Buffers and Baggage

For a while I really couldn't be motivated to get anything going on the workbench, however the weather was really telling me to stay indoors and do something so I came up with a couple of schemes to get started on. 

The first was a reworking a Black Dog Mining (style) wagon as a luggage trailer for the O9 railcar, filling the cutouts for MicroTrains couplers and fitting pre-painted Black Dog coupler/buffer blocks in their place to accommodate a link-and-pin coupler to the railcar. A careful touch-up of the paintwork has made a pretty neat job of the changes.

Of course a luggage trailer needs some luggage, so a root around found a Preiser backpack, suitcase and bag, all pre-painted some time ago. To this I added an older style case using a modified ammo case from a ground crew set, and a bike from a rather basic 3D print I had acquired, possibly from Avalon Line. This filament print required a fair bit of fettling to look anything (and you have to ignore it's square frames!), and I had to add my own pedals from a bent staple and 5 thou styrene. The other side is very poor, but you'll not see that...

Bringing it all together, this is the result with the load fixed in place using 'Tacky Wax', I hope the bike was placed in carefully on top of that luggage! I need to fashion a 'U' shaped wire coupler to engage with the loop on the railcar ends.

The other task I set myself was to add buffers and nameplates to the light green A1 Models "Albert" diesel. I had always planned to have buffers, as per the Littlehampton prototype, but had failed to  scratchbuild any buffer shanks to my satisfaction. At the Doncaster show in February I bought some cast oval Dundas 009 ones, and prepared these in red primer before opting in the end to replace the oval heads with turned 4mm round ones, which in this use really make a difference.

I have also finally named the loco, it begins with 'A' but it is 'Amelia' rather than Albert. These are Narrow Planet plates that had previously done a temporary stint on an 009 Gmeinder. With all of these smaller parts for both projects painted and fitted on the dreary days, finally a nicer day appeared when I was able to give everything a waft of matt varnish over the changed bufferbeams on both projects.

In other news, I'm also having (yet) another try at a mini photo diorama to fit in the light box, but simplifying things compared to previous attempts and mock-ups. I'm even working on some ideas for the project after that... 

Colin

 

The Green Machine

We last saw the A1 Models 'Albert' in a sneak-peek in between painting and varnishing. Following application of a coat of Halfords matt lacquer I've now added the finishing touches, working slowly through a post-it note of jobs. Firstly the windows were glazed using 10 thou clear styrene behind the openings, secured with Johnson's 'Kleer' (old-school formula), and the headlights filled using Araldite. Doing this before the cab and bonnet were glued together meant I only had to make up one mix to do both ends, whereas on 'The White Rose' I had to do each end in turn as the light has to sit facing upwards to set without sagging. 

The headlights squeezed the last from my Araldite so I bought an alternative epoxy product in the local motor spares shop to join the two assemblies together, which seems to have worked OK. On the cab front a turned brass A1 Models air horn was added - this one a version designed with cab front mounting in mind. Deft deployment of the epoxy and careful propping allowed this to be secured in place whilst the cab and bonnet were glued together. 

Despite the matt lacquer the underframe looked a little too shiny so the opportunity was taken to overspray a coat of Humbrol matt varnish to this part, followed by some light weathering in the form of dry brushing. This side-on view shows how the Kato chassis is convincigly hidden by the air tanks and the deep solebar.

Inside the cab I added a driver figure, one of the "rubbery" Prieser clones sprayed in grey primer, washed over in black-grey and then the skin and shirt picked out in appropriate colours. Subtle but effective enough when viewed through the cab windows. The 'L' section pieces provided with the kit have been used to locate the cab and bonnet in place, they are easily adjusted to get a secure grip and good location.

Underneath the chassis can be seen the mounts for the MicroTrains couplers, and the strips of lead window flashing added either side of the chassis to add some extra weight. There is scope to add more here or above the footplate if it proves necessary after testing.

With this model completed and in the display cabinet there are currently no O9 models on my workbench... There is a bit of reasoning behind this, I had a bit of a surprise when I went to put 'The White Rose' away after the recent modifications as I realised I hadn't actually allocated a storage box for it! A suitable box was located in the form of a Peco 009 example, but there is a shortage of space in the stock boxes so I need to have a careful think about what goes where in a limited space...

Colin

January Jumble

January has turned out to be a month of finishing off and tinkering. I've already shown the completed tramcar, and sneak preview of the A1 Models 'Albert' can be seen later in this post.

When I swapped it's place in the display case for the tramcar, I re-evaluated how I finished off the bufferbeams and couplers on 'The White Rose'. I was never quite satisfied with awkward L-sections either side of the couplers, so these areas have been carefully reworked with a deeper bufferbeam and sweep-downs at the ends of the side frames, taking cues from Trevor Guest's Dudley Zoo Bo-Bo, now at Windmill Farm. 

This work was carefully completed around the existing paintwork and the new paintwork varnished and blended into the existing finish and a touch of weathering to complete. Couplers were refitted and I am happy with the overall result, still very much a 1960s machine in the latter stages of life!

Having found myself struggling to find anything I wanted to "build" whilst the paintwork on other projects was being completed, I eventually found myself making some changes to a wagon last seen a year ago. At first glance not a lot has actually changed... but I'll give you a clue, the main noticeable difference is the longer wheelbase...

This model was originally built on a Black Dog Mining 6ft chassis frame, however I had noticed that it had a bit of a wobble, more so than usual for these chassis. Separately I had been coming to the conclusion that for layout use where shunting and uncoupling were required, especially with MicroTrains couplers, my wagons with Peco chassis were actually the better performers. So this wagon has received a Peco underframe disguised with a scratchbuilt styrene underframe 'surround' with Black Dog style axleboxes hiding the N-gauge ones. Built and painted away from the body, I was able to get a close-enough colour match of the timber shades. 

Although the official line is that I still don't "do" paintshop progress pictures, at this point it was only really short of a coat of varnish/lacquer so I thought I might as well share it...

The green (Citadel 'Moot Green', brush-applied) is of course based on 'Rachel' at Cleethorpes as pictured in an earlier post, although the shade is perhaps a little darker. The model is now varnished and finished and will be seen in more detail in a future post.

Colin

 

Highlights of 2022

On the face of it, 2022 seems to have been a quiet year modelling wise for me, at the end of the year it doesn't feel as if there is anything to really reflect on, but as I browse back through the photos I realise it hasn't all been that bad!

The Bungalow

Started in 2021, completed in January, an Airfix/Dapol conversion in 4mm scale built with no real purpose but to 'do'. Interestingly this inspired one of my modelling 'hero's to do a similar conversion, and I'm flatered! I still have it, one day it may feature in a layout or diorama...

The 'Big Tree'

Encouraged by my friend James Wells' work for the NRM's O gauge layout, I reworked my prototype wire-framed tree into a half-relief model with the hope that it would move forward a layout project. Completed in April, it hasn't achieved that but I still have it, awaiting it's moment...

Little Red Number

Restarted earlier in the year from a stalled project, again completed in April, this model of nothing in particular (sorry, The Smiths are playing on the radio...) is one that I am particularly proud of, capturing the spirit of a mid 20th century 15" gauge loco.

'Old Quarry Line' Scenic Re-work

Totally unexpected, as I was meant to be re-working something else instead! I wanted to reuse the scenic materials removed during reworking the big tree and another project, creating new layers of undergrowth and adding another reworked Hornby tree. 

In addition a new dummy siding was added that became host to a much modified Dundas Snailbeach hopper. I completed a running example too, plus a Peco one was received at Christmas...

The White Rose

Having been received from A1 Models back in February, this 3D print finishing project was not completed until October, I have to admit I fell out with on more than one occasion, but perseverance paid off in the end to a satisfactory result, although a few further changes have not been ruled out...

The Tramcar

Another February generated project, but one that had a lot of thoughts and doodles behind it by the time it started. Very much a nonsense project it is currently in the latter stages of assembly post-paintshop, the full reveal will hopefully not be too far into 2023...

Almost 'Albert'

Another A1 Models build but with a lot of changes to better reflect it's inspiration (largely because I know the chaps that built it!). Livery and real name to be determined very soon, watch this space!

There were a few other projects in the course of the year that I haven't mentioned here, including numerous wagons and another tree. But all in all it doesn't really add up to a massive amount of creation. I look on at other modellers rates of production not with envy but awe at what they can output, but have to remember that we all have different circumstances, resources and amounts of time available. I cannot even pinpoint 3D printing as a reason people can produce more, despite those who claim it isn't 'real modelling' (whatever that is), designing the print takes skill and time, and even after printing cleaning up, preparing for paint, painting and finishing still takes time and real skill. I have to admit I prefer other mediums, one of the reasons 'The White Rose' took so long was the 3D print's limitations, but that is a personal choice rather than a prejudice.

In O9 ready-to-run isn't an option, one of the reasons I keep an hand in 009 is that it does allow the odd dabble in "instant satisfaction" and the ability to receive the odd gift of a wagon etc. I'm torn on the Bachmann Quarry Hunslet, I'd really like one, I can afford one but only as a one-off treat. But would it eclipse my Minitrains-based locos that I've put work into to make unique? Decisions, decisions...

Happy New Year to all readers of O9 Modeller.

Colin

'Albert' in his Prime(r)

The A1 Models 'Albert' was given a good clean up with a fibreglass brush, a scrub with Cif and then dried thoroughly to avoid any tarnishing caused by water drying slowly. At this point the box it was sat in gained a post-it saying "gloves on" to remind me not to touch it with bare hands. 

I'd rather not have thing hanging around in that state too long, so after a couple of freezing weeks the "warmer" weather on Monday did allow me to successfully get the loco into primer, with the usual effect of making everything seem 'as one'.

I am really pleased that the joins around the bonnet front and the top of the sides are all smooth and belie the mix of materials. 

This will probably remain in this state for a week or two now, notwithstanding Christmas and the desire to move the tram along in the paintshop, I need to decide on what colour I would like to paint it!

As activity over the coming days is likely to be limited, this will be the last update before Christmas, so I will take this opportunity to wish all blog readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Colin

Developing the A1 'Albert'

When we last saw the A1 Models 'Albert' build I had assembled all of the provided parts and I subsequently started to consider what changes I wanted to make to the basic kit. 

The first addition was a curved bonnet top, using a piece of 20 thou styrene sheet recycled from an old ice cream carton lid (!) Cut to just oversize and sellotaped to the outside of a small saucepan (whilst no-one was looking), then dunked in a pyrex dish of just-boiled water for a few minutes and subsequently cooled. This way used less water than the more obvious route of the inside of the pan and filling it! A 30 x 60 thou strip of Evergreen styrene down the centre and two 20 x 40 strips at appropriate intervals hold the shape, the whole assembly being held in place with Araldite and subsequently trimmed to size.

On the underframe 40 thou styrene was used to make bufferbeams to fill the gap in the etched part. Openings for MicroTrains couplers were marked and cut out prior to fitting. An 80 x 156 thou strip of Evergreen styrene along the top on the inside both increased the gluing area and will provide substance to fix the MicroTrains couplers to in due course.

After looking at a few more photos of 'Albert' at Littlehampton I decided that I could not live with the front grille arrangement. Whilst searching for some other detail parts for the project I chanced upon an Avalon Line resin grille casting. This was about 0.5mm narrower than the etched grille and 0.5mm taller. With the etched overlay removed (it was only ever tacked in place) and the mesh cut away, I was able to clean up and carefully open up the aperture to take the casting. I backed the casting with strips of 20 thou styrene and Araldited it in place from behind.

Prior to fitting the grille in place I marked up, centre-punched and drilled a hole in the bonnet front to accept a turned headlight, with a similar hole on the cab back. The cab front was drilled centrally for a horn or whistle. 

The next job was to fill all the gaps with Milliput, concentrating on the bonnet front and top of the sides, the bufferbeams and cab corner join and roof edges (to smooth out the corrugations). Once set this was smoothed back and I made a trial fit of the headlights (A1 Models 4mm scale mainline diesel turnings). In the process of fitting the front one I realised the resin radiator wasn't straight or central, so out that came to be refitted and refilled. I then added an exhaust from brass tube and some bolt detail to the bufferbeams from styrene rod. I had intended to replicate the prototype's buffers but opted not to in the end.

Further work on the chassis has included adding a rudimentary bench seat at the back of the cab and a coupler pocket arrangement in each bufferbeam to secure MicroTrains 1015 couplers. This involved removing the section of bufferbeam under the opening and replacing with 40 x 100 thou styrene, as the screw hole is centred only 1mm from the bufferbeam face.

At either side of the underframe I had previously Araldited some chunks of styrene, onto which I have added air tanks from the usual sources of Dapol Railbus and Drewery shunter kits. Additional strips of styrene help centre the Kato chassis, although this will need to be secured with double-sided tape after painting.

Progress has reached the stage where it is agonisingly close to being ready to paint, but the weather is not favourable to getting out to the workshop to do so - and the prospect of having to turn the heater on! A further delay here may be caused by the tramcar and its accoutrements currently taking up the  paintshop 'bay' and paint stands...

 

Colin

Building an A1 'Albert'

Back in July John Flower from A1 Models handed me his latest etched O9 kit, based on the locomotive 'Albert' of the Littlehampton Miniature Railway. Although now 12 1/4" gauge this locomotive was originally 15" gauge, built at Windmill Farm in Lancashire, started by Craig Gluyas and completed by Dave Madden and Austin Moss. The kit certainly captures the style of the loco if not all the details and fits on the Kato 11-103 or 11-109 chassis.

This is the etches as supplied, John had only etched four doors instead of six on the main etch so two extra were supplied! An etched chassis frame is supplied, I think this is from an existing 009 Kit. The purpose of the four rectangular pieces top right was a bit of a mystery at first (I had no instructions), but I eventually fixed them to the chassis to locate the bonnet and cab units.

Having folded up the bonnet and cab parts I opted to remove some of the tabs intended to make assembly easier - although well intended and perhaps helpful to anyone using an adhesive for these joints, they made the fit of the bonnet front awkward and the cab roof did not sit correctly at the eaves. The bonnet front was soldered in place inside the sides/top and the cab joined in the corner, having added a length of scrap etch to pack out the join to keep the dimensions of front and sides equal. The cab roof was soldered in place, aligning it correctly took some time due to the etched ridges underneath just being in the wrong place!

The etched grille on the front had distorted in the heat of the soldering iron, but that was a minor issue really. At this point I took the photo above and shortly afterwards spotted my "deliberate" mistake... I had soldered the whole front panel in upside down!

This was promptly rectified before moving on to the next stage, adding the bonnet side grilles/doors and cab doors. These were fixed in place using a thin coating of Araldite in two sessions, one for each side, in order to avoid disrupting one side whilst working on the other.

I have temporarily added the other grille mesh in front of the chequered mesh, temporary as I have identified this as an area that I may wish to upgrade, not least as it seems to float in the space, and also because the real locomotive has a different style of front grille altogether.

I had to do a bit of cleaning up around the cab doors to remove excess Araldite, there is only about 1mm either side to fix to so a bit of spread under the edges was inevitable. I moved the door up as far as I dared so there wasn't a huge gap above it, overlapping by about 2mm at the top and less than 0.5mm at the bottom. The kit can be built with one or both of the doors propped open at 180 degrees and some cab interior detail, it would seem the real loco often runs in that fashion at Littlehampton.

As well as the grille upgrade I plan to add a shallow curved top to the bonnet using 20 thou styrene and some supporting strips. It cannot curve too much due to the cab front windows but should give a better impression of the prototype it is based on. I will also be adding bufferbeams and a few underframe details to finish the model off.

The kit can be purchased on A1 Models on eBay.

More soon...

Colin

'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

Pushing the Bo-Bo towards the paintshop

In my last post I left the MicroTrains coupler hanging below the bufferbeam of the A1 Models 'Royal Anchor' look-alike, looking for a way to make this look more realistic. My initial thought was to use an extension plate to the centre of the buffer beam, based on the arrangement of ex-Fairbourne 'Rachel' (left below). However in practice this did not look so good with the chunkiness of the MT coupler box. What was desirable was something more like ex-Fairbourne 'Katie' in Haigh Hall/Cleethorpes condition (right) where the angle-sections remained from former Fairbourne arrangement of "cow catcher" either side of the coupler.

One problem, I had no Plastruct 'L' section and slicing it up from channel did not look right. I was also concerned that plastic section here would be quite vulnerable during construction and painting and could snap or just become unstuck from the brass bufferbeam. Make that two problems, I had no brass 'L' section small enough either. After some rummaging I found some brass fence posts, etched with a join down the middle which would fold nicely to 'L section of about the right size. If only I could have soldered them to the bufferbeams before I glued them to the loco, that would be super-strong! Oh the benefit of hindsight... However, what I could do is solder them to a backing plate the of the same strip as the bufferbeam and glue that in place, giving the advantage of a greater glued area. It was a fiddly soldering job but I got there in the end (inset).

One of the completed coupler units was offered up to the loco and I was pleased with the result. This did however show up that it really could do with is some empty boltholes for the other bits of ironwork and where buffers may have once fitted.  I made up some templates to allow marking and drilling of the brass but this was proving very difficult to make it look how I saw it in my minds eye.

After some thought I cheated and made up 5 thou styrene pre-drilled overlays and superglued them in place. Job done! I also added tiny bits of Plastruct hex rod to the brass angles to emphasise what might have been bolted in the holes. By the time this photo was taken I had blackened some of the exposed brass areas ready for the painting stage

After a wash down I then applied a light coat of primer to the body. As I suspected it might this revealed a few areas that need attention before moving on. Also, a little nagging doubt started to form, was I really happy with those curved lines over the windscreens? I started to delve deeper into 'Royal Anchor', because whilst I wasn't actually modelling her, most of the inspiration was coming from that direction. It started with looking at liveries, from the original two-tone grey with red trim (very 50s!); R&ER dark blue; and the various schemes work at Carnforth, such as two-tone green. What was clear is that the line on the drawings that I had scribed into the body was just the paint line of the R&ER livery and was not there in reality other than perhaps being the point the curvature started.

 

As I was not really happy with the way the lines had turned out this prompted me to fill the "furrowed brow" and once smoothed out re-apply the primer. I now have the freedom of choice between a curved paint join or straight across as per the Carnforth repaints. I then masked up the bufferbeam areas and sprayed them with red primer to give a base to the bufferbeam red in due course. This is a bit rough around the edges but will be lost in the final paint job.

As per my usual rule I don't generally take photos of paintshop progress, so you may have to wait for the next update!

Colin

A firmly 'Anchored' chassis frame

Although I have the Bachmann chassis that the A1 Models diesel is designed to fit (in my case a U36-B) I have opted to instead use an Atlas GP7 chassis to power the model. This is a slightly more sophisticated chassis and has a smaller die-cast section and allows for a figure (of sorts) to be represented in each cab, whereas the Bachmann chassis would only really allow something at one end. This particular chassis was previously used under my original Dapol railbus loco conversion and it was still in the chassis frame from this era. This proved useful as a blueprint for the new frame that would be required for the A1 body.

The new unit is largely 40 thou styrene, reinforced with Evergreen strip where required. Through careful measurement it and the original clip onto the Atlas chassis block using four dimples drilled into the inner sides of the upright sides. Between the bogies I have added a section that hides the fuel tank area of the chassis but also reflects the design of 'Royal Anchor'.

I found two suitable figures to sit in the loco, they had to get head and shoulders within the width of the chassis upright as this slots into the A1 Models body (there are substantial strengthening ribs along the bottom edge). The figures are actually glued in place as they will only get require minimal painting to give an impression of colour. The chap at this end looks rather bored, he must be awaiting the right-away!

Having been reminded by an observer of the absence of any Dapol kit parts so far in the build, I delved into the railbus and drewery shunter bits boxes in order to maintain this tradition. Space constraints ruled out my initial thought to use the part from the railbus kit that represent the side of the engine block, visible through the side window. I considered Drewery shunter vac pipes but in the end I resorted to a railbus air tank under the bufferbeam at the far end and a box of some sort at the the closest end. 

The next step was to make provision for MicroTrains couplers. As luck would have it the bottom of the bufferbeams is 7mm from rail level, and there is just enough material to drill a 1mm dia hole to screw the coupler into. There is just one problem... it looked tacked onto the bottom of the bufferbeam!

This would take some thought to resolve, we shall see how next time.

Colin

A new spin on 'Royal Anchor'...

On return from a week in Scarborough I cast around for something to do model wise, and my eyes fell upon the A1 Models O9 3D printed Bo-Bo locomotive I had completed the initial preparation work on some time ago. Although clearly based on the former Ravenglass/Carnforth locomotive 'Royal Anchor' I wanted to put my own spin on the model. I had discussed this model with John Flower at the Mansfield 009 Society members day and now had a clearer idea of what I might like to do to it.

A reminder of how it looked...

The first job was to get a little drastic with the windows. This is not as drastic as I had initially envisaged as I had pondered creating a single windscreen with a slightly curved top edge, reminiscent of the former Dudley Zoo Bo-Bo machine prior to rebuilding at Cricket St Thomas. I think it would be do-able but I am never sure just what modifications a print will withstand so as it stands I have just opened out the cab front windows to loose the chunky surrounds. Each window is perhaps only 0.5mm bigger each way but it does change the look a little. The wobbly dividers in the door windows have gone and will be replaced when the glazing is installed. The body side windows have lost their frames completely with a resultant colour patch where sanding down has occurred. The circular opening (fuel filler?) has also been reduced in the same way.

The biggest change is the new bufferbeams. John admitted that he had totally forgotten to add these to the design. Brass etch waste 3.5mm deep was Araldited to the bottom of the cab fronts and once set I scored a line along the bodysides at a corresponding height to represent the rest of the underframe. This line was deepened and neatened using an Olfa-style cutter. Two vertical panel lines were also added to the bodysides, all corresponding with 'Royal Anchor' despite this not being a model of that machine. Milliput was used to fill the corners behind the new buffer beams, being brass these exposed corners are now very robust.

Using a template (actually an old A1 Models cab etch) a line was scored above the windscreens, which will eventually be the colour join between cab front and roof colours. Again this follows 'Royal Anchor', but helps break up the large area above the windscreens, which was in danger of looking like a slimline Metro-Cammell DMU! Above this line I have smoothed back the join between front and roof to a more rounded profile.

There are still a few details to add, such as door hinges and some roof detail, but at present I am concentrating on getting a chassis under there, which isn't going to be the Bachmann one the manufacturer envisaged...

Colin