roythebus1

Every little helps! I've had this air brush since about 1972 when they were first introduced here from the USA and never really had much luck with it! I know when I'm stirring 5 litre tins of paint for painting buses I used the battery drill with one of those big rotating things you can get in B&Q, that seems to work ok! I'll try the bent wire in the dremel tomorrow. My right foot is green where I spilt paint on it on Thursday.

Being a former railwayman and always trying to use the train when I can, I used to go to Europe quite often in the course of my business repairing old London buses. I've also got a holiday chalet in the Ardennes which I used to visit several times a year. So much so that I used to get 2 books of Frequent Traveller tickets which was in effext 10 journeys paid for up front @ £40 a journey. Given that "most' departures were deemed "pek times" there was often a £20 surcharge. that was fine as I live about 15 minutes form the tunnel and the journey time of 35 minutes was excellent when it ran as it should. I still have a few journeys left from the pre-covid era which Eurotunnel honoured until the end of 2022. So this year I needed to go to europe again and found no more Frequent Traveller tickets were on offer. a quick look on their website seemed to have the cheapest fare during the night was £136 and during the day £168 each way. Clearly this was a struggle despite me and boat travel not combining very well!! I took the plunge and looked at ferry fares online. the cheapest on there was P&O at about £58 each way, Irish Ferries @ £68 each way and DFDS @ £78 each way. I plumped for the Irish Ferries fare of £68 eah way plus a £12 add-on to go in the "executive lounge" where I could sit in relative peace and quiet for the crossing with meals and drinks provided. I could have gone cheaper with P&O but my trade union principles wouldn't let me support a firm that treated its staff so abysmally a couple of years ago. Quite how Eurotunnel expect anyone to afford their fares is a mystery. The"Flexible" ticket with priority boarding is now £325 each way! And with their normal fares more than double tht of the ferries I doubt i'll be using the tunnel in the near future.

I thinned down some Precision Paint green and had a bash at spraying some brass kits. It took several coats to get decent coverage but I still get the nozzle clogging. Paint was well stirred well with a broad plastic spatula. Now wondering why the nozzle keeps clogging. It was cleared by just screwing the needle up tight and opening it again. I'm using white spirit to thin the paint at 25psi. any more ideas?

Join the Campaign for Real Train Sets! The things we could only ever dream of in our childhood.

Maybe not, I was using etch primer 60/40 mix. I'm aware that only a thin coat is really needed. Maybe I need to thin it a bit more. What would you suggest for top coat, Precision Paints, oil-based. also what air pressure? PP website suggest 30 psi and 10 psi for etch, but at that pressure nothing was picking up.

Problem solved I think!! Having been in touch with Barwell, the Badger parts stockist, I had several problems. A medium nozzle with fine needle, so I got a fine needle. that didn't really improve things. A stock of the little neoprene washers. That didn't improve things. A new air valve and some new paint jars. Even that lot didn't improve things, still not drawing paint up. I did seem to notice a bit of air escaping where the air valve screws onto so tightened that as far as I could. Still no joy, still leaking air. So, out with the fine carborundum stick and lightly rub the flat surface to make sure it's flat, AND put a wipe of air brake pipe sealant on the mating face. Problem solved! I think.. I've had the air brake sealant for years, I use it on air brake systems on my vintage buses. I mixed a bit of etch primer and that seems to work ok but tends to clog the pick-up pipe rather quickly, but job done. I'll try some Precision Paints top coat later today. My portable workshop compressor is being used at lase, it's a bit noisy in the railway room but the small airbrush will take quite a while to use 50 litres of air!

I think I could do another one if I get the one one on Ebay. but can I get the driving wheels?? Markits out of stock of 21mm drivers.

Maybe the Belgian railways have the right idea and have banned ALL heritage traction much to the chagrin of the Belgian railway enthusiasts. They look to us with great envy; the Czech railways have just had a 3 day steamfest, no doubt the Germans will have another plandamf before the year is out. the SNCB/NMBS authorities blame it on ERTMS, can't be fitted to steam locos!

As the header says, has anyone done a video or instructions of the best way to build the Finetrax double slip? I've just got one and a B7 turnout, watched the video of the chap with the Bexhill West branch, very interesting his approach to things. I'm having to replace a troublesome hand-built double slip on my layout, I can never get the blades moving properly.

Thanks, useful, I've just been offered the parts I need from someone on here. Could I muster the enthusiasm to do another one? Maybe...

When I used to be in the cast metal bus kit business many years ago the brass patterns usually had over-thick beading for a reason. At that time most modellers didn't possess an airbrush, relying on over-thick coats of paint. when thsi was done, it reduced the thickness of the beading by quite a bit! For bogies, try and get hold of some of the ABS LNER bogie kits, they are superb. Produced by the late Adrian Swain, I'm not sure who has the moulds and patterns for them now. I've got a few of those bogie kits lying around.

Looks like I'll have to get the Comet valve gear kit. With my fading eysight and arthritis trying to make small bits is difficult these days, unless anyone comes up with bits of a Kemilway fret.. I've spent a few hours making up the Dapol tender, cutting out the dummy coal and fitting the inside of the bunker, replacing plastic handrails with metal and proper handrail knobs. The High Level gearbox and motor now fit snugly in the firebox. I note there's a shortage of Markits 21mm driving wheels, I need some for other round tuit projects!

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I ended up using a high level models gearbox in the firebox with the motor as cctrans suggested. I done a search for branchlines and that gos straight to our Australian friend who does the Black Beetle motor bogies! I'll try the link above...I did contact them a year or so ago when I re-discovered this project, I'm sure the lady there said she may have some damaged frets lying around. Yes, painting the thing is pain, hence the need to strip it down to get the chassis painted!! Nest problem was the crank covers that I superglued to the Romford driving wheels...try getting 40 year old superglue off! I broke one of the Romford axles wiggling the wheel to get it off. I'll remember to paint the new Dapol body before I go too far with the project. Of course we never thought of these things back in the day. I've still got at least 4 K's Black Fives to finish off, 3 of them have Kean Portescap motors and are all missing parts. :( And 2 full-sized BEA half deck coaches to finish. Retirement is fun.

You mght try using less solder, I use an Antec variable temperature iron. "normal" solder I ind works best at about 350-400 degrees, use a fine-tip for this sort of work using a very small dot of solder to tack things into place, not forgetting to use flux! I'm still learning and have been building stuff for over 60 years now.

Revisiting this project, I wasn't happy with the Kean/Portescap motor in the firebox as it took up a lot of the cab as well. I bought a new body kit from a trader at the Faversham show the other week so decided to fit a High Level Gears set-up which I can actually hide indie the firebox without cutting the cab away. However I'm still missing some of the valve gear. If anyone has a scrap fret or where I could get one it would be helpful. It seems I'm missing more than I thought! I managed to ose the eccentric crank and rod whilste working on the chassis yesterday, the carpet hasn't revealed it yet, not has the workbench. The new body kit provided the from pony truck I used a couple of 2mm bushes on the axle and they run in 1/8" driving wheels fitted into the pony truck box. Not ideal but it ought to work. If Comet are still trading maybe I'll try them again for a spare fret. Ther "Branchlines" range seems to have disappeared.

Pity Hornby hobbies didn't use it on their batch of class 31 diesels from about 14 years ago!

In the 1970s there was a backing in incident at Euston. We were told about it in the traction trainee school so it must be true. A new Carribean shunter was at the leading end of a train being propelled by 3000hp of electric loco on the other end, the instruction was that when approaching the stops the shunter would apply the brake. After the big Bang, the driver went to see if said shunter was ok and why he hadn't applied the brake. "De ting won't turn no more"... he'd applied the hand brake, not the train brake!

Yes indeed! I've just found my LT drawings of the CO/CP entre cars which will give anyone producing them accurate drawings to go by, as well as 38 tube stock DM nd trailer, and Metropolitan Railway min-line stock, 9 compartments! these ar table-size drawings, so pleas don't ask for copies. These are drawings I got from Griffin house in the early 1970s and have the Chiswick works stamp on them. Sadly they lack underfram and bogie details. If anyone can get CDC to contact me I'd be happy to get the Met coach copied if he wants to do a model of it. It's easier than contacting via ebay! When did the last "Chesham"style set run as an electric train? Thoughts for a motorised variant. :)

Ha, my Chesham set arrived this morning. what a lovely model, it captures the atmosphere of the set rather nicely. the only minor niggle is the bogie pivots, 3 of them had fallen out in transit. I've tried to stick them back in with a spot of superglue! Hopefully they don't fall out on the layout somewhere. I suppose if I live enough years to finish everything else, I could spend time fitting wire handrails.. I've fitted Kadee couplings which I use as standard on my layout and to my surprise they are the right height as well. I may well fit some of those little magnetic couplings between coaches when I find the packet that arrive last week, put somewhere safe as usual, never to be found again. A super model, well worth the price, ready-to-run, all it needs to finish off is transfers. Very pleased with it. Well done CC Models. If anyone fancies motorising it, it will need a 28mm motor bogie. :)

Having recently witnessed some of the very late night Watford-LHR buses running full to capacity, that may be another source of traffic. But then with the local bus fare at £2, it represents excellent value. Natex coach fare was £6.

And in the fiddle yard at Waterloo, me changing ends for another trip to Bank.

Shanklin.

One from the archives..

Reminds me, I must get my Kitmaster set finished!! ISTR a BP set being used for a trip on the PAdd-OOC shuttle for an open day back in the 1970s. I had a look inside the set at OOC and still have the souvenir ticket somewhere.

Or the Italain girl back in the mid-1960s who told her mama she wanted to be "Veectoria Choo bellini." Mama asked her to explain, and she showed her mama the Evening News headline "Victoria Tube Line laid by 2000 men in 2 years"