From The Carriage Works

Himself has been putting in some long days in a continuing effort to clear the backlog of carriages waiting to be finished off.

He complains that it takes him as long to put on the final details, such as handrails, paint them and then glaze them as it does for me to build them in the first place. He has a point.

First in this post we see the last two of the 13m saloons which I built a number of years back - 2044 & 2045

The main job on these has been to fabricate and fit the handrails, which Himself tells me is his least favourite task.

The difficulty is that the latest designs of carriage have handrails which are attached with a T style post at each end rather than a nice, simple 90 degree corner which could be bent in a jig in seconds from just one piece of wire.

As Boston Lodge is continuing to knock out new rolling stock with this style of accessory there doesn't seem to be any prospect of his life getting any easier.

Also just about ready for traffic now is our rebuilt 116 which I have to say is looking rather tasty.

(And, yes, we are aware that the end doors are currently painted differently. This is a period piece.)

All it requires now is a pair of proper-sized, modern FR bogies.

I'll have some news on those this weekend all being well.

Wagons Roll (Off The Production Line)

This week I've finished off the latest batch of SAR / WHR wagons I've been building for a client - these are the ones fitted with the PECO couplings which I was posting about a couple of weeks ago.

If you're tempted to have some of these wagons on your OO9 layout our kits are stocked in the FR's shop (at Harbour Station and online) and some of the proceeds of each sale will be donated to the fund to restore Welsh Pony to steam.

Change Of Plan

So, it turns out we're not making a 16 after all.

I didn't look closely enough at the picture Himself sent me of the Worsley Works etches and was left red-faced by a correspondent on our Facebook page who pointed out that what we had could only be used to make a model of 15 in its current ornate Victorian condition.

I looked again and the penny dropped with a clang! How could I not have noticed the big windows in the ends or the fancy covers on the frames.

Unfortunately, as you can see, Himself had already started to put it together so now he's got no choice but to try and replicate all the intricate gold leaf lining on the carriage.

I feat the air is about to turn blue...

Duckets Done

Having received new supplies of resin (having first received new supplies of money courtesy of my employers) I've been able to try out casting some duckets for my new models of 11 and 12.

The results are very satisfactory.

The first couple of casts had to be scrapped as they came out of the mould too soft and became distorted. I think probably because the ambient temperature was too cold during the 'big chill' last week. (My study isn't heated as luxuriously as the rest of the house.)

Being the first use of new bottles of resin may also have something to do with it I suspect.

The second pair were left much longer in the mould - around an hour - and the cut outs in the side for the windows were supported and kept square while they cured fully over the next 24 hours.

Having been glued in place on the carriage sides a little extra beading detail was added to finish them off.

I think the parts are almost ready to be glued together into a carriage body shell now. How exciting!

Fleet Replacement Programme

The process of upgrading and replacing our rolling stock to better suit the era we're modelling with Bron Hebog continues.

While I am scratch building new models of brake vans 11 and 12 in styrene Himself has taken delivery of a set of Worsley Works etches for the first bogie carriages 15 / 16.

Our existing models of these were ones I built in styrene more than 20 years ago. They're showing their age and are wearing liveries from the last 1980's so ultimately it would be good to replace both of them.

To spare Himself an horrendously complicated paint job I am minded to express a preference for finishing this first one as 16 in its current Col Stephens green livery and it can be run with our replacement for Van 10 which is just being finished off.

Test Etches Arrive

Time to crack on with another of those project which we seem to have spent years talking about but not actually getting anywhere with.

This week the first test etches arrived from Narrow Planet for our modern FR carriage bogies.

The plan is that just like with the SAR wagon bogies we will insert brass bearing cups and cast a resin piece to glue on top with the axle box and suspension details.

Until now we've been adapting Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol bogies and adding some styrene extensions to bulk them up a bit.

The picture shows that there won't be that much difference in the overall length of the bogies but the wheelbase of the brass one is clearly much longer.

Look out

A reader of the Bron Hebog Facebook page asked me how I was going to make the master for the guard's look out duckets on 11 & 12 so I thought I should show you some step by step pictures.

Instead of trying to carve the curvy shape out of a solid block I prefer to build it up with a framework with a thin styrene skin over the top.

In the first picture below you can see I'm making it up on a thick section of styrene because it's going to be used as a casting master.

I'm using 0.60" seize styrene and I've laid out the formers for the flat, square upper section of the ducket.

The bars on the outer edges of the top section are inset because this is going to form the tiny window opening - you'll see the effect when the skin is placed on top.

I've quartered a piece of styrene tube and glued that along the top - with a slight lip - to represent the tumble home at the top and the very bottom bar has been shaved a little with the blade of the scalpel to round off its edge.

Next I glue on a 'skin' to the exact same width as the framework.

It's quite thin. I've chosen 0.10" sheet. You'll see why in a moment.

You can also see how the window opening is there now.

In this last shot which shows the completed ducket you can see that I have pressed the tail of the skin down and glued it to the backing piece to form the distinctive curvy profile and chopped it off at the bottom.

I have also added some thin beading strip and filled the gaps with Milliput.

Now it's ready to have a box built around it and be covered in gooey moulding rubber mix.