JZ

I am doing a cut and shut on the Hymek bodies.

With my ED finished, sorry no pic's but it looks just as it did before the conversion, thought turn to what to do next. With work on the layout somewhat stagnant, I'm sure when if the weather warms up I will get more enthusiasm, I am getting on with stock. First up is something I have fancied for a long, long time, a stretched Hymek on a C-C chassis. For this I have obtained a spare Heljan Falcon chassis. It looks like this could be a bit of a monster. I will get some pictures of progress on this at the weekend. The other thing I am building, is a DJH S15 to add a much needed SR freight loco' to the roster. Pic's on progress here will also follow at the weekend.

I may do the underframes, but I may just carefully weather it like merlin46 has done here.

Driveshafts arrived today, asked for a second one as I feel like doing another. Purchased a 73 body off of ebay and will go for full A1 body grills on this. Other parts will come from East Kent Models. The all in price of this one is likely to be around ??45.. The shaft supplied by Bachmann is 1mm shorter than I need and while this will engage both ends, I think it is better to extend it to the proper length. Next on my conversion list is something that purists may not like. But something Redgate may approve of. I have managed to get my hands on a Heljan Falcon chassis to use on a Hymek style C-C. For this two old Hornby bodies will be spliced together. I will probably make the roof detail somewhat different to the Hymek, yet keep the bodyside detail similar to keep the family resemblance. I will keep you posted on progress.

All together now, apart from a driveshaft to the extended end. Just have to wait for that from Bachmann. I will get some photo's perhaps tomorrow. While I wait to see if I can get some new airhorns and grills, I have modified those fitted. Footsteps will need to be added to the bogies. But apart from that and despite all I have done to it, it looks pretty much as it did before the conversion .

Before I took the chassis over for milling I gave it a quick test run. All working fine . Buffer beams and detailing are now fixed to the body. Still trying to work out the best way for fixing the body to the chassis, but this is a minor worry. A later job will be to fit etched grills and wire handrails. Anyone know if Shawplan do them, I can't find any conversion kits on their website, the fittings page was last updated on 24 February 2004 . I have now found what I need at M.G.Sharp. A1 models bodyside and roof grills plus the airhorns. What is the correct shade of green on these in their early days Would it be Phoenix P124 B.R. Electric stock green 1959-66. And what colour is the pale green stripe along the bottom, would it be the same as on the Hymeks

One thing I forgot to pay attention to was the width of the chassis . The class 20 chassis is 31.5mm wide. The ED body measures 30mm internally. Not a major problem, but it would have been easier to deal with before I cut and extended the chassis. So it's off over the valley later to a friend with a milling machine. While I await his return from his mother's I can get on with the body itself. Windows have been cut out and replaced. I can't decide whether to fix the buffer beam to the body or the chassis. I think it may be easier on the body.

I have now given the chassis a coat of satin black. I have put the motor back in and I have done the bogies. Tried various plastic solvents on the Lima sideframes. Nothing touched it. So back to the old standby, superglue. And once set, a fillet of epoxy is put around the joints. Belt and braces approach Bogies back in in the morning. Initially it will be driving on two axles, just until I get a new driveshaft from Bachmann. Then I can set to work on the body. I know the glazing will have to be cut into indiviual sides at the very least just to clear the motor. At what was the bonnet end of the chassis there will probably not be much room for a cab, but there will at the other and this will be the front. What I have done with nearly all of my diesel loco's is to fully load one end with detailing parts and a scale coupling and at the other, just fit the parts that will not interfere with a small tension lock type. this approach means that most of my diesels cannot be used for shunting, but to me, that's no big deal. Right, I've done enough for today. More tomorrow.

Right, well I've given it a bit of a cure close to a radiator and decided to get the two parts joined back together. Side plates added for extra strength. Pretty much all I will get done today now. Leaving it over a radiator again for 2-3-hours to make sure the epoxy is well cured. I may just give it a quick once over with matt black. Tomorrow I will start putting it back together. Although the first job is to put the side frames onto the bogies.

Fed up with the poor performance on my Lima locos, I embarked on a plan to rid them all of their awful pancake motors. Already I had fitted extra pick-ups and this had made a considerable improvement. Enough so that I may yet leave my bubblecar and xGWR railcar. But for my ED I wanted to go for drive on all axles. My first thought was to use a Heljan Clayton chassis if I could get hold of a reject one. However, after a good look at mine, I decided that it would be best to use something more substantial. Now the Lima bogies have an incorrect wheelbase, it should be 35mm, but it measures up the same as my loco's with supposedly 34mm wheelbase. Although I havn't measured it, I presumed the Lima one is wrong. Next thing to look at was the wheel size. The EDs should be 3'4"or 13.3mm. Now the Clayton was pretty close at 3'3??", but as I had decided not to use this I had a look around at other 8'6" bogies. Class 24 and 25 were way too big at 3'9" but the class 20 were only 1mm too big at 3'7" with the added advantage that the footplate would be ideal for locating the extension bars. After posting elsewhere on RMweb for advice on how to go about the job, I will only be extending one end. A chassis was purchased on ebay, suitable brass tube and strip was obtained and now with two days to myself, I made a start. The basic chassis. Not actually the one I purchased for the job, but from my 20, with the new one going back into it. Reason for this is, the new one takes a 21 pin decoder and is ready to take sound if I ever go for it. Stripped down ready for surgery. Too late for second thoughts now. As suggested by another member, I have made the cut at the bonnet end. I know that many score to help the epoxy to get a better grip, I prefer, if there is enough meat on it, to drill some blind holes so it can get a purchase. Extansion bar cut to length and drill through on two sides to help the epoxy. These are 72mm long. 20mm at each end for gluing and 32mm for extension itself. Plus an allowance for the thickness of the saw cut. Extensions now fixed in place. I used a super rapid Araldite for this, about 90 seconds working time. This is now sat over a radiator and will be left for a few hours before fixing the other piece to it. The other blind holes that can be seen are so I can fit some brass plate once the pieces are together and cured. A longer driving shaft is needed and for that I have contacted Bachmann and they will supply one for ??1 plus an SAE. It probably won't be the right length, but will be easier to extend than the very short ones on the 20. More reports as I get on with the job.

I masked off a suitable amout of edge, then using white with a very small amount of black added and with a fairly dry stiff brush, I just quickly worked along the edge. I didn't worry too much about the face. Looking back at old photo's I could find some where it was neatly painted on the face and others where it was barely touched. I suppose in depended whether it was done during the week or last thing Friday afternoon

There were no 'juice' services running due to freezing rain on the conductor rails. We took as many as we could safely board onwards towards Pompey. Today just loads of people travelling. Later problems caused by lowlife scum in the Highbridge area stealing cable . XC services terminating at BTM. Took around 200 to Weston in a 150. Once passengers were aware of the root cause of the problem, they appreciated that we were doing our best to get them home. I felt really sorry for those travelling on to Devon and Cornwall, as well as our own and XC staff that had to get home to London and the midlands for a finish.

It's been a while since I posted here and having to warm the shed up before working out there in this weather has led to a loss of enthusiasm . However I have not been completely idle. I have coverted one of my Hornby Stanier firsts into 'porthole' type. Comet sides. Quite pleased with the outcome and may do one of the old Mainline 60' ones. Few odds and ends to do yet. Grab handles, extra footsteps on corridor side and I need to adjust the compartment arrangement. Not sure if they ever carried roundels and yellow first class stripe, but I like it and it adds a little more variety to the train. The other thing I will be doing over the next couple of weeks, is to convert my Lima ED to all wheel drive. For this I have purchased a Bachmann class 20 chassis. As this new chassis is the 21 pin type, it will be going into my class 20 and the old one will be converted. The bogie wheelbase is the same as the Lima one, though I understand it should be 1mm out. The wheels are also 1mm too big, but this is closer than the Lima wheels which are 1.2mm undersize, once fitted the bogie sideframes will disguise this. The biggest descrepancy is the bogies centres, 24' for the 20 and 32' for the ED. Hopefully this will not be too noticable . No, this is one of the reasons I chose a 20 chassis. It will be easier to cut than some chassis on account of less metal and the footplate make fitting the extension bars somewhat easier. 4mm square brass tube has been procured for this and will be epoxyed (ied ?)in place, with brass plate on the sides. Only one end will be extended and a longer cardan shaft has been sourced from Bachmann, though this may need extending as well, but easier than the ones on it already. I will endeavor to post progress in this blog. Meanwhile, one more day to work before Christmas. I just hope it is a little less hectic than today . I'm off to Pompey again.

After speaking to Hatton's, it seems that they are checking chassis to assess whether they need replacing and if so, they will do it themselves. Could it be that some unscrupulous people have been trying it on just to get a spare ? I will now do the work myself as i have added extra detailing and weathered mine.

I too have been impressed with them so far this season. But I was looking at them without rose(or should that be blue) tinted spectacles. As for my comment about hippocracy. Terry has several times over the last couple of seasons appeared to deliberately handle the ball in his own area, yet each time got away with it. I am not a blues hater, I really hate Arsenal the most (this goes back to school days, a boy I particularly disliked was an Arsenal fan) just dislike any team above mine. As it is Frome Town, this is rather a lot.

Watching the City v Chelsea match yesterday, I couldn't help noticing the arrogance that seem to be creeping into the Chelsea play. Comments in the press by players like Lampard and Drogba, about them being at the peak of their form and approaching the best they have ever been, fuels this. It culminates with Lampards lazy penalty attempt. Now, I am not about to suggest that Chelsea are about to go into freefall, but to be beaten by a side that, at best, only played an average game, does suggest that they need to work on their playmaking instead of their egos. Did they not learn anything from not winning the title 3 years in a row. The other thing I noticed was Terry's claim for a City player handballing in the area. Hippocrytical or what.

Thankyou for all the replies so far. I was only asking as I saw a nice little train between NWP and CDF the other day, 4 container flats(not sure what, as it was dusk, and only just got back to the back cab) and 3 polybulks at the rear. I had wondered if a reasonable representation of the grainflow could be made from a US HO version?

Had a search and drew a blank, but I have seen them on the exhibition circuit, Pengwyn crossing I believe. So who does a kit in 4mm ?

Everybody wants close coupling and in recent years the main players in the trade have made improvements with this on coaches and some bogie wagons. Yet the humble 4-wheel wagon seems to have been left far behind. All my kit-built wagons are fitted with 3-link, but the rest mostly have the old tension-lock type. Now fitting 3-link to these is not always an easy job, due to the way they are moulded. So what can be done to make these close coupled, yet still go around my tightest radius, which happens to be about 22" in one siding only. By trial and error I came down to this. There is still a small gap between buffers when being hauled on this bend and this picture shows them on straight track at maximum extension. I have used the original mounts and adapted short Bachmann NEM tension-locks. Now there are some that will say "why not fit X or W type". Now these all have their respective merits, but for me, the advantage was, it was cheap. The couplings were just sitting in a box, so why not use them. Sitting in the middle of a train, I don't think they are too obtrusive. I have now done most of my non-NEM stock and once you get going, it takes longer for rapid epoxy to set than it takes to convert. Next job is the NEM fitted stuff, but this may be no more than moving the mounting block inwards.

Since my last entry nothing has happened on Somercombe. Although time has been available in the evenings, torrential rain has put me off going out to the shed. My eight straight days at work has now turned into nine and sthough I have quite a late start tomorrow, car problems mean I have to go to the garage instead of working in the shed. Never mind. I have thursday off and hopefully saturday I will get annual leave granted and then I am not available this Sunday. However, I have not been totally inactive. I have fitted extra pick-ups to my three Lima loco's and this has transformed their running qualities. Nice easy job at about ten minutes work per loco. Why hadn't I done it before . Has anyone out there fitted pick-ups to the driven wheels or perhaps some sort of strip rubbing on the railhead. Also fitted them to JZjr's 156 and am waiting to get the wheels back from an old workmate who has turned them down to match the profile of more modern wheels. Picking these up on Thursday and may put pick-ups in the other carriage as well. Oh, and I put more in his 158, as the trailer car lights flickered a bit across pointwork and anything less than spotless track.

Went to the doctor's after work today. I had been feeling a bit under the weather recently. After a brief examination he announced that I had Ham Flu. "Never heard of that Doc" " Well you know that you had Swine Flu a few weeks back. Well now you've been cured"

I certainly will keep up the updates. I think that on the layout threads , it would be nice if the latest posts were at the top. That is the reason that I personally like the blog format.

I am beginning to wonder whether to keep this blog up, or whether to go back to the old style and put it in layout topics. Personally I find the blogs a great way of updating progress and the latest are always at the top of the pile. But I don't seem to be getting as much feedback as before. Sure, people are reading it, but there is just not the comments there was before. And looking at other's blogs, it seems that this is the case across them all. I do enjoy reading other's comments and criticisms of my efforts, so that I don't go blindly down the wrong alley. It will be interesting to see if this brings any comments. But anyway. One more day to work on the layout, then it's 8 straight days at work.

I'm sure you will though.

Just been out and lopped those overhanging eaves from the Vollmer building, also cut back the roof at the gable. Looks much better. Another job done, is to make a start on the water tank to go on the roof of the main brewhouse. As I said earlier, this is made from the Will's vari girder pack. After working out the capacity, it may be rather large, but it does look in proportion to the rest of the building. Photos tomorrow with luck. But I do have to iron my uniform shirts and go back to work tomorrow after 6 rest days. Oh well, only a shortish job tomorrow BRI-GCR-CNM-SWI-CNM-BRI-home and it's rest day work, then another 3 rest days.