MrSimon

Hi Jim, It had been running for about half an hour in each direction before I took the videos with the rods on, it’s back running against the block and is definitely showing an improvement (strangely it’s sounding worse than it was). I altered the bent bit of etch I soldered on before to stop the worm disengaging when the engine went forwards and that’s improved the forward running a little too. How much running in is ‘normal’? Thanks Simon

Hello everybody, Thanks to all those who gave advice with my J94 - today I took two sets of wheels off, checked they were squarely on new muffs and that they were free running, and tried to run it in a little. Its a big improvement, the waddle’s gone and it runs much slower than before, but it’s still kind of ‘revving’ for want of a better word. It looks like the gears on the stub axles between the worm and the back driving wheel are tighter at one part of the revolution than the rest. I can’t work out if it would be because the muff isn’t quite central on the axel or if I’ve got the gear not quite straight on the muff. Before I order more muffs does this sound like a reasonable diagnosis? Many thanks in advance Simon

Hello everybody! After 4 weeks of putting the Portabrook 47 in the sun every time it was out to try and bleach the yellow’d varnish. It didn’t work, so I gently rubbed it back. Today I weathered the roof and then streaked some down the side and wiped it off. I had a slight panic at the start when I found out how much iron red was left in the weathering brush from when I did the tipplers... but I think I saved it! Here it is ready for varnishing. Front Train end Full body. I’m in two minds about giving the body sides a coat of clear just to give it a ‘washed sheen’ but the roof is fine. Once it’s all set I need to clean the wheels and give it a run! The only thing left to do is to make a long distance fuel tank, but that can wait for later... but now it’s time to choose a new loco upgrade/repaint! Lots to do Simon

Could you put wine-vines on the slope?

Is that what it is? I was looking for a way in an saw two really fine lines and though “that’s a really well-fitting join on such an old model” so I pulled it and there was a snapping noise And then I thought “oh well, 25 left to go!” In other news this turned up today: Great model, I’m researching to see if I can justify a teak one too...! Lots to do Simon

Haha well unless I can get the wheels turning on the Scott it will be going 2mm much earlier than I’d anticipated - bit of an extreme candidate for 3rd engine for a shunting plank! Hello everybody! Lots of little bitty things happening over the last two weeks, firstly I started finishing the class 108: I wasn’t happy with some bits of the rushed paint job I gave it before Leamington, and in hindsight I’m glad I didn’t get the transfers on before the show. All eight bogies painted at once... I got slightly distracted by the arrival of some more shortened couplings from Shapeways - they came 3 weeks earlier than I’d been expecting. I set to work fitting them to my Farish mark 3 rake. I also marshalled the rake so no more coaches need to loose their buffers. Some coaches will only run in the west coast formation of this train, only the ones without buffers will run with the HST powercars. Next I decided to give the shirt couplings a test in the HAA train. I’d used them successfully with the Farish 15ft wagons but not Minitrix ones - they’re tricky to change couplings, I’ve no idea how they were originally fitted! A short coupling on each end brought the gap down to 2mm, but I’m going to stick with one normal and one short on each wagon so I don’t have to demolish both coupling boxes on each wagon. There goes the resale value! I’m going to look into making some sort of representation of the hopper gear to go on the bottom of each wagon - there’s nothing there at the moment. It’s long term but on the Trello... Of course I took a video... This week the track had slightly tighter than normal curves to test out the shorter + shorter couplings on the minitrix hoppers in case making the conversion prevented their use on Gresby. The initial testing was with 8 wagons so if there were problems with the rear 4 wagons (the ones I had altered) I could see if it was the definitely the couplings and not something else. It seems strange seeing a single class 20... The mark 3s also behaved, but the Dapol hoppers didn’t. I’m not sure if a bit of liquid glaze to stop the couplings bobbing up and down is the answer. Anyway, lots to do! Simon

Oh that’s a pain, oh well. When does the order book close? If it’s not on here or in my inbox I can guarantee I’ve missed the announcements. Is the RMweb not the place to be anymore? Cheers Simon

Can all your trains get past the new signals? The one with the shunting head looks to be in the danger zone for long foreign coaches/railcars/wagons - but it might just be the angle of the picture.

Thanks Jonas! Hello everybody, This afternoon I got the weathering powders out to finish what was on my desk. The final two blue steel tipplers and the tankers that I’d been working on this week. During the week I finished all the little bits of painting, then I gave everything a test this evening: Also on this video, see if you can spot what’s in the repainting queue... if anyone knows how to get a Bachmann Scott to rub freely I’m all ears. I bought the Scott to convert to 2mm, but it’s not going to reach the top of the conversion queue for quite a while so it’d be handy to run the charter rake through Gresby! I satin varnished this this week and it turned yellow, it’s been sunbathing ever since to lighten it up, I don’t fancy repainting the white again! Last two of the blue tippers. I’ve got two more sets of seven to finish, but I’ve not completely decided what colour they’re going to be yet. Also today, I pulled this out the wardrobe: I don’t remember buying it, I thought it was a 5MT - I could have used it to replace the Scott on the charter rake. It looks like it’s gone down the previous owners stairs, I reckon it’s definitely going to go into the 2mm queue, it’s not big enough for charter work... With everything that was on my desk finished it’s time to start something new! Simon

Did they? Hope not I’ve got flasks on Gresby and that’s just down the line from you The 31s looking great

Hello everybody! This has been a busy few days finishing off things that have been on my desk, as my desk is a mess... Some time towards the beginning of lockdown I decided that I my ratio of hooded to non-hooded HAAs wasn’t right, so I bought a 5 pack and they sat on my desk ever since. On Saturday I picked 5 hoppers and stuck them on. The whole train needs work, I want to weather them, repaint some brown cradles maroon, and sort out closer couplings... but all that will just have to go on the to-do list on trello... After months (maybe two years) of having a pair of tankers on my desk waiting for me to finish the details I turned my attention to them. Then, when I was looking for the ladders I remember painted for them I found another tanker even less complete: After fitting the detailing kit and new bogies it was ready to join the paint queue: I stuck the painted ladders I found on the first tanker, matt varnished the superglue and got the powders our this afternoon: It’s cleaner than a lot of the earlier ones I did, and I prefer that. I might still run a streak of glossy black down from one filler, but only a small one. While the powders were out I did two more of these: Two more of the blue+orange left to weather and that’s 1/3 of the train finished! Lots to do... Simon

The soot looks really good, there’s always spot on top of the boiler. How much have you weathere the wheels? They look really effective compared with the standard Dapol. It looks like a clean engine that’s been at work, and that’s really hard to do, well done! Cheers Simon

Hi Duncan, They ran well when I tested them on Gresby, I swapped out the wheels for replacement ones from Bachman though - they’re free running and the inners stay coupled. I need to look into the couplings between the buffer/outer wagons though, the only real issue I’ve had with the running is keeping the three sets coupled together, it’s definitely fixable though! What issues have yours had? Are they the new release NGS ones? Cheers Simon

Hello everybody, It’s been a while, this is the 3rd weekend without getting the unitrack out - but I’ve been busy since my last update! I had a slight issue with the J94, when the motor turned one way the worm lifted off the gear; I soldered a bit of scrap etch on to keep it in place: Next I need to check all the wheels/axles/muffs to get it running and get rid of it’s new ‘waddle’... Today I had a weathering session. I finished fourth post van, this is the rear vehicle so has a tail lamp and a bufferbeam. It also got new buffers from the 2mm. I can’t do the final van until Etched Pixels opens back up. Next, I finished the next two pipe train wagons: I think there’s just two or three left to go. Finally today I made a start at weathering the Tipplers. This last week or two I’ve fitted the brakewheels, painted the underframes and bogies. Here’s one that’s ready for weathering. I started with dirty powders on the underframe, then I rubbed dirty/ore colour in to the corners on the ribs, then I rubbed it off and gave it a dust of dirt. Three down, four to go (and then 14 others I’ve barely started finishing yet). Plenty done but lots to do! Simon

Disappointed that they haven’t chosen NorthWestern/First North Western blue with the big gold stars. Again. Fingers crossed for batch 3, cos that’s not a livery I can paint myself...