Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

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philipy
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by philipy » Sun Mar 07, 2021 2:06 pm

Wow! That is a work of art, not just a steam railmotor body!
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Peter Butler
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Peter Butler » Sun Mar 07, 2021 2:34 pm

Just beautiful, superbly designed and cut, it will look superb. My only reservation is that I find it better to paint overlays before final assembly for a crisper finish.
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Andrew » Sun Mar 07, 2021 4:31 pm

Snailrail wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 1:20 pm it seemed to work very well and I was pleased with the result.
I should think so, it's fantastic! I've always avoided scratchbuilding carriages with curved windows/panelling and tumblehomes, but you've made a beautiful job of it - I very much look forward to the final outcome...

All the best,

Andrew.

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Snailrail
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Sun Mar 07, 2021 6:06 pm

Thank you for the kind comments.
Peter Butler wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 2:34 pm My only reservation is that I find it better to paint overlays before final assembly for a crisper finish.
I take your point Peter if you're thinking in terms of contrasting colours for the panels but I have done the whole body one colour with lining round the panels so it's not really an issue. Look at the restored GWR railmotor 93 for an idea - this was one of my main inspirations, including the colour scheme.
Brian

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-steves-
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by -steves- » Sun Mar 07, 2021 6:15 pm

Also following with interest, however one thing does concern me, that plastic bodied, plastic geared servo that close to all that heat :dontknow:

Other than that, looking great so far :thumbup:
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Snailrail
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Sun Mar 07, 2021 8:49 pm

-steves- wrote: Sun Mar 07, 2021 6:15 pm however one thing does concern me, that plastic bodied, plastic geared servo that close to all that heat :dontknow:
We'll see but I think it's fairly well shielded from the hot bits there. There are plenty of 16mm applications where I'm sure servos get a lot hotter e.g. inside side tanks right next to the boiler. If it melts I'll have to think again - and the body will probably already be on fire :lol:
Brian

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:28 pm

And now to start sticking it together. The box forming the rear section of the vehicle assembled :-

Image

The partition door from the vestibule is offset as the larger third class compartment will have one seat on one side and two on the other. On the opposite side of the vestibule the door to the small first class compartment is centrally placed.

Having completed both boxes it was time to think about the ends. Although the general plan for the model was settled in my mind there were one or two areas where the fine detail of the construction wasn't decided until I actually did it. This was one of them. In some areas too the original plan evolved slightly as I went along as better ideas came to mind. Each end was constructed in much the same way as the sides, in three sections glued together at the required angles to give the shape I wanted. Getting the curve of the roof right in the process, bearing in mind the angles involved and trying to think about how I was going to join the ends to the sides was a bit tricky and I didn't get it quite right. More of that later.

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The windows on the engine compartment end are smaller than those on the rear end as I intend to fit a simulated coal bunker inside that end, another feature borrowed from the GWR railmotor. This will hopefully help to shield some of the internal gubbins from view through the windows.
Brian

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Peter Butler » Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:35 pm

I am in awe of your patience and skills with such fine cutting. This is going to be magnificent.
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by ge_rik » Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:35 pm

Peter Butler wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:35 pm I am in awe of your patience and skills with such fine cutting. This is going to be magnificent.
Me too! I don't think a computer controlled laser cutter could have done it any better - in fact, it probably wouldn't have been as good!

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Wed Mar 10, 2021 3:43 pm

ge_rik wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 2:35 pm
Peter Butler wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 1:35 pm I am in awe of your patience and skills with such fine cutting. This is going to be magnificent.
Me too! I don't think a computer controlled laser cutter could have done it any better - in fact, it probably wouldn't have been as good!

Rik
Thank you. I must admit it was getting a bit tedious by the time I'd finished !
Brian

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by philipy » Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:24 pm

Those window surrounds are phenominal ( as is the rest of it of course).
Philip

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Andrew » Thu Mar 11, 2021 6:32 pm

That really is fantastic! Those ends are SO railmotor!

Andrew

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Thu Mar 11, 2021 11:10 pm

Thank you gentlemen. The window surrounds, as you can probably see, are made in four parts. Well three actually. The sides with the curved ends were made in one piece and then split top and bottom to make the two side pieces, joined together with straight horizontal pieces. A bit fiddly and time consuming considering there were 18 windows to do but I think it was worth it for the added detail. One of those "I've started so I have to carry on moments" !

Just to finish the ends for now, it was time to attach the ends to the sides. As mentioned earlier, I wanted rounded corners. Well why do it the easy way ? To achieve this I used sections of small softwood quadrant from B & Q. With much carving, filing and sanding these were eventually made to fit where required without intruding too much into the interior. I was fairly satisfied with the result.

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The ends are slightly different to the sides in that there are only two layers of ply with a rebate on the inside for the glazing to be glued in. The last photo shows the side window arrangement, as described previously, with the slot in the top into which the glazing will be slid at the very end.

Image

I guess next time it will have to be the roof !
Brian

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Jimmyb » Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:58 am

Just WOW !!! :salute: :salute: :salute:

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Old Man Aaron » Wed Mar 17, 2021 1:05 pm

Work of art, that!
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bambuko
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by bambuko » Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:17 am

I am enjoying this :thumbup:
Excellent :salute:
another thread to follow...
Thank you!

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Snailrail » Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:05 pm

So next step was to think about the roof. But first I was aware that I needed to give the body some rigidity - at the moment it was just two boxes joined together by the plywood floor. They also needed to be connected at the top over the entrances to the centre vestibule. This was one of those make it up as you go along moments because until this point I hadn't given this important little detail much thought.

In order to achieve this and also provide some added stiffness to the whole thing I decided to glue some lengths of rectangular wood along the full length inside the top of the sides, if that makes sense. You'll see in the picture. While considering this the design of the roof structure also morphed into version 2. The internal partitions which were already in place included the roof profile. These I cut off level with the top of the sides. I then had to cut out small notches to allow the strips of wood to go down inside but only enough to allow half the depth of the wood to be glued to the sides, the top half left protruding above the sides. By doing this I could cut slots in the top allowing a semi elliptical roof former to slot in above each partition and form a base for the roof planking. Again easier to see in the picture than explain.

Image

You will see in this picture that by this stage I had also added the underframes which also add to the strength. I hadn't been sure how I was going to achieve this effectively. In the end I used another length of rectangular stripwood. I managed to lash up something that passed for a router table and, using a small router bit, I (very carefully !) cut a groove along the length of the wood leaving what looked like quite a convincing channel section beam.

At this point the roof construction again evolved into version 3. The semi elliptical roof formers were fine where they completed a partition below but I had two extra ones in the large third class compartment and there were to be three in the boiler compartment, all where there was no partition. These ones were removed and replaced with ones shaped out of softwood section, considerably wider than the plywood ones, as you'll see in the photos. This was done for several reasons :
It would give a greater surface area to glue the roof planks to and therefore increase strength.
It would be more aesthetically pleasing when viewing the interior through the windows.
It would free up valuable headroom in the boiler compartment where it was always going to be an important factor.
It would save a great deal of unpleasantness and possible legal action from third class passengers who cracked their heads on the lower versions !

Image

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You will notice that the partition on one side of the centre vestibule is not present at this stage. I had left this out until later as I figured it would be easier to spray the vestibule ends this way and also I was still working on the hinge arrangement for the gates which would have been all but impossible to get at with it all assembled.

One more gratuitous shot of the panelling which I am very pleased with and also showing in more detail the fitting of the upper strips of wood, the underframe section, the simulated sliding door and the ventilators over the windows which were added a little bit later.

Image

Next time, roof planking . . . .
Brian

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Peter Butler
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by Peter Butler » Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:36 pm

Just superb Brian.... I have played with wood al of my life but could never reach that standard of excellence. Top marks!
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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by big-ted » Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:29 am

That is some beautiful work.

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Re: Something a bit unusual - a steam railmotor

Post by philipy » Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:40 am

This just gets bettter and better.
Philip

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