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SNCF stephen

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  1. SNCF stephen
    It is the first blog of the new year and I am continuing work on the SNCF X2200 railcar.
     
    I remember blogging some time ago that I really wanted to have one of these and although they are now available RTR the price tag is a little high and they have not done a modern TER livery.
     
    So after receiving a resin shell from Kintbury Jon I have got to work with motorising it and now I have just painted the main colours. I am hoping it will look a little like this:

    This is X2208 seen at Chateauneuf Bujaleuf station last year.
     
    To get started it was given a coat of grey primer and then a matt coat of light grey (with the idea that it will be coated in satin varnish):

    Then the ends were masked up to match the livery (with the odd little flares that make this simple livery a bit more complex):

    Once the ends were done I masked the sides and painted the windows out in Intercity Executive Grey (which is more of a grey brown):

     
    I am quite pleased with the outcome, I have had to get rid of a few bleeds but considering I am not the most skilled painter I am satisfied. Although this model has its flaws I think it will look good when it is running next to the Arnold X73500.

    The next job will be to dig out my old transfers and create some of my own for the Limousin area. Then it needs varnishing and finally glazing!
     
    Thanks for reading.
     
    Stephen
  2. SNCF stephen
    This morning I attended one of my favourite model railway shows. The German Railway Society annual Expo at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall. The hall is a good size with 3 large rooms all nicely decorated. There is a variety of trade and society stands as well as some outstanding continental layouts. Here are some pictures from the day.






















  3. SNCF stephen
    Some replies to my last blog were interested in the MiniNatur products I had purchased. Since I was making a batch of trees up this weekend I thought I would post a blog about how I found the material to work with.
     
    I must start by saying that I am not the best modeller in the world and as such I think someone could do a better job at these than me. However, if you have not seen this product in use before I thought that you might be interested to read my findings.
     
    I had a few spare tree armatures in my modelling boxes from the last batch of trees I made. Therefore I decided to make 3 trees of roughly the same size. Unfortunately I only had one design of armature so I tried to bend them so that they looked a little different.

    The armatures are from Woodland Scenics and are a slightly grey shade of brown. Ideally I would have sprayed them browner.

    The MiniNatur product comes in a small plastic box and is made of larger size scatter material (for the leaves) interwoven with a plastic type of thread that is quite stretchy. There are also some fibres similar to flocking fibres in there too to make it seem a bit more substantial and branchlike.

    Inside each box is enough to do about 3 or 4 trees in N Gauge. I would have liked a bit more for my money but I did buy it without having a proper look at the details.
    I used tacky PVA glue to attach the trees to the armatures. This allowed a quicker drying time.

    I started by doing a Beech tree which is a lighter shade of green. It seemed to work fairly easily. The product wraps around each main branch of the armature and can be woven into the smaller branches for extra strength. I found that my initial attempts were not as good because I did not stretch the material out enough.

    The oak material (pictured above) was thicker and better to work with. It would stretch further and gave better coverage.
     
    I had to go back over some of the branches and make sure there was enough coverage.
     
    Overall I was quite pleased with the results. It is a better system than the Woodland Scenics Fine Leafed Foliage (which I have not got on with), but I must say that I think that their kits for generic trees are better value for money than these if you want non descript trees in the background. I will probably use these kits again for key trees but not for the ones in the background.
     
    Finally here are a few shots of the trees in situ:




  4. SNCF stephen
    In case you missed it here is a video I posted of my X73500 fitted with a DCC Sound Chip.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9CAVUWFU1o
     
    The sound chip works very well and gives the layout a lovely ambience. I really want to crack on and get the rest of the modules up to standard.
     
    I have also finally completed the X3900 I have been making for the past two years. I painted the whiskers on the two ends as well as touch up the paint. I then used a coat of matt varnish to tone it down. This made it look a lot more than the pictures I have seen of it in operation. Finally I glazed it using Krystal Klear fluid.
     
    Here are the results:



     
    And finally a comparison:


     
    One thing I love about modelling is getting packages full of supplies. I couldn't resist taking a snap of one of my recent purchases (sorry if it is self indulgent!)...



  5. SNCF stephen
    I was overjoyed a few weeks ago when I managed to get my first kitbuilt chassis to work on my layout. It was a tad noisy and was secured together by tape before I properly put it into position but it was a big step forward. Here is a picture of the chassis.

    That was until it tried to negotiate the tight corner on my layout that is like that to allow a turnout to be positioned on the module. At this point it promptly derailed and refused to go any further. I looked at the structure of the chassis and the space inside the railcar and I realised that it would not be possible to produce a solution using this chassis. Therefore, I found my spare Tomix TM 08 chassis and started working on plans to lengthen it. The bogies are shorter and will negotiate tighter bends but it was far too short. Therefore a piece of plasticard was fashioned as the pivot for the bogie and then glued into place. The pickups were resoldered and the cardon shaft was lengthened using styrene tube.

    I was quite pleased with the results and it runs quite well. It needs some more weight on the plasticard end but aside from that it runs fine. By doing this it should also be easier to get it chipped for DCC.
     
    In other news I have received a package of 2 new X2800 railcars in kit form. The first of these is a resin mould which I believe is the last ever to be produced from the old Vapeur 70 range. The other is one of the new AIM Trains N' Co kits which is brass and resin. I need to get the instructions translated before I have a go at making it up as there are a few minor issues I need clarifying.

    Still, the kit looks great and the picture does not do it justice.

     
    Thanks for reading. If you have any questions or comments then please feel free.
     
    Stephen
  6. SNCF stephen
    Actually I have now completed two of the UFO's so it is not as bad as it was at the beginning of the year. I have also made inroads into several other projects with varying degrees of success so here is the news:
     
    ADX

    I have started work on the ADX and it is starting to look more like a unit. I need to fill the sides and then sand that back to make it nice a smooth.

    The chassis is now built but unmotorised. I will wait to motorise it because DCC is on its way!
     
    X2800

    I have added some buffers to this model and given it a coat of white primer. It only needs painting and glazing. It will be joined by two refurbished brothers soon!
     
    X5600 (FNC) & X5800


    These have now been glazed. I need to add a few details to the X5800 but I am quite pleased with the outcome. This was my first go with Micro Kristal Klear. I will be using this again because it is superb for all windows.
     
    X2400

    The X2400 had a bit of a disaster. The first coat of primer went on but had a slight bubbling so I sanded and added another coat but I added too much so in the end I removed that entire coat and applied another new coat. This time I was more cautious but unfortunately the damage had been done. It wont look terrible but I don't think it will look as amazing as I had hoped.
     
     
    Any comments welcome. Many thanks for reading
     
    Stephen
  7. SNCF stephen
    Whilst I was cooling down from doing the gardening I had a chance to make a little progress with the UFO collection that is slowly being worked down.
     
    X3900
    Today I painted the buffer beams and used the waterslide transfers for the stripes on the sides. This caused a bit of bad language because I have never used them before. However, I got there in the end! There are a few places where I will paint such as the whiskers, which are going to be difficult, and the the small gaps by some of the doors.



     
    X5800
    I worked on getting this painted up. I handpainted it using acryllics and found that getting the curves of the red paint at each end was very tricky. I am going to tidy these up but I will save them for another day. The chassis was also weighted down to give it better traction.


  8. SNCF stephen
    It is snowing outside and very cold so I have stayed in the house and got to work on one of my UFO's.
    This particular UFO is the X3900 which is the Executive railcar for the SNCF management.


    These were taken by me in 2010. It is now looking a little sorry for itself and is not available for service!
     
    Due to some overenthusiastic filing last year I had to fill some of the front windows and work on them a little this morning. Following this I sprayed another coat of primer onto the shell and the buffers.
     
    While I waited for it to dry I got out an airbrush kit I have been lent. I thought it would be better to borrow the kit first before making the big financial plunge. It is a Draper Airbrush with a large tank of air. I could have obtained a compressor but I do not have the space right now and I thought I would give this a whirl first.
     
    I then mixed my AMF87 AGP Vert paint with some thinners to get the right consistancy. I started with 2 parts thinner with 1 part paint. However when I applied this first coat the consistancy did not seem right. I then added a small amount more paint before test spraying the buffers. I was quite happy with how they turned out so I proceeded to airbrush the body.


     
    I need to paint two stripes over the length of the vehicle but I might wait to do that. I am thinking of doing this by hand and masking off the areas I want to paint.
  9. SNCF stephen
    This morning I had a go at taking out the windows of my DU65 Draisine. I was using a drill and unfortunately the plastic was too brittle on this batch and this happened:

    It was a reminder that 3D printing is a very fragile art. Luckily the frosted option was chosen so that the windows could be left in situ should this type of thing occur. So I put together one of the other DU65's I had to hand.


    It only required the bonnet and the sides at the back to be added. I need to add the exhaust manifold but this will be done as soon as I get some styrene.
    I then want to paint up a few examples. With leaving the windows in situ I think it will be tricky.
    Here is the original prototype:

    And a line up of the three:

  10. SNCF stephen
    The first test print of the DU65 Draisine came today from Shapeways. The box was huge for what was a small item but I guess "better safe than sorry" is pertinant due to the level of fragility involved with their items! So I tore into the box and out came the test print.
     
    What can I say except WOW! I am very impressed by the level of detail that can be achieved using 3D printing! I was also very pleased because it fit quite easily onto the modified Arnold Chassis. Here are a few snaps I took today.
     


     
    I was hoping that the frosted glass could be left in situ if desired but I think it will have to be removed and have glazing put in its place.
     
    Over the weekend I will be testing the fit of the chassis to ensure that there are no parts rubbing the body and that it is all functional.
     
    Thanks for reading
     
    Stephen
  11. SNCF stephen

    Module Planning

    By SNCF stephen,

    Although there are going to be some VERY exciting posts about rolling stock soon, in terms of the layout it has gone a bit quiet for me recently. The reality is that I have become increasingly fed up with my layout taking over half my hobby room which leaves me very little space to actually do anything. This means that I have had to compromise my work areas when building stock and it also means I tend to leave things on the layout for storage because there are simply no other storage solutions.
     
    Still I have enjoyed this layout a lot and I have taken away a lot of very very positive lessons. Therefore at some point before Christmas Neuvic Entier will be heading to the layout in the sky. I intend to sell off as much of the track as possible and salvage all of the trees, buildings and details for use in my next project.
     
    Or should I say projects because I am going modular. As soon as Neuvic Entier has disappeared I will be obtaining a surface for my Ikea Trestles and manufacturing several T Trak Modules. I have been admiring the work of other modular modellers for some time (Sir Madog, Mike Trice to name a few of the recent inspirations on this forum) and the method of being able to do a little at a time and get a very good looking result got my attention quite quickly. The other thing that grabbed my attention was that it was Kato Unitrack which meant that the reliability is superb and wiring very simple.
     
    So today I had a go at learning a new skill that I have been meaning to try for some time. Layout Planning Software. WHY HAVE I NOT TRIED THIS BEFORE???? Was the question I kept asking myself as I used the software. I had a go at designing the station module for the layout. This is based on Eymoutiers (although compromises have had to be made).
    The real station can be seen here.
     
    My interpretation of it using Unitrak is like this:

    I have had to leave off the maintenance sidings on the south side of the main running lines and the double slip linking the maintenance shed to the sidings is just a crossover. However there will be enough scope to give some decent operations including steam specials etc.
     
    So if you have got this far then thanks for reading.
  12. SNCF stephen
    In my last few blog entries I have been hinting at an exciting announcement. Well today is, finally, the day of that announcement.
    Indeed it has been a very exciting 2 months for me, although I have had other things on my mind and not been able to do much actual modelling I actually commissioned CCE to do some CAD design work for me on a piece of rolling stock I wanted to make.
     
    My main interest is French N gauge (as regular readers will probably know). French N gauge is less developed than in other country's and there are some significant gaps in the RTR format. The piece of stock I have commissioned is a DU65 Draisine. I had a go at making one of these with Plasticard and really enjoyed the challenge. However I do not have the steady hands needed to do any better than the basic model I made so I looked into alternative methods of construction. 3D printing seemed like it might be viable.

    So over the summer research was undertaken and the brief was set. Since then a number of sample images have been sent through of the ongoing design work. It is staggering to see the level of detail that can be achieved!
     
    The reason why I chose today to post these is that I just placed an order for the initial sample to check how it will fit together and see if it needs any refinements.

    The above shows the first image I saw of the Draisine.
     
    The prototype has a variety of configurations and I wanted to be able allow modellers to choose which version they wished to have running on their layout. This meant that there are some "extras" included in the print which allows the modeller to model up to 3 varients of the Draisine.

    The above shows the Draisine with the Pneumatic Lifting Arm in position, this will be printed separately.
     
    I am aware that there was a kit manufactured by Vapeur 70 of the same vehicle, however it was made out of brass and is currently out of production. Therefore I thought that a simpler kit could be viable.
     
    As well as this Draisine I am formulating a brand name so that I can sell these models on (and perhaps develop further models). I have come up with the name "Draisine 160" and the banner below is the logo.

    I will, in time, set up a web site where people can purchase these kits.
     
    Thanks for reading,
     
    If anyone has any questions then please get in touch.
     
    Stephen
  13. SNCF stephen
    Over the past 2 weeks I have had a few running sessions on the layout. I have enjoyed operating it and when it works it is a good layout. However the key phrase in the last sentence is "when it works" because the times "when it works" are getting fewer and further between.
     
    The reason behind this is largely because I am just not competent enough to lay track very well. One of the major issues has been the derailing of stock over board joins. It usually takes me half an hour of fiddling to get a workable board join. Some joins work better for some loco's and not so well for others. The laying of the track is made worse by the fact that I constructed the baseboards over several years using different materials and different specifications. I also feel that Peco's products are a bit behind the times compared to some of the other manufacturers on the market.
     
    That is not to say I do not really enjoy my layout. I really do love adding bits and pieces to it here and there and the camp site I was working on I was really enjoying! But the thought keeps coming up that however good the layout might look, the running of it will always be a problem.
     
    One thing about my current layout is that it runs around a good chunk of my hobby room. Trains are not my only hobby. I also own 6 guitars, an amp and a fair amount of pedals to control the sound which takes up a fair amount of room on its own. This coupled with book cases, my computer and anything else that is mine means that I have very little space for anything else.
     
    So when I started reading Sir Madog's thread here I saw the quality of the layout and the variety of scenes that could be achieved and I was blown away. The use of Kato Unitrack would give the reliability that evades someone like me with products made by Peco. The modular format would allow me to pack away the layout or alter the format of it should I feel the need to change. A lot of my current buildings could be saved and I could sell the Peco track/point motors to fund the purchase of the Kato track.
     
    So I am now in a situation where I am begginning to think that come Christmas I will be dismantling this layout. I am giving myself until then to make up my mind, but I have decided against adding any more to the layout at the moment as this would be a waste. Plus I have PLENTY of other projects to get on with!
     
    I am unsure whether I will be sad about the old layout going or excited about starting afresh with a decent set of track!
     
    If anyone has any thoughts about disposing of layouts then please make a comment.
     
    Thanks for reading
    Stephen
     
    EDIT: Pictures Added of the room and layout!


  14. SNCF stephen
    After starting my station with such promise I came to the conclusion today, after leaving it to one side for a couple of weeks, that I need to start again. This is a bit of a blow but I was looking at the station and it really needs a redesign, especially the support infrastructure. Also I negelected to coat the initial layers with varnish so some of the base layers were starting to come away which was not a huge issue now, but considering there is a large amount of work still to be done I thought that it could only get worse.
     

     
    Part of the problem was that the support infrastructure was not lining up squarely and I now need to look at how best to do this. I am thinking of creating some templates using the photoshop software I used to create the rest of the building.
     

     
    The upshot is that I am now a bit more well versed in how not to do things and how to get better results. Another upshot is that my standards have been raised. So I may be a week or so behind schedule but I will get there in the end.
     
    Any advice or comments would be extremely gratefully received.
     
    Thanks for reading.
    Stephen
  15. SNCF stephen
    I have been working quite hard on the new station building for the layout. Although until this evening I felt the work was not paying off. Today I created the windows, the frames and the interior of the station. It is all very basic inside at the moment but the good thing is that it is all pretty prototypical.
     
    To end the evening I attached the wall panels to the frame and took a few pictures to celebrate. Only the West Wing (not the TV show) is assembled as of now as I need to print some windows onto acetate paper for the east wing.
     

     
    Above shows the basic structure of the interior. This includes the staircase (which is in a similar colour to the prototype).
     

     

     
    The gap in the floor in the above picture is to accomodate a lighting unit in the future. I like to future proof any buildings I make for this feature.
     

     

     
    The above shows the West Wing in place.
     

     
    This one nicely shows the new name of the station.
     

     
    Here is a close up of the doors, you can just see the staircase. The upstairs will be kitted out in the same way.
    QUICK APPEAL FOR INFORMATION - If anyone knows what the upstairs of a small SNCF railway station looks like could you please let me know. Any information would be very very very useful!
     
    As always, thanks for reading.
     
    Stephen
  16. SNCF stephen
    Over the past few weeks I had come to the conclusion that the main village on my layout was born out of lack of thought and that a few changes could be made to enhance the village and make it look similar to other villages and towns in the area it is meant to represent (The Limousin Region of France). So over the weekend I hacked away at a portion of the village and stripped it back. The intention is to create a small road that is on the level that runs paralell to the main road but at a different height. This new road will be on the level and allow the houses and shops to be placed in a more natural looking way.
     
    I started by creating a balsa wood frame for the new road:

    Then I added a plasticard set of supporting walls around the exposed areas of wood.

    The icing on the cake will be the use of Woodland Scenics road system to replace the road that was ripped up and to also give the road on the wall a better look. I intend to use the Noch pavements.
     
    In further building related news I have had my first attempt at weathering. It has made a huge difference as can be seen below:


     
    In other news the X3900 conversion is progressing. New windows have been cut out and some windows have been extended. The original unit is pictured here:

    The right side after the new windows had been filed:

    and the left side after the new windows had been filed:

    I need to remove the rear access doors and then install some new doors.
  17. SNCF stephen

    Actual Progress

    By SNCF stephen,

    From baseboards to rolling stock there has been some progress which I am actually quite pleased about.
     
    Starting with the baseboards, My father in law has helped out with some of the construction of some frames that are going to be supporting the link to my new module. The only picture I have of any relevence to this is the Cobalt Point Motor in the new module which I installed on the same day we constructed the frames:

    I will get to work in drawing up a track plan for the new set up in its entirety. Safe to say that my layout has expanded from a single line terminus with dimensions of about 5 foot by 1.5 foot (plus a 2 and a half foot by 1 foot wide leg for the fiddle yard) to a round the room 6 foot by 6 foot loop with an average scenic width of 1 foot around the entire thing. To cope with the extra traffic I intend to relay the main station and change it from a single line terminus to a layout that is more conducive to running longer through trains (and also allow my corrail stock to fit into one of the loops). Therefore all of the stock was put away and the track gang in the DU65 Draisine was hard at work examining where to make a start with this project:


     
    In other news I have been working on 3 railcars at the same time. The first one is my X5800 which I have had on my work bench for some time. It has made some progress and the cab has now been installed on the roof. It was also sprayed using a can of Halfords Spray Paint. In the store it looked a good match for the Cream colour used on the X3800's but when on the model it did not seem quite right so I am repainting it, still it looks a lot more complete now than it did:


     
    As well as this railcar I have also recently purchased some more chassis for other projects that have been lingering in the background. One of which was a chassis to go inside the X5600 body. This was a Kato tram chassis (the 4 wheel kind as opposed to the 8 wheel two bogie kind that I used in the X5800). This required trimming and the doors from the body needed to be removed. These will be replaced with slimmer Plasticard doors to allow the motor to fit easily. I have also been rebuilding the cab for this model and have constructed a roof and a frame which will support some more elaborate sides:

     
    I have also purchased two TM-08 from Tomix to allow me to motorise my other two Del Prado railcars. I was very pleased with the performance of the previous TM-08 and this is no exception. I would definitely advise anyone who needs to motorise something to use Tomix. The first of these railcars is going to be a simple repaint, it is going to have a red roof (which is a rare livery for an X3800 but there were one or two that did have it) and the bottom red skirt of the railcar will also receive a repaint as the Del Prado job sometimes leaves a bit to be desired:

     
    Finally the last piece of rolling stock that will be on my workbench is another X3800, except this one is going to have a bit more surgery, this one is going to become X3900 (see my previous blog entryfor some actual pictures of where this lovelly railcar is now). Which means this railcar needs doors relocating, new doors drilled and filed down, windows removed and added as well as a new paint job (a rather drab green with whiskers similar to the DMU's from the UK). At the moment I need to gut the insides so it will fit onto the chassis:

     
    So there has been a lot going on and with any luck there will continue to be a lot going on.
     
    As always, thanks for reading.
    Stephen
  18. SNCF stephen

    French Summer

    By SNCF stephen,

    Well its pretty cold here in Staffordshire so I thought I would post some pictures of warmer times from last summer in France. I should have done it a long time ago but other things got in the way.
    We went on a trip to Mont Dore for a day trip and visited the station in the resort. It being a Sunday there were no trains due but I snapped a few pictures of the station. Here is one:

    Then we went down the line to Bourboille (please forgive me if I am spelling these incorrectly) and again snapped a few nice shots of the station:

     
    On the way back we decided to stop off at Bort Les Ourges:

    Where there were a number of older Autorails stabled in the open and two Draisines. The line is currently not operational due to a few maintenance issues and the cost of putting these right meaning that the local funding authority has withdrawn funding. However I am hopeful that these issues will be resolved soon. Stabled on the line are two X2700 units that look newer than they are due to being refurbished by the SNCF. There is also an X7400 Autorail Trailer.

    An X2900 Autorail (in very nice condition).

    2 Draisines (1 of which is a DU65 similar to the kind I have made an N Gauge model of, the other I am unsure of the type).
    Finally there is an X3900 Picasso inspection Salon in very poor rusted condition.

    More information can be found about the railway here.
     
    On the way back we stopped briefly in Bugeat on the Limoges - Ussel line. I was taking a picture of the goods shed (which is in a very nice unspoilt condition except for the satellite dish!):

    Then the bells on the Level Crossing sounded and an X73500 railcare came through:

    It had someones Grafiti tag on the front end of it:


    Following this we jumped in the van and drove to Eymoutier to see if I could get a quick picture of it there. We managed to arrive just ahead of it and got a nice snap of a busy weekend train loading and unloading:

     
    Over the next few days we visited St Germainne Le Belle which is on the mainline towards Toulouse. Unfortunately time was against us and we could not wait for half an hour to see the local train pull in and pick up the passengers. However I did get a few nice snaps of the station:

     
    On Bastille day a French preservation society runs TD 740 from Limoges to Eymoutier then from Eymoutier to Chatteuxneuf and back to Eymoutier before returning in the early evening to Limoges. We went to see the locomotive arrive in Eymoutier:

     
    After which we went to the Vide Grenier which was in the town centre. This was kind of like a car boot sale but without the car boots. There were countless items of junk being sold but a few nice treasures.
     
    It was a fantastic holiday and hopefully when I go out again this year there will be some more rail pictures to post.
  19. SNCF stephen
    About 3 weeks ago I got married. It was a great day for me in what has not been the best of years. The Honeymoon was very enjoyable. I lost count of how many times we used rail based travel (which is truly a great thing!!!). So I thought I would share my (not very good quality) photo's.
    Starting at St Pancreas I was greeted by 3 Eurostars:

    We travelled to Brussels and caught the tram from Brussels Midi to Die Brocke. It was not the best journey with heavy suitcases and a packed tram. Still we got there. Anyway due to how busy it was I didn't get any pictures of the tram!
    However we did go to Amsterdam on the Thalys the next day and that was great. It was truly a spectacular international rail service. I cannot wait until Britain gets its own proper domestic high speed service like this. Here are a few pictures of the different Thalys trains at Brussels Midi:


    In Amsterdam I enjoyed being in the city again, although crossing the street there is somewhat frustrating having to look for cyclists, cars, trams then cars again and finally cyclists. I did quite enjoy seeing the British tourists who had been smoking the Ganje get almost knocked down on sveral occaissions. Here are a few of some of the trams, first a Combino and second I am not sure of the make of the older ones but I would guess at Tatra or something along those lines. Just a guess though. If anyone wants to correct me I would be glad:


    The next day we left Brussels to go to Edingen, where I was told is a truly spectacular model shop. There certainly was a great model shop there. Jocadis was well stocked and the staff were EXTREMELY helpful and spoke good English. They had plenty of SNCF in N Gauge for me. I made a few large purchases and had to be on my way. I will post more about these when I have time.
    Here is the train we came back from Edingen on:

    Reminded me of the 310's in the West Midlands. Very squeeky and old but fantastic and full of charactor. I was very glad to ride on one of these.
    The next day was fantastic fun. We caught the Metro to Montgomery:

    Then the Number 44 Track to Turveren (can't spell that one properly I suspect!) to go to the Congo museum:

    (this tram was the one that left before us, our tram was the same type though!).
    On our way back along the line 44 we stopped off at the Tram Museum which lies in Majestic Parkland in the Brussels suburbs. It was closed but I had a good look around and took some pictures:








    And here is one of the part of the depot that is still operational. Those trams were very nice to ride on:

    Whilst in Brussels I did visit Dream Collection which was a nice model shop. It was quite well stocked and well priced. I purchased a number of items from them as well, their French N Gauge was pretty good for a shop of that size!
    They also had models of the trams running through the centre of Brussels, although these were in HO and a bit out of my price range:

    Also on the last day a Bristol VR bus pulled up on the street outside our hotel. What an interesting surprise:

     
    I hope you enjoyed reading.
     
    Stephen
  20. SNCF stephen
    Last night involved the following ingredients:
    Soldering, swearing, excitement, disappointment, elation, a change of plans, melted plastic, flying plastic, adrenaline and a late night.
     
    My Chassis arrived from Japan. Hooray. It was fantastically small and is a great runner. It has front and rear forward facing LED lights and runs fairly smooth for something that small. The main problem I had was that it was too tall to give my Draisine a scale height and therefore I needed to make it shorter in height.

    I had seen on a French Forum that someone had clipped the non-motorised wheels off the chassis and resoldered them onto the top of the motor block to give a lower running height. This would make it longer but the Draisine is long enough to accommodate this extra length.
     
    So last night I clipped the bits off the chassis (flying plastic was not something I expected...) and after much much much soldering and swearing managed to get the chassis with the wheels soldered into the correct position and bent into the right shape to allow the wheels to be reattached.

    I then tested the chassis and to my disappoitnment I realised that when I clipped into the circuit board (very very very slightly) I must have broken a circuit due to the fact that the LED for the forward direction no longer works. I consoled myself with the thought that the soldering at this scale was difficult anyway and I should be glad that it is working in any way shape or form.
     
    This meant a change of plan from having a nice set of forward facing lights. I am not considering installing LED lights in the bonnet section but I think the space will be too tight and I am wondering if I am really in the mood for any more soldering onto what is a very tight chassis to work with.
     
    I tested the fit onto the bodywork and discovered the sides were too thick so I had to make some new sides with thinner Plasticard. Now the chassi sits quite snug in the space provided. However I am concerned that it might angle the bodywork to one side. I might have to file the chassis down a little to get this corrected!
     
    After all that stress I had a go at painting some of the components tonight. This was quite relaxing and I am looking forward to doing some more on these over the coming days. Then I shall have a go at glazing the unit.
     
    There is certainly plenty to do!
  21. SNCF stephen
    In my previous blogs I have mentioned that I wanted to scratchbuild a DU65 Draisine. Over the past few days I have started work on the bodywork for the vehicle and gathering as many pieces of information as I can about it. I have never really researched a topic properly before and this has been one of the more rewarding parts of the project. Planning something like this out properly is certainly the right thing to do, this is especially important considering the fact that the chassis that I have ordered is so small and will require some modifications before it will fit into this model.
     
    The literal translation of Draisine is "Speeder" but I think that the word is more to do with describing the vehicle as a light trolley. They are used as track maintenance and permenant way vehicles and can be loaded with various different features such as a hydraulic lifting crane, hedge trimming devices, gauge clearance measurers and snowploughs. I have photograpghed a few of these vehicles in use on the SNCF network as well as in preservation.
     

    A DU65 Draisine in Eymoutier. Note I was given very odd looks from the driver when taking this picture on my camera phone...
     
    I have seen a few brass kits produced in France for these but I have never had the good fortune to find one for sale. That added to the fact that my soldering skills are pretty poor has pushed me to have a go with Plasticard.
     
    I managed to find a low quality drawing of one side of a Draisine from which I established some measurements which allowed me to make measurements for the rest of that side. Then I found a decent front side picture and established the measurements for the front. These were then test drawn onto paper and then I drew them onto Plasticard:

     
    Once these were cut out I tested how they fit together using tape:

     
    I discovered that I had not taken into account the thickness of the Plasticard when making the measurements so I did some filing down and changed the design from having a window support on the front and back sides to just using the front side window support.
     

     
    The next phase was to start the bonnet of the vehicle. This requires a section to be removed for the vents. This was tricky as in N scale the distances are very small but I think I achieved what I needed to:
     

     
    Tonight I shall work on the bonnet some more and perhaps look at working on the roof. I am thinking of using a small piece of Balsa as the roof as this will be easier to shape and it wont be too difficult to cut to the correct size.
     
    The chassis should arrrive in the next week or so and then it needs to be chopped into the right shape and resoldered to make it fit (hopefully!!!!!!!!!!!!).
     
    Let me know what you think.
     
    Stephen
  22. SNCF stephen
    After completing the work on the baseboards last night I got a few pieces of flexi track out and had a play around with the proposed layout. The original plan was to have the siding for the station on the viewing side of the running line. However upon closer inspection this would make the siding either very short or very long to get the desired effect. Therefore I decided to put the siding on the other side of the running line and infer that there is some sort of way of crossing the line off scene to get access to the goods shed.
    Here are some pictures of the approximate location of the track:




    I have also been experimenting (unfortunately not with test tubes and bunson burners!!!) with the kind of paint that would enable me to get a finish similar to this using Peco track:
    http://rfe.railclub.ru/pix/fr/diesel/dmu/X2800/white-blue/misc/2800_Morteau_1.jpg
    So far I am using 3 different acryillic paints as the base layer. These will the be covered by different thicknesses of railmatch sleeper grime to see which gives the most realistic finish.

     
    I think the beige colour is proving to be the best so far:

     
    I purchased 2 different kinds of viaduct last night and when they arrive I hope to examine which will best fit the valley I intend to build. I purchased one set from Faller and another from Atlas. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I am hoping that my viaduct will look like a smaller version of this:
    http://rfe.railclub.ru/pix/fr/diesel/dmu/X2800/white-blue/misc/SNCF_UM_X-2800_CZL_170703.jpg
     
    My future father in law has informed me that he got a rather good bargain at an autojumble of some N gauge track produced by Fleischmann (its the pre ballasted stuff). Does anyone have any views or experience they might be able to provide? I was going to use Peco flexi track for this layout but if the Fleischmann product is miles better then it might do me better in the long run. One thing I was using the flexi track for was the smooth flowing curves. Do Fleischmann do a similar product that is compatable with the pre ballasted stuff?
     
    Any help would be much appreciated.
     
    Thanks
     
    Stephen
  23. SNCF stephen
    I have just returned from a very relaxing and very needed 2 week holiday in France. I had always said to my future father in law that I would help him build a layout and seeing as it was not possible for me to do much in the way of physical activity at the moment he suggested that I make a start on the layout. We had a few trips to the DIY store where we purchased the trestles and other bits needed to get some track down.

    We used some old doors which were joined together to form a decent size board for the layout. Over the boards I glued some green fibre board that was acting as a substitute for cork underlay. It has worked very well as an alternative and has a few benefits over cork in the colour (being a not too garish form of green reduces the need to paint it) and the ease of chopping it to size. The best benefit was the price. We got a huge pack for 15 Euro's which could do about 8 metres square. The same amount in cork would have been a fair amount more.

    A trip to the model shop in Limoges to get a few supplies and a plastic kit was purchased for the station building. Following a few different track designs we eventually decided two running loops with some sidings off the main exterior loop for storing trains and shunting. The interior loop will have to wait to get its storage sidings because the points that were in the box of track were not electrically isolated (what were Lima thinking???!!!).

    By the end of the holiday the kit of the station had been built but not completed (just needed work on the details!) and the loops were in a good enough state to run trains around. My future father in law had even managed to get the Trans Europe Express working again (I had been unsuccessful and thought it needed a new motor!!!, it now runs magnificantly!).

    Also while I was in France I hatched a plan to build another new layout. This would be a modular extentsion to my current one but also built in such a way so that it could be exhibited. I have had a fair few thoughts on this and I will post more once I have my sketches loaded into the computer.
  24. SNCF stephen
    Well Doctors orders mean no more solvents, paints and generally other nasty chemicals can be used at the moment so I am having to take a step back from doing buildings and the like for the layout. Still I have made excellent progress and with my return to work next week I am starting to feel proud of this Springs modelling season.

    It occurred to me that I had not taken a picture of the layout in its entirety. I also had a good tidy over the past few days and the room it is in now looks presentable.

    The square is pretty much complete in terms of the major buildings. I just need to get a few bits and pieces like the Faller Market scene and the Faller park accessories which will be used to make this square seem like a bustling village festival scene. I have a few sets of Noch figures that will also inhabbit this space (although I am finding it difficult to find a home for the sexy scenes one I got given!!!).

    The Brasserie came together quite nicely. Except I am far from happy with the colour. I am thinking of trying to find a creamy white/yellow similar to the station building. I also built the small lean too building out of a spare Faller roof and some Plasticard and a SAI large door. This picture does not show it off at its best angle though!

    The fiddle yard extension has been landscaped to make it blend a little better with the rest of the layout. Its not finished but this gives an impression of where it is going.
     
    And thats the progress from this week. Over the coming weeks I am tempted to extend the original "behind the scenes" fiddle yard to accommodate more trains and longer trains. This would be done by enhancing the existing extension to make it wider and changing some of the smaller fiddle yard roads into feeders onto a longer fiddle yard.
    Once I get paid and have some time the lighting will be going in. These two schemes don't involve too much in the way of nasty chemicals so they can keep going. Unfortunately the continued painting and weathering of the buildings is to be put on hold, as it the purchase of the above mentioned Faller kits since they all need the use of solvents. Still there is plenty to keep me going for the rest of the Summer and into Winter (as well as my Wedding Planning!!!).
     
    Thanks for reading.
     
    Stephen
  25. SNCF stephen
    I have decided to take a break from the 323 project (it is getting there though!) to concentrate on the layout and today I decided to have a quick go at building a small shop building out of Plasticard but instead of using just Plasticard I used Lego as the basis of the structure and glued plasticard to the outside of that structure in a similar way to the previous building I have made.
    Below is the Lego structure constructed for the building. It is not solid so that lighting can be incorporated at a later date.

    This one shows the first wall constructed to accommodate a set of windows donated from an old Faller building.

    I have only stuck 3 walls onto the Lego structure so far the last one requires some sort of window display to be incorporated before it gets stuck so it is remaining open. The pictures below show the building from the 2 most complete looking angles.


    I have also been working on the layout itself with the road being extended in two locations (the small new housing estate and onto the removable baseboard extension). As well as extending the road I also repainted the entire length of the road to give it a more uniformed and lighter colour. It dried a bit lighter than expected but I am quite pleased with the result and it certainly has removed a big hurdle to carrying out more work on the layout.

    I also tested the position of the new building in situ, although this was before the sides were stuck down.

     
    Thanks for reading.
     
    Stephen
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