Garden Railway Forum

Lovely finish Phil, even better with some lining I think.

Looks splendid. Top notch!!

Rik

Oh, those poor drivers in the open cab in the snow.

Beautiful modelling.

Wow - you had "snow" or something like it!

Trevor

It was mostly hail but still made a decent white layer! Living within 1/2 a mile of the sea if we have any covering here I tend to not attempt to go out, it can be much thicker a couple of miles inland where the main roads start!

The next project is a Brandbright PS9 Ffestiniog Workman's coach. A friend presented me with all of the laser cut plywood parts. He did not have the wheels, axle boxes or buffers, them having got separated from the body parts. He had given me a box of 16mm bits some time ago so I rummaged there but nothing suited.

I glued the solebars to the floor, one side at a time, clamping to a granite worktop saver to get the floor flat, then added the drawbeam at each end.

Attention then turned to the sides and ends. Each side is made up of four layers of ply, the ends only two layers. Construction should be easiest if the outside walls were painted before assembly and the interior and droplight frames similarly. All pieces were first treated with a coat of MDF primer, this seals and raises the grain. Once dry they were lightly sanded with fine abrasive.

Here they are drying:-
There are lots!

The exterior was sprayed with two coats of red oxide primer and the interiors given two coats of pine varnish (I have a very old tin half used. It has become very gloopy so I guess I should get some new stuff ere too long!).

I then glued the inner two layers together, the inner of the two having cutouts for the glazing which was also present, and the two outer layers.

A picture which may be confusing:-
I really should have left the varnish a bit longer to dry more thoroughly I realised having set up this arrangement of many clamps!

to be continued

Phil

Having removed the longer clamps and blocks of hardwood it becomes easier to see:-
Inside above showing glazing reveals.

Once the clamps were all removed the outsides were loose, the insides adhering to the granite. Luckily they came loose fairly easily and only one had picked up a trace of grey primer, most of which will be under the seats. I really should clean off the granite slab before doing this sort of thing again and not use it as a painting surface!
I spent ages looking at the Brandbright website to see what the axle boxes were like, they don't seem to stock the curly spoked wheels so I also spent time perusing Peter Binnie's site. I tend to use his couplings on most of my stock and have some in hand, there were some axleboxes in my bits box but nothing that worked for this coach nor any curly spoked wheels, I found some straight ones, nor suitable axles.

I ordered three styles of axle boxes (£4 for eight of each), three lengths of axles and curly spoked wheels. They came this morning so experimentation soon followed to see what would work:-
These worked well with the 52mm axles and curly spoked wheels. They may not be right to prototype but once the underside is painted black and the coach is on the track it will be perfectly acceptable to me.

More anon.

Phil

So that's where all the clamps went!

Nice work Phil, neat and tidy.

Trevor Thompson wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2024 9:18 am Wow - you had "snow" or something like it!

Trevor

You call that snow? .....This is what we had....

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2024 2:42 pm

Trevor Thompson wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2024 9:18 am Wow - you had "snow" or something like it!

Trevor

You call that snow? .....This is what we had....

IMG_20241119_080626_618.jpg


Rik

Looks a bit cold there Rik!

Trevor

Things have calmed down here today after Bert seems to have finished with this area so a brief interlude between showers to give Bakewell a longer test run with a freight train.





Phil

Great looking train. Preferred the speed in the first video.

Rik

Thanks Rick,

I see what you mean! I had wound the controller up a little after the first longer video was shot. Next time.

Phil

The workman's coach progresses:-

The glazing was added to the inner sandwich using a little canopy glue to hold it in place and then wood glue was used to join the two sandwiches. Once set I added the seats to the sides as it would be difficult to do with the body assembled. At the ends I just added the support in case some adjustment is needed to the seat once the body is assembled. The middle seat has also been glued in place.

The observant will notice I cleaned the granite slab!

Phil

gilfachphil wrote: ↑Mon Nov 25, 2024 11:25 am

The observant will notice I cleaned the granite slab!

Actually, that was the first thing I noticed!

However, the coach build looks to be coming on well.

A test assembly of the body onto the floor showed that the end seats slotted nicely in between the side ones so they were glued in place, it being easier to do so before further assembly:-


Phil

I'm sure you can imagine the gluing together of the four sides. I used Deluxe Materials Speed Bond which is easy to apply tidily and sets fast and held together with rubber bands and a couple of cramps as necessary.

I added the four roof supports and then the first layer of the roof, which I trimmed slightly in width as the second layer forms a marginally bigger diameter curve. Lots of rubber bands (must collect some more from the postie) including two longitudinally which were necessary to hold the end curve down firmly:-
as you can see I masked the windows before adding the roof which seemed easier. The blue masking tape was exactly the right width!

In adding the second layer of the roof I used woodworking glue for longer open time. There was just enough overhand to use bulldog clips to keep the two layers tightly together. The rubber bands at the ends were necessary to hold the roof in place as the clips were added, and the longitudinal ones to ensure a close seam at the ends:-

a couple more coats of red primer before painting the roof with masonry paint (B&Q sampler), the chassis was painted black before gluing the axleboxes in place. Other finishing touches are shown in the finished coach. I found two Brandbright handles in my bits box, my friend must have given them to me some time ago.

Posing outside this morning:-

Phil

Nice that Phil

As Rod says, that does look nice.

I'm a great one for adding interior detail to things, but with windows that small it does seem a wee bit pointless putting seats in this one!

That's a nice looking van, a useful addition to your fleet.