acg5324

As I can’t find my pack of LT roundal decals for the bus, I’ve ordered some more, so they’ll turn up when the replacements arrive. Today the windows and doors were masked up and sprayed silver for the vents and undercoat, then yellow and red for the doors.

Side adverts added, I need to paint the seating too.

My  poorly class 37 had its chip refitted, which is now a very loose fit in its new PCB. To get round this I bent the pins a bit which improved things. However after a short test run the dreaded clicking appeared. On checking the bogies one of the wheel sets has a split gear.

Farish now have two different sets of geared wheels available for the Tractor,  black or later white. Does anyone know if it’s just a material change and not a change in the number of teeth?

It’s a current model class 37. 

The poorly class 37 had its chip refitted, which is now a very loose fit in its socket. To get round this I bent the pins a bit which improved things. However after a test run the dreaded clicking appeared. On checking the bogies one of the wheel sets has a split gear.

Farish now have two different sets of geared wheels available for the Tractor,  black or later white. Does anyone know if it’s just a material change and not a change in the number of teeth?

I’ve also posted this on the Farish forum.

The Metrobus painting is largely done. The grill and destination boards were all masked up and sprayed black. The window frame edges have also been blackened. Adverts, destination blinds and LT symbols to add, prior to a coat of satin varnish Window vents to do in silver before reassembly. Last job will be two part doors.

An email tonight from Chris Nevard with some of the photos taken a week ago. For obvious reasons I can’t show any, but they are stunning, especially the B&W ones.

The chassis for the ferry van was detached from its body and I thought, that’s useful…..the roof is screwed on and I can use that for the Italian one. So I undid the screws to find the roof is also glued on. Why both?

I need to get the correct sized microstrip from work, so there won’t be any progress on the these for a few days.

Bus progress

Some cream cleaner and cotton buds took off the four part doors printed on the glazing.
The first of the Metrobus bodies has now been primered, dry overnight for the red coat tomorrow.

8 hours ago, BrakeCoach said:

Do the TXS decoders work with other DCC controllers? Or are the sounds proprietary?

They will work on any DCC System, we use Gaugemaster / MRC in the shop.

3 hours ago, BrakeCoach said:

Did anyone got the Railroad Plus Class 47 in the previous range? Is it worth it?

A sound fitted 47 for 110 seems not too bad.

Runs OK sounds OK if it’s a TXS version. Ridiculously light, find some lead weights and it will run better and pull more. Remember it’s the Lima Body and chassis with a newer motor.

A day at the NGS Yorkshire meeting, didn’t get as much done as I wanted as I’d left one important thing behind and brought the wrong sized microstrip with me. Latest little project is to build a couple of Italian ferry vans using the NGS BR ferry van chassis……forgot to bring the chassis so I marked up the sides leaving plenty of trimming room at the ends. Doors and top runner added was all I could do.

The two MCW Metrobuses conversions had some more progress, including front windscreen cut to fit.

My class 37 failed at the York show, dismantling it the motor worked fine which left the chip and PCB as suspects. The loco wouldn’t work on DC with a blanking plate and the chip worked OK elsewhere so a new PCB was ordered from Bachmann on Friday. This arrived Monday, so far so good……however when fitting it firstly one motor contact fell off quickly followed by the other. Not good. I found a bit of fine NS wire and made up some new contacts with these. The loco is now all up and running…at least on DC. 

1 hour ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

It's made from various thicknesses of plasticard and microstrip. The W Irons, wheels, vacuum cylinder, buffer heads, axleboxes and springs are from the 2mm SA. The air cylinder and distributor are from the TPM 100T tanker detailing set.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

I had a double take originally, thinking it was 4mm scale. Excellent work. Are the retaining rods for the vents just plasticard too?

1 hour ago, 03060 said:

I bought a couple of ferryvan chassis  at Doncaster from the society to make a couple of these (having found a photo of 2 of them at Oban and in other WHL photos) so your photos are a great encouragement. I take it from Andy's comments and the fact that you are now resin casting these that the etches are no longer available ?

 

Regards,

Ian.

As Paul said they were from the Ultima / Etched Pixels detailing kit for the Mill Lane sidings ferry van kit. The Etched Pixels etchings have gone to the 2mm Association and they have them listed on the website. The ventilators are not mentioned. 

32 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

Chris Nevard?

Yes it was.

10 hours ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

I glued them to a piece of 10 thou plasticard as a backing. Photo below of them attached to one of the vans.

Cheers

 

Paul

Is that a 3D printed model? Looks great.

37 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi 

 

I used my last set to cast some in resin so I now have an endless supply 😀 and have just used some to create four more Belgian Ferry vans to diagram E266

 

Cheers

 

Paul

That’s an idea……the resin not the Belgians!

Aren’t I a tinker………..Model Rail.

4 hours ago, grahame said:

Is that a magazine photoshoot? Care to elaborate?

 

 

 

 

Yes it was……..

Busy day yesterday as the layout was set up in the kitchen for a photo shoot with permission from Mrs G. The new PCB for the class 37 arrived from Bachmann, only ordered Friday. I also found three sheets of etched ferry van ventilators, I didn’t know I had. These will be used for three more 4w ferry vans, not sure from which country yet.

20 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

It was a good show, well what I saw of it between operating Victoria.

 

I managed to bash my big toe on a chair leg I found while making my way to the loo in the dark in the hotel room. Bang me 'ead on something helping the Grantham crew pack up said layout. Trip over slightly raised paving stone returning to the hotel from the venue. The most spectacular was falling over @Bungus the Fogeyman's  tool box and nearly stage diving from the first floor into the operating well of Grantham on the ground floor below.

We wondered what the massive crash was…..

On 01/04/2024 at 13:57, Phil Parker said:

An excellent show as always. Some cracking layouts, but the highlight has to be the best custard doughnut I have ever eaten.

 

Those boiler bands are in the wrong  place and they’ve forgotten the wheels…….ill get my coat!

The only casualty over the weekend was my class 37 which died. I’ve dismantled it this morning and the motor is dead. Spares available.

3 hours ago, Steven B said:

Great to hear you had a good weekend - good to see Yorkshire Area Group member's layouts are also powered by as many biscuits as a regular group meeting!

 

Steven B

Biscuits make the world go round.

Some photos…….

Me and Chris Jones (Corkscrew Lines)

Sandy Clark NGS and Chris

Chris Jones 

Me and John Dixon NGS.

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!