RBE

This is million times better than previous efforts in this scale and to be highly praised I think, however on a critical note the cab roofs which were awful on grafars effort still don't quite seem to be the right shape to me. Maybe in the flesh and under a less cruel close up they look fine. Also buffer beam cowl should be present on the romanian machines not just the lip as per the first british batch built. Cav

Yeah I was thinking of doing my surplus 4mm scale 66 in loadhaul to pop on ebay. Might do it triple grey loadhaul as a change but my mind isn't made up. The one on the pic is a G scale commission I did a while back. Cav

I'm sure all is well with your cess's. I was of course as you pointed our referring to modern practices with ducting etc. It's much easier to pop all that kind of stuff in prior to ballasting work. Even cess's(or kinda none ballasted, squashed into the ground, dirt areas) between the ballast and walls/lineside boundaries I like to put in before ballast but after walls etc as it is a simple matter of order from lowest up. Stuff that sticks into the ground ie walls signals ducting etc(mostly including track sleepers too), groundy stuff ie cess dirt, gravel, soil etc, ballast, stuff growing on top ie grass weeds etc. Just the way I do it no disrespect intended to anyone elses methods. Its the end result that counts. Thought I add my track pic again from Outon Road below just for fun. Cav

This looks good on anything. Done as a commision a while back some might remember. Cav

I disagree. Ballasting should be done after any lineside scenics are added such as ducting, walls, signals or fences as otherwise you end up building your scenics onto a layer of ballast rather than making it look like those items were there prior to the ballast being put in place by the PW chaps. Nothing looks worse than a wall or ducting stuck on top of ballast with a nasty gap underneath. simply build the wall and then lay ballast upto it and viola a bedded in none floating wall with proper foundations. Cav

Well not sure the cats out the bag, more of theres a cat in a bag! I'm very much looking forward to it as I really would like something to exhibit thats a bit larger than Outon Road. Need to get your spadding under control though mate haha. TBH Im really looking forward to the building part. Cav

Well chaps I think I can go as far as to say without giving away too much at this stage that the new project will be a joint venture between myself and Mason which will be a much larger affair than our previous two efforts. Cav

Indeed Jim I can rattle my locos through Outon Road at a scale 100mph if I wish. Not very prototypical for the spot mind. As long as the wire is stiff enough and employs enough tension theres no need to fatten the wires for speed. I intend to build my new layout catenery in pretty much the same way and that too will feature full speed push pull lovelyness! Cav

The tanks came later when the locos became dual braked. They are the brakes reservoir tanks. Cav

Looks rather nice indeed and perfect for my layout however I have way too many triple grey locos already. The real loco was just sat there in barrow hill roundhouse last I saw. Its about 5 mins drive from me so may take a wander down at some point. Cav

Id have a go but I dont think I could justify one north of manchester in 1990(ish) Cav

While you have the frames off give the wheels a coat of frame dirt. Much easier to cover the whole wheel with the frames out of the way. Leave them darker around the nooks and crannies about those nice linkages. Cav

A polished surface where the number was is exactly what you need for the new numbers to adhere properly and leave no visible carrier. If you apply a waterslide to anything other than a highly polished surface it will result in a slightly cloudy looking carrier film around the number which is not what you want as you cant cover this. Done right the area will then just need a light blow over with some satin varnish in an airbrush to make the number carrier bed into the surrounding paintwork. This should be done even if weathering as the weathering will still not cover the glossy patch. If you dont have an airbrush then tight removal with a cocktail stick and t cut will allow the use of rub on numbers. tbh though these would then benefit from a varnish coat. Cav

Ive never had any problems with the buffers Jim. Certainly worth a go especially if you arent shunting with the loco. Cav

cheers Jim Ill look at adding a bit of grease. I want the paint to harden off a while before adding further paint so Ill tackle that a bit later. As for the buffers for those interested it has taken me ages to find a method Im happy with for the grease on buffers. I really cant be doing with the blob of black/dark grey or a spray of dark to the middle of the buffers. It never looks like the thick graphite looking grease you see on real buffers. I happened across this totally by accident about ayear ago when I was trying to mix up a colour to suit. I accidently mixed some acrylic gunmetal with enamel matt black. The acrylic didnt mix particularly well with the black and went kinda gloopy and ununiformly mixed. turns out perfect for applying to buffers. Its done in a couple of stabs using a cotton bud. The buffers are coated in the chassis weathering colour aready from the weathering stage. The buffer grease is applied last. First apply the mixed black and gunmetal to the centre of the buffer in a sort of squashing motion as if the cotton bud is a buffer contacting the locos buffer and pull away. The paint needs to be worked a bit more in the next stage as you want it to have reacted and thickened slightly. now do a second application as per the first but as you go on and pull off you need to twizzle the cotton bud in your fingers so you create a smooth but thick concentric pattern of patchy black and graphite in the centre of the buffer rather than a flat or stipply effect. Takes a little practice but worth it I think. Cav

Interesting to see the pipework there, the picture I have attached below shows the pipe much straighter. It seems that the routing of this pipe is a little more variable than you would imagine. Cav

Managed to get the proper camera out tonight to show what I think must be the finished loco now in a clear image rather than fuzzy poor light phone pics. Comments always welcome. Cav

The 85/1 was 'converted' as a stop gap rfd machine when the class 90s were late in delivery. As far as I know the only difference between them and a 85/0 was that it was regeared for 80mph. Presumebly for more tractive effort but electric locos are a bit weird on that front so I may be wrong, and the ETH was isolated although the plugs on the bufferbeams remained. My loco is actually numbered differently on each side to give me the option of running a 85/0 or 85/1 depending on service. Cav

Comparison shot of a before and after. Not much more to do to the 85 now. I dont think. Cav

A Bachmann 87 or/& 90 would be nice!! Cav

Was going to mention it was Jims cotton buds. I did steal his idea for mine though as I was about to cut some brass tube up. The cotton bud was a much easier option. Cav

Thanks for the thumbs up. It is in fact just one loco numbered differently on each side but dont tell anyone shh. At exhibitions only one side of the loco is ever seen so gives me a chance to run two numbers for the price of one. The roof was done in 3 stages. First was a dark brown wash into all of the nooks and crannies to give dirt/false shadow prior to the spray stage. Then the roof was sprayed with a lightish dirt colour using a light coat with a dual action airbrush. Youd struggle to do this with a single action as youd get too much paint on. Then again with the dual action add darker brown around the details. A little whiz around with a thinners soaked paint brush to clean the insulators a bit and youre done. Cav

I thing the delightful light sprung nature is fooling you into thinking it isnt robust. The pan is of all metal contruction and has withstood a fair bit of tugging about while I was setting it up. very nice pan imo. Cav

Cheers Phil, Im liking the roof weathering in particular. The pan is simple to do. I took mine off of the model to do it though as it makes life easier. Just crack the glue with a twist of the screwdriver to pop it free. The mounts with the insulators on are seperate units and will remain on the model. The issue with how it rides is that Bachmann have designed the pan wrong at the head. The little eye for the wire to fit into is above the head pivots which means as the pan goes down it pushes the head away when it should pull it to keep it level. All I did was move the wire to the longer eye to the side which is used as Jim mentioned to hold the pan down. The wire will need to have its length tweaked a little to get tge pivot right but its easy enough once the pan is off. This then shifts the wire to the opposite side of the pivot and reverses the motion. Of course the pan will no longer lock down but I wont ever need it to so its fine by me. Cav

Thanks for the positive! Yes its a trick of the light, the arrows are etched and are reflecting the orange wall opposite in my dining room!! The shot looking the other way doesn't have this so appears normal. I am contemplating painting the etched arrows silver rather than leaving the stainless finish as the prototype ones are not shiny in the slightest, especially towards the end of their lives which is when my layout is set. I don't know yet. I may just leave them. Cav