A Slim Volume and a Running day at CD0GG.

On Friday a rather slim package dropped through my letter box, I knew it was Geoff Holt's new book on locomotive building...Volume 1. I'd only ordered it the day before at some considerable expense. This was good service on the part of the bookseller, however I was a little taken aback by the slimness of the envelope it came in, it seemed as if the contents were no thicker than a magazine. I viewed it with some trepidation and considered opening it but gave it to my wife to wrap for Christmas Day. I will give my reactions on opening the said packet in a later posting.

On Saturday I took my completed Coal Tank to the Members' Running Day at CD0GG at their premises in the basement of Carlisle Citadel Station.

LNWR Coal Tank at CD0GG

 The superbly modelled scenic section of the Carlisle group's generous layout makes a fine backdrop against which to photograph models.  The Coal Tank is running through the station with a short train comprised of my Highland Railway D9 composite coach and a well modelled Maryport & Carlisle Railway Horsebox belonging to one of the members. The engine ran very well and I was pleased with her performance. I've a backlog of models awaiting the paint shop here in my workshop so a painting session is my next priority. I've already stripped my HR D19 coach down ready to paint so I'll start with that and afterwards my long neglected "Wee Ben".

NW Coal Tank and HR composite coach glide smoothly through the station at CD0GG.

Coal Tank waits in the sidings at CD0GG

I modelled the fireman from photos of  typical Coal Tank crew, he doesn't have a uniform or railwayman's cap but wears an old flat cap and his "working clothes". The driver's out of sight on the left...both the crew members are now available in my "Heroes of the Footplate" range and will be added to the Website soon.   

HR D9 Coach, More progress



HR D9 Chassis wheel-springs and hangers.

 
When assembling and mounting the springs and their hangers on the solebars the sequence of work is important. The spring-hangers and the leaf-springs, along with a length of rod on which four brass discs, a washer and a terminal nut are mounted are soldered together in the flat. Then the spring-hangers are bent to shape and soldered in place on the bottom of the solebar. The centre wheel-springs are different to the outer ones and are more of a fiddle to build, however the sequence of assembly remains the same.



Buffers, couplings and safety chains on the buffer beam

 The couplings are made from castings by CPL and work prototypically. The safety chains I made myself from 0.6 wire; the hanger is a short pattern brass hand rail knob with the sides of the head flattened with a file and the hole enlarged and countersunk.

HR D9 Third Class compartment.

HR Third Class compartments were designed to seat ten passengers, it looks like a tight squeeze. My passenger is from my Heroes of the Footplate range... SP2 Seated Gent 3rd Class passenger. I haven't made any First Class passengers yet though I intend to do so. The inner skin of the coach is in place and this forms a slot, between it and the outer skin, into which the glazing will slide. I'm waiting for some cast brass grab-handles from LGM but they'll not be available until after Christmas, so I can't solder the inner skin in place yet.



HR D9 Roof fittings.

When the oil lamp that lit each compartment was removed a bung was fitted in the hole to make it watertight, a lamp top and a bung are in place on the coach roof; these are castings from my own range of HR accessories which you can see at  http://www.borderminiatures.com/

Highland Railway D9 Coach...progress



Lochgorm Kits' HR D9 Luggage Composite Coach

 The coach body is pinned down to a piece of MDF to keep it flat. I've added a complete floor to the coach as well as fitting the four partitions that will stabilise the structure. The ends are now double, forming a slot into which a tongue soldered to the roof will locate to keep it in place; none of the roof bracing parts supplied in the Lochgorm kit will be used, though the edges will be thickened.




Details of the coach interior.

The window openings have been doubled in thickness by soldering a surround in place; the doors in addition to this have a droplight which makes them triple thickness. On the rear edges of the droplights I've soldered thin wires to locate the glazing. The glazing of the doors and windows will be held in place by the inner skin of the partition, though the glazing of the windows will have to be of thicker material than that of the doors. The glazing will in effect fit into the slot formed by the inner and outer skins of the coach.* The door hinges are made from short lengths of n/s rod. The slots into which they locate are oversize so I've soldered small plates behind them; similarly door handles are fixed into short lengths of tube before they are soldered into the oversize locating holes in the door.

*The idea for the double-skinning of the coach derives from the design of Bob Goodyear's superb set of Hull and Barnsley coaches, which are now marketed by LGM.




HR D9 chassis

 I soldered a series of small ( 0.45mm ) brass plates round the outside of top of the chassis on which the coach body will rest, these represent the compressed rubber cushioning pads on the real thing. The body is then held in place by four 10BA bolts, one on each corner of the vehicle.   

HR D9 6-wheel coach progress

HR D19: Wheel sets in place in chassis.

I hear that LGM will have some cast brass grab handles for Highland Rly. coaches available very soon. I'd like to fit them while the coach sides are still in the flat, so while I await them, I've turned my attention to the chassis again. The "Cleminson" system I'm using is made by "Ambis" and available from Hobby Holidays. It ensures that the outer wheel sets steer into and out of curves and the centre set moves laterally... and you can build in as much rocking movement as you like. The outer wheel sets have brakes and their associated rigging, the centre set doesn't. I've used both Slaters' and Ambis' Cleminson systems now on my 6-wheel coaches... I think that next time I'll just design something simple myself.

One of the upper footboards can be seen in place. I thickened all the footboards by sweating an extra layer of metal to them to bring them from 0.45mm up to 0.8mm, or about 1½" full size, which I think looks much less flimsy.

Coal Tank; construction complete.




LNWR Coal Tank; construction complete.

 


The front of a Coal Tank is a busy place, plenty of interesting detail.




The tool boxes were cast in white metal from my own patterns, the shed plate, which clipped to the rear edge of the roof, is no. 32 Workington. The vaccum ejector can be seen on the right hand inside tank top.



From the outside a good deal of cab interior detail is visible. The tool boxes slightly overhang the bunker sides and are held in place on raised blocks by hooks and a turnbuckle on the ends.



Cab as it would have been in 1891 before carriage heating equipment was added to the engine to  further complicate the interior detail.



LNWR Coal Tank ready for the paint shop, she'll eventually be no.771 which was shedded at Workington.

Highland Railway D9 composite coach

Lochgorm Kits HR D9 coach.

I built a kind of Cleminson system, using parts from an Ambis etched fret... LWBOL-7 obtained from Hobby Holidays, which allows the axles to articulate and steer round curves, a six-wheel coach runs well with this arrangement. There's a lot of superfluous detail on the fret, which I discarded, to be left with just three axle carriers and a connecting spine to mount them on which in turn fastened to the Lochgorm Kits coach underframe. The centre axle carrier travels laterally across the underframe; the the outer ones are arranged to move on an end pivot. The rod that connects the carriers and co-ordinates their movement is fixed to the central carrier but only loosely attached to the outer ones to allow them to pivot.

The D9 coach is intended to pair, as part of a composite Highland Railway train, with my D19 all third coach... which you can see if you click on "Coaches" on the Home page. Ultimately, this pair, with a PBV and a selection of HR goods stock in tow, should make a fine sight behind my Skye Bogie or even the Wee Ben. 
 

Coal Tank... brake pull-rods

Brake pull-rods screwed in place.

 There are brake-pull rods both inside and outside the wheels on a Coal Tank. In order to allow the wheels to be taken off the outer rods need to be removable. So, though I soldered the inner rods in place onto the transverse spacers, I screwed the outer ones on. I tapped the small diameter tubes, which act as spacers for the rods 16BA, there's one of these tubes attached to each brake block as well as to the brake rod operating arm behind the rear driver. The screws are 16BA cheese heads which I've rounded off to look something like the rivets used on the real thing. You can just see the rear sand pipe in front of the brake rod operating arm protruding between the paired rods. The brake rods were rather fine, only 2" wide, a mere 1.16mm in 7mm scale. I made them from 1.18mm half-round rod which makes them both robust and to scale. When they're drilled for the 16BA screws there's very little metal left which necessitates a washer over the hole for strength... I think I can see the same arrangement on a photo of the prototype.

Below the chassis, behind the operating arm, you can see part of the lever connecting the transverse brake shaft to the reversing mechanism mounted in the bunker above. The cut-out shape in the chassis behind the rear wheel is much in evidence in this picture but is masked by the cab step once the superstructure is in place.


 

Coal is glued onto a Milliput former, the bunker top tool boxes are not yet in place.

 

 

 

The master pattern for the tool box was difficult to construct but is now finished and in a mould in the workshop. If you want some castings of this yourself there should be some available in a few days. The tool boxes stand on wooden blocks mounted on the bunker top, they protrude slightly beyond the bunker sides though they are held firmly in place by hooks which attach to the tool box handles.

I've been busy working on second version of the Coal Tank fireman in a less specific pose, so he's no longer "straddling" the works. This new character will be useful on almost any engine, he's also in a mould in the workshop at the moment and will be available very soon and will be featured on the Blog.

As construction of the Coal Tank is nearing completion I've been considering my next project. I've decided to step back into the realm of the Highland Railway and will be working on a D9 composite coach from a set of Lochgorm etches. I've spent some time working on the coach recently and will be making a posting on the progress I've made very soon...