SNCF stephen

The past few weeks have been hectic to say the least. I am getting married in less than 4 weeks time and the amount of organisation involved is quite vast. Therefore a few of the larger projects have taken the back burner for a short while until I get the right amount of time (and money) to spend on them to do them justice. However I have kept going on the X5800. Some good progress has been made as well as some bad. First the good. The front and rear buffer beams have been added as well as the milliput on front end. The front end. The rear end required the buffers to be raised out so small sections of Plasticard were used to ensure that the buffers protruded to the correct distance. Now the bad. Well its not all bad. On the previous pictures there was a Balsa wood cab temporarily in place on the roof. That was the successful example of the cab that I constructed. However it was only after 2 previous attempts that just did not work very well. Here is a (poor quality) picture of the two previous attempts: The one on the right is based on scale drawings. However due to the fact that the roof supports are so slim it meant that it was not structurally sound to use this method. Plus I did not think it was the right shape from the pictures I have to hand. Therefore I decided that I would create another simpler one that was drawn to demensions that I considered to be more accurate. How wrong where they? THe one on the left is the outcome of that and it is much too small. Finally I decided that I did not have the experience to create a cab that was hollow so I decided to use balsa wood as the basis for the cab and then over the top I am intending to add Plasticard. The Balsa will be painted black to make it less obtrusive. This is a compromise I did not really want to make but the previous structures were just not viable and would have deformed far too easily. Although saying that I am considering having a go at making the support structure out of see through plastic. Still with the Balsa cab in place it gives me a glimpse of how this train will look when it is completed. Following the wedding I am intending on making a start on the conversion of another X3800 into X3900 which has a few differences. This project wont take as long and I am considering borrowing my father in laws airbrush to paint that model. Although it has yet to arrive, I have also purchased a cast of an X5600 railcar. It is damaged so some repairs will be required but it would make a lovelly addition to the ever growing railcar fleet.

I will start with the future and some possible modelling projects over the course of the next year or so: The X2200 railcar does not have the personailty of the older railcars but I quite like it nonetheless. I think it is quite charming and I am looking at ways to make a model of it. I am going to see if a kit has been produced but if not (or if one is not readily available) then I shall have a go at scratchbuilding one of these. I am not entirely sure what technique I would used yet but there is a lot of detail and I suspect that Plasticard would be too difficult. What would be ideal is if I found a bodyshell of another unit to modify. I am looking at the X2200 to compliment one of my latest purchases (although it wont arrive for some time!!!): This is an N Gauge X73500 produced by a manufacturer called Mikadotrain. I say manufacturer but I have heard that it is a one person operation. Still I like to support smaller operations and this looks spectacular, some of the features included front and rear lights (that change from white to red), plastic injection molded body and because it is a Tomix Chassis then it is likely to be extremely reliable!!! These kind of units operate in the Limousin region currently. Two weeks ago I visited the German Railway Society's Sutton Coldfield Exhibition. I have been to the previous two however this time I was under a lot of pressure because I had a mere 20 minutes to look at everything before I had to leave for a Wedding. How very annoying! I really wish I could have spent longer there (and more money!) as there was plenty of French SNCF items on sale there. Still I managed to come away with 4 nice Corail carriages: Also on ebay I purchases a 72000 locomotive (72071 by Minitrix) to haul the carriages. All of this means I am now looking at making some pretty serious changes to the older layout specifically the station area which needs longer platforms as well as the loco shed which will need to house more locomotives now. This all falls into line with the plans for this layout as it is now enveloping my train room (and rightly so I might add!!!). The Corail carriages need wider curves than I can accommodate in certain places so some changes to the plan will allow this to take place. Another purchase on ebay was another X3800 which I have yet to find a future use for at the moment. This brings the total I have of these to 3 in tact and 1 that is being used as a donor for the X5800. Here is the collection of railcars: The X5800 is moving on now. The main concern is the chassis having the bogie's too close together and not being prototypical, however with the clearance I had a Tomix chassis with the correct distance would have made the ride height too tall (compromises again!). I shall keep looking for other chassis, but until then I shall keep using this very reliable Kato one: The parts have all been attached, the door details have been added and the driving end has had the milliput added to give it a better shape. The cab needs to be constructed which will be quite difficult so I am leaving that until last. I am intending to spray it to give it colour once it is near completion. The front end windows have been made bigger using a file as I noticed they were too much like the X3800 to look like the X5800. The new module for the layout has had some progress made on it. Some of the track has been layed, but there is still a need to look at how it will connect to the rest of the layout and how to do it in such a way that it will allow for the new modules removal. I am also looking at 2 new buildings on Neuvic Entier one of which will be a school and the other possible the local Mayoree (not sure if thats the right spelling there!!!). Well thats whats been going on for the past few weeks. There is a lot more modelling to be done! EXCELLENT! Thanks for reading. Stephen

The DU65 Draisine is pretty much completed. I have added some details such as the vehicle number. I also painted the sections of the Draisine that were more difficult: I will continue to try and make the Draisine look more realistic with detail to the underside but this will be done over time as I find the parts that I require to undertake that work. Over this build I kept thinking that it is a compromise, there was the height of the vehicle which I got as low as possiuble but had to settle for a compromise, the wheels are far too big for the draisine, there is the lack of detail on the door which I left out because if I tried to put it in I could have ruined it and there is the lack of lighting which I think was a bit beyond this build. Still I am quite proud of this little train and at under 5 cm long in this scale I think I can take a lot of positives. From the top down viewing angle it looks very good and when viewed from about 2 feet away (probably the closest people will get under normal circumstances) it looks good. My next project, the X5800 railcar, has been started over the past 3 days. So far I have: Stripped the windows, buffers and roof detail from the X3800 Railcar Used the razor saw to cut the X3800 in the middle so that the roof can be removed Cut the roof off the larger segment and then cut the sides of the body into the correct lengths Tested the fit using Lego and sellotape Filed the chassis bogie frames down so they fit inside the body work and can turn whilst in situ. Created a replacement door out of Plasticard and test fitted it I am not entirely sure about the doors at the driving end as they are slightly incorrect for this kind of unit due to the direction of opening (on the X3800 they both opened towards the driving end wheras on the X5800 only one opened in this direction and as such I would need to do some work to get it to look right. Also the bodywork at this end of the train is slightly off. I think if anything delays this project it will be getting this section to look correct. This week I am hoping that I can stick the main body sections together and then attempt to build up the driving end using plasticard, balsa wood and Milliput. Before I sign off, I just thought I would show a picture of how my hobby room is becoming enveloped by the train layout: Thanks for reading. Stephen

With the Draisine largely completed I have been thinking about my next project. I am looking to convert a Del Prado X3800 into an X5800 unit with a bit of chopping and slicing (or cutting and shutting as I believe it is called. The X 5800 is shorter than the Picasso X3800 units. They have a number of different features but the non driving end is very similar and the main dimensions are enough alike to consider the conversion feasible. I will have to construct some of the details out of plasticard such as the drivers cab on the roof which is not enough like the X3800 to allow me to reuse it. The driving end of the X5800 (pictured above) will require some thought as to how to achieve the look but so far I am hoping to salvage some of theX3800's parts from that end such as the lights and perhaps use a combination of Milliput and Plasticard to get the right look. I have ordered a Kato chassis to power the unit (the Tomix ones were either too long or too tall!). Looking at the X3800 donor unit I have approximately sketched in paint where I am intending to make the cuts: The roof will be cut first to the correct length. This will allow the unit to have some strength and will (hopefully) hide some of the cuts that will be made. There will be two sections for the roof and it will need sanding to remove some of the lines and to make it smooth in a similar way to the prototype. Then the rest of the unit will be cut into parts. I have numbered the parts for ease of identification. Section 4 will require switching direction to put the doors on the correct side. Section 3 will have plasticard installed over the door to make it look like the door on the X5800 (which is mounted on the outside in a similar way to the door in Section 4). Section 1 will need some work to remove lights that are in the incorrect position and Section 5 may require some serious work to get it looking proper. I am not starting this until I have finished painting the Draisine (which has been a JOY to build!!!). Thanks for reading Stephen

Thanks for that Gordon, the Paris trip is on the cards anyway so I think a quick look in Transmondia could be enjoyable, although it is likely to be expensive! EDIT: Gordon - I hope you had a good time in Switzerland.

After looking at the last pictures I had posted I noticed that the engine housing was slightly off centre and also angling slightly upwards. It was difficult to spot but when I added the back storage box I noticed that there was a definite problem. So I got the scalpol and cut it off, scraped away a small bit of plasticard and reattached it: With the front and back sections added the next thing to do was to add the buffer beams. These were the hardest pieces to cut out as there were plenty of fiddley angles to get right and I had to make a decision not to remove the gaps near the top centre of the buffer beam (see picture below): Therefore I achieved the shape I needed but had to compromise slightly on the detail, at this stage I also painted one of the main bodysides to see how it would look. Here are some pictures of my model next to my future father in laws Jouef Draisine: Following from this I added the buffers which were donated from a Fleischmann wagon that I had aquired on ebay. The buffers were originally round but I sanded them to look more rectangular. I also took the time to paint the body of the Draisine red. It needs another coat and some finer details but its not looking too bad: Here is the Draisine next to my Del Prado X3800: As this project gets nearer to being completed I am looking ahead to my next project. Having taken a liking for the Autorails and having another 2 spare Del Prado X3800's I thought that a good project might be something along the lines of the X5800 units. Some were based in Limoges so could have run along the line in this area and the X3800 could be sliced into pieces and made into the correct shape. In preparation I have ordered a Kato chassis and will be looking at the specifics of how to make the conversion in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading. Stephen

I am planning on using this method to fix the ballest on my new layout. However I may consider adding the PVA mix over the top of the Klear floor polish. Isn't the woodland scenics cement just a diluted form of PVA anyway? Or does it have some magic ingredients in it?

Its looking good. I always like the Japanese N gauge stuff, it makes modelling urban areas a lot easier and it is so smart. However I must keep focussed on my current project otherwise I will be starting yet another layout... Mind you I do need to find a place to run my two Modemo trams.

You might know the answer to this quick question - why is it called Orpherline 1? My father in law doesn't know and he is fluent in French so my best guess is that Orpher is something to do with modelling or trains? Thanks for the information on the shop. I think that Transmodia will be getting the lions share of my spending money but this shop could also get some.

Over the past few days I have made some good progress on the Draisine. However there were a few setbacks, but more on those later. The first task I managed to complete was the glazing of the bodywork. I superglued clear ascetate plastic onto the pieces and then trimmed them to size. Following the glazing I tried the body out on the chassis and found the first set back problem. The chassis was too wide which meant some sanding and filing had to be done to get it to fit properly. Even then it was a squeeze: The second setback was that the body rides slightly too high on the chassis, however this is the absolute lowest it will go and if I had not altered the chassis then yes it could have ridden lower but the chassis would have come through the top. I think that this trade off is not too bad because the wheels seem to be as close to the prototype as I could hope for in this scale with this chassis: This morning I glued the engine housing to the floor and then after it had dried I attached it to the front of the Draisine: It does not look too bad and I am looking forward to attaching the buffer beam to the front to see how that looks. Over the next few days I shall do the back end of the Draisine as well. I think it is starting to look the part and when painted it will really go well in the landscape of the layouts it will run on: One final thing though. I realised that when testing the chassis it cannot operate at decent speeds over insulfrog points. Therefore on the new layout I have decided to go with an Electrofrog turnout. The turnout motor arrived today (a Cobalt from DCC concepts in Australia!) and I have begun work on the storage cassette holders for the new layout. I am hoping to have the track down in the next few weeks. I am quite excited by the prospect of running this train through the rolling landscape at scale speeds!

I wish I could take credit for it but I got the idea here: http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.trainminiaturemagazine.be/newforum/topic.asp%3FTOPIC_ID%3D4259&ei=jP9iTLaqHZWy0gSA2NXgDA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCUQ7gEwAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3D%2522echelle%2Bn%2522%2BDraisine%26hl%3Den Like you say the chassis does not lose any power and still runs about as well as it did before.

I realised they were a fair distance away after ooking properly at the maps. And along the way there are about 15 to 20 guitar shops that would make me drool far too much!!! I know the price of French N Gauge is very expensive. I have seen some locomotives sold for over 1000 Euro's and the Trans Europe Express by Lematec (3 carriage motorised train) is about 1100 Euros!!! I have my eye on some of the cheaper models such as the Mabar ABJ Autorail and the Mikadotrain X73500 both of which are below the 200 Euro figure (which even then I consider to be a steep price to pay!!!). I am also going to visit Opher Line 1 (not Offa Line 1 as I spelt it earlier in the thread) which apparently has an excellent range of models.

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!

Thanks everyone for the speedy replies. I am hoping definitely hoping to go to the 4 shops on the Rue De Douai. They are near to the Gare Du Nord where our train will arrive and also near to the tourist destinations that mean that my other half wont get too offended by me spending loads of time shopping for trains. I am keeping my fingers crossed for some nice Autorails in N gauge!!!

Hello, I am planning a trip for this Autumn that will be taking in the city's of Brussels (our main base), Amsterdam and Paris. I was wondering if anyone on here can reccommend good model shops in or around the centre of any of these places? I will mainly be looking for French N Gauge. I am aware of one in Brussels called Dream Catcher? I am also aware of one in Paris called Offa Line 1 (I was told that name verbally hence it is probably not spelt correctly!). Any help you can give would be fantastic. Cheers Stephen

This is brilliant, thanks for sharing the link. Its a bit slower on Sundays though...

Having spent a bit of time last night researching the various measurements for different componants I had a go at the roof and cutting the windows this morning. This video on youtube has been of great help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIk-dtuwCdI Although it is a computer generated video it shows the vehicle in ways that an ordinary video could not. Last night I completed cutting the components for the outer layer of the engine housing. This morning I cut a piece of balsa wood to side and sanded it into the shape I needed for the roof. After this I checked my research for the shape and measurements of the windows and then cut out the windows from the sides: I then did the same with the front and rear windows: Before these components are glued together I intend to try and angle the windows inwards a little as they are on the prototype. I have filed them slightly so that they are kind of in that direction but it is not noticable enough at the moment. I think this is one of the most problematic issues facing this build at the moment, because of the size of the vehicle in N Gauge it is difficult to make these very minor adjustments without breaking the bits of plasticard. I am hoping that when I add the glazing I might be able to work out a way of encouraging the sides to slope inwards gently. As well as cutting the windows I cut a hole in the front of the cabin in tront of where the engine housing is going to be placed. The chassis that I purchased is going to be repositioned so that the top of the engineblock is just in front of this hole. On top of the engine block of this chassis is a small directional lighting LED which will (I hope) shine through this hole and then through the two holes I will be drilling into the front section of the engine housing to give me lighting for the vehicle. I need to smooth the cut edges down a little and start the preparation painting of various components. However until the chassis arrives I can only make some minor preparation work on the vehicle. I think this project (so far) has been the most enjoyable thing I have done in terms of modelling.

Hi Claude Thanks for the comments. The second of the two is the one I ordered. I did look at both of these but they are both too high to allow the Draisine to run at a scale height (it would put it at over 3 metres and it is actually 2 metres 30 or therabouts...). I have seen a technique on the internet of a way of removing the back wheels from the chassis and resoldering them in a position which would move the motor from being upright to being on its side. This would reduce the height to just fit inside the body. I did see someone on a French forum having a go at one of these and they used a Kato shorty chassis. Unfortunately this made it look a little too large (although it did look very well done). 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

Thanks for those tips, they are very useful.