Hogwarts Express, Scratchbuild, 1/48 Scale

[Bandsaw Steve]

I did not know that.

 

Lets see how my British steam locomotive recognition is coming along; Is it a ‘peppercorn something or other?’ 

[bentwaters81tfw]

No Steve, it's a Bulleid 'West Country' Class. Oliver Bulleid studied under Sir Nigel Gresley, who was Chief Mechanical Engineer for the LNER, responsible for Flying Scotsman and Mallard. Bulleid would have got the job but defected to the Southern Railway. When Gresley died, he was replaced as CME by Edward Thompson, who in turn was followed by Arthur Peppercorn, until Nationalisation. After that, all new BR 'Standard' builds came from Robert Riddles of the former LMS. Riddles was the successor to Sir William Stanier, who came to the Midland from the GWR, bringing with him G W Churchward's tapered boiler designs which were used in future LMS and BR Standard engines. The GWR built 'Olton Hall' alias Hogwarts Express. Small world, isn't it?

Edited May 26, 2020 by bentwaters81tfw
Told off by Miss for spelling!

[bentwaters81tfw]

1 hour ago, gareth said:

There was talk a couple of pages ago about other locos for Hogwarts caste, I'm surprised that Taw Valley hasn't been brought up.  She was repainted for the Harry Potter films but the director thought that it looked to modern, and Olton hall was used instead !

 

 

 

They would have needed some 'fairy dust' in the sanding boxes if they had run that on the Mallaig extension.

[Heather Kay]

7 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Oliver Bullied studied under Sir Nigel Gresley

I before e, except after Oliver. Bulleid, which constantly gets autocorrected by my iPad bully.

[bentwaters81tfw]

1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

I before e, except after Oliver. Bulleid, which constantly gets autocorrected by my iPad bully.

I blame my dyslexia

[Heather Kay]

5 minutes ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

I blame my dyslexia

It’s a common error, and I’m not being - I hope - overly critical. As I say, autocorrection software will insist it should be "bullied". I keep having to correct the correction when I’m typing. As such, easy to miss in the flow of things.

[Bandsaw Steve]

14 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

No Steve, it's a Bulleid 'West Country' Class. Oliver Bulleid studied under Sir Nigel Gresley, who was Chief Mechanical Engineer for the LNER, responsible for Flying Scotsman and Mallard. Bulleid would have got the job but defected to the Southern Railway. When Gresley died, he was replaced as CME by Edward Thompson, who in turn was followed by Arthur Peppercorn, until Nationalisation. After that, all new BR 'Standard' builds came from Robert Riddles of the former LMS. Riddles was the successor to Sir William Stanier, who came to the Midland from the GWR, bringing with him G W Churchward's tapered boiler designs which were used in future LMS and BR Standard engines. The GWR built 'Olton Hall' alias Hogwarts Express. Small world, isn't it?

Armando Dippet was headmaster at Hogwarts until his death. He was replaced by Albus Dumbledore who was temporarily replaced by Dolores Umbridge following an alleged coup attempt against the Ministry of Magic. Following the clearance of his name and the discrediting of Umbridge, Dumbledore was reinstated until his death under controversial circumstances. Minerva McGonagal was promoted to headmistress but lost her position to Severus Snape during the second great wizard war. Upon Snape’s death, and subsequent to the final defeat of Lord Voldemort, Minerva McGonagal was reinstated and - despite her advancing age - she remains in office to this day.

 

[gareth]

14 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

They would have needed some 'fairy dust' in the sanding boxes if they had run that on the Mallaig extension.

They might have needed "Fairy Dust", but at least it wouldn't involve some platform edges getting a close encounter with an angle grinder so that Olton hall would fit..

Edited May 26, 2020 by gareth

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday BS and BBS, I am rather concerned about the state of the workbench in post #196, second photo, drilling. It looks too clean, neat and tidy. That's the sign of sick minds. Get some junk and clutter! 😁

Meanwhile, it's good to see some more done on the build, even if it is on hold for now. Regards, Jeff.

[johnlambert]

On 25/05/2020 at 23:17, bentwaters81tfw said:

No Steve, it's a Bulleid 'West Country' Class. Oliver Bulleid studied under Sir Nigel Gresley, who was Chief Mechanical Engineer for the LNER, responsible for Flying Scotsman and Mallard. Bulleid would have got the job but defected to the Southern Railway. When Gresley died, he was replaced as CME by Edward Thompson, who in turn was followed by Arthur Peppercorn, until Nationalisation. After that, all new BR 'Standard' builds came from Robert Riddles of the former LMS. Riddles was the successor to Sir William Stanier, who came to the Midland from the GWR, bringing with him G W Churchward's tapered boiler designs which were used in future LMS and BR Standard engines. The GWR built 'Olton Hall' alias Hogwarts Express. Small world, isn't it?

I may be mistaken but I think the GWR Cheif Mechanical Engineer was George Jackson Churchward, not G.E.  

[Bandsaw Steve]

Back at it after a long Fortnite.

 

Hello Steam / Potter fans.

 

I've taken up playing 'Fortnite' on the basis that if I play a round or two and get killed in a fashion that is especially to Baby Bandsaws liking she can repay me the favour by doing an hour or so in the shed...

 

So we are back on this project - much to my delight!   Currently there's not much progress to report but I'm also using the 'first red paint soon' incentive and she's quite keen on that idea. Here's Baby Bandsaw marking out some soldering.

 

A top tip that I learned here on BM. Never use ceramics as the backing for soldering. Ceramics have a very high specific heat capacity and will soak up most of the heat from the soldering iron. So - counterintuitive as it seems, - wood, (or MDF in this case) is a much better backing.  You can also pin the job to it much easier.  The main thing is to make sure that you don't start a fire.

 

Here's the result. the first of two handrails that got made. BB is a dab hand with a soldering iron - she loves this work.

 

And after drilling a series of carefully positioned holes she had this... which looks pretty good to me!

 

Meanwhile I was sticking some completely inaccurate details onto the tender. These are little electronics / electrical clasps or clips or some-such that I bought from a nearby electronics store.  They actually look nothing at all like the suspensiony sorts of things that they are supposed to represent but to those of us who know nothing about steam locomotives they sort of look 'busy' and 'practical' and 'important'. Most importantly, since they are manufactured items, they all look identical and therefore extra-convincing. 

 

So here we are folks...

 

Back at it...

 

I'm hoping we will keep the momentum going but am sorry to say that I cannot promise that it will be finished within this Fortnite. 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday both, those hand rails looking very good - precision engineering if ever I saw it! I've used MDF as a base board for soldering also. I cut a slot in the board, placed the join to be soldered over the gap and then brought the soldering iron up underneath the join.

     And the tender's suspension -are they spade lugs? Well done to you both. Regards, Jeff.

[Brandy]

Great to see this back, even if it is only temporarily. I must say Baby BS's (that doesn't sound right!) soldering looks far better than mine!

 

Ian

[Bandsaw Steve]

9 hours ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

 

     And the tender's suspension -are they spade lugs? 

TBH I don’t know what they are called ‘electrical yongle yangles’ I think. 😀

 

5 hours ago, Brandy said:

 I must say Baby BS's (that doesn't sound right)

 
When we started this project Baby Bandsaw was just 12 years old. Now she’s 14 so ‘Edgy Teenage Bandsaw’ is probably more appropriate. 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

2 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

they are called ‘electrical yongle yangles’ I think.

Yeah, that sounds about right.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Pop Bandsaw - three generations of modellers

 

I have just had a serious discussion with Baby bandsaw regarding this project. She's about to start two months of summer holidays and I have put the hard word on her to get this locomotive completed.  So we have just set a deadline that she has agreed to - 01 Feb 2021. Expect to see some action on this thread soon.

 

In the meantime let's see what Grandpop Bandsaw (that's my Dad and Baby Bandsaw's Grandfather) has been up to in Christchurch NZ.

 

 

Grandpop Bandsaw is a longtime tram enthusiast involved with the recovery, restoration, preservation and operation of vintage trams all of his adult life. He has also enjoyed many hours of scratch-building models of them. Here is the majority of his current collection.

 

All of these are 100% scratch-built and all in 1/32 scale. They are mostly constructed from MDF, Wood and Card with minor metal, glass and plastic fixtures. Many of them are vehicles that he has had personal involvement with, including driving them. Most of them are from New Zealand but there are some exceptions such as the green double-deck Hong Kong tram in the second level from the bottom and a - I think - London red double decker on the fourth level .  Although I say these are trams there is in fact a great variety of vehicles in here including a vintage electric 'bettle-bus' from the Christchurch transport board (bottom left hand corner) a Dunedin cable-car, several trailers and one or two horse drawn units.  

 

Thanks to the mechanical aptitude of @Barry Marchant , who is a dab-hand at turning old video player motors into motive power units for model trams, most of these run on Pop Bandsaw's home-made tramway.

 

Pop's latest venture has been to build New Zealand's first ever tram. I'm afraid I don't know much about the original except that it was used in the late 19th century in the city of Nelson at the Northern end of the South Island. So I'm guessing this will appeal to @stevehnz

 

Only one image of this vehicle is known to exist and here it is...

 

 

So that's not a whole lot to go on,  but as always some intelligent inferences go a long way.  At the time that the Nelson tramway was starting up - with very limited funds -  Sydney had  a large network of horse-drawn tramways. According to Sydney's leading tram expert (who's name escapes me at the moment) the vehicle above appears quite similar to those used in Sydney at the time.  So it seems highly likely that the ones used in Nelson were either manufacturing 'seconds' from Sydney or possibly second-hand units that were surplus to requirements.  Using this interpretation  Pop Bandsaw drew up his own set of drawings and has got stuck in to making what may well be the first ever model of New Zealand's first ever tram. 

 

The drawings are visible in this photo just behind the half constructed body of the tram.  

 

 

And here is the finished result.

 

 

The depiction of passengers riding on the roof is entirely accurate. In the delightful climate of Nelson - New Zealand's sunniest city - it seems that riding on the roof was 'de-rigueur'.

 

Hope you enjoy this small diversion from main thread.

 

Hogwarts will be back soon. 01 Feb is Baby Bandsaw's deadline! If she fails to meet it please send lots of angry posts. She might listen to you lot -  she sure doesn't listen to me!  

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

 

 

[JeroenS]

Ooh that's nice! We had horse-drawn trams where I live from 1879 to 1918. No riding on the roof though, it seems, looking at pictures. Not a very leisurely climate I guess 🙂 

[stevehnz]

That is a bit nice Steve, I'm very much approving. The horse trams were, as I have long understood it, an off shoot from the Dun Mountain Railway which originally hauled copper ore from the mineral belt behind Nelson to the port. The idea of a horse drawn tram clip clopping its way down Hardy street is pleasantly quaint in this hurly burly world of ours.

Another link that looks as though your Dad might have seen it already, the tram in this looks a lot like his creation. 👍

Steve.

[ArnoldAmbrose]

On 9/15/2020 at 7:19 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Now she’s 14 so ‘Edgy Teenage Bandsaw’ is probably more appropriate.

Gidday Steve, ET for short?

 

17 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Grandpop Bandsaw is a longtime tram enthusiast involved with the recovery, restoration, preservation and operation of vintage trams all of his adult life. He has also enjoyed many hours of scratch-building models of them. Here is the majority of his current collection.

Grandpop's name wouldn't be 'Malcolm' would it? A very funny movie.

 

     On a serious note, that green double-decker horse-drawn 'City Bus' looks very like what operates at Victor Harbour in South Australia, on the causeway to Granite Is. And that collection of model trams is very impressive.

     I'm pleased there'll be progress on the Hogwarts. I keep checking for further updates. Regards, Jeff.

[Bandsaw Steve]

42 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

That is a bit nice Steve, I'm very much approving. The horse trams were, as I have long understood it, an off shoot from the Dun Mountain Railway which originally hauled copper ore from the mineral belt behind Nelson to the port. The idea of a horse drawn tram clip clopping its way down Hardy street is pleasantly quaint in this hurly burly world of ours.

Another link that looks as though your Dad might have seen it already, the tram in this looks a lot like his creation. 👍

Steve.

 

Dun mountain- interestingly enough- is the geological ‘type location’ for’Dunite’ an important type of ultramafic rock in which nickel and chromite ores are frequently found. Not so sure about copper... maybe... I wouldn’t rule anything out.  
 

I love that photo of all the folks sitting on the roof. I’ll send it on to Pop; I’m not sure he’s seen that one!

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Dun mountain- interestingly enough- is the geological ‘type location’ for’Dunite’ an important type of ultramafic rock in which nickel and chromite ores are frequently found. Not so sure about copper.

Neither am I Steve, They talk about the mineral belt & for some reason I've long thought it was copper that they got out of it but now you mention Dunite, maybe that is more like it. You sound like you know more about it than I do.

Steve.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Well maybe that master’s degree in economic geology gives me head start! 😀

[stevehnz]

We have an Aussie friend who lives near who here is a geologist (lapsed), she said how they uses to come over (from Aus) to this area for field trips due to its geological diversity. Must be something to do with all the different rocks we have in the top of the south.  

Steve.

[Bandsaw Steve]

Exactly.

 

The whole of NZ is a kind of compact geological laboratory. There’s a massive diversity of processes and materials within a very small landmass.

 

Besides, for me any excuse to go to Marlborough is a good one! 😀

[Bandsaw Steve]

The Deathly Hallows

 

Were' back!

 

It must be admitted that this project has recently been de-railed by a number of distractions; however; it now seems that we are back on track and are in a good position to have this locomotive completed by our stated deadline, the start of February when school resumes. It seems that Baby Bandsaw likes lists so we have drawn up a list of things that must be built prior to the first coat of paint and it's encouragingly short.

 

The first is to detail the front of the smokebox door  - I think that's the correct term?  This is a fairly simple exercise that starts with rounding off the harsh squared off edges of the circular door with the back edge of a scalpel and finishing with sandpaper to try to achieve something like a dome shape. Then take one of these extremely useful pieces of equipment (punch pliers) and punch a small circular wad of plastic...

 

and cement it to the front of the smokebox door.

 

Now cut two short lengths of fine plastic rod and stick them on to make the locking handles.  There's still more to go on the front but since BB wants an LED light mounted somewhere around here I'm delaying any further detailing until that's sorted out. 

 

The next task is to detail the cab.  Our intention is to make the cab look both feasible and busy so this collection of junk plastic and unused kitset sprues is a treasure trove of useful bits. If you are keen on scratch-building a collection of 'junk' like this is invaluable.  Ship models are especially rich resources for interesting and intricate pieces, some of which are replicated over and over in one kit.

 

Here's some promising odds and ends - the funnels and bridge from a partially built matchbox HMS Prince of Wales and some radial engines from a hobby craft P36.

 

No-one in the muggle world knows exactly how the Hogwarts Express works. It might be steam powered but we have decided that it is much more likely to be propelled by some sort of magic that no muggle could understand. The steam and smoke and so-forth is just camouflage there to make the muggles think it's an everyday locomotive, this is how a bright red 1930s steam locomotive can make return journeys from London to North of Edinburgh four times per annum on main-line track without raising any questions. Anyhow, since the whole vehicle is driven by magic it seems likely that the cab bears little resemblance to a conventional Hall Class locomotive, hence all thoughts of 'accuracy' when fitting out the cab can be dispensed with.  Consequently BB has decided to make her own fitting for the firebox door. The first step is to make a triangle...

 

Then a circle...

 

And then add another straight length of plastic to create...

 

The Sign of the Deathly Hallows! ☠️  Ohhhhh.... Spooky... 💀

 

Which now sits here and forms a sort of little 'Easter Egg' for any Harry Potter fan who takes the time to look very carefully at this model.

 

So now any coal that is fed into the firebox will be enchanted with dark magic and extra 'Hallows Power' and the rest of the cab can be fitted out with bits and pieces of who knows what.  I'm definitely not sure what each of these bits do but it's all important stuff.  BB tells me that the little star shaped thing directly above the Hallows is a compass.  My understanding is that compasses are generally considered unnecessary on rail vehicles - but hey,  whose to say!?!

 

 

In any case I think that the cab is looking spiffing and BB has made some good progress today.  She says she wants to add some levers and dials and pipes and stuff, and I've suggested some sort of rudimentary seat for the driver, so I reckon this is going to look great when complete. 👍

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve