SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[SRman]

1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

That's the fireman's job!

 

I know, but he's having a breather. The driver was happy to cope with that. 

[SRman]

While adding strengthening braces to the undersides of the drawers in an Ikea Alex unit with all my (heavy!) locomotives in, I had to remove all the locos as I took each drawer out. I found a good few little bits and pieces that had fallen off various locomotives and their couplings. Among those bits was a pair of air hoses from a class 73. I identified the loco as 73 141 in First GBRf livery, an earlier release Dapol model that had lighting faults built-in to the PCB through poor design and lack of quality control on Dapol's part. I had already fixed one early model, in (sort of) BR early blue, and decided I would treat this model as well while I had it out.

The problems with these models were that the headcode and headlights (where fitted for the latter) worked the wrong way when a DCC decoder was fitted - forwards for the model resulted in the rear lights coming on, and reverse meant the front lights came on. There were a couple of fixes for this: one was to swap the F0f and F0r functions on the decoder, another was to reverse the brush wire connections on the PCB (which was the one I chose). Either solution results in the lights working the wrong way again if the decoder is removed and the model restored to DC only working.

The other lighting problem was that the cab lights at both ends were permanently on when the model was powered; on DCC that's all the time! Dapol's so-called solution was to advise owners to put some tape over the two contact pads at one end behind the cab mouldings, which then left the cab lights permanently off. Someone quite some time ago posted the solution to fix this, which involved cutting two tracks and soldering two jumper wires. I did this with the previous model, and decided to repeat it on this one too. Once done, it allowed the cab light at No. 1 end to be operated with F1, and that at the No. 2 end on F2 (on a Zimo MX634 non-sound decoder). Once I had this successfully operating, I reprogrammed the outputs slightly to switch the cab lights off at anything above speed step 0. the pictures show the headcode and headlight operating independently of the cab lights, and combinations of both cabs on or off, and each one in turn on.

 

 

Now all I have to do is give it a really good run, as the pickups are a bit dirty so the loco is spluttering a bit on the tracks.

[Sandhole]

Dapol appear to have a problem with DCC.
I have, both the green 73 and a Western. The QC are good on both. I run straight DC and I tried to run both of these to destruction when I first got them.
They are both fine, with all their 'bits' working fine.
So DC appears to love Dapol stuff.
Chris.

[SRman]

10 hours ago, Sandhole said:

Dapol appear to have a problem with DCC.
I have, both the green 73 and a Western. The QC are good on both. I run straight DC and I tried to run both of these to destruction when I first got them.
They are both fine, with all their 'bits' working fine.
So DC appears to love Dapol stuff.
Chris.

If your green 73 cab lights don't come on while running, then you have a later issued version with a completely new PCB design. The two I had with the earlier design would have had the cab lights on while DC running as well as on DCC.

[SRman]

After many years, I have finally got around to putting unit and coach numbers on the Bulleid 'Tin' 2 HAL unit. I cheated a little, using ModelMaster pre-formed number sets, I used the transfers for 2649 but swapped the 4 and the 9 over for the end unit numbers, but I didn't bother correcting the individual carriage numbers.

I noted a few paint chips and scrapes need to be touched up, and I still have not fitted driver and guard door handles, or picked out the carriage door handles and grab rails in brass colour. I also had to fix one of the wire jumper cables at one end (I had originally scraped off the moulded resin ones and replaced them with wire).

[John Tomlinson]

6 hours ago, SRman said:

After many years, I have finally got around to putting unit and coach numbers on the Bulleid 'Tin' 2 HAL unit. I cheated a little, using ModelMaster pre-formed number sets, I used the transfers for 2649 but swapped the 4 and the 9 over for the end unit numbers, but I didn't bother correcting the individual carriage numbers.

I noted a few paint chips and scrapes need to be touched up, and I still have not fitted driver and guard door handles, or picked out the carriage door handles and grab rails in brass colour. I also had to fix one of the wire jumper cables at one end (I had originally scraped off the moulded resin ones and replaced them with wire).

 

This has turned out well, and looks very convincing.

 

Is it an Ayjay resin kit, I'm afraid I can't remember? If so you've done very well! I bought one of their 4SUB's off Ebay at a fraction of the original price some months ago. The resin is certainly not the greatest, but with some work I think could be made to look OK. Clearly the builder can go as far as they like replacing moulded detail, but then it could take forever. I'd be glad if mine turns out this well.

 

John.

[SRman]

2 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

This has turned out well, and looks very convincing.

 

Is it an Ayjay resin kit, I'm afraid I can't remember? If so you've done very well! I bought one of their 4SUB's off Ebay at a fraction of the original price some months ago. The resin is certainly not the greatest, but with some work I think could be made to look OK. Clearly the builder can go as far as they like replacing moulded detail, but then it could take forever. I'd be glad if mine turns out this well.

 

John.

 

Thanks for the compliments, John.

It is the Ayjay kit. It wasn't perfect, but forms a good starting point. As you say, you can replace as much or as little of the moulded details as you can cope with. I replaced the front end cables with wire of different thicknesses, but left the roof and inner end details unchanged. I would love to flush glaze it, but the thought of doing that put me off.

I have a 4 SUB and a 2 HAP from Ayjay as well, but neither is glazed yet. All of them use Hornby 2 BIL chassis for the motorised cars, and the 2-car units also use the driving trailer chassis. Like the HAL, I have replaced the front end details with separate parts.

[SRman]

My latest extravagance has been to fit legomanbiffo sounds into my LT Museum/Bachmann S Stock train. This required two LokSound decoders - one for each powered driving car. I put lights in some time ago, using direct pickups from the track to power the LED strips, but a couple probably need the wheels cleaned and pickups tweaked as they are flickering a bit.

I did a very quick run to demonstrate a few of the sounds. About two-thirds of my Underground tracks are, well, underground, in tunnel, but I kept the recording going to capture the traction sounds as the train gathered speed. Braking uses F5, and I seem to have judged it rather well, considering I haven't had much practice with it yet.

The speakers I used are some square mega bass types from Roads & Rails.
 

 

Edited October 4, 2021 by SRman

[Sandhole]

14 hours ago, SRman said:

My latest extravagance has been to fitt lgomanbiffo sounds into my LT Museum/Bachmann S Stock train. This required two LokSound decoders - one for each powered driving car. I put lights in some time ago, using direct pickups from the track to power the LED strips, but a couple probably need the wheels cleaned and pickups tweaked as they are flickering a bit.

I did a very quick run to demonstrate a few of the sounds. About two-thirds of my Underground tracks are, well, underground, in tunnel, but I kept the recording going to capture the traction sounds as the train gathered speed. Braking uses F5, and I seem to have judged it rather well, considering I haven't had much practice with it yet.

The speakers I used are some square mega bass types from Roads & Rails.
 

 

That's very impressive indeed!
Chris.

 

[SRman]

Progress has been made with the lighting frame, although there has been one minor disaster. I inserted the piece of square section wood to take some of the strain as a temporary measure until I can repair and replace bits. Fortunately it isn't that expensive or difficult to fix.




Further along, I have the framework standing properly, and have tried out the first strip of LED lights, using the warm white ones. The result was better than I had expected. The first of these two photos shows the effect with the main room light on, and the second shows the result with the room light turned off.





And to illustrate one of the reasons for having the more distributed light pattern: a photo without my or my phone's shadows spoiling it.

[SRman]

The remaining warm white LED strip has been wired up and fitted to the frame. I still have the option to fit extra strips with different colours to vary the lighting, but I am very happy with the result as it stands now. Two of the photos were taken with the main room lights turned off. The last shows that the area in front of the village is a little darker because it is in front of the frame. With the room light on it isn't as apparent.

[SRman]

 

Having received a decent tax refund this year, I treated myself to another European model: something just a little rare and different. It arrived today (Wednesday), amazingly after being sent from Sweden on Tuesday a week ago. It is a Jeco SJ X2000 set. The basic set has the power car plus three trailers, including the driving trailer, but I added a Bistro car as well to create a 5-car set. I also opted for the Zimo sound decoder, factory fitted.

The glossy box and packaging give a very good first impression too. The power car has a good amount of weight built-in to its metal chassis, and the finish on it and all of the coaches is also impressive. I do find the SJ grey scheme a little dull, but that's the livery I saw them in when I was in Copenhagen in 2018.

A quick test and a couple of CV tweaks saw it running faultlessly around Newton Broadway. The sound was very loud, so I adjusted the master volume, CV266 from its default of 65 down to 25. I also tweaked CVs 3 and 4 to increase acceleration and deceleration times and make them slightly more gentle than the defaults settings. The red tail lights are pre-set on this decoder to flash.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by SRman

[SRman]

More X2000 photos.

[SRman]

A short video of the Jeco X2000 running, crossing the Piko DB ICE 3 unit.
 

 

[SRman]

Back to British: My Bachmann Collectors Club LT class 20 arrived today. It has had a quick test run and a few CV tweaks applied (mainly to lower the top speed and increase the time taken to accelerate), but is otherwise straight out of the box.

I will attach the etched name plates later, and maybe some of the buffer beam details, which may have to be cut down to allow me to retain the tension lock couplings, or I may actually detail up the cab end and remove the tension lock altogether. I envisage using it to top-and-tail trains with 'Sarah Siddons'.

20 142 'Sir John Betjeman' is here posed on my combined programming and photo-shoot track.

[SRman]

I fitted the pipes to the cab end only of 20 142, and glued the etched name plates on, then gave her (him??) a stretch with the pseudo-Dreadnought coaches. I posed it beside a Met Bo-Bo, but this one is actually No. 8, 'Sherlock Holmes'. This is the reason I chose 'Sir John' rather than the alternative class 20, which also bears the number 8 and name 'Sherlock Holmes'. I do actually have 'Sarah Siddons' in preserved livery.

[SRman]

I have strung some multi-coloured LED strip lights parallel to the existing white lights now, and am experimenting with lighting effects. These photos show blues being used to represent a late twilight effect.

[SRman]

A few photos with my new Rapido West Midlands Daimler Fleetline. Compared with the prices of other diecast bus models, this is very good value as it also includes built-in lighting and poseable front steering.

While a Birmingham bus doesn't really belong on Newton Broadway, I plan to alter the livery a little and put it into service as a second-hand bus with a more southerly operator (undecided whose, yet). I am so impressed I intend buying a second one and giving that a complete repaint. Rapido put out a warning that these models require only a 9 Volt supply, and that 12 volts might blow a component on the PCB. As a temporary measure I hooked this up to a variable voltage wall wart, set to 9V, but it also worked well at 7.5V, with no loss of brightness, although I would not have minded the interior lights being a bit dimmer.

[SRman]

I recently noted that Lendons of Cardiff have the Hornby class 73 parts going at very reasonable prices, so ordered a chassis, motor bogie and a complete dummy bogie, plus some crankpins and screws for Hornby steam locomotives, for a grand total of £29.14, including the postage to Australia. 

This allowed me to utilise one of the spare bodies I have, of E6015 in early BR blue with small yellow panels and grey roof and windscreen surrounds (a repaint I did some years ago). I had a set of suitable buffers that plugged straight into the holes in the buffer beams. The Pullman rubbing plates were already fitted to the chassis. I took the cab interiors from one of the surplus Lima chassis, and also found one of the central chassis weights from a Lima version.

All that remained was to solder some wires to the pickups and brushes, and hard-wire a decoder (I chose a Lenz Standard v.2 decoder with the 8-pin plug cut off). A quick test on DC with the wires loosely held together proved the pickups and motor were working perfectly, then the decoder was wired in. I painted a wash of red paint onto the buffer beams, and cut off the oversized sand pipes from the bogie mouldings (something I have done to every single Hornby or Lima class 73).

And E6015 is ready and waiting to enter revenue service. I can, of course, change its identity at any time with one of the other spare bodies, but for now this one suits the time period I am running.

[SRman]

We had a visit from an old friend we hadn't seen for quite a while. He brought along a few unusual visitors.

[John Tomlinson]

A guess on my part that 18100 is a kit build, the other two recent release RTR.

 

If so, whoever did 18100 made an excellent job, as it sits very comfortably with the other two.

 

Now you'll tell me I'm completely wrong!

 

John.

[St Enodoc]

9 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

A guess on my part that 18100 is a kit build, the other two recent release RTR.

 

If so, whoever did 18100 made an excellent job, as it sits very comfortably with the other two.

 

Now you'll tell me I'm completely wrong!

 

John.

Looks rather like my Q Kits model but defnitiely better finished.

[SRman]

9 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

A guess on my part that 18100 is a kit build, the other two recent release RTR.

 

If so, whoever did 18100 made an excellent job, as it sits very comfortably with the other two.

 

Now you'll tell me I'm completely wrong!

 

John.

OK, you are completely ...

RIGHT! 

My friend did have a Silver Fox 18000 as well for comparison, but yes, 18000 in the photos is the Rails/Heljan model, 18100 is a Silver Fox model (but he has pre-ordered the Rails model to come), and GT3 is the KR Models version. The power was turned off for the photo because only 18000 was DCC-fitted (with sound).

We ran 18000 but had to reduce the volume a bit as the piercing scream of the turbines really hurt. It had a little difficulty with curves in one direction, but when turned 180 degrees coped much better, so obviously something is catching slightly somewhere. My curves are of slightly greater radius than 3rd and 4th radius set track. As my friend is a watchmaker by trade, he shouldn't have too much difficulty tracing the sticking bit and freeing it up.

[Marc d]

Looking good mate, any updates with the 508 kit?

[SRman]

18 minutes ago, Marc d said:

Looking good mate, any updates with the 508 kit?

 

Hi Marc,

 

I have glued the body shells together and filled the joints where needed, and primed them, but that's about it for the present. I still have several other projects to complete before commencing serious work on the 508.