The Charlwood Light Railway (CWLR)

[FWLR]

Wow Rob that is some running time....

Your photos by the way are excellent....

Any one of them would win this Quarters competition.... I love seeing the ones of your winding track, it shows me anyway, what a great line it is.

[RobRossington]

Very early days of the latest CLR loco department project....

[FWLR]

This looks interesting Rob......
I love to see how locos come to being from someones own ideas or even someones else's and then interpreted with someones own different take on it.

Need to see more please mate, hurry up and get on with it......

Only kidding...

[RobRossington]

Thanks Rod!

It’s sort of inspired by Tag Gorton’s latest loco, which is a coal fired DJB Emma with tender. There’s pictures and videos of said loco on DJB’s Facebook page. This will be a bit bigger though I reckon.

I also have no specific plans, I’m just sort of making it up as I go along!

I’ve never actually scratchbuilt anything more than a cab for a 009 loco, so I can’t say it’ll be a quick, or successful build

[RobRossington]

Some slight progress before I have to go to work. Only had about 30 mins to spare so it’s not much....

I’ve decided to go for a stepped running plate so that the cab sits lower.

[FWLR]

I completely understand on the time thing Rob. This month for me is even less with grandkids minding duties...

Do my eyes deceive me Rob... Are you using a cereal box for the cab....

[RobRossington]

I completely understand on the time thing Rob. This month for me is even less with grandkids minding duties...

Do my eyes deceive me Rob... Are you using a cereal box for the cab....

Ah but the good thing about Grandkids, as the saying goes, is you can give them back!

You’re correct about the cereal box, at least for the moment. It’s just a mock up to see how things look. I’m planning on cutting some proper cab sides out this afternoon.

[DonW]

Nowt wrong with making it up as you go. Have fun with the build
Don

[FWLR]

I completely understand on the time thing Rob. This month for me is even less with grandkids minding duties...

Do my eyes deceive me Rob... Are you using a cereal box for the cab....

Ah but the good thing about Grandkids, as the saying goes, is you can give them back!

You’re correct about the cereal box, at least for the moment. It’s just a mock up to see how things look. I’m planning on cutting some proper cab sides out this afternoon.

Ah but the good thing about Grandkids, as the saying goes, is you can give them back!

You are so right there Rob...

Also great idea on mocking with cereal boxes. Saves on using whatever one has for their models...

Has DonW said, "Have fun with the Build"

[RobRossington]

Well, I can’t say it’s been fun, but we’re getting there! People make styrene look so easy, but I never seem to be able to get this bloody stuff straight and square!



Nothing is stuck together properly yet (apart from the running plate/buffer beam). I just need to make a boiler now! I’ve tried some 42mm diameter tube but it was too weedy. I’ve now got some 50mm tube, but I’m not sure if it’s too big!

I’ve bought a smoke box door, clack valves, safety valves and whistle from GRS.

Once the boiler is finished I’ll make a start on a tender!

[philipy]

It's looking well so far, Rob.

[FWLR]

I think it's looks brilliant Rob. Plasticard does take a bit of getting used to. If you really take your time with cutting it, I usually do very light cuts, it depends on the thickness if it how many cuts I do. Then it's a case of snapping it when you feel it has gone deep enough. A set square is vital though, generally they are never square when you first get them. I see you are already marking out with pencil. And your blades must be sharp...

Just take your time mate and you will find it's one of those materials you will get to enjoy and build some wonderful things with....Look at Peter Butlers brilliant buildings and rolling stock and you knows what you can achieve.

PS. What are you using to glue the material with Rob..

[DonW]

Looking good.
I would agreed with Rod's comments above. I made a 'Corner' two pieces of ply and a bit of square timber to make a right angled corner which I use when making things. It also sits with the sides vertical on the work surface so you can fix a floor andd two walls together in place then run solvent down the joins.

Corner.JPG (12.57 KiB) Viewed 10624 times

Don

[tom_tom_go]

I have a set of engineering set squares that are 'square', worth the money.

[Peter Butler]

Looking good.
I would agreed with Rod's comments above. I made a 'Corner' two pieces of ply and a bit of square timber to make a right angled corner which I use when making things. It also sits with the sides vertical on the work surface so you can fix a floor andd two walls together in place then run solvent down the joins.
Corner.JPG

Don

That's a nifty piece of kit you have there.. multipurpose. Also a timely reminder that solvent is a far superior method of bonding than tube glues. Superglues should be avoided at all costs.

[DonW]

Thanks Peter.

Regarding squares a decent squares is essential. I have two sizes of carpenters squares a roofers square and a small engineers square all of which agree on a right angle. Decent makes not cheap imports. I also have a couple of those squares where the piece with marked measures can be slide across which I don't trust fully. There is a means to clamp the sliding piece, but the fact it can slide makes me less sure of its accuracy. There is also those saws with a handy 90deg between the handle and the saw blade. While these may be handy for a chippie it wouldn't do for a joiner.

Don

[GTB]

Well, I can’t say it’s been fun, but we’re getting there! People make styrene look so easy, but I never seem to be able to get this bloody stuff straight and square!

You can't beat practice. Modelling in polystyrene gets easier after the first hundred or so models.....

Below is a basic toolkit for modelmaking with polystyrene sheet, more or less what I've been using for nearly 50 years.....

- Craft knife, X-acto, or equivalent, with a suitable blade. I prefer a #11 straight blade, but a couple of mates swear by the #12 curved blade. I now use a scalpel instead of a craft knife as the blade is sharper and the handle has more precise control, but using scalpels tends to frighten some people. Box cutters and utility knives are OK for cutting boxes, but the blades are too wobbly for precision cutting of polystyrene sheet.

- 150mm and 305mm steel rules.

- 6" engineers square. A 3" square is also nice to have, but not essential.

- 0.3mm Pentel automatic pencil, or equivalent, for marking out.

- 4" warding file with handle.

- Needle files. At minimum a flat, a triangular and a round one.

- Tweezers. I find the fine pointed AA type to work best with small parts. Every now and again I try another shape, but always come back to the AA type.

- Cutting mat and a piece of chipboard or MDF as a work surface.

- Solvent and a fine brush. I use MEK ( Methyl Ethyl Ketone) for sticking bits together and use d-Limonene for laminating large pieces, as it evaporates more slowly. MEK doesn't do brushes a lot of good and it will need replacing fairly frequently, as the point gets a bit dog eared.

- 240 grit sanding block for squaring up edges after cutting. Make your own by fixing the sandpaper to a nice square block of wood with double sided tape.

- Pin vise for drilling holes by hand. Using a powered drill in polystyrene usually ends in disaster as the plastic heats up and grabs the drill bit.

- Small G-clamps. Useful for clamping a ruler to the sheet so it doesn't slip when cutting, especially when cutting narrow strips. Also for clamping parts into assembly jigs, etc.


Like Peter, I wouldn't use superglue for assembling polystyrene parts in a fit. The only time I use superglue with polystyrene is for fixing metal handrails and whitemetal details into drilled holes.

While I use the score and snap method for roughing out parts, it doesn't give a good enough edge to get a good square joint. The edge of parts need to be filed/sanded flat, straight and square, or the joint will change angle as the solvent evaporates out of the joint and the plastic in the joint shrinks.

I personally prefer to use a piercing saw for cutting curves and openings. It requires less cleaning up than the cut and snap technique, which can wander off line on a curved cut. Not everyone gets on with piercing saws though.

I generally mark out first with a fine pencil, but then run a light cut along the line and rub the pencil into the cut. That way the pencil line won't be rubbed off by handling and there is a narrow and highly visible line to work to for filing, sanding etc.

I've made various assembly and sanding jigs over the years, but I also keep a few squared up blocks of wood on the bench that can be clamped into a corner once assembled to keep things square until the joint hardens.

Polystyrene sheet works much like wood, but without the grain to worry about. On very long pieces such as coach sides, I straighten and square up the edges with a small block plane. With a sharp blade and set for a light cut, it gives a nice square straight edge without as much effort as using a file and a sanding block.

I'm a tool junkie and have a lot of tools that might get used once or twice a year on polystyrene, so not really essential........

Regards,
Graeme

[philipy]

Not wishing to derail the thread, but my styrene toolkit is almost exactly the same as Graeme's - I've always used scalpels rather than a Stanley knife and personally I prefer a straight blade to a curved one, although I've got two handles with one of each type available for use. I only use the Stanley for cutting big pieces from a large sheet, and then work on it with a scalpel.
I normally use Plastic Weld, never tried Limonene, but next time I need to laminate I'll give it a try.

Graeme, my initial thought is that because Limonene takes longer to evaporate there is more opportunity for subsequent warping, but presumably you have not found this to be an issue?

[RobRossington]

Thanks for all the tips and the kind comments guys!

I have most of the tools in Graeme’s tool kit (or rather, I’m lucky that my dad has them!), but I hadn’t thought of things like clamping the ruler to the bench!

I’d started to realise that less is more when it comes to pressure applied to the knife when cutting, But it’s good to have it confirmed, thanks Rod! I guess I just need more practise!

Also, you needn’t worry about glue. I’ve been using Humbrol solvent glue (the one with the needle applicator). I’ve tried using MEK before but didn’t get on with it as it seems to set too quickly. My Dad (and a couple of people in our club) use(s) it and swear by it, I’m just not quick enough! I only use the superglue in the picture for gluing white metal bits to the plastic, and I have used it to glue some angle to the Piko chassis (for the running plate to sit on) as I wasn’t sure if Piko plastics were like LGB ones, I.e. impossible to melt!

I’ve been building kits for in 00 and 009 since I was about 13, and I’d say I’m pretty good at it these days, this scratchbuilding lark is a whole new ball game! I’m not in any rush though. I want to make sure it looks right before I stick it all together!

Also, don’t worry about thread drift. I’m not bothered, especially if it helps people like myself in the future.

[RobRossington]

Whilst I’m here....

One thing that has got my head pickled is deciding what boiler diameter to go with. I initially bought some 1 1/2 inch pipe which had an external diameter of 42mm. Now, this to me looked a bit weedy, but then I am most familiar with colonial prototypes that were usually on the large side!

So, I then went out and bought some 50mm pipe, which has an external diameter of 55mm, so a scale 3.4 feet. This to me seems quite big, but I’ve just measured one of my 4mm scale Cyprus locos, which apparently are 3.75 feet diameter!

So now I’m a bit baffled! I was aiming for a sort of short and stumpy look, but I’m not sure if this is too stumpy....