Barry Ten

As one of the SA operators I have to concur with Dave that the faff of moving the sector plate becomes quite noticeable after a few hours of shunting! Ones fingers soon become fed up of sliding bolts in and out and heaving the board into alignment. So I for one welcome our new 3 foot baseboard addition although I accept that it will increase the setup/tear down time somewhat! That said, we are now a well-oiled military unit compared to the Laurel and Hardy-like performance of the first few outings.

Wonderful stuff, raising the bar once again.

Tried my local newsagent but only the previous issue on sale, so will wait until next week or after. Very much looking forward to it as I think MRJ's photographic/printing style will be in keeping with the feel of the layout.

They tried to make me build a prefab, I said no, no, no...

Nice job. The C2X was the first kit I built and I'm still pleased with mine.

Hi Colin

I always make sure there's enough springiness to follow any sideways motion of the wheels, although it can sometimes take a bit of adjustment to get there.

To set up the wipers, I aim to follow the Tony Wright guidelines, which is two bends in the wire. I try to get the first bend about in line with the axle, and the second

bend about half way between the axle and the wheel-rim - but it can vary depending on the model. In the case of the Pug, I've ended up with three bends, but with a 

bit more alteration of the keeper plate, I could probably have kept it to two. Ideally, I like the point of contact with the wheel rim to be at a relatively shallow angle, 

whereas those on the Pug area bit sharper than ideal. A shallow angle helps with maintaining contact as the wheel moves sideways. However, the arrangement

on the Pug does work. One thing I find is that, the first time you form the bends, they don't have quite enough tension to be reliable, so it can take a few adjustments

to get them bearing reliably. However, once adjusted, I find that they work forever without any further tweaking. The sign of a good pickup is that wheels stop getting dirty

due to micro-arcing: a loco can run quite well with bad pickups but the wheels will pick up dirt much more quickly, until the running degrades. I can only speak

for myself but I've only ever had great success with edge wipers.

Tony prefers 0,45mm wire, whereas I've used 0.33mm here. I wouldn't say there's much in it, except that the 0,33 mm stuff is slightly thinner if space is an issue. I

prefer it for coach lighting as it imparts a bit less drag, but for locos in general I stick to 0.45mm most of the time. Some people swear by Phosphor bronze, I've found

that it works well but so does Gibson brass wire.

Hope this is helpful - and good luck with the 48XX!

Al (Barry Ten)

Sherton Abbas is the terminus of the branch from King's Hintock - see Great Western Branch Line Termini Vol 3 by Paul Karau.

Thanks, Brian!

I've since learned that the Genesis parts aren't available any more so it would be difficult to do this project now.

Do you remember what livery the Hymek was in?

Funny you should mention that first shot, Mikkel, as it's a bit of an inadvertent lighting experiment. One of my fluorescent tubes failed so I ordered a replacement - but forgot to check the colour temperature. I ended up with one that's quite a bit cooler than the others, more to the blue end of the spectrum, but I like it as well so I've decided I'll replace all the others for cooler ones as they fail.

Just had a look at Paul Bartlett's usual excellent selection of photos and he says the containers were around until about 1977 so modeller's license will win out, I think!

https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/acontainer

2 minutes ago, LBRJ said:

I dont think the containers did last that long....But I like the picture, you liked creating it...what more matters?

 

Just sometimes, its better to not know and just get on with it!

I find that helps in many walks of life!

10 minutes ago, wenlock said:

I secretly quite like blue diesels!  There, I've said it, I'm firmly out of the closet!  I guess they remind me of my 1970's youth, but you're still unlikely to see one at Sherton Abbas

Now there's a challenge!

51 minutes ago, checkrail said:

What a collection of blue diesels you have!  BTW, station building is lovely.

Thanks, John - scratchbuilt from the Paul Karau plans when I was 16, so ... er, nearly 40 years ago (arghhh!!!!). It's had a bit of titivation since, including two sets of replacement chimneys and a new awning.

Al (Barry Ten)

Splendid-looking layout!

59 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Congratulations on getting it almost done Al. It's like some fabled creature, created from fire, sweat and patience 

 

That night shot is superb.

It's not broken me, honest.

1 hour ago, The Fatadder said:

Looks a good job on the kitchen cars.  I had been thinking along similar lines for my own rebuild (given that I have mostly got the later model without the window incerts, along with a couple of spare powercars).  Splicing in the doors from the redundant powercar to make the kitchen doors seems very sensible. 

 

How did you power yours Barry?

I think I still have the innards from a Bachman class 25 (or possibly it was a 158) which are earmarked for mine.

 

 

 

Two black beetles in the front power car.  I also acquired a Class 25 chassis with a view to using that at some point - I think I eventually decided it was more work than just using the black beetles. I've tried not to over-ballast the power car so there's minimal strain on the BBs.

Tidy job there, Gibbo - and I like the use of the Class 73 bogies; they certainly look right enough to me.

I don't think there''s any loss of character in retaining the Tri-ang ends; they still look like a Blue Pullman.

Two questions - have you powered it with the Lima bogies, and did you scratchbuild the kitchen car roof details? I haven't

found any real clear shots of the roof area, and it seems cheating to get my Bachmann one out of its box just to copy

what's there!

5 minutes ago, wenlock said:

Nice work Al!  I also liked the sound of the “clickerty clack” through the point work in the video

Yeah, who needs sound chips with that racket!

1 hour ago, markneilp14 said:

very nice results. I have recently been paint stripping models for the respray and in order to strip then i used Nitromors. Although it may be a bit aggressive it does get the job done well. After the Nitromors has been thoroughly rinsed i then use some cif and a soft tooth brush to degrease everything then a final rinse and leave to dry for a few days prior to using the halfords etch grey primers and then the top coats int he same way as you described.

 

I have used the nitromors and Halfords paints on a vintage gauge 3 M7 that is in for a complete respray from LSWR pea green to Br Black and also some new batteries for the Radio Control equipment.

The M7 was built in 1940 during the air raids in the anderson shelter as a means of passing the time by the builder and owner. The model now belongs to his son.

 

Looking forward to seeing more updates

What an absolutely brilliant model, and so humbling to think of the conditions under which it was put together.

1 hour ago, wenlock said:

Looks like that strip magic is useful stuff.  Does it work on acrylics and cellulose, or just enamel type paints?

 

The loco looks great by the way!

I'm not sure, Dave - I've certainly not found anything it won't shift yet, but I can't swear I've tried it on more than just enamels.

It looks good; to be fair bogie clearances are always going to be a bit of a sod on a Bird. I ended up adding tiny shims to the body a step at a time until the bogie deflection was just enough. I also chamfered the inner profile of the frames just to get a fraction of a mm extra clearance.

Incredible (to me) that Sydney Camm worked on everything from biplanes to the Harrier precursors:

Thanks for the comments, all. Back home, suitably bedraggled, after a very damp Parkrun!

I don't think I've seen a tail-dragging jet before.