Junkbox Jury - a Tale of Two Coaches

Another raid on the junk box (well, it's more of a drawer...) revealed a half-started wagon body, 56mm long and 26mm wide, with a single-plank top. I started to consider using it as the basis for a 4w coach for use behind my FK3D Simplex on 'Odsock Corner' so I carefully removed the sides. However there were traces of damage along the floor edges so to make a fresh start I re-scribed the planking on the other side.  

The style of the coach follows that which I described in the 7mm NGA's 'Going Minimum Gauge' and I opted for a total coach width of 26mm, thus reducing the floor to 24mm wide. Side and end pieces were marked out on 40 thou styrene and rather than the 18.5mm height I had used in the article, I reduced this to 16mm. When mocked up next to the loco it looked too low, so new set was produced 18mm high and duly assembled. Seating planks came from another wagon floor previously scribed onto 60 thou material and cut to 24mm x 8mm sections.

Having assembled the body I realised I had dropped a clanger. This was meant to be part of a project to introduce a few 28mm wide vehicles into use. So another pre-cut floor was found, but this was a little shorter, even after adding an extra plank (from yet another floor, I can't help myself!). The new floor was 26mm wide and again a set of sides and ends were marked out at 18mm high and assembled around it. The rest of the other floor became more seats. Seat supports on both vehicles are 20 thou styrene cut to 8mm tall and set around the back and edges of the seats. 

Where the shorter, wider vehicle differs from the first is the underframe, using 3.2mm channel section and 4mm deep 40 thou bufferbeams, whereas the first uses 3.2mm 60 thou styrene strip for both.

The second vehicle is much better proportioned when sat with the Simplex so detailing continued to bring it closer to the paintshop stage. On the bufferbeams I added slithers of 25 thou styrene rod to represent bolt heads in line with the solebars and above the coupling area. Further bolt heads were added on the solebars above the axle box locations, but you cannot quite see them in the picture!

A Peco N gauge 15ft wheelbase chassis had been attacked modified some time ago to accommodate Mathieson 7mm wheelsets, remove all the brake gear etc and shortened at either end. It fits almost perfectly between two platforms added behind the bufferbeams to support the couplings. The axlebox and spring detail was removed and replaced by 4mm scale castings from 51L/Wizard Models. The chassis and weight were secured in place with epoxy adhesive, but not before extra weight was added along the edges using self-adhesive window 'lead'.

If it ever stops raining I will venture down the garden to the workshop to give it a coat of primer.

The original build will be put to one side for future development. There is a slight irony that in trying to use up the contents of the drawer I've created a new, fairly complete, candidate for it...

Colin

Junkbox Jury - Dismantled Diesel

The next excursion into the junk box revealed several disparate scratch built locomotive components, namely a collection of parts to make up a chassis frame to fit a Kato mechanism; A1 Models bonnets from a couple of incomplete builds and a set of parts to build a long bonnet using a cut-down Dapol railbus roof as the top. In the same vein as the wagon chassis in the previous post, I decided to create a locomotive that is not currently in operational condition.

That might be an understatement... as it appears to be missing a cab, gearbox, wheelsets and who knows what is/isn't under the bonnet!

The chassis parts were assembled pretty much as I would if building an actual loco, although cut-outs were made where the axleboxes should be rather than add any. Holes mark where the spring hangers and coupling block would be located plus a few random extras for good luck. This is very much a case of detailing by removal of material rather than adding it.

For the bonnet I originally planned to use a small A1 Models bonnet from a kit designed for a Tomytec chassis (see Only the Slim Need Apply). This looked a little too small for the frame so instead I used most of the set of bonnet parts I had previously created, shortening them to fit. The already narrowed railbus roof was still a little too wide so another section that had been split back into two was narrowed further, creating a pleasing peaked shape. The filler caps (Dapol Drewery crank pins) from the A1 bonnet were purloined for the new build.

The cab area is again a series of recycled material and more holes, the latter representing where the brake column and seat would have been. The sheet leaning against the back of the bonnet came from the same A1 kit with detail that I had added, the chequer plate a scrap of etch previously used on another build and flattened back out. A few railbus kit bits were also added to give "just enough" detail.

This actually became a quite enjoyable project, adding details such as the recessed filler cap and the side grilles, which are in a trademark style common with a lot of locos that I have built over the years, as featured in Some I Made earlier.

There are still a fair few bits in that junk box, including that narrowed bit of roof. Whatever next?

Colin

Junkbox Jury - Wagon Bashing

A few weeks ago I hinted that some wagon tinkering could be on the cards in the wake of my experimentation with Greenwich couplers. In passing I mentioned that there were a couple of experimental wagons started some time ago, so they were brought out of storage to see what could be done with them. You could call it a dive into the junk box...

The first was a short (5ft) wagon, currently a flat but only because it got no further! The chassis under this is a Peco 15ft unit cut-down to a 14mm wheelbase, previously under a modified RCL skip frame. It was a little unloved and has now gained fake 'Hudson' style axleboxes assembled from styrene sections.

Sorry that isn't a great photo due to all the white styrene... At present this is as far it will go pending further developments but it could end up with sides and/or ends in due course. Other than the new axle boxes the only other work completed was to fill in the cut-out in one bufferbeam that was designed to set the coupler at the higher position, to match the other end at the lower height. I didn't spot that it actually had acquired odd wheelsets until after taking the next photo...

The other was a 6ft wagon, again a flat by default, but designed to use Chivers Finelines 'Theakston' axleboxes, subsequently removed. The frame was too narrow to put a Peco chassis within, so I opted to remove the floor and save it for reuse, and then create an abandoned underframe with the remainder. The axle boxes are missing, leaving boltholes and the odd remaining bolt, using some EDM mouldings and Grandt Line versions on the frames. I had intended to use this on 'The Headshunt' to replace the damaged Hudson flat, however it soon had company...

The damaged remains of another Hudson frame surfaced... This has had the slots cut for MicroTrains couplers filled with Milliput and smoothed to shape. The intention is now that this will be destined for 'The Headshunt' and the scratchbuilt frame prepared for future use elsewhere.

Once I had started the dive into the junk box more potential uses for started-but-unfinished projects came to mind, we'll take a look at another in a future post.

Colin

Echoes of Shifting Sands

Thinking back to the picture of 'Shifting Sands' I posted last week one of the things that struck me was how I got a lot of end-to-end run in a small space. To get that same level of operation in a linear format you would need 6-7 feet of length, I know, because every time I think I can recreate the loop to fiddle yard operation (and include hands-free running around behind the scenes) in less space I find that I can't...

Since completing 'Odsock Corner' I have found myself wanting to plan something new, something that can provide some operation. I wondered if another common plan could be fit into less than its usual linear space, the 5-3-3 "Inglenook". It just so happens that another cork board (23.5" x 15.5") was to hand to try it. I've spared you the workbench clutter!

The other thing that struck me is that by going across a deep board at an angle you get a little more length to the run, essential where space is at a premium. If the main platform road didn't run at that angle up to the head shunt, and just went straight across the board, you wouldn't get three carriages in the loop. Looking again at that photo I was rather taken with the idea that the area I have outlined here in red is about 25" x 19", not far off the board I mocked-up the extended inglenook on.

I had been thinking recently about 'half-station' layouts, where you see one end of the platform and the head shunt, maybe a siding, but the rest is off under a bridge or overall roof and trains are represented by only some of their length.  They are perhaps not really my cup of tea but potentially offered a way of running the 'Shifting Sands' stock in a smaller space. As the idea grew in my head I mocked up this 3/4-station idea (with just the station throat off scene) that essentially gives a mini version of 'Shifting Sands'. It was late in the evening so the area was marked up on my desk!

Obviously it needs a workable fiddle yard to the right, with the ability to facilitate hands-free swapping of locos around stock as per the original layout. The main issue I foresee here is making that not too much longer than the layout (for balance) but still useable. With the tracks to the front it would be easier to operate this scheme than the inglenook, sitting it on the workbench without having to reach around the back as per 'Shifting Sands'. But in some ways 3/4 of the station isn't enough, I do like the act of running around a train, changing the points etc. Could I sacrifice a carriage length and actually have a fully modelled loop?

Food for thought...

Colin

Pop the Cork(board) - a 20th Anniversary

This photo popped up in my OneDrive "Memories" this week, from 14th October 2005. The creation of 'Shifting Sands' was underway with the cork board strengthened underneath and the turnouts and oddments of track loosely laid out in the original planned formation.

So here it began, taking nearly a year to become the layout featured in many of the static pages of this blog. To read more from October 2005, go to Shifting Sands: Baseboards and Track.

Back in 2025, there is a little modelling work going on, nothing spectacular but I hope to share some progress soon...

Colin

Alternative Coupling Analysis

Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with my use of MicroTrains couplers on my O9 locomotives and rolling stock and how this choice was decided upon more than 20 years ago when I wanted to have a single bogie/coupler arrangement for miniature railway outline carriages. I have often wondered how I might cope with an alternative, with the Greenwich couplers I have used on some of my 009 stock in mind. There are even some half-started experiments tucked away somewhere...

Looking around for something to occupy me over the last week, I started another experiment, this time using a familiar wagon in the shape of a Black Dog Mining style open wagon. Previously fitted with MicroTrains couplers I filled in the 5 x 2.5mm openings in the buffer beams with Evergreen styrene and made good the joins. Opting to fit the Greenwich couplers at the standard 009 height a small recess was removed to accommodate the 5.5mm mounting height. A tiny screw from a batch I bought on eBay holds the coupler in place.

The angle of the photo above doesn't really do it justice, but overall the look of the coupler doesn't look too bad. I did additionally try an angled shaft for the coupler to meet the alternative height of 8mm for the face plate but this looked a little more clumsy. I had ruled out directly mounting the coupler higher as it would require a larger cut-out in the buffer beam or a difficult to cut slot.

Underneath there is another change...

As a further experiment 7mm diameter Matheson wheelsets have been fitted, requiring only a little cut-away in the adhesive lead strip underneath to accommodate the flanges. These wheelsets fit nicely and really improve the appearance of the wagon, this is something I will certainly be looking at changing for other wagons using this chassis.

I have to confess that the coupler used here (and the one I bent the shank on) were "borrowed" from an 009 wagon and just fiddling with an alternative loop with a longer dropper reminded me of the one thing I am not 100% sure of with these couplers, assembling them! Yes, there are jigs available now but I find that they are as fiddly as the MicroTrains ones but in a different way. 

So will anything come of this? We shall see, it may just prompt some other wagon tinkering, again regular readers will understand the significance of that statement...

Colin

Someone Somewhere (In Summertime)

No apologies for borrowing Simple Mind's song title, I heard it on the radio for the first time in a while on Bank Holiday Monday whilst proving to myself that painting models was preferrable to painting rooms (especially woodwork...). With the end of August now upon us it does perhaps feel that the summer is reaching the end.

Alas there is no modelling progress to report and not a great deal of railway activity to report on at all, our holiday destination of Flamborough being a narrow gauge/miniature railway desert (we "did" Scarborough last year). There is the amusement of the model village at Sewerby and land trains that operate in a railway-like fashion with platforms, passing and turning loops, from there to Bridlington.  

Sitting looking out to sea I could quite imagine something Groudle-Glen style around the headland from the lighthouse to Thornwick Bay...

Not enough to inspire any layout ideas at this stage, I'm still stuck between concepts and spaces, having concluded that Mosslanda shelves are maybe too restrictive, and having taken down a couple of floating shelves recently they do not appeal to me as the basis for anything portable. 

Maybe a trip to the Whistlestop Valley/Kirklees Light Railway gala over the weekend of 6th/7th September might provide a boost, I'm looking forward to the chance to ride behind Bure Valley no.9 'Mark Timothy' having missed out on previous trips to Norfolk.  

Also visiting is the partnership of 'Spirit of Adventure' and 'Mr Hallworth' from the Perrygrove Railway. I think I last saw 'Sprit' at Cleethorpes 30 years ago in 1995 (I had to check that calculation twice...) and I have not yet seen the newer locomotive.

Incidentally, 'Spirit' forms the basis of a new O9 resin print from Gubbin Box Models (Facebook) which allows you to add an Exmoor tank locomotive to your fleet without any of the trouble I had scratch-building 'St Edwin'!

Colin