[Peterborough North]

I’d second the Gresley coaches although for me, the range rather than the quality is the main thing. A BSK, Catering stock and end vestibule stock would be the priorities.

 

On the loco front, an A1/1, B2, B16 and K2 would all be welcome.

[Gresley Junction]

A new purchase gave me another excuse to run something on Gresley Jn. This time it’s a Bachmann V2. Not very exciting but a lovely model. I’ve fitted sound and weathered it as described on Coulsdon Works here.

 

 

And here she is running on the down Aberdeen fish empties approaching Gresley Jn station.

 

 

 

I’ve also done a video which hopefully shows off the sound install to good effect.
 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

A bit of OO modelling for a change. This time a Bachmann V2. I have several V2s for Gresley Jn from Jamieson, Nucast and older Bachmann, but I had resisted the new Bachmann V2 on the grounds of price. However it dropped to £131 at TMC in their Black Friday sale, so I finally succumbed. First job was to fit sound. I thought this would be an easy job as it is advertised as coming with a speaker installed….wrong! The speaker they provide was the tiniest speaker know to mankind me just made a horrible tinny noise with my Youchoos sound project. So I fitted a boom box in the tender leaving the Bachmann speaker in parallel for any whistles and to give some noise from the loco. I wrote this up a couple of weeks ago on a decimated thread if anyone is interested.

 

 

Since then, I’ve fitted the comprehensive detail pack and weathered the loco.

 

 

 

 

The natural light does show all the warts, but overall I’m pleased with the result.

 

I will do a video of her running on Gresley Jn soon.

 

Andy

 

[Peterborough North]

I think I prefer the second one with the Ivatt. I love the sea of lattices….worth the hard work for you Gilbert!

[Glenfinnan Station in O Gauge]

Not much to post on the layout at the moment as it’s all hibernating in the garage. But I did get tempted by some Ellis Clark / Darstead vouchers last week and succumbed to a rake of their Thompson coaches. I had been putting these off as I thought they were too pricy but they are magnificent coaches and the voucher offer swung it for me! These represent the earliest period I will be modelling on Glenfinnan. I.e. early ‘50s.

 

I ordered them on Monday and they turned up on Wednesday morning just in time for the Wednesday afternoon meeting of SEGOG in Bromley, so I gave them a test run.

 

 

 

The interior detail on these is the best I’ve seen in RTR coaches - quite exquisite!

 

I will number them in the New Year.

 

Andy

 

[Wokos Bench]

On 19/12/2023 at 22:20, woko said:

Now for something completely different, and super enjoyable to back to do some architecture again, something I have always loved working on! 

 

So we are starting work on Smithfields station, and this first piece will be one of a set of components that will all fit together to create a station at the end of our terminus station on Smithfield! Inspired by the architecture of Denmark Hill station, and Battersea Park Station! Also a massive thank you to Bill Bishop who kindly suggested Denmark Hill, and grabbed a whole heap of photos so for us to model from so thanks Bill, I will post some progress as I go along!

 

Looking great Rob. Can’t wait to see it in the flesh.

[Peterborough North]

23 hours ago, great northern said:

So our man is now standing just watching the stock of the Scotsman pass by, and he decides that there is another quite nice picture to be had.

 

Not as nice as it would have been if you’d waited for the Gresley(?) restaurant car to come into centre stage!

[Coulsdon Works]

35 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

Not entirely clear from your pics, as we don't have one that is at wheel centre level.

 

I suspect the whole loco body is sitting a bit high above the wheels and the cylinders are too high relative to the wheels as well. I wonder if in fact the driving wheels are the right size, or a bit small?

 

The boiler side handrails and what I assume to be the regulator pipe look to be too high on the boiler.

 

The coupling rods in the picture of 61041 are parallel sided not with convex sides, also should be fluted, assuming all B1 rods are the same.

 

I think Keith is right about the tender, although I've always found this quite a tricky topic.

 

John.

 

 

Thanks John,

 

Maybe I didn’t get such a bargain! The driving wheels are 43mm diameter, which is as near as dammit a scale 6’2”. So at least that part is right!

 

Does this photo help the diagnosis?

 

 

Andy

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

1 hour ago, Keith Turbutt said:

The tender looks like the smaller Group Standard 3500 gal with long cutaways to the tops of the tenders as fitted to some J39s.

I don't think any B1s were fitted with this type. I think all (?) B1s had the larger 4200gal group standard tenders.

 

Also, if doing a Scottish example don't forget to alter the corners of the fairing under the running plate. These had rounded corners. Gresley style.

Good point about the rounded corners. I also need to add electric lights for my chosen prototype 61352 - goodness knows where I’ll get them from in 7mm scale. LMS do good ones in 4mm which I’ve used in the past, but they don’t do 7mm.

[Coulsdon Works]

Hi Keith,

 

Thanks for the comments on the tender, I think the 3,500 gallon  erosion you mention is the one fitted to the V4s and K4s and had rather bigger cut outs than my B1 version.

 

Here is  my V4 by way of comparison.

My K1 has a standard 4,200 gallon tender.

 

The B1 tender is here

 

Sadly, it seems to be somewhere in between! To my eyes, about right for a B1 at the rear, but with a deeper cut out at the front. Interestingly, I have a coarse scale B1 bought for peanuts some time ago with a view to converting to finescale and this has a tender with very similar cut outs.

Is it possible that some B1s had bigger cut outs? If not, I’m not sure what I can do about it, but to my eyes it’s probably nearer the K1 version, so I’ll probably live with it for now, and maybe build a replacement in due course.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

Thanks Richard and Simon,

 

I suspect that it’s scratchbuilt as I can’t find any identifying marks on it.

 

 

The comments about the running plate make sense. I think I could cut and reattach it at the joint to give a right angle. Mine doesn’t taper in at all, but there is some overhanging metal which I could file back a bit to give an impression of taper.

 

Comparing with your Mayflower fots, I think the lack of a smokebox saddle may also be an issue.

 

The chimney and dome look OK to me, but I’ll keep that in mind.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

I have been sorting out a new (to me) O gauge B1 over the last couple of days.

 

 

 

I bought this at the Guildford O Gauge trade show a couple of weeks ago. It was up at a reasonable £375, but he offered it to me for £300. Then when I tested it on the test track, I just got a buzz, so I got the price down to £250. I prefer to buy kit built locos as ‘non runners’, because I know that 90% of them will not run to an acceptable standard and will need sorting out.

 

Anyway, when I got it home, there was no buzz and some motion, but shorts everywhere and,  as expected, it needed a good working over. The valve gear & motion fell apart in several places, so I dismantled it and put it back together going through quite a bit of my stash of 12 BA and 14 BS bolts in the process! I’ve also:

- replaced the motor gearbox to one of my first choice helical units - this one a second hand unit with a Sagami motor;

- partly sorted out the bogie which had far too much slop and was shorting out - this still needs some springing; and

- soldered bits of brake rigging back into place.

 

 

I now have a nicely working chassis with no shorts, at least on my straight test track and rolling road. I will take it to the SEGOG test track on Wednesday to give it a thorough test. But I’m turning my attention to the cosmetics now. 

 

Something doesn’t quite look right about the front end, but I can’t put my finger on it. Any comments welcome. It needs lining and renumbering to a West Highland example, probably 61352 as that was allocated to Fort William in ‘61/2 and seems to be the one which featured regularly on the Mallaig line in the last years of steam. I’m not quite sure how to tackle that as the basic paint job is quite good but rather matt. I may try on the matt surface with plenty of decalfix. But I may need to give it a gloss varnish and follow up with matt after lining. I’m nervous about this as it may react with the paint which is there. Any thoughts?

 

Regards

 

Andy

 

 

 

[Peterborough North]

4 hours ago, great northern said:

One of my favourite shots, B17 at Platform 6.

 

Nice coaching stock too!

[Fitting Sound to New Bachmann V2]

Just now, trw1089 said:

Great work Andy, the difference is pretty huge.  I reinstated the Bachmann sugar cube in mine to get a better balance of the sound so that the whistle sound tends to come more from the Front of the loco and the bass from the tender.  
 

Not so sure about the YouChoos file sound, but the whistle is quite accurate as Green Arrow’s LNER single short bell whistle would go into overtones quite easily and sound asthmatic like that.

 

Look forward to seeing it running on your layout.

 

cheers

Tony

I’ve got to detail and weather it first. Couldn’t possibly run a loco without lamps!

[Fitting Sound to New Bachmann V2]

Hi Dave and Tony,

 

I’ve just done a similar mod. I wish I’d read your thread before I did it! I initially tried using just the Bachmann speaker but I was shocked how tinny that sounded. An upgrade is definitely worthwhile.

 

I used a Youchoos YLR302815 Bass Box in the tender. I found that was possible without cutting into the coal space, but I did have to remove the weight which I’ve replaced with lead tucked into corners.

 

 

I drilled holes in the base of the tender chassis to let the sound out - this made a big difference.

 

 

I decided to retain the Bachmann speaker unlike Hornby mag and your methods, so I soldered the new speaker wires to he spring clips on the Bachmann speaker so the two speakers are in parallel. I thought this might help with treble sounds given I was using a bass box in the tender.

 

 

The difference in sound is very noticeable with a much better bass now. @trw1089 was asking about a comparison video, so to allow readers to judge, I have two YouTube videos….one before…

 

….and one after.

 

 

The second whistle still sounds a bit asthmatic, but otherwise I’m really pleased with the install. Sound file is a Youchoos V2 project on a Zimo 21 pin decoder.

 

I hope this is useful to someone.

 

Regards

 

Andy

 

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

43 minutes ago, great northern said:

Ooh, very nice Andy. It makes me want a couple of those even more.

They are nice coaches aren’t they. And a bit different. I don’t think I can face another built in this way, but if Isinglass produce a kit as Andy has told me he will, then I could be tempted. I really want a Thompson SLF now.

[Gresley Junction]

I’m shocked that it’s over a year since I posted on here! Both Jonathan Weallans at Warley and Gilbert Barnett when I visited him and Peterborough North asked what had happened to Gresley Jn. The truth is that I’ve been concentrating on O gauge projects recently and haven’t really used Gresley Jn for some time and It had become a bit of a dumping ground for stock which I’d taken down to the club. 
 

Anyway, last week I tidied it up and ran some trains. And this week I finished my D.227 Gresley SLF which I write up on Coulsdon Works. This called for running the Night Scotsman which is now nearly complete. Here she is.

 

 

The new SLF is just behind the blood and custard SLSTP. Here’s a better view.

 

 

The formation as of winter 1958/9 was: BG; 3x Thompson SLSTP/ SLSP; SLF, 2xTwin SLF, 2xSLF, BG. All the SLFs were longer ones with 10 Berths but I don’t know whether they were Gresley or Thompson versions. Anyway, I’ve assumed that they were Gresleys and I now have all the coaches required apart from one twin SLF. They’re all kit built apart from the BGs. Here is another view of the whole train.

 

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

I had a chat to Jonathan Weallans at Warley and he asked my about the D.227 Gresley 66’6” SLF which I was building about 18 months ago based on sides prepared by Roy Mears. That reminded me that it was almost finished and just need a coupling of finishing touches - window painting and corridor connectors. 
 

So yesterday I finished it off. 


 

 

I did find these sides a help in building this coach but they were quite a bit of work - especially putting the plasticard strip in to form the beading. The rest of the coach is produced from Kirk and MJT parts.

 

I had previously built a couple of D.157 SLFs from cut and shut 61’6” SLF Kirk sides in a similar way to that described on Steve Banks’ website. The only real difference between these diagrams is the spacing of the windows on the berth side. The corridor side is identical.  Here is a D.157 done earlier to illustrate the difference.
 

This coach will form part of my Night Scotsman rake which is now nearly complete with just one twin SLF needed to complete it as per the 1958/9 winter diagram.

 

Jonathan (and a couple of others) have recently asked me about Gresley Jn, and I realised that I haven’t posted on there for over a year, so I will put a picture of the whole train on the Gresley Jn thread.

 

Andy

 

[Peterborough North]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Andy

 

You must be a lot slimmer than me. I got stuck when I went around the window side of Pete'bro Nth. 😒

Nice video.

I did derail a few wagons….and I didn’t have a pocket full of buses!

[Peterborough North]

I have finally got round to editing the video I took when I visited Gilbert last Thursday. I’m afraid the colour isn’t great as the weather was very gloomy so we were relying on artificial light. I’ve tried warming it up but it’s still not great.

 

Anyway, I hope it gives a feel for the running on Peterborough North which behaved very well while I was there. Highlights for me are the beautiful Thompson kitchen car on the KX-York/ Hull and the ex streamliner twin RS/SO on the KX - Glasgow.

 

 

Andy

[West Highland Line V4, a 1980's West Highland Line layout]

1 hour ago, Daddyman said:

That's a very nice weathering job on 039. 

I was about to say that but you beat me to it. Looks exceptionally natural. Definitely one of Rob’s better 37s!

[Mallaig and the Road To The Isles]

8 hours ago, meanach said:

I’m still holding out for inter-Frigo fish vans!

They are nice wagons, aren’t they! These are O gauge Skog models kits. There must be an OO kit manufacturer?

 

[Wokos Bench]

The D1 has to be top priority for your Billington 6 wheelers. If you knock that up, we might have to subsidise your heating bills for a couple of weeks so you can print them in winter!

[Wright writes.....]

On the motor gearbox subject, in O gauge we have fantastic helical gearboxes units available from either ABC or MSC (ex Ron Chaplin). Having tried one, I now never use anything else and I’m gradually retrofitting my fleet. They have the Portescap feature of being able to turn the wheels, but the main advantages are the power and quietness. I’m told the helical gearbox is much more efficient and it certainly shows in much lower current draw. I can easily get away with 00 decoders on locos so fitted which saves a bit.

 

They're not cheap at just over £100, but compared with £50-£75 for a more conventional unit I think they’re good value. I’m surprised nothing similar has been tried in 00.

 

Andy

 

 

[Wokos Bench]

Fantastic Rob. Roll on the spring!