SRman

I would second what Phil said. I replaced all the Spuds I had in use with Black Beetles, which also, as a bonus, work much better on DCC.

More on the 2 HAL: I have now started painting the interiors. I know they started with a reddish-brown for second class (ex-third class) but I have no idea what colour the first class seats should be. I chose a French blue on the strength of Hornby using blue for their Maunsell coaches but this is a tenuous guess at best! I will also paint the antimacassars white or cream for first class only. The roofs were still in undercoat before and have now had a coat of a darker grey. The interior shots also show how I have run the wires for the extra pickups rigged in the trailing bogie, plus the lead weight over the leading end (hidden in the van section) and the NCE decoder. I have left the extra wires at full length on the decoder because I may fit lights at a later date, and possibly a third rail flash over the leading bogie shoe.

Hi Colin and thanks for the compliments. Of course, mine is nowhere near as finely detailed and finished as yours but it will do for me. The paint was actually mixed for me at a local paint shop. I took along a Bachmann 2 EPB as I think that shade of green looks right (without starting debates on SR and BR(S) greens all over again!!). The resulting acrylic semi-gloss paint came out a fraction lighter and bluer, although the shop assistant said if I wasn't happy with it to take it back and he would try a few more tweaks to the colour mix; this was after he had spent a good 40 minutes mixing and testing for me, so I have nothing but praise for him and his employer ... and his patience and persistence! Anyway, I now have over a litre of the paint, from which I decant a little into a much smaller jar for use on the workbench. Just my opinion but I think it looks pretty good. I do need to thin it slightly more next time as there are a few brush strokes showing on the HAL (not too obvious in the photos, thankfully).

Rick: some white metal kits can be a little on the chunky (I know you said 'clunky") side but since many of the earlier LT stock and the battery locos are rather chunky anyway they well suit the material (IMHO). Mozzer: that looks really good. Very nice indeed.

It's not just the trains that can suffer from heat stress! Always wise to stay indoors if at all possible when the weather goes like this. Thankfully it should cool off a bit on Friday and the weekend.

That Gresley buffet looks good. I bought a maroon one for occasional use on my lines as the SR did have a few of them (even on the S & D as well). I also have memories of seeing a pristine blue and grey one in the bay at High Wycombe in 1984 (no idea what it was doing there!). I like your weathering on both of those Hymeks, too. As you know, I am not averse to running things that don't really belong on my layout so, as far as I am concerned, you don't have to justify running whatever takes your fancy on your own layout! I even went as far as renovating and detailing my old Triang-Hornby Hymek and paintng it maroon with grey trim - totally fictional but it looks good!

Thanks for those kind comments. I do intend doing something about the cylinder shape in the near future. First task is to level it and get it to sit over the driving wheels properly - because of the slight tilt, one side 'sits' better than the other! I should have commented further on the HAL glazing: it really requires curved glazing for the main windows but flat for the droplights. I cheated and used flat glazing throughout, except for the corridor side of the DTC, where I re-used some curved glazing from a dismantled Bachmann Bulleid coach (which means the droplights also have curved glazing!). Eventually I want to individually glaze each window on the corridor side as this will look so much better in the long term. The dismantled Bachmann coach is another project in the making as I have two such coaches ready to accept some Comet brass sides for the 63' 6" Bulleid multi-door stock. As these sides were intended for conversions using BR mark 1 chassis I have had to shorten them slightly by filing 1mm or so off each end. I converted the first brake coach some years ago using an old Hornby mark 1 chassis - I may have to find another Bulleid coach to redo this one to match the other two. Why do modellers always create more work for themselves??

Another favourite. They were such a nice, 'balanced' design.

Only a little more progress to report on both the ex-LSWR G16 tank and on the Ayjay Models 'Tin' 2 HAL kit. I have painted the bogie wheels to better match the rest (i.e. got rid of those shiny silver tyre rims!) and given the whole locomotive a second coat of black. It is now too black as this really hides any detail (an also any inaccuracies!!). The chassis needs a small adjustment as the mounting gives the body a very slight lean to one side. I have finally got around to glazing the Ayjay Models 'Tin' HAL Which features in some earlier blog entries. I use Micro Krystal Klear glazing liquid as a glue to stick clear plastic/acetate in. If any gets on the glazing itself, it can be washed off with water while wet and dries clear so any that does get missed on the glazing barely shows anyway. The first photo shows the unit in service with its newly added windscreens - the glue is still wet on the left-hand one. The other photos are more general views. I have not yet painted the seats, so that's the next job on the agenda.

That 'Merlin' livery really seemed to be designed to suit the lines of the HSTs - it has to be one of my favourites too.

Was that the reason certain batches of Bulleid SUBs and the 'Tin' HALs had the extra handrails above and beside the windscreens as well as proper step plates on the tops of the buffer shanks?

Hi Ivan. Yes, I had considered that as Peter's Spares do advertise the N15 cylinders periodically. However, I was going to try filing down the sides of the Stanier ones first and use a little Milliput to build up the valve chests a bit to resemble the G16/H16 cylinder style more closely. If that fails then I will invest in the N15 cylinders. Thanks for that suggestion though. I like Peter's Spares and have bought stuff off them before but I tend to build up an order for multiple items as the postage to Australia tends to be bit on the dear side for one item only.

As an aside, I have just been watching an old (1952) black and white movie on TV called 'Ghost Ship'. It is largely based around Shoreham and includes occasional shots around a station with a narrow wooden-boarded platform with nice Southern concrete lamps - I'm not actually sure if it is the real Shoreham. Several 2 BILs and NOLs appear during the movie although I didn't record their unit numbers (too slow!).

D1075 'Western Firecracker'!

My 14mm 10-spoke bogie wheels arrived today from Mainly Trains in England, so I wasted no time in fitting them and testing again. Before I show the pic of it with the new wheels, though, I took a photo the other day before decoder fitting but after adding the motor and works back in and temporarily hooking up the wires for testing on analogue (12V DC). This also shows the various mods and add-on bits. And now, with the body on, decoder fitted and the new bogie wheels. The capuchon has now been filed off the chimney and a small amount of filler added to the ridge on the cab roof where there was a slight gap in the casting. I did intend taking a pic of the bogie springing arrangement but forgot to do that before screwing the bogie back on. Haulage power is good but I reckon it'll be even better when I add some lead sheet to the insides of the side tanks!

Ha ha, Ken! I did exactly the same thing as you with the chimney on mine when cutting it off!! I replaced it with a bit of straight brass tubing drilled through the roof and weathered in (I have overdone the weathering at the moment and will tone it down a bit). Mine is now a parallel sided chimney but it looks like a stove pipe chimney so near enough for me.

Just for info: Phil Radley was the original designer of the Harrow Models kits. He set off on his own when Harrow Models folded. So, essentially, the Radley white metal one will be the same kit as the Harrow Models one.. It's looking good, Mozzer ... are you not tempted to keep it??

Very interesting, Grasslands. My own Craftsman 07 has been runnable for some years but I never fully completed it because one of the wheels has an annoying wobble and all attempts to fix it have failed, to date. I also want to convert it to DCC. Your idea may provide me with a workable solution to both my problems.

They filled the Guard's compartment and luggage space with batteries ... the Guard just had to be very careful where he sat with all those bare terminals around! It does look good. Was this a pre-production/review model?

A quick update (but no photos at this point): I reinstalled the motor and intermediate gear this morning then hooked up the wires temporarily to test it on DC power. It ran perfectly on the test leads so I placed it on the track and switched that over to DC (from DCC). There was an initial stickiness but after a couple of circuits it ran perfectly, although there was an annoying ticking noise that I traced to the front articulation on the coupling rods touching the spacing washer on the valve gear on each revolution: it doesn't affect the free running so I won't worry about it for now. Next job is to fire up the soldering iron and hard-wire the TCS M1 decoder I have for it.

I like the sound set but haven't got the ideal speaker set up yet. Sound is a bit mushy with a single ESU 4 Ohm round speaker in the fuel tank. It was slightly better (slightly sharper) with a CT 8 Ohm speaker wired in series but I really need to get at least a bass enhanced speaker in the fuel tank, possibly in parallel with another speaker in the body. The only other 4 or 8 Ohm speakers i have in stock right now are too big to fit the 33 (two are bass reflex and one is a 20mm x 40mm standard) so I have ordered a few more different types to try out. I am enjoying the manual notching method of driving (the decoder has two sound sets loaded and you change from one set to the other by changing the value in CV 265, which can be done on the fly using programming on the main). As with all such projects, there is a bit of guesswork and trial and error to get the best out of it. The decoder costs around three quarters of the price of an ESU LokSound decoder so represents good value, although you have to add the cost of speaker or speakers to that. Once I'm happy with the speaker set up I'll post a video in the DCC Sound section. You, Peter, will, of course, be able to hear it in person!!

Just after sending that last post of mine, I had to do the very same thing with a Heljan class 33 that I have just fitted a Zimo sound decoder in. I ended up with a value of 9 in CV2. Peter, if you set up the loco on a programming track, press 'esc' then number 4 (or just repeat pressing 'esc' until you see ... ) => programming track. The NCE interface should then give you a choice; the one of interest here is '2. CV'. It will ask you which CV to change (type '2', 'enter') then what value you want (type in the number you wish to try then 'enter'). Once entered, escape back to the operating mode and try it out. find out what speed step causes the loco to just start to move. If it isn't speed step 1 ... Repeat until you achieve the desired result. It is easier than it sounds. One other thing: make sure you are programming only the one locomotive on an isolated bit of track otherwise you'll reprogram all of the locos that are on the layout at the time!

I haven't watched the videos yet but there are some really great photos there. Good stuff!

Hi Philip. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this has been so far. It does look daunting when you read the instructions but it all makes much better sense if you have the chassis in front of you at the same time.Probably the toughest bit was removing the 6mm from the back of the chassis - I started this off with the Dremel and a slitting disc but finished it off with a razor saw. I could have left the motor in place but preferred to remove it and the wiring to reduce the risk of filings getting int the works. I haven't done the 'Z' although I know someone with the kit (unbuilt though). I wouldn't mind one but it would be dependent on getting a suitable chassis at a reasonable price, as I managed with the G16.

Thanks for answering that, Geoff (good name, that!). For the class 33. Peter, try adding values into CV2 (the startup voltage). I generally find Heljan locos can start fine with a value of 0 but keep adding in until the loco just moves on speed step 1. Try a value of 3, then 6, then 9, an so on, then fine tune it from there (if it doesn't move with a value of 6 but moves too fast on 9, try 7 or 8, for example). I have a couple of locomotives (not Heljan!) that have required quite high starting values (in the order of CV2 = 35). While it all sounds fiddly and complicated, it is actually one of the pluses of DCC in that you can tweak locomotives to behave similarly to each other or to a particular performance specification for a particular type of Loco (eg an 08 shunter).