Chas Levin

Good evening Andrew, thank you, very helpful stuff and I take your point about the number of stages being variable for different effects. I think your thought that "many people have a tendency to start too dark with teak and they end up with nowhere to go" describes several of my attempts. I think before I build and paint my next teak vehicle I'll spend some time experimenting on scrap material - I've tended to plunge straight in and try to learn on the job, but I need to spend some time with this method first. That's another absolutely beautiful coach by the way... Do you run them in rakes? If so, would you post a photo or two please? I imagine they'd look superb in a long line...

Thank you very much for posting this Andrew, absolutely fascinating to see the three stages like that. Also your thoughts about the flow and movement. And the point about using a variation of tone and hue of a single colour: I think I have probably gone a bit too far down the 'different colours' road and might do better this way. The effect you describe of lower layers shining through translucent layers nearer the surface is something I'd begun to observe in photos of the real thing, but I haven't yet been able to reproduce it very well. The mixing of paint and varnish is a very interesting technique that I hadn't come across and shall definitely try: I think Tony has already asked this, but may I also ask what type of varnish you mix with the enamel paint? Do the different solvent bases of the paint and the varnish mix well and dry well together?

Beautiful work everywhere Andrew, and as usual your teak (on the 113BG) has me staring hard at the photo to assure myself it isn't real wood!

I think the Locomotion involvement may be a clue to the pricing structure; I know their models are usually absolutely superb, but cheap they are most definitely not. I'd have loved to have a GNR Stirling Single but couldn't quite face the price...

Good morning Tony, Do you mean that the Rails releases will be limited editions or that the main Bachmann release(s) will also be limited? The Rails mailout doesn't mention them being limited, it just mentions them being exclusive. A little oddly, at the top of the text it says that 'the partnership of Rails and Locomotion Models' has commissioned exclusive (their use of bold!) versions from Bachmann, but near the foot, beneath all the artwork and pricing, it refers to them being developed by Bachmann for Rails only, dropping mention of Locomotion. Small point, I know, but you'd be amazed what gets noticed and causes upset. Hope it's just a typo...

Fully agree; I've only bought one RTR item in the last year or so where I used to buy several a year and although that probably has more to do with my becoming more involved in kit building, it's also very much to do with such high loco prices. the V2 will probably be my sole RTR loco for 2021 too. Inflation is everywhere though so I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised at rising costs, and it's also certainly the case the levels of detail, smooth running etc have risen too (though I do realise this is not a universally popular view!).

It is rather steep Mike, but I was very pleased to see the announcement as it suggests that the Bachmann release is going ahead (hopefully at a lower price) and in these generally uncertain times I couldn't help wondering ... Usual story for me: lots of other locos to build that are so much less likely as RTR releases, so I'll be buying one, especially after Tony's review

Just read through your thread over the last few days and thoroughly enjoyed it, beautiful modelling Sir!

Hi Clive, that makes sense! My layout is probably quite a bit smaller and also, it has a circuit section where a train can run round continuously, so I can leave the controller and walk round to admire changing signals (I use Heathcote infrared sensors and boards). I know what you mean about visitors being but a distant memory - strange times.

So you can see them when you leave the control panel and walk round, surely ? I have the same situation - I can't see all the working signals from my controller, but I look at the backs of the signals I can;t see and know they're on and then go and see them working every so often...

They look excellent Mick; I have some of those MJT ones for use on a future build but wondered whether they'd look right: reassured now!

Really lovely looking models Tony, particularly taken with the Stanier and all that beautiful looking bare metal motion: may I ask what scale they're in please?

The last few days' modelling time has been spent on bogie tracking: Having added a centre guide spring wire to the front of the bogie, hooking the end under a bracket just behind the buffer beam on the underside of the footplate, while it worked beautifully 90% of the time, at one section of my layout (a difficult one at the best of times, a curve going through left followed by right hand points followed by a diamond crossing!) I was faced with the exact opposite of what should occur: instead of the bogie guiding the body into the curves, the body imparted sufficient sideways force to the bogie to cause the front wheels to derail about half the time. However, it's actually been a notorious derailing blackspot for years, usually escaping notice because of unguided bogies, so I shall finally deal with it (by adding a shim to a check rail - non-prototypical but effective), thereby not only helping the C12 but everything else that runs over it. Whilst running these tests, I also became aware of another problem. The LRM radial truck etch has a small fold-up tab with a hole for the centre guide spring, an nice piece of design but the tab leaves its shape as a cut-out in the upper surface of the truck, the surface that moves to and fro under my two end-coiled downward-bearing tracking springs - you can see below in the photo the two wear lines on the truck's top surface where the springs bear, each one going right to the edge of that central gap: This is sometimes a problem because every so often the truck moves sufficiently far to one side that one of the coiled spring ends drops down into that centre gap - holding the chassis and moving the truck from side to side you can see the bounce and hear the telltale click. The spring ends bounce out readily enough but it was quite clearly not the smooth action that was wanted and it needed a new top surface for the truck, all one piece, cut from scrap etch: The two little tabs on the new brass cover plate are to guard against the possibility of the springs dropping off either end of the truck too; from what I can tell this isn't actually happening at the moment, but according to Murphy's Law, had I not included those, it would have started to happen the moment everything was back together. Here it is soldered to the truck and filed to shape: And finally, with the wheels back in and the spring bearing surface cleaned up: And I'm happy to report that it works perfectly and has entirely eliminated the problem, giving a smooth movement to either side extreme with no clicks or catches. Just to be clear, no criticism is intended of the LRM etch (which is a very neat, simple and excellent product), as I suspect it isn't intended to be used with springs of the type I'm using, so this issue probably doesn't usually occur...

I have a few pictures of early searchlights in some books which is what I was going on and I'd say they look excellent! And I hadn't recognised the Skaledale wall origins because of the weathering - which is surely a very good recommendation for your weathering too . Wiring difficulties may well be awkward, I have similar obstructional issues in places, always a pain when you want to install something electrical. The real railways just requisition some more money and drill / blast / excavate / bulldoze things anyway: they have no idea how difficult it is running an actual model railway . And yes, I entirely agree about many model light signals being far too bright... but I can't helping loving them just the same!! The CR Signals ones (& just to be clear, I have no connection, just a pleased customer!) have a particularly delicious looking shade of green. And of course you can precisely vary the brightness by altering the in-line resistance.

Loving your work there, Sir

Lovely coach

What a wonderful piece of film, thank you for posting it! As you say, marvellously clear and also it lasts for a deent length of time!

Beautiful work! And such a relief in these difficult times to see 'stable condition' applied to something non-medical!

They look superb Steve. I love the look of LNER searchlight signals, there's something very evocative about them and you've captured that look perfectly. As an aside, have you come across CR Signals' products? He makes working LED ones, including bi-colour models; I have a couple put by to add to my own layout, though layout work has taken rather a back seat lately in favour of kit building. The grimy walls you have there look incredibly realistic and exactly like those I've spent many long hours staring out out of train windows over the years

Today I dealt with two small and time-consuming but important jobs. First, a centralising guide spring for the radial truck, soldered to the small additional frame spacer added for the purpose, to fit through the loop on top of the truck; and second, two side springs with looped ends, soldered to the inside of the frames for downward tacking force: The side springs will need some further bending after test running - they'll probably exert too much downward force where they are at present. Then, turning to the front end of the main compensation beam: I was not at all happy with it resting only on the rear part of the central bogie stretcher, as there would be far less downward force on the front bogie axle. It can't rest centrally as that space is occupied by the transverse slot for the bogie pivot bolt that comes down, through the slot, from the underside of the footplate. So... I decided to make an addition to the end of the beam that would have a central hole for the pivot bolt to pass through and an extended beam end in front of the pivot bolt that would sit on the front end of the bogie stretcher. I started off with the leftover part of a wagon W-iron (cut I think from the Falcon GNR Fish Van kit a while back): This was then scored and the side areas bent up - the transverse footprint needs to be as narrow as possible in order to avoid restricting bogie side movement as little as possible: This piece was then soldered onto the end of the compensation beam, and a small piece of the same beam material (1.6mm nickel silver rod) added to the front end 'pocket', to give a suitable surface to make contact with the top of the stretcher: I then wrapped round the joint between the beam and it's new brass end with tinned copper wire and flowed it with solder, for long-term strength, rather than relying purely on the initial soldered joint: This end piece now fits over the bogie pivot bolt, moving freely up and down as part of the beam, with two points of contact, one behind and one in front of the pivot bolt that goes down through the stretcher: Clearances all seem fine so far. That last picture above is taken holding the chassis at an angle, allowing the bogie to drop down unsupported: in its normal position there's only a small gap between main and bogie frames and the newly added assembly is barely visible, even before the inevitable matt black paint. I'll double-check tomorrow to make sure nothing's catching where it shouldn't when running through a variety of points and curves. Following some more cleaning up of the added beam end piece, the next thing is to add a centralising guide spring for the bogie. I'm intending to put this at the front of the bogie, partly because there's too much else going on at the rear and partly as recommended in Iain Rice's book, to impart guiding force to the body as early into curves as possible.

Today, I made and installed my first compensation beam: Leaving the beam uncut whilst bending the business end to shape and soldering it in place was a trick picked up from Iain Rice's "Locomotive chassis in 4mm" book - I like to think I should have thought of it myself but had I not done so, the process would have been far less easy. I'd been hesitating for a few days to take the plunge; in spite of having read a great deal about how compensation beams work and reached the point of being able to visualise the principle of the mechanism in my mind, I was still a little nervous of getting it to work. (I put the time to good use though, adding an extra stretcher for a guide spring on the rear radial truck, making a pickup PCB and soldering a nut in to mount it - I araldited the pickup PCB on my last loco but the ability to take the PCB off in the event of pickup problems seems a useful idea). In the event however, it was just as easy as lots of people - including Mr Rice of course - say it is. In fact I think its very simplicity invites doubt in the first-time builder as to whether it can really work: how wrong I was! But it was only by making one and actually seeing it work, playing with it and seeing the wheels move in connection with each other, that I realised just how clever a piece of design it really is! A bit like riding a bike: you can read about it - and watch film of it - until your eyelids droop, but it only really makes sense when you climb on and have a go... And it certainly is simple - when the beam's cut down to size and viewed in the stripped down chassis there's no disguising it as anything more than a metal rod, but it works like magic: I found myself marvelling at it with every movement of the driving axle and bogie, wondering how I could have thought it would be difficult! Actually Mike Sharman comments in the introduction to his 'Flexichas' book that the system itself is a little like religious faith, in that once you believe in it the technical part is quite easy, but the difficult part is getting you to believe. I read those words and moved on without giving them too much thought, but he was spot on. Here's a closer view of it back in the full assembly, where you can see it running between the front driven axle and the bogie: At the moment the front end of the beam is just resting on the middle of the rear part of the central bogie stretched, but I will probably add a rubbing plate, possibly a forked arrangement to distribute the beam's downward force a little further forward and a little nearer the sides of the bogie. I also built the bogie with a small equalisng beam of its own, currently set at an angle such that it doesn't touch the rear bogie axle; if the bogie doesn't ride well enough, I'll elongate the bogie's rear axle holes and bend the beam down to contact the axle so that it rocks - you can just see the beam emerging from the rear-facing vertical face of the bogie stretcher, underneath the main compensating beam itself. I'll also add a guide spring for the bogie if needed, which I'll try and fit from the front. Still can't get over how well the beam arrangement works and how clever it is...

Thanks, I will. Yes, I think most of us have good and bad days when eyesight and dexterity are a little below par. I too put the project aside and use the time to catch up on other stuff that I've been putting off in favour of modelling - I find that makes me less disappointed that I couldn't do any modelling, because then it feels like I've cleared some time for when my eyes and hands are on better form. Glad to know you've enjoyed the build I would love to see some photos when it's ready.

Thank you . It was my first attempt at lining so for that reason alone I was quite pleased with it at the time but I've just been reading in Ian Rathbone's book about how to correct and re-shape lining while - and shortly after - you're doing it and I wish I'd known those techniques before this example had been encased in varnish. It was done using the lining pen shown a few posts back and some of the faults I mentioned there can be seen, such as slightly blobbed starts and ends to lines: I now know what causes that and how to correct it. (I think though that the woodwork effect came out quite well, though the overall hue sometimes looks to me more like oak than teak - I was aiming for very old teak that had been in and out of the workshops and re-finished numerous times...). My second attempt at lining was the ECJS 45' bogie brake shown on page 1 of this thread - better, but I hope to be able to do far better still on my next lining job. One thing I found a little difficult when lining the 6-wheeler is that there were quite a few edges and lines that should be dead straight and/or flat but aren't, due to aspects of the material and the manufacturing process: I did try some gentle and cautious re-shaping of both the 3D plastic and the resin in warm-to-hot water of various temperatures, but the results were not great. No, I didn't follow Mike's videos - I'm assuming you mean for lining? I read up on a lot of different threads on here and other forums which contained advice, tips and examples, compiling all the bits of text and photos that I thought would be useful into a Word document ( which is what I always do when researching something, updating the document when I find new material; I also include the date in the document title and change that too, when new material's added, to make locating the latest version easy). Mind you, in this case I could have saved myself a lot of time by reading Mr Rathbone's book first, but I don't think I'd heard of hime at that point. I didn't realise Graeme had made kits available of the 12-wheel clerestory - I'm guessing this is the one that featured on his LNER Forum thread a while back? I followed his design and build of his prototype but I must have missed where he reached the point of kits being done: are they available currently? And could we please see a picture of your build, if you feel that it's ready for public viewing?

Thanks - nice job all round! And yes, I'd say decals would be a good way to go by the look of it... Lovely looking carriages, looking forward to seeing them finished

Dave, that looks fabulous! Could you please tell us a little about the origins of the kit or the parts that you've used?