MOVING COAL - A Colliery Layout in 0 Gauge

[PhilH]

Wagons for use with the end tippler require opening end doors of course. The Peco 16T mineral wagon kits already provide for these and just require the removal of the lugs on the inside which normally keep the door closed by friction.

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They then require some form of operating door catch to keep the door closed. I did have some reservations about the plastic door hinges but so far they seem to be standing up to the regular opening and closing.

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The door catches comprise a short length of nickel silver wire passing through a hole drilled in the buffer beam with the ends bent upwards to form the catch. On the inner end is silver soldered a crank or lever connected to an operating wire with a hooked end just below the solebar.
It can thus be operated by the shunter's pole without touching the wagon, although its necessary to make sure the door is fully closed before returning the catch to its vertical position.

I don't think the end of the operating wire is too obtrusive.​

The wagons are painted in the dark blue livery used for steel internal user wagons on the NCB's Walkden Railway System.

 

[Tim Birch]

Wagons for use with the end tippler require opening end doors of course. The Peco 16T mineral wagon kits already provide for these and just require the removal of the lugs on the inside which normally keep the door closed by friction.

View attachment 171394​

They then require some form of operating door catch to keep the door closed. I did have some reservations about the plastic door hinges but so far they seem to be standing up to the regular opening and closing.

View attachment 171395


View attachment 171396​

The door catches comprise a short length of nickel silver wire passing through a hole drilled in the buffer beam with the ends bent upwards to form the catch. On the inner end is silver soldered a crank or lever connected to an operating wire with a hooked end just below the solebar.
It can thus be operated by the shunter's pole without touching the wagon, although its necessary to make sure the door is fully closed before returning the catch to its vertical position.

View attachment 171397


View attachment 171398

I don't think the end of the operating wire is too obtrusive.​

The wagons are painted in the dark blue livery used for steel internal user wagons on the NCB's Walkden Railway System.

The mention of a dark blue livery reminded me of visits to my grandparents in the 1960s when the highlights of the trip were hoping to see something on the LNW Runcorn bridge when crossing the Mersey, and the wagons on view at Sutton Manor colliery (never saw a loco there). They seemed to be a weathered dark blue rather than a weathered dark grey. Other NCB photos which I have seen seem to show grey wagons. Is it possible that dark blue was used across south Lancashire?

 

[PhilH]

The mention of a dark blue livery reminded me of visits to my grandparents in the 1960s when the highlights of the trip were hoping to see something on the LNW Runcorn bridge when crossing the Mersey, and the wagons on view at Sutton Manor colliery (never saw a loco there). They seemed to be a weathered dark blue rather than a weathered dark grey. Other NCB photos which I have seen seem to show grey wagons. Is it possible that dark blue was used across south Lancashire?

In Lancashire NCB steel wagons were usually painted dark blue and wooden wagons were painted black, although by the 1960s there was probably more bare wood than black paint on the latter.

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A 16T steel wagon at Astley Green Colliery with wooden wagons to right and left bearing only faint traces of the black paint and original lettering.

 

[PhilH]

Following the return to 00 gauge by LarryG he kindly gave me two Dapol 0 gauge 7 plank wagons. The layout wasn't really short of open wagons, there are a total of 48 which can be used for coal traffic comprising a mixture of wooden 7 plank wagons and steel 16t minerals, but what it didn't have is any 7 plank wagons with opening end doors for use on the end tippler. So I decided these Dapol wagons might be suitable for conversion and also generally improved using spare wheels, brakegear, etc, left over from previous wagon builds.

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First step was to remove the rather poor representation of brakegear, to be replaced by spare ABS whitemetal brakegear. The wheels were replaced by Slaters which I also had spare in stock, they have a slightly smaller flange depth and better shaped spokes. The outside edges of the 'W' irons were chamfered to make them look thinner.

The end doors were removed using a craft knife, working from the outside and the inside, giving a slightly tapered opening.


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The door was hinged with a length of 0.7mm diameter nickel silver. Maybe this should be a slightly larger diameter but I wanted to leave as much material as possible in the plastic hinges.

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I originally intended to replace just the door catches at each end of the horizontal bar at the bottom of the door but there is very little to attach these to, so I decided it would be better to replace the complete bar itself in brass. The fixing bolts will be short lengths of 0.6mm diameter nickel silver wire and the brass will be chemically blackened before final fixing.

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The existing buffers were quite reasonable but lacked the raised ribs at the door end to retain the floor planks so they were replaced by Slaters buffers. The coupling hooks and plates were spare Ambis brass etchings.

 

[PhilH]

A similar door catch was used to that previously shown on the Peco steel wagons.
The new brass parts have been chemically blackened but not yet painted.




worked by a similar lever.


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The ABS whitemetal brakegear fitted, which gets the brake shoes closer to the wheels, with Ambis etched levers and lever guides. Safety loops were from copper wire and nickel silver strip.

The whitemetal brake gear gives the correct slight 'V' shape in plan.




The Dapol wagons completed and repainted in the black livery used for internal use wooden wagons on the NCB's Walkden System.
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[PhilH]

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The other wagons on the layout include 7 plank wooden NCB internal wagons by Slaters (left) and Parkside (right) kits. The Slaters kits required planks scribing on the interior sides and ends and also interior strapping. The floors had planks and bottom doors already moulded in, but no bottom door catches are included in the kit so they had to be fabricated. The Parkside kits required slightly less work as interior detail is included, but the plastic brake levers and lever racks were replaced with Ambis etched parts. Custom transfers were provided by Blackham.

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On both types of kit the brake gear was replaced by ABS white metal parts, which I thought was better detailed and it gets the brake shoes nearer to the wheels.

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There is one solitary 10 ton wagon from a Slaters kit with original kit brakegear, a repainted early effort originally in Manchester Collieries livery just visible through the later NCB paint.

The remainder of the wagon fleet are BR 16 ton minerals from Parkside (left) and Peco (right) kits




with a few RTR by Lionheart.


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[PhilH]

When I started this layout there were two main aims, first to construct a layout that could be operated similar to the prototype and second to build models of locomotives which operated at Lancashire Collieries with particular emphasis on the system operating from Walkden Yard. At that time the latter meant scratch building, as the availability of kits for industrial locos in O Gauge was many years away in the future and the production of RTR industrial locos unthinkable. To date only two Walkden locomotives have been completed, although there are several other kit or RTR locos with Lancashire connections.

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FRANCIS was one of a series of ten 'Victory' class locomotives constructed by Kerr Stuart in 1917 for the War Office, Inland Waterways & Docks. After the war they were sold to a variety of concerns, KS 3068 being purchased by Bridgewater Collieries for use on the Walkden Colliery system where it was named FRANCIS, replacing a smaller Manning Wardle 'K' Class 0-6-0ST of the same name sold at about the same time. The name originates from Francis Egerton, Third Duke of Bridgewater, otherwise known as the 'Canal Duke' who developed the collieries in the 18th Century and instigated the construction of the Bridgewater Canal.

Under the NCB FRANCIS was based at Astley Green Colliery, returning to Walkden Yard on occasions for repair including a period of nearly two years in 1950-52 waiting for a new boiler from Hunslet. In 1966 it was fitted with a Giesl ejector and the livery changed from black to red. Following the closure of Mosley Common Colliery, the largest on the system, in February 1968 the reduction in traffic released newer austerity locos which replaced the older locos at Astley Green and they, including FRANCIS, were withdrawn and scrapped at Walkden Yard later that year.

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FRANCIS working at Astley Green Colliery in 1964, apparently after recently suffering a bout of boiler priming judging by the state of the smokebox. By this time it had received an extension to the bunker and a chimney steam ring with its supply pipe along the top of the boiler. The pipe ran vertically up behind the chimney (just partly visible to the left of the chimney) to a ring round the top of the chimney with a series of holes around its circumference. This was a crude device applied to many of the Walkden locos as an attempt to comply with the Clean Air Act by disguising the appearance of black smoke within a circle of steam jets.

An article and drawings of the Kerr Stuart Victory class locos by Don Townsley appeared in the Railway Modeller for September 1966, and since then kits have been available in 4mm and 7mm scales and of course the RTR 7mm scale version by Minerva. My version is however scratch built apart from motor, gears, couplings, handrail knobs and etched plates. When I started the model there was still one prototype remaining at NCB Aberaman in South Wales so I was able to obtain a few more details from that loco.

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Nearly complete and ready for painting, this shows the variety of materials used - tinned steel footplate; steel boiler tube; brass smokebox, firebox and boiler fittings; nickel silver tanks, bunker and cab; wood buffer planks. The wheels were constructed by shrinking steel tyres on to brass centres.

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This loco was built back in the 'dark ages' when suitable small motors for O Gauge were hard to find. It originally had an ex RAF surplus motor as shown here driving a vertical worm shaft running in two ball bearings via bevel gears. I believe these motors were either 12v or 24v and I must have got one of the latter as it was far too slow. It was later fitted with an open frame Pittman DC81 motor sited more conventionally between the frames, which was faster but too noisy. So now its on its third motor, a Buhler can motor mounted vertically.

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View underneath as completed, opposite way round to the previous view. The axles and frames are split electrically so there are no pick-ups. There is a short inner steel frame, slotted for the axleboxes and joined fore and aft by spacers of tufnol rod. Fixed to this subframe are the full length frames in brass with perspex block spacers, fore and aft for attaching the body and centre for mounting the motor. The brake cross beams are from insulated copper clad sleepers. The rear driven axleboxes are clamped in position by the keeper plates and the other four normally sit at the top of their slots but are allowed to drop - a crude form of three point suspension, but it seems to work OK and electrical pick-up is certainly no problem. The frames are insulated from the footplate and bufferbeams by a layer of paper.

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The loco is painted in the black lined yellow livery of the NCB's Manchester Area and the lining was expertly carried out by LarryG.

 

[PhilH]

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KATHARINE was built by Manning Wardle in 1914 for the Bridgewater Collieries system, one of only three industrial 0-8-0 tank locos used in the UK. The other two were built by Nasmyth Wilson for the neighbouring Gin Pit system, the first in 1910 so KATHARINE might have been the result of 'keeping up with the neighbours'. However apart from both being side tanks the two designs were completely different, the Gin Pit locos being neat and compact with outside cylinders and valve gear whereas from new KATHARINE was an ungainly looking machine with high mounted boiler and tanks and inside cylinders. As built the side tanks extended from the upper cab opening to the front of the smokebox and the tops were nearly level with the top of the boiler, hence the very high cab front spectacles. At the front they were cut away at the bottom with no footplate below, so the driver could just walk under the tank and lean over the frames to oil the inside motion. This top heavy design no doubt contributed to the loco's tendency to roll from side to side at anything above the lowest speed and may have contributed to the derailment in which it landed on its side in a field, requiring the loan of a LMS breakdown crane to recover it. After this incident it was rebuilt with new lower side tanks and this is the form the model represents. Apparently the rebuild didn't entirely cure the loco's ungainly motion as a late friend who rode on the loco in the late 1930s recalled the driver saying "It'll rock you to sleep". It was scrapped in October 1945 shortly after the arrival of the first Austerity 0-6-0STs at Walkden, so it is of course completely out of period for a NCB layout .
It was named after the wife of Francis Egerton.

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KATHARINE was the subject of an article and drawings in the June 1976 Railway Modeller, and on my 'like to do' list, but some way down. Then at a Gauge O Guild convention I was surprised to see a pilot model on a kit manufacturers stand with a note asking for further information. I was able to provide some additional details including a copy of the original works drawing and in return was offered a kit at a discount, a somewhat dubious favour as it turned out although it did result in the model being built. The chassis was constructed first using the chassis etch from the kit, modified to take Slaters sprung axleboxes. The wheels are by Alan Gibson with white metal centres and two part axles joined with a taper pin. Most of the other chassis details are from scratch including the coupling rods machined from mild steel. Motor and gearbox are Portescap RG7 and spring pick-ups by Slaters.

When it came to the body I actually used very little of the kit. To be fair the kit does produce a reasonably fair although not totally accurate representation of the prototype. One major compromise is to enable the tanks to be located by tabs and slots on the footplate they were moved inward instead of sitting where they should be on the edge of the footplate. This also resulted in the cab being narrower than it should be. In the end I think the only parts from the kit used in the body were the boiler tube - with a strip spliced in the bottom otherwise it would have been too small diameter - the footplate edging and the dome casting. Apart from some of the boiler fittings from other sources, handrail knobs, lubricators, buffer stocks (Slaters), couplings and etched plates the rest was built from scratch.

The footplate and boiler unit complete. The body is built in sections, painted separately then bolted together.


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The completed chassis. The motor/gearbox is anchored by a torque arm to a frame stretcher, the bent strip above the motor merely carried the fuse. After conversion to DCC it was used to carry the decoder. The valves are sited above the cylinders, with the valve rods actuated by rocking arms and driven by eccentrics on the second axle.

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The underside view showing the eccentrics connected to the bottom ends of the rocking arms. The slidebars are included (in red) but without the crossheads. The coupling hooks are anchored to the end frame spacers rather than the buffer beams.

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Although the moving valve rods are just about visible, in practice they are hardly noticed when the loco is operating. Like the prototype the loose three link couplings are carried on the hook itself rather than through the hole. The lubricator drives caused some head scratching !

The loco is painted in Manchester Collieries pre nationalisation livery with the red lining expertly carried out again by LarryG.


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KATHARINE with a visitor to the layout - a model of one of the Gin Pit locos EMMANUEL CLEGG built by Bob Bowden, making an interesting comparison of the two types of 0-8-0T. In real life the prototype locos may have been seen together as apparently KATHARINE was used on the Gin Pit system for a short time in 1935.

 

[PhilH]

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BOLD is a W6 Class Peckett based on a prototype supplied new to the colliery of the same name near St.Helens in 1927. It was built from an Eric Underhill kit although the resin tank unit supplied was the wrong shape so it was replaced by a scratch built tank/boiler unit. Various other items were replaced such as the chimney, safety valves and cab fittings. Also smaller diameter wheels were used nearer to the correct size than those supplied with the kit.

The rear sandboxes are fitted inside the cab and were not supplied in the kit.




The front axle bearings are fixed to each end of a tube which is pivoted in the centre to a frame cross member giving 3 point suspension.


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Originally built to run on DC it was later converted to DCC sound and there would have been plenty of room in the saddletank for fitting a decoder and speaker if that had been anticipated. To do that retrospectively would have required dismantling and extensively modifying the tank/boiler unit so the decoder was fitted between the frame cross member and the underside of the boiler where its effectively hidden by the springs and sandboxes on the footplate. The sugar cube speaker is fitted between the frames just behind the front buffer beam. There was enough space around the motor to fit 6 capacitors.

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BICKERSHAW and LYON were two of the three Hunslet 15" cylinder 0-6-0STs at Bickershaw Colliery. They are 85A models bought ready to run before they became available in kit form, with some added detail. At Nationalisation Bickershaw Colliery was included in the Manchester Area and BICKERSHAW is in that area's livery of black lined yellow, the lining expertly carried out as usual by LarryG. On 1st January 1952 the colliery was transferred to the Wigan Area and both locos passed through the Kirkless Workshops in Wigan, probably both receiving the Wigan Area's unusual livery of green tank/boiler/wheels, black cab and red frames. LYON certainly did and still retained that livery when I saw it stored out of use at the closed Ince Moss Colliery shortly before it was scrapped.

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The space for fitting a DCC decoder was limited to the hollow smokebox and bunker, the latter accessed via a slot between the frames. The Zimo decoder was fitted vertically in the smokebox, the end can be seen just behind the front brake cross beam on the right of the photo and the sugar cube speaker fits between the front of the frames. Six capacitors were fitted in the bunker in three pairs by inserting two pairs through the slot and pushing to each side leaving room for the final pair in the middle.

 

[Osgood]

Did you find or create a suitable sound file for the 15" Hunslet, Phil?
Zimo list a Barclay as their sole industrial file (surprising how many mainline files they have) - maybe you sourced the file from Paul Chetter?

 

[PhilH]

Did you find or create a suitable sound file for the 15" Hunslet, Phil?
Zimo list a Barclay as their sole industrial file (surprising how many mainline files they have) - maybe you sourced the file from Paul Chetter?

Its the Digitrains J94 sound file on a Zimo decoder, I think maybe by Paul Chetter ?

 

[PhilH]

Track:
Plain track on the layout is PECO bullhead, which was the only ready made track available when the layout was started (that shows how long the layout has been under construction !), laid on 1/2" thick wood fibre insulation board. I don't think PECO points had been introduced at that time, although I wouldn't have used them anyway as I think its better to build the points to suit the layout rather than vice-versa and certainly using them I couldn't have squeezed as much in the space available. The points are constructed in situ with PECO chairs fixed to either PECO plastic point sleepering or obechi strips. The chairs were fixed by PECO track pins with the pin heads being turned down to a smaller diameter - 3 per chair !

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The first section of track laid on the layout at the entrance to the colliery sidings, the baseboard and backscene (later removed) were from a previous layout. The first 3 points (2 left and bottom right in the photo) used the PECO plastic point sleepering whereas all the remainder used the obechi sleepers. The first checkrail and crossing chairs were built up from solder on a brass base plate, but I soon restricted the baseplate to just under and between the rails with cosmetic half chairs on the outside.

The points in this area are operated from slide switches bottom left and connected by cranks and rodding. All the rodding is buried under the scenery, maybe not advisable in theory although its fairly robust and has been completely reliable so far. Any problems will no doubt involve 'excavation' of the scenery.

The trackwork as completed in the same area.


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This is the only photo I have showing some of the pointwork with wooden sleepers before painting. If I was doing it now I would have pre-stained the sleepers.

Crossing Vs are formed from one piece of rail:




1. The rail is filed away to half its width for a suitable length depending on the angle of the V
2. Its then bent through 180 degrees at the mid point of the filed away section. If the bend is not too sharp at first then once bent if its squeezed in the vice to close the joint it can usually be done without breaking the rail. After fluxing the joint surfaces they are clamped together, the rails adjusted to the correct angle for the V and the joint silver soldered.
3. The excess rail is then filed away

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Blades are hinged as I don't like long bendy point blades, and there is less strain on the tiebar fixings, etc. The hinge is a nickel silver strip pushed through a slot near the end of the blade, bent into a 'U' shape and soldered to the closure rail.

The track after painting and ballasting


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There were no suitable point levers available, so I made patterns and had them cast in brass. The throw over type as here actually work exactly like the real levers but don't give enough throw for the model blades, so all points are worked remotely.

When it came to painting the track I made up samples of various Humbrol colours and compared it to the real thing, for what its worth this was the result:

Main well used lines - 82 Orange + 62 Leather + small amount of 33 Matt Black
Sidings - 82 + 62 + 113 Rust + small amount of 33
Rarely used sidings - add more 113 (82 + 62 + 2x113)
Point levers - 113 + small amount of 33
Sleepers - 64 Light Grey + 110 Natural Wood + 98 Chocolate
Oil stains on slide chairs and point blades - 98 + 33
Oil to tops of slidechairs - 85 Coal Black + 53 Gunmetal + 98
Drybrush to sleepers and fishplates - 98
Drybrush to chairs and tops of checkrails - 98 + 53

 

[PhilH]

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The points in the loco shed area are worked by slide switches similar to the ones used by the Rev Peter Denny on his Buckingham layout and described in an article in Railway Modeller about 1960. He used square section hardwood keys, but I used rectangular mild steel bar which I had available. These slide in a frame separated by square stripwood with similar material for the end stops and are connected directly to the point tiebars by rodding and angle cranks or wire in copper tube. A brass strip fixed to the top of the steel bar contacts two round head bolts in a plywood strip fixed across the top of the frame and acts as a changeover switch for frog polarity. The sketch below gives the general idea.

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Available space didn't allow this system elsewhere so all other points are worked by H&M solenoids.

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The hinged flap at the colliery end of the layout has electrical connections by means of spring plungers from old bayonet light bulb sockets. These were set in holes in the end timber with a wire soldered to the end and make contact with short lengths of brass rod similarly set in holes with wire attached and as the flap closes they make a slight wiping contact.

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The flap is retained in the operating position by two sliding bolts which carry the power supply to the track beyond via connecting wires marked A and B in the photo.

 

[Richard]

I have always made my crossing noses up in the traditional method of filing them up separately and then joining them together.

Your method looks a lot quicker and doesn't need a filing jig for different crossing angles.

I'm going to look forward to trying this method as I have a number of turnouts to build in the not too distant future.

The same goes for the switch rail hinges. A really nice technique.

Thank you for sharing the ideas, it's much appreciated

 

[PhilH]

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Track on the NCB Walkden System at Linnyshaw Moss, note the lack of grass or weeds - maybe because of the ash content of the ballast ?
Any areas adjacent to the track that are regularly walked on are usually smooth or, perhaps more accurately, well compacted.

The ballast is a mixture of coal dust, ash and pit waste (a light grey shale), the latter item being obtained from the Bickershaw Colliery waste tip, a source which I don't think is now available as the area has been landscaped and the tip removed. The mixture is varied - darker (more coal dust) in the vicinity of coal handling areas and lighter elsewhere. The bulk of material used is a size that will pass through the smallest size sieve I could find - a tea strainer, and in certain areas I also use dust produced by part filling a jar with material, stretching a piece of nylon stocking over the top, turning the jar upside down and shaking vigorously.

I've tried three methods of laying ballast, with varying degrees of success:-

1. The usual method of laying the ballast first dry, wetting and then dripping in dilute PVA. This didn't work very well; the material was difficult to lay in a sufficiently thick even layer; difficult to wet without disturbing it and the water and PVA tended to settle finer material down, leaving just the coarse material on the surface or float the fine material into places you don't want such as round chairs and rail. This method probably works better with single sized material such as main line railway ballast.

2. The method used in some areas is to build up the depth in plaster and then glue a thin layer of ballast on the surface. This can be tedious, placing and levelling the plaster without getting any on sleepers, chairs or rail; sealing it so the glue doesn't soak in too much and then gluing and laying the ballast. The plaster also has to be pre-coloured or painted in case it shows through the thin ballast layer.

3. The most common method used was to glue and ballast in layers, as follows:

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Glue applicators are old eardrop or similar containers with the caps drilled and empty biro ink tubes forced in. The longer tube on the left is for harder to reach areas such as under pointwork.

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First a layer of fairly strong PVA + water + wetting agent is applied using the applicators direct or a small brush for corners. Any air bubbles should be burst or there will be a hollow in the ballast.

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The ballast mix is applied and given about 20-30 minutes so it's started to harden but still fairly soft. Excess ballast is vacuumed off - carefully so as not to lift the glued material.

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A strip of scrap brass is then used to level and compact the ballast. Another layer of more dilute PVA mix is then applied, which should readily spread over the still soft first layer and more ballast mix applied and the process repeated. Depending on the depth you are at and the depth you want, a third layer may be required.

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After the final layer is compacted and still soft, I apply very dilute PVA mix where required which should readily soak in and dust or dust/ballast mix to well trodden compacted areas alongside and between tracks. The completed ballast is then left to dry completely before final vacuuming.

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The completed ballast. Further compacting or 'smoothing' of the surface can be carried out when dry by rubbing with fingers, emery paper or even files. Most colliery railways seemed to serve as unofficial public footpaths so any useable spilled coal wouldn't remain for long !

Over time I find that household dust tends to lighten these areas despite regular vacuuming, the very finest dust being difficult to remove. I've had some success in reversing this trend by spreading fine coal dust and then vacuuming it off, the very finest coal dust like the very finest household dust tends to stick. You need to keep the vacuum nozzle a constant distance above the surface - about 1/4" - otherwise you get very patchy results.

 

[PhilH]

This post is just for possible interest (or maybe amusement !) as these days everybody uses static grass, don't they ?

For grass areas I've used fibres from old carpet underlay. This method may now be rather outdated, but the first areas were done before static grass became available and I wanted to keep the same effect throughout the layout. From a normal viewing distance I think it gives a reasonable representation of the rough grass found in embankment areas, close up perhaps rather less so.

The original underlay material


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The material was torn into small pieces, bleached and then dyed. After it was dry came the most time consuming and tedious job - removing all the unwanted material comprising bits of paper, string, wool, etc, etc.

After sorting a small amount of fibres were taken, formed into a ball about 10mm diameter……




part was cut off to expose the ends of the fibres and this was then 'planted' in a thick layer of PVA adhesive




The result after completing the whole area


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After the adhesive had thoroughly dried a craft knife was run through with the blade upside down to cut any loops in the fibres, and the material was then raked, combed and trimmed, probably removing about 2/3 of the material in the process.

The grass rake used - made from Peco track pins and a couple of pieces of scrap brass


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The result after completion of raking, combing and trimming. At this stage I thought the result looked quite reasonable, the fibres had taken the dye quite well (Dylon Amazon Green), but I carried on to the next steps

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The grass areas were masked off and spray painted with Humbrol grass green plus yellow. After painting with matt paint I thought the grass looked a little too matt, so I gave it a spray of gloss varnish.

Finally when the paint was dry I mixed a thin straw colour paint and touched over the tops of the fibres with a damp brush.



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Compared with the more or less instant result with static grass, this may all sound rather time consuming and tedious - it certainly is !

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[Ian@StEnochs]

“Compared with the more or less instant result with static grass, this may all sound rather time consuming and tedious - it certainly is !”

Phil,

But it looks much more like the rough grass which grows on bankings and which has little maintenance. Static grass is fine in some places but not all.

Ian.

 

[michael mott]

I have to agree with Ian. I think you have captured the look of the rough grass perfectly.

Michael

 

[John Rich]

This looks great, I may be going against the trend but I am not a huge fan of static grass. I much prefer the look you have achieved.

John

 

[PhilH]

This follows on from Post #59 of 8th.April 2020 - nearly three years ago !!!!
So there's not been much progress on the Austerities, well none actually apart from looking at the part done example and thinking about it. Spending more and more time looking and thinking has prompted a bit more action. The latest idea (Plan B if you like !) is to get one basic example running instead of worrying about all three and all the detail fittings required. If I wait for the Dapol ones to come out later this year and they are any good chances are none of my three will get finished.

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This photo has annoyed me ever since I posted it - a couple of cockeyed coal rails ! I did consider taking them all off and replacing them with 0.3 mm dia. wire - near enough to the prototype's ½" dia. - but looking at the wire I bought specially for the job, thought it seemed a bit too delicate. It would be a bit of a waste of effort to change them all then come to that conclusion and have to change them back again to 0.4mm dia. wire, so I just settled for straightening the existing ones. I might try the smaller diameter on the next loco.

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A bit better perhaps but every time I look at it I'm tempted to do a bit more tweaking with the pliers. The beading has been added to the top edge of the bunker in 0.6mm x 0.3mm half round brass.

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A block of MDF was bolted to the top of the bunker and the beading laid against it and soldered to the rear. Then it was bent round the corners, trimmed to length and soldered to the sides again holding it against the MDF.

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The angle rainstrips at the top edge of the rounded over cab sides were fixed in a similar way by holding against pieces of MDF wedged in the cab. They are 0.8mm x 0.8mm angle, as near as I could get to the prototype's 1" x 1" angle.

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The etched cab roof was a little too narrow in width, I should have allowed a little more for trimming to fit between the cab sides rather than aiming for an exact fit. So I've had to cut a new roof section from 15 thou brass sheet. It needs the front and rear edges thinning down and the addition of the sliding roof hatch on top.

tbc