Philou

Hi Philou here, Well! It looks as if I missed a cracking 'small' show. Saw the video - thank you Mr Masterman for sharing - at least I and probably many others have had a taster of what it was like. If it's on again next year, I'll certainly try to get there. Cheers, Philip

@valleymodeller Even being his brother and trying to resist as much as possible, I think his till has some hypnotic effect on my wallet whenever I get to go there . Seems to work over the 'phone too . @nhy581 I've was lucky enough to be in Cardiff once the same weekend as the show - quite well done for what was a 'small show'! I think he enjoys being part of it too. Have a good day all! Philip

Hi Philou here, Can I give an unashamed plug for my brother? He's Peter, the Lord bit of Lord and Butler. If some of you going to the show could say 'hello' to him on my behalf - be a surprise for him . I can't go as I am about 600 miles away. Cheers and enjoy the day, Philip

@Pacific231G Hi (or should I say 'bonsoir'), Philou here, I've just caught up with this thread - unfortunately I haven't seen the episodes as I can't get UK television where I am (I don't have a VPN gateway). It's a reply to the OT point of the CFDS. I have found the location of the property on Google Maps if you haven't already so done. I couldn't see any earthworks via the Satellite - but as mentioned, it lies in an area that is heavily wooded. Here's the link: https://www.google.fr/maps/place/45370+M%C3%A9zi%C3%A8res-lez-Cl%C3%A9ry/@47.8175835,1.8469584,1308m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x47e4e8c3ae2587a1:0x40dc8d70537da00!8m2!3d47.818596!4d1.804427 @Nearholmer Might I guess that CFDS stood for Chemin de Fer de la Sologne - as the property lies in the Sologne. Cheers, Philou Gah! As I was typing this response so 231G came up with the precise reply - sorry.

Hi, Philou here, I thought I was the only one struggling with what seems to be an eternal problem of the visualised and creation of the ideal layout. Mrs P is allowing me the use of a mezzanine area in our French barn - no roof beams for me - oh no! I have a rotten floor instead to deal with first . Timber to replace the floor beams have arrived and are currently drying out. HOWEVER, as pointed out above, there do seem to be innumerable other tasks 'that must be done!' before I can get started on my project . Here's some of the list: Internal stairs to be renewed with new treads and risers and no step is the same as the one before. However, being currently being prepared and should be complete in about 3 weeks - yay! External render to be hacked-off the house and barn and replaced with lime and sand pointing. This will take forever!!!! I know - it took me a month to do about 50sq.m and there's another 250sq.m to go and stonework has to be replaced in the barn walls to make it really weather tight as otherwise I shall have unwanted passengers aboard my trains . The work can neither be done when cold and wet nor hot and dry - spring and autumn time only really. A sundeck to build before the summer is here and ideally AFTER I re-point so as not to spoil the decking. A french drain (I suppose it would be french as it is where we are ) to the front of the house as we are below the level of the adjoining highway and get ingress of damp from time to time. If I've been good and my flooring timbers are dry I might be able to get started before my 68th birthday looms towards the end of the year. I have waited 40 (yes - 40years) for this layout so another year won't matter I suppose . To the layout itself - I know what I want from it and I know how it will be constructed. I'm on my 7th or 8th version of it via SCARM - BUT I am not happy with what I see. I am in the fortunate position that I have an area of 7.5m x 5.5m (24'6" x 18' in old money) with which to play. I did decide that I should not compromise on the station sizes (2) that are based on real locations. However, even with all that space available when I got to the practicalities of it all (gradients not steeper than 1:100, for example, or curves not less than 1.0m) it still can't be done as I had visualised it in my head. (Question: Should I start a thread elsewhere so I can ask pretty please for help? I'm a little reluctant to do that as I have wasted the three last evenings of my life reading 21 pages on another thread that was basically me! me! me! without any input from the OP. I wanted to shoot myself (metaphorically) by the time I got to page 10 - Mr Harlequin of this parish will know to whom I refer - it made me cross!!!) So chums out there - if you want to create your layout - even on a piece of paper or a computer screen - do it, and play around with the layout. If you can't actually do any layout work due to time/space/cash/SWIMBO, then get a piece of board, a length of track to lay it on and just use it to try out your ballasting and rail painting skills. Wire it up, place some low relief building on it use to put some stock on it to test (as I did) or just put stock on display. I found it therapeutic while I wait my turn ). Good luck and good visualising, Philip Edited: Minor typos ..... gah!

@Peterfgf @adb968008 @Garry Thanks for your info - I believe I read your posts regarding the travails of the 'burn-outs' , and the 'insurance' of having motors in stock . As I haven't YET run the thing very long nor had any load behind it, I may go for the insurance route as there is no way I would consider dumping/reselling the model on as I particularly like it. I will investigate if Mashimas are still in stock (price notwithstanding) or go for some Australian based motors (about £7 each plus P+P) that were amongst those on the list shown at about pg86. I saw last night that Olivia's had all 12 in stock (but no numbers as to how many of each), being re-motored and warrantied for between £240 and £280 a piece - which if the motors are good'uns - then it is, IMHO, still quite a lot of loco for the money. Peter, I think your offer of writing up the procedure would be much appreciated. Thanks again for your views, Philip Gah! Edited for typos.

Happy New Year everyone. I'm very late joining this particular party as I've only recently joined the RMWebbers Club and found this thread. The tales within are not terribly encouraging. I've read all 94 pages in the last three days or so with great interest as I bought one of these eons ago. I can't remember which particular one and my collection is stored away at the moment so I'm not able to access it easily. As made mention way up in this thread I can confirm there is at least a third one here in France . When I bought it, I sound chipped it almost straight away (whether before or after I ran it, I don't recall). It has run for about 1/2 hour at my local club as I have no layout or track set up. The members (all French) were mightily impressed by the loco especially as it was ever so smooth straight from the box. I can say, hand on heart, that it didn't pull anything other than itself around the track. I did not perceive any issues regarding the pony truck lifting or differences in speed between fore and aft motor units - I wasn't looking out for problems either - and the standard of the track is not good as it has been assembled and disassembled for shows many times. Track radius is in the order of 2' minimum and all in Peco 100. I do, however, have a question: Should I be buying some spare motors just in case? I think the answer will be 'yes'. If so, from where should I try to source them: a: Direct from Heljan b: From Olivia's c: From Ebay/Ali baba at about £3 - £7 a piece (I saw a list of possible sources on page 86 or thereabouts - though some seem to be sold out), or; d: Go Mashima (if still available)? Your thoughts would be welcome. Philip

@Red Fox Thanks for the additional info regarding whether the window is blank or otherwise - the matter seems to be more and more complex. However, as the number of the coach was not visible so no way of confirming one or the other, did you notice that the formation in the latter video was not being pulled by 'The Welshman' power units and that the blanked off part of the seating area window was not straight cut but rounded-off? It looks as if it's a new purpose-made glazed insert. Could this be formation LA16 that according to Abrail (mid-November 2017) is also finished in green? My head is beginning to hurt = . ............. and I haven't started any varnishing yet. Thanks too for your info regarding what you did regarding the varnish. Cheers, Phil

@Red Fox, Hi Philou again, You may want to look at these You Tube videos that I chanced upon regarding the blanked off windows in the TSD coach 'C'. You are right that the 'glossy' side toilet toplight is clear - but that seems to have been in 2015/16. In 2017, within 'The Welshman' formation, the toplight is blanked off - not in green as I had first thought but an off-white colour - the same as that shown in 'royaloak''s photo above - as indeed all the toplights in the particular video dated the 02/02/2017 seem to show. Of course it may be that other changes have occured to the toilet window between then and now. I'm going for the date of mid-November for my stock numbers as shown on the Abrail site and (unless I can find a similar off-white colour to that shown in the video) I shall keep the white of the existing stock as provided by Hornby. The good news for me was I was able to peel off the green acrylic without damaging the existing white paint below using a chisel ended cocktail stick. Anyway, here are the links to the videos if they are of use to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqIG_c8kppk dated 9/12/15 (about 1:00 in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhLpE5Z389M dated 6/02/16 (about 0:30 in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9MCAY6z4PI dated 2/02/17 (about 0:48 in). Cheers, Phil

Hi Philou, yet again, @ Red Fox, Well, I think your colour match is better than mine and thanks for the additional info regarding the 'clear' toilet window on the coach's 'gloss' side. From the photo to which "royal oak" kindly linked, I thought it was painted in gloss green. My error for not looking twice - so I'll have to take that off and not re-apply it. I like your finish on 'The Welshman' transfers - I have used the Railtec ones. What varnish did you use and perhaps more importantly how did you apply it? I'm a little nervous regarding using a brush as my finish was not to the standard of 40 years ago . I have a brand new Iwata air-brush that has never been used for any fine finish work - something else I'll have to master too. BTW, have you matt coated the all-green toilet window? I only ask as I can't tell from the photo. Good luck with finishing coach 'C' , and I hope the doors haven't been too badly affected. Cheers, Phil

Hi Philou here again, Reporting back on my colour trial. It's shown up several things: 1. Don't report on things until you've tried them out - saves peoples' eyeball time, 2. It saves typing time and eating humble pie, 3. My hand-painting skills are pants, 4. The colour in artificial light shows up as almost black when looked at at certain angles - though the colour wasn't a bad match when looked at face-on, 5. The colour in daylight is a shade too blue - almost an artificial Christmas tree green - which is disappointing. I will now try airbrushing on other pre-coloured surfaces first and also try my own mix if needs be - THEN I'll report back. Cheers, Phil

Hi Philou here again, Further to my post above, I may have a suitable colour match. It's in the Winsor & Newton 'Galeria' acrylic range called Phthalo Green. The outside of the tube matches (to my eyes) the colour of that of the HST coach near-perfectly. I've started on something small such as the toilet window toplight. Out of the tube the colour doesn't match, but it is only the first coat and the underlying white may not be a suitable base colour. I'll let you know how I get on. To those wanting to re-number, I tried the chiseled cocktail stick method again and everything was off and newly transferred in under thirty minutes. I have yet to see how the varnish I've just bought works out. Cheers, Phil

Hi Philou here, Thanks royaloak - I hadn't seen a photo of the glossy side before (. Oh well, a bit more work to the windows in view (oops - sorry) and a slightly harder job regarding paint matching. Cheers, Phil

Hi Philou here, My first ever comment on RMWeb - though I have been a regular visitor to the forums for a while! I thought I'd add my €2's worth to the discussion. I have always shied away from gloss finish on models as to my mind, the gloss look has never looked quite 'right'. However, I saw photos of the model and it looked just so good, I went and ordered a pair of power cars. I was not disappointed and similarly to martin_i_jones above, I too bought transfers from Railtec to create 'The Welshman'. The power cars look all the better for it - but I have to give them a light coating of gloss varnish. Fingers crossed I won't make a mess of it. I was fortunate enough to be able to secure 8 assorted trailers (unfortunately one too many TFs and one TS short). Those of you looking for TSs, up until Sunday night Olivia's Trains still had stock - as my missing TS is on its way from them. Can I offer some advice to those that want to do some renumbering - take care in removing the numbers as they appear to come off with a chisel-ended cocktail stick reasonably easily from one side but were a little tougher on the other - being over-enthusiastic I dug a little too much into the paintwork when removing the number on one side of one coach. Fortunately nothing too serious that won't disguised by the new number. For what it's worth, you may wish to avoid the T-Cut method because, as I understand it, it dulls the paintwork, whereas water-slide transfers prefer a glossy finish onto which they adhere more securely. The cocktail stick method did the job well (subject to the above over-enthusiasm). Next step? I'm going DCC sound in all my new loco stock so this unit will done too. Regrettably it'll have to be the MTU sound rather than the Valenta (. Also, I'm considering putting working Brake Interlock Lights in the coaches. I saw that John Gymer of YouChoos had done it to a Class 156 (?) - I was really impressed by that - so having a full rake of trailers renumbered as appropriate for LA15 (as of the 7th November this year), I may as well go the whole hog and do it, plus some internal lighting - and why not the warning bleep too? One last thing before I forget, regarding the blanking out of the window in the TSD (coach C) for the disabled persons' toilet, as mentioned further above, the window is not half blanked off - I can't get to the UK to have a look - but it appears from photographs on the web that it's more like 2/5ths clear and 3/5ths blanked out - perhaps someone could confirm? Fortunately the blanked out section lies in the matt-finish paintwork that may be a little easier to match - did anyone mention Teal Green? ) There appears to be no window blanking in the TFD (coach K) - there being no disabled persons' toilet - just dedicated seating. I'll let you know how I get on, if you like. Cheers, Phil