Pikey

Bearing blocks with 3mm brass tube pressed in, which will be glued to the chassis. These hold the 1mm propshaft with 2mm sleeves through the 'bearings'. Axles are 1mm with 2mm sleeves through 3mm 'bearings' which are glued to the chassis. I need to make more space for the motor.

Perfect. They certainly do look a lot better closer together. Probably even more so with coaches

Does that definitely go round R2 curves with the buffers that close together?

So, I'm working on the conversion of three more models, all lorries. The Eddie Stobart curtainsider in the pictures above, and these two: The Scania flatbed will have working lights (including indicators, hazards and reversing light), and spotlights that I can hopefully flash independently of the headlights. Plus I will have a second motor for raising and lowering the ramps at the back, to load things on and off. Conveniently, my transmitter has a two-stage 'flaps' switch (for model aircraft), which has fully customisable settings - so I'll set the middle position of the switch (which on a plane would be flaps stage 1) as zero, then I can toggle the switch up to operate the motor to raise the ramps, or down to lower them. The truck also has two steering axles, which adds a further challenge to the conversion! I'm leaving this one til last, for the moment. The green truck on the back is an AEC Mammoth, which is obviously not my era. I'm converting this one for my dad, who has a 1960s branch line station and goods yard layout in his garage. There is a road down to the station which goes up a lane and over the railway bridge, but the lane is quite steep and bumpy so I had already concluded that I'll need to drive both rear axles - or the lorry will never get up the lane. That's what the tiny gears are for. Here they are mocked up in the drivetrain arrangement: So I'll have the motor mounted slightly off-centre, driving the main propshaft, and then worm gears and matching axle gears, giving a final drive ratio of about 55:1 (I think). This should drive slightly slower than my Transit van. Here are the axles installed: I've cut away all of the middle of the chassis, and I'll make some brass bearing blocks to hold the propshaft in place, I'll either use some 2mm tube to hold the prop, or some of the little 3mm bearings from Mikromodellbau. I've made a mistake by opening out the axle holders to 3mm - before realising that the top and bottom arent actually in line, so I cant use a 3mm bearing! I could maybe use 3 of them stuck together, but as that actually wont function as a bearing I might as well just use a slightly bigger diameter tube. 3mm tube with 2mm tube inside it to carry the 1mm axle. Bit of a faff. I opened out the centre bore of the plastic wheels to 2mm, then glued in a 2mm brass tube as a sleeve, then glued the 1mm diameter brass axles into the sleeve. It works very nicely. Here is the front steering assembly (kit from mikromodellbau, identical to the one used on the Transit): Nothing fancy as far as lights are concerned for this truck, but I hope to have functional headlights and indicators.

I have 66101 as well, the DB Schenker red really suits the class 66

Latest delivery from mikromodellbau has arrived, including these brass gears which are soooooooo tiny

This is right up my street, top work

Finally modified the ramp so that my van can get up onto the concrete yard slab without grounding. So I can now make deliveries to the depot: https://youtu.be/XWBBQM8UG-E I should be starting the conversion of the next lorry this week, when my next shipment of motors and steering axles arrives from Germany/Poland.

Some more lorries have arrived for conversion. There should be plenty of room inside this one: This chassis almost looks as if its designed for an RC conversion - space between the chassis rails for a motor, central recess over the front wheels for a servo, loads of room in the rear for a battery and receiver

Ha Tarmac yer driveway?

https://youtu.be/l89jmOi9E9I Dug out an old Metcalfe model of a petrol station, and drove around it for a bit

Yeah, I didnt really pick the best place to reverse there did I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UtMubASFa8&feature=youtu.be My little Transit van, newly converted to radio control, running around the yard. Potentially I can make some small changes to the TMD and surrounding scenic area to allow a realistic operation with the van (coming on scene, making a delivery, doing a 3 point turn and driving off again), which will add a bit of interest to the scene. I've also got several other vehicles planned to convert to RC

I've since finished the bodywork and it has successfully completed its first proper test drive https://youtu.be/9UtMubASFa8 I'm quite pleased. It seems to start with a bit of a jerk, but that may be something I can tweak with the transmitter settings. Obviously its a bit of a frankenstein's monster, with the servo sticking out through the windscreen, but the whole point was to get something relatively easy up and running fairly quickly without worrying too much about perfect detail and hiding all of the electrics. Total cost so far is about £210, but included in that is a transmitter (£70) and a battery charger, (£20), neither of which I will need to buy again. So approx £120 for the van itself, including the original model. So, I'm kinda hooked I've ordered a Scania 6 wheel curtainsider, which should be much easier to do than the van. I've also ordered an AEC dropside lorry, which I'm going to convert for my dad to run on his early 60s steam/diesel layout. And a Scania 8 wheel flatbed lorry with crane, which will be a tricky one as they have two steering axles. But I like a challenge

First test a success. Battery didn't run for very long, guess it wasn't charged.

Yes, RX-45. With lead-out wires and connectors added by Andy at Micron.

Delivery! Transmitter, battery and charger, and a receiver smaller than my little fingernail!

I was thinking about turning it 180 degrees - but actually I think this may still foul the windscreen. I've since discovered that you can get a 'linear servo', which would lie flat, and may even allow me to reinstall the dashboard over the top of it

I tried filing/grinding down the original axle, it didnt work very well, so thats all in the bin. For the mk2 I simply put a blob of glue on the end of the axle and glued the original wheels on. It seems to have worked so far, but they might be a bit wobbly in use, and ultimately I suspect they will just break after a short time, so something along the lines of a metal or plastic sleeve for the centre of the wheels will likely be the permanent solution. I also noticed that I'd put the hubs on the wrong sides. They're very slightly eccentric, so putting them on the wrong sides caused the van to have about 10 degrees of toe-out (can be seen in the previous pictures), this has now been corrected. So, I now have four wheels on my wagon: The wheels dont fully turn left, I need to file a tiny bit more away from the front bumper to acheive this.

Just doing a bit of searching, found this image: Which looks exactly like what I need to do - on the left is part of an original Oxford Diecast axle with cross-hatch bit that the wheel pushes on to, with the remaining part of the axle filed down to a smaller diameter so it will fit in the hub. The part on the right is the original stub axle provided in the kit. But then how does it stay in the hub without a flange on the end?

Ordered radio gear and battery and charger today, fingers crossed to have them by the end of the week. The thing I'm pondering now is what to do about wheels and tyres. The rear axle and two front stub axles are 1mm diameter. The van's original wheels were pressed onto larger diameter axles, and so they dont fit tightly onto the new ones. I'd like to re-use them ideally, not sure how to do that just yet.

In the future, I would like to develop my own 3D printed chassis, specific for the van (or whatever model I'm doing at the time), so I could make it line up exactly with the screw mounting points, hold the servo the other way round so it will go in behind the windscreen etc. I'm going to be ordering the receiver, battery, charger, and possibly transmitter from www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk in the next few days. I sent the chap an email over the weekend and he's replied very quickly with some very helpful information, which is starting to make the picture a bit clearer as to what I need to finish it off etc. So I'll hopefully be able to get it moving in the nearish future

Needs a little more chopped off the front of the chassis in order to get the wheels further forward, and allow me to clip the front plastic bumper back on.

Yes, you're right, the servo would go in the other way round I think. Great idea

Setting everything out ready for assembly: Adding the motor, servo and steering assembly to the chassis: As it sits now: Time to start chopping up the standard chassis so that it fits inside the van body.