David's Workbench

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Great stuff, this is going to be a good one

[David Holman]

Managed to fit in a bit of work on the railcar this week & and giving it to Mark before I go any further, so he can look at creating a chassis.

 Nothing to fancy in the construction. The sides are being built around 1mm clear acrylic sheet, overlaid both inside and out with 20thou plasticard. A fair bit of car body filler will be needed to create some of the curves and to deal with where my over enthusiastic use of MEK solvent has caused blemishes.

 One additional thing I'm doing for Mark is building a short piece of 21mm gauge test track. This is just a piece of plywood with two three foot radius reverse curves. If the railcar can negotiate these, it should be fine on my layout. Needless to say, this item is not finished yet!

[Tullygrainey]

Great progress already David. I like your technique of overlaying onto clear acrylic sheet. A much better approach for something with so many windows than trying to glaze it after the event. 
 
Salted away for future reference

[David Holman]

Thanks Alan. Somewhere in RMWeb there is a thread of one being built like this. Look up the images for Donegal railcars on Google and eventually you come to a picture and just visit to get to the thread. That's how I found the 1:14 plans from New Zealand as well. Only problem with such searches it (if working in more obscure fields), you think you found something useful, only to discover it is one of your own posts, often from this very forum!

[David Holman]

 While the railcar is away having a chassis made, have been using the time to finish off a few wagons, most of which have been lying around for quite a while - years in some cases! This is particularly the case with these three Clogher Valley Vans. 

 Two of them are made from resin sides, cast from my own masters. Having put the sides and ends together, they got no further, as I realised I already had enough vehicles for Fintonagh. However, the County Donegal bought several of them, many of which became the well known 'red vans', often accompanying the rail cars. As their original 2 foot diameter wheels didn't ride too well at the faster speeds the railcars were capable of, the Donegal fitted 2'7 wheels and, happily, these fit nicely in the standard Branchlines chassis. This raises the height slightly, as can be seen in the photos, when compared to the originals.

  The other wagon is a butter van. I made the body from plastic sheet, but again, it has languished  unused until the last couple of days, when I finally got round to adding a chassis. It also needs the double layered roof that was used to help insulation. It was used to carry rabbits late in its life, so I'm claiming that it was bought by the Swilly for the same purpose when the CVR closed, becoming their number 210. It runs on the original, smaller wheels.

[David Holman]

Three new Donegal wagons now just short of their couplings, after I made another go at the lettering. Read recently that they were hand lettered and when you look at photos, you can see that no two are the same. Hence dipping pen and Indian ink for me then.

  Also fitted a double roof to the CVR butter van, which is now masquerading as Swilly number 210

 

[David Holman]

A couple of weeks away from modelling is a long time for me, but life has been busy of late, with a week's holiday in Jordan [fantastic country], a family wedding and a two day headteacher appointment [I am a school governor]. However, with Fintonagh appearing at the Eastleigh show this weekend, the digit needed extracting, especially as CVR Railcar Number 1 has required a new motor.

 A High Level motor/gearbox was ordered and with the usual prompt service, arrived a couple of days later. Fitting was fairly straightforward [though I do find the parts can be fiddly], but then discovered that the cab would not fit properly due to the unit sitting higher than the previous Mashima. Therefore had to carve a few bits of the body work away, which means that the motor is rather more visible than I would like. However, with No1 soon to be repainted as Donegal No 10, am leaving things as they are for now. Did take the opportunity to add some lead to the front of the passenger compartment and [fingers crossed] the railcar is now much more comfortable than before with its usual load of a van and open wagon. Some black marker pen may help.