ECC Wheal Imogen / Rosevean Station: the expansion

[Neal Ball]

Looking very good Rich

[The Fatadder]

A little more progress after waking up silly early this morning, painting the buff stripe and completing the touch up to the cantrail green paint.  The mk3s will have to wait…

There is now one final job, adding the orange cantrail stripe.  Then I can start with the transfers which have yellowed slightly so will do a UV treatment in the anycubic curing machine before use.  
 

I also need to make a decision as to what I will do about the white band….  

 

Boredom is a dangerous thing, after writing the above instead of pressing post I thought I would use some masking tape to see how the stripe ’should’ look. As previously though this confirmed that I have painted it 0.5mm too thick.   This led to rubbing a scalpel  along  the edge to see if the paint would scrape off (it did in part) adding a touch of thinners took off a bit more, but left a bit of a mark.  I think in theory this should be easy to cut in with some fresh paint.   The question is will the paint come off the other 3 sides so easily…
 

Still plenty of time before work so may as well give it a go…..

 

[The Fatadder]

I’ve now gone out to the garage and got the GWT white paint, and touched up the area between the stripe and the cab window.  It doesn’t look 100% but I would say it’s an improvement.

 

I am convinced there is something not quite right about the cab end of the Hornby model, a few others I’ve spoken to have said the same thing.  We are only talking less than half a mm, but the stripe coming back from the lights really exaggerates it.

 

At any rate I’m not going to mess with it any more, and will be adding some Klear where the transfers will go in a moment.  (Probably to be followed by adding transfers at lunch).

 

As mentioned right at the beginning, for one powercar the glazing (bar the windscreen) was destroyed before they came to me.   The solution was to take a set of Lima glazing, reduce the height, remove the remains of the raised frame.  I will also need to fabricate new windows for the rear sliding door (again potentially reusing Lima). For the cab door windows I am debating buying a new set of doors just for their glazing (but I’m out off by the ridiculous postage costs), otherwise it’s more cutting and filing plastic (as the Lima ones are rubbish).
 

 I also need to 3d print a couple of new seats for the new cab interior and solder wires to replace the missing springs.  I hadn’t noticed the cab interior was missing so didn’t  look out for the original cab interior in BGman’s bizarre at the members day, no doubt it was in one of those boxes somewhere…

Edited May 11, 2022 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Work over, time to crack on and finish the HST.

 

the first job was the transfers, followed by a coat of semi satin varnish.   While this was drying I cut and filed replacement windows for 2 side and cab doors.  Thankfully the end door was saveable after polishing the damage off. 
The new cab interior was fitted with new wires for the LED unit, I have no idea if this actually works, so it will be useful to do a test before final assessable.  
 

With the varnish  dry it was onto re-assembly.  I have decided to do one side of each powercar with the OEM glazing and the other with my replacements.  I am in two minds, but erring toward having both of these bodies fitted to powered Hornby chassis (and a pair of Lima on the unpowered chassis). The latter could get upgraded if I find a couple of Hornby bodies for sale with the right (early) headlights, after all I do still want to do 43008/43175…

My logic is that should I build Laira, I’d want the best looking powercars to be the best running…

 

 

I have one more job to do which is adding the OHLE stripe (which I forgot to add earlier) and OHLE flashes (which I forgot to order with the nameplates)

 

 

Transfers (and nameplates) have also been added to 47798.  Although it still needs reassembling, a multiple working jumper on each end and of course a chassis

[The Fatadder]

A bit more on 43185 before work today, fitting a Serek cooler group to the Lima model. This has used a Hornby grill (left over from converting 43157) and a plasticard mounting plate.  The Hornby fan unit was then glued in from the underside

 

It does still need some small details adding (2 small fixings and a small plate)

 

 

it also need the cab roof painting, nameplates and new handrails fitting.  

[James Makin]

Hi Rich,

 

These all look fabulous, I'm just catching up on a load of stuff and loving the latest few pages here!

 

The layout plans shared all look very exciting, and any excuse to run a load of HSTs is a good one!

 

I must admit though whenever I have looked at doing simpler end-to-end plans for various permutations of my layout over the years, with half HSTs appearing from one end of the layout or short formations, I kept ultimately going back to the idea of a roundy-roundy! I would come up with a good end-to-end plan, love the concept for a bit but soon get the hankering for what I really wanted, a big fast circuit layout for the HSTs to stretch their legs! Just something to bear in mind that if you still get that niggle on wanting a roundy roundy, I think its worth planning in the concept of an easy extension from the outset or it will probably keep eating away at you 😄

 

The Merlin power cars look superb! I too found the masking for the green cab nose stripe tricky as the lights contain an error somewhere, if you mask the green line to interact with the headlights the same way as the prototype, it does end up a touch too thick. On my ones I ended up masking the stripe to the right thickness but then just trying to disguise the join to the lights by narrowing the painted surrounds of the lights slightly, not a great outcome but then what can you do! 

 

In terms of fixing things you mention using transfers, I reckon I'd just paint over with some more white and varnish over - with mine, I had numerous little corrections to make and did these all by hand using the Phoenix shades and they've all disappeared under the trusty matt varnish coating!

 

Looking forward to seeing more of these coming together, Merlin is such an underrated livery!

 

Cheers,

James

 

 

[The Fatadder]

35 minutes ago, James Makin said:

ust something to bear in mind that if you still get that niggle on wanting a roundy roundy, I think its worth planning in the concept of an easy extension from the outset or it will probably keep eating away at you 😄

This is one of the main stumbling blocks which has stopped me placing an order for baseboards so far, settling on a gauge to build it to.  I am erring towards sticking with P4, but if I move to OO expansion is easier (and I can give them a run on Brent).....

Space is the real killer, a smaller end to end layout can be set up under Brent's fiddleyard.  Anything bigger will only be able to be set up a few times a year at shows.

 

35 minutes ago, James Makin said:

The Merlin power cars look superb! I too found the masking for the green cab nose stripe tricky as the lights contain an error somewhere, if you mask the green line to interact with the headlights the same way as the prototype, it does end up a touch too thick. On my ones I ended up masking the stripe to the right thickness but then just trying to disguise the join to the lights by narrowing the painted surrounds of the lights slightly, not a great outcome but then what can you do! 

 

In terms of fixing things you mention using transfers, I reckon I'd just paint over with some more white and varnish over - with mine, I had numerous little corrections to make and did these all by hand using the Phoenix shades and they've all disappeared under the trusty matt varnish coating!

Need Accurascale or Cavelex to bring out a new HST....  Not only would it sort out all of those small inaccuracies, it wouldnt cost a small mortgage to buy one!  

 

Once I nailed down the fact that the over width was at least in part down to inaccuracies in the model, I shifted my plan from trying to fix it with a transfer to fixing with paint.  Scraped off the excess paint with a sharp blade and then repainted the white.  I think it now looks a lot better.

 

Once the layout is built I will have to buy another R2702 pair of Intercity powercars as I definitely want two more in GWT including 43008!  I will be keeping a close eye out for Intercity / Virgin XC / EMT bodies on the second hand market as I wouldnt mind replacing the two Hornby / Lima hybrids with repainted Hornby bodies...

 

Just realised I forgot to add last nights photo now the cantrail is lined

 

that rear door really needs an etched window frame…

Edited May 12, 2022 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Some more Class 37 work.

Back when I took Wheal Imogen to its first show back in 2019 for some reason I never got 37670 finished with couplings, this was despite it being used as the test loco throughout the build.  As a result it has stayed on the stock shelf, not getting a turn on for weathering during lockdown when most of my 37s were treated...

As a result it has ended up at the front of the queue for an upgrade.

I have mentioned before that given the Bachmann 37 has a pretty good body and an acceptable mechanism (at least once fitted with my standard fudge of 14.5mm wheels on the outer axles and a 14mm wheel on the centre), the plan is to go to town on the upgrades and try and get as close as possible to an Accurascale example.

This will include attention to:
Extreme Etchings roof grill
Fixing nose grills (on 37521 only)
Work to the windscreens (new glazing, new window frames, scribe on the joint between the two parts of the windscreen*.
The usual end detail / Dingham
Rebuild the underframe detail and lower the body on the chassis.

*I have tried the full Shawplan end treatment before and didnt get on well with it.  My plan is to use just the frames glued in place (like you do on the 47/50, and use the etch as a template to scribe on the rest.  New glazing will be added getting rid of the rubbish Bachmann use with the moulded on clear window frames).

Today I have been focusing on the  underframe improvements, using a 3d print for a new fuel tank with full depth detail (including all the end bits) along with a set of 3d printed brake cylinders.  I plan on finishing this off with a 3d printed cab footstep, and the Shawplan brake bracket.  

 

Once the new tanks are fitted, the model looks a bit odd on its bogies given it rides much too high.  The bogie is removed, before unscrewing the mounting bracket 

 

There is a raised flange either side of the central pivot, this need to be reduced in height to be flush with the centre 

 

 

A big mistake a lot of people seem to make is stopping here, however this just results in a lot of slop.  You also need to remove the step around the bottom of the pivot shown below so that it is a constant radius and can all fit through the hole in the chassis block.

 

The modified bogie is now ready for re fitting, I have found a high failure rate of the Bachmann bogie frame (the end clip is too thin so will fail if you take the bogie frames off too many times.)  The solution is to drill a 1.5mm  hole up through the underside of the bogie at the inboard end (being careful to avoid the gears of course).  A standard Bachmann body screw can then be used to screw the base plate to the actual bogie.

 

The end result, I think it makes for a big improvement even without the body modifications.  Although in this particular case the awful Bachmann weathering will have to go.  Thankfully with the new fuel tanks and rebuild bogie frames the baby poo weathering as now been painted over in those areas...
Untitled by The Fatadder, on Flickr

Edited May 15, 2022 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Time for another HST project, 

 

I have always wanted one of the buffer fitted HST power cars, the release of an unpowered model of a single buffer fitted powercar was always a temptation.  Seeing one on Amazon at a hefty discount (and prime delivery) was too hard to resist, particularly once the unboxed example I was following on ebay (with no detail pack) was rapidly approaching the same price.)   So this evening I pressed buy and now await its delivery.  (There is a part of me that says this was madness and I should have just waited a bit longer to buy what I really want in the form of another pack of the R2702 Intercity pair which gives me exactly what I want for my next pair of GWT powercars, 43175 and 43008, or for that matter the Virgin Cross Country pair which seems to trend at a significantly cheaper price (but would need more modification).  But that £100 barrier (yet alone the £200 barrier) has stopped me for the moment, buying track parts and baseboards would be a better investment...

 

Anyway back to the buffer fitted HST, I am rather limited in my options for this.  As the model comes the livery is not appropriate for 1998/9, those powercars still in Intercity had the grey band extended across the windscreen.  All of which had gained Virgin livery by 1999.  Those with the Virgin XC branding are also ruled out, as I have only got one side of XC logos left which are earmarked for a Lima powercar that I am rebuilding with guards windows (along with the new interior etc) as either Lady in Red or Maiden Voyager (taking the place of my first trainset HST) from the 90s).

 

I think this leave me with 43123 as the only option carrying Virgin livery in 1998 (but not XC), so that is the most likely candidate.  As soon as the model arrives it will be broken down into its components to remove the glazing, headlights and handrails and then get a soak in 99% IPA to get rid of the Hornby paint.  It will then join the aforementioned Lima powercar for its respray.  Hopefully I have enough Virgin red and grey paint left!

 

Back to the topic of the layout (which I probably ought split into a new topic), I am now pretty much set on a track plan, more likely than not set on P4 (which I my well live to regret), and ready to place an order for the baseboards before commencing construction in the winter.  In the mean time the week before showcase my wife is taking the children away for a week's holiday with her parents so I am planning to move Wheal Imogen inside the house, set it up on its legs (along with its new fiddleyard) and do some  testing to see just how badly the rust issues have impacted running.  Ideally I would like to get a little use out of it exhibition wise before it is fully retired, particularly with the Cavelex CDA on the horizen.  

[The Fatadder]

Work has started on the Virgin HST respray, with the model dismantled and dunked in ipa.

 

Hornby used a lot more glue on this one, one locating stud on the cab interior wouldn’t budge and was snapped off.  Likewise the glazing for the critical cab side windows was had a ridiculous amount of glue.  After one snapped in half I tried using IPA which worked perfectly to soften the glue.   Looks like I will have to butcher another Lima locos glazing to replace it.

Interestingly there are a few changes from the earlier model, with no opening doors fitted.  (A situation I most certainly prefer)

 

The weather forecast isn’t great so who knows when I will get the painting started, at best today it will be priming only.

 

it doesn’t look much like this any more…..

[The Fatadder]

I cannot believe quite how thick the yellow paint was on this model, all the detail was obliterated and it took an absolute age to get it all stripped off!  
 

Eventually it was ready for priming

 

there is a little rework to do removing the odd dot of paint that I missed, but it’s pretty much ready for spraying in Virgin red.  The cab front and roof will then be masked and get a dusting of white primer before spraying warning yellow.

 

Alas my Virgin Trains grey has gone solid, so I won’t be able to finish the loco until I see Rainbow Railways at DEMU Showcase next month.  I will have at least one (maybe two) Lima powercars to finish painting into Virgin at the same time.  Must get on with opening the nose panel on one of them…

 

while checking the paints I tested the Virgin red on the buffer beam which is now  ready for the body to be reattached.  I am going to add a Dingham hook (no loop) so that a loco can couple to it.

[The Fatadder]

Things havent quite aligned properly to let me start spraying the Virgin powercar red, however I have managed to get on with some finishing work on some of the Great Western Trains mk3s I got from BGMans estate.  Before starting I wanted to check what exactly I have mk3 wise. 

My original rake from the late 2000s is formed of 7 Hornby coaches in the Great Western  logo Great Western  version of the livery, and a Limby TGS in Intercity.  All are in P4 with kaydees fitted in the buffer beams (and one of the firsts  has been fitted with my test print for the new steps / ETH sockets.)   The TGS will be swapped with set 3 to get a complete set in Great Western Trains.

 

The next set is made up of Lima coaches and a Limby TGS, several of the coaches came from BGMan a few years ago on which I finished off painting.  A couple of which still need coach letters changing (I have no Coach E), all are in the Intercity logo Great Western version of the livery.  This set needs couplings, rewheeling (to get rid of the Lima wheels)  and detailing.  It seems that most of the standard class coaches have First Class interiors so a replacement will need drawing and printing.  This set will have the repainted Lima First that is currently on the work bench (instead of the Hornby coach that was previously in this set).  The TGS roof shattered during removal, it will gain the roof from a scrapped sleeper 

 

Finally the last set, this will be a mixture of Hornby and Lima coaches (restaurant and firsts are Hornby, the rest Lima), This is a bit of a cobbled together set as opposed to the other two which are more consistent in livery.   The TGS in Intercity livery and at least on coach in Intercity/Great Western.  A TS from the current batch will end up in this set. 

 

Both Set 2 and Set 3 will need renumbering (so the fun job removing Lima numbers) and will also need the coach letters removing and replacing (even more fun) as the Lima ones are a touch too big (and of course I am lacking coach E).   

All of this for what will amount to little more than a backscene on the planned layout.....

 

 

Onto last nights work, 

 

Earlier in the week I painted the lower buff stripe on each of the three coaches, followed by a coat of Klear to get a better surface for applying the transfers.   The Fox transfers were intended for the original livery, so its gets a bit wasteful when you start finishing coaches in the Great Western logo Great Western version of the livery.  Eventually I am tempted to respray the white on all of my other Lima coaches (but I havent quite enough transfers for that)...

Transfers for the window stickers were also added (a job that will be needed on the rest of the rake)

The Interiors will need painting (for which I need to find a suitable colour), the TS of course still needs a new interior printing.  Window frames need painting silver on two coaches.  All glazing has been removed from the roof ready for fitting post varnishing, this means its going to be a lot easier to get inside the coach in future without braking it!   

 

Eventually they will get a further upgrade with new window frames and laser glazing, but for now the budget is better spent elsewhere.  For now they will not get an interior fitted as the intention is to have them on shed, but again this will get revaluated in the future...

 

 

.  

 

 

 

[The Fatadder]

forgot to add a photo 

 

it still needs the window frames doing, alas on the lower coach on which the silver had already been done the masking tape lifted some of the paint.

 

Door open warning lights are a temporary stop gap using Fox transfers until I fit something more accurate. Unfortunately they are missing from the Lima based coaches.

 

A December 1996 issue of Rail lists a handful of accurate formations of GWT mk3 coach numbers.  Unfortunately the Fox transfer sheet doesn’t cover the later repaints.  At the moment my full Lima set in the Intercity logo Great Western variant have the same numbers as my renumbered Hornby set in the later livery completely by coincidence.  I think it’s more accurate in the earlier livery so the later version will need renumbering.

 

finally the transfers only include one set of coach letters so I’ve used a lot of them now (and won’t have enough to rebrand all of the Lima ones.)  

[Neal Ball]

Excellent work on the HSTs Rich…. Although it also seems challenging on a few fronts!

[The Fatadder]

Just windows and interiors to go now

the last coach also needs a roof repaint to get rid of the remains of Intercity

 

the next GWT Lima powercar has now had the roof prepared for its new grills, it will then be varnished.  I will probably open the front panel on this one to allow dragging with a loco.  It will also be first in line for an underframe rebuild

 

43185 needs a colour touch up to the grills as the grey is a little too light.  It will also then need varnishing before refitting the glazing 

 

finally 43151 has returned to the bench as the shift to 98/99 means I would prefer to go for one of the last to carry intercity.  Trawling through Flickr 43172 was still in intercity in feb 99 (but was GWT by April).

43007 my other intercity powercar was still in Intercity but with Virgin at this point. 
There is a strong temptation to repaint 151 as pride of Laira in GWT…..

[The Fatadder]

A little progress on the Virgin HST which is now a little more red.  Yellow will follow tomorrow and grey at the weekend.

 

 

I think I am right that the side and roof were the same grey.  I think Hornby’s effort is a bit too dark, so that may eventually need a repaint as well.

 

edit: the cab is now yellow…. I may have found some grey in which case that will be finished later 

Edited June 13, 2022 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Grey was sprayed before work this morning, though the yellow doesn’t look right (possibly a trick of the camera)

 

 

Just needs a little paint touch up, before starting on the transfers later in the week. I’m looking forward to getting some stripes and the Virgin XC logos added.

[The Fatadder]

Lots of progress this evening, the loco is now fully transferred up (along with a coat of varnish to seal it all in and tone down the gloss.

 

Now to make a start on reassembling the body, in preparation I have fitted a Dingham hook to the buffer beam meaning that the powercar can couple up to a loco to be dragged.  I think it’s time to start building another set of mk3s to go with it ( 43007 in intercity will be the other powercar).

the plan is for one of two particularly interesting coach sets, which briefly included a GNER liveried coach mixed with Virgin and Intercity examples in 1999.

[The Fatadder]

And another loco is done. 

 

edit: and then I spot a transfer for an ohle flash has fallen off between application and varnishing!

Edited June 15, 2022 by The Fatadder

[Neal Ball]

Looks great Rich, well done.

 

My BR Blue/Grey liveried HST has now gone to a new home - just the GWT Merlin livery left!

[The Fatadder]

I am inching closer and closer to dunking another of my intercity swallow powercars into a bath of IPA to do another GWT respray. Though finishing off the M13 Van and siphon J for Brent are a touch more pressing.

[The Fatadder]

The intercity powercar survives for now, but probably not for much longer...   More likely than not the next time I have a weekend of good weather (and on partys to take the children to taking up all my time!) it will get a respray.  The fact I have two more Lima powercars to do at the same time makes it even more likely...

 

 

For now I have been playing around with an old project, a few years back i converted a Hornby mk2e first into a 2f RFB to complete my cross country set.  At the time I modified the underframe to represent one of the twin fan fitted coaches.  

While tidying up I came across parts from a Southern Pride mk2 brake coach that I had never built.  So after chopping the underframe bits off the 2e I now have a single fan AC unit (along with other 2f specific parts) fitted to the coach's underframe.  All of this was painted this morning, and will be ready to reassemble later.

 

Another mk2 coach project should be arriving this week, I have acquired 3 Bachmann mk2f First bodyshells from ebay at the weekend which should arrive sometime this week.  These are all in intercity livery.   During the late 90s Great Western Trains acquired a number of first class mk2d coaches and downgraded them to standard class.   These were used in both the sleeper and in the loco hauled services, my intention is to modify some old Airfix chassis / interiors to fit the Bachmann bodies.  Respray two of them to remove the yellow first class stripe, and I have half a rake...

 

The Sleeper formation was:

47/8 in GWT,  mk2d BSO 9481, mk2d TSO (ex first), Mk2E FOt 3520 (all in Intercity) and 3 sleepers (4 on a Friday) with at least one freshly outshopped in GWT livery, finally an intercity livery mk1 BG.    (I do have one photos which shows all 4 sleepers in GWT in June99.  its a same that the mk2s never carried the livery in service, there was a photo in a railway mag in 1999 showing a full set painted in Ivory / Green (possibly with no branding) which was held at the works after painting and eventually left in fag packet. (though I have never actually seen a copy of the photo).

 

The loco hauled passenger services seemed to have a lot more variation in formation, both in length and in the coach mix.  The formation I am going to model is slightly less common (but more interesting aesthetically)

47/8, mk1 BG, TSO7, TSO7, TSO8, Mk1 RMB, FO, FO 

 

The mk1 is currently awaiting paint, the BG and one of the tso will be shared with the sleeper.  So there will still be a few more coaches that need sourcing for this set.

Edited June 21, 2022 by The Fatadder

[dj_crisp]

I like the sound of your MK2 project!

[The Fatadder]

The mk2 bodies arrived this morning, I have had a look at the Airfix chassis and interior as well as the Bachmann bodies.  First impression on the latter is that they are as good as expected, I will be needing to do an upgrade on my Hornby 2e coaches to replace the huge rovacs and add separate handrails.   The Bachmann printing is really easy to remove, with the Intercity logos, first class 1s and numbers rubbing off with a thumb nail.

 

I had never previously noticed that the Airfix mk2d chassis has an angled bufferbeam similar to that on their B Set.  This will need some rework (including new buffers) to get it matching the real thing.  A bigger issue is that as a result of the flat body profile on the Airfix model, the chassis is about 1mm too wide, so half a mm will need to be removed from each side.  Thankfully the interior moulding is exactly the right width so no modification needed there.

 

The other major task is going to be respraying the yellow band to intercity buff, (which will be done at the same time as spraying the intercity liveried sleepers (and a Hurst Models mk3 DVT which will eventually have a use on a Virgin Trains summer Saturday set.)

 

 

Hopefully will get all 3 fitted to their new chassis at the weekend, Just need to confirm what will be needed to convert a 2E or 2F brake into a 2D to finish the set

[billywhizz]

Hi Rich. 
not sure if this might help you, couple of photos of the mods I did to the Airfix MK2D chassis including removing the angled buffer beams and replacing the motor- alternator unit etc