Brettell Road - Back to wagons - and a correction.

[jim s-w]

With a little over a month to go before Brettell Road is back on the road (see post above), I've been finishing a few things off.


The last backscene is now in place so the road in the middle of the layout now gives the impression it goes somewhere.  The Leyland Steer seems to have lost its licence plate somewhere.


The little back yard on board 2 is done - I wanted a used but not particularly looked after feel.


I realised I've not actually taken any images of this building in its finished state before now.


Princess Margaret heads back to the Wallows for the evening.


GWR railcar catches the last of the sun as it heads off to Dudley.

[johndarch]

Not only great modelling but great photography as well.

[Captain Kernow]

Not only great modelling but great photography as well.

Agreed, John!

This has to be one of my all time favourite layouts, I doubt I've seen more atmospheric urban scenes modelled such as these.

[Hardwicke]

The Leyland Steer seems to have lost its licence plate somewhere.

Someone nicked it?

[jim s-w]

Something a little different. Operators eye view of the new bit

FB_IMG_1693594360716.jpg

[jim s-w]

Bit of a blatant plug.

This time next week Brettell Road will make its exhibition debut* in its extended from at the Cradley Heath exhibition



If you come along please do say hi.

Jim

*is debut the right word? would relaunch be better?

[Lord Colnago]

Good luck with it Jim, hope it goes well.

John

[jim s-w]

Yesterday Brettell Road made its return to the exhibition scene in its extended form.  The show went very well I thought and we all enjoyed ourselves. Theres a snagging list for me to work through, of course, but nothing major.  The layout seemed very well received and we were honoured to be awarded the Frank Collins Award for best layout in show as voted for by the Cradley Heath MRC committee.  Somewhat poignant for me as Frank had assisted me with info for the model of the Round Oak admin building before he passed away.  I like to think he would have approved of my efforts.  The kids seemed to enjoy themselves looking for the cats on the layout and and the strategically hidden lego Batman that the club provided.

Quick thanks to my operating team and the members of the CHMRC for their efforts.

(Pic ©Tim Horn)

[DougN]

Typical Lego gets everywhere...

Its great that you had a fantastic time.

[jim s-w]

So back to business as usual then.


This is an ex LMS 12 ton traction truck which has recently been released by 247 Developments. The kit is a 3d print which is supplied as a body with solebars, W irons, brake gear and white metal buffers. The body was a little bit distorted (kinda like a spoon shape) but popping it in very hot water and weighting it while it cooled seemed to take most of the distortion out. The back of the frames needed thinning for p4 wheels to fit (I believe the kit has been changed to rectify this now).  I replaced the sides with microstrip as they were a little uneven and added the safety loops and tie down shackles that were missing from the print. The supplied buffers were a little odd so these are Accurascale ones.   Just need to do a load for it now.


I've mentioned this on another thread. On Brettell Road I have mostly used cast white metal vacuum pipes.  Generally these have been fine but I have had some of the bufferbeam mounted ones break as they are slightly vulnerable. David Roome has now produced some 3d printed ones that are rubbery and a lot less susceptible to knocks.  Im not replacing them on all of my wagons just as and when a white metal one gets broken.

Links

https://www.247developments.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063063859649

https://underhillroad.wordpress.com/

[Will L]

.... David Roome has now produced some 3d printed ones that are rubbery and a lot less susceptible to knocks. 

Now that sounds like a good idea.

[Tim Horn]

Thanks for the invite to help operate Jim. Lots of fun and enjoyable too

A little vid from the late afternoon



Cheers,
Tim

[jim s-w]

Quick question if I may

358324314_308172684917262_1943122631790782962_n.jpeg

When did these folding style yard lamps start to appear? I quite fancy a few and their lack of ladders is kind of appealing.

[Hardwicke]

Those lamps started to appear in the late 80's I think. Check the companies who make them. Fabrikat next to the old Sutton Junction make street lights. 70's tended to be concrete. Maybe have a look at a real one and see the makers name.

[Hardwicke]

A quick check.
Abacus are the company. I remember seeing their name now after finding what the lamps are technically called on the Fabrikat website.
Abacus states
"Since the first base-hinged column was developed in the early 1960s, it’s become a market-leader and now features on nearly every railway platform in the UK."

[jim s-w]

That makes sense as I've seen pictures of the new street rebuild and hinged platform lamps were definitely installed then. The yard lamps look a more primitive version of the same idea. They were definitely at moor street goods sidings in the late 70s but I can't tell if they were there in the early 60s as all the pics I've seen were too distant and not good enough quality to tell.

[jim s-w]

The subject this time is this...


... the good old Mainline LMS BG.  A great model for its time but not without room for a little bit of TLC.   There is an error here that once you see it you cant un-see and that is that the underframe is too wide by 2mm.  Ive talked in the past about looking at dimensional errors as a percentage.  2mm off over the width of a coach is a much larger percentage than 2mm over its length but theres an additional factor in play here and that is relationships.  If the whole model was 2mm to wide you might (but probably wouldn't) get away with it but when only part of it is, it just looks weird. Let's be realistic here we are talking about 1mm per side but that 1mm means the edges of the solebar framing sticks out from the bottom of the body rather than tucking under it.  Also the footsteps don't line up properly but thats a minor thing.

So the options then.  You could just replace the underframe with a Comet one but at the time they were out of stock and the trussing is a flat etch so no real improvement over the one already there.   Or you could slice 2mm out of the centre of the floor and glue it back together.  The issue with this is I don't think the trussing itself is over width.  To me the simplest solution was to make a new floor from plasticard (29.5mm x 196mm) and transplant the trussing from the mainline model.  The new solebars are 4mm channel from evergreen.


So heres the model  had already done on its new underframe.  The bogies are Brassmasters with the original sideframes attached.  Buffers have been replaced with more accurate ones from Lanarkshire models.


As is usually the way for me I got a little carried away.  Why build one new floor when you can build several?  Theres a few subtle differences here such as the roof vents and footsteps.


As with any grouping of things there tends to be one member thats a little bit weirder than the others and this is it.  The diagram 1715 version.  OK it looks kind of the same but the qay it was build was quite different and actually much more like the much later BR Mk2 in that the body was where all the strength is and it didn't need a traditional underframe.  The solebars themselves are also different in that the outer face is solid. Other variations are the positioning of the roof vents, bodyside beading (which comes in a whole load of variations on these coaches anyway), the extra rain strips and the full length footboards


This is the more normal side. Note the dynamo is at the opposite end to the more standard versions.


The other side is decidedly more odd with basically next to nothing there. It almost looks like the model hasn't been finished. Note also the steps on the bogie.

Just a quick note to thank Mark Tatlow and Graham Speechley for their help locating images of the diagram 1715 version.

[jim s-w]

Just one of those every day, run of the mill style posts this time but with a few little tweaks to appease the wagon buffs.


Starting with the Parkside kit for the LNER 21t riveted coal hopper.  Built pretty much as instructed but I did change the side stanchion plates for 10 thou plasticard as the ones in the kit were a bit chunky.


The spare brakes that came with the above kit were used to correct the brakes on my prototype 24.5t hopper I've  featured before.


The humble D2150 13t open from the Parkside kit. The only real visual difference between these and the BR build is the small lip on the ends. A bit of 10x20 thou mictrostrip sorted that.


Ex LNER Diagram 210 adapted from the parkside kit for the Dia 1/120 wagon. The side stanchion were slightly reshaped as were the buffer beams while the chassis was replaced with spares from my scrap box.


Another bog standard affair, the D2039 ex LMS 12t van. This one was built from the Ratio kit with the addiction of the Rumney Models LMS van detailing etch (B105). It features the 3 part end for a super subtle bit of variety.


Finally something a little more involved. Before and after of the sides for a D2103 12t van using the parkside fruit van as a start point. The ends were scratchbuilt.

[Dave K]

Can you tell me what you use for your screw couplings?

Dave

[jim s-w]

Hi Dave

I've settled on the smiths range of couplings. The hooks are overscale but I find them easy to use so it's a compromise I'm happy with.

I dread to think know much I've spent with them over the years!

Jim

http://www.scalelinkfretcetera.co.uk

[jjnewitt]

The other visual difference between the LMS d2150 (and d2110) and the BR builds that followed was the diagonal side strapping which finished on the side or curb rail on the LMS wagons but beneath it on the BR ones. I wonder why the LMS changed the fixing point for the diagonal strapping on the corrugated ended opens as it finished below the side rail on the earlier wooden ended opens.

Justin

[jim s-w]

Thanks Justin

A little tweak needed then

[Noel]

he other visual difference between the LMS d2150 (and d2110) and the BR builds that followed was the diagonal side strapping which finished on the side or curb rail on the LMS wagons but beneath it on the BR ones.

ACtually, quite a few LMS ones had diagonal strapping attached to a bracket on the upright below the floor, possibly because they didn't have curb rails?

M423615 appears to have roller bearings, which was unusual on Highfits. The only ones so fitted that I'm aware of were the very random selection [BR, GWR, LMSR, LNER and SR] in long distance china and ball clay traffic in the early 1970s, probably because the clay tended to get into oil boxes and gum them up. They were sheeted when loaded, not when empty. The BR 1959 painting instructions were that roller bearing axle boxes were to be painted yellow or yellow with a red bar, depending on the type of grease used. It has a note that some wagons had pillarbox red roller bearing axle boxes, which were to be repainted idc.

[jim s-w]

You need to wait for the update next but one Noel.

[jim s-w]

As a follow on to the last post - more every-day wagons have rolled off the workbench.  This time it's a quartet of shock wagons.


Starting with the basics - Diagram 1/040 shock open from the Parkside kit.  Built pretty much as supplied with the addition of a Rumney Models tarpaulin bar and a sheet from my now standard black latex glove.


Next ex LMS diagram 1983 from the same kit as above with the additional top lip on the ends and buffers from Lanarkshire models.  You cant see it in the pic but I replaced the floor with scribed lead sheet.


A smidge more involved is this Diagram 1/038 shock open from the parkside kit for the standard (not shock) wagon.  I shortened the sides by cutting sections out next to the middle section and mounted them on a new floor as the prototype wagons had a visible lip around the bottom.


Finally a diagram 1/219 shock palvan.  A bit more involved again as I could use spare ends and a roof from Parkside standard 12t vans but the sides needed to be made from scratch.  The chassis is the Red Panda kit.