Rick_Skateboard

Thanks for all the replies. So it seems (as is usually the case) that different companies used different arrangements for the electrical locking. It would be great if you could post some photos of the electric locks and how they interact with the lever, Phil, thanks. Another thing I've never quite got my head around is the way the lever movement in an arc is transferred to the tappet bars moving in a straight line up and down/forwards and backwards. I guess this too is different on different frames. Most of the nicely made scale lever frames you see have the tappets laid out flat behind the frame, which is probably the easiest way to do it on a model. I think I have seen that arrangement in use on some real lever frames, but having it all down under the frame seems to be more common. What I'm hoping to build is something based on a Highland Mainline station like Dalwhinnie, where the line goes from single to double. AB to Tokenless. Cheers Rick

Hello All. I've been designing a lever frame and I've (mostly) got my head around how mechanical interlocking works, largely thanks to the excellent IRSE books. Something I am vaguely aware of, but can’t find much information on, is electrical locking added to the original signalling layout. By this I mean lever boxes that have been added to or modernised at some point in their history. I’ve been in plenty of boxes that have been changed by track circuiting, point motors replacing rodding, colour lights replacing semaphores, panels added controlling IBH or TCB sections, or a combination of those things. One thing that I’ve not been able to find any information on is the additional electrical interlocking and specifically how the hardware interacts with the mechanical frame. I assume it’s something along the lines of a solenoid driving a peg into the tappet bar to prevent it moving? Or is that way off? Any info, pictures or diagrams would be great. Cheers Rick

Hi. Asking for a friend who's struggling to join up and who doesn't have Facebook, is there a work around without it? Or can I help him as I do have Facebook? Cheers Rick

FPA update. I've fitted the 3D printed FPAs with bearings, disc braked wheels, and turned metal buffer heads. I turned my attention to couplings next, I've got a height gauge for NEM pockets and I used this to offer a Bachmann coupler pocket and holder up to the bufferbeam of the wagon. Then I filed the top off it until it sat under the wagon frame, and glued it in position. Last job was gluing the disc brake calipers on, they still need painting, and then the wagons are pretty much finished. NEM coupler pocket height gauge. The gauge just sits on the rail. Bachmann coupler arrangement sat on the jig. These were pinched from some wagons I fitted with three link couplings, so I've got a box full of them. Coupler filed down ready to be glued under the wagon frame. Here's the filed down one and an unmodified one to show how much material needs removing. The brake calipers are very fragile, but once they're glued in they shouldn't get touched again. A cocktail stick was conveniently the right size to hold them while the glue dried. Roco couplings on the FPA and a Bachmann TTA. I'm aiming to use Roco couplings on all the fixed rakes on the layout because they pull up tight with no slack, and using a combination of the longer and shorter type you can usually get a nice distance between vehichle buffers. At some point I'm going to have to make coal containers to go on these, and that will be the obvious place to put some weight, because they're very light at the moment. That's it for now. Happy New Year to those reading this, hopefully 2021 will be better! Rick

Hi Melly, that tank looks a lot better. In the end I split one of the segments off my tank and reglued it because it was too far off true to just tidy up with filler. I'll keep on with it and get it flush in the end! Rick

That grass looks brilliant, it really pulls all the scenery together. Nice work. Rick

That's an interesting idea, and would possibly be an easier route to a flush tank, but one of the nicer bits of the Bachmann tank moulding is the riveted angle iron supports at the bottom - and you'd lose them! No easy answer, I fear. Rick

I would try to get hold of the Jouef wagons for a Grainflow conversation. There's probably a bit of work in joining two together, but it will be right then.

Remember the Electrotren model is only suitable for the Scottish Malt Distillers Polybulk, not the Grainflow one. Those are a different shape. Those links may be useful? Cheers Rick

Perhaps it is a case of badly executed rather than badly designed, as SHerr says, the three pieces aren't very well lined up/put together, and it makes it look bad, and very difficult to flush off it that's what you're trying to do. The one I started with seemed particularly bad, with a yawning gap between two of the sections. I think a one-piece moulding with a fine raised weld seam detail on it would have been better, although perhaps more difficult and expensive to produce. Cheers Rick

I got mine on eBay, from a shop in Germany. It was €25, and €14.80 postage, which works out about £35 all in. Model numbers 5600, 5601, 5602, and 5603 all seem to be the same wagon just in different liveries. Hope that is of some use. Rick

Thanks again for the positive responses guys. The FPA TOPS panels arrived from Precision Decals, great quick service again, and are now on. I gave the two wagons a coat of matt varnish and they’re drying now. My next target was going to be a pair of Lima Grainflow PAAs, but after dismantling one of them I realised it was a lot more work than I first thought, so I’ve put them aside while I have a think! So, funninly enough, I’ve decided to work on a couple of TTAs instead! These are going to be LPG tanks, and I’ve started by changing the springs for Bruninghaus ones from Stenson Models. I think I might do the other one as Gloucester pedestal suspension, for a bit of variety. I’ve also removed the ladders, walkways, and tank filler, and given it a first round of filling and sanding. I think the way Bachmann have made the tank in three pieces is particularly crap! A quick coat of Halfords grey primer has revealed that some more smoothing is still required. I’ve got whitemetal tank end covers from Genesis Kits, and I think I’ll be able to make up the other bits from plasticard and brass. I'm also surprised that more people don't do these conversions, but there are a few nice ones on RMWeb. I would have thought one of the manufacturers would do well with these ready to run. Cheers Rick

Quick update on the FPAs, they're black now, and I've put the transfers on one. I realised after about two individual numbers that doing it that way was a mug's game! I've now ordered some ready made TOPS panels from Precision Decals. I noticed from looking at photos that a lot of them had red bufferbeams, so I might do that on one of mine. Cheers Rick

I've just caught up with the Norfolk layout thread, it looks excellent, the station has real presence. Hopefully you’ll be able to make it work and get it running how you want it. The Grainflow looks great, I’m more an more tempted to have a go at one. The blue on my Scottish Polybulk looked so much better after I matt varnished it, so that might help yours too, although I still think your colour is better anyway.

Yes indeed, the same 3D prints. I wanted some of these wagons as they often appear in photos of trains to Inverness, and these 3D prints certainly seem like an "easy win”; all they need is painting, bearings, wheels and buffer heads putting in. The wagons are printed in pairs, and ideally, I'd like 4 or 6, but I've got reservations about 3D printing, and they're not cheap, so I thought I'd get a pair to see how they are. I cleaned them up in the ultrasonic bath with a bit of warm water and washing up liquid when they arrived. Since finishing the Polybulk I've cut the two wagons part, cleaned up some of the surfaces, and painted them, one coat of primer and one coat of gloss black - from Halfords rattle cans. Initial thoughts are as I'd feared. They are very finely detailed, but the plastic is very brittle, and I've knocked a couple of bits off, although thankfully managed to grab them and glue them back on. Maybe I’m clumsy! 3D printing allows you to produce things that would be virtually impossible by other methods, but the material isn't as good as injection moulding, in my opinion. The other issue is printing lines and rough surfaces, although these wagons are very nicely designed and printed, and don’t suffer too badly from this. Once the black is dry it should just be a case of putting transfers on and some varnish. I haven’t worked out exactly how the brake callipers attach yet, but I think due to them being so fragile they need to go on after the wheels go in for the final time. I also need to think about couplings and weight, although the open frame nature of the wagons will make that difficult. Eventually they’ll have some coal containers on them, which is the obvious place to hide some weight. Cheers Rick

I've just been checking in the beer cupboard with a view to ordering some more (lockdown!), and I realised that I had a beer from Tucher brewery, which was the livery the grain hopper was in before I started the conversion. Cheers! Rick

Thanks for the positive comments guys. SHerr, seeing your polybulk on here was one of the things that set me up to have a stab at this; you should absolutely carry on with them. Your Abercaldy layout was looking great, are you still working on it? To be honest I think your blue captures it better than mine! I used Humbrol no.14 “French Blue”, and at the last minute I thought it looked the wrong shade and mixed some darker blue I had into it. I do think mine is too dark, although lighting makes a huge difference. I’d be happier if the blue was a bit lighter and the transfers stood out a bit more against it. I would like to do a Grainflow polybulk, but I’ve got a bit of a list to work through first! Any pictures to show of yours? Cheers Rick

Some pictures of the finished Polybulk. I'd be interested to know what people think, how it could be improved? Any tips for future conversions? I'd like to do one of the Grainflow Polybulks at some point. It desperately needs weathering, a clean white wagon sticks out like a sore thumb! Now it's finished one of the r-t-r manufacturers will probably announce one! Cheers Rick

Scottish Malt Distillers Polybulk. https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/maltsterspolybulk I’ve read a few accounts on here of people doing this conversion, so I went on eBay and purchased an Electrotren 5602 hopper in ‘Tucher’ livery. Despite being an HO model it is virtually perfect dimensionally for the Scottish Malt Distillers Polybulk in 4mm. There is a general arrangement drawing on Paul Bartlett’s website along with photos of the wagons. There are also a few pictures on Flickr, but overall, it wasn’t that easy to find good detail pictures of the wagons to work from. simon br blue on this forum has made 3D printed models of these wagons in 7mm and 4mm scales, and was very helpful in providing information to help with the build. The most obvious issues with the model as it comes are different bogies, the ends of the hopper being the wrong shape, 5 discharge chutes not 3, swinging roof/lid, and moulded details in the wrong places. I started by dismantling the wagon, removing the bogies, end platform, roof and carving and sanding off all the mouldings that are wrong. I reprofiled the ends of the hoppers by gluing in a piece of plasticard and filling/sanding it smooth, and then filing the curve at the bottom out until it looked right. Once I knew what top looked like I made a new roof from plasticard with brass wire grab handles. New bogies of the correct Y25 type are from Cambrian, and by luck the mountings they came with were perfect for the ride height. I glued some NEM pockets to the underside of the bogies, packed down to the right height with some plasticard. I made new railings for the end platforms from 0.7mm wire, and looking at it now I think I ought to have used something slightly finer. Lastly on the body I made up some etched ladders and wire handrails that run along the top of the hopper. The seams on the bodyside of the original model are different to the Scottish Malt wagon, so once I had the whole body smooth, I applied Archer Surface Details ‘Raised Panel Lines’ transfers to represent the welded seams between the panels. I didn’t know how well this would work, but I was really pleased with how it looked once it had a coat of paint over it. I made three new hopper chutes from plasticard, and added control wheels for these. Then I made up and fitted other details like handbrake wheels, brake distributer, ferry hooks etc from various etches, bits taken off the model before dismantling, and bits from my scrapbox. Masking up the livery was nerve wracking! Getting the lines straight, parallel, and equally spaced was crucial because it would be really obvious if it was wrong! In the end I was pleased when I pulled the masking tape off and got the first idea of how it looked, although seeing the contrast between the blue and white made me realise the blue is a bit too dark. After that I masked the body off and sprayed the underframe and bogies black, followed by giving the whole thing a coat of gloss varnish before applying transfers. At this point I realised some of the details on the solebars were in the wrong place, which I agonised over whether to change or not, for fear of damaging the paint job on the body. In the end I carefully carved bits off and moved the ferry hooks and lifting points and touched the paint up, without causing too much damage! The Railtec transfers went on really nicely, and were then sealed with a coat of matt varnish. So that's how I did it, others mighy have done it differently? It was difficult to find much information, and I admit I was making it up as I went along! This model is the most recent thing I've been working on, I've got some 3D printed FPAs to look at next. Cheers Rick

Welcome! The layout I want to build one day will be based on the Highland Mainline in the period 1989 to 1994. That is what I'm aiming for, but with an acceptable amount of modeller's license on a bit of date and location stretching it might be "anywhere North of Perth" at virtually any time from the formation of BR onwards. I would be the first to admit that I'm easily distracted, and there’s lots of other railway subjects that take my interest, but I will try to keep what I post in this thread ‘on topic’, and if I do something random, I’ll post it elsewhere. I’ve picked ’89-’94 because I wanted to keep the time frame fairly small, but those dates cover most of the things I’d like to model; a fair bit of large logo and blue/grey carriages at the start, through to sector liveries and ‘celebrity’ loco repaints towards the end. After years of collecting, and putting some effort into detailing, modifying, repainting, weathering, and DCCing etc, I've got quite a lot of the locos and stock I want to run a representation of the trains seen on the Perth – Inverness route. The spec I try to work to is everything detailed and weathered, close coupled and nothing that looks out of place. Thanks to DCC, locos will all be sound fitted, with good quality speakers, and have lighting functions mapped to allow prototypical operation. Eventually I’d like to fit lights in all carriages. Not a complete list, but some of what I’ve got is: Far too many 37s Not enough 37s. A few 26s, and 47s, plus other classes seen in the area at the time. A load of Mk2s in appropriate liveries for ScotRail services. An 8+2 HST for the ‘Highland Chieftain’. Mk2 aircons for the ‘Clansman’. A full 15 coach Sleeper and Motorail set, which with two 37s on the front will always be far too big for any layout I’ll ever be able to own, but I like the idea! 47/7 with ScotRail Express Mk3s and DBSO. Loads of different engineer’s wagons, a tamper, a crane, etc. What I’m lacking most is air braked wagons to represent the freight on the route, and that will be some of the first stuff I post because I’m working on it at the moment. I tend to take pictures with my phone camera while I'm making things, but I'll try to remember to take some better quality ones as I go forward. I’ll leave it there for now, and attach a picture of my display case, with a small selection of stock that I like to keep out of boxes to remind me what I’m supposed to be working towards when I start thinking buying some Swiss HOm is a good idea (it is a good idea though). Cheers Rick

Hello, Does anyone know the number of the Dogfish at the East Somerset Railway that came from the Isle of Wight? Cheers Rick

Thanks for all the replies. I was aware of the Cambrian kit, but I already have a Bachmann 25T brake van, so I was planning to use that if the body was the same - which I now know it is! I might try scratchbuilding an underframe, and rob a few bits from the Bachmann model. I'll also try to get hold of the book, because I never need much encouraging to buy railway books, and it's probably going to contain other things I'll find useful or interesting. Thanks again. Rick

Hello All, Does anybody know if the lighter 15T Pill Box brake vans built by the Southen Railway were the same size as the 25T versions? By 'size' I mean the dimensions of the cabin, the lenth of the undeframe, wheelbase etc. I've read the underframe is shallower on the 15T variant as there was more ballast weight stuffed into the 25T ones. Does having a shallower underframe mean the height of the roof from rail height is lower? I'm wondering if a Bachmann model could be used as the basis of a conversion. I believe SR brake vans are covered in the book "An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons Volume 4", can anyone who's got the book confirm if there is a drawing of the 15T type? And/or the 25T type to compare against? If so, I'll try to buy myself a copy. Any help appreciated, cheers. Rick

Thanks Flood, that's really helpful. Your tanks look great! Did you print the transfers yourself? It's not something I've ever tried before, but I do have some transfer paper somewhere. Any advice? I only have a fairly bog standard printer at home. Cheers, Rick

Hello All, I'm planning to convert some TTAs into LPG TTAs, and I was wondering if there was any advice out there? The layout I want to build is roughly based on the Highland Mainline, and below is a picture of a BP LPG tanker at Inverness. I don't know if there's any kits or parts available, other than some Genesis tank end covers that I already have. I'm happy to scratch build bits working from photos and as usual Paul Bartlett's website is the obvious place to look. So if anybody could offer help with the following questions it would be appreciated. I'm not sure which model would be best to start with; a Bachmann air braked TTA? Is there a conversion kit or parts available? Are there any suitable transfers available for the livery? Does anybody have any drawings or details of the visible differences between compressed gas tanks and liquid fuel tanks? Thanks in advance, Rick