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Barry Ten

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  1. Barry Ten
    Ideally you'd design and install an operating level crossing at the early stages of layout construction, but things don't always work that way. When I built the boards and put in the track for the layout, I hadn't really been thinking about servo motors and so on, regarding such things as far beyond my ability to work with. Once I got further along with the model, and started gaining more experience, I began to think it would be nice to have operating gates, so while there wasn't yet a plan in mind, I was careful to keep the area under the crossing free of additional clutter.
     
    About a year ago, a model aircraft enthusiast gave me a demo of the servo system on one his planes, and it looked intuitive enough that I started looking around to see what was available. The push I needed, though, was Peco releasing their new SmartSwitch product, which includes four servos and associated electronics all in one package. I bought the kit and started playing around with simple ideas to mount the servos under the boards. Due to access issues, it would have to be done simply, and also without creating too much dust and debris, to shower down on the N scale layout underneath. In the end the only modification to the existing boards/scenery was the drilling down of a vertical hole beneath each gate post, which was accomplished without too much bother.
     
    After opening the box of parts, I cobbled together a prototype mounting bracket which could be screwed under the boards, with an operating rod pushing up through the board and through another two inches of loft insulation. Peco recommend wiring up the servos on a test bench to gain some familiarity with the control logic, and I thoroughly endorse this. Though, I have to say, the programming and operation is very straightforward, and for once the manual is actually informative. With no prior hands-on experience of servos, I found it dead easy to set start/end points and operation speed - basically, it does what it says on the tin and you don't have to be an electronics bod to get it working.
     
    The servos come with a set of different nylon cranks for various actions, but all I wanted was a direct drive like a slow-moving axle. However, I had my doubts about whether it was wise to simply fix a long rod directly into the centerline of the servo. In the end, I used one of the cranks, then fashioned a kind of "reverse crank" from piano wire to return the motion to the centerline - all a bit cumbersome, perhaps, and maybe not necessary, but it works. The crank passed up through a brass and plastic tube to the top of the layout, and the post of the crossing gate is then drilled to accept the last 20mm or so of the piano wire. I knocked up the mounting brackets from thick plastikard, and the tubes and wire were from my usual stocks of modelling supplies. Everything else was already in the Peco package, which comes with plenty of screws and bits of wire.
     
    My plan had been to make the gates an interference fit on the piano wire, so that they could be easily removed, and would "give" under the impact of a train, should I fail to open the gates. However, that proved unworkable - two were stiff enough that it was practical, but one ended up with too sloppy a fit, and I reluctantly decided to retain the gates with a small drop of superglue. I'll just have to take care with the gates, like on the real railway...
     
    Here's a shot of the servos in place on their brackets:
     

     
    There was a lot of adjustment needed to get the four gates opening and closing neatly, and to compensate for small errors in drilling the posts and the holes through the boards, but after some trial and error I was happy with the consistency of movement of the gates.
     
    The servos have nine speed steps, of which the default is step 5. I tried step 1, the lowest, but found it both too slow and too jerky, so in the end I settled for a compromise of 4, which seems about right for layout use. The gates are controlled by individual switches, which can be thrown as one, to open/close them in one go, or they can be worked separately.
     

     
    All in all, I am very impressed with the Peco product. Doubtless you could source the individual components more economically if you knew what you were looking for, but to have it all in one box, with good, clear instructions, makes a lot of difference. If you're like me, you'll soon start thinking of other applications for servos, such as signals, animation etc.
  2. Barry Ten
    Purists, look away now...
     
    The Triang-Hornby Class 37 was a favorite model of mine as a kid, stemming from a Christmas present around 1973 or thereabouts, and whenever I had a layout (we moved house a fair bit, so that wasn't always the case) the "Co-Co" diesel was always one I enjoyed running, usually at high speed, with an unlikely assortment of wagons and coaches hitched behind. It was in BR blue, numbered D6830, and I still remember the excitement of taking it in and out of its red box that Christmas. I wasn't the slightest bit interested in whether it did or didn't look like an English Electric Type 3: all I knew was that it was a Co-Co, not a Hymek or Dock Shunter. If there were other types of diesel, I didn't know about them. The model had a power bogie at one end with only two driven axles, the middle ones being represented by dummy wheels which didn't even touch the rails, whereas the other bogie had six wheels but they were plastic. The only pickup was from the two driven axles, meaning that the model had to be driven at speed to get over dead frog points.
     
    Later, tragically, the model suffered a crash to the floor and the power bogie fractured into several pieces. However my dad must have written to Hornby or sent off the Co-Co because a replacement power bogie was eventually forthcoming.
     
    Somewhere in the late 70s/early 80s I took the decision to repaint the model in BR green, presumably because being in blue, it didn't fit in with my burgeoning BR-steam era interests. The green paint was brush painted on, and then the letters, numbers and crests were hand-painted, as this was all I knew how to do at the time. At some later point I retouched the green around the hand painted bits and added HMRS lettering, a little crookedly but better than what was there before.
     
    Around 15-20 years ago, accepting the power bogie for what it was, I added metal wheels and all-wheel pickup to the rear, undriven bogie, but the result was still a bit hit and miss. In any case (as I couldn't help but notice) the bogies were the wrong type, had the steps in the wrong place, and I imagine it would be hard to convert the original power bogie to DCC. Beyond that, it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and my attempts at adding weight didn't make much difference.
     
    The model languished; I didn't want to get rid of it but I couldn't see an obvious way of getting it running again. I didn't fancy butchering a Bachmann or ViTrains chassis just for this, assuming either could be made be to fit.
     
    Enter Hornby's Railroad range, and the advent of a cheap and cheerful Class 37 chassis under the old Lima body. One of these was picked up at a very reasonable price, including TTS sound, and while it was a little juddery at slow speed, it was a heck of an improvement on the Tri-ang mechanism. Taking the view that it was the body of the Triang diesel that mattered to me, and which I'd invested time painting, I set about marrying the one to the other.
     
    The Railroad chassis was a reasonably straightforward fit to the 45-year old moulding, needing only the integral buffer beams sawn off at either end to give a snug fit. Inside the body, behind each door, are raised plastic mouldings which can be cut back a couple of millimetres higher to enable the body to sit reasonably low on the bogies. I also added a bit of extra weight as the Railroad chassis is really light as it stands.
     

     
    I wasn't planning to do too much to the body, but at a recent model show I snapped up a Puffers Class 37 detailing kit from a box of bits for only a few pounds, and this provided various castings, as well as etched window surroundings and new buffers. I thought that improving the windows might be a reasonably worthwhile job, especially if it could be done with only local retouching of the original paint. The existing windows were cut away completely and a large "letterbox" opened in the front, over which the etch was bonded. After fitting the etches, they were blended in with filler, sanded, and then over-painted to match the existing livery. At this point I also reduced the depth of the doors on the top of the bonnet, which seemed to stand a little too proud, this time by filing and then reinstating the top hinges with plastic strip. When I started touching up the paint, I initially used BR brunswick green but this was a poor match to the duller shade I'd used originally, so I tried DMU green instead and that was a virtually perfect match, as well as covering more easily. Once the paint was dry, the windows were re-glazed using clear plastic for the larger apertures and glue-and-glaze for the smaller ones. This took one night per end, as I didn't want to rush it.
     
    Buffers were then replaced, a screw-link coupling added and some of the buffer beam detail added using the castings. The other end of the loco will have a reduced amount of buffer detailing, but will be equipped with a Spratt & Winkle coupling hook. I don't plan to add one at the front as the loco won't ever be used for shunting or running around, just trundling through with a goods train. There are still a few things to be done - I will attend to the crooked numbers, among other things - but in all essential respects the Co-Co is now back in business, and I couldn't be happier. Of course if you want a Class 37 there are easier (and undoubtedly more accurate) ways of getting one, but I've grown up with this model, and it's still mine.
     

  3. Barry Ten

    14xx upgrade

    By Barry Ten,

    My wife was unwell yesterday, so rather than retire to the railway room, I did the chivalrous thing and brought a modelling project down to the living room. While she watched tennis, I busied myself with files and drills. Several hours later, I was the happy owner of a spruced up Hornby 14xx, courtesy of a Mainly Trains detailing kit and some bits and bobs from the scrap/detailing box.
     
    The main alterations to the model concern the boiler fittings; the smokebox door is replaced, as is the chimney and safety valve. There are a number of other useful lost-wax and white metal castings in the MT kit, including cab parts, but they can't all be fitted if you retain the Hornby chassis. I added those that I could, as well as wire handrails, lamp irons and some hoops for the shunters' pole.
     

     

     
    My intention is to repaint into BR black, but I thought I'd show these in-progress shots beforehand. Also in the works is an Airfix auto-coach which will run with this loco in semi-permanent fashion.
  4. Barry Ten

    Cattle dock

    By Barry Ten,

    Couple of shots of the removable cattle dock:
     
    In place:
     

     
    After removal, showing the gap into which the Provender store module
    should drop:
     

     
    You're probably wondering why I didn't just make the entire area in front of the dock part of
    the same removable part, and to be honest that's probably what I'd do if I were starting
    again, but at the time it was a bit hard to visualise how to arrange everything, especially
    as I didn't have the fascia in place.
  5. Barry Ten

    New GWR footbridge

    By Barry Ten,

    Work has been progressing on the alterations to the station area, with more of the ballasting done. Still some tidying up and painting of rails and sleepers to be done, but it's getting back to where it was before the works begun.
     

     
    When I originally built the station area, I wanted to use the old Hornby GWR footbridge but I had a lot of trouble finding even a second hand example. I used the Ratio kit as a stand-in, but while it's a nice model, it's (I believe) based on a Southern prototype so never looked entirely at home to my eyes.
     
    Eventually I got hold of a second hand Hornby kit, and now that it's been re-released under the Gaugemaster brand, they should be much easier to find. Last week I made a start on building the kit, but with a few alterations. It needs to be lowered in height, but I also wanted to build mine with one of the staircases facing the other direction. Luckily, once you've started cutting it down, you end up with enough spare bits to make the job pretty straightforward, with some careful cutting and measurement.
     
    Some GWR examples had the area around the legs filled in as storage rooms, and I wanted to include this feature. After trimming the legs to height, plastic card was used to assemble the filled-in bit, using a handful of photos for reference and a large dose of guesswork. The legs should still be visible, so it's not enough just to remove them or sheet over them completely, at least in the examples I've seen. Perhaps it was done differently at some stations, though. Presumably it was a local alteration done according to the individual needs and resources available.
     

     
    Since the platforms are removable, the bridge has to be as well. I didn't want it just sitting on them, so the solution I came up with was to cut an area of the platform base away around each staircase, and then glue the bridge directly to these. The bridge can be blended into these bases but I don't think the eye picks up on the gap in the platform surface quite as easily as it would the tell-tale line around the base of the bridge, although you can easily see one of the gaps ahead of the lowest step in this picture.
     
    I also added lights to the bridge, but I've yet to wire them and see how they look under darkness. The bridge was painted using Railmatch light and dark stone shades and giving a light wash of weathering, and then the fun bit - adding lots of enamel signs!
     
    As for the old Ratio bridge, it'll be repainted in Southern colours and then hopefully find a use on the layout when I do my long-promised region swap.
     
    Cheers!
  6. Barry Ten

    Point rodding

    By Barry Ten,

    Now that I've sensibly put aside all thoughts of a revised bridge arrangement (thanks, all, for the candid feedback) I've been freed to push on with some the jobs that were in limbo while I dithered over this and that. One of them is to relay all the point rodding that was ripped out last year, when I added the trailing connection to the goods yard.
     
    I went with the Wills product originally, but I was very dissatisfied with the end result, considering it overscale and far too fiddly for the results, which in my view didn't look half as good as the plastic strip rodding I'd put on a much earlier layout. So for the replacement rodding, I did what I should have done originally, and went with the MSE cast stools and square-section rodding. A few packs of each were purchases at last year's Railwells. and it proved much easier to install than the Wills stuff.
     
    Here's the first stretch of rodding in place, tucked between the platform and one of the running lines. There are seven runs here, tapering down to three by the time it reaches the bridge; the Wills stuff just wouldn't fit in the same space if I tried the same number. I've also made a start on a representation of the linkage to the tie-rods themselves, more impressionistic than anything else but at least there's something there to fool the eye. With a relatively simple track layout like the one on this layout, anything that makes the track look "busier" is a help, I feel.
     

     
    Cheers!
  7. Barry Ten

    Abbotsbury station

    By Barry Ten,

    I wasn't sure whether to post this here, or over in the S&D blog (and increasingly wondering why I felt that two blogs were a good idea in the first case, given my distinct lack of modelling focus). Anyway, I mentioned on the S&D blog that I was thinking of renovating this old model of Abbotsbury:
     

     
    The model was built in 1982, using the plans in the Paul Karau book on branchline termini. It was one of the first scratchbuilt structures I ever made, and while dimensionally accurate (or not too far off) it left a lot to be desired in the finer details. But then, I made do with basic materials - some slaters embossed stone plastikard, some plain plastikard, and a lot of card salvaged from old shop posters. I was quite pleased with it at the time, but it never ended up on a layout and by the time it resurfaced in the 90s, time had not been kind to it. Various bits had warped or fallen off, and some of my modelling was starting to look very clumsy. The windows were a disgrace, and you could tell I'd got bored by the time I got to the chimneys - they were just sections of square profile wooden dowling, crudely painted to simulate stone.
     
    The model has sat on my shelves ever since but while casting around for a stand-in for Shillingstone, I gave it another look and wondered if it wouldn't be worth spending a bit of time fixing and improving. Suitably encouraged by Wenlock, I've spent a few evenings reworking the nastier bits. I didn't realise that this was a "William Clarke" building, by the way, but Wenlock's comment on my blog has had me spotting William Clarke buildings all over the place.
     
    I was able to save the ridged canopy glazing, which still looked good - I removed the old attempt at valencing, fixed new Ratio parts in place (spares from the platform canopy set) and then gradually corrected the warped canopy as best I could. I ripped out the old doors, which were made from layers of plastikard cut to shape, and sourced suitable replacements from a pair of Peco station detailing packs. The new doors were a bit shorter than some of those on the model, so I added small windows above the lintels.
     
    I couldn't salvage the old main windows so I ripped out all those on the front. This time I added frames with plastikard, giving the windows a bit more character. The framing is now correctly white, rather than the cream on the original. I didn't bother correcting the rear windows as the station was never made to be viewed from the back - the rear elevation is actually very boring as Abbotsbury had no doors on the back, the platform being accessed by means of a gate at the side of the station.
     
    New chimneys were fixed in place of the old. They're a bit chunkier than the real ones, and still need a bit of detailing - they'll never be more than an approximation of the very elegant things on the real structure - but they look better than the old ones, and are at least vertical this time.
     
    The old model was painted in chocolate/cream, but this time I reverted it to GWR colours. There is still a bit to do but I'm pleased that it is looking a lot less tatty. Good for another 30 years?
     

     

  8. Barry Ten
    Sometimes a really useful product can slip under the radar a bit ... at least in my case. My 4mm layout was never intended to be anything that a glorified test track with a bit of scenery, and so I wasn't overly concerned that the fiddle yard capacity was rather limited. There are six storage tracks, but only three are of what I'd call a decent length, and two are really only comfortably long enough for a B-set or two car DMU. I was fine with that - it's only a single track cross-country line anyway - but at the back of my mind I wondered if there wouldn't be a way to turn one of the tracks into a long cassette, allowing trains to be lifted on and off in their entirety. My mind started whirring - I'd been looking at various sorts of plastic fitting in B&Q, wondering if anything could be adapted into a cassette - when I began to realise that I'd recently seen an advert for a similar product in one of the magazines, but which I'd never really looked at in depth.
     
    Which mag, though? I scoured back issues of RM, CM, BRM, MR and Loco Revue, all without success - although it must be there somewhere. However, some Googling brought up the website of Train-Safe:
     
    http://www.train-safe.de/
     
    Which was clearly the manufacturer I had in mind.
     
    They do a range of storage products but the ones I was particularly interested in were the "Train-Safe Vision" line, which are basically perspex tubes with rails embedded in them, allowing trains to be driven on and off under power. They do these in a wide variety of scales, track standards and lengths. Some measurement of my fiddle yard showed that I could accommodate the 150cm tubes, allowing for the curves at either end of each loop, but that the next longest tubes, the 180cm ones, would be too long. Nonetheless, a 150cm tube is long enough for a Hall class and five bogie coaches of 57-57ft lengths, provided you use some sort of close-coupling arrangement.
     

     
    As a comparison, a tube of the same length with also take a 28XX, 13 mineral wagons and a toad, and that's with tension locks - using 3-links or similar, would probably allow another wagon to be squeezed into the rake.
     
    I ordered four of the tubes, together with two track adaptor ections. Like the tubes these are designed for different track standards, so it's good to be careful when ordering.
     
    In order to install the tube, I had to remove 150cm of existing fiddle yard track, plus a few cms either side for the adaptor units. No power needs to be supplied to the tube itself, since it picks up current through slightly sprung contacts when resting in place. The unit is removed by simply lifting it up.
     
    Here's one end of the tube as resting in place. In my case the adaptor is screwed onto a rectangle of MDF, which is turn PVA'd onto the extruded foam boards under the fiddle yard.
     

     
    And here's looking to the other end, which has exactly the same arrangement.
     

     
    Because the tubes are manufactured, each one is exactly the same length as the next, so if one fits, they all will, meaning that it's easy to swap entire trains with no fiddling around to ensure good contact and track alignment. Two sliding doors go over the ends to protect the trains when not on the layout. These doors - and the moulded runners in which they slide - are the only areas of the design which felt a bit flimsy to me, but then again as long as you take reasonable care sliding them in and out, they shouldn't break.
     
    In terms of the ease of moving a train around, I found that I could easily handle a complete unit without derailments - and provided there is sufficient room, I was able to turn a unit around so that the train is facing the opposite direction. However, I doubt that I'd have found the 180 cm unit quite as easy to manage. I also found that it helps to have a train nearly filing the length of the tube, so that it doesn't have far to slide up and down the track before bumping against the doors.
     
    They aren't cheap - each tube cost me 116 Euros - but they are evidently well manufactured and if you look at it in terms of the cost of a locomotive, you're effectively buying extra storage capacity for your layout, albeit with the minor hassle of having to lift trains on and off. But that seems like a pretty good trade-off to me. The only very minor downside is that the trains make a heck of a racket running through the tubes - but that's just physics, unfortunately!
     
    I'll be ordering some more eventually, as well as their wall-mounted rack which will just fit on the space above the fiddle yard, allowing three tubes to be held there.
     
    Hope this is of interest to anyone who, like me, wasn't really aware of this very useful product.
  9. Barry Ten
    Gosh, this is a rather nice piece of kit, isn't it? What an absolute stunner of a model - thank you, Bachmann.
     
    I've been playing around with a "moonlight" mode for the spring module, using an inexpensive anglepoise LED lamp, to which I've added a home made blue filter. Most of my trains don't as yet have coach lighting, though, and the Bachmann 108 DMU, while a lovely model, has quite faint interior lighting which doesn't show up particularly well even in night shots. The BP Is a different beast entirely, though, wiht very bright lighting, so I couldn't resist posing it under the blue LED.
     

     

     
    This night shooting lark is new to me so I still have to learn a few things, but I can see it adding some extra play value to the layout. In the meantime I'm off to play with my BP.
     
    Edit: I couldn't resist having a fiddle in Photoshop - anyone remember the Ladybird Book of the Night Sky?
     

  11. Barry Ten
    Here is a Lima siphon G on a pair of Blacksmith bogies. The bogies go together very nicely, and mine are running on the Bachmann coach wheels, via Gibson bearings.
     

     
    I had a lot of hassle getting a satisfactory ride height. The Blacksmith bogies come with mounting plates but these only increase the gap between chassis and bogie. In the end the penny dropped and I realised I needed to cut rectangular slots in the floor of the Lima chassis, one per wheel, to allow for flange clearance. This was achieved very easily, the bogies screwed directly in place via new holes, offset only slightly from the originals, and the model is now extremely free running and will easily negotiate 30" curves - probably quite a bit tighter as well. I have another of these to do and will have a think about extra detail and any necessary alterations to the underframe.
     

     
    Meanwhile, the BP project creeps along. Here is the motorised power car with the Chris Leigh bogie side frames in place. The black beetles have been wired together and run very well. I have set the leading bogie back a tad compared to the original mounting. The rear bogie is also set back a bit, but in this case to permit bogie swing without fouling the underframe detail. The dummy driving car will be treated similarly. Just watching this power car trundle up and down the layout is giving me an enormous kick, and a deep desire to move the project along.
     
    The nose handrails need to be removed and re-installed a smidge closer to the windscreen. I got it right on the other car.
     
    Nosing around Wilko's, I spotted some Plastikote enamel spray paint in what is called "Harbour Blue". It looks damn close to Tri-ang's version of Nanking blue so I will be keen to see how it comes out. The published material shows a wide range of reproduced hues for BP blue so I'm not going to lose too much sleep on it.
     

     
    As elsewhere, I apologise for the ropey photographs. It's a lot of hassle to set up a tripod for the layout so these were all handheld.
  12. Barry Ten
    Digging around on the PC I spent a few minutes looking through some of the better pictures of my old layout. For those that remember, it was the one I was developing when I first started on RMWeb, although by that point it only had a year or two of life left in it. For most of its existence the layout didn't have a name but towards the end it was officially Wyvant.
     
    The layout fitted into a 14 x 6 room and began as a much smaller project, only about 8 x 6 in size. This utilised the boards built by my dad for my childhood layout, and indeed much of the track was salvaged and reused on this model. I started it in 1996, the year I returned to the hobby. Over the years, I extended the layout to occupy the whole room, changing the track plan and scenery many times in the process. I didn't set out with a realistic plan in mind, and even in its final stage, the layout had many unrealistic features. Other than not planning, I also made the mistake of not establishing stable foundations for the boards. I used wooden trestles, but the room was uneven and the boards never set truly level at any point in the layout's life. Also, the joins between the boards gave more and more trouble as the chipboard surface warped. That said, I had a lot of fun with it. It was my first layout that I built on my own (my dad had always done all the "hard stuff" like woodwork, tracklaying and wiring) so there was a huge learning curve. I was overjoyed the first day I got a Peco point motor to work, and even basic DC wiring was a challenge for me.
     
    Here are some photos and comments:
     
    The level crossing scene, one of the better areas of the model. Some of the scenery here is still pretty acceptable, in my eyes, and I always thought there was a good South Wales atmosphere to this bit. The pub was eventually recycled for use on Paynestown (now sold), while some of the other buildings have found their way onto the current 4mm project.
     

     

     

     

     
    The station building, which was originally designed to span the tracks on an overbridge. I was never satisfied with this model and after suffering damage in storage it eventually went in the bin. It didn't take long to construct so was no great loss. Nowadays I wouldn't build a model without basing it on a prototype, at least to some degree.
     

     
    Not a bad back garden for this cottage, which after some upgrading now resides on the new layout. I think the outside toilet ended up on Paynestown.
     

     
    Looking over the main station complex, which was quite extensive for what was a relatively small layout. I still have the long footbridge, which took a lot of kitbashing and detailing - unfortunately I doubt I'll ever have a suitable model for it again. The background area was much less developed and never got far beyond this when the decision was taken to move house.
     

     
    A hint of what might have been, with a goods on the elevated section - shades of Cardiff?
     

     
    Back to the goods yard area, where this Metcalf goods shed now finds a home on the current project:
     

     

     

     
    The station throat - subject to many changes over the years. This area looked OK in photos but in reality, it was a veritable roller coaster of undulating trackage, due to warpage. Most stock stayed on, some didn't!
     

     
    Finally, back to the double junction which allowed the branch to join the mainline at Taffsill.
     

     

     
    Looking back on it, the layout provided a lot of pleasure and challenges, and I probably would have carried on with it for a few years had not the house move intervened. Ultimately, though, the state of the boards would eventually have caused it to be scrapped, and it was perhaps for the best that it happened when it did. It was a sad day when I took a clawhammer to the boards in 2007, but within a few hours, I was over the loss and looking forward to my next project, when I could truly start with a clean slate.
     
    I'd particularly like to thank Mikkel, as within a short while of my posting pictures of the layout on RMWeb, he kindly invited me to share some more on the GWR modelling forum. I was thrilled to be asked and very honoured to be able to show off the layout among examples of much better modelling!
     
    Hope this has been fun, a bit of a trip down memory lane, and thanks for reading.
     

  13. Barry Ten
    Here's one of several projects that I'm trying to get finished and off my workbench. I haven't posted anything in ages so I thought an interim report would be better than waiting for one of these albatrosses to reach completion.
     
    The 2721 is an old-stager in the Hornby range and by no means up to the standard of recent RTR but it's a characterful model that offers a bit of Edwardian charm with its delightful open cab. The main problem, aside from the usual issue of ride height and (I think) wheel spacing - is the sparse chassis detail, which completely lacks outside pull rods.
     
    One option is to swap the Hornby one for a Bachmann pannier chassis:
     
    http://www.gwr.org.uk/pro2721.html
     
    but I decided to see what could be done with the model "as is". The chassis under this model isn't the one it came with, which was the very old version with open frame motor, unflanged centre drivers and pickup off only two axles, but rather a newer version with a can motor and three axle pickup that nonetheless still fits the old tooling. I got it off ebay for less than twenty pounds including postage.
     
    The main job was to add the outside brake gear - this is the third attempt. I glued etched brake shoes to the plastic versions moulded as part of the keeper plate, then added cross-rods and outside pull rods from plastikard. My first effort was too fragile, but the cross-rods make the whole thing more than strong enough to withstand normal handling.
     

     
    In addition I have added separate handrails all round and am now in the process of additional detailing and finishing. The spectacle plates are from the Mainly Trains etch. The model has been resprayed with Precision GWR green and will carry "Great Western" lettering, I think.
  14. Barry Ten
    Just a quick update from me - here are some summery snaps of a "quickie" layout I've been knocking together since Christmas. The idea was to have something other than Cogirep to exhibit this year, and to plunder the scrap box and general leftovers from my old layouts to the fullest extent. For a long while I've also wanted to create a compact, valleys-themed terminus on which 56xxs and panniers can potter about happily, and which gets away from the chocolate box look of so many GWR branch line termini.
     
    Having never built a BLT until now, it was also something new for me.
     
    Since I had a lot of perfectly good Code 100 Peco left over from the demolition job on Wyvant, when I had to relocate from Holland to the UK, I played around with points and eventually settled on a simple plan which enabled me to shoehorn in the engine shed and some small goods facilities. Obviously Code 75 or handlaid would look better, but I'm not one to get too worked up about these things.
    The plan is not very prototypical but I wanted to be use that shed! I also added a carriage shed reminiscent of the one at Porth, using the Ratio kit. It will be painted and weathered to look suitable grotty. The idea is to suggest a terminus at the end of its days, struggling to survive.
     
    The boards, which are about 3.5 foot in length, are made from extruded foam and MDF edging, with only a tiny amount of wood in each one to serve as corner reinforcing. Over the last couple of years I have been using foam more and more, and with this layout I wanted to make the leap into the unknown and abandon wood as much as possible. The boards were incredibly light, but by the time scenery had been added, the weight began to build up again. I wouldn't call them particularly light now, but they're not as hefty as if they'd been made conventionally. The downside is that they are probably more vulnerable to damage than timber boards but all that means is taking a little bit of care when moving them.
     
    The main scenic element I wished to include was the track being at a higher level than the roads and buildings. This was very easy to achieve with foam. The track is glued and pinned, and point motors are installed. The "control panel" is very small and recessed into the front. The layout is intended to be set fairly low compared to Cogirep, but with a high backscene, and to be operated from a seated position (most of the time).
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Early in the construction:
     

     
     
    There is still much to be done but Paynestown will be on show in some form or another
    at the Lord and Butler open weekend in Cardiff later this month:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co....ition-any-news/
  15. Barry Ten
    Back when I showed this pic:
     

     
    I mentioned that I was thinking of adding lights to the coach. Last week I ordered a pack of DCC Concepts wheelsets, which cleverly incorporate pickup springs as part of the design. There are twelve wheels in the pack so enough for three coaches, and I thought that the auto-coach would be a good starting point, since I had a good idea of its construction.
     
    Swapping the wheelsets is a doddle, or it would be if you didn't already have the extra brake gear underneath the auto-coach, added as part of the Dart Castings detailing project. I had to break and reattach (for the second time) the main control rod which runs the length of the coach. The wheels went into the bogies easily, and I didn't bother adding bearings.
     
    Here's a close-up of one of the two bogies. I glued PCB pads to the bogie mouldings, then soldered one of the pickup springs from each wheelset to the pad. The wheels are insulated on one side, so you only get pickup from one rail, but for a coach that isn't a problem as you just swap the orientation for the other bogie.
     

     
    I ran insulated wire from the pickup pad to the interior of the coach. While I had the brake rod off, I added some heat-shrink insulation to the areas that might come in contact with the wheels or springs, to eliminate the possibility of a short circuit.
     
    Here's a shot of the whole length of the underside:
     

     
    Adding these pickups was a straightforward job and the DCC Concepts wheels, while being fine in profile, seem to work well.
     
    In the interior of the coach, I brought the pickup wires up through the luggage/guard's compartment at the loco end of the auto-coach:
     

     
    Having gained the extra pickups, I also wanted them to be able to supply power to the 14XX, so I also added wires running back out of the coach toward the engine. Two leads also go to the detachable roof, where I fixed an LED lighting strip. I'd bought this strip in the Netherlands for another project some years ago, and unfortunately I don't remember the name of the manufacturer, but I gather that similar products are still available - if anyone can point me to the make of this unit, though, I'd be grateful. I'd cut it slightly down in length for the other project, but it was still suitable for the auto-coach.
     
    Unlike most coach models I've worked with, the Airfix auto-coach has a detachable roof. This is great for access to the interior, but after adding lights there's a likelihood of some light "spilling" through the fine gap between the roof and the main carriage moulding. This was compounded on mine as I'd removed the original glazing, meaning that the clips on the roof are only holding the roof in place by friction against the body sides. One solution would be to glue the roof in place but for now, I added black paper masking strips along the inside edge of the roof, and that seems to have done the trick.
     
    Adding DCC to the engine was simpler than I'd assumed. Even though the 14xx is small, there's a surprising amount of room in the cab. I was able to hard wire in a Hornby decoder, and then add the additional pickup connections from the coach. Although my 14xx always ran well, it's now able to run with none of its own wheels touching the track, so I think stalling should be a thing of the past.
     
    I could have added a switch to turn off the coach lighting, but in practical terms, you can't really tell it's on when running under normal, daylight conditions, so I didn't think it was worth the bother. Under dusk or night lighting, though, the yellow LEDs give off a nice cosy feel:
     

     
    Next up will be a pair of B-set coaches but first I need to find a suitable supplier for the interior lighting strip - any recommendations?
  16. Barry Ten
    Bit of a long-running saga this one, in that this pair of coach sides must be getting on for 30 years old or more, and I'd imagine they've been painted and stripped down four to five times each, with every attempt at lining being abandoned.
     
    Suitably impressed with Wenlock's 7mm carriages, I decided to have another go. Out with the paint stripper, spray on a dusting of grey primer, then GWR coach cream from a can, followed by brush-painted chocolate. The latter was Railmatch chocolate but it covered surprisingly poorly, requiring four to five layers to achieve enough density. I thought about spraying on the chocolate as well, but was worried about it bleeding under the panelling, but I'll do that next time as there is a danger of obscuring the fine panel detail with too many paint layers. I must say that I've also found the covering power of Railmatch cream to be a bit disappointing when brushed painted, even with fresh tins that have been well stirred. I'm doing a B-set at the moment and the cream is very translucent, needing more layers than I'd like to cover a small area of filler.
     
    I've never managed to brush paint lining to any kind of acceptable standard, but I've generally had better luck with a bow pen. Using the paint neat from pot, applied to the bow pen with a toothpick, I first ruled in the gold bits, using a metal ruler as a guide, as well as allowing the bow pen to follow the edges of the panels where appropriate. I then ruled in the black, both vertical and horizontally, and then used a small brush to fill in larger areas of black between the ruled bits. I also used the same brush to touch in the curved corners to the gold lining, where it was required. Once it was all dry, I could touch in small areas of brown and cream where things had gone astray. My aim certainly isn't perfection, and I'd never achieve that anyway, but neatness and consistency, such that the lining doesn't jump out at me from a normal viewing distance.
     
    I was pleased with the first side, but - isn't it always the way? - I ran into more problems with the second, which needed a bit more corrective work. Then - horror - the chocolate began to lift away from the lower panel after a touch of sanding, and I had to selectively repaint. In the end I achieved two coach sides that are relatively neat, but the consistency is still a bit off in terms of the placement of the lining. I painted in the reddish droplights last of all, using a fine brush, and the Ratio box artwork as a guide, and still need to retouch a few small areas of cream where the red strayed.
     
    That said, I'm now happy enough with both sides to proceed with the other carriages I need to finish for the rake. From the basic chocolate and cream background, I would estimate that the lining need only take an hour or two if all goes well but it is the correcting of mistakes that adds up.
     

     
    I have three Mainly Trains chassis etches, but four sets of sides, so I may end up with three or four carriages depending on how things go. Of course these are well before my rather loosely defined period, but I look forward to seeing where else I go with them.
  17. Barry Ten
    I kicked off the ballasting on the summer module with this short stretch over the culvert, which will be difficult to access once the road bridge is in place. As mentioned elsewhere, I now use Copydex rather than PVA, which retains a degree of resilience once it has dried, so that the ballasted roadbed still has some give in it. Other than that the process is the same; sprinkle down the ballast, mist over with water, then add the dilute Copydex solution through a pipette or eye-dropper. The result is ballasted track which still has almost as much sound-deadening properties as foam underlay. I'm using Woodland Scenics underlay and ballast, by the way. The underlay is a denser product than the Peco one and by all accounts is durable enough to last the lifetime of a layout.
     
    I paint track and sleepers with sleeper grime to begin with, apply the ballast, then go back over the sleepers and rails with another coat of grime, which serves to conceal any stray bits of ballast stuck to sleepers and rail sides. I also add a few dabs of rustier shades here and there. Once I've done a decent stretch of track, I also tint the ballast slightly with various dirt and oil coloured washes to suggest track which has had some usage.
     
    Call me mad but I quite enjoy ballasting. Surely no other activity makes so much difference to the realism of our models in one hit? I'm struck, as always, by how the addition of ballast not only improves the track, but it makes chassis detail stand out so much more on the trains themselves - the parts no longer lost in shadow, but visible against the sleepers and ballast.
     
    And that's 50% of the visible pointwork on the entire layout now ballasted!
  18. Barry Ten

    On Foreign metals

    By Barry Ten,

    French RTR at its exquisite best here, with this REE 231K ex-PLM pacific on "proving trials" at King's Hintock. Sound-equipped, and with pulsed steam (with emission controllable from both chimney and cylinders), it's a stunner of a model. I haven't tested the smoke yet, but it runs a treat on DCC.
     

     

     
     
    Purchased as part of the long-term plan for a larger French layout, after testing the waters with Cogirep. With the new Roco and Jouef models of both steam, diesel and electric prototypes, and lots of new rolling stock from REE, LS and others, it's a great time to be modelling French stuff. Sitting this pacific on the 4mm layout, incidentally, I'm again struck by how much bigger the layout seems with HO stock on it, as opposed to 00. Granted the prototypes were bigger as well, but that 15% size difference in scales really does seem to equate to more layout for a given area, something I was really aware of with Cogirep.
     
    By way of comparison with another French model, incidentally, here's Roco's Chapelon pacific, another very fine model from a year or two ago, if reflecting a more utilitarian design. Unlike the REE model, the Roco is tender drive, with quite an unusual arrangement - both outer axles are fixed in a rigid frame, with only the unpowered middle ones being free to swivel. It ought not to work, but somehow it does. Like the REE one, this is also sound-fitted and is an equally smooth runner, with none of the indifferent performance we've come to associate with tender drives in the UK.
     

  19. Barry Ten
    Couple of long-term projects here: the Centenary coach is one of two that I'm doing with Comet sides on the Airfix/Hornby body - the other will be a restaurant third. The underframe and roof detail is a mix of Comet parts and plastikard/microstrip.
     

     

     
    I used Railmatch spray cans and Tamiya masking for the paint, followed by Fox lining. I don't think Coachman will be losing sleep but it's about as good as I can achieve and will look OK in a train, I think. Still be done is final lettering, glazing, and the interior. The water filler pipes are too heavy, but I'll replace them with finer gauge wire as soon as I get hold of some - for now they're just pushed into place.
     
    The DMU is my attempt at sprucing up a much-loved Lima model that I've had since I was a kid. I got the center car off ebay, then used the Silver Fox resin parts to turn the DMBS into a DMS. The other detailing parts are from Craftsman. I didn't bother replacing the bogies or mucking about with the headcode box. After applying grey primer, I then misplaced the model in a box for about three years! This spring I found it again, so it was on with green paint, followed by speed whiskers and SEF flushglaze. The model has Ultrascale wheels and new pickups. It runs smoothly, but it is still prone to jack-rabbit starts, so I may replace the motor at some point. I based the model on a photo of a 117 in this condition, with no headlamps and no yellow/cream lining.
     

     

     
    Apols for the not great pics, but I shot them hand-held - it's a pain to set up my tripod for Shillingstone, as the layout is so far off the floor.
  20. Barry Ten
    The Hornby King is not that bad a model, really - it looks the part from most angles, has some very fine detail, and runs superbly. Perhaps some manufacturer will announce a new version, but for the time being the Hornby one is what we've got to work with. The big let-down, for my money, is in the side-on view, which is particularly an issue with my layout set at eye-level. The excessive gap between the front frames and the bogie is distracting, and an ugly throw-back to the tender-drive model of the 70s.
     
    Fortunately, the cast frame detail on the Hornby model is very shallow, which suggested to me that a simple solution would be to add a couple of cosmetic frame extensions from plastikard. After some careful measurement using my new best mate among modelling tools - a pair of digital calipers - I cut a batch of frames for my two Kings. Each frame was made from a basic rectangle of plastic of dimensions 12 x 50mm.
     
    After checking that all clearances were satisfactory for my layout, I glued the frames in place and added selective detail from wire and plastikard and PVA rivets. The idea is to give an impression of detail when the model is painted and weathered, not to replicate every pipe and rivet. If you want that, buy a Mitchell kit and book a year off work.
     
    Here's the "before" shot - my GWR example:
     

     
    My BR King with frames in place. The all-important "weight" of the loco at the front-end has been restored, to my eye, and depending on layout clearances you could reduce the gap between frame and bogie even more.
     

     
    And a close-up of the frames:
     

     
    I used relatively thin plastikard to aid the cutting and shaping but for a model likely to receive a lot of handling, thicker grade could be used. It occurs to me that one of the smaller manufacturers could do a useful King detailing kit with something similar in etched brass and white metal, and maybe include a proper reversing lever on the same etch.
     
    Cheers!
  21. Barry Ten
    I'm sure there are knowledgeable folk who can help with this one.
     
    The track plan of the station area of the layout is very simple - a passing loop, two platforms, and a goods yard on what we'll call the "up" side of the line.
     

     
    Trains arriving on the up loop can easily work the goods shed without a run-round move, just by backing into the yard - if necessary, leaving part of the train on the up line.
     
    To shunt from the down line, an engine would need to detach from the train, run around on the up line, and then collect wagons from the rear of the train on the down line, before propelling them into the yard. My query is, would the real railway have operated that way, blocking both the down line and up line (while running around), or would wagons for the yard simply have been forwarded on up the line until they can be sent back on an "up" train? I am presuming the station is on a cross-country route or a heavily engineered branch line.
     
    For the sake of play value, I'd much rather be able to shunt "down" trains as well as "up" ones, but I'd be interested to know how likely/unlikely it was in reality. Perhaps it depended on the schedule - if there were long intervals between trains, it wouldn't have mattered that both roads were occupied?
  22. Barry Ten
    Some close-ups were kindly requested, so here are a few recent shots of the Spring module.
     
     
    Tree with enclosure around base of trunk, inspired by one I saw from a train on the Severn Valley Railway:
     

     
    Close-up of the tree with Preiser horses:
     

    An attempt at tall, unruly grass in the meadow around the abandoned barn. I used Woodland Scenics long grass, glued down in clumps, then trimmed with scissors once it was dry. Finally, I hit it with some household bleach to try and tone down the gold colour a bit.
     

     
    The occupation crossing:
     

     
    The brook:
     

     
    Wider shot of the brook - the fascia keeps intruding into this type of shot so I plan to trim it a bit and bring the scenery down a bit more.
     

     
    Finally, a hint of future interests?
     

     
    cheers, and thanks for reading.
  23. Barry Ten
    Following high level discussions with PMP, there's a chance these two cheeky chappies may make an appearance on Albion Yard during its Railex showing. Both are suitable for the Forest of Dean although I make no claims for appropriate loco shed allocations, etc.
     
    The 94XX has featured on my blog in the past but it has now received a little more work and a touch of light weathering, hopefully to suggest a loco that could plausibly be running in early BR days, despite retaining GWR colours. I wasn't happy with the Gibson GWR straight pattern buffers as originally fitted - not only were they, in my eye, somewhat underscale in diameter, but they caused acute buffer locking on part of Paynestown - so I removed them and fitted some larger white metal examples which will do in the interim.
     

     

     
    The 4575 is a typically smooth running Bachmann example which has been running on my layouts since these models were introduced. I have to say, I am smitten with Bachmann's prairies and own more of them than I strictly need. But they are such sweeties. I have done very little with this model other than to renumber, add some crew, coal and lamp irons, and a smidgeon of weathering.
     

     

     
    Unfortunately I have lost/run out of appropriate vacuum and train heating gear for these locos.
     
    Cheers!
  24. Barry Ten
    Here's my first loco kit, the DJH C2X. More blood, sweat and tears have gone into this model than any other I own, but at the end of it all I have a reliably slow running goods loco which will happily plod around the layout at a crawl, and which is heavy enough to handle all I ask of it. But it hasn't been an easy route to get to this stage, and the saga's still not done!
     

     
    I started the loco in 2000, having consumed the collected works of Rice, Wright etc - trying to do it all "by the book" and not make a mess of my first engine. But as I've documented elsewhere on Rmweb, the C2X never ran satisfactorily until I swapped the supplied motor/gearbox and installed a DJH can motor and assembled gearbox. It was a wonder the difference it made, and at least proved that the underlying chassis was sound.
     

     
    The C2X went into store in 2007 when I packed up my old layout, and didn't turn a wheel until this year when I got it out of the box again. It was rough at first, but after a little lubrication and running, it soon settled down. Unfortunately the pickups had begun to come loose, so I redid them and was generally happy with the running. However, I had a feeling that it would be even more reliable with tender pickups. But how to add them? The DJH tender design is a bit basic, with the wheels running in heavy cast slots, and completely lacking brake gear, leading to a very "open" looking chassis. Squeezing in extra pickups without them being obvious would be tricky. Taking a fresh look at it last night, though, I reckoned I could arrange "V"-shaped pickups that would tuck behind the tender wheels without being visible from normal angles.
     
    Not a great photo, but here's the loco and tender with the extra pickups on the leading and trailing tender axles, with a Comet electrical plug enabling the tender to be disconnected. Success! The loco is now essentially independent of its own pickup, meaning that running is totally stall-proof. In fact, I'd rate it as good as any RTR 0-6-0 I own, and the slow speed operation is fantastic.
     

     
    However, as mentioned, that's not the end of the story. The first thing is that there's no room for a decoder in this engine, as I stuffed it with lead during the early testing. As my convention is now to only fit decoders to post-nationalisation stock, there's a simple solution - backdate the C2X to Southern days. Plain black isn't a hard livery to apply, so that's no problem. When I built the engine, though, I only had access to a couple of photos, and they were both of the right side, when viewed from the cab. The changes to C2X boilers seem quite a complicated business (the DJH instructions offer some guidance, but it's not the same as having drawings and photos) but from what I can tell, there should be a pipe running the length of the boiler on the left side, above the handrail. I've no idea what that pipe is - injector? superheater gubbins? - but it's in all of the photos I found on the web, although not provided for by the DJH parts. So that has to be added, and while I'm at it I may as well add some of the other missing detail, in the way of sanding gear, extra brake details, lamp irons and so on. And crew, of course - but not until it's resprayed.
     
    Anyway, if there's a moral here, it's - don't give up!
     
    (edited to correct spelling of Mr Billinton's name)
  25. Barry Ten
    The Bachmann model of the Highley yard crane is quite an attractive little model, but let down by the solid resin castings of what should be spoked wheels. The computer generated pre-production images showed the wheels as properly spoked, but by the time the model came out the decision had presumably been made to do them as rather crude solid wheels. Incidentally there isn't a lamp growing from the top of the crane!
     

     
    My initial plan had been to cannibalise some replacement wheels from one or other yard crane kits, but unfortunately none of the ones I had (set aside for future projects) were close to the diameter needed. I then thought about scrapping the Bachmann crane in its entirely, while retaining the rather nice base, but that seemed wasteful.
     
    I decided to bite the bullet instead and see if I could turn the solid wheels into something useful. First one up was the larger casting, which handily enough had already snapped off its locating spigot. I thought about fretting about the gaps between the spokes, but unfortunately, the moulded spokes don't correspond with each other on both sides of the wheel.
     
    My initial assumption was that there ought to be six spokes on the wheel, and that the toolmakers had got it wrong! I therefore laid out a paper template and worked off that. However - typical, isn't it? - I've since turned up this photo that I took last year of the real thing:
     

     
    So there are seven, not six.
     
    The approach I took was to drill away a quadrant of the wheel at a time, preserving the hub, add one or two new spokes, allow the glue to set, and then carry on to the next quadrant, gradually replacing all the spokes. I wasn't sure how the resin would hold up, but it turns out that it's easily strong enough to cope with quite a bit of drilling and filing. It took about two hours to do the whole wheel, but it wasn't difficult at all, it just needed to be done slowly to allow time for each spoke to harden in place. I had a yoghurt carton which allowed me to do a six-spoke template very easily, but you could set out as many as you need with a protractor.
     
    For the smaller wheel on the other side of the crane, I took an easier route and just drilled out the space between the spokes. Again this was done with care, but wasn't difficult. The wheel snapped off its spigot easily and was then glued back on once the work was done.
     

     

     
    The spokes were white plastikard, and where I'd drilled away the resin, it had turned yellow-ish. So I painted the wheels matte black for the time being although I may come back to them with dark stone or rust.
     
    The next thing is to work out how to rig the crane! It appears that the real one is presently unrigged, so that's no help. The two wheels are offset from the centreline of the jib, so I presume the rope or chain wouldn't go round them. Presumably the main one is just a flywheel, to keep the gear turning smoothly when the crane is being operated.
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