After digging out my BR blue 35005 Canadian Pacific and looking at various photos online, it became watertight that she ran with an extension to her tender. A few photos of the modifications are visible here...http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/96518-Hornby-merchant-navy-announced-formerly-facebook-leak/page-14&do=findComment&comment=1804977
So far, my progress had entailed trying the air tanks (to use again) and making a start on the extension frame.
I
I've finally got the second set of footboards in place, and it all looks rather smart and ready for a clean and lick of paint...
This was until i popped the bogies in to see how it looked with them in, and discovered that there is next to no clearance between them and the supports for the footboards, and not a lot of room for adjustment! I can probably loose a bit off the bearing's ends, but that isn't the only conflicting area! I'm really not too sure if I've gone wrong somewhere,
This week has seen a bit more progress on the Empress Van. I have reshaped one of the ducket pieces to match the profile of the coach end and re-soldered the ducket side piece to it. After a test fit, it is a lot better than it was before, still not 100% accurate, but it will actually go together with minimal re-shaping. I have also fitted the footboards to one side of the underframe and it's now really starting to look like a Manx vehicle with the bogies almost hidden behind them! A start h
Afetr a bit of a hiatus while my attention was focussed on getting Whitborough Quayside ready for its exhibition last weekend, the Empress Van has been on a back burner. Now, however I can revisit it and hopefully make a bit of progress!
The bogies have gone together, and there is quite a bit of sideplay between the bearings but they aren't too sloppy. The cross-members are in place and need a little trimming flush with the sides.
Some fettling was required to get the bogie mounts to sit
Well, I've finally bitten the bullet and begun a journey into 12mm gauge as well as 009 (and 00!) My first foray is a Roxey Mouldings Isle of Man Empress Van. I ordered it a week or so ago and this morning it dropped through my letterbox. I do intend to build a second set of bogies for the vehicle so that I can also run it on my 009 layout (after all, the Ffestiniog have a number of carriages built on ex-IoM underframes, so there is almost a premise!)
I've never built a Roxey kit before
I have had a bit of a play with creating the teak effect on the First Open using one of the methods suggested on this forum (a quick search proved rather fruitful and interesting!) That of a painted base coat (in this case Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green) followed by a number of coats of wood stain (Ronseal Antique Pine as recommended by Wordsell forever), depending on the condition of the coach dictates the number of coats. The pictures below demonstrate the appearance of the coach over three coats.
A bit of progress has been made over the last week or so, although one of the coach bodies (the Brake Third) suffered fair bit of damage while I was trying to dismantle it, so this has now become a source of spares and will eventually become a tarpaulin-covered siding filler!
I'm now left with the Open First and Open Third which have had the paint stripped form the bodies (mostly) and are almost ready for their first undercoat. The roofs still require a bit of attention, as some of the tor
A few years ago (around ten I suspect ) I built a few Kirk kits, rather badly! I have decided that I'm going to have a go at renovating them and hopefully end up with something a little better looking and also useful!
They are an Open First (crimson & Cream), Brake Third (maroon) and Open Third (maroon) and were all built without interiors (except the internal partitions) with rather tight bogies and other problems (gangways on backwards is one of the major problems ) so they are g
I found out on the Wednesday just gone (20th June) that Scrayingham has been requested to appear at the Witby & District show in Goathland Parish Hall on the weekend of July 21st and 22nd July (hopefully I'll see some of you there), which gives me a month to get it into a presentable state!
I've been making a bit of progress with some of my stock over the last couple of days, and have a few more 'quick fixes' lined up (mainly just tidying paintwork fortunately), but the main jobs so far
Earlier this year I purchased a Gramodels Warflat from the Doncaster show, and I've finally got around to putting it together (after eventually getting the wheels for it) and I must admit, it's a nice easy build and certainly is well detailed. The one piece resin cast deck/solebars needed a soak in some hot water to straighten it out a little (but nothing major and that could've happened with it being stored amongst other bits and bobs for quite a while!) The whitmetal castings for the bufferb
30586 rolled into Whitborough Quayside a couple of weeks ago and psoed for a couple of photos, and prompted me to have my first go at adding various steam effects to hide the prominent NEM pocket, which has yet to be removed befor the coupling loop for Spratt & Winkles is fitted, and a small amount of weathering applied, these locos always seemed to be pretty tidy, but a little touch of working dirt is needed to take off the plastic sheen.
I also took the oportunity while at the
For quite some time I've been intending to upgrade my Chivers 'Harlech Castle' to an outside framed version, using the newer Farish 08 chassis. I eventually bought one earlier this year, and it has been sat awaiting attention ever since. The whitemetal body had been originally fitted to an old inside framed chassis, which was a bit dodgy in its running qualities, being rather old, with minimal pickup. A few weeks ago I set about dismantling the body (it was unly superglued, so easy enough to
I've been thinking about making a small photo diorama for quite a while, an finally, I've made a start. It consists of a short bit of board, about 20" x 4" which is just big enough to fit into my protable photo booth. Trackwork consists of a Peco 009 turnout and some short lengths of N gauge flexible track, one of which has had it's sleepers replaced with copper clad to make it more fittting with the 009 sleeper spacing of the turnout. The other two bits of track will be eventually 'buried' in t
I decided to go ahead and put the Fox wasp stripe transfers over the yellow mentioned in my previous entry, and it didn't look too bad, so I've fitted the other bits and bobs to the ends (lights etc) and the air pipe extensions (kindly provided by James). I have also done a bit of painting of the interior and fitted an Aiden Campbell driver, the shunter on the front step is also from the same source, and both painted by me (I'm not sure how platform clearences will affect the guy on the step, b
I've taken the plunge and re-sprayed my Bachmann 08, using Railmatch blue and pre '83 yellow. Once it was dry I sprayed a coat of gloss varnish so the decals should adhere better, but I have a problem: I'm not sure the yellow is right.
Compared to my other locos, it is a different colour altogether, a lot paler and less orangy, but compared to a photo of the real 08850, it isn't too bad!
I know, of course that the reference photos are takein in daylight, and so the
I was looking at the Harburn Hobbies website and liked the look of the fisherman's workshed, and thought that something similar could fill the empty space at the back of my layout nicely. A quick bit of measuring and planning and a root through my collection of spare materials and I was away.
The basic shell is made from thick card...
...with Superquck brick paper covering (including the capping over the doors and windows)...
...a cereal packet roof and plasticard windowsill (an
After cleaning the weheels and adjusting the pickups, the chassis now runs very nicely (it was pretty much just collecting current from the centre wheels only!)
I have made a start at modifying the lighting arrangements to match the prototype, so the top and middle lights have been removed, as have the associated conduits. I fear that this is going to require a repaint though, the blue I can cope with, but I'm not too keen on doing the wasp stripes! Ah well, we shall see what happens. I'm
After purchasing an Oxford VW Golf Gti at the York show over Easter weekend, I thought that I would modify it a little into one which has been 'improved' by its owner.
The first task was to dismantle the car, which was very easy thanks to the two screws, front and rear. Once I was inseide, work could begin. The first modifications were to the chassis. The hubcaps were drilled out to represent alloy wheels, and a small slice of plastic rod for the centre-nut. The moulded exhaus
I recently purchased a BR blue Bachmann 08 from a certain on-line auction website for a very reasonable price, and I have now set about detailing and re-numbering it.
Originally it was numbered 08 763, with depot plaques on the body sides (applied by the previous owner) and the cab handrails had also been painted sliver. This wasn't really a problem as I planned to replace the handrails with wire ones anyway. I also intend to add the various pipes and details of my chosen prototype; 08 850
Whilst looking through my collection of wagons, I discovered my old Hornby 'Red Arrows' box van, which I'd forgotten all about (bonus!) I took a look at it and thought it's make a colourful and unusual addition to the fleet for Whitborough, so I set to work improving it slightly. The modifications went as follows:
1. Remove tension lock couplings and mounting pegs
2. Fill resulting hole in frame
3. Remove moulded buffers (mainly because one was damaged) and replace with brass ones, from
I thought I had a topic on either here, or indeed the old site, but it would appear not, so I shall bring you up to speed. I managed to aquire a rather cheap Lima Class 60, from a certain internet auction site, and thanks to a number of members of this forum, and some trade stands at exhibitions, have cobbled together a set of detailling parts. It was originally in Railfreight Grey with LoadHaul markings as 60050 Roseberry Topping, but with EWS vynils over the logos. I had originally intended
A quick (but rather visual) update on what I've been up to lately stock-wise...
Fisrt of all in 00;
Renumbered my Bachmann 03 to 03089 (a York machine) now awaiting weathering and a sutable runner truck
Parkside Grampus (unfitted) bought at Warley and already painted/decalled and just awaiting a load of ballast and some filth!
Parkside LNER Lowfit, found in my stash and built in an evening session, now awaiting BR paintjob
Parkside Coal Hopper, built and awaiting bo
Some (more) new rolling stock is in the erecting shops! If I could actually finish some before starting more, it'd be good! Anyhow, here's an update...
I decided that the Sandhutton coach I built at the beginning of my layout's creation needed a partner, but that a full length bogie coach would be a bit of an expense for a small railway (in it's earlier days at least!) so I have begun construction of a four-wheeled version to a similar design. It it a full open with bench seating, but wit
While watching the build up to the Belgian Grand Prix this afternoon, I prepared the new platform surface for Scrayingham. I had scraped all the previous ballast platform surface away earlier (and hoovered it up so I don't get in trouble!). So I set about with a paper template and a sheet of Slaters brick embossed plastic, the same as used in the goods shed area which is supposed to be locally sourced brick, afterall the Sandhutton line did serve the brickworks at Claxton, and that formed a larg
I recently bought the GEM kit of Dolgoch, as I just happened to have the Arnold chassis donated to me a year ago and I've been planning to have a go at this little loco, as it's about as close as I think I'll get to a Sandhutton loco, which themselves were well tanks, albeit with outside frames and walshearts valve gear. In 009 that isn't getting scratchbuilt (not by me anyway!). Below are a couple of photos of one of the Sandhutton locos, and Dolgoch so you can see the similarities (and yes, I
