Bet I couldn't eat three....

My wife returned from a local charity shop the other day with a small plastic bag containing a few railway items she had bought for a pound.... usually such well intentioned gifts tend to turn out to be nothing much of use to an O9 modeller, but this time, she has hit gold:

It may not look much, but there are some useful bits in this Grafar-made promotional item (I think from the 1980s?) and the added bonus is that I always wanted one when they were available, but no-one would have eaten enough Shredded Wheat in our house to get one!

Colin

Re-roofing the 'Romneys'

Moving on from straightening out the roofs of the Exmoor-style coaching stock, the next job for winter tinkering is to address the problems with the roofs on the coaches known as the 'Romneys'.  Although RH&DR in style, they actually owe their origins to the work of Clive Mortimer and his planned 'Great Ouse Valley Railway'.  There were actually several of these coaches, mostly shell-only, and three, no.s 9-11 were selected for rebuild back in 2005/6.  Here is no. 10 ready for paint in Feb 2006:

From this picture the construction of the roof is all apparent, chopped about Hornby/Dapol brake van roofs covered with tissue secured with solvent.  So much solvent that six years later the result is seen on no. 11:

It's a bit wibbly-wobbly along the edges and starting to bow upwards at the ends.  The only solution is new roofs, these have been built using the same materials as the originals but with the split in sections moved over one of the doors.  There will be no tissue paper cover this time, one of the reasons back in 2005/6 was to hide my bad cleaning-up of the roof sections of their rainstrips and chimney.  I think I have made a better effort this time, please excuse the typex in use as filler as a final fill over the join, this will of course be smoothed back before painting:

Things may slow down at this point as it is minus 3 degrees in the workshop and not exactly the time to be spraying primer.  Luckily, these coaches were semi-retired some time ago so there is no hurry!

Colin

Running Repairs

In what is traditionally the miniature railway 'quiet season', even in model form the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway can find a list of jobs for the workshop team to do, and that's before they even dare contemplate anything 'new'!

Following on from the rather protracted overhaul of No.3, I have now started to tackle one or two other outstanding jobs in the stock box.  First on the list was a quick bit of work on the 'Exmoor' style semi-open coaches (14-16).  The roofs on these coaches were held in place with UHU solvent free adhesive to facilitate access to recover loose figures etc, however over the years this has had to resist the roof trying it's hardest to warp.... and lost.  The roofs on these coaches are cut and shut from Dapol/Hornby GWR 'Toad' roofs, with a layer of 20 thou styrene over the top to give a smooth finish.  Not equally layered on the underside this has caused the warp.  My attempted solution is below:

What at first glance looks like a multi-coloured spider attacking the workbench is actually no. 16's roof, on the underside two strips of 20 thou (black) styrene have been cemented in place and the clamps are holding the roof straight against two lengths of November 5th rocket stick.  Each roof has been clamped like this for at least 24 hours.  The result is a much less warped roof.

Here no. 14 demonstrates the next phase of the process.  I have again used UHU solvent free to allow easy access in the future (but more of it this time around), and then held the roof in place with elastic bands for a further 24 hours before removal, with the end result demonstrated by no. 15 (each coach is getting an equal turn in the pictures today!):

Whilst working on no. 16 I actually surprised myself at some of the little details I had forgotten that I had included, including the window between guards and passenger compartments, and that I customised the guard figure (Prieser) with rolled up flags under his arm (no doubt from their 1/48th Aircrew set):

This little overhaul has kept me out of mischief for a few days, fitting well into limited time and quite frankly not feeling so great and not wanting to do to much.... Next into the workshop are the 'heritage' Romney Hythe and Dymchurch style coaches, which will need completely new roofs to solve their problems...

Colin

The New-Look No.3

As previously discussed, the Somerthorpe Miniature Railway workshop crew's winter project has been a rebuild and repaint of diesel No.3.  Here she is after the attention of the paintshop staff:

The main colour is Games Workshop/Citadel 'Regal Blue'. I had contemplated keeping the chassis in dark grey as before but eventually chose dirty black with red headstocks for visibility.  All painting was achieved with acrylics (other than some red enamel used as an undercoat) and the varnish is Citadel 'Purity Seal', which despite some of my recent issues went on fine....

The new driver (just) fits in the cab, I had to remove part of the false ceiling to get his head in!  The old detailing bits, lights, exhaust etc have been re-used without change, however the numberplates are new, being old Jackson-Evans etches.

Around the other side the cab window has lost it's dividers and is now a single piece.  The van is a recent quickie build using a spare Black Dog Mining under frame and some Parkside Dundas 4mm scale van doors. The pointed roof is just to be different!  It isn't really an SMR vehicle and makes no.3 look quite industrial, but that is not intentional.....

Well, that's about where the workbench breaks up for Christmas, any ideas of a holiday project are just that, ideas, as there seems to be an endless list of other activities to be involved in!  So to all readers of O9 Modeller, have a great Christmas and a prosperous New Year.  I'm not yet sure what 2013 brings, but I can sense change in the air.....

Colin

Movember meets Mini-Mo

As promised, here's the driver for SMR no. 3, with his topical Movember 'tash keeping his upper lip warm:

He's a mix of Preiser parts, mostly from the Luftwaffe ground crew set, but with one arm from another figure.  The basic limb set-up dates back a couple of years but all the detail and finishing is new. He was painted in record time, completed in one session rather than the spread over several days approach I usually take with multiple figures in paint.

In fact, his Mo almost looks better in pictures than mine!

Colin

Come in number 3....

....your time for overhaul is here!

You have to feel a little sorry for nameless SMR no. 3, clearly the workhorse of the fleet with a somewhat up and down existence, as the pictures below will show.  The Kato chassis underneath is often borrowed to try under new build locos, and quite frankly the cracks were starting to show, especially one in the main frames. A long overdue overhaul was in order, but first, a history lesson from the 'Shifting Sands' archives.

No. 3 (because it was the third O9 loco I built), came into my hands from Clive Mortimer, a well known scratchbuilder of 4mm scale diesels, many of the rarer designs that the ready-to-run manufacturers are only just starting to see the benefit of.  Clive had visions of the 'Great Ouse Valley Railway', a Romney style outfit in the east of England.  This loco, and several coaches, were the only manifestations of it in O9, but he later restarted work in 12mm scale on OO gauge track.  One day his vision may come to fruition!

No. 3 arrived without any form of chassis, and I quickly put together a frame to fit around a Roco HOe mechanism.  I had to add bonnet side extensions to cover the motor:

Painted bright yellow, the loco gained the nickname 'Yellow Perril', hardly original but it suited!  There then followed my period of O9 indecision, where I almost gave up, started making static models and dioramas, then changed my mind.... By this point, I had altered the side frames to show the Roco ones underneath, but the chassis moved on to another loco (as seen here), and a dummy chassis featuring 4mm scale wagon axleboxes was built.  A bit Lister-like if anything:

After I had restarted work and was planning what became 'Shifting Sands', the loco had fallen into disuse and was eventually given an rebuild that featured many new parts.  The chassis frame was from Knightwing components (and had been built on-spec for another project), whilst the cab sides were a pair built initially for 'Jay' but replaced on the final model.  At this stage only the bonnet front and top, cab front and rear are the original parts, the rest was new build and replica:

With the varnish yellowing the coat of blue paint worn after the rebuild, and the cracked frame to repair, it was clear that the overhaul would need a repaint to go with it.  What was unexpected was that the cab would be modified again to an open doorway, inspired by 'Redgauntlet' at New Romney (which I suspect inspired Clive in the first place).  So here we are, awaiting the paint shop, where the colour will again be blue but the shade darker, pretty much the colour she arrived in:

Opening the cab up meant a new interior and new driver, as the old one had been compromised to fit over the Kato chassis.  I'll get a picture of the new recruit (the usual Preiser airman mash-up) posted soon, but needless to say, with it being Movember, he has a 'tash!

Colin

A Movember Plea....

I don't normally write about non-railway things here, but for a change I thought I would....

A group of Gents in my workplace are supporting 'Movember' this year in support of one of our colleagues and men's health issues in general. Now I'm normally a clean shaven sort of chap so this is something of a novelty for me, especially as my plans for a pair of Bradley Wiggin's tribute sideburns were vetoed over the summer.  So here we are, eight days of continuous growth (I had to start properly on the 3rd due to a family photoshoot booked some time ago):

Not to be left out, the little chaps in the railway cupboard have got involved.  Following a suggestion by a Mo-Bro at work that "before you paint that train, put a moustache on it", the chief engineer, himself a moustache grower, put together a headboard for the A1 Models O-16.5 loco....

Thanks,

Colin