Building NSWGR Railmotor 401

[Jim]

Thanks Barry, thankfully I'm slowly getting my sanity back and not getting the shakes thinking about drilling lots of 3/64" holes in long plastic tubes

Sadly we couldn't make it across to the Scale Day, always a highlight of the year, to keep me in contact Chris Jones very kindly sent me a link to Warwick Allison's video of the weekend.

Looking forward to bringing the 400 Class Railmotor over for a good run.

Jim

[David]

You must be relieved to have it done, but the way it looks shows it was worth the effort.

[Jim]

Thanks David,

I must say I'm happy with how things are going. Over the last few days I've been making the supports for the radiator pipes to replace the temporary and 'clunky' balsa ones.

401 won't be a fine scale model but rather an 'as best I can' version based on line drawings from a book on the 400 class kindly lent to me by fellow club member Les Penrose who has made some truly outstanding models of the New South Wales Railmotors.

Hope to bring 401 across to the club soon to give it a trial run on the club's superb track.

Kind regards

Jim

[Jim]

Just a quick update with a photo showing the now added black gutter strip, I'm assuming it's the gutter strip.  It makes a nice line of demarkation between the roof and the body of the rail motor.

As I look at the front end I becoming less than happy with the treatment of the headlight. The LED light works well but the surrounds don't so will look to making a more prototypical reflector.



Cheers

Jim

[barlowworks]

The rail motor is looking good, well done. When will we see the big green thing at the side of it get a run. 😉

Mike

[Jim]

Hi Mike,

The big green thing is just that... BIG!

When you start to build a loco the last thing on your mind is the question of 'How will I move this when it's completed?' As things stand I can easily roll the Britannia out the door on the test track for a steam up. The problem to move it is to execute a sharp LH turn on the narrow landing and to then load it into the back of the car which takes a lot of backing and filling to get it into position. The solution when I get round to it will be a purose built trolley the loco can be rolled onto then wheeled round to the back of the car sitting out in the driveway.

The attraction of the rail motor is it's easily disassembled, then the parts; batteries, power units etc carried to the car stowed ready to go to the track. Just the thing for me as I head into my mid 80's where springing out of an arm chair takes a lot of thought and a few false starts. 

Jim

[barlowworks]

So I’ll not hold my breath just yet then. You do your best Jim, it’s not a race.

Mike

[Jim]

Actually I find building the models gives me the most pleasure, once completed it's nice to know they work as intended but after that my mind drifts off to the next project. 

In case you haven't seen it this is Boadicea on her first steam up. As you can see the lifting arm was moving due to the locking screw on the other side coming loose. It's fixed now.

youtu.be/HnlPz4k5o7I


Watching it all working still gives me a lot of pleasure. 

Jim

[Jim]

Today I managed to complete the gutter strip round the roof which just about wraps up the work on the railmotor. There's still some detailing to do such as fitting out the driver's compartment and adding some passengers to the passenger compartment.

As mentioned in the last post I'm not altogether happy with the lift out roof section so will look at redoing that but that will be when the weather warms up a bit.

Hope to take it to a private track in the near future for a test run.

Jim

[mugbuilder]

Jul 27, 2022 9:35:34 GMT Jim said:

Today I managed to complete the gutter strip round the rlover
oof which just about wraps up the work on the railmotor. There's still some detailing to do such as fitting out the driver's compartment and adding some passengers to the passenger compartment.

As mentioned in the last post I'm not altogether happy with the lift out roof section so will look at redoing that but that will be when the weather warms up a bit.

Hope to take it to a private track in the near future for a test run.

Jim

[Deleted]

Lovely job Jim...

Pete

[mugbuilder]

I thought that you would be at our track play day after the dinner Jim. I was hoping to catch up with you then as it was almost impossible to talk at the pub.

[Jim]

Jul 30, 2022 1:28:22 GMT mugbuilder said:

I thought that you would be at our track play day after the dinner Jim. I was hoping to catch up with you then as it was almost impossible to talk at the pub.

I had thought of bringing it over Barry but a last minute family matter meant we had to head back here the next day. I must say we both enjoyed the dinner but as you say it was impossible to talk much at the pub.

All is well here and covid free so far. We'll be over again, the drive via Blaney is good with a stop over at the Rose Garden Cafe in Cowra for bite.

Jim.

[Jim]

Jul 29, 2022 17:59:22 GMT @greenglade said:

Lovely job Jim...

Pete

Thanks Pete. I must say this has been quite an enjoyable project and a nice break from the much more demanding steam projects.
Given that the Railmotor breaks down into easily managed components it's no great problem to transport either which has it's benefits as the years tick by.

Hope all is well with you too.

Regards

Jim.

[Deeja]

Jim,
A quick question.
Where did you get/how did you make the horn trumpets?

Deeja

[Jim]

Jul 31, 2022 23:36:36 GMT Deeja said:

Jim,
A quick question.
Where did you get/how did you make the horn trumpets?

Deeja

Deeja if you promise not to tell anyone on this site I can reveal that they are actually wooden golf tees suitably modified. As with most things I got the idea from a fellow modeller.

Jim

[Deeja]

Thanks, appreciated

[Jim]

It's taken a while and I'm still not sure it's right but at last the Railmotor's number is in place which just about wraps things up.



Depending how I feel I might have another go at it tomorrow to re tweek the '1' that to me seems slightly out of alignment.

Jim

[Jim]

With the first attempt at placing the railmotor's numbers I decided to carefully cut them out from yellow background colour as it was slightly darker than the yellow on the rail motor. Then in one of those lightbulb moments it dawned on me that maybe the colours were getting low in the printer so trotted of and got a new colour cassette.

A trial reprint with the size of the numbers slightly increased showed a much better alignment plus the background yellow matched that on the railmotor as it should have given I'd mounted the original master numbers on on a base of the same yellow.

As a result I was able to cut the art work from excess transfer material to give me a transfer with the numbers in place on a background tha matched the railmotor's yellow. I also increased the size of the numbers.



I've given the transfers  a coat of clear varnish to seal, protect and secure them in position.

Jim