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Tales from the carriage shops

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Mayner

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Last years New Resolution not to start any new projects and concentrate on finishing my long list of un-finished projects kind of backfired, to make matters worse one of our cats Beeze took up residence in Keadue station, an eye level layout is very attractive to the feline species.

I have removed the buildings and stock until I get a chance to install a lighting pelmet above the layout to complete the proscenium arch effect to disguise the awkward exit stage right at the Arigna end of the yard.

The year before last we made the mistake of adapting two kittens 6-8 weeks apart who are now unable to share quarters and our office has become by default a cat bedroom.

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I did manage to complete the detailing and painting of some 4mm scale 21mm gauge stock but have not gotten around to commissioning/ordering decals

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The Ruston 88DS is a very old Impetus kit similar to those used by the Sugar Company the rest of the train is my own design, I hope at some stage to have a mail train suitable for the GSR and CIE green & black and tan eras.

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And so this New Years Resolution to tidy up the workbench and start something new for a change 9_9

Prototypes for CIE MK1 & 2 Flat wagons, 650 class patterns and a pair of hooded vans for my mail train.

The Unimat SL is set up for turning between centres for new axle centers for one of the Large Scale   locos. The large scale storage yard and loco yard sit below the baseboards for either an American N or Irish 4mm layout if I ever get round to building either.

The baseboards and backscene for the new layout were installed about 3-4 years ago, I am a slow worker and getting slower by the day.IMG_4082.JPG.4b78fee0e731bd9691225ad79faedf3c.JPG

Close up of lost wax spring hanger masters for flat wagons. The MK2 flats on the left are slightly lower than the standard CIE 20' chassis in order to carry 8'6" containers throughout the system. The MK 2 flat will have to be re-mastered to simplify assembly.

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Lost wax wagon spring and 650 Class loco castings, these were cast using a cold casting process from the original brass masters. The castings will then be used to produce a mould for casting in pewter once I have completed cleaning up the castings

 

 

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9 hours ago, Broithe said:

Every station should have a cat.

Try to instil a sense of duty by making the position official.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tama_(cat)

Beeze had being doing a good job patrolling the line without disturbing or de-railing anything for about a month before he accidently knocked over the goods shed which fell to the floor. Our other little monster Bushka an absolute Ja Ja Garbor of a cat made short work of the crossing gates at the end of the yard and has a penchant for de-railing N Scale trains, keeps a close interest but hasn't tackled the Large Scale trains

His favourite nesting spot was in the cutting between the loco shed and the roadside tramway section though I havent a photo

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  • 1 month later...

One of this years New Resolutions was to start some new builds along with finishing my un-finished projects. Top of the list were a pair of hooded vans for the mail and passenger trains as I did not keep any for myself when I released the vans in 2013.

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Following Eoin's example made a simple jig or fixture to temporary clamp the parts together while soldering the sides to the floor and ends. In this case I screwed the floor to a sheet of MDF and used a piece of stripwood to clamp the sides against the floor and ends until soldered in place. The ends on the JM Design 4w vans are designed as part of the floor and fold up into position to speed assembly, rather than assembled as separate parts.The doors are designed to fit into the recess, solder is locally sourced 139° with dilute "Ranex Rust Buster" (phosphoric acid solution). I usually use an Antex 55 W TCS Temperature Controlled Iron but I have recently graduated to a Hakko Soldering Station

The vans were built on Bulleid Triangulated chassis with the usual Inchacore bufferbeam arrangement with the flanges facing outwards, tricky to form from flat metal parts. Designing a workable arrangement for the underframe was tricky as the axleguards/W irons usually fit behind the underframe channels, designing a headstock/buffer beam that would fold up easily was challenging to say the least.

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1 Solebar one buffer beam.                                                                                                                                                 Folding up solebar flange in vice

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The finished article                                                                                                                                                                                       The head wrecking stuff folding up the buffer beams! 

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     Fold 1                                                                                                                                                                                                      Fold 2

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                                               Completing the channel/fold 2                                                                                          Completed buffer beam in position

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Van with solebars and buffer beams soldered in place.                                                                                                                           Solebar folded up and held in position for soldering

 

 

 

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An evenings work.  Next stage running and brake gear

 

 

 

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Edited by Mayner
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  • 2 months later...

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Large scale staging lead & turntable to loco yard.

The turnout ladder to the large scale staging was originally laid with LGB Med points and electronically controlled by the DCC system & a JMRI CTC panel on the computer laptop. I relaid the ladder with a combination of handlaid and Sunset Valley No4 switches as a result of de-railment problems with body mounted couplers when I shifted from1:22.5 to the more correct 1:20.5 scalestock for American 3' narrow gauge, with hand operated turnouts.

The ground trow for king turnout at the yard lead was difficult to reach in the corner behind the turntable and under a door. Attempts to convert the turnout to electric control with Aristocraft switch-machines was unsuccessful as I could not get the blades to sit reliably against the stock rails in the reversed position.

I eventually moved the ground  throw out from under the door and installed a mechanical linkage between the turnout and ground throw using 1.2mm KS brass rod and model aircraft bell cranks. 

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Model aircraft bell crank mounted on brass plate screwed to shed framing

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Ground trow and linkage. I used 12mm No 3 dome headed wood screws as guides, the linkage was actually constructed from two pieces of 1.2mm brass rod connected by a 1.2mm bore brass sleeve soldered to the tube. This arrangement gave some adjustment during set up and operation has been 100% reliable since installed.

 

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I acquired a pair of SSM GSWR 6 wheelers a brake 3rd and a 4 compartment 1st as suitable stock for a Burma Road inspired layout up to the end of steam.

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The kits were released by SSM around 1999 as a 5 coach set and have been available individually since Des Sullivan took over the business several years ago. The coaches were designed with a 1 & ½ bogie arrangement to get around curves and can be assembled to suit OO, EM or 21mm gauges by soldering the bearing units to the bogie frames. I used 12BA bolts to align & secure the units in place until soldered then folded the bolt head flush with the bogie frames. I used a tapered broach to open out the holes to a 12BA clearance.

I wasn't able to produce and decent photos of the folding and bogie assembly process as I am still trying to get to grips with  a newish camera.

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Bogie frame folded up and bolted together for soldering. The solder is a locally produced 179° solder which does not appear to flow as well as the equivalent  Carr sheet metal solder and finished the assembly with DCC concepts Saphire flux and 145° solder which flows better and is easier on the sinuses than phosphoric flux.

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The floor, underframe and upper stepboards are  basically designed to fold up from one piece of brass the important thing is to make sure edges and the pieces being folded are adequately supported while bending.

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Bogie units and underframe nearly ready to be joined, I still have to bed up the buffer beams.

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One 6w coach chassis, next step to fix springs and axleguards before soldering the lower footboards in position, followed by vacuum cylinders, gas cylinders and buffers.

I omitted the SSM coupling mounts which appear to be designed for tension lock couplers, on brass  locos and stock I usually mount Kadee or D&G hook and loop couplers on a pad built up from plasticard flush with the underside of the buffer beam.

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11 hours ago, brianmcs said:

very nice work Mayner .

Does this mean the 650 class kit is going to be released ?

The 650 should be available late 2018 once I have completed a few tweaks to the artwork and the final test build. 

Back to square wheelers:

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The coach body is basically designed to bolt together so that the sides ends and roof can be painted separately. 1st step is to form the tumblehome in the sides, the instructions recommend supporting the sides on a resilient surface like a computer mouse and forming the curve with a piece of brass rod, I prefer to clamp the sides in a vice in a jig formed from a piece of skirting board then form the curve with a brass rod.

 

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Sides and ends have flanges and tabs that bend at 90° for attaching the floor and roof assemblies

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Usual drill of supporting the side or end on a firm surface and bending over the tab at 90°.

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Basic body asseIMG_2043.thumb.JPG.0ea9a435d01f6634060c65f2995c2471.JPGmbly waiting to be bolted together.

Body assembly temporarily bolted together.

 

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Starting to look like a coach, the detailing takes a bit longer!

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One of this years new year resolutions was to catch up on my backlog of unfinished projects along with my new builds.

I picked up a job lot of TMD/SSM loco kits at Expo-EM at the Bletchley Leisure Centre around 20 years ago including a MGWR E Class later CIE J26  0-6-0T loco the first etched Irish loco kit. 

 Although I already had a model of 553 assembled from one of the original TMD kits about 30 years ago, I thought another E Class/J26 would be useful as the original loco is just about due for an overhaul/re-build. 

The kits are supplied with parts to assemble the locos in original MGWR condition with long cast iron chimneys, flush smokeboxes and a rather ornate smoke box door, the MGWR reboilered the locos from around 1912 and fitted conventional smokebox doors, the locos appear to have received snap riveted smokeboxes and Inchacore built up chimneys during the 1940s with most operating to the end of steam.

I have worked on this loco in fits and starts over the past 4-5 years, the build was substantially complete when I managed to break off the end of one of the coupling rods. I decided to have an new set of rods engraved rather than attempt a repair or fabricate a new set of rods.

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This week I eventually got round to fitting the rods, these are a fish belly pattern similar though a bit heavier to those supplied with the kit, there was no sign of binding when I rolled the chassis up and down the test track. On this loco I am experimenting with pickups fabricated from phosphor bronze strip soldered to short strips of PCB sleeper strip glued to the inside of the mainframes. The chassis was spray painted Howes weathered black. The motor is a Mashima 12X24 can with drive through a Branchlines Multibox gearbox with a 50:1 reduction this arrangement should result in a low top speed and adequate low speed torque for a shunting branch line loco.

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The Branchlines Multibox have multi stage metal gears and should last a lifetime. 

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The riveted smokebox was produced from my own etchings, most of the detail filed sanded off the smokebox door and hinges added from etched wagon strapping, I am not sure where the chimney came from. The photo shows up the wonky sandbox, the vacuum pipe arrangement is classical Midland, the pipe is by Markits who produce a huge range of wheels, gears and detail castings for steam locos.

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I finished the superstructure of the loco about 2-3 years ago, I need to investigate why its not sitting level on the chassis and do a bit more of a clean up before painting and lettering.

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The chassis on my original J26 has an 1980s drive system with an open frame motor and single stage 40:1 gear box and tends to wobble a bit at the tail end. I will probably upgrade the loco with a similar chassis and motor transmission to the new loco and back date the loco to GSR condition with tall cast iron chimney and flush smokebox.

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Edited by Mayner
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One of my 2017 New Year resolutions was to complete what had been the study model/test build for the CIE 4w TPO, SSM prepared a set of suitable decals around the time I released the kit. I painted the van about 12 months ago along with a brace of ex-MGWR vans in CIE green, GSR Maroon & Purple Lake but could not find the decals.

I finally unearthed the decals when I started work on the GSWR 6w coaches, including a set for a silver van!

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Its tricky masking around those recessed doors but at least the 4 wheelers did not have mail bag pick up and set out gear like the bogie & 6w TPOs.

The P & T emblem and lpost box instructions were on plates fixed to the coach sides presumably supplied by the Department rather than lettering applied by CIE staff. 

Des did an excellent job on the bi-lingual instructions which are fully legible, the van is a bit schizoid on one side numbered 2965 & 2566.

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I am planning to add an interior to the TPO and the other 4 w vans, David Malone a pioneering S4 21mm gauge modeller built a heating van & a luggage van with detailed interiors from my kits so the challenge is set.

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One of my ambitions is to build 1960s and steam era mail/goods trains, though the steam era train will probably be made up of pre-amalgamation stock with an ex MGWR 6w TPO

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The break through of the week was rescuing a MGWR van & a CVR horsebox after 12 months from a brake fluid bath. Apart from an accident with hi-build primer the MGWR van is ok, the horsebox was an early exercise in soldering and basically needs a complete strip down and re-build.

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Getting RGS No 20 back to service after she failed in service with a broken axle has been high on the to-do list and became even more urgent when DRGWR 348 was wrecked this week falling nose first from the high line smashing her pilot beam and bending the frames ahead of her lead truck.

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Bachmann use a stub axle arrangement and plastic muff for the bogie wheelsets on the Large Scale 4-6-0 locomotive, on inspection there were cracks in the plastic muffs on both axles and Bachmann no longer supply the wheelsets or bogie as spare parts.

I decided to replace the plastic muff with a brass sleeve, the live wheelset is not an issue as I no longer use track power and I had some round brass bar of suitable diameter.

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1st step was to cut two sections of brass bar slightly overlength for the sleeves then face off the ends in the Unimat and start to bore out for the stub axle using a center drill set up in the tail stock. The Unimat is probably older than I am, I bought it about 5 years ago complete with battle scars.

 

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I use a piece of silver steel to line up the head and tail stocks before boring out the axle sleeves

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Sleeve bored out with a 2.5mm HSS drill then opened up to full size with a 3mm drill bit. I check the overall length once the sleeves are bored out then finish to final length in the unimat.

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Wheel set ready for re-assembly

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Re assembled wheelset stub axles are secured in place with Loctite Retainer or Studlock. 

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Wheelsets re-assembled in leading bogie. The slot arrangement appears to be effective as these locos successfully go round large scale No1 radius curves .

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had something of a disaster about 2 weeks ago when a large scale brass 2-8-0 fell about 3' from the "High Line" that links the garden railway to the storage tracks/fiddle yard in the garden shed. 348 basically landed on her nose bending the pilot beam up about 90° calling for quite significant repairs, fortunately she did not land on the smokebox or funnel.

I used the wreck as an opportunity to carry out a some cosmetic repairs to the loco.

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348 after her wreck, pilot beam in the blacksmiths shop for repair. Track panels on left and turnouts on right are for a relaying job disrupted by a months rain!

 

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Repaired pilot beam with pilot attached. I basically had to dismantle the beam down to its component parts, straighten and re-solder, some of the soldered joints had sheared off on impact. Everything bolts together with m2 hex headed nuts and bolts.

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Pilot painted and ready to be re-attached to loco, The whole sub assembly was given a coat of semi-gloss clear before bolting to loco.

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Pilot attached to loco. I masked the smokebox and stainless steel fittings, before giving the completed assembly a light coat of satin black and 2 coats of sealer to complete.

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I bought the loco second hand about two years ago, the air receiver pipework was missing on one side of the tender, the pipework fabricated from KS brass, fixing cleats from brass strip.

Pipework is still incomplete I am waiting for some valves to arrive from the States.

I blackened the brasswork with Carrs Metal Black before painting to reduce the risk of paint flaking off.

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1st a dip in Metal Surface Conditioner followed by a rinse in hot water to help form a key.

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Combination of dipping in Metal Black and application by rubbing with a cotton bud, followed by rinsing in hot water and allowing to dry. These chemicals are relatively toxic avoid contact with skin. The brown residue in the container appears to be a result of the reaction between the metal and blackening agent.

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Brackets coupling lift bar touched up/blackened with a cotton bud. Brown stains are from the surface conditioner.

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Pipework & cleats pre-painted then fitted. I then masked out the tender body/re-railer and trucks and gave the tender solebar and one of the grab rails a quick coat of black and clear sealer. Did not notice the chipped paint on the air receiver will need to touch up.

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Engine and tender back together, tested ok

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  • 2 months later...

Reclaiming the office as a den/layout room again, some vacuuming and track cleaning 6T worked the 1st Mixed in at least a year into Keadue this afternoon, put her train away and is once again in the shed waiting to work tomorrows train to the broad gauge at Boyle, Dromod or Sligo depending on how far you stretch imagination.

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6T on shed ex T&D coaches on carriage shed road. The coal stage is a new feature assembled from stripwood sleepers, I assembled it about a year ago but did not fancy its chances with Beeze living in the room. Somehow or other the carriage shed survived the GSR edict to remove all carriage sheds on the C&L perhaps, Kingsbridge did not realise that the tramway extended beyond Arigna.

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Keadue Ground Frame. Hopefully there are enough levers to control the points and signals at Keadue. There were similar uncovered frames at Ballinamore and Drumshanbo.

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The mixed has set out 4 wagons at Keadue, a covered probably sundries and an open by the goods shed and a pair of convertible wagons on the loading/cattle bank. The Leyland Comet flat bed handles local deliveries.

There appear to have been serious proposals to standard gauge (5'3") the C&L in the early 1920s possbily a very late revival of the Ulster & Connaght in connection with a new(all-Red) shipping route from the United Kingdom to Canada via Greenore & Belmullet!

And so it came to pass a Broad Gauge train however humble passing through Keadue .

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A GSWR train at Keadue?. I assembled the GSWR Lav 1st to keep the Bk3rd company, now I will have to think about a 3rd 6 wheeler. I originally assembled the J15 around  30 years ago, before re-building the loco in its current iteration about 7-8 years later, I will have to replace the missing tender spring.

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Going away a fairly typical pre-post amalgamation branch line or cross country passenger train. I am tempted to back date to the Mid-1920 seldom modeled railways still the dominant mode of transport, shorter more frequent trains than post 1939, larger more modern locos and stock emerging, simplified liveries compared with early 1900s.

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Re-working the ruins so to speak Branchlines Clogher Valley Horsebox. I made a hash of the original assembly about 25 years ago, tidy up and re-paint as part of a CVR train, I still have to build a CVR loco & 4w passenger brake van.

 

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A closer look at the new 6w 1st, a lot more leg room than 3rd class. I need to level up the buffers!, sort out interior partitions, seating and a permanent set of wheels for this coach before it reaches the paint shop. I am toying with the idea of Digham or B&B couplers for my broad gauge stock as the Kadee couplers fitted to the J15 look a bit ridiculous!

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I seem to have been building 101 or J15 Class locos for nearly as long as the GSWR 😊, another 5 years or so and I might just beat the record (1866-1903) but no where close in terms of sheer numbers 5-119 locos. 197 has been around in one form or other since 1986, was rebuilt into its present form 7-8 years later, 191 was completed in 1994-5 and won a prize for best kit built loco in my then local model railway club competition, I picked up (rescued) a part built J15 kit at a swap meet at some stage around 2000 and have two un-built kits in stock for the past 10 years.

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The loco that started it all 197 in GSWR/GSR condition ready to leave Loughrea with a mixed. The coaches were based on the SSM GSWR 6wheelers possibly with scratchbuilt bodies to resemble Midland stock the oil rather than gas lighting was a signature of older MGWR stock. This loco has a sprung chassis and a bit of a racer with an open frame Anchorage DS10 motor & 40:1 gearing

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191 arriving at Loughrea with a cattle special. This loco is more of a plodder with a Mashima can motor and 80:1 gearing ideal for goods trains. 19 is similar in detail to the majority of the class with non-superheated round topped firebox as running in CIE days, 197 although a slightly more modern loco built in 1899 is basically running in GSWR/GSR condition with double smoke box door and slope fronted smokebox a classical GSWR feature.

 

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I hope to add a few more detail variations including a superheated loco with belpair firebox like 186 when I complete the next 3 locos. I would like to standardise mechanically possibly with the motor mounted in the tender with a drive shaft to the trailing or driving axle in order to add as much weight as possible in the boiler and firebox to haul heavier/longer trains.

 

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On 8/22/2018 at 7:10 AM, popeye said:

Lovely loco's and coaches.

 could we get a closer look at the two red ones please? :-bd

 

The red coaches were built by Brian Fennell a talented modeller who built most of the locos and stock used on the Loughrea layout.

Brian to a degree pioneered the modelling of Irish locos and stock on OO gauge in the 1970s when the majority of Irish modellers were content to model British, Continental or American outline. sScratchbuilding a number of 001 Class and a Supertrain modified from Triang-Hornby MK2 coaches. The 001 Class were fully scratchbuilt apart from wheels and motors, plasticard bodies, brass chassis with central motor and drive on all axles with a rubber band drive system similar to that used by Athearn at the time.

http://www.modelrailways.ie/LoughRea.html

Edited by Mayner
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  • 2 months later...

I toyed with the idea of buying a lathe and a milling machine a few years ago and ended up buying a Unimat SL. Manufacture between the mid 1950s and mid 1970s the Unimat DB200-SL1000 was a popular for light modelling work as they can be set up to operate as a milling machine, a lathe and other machine tools.

The motor in my Unimat appeared to give up the ghost in June, refusing to run and sparks coming out of the bottom of the motor housing. Luckily enough a local re-wind/electrical repair shop was able to do a repair, it looks like a radio interference suppressor blew up causing one of the motor leads to wrap round the commutator, but not trip the workshop circuit breaker.

I set up the Unimat as a lathe last night to reduce the bogie center height on a number of large scale archbar freight trucks.

When I  replaced  LGB & Bachmann freight cars with 1:20.3 (15mm)  scale stock over the past few years, I was surprised at the variation in coupler height among AMS/Accucraft freight stock. My stock is a combination of new and used with a variation in height between different types of stock, but more surprisingly between cars of the same type.

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On checking the coupler height of 3044 was 2.6mm higher than the car on the left and the majority of box and stock cars. Coupler height was lower again on gondolas (opens) & flats but that's another story with an easier solution.

I will probably stick to AMS couplers rather than change to Kadee, magnetic uncoupling does not really come into it when you have working coupler lift bars and switch stands, though switching or running round trains can involve a lot of walking on my railway if you don't plan your moves in advance😃

The car on the left has a more recent design of truck with a lower bogie pivot center and different brake hanger design.

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The archbar trucks are of a similar design to the modern American 3 piece freight truck and the BR "Ridemaster" bogies. Lowering the height of the bogie/truck center.

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The truck center beam/bogie bolster just about fits in the 4 jaw chuck and clears the lathes bed bars.

Centering the center beam was simple enough gradually adjusting the jaws using the lathe tool as a guide.

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The center beam was close to the limit for the SL in terms of diameter, though rising pieces are readily available for the head& tail stocks and tool post.

GSWR 6 wheeler in the background waiting its turn through the paint shop!

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Before and after shots of early version of AMS archbar trucks, the truck on the right is from a gondola that may have spent more time in a box or display case than the truck on the left.

Die casting appears to be of good quality min 12-15 years since manufacture, machined reasonably easy with a good finish.

 

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Current design of AMS archbar truck, truck center 2.6 mm lower than earlier design, underslung brake hangers, plated wheels.

This basically completes the coupling height adjustments to the AMS stock, the next job is to fit Kadee or AMS couplers to my Bachmann locos and freight stock.

Another step closer to reliable operation

Edited by Mayner
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Reasonably priced Unimat's come up on e-bay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UNIMAT-3-LATHE-AND-MANY-MANY-ACCESSORIES-CLOCKS-MODEL-ENGINEERING/283247594252?hash=item41f2df4b0c:g:eO8AAOSwnFpb4Xe7

The Unimat 3 is a much more solid machine than the older SL1000 though either type are more than adequate for small scale modelling.

The only warning is that you will probably endup spending more on late/milling machine accessories than you spent in buying the machine in the 1st place.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The GSWR 6 wheelers are going through the paint shops. The whole process was going well until the daytime temperature dropped 7-8° on Mon and I got caught out while trying to prime the brake 3rd. Luckily enough a dunk in airbrush cleaner removed all the paint, thanks to all metal construction and solder assembly😃.

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Body components & bogies primed.

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Underframes in the spray booth

Day 1

The SSM coaches break down into sub assemblies for painting. I generally warm to model and the spray primer on top of a radiator before priming. The primer is an Australian etch primer which does not classified as a corrosive substance (may not contain phosphoric acid) and appears to depend on solvents to etch the substrate. I have used it for about 10 years on brass and it appears to be fit for purpose.

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Day 2, Dark grey general primer on 1st & roofs, underframe parts sprayed satin black.

Floor and interior partitions cut from plasticard, pre-formed seating.

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I had an anxious moment trying to find the ventilators that fit above the carriage doors, luckily I found enough for the passenger compartments.

I am planning to paint these coaches in the GSR maroon colour scheme (similar to LMS) used from the mid 1930s onwards.

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  • 1 month later...

Another year older few if any of last years un-finished projects completed  here we go again.

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GSWR coach painted, interiors to be fitted, decals, glazing and couplings still to be fitted.

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Brake 3rd hole above the ducket is for one of the side lamps. I like a mixture of open and closed droplights.

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4 Compt 1st a lot more legroom and seating with armrests.

I still have to finish installing pick ups on the J26, paint the loco and decide on lettering or a numberplate.

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The interior is not a pretty sight at this stage, not happy with the results from brush painting the partitions, will replace when I get my hands on some Evergreen planked styrene.

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Great to see some in GSR livery. Will look great with a couple of SSM or 00 Works J15s.

Any idea where you can get an approximation to the large shaded door numerals (for “1” or “3”), or a GSR crest? I’m nearly sure I’ve seen transfers somewhere for the crest.

If it’s ever of any use to anyone, I have an actual mounted GSR crest which I could photo and send to anybody interested.

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Black ends on all GSR and green CIE stock, except the odd one with observation end windows - maroon for those. There were, for example, a few carriages with first class half-compartments at one end - these would have had one black end and one maroon.

Lining for GSR stock: There were three liveries. Initially, they just continued with the GSWR very dark "crimson lake" which was like a sort of Guinness colour - looked dark brown / black at first glance, but on close inspection was a very very dark maroon. See 836 at Downpatrick. Then there was the short lived brown and cream. Lining on that was a single black line and it seems only to have been applied to front-line main line bogie stock.

Once the "steels" or "Bredins" were first introduced in 1933, everything was painted as the models above - the same maroon as the LMS in Britain (and the NCC, for that matter). It was lined the same way too: two single yellow lines, one just below the cantrail, and one just above window level, with a "yellow-black-yellow" below window level - exactly as LMS.

Secondary stock which was only used for excursions generally escaped getting any lining, as did most narrow gauge stock, and these would end up plain maroon.

All carriages of all types, whether lined or not, had large yellow numerals denoting class on doors. These were shaded in red and black. The GSR crest was carried on everything but a few old Dublin and Kingstown, and Tramore, 3rds.

 

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28 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

John - in the pic above of the J15 with the cattle trucks, what are the cattle trucks - kits or what?

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Brian Fennell a member of the MRSI Loughrea group scratchbuilt a rake of 15-20 mainly GSWR cattle wagons  about 20 years ago.

Provincial Models produce a nice model of the standard IRCH cattle wagon used by the GNR & SLNCR, no one produces a kit or rtr KN

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Leslie has announced a (long-needed!) CIE standard one this year. If you're listening, Leslie, put me down for ten at least!

This, like the Bullied open, the RTR J15, various laminates and Park Royals by SSM and Silverfox, H vans and CIE / GSR goods brake vans is very welcome and completely essential elements of modelling Irish railways in the 1950s and 60s.

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5 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Leslie has announced a (long-needed!) CIE standard one this year. If you're listening, Leslie, put me down for ten at least!

This, like the Bullied open, the RTR J15, various laminates and Park Royals by SSM and Silverfox, H vans and CIE / GSR goods brake vans is very welcome and completely essential elements of modelling Irish railways in the 1950s and 60s.

Thanks, Jon, your interest is already noted on my database!

Planned for Blackrock 2019.

The other wagons you mention are all available right now, especially the new GSWR Brake van - see the Provincial Wagons website!

Happy New Year everyone, however you say in it your language!

Leslie

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