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Dave Holt

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Blog Entries posted by Dave Holt

  1. Dave Holt
    I've previously posted about my ex-LMS Crab model, which uses a Bachmann body on a much modified Comet chassis with a Comet tender. The previous photos showed it with the un-painted tender but it has now been painted and lined, the number changed and the whole thing weathered by good friend David Clarke. Here it is more-or-less complete.
     

     
    Since the photo, the odd bend in the brake ejector pipe has been improved by correctly locating the vertical pipe through the hole in the running plate.
    Front AJ coupling to make and fit, then conversion to DCC and coal in the tender.
     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt
    My painted and weathered Crab was returned home this afternoon and very nice it looks to me. The apparent strange angle of the front steps in the last photo I posted which raised comment was, happily, an optical illusion or due to barreling of the camera lens.
    Here are some shots of it parked in front of the Jubilee.
     

     

     

     
    Now to fit the DCC chip and front AJ coupling. I'll have to try to source the correct shed plate - Farnley Junction, 55C.
     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt
    In anticipation of a visit on Monday (tomorrow) by some friends to view and play with the layout, I've had each board out and set up on trestles to clean the track. To my slight surprise, I discovered that on two of the boards, the rail heads still had paint on - Halfords grey primer and rust coloured enamel. I'd completely forgotten that I had never cleaned the paint off after ballasting and re-doing the rails. Just shows how long it is since these particular boards have been out. Boy, did it take some scraping off after that amount of time. Fairly back breaking too, as the trestles don't really put the track at a comfortable height to extended work like that. Anyway, all done now and, hopefully, decent running will be obtained.
    Having the boards up did provide the opportunity to pose a loco for some photos, so my Crab and ex_LMS period II coach in carmine and cream were posed, emerging for the scenic break over bridge/short tunnel.
     
    Here it is arriving, tender first, with the empty stock for a wakes special.
     

     
    And here with the return working a week later.
     

     
    Looks like the crew forgot the lamps on both turns. Funny that no signalmen stopped the train as a result!
     
    Dave.
  4. Dave Holt
    The part finished ex-LMS D2008 vestibule brake 3rd has been completed to partner the D1916 version already done. As before, the bulk of the work was done by Coachman, leaving me to make the interior and finish off. The D2008 is a bit unusual because it has only 51/2 seating bays but an even smaller brake compartment than the D1916, which has 6 bays. This must have resulted in very generous leg room for excursion passengerd who chose to sit in this type of coach.
    Here's a shot of the complete coach and also a closer view showing the brake compartment and half seating bay.
     

     

     
    Here the two coaches are seen together for comparison.
     

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    A couple of posts back, I explained how the bell code dinger mechanism had been fitted to the control panel and pondered on possible sources for a suitable battery holder for the PP9 battery.
    Well, nothing appeared to be available commercially, so a custom made holder has been constructed from thick (1.2 mm I think) plastic sheet and attached to the side of the control panel with a couple of 8 BA screws and copious quantities of plastic solvent. The attached photos show the arrangement with the terminal connector held roughly in place using blu-tac. I suspect that actual electrical contact might be more effective in use!
     

     

     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt
    Not much progress with the layout - although I have now fixed the coal drop retaining walls and deck support pillars to the base-board.
     
    Last Saturday I helped (?) friend Dave Clarke and the regular team (Simon & Jim) with his Amlwch branch layout at the Derby show - as fiddle yard operator - I didn't trust myself to operate out front!
    The normal green/blue era diesel service was was disrupted from time to time by a typical Delph Donkey formation, consisting of Fowler 2-6-2 class 3 tank loco, number 40056, with an ex-LMS Period II open third non-driving trailer and ex-LNWR M15 driving trailer. Steam era trains to Amlwch were more generally Ivatt class 2 tanks with non-corridor push-pull coaches, I think - at least towards the end. Nevertheless, the Donkey train looked perfectly at home and it was nice to see it run on a finished layout. Loco needs finishing and the coaches weathering. Must do something about the acceleration inertia/starting voltage though - the controller could be set to full and the loco didn't move for about 10 seconds and then smoothly accelerated. Took a bit of judgement to stop in the right place too. Perhaps deceleration inertia is not such a good idea on terminal layouts!
     
    The following photos show the train simmering at the buffer stops following arrival (being a Fowler class 3, it was probably having to get it's breath back!!!) and also approaching the station area.
     

     
    40056 at the buffer stops.
     

     

     
    Approaching the station.
     
    Thanks for the invite, Dave. I really enjoyed myself and I hope folks enjoyed the Donkey ride!
  7. Dave Holt
    Powered up the wiring of the first board using various jump leads to connect 16 V AC, a hand-held Pentroller and a second controller to swith the point motor. Ran my part finished Ivatt Cl 2, 2-6-2 tank up and down the platform road, then transferred everything to the loop road. This has a point giving access to the siding which runs along the side of the goods shed. Was able to switch the point using the second cpntroller and found that by chance, I'd wired the route indicating LED's correctly for the diverging roads. Had to do an adjustment to the Tortoise travel to get the point blades to sit hard against the stock rail for the siding, in order to get reliable running in the facing direction.
     

     

     

     
    Photos show an overall view of the test with the Pentroller plugged into it's socket on the facia of the board. The adjacent socket is for the DCC Xpressnet connection. Also seen is a close-up of the facia showing the point switch, route indicating LED's (with the diverging road set and the LED illuminated) and the red button is for an Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet. Lastly, a view of the loco taking the diverging road. Now for the rest......
     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    Have started to do some of the electics under the board I currently have at home. Frighteningly slow progress and vast quantities of wire being consumed - and this is one of the more simple boards, with only one point and one AJ uncoupler (not yet started). I dread to think what the station throat board will be like!
     

     

     

     
    Photos show progress to date. The tag strips will eventually carry the connections to the adjoining boards.
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    Following initial function testing of the control panel, I have connected up the panel and two boards to check a bit more, including the yard controller connection points. To my consternation, feeds to the second board (the one with the coal drops) and the DC input were completely dead. Everything on the first (station) board appeared to be reasonably OK (see later) and the DCC input and local point operation/LED's on the second board worked. A slight sense of panic set in as I frantically checked various tag connectiones and continuity. Then, with a massive feeling of relief and realising what a silly mistake I'd made, I noticed that I had only connected one set of jumper cables between the two boards - the other was still neatly held in its clips! Phew!! I sheepishly connected the second jumper and heaved a sigh of relief as everything on board 2 now worked.
    Well, actually, I found that a slight re-thinking of the wiring to the Tortoise point motors was required. I had followed one of the wiring suggestions from Tortoise and used a switched half-wave rectified feed to one side of the motors and one side of the 16 v AC supply to the other. The siding point and associated LED's on the second board worked OK, if a bit slow, but the platform release cross-over, involving two motors and three LED's would only work in one direction. I found that with the LED's removed from the circuit, the motors worked perfectly, so the LED array must be causing too big a voltage drop. I could solve this for the local controlled points by swapping the switches to have an extra pole but the panel mounted switches for he two other cross-overs already were the maximum number of poles available. Mmmm... Then I decided to try wiring the LED's in parallel with the motor feeds instead of in series. I attached jumper leads to try it and thankfully it worked, so it was then a case of rearranging the wiring and connecting on side of the LED arrays, via a resistor, direct to the 16 v AC side which the motors are connected. All now appears to work as intended.
    Next step is to start work on wiring the last scenic board - the one with most of the station throat point-work - that I've been putting off. No more excuses, so I'll just have to knuckle down and make a start.
  10. Dave Holt
    Some time ago, I purchased a couple of ex-GCR push-pull coaches from Coachman, following his change of interest from Greenfield to ex-GWR in North Wales. These coaches consist of a 12 wheeled driving trailer, which I believe may have been converted from a steam rail motor, and a brake composite non-driving trailer, which had been converted from a London suburban all first.
    This combination of coaches was used on Guidebridge to Oldham services in the 1950's and I must have seen it innumerable times as a child because I lived right next to the OA&GB line, although I can't honestly remember them. Of course, they are not strictly appropriate to Delph (nor Greenfield for that matter). However, they could physically have run to both places, either by extending the service from Oldham or, more plausibly, from Guidebridge via Stalybridge and Mossley. Anyway, I'm modelling Holt, not Delph, so anything can run that I fancy! And I do like the look of this train.
    Of course, Coach's models were "OO" and my layout is P4, so conversion has been necessary. This has caused some soul searching and a bit of compromise as I couldn't identify a source of GCR coach bogies, but overall, I'm happy with progress to date.
    The 12 wheeler should have bogies with 6'-0" + 6'-0" wheelbase. The only bogies I could find have 6'-3" + 6'-3" so a compromise was inevitable. I started assembling some Bill Bedford fully sprung bogies and intended to fit Exactoscale wheel sets with plain bearings. I was struggling a bit to control axle side play whilst keeping the spring carriers in their slots so I had a further look at the Comet LMS bogies I had bought for the cosmetic side frames and decided I rather like the functional etched bogie frames which could be built compensated (one fixed end axle, the other end axles rocking and the centre axle free to foat - lightly sprung in my case). This also eased the fitting of the cosmetic side frames as the pin-point bearing are fixed in the side frames and do not move up and down, as in a sprung arrangement. I originally bought the Comet bogies just fro the cosmetic side frames but decided to re-use the plastic bogie frames that Coachman had fitted. I'm not sure of their provenance but they look fairly reasonable and have the correct overall length, so they look right relative to the coach underframe headstocks. I have mounted them so that the centre axles are at the correct centres and arranged for one bogie to have side bearers to prevent rocking of the body whilst the other bogie is free to rock sideways.
    The other modification is to provide sprung buffers at the non-driving end as i want the coaches to have buffer contact but still go round curves. This is slightly complicated by them having oval heads. The buffers are standard round head sprung type with etched oval overlays. To prevent rotation, I fixed short lengths of brass tube to the buffer shanks, linked by a cross wire passing through holes drilled across the tubes.
    Here's a (not very good) shot of the coach.

     
    The non-driving trailer has 8'-0" bogies which have unusually long springs, long side frames and diagonal bracing rods to the outboard ends. Quite distinctive and not commercially available any longer as far as I could establish. Following a question on RMweb, a manufacturer did offer to produce suitable but has failed to deliver so far. I had noted that the axlebox/spring castings supplied for the 6 wheel bogies were a fair representation of those used, so I decided to make my own cosmetic frames using these castings. The frames were cut from N/S with flanges, bracing rods and tie-rods from brass wire and N/S strip. The axlebox/spring casting proved to be rather fragile with the end damper/shock absorber blocks tending to break off. Some were already broken when supplied and I manged to break quite a few in cleaning up the casting. Here's some of the debris - funny that it's the RH end that has broken on every one!

     
    In the end, I managed to get eight whole ones fixed to the frames, with the vulnerable bits reinforced with a dab of epoxy on the back. Not perfect scale model bogies, but a fair representation and better than anything currently available commercially, I think.
    Other modifications are fitting of sprung buffers all round and a rigid coupling bar to the driving coach. This is a cast item with under-slung pipes. I modified it to have swan neck type high level vacuum pipes (one for the brakes, the other for the push-pull control gear) and retained one low level pipe for the steam heat.
    Here's an even worse quality photo of the coach.

     
    Now Christmas has been put back in the garage for a year and the visitors have gone home, I might get back to working on the layout again. Obviously some painting to do on the two coaches. Oh yes, and there's the slight matter of a C13 tank to pull/push them!
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    I've now completed the modifications to the two coaches (apart from the AJ coupling at the loco end) and have painted the new bogies and also the coach underframes. Probably at bit of weathering on the sides, ends and roofs, when I set up my airbrush - warmer weather allowing work outside or in the garage, I think.
    Here are the coaches in their current state.
    First, the brake composite non-driving trailer:
     

     
    and the 12 wheel driving trailer:
     

     
    Dave.
  12. Dave Holt
    Today I had a visit by friend Dave Clarke, who has weathered some coaches for me and we took the opportunity to assemble the whole scenic section of the layout, using the plastic trestles I bought recently. This allowed all the boards and control panel to be connected up and an attempt at running for the first time. A number of unexpected issues were found so the outcome was rather mixed. Part of the run-round loop and three sidings were completely dead on two boards, despite previous careful checking for continuity. I fear that a period of fault finding lies ahead.
     
    Still, we managed to run some locos and stock over part of the layout, so all was not lost.
     
    After moving some furniture and assembling the boards, the first job was to scrape the paint off the rail heads on the main station board prior to trying to run anything. The following photos show Dave doing the scraping and an overall view of the assembly.
     

     

     
    Dave had brought a sound fitted Class 24 and this is seen near the coal drops and also at the head of an arriving excursion train. This is made up of some of the coaches Dave has weathered. He's done a nice job and I'm very pleased with the results - mainly ends, underframes and bobies. The body sides were kept fairly clean on this type of stock.
     

     

     

     

     
    Then it was the turn of my Stanier 2-6-4 tank, No. 42551, to haul the train. A bit more in period!
     

     

     
    Finally, having run round its train (we had to cheat with a bit of finger power over the dead section), the train departs, passing WD 2-8-0, No. 90671, which is standing on the coal drop road, held by the miniature semaphore ground signal.
     

     
    Good fun playing trains for the first time, but a bit frustrating with the problems.
     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    Close on the heels of the BR Std Class 2 tank, I've now completed the finishing touches to my Fowler Class 3, 2-6-2 tank, which has remained almost finished for some years. The work required was the same as on the Standard, namely adding coal to the bunker and a crew in the cab, together with fixing the cab roof.
    Having said these are the finishing touches, I realise that I still need to add fire irons to the rests on top of the RH tank. This also applies to the Standard and to the tender of my Crab 2-6-0. Obviously, a fire iron manufacturing session is required shortly.
    Anyway, here are some photos of the loco as it currently stands.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt
    A bit of further effort has seen the completion of the FPL and lock bar with the rodding all connected and the drive to the FPL bolt also done. This means I can now paint the track on the final board and in fact, since the photos were taken, I've primed all the unpainted bits using Halfords grey plastic primer.
    Just the rodding connections into the signal box left to do; then the dreaded ballasting awaits.
    Here are some shots of the finished assembly.
     

     

     

     

     
    Aahh! Just spotted that I forgot to plug the hole in the sleeper where I had to move the pivot bar for the FPL bolt (last photo). Another little job to do before painting.
     
    Dave.
  15. Dave Holt
    A quick update following completion of the FPL lock bar operating mechanism. This includes a representation of a spring assister which helped the signalman move the weight of the bar and cushioned the bar at the ends of its movement.
    Still got the other portion of the bar to complete and the rodding from the signal box.
     
    Here's a view of the recent bits added:
     

  16. Dave Holt

    Delph - FPL lock bar

    By Dave Holt,

    Following on from my previous post on point rodding, I've now got stuck into the facing point lock lock bar. This is located immediately in advance of the king point to prevent the FPL being withdrawn if any stock was standing over the bar.
    Using information from the Scalefour Society manual and further information and photos from Robin Whittle (of Barrow Road fame) I've made good progress with my 4 mm scale representation.
    The bar is slightly the wrong proportions being a length of 0.82 x 0.82 mm Tee section but not too far out. It's mounted on wire pins set into the base board top adjacent to the rail. The pivot levers are from an Ambis FPL etch but I didn't bother with the associated support brackets as they're barely visible behind the pivots. I set the top of the bar 0.75 mm below the rail head to make sure that my 0.5 mm deep wheel flanges would be clear of it. This is perhaps a bit generous clearance as the real thing is about level with the bottom of the rail head in the lowered position. To get the bar to the required height I had to file the top of the inside chairs to 1.57 mm below top of rail and trim the bottom of the pivot levers which will be below ballast level when all is finished.
    A minor inconvenience is that the bar crosses a base board joint, so the total length (50' - 6") is split with 140 mm on one board and the remaining 62 mm on the next.
    Here's a photo of the longer section in position. Also visible (just) are the cranks for the operating rods (rods not yet done). The drive from the signal box lever is to the far (left hand) end of the bar.
     

     
    At the other end of the bar is the attachment to the FPL bolt mechanism. This arrangement meant that any failure/breakage in the lock bar arrangement prevented the FPL (and hence the point blades) from being moved.
  17. Dave Holt
    The shorter porting of the FPL lock bar has now been completed and fitted in situ - still waiting for the glue to set. This just leaves the connection to the FPL bolt. I think I'm going to have to modify part of the bolt mechanism already fitted as it doesn't allow a long enough connecting rod to the lock bar. Not quite as drastic a mod as Coachman regularly makes to Greenfield but a bit of extra work with the added risk of damaging parts I need to re-use.
     
    Here are some photos showing assembly and fitting of the shorter part of the bar.
     
    First a shot of the rod having the pivot levers fitted. I used a simple plastic card jig to help me get these correctly positioned so that they fall in the middle of sleeper bays. 145 degree solder was used to avoid unsoldering the vertical mounting pins or melting the plastic too much!
     

     
    Here's the finish section of bar with the bottom of the pivot levers trimmed to clear the top of the track underlay.
     

     
    Finally, a shot of the bar in situ with hair grips holding it in the correct position whilst the glue sets. I put the adjacent section of board in place to ensure the bar lined up across the joint. It also allows me to position the stools for the remaining section of point rodding which moves the whole lock bar/FPL arrangement. Visible in front of the RH grip is the bolt operating lever which needs to be moved one sleeper to the left.
     

  18. Dave Holt
    Those who have followed previous blog entries will know that I have not yet started the support structure for my Delph based layout. As a result, although I have placed individual boards on the (suitably protected) dining table to work on, any attempts to connect several boards together have involved having them on the floor. During a recent visit by Tim V, we managed to connect all four scenic boards, but this entailed moving the table and a coffee table out of the way to make enough space. All a bit of a pain.
    Recently, I have worked on individual boards with them balanced on top a two dining chair backs. A bit precarious, but this has the advantage of raising the board surface to a less back-breaking height and also leaves the table free for its intended purpose! Then a thought struck.... Why not use trestle legs as temporary supports? Similar in height to the chair backs but more stable and leaving the chairs free! So, three pairs of plastic trestle have been accquired and found to be just the job. I haven't tried assembling the whole thing on these, yet, but a couple of sections have been connected so that a couple of loose rail ends could be re-soldered at the board joint. This assembly is shown below:
     

     
    Over the past week or so, I've been fitting the cosmetic chairs to the soldered tack (mainly points, but also some plain track) on the board with most of the station throat point-work. There feels to have been millions of them, even though I've cheated by only applying the chairs to the visible side of the rails to halve the number required.
    In order to fit them, any part of the brass rivet protruding beyong the foot of the rail has to be ground completely away. I used a small grinding disc mounted on the end of a flexible drive shaft to do this - very laborious and causing one or two of the soldered joints to break, needing repair before the chairs was fitted. Each chair moulding has to be cut in half and the cut ends trimmed back to allow the half chair to fit right up against the side of the rail. The chair halves were then attached using a strong plastic solvent (Plastic Weld). I used Exactoscale chairs because they do a wide range of chair types, which helps try to represent the various types of chair present in bull-head rail pointwork. The photos below show the results of my efforts:
     

     

     

     

     
    The next job is to fit cosmetic fish plates at all the rail joint positions. There are lots of these, as all the siding track-work is supposed to be 30 foot rail. Where electrical isolation is required, I'll use the Exactoscale plastic versions and otherwise, Brassmasters etched brass plates. Then it's point rodding supports and the facing point lock arrangement.
    Still lots to do, but it's coming along.
    I hope to have a trial running session next week. If it accurs, I'll post a further item and photos.
     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt
    In order to correct some unsightly gaps in the cut out in the cork underlay, where the goods shed fits, I have temporarily re-fitted the shed. Suitable cork infills have now been fitted. Eventually, the shed will be surrounded on three sides by cobble stones. The total thickness of the cobbled area will be roughly 4 mm so as to be flush with the top of the rails. Similar to Martin Nield's description of the typical L&Y yard arrangement in the latest MRJ, the yard at Delph (ex-LNWR) had a double row of old sleepers between the adjacent rail and the cobbled area, presumably as these were easier to lift than cobbles when track maintenance was required.
     
    Whilst the shed building was in situ, I posed a part completed banana van on the shed road to check clearance and running. All OK, i'm pleased to report. However, I'm not too sure that any part completed banana vans ever actually ran to Delph, so this may not be strictly prototypical!
     
    The event was captured on film (well, pixels, anyway!):
     

     

     

     

    Banana van just visible at the far end of the shed in this view.
     
    Back to loco maintenance!
     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    All the rail-built buffers in the goods yard area are now in place and all sleepers and cosmetic chairs fitted. This leaves the timber buffer stop in the yard and the two head shunt (mill siding and run-round loop) rail-built units still to do. These last two are on the station throat board which I haven't progressed beyond the track laying stage, yet.
    I've scaled the timber stop from a photo of the back of it, drawn it out, selected suitable (plastic) material and am about to start construction. Drawing the thing full size lead me to conclude that the siding track stopped a bit short of where it should, so a short additional length of plain track has been added to bring it to about the right place. Hopefully, this won't be too visible once everything is painted and weathered.
     
    One of the goods yard stops, positioned in front of the goods shed, is on the station board, but the siding is entirely on the adjacent board, so it's been necessary to re-connect the two boards, temporarily, to locate the buffer.
     
    The photos below show the buffers in place.
     

     
    View from near the coal drops (with deck removed).
     

     
    View from beyond the end of the station platform (not in situ).
     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    Or, perhaps it should be "The buffers hit Delph"!
     
    Following my stint with the bulldozer and grader to change the height of the road, just beyond the station, I thought I'd better get on with more directly related railway matters. So, I've fixed two rail built buffer stops at the end of the platform and loop roads. Quite a few more to go but progress nonetheless.
    These stops are made from the Mainly Trains fine-scale cast brass kits, which match the Code 75 C&L plain track very well. You may notice that the stops are not quite complete as the very rearmost sleeper (located under the 3 rail wide section at the rear of the stop, are not yet in place. The buffers are connected to the running tracks using Exactoscale/P4 Track Co moulded plastic fish-plates. As a precaution against wheel rims shorting across the isolating gaps (the cast brass buffer beam offering a very attractive circuit path from one side to the other), an additional rail gap will be cut in one rail, after the adhesive has fully dried.
    I've only fitted cosmetic chairs on the visible side of the rails (same as the point-work). Mind you, I'm not sure why I've bothered at all. All the stops at Delph were surrounded by so much debris and long grass that the sleepers, chairs and rails were completely hidden from view. The platform road stop had a pile of what looks like spare cobble stones stacked in the 4 foot almost up to the buffer beam and the loop line 4 foot was filled with a pile of ballast or ash/gravel - at least in the period modelled - mid 1950's.
    Just visible in the 6 foot are the pads for the stools for the point rodding from the ground frame (located between the two buffer stops) and the run-round crossover points.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt
    Four of the coaches making up the set have now had their bogies painted, as illustrated below. Two more to go!
    At some future stage, I'm going to have to pluck up the courage to carry out some weathering on the superb paint finish Coachman achieves. Probably not much on the sides, but roofs, ends and under-frames got fairly grubby in steam days and were never cleaned between shoppings.
     
    Anyway, here's the job so far - bogies painted, AJ couplings on the outer end coaches and also the brake 3rd (it will be an end coach in a different formation using some of the same coaches plus another (as yet not built) brake - a D1916/1946 open 3rd), corner steps added to the Period III's, Masokits couplings between coaches - and of course, Coach's superb build and paint quality.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  23. Dave Holt
    Gosh, nearly 6 months since the last entry!
    Not a great deal of progress with the layout - although I have applied a base coat of colour to the trackwork on two of the boards and started to contemplate wiring up on the third board, That's the one with the main station throat pointwork, so represents more of a challenge than the two dealt with so far. There's nothing like thinking about a job to avoid actually having to do it!!!
    Anyway, I have been doing some modelling over the intervening period - some of it "cheque-book" modelling and some physical modelling! Inspired by the photo of a Greenfield to Llandudno holiday train on page 101of Larry Goddard's Delph to Oldham book (Foxline), I wanted to represent it on Delph as if it had in fact started it's journey on the branch. Larry has produced a rake of 6 coaches, the first four of which are the same diagrams as visible in the photo and the last two types of his choice. I've built the bogies as larry doesn't work in P4 and as a result the whole thing is still work-in-progress. The bogies are a mix of Dave Bradwell sprung units, where AJ couplings are required, and the new Brassmaster/Jim Smith-Wright compensated units (very quick and easy to assemble, I must say) for the remainder. Cosmetic side-frames are 247 Developments for welded type and MJT/Dart Castings for the rivetted version. I haven't made and fitted the AJ's, yet but the coach to coach couplings are Masokits types, which allow coupling by just pushing the vehicles together and which are very easily adjusted for length so the (sprung) buffer heads just touch.
    Painting of bogies and weathering still to do.
    The photos below show the assembled train (in the correct sequence per the photos) with my partially completed Crab at the head - again, as per the photo. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but lighting conditions are not the best and the use of flash seems to make them to stark and too much contrast.
     
    First, the re-creation of the published photo
     

     
    More detailed views of the various coaches
     

     

     

     
    Finally, a view fron the rear as the train departs Delph on its way to the sea-side.
     

     
    Dave.
  24. Dave Holt
    I've finally painted all the bogies and re-assembled all 6 coaches which make up the train. Weathering can wait till a later date. Here are some further views of the train posed on the station throat section of the layout - track yet to be wired & painted.
    For those who haven't followed earlier entries, Delph wasn't built on a continuous viaduct (!), the arch shaped openings are the tops of lightening holes in the stiffening ribs. These will be hidden behind an embankment and stone retaining wall, eventually.
     
    First, the final pair of coaches to have the bogies painted.
     

     

     
    Now the assembled train, starting with a couple of views from the buffer stop end of the station area.
     

     

     
    A couple of shots looking towards the station.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  25. Dave Holt
    Not much actual modelling progress to report, but it's been a while since the last layout update, so here's the latest.
     
    After spending what felt like weeks on my hands and knees - the major drawback with having the base-boards on the lounge floor! - grinding off rivet heads and applying cosmetic chairs to the ply sleepers at the base-board joint, I have painted the whole lot with grey primer, prior to applying the actual sleeper and rail colours.
    I got this idea from Iain Rice's book on fine-scale track.
    The problem is that the ply sleepers used at the joints and in the pointwork are different in both colour and texture from the moulded plastic sleepers in the plain track. The normal wood dye/staining method for ply sleepered track would be very difficult to match with the painted plastic track, so....everything is given a coat of aerosol grey primer to even it all up and then if can all be painted with the same range of colours and apart from very close inspection revealing the proper keys on the cosmetic chairs, it should all blend together. I think you'll agree with the effectiveness of this approach, as shown in the attached photos. It really is hard to see which are ply and which are plastic sleepers. I used Halfords grey plastic primer. It will be interesting to see how durable it is.
    The eagle eyed will spot that although I tried to be careful to mask of items not being painted, I have managed to get a bit of primer in several areas where it shouldn't be, although it's not much and should be easy to touch up.
     
    First a general view over the station and coal drop boards:

     
    And now a closer view at the base-board joint (staggered to fall between sleepers on the diverding tracks) and at one end of the platform release cross-over points:

     

     
    As you can see, I haven't made any attempt so far to represent the point blade tie bars. These will be non-functional and, bearing the shallow viewing angle which will result from the high track level on the completed model, I'm thinking along the lines of just dummy, fixed stretchers not actually attached to the blades at all.
     
    I also have to figure out the best colours of paint to use for the sleepers. These will have to be individually painted, I think, so another long laborious job in prospect. Well, it won't do it itself, so I'll just have to knuckle down....
     
    Dave.
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