Aldeburgh Harbour, A Suffolk branch, Gauge 3 indoors.

Mike W

Western Thunderer
So you could do a dozen sets of parts for the J65 and sell them to recover the tooling costs. I am certain you would sell them.
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
Oh Geoff, soldering steel is easy. Nice big 80 watt iron. Bakers fluid. Plumber's lead/tin solder. Nice hot iron - and it flows like it was on brass. Admittedly the steel then rusts within minutes, but the joint will be good. Scub in the sink to remove any remaining flux (when nobody is watching), dry and then dunk in Jenolite for half an hour and its ready for painting. Halfords self-etching grey primer probably sticks better than it does to brass.

Next time you are here we can try a few bits and see if I can convince you.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
Oh Geoff, soldering steel is easy. Nice big 80 watt iron. .
Wholeheartedly agree - although in this scale with a small blowtorch and the thickness of material then I think brazing is a viable alternative.

Halfords self-etching grey primer probably sticks better than it does to brass.
That's not difficult, in my opinion brass is a horrible material to paint - any material will probably take paint better than brass. :eek:
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
The only issue with steel, and it more affects me on account of being approximately 200ft from the Atlantic Ocean, is it rusts like crazy here. So chassis building requires quick work.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
A few changes to the layout before it goes to the G scale Society's Essex group open day in Tollesbury on October 14th. All the cumbersome sticking out scenic bits have been removed to leave a more practical slimmer layout. All the scenic bits on the front will fit inside the frames of a fiddle yard board. This has meant the proscenium arch could be lowered. The white clinkerboard tranship shed has been saved for another project, and replaced by another smaller building also based on Woodbridge tide mill. This building has been given a stone foundation, for when the layout is operated as Woodstone Wharf on the river Nene. I've added a stretch of water as I eventually want to model some boats.
The changes at the right hand end mean I now use a van as the scenic break.

20180919_194511.jpg 20180919_194430.jpg 20180919_194415.jpg
 

Spitfire2865

Western Thunderer
Now how big is a properly sized ship in G3? I know the 4mm guys shy away from full scale ships on layouts.
You may need quite a long trailer after this addition.
 

Mike W

Western Thunderer
I think a Thames Barge is about 80ft - roughly 3ft 6in in Gauge 3. Not bad at all, but probably a smaller local vessel would be more in keeping.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
Mike's correct. A Thames barge would fit lengthways along the wharf frontage, but even with the masts down would make coupling and uncoupling difficult. I do have drawings though.
I also have drawings of various East coast inshore fishing craft, and of a Fenland Lighter. The latter is the likely candidate for modelling.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
If I were to include a Thames Barge, I would probably ask a member of the Association of Model Barge Owners to bring one along, on a suitable cradle. They mostly model them in 1:24, which is about right.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
The basic body of the new tranship shed is complete and it has had a coat of Halfords black paint. I decided on black for this building, imnstead of the white I used on its predecessor. White seems to be only an Essex or Suffolk thing, and even then only for mills. This building will occasionally represent somewhere on the river Nene. Black seems more common for lower status clinkerboard buildings generally. I was hoping to leave the interior bare wood, but having to paint the underside of the tiles, and the presence of quite a few biro marks means I'll need to give it a coat of imitation wood paint. The clinkerboard is 0.4mm thick 12mm wide strips of obeche that I was lucky find in my local model shop.

20180924_152650.jpg 20180924_152625.jpg

the door and windows are various sections of styrene strip.
20180924_152616.jpg
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
Geoff, I hope you don't mind me saying, but Thames barges ("Spritties") were built in a wide range of sizes!

Some were indeed huge vessels, (practically ocean going) whereas others were specifically designed to fit into inland canal locks - complete with low stems and sterns so that they could pass beneath road bridges too.

The period you are modelling would mean that you could have a nice little "Stumpy" barge with an early "Budget" type hull?

I will have a rummage through my reference files if you would like...?

Pete.
 

geoff_nicholls

Western Thunderer
a nice little "Stumpy" barge with an early "Budget" type hull
That does sound interesting, Peter, I'd like to know more, thanks.
But I can't promise to actually build one, my first attempt at boat building is more likely to be a fenland lighter. There's a drawing in H J K Jenkins' book "Along the Nene"
 

Ian_T

Western Thunderer
What about something a bit bigger Geoff - like the Irish Mail here? (or if you can't fit that in - a small coastal steamer)

Photos from Mike Mays Gauge '3' Hollyhead garden railway near Salisbury. Sadly neither Mike nor his railway are with us today but it's still nice to remember them both.

Regards,

IanT
Hollyhead_4.jpg

Hollyhead_1.jpg
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
I shall very much look forward to the lighter!

Do look up the sailing barge "Cygnet" though if you get the chance. She has recently been sympathetically restored with tiller steering, mizzen stepped on the rudder post etc..

Here is a shot from Wikimedia of her at Snape, plus an original of a similar wee vessel:

SB Cygnet, properly restored, Snape 8_April_2012 Wiki.jpg Stumpy+Tiller+1876.jpg

I do hope these might be an inspiration?

Pete.
 
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