What is now on the the bench was recently a figment of imagination.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I've been busy with transfers and painting the underframes and bogies. The transfers have been coated with Johnson's Pledge to seal them in place and the bogies and underframes have been painted with Humbrol 85 satin black.

I have ordered some oval buffers that will be fitted along with buckeye rubbing plates and couplings.

One underframe painted, one to do.

Diagram 130 end loading car flat with removable sides.

Diagram 131 end loading car flat

Half of the ten car flats that I've built so far.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The postal vans have had lettering and emblems applied to all ten of them. I did have some old Replica white lining transfers however the sheets were several years old and seem to have become embrittled over time, when I attempted to use them the lining broke into lots of small pieces. I have ordered more form Railtec which ought to arrive soon enough.

POT 30279, a stowage van with net recess from diagram 2176. This van did not have sorting racks being entirely unfitted inside and was the only one of its kind. Interestingly there was a POS diagram 2185 of which three were built in 1954 that had no provision for nets but were fitted out with sorting racks a lavatory and a wardrobe, they were numbered 30300/1/2. I shall run these two types of van next to each other in the formation once completed.

 

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The lining transfers for the Postal Vans arrived today but I've been busy with my next project which is cutting and shutting all my old Hornby APT-P stock into variations of the proposed test trains as seen on this site:

http://www.25kv.uk/APT.php

I bought one of the ew Hornby APT-P sets just a few weeks ago and so I've been spurred into action with my cut and shuts. I will have enough bits to build up into the Q, R, S, and T versions of the train seen toward the bottom of the above linked website.

Cut and shuts so far, we have:

• Power Car X3*
• Driving Power Car X1
• Driving Van Trailer X 2
• Driving Semi Powered Van X1
• Semi Articulated coach X2
• Articulated Coach X6
• APT-U Development Coach X1
• Driving Second Class X1*
• Trailer Guard First X1*

 

There is a complete five car set which will be left original and of the above marked * are as original also.

 

See if you can make sense of the photographs !

 

 

Power Car and driving Power Car.

Driving Semi Powered Van.

Driving Power Car.

Driving Van Trailer.

Semi Articulated Coach.

Articulated Coach.

APT-U Development Coach.

Confused ?  I was but after a couple of days its getting clearer !

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

The white lines have arrived for the Postal Vans and I've applied one side of eight of them so far. I'm having a rest from them for a while before I go crossed eyed !

Along with the white lining the buffer heads for the Motorail car flats arrived also, I had  a break from the lining this afternoon to fit them. The next job will be buckeye rubbing plates of which I mad and fitted one out of twenty need for the ten car flats.

The new buffers and rubbing plate. The buffer stocks have been shortened to 1.5mm long to represent the buffers in their retracted position.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

I've been steady away with the APT project, my eyes are still googly from doing postal van lining which still requires to be finished. So far I have been jointed, filled and sanded most of the cut and shut parts of the bodies although some bits will have to be done once they are fitted back together and ready for paint so those bits will have to wait for now.

In preparation for fitting the coach bodies back together I have painted all the seats and internals ready for reassembly as one together I won't be able to get at them. These seat units will have to be cut a shut to fit the respective vehicles but at least they are painted. I'm not too fussed about the shade but they will look a lot better than pink and light blue plastic, I didn't paint the floor as it can't be seen once together.

Painted seat units ready for cutting to fit appropriately.

The next job was to remove all of the bogies to make working on the coach bodies easier and also so that spray painting will be easier. For paint colours I have chosen RAL 7043 Traffic Grey B and RAL 7032 Pebble Grey, Railtec transfers do a full set of APT markings along with red and white stripes so only the two shades of paint are required. Masking the windows is a challenge to be dealt with however I have an idea which may work. While the bogies were out I fitted new wheel sets of the correct size, these are 10mm Lowmac wheels from Peter's Spares.

Bogies with the Peter's Spares 10mm Lowmac wheels fitted to them.

The original Hornby APT was a bit square looking at the cab ends, the rest of it was pretty well proportioned, and so I took the step of filing one of the cab ends to improve its shape. It came out very well and much better captures the look of the real thing comparing well with the new Hornby model. Fortunately the front corners of the nose end are quite a decent thickness and allow for a reduction of almost 3mm across the front edge. I shall get all of the cabs to a similar condition as the shewn below and then I shall do the relief details around the head lights. I plan to fit clear glazing to the cabs and so I also filed a taper the area around the cab side windows. The windscreen requires a slight enlargement which is also on the job list.

Juxtaposition of the new Hornby, old Hornby modified, and the old Hornby original.

Side profile view.

End on view.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I've been working upon two DVT's, a DPC (driving power car) and a test car known as Pilot which was marshalled between the later iteration of the POP train.

The two DVT's, the pencil lines shew where the van doors will be.

The DPC, there is on ly one van door as the rear of the vehicle would have had traction motors fitted into it.

As you can see Pilot was made form all the left over bits hence it is made from three sections as the left overs were not long enough to make it from two sections. 

d

Pilot with the side blanked off, it had no windows, and all of the joints filled. The bogie pivot mounts had to be moved as the sections were from non articulated bogies. The POP train sections will have to be scratch built.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Here are the beginnings of the POP train's outer two cars, They have been made from .040" plasticard form drawings supplied to me by a friend who has one of the Leadley Kitts POP train kits. His one was one of the original space frame design, the version I'm building is the same two vehicles after the side had been fitted with cladding and the centre car added.

Base plates and entrance vestibules with the shaped bulkheads in the back ground.

The first bulk head was made and checked for symmetry before using it as a template to cut all of the other bulkheads, this way they all end up the same shape although due minor disparity I marked them with an X so that would all face the same way. 

The bulk heads had gussets fitted so that they would stand perpendicular once glued in place. The gussets were mostly made from scraps. The one in the rear has a compartment for seats and will have a window which is why the gusset spacing is slightly odd. If you look carefully you can see the doors have been scribed onto the vestibule sides.

The roof was fitted next and was cut slightly wide, this was done a flat surface and weights were placed on the top so that it stayed flat and straight while the glue cured. the lower bodysides were then added again using a flat surface as a datum to align the pieces.

The upper sides were fitted last and had an angle scraped onto them so that a sharp edge would be formed at the waist line. The cuts are for opening out the vestibule are to be seen in the front one, the rear one having already been cut and trimmed to shape.

Gibbo.

 

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Here is POP II on its bogies, the end two have tilt and the centre car is yet to be attended to. The centre car is made form bits all cut and shut and so does not have the tilt slides, they will have to be remade as I have done with the outer cars.

All three in formation, I should really get on and paint the Mk1 set instead of building more stuff but that would be boring !

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

Still "Badgering" on with the APT POP II train,

The tilt ramps were added to Pilot, as may be seen the bogie mounting has been altered as the coach has been made from leftover bits and bobs. The glue shews up pink because the brush used was to glue the top and bottom halves of the body together and it joins along the lower edge of the red line.

The corridor ends connections being fabricated from .125" Plastruct rod, I filed a 1mm flat along their axis so that they would have a decent adhesive area and also that they wouldn't roll around while the glue cured. The tops of PC3 and PC4 have had filler applied to create the peaked roof section.

Once the filler had cured I used a sheet of 120 grit sand paper to flat off the filler and create the angle required. The moment after applying the filler I had a thought that I should have glued a 1mm piece of strip along the centre of the roof as a datum to both fill and file to, good old hindsight !

The result of the sanding has turned out quite well despite my idea of fixing a guide to the roof being about five minutes too late. There a re a few small low patches which will be treated remedially. The wavy edge of the filler is due to slight undulations in the roof and despite the wavy edge the formed roof is actually flat when checked with a straight edge. I filled and sanded the undulations in the body sides in the same way as may bee seen from the patches of filler on the body sides. The corridor end connection were also filled and sanded to shape.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Hindsight has struck again !

This time in that I found some more photographs of the POP II train on a website dedicated to test trains and it seem that PC3 only have one set of side doors on one side only. My annoyance at myself being that one of the sets of doors that I had cut in now had to be filled in again, just grand.

Said website:

http://www.traintesting.com/Index.htm

POP Train:

http://www.traintesting.com/POP_train.htm

There is some fascinating reading and unusual photographs about all sorts of engineering problems on this website, very good indeed.

Newly filled in doors.

After filling and sanding, as well as may be expected but annoying al the same.

The upside of all this is that I found out that the side windows of PC4 were offset and I thought that they were directly opposite and so with a bit of calculation I worked out the positions of both of them. One side was the same as the spaceframe POP train and the other was almost central to the car itself. I also found some good shots of the ends so that PC3 could have the end door and PC4 its end door and windows marked out correctly.

Don't look at the wonky track pin !

In other news I've started reassembling the first two of the articulated coaches for the rest of the project, photographs to follow.

Gibbo.

[LNERW1]

I sometimes wonder whether it’s just one person making all of this. You have too much spare time Gibbo! Your layout looks very interesting too. I’m guessing it represents one of the endless junctions on the West Coast Main Line (or West Coast Main Web as the case may be). You don’t seem to be one for scenery, though. I don’t suppose I blame you. Best of luck as always. 
LNERW1

[commerlad]

@gibbo675  I know you keep busy but check this out if bored

 

APT-P Vehicle Specifications

 

licking on the image of each part brings up scale plans. 

And you can search other versions as well.

APT-POP Train

 

Edited Sunday at 11:00 by commerlad

[gibbo675]

Hi @commerlad

I had already discovered that web site, and have used all sorts of information from it so far into my build.

Thank you for including it all the same, and also thank you for posting on my thread I do like the communication, by all means ask any questions.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

 

I've been perusing the website noted by @commerlad and I found this photograph:

The reason it interests me is that I built this one. It is an N gauge APT-e that I built for a friend of mine and it runs on his Burshaw North Western and Nine Mills layouts on the British exhibition circuit. It is made form a Graham Farrrish class 91 chassis somewhat altered with modified B4 bogies taken from some Mk2 coaches.

Here it is again on Burshaw North Western alongside the Prototype HST.

Gibbo.

 

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I have been fitting the glazing and seating to the APT-P stock today, the POP II train has been shunted into the nearly started siding along with the postal vans.

All but one of the coaches have been glazed by cutting at the mid point between the windows to fit two pieces into each side which requires only minor filling at the joint and on some minor filling at the ends due to the slightly different dimensions of the first and second class sections of glazing. The one coach that has not been made up from two sections per side is the TS3 which is for the APT-R/S/T versions, it has eight sections per side as it used up all the left over sections. A little more filler required on this one.

The pencil marks are to line up the inner edge of the window so that the marking out of the cut could be made.

The other job was to cut and shut the seating to be placed inside the various coaches. I have painted the seating up in red for second class and unclassified and a mid blue for first class. I haven't worried too much bout seat arrangement so long as there are seats is good enough for me. worse still the aisle swaps sides in first class as the seating is 2+1, Rule 1 applies in this case !

The seats for  the buffet car should really be second class pattern but I didn't have enough so I used left over first class which have sine been repainted red. i did however build up the kitchen and serving bar area also since painted.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

I altered the seats in the first class sections by doing yet more cutting and shutting. I took from the split in the centre of the carriage to one bay form the end and reversed them so that they lined up with the other end and glued them back in place, quite simple yet it does look a lot better.

One of the altered first class sections, the unaltered bay is over the bogie pivot pin and I decided that was too much like trouble to try and reverse.

The main job I have been doing today was lining transfers on the postal vans, only the lining across the ends of the vans to apply now.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Hi Folks,

Most of the coaches have had their interiors fitted and have been glued together. Once the glue had cured I set about filling all the joints and sanding down the sides so that they will be flush ready for primer. The ends of the coaches also required filling where they clip into place, the eradication of this joint looks better already and they are not even painted. This is a bit of a boring job however it should make the finished model a lot better than having lumpy transfers and wonky paint lines as a result of uneven surfaces and groove where the body halves join.

Sanded filler always looks patchy, no doubt there will be more filler to deal with after I have primed the body shells.

Gibbo.

[gibbo675]

Yo Dudes,

I've been mostly sanding down filler on the remaining coaches however I had more excitement when the postman delivered an extra Driving Trailer Second. The whole point of getting this DTS is so that I could have one with the nose in the up position so that it could be used to form up test trains and the like.

I even went to the trouble of opening out the drivers windscreen despite the fact that it cannot be seen at all once the nose is fitted, I won't be bothering to glaze it though !

Here it is almost finished, there will be a bit of filler to put round the top of the bulk head which I can only do after the body is finally fitted. This will be done after the interior is painted and so far only the seats have been painted.

Gibbo.

[Musdy Water]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jj5K7QKdKgbfbJqs/?mibextid=K35XfP

Amazing fast work!

Are you working from plans or just photos for this conversion?

Did you make the nose cut with the body and chassis attached?

Edited 14 hours ago by Musdy Water

[gibbo675]

2 hours ago, Musdy Water said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/jj5K7QKdKgbfbJqs/?mibextid=K35XfP

Amazing fast work!

Are you working from plans or just photos for this conversion?

Did you make the nose cut with the body and chassis attached?

Hi Musdy,

There isn't really a chassis as the body shell is in two parts, top and bottom. These were together for both the reprofiling of the nose end to taper it and also to the nose off also. I used a razor saw to mark out along the mould line that shews where the joint is and then worked around the groove to cut the nose off. The bulk head is attached to the bottom piece and is filled behind with Milliput to strengthen it and will be glued and filled once the body shell is finally fixed. I did take the bogies off although they were reattached to work out the buffer heights.

This is what I'm working from:

https://www.apt-p.com/APTNoseEnd.htm

As may be seen it has both photographs and a decent diagram.

Gibbo.