37114

Progress on a couple fronts, the first front being the front. As the paint on the cab was peeling off behind the air filter and was quite thick I decided to totally strip the cab of paint. With the aid of a grinding disk in the mini drill I ground off the Pegaso badge and lettering on the front. The cab is incredibly touch die-cast so rather than to try and carve out the grille the plan is to fill the channels completely and then use a transfer for the full grille. Hopefully this will be fine at normal viewing distances. The chassis has had surgery as well. The Battery box has been cut off as it is on the opposite side on the Seddon Atkonson. Also removed is the spare wheel carrier, most UK Hauliers having ceased to carry spare wheels by the early 90s. Hopefully that's most of the destruction done!

Nice to see a new update on this Chris, that Cargowagon is massive!

A bit of a different project to engage in some nostalgia of my youth; As a kid I always wanted to be a Lorry driver and in addition to my love of railways, I was a fan of trucks in the 1990s, particularly the British makes of Foden, ERF and Seddon Atkinson, all marques sadly no longer with us. As part of my O gauge layout set in 1977 (Peasevern Yard) I took great care to get 1/43 scale lorries, modifying IXO models of 1970s Bedfords, rather than using more readily available Corgi models as these are 1/50. I recently bought a Heljan class 60 as I like them and may in the future do a 1990s era layout so decided to build one of the trucks of my youth. An easy option would be to respray an IXO model of a European make such as a Volvo or Scania but I really wanted one of the British makes however there are no models of an ERF, Foden or Seddon Atkinson that suited my 1990s era. However last year a potential option was presented by IXO in the form of a Pegaso Troner model if I was prepared for a "little bit of work"... Now 99% of the UK logistics population would never have heard of Pegaso as they were only sold here for a few years and only a handful were sold. Pegaso were a Spanish manufacturer whose owner (ENASA) happened to have acquired Seddon Atkinson in 1980s. Seddon Atkinson was the result of the merger of Seddon and Atkinson trucks in the 1970s and by the mid 1980s their cab was somewhat dated. ENASA collaborated with DAF to design a new cab to be used by all 3 brands. Branded the "Strato" the new cab coupled with the proven chassis and running gear enabled Seddon Atkinson to grow their market share and won them plenty of new customers albeit some of the growth was short lived as the cab was prone to rust, there were electrical gremlins and a few other niggles. ENASA were bought out by Iveco who replaced the cab with their own which was even more prone to rust and electrical gremlins and Seddon Atkinson ceased production in 2005. The Pegaso was the closest visually to the Seddon Atkinson so is the obvious choice for this project. IXO have produced a couple of Pegaso Troners but while they have produced a Paris - Dakar rally truck with a sleeper cab, the most suitable starting points for the conversion are either the less common day cab or even rarer cab top sleeper version (a variant Seddon Atkinson never did). IXO models can be quite expensive at circa £70 to £100 plus postage from Mainland Europe but I picked up my donor model on ebay for a bargain £27 and no postage. From looking at the pictures of the model I worked out the cab top sleeper was a separate moulding so hoped the standard roof would be present underneath. Most day cab Stratos were owned by fuel or tanker operators and I didn't fancy making a tank trailer. I was lucky to find this photo of an ex Esso tractor unit sold to another operator with a curtainside trailer so ideal for my donor model: https://www.flickr.com/photos/16212470@N03/51309366403/in/faves-49261102@N07/ So the basic plan is; - convert to Right hand Drive - replace fuel tank and battery boxed which were different between Pegaso and Seddon Atkinson - remove the high roof sleeper - Modify the cab front grille to represent a Seddon Atkinson - Add the fuel regulation specification modifications such as fire screen at the back of the cab and Exhaust pipe under the cab - Modify and detail the trailer running gear - Repaint and add transfers. Jo @Steadfast at Steadfast models has kindly agreed to do the transfers for me. So the first part was to dismantle the tractor unit... Suffice to say that every part had been either riveted or glued with the strongest superglue ever. The more I dismantled the more I realised that this will be a bit more than "a little bit of work'.. The biggest challenges are; - The cab roof under the sleeper pod is not detailed and will need a lot of work to get it to look anything like the real thing. I am surprised that IXO didn't reuse the standard day cab tooling and put the pod onto but it is what it is and I love a challenge. - The bumper is attached to the cab not the chassis. This makes the grille modifications hard but not impossible as I am likely to fill the current area and rely on a transfer for the grille. The paint on the cab is easily chipped and will therefore get a bath in paint stripper to take it back to bare metal. Plan of attack is to do the cab mods first as it affects the grille transfers before doing the chassis with the trailer last.

Nice shot, very atmospheric!

Thanks Nick, afraid no chance of a class 56, I am no fan of them at all! I might be tempted by one of the upcoming 1990s era class 37s though, I am working on an early 90s 1/43 lorry at the moment so maybe new layout in the future..

I have added on the details to the board earlier today, firstly the fuel point; Also the battery charge, fire extinguishers and buckets, all from the mudmagnet models range. I have a couple of barrels that are still being painted and also a couple of weeds to add. The ripple in the wagon is something I haven't noticed before and is v annoying, and may end up needing to be replaced I have also put up the shelf in our study where the display will live. The location is slightly odd at first sight but I have a height adjustable desk which I can stand at so needed to be factored in. The bare wood at the front if the board will be covered in black painted ply. 60029 is temporarily trying out it's new home.

Will Dapol 08 buffers work Nick?

Looking good Nick, the weathering on the buffer beam is really well captured.

I am amazed both by the speed of your builds, the quality of the finished product but mostly by your resilience in building MTK kits!

Steve's Kits can be made up to reasonable models with time and patience, there are a few threads in the Road vehicles section of the forum that I and others have done which are worth a read.

Looks a nice pub, gutted I missed that when I was there last year.

It has been a while since my last update but there has been some progress. Further to my last post and the base for the fuel pump being installed, I have also installed the catch drains which are a laser cut purchase off ebay and are perfect for my needs. I have also weathered the concrete and track with a mix of washes of various greys and blacks which looks much better In addition I have also permanently affixed the backscene pictures, these blend in nicely with the recovered foreground Next steps is to add some details to the concrete area and sort the backscene on the end panel. I will also paint the exposed wood work.

Airfix JCB would also have been available. Didn't Lima do a plastic car, I want to say based on a Sunbeam?

The thing I love about this display/photo is how well the backscene is colour matched to the main board/stock, very effective.

Stunning just stunning... What a great model, great job James. Did you do anything to the windscreen surrounds at all please? The "seam" looks much much more subtle and realistic than the out of the box model I recently inspected.

The bogie retention post is a definite weak point, I had to replace one on mine and ended up buying a couple so I have some spares.

Looks a nice little project. Arguably with a more industrial backscene a Deltic parked on the back siding might look quite at home invoking memories of the Kings Cross stabling point.

Thanks Nick, nice kit to put together as well (if I overlook the cages underneath!)

One of my favourite wagon builds in terms of satisfaction with the end result was this Parkside Grampus and a few people have reached out to me over the last year asking for the pics to be reposted. Here are some from the archives

Totally agree with the principle, my only tweak would be I would have 3 rather than 4 tiers, removing your number 2) on the list. When ranging products generally the rule of 3 works well and bearing in mind the need to start with the customer need first, it could to follow your logic be: 1) "Hornby Intro": First Trainset aimed at the beginner/younger modeller on a tighter budget who may or may not follow the hobby through. Items will have simple features to encourage use such as basic sound/light, maximise generic items (eg 0-4-0 chassis) to leverage scale of economy Majority of end users will be 6 - 11 year olds. Readily available via modelling shops, as well a general retailer such as Argos etc to aid accessibility 2) "Hornby Modeller" More prototypical trains aimed at people who want to follow the Hobby and want to be able to build a home layout to a reasonable standard. The customer is looking for a model that looks accurate but may not have the full detail of the high end model eg. they expect their model of 37042 to have split headcodes but are not fussed that it doesn't have the handrails on top of the headcode boxes. The customer has a bit more money to spend but their budget is likely fixed and thus looking for bang for the buck. Likely to be teenagers who are moving on from "Hornby Intro" right up to pensioners. Lights as standard, sound fitment options available with a simple App option for Sound/interactive functionality. Mostly ranged in specialist modellers outlets with some better selling sets (eg one with Flying Scotsman) via Argos etc 3) "Hornby Premium" Products that will take the fight to people like Accurascale and Cavalex. High level of fidelity with models that in the right light pass as real locos and carriages. Highly configurable sound and light options with products appealing to less budget constrained collectors and modellers. Sold via modelling outlets. To underpin this Hornby can look at how do you standardise where you can eg the chassis block for say an A3 loco could be used for 2 and 3 or another radical option could be to partner with the likes of Accurascale and "Outsource" premium products, combining the power of the Hornby brand with the quality of independent product/s. By focussing on the brand and providing a journey to the customer, Hornby can rebuild the brand loyalty and support the retailler giving them clear products to suit their range. I specifically haven't mentioned Hornby's website, there is a place for their web sales but it needs to be aligned price/service wise with the retaillers as part of a co-herent strategy of supporting direct to customer and trade sales.

Great news, I guess it was an obvious one to come bearing in mind they have done the 25s already. I guess in fullness of time a 25/0 will follow

Small progress on the layout, I have sorted the steps for office by the cement terminal. I had intended to scratchbuild but I saw some 3d printed steps on ebay. They came as a pair but were a little large, unfortunately one had a warped leg but as I was planning to cut it down I chose to modify that one. I trimmed both ends of the handrails and chopped roughly 9mm off the bottom. I also fitted a piece of plastic box section at the bottom to correct the warped leg.They now fit perfectly and have since been primed.

I have been making progress albeit slowly but it is coming together now, with progress on 3 fronts; 1) The shed. The shed is now glazed using some spare clear thin sheet onto which I have added some thin glazing bars. I am quite pleased how this has turned out, I have started to weather the external brickwork as well. 2) The concrete area; I wasn't happy with how this looked initially with some gaps at the end and also the card didn't really properly butt up to the track so I used some filler to fill the gaps and then painted more of the textured paint. I have cut in a plinth for the fuel pump and have some drainage grilles on order. I have to say I can't wait to get this weathered! 3) The backscene; My original plan was to use a photo of the Wiltshire Hills with the White Horse but it didn't really blend in. In addition I wanted to convey depth of the sidings beyond the board so resorted to an old trick I had used before. I found a good side on picture of a Yeoman PGA wagon which was duplicated and super imposed. The wagon was perfect as it screamed Westbury but with the design dating from 1972 until the 2000s was perfect for both my 1977 stock and the class 60. It is seen here loosely in place as I will fix it after weathering the track.

Thanks for the explanation, I see the guys in Boness are doing exactly the same window pillar repairs on one of their class 27 as well at the moment. I do indeed recall the early days of Toddington well, I remember being shown round 37215 not long after it arrived in the pouring rain thinking what a tough environment it was to restore a loco in!

That is some work! One question if I may, how do you get the windscreen surround the right shape/size/location, is it a case of offering up the window glass every so often to mark around it or do you have a specific template you use please? I am confused by 1 thing, if the dome is not the one fitted to 26043 when it was in Dutch livery as per the photo which shows it when it was withdrawn, is the dome a preservation era fitment? I used to visit the GWSR a lot when 26043 was being first restored and can never recall seeing the roof dome off it but maybe I missed that.