Brettell Road - Shuffling and testing

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:35 pm

Thanks all

Simon, thanks for the tip. In this case I plan to make the layout wet so toning down is kind of th opposite effect to what I want.

Noel. Is the masokits etch a combined chassis detailing one or are they seperate. What are your thoughts on th bachmann model as supplied?

Julian, yes I picked hem up at Scaleforum.

Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

Simon Glidewell

Re: Brettell Road

Postby Simon Glidewell » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:50 pm

Good point Jim; now I remember you mentioning the rain earlier in your thread.

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Julian Roberts
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Julian Roberts » Thu Oct 16, 2014 6:49 pm

JIm - Re Jinty Safety Valves
Was Mr Markits there? Assume not, so who is it that one can obtain these little gems from?!
Julian

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:43 pm

Hi Julian

I got them from 247 developments but if you google markits you can order from markits directly

HTH

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

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Noel
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Noel » Fri Oct 17, 2014 2:21 pm

jim s-w wrote:Noel. Is the masokits etch a combined chassis detailing one or are they seperate. What are your thoughts on th bachmann model as supplied?


Two etches, 1 x 0.015", 1 x 0.010". They include w-irons with a 'D cutout to allow for the Peco coupling mount plus sprung bearing carriers, replacement 'T' sections for the ends [vertical, which matches the Peco kit but is wrong for a 17' 6" oh underframe], ladders, 'v'-hangers and rod brackets combined, brake gear, tank platforms and a valve wheel. I found the instructions, but not the remains of the etches at present, so I can't say which bits are on which etch. As usual, there are comprehensive instructions, some very fiddly bits and a list of additional bits required.

The Bachmann tanks are pretty good, apart from the chassis, which looks as if it is meant for something else, really. The buffer beams are full body width for a van or open; they should be no wider than the solebars. The chassis has a solid base, so there is no daylight visible at all from above, and it is a Morton brake chassis, which was not totally unknown for tank wagons, but very rare indeed. The tank barrels are rivetted, which is easy to convert to a welded tank.

The only real problem concerns the moulded on later type of holding down straps, which meet brackets on the tank cradle rather than the underframe, presumably for production reasons. If you want to fit the prototypical arrangement these moulded straps need to be altered or removed, which requires quite a bit of effort and patience and replacing of rivets [unless you remove the lot ...] and at least some repainting. Production reasons again doubtless, but many of the liveries applied relate to welded tanks on saddle mounts rather than the rivetted tank on cradle mount of the models. They also issue the models in Class A liveries, although it is a class B tank as issued [it is not too difficult to change that if you want]. The version with early type holding down straps crossed around the filler is on the same chassis, but was normally on an 18' oh chassis in reality.

Noel
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Noel

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:45 pm

Hi Noel

Do you have any details or a thread on the ones you have done?

Cheers

Jim
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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:48 pm

I've always liked mechanical signals, the ones on Moor Street are great fun to play with but for New Street I wont get the chance to have any.  However for Brettell Road there are 2 (one of which is abandoned) so I have got to have a go at making some from MSE kits.
Image
First up the disused one, based on a photo I found. This one would actually be a repeater for the main signal the other side of the bridge due to sighting problems. Weathering is done with gouache. I replaced the supplied ladder with one of Colin Craig's.
Image
Image
The other signal is this little ground signal (yellow so that the headshunt can be used when its set to danger) I deviated from the MSE instructions by making the counterweight arm work too. Theres a fibre optic in the lamp but its a bugger to photograph - you can just make it out in the second picture. It looks a bit blue but I was using a white light source - changing it to a yellow one should correct this.
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

Simon Glidewell

Re: Brettell Road

Postby Simon Glidewell » Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:25 am

That all looks great Jim; the redundant LMS tubular signal is very eye catching. Will you add old signalling cables and posts here? The damp effect on the track (if already applied) is certainly apparent.
Last edited by Simon Glidewell on Thu Oct 23, 2014 11:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Noel
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Noel » Thu Oct 23, 2014 10:11 am

jim s-w wrote:Do you have any details or a thread on the ones you have done?


Nothing I want to go public with yet, Jim, as I still have work to do, having been sidetracked by various other things recently. Hopefully soon.

Noel
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Noel

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:09 am

Hi Simon

I do plan to add cranks and wires (some abandoned). There's no wet effect, just colours.

Cheers

Jim
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Mark Tatlow
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Mark Tatlow » Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:08 pm

I like the rust affect on the post - salt on a base of red oxide oversprayed with white?
Mark Tatlow

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Fri Oct 24, 2014 10:06 pm

Nope, just gouache added after painting. Ive found the salt technique too harsh for 4mm. The hairspray method is more subtle (not that I used it here)

Cheers

Jim
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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Wed Oct 29, 2014 11:20 am

Image
What you see above is a representation of a detector for the ground signal on Brettell Road. It was knocked up from scraps of brass using photos and Steve Hall's articles in MRJ 113 and 115. I always enjoy fiddly details like this even though I know it will go unnoticed to most people.
There's only going to be 1 point on Brettell Road that's operated by the off scene signal box, the rest being operated by hand levers. However I wanted to include remnants of what was there before meaning the double slip would have been operated either end with facing point locks. Also given the distance a couple of compensators will be needed so while it's not exactly complicated stuff it is worth doing.
My chosen route is the Brassmasters etched bits with rodding from MSE. I have also included the odd rodding stool where the rodding has been removed to help with the idea that it's not so much added to the layout as taken away.
Image
Most of this stuff is quite basic if a bit fiddly. Above are a couple of compensators. The ones supplied are cosmetic and don't move and that's fine for the disused rods as per the one on the right however with only 1 run that does anything it would be rude not to make it work. Ok it's driven from the point rather than driving the point itself but let's not worry too much about that. 2 Brassmasters compensators were used to make the one on the left with the centre arm from one and a few brass pins meaning it will move when the point it thrown.
All in a fun little project see below for a quick video
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

Simon Glidewell

Re: Brettell Road

Postby Simon Glidewell » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:34 pm

Very effective Jim; I like the moving point rodding very much. Any chance of "how you did it" at some stage?

allanferguson
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby allanferguson » Wed Oct 29, 2014 4:01 pm

I didn't see the signal wire moving once you'd cleared the interlocking! Lovely work.

Allan F

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grovenor-2685
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:49 pm

That looks great except that the adjustment on that comp is way out! The long crank arms should be parallel at mid stroke.
But you have way more patience for this sort of thing than I have.
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Keith
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Keith
Grovenor Sidings

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Wed Oct 29, 2014 6:15 pm

Thanks Keith

I'll tweak it :)

Jim
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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

Terry Bendall
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Terry Bendall » Thu Oct 30, 2014 7:34 am

jim s-w wrote: I always enjoy fiddly details like this even though I know it will go unnoticed to most people.


I have the same view Jim. We have fitted cosmetic point rodding and signal wires on Elcot Road, including a facing point lock - also cosmetic. For the rodding stools I used some of those that Howard Bolton produced but the cranks and other parts are from a range of sources including MSE, Ambis, Gibson and Masokits. When assembling a compensator it did actually move which I was quite pleased about but it does not move once installed since the rodding is fixed.

OIn more recent prototype practice facing point locks are covered but on the one that can easily be seen by the viewers I left the cover off so the parts can be seen.

Terry Bendall

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Thu Nov 06, 2014 9:04 pm

Hi all

I've had an enjoyable few days soldering stuff.  Not random bits of brass to make bits of overhead but proper kits, designed by someone else!  

Image

Starting with this rather nifty lever frame from the Scalefour Society.  One of these can often be found on their stand at shows and it's pretty hard to resist having a play with it.  At one point I thought of getting one just because it's nice!  Now with Brettell Road I have an excuse!
It's build as per the instructions. The kit allows for additional micro switches to operate point motors but in this case I'm planning a purely mechanical system.

Image

Next up the High Level chassis kit for my Jinty.  As supplied the kit is designed for traditional compensation but I wanted mine sprung.  The current fad for continuous springy beams seems like a lot of faffing about (I admit I've never tried it) and doesn't really replicate what I see on real locos.  The idea of equalised beams seems a whole lot more simple, uses less bits and is what the real thing does, (ok not a Jinty but think of a class 47 bogie).
Other than that I followed the instructions and for my first ever etched chassis I was surprised that it only took 2 afternoons to get it all together, I'm not sure why I thought it should take any longer to be honest.  Obviously there's a bit more to do yet, balance weights and pick ups.

Image

Above a quick mock up of how it all looks. The steps don't come with the kit and are from the Brassmasters detailing kit I used earlier.  It's something a bit different for me and it's really nice that someone has done the thinking about it stage for you. Makes a change from assembling a load of unrelated bits and having to figure out what to do with them!

Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

DougN
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby DougN » Fri Nov 07, 2014 4:40 am

Nice looking signal frame. I have been building a double... The one thing that I found is that the 8.2mm spacers tothe tubes seemed a bit long. So mine is a bit jammed up at the moment so I have a single frame with a 4 +4 arrangement until I adjust all the tubes! I have yet to do the locks etc on the leavers yet! I will take a photo soon!
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

Terry Bendall
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Nov 07, 2014 7:04 am

jim s-w wrote:I was surprised that it only took 2 afternoons to get it all together,


Probably something to do with the skills gained over a long period doing modelling in general - the context in which the skills are applied does not really change the nature of what is needed. Anyone can reach the level of skill needed to do something like this but some will reach that level more quickly than others.

And it looks very nice Jim.

Terry Bendall

Crepello
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Crepello » Fri Nov 07, 2014 3:09 pm

jim s-w wrote:As supplied the kit is designed for traditional compensation but I wanted mine sprung.  The current fad for continuous springy beams seems like a lot of faffing about (I admit I've never tried it) and doesn't really replicate what I see on real locos.  The idea of equalised beams seems a whole lot more simple, uses less bits and is what the real thing does, (ok not a Jinty but think of a class 47 bogie).

Any chance of a pic of this arrangement? From the overall photos, it looks like it's pretty discreet (i.e. I can't see it)!

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Fri Nov 28, 2014 1:04 pm

Hi

I can do a drawing for you but let me do some testing first. First impressions are that it works fine but I don't want to push something that's untested in case I lead people down the wrong path.

Cheers

Jim
Jim Smith-Wright

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Over thinking often leads to under doing!

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jim s-w
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby jim s-w » Fri Jan 09, 2015 8:13 am

Dear Customer (the letter reads). We are aware then many Falcon Brassworks kits have a reputation for being difficult to build or simply 'aids to scratchbuilding'...
...If you feel this kit is not what you had expected or you are not confident about completing it please return it to us in its original condition and we will be happy to offer a full refund.

You cant say fairer than that really and given my liking of ballast wagons and the way I get a lot of enjoyment out of making things that are difficult I have been building the Falcon Brassworks Kit for the LMS 25T Ballast hopper or Gannet as they became under BR. 

108 of these wagons were built to Diagram 1804 in 1932 by Metropolitan Cammell, and further wagons of the same design (with slight detail differences) were built by BR to lot 1/518 in 1949.  Usually branded as Gannet under BR some were also branded Trout and they lasted till at least 1976. Apparently they were unpopular with workers as you basically had to stand next to the falling ballast to operate the handwheels. 

Image

The kit wasn't too bad, some of the parts were not etched cleanly and there were no tabs to help with assembly but it all went together reasonably well. The W irons were replaced with Bill Bedford sprung ones and other parts such as handwheels, brake hangers and lever guides were replaced with better parts from other suppliers. The Brakes themselves had no detail on at all so these were given a bit of a work over with bits of brass. 

Other than that quite an enjoyable little project. I don't know if id want to do a rake of them and its worth pointing out that the clearances between the hopper doors and the wheels is very very small. Some modification would have to be done for EM and i'm not all that convinced it could actually be built in 00! 

RJ Essery's book on LMS wagons shows one in 1965 with a caption saying that it is in BR Livery. As the image is black and white i am guessing that means black but if anyone knows for sure I would be grateful to hear from you. 

For some pictures of BR ones see http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brgann ... #h15e03d3e
Jim Smith-Wright

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Noel
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Re: Brettell Road

Postby Noel » Fri Jan 09, 2015 12:50 pm

It rather depends on when it was last painted, Jim. Officially, I believe, BR engineers' vehicles were originally black with straw lettering, but colour photographs also show vehicles in black with white lettering before 1960, and I have no knowledge on why or when this difference arose. From late 1959 or early 1960 the colour was officially changed to Gulf Red, with white lettering directly on the body colour, although it sometimes appeared on black panels. By January 1963 the body colour had been changed to Olive Drab, again with white lettering. Paul Bartlett wrote an article on the Gulf Red livery in Modellers' Backtrack Vol.2 No. 4 [Oct/Nov 1992] in which he observes of one of the illustrations that either the film has distorted the colour, or the vehicle may actually be bauxite, so that gives another possible livery.

For 1965 the most likely body colour is still black, since there would only have been a relatively small number of repaints into Gulf Red [PB lists some numbers in his article] and the change to Olive Drab was still very recent. Even in black and white photographs the white lettering tends to stand out a little more than the straw; I don't have the book in question so can't offer any suggestion on that particular photo.

Noel
Regards
Noel


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