MAP66

There are LED coach lighting kits on the market now with integrated decoders, here's one example; https://www.dcctrainautomation.co.uk/esu-50708-digital-led-lighting-integrated-decoder.html I wish I could offer some helpful advice regarding best way/method for electrical pickup from the coach wheels. I have zero experience on that topic and the first time I will need to dabble in that area is when I eventually build the High Level chassis kit for the Airfix14XX and add the pick ups for that. I'm a person who hardly ever thinks ahead, too much info hurts my brain. Causes me no end of problems, but I normally end up dealing with such things when I actually get to that stage. I hope your able to work something out, keep us all posted 🙂

Thanks Neal, I agree and although I've never tried them they look a good solution. However, in my case I am relying entirely on electrical pick up from the loco. Although it's short wheelbase the decoders have built in stay alive capacity so this should overcome those annoying stalls over turnouts and dirty track.

To answer your question, it’s probably best to first provide a re-cap of the master plan which still lives in my head, here goes… The auto coach is the first of two projects, the second which will run after completion of the auto coach will be the upgrading of the Airfix 14XX loco. The auto coach and 14XX will then be run together as an auto train and will always be permanently coupled together. Due to this configuration, it should be possible to house the sound decoder and possibly speaker within the luggage compartment of the auto coach if space is limited in the loco itself. In any case, I have provided two location options to house decoder and speaker. So, power for the decoder will still be via pick ups from the loco itself and not from the coach bogies. Various concealed decoder wires will be routed from the loco to the coach which will be dependant on final location of sound decoder and speaker. That decision will be made once the chassis has been built for the loco and is offered up to the body shell to see how much space is available. With that bit out of the way, I’m looking into sound decoders which have the 14XX sound file and enough function capability for the lighting control I'm after. Not sure about the voltage output as yet, this is one of many questions I need to put to possibly YouChoos as they have a Zimo sound decoder that on paper, seems to fit the bill. More on this to come when I know more. Unfortunately, that’s no use to your question on how to get power from the coach bogie wheels. Maybe instead, use a simple 3v battery coach lighting kit, there is room in the luggage compartment to house the battery and holder, with the on/off switch located under the coach. The one in the photo is from Railway Scenics (usual disclaimers etc). It fits the auto coach very well and it states that the battery gives about 60hrs of continuous use.

I couldn't resist taking a pic of the auto coach in the dark and I was right about light bleed. Luckily though it is only really noticeable at the luggage end which is probably being exaggerated by the 2 wires slightly pushing against the roof, causing it to rise slightly. Some slight wire manipulation or magnet re-positioning should solve this. More importantly though, I'm happy with the lighting effect as shown below.

Onwards and upwards, upwards anyway to the inside of the coach roof, as it’s time to tackle the lighting. Before you ask, no I haven’t finished painting the top lights or upholstering the seating – I got a bit bored with that so wanted something else to focus on. For the coach lighting I trial fitted a strip of yellow LED’s from one of those 3v battery powered coach lighting kits. The strip has a self-adhesive backing, so that was a doddle to stick to the underside of the roof. I aligned it centrally and made sure that all LED’s were positioned within the compartment spaces. A couple of decoder wires were soldered in place to the + and – terminal pads located at the end of the strip, that end being the luggage compartment. These 2 wires will in time be connected to the decoder when purchased. For now, the supplied 3v battery does the job for testing purposes. This particular LED strip can be cut to length at marked places and has resistors built in, which is why I favoured it as I can cut one LED off and use it independently for lighting the driving cab. So, one lighting function on the decoder for coach lighting and another function for directional lighting controlling the cab light and directional lamps. That’s the theory anyway. I expect there to be some light bleed emitting from the mating surface of the roof edge and coach body where they meet. If, as I think, there is then I may have a solution. Need to wait till its dark to see how bad it is. Quick and dirty wire up to check the LEDS - all working 👍 Feed wires soldered on and still working OK. Note the single LED for the cab is not fitted yet. How it looks with the roof fitted and lights on. Unable to judge the effect in day light but you can just make out a gentle glow.

Progressing slowly but it’s looking more how I want it to now. Just using the effect of paint to represent the drop light and top light mouldings as opposed to numerous strips of plasticard. Adding the leather window straps also helps the effect, made from masking tape painted leather brown.

You may have noticed from my last post that the drop lights are still in the process of being painted. Thankfully, this has now been completed. It required 3 thinned down coats in total and it took ages. Surprisingly, not being put off by this, I did a Bob Ross and made a decision. That being to paint the internal face of the top lights above the main windows. The photo showing the interior of the preserved auto coach at Didcot shows the top lights to have a mahogany colour type finish. I wanted to try and do something similar and after some tedious masking off, the result on the first section of top lights is shown below. I quite like how it looks, so will continue and yes, it’s going to take a little while. I found out not to thin the paint too much, otherwise it has an annoying tendency to creep under the masking tape 😖 Preserved carriage 190 (Didcot) showing the top lights. My effort!

Well, the mini break to Wales done the trick, despite the weather trying its hardest to put a damper on it and us not getting to the summit of Snowdon due to 70mph gusts, we still thoroughly enjoyed the break. Now, suitably dried out after returning to slightly less wet Somerset, it’s back to the modelling. I finally managed to solve the roof problem and have held it snugly in place using mini neodymium magnets. I fitted two at the cab end, one above each of the cab doors and another two at the loco end, one in line with the luggage compartment partition and one on the end bulkhead. It done the job and there is a satisfying pull and snap when the roof fits into place. It did take quite a bit of steady hand ‘squeaky bum’ concentration though at the cab end as it required me to cut away a slot in the top internal side of the cab doors to help locate the magnets and also a matching aligning slot in the coach roof. Its easy to put the scalpel in too far and come out the other side as there’s not much meat to the plastic in that area. Never mind, I’ve got plenty of filler. Close up of slot cut into the top of drivers door. Magnet installed. View of the whole coach and roof. All the gouge and scratch marks on the roof underside are my previous failed attempts to make this work. And the proof, roof held in place upside down. No magic or other such trickery used. Just magnets 👍

I am still here, even though my last post was over a month ago. I’ve been struggling with a solution for fitting the coach roof back on. It needs to be a fairly tight and secure fit to avoid any light bleed as I intend to add coach lighting. It also needs to be removable to provide access to the coach interior. The original method for securing the roof was provided by lugs on the side glazing panels which located into receiving slots moulded to the roof underside. I removed the mouldings from the roof as they fouled against my partitions and the glazing is being replaced anyway which I why another method of securing the roof is required. There has been some recent discussion to this end over at @Aston On Clun and I am most grateful to @MrWolf @Nick C @Limpley Stoker and @Schooner for their suggestions and contributions to get this sorted. I have since ordered magnets!!! In other news, the Mrs is now well past the 12 weeks post op from heart surgery and is doing very well indeed. As a reward for us both we are going on a mini break to Welsh Wales (Just as this glorious weather decides to stop, how marvellous). So, all being well, this thread should resume normal service again shortly after we return – Mid July(ish).

Has he been to the chop shop yet to fit in the cab?

Thanks Mike, that sounds like it has potential. I'll look into it and let you know how I get on. I'll post progress back on Tyteford Halt in due course. As I think there might be several more related contributions of Stuka's bombing buses on bridges imminently.

Funny enough, magnets were my first go to option but I couldn't get them to fit right due to the curvature of the roof, I did try to cut one down at an angle but without success. I think magnets could work but I just can't figure it out. I think you would need quite strong magnets and that makes it bigger and harder to fit and disguise 🤔

I hope you can find the bits as that is a great solution. Unfortunately, I was unable to remove my glazing without it shattering, for some reason the bottom edge had been glued in place to the inside of the coach body on each side and it wasn't shifting. I had to nibble it away bit by bit and ended up with a thousand pieces. Me being me, I also completely removed the roof lugs as I found that they were fouling on my partitions. I need an ingenious way to solve this, I think my friction fit idea could work if I can execute some exacting measuring and marking out (something I'm not known for) more of a bish, bash bodger me 🤪

Hi Rob, you have a more than fair to middling chance of catching me up and overtaking me, as I have done absolutely zilch with the auto coach since my last post. I’m stumped on finding a satisfactory solution for fitting the roof on. My last idea was a friction type fit but that wasn’t working out as planned. So, to take my mind of it, I’ve been taking my frustration out with some hard grafting in the garden. Now, suitably knackered from digging footings for a retaining wall, I guess there’s no excuse for me to get my thinking cap back on and get back to the coach roof.

That's some nice figure painting, great flat tones and subtle colour blends with shading - no glossy looking figures here. You've done well to pick out the white shirt collar on the chap in the middle, without getting white paint elsewhere and I particularly like the grubby shirt on the gardener.

Thankfully you survived to tell the tale, with only a few singed hairs. Quick thinking with the fuel cut off saved the day by the sound of it. I hope the bike is not too damaged after the ordeal and no doubt you will be laughing this off over a pint or two later on.

I could be shot down for being incorrect on this but one of the reasons often quoted by my Uncle Jim about the Sten gun jamming, and I quote “Well what do you expect when it was built buy a bloody toy company”. This is also an attempt to bring trains back into the conversation as well, as Uncle Jim was of course referring to Lines Brothers and their brand name ‘Triang’.

Its no good staring out of the window Albert, your ticket is out of date and you're about to be found out by sharp eyed GWR ticket inspector Ernest Clipper.

I think the works dept would have ensured that a mains supply could be tapped off from the feed to the water tower before siting the grounded van and the necessary ground works were undertaken to run in the new water supply.

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, I have been taking advantage of the good weather, undertaking some 1:1 scale modelling in the garden and the patio should be finished at the weekend. There has been some very slow progress on the auto coach interior and the non-smoking section is at least almost complete, all the seats are now upholstered within this section and all that remains are some vintage GWR notices and holiday posters to add. The smoking section will take much longer to complete, much more seating. Serves me right really, as I should have just painted them. Below we find regular passenger Albert Cushing trying out the new seating. I think I have his vote of approval.

That looks a bit good does that. One for the realistic modelling thread when you have completed the scene!

Thank you Steve, It does help to be slightly mad to think up this stuff and a great deal of patience to see it through. I’ve found that my patience has grown over the past few years after returning to the hobby. It’s almost certain, that if I had taken on this 5 years ago, it would have ended up in the bin. P.S Please inform Col. Archie Pickled-Onion (retired) CMB that his order of 500 vacuum hoses will be ready for collection this side of never (give or take a couple of Millenia) 🤪

Appreciate that Rob, that was one of those tasks which causes you to tell yourself, almost immediately after starting, “you twatmus, what were you thinking of” and “no wonder there’s no info out there on how to do this”. I was, however, determined to see it through to the bitter end and glad I did as it turned out… sweet dude. I take it the club badge and T shirt are in the post. In the meantime I will follow club rules while out in public by wearing my underpants on my head and inserting two pencils up my nostrils. 😄

After some considerable ‘effing and jeffing’ mainly caused by small parts held in tweezers with the inevitable ping “Eff it” moment, followed by “Bollox, never going to see that again” I eventually triumphed and completed one, yes just one, flexible vacuum hose. The flexible hose part was fairly straight forward as explained previously, using the 5A fuse wire. The pain in the ar5e challenge was the rigid pipe section and forming the 90˚bend while still allowing cable to pass through. I used some 1.1mm o/d brass tube and bored this out to an internal diameter of 0.8mm. It was then a case of cutting a 45˚ mitre (let’s just say it took a while). Finally, I achieved the mitre and threaded both pieces of tube onto a length of decoder wire. The two angled pieces where then superglued together to form the 90˚ bend. Being extra careful not to get any glue on the decoder wire! Success, the glue held the join and the wire was still free to move inside the tube. I’m using the decoder wire as a draw wire to pull through the required number of much thinner enamelled copper wire at a later stage. It was then a case of passing the flexible hose over the decoder wire and gluing to the rigid 90˚ bend. I then used a crank pin washer at the end of the flexible hose to mimic the connection coupling and some ‘glue n glaze’ applied with a small brush to add some chamfers etc. Anyway, the name of the game was to come up with a flexible vacuum brake and steam hose for permanent coupling between coach and loco which could carry decoder wires within it and resemble the hoses supplied in the detailing kit, so here it is…. On the left, one of the hoses supplied in the kit. On the right, my flexible hose as a comparison. And finally, a close up of the tricky little !!**?? 🤪

My awaited supplies arrived yesterday, so I am now able to continue my experimentations with the flexible vacuum hoses. That will be for Thursday, as today its Jill’s post op follow up, so will be off to Bristol for best part of the day. There has been some more progress with the passenger step levers and they are now attached to the partition wall. It was again a worthwhile decision to not yet glue the partitions in place, thus allowing assembly and attachment of the levers outside of the coach. The completed sub-assembly of the partition wall leading into the smoking compartment, complete with step levers. A glimpse of what's available to see through the window. And your overhead shot. The lever guards are made from brass strip, off one of the frets from the detailing kit.