Llwyndrissi Halt.

[Mountain]

I know the curve out of Swansea was quite sharp and on an uphill too when on the down line. Had 143's stuck there. Think it has a 15mph speed limit (If it is more, it is no more than 25?). I was told that when they were pulling eight coach trains round there with class 47, if they didn't hit 45+mph they would not make the curve as it is a very long sharp curve with checkrails and oilers and I remember a driver with me having to rock the 143 back and fore to get it free as once stalled it was a job getting those trains to go again as their wheels get jammed on the checkrails.
I was told there were sharper curves coming off the Heart of Wales line somewhere but 143's (And 142's) were not allowed on those curves so no Crewe depot traincrew were allowed to sign for them to ensure that no one got stuck. However, those Swansea curves at Landore loop area were bad because of the gradient that was with them and the length of the curve as one was almost doing a complete 180° on them (Probably in reality 170°?) and one was climbing a height that one could clear a house and then some as there is one pub which itself was built on elevated ground that the corner of the roof is level with the railway and is so close there is no gap between the roof and the railway embankment wall as the roof joins into the wall. It would actually make an interesting layout curve and just as a challenge to get trains up there in model form as it is in real life! At the top beyond the curve is a very long tunnel with the remains of Cocket station just the other side. Of course the track is thedouble track mainline with Landore loco depot just off the curve and a triangle is formed that joins the other double track mainline heading east of Swansea as Swansea itself is a 4 platform terminus station. (Used to once have an additional bay platform for delivering milk which could take a GWR railcar etc if needed? The normal four platforms are long enough for a FGW 8 coach HST (With two powercars so 10 vehicles long) and a two car class143 to fit on them as have been boxed in on the rare occasion or have had to come in on top of a HST which there is a long walk for the passengers! In B.R. days they ran the HST's in 7 coach formation. Virgin which once came into Swansea on their Newcastle service ran their HST's with only 6 coaches so those things accelerated!)

[Phred]

Strewth! Negotiating that Swansea curve/check rails sounds like a brutal process. Didn't it cause all kinds of damage to wheels, tracks... everything?

[Mountain]

Strewth! Negotiating that Swansea curve/check rails sounds like a brutal process. Didn't it cause all kinds of damage to wheels, tracks... everything?

Is why they use oilers which contain grease. Also there was a continual squeel going round there due to a lack of a differential and of course the check rail. It was the hot summers weather where one would risk becoming stuck. Only vaguely once remember either becoming stuck or assisting another which was stuck and luckily the service behind was only around 11 minutes behind if I recall as it went up the Heart Of Wales line. The two coupled were then split at Llanelli. I think I had not long started on the railway.

[Mountain]

In with things I had bought from another modeller who had changed scale as he found himself stretched between too many scales and modelling projects, he included as an extra some offcuts and the occasional not so perfect casting which I looked at and thought "I can do something with that!" , and "I wonder if I can shorten a Hornby chassis to make a lovely little loco?"
So it has become a little project...

I had already started on the can as the cab windows were blocked by resin overcast, so the easiest way to remove this and get a file to it was to cut the back off the cab off with a razor saw, which is why the top of the cab is flat. It will be glued back on when ready and gaps will be filled. The back of the cab was already too short compared to the front, which is why I have glued it onto plasticard.

Now plasticard is added to the footpaths as well to make it work when the cab is added so bear with me.

The cab roof also had a crack and indent in it. I repaired this by converting some resin I removed from the cab into filings and mixing the filings into superglue to use as a filler and sanding the cab roof down later to make it smooth. It is visual but if one feels it it is actually smooth! Resin fillings and superglue work similar to bicarbonate of soda and superglue, except they end up gluing as if it was resin if that makes sense? Further things will be filled and filed where necessary.

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[Mountain]

And after much filing and fettling of parts and a test to check things fit correctly we have this...

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Nothing is glued into position and the shortened Hornby chassis is yet to be tested for fit (As cab floor needs to be worked on), things will be adjusted and made to fit!

[Mountain]

Now the chassis I want it to fit is this one so I will need to make adjustments for everything to fit.

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I also have bought or been given (Depending on which item it was) a number of other items, some of which are from the well know manufacturers such as Smallbrook Studio or Peco, and others have been scratchbuilt or converted.
Here are some scratchbuilt waggons... (Apologize for the blurry photos as the light is not so bright).

And a lovely "Yet to be finished" Smallbrook Studio "Clio" kit which I recommend.

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So I have plenty to be getting on with when I get the chance. I do have wheels for the two waggons without wheels. I just have not put them on.

For those wanting to get involved in this scale and gauge, there are a few manufacturers to note:
Smallbrook Studio (0e)
422 Modelmaking
Peco 0-16.5 kits (And track)
Chivers Finelines
Bachmann (Who have now started making ready to run items listed as NG7)

[Mountain]

Here is a comparisson between "Ruthy" and the new loco which were both built up from the same Smallbrook Studio 'Clio' body kit.
"Ruthy" has had a pair of small coal bunkers added, along with home made name and number plates, and home made couplings. The handrails on Ruthy came as part of the kit which are not yet fitted to the new loco.
Ruthy also has the addition of a different chassis than the standard Hornby 0-4-0 Smokey Joe style chassis in that it uses the same motor, gears, wheels and rods which have been mounted onto a much modified Triang metal 0-4-0 chassis which was a fair bit of work but the end result is something special, as despite her small size she can pull quite long trains. Once tried her on a brief outing to a club test track layout ad she pulled ten 00 gauge Mk1 bogie coaches. She also had additional liquid lead in her coal bunkers before I did this heavier chassis modification so now she is "Too heavy" and does not wheelspin even if I wanted her to! She does have a modern slower running Hornby motor.

The Clio kit as standard had added additional lead shot type weight in the saddle tank casting not that it really needs it, so is heavy enough to begin with.
When I showed a picture of "Ruthy" to Mike via email, he commented on the coal bunkers and then came out with his "Anax" kit which is basically a clio kit with bunkers, and I was impressed!
I am not sure if the new owner is adding additional weight to the saddle tank or not since he has taken over, but to be honest, resin is heavy enough as it is. (One can always buy Anax instead and add weight in her coal bunkers).

[joshv8]

Nice work Mountain!
And great description of what you have achieved. Swapping out the running gear to the Triang chassis was quite an interesting idea.
How is the layout itself progressing?
Cheers,
Josh

[Mountain]

Nice work Mountain!
And great description of what you have achieved. Swapping out the running gear to the Triang chassis was quite an interesting idea.
How is the layout itself progressing?
Cheers,
Josh

Layout needs work as a rail came loose while putting the layout in a box when I moved. Not opened the box as yet as had had other things to concentrate on, but I do plan on rebuilding it where needed as well as expanding and modifying it as I go along. It is all a learning curve for me, and was really only intended to test ideas while inbetween larger more permanent layouts but it sort of had me hooked!

Here is another recently purchased secondhand loco which has what looks to me like a Hornby pannier chassis (The Triang-Hornby pannier that was number 8751 as I had one of them as a child. Lovely model locos!) and a (Now disscontinued) Peco whitemetal body kit.
It sure is a splendidly weighty model and if one examines the overall look of the prototypes buffers and couplings, I sort of copied this look when designing my own couplings which s hard to see in the photo as the long central buffer is casting a dark shadow...

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But basically one has a centre buffer with two safety coupling chains hanging down. My origional idea was to give my drop loops the look of two safety chains with a horizontal bar joining them to form a loop, so I could have glued two chains to part of the drop loops to resemble this and tried to hide the bottom horizontal piece but I don't think my drop loops look too bad as they are so never end up detailing them by glueing on chains, but to convert this loco to work with my couplinbs should be easy enough, if I can find a way to add anupright pin just behind the buffers themselves. The model has real chains so I can glue them so they act as a solid wire and glue or solder on a simple horizontal bar. We shall see!

[Mountain]

This lovely little loco looks rusty so needs painting in a nice shiny colour, but which colour? Also needs buffers and drop loop couplings...

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[joshv8]

What colour? I'll throw my hat in for Mustardy yellow.

Reading through what you had said with your other conversions and what you have achieved here... very clever skill set you have there Mountain.
Cheers,
Josh

[Mountain]

What colour? I'll throw my hat in for Mustardy yellow.

Reading through what you had said with your other conversions and what you have achieved here... very clever skill set you have there Mountain.
Cheers,
Josh

Either yellow or light blue though it depends on the paint I have.

Basic skills are allbone really needs. Is more about having the right tools, the patience and a mind to think up solutions. Actually, though I am somewhat of an independent thinker as Ilike to have my own approach, it is also useful to watch the ways others do it as well.
Importantly it is to learn ones own skills and come up with designs and ideas that work with ones abilities and not against them. Some may giveup thinking they can't do it but they don't realize that one can always find a simpler way to achieve similar results. Success comes in finding these ways rather than being exceptionally skilled.
Scratchbuilding does not need to have any special skills.
I try to design and build things in ways that others can copy and say "I can do that!", though I realize that occasionally I may buy a tool to do a job which is a biy more advanced than an ordinary hand tool... But most of all I do is with basic hand tools such as small files or saws or craft knive s and things like that.

[Mountain]

I have so many fun projects... But for this moment I have another idea...
And just to see if this idea I have in my mind works, I want to try it out.

A simple means to make a simple waggon without spending too much.

Basically a simple waggon consists of a pair of wheels, a chassis, a body and something to act as buffers and couplings.

Different construction methods needed for different wheels. If one is blessed with a pair of 12.5mm metal axled wheels, we shall proceed!

We start with lollypop sticks. (Popsicle sticks).

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Glue a pair of lollypop sticks together...

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This provides us with a thickness of wood that is useful.

Measure and cut off about a cm (10mm) or a little more off the end of the stick to cut it square so thr one end of the chassis will be square. (We can use this offcut piece at the curved end later).
Then measure 1cm in and draw a line. Measure another 2cm and draw another line and finally draw another line 4cm which will be the end of our chassis... (Our chassis frame will be 4cm long. If we need a longer Waggon simply adjust ones measurements accordingly).

The two inner lines are simply marking where the axles will sit. The bufferbeams will make the waggons slightly longer which is why we complete the chassis before making the body.

(I actually made a small mistake as I started cutting at the wrong line, but as I did not cut through, I added glue and a little fine sawdust into the cut and drew a new line in the right place. It will be plenty strong enough so no worries!)

Next using more of the glued together lollypop sticks we repeat so we end up with two chassis sides 4cm long if that makes sense? We may use the offcuts so keep them handy...

[Mountain]

We now have two double thickness lollypop stick sides joined in the centre with a pair of offcuts to act as central spacers. these were filed so the top and bottom surface was flat and all has been glued squarely into position so the top and bottom surfaces sit flat. The width of the H chassis due to lollypopsticks not being perfect varies a little but I can live with that! As long as the wheels are made to sit so all four wheels will touch the rails at the same angle then all is good!

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The next picture is just a test. The wheels are just balanced in position for now so the chassis sits too high... Is just balanced to check the chassis fits inside the centre area of the wheels and is not too wide so that the wheels can turn freely.

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More to follow as I continue with this experiment!

Just to clarify, these are standard 00: gauge 12.5 wheels. (Some are advertized as 12.6mm). They are just standard 00 wagon wheels with metal axles. They don't have to be metal wheels, but having metal axles means they turn nicer when using the H chassis design.

[Phred]

Mountain wrote:
I actually made a small mistake as I started cutting at the wrong line, but as I did not cut through, I added glue and a little fine sawdust into the cut and drew a new line in the right place. It will be plenty strong enough so no worries!

That's a very good tip.
I'll be following this little wagon build with interest. The information gleaned will be useful if I ever get back to my OO9 layout.