Softvark

I used resin on the harbour scene on my layout and it can work well but you have to be really careful to make sure the area you are pouring into is completely sealed. Resin will find the tiniest pin hole and empty on to the floor.

For the river area I used good old gloss varnish which was far more controllable.

Julian

On some more remote Scottish lines it was quite common for rodding and signal wires to be covered with planks to protect them from snow and ice. It could be that that is what is seen rather than the tops of electrical trunking.

It’s also a useful excuse to avoid having to model rodding and signal wires!

Julian

That 37 sounds the business! Whose sound file/decoder are you using?

Julian

13 minutes ago, 37Oban said:

I believe a 31 was trialled in Scotland in the late 50's, and on the Highland mainline.  I seem to recall it didn't stay very long before returning south. 

There's a picture of a 31 at Mallaig on the Railscot website - 

Railscot - Class 31 at Mallaig

8 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

I did look at that. But the only ones I can find in 7mm are by Aquitrain and they only do the more common coach types. 

Have a look at HMRS - they do blue grey coach lining transfers and the curved ends.

https://hmrs.org.uk/br-coach-lining-up-to-including-blue-grey-period.html

Julian

I’m looking forward to this build too as I bought the same kit only last week.

Lots of photos please, Ken!

Thanks Simon, I thought that might be the case.

Spectacular modelling as always, Simon.

Just going back a bit - please could you let me know where you got the decals for the propane gas cylinders?

Have you seen the downloadable instructions available from the PRMRP website? I have one of these to build myself and the pdf is more comprehensive than the paper instructions included with the kit.

http://www.prmrp.com/uploads/1/2/0/6/12060808/brf-012_ota_instructions_new_version_2008.pdf

I got around this by putting a small piece of the MSE yellow lens material over the white LED then using the blue lens material in the arm. This actually works very well - there is enough red light passing through the yellow filter to still illuminate the signal red, and the blue material displays green.

I'll post a photo later if you're interested in seeing what it looks like.

There is a track plan of the P4 version on page 9 of Ian's book Modelling Scotland's Railways - Santona Publications -  ISBN 0953844889 and there are some photos of Lochside scattered through the book. Ian says that the station building was based upon Eyemouth. 

I'm just about to convert a 26 to a 27 (body is currently sitting in paint stripper) and it's definitely worth getting the etch from PRMRP. As well as the headcode box it also has new tank sides, fan, snow ploughs, side windows, steps over the buffers etc.

They also do castings for the roof vents.

The only bit I'm not looking forward to is sanding down the raised part of the roof. 

See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/133523-sound-effects-for-your-layout/

I use several different strips of LEDs with different colour temperatures fed from DMX dimmers. DMX is a lighting protocol extensively used in concerts, theatres etc. It's then easy to control them from a PC using free software such as MagicQ. I've also got a few LED 12v spotlights at a low angle to simulate early sun or moonlight.

There's even a DCC to DMX converter so you can control lighting from your command station. See Open DCC.

I recently upgraded to a Hakko solder station. Also not cheap (and rather garish) but an excellent iron with lots of bits available. Very controllable either manually or with presets.

I got mine off a well known auction site for around £100 but make sure it's a genuine Hakko.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hakko+fx-888d

There's quite a good video on the BFI site of the Trowse swing bridge replacement that might help.

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-on-line-into-the-nineties-1987-online

Another option would be to use a DCC circuit breaker (or a booster) - simply put it between the DCC output from your command station and the track. Make sure that the accessory decoders are fed from before the circuit breaker. Then when a short occurs the circuit breaker trips before your command station and you can still use your accessory decoders. 

These are the breakers that I use and they work well -

http://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-101162/psx-1-intelligent-circuit-breaker-1-power-di

http://www.digitrains.co.uk/ecommerce/dcc-accessories/circuit-protection-and-power-management/power-shield-psx-1.aspx

I think there are others available.

Hi Terry

In my 20 I have a Zimo sound decoder by Paul Chetter and supplied by Digitrains. I am very impressed with it,

John K

Edited for speller

Zimo have very good features in the decoders if you want to use smoke generators such as automatically linking smoke output to acceleration and startup. The sound is, of course, excellent.

Simon

 

PRMRP still do one...if you scroll down, not sure of it's buildability though http://www.prmrp.com/diesel-kits.html

There was one of their HSTs running on their Calvercar Town layout at Warley last year. There's a rather shaky video of it on youtube - scroll to 6'10".

(not my video)

Ahh - yes I've used JLTRT cellulose in the past and it was very good, but, as you say, is no longer available. Bit of a shame as I find the Railmatch aerosol either comes out too fast or not at all...

I do have an airbrush but sometimes you just want a quick blast from a can to avoid all the cleaning up afterwards that an airbrush requires.

I'm impressed with the BR blue - is that a Halfords rattle can?

I had to build my own lamps using dowel, brass tube and shades from EMA models.

http://www.ema-models.co.uk/index.php/scale-representation/light-fixtures.html

I searched for quite a long time before I found these shades which I think look quite good.

Are you posting your signal build?

I don't think anyone would learn anything from my build technique except possibly how not to do it 

But can anyone tell me what these parts are for ? ( they came on the main signal post etch)

 

1-20170628_112822.jpg

Hi Phill

I believe they are the lamp bracket (top) and the arm bearing.

Your build is timely as I'm attempting to build one myself