Junkbox Jury - Primed

I have been rather remise in not keeping you up to date with the progress of various models, but progress has been rather slow as priorities change and new whims took charge. The dismantled diesel has at least had a coat of primer, which as ever brings together the various materials to an even finish. As there will no doubt be red on the bufferbeams somewhere, and possibly the need for red primer to appear underneath where the coupler would be, I also masked off and sprayed red oxide primer onto those areas.

From the cab end the various bolt holes show up rather well as does the gap where the gearbox should be. This work was completed in October but I then got distracted and it has now possibly missed it's place in the paintshop queue until the new year. That does however give me the chance to refine a few painting techniques elsewhere as I'm a little out of practice!

Also now primed is the passenger carriage for 'Odsock Corner', which has been waiting for a dry(ish) day to head to the workshop for primer. It is now a lot easier to photograph, although I refrained from fitting all the seats back in place for the photo. You can now see the boltheads on the solebar which supposedly hold the axleguards in place.

Livery for this will be light blue, the jury's still out on whether to go for the Lincolnshire Coast style blue to match my FK3D Motor Rail or something more subtle...

More soon, including the distraction(s)!

Colin

Further Echoes

About a month ago I posted some mock-ups based on concepts for my 23.5" x 15.5" cork board baseboard. I was rather pleased that I could cram in a two-coach length loop in the space and felt that this could be the path to an interesting project.

Further thoughts about practicality (bah!) have now made this version of the scheme less likely. These are partially borne from the desire to have something that can be operated from the front at home, using slide-switch control of the points. The issue is the point on the right, I've sketched in the switch in red and it is close to the edge of the board. So close in fact that having any scenery to hide a notional 'hole in the sky' from the front view is almost impossible...

The point can be moved in a couple of inches but of course that shortens the loop down and my two coaches don't fit. Well, those two don't, a couple of 4-wheelers would but that wasn't the idea... The board could be extended but (to me) that defeats the idea of a cork board layout a little (I was only just warming to having a run-off).  A new board would be better but then things just start to grow!

Talking of taking extending boards too far, I shared this idea on NGRM Online recently for an extended 'Odsock Corner'. Now I do have a little regret that I made this square (ish) and that perhaps the 13" x 19" of my 009 layout is a better size. It is of course too late to change it, taking up half the circuit and scenery and adding an extension to the rather odd woodwork would probably cause instant loss of enthusiasm if nothing else.

Again, probably easier to start again - but for now 'Odsock Corner' is going to have a "big" O9 phase, using the Avalon Line and FK3D locos, the 28mm wide 4w coach, three new wagons and an old favourite. If the phase outgrows the layout I can then look at other options...

Colin 

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