Skinnylinny Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 (edited) Right, sorry about the delay - I've been recovering after the Edinburgh & Lothians MRC's debut show last weekend. It seems to have gone fairly well, and while there weren't any pre-grouping layouts, there was plenty of variety. We certainly had very positive feedback, and I think we're looking to repeat things next year. For @Henry., here's a link from which you can download the Fusion 360 file for the lever frame and locking tray - do let us know how it turns out for you! https://1drv.ms/u/c/083029bddfd12d55/EbZHdJ4h_QNOrl7dkBrPxxoBAkhWCwxHVucD_beko9zJLQ?e=gKjLQ0 In the meantime, following on from the discussion of metal versus printed resin for signals above, I have dug out a kit I bought as part of an estate clearance a little while ago. In fact, I bought a brass loco kit and three wagon freight car kits, all in HOn30. One of the freight cars (a tank wagon) turned out to contain enough parts to build two identical tankers, and the other two freight car kits turned out to be four "craftsman" kits, complete with bogies trucks and wheels. However, no Wills Craftsman kits are these... On opening the box, one is presented with a few scale drawings, a two-sided typed instruction sheet, and a bag of assorted wooden strips, plus various small plastic detailing parts. I've decided to start with the simplest, as far as I can tell - a Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad flatcar. So far, I've laid the basic frame. I'm going to need to figure out how to hide some weight in this vehicle as it is exceptionally light! Right now I'm at the point of letting all the glue dry, then I'll (very carefully!) paint the vehicle as it stands just now, before adding the unpainted planks to form the deck. The deck should hopefully add some much-needed rigidity to the frame, before adding all the underside details. This feels about as far from 3D printing as one can get when it comes to modelling! Speaking of 3D printing, the non-corridor seating above is now available to download from Thingiverse here, free of charge: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6648253 Edited June 6 by Skinnylinny 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted June 6 Author Share Posted June 6 Ever have the feeling there's a better material for something? What I wouldn't give for a rectangle of plank-grooved plasticard about now! I'm just going to keep telling myself it'll look good once it's finished, it'll look good when it's finished... 2 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted June 7 Author Share Posted June 7 And it does! I was going for a worn look on the painted parts, and I think it's coming out rather nicely. Next job will be adding various bits of brake rigging, the tiebar ends, and the stake pockets on the sides. 13 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schooner Posted June 10 Share Posted June 10 Oh well that I'd like a go at! Looks a fun build and charming end result :) Worn finish or no, might I suggest giving the top and edges of the bed a light sand to tidy them up a bit? That little bit of fairing (and the dust acting as the ideal filler) goes a long way to a scale look I've found. 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Skinnylinny Posted June 22 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 22 Sorry for the slow replies - it has been a very busy month at work and with other things popping up. I managed to carve out some modelling time, at last, a couple of days ago, and have been lettering up some wagons - mainly LSWR ones thanks to @Corbs with his LSWR transfer sheet. The first two wagons still need some work before they're finished (brake gear on the open; interior painting finishing, bars and roof on the cattle wagon) but there is definitely starting to be a nice mixture going on. Needs more opens though, and I have plans for that... I have even managed to do one side of an Oak Hill Works LCDR open (which is going to need a decent amount of weathering, on a layout set 1900-1910), although the sheet of LCDR transfers I have doesn't seem to offer 10 tons as a load, so the 10 has had to be pinched from another sheet and doesn't quite match. Still, weathering hides a multitude of sins! That said, I will be tidying up a couple of spots on the washer plates before I start weathering - those hinge straps are bugging me... The wooden American freight car has also had a wash applied to the top planking (then sanded back because I felt I had been a bit heavy-handed with it, and of course it's soaked into the wood, but I'm now happier with a grubby finish). Photos of that to follow once I have better light. 19 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 In what is becoming a less and less frequent occurrence, I've been out at a model railway exhibition - the Perth show. A pleasant trip out on one of ScotRail's renovated HSTs (a bit too modern for this section of the forum, perhaps, but appreciated for passenger comfort!), but a rather rattly class 170 for the return. I was especially looking forward to seeing Burntisland 1883 in P4, which is always a pleasure to see. I wanted to pick the brains of some of the operators, as I'm looking for details of a particular North British Railway locomotive as it would have appeared in 1880. It turns out that there was a derailment at the site of what is now my local station (Hillfoot - although it wasn't yet a station, but a section of single line between Milngavie and Bearsden). On January 3rd 1880, a passenger train led by 2-4-0 tender engine no. 356 (ex-Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway no. 106) of 1865 derailed at about 25mph at a broken rail joint in unfished (!) rail. The whole train was derailed, with the locomotive ending up in a ditch. Somehow, the only reported injury was a bloodied nose to one passenger, and, according to the accident report, "The only damage to the engine was the breaking of the right-hand life-guard iron." Unfortunately, the only drawings I've been able to find of the 356 class are after rebuilding ca. 1889, so don't really show what I'm looking for. The makeup of the train is also interesting. The train was made up of loco + tender, one loose 2nd-class carriage (no.120) , and the Milngavie branch close-coupled set: • Break-van no. 12 • 3rd class carriage no. 11 • 1st class carriage no. 115 • 1st class carriage no. 40 • 1st class carriage no. 21 • 1st class carriage no. 30 • 1st class carriage no. 113 • 3rd class carriage no. 33 • Break-van no. 6 This certainly seems to speak something of the expected patronage on that line! The carriages were described thus: "The carriages are of very old pattern. They are small and uncomfortable, but all the woodwork appears to be strong and in good order. The wheels are wrought iron of an obsolete type, but neither they nor the springs can be said to be in bad order." Again, no further details, but they sound fascinating! The Burntisland team were kind enough to invite me behind the scenes to photograph their "antediluvian set" of coaching stock, which may have to suffice as far as working out what the actual stock would have looked like, although I was also given some more research avenues to pursue. Along with a more modern (!) 1880s-style passenger set: 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted June 30 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 30 The lack of any second class accommodation in the close coupled set is curious. I had gathered that the Scottish companies abolished second class en bloc in 1893 but looking though the reports on Railway Archive, the last prior to 1893 for which there is a copy there, at Partick in 1891, features a Manuel to Clydebank train with first and third class only. https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_Partick1891.pdf trawling through the reports, second class carriages seem to be absent from NBR local sets at this time. the latest mention of second class carriages I've found is in the report on an accident at Burnmouth in 1890, involving a stopping train from Berwick to Edinburgh. https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_Burnmouth1890.pdf So maybe second class only out in the country; no second on 'suburban' trains? 1 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted June 30 Share Posted June 30 If the information you need is available the NB Study Group should be able to help you. Jim 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted June 30 Author Share Posted June 30 1 minute ago, Caley Jim said: If the information you need is available the NB Study Group should be able to help you. Jim I did ask them at their stand, and between them and the East of Scotland 4mm Group (who had brought Burntisland) I have a few more places to look now. 4 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted July 10 Author Share Posted July 10 I have now been put in touch with Euan Cameron by the NBRSG, who has been extremely helpful - he's sent me an 11 page article which he has written on the relevant class of locomotive, as well as some 2D CAD drawings he'd made up of the locos at different times in their lives. So! The lining is simplified, and is just there at the moment to break up the green a little. However, this should be a pretty little thing once she's done! Also, as promised, a photo in better light, after some staining and sanding of the floor planks: Next on the HOn30 list is a boxcar, which is barely any more complex than this - if anything, it has fewer parts, as the sides have "planked" overlays, rather than the individual planks above. 13 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted July 13 Author Share Posted July 13 The boxcar has been started! A bit more involved than the flatcar, as in this instance the sills (longitudinal chassis members) weren't pre-cut to length. It's all gone together well enough so far, and now has bogies fitted, so it's a "runner". It's certainly interesting how this US stock (late 1900-early 1910s) is so much more advanced than the UK equivalent in some ways (continuous air brake, bogies, automatic couplers) while the trackwork lagged behind... 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Ashdown Posted July 17 Share Posted July 17 On 13/07/2024 at 15:00, Skinnylinny said: It's certainly interesting how this US stock (late 1900-early 1910s) is so much more advanced than the UK equivalent in some ways (continuous air brake, bogies, automatic couplers) while the trackwork lagged behind... The bogies (trucks) were the response to poor track work, and allowed locomotives as well as passenger and freight cars to negotiate relatively tight curves without derailing. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Not much to say of recent modelling - work has been keeping me very busy! The ex-E&GR NBR 2-4-0 is going slowly but surely - Euan Cameron's information has been very helpful. The stovepipe chimney has been backdated to a rather prettier copper-capped one, and I'm now working on the spring hangers... these have forks at the top to attach to the springs, but also at the bottom, to go both inside and outside the outside frames. The inside frames then have springs *underneath* the inner journals. 8 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted August 4 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 4 7 hours ago, Skinnylinny said: The ex-E&GR NBR 2-4-0 is going slowly but surely - Euan Cameron's information has been very helpful. Once upon a time and a very long time ago it was, Euan Cameron's coloured side elevations of NBR locos were free to view - either on his own site or the NBRSG's. I presume they are still available from the NBRSG? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 1 minute ago, Compound2632 said: Once upon a time and a very long time ago it was, Euan Cameron's coloured side elevations of NBR locos were free to view - either on his own site or the NBRSG's. I presume they are still available from the NBRSG? In this instance, I contacted the NBRSG, who put me in touch with Euan Cameron. He has been very helpful, not only sharing his article on the history of the class, but also his 2D CAD from which the side elevations were produced, and which also included front, rear, and sectioned views. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted August 4 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 4 (edited) On 13/07/2024 at 20:00, Skinnylinny said: It's certainly interesting how this US stock (late 1900-early 1910s) is so much more advanced than the UK equivalent in some ways (continuous air brake, bogies, automatic couplers) while the trackwork lagged behind... Around the turn of the century there was increasing public agitation about the safety of railway employees with questions along the lines of why don't we have automatic couplers like the Americans do. A bit of goggling with reference to Hansard Online will turn up several interesting parliamentary exchanges. This all led to a Royal Commission and the Railway Employment (Prevention of Accidents) Act, 1900. The railway companies successfully fended off automatic couplings and continuous brakes for goods wagons, citing very different operating conditions compared to America. Anyway, they said, if you've got continuous brakes, a man has to go between every pair of wagons to connect up the brake pipe, obviating the benefit of an automatic coupler. Edited August 4 by Compound2632 Corrected name of Act. 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 In fairness, the American non-automatic coupling in use on standard gauge (and most narrow gauge, to my knowledge) was the link-and-pin system, which required the vehicles to be moved together while the shunter was holding the link, in order to guide it into the pocket on the next vehicle. These could not (at least with the design in use at the time) be coupled with two vehicles stationary, unlike the hook-and-chain type in use over 'ere. The coupling of the brake pipe would be done with vehicles stationary, regardless of whether automatic couplings are in use. 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Ashdown Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 (edited) On 04/08/2024 at 04:56, Skinnylinny said: In fairness, the American non-automatic coupling in use on standard gauge (and most narrow gauge, to my knowledge) was the link-and-pin system The link-and-pin system had largely been replaced by the automatic knuckle couplers by 1900. They were automatic in the sense that they were self-linking. The cars had handles that lifted a pin to allow the cars to uncouple. If you can find copies, John H. White Jr.'s books on passenger and freight cars cover North American-type railway car construction in considerable detail. Edited August 7 by Dana Ashdown 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 A little more work on the NBR 2-4-0 - I now know that the equalising beams on the suspension would likely have been removed by 1880, so I'll need to remove those from my CAD. I also have a bit more of an idea of the cab controls, thanks to more helpful emails from Euan Cameron. Euan also very kindly sent me drawings of an Edinburgh & Glasgow first-class carriage of suitable age, so drawing that up is now complete also. I now have another NBR First to draw up, and at least one Third, then a Second... and a luggage brake... Oh no... 15 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinnylinny Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 Well, the equalising beams have gone (which was less painful than I expected), and another NBR First is well on its way. I decided this time to give the render a background - I'm unconvinced, but it does seem to show a train "in context", so... I'm hoping for a somewhat "hotch-potch" appearance with a mixture of different, ancient, carriage stock. The current project carriage is a Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co First, and I have drawings of some Ashbury stock, also known to have run on the NBR. I might also CAD up an 1860s Brown Marshall vehicle or two (from 19th Century Railway Drawings in 4mm Scale by Alan Prior), for variety. As a reminder, the stock I need for this train is: 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 If you plan on doing an original E & G train you'll have to include 4th class. 1st class - upholstered seats; glass in windows 2nd class - wooden seats; no glass in windows 3rd class - no roofs 4th class - can you guess where this is going?.....you got it, no seats! Jim 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted August 14 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 14 39 minutes ago, Caley Jim said: If you plan on doing an original E & G train you'll have to include 4th class. 1st class - upholstered seats; glass in windows 2nd class - wooden seats; no glass in windows 3rd class - no roofs 4th class - can you guess where this is going?.....you got it, no seats! Jim Superior to Caley 4th class! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 31 minutes ago, Compound2632 said: Superior to Caley 4th class! We're talking 1842 here, 5 years before the Caley was opened. The Caley would never have treated any of it's passengers in that manner. 'The Caley kept its coaching stock Always clean and sleaky. The NB had but cattle trucks whose roofs were somewhat leaky' (from a poem by a Caley employee) Jim 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Compound2632 Posted August 14 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 14 4 minutes ago, Caley Jim said: We're talking 1842 here, 5 years before the Caley was opened. Ah, but, you see, to exist is better than not to exist, or so the theologians tell us, so NBR 4th class, by existing, was inherently better than non-existent CR 4th class. 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caley Jim Posted August 14 Share Posted August 14 1 minute ago, Compound2632 said: Ah, but, you see, to exist is better than not to exist, or so the theologians tell us, so NBR 4th class, by existing, was inherently better than non-existent CR 4th class. Toss up between 'a round of applause' and 'craftsmanship/clever' for that one! So, by the same token, the E&G 4th class trucks coaches would be inherently superior to a Midland D299? 🙂 Jim 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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