Chuffnell Regis

[Alister_G]

Hi Graham,

 

One would expect sleepers colour to vary, depending on what use the track sees at any given section, and how old that particular stretch was. Both ballast and sleepers might have been replaced more recently on the main running lines than on sidings. Anywhere where a loco would stand for some time would be oil and coal stained, for instance outside the engine shed or near the end of a terminus platform. Don't forget that a wooden sleeper is soaked in creosote, which will naturally darken the older it is. But, in general the sleepers will always be lighter on the outside of the rails, and more stained between the rails.

 

So all that taken into account, I would suggest the use of washes of different colours to paint both the sleepers and ballast. Where you want the sleepers to be lighter, use a light grey or tan colour, and where you want darker staining, use a dark grey or even black. The ballast will also pick up those colours, so there is no need to try and keep it pristine. You can also consider applying some slight rust colour staining to the ballast in areas as well.

 

Al.

 

[Graham T]

Thanks Al, that sounds good.  I'm pretty sure I will enjoy the painting more than the ballasting...

[chuffinghell]

On 24/07/2021 at 10:21, Graham T said:

This arrived from TMC yesterday.  It's the Dean Goods from Oxford Rail and looks lovely.  I won't get into the debates about accuracy of dimensions and fittings; to me that doesn't really matter too much.  But I think the loco looks suitably finely built and detailed, and very well finished off (apart from the brightwork, which I'm not such a fan of).

 

Sadly however, beauty seems to only be skin deep in this case.  It runs terribly.  Needs a 1:1 scale hand to get it moving, and then runs quite jerkily, and not at all at very low speeds.  I don't really want to send it back to TMC (and am not sure if I can anyway - the outer packaging had been really battered in the postal system, and so was the Oxford Rail box, so I had to tear the latter in order to open it.  So I doubt if they would accept it back).  Also, I live in Austria, so it would take weeks to get sorted, and then I'd have to pay more customs fees to get it back again.

 

So, I'm scratching my head a bit as to what to do about this one...

 

 

Try giving the wheels a jolly good clean, I asked TMC to test mine before sending it and I was told that they had to clean the wheels because there appeared to be some kind of film on them

[Graham T]

Thanks Chris, I'll give that a try while I'm waiting for the rolling road to arrive.

[Graham T]

Another little detail added, some signal wire posts.  Point rodding will have to wait for now, as I've run out of parts.  Time for more ballasting then - hurrah!

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

Well of course I had to get a B set at some point (isn't it one of the Rules?), and these arrived today.  From railway modelling with my father when I was a youngster, I seem to recall - perhaps unfairly - that Hornby stock was a bit mediocre, and that Airfix and Mainline was the stuff to get then, at least in terms of detail.  But these are from Hornby and they're little crackers.  Sprung buffers, lamp irons, separate handrails, optional close couplings included, stickers on the windows ...  I'm really quite taken with them as you might be able to tell!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Graham T

[chuffinghell]

Very nice!

 

I tried my best to make the old style suburbans look better…..

 

 

…..they’re not a patch on those though, they are very smart indeed!

 

Edited July 26, 2021 by chuffinghell

[Graham T]

Very nice job on those Chris!  I expect I'll do some work on mine, at least the couplings and roofs, but I'm leaving all the rolling stock as is for the time being.

[Graham T]

Having just had a quick look at some of the work you did on your "rescue coaches" I had to nip out to the spare room to check - the new coaches do indeed have tie bars

[chuffinghell]

3 hours ago, Graham T said:

Very nice job on those Chris!  I expect I'll do some work on mine, at least the couplings and roofs, but I'm leaving all the rolling stock as is for the time being.

 

Thank you but in all honesty if they had been available at the time I’d have bought those instead 

[Graham T]

I can't say I blame you.  There's always a balance to be found between spending your time or your money.  That said, it's also very satisfying to be able to rescue something.

[MrWolf]

I have a couple of the old Airfix B set coaches, they're like new, as they're pretty much worthless these days, I hope to upgrade and weather them eventually. I'm certain that someone does (or did) detailing parts for them. First thing I think is to lose the awful wheels and probably make better bogie pivots I think.

[Graham T]

Dart Castings or Wizard Models might well do a set for those Rob.

[Graham T]

Blasted postman.  Now I have no excuse to postpone finishing the point rodding ...

 

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

I finally got hold of some isopropyl alcohol today.  Some things are surprisingly difficult to get hold of here in Austria, particularly if your German is nicht so gut

 

So I cleaned the wheels on the Mogul and the Dean Goods as well as I could, although I will be able to do a better job of them once I get my rolling road.  The Mogul's wheels were pretty clean, but the tender wheels on the Dean Goods were particularly dirty; it runs a bit better now, although it's still far from perfect.  Hopefully a proper clean and a running in session will put it right.

 

I've also been cleaning the track of course, particularly the points, and am amazed at the amount of crud that they have accumulated.  A really fun job, as you can imagine.  The upside is that this will make getting back to the point rodding more appealing!

[Graham T]

If any of you have top tips for track cleaning please let me know!  Cotton buds dipped in isopropyl alcohol seem to do the trick, but the word painstaking springs to mind.  Do any of these track cleaning wagons actually work?

[banburysaint]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

If any of you have top tips for track cleaning please let me know!  Cotton buds dipped in isopropyl alcohol seem to do the trick, but the word painstaking springs to mind.  Do any of these track cleaning wagons actually work?

I have a cmx wagon which I fill with goo gone which soaks into the corderoy material clipped to the underside. I was lucky in being able to purchase it second hand as they are rather expensive new. This keeps the track clean on my layout, but the layout does live in a centrally heated room which I am sure assists. The cmx is very heavy so it does need a powerful locomotive to pull it.

Edited July 28, 2021 by banburysaint

[Graham T]

Thanks for the tip.  But as you say, they're a touch expensive!  I'll have to start prowling that auction site...

[5BarVT]

I have always used Propanol (iso-propyl-alcohol) for track cleaning just with an old bit of cloth using finger pressure, but I’ve never got as far as painting track so I don’t know if that might get to the places you don’t want it to.  There’s a certain amount of noise about polarised being worse at attracting dirt compared to non polarised (Propanol is polarised apparently).  I have had success in using graphite to maintain clean rails (9B pencil or graphite stick from an art shop, 6B would probably work and might be more obtainable).  I use the pencil for loco wheels and the stick for track.

Paul.

[Graham T]

The alcohol certainly seems to work well (now there's a comment that could be taken out of context!)  It's just time consuming.  And that's probably because I painted my track without giving any real thought to the consequences!

 

I have plenty of graphite sticks as one of my other hobbies is art (you can see my paintings here).  Do you just rub it onto the rail heads and wheels?

[5BarVT]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

I have plenty of graphite sticks as one of my other hobbies is art (you can see my paintings here).  Do you just rub it onto the rail heads and wheels?

I’d forgotten that!

Yes just rub it on.  It does make things more likely to slip, but if you’re not pushing the limits that shouldn’t matter.  Try ‘less is more’ to start with.

If it’s paint on the rail heads causing some of the issues, a bit of hardboard flat surface up can help.
Paul.

[Graham T]

Well you fix one problem and another surfaces, it seems.  The Mogul has picked up some sort of gremlin whilst testing the track (which now appears to be clean enough to work as advertised).

 

But now 6385 is tearing around like a scalded cat, even on the lowest speed setting.  Not very prototypical, and more importantly, a tad hair-raising.

 

Scouring the Powercab manual hasn't helped, and there doesn't appear to be an idiot's guide available as far as I can see.  I'm thinking that maybe I should delete the loco from the system and then reinstall it - but I can't figure that out either...

 

You probably wouldn't believe that I've built numerous computers in the past, and yet I'm flummoxed by this.

[MrWolf]

Have you tried verbal abuse?

[Graham T]

That was my first port of call Rob.  Hasn't worked yet though.

[Nick C]

55 minutes ago, Graham T said:

You probably wouldn't believe that I've built numerous computers in the past, and yet I'm flummoxed by this.

You're not the only one - I'm a software engineer, work with computers all day long, but still found I didn't get on with DCC, and reverted back to DC when the secondhand gaugemaster controller I had gave up the ghost - kept the chips as I might give it another go one day.