On the Workbench...

[4COR]

That has gone together sweetly, G. I think you're right re: adding suitable grot to the chassis.

Nicely done and the weathering washing down the sides really gives it some character and texture.

Thanks both - grot applied, and some chalk markings. This has gone together well for a 40 year old kit to be honest! (Yes, typically still need to do the NEM pocket and coupler...)

 

[Sun Chariot]

Marvellous masterpiece in miniature!

 

[4COR]

Ta muchly Also quickly finished off this this morning while waiting for some code to work.... This is a PC08 - diagram 1/213 (BR 12T ply sides and doors, with triple rain strips).

 

[Sun Chariot]

Also very nicely modelled.
One thing I rarely see done in model form - it's my "to do" on a BD conflat container - is a tarpaulin roped over a leaky roof. I've seen a few photos of vans like that in the '50s + '60s.

 

[4COR]

Hornby West Country (see: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/whats-your-latest-acquisition.213503/post-7315787) fixed and tested! Also, the spare pipes arrived and have mounted on a bit of plasticard to replace the missing part. The accessory pack (brake rodding, etc) is on order, and it needs weathering to match the tender but very pleased, and for less than half the price of a normal second hand West Country - just need a couple of rebuilds to go with it now (but they are generally pricier)!

I might renumber it and put better etched nameplates for a central region allocated WC... (Bideford is a candidate)


(Pic: Hornby Combe Martin under cab pipework)



Video of engine under test:

 

[Cowley]

Hornby West Country (see: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/whats-your-latest-acquisition.213503/post-7315787) fixed and tested! Also, the spare pipes arrived and have mounted on a bit of plasticard to replace the missing part. The accessory pack (brake rodding, etc) is on order, and it needs weathering to match the tender but very pleased, and for less than half the price of a normal second hand West Country - just need a couple of rebuilds to go with it now (but they are generally pricier)!

I might renumber it and put better etched nameplates for a central region allocated WC... (Bideford is a candidate)


(Pic: Hornby Combe Martin under cab pipework)

View attachment 181877

Video of engine under test:

Great job. You can’t obviously tell that it’s been repaired.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Video of engine under test:

Wonderful restoration and repair. A lovely quiet motor, too.
That front coupling - the pink fleshy one - might need to be reduced in size though

 

[4COR]

Wonderful restoration and repair. A lovely quiet motor, too.
That front coupling - the pink fleshy one - might need to be reduced in size though

More of an unconventional buffer stop...! (The little bit of track is intended as a combination test bed for scenery stuff/static grass and future DCC programming track - don't own a rolling road! )

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Great job. You can’t obviously tell that it’s been repaired.

Thanks! Still needs weathering so will be further hidden!

 

[Cowley]

More of an unconventional buffer stop...! (The little bit of track is intended as a combination test bed for scenery stuff/static grass and future DCC programming track - don't own a rolling road! )

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Thanks! Still needs weathering so will be further hidden!

Quite looking forward to seeing how you weather it.

 

[4COR]

There hasn't been much workbench action lately, and on hols now. I did manage to take a rake round to my dad's layout to give some vans a test run recently. Aside from some temperature related track issues(!) they ran better than expected! Towed around by a BR era Q1 I have recently fitted with a YouChoos sound decoder. The firebox flicker (not visible!) is excellent!

(Two vids of a Hornby Q1 pulling an assorted rake of PMV, CCT, Python, Mink G)

 

[4COR]

Some small amount of Bank Holiday work (aside from some plumbing..) - more southern van work. I did the underframes for these a while back but actually painted them and assembled the body for two. Another two recent acquisitions got primed and underframe parts painted at same time.



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 28 Aug 2025 ==

For detail on the underframes, here's the brass rodding work I need to do on these kits (two more Ratio 591 kits). The tie bars are stupidly brittle (old!) and then I add in the cross links. All in 0.5mm brass rod.

Also, the wheels are replaced (kit has plastic ones) - here using bearings and metal 3 hole wheels. The bearing holes need expanding by hand gently with a drill bit before supergluing in place.

 

[4COR]

Finished off a quartet of fitted diagram 1455 ex-SR uneven planked 12T vans. These were all from Ratio 591 kits, and all finished off in various states of weathering in bauxite. One I used masking strip, covered in primer to replicate a re-felted roof (I had seen a pic online with this type of felting). I think I need to do something other than 12T vans soon...

 

[D1511]

Beautiful job, these look superb. The one with the re-felted roof looks really excellent.

 

[4COR]

Thanks! I was pleased that one came out well - it was a little bit of an experiment having seen photos of the period online (I just hope the masking tape doesn't lift )

 

[Iskra]

Excellent work there

 

[4COR]

I've been doing something other than 12T vans - 'osses... The Parkside PC83, LNER diagram 5 Horsebox specifically. A bit of experimental stuff in putting in track pickups for a compartment light on this.

I had to swap out the original wheels as they were fully insulated. Then, using some 0.3mm brass wire, fashioned some axle pickup springs with a bit of fiddling to make them not drag too much.

These are connected via a resistor to a bridge rectifier and capacitor, which in turn drives a tiny warm white led via a resistor.

Fiddly to say the least, but I think we're approaching transfer application and light weathering!

 

[4COR]

And so that's the ex-LNER horsebox pretty much done bar the pipes (in paint shop) and coupler.

Lighting pretty much works, after the track was cleaned

Next model is in progress, but needing some extra items from Wizard. Hopefully they will be here this week, and then I need some transfers...

 

[4COR]

Not sure if anyone has anything else on the go at present, but some slow progress here. I'm working on a Cambrian Bolster D (C56). The buffers arrived from Wizard, and I have transfers (Cambs Custom Transfers). I'm just in the process of having a second go at the wooden floor. I need to have a go with the weathering powders and washes on it... But some progressive dry brushing so far.

 

[4COR]

Finished off the Bolster D this weekend - here with log load (ivy branches, dried, washed dark and powdered) held down by chains.





== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Feb 2026 ==

This is a project not for me, but for my Dad - he has been quietly awaiting the KR Models Mica B vans, so I thought I would make him up the Parkside X7 version to tide him over. Tricky in places (the handrails!), and only a single photo reference I could find for looking at!

 

[4COR]

Unpainted wood has been a challenge. Not sure I can get much further on this - this is a Cambrian C6 (ex-SR 8 plank diagram 1379).

 

[4COR]

Spent a while this evening with eyes on stalks applying transfers to a pair of ex-LNER diagram 194 wagons (ancient PC01 Parkside kits). No idea why they look so orange in the pic...



== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Mar 2026 ==

The Workbench goes on tour. Well, not quite, but am off in the caravan for Easter with Mrs 4Cor and the eldest, and being Wales, it might rain, so I have a few 16T Mineral kits packed to make a start on

The three opens I have been working on (two d194, and a 1/044) will have to wait until I get back for varnishing, airbrushing, etc.

At least I can get them built, and a first bit of paint applied.

 

[Cowley]

Thread reopened for @4COR to update.

 

[4COR]

Thanks @Cowley! Finally some more work on model railways - cricket season is not quite done, but I finally got chance to try and finish a few bits off that have been loitering...

A pair of ex LNER diagram 194s steel opens (as above). These are from the second batch built at Shildon in 1946 (no chain pockets...). I finally varnished over the transfers, weathered a bit and the load added (wire coils from 10 Commandments). These were old PC01 kits - there's no interior detail saved the floor, so the load covers cover up that nicely.





Next up in the paint shop are some 16 tonners - a variety of diagrams on this lot...



(Though I have "loose ends" to tie first(!)...)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Tuesday at 16:56 ==

...on which subject, a lunch break tieing and sticking down a tarp has largely finished this one off. This is a Parkside PC02 (the old Kirk moulding). It's a BR 1/044 13T open (B498005, lot 2484, Ashford 1953) on standard Morton Vacuum Fit chassis, and it has the tarp (made along the lines of the Brettell Road ones with a black nitrile glove) to cover the internals which are again not detailed in this model.

Not sure I am 100% happy with the shape of the rather large crate inside, but it'll do (of note, polystyrene is dissolved by super glue, don't ask...) - I have 2 more of these kits, one of which will land up as one of the Gloster/Pickering lots on J Hanger clamp brakes from PA16.

 

[xotGD]

Some lovely work, as usual. Your attention to detail is so impressive.

 

[Cowley]

Superb. They’ve got lots of character too.

 

[4COR]

Some lovely work, as usual. Your attention to detail is so impressive.

Thanks, but I'm a mere hobbyist compared to many who I take inspiration from! There's a couple of minor inaccuracies with one of them, but that's it being an old kit. Besides, I'm not working in P4 so

Superb. They’ve got lots of character too.

Thanks!

(Also, naughtyness in tieing the sheet to the buffers but it sometimes did happen!)

 

[Cowley]

Thanks, but I'm a mere hobbyist compared to many who I take inspiration from! There's a couple of minor inaccuracies with one of them, but that's it being an old kit. Besides, I'm not working in P4 so

Thanks!

(Also, naughtyness in tieing the sheet to the buffers but it sometimes did happen!)

It looks great to me.

I’ve forgotten whether I’ve asked this before, but do you have somewhere to run your stock?

 

[4COR]

It looks great to me.

I’ve forgotten whether I’ve asked this before, but do you have somewhere to run your stock?

Not yet (short of my son's unfinished small loop type layout but it's very much a kids type arrangement with 2nd rad curves).

I too have a shed down the garden (about 10x10) where I might be able to do something, but I suspect as soon as I finish the floor it'll be filled with son's fishing stuff, gardening bits, etc... I'll be lucky to have a workbench!

Also not sure of where or what I would model in there (maybe something like Westerham?, but it's been done before, and sometimes it's nice to just watch trains go round and round until you're dizzy ).

I have a very good idea of another layout location which would suit, and I think I could fit it in the loft, but the loft is also full of a lot of rubbish that my wife won't chuck, and I need to finish the last quarter of the boards and insulate between the roof rafters to try and control the cold/heat...

 

[Cowley]

Not yet (short of my son's unfinished small loop type layout but it's very much a kids type arrangement with 2nd rad curves).

I too have a shed down the garden (about 10x10) where I might be able to do something, but I suspect as soon as I finish the floor it'll be filled with son's fishing stuff, gardening bits, etc... I'll be lucky to have a workbench!

Also not sure of where or what I would model in there (maybe something like Westerham?, but it's been done before, and sometimes it's nice to just watch trains go round and round until you're dizzy ).

I have a very good idea of another layout location which would suit, and I think I could fit it in the loft, but the loft is also full of a lot of rubbish that my wife won't chuck, and I need to finish the last quarter of the boards and insulate between the roof rafters to try and control the cold/heat...

Right I’ve been thinking about this. Here’s what I think you need to do.

Build a load of shelf units around the edge of the loft, and the way you sell it is to say that it’ll much easier for your wife to sort through the things she has because she’ll be able to find everything much more easily. They don’t have to be complicated, just a metre high with a shelf at the bottom and a shelf at the top.

Now obviously you’d far better off insulating the rafters and lining out the rafters, because you really don’t want your wife’s detritus important heirlooms to start going mouldy in an uninsulated loft (stay with me here) do you?

Now if on top of those shelves there happened to be a worktop that was around a metre deep running around the entire loft?

Well that’s a surprise? I think I might use that to store some of this railway stuff that’s been taking up room elsewhere in the house…

 

[4COR]

Right I’ve been thinking about this. Here’s what I think you need to do.

Build a load of shelf units around the edge of the loft, and the way you sell it is to say that it’ll much easier for your wife to sort through the things she has because she’ll be able to find everything much more easily. They don’t have to be complicated, just a metre high with a shelf at the bottom and a shelf at the top.

Now obviously you’d far better off insulating the rafters and lining out the rafters, because you really don’t want your wife’s detritus important heirlooms to start going mouldy in an uninsulated loft (stay with me here) do you?

Now if on top of those shelves there happened to be a worktop that was around a metre deep running around the entire loft?

Well that’s a surprise? I think I might use that to store some of this railway stuff that’s been taking up room elsewhere in the house…

See, easy! Of course, the big challenge at the moment is getting past all the boxes and boxes of stuff to be able to build said storage! (I think we have every single drawing, school book, etc for the kids from 2 til end of primary....). Not to mention the dismantled IKEA furniture (no, that doesn't fit either!), Xmas decorations and God knows what else.

The loft is awkward as it's a purlin and angle brace arrangement. This does lend itself to using the low corners under the eaves for storage... But at the wrong height, the railway top is remarkably close to the underside of the (rather hefty) purlin, and if brought inside it, it makes the curves a fair bit tighter. Not to mention the builder shoved the chimney through the lot about a third in from the walls!

I need to actually put something up temporarily to get an idea of height, depth etc... But back to the clutter!