[Ruffnut Thorston]

Project "Merchant Navy"

The "Merchant Navy" project has in fact really started today, most of the parts having been collected together...

The project is to create a Tri-ang Hornby OO Gauge Re-built Merchant Navy loco. C1960s type of model.

Following on from someone on the Tri-ang Yahoo E-Group who has done a similar job in TT Guage, using a TT Un-rebuilt Merchant navy Chassis and modified tender, and a Britannia Body, I am using an un-rebuilt Battle of Britain Chasis (Winston Churchill) and a tender (To be modified). with a modified Britannia body. (and parts from the Kitmaster/Airfix/Dapol Battle of Britain kit.

The centre driving wheels have been drilled out and long Tri-ang Crank pins fitted.

The Britannia Cylinders, coupling and connecting rods, valve gear support and valve gear have been fittted.

The BoB Bogie and Pony Truck have been fitted.

The pick-ups needed re-soldering, but the motor and large Synchrosmoke unit are all now fitted and running well.

The Brit body cab is too long to use as is, it fouls the tender (It won't fit.). The portion containing the cab doors has to be cut off.

As I am using the cab from the kit (cut off), the whole cab has now gone, and is being modified to make the kit cab fit.

That is the limit of progess to-date...

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Project "Merchant Navy"

Continued...

Today the cab has been assembled onto the body, after a lot of detail was removed from the boiler, as the Brit has a lot of small differences.

One that I am not going to address, is the dome location! (The MN dome is further back than the Brit.)

On the body front, some representations of the Sand Box fillers, and the lubricators, on the running plate have been made and attached.

The Tender.

MK 1 version. (I may well do this again, but better, now I know how to do it! I have another tender top...)

The sides have been cut down, pieces made to fill a resulting gap each side of the bunker, a new top light made and fitted to the tender back, and a cover put over the vacuum tanks.

I may not bother converting the back of the coal space to a curved top, Tri-ang made it flat!

Photos WILL follow, when they escape from the camera...

 

[Long funnel & tiresome]

QUOTE The crew have to have part of their legs removed, as the floor is too high...

Thats the kind of high and mighty decision making by railway management that brought ASLEF into being

But I will say that once your crews are back on the footplate they look to be 'as happy as the day is long' - clearly its the short days they need to worry about up at ffrwd

LF&T

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

QUOTE (Long funnel & tiresome @ 9 Feb 2013, 19:48) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thats the kind of high and mighty decision making by railway management that brought ASLEF into being

But I will say that once your crews are back on the footplate they look to be 'as happy as the day is long' - clearly its the short days they need to worry about up at ffrwd

LF&T

I have finally recovered from the mirthful experience that resulted from your posting....

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Project "Merchant Navy"

The modification to the centre driving wheels was to drill out the crank pin hole to fit the Tri-ang long crank pin for valve gear, and counterbore the back to allow the squared part of the pin to sink into the wheel back. The pin was secured with "Super Glue gel".

Comparing the modified Bullied, Firth-Brown wheel with a ready made driving wheel...

The completed chassis. Bullied wheels, , bogie and pony truck. Britannia cylinders, motion bracket, rods and valve gear. Large Synchrosmoke Unit.

The Brit body on the modified chassis...

With a standard Tri-ang BoB Tender...

A study in front ends... Brit body and BoB...

The Brit cab cut down. First cut...

The Cut Down BoB Tender (MK1)...

Tender comparisons...

The conversion continues MN and Tender... (The Dapol Cab. I then discovered that the cab was also "Cut Down" on the re-builds...)

Some Brit details removed...

The Conversion as it stands tonight... (with a standard Tr-ang BoB...)

Most of the detailing is now complete, including the whistle, which is in an unusual (For UK) position...

 

[sean hpw]

Neat and excelent as ever Sarah, I look forward to seeing it finished now

 

[David Todd]

Moorings Sarah,........................Great work and updates, beating the boys'.........Thanks for sharing.........

 

[Norman Byrne]

Hi Sarah,

That Merchant Navy project is really looking good. How old is the original main loco, looks like quite an old one to me. Very nice job. What are you going to do on the painting front - spray or brush job ?

Look forward to seeing it progress further, Cheers,

Norm

 

[Long funnel & tiresome]

Very impressed with that Merchant Navy photo sequence - both with the engineering zeal and, (not least) with your total mastery of photo posting onto MRF.

Just one question:
For what is this project intended? Do you have another canal/SR main line cameo 'lined' up? Exeter canal perhaps? Or Wey & Arun?

LF&T

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Hi all.

MN Project.

This is being painted by hand. (I don't have an airbrush, or anywhere suitable to spray.) The first coats are on.

There is no "model" planned to use the MN on, it will go with the Tri-ang collection... (There is also the BoB, and a Terrier, an L1 (or 2) some coaches etc. for the Southern Region...)

The "final" detailing parts, the "bulges" in the bottom of the smoke deflectors to cover the steam pipes, and some of the pipes under the cab (but cut off as they would probably not been modelled in full in the early 1960s...) have been made and attached.

The smoke box door has been modded. The hinges were too long, and the securing dogs were wrong (One should alway be vertical, up and down, as this is the "catch" handle.) The lamp irons are now all there, including the top one.

The first paint coats are on, black and "GWR" Loco Green.

More to come....

 

[7113]

Great job Sarah, but please, it desperately needs the multiple blast pipe chimney.

Regards

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Hi Dave.

Unfortunately, the chimney is another one of the "errors" that will have to remain. Along with the Dome position, height of the running boards, diameter of the smokebox in relation to the boiler barrel, etc. (There are probably a lot, as the Bullieds were quite a bit different in details to the Britannias.)

That said, I have bored the chimney out a bit from the inside....

This is not intended to be a "scale" model. More of a Tri-ang might-have-been. Though Hornby Dublo made a Re-built West Country (Which was also not quite right in a number of places.), Tri-ang could have made a MN, but as they do look rather similar, despite the MN actually being larger, it is doubtful if the suggestion, if made, would have got past the new products committee...

Yes, even Tri-ang would probably have got the chimney and dome right!

The TT gauge model by Bill Bilton, the inspiration for this project...

QUOTE It is a standard MN frame, wheels ... but with Britannia crosshead
supports....As the MN stuck out too much.
The cab was cut off a un-rebuilt MN and grafted onto the Brit body.
The 'moulded' lower pipes had to be trimmed back a little to allow the use of
the MN rear bogie.
The tender has been cut down at the rear... but it should really be cut further,
unfortunately the TT version is hollow, so would need filling afterwards.
The extra linkage/valve gear is just an 00 gauge princess one glued on.
Hopefully I'll get to lining, and number transfers to finish off.

The re-built MN's and West country's are my all time favourite locos.

I'm now looking at getting a cheap HD or Wren body to fit to a spare triang 00
BB chassis I have.

Bill

A Hornby Dublo/ Wrenn body on a Tri-ang chassis by the same builder...

The two models together...

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Project MN.

The first painted pics...(Of my MN Project....)

 

[Norman Byrne]

Hi Sarah,

The MN painted really does look the part, very nice indeed. Well done that Lady !

Cheers,

Norm

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Thanks Norm.

The Margate style lining was done very carefully with acrylic "Yellow/Orange" paint. It has strayed slightly, but it will have to do. I just followed the moulded lines...

I have some Lining Transfers for the Number panel, and the tender sides. They will have to be made to fit, after I have got some gloss varnish on the revelant parts...

 

[reddo]

Just caught up with this thread Sarah thru yr footer link (bit slow ;-) anyway very interesting work on the TT as am also planning to use the Airfix model as well this

I also noted as you say, that its an over-girder type so no cutting of large holes in the baseboard required - just need to figure out a motorisation unit - missed out on a gearbox and motor on ebay a few months ago :-( I need to have a look back at those MR articles...

I also really like your scratchbuilt Coal Bagging platform and thanks for the signs - though there is a tiny typo ie Receipt is i before e except after C ;-)

Thanks also to campaman for the prototype picture - really neat

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

This part is my "entry" in the "A group build...., but with a difference." Dave 7113's Dapol House Idea...

http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index...showtopic=25689

Part 1

Hi All...

Thanks to Norman, I now have a Dapol Detached House Kit, and am working out how the internal layout should be for mine.

So far, I have also been modifying window holes, and using CAD (Card Aided Design! That is Cornflake Box mock-ups&#8230 to help me visualise the space available.

You may be interested to know that this kit was used in a "Scenes From Life" piece by James Lavery in the May 2010 Hornby Magazine (Issue 35), where he made them as "under construction"...

He put the canopy over the front door on "back-to-front!" It must have been the moulding mark that is on the "Top" in my kit that made him thing that was the "bottom"?

Part 2

The kit first came out in 1957, so is a real classic now.

The kit is full off "errors". I am now finding the overall size to be a bit small as I try to make some sense of an interior.

I have had to concede defeat in my hope to retain the side chimney, even just using it for a small boiler takes too much room up, and I have copied Stu's idea of a blanking patch for the side chimney, and also shrunk the two side windows towards the back.

The Stairs have been constructed, and I am now working out some more details of the interior.

Placing the front and back walls together has revealed that putting a straight wall from the "inside" of the garage door would impinge very slightly on the large centre window (The kitchen...) on the back wall.

The garage length across the house is just long enough for a Standard Vanguard (Oxford Diecast), but a Ford Popular (Also Oxford Diecast) fits even better, leaving a bit of room at the "back" of the garage.

I was hoping to put a wall across the garage, to leave a small utility room, but It does not look like there is enough room though, even with the Ford Pop in residence.

The layout for the interior flues for the centre chimney is causing some head scratching, but I am now thinking of splitting the flues to come down either side of a central corridor above the garage, with a small room on either side.

The main bedroom is a bit tight for space, and I am working out how to get a bathroom and WC in as well.

Part 3

At last.....some photos, etc.!

The Hornby Magazine "Scenes From Life" under construction version...

From a book on Airfix....

Airfix kit in a bag...

In this photo the Detached House seems to have been reversed...

Some other Airfix Trackside Models...

Another, earlier Airfix Book, by the same author...

And now... My model...

First workings...

Rough workings...

Windows blocked up with plastic card, "rendered" with ash from the fire...

Guttering from Wills Plastic materials pack.

Some furniture made from Cornflake packet and paper (CAD!).

The stairs are part of the steps from a Superquick Farm Barn (Bits Box.)

The Red Door is probably from the Airfix Booking Hall Kit. (Bits Box again.)

The leading dimensions of the house...

[/quote]

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Part 5

Progress has been made on the house. The scenic base is just about done, just a few details to sort out. (The hedges were messy to make...)

I have painted the rendering, added the "roof" over the front door and fitted the walls together.

The windows have been coloured white, and are in course of being glazed.

The dividing wall of the garage is in place, as are the stairs (with the pantry and meters/etc. housed under them.)

All this has been making me remember the layout of the houses I have lived in....interesting!

The hedges are "Green Scouring Pad" cut into strips, and covered with Green "Turf" scatter and some Woodland Scenics "Foilage".

White PVA stays sticky for a long time. UHU sets quicker. I have used both here...

Superquick Paving. (Old stock.)

Airfix Station Fencing (Old pre-used.) with Square Section Evergreen Styrene Posts.

The gates and dividing fence came from a job lot of parts, unknown manufacturer, along with the Wills detailing pack of chimneys, guttering, down-pipes, etc.

The washing line is Slaters Plastic rod uprights, and thinner "rod" for the line. (Needs some washing next...)

The grass is a mixture of Green "Turf" and a lighter green fibrous scatter.

The Coal Lorry is the Cooper Craft AEC Flatbed kit with Merit/PECO Coal Sacks.

The cars are both Oxford Diecast.

The figure is from the Bachmann Scenecraft "Train Crew" pack.

The base is Cereal Packet, painted with acrylics.

The render is painted with a mix of Acrylics. Black, White, and Yellow Ochre.

I have been continuing to look around at the various houses I pass, and have decided the roof will be Red Tiles (Basically a Red-Oxide Colour) as these are quite common on houses that seem to be from the same period as this one.

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Part 6

The interior is still in work (the windows were only pushed into place in the photos...) wall paper is a possibility.

The washing will come, but I may move the line first. As it is I would get muddy feet putting out and taking in the washing...

The roof has had its first coat of Vermilion mixed with burnt umber acrylic paint.

(Black, White, Green, Burnt Umber acrylic paints available in large(!) tubes from "The Works" the "cheap" book and art shop chain. Also sets of small acrylic tubes, brushes, etc. etc. Worth a look! Also some Railway Books, and one of the Airfix books came from there!)

Part 7

The first floor is progressing well, with the bathroom. Master bedroom and two small bedrooms allocated.

The master bedroom now has a fireplace, with a clock on the mantelpiece, and a (now thought to be dangerous, so do not do this at home...) mirror. The flowery wallpaper shows that Mrs. has some say over the decorating!

The ground floor is still awaiting work. The front door will have to be re-hung to open the other way, towards the outside wall.

The outside.

I have added cills over the back door, and the garage door. (Rain Strips?)

TV aerial and waste pipes still to be sorted.

The roof tiles. I have been looking very hard at houses, and noticed that some have shaped tiles on the roof "corners", with ridge tiles on the ridges (!). Some have ridge tiles over the "corner" joins, and some have half round over these joints.

The roof as supplied only has ridge tiles on the ridges, so mine therefore has the shaped tiles on the "corners".

The bathroom window has the lower panes "obscured"...

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Part 8

The front door won't open outwards, just towards the right hand wall, rather than to the left.

As the Garage was built in, I thought the builders would have arranged the roadworks? (The Garage door is also to be added, based on one I saw in Bedford.)

The coal bunker will come, along with the Dustbin(s), possibly a shed for the lawn mower, and several other details up my sleeves (it is a bit uncomfortable! wink.gif )

The period I am aiming at with this house is the 1950s, the same as with Ffrwd Locks. (Where you will find a coal bunker in the yard of Railway Cottages.)

This build has certainly made me look more closely at houses lately! biggrin.gif

More to come&#8230;on the Build Thread first...and then here, eventually!