My Workbench - Potters Bar and South Mimms

[mossie]

Hi Phil Brighton

I am also looking to model Potters Bar, c.1950, in 00 gauge finescale, 4mm scale, using hand made points. I am also in contact with an English friend in France who is also building Potters Bar in 00 gauge, we have been swapping information for the past year.

Your plan is what I have in mind for my layout, to fit the station in at scale length I would have to have 24inch radius curves, maybe a little bit wider, the area I have available is 6.85m x 3.5m. I am coming to the stage where I plan to draw it out full size on paper to see if will fit.

I have made some compromises to the size of the points and slips, all will B6's and the south siding on the curve and down one side of the room, scenic break at the Mutton Lane bridge, on the north side I have not decided yet.

My first choice was Hatfield, but that would not fit in the space available, I am working on a backup plan but this is in the early stages of information gathering.

If you do decide to model Potters Bar drop me a PM as I have been collecting information for a couple of years now, there are not a lot of pictures out there for my time period.

Good luck with whichever one you go for.

Regards

Richard

[Phil Brighton]

Richard,

Thanks for the offer of information, I may well take you up on that. I think you may have already helped as the best trackplan I have so far is from a 1930s crash report which I think I found through a thread you were involved in on another site.

Potters bar seems to have quite a lot going for it. I was originally set on a double track ECML station but the transition from double to quadruple has the potential to be quite interesting. I will be using Peco code 75 whichever I go for hand making track is a bit advanced for me!

Phil

[mossie]

Hi Phil

Got my track plan from the 1946 accident report.

This will be my first try at hand built track, so wish me luck.

Regards

Richard

[Phil Brighton]

You are quite right the report I am looking at is a 1946 one.
Good luck with the track.

Finally a few pictures of the Ian Kirk coaches I have been building and adding extra detail to on and off for about a year.
The roofs aren't fixed down as I haven't put any people in. I don't like painting people but I also don't like paying for painted people a situation which is getting me nowhere fast.

[Atso]

Nice work there Phil! I especially like the teak effect and lining a nice neat job, you should be very pleased with these.

[jwealleans]

Yes, I like those too. One comment, though - the MJT commode handles capture the shape a great deal better than a simple wire one. It makes quite a difference. They'll also match up better to any Hornby ones you might care to run them with.

[earlswood nob]

Evenin' all
Mike Trice posted a good method of making grab rails for Kirk kits:

During my previous post I mentioned some improvements that could be made to the Kirk range of Gresley coach kits. One obvious omission from my comments were grab handles. The moulded sides do not feature them!

The following picture shows a simple jig for accurately bending up identical grab handles:

To make the jig find a piece of scrap brass (such as waste from an etched kit) and cut two slots into opposite edges (top image). The distance between the end of the slots determines the height of the grab rail. The slot needs to be wide enough to take your chosen brass wire (.33 or .45).

To use the jig, bend a piece of wire into a staple by winding through the slots (bottom left). Now bend the remaining tails through 90 degrees (bottom right) and remove from the jig. The thickness of the brass used for the jig determines the amount of offset present in the finished grab rail. 12thou is about right.

The resulting grab rails can be trimmed up. For Kirk sides two holes need to be drilled to take the grab rails, which can then be glued into the holes. Use a piece of card to ensure the grab rails are evenly spaced from the body sides.

Hope that makes sense. You may find it easier to drill the sides, assemble the coaches and paint before fitting the grab rails. With Kirk kits the brave can use a soldering iron to sink the grab rails into the plastic and avoid the tedium of drilling.
MikeTrice

With a little care this method makes very good grab rails.

Thanks to Mike Trice

Earlswood nob

[Phil Brighton]

Thanks for the compliments about the painting, I am pleased with the teak finish but the lining is variable on some of the coaches.

The handles I have used are the MJT ones. If they don't look like that it may be I mangled them when putting them on. The MJT etch comes with a jig for making new handles out of wire but I couldn't get on with it.

On the subject of detailing Kirk kits (I have added new ventilators, other roof fittings, pipework and the handles) I had a chat with the guy at Ambis engineering a few weeks back at the East London Finescale show.

I asked him about the flush glazing for Kirk kits that were mentioned on this forum and I had meant to post a bit about his answers.
He is planning to do glazing for a number of Kirk kits but it is proving more time consuming than he thought - it seems there is more to making flush glazing than I thought, but they should get made.

[jwealleans]

I think all you might need to try, Phil, is folding the handles over through 90 degrees. There is a dimple on the legs to show where to fold. I usually do them in a pair of pliers, or slip a blade behind them if you're doing them in situ. It will help the appearance.

[Phil Brighton]

Well after removing insulation, putting in lights, new insulation, power in, carpet tiles and a visit to A+E to pop my thumb back together I finally have finished in the loft - or "train den" as my girlfriend likes to call it.

Tomorrow morning I am taking advantage of my brother being in town for NYE to begin baseboard work. This will be mainly made of of Dow Floormate insulation foam.

The title of my thread really needs changing now but I can't see how this is done - any ideas?

[mick b]

change text in top box on first post

[Phil Brighton]

Thanks Mick.

[Phil Brighton]

Work has begun on the layout. I have built one section of baseboard to hold the non-scenic section.
Dow Floormate 50mm foam with 6mm ply sides glued and screwed together. To far seems strong and level.

[Phil Brighton]

Progress is steadily being made.
Baseboards all but done and a first for me... Track!

Bit puzzled by the Peco way gauge being different to the gap between tracks produced by the points...?

It was far too miserable outside to venture to the pub so I ran the J6 up and down a yard of flexi track while doing some tests on how I am going to stick the cork to the foam and track to the cork.

[Phil Brighton]

Hi all,

Work has got in the way for the most part since February but I have been making progress on a few fronts.

The layout now has the main double track laid all the way around and trains are running. Still plenty of track laying to be done but I am pleased so far.

In other news the Nucast D2 bought as a badly painted and glued together wreck has been completely stripped, dismantled, soldered back together - lots of filling and filing to get it into shape and is now being painted.

I have also been working on stock for an outer suburban train with 5 Ian Kirk suburban kits, 4 of which I have changed into 2 articulated pairs. The brake has had some rebuilding to change the diagram. A Kirk restaurant 3rd is at the same stage of construction.

And finally, over the last year I have picked up these two kits and while the Bachmann announcement means I could probably buy a better C1 off the shelf the price tag is a little steep and it’s fun to make them anyway.

They are the older DJH examples that come with everything except a motor. The recommended ones are, I think, out of production - has anyone built either of these and can recommend a motor/gearbox that will fit?