kyle 2015 - absolutely van-tastic...
Evening all,
Quick update on progress around Easter - my recently returned turned down wheels were reinserted and after a second period of running in on the rolling road the locos were tried on the layout - some fettling was required to the two turnouts so the bare solder may be visible in some pics below prior to getting retouched in with a paint brush.
With most of the big tasks for scenery, lighting and wiring undertaken my attention has now turned to the rolling stock. My primary aim is to keep it simple as per Gary's wonderful EM Glenuig and have three primary trains operating - 1 passenger, 1 parcels and 1 freight. Some shunting of these will hopefully break this down into further sub divisions...depending upon how many DG's get mounted in time
One primary requirement for Kyle was a rake of 12T vans. My earlier versions date back to a mixture of Peco, Grafar and Lima so this needed updating. One look at the chassis etches for the 5 Stephen Harris kits I have, with a note made 4 years ago to 'ring for instructions over the phone' was not something that I could see happening swiftly from my side and having only made one Association chassis etch so far for my China clay layout, now was not the right time.
My back up plan initially was to buy a fleet of Farish vans and re wheel them to 2FS standards and eventually replace the chassis for them, however when looking at the costs for a set of wheels for each it sort of made sense to put this money towards the new chassis as the axle lengths would be different and I would have the wheels surplus to requirements. Decision made, order forms completed and all the bits arrived just prior to Easter, which was perfect as I had taken this week off work to use up 2014 holiday.
My first chassis build took me 4 hours and that didn't include the axle boxes and DG couplings - I was feeling a little underwhelmed at the thought of the 7 others to complete...however I got stuck in deciding to get a production line going so as to see the fleet growing rather than on a wagon by wagon basis. One oversight made was that I had ordered all 10ft chassis however I also ordered a couple of the Farish cattle vans for a mix and these are 11ft chassis - my back up plan was to ream out the plastic, fit in some top hats and drop in some 2FS wheels - short term solution in case I run out of time to replace them.
As usual my soldering skills have been pushed to the limits and I confess to using some cyno adhesive in some parts...interesting fumes this gives off when you put the iron where previously there had been glue Today has seen the six wagons completed to a point where they need a good clean, scrub and prime prior to seating beneath the Farish rtr bodies. I have just rested them on top for now to see how they look.
A quick test run of the 26 pushing them into the sidings this evening was very satisfying as it does really make a difference to the running quality and they are visually more delicate in appearance too.
Need to move onto the locos quite soon...still plenty to do. Few pics below:
Farish cattle vans with 2FS wheels as short term solution...
Work in progress...
New chassis awaiting clean up and painting...
26 awaiting to leave...
Dapol 26 re wheeled...
Kyle finally has some vans...
Time is marching on...
Comments welcome as usual,
Pete
- 13
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