Jump to content
 
  • entries
    250
  • comments
    275
  • views
    85,266

About this blog

Modelling Diesels in P4: Stock for Wheal Imogen (China Clay in the late 80s and 90s) along with builds preparing for my next modern layout (set in either South Devon or Cornwall in 1998)


 

Entries in this blog

Modelling Foster Yeoman PTAs

Continuing from my thread on oldRMweb, I have made a little more progress on my rake of Foster Yeoman PTA The underframe ribs are now completed, adding the reinforcements to the outer headstocks and the wider ribs over the bogies. The headstock reinforcement was fabricated with the chopper set to carefully cut along its length to get the two heights (a further small step needed removing from one corner to allow clearance over the packing pieces which support the ribs. Whereas the ribs themsel
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

1

Class 67 Detailing

Resurrecting a topic from the old rmweb,   I've just set about making the final changes to my artwork, and hit the email button to send it off. Looking forward to getting it back and finally being able to finish off my fleet!   Having a serious think at the moment about my choice of locos, with the Hornby EWS management train pack looking incredibly tempting. Just wish they would do it without the name (and include a set of etched plates), as really I want it with the original name......
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

8

A Class 66 fleet

A start of a project I have been meaning to get on with for a while now, a sequence of blog posts detailing the stock for the layout starting off with my Class 66s.   The work: Conversion to P4 has been completed using the Bachmann gears with Keen Maygib wheels on the outer axles and black beetle wheels on the centre axles. DCC is either by Lenz Golds, or loksound (although the loksound fitted locos are intended to revert back to golds and have the sound reblown as something a little more i
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

New Shawplan Class 47 Grills

Further to my post warley thread, I've finally got some photos taken of the new Shawplan class 47 roof grills fitted to the Vi Trains model   Before   After
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

8

Some Wagon Modelling: VDA, KIA (and a 150 slips in as well...)

Over the time RMweb has been offline I have been getting on with a couple more wagons:   The first is a Hornby CDA, the intention with this was to get a wagon working reliably enough to be used for track testing on Bodmin, The CDAs I had converted with Exactoscale wheels on the last layout were very unreliable (part due to the finer wheel profile, part due to the awful axle design), as such I've decided to go with Maygibs for the fleet which will hopefully be fitted with etched break disks.
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

HST modelling

Way back in 2008 I purchased two pairs of Hornby HST powercars, at the time I converted the intercity pair to P4 and fitted buckeye couplings. While the Intercity pair (for Great Western Trains) were not renumbered, the Virgin Cross Country pair were given new identities.   While in 1998/1999 Great Western still had a lot of powercars in Intercity livery, finding suitable examples is more difficult given one has a guards window, and the two have different roof grills.   There were onl
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Class 50 Detailing

Finally made a start on detailing up my first Class 50, something of a test bed to decide what exactly I am going to do to the rest of them in the future.   So far:   Roof grill, replaced the Hornby grill with the Shawplan etch. Didnt get on too well with the etched baseplate and ended up scratch building my own. followed by fitting the etched fan.   Moving to the exhaust, I removed the Hornby detail first carving off the worst of it with a scalpel then tidying up with wet and dry glued
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

4

GWT Barrier coaches 6336 and 6338

Finally got round to making a start on gluing the etches onto my models of the Great Western Trains HST barrier coaches 6336 and 6338 (actually my 2nd model of 6338 as I already have finished one in First Great Western condition.)   Thankfully the GWT version is a little easier than the FGW one as it retains the corridor connections (so at least I dont have to scratch build any more blanking plates for those!)   The first step was removing all the Inter-city logos along with the NEA Tops co
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

1

Wheal Imogen 1980s China Clay in P4: Thoughts on a possible Cameo Challenge Entry:

Wheal Imogen: 1980s/1990s China Clay Cameo in P4   Its been a long time since my last exhibition layout, getting close to 10 years since Blackcombe Torr’s first (and only) exhibition. But thoughts have now turned to a replacement.   My main focus is towards a long term project set around South Brent station in 1947 South Devon, but historically most of my modelling was based around Cornwall in the late 80s / late 90s. Reading the rules for the new MRJ “Cameo Layout Challenge” I have been suf
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

4

City of Truro to P4

Well its finally arrived...     At the moment I have the model upside down, and assuming that Bachmann havent gone with some odd axle diameter, it looks like the conversion is going to be very straight forward. The break gear will all have to be removed (and will need to be replaced with brass to get it to fit) but other than that it all looks very easy. Not sure what to do with the cranks (I've never brought outside framed wheels for a kettle before, so I assume they come with cranks in
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

7

Cargowaggon Twin

One of the key stock items for Wheal Imogen are the vans for bagged clay, for the 1980s this is well served with a mix of VAA/VBA/VDA and VGA along with a couple of long wheelbase Cargowaggons. Whereas for 1998 I am a little light, with just the VGA and Cargowaggons. ​Out of interest when did they start to appear with no Cargowaggon branding?   ​​In order to mix things up a little I have added one of Jon Hall's kits for one of the 2 axle Cargowaggon pairs. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/ind
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Virgin Cross County loco hauled: improving Hornby Mk2e

My future layout plans call for a rake of Virgin and Intercity mk2 coaches to run with my Virgin Class 47s, while this is primarily aimed for a future exhibition layout (which isn’t planned to cut timber for another 3 or 4 years at best). There is an outside possibility of building some long cassettes and having a play with it on Wheal Imogen however. The formation is going to be formed as follows: Mk2d BSO Virgin (Hornby with an improved chassis and roof ribs removed) Mk2e TSO Virgin (Hornby)
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

More Class 50 detailing

The next step on my class 50 detailing project was to correct the exhaust ports at the no2 end, working from this photo by Keith Wright http://newimages.fotopic.net/?iid=y11i0f&noresize=1&nostamp=1&quality=70 which shows that the exhausts should be offset to the side of where Hornby put them. So thats the roof pretty much finished....         Again I removed the original detail using course wet & dry taped to some plasticard offcuts and glued the new etch into place, befo
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Some Wagon Building: Sea Urchins and Ferry Van

After the computer randomly decided to close the page, try agian.....   Continuing the approach trying to clear out the WIP boxes, a couple more wagons (and a lot of work on the bridge for Wheal Imogen which I will touch on later).   First up was the VIX ferry van, I have removed the working doors, carved off the fictional roof vent and lower brackets for the working doors, carved off the frameing around the end clips, and glued the body to the chassis. I also had to remove circa 1mm from e
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Class 73s

Given the slight change in focus of the layout, Class 73s are suddenly useful again. The plan is to do a rebuild focusing on the chassis for now, rebuild with Bachmann 25 power, full separate underframe, bogie steps. Will fit the old Shawplan roof grills for now at least, and hope for some better parts.   I have one model thats been fitted with etched grills for the side grills, and needs new cantrail grills to replace broken parts. I would like to replace the lot, and probably will if some de
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

7

Train Formations

Having managed to loose a lot of my past research during various computer changes through the years, I am going to document it here in order to try and avoid having to do it another time! Now I have no layout to run this on in the works, nor likely to build one any time soon (with Brent in 1947 and my Cameo China Clay layouts a priority). In the long term I still would like to build a continuous run exhibition layout set in 1998 with a focus on the Devon or Cornwall mainline.   For t
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

2

Class 158 Detailing

One of the last passenger projects needed for Wheal Imogen is a Class 158 in Regional Railways livery, working a Wales and West Alphaline service from Bristol to Newquay. I have a lot of Class 158 parts, I was in the process of building a Wessex Trains 3 car and 2 car in picture livery which are in bits with silver sides, I also had a P4 Wessex 158 which is now sold freeing up a set of Ultrascales. All not a lot of use for anything I am working on, so the intention was to respray one of the sh
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

More painting

Making good use of a warm bank holiday Monday I have got on with some painting,   First up, my DRS Class 37 (Which will be 37612). Black roof was sprayed, masking removed (thankfully with no damage) all looking good. This just needs the light clusters painting black along with detail painting the grills (and cantrail stripes) + transfers & Shawplan windows and it will be finished. Most annoyingly I have now found out that its completely out of period for the layout. While '612 was in
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

3

Virgin Cross Country Class 47

Further to my earlier research on Virgin Class 47s I have come to a decision. Having researched photos of the first five locos to gain Virgin livery, I have eliminated any possibility of 4 of the 5 locos retaining Virgin XC logos into 1998 (further discussions with friends who were paying attention to the prototype at the time backs this up).   I did debate just going ahead and doing it anyway, but that would be a dangerous precedent and would no doubt open the floodgates.... As such, I think
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Clan Line - Part 1a

Just a follow up to yesterday's posting on Clan Line. I've now got on and taken some photos of the work so far The new wheelsets   The wheels fitted to the chassis, ballanced using a file weighted down by a class 37 chassis...   The next job is going to be preparing the new thicker sides to the chassis frame. Off to search the net for photos showing Clan Line during its last rebuild, want to see if there is a photo showing its chassis without wheels fitted....
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

6
Summary Class 47

1998 Class 47s: A summary

An update to the Class 47 summary, as before this is intended to serve as a record of the fleet (as well as something of an index, with previous blog posts having covered the work in more detail). For Wheal Imogen the fleet is not the most useful, given that the Railfreight 47s tended to only be used on the long distance routes out of the county, however they will all become more useful at some point in the future when the big project can finally commence…   47338 in Railfreight D

TTA slurry tanks pt 2

Last night I finally managed to get into the workshop and get on with the slurry TTAs   The first two wagons are now complete, pending a coat of paint, transfers (which I need to draw up and commission from Railtec) and walkways (more on which later). They were of course the easy ones…   So I have now made a start on building the more difficult version with the Gloucester suspension. I started by preparing the bodies in the same way as I prepared the other two, adding replacement ends and re
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

0

Improving the Bachmann 150

Another project started (yes I know I havent finished the last one but........)   I mentioned this earlier when I started looking at rewheeling it, but now I've got on with the much more important task of the actual detailing.   As mentioned before the plan here is to cover: Minor chassis improvements (adding extra pipes etc to match that added to the 153) Rebuilding the driving ends chassis to get rid of the large chassis block and over the top AWD drive system, instead going with an u
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

3

31466 EWS Respray

A long time ago I started a respray of a Hornby Class 31 into the Wessex Trains pink livery as part of fleet of stock in 2006 condition. I got as far as converting the body, repairing the damage due to the original chassis expanding, and painting the yellow ends.   As part of my process of finishing off old projects either for use on Wheal Imogen or for sale, I have dug it out to finish off.   First off a decision was needed on which livery to paint it in, a toss up between Fraggonset Black,
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

5

More Class 67 stuff

Assambally has started....   And tbh I probably ought to have waited until the morning as the work wasnt quite as tidy as I would have liked. Still its good to see the final etches on the model. I did have a slight problem with some black paint lifting, so I think next time I really must invest in some etch primer!   So far everything has gone to plan with all the components still fitting perfectly, just need to finish the end and roof grill now.....   (on the first photo the glazing dos
The Fatadder

The Fatadder

3
×
×
  • Create New...