thegreenhowards

Impressive progress Rob!

It’s a long time since I posted on here. Progress has continued over the winter but at a much slower rate than during lockdown! We’ve ballasted some track and started producing the retaining walls which are being cast in resin from a 3D printed master designed by club member and 3D printing maestro, @woko. Thanks Rob. We’ve decided on a name. The layout will be called Smithfield. I’ve also been test running some stock. Here is my sound and smoke fitted N1 debuting on some Gresley twin arts. The layout is designed to be able to represent any era up until the 1970s with a few tweaks,so here is my Heljan 37 representing a later era.

I’ve been admiring the pictures of your Turbots and I think I need to get onto mine. I’m modelling early ‘80s so I think mine will be cleaner or less rusty at least. I’m also thinking about a load. We’re they used primarily for spent or new ballast? Or could it be either? Also what wagons would they have run with? Presumably things like Dogfish or Grampus?

John, That kitchen car looks the business! It’s certainly crisper than my Kirk cut ‘n’ shut and you’ve got the correctly recessed doors which I didn’t know about when I built mine. Shame about the roof but i know the feeling of I cant face going back to correct that. Looking at photos I decided that the windows were more frosted than white. What made you go for white? As for part finished projects I have loads. Sometimes they just get put aside for something more interesting and I forget to go back to them! Andy

I visited on Friday with four friends from our club. We were all very impressed with the layout and really enjoyed our day out. If this is the last outing then I’m doubly glad I made the effort to travel down from Surrey and the one club member who missed out through Covid will be doubly gutted! Heaton Lodge is a true inspiration for its scale and ambition. You should be immensely proud. I thought the mini show format worked really well. The other layouts were well worth seeing and we spent six hours there in total. Great value for £10.

I’m similar to Rob, in that I always leave plenty of time for the paint to cure (7 days+) but sometimes leave the masking tape on too long while waiting to get round to a second coat.

Rob, That paint removal happens to me all the time when masking. It’s very frustrating. I’ve now got to the stage where the only thing which I will mask is a factory finish. Anything else, I know it’s not going to work and generally either hand paint - if there’s a clear line to paint up to - or leave well alone. If anyone has the solution, I’m all ears! Andy

I love the weathering on 39. Very convincing.

The combination of RMWeb being Down and the nice weather last week encouraged me to get the garden railway out for the first time this season. I managed to wire in point motors (Cobalt digital IP) which all work nicely and fettle the track to eliminate some annoying derailments. This mainly consisted of putting extra pieces of roofing felt under the track in certain positions to eliminate undulations. I also found that some banking on the curbed sections helped. This was again achieved with strips of roofing felt laid underneath outside edge of the sleepers. I did a lot of test running, most noticeably for my 37 and 20 which I sound fitted over the winter. I found the volume needed turning up outside! Here are some videos of them both working.

Well RMWeb being down did result in some modelling but probably not as much as it should have done. I’ve finished off five LMS wagons which I bought in a job lot off ebay for £50. They were described as needing work or similar but in practice they were just unpainted and had rusted up on the wheels and buffers which seems to be the norm for Slaters wheels. I gave them a spin with a brass wire brush in a dremel and then some oil and they’re all now fine - even the buffers spring nicely. I then painted one in bauxite and did decals for them all and gave them a good weathering. Here they can be seen on my garden railway (which I spent a good deal of time fettling/ playing with during the warm weather last week). All in all, excellent value at £10 a wagon!

Thanks for your advice. I have tried gluing the ploughs to the outer side of the cast chassis using cyano. This worked well as I could hold them on with the screws while they glued and then remove the screws afterwards. I now have ploughs and working buffers on my 37051 c.1982 early West Highland look. As you can see Railmatch BR yellow doesn’t match the Heljan version, but I hope this will be lost under weathering. So, unless anyone can see a problem with this, I intend to do the same at the other end. Andy

Tony, I sell quite a bit on eBay and must have posted 100-200 items over the last few years. I have had one lost (marked as delivered but the purchaser claimed not to have received it) and two damaged - in both cases I probably could have packed them better and the damage was much less severe than your recent experience. Two were with Hermes but I’ve now switched to using Royal Mail and the second damage was with them. I claimed for the loss ( although the bureaucracy meant it wasn’t really worth it for a £20 loco body) but the two damaged items I took back in one case and gave a small refund to the purchaser in the other. I've also bought a similar number of items and only once had had a problem with them. That was a glued together white metal A2 which semi collapsed in the box but the problem was as much down to the use of epoxy rather than solder. I got a partial refund from the vendor and will solder it back together at some point. I’ve had nothing like as serious damage as Jesse’s A2. So, I think he was very unlucky although I’d always be nervous about posting something as valuable as that….especially from the other side of the world! Wrong day deliveries and not asking for a signature are very common. I hope you get it sorted financially even though that can never really compensate for losing a rare model like that. All the best Andy

Evening Tony, That Burgundy red doesn’t look very gloss in the photo. It will need to be gloss to hide the carrier film on the Modelmaster decals, particularly if they’re going over the beading. Regards Andy

Evening Tony, Looking good - they do go together quickly don’t they! I think you’ll find that the ‘polo mints ‘ need cutting off the thin strands they’re attached to and gluing into the holes in the chassis. Andy

Thanks for coming back to me. They certainly will fit in front of the cast bit as in my second photo above but this means that the buffers don’t compress with the screws in place. I could glue them in place in front of the cast bit and then remove the screws which would allow the buffers to compress. I haven’t tried directly behind the buffer beam but again they would need to be glued in place. Did you attach yours with glue? directly behind the buffer beams.

Good afternoon Tony, I also make most of those substitutions with Isinglass kits. But I’m surprised you feel the need to replace the torpedo vents. I think the Isinglass ones are nicely produced. If you have a pair of Hornby bogies with the original clips on top they clip directly into the ‘polo mint’ bit supplied by Isinglass which saves some time. I also use the Isinglass battery boxes as I think they’re well printed but I can see why you’d want the weight down there. Decals are in the post. Andy

Good afternoon Tony, I also make most of those substitutions with Isinglass kits. But I’m surprised you feel the need to replace the torpedo vents. I think the Isinglass ones are nicely produced. If you have a pair of Hornby bogies with the original clips on top they clip directly into the ‘polo mint’ bit supplied by Isinglass which saves some time. I also use the Isinglass battery boxes as I think they’re well printed but I can see why you’d want the weight down there. Decals are in the post. Andy

Pm sent.

Hello, I’m reawakening this thread as I bought a van at the Kettering O gauge show yesterday which I believe might be a Highfield Models NER Milk Van. Can anyone confirm that this is the case? And does anyone know the NER diagram number? Thanks Andy

Modelmaster do a good set of Royal Mail decals as below. I always find their transfers good quality and better value than some others on the market. These are water slide but should go over beading if you use a setting solution. I bought these several years ago for my 247 D.164 TPO sides. However when I soldered the sides together one side was 2mm longer than the other and they went in the too difficult box! Must dig them out sometime soon. Andy

Yesterday I spect a very enjoyable day at the Gauge O Guild Spring show. It was mainly a day of ‘retail therapy’ and I spent far too much as so often happens. Two particular curios were a couple of vans I picked up off the bring and buy stand. One is a D335 bread van. There were two of these built in 1946 to replace a couple of ex HR vans used for delivering bread during bread rationing. It’s not the finest kit being built of vac formed sides but is an example of something a bit different. It lasted until 1967. Does anyone know what these were used for after bread rationing finished? The other is a NBR D89B covered motor van and carriage truck built in 1912 and lasting until the mid ‘50s. Again a vac formed kit and something a bit different. Both ends are the same so I’m struggling to work out how the cars would have been loaded. Any ideas? Does anyone know the manufacturer of these kits? Andy

I mainly use rattle cans for four colours; BR Maroon, BR Crimson, BR Brunswick Green and BR Black. I have used countless cans of Ford Burgundy Red over the years for maroon coaches. My Elizabethan rake is probably the best example as all bar the last coach are Southern Pride Thompson conversions painted using Ford Burgundy Red. I like the gloss finish and for coaches, I usually use the Halfords clear lacquer to protect the decalks and enhance the gloss finish. I use Ford Rosso Red for BR Crimson as seen here on a Comet BZ. In this case I used matt lacquer (preferably Testors Dullcote but I have run out and now use Halfords Matt Lacquer) after the decals to give a less loved look. For BR black, I use Gloss Black to give a good base for the decals to stick to and hide the carrier film which it does very effectively. Then gloss or matt lacquer depending on the desired finish. One coat of matt still gives a satin finish if desired. This O gauge J69 was treated to one coat of Halfords Matt Lacquer before weathering with a (cheap chinese) airbrush. Finally BR Green for which I use Rover Brooklands green. 'Sir' tells me that this is too blue and I'm sure he's right. But I can't tell the difference unless it's next to another loco. And I think it's a lot closer than some of Hornby's efforts! This is my W1 based on Graeme King's resin conversion kit. I have also tried spraying green with an airbrush but I don't get as good a finish. So it's a trade off between quality of finish and colour. I will probably use both in the future depending on the time of year - I only use the airbrush outside on a warm day whereas rattle cans I use in the loft. I don't use rattle cans for crimson and cream. Partly because I've never found a decent cream (the recommended ones are discontinued and I can't be bothered to order them specially) but mainly because I don't get on with masking. So I tend to paint crimson and cream by hand and cover the join between the two with a decal. I hope that's helpful. Andy

Hello, I’m really stuck with fitting the snowploughs on my Heljan 37/0. I have drilled out the two holes to 1.8mm and driven the screws through to get a good tight fit. So far so good… But when I try to fit the ploughs, I get problems. I have tried fitting them behind the chassis block like this. And also in front of the chassis block like this. The bogies fit in this case but the screw head stops the buffers compressing. Is there a third way which I haven’t thought of? And if not, which is the right way and how does one get around the problems that I describe? Thanks in advance for any help. Andy

I stand corrected! But they would surely have had more modern livery like this https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/br-vea-van-br-railfreight-red-and-grey/38-881 or at least the boxed in three letter code like this https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/br-vea-van-br-bauxite-(tops)/38-880

I’ve just finished reading through this thread - superb stuff. I love the scenic treatment of the flow country and the back scene - very convincing. And the locos and mk1s look nicely weathered and very convincing. if I may offer one price of constructive criticism, it’s that your goods stock looks a little steam era. I think all fish traffic had finished by the 1960s although I may be wrong for the far north. And the other four wheel vans and oil tankers are more 50s/ 60s rather than early 80s which I assume is the look you’re going for. I’m no expert on exactly what ran on the FNL but I’d have thought TTAs for oil and RfD liveried VAAs or cargowaggons for goods would be more in keeping with the era. I look forward to following your progress. Andy