10800

Not to worry, found it - two clips each end of the wheelset cover plate. The outer end you then have to manoeuvre around the NEM pocket assembly - helps to remove the coupling first.

Apologies if it's been covered already, but has anyone converted the wheels to EM or P4 yet? There seems to be acres of room but I haven't found the means of getting the bogie frames off yet. (Nor have I found a service sheet). Cheers

Some excellent drawings for Lewes (and elsewhere) available on this site http://nr.mediastorehouse.com/ In particular, the layout of the overall roof and details of island platform buildings which can be extrapolated elsewhere in the station. Meanwhile, improvement to the track and board joints has been carried out for the fiddle yard loops on Balcombe.

A bit further with 'Grosvenor' - recessed doors now fitted, and most of the bogie frames assembled (just the centre axles to add). It runs quite nicely even with temporarily-fitted 8-wheel bogies!

Thanks Chris - those Maunsells are fabulous, I'll be very pleased if I can get anywhere near that quality!

So moving along, work is now (in the interval period between Crawley and Scaleforum) progressing on some of these coaches for the Newhaven Boat trains. Brian (Taz) is currently converting a Bachmann Mk1 RU to an RB using Comet sides, which will go occasionally in the early 1960s consist. For the mid-50s train I am currently working on the SECR 'Continental' Brake 1st and the Pullman buffet 'Grosvenor'. Both are based on the basic body etches from Worsley Works, which assemble in the 'Comet' fashion, although I am soldering (rather than screwing) the assembled sides and ends to the floor pan for my convenience and to add stability, especially for 'Grosvenor' where the ends of the sides are very delicate because the end doors are right on the end. I am also recessing the doors further than Worsley Works planned. For the Brake 1st the etch assumes it is the version with the modification to outward opening doors carried out on most of them, but I prefer the look of the recessed doors so apparent on photos of the Newhavens, which meant cutting out the doors and setting them back on strips of brass soldered behind the apertures. This in turn meant some carving of the brackets between the ends and sides. On the Pullman, Worsley allow for a recess by having separate doors, but it is only by the thickness of the brass (15 thou) and not enough according to the excellent photo of the vehicle in Mike King's recent 'Southern Rolling Stock in Colour'. So more carving of the end brackets to give room for some additional plastic strip spacers. Photos following show where I am so far. It's nearly all seam-soldering, there are no tabs, but the etches are true and a nice square 'box' resulted in both cases - always an encouraging start. I haven't done the Pullman doors yet. Maunsell Continental Brake 1st Pullman buffet 'Grosvenor' Grosvenor is a 12-wheeler, so the bogies will be sprung using Masokits etches and spare Hornby sideframes obtained from Peter's Spares (well, with the rest of the Hornby 12-wheel bogies). Next in the queue will be the Maunsell Restriction 1 BSO and SO (Roxey), and the Maunsell 1936 stock SO (Bill Bedford sides, Roxey underframe).

PM sent Phillip

Hi, many thanks for your comments and interesting question. There is some use of engineers' blue brick on the original, partly decorative and possibly partly for strength although I suspect the former mainly. But as you say over the years it has been subject to repairs where they seem to have used virtually anything, so that now (and even 50 years ago) it had a fairly random patchwork appearance close up. John and I have had this conversation many times, and we always conclude that irrespective of the variation that is actually there, to model it like that in 4mm scale would make it look ludicrous - it's just one of those oddities when scaling down. At the moment it is in essentially undercoat, but we will be returning it to an all-over slightly greyer and more generally 'weather-washed' appearance so that it looks both weathered and uniform if you see what I mean. Some blue brick areas will be picked out, but essentially the deliberate decorative bits that enhance the elegance of the structure.

OK boys and girls, we don't let the grass grow under our feet down 'ere in Devon, so now that the viaduct and Balcombe are finished - no that's not quite true but we can see the end of the tunnel! - we're looking again at the next phase of the plan, Lewes - as alluded to above. So you start with Templot usually, and this is a draft plan laid out on the floor of the clubroom last night (inside TT2, so it's quite compact and bijoux by our standards). This is looking back towards the station, with the Brighton platforms to the left and London to the right. The train is a down excursion to Eastbourne from the LMR, and to its right is the line to the Bluebell line, Uckfield and Eridge. Yes Eridge, please keep up at the back. They all said we were mad with just the viaduct, but that is structurally complete. Balcombe is a mere stopping station. So who still thinks we're bonkers (form an orderly queue please)? Seriously, nothing much more will happen on Lewes until after Scaleforum in September, but the overall plans are still intact even if still on the back burner. We will keep you informed.

Very nice of you to say so, there is also Calcutta Sidings on the circuit as a large P4 roundy-roundy. Once we get this finished we still have designs on coming off at a tangent at the Brighton end of the viaduct and heading for Lewes via an intermediate through fiddle yard! I'd probably like to show Lewes on its own first - in some form or other - before we try and hook it all together though!

We were a bit concerned at the Crawley show about running multiple EMUs, but that was all down to the nature of the temporary track put down. Back at base in Devon on Monday night there was no problem with a BIL/HAL/BIL formation, nor with the Belle at high speed (in either direction). Both were also on superelevated track, which we won't be doing on Balcombe. I may still add a bit of weight to the BIL/HAL trailers, which are very light.

The appearance at the Crawley show was meant to have the viaduct side of the layout and some of the scenic curved section finished and the Balcombe side just with plain line trackwork pending completion later. But due to a number of issues John and I were getting further and further behind schedule to the extent that a month or so ago we almost considered pulling out. We had three days of 'practice' at various stages of completion in our local village hall, none of which enabled the full circuit to be completed and tested. So it was a with a bit of uncertainty that we travelled up from Devon on Friday, with John still threading rail onto trackbases in the van (!) and initial set-up in the evening didn't boost our confidence. But we were tired and called it a night at 9:30. Next morning before opening was much better and trains were running, if not on the full circuit. John was still laying the temporary plain track to complete the circuit, using fishplates to distribute the current, Mike sorted out what stock was operational, and I set out the mock-up buildings and display material on the Balcombe side so there was at least something for visitors to look at over there. Until mid-afternoon we ran a shuttle service over the viaduct while John demonstrated rapid tracklaying, until around 3 pm we ran a train around the whole circuit for the first time. I wouldn't normally advocate such a mode of exhibiting, but the visitors actually seemed to like observing the process. The Sunday was much more relaxing, we had two more assistants, but the temporary track expanded in the higher temperatures and so ongoing repairs were needed through most of the day. But we made it, and here are some photos and YouTube links to prove it! We are indebted to members of the Kent Area Group, particularly to Mike Ainsworth who stuck with it all weekend and who provided much of the stock, especially in the steam-hauled department. In answer to Rich, next appearance is at Scaleforum in September, when we will be quite a bit further advanced.

We just got back to Devon after showing the viaduct and the beginnings of Balcombe for the first time at the Crawley MRS show in Horsham, fittingly quite close to the real thing. A few challenges in the last few weeks to say the least, but it was successful overall despite the first day being as much a demonstration of layout building as exhibiting one! Full story and photos to follow in the next day or two.

Just to clarify, Roxey will provide the Restriction 1 Maunsells, especially the BSO at one end. Worsley Works do basic kits for SECR Continental stock including the BFK at the other end (sometimes a BSK in place of the later Maunsell BSO) and also the 12 wheel Pullmans Grosvenor and Myrtle, both refurbished ex-LBSCR vehicles. When used, one of the Pullmans substituted for (usually) a Bulleid or Maunsell CK, maintaining a train length of 10 plus a PMV. Later Newhaven boats (early 60s) had Bulleid BSKs each end, a Bulleid CK or FK and seven Mk1 TSOs. An RB could replace one of the TSOs.

Attended to very quickly by Hattons. It was missing a drive-shaft so presumably running on one bogie only! They are kindly putting my Sherlock Holmes body on a replacement John Hampden chassis since the former is now out of stock, so good to them for that.

Unfortunately I've just had to return my Sherlock Holmes to Hattons after it developed a tendency to slip a gear somewhere when being first run after a period in storage - it would just move very slowly under high revs, but later run perfectly again. I'm hoping they will be able to fix it if they've run out of that version.

Are you sure that's not from an episode of Thunderbirds?

The mainland ones had Mike, all that was left in 1966 were the surviving IoW examples.

I emailed Kernow around 7 yesterday evening and got a reply within a few minutes confirming that my order was still in place but was pending updated card details. I phoned them in this morning and have just had an email to say mine has been shipped! So very good customer service there Kernow, thank you! I think mine fell into the category of an order change made by phone which is one of the circumstances where the order was only visible at their end.

As well as John's EMU projects we need some loco-hauled trains for Balcombe too. The main signature service would be the Newhaven Boat Trains, hauled either by an H2 Atlantic or one of the electric locos (20001/2/3, even 71s were used briefly). I'm going to base the train on information kindly provided by Glen Woods on the SRLHCS forum, for services in 1955. In our part of the multiverse they will be mostly in crimson/cream with some of the broad cantrail stripes surviving and even the odd green one (either a not-yet-repainted SR one or a newly painted post-1956 one). The consist chosen as a 'representation' is: BFK 'Continental' dia.552 - based on Worsley Works kit and Bedford sprung bogies FK Bulleid dia.2552 - Bachmann chassis with Comet replacement sides CK Bulleid dia.2318 - ditto SO BR Mk1 'Boat Second', basically a TSO - probably from a donor Bachmann Mk1 SO with new TSO sides cut on the Silhouette cutter SO Maunsell low-window - ideally should be a high window Restriction 1, may do that one day, otherwise a Hornby repaint. SO Maunsell low-window - Roxey kit on Bedford bogies SO Maunsell 1935/36 flush sided dia.2007 - sides with Silhouette cutter on Roxey underframe, Bedford bogies SK Maunsell dia.2001 high window SK Maunsell dia.2001 high or low window BSO Maunsell dia.2654 - Roxey kit, Bedford bogies Optional Pullman (12-wheel kitchen) - in the short term I have a Hornby 'Monaco' (Golden Arrow vehicle) which I can convert with Masokits bits for a 6-wheel bogie. Longer term I would like to do 'Grosvenor' from the Mike King drawing and the Silhouette.

So, onto the 4-CEP motor bogie. The plastic bogie assembly clips off with minimal persuasion and you can then unclip the brass carrier bearings from the plastic inner bogie frames to free the 2 mm drive axles. These then pull apart to reveal two stub ends of 1.5 mm diameter which between them carry the gear and maintain the electrical gap. There are now two approaches to replacing the wheels for P4. You can remove the Bachmann wheels from the half-axle (using a GW Models wheel puller, or you could tap the axle out carefully with a suitable implement of less than 2 mm in a vice) and replace them with your chosen P4 wheel - Branchlines in this case. You can then use the gear as is but you will need to add 1.5 mm washers either side to push the wheels out far enough to enable gauging to P4. Re-inserted it looks like this. A possible disadvantage to this is the loss of solidity in the middle of the axle because of the increased separation, although that hasn't been apparent. That can be overcome by the other method which is to drill out the 1.5 mm hole in the nylon gear to 2 mm (I had a drill bit of 1.9 mm which gave a nice interference fit) and use the whole of the Branchlines axle. I currently have one of each type in the bogie and will let sleeping dogs lie unless there's a problem. The motor bogie pickups still bear on the all metal Branchlines wheels but the axle is insulated so electrical separation is maintained. Finally the plastic bogie frame unit could be refitted after quite a bit of filing to give clearances to the P4 wheels - fortunately there's enough meat on the frames to do this. I wanted to maintain pickups in the trailer bogie on the motor coach, but because the pickup function relied on the copper assembly which included the axle bearings, this wouldn't work with the Branchlines wheels - they would just short across the axle. So this meant separating the bearing part of the assembly and supergluing it back in place to preserve its mechanical function, and soldering new phosphor-bronze wire pickups to the surviving part of the assembly and bending them to bear on the backs of the wheels. Now the mysterious bit. I imagined I would have to do the same with the trailer bogies in the other three coaches which ostensibly are connected to the same pickup system via the wired connector/couplings. But when I tested it first there was no problem at all. I still don't quite understand that - if they are connected down the train from the same busbar in the motor coach that connects the pickups there, why doesn't it short across any/all of the trailing bogie axles in the three other coaches? But it works fine, at speed in both directions, as shown here in push mode (before I refitted the bogie frames on the motor bogie).

I'm going to jump in here with a bit of P4 conversion work. Now purists will probably wince at some of this, but Balcombe will be a layout where trains are usually on the move, sometimes quite rapidly, and often viewed from a distance so I don't have any problem with missing out some of the fiddly details of the undercarriage in the interests of progress, especially when there's a lot to do. A typical example of this is the brake shoes on Maunsell coaches. Yes you can (and I have) done the full cut-and-shunt operation as described by the EMGS and elsewhere and making sure the the brake shoes are in line with the new P4 wheels. But this takes time, and when you have dozens of them ... So I just (sorry folks) snip 'em off. Then all you need to do is simply swap the wheels for Gibsons or Ultrascales, job done. No filing, no addition of axle bearings, and if your track is half decent no need for suspension or compensation. Also you don't need to remove the body to detach the bogies with all the potential collateral damage that entails on those fragile details like step-boards when you're trying to find something firm to hold on to. (I wish Hornby would have simple screw fittings for their bogies like Bachmann). So, back to conversions. First, a Bachmann 4-CEP. Mechanically the trailer bogies are a doddle using the bogie frame spacers that were until recently available through Scalefour Stores but now seem to be unavailable. You cut the bogie into three, overlay the spacer and that's about it. Unfortunately I don't seem to have any photos of the process, just the finished article: The 4-CEP is a split-axle construct, with pickups throughout via solid metal wheels and copper bearing assemblies that feed the current via vertical prongs above the bogie which bear on busbars above the floor. These run through the train connected by those bespoke couplings carrying the two wires. The Ultrascale P4 wheels sit happily if a bit floppily in these 'bearings'. Just as well because the holes behind them are too big to fix finescale bearings. The next post on the 4-CEP will deal with the motor bogie and electrics.

Strangely, after no communication about my 30182, I looked at my 'order history' on Kernow's website and it's no longer showing on my list! The cancelled 30225 is there, and I know replacement 30182 was there at one time so it's a mystery. I'll leave it for now though as my wallet is suffering at the moment after the Met Bo-Bo and S15 ...

Well mine will certainly be running on my 'Okehampton-ish' route! Rule 1, different part of the multiverse, call it what you will

Yes I watched that and it was impressive - and no Nick hasn't speeded up the film!