SRman

The vinyls to convert a Bachmann class 350/1 into a SouthWest Trains liveried class 450 arrived last week, while I was unable to do anything due to a back injury! I have now healed sufficiently to allow short (very short!) spells at the workbench, so I did a little preliminary painting on the first driving coach of the Bachmann class 350. I have also removed the pantograph and associated insulators and conduits/bus bars from the appropriate coach, Some holes will require a small amount of filling before painting but as I won't be using the vinyls here that can be done at any stage of the conversion process. I noted from photos of that coach in Modern Locomotives Illustrated that one of the underfloor modules appears to be absent when compared to the 350. I would assume that it was the AC high voltage step-down transformer and equipment. This was a rather nicely moulded separate fitting on the model and was easily levered out with a small flat-bladed screwdriver. The vinyls come with panels to cover the pantograph well, the red and orange flashes on the roof and include a red panel for the driver's cab air conditioning unit. I decided that I would actually paint the drivers aircon unit red and dispense with the vinyl panel for that. I have also decided that I will paint the roofs, ends and skirts (above the underframes) blue. The photos show the first thin coats of red and blue. These are still very thin and do not necessarily reflect the final colouration of the panels. The vinyls themselves may be seen on Electra Railway Graphics' website at http://www.electrarailwaygraphics.co.uk . Photos are of only the first coach at this point. I don't know how rapidly I will be able to progress with this project but I will take photos at each stage - hopefully slightly better ones than these!

I agree with you on the chip fitting score, Rob. I have now done five 4 CEPs, two MLVs and five 2 EPBs ... all of them were pains to get into!

That reminds me, Bachmann are to produce an E4 in OO so it may well develop an N scale version in due course.

Lima mechs varied enormously even between examples of the same models. Some ran like dogs and nothing you could do to them would improve them, others (like yours) ran beautifully and just about forever. I have had my share of both extremes and many in between. To be honest, after several attempts, I don't usually consider the Lima mechanisms worth converting to DCC and have recovered several decoders for other projects after "de-DCCing" the Lima locos. However, my 31 327 was a sweet runner and I have converted it with great success. I got carried away and converted 31 004 as well but that was rather less successful and still is not the greatest runner. I'm seriously considering getting the Hornby RailRoad version and swapping the mechanisms then selling the remaining Hornby body and Lima chassis - I did the same with a Lima 59 and a few DMUs, although I retained the DMU bodies for further conversions so merely pulled the motors and gears out of the mechanisms to turn them into unpowered dummies. I also bought several Hornby class 73s, usually on specials, and swapped the Lima bodies on to the Hornby chassis. I keep all 73 bodies for future reliveries though. I had nine Lima 73s and now have five of them on Hornby chassis (two with sound fitted) and one with a Model Torque motor in the Lima chassis. DCC works well with the latter motor but the atrocious Lima brass wheels and limited pickups still mean this one is not the best of runners. That means I now have around 14 bodies that can be simply and easily swapped on to the working chassis, allowing fast and easy changes of identity and period!

Another pic from me: the SECR 'D' 4-4-0/ This was an original Wills kit I bought second-hand as a non-runner. I replaced the handrails and knobs completely as the original builder had them running in a curve along the boiler, added better electrical pickups, added a spring to the front bogie to give better balance and retouched some of the paintwork, adding the indian red / brown frames as well (I mixed the colour myself!). It is still not an accurate rendition of the SECR livery but looks more representative than when I bought it. Sorry for the reflections - it is behind glass. I should have taken it out to photograph it. I also didn't notice the tender wasn't on the track properly until I looked at the photo! I had it on display at an exhibition here in Melbourne in the 1990s. While it predates my time considerably (I'm a 1950s child!), a lady came up to me and started reminiscing - she could remember the SECR days from her childhood. That was a really heart-warming moment for me and makes modelling like this all the more worthwhile.

The SECR 'C' in full livery (together with the BR black liveried version): If you wish to see it in the flesh you will have to come to Melbourne ... where you will be welcomed! A mate picked up a suitably old-fashioned crew for me on his recent trip to Britain. Once they are painted they will be added to the cab.

I wouldn't class myself as a pre-grouping modeller but I have assembled, or am in the process of assembling, some pre-group trains, all in OO. I have the Bachmann SECR 'C' class 0-6-0 with a train of private owner wagons, with a Roxey brass LCDR brake van still under construction. A much older model is a Wills 'D' class 4-4-0 in pseudo-SECR livery (I couldn't manage the lining properly!). There are two Roxey Grand Vitesse luggage vans which are being repainted into SECR red. There are a couple of Cambrian Kits SECR Dance Hall brake vans but those are going into BR liveries (one as a ballast brake). I also bought one of the LSWR liveried Hornby M7 0-4-4T locos some time back and have a rake of unbuilt Roxey LSWR coaches and luggage van awaiting my attention. I also have an older Hornby LBSC E2 tank - in two minds as to whether it is worth converting to DCC. There are a couple of Hornby LBSC brake vans both in SR brown but one will be repainted to LBSC grey eventually - they aren't bad models when all is said and done. Somewhere in bowels of the stock boxes I have a short rake of Ratio GWR 4-wheeler coaches converted crudely to 6-wheelers, representing rather generic pre-SR stock painted in olive green. I don't know if this gives you any ideas. I have to say that I also model 'modern image' with those dreaded diesels and electrics, so that may push me down a bit in your estimation, Mikeandnel!!

Another possibility occurred to me just now, in view of having the church at the top of the hill: Church Hill! Thanks for the further suggestions, guys. Seeing as the LT station is mostly complete now, I will have to start putting names on it soon.

Yes, I like the idea. Rick. Thanks also to Gary for his suggestion. Maybe a fictional variation on Lavender Hill, like Primrose Hill? No, wait, that's a real one! Daisy Hill? Rose Hill (sounds like girl's name!)? A street name can work. Many years ago I made an exhibition layout with wintry snow scenery. The station and signal box were named "Winter Lane", which summed up the layout's theme nicely.

Simon, the problem is I want it to be fairly 'generic' so the location can sort of drift a bit, depending on whether I am running the Brighton Belle or a 4 CEP or a 4 REP. Even so, New Hey has overtones of New Haw and Weybridge. It has to be the London (ish) end of the line. Clapham Junction would be ideal but I don't quite have enough room to model that properly!!

Good question, Simon. I still favour something like New Hey but I also still think I can come up with something better. Suggestions are welcome!

After a period of inactivity on the G16 project, I have now done a little more detailing work. This was to add a wire run (or is it an oil pipe run?) from the front of the tank to the bulge over the cylinders on each side plus the start of what will be the clack valves on each side. For the latter I have used a thickish brass wire with some fibre washers intended for valve gear applications. Next, I will add a little Milliput to the tops followed by another of those fibre washers. The photos show this work to date, with apologies for the blurriness of the first pic. Those wire/pipe runs are deliberately kinked and wavy - photos of the real ones show this to be so.

I have been on school holidays for the last two weeks and have made a small amount of progress with the layout building, although not as much as I had hoped/planned for! I have done some further levelling and grading of the polystyrene landscaping at the village end. I am generally happier with it now. No photos of that to show at this point but I will take some soon. I have been fiddling with the track diagram for the LT lines and have now printed it and laminated it, ready to mount behind some clear acrylic (also shown in the photo). I will then drill holes where he switches will go. Normally the track section switches will be left on for DCC but sections will be able to be isolated for DC analogue running. Apologies for the reflections. I have been giving some thought to the Oxted line bridge - part brick arches and part under-line lattice girder. I have not found any suitable bridge kits from the kit manufacturers (Faller, Vollmer, Kibri, Walthers, Atlas, etc.) but I hit upon another idea; the Ratio Pratt truss signal gantry! I am ordering four such kits to play around with. Each gantry on its own would not be sufficient to support the bridge span (in real engineering terms) but two or three side by side should look the part, in conjunction with some plate girders ... I hope. Google Earth street views are quite helpful in visualising this, if anyone wants to look.

They obviously didn't follow the modellers' rules for weighting of wagons! A bit of lead in the bottom of the wagons may have prevented the derailment!!

I will have to dig through my reference books but I have a feeling that one (possibly two) of the earliest narrow cab wedge fronts had the two side window arrangement before three were settled on as the standard. Graham (Muz) may be able to save me a bit of time though as he is a mine of information.

The trouble with a loco shed is that it actually hides models! Mind you, the shed itself can be a work of art ... and I'm sure that any such thing that you build will be just that, a work of art.

I have a Hornby BIL bought cheaply from TheModeller .com that I intend to paint BR blue too. Straight away your post has allayed any fears I had of cracking windows as I remove them. I will be watching this topic with great interest (as with all your other topics, for that matter!!). Once again, I am happy to watch others' efforts and errors (hopefully not!) to learn what I should do.

I had to do a double-take on those shots, Sandhills, just to make sure they weren't real. The only giveaway I can see is in that last one with the Peak: the curved catenary wires. That's not intended as a criticism, BTW. Excellent work - actually, that applies to all of the contributors.

I had forgotten the Scottish Bulleids! They were mostly repainted in maroon but at least some ran in green for a while, which looked a little strange in Scotland. There is certainly plenty of photographic evidence to confirm what John said about the set numbers sometimes being left on the ends of the coaches even though the combinations of coaches clearly shows that they were no longer in a set.

None that I now of made it into blue and grey. I am open to correction but I think the last examples were withdrawn in or around 1968.

My set arrived today. I have assembled it on the layout using the Dapol couplings for the time being but may change it to something better in the near future. It hasn't actually run yet!! I am still admiring the detail and thinking about a little weathering.

I will try to record it in the near future. It is only recently that I have been able to catch up some of my previously unrecorded sound locos on video. Some are on YouTube and some in Photobucket. For a couple I am still working on editing the files. I can't say it's a particularly exciting sound but it does give me something different to the other hydraulics I have (a Hymek and a Western). I usually do several circuits of the layout, with the start up and power up on the first pass, full throttle and spool down on the second pass, then coasting to a halt and shut down on the third, although that can be varied a bit to suit particular sound projects if they have other features. I then edit the video to cut out the 'dead' tunnel running behind the scenes. However, some recordings I took on my phone (an HTC Sensation XL), while perfectly viewable in themselves, don't take to editing in Pinnacle Studio 12, especially when adding transitions. I think the frame rate may be lower than when I use the 'proper' video camera and when Pinnacle adds the transitions it can't cope with fewer frames so jumps back a few frames at the end of the transition.

Now that I have a bit of an idea of what I'm doing with the viaduct double-track conversion, I have commenced work on the second arch. It is posed here resting on those containers (again!) because I haven't done the next supporting pier yet. The photos cruelly show the rough spots, particularly the inner arch lining on one half having slipped - I'll have to trim it and reseat it. Note from that last pic that I have also been straightening out and levelling the station canopy.

Hey, I'm always happy to help someone else spend their money!!!

I have a 120 with the Craftsman brass sides and ends on Hornby/Lima chassis. Not a difficult conversion but it can take some time. I also have a reprint of a 1962 Ian Allan ABC which has a picture of a three car class 116 made up with two motor brake second coaches so, while certainly not typical, it does show that such a formation could, and did, occur.