As some of you know I am mainly known for my work in Z scale, taking my four exhibition layouts around Europe during the Spring and Fall show seasons but like many aspects of life it has all come to a shuddering halt due to the Coronavirus pandemic. We managed to run the Macclesfield show in March where my new Japanese Z layout 'Hakuho' made its debut but even then we knew the rest of the calender was going to get wiped out including the big York, London, Bristol and Quorn shows. So I found myself with free weekends, no layouts to prep and no rush to finish some 1980's Z locos as the deadline disappeared. Seemed like a good time to finish some of the long term projects festering in the loft or the dark recesses of the workshop The first one to be brought blinking into the light is a C56 2-6-0 of the State railways of Thailand modelled in 1nM. 1/30th scale running on 0 scale track. I started it in 2007 a couple of years after my first trip railfanning Thailand and had a head start as I had a drawing of these locos in their initial Japanese form . These locos wre brought by the Imperial Japanese Army into Thailand during the second world war to construct the notorious 'Death railway' from Thailand to Burma (Bridge over the River Kwai ) I first encountered one plinthed at the end of the Platforms at Hua Lamphong main station in Bangkok and was able to take loads of detail pictures Now the locos got modified to fit Thai loading gauge( Cab roof mainly) and the smoke deflectors were removed so the first thing was to tweak the drawing This was the drawing with my notes on what alterations it needed Photoshop is excellent for removing the stuff you don't need and gives you a blank canvas to work on Early days back in 2007 more soon Kev
Construction is Nickel Silver body on a GFS (Gauge Plate) Steel chassis. This steel is dead flat, dead straight, accurate to size but really easy to work with. The bar frames were milled out. Most of the fittings are brass. The valve gear was cut out on a Pantograph engraver from patterns 4 times bigger than needed. Driving wheel, tender and leading truck castings came. I think. from a firm called Locosteam years before I started the model when I was at the height of my Gauge 1 modelling period And I'd got this stage Including some Thai freight wagons to go behind it on a projected garden layout when it slipped into the background more soon
The Thai Army had nearly every variant of the M113 in service although I never find one when I was there. Did find 'Deuce and a halfs', Humvees and jeeps aplenty. By rights the M113 should be on a BFH flat wagon. I've built six M113s in Thai army condition but they are 1/35th scale. As the garden layout is unlikely to ever get built I probably won't get round to doing the BFHs As I said the C56s were shipped to South east Asia by the Japanese and 45 came into SRT stock after the war. remarkably quite a few have survived So the last time I looked the following survive in Thailand Nam Tok 702 ex C56 .4 Bangkok Thonburi 713 ex C56.15 Bangkok Hua Lamphong 714 ex C56.16 Bangkok Thonburi 715 ex C56.17 Kanchanburi 719 ex C56.23 Nakhon Lampang 728 ex C56.36 Bangkok Makkasan 733 ex C56.47 (Actually 738) Salaya 738 ex C56.41 (Actually 733) Chang Mai 744 ex C56.53 and 725 and 735 have both been repatriated to Japan as C56.44 and C56.31 and there is at least one over the border in Burma Two are kept at Thonburi depot in working condition for the River Kwai celebrations. 713 still has its Japanese smokebox number plate fitted. Just before I got there one of the fitters had gone round with a tin of very rich red paint! In not quite such good condition was 733 lying derelict at Makkasan main workshops in Bangkok So the first thing was to strip the model down to see where I was at. A lot of the brass was tarnished but the steel axles and iron wheels were O.K The tender was nearly complete so I concentrated on that first more soon Kev
More of the tender So after some more cleaning the tender was grit blasted, cleaned off and then doused in white vinegar for about 20 minutes to etch it, washed off and dried I used Hycote red oxide primer (Aerosol) and then left it to not just dry but cure for a couple of days Part 1 of the build video more soon Kev
Wheels painted and tender finished in Hycote gloss acrylic black. Chassis painted and you can see the start of some of the strange, to western eyes, colour scheme with the valve gear painted white A warts and all picture of the firebox back head The chassis has had the cylinders painted green. I had a major headache resolving the different colour greens I kept finding on these. Back in the 1970s it was quite a dark Brunswick green but in later years seemed to fade quite badly, I eventually decided on Tamiya Flat green which has fantastic covering power when applied straight over black. Boiler painted and backhead tidied up. start made on planking underneath of cab roof pressure gauges ready to fit. I make these in batches and store them for further projects more soon Kev
The cab roof planking was quite a fiddly job but worth effort The white cab roof looks a bit odd until you get used to it part 3 of the video Kev
Chassis and superstructure re-united The tender is going to need a lot more logs! As there are no commercially available decals I end up taking a broadside picture of the cabside and tender. Cropping and reducing the image in Photoshop and then printing out onto self adhesive labels. These were stuck to 20 thou plasticard and the letters cut out to make stencils. I used a fine tip Pilot permanent paint marker to do the outline and then filled it in and added the yellow after. The video explains it better,probably The snifter valve filetrs have been added to the cylinders and the Vac pipes added
Seen with the next unfinished project to get sorted. NS 8811 a Hunslet 'Austerity' 0-6-0ST bought by the Netherlands after WW2 and still in steam on a preserved line in Holland. Final part of video with rare footage of C56s in action from way back I did have a very nice pint of real ale to celebrate finishing this after all this time! Kev
