchor' was named after the pub where the workshop it was built in was located, and this name sounds like of could be the name of a pub. Of course the loco isn't actually white, but neither is the Curwen diesel 'The White Heron' at the Stapleford Miniature Railway...

I last illustrated this prior to going onto the paintshop and it has been a slow process to get it through to the finishing point. The main body colour was sprayed using Halfords Rover Tahiti blue, which was left for a good week or so to dry in order to avoid any masking mishaps. The bufferbeams were masked off and painted with Vallejo red, similarly the roof in London grey and the solebar in black-grey. As can be seen I chose to paint in the curved join between the blue and grey on the cab front, achieved using masking tape cut against a template.

I painted the window recesses in matt black and picked out the frames on the front windows in silver, which looks a lot untidier in the pictures than reality. Headlights were picked out in light grey and the tail lights in a dark red. The yellow chevrons are Dapol railbus transfers, applied with plenty of Micro Sol and Set, then varnished with Johnson's Kleer to protect them prior to the final varnish coat of Testor's Dulcote. I say coat, it was several coats as the first (from an old can) went on a bit patchy, leading to me starting my final can... Again I left the model for a week after this to dry thoroughly. Once dry the lights had Araldite floated on as lenses and I started the tedious process of glazing the windows with individual panes.

Looking down from the roof the fan grille can be seen, this was added during painting, as the recess below had to be painted matt black prior to fitting the grille just before the roof was painted. Despite the many coats of Dulcote the roof had a slightly speckled appearance so it has had a slightly heavier dose of weathering than I might normally give a miniature outline locomotive. But miniature railway locomotives do get dirty! Air horns are old whitemetal castings from a very old A1 models packet and the nameplates are also A1 products.

Taking these photos did reveal a window that was not in position properly, which has now been corrected, and there are a few areas that really do look worse in close up than reality! But generally I am happy with the result although the jury is still out on using a chassis with a shorter bogie wheelbase than intended, that could be revisited in the future if required.

Colin

The Week that Was...

Mixed news in the world of model railways this week. Most surprising was Hornby's launch on the Tenth day, Tenth month at 12:00 of their TT:120 range. I say surprising, I think since Peco's announcement earlier in the year it was clear that for TT:120 to work one of the big players had to be prepared to "bet the farm" on a comprehensive range and my gut feeling was it wouldn't be Bachmann... Whilst of no real interest to my modelling as a launch range is does somewhat seem akin to re-releasing your greatest hits on Compact Disc, big mainline trains and a distinct lack of any DMU or medium sized locos in the proposals. So no compact layout potential, just smaller train sets. The more I think about it the more I wonder if they really should have initially focused on diesel and electric prototypes with maybe recognisable LNER Pacifics as the token steam items...  

I'm not sure that direct retail is the issue many make it out to be, as long as Hornby don't hide behind an excuse of model shops not wanting to give shelf space to a new range or invest capital in stock. A lot of people buy model railway equipment online anyway, albeit from specialist retailers and some of us model railways in such a way that purchases from model shops, online or bricks-and-mortar are less of a possibility anyway. 

Which brings us to the sad news that Iain Rice, railway modeller and author passed away this week. Whilst an advocate of the finer scale end of railway modelling, his writings on many topics have inspired many, including myself. Equally many will have ignored his work as being too far beyond their interests or style. Of his works that I have read my favourite has to be his work on improving kit built wagons in 4mm scale, including its potted history of kit manufacturing. Whilst a Rice-style O9 layout is not something I have considered, his works are inspirational, aspirational and written (and illustrated) in an engaging way. Authors capable of this are few and far between and we should cherish them whilst we can...

Colin

Clerestories and Controllers - O9 Tramcar Progress

We last saw the O9 tramcar build with the bulkhead panels in place on the floor and some seat supports in place on the platform ends. The seats are now in place either side, made from Slaters planked styrene backed with 20 thou sheet and add further strength to these areas. 

Either side of the end dash panels I added lengths of 60 x 60 thou quarter-round Evergreen section to give a pleasing rounded appearance to the corners. These overhung the headstock pieces a fraction so some packing was added to even these out. Once parts were set in place everything has been tidied up around the edges. Behind the headstocks pieces of 40 x 40 thou strip fill the step openings leaving a clear area for the side panels to be added.

Up on the roof I decided to add a clerestory, of sorts... Not a proper fully-built job as you might expect on a full size tram but more of the bump-in-the-roof you might get on miniature railway stock. This needed to have the same subtle curve as the rest of the roof and the best piece for the job was the bit I had removed to narrow the roof down! As previously explained this was cut 2mm too short so I have had to make up the rest with 40 x 60 strip and Milliput will be deployed in due course. I think even if the cut strip was wider I would have faced it either side to neaten the edges so just as much filling either way... Once set the ends of the clerestory strip were filed down to gently curve to the roof edge.

Jumping ahead a little, I was able to balance the sides and roof into place with a figure on the balcony to prove there is room. In fact a small selection of figures have already volunteered for duty, I daren't tell them of the horrors some may face to clear the motor. Please excuse the gap at the top under the roof, that will not be there in reality!

With body construction tasks now largely complete, work began on some suitable control gear for the platform ends. Rather than lots of pictures of tiny pieces on the cutting mat I have created a montage...

Top Left: The control boxes started life as 5mm square Plastruct section, but as this was a bit intrusive I cut one side off to make it 5 x 4 mm. Top and bottom I added some 3.3mm x 60 thou Evergreen strip offcuts inside the section and a top from 30 thou styrene. Once set this was neatened off.

Top Right: The handles for both control boxes and brakes were shaped from 0.7mm brass wire. I filed the top of the horizontal section flat on the pieces destined for the control boxes and for both components bent this section to a slightly curved shape. For the handbrakes short sections of brass tube were cut to make a collar at the top and a base. The parts seen here are actually the extra set that were created quite by accident as parts were rejected!

Bottom: The control boxes were drilled 0.7mm top and bottom and the wire threaded through. The excess at the bottom forms a locating pin and holding point during painting. The handbrakes were carefully soldered together with the addition of a split pin under the top collar to help secure the part to the dash panel.

Once the soldered parts were cleaned up I drilled two holes in each platform, one central and one towards the right hand side. In order to take the now cut-down split pin a hole was drilled in the dash panel but from the outside due to restricted clearances. This will be plugged and filled from the outside in due course.

The stage has now been reached where the next step is likely to be Milliput in a multitude of places...

Colin

October Spawned a Tramcar

Having decided that the outline drawing in my last post was pretty close to what I wanted to achieve on the Kato bogie chassis, last week I slowly started to gather the materials required to start work. Immediately I was taken back a good few years to the early days of my O9 modelling, finding odd bits here and there that would become something other than their manufacturers intended. One sign of real progress is that some of these parts were actually intended for O9 rather than other scales.

From the spares box came the good side from a pair of Avalon line coach sides that Peter Ledley (of Clee Valley Railway fame) had passed on to me. This was cut either side of the centre door, the solebars removed and the cut ends made good with styrene strip. A pair of Chivers O9 coach ends were cleaned up and spare seat backs from the same source cut down in height to 7.5mm to be used as seat supports.

The floor piece is from 40 thou styrene, 22 x 70 mm with a cut-out for the Kato chassis. Plank lines are scribed on what will become the balcony ends. Solebars were cut from 3.2mm Plastruct channel, actually the second attempt as the originals were 3.2mm deep 60 thou Evergreen strip, but looked too plain and would have been set quite far back behind the Avalon sides. They were re-cut as strip to go above the solebars between the seat ends.

The floor, ends and solebars were assembled, followed by adding the seat end pieces, re-purposed as seat fronts to hide the Kato chassis under the seat. I hesitated adding the pieces planned along the top of the floor between the seat fronts as I realised they might make adding the bulkheads between the balcony and saloon a little more difficult.

After cleaning up, the Avalon Line coach sides were modified by adding a central window divider in each of the windows, using a length of 60 x 40 thou Evergreen strip carefully cut to length and superglued in place. These dividers would align with the bulkhead/partition pieces, which would be scratchbuilt parts. The new dividers were marked out on 20 thou styrene, with 10 x 40 strip used to make the window frames, very much in the manner that the masters for the Avalon coach kit were made (maybe in this case with a little less care...). Once set overnight the windows and lower cutout were cut out, then the pieces cut from the sheet. At this stage the top edges of the 20 thou sheet had been marked out to use a Dundas VoR roof for the project, but as can be seen, the final profile of the 40 thou material backing the parts is rather different...

Which brings us to story of the roof. When I had drawn out my concept drawing I had planned to keep the overall width to that of a Chivers coach kit, which just suited the Dundas roof. When cutting the floor piece and all the other parts that would sit between the sides, I forgot to take into account that the Avalon Line sides are a good 0.5-0.75mm thicker, i.e. there should be a rebate in the floor... I was also starting to think a flatter roof profile would be bit more "tram like" and to cut a long story short, after rejecting an already-converted version as being too narrow, I pinched a new roof from a Dapol Railbus kit. It was cut to length, oddly the length between sets of ventilators was just right, and then narrowed. I miscalculated here taking 6mm out, then having to take a further 1mm from each side. Glued together with a strip of 40 x 156 thou Evergreen strip below the joint, it was set aside to dry.

Whilst that dried I fitted the bulkhead partitions into place on the floor unit, having carefully measured their location in relation to the sides. The lengths of 60 thou x 3.2mm strip were further cut down to fit in-between and add strength to the central section. In between the partitions and the seat fronts I added squares of 40 thou styrene that will eventually support the balcony seats, but also add extra support to the bulkheads.

Just visible in the shot above is the construction of the rear side of the bulkhead partitions, a 40 x 40 thou strip runs from the motor cut-out, through the window divide and right up to roof level, with panels of 40 thou sheet in either quarter above and below the windows. This was a neater way to get the strength required in these parts. As some of the lower pieces are visible through the side windows they have a planked effect scribed in to represent the seat backs.

More soon, this is progressing well... 

Colin