Jack374

Thanks for the comments guys :) Hi Jo, no I’m not out yet, I’m only 6 weeks in. This week just gone I’ve been out doing cab rides for the first time, which has been a fab experience and cemented the fact I’m pursuing a career I really want to do! I’ve got 2 more weeks of rules next then another week out in the cab. Oddly, modelling time has been plentiful this week as I’ve been on relatively short turns! It takes a back seat during rules weeks though, as I need to revise in the evenings. Thanks, Jack.

Thanks for the advice Rich…thankfully wheel swap wasn’t needed at Glasgow, the set ran the best it has ever ran! Good to meet you at DEMU. In the last 6 months I’ve moved house, county and job, and I’m now a trainee driver for a FOC on the real railway! This is truly dream come true territory. I’ve done a bit of modelling on a variety of projects. On the 37 front, 424 and 407 have had their noses improved by bulking out the headcode panel with plastic strip, adding the MW socket recess, Replica Railways high intensity headlight, and new lens surrounds from plastic tube, as per 37405 shown a few years back. I replaced the yellow LEDs with white ones, and 'toned down' the colour of the lights using masking tape. The noses were painted and transfers added from Railtec. I decided to add reinforced windscreen surrounds from Shawplan, which were secured with gloss varnish. This has highlighted a livery error, where the black on the windscreen is too low, giving a strange effect now the frames have been added. I’ll paint this a little higher in due course. And this is how it looks now. I just need to add all the details and then weather. Onto a resurrection of an old project. My two Network Rail coaches I wrote about in this thread way back in 2018, have been sat painted and transferred up in my cabinet at my parents for ages, waiting to be finished. So I’ve decided to finish them, beginning with adding DCC Concepts wheels with pickups to the Replica Railways B4/5 bogies. These were simply soldered to some copperclad with wires fed through to the coach. I’ve yet to see whether the RTOV requires the pickups from the other coach, or whether 2 wheels per side is enough. I think I know the answer but I’m hoping for the easy option! I've also finally glazed the coaches using Shawplan Laserglaze. It went in very smoothly, with only one or two of the smaller (thinner) windows needing light sanding due to paint build up in the window apertures. I also painted the interiors with red oxide primer/dark grey to provide a less conspicuous colour scheme which is less noticeable from the outside: And the newest project is to motorise a steam loco support coach! Due to a couple of issues, my model of 6233 'Duchess of Sutherland' has had to have the pickups removed. I’ve also removed the worm gear so it is free running, as it would never haul an 11-coach train no matter how much lead I put in it. Therefore, I’ve used a Bachmann class 150 chassis (same bogie and pivot wheelbase dimensions) and put it inside a Hornby BSK. I tested the chassis with 11 coaches and it coped with slight gradients with ease. First job was to remove the ~10.5mm wheels from their axles and mount some Bachmann 14mm coach wheels instead. This was more complex than usual as the 150 axles are split and each half is live, so a metal/metal joint with no plastic bush between the wheel and axle. The original pickups therefore couldn’t be used, as the 14mm wheels have plastic bushes. I removed the old pickups and screwed in some 2mm phosphor-bronze strip using the same screw as the old pickups, and it works a treat: Next, holes were cut in the chassis of the donor Hornby coach, handily following the coupling apertures already there. Some small window mounting spigots were removed along the top of the windows in the body, to allow the new chassis block so seat properly, as well as the corner mounting clips which didn’t fit over the chassis: Then the chassis block was attached using 0.3mm steel wire, twisted to form a mechanical way of attaching the two parts. It moves slightly to allow the body to seat. Amazingly, after all this butchery, the two central chassis/body clips still function and are sufficient to handle the body and pick up the whole coach! Replica Railways Commonwealth bogie side frames were glued to the original 150 clip-on bogie frames (having cut off the side frames), with some plastic strip packing: The next jobs on the BSK will be to add small details, paint some details, add cant rail stripe and transfers (custom order submitted with Railtec). The Network Rail coaches will have details added/painted and a coupling system added which I’ve yet to decide on. Then the RTOV will have a decoder wired up and lights added. Lastly, here are a few pics of some stock which has featured in these pages, working on Newbryford's Deadmans Lane layout at Model Rail Scotland in February. I’ll be out again with the crew at Wakefield in September, and hope to have a few more projects finished by then. Thanks, Jack.

Those OBAs look superb! Your wagon projects are varied and each one is individual - the rake of 2-axle ballast opens have inspired me to get on with finishing my set, it’s only been…a few years! Keep up the great work, Jack.

Nice to chat to you on Tuesday Jim, totally by coincidence! Nearly saw you again today…I was at Carlisle heading home and the 805 pulled in. In the time it took me to finish my conversation you must’ve got in the hot seat and were off again. The 805 was in Preston when I arrived, but when I headed over I spoke to SB who said you’d already gone! I'll be back up at Carlisle next week…I’m not stalking, honest! 😇 Thanks, Jack.

In one week's time the DL crew will be feeling the fatigue, and probably making a few mistakes and causing derailments, though hopefully not as bad as the HST effort at Glasgow... Below is a Facebook link to the DL page and the post with photos from Model Rail Scotland. Please take a look and follow us if you haven't already... Deadmans Lane MRS Post on Facebook See you next weekend in Macclesfield! Jack.

Thanks (to you and your driver!) for the wave and tones on Friday at Swarkestone Jim! Interesting to note on these Pinnox workings that the wagons seem to be loaded with the peaks off-centre? I can't say I've seen that before and I know some wagon types have had white lines painted centrally to aid the loader. Thanks, Jack.

Hi Phil, I'll start with the usual "life has been busy", but this will include a career change, and house move out of the area in the next 3 months, but I’ll try and get bits done as and when. In terms of progress since July, all the buildings have been cut from sheets of foamboard and embossed styrene, ready for assembly, detailing and painting. The bridge has been fully assembled and requires painting and weathering. The WRD is also nearly finished, meaning that baseboard (however simple) is the first to be 'done'. I’ll post some pics when I take them. I’m preparing the layout for its (as yet unconfirmed) debut in November this year…I’d best pull my finger out! Thanks, Jack.

Corrected for you, must’ve been a typo. 😄 Nice pics btw… Jack.

After seeing a few posts on here and Facebook about the running of the coaches, I thought I’d check mine. The first sleeper ran fine over a set of Peco Code 75 crossings, however the second derailed. I pushed it over slowly to see where and how it derailed, and it turned out the wheel climbed over the rail at the point of derailment. So it was out with the back to back gauge, which is 14.5mm, and lo and behold every single wheelset on my 8 sleepers just let the gauge slip through, sometimes with excessive play. I don’t have a set of calipers but some axles are definitely up towards 15mm I would say. I tried to push the wheels in by hand, however I only managed one axle before a) my fingers hurt and b) the second was too stubborn. Plan B consisted of using my homemade vice, which handily has some 10mm diameter recesses where the screws hold the jaws to the body - perfect for pushing on the wheel face with the jaws, allowing the axle cover to sit unhindered in the recess. I found that once I’d nipped it up, each wheelset would 'crack' with more pressure applied, as the glue holding on the axle cover was overcome. On every axle I did, the axle cover became loose/fell off on each of the insulated wheels. No problem, I thought, as a drop of superglue would secure them back in. However, each one needed the original glue residue removing with a knife, otherwise the caps would not seat properly now the axle protrudes slightly further through each wheel. I had to scour the (grey) carpet about a dozen times during this process…… So not an insurmountable issue, however it took me about an hour to do 4 coaches. Not the kind of time I’d choose to spend rectifying a manufacturing error. Other errors like details breaking or even livery errors (for example), I can live with and might choose to rectify myself. The coaches not being able to run due to incorrect back to backs however, I’m less impressed with. I can honestly say I’ve never known RTR B2Bs as bad as this - most manufacturers are usually slightly tighter than 14.5mm, which is often fine due to the increased tyre width of 00/RP25 wheels compared with "true" width, such as on P4 wheels. I dread having to repeat this on my other 4 coaches and lose another hour of my life… Thanks, Jack.

It would help to have a spare! That way your loco can have a magnetic coupler and the rear of the train could as well. Not sure why this was promised and then clearly not delivered… I closely inspected all my MK5s again today, for the simple reason that I wanted to check nothing else was missing before I send an email to acquire the small detail which was broken on one coach. Of course, it also gave me chance to appreciate each coach again, and my opinion hasn’t changed - they are superb! I did notice a couple more niggles, though. I noticed one coach was sat on a slight angle, so I tried the method mentioned recently of slackening the screw underneath by a fraction, which has solved the issue. The screws hold well, so no need for glue or worry of losing them unlike other models. During this, I thought I’d take the bogie off for a look at how the pickup arrangement works. I noticed one of the plungers which electrically connects the chassis to the bogie pickups was depressed inside the chassis hole, so not touching the bogie. Despite prodding repeatedly, I couldn’t free it to spring back out. I checked the remaining bogies and luckily it was only this one plunger, so I shan’t lose sleep what with the immense stay alive capability. I also checked every coupling with a stronger magnet, of diameter 4mm and depth 2mm, so not unrealistic strength. Only one coupling was faulty, with the initial issue being both the small magnets were facing the same way! Obviously this would cause issues in a train, as one magnet would be repelling it’s mating magnet. Perhaps this may be the cause for some of the reported issues with trains breaking apart. When I tried it again with the larger magnet, the offending magnet fell out, thus allowing me to glue it back in the correct way around. Finally, on the couplings there are two small pips as circled below: Is there any purpose to these pips, other than for cosmetic reasons? In reality, they prevent the magnets touching on most of the couplings I looked at, thus reducing the magnetic power. I appreciate the die is now cast, but surely the removal of these would increase the integrity of the couplings when in use? Thanks, Jack.

Mine arrived this afternoon - excellent service by DHL. The coaches are brilliant. The levels of detail such as etched grilles on the underframe are superb, while the printing is to a perfect standard, with no blemishes that I could see on any of my 8 coaches - and none on 92020 either for that matter. The couplings are a great solution and (while I haven’t run them) they seem to 'grab' firmly - and keep hold once they have! The destination boards really are a clever touch, but be warned: each little snap bag is specific to the coach as it has the coach letter printed on. Not a problem at all, but I put the 4 bags to one side on my first pack and then had to match them up again when I repacked them! The magic wand setup is excellent, and the stay alive functionality is immense and keeps the lights on for ages, which seems weird packing away coaches with lights on!! Now…I have noted a few little niggles, mainly concerned with the lighting. The tail lights at the end of each coach are barely noticeable, even when in darkness. This may be because the lenses the light shines through are not 'fibre optic', for want of a better way to put it. I say this because at an angle, the light is faint, whereas dead head on the light is about passable brightness. See pics: My solution would be to access the PCB and alter the resistor value, however that would exacerbate the small amount of light bleed noticeable through the door windows. I suppose nothing some black paint won’t sort, and I’d only have to do it on one coach, one end, and keep that as the trailing coach. The interior lighting is of a nice, appropriate brightness I feel, however the windows really let the model down in this respect: There is a thick black rectangle printed onto the window face, as per the prototype, however the light 'bleeds' around the outside of this, giving the impression of a floating window frame! This could be due to the dimensions of the windows vs their apertures, which leaves a fair gap: I appreciate there is no reasonable way to fix the issue while maintaining the black rectangle, which is a key livery feature. Possibly printing/painting the inside of the window mouldings black (obviously leaving the actual window 'pane' area clear), or painting the outside of the moulding black and incorporating the black rectangle, but leaving the window clear - if any of that makes sense! Again, no doubt this will incur further complexity/time/cost. Another small niggle is that the interior light shines through the CDL light lenses, which is not true to prototype as CDL lights are not lit while running. Away from the lighting, I had one small casualty of the packing/shipping process - one of the dampers (either side of the bogie) has snapped. I originally thought this would be a simple glue back in job, however the actual piece has snapped, and one half of it is nowhere to be seen. I noticed the piece loose when I was unpacking, so unpacked very carefully but the other half appears to be lost. Below is the broken damper, and a complete assembly, with the mounting points circled: Looking at the moulding, personally I think it’s a bit fragile and has very fine mounting points for such a prominent feature which is in prime position to be knocked off. Not having unpacked/repacked repeatedly or stored the coaches alternatively, I can’t say for sure, and it will be interesting to see if anyone else experiences broken dampers. A more substantial mount slightly inboard may prove more sturdy, but would likely be untrue to prototype. The solution for me is to search for the spare part code on the comprehensive service sheet diagram, and send an email to the support email address. To summarise, I’m really impressed with these coaches, so much so that I hope some become available to buy again as I’d like another pack. I’ve described the issues in detail so as to provide constructive criticism - this is by no means a negative review of the coaches as they are (IMO) one of the best coach models available currently. Especially considering the lighting provision and countless clever features for the price, more than can be said for "some other" manufacturer's products of similar price point. Just a shame I’ve no layout with knitting to run the rake of them properly! I can dream… Well done Accurascale! Thanks, Jack.

It entirely depends on your setup. The 68 has a bassy throb, hence why some sound files/speakers make it sound like a kettle if they don’t have enough bass. I’ve found the best combination to be Legomanbiffo's file and an EM2 speaker. The sound file definitely has the throb of the bass, although it can be slow to rev up, so I usually use the 'drive lock' function and whack speed up all the way so the sound revs up to a prototypical level. Of course, an EM2 is the biggest speaker you can fit in 00 and needs major mods and chassis milling. Companies such as Roads and Rails can do these mods for you. At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice and you have to weigh up the effort/cost of a bespoke setup which sounds the best (IMO), or settle for a speaker which fits in the space provided. Thanks, Jack.

Evening all, here’s a long overdue update in the limbo period at the end of December - I hope you all had a great Xmas, and all the best for New Year! The last couple of months have been a whirlwind and included Warley and Blackburn exhibitions on back to back weekends with Deadmans Lane. I didn’t take too many photos at either, but 47813 was right at home on the RTC: Other projects finished were 2x DRS 37s, with 37716 having pimped bogies with 0.3mm wire air pipes, beefed up steps, brass lifting points (PH Designs), along with new buffers and re-mounted snowploughs. The latter are removable to allow a Kadee to be fitted if desired. I also finished the Freightliner 90 by weathering it. This consisted of a wash with diluted frame dirt to create streaks down the flat body side, followed by airbrushed frame dirt on the roof and chassis. However, don’t use standard decorator's masking tape on transfers which have only had a thin coat of varnish… The pic below shows how I weather a diesel/electric loco chassis, by removing the wheelsets then remounting the bogie frame, and masking the pickup ends which sit behind the wheel. Also, here is a pic of a clever hack with the Bachmann 90 - if you remove the wheelsets and remount them the opposite way round, the gears are offset so the loco can be hauled 'dead' and will run freely. No messing with worm gears and driveshafts as is often required! Finally, a post-exhibition job has been to try and solve the persistent poor running of my Freightliner container rake. Some of the issues have been down to my homemade magnetic couplings, but the KTA/KQA Dapol pocket wagons have been particularly prone to falling off. I managed to add about 30g of lead over the bogies and this has brought the weight up by almost 50%. However, I have been running them with "heavy" containers I made, which it turns out are about 25g each, so I’ve not really added much more weight. We’ll see how they run at the SEC in February and if they don’t run well, it’s back to the drawing board! As ever, thanks for reading. I have a couple of locos which are awaiting warmer weather for paint/weathering/varnish on the workbench, but otherwise I’ll be concentrating on Fordley over the next few months, with its exhibition debut pencilled in for November at Blackburn. I’m sure I’ll get some more projects across the 'bench in the meantime though… Thanks, Jack.

Two exhibitions in as many weekends - who thought that was a good idea!? This weekend at Blackburn was a much more friendly and less busy show, in stark contrast to Warley. I managed to get in front of the layout to get some proper photos, some of which are below: For those on Facebook, there are more full res photos on Deadmans Lane page, link below: https://www.facebook.com/DeadmansLane Only 12 weeks until we're at the SEC for Model Rail Scotland...I think I might have just about recovered by then... Thanks, Jack.

Thanks to the team for a fab weekend - only a couple of days rest now before we do it all again next weekend! We had a couple of guest items of stock, namely a mighty fine FNA-D and 'Caroline' from Revolution, and a tasty Colas 56 from Cavalex. We also spotted a couple of guys with measuring sticks against an 08 - any ideas??? 😁 Here are a handful of photos I was able to grab - as has been eluded to, it was 2-3 deep for most of the weekend. It also appears RMweb will only allow me to upload about 3Mb worth of images, which is a less than ideal... There are some great YouTube videos showing the layout - I've added a link to one at the bottom of this post. Thanks, Jack.

Hi Will, For tiny surface mount LEDs, I normally go with 10k. I’d maybe recommend getting some 5k to allow you to experiment anywhere between 1k and 10k+, without stringing together 10 individual resistors! Jo makes a great point, I usually paint all but the face of the LED facing forwards black, which helps with light bleed too. I also paint the back of the copperclad which can help with light bleed if this is an issue. Masking tape works well too I find, and you can alter the layers and types to get the tone and brightness you want. I usually use standard decorator's white/cream tape to tone down white LEDs, and Tamiya yellow tape where a warmer tone is required. Good luck! Jack.

In the true spirit of this thread, over the last few days DB's only operational tug in EWS colours was returned to mainline service. On Friday it took the steel forward from Toton to Boston, then hauled the loaded return from Boston to Wolverhampton. After a weekend at Bescot, this morning it worked the 6E02 Bescot Down Side to Boston Sleaford Sidings 'pig pens', as far as Toton, thus completing a full circuit. Last time it was called upon it failed not too far from Boston on the loaded return… Seen at Hemington next to the East Midlands Gateway arrival lines, in warm autumnal morning light. Good to see this survivor performing front line revenue work still - it’s one of my favourite locos on the network today. Thanks, Jack.

The mystery package was indeed a pair of IPA twins - certainly brightened up my day! It was my fault I "didn’t get" a dispatch email…found it in the spam folder today…you’ve now been marked as safe senders. My first impressions are hugely positive - they have a substantial weight to them thanks to a metal floor the entire length of the wagon. Decoration is perfect and I’m particularly impressed with the tiny wire stays which "hold up" (IRL) the hinged plates above each bufferbeam - very finely reproduced. I’ve yet to run them but so far I’ve yet to find fault. Thank you and well done all involved! 😀 Thanks, Jack.

I haven’t had a dispatch email but I’ve had an email from Royal Mail (I originally thought was spam…) saying I’ve got a Tracked48 parcel on the way, which I didn't expect. Putting 2+2 together I’m hoping for a nice surprise on its arrival! Thanks, Jack.

Well 5 months since my last post, summer has been and gone, and the leaves are a fallin'! Modelling took a back seat in summer due to the nice weather and more recently a bout of illness. I did manage to get 'Fordley' up and running mind, and me and Cal had a day playing trains. Below are a few photos, some featuring stock seen in this thread: Now to projects. The 4x DRS 37s have been slowly getting there, with 2 nearly ready to appear at Warley next month on DL. I’ll show what I did to these when they’re finished. The large logo pair of 424 and 407 have taken more effort, because I decided to do the nose ends 'properly', as per my 37405 featured way back in 2019…again, I’ll show the mods when they’re complete. The first step was to strip them, using about 95% IPA in a small sealable container: On the 90 front, I’ve added transfers from Railtec and all the detail bag goodies to grey 90047. The pipes were heated gently with a close soldering iron and curled round to represent them in the stowed position. My fictitious TDM cable covers made of styrene have since been painted yellow, while eventually the replacement cables which run to the side of the bufferbeam will be added from wire. A good weathering will finish this off nicely: And it would appear I have doubled my Bachmann 90 fleet with the addition of a Freightliner Powerhaul variant for a great price. The price must’ve been good because one bogie pivot was broken…not worth sending back as I’ve already developed a fix. So fix v2.0 features a 1.5mm brass bolt with washer soldered to the head, and a corresponding nut soldered to the bogie cradle fabrication. I decided to use 2x wires threaded through the bogie tower (missing the gears!) instead of the existing pickup mounts, just to ensure the load doesn’t snap them off. And yes, I am aware Bachmann spares sell bogie frames, but I know mine won’t snap from rough handling now… Finally to 47813, which is now finished bar weathering. Lighting was upgraded using copperclad board and 0603 SMD LEDs with corresponding 10kΩ 0603 resistors. The 3 pin plug links to the handy pads provided already on the ViTrains circuit board. The ‘elephant’s trunk' multi-working connector was fashioned from 1mm styrene rod (bent with heat from a soldering iron) and small pieces of styrene strip. I found a Heljan (?) spare so this was used at one end. I discovered after looking through my spares tin that the Bachmann 37 ETS cable at one end looks like it’ll be great donor to make future MW sockets. I don’t use them anyway as I find them a bit crude so that might save faffing with a soldering iron! Here's the finished article. Loads of small details took lots of time to add, such as kick plates (S kits etch), handrails (0.3mm wire), radiator grilles (PH Designs…I know they’re too high but correct height ones aren’t available!), nameplates (Rainbow Railways), LazerGlaze (Shawplan) and the roof aerial (one bristle of a black paint brush…). They make all the difference though, and I’m glad I added them all. Just needs a light weathering, although I do like the ex-works look…if Mick will let me run it all shiny! More work to do on the 37s before Warley and then Blackburn the weekend after, both with DL. Now I suppose I should check and wheel clean all my stock! Thanks for reading and sticking with me :) Jack.

Hattons have 25% off select 00 pre-owned and discounts on other scales, see link below: https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail?id=1244&utm_source=klaviyo&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mar-0977-aug22preownedsale-oo&_kx=zI0z1Mn8KTAKTSunI9F4y3e3IrZZb3vUDtEgt2apJHU%3D.JGQeXh Some very tasty items…Hornby new tool 67 for £64, Hornby full length Virgin MK3 £15. Usual caveats, pre-owned so quality may be variable, and it appears there’s only one of each item, so the above examples may well be gone when you read this! Thanks, Jack.

When I got there on Sunday all Mick seemed interested in was the free coffee and his Sunday roast…… 🤨 Only joking, great to catch up Mick. I too picked up some tips and good advice from you. Thanks, Jack.

Nicely weathered loco on a depot diorama, but the owner clearly took the bogie frames off to weather it…and forgot about them… Jack.

I like it too…definitely different! Bit of a pain to photograph on a sunny day though. This was (I believe) it’s first load since repaint, working the Wolves to Boston steel; highly appropriate… Thanks, Jack.

(Not my pic - Flickr link) Do not adjust your sets: this photo was taken TODAY not 15 years ago… Repainted at Crewe Heritage Centre in preparation for the Crewe Gresty Bridge open day tomorrow. What a fine gesture, since (when the 37s are sold on the lease back deal) they’ll be the last to go of the original class of loco DRS started with over 25 years ago. Thanks, Jack.