The Fatadder

A couple of other projects on the bench this evening. first up 37057 has now been fitted with its glazing and will soon be reattached to its chassis. This uses a detailed last gen chassis which has a broken frame with one bufferbeam not attached to the block. This causes issues when you can’t screw it in place, for which my planned solution is to just glue it directly to the end. next up the 153, Annoyingly this is a Hornby special with incorrect colours on the Regional Railways logos. Removing them left a mark in the paint which has been touched in with Phoenix Rail Grey which is a pretty close match. I have also cut off the CDL lights ready for fitting working lights, and removed the moulded on handrails. I haven’t got any Regional Railways transfers so this will be stuck until I next need enough to place a Railtec order. Now to start on the wiring…

A little more work on the cement rake, all of which have now had the repairs finished (mostly adding replacement handrails). Along with fitting new couplings. the bigger job was to remove all the printed numbers and replace with a set of Railtec transfers. Eventually I want to add another 4 or 5 wagons, but with the planned fiddleyard extension I should be able to add a cargowaggon onto the rear.

It was started by the late Mike Casey many years back (I think It featured in MRJ at some point?). He also had many top quality locos and coaches built for it (roecar etc). From memory the layout was built in a former indoor swimming pool! At the time it was sold (not that long before I started Brent) I made serious enquires about purchasing it, before deciding that the layout was far too big for my garage and unfortunately it would not be a viable proposition

Thats good to know, I quite fancy getting one of the kingsbridge wagon along with a couple of Forrest of Dean examples of places we regularly visit (of which one is in Rapido's range causing all this temptation.)

I had a delivery from Grange and Hodder waiting for me at lunchtime today containing the core of the baseboard for Rosevean, naturally i couldnt resist getting stuck in and building it (who needs to eat!) Once the basic board was dry two additional cross braces needed fitting, so after taking approximate dimensions from the Wheal Imogen board templates were placed in position to check the tiebars were not overlapping any obstructions. This required the removal of one arm of the cross member (hence the slightly odd arrangement in the below photo) Its good to start to see how its all going to look, I am still a little unsure as to whether I will use the whole of the larger building or if I will use the smaller half and extend the rural scenery a little further. One area that will need a little more thought is going to be the scenic exit (more specifically how to hide it), given it will cut through the middle of the platform. I am reluctant to add another bridge but it may end up being the only way. It would at least give a set of stairs down to the platform (along the lines of another station on the branch). My original plan had been to have the track running past the end of the platform, this would have given enough space to fit a house (or at least part of a house) on the far end as a scenic brake). This would have required adding an extra 12 inches or so to the baseboard, which would have made transport more difficult (as well as preventing setting the board up in the study. If I do end up going for the bridge approach to the scenic brake, I am tempted to build it on the fixed section of the fiddleyard rather than the scenic board (maximising the platform length). Either way I will give it some more thought as the construction progresses, in particular to see what alternative approaches to hide the hole in the wall / abrupt end of the platform. I still need to buy some sheet ply from which I will add the backscene and build up the open frame section (100mm deep) that will fit to the front of the board where the river will be located. This will then be filled with foam insulation profiled to the terrain (which hopefully will prevent leaks a bit better than last time!) I've yet to mention to the wife that I will be needing to do another water pour on the kitchen floor..... Sorting out some legs will also be a priority so I can get the two scenic boards set up together and get the track across the joint marked out.

I'm really torn between placing an order for a couple of them, or buying 4 pre lettered kits from POW sides. They do look rather nice!

I should really have checked this already, can anyone confirm if the double slip is an A or B switch? My templot plan has it drawn as an A7 slip but I have a feeling I should have drawn it as a B7... (or does it not make any difference with a slip?) From what I can see on the website it just describes it as a 1:7 slip

Tank wagons are an area I’ve really struggled to find many decent photos to work from, so feel your pain there. i have a fair few Bachmann models awaiting work, all of which are no doubt in the wrong liveries (dating back to when the new blue ribbon version was released). Will be a good winter project I think

Finally got round to showing the prospective names for the layout to no1 daughter. So the station has now got a name, Rosevean, the real place located a little south of the line between Roche and Luxulyan.

Just ordered one of these from Niu models https://niumodels.co.uk/f/gwr-king-indicator-shelter---oo-gauge?blogcategory=New+Products I’ve wanted to model a loco with the test shelter for a while but never got round to scratch building. Will need to finish the dyno coach to go with it now.

The next step on 37057, which has now been fitted with custom Railtec transfers for the EW&S logos and numbers. It just needs varnishing before it will be ready for reassembly. work on the double slip has now halted as there was an issue with the baseplate (British Finescale have been excellent in their resolution of this, but I need to wait for a replacement part before doing more work on it). I had confirmation today that Grainge and Hodder have dispatched the baseboard kit and I should receive it early in the week. The plan is to temporarily fit it up to the existing board to mark up the alignments, before getting the templot plan glued down. in the mean time I picked up a non running Hornby 153 from the classifieds. The plan is to finish it as 153328 in the condition running as half a 150. To this I needed to be able to properly control the lights, meaning they need converting from Hornby’s common negative to the standard dcc common positive. For this I will junk the Hornby pcb and replace with my own board. The lighting units are modified cutting across the centre as indicated in red, to brake the common negative. Then soldering on a replacement wire (shown in white) and joining together the two positives. This means the existing wiring from the cab at the dummy bogie end can be used to connect to the circuit board at the other end. before refitting the lighting boards a dab of translucent orange paint was applied to tone down the overly bright white lights. I will also be fitting working cdl lights (so it will now need a 6 function decoder to work it all. Longer term I now plan to do the same modifications to my other 153 which will enable me to run 153s as a single, a pair or with the 158. (The Bachmann 150 also has odd wiring and if I recall correctly is not possible to isolate the tail lights)

Seems I have finally fallen foul to the BG3 save bug, game crashed on Tuesday night, open it up the next day and get a 704 error no matter which save I try to open. Apparently caused by a hotfix going wrong and not updating the saves to the save version as the system is running (with no option on console to roll back to the last working version and try the update again.) Raised a ticket with Larian and to their credit they did come back with a response pretty quickly saying they are aware of the issue and working on it, but there was no fix on the hotfix that came out last night so I still cant access my campaign (nearing the end of act 1 on my second play through having tried to compete all available quests). Will be pretty gutted if I have to start again

thanks, I will drop them an email. There must be an error in the drawing for the standard OO version as I can’t see any way it works as designed without the step in the webbing.

Certainly sounds sensible to keep the webbing in place until I am ready to lay the track (particularly as it may still be a couple of months until the baseboard arrives). I will be modifying the bases anyway to remove the webbing at the parts where provision is made for wiring (so there is extra wide webbing close to the sleeper edge, so I think I will remove the webbing thats next to the tie bar at the same time. Very odd that on the single slip the webbing is offset at the tie bar as per the plain turnouts, feels like it should be the same here

Thanks for the offer, but I have a working B7 sat on the work bench for comparison (I am assuming an A5 would be the same). Looking at the tie bar the pin heads are right up against the underside of the tie bar, but are not remotely flush. I think it might be possible to countersink them slightly which would help (though it will mean removing the pins I have already fitted). This is the underside of the B7 vs the Double Slip, noting the webbing has been pushed outward by 1mm giving the pins clearance. As I far as I can see there are two options, either remove the webbing completely giving plenty of clearance for the tie bar to move. or more filing to add another 0.5mm of clearance (less if countersinking the pins works). Although my thinking is that thinning this section would weaken it so much I may as well just chop it out. B7 double slip I wonder if the spec of the pins has changed somewhat, or if all of this is in some way down to the aforementioned issues with the flash around the mouldings interfering with the tolerances too much.

Could anyone advise on the double slip (OO) kit? I am at the stage of fitting the tie bar, I have been having issues with this (on the B7 I built last night it was a touch thick thanks to flash and took a little thinning down to get running smoothly). So before fitting the tie bar I did a quick test fitting a length of rail across the tie bar to make sure it moved smoothly before adding the pins and installing. However having added the 4 pins to the tie bar and placed in the slot on the baseplate it now wont move because the pin head on the underside is up against the inside edge of the baseplate. Any thoughts as to what I am doing wrong? As with the B7 there is a lot more flash on the baseplate than on previous purchases so I have already cleaned up the slot and the tie bar. I am wondering if I am missing something simple (like cutting away the webbing either side of the tie bar once it has been soldered in place, or if I need to open up the slot further to clear the pin head) edit Looking at it further, I have checked the spacing between the holes (it matches the B7), looking at the webbing on the B7 for the sleeper gap where the tie bar sits the webbing steps out by about 1mm which gives the required clearance, whereas on the Slip it continues in line with the chairs / the rest of the webbing. Surely this should also step out here to provide the required clearance for the pin heads on the tie bars?

Today I received a delivery from British Finescale with the point kits for the Wheal Imogen extension, I had planned on saving these until Grange & Hodder deliver the baseboard. But as the buildings require more materials before I can finish them off, working on track is the next best thing... The first issue is the template, you need to print an A3 template of the point to assist with construction. In particular this is critical for measuring things like the closure rails, and for getting other bits in the right position. As I havent had an opportunity to print the template for the double slip, the plan was to build the RH B7 for which I already had a print out to hand. Annoyingly checking the dimensions it appears that when my wife printed the template for me last year she didnt print it at 100% so it has stretched the image by about 5mm in the x axis (but almost correct in the y axis). Back at the 2023 Swindon exhibition I built the point for the initial Wheal Imogen board at which I forgot this print out, instead using an ipad with the pdf scaled to fit. A couple of hours later I have the first point ready to lay. I did have one issue this time which I didnt experience on my first build last year, where the straight stock rail was not straight across the switch. A little investigation showed that the stock rail was fouling on the tie bar (which was not moving freely). I had noticed there was a some flash on the sleeper base which had not been present on my last purchase (all of which was on the bottom and would be hidden by ballast), along with a lot of flash on the tiebar (which had been tidied up before fitting). A quick check with callipers showed the gap for the tie bar was almost 0.2mm too narrow, the solution being a combination of filing out the slot and thinning the tie bar. Checking again afterwards not only was the tiebar now moving freely, but the stock rail was now straight. Looking at the double slip the tie bars look to be in much better condition so hopefully it wont have the same issue. I know I could have just sent the imperfect parts back and asked for a replacement, but as ever if I can fix something myself its a lot easier than sending something back for replacement.... This point now just needs the switch blades soldering to the tie bar and gluing the odd chair to secure the rail. All of which can wait until the slip is built tomorrow...

I started work on 47799 last year, but it has been sat waiting on a solution for the bogies. I have gone about this project through a bit of a chaotic approach. It originally started with the purchase of a very reasonably priced NRM edition body from Bachmann Spares, I hadnt realised that 799 differed from 798 in that it still had the buffer beam cowling which put an end to my original plan of fitting the body to my existing chassis under a surplus RFD loco. At this point the body was modified to correct Bachmann's mistake where they hadnt modelled the RES tail lights. With the realisation I needed a new bufferbeam moulding, it was back to Bachmann Spares to source one. For a couple of pounds more you could get a complete unit of plastic chassis moulding, metal chassis block and fuel tanks (although the latter oddly turned out to be the Class 57 design). Just meaning that bogies were needed, my initial though was a long planned modification fitting a scrap set of Heljan bogies. However before doing anything drastic I had a recollection of seeing Bachmann 47 bogies on EKM's stand at Warley so decided to hold fire until seeing them at Ally Pally. There was nothing on the stand, but looking at the website a couple of weeks later I managed to find them on their website which arrived this morning. I dont really have any need for a second working Royal Train 47, should I ever get round to modelling the Royal Train it will only need one working engine (likewise for the use on test trains that I intend to use them on in the mean time). So I am not too worried that my chassis is missing a motor and the new bogies are without drive shafts. The bogies were taken apart and had the worms removed and put aside in case one day it needs revisiting to add power. And with that 47799 is ready for service, I had better crack on with fitting some handrails to my resprayed ViTrains 47798 so that it can join it. I wish Hurst Models were still trading as I rather fancy doing a short Royal Train formation to run with it...

I can remember being told that on some stock they operate on both sides and on others they only light up on the platform side. From memory I think it was second gen DMUs that did the former and coaches did the latter, but I could be wrong... I have all my CDLs that I have installed so far to light up on both sides, I find it useful to be able to see them lit on the non platform side as a reminder that Ive switched them on (it does of course help that my planned platform only has a single operating side, so the public will never see the lights lit on the wrong side

Had a delivery today with another B7 and a double slip for the Wheal Imogen extension, wont have the basaeboard until at least next month but getting tempted to make a start work on the kits. Question to anyone who's built the slip, what did you do for painting the moulded checkrails? Not something I have had to do before, so looking to ensure that it doesnt stand out next to the rest of the point in real rail.

Interesting on those wartime tank repaints, I have a Bachmann tank in a pre war National livery sat in my wagons WIP box thats been awaiting a more suitable livery for 47, I think that gives me an answer as to how I should finish it.

I had come to the same conclusion on the Oxford Rail tender, frustratingly I just missed on on ebay the other week but will get one eventually.... When I do manage it I guess I will have to find another Bulldog that can reuse the existing Dukedog tender (or maybe an Aberdare...)

Cattle wagon hasn't progressed much further, a series of colds making soldering feel rather unappealing! Instead last night I managed to find some handrail knobs and finally crack on with finishing off the Bulldog, I had the email confirming the artwork for the Light Railway Stores etched plates last week so hopefully it wont be too much longer until it is completely finished. Plan is to pick up a pack of ModelU figures for it at Bristol, along with fitting some printed lamp irons to finish it off. It will also need the usual treatments adding coal to the tender and a set of Dinghams to fully put it into service both as an assisting engine and under its own power. Eventually it will be sorted out with the correct tender…

I was just thinking the same, one of those small things you don’t notice but once you do it really bugs you

Have sent a pm, would be perfect for my 153/ half a 150 pair given the latter is powered