Etched Pixels

LB&SCR 7ft wheelbase dumb buffered ballast wagon - amazingly some of these survived into grouping. Tester for a 52ft Thompson Starting work on a 'Continental brake'

The "empty to Delabole" rather dates the wagon too, as that would have been quite tricky well before the flow stopped.

It's now got an underframe, roof vents (doesn' t match the sides but its just a tester) and bogies on. No battery boxes yet. I've got some similar ones but I'm digging around for good shots/drawings of the actual Maunsell boxes so I can etch accurate ones.

The CP 47 shell was one that came out a few years ago as a resin body for the BachFarr 47/new 57 chassis. It's better than the old Farish 47 shell in that it's the right shape but it's not as sharply moulded as the new Bachmann Farish 47 model. For a brief while it was the only correctly shaped 47 in N scale, but now its obsolete.

The stripes are fox transfers - its a panel of clear and black wasp stripe fitted over painted yellow, varnished and then the windows cut out with a sharp knife. They are very handy indeed. Airbrush - I know - some day, but I don't really have anywhere remotely suitable for airbrushing.

Good to see rmweb slowly recovering In the meantime I've mostly decalled the 02 and am also part way through painting and decalling a Carl Peplow resin 47 shell I had lurking in a drawer. and the Maunsell coach project is slowly getting there. This is a test build with the underframe, sides ends and roof. Couple of small errors to fix on the underframe etches but nothing serious. Need to fit the bogies, underframe and roof vents next, see how it looks.

If you've got access to proper searchable academic journal archives those can be a great source of reference material.of all kinds. On the internet people seem to often miss out a few good sources railphotoarchive.org - searchable by loco number and thus invaluable youtube - lots of old video footage and more views of entire train formations than the photo sites www.rssb.co.uk - rail safety standards (see also www.rgsonline.co.uk). These are invaluable for modern image modelling as they include all the rules/checklists for things like modern stations, lighting, crossings etc so you can build the model to the regs. There are also some rather handy yahoo groups

The Japanese ones are non working designed to ride below the imaginary wires.. Mechanically and modelwise they are a wonder to behlold. Greenmax PT-71A is probably the one you want for modern UK stock but Greenmax stuff is fairly hard to find outside of Japan (annoyingly as their TR-23 and DT-10 are also the perfect bogies for a ton of UK pre-group stock) For some pictures of the Greemax pantographs: http://www.mid-9.com...pantographs.htm (and they can be put in up or down position)

I've been rather busy and come holiday time busier still as I've been taking all the kits I seem to have acquired and building them. At the moment my desk is occupied by a Worsley Works 02, and 10203 which I'm currently attempting to produce. I've also got a part built SHT Peckett but just discovered there are multiple versions of the Bachmann 0-4-0 US dock tank and that I've got the wrong one. Grumble.

I solder fine decoder wires direct to those little strips on the old CO-CO and DMU chassis as over time they get oily and also in heavy use can wear a bit. Not sure its a big win but its less potential future maintenance work. The BO-BO chassis has a much more sensibly designed bogie-chassis power transmission and doesn't need this. (Another reason to do this of course is that short of a chemistry exercise you can't solder to the metal blocks on the chassis, so it eliminates another weak point).

D600s are available RTR resin albeit a bit pricy. Missing are however some of the other old heritage hydraulics that people forget - NBL D2/1, D2/10 etc (incredibly for North British diesel builds some of the NBL shunters not only survive in preservation but actually still run) - Class 127 DMU

All been a bit hectic and I seem to have spent all my modelling time on real work and also Ultima sorting. Finally got a bit of time however so the Gresley now has bogies. Don't yet have the NGS bogies for the Thompson but I do have the TPM goodie bag so I can get cracking on the rest of the Regional Railways rake. I've also now got a nice set of "Atlantic Coast Express" plates which will go nicely on the SWT 159 in modern image mode. Wondering about destructing a Dapol 153 when the prices come down (ie after few more releases) and doing a custom 'North Cornwall Line' livery with stuff like Tintagel, Arthur and Obby Oss on it.

It would. Rusting is an electrochemical process (which is why you use sacrificial anodes on steel boat hulls and water heaters and the like). Unfortunate for us modellers really.

Thats good to know - both that at least some of the decoders have proper fast acting protection and that the NMRA is working on some kind of conformance. Relco type systems have their uses in small scales especially with things like short wheelbase industrial locos. Alan

If they ran locos with it for a bit that isn't testing as I said before. Voltage spikes damage silicon devices that are not designed to take them, even very short ones. The damage can be gradual and insidious. It really will depend what the decoder is designed to handle and how it handles sudden short (relatively) high voltage spikes The people you ask are almost never the people selling the product, it is the people whose product it will be used with. So I would suggest anyone with doubts asks Lenz, Digitrax, Hornby and/or Bachmann or whoevers decoders they use whether it is safe to use with their hardware and whether it will invalidate the warranty on the decoder.

Paint shop and decal time. Three LSWR wagons left to number, one done. Meanwhile in the coach shop: I've decided to the Thompson full brake in slightly faded BR blue, a livery that some of these vehicles lived to carry. I don't imagine much other matchboarded stock made BR Blue and it will make a nice mix in with the parcels rake along with the Siphon, BGs and at some point I probably want to add a Stanier or a Hawksworth just to break it up further. Now waiting its bogies and the gangways fitting. Tthe Gresley is now painted barring a final touch up on the and awaits the arrival of bogies (hopefully in a week or so) to complete the build. Further progress was delayed due to the outbreak of a rugby international, and shortly again by Dr Who ....

I would be incredibly incredibly cautious about this. There are a couple of problems with the relco style of cleaner and DCC. The first and obvious one is that it interferes with the DCC signal when in use. That can fixed and presumably this unit has fixed it. The second is more insidious - silicon chips not only don't like higher voltages (hence the fact you are supposed to take static precautions updating a PC) but they can gradually get damaged even by the most momentary of discharges. It could be all the modern decoders have enough protection on the power side to clamp any spike fast enough. That isn't something you casually test IMHO, it's something where you have to go do the maths with the vendors of the decoders because if it is a problem it will happen over time and only in some cases (just like ignoring the antistatic precautions on a PC often works providing you don't do it too often). I would ask the decoder vendors what they think of it if you want a more cautious asessment.

The overlays are 124mm long and in two parts (overlapping) about 8.5mm high (top section) and 6mm high (bottom) if I measured it right.

D.23 in printed sides and some Ultima etched conversions intended for the Minitrix ones. The printed ones look nice together but the really don't mix with the Dapol ones because there are subtle size differences and the printed versus moulded side is just too different.

The Gresley is now closer to done. Still need to make roof cowls (why did I pick the awkward coach). The sides to this are screen printed to a pre 1985 design. Next to it is a faded Regional Railways Mark2 coach complete with peeled numbers and other little details, the latest in vinyl relivery bits from Electra. Both await interiors and roof paintwork finishing so they should a fairly similar comparison I think the Gresley stacks up pretty well - and shows just how good a job Cavndish did back in 1984 or so.

Re-introducing the Ultima ones - before various people building EMU stock beat my door down 8)

I don't believe the original Ultima produced a single pre-printed item in rail blue ! Some of the etched kit vehicles survived into blue (eg the thompson full brake I believe did). The buffet cars also got a rebuild somewhere along the way and that involved at least one window vanishing. I'm also not sure precisely which diagram survived on the ECML..

A quick detour from the Thompson to another bit of Ultima stuff. The sides, roof and ends are not a problem but the original aluminium floor is long deceased. Worse than that the price quotes I've got for a new die to extrude the stuff are not really viable with the Dapol Gresley stock on the market, nor would have space to store the typical "minimum order" So to see what was needed and as a planning aide I cut a floor out of 1mm plasticard 117mm x 16mm to go with the roof and ends. Then I stuck 3mm or so square plastic rod each side between the ends and stepped slightly out to line up with the profile on the ends both to give the sides somewhere to sit and to stop the chassis from bending. The solebars are plastic U channel about 2mm high and the rest of the underframe is Ultima parts built to the original instructions. No bogie mounts yet (or bogies in fact) but one problem at a time. I also need to work out which interior strip goes with each coach, which isn't helped by the fact they are labelled by some old numbering system with things like "N27". When it comes to teak printed sides are a definite winner even when not yet stuck down (need to paint the rest first)

It's slowly taking shape. The underframe is now fitted and the various white metal bits hung off it barring the dynamo. The roof has its vents and I've put the handrails on. That leaves the end gangways and some spots of filling to sort out. The buffers are fun as they have to be held in a pin vice and filed to give the Gresley style flat top.