Burchill Edge Sidings - BR Blue Carriage/NPCCS Sidings, with a nod to Manchester Red Bank & Bristol Malago Vale

[lezz01]

A very good arty farty Friday shot though.

Regards Lez.

[43110andyb]

2 hours ago, 9C85 said:

That's exactly the sort of look I am after.  How did you weather it? 

Airbrush in the main with dry brushing to blend and also build up of  weathering powders on bogies.

[9C85]

2 hours ago, lezz01 said:

A very good arty farty Friday shot though.

Regards Lez.

Thanks a lot.  I might make a habit of it. Have a great weekend. Cheers 

[9C85]

Another 'pre-ballasting ' mood shot. I am thinking of having a small access road/path down from the girder bridge (scenic break) at the North East  (ie right hand)) end of the layout.  The path will be used by staff to access the yard by foot.  I may put a small unofficial car park here. This is the sort of  view that will greet the staff as they get out of their cars. The path will run alongside the track on the left of the picture  ( with a retired CCT at the bufferstops) and lead to an office/shunter's cabin near the centre of the layout .

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

11 minutes ago, 9C85 said:

Another 'pre-ballasting ' mood shot. I am thinking of having a small access road/path down from the girder bridge (scenic break) at the North East  (ie right hand)) end of the layout.  The path will be used by staff to access the yard by foot.  I may put a small unofficial car park here. This is the sort of  view that will greet the staff as they get out of their cars. The path will run alongside the track on the left of the picture  ( with a retired CCT at the bufferstops) and lead to an office/shunter's cabin near the centre of the layout .

 

 

Still not dank and dark enough for the nether regions of Manchester IMHO!

 

Mike.

 

 

[9C85]

4 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Still not dank and dark enough for the nether regions of Manchester IMHO!

 

Mike.

 

 

There's a lot more 'weather ' to be added 

[Baby Deltic]

17 hours ago, 9C85 said:

That's exactly the sort of look I am after.  How did you weather it? 

They look better if you replace the 'malnourished' Lima BR1 bogies with Bachmann ones.

[43110andyb]

1 hour ago, Baby Deltic said:

They look better if you replace the 'malnourished' Lima BR1 bogies with Bachmann ones.

Agreed! Another alternative are the Replica MK1 bogies as I believe they are a decent representation. Ps- Another job on my ‘to do’ list

[9C85]

1 hour ago, Baby Deltic said:

They look better if you replace the 'malnourished' Lima BR1 bogies with Bachmann ones.

Are the Bachmann bogies fitted with NEM Pockets, and are they at the correct height to work with Kadees?

[Baby Deltic]

2 minutes ago, 9C85 said:

Are the Bachmann bogies fitted with NEM Pockets, and are they at the correct height to work with Kadees?

They don't have NEM pockets. The standard pattern MK2 mini tension locks are moulded on but they could be cut off and a Kadee attached to the 'stalk' I reckon.

 

https://www.petersspares.com/Bachmann-36-005a-mk1-bogies-pk2-oo-gauge.ir

 

I drill out the old pivot hole on the Lima GUV with a 4.2mm drill and tap it M5 then use an M5 screw to attach the Bachmann bogie. 5 minute job.

[9C85]

The entire current locomotive fleet laid up at the fuel point at the South West end of the layout during the weekend engineering work 

[9C85]

A bit more ballast glued down.  Three out of the six roads at the yard end of the layout are done now, but I still have most of the fan of turnouts to do plus three full length sidings at the opposite end of the layout.  The novelty is wearing off a bit 

[9C85]

Ballast down on nearly all of the 5 yard sidings now. Needs tidying up a bit and gluing down. 

I started off using one of my daughter's many make-up brushes to spread the ballast, but now I just put my ballast mix ( 2 parts Woodland Scenics medium blend to one part fine) in the lid from the used sleeper grime aerosol.  I have almost perfected the 'double tap' which dispenses my required amount of ballast into the 'well' between each sleeper. Any ballast left on the sleepers is removed by dragging my finger over the offending area. Being a yard layout, I am trying to leave the sleepers exposed as much as possible, for at least the ends outside the rails. This has the added advantage of being able to cover quitea lot of track with not a lot of ballast. It's also a job I can dip in and out of when I am not on grandad duty. 

[9C85]

Ballasting nearly finished...

 

[9C85]

View from what will be the bridge  (scenic break) at the North East end of the layout. 

 

[9C85]

The latest addition to the fleet. Ebay bargain.  I need to fit kadees to it and (eventually) weather it.

On the first task, how do I get the bogies off? Do they just clip in? It's a Mainline model.

[9C85]

Picture of underside for reference 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Yes, clip in.

To save doing too much damage I use a steel ruler between the bogie and chassis to minimise damage whilst levering off.

 

Mike.

[9C85]

13 minutes ago, 9C85 said:

Picture of underside for reference 

Managed to answer my own question. 

There's no obvious way of dismantling the coach and the bogies don't want to be pulled out.  I ran a small screwdriver along the top of the solebar and prised the bodyshell off.

I then got a tweezers to pinch together the prongs at the top of the bogie pivot whilst simultaneously pulling the bogie down from the floor.  Three hands would be useful at this point. 

BTW I had already unscrewed the tension lock couplings before attempting the bogie removals. 

I am now going to hack away at the end of each bogie to make room for the Kadee on the underside of the floor. 

I may put new wheels on at some point but it actually runs well on my bullhead track and being plastic, they don't wiggle about over the Kadee magnet under the track.

[P.C.M]

I do like a parcel van myself. I like the look of this layout it's coming along well.

Cheers Peter. 

[9C85]

I photographed most of the process of fitting Kadees. The next step after dismantling was to make space in the bogie frame for the Kadee to fit under the floor. I used a razor saw and a craft knife.  The bogie frame is still rigid enough to hold the outer axle in place

 

[9C85]

I had a feeling that the bottom of the buffer beam was going to be slightly too low to clear the Kadee at the correct height,so I cut the centre portion out. Again using a razor saw and a craft knife. The plastic was quite good to work with.

 

[9C85]

Next, I fitted the Kadee to the floor of the coach by drilling a hole for a Number 2 screw and fitting the coupler. I really struggle with this sort of stuff as I have big fingers and computer user's eyesight 

[9C85]

I knew that the coupling would sit too high, but I was at least able to measure the difference against the Kadee gauge . I measured it as about the height of the coupling itself, which using a vernier came out at 4mm

[9C85]

I made a 4mm thick 'boss' from 2 pieces of 2mm thick plasticard cut to 10 x 10mm, and screwed the Kadee coupling to it.

I then glued it to the coach, aligning be eye and adjusting while the glue set.

I checked again against the gauge. All good.