TT100 Diesels

Lovely work, the low down shots through the platform 'clutter' really pop. Brings the whole thing to life for me. Very nice indeed. Cheers TT100 Diesels.

That's a lovely looking BG, thanks for posting @Red Devil. More 'wallet stress' ! Workbench progress, 37403 still waiting for me to be in the right 'mood' to tackle the flush glazing, I know from previous loco's, need to feel up for it, as there is little margin for error. In the meantime the test build of the first of the Dogfish ballast hopper wagons has been progressing very nicely. By taking the good advice in the instructions, painted the hopper separately, but when dry fitting it all together, there is not much wriggle room for some areas of chassis plus it looked like weathering would also be difficult, especially dry brushing into tiny spaces. So I decided to go the whole hog and paint and weather the three main sub assemblies before bonding them together. So these are, hopper, chassis and discharge chutes. The pair of wheelsets have since had some white dry brushing as well. So, all together now ! The only areas not weathered on the test build are the upper vertical hopper sides, because I need to order up the decals from Railtec and apply them pre weathering. View on opposite vac cylinder end. I will be honest, the hopper to chassis fit is not perfect, so I ended up on a compromise job. But at this scale, its ok at layout viewing distance. The actual model is about 50% smaller than this cruel close up ! Peering over into the hopper. Once the final bit of weathering is done, I think the rattle can matt varnish should tone it all down and blend it all together nicely. Thinking about the other 7 wagons, it will need to be a sub assembly build, paint, decal, weather type procedure, then bring them all together and glue them all up at the end. Still giving thoughts to @03060 's advice on a chassis jig, but now I know I can pop the wheelsets in later ok, I don't require two pairs of hands, so may do one more chassis freestyle and decide after that one. Cheers D.

Hi folks, I have dug out pics for the 91 Beattock shenanigans, as hinted at in the above Class 90 post, its a whacky ensemble, would love to see anyone model this in any scale..... Like with 90001 above, when 91009 was used to carry out the traction testing element of the type testing, it was based off Polmadie depot and ran to and from Carlisle on the WCML to take in Beattock on a couple of days. The core formation based off Polmadie was 91009 hard wired to Test Car 10, then six MKIII sleepers and Class 43 "ma set DVT" (i.e. unpowered and control supplies tapped off a coach ma set in the former guards brake area). The previous day, an additional 10 MKIII sleepers were added to the formation, just for that days testing but on this day, 27/04/1989, something quite different was cooking in the pot........ Here we are in the loops at the former Beattock station. 91009 / TC10 / 6 x MKIII sleepers / 43014 has eased up to the rear of a train comprising 85015 heading 9 x bogie flats loaded up with rails. The shunter is busy coupling up while the crews are discussing the plan of action. Zero hour approaches, we are all ready to depart from the former Beattock station, with 91009 doing the work, and 85015 staying off the power unless we got into difficulties. Just in case, 86502 over on the right has been assigned as an additional "Thunderbird", the insurance policy if you like. Not a bad idea given 47466 had to rescue 90001 on one of its Beattock traction tests a little over a year earlier (see above post). We get a cheery wave from the 86's driver. Digging Into the climb, a "train surfers" eye view of the world, well actually the comfy 'B' drivers seat (second mans side) in 91009 ! Already gaining height, the M74 can be seen well down below in the valley. Up towards the summit, it started to drizzle and 91009 started to slip quite a bit, but managed to keep the ensemble moving and made it into the summit loops without disgracing itself. The 85 and its train have been detached and are already away to Mossend while 91009 and its train are sat in the summit loop, awaiting the road to clear for the run back to Polmadie. However, all was not well, as we took power, a general fault flagged up, and the usual pan up resets auto locked out a bogie group (pair of traction motors, cannot remember which group, it was too long ago.......). I discovered a pair of main traction fuses had blown, so it was back to Polmadie on half traction power. With good old Red Star parcels available, was able to get a replacement pair of traction fuses whistled up overnight from Bounds Green to Glasgow Central, and then fitted before departure time (I do remember having to skip breakfast that morning to sort this out). At the time, quite a few 91's blew bogie group sets of main traction fuses, and a fleet mod solved the issue soon afterwards. So, definitely 'prototype for everything' as far as I am concerned 😉, hope this has been an interesting interlude, again, apologies for the not brilliant tab cam print grabs. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Faced with a packet of loose wheels and axles, I was thinking that I might need to make a jig to help with accurate assembly. However, I decided to just mess about with them and see how easy it is or not to just push the wheels on, using a bit of scrap wood to protect the pin point axle end while pushing wheels on. By simply measuring the distance from pin point axle end to outer face of wheel pan on each and equalising it got them about right, then in with a b2b gauge to tweak the absolute setting. Ok the first one was a bit of a faff, but once I got a measure of the approx distance from pin point to outer face by eye, deciding to just have a go the same methodology on the other 15 wheelset components needed for the wagon build was actually surprisingly quick and easy. Perhaps if I had 50 odd to do, developing a jig might have been worth it, but the 16 I needed were done quick. It was a pack of 20, some wheel pan bushes were not right so out of true wheels, so effectively of no use. All my other stocks of 9 and 10.5 wheelsets came ready assembled so only required a b2b check before use. Hope this makes sense. Also, I don't possess any proper machine tools. Cheers D.

All this request stuff @keefer !, well go on then, I just had another shuffle about through my old pics and found some 90 snaps. They are quick tab cam grabs of prints so apologies for the poor quality. But hopefully still sufficiently interesting enough to make up for poor quality picture renditions. So, here we are close to Bay Horse OLE Neutral section. It brand new 90003 on its delivery run to Shields depot to take up driver training duties. Err except on this occasion its not. Transformer gas detector trip, so its early bath time. Coasted to the peg to declare the failure and request assistance. Date is 22/02/1988. Due to the slightly inconvenient location of the failure, 47463 was "thunderbirded" out to us pronto. Seen here at Carnforth UDGL waiting for a path back to Crewe works BREL. Just unlucky really, it had got through light engine and load test commissioning running tests ok, so usually stuff like this would have got weeded out. Had a while to wait at Carnforth and I knew some colleagues would be passing by soon, here it is, 90001 on type testing duty, scuttling back to Crewe on a test run from Crewe to Carlisle and back. Note that "Ten Car" is coupled to the loco and is umbilically mated to it with hundreds of instrumentation connections from inside the the loco's equipment back to the recording kit on board Test Car 10. I should probably re name this post as "the naughty nineties". This time its 90001 on type test duty on 07/03/1988. Location, Beattock summit loops - Edit note, looked again, clearly not in the summit loops, duff notes! Most likely its while awaiting the 'duff' to arrive to give assistance. Note end - 90001 is engaged on traction testing elements of the type test programme and was based out of Polmadie depot. Well loco and hard wired Test Car 10. It was a case of running light to Mossend yard to tie onto the test load, 21 Freightliner flats loaded with rails. Testing then carried out on a return to Carlisle with 47466 at Carlisle tying on the back to assist turning the entire ensemble on the triangle options available. The 47 was stationed at Carlisle New Yard for this manoeuvre. It was then booked to shadow us back north as far as Beattock summit. Just as well really as on the ascent of Beattock from the south, 90001 slipped to a stand at MP 44 1/2 on load 1,078 tons. So 47466 was "Thunderbird - No. 2" in this case ! And banked us the rest of the way to the summit. The next day, 90001 was out to play again on the exact same diagram, but with one exception, it needed to visit the diesel refuelling point at Kingmoor depot. Errm, getting into the 'prototype for everything thread' territory now ! Well, its all above board, it was a planned pit stop to top up the fuel tanks on Test Car 10 for the gen sets. The wagon load was stabled out of the way while the fuelling move was carried out. On the run back to Mossend and Polmadie, deep in the splendid Southern Uplands, a 47 hauled freight heading south passes us by. I also have some fun and games on Beattock with a 91, defo hard core 'prototype for everything', but that's for another time 😉. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Thanks @keefer for posting this, what a great photo so thanks also to @Dave F for the initial post on his thread. Interestingly, its a much later unit in the build sequence and into spring 1987. I was on other stuff by then so clearly missed out on a blast down the WCML to the Citadel....... However, not that much later, was coming the other way on class 90's, must do some more digging into old pictures to see what I can find, just be test run stuff though. Lovely to see these little nuggets of railway history unearthed and shared. Thanks again. Cheers TT100 Diesels

This is interesting, I only ever went Inverclyde and that was all that was booked the times I was around, and one of the reasons they went there was for 'live' cab radio commissioning tests. I recollect that a radio specialist from the regional side came along especially to carry out the radio element of the dynamic commissioning. But I was only relief cover on that job so not on the 318 commissioning all that much. Interesting, all the same. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Thanks for your comments and interest @keefer. Staying on the steel build MKIII derived multiple unit stock theme, we take a trip to Scotland to have a peek at the new class 318 EMU's. It's 03/09/1986 and we find brand new 318262 undergoing static commissioning at Glasgow Shields depot. These new build units were initially procured to support the extension of electrification to Ayr. At the time, the new 318's represented the third generation of units on the Glasgow electrified network. In this view taken on the same day in the yard at Shields depot, we find an original 'Blue Train' class 303, PEP derived 314213, and new kid on the block, 318258. Not all the commissioning was carried out at Shields depot. Dynamic commissioning test runs were arranged to run out on the Inverclyde routes to Gourock or Wemyss Bay. Again, on the same day (static work on 318262 and a test run, must have been a busy day !) we were out at Gourock with 318257 and 218263 on commissioning run duties. Thank for the continued interest, and it's quite fun digging back through old photos. How time flies, thick end of 40 years ago 🤔 back then 318's were shiney new things, and today they are the current oldest generation of EMU's on the Glasgow electric network. The relentless march of time..... Cheers TT100 Diesels

Thank you for the clarification Andy, Cheers Dave.

Staying on the Sprinter theme, going back to early 1987, production sprinters of the 150/2 variety were fitted with through gangway doors, and otherwise reverted back to a number of prototype Sprinter design features following problems with design changes away from the prototypes on the initial production batch, the 150/1's. Principally, the drivers vestibule doors reverted back to the sliding type, it was hinged on the /1. Electrical systems were also reverted back following problems with design changes on the /1. On the /2, the alternators and the control system relays reverted back to prototype configuration. In the early days of the /1's, a slam of the cab door caused no end of energised control relays to 'drop out', oops.... And anyone remember this? Early deliveries of the /2's had no 'proper' yellow front ends. The through gangway door was yellow, but the perspex fly screens can soon get scratched and ingrained with grime. Early units were released for traffic after commissioning, but it was not long before new units were arriving from York works with the regular full yellow ends and these few oddballs were shown a brush and a tin of yellow paint. A very short lived precursor to the non yellow ends in fashion on todays railway (albeit with enhanced forward facing lighting). In the picture, 150225 is seen stabled at Sheffield Midland station light maintenance depot berthing sidings, between driver training runs on 03/03/1987. A month or so earlier on 12/01/1987, another 'yellow end-less' /2, this time 150218 in the yard at Neville Hill depot. The first batch of 150/2's represented the Sprinterisation 'brave new world' for the north of England. Incredibly, these brand new two car units phased out loco hauled Trans-Pennine workings. Whilst down the yard with 150218 (previous pic), 45114 hurries by Neville Hill depot towards Leeds on a Trans -Pennine working, in the twilight of the old order. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Hi Ravenser, I would have given you a 'thanks' reaction, but since its not available, I will say it, thanks for your kind words. I think that the large logo livery generally, and specifically 37's lends itself to getting very dirty quite quickly, and showing it too! So a really interesting subject to weather, and great fun doing it. Cheers D.

Have to say, you have really nailed the faded (08) 13 look. And the slave loco conversion really 'pop's'. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Thanks all for the positive reactions and comments, just to really put the cat amongst the pigeons, in my works que stash of bodyshell kits, chassis, whitemetal bogie side frames etc, is sufficient 'kit' to outshop a Class 26, 27 and another 47. One of my armchair modelling thought processes is keeping the mid 80's theme (due to 37403), so 26 as railfreight red strip large logo, 27 blue (one that was still hanging around by then) and the other 47 emerging as a one of the big Eastfield /4's, in LL blue, 593 "Galloway Princess" takes my fancy. Already got sufficient plausible locos in banger blue for the supporting cast if I don't get too precious about depot allocations (actually there is no danger of that happening...😁). Only thing is, all these other loco parts are an earlier generation so will no doubt require more mods and fettling compared with the recent 45/1 and this 37/4, so it's not going to be a quick fix! Cheers D.

More progress with the 37/4 build. It's had its rattle can matt varnish now, but as it dried off, I was not too happy with some issues on one side of the loco, so its had some base livery re work together with re weathering the grilles and some re blending of the dirty patina in other areas. One step forward, two back, and then another forward again 🤔. The reworked side of the loco. Happy with it now, so next job is some flush glazing. Looks like it's escaped the workbench to work some air braked vans. But, overall, I am very pleased how it is turning out, it's come a long way from this, the base one piece bodyshell 'kit' and ready to roll motorised chassis. Dunno about High Peak Junction, I need to build a West Highland Line layout now 😉. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Hi Peak Experience, if your not too worried about it being overscale, I used Slaters embossed brick sheets from their 4mm range as at the time I was not aware of a 3mm scale version. Have no clue about the 'bond' style, I just wanted 'proper' mortar relief, for weathering. Not really worried about it probably being too deep compared with what it would be if absolute scale. I was just going for an overall coherent 'look'. Obviously not for the purists. Of note, all my stone work comes from Slaters and Wills 4mm scale embossed sheets as well, I am happy with them for 3mm scale. Whatever you end up doing good luck with it. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Wow, the 13 is fantastic. I really like it. The slave "cab" area is super neat work. Also the weathering job on 37034 on page 4 resonates with me, dirty but also subtle, it is a sublime piece of work. Your other work is very nice too, but the these examples are real 'stand outs' to me. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Mark, Your motorised chassis work is quite simply stunning. The quality of workmanship, the design, the installation, the neatness...... Your not an undercover manufacturer are you? 😉 No really, this is fantastic work. Cheers D.

Hi folks, Just a quick update on what I posted 2 hours ago above, been up to the bench, was able to pop out and in the wheelsets no issue at all, despite the 'fragile' nature of the core skeleton chassis. It is however quite flexible, so I guess its a case of treat it carefully. I am sure it will stiffen up nicely once the single piece hopper is bonded in place. Apologies to all the veteran wagon kit builders for my 'faff' type progress, these hoppers are a new one on me, and I have not really built that many wagon kits so far 🤔. Cheers D.

That is an interesting point. I am planning to complete this first one as a stand alone following the instructions. Then review and see if a jig might be feasible. I also want to check if there is sufficient flex in the chassis to ping the wheelsets out and back in again now the glue has hardened off, as adding them at the time as per instructions requires two sets of hands! If it were 'just' the chassis parts needing to come together, it would make it so much simpler to my mind. Although relatively complicated, the one big advantage of following the instructions and having the wheels present allowed me to also quickly plonk it on the track and gently 'ease' the core chassis while the glue was still soft so the wheels sat square on the track. Still, much to think about before I commit to the production run! Cheers D.

Glad you like it @03060, still the enamel weathering washes are hardening off so I have put it to one side for a while before it gets rattle can matt varnish spray...don't want a repeat of the class 20 issues. In the meantime, got out my bag of 8 x Dogfish ballast hopper kits. These are Cambrian Models kits from the society shop. Started the first one to get a measure of how it goes together. As the instructions state, its not the easiest to build and I agree with that. Also made up 16 wheelsets from 9mm dia flat pack wheels and axles. Set the b2b, blob of super glue to lock that and two coats of enamel frame dirt on the front of the wheel pans. Here is the first chassis glued up. Its right fiddly, you need to kind of glue it all together and manipulate it to get the wheelsets in then fettle it all square before the poly cement goes off. So, something new again to do, never done any hopper wagon kits before. Cheers D.

Hi Dan, It is really great to see you progressing the layout build in leaps and bounds. That girder bridge will surely look fantastic when its all scenically blended in. Probably be a signature feature of the layout. Also, loving the HST, especially mixed liveries of the blue grey to IC Exec transition period. Rarely see that modelled, nice one. All the best TT100 Diesels

Hi folks, this post has some symmetry with the turntable builds above in that its a couple of shots of the turntable in action with a sneek peek at my not quite off the workbench yet latest addition that is having a quick stretch of its legs. Somehow, 37403 "Isle of Mull" made it to High Peak Junction. I think it must have gone to Crewe Works for some rectification work, but ended up at Toton, as its close to Brush, and Brush Traction supplied a lot of the kit for the HGR work so warranty work I expect. No doubt a test run ex Toton, before release back to Eastfield. Well out of era, by the time 37403 got this dirty, 25125 in the background had been withdrawn and scrapped about 5 years previously! And away back to Toton. Anyway, its my first 'namer' on the layout. Still requires matt spray varnish then my home brew flush glazing. Loco is a Lincoln Locos 3d print 'ready to roll' job, mini snowploughs were scratch built by me. The motorised chassis runs like a dream. Must say, I am super pleased with how it's turned out. Its my paint job. Decals and '3d' nameplates by Railtec Transfers. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Thanks for all the interest, on to the third and final part of the turntable build look back. The big question was operation, both motorisation and polarity switching. I spent a lot of time looking into electronic control, stepper motors and sliding pickups to auto change polarity of the bridge rails when indexing through 180 degrees. In the end, it was a case of going old school (relative) simplicity. Bridge rail polarity switching was through a double pole two way switch, so it was a simple flick of the switch when turning a loco. It had a centre off feature so also able to isolate and stable a loco on the bridge as well. Motorisation was a bit more trickey. The picture above is the third iteration of a trial and error methodology of proving the drive and refining it. Control wise, a 12v dc motor is supplied off the track power controller via a two way two pole switch. The motor drives a gearbox with an output drive ratio of 5,103 : 1. So it has variable speed control right down to an imperceptible crawl, making lining tracks up by eye very easy. The output gear is bonded to the turntable bridge drive tube, and the gearbox is effectively 'axle hung' off this drive tube. Brackets at each end fit it to the baseboard and stabilise it. So the whole control philosophy is simple and effective, and fun to drive it. In this picture of the painted but unweathered bridge, it can be seen that the pit floor weathering had been done radially into the centre to represent a slightly concave pit floor, as on the real thing with a centre drain. The model pit floor is dead flat, hence the 'smoke and mirrors'. And in final form, with the bridge weathered and additional weathering / scenics to blend the pit floor and outer edge into the overall layout scenics. I hope that this little series my turntable build notes has been of interest. Certainly, for me, this is a lovely feature of the layout, and although it was a journey of discovery actually making it from scratch, it was very enjoyable and ultimately very rewarding. Cheers TT100 Diesels

This is work of the the highest standard, absolutely fantastic. Cheers D.

More from the bench...... First up, "Daisey" the DTC is now released back to traffic after collision damage repairs. Compare with DMBS on the left. Weathering of buffer beam is not quite the same but it is at the opposite end and looks better than this tablet cam grab (honest). But super pleased with the yellow front end refinishing. Also released to traffic is the match truck with extra pick ups for the 08 (Conflat). Again, tab cam grab seems to loose the subtleties of the weathering. Right, that is the orses duvers and starter. Now for the main course. Been weathering this today. Monster.......... Just imagine it on full thrash on the Fort William sleeper grinding up to Rannoch Moor....... Need to let it settle on me, still a few more tweaks here and there, but probably about 90% there with the weathering. In the end I tried to follow a pic of 37406 at Queen St I took. Unfortunately only found two pics of 37403 on the web, for the period I was after, and not particularly clear. 403 was absolutely filthy, a lot more than the "406" version, but the one I tried to follow captures the essence of a West Highland Line /4 to me. Again, poor quality tab cam grab, it looks tons better in the flesh. Cheers D.