Timmy84

Probably - but I sold the dead chassis' on ebay and will probably sell the DBS bodyshells as well so the cost of the ones in the long run will probably be about £30 each - and the new 6-pin chassis run very nicely. Tim.

Hi Simon, Thanks for the photo of the 37 - I couldn't find one of it with round buffers so I suppose I will have to let them off! My transrail version is coming together quite nicely and far less stressful than the 66s! I have found the Railtec "EWS" logos look too stretched for me but the numbers are excellent so at the moment I have Railtec numbers and Fox logos on my second pair - I'm not varnishing them until I am sure. There is a very slight colour variance but I might take a couple of pics to see if it is noticeable. Tim.

Not been on for a while but great progress! Also noted the pan down on the 90 but I'm jealous of the loco. As a kid I demanded a RfD Class 90 and made my dad run it on his OO steam layout!

Also on the workbench was this much easier strip down of a 37/0, which I am hoping to transform into 37154 in Transrail. Decals from Railtec for both this project and the 66s arrived today. A frustrating point is that this bodyshell was produced by Farish with round buffers, which were present neither on the loco they depicted (37239) or pretty much any other in railfreight grey! Tim.

Another shot of the 66s. Tim.

Hi all, Sorry for the complete lack of recent updates - I guess it's not been the time of year! There are a few bits on the workbench however that I am tinkering with. Sadly I had two "deaths" in quick succession of Graham Farish 66s. Both just went dead in an instant and I couldn't recover them. I suspect the PCBs went. This did however give me an opportunity to try something I had not been previously brave enough to do, which is attempt some EWS 66 re-numbers as I now had two spare bodyshells. The results are below. As you can see the classic t-cut method of removing the numbers is not, as I feared, straightforward on the corrugated sides and it means that these basically become resprays. I also had some issues with decalfix leaving a residue in some of the corrugations which means that 66178 is now dirtier than it would have otherwise been! The two bodyshells at the bottom are for the next two and show how tricky it is to get all the numbers off - these two will become 66005 and 66216 with some new Railtec transfers that I am looking forward to trying out once I've resprayed the yellow stripes and two brand new chassis are on the way too. All the best. Tim.

Hi all, I have also decided to rationalise the Fleet slightly (mainly passenger stuff) as a bigger layout than Speke East is some years away. You will find some of the locos featured on this thread (and some that haven't) available for bids on this popular auction site... https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/egglad7/m.html?item=133136544559&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562 Worth a look! Tim.

Some old 37s at Speke East as I try to drum up enthusiasm to do some new stuff!

Thanks Duncan. It might be my photography that’s improving as those vehicles were weathered some time ago! Much like most of my stuff to be honest. I’d like to get more new stuff done but wouldn’t we all..!

A couple of new snaps of the layout in it's current state. Tim.

Yep 2 Ds in my rake too until I work out some way of making a tiny C!

Don’t think I’ve posted these... That’s it now until I get round to taking some proper pics. Merry Christmas to all. Tim.

One from the iPad that I missed off the other day...

5th anniversary of the thread today. So I've completed roughly 1 square foot a year..!

Hi, A few snaps taken on the iPad today of some of the new bits and bobs on the layout. I’m not 100% on the LGV yet which might be too much clutter and at the very least needs detailing and weathering. Other than that I’m pretty happy with the overall look compared to the original plan and enjoyed a good “running session”! Tim.

Hi, Yes they are from shapeways. When you look at them unpainted you can't see just how good they are but the painting really brings them out. I just followed the basic technique of airbrushing them "aluminium" and then a matt white and wiping the white before it dried, revealing the aluminium on the raised areas. I am not sure you would get this finish with a brush. The black was just added with a brush at the end. I am pretty pleased with how all the bits have come out. I even attempted to make "Blue Circle" cement bags but not sure how obvious this is in N! Thanks for the "likes". They keep you going! Tim.

Some of the tiny bits and bobs ready to go on the layout. Hoping to find time to take some better pics over the weekend of them in situ. Tim.

Work is continuing on detailing the depot and warehouse scenes and I should be able to post some new stuff soon. In the meantime I missed this shot of the loaded MEAs out of the last batch of pics. Tim

As an N Gauge modeller, from time to time you find yourself carrying out tasks that no sane person would embark on. I ordered some 3D printed accessories for the factory and depot areas including some tiny pallets and other clutter. Much to my dismay they arrived as individual items and not on a sprue! So this evening I found myself glueing the tiny objects on to balsa wood so that I will be able to airbrush them without scattering them everywhere! One day this layout will be “finished”...

Hi, I wondered where you got the flashing tail lamps for your freight trains from? Tim.

Next up on the workbench for weathering, my Class 08 and 3 new IZA wagons from Revolution models. I think we may have gone back in time slightly here to when the wagons were new! Tim.

Hi, A while back I posted a couple of pics of some work in progress stock and this week I have managed to get a few bits finished. The MBAs for my scrap train are complete and have been loaded... They will be joined by some MEAs making a complete consist of 7xMBAs, 1xBRA (coupling converter) and 6xMEAs on the St Blazey Yard to Cardiff Tidal service for my future layout. A less natural angle gives a better view of the "scrap".... The Dapol MJAs have also been weathered and have sand "part-loads". They will form the empty Newton Abbot to Burngullow service on the future layout. I've got 10 but I may add another 10 in the future. The empties generally ran as one train of circa 20 wagons before being loaded with sand and tripped back in two portions to Newton Abbot to get over the gradients in Cornwall. However here they appear in the North West of England as 66522 makes it's way out of the yard at Speke East... And here are the MBAs from a slightly more experimental angle to try and show the loads. The HST that was also on the workbench is also nearly there and might appear on Speke East at some point for a portrait! Thanks for looking. Tim.