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Matloughe

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  1. Matloughe
    Good Evening,
     
    I haven't done a Blog Post for some time however I felt like this was a good time to do one. Welcome to my mini-review of the Ixion O Gauge 16" Hudswell Clarke model.
     
    I decided to keep things very simple and limit it to three pictures. Now I have followed the Ixion Website for quite some time now and the photos on there were absolutely fantastic; however opening the box and seeing the product in the flesh was truly amazing. The packaging from Ixion is exquisite - both functional in terms of how it performs its function and has an adequate level of information on the box to be able to see at a glance what the product is - plus the overall red colour scheme is different to other manufacturers.

    The box lid is red and has a technical drawing of the locomotive on the outside plus all the information labelled on it. The box is in two pieces so sliding the red lid off reveals a white tray containing the locomotive securely packaged between a sandwich of moulded polystyrene - which is easy to extract the locomotive from and very sufficient to hold it in place during transit. I noted no movements whilst picking the box up, turning it upside down etc so top marks for well thought out, and not overly excessive packaging.
     
    The Locomotive itself; as I said before I have done research on the prototype and been an ardent follower of the progress on the Ixion website - however none of this prepared me for opening the box and seeing the real locomotive inside - its a stunner! Weighing in at nearly 600g its much heavier then my other O Gauge Locomotive I have however I think from what I have seen of its performance the weight is an asset most certainly. Please ignore the odd pinky buffer beams - that was my camera not processing the red in the direct light properly.

    The model is straight out of the box; as shown on the Ixion Website it comes with etched brass Makers Plates, Number Plates & Nameplates I haven't fitted any of those yet this is the virgin out-of-the-box RTR engine and in all honesty I think its a beauty. Originally I had planned to get the green version, being a devotee of the Southern however after seeing the Livery photos the Maroon stood out as the 'must have' colour scheme. Also included in the box is a nice set of fire irons, coal shovels a bucket etc for personalising your locomotive.

    there is also some very nice cab detail including representations of the pressure gauges, regulator & reverser as well as a handbrake handle etc. As can be seen the locomotive is set up for Right-Hand Drive and the cab feels very light & airy and just crying out for a crew to be fitted. There is no moulded coal in the bunker however the bunker is about half an inch deep and a quarter of an inch wide so there is plenty of room for adding such a detail.
     
    There has been some complaints over the running characteristics of the locomotive - however my example was tested prior to dispatch and although I was quite hesitant I was exceedingly pleased and relieved to see that it ran perfectly, first time out of the box with no issues. Especially important considering the only controller I had to hand was a Graham Farish N Gauge Power Box which produced some lovely slow speed running. The engine is wired for all-wheel pickup, between that and the flywheel I was unable to make the locomotive stall on my Peco Points at all, furthermore on its slowest speed the engine took just over 15 minutes to traverse a yard of track - such performance I have only seen before on 00 Gauge DCC Locomotives.
     
    All in all I believe this is a fantastic locomotive; Ixion has ticked all the boxes I feel for this release. And although considered 'pricey' for a ready-to-run locomotive I feel its justified. For example a DCC Sound Locomotive in 00 Gauge would be a similar price - and generally speaking although an O Gauge Kit could be obtained & completed for a marginally more modest sum - it would be highly unlikely for that to happen in my book.
    Over all a fantastic engine, great price-point, seems reliable from my testing and I feel I would recommend anyone thinking of looking into O Gauge to look at this locomotive as a great little shunter. Now if you'll excuse me - I am off to finish planning that Branch-Line Terminus in O Gauge.
  2. Matloughe
    Hello & Welcome,
     
    Today's entry is something a little different, still keeping with the theme of myself using me inexperience to bumble through making kits much to your amusement. However today we shall be swapping the comfortable world of Stephensons Gauge and working on something a little slimmer. Yes today Is my introduction to O14 scale; and the starter kit from KBscale. I should point out here and now I have nothing to do with KBscale - aside from being a satisfied customer. The story starts when I found £25 in an old jacket I was packing away - clearly left over from some forgotten night out a long time ago. So I decided to spend it on something I have always wanted to do and after some research on the Narrow Gauge comparing options I was torn between O-16.5 or O14. Now a long time ago I wrote some stories for an English Literature project about a small narrow gauge railway being coaxed along whilst on the edge of oblivion aside from the A* mark I got and the entertainment it is providing my 4 year old cousin at bedtime it sparked an interest - I also live about 15 minutes away from the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway which fascinated me as a child so you can see why I elected for O14.
     
    Now enough rambling, after parting with some of my cash and a few days later (plus a lovely personal email telling me the items had been dispatched) this came through the door:

     
    All looked rather imposing to me; there were several versions of the starter pack I plumped for the £10 version as it gave me two 18' track panels worth of materials, a kit platform wagon to build & run on the newly completed track, and a brass track gauge that has four different uses. There were other cheaper options that had less materials in them as well but I went for this one as it was reasonable in cost and contained useful items likely to retain an interest. Opening the pack we can see what everything boils down to:
     

    The contents all laid out; here we have 4 lengths of rail, 12 sleepers, a packet of pins/spikes, the gauge, the wagon kit, a 'I love O14' badge and of course what I referred to quite a lot the Instructions. One very good thing to note is that the track panels illustrated on the instructions are to actual size so you can use them as a template for building the items, photo copies might be a good idea.

    Close up
     
    Right on to business, we'll start with the track.
    For the purposes of this blog/mini review I should state for the record now my most experience with track work is cutting sleepers off of Peco 00 Gauge track & points to make it all fit together properly in the layout that I wanted and even this was a shock from me after working for many years with Hornby track where nothing like that is required (I've only recently started using flexi-track with my 00 layout Bishops Park).
     
    Right I stated with laying the sleepers at either end and pinning the rail to them lightly - just enough to have 'fixed' points with which to work with. For this project I couldn't find any scraps of wood so I appropriated my stillborn 2011 boxfile for the purpose shoving some scrap cork in the bottom and keeping the retaining wall it is worryingly starting to look a little like a layout is forming.


    While I was working early on and to reassure myself I utilised a wheelset from the platform wagon to ensure everything moved smoothly - a little while into the build I changed tacks and decided that I had better use the brass gauge for what it was intended for and this made things much easier as I could hold the rails to the correct gauge prior to pinning them down rather then having to jiggle them around a little to obtain the correct gauge after they have been secured - seems obvious but I like to try several different methods and ascertain which is the best one for continued use. Using a ruler to maintain the correct sleeper spacing and with the much better technique the rest of the sleepers went down nicely.

    With the end points fixed it was relatively easy to slide the intermediate sleepers under the rails - in this photo you can see the technique employed - using the middle pins to keep the sleeper in place and the track gauge obviously then secure the outer pins in place and then gently push all four home and tweak the heads so they catch onto the web of the rail and hold it down. Its just like real track laying in miniature - I expect the few profanities uttered by myself would not sound out of place in a track working gang either. As can be seen the sleepers already have holes at the correct gauge each rail has two spikes/pins each side facing opposing directions to try and keep the rail in check and stop it moving. The ruler I was using to line the ends of the sleepers up but gives an idea of the scale of the components used.
    The finished product:

     
    Now the second half of my mini blog/review/bumbling about is on the wagon that came with the pack - from what I can tell it is a Hudson platform wagon. And is the most simple kit to build I have come across - a little bit fiddly in one specific place but aside from that very nicely thought out.

    This is the components out of the bag, please note that inside the oval frame of the wagon contains the axleboxes and couplings so don't throw these away as you will need them. The wheelsets come with brass cups to put inside the axleboxes and this version is an unbraked plain wagon. Have the items cut from one another:

     
    Its very simple to put together firstly I cleaned the flash off the wagon parts then put the brass top hat bearings into the axleboxes and then using Poly-Cement glued one set of axleboxes to the oval frame of the wagon - simples. Now while this was drying I put the smaller parts together to avoid them getting lost or damaged and after it dried I added more glue into the other side of the frame then the fiddly part of pushing the wheels into the brass bearings and encouraging the second set of axleboxes to adhere to the frame was a feat which a third had is much needed due to the size of the components involved. However after some encouragement, tidying up and setting off of glue I can proudly present the following:

     
    Looks good to me, the retaining wall seems to dwarf it somewhat. What makes it look really small is when you add some standard gauge wagons into the mix:


     
    Keeping in mind this is all 7mm/foot scale the difference is mind boggling. I hope you have enjoyed my blog/mini review I certainly enjoyed building the items; top marks to KBscale for producing a nice simple starter kit for introduction to O14 scale. I suppose I had better get on and lay the second track panel and tell myself that this isn't a layout... its a test... not a layout... a test...
    Thank you very much.
    ~ Gary
  3. Matloughe

    Bodging a Box Van

    By Matloughe,

    Good Afternoon,
     
    Before you read any further I must issue a warning, this kit was assembled by myself. An amateur at kit assembly and very much fumbling my way through into the new territory of 7mm Scale. The following blog post contains examples of poor technique, possible rushed assembly and some extremely close up photography that may make the professional wince - viewer discretion is advised.
     
    A bit of history first - as is standard for one of my blog posts. I bought this kit off of ebay on a whim and I have to say it has been very enjoyable to build it seemed like a slightly older kit and didn't contain much in the way of instructions unlike the Peco Wagon kit I attempted a few months back. This is a bad thing as the kit has provided me with much needed experience and figuring out what actually goes where - plus I have experienced what a Slaters kit is like to put together. This kit arrived from the postie yesterday afternoon:

    And looked something like this
     
    What I have noticed during the build is the wagon illustrated on the box - is not the wagon in the kit; what was inside was infact a Midland Railway 8 Ton van instead of the 10 Ton variant shown on the box the next photo will illustrate the differences note the left hand side framing.
     

    Sides & end assembled - roof merely resting as a test fit.
     
    Compared to the Peco kit there was a lot of flash to remove from the mouldings and the plastic itself felt much tougher to cut through. As the glue was curing off I manipulated the four sides and held them together whilst watching an episode of Blackadder on DVD to get a much more 'square' fit. The next job I decided on was to fit the couplings and buffers and then to leave the wagon to harden off overnight. During this time I found the portal through which small objects seem to vanish through (every modeller has one somewhere) so this resulted in the buffers at one end being 'set' in a position and glued there - none of the buffers are sprung in this kit I should add at this point. Furthermore I discovered that it is much easier to fit the buffers and coupling arrangements to the ends before assembling the floor - I spent some time struggling after the floor unit was installed late last night.
     


    This is the state of play as of this morning.
     
    Incidentally the glue I have assembled this and the previous Peco wagon kit with is UHU multipurpose adhesive - I found it useful to be able to 'adjust' aspects as the glue was curing off - however as a much later & cringeworthy photo will show it can provide some entertainment later on when it comes to scraping it off but this is easily done provided the joint has set correctly the excess simply scrapes off with little effort.
     

    Todays work involved fitting the solebars and axles to produce a rolling chassis.
     
    It can just be seen in this photo and more noticeable in the next that overnight I assume the end nearest the camera must have moved or rested in an odd position as it was curing off - as it has moved away from the vertical and as a result the solebar doesn't quite reach to the van end producing a slight gap. In the normal viewing position however it is not that noticeable and I imagine it will be less visible once it has been painted.
     

    Van End
     
    When the van is buffered up to the Peco Wagon - and also to the Lima shunter it is plainly visible that it rides too high - I am not sure if this is my assembly method (I suspect it is) or a mis-alignment in the kit as I assembled it as carefully as I could without instructions - Perhaps I've missed a step somewhere and that is the cause of the ride height - however the wheel sets have cured off now and it'll prove nearly impossible to alter the height without major demolition of the kit. I am happy with the outcome especially without instructions I feel like I have achieved something.
     

    The 'cringe shot'
     
    I've included this because its a perfect example of how the kit went together and has been latterly cleaned up - I feel too many people are afraid to start building kits for fear of making a mistake or like this over 'egg the cake' as it were. I know I certainly was - but I also know from experience that most of this will come off with a little care & patience its all part of the learning process. Plus I love the "MR" initials on the axlebox cover - its a detail that couldn't be seen in OO Gauge and that is what tempted me to the 'Senior Scale'. A very enjoyable build and has shown me some pointers for assembling a kit in the future.
     
    I leave you with a few over views with the Lima Shunter and the Peco kit I made a few months ago. The width of the Lima shunter is astounding - I am looking forwards to Ixion's Hudswell Clarke locomotive which I have on order. With this box van I still need to add underframe details such as brakes - however for today I am content to shuffle it backwards and forwards observing the couplings taking up the slack.


     
    The next question is of detailing - the kit included vent louvres to make the van a specialised 'Fruit Van' or I can omit them and keep it as a general purpose 8 Ton Van. Decisions, Decisions.
     
    Cheers,
    ~ Gary
  4. Matloughe
    Good Evening,
     
    I haven't done much with the Ginny since last time - the body has been sprayed in Red undercoat and it is a very nice finish for Halfords spray paint - I will be using their Carmine Red colour for the bodywork for the topcoat.

    State of play at the moment, I think I am going to paint the underframe tomorrow in the absence of anything better to do currently. I have a nice tin of Black paint which is similar to blackboard paint that I think will provide a good finish for the underframe.
     
    The only real interesting piece of news is since my layout has been converted to DCC I have decided to take the brave step of converting this shuttle car to DCC and install lighting in it. I've drawn up a wiring diagram based on what I think is the requirements I will be needing - there is only one alteration I might make which I shall explain in a moment. I have drawn up a lighting diagrame for the project:

    As we know the Acton Shuttle is made up of G23 Driving motors that have been modified for single working. The original end, with the most shutters like the link below:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/rownd/4986110367/
    Is what I am classing as my 'D' end and technically will be the back of the train - is will be because the motor is technically sitting the wrong way round in the motor bogie frame (as the instructions rightly say) So the rebuilt end will be the 'Front or A' end because it is sitting over the motor bogie.
     
    The wiring diagram - provided I have drawn it right, will have the directionally correct head & tail lights working off of the F0 key, additionally the cab light will illuminate at the end with the head light lit as well, and the tail light lit at the opposite end. On the model only the two left-hand most light shutters are depicted as 'open' so both ends will have the Head & Tail light combination as shown above, with the tail light above the headlight - I might change it over on the other end with the tail light in the bottom corner I haven't decided yet, more research is required before I place any LEDs in place- I have also been considering a bi-polar LED at the D End which has the ability to show either red or white dependant on direction of travel so I might model the D end with two white lights one doubling as the tail light while the A End will only be red and white singly dependant on the direction of travel - might be interesting.
    Now if I have understood the DCC wiring correctly when I drew this up the Passenger Saloon will also have interior lights linked to the F1 key on the decoder allowing me to run the train 'in-service' with saloon lights or 'ECS' with the saloon lights off but still showing head & tail lights. For the passenger saloon I have been considering the use of a commercial LED Light bar to simplify matters rather then individual LED's wired in Series or Parallel as show in the above diagramme - this is why the Green wire simply links to Coach Interior lighting rather then specifics.
     
    All LED's are planned to be the 'Warm White' colour to simulate the use of conventional incandescent Tungsten bulbs used throughout LT at that time. As a interesting fact in the prototype the bulbs were wired with six bulbs in series as a 'set' and between six or eight sets per coach - so if one bulb blew it would knock out six at a time until it was replaced.
     
    I hope this has been interesting, and now its time for me to get the soldering Iron out and warm whilst I order the specifics needed to install lighting. Now where am I going to install that decoder...
     
    ~ Gary
  5. Matloughe

    Livery Consistancy

    By Matloughe,

    Good Evening,
     
    I've been fiddling about on the layout having a 'runnng session' working out some tweaks for the track layout and what works and doesn't work. Half-way through the afternoon I felt a change of era, from BR (S) to Southern Railway - perfect as it gave me the opportunity to run my new A1X Terrier from Hornby - the first Terrier released in a 'Mainland' Southern Railway livery - all previous Southern Liveried Terriers have been based on Isle of Wight examples - with the wrong bunker as well but I digress.
     
    Very quickly I noticed the livery didn't match the coaches, some of Hornby's brilliant Maunsells in SR Olive Green livery. The new terrier is much darker in livery resembling BR (S) in some lighting conditions.
    So I raided the box and pulled out my Southern Olive Green M7, which matches the Maunsells perfectly, also my Hornby IoW Terrier W11 which has a slightly different shade but matches the coaches alright - last but not least my Dapol Terrier in Olive Green as well 2635.
     
    Now the question that springs to mind is how hard is it to match a livery? The T9, M7, Maunsells and Van C match perfectly, W11 being older is slightly different but matches ok aside from the Southern lettering & Number being much more yellow. And the new livery much darker, that's three takes on Olive Green Livery. Also the wheels on the new Terrier I['ve just noticed are a different much more 'olive' shade again - how bizzare.
     

    New Terrier # 2662 and Dapol Terrier 2635, with Maunsell BCK. Note wheels are a different shade of green to the body.
     

    Hornby M7, Dapol Terrier & New Hornby Terrier - never noticed how much larger M7's are.
     

    Dapol Terrier & New Hornby Terrier back to back with a Maunsell Carriage in the background.
     

    Old Hornby W11 Terrier and new Terrier, M7 in background. In this picture the M7 and Terrier appear to be the same colour
     

    Hornby Terrier and Dapol Terrier.
     
    Now aside from the livery variations the new Terrier has been impressing me severely. For performance it is very happy crawling along with a heavy load at slow speeds, the Terrier managed to restart a train of 11 coaches, 2 Maunsells, 3 Bullied & 6 Mark I's on a scale gradient of 1 in 17 on a curve without an issue - definitely something the prototype would now be able to do. And ran perfectly out of the box with no real attention - before its haulage test the locomotive was given a light oiling and she strolled off with no issues.
    I am extremely happy with a purchase especially at the price of £49.99 from Smallworld of Barnstaple - no connection just a very satisfied customer. Ordered it and it was in store within three days - over a weekend. Now next plans are to modify a LB&SCR Terrier with the addition of wingplates to represent an A1 condition locomotive.
     
    Thank you for reading.
    ~ Gary (Matloughe)
  6. Matloughe
    Apologies but Photobucket was being un-cooperative last night, so I couldn't link in the photos to my description.
     

    On bogies at both ends, this is the trailing bogie. I will need to glue on a whitemetal shoebeam at some point as well.
     

    Motored end; the body is just resting on the pivot here so one axle isn't in contact with the rails - once it is screwed down at the correct location this will not happen.
     

    Apologise, blurry undersize. The RH Trailing bogie has had the whitemetal bolster 'borrowed' to connect it to the body as seen here. The small screwdriver roughly marks the point where the motor bogie will be bolted into the underframe.
     

    Blurry close-up of the Trailing Bogie arrangement.
     

    Top-down view of the bogies position relative to their position on the underframe.
     

    Shot taken this morning, was a nice sight to wake up to.
     
    Next step painting, red oxide primer for the roof and bodywork, body will get a coat of red paint. And under frame & bogies will be painted black.
     
    Many Thanks,
    ~ Gary
  7. Matloughe
    O Gauge is indeed seductive, I have been patient. I ordered a Wagon the end of last month and it arrived yesterday. So today; I have spent some time putting it together. A Must enjoyable experience - especially looking back at the empty sprues and realising that you have put it together. It's a GWR 4-Plank wagon kit by Peco. So far today I have managed to build the sides, and the chassis which is more free running then I imagined it would be.
     
    Here is a photo of how the wagon stands currently.

     
    Next jobs are to fit the brake gear, and the buffers and coupling hooks. Aside from that the basic wagon is complete. the doors I am going to fix shut - despite being able to model them as working - I don't really intend to have working doors. So far I am impressed - the size and scale of the wagon become apparent as I was putting it together. I do believe I may have just been bitten by the O Gauge bug... As far as I have seen there appears to be no cure only a prescribed course of products to make the best use of the condition.
     
    I know its not a very important blog update - After all I am not building a scale model of an A4 or Bullied Pacific just a humble 4-Wheel wagon for my humble beginnings. Ironically my first wagon in OO Gauge was a GW 4-Plank. Spooky.
     
    Cheers,
    ~ Matloughe
  8. Matloughe
    Hello,
     
    This morning I was awoken by the Postie on a rare Saturday delivery; he had my loco I just bought off of eBay. A 00 Gauge Wills Finecast SE&CR P Class all built all for the princely sum of £20. Bargain, so I up-wrapped the package with my tea this morning only to find that inside was not a P Class, but a SER R1 Class locomotive upon further inspection it is a Hornby Dublo plastic body ontop of a incomplete EM Gauge chassis.
     
    Irritated to some extent which I discovered it being EM Gauge by the locomotive refusing to sit on my 00 Gauge track (quite understandably) Recently I have been disposing of alot of my surplus 00 Gauge stock, however recent thoughts have surfaced being perhaps I should dispose of it all and start afresh, my mind has for years been wandering to O Gauge I saw a number of fantastic layout several years back at Scaleforum South and have never quite been the same since. Today I am off to Barnstaple MRC exhibition to have a browse. I might even take the plunge and buy a O Gauge kit to satisfy my curisosity.
     
    If any member see me meandering around, I'll be in nondescript combats & white t shirt then please say Hi you'll probably find me lingering over the O Gauge layouts with a look of deliberation.
     
    Cheers,
    ~ Matloughe
  9. Matloughe
    I've finally decided to get around to finishing this one off; bought it god knows when and it's only been out of the box a handful of times.
     
    Cleaned up the resin bodywork this afternoon; there was only a little bit of flash to remove that was mainly on the small tilting quarter-lights where I had missed bits first time around; one thing I have had to remember very quickly is that the model is 'handed' it took me two or three attempts before I realised the floor of the unit goes in a certain way.

     
    I've been thinking about the next step; painting, There is a white metal trailer bogie to assemble - however I am of the opinion that i'll have to paint it first which is good practice. Rather then assemble and then paint as then I'll have a model that doesn't go anywhere. At least if I get the underframe painted then I can assemble it and have a powered chassis - the bodywork is taking some deliberation. I don't model London Transport at the moment, the Acton Shuttle was a moment of indulgence when I was planning an LU boxfile layout that never materialised. (I do have a 4' x 1' board spare now I think of it...)
     
    Its silly little things like do I want a grey/white painted roof? Or when I undercoat the body in red oxide shall I just give the roof a couple of more coats and leave it in that? Its hard to tell the roof colour in B&W photos, if anyone knows or remembers the units (G Stock, or Q23 Stock) could they let me know as I wasn't born until 30 years after they were withdrawn.
     
    Trip to Halfords, need paint & superglue for the white metal chassis. Hopefully I can update this on a regular basis.
     
    ~ G
  10. Matloughe
    Good Afternoon,
     
    I have done some more work on Ginny, one of the benefits of being unemployed is lots of spare time - downside is no real money to spend on doing something you want to do like modelling. where I left off is the main body had been cleaned of flash & test fitted to make sure it is fine; since then I have cleaned up the resin motor bogie shroud that was clean of flash snipped the Spud's axles and fitted the resin shroud as well.
     
    The trailing bogie however caused me a significant number of issues - as I originally thought it would, test fitting together & everything seemed to be fine looked all right until I test fitted with the axles in place. (I test fit my model a number of times to ensure that I am thoroughly familiar with the assembly procedure prior to actual assembly, call it OCD if you wish.)
    The white metal bogie wasn't square upon further investigation one of the end pieces (a bolster) I believe is the technical term, was 1.5mm short so I did the stupid thing of filing 1.5mm off of the bolster at the other end - lovely and square... unfortunately the bogie is now too narrow to accept the axles. That was about three weeks ago and I had put the model to one side while I brooded over the subject - Ginny has appeared in one of my layout plan threads since then and if you look carefully the trailing end is actually jacked & packed on spare pieces of track to give the correct appearance for the camera.
     
    Then latterly I had a brainwave, I was reading the Metropolitan Rolling Stock book before bed (call it light reading, the ladyfriend wasn't texting me back that night - I had upset her over something trivial.) And reading about Dreadnought Coaches it told me that in the 1930's Dreadnoughts gained K2 Type trailing bogies from withdrawn District Stock because their own Fox Bogies were cracking. What is the connection?
    Radley Models have a resin Dreadnought Bogie as a separate item, and after checking photographs it is in fact a K2 Type Bogie. So dutifully ordered there & then, the bogie arrived today. All test fitted together it looks a right treat. Next step is a trip to Halfords for some Red Oxide paint and then we'll see some real progress - everything has been waiting for being able to get a 'rolling chassis'
     
    One thing I am concerned about is gapping the Spud Motor only having a small fixed wheelbase to pickup from any suggestions on how to fit a trailing pickup prior to painting? I am rather oblivious.
     
    Cheers,
    ~ Gary
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