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Kyle goes to TOWIE...


bcnPete

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Evening all - smashing weather the last few days :sungum:

 

Last year I accepted an invite to the Billericay Model Railway Group one day show on 5th May 2018, so Kyle is Essex bound.

 

It’s a small one day show which is my preference at the moment juggling the hobby with work and family commitments as many of us do.

 

I wanted to try and do some work on the rolling stock for the show, having now got two class 24’s sound fitted. My priority was to try and get 37025 (purchased from TMC as 37035) also sound chipped to go alongside 37414...so I could run the layout with 24’s in the late 70’s period and the 37’s as the early 80’s period - all with sound - thanks again to Nic Bastable for sending me in this direction - not green Nic, more red in terms of my credit card ;)

 

I purchased the same sound chip and sugar cube speaker from Digitrains for the 37/0 with Paul Chetter sound - which is impressive. As before, they kindly pre soldered the chip wires to the speaker. To get it to fit I repeated as per 37414 by removing the lid of the speaker, cutting off the top by a few millimetres and then made a new top from 5 thou plasticard coloured with a permanent black marker pen. This then sits better inside the loco which has less room as I lowered it as with my previous 37...note I prefer this approach than the raising the bogies method.

 

The other thing was to hard wire the lights. The wires are so thin and temperamental so getting rid of the PCB at each end made for some more room but the thin wire I purchased kept snagging so I ended up using normal layout wire as I call it. I know some peeps think the lights are a bit bright compared to the reality...but the high intensity light is pretty cool...and it does help see which way the loco is about to move off as the Daisy II has a continuous knob for the throttle.

 

The 37 has been renumbered with Precision Decals, detail added one end and a DG coupling the other end. Final touch was to weather it with some powders.

 

Next up was some corridor connections which Andy Stroud (Blueball Summit) kindly told me about for the MK II rake. These are MBM and good value for money and close the gap left by use of the Dapol knuckle couplings. I was going to also add them to the MK I rake then realised that the BG was always centred in the three coach trains to be close to the ramp. So I kind of guessed you wouldn’t let people walk through the train...unless someone can show me evidence to the contrary.

 

Finally (thanks for the tip off Steve Nicholls) some work on the new Bachfar Kyle line coaches which although only available as the digital train set pack, were seen as split out from a pack on E-bay. A must have purchase having asked them at Alley Pally if they would release the coaches separately and been told possibly next year. Would be great if they could replicate the Met Cam observation coach too as per the 00 version.

 

The coaches were joined with the corridor connections and lightly weathered. They always look pretty clean in the pics I have however the rooves were a bit shiny and so I toned these down and brushed some powders into the bogies and underframe too.

 

Am looking forward to run the layout at the show in two weeks time and see how the new stock is received. I will ask the exhibition manager if he can set up a thread on here for the show, failing that, perhaps I will.

 

Here’s a few photos of progress off the workbench...the next update after the show will perhaps have them on the layout itself.

 

Please do come and say hello if you are coming to the show :yes:

 

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37414 and 37025...

 

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Both locos visited Kyle...

 

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Early MK II rake with corridor connections...

 

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Close up of MBM connections...

 

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Kyle line stock...

 

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Close up again with MBM connections...

 

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37025 and Kyle line stock...

 

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37414 and 37025...layout too small to double head them...

 

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Cruel close up...love the lights...

 

As always, comments welcome

 

Pete

  • Like 14

7 Comments


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Hi Pete. It's been fascinating following developments from the original boxfile. Two thoughts:

 

1) There's no problem having the BG in the middle formation, most BGs were fitted with cages. Moreso, I've walked through several 'uncaged' BG's as well in the past. MBM have connectors for Mk1s as well: http://www.mbmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/n-gauge-products

 

2) You acn double head with your 37s - just run them around one at a time. You could use the excuse that a particular type of heat was required for the stock, ie by keeping either the steam 37/0 or eth 37/4 coupled inside to the coaches.

 

I hope 'll be able to catch up with Kyle in the flesh at some point!

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  • RMweb Gold

Looks like a productive modelling session Pete ;)

 

Some nice work here and the two Class 37's look the part together,  Detailing and weathering on 37025 looks subtle and has that typical Class 37 work weary look.

 

Do like the Kyle Line stock...Good purchase  and something different.  Would you be tempted by 37418 from the same set? Think Kyle needs a namer.....

 

Finally a good recommendation re: those corridor connections...A nice touch.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark ;)

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  • RMweb Gold
Hi Pete. It's been fascinating following developments from the original boxfile. Two thoughts: 1) There's no problem having the BG in the middle formation, most BGs were fitted with cages. Moreso, I've walked through several 'uncaged' BG's as well in the past. MBM have connectors for Mk1s as well: http://www.mbmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/n-gauge-products 2) You acn double head with your 37s - just run them around one at a time. You could use the excuse that a particular type of heat was required for the stock, ie by keeping either the steam 37/0 or eth 37/4 coupled inside to the coaches. I hope 'll be able to catch up with Kyle in the flesh at some point!
Hi Dave,Many thanks for your kind comments - yes its had two make overs since the boxfile and hopefully got better each time.Thanks for response on BG - someone else also has since suggested they walked through a BG so that works for me - I actually ordered a set of MK I connectors with the MK II ones so can do that at the weekend. Thanks also for the excuse to doublehead the 37’s - gotta do that one... :yes:

 

Looks like a productive modelling session Pete ;) Some nice work here and the two Class 37's look the part together,  Detailing and weathering on 37025 looks subtle and has that typical Class 37 work weary look. Do like the Kyle Line stock...Good purchase  and something different.  Would you be tempted by 37418 from the same set? Think Kyle needs a namer..... Finally a good recommendation re: those corridor connections...A nice touch. Cheers, Mark ;)
Many thanks also Mark - I added a bit more powder on 37414 as the roof felt a bit too clean looking at photos of it.I think 37025 had a name later on...Inverness TMD I recall...maybe I will check my research...better not buy another 37...that money ought to go towards soundchips for the 26’s and 27’s... ;)
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Looking good Pete but I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian on the gangways. The gangways that you see on the end of a loose Mark 2 coach are fully extended. When two coaches are coupled together, the gangways are compressed slightly. Have a look at the spacing between the Celedonian Sleeper coaches on the Wikipedia page.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Railways_Mark_2

 

So if possible, I'd look at getting the coaches to couple more closely. I gather there are ways to do it with the Dapol couplers but I do it a different way myself. We also need to deal with non-scale friction so my coaches are coupled so that the gangways just about don't touch - that way we can propel them through a reverse curve without one chucking its neighbour sideways off the track. Same applies to Mark 1s, Bulleids and Gresleys - anything with Pullman gangways.

 

BTW, are you planning anything suitably orange for your trip to Essex?

 

Regards, Andy

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  • RMweb Gold
Looking good Pete but I'm going to be a bit of a contrarian on the gangways. The gangways that you see on the end of a loose Mark 2 coach are fully extended. When two coaches are coupled together, the gangways are compressed slightly. Have a look at the spacing between the Celedonian Sleeper coaches on the Wikipedia page.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Railways_Mark_2

 

So if possible, I'd look at getting the coaches to couple more closely. I gather there are ways to do it with the Dapol couplers but I do it a different way myself. We also need to deal with non-scale friction so my coaches are coupled so that the gangways just about don't touch - that way we can propel them through a reverse curve without one chucking its neighbour sideways off the track. Same applies to Mark 1s, Bulleids and Gresleys - anything with Pullman gangways.

 

BTW, are you planning anything suitably orange for your trip to Essex?

 

Regards, Andy

 

Hi Andy,

 

Thanks for your comments - fair point. You will note the Kyle line stock are much closer coupled as I used two short knuckle couplings on these. I will try the same for the MKII’s. Note that these only ever run into the station and out again so have no need to traverse curves and turnouts.

 

As for the orange...I won’t be drawn on that one :jester:

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  • RMweb Gold
looking good and best of luck with the show

 

Nick

 

Thanks Nick

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