Monthly Archives: October 2021

Atomiser for an LNER A3

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Amongst the minor casualties of the strip and repaint of my DJH A3 that I am aware of is the atomiser casting that sits on the side of the smoke box. Now I could have bought a casting from Ragstone or Finney7 but where’s the fun in that. And so, I set out to make one using the mill and lathe.

In the absence of having any collet blocks (subsequently ordered and received) I used a pin vice with a hex head to index milling the flats on the bar to create accurate hex nuts. I used a toolmakers clamp fastened to the rear jaw of the vice as a stop so that I got the pin vice back in exactly the same position as I rotated it after each cut.

Using a hex head pin vice for indexing on the mill
Using a hex head pin vice for indexing on the mill

I had a first attempt which came out alright but I felt it was a bit small. I dug out a casting from my Finney A3 kit and it was certainly longer than the one that I had created.

Atomiser For LNER A3
Atomiser For LNER A3

Learning all the while, I thought that I would have another go.

Atomiser For LNER A3
Atomiser For LNER A3

Setting the Unimat on its fastest speed, I found that I could not only successfully turn down the spigot for the handwheel, I could also grip that spigot in a 1mm collet and turn the head down to size with light cuts and a sharp tool.

I was concerned that the spigot being turned down to 0.8mm wouldn’t have enough strength and that the turning forces would cause the head to shear off. I proved it wasn’t a fluke by doing a second aft inadvertently crushing my first attempt when I didn’t get it sat square in the collet.

Another itch scratched!

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Since dabbling with horse drawn vehicles I have been able to scratch an itch that I have had for a while. It started several years ago when I was talking to a gent while demoing at a show and he mentioned that he had some 1:43 scale horse drawn carriages. I was most surprised when at the next show I was demoing at he brought one along and offered it to me. Funds changed hands and I happily brought home this.

Brumm Carriage
Brumm Carriage
Brumm Carriage

my intentions have always been to use it as a load for one of the open Carriage trucks that I have part built. What I didn’t notice until some time after bringing it home was that one of the carriage lamps was missing. I am not complaining because to be honest the lamps are a bit cheesy and do let down what is other wise not a bad model.

A discussion with a friend brought this to mind and I decided to have a go at doing something about it. I made a prototype to prove the concept but it was a bit on the big side so I made a couple more which are pretty much dead on for the size of the one that remains.

7mm Scale Carriage Lamps

Not the best photo in the world but these things are pretty small.

LNER Cinder Guards

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Those who read my ramblings may recall my mentioning and showing the build of a DJH LNER A3 that I built a few years ago.
I was never really happy with the paint job and Warren Haywood offered to strip and repaint it for me. I received it back from Warren and one of the casualties of the paint strip were the etched cinder guards from the cab side.

There used to be some really nice castings for Cinder Guards available from Hobby Horse but since Simon’s retirement and the business not being sold they are no longer available.

So I decided to have a go at drawing some up. My initial design taken from an A3 GA had the hinges with the two ears either side but looking closely at cab side photos of Flying Scotsman and Green Arrow showed me that they were different on LNER locos at least so I added the two hinges at the bottom of the image.

I plan to get these cast by Mike Hopkins and Chris suggested that I also do some assembled so that I can see what works best in terms of castings – all told I need 7 or 8 sets for various loco kits that I have in my stash.

I decided to do two options of the assembled item

Option one is with the guard in it’s open position at 90 degrees to the cab sideoption two is with them folded back against the cab side. To achieve this I needed to make them handed. I got the idea for having them folded back from fellow member Ian Beattie, who mentioned that he always models them folded back to minimise damage and I thought it a good idea.

I did screen shots for these as the renders were so bright you couldn’t really see anything….
I will share photos of the castings when I get them back from Mike.

3D Carriage Wheel

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After my recent adventures with horse drawn vehicles, I thought that I would have a go at drawing up a spoked wheel. The lack of availability of suitable wheels has been what has held me back in the past from doing more with horse drawn vehicles, which were so much a part of the railway scene in my chosen modelling era. Indeed my paternal grandfather was still delivering milk from his farm via horse and cart in the late 1950’s


The basic wheel and spokes took only a short time to draw up but it then took around an hour and a half to work out how to get the camber on the spokes. I deleted the ring of spokes multiple times before I got there.

GNR One Horse Parcels Van – Ready for glazing

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I finally got it painted and ready for glazing. The roof was ‘canvassed’ using my old favourite, used lens cleaning tissue.

I plan to do the glazing with Glue n Glaze from Deluxe materials assuming it hasn’t gone off since I used it last.

GNR One horse Parcel van ready for glazing
GNR One horse Parcel van ready for glazing
GNR One horse Parcel van ready for glazing
GNR One horse Parcel van ready for glazing

GNR One Horse Parcels Van – made assemblies complete

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Next I made up the underframe and shafts from Plastruct. The shafts I put in a collet in the lathe and then used a file to taper the end. Then once I had them both tapered the same I held them together and kept holding them in boiling water while applying pressure to get them to curve at the ends. Once happy I stuck them into holes in the ends of the under frame.

GNR One horse Parcel van – Underframe and Traces

What will become housings for the harness rings were made by wrapping a 5mm wide strip of 10 thou around an off cut of the same plastruct rod that I made the shafts from and gluing the ends together leaving the piece removable. I held it in a small hand vice until dry. Once dry it was removed from the rod, trimmed to size and tested out on the shafts. At this point it still need to be drilled.

Then I moved back to the body and added beading from 0.8mm half round Plastruct strip following the photo rather than the drawing fr the placement of the strips.

GNR One horse Parcel van – Body almost complete
GNR One horse Parcel van – Body almost complete
GNR One horse Parcel van – Body almost complete
GNR One horse Parcel van – Body almost complete

Last but not least the seat, the wheels and the springs were the items that I mentioned that were salvaged from the Brumm model.

GNR One horse Parcel van – Wheels and Springs

Brake Standard and Stove Castings in brass

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No posts for weeks and then two posts in a day.

Although I have had these printed in resin by kind hearted fellow modellers, I also wanted to see what they would look like in Brass so I asked Mike Hopkins if he would add some to his next set of castings.

LNER BRake Standard and Stove Castings
LNER BRake Standard and Stove Castings

Well worth the money and the short wait.

Scratch Built GNR One Horse Parcels Van

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I have always fancied building a horse drawn vehicle or two mainly as wagon loads for several Open Carriage trucks that I have on the go. I was put onto the idea by a gent I spoe to at a show a few years ago who subsequently brought me a horse drawn carriage from a company named Brumm. Some of the Brumm carriages fetch crazy amounts of money but I found one that was being sold as scrap for not much more than postage and bought it to salvage the wheels from.

Although my photo is of a Great Northern Railway parcels van, the only drawing I have is for an LNWR example but they are broadly similar. I scaled the drawing on the basis of the wheel size that I planned to use (the Brumm Wheels are slightly bigger diameter than the LNWR drawing).

I drew out the body pieces in Inkscape and cut them out with the silhouette and got this basic body.

Please excuse the colouring of the photos as I had to adjust them to show the white against the white background…