CazRail

Ooh, you teaser...

Looking here has just tempted me to create the Anglia set that came down the North Wales coast on a charter some years ago!

Will the orderbook for OO be open the same time as the N, or once the CAD is complete as per N version?

A couple of EWS 37/4s would certainly be a hit!

The slate waste here is from Bethesda rather than Blaenau, road hauled to Llandudno Junction. Destination I've heard is Hope Cement. Not too sure why this went to Wellingborough mind. It's a shame the possible DCR flow from Rhyl (carrying limestone from Llysfaen Quarry) has been canned. I haven't heard about other potential flows mind apart from mootings a loading terminal at Blaenau is being mooted again.

Thought I'd show a snap I got of 66773 reversing it's train into Llandudno Junction yard yesterday afternoon, conveniently had my PICOP course at the depot so had a chance to get a pic. Great to see two GBRf operated trains down the coast now. Will you be involved in these workings, Jim?

Tidy job on the paintwork, looks really good!

Diolch, met! Very happy with how it's turned out, definitely my favourite unit in my fleet at the minute.

So my numbers arrived from Railtec this morning, the usual great service from them. So I present to you, 158752... Painted using mostly Vallejo Game Air paints, and finished using Vallejo Satin Acrylic Resin Varnsh. Yellow fronts painted using Halfords' Rover Inca Yellow rattle can, orange using Vallejo Model Air Orange. Now you watch Bachmann go and announce one in the next quarter line-up 🤬😂

Cheers, JDW. Hopefully won't be too long before it's finished, got numbers and small details ordered from Railtec and a couple of other bits to complete before a final coat or two of satin varnish. Also thanks for the advice for the FNW 156, something I hadn't picked up on, but now you've pointed it out, I can't un-see it! Something to rectify the next time it comes out to play. Diolch, sir! Looking forward to the reassembly.

Small update to where the project sits... - Gloss acrylic resin varnish applied. - Branding and overheads warning stickers applied. - Door rubbers(black lining transfers) started.

And this evening, whilst I had Argentina v Scotland on in the background, I completed the paintwork on the second coach... I need to alter the middle left hand stars on each coach, as I overlooked the fact that they're different shape from the 150s, other than that I'm really happy with how they've turned out.

So finished the main paint work on one coach today, next one to mask and spray tonight, using the first as a reference... Gold on... Masked up... Blue on... Quite pleased to be fair, a couple of little touch-ups.

Orange for the cantrail and yellow front ends painted. Decided to go for Halfords Rover Inca Yellow for the front ends rather than air brushing.

New project time! Having sourced a bargain donor, I'm now able to commence preperations for another re- spray project. This time, the subject if North Western Trains/First North Western class 158. Having already got a Bachmann class 150 in said livery, I've begun by creating templates of the golden stars which feature at the outer ends and inner ends of the units. To acheive this, I used masking tape to trace the pattern out, transferred it to some scrap plasticard, then cut them out. The first template made, posed next to the original on the 150. The same template, positioned approximately where it needs to go on a 158. The three templates necessary for the livery (the full star can be flipped to mirror it). Also, by luck, I was looking at what Vallejo paints are available, and if I could use them for the blue and gold, and came up trumps with Vallejo Game Air 72.763 'Dessert Yellow' and 72.720 'Imperial Blue'. A more than decent match. Happy days! Looking forward to this little project, I certainly need it, and have had it on the drawing board for some time. Best Caz

These are still 8 pin, which is a shame given the other upgrades.

Though after I posted earlier about the 67 I noticed it was a 2021 offering, not a '22 one. Never mind! Well it's arrived, and it's a very nice model. The model seems to have had an upgrade aswell, with updated head/tail light connections and buffers painted black. The decoration, too, is not bad.

R60089 Class 67 in TfW livery is in stock at Hornby, mine is out for delivery today.

A quick Saturday update... This morning, I took delivery of a couple of things, first beint the "St Blazey T&RSD" nameplates for 37670. Provided by Fox Transfers and are very nice, they were fitted to the loco this morning. I think the nameplates 'complete' the overall look of the loco. Secondly, and more impressively, two Zimo MS450P22 decoders loaded with class 20/3 soundfile arrived from Digitrains, having just ordered them just before 4pm yesterday. About 5 minutes after I placed the order, they phoned me to offer a different sound file which is more suited to the 20/3s. That's what I call customer service! Really impressed. So now my DRS choppers are chipped up and sounding great.

Almost finished with 37670, now only nameplates and it's running to sort out.

Today's endeavours on 37670, has seen the loco have It's gold stripe re-sprayed... then the loco gained it's identity... then had it's painted 'faded'. I've masked certain parts of the loco to show the bits DB Schenker had patched up before the loco was reinstated. I'm quite happy with this, and think the weathering will tie it all together nicely. Time to allow the Oilbrusher paint to dry now, before I attack the loco with my airbrush. Oh, and Ive ordered the nameplates. Regards Caz.

Cheers Jules. Whilst Im plucking up the courage to paint up another 158, I've started a short project to re-number and part-repaint an EWS 37. This time, itll be 37670, which I plan to portray in it's 2008 condition of battered EWS livery. The donor is a 37411 'Ty Hafan': First job was to mask off the gold stripe, and lightly sand the numbers and lettering. The gold will then be re-sprayed, as I did when I created 37408 'Loch Rannoch'. A mod I had to make was to remove the ETH cable receptacles on the noses, which was then filled using Tamiya putty. This will then be patch-painted. To create the rain-lashed finish to the paintwork, I'll be employing the same technique I used to weather 37055 and 37114 earlier in the topic, using Oilbrusher paint and blend it with a soft brush. In doing that, parts of the loco will be masked up to represent the parts of the loco that were touched up before reinstatement by DB Schenker in 2008.

I use a combination of LaisDCC and Zimo, but I tend to buy Zimo for anything new now, using the economy ones when I can. I fitted a LaisDCC into a Lima 156, and it works very well. I also fitted a LaisDCC chip into a Hornby Pendolino (vice a Hornby chip) and it now runs smoother than it ever did.

Thanks for the feedback, Jules. I'm looking forward to doing this re-spray, it'll definitely test my skill with the gold stars, but hopefully will come out ok. Cheers Caz

Been a good while since I've posted here, and despite no progress being achieved on the layout itself, a few locos and wagons have been through the works for weathering and various other jobs, including a couple of class 60s and my Revolution IWA holdalls. Today, however, some new arrivals turned up, in the form of two Bachmann 20/3s in original DRS livery. Both being numbered 20306, one was swiftly re-numbered to 20311. Both are currently awaiting Zimo economy decoders which havent arrived yet, but I have plans to sound fit both locos. Additionally, both will be weathered and hopefully SMDs into the cab end WIPACs to get the marker lights illuminated. (I still don't understand how Bachmann couldn't do this, when Hornby did it on their 60's about 15 years ago!)