Apologies for yet another picture of my beloved blue King, but I couldn't resist. I thought it might also be worth mentioning that this is partly a Tony Wright build, for it was with Tony's tuition that I put together the Comet chassis during a very enjoyable Missenden Abbey weekend back in - I think - 2006.
Tony must have seen thousands of chassis being built by now, by him or under his supervision, but he might remember that I managed to solder in the axle bearings on the same side of both
In the last entry I mentioned my problematic 1366 tank loco, built from a DJH kit. Although I took care building the loco, some distortion crept into the boiler/pannier assembly and once I discovered this - long after painting - it bothered me enough to put the loco away until I thought of a way to tackle the issue. I did not really want to dismantle the body after painting and decaling it.
For some reason I had convinced myself that the pannier top and buffer beam were out of alignment but
Here are a couple of kitbuilt locos which, in their different ways, need some decisions taken.
The C2X was my first kit and proved to be quite a saga. I've gone over it before but the gist is that, after building the loco in 2000, I could never get it to run satisfactorily. Finally, I took it along to one of the Missenden Abbey weekends where Tony Wright was able to take a look at it and confirm that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with my chassis build, just problems with pickups and
I must be a proper modeller, I've made a jig:
Actually there's not much to it but after some frustration with the performance of my Spratt & Winkle equipped stock on Paynestown, I decided to make a simple coupler height bar setting jig, and this is the not very technical result. The main problem I was having was rolling stock uncoupling when it wasn't supposed to. The idea with the jig is that there's a slot cut in the end piece into which the coupling bar should slip, if it's at th
I tried posting this on the main forum in the 42x thread but it seems to have vanished, so better luck here. I spent an evening adding a few tweaks to the Hornby 42xx:
Nothing very clever: new smokebox dart (Eileen's Emporium), the old handrails levered out with a knife-blade and then re-positioned to stand out from the body, the cab roof removed to add figures and a little paint to the interior walls, and then a dose of weathering. I painted the smokebox, running plate and tank tops ma
The last job on the toplights prior to weathering and final detailing (bits that have fallen off in handling, etc) was to add numbers, so with my transfers sheets out I decided to complete the same task on the Hornby bow-end stock I covered earlier:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63159-bow-ended-stock-roof-handrails/
While I had the bow-ended stock out on the workbench again, I decided I couldn't live with the visible seam between the sides and end of the brake, so (as
The construction of the brake toplight in this pair was one of the first things I ever posted on RMweb, back in 2006. I'd already built the other one a year or so earlier. Unfortunately, I was never happy with the design of the Slaters bogies, which (to my mind) were a triumph of over-complication, using inside bearings and springing as well as a tricky rocking mounting onto the bogie bolster. I found them very unreliable and not at all smooth running, and after a while the springing became uneq
Couple of shots looking back up the layout toward the station and goods yard. They're shot in ambient light so a bit fuzzy, since I haven't added the lighting rig over this module yet - it'll make access to the rear a bit tricky once I do, so I've held off for the time being.
The platforms are the removable ones that I built last year, and - touch wood - they seem to be holding up well. Both needed a little tweaking in the days after construction but they seem nice and stable now and althoug
I did some ballasting on the American layout last week and while the mood grabbed me I decided to do a bit more on the 4mm one as well. As mentioned elsewhere, I'm using dilute Copydex rather than PVA to preserve the quiet running as much as possible, but other than that the process is similar, although the Copydex does seem to begin to set quite rapidly compared to PVA so the time for adjustments is not as long. With ballasting I find it necessary to come back and do a second pass to take care
Couple more shots of the BP under moonlight, this time on the winter module.
Looking at this model now, I'm thinking how great a full HST set with lighting would be...
Gosh, this is a rather nice piece of kit, isn't it? What an absolute stunner of a model - thank you, Bachmann.
I've been playing around with a "moonlight" mode for the spring module, using an inexpensive anglepoise LED lamp, to which I've added a home made blue filter. Most of my trains don't as yet have coach lighting, though, and the Bachmann 108 DMU, while a lovely model, has quite faint interior lighting which doesn't show up particularly well even in night shots. The BP Is a different b
Viewers of a nervous disposition, look away now...
Long-time followers of the blog may remember my 28xx, which was a detailed and repainted Hornby model:
The model has always been a favorite of mine, not only because of the work invested in it, but also because it was a birthday present from my wife and therefore had a bit more significance than just any old model bought by me. It has also always run well, in fact it is probably the best of the traditional Hornby tender drive l
Found some Preiser horses in a clear-out of the scrap box, and thought they'd be good on the Spring module. Looks like the local amateur artist (chap in hat) agrees. The mother and foal don't seem that bothered by the passage of the local goods, either.
I wasn't sure whether to post this here, or over in the S&D blog (and increasingly wondering why I felt that two blogs were a good idea in the first case, given my distinct lack of modelling focus). Anyway, I mentioned on the S&D blog that I was thinking of renovating this old model of Abbotsbury:
The model was built in 1982, using the plans in the Paul Karau book on branchline termini. It was one of the first scratchbuilt structures I ever made, and while dimensionally accurate
Following high level discussions with PMP, there's a chance these two cheeky chappies may make an appearance on Albion Yard during its Railex showing. Both are suitable for the Forest of Dean although I make no claims for appropriate loco shed allocations, etc.
The 94XX has featured on my blog in the past but it has now received a little more work and a touch of light weathering, hopefully to suggest a loco that could plausibly be running in early BR days, despite retaining GWR colours. I wa
The Hornby King is not that bad a model, really - it looks the part from most angles, has some very fine detail, and runs superbly. Perhaps some manufacturer will announce a new version, but for the time being the Hornby one is what we've got to work with. The big let-down, for my money, is in the side-on view, which is particularly an issue with my layout set at eye-level. The excessive gap between the front frames and the bogie is distracting, and an ugly throw-back to the tender-drive model o
Here is a Lima siphon G on a pair of Blacksmith bogies. The bogies go together very nicely, and mine are running on the Bachmann coach wheels, via Gibson bearings.
I had a lot of hassle getting a satisfactory ride height. The Blacksmith bogies come with mounting plates but these only increase the gap between chassis and bogie. In the end the penny dropped and I realised I needed to cut rectangular slots in the floor of the Lima chassis, one per wheel, to allow for flange clearance. This
To be honest, I wouldn't have started this Blue Pullman project had I known that Bachmann would be doing one in 2012. Back in 2007, though, when I started acquiring the bits, an RTR model seemed like a very remote possibility indeed. Even now, I can't see Bachmann ever considering a WR eight-car set being an economical proposition. A lot of modellers, myself included, would probably be happy with the MR formation (which, after all, did run on the WR anyway) - it ticks the BP box for me, and I'm
Way, way back in the mists of the old forum, I posted about the return to service of a veritable Lima King which had long since been consigned to the non-runners box. The model was given a new loco and tender chassis from Comet, and much super-detailing of the plastic body. I painted the loco in BR express passenger blue and was pleased with the outcome.
But - as always with a Barry Ten project - there were a few bits still to be done. The running was smooth, but there was an occasional and
A few more pics showing development of the station area and steps in the direction of a backscene:
I am intending to keep the backscene quite minimalist, hoping to convey that lunar landscape look which is
typical of so much of the valleys, but there is still work to do. The station is still rudimentary, but hopefully will
start looking a bit more finished in coming weeks - however, I think you can get the general idea.
With the layout set up in the conservatory, and the sun out, I thought the late afternoon light looked pretty good. Here are a few snaps of the more developed left hand side of the layout. The right side is still awaiting some remedial scenery and final detailing work after some major changes, but hopefully it should all come together in the next couple of weeks.
A couple of slow-burn modelling projects near the finishing line. I posted about the detailing of the 14XX over the showcase - basically it's the Mainly Trains kit applied to the Hornby model, which is otherwise unmodified, plus a few bits and bobs from the scrap box. This is a nice "one afternoon" project which really transforms the model (which is, of course, very very good for a model released in the 70s, and which has seen only mechanical upgrades in the intervening 30 plus years). The model
I wanted a typically South Wales-looking chapel/church for Paynestown but as the layout developed, it didn't look as if there'd be room for it. However, I've since decided that I don't like the hill on the right side of the model (behind the carriage shed), which was done in a hurry and has never looked quite right to my eyes. By slicing the top off, I can create enough area for a reasonable sized building which will help reinforce the location.
There are enough chapels in my neck of the woo
My wife was unwell yesterday, so rather than retire to the railway room, I did the chivalrous thing and brought a modelling project down to the living room. While she watched tennis, I busied myself with files and drills. Several hours later, I was the happy owner of a spruced up Hornby 14xx, courtesy of a Mainly Trains detailing kit and some bits and bobs from the scrap/detailing box.
The main alterations to the model concern the boiler fittings; the smokebox door is replaced, as is the chi
I've sort of finished the restaurant third, so here's a shot of it running in a train next to the restaurant first. They were orientated this way, with the pantry end of the third adjoining the kitchen end of the first. The other cars are bog-standard Hornby and Airfix centenaries, still with "Beclawat" windows. (Beclawat are still in business, by the way).
There are (as is always the case with me) a few little jobs to do but for now the coaches look finished enough to sit in a rake, an
