Triang Hymek upgrade.

[Father Dougal]

Well that was exciting and a little messy.

I have been carefully cutting out the excess inside battery case from the body, removing the head code pieces and removing the buffer beam valance.

This is not a task for the faint hearted as the plastic can break fairly easily. However it is also easy to tidy up with filler.

a few photos of progress and comparison to an untouched model. It is no where near done yet.

I noticed the tail lights on the model are too low, so I will have to drill new holes at some stage.

Dougal

 

[Father Dougal]

More progress this weekend.

All the windows have been drilled out and all the various rails are done. I managed to break more of the body shell, It is easy to glue back together, but annoyingly brittle in places.

I applied a proof coat to see how she looks. I know I need to tidy lots up before I can paint.

I have now cut out the central body strut- the instructions suggest against this, but I plan to fit a fully removable chassis and floor and the strut was in the way. Luckily nothing broke when I removed this!

I have yet to drill out the roof grill. Apparently it is a little over scale and off centre on the Triang model, so more filler is required.

progress so far. (I know the head code boxes are not 100% square, I will tidy them up later.

Dougal.

[Father Dougal]

A bit more progress.

I have built the first power bogie. This one has locating plates so that the cosmetic frames can be removed. I made these out of scrap brass.

just needs a tidy up then painting to follow.

The roof fan grill is fitted. Needs tidying up.

more to follow...

[Fastdax]

On 01/12/2019 at 12:37, Father Dougal said:

 

I have built the first power bogie. This one has locating plates so that the cosmetic frames can be removed. I made these out of scrap brass.

 

 

Great stuff, Dougal.

 

How are the cosmetic side frames removed? I also have a Tri-ang Hymek body and PRMRP chassis kit waiting on a shelf and this mod looks very useful to me.

[Father Dougal]

6 hours ago, Fastdax said:

 

Great stuff, Dougal.

 

How are the cosmetic side frames removed? I also have a Tri-ang Hymek body and PRMRP chassis kit waiting on a shelf and this mod looks very useful to me.

 

Hi, 

the side frames are fixed with bolts, so they are easy to remove. I copied the idea from the class 08 I built.

Dougal.

[Father Dougal]

Ok, I spent the weekend working on the Hymek. Both power bogies are now built as is the underframe.

I need to pop to the model shop and get some black paint then the bogies can be painted. Photos to follow.

Dougal

[Father Dougal]

I spent an enjoyable few hours in the shed today. The body shell just needs filling to smooth out any blemishes, The head code boxes came out nicely, once I added some plastic strip.

next step in painting the chassis and bogies. You can see the chassis here- just a simple frame that fits snugly inside the body shell. I just need to work out where I want to fit a few fixing points now.

Dougal.

[Father Dougal]

Gracious, I can’t believe I haven’t posted since Christmas!

 

The Hymek is almost done now. I have decided to purchase some wheels from Slaters, rather than use the wheels supplied as these are designed to build a electrically live bogie ( one positive, one negative). I prefer all wheel pick ups.

 The body shell is painted and weathered. I need to make some cabs and add some lights. I also need couplings and buffers.

All being well, by end of March I should be ready for sound chip fitting and lots of playing.

Dougal

[Father Dougal]

Time for an update.

power bogies all done, with pick ups fitted. I am just finishing off the cab interiors and lights and then she is done.

The buffers are Oleo style, I gather this is not prototypical but they will be more reliable on the curves.

The LEDs are 1.8mm.

[Father Dougal]

Test running the Hymek today. She runs well and copes with my curved track and point work.

I also found some snow ploughs in bits box. These are painted in black and will be fitted shortly.

 

Four more jobs to do;

fit snowploughs, fit sound decoder, fit couplings and glaze the tiny side windows.

Dougal.

[Father Dougal]

Ok so, the decoder arrived. It is an MX696 Zimo decoder- not my usual choice, but it will do. The only challenge is figuring out the wiring as it is a tad confusing. This version has a conversion plate for screw connections, but the instructions don’t clearly relate to this, or the other half of the decoder ( it comes in two parts).

Luckily I Doogled an image and found a really helpful image from you choose which shows all the key wiring and it is colour coded. I can figure out almost all the wiring now, but I can’t yet work out where to wire the stay alive to. 

If anyone knows can you let me know.

photos to follow tomorrow.

Dougal.

[Father Dougal]

All done now. I phoned those nice people at Digitrains who helpfully told me where to wire up the stay alive.

Nice runner and the sound quality is great. Not so many lighting options but the cold start process is really good.

a few pictures of my messy wiring!