Y6 Tram Engine

Another one for the stockbox. You might have spotted when I mentioned the glazing yesterday, that the body had been weathered. This is down to a spray of various Lifecolour paints that I'm testing for a project. Since the prototype ran alongside roads, I'm assuming that the dirt clinging to it would be lighter than the dark brown stuff that covers everything on the railway. Perhaps I've gone a bit orangey with the rust but this is fix-able later if I decide I don't like it.

Sharp eyed readers will spot a slight problem with my choice of driver. He's looking out through the central woodwork at the end of the cab. I can't move him easily so there will be some searching trade stands to find a replacement. This figure will be transferred to other duties, probably another loco at some point.

Thanks must go to the L&WMRS O gauge team who let me use their layout as a backdrop. Pete even switched off the evil DCC in the shed area so the motor stopped buzzing while I took the photo!

Glazing the Y6 windows

Both the sides and ends of the Y6 tam feature windows. On the model these are supplied slid out of the way as part of the etch. That's great, but you build and paint the model, then have to put some glazing in. It's not a step to be missed out but whereas normally you just stuff and bit of plastic behind the opening.

Not to worry, I always use Krystal Klear for glazing, even when I shouldn't. This time it worked a treat. As well as covering the hole as you can see, it can be puddled into the bit along the side of the body. By holding the tram so the glazing was drying flat and not over-filling the frame, I achieved a flush glazed window that you can see the body side through.

And yes, I am quite pleased with myself thank you.

First weathering wash

I mentioned a few days ago that I wasn't sure if the Matt Leather paint was a bit bright for the Y6 woodwork, but even if it was, I had a plan.

The plan was a wash of Precision Paints new track colour. Not a heavy wash, just enough to give the previously painted sides a bit of life.

Painting isn't sophisticated, I dip a big brush in turps and then into paint, splodge it on the inside of the tin lid and if it looks right, apply to the bodyside. If I need more thinners, a bit picked up on the brush is sufficient. Inside I did the same with weathered black paint, some of which seeped out to the front and mixed in with the brown. You can see the darker staining around the bottom of the edge of the front.

Left to dry, the effect isn't bad. Many people would leave it at this. I think I need more colour though so the next step will be a bit of dry-brushing around the bits that get wear and the a final shot of airbrush dirt.

Inside the Y6

This is a more complicated engine than normal to paint - you have to do the inside as well as the outside!

Anyway, here's what's under the body - the boiler unit is painted black, the same Halfords spray I used for the sideframes in fact. I just masked off the motor and gears. A bit of subsequent masking (read: holding a bit of card in front of the spray can) saw it matted down with Dullcote. Next, a dry-brush with rust and Matt 69. Then some weathering powders.

The wooden floor is plasticard painted with Precision natural wood, streaked with Humbrol 64 and metalcote gunmetal. Finally a wash of track colour.

I'm not going to go mad in here - you can hardly see it with the body on top but this is a loco that encouraged peering in to see through the windows and doors.

Clean Y6

Black bits painted with Halfords satin black, brown bits as per yesterdays post. The roof was a ngithmare - Railmatch weathered balck dried gloss, subsequent Humbrol matt black dired patchy gloss, three coats of Testors dullcote fixed this but I did wonder if a strip and re-paint would be required.

SMS Waterslide transfers sit on a coat of Johnsons Klear. Those on the bufferbeam aren't right (I think they should be shaded but there weren't any like that on the sheet) but will vanish under dirt soon. Beofore that step though, the engine was sprayed with Humbrol satin varnish from an aerosol 'cos I couldn't be bothered to mix it for an airbrush. Nothing wrong with a rattle can for this sort of job anyway.

Loco now pretty but far too clean.

Correct colours

Did you know that butterflies can see a greater range of colours than humans?

Apparently they see ultraviolet light as well as what we call "the visible spectrum".

This must make things very difficult for your average Red Admiral who enjoys a bit of railway modelling when not supping from the blooms. How much harder it must be to work out which pot of colour you require from the Humbrol rack. Worse, they don't even produce any ultraviolet tins so you'll have to mix your own.

All this came to mind because I've been trying to match the body colour of my Y6 tram loco to the models I have found. Since there don't appear to be any colour snaps from LNER days available to me, I'll have to rely on other peoples interpretations.

My feeling is that the brown is quite light so I plumped for No. 62 - Matt Leather. Having sprayed it over grey primer, it might be on the light side but once a few coats of mucky brown weathering are in place, I bet it looks OK. The paint probably faded a bit when exposed to sunlight anyway.

Prime Time

It seems a shame to cover up all the nice brass on the Y6 with primer but I guess it has to be done.

OK, so the metal is a bit tarnished from sitting around uncovered, but there is something about a kit "in the metal" that appeals to me. This model is especially special as you can peer through the doorways at the insides, something not normal on a steam engine. Even diesels, which have "insides" to peer at tend to provide only little portals to gawp through.

I'm not alone as anyone who has seen a collection of Korean brass engines owned by an American, will see yellow metal and only very rarely a painted engine. I know those things are expensive (and lovely) but it seems a shame that they often never get painted to fulfill their potential as excellent models.

Anyway, the first problem I hit was that folding the draw hook back against the buffer beam and soldering stops the chassis from being removed. A proper modeller would have spotted this, or at least do something about it. I've just masked the visible mechanical bits.

After that it's a quick blast with etching primer from Halfords and then a good look at the model to see if I need to fix anything before paint.

Roof detailing

According to the Drifters, Up on the roof you only have to wish to make it so.

This is rubbish although the reality isn't too difficult, at least on the Y6 roof anyway.

The steam condenser (the bit with the pipe) glues into place with only a hint of cleaning. The chimney benefited from the attentions of a 4.5mm drill top open it out a bit but again it fitted well. Be careful to chose the right me - early Y6's had spark arrestors but these seemed to disappear due to be useless.

The bell is a whitemetal casting that has to be drilled to fit a wire hoop. Working out the shape of this is difficult as the photos to hand weren't clear. I went with the square version show in the instructions. At one point I considered allowing it to swing but couldn't see an easy way of holding it in the centre of the loop and not bash the sides. It doesn't ring anyway and I'd probably bung anything up with paint so superglue does the job.

The rope is fine thread superglued in place and then covered in the same stuff to make it stiff. If you don't do that it won't hang properly - rope is heavy and sags whereas thread isn't and frequently won't of its own accord.

Lamp irons and the RSU

I don't like lamp irons. They're a fiddly detail that I never take any notice on on real trains and couldn't really care about on models.

7mm trains really need more detail than 4mm ones (Yes, I know that 4mm ones get lamp irons but only if I don't think I can get away with it. Stop being picky) and so somewhere to hang your lamp is a necessity.

2 sizes are supplied in the kit. After a bit of thinking, I realised that the longer ones were intended for the middle top position where there is a handy locating hole for the extra tongue to poke through. All are bent up in the same way although I think the half-etched lines are on the wrong side. Not that it matter if you take a moment to look at a picture of the real thing.

Fixing is a messy job with a conventional iron so out comes the RSU. The parts are tinned on the back and zapped into place with a dose of Resistance juice. No cleaning up afterwards and a good deal less bad language make the tool worth every penny.

This is fine for the side irons but by the time I'd tinned the middles, the tongue wouldn't got through the hole. So I cut it off and soldered the same way. Well, it saved me cleaning up the excess metal inside the cab didn't it?

Doorway detailing

Detailing time on the Y6 Tram and that starts with handrails. The good news is that we don't have any stupid curved things encasing boilers in nigh-on-impossible to bend flowing curves. We do have 8 cab door handrails which aren't the most fun things in the world to make up since they all need to be identical.

Soldering them in is made a lot easier by the manufacturer half-etching guide marks inside the tram body. Poking the iron in through the doors is less than fund though and I have a nice burn mark on my little finger where I tried to prod the wrong thing.

Having said that, they are all in, perhaps a little further into the doorway than on the makers model but not bad according to some photos I've seen. Once painted black I don't think anyone will spot this and I am not going to adjust them all again. Done that already.

The scissors are the answer to the question, "How am I going to remove the half-etched supports that kept the doorways square?"

Curved nail scissors from Boots, they are proving very handy indeed for model making. Sharp and strong, you can get them into all sorts of nooks and crannies. They will trim very thin metal and plasticard flush to an edge. I dont' think anyone sells a "proper" tool for that.

Screw couplings

In O gauge, I'm using 3-link couplings at present. This might change on the future but for now, the couplings on the rolling stock have to operate.

As supplied, the screw couplings in this kit have a whitemetal centre section containing the screw bit and etched strips with eyes for the loops. The eyes slip over projections on the middle. All this hangs on an etched hook.

I didn't fancy this much. The loops would undoubtedly unbend and fall off. I could replace them with lovely versions from CPL or another supplier but I can't be bothered or wish to splash the cash. My plan was much better. If I inserted a brass rod through the whitemetal section, the loops could be soldered to this.

Drilling for the rod was easy enough. Soldering less so. The whitemetal bit was covered in CD marker, oiled and then wrapped in tinfoil to stop solder creep. The ends of the loops were tinned so the bare minimum of soldering would be needed to attach them to the rod.

Deft work with a hot iron and plenty of flux and you know what? It worked. The coupling swing properly and should be usable for running trains. I'm a bit chuffed. The job took over an hour for a pair of couplings, I'd get quicker if I did it again, but the results are very pleasing.

 

 

Pedants will point out that it would be better if the handle bit of the coupling swung to the side, or that if it can't (it can't) then pointing forward might be better. I disagree - this way will be far easier to catch with the coupling pole, if not quite as prototypical.

Floored

Because I've been messing around with the tram loco, the etched floor parts aren't quite right. I could have modified them but instead decided to make something new.

My first though was to do the job in real wood. It's authentic but to be honest, I doubt anyone would notice and plastic sheet is much easier.

Before this, I remembered to solder the chassis retaining bolts in place. I'd hoped to use the electric iron but there's a bit too much brass around for that to work quickly so I blobbed them into place and blasted the solder with a gas flame. As hoped, it melted before anything else had the chance to get hot and fall apart.

The sharp eyed will notice that the treads are covered in CD marker and oil, which seems to have stopped the fixings soldering up into a solid lump. Hurrah!

The floor was cut and scribed from plastic sheet and then cut down to fit. To be honest, there's more been cut away than used but them's the breaks.

All the parts, mostly in the right order

I hope everyone appreciates this. Getting to this stage took at least 2 hours!

After yesterdays admission of error, I attacked the soldered joins making up the smokebox/boiler/firebox unit and reduced the parts to brass bits with blobs of solder on the edges. Mr Gas torch was very useful here as I could zap heat into the joints and shove scalpels into the3 metal to prise apart the components.

After this, re-assembly was simple-ish. Yes I had to file some of the solder blobs away with a coarse file. Others were melted and smeared around the metal so they didn't get in the way. I didn't burn my fingers and even remembered to shorten the boiler very slightly for a better fit. It's not pretty under there but since no-one will see, I don't care.

After cleaning up, the whitemetal bits started to find their way on, held in place with superglue. I reckoned I'd finished soldering until I spotted that the nuts to bolt the thing to the chassis haven't been fitted yet. Good job they are well away from the glued on bits!

Of course the sharp eyed will have spotted that the floor is still back to front. The difference between the two ends is the holes for sandboxes and I will hide these when I make up a new wooden floor.

A mistake revealed

Oops. I had a horrible feeling this would happen.

Now I have a completed body, if I place it on the skirts and peer down through the chimney hole, it doesn't line up with the hole in the smokebox.

Why?

Simple. I am stupid.

You see, there are two wrappers in the boiler area - once for the firebox and another for the smokebox. One is narrower than the other. And I got them the wrong way around. Smokebox wrapper on firebox and the hole in the roof doesn't line up.

I could just fit the chimney through the roof and be done with it. Seeing the compromise would be very difficult once the body is on. The trouble is, I would know it is wrong.

So, I now have to dismantle the various bits in the middle and put them together properly. The way I would have had I looked at the plan so generously provided by Tanllan. Good job this is fun isn't it?

Roof Rolling

I've got the proper tool, so this time I'm going to use it. Having spent all that money years ago on a nice set of GW Models rolling bars, it seems that the tram loco roof should make use of them.

If I'm honest, they aren't the easiest tool to use - no fault of the tool itself which is fantastic, it's just that I only sort of get how they should work. As I understand it, the top roller is slackened off, the metal inserted between them and then the roller is tightened again. You roll the metal back and forth to impart a bend. Then the top roller is screwed down further, the metal rolled again for a sharper bend. This process continues until you have a tube if that's what you want.

I managed to over-bend the roof but placing it on a flat surface and gently pushing down on it reduced the curvature until it fitted the body. Then it was tack soldered in place before the seam joints were finished with the gas torch. A touch of cleaning up and the job is done.

And yes you could just bend the thing around a beer can. It's just not as "proper" as wot I did. OK?

Starting the Y6 shed

Well, it is a bit shed like isn't it?

To be honest there's very little to say about this stage of construction. The ends make up with rebates to accept the sides, solving the old "Do the sides overlap the ends or vise versa?" question. All I had to do was tack solder everything together and once happy, run more solder into the joints to make it all secure.

There aren't guides to aid locating the body on the footplate but this isn't much of a problem. I worked by eye so am probably a fraction of a mm out. Not enough to lose sleep over.

There is a lot of brass at this point so the final joins between body and footplate needed the heat of a gas torch rather than just the soldering iron. I probably could have got away with it but the torch is faster and I still enjoy blowing hot solder along a join.

Sides

The Y6 tram engine sides are another neat piece of design. Each is a super-sized etching that folds back on itself to provide depth of detail and beef what could otherwise be a flimsy item up a bit. In addition the centre panel is another separate part, handily half-etched with a groove on the back to ensure alignment.

Assembly is simple - fold the parts and run solder around the edge. Attach the centre panel by running solder around the edges of this. Burnish like mad to remove the excess solder. Clean the sides up to remove solder and etch tabs. Finally, fit a strip to the top of each side.

The half etched parts in the doorway are there to make it harder to bend the frames in and keep the whole thing square. I'll take them out when the sides are firmly fixed to the floor.

I don't care WHAT the instructions say, I'm doing it this way...

Since I want the body top to separate from the skirts, I've modified the upper footplate by hacking a great big hole in the middle of it.

To be fair, "hacking" is probably wrong. I carefully measured the hole to be made, cut around the edges with an Olfa Plasticard cutter and then used my piercing saw to help access these marks and open the metal out to them.

Then I tack soldered the footplate in place, drilled a couple of holes and fitted 8BA nuts and bolts. Now I can build the body on this and remove it with a little screwdriver work. The chassis can stay attached to the skirts.

All I need to do is unsolder the tacks and get on with the sides.

Have I got this the right way round?

I'm making some changes to the way the Y6 tram engine goes together compared to the way the manufacturer intends it to be assembled. On my model, the body and roof will be one part, the footplate and skits another. The chassis fits under all of this.

As supplied, the kit makes it pretty easy to do this - there are two footplates so I can hack a bigger hole in one, arrange for it to bolt down and solder the sides and roof to it.

Inside there is a boiler, fire and smokebox. The hole will need to be big enough to fit over these so I've fitted them now. This has highlighted a problem - I think I've put the footplate in back to front.

You might think this doesn't matter but looking at the side view, there is a flap in the skirts that is off-centre. It's towards the front of the engine, presumably to allow access to the motion for oiling. On the footplate there are two holes for (I think) sandboxes and these should also be at the front.

They aren't on my model.

Since I refuse to take the skirts apart to fix this, I'll live with it. The smokebox has been placed at the correct front, where it should be under the chimney hole. Assuming this works OK, I'll carry on. Time to build the body next.

I should say that at this point only the brass bits have been fitted. There's a load of whitemetal to go in here and if I can find more information, some scratchbuilding too. That can all wait until the big bits are made and I'm happy all is well. If I have to unsolder anything, then the less the batter.

Boiler bits

Steam tram interior detail begins with a bit of metal forming.

All the parts show - firebox, boiler and smokebox arrive flat and require bending before being soldered to the ends. Putting the bends in the brass can be horribly complicated. If you are keen then you'll put the metal in some special rollers and gradually work the curve into it.

Not everyone owns metal rollers as they aren't cheap. Largely by accident, I own two sets.

I bent the metal around a Maglite torch. Well, it was handy.

Once bent roughly to shape, I tack soldered the wrapper around the end, helped by the inclusion of marked centre lines by the designer. When happy, the joint is seamed - a curiously satisfying process I find. Fiddling the parts into alignment can be frustrating but once you are happy and the solder is running, this is what kit building is all about.