Metro Vick WCG1

[cabbage]

What do you mean, "I have never heard of it?!?!?" Now that construction of the NER EE-1 is complete, (bar painting and final assembly), I can start on my next locomotive. This locomotive exists under various names and designations depending on which railway company owned it. The design of the mechanical side of it is pure SLM, (Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works), and anyone just looking at this part would say "ah ha! - it's a Krokodil!!!" However this is just the beginning... Above that is a classical Edwardian English bodywork and Pierson 1500V DC power pickup system()

However this "Swiss Miss" was built in Newton-le-Willows!!!

I have a back door into the SLM archives and the dedicated drawings for this loco. They have been through the GIMP treatment and these along with some photostat drawings of the NLW General Assembly instructions -have produced a real headache... The SLM is pure Centimetre, the NLW is pure Imperial. However help was at hand as I re-drew the main drawings with my now much loved G3 rule from the Imperial dimensions and then divided the SLM by 22.6 to see if they matched. Mostly they did!

Having successfully carpeted most of the living room floor with sheets of A3, several problems rapidly emerged -chiefly that the SLM bogie drawings did not match the NLW ones... There were a few days when I honestly wondered if I had the right drawings. However the solution was in the scribbled notes at the side of the photostated NLW drawings. Translated by a friend the scribble reads "These drawings are <expletive> the idiots have used 1 inch = 2 centimetres in some of the dimensions -use the SLM ones"

So, following my normal practice I have duly marked up a couple of sheets of 3mm birch ply and hacked the "primitives" that will become the bodywork and bonnets. Once everything is re-enforced and set then it gets "plated" with ABS sheet.

I think, (he says!), that this will be an easy locomotive to build after the nightmare that has been the EE-1.



regards

ralph

[cabbage]

Well construction has begun... But what I think might be useful is, for once and for all to prove, (or disprove), that a Gauge 3 locomotive can be built on a shoe string budget. Admittedly some of the things are going to be "to hand" and relics of the "scraps pile". If we discount such things as postage, parking, etc -then it is going to interesting to see how much it actually DOES cost.





Items: one sheet 3mm birch modelling ply £4.99p
          one bag of 6mm sq pine strips £4.85p


regards

ralph

running total : £9.84p

[cabbage]

A Saturday morning trip to the local model shop, a real one that sells things not in boxes(!) has garnered me a couple of sheets of ABS to begin "plating" my loco body with. It is one of the certainties of life that you come home with sheets of differing colours. In short I had two sheets of white and one of black... All the putty that I have to fill the holes in in my creation is of course GREEN. It is thus always somewhat of a relief (visually) that everything gets sprayed in a neutral grey primer!!!



The shot above shows the 40 thous thick sheet after having been persuaded to curve at the end -initially with the aid of a rolling pin and then a length of steel tube wedged into the end of the hot tap. The chassis formers are finely sanded down with 800 wet&dry to give a smooth surface for the ABS to be veneered to. Once the thick CA has set the top of the sheet solid to the chassis, the rest of it is then bent over the carved Balsa wood "nose" and then saucepan of hot water placed over the nose to complete the shape forming. The formed nose is then bonded to the chassis with more thick CA.

Cost of 40 thou ABS sheet 98p
Cost of 60 thou ABS sheet £2.20p

regards

ralph

running cost £13.02p

[cabbage]

Now that things are (nearly) back to normal I can return to playing with my models. After a couple of slow evenings work I have finished plating the sides of the body with the 60 thous ABS sheet. The doors and grills are emerging from the oddments box -so I will say that they are free.



I have built the flange that holds the bellows to the front and rear "bonnets" of the loco. The bellows will actually be made from glued strips of folded cartridge paper -the originals were rubberized canvas.

regards

ralph

running cost £13.02p

[cabbage]

Well after an evening of playing "crack and snap" with ABS offcuts I have reached the point where I have to order the "twiddly bits". The first of these are the Finestruct mouldings from Squires. I have ordered the "L" sections, "I" beam sections, and the flat strappings that form the framework that the bodywork panels are rivited to. I do have (somewhere!) some Cambrian Models stick on rivits from building the "S" Motor. But given the number used I am definately going to have to get some more...

The doors have been fixed to their places and the rectangular slots for the louvres punched through. The saddle grabs for the bonnets have been fitted -but not yet punched through. Next thing on the list of, "things to do", is to make all the window frames and the sun visors for the cabs. These will all have to be punched through and glazed -after painting...

MS-419 F/LINE MICROSTRIP 1.00 X 4.76 10 PACK    £3.10p
AFS-6P  F/LINE ANGLE 4.8 X 4.8 X 0.75    5 PACK   £4.99P
BFS-10P F/LINE I BEAM7.9 X 4 X 0.96      4 PACK    £5.35p

running cost £23.36p

[cabbage]

After another gentle evenings playing "crack and snap" with the nice lengths of Finescale Plastruct lengths supplied by Squires -in under 24 hours(!)

Here is the Windows side of the model.



You can see that the 5mm wide strapping has been applied to the outside of the bodywork and the windows punched through with a die cutter -which is an L profile chisel. The holes in the saddle grabs have been punched through with a cutting needle and a scalpel blade. The doors have been affixed and their holes punched through with the die cutter. The window openings have been "lined" with the 5mm L section strip.

Here is the Power side of the loco.



The three squares that will become the exhaust vents for the Power side are quite easily visible as the large air intake square at the bottom right. These will be punched through and then "grilled over" the frames of the vents being made from more L section strip. The Windows side of the loco will have a "connecting corridor" between the cabs made of a sheet of balsa. It might seem a little strange -but I feel that if you are going to the trouble of making inlet and exhaust vents -then they should at least work! I have a few old "486" CPU fans that will provide a suitable draft through the loco.

regards

ralph

[cabbage]

Well after a little delay, I do have the contents of my wife's summer house in my shed while she decorates the inside of it, (somehow a sun lounger and a lathe do not go together...) I have been able to ferret through my collection of "bits" and I have unearthed the collection of Cambrian rivits, (these were left over sprues from building the "S" motor). Studying the side photos and modern shots have given me the locations of the main forged joints in the shell of the loco body. Since none of the panels were "structural" in the original they are only found where the members cross. The shot below shoes the "measled" bodywork, with the grids for the air vents fitted over the cutouts.



The grids are made from 10cm polythene(?) squares that are sold for small girls to produce X-stitch on with large bodkins and lengths of wool. They are £0.72p for a pack of 5. I am going to use a few more as I go on....

The next step is to make the eyebrows and punch the windows out in the end of the loco body.

regards

ralph

Cambrian rivits -Free from left overs
Dace Plait £0.72p

running total £27.08p

[cabbage]

The next stage of operations is to produce the power bogies that will hold the wheels etc. Normally these would be made from sheet brass (yes K&S!!!) but in the interests of shoe string experiment I think that they are going to be made from sheet steel -or aluminum...



The front axle will be driven by chains and my "patent" dodge of turning a 15mm "yorkshire" plumbing fitting into a <<Systeme Hagans>> axle. This will be made easier this time as I have now got a milling machine so I can simply "mill the slots" rather than drilling and filing....

In case anyone is wondering how I do it... There is a 15mm dia wooden bead drilled at right angles with projecting 3mm bolts epoxied into it. These then sit within a 15mm pipe fitting with 3mm wide slots cut longitudinally in it. Thus the torque is transmitted by the 3mm bolts onto the edges of the slots regardless of the angle of the slots to the bead. The thrust of the weight on the axle is transmitted to the wheels by the bead and the torque from the driven inner shaft is transmitted to the tubular axle by the projecting bolts.

This is the original "patent" drawing -it is of course in German...



regards

ralph

[cabbage]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to this -but I have other pressing reasons... Now that I feel comfortable with an X-acto knife in my fingers, I can sit and fiddle with the model again. I ordered some bits from GRS -the van strapping and open wagon pieces. I will confess that I have never used them for a wagon -but as the basis of things that I can hack to produce the parts I need from. The "S" motor used quite a lot of these, but, typically enough, I did not have the right parts from the stock of bits that live in the scraps box.



The huge headlamp stuck on the corner piece comes from Imp Models and was part of a grab bag that I got when they moved from Long Eaton To Uttoxeter. (So I class this as free). The air intake grill at the bottom is made from more plastic lattice and pieces of van strapping. Other pieces of wagon strapping can be seen at the corners of the "bellows" housing.



This is the other end and you can see quite clearly the foot plate above the air vent made from another piece of van strapping.

At the moment I am causing great hilarity with my wife while I experiment with "how to make a bellows"... The origami method I used as a teenager for my Hornby 00 layout used cartridge paper and this is just too fragile. So, I have "upscaled" it to slices of Cornflakes packet -held together with "Bondaweb", a iron on dress making re-enforcer, as a "hinging" medium. And so far everything has gone well.

regards

ralph

Indian "Darj" headlamps -free
Black Bondaweb offcuts -free
Cornflakes empty box -free
SG1123 £3.96p
SG1124 £3.96p

running total £35.00p

[cabbage]

I have a deep dark antipathy to the people I call "colour freaks". I mix, (or have mixed), the paint and that is good enough for me. The problem I have now is that no-one is quite sure what actual colour "Brown Lake" IS... The colour I THOUGHT it was, was the "Brown Lake" as used by the Penn RR(!)

I do have a very few colour photos of GIP locos and I am aware that the colour emulsions can alter and degrade over time. For instance I have an early polaroid shot of my mother -now all in shades of green... So I sent out a request to a friend -who sent a request to his family on the India / Pakistan border, and we got back a sample of the GIP version of "Brown Lake"...

I looked at him, he looked at me, and we both said; "That's Brown Lake???"

At this point we took our piece of painted panel to the resident colour genius (my wife) and said; "Match That". And after three attempts -she did.

The "recipe" is: 7 parts "Nut Brown", 3 Parts "Burgandy", 1 part "Insignia Red".

For "historic" reasons I normally use the Pasti-Kote range of paints and blend from them. I still use "edible" paints on my work -despite the fact that the majority of small teeth that might chew on them can now spell!

regards

ralph

[cabbage]

I know that there was some "consternation" when I took "Maude" to the last AGM (2009). Her Mauve colour did not seem to sit too well with the Malachite, Crimson Lake and Black that the rest of the locos near her were painted with. However Maude was Pan Tone paint matched and is correct. What happens when "Sir Lesley" arrives at the 2011 AGM painted in GIP "Brown Lake" will be any ones guess.



We shoved the sample from India under the Pan Tone sensor and got a Pan Tone number So now it can be said with definite authority it really IS that colour!!!

regards

ralph

[cabbage]

Well the madness that is Christmas has passed (both of them) and The Hogmanay / New Year festivities have nearly been consumed... There is now enough room on the kitchen work surfaces to to return to important matters -namely making locomotives!!!

The shot below shows the roof section -which was cut at the same time as the floor section from the same piece of birch ply -thus they warp in exactly the same manner. Lengths of 5mm pine strip from the bundle bought at the start re-enforce it and provide a location lip for the whole roof assembly.



You can see that the eight 3mm holes for the fixing studs have been bored through the roof into the sides of the model bodywork. The next shot shows the roof pinned to the body and the location of the cooling fan (40mm) has been marked and pilot hole drilled.



The next shot shows that the 60 thous ABS sheet has been laminated to the top and the tank cutter has cut a hole in it. The hole is off set by 10mm -this puts it in line with the heat sink for the ESC. The wooden wall sides for the plenum have been CA'ed to the ABS sheet. Yes, I know a "comb joint" is not really needed in anything this small -but it gives more glue area and should add that little extra bit of strength...



The shot below shows the ABS sheet has been laminated onto the sides of the plenum and the cross pieces, (again lengths of 5mm strip), have been CA'ed to the assembly. These will provide support, (and something to glue to), for the base of the four "Snorkel" air intakes to the plenum chamber.



The last shot shows the top of the plenum chamber CA'ed to the grid work of pine strip. The next stage after this is to fill in the gaps with putty and generally get things smooth before I start gluing snorkels to it.



The snorkel columns will have air filters in them, (again pieces of Dace Plait), this should stop ingested grass seeds etc!

Everything has been made from pre-bought items, so the cost of the model remains as it was pre-Christmas.

regards

ralph

Running total £35.00p

[cabbage]

After a slow mornings work...

The pieces of Dace Plait that form the air filters have been fitted to the lumps/offcuts of 5mm sq strip. Each of these has been positioned roughly at the end of the air intake to the plenum chamber. The sides of the snorkel are made from lengths of scrap ABS from the bits box. The shot below shows the entire assembly prior to the fitting of the balsa wood rooves to the snorkels.



The green putty is very messy -but wonderful!!! I use it to fill in the cracks and gaps in my models. I do not know if there is any significance in the colour of the putty, (grade etc), but the green seems to work for me.

regards

ralph

[John Candy]

Ralph,

Ihave been using the MMD 'White Putty' (produced by Squadron Products, Texas) for a few years now (find it much better than the 'Humbrol' cellulose type filler which I previously used) but have also wondered about the 'green' version.

The white version contains toluene and the dire 'State of California' health warnings on the tube have been a source of concern!

I wonder whether the 'green' version is based on something other than toluene?

Regards,
John.

[cabbage]

There is toluene in the green stuff too -along with the State of California health warning... I have a combined honours degree in Education and Chemistry -the stuff I used to make and use as a student would make any health warning redundant!!! (You would not believe the increadible beautiful blue colour you get from dissolving Sodium metal in Liquid Ammonia). My late father spent years working with Tri Nitryle Toluene and Glyceryle Nitroacetase. He freely admitted that "Operation Thursday" was what got him interested in trains and applying to work for Messrs Beyer Peacock...

Toluene as a fairly common chemical. If my son had his way I would regularly feed my family food rich in Xantho Cyanides,  Beta Carotenes, Ketones, Amines and all the rest of them -in short PIZZA!!!

I live in the Peak District on top of an extinct volcano in high Radon area with veins of Galena in the local stones -complete with Flourite with a remarkable range of colours due to the Uranium and Thorium in them. I do know that I do have abnormally large amounts of Indium in my body due to eating vast amounts of Ostritch as a boy -but then so would everyone else from that part of the world...

Am I bothered -not a bit!!!

regards

ralph