Karhedron

The D600 kit is designed to fit on a standard cloass 47 chassis. This makes life pretty easy on fitting, it is also a good compromise as the D600s and 47s were close in length (certainly close enough to make the difference neglidgable in N gauge). The kit also contains resin parts for the battery boxes and underframe detail. However one part stands out as being very different and that is the bogie sideframes. The D600 bogies were heavy cast affairs and were old-fashioned even when new. The class 47s has very different bogies. Fortunately the N Gauge Yahoo group came to my rescue and suggested the Class 77 bogie sideframes made by MSL for their kit. Although not quite identical, the class 77 bogies are very close to those on the D600s. They are also cast to fit the standard Bachmann/Farish 3-axel bogie which makes fitting them to this kit easy. After check photos of the prototypes I was convinced that this was the only way to get accurate bogie sideframes short of making my own so I ordered a pair. Here is a picture of a painted sideframe prior to fitting. I have also included a link to a photo of D600 in her first year showing the MSL kit to be a reasonable match. http://www.railblue.com/pages/In%20Depth/hydraulic_pioneers.htm

I have now added the numbering and red route availability dots to the cab sides. I have also drilled out the holes for mounting the buffers (thanks to Bernie at TPM). The numbers are fox tranfers from the Warship slide. I first applied the numbers for D800 and allowed them to dry. I then carefully sliced out the 8 digit and scrapped it off with a cocktail stick. I applied a coat of Klear to seal it and then added the 6 from elsewhere on the sheet to give D600. I have ordered nameplates for D600 "Active" from Shawplan and these will be pretty much the finishing touch for the bodyshell. I have painted the buffer beam red and I have also sealed the paint and transfers with a couple of coats of Testors Dullcoat. This gives a superb flat finish every time. The only downside is that it has caused a slight fogging of the cab windows. This is not really a serious problem but I will remember to leave the windows until after I have finished the livery in future. I will try giving the windows a coat of Johnsons Klear as this may restore their clarity.

The D600 is coming along quite well. I have now added body lining and late BR crests courtesy of Fox transfers. I applied a coat of Johnsons Klear before and afterapplying the transfers and there is no trace of the backing material around the transfers. For the lining I first applied masking tape just above where I wanted the line to be. I then simply applied the transfer and brushed up up against the tape to give a nice straight line with no trouble. I recommend this method to anyone who has trouble getting lining transfers to lie straight. I have uploaded a couple more pictures showing the WIP. The flash has made the bodyside lining look white whereas it is in fact grey as per the prototype.

Once the body colour was satisfactory the masking tape was removed. I then painted the silver window frames with acrylic silver paint, a fine brush and a very steady hand. I glazed the windows with Micro Kristal Klear. This clever stuff is rather like thick PVA. You paint the inside of the frames with it then draw a thin skin across the window apperature. This then dries clear to give a wonderful flush-glazed finish. I am very pleased with this stuff and will be using it again in the future. Here is a shot of the bodyshell with the windows glazed. I am quite pleased with this as it captures the bright aluminium window surrounds of the original.

This is my first attempt at a modern image kit in N gauge (if you can call a prototype over 50 years old "modern" ). The kit is a western region D600 Diesel Hydraulic made by Carl Pelpow of "It's N Gauge". The kit comes as a resin bodyshell with etched details that is to be fitted on the older Bachmann/Farish class 47 chassis. The bodyshell is fairly good although it benefitted from a couple of evenings smoothing and filling. Once I was satisfied I primed it with Halfords grey car primer. Once this was done I masked off the roof area with tamiya masking tape. I then sprayed another coat of primer to seal the edges and prevent any of the body colour kreeping under. I then applied several light coats of Rover "Brooklands Green" car paint. I like using car paints as I find they usually give a very good finish which takes transfers very well. This particular shade is an excellent match for BR Green. This shot is of the bodyshell with the basic colours applied.

Superb! Many thanks for that.

Lovely shot, full of atmosphere. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Ah but not Great Western.

Don't worry, just musings. My current project is only at the baseboard stage, I just like to keep ideas coming. It struck me that Woodside seemed quite modelable with the retaining walls and cramped site. A mainline terminus with a fairly modest footprint.

End of WW2 through to end of WR steam so any diagrams from 1945-1965 would be helpful thanks.

Please can anyone help me find a track plan of the GWR's Birkenhead Woodside station? I have tried the R.A. Cooke books without success. Any ideas for other places to look or online resources that might have it?

I rather like the idea as it has a certain charm and could allow for some personal touches. I am a GWR modeller living in Basingstoke (just on the edge of the territory ). My local area includes some place names like Oakley Hall and Bramblys Grange which would fit nicely with Mr Collett's 4-6-0s. )

They were not as bad as all that. It has become fashionable to trash MTK but remember without them there would have been virtually no modern image models for anything not produced in RTR at the time. They were rough and ready but filled a valuable niche. Sure they are crude by modern standards but they are 30 years old. They could be made into decent representations of the prototype with a lot of patience, filler and a large file. Here is my effort with a class 83 kit, bear in mind I was only 14 when I built this. A more experienced modller could probably do a much better job but it shows they are not the unbuildable monstrosities some people claim.

There is a lovely shot of 5801 on Geoff Plumb's Fotopic site (still in GWR livery 10 years after nationalisation). http://geoff-plumb.fotopic.net/p53408841.html

D6300 and D6303 were part of the pilot batch which had a different side grill arrangement than the production version (which the Dapol model represent). Therefore D6314 and D6327 are probably the ones that will be of interest to most modellers.

Looks very nice, sorry to hear about the problems with the previous CAD files. Any idea if the N gauge one will also be this year?

Leaving the bridge uncovered would be fine IMHO. Bridgnorth has just such a footbridge, the photo below is in its current state but it was much the same in the early 60s. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=120050&nseq=8642

Hi Carl, Nice to see Vale of Oxbury progressing. I will be following this one with interest.

Depends which way it is running. I remember last year waiting for a rather delayed Bittern at Ropley station. When it finally arrived the driver was heard to grumble that Nigel Gresely may have designed the fastest steam engine in the world but it couldn't run backwards and go up hills at the same time.

Well said! That looks a very impressive layout and I am envious to say the least. If you have not already done so perhaps you might want to take a look at Iain Rice's "Mainlines in modest spaces". He has a layout for Bodmin Road in a similar space that really caught my eye when I was going through it. Of course you may not want to change anything at this stage but since the prototype is very close to what you are planning anyway it might be worth a look.

Yeah, I don't think you would want to signal a large station with them. However I will only need one or two platform starters so it might be feasible. The annoying thing though is I would prefer it without the chunky track and stuff it is supplied with. Perhaps the Ratio signals are the simplest solution.

I agree, Northern line stock makes much more sense at AP although it would have come from Moorgate via Finsbury park. 1938 or 1959 stock would both probably be appropriate. I look forward to seeing how this develops.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that light signals might be a useful alternative for N gauge. Semaphores tend to be either static (and often chunky looking when modelled) or fragile if working. I may have fuond an alternative in the form of the Tomix semaphore though. Although japanese it is based on GWR practive and only requires a bit of paint to make a passable GWR signal from. http://www.osbornsmodels.com/tomix-5541-starter-or-home-semaphore-signal-3701-p.asp