River Dee Meats ... My first foray into O Gauge

Discussion in 'Planks, Switching and Shelf Layouts' started by Gary, Jun 19, 2018.

  1. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    True to that Gormo... :thumbs:

    I have witnessed first hand what can go wrong with Cobalts at exhibitions and how awkward they are to replace when you are kneeling down under a baseboard looking up and everything seems to be back to front ! :facepalm:

    I promise I won't mention any names.... :avatar::avatar:

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  2. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Now let me think....:scratchchin:.....who could that be.....:scratchchin:
    :whatever: Gormo
     
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  3. jakesdad13

    jakesdad13 Staff Member Moderator

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    :avatar::avatar::avatar:
     
  4. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Took the day off work today as I had to wait for a delivery of a new washing machine... Can't get around wearing the same socks and jocks all week... Then again, being summer here, who needs socks and jocks ! :eek:

    So, to pass time today I decided to pull out a couple of kits that I had purchased a while back. On the work bench (read dinning room table) was a LNER 10t cattle van, LNER 12t goods van and a 7 plank open wagon. Still have to add the brake rigging to the 7 plank...


    So far, so good !


    I did manage to loose a spring in one buffer when I was screwing on the nut and the buffer decided to launch across the room...:mad: Oh well, these things happen.

    I'll finish off the 7 plank over the weekend and continue on with the LMS meat van, then whilst bits and pieces are curing, I'' start on the LMS 20t brake van. Funny how the brake rigging becomes easier to put together once you have done one or two kits ! ;)

    I'm was considering buying a few more kits but that may have to wait now after I forked out several $$ for a new washing machine and with car registration/insurance and all that coming up, I may have to wait until early-mid March...:( Oh well, I do have some embossed styrene on its way from the UK so when that arrives, I can continue with the cattle dock that I have started. No pics of that yet...

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  5. ianvolvo46

    ianvolvo46 Staff Member Moderator

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    That's a useful way to spend a day off work Gary :thumbup: ... wish I could get a day off work but haven't had one of those since retiring ... :scratchchin:
     
  6. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Well, the embossed styrene sheets I ordered from the UK arrived today. Didn't notice until about 30 minutes ago when the cat (Charlie) came to the front door, crying out "let me in...!"
    So I have a few things to get on with..., 1. continue the build of the cattle dock and 2. complete the LMS 20 ton brake van, although I'm waiting on a parts bender... Then again, it will be a busy weekend as I'm heading up to Maitland/Paterson for an open day at the Rail Motor Society, taking my boys with me. That should be fun !

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  7. jakesdad13

    jakesdad13 Staff Member Moderator

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    Have a great time with the boys Gary, the rest will still be there when you get back :tophat:

    Pete.
     
  8. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Well, it's been quite a busy few weekends. Last time I posted I mentioned that I was going up to Maitland and then to Paterson to visit the Rail Motor Society. That wasn't a bad weekend except that the Society's page said that they would be running shuttles..., not the case. :(

    Last weekend I was back up in Maitland where I rode the North West Zephyr to Werris Creek and helped mate Dave Coyle start on his small NSWGR shunting layout. This weekend was a full on weekend getting back home at 11.45pm Sunday night ! See separate thread ; http://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/a-day-out-on-the-north-west-zephyr.3978/

    This weekend I had my boys again and we headed off to the North Shore Model Railway Exhibition, see separate thread ; http://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index...ilway-exhibition-forestville-nsw-part-1.3996/ That was a full on day as well.

    Which this brings me back to today.., finally ! Throughout the last week I glued down some more insulation foam on the layout to carve up into land forms. I wish to make the scene like it was carved into the landscape due to the baseboards being flat.


    I have started carving the 'cutting' into the edge of the foam, but it still looks reasonably flat.


    I thought that this area needs a feature, so I revisited something I had done on Linden Ford...



    A railway crossing was drawn onto the foam. I aiming for a single lane country lane, the road way being only 11' wide.


    So the carving was started and some 3mm foam core for the road surface cut to suit the slope down to the railway line.


    The end result is this below, a nice little cutting and crossing...


    I'll be carving the rest of the foam up after work this week, that is if anything else doesn't get in the way... :whatever:

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  9. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    I have had to come up with a name for this layout for the upcoming exhibition. I have chosen 'River Dee Meats'.

    The reasoning behind the name is that it is close to Wrexham, where LMS Jintys and GWR Panniers once ran (Wrexham to New Brighton line). The location that I chose is somewhere located south east of Wrexham, not far from Bangor-on-Dee, after all, there is a road to the east of Bangor-on-Dee named 'Station Road'. This line is fictitious, a small branch off the Wrexham - Bangor-on-Dee branch, that is if that line did exist once... ;);)

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  10. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Wow, a month has almost passed since I last posted, so what have I been up to ?? Well a funeral, an exhibition, outings at open days and finally fitting decoders and Bachmann OO couplers to my rolling stock. I picked up three LaisDCC decoders off SMR Chris a while back. Four screws on the Jinties and six on the Pannier and the bodies were off. A very simple install. The tension lock couplers were super glued to a strip of styrene and then glued to the end of the underframes. Using these will make it easier to uncouple when exhibiting.

    Here are a few pics of the Bachmann OO tension locks on the O gauge wagons.


    ^ TLs fitted to wagons and they don't look too bad at all.


    ^ Coupled together on a straight section of track.


    ^ One wagon with sprung buffers, one with white metal cast buffers sitting on the curve on the layout. I'm thinking of changing the cast buffers to sprung buffers as it gives a little more freedom between the wagons due to the buffers compressing on the curved track.


    ^ Two wagons fitted with sprung couplers certainly works better.


    ^ A view from above with the two sprung buffered wagons sitting on the curve.

    Hopefully get some paint onto the wagons next, maybe later in the week or mid next week as I'm back on the road on Friday.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  11. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    G`day Gary,
    I still find it amazing that some bits easily transition between OO and O gauge. The couplings look fine, but my head says it shouldn`t..?????....:scratchchin:
    Well there you go.....we should not take anything for granted and make assumptions.....best to keep an open mind and experiment with things.
    I remember when you showed me that Lima O gauge track and you pointed out that the rail was actually code 100 OO gauge.
    That still does not make sense?????.......but that`s how it was done and it works fine..
    :facepalm: Ay yay yay yay.......don`t start using N gauge parts.....it will freak me out. !!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:.....:avatar::avatar::avatar::avatar:
    :cheers::tophat:Gormo
     
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  12. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Thanks Gormo.

    I will add that this is not my idea of using Bachmann TL's on O gauge stock. I read a RMweb thread 'Boxer Bay Railway' where the chap who owns this great little layout has fitted TL's to his stock. I must admit that the radius on my layout is far tighter than his and the TL's cope well.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  13. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Well I have just had 11 days off and most of them I spent away from home. Five days in Melbourne, one day in Nowra, followed by a day off before heading down to see my folks as my father has just been admitted to a nursing home. I had another few days away. So, with today being the last day on leave, I had to pull my finger out and paint some wagons...

    First up, a grey primer was applied. I used Tamiya Surface Primer for this. This was applied through the airbrush. It recommends using denatured alcohol as a thinner, but I tried some auto acrylic thinner and it did the job.


    Next up after an hour of drying time, I airbrushed the interior of the cattle vans and the open wagons with a natural (?) wood colour... Well, it seemed to fit the bill ! In a few places on the out side of the wagons, I also sprayed a few planks with the same colour.


    After this, I airbrushed the wagons with their respective top coat. I used the salt method to replicate peeling paint.




    Above. Note the chassis has been painted on this GWR 12 tonne open wagon.


    The inside of the open wagons were lightly airbrushed with a thin coat of grey after I had sprayed the out sides of them.


    Of course I thought I had some white acrylic sitting around somewhere and I was going to spray the roofs of the cattle wagons and meat vans (not shown above). Well, that will be tomorrows job.

    I have painted the chassis of the GWR 12 tonne open wagon as shown above. Since the pics were taken, all the chassis's have been painted. I used the colour 'tyre black' from the Hobby Colour range of paints. This is a nice weathered black, similar to the old Floquil 'grimy black'.

    Tonight I will decal the models with the appropriated decals and seal them with a clear coat before weathering them.

    Until then...,

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  14. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Lately I have been pondering the cattle dock that I require on the layout and I was thinking of doing an enlarged version of the Ratio OO scale cattle dock that is available.

    Looking into this, I would need to drill quite a few holes in all the posts that will support the cattle pen fences. I was thinking about using 4mm balsa strip for this and drilling all the holes and inserting wire through them. Trouble is getting all the holes spot on. Yes, I could make a jig, but how long would that last considering every post has 6 holes, corner posts have 12 and there are over 50 posts all up...?? Not long I think !

    I decided to do a search on cattle pens/docks and found some interesting pics and literature on the pens that were constructed for use at Shirley. Now, Shirley being about 60 miles from my predetermined location for the layout (not far from Bangor-on-Dee), I thought that this type of construction method would suit my location, let alone be easier to build. The cattle pens were a standard arrangement constructed from lengths of bridge rail which were prefabricated at Swindon for this purpose.

    This link will show you what I have in mind : https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsh1116b.htm and https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrsh2951.htm

    This should be a simple affair of soldering rail to rail and adding that thin bar between the top three rails. It looks simple enough and as I have many a lengths of code 100 rail lying around that had been stripped of sleepers and a sturdy set of cutters, all I need is the brass strip.

    Well this shall be this weekends project as I have a few wagons to finish off right now.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  15. Timbersurf

    Timbersurf

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    It's a miss print! 'Cattle' should have been 'rhinoceros'!
     
  16. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Yes, it looks like something out of Jurassic Park ! I reckon it could hold back a herd of elephants !! ;);)

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  17. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    As usual, late last night when packing up my paints and airbrush, I came across the bottle of white paint. So this afternoon, the roofs have been painted on all vans and whilst I had the white out, I attempted to make that interesting 'pink' colour the Southern Railways used on their meat vans. I mixed a little Tamiya Hull Red with a few drops of white, adding a little each time until I was happy with the mix. I'd easily say it would have been 1 part Hull Red and 5 or 6 parts white. I think the colour is close enough, especially that the wagons will be toned down somewhat with a light weathering.


    So, this wagon just needs decals and also a few others need the decals finishing off. My eyes were too sore (tired) to carry on last night ! ;)

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  18. SMR CHRIS

    SMR CHRIS Staff Member Moderator

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    Hi Gary your getting a nice collection of rolling stock coming along.
    The SR meat van colour is one of those mysteries that always starts debates in a similar way like NSWGR russet dose, it looks different in every photo you see, with the SR meat van in colour ranges from a yellowy to a pinky colour the pinky colour may have come from the LSWR heritage of colours as a bit of a throwback in the wagon works
    As long as it’s somewhere between the ends of the colour spectrum of the yellow and pink and a bit of weathering you will be right.
     
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  19. bobcom52

    bobcom52 Full Member

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    That's all coming along nicely Gary.
    Where did you go to for the couplers? I have been using Powerline dunny seats in the middle of some of my rakes but have been interested to try the Bachmann coathangers on my British stock.
    cheers
    Bob
     
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  20. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Hi Bob,

    The Bachmann TL I purchased from Hattons a while back when they had them on special. https://www.hattons.co.uk/24551/Bac...loop_screw_on_couplings_long/StockDetail.aspx

    You should be able to purchase these at any model railway shop in the major cities that stock Hornby and Bachmann. I believe Gormo has sourced the same couplings from Woodpecker Model Railway in Pendle Hill (Sydney).

    Cheers, Gary.
     

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