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Dear all, given that I’ve not reported much of late, nor achieved all that much to be honest... there’s quite a bit to be done outside of modelling at the moment, so life is, as usual, taking priority. However, despite this some progress has been made. The bogies were separated again, and the wheel rims masked... and sides treated to an airbrushed coat of weathered black... and then some brakedust mixed with track dirt was dusted over this. The bogie towers have had their copper pick up strips painted black and are all now reassembled ready for loco assembly and finishing (including sanding pipe fitting – to be done last). I’ve also been working on the cab interiors. On my last projects, I set about painting these as accurately as possible, but given that the cabs fitted to the 8-pin chassis are, er, basic... and wrong... the painting gave a feel to the interior but no accuracy . The cab on the 21-pin chassis is better, but the bulkhead is still wrong. You’ve seen the bulkheads in an earler post... and yes, I’ve now got a taller driver, and secondman to fit – once painted up (another job) but I wanted the cab interior to look... well, just a bit better. The pics here show the result of this work... based on photos from Brian Daniels detail photos sets (see class 55 group details thread), some filing (actually a lot of filing) and plasticard, plastic rod, microstrip and wire additions later and we have this as the result. I scouted around for a handbrake wheel and was rather drawn to Colin Cragg’s items, but having discussed this with him by e-mail (thanks Colin for the prompt responses ) we realised that the wagon handwheels would all be a bit big. I therefore took a deep breath and separated the body and chassis from my 21-pin Class 55 (55008) that sits weathered on my photoplank on a shelf above my desk (with 55015 and my first 55020 for company) and removed the handbrake wheels... I don’t really peer in to the cab anyway (or so I convinced myself)... I can always replace it if something becomes available. This was mounted to a .4mm brass wire shaft and stuck into a hole drilled through the bulkhead – as seen in the result. Dials are currently just drilled out “a bit†and the new shape means that when fitted the AWS control box (is that what it is?) is just about visible from outside (as it should be) in the middle of the facia. Second cab can be seen in the photos as a “work in progress†– it’s a nice modelling task to work on in the evenings! And yes, the phone handset cord is there – but no, I decided not to coil it (I’m not that mad) Finally, there is the painting..! Something that I said I was not looking forward to. Well, the loco was treated to Halfords grey primer and railmatch white primer at the ends... I then practiced the art of airbrushing (properly) on my two coach bodies... and this looked ok – the yellow ends weren’t bad... but I must have bottled it a bit when I turned to the 55 ends, and sprayed very cautiously into the nooks and crannies... and never really opened up the paint flow fully. Result: a less than satisfactory finish! The first coat went on reasonably well... having read comments elsewhere, I laid down a coat of Humbrol yellow first... as the pigment sits better... and this was ok. The darker railmatch yellow was the problematic layer... and once dry, i had to sand off a lot of this with some careful use of 1200 and 2000 grade paper... getting back to a reasonable finish for another try. This time, I had another go with the coaches... and as you can see, I gave the white roof’d one a good going over, this is the shinier side, resulting from putting plenty of paint down, by opening up the paint delivery nozzle (I pulled back further on the trigger)... got it plenty wet and it flowed. I then tried this on the front of the 55... and whilst it was not possible to deliver quite so much in a curved (multi-faceted) location, the result was better than before. I will now let this dry thoroughly, rub down the remaining few slightly rough bits and give a good final coat (once back from hols next week). Well, I was aiming for perfection, but I’m no Ian Rathbone (with more practice maybe), so I’ll settle for an achievable result and make sure that the final finish is one that can withstand reasonable inspection if not expert scrutiny. So, here are a few photos. Now, it could just be me... but I can’t help thinking how nice Deltics might have looked in railfreight grey... this may be as close as mine gets to that livery! This painting lark has been another challenge to overcome... and with a few setbacks and reconsiderations.., and then some more practice, I think that I can now see how to proceed and get some half decent results. Reading Ian Rathbone’s “Painting and Lining†from time to time certainly helps, although I do find myself marvelling at some (all actually) of the photos in that book – the painting of those models is just superb... something to aim for maybe Well, my next post will be a while off, but I’ll grab one more evening’s work on those cabs (hopefully) before my boys experience their first 140mph+ journey down to and through the big tunnel that takes us through to “the foreign†for a few days. Thanks for reading, Au revoir.

I bought this Dapol (ex Airfix) kit whilst on holiday last year, Finally got around to building it. Built as Dapol intended apart from the couplings here it is painted and weathered. Almost 12 months has passed since I built the Dapol Lomac kit. I have been thinking (ouch!) about some sort of load for it Dapol make a JCB kit which is one option I had but I baulked at the price for what it is. In the end I picked up this Fordson tractor for a couple of quid at an expo and used that. With some timber baulks (match sticks),some fine chain and some fuse wire the tractor was secured to the bed of the wagon. Davies the Farm can hardly wait for it to be unloaded at Pen Y Bont so he can play with his new toy! Cheers for now Frank

A bit more progress since the previous blog entry, nearly ready for the interior illumination and the roof... Bit more weathering of the boards on the exterior walkway, plus the handrails to be added: Just glued the two 'omnibus' circuit phones on the wall where the signalman is standing. A noticeboard also to be added above the Train Register desk:

Preamble Since I rewired my layout I have provided for two controllers to be used. Once the extension is built the fiddle yard will be up to 8ft away from the main operating position. To make operations easier I have introduced "cab control" where a train leaving the fiddle yard is under the control of the "main" operators controller. A train travelling to the fiddle yard will be under the control of the fiddle yard operators hand held controller. switching from one controller to the other is done manually by a switch on the main panel. This of course requires two controllers. As I only have one (a Gaugemaster hand held) I decided to build another. This brings me on to the main topic of this bog entry. Circuit diagram The circuit of my home brew controller is shown below. It's a very simple design using only a few components but, the control of locos from this controller is stunning. Because it is a closed loop controller using the back EMF of the motor as feedback the slow start and smooth running beats a lot of ready to use designs. Note that there is NO smoothing capacitor, this is because the voltage needs to fall though the 0v point for the back EMF voltage to be measured. If a smoothing capacitor was fitted the controller would still work but, slow starts and smooth slow running would be impossible. I take no credit for this circuit as it is quite a common type of control for small DC motors. Constucrion The controller (less transformer of course) is built into a small plastic box. The method of construction though needs some explanation. Instead of using a printed circuit or strip board I have used my "Ugly bug" technique using "islands" of PCB material with the components surface mounted on them. the picture below shows what I mean. I did however use a small piece of strip board for the rectifier diodes (seen on right hand side of box). I find this method of construction very simple to do when just a few components are involved and this method lends itself to prototype development, allowing quick component changes when developing new ideas. Here's a close up of the main assembly And finally a picture of the finished and tested controller along side my Gaugemaster unit. If anyone is interested in building one and needs more info ,I'll be happy to help. Cheers for now Frank

I think the folds look amazing, much better than my squidgy efforts. It looks like the widths of the walls match perfectly with the bricks as well - you can see the joint between the stringers in the middle of the wall's thickness.

Nice and sharp! and tiny!