Revolution Mike B

Thanks mate I'll try and get up to see it - it'll be good to put a face to a name.

So from reading through this Mick, my understanding is that your DCC power is then separate from your DCC accessories? MY mate bought an Alpha but he's just sold it to go down another route. I could've bought it for Oak Road but given the fact that there's only 8 points and 6 of those are switched in pairs, it made more sense just to use my PowerCab. Just out of interest (in case I've missed it), how are you controlling the signals? Cheers Mike

Cheers Al It's ok until the wire snaps when I'm dismantling the originals!

Cheers Stu Here's the final effort... I just went to make another one but managed to break the wire off of the head....just as well I have a few more......could be a trial of patience this job!

Ok, happy for anyone to tell me I'm completely barking mad......still needs a bit more refining but this is probably about the best I'm capable of.. The head is still about 3 feet long but I can't get the led out of the body to cut it down so it'll have to stay as it is unless I make a new head from scratch. Happy for any criticism...or ridicule

Before anyone else tells me what I already think ^^^^^^^^^^^ I just can't live with the oversize lights.......so the process has already started. I've dismantled the DCCC lights (sorry Richard) and filed the head down to something resembling the right size and since taking this picture I've filed it down some more and smoothed it out a bit. The post is some 1.5mm brass tube from my good friends at Squires and nearer the right width......all I need to do now is make the bases and find some way of making the head fit the post properly. There's going to be two things wrong with the new lights - the head won't be a prototypical shape, and the base of the post won't have an an inspection hatch. I think I can live with both of those issues more than the lights being O Gauge!

Hahaha....I like your logic!

Well, this is a bit disappointing! Rough trial fit of the excellent DCC Concepts lights has revealed that they're way overscale.......which surprises me from Richard Johnson. They measure 2mm in diameter which makes the post 6 inches wide.....and what's more, they look even thicker than this when put with other things (as can be seen in the picture)! The bottom part of the light is a lot wider than it should be too so I'm left with a dilemma.......do I fit them and ignore the fact that they're too big, or scrap the idea of having lights that work and make my own, non working, correct scale ones?? Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Very pleased that Hornby are going to release the Green GWR HST and coaches to match. Not so pleased that the initial art work shows the livery is wrong on the cab. Also not so pleased at the £100 price hike!

So it's not just me that rips stuff back up then Al? Those cottages look the business mate and I'm loving the cafe progress......it's made me want to rebuild my bridge.......but then I suppose I'd better finish everything else first otherwise it's not going to be ready for October! I bought some teddy bear fur for my grass but I'm not convinced about it - I might have a look at the basket liner idea because I've got quite a bit of grassing to do around the tunnel end. Keep up the good work mate

Call it Woodleigh Matt. I've no idea where I thought of it but it seems to fit Kent or the West Country quite well!

Totally agree with you there Nick, and why they had to make it (the glazing) so bloody dark I'll never know! I've started to file off the little pips at the bottom of the bogie so that it looks like an HST one and not a Loco hauled effort. You'd have thought that they could've also provided a bag of detailing bits for the jumpers, hoses and steps..........no, hang on, that's far too sensible! As for the Green HST.....it's on it's way but I think they've messed up the yellow panel form the image they put out yesterday.

Hi Steve It's going to be roundy roundy but the fiddle yard will sort of run as an end to end system due to the fact that most of the trains are HSTs and Units. I'll try and put a plan up shortly. Cheers Mike

Hi Adrian I'm not sure I know how to describe what I did because I've pinched just about everyone's tips that I possibly could. To start with, I painted the running gear with frame dirt and then sprayed it with matt cote. I then used a 50/50 mix of matt cote / enamel thinners (as per the Humbol YouTube video) with some light brown powder and let that dry too. The final touch was to add more powder directly to the underframe and finish off with a light spray of matt cote. The roof was done in a similar fashion whereby I painted it matt black and then dry brushed some roof dirt on to it. When that was dry, I added a dry mix of black / dark brown powder sealed off with more matt spray. The cab roof was just dry powder sealed with the matt cote again. It's far from perfect and there's still more I need to do but I'm happy with it as a starting point. Probably not the best explanation but this is one area that I really don't know what I'm doing!

Interesting to read through this after my OP because I've given up with the iPhone speakers for now because I just can't get the bass response. Bif's EM speakers are very good at getting the 'thump' that we're missing - I'm not that fussed about the doppler effect either, I just want my 37 to sound like a 37! Yes, sound in 'toy trains' is a gimmick.....but then 'toy trains' were a gimmick too at one point and look how they've progressed over the years. I'm sufficiently educated to find my way around a mixing desk and producing music to know that it's nigh on impossible to reproduce the sound of a real locomotive.......but let's not knock people for trying to continually improve the hobby! Mike

Happy New Year Everyone! I should've been working hard on the layout over the Christmas holiday but all I did was eat food, eat more food, eat everyone else's food and have lots to drink. I think the fact that I've got so many things on the go (My layout, Club Layout, My mate's layout, O Gauge HST Project, etc) that I just needed a bit of time to do absolutely nothing. This actually worked out quite well because I managed to get round to doing something else that's been bugging me for ages..... .....some steps for the MK3s They're not quite right as they're quite a unique shape and unless I got somebody to make some etches, there was nothing commercially available that looked anywhere near correct. They look a bit too low in this picture but that's just the angle of the camera - they're in exactly the right place and look pretty good from the side I also managed to fit all of the detailing parts to one of my 37s (what a pig of a job that was) and add a coupling ring to allow the use of the snow ploughs.........Bachmann, please take note....you really shouldn't have the detailing parts as an after thought - the hoses (you've also forgotten one) get stuck behind the buffers and stop the bogies moving when the ploughs are fitted! I also plucked up the courage to attack my FGW Power Cars too and make them look less like toys..... ...with the end result meaning I had something that actually looked like it should do... Right, I'd better pull my finger out and get cracking on the layout!

This was the inspiration for my layout - I met Ian at the Fareham Rotorail exhibition and he kindly explained how he'd built Tidworth and how it all worked. If it hadn't been for this, I'd never have attempted to build mine. Unfortunately, he's not been able to get rid of me since! I'll be the one at Barton Peverill crashing the trains and shorting out the DCC system on a regular basis

Thanks Adrian. Have a Great Christmas too! Happy Christmas to you too Graham. Have a good one! Cheers Ben. Have a good one yourself!

Well it's nearly Christmas and the next few days are going to give way to buying presents and getting ready for a couple of days of absolutely nothing except stuffing my face and getting drunk! Therefore, I'd like to wish the 60 followers of my thread (still not sure why 60 people would be interested in what I'm doing?) a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year........and thanks for giving me advice, criticism, help....or banter. It's gratefully appreciated. Cheers Mike

Cheers Mike, I was curious as the dimensions given on the drawing are too small.

Just read through this topic after finding the same issues with a recently purchased 21pin old box model, which wouldn't run through my large radius code 75 points without riding up the crossing nose and derailing! Shimming the bogie tower cured this but my point here is that it makes the loco too high. The real thing is 3.9m, therefore it should be 51.2mm high....with the washers (1m) it sits 56mm so this is way too high! It's actually too high without the washers to start with!

Can somebody answer a question for me please? MK3s use 3' 1 1/2" disc braked wheels. Where does the measurement come from? The dia of the running surface or the flange?

I've actually just noticed that Hornby have very kindly supplied the coaches with loco hauled bogies and not HST ones.....however, all is not lost. It just means I'll need to get the file out. Still, it could've been worse....they could've supplied the sleeper coaches with HST bogies....then I would've been in the poo cart!

You'll have fun doing the brake discs Anthony......it takes ages..... I've one 12....I've still got another 36 coaches to do!

Finally got the track relaid without too many dramas today....it's not as smooth as I'd like but it can be worked on at a later date once I've got the boards bolted together and on their legs. So with that out of the way, I thought I'd take one of my MK3s and ignore the fact that they're going through the roof on ebay and make it look like a proper coach and not a toy. Now I should at this point make it very clear that I've never had a go at detailing stuff before so it was hit and miss as to whether it would be going in the bin afterwards. I'm pleased to say that it's currently half way through and it's not made the bin yet..... It's amazing what the Colin Craig brake discs do to enhance these coaches.. Ignore the station canopy....work in progress... I have to say, if it wasn't for James Makin, I'd have never have even attempted this but after reading through his workbench thread and taking notice of how he'd done stuff, it gave me the confidence to have a go myself!