87023Velocity

Thanks Lee, Glad you like the thread. With regards to the 87, will probably look at fitting some steps on the 87 as the bogies look a bit bare without them. When I get some 90's these will need them too along with all the detail work. Cheers Simon

Hi Ben, Yes got some Carr's weathering powders which I have used on some 4mm stock and some groundwork like you say. Will probably use some on the VGA van underframes, I think quite a bit will be used on the HAA's! Regards the layout, I still need to set all 6 boards up to get a proper feel. At the minute the most that can be put up in the garage is either boards 1 to 5 or boards 2 to 6. Just not had a suitable occasion over the past few weeks to set up in the house. I have also got a spare board which will be developed at a later stage which is to allow me to operate Dallam at home but at a reduced length, set the layout up along the garage wall with 2 boards stored underneath. In the picture above, the push pull is about to pass under Bewsey Road, on the 'home' board, this will be the scenic break with the track going straight into the fiddle yard. Cheers Simon

Hi, Thanks for the comments about the vans guys! Was not sure how they would turn out but so far I am pleased with them. Had a look at a Farish HAA and think it might be easier to strip it into its seperate parts for weathering. May have a go over the weekend and see how it turns out. Back to the layout and finally picked some more wood glue up. Backscenes and facias now glued and screwed in place on boards 3&4. Set boards 1 to 4 up and fitted the drapes to the front to see how it would look when set up. Cheers Simon

Hi, Failed to pick up some more glue for one reason or another. Continued with the VGA's. The second one has had a white wash applied over the yellow ends to fade it before some brown gunk was put on which was then slowly wiped off. The handrails on both vans have been picked out in white and the axleboxes painted maroon. Going to need quite a few of these I think. These 2 will probably form part of the trip working from Arpley to Dallam sidings. I think a bogie type van was also used IWB? Think they were Italian? As I don't think they are available rtr or in kit form, I am going to use Dapol Cargowagons instead. Cheers Simon

Due to running out of wood glue, could not carry on with the backscenes tonight, will hopefully get some more tomorrow. All not lost as thought I could do some modelling instead. Decided to play around with weathering a Farish VGA, by 2001 these were looking a bit dirty. Here it is before starting. Here is the progress so far. Basically painted the sides with acrylic Raw Umber which was allowed to semi dry. This was then wiped off using a wet cotton bud and to leave in the areas were dirt would collect. Not done anything with the underframe as yet. The roof strip also needs some weathering, more of a sooty grey/black. Fortunately if it does not look right it can easily washed off - I hope! Cheers Simon

Hi John, Thanks for the kind comments. Tonight decided to fit the backscenes and fascias to board 1, all braced with 28x18mm softwood. The fascia has been cut to shape to provide support for the CLC bridge. Once all the backscenes and facias have been fitted, I'll look at making the lids to protect the layout so it can be stored or transported safely. Cheers Simon

Managed to find clip of said trip working with 08703, which is suggested to be circa 2001 and interestingly it is on the down fast though if you notice the flashing yellow signal at the end of the platform which indicates the route is set for the crossovers from down fast to up slow which will allow access to the sidings. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDKoOdBiVjU I think for the purpose of shows, I will keep this move to the bi-directional slow line to keep the fast lines clear. Cheers Simon

Hi Cav, I think i am going to have a re-think regards the OHLE and 'maybe' look at the wires. I think I will certainly need to look at fitting the backscenes and make the transportation lids so any work does not get damaged when swapping boards around in the garage or moving it into the house to set all 6 boards up. What I think may be an idea to do is to make a small plank to experiment with as I was originally planing on just doing the headspans. Regards the pantographs, they will be held off from the overhead slightly. Cheers Simon

Hi Jez and Paul. Thanks for your kind comments. Regards the backscene, going to initially paint white for the time being. Jez your right about the benefits of n gauge. The Mk3 sets will be 6ft in length but the scenic section is approx 15ft so they should have a good run before going back into the fiddle yard. The only issue is the class 08 trip working, it may take a while to get from one end to the other at a scale 15mph! Cheers Simon

Hi Paul, Thanks for the very kind comment, a steam loco will probably appear on a railtour at somepoint. I decided to put the backscenes in place loosely whilst the stock was out to get a feel for how things will look from the viewing side. Think my next job will be to secure the backscenes in place. Cheers Simon

Hi, Got a bit more wiring done within the control panel which has allowed some actual running and switching the point motors from the control panel. So far no shorts or dead sections have been found. Below is todays test train seen at Folly Lane overbridge, 86425 pushing a scratch rake of mk3's which seemed to work ok at speed- had this shuttling back and forth for around an hour. Heading north is a Mainline 60 & EWS 66. Cheers Simon

Yes never had any problems with Modelex controllers, the 2 in the picture are new but I do have 3 older ones which like you say have been dropped and kicked, shorts and overloads, so far they still work without any problems. 2 of these will be used alongside the newer ones. Cheers Simon

Hi, Managed to get a few hours in the garage this week and made a start on wiring the control panel. So far managed to connect the power in to the CDU and the controllers. These have then been powered up as can be seen from the green LED's lit on the controllers. Next task will be to mark out the track plan and fit the toggle switches etc. Cheers Simon

Hi Alex, Your attention to detail with the wheel lathe is superb! Regards your 26, which is in the best livery btw, the reason its at Boxenby could be for tyre turning. It made its way to Boxemby in an overnight service due to a faulty lathe or excessive workload on the Scottish lathes. I am sure a 50 made its way to Longsight in the late 80's due to a similar situation. Edit: Just found photo, it was 50017 https://www.flickr.com/photos/98587546@N00/2158599096/ Cheers Simon

Hi, Managed to make an escape into the garage this afternoon. Once I had finished wiring the frogs to the point motors, I decided to put a base coat down of a grey wash across the hard standing in the sidings. This will have various bits of weathering applied at a later date. Cheers Simon

Mounting the Seeps on blocks of wood is how I fitted them on our 4mm layout almost 15 years ago and not had any problems. Although they were operating copperclad points with the tiebar below the baseboard which connected to the solenoid via an omega loop style drive rod. Cheers Simon

Managed another hour or so tonight on the layout. Started to install the point motors to board 3. These points are the crossovers which allow trains to access the RMT from the down fast and also allow them to depart south from the Up slow to the Up fast. Using Seep motors with switch for changing frog polarity. These have been mounted onto wooden blocks, by doing this you have more flex in the drive rod which seems to work better than just fitting them straight to the baseboard. I have also modified the Peco points by drilling a hole in the centre of the tiebar and removing both ends of the tiebar to hopefully make them look neater, see below. Once each point motor had been installed, they were tested using a CDU to ensure they were throwing correctly. Cheers Simon

Hi, After a few hours work, board 6 is wired on the scenic side. Tested the continuity between boards 5&6 only and all appears to be ok. The sidings also tested as seen below with the 60 and a couple of VGA's. Hopefully if time permits this week in the evening I will set up all six boards in the house and run a train across all six for the first time. Cheers Simon

Managed to complete the wiring on board 5 tonight, so thought it is a good idea to test it. Boards 3,4 &5 connected together and succesful testing undertaken with 60078 sandwiched between some wagons. All four lines checked ok. The sidings will be tested once board 6 is wired. 60078 heads north on a trip working whilst a VT push pull heads south. Cheers Simon

Now the paint has dried, I had a play around with paper to get an idea with how the track plan could look when painted on the control panel. Just need to order the toggle switches. Cheers Simon

Hi, Managed to pick some more stripwood up to finish the lid to the control panel and also paint it. Its had 2 coats of undercoat, sanded after each coat, followed by 2 coats of gloss white. Now just need to look at painting on the track diagram, drilling for switches and wiring. Cheers Simon

Excellent news. Will be adding a couple of these to the stock roster for Dallam. Cheers Simon

Always room for more shunters. Currently got 6 class 08's and 2 class 03's. Out of the 6 class 08's, the first was bought for covering the yard pilot on our layout Strathmuir. A second was purchased which became 08761 so we had a spare.This eventually somehow grew to six! Here is a shot of 4 of them. The latest addition being 08673 which requires a partial respray to correct the livery error. I think I could easily end up with 10 class 08's! Cheers Simon

Hmmm, Think I may be having some of those! Cheers Simon