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scratchbuilding

Some lorries for a trio of layouts.

A small selection of Lorries have recently been completed. Starting with…

A leyland LAD cab and chassis, destined for a wagon load on Brettel Road. The cab is Base toys with some minor tweaks and windows added to the rear.  I was aiming for a new vehicle being delivered and wanted an open chassis.  The source for this was a cheap Langley Models kit for a Guy Otter/  The chassis was shortened and wheels are from RTI.

Some of you may remember this.  A Mercedes 407 van from the Corgi School bus.  Ive carried the unmolested one around for a while now from when I did a short stint on demos on modelling road vehicles.  A picture of one of these in the form of a low sided light lorry appeared on Western Thunder so I decided to do something with it

The Body is from the previously mentioned Langley kit mated to a Base Toys chassis and more RTI wheels. I need a spot of work with a sheet of sandpaper on a flat surface to get it to sit properly.  This will be a reasonably old vehicle on New Street.

Next up over to Norfolk and a couple of Lorries for North Elmham.  Tim provided a few images of vehicles that could be found lurking around the dairy so I set to work. The first is an Albion something or other (I don’t know – I just copied what I saw) using a modified Base Toys cab with a scratchbuilt dropside body.  The transfers are home brewed on decal paper.

A Bedford S type from an RTI cab and wheels again with a scratchbuild body.  I’ll leave the many milk churns these 2 will need up to Tim and John.


Weatherill Loader

While at Scaleforum with Cades Green it was mentioned that Iain had a Lesney Weatherill Loader that he intended to do something with for the layout.  Given my fascination with doing stuff with things from the toy-box this was pretty much an irresistible project to have a look at.

Weatherill Hydraulic

Weatherill were not a company I was aware of before now. F. E. Weatherill Limited was founded the late 1940s in North London before moving to Welwyn Garden City in the mid 50’s. Mr F.E. Weatherill was formerly of another similar company Chaseside.  Their machines were generally built around Ford components but later moved to Perkins and later still Leyland Engines. Chaseside used cable operation and F.E. Weatherill had tried to get Chaseside to look at the Hydraulic route for their machines but Chaseside weren’t interested. The lineage from cable operation to hydraulic was somewhat apparent in the layout of the earlier Weatherill machines.

By the late 70s Weatherill were struggling, They could not match the prices of machines imported from Scandinavia, Japan and the USA. They met with the UK government to ask for protection of UK manufacturers but that plea fell on deaf ears.  They downsized and closed the Welwyn Garden City factory, moving to Tottenham where the plan was to focus on smaller high lift two-wheel drive rigid loaders but they couldn’t carve out a market for these and in the mid ’80s the firm closed down.

Lesney

It seems strange then that Lesney would be all that interested in producing toys of Weatherill loaders but they produced 3 in total.  A big factor in this could be that the Weatherill Factory and the Lesney factory were next door to each other!  Of the 3 toys produced 2 were the same 2H loader.  The difference being that the first was to 1:75 scale (the yellow one), and the second (the orange one) was larger, no doubt to fit the standard sized box.  The third toy was a later design and part of the larger ‘Superkings’ range.

The Model

I’ve bashed quite a lot of toys into something a little more accurate over the years but I admit I had to look quite hard to see the potential in this one. In the end only the main body was usable with the cab and the diecast driver being cut away.  It was painted in something that resisted all efforts to remove it including dunking it in cellulose thinners overnight!

So out with the microstrip mainly. The driving wheels were from a JCB kit and the front wheels from my box of things that might be useful one day, Paragon models I think.  The shovel was knocked up from bits of brass using photos as a guide. The finished result.

In its new home on Cades Green.  It seemed quite popular with the Kids at the Uckfield Show this weekend.


Back to the beginning (and then a bit more too)

The Great British Locomotives Jinty.  The model that started this whole diversion into the late 50s era. When they first appeared (as part of a magazine series) they were so cheap that I brought a second one just so I could do a before and after picture.

Recently I dug it out but I didn’t want to just do another Jinty so my focus has been on its predecessor, the Johnson designed Midland 2441 class. Just for a little bit of clarity before we go any further both classes were referred to as Jinty’s or Jocko’s so going forward, if I mention Jinty’s I mean the later LMS Fowler 3f.

So the 2441 class.  The Midland built 60 of these which were considered as heavy goods tank engines.  They were later rebuilt by Fowler which made them look very similar indeed to a Jinty.  Initially there were 2 distinct types. with or without condensing apparatus. For those interested in these locos theres a good book on the subject, Midlands Engines No.5 by David Hunt, Bob Essery and Fred James (ISBN 1-874103-94-1)

The Model

Work required can be broken down into 2 areas.  Stuff you might want to do anyway and stuff you will need to do to depict the 2441 class. Let’s start with the stuff you might want to do anyway.

The handrails need replacing as do the lamp irons. The Chimney is a bit naff as are the safety valves and whistle.  The coal rail is too chunky and the buffers are somewhat generic. The steps would benefit from something a little more refined.

For the 2441 specific bits the smokebox needs to be shortened and its saddle is a different shape. The Dome is also a different shape (more rounded) although I believe some had the more flattened off type. The front splashers are different too. The biggie is the tank sides which are taller and drop down by the cab area to be a little lower than a Jinty.  The bunker is also lower and squarer with no overhang. The footplate is actually a little longer on these locos and the fairing at the ends is different.

So let’s start with the footplate.  The body of the model separates into 3 parts.  The footplate, tank sides and bunker. The boiler, smokebox and tank tops and the upper part of the cab. Handily everything is plastic so carving it up is easy. I believe that the Bachmann Jinty has a cast metal footplate so it might be a bit more tricky.

The tank sides and bunker are from 30thou plasticard topped with microstrip.  The coal rails come from my spares box (Brassmasters 1f etch) and the steps are from Mainly Trains.  Splashers are also from Brassmasters (1f again) and the buffers and vac pipes are from Lanarkshire models. The lamp irons are from Stenson models.  You can see at the back of the footplate where it’s been lengthened.

Not a lot to do the cab. New rear spectacle plates from Mainly trains.

The Boiler.  I cut the smokebox back and remounted the front piece (which is separate).  It seems that the condenser fitted locos had the handrail below the upper hinge like a Jinty but the others has it mounted above the hinge.  Chimney is from my spares box (Brassmasters Jinty detailing kit I think) and the safety valves and whistles are from Markits. The top of the dome had been filled and blended into a new shape.

When it comes to the tank tops, the drawings show the filler caps to be more central and they certainly would need to be on the condensing locos as theres a big pipe in the way.  However pictures of the non condensing ones show what looks like the bracket at the front of the tank indicating that they might be at the front as seen on the model.

A little bit of fiddlyness for the ejectors. The moulded one is a bit clunky and I believe depicts a combined large and small Ejector. When I did my other Jinty I used a cast detailing part for this from (I think) London Road Models. Some 2441 class locos had these.  The fiddly one depicts an earlier type and is cobbled together from 0.4mm wire with 0.6 and 0.8mm tubing.

The assembled loco (so far)  The chassis is a High level Jinty with the frames altered to be shallower. Otherwise it’s built as per the kit. I didn’t go for working inside motion as you really cant see it at all on these locos.


LMS iron ore hopper

Let’s start with a little observation.  Modelling railways is expensive these days, the reason for this has been discussed elsewhere but if I were starting out now I certainly wouldn’t be able to afford it. I actually think the prices are what they are but there are one or 2 things where manufacturers really are taking the mick.

Case in point is the 24ton LMS iron ore hopper.  Firstly its not one, at all!  Basically yes it is a hopper but thats about it. It’s a loose model of the Charles Roberts hopper with a body stretched to fit a generic 10ft chassis.  When you consider that this model first appeared in the 1977-78 mainline railways catalogue charging nearly £30 rrp for a completely wrong, very old tooled model is a fictitious livery is more than a little bit dodgy,  Considering thousands of these are out there in various liveries for a fraction of the price you have to wonder who’s actually buying the things?

So let’s look at what this model attempts to be.

LMS hoppers are something of a gap in the RTR market as they have been hardly touched by either RTR or kit manufactures. I believe that the model is trying to masquerade as a diagram 1893-1942 iron ore hopper.  From what i can tell these were all the same except for the materials used.

D1893 – 50 wagons built in 1934 by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company out of Chromador Steel

D1894 – 300 wagons built in 1934 by the trade out of mild steel

D1941 – 450 wagons built in 1936-38 by the trade out of copper bearing steel

D1942 – 100 wagons built in 1936 by the Gloucester Carriage and Wagon company out of an unspecified material.

Many of these lasted into the BR era and were cascaded to various steel works meaning theres quite a few liveries that can be done and an enterprising manufacturer can cash in on the current rise of interest in industrial modelling.

The model

While the RTR hoppers wheelbase of 10 ft is actually closer to the LMS wagons 10ft 6 than it is the Charles Roberts 9ft wheelbase theres nothing about the model that can really give you ahead start on constructing one of these so the easiest method is just to scratch-build one.

Which is what I did.  Construction is plasticard with evergreen sections for the chassis and rivet strips from Mainly Trains or transfers from Archers. Buffers are from Lanarkshire models and underframe ironwork from Ambis and Bill Bedford. The axleguards, axle boxes and springs are salvaged from parkside kits. Drawings in LMS wagons volume 1 were used as a guide.

Painted up with transfers from Modelmaster and Fox.

Comparison with the Charles Roberts wagon on the right. This has been shortened and rebuilt on a 9ft chassis so its not a direct comparison with the RTR model as supplied.  To see what I did to that one click here)


Latest building and what does it have to do with lions?

This is my latest building for Brettell road and likely to be the last but one physical model building for the layout.  I have plenty more buildings to create yet but as those will be on the backscene they will need to be illustrated instead.

As usual it takes its inspiration from a local structure and this time its the Lion Health building in Stourbridge.  Or at least a bit of it.  Construction is the same as the others featured recently so I wont go over old ground again. Before it was a health centre the Lion Health building was an Ironworks built by Foster, Rastrick and Company in 1821.  John Urpeth Rastrick was originally from Morpeth and had previously constructed an early railway locomotive for Richard Trevithick in 1808. The company would continue to produce steam engines as well as proving machines for chain cable, saws, mills, and boilers. It also produced structural components for buildings, bridges and gas works and in 1825 it listed railway components in a catalogue of products including rail, sleepers and chairs.  Its fourth locomotive, Agenoria, was built for the Earl of Dudley’s railway and it survives to this day at the National Railway Museum.  The company fared far worse than Agenoria and it was officially dissolved on 20 June 1831 and it was absorbed into the Stourbridge Iron Works of John Bradley & Co.  James Foster was already the major partner (John Bradley was his half brother) and after 1832 James became the sole owner.

The site went through several more owners but they kept the name John Bradley & Co. (Stourbridge) Ltd. The first was when, in 1919, the Stourbridge Iron Works were sold to a company owned by Edward J. Taylor and then in the interwar period, N. Hingley & Sons Ltd took over but it still continued to trade under the John Bradley & Co name until 1963. The company was finally wound up in 1966 but the Stourbridge Ironworks continued as a rolling mill within the F.H. Lloyd Group until 1982.  The building became derelict was nearly destroyed completely due to a fire in 2004. In 2012 it was renovated to become Lion Health which opened in 2014.  In 2009 a couple of urban explorers managed to get in and took some pictures, these can be seen here.

What have lions got to do with any of this?

In 1829 Foster, Rastrick and Company built a locomotive for the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company in the USA and this loco, Lion, or rather the Stourbridge Lion is noted to be one of the first foreign built locomotives to be operated in the United States, and one of the first locomotives to ever operate outside Britain. The locomotive performed well in its first test in August 1829 but was found to be too heavy for the track and was never used for its intended purpose of hauling coal trains.  Parts of this locomotive also survive and are on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

A view from the platform.  I think i’ll tone the lighting down a bit more.

The recently completed Hymek trundles past.

Below are a couple of overall layout shots which I think captures the wet look I’m after. The last one from my phone so apologies for the lack of depth of field.


Tired of tiles!

After working my way through a lot of laser cut strips of tiles I can call my building(s) project effectively done. There are several schools of thought when it comes to what to do with low relief buildings.  The easiest is to keep them parallel to the backscene however if you don’t (as I haven’t) then the roof can actually become a little bit of a problem area. Theres 2 main ways to address this,  Keep the pitch of the roof the same and cut the top at an angle.  Or keep the top parallel to the rest of the building and adjust the pitch.  My personal opinion is that the latter is the better option.  The pitch on my acorn building is significantly different from the left end to the right end. One advantage of using tile strips over embossed plasticard is you can adjust the rows to compensate for this and hopefully no one will notice what trickery you’ve been up to!

The same applies to this building although it’s not quite as dramatic.

The thing with lighting buildings is they look a bit weird if they are just empty boxes.  I don’t feel you need to model everything inside though, just enough clutter to give a hint of something inside.  The shelving and cardboard boxes are from scale model scenery. I have found its something people at shows to look for and I think is nice to have some little ‘treasures’ that people can discover for themselves. The Higgs and Co. building also has some ‘officey’ clutter.  In the late 50s offices seemed to be laid out more like a school classroom than the more ergonomic arrangement we see now.

The roof of the rear of the Higgs building has some weird shapes that were a bit of a faff to work out if I’m honest.

I do feel that the middle of the layout has a suitable black country-ish feel to it now.

One little building I bunged together is this little weighbridge that will sit behind the main station building.  Its based on the one at Wombourne (See here) and I was initially attracted to its over the top chimney and the way its just stuck in a corner. I did have to reel my enthusiasm in a little as the chimney at Wombourne matches the station so to model it exactly as it was when the ones on my station don’t look anything like, would have been a little weird.

Below a few pictures, I feel the last one really captures the feel I want for the layout.


Building boom

In an attempt to keep some momentum going I’ve been doing more building work. This time for the right hand end of the new bit.

This building is based roughly on the office building from Birmingham central goods. Same method as before but this time using Brassmasters etched windows.

Originally the area in question was the end backscene of the original layout and this drawing was based very loosely on the Harris and Pearson building on the real Brettell Lane (see here for more info).  The original basic drawing was modified and sent to Tim to be turned into an MDF carcass.

And here is the result so far.  Windows are a combination of my own and Brassmasters etches.

This is the much less ornate but somehow at least as interesting rear view. A rough idea of where it all goes.


From Little Acorns, Part 2

Work continues on my latest building.  Gutters are from Modelu.  When I last used Modelu guttering I found getting it stuck on was quite problematic however this time I tried Ultraglue from MIG (which I’ve mentioned here before) and I am pleased to report it works very well.

Fire escape from Langley Models.  A few people noticed the upper door in my last post.

I’ve started to work on the base for the building to sit.  The fence is Knightwing security fencing modified to resemble that seen in pictures of the real Round Oak.  The sign was part of the etch I drew up for the building windows.  I decided not to call it Round Oak as its not a model of the real place but Acorn Steel works had a nice ring to it as its smaller.  Acorn was the name of the company magazine issued at Round Oak.

Moving along the fence we find an area where someone has made a hole!  Perhaps it was kids trying to get in or perhaps it was a worker looking for a short cut to the station?

The other end.  I decided some remnants of an internal line into the works would be an Idea.  For the surface behind i have tried out some AK interactive concrete.  Theres areas of the building that will need to be concrete or stone however the texture is too heavy for 4mm scale.  It would work as very, very rough concrete or as a base for rough ground perhaps. In this case I sanded it pretty much flat.

Finally I couldn’t resist a little test run of the buildings lighting.


From Little Acorns, Part 1

Construction has started on the latest building for Brettell Road. I’ve tried to incorporate some lessons learned from the previous efforts.

The main lesson being to do something more robust with the corners as these have been slightly problematic in the past. I decided to laser cut the main carcass and overlay it with plasticard. It may have been easier in the long run to laser cut everything but I like working with plasticard and scalpels and i didn’t fancy a huge session on my computer drawing bricks.  As usual Tim kindly did the cutting for me. As you can see from the picture I’ve cut recesses in the corners and mounted some evergreen strip to give something solid for the overlays to stick too. It’s early days but it seems very solid so far.

Turning the part around and moving on a bit, this is the front.  Ive built this in a kind of modular way.  I drew up the windows and arches and had them etched. There are 3 of these sections required for the building. This is another section.  Ive used the admin building from Round Oak as my inspiration but moved things around and adjusted them to suit.  It’s an ‘inspired by’ model rather than an exact replica. This section was on a different face to the one I am modelling as it overlooked Dudley Road.

To join these bits together are some flat wall sections.  These are the smaller ones. Ive missed some bits off at this stage as I figured it would be easier to add them once its all together.

And the larger one.

I didn’t manage to find a huge number of images of the real building.  Theres one in Ned Williams book on Brierley hill and this one that my friend Frank Collins sent me.  Sadly Frank passed away very recently and I missed showing him how I was getting on by only a month or so.  I sincerely hope he would approve of my efforts.  The model will be dedicated to him.

Progress so far roughly plonked in position.

And from the other end.  Much still to do!


Greenery and decoration.

I’ve reached the stage where all the significant greenery is pretty much done and I can move on to some titivating of parts of the layout.

I’ve made a basic wooden fence to block off the line that crossed the road originally.  The rudimentary gate (which looks like it hasn’t been actually used for years) is simply a few bits of 1x1mm brass soldered together.

Proverbially walking up the road a little we come to the station signs.  These are based on a photo I found somewhere.  The fading on the signs themselves was actually an accident. The result of me handling the printout a little too early.

Continuing our walk we come to this.  What can be more of a model railway cliché than the good old bus on a bridge?  Well since I am not going to be doing any buses for this layout I have gone for a midlands style bus stop instead. The main column was something I had in my spares box.   The rain on the layout is always going to be going left to right as you look at it, so it makes sense that the autumn leaves and litter do the same.  The top of the bridge is particularity known by the locals as being a bit blustery. (Theres actually a real location nearby known locally as ‘windy corner’)

Peering over the bridge we see the lower end of the station footpath. The Midland style fencing and wire fencing posts both come from Scale Model Scenery as does the little beware of trains sign.

Looking back at the bridge we just walked over. The girder is 2 of my previously designed etches combined together.  I still need to add the top capping to the sloping walls yet.

Overview looking towards Stourbridge.  The 2 buildings are still just loosely placed at this stage.

… and towards Dudley.  You’ll have to use your imagination for the moment for fill in the bridge and the wall on the left.

Old warning sign from Ambis Engineering

A train!  Remember those?


Invisible fixes

Sometimes you can be busy but really not have anything to show. As im on the final run in to the DEMU show next weekend I’ve been looking at a few things that fit into this bracket. Starting with…

My loading gauge. Originally from the Smiths kit, its white metal construction for the main post was just too susceptible to knocks and getting bent out of shape during an exhibition. I hade used brass wire for the wires and after a few times bending it back to shame it was all starting to look a bit of a mess.

So i rebuilt it from brass instead. The wires this time are easy-line. I did keep the original bow mind you

Moving on to, perhaps, a more literal interpretation of the post title

The baseboard join is just a bit too obvious for my liking so I’ve revisited this too.

I found some soft rubber sheeting in my local hobbycraft. Its smooth on one side and has this texture on the other. I cut it into strips and blended the top edge into the existing scenery with static grass, ballast and paint. The result can be seen below.


Accurascale Buffers

Last year Accurascale turned their attention from the railways of Ireland to British rail. While people got very excited about their first wagon (not that the excitement wasn’t well deserved) i was more taken with their decision to sell the buffers separately. 3 types are available and come in packs of 8 for just £2.95. they come ready assembled and are sprung with plastic bodies and metal heads. The lack of a baseplate makes them ideal for the older style of wagon kits from Airfix (see below) and Cambrian and the older Parkside wagons where this detail is moulded on to the bufferbeams. Theres a smidge more work to use them on newer style kits that have the buffer bodies moulded on and you will need to source a baseplate from another source if your intended bufferbeam is completely flat. I like them and i really hope Accurascale continue with this modeller friendly approach.

https://accurascale.co.uk


Back to the bridges

As mentioned in the last post, I did get the bridges in place for Scaleforum but they weren’t as bedded in as I would have liked. Well now, they are! Going right to left for a change, these are the bridges over the canal.Closer view of the main branchline bridge. one of the 2 bridges for the sidings (both are the same design)The overbridges at the left hand (or Stourbridge) end. another view of the same bridges. The final view along the alleyway.And a night-time view, after all that is the point of the layout!


Abandoned warehouse, nearly there!

painted-building-CSMy abandoned warehouse is nearly there now. A spot of paint, Brassmasters windows and roof tiles kindly supplied by Mr Horn. These images show it roughly positioned. You can see a glimpse of the canal which I have also decided to depict as derelict and ill come back to that in a future post.

painted-building-YSUnusually for me the more interesting side is actually the side that people will see! The yard has been suitably strewn with waste from plastic strip and Scalelink bits. The 2 tanks are from Unit models.

abandoned-yard-dark


An urge to build in brass

Sometimes I just get an urge to do something new or something that I haven’t done in a while.  This week I had a bit of a hankering to do something with brass,  not like bunging a few CCU’s together but something more creative, something from scratch.

ole-on-end-of-12My intended victim, an isolation mast from the Eastern end of platform 12.  I suppose I could have built a standard (ish) mast but ive done those before and fancied something a bit different, something that’s a bit of a crowd pleaser I suppose.   So a drawing was made, some section picked up from Modellers Mecca and the soldering iron and mini drill fired up for a couple of sessions at my workbench.

OLE isolating mastHeres the result of my labours.  It went together surprisingly well and despite the use of Colin Craig’s insulators and my own etch for the registration arm it’s all good old-fashioned fabrication work.  I have to admit im pretty pleased with how it turned out.OLE-isolating-handlesClose up of the handles and brackets for the isolation gear.

OLE-isolating-mast-top

A typical ‘platform enders’ view of the interesting bit!

Question is now, is the urge satisfied or have I just made it worse?