Mk 1 coach in G

Okay so I have realised I am not very good at this sitting and thinking about things lark, so decided just to get on with my next project despite all my concerns about whether it would work !!!

After checking stock levels I found I had 5 sheets of 60 thou plasticard so that seemed a good place to start. When the rest of the country sat down to watch England get beat this afternoon I set to work in the shed. and here is how I got on.

 I couldn't work out how to support the shape of the sides as they are obviously not flat ! A look at a few prototype pictures and I realised there were dividers or bulkheads that was the spur I needed.

Step 1 was a rigid base, double thickness of 60thou on the base with side to stiffen and ribs where the bulkheads go.



Then a bit of cutting to make the bulkheads using an scan of a book diagram enlarged to my chosen scale and drawn round. Once I had got one bulkhead right it was just a case of scribing round it several times.

The plan is to make each window pair either side of the doors as a single unit the doors will be separate too. then they will be stuck together. I have stuck one side unit on just to get  my head round what I am doing.







This next one gives an indication of size, the path is made from 2' flagstones..



Probably the biggest single model I have made to date !

Looking at the way the windows sit on the side I'm assuming they are not made from curved glass panes so the frames the glass sits in must take up the body work curvature to to allow flat glass ?

Thoughts comment advice always welcome..

John

 Railway blogging @ http:\\www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com
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that looks like if it could become a fine model.
But the small scale layout in the background looks good, too!!!!

Greetings

Frank

..how slow must a man be to be run over by a shay?
www.g-scale-structures.de

John
The mk1s sides are flat the body curves in from the windows down so the roof edges are wider than the floor, the profile of the ends of your coach look more like gresley (Flying scotsman) type coaches the curve gets tighter as the sides get lower almost to the point of tucking in flat and then you have the exposed chassis rail. the mk2 has the same profile but the bottom of the curve covers the chassis rail
Hope this helps keep up the great work
tony

Life's to short--------- And so is my back garden 

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Quite remarable! While some are crying in their beer (having spent a couple of grand to see their team lose) you get on with something useful. You are a prolific modelmaker! I wondered what you were going to build next - now I know! Can't wait to see further postings. I notice you enlarge or copy drawings to the size you want. I do the same (do you use the PC like I do?). Great job.

Mick

Mick - always learning something new (then forgetting it).

Which type of coach are you making. I've got a load of the Bachmann Mk1's so could take a few pics if you like?

West Herts

its the mark 1 non gangway, as in lots of doors down the side

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RJR


its the mark 1 non gangway, as in lots of doors down the side

 

Hi John
           Thats called a subburban ? you mean seperate compartments you have to go outside to get into the next with 2 bench seats facing each other and a door both sides, thats got to be the hardest one to start with but i have no doubt 
 
Tony

Life's to short--------- And so is my back garden 

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Looks interesting what bogies are you using are they the LGB Rhb coach bogies and if so where did you get them

Thanks for all the comment and advice.

Yes its a suburban ! 

They are LGB coach bogies , form Arcadia Models Shaw (they have a decent stock of LGB and do Telephone orders)

I picked the suburban partly as its shorter and it looked easier, more windows but no window bars.

The profile is correct to the drawings in the book I have, but I have flattened the area over the height of the window.

Yes the drawings are scanned and printed using my laptop.

Anyway on to the progress

I've run out of plastic card for the time being, but tonight was quite fruitful.  One side is starting to look something like.







But pointing man is complaining he cant get out .. no handles !



John

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It just gets better and better.
I will be very interested in how you curve the roof over the tops of the windows.
A while ago I bought an RhB van body with a view to converting it into a small electric loco but I haven't a clue as to how I will get the roof to stay the right shape.
All agog.

It's being so cheerful that keeps me going 

Thanks Keith, Re the roof

When I built the 25 I did the roof by laminating 2 layers of thin plasticard together in strips, much like a boat hull




It has become very strong and rigid, but the downside is it is fixed (not lift off)

For this build you may have noticed the centre run of bulkheads have no roof shape, only the end ones do, that is because I plan to slot in a piece of Balsa wood and sand it to the roof shape in one piece so I can then lift it back out to detail and glaze the inside. That's how I did the roof of this rail motor all though it was a bit smaller (O guage)





John

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I have to confess to being a plasticard-aholic, I have been routing in the scarp box for bits to finish of the shape on the first side (found enough !)

Tonight's pics include an end shot to help you decide if I have got the profile right.







Two reasons I have made the side up in sections, 
1) they are easier to handle 
2) I wanted to get the doors to look like they are separate.



Finally a potential caption competition ??



John

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John the profile looks spot on top man top job
i have wonderfull memories going to school in suburban coaches in the sixties
only one thing not really worth a mention but. no i wont say anything
 
Tony
 
oh ok then
while prob not unheard of but a 25 pulling a subburban coach would not have been a common sight so you will have to next build a couple of suburban EMU or DMU end units to fit either end
 
No you are correct john im being far to picky rule 8 and all that
 
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Life's to short--------- And so is my back garden 

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Fantastic John,
 
I dont know how you keep the card so clean,  I always get marks all over it
 
You said  ->   Two reasons I have made the side up in sections, 
                       1) they are easier to handle 
                       2) I wanted to get the doors to look like they are separate.
 
Now if I were doing it there would be a third reason
                       3) so when my hand slipped & a window ended up less than square I could discard just a short bit & not the whole side  
 
 
Q?  do you shamfer the door edges so as not to loose the joint when paint is applied?

Don.
Stoneycombe & The Penrose Valley Railway in sunny Devon, England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXftHeRMUU
"Modelling is not so much an obsession but more of an Observation"

Granitechops

Fantastic John, 
  I dont know how you keep the card so clean,  I always get marks all over it

I've worked this one out, Don.
John works so damn fast that there isn't time for the dust to settle, or the muck to stick !
I wish I was that neat.
 
Keep up the good work, John !

David
Home of the Cottam Strassenbahn

Thanks for all the comments,

Tony "artistic licence?" besides I cant get a 63footer round the bends !

Don, reason 3 seems fine to me, I did in fact get over excited and chopped the side pillar of one of the units "Doh" so it was a good job they were separate.

I havent chamfered the edges, but there is a reason I plan to stick a second thin (10though) set of sides over the current ones with the windows slightly smaller and complete with the radius window corners. I can then cut the glazing to the size of the current hole and stick it in from the back.

Mainly cos I thought it easier to put the rads on thinner plastic !!

John

 Railway blogging @ http:\\www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com
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Would using a section of roof guttering not give you the profile you need , I have seen this done on a set of G1 suburban Gresley quads

got excited for a minute there Mr.Spock, but just been out and tried my roof template against a piece of guttering and unfortunately the gutter is too round. Never mind its thinking out of the box that moves things forward.

John

 Railway blogging @ http:\\www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com
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Gutter as roof
 
I tried it 6 years ago when I built this coach, its 30 ins long
 
the gutter was too round, so I made a thick wood insert  smaller than the coach width,
 
left about 3/4 inch gap at peak of roof, drilled through roof & wood at about 4 inch intervals along the centreline
 
inserted bolts & nuts & tightened up gradually till it got to the right shape / width
 
Hot water has no effect on this plastic its built to resist the suns heat
 
It worked as the outer bolt heads were disguised as vents
 
But
 
the construction method added too much weight & too high up
 
 

 
 

Attached Image(s)

Don.
Stoneycombe & The Penrose Valley Railway in sunny Devon, England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXftHeRMUU
"Modelling is not so much an obsession but more of an Observation"

I think them suburbans were nicknamed balloon stock or have I mixed that up with some other  memory

pete

Attached Image(s)

This afternoon I got home earlier than planned so i used the time to block up and sand the roof section with some Balsa wood









This method was a lot quicker than the one I used to make the loco roof !!! 

John

 Railway blogging @ http:\\www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com
 Blogging about life @ http:\\rjrdaydreamer.blogspot.com          

How do you get such neat cuts in plasticard, mine just seem to wander about.

Alpineandy


How do you get such neat cuts in plasticard, mine just seem to wander about.

I'm sure others have better answers but I find my cuts wander when I'm lazy and try and cut plastic rather than take my time and score it.


Use a decent steel rule, and a sharp blade. Make shallow light movements to score the top surface of the plastic then applying pressure from behind the cut snap the plastic along the score. You don't need to cut it all the way through. That takes longer and usually results in less than straight lines.


Windows are the same, score the 4 sides, usually a score only needs to be half the depth of the plastic.
Once the scoring is done, start at one corner and score to the centre, repeat for all 4 corners until the diagonal scores go all the way through creating a "diagonal cross" the 4 triangles formed can now be snapped out along the scored edges.

If anyone not use to using plasticard would be interested I could do some "how tos" with pictures, but I don't want to teach my grandma to suck eggs.

 Railway blogging @ http:\\www.rjrmodels.blogspot.com
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RJR

Alpineandy


How do you get such neat cuts in plasticard, mine just seem to wander about.

I'm sure others have better answers but I find my cuts wander when I'm lazy and try and cut plastic rather than take my time and score it.


Use a decent steel rule, and a sharp blade. Make shallow light movements to score the top surface of the plastic then applying pressure from behind the cut snap the plastic along the score. You don't need to cut it all the way through. That takes longer and usually results in less than straight lines.


Windows are the same, score the 4 sides, usually a score only needs to be half the depth of the plastic.
Once the scoring is done, start at one corner and score to the centre, repeat for all 4 corners until the diagonal scores go all the way through creating a "diagonal cross" the 4 triangles formed can now be snapped out along the scored edges.

If anyone not use to using plasticard would be interested I could do some "how tos" with pictures, but I don't want to teach my grandma to suck eggs.

I would greatly welcome any "how to" pics and details please.

It's being so cheerful that keeps me going 

Yes please,  a how to, step by step
 
one thing I have found is that when doing longer cuts, it pays to CLAMP the straight edge while scoring, saves blade wandering when edge slips while concentrating on the blade,
 
slows things up though, but you dont have to do it a second time  

Don.
Stoneycombe & The Penrose Valley Railway in sunny Devon, England
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqXftHeRMUU
"Modelling is not so much an obsession but more of an Observation"

This really is a great thread and now we will get a blow by blow account of cutting plasticard! what I need is a tutorial on how to get the blood stains off plasticard....................................

"Most garden railwaymen are ordinary folk - Albeit as nutty as fruitcakes"...D. Rowlands

The term "Balloon coach" usually refers to  push pull coaches that were common on the LBSCR, usually one or two coupled to a Terrier, E4 or similar. The LBSCR coaching stoch had a small loading guage (one of the reasons ex London Underground stock was sent to the Isle of Wight to replace the ex LBSCR coaches that ran until the demnise of steam.

There were some main line sets also.

The Balloon coaches were large by comparison and had a bloated appearence so hence the name.

 

Granitechops


Yes please,  a how to, step by step
 
one thing I have found is that when doing longer cuts, it pays to CLAMP the straight edge while scoring, saves blade wandering when edge slips while concentrating on the blade,
 
slows things up though, but you dont have to do it a second time  

Also, never, never, never cut along the bevelled edge of a straightedge unless you really want to lose the end of a finger!! 
Use only the right angled flat side.

It's being so cheerful that keeps me going 

A "how to" will follow when I get one of the kids to help with the camera ! Not enough hands to do it myself !

Today's update is a double day effort as I didn't post yesterday. 


On the one side that had been seen previously I have now added the second skin made from 20 thou (0.5mm) plastic. In this' the window aperture's are 1mm smaller all round and have radius corners. 



On the other side I have started the thicker first layer of side panels.



I have also fitted the seat backs and bases, which pointing man seems to find quite interesting.




This last picture shows the window step formed by adding the thinner second wall on the outside. The glazing will sit into this step. The seating will have "cushions" added to thicken them up 



John

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 Blogging about life @ http:\\rjrdaydreamer.blogspot.com          

Both sides now have complete sides, only one side hase the top thin cladding though. I needed a break from cutting windows so I have started on the underside trusses.









John

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From experience I have realised when scratch building its always a good idea to have frequent test runs, just in case you get something really wrong that renders the model inoperable. So last night after adding the thin skin top walls to the second side and also altering the bogie positions inwards to suit the underfloor framing a test was in order. I am pleased to report it ran first time no problems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsSFwKygAb8

John

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This really is astonishing.

Superb!

Mick - always learning something new (then forgetting it).

WOW. That coach and the 25 are amazing!!! But im sorry to say they both look so wrong going round such sharp curves... How about taking them (and perhaps leaving behind :thumbup to a railway with LGB R3... Say the DVR?  


Seriously good and now insanely jealous of your skills in building such amazing bits of kit!

Chris Allenby

Website: http://dibdenvalleyrailway.webs.com/

Fotopic: http://christopher.photoblog.co.uk/

Railways: Ecclesborne Valley Railway (Derby)
              : Royal Victoria Railway (Southampton)

Gobsmackingly amazing, is all I can say!

I was beaten by a computer at chess recently - but it was no match for me at kick-boxing.

Excellent work with styrene
 
Andy
 
What do you mean - it doesn't go round and round ?  Of course it doesn't, it's a model railway !

thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

Invites to visit other railways and being distracted into leaving stock behind ? Mmm

Not much to show for tonight's efforts, hinges and guttering.


John

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Superb work mate, wish I had the patience to cut out all those windows

and the stunning scratchbuilds continue.  Another fantastic project.

Gareth
http://www.shlr.info/

Amazing to watch that video and remember that, a couple of months ago, pretty much everything you see was just flat sheets of plastic card.

Stunning.

Mel, CMO and chief sausage knotter, the Wetton Gooey Light Railway.
The advantages of simplifying origami are two-fold


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