Brake Two

I've had an update from Himself on progress with the second of the Pickering brake carriages.

This one is the Worsley Works version.

It is the correct length but has the wrong panelling detail on the doors - you can't win!

Himself has also made a correction to the windows at the van end, which needed a fillet of brass on their outside edges to make them the right width.

Regular readers will also be please to know that I found the motivation to return to the work bench and have a bash at making a master for the rather ornate lamp pots on the roof.

More to follow....

Van 3

Apologies for the short pause in posting, on account of there being very little going on at my end of the operation.

I should have been starting work on a lamp pot for the top of the Pickering brake van, but I've not found the motivation yet to sit down and start playing with bits of different size styrene tube.

Himself has been doing the final cosmetic work on the sentry box brake van.

In the end impatience got the better of us and we decided to do our own approximation of the lettering on the side doors rather than go to the expense - in time and money - of commissioning what would be a very tiny transfer with lettering so small you could hardly see it.

Shortly after committing to this, and spraying it with varnish, we discovered another modeller had the transfers scaled down from 16mm as part of a job lot, but we're content with our decision.

It looks quite the part running at the back of a few of the Victorian liveried coaches with Welsh Pony at the head.

Going Potty

Another challenging part of the Pickering brake project is going to be replicating the lamp pots along the roof of the carriage.

These look much more detailed than the usual plain cylinder shape we see.

My intention is to try to knock up the closest-looking thing I can in styrene and then use it as a master to cast the full set.

While Himself solders together the Worsley etches I've brought back the redundant Dundas body to practice on.

The Missing Foot

The Pickering brake van project has taken an unexpected turn.

Himself turned detective and discovered the Dundas body kit is a foot shorter than it is supposed to be.

On a whim he ordered the etch for the same carriage produced by Worsley Works, and when placed against each other it confirmed the earlier kit is longitudinally challenged.

Usually I expect we would overlook this - after all we model in a scale where the track gauge is 1mm too wide for our prototype - but when you factor in the other difficulties with this kit, such as the challenge of fixing in a floor and inserting an interior, it tips the balance.

Using the Worsley etches also means he can solder the roof in place and the floor can be kept removable.

Because neither 'kit' comes with bogies or an underframe it's not like we're creating any extra work for ourselves.

What we'll do with the redundant Dundas body we'll have to wait and see.

Number Nine

With an empty work bench I find my thoughts turning to what I might get up to next?

Something that's been on the wishlist for quite a while is the Dinas-based Baguley Drewery number 9 which turned up on the Welsh Highland in 2009 after being built for work at a sugar mill in Queensland.

It has ventured down to Porthmadog at least once and I've always been drawn to the bright yellow livery (my favourite colour).

At first glance it would seem to be an ideal candidate for a Farish 08 chassis with the jackshaft drive adaptation, but it's a much bigger beast than the FR's BD 0-6-0s, as comparison to the vintage brake van behind it shows.

I have some basic measurements for the body so it might be that I'll try to work up a design and start working out how best we can scratch build it.

Buffet Service

The model of Carnforth buffet car 114 I've been building for a customer is ready to be sent off to its new home.

The blue panel behind the windows is just a protective film on the glazing sheets to prevent them getting scratched.

The challenge on this carriage was to make it match its brass-built twins as much as possible, which is no easy task working in styrene.

We'll find out for sure once my customer has painted it.

Sliding In

There's certainly some head scratching required putting together the Dundas brass kit for the WHR Pickering brake coach, the replica of which will shortly be rolled out from Boston Lodge for the Welsh Highland Heritage Railway.

I hadn't realised that this was as much a case of a 'scratch aid' kit as you'd get with the Worsley product.

One of the issues we've had to overcome is how we'll get an interior in there.

The body has more strength than other brass carriage because there there wide taps top and bottom which fold up and guard against the sides getting pushed inwards and becoming misshapen.

However it does leave you wondering how you are supposed to insert full width compartment dividers and bench seats?

So the solution Himself has come up with is to cut pieces out midway along along the sections at the top of the carriage.

I can then make up the interior in short sections which can be lowered, one by one, into the carriage and slid into position.

A roof will have to be fixed in position as the last thing after painting and when the interior and glazing are fitted.

It's a much more inconvenient way of doing things than with out scratch built carriages where we maintain access at all times so the glazing is the very last thing to go in.

That Works

We're delighted, once again, at a terrific job done for us by our friends at Light Railway Stores with a set of works plates for the cab side of Welsh Pony.

These really are quite tiny, but it's amazing the detail which they still get onto them.

The only problem is we forgot that the loco has two on each side, and only ordered one pair - oops!

Hopefully it won't take too long for a second set to arrive.

Speaking of Welsh Pony, it was very satisfying to get further confirmation that we made the right call in deciding to finish the model in its current guise.

Any student of the FR post-revival knows that anything described as 'temporary' ends up being anything but.

The latest edition of the FR Magazine includes an article mentioning that the loco is expected to stay in this condition for at least ten years.

Good job we didn't decide to wait for it to appear in the Garraway Green livery, then.....

Floor Show

Over the Easter weekend I got a bit more work done on the contract job for a model of FR buffet car 114.

Having shown you the body shell in a previous post, this time I'm concentrating on the floor / chassis unit which will remain removable after the model is finished.

The seats are resin castings, using moulds I developed last year for the same customer.

In this carriage only have half the space is given over to passengers and I've yet to work out what needs to in the buffet area - I don't have any images to work from.

The underframe has a new innovation for me.

These Carnforth carriages have very distinctive truss rods made out of square tube section.

I've got an idea they might double as the vacuum brake pipes, but I could be wrong in that?

On previous models I've made these by fabricating each one out of styrene strip.

This time I hit on the idea of making a master and casting resin copies of it, with the idea they'd have more strength and durability and I think they've turned out very well.

The carriage will run on my own design of modern FR bogies with fold-up brass frames with resin covers.

Ten Sixty-Six

Harold the Second is making his debut on Bron Hebog.

The paint job was very simple, although the shade is a little too much towards the grey end of the spectrum, but it was a very strange Hammerite hue that the shunter was turned out in.

Himself has done a neat job with some DIY transfers using photographs and some tiny letters to spell out Hunslet on the front of the bonnet.

It really is very wee and would look quite ridiculous next to one of the giant Garratts on the layout.

Buffet Box

I passed that magic moment this week where a carriage stops being four separate pieces and comes together into a body shell.

114 is much more delicate that my average styrene carriage because it has so little beading on the outside, meaning that most of it is just 0.20" thick.

In order to prevent it developing any permanent warp I quickly moved on to cutting the floor / chassis and not only making the roof but gluing it into position at a much earlier stage than I usually would.

This should keep in shape reasonably well, and by the time I have fitted the seats and the glazing it will be really quite solid.

Changing The Guard

We're ticking off another of the models off our 'To Do' list with Himself soldering up the etched brass parts of a Chris Veitch kit for the 'Sentry Box' brake van.

The replica's been around for a few years now on the FR but we've not got round to it yet.

It turned up among Himself's birthday presents a couple of weeks ago and just requires a Peco wagon chassis to get it rolling.

At least this time there won't be any grumbles about complicated lining!