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Addendum: I sat down this afternoon and fitted the pin-point bogies to the last car of the set to make it up to four cars. After a few hiccups with the coupling heights, it settled down to run reliably as a 4-car unit, so I am quite pleased with myself now. :)

I do need to send the track cleaners through the tunnels again, though, to eliminate a few slow spots.

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I tackled the next part of the backscene along the back of the layout. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a single scene long enough for the whole length of the layout, so two separate scenes have had to be used, resulting in a distinct disjoin between them, although it's not too jarring overall. I will try to come up with a low-relief structure to cover that join sufficiently to 'blend' the two scenes. More annoying, though, is that I managed to get a large number of bubbles in the backscene, even more than in the original to the left. I tried a thinner mix of glue, but it still 'grabbed' far too quickly. Anyway, here's the result. It still adds more depth to the layout. Please ignore the clutter in the foreground as I am still rearranging shelves and storage at present, doing little bits at a time.

Ayl52FGg_t.jpg 

 

YeoFLdZ7_t.jpg 

 

nmPa9I6n_t.jpg 

 

nce0Trzz_t.jpg

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Another diversion has arrived in the form of a 3D-printed class 508 4-car EMU kit. This will get a Replica Railways motorised chassis to power it when I am ready. I have cleaned up the open ends of the body segments (DMs have two parts, trailers have three) to get as neat and square joins as I can achieve, and have superglued the bits together, after using near-boiling water to heat the open ends of the segments to reshape them where they have distorted slightly.

The joints will be reinforced with some 5-minute Araldite epoxy glue, and then filled and filed to make them as smooth as possible. The trailers are joined through the mid-sections of the bi-parting doors, so any slight gaps there will neither show not matter.

I have to say the end details on these mouldings are superb.

This is not intended to be a rapid build, but I will post progress as and when it occurs. The unit is intended to end up in BR blue and grey livery.

l8i5egIO_t.jpg

 

tmMDGOpg_t.jpg

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SRman distracted by another project ....never....:jester:

 

Looks like another EMU... you sure you have the room for another. This one going to have DCC sound and lights? 

 

(Yes I have been waiting for a delivery of materials from Eileens emporium so my V2's are on hold, so I am building a NER S1 signal box instead) 

 

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Yep, another EMU, and no, I don;t have room for it! :lol: :lol:

It may end up with lights, but I have also been making provision for lights in the Bratchell kits for classes 455, 456 and 319. They can be fitted later, each with their own decoder, I think, for ease of fitting and maintaining them.

Probably no sound. I have found that few of the EMU sounds available sound convincing to me, although the class 321 sounds in one of the class 319 unts is not too bad, and the class 350/450 sounds are very good.

Edited by SRman
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Class 508 body shells with the joints filled, then sprayed with grey primer. Some parts are still showing slight dips, so a little more filling and filing is required.

I may ge these body shells to the painted stages, possibly even glazed and fitted with the etched window frames also supplied with the kit, but the running gear will definitely take me longer to get going.

ecgBZWLI_t.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Another European purchase has graced Newton Broadway. A Roco Swedish Rc3 locomotive in the latest SJ black livery arrived in the post. A Zimo MX637 PLuX22 decoder was fitted, but it took me a little while to work out that the dip switches on the loco's pcb had to be set to 'off' to allow the upper and lower headlights to be controlled independently. The photo shows the loco straight out of the box (well, just after fitting the decoder), and the video shows the lighting effects after setting those dip switches and reprogramming the tail light outputs using JMRI Decoder Pro to make them flash approximately once every second. Quite a few of the extra detailing parts supplied in the box have been fitted to the loco by the time of taking the video.

bWj9ENoo_t.jpg

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

I recently bought a Hatton's class 66, having been tempted by much reduced prices which make these better value than the Bachmann model. I chose a Freightliner Powerhaul liveried example, 66 504. Initially I fitted a Zimo decoder, which worked perfectly as a stopgap until the sound decoder I ordered separately from DC Kits arrived with an Earth Mover speaker. The model now has legomanbiffo's custom sound file for the Hatton's version, with full lighting control. I did tweak the lighting settings against functions slightly, using Decoder Pro, so F22 and F23 now give access to day and night headlight settings (I didn't need the bell sound on F23).

 

The photos show a few of the lighting permutations possible with this set up.

 

The running qualities of the model are very good, although I have had a problem that other modellers have reported, in that one of the rotating axlebox 'tubes' keeps dropping off its axle end. I have tried several different glues, and enlarged the hole in the bogie frame to give it more free play, but so far to no avail. After this most recent episode, I might try a spot of Araldite if it drops off again.

 

The cab lights are set up to be directional on F19, so the photo with the tail lights and cab light on illustrates that they are independently operated on F21.

 

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Edited by SRman
Additional info and spacing adjusted.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Not exactly layout-related, but an adjunct to it: I have just rehashed the computer I use for programming and so on, as well as adding more storage for trains. I have been using a proper computer desk, but after a  good deal of thought, I realised that I am constantly to-ing and fro-ing between the computer and the programming track, so don't really need to sit at the computer for long periods. I decided to investigate using a sit/stand desk together with another Ikea Alex drawer unit. Working out the space available, I found there was sufficient room for the Alex unit and the computer itself, but a sit/stand desk would have to be off-centre. With only 68cm available on the Alex, I found that a desk from Officeworks would sit there but needed an extension on top of the Alex to support it fully. A trip to Bunnings yielded a piece of melamine surfaced chipboard at 120 x 59.5 cm, where I needed 88 x 48 cm, so that was cut down then some melamine edging added (iron-on strips). I didn't do a brilliant job, but it passes muster at normal viewing distances. To make sure the top was secure, I added some screws drilled into each end of the Alex unit, so there is no chance of it overbalancing at the ends.

The end result blends in nicely with the existing units and means I don't have extra trains sitting on top of the other Alex units.

I should add that my train room computers (past and present) have always been obsolete ones that have been replaced over the years. The current one started off as my good one around 12 years ago, was then cascaded to my wife after I built a new one several years later, with her old one going to the train room. That procss continued over the years until this one became mine again (my wife only uses her laptop nowadays). If this one dies, I will probably replace it wth an old model from my workplace (a high school), for which I know the specifications (they are Intel i7s, and a part of my job was maintaining them!). The current one is a Pentium D, so probably has a limited life left in it.

 

IMG20210222144036.jpg

Edited by SRman
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Some pre-grouping fun: LSWR meets LBSC. I have been trundling my new Hornby generic 4-wheel coaches around with suitable motive power. The LBSC coaches arrived a few weeks ago, and have been running around behind a Bachmann E4 0-6-2T 579, to be joined today by the LSWR set seen behind Hornby M7 0-4-4T 245. 

I tried to position these to hide any more modern road vehicles in the background, but failed in ne of te photos.
 

I think the LBSCR must have had more money than the LSWR ... they could afford to hire a loco crew!
 

(Note to self: must add crews to my M7s, and a whole heap of other locomotives and units too).
 

IMG20210302121408.jpg

 

IMG20210302121308.jpg

 

 

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Edited by SRman
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  • 3 weeks later...

I am adding the scenery to extend Church Hill and fill the gap at the back between the trackbed and the backscene. I have left a slight gap behind the lifting section that won't show from normal viewing angles - it is cvered by the woodwork that the hinges are mounted on anyway, so will merely be painted so as not to interfere with the opening of that section. 

I am not satisfied with the track at the joint between the lifting section and the main boards to the right, so am considering relaying that short section to the right of the points coming out of the fiddle yard. I'll use longer pieces of track off the lifting boards, shortening the lines on the main boards to match, and probably have sliding fishplates just to ensure perfect alignment. The underside of the lifting bits of track will have cork glued to them to allow the ballast to go up with them and not leave any gaps in the scenery there. I'll post more pics as I progress with all this. Doing little bits at a time results in the bigger job being finished eventually.

IMG20210319123956.jpg.eaa7054cb492728da4c3ad675bdc6809.jpg

 

 

p.s. The lifting section starts where the brick wall currently ends in the photo.

Edited by SRman
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  • 2 weeks later...

I spent this afternoon working on replacement backscenes with better continuity. DougN suggested I could get some 3mm MDF faced with melamine rather than having to seal standard mdf to accept the self-adhesive backscenes. I bought two of the large sheets (2440 x 1200 mm) and had them cut into the required 40mm strips lengthways, which meant they would fit into my car (a Honda CR-V). We also picked up a thicker piece for my OH's workbench top - that couldn't be cut down quite so drastically, and was a tight fit in the car, but we got it in too.

I used the old backscene boards as templates for the screw holes and tunnel access cutaways, and all went reasonably smoothly. I still ended up with the odd wrinkle in the new backscenes, but I did do a better job than last time.

As can be seen, I am currently running quite a few European HO trains. I am switching over from my recent NSE running period.

 

IMG20210328161723.jpg.1fc19607559597dd80f96921b3bddd57.jpg

 

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IMG20210328161714-cropped.jpg.0c22fd8b1fc8629eced49a0ef43fabaf.jpg

 

 

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20 hours ago, westerhamstation said:

Hi, the new backscene has made a big difference and has really lifted the back, what make is it. Looking good all the best Adrian.

 

Hi Adrian,

 

these were from id Backscenes, in my case the Village scenes 203A - 203D. The ones in the photos are from 203C and part of 203D, leaving the A and B sets for the left-hand edges of the layout, plus some in reserve to take the scenes around the corners at the ends, when I am ready.

Jeff.

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Looking great there Jeff. I am amazed at the difference the back scenes make to photos. they remove all the clutter/ walls rooms from the photos so as per yours above lift the model a lot! It also allows better photos to be taken. 

 

The ID backscenes are great as you know it has lifted my layout. 

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59 minutes ago, DougN said:

Looking great there Jeff. I am amazed at the difference the back scenes make to photos. they remove all the clutter/ walls rooms from the photos so as per yours above lift the model a lot! It also allows better photos to be taken. 

 

The ID backscenes are great as you know it has lifted my layout. 


 

Thanks Doug. The previous backscenes were good but ended up with a very noticeable disjoint in the middle. I did have to crop the full-width photo to remove clutter below and walls above the scene. I also had to rotate it slightly (about one degree!) because I had the camera at a slight angle.

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On 28/03/2021 at 12:43, SRman said:

I spent this afternoon working on replacement backscenes with better continuity. DougN suggested I could get some 3mm MDF faced with melamine rather than having to seal standard mdf to accept the self-adhesive backscenes. I bought two of the large sheets (2440 x 1200 mm) and had them cut into the required 40mm strips lengthways, which meant they would fit into my car (a Honda CR-V). We also picked up a thicker piece for my OH's workbench top - that couldn't be cut down quite so drastically, and was a tight fit in the car, but we got it in too.

I used the old backscene boards as templates for the screw holes and tunnel access cutaways, and all went reasonably smoothly. I still ended up with the odd wrinkle in the new backscenes, but I did do a better job than last time.

As can be seen, I am currently running quite a few European HO trains. I am switching over from my recent NSE running period.

 

IMG20210328161723.jpg.1fc19607559597dd80f96921b3bddd57.jpg

 

IMG20210328161730.jpg.85e3a3f3fff2447c786e33527bf77955.jpg

 

IMG20210328161714-cropped.jpg.0c22fd8b1fc8629eced49a0ef43fabaf.jpg

 

 

Hi Jeff, First time I've looked in for far to long, and was amazed to see the Continental stuff. Just wonderful, and brought back fond memories of my German Layout many moons ago.

 

This was back about 1989.

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IMG_7843.JPG.7d69a1d390eafd0d705fe99e8ceeb5b3.JPG

 

Keep up the lovely work.

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Thanks Andy. The Continental stuff is the result of seeing and experiencing some of these trains in 2018. Yours looks fascinating.

On that subject, I decided that even though I really don't agree with graffiti being done on items that don't belong to the perpetrators, I wanted to model some of the trains as I actually saw them. With that in mind, I purchased some (American) graffiti transfers, which are laser cut so that there is no observable carrier film outside if the actual designs. These may not be 100% accurate for European trains, but they give the right impression, so I have been applying them to two of the vans, one DB 4-wheeler and one DSB bogie vehicle. I am showing the stages of weathering and graffitying.

1. The wagons in pristine condition. I didn't see any in this condition in the short time I spent in Denmark and Germany.

1348873943_IMG20201113121027-Unweathered.jpg.3f144d1dd07d7e9df83f1dad391753a3.jpg

2. First stage of light weathering washes.

990970500_IMG20210323113816-WeatheringStage1.jpg.3df26982a1a965f6344053030deb9064.jpg

 

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3. Stage 2 was to apply the transfers.

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-- Continued in next post --

 

Edited by SRman
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3. (continued) - apply the transfers

1566347431_IMG20210330113342-WeatheringStage2.jpg.750e260e03991e8654ccd04ecdbd49ff.jpg
 

 

4. Stage 3 was applying a coat of satin or matt varnish to fix the transfers and first weathering coat (no photos).

5. Stage 4 , to date, weathering powders applied liberally. I mainly used dark earth, with some touches of dirty black.

1137273497_IMG20210330215137-WeatheringStage3.jpg.b01f5f7db8d330f7a8726d8c0430ce5b.jpg

 

1962218727_IMG20210330215245-WeatheringStage3.jpg.1bf684a5b01cf149c53b074f5916c9b2.jpg

6. To follow, I will add a little more in dirty browns (powders or washes), plus some black flowed into door gaps and joints. 

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35 minutes ago, SRman said:

3. (continued) - apply the transfers

1566347431_IMG20210330113342-WeatheringStage2.jpg.750e260e03991e8654ccd04ecdbd49ff.jpg
 

 

4. Stage 3 was applying a coat of satin or matt varnish to fix the transfers and first weathering coat (no photos).

5. Stage 4 , to date, weathering powders applied liberally. I mainly used dark earth, with some touches of dirty black.

1137273497_IMG20210330215137-WeatheringStage3.jpg.b01f5f7db8d330f7a8726d8c0430ce5b.jpg

 

1962218727_IMG20210330215245-WeatheringStage3.jpg.1bf684a5b01cf149c53b074f5916c9b2.jpg

6. To follow, I will add a little more in dirty browns (powders or washes), plus some black flowed into door gaps and joints. 

You've really hit the spot with these.
NICE.

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A couple more wagons weathered and graffiti added, but only a few bits ths tme. Left-hand wagon was done using the same techniques as before, but the right-hand one was done with a different technique, so that more of its original livery showed through.

 

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This shot shows the four wagons in a train, with a couple of pristine wagons in between.

 

IMG20210402163056.jpg

Edited by SRman
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Another couple of newbies arrived at Newton Broadway. Both models came from ModellBahn Lippe Shop, with the second one being on sale - I think I got a bargain here.
 

I finally managed to get hold of a Danish Vectron, from the Piko Expert range. EB 3201 ran absolutely superbly straight out of the box when tested on DC, sufficiently so for me to add a decoder straight away. The actual interface is intended or PLuX 16, but I only had PLuX 22 decoders available here, which should work perfectly well, so popped in an ESU LokPilot v5 and away it went,. I did my usual tweaks for acceleration and deceleration, and I think I will have to alter the top speed a bit as it races away very freely to a high speed - much higher than I need for my layout.
 

The second loco is a Trix one, with sound, in BLS 'Die Alpinisten' livery. This is my first Trix/Maerklin locomotive, and it is quite impressive with its metal body and full roof detail with four pantographs, plus the colourful livery application. I found it initially to be very loud, so went to turn the volume down a bit - it is also the only Trix Selectrix decoder in my collection - so found the setting in the manual which turned out to be the same as ESU's sound volume CV, CV 63. However, when I tried changing the volume on the fly Programming on Main, the loco died completely. After much fiddling on the programming track, I got it going again with reduced volume as well. There may be a few tricks for me to learn yet with the Selectrix decoder (no pun intended).
 

Q5IhaGDQ_t.jpg
 

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Edited by SRman
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Still on the European side, I have been having difficulty finding the correct colours for current Danish passenger stock, However, I recently landed some Lifecolor sets for the DSB, the earlier period set (Set 1) having a light grey for RAL7038. I had purchased a set of Roco (ex-Hobbytrade) double deck coaches with the lower door positions, perfect for the DSB, but in DB Regio red. Anyway, the RAL7038 light grey seemed very close to what was on the one Hobbytrade driving trailer I had in DSB livery, so I have just done a quick livery test on one coach on one side only.

 

This is extremely rough, and intended only as a tester, using the light grey, Humbrol midnight blue #15, and Humbrol blue-grey #79. The blue-grey is just a fraction darker than the existing grey on the base of the German livery, the rest actually look pretty good, bearing in mind the light grey has only one light coat on a red base. Once I do the coaches properly, I'll use a light undercoat and mask everything off properly. The photo shows the result against the original Hobbytrade driving trailer's factory finish.

 

IMG20210408110330.jpg

Edited by SRman
Typos, as always.
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