SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[Gwiwer]

Very nice Jeff.  I just about remember them in traffic.

 

I did toy with the idea of having a USA myself but I'm not supposed to be buying any more trains  Instead I arrived home to find bargain 2Hal 2677 on the doorstep which has effectively cost me nothing having applied funds from the sale of surplus Penhayle stock.  

 

The slowly growing collection of SR units might or might not give a hint as to what I have in mind if space is available for a future UK layout.  

[SRman]

A couple more shots of the USATC tank with the front folding footplate and various pipes added.

[P.C.M]

Hi Jeff,

It's a nice looking loco. I had a good look at one back in the UK a few weeks back.

 

We will have to catch up at some point I have a class 47 almost ready for a sound chip.

 

Cheers Peter.

[SRman]

As detailed in my workbench blog, I have been working on glazing each car of my London Transport Q Stock train. Flushed with success, I have videoed the Q and CO/CP Stock trains circulating on Newton Broadway. Note, the Q Stock still doesn't have any number or fleetname transfers yet; those are the next items on the agenda.

The Q Stock train consists of the following variants: Q23 DM + Q27 T + Q23 DM + Q38 T + Q27 DM. At a later stage I want to add one more trailer (T) car, preferably of Q31 or Q35 types.

[SRman]

With the ability to switch the Underground lines to DC or DCC in mind, I wired it initially with ease of isolating certain sections to allow for easier DC operation. Up until now I have had to move trains off whichever circuit I want to run on analogue to prevent them from moving while other trains run.
 

I have commenced the operation to incorporate isolating switches (simple on-off toggles) on all four of the station loops, plus on the branch. I succeeded in doing the two loops on the outer circuit this evening, while the switches for the inner circuit loops and branch remain unwired at the moment.

 

What it means currently is that I only have to shift one train to clear a track for running on DC, while I leave the other train in one of the loops (either the platform line or the passing loop).
 

There are a few stray bits of plastic swarf trapped behind the clear acrylic that I will have to blow out with a bit of compressed air later.
 

Edited January 30, 2017 by SRman

[SRman]

Also work in progress is a set of coaches for LT loco-hauled services. As I cannot justify the costs of a train of LT Dreadnought coaches from Radley Models, I have been using old Graham Farish OO non-gangwayed 'generic' coaches painted brown instead. I recently purchased off eBay sellers two more all-seconds to go with the two brake coaches and one all-second I already had. One of the  'new' coaches was in fully lined Great Western livery while the other had been very well repainted into BR blue with a first class section designated in the centre.
 

It was a real shame to paint over the lovely finishes on these two but it had to be done.
 

All five coaches have only had one coat of brown so far, but they are starting to look the part. The two brake coaches have Cherry Paints' LT brown, while the other three have two different standard Humbrol browns while I assess which colour best represents the rather dirty brown these coaches ended up in. The Humbrol leather #62 used on the two most recent ones seems a little light but may actually weather down better.
 

Anyway, here is the full train posed with Heljan LT ex-Metropolitan #8, Sherlock Holmes.
 

Also off the workbench is a class 25 which has been on the bench for a very long time. It is a hybrid Hornby body on a slightly shortened Bachmann chassis. The underframe still requires me to build a new boiler water tank, because the Bachmann model was a later style locomotive built without this feature. It has been numbered as D5183, which I have photographic proof of having visited the Southern Region. It was also a complete repaint from a blue TOPS numbered body shell.
 

D5183 is seen here at the end of a line of Derby Sulzer type 2s, on the viaduct over Newton Broadway LT station, with the other two locos being Sutton's Locomotive Works class 24s, D5017 and D5000, which were both Southern allocated locomotives between 1959 and 1962.
 

Edited January 30, 2017 by SRman

[P.C.M]

Hi Jeff,

Looks like you have been busy. The type twos make a nice line up. 

 

I will have a look in my spares box I think I have a water tank from a class 25.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Gwiwer]

Good to see Jeff has been busy.  I like the fake Dreadnoughts - an ingenious adaptation of what ever was available within budget.  Maybe a rake of T-stock next?

 

By the by I am still sorely tempted by the Heljan Met. electrics but there is now a ban on all new orders being placed here.  But who knows what might turn up in the post a few weeks from now once we're back in Blighty?

[St Enodoc]

Also work in progress is a set of coaches for LT loco-hauled services. As I cannot justify the costs of a train of LT Dreadnought coaches from Radley Models, I have been using old Graham Farish OO non-gangwayed 'generic' coaches painted brown instead. I recently purchased off eBay sellers two more all-seconds to go with the two brake coaches and one all-second I already had. One of the  'new' coaches was in fully lined Great Western livery while the other had been very well repainted into BR blue with a first class section designated in the centre. 

 

It was a real shame to paint over the lovely finishes on these two but it had to be done.

 

All five coaches have only had one coat of brown so far, but they are starting to look the part. The two brake coaches have Cherry Paints' LT brown, while the other three have two different standard Humbrol browns while I assess which colour best represents the rather dirty brown these coaches ended up in. The Humbrol leather #62 used on the two most recent ones seems a little light but may actually weather down better.

Very nice Jeff. If you need any more GFs (per Rick's post above) let me know. I have a few that I will not need for the Mid-Cornwall Lines.

[SRman]

Very nice Jeff. If you need any more GFs (per Rick's post above) let me know. I have a few that I will not need for the Mid-Cornwall Lines.

 

Thanks for that offer, John. Part of me wants to expand he rake to six coaches, but my platform and loop lengths really preclude this as six coaches plus loco (short as that is!) may not quite fit, or, at the very least, would be a very tight fit. I will give you a call if I do decide to take any, and will pay you whatever the cost of the model plus postage. You have already been very generous to me with the Great Western transfer sheet you sent.

 

Somewhere in one of my storage boxes I have a rake of five of these Farsh coaches, with four in Southern Railway lined olive livery and the fifth just painted plain olive. That fifth coach could be a candidate to go into LT brown if the train length does fit.

[SRman]

With the ability to switch the Underground lines to DC or DCC in mind, I wired it initially with ease of isolating certain sections to allow for easier DC operation. Up until now I have had to move trains off whichever circuit I want to run on analogue to prevent them from moving while other trains run.

 

I have commenced the operation to incorporate isolating switches (simple on-off toggles) on all four of the station loops, plus on the branch. I succeeded in doing the two loops on the outer circuit this evening, while the switches for the inner circuit loops and branch remain unwired at the moment.

 

What it means currently is that I only have to shift one train to clear a track for running on DC, while I leave the other train in one of the loops (either the platform line or the passing loop).

 

There are a few stray bits of plastic swarf trapped behind the clear acrylic that I will have to blow out with a bit of compressed air later.

 

 

Adding to the above, I finished the job today, wiring in the remaining three switches.

 

After testing the sections and isolating trains while driving others on analogue power, I went to change the points and nothing happened. I had to do some delving under the layout with all my messy wiring, but eventually traced it to the main return power feed to the point motors through the stud contacts had dropped out of the chocolate block connector, as well as breaking the end off one of the multiple wires. A quick trim and stripping of the wire ends, followed by twisting them all together again and reinserting them into the connector fixed that problem. I'll solder the collection of wires together next time I have the soldering iron turned on again, but in the meantime this works fine as it is.

[SRman]

I have just had a long session adding transfers to the whole 5-car Q Stock train. Using ModelMaster's Q Stock numbers, I have been able to number the Q23 cars and the Q38 trailer correctly, but there were no suitable numbers made up for the Q27 cars, so, being lazy, I used existing (incorrect) pre-made numbers; for the Q27 DM I actually used an R Stock number inverted with a '2' cut off, to get 6011 (which was 21109). The Q27 trailer received a Q38/O/P Stock trailer number starting with a '0'. I can live with the compromises!
 

Also added were 'London Transport' underlined fleet names on the DM cars only, and 'No Smoking' roundels on appropriate windows, gleaned from photos in various books I have.
 

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by SRman

[P.C.M]

Hi Jeff,

I found a class 25 water tank in the spares box if yo want it.

 

Cheers Peter,

[SRman]

Thanks Peter, that would be really terrific. It will save me a bit of modelling time fabricating one myself.

[SRman]

I have given each of the five cars in the Q Stock train a coat of satin varnish to seal the transfers and also to tone down the high gloss finish (which has the added benefit of hiding some of the blemishes in my paintwork!).
 

This is a combined photo of the two Q27 cars - the mixing of the two photos into one can give a few minor odd effects.
 

Note that I have yet to fit the shoebeams to the DM at this end of the train.

Edited January 30, 2017 by SRman

[Gwiwer]

If only the real things were still running ..... 

 

Remember my final trip very well.  On the last public working from Barking to Ealing Broadway riding oldest car in the train Q23 car 4248 (originally 4148) for the final stretch from Hammersmith.

[SRman]

I think 4248 is the one preserved in the LT Museum.

[SRman]

I recently stumbled onto a long-stored Ratio GWR Iron Mink wagon I built back in the 1970s. It was reasonably robust but had lost a portion of its brake lever and one coupling had snapped off. I decided to refurbish it and paint it into GW livery to join the pre-grouping train wagons.

 

Refurbishment consisted of fitting top-hat bearings and metal wheelsets (I used spoked wheels but disc wheels may have been a better choice - any useful comments, please?), cutting off the ratio plastic couplings and cutting away part of the mounts to allow the Parkside NEM adapters to be glued in place, using part of a spare Parkside brake lever from another underframe kit (leftover from the SECR 6-wheel brake van conversion), and replacing a missing buffer. For the latter, I didn't have an exact match in the spares box, but the one I chose is a pretty close match but with a thicker spindle. The roof has had several coats of Humbrol acrylic matt white.

 

The lot was given a coat of SECR wagon grey (a colour described as being very close to GW wagon grey), and lettered with HMRS transfers. I haven't put the tare weights on yet as they are fiddly and my eyes were hurting from doing the rest.
 

 

 

Another project that is much closer to completion now is my hybrid class 25, using a Hornby body and a slightly adapted Bachmann chassis. The chassis came from a non-boiler fitted loco, and a good friend, PCM of this parish, recently offered me the boiler water tank from one of his conversions, which saved me scratch-building replacement tanks.

Edited January 29, 2017 by SRman

[Peter Beckett]

Hi Jeff,

Great work! 

Question: Has some of the varnish splashed onto your keyboard as all the lettering on your latest posts have gone yellow?      

[SRman]

Hi Peter.

 

All posts are showing normally at my end. Unless anyone else reports the same problem, I would suggest it may be a local setting on your computer and browser.
 

[St Enodoc]

Hi Peter.

 

All posts are showing normally at my end. Unless anyone else reports the same problem, I would suggest it may be a local setting on your computer and browser.

 

Peter, perhaps the varnish is on your screen?

[DougN]

Peter is right, but the last post from SRman was back to normal on my iPad.

[sandwich station]

Hi Peter.

 

All posts are showing normally at my end. Unless anyone else reports the same problem, I would suggest it may be a local setting on your computer and browser.

 

The post with the pics has yellow backgrounds to the text. Did you write it offline, then copy and paste it?

 

Your last post is fine.

[SRman]

Interesting. I typed that post on another forum, then copied it before posting it. I can't see any hidden code in the normal editor, but I'll check the code if I can get at it.

[P.C.M]

That was quick Jeff,

Glad you found a use for the tank, The 25 looks great.

 

Cheers Peter.