Nile

I finally got around to stripping a D11 down.

Back to the chassis. Before final assembly I wanted to try chemically blackening the rods. This is the result after dipping half the rod in Super Blue. Happy with that I blackened the rest. With the crank pin washers soldered on this is now a complete working chassis. I found some self adhesive black circles just the right size to cover the axle ends. I've got plenty more if they fall off. Next job is to spray the body black.

I bend it around something round, a AA battery in this case I think, and then manipulate it until it matches the model. When the curved part is correct I bend the straight parts back at 90 degrees. It doesn't always come out perfect.

I found two in Basildon's other ASDA, along with issue 19 of Giant Warplanes, which I'd thought had finished. I'll be stripping one down tomorrow. Now I've got two ring binders to get rid of.

Chassis now repainted. With that out of the way I got on with detailing the body. The safety valve needed to be backdated to an open Ramsbottom type. I cut off the old part, filed the base flat and drilled 3 holes into it. Some plastic rod, square nickel silver rod and a very fine threaded screw went together to make this. The handrail around the front needed some attention. All the knobs were the same length, resulting in the handrail bowing in around the boiler. I replaced the ones in the boiler with the Gibson shoulderless type, held in place with gel type superglue. This shows the new knob being held in alignment by a brass rod, This was used to make a new handrail, as the old one was a bit wrinkly. The same thing was done on the other side. Here is the finished result. The front of the side tanks have had sone putty applied to fill holes. The rod was pushed into this putty to form an alignment hole. Lamp irons, made from some thin brass strip, were added to the front and rear.

All the wagons are from Cambrian kits, plus HMRS transfers.

Hi Dave, the task was made easier because.... I have another one that I won't be repainting. Some more photos for you. The N class isn't quite what it seems, I shall return to it at a later date. I replaced the coal lump in the tender with some real coal. And finally a complete, if rather short, SECR train. I think there could be more grey locos to come.

When I refitted the chassis to the body I noticed something odd about the splashers. They didn't quite line up with the wheels, they seemed to be too far forward and too far out. The The wheel's flange was visible between the splasher and boiler. Clearly not right. (I should have taken a photo of this!) With a little bit of effort the splashers came off. After cleaning up the area an outline was visible showing where it should have gone. Glued into the proper position, it's a perfect fit. This shows the splasher sitting correctly above the wheel. It also shows the brake gear. I found some plastic brake gear that bore a resemblance to the real thing. I've glued it to the chassis with super glue gel, after removing some of the new paintwork (doh!). Various bits of plastic rod were used for the brake linkage gubbins. It may not be as strong as soldered brass but it won't be causing any shorts. Now I need to repaint the chassis.

The frames were dark red (or maroon) before I repainted them grey. I'm using the two Bachmann models as painting guides as there isn't much else to go on, and I'd like this to match the N class I have. Now on to the tricky subject of the markings. I've not found any commercially available, the closest are the numbers for Southern locos that are the correct shape but wrong colour. The only solution is DIY. I used a Silhouette Portrait ## cutting machine to make the numbers. The Arial font seemed closest, apart from the number 2, so I chose a number avoiding that. After experimenting to get the right size I cut the numbers into a self adhesive label. After peeling away the label around the numbers this is what I was left with. Here they are applied to the tender. Alternatively I could have used the 'outer' part of the label as a mask and sprayed the numbers onto the tender. But I thought that had more chance of going wrong. This method looks ok from a normal viewing distance. For the cab side plate I photographed the one on the Bachmann N class and printed some onto another label. I cut these out with scissors and stuck them onto the cab. Here is the finished model. ## See here for info about that. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/

One is already in bits, Corbs.

I refitted the wheels and motor to the chassis and gave it a test run. Lack of pick-ups required a croc-clip to one side of the motor. To fit pick-ups I glued two bits of PCB sleeper strip to the underside of two of the spacers. I soldered some thin phosphor bronze wires to these and formed them into the pick-ups. Wires from the PCB strips were run to the motor. Back on the track it now runs as it should, success!

No wonder you are so prolific, I wish I could work that fast. Keep 'em coming.

On to the chassis and wheels. Spraying isn't practical here, so it's back to brush painting. I left the rods attached, which made painting the wheels even trickier. Some weathering helps disguise any dodgy painting. All the visible parts of the chassis were also painted grey. Before I put it back together, here is a view of the underside of the cab, showing how all the various parts come together. Back together in one piece, nearly finished. I removed the green paint from the safety valves, I think they look good as bare brass. At the front I had to rebuild the brake pipe that had broken into several pieces in the box.

The Railroad chassis has a 10ft wheelbase, correct for the Schools, but not for the Midland compound.

It seems the SECR painted almost everything grey. I've used Humbrol 64 as it seems a close match. Having sprayed everything grey, I now need to paint the few bits that aren't. Here is the cab. I've removed the plastic between the cab sides and rear handrails, very carefully with a scalpel. The inside of the cab was masked during spraying. A similar task for the tender, the floor, coal space and buffer beam need painting. The loco body back in one piece and sprayed with satin varnish. Smokebox and cab roof painted black, buffer beam painted red. The buffers themselves will be grey.

Before I rebuild the chassis I thought I'd find a way of securing it to the body. Here are the two together. 6 The rear end is ok, the cab floor fits into a slot in the chassis. At the front a screw through the spacer will connect with a nut glued to the body. Here is the nut held in place with some superglue gel. I'll add araldite around it to secure it in place. The slots in the body for the chassis were a bit wide, so I added some 1mm plastic on either side to stop the chassis moving about. This is the rear end. With these bits of plastic the chassis is now a tight fit into the body, the front screw acting as a backup.

With some difficulty. Most of the pipe work is attached to the backhead, which is part of the body molding, but one bit is attached to the cab front wall which slides up out of the body. Fortunately the pipes are quite flexible. There are lots of screws holding this thing together, check they are all out before trying to pull it apart.

I couldn't resist taking one apart. With a Bachmann chip (36-558) The motor is loose in its mount and can be rotated slightly by hand. It doesn't move when the loco moves, so doesn't seem to be a problem.

Yep. I didn't buy the Bachmann limited edition as I didn't think it was worth it at the time. Even with the higher price now this one will work out cheaper.

The chassis stripped down. The screws needed cleaning to allow them to be fully screwed in. The bearings are a push fit into the holes in the chassis. The motor didn't run well due to a dirty commutator. Here I've cleaned it up. Reassembled and oiled it runs well now.

Not yet, But I do plan to eventually. I have more of them in stock. Here is a clue to where I am going with this one. Sprayed with primer. The next colour will be Humbrol 64.

Onto the next loco. I bought one of the new Bachmann C class locos in SECR green. Here it is looking very nice in its 'simpler' livery. It didn't stay that way for long. Oh no, what have I done! What could I be up to? We shall see later. Meanwhile I've been working on the chassis. I don't plan to chip this loco, so I'd rather be rid of the loco-tender wiring. I removed the unwanted wires and connected the motor direct to the pick-ups. Motor removed. Rewired, with heat-shrink over the joints. I checked that it goes in the correct direction before shrinking the sleeves. Back together, with no unwanted wires sticking out.

The purchase of some transfers has prompted me to dig out a loco (kit) I bought last year. Here is one I didn't make earlier (someone else did). It's a Millholme Models kit of a LNER N5, aka a GCR 9F This is the view without the body. The motor has showed signs of life, but will need a good clean for it to run well. Next I'll strip the chassis to start the refurbishment of this model. It will eventually emerge in Great Central livery.

Thanks for your comments, I'll be doing more coaches later. Meanwhile here's a wagon. I bought one of the new Hornby trout ballast wagons. This is how it comes. But where's the TROUT? This one also seems to be allocated to a specific traffic, I wanted a more general use wagon. This is what I've done to the other side. I also had to straighten two to the wheels as they were clearly wonky. All straight now and at right angles to the shaft they are on. And now for the scenic shot. It'll be back to the pre-grouping era with the next model.

I've been tinkering a bit more. I glued thin strips of styrene to the bogies for footboards. These old Triang bogies seem to be made from a MEK compatible plastic. I've added HMRS transfers. These are from the LTSR part of the sheet. The crest is close to what I imagine the LMWR design would be. I also painted the vents above the doors white. Then I added a couple of letters to aid identification. And finally an in train shot. The second coach is a ratio 4 wheeler that could do with some work now.