thegreenhowards

I’m not keen on reducing the top speed. It’s not that fast on these Heljan diesels, and I like seeing it blast round on occasion! I’ll have a play with CV3 to reduce the acceleration. If that doesn’t interfere with the sounds then great. If it does, then I’ll just have to drive more carefully. Andy

Just thinning the paint. Thanks John, I’ll try that. Andy

As well as playing trains, I spent some time today wiring in my signal lever frame as below. The lever frame has 14 levers, each operating a DPDT switch. These are connected to Tortoise point motors and Dapol or servo operated signals. The levers operate as per the original signal box diagram which is glued to the back of the baseboard as can be seen above. Levers 6,7 and 8 wee spare on the original but I’ve used 6 to operate the point into the loading dock which must have been hand operated on the prototype. Jumpers from four boards plus into the lever frame using pluggable chocolate block connectors. Andy

We’ve gone back to the 1960s today with a West Highland goods trains including a couple of the Bulk Alumina wagons which worked between Burntisland and Fort William. I need a good excuse to run these beyond Fort William to Glenfinnan - any ideas?! I hope the shots below also show off the scenery on some of the boards I’ve been working on over the Summer. I also took a video of the train doing a complete circuit of the garden. Andy

The last couple of days has seen me repaint and letter up a couple of bulk alumina wagons. I’m quite pleased with how they’ve come out, although the weathering shows some white spirit tide marks in these cruel close ups which aren’t too evident at normal viewing distance. Does anyone know how to avoid these marks? I think these are rather attractive wagons and were pretty rare. I think there were only 25 of them and they were only used for the traffic between Burntisland and Fort William. Slaters do an O gauge kit for them, but I’m not aware of one in 00. The Saleters kit doesn’t include transfers and you often find them second hand with a plain NE and nothing else - that is how these two were. I painted them in BR early freight grey and lettered them up using the Fox sheet. I have two more, both in LNER livery with correct branding. I’ll probably keep one like that and paint the other into TOPS style livery with the box. Then three will run at any time. The two above plus the LNER one with BR steam, and the two above with the TOPS one with green diesels. They can be seen below in (what a I hope is) a typical West Highland goods train. Andy

I thought it looked fine at the time, but on looking back at the video, I see what you mean. I normally control that by ramping up the speed more slowly on the controller, but I could look at the CVs I suppose. Would it just be the standard acceleration CV and would that affect the sound file? It’s a Legomanbiffo sound file on a loksound V5 XL. I’ve already had to change the active braking CV, to increase the braking rate as I was using emergency stop too often! Andy

I also managed to shoot some video of the return working.

I’ve now finished the temporary viaduct, which I suspect may not be very temporary as it will take me some time to pluck up courage to start pouring concrete. Andy

I hadn’t noticed but now you’re pointed it out, it will annoy me! I suspect it may be partly the track as the last two fish vans are on my lift out section. I will have a look tomorrow. Andy

The Accurascale Deltic and Heljan o gauge class 37s take it to a new level….the bogie chains have to be removed before the body will come off. One sees lots of second hand model with broken chains! Andy

Die cast chassis?

Thanks Jonathan, Yes, I’m aware of the three lamp code which was, I believe, for unfitted goods trains. But in that case shouldn’t the two side lamps be black with a white light to the front and a red to the rear? I could paint the lamps black, add another and use it on my pick up goods. Andy

Another question for the experts out there. I bought this brake van at Guildex on Sunday. It’s a Dapol one which has been weathered to an acceptable standard, but it has strange lamps. I suspect I’m going to need to remove them and reinstate the lamp irons, just leaving one lamp on the central iron. But before I do so, is there some special meaning to this arrangement of lamps of which I’m blissfully unaware? Andy

Long time no post, but I’ve not been completely idle! I’ve been working on the hideous green O gauge N7 shown in my post on April 28th. It has gone from green to brass showing, I hope, that the basic construction is very good. And is now in LNER lined black livery as on the photo of 2618 on p36 of Yeadon. Having had problems with transfer lining crinkling under the varnish coat on the A5, I’ve lined this one with a bow pen which I found much quicker and generally straightforward. The white on the buffer beams was tricky because I couldn’t get the pen in at the right angle and will need to be disguised under some weathering! It will get matt varnish tomorrow and then a light weathering. One question. Should there be a number on the rear of the bunker or the rear bufferbeam? Andy

It was Guildex this weekend and, as normal, I spent too much! This included this rake of blue spot fish vans which I envisage running as part of a mixed train with some maroon Mk 1s (OK pedants I know they’re pass rated so not really mixed, but it looks mixed to me!). They were very good value (I paid just over £100 for the six), largely, I suspect, because the weathering job is rather unsubtle. These wagons certainly collected dirt along the metal stanchions in the way portrayed but the treatment here looks rather harsh to me. I’d be grateful for other people’s views on the weathering. I’m thinking of a thin white wash over the current weathered bits to tone them down and then a thin coat of roof dirt over the whole thing to tie it together. Does that sound a sensible strategy or does anyone else have any better ideas? I could repaint them completely but I’d rather not if I can avoid it. Andy

I managed to get some weathering done last week, so I’ve just about finished my GFYE 27, 5392. I also weathered my class 20, 20148. My remaining issue is that I have had some white spirit ‘bleeding’ into the headcode boxes on both locos. It’s not too evident in the photos, but it’s quite annoying. If anyone can suggest a way to sort that out I’d be grateful. Andy

For me, the Timber P would be very welcome, even in kit form. And a Class 29 (O gauge) - just need Dapol to scale up their OO version! Andy

Are the saloons in maroon? I thought they were in faux teak livery in 1983, although it does look a bit dark in those photos. Andy

I converted the exterior of my Darstead 0 Gauge Mk 1 BSO to a BSOT last year, but I never got round to doing anything with the interior - i.e. it was running around with normal seating inside. Well Rob has shamed me into action, so I packed the interior and a toolkit for my trip away this weekend and have hackled around at it during the evenings at my B&B. I think I’ve got it looking the right shape but would welcome any comments - obviously I still need to paint it and will use paint to differentiate the trolley from the fixed counter. One thing I wasn’t sure about is how the buffet steward entered the area behind the counter. Was there a lift up flap or a gap at the (former) toilet end of the coach? I found it quite easy to get the old interior out. It’s a bit more modular with the Darstead coaches with each seating bay being glued onto a plasticard base rather than all moulded as one, so I could remove the seating bay just by inserting a knife under it. I think I’ll live without the removal of the one seat in the next bay. Andy

I love the photo with the observation car. That’s on my list to build! Andy

I would like to see that!

An update on my C2/ Portescap issue. I tried running it on my rolling road yesterday and it run for 20 minutes with no problem. But I did notice that there was a slight binding at one point on the revolution, so I dremel led away some white metal from the inside of the wheel arches. I decided to strip out the decoder anyway and try it on the club layout like that. It did 10 circuits with no problems. So I tried putting the decoder back in. It ran fine with the decoder and no body, but when I put the body back on it died after one circuit and I now can’t get it to work with or without the decoder! Hopefully it will recover after a rest, but my working assumption at the moment is that it is an internal friction problem combined with a slightly weak motor, possibly exacerbated by the chip - or the wiring to the chip (it’s quite tight inside). I think my next job will be to replace the motor but that will have to wait until next week as I’m now away for Guildex in Stafford. Andy

Great shots Tony. I do love your high level shots on LB and certainly prefer them to the eye level ones - I just think one gets a better view of the train and the layout. I only mentioned PN because I’m a sucker for complicated pointwork and the throat heading north has points and a curve - perfect! It was too sunny today to waste time on the Portescap. I concentrated on weathering with my airbrush and painting mini ‘Glenfinnan’ viaduct in the garden! I will report back tomorrow assuming the promised rain materialises. Andy

Personally, my favourite model railway photos are from a slightly elevated position showing trains in the landscape or, even better, snaking through some complicated point work. My favourite model railway viewpoint is probably from the bridge as trains leave Gilbert’s PN heading north which could be a prototype viewpoint, but I also like other more raised viewpoints which might only be possible with a drone. They just seem to give a better overall view of the layout. If that means it’s not recreating a prototype picture then so be it. Andy

Just catching upon the thread after a few days sailing along the south coast. I have a similar problem with my DJH Klondike. It has one of the smaller portescaps (also reclaimed from another loco) and will run well for one lap of my layout (70ft), but then starts to slow down and more or less dies by the end of the second lap. If I give it a couple of hours to recover it will do the same again. So far I’ve lived with it as locos rarely need to do more than one lap, but this conversation has made me think I ought to sort it out. While I hate to admit it, I do wonder if the chip is at fault as I think I have one of those cheap Chinese ones in it. I will try stripping the chip out first. If it works on DC, then I’ll try a Zimo chip - they never cause problems (famous last words). I will report back in due course…hopefully without giving ‘sir’ another quote for his wall! Andy