Bearwood West Yard

Another month has rolled by and despite modelling at a pace a snail would look fast, we are starting to get some workbench results. After the last update, I finished track laying on the current fiddle yard board, and drilled the cable bores through the baseboard. A new soldering iron on the scene so that is fun and games to find what temperatures work best - given you can’t always trust the thermal probe reading. Started soldering in the evenings after work, typical I get a few lines in and Covid strikes… just when we have the perfect outdoor weather! In the latter day or so before returning to work, I managed to do the fine art of brush painting the door handles and steps of 6261 along with some minor paint touchups. 977969 also received the door handle painting. The body shell of 37419 was also plopped into a vat of 100% IPA. I’ve since primed the stripped body shell with the usual Rust-Oleum grey surface primer. I’ve decided to trust the airbrush since its ultrasonic clean and have taken delivery of some Railmatch enamels. Yet to finalise a running number, the hunt for a 37/0/1/2 with correct ends, roof and chassis are ongoing. For the time being, I am motivated to see through the completion of the first two test train coaches. As I type, 6261 has started receiving decals. All transfers are produced in house with the exception of the cantrail stripe, which is from Railtec. Some of the previously applied detailing on the ends have had to be pried up to gain access for decal application. Given the efforts made to get 6261 to this standard, I would be falling short in keeping the commonwealth bogies. In the post are some B4 bogies which will bring the Mk1 BG into the 21st century. I might finally soon be within sight of something leaving the workbench… shock horror!

Excellent to see this project has been revived regardless of manufacturer. Given that Bachmann have bought various toolings from the Kernow Model’s project and production suite under the EFE Rail brand, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if Hatton’s sold the shelved YOB CAD’s to EFE Rail at a “WIP” rate when they went under - similar to the Accurascale deal for the 66. Whether or not this is the case, certainly a welcome announcement and at a reasonable price. Like many others, I eagerly anticipate a future release of them in Balfour Beatty. Can only wish them all the best in making a success of this maiden production run to enable that future livery.

April Update With another month having passed, things are starting to gain momentum once again. Following on from last month, I’ve finalised the transfers for test train coaches 6261 and 977969. Having selected the appropriate size transfers from the test sheet, I have added these to a separate Publisher document. As a rule of thumb, I always print double what I will need as ink does sometimes run during post print handling and initial lacquer application. I may have stated my transfer manufacturing method a long time ago but for the benefit of those who have followed this thread since (hello and welcome by the way!) I’ll go over how it’s done the Hardy way. - Printing is done on a domestic Epson XP-4155 series Inkjet printer, nothing fancy. I adjust the paper settings to Prem Gloss. - For paper, I use both Clear and White inkjet water slide papers sourced from Mr Decal Paper. Because white cannot be printed, anything requiring a white background or contains white is printed on white paper, while the rest is printed on clear to enable the colour of the applied-to surface to show through. I sourced this paper via EBay about 4 years ago. Once I’ve printed what I need, I cut off the excess paper to be used again another time. - My lacquer of choice is PlastiKote Polyurethane Varnish. With the paper on the lid of an old plastic storage box, I spray from 12-18 inches away in an across motion from the top of the paper down, attaching the rest of the box to prevent dust and other particles attaching to the sticky lacquer. I repeat this with another lacquer coat again after 15-20 minutes. I then leave these a full 24 hours to dry. The Clear transfers are in the picture below and are now curing after their 2nd lacquer coat. The White transfer sheet will be printed once this set has cured and the outside conditions for spraying are favourable. In other news, I’ve said goodbye to some models and welcomed some new. The EMT 158 and Bachmann DCC Sound 66040 have since departed for new homes, with additional stock also being made ready for sale. Adding to the fleet, is an original Bachmann 8-pin Class 37, 37412 in Transrail livery. A bargain off eBay and compatible for the EWS 37419 shell I bought last year for respray into Dutch-Transrail. Whichever shell is used, it suits well as a ‘stand in’ loco for the Regional Railways Mk2’s - stock which will undergo its own project with time. The MLA’s are currently on hold in terms of getting EP1 prototypes printed. The files are ready to go, it’s just a matter of being in a position to commit to a print budget before contacting the studio for a quote. Part of the reason I’m selling some of my stock, in addition to funding Accurascale pre-orders.

Have done some digging and found 66847 doing the honours with the full 4.2kg RDT. Have linked the video but it is just the opening clip that’s relevant. On another occasion I have added 5x Autoballasters to the rear but that was pushing it with the layout curves. The loco’s performance is stable throughout the clip in the video attached, however I wouldn’t run it for more then 25-30 minutes at a time as the motor tends to get toasty from current draw. A side effect of working the loco hard. Hopefully the AS 66’s perform as well and can stand up to such hard working. Jord

The Hatton’s 66’s had the best tractive effort of any Class 66 when it was released. All 6 of mine did fine with a full 13 wagon RDT at 4.2kg (11x Hatton’s FEA-S + 2x Hornby KFA) on track at radius 4/5. Operating on DCC though.

66’s are on the high seas I believe. With the 50’s in production. Best looking at Accurascale’s project progress table on their website. Unlike retailers who take pre-orders and then payment when the products arrive into stock, I believe AS take the pre-order payment and then you have a guaranteed model once they land in the U.K. - this is how I would define it.

Given that 37’s and 47’s lasted over 40 years with plentiful fleet sizes and modifications over the years, it wouldn’t surprise me if the older 66’s lasted the same length of time. As I understand it, loco failures and poor availability was a key problem in the mid 90’s with the 37’s in particular. But with the 59’s well over 30 years old and still going strong in terms of the age to yearly failure ratio, EMD’s key sale point of reliability may well see the 59’s and 66’s become the longest time served diesel locomotive class in constant use. Although the failure rate will increase, I’ve confidence that they will hit 45 years service at the very least if not 50. Given the time it takes to develop and procure new locomotives of equal reliability, especially replacing entire loco fleets, if the oldest 66’s were to start being retired in the next 10-15 years then I would like to have thought the ‘railway grapevine’ would be awash with rumours of long term fleet replacement/sustanability projects starting to take place. Ultimately, the 66’s will be here for as long as they remain reliable and FOC’s are prepared to support them. As for the wires, if the Great Western electrification is anything to go by, I’ll have long been retired before the wires reach Exeter let alone Newton Abbott… and I’m 5 years into the world of work 😅

March Update: With few opportunities to further the current fiddle yard progress, I’ve been turning my attention more towards the workbench. 1256 has had the roof sprayed into Ford Polar Grey, with attention now turning to the end details. 977969 has had the ‘end detail’ treatment. A full new set of handrails fabricated from 0.5mm styrene, located into new positions on the carriage end. Those holes drilled to Ø0.8 with a pin vice for good location and ease of gluing. The orange electrical boxes are from pieces of scrap styrene billet trimmed to the right appearance and painted orange. Now at the same stage as 6261, transfer size testing. As my transfers are fully homemade, the process is a bit of trial and error. This often involves countless hours on Microsoft Paint to produce details and writing that at scale are no more than pixels, followed by multiple scalings publisher at “around the right size”, before printing onto paper and cutting them out for a size test and “yes that looks right against pictures” check. I’m at this latter stage with 977969 and 6261 currently. These both going for the circa-2014 look. Other than these, I’ve been working on the “Sub Hunter’” Type 23 Frigate, renewing my fine painting skills after a lot of time away from the finer brushes.

This is very true!

@EWS60065 Glad you picked up on the stripe! I’d rather run the unit as per prototype so safe to say picking up on the stripe has saved me a lot of work! And money too! 😅

Thats what I'm waiting for, and can then put my existing EMT bodies into Ex-SWT with SWR vinyls.

Not a bad price at all. Think I paid £49 for the SWR shells at Kernows. I used Rainbow Railways to source my SWR Blue paint for the air dams, they should do any specialist paints that you may need.

Cracking work! Loving the weathering on the MHA’s, I think this has to be the most life-like weathering I’ve seen on them. Balfour Beatty BDA looks brilliant! Top quality work as always! Glad my 159 rebodying project has given you inspiration! How much were the GWR 158 bodies direct from Bachmann? Giving me ideas now!

“Hello is that the RAF… I’d like to requisition one of your C17 Globemaster transport aircraft for a round trip to China, training of course… no it’s not for the tea crisis…”

A weekend of good progress made. The next Fiddle Yard board has seen track mostly laid, alongside what felt like a full box set run of “Yes Minister” on a channel of a name that escapes me - for this weekends background noise! As this area won’t be ballasted, I’ve opted to cover the whole top with cork sheet. Main objective this weekend was to get the track sections loosely laid and lined up. I’ve succeeded in my plan to have a line from the yard headshunt onto the up main, so I can have long trains continuously running from the scenic yard to the scenic yard and appearing to be a “new train” when it appears on the scenic section. Plus, this headshunt also acts as a run round loop for the longest of trains. The gap in the middle of the 10 roads will allow for a removable road indicator to be installed. Most layouts have an overhead gantry of numbers for siding ID and the fiddle yard will be no different. More to come on this board in the coming weeks! In workbench news, I’ve completed my previous renovations and have quite the facilities now. Lots of shelving for storage! I’ve even bought another kit of HMS Ark Royal with a Destroyer! Back onto rail… Test train coach 977969 has had the roof sprayed up into Polar Grey. All I need to do next is sort out 1256 to get up to the same standard. The T45 and T23 hulls have been primed and I’ve made a start on the T23 with some new Tamiya paints. First time using them and I rather like them as opposed to Humbrol par the odour. Either way, I am tempted to bite the bullet and buy the full Tamiya acrylic range 😅 Thats all for now