richard.h

Things seem to have come to a standstill here postwise, I think Royal Mail have problems in the UK and we have Zealous officials checking every parcel here in Spain. I have a Roadroller/Tarspreader lost in the system for two months now.

Anyway using materials on hand I completed this little cameo.

The figures are painted and then given a final coat with thinned 'smoke' colour which settles in all the crevices and gives more depth to finish.

This is a short video showing some afternoon traffic running through Byford.

I am not familiar with this layout but it is obviously first class quality and I look forward to seeing it brought back to life. Also apart from the Blue Diesels it's just ideal, Northern Grime.

It appears that you are rebuilding it in a garage so you should be safe there, the first layout I built in Spain was in a Large Wooden Garden Shed and it had to be dismantled after a few years due to the intense heat build up in summer which ruined the card buildings and damaged the track.

A few photos as a 3F makes it's way slowly out into the country.

With a mixed goods train.

Heading for the Dales.

Here a WD waits for a clear signal.

Before moving off with a heavy train.

And accelerates away through Byford Station

I have had a Number/Nameplate set for A2 Velocity for quite some time now but no suitable donor loco to put them on.

So, when I saw this model on the internet I was able to buy it at a reasonable price due to the scratches and scuff marks.

The damage didn't bother me as it was going to be weathered anyway so the name and number plates were fitted.

Then I started by putting frame dirt on the running gear  and weathered black on the loco and tender which was streaked in a downward motion with brush and thinners before it had chance to dry, the aim was to try and create the effect of rain marking as a base before secondary weathering.

The loco body and tender were given a coat of dirty black, again applied vertically and burnt umber on parts of the chassis and cylinders.

Then a final coat of soot black along the top of the boiler, leakage stains on the cylinders, oil stains on the bearings,real coal in the tender and crew onboard.

Ready for Duty!

Here is a short video showing some of my Eastern Region Pacifics matched up recordings of the same locos made in the 1950s, (as near as possible!)

Removing Cabside Number

 The Bachmann numbers seem to be more difficult to remove than Hornby but I usually use a wooden implement such as a toothpick and a mild solvent like airbrush cleaner that seems to work without damaging the loco body .

Richard

Weathering The Breakdown Crane.

Bachmann's model is first class but in its original state is much too clean and looks out of place on the layout so a weathering session was needed.

So firstly using my standard airbrush with a 05mm nozzle a gave it a light misting of dirty black and frame dirt to dull down the factory finish.

Previously I hadn't been able to get the fine detail spray that I needed so I have purchased  a second airbrush with a 0.2 mm nozzle in order to be able to do the fine work.

I put this purchase off for quite a while as I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a second airbrush but when I found a highly recommended one for just over £60.00 I decided to risk it

So using the new airbrush I started building up the layers of colouring using different rust colours and burnt umber.

Then a little smoky black

Overall I am very happy with the new airbrush, it does an excellent job and hasn't cost me a lot, I could never have done fine details such as the rust spots on the crane jib and arm before so I am now looking forward to making further use of it.

Just to finish off this section on signals I realised  that an engine in Oxenholme Station would not always have a clear view of the signal due to the footbridge so I built another signal with a repeater arm.

So now where-ever a driver halted he would have a clear view of at least one of the signal arms.

Here is a short video showing the newly built signals in action.

I have a few of the Dapol Motorised signals on the layout which I have bought in the past, they are simple sturdy signals but I found that they didn't work reliably and tended to loose the addresses if they weren't fitted close to their respective control units.

So here is my attempt to make them work better and more realistically by converting them to servo control.

I first cut away the base and wiring to leave just the two LED wires attached.

Then made a new base and fixed a servo motor in place.

Finally everything was wired up with the two LED wires feeding into + and -  of the servo cable and now we have a Dapol signal with bounce and light.

Tried building my first Bracket Signal this week.

I glued the nano LEDS in their respective positions with regard to the arm spectacles.

Then made sure everything worked before continuing construction.

With everything OK I assembled the rest of the Signal.

And it is now in place on the layout but will need some tweaking once my new megapoints controller board arrives.

21 hours ago, ROY@34F said:

 

I have also built brass etched signals Richard and use Megapoints control ... very good variable bounce , and very like they used to be as I remember . I use small SMD micro LEDs , warm white  colour ,  (can't recall where from ... sorry) .  They come ready to use , wired and fitted with a resister for 12 V dc.  I glue them in plastic channel . lay a thin .010" or .015" layer over the top , the whole thing squeezing in a 3 mm. length of 3 mm . square brass tube with a .9mm. hole drilled in the LED shining side . The white plastic covering of the LED defuses the light a bit , but I also fit a 5K or 6K resister in the positive feed of each LED to dim the light more to be more the dim brightness of the oil lamps used in steam days .

It's then a matter of sticking the lamp on to the post in the right place and packed off the post on top of a piece of copper clad sleeper or something . I think it's .050" thick to bring the lamp off the post so that the lamp lines up with the signal sense . I use epoxy glue so as to have some adjustment time to get them right .

Sorry to be so long winded , and good luck .

 

Regards , Roy .

Thanks for that, there's a lot of useful information there for future work, I think the first thing needed is to get a selection of resistors in order to reduce the brightness to an acceptable level  as like you I am trying to recreate the oil lamps used in the steam era.

Richard

Up to now Byford has been operated using coloured light signals, they are easy to install and integrate into the train movement system using sensors and switches, the trouble is you don't often notice them working unless they are in your line of sight as nothing moves.

I shied away from semaphores in the past as the plastic ones were prone to damage, usually by sleeves, but when I read about the control systems available now which imitate real signal movements by copying the signalman pulling off the signal and also a random bounce when the signal is released I just had to have another go at them.

So, I purchased a selection of parts and a control system based on the Megapoints board and made a start.

Here's the first attempt which uses a 0.5mm optical cable to feed to feed the light to the signal head.

The light here is a very realistic subdued light but I couldn't get the optic cable to feed inside the post and up to the signal head as the bend was to tight at the top and it kept snapping, but it is still hardly noticeable tucked in and running down the side.

For the next batch of signals I used nano-leds for lighting and these were much easier to conceal with all the wiring inside the post.

The main problem with this method is stopping light bleed from the LED so the light and the arm have to be much closer together.

Well, that's a learning curve and a start made, the next challenge is can I build a bracket signal, my eyesight's not that good and I seem to have the wrong size fingers.

Excellent photos as usual of a great layout. You get some very good effects of sunlight and shadow, is that from natural light or do you use some form of floodlighting.

Richard

Two more this week, firstly a little NCB Sentinal.

Not much work required just fit a decoder and away she went.

Then a Class 14 Teddy Bear.

Lots of fiddly damaged bits to repair on this one.

And although it was supposed to be DCC ready there was no room to fit anything other than a blanking plate under the engine cowling.

Still it wasn't a big job, just cut into the chassis block to make a route through to the Cab and fit the decoder in there.

And now we have two more nice little runners.

Another foreigner that turned up was this Class 45, D55 The Royal Signals.

I wasn't going to bother with it at first as it had a burnt out motor, but on seeing that it was a limited edition of 500 I thought it might be worth preserving.

A motor was ordered and fitted and as it was a weathered edition I didn't use a spray gun on it but just added to the weathering by lightly brushing roof and frame dirt down the sides and roof to give it a more work-worn look

That done it has now been put into service on the layout.

The next Loco to go through the workshop was one of mine, a Dapol N2 which I must have had for over thirty years and for most of that time it has been in its box.

I was going to sell it but they fetch so little nowadays I thought I would try and convert it to DCC.

There was just enough room in the boiler front to fit a decoder and capacitor so I cut into the copper tracks connecting to the motor and hard wired these in.

The model was the wrong time period for me so it was rebranded in early British Rail livery and weathered.

And it has now been set to work as the Station Pilot which I believe a lot of these Locos were in later life.

Another addition worked on this week was this elderly Class 04.

It was one of the early Bachmann Split Chassis types with the motor picking up current from the two chassis sides it was trapped between.

The loco was completely stripped down and the side blocks cut back so that they no longer made contact with the motor.

New motor connections were then made, protected by heat-shrink tubing to prevent the possibility of shorting and a small decoder was hard wired to the loco.

So we now have a nice little Loco which performs well.

Ready for duty at the Station.

This foreigner has been converted, it's a Class 08 Diesel which is good runner but it was in the wrong livery (BR Blue).

So it was cleaned up and the body  was resprayed in green and the chassis with dirty black then the transfers were added.

Now with a touch more weathering to the roof, body and motion.

She is ready for duty in the Goods Yard.

The layout features a small outdoor market area and this is now my third attempt to build it.

The previous attempts have failed because after time and due to a combination of glue, paint and heat the base has warped.

So this time I tried a different approach and used a solid base with the wood supplied for laser-cut kits.

For the shoppers safety I added bollards made from the spare extension pieces of street lights plus chains.

At one time I thought that I would never bother painting any more people, too much trouble when there are so many excellent ready painted one around, but the advent of the 3d printed period figures changed my mind, they are just so good.

So a set was ordered to populate the Market Place.

And now the completed assembly is placed back in position and hopefully this time it won't warp.

Another stranger in town is this Class 42 Zenith.

Seen here entering the Depot for refueling

This loco was a bit of a challenge, it had been badly weathered with brown streaks and then scratched by someone trying to remove them.

I managed to remove most of the brown paint but couldn't do much about the scratches so I had to give it a heavy weathering with frame dirt and carriage grime then a light coating of soot to tone everything down.

Another couple of foreigners.

Royal Scot 'The Royal Air Force' pulls into Oxenholme Station.

And a Class 16 Diesel runs through with a short goods train.

In real life these were apparently very poor runners.

I have bought a lot of the 'Zen' decoders in the past because they have a Stay Alive function.

The capacitor supplied with them is not very effective but it easy to upgrade them, so in this case I fitted a 1000uf capacitor and the loco now performs perfectly running even at speed step 1 without hesitation over the point work.

Foreigners on The Line (Locos not People)

I recently had the unenviable task of being asked to clear out a complete model railway layout and collection, I hadn't seen it before and was not able to test anything beforehand so I just bought everything on trust.

So, over the next few weeks I shall be testing the items to see what runs, what I can use on my layout and what is saleable.

The first items to be inspected and tried on my layout was a Heljan Railbus

And a Class 20 Diesel

After a good clean and service they both performed well.

So, that's a good start and now on to the next ones.