James Spooner
Western Thunderer
My modelling endeavours this weekend have been focused on painting tables and tableware. They are now all painted and glued in position. Photos attached.
Nigel
Nigel
Elmham Market in EM
- Thread starter James Spooner
- Start date
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
I’m getting to a point where I can’t really progress the restaurant car until I am able to obtain some Modelu figures to populate it (and Modelu is developing some figures to go in the 0 gauge Pullmans sold by Ellis Clark; they should be ready next month). I have finished the bogies for the third class restaurant car and will probably construct the underframe over Christmas but a box in a corner of my man cave started gazing at me balefully.
This box contains components to make a Wickham DMU. Only five sets were built and they all worked in East Anglia, with photos showing them in use on the Stour Valley lines, so prime candidates for Elmham Market. Worsley Works makes etched sides and ends for these units but the rounded nature of the driving ends doesn’t really lend itself to etched brass construction.
Enter stage left Paul Godwin, @Godders53, the very active GERS modelling co-ordinator) who was also planning on making a Wickham DMU (and has actually finished his; very good it looks too!). His silver tongue persuaded another very fine GERS member and modeller, David Barham, to develop 3d prints for the driving ends. When I heard what was afoot I jumped on the bandwagon and David very kindly supplied me a pair of ends too. I have been accumulating some Bachmann components to provide bogies and underframes from their DMU range (the Wickham units were radical in terms of body construction but very traditional in terms of power plant and bogies).
There matters sat until this evening when I dug out the etches and ends. I have formed the sides of one coach, soldered them to the non driving end and have glued the driving end on, with the glue still setting. Photo attached. This will be a bit of a pick up and put down project as the restaurant cars will take priority and the ground signals will progress behind them.
I also pushed the restaurant car around the tightest bends on Elmham Market to make sure it went around everything OK, which it does…
I also took a couple of photos of Elmham Market in a lull between trains…
Nigel
This box contains components to make a Wickham DMU. Only five sets were built and they all worked in East Anglia, with photos showing them in use on the Stour Valley lines, so prime candidates for Elmham Market. Worsley Works makes etched sides and ends for these units but the rounded nature of the driving ends doesn’t really lend itself to etched brass construction.
Enter stage left Paul Godwin, @Godders53, the very active GERS modelling co-ordinator) who was also planning on making a Wickham DMU (and has actually finished his; very good it looks too!). His silver tongue persuaded another very fine GERS member and modeller, David Barham, to develop 3d prints for the driving ends. When I heard what was afoot I jumped on the bandwagon and David very kindly supplied me a pair of ends too. I have been accumulating some Bachmann components to provide bogies and underframes from their DMU range (the Wickham units were radical in terms of body construction but very traditional in terms of power plant and bogies).
There matters sat until this evening when I dug out the etches and ends. I have formed the sides of one coach, soldered them to the non driving end and have glued the driving end on, with the glue still setting. Photo attached. This will be a bit of a pick up and put down project as the restaurant cars will take priority and the ground signals will progress behind them.
I also pushed the restaurant car around the tightest bends on Elmham Market to make sure it went around everything OK, which it does…
I also took a couple of photos of Elmham Market in a lull between trains…
Nigel
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robertm
Western Thunderer
Lovely exGER restaurant car, alas I can’t find an excuse to have one on the Bishops Stortford branch.
The views of EM are just so how I remember my local station especially the station house, the council houses and the loading gauge. Even the Lodekka bus except I lived in Eastern National not Eastern Counties territory.
How I wish I could go back and watch a J17 or J19 pottering around Felsted station yard.
Merry Christmas to all.
Bob
The views of EM are just so how I remember my local station especially the station house, the council houses and the loading gauge. Even the Lodekka bus except I lived in Eastern National not Eastern Counties territory.
How I wish I could go back and watch a J17 or J19 pottering around Felsted station yard.
Merry Christmas to all.
Bob
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
A very Happy Christmas to WT’ers…
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
With Christmas now past and New Year yet to come I have cleared my head with a few long walks and have reverted back to the restaurant car. The gangways and couplings still needed to be resolved (whilst I generally use three link couplings I try to use Kadee close couplings within carriage sets, partly because they are close to the buckeye couplings used by Gresley on the LNER and partly because they hold carriages a fixed distance apart without acting like a loose coupled train).
Until today I hadn’t worked out how to do that with D&S carriages nor how to combine that with a reasonable representation of a gangway. My initial plan to use very flexible plastic didn’t work; it just wasn’t flexible enough. Before Christmas I slipped into the local art shop and bought some black paper, black crepe paper and black tissue paper to continue my experiments.
My latest effort has sides made from paper folded into a concertina and a top made from tissue paper, all glued together with super glue. The coupling assembly used the MJT etched brass coupling mounts, suitable cut and bent to fit into the bogie pivots and with Kadees fitted. I had to fit the same assembly to one of my Gresley ‘shortie’ corridor coaches to see how it coupled up and it, so far, seems OK.
I think I will test the arrangement around the tightest curves on Elmham Market in the morning and see if it works in practice. I attach a couple of photos showing the two coaches coupled together.
Nigel
Until today I hadn’t worked out how to do that with D&S carriages nor how to combine that with a reasonable representation of a gangway. My initial plan to use very flexible plastic didn’t work; it just wasn’t flexible enough. Before Christmas I slipped into the local art shop and bought some black paper, black crepe paper and black tissue paper to continue my experiments.
My latest effort has sides made from paper folded into a concertina and a top made from tissue paper, all glued together with super glue. The coupling assembly used the MJT etched brass coupling mounts, suitable cut and bent to fit into the bogie pivots and with Kadees fitted. I had to fit the same assembly to one of my Gresley ‘shortie’ corridor coaches to see how it coupled up and it, so far, seems OK.
I think I will test the arrangement around the tightest curves on Elmham Market in the morning and see if it works in practice. I attach a couple of photos showing the two coaches coupled together.
Nigel
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
Well the test did work fine today, so I’ll chalk that one up as a success. I have also been trawling through a collection of photos I was given, mostly taken originally I think by Dr Naunton, and one showed an image of an ex GER carriage with a British Standard gangway end as modified to couple to Gresley/Pullman carriages and sporting a blanking board. This looked nothing like the door in the kit so I fettled one out of some scrap brass sheet and soldered it to the gangway frame in the kit. I also made up some concertina bellows from the black paper I bought and am now going through the process of priming and painting before final assembly. I have also made up a coupling mount for the other end of the carriage.
Also whilst trawling through photos I noticed that I had omitted to add the blue
first class labels on the windows. A photo of E663E in crimson and cream livery in Liverpool Street station clearly shows it had them so they have duly been added.
Some photos attached…
Nigel
Also whilst trawling through photos I noticed that I had omitted to add the blue
first class labels on the windows. A photo of E663E in crimson and cream livery in Liverpool Street station clearly shows it had them so they have duly been added.
Some photos attached…
Nigel
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
I have done very little modelling over the last few days as our grandchildren (with parents!) came to stay; lovely seeing them but not conducive to modelling! The kids did want to see trains go round the railway though so that was an excuse to insert the unfinished restaurant car into a set and see how it all performed. Quite well if I say so myself; just the last bits of detail to finish, add passengers and glue the roof down…. I took a short video of the train running through Elmham Market behind a Royal Claud…
Nigel
Nigel
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
With the family all dispersing back to their homes and work after the Christmas break I have managed to get some time in at the workbench. At the moment I am focusing on the third class dining car, most of which seemed to be Dia 429ajd, like their first class kitchen counterparts, seemed to have been rebuilt with larger windows in the 1930s, resulting in them lasting until the late 1950s.
Patient readers of this thread will recall that I made the bogies up from FK3d prints towards the back end of last year. My efforts today have been towards getting the underframe to a state where it can sit on the bogies and be ready for the body when @Herb Garden designs and has the sides etched for me. The solebars have been made and soldered onto the floor and the footboards added. Buffer etches and buffer mountings from Kean Maygib (to give the carriage sprung buffers) have also been soldered in place. I have constructed the battery boxes but am now trying to figure out where they went. I have a photo that does give a good indication (see below) and if I don’t get any further information will have to run with that. A couple of photos attached.
Nigel
Patient readers of this thread will recall that I made the bogies up from FK3d prints towards the back end of last year. My efforts today have been towards getting the underframe to a state where it can sit on the bogies and be ready for the body when @Herb Garden designs and has the sides etched for me. The solebars have been made and soldered onto the floor and the footboards added. Buffer etches and buffer mountings from Kean Maygib (to give the carriage sprung buffers) have also been soldered in place. I have constructed the battery boxes but am now trying to figure out where they went. I have a photo that does give a good indication (see below) and if I don’t get any further information will have to run with that. A couple of photos attached.
Nigel
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
More progress on the underframe this evening. I have cut out and soldered the mounting plates for the bogies and soldered them on to the underside of the floor and attached the battery boxes. I’m getting close to the limit of what I can do until I have managed to work out the rest of the underframe detail and receive the new etched sides.
On that basis I might well turn my attention next to finishing the remaining ground signals.
Nigel
On that basis I might well turn my attention next to finishing the remaining ground signals.
Nigel
Tim Watson
Western Thunderer
Afraid I am a little late to the discussion on fields & cows etc. but hope these observations might be useful?
I was intrigued and delighted to see the green hummocks in the dairy field. They could be where the cow sh1t (that’s what it was called on the farm I grew up on) has encouraged a more luxurious growth. That being the case, cows tend to crap where they stand, often together. There might be areas where these green hummocks are more grouped together, say towards field corners and under tree shade, or nearer hedges. Another reason for lumps in the ground on very old permanent pasture is ant hills, but these are always the same colour grass, just lumpy. I think I modelled a field with these on Chiltern Green, many years ago, but not sure many people ever wondered why?
I would definitely make the cattle as red polls, being an easy livery to apply but, by definition, they will need de-horning - which could be bloody...
The area around the water trough would definitely be muddy and lush green, partly due to the cow ….
The garden hedges are miracles of precision trimming but would probably look a bit more planted if the bottoms were raised off the garden and field base level by a small amount. Hedges bottoms are nearly always higher than the ground surrounding them and a little bit more open.
Just a few meandering bucolic thoughts.
Tim
I was intrigued and delighted to see the green hummocks in the dairy field. They could be where the cow sh1t (that’s what it was called on the farm I grew up on) has encouraged a more luxurious growth. That being the case, cows tend to crap where they stand, often together. There might be areas where these green hummocks are more grouped together, say towards field corners and under tree shade, or nearer hedges. Another reason for lumps in the ground on very old permanent pasture is ant hills, but these are always the same colour grass, just lumpy. I think I modelled a field with these on Chiltern Green, many years ago, but not sure many people ever wondered why?
I would definitely make the cattle as red polls, being an easy livery to apply but, by definition, they will need de-horning - which could be bloody...
The area around the water trough would definitely be muddy and lush green, partly due to the cow ….
The garden hedges are miracles of precision trimming but would probably look a bit more planted if the bottoms were raised off the garden and field base level by a small amount. Hedges bottoms are nearly always higher than the ground surrounding them and a little bit more open.
Just a few meandering bucolic thoughts.
Tim
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
Thanks Tim and your observations are much appreciated! It is currently sub zero in the garage attic, but when more clement weather arrives I will see what more I can do to address your points. Interestingly, I did attack the hedges with a pair of scissors, but obviously not enough!
Nigel
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
Something of a breakthrough today as I have kindly been presented with pretty much all of the information I need to figure out the underframe fittings. On that basis I now know I don’t need to worry about Westinghouse brake equipment as it was all removed in the 1930s and I have a photo showing where the dynamo is sited. I have therefore added the dynamo and vacuum cylinders/rods.
I then turned my attention to the three gas tanks. I have spent too much time trying to turn 10thou nickel silver sheet into cylindrical form and have given up for the evening. I might pop down to Alton Models in the morning to see whether I can obtain some 5mm diameter Evergreen rod or, alternatively, some 5mm brass rod or tube and cheat that way. The last bit will be the queen posts and truss rods.
Nigel
I then turned my attention to the three gas tanks. I have spent too much time trying to turn 10thou nickel silver sheet into cylindrical form and have given up for the evening. I might pop down to Alton Models in the morning to see whether I can obtain some 5mm diameter Evergreen rod or, alternatively, some 5mm brass rod or tube and cheat that way. The last bit will be the queen posts and truss rods.
Nigel
