Departmental203

More progress on the OAA with paint being applied on the ends and one side The joys of painting plank by plank! (100023 had a very striped apperance, a photo here) It's not such a bad job, if you have a decent, flat brush, tins upon tins of paint and be prepared to use cotton buds and thinner for remendy work (a small paintbrush soaked in thinner is also useful for remedial work) and you'll need a lot of concentration! Not James Makin standards, but you get the idea And a view of the ends (there are 3 layers of pink, all slightly different shades!) Jules

Tracklaying is complete! The additions are the run-round loop in the centre and the siding adjacent to that Wiring next, hopefully, it doesn't take another year!! Jules

Now, the tracks to the station (it is a 2 platform station) and a freight siding (VERY close to the baseboard edge!) have been laid, the only thing to lay now is the run round loop for the freight yard and another siding Overall end view (sorry, my phone can hardly catch the details!) Bufferstops have been missed out deliberately-I plan to have bufferstop lights powered separetely so that they are on all the time. The bufferstops are modified Hornby ones The very squeezed point formation - not helped by being laid over an uneven piece of board!! (so sorry about the picture quality!!) More coming soon! Jules

I've had a Bachmann FNA wagon which had the same problem with it not coupling with my stock at the right height My solution is fairly simple: but it cannot cure totally bent couplings! I use a small piece of thin plasticard (I'd estimate no thicker than 20thou) as per the photo below (it's the white square) I glued with a combination of CA glue and Plastic Weld to glue the plasic. ONCE DRY, file the added plastic until it fits tightly into the NEM pocket, the usual cause of droopy couplings I find is that it's not completely tight in the pocket. Hope this helps Jules

Absolutely stunning work on these locos James! (The 37's are very fetching!) Jules

The OAA has progressed, it being in primer (well, the ends have been painted red after these photos have been taken) The buffers are the superb Lanarkshire Models and Supplies castings picked up for a mere £1.95 at the Perth show! (catalouge number BP05) More soon Jules

Just a quick update on the layout, the fiddle yard is DONE So it now has 7 roads all of which are fairly short..! The siding with wagons, half of the 156 and the siding between them was the most recently laid Now, some progress on the "scenic side" Thanks for reading, Jules

Excellent work on the Electrostar James! Jules

Very nice work on the Class 60's Will! Jules

A (slightly...!) overdue update on the layout, the main "crossover point" (2 points back to back) has been installed and holes drilled for the point motors (Gaugemaster solenoids) Terrible camera, sorry! And the curve will split into 2 roads for the fiddle yard, the curve looks a little tight IMO A FNA being tested on the curve, well it glided easily as it's a bogie wagon! (if it didnt, I'd be more than a little worried...) More soon Jules

A (quite) overdue update about the ZCA one month later.... Quite a fuzzy photo apologies but I didn't want a dark photo (blame my teribble phone camera!!) Jobs to do : add weight, couplings , paint some underframe parts white, decals and the all important weathering! And an unmentioned project, a ZCA SEA HARE in Loadhaul and the identity is confirmed as DC460254 which I started a little later than the SEA URCHIN Of course, this one's a little behind, although the W irons have been folded up. More soon! Jules

A nice set of projects Lee! Jules

This is one interesting project Will, good luck with the track laying as of course, EM is harder than OO gauge! Jules

Good work Jack! Keep it up Jules

Exams are now over, so I started with a Cambrian ZCA (ex OBA type) and gave it a few coats of primer I think it's strange that I have bothered to recrate the different solebar layout of the ZCA but not crate the rib to underframe fixings, strange!! And completely forgot about sticking on workplates and label clips, need to do that!! I'm certain its going to go Mainline but I'm not certain of a running number!! Forgot to say my OAA will (try to) represent a very faded and careworn 100023, prototype pic here (as it wasn't converted with mesh sides according to Rail Express Modeller, and my originally intended 100033 has) Cheers, for reading, Jules

Yes, this is what I've resorted to do, I feel it's a better method for curves because when I did my first road, I cut the rails first then solder it was tough tyring to align rail ends together and is still not perfect!! Just a point - put solder on the underside of the rails as well as the sleepers, I forgot to do this and for the 4th road the rails came off!! Due to exams, progress has been at a snail's pace, but, they're DONE!! Just need to get some points to progress with the layout, hope I get them soon. Very sorry for the late replies, I never check my layout content because I've never looked at it for a while, but I hope I'll churn out more posts and maybe temporarily divert from wagons????? Jules

Exams are nearly over, phew! I've been busy working on an OAA body from Hornby and here is the current progress Usual story as the solebars are Cambrian with only a few modifications, so it's not quite correct for an OAA! Door strapping is thin slivers of 10 thou plasticard sheet sliced very thinly with the scapel, the door posts are slightly thicker at 20 thou. Looking at recent photographs, the stapping is not qite full height, the moulded extras were sliced back with a scapel. A few strange little "spots" were also removed with the scalpel The floor is 40 thou plascticard, which brought the solebars to the right height but maybe more would be needed for any W irons (I'm thinking Bill Bedford sprung ones, hope they take OO wheels!!) Cheers, Jules

I am doing 394829 in DB Shenker red as per this photo, it's now almolst faded to white! I am depicting it when it was only a month or so out of the workshop. The underframe is getting painted now Cheers, Jules

There are no specific packs for the MHA, however, Fox does produce a general numbering sheet in EWS Gold (you'll have to place each number on the panel yourself) which is of the right font for the late build MHA's, click here for the link. There are a few variations in font, backing background or font colour. For example, 394601 has its panel handwritten in white, in unboxed style (on one side only), a picture of it can be found here, the other side is a standard panel. For earlier build MHA's, from about 394209, the EWS lettering and the number panel are in Gill Sans, and Fox, again produce a pack for this, and the link can be found for the pack here and a prototype photo here. For the very early MHA's with handwriting in EWS gold, there are no options for this in the market today and the font is unusual, so is more difficult to produce accurately Due to 394829 being a one-off, I think I'll ask Railtec to produce it as a custom order Good luck, Jules

MHA underframe - finished! (still needs paint though!) The brake levers were made by filing some brass sheet, the brake lever guide and (I have no idea what it's called, maybe something to do with the brakes), the little white piece below the brake levers in the second photo were styrene. The brake levers are pretty thick as this photo shows! Next stage would be to paint the underframe as if 394829 was only recently out of Marcroft (however, the W irons remained coated in track dirt on its first runs) so weathering will be minimal and still need to get some transfers! Happy modelling, Jules

More work on my red MHA, adding the little details missing on the donor chassis For the brake accentuators, the Hornby moulding is the black one on the right and my attempt is on the left made from styrene In real life they have two per wagon to activate the two disc brakes (one on each axle) so should I bother making another four for the MHA's (maybe later, perhaps...?) as the Hornby model only have one fitted, not two Again, the Hornby moulding for the auxiliary suspension (I think) is the black one on the left, and my attempt (made from styrene rod and brass wire) Still need to add brake lever (suggestions on how to make one are welcome). Need to paint them to hide the white styrene though (the brake accentuators are already painted, my terrible camera can't pick it up well in the photo!!) Cheers, Jules

Something a little different here, a Bachmann 170! I did mention earlier that the pickup wires came off because the pickups turned oily black and I used too much vigour removing the dirt! Rather than just resoldering the existing pickup wires, I used thicker wire because I felt the Bachmann ones looked a little flimsy IMHO What I actually did was instead of replacing the whole pickup wire (for the long pickup wire going down the body), I soldered the new one onto the existing one (which was shortened) around halfway down the chassis (I hope the explanation was clear enough!!) For the pair of pickup wires nearest the camera (below), I unsoldered the old ones and soldered the new ones in. However, the wires weren't flexible enough to mount the circuit board to its original mounting lugs so tape did the trick and the body fitted - probably just! Testing on the fiddle yard...it worked! Relief! (A little stalling though, probably as I very rarely take it out for a spin) Cheers, Jules

(A little) more progress here, I should have more time in theory due to holidays exam prep! Still, have to saw the track and add copperclad sleepers but was pretty quick progress for me! (2 days=2 roads) Class 37/4 37411 on test Jules

Can't believe the last update was LAST CHRISTMAS! Since then, not much has changed (EXAMS, HOMEWORK, EXAMS...in the way!!) I should focus more on the layout, now the dark months are (almost) over!! Main change is the building up of the fiddle yard road and replacing a straight point with a curved one purchased at Glasgow and that straight point has been placed somewhere else (as these photos show) Used the ZBA to test for kinks (as my track laying is questionable...) And this is where the straight point has moved to... And the curved point that has been sitting there for a month now!! (so lazy, when will I ever get this finished??) Jules

Sorry, my computer managed to post the same post twice! Had to erase this one