4mm An EM Workbench: Mini-Signwriting (rough)

[AJC]

I noted above that I had suspicions on the provenance of this loco, one of what was clearly a batch of very nice EM GWR locos with a Cambrian sort of emphasis in choice which turned up via Rails of Sheffield. And those suspicions meant that I'd seen it before, as it turns out in MRJ 154. This, I think, is 'my' 4377 (the crew look like those I have in the box, and the coal load matches) in its original surroundings, at Porthafren, Roger Lycett-Smith's Cambrian layout. From that, I assume - sadly - that the layout is no more and that Roger may have left us. This element of his work, however, will live on, albeit with a new coat of paint, and I hope to get some of the same enjoyment he evidently did from building and running her.

View attachment 182542

Anyway, here's Roger, leaning on the nose of a De Havilland Venom of 98 Squadron, RAF, with which he served.: https://www.coldwarshield.co.uk/downloads/volume_two/ColdWarShieldVolumeTwoPage192.pdf. Thank you, Roger.

Adam

A minor update - I've had the tender in pieces today, in order to strip the tank ready for a repaint (all very nicely done, though a couple of items will need resoldering). The initials 'RLS' and the date '1998' are scratched onto the paint of the chassis top which confirms my thinking. No picture, because it reveals his address and that's not right. I had been planning to do a repaint of all the sub assemblies, but I think I'll just touch that one up.

Adam

 

[AJC]

All is, relatively, quiet at the modelling bench at the moment, but I have busied myself with prepping the Mogul for its repaint. The tender is already completed, and posed only very minor issues. The loco body needs a bit more work - though nothing very important dropped off - as most of the boiler fittings had been superglued in place (perfectly securely, until now).



Supergluing the handrails, however, was a step too far, so I’ve soldered them back in place once the glue had been painstakingly removed. While the iron was hot, I slipped in a bit of scrap etch to keep the steps square and extracted front coupling hook and buffers for replacement with Collett-pattern ones from @Dave F. (of incredible reversals). There’s a few other scruffy elements to tidy up, and a new safety valve/top feed to fit, but I’m not too concerned.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Rain has stopped painting play, but here's the refreshed Mogul to date. I've added a new vac' pipe, a replacement safety valve cover, Collett buffers and couplings. All the loose whitemetal bits were soldered back on and, as can be seen, the primer revealed a few spots where some Milliput was necessary. Yes, I could have dismantled the splashers and resoldered them, and perhaps I should. I decided against. Finally the smokebox number plate was added from scraps of 10 thou' - I'm using some 3D transfers from Railtec here so a backing plate is essential. That was tacked in place with superglue and filleted with epoxy.





When it dries up again, 5380 will emerge.

Adam

EDIT: a big step backwards courtesy of not paying attention in Halfords. The Black Workshop Primer I bought in error spattered black everywhere so into the cellulose thinners it's had to go, taking a couple more superglued components with it. Drat.

 

[AJC]

I've almost finished something (it needs a driver). Early developments are shown here, but here's the finished loco. Plymouth Friary's B4, 30088, modelled as it was at withdrawal, in July 1959. A bit early, really, but many did go into industry by sale or hire and I imagine that it how it will be used. It's the Dapol body with minor modifications on a SE Finecast chassis (with some modifications, notably new crossheads), Gibson wheels, High Level gearbox with a Mashima and a flywheel. Absolutely conventional finescale spec', really.



Handsome (not so) little thing.

Adam

 

[AJC]

A little while ago, A long term Shelf Queen was illustrated, in the form of what is now a Bachmann Jinty atop a High Level chassis. Now, whatever *could* have gone wrong - errors in gears from Chris (cheerfully apologised for and rectified) - not putting sub-assemblies in at the right point, broaching coupling rods badly, using mixed wheels of the same diameter with different crank throws, failing to think about how to add pick ups (user error) - on this one has and did. The trick, I suppose, is to know how to put those errors right and now I have, here it is, almost complete, certainly in one, running, piece. There's now a dose of touching up, chassis to paint, glazing, lamps, coal, and crew to add. That said, honour is satisfied, and I have made something else that works, though using none of the bits that kicked off the project for that purpose. There's a lesson there somewhere.



Adam

 

[AJC]

And so, 4377 becomes Didcot's 5380. A couple of finished views before it goes in the box to reappear - rather improbably - on the Ilchester branch goods at some distant point in the future. Yes, it should really be one of the Taunton ones - but they all had either the later style of motion bracket or rivetted tenders. The finish and details are based on this Colin Caddy shot in Mike Morant's useful collection: GWR 4300 2-6-0's - MikeMorant

The 'goalpost' arrangement added to the tender seems to be in connection with OHLE precautions and were either red oxide (as here - it may be right, it may not, but a little colour does do harm on a black loco'), or black, and I've modelled the weather sheet folded back over the cab roof along with new draincocks. It is, however, substantially Roger Lycett-Smith's model and I hope he'd accept what I've done with it to represent one of Holcroft's (sorry, Churchward's) moguls in its latter years. What with the Jinty, Thomas and the B4, that's four locos finished or very close in a matter of months something I'm unlikely to emulate ever again!








Adam

 

[AJC]

Because we’re very serious Finescale people… yeah right. Here’s possibly the only clockwork Thomas in creation on Sharman wheels (in EM).

This one has been part of the Yeovil MRG’s South Junction for as long as I can remember. Goes like the proverbial off a shovel, to the three-year old’s delight.





Adam

 

[AJC]

Anyway, onto more serious business: load testing. I think it's fair to say that all passed this particular test, trundling around South Junction, all 30', flying junctions, and some interesting track alignment of it. First the Jinty, happy with 30 or so on (maybe sideplay wants some attention). Dad looks on, cautiously satisfied.



The other Thomas presents no concerns, being heavy and happy going round corners: you get one right occasionally. The B4 was also blameless.



Slightly more complex was Mr Lycett-Smith's mogul which pulls very well at load ten (more than adequate, I think, and certainly more than I have space to run), but requires a bit of attention to the pony truck turning left as it derails going that way, occasionally, but not turning right.* I strongly suspect, going on the picture I have of it from MRJ, that it never turned left in its life until now being set up to haul a particular train on a round and round layout at home. Thinking about this while on the '303 back to Kent, I have half a notion why that might be, but I'll have to check. Only one outright failure: a PO mineral (which I didn't build, to be fair: it was determined that shifting one W iron and resetting will probably sort that).



Adam

* This would not be the first loco used on South Junction to suffer that problem, but I'd rather like it not to be a feature of any of mine...

 

[AJC]

I'm slightly surprised that no one asked about the Scalefour Society badge on the layout in the background. Yeovil MRG has historically been (mostly) EM and 0 gauge - though there's a lot of 00 and N, and even 2mmFS these days - but S4 (I'm using this deliberately) is a novelty. We're currently host to Ray Hammond's layouts, Thursford, and Buntingham. This is the former, a through station on the erstwhile M&GNJR (modelled in the '50s, not perhaps the most interesting era of that railway's life, but none the worse for that). It's rather nice, and works, I'm told.









Adam

 

[AJC]

Another set of rescues, likely to be a slowish project because we have a newborn in the house (he’s fine, the nearly four year old says he can share his trains, so I'm doing something right!). That said, the first of these, a GNR open from D&S, has been stripped, cleaned, and the body soldered.

Before:



After:



There’s a second one of these which I’ll do in parallel - always nice to have multiples in the same train - and then there’s this, which turns out to be a David Geen kit for an NER D.44. I know nothing about these, but whatever it was glued together with vanished at the merest whiff of cellulose thinners.



These are all quite big (I initially thought the GNR ones were S scale until common sense and some measuring came to town), especially compared to the usual 10 ton pre-group open. I think the GNR wagons were for general merchandise, anyone know anything about the NER type?

Adam

 

[AJC]

And then there were two:



The GWR open is included for scale. Relatively small!



Adam

 

[AJC]

A new development from the day job with the publication of a new book on the (very long) history of the area of West Somerset around Dunster. Obviously this does include the West Somerset Railway - and a few observations on the process of transfer from BR to the combination of the PLC, and county council based on the large correspondence file on the subject held at Kew. I think these are novel, by the by - I certainly haven't seen them quoted elsewhere.

There's also masses of interesting medieval and later history (and a history of Butlin's at Minehead): Book Details - Boydell and Brewer (if anyone is really interested a discount code, BB206, gets you 25% off).

However, my proudest achievement is including the Hornby Railways catalogue in the footnotes of a serious academic work. And why's that?





Adam

PS - oh, and the following index entry: Combine Harvester, novelty and loan of.

 

[AJC]

Anyway, back to modelling. An LNER pattern Tube. Yes, another eBay recovery, this time from a Pocket Money Kit, I think, and shot down from 7mm: Wagon Kit LNER Fitted Tube Wagon. A handsome prototype which I really like. I think @Gadgie has done the equivalent Pipe relatively recently.

Yes, I do have most of the rest of the etches! This one came with aftermarket D&S W irons: I have removed these because they're not the right pattern for a 20 ton vehicle, but they're in the 'solutions in search of an application' box for now. AMBIS, it turned out did the right pattern and they're a bit over clever being meant for three-point compensation, but with the parts designed in such a way that springing is possible and with inside bearing units supplied as well. I've used the latter and a bit of tube and wire to make a rocking axle at one end.

A good scrub later and we're ready to start sweating on all the details of which there are legion. I may be a while.






Adam

EDIT - yes, that is a BR1C tender in the background. More of that, and the accompanying Standard 5 (a 'project', but an incredibly cheap one).

 

[AJC]

I hadn’t meant to get to this for a while, but we’ve had COVID back in the house and I’ve been looking for something mindless to do and getting the thick paint, and even thicker (and brown) varnish off this tender fits the bill. It belongs to a DJH standard 5, which ordinarily would be a bit rich for me, and is certainly a bit big! But missing a motor, a front bogie and a little battered meant a silly offer was successful. It’s 00, of course, but I have suitable carrying wheels in stock and a bogie etch came with it. Whatever, the result will be Weymouth's 73080, a 'Standard Arthur' named 'Merlin'. I suspect the civil engineer would be less than happy at its appearance on Podimore, but since I am the civil engineer, the requisite bridge over the Yeo is man enough and the curves are rather more gentle than those on the Culm Valley.

Whether I can live with the Romford drivers remains to be seen, but the loco body is very nicely done and a bottom end overhaul is not too difficult given a square rolling chassis. The tender though…



Getting the stripper under the varnish is the first challenge. Celly thinners only softened it, Superstrip worked, to an extent, but most progress has been made by mechanical means: a blunt scalpel and cocktail sticks.





It seems to be nicely assembled (and soldered). The other body will belong to a 2-6-0, eventually (Atlas Editions Bachmann knock-off). It's out now as the goal is to get these to the same stage before they go back in the box.

Adam

 

[AJC]

That’s looking a bit better. Once the varnish was off, the paint (Humbrol Matt black, I think) came off fairly readily. I’ll have to do the same with the chassis: there’s leaf detailing on those springs, not that you can tell.





Wheels ought to be a simple swap. Good.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Scouting around for photos of the real thing, I was slightly surprised to come across this:

Railwayana Auctions (UK) Ltd - STAFFORD 31st May 2014 - Lot Lot 273

The all up cost of the model will be substantially less than the £380 paid for the bit of scrap... Which reminds me, the lower cabside of the DJH model is really quite wrong. Not beyond correction though. Watch this space (but don't hold your breath). The tender is coming on, however.





Being a Southern loco it needs a water treatment hatch, and a replacement for the DJH ladder which was a bit "Binn’s Road" for my liking.

And then the chassis, which is basically fine, now the paint has come off.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Some light entertainment for a Saturday evening. A pair of ladders. The stiles for one are from the Comet etch for the BR1 tender chassis, the other made by sweating the same etch to some brass, drilling, filing and muttering. A bit of 0.3 wire later and job done, mince pie earned.



Adam

 

[AJC]

And now in situ, ending the hot works on the tender body: the remaining details will be in plastic (confecting a dosing hatch in styrene takes five minutes: soldering half an hour, and a frustrating half hour at that - it's a no brainer for me).



Adam

 

[AJC]

These things grind on slowly, but the body is ready to paint and the chassis is finally free of its original finish. The key bits, including couplings at each end, are fixed in place. I’m going to replace the sieve boxes, and leave the brake rigging off until after paint.



Note the water treatment hatch and lamp iron fittings in plastic - it’s just easier.



Adam

 

[AJC]

A simple (ahem) bit of regauging to start the year. Three victims here, the first is the lovely Rapido SECR brakevan, more on the other two later.



Happily, the engineers had a few of these and Ted West photographed one at Axminster in the early ‘60s, and with the minimum of alteration - a vac' pipe strung along the solebar and a new number - a handsome addition to my PWay fleet will result. I have had one on the shelf looking reproachfully because I wasn’t sure what to do about the fully modelled brake rigging. The axles, I’m happy to report, are the standard length allowing a simple drop in of Gibson wheels running merrily in proper brass bearings.



As you ought to be able to work out, the brake mouldings are a positive fit (see those 'T' shapes on the floor, above) secured with glue. Actually quite good design, allowing tricky details to be mass produced consistently if a bit of a problem for those of us in EM. We're not the main bit of the market, of course, so have to live with that and the brakeshoes can be extracted, though those on the end put up a fight, I haven't actually broken anything critical! It should be apparent that one side had a bit more glue than the other...



So the plan of campaign is to drill out the brake yoke locations at 0.5mm for wire, perhaps reusing the end yokes, adjust the fit of the shoes and then the small matter of vac' pipe, couplings, and so on to taste.

Adam