Layout and Buildings

The Work So Far

This is a view of the coke ovens. One of the buildings that survived the rebuilding of the works in 1932/3. Coal is loaded into the oven which is then ignited and sealed. There is virtually no flame but the coal is transformed into coke. Yet to be added is the gas recovery system that collects what used to be called town gas. This is then piped to the blast furnace for use. I am busy building the fan house at the moment as this will be combined with the loco depot.

This is the work on the engine shed and fan house. The fan house is a 3 story building containing 2 powerful electric driven fans. It is positioned on top of the girders in the photo. A couple of my 2' 6" gauge locos are being used to check clearances. The loco in grey is not yet finished and is a model of Bagnall Meyer 2544. It is a scratch built body sat on a modified Rivarossi 0-4-4-0T chassis. Supposedly brought back from South Africa in 1936 as a failure but is now in regular use. Behind the 2544 is Andrew Barclay No 3, an A class 0-4-0T called Pearl. This is a scratch built body on a very early Triang tank chassis. Pearl and No 4 Annie (another Bagnall 0-4-0T) are the two locos that manage the works.

Here is a quick photo of the, as yet, unfinished blast furnace. More later.......

Not a bad day and some work has taken place.

The fan house is starting to come together. The walls are up and the windows trial fitted. I have run out of the self adhesive brick paper so have ordered some more from France. Where the fan house meets the rest of the building I will make some detailed brick work. Eventually all my locomotives and stock will get to run so here is a for taste of what is to come.

The Layout Progress

Today I have finished the track laying. Track is laid on 40mm X 3mm neoprene foam. The relevant insilated fishplates have been added and wiring should start soon. Ballasting will then take place and infilled 'granite setts will be added.

 

The neoprene is self adhesive on one side and the track is glued down with PVA glue. Held in position while the glue dries using Baked Bean tins.















Here is a collage of the working locos for the railway. 2 diesels, 1 petrol and 6 steam. I also have a Bachman Class B Shay that I hope to use to copy the Shay that was in the UK at Bilston. Stewart and Lloyd's Shay was Number I with LIMA on the tender. I will add some local changes and claim it was converted to narrow gauge. More pictures when I start on it.

Another Building

I regular keep an eye on what is coming up on the second hand scene. I was lucky enough to buy up 2 Bachmann HO USA Tank Wagons this week. I like Bachmann freight cars and have used many of their chassis, especially the caboose that Hattons sold very cheaply a few years ago. I dismantled the 2 tanks and earmarked 1 chassis for a coach I have and the second will be converted to an ingot carrier. In my Redic world bot steel and cast iron is produced in ingots that are 3 feet long by 1 foot by 1 foot. This 3 cubic foot ingot weighs 489 pounds. Therefore 9 ingots weigh approximately 2 tons, a good load for a NG wagon.

Now what to do with the bodies. The tanks on the wagons have a section of body as part of the chassis. I did not want to weaken the chassis so modified the rest of the tank to fit flat and constructed a brick built plinth to fit them on. It is still work in progress but here is how far I have got.

The Ingot Carrier

I really liked the idea of this and have 3D printed some more ingots. The chassis from the Bachmann HO Tank Car is a bit of a problem, great bogies but the bottom of the tank is moulded into the chassis. I found I had some 8mm channel plasic and this was cut and mitered and glued to the top of what was once the Tank Car's platform. I then used a piece of 20 thou Plastikard to make a sheet of steel for the ingot carriers deck. I scribed a couple of seams then riveted the edge and double riveted the seams. I then glued the sheet to the top of the channel. I added a few bends to the sheet before glueing on the sheet. I hoped these bends would show some variation that would give the carrier some wear. It was whilst doing this that I noticed that on side channel had been glued in with some inward bowing. I tried paring back the edge of the top sheet but that didn't look right so a 1.5mm strip of 20 thou was glued on the represent an old repair.

Off to the garage for a coat of paint. I have found that most wagons that work around the blast furnace are black and rusty probably due to the intense heat. It was time to try and emulate that finish where the black is densely mottled with fine rust. The wagon was sprayed with satin black with a couple of coats. Immediately the wagon was then sprayed with red primer. The spray is aimed from about a metre or maybe more so that the red primer falls onto the wet black.

Off indoors for a cup of tea and half an hour later the wagon is dry. I have to finish it by adding some securing eyes and a bit of lettering. If you have the facility to enlarge have a go because the wagon deck looks great.

The Special Coach

Just 2 years ago a very good friend passed away. I was asked to help clear his house and his model railway equipment was donated to the WSR Wagon Restoration Group. Sale of tools and models raised enough money to fully equipe the group with 110V and battery powered woodworking tools. When you sell off somebodies model collection you get left with the contents of drawers that we all have. They are useful......sometime and the pile just gets bigger. Well this coach was inf act a tram car that was probably towed by an enclosed steam tram loco. Time had told on this coach and one end was missing and other bits broken. I did the bare minimum to get it as it should be, repainted the missing an end and finished it ready for narrow gauge. The tank car chassis that was spare was used but it needed lengthening so I cut it at one end as I wanted the weights to remain. It worked very well and now the coach complete with its mostly original paint and transfers is on wheels and ready to go. 

The Engine Shed and Fan House

 Work has restarted on the Fan House as a delivery of brick paper has arrived from France. The Fan House needed some fettling to strengthen the joints and the floor of the shed was evened up and the 2 pieces glued together.
Next the pieces of brick work that will cover the gap in the building will be made. The are 4 mm thick made of 2 pieces of plasticard laminated together. There will be matching projections at the top of the Fan House on the long sides. No windows are fitted on the end side because it faces the blast furnace and would not get much light. The photo below shows a heavy steel block that I use for applying weight. The Gorilla glue I use is set in 30 minutes but will take until tomorrow to get to full strength. As soon as I can handle it the rest of the brick paper can be added. This brick paper I get from France via Ebay. It is photographs printed onto thin vinyl and is self adhesive. When finished I mask off the windows and spray with Purity Spray to protect and get a matte finish. The building can then have weathering applied.

 

Well the bottom is complete except for the corners. The extra brick wall width would have been added to reinforce the structure and is in keeping with the extension above the original fan room. The plinth is bonded on with superglue because it is difficult to get plastic glue to gold the foam board paper. Here are a few photos of the work so far. Next will be the upper plinth and the shed roof. The shed will be galvanised iron and then the tiled roof will be added to the fan room. There may be internal equipment on the floors, have 3D printed a sizeable electric motor. Will need some plenum and pipe outlets next. Have also printed some 'Xs and Ss' to show some strengthen to the upper building.




A bit more work on the shed and fan house. The window cills have all been fitted. The rafters for the shed roof have been made and glued in. I have decided to use the gas storage tanks as water storage and a 'steel' frame has been built to fit the tanks above the roof as per several NCB installations. Most of the corrugated roof has been fitted and when the water tanks are fitted the roof will be finished. The 3D printer has been used to make some brackets for the water crane that will be fixed to the shed wall. 

Some extra photos of the building which should finish next week and then be weathered and cluttered with the usual discarded bits and pieces.

The roof of the fan house has been built and added. I used some ABS plastic pantiles that I bought at the Bristol GOG meeting a couple of years ago. It

is made in Spain (Green Stuff World) and is about 3.5 Euros a sheet and postage is reasonably low. It is quite thick and made of ABS so it takes some cutting. Usual way to score and break but it needs 3 or 4 good cuts first. Some serious sanding is needed on this hipped gable roof so an half a mm oversize is required.
Now this was going to be a difficult painting job. The hip joints have had small tube glued on the simulate ridge tiles and that looks good. Now back to painting.

I decided to try my wet in wet method and chose the following colours. Yellow, red, black, red oxide primer. The red oxide is drifted on leaving it quite patchy. Then quickly yellow is drifted on. This is followed by not too muck red just enough to get the orange colour. Finally the black is drifted on. Now when I say drifted I mean the paint is not sprayed directly onto the plastic roof but it is sprayed from a distance of 3' to 4' (1.4 metres) so that the paint is loosing its velocity and falls on to

the roof. You have to work very quickly so that the arriving paint mixes with the last coat. It is also worth changing the angle of spray so that ridges are emphasised. Once finished my trusty purity spray creates an overall flat finish. When all is dry the roof was weathered with a mixture of black and rust and this gives the drifts of varying colour that is so difficult to produce. When satisfied it is given another coat of purity. I have attached a close up to show the paint effect that I love.