What happened at your workbench today?
- Thread starter Henri
- Start date
A bit of progress on the Thorley Miniatures signal box for Gernise End on the Claptowte Railway. I decided that rather than leave any interior detailing until sometime in the future, I would incorporate it into the build as I went along. To that end I glued some offcuts of 3mm foamex sheet across the two end walls and halfway along the side walls, so as not to obscure the basement windows, to a height 3.0mm below floor level. I then cut a piece of 3.0mm plasticard to sit on top of, and be supported by, the foamex, to form the signal box floor. I scribed the plasticard to represent floorboards and drew a razor saw sideways along the length of the boards to impart the appearance of wood grain.
I then fabricated a chimney breast, with fireplace and hearth, out of 3.0mm plasticard. I drilled and opened out a hole in the bottom of the chimney breast and a corresponding hole in the floor to allow wires to be passed from a battery box, to be mounted under the floor, to an internal light and an outside lamp.
The photos below have skipped a couple of stages, the interior of the box and floor have been painted, the windows, door and glazing have been installed. I have installed a fire in the grate, made by picking at, with some pointed tweezers, a suitably cut down piece of the make up sponge that I used to paint the brickwork, then paining it. I am awaiting some Foamex with which to cut and construct a signal lever frame.
I have made, yet to be painted, a table and a chair from plasticard.
David
I then fabricated a chimney breast, with fireplace and hearth, out of 3.0mm plasticard. I drilled and opened out a hole in the bottom of the chimney breast and a corresponding hole in the floor to allow wires to be passed from a battery box, to be mounted under the floor, to an internal light and an outside lamp.
The photos below have skipped a couple of stages, the interior of the box and floor have been painted, the windows, door and glazing have been installed. I have installed a fire in the grate, made by picking at, with some pointed tweezers, a suitably cut down piece of the make up sponge that I used to paint the brickwork, then paining it. I am awaiting some Foamex with which to cut and construct a signal lever frame.
I have made, yet to be painted, a table and a chair from plasticard.
David
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Tanker man, how is this coupler different? I can't make it out from the photo.
Incidentally, I think the LGB brand started in 1968, so your wagon may be from that year rather than 1964.
Incidentally, I think the LGB brand started in 1968, so your wagon may be from that year rather than 1964.
I have the very first LGB Cat allegedly dated 1968 but I can find no date reference in it, sadly I guess they were not thinking collectors then! 3 Stainz, coaches, wagons limited track, controllers and a few figures that was yer lot. All fitted with those horrible couplers that are a pain to uncouple from the newer type. Which is why my only 2 vehicles to have them are permanently marshalles in 2 coaching stock sets in the centre. They can be an issue to get another hook on. I have use sundry methods botching a current hook and scratch building a replacement out of brass. Not sure when the newer ones came in but my early small format cats go to 1974/5 issue and those couplers were still around then. I have a cat for 1985 and they were still present but cunningly hidden at the rear of every picture of every item of stock. But they were still present in the 1986 cat but had certainly gone by 1991. Perhaps someone may have the in between cats or be able to work out dates from Compendium, sadly mine is German so that does not help me.
Cat No1 Cover 1968
I remember them running round at high level in most Beatties shops - looking at them and thinking, nah, way too expensive
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Have you looked on the back cover, bottom left or bottom right. There may be a code which contains the year and month of publication. So 6809 or 0968 buried in it somewhere would mean it was published in September, 1968.
Just looked nothing like that, some of my other early 70’s cats have nothing like that either but do have a date on the cover.
Later picture, as you can see on the left, there are the two types of LGB hooks, top the current one and below it, the one I have printed. You can see that there is no way of fixing the modern hook to the old style drawbar, as it has a grooved channel.
The way I have fixed the printed hook is to remove the ‘axel’ bar and drill a 3 mm hole in its place, then by careful eye, drill the channel in the drawbar and push a short length of brass tube through to fix it. A drop of super glue secures the rod. There is a ‘pip’ on the print to take a spring to keep the bar up to the loop, I found an old pen spring to be the exact size to do the job ( luckily, I have another to do the 2nd tanker!) .
Despite having reasonably level track, I do find that long trains can come uncoupled and as I don’t generally do any shunting on my railway, the double hooks are more of an advantage than a hindrance .
Dave
The way I have fixed the printed hook is to remove the ‘axel’ bar and drill a 3 mm hole in its place, then by careful eye, drill the channel in the drawbar and push a short length of brass tube through to fix it. A drop of super glue secures the rod. There is a ‘pip’ on the print to take a spring to keep the bar up to the loop, I found an old pen spring to be the exact size to do the job ( luckily, I have another to do the 2nd tanker!) .
Despite having reasonably level track, I do find that long trains can come uncoupled and as I don’t generally do any shunting on my railway, the double hooks are more of an advantage than a hindrance .
Dave
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Dunnyrail, reading through that long post of yours, I passed the word "cat" some four times before it dawned on me: catalogue. Till then, I pondered "caterpillar?".
(This is not a reproach.)
(This is not a reproach.)
Sorry sometime in my impatience to type I do use shortcuts like Cat, EB and YT (Ebay / You Tube). Just me I am afraid, I am a very lazy writer something that used to get me into lots of trouble during all my school years. Especially with English teachers!
It's a railway thing Jon, remember ABC when reporting things, Accurate, Brief and Consise, plus all those tops codes, stanox for example. And the need to be doing things rather than writing about it
You most certainly aren't. You often go out of your way to help people out who are attempting something new to them, giving heaps of detail on what in your vast experience is the best way to do it.
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