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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Railmatchdries with a strange surface which is water resistant. It doesn't seem to matter how much I stir it and shake it I can't get it to dry as one finish on coach roof sections. It must be a magic ingredient in the paint! (Colours tried LMS Roof grey, BR roof grey (for maroon coaches) and BR roof grey (for crimson/cream)

Baz

I never used to have a problem with Railmatch but the jars I tried are relatively new - perhaps the formula has changed.

 

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

Is that brushed on or sprayed? It seems to work OK for me either way.

All brushed. I've used Railmatch rattle cans in the past but never sprayed the stuff from jars.

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I had a day off today as I had to take the car in for a service and do some other things around the house. I also needed a break from staring at the office laptop and from video conferences.

 

111203342_20200507001PMuncouplershandpointscontrolpanelswitchesfitted.JPG.1a36bacfd789b3d6101b2a983c9e5af1.JPG

I therefore spent a good deal of time on trains. After I'd painted the C65 roof as mentioned already I fitted the switches to the uncoupler and hand point control panel. I also sorted out the non-parallel section of tape on the right.

 

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I wired the switches using my normal colour codes and added labels...

 

2134481208_20200507003PMuncouplershandpointscontrolpanelwiredtolayout.JPG.2a9dc63ce6f0cabdac6c9b90c5a3e39e.JPG

...then connected all the wires to the plug half of the connectors.

 

416645915_20200507004PMuncouplershandpointscontrolpanelcomplete.JPG.4403c1f5e39517db490420cc2574f348.JPG

In this photo and the last Stu will note that there is plenty of slack in the wires at the moments. Once everything is working I'll bundle the wires up for tidiness while still leaving room to change the angle of the panel if I decide to do that.

 

At the weekend I'll transfer control of the three points to the new panel then start the uncoupler installation.

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I've not got on very well with using Humbrol to brush paint vehicle roofs recently.  It used to work well but doesn't seem to any longer no matter how I stir it.  Recently I've usually used dark greys, either 32 or 67.  So I usually do my best but accept that they won't be perfect, and then disguise the streaks with a  thin weathering wash usually very much thinned down matt black, all over the whole roof.  I do find however Railmatch Roof Grime brushes well straight from the jar.  As far as I can see, it's a very similar colour to Humbrol 32.

 

None of the above helps much if you want a vehicle with a freshly painted roof though!

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Just now, 31A said:

I've not got on very well with using Humbrol to brush paint vehicle roofs recently.  It used to work well but doesn't seem to any longer no matter how I stir it.  Recently I've usually used dark greys, either 32 or 67.  So I usually do my best but accept that they won't be perfect, and then disguise the streaks with a  thin weathering wash usually very much thinned down matt black, all over the whole roof.  I do find however Railmatch Roof Grime brushes well straight from the jar.  As far as I can see, it's a very similar colour to Humbrol 32.

 

None of the above helps much if you want a vehicle with a freshly painted roof though!

Thanks Steve. This isn't going to be an exhibition-quality coach, partly because the underlying model isn't to that standard. I think this one could be a good candidate for my first weathered coach...

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9 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

The Railmatch rattle cans aren't very good but it does spray well enough. i use Precision quick air drying thinners for this - and for their paint and Humbrol as well.

Thanks Mike. I've no Railmatch cans left now. We can't get Railmatch (or Phoenix/Precision) paint here at all unfortunately.

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On 07/05/2020 at 15:22, St Enodoc said:

I left the C65 well alone yesterday but instead made up a little sample panel to compare eight different grey paints that I have - five Humbrol and three Railmatch. Interestingly, all the Humbrol patches dried completely matt, while the Railmatch ones have a satin sheen. Looking at the samples I decided to put a coat of Humbrol 64 Light Grey on the roof, which I did this morning. So far, it's not looking too bad...

Well, the light grey roof looks passable if not perfect. If I were to put another coat on I think that it would overwhelm too much of the surface detail - it's touch and go as it is - so I'm not going to waste any more time on it. I put the bogies back on tonight and tomorrow I'll take some photos.

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On 07/05/2020 at 18:20, St Enodoc said:

 

2134481208_20200507003PMuncouplershandpointscontrolpanelwiredtolayout.JPG.2a9dc63ce6f0cabdac6c9b90c5a3e39e.JPG

...then connected all the wires to the plug half of the connectors.

 

416645915_20200507004PMuncouplershandpointscontrolpanelcomplete.JPG.4403c1f5e39517db490420cc2574f348.JPG

In this photo and the last Stu will note that there is plenty of slack in the wires at the moments. 

 

and Barry O will note that the Shackleton remains unbuilt.

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As I hinted above, I've now transferred control of the three hand points at Porthmellyn Road from the two temporary panels to the new permanent one. This was straightforward, as all I needed to do was to replace the old wires with new, longer wires. All three points are working fine.

 

After that, I played around with the uncoupler power supply. I installed one of the coils, temporarily, and tried a 12Vdc supply that used to power a wi-fi modem until we had to get a new one for our NBN (National Broadband Network) connection. That worked fairly well but with some of my couplings being rather ancient (over 35 years old in some cases) they were a bit sluggish and didn't always perform. Next I tried a 19Vdc ex-laptop supply, which worked very well - in fact my worry now is that the coupling droppers might fly off into oblivion. Anyway, that's the one I've decided to use so tomorrow I can connect it to the layout with a plug and socket then start the actual coupler coil installation.

 

Finally, here are a couple of photos of the C65.

 

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The corridor side is the viewing side. Not perfect, as I'm sure you will all agree (not least because of the wrong bogies), but as I said this morning I'm not going to spend any more time trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. This coach forms half of set 550 - you can just see part of the label on the end.

 

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The compartment side is messier but, fortunately, this won't be seen in normal operation.

 

Nothing else to do on this now until I finish the BSK - it will be maroon - that runs with it, when I will need to make a semi-permanent coupling between the two.

 

Oh, and the Bloody Mary has been mixed and sampled - you won't be getting much sense out of me now for the rest of the evening.

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5 minutes ago, nerron said:

 

Perhaps not a silk purse but a very nice leather wallet.

 

That would be nice, especially with a few pineapples and avocados in it.

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More good progress today. I found a suitable plug and socket for the uncoupler power supply in the spares box, so I fitted that and connected the negative side to the uncoupler return bus that I installed right at the start of the layout wiring. I also connected the positive side to the connector block where it forms a common feed to all the toggle switches on the panel.

 

Next, I started preparing the coils for installation. When I recovered them from the old St Enodoc fiddle yards they were already soldered to tagstrips. I connected these to a choccy block and added a pair of diodes. The heatshrink is just to provide some mechanical protection to the thin enamelled wire.

 

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Here's the first one ready for installation. You can't really see it here but the feed (positive) is plain white, while the common (negative) is white and black. I think I've got the diodes the right way round...

 

I didn't quite have time to do them all - only ten of the fourteen. Wiring up the remaining four then installing them all and connecting them to the panel will be next weekend's job.

 

During the week I might make a start on the BSL E147.

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1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

I think I've got the diodes the right way round...

So do I . . .

. . .  unless your labels are wrong!

:-)

Paul.

Edited by 5BarVT
Spelling/grammar (user error).
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16 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

So do I . . .

. . .  unless your labels are wrong!

:-)

Paul.

Thanks Paul. Before I actually install the first one I'll test it...

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So, on to the E147, which as I've mentioned is the last of my ready-built eBay acquisitions.

 

It's an ancient BSL kit, put together quite well but showing its age and falling apart in places (aren't we all?).

 

Strangely, it has the wrong bogies - 9' plate instead of 9' pressed steel - but that's easy to fix as I've got a number of spares. The underframe has the usual BSL plastic trusses, one of which has broken at a joint. That should be easy to fix too. Otherwise, the underframe is fine, with just a few details to add.

 

The interior is basic, with compartment dividers and moulded seats, all painted in bauxite and glued to the aluminium floor underframe. Some fresh paint will sort those out.

 

The body will need more work. One end has started to come away from the wooden roof and from one side. That side has in turn started to come away from the roof. The roof is glued to a styrene sheet ceiling, which has also started to come away. The first job will be to fix this lot back together with Kwik Grip (Evo Stik) and run some fillets of epoxy along the joins. The roof has ventilators but no rain strips.

 

The glazing is/was interesting. The droplights are very thin film, possibly even sellotape, painted and stuck to the glazing on one of the sides but direct to the aluminium shell on the other. I might try to reuse these but they'll need a repaint from brown to crimson and might not survive. I'd like to replace them with etched ones but I've run out. Barry O of this parish has kindly offered to send me a few but I'll need lots more in future. The only ones I can find on the web are from a company called RDEB Model Company and sold through Wizard Models. They're branded as LNER/ECJS style but there's no photo on the website, so does anybody know a) how many are on the fret; b) whether they are suitable for other types of coaches; and c) whether it's possible to get any other makes? The glazing strips themselves are too far gone to reuse.

 

There's no door furniture but all the holes are there and I've got plenty of Comet T-handles and grab handles in stock. The door outlines have been scribed in.

 

Finally, the body and chassis are held together by turned brass buffers screwed through the headstocks. I'll see whether I can join the body and chassis together using the little ledge inside the ends. If I can, I'll be able to fit cast square-shanked buffers. If not, I'll stick with the round-shanked ones.

 

All in all a fair bit of work but with luck not too difficult this time. More as I make (intermittent) progress.

 

 

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43 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

The glazing is/was interesting. The droplights are very thin film, possibly even sellotape, painted and stuck to the glazing on one of the sides but direct to the aluminium shell on the other. I might try to reuse these but they'll need a repaint from brown to crimson and might not survive. I'd like to replace them with etched ones but I've run out. Barry O of this parish has kindly offered to send me a few but I'll need lots more in future. The only ones I can find on the web are from a company called RDEB Model Company and sold through Wizard Models. They're branded as LNER/ECJS style but there's no photo on the website, so does anybody know a) how many are on the fret; b) whether they are suitable for other types of coaches; and c) whether it's possible to get any other makes? The glazing strips themselves are too far gone to reuse.

If you are happy with gluing plastic droplights in place, do you know anyone over there with a Shilouette cutter over there?

 

It would be very easy to draw up a dropline and then use one to cut out as many as you need from 10tho plasticard (20thou would work but it would need scoring with a knife before snapping out the waste plastic.

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8 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

If you are happy with gluing plastic droplights in place, do you know anyone over there with a Shilouette cutter over there?

 

It would be very easy to draw up a dropline and then use one to cut out as many as you need from 10tho plasticard (20thou would work but it would need scoring with a knife before snapping out the waste plastic.

Thanks Rich, that's a very good idea. I'll ask around the local gang. I'm sure somebody will have a cutter. 10 thou will be fine for what I need and a drawing should be simple enough ("call yourself a mechanical engineer? You can't even draw a straight line...").

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18 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Rich, that's a very good idea. I'll ask around the local gang. I'm sure somebody will have a cutter. 10 thou will be fine for what I need and a drawing should be simple enough ("call yourself a mechanical engineer? You can't even draw a straight line...").


the ability to use CAD is the only thing from my mechanical engineering degree that I actually use, what with working in Finance. 
 

the cutter will accept a DXF drawing (though you do need to ensure that the scaling doesn’t get cocked up when importing)

 

Very useful bit of kit those cutters.

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1 hour ago, The Fatadder said:


the ability to use CAD is the only thing from my mechanical engineering degree that I actually use, what with working in Finance. 
 

the cutter will accept a DXF drawing (though you do need to ensure that the scaling doesn’t get cocked up when importing)

 

Very useful bit of kit those cutters.

Hmm, my engineering training predates CAD. I'll have to get someone to convert my pencil drawing to .dxf too...

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