SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[SRman]

Isn't it funny how one thing can lead to another unrelated thing? I decided to update all of the data sheets I have listing each sound-fitted loco or unit, their addresses, and all of their functions. It was something I did in the early days on small rectangles of paper, laminated and taken to exhibitions to assist both me and other operators. Some of those decoders have been updated or  changed, some swapped into other locos, and some no longer existed. Anyway, as a part of all this, I include a photo of the item in the heading, but some never had photos taken, and I used manufacturer's photos originally, so that lead to me photographing several of the items to get new photos of better ones than I had before. 

This is what lead to other issues. In pulling some of these items out of the storage drawers, I found bits falling off or loose, so put them aside for repairs. Of these, some were very minor, but the two that needed a little more work were my Hornby class 92 with a Hornby class 60 chassis installed; this required both deflectors re-glued, and also one of the coupling pockets.

The other problem locomotive was a Heljan BR blue class 47, which had a loose bogie. On investigation, the top clip had come loose. On further investigation, I found that it was actually about to snap along one side, and the one at the other end was ready to do the same and let go. I may plunder a Heljan class 57 that almost never gets run for the necessary bogie parts, or even take the whole bogies and substitute the side frames from the 47. I do have some Heljan spares around, but I'm not sure I have those top clips. They may possibly be available from Gaugemaster, but the postage for just those alone will be a killer unless I find some other "essential" items I need from them. In the meantime, the 47 parts have been put in a take away container to keep them all together.

One good thing out of all this is that I now have a heap of more up to date photos of my stock - here are a few to go on with. I also have more up to date function lists. Wait ... that's two good things! 🤣

 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

@SRman Jeff what are the part numbers for the Gaugemaster bits?  Is it something I can have sent here to send on to you? 

[SRman]

19 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

@SRman Jeff what are the part numbers for the Gaugemaster bits?  Is it something I can have sent here to send on to you? 

 

I haven't had a chance to look it up yet. I might take you up on that, though, with thanks. 👍

[SRman]

20 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

@SRman Jeff what are the part numbers for the Gaugemaster bits?  Is it something I can have sent here to send on to you? 

 

OK, I looked up the lists on Gaugemaster's site and it appears they are out of stock. There may be some equivalent parts on other locomotives, so I'll keep checking (later).

What I did get from the first foray, was the exploded diagram of a 47, showing the parts as 2 x 43, which then translated to part # 5056397854042.

[SRman]

The Heljan class 47 is active again, at the expense of a sacrificial class 57 (the Bachmann model has a much better finish, so this one is more "expendable").

47 508, 'S. S. Great Britain' was the locomotive I referred to a couple of posts ago as having cracked both bogie mounting clips. 57 605 'Totnes Castle' was the donor of the replacement clips ... or actually, the entire inner bogie components. Because of the somewhat modular construction of the Heljan mechanisms, I was able to swap the innards while retaining the 47 bits.

The method involved firstly removing the sideframes from the bogies, which are on spigots and simply clip off outwards. The reason for this is to release the wiper pickups, which in turn negate any need to unplug or de-solder any wires. The next step was removing those top clips to release the 57 bogies (the 47's had already just fallen out!). That then allows the bogies to be removed completely, hopefully with the cardan shafts still attached. It's no biggie if they aren't.

The base plates of the bogies also unclip, with a little persuasion with a flat-bladed screwdriver on their side clips. This allows the wheels to be dropped out, with two reasons for this in my case. One was to ease replacing the pickup strips later, but the other was to allow me to put the newer plated wheelsets back into the 47 (the 57 had original brass wheels). After swapping the wheels, I clipped the bases back on to help keep the two halves of the bogie towers together.

Reassembly was the reverse of all this, with particular attention being paid to getting the cardan shafts engaged at both ends. To ease this operation slightly, I levered the PCB out from its rubber retaining strips. That let me see what I was doing to manoeuvre the shafts into their slots. Once those were engaged, I could clip the tops back in, locating them on the yokes that stop the bogies sliding back and forth. It's a little like a Chinese puzzle where everything locates everything else. The pickup strips can then be threaded back through and can be reseated on their spigots on the sides of the bogies. Removing the base plates can make this easier, but it can be done without doing that, it just means more bending and tweaking of the pickups afterwards.

The final step is to push-fit the side frames again. The class 47 and 57 frames are not quite the same, in that the 57 has sandboxes but the 47 doesn't. Either set of frames will fit, though.

 

After all this, I tested the 47 quickly on the programming track, with a short-circuit being reported. Turned out I had assembled it with the pickups at one end on the wrong sides. That was quickly fixed and the 47 glided silently around the layout on test.
 

 

 

[SRman]

And now for something completely different! Well, not quite, it's more of the same, really.

A few years ago I bought a 'Frankenstein' Bachmann class 66 off a now deceased member of the BRMA. It was in DRS livery with a new 5-door body on an old 4-door chassis with the original WiPAC style lights. It was numbered 66 412, which is correct for the 5-door style.

I bought some spare parts from Bachmann with a view to eventually fixing this locomotive up to make it more accurate, and finally bit the bullet this afternoon. As an interim measure, I had changed the fuel tank assembly a while back, but this was a full chassis changeover. It involved disconnecting wires and removing the bogies and fuel tanks (again), plus the cab interior mouldings before putting everything back onto the new chassis. I took a couple of photos of the wiring before disconnecting anything, and carefully stored the various screws so I could remember which order they came out and where they went on reassembly. There were only a couple of minor glitches: one where I was threading the fuel tank switch wires back through the metal chassis block, when one of the wires dropped off so had to be resoldered, and the second hitch was when a wire dropped off one of the lighting boards inside the body as I tried to replace it on the chassis. Both wires were re-soldered and checked OK. I tidied up the wires and put some new tape over them to keep them in place neatly ... I think I did a better job than the factory! 🤣

Before putting the last body screws back in, I checked the chassis was running properly on DC (I swapped the decoder out with a blanking plug temporarily). It ran very sweetly, but the lights worked in reverse, so I have swapped something somewhere. Adding 1 to the CV29 value in the decoder did nothing - it went in reverse but the lights also were reversed, so I pulled the retainer off the brush wire terminals and swapped those over. To standardise with the other class 66 locos, I'll have to add one to the CV 29 value again, so the radiator end is actually the reverse direction (it's American!), but all is now working as it should.

The photos of the circuit board show it as it was before I started work. The last one shows it as it is now, with the wrong colour buffer beam area. That needs to be repainted with a red centre and yellow the light cluster boxes.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2022 by SRman

[SRman]

The updated class 66 412 is now finished. The first photo shows it as I got it originally, and the second shows it as it is now.

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by SRman

[SRman]

For anyone interested, I have done a quick video of my two pre-grouping trains of 4- and 6-wheel coaches running around, with Hatton's SECR and a mix of Hatton's and Hornby LBSCR coaches. These are hauled by a Rails/Dapol SECR D class 4-4-0 and a Bachmann LBSC Atlantic leading the appropriate rakes.

 

 

[SRman]

[John Tomlinson]

6 hours ago, SRman said:

 

 

All good wishes to you and Hattie for Christmans as well!

 

I've particularly enjoyed your videos this last year, and thank you for sharing them.

 

John.

[SRman]

My Accurascale sound-fitted class 92, 92 043 'Debussy', has arrived. I have given it a run and it is everything that others have said in the class 92 topic. Even so, I have already got to work on it!

The photos show it as it was when it originally arrived, and after a few mods and improvements.

I have glued the etched depot plaques on, and added the sun visors inside the windscreens. It was a bit of a faff to get the cab interiors out to allow access to the insides, but I got there eventually, without damaging anything. I have also modified the pantographs very slightly as per a post in earlier in RMweb in the Accurascale class 92 thread, where someone showed how to reduce the cast 'pips' on the arms to allow the heads to sit more level when the pantos are parked. Due to mine being used to represent third rail running, this is a position mine will spend most of their lives in, unless I'm showing off the operating feature. One of the photos shows a pantograph raised to its new lower height limit, together with the cab lighting and headlights in the night running condition.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by SRman
Fixed a dyslexic typo.

[SRman]

I just spent a week away from home in Echuca. On my return home, the etched brass name and number plates I ordered from Narrow Planet had arrived. These are for current and future models in my fictitious industrial fleet. This batch starts a new number sequence from 70 to 80 and names starting with 'B' (the previous series was 1 to 20 but without 3 and 8, with names starting with 'A').

 

The first loco to receive one of the new ones is a Manning Wardle with 3D printed body from Hardy's Models, becoming No. 71, "Bella". No. 70 is already allocated to an unfinished Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T, also with a 3D printed body from the same source as "Bella".

 

Edit: the original sequence was 4 to 20, but not 8 as that clashed with the London Transport Bo-Bo electric "Sherlock Holmes". I left the earlier numbers clear for testing and unprogrammed decoders which default to 3.

 

Edited January 9, 2023 by SRman

[SRman]

I had a brilliant idea for a more compact and space-efficient storage solution, particularly with my Continental stock in mind, although it will work for almost any stock that isn't too delicate. I had a spare plastic box file, released after switching most of the transfers to photo storage boxes, and looking at some coaches on the bench next to the box, I realised they would stack quite neatly inside. The photo shows the idea in its raw form; I will need to create some spacers between the coach roofs and the bogies/wheels of the one above to reduce scratching, and I'll add some felt at the back and ends to cushion them from internal movement, but the idea seems sound. With labels on the ends, these will stand vertically end-on on my shelves, making much better use of the space available.

 

They'll hold five full length vehicles, but possibly 10 short types like 4-wheel wagons.

 

[SRman]

After testing with more stock, I have been able to clear quite bit of space on the shelves. 

 

Next job is to line the base with felt. I did try a solution with the felt folded to form ridges between items, but that was far too fiddly and time consuming, so I think the [practical solution will be to use some corrugated cardboard between stock items. a few streaks of Gorilla glue were used to hold the felt in place.

 

 

First tests with the cardboard strips in place. I have used them with the corrugations running longitudinally, but wonder if they might be better going across the carriage roofs.

 

 

 

[BMacdermott]

Hello Jeff

 

Have you considered using foam centre white board? Possibly more dimensionally stable than card?

 

Brian

[SRman]

12 hours ago, BMacdermott said:

Hello Jeff

 

Have you considered using foam centre white board? Possibly more dimensionally stable than card?

 

Brian

 

HI Brian, I will certainly consider that for the future, but at present I have been using what is available to hand. Due to Mrs SRman's propensity for buying fabrics, and especially bargain bin fabrics, I have several rolls of felt, and a decent sized roll of the cardboard as well. 😅

Edited January 17, 2023 by SRman

[SRman]

My second Accurascale class 92, 92 020 in GBRf livery seems to be mildly jinxed. I had a problem with one of the grilles going missing even before I had got it out of the packaging, but eventually found it clinging statically to the outer sleeve of the inner "ice cube" packing. I opened the box three times before eventually locating that.

Anyway, I glued the grille in place, but another popped off while getting the body off to swap the sound decoder from 92 043 into it. I have been using Glue 'n' Glaze to stick them back on, and that seems to work. Any excess glue simply wipes off with a damp cloth or tissue. So, all very minor, so far. Running has been perfect all along and remains so.

There was another problem to come. Our cats are not allowed in the train room. Both sliding doors have hooks to prevent unauthorised access from cats or young visitors. Hattie, in particular, always wants to join me in the train room when I am in there, and sits outside the door making squeaking noises to let me know she's there and wants to come in. She is also perfectly capable of opening quite heavy doors, both of the sliding and of the hinged type! A couple of days ago I was in the train room trying to reorganise the shelves to allow my new storage solution to fit in on multiple shelves (see my last post above), and Hattie sneaked into the room and hid under the layout without me knowing she was there. I finished what I was doing and left the room, closing and re-hooking the door.

I went back later in the day and Hattie was squealing to be let out. She didn't do a great deal of damage but had obviously been on the layout, as she had knocked a few things over, including 92 020, which fortunately I had parked over the bridge over the Underground lines, so it only fell a short distance into the trees below the retaining wall. Said trees have wire frames, so that resulted on one grille going missing (again), and a few scratches along one side of the locomotive. It took me a while to find the missing grille, which had also had a little of the black paint scratched off. The black was easy to touch up, but the blue of the GBRf livery was another matter. I decided to try a little T-cut, gently applied so as not to remove too much paint , and applied evenly so as to give an even finish to the whole side when polished off. I also had to do this on the orange lettering as the scratches ran across them as well, but was even more careful not to rub too hard. 

On a different note, I decided to remove the sound decoder, a LokSound v3.5, from the redundant Hornby class 92, thinking I would have to unsolder the wires from the conversion, having forgotten that I actually soldered an 8-pin socket into it. I contacted legomanbiffo and ordered a class 50 sound file for the class 50 on a v3.5, and sent him the serial number of the decoder. The reblow went perfectly, so I swapped the decoder and the speakers I had attached previously (a bass reflex and a standard round one in parallel) into my Hornby 50 007, 'Sir Edward Elgar' in GWR 150 livery. I had previously removed the fan assembly from that so there was already plenty of room for the bass reflex speaker to sit. The Lenz Standard+ v2 from the 50 went straight into the 92. I may try to sell the Hornby 92 or I may try to find a spare class 60 body to put back onto the class 60 chassis which is under the 92.

I videoed the 50 with its new sound installation, with just a couple of short clips, and while I was doing that, also videoed Accurascale 92 020 with its container train - the scratches can be seen on the side before I reduced their impact. I'll post those to YouTube and put a link on here shortly (they are too big to post directly here). Also a photo of 50 007, and of the delinquent Hattie.

 

The video links will be edited in here shortly

 

 

 

A photo of both delinquents - they are both just as bad as each other! 

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by SRman
Adding in the YouTube video links

[SRman]

This is 92 020 after I had attacked the scratches with T-cut. I have managed to erode a small part of the 'R' in GBRf, but otherwise it looks OK - better than having the scratches, anyway.

 

[SRman]

And one more of the 92 "Hattie repairs": a little bit of Tamiya masking tape, some NSE orange mixed with a little white, and the 'R' is restored. It's a little rough if you look too closely, but it still looks better than before, I think.

 

[SRman]

I've been shuffling trains around and changing over to modern image, with a couple of veteran or vintage trains remaining on the tracks for now. Every 1960s EMU or locomotive has been driven out of the loco shed roads then removed to the stock storage drawers, and a more modern counterpart placed on the tracks and driven in. There is a little bit of a spread of years still, though as the class 71 was probably scrapped well before any class 66 was delivered to EWS and other companies, notwithstanding that the 71 is wearing its TOPS number. Ditto the 07 shunter.

Locos and units in the photo are 73 141, 08 844, 71 012, 33 108, 33 030, 33 212, 66 701, 66 725, 205 001, and 205 012.

This is what the area looks like now. I have not got around to changing road vehicles yet.

 

 

[SRman]

This train formed of three Bachmann 2 HAP units is not quite what it appears to be. Only one of these was bought as a 2 HAP, with the other two being 2 EPBs bought at half the price of the HAP. They are numbered as 4308 + 6034 + 6063, with only 6063 being an original Bachmann unit. The other two have had DTC trailer bodies bought from Bachmann spares (together with other spare components that helped spread the postage costs), placed on the ex-EPB chassis. 

I have not altered the seating units at this stage (they are barely seen anyway, especially while in motion), but I will add partitions to form the toilet compartments later. I have renumbered the blue and grey unit that is now 6034, including the carriage numbering on both the ex-EPB DMBS and the HAP DTC, but for the NSE liveried unit, I only changed the unit end number to match the DTC. I will have to fix up the lighter NSE blue used on the EPB vehicle to match. 

 

This has still worked out as a slightly less expensive way to add more HAPs to my fleet, while taking advantage of some reduced price EPBs that have been available.

A quick video clip appears in the next post due to size limitations in any one post.
 

 

 

 

[SRman]

 

 

[SRman]

Livery experiments have been continuing on the Hudswell Clarke loco while all the other stuff has been going on. I did try some thin orange lining to separate the green edging from the yellow of the main panels, but it doesn't show up very well. I did want to use red, but all my thin red lining transfers must be too old and were breaking up as I tried to apply them. The orange doesn't show up very well (applied to one side and to the rear of the bunker), so I tried drawing some red on the other side with a Sharpie pen. This looked better, but the colour density of the Sharpie is not good enough for a proper job.

I then hit on the idea of using some BR mixed traffic lining, and that actually looks quite good, I think. I have done one side only, side tank and bunker side so far, but I think I'll extend this to the rest of the loco.

Photo 1: The LH side with orange lining.

 

Photo 2: The RH side with some BR lining added, and some of the Sharpie red visible on the bunker/cab side.

Photo 3: The RH side again, this time with the BR lining completed, with just a couple of small fixes required.

 

 

 

 

[SRman]

The Hudswell Clarke (H-C) is now very near to completion and has run a few laps on test. It then suffered a dropped connecting rod, but I repaired that with a 14BA screw drilled into the back of the crosshead, after having to break the glue on one of the slidebars where it is held to the support bracket to release the crosshead to get at the back. I also filed the inside face of the screw to clear the leading crankpin. After a little more running back and forth on the main lines, and a few minor tweaks, it ran reliably and smoothly after that.

In the meantime, the postman delivered a couple of boxes this afternoon, one from Rails, the other from Kernow. The latter had my long awaited third class 92. A quick test on DC showed 92 032 was smooth running, if slightly tight in reverse, so I fitted the prepared sound decoder into it. Apart from having to turn the volume down slightly, all went well for this loco, which is destined to be one of my favourites - love the livery as well as the superb job Accurascale have done on these models. I will do the pantograph mod as per the other two to get the pan head to sit more level when they are folded down. I have not fitted the etched plates yet. One thing I noted on this one is that the PCB doesn't appear to show through the grilles, so the edges must have been blackened already. I parked her carefully, just in case Hattie manages to get in again! 


 

 

In the Rails package were some Rapido items, one of the Hunslet 16" o-6-0ST locomotives, plus some SECR 9or ex-SECR) wagons. The van in full SECR livery is destined for the pre-grouping trains I run from time to time, while the others fit better into my more usual 1950s and 60s era. The engineers wagon may even suit later periods too.

The loco was smooth enough on DC on test, but my old analogue controller couldn't supply a low enough voltage to test slow running properly. I was sufficiently happy to put a budget Hatton's Next 18 decoder into it (the only one I had spare at present), and after a little programming, I found that it would run extremely slowly and smoothly, in contrast to some other reports online. I had to give it a slight startup voltage on speed step 1, setting CV2 to a value of 6, after which it moved barely perceptibly on speed step 1. Running through my points on the main lines was smooth in both directions and there were no derailment problems or hiccups in its running. I noted the firebox glow works on F1, but is a steady glow, so a quick bit of programming through Decoder Pro on the programming track turned that into a flicker. I did manage to damage one of the small steps on the side of the tank when removing it, but I will fix that up later. I will also be removing the NCB branding and putting my own nameplates and numbers on it in my fictional fleet.

[SRman]

A small update: etched plates now fitted to the class 92 and the Hunslet.

92 032 'IMechE Railway Division'. I have also modified the pantographs slightly to allow the heads to sit flatter when folded. Looking at this, I will have to remove just a spot more metal from the stop on the arm.

 

 

 

The Hunslet is now 72 'Beverley'. The Narrow Planet plates fitted neatly over the previous name so there was no need to remove the printed names, only the 'NCB' lettering.