A very freelance 009 railcar build using a Worsley works Count Donegal No.1 kit.

[gtmspyder]

As I have posted elsewhere, I visited Narrow Guage North this year and had an enjoyable day.

During the day I visited the Worsley works stand, where I proceeded to torment a very nice gentleman, Allen Doherty, for what must have been an hour or more.

Allen was demonstrating how to build one of his brass etched kits, an O gauge, County Donegal Railway Railcar No1.

Now as I said, this was well into the day, and all Allen had got done, was to seperates some of the pieces from the fret and start to assemble them, very slowly, ::) ,and I wanted to see the finnished article, preferably some time on the day.  I listened politely as he explained about cleaning and soldering, but there was not much action, so I had to keep prodding him into building, It was a bit difficult because of people coming to buy, and people who just wanted to natter to him, but I was determined and kept him concentrating on the job in hand.

Eventually, much to his relief I'm sure, the model was assembled enough for me to visualise what the finnished model would look like, and thought it a very quaint model, and would look good on my Grandsons  009 rabbit layout????

I should point out that while the Donegal Railcar by Worsley is etched as an O gauge model, the finnished size, matches comfortably with a 009 Lilliput carriage for size.

From the 009 members sale stand on the exhibition hall stage, I purchased what I thought would be a suitable chassis, and returned to Allen to purchase a kit of the model he had been demonstrating.  Unfortuanately, there were none available, I offered to buy the part assembled model I had been watching built, money changed hands, and handshake later, I was on my way with the goodies.

The following is my account of the conversion of this model into a very freelance railcar for my grandsons, ;) ,009 rabbit layout.

Will all you experts look away now please, while I describe the butchery of this fine etched kit.

This is going to take a while, as I do not have the temperature controlled soldering iron or the low melt solded used by Allen of Worsley Works during his demonstration, so I will be using an 18w iron and resin cored solder which are the only tools at my disposal.

The first thing I have had to do is dissasemble the work done by Allen, as my soldering iron would melt all of the low melt solder used to partially assemble the kit at the show, well that bit was easy enough.

I then had to mark out the area of the etched floor that had to be cut away to accomodate my choice of chassis, a Kato shorty bogie type, then resolder the chassis side member "U" shaped section back onto the base to add the strength back to the very delicate floor.

I know the actual vehicle as produced was a four wheeled type, but as I said, this is very much a freelance model to suit my modelling skills.

I have included a photo or two to show progress so far:-

The base of the model is marked out and drilled to facilitate the removal of a section to accomodate the motor unit.



A slitting disc in the pillar drill soon joins up the drill holes and the section can be removed.



The cut out is then filed to better fit for the motor.



The motor unit is test fitted to the base ready for making some fixings.




More to follow.

Regards,

Brian.

[tedp]

Not a bad idea! The Donegal no. 1 was a very tiny railcar. All you might have to watch is the height of the doorway. I'm looking forward to see more!

[invercloy]

Thats interesting. I've always liked no.1. Looking forward to more.

[gtmspyder]

Evening all.

In view of the enjoyment I am getting from this build, I am thinking of investing in a temperature controlled soldering iron, I have perused EBay, and this sale ( Item number: 230739321118) seems to fulfill the requirements.  Would some of the more experienced brass kit modellers please tell me if I am on the right track with this offer, or do they have any recomendations them selves??

Going back to the model, I have looked at the few photographs of the real No.1 railcar I could find,  and a couple of photo's of two modelled versions and this prompts me to ask:-

How many passengers could the railcar carry? I am thinking of fitting one passenger per window at each side, except for the door window??

Did the driver sit to one side, as in a bus, or did he sit central?

The two models have the very large headlamp in different positions, one central to the radiator, which I prefer, the other one central to the drivers window, which I think is the correct position, although how the driver managed with the window reflection I can't think?

I know my model will only be a free lance version, but I would like it to be a good approximation of the real thing, if that makes sense?

Thank you for your kind words gentlemen.

Kind regards,

Brian.
I'm thinking that maybe the roof rack could be made with a ladder section from a signal kit or similar, any thoughts anyone.

[Graeme Dunbar]

Hi Brian,

A temperature controlled iron can be very useful. I don't have the make you refer to (Precision Gold) but a quick Google shows that they are sold by Maplin, through Amazon etc and I haven't found any bad words about it.

60 W should be plenty for 009, though some irons are more efficient at getting the heat to the tip than others. I've managed, but struggled with a 25 W iron. It is a lot easier now with my 50 W (or is it 60 W) temperature controlled iron.

Get a selection of bits/tips too and use the biggest one that is comfortable for the job. A tiny needle bit for electronic integrated circuit use will have difficulty transmitting enough heat from the heating element to the work.

[Hugh Norwood]

I have read somewhere that you should keep different tips for the different solders - you don't want cross-contamination.

Also remember that some of the low-tempertaure solders contain some exotic metals (or certainly used to) and are more toxic than lead-tin solder. Julien can probably give a better indication of what sort of hazards one might expect!

[berryr99]

I would endorse the Maplin's product - precision gold.

Had mine for a while now - no problems at all and very controllable

Bob

[JulienW]

I have read somewhere that you should keep different tips for the different solders - you don't want cross-contamination.

Also remember that some of the low-tempertaure solders contain some exotic metals (or certainly used to) and are more toxic than lead-tin solder. Julien can probably give a better indication of what sort of hazards one might expect!

Some solders can indeed contain some nasty stuff, and some of the low-melt types (70 degree for white metal soldering) can contain cadmium. The main thing with any hazardous substance is not to panic and give up railway modelling as in reality you will need to ingest quite large amounts of these substances, or have very prolonged exposure to them, to have any ill effects.

The key is to take precautions when using these things. Not eating or drinking when you are modelling is a good idea (avoids ingesting anything) and not smoking is good too (a hot cigarette acts as a catalyst for all sorts of odd reactions with the solvents we use). It is also a good idea to wash your hands after a modelling session, especially after handling solder and white metal to avoid transferring anything to where you do not want it.

[gtmspyder]

Good morning all and thank you Berry99, Hughn, and GraemeD for your replies.

I have done a little more work on the project but hardly enough to show photographs of.

I was hoping for a reply to the question of passengers and driver positions.

I have tested the locations with some 00 people, and I am surprised at how they all seem to fit in at the correct height  with what is after all an 0 gauge model, I think you would struggle to get an 0 gauge person in???

And an 0 gauge person would have to duck to climb in through the door. :)

Kind regards to you all,

BrianT

[Graeme Dunbar]

This is purely circumstantial evidence,  :) but it suggests that at least one Donegal railcar had the driver on the right hand side:
http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/51/Derwent.htm][url]http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/51/Derwent.htm[/url]



Other images found by Googling "donegal railbus" show a windscreen wiper on the RHS but not LHS, and that's for a symmetric not offset front end.

[gtmspyder]

Good morning from Yorkshire.

Just a little picture update.



I have done a little more work on the chassis, from a bit of scrap brass given me by Allen of Worsly Works, I have filled in the gap at the front where the mudguards would normally go, this has strengthened to front section quite a lot.

I then took from the bit of fret, what I assumed to be the buffing beam. I strengthened this with a sliver of spare brass soldered to one edge to make an "L" girder which will strengthen it and then soldered this to the front section of the chassis.



I tinned the both sides of the dummy rear bulkhead of the engine bay and soldered to the engine bay proper.  This gives the distinctive shape where the engine bay abuts the passenger compartment.



I then tinned the radiator fret both sides, one to attach to the dummy front of the engine bay, and the front view to try and simulate chrome.  This has not been wholly succesfull as I have lost some of the grill detail, so further work will need to be done to that bit. I then test fitted the coach body to see how it looked.



The coach body, which Allen had tack assembled at the NGN show with low melt solder, was strngthened by soldering along all the seams with normal solder.  I had to be carefull here as my soldering iron was melting the tack solder joints.  The front buffing beam here looks to be off centre but it is not.

The next bit of brasswork assembly will be a rear buffing beam.   Then a start on the interior fitting which I think I will do in plasticard, ever the chicken, theres no way my poor soldering skills are upto doing that in brass.



So, here is the progress so far.

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

A little more work has been undertaken on my Railbus.

The underside of the chassis shown fitted to the body, there is a lot of solder to be removed to tidy it up



After clening off the excess solder and removing the fret tabs internaly, I made a bus interior to fit from 20thou

plasticard and sprayed it black.





I painted the seats and below the window area of the coach interior Humbrol mat brown.

I then populated a few of the seats with OO figures, with sawn off legs, superglued to the seat backs.  The floor of the railcar has to sit on top of the motor unit, so there is no room for the legs.  I hope this does not show when it is all assembled.



The more observant amongst you may have noticed that the chassis of the railbus has lost part of the front Buffing beam.  I did a lashed up test run around the layout with the semi completed assembly, and came unstuck at the first bend where the front buffing beam hit the side of the cutting because of the overhang as it turned the corner.  I decided to reduce the length of the beam, and in the process, the solder joint between beam and chassis failed, and off it came.  Now this is a very small and delicate piece of brasswork assembly, and my attempts at soldering it back on, resulted in the very thin piece of brass making an "L" shape, fell away from the main beam, and my attempts to remake an "L" beam failed miserably, so I have just soldered on the flat beam.



I suppose I should have bent up a small section of brass rather than attempto to solder a small piece to the buffing beam.

Well, there we have it so far.

Regards,


BrianT

[invercloy]

This is looking great, Brian.  I think i'll have to get two at some point - one to power, and one to act as a dummy behind it back to back.

[gtmspyder]

Thank you Tom, from a modeler of your standing, I take that as praise indeed.

I will not be able to fit the roof luggage rack I'm afraid as my tunnels and cross track hidden bridging do not have the clearance required. ::)  I may have to remove some of the supporting baseboard at one particular point where two hidden tracks cross to give the necessary clearance.

I wish now that I had not made a rabbit layout for my six year old grandson as his interests lie more into kicking a ball about than playing with the many toys I have made or bought him, and I hate playing with a ball, probably as I was never any good at it, being more into books and modeling as a child.

Kind regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

This morning, Donegal No.1 had a clearance test run around the rabbit layout, and failed miserably. ::)

This is one of my earlier efforts at a railcar.








Here we have the Donegal at the same location.






There are several other locations where clearance is an issue, but they are in the main, scenic, and could be fairly easily modified, but this structural coming together is more of a problem, with the station vallance coming into contact. :(

Oh well, I should have known better than to buy on spec just because I liked the look of it.

I realy should point out that the blur in the photo's is down to camera shake and lack of depth of field, I realy should get my tripod out and use the ability of my camera to the full.  These were taken at F2.8 at a 40th sec, so understandably, a 73 year old trying to hold the camera steady was not a good idea. ;)

BrianT