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Mr Simon's N and 2mm Workbench - pg29> N V1 2-6-2, 2mm L&Y class 23, assorted wagons and stuff


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Thanks Jim - I’ll see if I can find it (if it’s a change to the NGS kit I have one in the to-build box)!

 

It’s that time again... Saturday afternoon on the floor!  This week see if you can spot what’s been sat in the repaint queue for a while...

 

This week has been a lot of early privatisation expresses, and a two trains that didn’t want to stay coupled. I think the Clams need a bit of a tweak here and there, but I’m not sure how to sort the Dapol twins - the unitrack is never the best place to test compared to a layout.

 

Also, after two weeks of making these and various bits of painting I noticed this:

 

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They’re going to have to go toward the back of the train!

 

Lots to do 

Simon

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Hello everybody!

 

After 11 months I picked up the J94 again, I didn’t think it had been so long... oops haha.  Initially I’d picked it up to stick cigarette papers onto the bits of chassis to start insulating it, and ended up doing a job that’s been confusing me for even longer:

 

F56775C4-9753-4EAE-9BD4-FB2DE237FBB1.jpeg.b57f0096ac0a06419420d0ee8675a1b7.jpeg

I fitted the stub axels into the gears between the wheel and the worm.  There’s a bit of plasticard in between the two halves to keep them apart.  The two lessons I learned are: 1) I need to find a better way of putting gears into gear-muffs, 2) I should chamfer the ends of the stub axel before cutting it off instead of cutting it and then trying to smooth and chamfer a 4mm bit of metal...

 

1F267B0C-B64B-47D9-96B1-B7D7C36B6158.jpeg.70301363044df19ec8c32c55902693df.jpeg

The issue I have a the moment now is a hangover from me folding up the gear tower badly, the edge of the tower is slightly rubbing on the big gear which makes the chassis tick when it goes backwards.  I think that’s sort-able...

 

There was other painting happening over the weekend too, but nothing to show

 

Lots to do!

Simon

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Hello everybody,

 

Its Saturday evening and that means one thing, and one thing only... testing trains on the floor with the unitrack! 
 

This week, a bit more genuine testing with my multi-purpose Farish MK3s - a close coupling test. A while back I’d bought printed couplings, I wanted to test them on MK3s as I’ve run out of the Red Caboose ones I used on my MML and GNER rakes.

 

I thought I’d get away with one short and one normal, but this still left a bigger gap than between the TGS and power car, so both coaches get a short one (when I’ve ordered more, if shapeways are still open)


53F72351-4A1F-4530-AB40-6254E8EF2395.jpeg.742908b7ac4a68b1367841f6216ca32d.jpeg


After checking them with a HST I took off the TGS and checked that a standard class 90/87 could go round corners with the rake with a short coupling on the outer end (it did, but I might pull the buffers in slightly on the ‘front’ coach so I don’t have to use a dedicated loco on it).

 

It would have been a longer video, with more Pendolino, but I’d laid the reverse curves too tight and it wouldn’t stay on, so I packed it away and went out into the garden instead.  Next time!

 

There’s been some other work going on, but nothing I’ve taken pictures of...

 

Lots to do!

Simon

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Hello everybody!

 

Just a quick update, but a bit of a major milestone reached in another quick project that seems to have been going forever...

 

(Excuse me forgetting that videos should be landscape...)

 

This is the first time the J94 chassis has moved under its own power. Now, I need to quantify this - the motor was temporarily lashed up to the controller and isn’t fastened down in any way and was held in place... but I’m still counting it as a win!

 

Lots to do!

Simon

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22 hours ago, MrSimon said:

Hello everybody,

 

Its Saturday evening and that means one thing, and one thing only... testing trains on the floor with the unitrack! 
 

This week, a bit more genuine testing with my multi-purpose Farish MK3s - a close coupling test. A while back I’d bought printed couplings, I wanted to test them on MK3s as I’ve run out of the Red Caboose ones I used on my MML and GNER rakes.

 

I thought I’d get away with one short and one normal, but this still left a bigger gap than between the TGS and power car, so both coaches get a short one (when I’ve ordered more, if shapeways are still open)


53F72351-4A1F-4530-AB40-6254E8EF2395.jpeg.742908b7ac4a68b1367841f6216ca32d.jpeg


After checking them with a HST I took off the TGS and checked that a standard class 90/87 could go round corners with the rake with a short coupling on the outer end (it did, but I might pull the buffers in slightly on the ‘front’ coach so I don’t have to use a dedicated loco on it).

 

It would have been a longer video, with more Pendolino, but I’d laid the reverse curves too tight and it wouldn’t stay on, so I packed it away and went out into the garden instead.  Next time!

 

There’s been some other work going on, but nothing I’ve taken pictures of...

 

Lots to do!

Simon

Great to see some WCML stock out for a run! Thanks for the usual video. Becoming a nice weekly tradition :). I hope all is well. 

 

Dave

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Thanks Dave!

 

I grew up with the ECML going passed my school, so obviously preferred the WCML in the north west! If I’d known Gresby was going to take so long to build it would have been WCML haha!  The original plan was for something south Manchester-ish where I could run IC/Virgin, MML, Central Trains and Northern/First North Western, but I only had space for a shelf layout and Gresby was born.

 

Its always fun to get the west coast stock out :). All’s well here, hope you and yours are too

 

Cheers 

Simon

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On 25/04/2020 at 20:36, MrSimon said:

Thanks Jim - I’ll see if I can find it (if it’s a change to the NGS kit I have one in the to-build box)!

 

 

FYI, the hoppers in the Ben Ando article were the same type that Jo Alder has modelled from 3D prints recently, which I know you've seen on his wagon thread.

 

Jim

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Thanks Jim,

I’ve got Model Rail back to 2014, I’ll have to have a search - I reckon it’ll be a few years before I get round to even starting it (still have my fingers crossed for a print though haha)

Cheers

Simon

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That would be great Jo, I can only fit 2-3 maximum onto the train, but even one would add interest!

 

It’s that time of the week everyone, the time I cripple myself on the bedroom floor...

 

There’s been quite a bit of painting going on this weekend, this being the most photogenic bit:

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Touching up the load for the EWS. BDA and making loads for three more.  I’ve only got 2 more wagons left to load so maybe there’ll be a strengthener one day?

 

Customary Saturday video.  This week I did a bit more testing on the multi-purpose virgin mk3 rake following the decision to change the couplers on the rake last week.  I needed to check if it would still work on corners with a short Farish coupling in place of the normal Dapol.  It did!  It had to be a short coupling on the DVT because I need one FO that’s always next to the DVT/HST power car, and the coach needs a standard coupler to run as an HST... I don’t have this issue with the standard class end as the TGS isn’t in the rake when it’s being a west coast electric.

 

74931E55-B684-440A-9F92-C6A78085E09D.jpeg.38579fc32868d94288af8974e5b6172c.jpeg

Standard Dapol coupling with printed short coupler on the mk3.  A coach coupled to a HST PC is included for comparison. 

 

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Short Farish coupling on the DVT. I didn’t test the other combination because I wouldn’t have had the flexibility to run the rake both ways.

 

Also, in the video, something weird happened with my schools. The bogie kind of locked and did a wheelie... is this a standard fault?  Might explain why it was cheap!

 

Lots to do!

Simon

 

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Hi Dave,

 

You’ve not missed it, I don’t think this rakes appeared on here at all other than being in the lockdown videos - I think even the power car was repainted before I started either my workbench or Gresby threads.  
 

At the moment it’s a mixture, the 5 IC liveried ones had the buffers cut off from when they used to by my HST - I also took the buffers off the Virgin TGS, but so far none of the other Virgin coaches have had the snip.  I’m not even sure if they’re going to get it, but I’ll have to see if I get buffer locking when I’ve swapped the rest of the couplings over... 

 

51532C9A-D4F0-47ED-BC1D-68B88C71D1D5.jpeg.d63acd1b6c01d320842c947bb7bf6db4.jpeg

To get the closer coupling I took the coupling box off and used the box in the other end of the bogie. Looking at it up close for the first time I’ve realised the steps are nowhere near the door now...! Oh well!

 

Hope that helps!

Simon

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Saturday again everybody!

 

This week I spent all my modelling time on a stop

motion video for a Eurovision party... so there was no N Gauge/2mm action this week.  That said, I chose some trains  for today’s testing that were previous failures and could be fettled/fixed/diagnosed as I went.

 


My main victory was the 4 coach Regional Railways train, when I tried to test it before there was issues with the mk1 - the couplings locked a bit (I think after weathering).  I used pencil on the bogie pivot, the coupling cam, the underside of the buffer beam, and the faces of the buffers and gangway rubbing plates, and now it’s fine.

 

Do coaches need running in? It took a while for pretendolino to stay coupled but after a few stop start laps they were fine.  Except one:

 

E104A4F8-CC1B-43C1-B6D8-0D8B27A3FDC8.jpeg.3bb5863420d2c912aeb2ed734ac3da55.jpeg

This ones going to need some work I think.  Maybe it’s marked up backwards or something.  I’ll try pencil on the coupling mechanism and all that, but I’ll have to see... does anyone have any tips for getting Dapol MK3s to behave?

 

Thanks

Simon

 

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Hi Simon,

 

I haven't had many issues with Dapols Mk3s, what happens exactly? Are they just decoupling? Or also detailing? A friend had issues and ended up using a tiny tiny bit of bluetac inside the couplings, this worked but when we looked a little closer we also noticed the spring and the coupling wasn't really sitting correctly and fixing this was maybe a nicer way to fix the problem. 

 

Thanks for another video, the regional train looks good. Workings like that always add such interest to a layout in my opinion.

 

I hope all is well, all the best,

 

Dave

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Hi Dave,

 

Its a strange issue, the coach just doesn’t stay coupled - the rest of the rake was a bit hesitant staying coupled on the corners until they’d done a few laps but this one just wouldn’t.  I think the last time they ran before last weekend was 2012 so I don’t know if they’ve seized up a bit (I’ll give the cams a rub over with a pencil) but I’m not sure if the rogue coach needs something more involved.

 

I’ve got a similar issue with one of the NMT MK3s too; at Christmas it would only stay coupled running one way round, unfortunately it needed to run the other way round for the rest of the rake (which is the problem with using slightly different liveries on each side... it’s on the ‘test list’ for tomorrow’s session.

 

The regional train’s one of my favourites, it’s based on the Hope Valley loco hauled trains, but add another Mark 1 and it could be North Wales with a class 37.  
 

All well here, hope you are too

Simon

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Hello everybody!

 

Today was an exiting day (after my nap), I got the motor fitted to my J94 and it ran all by itself for the first time ever!

 

At first it wasn’t great, but then I adjusted the motor around, I think it wasn’t meshing very well at the top which was causing the motor to get really hot.

 

I have to take the wheels back off to paint the chassis so I’ll be able to address one of the running issues - the geared wheels is slightly loose on the gear and it spins sometimes, but it seems to run better forwards than backwards... going to need advice on that one!

 

It must have taken 2 years to get to this point! The next ones going to be loads quicker :laugh_mini: normal Saturday unitrack testing tomorrow

 

Lots to do

Simon

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Hello everybody,

 

It’s not Saturday, but here’s this weeks Saturday testing, which included some fixing...

 

I think I might have got to the bottom of the coupling issue on the NMT and managed to get the pantograph car to run the other way round.  I also lubricated the other coaches and it’s fine except for at top speed.

 

The coal has two wagons that aren’t behaving.  I’m not sure what’s going on with them, they don’t like curves but only sometimes.


FED26B2E-3BA9-4A31-AEDA-2F4168A20B01.jpeg.ce7c0a02ed0cfd4f61b61b0ba44dc4d5.jpeg

This might be the first time the class 170 has ever run.  It must be 7-8 years since I started the repaint but I should see about finishing it off.  I moved one or two of the section breaks in the fiddle yard to accommodate it as it’s the only member of the Gresby fleet that doesn’t have the powered car as the first vehicle - I made the changes after testing a normal 170 running backwards. 
 

I just need to get some transfers sorted...

 

Lots to do!

Simon

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Hello everybody,

 

It’s been a while, this is the 3rd weekend without getting the unitrack out - but I’ve been busy since my last update!

 

I had a slight issue with the J94, when the motor turned one way the worm lifted off the gear; I soldered a bit of scrap etch on to keep it in place:

 

66E301B7-4326-4C42-B6BE-0A63834CC6E8.jpeg.ed42da889fc7c5bd94f4a5ef51d40a5f.jpeg

Next I need to check all the wheels/axles/muffs to get it running and get rid of it’s new ‘waddle’...

 

Today I had a weathering session.

 

3BE713D7-BC71-4D81-81C8-645D6FA77DE5.jpeg.fa4c5f9339b34792e8b25ec871cc094e.jpeg

I finished fourth post van, this is the rear vehicle so has a tail lamp and a bufferbeam.  It also got new buffers from the 2mm.  I can’t do the final van until Etched Pixels opens back up.

 

Next, I finished the next two pipe train wagons:

 

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85C98801-2592-415B-9EDC-EE2E26BAAF0D.jpeg.2978dbf0c1bc65ba94596eff746a9316.jpeg

I think there’s just two or three left to go.

 

Finally today I made a start at weathering the Tipplers.  This last week or two I’ve fitted the brakewheels, painted the underframes and bogies. 
 

C09F38AF-515D-43ED-8D64-49AC849CA1AB.jpeg.368fcd39c9bb193aa4d0795fac1c25ed.jpeg

Here’s one that’s ready for weathering.

 

266AC27B-1EB2-4471-8321-AA36625424F7.jpeg.f8734fdd2c382208568319baad20c526.jpeg

I started with dirty powders on the underframe, then I rubbed dirty/ore colour in to the corners on the ribs, then I rubbed it off and gave it a dust of dirt.

 

33ADEC0B-A195-4CB6-BB5A-56D2DD13A14C.jpeg.97c76218fcbd35f991035b9ff9b61a54.jpeg

 

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Three down, four to go (and then 14 others I’ve barely started finishing yet).

 

Plenty done but lots to do!

Simon

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Nice work Simon. How do you find the running of the tipplers? I made some from the NGS when first released, I was happy with the bodies but not the running gear. I don't think my modelling skills were as good then but....

Cheers

Duncan

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Hi Duncan, 

They ran well when I tested them on Gresby, I swapped out the wheels for replacement ones from Bachman though - they’re free running and the inners stay coupled.
I need to look into the couplings between the buffer/outer wagons though, the only real issue I’ve had with the running is keeping the three sets coupled together, it’s definitely fixable though!

What issues have yours had?  Are they the new release NGS ones?

Cheers

Simon

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Hello everybody!

 

This has been a busy few days finishing off things that have been on my desk, as my desk is a mess...

 

6A8B1316-9FAA-4A29-90DE-C4C4122D8026.jpeg.e4828e4c97500d891649daa3b7d8d7dd.jpeg

Some time towards the beginning of lockdown I decided that I my ratio of hooded to non-hooded HAAs wasn’t right, so I bought a 5 pack and they sat on my desk ever since.  On Saturday I picked 5 hoppers and stuck them on.  The whole train needs work, I want to weather them, repaint some brown cradles maroon, and sort out closer couplings... but all that will just have to go on the to-do list on trello... 

 

After months (maybe two years) of having a pair of tankers on my desk waiting for me to finish the details I turned my attention to them.  Then, when I was looking for the ladders I remember painted for them I found another tanker even less complete:

 

3BD1CBDB-A51F-481F-A584-03D9FDBAB844.jpeg.aec7f30c1b9e9a4c4dc929195c5d519c.jpeg

After fitting the detailing kit and new bogies it was ready to join the paint queue:

 

E9B72CBE-D5A1-4698-BFFA-18508FCC3832.jpeg.976218b8a7609a02263e508552260f06.jpeg

 

F2E7E606-7A61-4815-B126-E57F4285BD6B.jpeg.f1986d58335f9f0f68331d6b4411760f.jpeg

 

I stuck the painted ladders I found on the first tanker, matt varnished the superglue and got the powders our this afternoon:

 

8A4BFF56-B819-41CB-8BCA-7643AE947C9B.jpeg.1062b72a66c001497bcbac7bb1d2c7b5.jpeg

 

D86B3584-AE00-4614-B985-4332BE29D1A0.jpeg.527b33c7af752038d8b4ebc6a02f9e78.jpeg

 

It’s cleaner than a lot of the earlier ones I did, and I prefer that.  I might still run a streak of glossy black down from one filler, but only a small one.

 

While the powders were out I did two more of these:

2B21EEF7-03CF-4DB7-877D-8DBFB9728FF6.jpeg.ecb47e0b0b388718b48034fcfd629fbf.jpeg

 

AC768067-2C09-45B6-884C-915A8F8370BA.jpeg.5c7d119ba1026d4d8679d281093ca62b.jpeg

 

Two more of the blue+orange left to weather and that’s 1/3 of the train finished!

 

Lots to do...

Simon

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Thanks Jonas!  Hello everybody, 

 

This afternoon I got the weathering powders out to finish what was on my desk. The final two blue steel tipplers and the tankers that I’d been working on this week.

 

3C56E1AB-6605-45B0-9140-BDDE1120B8E6.jpeg.560a1c346da8eaa346e6b4da78de6f1a.jpeg

During the week I finished all the little bits of painting, then I gave everything a test this evening:

 

Also on this video, see if you can spot what’s in the repainting queue... if anyone knows how to get a Bachmann Scott to rub freely I’m all ears.  I bought the Scott to convert to 2mm, but it’s not going to reach the top of the conversion queue for quite a while so it’d be handy to run the charter rake through Gresby!

 

A4A330C2-BE5A-49E1-97D2-30804DAFB534.jpeg.c84d4ae1e631acfe07944eae655dad17.jpeg

I satin varnished this this week and it turned yellow, it’s been sunbathing ever since to lighten it up, I don’t fancy repainting the white again!

 

B1C6550F-AC5F-463B-B8E1-79BDA13E4FE1.jpeg.130bc9ae58c4bdcc7e34888128b4dda1.jpeg

 

6098F64A-77C7-411A-BFBA-DB0C3E096BB6.jpeg.9d1a8b352ed49cd33309be810126b372.jpeg

Last two of the blue tippers.  I’ve got two more sets of seven to finish, but I’ve not completely decided what colour they’re going to be yet.

 

94953A54-0892-4CD0-A73E-5FD00DC95B7D.jpeg.87a6415184013d6680d27009632573ef.jpeg

 

0CED8FEC-E372-49CA-BF31-86D5A0DF73B3.jpeg.b701209604d249366109340b94a8dbd3.jpeg

 

Also today, I pulled this out the wardrobe:

08785872-01F5-4100-AF21-EC90BDD4D309.jpeg.788bf0dab645b80d43d9638c4f14249d.jpeg

 

D6297816-1F6E-4D01-9F40-23414EC0F071.jpeg.d6da356d7b32e6c26121ccba0a74e9fe.jpeg

I don’t remember buying it, I thought it was a 5MT - I could have used it to replace the Scott on the charter rake.  It looks like it’s gone down the previous owners stairs, I reckon it’s definitely going to go into the 2mm queue, it’s not big enough for charter work...


With everything that was on my desk finished it’s time to start something new!

 

Simon

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