thegreenhowards

Are the saloons in maroon? I thought they were in faux teak livery in 1983, although it does look a bit dark in those photos. Andy

I converted the exterior of my Darstead 0 Gauge Mk 1 BSO to a BSOT last year, but I never got round to doing anything with the interior - i.e. it was running around with normal seating inside. Well Rob has shamed me into action, so I packed the interior and a toolkit for my trip away this weekend and have hackled around at it during the evenings at my B&B. I think I’ve got it looking the right shape but would welcome any comments - obviously I still need to paint it and will use paint to differentiate the trolley from the fixed counter. One thing I wasn’t sure about is how the buffet steward entered the area behind the counter. Was there a lift up flap or a gap at the (former) toilet end of the coach? I found it quite easy to get the old interior out. It’s a bit more modular with the Darstead coaches with each seating bay being glued onto a plasticard base rather than all moulded as one, so I could remove the seating bay just by inserting a knife under it. I think I’ll live without the removal of the one seat in the next bay. Andy

I love the photo with the observation car. That’s on my list to build! Andy

I would like to see that!

An update on my C2/ Portescap issue. I tried running it on my rolling road yesterday and it run for 20 minutes with no problem. But I did notice that there was a slight binding at one point on the revolution, so I dremel led away some white metal from the inside of the wheel arches. I decided to strip out the decoder anyway and try it on the club layout like that. It did 10 circuits with no problems. So I tried putting the decoder back in. It ran fine with the decoder and no body, but when I put the body back on it died after one circuit and I now can’t get it to work with or without the decoder! Hopefully it will recover after a rest, but my working assumption at the moment is that it is an internal friction problem combined with a slightly weak motor, possibly exacerbated by the chip - or the wiring to the chip (it’s quite tight inside). I think my next job will be to replace the motor but that will have to wait until next week as I’m now away for Guildex in Stafford. Andy

Great shots Tony. I do love your high level shots on LB and certainly prefer them to the eye level ones - I just think one gets a better view of the train and the layout. I only mentioned PN because I’m a sucker for complicated pointwork and the throat heading north has points and a curve - perfect! It was too sunny today to waste time on the Portescap. I concentrated on weathering with my airbrush and painting mini ‘Glenfinnan’ viaduct in the garden! I will report back tomorrow assuming the promised rain materialises. Andy

Personally, my favourite model railway photos are from a slightly elevated position showing trains in the landscape or, even better, snaking through some complicated point work. My favourite model railway viewpoint is probably from the bridge as trains leave Gilbert’s PN heading north which could be a prototype viewpoint, but I also like other more raised viewpoints which might only be possible with a drone. They just seem to give a better overall view of the layout. If that means it’s not recreating a prototype picture then so be it. Andy

Just catching upon the thread after a few days sailing along the south coast. I have a similar problem with my DJH Klondike. It has one of the smaller portescaps (also reclaimed from another loco) and will run well for one lap of my layout (70ft), but then starts to slow down and more or less dies by the end of the second lap. If I give it a couple of hours to recover it will do the same again. So far I’ve lived with it as locos rarely need to do more than one lap, but this conversation has made me think I ought to sort it out. While I hate to admit it, I do wonder if the chip is at fault as I think I have one of those cheap Chinese ones in it. I will try stripping the chip out first. If it works on DC, then I’ll try a Zimo chip - they never cause problems (famous last words). I will report back in due course…hopefully without giving ‘sir’ another quote for his wall! Andy

Great video Andy, I particularly liked the photo of the Turbots loaded with (I think) concrete sleepers in the headshunt at Glenfinnan. I now have an excuse! the detail on the ‘ugly’ concrete building on the platform at Glenfinnan is also very useful to me. Andy

I find Railtec’s website difficult to navigate, so in case you have the same problem, I think this is the transfer sheet you require. I had to ask Steve to find it the first time. He then sends you an email asking for the numbers. https://www.railtec-models.com/showitem.php?id=4188 Andy

At my club, I think I’m one of only two people who possess a back to back gauge. Others look on in awe when a quick re-gauging of Hornby wheels stops a derailment! So sadly, I think that for many, re-gauging is a step too far. What is needed is careful demonstration of how easy these things are. Then (some) people will gradually take it up. Andy

Can you not see the monument masquerading as a large sunflower?😁

Some progress today with my mock up of ‘mini Glenfinnan’ viaduct. I intend to paint the whole thing in magnolia paint which should be an approximation to concrete. Andy

A great find. It’s a shame the picture quality is so poor that some of the details are difficult to make out. That said, the photo of the ground frame at Glenfinnan is excellent and I liked the close up of the concrete overbridge between Morar and Mallaig - that could make a useful scenic break! The chronological consistency has been sacrificed for geographic continuity which makes it hard to draw too many lessons from the stock formations. But the green and cream mk1 on a service train was interesting as Rob said. I didn’t think there were any spares of these, so would it have been just pre or post the steam season? In terms of time frame, there’s one photo of a split box 37 with valences and round buffers (leaving Fort William towards the beginning), so I would have thought slightly earlier than 1984? When did the last valence fitted loco get ‘chopped’? Andy

My first choice would be a class 21/29 to complement the recent Heljan Class 27. I rather fear that it will be a J69 as I’ve recently finished a kit built one! Andy

I think you’ll find both the alpha meter and the back to back gauge very useful. I use both of mine a lot.

The acceleration sounds pretty good to me now. However, I wasn’t convinced by the coasting into the platform. Do you have active braking on the Accurascale chips? I always find that works better as I can shut off completely some way out of the station and coast in until braking in a couple of phases, one approaching the points and the other half way down the platform. Andy

Saturday please.more interesting coaching stock and more V2s.

Interesting discussion over the Heljan Newton Chambers car transporters. Personally I think it's a brave but welcome attempt to model an unusual and quite specialised prototype. I think the pricing is quite reasonable given where other new products sit, but it is admittedly quite an expense for a full train. I would have bought them if they'd been available when I was forming up trains for Gresley Jn, but instead I went for the earlier version of the same train, The Car Sleeper Limited, shown here photographed by Tony on Little Bytham (Tony, I hope its OK to use the photo - I will remove if there's an issue). Even in this case, I waited until Hornby were flogging off their long wheelbase CCTs for just over a tenner each! With Bachmann producing the same Newton Chambers coaches imminently, I suspect there will be a lot of these in bargain bins in the not too distant future. If they get really cheap, I may yet be tempted! What I would really like is the car carrying vans introduced in 1957 to replace the CCTs. They were bogied vans rebuilt from redundant ex GE 54' eliptical roof coaching stock (p215 of Banks and Carter). It's a shame that neither Bachmann or Heljan produced these instead of copying each other. Andy

We have now started gluing in the retaining wall sections along the bare plywood cutting sides. I think it’s a massive transformation.

I agree. The signal’s too mixed up with the loco in the first one. Second shows both loco and signal off perfectly.

Good morning Tony, That is what I do on normal Peco points although with autofrogs rather than micro switches. As Robert says the newer Peco points are easier. I just couldn’t figure it out for the 3 way. Regards Andy

That’s praise indeed! I have a long way to go before I get anywhere near, and I don’t think my wife will allow that degree of ‘embedding’ in the garden.

Thanks - that’s why I said crank the volume up! It’s a Legomanbiffo sound file on a loksound XL. I think the sound comes over much better in O gauge because if the ease of using bigger speakers. This has two large (45x35x20) 3W speakers in the fuel tanks.

I’ve been working on some changes to how the station boards fit into the garden, in particular I’ve dug a new flower bed for my other half and the deal is that I can have a viaduct running across it. So far I’ve half mocked something up, but the eventual aim is to have something permanent in concrete. This will be a sort of mini Glenfinnan or maybe a Arnabol. there’s still lots of work to do to connect it into the rest of the circuit, but I’ve run a first train as shown in this video (please do crank the sound up). https://youtu.be/mctyMsJ_4fs The Interfrigo vans are now running smoothly after some problems. I noticed that one was always derailing while the other was fine. I tried single vans and the same one derailed. A friend then noticed that I’d put springs on one and not on the other. So four bits of sprung 0.7mm nickel silver wire later and all was fine. A lesson on the need for some springing with longer wheelbase vans. regards Andy