Avalon Loco Progress

Work is progressing well on the reworking of the pre-built Avalon Line loco.  Although I want to keep as much of the original paint finish as possible, I felt that the all-encompassing grey finish needed something to both break it up and add some colour. The obvious and realistic thing to add was an area of red to the buffer beams and/or the coupler blocks. In the end the latter were carefully masked off, only to find that I had no red oxide primer to hand...

After a trip to the local motor factors Hycote primer was applied and then two coats of red acrylic paint.  At first this looked rather stark but with matt varnish and weathering applied they have blended in rather well. The tool box in the cab also benefitted from a touch of colour, a metallic blue and one of the in-cab levers gained a red handle.

Meanwhile I had to source a suitable driver figure. I suppose Although I have some 3D printed seated figures none are in a driving pose but I also have a small stockpile of whitemetal and plastic figures to use...  I seem to recall that this figure was likely bought in Burton Town Hall, but at one of the DEMU shows rather than the 7mm NGA convention where I would have seen Howard and Steve and not bought models like this! 

You may notice that he's had a little surgery (and was a pain to photograph)..

The cap pulled over the eyes to the nose really struck me as not great for any driver, it was only after trying to pose the arms that I realised that maybe the manufacturer meant a road vehicle driver rather than a locomotive driver, and that was his chauffer's cap!  The new head, secured with a short length of 0.5mm wire, was sourced from my oddments of plastic figures and is of Preiser origin. 

What was originally supposed to be a jacket and trousers has become a boiler suit. Painting was my usual primer/dark wash/almost dry brush of colours and to ring the changes the main colour is green, contributing to the splash of colour methodology. His hands are rather big (maybe he's wearing driving gloves) but I don't think is too noticeable once he's in the cab. He looks like he's in control of the loco even if he hasn't got a full grip on the controls.

More soon, as that final picture reveals, things have progressed well...

Colin

Avalon and Austria

Last seen on arrival in January (An Avalon Arrival), work has finally progressed on the pre-built Avalon Line locomotive that I acquired from 7mm NGA secondhand sales. Since the last post my theory that the model had been built and finished by Steve Bennett has been confirmed via a contact on Facebook. Apparently there were several models in the Avalon and Black Dog ranges finished in this way for direct sale, making this an interesting bit of O9 history.

I also left the last post on a bit of a cliffhanger in relation to my plans to power the model, whether to try and repower a Farish 08 chassis or investigate using a Halling 21mm wheelbase unit. As you might guess from the title, the Halling unit won. Due to the way the postage charges work it makes sense to order more than one at a time, so I acquired units for some other projects too.

As they come the modern Halling units are tiny, even compared to the Kato 'core' from their modern chassis. There really isn't much to aid fixing it in place in your chosen model so I had to carefully plan how it would fit into the void of the model. The solution is seen below... 

Taking things at first principles, I opted to create a sub-frame and carefully measured the space available under the loco body and the space the chassis required to 'clip' into something (there are clips either side of the motor). With a few scribbled plans I found could suit both (just), with only 1.5mm difference at either end. I marked out and cut a piece of 40 thou styrene to which Evergreen strip was then added above and below this to strengthen it. Once set a "nibble" was taken at either end to fully clear the worm gears. Below this recess is a small 20 thou piece that firmly holds the end of the chassis under the worm.

Platforms extend at either end sit onto the positions within the body designed to accommodate the Farish chassis. The joins for these are re-enforced to hopefully prevent sagging. Two tiny screws in opposing corners hold the sub-frame in place within the loco. In the recess above the frame I added some adhesive window lead strip to add some weight, and also added more strips behind the sideframes of the body. A further piece of lead in the bonnet end is ready to counterbalance a whitemetal driver figure, currently undergoing surgery!

More soon.

Colin

 

Box it Up

Not directly O9 related but the main focus of recent modelling time, I have now completed construction of a protective/display box for my 009 project. This is a miniature version of that used under 'Shifting Sands' and based on those used by Steve Bennett under his various micro layouts.

Construction is simple, 5 hardboard panels and 12 x 21mm pine section. Each side panel is framed top and sides with the pine section, then left for the PVA to set. After some tidying up of edges I paired each side and end and joined, the picture below was taken at this point. At this point the volume occupied by a very small layout seems to increase dramatically...

Having assembled the two halves I added the top and once everything was together all the edges were sanded smooth and the timber was given a couple of coats of varnish with a rub down in between. On the top four triangular pieces of plywood are in place to hold the layout in place whilst in use.

Bolting the layout inside is achieved with four M4 machine screws locating in captive bolts underneath the baseboard, located within blocks of wood. On the left you can see that there is an additional length of stripwood within the box edge. Whilst I would like to say that this is intentional to accommodate the plug sockets that extend beyond the board edge on this side, it is more a case that I was a little too generous in the clearances within the box!

Colin

A right pair of mongrels

There has been some mention on these pages in recent months of various bits of tinkering with Black Dog Mining wagons, starting with the creation of two 3-plank 6-foot wagons on the night of Narrow Gauge North and then some (unseen on the blog) tinkering after the 7mm NGA show.

However, something wasn't right, especially with the two wagons created on re-used underframes after Burton.  These two underframes had seen several bodies, the 6 foot one was the basis of the 'Shifting Sands' chequerplate flat then a box van, the 5 foot one various flat wagons amongst others.  The gained new Black Dog bodies in the form of a replacement chequerplate top and 2-plank open.

However, something wasn't quite right with just adding new bodies.  Mention in an email conversation last week with Andrew Blackwell, present owner of my earlier Black Dog conversions (narrowed down 6 foot 2-plank opens  modelled as 'Tops' wagons with end handles) set me on a train of thought, especially as I started to look through old photos of my work and perhaps actually appreciating what I had done.  This then led to some reconsideration of my fleet of Black Dog wagons and by Thursday morning (I had a day off) I had actually pulled the two apart for reconsideration.  The end result was a 5 foot version of the narrowed (by 2mm) 'Tops' wagons and by narrowing and slightly shortening the body, the reconstruction of the 'Shifting Sands' chequerplate flat wagon - including fishing the original overlaid steel solebars from the bin! 

I think I realised that sticking bits together was easy, it's customising and making them your own that is the fun part...

Colin

Taking a fence, Pretenders, Mites and Burton

(aka "A General Catch-up")

Yet again time seems to have vanished into a black hole, so here's a quick summary of the pre and post Burton developments for 'Shifting Sands'.  Overall the day at the 7mm NGA's AGM went well, it was good to catch up with like-minded O9 modellers and fascinating to see the launch of the first ever plastic kit for O9 rolling stock, from Chivers Finelines.  I'll post something about that another day, I promise!

Firstly, something  visitors to Burton didn't see.... this short length of the new Peco spear fencing appeared on 'Shifting Sands' the weekend before the show, but never became permanent.  Quite simply, despite it being a detail I wanted to add, it just didn't look right.  I think that is due to two factors - firstly it is a little random, even if it is entirely in context, secondly, three panels would probably have looked better than two, in just the same way that an odd number of coaches in a train look better than even.  On a practical note it possibly wouldn't have survived long at the front edge of the board, despite some re-enforcement!

Don't take a fence...

At Burton the layout was graced by a visit from two locomotives belonging to Jordan 'Rough Shunter' Leeds, based on Ravenglass and Eskdale prototypes.  Both were built on commission by Paul Windle and painted by Ken Gibbons.  Sadly the usual 15" gauge story of coupler incompatibility made it impossible to use them in service, and 'River Mite' took objection to 9" curves.

Ratty 'Pretender' visits 'Shifting Sands' (and looks at home)

'River Mite' poses for photographs

The opportunity was taken to line the two locos up with my own Ravenglass style loco 'Cumbia'

Ratty motive power line-up

The view above reveals some of the pre-Burton work on the layout in the shed area, the eagle eyed will see that the caravan has moved back slightly, allowing the installation of a small coaling stage and a revised mix of details.

I had promised myself no further wagon tinkering before Burton, and true to my word I waited.... I did make a couple of purchases from Steve Bennett at Black Dog Mining at the show and these have allowed a couple more wagons to be created to join those assembled after Narrow Gauge North.  It's best not to ask too many questions about how many times some of my Black Dog chassis have swapped bodies and dare I say it I have had my eyes on the Black Dog chassis under some of the 'Shifting Sands' fleet... but that moment has passed (largely after remembering Steve Bennett's compliments about the generator wagon just visible in the picture of 'River Mite') and common sense now reins .  Well, most of the time anyway....

Colin
[Edited 29/06/2013]

A pleasant diversion on the way to somewhere?

As those who have observed my construction of the Unit Models wagon kit may have mused, I seem to be on the cusp of one of my industrial/agricultural minimum gauge phases.  Those who know me well will know that these periods don't often last that long, this time might be different, we'll have to see!

At Narrow Gauge North a conversation with Steve Bennett of Black Dog Mining about what O9 bits he had to hand resulted in the purchase of two wagon bodies that by close of play that same day had been attached to two chassis from my stockpile and were ready for painting:

The biggest/longest part of the build was cutting out the mountings for MicroTrains couplers....

A few weeks ago I had started an experiment in building O9 wagon bodies from Basswood, a technique I had wanted to play with for a while.  I hadn't got that far really, but a spare floor that I had marked out to fit a 5ft Black Dog Mining Chassis has been put into use to rebody my chequerplate flat wagon (itself a throw-together of surplus bits).  All the staining/painting/weathering work on this was completed in an afternoon:

Who knows where it will all lead?!

Colin

Building an Avalon Line Enclosed Coach Kit

Frustrated with watching paint dry (badly), and inspired by a trip out to the 7mm NGA members' day at Derby, I decided to scout about for a quick project to occupy my time.  My eyes fell onto an Avalon Line kit for a 12-seat enclosed coach that had been sat awaiting my attention for many years. This was one of the first sets of parts that Steve Bennett had cast from masters that I had designed for Howard Martin at Avalon Line.

Having been sat in my cupboard all that time the sides and floor of the kit had taken on a banana-like shape, so theses were immersed in hot water and then flattened between a glass worktop protector and glass drinks coasters, held flat by that good old standby of Lima loco weights (every ex-OO modeller of a certain age has a stash of these!).  All flash was removed using a sharp craft knife and parts cleaned up using nothing more than pound shop emery boards.

The chassis was assembled first:

Araldite Rapid epoxy adhesive was used, the footwells were set into the chassis frame dry and the adhesive carefully delivered to the joints using a cocktail stick.  The seats were then added on top - this was just possible from one mix of the glue!

The sides and ends of the body were assembled in a slightly different way, due to an unintended tumblehome in the sides I opted to use superglue to attach these to the ends (so as to straighten the bow and set quickly), then re-enforced the joins with Araldite from inside.

So far this build has been as per the intended sequence, I'll be showing a few tweaks I've made in a future post.

O9 on show at Burton

Visiting the annual convention and AGM of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association today I was struck by the number of O9 items on show.  In fact, I'd go as far as saying that I haven't seen that much O9 in one place before...

Layout wise the flag was flown by one minimum gauge "classic" and a relative newcomer.  Rather than his usual 'Big Cat Mine' in Gn15, Steve Bennett of Sidelines/Black Dog Mining fame had brought 'Black Cat no. 2' along with him, it is the same concept but just that little bit smaller. This of course demonstrated items from the Black Dog Mining and Avalon Lines Ranges:

In the smaller of the two halls Christopher Payne was demonstrating his O9 layout 'Brink Valley Tramway', a minimum space layout, just under 3ft x 8 1/2" - in fact the size of three sheets of A4 paper to suit a the rules of a competition it was built for.  The original simple run-off has now been replaced with a much larger set of hidden sidings which Christopher has indicated might be used for a larger project in the future:

Not O9, but next to the Brink Valley was Brian Cameron's 'Bottom Road, Summerhill Estate', built to the same competition guidelines but in O-16.5.  This used many items of rolling stock from the Black Dog and Avalon Lines ranges and it was easy to imagine a version built to the smaller gauge:

In terms of trade, despite Howard Martin's absence with the Avalon Line stand (due to a family commitment), there was again more O9 on show and sale than before, with several new products on display.  Firstly, as caster of the Avalon Lines range, Steve Bennett had the two new open coaches on sale.  These are 12 and 16 seaters in modular form, from masters that I produced myself last year.  These come complete with bogies and wheels:

Steve also had a new version of the Black Dog 'Mite' for sale with the chassis re-designed to fit the Kato 'Tram' chassis.

Allen Law of Minimum Gauge Models was displaying all sorts of new products for the O9 and Gn15 modeller in etched brass.  I had seen his Heywood stock at the Trent Valley members day of the Association back in January, but the range has now increased to include other subjects.  One that took my eye was this Basset-Lowke 4w coach, with some Fairbourne additions such as arm rest rails:

Allen is rather keen on the Fairbourne and has even made a model of the canteen car and generator wagon that used to sit at Barmouth Ferry!

Other new models include a 4w diesel to fit a Kato chassis, which looks very like an enlarged 'Redgauntlet' from Romney, and a representation of the Romney "Scooter", also to fit the Kato chassis.  I have purchased one of these and hopefully later in the year I'll get the chance to build it up, which will be a challenge to my ham-fisted brass soldering skills:

Also on display were these rapid-prototype models of Ravenglass 20 seat coaches designed by Jamie McBride.  I have some reservations about the surface finish from this process at the present time but like all technology it will get better over time and hopefully cheaper too:

One thing that struck both myself and other observers was the size of these coaches - is 'big' O9 the next thing, are we going to see layouts based on Ravenglass and Romney practices with near scale length trains?  I know at least one person who thinks so, he has bought a few of the items mentioned above and has promised  to keep me up to speed....

After today's show I am confident that O9 is about to become a more popular branch of 7mm scale narrow gauge models.  One or two traders have let some details slip on other new items that are on the way in the future and it certainly looks bright!

Now for something completely different....

Those who follow my Workbench thread over on ngrm-online.com will have already read about this loco, but for those who haven't... here goes!  As I am rather short on time at the moment with a lot of work going on about the house, actually building something is rather an achievement.  I started this loco at Christmas/New Year time and it was first built as a O-16.5 exercise.  The body uses various leftover Airfix/Dapol Drewery shunter kit parts, whilst the chassis was recycled from an earlier OO gauge loco kitbash, but incorporates various Railbus kit parts from the same source.

After a couple of months in store, and inspired by my visit to Narrow Gauge North, I revisited the loco and made several changes.  The most significant was the use of a Sidelines (Steve Bennett) chassis frame intended to take a Tenshodo 24mm 'Spud' or a Kato Tram Chassis in 9mm gauge.  This gives me an O-16.5/O9 option for the loco.  As the sideframes for the chassis were intended for Gn15 I replaced them with some home brewed ones, incorporating Steve's castings for axleboxes from the Black Dog Mining O&K kit.

Various other examples of Steve's castings have been used, including the headlight and bell, coupler pockets, and a gearbox and handbrake wheel inside the cab.

It's certainly a bit on the big side for a 15" gauge loco, but certainly passes for 18" gauge in it's O9 form (which it is at the moment).  Plans are in hand to develop something for it to run on (I hesitate to say "layout"), but that will have to wait for some time to come to fruition.  I did however manage to put together a pair of wagons for it to pull, these run on Black Dog 5' chassis frames.

As I can't actually access my workbench at the moment (would you believe it if I said it had 20 square metres of tiles piled up around it?), the next update will hopefully look at some of the new loco's older siblings from the workshop....