4mm Life in a Northern Town - back to back(scene)

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Years ago I started detailing the HO Jouef/Playcraft F type sleepers even down to replacing the bogies with re-wheeled Fleischmann Schwanenhals-Drehgestelle :eek:!

More to the point, the paint I used was Halfords Ford Balliol Blue from a rattle can.

This website has photographs of the Night Ferry stock if you haven't seen it before The Night Ferry.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Thanks for the paint suggestion Dave; next time I'm in Aberystwyth I'll pick up a tin.

While I had a few spare minutes I googled the type F sleepers, mainly to see if I could come up with a drawing, instead I found this image of one at an Old Oak Common open day.

Wagon_Lits_Sleeper_Coach_No.3985_(8329604675).jpg

Image from Wikkimedia Commons
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
I really should be making progress with my Belgian riverside layout, but at the moment I'm held up until I can get down to the Corris Railway next Tuesday to whip some wood through their circular saw. Not wanting to waste valuable modelling minutes I opened the box labelled night ferry brake and took a look to see what needed doing next. What needed doing next was fitting the underframe. The kit underframe is too short so the solebars were cut where the guards compartment steps stood a good chance of hiding where I would splice in extra sections.

ferry brake 14.jpg

To the left can be seen a simple plasticard spacer which ensures that the four solebar sections are correctly spaced from the ends. Once thoroughly set I cut sections from the solebars of the donor van and fettled them to fit in the gaps.

ferry brake 15.jpg
To fit the wheel sets I had to grind away part of the outer cross rib at each end. At the moment the van runs on some Alan Gibson 3 hole wheels with the shorter axles designed as Lima replacements. Fitting the kit bearings to the kit sideframes and spacing them at the distance set by the ribs under the kit floor means that the kit wheel sets won't fit. Using the smaller Gibson wheels gives a better ride height too.

Finally here's a glimpse of the van as it stands now, albeit with the roof just plonked on.

ferry brake 16.jpg
 

IVAN KETTLE

New Member
Thank you Dave, I intend to finish it in Wagon Lits blue. The transfers are on order but while I think I have some Humbrol or Revel enamel of the correct shade I'd really prefer to find a decent rattle can match. Upstairs in my playroom I've dug out a pair of type F sleepers but they're the HO Playcraft items.
 

Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Neil
You might care to see this. It's 7mm, complete with spelling mistake, I know nothing of it's origins and there's nothing on it to give it away. The roof needs a repaint and the CS wheels need changed, but it takes me back more than 50 years watching the almost always late up Night Ferry through Orpington.

IMG_0304.JPG

Regards
Martin
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
That's a lovely model Martin, very evocative and perhaps scratchbuilt as the Night Ferry is quite a niche market.

Ivan, my transfers came from Marc Models here.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Whilst I really should finish off a few projects I couldn't resist starting a fresh one particularly as I had the necessary raw materials to hand. Here's the result of a few minutes work with a diamond cutting disc in the pendant drill.

mess 01.jpg

A little later on the bits I'd harvested from the donor models have been stuck together and work started on scraping detail away.

mess 02.jpg
Still a way to go, not least the other side which still has about half the moulded handrails in place.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Remember the Night Ferry brake van last seen in grey primer? Well in a bit of a push to tidy away some of the ongoing projects on my workbench I blew the dust of the model and the tin of Ford Balliol Blue that I've had in stock for the last year. I've also started sticking things to the under side of the model.

ferry brake 17.jpg

Since taking the snap I've added the truss rods. Lettering next if I can remember where I stashed the transfers then a blast of matt varnish before glazing.
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
Since starting this thread my OO ambitions have taken a different tack, partly because after ten or more years away from my home town of York I'm beginning to appreciate it from a tourists point of view rather than seeing it as a dull but pretty town plagued by tourists and partly because I've been seduced by Hornby's K1 and Q6. So what was going to be another London will end up as another York. If you only know the railway bits of York chances are that you won't recognise what I will be doing but if you know some of the odd corners away from the tracks, particularly if you have memories from fifty years ago then some of what I'm doing may make sense.

I wasn't going to mention the project here (Thunder) as it doesn't fit with any of the original aims of the site, Western, finescale or large scale; however we seem to be a bit of a broader church so I'll give a quick photo summary here.

The space I have to play with.

yk 001.jpg

yk 002.jpg
Roughing out my initial ideas.

yk 003.jpg

yk 004.jpg

With lining paper underneath so I can create templates.

yk 013.jpg

Setting out roads too.

yk 014.jpg
Temporary wiring allows playing/testing to take place.

yk 015.jpg

yk 016.jpg
Some areas are still to take shape.

yk 017.jpg
Simple card structures to help with judging scale and proportion.

yk 018.jpg

yk 019.jpg
My apologies for the clipped nature of the captions. I've gone into more detail over at 'the other place' where it seems a better fit with the nature of that particular forum. I'll attempt to keep updates going here and I'll attempt to give them some Thunderish relevance if possible.
 
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jonte

Western Thunderer
Nice and tidy and fit for purpose, Neil.

A coincidence as I’m also considering the use of Code 100, as I was given quite a bit. I’ll be intrigued to see how you make it look good, although as I’ve already seen from your Belgian project, your more than able to do something special with the ‘entry level’ stuff.

I’m all ears.

Jonte
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I wasn't going to mention the project here (Thunder) as it doesn't fit with any of the original aims of the site, Western, finescale or large scale; however we seem to be a bit of a broader church so I'll give a quick photo summary here.

West Riding is Western in my books :). Looking forward to seeing the layout develop.
 

unklian

Western Thunderer
I really wouldn't worry about your layout being WT enough Neil , there are some very good 4mm scale models appearing on here yours included. Just please don't give it a joke name ?
 
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