brian daniels

I think Laurie is very busy up there which is a good thing, we must learn to be patient. Here are a couple of pictures showing the work I am doing on the MTH Stanier BG. I have cut back the full length running boards and rubbed down the solebar a bit. I have painted them with a bit of primer to see how much more rubbing back they need. I have removed the coridoor connectors on the ends and covered the hole with a plasticard blank. I found 4 cast lampirons from the JLTRT TTa's I did last year to replace the moulded on ones. The battery box on the truss rods is from ABS as is a regulator and fuse box on the other side. I also have an ABS dynamo to fit. Now I have to decide if I want to cut/file off the door handles and replace with sticky out ones. I should also remove a few of the moulded ribs down the sides to match a picture I have of one in the 70's.

I wish Richard. It seems a job to get them to do anything these days

Your a star Paul, thanks very much for those. I think ABS do the 8 shoe open to start from. Your ok I have not requested anything resently.

Glad the bogie was useful Adam. That models looks superb. I wish someone would do a nice 7mm one.

Here are a couple more pictures of the VVB I am doing from a JLTRT van. There are some nice close up shots of the brake gear on Paul Bartletts site http://paulbartlett.....com/p885332926 but you do tend to loose it when it goes under the wagon. There should be a distributer under there somewhere but I can't see one on any pictures. I know the brake gear is wrong around the wheel axles. It should be the same as the vanwides that Slaters do but to be honest when this vans on the track you can't see too much around that area. Lets face it where I will run this unless I point out that it's differant no one will know it's airbraked let alone the brake pull rods are not quite right! I have just ordered the buffers from Slater and I managed to get hold of some wagon screw couplings from CPL on Monday so it should be in the paint shops next week. Anyone do the big ABS yellow spot in a transfer? I would like to do one of the LNER style opens that had this airbrake conversion but can't find a picture of them, hint, hint Paul I have just made a start on my MTH Stainier BG by getting rid of the extra long footboards and slicing a bit of the cast on detail off. I will phot it shortly.

Oh good I just thought I would try a picture upload and I see we have lift off again Here's a couple from the running session I had a couple of days ago. A nice little nuclear train with the Heljan 26 on it's way to Dounray? I am the same as you David in that I too can't run a train indoors (welll apart from my US layout in the loft). Luckily I have built the railway round the garden but it's a bit brass monkeys standing outside this time of year. I have to go 25 miles to run on this indoor test track when it's put up. I will add a couple of more pictures of the wagon conversion later.

I have been busy during the down time on here building a JLTRT plywood van into an airbraked version with the help of some castings from Appleby. I still need some Slaters Oleo buffers and Exactoscale couplings to finish it. I have also finished JLTRT coach number 6 so took them to a local running session over crimble for a test run with a Heljan 33. I have got round the image loading by useing Imageshack by the looks of it http:// http://

So that's what the "add to post" does I can see what you mean about the roof Ozzyo when it's finished but when you buy the kits the roof is totally bare so it does not matter which way it goes on. Just glued the Easybuild etched window frames onto the CK. It needs a bit of touching up with the paintbrush round the frames but I must admit it went better than I thought it would.

ok I have been taking a few close-ups of the MkI coach. The first image shows the Westdale dynamo threaded through the underframe. To do this I cut the side strut and bent it just clear and threaded the dynamo over the underframe and then soldered the strut back together CPL etched mirror placed on the compartment wall, still not fixed yet. Hopefully this picture shows how sprung the buffers and stopped them from turning. The next three show the buckeyes. The JLTRT ones do not auto couple unfortunatly. Also when you have coupled them they stretch out a long way. The last picture shows the Kadee's stretched out. This picture shows the Kadee in it's slightly wider recess and fixed in with an 8ba bolt. Also shows the soldered on strips on the steps to fix them into the solebar and the roof fixing screw head slightly recessed. This shows the waterfiller un-pluged from the little bit of tube so you can remove the roof. For some reason one side does not have door hinges cast on but the other side does? So I have used some Easybuild ones on the plain side. And lastly I just got fed up looking at those JLTRT window frames on the CK so I am soaking the joint and removeing them. I am painting a set of Easybuild etched frames and hope to glue these on instead. Should be fun putting the windows in later though.

Hi Julian I am useing the plastic #804. You need to mill out a bit of the bufferbeam to fit the dragbox but it's no problem, just messy with this resin stuff. I just use a milling tool in my handheld dremel drill.

As Ozzyo has replied Pete, yes the couplings do work after a fashion. They can be lifted up and a lost wax pin inserted to retain it in the horizontal position. But one big problem with them is the knuckle does not open automatically when you try to join two together. You can "slot" two together but that defeats the object of a buckeye. I only use these for the outer coaches and use Kadee's for the other ends that are coupled up to each other. TTG, I see you are finding out that these coaches need a little bit of TLC to put together! I have been filing off the bottom of the ends to lower it a bit and file the top off a little as well down to the rivets. Allso a bit extra to do is solder a couple of bits of strip on the footboards under the doors as there is nothing to locate them with. You will need to drill a couple of holes in the solebar to fit them as well. As you can see I use a CPL 1C GW Emergency Brake Telltale equipment on the end. Split pins are needed to locate the water filler pipe up the end. On the roof I use a small length of tube for the water filler pipe to locate into so I can remove it from the tube and take the roof off. I will take some close-up pics to show what I mean later. Also need a piece of Plastruct or brass L shape strip for the roof gutter strip by the water filler. There are a couple of castings for the water tank vents that are whitemetal. I brake off the pipe and replace with a bit of bent wire. It is a bit hit and miss where to put these vents as it's a job to get a picture showing the roof area around here clearly enough for all MkI coach types. I made my buffers work by inserting a spring inside. Then cut a slot horizontally in the locating boss on the back of the buffer housing. To stop the buffer rotating insert a piece of wire in the buffer shank that locates into the slot, a picture will follow! The ETH gear is from the DJH spares box. Nearly forgot to say one other little problem to overcome is the wheel tyre rubbing on the roof securing bolts as these are fitted off centre (god knows why). I recess the hole in the floor a little bit and file a little off the screw head, as they say, every little helps. I have also added a bit of plasticard between the bogie and floor to increase the gap. Hope this helps and does not put you off as they are a nice coach when finished and I do actually like building them, well I have done 6 now and still look forward to doing another.

As my subtitle says I am onto a JLTRT class 17 at the moment I think I better show the latest bit done to it. As I am doing the Derby Research 8598 I have had to put a set of jumper cables on one end and a little box next to it. Also added is the airpipe going down one side to a set of airbrake pipes on the bufferbeams (was this one duel braked?). The cab has been glued together and glued to the hoods. The whole assembly is screwed to the running plate now. I have to add 2 orange electrical conduits running down the solebar on the opposite side to the airpipe one. I have got the wheels and motors but I still need the wheel bearings from JLTRT to finish the bogies.Still waiting for the rest of the castings to finish it now though I have had a good week off work and completed the JLTRT MkI SK in record time The interior is painted as well :locomotive:which I am waiting to put in after the windows are fitted after painting. The eagle eyed amongst you will no doubt have noticed that the vac cylinder is on the wrong side of the V hanger. This is because it will be having Commonwealth bogies on eventually and the straight sided V hanger and vac cylinder are round the other way on these. I decided to make this an end of the rake coach so I fitted a JLTRT dropped buckeye and I also sprung the buffers. I will be useing the supplied corridoor connector as well with a springy cardboard one on the other end. Weather is getting warmer this week so might even get some paint on it soon. I picked up some CPL etched mirrors at Reading to go in the compos above the seats but does anyone know if you can get a casting for the lights that were either side of the mirror?

Ozzyo, I did do the sides and ends seperate on the MkII's as there is a nice door frame where the sides and ends meet. On the MkI's the side and end seam is a nice smooth corner which I think is easier to fill and rub down before painting. Richard, it's not too much extra work, now I have done one I know what to do on the next one so they should be easier. The lining is the HMRS presfix stuff. I put it on in about 4 inch lengths. All the transfers on these coaches are from HMRS. Brian

One job on my "to do" list week was to fit the windows in my latest JLTRT MkI. If you can remember I used Easybuild etched window frames on this coach which look great. But their clear moulded windows did not sit in very well. So I filed a bit off the top ans side and then they fitted a lot better. As you can see in the first picture there was a bit of a gap under the horizontal framework. This did reduce with a slightly smaller window after the filing. I glued the windows in with diluted Kristal Klear and a small brush to flood the inside of the window hole as the window moulding a bit smaller than the bodyside hole. I am pleased with the results. Looking at the pictures though it does look like the windows are scratched. Trust me they look ok in the flesh. I used up all the "No Smoking" window stickers on the HMRS sheet so had to use a set of the old triangulay ones in one seating bay. At about £20 a sheet, and these and the First Class stickers are all I use on it, I am not going to worry as the real coaches ended up with odd stickers at times. So at last another coach joins the rake, now 5 finished. Managed to get a couple of pictures of it outside between the rain,hail and snow showers here in Oxfordshire. For coach 6 I have an SK to do but am debating whether to use these window frames on it or not as glueing the Easybuild windows in when it's painted would be next to impossible on the coridoor side, it's ok putting the JLTRT windows in though. So I could leave the interior until the windows are in, pre-paint it and then glue it all in, tempting. I am soldering up a set of the etched bogies from these coaches at the moment (3 days work so far!) although these are for my first SO I did that has a set of old plain Cavalier Commonwealths under it for the time being. I am waiting for a set of JLTRT Commonwealths to go under the new SK and I will add some ETH boxes under the ends I think.

Glad you are on the homeward stretch with the FNA David (well nearly, when the postie delivers the discs). I am not sure if I will bother with the correct runners for my FNA, just say it's on delivery in an airbraked train, think I could get away with that? I think at the moment you could spray your model in one county with the spray can in the next! It's supposed to be getting a bit blowy by the end of this week again. Hopefully I will get few little jobs done this week as I have a week off. I have a Slaters Vanwide to varnish and weather, a JLTRT coach to put the windows in, the JLTRT 17 to add a couple of little bits on, a JLTRT ply van to make into an airbrake van, a JLTRT MkI CK to build, oh and all this crimble stuff to get sorted

Thanks for the kind words Alan That's the good thing with RMweb, I hope we all have time for everyone else. Mind you now and then a thread does go a bit

Thanks for the info Webbo but I think you meant to say HEA's and not HAA's with those numbers

Now those VIX vans would look nice in 7mm, they had been around for a few years haven't they.

I have had a run up and down the test track in Howes with one and they run very smoothly. They are quite heavy with a diecast chassis. They are not my era or scale but must admit I am impressed with them.

Very nice bogie Tim, good to see someone else messing around with the Heljan loco's.

I am affraid the JLTRT 33/1 is pushed to the back of the shed at the moment awaiting the last few castings to finish it. Not too worried as I do have other stuff be getting on with.

I cut out the tank by using pictures to guess the size from. I think I drilled into it and then cleaned up the hole with a knife and file. I made the backing for the recess from plasticard. The only pipes I have done from wire are the ones in the recess. The others are still Heljans.

Hi Andy Thanks for the info. I have 2 of the Modellexpress VAA's I think I will use either end. At least it will make it look more like train rather than just the FNA on it's own.

Funny you should mention Falcon Jeff. I did bring it up with Laurie on Saturday, his reply was that he already had enough for the next 5 years to keep him busy! I will keep mentioning it to him until we wear him down. Did it ever go through Leamington? Might have a better chance if it did.

What were they using for runners in the mid 80's? I have 46020 so might have to try a photoshoot I think Tim.