The Fatadder

Varnish is now completely dry 1 day after spraying. Will be buying the Railmatch product again! Much better than the Phoenix stuff! Just got to hope theres no yellowing over time now...

This thread is going to detail the work on my Class 59 fleet, this is split into two periods: locos for 1998 and for 2003. Along with some links to some prototype photos 1998: 59001# - Revised Foster Yeoman http://tcrailwaycollection.fotopic.net/p51427951.html 59004 - Original Foster Yeoman (with pre 98 OHLE flashes) http://tcrailwaycollection.fotopic.net/p51427956.html 59001* - Revised ARC http://seawallthrash.fotopic.net/p1021355.html 59102* - Original ARC pre '98 OHLE flashes http://tcrailwaycollection.fotopic.net/p51427947.html 2003: 59001 - Revised Foster Yeoman - As far as I can tell condition appears to be the same as in '98 (which is rather handy!) http://delocos.fotopic.net/p41818332. 59002 - Mendip Rail http://nevardmedia.fotopic.net/p3556924.html 59104# - Hanson, http://nevardmedia.fotopic.net/p3468688.html The two locos marked * are not yet in the fleet, while I do plan on adding them its more a long term aim (to be added once the rest of the fleet are fully detailed and re-powered) That said adding those extra 2 ARC locos will break further break my 1 loco per flow rule..... Those marked # are in the process of gaining Bachmann Class 66 innards, 59001 will eventually also be fitted, while 002 as a surplus loco kept mainly because I like the livery for double heading, will keep its lima innards (all be it with the underframe rebuilt to separate components. I live in hope that one day ICM will release their etched chassis kit (that I would prefer to use under any future repower jobs) though if this will happen or not is anyones guess. Detailing wise there is nothing suitable available, so the grills will have to be added to the etching list. The aim here will be to replace the roof and side grills for a start, (if its anything like the 67 I suspect this will take a couple of years to do, and I will no doubt find a bunch of other small details to etch while I'm at it.) At the moment things are fairly basic. 59001 has been fitted with a set of the A1 roof grills many years back which will stay on until new etches are available. Its been fitted with an Express Models lighting rig, although it will need new lens surrounds fitting (Pugsley used a suitable part on his fantastic 59 detailing job) 59004 is in bits with an almost finished Class 66 chassis under it (requiring the headstocks finishing and new bogie frames fitting before painting. Finally 59104 is in the early stages of the chassis conversion, with the WIPACs removed and the hole opened up to match the WIPACs on the new chassis. The Lima paint finish is pretty rubbish so looks like its going to have to be resprayed, More when it happens....

No lining on the model's wheels, thankfully looking at a couple of photos of the prototype the wheels are so weathered that you can barely see the colour (which if I can find some more photos showing the same sort of colour (dirty brown) then modelling aught to be a lot quicker as there will be no need to buy red paint for them!)

the can I have is pretty old (bought about 4 or 5 years back and left on a shelf until earlier this month.) Seems to be a bit better than the Phoenix equivalent in that it drys a lot quicker, though I have had some problems with it clogging up already. End results seem pretty good using the matt spray, though I suspect next time I buy some I will go with Satin. I think the latter looks a bit better, and gives a closer match with a RTR finish. Hope its dry tomorrow, but on past experience it can often take a few days to dry fully.

Still failing to update the previous post on my 66s with a photo of the remaining locos, but I've been working on 66705 again. As previously mentioned I had noticed that the flag transfer had started to lift, in order to fix this I started by running a thumb nail down each of the grooves to force the transfer back into place before giving the whole loco a coat of matt varnish. On past performance the varnish will now take a couple of days to dry before I can put it back together again. The end result of this was that the varnish further softened the transfer and made it stick into the groves, fingers crossed it will stay this way once the varnish is dry..... While I had the varnish out, I also got on with finishing off my Freightliner 57 008. This is the original Bachmann release which had one of the names painted in the wrong place. While the offending plate had been removed back when I got the model, I never quite got round to varnishing to hide the shine. Given that I had the varnish out (Railmatch spray can) I figured I may as well get on with it... Couple of prototype photos http://carl-watson.fotopic.net/p11036102.html http://carl-watson.fotopic.net/p11227305.html http://theironroad.fotopic.net/p52904633.html Once thats dry the next job is going to be replacing the roof grills with the Shawplan etch, and then some serious roof weathering to get the roof to match those photos. Looking at the model one area thats really bugging me is the over large high intensity headlight, so I suspect that will have to go at some point as well...

Its loco drive with gearing on both wheels. there are some photos showing the underside a couple of pages back, will end up taking some of mine once I start dismantling it which will show it a bit clearer, but I dont want to start doing that until I have the wheels.

Will hopefully get some more done soon, though I suspect its going to take me forever to get the wheels painted once they arrive. Think ready painted steam wheels would be a good idea for Gibson........

If anyone is looking to convert to the more accurate gauges, I've now had mine dismantled and there is plenty of room. Have to remove the break gear (which will need slimming down before it will fit), driving wheels are on 3mm axles, so the 22 spoke GW wheels with outside cranks from Ultrascale will definitely do the job (hopefully Gibson will have something suitable as well). Tender wheels could be a bit more of a problem, having 27mm long stub axles, and the lack of sides to the tender chassis means something like the Masokits sub chassis would be too visible. At the moment my thinking is towards fitting a set of brass bearings into the existing holes so that hopefully a 26mm pinpoint axle will fit ok... Bogie wheels are very easy, 2mm axles held in place by the keeper plate

A start of a project I have been meaning to get on with for a while now, a sequence of blog posts detailing the stock for the layout starting off with my Class 66s. The work: Conversion to P4 has been completed using the Bachmann gears with Keen Maygib wheels on the outer axles and black beetle wheels on the centre axles. DCC is either by Lenz Golds, or loksound (although the loksound fitted locos are intended to revert back to golds and have the sound reblown as something a little more interesting.) The same basic detailing has been added to the whole fleet, adding sand pipes, air break pipes, bogie details and drilling out the buffer beam lashing eyes. EWS 66001 This has been renumbered to 001, with a number of modifications to accurately model the loco in 2003, gaining EWS red grills, revised lifting eyes and the removal of the buckeye couplings. The EWS gold stripe has been completely resprayed partly to correct the colour, but also to further help eliminate the remains of the original numbers (which were a pain to get rid of.... Given that it's modelled in 2003 condition, some of the original differences between 001 and the rest of the fleet (such as the horn grills) have been rebuilt to match the production. One final job that still needs doing is painting the multiple working jumper white to match the prototype photo. http://busnut.fotopi...t/p1368423.html 66135 Couldnt see any real reason to bother renumbering this, but detailing has been focused on the buffer beams in order to accurately model the coupling arrangement. using the spare buckeye coupling removed from 66001 it was possible to add the buckeye to the other end (cut down so that it fits next to a romford screwlink and dosn't foul the buffers.) Fitting the operating linkage for the buckeye requires removing the left hand lashing eyes (as per the prototype), it was then painted (still needs a coat of yellow...) and glued into position. http://phillip.fotop...et/p400804.html Freightliner 66539 This is the next project in line for some work (just as soon as I source some transfers.) its currently a standard model of 66610, but an Intermodal loco would be a lot more useful to the layout..... http://carl-watson.f.../p11197338.html GBRF 66705 Bachmann release which had the blue sides resprayed (again failure to perfectly remove the original numbers), has then had the large flags applied along with the new numbers. Still needs a coat of varnish to hopefully force the transfers to stay in position as a couple of bits have lifted since application... Will add a photo of the model in the morning (once we have some light).... http://johnlawonther.../p34561822.html 66709 This is probably the loco which has had the smallest amount of work, other than fitting a sound decoder, the included nameplates and the usual work mentioned above. http://theironroad.f...ic.net/p52932264.html The final locos in my fleet 66405 (now with a correctly painted roof), 66522 and 'Eddie the engine' are now surplus (unless in the case of 405 I find evidence showing it in the south in 2003)

A bit of attention has turned back to my pair of EPBs, a 2EPB and 4EPB (both BR build) from the DC Kit. While neither of them are of use for the layout, having been long since withdrawn, it does give another unit to play with........ the 2 EPB is already half painted in NSE so will have to finish it off and paint the other one in the summer. The 4 EPB is currently primed awaiting painting, rather than spray in NSE which will be rather hard work to get to a decent standard. I was thinking it would be a lot easier to just paint in all over blue. The question is, when was the last blue 4EPB repainted? (Very annoyed that the celebrity green repainted 4EPB was the other design.) Edit: A few photos taken from my old workbench thread. Going to need a fair bit of extra work now to get them completely up to standard, as I've now decided that both are going to need all of the extra detail on the sides adding (door hinges, grab rails etc) along with more end detail (have some buffers to fit to the inner ends for a start)

Some Research: Having spent some time suffering fotopic on a day when it seems to not work for more than it works, I've come up with a few links to photos of the stock being modelled. 73109, Battle of Britain in South West Trains, http://martinchealsl.../p56833405.html Not dated (and with the late logo) heres 109 rescuing a stranded Freightliner http://steve-clark.f.../p45510980.html 2002 with a hybrid livery http://johnlawonther.../p36959638.html Tricky loco this one, given it carried 3 different versions of the same livery, in 96 the red and orange bands were the other way round, in 98 it matches the condition of the model (although it will need the OHLE flashes changing to post 98), finally at some point between 98 and 04 it gained the new SWT logo, in 2002 it carried both old and new logos. 73101, Royal Alex in Pullman, On VSOE 1999 http://neil-higson.f.../p37444884.html looking rather smart with only the pullmans and no barrier coach VSOE 1998 http://bobfostersrai.../p57430777.html 73129, City of Winchester on VSOE 2001 http://steve707.foto.../p58944927.html Old Oak Common 2000 http://rss.fotopic.net/p57572160.html on a railtour in 1998 http://bobfostersrai.../p52038930.html This is going to need a full respray at some point to correct the dodgy stripes (red stripe is in the wrong place, white goes too high, and the point on the side of the yellow warning panel is wrong. 73128, OSV Buillid in EW&S, Test train in 97 http://bhpc-southern.../p56425371.html VSOE 98 http://britishrail19.../p60003442.html On shed 2001 http://mickspix.foto.../p47846905.html 2001 tpo http://paulbigland.f.../p34544985.html Found out that sadly no names in EWS condition Very tempted to spray this up as 73131 in EWS given that lasted until 2003. though unless done with different logos each side its not possible to run in both 98 and 2003 given the change from EW&S to EWS logos. Still, given I have 108, 101 and 129 in 1998 condition its not too big a loss. 73108 in Dutch, 1998 working on the quidhamton http://bobfostersrai.../p59296442.html 2000 on TPO (with 101) http://timeaster.fot.../p50101762.html 2000 showing clearly that it retained cast BR arrows until the end http://gallery39764..../p20661126.html 1997 on a nice short Engineers working http://deancornthwai.../p48407364.html Additional: 73136 in Mainline with no stripe, as with 131 will be modelled in 2003 condition. I've tried to slim the list down a bit, in the light of day it just seemed that I had much too many 73s. of the list 109 is the most useful, lots of potential light engine moves, can stick it in the branch platform, or run in multiple with the EMU fleet. 101 is perfect for my VSOE rake, so again that stays. 129 only needs minor detailing, and fits nicely with EWS opperations in that period so again that stays. I have one shell that is lightly primed over EW&S livery (so you can see where the stripe goes, this will be sprayed as 128 (given that I have the plates for it) This gives a loco to run in multiple with wither 101 or 129, Finally 108 in dutch, again I have a loco part painted in dutch so it makes sense to finish it off. As for the rest, sadly I think as E6003 was withdrawn in 96 that will have to go, I finally the donor for 133, given I havent got any cantrail grills for it I suspect this will be in an unsellable condition at the moment (at least unsellable at a price that makes it worth the effort.) So I think I will keep it for now and use it should detail bits become available, that would then give cover while I go through the rest of the fleet detailing. One final aspect of the detailing is couplings, Given that the 73s were fitted with both buckeyes and screws. The SWT 73109 will be fitted with kaydees at both ends, the rest will all have a dropped buckeye at one end with a modified slightly longer hook for screw couplings. Need to check if the buckeyes are used for coupelling to VSOE or TPO as it may bean that a buckeye is needed at the inner end.

Certainly prefer working on the lima version, the Hornby re releases have much too many livery errors for my liking (speaking of which best check that there arnt any on 73101 before I start looking for a body...) Cant abide the Hornby 73 chassis either..... The 73 is one of those odd locos that really appeals to me but im not sure why.

Given the slight change in focus of the layout, Class 73s are suddenly useful again. The plan is to do a rebuild focusing on the chassis for now, rebuild with Bachmann 25 power, full separate underframe, bogie steps. Will fit the old Shawplan roof grills for now at least, and hope for some better parts. I have one model thats been fitted with etched grills for the side grills, and needs new cantrail grills to replace broken parts. I would like to replace the lot, and probably will if some decent etches appear... As for the fleet, I've been trying to work out which locos to model. 73003 (E6003) Sir Herbert Walker in BR Green, prototype was withdrawn in 1996 so its a bit earlier than the period I am modelling, but I will let that slide for now. This will be at the back of the queue for work though and I do have an untouched chassis under it just in case I decide to retire it. 73109, Battle of Britain in South West Trains, will be powered at one end only (no point making a 'thunderbird' loco AWD) this helps make my pile of 25 bits last a bit longer... 73101, Royal Alex in Pullman, along with the other modifications this needs to be renamed from Brighton Evening Argus. Given its lima this will be fun.... Guessing it will need the cream resprayed, so will keep an eye out for a swap for a Hornby body... This is intended to work on my VSOE set, and will hence get a full AWD chassis. 73129, City of Winchester in faded NSE, 1 driven bogie, Then I have 4 other bodies, 2 dutch and 2 primed. From these there are 2 liveries I want for certain, at least one in EWS, one in Mainline, and one other. So I am thinking: 73128, OSV Buillid in EW&S, had already got the plates for it planning to do it in Dutch so will do nicely in EWS. again this will probably be a 1 bogie job, and will be a full respray. as such it will be one of the later locos to get sprayed (just in case bits appear...) 73131, County of Surrey, in EW&S, again this will be another full respray. Half tempted to do this unpowered to use as a pair for double heading (either for VSOE or TPOs) 73133, Bluebell Railway in Mainline blue, full respray with added detail to ends with WIPACs, 1 power bogie. Finally 73108 in Dutch, again as per the rest with one power bogie. this will be resprayed (to renumber) and fitted with the chassis/roof detailing. I have a feeling that I have a finished chassis thats still at Andi's, which may/maynot have another body on it. in which case there is possiblly one more loco to decide on...... Work will hopefully start tomorrow

Its just the break gear getting in the way on the photos. When I start the conversion I will get a photo showing it a bit clearer, but given that I havent been able to completely remove the keeper plate yet (the wires are getting in the way) I dont want to start getting hte loco into lots of bits to properly remove it until I am ready to start. (Been there done that, and then had the fun job of remembering what when where.....) Either way, the photos are a little misleading.

Bogie has a spring pushing it down onto the track (though will take your advice and fit some kind of springing to the bogie on Clan Line) Just dismantled the chassis of CoT, they definitely are 3mm axles so all is good. also has gearing on both axles as suspected. If Gibson do the 22? spoke GW wheels on 3mm outside frame axles then I will go with the gibsons and get an order sent after Christmas. Really want to get on and get this one running. Of course the fact that I will have to paint the wheels will slow things a bit I suspect...

Not measured the axles yet, all the steam locos I've worked on so far have had 3mm axles, though saying that, this is my first Bachmann steamer..... Will do some dismantling later and see whats in there.....

Well its finally arrived... At the moment I have the model upside down, and assuming that Bachmann havent gone with some odd axle diameter, it looks like the conversion is going to be very straight forward. The break gear will all have to be removed (and will need to be replaced with brass to get it to fit) but other than that it all looks very easy. Not sure what to do with the cranks (I've never brought outside framed wheels for a kettle before, so I assume they come with cranks in the same way those for an 08 do?) Will reuse the Bachmann rods, and the Bachmann bogie. For the tender I'm not sure what I will do, I'd prefer to rebuild with some kind of springing, but I suspect that the masokits unit would be visible from the sides... The spare front bogie is going to be modified to remove the NEM pocket (I really do prefer manufacturers fitting them to be body so they can be removed without damaging detail!) The buffer beams are going to need to be repainted to the correct (bright) red, rather handy really as I was thing removing the buffer beam number without damaging the lining would be a pain. the post 98 OHLE flashes will be fitted to the sand boxes/cab roof. I havent decided if I will use Ultrascales or Gibsons for the wheels yet. A couple of years back I had no end of issues with the Gibson wheels in an 09, but the combination of improved standards on my part and on the new owners of Gibson do make me fancy trying again. A lot will depend on whether Gibson can supply the drivers for CoT on a 3mm axle (that I assume that Bachmann have used.) The Ultrascales are significantly more expensive, Nickel Silver (which I really dislike) and have a long wait, and thinking about it will still require the cranks fitting. On the other hand they are much better quality. I just wish that they had done the 20 whatever spoke patten wheel that CoT uses in steel rather than the 16 spokes they have done....... I suspect at the end of the day I will go with the Gibsons and if I have any problems then buy a set of Ultrascale's drivers. An area of concern is the tender wheels, both in that they are currently stub axles with a plastic centre (for the tender pickups) and secondly that they appear (at a glance) to have long axles) Looks like its going to need new pickups making here (a job I absolutely cant stand) but pickup on 2 axles just wont be enough so most annoyingly will have to do something about it. Also on the tender, the break gear is very very odd, appearing to be in line with the axleboxes rather than where the wheels should be. While this is an improvement on having them too narrow (like those on the driving wheels), it does seem a bit odd. I'm not at all happy with the etched number plate, given that its missing the very prominent orange lining and tbh dosnt look as good as the printed one. will either need a transfer for the lining or to find a better etch! The gap between body and chassis is much too big, so something will have to be done about that! Rather handy that slider to reduce the gap, now thinking that some sprung buffers between body and tender would be useful. Finally a question, Would the water scoop on the tender still be there in its current condition? Is there anything else that needs removing or adding to get to current condition on the mainline. EDIT: Have finally got round to doing the measurements on the axles. Drivers are 3mm diameter, tender wheels are a bit more tricky. 2mm axles, but on 27mm stub axles, could be interesting for the conversion.......

Sadly like many others who graduated last year there wernt exactly many jobs in my field available, evening widening the search still didnt come up with anything. As such I have an awful lot of free time at the moment........ Need something to keep me occupied in the day.... A little update, finally got hold of my City of Truro, looks very straight forward to convert to P4, so just have to make the decision as to Gibsons or Ultrascales now...

I've posted most of this else where on the forum, but figured it deserved padding out into a full blog post, will be interesting to come back to this in 6 months time and see how much is actually done... My main modelling objective for the new year is to continue to thin down my fleet removing those items which are not fitting in with my plans. This list should hopefully only take me the first half of the year to get through (put unemployment to good use!) though I suspect if I get lucky and sort a job for September relatively early in the new year I will end up heading off to the Alps till the snow melts! Painting: The list of stock that is requiring painting is starting to get significant again, a summer spent up at uni working on my thesis has significantly limited my time for painting in 2009 (made worse by getting a lot of rain when ever I found a few days to go home planning to do some spraying.) Paint Class 47 roofs (having fitted new grills) Paint the GWT Green on 47813 Paint wessex 31 Finish painting DRS 20 and 37 Paint the sea urchin rake (else it will never get done once the Hornby model arrives...) Steam Locos: On Clan Line Add connecting rods, build masokits tender chassis, connect body and tender, and paint bogie/trailing truck. Finally there are a fair few small detailing tasks on the body, including scratch building the lower part of the firebox, adding the pipework under the cab sides, new name plates etc. Flying Scotsman, Build new front bogie, con rods, tender chassis + finish painting wheels for the A3 Rewheel City of Truro Not a steam loco, but pretty much the same sort of work, my Hornby 09 needs a new set of cranks (really must email Ultrascale at some point and see if they can do me a set.) will also need the Branchlines con rods painted yellow, along with new pickups. Diesel Locos: Class 59s: This project has been going on for much too long, even more so now that a 2nd loco has been added to the list. Finish gluing bogie frames onto bogies + headstock modifications on 59001, complete chassis work to modify a Bachmann 66 chassis for an ARC 59/1, body detailing on 2 59s (will require drawing etches) The change in layout location back to the Southern region means that Class 73s are useful again. As such I think its about time I got on with improving my 73 fleet, initially I will go with one in faded NSE, 109 in South West Trains, one in Dutch, one in Mainline and one in EWS. Work will include fitting Bachmann 25 drives, (some will get a full chassis, most will just get drive at one end only.) Fitting separate handrails, new high intensity headlights, and the old shawplan roof grills (not up to the current standard but an improvement on the moulded plastic. In each case they will get a full separate underframe, half tempted to have a play with some resin casting to see if thats an easier way of doing it..... A project to use up some parts from a broken Heljan 47 chassis, the idea being to build a brass chassis with the Heljan motor/bogies and a Vi Trains Class 47 body to model a Virgin 47/8. Having sourced a body from Pixie that will need the usual treatment with Shawplan grills, resprayed cabsides/area over nameplate (given that the model as it comes was in Intercity still in my period) Finally I have a pair of Bachmann Deltics which are each going to get the full Shawplan treatment, the first in Green as D9000 the 2nd in portabrook purple. Wagons: Wagon wise things are a bit thinner at the moment, there are a lot of wagons sat in the too paint box (a rake of Turbot and a rake of Urchins for a start), but not so many wagons that actually need proper modelling doing. First up is the rake of Yeoman PTAs, still a lot more to be done here with the 2nd five set not even started yet, annoyingly have left the plasticard box up in Bucks so cant be working on these over the holls as planned. Given that the new layout plan does incorporate this rake, it will now get finished a lot quicker than originally planned. The final work should be completed on my scratch built TDA Finally I may go back to my PGA rake and finish the improvements there, though need to check first if it would be plausibly in use in '98 Layout: Layout wise there is a fair bit that needs to be done. By september I want to have the track built, laid, fully tested and ballasted. the station built with major progress on the other buildings. Once the Summer comes I really want to get through the rest of the paint backlog, the new layout plans might hopefully mean that I get on and paint the 2 and 4 EPB (not particaully useful for prototypical running, but may still get a run out), likewise the 456 pair. A rake of Intercity mk2s is a lot more useful and absolutely must get finished (least I start getting tempted to hack some in to es and fs. Other wagons like the Nucular flasks and a bunch of containers should also see the airbrush (along with the 59s, 67s and deltics.) Its a long list (and one that dosnt include the inevitable new kits purchases that will come throughout the year (really must get a couple of S Kits Sea Urchins for a start). Hopefully should get through a fair bit of it though.....

A little more design work on buildings for the backsceen, with a continuation of work on the retail park. This is the style of structure I am going for Although it is based upon the rear of the building (which if i remember correctly is completely block built construction rather than clad in metal), my design is slightly different to the prototype in the radius of the roof (I started building it years back pre google earth, so the dimensions were all estimated from this photo. I have now gone back and made a much better job of taking dimensions which showed that roof radius apart (its about 10mm too high in the centre) the only other main difference is that the 3 shop units are all the same width (whereas the prototype has a pair of long units for the Homebase store, and then 2 short units for the smaller retailers next to it. Still at the end of the day it dosnt need to be an accurate model of a prototype, just in the style of... This drawing is a hybrid of the prototype and the model details, (it still needs about 20mm taking off the length and and extra 10mm hight in the centre), also need to double check the sizes of doors etc. Construction so far has got a core of 80 thou plasticard in 2 parts (each 2ft long), There is some damage from storage where the origonal glue bond has failed in the corners which will need fixing, and a rough edge on the bottom (the original building was about an inch too tall and was chopped down, the resulting rough edges were never tidied up at the time as it pretty much corresponded with the end of the layout it was originally intended for. Because of the same rebuild there is also a need now to modify the size of all the doors to add the hight lost when the size was cut down. Once the core is repaired, the intention is to then clad the building in South Eastern Finecast block embossed sheet, adding in the I beam above the door ways, a long with a bunch of extra details after painting (aircon boxes, lights, wiring etc). On the left hand side there is a large covered area suspended by wires from the wall. Finally there are a couple of fire doors that will need adding, along with the window strip along the top (that I havent worked out how I am going to model yet...) Hopefully should look pretty impressive when its finished........

My Vote is for a bonfire in the carpark afterwards..... Does this mean the new one is almost finished? (if so really will have to make the effort to make it back!) _______________________ Jim, Where does the midlands s4 group meet? Would be good to get over then and be able to give a couple of locos some running again. _______________________ As for the deltic, have given it a short test on a yard of track with a battery and it all seems to be working, which is a plesent supprise. Just looks like it needs the pickups tweaking slightly to make sure they are all touching the metal tire.

I think Model Rail had a similar series of articles a couple of years back describing the conversion using the 4mm scale model, might be worth a look. While in 4mm scale there is the option of using the Hurst etched sides, I much prefer the cut & shut type method (as I feel that done properly it results in a much better model.) I had started looking at modelling a full set, but it ended up falling in the 'its not going to happen any time soon' category so I ended up selling the bits.

Finally finished fitting new wheels to my Bachmann prototype deltic, As mentioned in my previous posting I have used Exactoscale wheels, giving the combination of looks (given that in essence this is always going to be a display model rather than a layout performer) and gives me a loco which will only run when the track is perfect (in other words its just what the doctor ordered for track testing, as if this will go through it, anything will!) All that remains to be done is a needs to replace the break gear with something a bit finer (I am hopeing that there will be a suitable part that can be used from Shawplans new Deltic detailing kit thats due next year.) I think the problem with the break gear (which despite having been moved to the correct position was still fouling on the new wheels) was that the break shoes had been shaped to match the underscale wheels the model ships with (a solution to the problem of how to get a prototypical gap between body and bogies without impeding OO running that I rather like.) Breakgear and small wheels aside it really is a fantastic model, I really do wish that Bachmann could get to this standard on all their releases (and if we had to pay the ??100+ price of the deltic to get it, so be it!) Hopefully will get it tested under power next week, to see if it actually works, plan on making it to DRAG sometime in January to give it a proper test. rather inconsiderate of Christmas to get in the way of there being a 2nd meeting in December (as I'd have been in devon and able to go and give it a test then!) Next up on the P4 conversion workbench will be another Vi Trains 47 that is going to get a set of Maygibs, and hopefully my new City of Truro once I get round to placing an order with Gibson..... Just wish that Parcel Force would do their jobs a bit better, with my model now having spent a day and a half sat in their depot up in Coventry and the 48 hours for delivery running out at lunchtime tomorrow........

Finally got round to making a start on gluing the etches onto my models of the Great Western Trains HST barrier coaches 6336 and 6338 (actually my 2nd model of 6338 as I already have finished one in First Great Western condition.) Thankfully the GWT version is a little easier than the FGW one as it retains the corridor connections (so at least I dont have to scratch build any more blanking plates for those!) The first step was removing all the Inter-city logos along with the NEA Tops codes and numbers, Scalemodel Transfers produce a set designed for either 6336 and 6338 in Intercity which are perfect for the GWT coaches. The etches were glued on using the method Jon (Scheihallion) described for fitting window frame etches, a short length of masking tape is stuck to the etch which is then positioned on the model. once happy with the position a scalpel was slipped under the side of the etch pushing it up at an angle so it pivots on the tape. I then check to make sure it returns to the original position, then repeat the process this time applying a coat of superglue to the underside of the etch. I do one side at a time (leaving lots of time to dry between sides) Still a fair bit of work that needs doing to bring the rest of the model up to scratch given Bachmann's insistance of putting 50s details no matter what era the model is supposed to represent. As such the end steps and Vac break gear all needs to be removed, along with adding air break bits (and sorting out those roof ribs). Would be interested if anyone knows of any other improvements.... Finally the grey and white will need to be resprayed

Over the past couple of days while making progress on the design work for my 2010 entry, thoughts have come back a couple of times as to what I will do with Blackcombe Torr. This was the original track plan. The change focuses around the complete removal of the mainline, along with all of the TPWS gear. The brick bridge on the left hand side would be replaced with a smaller 2 part stone structure (probably half girder half arch). The branchline will be removed either leaving a loco length headshunt or more likely removing the two points (purple dots)and replacing with a single B/C 9 and a catch point on the loop to protect it. The two points with red dots should ideally be replaced (both being A6s) however I doubt its possible without major track alterations. The plan here is going to be drawing up the layout in Templot and seeing which (if any) is possible to be replaced with minimal realignment. The biggest change is on the right hand side. Instead of the original 4ft fiddleyard, the intention is to add another 3ftscenic baseboard which will contain the other end of both the works runaround loop along with the branch loop. The branch line will then continue off scene to a 2ft fiddleyard (intended to handle a 2 car DMU service). The new plan Along with the scenic changes I am also planning a number of modifications to improve running, most importantly fitting some C&L dowels to sort out the alignment issues, and relaying the short lengths either side of the baseboard joint. There will also be a througher inspection of the track to eliminate any other defects. The left hand fiddleyard will be a new treverser, 4ft length Now this is all more of a long term plan (certainly I am not looking to start until after the new project is finished), though that said there is a possibility some of the repair work might be started over the summer if I hit any delays with parts etc for the new one (really must get a name sorted!) The intention is to get a layout built principally for my 80s china clay stock thats not going to be suitable for the 2010 plan.