mullie

Good to have you back, take care. Martyn

Derby Lightweight at Upbech Drove station.

I bought a Lightweight almost as soon as they came out, then a few years later had to order the East Anglian body shape as spares from Bachmann. I found the original bodies a few weeks ago. One of my favourite DMUs too. I like the W & M rail buses too though the one I have is proving a challenging project. I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. With the layout largely complete I am now focussing on improvements to the layout and stock including adding new items to improve on some that need replacing. This year will largely be about consolidation though I do want to get the narrow gauge layout up and running as it will give me a vehicle for my M & GN stock and it has a possible exhibition outing in 2025. Today I took the fruit D off the layout as its use was making the layout look too crowded, I like the sense of space less stock creates. It may form the basis of another cassette.

This thread has mainly been about struggles with the railbus since Christmas. With the garage a bit warmer I've been knocking Brassmasters class 24 handrails into shape, not an easy task. Nothing worth photographing so here is the DMU at Drove.

My last rtr purchases were the Hornby J15 and Claud so a long time ago. Along with others locos I own they have been converted to EM, I only have a few locos and a small layout. When I read reviews either online or on paper there seems to be quite a lot of issues with new locos that have to be returned to traders for repair/replacement. Is this affecting the viability of retailers as dealing with returns will take time and incur a cost. I have no experience of the retail trade by the way so I suppose am posing this as a question? Martyn

Take care Dave. Will have to look at your excellent Flickr site to get a fix. Martyn

Is there any other kind? More photos of the 4mts would be good by the way. Some of us have a soft spot for them.

The railbus has turned into quite a challenging project. Having got it running I left it for about a week then one of the Gibson wheels decided it didn't want to be round anymore so had to be changed. Last night I got it running again then the motor decided it didn't want to work so I have taken it apart , the good news is that the motor is fine. This is today's carnage. As the lighting doesn't work and I probably wouldn't use it anyway I'm tempted to take out the circuit board, simplify it all and hard wire a decoder in. Anyone know a reason why I would need to retain the circuit board? Losing it would make fitting the body a lot easier as fewer wires could be channelled properly. Combi no 1 is in the photo. The screws gave up years ago so I have soldered two wires in with crocodile clips for testing purposes.

Will follow with interest as I have a couple I've hung onto wondering how to upgrade them.

The Combi was tested on the layout this afternoon with an old Bachmann 08 and the J72 which has a Comet chassis, Hi level box etc and it was great, better than the older one which seems strange. The J70s might be an interesting proposition as they use stay alive with Bullant bogies, will have to give that a trial soon. Things are a bit disjointed here as we have been busy with family stuff at weekends meaning minimal time for running the layout. Garage is too cold at night. I went DCC because of the type of layouts I was building twenty years ago and Pott Row certainly benefitted from DCC, my current layout style is much simpler though I do like being able to tweak motor settings in DCC.

I gave Gaugemaster a ring and spoke to someone very helpful, a couple of new axles with wheels and gears arrived a few days later FOC. My model is now converted to EM. Depending on the model, some spares are available, my W & M railbus was missing much of its undergubbins including axle boxes, most of it ordered form this site though it took a while to find them. https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/brands/Heljan-spares.html?limit=24&p=52&scale=452 I've got a bit stuck, anyone know where the red wire goes? The directional lights only work one way, I wonder if this wire is responsible and the destination indicator seems to be on the opposite way to the locos direction. I assume I can fix that via a cv change.

You did ask for a proper engine, I didn't worry about the second half of the sentence! I find that a Claud never offends. Martyn

I've come over all analogue! The secondhand Combi I bought years ago is looking very tired. I have decided not to DCC the narrow gauge locos and a short stretch of DC EM track could be useful for testing. It is the first DC controller purchase since I was thirteen and the trusty duette still runs the layout lights.

Well worth the trip from darkest Dorset despite SWR's best efforts to thwart me. Martyn

Judging by attendance at the Southampton show today those attending hadn't heard about the hobbies decline and eventual demise. The show was very busy, especially this morning with a good smattering of 3mm, EM and P4 layouts as well as N, 00 and 0. Good selection of traders including those supplying more specialist parts. Squires, among others was busy every time I walked past. A really good show and worth the train journey to get there. Martyn

Back to East Anglia, you know you want to. J15 J15 J15........

Something else on the to do list, I think I originally made the load for Pott Row mpd, possibly a tad large for domestic use.

Railbus has run under DCC for the first time using a Gaugemaster chip. It seems to have directional lighting but it only works one way. Anyone know where this wire should go, could be something to do with it?

Rob A few examples of how it all works on my layout. I like it as means the 3D stuff is the focus. I nicked this idea from @NHY 581 so inspired by sheep!

Rob I don't paint the mount board, leave it a neutral colour. I fix with PVA aided by blobs of hot glue to hold it in place while it dries. As my layouts are small with relatively low back scenes I seem to get away with it. I have painted back scenes in the past but now prefer not to. Martyn

We 'ad a terrier when I was growing up, it would sit on its hind legs begging for food, fall asleep and fall over! Very passive for a Jack Russell.

That sounds like an adventure! We haven't even got as far as deciding where to live, to stay here or move closer to where our children live which is also closer to where we are from. South Dorset is a stunning place to live but can be frustrating to get anywhere else as connections are not good. Everything is good while I am able to drive long distances. Needless to say our children don't want us to move, we were the same about our parents moving house from where we grew up. We still have time to ponder as we both have a few more years at work.

My train tickets from Weymouth have long been booked, always a good show. Martyn

Real progress today. Through a bit of experimentation I managed to ascertain that the no smoking signs were definitely on the outside, which was always most likely. I had experimented with this stuff and cocktail stick. Working slowly I have managed to remove the signs on one side, a great result. How long did it take? The whole of Fleetwood Mac's 'Tango in the Night' album on vinyl and the first three songs of David Grey's 'White Ladder' album on CD. The advantage of working upstairs is access to my large vinyl and CD collection along with a half decent sound system. Why do I own scratch remover I hear you ask! I used to put our car in the garage every night and every so often would clip the door post as it was a tight fit, the scratch remover made it easy to polish out. A mid 90s garage doesn't hold a modern car so the cars (we now have two) live outside. It has crossed my mind to extend the layout but as we will downsize in the not too distant future I don't want to push my luck, I know the current layout will fit pretty much anywhere and the narrow gauge module (yes it still exists and will be developed this year) lives above it so vertical extension has already happened.

The cold weather has slowed progress recently. I even started building a very basic Airfix ME 109 kit I had been given as I could do that in a warm part of the house. Aircraft modelling is not really my bag as it requires too much precision, no slopping paint, talc and chalks around. It was a good exercise in masking techniques and brush painting which was the point. I have painted the interior and added just a few passengers and a driver at one end. Not many as the line only has a few more years. Researching the interior has proved surprisingly difficult, not helped by the fact that preservation lines don't always restore interiors to original colours. The Mangapps Farm Railbus has blue seats, the originals were green apparently. I assume the grey things sticking out above the buffers are lamp irons I assume, there is nothing like them on the prototype so they will have to come off. Silver Tay make nice etched replacements. Painting was made difficult because the four screws holding the top plate wouldn't budge so I had to paint through the gaps. I used Humbrol paints and a Vallejo wash on the floor. yes there is a loose wire that needs re attaching, a common problem apparently. When the garage comes up above freezing, I still haven't found a reliable source for the colours of the curtains, does anyone know what colour they were? Again, I have only seen one Railbus with curtains in colour and that too is preserved so I can't be sure the curtains are in fact blue, does anyone know what colour the originals were? Next problem, this model is based on a preserved example so has no smoking signs, I've yet to find a way to remove them as they seem to be printed on. I've tried IPA alcohol, decal softening fluid and T Cut so far to no avail. It might need new glazing if it's even available?