Ressaldar

I received the adaptor plate yesterday - unfortunately after I had gone down to the Club for the usual running session, so I cleared the decks this morning and set to. Mounted the plate on a suitable mound of bluetac and worked from top to bottom (as necessary) with the plate angled across the bench, matching the angle that I offered the soldering iron and I was very please with the outcome. I soldered 150 lengths of the appropriate coloured wire so that I could then pair up with the red/black wires already fitted, away from the small pads on the plate. I have wired up the cab lights and interior lights as separate circuits and have by-passed the switch that is provided for the cab lights and used Swiss Mapping for this function. All was well until I placed the model on the track and switched the power on - a short straight away. So off came the body and I set to with the meter, to discover very quickly that the pick-ups on the bogies were different at each end - motor bogie red nearest me, trailing bogie black nearest me - I had connected reds with reds and blacks with blacks elsewhere and all had been fine! so it was a simple job to cut the trailing bogie wires and swap them over. Body replaced and power switched on - all fine and some awesome sounds coming out from underneath!!!!!!!!!! Running number reprogrammed and Swiss Mapping done - so it's down the Club tonight to give it a good run. regards Mike

Hi Steve, many thanks for taking the trouble to post the diagram. It does confirm the loudspeaker connections are CN6, the problem is getting hold of a suitable plug to fit the socket. I have, as I said earlier, decided to go for the ESU adaptor plate and go from there - hopefully, it will be in today's post. regards Mike

Hi TTG, thanks for the tip, I'll laminate some plasticard for the shelf while I'm waiting for the adaptor plate to arrive. regards Mike

The lights ordered from Howes as mentioned in the post #23 above have arrived and they are the same size as those used on the O Gauge Class 31 that I tried - so it is now down to using the ESU adaptor board ordered from SWD yesterday which should be in the post today. In the meantime I have cut out the speaker housing as supplied and in doing so, the 'wall' at the top of the picture also came out as it formed part of the side walls. The provided pegs for the circular speaker screws were also removed to a level lower than that of the 'shelf' on the left hand side and the right hand side shelf was scraped down to the same level as the left hand. With the speaker in place, you are left with a convenient gap for the wires to pass under on their way through the rectangular hole and onto the adaptor board. The speaker will be held onto the shelves with strips of double sided tape or blue tack. Next post should hopefully show the adaptor plate in position. regards Mike

Hi TTG, many thanks for explaining your installation and the fact that by following the instructions, I have blown up a non-existent problem out of all proportion. I will as I said earlier, fit my speaker as originally intended and as you have done . As far as the speaker connections are concerned, I have ordered some 00 light leads from Howes which have mini plugs already fitted and are hopefully the same size as those on the Heljan PCB - if not, then I will order an ESU adaptor plate from SWD, wire that up and discard the Heljan PCB . As for the studs, they are i fact just the fixings for the corridor connector end plates which had not been pressed fully home and thus not allowing smooth removal of the body from the chassis. Enjoy your model, I will be enjoying mine hopefully by the end of the week, when it should be back in one piece and making sound as it should. regards Mike

Hi TTG, your installation is exactly how I envisaged mine to be. Could you please post a photo showing the connections of the speaker cable at the PCB and also, what allowance have you made to take account of disconnecting the moulded 'engine block' form the chassis to allow the removal of the body. regards Mike

Hi David, a typo on my part - should have said CN6. Replying to a query from another Forum, The internal plan dimensions of the speaker enclosure are 33.5mm long x 22.0mm wide it is all plastic and the columns are for fixing the ESU 23mm dia speaker, although neither Heljan nor ESU supply the screws to achieve the fixing! The double Zimo speaker that I have would just fit lengthways if I remove the two end walls and that is the prefered option (A) but it is how the wires are connected in such a way as to enable the whole of this unit to be detached in order that you can gain access to remove the body. The circular hole is for the 'shipping screw' to pass through to hold the baseplate onto the chassis via a threaded hole. I will need to enlarge both holes to 6.5mm dia. to allow a two way mini connector to pass through - (widest dimension is 5.5mm) and just rest on the unit floor, having poked the wire - long enough to allow initial separation of this unit from the chassis, back through. here not being any space or recesses between the top of this unit and the underside of the chassis. I assume that the angled rectangular hole - there is a corresponding hole in the chassis, is for wire to pass through, but in my mind does nothing to overcome the problem. All very difficult to put into words and a video of the operation would take longer to set up than execute! I will keep you informed of any progress made. regards Mike

Hi Klaus, many thanks for the heads up regarding the connector plugs. As I said, I am sure that I have some Heljan PCBs that I have removed from locos in the past that might provide the necessary plugs, if not, I can cut off the lead to the roof fan and use that as I do not run the fan off of the DCC decoder. I wait with baited breath regarding the circlips. regards Mike

The decoder - Zimo MX644D and speaker were collected from the sorting office this morning and I have now removed the body from the chassis and then the blanking plate from the PCB - and guess what, no indication on the PCB nor in the 'instructions' as to which terminals/pads are for the speaker wires. This and the fact that my comments above regarding the wires from the decoder to the loudspeaker,have been born out, in as much as the two holes already through the chassis are too small even for a mini two wire plug and socket to pass through. Headscratching of the first order is needed before I proceed any further. This is the Heljan PCB with the blanking plate removed. The Zimo instruction sheet shows the loudspeaker pins as No 2 & 3 from the top of the right hand line (adjacent to the left of CN5. CN1 & 7 are for the route indicator boxes and CN3 & 9 are for the cab lights and the two black leads (between CN2 & 3) go to the micro switch that controls the cab lights. Perhaps CN5 is the connector for the loudspeaker, I have emailed Tower to see if they are any the wiser, I will report back when I have the solution. regards Mike

They used oil lamps until they were refurbished and running in blue, in the same way as the Class 121/122 bubble cars. regards Mike

Herewith the 'innards' - it took quite a while to take the body off after removing the retaining screws, the fit of the bulkheads is much on the tight side and there are a number of studs, (used to transfer power to the lights) that could have been a better fit, that got in the way - even more so when replacing the body! Also discovered that one of the pickup wires had come adrift so the bogie side was prised off (typical Heljan 'fixing') so that was re-soldered. The chassis is die-cast and the bogies are held on via 'circlips'. The loudspeaker will need to have a plug and socket in the line as the speaker housing is in the piece that is removed when the body fixing screws come out. cheers Mike

Herewith 'the works' it appears to be similar to the Mashima double ended motor, with the brass worm acting directly onto an 18T nylon pinion. Pick up is on all eight wheels. I will get into the innards after lunch. regards Mike

Just taken delivery of the latest Heljan offering, the first of the DMU series announced a couple of years ago First impressions are that it looks the business and once weathered, it will look even better! The interesting news is that it is fitted with a 21 pin socket, so just a question of removing the blanking plate and plugging in your prefered 21 pin decoder. space has been allowed in the chassis for an ESU 23mm dia speaker. The headcode boxes are lit and directional and there is a slide switch underneath for cab the cab lights. It will have a good blow at the Club this evening and I will report back as to how that went tomorrow. regards Mike

Has anybody heard if Heljan are fitting 8 or 21 pin sockets to aid the DCC installation (a la Dapol on the 08 and Terrier) - especially as the units have been designed 'with sound in mind'? regards Mike

The paint has now dried on the Diag D2046 and the transfers applied all the usual culprits used on the finishing Air horns from MMP ETH from JLTRT Transfers from Precision Labels Lining from HMRS but the paint for the body (cellulose) was from aerosols made up for me at a local car paint outlet and I have been most impressed with the finish. The chassis was Halfords satin black then over sprayed with Railmatch Frame Dirt followed by Hobby Holidays engine grime over the axlebox covers, springs etc. A breather now until the New Year to programme the BR Diag 1/551 and the S&T conversion. regards Mike

I am looking for more photographs of DM395280 during its short life in LoadHaul livery to assist me in producing an O Gauge model, based on a Sidelines kit. This is one of only two that I have come across https://www.flickr.com/photos/75892080@N06/8545388173/in/photolist-e28mbR-mLuzr3-UJkSDq-SzmAyc-dpxRKV-9qAeuf-LWDEkT-aasx1w-Lv7UTh-9tkNrj-ngEzD5-e7e4BE-XUJ9Tj-dw4c5e-e7Lgiv-6kgmok-raQgse-dWk3w8-e4mad2-pxNntK-bUtLXw-dyTM7U-e3CRfw-eedntU-pThYVA-9ByB2g-krjRf9-avq1yp-pMZApY-XUJ9AA-bCZrrd-cHiX47-btccNK-iFF3EA-ijyPEf-cvRR7J-p7Cxd4-rwuQzU-omrpY2-8zCrJ3-gp2haZ-e6pFLd-b52G4e-caBc1C-7wEt7S-oRXLsW-onYM23-dQwB25-dC9TFd-kNLFtZ This is the state of progress so far: the revised side - all seven pieces, temporarily held down with masking tape to check the length, I gave myself a mm spare just in case! The other side just needs two large window openings reducing to 2' width. I am particularly in need of end details and any evidence of speed restriction signage. Many thanks in anticipation. regards Mike

While waiting for the paint to dry on the D2046 Inspection Saloon, I decided to take the bull by the horns and try my luck using a friend's Metalsmith guillotine to chop up the sides of another Sidelines kit to hopefully end up with this: LMS Inspection Saloon At Hebden Bridge (Michael McNicholas) which is one of the two ex LMS 50' Kitchen car conversions that were carried out in 1959 and whilst similar quite similar to the LMS Diag D2046, do have quite a few differences - location and spacing of doors and windows, individual angled rainstrips over each of the doors and a fixed centre light in the ends as opposed to a droplight. I had a couple of spare sides from the producing the EWS liveried coach so one these became the cut and shuffle 'Corridor' side for this build, together with parts from one side of the Kitchen Car kit and the other side is used for the 'Guards' side, just needing two of the four foot wide windows reducing in width and these 'infills' will come from the second cannibalised side. I had marked out the main side to be cut up and checked that the sum of the width of the individual pieces came to the magical 350mm and not having previously used a guillotine I had a few practice chops on some spare etch and not having lost any fingers in the process 'went for it' resulting in the Guards side at the bottom, just needing two inserts to produce the right effect and the Corridor side made up of seven individual pieces with a sliver to file off at the end of piece G. The plan is to solder a narrow brass strip (form the excellent Eileen's range) behind each join and then form the tumbleholme in the usual Sidelines manner. More fun to come whilst waiting for more paint to dry next week. regards Mike

nearly finished another Diag D2046 ex LMS Saloon and thought that it would make a good comparison picture against the BR Diag 1/550 the change of the window and door arrangement can clearly be seen. The current model will be DM 45026 and finished in Blue/Grey livery. regards Mike

Hi Modelman 14 are you also replacing the nose grills? This is a task facing me to create 37.674 in Railfreight Red Stripe - I have the PH conversion kit ready and waiting. regards Mike

Hi Craig, nice touch on the seats, looking forward to the rest of the build. regards Mike

very nice Jinty, looking forward to seeing the weathering. regards Mike

The dust was blown off of the lid of the re-cycled take away box that has been home to the castings, etches and the few made up sub assemblies and work on the underframe was underway after a three year pause and after four hours enjoyable filing, scratching, cursing and gluing: this had been achieved. The trusses (they are level and parallel) were already in place, but nothing else.The next thing to tackle will be to finish the brake rigging and then the battery boxes (these were included in the kit) and gas cupboards (not included so will be scratch built) and the buffer beams - basic fabrication already done but buffer housings etc still to do. regards Mike

A couple of shots taken at the Club yesterday the 37 will be going into the workshop to have the nose grills replaced and possibly the skirts removed and the buffer beam sorted - once the S&T Inspection Saloon is sorted. regards Mike

Now that the Q13 & Diag 1/550 are out of the way, it is time to search out another 'shelf queen' so, keeping in the Inspection Saloon mode, I dusted the big white box containing the H33 conversion to the Reading S&T Inspection Saloon down and peeped inside to find It is nearly almost three years since I last did anything on this kit where I had filled in the windows in the redundant double doors, one of the infills has shrunk - a good reason for leaving three years + between the filling and re-opening the box! Not only has there been a slight shrinkage around the edge, the surface has become slightly concave. I think the solution is to scribe around the perimeter and scratch the surface to provide a key for a very fine filler and then a few sessions with 1200 wet and dry and some witness primer. Respraying the area bounded by the windows should be ok and then a keying in at the bottom edges with T-cut should do the trick. I have never painted the sides and ends prior to final assembly before and here is a good enough reason not to do it again at any time in the future. I used JLTRT spray cans and thankfully have a number of cans of both colours in stock. I have now started to look at the outstanding items on the underframe. The bogies are complete and ready for the primer to be applied. regards Mike

I have been informed that the pictures did not copy over when I made my last post, so I have edited the post to hopefully correct the error. regards Mike