Category Archives: Kirk Coach Builds

Making the most of what you have…

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My recent lathe purchase has started me thinking about making the most of some of my other tools. I used to do quite a bit of woodworking until we converted our garage and I no longer had the room for many of the woodworking tools so I sold them.
What I kept were, chop saw, Router/router table and a linisher. The Router/router table, until a couple of weeks ago was in my loft so not accessible for regular use and my linisher while slightly more accessible by being under my workbench had only seen the light of day once in the last 5 years.
Prompted by getting something out of the loft I decided to get the Router/router table and the linisher out and take them to the other house where I have a dry brick built garage that’s alarmed. Fast forward to this weekend and I decided to start making use of them so used the linisher to prepare all the partitions for the twin set. Each one needed to be profiles to fit the vacuum formed Kirk roof and it certainly made a much easier job of the 17 or so partitions plus the coach ends.

Ian Kirk coach partitions

Preparing Ian Kirk coach partitions using a Linishing machine

I reckon what I achieved today would have taken at least a couple of weekend’s work to achieve filing by hand.

Ian Kirk Twin Set Underframe fittings

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Although I haven’t posted on this for a while things have progressed but there hasn’t been much to take photos of.
We had decided to try the Sparmac queen posts from Invertrain while all the other fittings (vac tanks, roof vents, grab handles etc.) came from JLRT late last year before they closed although they look similar the key different in the Sparmac queen posts is the fact that they don’t have holes for the truss rods to go through. I popped them with a punch, deepend the mark with a pin vice and then used my Proxxon Pillar drill to finish them off. Sadly taking the photos has just highlighted to me that I have missed drilling through one the holes so I will need to do that one by hand since they are now stuck firmly on.
I also added the vacuum tanks.

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Further detail on the Kirk Coach bogies

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More done on the bogies over the weekend.
The brakes and yokes are now fitted to all three bogies. not exactly like the real thing but will pass muster hidden away underneath the coach.

Kirk Bogie modifcations – brakes and yokes

Kirk Bogie modifcations – brakes and yokes

Kirk Bogie modifcations – brakes and yokes

If you are wondering why the rod between the two yokes? It’s to hold the brakes away from the tyres to prevent friction.
They just need guard irons over the yokes and they are well on their way.

Ian Kirk Diagram 105/125 Twin Set

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This weekend saw much progress on the Twin set.

Timely posting of a photo of the brake end allowed me to cut the windows while the end was in the flat and then both coach bodies were assembled.

Kirk Twin Art – Diag 125

Kirk Twin Art – Diag 125

Kirk Twin Art – Diag 105

Kirk Twin Art – Diag 105

I also blanked of the inner ends by filling the holes for the buffers and coupling hooks and then overlaid a piece of 20 thou to form a solid foundation for the shared bogie pivot.

Kirk Twin Battery Box modifications

Lastly I made a start of building up/detailing the battery boxes (although there are five I only need four for this job). Next I need to cut out the end straps with the silhouette because I have run out.

More improvements to Kirk Bogies

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When fellow modellers came along to see me when I was demoing at Pontefract show, the parts that I was cutting were some brakes for my Kirk coach bogies

Once glued together (5 layers) they came out looking like this.
Apologies for the poor photo, white on white isn’t the best combination
 

Silhouette cut brakes for Kirk Bogies

 
The demo must have been well received because I have also been asked to demo at Telford as well as Doncaster this year.
 
Not much modelling got done last week due to having a busy week compounded by minor surgery, but over the weekend the Mojo returned and I made progress on the twinset.
 

Scratch built Bolster Springs for Kirk Bogies

 
The first bogie now has it’s bolster springs an I have the parts prepared to fit to the other two. I did end up having to remove the bolster frame to fit the springs so a lesson learned.
 
I also managed to get three of the ends attached to their respective sides. The fourth one needs cutting down for the narrower brake end.

Kirk Bogie Enhancements

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I am back on the trail of Kirk coach builds,  this time it’s an all 3rd/brake 3rd twin set (Diags 105/125).
It’s for the gent that I built the last two for and this time he has gone for using the supplied Kirk bogies so I thought that I might upgrade them a little.
First I added some of my Silhouette cut leaf springs and then looked to make some springs for the bolsters.
I am aware that others have used 2ba screws to do represent the bolsters springs but to my mind the coils are a little too sharp in profile so I wound some 3mm styrene rod with 0.8/mm styrene rod to make the springs.
I also added the spring carriers and in hindsight I should have added the springs before sticking the carriers to the bogies because it’s going to be interesting getting the springs in position now.

Ian Kirk 7mm scale Bogie Enhancements

Ian Kirk 7mm scale Bogie Enhancements

I have also assembled the sides but didn’t take photos of them.

Ian Kirk All 3rd almost ready to rock

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A concerted effort this weekend has seen the All 3rd nearing completion. Still to do are fitting the roof and having seen the photos sticking part of one of the rain strips down.
Having chosen to ultimately glue the roof on last I had, had some debate about how windows that became dislodged through handling would be replaced. After a bit of head scratching I cam up with a cunning plan.
Each window is an individual pane which is glued into the rebate inside the coach but I have also added a strip of secondary glazing which rests on the strip that strengthens the sides and runs the full length of the coach. It’s is held in place by the edges of the compartments which I filed down to allow the glazing strip to fit. This will prevent the individual panes from being dislodged.

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban – Double Glazing

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

To fit the no smoking transfers I made up a little jig from a piece of 20thou styrene which was the width of the window from the outside. I measured half way up the window and marked the styrene. I then added 1mm and marked it again. After measuring the with of the transfer I subtracted this from the total width and divided the remainder by two. I measured the result from each edge and marked a vertical line from the high line to the middle line at each side and then cut the styrene out leaving me with a rectangle of styrene with a notch cut out that centres the transfer in the middle of the window both vertically and horizontally

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

Ian Kirk 7mm Scale LNER All 3rd Suburban

The All 3rd end is near…

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Although I have only one photo, the All 3rd is nearing completion. The transfers are on, it’s glazed and the roo vents have been re-fitted – right number in the right place….
I left it on Sunday night with the glue in the glazing drying so unless I discover anything that I have missed I should have it all put together next weekend.

Ian Kirk 7mm All 3rd Roof

Ian Kirk 7mm scale All 3rd, a few more details completed

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Although I have been concentrating on the B16 I have done a little on the All 3rd by picking out the handles in brass.
I popped all the bits together to see how it looked – it’s still just plonked on the bogies with the roof just resting in place.

Kirk 7mm scale LNER All 3rd Grab and T Handles

Kirk 7mm scale LNER All 3rd Grab and T Handles

Kirk 7mm scale LNER All 3rd Grab and T Handles

I hope that I might get the transfers on this weekend.

Painting the Kirk’s

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At the beginning of each session on the B16 recently I have sprayed the All 3rd in either Carmine, matt varnish or lastly masked up and sprayed the black.
 

Ian Kirk All 3rd Paint job

Ian Kirk All 3rd Paint job

Ian Kirk All 3rd Paint job

 
The paints were both from the Vallejo Model colour range – Carmine and Black. The varnish used was Ronseal water based let down with Vallejo thinners.
 
I also made a start on adding the teak varnish to my Kirk Parcels van.
 

Ian Kirk 51 ft Parcels van – A start on the teak finish

Ian Kirk 51 ft Parcels van – A start on the teak finish

Ian Kirk 51 ft Parcels van – A start on the teak finish

 
Again the finish is Vallejo Model Colour Orange covered by (so far) 7 coats of Ronseal waterbased Teak varnish applied by brush so not let down.

Carriage Interiors – Mirrors and things

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One of the jobs that I did over the last week was to knock up some partition details for the All 3rd.
The carriage prints are Chris’s paintings shrunk to fit and the mirrors are also one of Chris’s ideas.
I had tried to print them using a grey but they didn’t come out that well. The next thought was to use baking foil cut on the Silhouette but my concern was that they would damage easily while removing them from the cutting mat.  Chris suggested that I try the foil lined plastic sachets that family sized pack of nuts come in.
She duly cut one up and gave it a wash (this is from a bag of Cashew Nuts, other nuts are available of course).
I quick visit to Inkscape drew me some circles and ovals (I need ovals for my D114 when I get to it).
It almost took more time sticking the two small sheets of plastic to the cutting mat than it did to cut them out – a single cut with the blade set at 1 was enough.

Mirrors and interior details for 7mm scale coaches

Not the best photo in the word but you get the idea

Mirrors and interior details for 7mm scale coaches

A better idea when they were removed from the mat

Mirrors and interior details for 7mm scale coaches

They look the part when attached to the partition – the printed efforts gave a location point if nothing else

Mirrors and interior details for 7mm scale coaches

A couple more for the carriage ends.

7mm Scale Kirk Parcels Coach

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Having got Don’s All 3rd well on it’s way and despite spending quite a bit of Saturday stripping off the roof canvas and filling in the holes for the wrongly placed roof vents with stubbs of styrene rod. I also managed to do a bit more at my stalled Kirk parcels van. my last job the previous weekend was to break off the dynamo which in my earlier builds I had stuck onto a fabricated I beam. Now that I have done a more realistic job for Don’s coaches it seemed only fair to do the same for me so I knocked up the mounting brackets and stuck them on.

7mm scale Ian Kirk Parcels Brake coach

This is Don’s roof awaiting the roof vents mounting in the right place,  just perched on my parcels van for the moment. I managed to rescue the destination board brackets and reinstate them on the new re-canvassed roof.

7mm scale Ian Kirk Parcels Brake coach

7mm scale Ian Kirk Parcels Brake coach

7mm scale Ian Kirk Parcels Brake coach

It’s also now sporting hinges and door handles etc.

Kirk All 3rd nearing the finish line

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A weekend in, spent modelling has seen the All 3rd well on it’s way to completion. I even managed to do a bit more on my own non corridor parcels van. Progress on the latter included ripping off the dynamo to make up more prototypical hanging frame similar to Don’s BG and All 3rd

7mm Scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

7mm Scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

7mm Scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

7mm Scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

7mm Scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

All that’s left to do (unless I find something else is fit the turnbuckles and trussing and the vacuum and steam heat pipes before it hit’s the paint shop in anger

Ian Kirk All 3rd

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Picking up after Guildex and despite going out to play at Locomotion on both Saturday PM and sunday AM I managed to get a fair bit further on the All 3rd

7mm scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

Brake tell tale and associated bits and pieces

7mm scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

Roof vents marked out and added, I also added the V Hangers underneath but found that I had left the dynamo and the vac cylinder castings behind so I couldn’t go any further with them.

7mm scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

I even made a jig and a start on the grab handles before running out of rod – more in Wakefield but it’s not much good there

7mm scale Ian Kirk All 3rd

Kirk All 3rd, The Populace in place

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The all 3rd has been progressing too,  we now have passengers and a start on the paint work – the plan is to print our some partition tops with carriage prints and possible the mirrors in place – I may end up with plan B for the mirrors which would be to use the Cameo to cut them from foil.

Ian Kirk 7mm scale all Third seat and passengers

Ian Kirk 7mm scale all Third seat and passengers

Cut and Shut with Kirk Sides

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In response to a query on the GOG forum I promised that I would take a photo of some Kirk sides that I needed to cut and shut and repair the beading on – The beading is Plastruct 0.8mm half round.

It looks like Ian has now run out of the colour pigment that he used to use to colour the LNER coach pieces because they came in white so I had to give them a quick spray to get them to show anything.

Kirk BY120 Sides

Kirk BY120 Sides

I have marked which beading I replaced with a red square. For some reason the top one picked up some much in the solvent (Limonene) which has made it look a bit ragged in the photo but I am sure that it will disappear once I apply the teak varnish to it.

Although it doesn’t look it in the photo the base colour is orange.

Kirk 51 foot All 3rd – interior details

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This last weekend saw a little more progress on the Kirk coaches.

The seating is assembled for the all third and the roof made ready to fit.

Conversations on a few forums around how to attach the roof, have had the side effect of making me think about fitting passengers (which neither Don or I had considered/discussed). Due to me having already glued the floor in ( I won’t do that on future builds) I was exploring unobtrusive ways that I might make the room removable.

Having consulted Don who agreed that we should make provision for the fitting of passengers. – Albeit not that many due to the decline of passengers using the line in Don’s modelled period. I was still mulling over various ways of fixing the roof when I realised that the roof ends don’t quite match the profile of the ends of the coach. This is due to the way that Ian makes them by vacuum forming. When I say don’t quite fit I am sure that the discrepancy will be taken up by gluing the roofs on as originally planned. But if I attempted to screw them on in any way, I would be left with an unsightly gap at either end.

A bit more head scratching and looking at the way that windows fit I decided that I could make it so that the windows cannot be dislodged by handling (which was another fear of gluing the roof on) and that if I fitted some passengers before gluing the roof down, it would mean that Don didn’t need to gain access to do it later.

I had some Slaters seated passengers to hand and they provided a welcome distraction and rekindling of interest,which I have to confess due to pressures at work was waning a little.

Kirk 51 foot All 3rd – interior details

Kirk 51 foot All 3rd – interior details

While the painting of said passengers (particularly the faces) isn’t as good as some, I am pleased with how they have come out and they will certainly pass muster inside the gloomy interior of the coach once matt varnished.

7mm scale seated passengers

If you wonder why they are sat above the box instead of on it, that’s because I have inserted a length of plastic rod to enable me to old them while painting and and it will help in making them securely fastened to the seats when fitted.