009 modeller at sea

[tedp]

 ;D   It's a white light in your mast you're obliged to show at night when you're at anchor. It's also called a mooring light.

[tedp]

That night was a bit restless due to the wind pushing us across the tide, so we didn't truly wake up till about 10. After a swim (actually a dip off the ladder as we would have been swept downstream otherwise) and breakfast, I decided to complete the last T&D vehicle before it got too hot.



Brake detail completed:



And with the couplers added, here is a complete string of three cattle trucks and the older van which I took along as a reference.



The new vehicles still have to be ballasted and the couplers re-set on the track. They lack chains and need to be painted and weathered.



Since the morning was now becoming very hot, I packed away the modelling kit, had a swim and took the dinghy to have a walk on the sandbank across the fairway...

[tedp]

Soon afterwards my crew had to return home because they all had to work again. So I was on my own to sail the boat back home. As I wrote this I was tied up next to a lock near Willemstad. The day was a bit rainy and I wasn't yet certain whether to return using the outside route or to take the inland route. The wind was in the north which makes sailing up the coast a bit of a nuisance. So I was waiting for it to turn a little east, which it didn't...

That night I decided therefore to take out the modelling box again and have a look at Roger Chivers' Innisfail coach kit.  Here are the parts laid out on the cabin table.



The bogies went together without much bother, although you need to locate the frames very positively on the bolsters.  Then I fitted the sides and ends to the floor as instructed. The solebars went in easily as well.



The parts fitted together well, I had to remove only a little flash. What I like about the body is that it doesn't have mitred corners but recessed ones.



However when I tried fitting the footboards I found the solebars will easily go out of true, due to the styrene solvent still being a bit tacky. So I fitted two braces between the solebars, made out of pieces of plastic sprue.



The next instalment of the tale would depend on getting a favourable wind.

[tedp]

Well, I did go to sea again. I had a very rough trip, and I was dead tired by the time I arrived at Scheveningen - near The Hague, for those who don't readily know of it. It was terribly hot even at sea. I tacked against an ever-increasing wind from the northeast. In the end there was a 5 ft sea and a force 6 wind against me.



For the last few miles I threw in the towel, lowered sails and started the steam diesel engine. No modelling that night...

A few days on, and the sea passage was completed. As I wrote this I was in the marina at IJmuiden at the entrance to the canal to the port of Amsterdam. The second day was slightly less rough than before as the angle of the coast changes, so the prevailing northeaster came slightly more offshore. Even so, I started motoring against the tide to eat up some sea miles before setting sail about 1/3 of the way.

The fact that I managed to do some modelling work that night says it all - the second part of the trip was a lot of work, but far more fun than the day before. Typically, as I wrote this, the wind had dropped completely as it often does at night.

I had a go at fitting N gauge couplers to the bogies of the Chivers tram coach. This isn't very easy due to the outer axles being right at the end of the vehicle. N gauge couplers are notoriously difficult to fit due to the big spring box behind them. So I sometimes use the Fleischmann variety, which has a pinhole. A pin inserted vertically will keep the coupler horizontal, but still allow it to lift for engaging the one on the next vehicle.

I found only a single brass pin in the boxes I have with me, and fitting that failed because the coupler mounting bar on the bogie is too low to attach anything under. I might have to re-fit a coupler at home, using a nickel-silver strip to solder a pin to. For the moment I glued two couplers to the mounting bars. I set them by eye using the T&D van as a reference.



Here is how close the outer wheelsets are to the vehicle ends. There is no space for a coupling box:



And here is the vehicle set up against the T&D van:



I had to interrupt this series even though the heavy sailing is done. The boat was left for a few days as I needed to return home for the weekend due to pressing obligations.

To be continued.

[tedp]

As I was waiting to be collected from IJmuiden by my wife, I thought it would be a good idea to do some work on the Innisfail coach. I assembled the seats and painted the interior and the window surrounds. This is necessary as the seat backs are quite tall. They interfere with the glazing and therefore the windows must be painted before fitting the seats.



I decided to paint the window frames brown just like the interior, but the framing would be red together with the body colour. This called for some fancy two-stage painting.



I had to touch up some places where the grey showed through, but the general idea must be clear.



Back home I made a few photos of the string of T&D cattle vehicles on the layout, just to compare. Note that at this stage they need paint, more detail, ballast, the wheels set to correct BTB and the couplings set correctly. First impressions compared to the older stock weren't too bad.

[Ross Chapman]

They look great Ted, do you use a N-scale s******* g**** vehicle to set the coupler height?

And where did they come from originally?

[tedp]

Yes, the best way to set up N gauge coupler height is to use a standard N gauge chassis. Couplers and coupler pockets usually come from N gauge wagons that friends have re-used in a 009 model. They cut them off and save them for me.

Many of my models have been built straight on to N gauge chassis, couplers and all. The old card-built cattle wagons are an example of this practice. In that case you don't need to do anything about the couplers.

[Ross Chapman]

Ah I thought that was the way you did it, I am amazed how quickly you are able to get stock up and running and how good you manage to make them look.

I wish i was that quick at building and my painting looked that neat!

[tedp]

Thanks, Ross. I think it is mainly long-standing practice. Don't imagine I built models at this pace 30 years ago!

Back on board by that Sunday evening, I did a little work on the Innisfail coach. The window surrounds were given a second coat of Tamiya Red Brown.

I also brought Tom Bell's saddle tank to match against the coach. Here is the result.



I painted the seats a different shade of brown and tried them out in the carriage.



The next day I planned to traverse the ship canal to Amsterdam and make some progress home. However, this was Monday morning:



A thunderstorm was raging over my head and it didn't shift, so I decided to paint the exterior of the tramway coach, using Revell crimson lake SM331, the same used on the Leek & Manifold Kitson. I put the painted coach in the heads/shower compartment as I had the heating on to dry some wet stuff. That compartment has a huge heater outlet so it can be made into a veritable oven.

Here is the result.



Obviously the running gear and the roof needed to be painted, and the windows installed, plus various other details. But it started to improve. This kit is the ultimate light railway coach, by the way, a very atmospheric prototype.

As I wrote this, the wind whipped round into the north, driving the rain straight into the boat. Hatch closed and floor mopped...   ::)
It was forecast to clear away in the afternoon.

To be continued...

[tedp]

That evening I was at anchor in a sheltered place just outside Amsterdam, although the wind was terrific and its leverage on the mast made the boat heel slightly each time it swung to its anchor. They promised it was going to abate during the night.

Here is the place I was in (a view of the shore):



I put the tram coach outside on the table so the paint could dry in the late sun and the wind. Revell semi-matte paint is notoriously slow drying. This was what it looked like:





The coach was still too tacky to handle, so I succumbed to reading a book that night, as the wind battered the boat. I even had to put a spring on the anchor line to turn the boat so it would lie more quietly. I slept like a log, after the book and a dram, and in the morning, after several downpours during the night, it was very quiet and beautiful. However, on the way north I ran into a force 6 wind setting up a vicious 4ft sea for which the IJsselmeer is notorious. I had to reef down and batter my way north, getting stupid with the wind blowing round my ears, and getting buckets of water thrown at me.



In the end I decided to cut the trip short at Hoorn (from which the name 'Cape Horn' is derived). No modelling that night, and it looked like the coach would have to be completed at home.

[cnw6847]

the coach look excellent, you could also build a layout on the boat.

[tedp]

It has been suggested before, and there might possibly be space for a small shunting layout on one of the sideboards in the boat's cabin, but it would be taking things a bit too far!   :o

[tedp]

At last I completed the last lap of the trip home, cleared out the boat, fixed the flat battery of the car (not having been used for a month) and drove home. So for the time being I was beached! After a month afloat it was good not to feel the bed move under you every time it blows.

I took out Nixnie and made a photo of the (incomplete) tram coach and the saddle tank. They make a nice light railway train, don't you think?



Soon afterwards I continued the work. Glazing and seats installed, and the frames, bogies and footboards painted and weathered.





Here the Innisfail coach is shown completed, although it still lacks safety chains and passengers. The roof is stuck on lightly so it can be removed. The coach carries the number 111 in the CDR roster. All CDR bogie and six-wheel passenger stock is numbered from 100 onwards.

In the new CDR period regime, this can be the branch train up to about 1914, although I'm not too certain about the period the saddle tank should belong to. Probably I'll have to look up the period of the Stratford tram.







As I mentioned before, the Innisfail coach is a good example of a light railway coach. The moulding is very crisp, but so fine one needs to take care not to obliterate it by painting. The solebar detail is excellent and probably not done justice by the photos.

To be continued.

[Tigger]

Ted, that's an excellent piece of work - both the coach and the voyage! Lovely 'en route' photos from the deck!

[Ross Chapman]

Lovely. That colour scheme looks great on the coach.