Much doodling at Earlswood

[Kestrel]

I was reading on another website of the desire for Hornby to bring out a set of quints. With teak coaches costing around £60 and suburbans not far behind, I wonder how much they would charge for the set. £250-£300 ? I'd better start saving as they'd go like hot cakes.

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I would guess that a Hornby Quint would be based on the GE suburban units as produced by Ian Kirk.
The ex-GNR quints are unlikely as there were so many variants and few of each type.
There would also be a lack of prototypes to haul ex-GNE quints, but the GE suburban have the J15, L1, and D16/3 as potential haulers.

This reminds me that I should build a C12 to haul the quint. This is the reverse sequence to normal procedure. One normally builds a loco followed by stock to suit that loco. I shall be building stock, and then a loco to haul it.

Earlswood nob

[teaky]

Isn't an N2 a suitable candidate for ex-GNR quints? Or would that only apply to one or two rakes of quads?

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

AFAIK The ex-GNR quints were used in the Nottinghamshire and West Riding area. There weren't many N2's in those areas in the thirties.

Also, my N2, is from an old Stephen Poole kit, which needs a rebuild. However, I do have a Little Engines N1 kit in my roundtuit cupboard, which would be more suitable.

I like the C12 as it's a beautiful looking loco, and I don't know why I've never built one.

Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
I have been making steady progress with the GN Quint set. I obtained an Isinglass drawing and I’m pretty close to a diag218O. This has led to me upgrading (an uncompleted model…LOL) the set. I needed to produce two composite five compartment coaches.
I have made the interiors and am now waiting for styrene microstrip and brass strip, which I hope to obtain at Ally Pally.
While treading water waiting for the weekend, I started working on a Kirk Quad-art, which I started many years ago.
I also experimented with weighting the Kirk bogies as the heavier white metal bogies, that I’ve fitted to the GN Quint, run so much better.
I cut small pieces of lead and fitted them to the top of the bogie. This upped the weight by 3g.
I found some 5g self adhesive weights in my odds and sods box. They fitted quite neatly to a Kirk bogie remaining below the top of the wheels.
It is surprising how much they improve the rolling of the bogie/coach.

It seems they can be obtained in 5g and 10g strips quite cheaply. It looks an inexpensive way to improve the rolling of Kirk kit coaches. They could also be fitted to the underside of the Hornby bogies (BR Mk 1?) that are supplied with the clerestorys.

Earlswood nob

[auldreekie]

Earlswood,

I've been largely inactive on this forum for AGES, having become rather deeply absorbed in the construction of large narrow-gauge locomotives of varied origin and aspect.

However, catching up on your thread, I find my curiosity oddly piqued.

About two years ago, I made some fairly sharp guesses about a couple of locomotives which you were starting to build: the rebuilt Q10 and the B3/2, both of them worthy candidates and interesting real-world machines. How did they turn out? Are you willing to share photographs? Or have I missed something?


auldreekie

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
It must be the quiet season for modelling projects. So just to entertain you; I will post my amateur attempts.
After deciding that my pseudo-GNR quint was close to the original, I have continued slowly with its construction. I also started two triplets to make a production line.
After missing Ally Pally through feeling unwell, I obtained my needs from Eileen’s emporium.
I removed the beading from the sides of the Hornby Clerestorys, and attempted to fit microstrip to represent the GNR practice. After a few goes, and not being happy with the results, I removed the beading below the door handles and the grab rails etc. Then I rubbed the sides to get a reasonably smooth surface. However, I had to rub down the hinges in doing so.

The pic shows a portion of the eleven coaches that I’m attempting to convert.
When I fitted the bogies to the coaches and tried them on my test track, my old Kays Y8 dockshunter will push all eleven up a 1 in 72 incline. The Y8 has been fitted with a home made chassis and Mashima 1015 motor.
I would appreciate any suggestions to obtaining 4mm hinges as I don’t think I can make them myself.
Now to get back to the workbench and keep resisting the inclination to start a suitable loco to haul the rakes, as progress is so slow.

Earlswood nob

[teaky]

I don't know if these are any use? They are GWR and it is a very poor picture I'm afraid.

http://www.dartcastings.co.uk/frogmore/3918.php

[john coffin]

Why not use some 1 mm plasticard and cut strips about 1mm long.
The top ones are only just above the surface, but the lower one sticks out about 1.5mm from a body.

HTH
Paul

[earlswood nob]

G’day all
Progress on my ex-GNR artics is slow as I keep getting diverted to other things.
One of the brake ends of diag 218N is now in primer, which always shows up the imperfections.
It really does show up my amateur efforts, but the next one will be better. The body is balanced on the bogies for photo purposes.

The coach is not accurate as an etched kit would be, but I’m enjoying bashing clerestorys into something completely different. The roof could do with improvement, but I don’t have any ideas for a quick fix.
Now to paint the interiors, make the underframe, fit the glazing and gas lighting. It seems that everytime I do one job, two more appear.


Earlswood nob

[earlswood nob]

G'day all
I have a rested from modelling for a while as I was being driven mad making grab rails etc for the GNR coaches that I was bashing from clererstorys. I have been planning details of a layout that I will build in my spare room, which is more difficult than it first looks. I have also been attempting a couple of buildings for this layout from an old Linka set that hadn’t seen the light of day for over twenty years. That is also more difficult than I first imagined.
I am now yearning to construct something that moves under it’s own power, so I decided to build something simple.
A couple of years ago I bought a job lot of Kays kits including two O4’s for a good price. I’ve decided to build one as an O4/6, the small boiler rebuild of the O5.
I’m going to try and do things logically by planning the build, and not doing things haphazardly, to end up with a loco like “Topsy” which “just growed”.
Job List:
1) Widen footplate
2) Shorten cab
3) Lengthen visible firebox by extension piece
4) Widen cab with new spectacle plate
5) New curved cab roof
6) Cab front blister for reversing gear

The last five O5’s were fitted with a side window cab, which they kept when rebuilt to O4/6. I will build this one as the earlier version with curved cut-outs.

I unpacked the kit and it looks like one made from a tired mould as there is lots of flash and the two halves of the firebox do not match.

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

The research into O4/6 provided fruitful as it seems that the O5’s with side window cabs also had “Battleaxe” balance weights on the wheels. These with one exception carried over their conversion to O4/6.
Those (the majority) with cabside cut-outs had the standard GCR wheels.
This does however mean that my version of the O5 with a side window cab will need adjustment to the wheels when it finally gets painted.
The pic shows comparision of the shorter cab side with an unaltered cab side. There is also the basic spacer/spectacle plate which will be fitted to the rear of the firebox, when I can get the firebox halves to match and soldered together.
There is also the modified footplate produced from soldering brass strip to the original Kays footplate to make the wider version fitted to the O5 and O4/6.

The bad news is that I’ve found that the O4/5 and O4/7 had different smokeboxes. I have a Little Engines O4/7, but would have to convert my last remaining Kays O4 kit, if I wanted to make all the 5’6 boiler variants of the O4/O5’s.
However, I could use the boiler on the McGowan B4, that I haven’t plucked up the courage to build. Even the Kay’s boiler is a lot better than the oval one with the B4.

Earlswood Nob

[earlswood nob]

G’day all

The has been a forced gap in modelling as I injured my knee hiking over the North Downs and it refuses to heal. Probably because I cannot sit about and take the weight off the knee. I cannot sit at my workench and keep my leg straight, but I have now started modelling on the dining table.

The forced absence from the workbench has given me plenty of time to research the LNER especially my model prototypes.
I have discovered that the footplate of the Kays O4 is wider than scale. This has required a slightly overscale cab for my O4/6 conversion.

My research has also shown something that I missed. The O5 and hence the O4/6 were fitted with a vacuum pipe between the handrail and the boiler. I cannot think of a way to model this. I have a couple of ideas which don’t seem very good, but I have not yet thought of anything better:

1) Fit the vacuum pipe to boiler, cut the stem off the handrail knobs and solder them to the vacuum pipe.
2) Fit handrail knobs to the boiler and fix short lengths of vacuum pipe between the knobs.

Neither of these two possible solutions seems ideal, and I wonder if anyone has a better idea.
I need to fit a similar vacuum pipe to my old Kays O4/1 as the model was a GCR O4 without a vacuum pipe. My Little Engines O4/7 came with a GCR tender, so will also need a vacuum pipe, but in this variant the pipe was slightly higher up the boiler than the handrail.

I look forward to any suggestions.

Earlswood nob

[manna]

G'day Gents

On my Gresley O1, I used split pins to hold the vacuum/steam pipe to the side of the boiler, then carefully soldered the handrail to the split pins, it worked for me.

manna

[mick b]

Use a plastic return pipe , easy to drill and fit handrail knobs throughout the pipe. Bachmann have done their O4 this way.