Hudson Hacking

It looks as if the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway's PW department has relented, as another wagon build has emerged on the workbench.  This again uses parts recycled from a previous, slightly unsatisfactory build...

This RCL Hudson frame is the one used previously under a cut-down Black Dog Mining flat top.  It didn't run to well , I had put this down to replacement wheelsets, but I have subsequently discovered that during the build (itself something of a bodge) I hadn't aligned the axle box mouldlings properly, hence a wobbly ride.  Removing the axle box mouldings in one piece was a no-go, so a slightly more innovative solution was called for....

I'll be modelling this, the PW wagon of the Sherwood Forest Railway, one of a few 15" gauge wagons I can say that I have travelled in:

This real-life Hudson-bash actually has the axleboxes mounted on some angle iron behind the main frames with with the axles shortened for 15" gauge, I'm assured it was like that when they bought it from Tal-y-Cafn.

Model wise this has allowed something of a cheat, please look away now if you are a time served O14 modeller...

Yes, that is a much butchered Peco chassis living under there!  I was inspired to work this way after the success of the Peco/Black Dog adaptor under the 'Loco Coal' wagon, where I see the frame as a 'veneer' over the Peco chassis.  I this case I also slimmed down the recovered RCL axleboxes and glued them over the Peco axleguards, shorn of their N gauge detail.  Once the glue was set the axleguards were cut and filed to the same shape as the axleboxes, completing the illusion.  From normal viewing angles the deception is not visible, and the fact that the wheels are too small isn't noticeable.

Progress with the other two wagons has reached the varnishing stage, whilst some loads are being assembled from the spares box:

Gonna Paint That Wagon...

"Gonna paint a wagon, gonna paint it good, we ain't bragging, we're gonna coat that wood..."

The Simpsons have a lot to answer for!  OK, so it isn't actually wood, it's styrene pretending to be wood, and I used a water based paint, but apart from that....

A variety of acrylic paints, Humbrol, Vallejo and Citadel were employed in painting the two wagons, edging out all of the ironwork was actually a lot simpler than I had imagined it would be.

The next stage was to add lettering to the loco coal wagon.  This was done the old school way, using dry print lettering.  I tend to use the end of a cocktail stick in a pin vice to rub down the transfer, it has a fine, replaceable point, and you an see what you are doing.

A coat or acrylic matt varnish sealed the transfers into place, although an overall coat of varnish will be applied in due course.

More developments on the wagon front may be on the cards, although this is very much dependent on the whims of the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway PW department! However, readers may be interested to know that all traces of industrial O9 left the building yesterday....

Eyes Wide Open

The birth of baby Amelia on Sunday 25th March has created a new regime in the Peake household, and seeing her with eyes wide open made me open my own...

I had started to wonder some time ago whether my more recent O9 industrial models, such as the Drewery-bash loco and some open wagons on Black Dog Mining chassis, were a journey in the wrong direction.  Although that project including a replacement flat wagon (on Hudson chassis) for the 'Shifting Sands' fleet, that didn't work out as planned, and I was perhaps a bit too hasty in whipping chassis away from the 'Shifting Sands' works fleet.  What was required were new miniature railway style wagons.

At Narrow Gauge North I had picked up an old example of the Black Dog Mining WA01 chassis frame to fit over a Peco 10ft wheelbase wagon chassis.  With the odd half hour to spare each day during my first week of  paternity leave I used this as a basis to create a body based on the ex-Sutton Miniature Railway 'Loco Coal' wagon that lives in the Griffin Hall museum at Cleethorpes.

(L) Sutton style 'Loco Coal' wagon (R) Cleethorpes style general-purpose wagon

This is a fairly faithful recreation of the original, down to a set of N-Brass buffers on the headstocks!

The other wagon illustrated is a revival of the 'Shifting Sands' wagon that used to carry two oil drums.  Shorn of it's newer industrial drop-side body this has received a new, simpler body based upon two of the Cleethorpes works fleet.  The eagle eyed will see that the body is slightly short of the chassis length - this is deliberate in order to make it look different from the normal Black Dog products.

These little projects have kept me occupied at a time when starting something new is all to daunting, I must get around to painting them!

On Being Industrious

I'm pleased (perhaps relieved) to say that my i/c industrial loco project is now at a degree of completion.

Following a coat of Games Workshop varnish, I have glazed the cab windows with individual pieces of glazing, including a representation of a sliding window in the cab side.  I have also made the headlights look like lenses using Araldite.

At the moment the couplings (and indeed chassis) are in O9 mode, however it can be made to sit on a 24mm 'Spud' and fitted with modified NEM-fitting tension lock or Kaydee couplers with a few moments work to run in O-16.5 mode.

Inside the cab some of the detail (mostly Sidelines parts) can be seen:

It could really do with a heavy dose of weathering but that will have to wait until I decide it's fate, It is a bit of an alien interloper in my existing fleet, and certainly looms over any of the 'Shifting Sands' fleet.  Of course it is intended as an 18" gauge industrial loco rather than a 15" miniature one.  Although I did start work on some wagons for it to pull, these are on hold at the present time until I decide whether to pursue the industrial approach or whether to explore other options.  But don't worry, either way will be reported here in due course.

Preservation in Miniature

I've alluded in a past update to a project to restore my early miniature railway models, from my 'experimental' phase almost 10 years ago, to something close to their original condition.  This involves the first 'Intrepid'  being lowered to as-built ride height on a dummy chassis and my Routemaster based coaches being given new bogies.

Here's the target 'look' - the yet to be named locomotive with the Routemaster stock in tow:

The bogie donor is a Del Prado UP locomotive, sadly the cast chassis block is too long for this project. Interestingly the body of this has a separate roof panel in just the right place to sit a miniature railway driver...

The bogie details were stripped back and modified to resemble the conversion carried out originally on Bachmann bogies.  2mm Evergreen channel added over the top edge, plus new bufferbeams and other details in styrene.  In the background MicroTrains 'Archbar' bogies are having the mountings altered to suit the Routemaster coaches and hook and loop couplers replacing the MT originals for between coach couplings (i.e. the cheapskate way!):

A styrene chassis frame will hold the dummy bogies in place, this will locate into the fitting used on the frame I built to fit the present Atlas chassis (now what will happen to that....?!)

A waft of primer over the bogies and chassis frame was followed by a spray of matt black on the frame itself, whilst the bogies were painted using Valejo acrylics and everything subsequently varnished using Humbrol 'Matt Cote'.  A bit a dry brushing here and there has brought out the detail in the bogie sides:

The dummy couplers are Bachmann mouldings as supplied with wagons in the US N range, they are bit on the chunky size but do the job (i.e. are cheap and non-functioning).  They don't look so bad with the body in place.  This picture is an attempt to re-create one that I took for 'Model Train International' several years ago which has featured on the blog before:

The coach bogies were also toned down with Matt Cote and a bit of drybrushing, three coaches have been treated this way, this photo is of coach number 1 which was repainted a couple of years ago after a disastrous attempt to re-livery it in Maroon.  The underframe was modified at the same time to better resemble my loose prototype of the ex-Sutton Miniature Railway coaches.  This is set off by the 'Archbar' bogies that closely resemble those of the Sutton Stock:

The completed train presently has pride of place in my display cabinet.  Which reminds me, I better find something to fill the other shelves...

Narrow Gauge North 2012

What a pleasant day out this turned out to be, not just in terms of an excellent line-up of layouts and traders, but also to meet up with both familiar faces and to put faces to some familiar names from the NGRM Online forum.

O9 modeller Jordan Leeds had brought his Paul Windle-built 'River Mite' to show me, and by special arrangement via social networking, I had brought my Avalon Line R&ER coach to accompany it.  What then followed was an almost 'flash-mob' takeover of the MG Models demonstration layout (thanks Allen!):

Not to be content with just one Ratty loco, I then brought 'Cumbria' out of my bag to pose it alongside 'River Mite', truly 'minimum and miniature' (or vice-versa):

Allen Law had several interesting etched parts on show, including a model of the Dudley Zoo railway articulated stock complete with guards coupé, he has this on sale now having designed it within a week, following measuring up the prototype at Windmill Farm last weekend.  Tempting as it was, I opted to buy his etch for the Rhyl 'car de luxe' to add to my etched kit practice pile.  My purchases were complete with a few resin goodies from Steve Bennett at Black Dog Mining, more on which another time.

To Intrepidly Complete...

I hadn't realised until I had a conversation at Narrow Gauge North this morning that is nearly a month since I updated O9modeller.  So what have you missed?  Well, er... not a great deal!

Intrepid (II) is now complete, treated to a coat of Citadel (Games Workshop) satin varnish with no ill effect on the enamel paints used for the secondary colours, hopefully as a result of leaving them plenty of time to dry before overcoating.  Smaller parts such as the air horns were fitted and glazing added mostly using parts from the kit.  A tip to pass on here is to use a black marker pen around the edges of those curved corner windows, this really reduces the prismatic effect.  A second tip is to use 'Kleer' floor polish to coat the windows inside and out to get a good transparent effect.

The cab door windows are the only ones not used from the kit, 20 thou clear styrene was used for these, the divider bar is a strip of silver car trim line.  Nameplates are from A1 Models.

A comparison with the original loco was inevitable,  The new loco is on the right!  The original is now undergoing some work to restore it to it's 'as built' height (basically without the grey solebar) for display purposes.  I'll write some more about this project in due course.

I've also completed the Hudson framed open wagon, seen here temporarily carrying oil drums, however events may have overtaken this one, more in a future update!

An finally my industrial i/c loco is progressing in the paintshop after several setbacks, including an almost total strip-down and repaint, the colour now used in Halfords Ford Meadow Green.

And if that isn't enough of an update, I'll post some thoughts from NG North later this evening....