Hi all 

I’ve just converted mine to P4 

the w irons are not wide enough and require thinning to allow P4 wheels to fit 

The brakes have a bar along the bottom to give them the correct spacing, I glue the ends of the rigging down before I thinned the bar to stop it fouling the P4 wheel sets 

when the W irons are thinned I took about 1mm off, then reamed the bearing out and cleared any plastic away

test fit the wheel sets and make sure there’s no fouling and there’s it converted to P4 

cheers

will take about 30 minutes to do a wagon 

Roomey 

Yes it's another Timber Track's kit, but with a Severn Models Photo-etch interior, some bits from Scale Model Scenery and a Modelu Signalman.

Considering it's size this was quite a lengthy build:

First up building the basic structure, this follows the general layers approach of a Timber Tracks kit.

There's also a nifty jig to help build the staircase.

I also had the challenge of building a photo-etch interior from Severn Models, the basic construction was fiddly, but straight forward.

The interior is what took the time, as it all had to painted, glazing installed, provision for lighting included and of course painting the photo-etch (which for the most part was done by hand)

Once this was done, the roof, chimney and gable ends were added.

The slate roofing was then added and the painting began..

The guttering and down-pipes were fitted and the painting completed.

The Thornbury Nameplate was then added and the whole structure was weathered, before it big reveal..

And that is definitely all on the buildings front till next year..

Till next time

TBG

Right them, finally time for a progress report on the rodding. 
 

unfortunately point rodding is one of the items I deal with in my profession, that means there really is no get outs or excuses! I enjoy the thought of doing much more that actually doing it as it’s so small.

So progress. 
 

the lead off bench which is outside the box is now in place with all the cranks and pulleys in place and all the rods. I had to move the box in the end as it was just too close, luckily that’s not an issue 

the point on the departure line has been connected up with all of the FPL parts, for the first section of rodding run it’s 5 rods wide and the modelu rodding rollers really do look good. The closest thing to scale I’ve come across. If it was Wills it would be at least twice as wide

The 3 compensators on the run down the hill are also now connected up

finally the easy bit of straight rodding down the hill to the other points is now in, I had previously done the bottom end so that means we now have a completed roddding run

The only section now left to do is on the other side of the track going from the box up to the incoming point. I just stuck down the stools and marked the positions of the cranks, hopefully will complete that next week

The Great Western Trains HST rake has now been done, new 76 seat interiors in the standard class TS vehicles captured yesterday before the glazing was installed.

41 minutes ago, ERIC ALLTORQUE said:

John has done a lot of this to fix or swap motors on a few threads,hes the go too guy for info

thanks,

if you want a short cut, for £5.15 and 3 weeks shipping..

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002670420818.html

this motor is the same size/dimensions, rpm, weight, volt range etc as the Hattons 66. 
Its also near identical to several other rtr motors used across several manufacturers (ive spotted 37, 73,87,92 all with a motor looking suspiciously similar and matching credentials.

The one shown with flywheels, £6,06, has same size flywheel as used on the Dapol Class 73.

Theres certainly nothing stopping you using it with the smaller fly wheels in the 66, one of mine is happily running with it, but you may want to swap for the original 66 flywheels and for 90p extra you have 2 very nice spare brass flywheels (which tend to be quite expensive in europe) for a future project.

The plastic bearing cups can be pulled off with pliers, but Ali has these too, and are also a useful part to have around (especially the long ones as you can trim them to suit)… 87041…£7.93 for 12

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002394222645.html

For a shaft replacement, i’d suggest a Dapol class 121 shaft, and cut to shorter length, use a bit of brass rod with glue as a collar when gluing back together, as this shaft is metal…*

https://www.dccsupplies.com/shop/class-121-122-oo-drive-shaft/

* Accurascale take note… for the 66 as the Hattons 66 plastic shaft isnt very meaty and a mis-set motor, or gearbox cover will easily break them.. you’ll hear then banging side to side on the chassis wall warping !

However you can achieve the same result by cutting/extending with a bit of brass rod using 87044 or 87045 in the above link.

The motor and cups is well worth having as a spare, as the same profile/size (whilst different manufacturers) is used in many other brands too.

Beware Ali does become addictive as its cheap…. ive just recently bough a bunch of motors for a unique experiment (if it works) on my scrapped Hattons 66 chassis!