Stock for Brent: Review of 2017
Entry posted by The Fatadder
543 views
2017 in Review
As is usually the norm at this time of year, I have been looking back at last year’s aims to see what was actually managed. This time I have also tried to include some photos! I will be covering both layouts in their respective threads, so this will purely concentrate on the rolling stock for Brent.
Here is last year’s post
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/853/entry-18795-brent-2016-in-review-plans-for-2017/
Locos:
Completed Projects:
A large number of loco project have been completed during the year, all of which should be linked in the index to the left of this thread. DJM renumbering of a 58xx to 1470, King Richard I and King George V renumbered, 4547 has been resprayed into wartime black, Bachmann modified hall has been converted into a modified hall, my third Castle has been renumbered as Spitfire (along with rebranding a 4000gl tender), a Hornby Star has been resprayed into wartime black. 4292 has now been fitted with a replacement chimney. The rest of the fleet have now all been fitted with etched plates, using a mixture of Modelmasters, Fox and custom plates from Narrow Planet. DCC fitting has continued apace, with just 4 locos now in the outstanding pile (two of which were 2017 arrivals 
Moving onto the mid term projects:
Large Prairie
5108 has received a respray with a new coat GWR green to repair damage incurred when removing the Hornby Great Western logos. The first attempt at fixing the slide bars failed, a second attempt will be needed in the New Year (although depending on how well Dapol manage with their recently announced model I may just use this as a test bed for weathering practice.
County of Somerset
The county body has now been painted green, but really needs some warm weather so I can spray the black. Attention has now turned to the chassis, wheels have been ordered and thanks to advice from Tony Wright on his thread I now have a running chassis. Problems have been experienced with the cylinders, with the crosshead extending 1mm past the slide bars. This was resolved by unsoldering the slide bars and remounting 1mm further back, before adding the support bracket. Initial testing is promising, however I need to source some suitable washers to space out the drive rod and avoid it clashing with the lead crank pin (I also need to add washers to the lead axle when I reassemble after painting the chassis in order to eliminate slop). I wasn’t expecting this many issues on an OO chassis! If the worst comes to the worst the final option is to make the rods single thickness over the lead crank pin.
Moving onto the bogie, after accidently building the bogie for an early Hall rather than the plate bogie of the County, I have now built the perseverance bogie from the Saint’s chassis kit. In this case it was lucky I made the mistake as the other chassis only had the modified bogie (and a poor one at that). I have used the spare frames from the Comet kit mounted to the outside of the Perseverance bogie to get a good result. This is now painted and ready for fitting.
The gearbox was assembled and tested, however a week later it is no longer free running. It now needs to be stripped down and checked as to what the issue is.
Saint Dunstan
The Saint has also shown significant process, the boiler has been repaired and the loco shell painted black. A replacement chimney and step have been ordered from SEF and will be painted black / fitted over the holidays. The tender (green with Great Western branding) has been completed, using Hornby spares along with the spare tender top left over from the work on Spitfire. Once the chassis is finished and running for County of Somerset, I plan to get on and build the Perseverance chassis I have for the Saint. I am undecided if I will use the Perseverance cylinder parts or replace them with the Comet. I suspect the approach will be to try the more complicated Perseverance design and should I make a mess of it, buy the comet parts. I am determined that this loco will be running (or at least running dead in tow if not powered) during 2018.
Long Term Projects
In the longer term pile, the Mitchell 43xx is still awaiting a decision as to whether I build a OO chassis for it. Likewise the Manor is pending a similar decision as to whether it is finished in OO or P4 (more likely the former). I also have bodies for a 64xx and 94xx which will eventually get High Level chassis, along with a cast kit for a 64xx. The idea here is that I will have a dead in tow 64xx heavily weathered in wartime black on its way to NA for attention, and then the same loco in ex works condition running the other way. I can’t see there being any progress on these projects during 2018, although I suppose there is always an outside chance of the 43xx reaching the top of the pile. In fact given the Dapol announcement I really ought to make the 4300 my next project to try and beat the RTR model.
The main plans for 2018:
On to wagons,
Very little progress over the year, the Open C, cattle wagon and mermaid are still taking up workbench space pending painting, and the majority of my other kit built stock is still awaiting rewheeling back to OO. Some work has started on that front, with a handful of wagons now in use on Brent for testing. The kit stockpile has grown further over the year as bargain buys get added for a rainy day.
Of the limited progress that was made, a pair of the new Hornby toads have been updated to 1947 condition (to be joined in 2018 by some heavily rebuilt Oxford Rail models).
The gunpowder van has also now been finished with Fox transfers (and converted to OO).
For 2018 the main plan is to get one full rake of freight into running condition, along with one branch freight service. In particular I would like to get the wagons currently sat on the workbench finished and moved to the layout room. This covers a cattle wagon, Open C, engineers spoil wagon, an LMS 3 plank and an LNER conflat.
The other main task is to get on with more brake vans, I will have a pair of Oxford Rail toads arriving once released (one 6 wheel and one 4 wheel), both will need the ends detailing and a repaint. The 4 wheel will be finished as the Kingsbridge branch van. I think I will also need to add a 5th van (no doubt from Hornby) which may also be completed within the year.
Finally coaches
Lots of Hornby bow end coaches have now been added to the fleet, as a result attention has dropped off finishing the Railroad conversions (given the poor chassis). However both have been painted into Wartime Brown and are now awaiting lining and a chassis rebuild (it may take some time!)
A Mainline Sunshine third was also painted into Wartime brown, along with the Kingsbridge no2 B Set all of which is now fully lined and in service.
The Slaters clerestory has been painted all over chocolate, fitted with an interior, glazed and is now pending the final finishing (fitting of door handles etc).
Roof painting has started, however there are still a large number of Hornby and Mainline coaches which need the white roof painting grew in the new year.
The A20 Large Window first has now been completed ready for paint, where it joins the H33 and H26 diners, the LNWR compo, a monster and a siphon F all awaiting painting.
The centenaries for the down CRE are progressing, and have now been tested with a King at full speed on the layout to test loco performance with hybrid brass / plastic coaches. 3 more pairs of etches have been ordered from Comet which will allow a composite, and the restaurant pair to be converted.
Work commenced on the Restaurant First, the body for which now just needs a door window adding at one end. The other two coaches will follow (and should be complete by the end of the year). My plan is to take them down to Devon over the Christmas break to finish them off. 60thou by 10thou Evergreen plastic strip has been ordered, this is to be used beefing up the gutters (in order to compensate for the thickness of the etched sides.) A worthwhile compromise when using etched sides as overlays (rather than following Coachman’s superior method of recessing the etched sides into the ends.) Of course it would have helped if I had paid attention and ordered the right plastic, so I now need to wait for another pack to arrive!I want these finished before the spring to enable a mammoth spraying session once it warms up, getting all of the complete chocolate and cream coaches painted. 
Looking forward to 2018:
Painting
The key task will be getting through the painting back log, both for the kits and repainting RTR coach roofs. The intention here is to have enough complete coaches to run an express and a local train in both directions, however there is a lot of batching with the painting in order that I minimize the time cleaning the airbrush.
Building
I would like to ensure that the hybrid Slaters / scratch built toplight is finished and painted, along with adding the remaining detailing to the Slaters clerestory. At some point I also need to decide on an all third non corridor coach to run with the workman’s train.
After which the other main project for 2018 is to make a start on the TPO, I have the etched sides required for all bar one coach. I now need to get on and order parts for the ends / roof / chassis. The problem is deciding how I am going to do it (either buying £150 of parts from Comet or spending slightly less on clearance Hornby bow end coaches and fitting replacement sides / ends). I also need to get up the courage to actually form the tumblehomes on the etched sides!
-
3
1 Comment
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now