Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Groudle bogies

Sea Lion at Sealion Rocks

While I really like the wooden Groudle Glen coach kit, there is an obvious deficiency, the bogie sideframes are, well, basic.

If you are running the model in the garden, you might not care much about this. Paint them black and it's likely that no-one will notice the absence of detail or those Triang style open axleboxes. Me, I want a bit more down there.

Not to worry, all I have to do is find a photo, make a simple master and then cast a set in resin.

Except that I struggled to find a clear picture. The one above is the best I could do. It's so old the original is a 35mm film shot. When you have to pay for each photo, the temptation to snap away under rolling stock isn't strong enough obviously. Nowadays, I'm sure I'd have dozens to chose from. Mind you, a post on the Isle of Man forum didn't get me anywhere so maybe there is a gap in the market for a book of close-up pictures of bogies.

Maybe I could work under the pen-name "Fungus the Bogieman"

Anyway, I did the best I could with the limited information. This isn't a finescale model, I just wanted something better than I had. Result, a simple mock-up in plastic. The real spring is squashed in to the middle box and then pushed into place with a soldering iron to get it level with the face of the unit. Around it I poured superglue to avoid any undercuts.

GGR Bogie Mould

4 comments:

Richard Huss said...

For many years, updates on carriage restoration from the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland came in an insert with the main newsletter, the insert being entitled "The Bogieman's Gazette".

Matt Dawson said...

There's some footage of the bogies here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pinxID88woo#t=400s

Phil Parker said...

What a fantastic film!

I didn't do too bad a job on the bogies either.

Stephen Cox said...

Just came across this blog. I have put up a bogie picture for you. See Groudle Glen https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ZYvsddYuQMN0lPUjlyR1RfeFk/view?usp=sharing