Dukedog

Nice to hear that some of you are travelling a fair distance to attend our exhibition. I hope that you will be pleased with what we have booked in for the show. It would also be nice to meet some of you for the first time. Make yourselves known to me I'm the exhibition manager.

Now fast becoming one of the West Midlands finest shows (Warley excepted)!

The Cambrian section of the Euston Aberystwyth service (Saturdays only)

Will it be ready for October 2014? looking forward to seeing it finished. Cheers Frank

Those MT etches certainly make a difference. MT does a decent range of stuff these days don't you think? Mostly designed by Ian Rice I have used quite a few of their etches of one thing or another for my 4mm stock. BTW, whose chassis have you used for the 58xx? High Level or Comet maybe? Cheers Frank

If you would like my layout "Steam on the Cambrian" for next year just drop me a message or Email Cheers Frank

looking forward to seeing Much Murkle on Saturday (19th October) at the cradley heath exhibition. Cheers Frank

Only just found this little gem by accident, by following Daves link in his signature in a comment on my attempt at the cambrian! What stunning modelling in all aspects, locos, stock,buildings, track work everything! Just so inspiring just to look at the pictures without reading too much of the text. Now on my "Follow" list. Cheers Frank

Great write up for a very useful modification. Thanks for posting, that's another useful tip for when I eventually get some Hawksworths! Cheers Frank

In 5 inch gauge you could almost build a complete van and then set fire to it! You won't get more authentic than that! Cheers Frank

Hi Garry See you and Glenhuig at Sutton Coldfield I will be there assisting Wilf the new owner of Pen Y Bont. Cheers Frank

Quite right but, Not in GWR days! If keeping the current livery the plates should be black. Red background plates came after nationalisation and was applied to some Mixed traffic class locos in black livery. Sorry for sounding a bit pedantic that is not my usual way I can assure you. Cheers Frank

"so hopefully I will finally be able to get on with my layout," That's what I thought 18 months ago! Unfortunately it doesn't work like that as I found out and you may find in the future. Talk to many here who have retired and I wager over 50% will tell you the same story. My time is roughly split 50/50 between house maintenance and improvements and modelling, with shopping trips etc in between. Ah well, must dash, SWMBO wants to go out! Cheers Frank

Yet again Tom has set the standard for us all to try and reach. Just super work in 2mm scale. Cheers Frank

Incredible! You must have the patience of a Saint! but the end results look worth the trouble. Cheers! Frank

Good grief! You have your work cut out there to resurrect that one! The tender is looking good but, what did the builder use to solder the loco together? a poker heated in a coal fire? Following this project with interest. Cheers Frank

Still not done anything much on the two dogs project. Been rather busy trying to finish a load of loose ends between now and Christmas. One such project is this Dapol BR standard brake van kit that was started several months ago after being bought some 12 months before that! As you can tell I tend to take time to get a "Round Tuit" I remember these kits when they first came out made by Airfix cica 1962 I Think. Now, considering the moulds and tooling used for these models are getting on for 50 years old.the parts still fit well. Anyway as I digress again..... A couple of afternoon sessions on the workbench saw the job finished and added to my expanding fleet of goods vehicles. No pictures of WIP I'm afraid just a couple of shots of the finished job. Shown here alongside my fire damaged job! Included again here because the burn out was built from the same kit with some drastic alteration of course! I was reading Phil Parker's blog recently, and it transpires we both hit on the same idea with regard to painting BR bauxite stock. Now if I was a pedant or rivet counter I would go out and purchase the correct Railmatch acrylic or Phoenix Precision enamel paint, but, I am NOT a pedant or top modeller so I use Humbrol "Red Brick" enamel as a substitute for bauxite. Once it is weathered or faded a bit I doubt if the real pedants would notice(???) It's not a money saving thing, It just means less tins of paint to store, dry out and throw away! I also took the opportunity to try out some Carrs weathering powders I picked up from Warley exhibition. I must say first impressions are good. I did find though that applying some over the transfers too quickly after varnishing is not a good idea! Just one more picture taken from the opposite angle to the one above showing more of the burnt out brake van. I have a few more little jobbies and "Kwik Kits" I would like to do before Christmas so I had better stop waffling and get on with it! Cheers! Frank

Thanks for your comment Paul, I always make a point of NEVER using anything, Locomotives, stock, building bits and so on straight out of the box. It has to be "customised" first. The main reason for this is that if I used stuff straight out of the box then, my layout would look just like everyone else's that used the same stuff! I know that I am not a top finescale modeller but, I am not a train set modeller either! Things like shiny new locos with moulded coal, buildings with no character and unpainted track on foam underlay just shout "TRAIN SET" to me, and that is not what I remember as a child. I remember the grot, filth, and smells of coal and steam oil and that is what I am trying to recreate. I could write for ever about my spotting days but I won't risk boring you all to death! It is when accomplished modellers like yourself praise my efforts that I know I must be doing something right! Cheers Frank

Sorry about the delay in posting answers to peoples comments and questions but, here is some further information that may be useful. Transistor Pin outs, I get lots of PMs and Email asking about the device connections so I'll post some info here. For the TIP147 Transistor use the pin out for the TOP-3 case For the Bc107/8 transistor use the TO-18 case. The LED that is not shown on the circuit diagram is simply wired in series with a 1K0 resistor across the controller output but BEFORE the reversing switch. This simply gives an indication of power output. nothing more. I added that after I published the circuit above. Hope this information helps, Frank

Thanks for all the kind comments and likes. The use of emulsion paint is not new, well, not to me anyway! I find it gives a far better finish when brushed on than any enamel paint. The only problem is that you need a decent flat undercoat before you use it. I find the most useful colour for locos is B&Q "Jet Black" or Wickes "Liquorice" I have several tester pots of each as they seem to come and go from the displays in stores. I also use many colours from the flat matt range of both suppliers for general scenery work too, again much easier to use and better finish than enamels, the added bonus is it's easy to custom mix your own colours on an old plate or saucer. cheers! Frank

By way of a little interlude from the "Two Dogs" project I dug my old Bachmann 45xx Prairie tank out of the top drawer and thought it was about time I did something with it! When shopping for bits and pieces at the Warley exhibition I picked up a few sets of GWR cab side etched plates from Garry Wells at 247Developments. Cambrian based 2-6-2T No 4560 being one of them. The loco as it came to me second hand and a good runner was finished in BR lined green with late crest, whereas without trying to be pedantic I wanted BR black (unlined) with early crest. I stand to be corrected but, I do not recall any 45xx's on the Cambrian in green/late crest livery. All the pictures I have seen bear this out. Anyway enough of the preamble! This is what it looks like now.... The original crest and lining was removed by gently rubbing away with a cotton bud soaked in enamel thinners. The hardest part of the job was removing the simulated coal from the rear bunker. This is one of my pet hates to be honest. Why can't the manufacturer supply models wit empty bunkers and tenders and supply "Coal" in a plastic bag with all the other bits that come with RTR locos these days? Once cleaned up the whole loco was brush painted with Humbrol matt black. Transfers were then added along with the etched plates and then the weathering was done using Tamia and Carrs weathering powders and B&Q "Jet Black" emulsion paint. Real coal was then added to the bunker and stuck down with diluted PVA glue. The wheels and motion got my usual treatment of Humbrol Mid grey mixed with a little talcum powder for the wheels and Humbrol gloss Tan with some matt black for the coupling and con rods, Steam heat and vacuum pipes along with Smiths screw link couplings complete the job. I have also added some home made fire irons to the tank top on the fireman's side (not visible in these photos) The bottom line is that I now have the loco I wanted for a couple of afternoons work on the workbench. Cheers! Frank

I'll just add my own admiration to the list of those before me. Other than that I can't really say much more than what has already been said. ( I Know, another "me too" post) but sometimes you just have to say something and If that means a "me Too" then so be it! Lovely jubbly! Cheers Frank

Progress at last! After the disaster of a few weeks ago with the "Dukedog" chassis and motor failure another attempt was made on getting a working chassis. I had to wait until the Warley National model railway exhibition (where I was assisting a fellow CHMRC member with his layout operations) to purchase the necessary parts from Comet Models. I chose to use their GB5 gearbox and Mashima 10 series motor, (Shown below) Assembly is straight forward, The bearings are soldered in place and the gearbox is folded up and checked for alignment before soldering the fold joints to strengthen up the gearbox. The Comet GB5 is a double reduction type ideal for this job because it allows the motor to be clear of the frames.Anyway, to cut a long story short, the gearbox, motor and front axle were assembled in about 20mins and put on test. Within a few seconds of starting the motor/gerbox was running as sweet as a nut! so quiet in fact that you had to look to see it running! on the test controller results were very pleasing, the motor current was minimal and slow running was reasonable. I am confident that once run in the combination will work well. I spent the next day assembling the rest of the chassis, fitting Markits outside cranks and making my own connecting rods as the model I am building 9021 had fluted rods not plain as supplied by K's kits. The chassis was fitted to the locomotive along with the front bogie and tender. The electrical pick up is just from the tender front and rear axles at the moment until I can get some more phosphor bronze strip. It was now crunch time! would it run or not? I must admit I was a bit apprehensive about this, When I got the motor I was surprised how small it was Would it pull the weight of the whitemetal body let alone any train? Not having a working layout at home at the moment the only way I could find out was to take it to the CHMRC club rooms and try it on our test track. Well, the bottom line is IT RUNS! I was really surprised how smooth the chassis is, despite the sparse pick ups and state of the track it ran remarkably well. After a few circuits of the test track it was back in it's box for there is still a lot of detail to be added before it goes to the paint shop. More on the final assembly and finishing soon! Cheers! Frank