Graham T

I am, and it is sending me lots of job postings. Unfortunately there's not much overlap between the ones I like the look of and the ones that I have the skills for.

Thanks Bill. It was a good week of work, and might hopefully lead to some more next year, but there's still nothing definite on the horizon...

Welcome back to Chuffnell R Neal! I’m away for a week now with work, so I’m afraid there won’t be much going on here.

It’s not the sharpest of castings to be fair!

The missing spring hanger has been replaced - for a blob of whitemetal it looks ok from normal viewing distance, I think. Next step is some more paint, then to add the lamp irons and rails to the ends, before I tackle the sides...

The Polish company mentioned is probably MBR - they make some very good trees, and reasonably priced if I remember rightly. There are a few at Chuffnell R.

That sounds like a good plan (and is actually similar to what I had in mind - honestly!) Except I was thinking about using a scrap of whitemetal for the "blob".

All the underframe parts have now been added. A couple of stout lengths of plastic rod are supplied with the kit for the brake cylinders, but they were too deep, and I wasn't able to get a good enough grip on them to trim them down with a razor saw, so I opted to replace them by raiding the spares box. And a view of everything in place. I've no idea if this is even remotely accurate but it's what the instructions told me to do! I still have to figure out a way of re-instating the missing spring hanger on one of the bogies.

I got a little bit more done to the coach this evening. First added some ready painted Preiser figures; they're HO but I don't think that will matter too much. And I've also made a start on the underframe. Just fitted the trusses and battery boxes so far. Rather annoyingly, one of the spring hangers (?) was missing from one of the bogies, as you can see in the photo above. I'll have to see if I can fabricate something to replace it.

If I remember rightly the drummer changes fairly frequently anyway!

@GMKAT7, your post reminded me immediately of this:

Here's to happy hooves 🙂

You beat me to it!

Thanks Brian, I'll take a look.

I built the second bogey, and did some testing. Mixed results... The coach doesn't like being propelled through some of my pointwork, but I think that's down to my appallingly bad track-laying (hence the need for CR Mk II). Being pulled it moves just fine. It also runs very freely, as you can see from this short video (sorry about the poor focus). This clip also shows of course another fault with CR Mk I, in that it's not level! So, I think the next step will be to add the underframe bits and pieces. and I also need to give some thought to couplings. I'm not completely happy with the magnetic solution that I've been using on my other corridor coaches, and am thinking about switching to the Hornby close couplings. Unfortunately the bogies on the Wheeltapper coaches have no provision for a NEM pocket, so I will need to come up with something creative...

I wouldn’t add anything apart from the rust now Rob. Looks top-notch!

Here's the first bogey completed. It runs nice and freely, which is a good sign. I'll build the other tomorrow, and then see if I can get them to play nicely with the coach itself.

I'd like to go EM when I build Chuffnell Regis Mk II, but I've gathered too much stock over the last couple of years I think. Would take a lot of skill, time, and money to convert it all (and I'm short of at least two of those commodities!)

That's what I did Andy, also cleaned up the whitemetal with a fibreglass pencil, and used lots of flux. Steeling myself to try the bogies now...

This is, I'll freely admit, a rather boring photo. But it's evidence of a leap forward at Chuffnell Regis. My first successful attempt at low temp soldering, using some scrap whitemetal and brass etch. And amazingly it's a nice strong joint with no unwanted melting-related unpleasantness. This is a big deal because it means I can now get the bogies for the toplight assembled - with luck and a following wind...

I think it might be quicker to make a list of the ones you’d be willing to keep…

Thanks chaps, sounds like red is getting the vote.

Thank you Jonathan, very kind. It's the first coach kit that I've built, so keeping my fingers crossed for a good result!

Not really sure yet Andy - all of those are possibilities! Hopefully the etches will arrive soon so that I can make a decision.

In other news, I've managed to fix the roof to the coach without removing any of its paint, which was a bonus. And here's one of the pre-printed sides just offered up. It seems to fit... But still more work to do on the sides before they can be fitted - I'm waiting for grab and door handles, and will also have to apply the transfers. Plus I want to get the chassis complete before fitting the sides, so that I can minimise how much handling they get.