bmthtrains - David

A little further on now. David

The first coats of paint have now gone onto the apartment building. The next step is to mask off the render and spray the base brick colour. David

Something to coincided here is the difference between ‘the past’ and ‘history’ - the former can never be reached, while the latter is a product of the present. Any view of the past is inevitably shaped and interpreted through the lenses of today, so whatever choices a modeller makes are done so in the context of what is or isn’t deemed acceptable today. David

I’ve started work on the block of flats that will go at the right hand corner of the layout. At the moment it’s just the basic laser cut parts primed white. These need individually painting before assembly, then window frames, doors, and possibly gutters can be added but this will be a low detail model due to its position. David

Wonder what he means - possibly new container flats? These would clash with C-Rail’s. Unlikely to be new MK 3s surely given Dapol’s offering. They’d need to do the DVT as well, another duplication. David

Yes, the first announced. Plenty of new models have been released, as they said this was due to a backlog of previously announced models, hence no new announcements until now. David

Apart from all the new tool models that have been released over the past 30 months? David

Hi Arran, With the new Farish 90 coming Dec/Jan, any news on when the flats will be released? Perfect running companions! David

The 60 news was interesting as they mentioned it has been upgraded to have cab lights as well. I’m also seeing evidence of a new release pattern here with huge numbers of a single tooling being released - take those 08s for example, how many different liveries have been released over 2 quarters now? Same with the 37s, so I expect a lot more 90s to follow. This seems to be the same in OO and is really helpful as given the huge gaps between runs in batch production, producing lots of versions at once is very welcome. David

Extremely happy with this announcement - I’ve been after a new 90 for years now. I may wait for later batches as ideally I’d like one in Freightliner green and one in either EWS or DB red, but the Virgin 90 could be tempting, but given the price I may hold off for ones I really need. Well done Bachmann for this! David

With the 321 pointing the right way so it doesn’t catch and derail, a bit of WCML passenger stock running: David

My coupling woes continued today, this time running my Revolution 321 on the layout for the first time. Having been an utter disaster before it was sent back for repair, it ran well on my Kato test track on its return but now one of the couplings has completely disintegrated, with a covering flap constantly dropping off whenever it goes round a corner and jamming between the sleepers, stopping the unit from moving and then derailing. I will have to superglue this part on as otherwise it only runs in the opposite direction without catching. Thankfully that’s the also the only direction in which both the front and rear lights work, so perhaps that is a bonus? I also need to figure out what’s going on with the ride heights of each coach as they’re all over the place: This model continues to be an expensive source of constant frustration. David

Having had no time for any modelling in the last month or so I decided to get the layout out for a run this evening. Cursing my newer Dapol stock and remembering Dapol stands for Decouples At Points and On Lines, I finally got things running smoothly. David

Some perhaps, but I have seen many reports with exactly the same issues mine had and this was due to with either the design and manufacture or both - the wiring preventing free movement of the coupling which lifted the bogies off the rails when coming off curves. Nothing to do with this owner’s handling I can assure you. Revolution will no doubt have a better idea as to the principal cause of the issues that have been reported by examining returns. Even if rough handling is a major cause, however, it is a poor designer who blames the user (which Revolution have not and I would imagine never would, to clarify) and so I would expect Revolution to be quietly looking at improvements for their next multiple unit regardless of the cause. The engineering tolerances in N are extremely slim and as expectations for models get ever greater I certainly don’t envy any manufacturer’s task… David

Criticisms of models absolutely should be aired, and while I dislike the ‘rant’ type of post where dollies are thrown out of prams, if that is how someone feels, then they are perfectly entitled to express it. As mine and seemingly many others’ experiences have shown, the 321 does have some disappointing issues with its design, manufacture, and quality control. Revolution will be acutely aware of these, and as frustrated as we are I would imagine. Farish’s 319 doesn’t seem to be immune from the same coupling problems either if early reports are accurate, and there really needs to be some cross-industry thinking on this if conductive couplings are going to become commonplace. David

The unit I returned for repairs has come back, though yet again it was sent to the wrong address meaning another 30 mile drive to collect it. So far though, running it on my kato test track all seems well. The coupling wires are no longer catching and lifting the bogies and the unit runs smoothly in both directions without detailing. The rear lights at one end no longer work so I will have to have a poke around to see if there is some loose wiring. David

Wildly off topic, but it probably comes as no surprise given my modelling history that I have a deep interest in architectural modelmaking. Having retrained as a professional modelmaker and moved into higher education teaching, I was awarded my PhD last year and have now written a book charting the history of architectural modelmaking in Britain, due to be published by Routledge this December. It’s an academic text and has nothing to do with model railways (except for an appearance by Wenman Bassett-Lowke) but it might be of interest to a few members of the forum. David

The rails on the left board have already been painted - a boring job but the best approach really is a fine brush and a tin of Humbrol paint. I always paint them before ballasting but if you’ve got foam ballast it’s a bit more tricky. With a steady hand you shouldn’t get any paint on it, I tend to get a couple of marks on the sleepers but they just wipe off. David

I noticed today that N Brass are now producing OHLE portals for the GWML - ideal for anyone with an N gauge class 800… https://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/ncatgw.html David

A quick check of the car park base in situ. The card is curling a little but that will sort itself out when glued to the baseboard. I’ve been looking in vain for any decent bike racks and have decided to design my own and add the parts to my big etch order. Now I need to find some decent N gauge bicycles to check the sizes against. David

Continuing my efforts to avoid the necessary but boring tasks of wiring and rail painting, I’ve made a start on the ROC car park. There is only so much I can do before the base is glued down so there are plenty of details such as signs, fences, lights, CCTV cameras etc, and a covered cycle store that has yet to be designed still to come. I’ve sprayed the road and pavement, added grass mat where the rear bushes and trees will eventually sit, and added and weathered the markings. The bay markings are a little too short but won’t be particularly visible when this is all finished. The ROC will sit on the large pavement section. David

Another planning job this week has been working out the order and height of the OHLE equipment. There will be 7 portals on the stretch of line I’m modelling, with bridges at either end and the big signal gantry about 1/3 of the way along. To get a realistic placement and to decide between the different equipment types, I drew up a diagram to see which would best go where: The bottom row shows (left to right): standard N Brass fittings at the ‘standard’ height as marked on the portal etch, about right for the bridge height; the signal gantry height showing good wire clearance; my new etches on a standard height N Brass portal; and my other design on a full height portal. This last one looks a good one to place in front of the signal gantry as the portal doesn’t block the view of the signal heads. The top row puts them in order (bridges either end and gantry between portals 2 and 3). There won’t be any actual wires but hopefully this will give a realistic appearance to the rise and fall of the imaginary wires as this 3D version of my diagram shows: Looking at images and films of OHLE on the real WCML there seems to be no rhyme or reason why different equipment is used on open track - I’ve seen individual 4 track portals with 3 different types of arm on. Even with the raised triangular support arms some portals have all 4 pointing the same way while others have 3 pointing right and one left, or 2 pointing each way… Which ways I have them pointing will probably be an artistic decision - too many variations may look a bit odd. David

They do look good! Did you find them quite quick to install - I was surprised how good they looked immediately stuck down. David

Thanks for all the nice comments so far! Completing the CAD drawings of the apartment block over the weekend I decided that I’m going to use metal etches for the window frames. This meant a slight detour in that to keep the price down to a minimum it will be far cheaper to order everything I intend to have photo etched on the same plate. With this in mind I spent a couple of hours drawing up a full plate with everything I will need. This includes windows for the apartment block, Royal Mail offices, the front industrial units, and the ROC (which is still unfinished until these are installed). I also drew up the new OHLE components I need as N Brass only do older register and support arms. Two types of current WCML arms have been designed. I will have to save a few pennies before ordering this as it will be around £100 I think, but the etches will add a lot of fineness to the layout so definitely worth it. David

A small update today - appropriate as small things have been added to the road scene: road name signs, traffic signs, a grit box, and the traffic lights and railings by the crossing. Next jobs are to finish the drawings for the apartment block, and then lift this scenic module off and get back to wiring and rail painting… David