Talyllyn

It's been over seven years since I first bought the Bacmann Thomas & Friends model of Skaroley with the intention of turning it into a passable representation of Talyllyn, the locomotive Skarloey was based on. A lot has happened in those seven years (two children for a start) but I've now finally finsihed the model. I've put together a video discussing all the changes and challenges which you can enjoy; probably quicker to watch than if I wrote it all down and you had to read it!

I also took a couple of photos showing the before and after; given I bought two models originally it seemed a shame not to comapre them.

Designing Wagons and Vans

A bit more of a catch up on the "I've finsihed..." videos this time looking at rolling stock rather than locomotives with a flat wagon and a gunpowder van both of which I designed:

Model #6

Another week sees another episode in the "I've Finished..." series of videos, this time looking at the first fully etched kit I ever built.

Model #3

Another week brings us to episode (or locomotive model) number 3 in the new "I've Finished..." series of videos. This time we're looking at the first model I designed and turned into a kit; the 24hp light diesel locomotive from Hudson-Hunslet.

10HP Baguley: Back a Few Steps

I finished the previous post on the 10HP Baguley by saying

In theory the next step should be adding a little filler and cleaning up all the joints before painting. Oh if life were only that simple!

which was because I already knew what happened next...

It turns out that when I originally soldered the cab back on, I'd not done it very well. Having trial fitted the chassis into the model I noticed that the back wall was no longer vertical. While trying to correct this it fell off and for some reason the floor came loose too. I took the photo after cleaning up all the parts ready ro reassemble everything.

Rather than trying, and probably failing, to solder the rear wall on again I instead opted to use some two part expoxy. I started by using the epoxy to fix the floor into the right place as this gave a much bigger contact patch to then make sure the rear wall was fully attached. I also decided to change the approach to couplings and so cut off the Greenwich couplings while the model was in pieces.

Once everything was back together it was time to start applying some filler and that brings us up to date. It's been about a month since I added the filler and I've still not got around to sanding it back as I've been distracted by other things. Hopefully I'll get back to it soon and then I can move on to painting it.

10HP Baguley: Step 7 (and Inadvertently Step 8)

So in theory we are now getting very close to the end of the instructions. As you can tell though given the gap since the last post in this sequence, not only have I been very busy with work, but things didn't entirely go to plan. Anyway here is the text of step 7 from the instruction sheet.

Fix the bonnet into place – in order for the front of the bonnet to sit flush with the front buffer beam, some material may have to be removed from the back of the tank where it fixes against the cab and the locating ‘pips’ into the running plate at the front of the bonnet may also need adjustment. Once the adhesive has cured/solder cooled, file back the locating pegs flush. Fix the sandboxes into place.

The bonnet is a whitemetal casting and usually I find these really annoying as by the time I've bought a kit the moulds are old and the parts need a lot of cleaning up. Of course with this being a new kit this isn't the case and the quality of the castings is superb. Just look at the detail and how square and clean the edges are... and yes this is before I did anything to the casting.

I didn't have to do much to the casting at all. The only thing I found was that the locating pins were a little big for the holes in the etched parts, but this was easily solved by opening up the holes ever so slightly and then the bonnet just dropped in and fitted perfectly.

As with the whitemetal casting used as part of the cab floor I choose to superglue it into place rahter than risk damaging it by trying to solder it. As you can see I couldn't resist fitting the chassis to check how the whole model was looking.

The next step was to fir the sandboxes which are also nice whitemetal castings. As with the bonnet I just had to open up the holes in the etch ever so slightly for them to just drop right into place.

Unfortunately after gluing them to the footplate I spotted one small problem. They overhang the hole in the footplate which means that the chassis no longer fits. I can't see that I did anything wrong fitting these so I'm not quite sure how this happened.

Either way a little bit of careful filing and I'd reduced their depth enough for the chassis to fit back inside the body.

By making sure the chassis fits it turns out that I'd also inadvertently completed step 8 as well as that reads

Gently offer up the chassis into the body, there is limited clearance and this will be a touch fiddly making sure the motor leads do not get trapped by the running plate. It must be noted that the 'live' side frames will be in close proximity to the body which could potentially cause a short. However, painting the body to form a good insulation should eliminate the issue.

Given how tight a fit everything is I'm absolutely certain that the body will be shorting out the chassis at this point so I have not tried running it yet, and won't until it's painted to avoid doing any damage.

In theory the next step should be adding a little filler and cleaning up all the joints before painting. Oh if life were only that simple!

10HP Baguley: Step 6

Moving on to step 6 and we continue building up the cab area

Fix the cab floor to the white metal plinth making sure the planking detail is uppermost, carefully making sure the two parts are aligned properly as you may have issues getting into the cab a little later! Drill out the holes for the brake column and gearbox controls, the brake column is formed with a piece of 0.3mm wire and wheel, gearbox controls are formed from 2 lengths of 0.3mm. Now fix this sub assembly into place in the cab.

Gluing the two parts together was easy enough; there is no way I'm going to risk soldering white metal parts given the tools and skills I have. I then drilled out the holes (using a 0.4mm drill as I couldn't find my 0.3mm drill bits).

I did, however, solder the brake wheel to the 0.3mm diameter wire as I tend to find that soldering wheels to wire gives a much longer lasting join than using glue.

I trimmed the wire to length having test fitted the floor into the cab. I've deviated from the instructions (again) as I'm not permanently fitting the brake column or gearbox levers at this point as they'll by a nightmare to paint in situ.

Once I was happy that the floor fitted level inside the cab and that I could fit the brake column into the hole, I then glued the floor in place.

And with that done there are just two steps of the instructions left, excluding painting of course.

10HP Baguley: Step 5

Step 5 of the instructions is so short I almost didn't give it its own post but here it is...

Add the grab rails to the cab using 0.3mm wire, cutting them flush with the top. Trim back any protruding beading on the rear cab sheet.

As I said short and simple and it results in this...

And yes, before anyone mentions it, I do know I need to clean up the inside of the rear cab sheet. Not quite sure how it got covered in so much unused solder cream.

10HP Baguley: Step 4

Right, let's have a look at step 4 of the instructions which read:

Take the front cab and bend the sides to 90°, attach to the footplate. Add the front making sure it lines up perfectly with the hole, followed by the sides.

Having read the instructions I decided to pretty much ignore them and go my own way. I decided that I'd probably find it easier to build up the front cab wall before attaching it to the footplate. I started by laminating the front overlay on to the cab before bending the part to shape.

No clever tools this time, just a cocktail stick and a scrap of wood to hold the two parts in alignment while I soldered them together. A little bit of cleanup where solder had leaked from the edges and the part looked perfect.

With the front overlay in place I carefully bent one side to 90° and then soldered on the overlay, before repeating the process for the second side overlay.

As you can probably guess the main issue with adding the side overlays was how to hold the parts while soldering. Folding just one side and the part is easy enough to tape to a piece of wood. With both sides folded this is more complex, but using an old wooden clothes peg worked really well. A little more cleanup and it slotted easily in to the footplate and could then be soldered into place to finish this step of the build

It may need a little filler on the corners but in real life it's less of an issue than in the cruel close up photo. Either way I'm happy with that and it didn't involve accidentally unsoldering anything from steps 1 to 3.

10HP Baguley: Steps 2 and 3

Okay, so I know I said I'd do a post per step in the instructions, but firstly step 3 is very short, and secondly it appears I didn't take any photos of the finished step 2 so they are a bit muddled together. So without further ado here are the instructions for step 2:

Attach inner cab back to footplate with the half etch detail facing inwards, followed by outer cab back with the upper beading facing outwards, followed by the other buffer beam. Add 2 lengths of 0.5 brass angle @ 14mm to the half etch recesses, bend the upper cab beading to form part of the grab rails to 90°

Quite a bit more to do in this step than step 1, with quite a bit of laminating parts together to form the rear cab wall. The rear of the chassis has three small tabs which go into slots on the inner cab wall and while the parts fitted together perfectly I wasn't sure how best to hold them so they were at right angles (so the wall ends up vertical) while I soldered them together. In the end I settled on using a present I received last Christmas.

Yes, I was given a set of 1-2-3 blocks for Christmas and this was the first time I'd used them. Their weight meant they didn't move and nicely held the wall part in place, while I could also use them to ensure the two parts were at right angles to one another. Okay, so being metal they acted as a heat sink meaning I needed longer with the iron to make joint, but it worked perfectly, and no burnt fingers!

With the inner wall in place I then laminated on the outer wall and buffer beam, again using a coupling hook to help with the alignment. With the rear wall built up I thought it wise to check that the chassis still fitted before going any further.

It was more difficult to fit than before, so I've eased the half round holes I filed a little further, but other than that there were no issues at all. Now while I'm yet to finish step 2 of the instructions here is what step 3 says.

Form the buffer beam irons to shape, using the profile jig in the etch. Trim the excess material to length, in line with the half etch notches, fit these formed irons to both front and rear buffer beams, using the alignment marks.

After the hassle of trying to solder the brass angle to the chassis to form the valences I opted to superglue them in place this time. I also superglued the buffer beam irons as I didn't want to risk disturbing the buffer beam overlays.

The buffer beam irons were quite awkward to fit as I'd only just left enough room behind the Greenwich couplings. In retrospect if I was building the kit again I'd do things a little differently. I'd probably fill in the slot in the buffer beam, and then either solder a small upright section to the middle of the buffer beam iron, or maybe make a single piece version from brass sheet. In fact if I had any of my experimental etched couplings they might be a good starting point. I should point out this isn't a criticism of the kit, as the current version allows you to easily produce a prototypicalyl accurate model while having a slot for the couplings. It's just that the nice buffer beam irons get lost behind the coupling which seems a shame. I'm now in two minds as to whether or not to alter the model to remove the Greenwich couplings, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

10HP Baguley: Step 1

For want of any other way of dividing up the build of this kit into separate posts I thought I'd go with a post per step of the instructions; so hopefully you can look forward to a further seven posts after this one and that's before I paint it.

Okay technically what I had to do first comes before even step 1 as the instructions for swapping the motor point out that you'll need to slightly file away part of the footplate etch to allow it to clear the longer motor and it's wires.

You can just about see that in the photo as I've filed two small half round notches in the footplate to help the wires pass through. You might also notice that I've added a small 3D printed piece to the front of the chassis (it's a light grey colour) so it becomes the right length.

Having done that I could move on to step 1 of the instructions for building the body.

Take the front footplate and fold the buffer beam to 90°. From the 0.5mm angle supplied cut 2 lengths @ 31.5mm and fix into the half etch recesses to form the valances of the running plate, file back any protruding material. Drill (gently) through the 4 holes for the grab irons in the brass angle with a 0.3mm bit. Attach buffer beam aligning with the coupling slot.

It all sounds simple enough and mostly it was. I choose to solder the kit together rather than using glue, and I did find attaching the valances to be really quite fiddly, as they kept twisting as I tried to solder them in place. I deviated from the instructions slightly as I choose to fit couplings at the same time as attaching the buffer beam overlay as that helped with the alignment. I'm not sure if the slot didn't etch fully (happens frequently with small holes) but I found I had to thin down the shank of a Greenwich coupling quite a bit before it would fit, but fit it eventually did.

Flaws in Both Design and Manufacturing

With Canopus finally finished and a little modelling time opening up now that my son is back at nursery I had a look at what I could work on next. Now I do have a number of projects already on the go, but they all require some thought or scratch building. What I wanted was something a little simpler where I could just "follow the instructions". Looking through my stash of un-built kits and I've picked the Narrow Planet kit for the Baguley McEwan Pratt ‘677’ 10HP 0-4-0PM. This is actually the most recent kit I've bought, but as it uses a ready-to-run chassis should be a little easier than most of the other kits I have to hand. Famous last words!

The kit is designed to use one of the tiny Japanese N gauge chassis, specifically the TU-DB158 from TGW (Tsugawa). As you can see from this official diagram the chassis really is tiny.

While using a ready to run chassis like this does make things easier, I did know that I needed to do some work to it first, but it turned out to be a little more than I expected.

Firstly, as with many of these tiny chassis, the motor is not designed to be used with the standard 12V track supply. In fact the motor in this one is rated for only 4.5V. One option would be to fit a resistor to make it safe to use with 12V, but to be honest the tiny motor isn't brilliant and the kit instructions suggest changing the motor and recommends using a 0615 from Tramfabriek. This is actually really easy to do as you just need to unsolder the existing motor wires, slide the motor out, swap the worm gear from the old motor to the new, slide the new motor back in, and finally solder the wires on to the pickups. If it all goes smoothly then it would take probably all of about five minutes.

As you can see the new motor is a little longer, but given it will still fit inside the body then it's worth it to have a really good 12V motor in use. Now as I said that modification was nice and straightforward. Unfortunately there is still one design flaw and one manufacturing flaw that I had to deal with before I could move on to the body.

Let's start with the design flaw. The design work for the kit was almost completed when it was discovered that while the chassis would run fine on plain track it had a nasty habit of derailing when passing through point work. Both axles of the chassis are powered and so there is a series of gears linking them together. These gears are module 0.4 with 11 teeth and have a maximum diameter of 5.2mm. Unfortunately the wheels on the chassis are 5mm (excluding the flange) meaning that the teeth of the gears protrude 0.1mm below the top of the rail. On plain track that's not a problem but the gears catch on the rails when passing through points. I've no idea how this wasn't spotted during design, testing, or manufacture of the chassis, but clearly it's something that needs fixing.

It's difficult to see the problem, especially in photos, but with the chassis on the wrong tracks of my dual gauge (14mm and 9mm) test track you can just about see that the gear rests on the third rail and actually raises the chassis up slightly. The solution is fairly easy but you do have to be careful and take it slowly. Once I'd got the decent motor in, I secured the chassis upside down using some blutak and then with the wheels turning gently rested a small file against the gears to grind away the ends of each tooth. I think I've taken off enough to fix the problem, but the only OO9 points I have are currently a bit difficult to access in the garage. Rather than taking off too much I'll just revisit this later if it's still a problem.

While fixing the gears I spotted the manufacturing flaw, in that one of the wheels wasn't perpendicular to the axle. If it had just been slightly off I might have left it, but there was a serious wobble. Fortunately the chassis uses split axles, with each wheel only having a small axle stub which is fitted into the plastic axle. This means that I could remove just the single problematic wheel. Using a modelling knife behind the wheel it was easy to prise it off. I then removed the pin holding the coupling rod so that the wheel was completely separate to the chassis. It took me a while to find a way to hold the wheel that would also let me straighten the axle stub. In the end, I used one of the collets from my lathe, which highlighted just how bent the stub axle was.

I'm not sure what the wheel and stub axle are made from, but it's quite strong whatever it is, and took a fair amount of force to bend it. It's still not perfectly straight but it's the best I could do, as I didn't want to risk snapping the axle from the wheel. Once straightened putting the wheel back into the chassis was easy, but it took a long time to get the coupling rod pin back in. It's a tiny pin and it's a tight fit into the hole in the wheel. I tried lots of different ways of holding it and pushing it in and all failed. I had to be careful as the last thing I wanted was for the pin to ping off into oblivion. In the end I lightly superglued the pin to the end of a piece of acrylic rod and then pushed it home. As it seated itself properly in the hole the glue gave way leaving almost nothing to clean up.

After all that I was quite happy to see it trundling up and down my test track without any problems. It would benefit from a little weight (which the body will provide) but it runs a lot better than it did before I started to fix it, so I'm now happy enough with it to start work on the body.

Alan Keef K12 Diesel: Finished

Whilst there is still only a little modelling happening I thought I'd try and keep the blog alive (or more than it was anyway) by making sure all the loose ends from previous posts were tidied up, even if that meant going back even further than finishing Canopus in February.

We last looked at the Alan Keef Ltd K12 diesel locomotive I was building all the way back in March of 2019 when I explained the origami required to turn the flat etched parts into the bonnet and cab. Having successfully (on the third attempt) designed the etched parts I was able to finally build and paint a complete model; and I'm still really quite impressed with the stencil idea for the wasp stripes!

And here it is posed on my tiny photo plank with the etched peat wagon I started working on at roughly the same time as the locomotive.

If anyone is interested in more details then I wrote a nice long article, complete with drawings, which appeared in issue 119 of Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling REVIEW in July last year. That issue actually contained two articles from me (and two separate reviews as well) because in co-operation with Alan Keef (yes the founder of Alan Keef Ltd. and the man behind the design and build of the K12 locomotives) I wrote an article discussing the six original K12 locomotives (there were actually seven in total but the last one was a bit different and we managed to miss including it).

Oh, and of course if you want your own 4mm scale K12 locomotive, then it's available as a kit in both OO9 and OO6.5 from Narrow Planet.

That Took Longer Than Expected

I knew I'd been slowly building Canopus for quite a while but I had no idea that it was almost six years since I wrote the first post when I'd just bought the kit. To be fair for a lot of that time the part built model has just sat around while I've focused on other things. In fact it's almost two years since I started painting the body.

I actually finished the model back in February so in total it took about five and a half years from start to finish. I had every intention of blogging about the finished model, I even shot the photos and video for this post, but then I got side tracked by one thing or another, and that was before the world went crazy. Anyway, roughly five years and eleven months from starting and I give you a completed Canopus...

I'll be the first to admit that these close up shots are rather cruel (I'd not noticed the odd shape to the chimney in real life, or the gap under the cab roof) but in normal viewing I'm really quite happy with how it's turned out. Given it was, and still is, the first etched chassis I've ever built and all the problems that made it difficult to build the fact I've finished it at all seems like a triumph. Just to prove it still works here's a short video of it on the test track (it won't go around my tight circular track as the wheelbase is too long now the rear pony truck is fitted)

It's never going to be the best runner (it's locked up a couple of times but I think this is the gearbox shifting and not the quartering) but I'm really rather proud of how it turned out.

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Apologies it's been so long since the last post on this blog. I have been doing quite a bit of modelling and railway related research I've just not had the time or enthusiasm to write proper blog posts. Sorry. Hopefully this will mark the re-start of more frequent posts but no promises.

One Right, One Wrong

So yesterday I grabbed a few minutes here and there to have a look at the new prototypes. First up was the revised peat wagon etches

On the left we have the previous OO6.5 gauge prototype that was very awkward to assemble. On the right the new prototype etched cage this time assembled onto a Dundas Models rugga chassis for OO9. The good news is that the new parts are much much easier to assemble, and once assembled are indistinguishable from the previous version, so I'm calling that a success. That means these should hopefully appear as kits in both gauges before too long.

Flushed with success I moved on to having a look at the new etches for the K12 loco. Unfortunately on the very first piece I removed from the fret I've found a mistake; a half etched rebate is on the wrong side of the sheet. Checking the artwork and the mistake is definitely of my own making, which is rather frustrating. In my defence it's on a rather complex part that involves two normal fold lines and an underfold and I simply got confused as to which side ended up where on the folded part. Fortunately with the artwork being digital it's easy to correct; I can't imagine how people stayed sane correcting hand-drawn etch artwork! I'm going to assemble as much of the model as I can to check the rest of the parts, but it's going to need another round of prototyping before it's finished.

New Year, New Prototypes

It's been quite a while since I had any modelling to show while I updated the designs for the K12 loco and peat wagons I was working on back in November. Well hopefully that will all soon change and I'll have something new to tell you.

The 3D printed parts turned up just before Christmas, while the revised etched parts dropped through the letterbox this morning. First glance and everything looks good, so fingers crossed...

From the Footplate Downwards

If you cast your mind back about a month (before I finished the Clayton and started back on Canopus) I was looking at tiny chassis for a project, specifically the power bogies from a KATO Centram. Having settled on a chassis I've been slowly designing the rest of the model.

So far I've finished the footplate downwards; the body will be an all etched affair that slots onto this base. The test print fitted fairly well (a couple of support pins need resizing slightly for a better fit) so I better get on with designing the rest of it.

As to what it's a model of...... I'll let you guess a while longer yet.

Unlined Black?

I've now started on painting Canopus, and the question arises as to what colour it should be. The instructions suggest that at some point it had a striking livery of emerald green with red and yellow lining, but that it was also seen running in unlined black. I'm not sure I've got the patience for a complex lining job, and as I don't currently have a black loco, I think I'm going to go for a reasonably well weathered unlined black look.

Currently the chassis has been retouched by hand to cover damage to the original paintwork done before the wheels were permanently in place, and the body has been painted with red oxide primer and then matt black.

Even with an unlined black livery there is plenty of detail painting and weathering to do, but it's nice to be on the home straight now.

One interesting point about the black paint. In the past I've used Humbrol Matt Black (No. 33) from an aerosol can, but as I no longer have a convenient model shop (I do miss Antics in Sheffield) I can call into on my way home I had to buy the paint online. A quick look on Amazon and I was amazed to find that the Humbrol paint was costing £11.48 for 150ml (yes I know it's cheaper from other sellers but I have Prime so why pay for delivery or wait for ages for it to arrive). I had a look around and instead bought matt black from Hycote -- I use their red oxide primer which is excellent. Amazingly this comes as a 400ml spray can and costs just £5.09. Coverage seems to be excellent and it dried nice and quickly (as does the primer) so that's me happy.

Track Power

When it comes to making working models getting the pickups right is really important; no pickups means no power which means the loco doesn't move. Unfortunately I always seem to struggle with pickups be that on a kit I've bought or one I've designed. As I mentioned previously, with Canopus I only have to fit pickups to one side as the chassis is live to the other wheels (a change from the original kit design) but that still means I need to fit three pickups. There is a suggestion in the instructions but no mounting point, you are just given a bit of copper clad board and some wire. After a bit of head scratching this is what I came up with.

What you can't see is that I've filed a gap in the underside of the board so it sits down nice and secure on the stretcher between the slide bars. This made it easy to position and glue in place. Phosphor bronze wires then run from the board to rub on each wheel. Amazingly it all seems to actually work. I did have to clean the wheels well, but given the amount of handling the chassis has had since I started the build that's not entirely surprising. Anyway here she is running for the first time under track power.

Not bad if I do say so myself. As far as I can tell the loco is now complete so next step will be to start thinking about a paint scheme.

Short Circuit

Short Circuit was a great 1980s film that I quite enjoyed as a kid (not my favourite 1980s film but not bad all the same), but when it comes to railway modelling the last thing you want is a short circuit; it's more likely to end in tears and you pulling your hair out rather than laughing hilariously. Now imagine my surprise that I've had to solve a short circuit issue on Canopus.

In fairness I think this issue is down to the original wheels the kit was designed for not being available when I bought mine and so a different set were provided. Originally both wheels were isolated from the axle. This means that you had to fit pickups to the wheels on both sides of the model, but that the model itself was insulated from the track. The replacement axles have only one wheel isolated and the other is live to the axle. This means that I only have to fit pickups to the isolated wheels as I can just connect the motor direct to the chassis as the power will flow from the wheels to the axle, through the bearings and into the chassis. So far so good; I hate fixing and adjusting pickups so I'm more than happy to halve the work involved.

The problem though is the trailing wheel. If you remember from a couple of posts back the wheel is mounted on a metal truck that pivots from the chassis. Now while both wheels are isolated from the axle, there is enough movement to allow the wheels to both touch the chassis and for the back of each wheel to touch the pony truck. If this were to happen to the wheel on the same side as the insulated driving wheels we'd have a short as both rails would now be connected to the chassis.

My solution to this involves two modifications. The easiest bit was to ensure that the wheel couldn't short against the chassis frames. I've fixed this by putting a piece of masking tape on the inside of the frame. To try and make sure it doesn't come off I've run a small bead of superglue around the edges and then painted it black to hide it against the frame (it's unpainted in the photo). Making sure the wheel can't short against the pony truck was harder. I went through a number of ideas for this but in the end I thinned the truck slightly and then glued a thin piece of plastic to the side (so that with the plastic the truck is still the right width).

As far as I can tell these two modifications should ensure that the wheel now can't cause a short circuit, but the real test will of course come when I finally wire up the pickups and test the loco on the track. Fingers crossed.....