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Andy Y

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Blog Entries posted by Andy Y

  1. Andy Y

    Loveless Deltic

    By Andy Y,

    Out on a photoshoot and video job today we had chance to take a look at and run the new Loveless Deltic.
     
    Just a snap for now but a full review will feature in the mag soon.
     

  3. Andy Y

    LYP - more pruning

    By Andy Y,

    Another chance to grab an hour at the bench after visitors have left sees the decoder (Hornby 4-pin) hard-wired and hidden behind the dashboard.
     

     
    This means the decoder housing can be stripped away from the floor leaving room for a flat false floor and just enough space for something extra in the cab which should arrive in a few days.
     
    It's amazing how much space you can find in here when you look for it!
     
    LYP - Part 1 - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1535/entry-13941-little-yellow-project/
  4. Andy Y
    Some people keep their diplomas, certificates and Oscars in the smallest room; I just make do with a small ever-revolving library. I'm sure I can't be the only one can I?
     
    Anyway, a shot of three books coming out of the reading room neatly summarise what this project will be about.
     

  5. Andy Y

    Mermods

    By Andy Y,

    I picked up a Flangeway Mermaid at the weekend and although it has a lot of positives the big negative for me was the solid panel on top of the chassis - see cnw6847's post which detracted from the fineness of the rest of the model. Given the price at GBP15.95 I'd have expected something a little more but having looked at it I felt comfortable that something could be done to improve it.
     
    Step 1 - Separate the wagon body from the supporting frame, maybe it should unclip but I could see glue residue down there so I slid scalpel beneath the body.
     

     
    Step 2 - Separate the tipping frame from the weighted chassis, again there was evidence of clips beneath but it didn't want to budge and I reverted to the scalpel.
     

     
    The tipping frame is clipped to the chassis with two awkward clips on each side, placing pressure on these from inside moves them out sufficiently to remove the tipping frame from the chassis.
     

     
    Step 3 - Remove the weight from the chassis by drilling through the melted plastic peg in each corner of the weight.
     

     
    Step 4 - Replace the tipping frame onto the chassis. At this point I had intended to build up the chassis frame with plastic strip but given that it will be relatively obscured most of the time and looking at a skeleton chassis on Paul Bartlett's site I thought I'd leave it at that.
     

     
    Once the wagon body is replaced I think the result is reasonable and certainly an improvement. The body, and chains, will be fixed back on after the wagon is weathered. The wagon will obviously need that weight that was removed, in this case it will be cut down by 5mm off the length and placed inside the wagon and with additional weight hidden beneath the wagon's load.
     

  6. Andy Y
    This month's BRM marks the coming thirtieth anniversary of the creation of Network SouthEast with an interview with Chris Green. There's some useful reference information in the article too and one of the pieces of the article was to show how easy it would be to give a fairly ordinary station the same sprucing up that the division started thirty years ago. The simple 'how-to' got squeezed just leaving a couple of images as part of the article so I thought it worth adding the rest here.
     
    Before:
     

     

     
    And after the bins were delivered, the digital clock fitted and the painters paid a visit with the tins of red paint.
     

     

     

     

     
    The station buildings, digital clock, vending machines are courtesy of Bachmann Scenecraft, the platform lamps from Gaugemaster and the red is simply Humbrol Acrylic 'Buffer beam red'. Scalescenes produce a download pdf where your own station name can be added - http://scalescenes.com/product/r001a-station-signs-and-posterboards/.
  7. Andy Y
    In turning around a Parkside Pallet Van I took the usual course of referencing Paul Bartlett's site and found that the Palvan's seemed to have a fairly distinct way of weathering after lounging around in backwaters following a fairly premature absence from action - http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p24203000.html . In all likelihood they were probably as drab and mucky as any other van whilst still in service but I fancied a go at something a different shade of brown.
     

     
    Starting from a base of Railmatch BR Bauxite and metal strapping picked out in a dark chocolate shade variations in tone were made via airbrush layering dark bauxite and a faint black towards the edges of panels and the strange sensation of spraying yellow/orange shades towards the centre of the larger panels.
     
    The overall finish is not as pronounced as shown in the prototype pics on the assumption that wagons aren't as old. I must overcome the temptation to treat more vans like that.
     
     
     
     
     
  8. Andy Y
    Dear Number 57, whoever you are or more probably were, today I really appreciate what you and your colleagues did all those years ago!
     
    I'd had a Dapol Prestwin in the to-do drawer for a year or two and decided a few weeks back to put into the works. What an utter disaster it was and virtually put me off buying any of Dapol's current production of these time-served moulds. The chassis was so distorted that at rest only two wheels would touch the rails, three if a digit was placed on a corner; I can't even remember where I'd bought it so it now lives in the parts bin for its other components.
     
    The kit started life under Airfix around 1964 and it's a very different story with crisp detail on decent plastic (if a little brittle with age resulting in a broken brake lever at a late stage) that can still make a decent showing placed next to the current pick of the crop. Assembly is a dream with sharp alignment, positive fit and achievable in under an hour despite the 60+ parts that make this up. The only modifications to date to the kit are the addition of a couple of Cambrian brake wheels (I owe you another thank you Brian!) to the discharge pipes on the roof and the handrails above the short ladder to the platform on one side. The original transfers are somewhat yellow and curled but handily there were appropriate lettering and numbers left over on a Modelmaster 4644r sheet after the Presflo project (I really must post some snaps of the finished article).
     

     

     
    I accept that the seams in the tanks are more prominent than you'd like to see on a wagon produced last week but in the flesh they don't look as pronounced as they do on the snaps and that some final touching up is needed before a dose of Dullcote.
     
    Show me anything as good from 1964 that you can pick up for a fiver if you can!
  9. Andy Y

    RAF Manston Museum

    By Andy Y,

    Whilst on a whistlestop tour of Kent last week Phil and I dropped into RAF Manston Musem which is chocked full with interesting memorabilia and artefacts.
     

     
    There's a cracking railway-related model in there, even if it looks somewhat tired, depicting one of the main stores building pre-WW2 with a rail siding. Pop 20p in and you can watch a Bachmann C-Class tootle back and forth shunting for a few minutes.
     

     
    The buildings are quite delightful.
     

     
    Outside I turned into a rivet-counter (except a V1 is largely welded rather than rivetted) and spotted that the Nazis were apparently early-adopters of Helvetica font despite it not being in use until the 50s.
  10. Andy Y

    Ratty LYP

    By Andy Y,

    Sorry; did I say tidy up in the previous blog entry? A slip of the tongue.
     

     
    Hopefully ready for action on BCB at DEMU Showcase this weekend - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78016-demu-showcase-2014-burton-upon-trent-31-may-1-june-2014/ - even if you're not a D&E modeller it's a show well worth a visit for the quality of the layouts.
  11. Andy Y

    Reach for the ferry

    By Andy Y,

    It's high time I got round to putting together some of the more appropriate stock to run on Keyhaven.
     
    First off the ramp is this M.A.R.C. Models reach wagon, some enterprising soul down Dorzet way seems to have purloined one of the matching pair that fell out of use at Dover in the 1950s. The originals were paired together for loading train ferries offering the bare basics of accommodation for riders.
     

     

     
    Although the kit has been sat around the workbench for the last 7 months it was an easy build last night and this afternoon, seeing as the solder had gone on walkabouts post Christmas I decided it would be quicker to get going with epoxy resin rather than venturing out. It all went together an awful lot better than a simple plastic brake van kit that's following it on the assembly line!
  12. Andy Y

    Ride on a railbus

    By Andy Y,

    I must confess that today was the first time I've been to the Ribble Steam railway and it'll be 10 years old next year. I wanted to go and get some reference details from the substantial collection of industrial locos they have both steam and diesel.
     

     

     
    Fortuitously there was a midweek operational day featuring the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbus which gave the chance to bring you a run along the length of the railway. It's slightly unusual to see a preserved railway within an urban environment, add in a stretch of road-running and especially when mixed in with operational bitumen traffic in TEA tanks; keep an eye open for the unusual signalling and the sand drags to protect the road section!
     

     
    For anyone who fancies detailing the interior of their Heljan model here's a couple of reference shots.
     

     

     
    If you ever get chance the Ribble Steam Railway is well worth a visit for a look around the museum and workshops as well as the ride.
  14. Andy Y

    The scene's setting

    By Andy Y,

    I've had an itch for a long time. An itch to model a canal interchange shed; I'd initially looked at the still intact Chillington Wharf on the west side of the Stour Valley route from Wolverhampton High level.
     

    Photo by D.J.Norton
     

     
    I came across this picture in the steel terminal's office whilst I was given a tour of Chillington Wharf by staff showing pre-nationalisation activity with bolsters and opens with the sort of loads which would come from a rolling mill.
     

     
    This would have required a board depth greater than the space I wish to now place the scene in.
     
    Moving onwards; not a million miles away from the spot though was a similar interchange shed, built by the Midland Railway off the Wolverhampton to Walsall line tucked away behind the British Steel site which sits beneath the level of the junction just SE of Wolverhampton High level station. The shed disappeared in the 1950s when the land was acquired by the steelworks but it's not a ridiculous premise to see that shed last a few decades more in the shadow of an expanding works.
     

     

     
    The shed and basin are long gone now but the site can still be seen from the access road to the works here.
     
    Details are scant as it wasn't of conventional photographer's interest really, a couple of line drawings on a local history site including side elevations plus an end photo from Bob Yate's book shown in the introductory blog entry.
     

     

     
     
    The scene will not be a true recreation due to some compression needed, realignment to fit a workable space and the wish to give something with a little more operational interest.
  15. Andy Y
    Whilst grazing over a cuppa  carrying out vital research for the Keyhaven extension I came across the following Pathe clip that fills in a few gaps for me on one of the components of the extension.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     

     
     
     
    Ain't the 'net great?
  16. Andy Y

    Twin Silo Presflo

    By Andy Y,

    Jumping ahead to other bits of Keyhaven that may or may not get built at some point this year I picked up some Presflos with a view to altering them to reflect the twin silo variety that were initially used for ICI salt traffic and latterly for Slate Powder.
     
    Paul Bartlett's site again provides useful reference content with various angles of these wagons - http://gallery6801.f...et/c121408.html
     

     
    The starting point was the Crown Cement liveried Presflo with the correct buffer types shown left and the adapted wagon on the right.
     
    The principal difference to the twin silo version is just that, twin silos with separate feeds at top and bottom. After dismantling the wagon the hopper bottom was removed with a saw and a replacement with twin discharges was knocked up from 160gsm card..
     

     
    Although the wagon runs fine I decided to add some cheap weights whilst the top was off.
     

     
    The replacement piping was formed from 0.020inch round brass rod, the handrails from Alan Gibson .45mm wire, the small valve knobs from plastic rod cutoffs, one larger valve handle temporarily removed from another Presflo until I find a handle that better matches that in the prototype images and lastly brass offcuts for the notice panels.
     

     

     
    When considering the job I thought I'd have to use two wagons to generate enough bits but other than the valve wheel it was achieved from what happened to be lying around. Cheap job, takes about an hour.
     
    I may get round to painting when I've done a couple more and sorted the transfers and found a definitive shot in salt livery.
     
     
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