R.Pike-thats brilliant! Of all the garden decorations I've heard of,thats the best! An ex-GNR somersault knocks seven bells out of a few Gnomes thats for sure.I agree with your comments re -the present GCR's efforts,great that these items are now being preserved with such care.
Morgan,exquiste signals so we'll forgive the apostasy-though I think I've seen a Super -D in your vicinity as well! Your operating arms are particularly neat-is that .31mm wire?I'm probably over-engineering using .45 so will try .31 next time-its what Mick uses IIRC .
I will follow your spraying advice-and take care with the detail painting as well.That won't be for a while yet as I will finish a few more projects so I can do a reasonable no. of spray jobs in one session-its a big set-up job here,I clear the porch and use that as the booth!
Rob
To answer your question the operating rods are indeed 0.3mm nickel silver wire. I finished the paint job this evening. Photos attached. They are unusual ones in that they have yellow arms. IIRC this means that they can be passed at danger if the shunting move does not apply to the route that they control. I now need to fit the lamps, glaze the spectacle and apply a bit of light weathering to kill the "Persil" whiteness.
[quote="rob"]R.Pike-thats brilliant! Of all the garden decorations I've heard of,thats the best! An ex-GNR somersault knocks seven bells out of a few Gnomes thats for sure.
Oh. The GN somersault is tucked away in a corner of the garden hidden from view mostly by the three signalboxes....<g> I have a few other signals too including an LNER mechanical searchlight. As far as i know the only other one is at Quorn unless anyone knows different?
There was a yellow miniature arm signal at King's Lynn Harbour Junction to control moves from the Cambell's Soup siding.
R.Pike-Too stunned by the signal boxes to get back to this thread earlier! Sounds like a very interesting garden!I presume all of LN(ER) origin?There must be some maintainance involved!
Morgan,I was going to ask about your operating method but see you pre-empted enquiries on RMweb!Will use .31 the next time especially as it seems to offer a much neater terminating option-I have been flattening the .45 which is a bit inexact and unadjustable,your mech is much neater.
Cheers,
Rob
Though caught for time recently I have kept a bit of progress going on the ROD's and they are now at "fitting out" stage.Thanks to Craftsman mpodels I have domes and chimneys from their A5 which suit later LNER modifications.One chimney has been shortened to a rough representation of the type fitted to some ROD's in Scotland,usually I believe with flat bar strips on the cab roof as well which will give some variation amongst the four.
A blurry shot I'm afraid,the LH is a normal Craftsman,the RH has been cut,filed shorter and resoldered held in alignment by the three cocktail sticks,the modellers friends!
This shows the difference in the two chimneys now.I bought 3 as I wanted a spare if it all went wrong,and while they are probably not that accurate I'm satisfied with the result.Hopefully I'll get a few evenings this week to get these to paintshop stage.
Cheers,
Rob
Nice to see these progressing well, it takes some guts to cut up a boiler fitting and refix it again so well done for making such a good job of it!
While I've been staying quite on this thread recently its only because I've been in awe of those signals - mightly impressive! Want to make me some N gauge ones???
lovely work- I find such tiny detail differences fascinating on models. I'm not too hot on the subject though- did the LNER actually operate O4's in Scotland or was it just 1923/4 trails? Were the cut down chimneys used in conjunction with the LNER cutdown boiler dome too?
can't wait to see them dragging a coal train round your layout,
Evening all,
Thanks Steve but I think the kudos go to you for tackling LNER in N and scratchbuilding! I reckon the signals might be feasible in N,I'm almost tempted-I must look up the MSE lists and see if they are available!Its probably Dr Tim Watson territory-I presume you have had a look at that Copenhagen Fields link elsewhere-amazing!
Will-those detail differences are one of the best things about the LNER,along with the sheer variety of fossilised stock they were forced to keep going for so long!I know my ROD's are fairly rough approximations but its great to be able to ring the changes.AFAIK 16 04's worked in Scotland approx1925-1943,classified 04/2.Roughly speaking they had lower chimneys than elsewhere,but the domes were the same as the LNER load gauge versions fitted to 04/1's.In some photos the domes appear taller than the chimneys.Whistles were moved to the firebox from the cab roof and flat strips fitted to the roofs which I'm working on as well.Ross pops also generally lacked the small mounting plate used elsewhere and in some photos appear to protrude above cab height.Most of the tenders also had a raised front coalplate fitted I think. Allocation was Ferryhill,Dunfermline and Thornton on mineral work,apparently some at times at Dundee(Tay)for general mainline goods work.Another typical Scots variation is smaller"LNER" when the number was moved to the cabside.
Bass-the layout has seen some test running on loose- laid track just to establish min radii,conductivity and cleanliness of the P/B rail-so far so good,it takes a ROD on test about 6 minutes from point to point.A bit Spinal Tap but I can nip down,make a cup of tea and be up before it arrives!
I will try to get a photo of a test run at the weekend.I wonder if the PB rail slightly enhances tractive effort-my fairly lightweight PDK B12 can handle 10 of the new style Hornby Pullmans,so overall it looks promising and should run well if I live to see it finished and am fit enough to maintain it!I'm under no illusions about the inadvisability of large solo layouts!
Cheers for now and thanks for the encouragement lads!
Rob
Last edited by rob on Tue Oct 18, 2011 10:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Finally got to the stage when I'm ready to pick up my brushes! Heres a shot of two tenders to illustrate the Cowlairs modification to the front plate as approximated by me! This is the only tender of the four with any change from standard. [URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-imag ... .jpg[/img]
This next shot shows the variations amongst the loco's.
From L to R,the first two are pretty much GCR as built with only oval buffers from Craftsman added.The next has lower LNER fitted chimney and dome,the last is my attempt at the Scottish mods,chimney lower again,Ross pops mounted without base,whistle on firebox not cab roof,middle steps,round buffers,and a fairly poor effort at the flat strips fitted to the cab roofs in Scotland.In fact the Nu-Cast roofs are not correct in their treatment of the rainstrips I think but I'm happy enough to leave be.
Now into Henry Ford mode,havingbuilt these by mass production I can have any colour I want as long as its black.......
Cheers!
Rob
Last edited by rob on Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
Some real nice variety of RODs there. Excellent work. I dare you to do one of them in full GCR lined goods livery. I really need some Robinson 2-8-0s for myself. I am still living in hope that one of the RTR manufacturers will come up with the goods. At least then I could use the body and only have to build a P4 chassis to go underneath.
Sorry this post comes so long after the pictures of the somersault semaphores, but I'm trying to work out in my head how to build these to work. I have seen photos of models and can only see a pivot on the arm and nothing to push/pull it on and off. I can't see the connection between the operating rod and signal arm and the spectacle plate.
can someone enlighten me with a close-up photo or explanation?
Hi Alan,
I think I may be able to get a slightly better shot-oddly though it's not quite as mind-bending an arrangement as you might expect before you see the components,though needless to say fiddly to build- can you hang on until the weekend?I'll try for a close up then!
Cheers,
Rob
Your operating arms are particularly neat-is that .31mm wire?I'm probably over-engineering using .45 so will try .31 next time-its what Mick uses IIRC .
Sounds like a very interesting garden!I presume all of LN(ER) origin?There must be some maintainance involved!
I really need some Robinson 2-8-0s for myself. I am still living in hope that one of the RTR manufacturers will come up with the goods. At least then I could use the body and only have to build a P4 chassis to go underneath.![[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-imag ... .jpg[/img]](%5BURL=http%3A//imageshack.us/photo/my-images/820/img3277xa.jpg/%5D%5Bimg%5Dhttp://img820.imageshack.us/img820/97/img3277xa.jpg%5B/img%5D){kind=link}