RMweb Gold john new Posted August 13, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 13, 2019 A related real-life ooops today - https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/17833430.trains-disrupted-lorry-hits-railway-bridge-castle-cary/ 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Revolution Mike B Posted August 20, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted August 20, 2019 (edited) It's been a while since I've updated this thread, mainly down to work commitments and my arm / shoulder still playing up! I've not really done anything on the layout except drill a couple of holes, however, I have been a little busier at home getting my mojo back in order by way of some easy-ish modelling. While I was at the New Milton show with Ian, I bought 5 Hornby (made in China) Railroad TTA (sort of) tanks for £20 figuring I'd use them for a P4 MOD project I'm toying with, but that kind of went out the window a bit when I wondered how far I could get with making them look better without spending any money. Here are the tanks... .....here's what I was after...... ...and this is what I ended up with.... It's far from prototypical, but for £4 and some transfers, I can find a use for it on Oak Road, along with the other 4! I've also been messing around with a 166 Rhys gave me a while back..... ...it's moved on a bit since these pictures and I'm just waiting for some transfers. I've also cobbled together my old 158 from way back in this thread to resemble a GWR liveried one....... ....the paint work is shocking, and the doors need redoing, but there's no way I'm paying £240 for a new one! Once I can get a close up of the Air Dam from the side, I'll modify it to look like it's supposed to, and I may even cast them for people to convert theirs. The unit is just pushed together for now hence why the front is hanging off and there's no glazing. Justin has a list of stuff to knock up so I can get the station finished, along with some fencing for the stone bridge, and railings for the bridge at the other end, and once the bits turn up, I'll add them for the Swansea Show. And, talking of shows, I've just had invites to Ally Pally, Peterborough and Doncaster, which means more people can see it in the North East.....I'm working on the North West! So that's about it at the moment except one more thing...... I had a message from Train Tech asking me if I'd like anything from the range for the layout due to my support for Meningitis Now. This came out of the blue and was a really nice gesture, because unlike the existing 'sponsors' (I'm not sure what else to call them) who've very kindly helped me out, TrainTech don't know me at all! I've asked if they can make something for me and I'll let on what it is once they've done it. Right, back to the day job............. Edited August 20, 2019 by scoobyra 21 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erixtar1992 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Would be great to see you at ally pally mike. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swifty11 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Great work as always! On a side note, some of the GWR 158/9s are now being reformed back into 2 car units from 3 which may be a bit of a help when modelling them for you. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted August 28, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 28, 2019 As mentioned, Train-Tech have made something for me and a nice box of goodies turned up at Grapefruit Towers.... ...inside this box is 12 modified flashing tail lamp units that flash at twice per second, as with the modern MK3 Dorman lamps. They come with a battery and a very bright LED, but I use them to power the DCC Concepts rear lamps (filed down to make them look like MK3s) and they work a treat! Obviously, they're only good for trains working in one direction, so I've got some other wagons fitted with decoders for reversible trains. The part number is AL4 and although they're not on the Train-Tech website, you can order them by phone, or by email. Here's the unit bodged in to the bottom of an IOA.... I'll clean the hole up once I've finished. Next up, the 166 donated by Rhys is coming along nicely... and so is the 'old faithful' 158.... My painting is definitely dire but I'm kind of beyond caring now.....my arm hurts too much and I want some more units available for Swansea. So that brings me to this........ ....replacement louvres 'take two'! These are a much better fit than the first attempt and they're away for casting and will hopefully be available for the end of September. As far as the layout goes, there will be very little, if not any work done before Swansea, which is a shame, but with a knackered shoulder, and work being manic, it is what is is unfortunately.........but it all works, and we'll have lots of trains running 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted September 18, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 18, 2019 Well guys, the Swansea exhibition is this weekend and the layout hasn't really moved on much since Taunton last year. It does however, have it's nameplate and fascia! I'm a bit miffed that I got superglue bleed on the extreme left fascia board so I need to try and cover it up somehow. I need to do a bit more painting and then it'll be packed up ready for the show. There's no layout sign on it so if you're travelling to Swansea, just look for the HST nameplate, or, 4 lunatics in bright orange and white T Shirts crashing trains in to each other! The team this weekend is your's truly, Ian, Rhys and Graham. Cheers Mike 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Brady Posted September 20, 2019 Share Posted September 20, 2019 Mike Have good weekend , still impressed with your layout , one day i will get to see it . 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted September 20, 2019 Tempfix Share Posted September 20, 2019 Hope Swansea goes well. Good luck! Rich 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Revolution Mike B Posted September 21, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted September 21, 2019 Oak Road in all its (unfinished) glory 22 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted September 24, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted September 24, 2019 Oak Road is now back at Grapefruit Towers and it can quite happily sit there for a while too because the weekend didn't go completely as planned. Unfortunately, Graham had to cancel due to family commitments but to be fair to him, with the traffic getting to Swansea taking us nearly 7 hours from Portsmouth, via Ian's, he may have arrived on Sunday! When we did get in to the venue, I'd realised I'd left the leg braces back in the workshop, and the space allocated for the layout was only 16'! Luckily, I had some wood in the van that Ian cut up (too short - my measurements not his) and we made some leg braces 'on the fly' which held up well, and we shoved the layout up as close as we could to the next one (Bradwell Point) to make sure we weren't stuck halfway across a walkway. It took a few hours for things to settle down on Saturday but after that, other than two point motors not behaving, Ian and Rhys did a great job of running the trains, with a mix of present day and 90s stock all weekend, and I'm very grateful for their help. There's now a list of priority things to do before the next show to aid reliability, and make putting the layout up and taking down easier, and again, a huge thanks to Ian & Rhys for putting up with me being an argumentative miserable git after Sunday lunchtime. I can relax and help operate a layout that works on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October as Tidworth and it's new extension makes it's debut at Fareham 2 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 Gutted i couldn't make the weekend but looks like it all went well, whens it out again Mike? Graham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Temeraire Posted September 24, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 24, 2019 11 minutes ago, shanks522 said: whens it out again Mike? When it works!!! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 4 minutes ago, Temeraire said: When it works!!! so 2021? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempfix Rich Papper Posted September 24, 2019 Tempfix Share Posted September 24, 2019 Don't worry, we've all been there. My second ever exhibition I managed to short out the entire layout about half an hour in. I tried everything I could think of to get it going for about 5 minutes with rising levels of panic but to no avail. Then a very kind passer by leaned over my traverser, flicked one of the bolts and it all came to life again. Turned out I had managed to build it so that the bolts that locked the traverser in place were able to touch the adjacent track. Only by about half a mm but I would never have spotted it! rich 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Temeraire Posted September 27, 2019 RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted September 27, 2019 (edited) Hi Just remembered the pic I took last weekend at an eventful Swansea Exhibition, had planned to take a few but there was only one in the end! Temeraire (what else!) comes to a stand at Oak Road with a diverted Exeter-Waterloo train in the 1990s! Edited September 27, 2019 by Temeraire 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Revolution Mike B Posted October 3, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted October 3, 2019 (edited) It's been really nice just to chill out lately and not feel the pressure of getting Oak Road out on the road. I've been playing around with a few things at home in the shape of 43185 - Great Western which has been done using a converted Virgin Power Car..... I've had some paint bleed from the masking tape with the red stripe so it's back in the spray booth being sorted. Then there's a little project to replace the awful Hornby Class 50 louvres with something that looks a little more realistic..... and fitted and painted to one of my 50s.... These are resin cast and are actually way better than my painting has made them look. If anyone would like a set, they're £15 non painted (from me) I've got a few more things up my sleeve by way of some MK3 upgrades including jumper sockets, emergency steps and gangway ends to improve the 50 odd HST trailers - I know it seems like a daft idea but I'm really starting to get to grips with modifying stock now, even if some of it does look like a dog's breakfast.....but practice, as they say, makes perfect! So, returning to the Swansea show, Richard Watson took this picture, and another chap on Facebook photo-shopped in the lights (they're broken). As with Ian's picture of the 50, it's made all the effort of building the layout worth it.... Edited October 3, 2019 by scoobyra 27 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted October 6, 2019 Share Posted October 6, 2019 More lovely work here Mike.. thanks neil.. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 (edited) Hi Young Mike, Great to meet you and the Tidworth Crew at the weekend, some REAL modelling going on here, which is way above my skills level but always fascinating to see. Also like the look of your Bass Axe and the Acoustic in the background as well. Keep up the good work and the keep the pics coming. Edited October 7, 2019 by Andrew P 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb67 Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 Hi Scoobyra, been looking through your thread and I'm sure I've said it before but I love looking through your pics. Your layout immediately creates the atmosphere of the 'modern day' GWR. Great stuff! Steve. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted October 8, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 8, 2019 On 07/10/2019 at 08:13, Andrew P said: Hi Young Mike, Great to meet you and the Tidworth Crew at the weekend, some REAL modelling going on here, which is way above my skills level but always fascinating to see. Also like the look of your Bass Axe and the Acoustic in the background as well. Keep up the good work and the keep the pics coming. Cheers Andy, and likewise. 'Young Mike'? I could get used to that! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted October 14, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2019 (edited) I've been a bit of a busy bee over the last few days, just whiling away the time with some basic modelling. Some drivers for the 'still work in progress' WCR 47... .... and weathering up my birthday present form Nicky.... After some prompting from Nigel, I also acquired some Kernow / Revolution JNA-Ts at the weekend which I've started to weather too.... ....but there's a couple of jobs that have given me the most satisfaction. I've been scratching my head for ages after being told I couldn't exhibit Oak Road at a 'finescale show' because I had tension lock couplings....which I find a bit hypocritical considering sprat & winkle couplings are no more prototypical....but it did get me thinking. The wagons I run have screw links in real life, but in model form, this gives rise to two major issues, firstly, there's no available option for sprung buffers on JNAs or IOAs, and secondly, myself, Ian and Rhys don't want to spend 4 hours coupling up a rake of 20 wagons! Cue my cunning plan.... ..this is a cut down Bachmann pipe coupler, with two tiny magnets glued to each half. The wagons can negotiate radius 2 curves (not that I have any on the layout) without falling off the track, and because of the design of the Dapol coupling cam, I could reduce the gap even further if I wanted to. The magnets are also very strong and I managed to tow a box of M8 bolts along without them separating. So cue the next bit. The MK3 coaches have been driving me bonkers with the overly large D Ring couplings, so I tried the pipe connector with the newer NEM pocket Hornby MK3 bogies....this didn't work because they didn't float - if one bogie tilted, then then the connected one would do the same. I'd looked at various ways of retro fitting the Bachmann cams but they weren't long enough for the 75' chassis, so I bit the bullet and bought some Keen Systems coupling cams. These aren't for the feint hearted as the coach floor needs to be cut out, and with the price of these coaches going through the roof, it was a difficult decision to make....actually, I lied, it was more difficult to work out where to cut the floor, than actually doing it! Standard D Ring.... Keen cam and socket..... ...this is how they look coupled up..... I was a bit dubious as to whether they would work but I brought them in to work this morning and they work perfectly! Unlike the wagons where I've cut one side of the pipe connector off, I've left these as the double width, and the next step is to add some 3x2x1 rectangular magnets to them. The power cars will need a bit of thought due to the tanks but I have a plan! Referring back to the XC coaches, Hornby made a livery error (really??) and left the black band off of the bottom of the tumblehome - this makes the coaches look completely wrong, so I've added it (well to two so far).... ....it makes the body side look shallower and the coach look longer. I've also added some emergency steps too.... One more thing of note is that I've bought a new type of point motor to trial as a replacement for the unreliable Conrads - I'll post an update later on in the week once I've had a chance to fit it. Edited October 14, 2019 by scoobyra 12 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Red Fox Posted October 14, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2019 22 minutes ago, scoobyra said: The power cars will need a bit of thought due to the tanks but I have a plan! I've gone for Symoba coupling conversions from DCC Supplies on my HST sets, good for the power cars as you don't have to cut into the floor, just the middle of the air tanks to make space for the slider. 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted October 14, 2019 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted October 14, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Red Fox said: I've gone for Symoba coupling conversions from DCC Supplies on my HST sets, good for the power cars as you don't have to cut into the floor, just the middle of the air tanks to make space for the slider. That'll do nicely for the PCs. I've not seen them before - how do they cope with being coupled gangway to gangway and negotiating radius 2 curves? Mind you, having just checked, they're bloody expensive! Edited October 14, 2019 by scoobyra 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Red Fox Posted October 16, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 16, 2019 On 14/10/2019 at 14:45, scoobyra said: That'll do nicely for the PCs. I've not seen them before - how do they cope with being coupled gangway to gangway and negotiating radius 2 curves? Mind you, having just checked, they're bloody expensive! I've not been particularly adventurous with testing them on curves as I only go as far down as radius 3 and I don't have mine gangway to gangway as I used kadee 18's, I could probably have gotten away with 17's (didn't have any at the time) on r3 or even a solid bar. My principle goal was just to get rid of the awful Hornby coupling arrangement on the HST's! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
saxokid Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Had good catch up here Mike,more great modelling.. cheers neil.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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