24–the latest box

Carriage 24 is now a box with a floor, and seats installed.

This is how I add flux and keep it square when soldering – I also sometimes use a square, but this trusty block has built all my carriages.

87 continues a pace too and nears the finish line.  K1 will be attended to next, with better matched motors hopefully meaning it can move to the ‘ready for service’ section soon too.

I’ve also ordered new Alan Gibson wheels for the fifth Garratt (these were loose from their plastic centres when I bought the kit half completed off ebay) and brass rod for the new water tower base construction (replacing the way too flimsy plastic previous attempt).  The 5th Garratt (4th NGG16) was to be NG109 (Pete Waterman’s loco), but I may well find it hard to resist making it into NG143 in green and converting my current black NG143 to NG109 when it appears (it is expected to be outshopped in lined ‘LNWR’ black, so the conversion may not be too difficult).

Twitter

Should have said long ago that Rhyd Ddu is on twitter : @rhydddu and also Facebook.

Twenty four seven

Work has been completely crazy recently, with very little time available for modelling, but I have found a little time to start on carriage 24.  This is the replica full height summer carriage (i.e. NWNGR).  It runs as a ‘lock up’ carr at the end of most WHR rakes and so is a vital model.  I had a kitbash version – a plastic Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol carriage – but it just didn’t cut the mustard next to the cut down summer carr (23).  I was able to persuade Allen of worsley works to do me the etchings (he couldn’t believe there was another version of the summer carrs that he hadn’t done already). 

Progress so far has seen the footboards folded up and soldered in place, extra vent pieces (very small indeed) superglued above the doors (using my favoured powerbond), and the construction of a set of seats for the carriage from parkside ‘narrow gauge coach seats’.

In a slight departure from normal methods, I have this time soldered bolts to the floor as the bogie pivot and will add the nut underneath (I normally do this the other way around, but on balance this may turn out to be a better way of doing it as the seats can sit over the bolt without the bolt protruding into the carriage necessitating a hole in the floor to be created.  The nuts can be loctited onto the bolt and the excess snipped off.

Now I just need to find time to solder the sides to the ends and the floor to the ends before I need to think about the roof (I already have some curved brass ready), truss rods etc.

24, along with the replacement 2043 and 100, 102 and 14 will be the last batch of carriages through the semi industrial process and I thus hope to have them all running for Sparsholt.

87 update

The power bogies for 87 have taken a leap forward at the Cheltenham works. One bogie is complete and works well, it just needs painting. The other has been stripped back, problems solved and now just needs the valve gear reattaching. Best to paint it too though prior to reassembly, so that is the next job.

The tanks and body are already 95% complete and painted with just minor details and the off White lining to complete.

So we shall certainly gave black, red and blue garratts ready for Sparsholt.

Telford

Attended the Telford NG show today, here are some shots:

Calstock (Cotehele) in 7mm was nicely done and friendly – the periscope lent to Thomas was great fun.  The original England loco was great too. 

There appeared to be some kind of diorama competition.  These three caught the eye… Manod quarry art storage, Duffield Bank and Fairbourne…

and I’m always impressed by the detail and scenics of american layouts even if I’m not that bothered by the stock…

Had a good chat with Pete at Backwoods.  I fancy a Darjeeling B class tank sometime, but it’s clear that finding a place for a DCC chip might be a challenge – look where the motor has to go!

and I also picked up the etches for 24, the NWNGR replica summer carr as running on the WHR today.  I had previously made a kit bash attempt to model this, but it didn’t stand up to the other etched kits so Allen nicely etched this for me.

A Prince amongst engines

Today we made a trip to the Telford exhibition (report to come) and on the way back visited Prince, who having been declared “Hors de combat” currently resides at the Engine House museum, itself a part of the Severn Valley Railway setup at Highley.

The main reason was to take measurements and check colours etc. for Dad’s 7mm and 16mm versions (hence the measuring tape).  Whilst there we spotted a few st****rd gauge locos too!