Kensington Olympia in n scale

[acg5324]

The second RML has gained its top coat and the upper deck seating moulding has had its edge painted white. I think it’ll need another coat of paint prior to reassembly and decals.

[acg5324]

The body has had another coat of red, the glazing has been cut to fit and LT decals added to the lower deck. A slight cock up on the catering front, meant that I’ve no white decal paper to print the side adverts……this has been rectified!

[acg5324]

Starting to take the layout apart and make a few repairs to scenery on the joints.

[acg5324]

Some supplies from work, the brick red paint is to complete the restoration of the Royal Kensington Hotel building. The paint stripper for some BT Atlantean buses which will get converted into another pair of Metro Scania Metro buses. The replacement white decal paper arrived today so a new can of gloss varnish to seal them. The PC is having a bit of a strop at the moment. I’ve had to reboot it after it just locked up. Can’t get the additional bus adverts edited prior to printing.

[acg5324]

I have also dug out my only steam locomotive, Duchess of Hamilton. This was purchased in the Cumbrian Mountain Express train pack that GF did in 2014. It has never been run, so it was with a bit of anxiety that I took it to work to see if it would even move. No problem at all, very smooth. I will take it to Saturdays Yorkshire are NGS meeting to give it a run in on the modular layout, prior to fitting a chip.

This loco ran some excursions out of Olympia back in the day.

[acg5324]

After lots of Anglo -Saxon cajoling of the PC it finally behaved itself long enough to edit and print the first lot of adverts. I’ll let them dry off overnight before sealing them. They look OK to me.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, acg5324 said:

The PC is having a bit of a strop at the moment. I’ve had to reboot it after it just locked up.

Mine too. I suspect some sort of update that I didn't ask for and probably don't need.

[acg5324]

A productive day at the Yorkshire area NGS meeting.

A bit more weathering done, The Royal Kensington Hotel block painted ready for planting, The Duchess had a good run in too.

[acg5324]

The RML also gained its decals….and got varnished when I got home. Clad with typical 1980s adverts.

[AndrueC]

On 07/03/2024 at 19:16, acg5324 said:

I have also dug out my only steam locomotive, Duchess of Hamilton. This was purchased in the Cumbrian Mountain Express train pack that GF did in 2014. It has never been run, so it was with a bit of anxiety that I took it to work to see if it would even move. No problem at all, very smooth. I will take it to Saturdays Yorkshire are NGS meeting to give it a run in on the modular layout, prior to fitting a chip.

This loco ran some excursions out of Olympia back in the day.

Out of curiosity does yours have pickups on the tender? My Queen Elizabeth doesn't but a fellow member of my club has a Coronation Class of some kind and it has pickups on the tender.

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, acg5324 said:

The RML also gained its decals….and got varnished when I got home. Clad with typical 1980s adverts.

Don't forget the black paint below the platforms!

[acg5324]

13 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Out of curiosity does yours have pickups on the tender? My Queen Elizabeth doesn't but a fellow member of my club has a Coronation Class of some kind and it has pickups on the tender.

Yes it appears to have pick ups on the tender. DCC socket is in there too.

[AndrueC]

8 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Yes it appears to have pick ups on the tender. DCC socket is in there too.

Interesting. My QE's DCC socket is also in the tender with the motor in the main body. It seems odd for Farish to have not bothered with pickups. It's a little more weight for stability (the tender wheels on mine are plastic) and although I've never had any problems with it six more pickups seem worth having.

Edited March 10 by AndrueC

[acg5324]

Well one bus comes along and another two arrive! This another one of those roundtuit jobs. This pair of BT Models Atlanteans have been dismantled for about two years awaiting to be ‘converted’ very loosely into MCW Metrobuses. After the issues stripping the ODC Routemaster of paint I thought I’d get some plastic safe stripper for these bodies. Only the chassis on the BT Models Atlantean is metal everything else is plastic. After reading the instructions to DO NOT ALLOW the item to sit in the stripper for more than 5 mins and only paint it on the surfaces, I left the model for its 5 mins…………..and absolutely no paint came off. After probably 6x5mins the paint still wasn’t shifting although had softened. So the body got removed and rinsed with just the shine taken off. With the second body I’m not even bothering with the stripper.

 

Anyway some progress photos. The completed Metrobus has the doors from the TPM Models DMS conversion kit  added, kindly supplied by Grahame Hedges. As this is no longer available I’ll have to make some doors up. The Atlantean having four part doors.

[acg5324]

Thought I’d back up the PC today and use my Seagate portable storage……..last one I’d done was written on the box 19/6/2021!….oops.

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Well one bus comes along and another two arrive! This another one of those roundtuit jobs. This pair of BT Models Atlanteans have been dismantled for about two years awaiting to be ‘converted’ very loosely into MCW Metrobuses. After the issues stripping the ODC Routemaster of paint I thought I’d get some plastic safe stripper for these bodies. Only the chassis on the BT Models Atlantean is metal everything else is plastic. After reading the instructions to DO NOT ALLOW the item to sit in the stripper for more than 5 mins and only paint it on the surfaces, I left the model for its 5 mins…………..and absolutely no paint came off. After probably 6x5mins the paint still wasn’t shifting although had softened. So the body got removed and rinsed with just the shine taken off. With the second body I’m not even bothering with the stripper.

 

Anyway some progress photos. The completed Metrobus has the doors from the TPM Models DMS conversion kit  added, kindly supplied by Grahame Hedges. As this is no longer available I’ll have to make some doors up. The Atlantean having four part doors.

I'd forgotten that Double Decker advert. One of the best.

[acg5324]

A few days away prior to the York show but where might we be?

[Steven B]

Doing any R'Amble'ing whilst you're there?

 

 

 

Steven B

[acg5324]

4 hours ago, Steven B said:

Doing any R'Amble'ing whilst you're there?

 

 

 

Steven B

Done a bit………

[acg5324]

A nice relaxing week away in Amble, Northumberland. The railway has been long gone and there’s little sign of in the town although it had high level coal staithes on the dockside. This is the site of the station now. The newer buildings have been built across the formation, although you can easily follow the route out of town.

 

Tomorrow I should be able to get Olympia boxed up prior to pick up on Friday for the Racecourse. 

Edited March 23 by acg5324

[acg5324]

Everything is boxed up and ready for Friday. York Racecourse here we come. Stand 75 on the first floor.

[Jack Cregan]

Looking forward to seeing the layout in the flesh after following your progress.

Jack

[acg5324]

We were set up by 1730 last night after two trips across a very busy York in the hire van. Couple of faults which shouldn’t take too long to find. One route in the fiddle yard won’t set, probably a wire off somewhere and a not quite dead section also in the fiddle yard which looks like a section of track without a feed. Just need to get the rolling stock, road vehicles and curtains on.

[Steven B]

Saw KO at York show today. Looking great and appeared to be running well. 

 

Steven B

[acg5324]

I’m knackered…….a three day show was hard work. The layout largely behaved itself the loss of a route was just  a wire out as I thought and was traced in a matter of seconds. More of an issue was the fact that the layout had gone from a cold garage to a warm indoors and we had trouble with baseboard joints. G clamps to the rescue. Otherwise apart from a couple of intermittent issues with one point it ran well. 
 

A big thank you to my operators Chris, Sandy, John, Mike and Alan……and also my colleagues from Monk Bar Modelshop for getting it home.

 

Nice that a few Rmwebbers made themselves known and a lot of customers from the shop too.

 

i didn’t miss the irony that we were next to a layout based on the Izal factory!

Edited April 2 by acg5324