Leaderboard

Ignoring the urgent jobs that need doing on the layout - cleaning track, painting ballast, finishing brick-work, and painting the poor Yard Foreman! - on Wednesday I wondered how difficult it would be to cut open the doors on a Bachmann VBB van. With only the Hornby VIX to pose as being loaded in East Yard, I wanted a change. To my surprise, armed with a new blade in the Stanley knife and a metal edge, it was a doddle. I spent this morning making some loads for the large pallets, and here is the result. The lorry has gone back to the depot for more stock to send up North - perhaps the soap and perfume manufacturer at Lewes - and the Yard Foreman keeps an eye on the part-loaded VBB van. I chose this rather than the Hornby VDA because the latter's doors are hinged, and are double the number each side. I confess I am ridiculously pleased with the result, and will try doing a VVV Vanfit next for the 'wagon-load' era. Now to making some better boxes, and continue cutting up drinks stirrers into 65mm. lengths for a timber load...

This EFE bus was bought second hand for £10. Whilst being a reasonably accurate representation, the gloss finish looked hideous. The first job was to dismantle it entirely. The model is held together with three rivets. The front two rivets were removed by melting the plastic heads with a soldering iron. The rear rivet was drilled out, taking care not to remove too much material as the platform would be damaged. The interior seating was painted and hand painted Preiser figures added. I replaced the grab rail on the platform with 0.9mm brass wire, as the EFE rail was too large. I also fitted brass wire handrails to the platform entrance. With the interior complete, I sprayed the body with Halfords Grey primer followed by Tamiya Matt Red for the exterior and Precision Paints Cream for the upper deck ceiling. Fox transfers and flush glazing to the front, costing an eye watering £30 were added. I also replaced the rear lower deck window with Perspex, as the EFE glazing spoiled the view of the platform. The final touch was the rear-view mirror (Plasticard, kitchen foil and brass wire) and front indicators (Plasticard). The only task left is some minor weathering.

Back in May 2019 I packed the layout away expecting it to be up and running again in about 12 months. Here we are over 2 years later and it's finally installed and working. A big pat on the back for me. It's being a crazy year what with house structural problems and other personal matters to deal with Here we are then. This board now in its 17th year and 4th home has been rewired with new merg cbus electronics soon to be installed. I've added a narrow board for the new analog upper level and that's all wired up and working (it's only 2m long) but might add a merg autoshuttle for the time being. I've just started adding the buildings, so much damage and repairs to do. I found a model of motorbike I can't even remember where that was located. So much tidying to do. Spent most of the afternoon tweaking microswitches and working on short circuit repairs Dcc controller is kaput which is a bit annoying but it's only reading 0.004 volt on the output so at the moment I'm running 1 engine (no sections as it's dcc) and my spare type e analog controller is hooked up However it's working and I can run trains on a 2m long board so I'm really happy. Next job is a bit more tidying and repairs and to get cbus modules installed. I'm using command strips attached to thin ply so I can remove the modules easily if I have to.