Model Engine Works: clogher valley railway

Showing posts with label clogher valley railway. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Atkinson Walker Steam Tractor

The Atkinson Walker Steam Tractor from the Clogher Valley Railway

2020 Updates added

History

Built by Atkinson-Walker Wagons Ltd of Preston in September 1928 as one of their Class A.3 vertical boiler steam engines. Only a small number of 3ft gauge engines were built, most being of standard gauge. Engine Number 111 was acquired by the Red Lake Tramway in Devon, 114 was sent for trial at the Clogher Valley railway (which I have based this model on). Both were built and supplied at roughly the same time and two further engines were exported.
The Red Lake engine seems to have had a very different story to the Clogher Valley engine. Reported as a good engine, it worked on a Dartmoor tramway which served a china clay pit for its final 5 years before the pit's closure in 1933. This is a contrast to the short trial by the Clogher Valley Railway, in which it was found to be totally unsuitable.
By the end of 1929, Atkinson-Walker Wagons Ltd had gone out of business, and no buyer was to be found for the Clogher Valley engine, which lay idle at Aughnacloy coach and wagon shed until 1932. It was bought by Henry Forbes for the County Donegal Railway and converted at the Great Northern Railway’s Dundalk workshop to diesel power. It was fittingly renamed the “Phoenix” and worked on the County Donegal Railway until its closure in 1959. The Phoenix can now be seen in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

Model Scales

This is an unusual looking engine and makes a good subject to model for a narrow-gauge railway. It may not have skirts but the amount of detail at each side of the footplate does a good job of hiding whatever chassis is used. The initial model was drawn up in 4 mm scale to suit the Halling motor bogie at either 12mm gauge for 00n3 or 9mm gauge for 009.

A further version is being produced to suit the Kato 11-104 chassis in 009 has a slightly reduced overall size to help it to blend in with the 9mm track and not look too top-heavy.

It will be available in both 00n3 and 009 versions to print on Shapeways in Frosted Ultra Detail. If a suitable chassis can be found it is planned to make it available in TTn3 3mm scale also.

With Frosted Ultra Detail it is advisable to soak in (Petroleum organic solvent – paint thinners) in order to remove the wax support residue left from printing, then a wash in warm soapy water should leave the surface ready for painting after it is fully dried. I use a grey or white spray primer to prep the model for finishing. In some areas, it will be necessary to remove print lines from the surface, and this can be done with a burnishing tool - I use a hardwood stick with a rounded point to get in the tight spaces. By doing these processes before separating the print into its component parts you will be less likely to lose any of the small pieces.

I have designed the bodywork and footplate in one, with the roof removable to allow for interior details and ballast to be fitted. Two work lamps, some steps and a pair of couplings are printed within the main body of the loco. These all need to be removed before the chassis is fitted.

Ballast

There are recesses in the sides of the cab openings which I have filled with lead sheet.

This should give sufficient weight to the engine for traction and electrical pickup.

Fitting the chassis

With the Halling chassis, it is a straight forward fit between the two pressure plates front and back. It may be necessary to file a small amount off the inside of these plates or add a shim on so you get a snug fit, but this depends very much on the printing process and is difficult to predict. The wheels will need to be adjusted to suit the model, only one wheelset needs moving into the centre, the chassis will then be off set back to front on the model.

The Kato chassis will need to be cut down to fit, the coupling mounts need to be cut off each end and also the axle boxes will need to be removed from the sides.

Wire-work

There is not a great amount of wire-work on this model; just the handrails each side of the cab door openings. For this, I have used 0.45 mm brass wire and drilled out the pilot holes to a little deeper to suit the wire.

On the 00n3 model, the wire from the handrail was taken down to form the supports on the steps, this was done by drilling through the footplate and making the wire for the handrail long enough to be bent under the steps also.
Sanding feeder pipes were also added under the sandboxes and bent back towards the wheels.

Couplings

A pair of printed couplings are supplied with the models. On the 00n3 they are printed under the footplate while on the 009 they are printed under the roof, along with the other small detail parts such as the steps and work lamps. For the prototype models, We have used Greenwich type couplings on both the 00n3 & 009 versions.

Glazing interior details

For the windows I have used thin acetate saved from old packaging which is glued with a contact adhesive or Cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) and is great if you have curved or awkward shaped glazing, being thin and flexible to use. I fit the glazing when building the model, and then fix it in place in the final stages after the painting is completed, and before any weathering is done.

Painting

After initial preparation of the model, it was given a couple of light coats of matt grey primer, then burnished and smoothed, with a final coat of primer to finish off. As the Clogher Valley engine was never given a paint finish, we can do what we feel is right for our individual layouts. I chose to do the footplate, roof lower buffer beam and handrails, in a charcoal grey Revel No 09.

I dry brushed a little silver around the mechanical parts under the footplate which highlights the details; also some gloss varnish gives the impression of oil on these areas. Leaving the grey as the body finish. The upper buffer beams have been painted in a red mixed with dark grey.The impression of general dirt and grime was added to some areas of the bodywork, footplate, and buffer beams roof and running gear with a dry-brushed application of Revel Matt No 43 grey and No 87 grey/brown mixed.The final little bit of detail was to add the work lamps and lenses. For these I used 4mm Clear Rhinestones, fitted after the painting was completed.The steps can be added to each side of the cab when the detail under the footplate is completed this makes it a much easier and neater job 009 models only. On the 00n3 model, the steps are printed as part of the footplate.I finished overall areas with a coat of matt varnish. I then added weathering with powdered wax pastels, using mixes of brown and black, to give the engine an overall weathered and unused appearance.

In early 2020 Kato introduced there new and updated versions of their popular 11-103 and 11-104 chassis, these are now phasing out and being replaced by the 11-109 and 11-110. With this change, I have made some simple alterations to my models using these chassis.

If you would like a copy of this model it is available on Shapeways at Model Engine Works:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/9C7EPEEU8/009-atkinson-walker-steam-tractor?optionId=65166453

https://www.shapeways.com/product/96BJYVAJX/00n3-atkinson-walker-steam-tractor?optionId=65340036

Friday, 22 December 2017

009 Tram Coach

Additional notes added August 2019

This is a small tram-style coach based on the Clogher Valley Railways coaches but without the clerestory roof.

The original Clogher Valley coaches were built in 1886 by The Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co of Birmingham. There were 13 passenger coaches in total, numbers 7-9 bogie 1^st class which were shorter than the others, 10 & 11 bogie 1^st / 3^rd composite, 12 – 19 bogie 3^rd. All the coaches had balconies at each end, which supported the overhanging clerestory style roof. Communication between each coach was possible across metal fall-plates which covered the buffer-couplings. The carriages were innovative in using exhaust steam to provide heat to their passengers, at a time when the best most people could expect in winter was a warming pan. The coaches remained in service till the lines closure on New Year’s Day 1942.

The print configuration in two halves cuts down the amount of support material by a considerable amount and therefore the cost. It still allows for the fitting of internal details and glazing before the coach is assembled. It is also much easier to add details such as the etched mesh to the balcony end frames from the inside before they are added to the main coachwork.

Because of the detailed panel-work on these coaches they are only available to print in Frosted Ultra Detail, this does mean that the balcony end frames are quite delicate and I have found that they may warp in transit. Fixing them into position on the model does push them back into their correct shape, but be gentle as this is done.

I have found it a good move to keep all of the print in one piece while you remove the waxy residue, wash and prime the print. I used a mid-grey spray primer and, once dry, the etched mesh was added to the balcony ends. I had a small diamond etch that I had bought at a local railway exhibition, which I cut down to suit the small end frames at each side of the balconies. These were fixed on the inside of the balcony using Cyanoacrylate glue (super glue). A final coat of primer was sprayed over the whole print and allowed to dry.

I decided to use a pair of Kato 11-099 bogies on this coach as they have an offset pivot, are small well engineered and have a free running wheel sets. The offset pivot on the bogie was particularly useful as it allowed the pivot on the floor of the coach to be close to the balcony steps without the bogie being restricted by them. This does mean that they are the wrong way round, the couplings facing inward, and should be removed. I felt that this would not be of any detriment as the coach itself is short, and normal fixed coupling should cope on restricted curves. I did find that the pivot formed by the printer can vary in the thickness. This stops the free movement of the bogie from side to side. I used a small flat file to dress off some access material at the base of the pivot on the coach, which will allow the pivot clips on the bogie to engage on the inside of the pivot hole on the bottom of the coach and allow it to turn freely.

My choice of finish was a Revel oil based paint ref SM 331 thinned slightly and I applied two coats of this to the sides, ends and the balcony ends. The frames and steps had a coat of dark grey Revel mat 9, the fall plates were a mix of the matt 9 and a silver to create a dark gunmetal finish. A wood colour mix was used on the balcony floors, and on the roof I used a Revel light grey matt 43 and white 5 mix. I left the inside of the coach in the light grey primer finish as this is pretty neutral.

After the painting was completed, the glazing could be added with a sheet of clear acetate cut to suit the side windows, then glued in place with Cyanoacrylate glue (super glue). I found it simplest to position the glazing panels and then drop some glue on the edges, this would then run under the acetate and fix it in place. Apply a little light pressure while the glue is going off.

When you are assembling the coach the central roof joint will be the most obvious and this can be tackled in a few ways. One is to fill the joint after fixing the coach together and painting over the joint. Another method is to use a single lamination of toilet tissue paper to represent a felt roof covering: fill the roof joint, apply glue over the whole roof, then add the paper from the centre line letting the glue soak in as it is applied. Once the result has dried this can be painted, possibly in a dark grey to mimic the felt colour. The two roof ventilators are then added and finished in with the roof colouring.

Numbers were added to each side of this particular coach. The central panel was used to display the number 10, the three panels under the windows being a good area to display numbering or lettering. Any style of around 1 to 2mm size will look fine. I used the Fox Transfers FG1003 - Alphabet in white - Franklin Heavy, 2mm & 1mm which give a nice bold graphic.

Once fully assembled – couplings added, glazing and painting fully completed- a coat of thinned matt or satin varnish was applied to all painted areas of the model. This helps to fix the transfers and pull the whole finish together. It is a bit of a personal choice, but I do like to add a measure of weathering to the final model. It removes that out- of- the box look. To do this I use artist’s oil pastels which have been made into a powder form. Black, burnt senna (earth/mid brown), light red and orange are the main colour pallet that I use. It is also quite easy to mix these to create other shades. They are dusted on the model with a number 6 size paint brush that is kept specifically for this job. If you don’t like what you have done it can be cleaned off again, which is what I like about using oil pastel dust to do the weathering.

If you would like a copy of this model visit Model Engine Works at:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/ECHU7ML6T/009-tram-style-coach

Additional notes added August 2019

Further variants of this style of coach are available from the Model Engine Works Shop on Shapeways. Both are slightly smaller and more economical to build. One comes with a clerestory roof like the original Clogher Valley coaches. The other has no roof printed, allowing you to supply your own. They both have window openers which can be positioned as you require. Roof vents are also supplied to add the finishing touch to the roof.

Further items will be need to complete the models, these include wagon chassis such as the Peco N" gauge chassis kits (Ref NR122 0r NR123) from Dundas Models. A set of couplings and acetate or clear Plasticard for glazing the windows.