HeatonLodge40

Makes me smile every time I see this pic. Heaton Lodge c1985. Few enthusiasts on board! Taken by Terry Campbell (whose seen the layout a few times)!

Another 20 HUO’s weathered. These will run as empties although they are way too light in my opinion to run reliably. Lead strips in the interior bottom spoils the look of the coal chutes & lead balls makes the chutes drop out so looks like I’ll have to butcher the underside after all. This weekend I’ve also fitted 12 new point motors for the diesel depot/DMU siding and serviced another 40 wagons plus fitted 6 new working tail lamps. On the servicing wagons I’m a bit shocked as to how many bits are missing after a solid two weeks running in December. I collected a cake tin full of debris on the tracks after the Wakefield exhibition, I’m hoping the Bath one (being three days) will be a lot easier on the rolling stock. As it stands I’ve 15 wagons with vital missing parts like axleboxes so they are being stored until I can get some more bits

Probably, it’s just historic since the late great Allan Downes started it here so I’m loathe to request moving it!

That’s a good point I’ll try that when the corridor connectors land. There’s enough strain on the coupling with 12 on anyway without two connectors adding more. And I can do more coaches with just one. Cheers

It’s more electrics this week, boring stuff, relocating Digitrax boosters etc. Marvellous. However I’ve finally unboxed the 50 Accurascale HUO’s I’ve had for the last 18 months stuck on a shelf. Studying pics of the real thing I’m simply speed weathering these by airbrushing dark rust over the whole wagon before I’ll take most of it back off with a paper towel. Then I’ll probably airbrush dirty black over the top and add some blobs of thicker rust. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Ive also been trying to source 60 pairs of Corridor Connections to fit the Heljan MK1’s. Finally found Modellers Mecca who’ve been extremely helpful in making these to order. I’m amazed at what a difference they make. Finally thanks to Manchester Model Railway Society who invited me over on Tuesday. I was made to feel extremely welcome and was delighted to see ‘Dewsbury Midland’ again (I grew up there, somebody had to) a really fantastic piece of modelling. I must confess I’ve always viewed clubs like committee's - I’d only be on one if I was the only one in it. But I’m probably wrong and I need to learn to be more sociable in my old age. MMRS underlined that. Thanks again to them

Yes I still don’t know why I didn’t make do with a Hornby express freight train set

Finished the fictitious DMU depot & small MPD today. I truly cannot stand track laying. Also finished laying in a new track panel which was complicated as the multi tool had massacred the wood beneath it so was uneven. Other jobs this weekend are repairing and servicing more wagons before putting them back on the layout. The Accurascale HUO’s have suffered pretty badly with absolutely caked on dirt on the wheels & lots of missing buffers and brake gear. All fixable of course but I’m now keeping a couple of each type of wagon as spares. Given most of the wagons travelled at least 8 true miles I guess it’s all to be expected.

That’s a very nice job indeed!

Yep it would but I guess I’m guilty of sticking to what I know !

Whoops I’ll get my IT guru onto that now

Fitting tail lamps again today. Motorail flats (or any flats) are the worst because of the clearance. Only room available for the battery holder is between the axles in the bogie. Looks a mess but it works. These 15 flats I’ve also re-wheeled too as I couldn’t get them to run reliably at Wakefield without constant derailments. They use the Ellis Clarke MK1 coach bogies, the sides of which swivel up and down on a pivot. I’ve glued these bogie sides so they are now rigid and after testing today it seems to have cured the derailment problem. The 15 Motorail flat train pulled by two Railfreight ‘31’s was probably the most requested after the steam specials at Wakefield I did have a few constructive critical comments from Wakefield I’ve taken on boards. Most common was lack of tail lamps on all trains, no corridor connections between coaches, lack of 40’s & 45’s and the Class 124 Trans Pennine (which seemed to be an unlikely hit).

Good point! I’d not decided on its final location but that makes sense

This weekend I’ve almost finished the DMU depot siding and been repairing rough rail joints. This particular rail joint repair has now turned into a new 60ft concrete track panel. Those multi tools are great for jobs like this

Yes the gantries are scale 120ft size of the Healey Mills examples in the pics above. Good point by Long Rail though… the particular gantry in my pic is destined for the marshalling yard and isn’t in the correct position near the diesel depot. I’ve a much smaller resin built example for there.

Friday update.. The track laying for the new diesel depot is complete, next up is painting the engine sheds & installing fuel points & a wash plant. The reason for the diesel depot is to be able to incorporate light engine movements within its confines, so a loco can move from the shed to the fuel point then to the wash - all automatically. In the depot will be a Class 56 body on hydraulic jacks with its roof access doors open. (See pic). I know a shed this size wouldn’t be doing such heavy repairs but it adds a touch of interest. I should have the track work on the DMU depot alongside done this weekend too. There’s a road specifically for the Trans Pennine Class 124 (currently being re-motored) and two long roads for another 6 x 2 car DMU’s complete with run around siding. The noise and sight of all these idling away and moving out of the yard and back should be great fun. I’m slowly reassembling and servicing new rakes of wagons. The Motorail flats are all being re-wheeled with finer scale wheels to improve their reliability and already seem to run a lot better..

I’m mid way through building the new DMU & diesel depot, pics tomorrow. However today I’ve been trying to fix the switched diamonds which failed at the exhibition - meaning I couldn’t run trains down the dive under. Turned out it wasn’t a points failure as such but the outer rails had moved inwards off their chairs trapping the point blades. This I realised after I’d destroyed the tie bars in a frantic effort to fix them. Just looking at these points (in the picture at the bottom) it’s impossible to see where the point wire attaches to a sleeper to move them - they are that well constructed. Top pic is some other working points where I’ve uncovered the slide bar. I should say although I detailed the points I didn’t build them - pro track builder Norman Saunders did this. Im determined to fix these by tomorrow night..

Hi Steven, apparently they came from Protoneo & Fox.

I don’t mind admitting I’ve had a almighty crap few days, so this afternoon I spent half hour doing something that would brighten my spirits. These 7 brand new Heljan 47’s landed last night having been decoder & sound fitted by Lee Edmondson - 5 of which are diagrammed to work just the Trans-Pennines. 47444 ‘University of Nottingham’ & 47421 Brontes of Haworth are both favourites that I used to see frequently at Heaton Lodge in the ‘80’s so both are included in this magnificent 7 line up. I enjoy weathering locos and stock but one of my faults is I use way too much of everything. Too much superglue too much flux too much paint. So I’ve limited myself to 3 colours only when weathering locos especially - Dirty Black, Roof dirt & frame dirt. It’s easy to transform a loco with just these 3 colours so I thought I’d demonstrate how I weathered 47482 with an Iwata Eclipse airbrush earlier which took less than 20 mins .. (in fact the Iwata Eclipse is a bit like the Class 47 of the airbrush world - a good all rounder) After trying to fit this monster onto my paint stand the first job is to give the bogies and frames a pretty light dusting of Precision Paints dirty black. Even just doing this makes a huge improvement Next staying with dirty black I’ve moved onto the sides picking out the grills, corners of the windows and any raised joins or rivets. The ledge just below the windscreen gets a light dusting, as does the cab sides. The only parts of the roof though to get dirty black, is around the exhaust, the bright red roof fans and the immediate area next to them. Amazing the transformation with just one colour me thinks. I actually nearly left it at that. However..next up is the Precision Paints (no affiliation just good paint) roof dirt. Bit of a no brainer this it simply gets dusted over the whole roof (on top of the odd bits of dirty black too). Finally it’s on to frame dirt. Once again a general colour - and this I do try and use a tad more sparingly picking out the bottom of the bogies and tanks - in fact those parts closest to the track. Yep that’s frame dirt going on.. That’s it! All of 18 minutes. It’s not going to be worthy of a modelling cup at a exhibition but for a layout set in the winter it looks good enough for me! 6 more 47’s to go.. Newly weathered 47482 sits next to ‘out of the box’ 47587. Have a bash yourself it’s good fun

I’ve been rectifying a whole list of issues that the Wakefield exhibition laid bare. One of these was the tracks through the dive under tunnels at some points (despite removable scenery) being inaccessible. This caused a near disaster on the first day as I broke a rail and had to repair it using just a finger and thumb holding the soldering iron. Fortunately I managed it but it was a close call. Anyway out with a circular saw and new access holes are now in place. These sort of jobs are an absolute pain. I then decided on a whim to rip out all the track through the tunnels as (don’t ask me why) I’d originally super elevated not just the track going in the tunnels on a curve, but the whole lot underneath too. This has been causing alignment issues with track crossing board joints at right angles on top of the super elevation itself. Two days later and it’s now flat through the tunnels and gradually super elevates as it comes out. Another job done.

So true! Apologies tail lamps !

Also..I’m slowly getting higher fitting all the cross struts to the 1m high lighting gantry. It’s the top with the searchlights that’s going to take even more time but I’m confident these gantries will look really good. Cooling Towers next month.

I’m slowly working my way through servicing and repairing all the wagons including fitting brake lamps on all end ones. So far I’m 3 trains in. This Dapol HAA is having a working Dapol brake lamp fitted using a CR2032 battery holder and a 2.2k resistor which makes the brightness of the lamp about right. I don’t really care what the underside of a wagon looks like so after snipping off various bits I’ve hot glued the battery holder into place. All in all takes an hour. I found a cargowaggen in a storage trunk earlier with its brake lamp still lit a month after the exhibition - so the batteries last well! In case you’re wondering, the orange stripe underneath denotes it’s been serviced since the last exhibition.

Update on the next exhibition.. It’s at the Bath & West Showground on April 8/9/10th (Fri/Sat/Sun) in the ‘Showering Pavilion’ 9.30am-5pm daily http://www.bathandwestshowground.com/venue-hire/exhibition-halls/showering-pavilion This time though we have a few more layouts (as well as HLJ) plus manufacturers such as (of course) Heljan as well as Revolution Trains, DCC Concepts, Ellis Clarke Trains plus most of the traders who provided products for the layout such as Absolute Aspects (colour light signals) Treemendus (trees and other interesting scenic items) Tim Horn (baseboards & frames) the list goes on and awaiting confirmation from others. Nearest railway station is Castle Cary. (I’m trying to arrange a shuttle bus from here but due to a lack of PSV drivers it may prove difficult but I will post updates regularly.) Free Parking at venue & Cafe on site £12 per person, children 16 & under £8 Kids under 5 free.

Well that’s all weekend spent underground. As a result I’ve weighted and weathered 42 VEA’s. All I’ve done with these is to spray the sides and chassis with precision dirty black before using a finger wrapped in a paper towel to go downwards repeatedly along the sides. This leaves the remaining paint around the straps and handles. The roof gets a coat of roof colour and the chassis a dry brush of rust pigment. Not outstanding but good enough for me. It’s probably too heavy a weathering for a summer layout but this is the Pennines in winter!

Good idea painting the interior black. I’ll try that. Yes agreed when I repainted around 10 EWS VAA Heljan vans into Railfreight livery I used various pinky shades for the Railfreight red.