JCClark

Hi Andrew I had the same problem when I tried using the Railmatch universal primer so never used it again. I only use the Halfords primers now as they never let you down and the nozzles are easy to keep clear. Depending on colour I am going to spray I use either the grey or white primer. They also do a yellow "filler" primer that is excellent as is their etch primer for metals. Hope that helps. Regards John

Hello everyone Apologies for the lack of updates but I have been trying to catch up on some of the locos I had stored for re-spray so have focussed on them for the last 3 weeks! Just about there now and when all complete I will post some photographs. Current status of my re-sprays are as follows - 37098 in 1990s Engineers Grey, just prior to application of "Dutch" yellow stripe, complete. 67023 in Colas livery - awaiting Shawplan "Stella" etched plates. 37254 in Colas livery, just completing nose ends prior to re-assembly and, finally, 37099 Merl Evans - have completed modification of nose end by movement of hi intensity light and adding small lower handrails either side of red lights, body livery applied and awaiting gloss coat prior to decal application and etched plates from Shawplan on their way. Also visited an excellent Perth show last month and could not resist a Legomanbiffo sound decoder for my Scotrail liveried class 68 and it sounds superb! All 3 of my 68s also benefit from the fitting of Shawplan etched brake discs, they look brilliant and so easy to do. The bogie frames come away easily and I lifted wheels out and, after applying a touch of Johnsons Klear to wheel ends, popped the brake discs in place and that is it! Thank you for following my layout updates and, as always, please feel free to ask any questions or make any constructive comments. I am not what one would term a "skilled" modeller but just take my time and get a lot of advice from clips on YouTube. Best regards John

Hi Justin I have just removed nameplates and RFD decals on Grainflow using cotton buds and Brasso. I do all my decal removal using this method and only had a problem with a Heljan class 58 as I think the paint is thinner than other manufactures! Just rub gently and all decal soon starts to come off and you end up with a polished gloss area ready for your new decal. I re-numbered all my Bachmann Metalair cement tanks using this method and, after applying the excellent railtech decals and blowing over satin varnish with my airbrush you would never know that they have been renumbered. Regards John

Hi Mick Great to meet you at Perth and thanks for all your advice - great font of knowledge you and Roland!! Found the pens and managed to get 4 for the price of 3! Should get my Colas 67 complete next week and have already stripped Grainflow to become 37098 in Engineers grey! Hi intensity light removed (pity I did not have it on 37254!). Looking forward to the new items from DCC Concepts and will definitely go for the ground signals! Best regards John

Hi Mick Great meeting you and an enlightening chat thank you. Have ordered the pens - 4 for the price of 3! Grainflow already stripped ready to become 37098 in Engineers grey. Perth definitely getting better every year I think!! Looking forward to DCC Concepts new introductions!! Regards John

Hi Scoobyra You are spot on regarding the differences between the FGW and VTEC power cars. What I failed to mention was that my friend bought a pair of re-sprayed FGW PCs that had been done in VTEC livery. I swapped them for a proper set of VTEC and it is the resprays that I will strip and return to FGW Green. Great that you mentioned the difference, prevents some one making the mistake that it sounded like I had made. Regards John

Hi Art I have not used strip magic but Deluxe products are usually very good - I use their glues and brush cleaner. As GordonC says, ensure you remove the glazing on your Power Cars prior to submerging the shells in any stripping solution. What livery are you re-painting yours into Art - mine will be FGW green. Regards John

Hello Art I will be carrying out the same stripping exercise on one of my VTEC power car sets. I have done quite a lot of loco stripping and cannot see past Phoenix Superstrip. It is non caustic and can be used over and over again. Hope that helps Regards John

Hi Johnster A bit like yourself when trying to renumber coaches as needed to renumber my Sealink, Scotrail and GNER coaches. After researching the numbers required I contacted R3Sprays and Mike and Colin made me the number sets. Great to deal with and delighted with the sets, fully recommend them. Hope that helps. Regards John

Hi Simon As per one of the members before me, I ground the "V" down flat on the coupling slot in the metal chassis of my 60s and do not have the problem now. Regards John

Good morning everyone Just thought I would give a quick update on what has been going on with Parkway and add a couple of photographs as well. A couple of the photographs show the ballasting I have been doing on the upper level and probably just over a third complete. Will weather the track and ballast once all complete. I have also been adding some icons to my ECoS 50200 as I have succumbed to the purchase of three Dapol class 68s - bought my final one (a Chiltern liveried version) after a visit to Stafford and seeing 68014 on the Mountsorrell train heading North! My other two are a DRS standard livery and a DRS Scotrail liveried version. I have added a photograph of the 4 SEALINK coaches that I have re-numbered to now make up a rake of 6 SK coaches and a BSK. The numbers were a bespoke order from R3 Sprays, who are brilliant to deal with in all aspects. Another photograph shows my progress regarding the respraying of Mark 3 coaches into GNER livery. The three in the photo are an ex pair of Hornby Chiltern liveried coaches and an ex Lima Blue/Grey Mark 3. All glossed up and ready for decals now and, once again, R3 Sprays have helped out with coach lettering etc. The final photograph is a renumbering of 37401 to Inverness allocated 37419 with added lamp irons on either side of the headcode box. I have given the loco a bit of weathering to suit the condition of these fabulous locomotives when they were working the Far North line from Inverness. I think it will go well with the SEALINK coaches also. Hope you like the work going on with the layout and, as usual, would appreciate any comments or advice from anyone. Best regards John

Hello Richard The Dapol A4s belong to a friend of mine as my layout is really modern image. We have not tried any steam locos on the Helix as yet but I am sure we can give it a test to see how a steam locomotive performs. Regards John

Hi Dave Thanks very much, appreciate your comment. Next job is to attempt a re-spray of a Hornby HST into GWR and a Bachmann 37 into 37099 Merl Evans! Best regards John

Hi Everyone I mentioned a few posts back that I was attempting to increase my number of coaches on my GNER rake as only had 5 which were a mixture of Hornby and Lima Mk3's. Scale size GNER mark3 coaches appear to be a bit hard to get hold of these days so thought I would have a go at some re-sprays. I managed to get three Arriva Mark3 TSO vehicles at a really cheap price from one of the large box shifters and some Phoenix GNER red and blue tinlets of enamel. The two accompanying photographs are of the final result and must admit, I am quite pleased with my first attempt and now cracking on with the next two. The one I have done (42154) is coach C from Set EC51 and decals are a mixture of R3Sprays and Fox. The cantline I have done with a bow pen which, I readily admit, I am no expert at and took me a few goes before I even got it this good!! I have two sets of GNER Power cars, one set being the more modern Hornby pair and the other pair are the old model but the chassis on both cars have been replaced with Bachmann class 25 chassis. Would appreciate any comments you may have. Best regards John

Good morning all Thought I would just post some photographs of my triple set of class 47s. 47 436 has just been detailed at number 1 end but awaiting BUZNAK decals from Railtec transfers. 47 563 was a cheap in-numbered large Logo Heljan class 47 from Ebay and Railtec Transfers applied to produce another Inverness allocated class 47 to the fleet. The "Woman's Guild" nameplates are also a Railtec production and superb. I bought the decals as a total Locomotive sheet and good value as always. 47749 is a re-sprayed Heljan loco Demelza that I bought a good while ago. I removed all numbering and Colas rail with Brasso but had to do a touch up with the airbrush where too much orange and yellow were removed. Once touched up, applied Johnsons Klear as a base for the Railtec decals and overcoated again with Klear. Once dry, a final coat of satin varnish, detailed fron end and here She is. Best regards John

Hello everyone As Roy said, a good clean of all rails was required and after the CMX cleaner had been propelled by the Network Rail 57 a wonderful running session was held with no faults. I had another run today which you can see at the end of the video and really pleased with the Dapol semaphore signals. We came across a problem with one of them but I managed to fix today thank goodness as it was past warrany date even though this is first time out of the box! I am using the ECoS along with Train - tronics decoder for the signals and really working a treat. You can also see by the end of the video I ran a rake of 19 HAAs behind a Hornby re-numbered 56 number 095 Haworth Colliery and it ran superbly with tremendous pulling power. Hoping to crack on with some serious ballasting in the next few weeks and also working on a couple of locos at the moment, re-branded Demelza to 47749 City of Truro and I managed to get a cheap in-numbered Heljan large logo class 47 on Ebay which is now, thanks to excellent decals from Steve at Railtec is 47563 Woman's Guild complete with Inverness stags on the cab sides. Just awaiting decals from Steve for 37419 and then just about have a full house on inverness locomotives. Also completed re-spray of GNER Mark3 for my HST set and pleased with the result. Fitting laserglaze at the moment and will post photographs when all complete. Thanks to all those who have viewed Parkway and would love to hear any comments/advice you may have. best regards John

Hi Dave Similar problem as you with the Lokpilot V4 but found that function 5 works the halos! John

I believe the first 47 introduced by Bachmann was circa 2007 and was 21 pin The earlier Virgin Thunderbirds in 57 guise were definitely 8 pin. John

Hi Chrom If you are an ESU member and can log on to their website there is a download section that includes manuals. You can download and print off a sheet which tells you what each icon means in both German and English. Regards John

Hello Everyone Apologies for the long interlude between posts this time but not had the best start to 2017 and a busy end to 2016. As you can see from Roy's post above, we had a good running session last Thursday and Roy managed to find a dead short that had prevented me from running the layout. Happy enough to start working on the scenery now and just waiting for the weather to warm up a little as the shed, although well insulated, is still pretty cold up here in the Highlands! I have had a few things keeping me busy whilst not running the layout and have added some photos of recent work. I completed one or two re-sprays and have added the pictures of 37 209 Phantom in Large Logo Livery, D5579 in Golden Ochre livery, 60076 and 60095 in Colas livery (one with new Olivers on cab panels) and I have modified my two Royal 67s with addition of red sole bar band and DB logos on cab panel and ends. The Colas locos were I have also, thanks to R3Sprays completed the renumbering and door lettering of my 9 coach VTEC set which now accurately portrays set EC63. I also bought 10 Freightliner HIAs and those with repeat numbers have been re-numbered with self adhesive data panels from Modern_Transport_Graphics whom I found on Ebay. They have worked out well and so bought from the same company to re-number my BP Aviation TEA tanks. Few more projects in hand at the moment as I intend to re-spray a 67 into Colas livery and also do 37099 in Colas. For anyone interested, I will be reducing my fleet this weekend by posting a few locos on Ebay including 3 Scotrail 47/7s, a resprayed Heljan 47 in Northern Belle and some LE models. They will be sold under the name Culreoch.

Good morning everyone Just thought I would post the latest couple of photographs of work just completed. Two of my latest re-sprays are shown posing on the canal bridge entrance to Parkway TMD. One is for my friend Roy, D5579, which is one of the two class 31s which were painted in the experimental Golden Ochre colour scheme (the same as D1015 Western Champion). The other loco is one of my own which is a Heljan Class 58 which I purchase recently in Mainline TTG colour scheme. Unfortunately, when removing original numbers and Mainline logo, I discovered how thin the Heljan paintwork is! I ended up carrying out a full respray and decals for a coal sector locomotive. I used the excellent Shawplan plates to depict number 58019 Shirebrook Colliery and also added a bit of typical weathering seen in the days this locomotive was working. My layout will depict two Eras when fully up and running so I can change between Modern Image and ERA 8 as I have a real love of the sectorisation and Large Logo stock of that period. Regards John

Hi WCML 100 Thank you for your comment. Your own layout is very good so value your comment John

Hello Everyone Thought I would upload some photographs to assist in my excuse for not being further on with the Scenics on the Parkway. There are a couple of photos of 57603 Tintagel castle in FGW livery which is a re-spray from a Heljan loco and has also had Express Model lights fitted. The loco is shown crossing the canal toward Parkway TMD which is also shown in one of the photographs in raw form! Also pictured on the canal bridge is the second of the 2 Royal Scotsman 66s I did for Roy. Really pleased with the Railtec transfers I used as these, like the re-numbered PCAs shown in one of the photos, are their new spot varnished decals - absolutely brilliant! The 66 corrugated sides are always difficult to put decals on so, after some advice from a friend, I added a couple of drops of wood glue to the water mix and, instead of applying Microset on the application area, I applied a coat of Johnsons Klear and applied the decal whilst the Klear was still wet. Tamped the decal down gently with a flat brush and let it all dry. Once dry, another coat of Klear and then satin varnish by Phoenix to complete. The PCAs were de-numbered with Brasso and cotton bud and the Railtec Decals applied to the residual polished area. Once dry, a coat of Klear and a final satin coat and you would never know that it was a re-number other than you cannot buy a new Metalair wagon with the numbers I have on mine! Best regards John

Jim/Mick Ha!Ha! I forgot to add my 70 (With fitted fan box) and two 47s _ Rebecca and Demelza although Demelza now going to be changed to City of Truro. A friend of mine is scratch building the Colas container etc on it's KFA so I will definitely be a nice selection of Colas traction with only a Tamper missing! Keeping my fingers crossed that Bachmann will do 37099 in their 2017 announcements even though they will have to introduce a modified nose end! You can see one of my re-sprayed Colas 60s on Layout Topics - Parkway. Regards John

What a superb photograph Jim, thanks for sharing. Bachmann have to release this one - it should sell like hot Cakes! Will go well with the 3 Colas 37s I have already (2 are my own resprays) - not to mention my 4 56s, 2 66s and 3 class 60s!! Do you think I have an obsession? John