thegreenhowards

Me too. But you can’t argue that the railways were at their zenith, had a huge variety of stock or colourful liveries. I grew up with BR blue on the SE EMU railway. The weekly highlight was a class 33 hauled train to Beckenham Jn coal depot. Apart from that it was all CIGs, EPBs and SUBs. But once I was old enough I found Finsbury Park and the Deltics and then the West Highland line - fantastic! I now model 1920s London and 1980s West Highland in O gauge and the GNML in 00 so covering all bases! You can’t beat a split box 37 on Mk 1s! Andy

…or the complete opposite - 1980s blue!

I work on the Schools one day per week. There’s still a fair bit to do, but the end is in sight! I can’t wait to see her steam again. As for the Dukedog, shame it’s tied to the Bluebell as I feel she’d be more suited elsewhere. Maybe some sort of loan would be possible within the terms of the donation? Andy

Personally I think that we have too many locos which never get to steam and the Dukedog doesn’t really fit the Southern theme. So we should either sell or lease it to another railway for them to restore and use. Andy

Are you going to add the buffer beam detail when you weather? I think that makes a big difference. Andy

It looks like I’ve c…ed up on my 9016, which has black windows! I’m sure I’d seen a photo of it with black - could that have been a later change or am I imagining things?! It seems I’ve also got the wrong vents and window frames, so it looks like I need to renumber my conversion. Just when I thought I’d put it to bed! Andy

Right, I think I’ve finished the inside of mine. When photographed outside, I do wonder whether it was worth it! I guess the best that can be said is that you can’t see seats through the window which used to be possible! Inside with the interior lights on, the buffet is more evident. Now I think the remaining jobs are removing the top three steps at each end and the periscopes. Have I missed anything? Andy

I was wondering about a simpler explanation of either alumina being imported into Mallaig or a second Aluminium smelter being built west of Glenfinnan. Would either be remotely credible?

I’m not keen on reducing the top speed. It’s not that fast on these Heljan diesels, and I like seeing it blast round on occasion! I’ll have a play with CV3 to reduce the acceleration. If that doesn’t interfere with the sounds then great. If it does, then I’ll just have to drive more carefully. Andy

Just thinning the paint. Thanks John, I’ll try that. Andy

As well as playing trains, I spent some time today wiring in my signal lever frame as below. The lever frame has 14 levers, each operating a DPDT switch. These are connected to Tortoise point motors and Dapol or servo operated signals. The levers operate as per the original signal box diagram which is glued to the back of the baseboard as can be seen above. Levers 6,7 and 8 wee spare on the original but I’ve used 6 to operate the point into the loading dock which must have been hand operated on the prototype. Jumpers from four boards plus into the lever frame using pluggable chocolate block connectors. Andy

We’ve gone back to the 1960s today with a West Highland goods trains including a couple of the Bulk Alumina wagons which worked between Burntisland and Fort William. I need a good excuse to run these beyond Fort William to Glenfinnan - any ideas?! I hope the shots below also show off the scenery on some of the boards I’ve been working on over the Summer. I also took a video of the train doing a complete circuit of the garden. Andy

The last couple of days has seen me repaint and letter up a couple of bulk alumina wagons. I’m quite pleased with how they’ve come out, although the weathering shows some white spirit tide marks in these cruel close ups which aren’t too evident at normal viewing distance. Does anyone know how to avoid these marks? I think these are rather attractive wagons and were pretty rare. I think there were only 25 of them and they were only used for the traffic between Burntisland and Fort William. Slaters do an O gauge kit for them, but I’m not aware of one in 00. The Saleters kit doesn’t include transfers and you often find them second hand with a plain NE and nothing else - that is how these two were. I painted them in BR early freight grey and lettered them up using the Fox sheet. I have two more, both in LNER livery with correct branding. I’ll probably keep one like that and paint the other into TOPS style livery with the box. Then three will run at any time. The two above plus the LNER one with BR steam, and the two above with the TOPS one with green diesels. They can be seen below in (what a I hope is) a typical West Highland goods train. Andy

I thought it looked fine at the time, but on looking back at the video, I see what you mean. I normally control that by ramping up the speed more slowly on the controller, but I could look at the CVs I suppose. Would it just be the standard acceleration CV and would that affect the sound file? It’s a Legomanbiffo sound file on a loksound V5 XL. I’ve already had to change the active braking CV, to increase the braking rate as I was using emergency stop too often! Andy

I also managed to shoot some video of the return working.

I’ve now finished the temporary viaduct, which I suspect may not be very temporary as it will take me some time to pluck up courage to start pouring concrete. Andy

I hadn’t noticed but now you’re pointed it out, it will annoy me! I suspect it may be partly the track as the last two fish vans are on my lift out section. I will have a look tomorrow. Andy

The Accurascale Deltic and Heljan o gauge class 37s take it to a new level….the bogie chains have to be removed before the body will come off. One sees lots of second hand model with broken chains! Andy

Die cast chassis?

Thanks Jonathan, Yes, I’m aware of the three lamp code which was, I believe, for unfitted goods trains. But in that case shouldn’t the two side lamps be black with a white light to the front and a red to the rear? I could paint the lamps black, add another and use it on my pick up goods. Andy

Another question for the experts out there. I bought this brake van at Guildex on Sunday. It’s a Dapol one which has been weathered to an acceptable standard, but it has strange lamps. I suspect I’m going to need to remove them and reinstate the lamp irons, just leaving one lamp on the central iron. But before I do so, is there some special meaning to this arrangement of lamps of which I’m blissfully unaware? Andy

Long time no post, but I’ve not been completely idle! I’ve been working on the hideous green O gauge N7 shown in my post on April 28th. It has gone from green to brass showing, I hope, that the basic construction is very good. And is now in LNER lined black livery as on the photo of 2618 on p36 of Yeadon. Having had problems with transfer lining crinkling under the varnish coat on the A5, I’ve lined this one with a bow pen which I found much quicker and generally straightforward. The white on the buffer beams was tricky because I couldn’t get the pen in at the right angle and will need to be disguised under some weathering! It will get matt varnish tomorrow and then a light weathering. One question. Should there be a number on the rear of the bunker or the rear bufferbeam? Andy

It was Guildex this weekend and, as normal, I spent too much! This included this rake of blue spot fish vans which I envisage running as part of a mixed train with some maroon Mk 1s (OK pedants I know they’re pass rated so not really mixed, but it looks mixed to me!). They were very good value (I paid just over £100 for the six), largely, I suspect, because the weathering job is rather unsubtle. These wagons certainly collected dirt along the metal stanchions in the way portrayed but the treatment here looks rather harsh to me. I’d be grateful for other people’s views on the weathering. I’m thinking of a thin white wash over the current weathered bits to tone them down and then a thin coat of roof dirt over the whole thing to tie it together. Does that sound a sensible strategy or does anyone else have any better ideas? I could repaint them completely but I’d rather not if I can avoid it. Andy

I managed to get some weathering done last week, so I’ve just about finished my GFYE 27, 5392. I also weathered my class 20, 20148. My remaining issue is that I have had some white spirit ‘bleeding’ into the headcode boxes on both locos. It’s not too evident in the photos, but it’s quite annoying. If anyone can suggest a way to sort that out I’d be grateful. Andy

For me, the Timber P would be very welcome, even in kit form. And a Class 29 (O gauge) - just need Dapol to scale up their OO version! Andy