James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

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James Harrison
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James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

I thought I'd share some of my works to date with you. They also appear on a couple of other model railway forums, so some of you might have seen them before.

I tend with my models to go for one of two things, either kit building or alternatively taking an RTR model and thinking 'hmmmm' and then attacking it with scalpels and saws on the kitchen table and bashing it into something 'looking like' something else.

Some of them are good, some are okay (for a given value of 'okay') and others were complete rubbish (all of my earlier efforts were condemned in pretty short order as I got better). So long as each model is an improvement on its predeccessor I'm happy.

My non-RTR loco roster at the moment looks like this....

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- N5 class 0-6-2. I bashed this out of a Hornby J83 body and a Jinty chassis. I consider it my first successful build, after about four or five abominations. From memory, I took the J83 body and hacked it into about four pieces- two side tanks, the bunker back and the smokebox, then glued them onto a framework of 2mm square plastic strip and built up a new boiler, cab and tank side sheets, bunker etc. from plastic sheet, paper, card, staples and other little odds and ends. I think the smokebox is the only part of the Hornby model not to have been modded in some way! Having worked out recently how to do curved handrails I'm going to be adding the smokebox rail at some point 'soon'.

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- D10 class 4-4-0 'Sir Clement Royds'. I bought this off of Ebay as a bit of a mess. The paint job was pretty poor and certain of the details were completely missing, but the basic resin body and Triang chassis were good. I cleaned up the body and added a reversing lever and handrails (including a curved one added on the smokebox recently). The tender was a little more involved but I cut away some of the resin moulding and built a new tender footplate, improving it no end.

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- J11 class 0-6-0. This one I bashed from an Airfix 4F. I lowered the boiler by about 3mm and then cut 2mm or so out the smokebox to bring it closer to scale, then added Alan Gibson brass castings for the boiler fittings and built a new cab out of plastic sheet. The tender was built using the Airfix tender tank, with the coal plates cut off and then the top of it 'boxed out' with plastic strip and new coal plates added. Since taking the photo I've weathered it, remedied the patchy effect on the boiler and added curved handrails.

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- J11 class 0-6-0. As a 'compare and contrast' with the hack-bashed example, this is a BEC model I bought off of Ebay and rebuilt. I added handrails to the loco and coalplates to the tender, and I think I had to fabricate some new footsteps, but this was quite a nice quick little project.

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- D6 class 4-4-0. Hackbashed from an old Ratio kit for a Midland Johnson 4-4-0. At the time I built it I was very happy with it; it even made it onto the 'Readers Models' page of ModelRail magazine. Not however I'm of the opinion that it's not my finest piece of work; it is on the 'to-do' pile for a full rebuild next year.

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- L1 class 2-6-4. A Dean Sidings kit built pretty much straight out of the box, except that I thought that the coal rails let the whole model down. So I cut them off the moulding and made my own from pieces of plastic strip and rod- a job which isn't perfect but certainly better than what was there before.

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- D11 class 4-4-0, 'Jutland'. A BEC kit I bought off of Ebay unbuilt. I built it using UHU glue throughout (I and soldering irons have an eventful and unhappy history- I don't trust them as far as I can throw them and they in turn see fit to burn me everytime I look at one). A bit of a rough kit to build, in no small part because the boiler was more of an egg-shape in section! As a first attempt at a whitemetal kit it was certainly an 'experience'- sadly it made me wary of buying more unbuilt whitemetal kits.

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- C5 class 4-4-2, 'King Edward VII'. Believe it or not this started life as a Hornby B12! In hindsight I'd have been better off starting with the B12 chassis and something like a 'Patriot' body. In fact I started with half of a B12 body- only the boiler and running plate- and had to fabricate the entire rear half of the loco from scratch. I've recently rebuilt it and this is the model at the moment. 'When I get around to it' I have footsteps and a reversing lever to add.
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60800
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by 60800 »

James, I believe you've put some of these into my LNER group on deviantART?

I'm looking 'forward' (get it? :mrgreen: ) to seeing more of these locos :)
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James Harrison
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

Some rolling stock I've been working on too....

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- GC 1911 mainline 'lookalike' stock. When the NRM Butler Henderson came out I thought 'such a shame that I've only got Gresley stock to run behind it'. So I broke out my copies of George Dow's 'The Great Central Railway' and started looking through the line drawings of rolling stock in the appendix. What I eventually discerned was that I could 'probably' build some 'lookalike' stock out of some old Mainline (now Bachmann) LMS coaches. I'm currently working on a rake of four- I have three completed- eventually to stand at a pair of brake thirds, an all first and a composite. My method is quite simple- strip the model down to its components (two strips of glazing, the bodyshell, interior and underframe), sand the raised panelling off of the body sides and then add a matchboarding effect. One way to do this is to add an overlay in appropriate plastic sheet, however the way I do it is to take a strip of paper and score it to create the planking, then glue it to the body side one side panel or door at a time, and then give it a teak paint effect. The interior I paint according to the colours in David Adair's 'Modellers Guide to the LNER'- blue for first class, red for third class. I also paint the compartment walls either teak (in first class) or stone (in third class)- going off of the preserved LNER rake at the Severn Valley Railway. My rake looks the part, even if it isn't completely accurate. Given a few years and who knows?- I might replace it.

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- GCR 1905 suburban stock. This is actually the only carriage in these rakes I've finished, yet. I'm planning to do two complete suburban trains- one with Ratio 48' Midland stock and the other with bashed Hornby clerestories. The body I built as-per the instructions, with the addition of a fairly basic interior. I replaced the flimsy bogies with a set of Gresleys from the Mailcoach/ Cooper Crafts range, fitted with Hornby wheelsets. The bogies I then further altered, by giving them new sides in plastic sheet and adding details from the old Ratio bogies. This mimics the generally heavier appearance of the GCR coach bogies. Ignoring the wrong roof profile I'm quite happy with this- and I'm sure there's a way I can change the roof, one day.

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- GCR 15-ton brakevan. A work-in-progress, this one. I started with a Hornby milk tanker chassis and an LMS brakevan body from the same stable. I cut 5mm from the body (taking it from the centre to get rid of the guard's lookout and to centre up the body/chassis screwholes), and then set the two body halves onto strips of 2mm square plastic. Then I added new sides and ends from 0.5mm plastic sheet, scored to give the planked effect, and added an overlay on top of that to suggest the panelling. With the chassis I contented myself just with adding running boards, thinking the chassis was already detailed enough to 'look right'. There's still a little bit of work to do to it of course- not least changing the '12-ton' inscription to '15'.
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

Blackout60800 wrote:James, I believe you've put some of these into my LNER group on deviantART?

I'm looking 'forward' (get it? :mrgreen: ) to seeing more of these locos :)
Yes, indeed I have :)

'Forward'- very apt! Future plans for this year run to a B5 and a B4 (I've 3D printed a very basic B5 body and am currently fettling a B12 chassis to sit it upon), and then on to complete the GCR 'lookalike' carriage rake, maybe some more Ratio hack-ups and my Hornby clerestories. Next year I'm already contemplating rebuilding my D6 and adding a D9 to the roster, perhaps a J10 too, if I can fit them in between some Metropolitan stock on the to-build pile. The eventual intention is a collection of models suitable for a layout based on the GC/ Met joint line.
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by Atlantic 3279 »

Use of the J83 body and of the Mainline LMS coaches are both novel ideas. With improved finishing-off of surfaces and painting some of these models would be even better.
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James Harrison
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

Thanks. I'm getting better with each model so who knows?- another few years and I'll probably come back and refinish them (or just replace with new and better ones).
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by Mercator II »

Something looks very famillier about these projects.....

Welcome James to the 'other side' still love the 'lilly' and look forward to watching your expoltes as progress is made

oOo

Brian
oOo

Brian

Garage Hobbit!!
Modelling in 00 on my heritage line, very GCR inspired
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by Manxman1831 »

Welcome to the forum, and some intriguing models you have there.
Brian

Anything weird or unusual will catch my interest, be it an express or locomotive

I'm also drawn to the commemorative, let's hope Bachmann will produce 6165 Valour.
James Harrison
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

Mercator II wrote:Something looks very famillier about these projects.....

Welcome James to the 'other side' still love the 'lilly' and look forward to watching your expoltes as progress is made

oOo

Brian
Thanks!- about the Lily... probably my favourite hackbash I've done so far- though I think the N5 takes the award for being the most involved. I haven't forgotten about adding the second reverser in front of the drivers' side leading splasher, just waiting until I've finished my GCR 15-ton brakevan (nearly there now!) and then I'll add it and the footsteps before moving on with the B5. I keep getting drawn to doing a C4 as well from a Patriot body (!)- I'm standing off on that one until I see how well I can turn one into an Immingham. And built a D9, redone a D6, built a couple of Metropolitan locos.... by the time I get around to one I'll have forgotten how I did the C5, and have to work it all out over again!

Then of course I'll no doubt find an easier/ better way of doing the cab lining, other than transfers or bow pen/ easi-liner, and I'll come back to it... again... and re-redo the cab lining! I tend to view my models as being semi-permanent 'works in progress', just because they're sat on a shelf looking nice doesn't mean I won't take it in my head to tweak them now and again :lol:
Manxman1831 wrote:Welcome to the forum, and some intriguing models you have there.


Thank you! I like looking at what's available RTR and comparing it to what I'd like to model, and then checking relevant dimensions- wheelbases, wheel diameters, boiler diameters etc. If they match acceptably (I usually say within +/- 1mm, or a scale 3'') I'll give it a go and see how I get on. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't (I'm on something like my fourth attempt at a D10 Director- two scratchbuilds and a hackbash from a 2P ended up in the bin before I was happy with an improved resin kit).
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

My latest project breaks cover....

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A B12 chassis with the wheels swapped out for those of a 'Black 5'. Two Hornby locos, maybe I could be forgiven for thinking there would be a degree of interchangability... good joke! Axle diameters differed by just enough to cause an issue, particularly on the powered axle, which obvioudly couldn't be swapped out. Screw holes for the little screws holding the valvegear together- again, just slightly different dimensions... :evil: :twisted: :x Cue much headscratching and swearing.

Image

Aah, a bit more like it. I had a very basic loco body (boiler, running plate and cab sides) 3D printed. So far I've drilled hole into it to enable it to be screwed to the chassis, smoothed down to an extent the boiler to get a form closer to circular in cross section (I don't think it is quite there yet) and painted half of it black. I must say that the plastic material from the 3D printer is atrocious to work with. It doesn't take to being sanded, sawn, cut with a scalpel, painted, filled, filed, drilled....
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by earlswood nob »

Good morning all
It looks like a B5 to me, and a welcome addition to any GCR/LNER fleet.
It amazes me how people can convert RTR models as my one attempt was a dismal failure.
The B9 in LNER days was very similar to the B5 (different footplate and wheels), so might be an idea for a follow-on conversion.
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

The B9... please don't go giving me more ideas :lol:

Thanks- it's certainly getting there. I paired it up with an old tender last a few days ago and it already looks the part, even lacking most fairly major components (and with the tender looking 'careworn' in apple green).

I managed a little more last night- adding the valvegear- I screwed it (that is, the cylinder moulding) to the little metal 'lip' coming off the B12 chassis. Top tip: screw it on *underneath* the lip rather than above it as otherwise the little plastic bar joining the two cylinders together will lift the front of the body enough to look absurd. This little plastic bar will, incidentally, need drilling through with a 1.6mm drill so it can screw onto the chassis.

What I did, in fact, was to take the B12 bogie and remove the link fixing it to the chassis. I then turned it upside down... I had, in my spares box, a little screw and spring from a modern Hornby 2P. I put the screw through the 'top' (now bottom) of the bogie block, sat the spring inside the circular hole in the 'bottom' (now top) of the bogie and then screwed the assembly into the little metal lip on the chassis through the cylinder moulding. Result? The cylinder moulding sits centrally above the bogie wheels which in turn are at the correct distance from the drivers. It needs a little tweaking admittedly- I used the same system on my C5, the problem is that with the bogie wheels drawn in they catch on the chassis block (which needs filing down) and then catch on the inside of the cylinders (more filing down needed there). A picture says a thousand words, as they say, so here are a couple hopefully showing what I'm talking about....

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So this is what it looks like overall.

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Detail of the front end- you can just see the screw poking out the top of the little metal lip.

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And the underside of the bogie- so you can see how the screw passes through the bogie, then the cylinder block on the centre of the bogie, and then into the metal lip. You also don't get that much side play with the bogie when the loco is upright- as I say, I;ve got to file away just a little of the block itself, and file down the inside faces of the cylinders. I'm not looking for this to go around 'train set' curves, but at the least I'd like to get it around 3rd radius, and if it can get around 2nd radius even better- with my eventual layout I'm thinking of going with code 75 flexitrack and very gentle bends, but at the moment if I want anything running sadly it's a case of Hornby 2nd radius or nothing....
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by Atlantic 3279 »

I can see the merits of what you are trying to achieve here. I'm not sure how stable your slidebars will be without the O4 motion bracket to brace the tail ends.

Is your cab roof flat enough for the B5?

3rd radius IS a trainset curve, as is 4th radius too. Only if you start to consider curves of more than say 2' 6" radius are you moving away from the realm of OO trainsets and into model railways.
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by Atso »

James, some novel models there! Just the kind of modelling I like to see!

The 3D printed body, this is on the 'other' forum is it not. If I recall correctly this has been printed in Shapeways's 'White Strong and Flexible' material??? If so you are right and it is difficult to work with as printed. However, once you've cleaned off all the loose plastic you can give it a thin coating of super glue. Once set you'll find that it will sand much easier than in its raw state.

However, please be careful as super glue does tend to get everywhere and it is easy to get blobs of it right on top of any detail you wish to preserve! Modelling in N gauge I now only use FUD for my prints but this is obviously a rather expensive option in 4mm!

Hope this helps.
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Re: James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

Post by James Harrison »

That's a very useful tip Atso (one I'd not come across before)- I'll give it a go. It is on 'the other side'- which reminds me I've really got to keep the thread over there up to date.... I did look at using FUD for the model but at £70 vs. £25 for White Strong & Flexible it was a bit of a no-brainer, or so I thought at the time. If I were to do it again though....
Atlantic 3279 wrote:I can see the merits of what you are trying to achieve here. I'm not sure how stable your slidebars will be without the O4 motion bracket to brace the tail ends.

Is your cab roof flat enough for the B5?

3rd radius IS a trainset curve, as is 4th radius too. Only if you start to consider curves of more than say 2' 6" radius are you moving away from the realm of OO trainsets and into model railways.
I'm not sure that the B5 had motion brackets. I've got the book of GCR Charles Reddy drawings and the 'Green Bible' though so I'll double check that.... otherwise it might have to be a case of modellers' licence. What I have found however is that with the cylinders in position the pistons are at maximum traverse... if the centre driving axle were any further back, or the cylinders further forward, it wouldn't fit together at all! Thus I'm not entirely sure there would be room to put the brackets on. These things are sent to try us, or rather, our patience!

The cab roof does I think need working upon. I'm fairly confident that it is 'more or less' right but of course with a model it only needs to be a millimetre or so out to look absurd... shall double check it against the drawing.

At the moment the chassis struggles with a 2nd radius curve ... it'll go around but complain about it whilst doing so. A 3rd radius minimum curve is I think the best I can do with it- the bogie being close in to the driving wheels and fouling the bottom of the chassis, and then the cylinders being low-slung over the bogie are the root of the problem. As I say, on the planned layout curves are going to be far more relaxed and won't be such an issue. I'd rather not have to deal with it at all of course, as it's given me a lot of grief and headache to get it to this stage! :lol:
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