Starting in 21mm, turn of the century MGWR (slow progress to be expected!)

[AnUnknownConsciousness]

Further to my posts of my 3D printed MGWR covered wagon in the 3D printing thread, I thought I'd start a thread for my work. I'm not expecting rapid progress, because this is a side-interest to my main one (Highland Railway c1900 in P4, my work on which can be found in threads on RMWeb and the S4 Forums, covering my in-progress layout of Thurso and other works), but will hopefully build things up over time. All stock is intended to be to P4 standards on 21mm gauge, using Gibson wheels.

The origin for my interest in Irish railways, aside from having the shared railway gauge with my other main interest, railways in Victoria and South Australia, comes from a trip to Ireland back in 2023 to visit my uncle in Dublin. As my father had spent a brief amount of time in Belfast in the 1990s, he was interested to see how it's changed, so we spent some time there, including a visit to the Ulster Transport Museum. Safe to say I left with a handful of books, and the start of my interest. 

Fast-forward to a couple of months ago where I started looking at making some models of early (1850s-70s) Victorian locos, stock, and a small layout as a side-project, as this is a period that a) has never been seriously modelled that I know of, and b) is of such personal interest to me that I'm in the (very slow) process of writing a book on the topic, which has led to many days trawling through old newspapers and meeting minute books. I decided to work to 4mm instead of HO, because I'd be making everything from scratch anyway, obtaining suitable wheels would be far easier in 4mm (to get right diameter and spoke counts), and it would give me more space for motors and gearboxes. As can probably be guessed from my working in P4, doing anything in 16.5mm gauge was utterly out of the question.

In the process of working out how I would go about building a small layout to display these models on, it occurred to me that, as I would already be working in the gauge, it would be an excellent opportunity to add some Irish models to the collection. So out came the books I'd bought in 2023, one of which is a copy of Outline of Irish Railway History, complete with a lovely illustration of Lm class no.82 'Clonbrock'. Some further research, and the discovery of the short-lived blue livery, locked in the MGWR as the subject to be modelled, primarily as I love the distinctiveness of the Atock 'flyaway' cab, the sleekness of their 2-4-0s, and the blue livery, having re-discovered my photos of the saloon in the UTM wearing it. Some more books were ordered, the excellent 'Locomotives of the Midland Great Western Railway', and Ernie Shepherd's Illustrated History (which is yet to be arrive), and a couple of wagon drawings purchased from HMRS - the covered wagon referred to earlier, and an 8t open cattle wagon, which is next on the list once I've revised the covered wagon.

To start with, we have the van in question, with apologies to those who've already seen these photos on the 3D Printing thread.

Some changes required - namely I forgot to mirror the door hinges, forgot to add the bottom door latches, and neglected to add a slot for couplers. I exclusively use Smiths screw and 3-links, so these will be getting those when I have a finished version done. I also plan to slightly thicken the walls, to reduce warping.

After a lot of thinking about how much I can be bothered making my own axles, as the S4 Society are out of stock of 28mm axles, I decided the temptation to get something on wheels was too great, so ordered some 2mm steel rod to make a few to get me going while I wait for the Society to get more stock. The rod, and some 1/16" plywood for me to cut some sleepers with, is due to arrive tomorrow. I have some Proto87 Code 55 rail and spikes in stock - which is undersize for MGWR 95lb rail, but will do to have a play around, as it's been a while since I've built flat-bottom track.

In the meantime I've started on a photo diorama, using Templot 3D printed track and some bullhead rail borrowed from Thurso's stocks. It's very rough, as my filament printer only has a .4mm nozzle, but will do until I can make some track gauges (to stand-in until I put together enough for an order from the S4 stores to include proper 21mm gauges) to put something together using the Proto87 components and some lasercut sleepers.

The landscape was cut out of 3mm ply on my laser-cutter and glued together (with some difficulty thanks to the ply warping...)

The ply then got a coat of grey primer, the sleeper base painted, and some masking tape laid over the contours to form a base for papier mache, which is where it currently stands. The module is 245mm long, so should nicely fit just about anything I want to make. 

This is where I'm currently at, though I'm hoping to get some papier mache down on it tonight, and possibly get some grass etc down over the weekend, along with a revised print of the covered wagon (and maybe one or two of my Victorian 21mm models, which also need some revisions).

 

Sara

[Mol_PMB]

Excellent - I look forward to seeing your progress and it’s nice to have another forum member doing 21mm gauge!

The IRRS archives have some excellent MGWR rolling stock drawings, and I may be able to help with those. 

[AnUnknownConsciousness]

1 hour ago, Mol_PMB said:

Excellent - I look forward to seeing your progress and it’s nice to have another forum member doing 21mm gauge!

The IRRS archives have some excellent MGWR rolling stock drawings, and I may be able to help with those. 

Thanks! I spent some time reading your thread a week or two ago, which was a huge inspiration. It's great to see there are a few 21mm modellers around - I have to say I wasn't quite sure what to expect in that regard, but having spent a couple of weeks looking through some threads on here there seems to be more than than I was expecting.

Joining the IRRS is somewhere down the to-do list, so I'll undoubtedly take your offer up at some point, it's very much appreciated.