Rick_Skateboard

Interesting that the computer render doesn't have any lamps on it. EDIT - there might be one in the middle of the bufferbeam actually.

Rick

Any pictures of one with the lamps removed/moved?  Has anyone been brave enough yet?

Cheers

Rick

Overdue update.

I have now successfully wired up a few sections of track for DCC operation, and motorised one of the points.  To achieve this I had to remove the wire in tube arrangement, and drill a hole up through the baseboard for an operating wire from the point motor.  This is the point from the mainline to the branch, and it was broken anyway, so I decided to repair it and make it the first conversion.  I was planning to save the original tie bar, but I realised I'd probably destroy it while drilling the board, so I made a new one from another piece of copper clad.  I will do that for the rest of the points as I work round them.  

Point with wire in tube arrangement and detached switch rail.

Point with new tie bar, drilled for motor operating rod, and both switch rails reattached.

Fitting the MTB MP1 motor was very straightforward, and the design of it allows a certain amount of adjustment side to side and front to back, which was very helpful when trying to fit it to an existing layout.  Wiring it up and controlling it with the Yamorc YD8116 was also very easy, and my NCE controller had no issues connecting to the YD8116.  For the wiring I have used Wago connectors and the screw terminals on the MP1, YD8116 and NCE controller, which means it has been totally solderless so far.

Wago connector under the board with the bus wire coming in and out, and two rail droppers into the third connection.

I have now run a loco up from the outer mainline and up to the branch via the point, which was quite satisfying.  I'm pleased the first point I have motorised worked well, and I'm fairly confident that I'll be able fit motors to the rest of them now without too much trouble.  My plan is to wire up/motorise the fiddle yard board I have been working on and get the mainlines wired and motorised so that I can do a bit of testing before laying the track in the other half of the fiddle yard to complete the loop.

Cheers

Rick 

Is there a list of 4/4iis that are being withdrawn/kept?  I'm sure I've seen one somewhere but I can't find it now.  I gather some of them have been updated and others haven't?

Cheers

Rick

Hello All,

Can anyone recommend a paint for the grey roof on a Heljan BR green class 26?  I have fitted an etched radiator fan grille and I want to touch it in.  An exact match might not be too crucial because I will be weathering the loco and I'm sure some roof dirt that will help blend it in.

I have had a look through the forum and Google, but nothing particularly helpful has come up yet.

Thanks in advance.

Rick 

On 24/02/2024 at 10:37, Mol_PMB said:

Finally I found my other Fulgurex GDe4/4, one of those many unfinished projects which fill my cupboard of shame. Looks like I got part-way through repainting it and DCC fitting it. Looking at it now, I'm not very happy with the paint job (the other side is worse) and DCC decoders have probably come on a long way in the past decade. It would be nice to revisit this though.

 

Only one cupboard of shame; interesting!

Very pleased you're restarting work on the Broc Branch, and I'm enjoying the write-up.

Sk8

I'm really looking forward to these, and I've got my HR 103 on order.  

I do think the green edging on the yellow livery looks a bit too bright.  In photos of the real thing I'd say it is a darker/more olivey green.  Hopefully there's still an opportunity to correct this if these are colour samples? 

Rick

As threatened I have now laid 5 lines in one half of the fiddle yard.  This was always going to be tight, but I think I've just about got away with it.  There are some nasty curves (kinks) that I wouldn't want on the visible part of the layout, but as long as everything runs through them ok I'll live with it.  Some testing will be required, but I need to wire it up and fit the point motors before I can do that.  Once I'm happy it runs ok and all my stock will go round the curves and past things on other lines without making contact I will lay the other half.  Then the all important join between the two halves will have to be tackled so that they line up nicely and everything stays on the rails when crossing the gap.

To achieve the transition onto the existing track I cut a piece of copper clad board and glued and screwed it in place at the edge of the fiddle yard board to give something really solid to solder the rails to.  I then took a tip from a friend and used fishplates slid over the heads of the rails to hold them in alignment while soldering them to the copper clad.  This seems to have worked because the board has been in and out a few times now and the rails line up each time.  The track was then pinned down to the fiddle yard board in the normal way, and I drilled the holes for the point motor operating rods before pinning the points down.  I also did what I believe are the standard DCC mods to a Peco electrofrog point.  

Copper clad paxolin sleeper checked for size and drilled for countersunk fixings.

Copper clad sleeper fixed in place.

Rails held in place with fishplates and soldered to the copper clad.

Laying the points on the fiddle yard board.  Slightly unfortunate kink to line the inside track up.

Five lines in the fiddle yard.  

A line-up of more appropriate locos to start testing clearances.

That's it for now.  Merry Christmas and thanks for showing an interest.

Cheers, Rick.

Mol,

Have a look at this.

http://www.leosoundlab.at/product/dampfspeicherlok-bauart-meiningen

Rick

So far, I have done some work on the baseboards to repair age related damage, replaced all the fixing bolts and fitted a new leg where one corner wasn’t very well supported.  I have also fitted adjustable feet to the legs and spent some time levelling it up.  It feels a lot sturdier now.  Helpfully the boards under the tunnel are removeable, so I was able to work on them away from the railway room, and in a place where I could make more mess, I was able to remove all the old cork and glue and clean up all the edges.  I have now widened the boards enough to (hopefully) add another siding, and put down a new layer of cork.  These boards are now ready for track laying.  Underneath I have ripped out all the unnecessary wiring and only kept droppers from the rails, which were all continuity tested and can now be attached to a new DCC ring main.

New leg made up with threaded foot (yet to be cut to length!)

The lack of width for 5 lines in the hidden sidings is obvious here.  Clockwork Thomas is not impressed.

Widened fiddle yard board fitted in place.

Fiddle yard boards now covered in cork and ready for track.

An alternative future where Braeintra has a Fort William style Sleeper service?

Cheers

Rick

Braeintra

Welcome to my layout thread, this will hopefully be a serialization of my attempts to bring an old layout back to life.  If that sounds familiar take a look at this thread by the layout’s previous owner:

After several aborted attempts at building layouts over the past 20 years I though this looked too good to miss when I saw it on eBay.  I bought this layout in January as a “quick” way to get some trains running, and after nearly a year of not quite getting round to it I’m now making a start.  I don’t know the full history of the layout, but it must have been built to be mobile, and it has some nice plaques from the 1990 and 1991 Newcastle model exhibitions.  I also don’t know exactly when it was built, but a date of 1990 is on one of the bits of newspaper paper Papier-mâché under the scenery. 

Evidence of previous exhibition appearances.

A brief description; the layout is about 6’ square with an operating well in the middle.  The double track mainline runs around in a circle and a branch line comes off that and climbs up and over the mainlines to a terminus higher up.  The mainlines disappear into a tunnel under the branch line terminus and there must have been hidden loops for stock storage, although at some point it has been plain lined through the tunnel.  There is a shed area and turntable on the inside of the mainline and this has a raised siding for coal wagons.  The track is hand built with rail soldered to copper clad sleepers and is nicely ballasted and weathered.  Point operation is wire in tube and mostly still working, although a couple of the points are damaged one way or another and do not operate.  There were no buildings included in the sale, but the scenery is all intact, although suffering in some places from being over 30 years old!    

An overview of the layout when first installed in its new home.

The previous owner had partially rewired the layout for DCC operation, but retained the wire in tube point operation with switches for the frogs.  It is my intention to rewire and fit MP1 point motors all round, with the frogs switched by the motors and a YaMoRC accessory decoder controlling them.  I will initially use my now quite elderly NCE Power Cab controller, but I plan to upgrade this at some point.  The layout will also be connected to my laptop and I am looking at options for automation in the future.  I will re-lay the hidden loops and add a siding in the tunnel so a shuttle can be run up and down from the branch.  

It looks like it was designed as a steam era North Eastern layout given that there is a turntable in the shed area and coal drops at the branch line terminus.  The previous owner had modernised the layout and set it in the BR blue era.  It is my intention to put the layout back to steam days, but in the Scottish Highlands rather than the North East.  It will be based on former Highland Railway lines mainly taking inspiration from the Kyle Line and Far North Lines.  I will try to leave the date deliberately vague so I can run various stock from my collection, but it will be mainly 1960s steam/diesel transition era. 

I have had a play with some track and points, and a template for the footprint of a shed building to redesign the shed area.  This will be loosely based on the shed at Kyle of Lochalsh, although it won’t be possible to faithfully replicate the track layout due to space constraints.  I also plan to make some changes to the branchline terminus, but the initial focus is getting the hidden sidings sorted and wiring up the mainline to a point where I can run a train around.

Hornby Black 5 44668 trying the turntable out for size.

Seeing how many coaches will fit in the platform.

Checking the same train will fit in the run round loop.

Heljan ScR Park Royal Railbus in the bay platorm.

Shed area mocked up as an approximation of Kyle of Lochalsh.

That's the plan, so hopefully I'll be able to find time to keep chipping away at it and finally have somewhere for my models to stretch their legs rather than just living in their boxes!

Cheers

Rick

Fingers crossed for a Southern U. Still can't believe nobody has done one.

Rick

Thanks to everyone who's taken the time to reply.  I think on closer inspection one photo I was looking at I was mistaking the beading for lining, and on another it was actually LMS livery that had survived into the BR era.  Given the lack of solid evidence for a lined GUV in BR livery I will just go for plain maroon or crimson when it come to painting my one.

Cheers

Rick

On 06/09/2023 at 08:54, Revolution Ben said:

 

Hello all,

 

I have received a couple of extra images taken by Jacques, Model Rail's in-house photographer, and I thought those who haven't had the chance to see the latest issue of the magazine might find them interesting.

 

 

The model is now undergoing running tests on DC, and will then be assessed for DCC and sound performance.

 

As ever, these are EP1 samples designed to check fit and enable any obvious issues to be identified.  They are assembled using the first mouldings to be shot from the new tooling, and for prouction the tools will be checked, polished and any flashing or fit issues addressed.

 

The next step is for feedback on any running problems to be addressed, and then decorated samples to be prepared to check colours/fonts etc.  Because it is not cost effective to set up the mould machine for two sets of sampling, the decorated samples are usually assembled using spare mouldings from the first shots, so often shape corrections aren't seen until final production samples are ready.  This is why, when corrections are suggested, they can seem to have been 'missed' when the decorated samples are shown later.

cheers

 

Ben A.

Absolutely stunning!  I agree with what's been said about the valve gear, it really has the chunky look of the real things.  That looks in part to be through the use of cast parts rather than brass etches or stampings.  The cab detail is great too.  A personal thing, I don't like locos with lamps moulded/glued on, are the lamps going to be removable?  These are looking set to be the best rtr OO9 locos produced yet.  I hope they run as well as they look, and the livery application matches the design quality.  Fingers crossed for the 3 liveries I want!

Cheers

Rick

Hello All,

Were any of the LMS GUVs painted in BR maroon with lining, like passenger stock?  Lima seem to have made the model in that livery, but I can't actually find any pictures of real examples like that.

Cheers

Rick

One like this please. 

Rick

6 minutes ago, JSpencer said:

 

It is possibly a strategy. Do the more niche 4-TEP and 3-CEP first.

Yes possibly, I've heard that before.  We never got a middle coach for the Thumper though.  If they released a 4CEP in SWT livery I would buy it, and I wouldn't even complain about the price!  As it stands I won't be buying a 3CEP.

Rick

Why on earth haven't they done a 4CEP?!  I would have bought that.  At least it saves me nearly £500.

Rick

Has anyone seen any pictures of these in Scotland? Ideally on the lines to Perth/North of Perth? There's a few pictures of them at Mossend on Paul Bartlett's site, and I've looked on Flickr but not found anything.

Cheers,

Rick

On 14/10/2022 at 14:10, Rick_Skateboard said:

I've got a drawing in front of me that says it should be 3000mm wide over the bufferbeams, 3260mm over the widest part (cab steps?), and 2000mm between buffer centres.   I'm assuming the models are 1:87 scale, which would make it 34.48mm over the bufferbeam, 37.47mm over the cab steps, and 22.98mm between buffer centres.  I'd be interested to see how the model sizes up to that?

I couldn't help myself, and I've now got a Sudexpress 1400 in my collection.  

In terms of measurements it comes up virtually spot on at 34.6mm wide, and although the steps might be ever so slightly undernurished they add about another 1mm either side.  I bought a DCC sound fitted one, and it comes with a Loksound v5.  I think there's room for improvement on the factory fitted speaker, and I've ordered a replacment.    

Cheers,

Rick

I've just got back from another excellent trip to Portugal, my pictures are linked below 

As my head is now full of thinking about Portuguese modelling, I wonder if anyone who has a Sudexpress CP 1400 model could take a few measurements for me?  I'm intrigued by the broad gauge on HO track situation, and I wondered if the loco body is scale width or not? 

I've got a drawing in front of me that says it should be 3000mm wide over the bufferbeams, 3260mm over the widest part (cab steps?), and 2000mm between buffer centres.   I'm assuming the models are 1:87 scale, which would make it 34.48mm over the bufferbeam, 37.47mm over the cab steps, and 22.98mm between buffer centres.  I'd be interested to see how the model sizes up to that?

Here's a shot from last week.

Cheers,

Rick

11 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Thanks for the review Rick, that’s useful.

I think my purchasing plan would be a) if it’s colours I need and accura aren’t making in a reasonable time frame b) it’s gotta get below £200.

 

It sits a lot better and I think that’s the major improvement. One thing I did notice on your new one - Are the fuel tanks on the lash ? Seem to be angled towards the midpoint ? All my older ones are parallel 

 

 

It does look wonky, I'll have to see if it can be leveled up at all.  I'd be interested to know if anyone else's is like that, or if mine is just one that slipped through quality control.

Cheers

Rick

14 hours ago, dj_crisp said:

 

A very nice review and excellent efforts on the older one!

 

I agree... the new one is so much better shape wise than the old one which is really noticeable in your photos! Yeah I think replacing the roof grille and some better glazing is a mod I'll do to mine.

 

What chain did you use for the brake chains on the older one? Looks good!

 

I'm impressed you managed to build the PH steps! Personally I don't like them and was rather disheartened with my build of them as they looked totally wrong to me.

 

 

Thanks a lot. I can't remember where I got the chain from, it's been in my bits box for years.  This looks about right though https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265155053743?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=ig3wJv2PQPm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=m3VR_snLTV2&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY 

The PH Designs steps were very fiddly to make, but I think worth it compared to the poor effort supplied on the old model.  It's probably not such a worthwhile change to make any more.

Cheers

Rick

1 hour ago, 89A said:

Bit confused. I thought this was a Kernow exclusive.

Quite right, I've obviously been buying too many toy trains from too many shops! Corrected now.

Cheers

Rick

The new model is in current day condition, whereas my older model of 37418 is in 1980s condition, so there are some subtle differences.  I reworked a 32-382 37410 to make it.  I have worked through a few older 37s to a similar standard, but now I've seen the new model I don't think I'll be bothering doing any more!

The new model looks better shaped to me; the windscreens are a big improvement.  I did replace some of my older ones with Shawplan/Extreme Etchings ones, but they are a lot of work, and I don't think there would be anything gained by doing it to the new model.

The new model sits lower on its bogies, and this looks a lot better.  I did lower my old model, but this cruel close up shows that the bogie isn't sitting quite level!  The handbrake chain on the new model is a bit chunky for my liking, but that's a very minor criticism.  I replaced the steps with etched ones from PH Designs, and I think the new model would benefit from that too, although the plastic ones suppled are pretty good.  The brake cylinders are another improvement over the old model, I replaced my original ones with Detail Associates ones.  I don't think the join on the nose looks too bad, but I might consider filling it, which is what I did on my older model.

One thing that I think could be improved is the radiator fan grille, I will probably replace it with an Extreme Etchings one, like on my older model.  The rest of the roof detail is very good. 

In conclusion I think most of the things I didn't like about the old model have been sorted out on the new one, leaving a lot less work to be done on any future purchases.  I've got a Deluxe 37423 on order, so I'll look forward to seeing the additional features on that when it arrives.

Cheers,

Rick