SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[SRman]

A task I have been putting off for ages was to print some new labels for the storage boxes. Some of the older ones already had labels I did many years ago, but I am finally catching up. I also rearranged a few so that their contents were a bit more consistent.

There are still a few to do, mostly now for the road vehicle side of things.

Most of these boxes have fixed compartments inside, a few have removable dividers, which can be useful, but can allow smaller parts to slip beneath them. Every one of them has come from bargain shops, occasionally with contents such as rubber bands inside, but mostly empty.

[SRman]

And now for something completely different: a short video of the Santa Special train running around Newton Broadway today.
 

 

[SRman]

On 14/12/2021 at 15:55, SRman said:

A task I have been putting off for ages was to print some new labels for the storage boxes. Some of the older ones already had labels I did many years ago, but I am finally catching up. I also rearranged a few so that their contents were a bit more consistent.

There are still a few to do, mostly now for the road vehicle side of things.

Most of these boxes have fixed compartments inside, a few have removable dividers, which can be useful, but can allow smaller parts to slip beneath them. Every one of them has come from bargain shops, occasionally with contents such as rubber bands inside, but mostly empty.

 

This is a bit of a bummer: the UHU Stic must be using a different formula, because all the new labels just curled up as the glue dried and dropped off. All the old labels stuck on with earlier examples of the UHU Stic glue are still firmly attached to the boxes. So firmly attached that they would have to be scraped off to remove them.

[SRman]

I have been working on London Underground trains in recent times, following the purchase of further models, including a complete 4-car unpowered EFE 1959 tube train in modern white/blue/red livery, a pair of kit-built Harrow Model Shop Q38 flare-sided cars (now rejigged as CO/CP stock), and today the Bachmann EFE 1938 tube train arrived.

I have been buying components ready for the conversion of the 1959 train, including two coreless SPUD motor bogies from Scale Link, and six pin-point bogies from Metromodels.

 

Meanwhile, one of the flare-sided cars was already fitted with an older-style SPUD motor bogie, which actually ran very nicely on DC power, so I decided it was worth retaining and fitting for DCC. This would also require extra pickups in the unpowered bogie. I chose to hard-wire a Zimo MX600 decoder. Conversion notes from Metromodels suggest dismantling the SPUD to reach the metal tags that go inside from the pickups to the brushes: I decided I would use a milling tool in the Dremel and grind away the metal where it folds over the inside frame on each side, thus not disturbing the works completely. This left the tags sticking out at the top for the brush feeds, and the outside pickups ready to have the red or black wires soldered directly to them. I also decided to fit a plastic sheet motor bogie mount, for three reasons:

1. to reduce the chances of a short-circuit from the metal contacts on the SPUD touching the original white metal mounting plate;

2. to increase the available free swing of the motor bogie, where the shaped metal mounting had to be ground away to allow for the extra wires; and

3. to lower the ride height by about 1mm.

 

The new pair of cars had arrived nicely built, but without the characteristic glass vents at the tops of the side windows, and painted in a brighter red than the train red on my previous units, with gold London Transport names. I used my previous method of glazing the vents with thin clear plastic mounted on the outside of the wedge-shaped mouldings, then carefully painted around the edges to blend them in. As they were in bus red rather than train red, a scheme that was applied from November 1973 onwards, I removed the gold fleet names and Q Stock numbering and added white "bullseyes" with CO or CP Stock numbering instead. They should also have white numbering, but I couldn't find any suitable numbers in my collection. That will be fixed later.

 

The running in formation with my existing 5-car set is good, although I need to speed match them to complete the tasks to date (the existing models have two Black Beetle motor bogies wired to one decoder in one car). All of these cars need seats added - that's for the future too. I took some short video clips of this stock running on Newton Broadway, posted on YouTube. Another clip with the new Bachmann/EFE train running will follow shortly.





 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by SRman
Getting YouTube video to embed properly

[SRman]

And here's the Bachmann stock running.
 

 

[SRman]

I have been reroofing the large Tudor-style hotel over a few evenings, using some Redutex vinyl roof tiles (actually to HO scale), replacing some printed card Vollmer tiles, and giving it a slightly more British appearance. I also covered the chimneys with Slaters' plastic brick sheet. I ran out of the Redutex stuff with a few small parts of the roof left to do, so have ordered more from Rails of Sheffield. Once I can complete the roof retiling, I can go onto doing the flashing and ridge tiles, but work has stalled for the moment.

 

I think the appearance is much improved already. Note that the ground floor is still on the layout.


Yesterday evening was spent fitting some Keen Systems replacement coupling parts to four Bachmann mark 1 coaches. the process was very straightforward. Keen intend them to be used with their own rigid imitation buckeye couplings, but I put NEM fishtail couplings in, replacing the cranked tension locks or close-couplings with straight tension locks or Kadee #18s, depending on the coach. These then required some small rectangles of plastic card cut to fit into the bottoms of the coupling pockets to prevent the couplings dropping out again - dimensions 7mm x 3mm. I haven't painted the assemblies yet.

 

Posed here with the Heljan class 16, also with straight couplings fitted (why do Heljan fit cranked couplings when they aren't needed at all?). They all coupled up perfectly.

[SRman]

In addition to the above works, I have been running a few trains again. I am moving the time period forward just a little, so crimson and cream coaches and the blue Merchant Navy are off the layout, while a maroon Warship and green mark 1 and Bulleid coaches are on (I intended to put a blue and grey mark 1 in as well, but that was when I decided I must do something about the mismatched coupling heights on the Bachmann versions. I must get some more of those Keen coupling replacements.
 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2022 by SRman

[SRman]

 

 

While talking to a friend, we chatted about the class 22 and 21 variations, so I posed my two Dapol 22s side by side with their class 21 model. I have a third 22 which has a Silver Fox resin body mounted on a Bachmann class 20 chassis.

 

[Sandhole]

On 18/02/2022 at 04:01, SRman said:

And here's the Bachmann stock running.
 

 

Those videos bring back some great childhood memories. When I first fell in love with the Underground.
Lovely job.
Regards,
Chris.

[SRman]

How to fix a damaged plastic handrail on a Bachmann class 66 - a quick bodge.

The straight parts of the cab front handrail at one end on my DRS 66/9 had bent and broken off the centre post. The plastic was supposed to be straight but had set into a curve, and attempts to straighten it before regluing failed, so I had to come up with another solution. The near-vertical side parts of the handrails were intact, so I cut the "straight" parts off just to the side of the support post at the top. The centre support had broken off flush with the cab front. I decided that I would replace the entire centre section with brass wire, but had to find a way to mount it. 

 

The answer was to drill new holes (#76 drill bit) for the ends immediately beside the original posts, plus a larger hole for the centre support. I cut a section of plastic rod to fit the centre then trimmed it once it was glued in, and bent the ends of the brass wire to 90 degrees, after checking that the straight section exactly fitted the gap. The ends were trimmed and filed slightly flat to butt up against the existing posts.

I haven't painted it yet, but I hope the photo shows more clearly what I have done. I'll add a tiny amount of filler to disguise where the brass bends in, then paint it white to match the original.

[SRman]

The end result for the handrail fix. 

 

P.s. I know the headlights are wrong for this type. I bought the model very cheaply as a hybrid with the later body on the earlier chassis. Part of the work I did earlier was to swap the fuel tank for the correct, shorter type. The WiPAC headlights aren't working at present, so when I go to fix them, it will be a good opportunity to modify the lights.

 

 

 

In the meantime, more of the Redutex tiles arrived from Rails of Sheffield, so the roof tiling on the big hotel is now complete. I have made a start on the ridge tiling, using another Redutex sheet. I'm not sure if the result is quite right, but from normal viewing distances, it looks good. Only the two long wings on the left have had that done, so far.

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SRman
Putting missing photos back in.

[SRman]

I haven't posted anything for a while, but some slow progress is still being made on Newton Broadway, and new trains continue to trickle in.

The most recent arrivals were a couple of packs of Accurascale EWS CDA wagons. I ran them on their own first with a Bachmann EWS class 66 (66 089), then added my old Hornby ECC CDAs to the end. The Hornby ones are positively crude in comparison, but were good for their day. The later shots show a Hornby class 56 that I decided really needed a run.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by SRman

[sandwich station]

14 hours ago, SRman said:

 

 

 

 

What's the blue car?

[SRman]

On 03/08/2022 at 05:53, sandwich station said:

 

What's the blue car?

 

Which one? 😅

The first one in the darker blue-green is a Vauxhall Victor 2000 (FD model), the light blue one further down is a Hillman Hunter Mk 2. Both are from the TPM CarKit4 range, with resin bodies and white metal chassis and wheels, plus some etched stainless steel components. Bernard Taylor (TPM) did some of the finest castings and mouldings I have ever encountered, with very few equals. here are few older photos of these and some of the other TPM kits in various stages of completion.

Edit: there was also a metallic blue Vauxhall Viva HB in the second example, next to the signal box.


 

 

 

Edited August 4, 2022 by SRman
Additional info added.

[divibandit]

Evening,

 

I'd love to have one of those Hunters, that's the first time I've seen a photo of it, but I'd heard good things about it.

I wouldn't mind a Victor either but my Dad had the earlier version (the same colour as the Oxford one).

 

Steve

[WCML100]

Just come across this thread, a great layout - particularly interested in your LU stock and lines! 

 

Quick question, where did you get (or make?) the cable hangers and the overhead arched cable carrier to go over the lines? After some myself for our Greenford layout.

 

Thanks

[Sandhole]

On 03/08/2022 at 01:59, SRman said:

 

Which one? 😅

The first one in the darker blue-green is a Vauxhall Victor 2000 (FD model), the light blue one further down is a Hillman Hunter Mk 2. Both are from the TPM CarKit4 range, with resin bodies and white metal chassis and wheels, plus some etched stainless steel components. Bernard Taylor (TPM) did some of the finest castings and mouldings I have ever encountered, with very few equals. here are few older photos of these and some of the other TPM kits in various stages of completion.

Edit: there was also a metallic blue Vauxhall Viva HB in the second example, next to the signal box.


 

 

 

My family had a Hillman Hunter Estate. Great car, it was a shame when we had to get rid of it!

[SRman]

Look what I scored today at a BRMA meeting:

 

They were $AUS5.00 each, so a bargain.

[DougN]

Oh is that what I was carrying around?

 

It was a good meeting.  More strangely was the LNER W1 running around on your layout that night! 

[SRman]

9 hours ago, DougN said:

Oh is that what I was carrying around?

 

It was a good meeting.  More strangely was the LNER W1 running around on your layout that night! 

 

I didn't take any photos of the W1, unfortunately.

[SRman]

On a different track (no pun intended), I have made a second attempt at creating a centre coach for the Bachmann/Kernow 2H DEMU to form it into a 3H. The first attempt used a modified spare chassis from a 4 CEP unit TSK, with a Replica Railways Open Second non-gangwayed body and seats added. The effect wasn't too bad, but there were obvious differences in the textures and mouldings on the sides and roof compared to the Bachmann originals. The new version uses the same chassis as before, but this time with the body made from two non-driving ends cut from spare 2 EPB bodies, which were left over from when Bachmann replaced the bodies on blue units because they had the wrong coach numbers when they left the factory. 

This is a work in progress, and the coach will have to be painted green to match the DMBS and DTCL of the erstwhile 2H. I have split the roof in a different place from the sides, all of which have been cut using a razor saw. The roof clips neatly back in, so my cutting has been reasonably accurate, although the saw strayed a little from the vertical on a couple of the sides. I used the door shut lines for the cutting points as they make it easier to disguise the joins, although I lose a few door hinge mouldings in the process.

At present, I am in the process of reinforcing the joints with thin plastic sheet, after which I will apply some filler, before painting the sides and roof. While it is fairly important to match the colour of the sides, the roof colour does not have to match as these centre coaches were added a few years after the units entered service as 2-car sets. This is also why the centre cars don't have the exterior roof conduits whereas the driving coaches do (although some later-built units also did not have the conduits at all). That feature, or lack thereof, is a boon to doing this conversion, because the conduit paths on the two sections of roof (one from the DMBS, one from the DTCL) do not coincide at all.

I am including a couple of photos of the first version with the Replica coach body in green, and of the first part of the conversion of the second version in blue. Also for amusement, the new nevvawazza "bubble car" EMU formed from the remaining EPB bits.

[SRman]

Not quite there yet with the centre coach. The green looks close in daylight, but quite different under the train room lights. I have already added a little black to the varnish, but it needs more lustre as well as something ese to get the colour right.  Ride height lowered (after the last photo), but a fraction high, still. Interior lights are working though. Once I have all that right, I can paint the door handles and grab rails, and add new headstocks. I did a couple of short videos of the latest stage but they are still too large to upload here, so the second photo will have to do for now - it shows it as it was before the last few tweaks I applied.

 

[John Tomlinson]

6 hours ago, SRman said:

Not quite there yet with the centre coach. The green looks close in daylight, but quite different under the train room lights. I have already added a little black to the varnish, but it needs more lustre as well as something ese to get the colour right.  Ride height lowered (after the last photo), but a fraction high, still. Interior lights are working though. Once I have all that right, I can paint the door handles and grab rails, and add new headstocks. I did a couple of short videos of the latest stage but they are still too large to upload here, so the second photo will have to do for now - it shows it as it was before the last few tweaks I applied.

 

 

The top picture shows the colour to be apparently spot-on, it's just the sheen that differs as seen in the one below.

 

Is the green the Precision SR one, or something else?

 

John.

[SRman]

10 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

The top picture shows the colour to be apparently spot-on, it's just the sheen that differs as seen in the one below.

 

Is the green the Precision SR one, or something else?

 

John.

It's actually a Gloy Authentic Railway Colour colour labelled as "BR coaching stock M.U. stock green". I have no idea how old that is, but it was unopened until I found it at the back of the paint drawer.

[SRman]

Another quick project this morning, with the arrival of a couple of decoders from Digitrains. 

I had ordered an ESU LokPilot v5 Next 18 decoder to replace cheaper and less satisfactory decoders I tried in the NER Autocar I bought from rails a few weeks ago. The ESU decoder has improved the running qualities and controllability noticeably. This was an impulse purchase but fits in with my DMU and DEMU collection.

 

The other decoder is an ESU LokSound v5 with sounds for a class 28 Co-Bo. That installed fairly easily once I had persuaded the body off. The body is simply clipped onto the chassis but is very, very tight, and took me ages plus some damaged underbody pipework to get it off originally when fitting the non-sound Lenz decoder. It came off slightly more easily this time. One of the wires to the sugar cube speaker came off, so the soldering iron had to be fired up; having done that, I thought I may as well try one of the 8 ohm iPhone speakers instead. Being of a flatter profile, the iPhone speaker was much easier to fit into the chassis block ahead of the PCB with no modifications or fudges needed, just a spot of black goo to hold it in place on the very end of the PCB. The sound from this speaker is very good, so I will be doing a video of it at some time in the near future.

Edited November 30, 2022 by SRman
Fixing typos.