SRman

One more thing to report: I noted one of the DTCs interior lights flickering for a while, then they went out completely. The headcode remained illuminated. This suggested one of the coupling contacts may be faulty. On further investigation, I discovered that one of the wires to the coupling on the motored coach had broken and come adrift, so yet another of the faults others have reported has now manifested itself on my unit! I was able to undo the screw on the coupling and get at the PCB to resolder the broken wire. This is a rather delicate operation, something I am not particularly good at but I succeeded in restoring the lighting function without joining two of the wires together with a huge blob of solder (my more usual 'form'!).

I bought Bif's class 73 from DC Kits (excellent service as usual) - I found it a little on the soft side even after fitting a bass reflex speaker but it is very good in all other respects. I am way behind in videoing and posting things. I have now videoed some of Bryan's (Howes) work (classes 31, 57 and Kestrel)but have yet to edit it and post here and YouTube and/or Photobucket. I will get around to videoing the class 73 as well.

Yes, they are weathered to match. I used some Black-Tac to stick the valances in place while still allowing me to remove them or change my mind. Currently, I am running D6315 with one panel missing and one modified to stick out at a slight angle, as evident in quite a few photos of class members.

Yes, traction motor blower vents. I have to say that this looks really good, Michael. Very nice job.

Love the Tavern cars! I gave up trying to do the brickwork on mine and painted the set green! You are much braver and cleverer than I am!

Put Venator down for two models!

The lined green is the BR(S) version of malachite with yellow lining. They never wore BR standard locomotive green, nor orange/black/orange lining. See http://www.modelrailoffers.co.uk/images/prod_37895.jpg .

Hi Simon. I haven't actually looked at the axles but next time I invert one of the coaches I'll make a point of checking that. At least it didn't derail on my tightest curves (actually approximately third radius), although the motor bogie did derail once over a trailing point - I'll put that down to a rogue event as it has not repeated the performance. It also doesn't hit any of my third and fourth rail sections, which is good news for me and my track laying skills! I forgot to mention earlier that I cut off the capacitor on the side of the motor bogie before trying out all those decoders.

I bought one on special at a good price. It exhibits quite a few of the undesirable characteristics described in this thread earlier, in spite of having a sticky label saying it has been modified. Both traction tyres are fitted to the rear axle of the motor bogie. The motor was very 'chattery' at low speed on DC and after fitting decoders - firstly I tried a TCS DP2X-UK which I suspect may have a fault as it tended to leap after stopping (not just in the VEP) but still chattered and growled at low speeds; next I tried a mystery 21-pin decoder with 8-pin adaptor and that also growled and chattered - I later identified it as my "missing" Hornby Sapphire decoder; then I substituted a 'cheapie' Bachmann 21-pin decoder which has, surprisingly, mostly eliminated the growl and chatter, although it hums a bit instead. At least it runs nice and smoothly now. So far, to get the best out of it, I have set CV2 to 1, CVs 3 & 4 to 55 and 35, and CV5 (Max speed) to 25. These may yet be fine-tuned but generally these settings are working quite nicely.

An interesting choice, especially as quite a few are preserved, adding to the potential for variations in liveries and numbers.

The Ayjay kit is not perfect but it is a very good starting point. Some of the detail is a bit on the heavy side, like the original moulded-on jumper cables, the heavy cab window surrounds and the roof and end conduits but for those prepared to put in a little extra work, the result can be very promising; I am certainly happy with the way it is shaping up. I do keep looking at the roofs and thinking I might replace the conduits, although the lighting cables are reasonably fine and won't be touched if I do decide to proceed that way. I am also debating whether to replace the moulded resin buffers with some white metal items I have. Ideally, I should flush glaze all the side windows and cab windscreens (not the droplights though) but I can't see me putting in that much effort - I will do the windscreens flush and maybe the large corridor side windows, but not all the smaller compartment side windows. I will also curve the side glazing using some hot water to set the clear material.

The first group of photos shows the hook and loop coupling system I devised, bent up from stiff brass wire. The hook is a simple 'Z' (or 'N' if you prefer!) shape with one end stuck into the floor and the other projecting downwards. There is a small groove cut into the headstock to locate the hook and stop it from swivelling. The loop is also sitting in the floor and a slot in the headstock but is made quite wide to allow for the end throws of the coaches on curves - by sheer luck I got this right first time. ... and coupled together it looks like this: The second group of photos shows the unit as running at present, still with no glazing, no transfers and some detailing still to go but operational. At the DTC end only I have fitted some Roxey Models etched brass headcode stencils, although they have picked up some of the resin filings from my work on the unit, something I hadn't noticed until I took the photo! Sorry the depth of field is not very good on these - the shot I took from the other end of the unit was unusable. The stencils needed quite a bit of trimming to fit and even now are still a little oversized for the aperture - not sure if the model is undersize or the etchings are oversize. I am seriously considering drilling out the headcode at the other end and fitting a directional LED to light it up in the forward direction.

Just thinking about that last little bit, I realised that technically, since the motor coach has no lavatory access, while it was running around on its own it was a 1NOL ! Anyway, I have now rigged extra pickups on the trailing bogie of the motor coach and, unusually for me, run the wires very neatly through holes drilled in the upper corners of the compartment partitions. Next, I rigged a simple hook and loop coupling system using some stiff brass wire drilled into the floor at right angles to the coupling plane. This tended to swivel a little initially so a notch was filed into each headstock and the couplings seated a little deeper into the floor; this was very successful, although the distance between coaches is a little greater than I would like, it negotiates the tightest curves comfortably with just a little clearance between the inner corners of the carriages (no variable couplings here, although it would be nice to use the system Hornby and Bachmann use on their units). A little oil on the motor gears and axles and off it went. Tweaked the CVs a little to get smooth and consistent starts and it has now been happily trundling around for an hour.

Further to my earlier posting, I have fitted an NCE decoder with a 9-pin JST connector and harness, so I can substitute alternative decoders if I'm not happy with the NCE one. I haven't yet wired extra pickups on the trailing bogie so running was a little hesitant in places but it has now completed several circuits of the layout as a 1HAL!

Thanks. The photos also help to remind me that I am slowly making progress. They also show me rather cruelly any bits that still need more work, or things that I have missed altogether!

Returning to the 'Tin' HAL unit, I decided that the separate jumper cables I fitted a while back were too thick so I have now fitted finer wire jumpers and repainted the affected areas. The new jumpers may now be a fraction too spindly but a layer or two of paint will thicken them up a bit. While I had the wire, the cutters and the pliers out, I decided to spend an hour or two and do all the front end handrails and the windscreen wipers, plus the front lamp irons. The result is shown here. Next major jobs are to do the glazing and lower the power bogie mounting a little (the earlier SPUD motor sat at the correct height but the replacement Black Beetle needs a cut-out in the floor. Then, there are all those door handles to fit!

Adding just a little more to the previous updae, I have now made the junction 'V' sections for the two outer points and added a short third rail section, this time eschewing the ScaleFour ramps because of the shortness of the section. I started painting the rails too but the rest will have to await gluing the ballast down - the loose ballast sticks to the paint brush, otherwise!

Gary, I have used the Peco components (pots and code 60 rail). I have not used the spacer washers and I have drilled all the holes the same size as the 'pot' diameter to allow the lot to be countersunk enough to make all the rail tops level, or very nearly so. This was to allow for track cleaning with a track rubber or with the Dapol motorised cleaner - if I left the third and fourth rails above the running rails, as per the prototype and Peco's intended use of their components, then only the third and fourth rails would have been cleaned and there was a serious risk of the Dapol machine getting snagged. The wisdom of my decision was vindicated when I ran a Bachmann class 166 as a gauging train and it 'beached' itself on the bit of fourth rail that I hadn't sunk at that stage! The 158/159/166 units have a very low gear housing that will catch on the fourth rail if laid as Peco intended - no doubt there will be others as well, the Dapol/Hornby Terrier comes to mind, although I haven't tested mine yet. Since the photos I have added the 'V' rails in the centres of the first two points. There will be a couple of refinements applied when I do the remaining seven points, as I learn better what needs to be done.

Thanks for the compliment and for your inspiring words, Gary. In your case, doing just a bay platform would simplify things as you won't need to arrange any 'branching' bits of fourth rail as I need to do. I have also just spotted that the Q27 DM needs its shoe beams fitted! I'll look forward to seeing more progress on your own layout too, Gary.

Here I am again, reporting another small amount of progress on laying the third and fourth rail. I have now got to the stage where I am also gluing it down. I am using the Scale Four Society end ramps on the third rail only. There are several different treatments possible for the fourth rail depending on a whole heap of factors on the real thing, so I have chosen the simplest using photos as a guide. Even so, I need to file down a couple of bits of rail rather like a point blade, to merge with the centre rail to form a 'V' section in the middle of the points. One thing I will say though: it is very tedious putting those chairs on to each rail individually!

A fair point. I really intended it as a general warning re postal costs specifically for the VEP and other train packs and with overseas modellers firmly in mind so, once again, apologies to John for my poor construction of that paragraph and post. Bromsgrove Models has a very good reputation and has received very positive feedback in the thread with their name. Typing on a tablet computer is a bit of a pain so I'll claim laziness as my excuse - much easier when I'm on my other computers with proper keyboards where I tend to be a bit more verbose!

Hi John. I have been warned by another supplier that the postage rates are to change (probably for the worse) in the very near future in the UK and the 4VEP is a rather bulky item. The comment wasn't intended as a slight on you or your business but, living overseas as I do, I have been caught out before with suppliers charging higher than usual/expected postage on what would otherwise have been bargains. SO, I give no apology for the comment but I do apologise to you if it sounded like it was aimed at you ... it was not!

A further bargain at Bromsgrove Models on https://clarahost.clara.net/www.bromsgrovemodels.co.uk/pi1126361182.htm?categoryId=3 - 77 UK Pounds for the blue VEP but only until Easter! Watch the postage costs but still a bargain. Only two left when I looked just before typing this post.

Yes, I still have to paint the third and fourth rails and their 'pots'. The ballast very definitely needs toning down but that will have to wait until I actually glue it down! Even so, Doug, we may well be able to do something over Easter as I'm not planning too much away from home.

Thanks Gary. I settled on the corner design for a few reasons, the main ones being that it was a good use of the available space while allowing me to retain some book shelves and storage on the other side of the room, and also keeping most of the layout narrow enough to be reachable from the front. Doug mounted it on the casters so that it could be wheeled out in the event that I need to get at something behind the layut in tunnel, although I have also left it open underneath so as to be able to reach in if needed. I can crawl under it occasionally but the design was intended to avoid the 'crawl-under' that had to be negotiated every time I wanted to operate my old layout. There are compromises, of course, so the curve radius is smaller than I would like but is still no less than third radius (approx. 20 inches) for the running lines, a little less on that siding I added. The upper level fiddle/storage yard will be fully scenicked as it will be visible to viewers and also reachable from the front of the layout. I had a call from Brian, the BRMA Victorian coordinator, yesterday, asking if I could host the August BRMA meeting, so if anyone is planning a visit to Melbourne around that time, drop me a line.