BelsteadLane

The Pretendabellio wasn’t hauled by FL 90s. 90034 was hired in around the time the Pretendolino was leased to AGA. It was often seen hauling the set both when it was in service with Virgin and AGA! so that will be dedicated to the set as well as my Anglia 90s as and when they get made. But for now, the FL 90s will have to suffice!

Happy days! I managed to get hold of another Hornby Pretendolino coach pack on eBay for a pretty good price - or the best price I felt I could get in this case. This means I have a complete Pretendolino set now along with a spare buffet which I’ll sell on once the work is completed to the set to make it an accurate Pretendabellio. the list of work to be carried out: - Modifications to the roofs on all coaches. - Modifications to the windows on one side of the buffet coach - Abellio Greater Anglia decals including coach letters. - Renumbering on appropriate coaches. - Fully repainted interiors into the correct colour scheme. - Detailed interiors with coach lighting and passengers. - Prototypical LED lighting fitted to the DVT. - Weathering at the end!

I spent this evening working on my fleet of Class 90s while waiting for the filla to dry. I weathered the horn grills on all of them as these had been missed out. Quite surprising how many people do! I think this greatly improves and enhances the fronts of the model. 90048 90028 90047 90042 90047 also received some extra work. I painted the ends of the pantograph red as per the real thing and finally got round to adding the rerouted jumper cables. all these are little changes but make big differences and are the difference between being right and being wrong. 90042 and 90028 are pretty much there now and how I want them. 90047 and 90048 need their battery boxes changing to the design on the Powerhaul model and those will be as prototypical as I’d like them too be.

The modelling antics over the weekend consisted of continuing the depot facility area getting all the filla in for the hard standing. Messy modelling time! matchsticks were pva’d down to make the boundary/mould and left overnight to solidify. The following evening I added all the filla and it is now currently drying. Most of the area is pretty much there but I’m leaving another day so by the time I’ll go in tomorrow, it should be rock solid! Sanding will commence once fully dried so I can get it smooth. Then it’s painting time!

the sharge will only be used to clean under the overheads mainly, I’ll still use my track rubber in the depot as it’s unelectrified. Trouble with the rubbers though is the fibres and whilst it does clean the surface, you’d be surprised how much dirt and grime is still on the rails. Getting a cotton bud that’s been dipped in IPA will reveal what remains! Indeed, cleaning under the overheads and in tunnels can be a pain, especially with a rubber. I did adopt using a cotton bud with ipa which made it less risky but I did still catch a mast or my ‘return’ wires. My tunnel is only small as it only acts as a scenic break so I can just about reach in with a track rubber with little issue although I still have to be careful with the ohle’s ‘catch’ masts. It just seems much safer and also quicker with a wagon.

The inspection pit is now fully installed, fitted it a couple of nights ago and I spent this evening wiring up all the lighting underneath the baseboard. I havn’t bothered gluing the pit down - the cut out for it creates a pretty tight, snug fit so there is next-to-no movement on it. Once it’s surrounded by the concrete hard standing, which will be created by using filla, it’ll not move at all! There’s 13 leds in total and they’ve all been fitted with 10k resistors and are wired to a standard on/off switch so I can turn them on or off to create different scenes. A loco won’t always be on the pit and I imagine depot workmen don’t bother keeping pit lights on when it’s not being used. Unless it’s in a shed - my one won’t be. here’s a photo with the (room) lights off. There’s still tiny amounts of light bleed but these will go once the filla is down. The lights look bright in the photo but are nice in person and just the right amount of light. Pleased with the result. Filla coming up next

No, I wasn’t going too. There’s already been a few and I’ve heard the one on Kampala Road was good! I was told about it by a friend.

I bought a Sharge track cleaning wagon and last night, put it too the test. Was very impressed! After 10 laps of the layout on each line, my cotton buds were more or less spotless! Would highly recommend these if you have awkward places or hard to reach areas like tunnels or overheads

Sorry I havn’t been posted much. But I have been working in the background. spent this week planning and preparing for the next area on the layout to receive attention - the depot facility area. I experimented with buildings and other bits and pieces and came up with something I’m happy with. The area will take inspiration from Ipswich Freightliner depot just like my sidings. so far, I’ve added lighting my Bachmann fuelling points as well as my Peco inspection pit - the Pit looking like a pot noodle! Everything’s been tested and working so the next step is to fit the pit and extend some of my sidings and then after that, I can start mapping out where the concrete hard standing will go.

very nice as per usual. Might see PB one day on my layout with some Anglia and One stock behind it...

Hi Jerry. Great Job on 90043. It’s certainly very tempting... but I’m being good this time! Someone’s in for a treat. Looking forward to 036!

Thanks! The cossie is the best part of the car park imo my dad had three Mk1 Escorts back in his youth and they all got stolen. Sad times, all appreciating classics now. I done a job for a guy who had an immaculate 1300E in Metallic Purple sitting in his garage! What a sight that was. Every now and then, you get a customer with something special that makes you remember then easier than the rest of them!

Ive just uploaded a running session video on my YouTube channel where you can see my layout in action with plenty of trains running on the mainline and in the depot/sidings. Feel free to give it a watch Running Session

The latest arrivals back on the layout have taken turns running this week. Need to run them all in again Again, top job by GC. 90028 is beautiful now!

Hi Jerry. Super Job on 90030. I’m going to hazard a guess that one of those 90s will be 036 in Two Tone grey? If so, will you be branding it as faded Railfreight or EWS Three Lions? If it’s the latter, best keep it aside for me looking forward to seeing it though. Those battery boxes look great. Are those the type on the RFD models or the Powerhaul models? Looking like they’re from the RFD.

Hi there. I’ve just realised I got mixed up. When I picked them up, they mentioned you and that there was no other option so that explains it. Turns out it was fox they got them from after I checked my Facebook messages with them. MY mistake! apologies for that.

Something else I acquired recently is a 7 Coach Pretendolino set as well as the DVT. I was approached on Instagram by someone who had seen one of my YouTube videos and heard I was after them, so he got in touch. It turned out he’s a Greater Anglia employee so his knowledge will certainly be valuable on the future! he sold them for a great price I couldn’t say no too (nowhere near the stupid borderline daylight robbery you see on eBay) and to top it off, he lived less than an hour away and was willing for me to drive too him so it seemed too good to be true... came away a very happy modeller! Of course, this will be becoming the ‘pretendabellio’ so I’ll need the AGA branding along with coach lettering. The interiors will get a full repaint into the collect interior colour scheme and passengers will be fitted. The Buffet has the wrong windows on one side so those will need to be fixed. The coaches came with coach lighting but some of the installations will need to be tweaked and I may fit new lithium batteries (they’re train tech lighting strips by the looks) I’m two coaches short of the full set but I can live without the third FO. So another TSO needs to be sourced. There’s currently an FO on eBay for £100... I’ll pass thanks! 90034 will also be joining the fleet to haul the set around as it did in real life. By the time I have the full set and all the work is complete, I’ll probably be the only modeller in the country with a pretendabellio Anyway, here’s some pictures of the set running round and 90047 and 048 providing shoves. Excuse the DVT lights, it’s yet to be fitted with a decoder!

My model of 90128 has now become 90028 so it can now pull anything rather than just be restricted to freight only. All prototypically weathered along with being modernised a little with OHLE warning panels. The TMD sockets were wrongly painted orange before and are now yellow as per the real thing.

Today, I picked up some of my stock from GC Weathering after being dropped off to be weathered. What a superb job they’ve done! 90028 This is 90128 but I had it renumbered to 028. Sadly, the Railtec decals for the numbers don’t match the yellow stripe, but I personally don’t think it’s that bad and easily overlooked. It isn’t obvious until you’re up close! GC couldn’t do anything about it as there was no other option. The model had its TMD Sockets correctly painted yellow - before they were orange. OHLE warning panels also added to bring it more into privatisation and finished off with a prototypical weathering. In love with this! 66533 66533 had a simple prototypical ‘everyday service’ appearance applied to it as well as a driver figure in the cab at the detailed end. GC also sorted out the nameplates as one was extremely wonky (typical QC with this model) The other was noticed by the guys there who corrected that too but it was ever, ever so slight, even I missed it. Happy with this now and hopefully will have no problems from now. 156422 saving the favourite til last, 156422 has been prototypically weathered to finish it off. Certainly compliments the amazing job Rainbow Railways done on the livery. I personally love the wiper marks on the cab windows! I’d HIGHLY recommend GC Weathering to anybody looking at getting their stock weathered. I do want to start doing this myself though! Over on youtube, I’ll be making a running session video and will make a post as and when that happens. So then you can see my layout in action properly.

Thank you very much!

Scenes on the layout - FL Depot Car Park. The other ‘scene’ on the layout worth showing is my car park for the Freightliner depot. I like to treat this as a scene as I did put quite a lot of effort into it and on most layouts, car parks don’t tend to be anything more than that but I wanted to create a nice atmosphere within it. Those who watched my layout update video on YouTube would have seen it but I thought I’d upload it for those who aren’t interested in YouTube or at least don’t use it - Thanks to those who do and watched my video. A couple voiced and showed support which was great to see anyway, here’s a few pics and I’ll provide brief explanations to explain what’s going on. Here’s a shot overlooking the car park seeing it in it’s entirety. It’s the right amount of detailing for me. Not clattered with cars with plenty of concrete still on show. The concrete I took pride in and it took quite a lot of time and effort to get right! another shot overlooking (most of) the car park from the other side, but taken from the embankment. A very nice vantage point for photographing and videoing trains I think. The car park features a container used as a storage unit and is the largest item of detailing. The container is a Hornby container which I’ve added an interior too in the form of storage shelves. Interior lighting has also been added along with an exterior floodlight. Both lights are controlled by an Arduino nano board. Then finished off with appropriate weathering and a graffiti tag. I actually unweathered this container prior to making any other modifications at the beginning of the project because it came with one of my Hornby KFA wagons and it was horrificly weathered. Here’s the area outside the container doors and from here, you can see the interior or the start of it. It does go to the back of the container and all the shelves are loaded with boxes and other detailing. Some other items of detailing surrounding the container as well as a figure holding a tail lamp. Now onto some of the vehicles. A row of 4 cars here with a FL line up. The red Ford Galaxy being a point of interest here. I butchered it so it’s boot was open and added some gas struts. Then added details in the boot like shopping bags, drivers equipment and PPE. Finished the look off by placing a figure underneath the boot looking as if he’s having a rummage in his boot. Nothing to say about the other three cars as they’re simply parked up while the drivers are out on the mainline. Network Rail Ford Transit van with some roof bars and ladders added, giving scope to have some lineside workers in the facility area in the future. Two vehicles here in the form of an old VW transporter and BMW E92 M3. Positioned in a way that the van is entering the car park while the BMW is giving way and waiting to exit. Both vehicles have drivers in them. The final vehicle, a Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth. I love my old fords so having one of these was a must for me. The Saph had its side skirts, wing mirrors and spoiler painted white and I swapped the wheels with another vehicle. Hopefully, it now looks more like your traditional boy racer cosworth! The two figures next to it, are positioned to look like they’re having a conversation about the car. At the back of the car park is a small overgrown portion meant to look like it’s derelict and doesn’t get used. plenty of detailing and foilage. Not something I’ve ever seen modelled so thought I’d be the first (although I’m sure there’s layouts out there with similar things done) Sorry for the long winded post. That’s the more interesting parts of the depot covered but I’m sure you can make out other parts too. Any Q’s, feel free to fire away. that’s more or less my layout fully introduced and I’ve showed what it features. So from now, mini layout updates and ‘nightly gimmicks’ will persist. And hopefully, long posts like this will be a lot less regular

Hi Jerry. Penny Black looks superb! Whoever ends up buying it will be in for a treat. Another 90 I’ll want for when my layout starts seeing Anglia and One stock. Looking forward to see the EWS one too! Cheers. jack.

Hi Jerry. no worries or rush mate! cheers Jack.

Morning Jerry. Yes, I noticed the other day that it requires the battery box on the Powerhaul model. 047 does as well. Funnily enough, I did check a while back just after I received 047 back and did check battery box’s. How I missed it, I don’t know! I did think soon after I filmed the video that surely, the battery boxes can just be simply replaced rather than doing an entire chassis swap - a rather big job on a Bachmann 90! That’s good to know that it can be simply swapped. Thanks for offering to send, I’ll require two for 047 as well so if you can squeeze a second one in, that’ll be great and I highly appreciate it - I’ll chuck you something £££ when I next see you as well. Seeing as you’ve watched my video (thanks ) you probably saw that I’ve now got a fairly decent pretendolino rake... this will mean 90034 is definitely on the cards and has been moved up the priority list! I’ll be in touch with you soon about having it done, I’m wanting to source the final two coaches first. Although I can live without the third FO. Cheers Jack.

looking nice that Neil