brian daniels

Made a start again on the Clayton this week. Below are some pictures showing the parts sent to complete this kit. They sent a new hood and cab units as the one I had last year was made up of sides end and roof to glue together but now it's a one piece hood unit. The cab is still two sides and ends though. I have now motorized it using 2 Mashima 18-24 motors as I don't think the 18-33 will fit in the hood with a flywheel on top as well. One problem to overcome was how to wire the pickups up together as there is a cab in the way. I decided to drill a hole in the bottom of the cab fronts and run the 2 wires around the edge of the floor. I think that when it's painted you should not see it too much. I think it's the better option than running it through the underframe. One other problem on the bogies is that you can't fit a plunger pickup where the motors gearbox is. On all the other kits it's fitted on the outside of the driven axle but on the Clayton there's nothing there to fix a plunger pickup into. Oh well I will try it with 3 pickups and see if it needs the fourth one later. Just put the details onto the sideframes tonight whilst RMweb was having a rest! I am a bit worried as to what radius curves it will go round as there is not a lot of movement in the bogies due to the way it's pivoted and the front sandboxes hitting the steps. Also doesn't help with the motors in the hoods.

They did trial a Swindon to Carlisle milk train about this time, likley the returning empties.

JLTRT have sent me some castings to get on with the Clayton today Now I have the parts I will hang back a bit though (some hope as once I get into it I know I won't stop ) as I am demoing at the ALSRM Reading show in 2 weeks so this will give me something to do there. I am also waiting for some LNER ABS buffers to finish off my airbrake open conversion that I am doing (post 1151 has some pictures) as I lost one of them, don't ask how .

Best of luck Jeff

Afraid I did not Jeff. Looks like the 7mm Falcon might be going the same way as the Dodo.

Hi Deltic 17. The roof was just brushed with Railmatch Pullman Cream RM325. I did not worry too much about getting a good coverage as it was getting mucky later. To weather it I sprayed Frame Dirt and wiped it off a bit and then Weathered Black and again wiped it off a bit but also patted it clean with a bit of "blue paper roll". Just do it again until you have the required build up of muck. Don,t overdo it or you end up waisting your time painting it cream in the first place.

Finally got round to doing a bit of weathering on my MTH LMS BG. Whilst I was at it I also weathered my Slaters vanwide that has a fibreglass roof and my JLTRT plywood van conversion to airbraking. Shows up the underframe mods now on this one.

Very nice Tim, now where's my airbrush.

If I was doing that Tom I would use 7mm double arrow put onto a piece of brass and cut round it with a piercing saw.

Tim, I had those wagon label clips etched when I had the brake discs done for my Warflats. PM me your address and I will send you a few. Here are some pictutres that I took under the Oxford CCT, hope they help.

That looks very familier. Glad to see you came to the same conclusion as me on the removal, or not, of the raised bodyside detail. Nice job, must weather mine now youv'e got this far.

I never noticed that whilst I had it apart I see there are a couple of spare terminals so I wonder if they are using standard electronics for the steamers as well and that black and white hatching is read by something to determine the rpm and electronically adjust the steam sound/smoke chuff? Can't see it doing anything on this model but it might just be a standard motor in all locos. I have put a bit of weathering on it now so I can't send it back if it breaks again! Forgot to say David there is sound in there somewhere as standard as well as DCC.

Since I took my Swiss electric to a show and some old fart person who was running the test track decided it looked better with a pantograph laying flat on the roof and broke rather than in an upright springy position, shame he never admitted he caught it, it just did it all by itself. The said panto never returned to rest as it should. So I bit the bullit and went inside to see what had happened. First impression was, oh sh*t what a lot of wiring! But I took off the offending panto motor and re-set the rubber band drive and now it is working properly. To think some people are saying there is a lot of wiring in the Heljan W&M railbus!

Nice to see another blue one on the go. Who's going to do one in Blue and Grey? I never realised those door vents were just moulded extra's, drat! Finished painting the Heljan pre-production 31, just putting the transfers on it now, so you will get a picture next week.

I rubed the lining and numbers down with wet/dry as they do stick a bit proud.

I quite agree Jeff, it's no use to anybody.

Not a good responce there Jeff. Finally got hold of my MTH European wagons to go with the Swiss 482. Not bad for £69 each.

Heljan did think about the 14 but thought there would be more sales in a 52 as the 14 was only done in one livery (ok apart from British Coal) I know a Western is a big loco but so was the 47, 55 and 37 and they still sold. I doubt I will buy a Dapol 08 as I do prefer to build JLTRT models.

We should have another pre-production 31 to view/tryout next week What colour should I paint this one? Etches, steps and boiler step covers and front doors are being done as I type this by Pete Harvey so will be available when the 31 is out.

Very nice Tim. It always amazes me how a bit of weathering improves a Heljan loco no end.

Just been discussing this with Howes and thought it was worth mentioning! W&M railbus internal wiring It appears that there is a 'loose' red wire inside these railbuses that some people think has something to do with the internal lights. This is not the case - it should have been removed during assembly but has not been on some models and in no way affects the operation of the model or its lights.

Here are some pictures of the ABS LNER open that I am converting to an airbraked version. I had to remove the cast on springs and replace them with Appleby springs and hangers. Tha axleboxes are the wrong style, they should be split type, but these are also cast on the axleguards and a job to replace so I left them in place as I don't think many people will know! The airpipes are from ABS as well. I still have some brake gear to make up for one side, the same as the van earlier.

I got my MTH BG from here http://www.scalelink.co.uk/ 01747 811817 very good service. I think they are the main importer.

Hi Tom For my cab interiors I have been useing Railmatch Rail Grey for the walls and NSE Dark Grey for the desks. Railmatch have since bought out a colour for cab interiors that is lighter than the Rail Grey which I did think was a little dark for interiors but it was accectable.

Afraid the Clayton is still in limbo I am with you Jeff, we want a Falcon