Talyllyn Railway

Pete and his team, that's Lyn and Bella the Border Terrier, visited the Talyllyn Railway when they were in Wales recently on their adventures. This was a day off, a rest day, from their main purpose which was to walk the Welsh Threes, that is the 15 Welsh peaks over 3,000 foot in height. The days following the Talyllyn outing were perfect for walking and they finished their final 3,000 footer, the newly renamed Carnedd Gwenllian in celebratory style. See our walks on... http://keswickrambles.blogspot.com

The morning train stops for lunch at the station at Abergynolwyn.
 

At the terminus before running round the train our driver poses proudly with "Douglas" in immaculate condition.
 

Modelling News.

It hasn't been all holidays mind, Pete's been working on his HR53 project too and will be keeping you up to date with progress very soon.

A Driver for a HR Yankee Tank

Yankee Tank Driver about 1900

I used this photo of the driver of HR14 as the basis of my own 1:43 scale model. The driver here is standing on the fireman's side of the engine however, so I had to model him on the other side. Apart from his cap there doesn't seem to be any clothing that could be described as a uniform, he's dressed in his own working clothes.

Yankee Tank Driver in 1:43 scale.

The figure is posed similarly to the photograph but on the driver's side of the engine. The entry to a Yankee Tank is very tight and the cab is similarly cramped so poses have to be designed to maximise the space. You can just see the fireman, who has adopted a space saving pose too, on his side of the engine. See the "For Sale" page for further details.

Yankee Tank crew at work. Note how the poses of the figures maximise the space available in the cramped cab.



 

HR 53 Lybster, progress.

Lybster pick-up arrangements.

On the right side of the engine all the wheels, both drivers and bogie, are shorted out with a wire soldered between the tyre and the brass centre boss. Pick-ups on the left side are wipers bearing against the back of the wheels and mounted on copper clad insulation board. The bogie pick-ups can be seen clearly above, the red wire is soldered to a metal tab which is screwed to the copper clad and is easily removable. The screw goes through a hole larger than itself in the metal mount to which the CCIB is glued. The red wire leads to another piece of CCIB near the motor from which it is also dismountable.





Base of roof in place

 

The bunker and cab rear unit is held in place on the footplate with two screws inside the bunker, the roof, of which only the base is in place above, will be attached to the cab rear and will slot into a tongue on the top of the cab front plate. 

 

 

 

 

Domed roof and jig.



 

 

 The domed roof was constructed from four triangular pieces of 0.4 n/s with the help of the jig on the right. When all four pieces were accurately lined up on the jig they were soldered together using thin paper as a barrier to prevent the roof being soldered to the jig. The roof was then removed from the jig, squared up and finished with files and abrasive paper.

  

Lybster with domed roof in place.

A raised edge to form a rain channel and a transvers strengthening strip need to be added to the roof before it is complete. The backhead can be seen in place inside the cab, the flywheel fits neatly inside this, however it had to be made a little slimmer before it would fit inside on my mate Bob Goodyear's lathe.
The backhead itself is constructed from a Lochgorm Kits etch, it fitted well and needed no alteration, it's a good starting point and will be detailed with LGM components which are on order.

Heroes of the Footplate.

Figures from Pete's 1 :43 scale Heroes of the Footplate range 

Pete has sold Heroes of the Footplate to Chris Smith of Invertrain who will continue to manufacture the range of 1:43 scale figures. The sale will enable Pete to spend more time on creative projects, progress will be posted on this Blog at regular intervals.
A tutorial on painting gauge 0 figures can be accessed on this blog, see... "Painting Figures" above.

HR53 Lybster...update

HR53 Lybster with cab rear in place.

I added pick-ups to the bogie by gluing a strip of copper clad insulation board to a support on the underside of the bogie to which n/s wiper pick-ups were soldered. I ran a wire to the motor and ensured that both ends of the wire could be removed easily so the bogie in turn could be removed without fuss. The wire was soldered to a small plate with a hole in it through which a 10BA screw passed into a threaded hole in the copper clad board. The extra pick-ups have definitely improved the running quality of the chassis.

I ordered some conductive paint from Maplins to experiment with as I thought it might be a quick way of shorting the bogie wheels on the return side. However my impatience got the better of me and, though I know it's in the post, I did the job the conventional way just now with a wire soldered between brass centre and rim, running in a groove cut behind the wheels.

HR53 Lybster

The cab is double-skinned to facilitate glazing later on, though I've only made the extra front plate of the cab as yet. I intend that the cab rear will have the roof attached permanently and will be screwed in place on the footplate to be removable so the glazing can go in from underneath.

Meanwhile...I added pick-ups to my Yankee Tank's front bogie and intend to try the conductive paint on the return side wheels when it arrives...I'll let you know how it works.

HR53 Lybster progress

HR53 Work in progress

The chassis runs smoothly, though as an 0-4-0, as I've made no provision as yet for pick-ups on the bogie wheels. I have all the parts I need to hand now including the dome which together with the chimney was turned by pals at the Carlisle club. These need a good deal of file work to finish them, nevertheless they're looking the part. When the front splashers are in place they should mask most of the area under the boiler so I don't plan to model any inside motion. A metal fillet will be added inside the cab corners which will help when I round the corners off . The front and rear of the cab will be double-skinned to facilitate glazing.

HR53

The MSC fly wheel much improves the running quality of the chassis. It protrudes into the cab and will run partly inside the backhead though it will have to be reduced in width to fit. There is a circle of rivets behind the smokebox, clearly visible on photos of the prototype. I've left room for them on one of the rings behind the smokebox and plan to use resin transfer rivets from Archer Surface Details to model them. There's an instructional video linked to their website which shows how to make a circle of rivets. I made a trial circle and thought the results were encouraging, the backing to the resin transfer rivets is very fine and won't show behind the smokebox and the rivets themselves seem robust enough for the job. I plan to use these transfers to model the little lines of rivets that surround the window openings too.

Yankee Tank revisited

HR54 at CD0GG Running Day.

The Carlisle club's running day was a quiet affair this month so HR54 had plenty of opportunity to show her paces on the layout and very well she ran, hauling a respectable train with seemingly little effort, until a crankpin nut loosened and a coupling rod was shed, curtailing further running for the session. Clearly my fault... running along the test track at home is simply not the revealing test that a club layout provides.

HR54 rear view

There's nothing like enlarging a photo of a model to exaggerate the faults, not only do the crankpin nuts need attention but I note that there's an obvious bare patch behind the cab handrail and several other areas of paintwork that could do with attention.

HR54 front view.