Jump to content
 

SRman

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    7,457

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by SRman

  1. SRman
    Some years ago, I decided to try and improve the running qualities of one of my Lima class 73 models by replacing the Lima armature with a ModelTorque motor (available from the manufacturer just a couple of kilometres up the road from me at the time - sadly no longer available since the passing of the man responsible for them). This was almost a drop-in replacement but promised much better, smoother and more responsive running. It still used the Lima gearing and did deliver what was promised, although the Lima gearing did it no favours, but it would go from a crawl to around 350 mph. The top speed was later tamed a little with a diode pack supplied by the manufacturer. At this time I was still using analogue DC.
     
    It was still totally dependent on the Lima brass wheels and dodgy electrical pickups, however. That remained the achilles heel for running qualities. Hard-wiring a Bachmann decoder allowed much finer tuning for the motor speeds and also tamed the acceleration and deceleration using the inertia/momentum settings, but still those brass weheels and poor electrical characteristics prevented reliable running, with the occasional prod from a large finger being needed.
     
    A partial solution has since become available in the form of a Hornby dummy bogie from Peter's Spares. The Hornby bogie not only has better wheels but also picks up from both sides of the bogie, where the Lima one only picked up from one side. Fitting the bogie required the hole in the chassis for the original Lima one to be enlarged a little, using a round file. The Hornby bogie could then be clipped in, after first threading the two wires through. When I originally rewired the Lima chassis for DCC, I followed the convention of using a red wire for the right-hand track feed from the power bogie (which is always the number 2 end of the Lima/Hornby models). Hornby have very kindly marked one of the two black wires from the new bogie with a red patch - this also goes to the right-hand side of the bogie. I simply soldered the red-patch wire to my existing red connections, and the black wires together, then tested for short-circuits before putting the loco on the programming track and double-checking that all was well.
     
    Doing this modification means that I have electrical pickup from four decent quality wheels on the dummy bogie, and two (on one side only) through the Lima brass driven wheels. I could wire up extra pickups for the remaining two wheels on the motor bogie but these also have traction tyres, so the benefit would be marginal, to say the least. Anyway, the running, while not perfect, has improved considerably, to the point where 73 142, Broadlands, can now rejoin the main fleet and not be parked languishing at the back of the drawer.
     
    In the photos, the motor bogie looks like it has a standard Lima 'pancake' motor, whereas, in fact, the ModelTorque motor is installed from the other side, away from the camera. The first photo shows the new bogie clipped in place after opening out the hole, with the two wires floating loose, and the original Lima clip arrangement also detached, awaiting removal.
     

     
    The second photo shows everything soldered in place and all joints covered with heat-shrink tubing. I had to use a short stretch of red decoder wire to extend the reach of the Hornby wire to the original wiring.
     

     
    I'll post a short video to demonstrate the improved running in a short time - I'll edit this post to include it.
     
    EDIT: OK, video delayed - it ran smoothly enough until I got the camera out, then the main drive gear started slipping! I'll try again when the glue has set properly.
     
    2nd EDIT: I finally got the video, edited it and then uploaded it to YouTube (even that took ages, for some reason).
     

     

    I may have to consider putting a newer, better decoder ... I'm not even certain that the existing one has BEMF facilities, it's that old!
  2. SRman
    I seem to be splashing yellow paint (or transfers) everywhere at the moment! I have been adding yellow panels and first class stripes to Hornby BR(S) green 2 BILs, my 'Tin' 2 HAL, plus, while I had the yellow out on the brush, the ends of the jumper cables and lamp irons on my previously untouched Heljan 'Dutch' class 33/1. 33 108.
     
    For the 2 BIL and 2 HAL first class stripes I have been using ModelMaster yellow stripe transfers, but for the BIL corridor sides I have taken to hand-painting them as the transfers are too fiddly to cut around the corridor windows. Similarly, I have used the ModelMaster yellow warning panels but have to hand-paint a few fiddly bits around the jumper receptacles, particularly on the HAL.
     
    Unfortunately, I have run out of proper warning panel yellow paint and I am unlikely to be able to get any more in the foreseeable future, so I am using Humbrol gloss yellow #69, which is a little paler in shade - rather like a faded BR yellow. I can add a hint of orange to the final coats.
     
    The Heljan class 33/1s have black plastic lamp irons and jumper cables/receptacles which are good mouldings but need a little bit of paint to bring them to life and make them more convincing. While I had the yellow paint out, I put the little extra touches of yellow on the cables on 33 108, having previously done the BR blue D 6520 some considerable time ago.
     
    Here is a pic of the progress on the 2 BIL and the 33/1 - the 33 looks a little 'fat' because of lens distortion.The BIL started off as the Hornby model of unit 2134, which was a duplicate of one I already had (this one came from one of Themodeller.com's regular sales and was at a very good price). Doing a little digging for green full yellow end 2 BILs from this later production batch revealed that possible unit numbers could be 2137, 2141 or 2147 (for DCC purposes I had referred to it as unit 2135 temporarily).
     

  3. SRman
    After a long pause, I have done a little more work on the Bratchell class 455/9 unit, having received a message from Adam of Electra Railway Graphics that he is nearly finished with the South West Trains vinyls for the unit. I have long been putting off painting the window frames, but recently bought a Sharpie permanent marker pen in silver with a view to trying it out on the frames. So far, I think it has been very successful: marking out the raised frames took me around 45 minutes to do the lot, and the paint/ink medium seems to dry quickly and can stand a bit of handling.
     

    Painting the Window Frames - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr
  4. SRman
    I have now made a proper start on the 4-car A60 Stock train. Initially, I had sprayed the body shells in a metallic silver, but I really didn't find the effect convincing. The A Stock in original form had actually quite a dull finish, so I have experimented with shades of greys, settling on Humbrol colours #129 for the main body, #126 for the corner castings, driver's doors and communication doors, and #67 for the roofs. I have included some before and after photos of the bodies to show the effects of the different colour schemes. Grey #126 is not perfect; I feel I need a slightly bluer shade, but I really don't want to mix it as that makes touching up later much more difficult. As the photos show, there are a few touch ups still needed to the lighter two greys.
     

     

     

     

     
    I have also started on the bogie assembly, but the axles are a little too long, and the bearings are already countersunk enough, so work on those has had to be paused pending an order for some steam Era wheels on 25mm axles.
     
    The Tenshodo SPUD motor bogies have been in storage for a long time, so were oiled and tested on DC. They ran fine so I have prepared them for DCC conversion and also added the adapters for the side frames and couplings.
     

     

     
    I glued the bogie stretchers to one side frame for each bogie, but the rest of the assembly has to await the correct wheels/axles arriving.
     
    The old Hornby Collectors Club card is now serving as a mixing palette for the Araldite 2-part epoxy glue I am using!
  5. SRman
    Progress on the A Stock train.
     
    There was a delay while I awaited the delivery of some new wheels with shorter axles (25mm) but those have now arrived from Steam Era Models.
     
    In the meantime I managed to find a flat aluminium paint I was happy with, so painting has continued apace, with only a few extrnal retouches needed, but complete internal painting is still to be done.
     
    The bogies have been assembled and mounted on the underframes. Being all metal, with metal wheels and metal couplings, there were a few shorts until I isolated various components and made sure no wheel faces could touch the bogie frames. The bodies have been set loosely on the underframes to get an idea of how the whole train will look, and I am fairly pleased with the overall result.

    It has moved a short distance under its own power, although the power bogies are not yet seated properly.

    There are still many adjustments to make and extra parts to fit before it is anywhere near complete, but I feel encouraged to continue.
     

     

  6. SRman
    Continuing progress with the Bratchell Models class 455/9: the body shells have now had a couple of coats of grey primer, then a couple of coats of flame red (all from automotive aerosols) to approximate the final base colour for the South West Trains suburban livery. The driving ends remain unattached (except for a couple of spots of Blu-tack!) and unpainted at this stage.
     
    The bogies have been assembled, although the motor bogie sideframes remain to be cut down and fitted. I have adjusted the ride heights: I found that Hornby's valve gear spacer washers worked well, with one thick and one thin washer added to each of the trailer bogie mounts.
     

     

     

  7. SRman
    After several soldering sessions over some days, I have been adding lighting strips to each coach in turn of my Underground S Stock train from Bachmann and the LT Museum.
     
    I have tried a few different resistances to lower the brightness, which mostly failed to dim them. I also tried a different lighting strip with a slightly warmer colour and lower light output in the third car, but that too wasn't satisfactory. The results are shown in the photos below, with the first showing the car with the warmer lighting (actually a composite shot put together from three photos with different focal points):
     

     

     
    I had a bit of a session with the soldering iron again today, adding a 470k Ohm resistor to each of the S Stock cars in turn, plus wiring the final driving motor car for the lights. Car #3 has had its warm white lights replaced by cool white to match the remaining five cars.
     
    The first photo in this second group shows two of the cars (nos 3 and 4 in the train) for comparison of the before and after; the one on the right has the extra resistor in the line.
     
    The other two photos show the entire 6-car train with "tamed" lighting fitted. I am much happier with the result now.
     

     

     

     
    This last photo in the dark shows that there is still a bit of light show-through in the car bodies, so a coat of paint along the insides may be in order for the future.
     

     

    I suppose the next job will be to paint the seats, now that the interiors can be seen so clearly, and perhaps tidy up one or two stray wires.
  8. SRman
    Another recent project on my workbench: an LT pannier tank, L91. This is actually a new locomotive wearing old clothes! L91 was an earlier release from Bachmann with the dreaded split chassis. I hard-wired a DCC decoder into ti, and the running was good apart from a constant waddle. I replaced several of the wheelsets, but still none were entirely concentric. Eventually, I managed to get a much newer pannier (BR black 9759) with a decoder already fitted. With some very minor modifications, the old pannier body sits very nicely on the new pannier chassis.
     
    I replaced the cheap Bachmann decoder with a TCS DP2X-UK decoder for better running (not that the Bachmann one was too bad, but the TCS one allows a lot more fine tuning).
     
    I need to repaint the wheels and coupling rids on the new chassis, but that won't take long to do.
     
    L91 is seen here with much newer DCC-ready L89 behind. The shades of red are quite different, but looking at photos of the real ones, it seemed to darken considerably over time with age and weathering.
     

     
     
     
    I may try to sell off the old chassis and the black pannier body later. The new body doesn't fit the old chassis particularly well.
  9. SRman
    Yet another project which has been sitting on the back-burner for a while is my Bratchell Models class 319. The pantograph, salvaged from a Bachmann class 350/1 being converted to a class 450, should sit on quite a substantial framework.
     
    I have a good photograph of the pantograph well, kindly supplied by another modeller, so used that as a guide to make up something resembling it, albeit rather cruder. Some of the plastic sections I have used are not only too big, but also the wrong cross-sections, but I had to use what was available. The insulators are from Somerfeldt. There are still a few finer details to add, but I think I have captured the effect, if not quite super-detailed.
     

     

     

    And after adding a couple more details and painting:
     

     

     

    The pantograph is sprung and capable of being used, but on my layout it will only ever be in the down position, because it is all on third rail!
  10. SRman
    A job I have been putting off for ages and ages is to glaze the various London Transport Q Stock cars. Part of what slows me down is that I like to paint matt black (or dark grey) into the window rebates.
     
    Anyway, I tackled the first two cars of the five car set yesterday, with a Q23 DM and a Q27 Trailer now done. I chose to flush-glaze the windscreens on the DM, and the glue (Krystal Klear) was still wet on the centre screen in the photos - it starts of like a white PVA glue but dries clear.
     

     

     

    The close-up shows every blemish in the finish on the Q23 car!
     
    I had hoped to get hold of some flush glazing for these, but Phil Radley didn't answer my initial query (I believe he has not been well in recent times, so maybe he just forgot). I ended up ordering the wrong glazing, so have had to settle for doing things the hard way. The black rebates help disguise the depth of the glazing.
  11. SRman
    Bratchell Models had a sale recently, offering £30 off the cost of their class 456 model in Network SouthEast livery. I quickly ordered one of these units, together with the wheels and coupling pack.
     
    While Bratchell's kits are not exactly cheap, they are well thought out, well moulded and well finished (for their pre-painted ones). They build into robust and usable items for normal model railways. As such, I have already built (and documented here) the class 455/8 and class 319/1 kits from them, which are in service on Newton Broadway, although both awaiting a few finishing detail touches.
     
    My class 456, 456 007, is intended as a dummy unit only, to run in "multiple" with the 455 835, which has a Replica Railways motorised chassis, which has more than enough power and traction to deal with hauling itself plus five coaches.
     
    456 007 arrived in kit form on Thursday. By Thursday evening, I had fitted all of the windows, using my usual Micro Krystal Klear as the glue. For those who haven't read my previous entries, Krystal Klear is intended as a glazing medium itself, for smaller windows or apertures (head and tail light 'holes' are ideal for this) but it also makes a good glue for any clear glazing material, since it is sticky like a glue but can be thinned or washed off with water and dries clear. Two of the window apertures at the leading end of one of the coach sides needed opening out slightly to allow the glazing to pop in properly, but all others were perfect fits right from the start, making this a relatively quick and simple job to complete. The windows were left to set overnight.
     
    Today (Friday), I have assembled the now glazed body shells and the bogies, and put them together with the baseplates push-fitted in.
     
    They will require some added weight, and the underframe details are yet to be added, but I couldn't resist a quick photo on the mobile phone.
     

     
     
    The front ends will need quite a bit of extra detail added (not in the kits) for the jumper cable boxes and other bits and pieces. I will also be drilling out the lights and adding LEDs later, plus end coupling to allow for use with the 455 unit.
  12. SRman
    While awaiting paint drying and vinyls settling on the second Bachmann class 450 conversion (to be described in a future blog entry), I was giving one of my oldest class 73 models a run, and noticed how crappy my painting of the roof grilles for the electrical compartments was. I had weathered them early on, but never tidied it up, so the grilles were indistinct and just a grey-black blur.
     
    Now the Lima class 73 body mouldings have some of the finest moulded grilles you'll find anywhere. So fine that, with careful painting, they can actually look better than etched see-through grilles, such as those on the much newer Dapol class 73, or Heljans newer class 33/0 efforts. All I needed to do in E6002's case was to dry brush some roof grey over the grille mesh and surrounds to tidy them up to my satisfaction.
     
    I also noted that E6002 actually needs to be renumbered to one of E6004 to E 6006, or else I need to replace the buffers with oval ones, as sported by E6001 to E6003 when new. I think the round buffers were fitted at the same time as the first three went into BR blue.
     
    E6002 started life as a Lima model of 73 005 in BR large logo blue livery. Unfortunately, while all the livery elements were nicely done, the blue had a surface finish like fairly coarse sandpaper. I repainted the loco into green with grey roof and skirts. Much more recently, E6002 was the first of my Lima models to receive a Hornby DCC-ready chassis, from one of Hatton's bargain-priced class 73 models in Dutch livery (I bought several more of the Dutch model to re-chassis some other Lima 73s as well, over a period of months).
     
    Next, it received Howes' class 73 sounds on a LokSound v 3.5 decoder, fitted with a large, bass reflex speaker and a standard 23mm round speaker in parallel.
     
    When taking the photos, I realised that the replacement Hornby chassis still had black buffer beams, so they have had a coat of red in the last photo only.
     

     

     

     
    Having mentioned the wrong buffers for the locomotive number, I decided it would be easier to swap the buffers than to renumber E6002. I had some rather nice brass oval buffers in my bits boxes, so removed the Hornby round buffers (they were a good force fit only) and glued the replacements in, then painted them. The paint is still wet in the second pic.
     

     

     
    Looking at the close-ups, it is obvious that these models would benefit greatly in appearance from the fitting of separate handrails, but that is a job for another time ... I only have 12 of the Hornby or Lima bodies to deal with! I have already fitted the extra jumper cables to both of my class 73/0s. E6002 received some noce white metal cables, while 73 004 got the 'discarded' cables from E6002 to supplement the existing ones.
  13. SRman
    I have started to letter the SECR 6-wheel brake van. There is very little specific information available on the Internet regarding liveries and lettering, but from what I can glean, the SE&CR lettering for the period I want goes in the left hand lower corner and should be approximately one plank tall - I think mine might be a little oversized but it's all I have. They are PC Models pressfix transfers (currently available from HMRS).
     
     
     
    One snippet I did pick up was that the SECR wagon grey was very similar to Great Western wagon grey, so my choice to use SECR grey on the earlier GW wagon builds seems to be vindicated.
     
     
     
    I cannot locate any pictures of the brake vans in the period I want to model, but later photos show the "Goods Brake" lettering (some even show "Goods Break"). It was pure guesswork to put the lettering in the centre of the main side panels - someone will no doubt prove it to be wrong, now I have done it!
     
     
     
    The "20 Tons" lettering seems to have been on the solebars, while the numbers (yet to be added) should be on the lower right of each side. Again, I'm not sure whether the numbers should also be repeated on the van ends or not, but it was the case with goods wagons.
     
     
     

     
     
     

  14. SRman
    After a brief hiatus, I have progressed a little bit further towards completing the 6-wheel SECR brake van conversion.
     
    I painted the handrails black, except for the end one on the non-verandah end, which is body coloured (SECR wagon grey). I don't think the handrails were white for the period I want to model, but I'm not sure when the white came in. My guess would be during WW1, but it is possible that it was earlier than that.
     
    The windows have now been glazed, and the roof glued on.

    Still to go are the lamp irons and footboards, plus lettering.
     

     

  15. SRman
    After adding the brake blocks, I have been tweaking them a little to get them clear of the wheel treads and flanges when the axles are at full travel sideways. It still runs freely, but not quite as freely as before I fitted the brakes!
     
    I gave it a coat of grey primer earlier on Saturday, and now have applied the first coats of paint, using Humbrol #67 for the initial approximation of the SECR grey (to be followed later with the proper grey after I drill the handrail holes). The roof has had a first coat of satin white (Humbrol #130), and the wheels a coat of Humbrol #133 brown, followed by a black wash on the wheels, brakes and W-irons (more or less everything below the solebars).
     

     

  16. SRman
    Inspired by Simon0r's two SECR 6-wheel brake vans converted from Parkside's MR 20 ton vans using LNER 10' wheelbase chassis (see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/112617-buildingbodging-some-secr-brake-vans/), I have attempted my own version of the bodge.
     
    I only wanted to do one van, but as the conversion uses axleboxes cut from a second LNER wagon chassis, I had to order two of the LNER chassis, leaving me with a spare pair of axleboxes for possible future use. Simon cut four planks out of the MR van sides from the centre, but I wanted to retain the moulded rivet and bracket details, so cut two planks from either side of the centre section. Unlike Simon, I used the original MR chassis/floor moulding, shortened by a similar amount as the sides. In fact, I got it about half a millimetre longer, so bodged that by adding a section of microstrip at the non-verandah end of each side.
     
    I also wanted to do the earlier single verandah version (which would later be modified to two verandahs, but after the time period I wanted to represent). To this end, I cut the end door top and side but left the bottom in place at one end of each side, and shortened the roof to match.
     
    I filed a recess inside the solebars in the middle, and also filed the solebar thickness down for the extra axleboxes, so they could sit aligned with the outer axleboxes with the full thickness of the solebars intact. Once glued to the floor unit, it all becomes quite strong. I used Romford 12mm spoked wheels, which have no clearance problems with the chassis cross-members, although I prefer the appearance of the slightly larger wheels Simon used. I may try out some Hornby or Bachmann wheels gauge the effect later.
     
    Pictures of my progress to date follow.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The roof is not glued on in any of these shots. I have added some lead weight to the floor and some rectangular fillets of plastic to fill the gaps between the solebar ends and the insides of the headstocks/buffer beams.
     
    A quick test revealed that the wheelbase is so short it will go around any of the tightest curves I can throw at it ... or throw it at. Whatever!
  17. SRman
    Just a couple of small changes have been made since the first part of this build.
     
    I have added the turned brass buffers (as per Simon0r's suggestion in his topic), and I have substituted some slightly larger diameter Hornby spoked wheels, which somehow look more spindly and archaic, and entirely suit the style and character of the SECR brake van, in my opinion. With these wheels it runs even more freely than with the Romfords. I suspect the Hornby axle length is a tiny fraction shorter and therefore has slightly less friction in the bearings.
     
    I have also removed the moulded gutter lines from the roof, although I have retained the moulded stove chimney, at least for the time being.
     

     

  18. SRman
    The Parkside GWR 10T Open has now had its 'G W' transfers replaced with correct scale 25" lettering, and the load and tare markings put on. It joins the Mink in awaiting only its 5-digit number on each side. The first two photos show the Mink van, with the "before" for the Open, while the last photo shows the "after" for the Open.
     

     

     


     
    The Mink D, as far as I can tell, should retain the smaller 'G W' lettering, but awaits its turn to get the load and tare weight markings, plus its suitable vehicle number.
  19. SRman
    Quite some time ago I started building a London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LCDR) brake van from the etched brass Roxey Mouldings kit. It was 95% complete when the build stalled due to my problem in effectively attaching the footboards. I have now done so using wire hangers bent to support the boards. The upper ends of the hangers are hooked and superglued into holes drilled into the brass solebars, while the step boards are soldered to the lower supports.
     
    The smaller steps under the guard's doors are also soldered, although one of them took me several attempts before it stayed solidly put.
     
    The whole lot is painted South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SE&CR) wagon dark grey with black below the solebars. Lettering has commenced with HMRS pressfix transfers, but is not yet complete. I have glazed the various window openings but I'm not sure that all of them should have "glass" in them - it's not at all clear from the drawings I have or any of the limited number of photos I have seen.
     

     

     

  20. SRman
    Continuing with the trio of Great Western wagons, I have now painted them: a coat of grey primer, followed by a coat of matt (or satin) black, then brush-painted with Humbrol #79 blue-grey, and a coat or two of SECR wagon grey (which is the closest colour I have to GWR wagon grey). I removed the wheels and couplings before painting the wagons. The van roofs have had one coat of white primer sprayed over the grey primer, followed by a coat or three of Humbrol #34 matt white.
     
    The photos show them after the black coats then after the first coat of wagon grey. I'll continue until I am happy with the result, then I'll decorate with suitable transfers (more pictures will follow to show these steps).
     

     

     

     

  21. SRman
    So far I have managed one Parkside wagon kit per day for two days, and started the third one today, albeit rather later in the day, so it is only half completed.
     
    The GWR Mink van has its body shell and underframe with wheels fitted, but no brake gear or buffers yet. the roof is only sitting loosely until I put some lead sheet in for weight.
     

  22. SRman
    Work on building the Parkside Dundas GWR 10 ton 5-plank wagon has commenced. There are still some components to fit, but progress on the kit was again rapid (like the Mink D I did yesterday).
     

     
    Adding weight to open wagons is always problematic if one wishes to leave the interior detail visible. I am using some lead ball bearings here, glued on with a liquid contact cement. A few of the balls have stuck in the wrong places but I will clear them out before long. There is still not sufficient weight in this wagon, so I will have to fill a few more spaces in the underframe. I left the end areas clear so I could do my usual NEM coupling arrangement, using two spacers of 40 thou plasticard and the Parkside adapters (actually included with this particular kit). The Hornby fishtails fit better than Bachmann ones, which tend to be bit loose.To fix that problem, since most of my couplings are Bachmann ones, is to add a small blob of mastic in the fishtail slot.
     

     
    Obvious items still to add include the tarpaulin bar, the door bumpers, handbrake levers, and the tiebar between the axleguards (actually moulded on the kit but they broke when I was cutting the parts off the sprues, so I will replace them with some microstrip).
  23. SRman
    For my pre-grouping goods trains, I have quite a few colourful private owner wagons, plus a few southern area railwy owned wagons (SECR, LBSCR and LSWR) but in reality, wagons from other railways found their way over most of the British mainland. The problem for me was that most of the available kits or ready to run wagons are too new - I wanted wagons from around 1910 or earlier. With this in mind, I ordered some GWR wagon kits from Parkside Dundas.
     
    Today was officially the first day of the mid-year school holidays, and coincidentally, the three wagon kits I ordered arrived this morning. The kits were for a Mink/Mink A of 1907 build onwards, a Mink D of 1906, and a 10T 5 plank open built from 1909 onwards.
     
    I got stuck into doing the Mink D almost straight away, and have completed the build, plus a coat of grey primer all in this one day. The paint is still drying, so no photos of that, but here it is in 'raw' form. I used the PArkside NEM adapters, as usual for me, with plasticard spacers to remove the need for cranked couplings.
     

     

     

    All in all, a nice simple kit to build and the instructions are fairly clear. Painting in GWR grey will also be a relatively simple job as the GW painted everything grey, except perhaps the wheels and buffer heads, and of course, the white roof. At the time I want to represent, the GW lettering should be 25" size where it would fit (not sure about this on the Mink D), but I only have the next size down lettering available anyway. I'll be making do with that for the time being.
  24. SRman
    Every so often, when I show photos of my layout progress, someone will observe and comment on the cream coloured, raw resin 2-car unit sitting on some track in the background on the upper level. This is a Bulleid-style, BR-built 2 HAP unit, utilising resin body shells and seat units from Ayjay Models (bought through Radley Models), sitting on Hornby 2 BIL chassis bought cheaply when Kernow Model Rail Centre had the Southern Railway liveried examples on sale.
     
    I have finally started cleaning up the body shells and seat units with files, and primed and painted them. I have also cut off the moulded on jumper cables on the cab fronts, although these are not too badly done by Ayjay. I still prefer to use finer wire for the cables.
     
    This unit is going into BR blue with full yellow ends. I would prefer the full blue and grey, which suited these trains quite well, but for the time period I wish to represent, blue fits better, drab as it is. The yellow is not yet the final shade as I have used Humbrol #69 for the base coats. I'll use proper BR warning panel yellow for the final coat. I have painted a wood colour for the interior walls and partitions (not sure if they were wood or plastic finishes on this batch of HAPs), and a light green for the cab interiors, but haven't done the seat colours yet. I thought perhaps a mid-grey for the second class seating (BR's 'Trojan" pattern) but am debating what colour for the first class upholstery: blue, black or orange, maybe?
     
    I am still to add the handrails for the cab fronts and guard's doors, as well as the jumper cables. I may replace the moulded on horns with brass or white metal versions I have in stock. The kit comes with both horns and a whistle moulded on, so the modeller just has to cut off the bits he (or she) does not want.
     
    Anyway, enough waffle; here are the photos as it goes until now. Please note that I have perched the freshly painted bodies on the wrong chassis for the last two photos in this sequence!
     

     

     

     

     

    The seat units had to be modified a little to fit the Hornby chassis. This mostly involved a milling wheel on the Dremel tool to grind away the clearances, but also included a couple of holes drilled to clear the projecting components of the Lenz decoder sitting under the seats of the DMBS.
     

     

     

    And finally, one photo with the body shells on the correct chassis!
     

     

    Once the Bachmann BR Standard-style 2 HAPs become available, I look forward to mixing the types together in multiple. The Hornby mechanism makes this a lot easier than if I had used the original resin chassis and Black Beetle or Tenshodo SPUD motors.
  25. SRman
    I have been contemplating fitting lights into my London Underground S Stock train, and possible to some of the Hornby BIL and HAL units as well, later. I've just fitted lights into the first two of the S Stock cars.
     
    I'm using the strips of surface-mount LEDs that can be purchased quite cheaply from eBay sellers, which are arranged in sets of three LEDs with a resistor included in each set to allow for direct wiring up to 12 Volts DC. I tested one group of three sets of three on DCC wired straight to the track and that worked fine, so proceeded to wire up the first two cars of my six-car S Stock. The Driving Motor cars are easier as they already have a PCB feeding from the bogie pickups, but Bachmann have been very kind to us in fitting pickups to all of the trailer coach bogies as well - wiring the lights involves more wire and soldering than the DM but is still relatively easy. I'll take photos of my wiring for the next entry, seeing as how I've reassembled the tow already done.
     

     
    The lights are very bright, so I may look at ways to dim them a little (especially if I want to light the BILs and HALs!), but I'd say the experiment has been a success, so I have four more cars to wire up in the near future. I have posed an unlit car beside the two with lights for comparison.
     

     

     
    Also related to lighting in coaches, I have been trying to figure out the best way of providing a centre coach for the Bachmann/Kernow green 2H unit to make it into a 3H. Replica Railways' non-gangwayed 64' coaches seemed like a good starting point, although the thorny question was raised about how to keep the through lighting facility for the head and tail lights, plus the interior lighting in the centre coach. My answer was to sacrifice a cheap Bachmann 4 CEP unit centre coach. The unit cost me $AUS50 plus postage (approx. £25 plus post) from far north Queensland a couple of years ago, so was an easy candidate. I can use the remaining 3 CEP for other projects.
     
    I had to cut off the headstocks on the CEP TS chassis and adapted the Replica semi-open seating unit to screw on where the Corridor TS seats had been, The Replica SO body shell has prominent lugs inside at three places on each side. By filing them down to form simple ledges, the body shell sits very firmly on the CEP TS chassis at almost the right ride height - a teensy bit more filing to thin the ledges should see it right.
     
    The Replica body shell needs the roof ridges filed down and the gutters thinned a little - both items need more work at this stage, but I am getting there (the plastic seems quite tough!).
     
    I like the Replica shade of green but it is a little light and a little too blue for the shade Bachmann used, so I have already brushed a coat of clear varnish tinted with some dark brown and a little yellow. Again, more work is required, with perhaps a tint of dark grey or black for the next coat.
     
    The lighting bar from the CEP coach will sit nicely in the roof but will need to be hard-wired to the PCB in the chassis. The interior will need painting, so when I pull it apart next time, I'll take some photos of the slight interior mods and the other areas I have mentioned.
     
    This is not going to be a perfect match but I think it will pass muster once I have finished it.
     

     

    I must say also that Gareth at Replica Railways was extremely helpful when I purchased the four non-gangwayed green mark 1 coaches - three to form a loco-hauled set and one for the 3H project. He put in the Pullman rubbing plates instead of buffers for the latter coach, and also emailed me some plans for the class 205 vehicles, as well as suggesting that maybe I didn't need the complete coach kit if I was using the Bachmann chassis - I said I had plans that also required the spare chassis so kept it simple.
     

    Edited to add the missing photo.
×
×
  • Create New...