7mm On Heather's Workbench - one final time, with feeling

[Heather Kay]

I’ve realised I should try and get the other two coaches in this batch more or less up to the same stage as the C31, mainly to make painting simpler.

So, here I go again…



JLTRT castings for 8ft American bogies destined to go under an E85 toplight composite. I have everything, save brake shoes and the coil springs. I’m not worried about the brake parts, and I may have sufficient spare springs that can be butchered to work.

Initial assessment and clean-up is done. More careful clean-up to tidy things properly, and then I’ll warm up the soldering iron.

 

[Heather Kay]

Sorry about the lengthy pauses. I’m not going to make any excuses.



The bogies have reached this point. I would like to say the parts were well moulded, but that would be a fib.



I’ve been hacking away at the underframe slowly. As I always seem to do I have left fettling the buffers till last. It’s one of my least favourite jobs, involving a lot of fettling, cursing and sore fingers to get nicely behaved buffers. Right now, I’m letting some superglue cure, then I’ll mix up some epoxy resin to fix the various parts more securely. The headstock ends will have to wait for my enthusiasm, as will the screw links.

I have another coach to begin. I’ll soon be digging that out to try and get its underframe to the same level as the previous two. Things can then proceed to primer and grime application.

 

[Heather Kay]

There’s always something. First the cat is poorly, and is diagnosed with failing kidneys. Then the air source heat pump, that’s been running happily since 2016, decides to throw its toys out of the pram. The poor old puss (he's 14 now) is on a special diet. The heat pump is being serviced, after deciding I should take out a decent service plan.

In between all that…



Another underframe reaches the ready-for-primer stage. I suppose I should dig out the remaining kit and start on that one.

 

[Heather Kay]

Well, it turns out the heat pump is fubar. Happily, the maintenance contract covers me for a whole new unit. While I await a slot for the new one to be fitted, I’ve reinstated the gas central heating, hitherto used simply to make a tank of hot water. Puddytat has settled into his new diet, sort of.



My plan, such as it is, was to build up all three coaches so the underframes and bogies could be passed through the paint shop as a set. Time, with the second coach at the underframe level, to break out the final of the triplets, a C54 bow-ended all third. My word, but the bogie castings were rank. I’ve done my best, but I hope a coat of grot will hide the worst under the coach when it’s finished.

By the way, in my current mood and domestic state, just getting beyond the "nope, not doing that today" stage took me about two weeks.



And this morning, time to set about this lot. It’s like déja vu all over again.

 

[Heather Kay]

People wonder why I want to give this game up.



This kind of thing is why. I ought to have remembered the brake vee assemblies need to be folded up in reverse. Now I’ve got to pull them all apart and reconstruct them. Dealing with this nonsense is why I no longer enjoy this game.

 

[Heather Kay]

Some pondering, and some cutting, and I think this will work.



Now I remember I also need to literally mill one millimetre from the floor to make vee hangers sit properly.

Gawd.

(If you meet me at the Mark S7 meeting this coming weekend and wonder why I look so angry… )

 

[Heather Kay]

And that’s the milling out of a mill done. Noisy, messy, but satisfying.

Perhaps I can get on and build the darned thing now.

 

[Heather Kay]

Well, it ain’t pretty, but I think I won that round.

Battle with trusswork next, I think. The destructions would have me make four trusses, but we know I only need two. Perhaps that’s a job for tomorrow.

 

[LarryG]

Building GWR coaches didn't suit me either. It wasn't commercial, so I only built LMS for customers. There was no such thing as a standard GWR coach underframe. V-Hanger orientation and position were not standardised on the GWR and it meant consulting scale drawings every time I built a Collett coach to a new diagram. Roofs were peculiar too, however, we are in the lap of what's commercially available in 4mm and 7mm scale.

 

[Heather Kay]

I managed this yesterday.



I don’t remember previous builds using these parts being so difficult. I couldn’t seem to get the etched folds to work sensibly. I even completely mangled one of the angle trusses - at which point I decided I needed to go for a long walk to consider my options. I had some milled brass angle in stock, so I could probably make a decent fist of it … but wait! The kit fret had four trusses. I had two spare ones, so I didn’t need to scratch build anything.

What a silly 'nana.

Anyway, that’s as far as I got yesterday. I’m busy doing travel prep today, as I hit the road for Somerset tomorrow.

 

[LarryG]

I think it was the Hawksworth coaches that had four trusses. Milled angle made more sense in 7mm scale than trying to fold the unfoldable.

 

[Heather Kay]

Slow and steady, checking as I go. C54 Corridor Thirds generally had battery boxes under the corridor side. That means this floor moulding is incorrect, and I have to shift the dynamo to the other side/end. *sigh*

Now to work out how to fit a dribble valve with no proper fixings available.

 

[Phil O]

Heather,

You seem to be making a silk purse out of a pigs ear.

 

[Heather Kay]

You seem to be making a silk purse out of a pigs ear.

Thnak you Phil. I do try.

 

[Heather Kay]

Oh boy! Even allowing for that Christmas thing, has it really been nearly four months since I last touched this build?

Looks that way, doesn’t it?

So, I thought I’d tackle some end detailing, in an effort to get the ruddy things moving again.



From the kit, etched steps are provided with a tab that goes into a moulded slot under each rivet bar. A moulded slot…

Well, I can make out a couple of slots, but not nearly sufficient. Options?

1. Drill out for a wire peg, file off each etched tab and replace with a length of brass wire.
2. Throw the whole thing back in the box and sent it back to the client.
3. Remove all the moulded details and replace with CPL etched steps.

I can’t be doing with this. Option 2 seems favourite right now. I don’t have the energy, or interest, in sorting out rubbish like this any more. However, option 3 will be the way I go. All the bits are there, on the bench, waiting for me. Oh, wait, there’s some household chores that need doing, and I could wash the car, sort out the linen cupboard, clean the kitchen cupboards…

 

[simond]

Heather

Happy New Year!!!!

Not sure if this is a viable approach but if it is the right sort of plastic and your hand eye coordination is up for it, can you melt the tags into the coach end?

best
Simon

 

[Heather Kay]

can you melt the tags into the coach end

I did entertain the thought, Simon. I’ve opted to what I’ve done before, and that’s remove the moulded backplates and use CPL etched steps instead.

 

[Heather Kay]

Thank goodness that's over. CPL steps to the rescue, superglued in place and therefore prone to being knocked off by accident. I’m not keen on the suspended gangway brackets, but that’s all I have.

What's next? For this coach, I guess I could sort the sides and roof, and begin considering the internal layout.

Perhaps a bit later. Domestic life must intervene for a while.

Actually, I’ve just spotted a step out of line. I’d better deal with that.

 

[Heather Kay]

Amid the usual clutter of tools and whatnot, I’m working on installing brake and heating pipe castings. I need to construct one more pair of CPL couplings. I’m also a bit stuck on the American bogies: I need springs, and I’m not sure I have any the right size. Rummaging in various boxes is ongoing there.

Keep a-plodding on. I’ll get there in the end.

 

[Heather Kay]

Those American bogies. They’ve been bothering me for ages. I’m sure coil springs would have been in the original packing, but they’d gone AWOL at some point in the past decade or so. I couldn’t find springs short enough, and resolved to chop down longer ones - the things aren’t actually functional, after all.



You can see them nestling against the equalising beams upper left. As you’d expect, I made a horlicks of cutting them down. In frustration, I beetled off to the dustier corners of my Bits Box. This is the part of the Bits Box where long dead projects, components for other scales, and odds and ends that have no obvious home live. Think of the overflow collections of major museums, and you’d be nowhere near.



Well, you’d never guess. I found nine short springs, just perfect for the job at hand. I made sure to thank the relevant deities.



And so, after a bit of fettling, the pesky bogies are finally ready for primer and paint. I hope the weather picks up a bit so I can make a start on it.

Attention, therefore, once it stops wandering away, once again turns to the coach interiors and bodywork.