Taking Stock

Taking a new layout on the road has prompted Himself to rethink the storage of our rolling stock.

We've used these very safe and sturdy bespoke wooden boxes for a number of years now with Dduallt but the order in which the carriages were laid out in the rows was becoming increasingly anachronistic.

The formation of FR carriage sets changed greatly in the years between us first showing the layout in the mid-1990's to the present day, with new carriages being built, others rebuilt and re-using the numbers - and in many cases that was all the shared with the previous one - and the order in which they were marshalled mucked about with.

All the new models we built to keep up with developments on the FR, and all the new WHR stock, was stored in an ad hoc fashion in a new set of boxes and not in any formation that related to the order they were running on the real railway.

As the years went on it was taking longer and longer to get the stock transferred from the boxes into their formations on the layout, and became a right faff when it was time to dismantle the layout at the end of the exhibition.

So this is how the boxes are laid out now.

Here's the main WHR carriage fleet...

And the main FR box...

It still contains some glaring anomalies for a 21st Century WHR layout - like the push-pull set in its two tone green livery. Yes there is enough replica building to keep me occupied for a number of years.

Match Point

With the tamper finished for my client I can, at last, get around to working on our own KMX. Or at least the match wagon which goes with it.

Making a match wagon has been a long-term ambition, as I wrote a few weeks ago.

This project is going to be a 'kit bash' and I'm using one of the OO9 Society's latest in-house kits for a generic RNAD wagon which is the basis of the real WHR wagon.

The key bits I need from the kit are the solebars and axles boxes and I'm also making use of the plank effect wagon top.

I got Himself to measure the wagon for me at Boston Lodge Works a few weeks ago so I have some proper data to work from.

Interestingly, if you're building the RNAD wagon kit you need to chop the ends of the solebars because they are over-long (they are also from a mould for another kit) but it just so happens they are the perfect length for the match wagon.

The floor, however, is too short in the kit, which made it harder to use it as intended to set the solebars the correct distance apart.

So what I've done is to cut a piece of styrene to do the job because there is plenty of clearance above the wheels.

The kit does come with two floor pieces (that legacy of its design for another kit, again) so I was able to cut a slice from the second one to make my floor to the correct length.

Now I have started to add the side extensions before setting about making the storage boxes on top.

The floor on this wagon sits much higher than the typical FR / WHR wagon so before going much further I think the next job is to compare it to some of our existing stock to work out how to mount the couplings at the correct height.

Emergency Stop

Finally my 2nd KMX tamper is ready.

This one is for a client who has decided to paint it himself so there are some bits left off for the photographs such as the hydraulic lines on one side and some pipework which disappears into the engine compartment at one end.

The last job I needed to do was to cut and fit all the small emergency stop buttons, which the tamper is festooned with, and that involved cutting many slivers from styrene rod less than 0.5mm thick, for the buttons, picking them up in the jaws of pliers and gluing them into place.

I hope I've made as perfect a copy of the original Bron Hebog tamper as I can. The test will come at our exhibition in Hull next month when I plan to hand it over to the new owner. He's already indicated he'd like to see the two of them side by side.

And, yes, I do realise I've got the roof on the wrong way round in the photos. Doh!

2046

A few days ago I wrote a post about making the master for the new bogie design for 2046.

At the time I was just about to pour the RTV mix into the casting box. I left it for a day to set, then removed the mould and filled it with resin for the first time.

The first casts can sometimes be a disappointment but this one was perfect. Very soon I had another three cast, cleaned up, and ready to fit to a brass bogie frame.

And here they are at home under the carriage.

So that's 2046 just about complete - or as much as I'm going to be doing to it.

I shall now pass it onto Himself to paint and finish off - he'll have to cut and fit the glazing and solder up a set of the handrails which go each side of the entrance doors. (He won't thank me for that)

Don't hold your breath to see it in traffic on Bron Hebog, though, because Himself has a whole rake of virgin white carriages waiting to be painted.

More on that soon....

Discs & Pads

Given the job I do I'm very good with deadlines - and on the wireless we measure them in seconds - but the flip side of that is I'm very poor when I'm given an open-ended task and procrastination and diversion are the order of the day.

This goes a long way to explaining why more than two years on I still haven't finished my 2nd model of the WHR KMX tamper which I am scratch building for a customer,

A very patient customer, it must be said.

(The fact he doesn't have a layout to run it on probably goes a long way to explaining why he's not been hassling me to finish it)

However, we have finally decided on a handover date when we exhibit Bron Hebog in Hull next month which gives me a few weeks to complete the final bits which need to be done.

So last week I removed the motor and the trailing bogie - which is a Kato 'shorty' chassis which has been split - and added some of the bogie details such as the outboard disc brakes.

These are made up from some large axle bearings which I have filed down and glued onto the plastic bogie frame before fixing on some styrene to represent the calipers.

Rolling Along

The last big challenge of building the new WHR carriage 2046 is producing a new design of bogie.

Boston Lodge turned the carriage out with heavily modified SAR diamond frame bogies with roller bearings and altered suspension.

I already have the brass frets for the bogie frames, because I use those in my wagon kits, but I need to make a new master for the axle box / bearing and suspension details to cast in resin.

On the version for the wagon kits I cast the axle boxes and the springs as separate parts to be glued on individually.

When it came to producing the other variant, the Bettendorf bogie, I ended up casting the whole bogie side as one piece and I've decided to do the same again this time.

One of the reasons I've chosen to do it this way is because of the difficulty I'd have cleaning up the axle boxes if I cast them on their own. It would be rather fiddly.

As you can see the master is ready in its casting box for a covering of moulding rubber and in a couple of days we'll be able to try it out with resin,

White Lines

We did say before the show at Woking that while the layout may be complete in terms the length of the run and the basic shape of the scenery it's a long way from finished.

So Himself has got back down to work with some detailing on the first board which includes Cemetery Crossing.

New things to be seen here are the tarmac surface, road markings, cattle grid, gate and fencing.

For a moment I thought he'd scratch built the cattle grid but I'm told that it's a laser cut wood kit.

He's also altered the course of the footpath from the cattle grid alongside the line, along with the gate gap in the wall, because he wasn't happy with the old alignment.

The rail webs have also been weathered which makes a huge difference. There's a lot of track to do on this layout so it'll be a while yet before that job is completed.

And on the logistical front a new lot of clips for the end transport plates have arrived and have all been fitted.

He's also fixed Velcro all the way around the front edge of the layout to make it easier to hang the curtain at exhibitions and save making a lot of drawing pin holes in the wood.