Rhyd Reunion

My main reason for visiting the Model Rail Scotland exhibition in Glasgow last weekend was to see one of my 7mm models in its new home.

Last year I made this model of FR Observation Carriage 100 (the original one) for a modeller called David John who lives in the Highlands and he brought his layout Rhyd to the show at the SECC.

If you're wondering where you've seen it before, the layout is the cover star in the latest edition of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review.

It's not a large layout but it is superbly detailed with beautifully observed features. One of my favourites was not a locomotive, carriage or even a structure but the representation of a riverside path. It was so good you felt you could almost step into the scene and take a stroll.

David does have some super stock to run including this model of Prince which, unusually, portrays the 'England engine on steroids' as it exists on the FR today. The taller cab and the fatter smokebox are giveaway features.

There was also a heavily weathered Funkey, Vale of Ffestiniog making occasional forays into the scene.

I very much enjoyed seeing my carriage being put to use and admiring David's layout.  If you ever notice Rhyd on the bill at an exhibition near you I can highly recommend a visit,  You won't be disappointed.



Pullman Perfection?

These may be the best models we have yet built.

They are a pair of WHR Pullman carriages scratch built from styrene in 7mm scale.

It's been a long term project which has taken around 18 months from the first cut of plastic to the handover to the client.

Himself lent a hand with painting and lining of the completed carriages.

Comments and observations welcome...

Tables & Chairs

I seized upon the chance of an afternoon of domestic solitude to complete the interior of the 7mm Pullman carriage 'Bodysgallen'.

The tables, armchairs and the internal dividers are in position.



This shot shows how the interior is built up on the chassis / underframe.



There's not a lot more to do on this carriage before it's ready to be painted. The outstanding jobs are the handrails on either side of the doors to be folded up from brass wire and on each end I need to make and mount vacuum pipes and electrical connections.

I also need to mount the Kadee couplings and set the heights correctly - when I finally get my hands on some.

220 Bits Of Styrene

A tale of tedium for you this time. I've been making the seats for the 7mm version of 'Bodysgallen'. These are not simple seats, either, but the plush Pullman armchair sorts.



There are 20 of them in all and each one of them is made up of 11 pieces of styrene that all have to be cut, shaped and fitted.

To spare my sanity I've been doing it in little sessions - sometimes for 15 minutes at a time - over a number of weeks. Trying to do it all in a single go would have been just too boring.

Still, no use complaining, its all part of the scratch building experience.

The Roof Sticks

And so to the task of completing the roof on the big Pullman 'Bodysgallen'.

This carriage has a very shallow curve so I've taken a bit of a gamble by only putting in one support rib along the centre of the roof. (There are usually three)

Usually I shape the top of these by scrapping away the edges with the scalpel and then finishing off with emery paper. This time, though, I decided it would be quicker and easier - although more extravagant - by topping the rib with a length of half-round styrene strip.

In the picture below you can also see the piece of styrene for the roof skin has been prepared with a triangle cut from each end for the domes.



Here the skin has been bonded in place - or more like battered into submission...



And then the Milliput can be pressed into the ends and roughly smoothed to the right shape. It takes 24 hours to set properly but once it does it becomes rock hard and can be finessed with emery paper.



With the roof left to one side to set I turned my attention to the floor / chassis, fixing the bogie mounting points and making up the distinctive long boxes for auxiliary thingys.



And finally, for now, the corridor connections and the footsteps at the entrance doors were glued on.

The Best Bit

After weeks of hard work, finally I've got to the bit of carriage making I enjoy most - assembling the kit of parts I've created into a bodyshell.



On these WHR carriages the process starts by joining the recessed door sub-assemblies to the main section of bodyside...



And then the ends can be bonded on....



At last all the bits connect up into a box...



This is where the carriage usually starts to fight back, and 'Bodysgallen' was no exception from the rule.

The next stage is to make a removable floor which sits a little bit up inside the body. In a plain rectangular carriage this is usually quite simple, but on these WHR vehicles you need to cut away sections at the ends for the inset doors.

I find its quite tricky to get these right first time, especially when hacking away at large sheet of 60" styrene and you're making cuts of up to a foot long. I find myself trimming ever more fine slithers of styrene off the piece in an effort to get it fitting snugly, only to discover later on that it's now a little too small and then fiddling about grafting on equally thin strips to build it back up again.

Anyway, I got there in the end, and now there's the base of the roof made up too.



The next stage is to add the support ribs and fix a styrene roof skin in place - which is easier said than done - and mix up some Milliput to form the domes at each end.

Bodysgettingthere

The bodysides for 'Bodysgallen' are almost finished.



The challenge on this carriage is creating the round corners of the panels. I've done it the same way on this 7mm model as I did on my 4mm version which runs on Bron Hebog.

I curl a small length of styrene strip and then feed it into the corner gluing it along the straight edges on either side. When all the corners are done I fix some more runs of straight strip in between to complete the panel effect.

Model filler is deployed to deal with the gaps that remain in the corners.

I've also used more strip to finish off the windows, starting with the long horizontal bar and then cutting some small pieces to very fine tolerances to fix in place for the vertical divisions.



The next stage is to complete the four door sub-assemblies and the two ends and join them all together into carriage shape.

Total Ellipse

More elliptical entertainment for you today - this time as I begin work on the main bodysides for 'Bodysgallen'.

These are quite simple to knock up with relatively few, thick, pillars compared to your average carriage.

It also has two distinctive Pullman windows at either side so it was ovaltime again and the challenge was not to make a horlicks of it.

(Did you see what I did there?)

It took me a few goes to get them right. The key is getting the size of the guide triangles in the corners correct.

My first attempts were either too thin or not tall enough. These windows are a lot fatter, and more circular than the ones on the doors. I got there in the end though.

Here's a before and after shot.

Ovaltime

So, I've begun work on the 7mm model of Pullman carr 'Bodysgallen'. And because I'm running rather short on stock of 30" styrene right now - and the bodysides need rather a lot of it - I've decided to start off with the doors.

This carriage was designed to look like a mini-version of the famous Brighton Belle Pullman parlour carrs on the Southern Railway and has doors dominated by those very distinctive elongated oval windows.

So how am I going to make those? Well, I'm doing exactly the same as I did on the 4mm scale version I made a number of years back.

It relies on the same technique of curving a styrene strip that I have demonstrated before to make round-framed windows.

From left to right here you can see how I start by making a rectangular frame, then glue some triangular pieces into the corners. Then I curl in the strip which is 40 thou thick so it stands a little proud.



The next step is to fill the gaps with Milliput and they'll be ready for the second layer of detail such as the framing around the door.

The Big One

My first 7mm scale carriage, a model of FR Observation Carr 100, is finally finished and has been submitted to the tender mercies of the Royal Mail to be delivered to its new home in the Highlands of Scotland.

Himself has blown a coat of matt varnish over it with his airbrush and the glazing has been slipped into place.

And that's about all there is to say, other than that building this model has been a real eye-opener for me and if I was starting modelling the FR again from scratch again I think I would definitely go up a size to 7mm.

Do you like it?

Too Hot To Handrail

Among the sundry details to be completed on 'Glaslyn' are the handrails on either side of the doors at the rear of the carriage.

These are quite tricky things to make because they cannot be done by simply bending one piece of wire into shape. The struts that fix the vertical hand rail are positioned a little way in from the ends.

The only way to replicate this is to cast or etch a single piece or to fabricate it. I have done the latter.

Now, those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will know that me and soldering irons have only recently become acquainted, and making bits like these provides many exciting opportunities to suffer third degree burns.

There is also plenty of scope to muck them up, too. It's vital to make sure that they're all identical and that the struts are all soldered on in the same spots.

Himself had made some in 4mm when completing some of the latest WHR carriages and informed me that they were complete swines to make!

All these considerations led me to one conclusion - I needed a jig.

My solution was to start off by drilling parallel holes into a piece of thin tongue and groove to hold the struts...

Not only would this guarantee I could make each of the handrails identical it would also do most of the holding for me, which is just as well because I definitely don't have asbestos fingers!

Here you can see the wire being offered up to complete the handrail...



A dollop of solder on each of the joints and the job's a good'un. Here are all four now made up...



Here's how they look on the model during a trial fitting..

Interior Design

I'm getting tantalisingly close to the end of the build phase on the 7mm model of WHR Pullman Obs 'Glaslyn'.

The task this weekend was to fix all the interior details in place, and there are a lot of them.

Just like with my 4mm carriages the seats, tables and the internal dividers are fixed directly to the chassis and are designed to fit up inside the bodyshell with just enough clearance to slip the glazing in place after the carriage is painted.



Here's how it looks if you take a peek through the windows..

Now the only major items left to put on the carriage are the two B's - the bogies and the bags (vacuum hoses) - and then it's probably ready to paint.