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Ravenser

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  1. Ravenser
    This blog hasn't been too active recently. Not a lot has happened on the layout in the last 18 months , though it's been up and run a few time. I had some time for modelling in the early part of last year , but that was almost completely absorbed by a bout of stock building. Only some of that was written up in my workbench blog , and I must add the other items.
     
    Basically the idea was to try to sort out the outstanding/stalled projects , plus the easy bits and pieces then get stuck into some of the major projects I've been meaning to do for so long. Needless to say, what actually happened was that I made limited progress with a couple of stalled projects, finished off a few bits and pieces , started several new wagon kits and didn't finish them , weathered a couple of items and only really managed one modest new project....
     
    Somewhere well down the blog , I mentioned the very long list of started or possible layout projects I have : http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-5665-the-donkey-and-the-bales-of-straw/
     
    Since then there has been a development - a simplification in one sense, a complication in another. The GE branch terminus project which was mooted by a group I'm involved with seems to have drifted into limbo. We haven't seen one key player , who was to build the boards, for about a year because of domestic circumstances , and there's no imminent prospect of anything happening.
     
    Having acquired a discount Hornby L1 during the year because it might be suitable for the GE BLT , as well as to "support the cause" in terms of manufacturers producing LNER locos, I find myself with a modest amount of steam era stuff that has no obvious use. The thought occured to me that I might be able to muster enough to run a steam era period on Blacklade. This would not be very authentic - the station will have corporate image nameplates and so forth - but at least the steam stuff would get used occasionally rather than spending the rest of its existance in its boxes.
     
    What I actually have is a Bachmann 4MT 2-6-0, and O4, a Hornby L1 , a secondhand whitemetal N5 (all in BR black) and a detailed Hornby Dublo 20 in green. I'm likely to get a Bachmann J11: in the mid 1950s 40C (Louth) had C12s, J11s, and N5s , so I need to have one , and the recent future of kitbuilding thread seemed to suggest that the Craftsman C12 was an excellent easy to build kit . Perhaps I should try it... Diesels could be added, and DMUs - and at this point a problem became apparent.
     
    Coaches - Blacklade being a passenger layout.
     
    At the moment I don't actually have any serviceable and complete steam era coaches for any of these locos to pull.
     
    What I do have is a very motley assortment of basically unbuilt kits:
     
    - 2 Ratio ex LNWR corridor kits. These were to provide the branch set on the GE terminus . If this seems bizarre, the LMS off-loaded some of these vehicles on the M&GNJR in 1936, shortly before walking away from the joint venture leaving the LNER holding the baby . These coaches might well have been found eking out their final days in LNER brown on some minor branch in the late 1940s /early 1950s . If you consider what kits might be available for other pregrouping coaches more typical of the early 50s GE Section , how difficult they would be to source and build for a novice, and what they might cost, you will see the thinking here.
     
    - a second hand BSL kit for a Gresley steel composite
     
    - a battered Ratio MR suburban first, built in my early teens and not well finished
     
    - a Ratio GW 4 wheeler ditto, whose chassis isn't square, and which can be discounted
     
    - a secondhand BSL kit for a Gresley Buffet. This can also be discounted
     
    - Various Mk1 and Mk2 project coaches, some in blue/grey and none really suitable for local services to a minor urban terminus in the 1950s
     
    - An unbuilt Dapol/Branchlines railbus kit, meant for the GE BLT
     
    - DC Kits' Test Car Iris, which isn't really fundamental to Blacklade, and is therefore nowhere on the work list. I was already inclining towards doing it in late 90s overall green , as this would be much easier than the blue/salmon RTC livery , even if the latter might look more attractive and be appropriate for Blacklade's "early" period (1985-90). Of course this,was originally built in 1956 for minor branchline service on the LMR, and wore green . So it wouldn't look immediately out of place in a mid /late 1950s LMR local service
     
    - a Triang Maunsell Passenger Luggage Van , passed to me third -hand after someone had gone most of the way upgrading it with the Roxey kit
     
    The problem is obvious - not only is nothing actually built, only one kit is a brake coach so forming sets is very difficult.
     
    I had been hoping to pair the Gresley composite with one of Hornby's Gresley or Thompson non-gangwayed brakes. But they were very pricy , it wasn't urgent, I was waiting for them to be discounted - and when I looked around late last year I found the brakes had all disappeared from the shelves. No matter - what about a Kirk kit? Much cheaper. I phoned the model shop near where I was then working , only to learn he had none left and wasn't expecting any more until some time in 2013. Chivers Pigeon van and another short coach? (we're getting desperate). Chivers kits are out of stock...
     
    This left me searching for ideas, especially as money is relatively tight at present , and I'm not prepared to spend large sums on a sideline like this.
     
    The most suitable, cheapest and easiest to build brake coaches I could come up with were a kit-form Dapol LMS ungangwayed brake third, and a Ratio MR suburban brake . I duly went to St Albans last weekend ,and acquired a Dapol Crimson ungangwayed brake third for under a tenner.
     
    I also spotted a Silver Fox Baby Deltic body kit for £15 - which after a moment's thought, I went for. I have toyed with the idea of doing a Baby Deltic in the past, and I even sourced some mechanical bits: with a bit of modeller's licence D5901 in her RTC days might just be faintly credible in one of the proper periods (Perhaps she was preserved......)
     
    It had also dawned on me that I don't actually have any useable green diesels at the moment either. The Hornby Dublo 20 is one of those models which are nearly impossible to DCC: one brush holder is integral with the chassis block, which is electrically live. Certainly it's far beyond my capacity to convert. I have a detailed blue 29 , with one slightly damaged grill, which is not DCC . I have a spare Hornby 29 body, acquired with faint ideas of producing an early NBL Type 2 for someone else's London area layout , but they went EM.. And I have a second spare Airfix 31 body, and a spare Athearn PA1 chassis and some very faint aspirations towards a green 31 for the GE BLT. Maybe something can be done with an old Lima 20.
     
    I've now driven over to a model shop about 15 miles away and acquired a Ratio MR suburban brake, and a few relevant bits , and for about £50 total outlay , we look to be in business . Three 2 car rakes and a green Type 2 should now be possible with modest effort. I need to fit decoders to the L1 and 4MT . The N5 is parked in the "too hard" basket for the moment, since the chassis is live to the rail on one side. Most of the stock can come from the pile of unbuilt projects, which should be suitably reduced. I even have very wild ideas about a possible project involving two Dapol non-gangwayed brakes, a Black Beetle and a 1956 Derby experiment with a DMU conversion
     
    All a bit of a diversion from my main interests, and it's definitely not going to be a strictly prototypical mix of stock - but if it gets stuff out of the cupboard, built and into use, so much the better
  2. Ravenser

    Good Intentions

    By Ravenser,

    This posting should have been called New Year's Resolutions but that posting was cancelled due to a shortage of serviceable rolling stock and delays to the inbound service.....
     
    I'm still trying to clear the decks of projects started last year, before starting anything new . However one small project - a rework of an old Mainline GW Mink to supply a van for parcels tail traffic for the steam stock - has slipped through the net and is now at the weathering stage.
     

     
    Still outstanding is completion of the NRX van conversion, which is almost there; the Baby Deltic, which has a nearly finished body and much of the chassis done; and a final matt varnish coat on the two Shark brake vans (one Cambrian and one Hornby)
     
    That leaves on the bookcase the long-term inhabitants: a mostly finished Bratchill 150 missing one etched window frame, a Hornby Pacer rebuild which I started and haven't finished, the Smallbrook WD road van, and a partbuilt vintage Parkside kit for an LNER Toad B . Since the Smallbrook kit is resin and I only dare work that outside, that kit will have to wait for warm light days. There is also a Branchlines 04 chassis kit part built and a part built etched brass LNER van (a DOGA starter kit) that have both been stalled for years, and are hardly on the to-do list at all....
     
    Of that lot, only the Pacer would definitely be of immediate use and I really ought to finish it off this year.
     
    In the meantime income may again be tight this year, so yet again I'm resolved not to go out spending on new projects. Despite my best resolutions 2014 saw various acquisitions - a GBL Jinty and Butler Henderson (plus a cheap Hornby 0-6-0T to motorise the latter), a Bachmann J11 and 10001 , both of which ought to be weathered at some point. But at least not much money was spent , and I'm not planning any RTR acquisitions this year (unless Bachmann somehow deliver a C12 for Christmas or Charlie Petty does a W Yorks 144 in early red).
     
    I've got quite enough stuff to sort out already.
     
    The first new project is slated to be an Iain Kirk 51' LNER full brake , which is needed to complete a proper steam age parcels train. The Hornby LMS CCT can be weathered at the same time.
     
    I've got a number of locos which are in need of decoders and new couplings , and weathering or rework.
    Top of that list is a Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T which would address the noticeable shortage of steam traction in the steam era (and the total lack of LMR steam on an allegedly LMR layout). I also need, finally, to face up to putting a decoder in my Bachmann Standard 4MT 2-6-0. Chipping the Lima 37 (which will need detailing up) and the dormant 29 , which needs some small repair, is rather less urgent.
     
    A rummage through all my boxes at New Year in search of something else turned up treasure - both the packets of MTK 155 underframe castings I bought at DEMU Showcase a few years ago from the late Alaister Rolfe. They were in separate boxes, which is why I had become convinced I had only bought one packet.
     
    The importance of this is that Sprinter DMU underframe castings are a key detailing item currently completely off the market. Hurst Models has quietly slipped into an almost dormant state, and seems unlikely to reappear - it looks very much as if a few residual items are being slowly cleared. That has removed their 156 castings from the market. And although the MTK moulds passed with the rest of NNK to Phoenix Precision, the castings are known to be split over several moulds and though Phoenix would like to rerun the 155 castings, they admit they don't actually know on which moulds they are to be found....
     
    So - a full scale rework of the elderly W Yorks 155 is on the cards. It's always run surprisingly well, but it's currently stopped because the black box fouls some of the dummy point motors I installed 18 months ago. I'm fully aware this is an attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but with a detailed underframe, a full (and painted) interior, a fake painted solebar, detailed gangways, close coupling, Kadees and lighting I might get something passable. The biggest unsolved issue is probably flushglazing.
     
    Then there are a clutch of electrical projects to finish.
     
    The external CDU for the boxfile is done, and attention turns to Tramlink, where one board needs rewiring as the feed wire has come off its connection. Arguably the whole thing needs rewiring , to install point motors, a better interboard board connector, attach the external CDU , and probably relay one point.
     
    There is an Erkon ground signal to build for Blacklade, with a decoder to install to work it - and I might build the spare colour light kits as route indicators for the fiddle yard roads
     
    This is before I even contemplate the possibility of dabbling with some trams, and then there's the idea of building the Judith Edge Vanguard Steelman kit - I'm sure I have a suitable Beetle in stock
     
     
    The 108 needs weathering and populating, the station building needs finishing.......
     
    I really mean to build the 128 kit this year
     
    Plenty to keep me busy , even if I find I have a little more time this year
  3. Ravenser
    I have a few problems with my Hornby 31 derailing when running through the crossover at the end of Platform 2 if set to cross over. As this is part of the run round loop and as the 31 is currently diagrammed for any loco hauled trains (parcels, engineers etc) this is a problem
     
    The problem is caused by the fact that these points don't always close tight when thrown - arising from the fact that I used the wire supplied by Tortoise, instead of replacing it with something thicker and stiffer. I've replaced the throw wires on the other points , but it's now going to be the devils own job to do it on the platform end crossover.
     
    However as my Airfix 31 seems to take the relevant crossover in its stride , there's an obvious fix. I always intended to detail the Airfix model at some point anyway and if I want operate a Loco Hauled Substitute set (2 coach MK1/Mk2Z rake) to cover a DMU shortage - as happened not infrequently in the 1980s - I need a second Type 2 to work it Minories-style (Platform 2 is too short to take 31 + 2 x 64' coaches - a pair of 50' vans is the limit - and this is the only platform with access to the loop. The crossover in question was originally added to the plan to give access to the fuelling point , and the fact it gave me a loop was a bonus) . I've got the blue/grey coaches - all I need is a second loco
     
    The Airfix 31 was bought new in the late 70s for my first modern image layout, and has been stored in its box ever since that unsuccessful project was finally abandoned. It has been given a decoder , and runs well considering what it is, but is otherwise untouched. I also acquired a finished 31 body when Dapol were selling off the remaining stocks of discontinued items some years , and the intention is to detail this spare body and substitute it. Kadees must also be fitted to the chassis.
     
    I have a further rather battered 31 body in stock, plus a rather tatty and roughly detailed specimen acquired for £15 for it's chassis (it's a runner though may need some cleaning up) , a spare Athearn PA1 chassis, and the unhappy remains of a first batch blue Hornby 31 (I seperated the body before mazak rot set in) , as well as 31 174 which is - I hope - fine. If I work my way through that lot over the years I should have quite a fleet of Brush 2s
     
    In my teens I saw quite a lot of Immingham's 31/4 fleet on Transpennine South and Cleethorpes-Newark trains. Hornby have made a 31/1, so obviously if I was detailing an Airfix loco for myself I wanted a mid 80s IM 31/4.
     
    Unfortunately it's not quite that easy.
     
    There's little or no obvious external difference between a 31/1 and a 31/4. The detailed issues relate to date rather than type. Airfix produced a 31 with headcode box, bodyside steps and recessed tank filler on the roof, train heating boiler port,, nose doors and buffer beam cowls. As far as I'm aware this represents a late 60s /early 70s re-engined 31/1 from the latter 2/3rds of the production batch. A good choice for a manufacturer in 1977 but rather more problematic now
     
    By the mid 70s all 31s had lost the bodyside steps and roof recess which had been plated over , so Airfix's blue 31 401 is wrong here . During the 1980s buffer beam cowls were removed . The first batch of ETH conversions (31 401-19) kept them when converted in the early 70s . I'm not sure about 31 420-4 , converted in the mid 70s . The second batch of conversions in the mid 80s , 31 425-469 lost them when rebuilt to ETH, and they also lost bodyside bands. I don't feel up to that level of reworking , so my target loco has to be a 31/4 from the early conversions up to 31 424.
     
    Unfortunately IM's 31/4 fleet was basically the second batch conversions. I thought I'd found a perfect prototype and reference shot here:
     
    http://www.class31.co.uk/picture/31408-bk-090383_t.jpg
     
    (I originally found this on the 53A Models photo site)The train is virtually certain to be a Cleethorpes - Newark Northgate service, as it comprises four Mk1s- the Transpennine South sets were basically Mk2a s , later strengthened to 5 when the Newark sets were broken up and that service reverted to 114s
     
    It is at this point that the problem of fan cowls rears it's ugly head - literally . Note the roof line on the loco - isn't there something projecting ?? Aren't we seeing what is horribly obvious here - a raised cowl around the roof fan grill, on the same loco at Rugby some years later:
     
    http://www.class31.co.uk/picture/cs31408_rugby.jpg
     
    But in 1976 she was smooth and her roofline unmarred:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/16179216@N07/5187603237/
     
    Some internet browsing suggests that these cowls appeared in 1979-82. Many locos never got them - I have a shot of a gleaming new 31 435 at Grimsby in 1985 (I think) with no cowl, and she's plainly uncowled here (a Hull-Liverpool I reckon) http://www.class31.co.uk/picture/31435-sp-0690.jpg
     
    I've no idea how you model such a cowl - so 31 408 wasn't a suitable target loco. And as 31 435 had uncowled buffer beams she wasn't either (Whether the buffer beam cowling has been replaced now she's D5600 in preservation I don't know). She has also had a revised smaller cab window on one side which seems to be a very unusual modification - I've not seen another photo showing this asymmetrical cab window arrangement.
     
    As far as I can see from my surviving 1980s abcs, only five 31/4s from the first batch were allocated to IM during the period (31 403/07/08/09/20) and it appears from the class 31 photo site that all of them had roof fan grill cowling during the 1980s
     
    So a slightly different approach is needed.
     
    The nearest I've found to an ideal target loco is 31 415, seen at Skegness in 1982 in a photo in Diesel Retrospective Class 31. She doesn't have a roof cowl, I think the buffer beam cowling is still in place as something is going well below the buffers, and she's most emphatically in Lincolnshire . She is plain blue with no stripe but bodyside bands are still in place
     
    At that stage she was allocated to March (the train is therefore probably the SO Cambridge-Skegness and return), and by the late 80s she was allocated to Bescot - very suitable for Blacklade. At what stage she lost buffer cowling and bodyside bands I don't know - ignorance is bliss here. (For the record a shot in the same book shows 31 414 at Wellingboro in March 1987 without either). The Hornby body from 31 270 would probably be a much better starting point for a 31 without bodyside bands as the band is done by tampo printing
     
    So - 31 415 it will be...
  4. Ravenser

    Baby Deltic 1

    By Ravenser,

    I'm conscious that the blog has been inactive for a long time , and it certainly feels as if I've been inactive too
     
    However a certain amount of modelling has been done - I just haven't written it up.
     
    One project that has been making intermittant progress is the Baby Deltic referred to in an earlier post here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-12459-baby-needs-some-new-paint/
     
    Much of the progress has been painting - however despite seeing this as a "quick win" project it's proved to be rather a slow process.
     
    Nothing very much got done during my convalescence - to be honest I didn't really feel up to much for at least the first week - and as a result the useful tip about Halford's paint wasn't taken up. Railmatch green in due course it was, and I've managed to get the bodyshell painted and lettered . Sourcing transfers for the headcode boxes was a bit problematic - I finally acquired some bits from someone but I've not certain they're all exactly the same size. I've done my best to cover any blemishes by deliberate misalignment
     
    The mechanism is a Chinese era Hornby ringfield pancake and trailing bogie : this has been oiled and test run - cue another lengthy delay until I dug Tramlink out from under a heap of magazines, as Tramlink is currently my only DC test track (It doesn't help that one board of Tramlink is currently dead due to a broken wire somewhere) . This had to be done prior to fitting into the bogie frames as it seems that once you snap the thing into the frames it's irrevocably located
     
    Some pictures:
     

  5. Ravenser
    I haven't posted much recently in my blogs - but some modelling has been going on in dribs and drabs over recent months
     
    The two Ratio ex MR suburban coaches which are to form Set 2 have made intermittant progress and have now reached the stage shown:
     

     
    and
     

     
    The second being the recycled and rebuilt kit I originally made in my teens and which completely dismantled itself when I applied ModelStrip to it
     
    This is now a composite, with 4 first/3 third . Passengers have been painted with acrylics and added to all interiors - Slaters figures in the all third and Monty's Models pewter figures in the composite, because I'm fairly desperate to get weight in that, as there's no van in which to add lead sheet. Metal Hornby coach wheels have been fitted, and MJT whitemetal Mansell wheel inserts superglued in place- this adds a bit more weight
     
    The sides had a tendency to bow because I left the coaches for a few weeks before adding partitions - in addition I managed to warp one side of the all first (now composite) when I orginally built it, and I haven't quite straightened it completely this time around. This meant a little paring away of the top of the sides /rebate of roof in a few places on the brake to get the roof to sit properly, but overall the result seems acceptable
     
    The original plastic vents on the composite have been replaced with whitemetal LMS vents - I fitted the plastic torpedo vents the wrong way round at the age of 12 - and the gas pots removed
     
    The final major task will be battery boxes and vacuum cylinders - my two enquiries about how the battery boxes may have been done when these vehicles were converted to electric light have drawn no response, so I'll go with the logical solution, and cut a cast LMS twin battery box in half .....
  6. Ravenser

    Thoughts on Track

    By Ravenser,

    I wouldn't normally touch on controversal subjects in a constructional blog. But in the case of the current OO track thread, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79416-poll-ready-to-lay-oo-track-and-pointwork/ my views arose in the context of the layouts on this thread, and are best explained in their context , and flow back into "matters outstanding" with the layouts, and things that need to be done.... So really it's more sensible to reflect on how my own approach to OO track has developed and some of the practical issues involved here, in a rather quieter atmosphere
     
    We start with Ravenser Mk1 - so far , for various reasons , which can be summarised as life getting in the way, there has't been a Mk2.
     
    Ravenser Mk1 was a portable small industrial layout , based on "Yarmouth Quay", the Plan of the Month in Railway Modeller June 1988. I was living in a bed-sit at the time and assumed no very sophisticated level of modelling would be practical under the conditions. This decision I rapidly and bitterly regretted. Setrack points seemed to be the obvious accepted way on a layout with severe curves - the plan called for something like a 9" radius in places, and the authors assured us that they had tested these with a Mainline 03 and it was very happy. So I bought a new Bachmann 03, and a Hornby 06 because it was cheap and I was young and poor. I added a connection to a traverser fiddle yard and the rest of BR. The Airfix 31 and Triang Hornby 37 from my teen-age modern image layout, Flaxborough, were patently unsuitable, but the Wrenn Class 20 was pressed into service as the mainline loco, and the Lima 09 was also recycled
     
    Ravenser Mk1 never worked very well, and the main reason was those wretched Setrack points . Operationally it was very interesting , with a lot of traffic potential - when things weren't derailing. I discovered Parkside wagon kits and started building them - and Romfords and Setrack points don't mix very well. At first I thought it was just me , and some negative force field I exhuded. However somewhere in its early years I joined DOGA and duly discovered the subject of wheel and track standards. Such things simply weren't mentioned in the magazines of the day - and hadn't been for about 20 years
     
    In those days Setrack points featured flangeways 1.55mm wide - as I found out when I eventually measured one with feeler gauges . Perhaps they still do. This proved disasterous. I had bought a secondhand Lima 20 to replace the Wrenn 20 in the hope it would run better. It still stalled on the dead frogs, so I invested in a DOGA pickup kit [now discontinued as all RTR locos come with decent pickup] This meant replacement wheels - and the only available replacements were Ultrascales. I invested 30 quid in a set - but Ultrascale wheels are EM profile. And the EM value for flangeways is 1.0mm. I rewheeled the loco, fitted the pickups - and every time it went round the run round loop it fell off somewhere, because the check rails were far too far away to check anything and the gaps at the frog might as well have been the Grand Canyon
     
    I got clever, hacked out the plastic check rail and superglued in a short length of rail gauged out using a Romford wheelset (a technique gleaned from an Iain Rice book) Unfortunately the new checkrails sat rather higher , and as the additional pickups had had to be fitted under the keeper plate , they fouled it. Result - an abrupt halt. Any plans to detail the Lima body quietly died at that point. After a nice new Bachmann 08 failed to deliver reliable running Ravenser Mk1 was effectively abandoned, though it lay around for a number of years before I acquired a car and carted it down to the tip.
     
    Next came Tramlink. Croydon Tramlink is laid in concrete sleepered FB track , with concrete sleepered points.Until recently , Peco only provide concrete sleepered flexible track in code 100. So unless you built your own plain track - and 10 years ago that meant sleeper by sleeper, and only one very obscure product catered for FB track with concrete sleepers - the only option for modern image modellers was Peco code 100. After all modern image modellers are just teenagers running brightly coloured coarse scale RTR with steam-roller wheels, one stage up from the train set, aren't they?
     
    So Tramlink was laid with Peco code 100 . Because I thought that light rail meant sharp curves, and because it is a small diorama layout (it was supposed to be quick - except that everything had to be near scratchbuilt ) I used a Peco code 100 small Y and a Setrack point to save space.
     

     
    This proved to be a mistake. My cardboard Manchester Metrolink is feather-light, and the Tenshodo is at one end. It would go through the Setrack point into the Cripple Siding with the Tenshodo leading, but propelling the unpowered half through that point via articulation comprising 2 panel pins invariably resulted in a derailment... Conventional RTR locos were fine, but not the LRV. Since the idea was that 3 light rail units would have 4 possible sidings , and operation would consist of shuffling a unit into the empty slot, like a form of Light Rail Solitare , this was serious. I removed the check rail on the point and fitted a replacement, gauged with a Romford wheelset (see above) but while this didn't foul anything it didn't solve the problem, either When I tried to build a proper Croydon unit from an Alphagrafix kit, the skirting around the bogies fouled them ( I was using A1 Models etched H frame wagon bogies) and the unit wouldn't take any kind kind of curve. Drastic rebuilding was called for, and the project ground to a halt to a soundtrack from the musical Oliver ("I'm reviewing the situation... - and I think I'll go and think it out again")
     
    Tramlink is currently sitting boxed up about 18" from my right shoulder as I type. Where it has been for quite a while. At some point, when I've caught up and finished off other projects, I really need to turn back to the project and try to finish it and sort it out. One big question is whether I rip up all the track and relay or not. Or put another way - can I somehow coax the Metrolink unit and other light rail vehicles through that dratted point or not? Ordinary railway models (eg a Bachmann 08) were fine - but light rail vehicles made from Alphagraphix card kits are really very light - and as I built them , sealed units . The Croydon unit stalled at the point where I realised to modify it I'd have to get inside - which would effectively destroy what I'd built this far. I've got a couple more Croydon kits in stock , a Midlands Metro kit , and one DLR unit kit from Street Level. Yes , the Halling model would almost certainly take the point happily - but it was pricey, at the time it was released my employment was uncertain, and it's HO, whereas everything else is 4mm. Now Croydon Tramlink units are big and boxy, and so should a model be (as this is a text-heavyposting, cue a gratuitous shot of a Croydon unit last year,
     

     
    and a model of a unit seen at Kew Bridge model tram exhibition a few years back

     
    ) . And the Halling HO models would look a bit petite. Not to mention that I'd need at least 2 , arguably 3, and that's around £500 spent on what has become a side interest when money is a lot tighter than it used to be
     
    Or - if a bit of weight won't cure the problem - rip up all the track and relay with Peco's new - and distinctly more British looking - code 75 concrete sleeper flexible , and their new concrete sleeper code point. I'd still have to use a small Y point with the sleepers painted at the Beckenham end . But I would get live frogs , and it would make it much easier to fit point motors - which I omitted first time round . The baseboard frame isn't really deep enough to allow a Cobalt Blue , never mind a Tortoise (two of which I do have surplus - as they were too big to fit in the narrow neck of Blacklade), A Hoffman/Conrad could be fitted, but with commercial points there would be no objection to using SEEP or Peco solenoids - I'm sure I have a CDU or CDU kit somewhere.
     
    However the track was pinned and ballasted with PVA and ripping up might be rather destructive. And the replacement point would be longer, and the fouling point on the Cripple Siding further back , and in the context of a diorama layout I'm not sure if I have those few critical inches.... [ I don't , as the below shot illustrates. A Peco code 75 concrete sleeper point is medium radius and therefore 2 inches longer than the point currently used - the frog is 4.5cm further along] Then there's the thought of drybrushing all the ballast for that "brand new look" . Last time I used an ad-hoc mix from white and black - so the whole thing had to be done in one hit with one batch because colour matching was impossible. Maybe Railmatch BR Grey acrylic??
     

    Hmmmm . Where've I put the "too hard" basket?
     
    Next came the boxfile. This was built for a DOGA competition some years ago. The catalyst here was my discovery that yes, two Peco small Y points would fit in a boxfile back to back, and there was even enough room for a headshunt which would just about take an 08 with the switch blades of the point snapping at its heels , sorry wheels. At which point my scepticism about Phil Parker's competition idea evaporated and I got cracking...
     
    Given that there was a deadline and that the whole concept was based on the fact that two Peco small Y points would fit , this was never going to be a "teach yourself pointbuilding" test bed - especially as the thing was , well - a boxfile (Two boxfiles, to be pedantic). But I was determined to raise my game in the matter of track, so the boxfile was done in Peco code 75 with three small Y points. Not only that, but they are operated by point motors - I fitted Peco solenoids under adjacent small buildings operating the points from the side. With switched live frogs and full sectioning this was a considerable advance on Tramlink (I'm still wondering why I fitted section switches - on a one engine in steam shunting puzzle I've never found any need to use them and they're left permanently switched on).
     
    The problem of the incorrect sleepering was side stepped by making part of the visible area cobbled with inset track (Metcalf cobbled card) and swamping the rest in black flock, representing ash ballast, so that you only see bits of a sleeper here and there. This is effective , but it's a bit of a fudge, and only offers a solution in very special circumstances.
     
    My big mistake was forgetting to fit a CDU . One point is , at the best of times, unreliable in throwing in one direction - at the worst of times it just gives up. Another point is liable to stick when it gets warm, and only one point is rock-solid reliable. A CDU might have cured all this or at least greatly mitigated it. But I can't retro-fit one because all point motors - and the relevant bit of wiring - are sealed inside buildings , and I'd have to destroy one to get access to wire in a CDU.
     
    Whoops. Running on the boxfile is not of exhibition quality - but coaxing small 4 wheel (or occasionally 6 wheel) shunters across a lot of point frogs and board joints at minimal speed with absolute precision of positioning is a very demanding application . And the worst problems relate to the rather dodgy track joints between the files and couplers uncoupling thereon
     
    Which brings us to Blacklade . This time I was determined to go the whole hog. Hand built track to a proper track standard (DOGA OO Intermediate) with 4mm sleepering, using wheels to a standard (RP25-110) which fits the track properly . The last bit was the easy one, since this is essentially what you get on modern RTR - subject to the manufacturing tolerances of Chinese factories on things like Back to Back . The biggest compromise on wheels is the use of Romfords on a few kit built wagons (If they don't come with Romfords I fit Hornby wagon and coach wheels set to the correct back to back of 14.4mm)
     
    The original Carl Arendt plan envisaged Peco streamline points,no doubt hand operated. Since I was once again up against a deadline, and a slip was involved, I chickened out of attempting to learn point building and contacted Marcway . A full size plan of the layout on lining paper using Peco templates was sent to them - this was a very useful exercise as it allowed me to check clearances and train lengths full size. They advised that almost the whole thing could be done with their standard 3' radius points. However I did have to order two bespoke units - a single slip more or less to the same footprint as Peco, and a crossover at 2 '6" radius with continous checkrail. This is not quite as bad as it might be, since one leg is kinked - but the dogleg to straighten up for the platform still introduces a reverse curve.
     

    (considerable progress has been made since!)
     
    This one kink apart, the whole thing flows in a very pleasing manner and I was feeling really quite chuffed with the result until I saw a shot of one throat on Jim Smith-Wright's P4 New St.
     
    Running reliability is generally good . Occasionally a piece of stock derails at the board joint on the back road, where alignment is not perfect and I had to tweak a rail out slightly. That's more down to the imperfections of my carpentry - I didn't quite focus on the need for absolute precision there
    The wheels on a second-hand Hornby Pacer jam in the continous check rail at the crossover at any B2B - but then they are coarse steam roller wheels. Pacer rebuilding is one of my stalled projects.
     
    The major problem in terms of reliability is the points , and their uncertain closure. I've already had a couple of goes at fixing this: round one is reported here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-6357-mind-the-gap/ where thicker wire was fitted to everything bar the bespoke crossover at the platform ends, and round two last summer involved a lot of digging round with a scalpel blade. They now close with reasonable reliability except for the slip (occasionally) and the bespoke crossover. The plan to solve the latter involves detailing up the old Airfix 31 , which is normally very happy running through it - whereas the Hornby 31 generally derails (Hornby 31s do seem to be a little track sensitive.)
     
    As an aside , the Airfix 31 runs perfectly happily through pointwork built to the the old BMRSB OO track standard (which lies within the envelope of DOGA OO Intermediate) and I'm glad of the fact . Indeed it runs a great deal better than it ever did on Flaxborough , for which it was originally bought, long ago - this is possibly due to the fact that 30 years ago I thought Brasso would be an effective track cleaner, and Flaxborough was laid with 1970s Hornby points. (There were no internet forums in those days and no local clubs so I was very much on my own.)
     
    But the fundamental issue is that the Marcway points are very stiff. I've come to believe that the real problem is that the switches are not loose heeled and rely on the rail bending. My experience is that all too often the throw rod from the point motor bends before the switch rail. The smaller Cobalt Blue , with it's shorter throw rod, seems more effective than Tortoises- and the wire supplied seems to be thicker than that supplied by Circuitron with the Tortoise. It's almost certainly significant that the points where the problem is most acute are the shortest - the bespoke crossover at 2'6" radius and the slip, which has very short switch blades .
     
    At this point we come to Joseph Pestell's OO track thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79416-poll-ready-to-lay-oo-track-and-pointwork/page-54 Go back through the pages and many contributers are hotly denoucing Peco's loose heeled switches and demanding flexing switch rails. Based on my own experience with Blacklade I'm firmly opposed. Even at 3' radius I've found "flexible" switch blades stiff and potentially unreliable. Go below 3' radius and they become a serious problem.
     
    A number of contributors to the thread seemed to deal with this and other issues by arguing that there is no need to cater for radii below 3' because OO modellers oughtn't to want to use anything below 3' . I have to say that those contributors who model in EM , P4 or S7, not OO, generally seem to take this view - and of course 3' is the accepted minimum radius in those finescale gauges
     
    Again I have to disagree, sharply. Every single layout mentioned in this posting would have been impossible if a minimum 3' radius constraint had been imposed on me. By most modellers' standards, Blacklade is pretty generous in terms of radius - generally 3' with 2'6" in one or two places and not in the form of reverse curves. Many OO modellers find themselves using crossovers formed of small radius points. But Blacklade does not meet the minimum radius standard many are advocating.
     
    In fact a lot of modellers are in OO precisely because it allows them to build a layout in the restricted space they have -which the finescale gauges would not permit. Any OO product which ignores that reality is not going to meet the needs of a large part of the target market. Certainly medium radius is the place to start, if there's only one point in the range . But a smaller radius point is going to be required on occasion by 75-80% of the OO market
     
    This brings me to a further point. The idea that OO track is basically a matter for those working in OO seems to be viewed as aggressively provocative rather than uncontroversial. However people who don't model in OO have no real interest in seeing OO track brought to market. They aren't going to buy it - the lack of it doesn't affect their own modelling (A few may even regret the introduction of such a product because they would like to see people abandon OO in favour of their own gauge , and if OO points were available they would weaken the case for doing so)
     
    In addition people who don't model in OO are naturally ignorant of conditions on the ground . Of course finescale modellers - who adopted the 3' constraint so long ago they've forgotten about it - can't see why anyone would want to use radii below 3' . Of course they think such radii are unacceptable. The trouble arises when they assume that OO modellers must see things the same way. OO track threads sometimes seem to become a strange world in which the one group of people whose opinions on the subject of OO track have no real validity are those actually working in OO.
     
    Enough - this has run to considerable length . I'd encourage anybody reading to vote in the poll in Joseph Pestall's thread . The more whjo vote, the more useful the data becomes. No doubt it isn't representative of the statistical average - but perhaps a more useful question is what does it represent - and what does it tell us about them. In this context the fact that users of code 75 is currently outscoring the total for users of the various flavours of code 100. This seems to suggest that the poll is representing the views of those looking for something better than code100 Streamline - and that - as a minimum - the market for OO track might very roughly equate to the existing market for code75, perhaps plus a bit (to allow for those "converted"by seeing a superiore new product)
  7. Ravenser

    Work in Prospect

    By Ravenser,

    This is one of those posts that could go on the layout blog (here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343-blacklade-artamon-square/ ) but as it amounts to a note-to-self of stock construction jobs that need doing, it's more logical to put it on my workbench thread . So here it is...
     
    I had the layout up for an extended play a couple of weeks back. Things came out of boxes that had spent an awful long time in them . For the first time I actually got round to trying to run a Civil Engineer's train - and found that 2 brakes , a Zander, a Grampus, a Dogfish and a Walrus (all the non-airbraked stuff) were too long for the run-round loop . Pity - they looked rather nice - so the Zander will have to stay in it's boxfile
     
    I also found or was reminded that Hornby 31s are a touch track-sensitive, and as the track in question (in several senses) is the crossover at the end of Pl 2 , forming one end of the run-round loop, and as 31 174 has been doing duty on anything that requires running round (the two parcels , the oil and now the CE train) this is a problem . An alternative loco is required for this duty - and a quick trial on the tension-lock fitted Seacows (also never before run in anger) showed that my old Airfix 31 is quite happy taking the crossover even when the blades are 98% across (It's sat modestly hidden at the back). It also runs perfectly well, with inbuilt analogue sound . I already needed another 31 so I could play with a 2 coach loco-hauled substitute set , so detailing up a spare Airfix 31 and fitting Kadees was already high on the "to-do" list. It now becomes an urgent priority
     
    It's also painfully obvious that the Hornby Dutch Shark needs weathering, so perhaps I need to finish off the olive green Cambrian kit one, which really ought to be used in a mid 80s CE rake
     
    I made the melancholy discovery that my elderly W Yorks 155 may run okay but the wretched black box on the underframe now fouls the newly installed cosmetic point motors on the back road. The 158 just clips them too but keeps going - demonstrated by the appearance of bright metal on the bumps on the casting. A bit of resiting and an emery board and a paint brush has sorted this out as far as the 158 is concerned, but the 155 needs it's chassis sorting out. I have a pack of NNK (ex MTK) underframe castings for a 153..... Fortunately what Dapol tooled up was evidently based very closely on a built up MTK kit, and with a bit of ingenuity it should be possible to use the castings on the powered car for weight, and fret out the plastic on the trailer to build up various boxes without any difference between the cars being obvious . A heavy rework of the W Yorks 155 to make the best of a bad job now rises right up the DMU agenda. On the other hand thoughts of sticking a decoder in the Regional 155 that has never run and has been sat at the bottom of a pile of stock for over a decade have now receded
     
    I even got to try running the layout in steam mode for the first time:
     

     
    Now I know this is full of ghastly anachronisms . Nothing can be done about the station signage - that was always a reason why any "steam period" was not going to be a serious exercise, and would simply be a case of giving my out of period items an occasional airing and a raison d'etre
     
    But it does show progress and problems,,,,
     
    Set 1 (ex LNW) is up and running. Set 3 (Grouping non-gangway) is also up and running , though the coaches need weathering . After I found the Hornby Thomposon non-gangwayed stock is delayed till next year, I thought laterally , and acquired a carmine Gresley CL instead of a maroon Thompson CL
     
    Set 2 is still progressing, slowly.
     
    But we have a motive power crisis. I have 2 serviceable kettles, and one's an O4/1 and totally unsuitable for suburban passenger working. I have no serviceable green diesels (you can't readily DCC an ex Hornby Dublo Class 20). I ended up using 31 174 and a blue Bachmann 20 just to run trains and check that the coaches ran and a Minories style shuttle could be operated. Really , I need 4 locos to run 2 or 3 trains
     
    Someone put a decoder in my secondhand whitemetal N5. I got the 4 digit address programmed then the whole thing started shorting. A check with the multimeter showed a dead short across one pair of driving wheels . It went back in its box pending detailed examination (I suspect it may work fine when the body's removed....)
     
    I bought a Fowler 2-6-4T as "secondhand new" at Ally Pally. It needs a decoder hardwiring (when I pluck up courage to get the body off) and more seriously , somehow I have to fit Kadees
     
    So I've dug out the resin Silver Fox Baby Deltic kit I bought cheap second-hand at St Albans , and started painting. Then I found my warning yellow had dried up. Now I've got some replacement from Precision at Shenfield (but I dread to think how many coats will be needed - Precision have poor covering power and yellow's a problem at the best of times )
     
    So - finish Set 2 . Two Type 2s to be done (D5901 first - as the RTC Derby loco it only needs a slight stretch to have her survive into the 80s in the Midlands , or indeed to be preserved, then 31 408 ) Finish the NRX conversion . Finish the Cambrian Shark . All of those are existing commitments
     
    It becomes a question whether the 128 kit or a heavy upgrade of the W Yorks 155 is next cab off the rank behind that lot. I have no steam age parcels stock . A 51' Gresley full brake (Kirk kit) would be a fairly quick win , and I have 2 old 12T vans with no obvious use which could be done with new chassis and Kadees for parcels tail traffic...
     
    That should keep me quiet
  8. Ravenser

    For One Night Only...

    By Ravenser,

    Blacklade had its first tentative public appearance a few weeks back, when I took it along to the CMRA Workshop event as a display item. It's been taken along to a society area group meeting twice, but this was the first time it had gone into the wider world.
     
    Chiltern Model Railway Association is the federation of model railway clubs and societies in the South East of England and beyond (Indeed over the last few years they've picked up members well into the North of England, and seem to be growing into the nearest thing to a national association of clubs we have.) As well as organising the St Albans exhibition each year in January, for a good few years they've run an event for members of CMRA clubs at Watford in July. Essentially it's a bit like the demonstrators section of an exhibition - except that there is no general public, just the folk demonstrating and other club members . (There's also a programme of talks and a couple of traders)
     
    It's a good event , and I've gone for a number of years and enjoyed it (both my club and a couple of societies I'm a member of belong to CMRA). This year I decided to take something along to display, under a society banner
     
    The theory was that the layout, spread across two tables on its side, would be a demo of DCC for layout control - as opposed to DCC for loco control. I don't claim to be any kind of guru , techie, or expert, but after being involved with a club project and my own layout where all the points etc were DCC controled without a conventional panel , I suppose I must know more about it than most. With three types of point motors, and three types of decoders on view , working signals interlocked with points , and route control by macros , I was hoping there would at least be something to talk about and show.
     
    If I'm honest , I wasn't exactly knocked down in the rush . A couple of people were interested to see the working signals, and whenever a potential punter came in view I gamely launched into my "what this is all about" spiel. I'd prepared some handouts on DCC , plus a sheet giving the background of the layout and a copy of the DOGA OO Intermediate standards, but I think only one of the DCC sheets was taken. However I did get a potential invitation to demo at a show so someone must have been moderately impressed, and I think there were some tables that were quieter than mine
     
    While in theory Blacklade was there as a static item, I did bring some stock on the sly, and for the last hour and a half I turned the layout right way up and ran it . What I hadn't realised was that Bradfield Gloster Square was also going to be there , and inevitably made my little effort look like a clockwork torch in competition with Spurn lighthouse. Even worse , the gremlins came out for a carnival as soon as they saw one of the Bradfield team was watching - and no layout on the circuit runs as flawlessly as Bradfield . I think part of the problem may have been that access to the fiddle yard is tight, and it is difficult to see if all wheels are on the track - some stock may not have been on the rails when it left the fiddle yard....
     
    Once this was sorted out, things settled down and it ran reasonably smoothly while a couple of people from the adjacent EM gauge tables were watching. The main weakness of the layout has been reliable throwing of the points - the Marcway points are very stiff , and I didn't cut adequete recesses in the cork before laying them. In the run up to the show I had done a lot of work digging out the cork around various points to free them up , and this paid dividends. I also refitted the Hoffmann point motor , which in one direction was buzzing - meaning that it wasn't moving quite far enough to work the cut-off switch . The overall result was that everything bar No 1 crossover worked every time and point derailments, except at No 1 crossover (which has teeth and likes a Hornby 31 for breakfast) stopped.
     
    In the run up to Watford Workshop I also , finally, managed to sort out various ragged edges to the ballasting , and touched in exposed cork with brown cork acrylic, as well as touching up a few bits of the hard standing. That dealt with the obvious defects - the rest of the scenic work had to wait till after Watford (and merits a separate post)
     
    One discovery was that Blacklade is most comfortably operated from a chair at the station end , with the layout set up on a pair of tables. Unfortunately the clutter in the study at home has prevented it ever being set up as originally intended - on top of the bookcases and modelling cupboard. It only ever gets set up in the sitting room with the (very basic) legs....
     
    I also had a running session with the layout the week after Watford . One of the Bradfield crew recommended a Peco railer, which does seem to help get things on reliably in the fiddle yard. The main problems seem to be with the parcels train - the body of the kitbuilt Van B was lolling to one side enough to catch the bridge abutment and derail (I've tightened up the fixing screws on the bogies as far as I can , though one bogie is still loose) and the 31 and No 1 crossover kept disagreeing. As this is one end of the runround loop, and as at present the Hornby 31 is the loco that works the two parcels trains and the trip TTA , this is unfortunate. One solution may be to get on with the detailed body for the old Airfix 31 (not to mention the fitting of Kadees) on the theory that Hornby 31s are a little track sensitive, DMUs seem to cope, and a loco with a slightly coarser wheel profile may be better
     
    (This is in no way a problem of the track standard - it's a question of the wire from the point motor to the tie bar being a little too flexible leading to closure not being quite positive enough. A more drastic step is replace one or both Tortioses with Cobalt Blues - meaning shorter, stiffer wire, over £30 and a certain amount of rewiring work.)
     
    It's clear I need a second 31 if I'm to run loco hauled stock as a DMU-substitute - that will have to go into Pl 3 as the only platform long enough, and that doesan't have access to the run-round loop. So the Hornby 31 will still be needed, and it's not as if I'm adding an extra project to the list
     
    Also on the subject of Pl 3 , despite efforts to ease the clearances of the edging slab - through repeated rubbing with an Xacto knife handle to crush the balsa down - the 108 seems to stick , derail and somehow this scrambled the decoder. I tried to reprogram in haste, forgot that the MERG point decoder is sensitive to programming commands , and scrambled that... Reprogramming the thing requires flyleads , taking down the layout etc so that was the end of a running session.
     
    I hope this is the last time for this particular problem. Some time ago I removed the NCE AutoSwitch which was supposed to switch off the rest of the layout when programming - because it didn't seem to be doing anything. I fitted a DPDT switch instead - and that doesn't seem to be doing anything either. It looks like I have somehow created an inadvertant connection across the isolation of the programming track (the fueling point siding) . However all this meant I had an unused NCE Auto Switch in the decoder bag, so I installed it between the MERG decoder and the DCC bus.
     
    Oh and a fault book is now in operation , to identify any gremlins...
  9. Ravenser
    The sirens have sounded the final all clear, the blackout and the blitz are things of the past - and about 40 years after it should have , Blacklade has finally acquired station lights and station signs. I'm even intending to sort out the "bomb damage" behind the station facade and actually finish off the station building. Not before time, either...
     
    In short over the last couple of weeks I've had a big burst of detailing on the layout, and it's made a huge difference.
     
    Not, I must admit, to my accumulated stocks of whitemetal detailing bits and sheets of printed signage . Those have only sustained a modest dent. I had a new unused sheet of Tiny Signs modern BR posters (close inspection suggests they are actually mostly of 1975-80 vintage: there's two posters for the new GN Electrics in there and another one advertising the Rainhill 150 commemorations , as well as lots of posters of HSTs). I've used 3 - I have 32 left... And so on down through the box of scenic bits. It's frightening just how much stuff you accumulate - "I'm sure it'll come in useful for a layout and it's only a couple of quid"
     
    Admittedly Blacklade is a pretty small layout, and I've tried to be sparing. With the boxfile I never really got round to adding more than a couple of items and I was surprised by how effective restraint was. It struck me then that it is all too easy to pile in the detail items just because you have them and feel you ought to use them . The result being something unnaturally busy, where the funeral is queuing behind the wedding and trying to avoid entanglement with the travelling fair : a "quintessence" as defined by Charles Lamb - "an apple pie made all of quinces"
     
    In fact reality is pretty quiet and sparse. I go past our local church quite regularly: I might see signs of a wedding once or twice a year. On a Sunday morning or evening you might see people going into or leaving a service, two or three or four of them at a time. But do you want to run the Sunday train service?
     
    Come to that, if there's a wedding on , it must be Saturday, so the freight trains won't be running....
     
    Stations are not crowded places . I used to use Market Rasen from time to time - in fact it contributed a little to Blacklade , in terms of short platforms and vanished trainshed. There is a 2 hourly service in each direction. Get there 10 minutes before the train - you might be the only person there, there might be one or two others. 4 or 5 minutes to go - there's half a dozen waiting on one platform . The train comes - a bustle of activity - 8-10 people get on , 8-10 more get off. 5 minutes after the train's gone the station's deserted ... For at least 45 minutes of every hour, the only sign of life in the place is the cawing of the rooks in the trees behind
     
    Okay, a three platform terminus with services on three routes will be busier than that . But even my local station , with it's commuter service, is pretty deserted for long periods . It may be full of people before the morning commuter trains depart - but 5 minutes after one's gone there's only one or two people there, if that. Go in the afternoon, or the evening , and unless a train's just arrived, the place is almost deserted - just one or two hanging about under the platform canopy with nothing to do
     
    Blacklade is supposed to be a dreary run-down hulk of a station with a train service that is poor for a town of it's size. The effect of Ascot on race days or Waterloo at 5:30pm on a weekday is not wanted.
     
    On the other hand, signage.... The human brain blots out most of it but the modern world seems to be drowning in the stuff. When you actually stop to look how many signs there are in any view, in any street, on any station, you suddenly feel overpowered by it .
     
    And cars (not that I've much road to worry about) . They've been breeding . They swarm everywhere, thick masses of them, swelling from around the buildings. Never mind Day of the Triffids - "Day of the Common Hatchback" is more like it. I reckon that if you take the average street, parked cars outnumber visible human being by a factor of about 5.... And now they're fitting them with computers. You may be able to take out a zombie army with a machine gun but can you take out a lane of slowly advancing BMWs?
     
    Enough....
     
    The lack of station lights and station nameboards was annoying me - the station looked bare , it was completely anonymous and lacked a certain vertical emphasis.
     
    I wanted T lights . Because in my youth , those T shaped fluorescent light standards were the norm , a familiar part of the grey universal BR Corporate image. Some were old and had the station name on them, others were newer and didn't . But every station had them and had had for years. Anything else was cause for a second look
     
    They all seem to have vanished while I wasn't looking. It was only yesterday...
     
    A rummage through the scenic box turned up 3 packets of PD Marsh castings, total 15 lamps. And 3 packets of Knightwing castings , total 18 lamps. I reckoned 15 or less would do it.
     
    The Knightwing castings are bigger - taller , with longer light strips across the top. After a certain amount of throught I reckon that the PD Marsh castings represent the original 1950s version , with station name on the strip light, and Knightwing represent the second generation 1970s/80s version, with a plain strip light . Given that Blacklade Artamon Square is a run down dump that has had no refurbishment/investment since Dr Beeching was Chairman of the BRB, I went with PD Marsh, . Several coats of Centro grey later (the jar has now finally expired) a few coats of Tamiya gloss white for the strip lights and some departmental gray on the top, I had lights.
     
    But not station signs on them. A rummage through the accumulated mass of sheets turned up something from DC Kits with blank Regional Railways plates on it - 9 of them. To get the actual name I produced a sheet of possible sign in Word - for modern BR signage , all that is needed is the name on a plain white background . Arial, in bold at 5 point size seemed to be ok , so that's what I went with. Suitable sized strips were then cut out and stuck to the DC Kits signs with Rocket glue, then the DC Kits signs were stuck to strips of plasticard. Then the plasticard strips were stuck to fixing castings robbed from the Knightwing packets
     
    Poster boards were a next step. Three whitemetal castings for standard notice boards were painted up: departure posters were added to two, and timetables to a third . Two of these three were also glazed with scraps of acetate sheet. After that three poster display cases were needed : these were made with 10 thou plasticard, edged round with square microstrip, the poster(s) added and glazed with scraps of clear plasticard. The route diagram came from a DC kits sheet, and three posters from a Signs of the Timessheet; three more were found on an old Tiny Signs sheet , which seems to reperent 1975-80 . At least it features posters for the 1980 Railhill cavalcade, the 1975-6 GN suburban electrification and lots of HSTs . Fortunately no Jimmy Saville though. I picked a couple of "holiday by train + ferry" posters as Blacklade is supposed to be set in the late 80s or 21st century. This does highlight just how long the post -steam era now is - you can't use posters from the age of Harold Wilson and Edward Heath next to current TOC liveried stock . It's actually more of a gap than using Edwardian posters on a 1950s BR layout...
     

     
    From there I moved on to signage , courtesy of two more sheets from DC Kits and Signs of the Times. By this time I was getting a bit alarmed about how much needed to be done , how long it was taking, (and how much stuff I had available to use) . So I adopted the rule that only the signage and items which were absolutely necessary should go in....
     
    That was still an awful lot. Departure simplifier sheets on every platforms . Timetables (1 set) . Regional route map (1). 3 BR posters, 3 commercial posters . Litter bin on each platform . Platform bench on each platform - these were PD March items , bought at the CMRA Workshop and repainted blue - two went on the concourse , in place of the long - and narrow - platform 3 . Refreshment facilities in the form of 2 vending machines (S kits whitemetal blocks with Signs of the Times wrap round sheets) . Signs - these were stuck to scraps of 10 thou plasticard with Rocket card glue , and stuck to the walls with same.. Platform numbers for each platform.
    I decided after I'd installed the signs that I didn't really want to hide them by installing a length of canopy. Strictly speaking there ought to be some covered area on the platform to protect passengers when it rains , but having worked out what would stop being visible as a result , I've been deliberately lazy and decided to leave it out.
     
    The figure came from Cats Custom Characters and is beautifully painted. As I don't intend to have many figures on the layout I thought I could afford to have one really well done.
    Another job tackled was the installation of some Knightwing castings for point motors - I only had seven , so the point tucked under the bridge hasn't got one. These were painted and suitably weathered. I also installed a signal cabinet - a whitemetal casting from Radley . I still have 3 out of four that I bought in my scenic box , not to mention some InterCity Models castings , and a packet of Hornby Skaledale that turned up the other day. The shading was done with one of the new Humbrol washes , thinned - a technique shown on a video on the Humbrol website and apparently used by aero modellers to emphasise and shade the panel lines on planes.
     

     
    Finally the finishing touches were added to the fuelling point. It's striking how only a handful of small touches have a big impact - and are all that are needed. Two oil drums were added (Merit, weathered) plus one of the cast whitemeal pallets in the Signs of the Times pack , suitably sunk in the weeds outside the doors to the store . Hi-vis warning signs were added , and finally the actual fuelling pump . The support post ,and nozzle are from the Knightwing fuelling point kit - where they are essentially extra bits for an earlier version. And that was all I actually used from the kit... I could still built two entire fuelling points with what was left. The hose is from the Signs of the Times detailing pack , and I used the lot (15" - so it can reach the full length of a parked DMU.). It looked shiny and plastic so I toned it down with the Humbrol blue/grey wash
     
    And that was it on the detailing front . A couple of figures are needed , and I have to sort out the back of the station building
  10. Ravenser
    This is a quick posting , just to record that there's been a bit of progress with Set 2 since I last reported on it , but mainly in the hope of flushing out some info to resolve a problem that is delaying progress:
     
    Here is the underframe of the Brake 3rd (the composite is identical) - I have played about with contrast on the image so you can see the framing . Posed on it is a Comet LMS battery box casting
     

     

    Two problems are immediately apparent . Firstly, the battery box casting is just a little bit longer than the gap between the cross members . Secondly, there is a cross member down the middle of the coach.
     
    The only photo I am aware of showing a MR suburban as converted to electric light ( in Historic Carriage Drawings 2: LMS) shows a vehicle with a centre mounted battery box, and a flat centre section to the trussing- an example of the sets produced for the London area, which differeed in this respect (and presumably therefore had a different layout of underframe cross members)
     
    There's also the question of the large gas lamp pots on the roof . Were these removed on conversion to electric light?
     
    I did ask the question in what seemed like the appropriate existing thread, here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51824-ratio-mr-suburban-coaches/ but it didn't draw any response
     

    Since then I've had another look at the various drawings in HCD 2 . Two things are obvious - battery boxes were always mounted to floor level , and LMS battery boxes are exactly the same size as LNWR ones. Both comprised two compartments for the batteries.
     
    Except that on some 65' WCJS clerestory stock there are two half-length battery boxes and probably some 2pm Corridor stock shows a short battery box (at least the photos of the brakes do, though the drawing doesn't)
     
    The only solution I can see at present involves sawing the Comet casting in half in a mitre box , and making good the missing side with 20 thou plasticard to produce 2 x single compartment battery boxes, one of which can be installed either side of the centre cross member. From first principles , this is the only way the LMS can have done it......
     
    Is any one able to shed any (electric) light on this one? I can't make up the underframe till it's settled, and I can't do the roofs until I know if the centre lamp pots should be there or not.
     
    In the meantime , the coaches have reached this point, with partitions, seats and weight installed in the brake.
     

     
    For the composite, I have made up a partition with lead sandwiched between plasticard (these were essentially all firsts with additional partitioning to narrow the third class compartments)
     

     
    I've also drifted into yet another project , which will be written up in due course - converting a Replica BG to an NRX container van using a Hurst Models etch I bought second hand years ago (The BG was an ill-thought out impulse purchase at Peterborough 2 years ago, so this is another nil cost /clear the cupboard project)
     
    On the credit side, the Dapol LMS nongangway lavatory brake third is finished, except for a bit of weathering
  11. Ravenser
    Despite having two sets of coaches on the go already , I seem to have drifted into starting a third. Admittedly the LNWR set is almost done - just a bit of weathering still to do , and the new project is supposed to be a quick win....
     
    When, early this year, I decided to use various steam era kits and bits I had accumulated to operate a steam period on Blacklade I quickly found I was very short of brake coaches. As money was tight at the time , I looked for the cheapest options to plug the gap and bought a Ratio MR suburban brake 3rd and a Dapol CKD LMS non-gangwayed lavatory brake third. The latter cost the princely sum of £9.30 at St Albans show
     
    The original idea was that this would run with an unbuilt BSL kit for a Gresley steel composite. It was only later, on digging the BSL kit out of the cupboard, that I found that it was a corridor coach. Plans have since been revised , and I now intend to get a maroon Hornby Thompson CL when they are available in a few months time to pair with the LMS brake. The BSL kit will ultimately be paired with a Mailcoach/Kirk Tourist Brake third open kit which I bought at Ally Pally
     
    As a CKD kit this ought to be quick. However there are various improvements to make asit's an old model. I won't give a blow by blow account, as the ground has already been covered here:
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64375-Dapol-ex-lms-non-corridor-lavatory-coaches-a-review-of-sorts/
     
    SE Finecast flushglaze was sourced at Ally Pally, and fitted with UHU. This is a substantial improvement. It's necessary to carve away from behind the curving "rail" at the brake end to get the glazing in. Arguably I should have taken this "rail" - actually the toilet filler pipe I believe - right off and replaced it with some .45 handrail wire standing proud of the end . But by this time I'd painted the ends , and I wasn't sure of my ability to form the necessary curve neatly and accurately - so I chickened out on this. The alarm gear on the other end is a bit flat. I'm sure etches and detailing bits must be available to do a better job (from Comet?) but I didn't have any and chickened out again. Arguably you could replace the moulded handrails on the sides in wire - but that would have meant a complete respray , and one attraction of the CKD route is a finish to RTR factory standard.
     
    The number is applied on the left hand side , and has no suffix letter. The Modelmaster Ms I had were visibly not in the same font as Dapol used on the coach, so I couldn't add them. Numbers on the left applied from mid 1949 to late 1951 according to Parkin's book on Mk1s : lack of the origin company suffix letter points to the first year or so of BR liveries, so as produced by Dapol the finish represents a vehicle repainted in 1949-50
     
    I did tackle the roof . The coach is supplied with the roof from the composite , so most of the holes for the vents are in the wrong place . I fitted ventilators into those holes that were in the right place, lined the moulding up against the drawing in Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 LMS , drilled pilot holes in the correct places , and filled the wrong holes with filler, which was sanded down with an emery board. Two and in some cases three applications were needed to get the holes filled absolutely flush. The new holes were then opened out with a larger drill and the vents fitted , with solvent/cement applied from the underside of the roof.
     

     
    The underframe was reworked largely in line with the pdf linked in the thread above, but I retained the truss rods and therefore the moulded regulator. Coachmann in this thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67996-making-use-of-Dapol-lms-coach-kits/ demonstrates sawing the back off the misplaced battery box and reusing it (they're tight with their brass in Lancashire). I tried, but my razor sawblade was too wide to allow me to get it in between the truss rods to make the horizontal cut . The plastic moulding had to be carved out, and as I had a Comet battery box casting I glued it back to front behind the moulded representation of the battery box front . Since most of the detail was at the top, and is therefore hidden by the solebars , and the whole thing is painted black anyway, this bodge is not visible . Comet whitemetal LMS buffers , vacuum cylinders and dynamo and etched V hangers and crossframes were added with superglue.
     
    Kadees have been added to the bogies :
     

  12. Ravenser
    For my next trick, as they say, I have a pair of Ratio MR suburbans. These are intended to form the second set of steam age coaches on Blacklade
     
    The reason for selecting these is simple. In my early teens, before discovering modern image modelling , I perpetrated several Ratio MR coach kits . The best of them, replacing my first attempt at a kit , was this gruesome object . It's also pretty well the only one to have survived . I remember I was quite pleased with this at the time
     

     
    The worst of this is the dire paint job, and since money is a little tight at present , the idea was to strip it, patch it up as best I could and pair it with a newly built brake. A Ratio MR suburban 6 compartment brake 3rd kit has duly been sourced
     
    So now the weather is a bit warmer , and hile I still had a bit of time available it was subjected to Modelstrip overnight and cleaned up with a toothbrush under the tap.
     
    The roof had already come off , but as I cleaned it up most of the rest started to come away as well. I think I painted parts before assembly with this one , and I suspect elderly cement bonds may be affected by Modelstrip, especially if they were patchy to start with. With a bit of judicious encouragement , I was soon left with this:
     

     
    This is no longer an attempted patch up but a complete rebuild, though in terms of the final result that's all to the good . It also gets me round one potential difficulty , which was repainting with spray can paint - now the sides are seperate , or more or less so, and the glazing removed, they can be sprayed normally, along with the sides for the brake.
     
    Like Ratio's other LMS coaches, these vehicles are covered by Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 - LMS. The Midland built a number of batches of arc roofed bogie non-corridor suburban coaches during the Edwardian period for suburban services around Manchester (1903) , Birmingham (1907-9), London (1910) Nottingham (1911-13) and Sheffield (1912) . The last three batches featured 8' bogies, not the 10' versions depicted by Ratio, and those for London and Nottingham were 9' wide not 8'6"
     
    These coaches are, for a miracle, more or less authentic for a steam era period for Blacklade set in 1958. The Nottingham area coaches survived until 1957-8; the Birmingham area coaches until 1956-7: Blacklade Artamon Square would have LMR local services to both. It is extremely unlikely any of the ex MR suburbans ever recieved maroon, so these will be painted BR crimson
     
    Since a total reconstruction of the all first is now in hand, I can take advantage of the fact that the composites for Manchester and Birmingham sets used the same body as the all firsts , with three compartments reduced in size by internal partitions for third class . I have a Cunning Plan for using this fact to improve the weight , which is a major problem with these kits. Before dismantling , the all first weighed only 50g , which is about half what it should . No wonder my teenage Ratio coaches were not reliable runners
     
    A reasonable start was made on these kits while I had time available , and progress shots are shown here:
     
    The reconstructed all first - to become a composite

     
    and the new 6 compartment brake third

     
    Sides were prepainted with an aerosol can of Railmatch Crimson, 3 thin coats, and the improvement in quality of finish compared with the brushpainted LNW coaches is substantial
     
    The instructions urge you to start with the underframe . The all first has a very slight twist in the floor pan , probably caused by it's previous incarnation: I didn't quite manage to eliminate this in reconstruction, though it's possible that adding the roof will finally do so, and since there is inherently a bit of slop and rock between bogies and body, absolute squareness is less critical than with a wagon , where if it isn't square it won't run . The brake 3rd seems to be dead square
     
    I now have two bogies, one suitably cleaned up from the all first, and the second reconstructed from the heap of bits into which it had disintegrated. I'#m sure the bit of the sprue with the brake blocks was knocking around in my box of spare sprues for ages , but I have an awkward suspicion I eventually threw it out....
  13. Ravenser

    A Bit of History

    By Ravenser,

    I think I may have sketched the background for Blacklade a very long time ago , probably when it started as part of an RMWeb Challenge some yearsago. If so , the original posting was probably on a version of RMWeb which disappeared into a vortex in cyberspace/a hosting company's servers, and it was probably buried in other comments anyway.
     
    So it's probably worth giving an outline of the assumed history as a seperate posting - if only to provide a baseline from which it's obvious which bits of the potential steam fleet are actually reasonably plausible and which bits are outrageous strays extracted from the depths of the cupboard "Because It's There".
     
    Blacklade is the moderate sized county town of Hallamshire, a small Midland shire hitherto unknown to cartographers and the Local Government Association. Hallamshire is probably a North Midland shire, as West Yorks PTE units turn up there, and I suspect Blacklade has a passing resemblance to what Derby might have been, if the Midland mainline had never gone near it. It has a population of about 130-145,000: a bit more than Lincoln, about the same as Cambridge , and considerably less than Nottingham or Leicester
     
    In the late 1840s, George Hudson gave it a railway at the expense of the Midland shareholders. This originated from a junction about 10 miles from Toton - the exact railway geography is lost in a maze of connections, but you can certainly get to Birmingham and Nottingham - and ended up at a modest terminus just outside the town centre, where a new square was being laid out in a fit of mid Victorian expansiveness. Somewhat later, the MS&LR arrived in the town from the general direction of Chesterfield . At this point it became necessary to distinguish between the two stations, and the Midland premises took the name of the adjacent Artamon Square
     
    By 1900, the newly renamed and extended Great Central was very much cock of the walk at Blacklade. Its line had been extended southward to meet the GN Nottingham - Derby line and so rejoin the London Extension at Bagthorpe Jnc just north of Nottingham, turning it into a loop of the GC's new main line - effectively a rather longer and grander version of the Chesterfield loop. The new line strood across the town , with a fine new station pointedly called Blacklade Central , because unlike the Midland's Artamon Square, it was. Being significantly longer than the direct route via Annesley and not really suitable for fast running either , just three London -Sheffield day services ran via Blacklade with a night mail and parcels train thrown in , but if you wanted to go to London, Nottingham , or Sheffield from Blacklade , you made a beeline to the Central station. No doubt the GN got running powers into Blacklade too.
     
    For the next fifty odd years the Midland lines very much played second fiddle to their GC Section neighbours and Artamon Square was rather overshadowed by Central . At this period it was rather like the Midland's Lincoln St Marks - two side platforms capable of holding 4 or 5 Midland non-corridor coaches and a Johnson 2-4-0 , with two centre roads used as carriage sidings, all under an overall roof. However for some reason Blacklade's buildings date from the 1860s rather than the late 1840s like Lincoln (perhaps Hudson fell before the line was complete and there was no money left in the till for proper buildings). There was a proper if modest trainshed like Buxton, and a rather ecclesiastical frontage to Artamon Square with faux "towers" a little like Lowestoft. In the late Victorian age , the Midland must have offered London services, but these seem always to have been portions and through coaches. Perhaps the "mainline" was direct to Birmingham and passengers were expected to continue via the LNWR (at the time of opening Midland trains to London ran via Rugby), and prior to the opening of the Manton route a reversal would have been needed at Nottingham. Perhaps by the time the issue arose the site was too cramped for expansion. And once the GC extension was open it was all too late..
     
    In the meantime Blacklade acquired an electric tramway , to 4' gauge like Bradford and Derby , one of whose main hubs was a terminus at Artamon Square on the edge of the town centre. This because quite extensive, was modernised in the 1920s and 30s under a determined and pro tram manager , and remained open until the immediate post war years [When I discovered the existance of 4' gauge it was immediately adopted by my teenage tramway . Broad enough to permit fully enclosed 4 wheelers, narrow enough to stop any awkward questions about the track gauge....]
     
    Around 1960 , everything changed radically . Blacklade was one of the notable casualties of the Beeching era. The LMR having taken control of the GC main line began rapidly to run it down - express trains between London and Sheffield ceased in 1960 , and in 1963 local services on most of the route were withdrawn too. We may guess that the line through Blacklade Central closed amid a storm of opposition in 1963-4, leaving Blacklade (much like Lincoln) with no real service to London
     
    The LMR had been hatching its plot for some time and had begun its campaign by getting the LMR Architects Dept to vandalise Blacklade Artamon Square in the name of progress. The trainshed was taken down in the late 50s , the side walls cut down to around 10'high, and to provide sufficient capacity to concentrate all remaining local services on the station one of the centre roads was taken out and a short additional platform shoe-horned in beside the remaining one. One of the side platforms recieved a short extension for slightly longer trains. Around 1960, when the expresses were withdrawn, a connection was put in to allow one remaining GC route access to Artamon Square - rather like the connections at Carlton which gave the ex GN Nottingham/Grantham route access to Nottingham Midland when Victoria was closed. A small fuelling point / signing on point was established a little down the line and now sits in the midst of derelict and abandoned freight infrastructure
     
    [i now have a way of justifying my brick retaining wall behind the fuelling point which screens the fiddle yard against t-b-g's strictures about modern image layouts. It is, of course, a stump of part of the viaduct line that carried the GC route across the town - here seen very close to the point where the Sheffield line was diverted into Artamon Square - and abandoned since the early 60s . Or possibly it led into the GC goods station. It has been truncated by the bridge for the new inner ring road opened with a flourish by Ernest Marples in 1962.....]
     
    Around 1970 resignalling transferred control of the area to a major new powerbox and the Midland boxes were demolished . This essentially brings us to the station we see modelled . Nothing much has changed in 15 years , though some things have got tattier . Blacklade is a prime example of the sort of place Sir Peter Parker had in mind when he talked about "the crumbling edge of quality" . By the mid to late 80s the infrastructure is still run down , but the station is now seeing the first influx of brightly coloured new Sprinters and an increase in frequency. By 2000 , the paintwork is fresh , the crumbling brickwork has largely been repointed , there are pot plants in hanging baskets and the signage shows the latest branding: perhaps there is even a 3 car Sprinter to London once a day via Nottingham, or was till they bought Meridians which won't fit Blacklade's platforms - but like Lowestoft the place is still in dire need of improvement
     
    This gives a base line against which to judge the correctness of stock and services and to judge how big a liberty is being taken. The layout has always been intended to have 2 periods : 1985-90 (I am a BR Blue modeller at heart) and 2000-6 (to accomodate all the brightly coloured DMUs I acquired while involved with the abortive club project , which was (then) contemporary). The terminus ante quem for the latter period is the end of the Central Trains franchise, which from memory was autumn 2006: I have several units in that livery and it's pleasing on the eye. Also I used CT a certain amount in that era - which is particularly relevant to the 153s.
     
    The early period allows me to run various things which were typical for Lincolnshire and the East Midlands in the 1980s , and to juxtapose the old guard of Modernisation Plan stock with the new order of Sprinters and Pacers. The limits are reasonably broad , as I want both a Cravens class 105 (common in the area, and because they carried plain blue to the end, much easier for a novice to paint) and one or two 153s , so I can play about with joining and splitting units , which was supposed to be a key component of the operational interest. 153s have been the mainstay of local services in Lincolnshire for nearly 20 years, and Central Trains frequently used them as strengtheners to 158s to produce a 3 car train. 105s were withdrawn from passenger service in 1985 , though a few units lingered another couple of years with the Parcels Sector; the 153s were converted from 155s in 1990.
     
    Strictly speaking they shouldn't be seen side by side, but they do belong to the same period and area of my railway experience. It is odd how when we are dealing with a period where we have no experience at all everything is cut and dried, in crisp, exact and precise detail - but when it's something you lived through, it seems to blur into a continuum . How did I discover HEAs were no longer part of the railway scene? - someone mentioned them as a vanished type , and I suddenly realised I hadn't seen any at Bow Goods for at least 6 months......
     
    The intention has always been to have 3 x 153 - two in Regional Railways , and one in Central Trains, allowing me to run two in both early and late period. At the moment I have one of each, and an out of period unit (in terms of paintwork) has to be used in the early period. The W Yorkshire 158 is strictly speaking out of era in the early period (being in the later version of the livery) but doesn't seem to jar , because the main colour is the same as for the earlier W Yorks PTE red/white
     
    The early period also allows me to run a parcels train , and much of my recent stock building has gone into parcels vehicles of which I already have rather more than the handful of vehicles I strictly need, with more to come. This also gets the blue 31s into play, as does the use of some Mk1s and Mk2As as loco hauled substitutes - I now have a decent weathered 2 car set, with another set to sort out (and donor coaches to rebuild for potentially another two sets as well). In practice the layout has generally been run in 80s mode, so I can play with my new built toys, rather than 21st century mode, where there are still gaps in stock. In theory there should also be an engineers train, playing the same trick with engineers brakes as with 153s - however the green Shark is still unfinished , and in early period mode the fiddle yard and layout are already full of stock.....
     
    The notional target date for a steam period seems likely to be 1958: however the anachronisms will be much more marked. Pregrouping carriages are a bit too early (especially the ex LNW set) , Type 2s a shade too late . Ex MR suburban stock just about made it to this point though, the Derby Lightweight single car units were in traffic, the Railbuses came only slightly later (even if the LMR didn't get them till the mid 60s) , C12s were still being used on local trains that year and the L1 and Standard 4MT are bang in period. 1958 is the "least worst fit" of any date. It's just plausible that the LMR have just rebuilt the station and that the connection to the ex GC route has opened - it can't be pushed any earlier.
     
    In theory the three roads of the fiddle yard represent a single track "branch" and a double track "main line" reached via a ladder junction, which splits after a few miles . In practice the roads are used quite indescriminately , but a single track ex GC route towards Chesterfield /Sheffield (the chord/connection being single , at least) and a double track ex Midland route, with lines to Nottingham and Birmingham diverging some miles from Blacklade, fits the scenario nicely
  14. Ravenser
    I had a bout of fitting Sprat and Winkle couplings a couple of weeks back - the vans (see below) were done and released to traffic and I duly dug the MCV out of the stockbox - quick win , low effort and another model back in traffic. I was half way through when I noticed:
     

     
    Remember that the shunting micro is Transitional . Airfix kit - modified without top flaps to represent a rebodied wagon. So it's out of period and can't be made in period - these rebodyings started around 1970. It would have had to have the couplers replaced with S+W at some time anyway , so no loss . I think I was probably quite pleased when I originally did this one , and I've added brake cross rods with brass handrail wire and reweathered the brake blocks
     
    This means I still need to build the secondhand Ratio coke wagon kit, despite having also found this :
     

     
    This is the old Hornby steel mineral - Norstand, Cory, S+C and various other versions down the years - cleaned up. It seems to be based on the GW's "Felix Pole " 20T steel minerals of the 1920s, and the best and closest fit seems to be dia N32, of which about 1000 were built for hire to various private owners as part of the GW's encouragement to private owners to modernise their antiquated mineral wagon fleets. Cory and S&C may be authentic liveries for these (both were major coal traders /coastal shipowners with S.Wales connections) , though I wouldn't bet my life on it and recent debate in MRJ implies that green was not the usual base colour for Stephenson & Clarke. Needless to say MRJ were not discussing anything so humble as a Hornby wagon...
     
    This model has now been displaced in the main Hornby range by the rather better ex Airfix moulding: the Hornby effort is a bit chunky around the top edge. It reappears in the Railroad range , but I am confident none of them ever reached EWS..... The chassis was removed and chucked away, a Parkside 12' wb Morton chassis built onto the bottom , and the whole thing repainted and weathered. A photo in Iain Rice's Irwell book Detailing & Improving RTR Wagons (p10) shows what appears to be one of the breed uprated to 21T (no doubt the standard wartime uprating) and numbered in the PO series as P7826 . This would make some sense with the N32s as they were on hire purchase arrangements with the users, and of course P-series renumbering was completely random , so any P-series number would be plausible on a model. The wagon in the photo is branded under the diagonal stripe "To work within S.Wales and Monmouthshire only"
     
    These wagons are common enough - every second hand table seems to have a few - and if you've got one at home, this is a way of turning it into a credible wagon at low cost. I'm afraid the economics don't quite work if you buy a second hand example - market price for second hand RTR wagons like this seems to be about GBP3 , and by the time you've added the Parkside underframe , wheels and any paint or transfers you need, it's going to be over a fiver. But if you already have one, ex trainset, you can make a proper wagon of it for about GBP2
     
    The tension locks will be ripped off asap, and I need to replace the missing door spring . Given that Ravenser Mk1 was set 1983-4, this wagon didn't really fit it , but as the shunting micro is 50s/60s, depending on the stock used, it is now just as much in period as the MCV is out of it
     
    Couplings have gone on the MCV (obviously) and the remaining vans but not yet on the 21T. I'd like to say that yours truly and S+W couplings were a marriage made in heaven , but I'd be lying . To be quite honest, making and fitting them is a protracted awkward job , and one that I rather dread. If I'm lucky, and determined, I can manage as many as 3 wagons in a whole evening , and this slow messy process rather puts me off.
     
    Sparky has recently posted some shots of the bits and process on his blog here .What follows is my moan after the last bout of S+W fitting reminded me that this is not my favourite modelling job
     
    First fold up your loop, from a coil of brass wire so it isn't straight... If I follow the instructions that come with it (which quote 17mm on each side) , I end up with loops that are far too long and stick well beyond the buffers . Even 15mm seems a bit too long when you try it in place against the wagon . So having soldered the wire in place , you have to unsolder , and then as fast as you resolder one side the other side melts and waves in the air (remember the wire was curved to start with) . So you resolder that , and guess what...
     
    Sparky's tip of using a Bill Bedford handrail bending jig hadn't occured to me and I must try it - it should make things easier, straighter and more reliable
     
    Then you twist up the etches for the coupling hook and counter weight paddle - not a problem - and go quietly mad chasing tiny wire loops with tweezers to form the 3 links of chain. They won't stay together and fall out of the gap in the loop, you drop one on the floor, another one flies out of the tweezers, you try adding them to the coupling hook and the gap opens up and the other two links fall out and you hunt them round the carpet....
     
    Then there's the hasp... Like most folk , I avoid the suggestion of making one from soft wire and us a staple, melted in to the mounting block from above. But straightening one leg of a staple and rebending it to the right width and them leaning on the thing with force and a 25W Antex until it finally starts to sink (but don't push too far else you'll pin the coupling hook etch so tight it can't move) . Then repeat...
     
    I have a little difficulty getting the wire loop to the right, matching height . To deal with this , I've built a gauge or jig from scraps - which is what the wagons in two of the photos are sitting on. The block gives a height for the wire loop, and a basis on which to bend it down - the slot takes the coupling hook and limits the angle at which it is set, to a more or less consistant value. I found you couldn't possibly do either of these by having a "reference wagon".
     
    When a wagon has clasp brakes, the outer brake shoes invariably foul the mounting plate . So out with the tinsnips and chop away the corners of the plate - then flatten them back.
     
    It's all a slow painful process.
     
    How do S+Ws work in practice? Well - one of the purposes of the shunting micro was to test them out. And results have been a little mixed. Coupling is normally reliable - there's one place , crossing a rather rough board joint, where some wagons insist on uncoupling . This almost certainly requires me patiently to track down and tweak each of the couplings that gives a problem. It only happens when the loco is pulling a single wagon : perhaps the drag of a trailing load keeps the couplings in tension (though that would imply the couplings might part at the rear wagon - and they don't. However locos are not fitted with hooks- just bars). It is going to be a long and patient process to find and adjust all the rogue couplings, and to be honest the micro hasn't been run as often as it might, which doesn't help.
     
    I haven't been very successful with auto-uncoupling let alone delayed action. However the fact I was trying the couplings out on a micro forced to me put the uncoupling magnets in thoroughly unsuitable places - the middle of a crossover made up of small radius Y points for example - so I'm not sure this is really fair comment . Manual uncoupling with a jeweller's screwdriver is easy enough , and I've seen them working fine on other layouts , including one I've operated briefly, so I think the problem is simply that I've pushed the application beyond its reasonable limits
     
    How do they compare with the Kadees I use on Blacklade for locos, airbraked stock and multiple units? Fitting Kadees is certainly a great deal quicker and easier - even excluding the NEM versions which plug in in a matter of seconds. The Kadees are slightly more reliable in coupling, but I can't comment much on uncoupling as my electromagnets are not yet wired - exacept to say that manual uncoupling is much more awkward. Where I've operated another layout using Kadees I've found auto-uncoupling using electromagnets a bit hit and miss , though it appears alignment of the electromagnet is actually quite critical (I'm not sure the ones that went onto Blacklade were spot on). Kadees allow you to lift a wagon straight out of a train. But they are quite expensive - fitting them runs out at about GBP2/vehicle . Ouch! S+W is a cheaper option, though it doesn't work out at pennies either
     
    I now have almost 30 wagons fitted with S+W coulings , so in a sense I'm committed. But would I consider a return to tension-locks? No. Despite the problems I've had- which may well not be the fault of the couplers - Sprat and Winkle couplers do everything tension locks do, and do it more reliably- even at this stage. It might be possible to improve tension lock performance by standardising everything on one specific type of tension lock - but that itself wouldbe significant work. And Sprat and Winkle couplings look a great deal less obtrusive than the old "Volvo bumper bar " of the tensionlock
     
    So we press on.
     
    Meanwhile, the saga of the open wagon to go with them continues. I couldn't find suitable Cambrian kit at St Albans, but I did manage to find a second hand Dapol wagon, which I think is one of these (photo courtesy Paul Barlett's site) LMS open .
     
    It looks as if most of these , at least the late survivors, were retrofitted with Morton vac brakes by BR. Wheelbase is 10' The older wooden chassis opens to dia1666 seem not to have been - very naturally - and it has been suggested most of the latter went in the late 50s/early 60s. Since the balance was shifting rapidly towards vans (BR inherited 2 opens for every van , but built two and a bit vans for every open) , it looks like wagon fleet modernisation took the form of breaking up old wooden chassis opens and replacing them with new fitted vans, while upgrading the more modern opens with vac brakes to boost the fitted proportions of the fleet. Hence I intend adding tiebars, vac cylinder and cross shaft
     
     
    Someone has handlettered one side neatly - my dried up old Modelstrip wouldn't shift any of it , so a coat of bauxite will be applied over the top. If the original owner sees this - sorry, but a weathered bauxite fitted version is what is appropriate for my layout....
     
    The wagon seems to have a further type of coupling , which I take to be the"Lincs" coupling. As this is single ended and I have portable layouts, I won't be adopting it....
     

  15. Ravenser

    The End is Nigh

    By Ravenser,

    Despite the silence I have in fact been doing some modelling over the last couple of months - I just haven't written it up . However this is to record that I have finally finished construction of the Ratio Van B . It still needs lettering , spot painting and weathering, and there's plenty of scope for things to go wrong in all of that, but the last tiny scrap of etched brass has been stuck in place . At least the last one that I'm sticking on - there are still a small number of tiny bits on the etch whose purpose is a mystery to me. At the death , I decided to use the etched chalk boards , as they are abit neater and more regular than my home made replacements - I've stuck them over the card versions which makes the detail a little chunky , but then the chalk boards are.. It won't be the best coach kit ever built, though I hope it will at least look adequete against the rest of my fleet . This is my first proper attempt at a coach kit, if you discount some cack-handed teenage efforts at Ratio suburbans
     
     
    It's taken two and a half years to get to this point , although there have been some delays , distractions and interruptions along the way. That's surely too long for a plastic coach kit. The trouble is that everything has been made into as many individiual components as possible. I've just finished sticking 4 tiny etched door handles on one side of the coach with cyano. Not to mention 4 very very small grab handles just below them, each of which rfequires it's two tiny legs folding into aright angle to enable it to be stuck to the side. and so on. I can't help feeling all this would have been better moulded onto the side itself - certainly there would have been a little less finesse if the kit was in the hands of a skilled builder, but for 80%+ of purchasers it would have vastly simplified and speeded the build. Why were seperate doors and seperate etched brass hinges necessary? Couldn't the side simply have been moulded as a single piece of plastic?
     
    One area I am not sure is entirely satisfactory is the attachment of the bogies. This is by a pair of screws, but I can't get them any further home and the bogies hang very loosely. The coach runs ok , but the body flops and rolls about a bit , and on its one trial outing on the layout it seemed prone to the occasional derailment . Nothing I can do about it (this is afirst kit, and rearranging the running gear is a step too far for me at this stage), and the coach works , but I think there are better arrangements on other kits.
     
    Since I started , Hornby have announced a RTR model , and I think the first batch may even have been released. I recall someone expressing the view that Hornby's model was a waste of time and no benefit to modellers because there was already a kit. Well, having built the kit, I beg to differ. Hornby will achieve a better model than I've managed to achieve , a significantly higher standard of paint finish, and it will run better, and have better engineered bogies. It will also come with NEM pockets, making changing couplings a matter of seconds. And it won't take 2.5 years of anyone's life . There's nothing inherently unbuildable about any part of the kit - but I reckon at least 90% of modellers would not manage to finish it.
     
    I do have one consolation - Hornby haven't so far annouced a version in BR blue
  16. Ravenser

    Fools rush in

    By Ravenser,

    It's been a long while since anything was posted here - most of the modelling in 2011 was on the layout, where the bulk of the major work still outstanding was tackled , but some progress has recently been made on stock as I currently have a little spare time .
     
    Firstly the Ratio Van B. Work resumed last Autumn , only for me to find that that I couldn't find the etched sheet . Eventually I swallowed hard and decided to improvise. This meant fabrication of replacement door hinges from microstrip and of replacement chalk boards from card. The bogies were made up and I found a way of inserting Kadees.
     
    Three days ago the etch turned up - it was in the paint-drying box in the airing cupboard, where I had put it having primed the thing....
     
    A comparison shows that my replacement hinges are about twice as wide, but I think I would make a mess if I tried to cut them off now and I will live with a slightly chunky look . The chalk boards are slightly too long, but only slightly. The handrails, door handles etc etc can now be added using the original components. I hope it should now be possible to make reasonably rapid progress to a finished vehicle - though lettering and weathering make prove a further obstacle (But at least at that point I'll be able to run the thing in a parcels train)

     
     
    I have started dabbling again with the Pacer, which had been stalled for two years . I have a DC Kits 128 + Replica motorised chassis which I'm intending to build but that keeps not getting started ... In the meantime, I've been picking away at other jobs lying stalled on the bookcase . Two N guage containers with part applied YML transfers have been almost finished . A spare C-Rail 40' kit has been built up , and two more which had a first coat of paint have been rounded up (this being when I found the etch for the VanB ) I need some more transfers for these, and probably some paint as they are likely to change colour. This can be sorted out at Ally Pally this coming weekend
     
    Meantime, as the ex WD road van has been stalled for a long long time and I have no steam era brake - the boxfile doesn't really need one - I thought I'd get a refreshing quick win by building a kit I acquired as an easier alternative - a secondhand Parkside kit for an LNER Toad B , bought for £2 from a trader's second-hand box at Peterborough last autumn. (The kit has not been in the Parkside range for some years)
     
    Progress to date can be seen here .

     
    I was expecting the fit to be a little rough and ready in an older kit like this but so far it's been good. . However the big snag is obvious - no handrails. These have to be added , "freehand" as it were, by the modeller. The continuous H handrail on the side - with two handrail knobs thrown for good measure ., one each side of the ducket, is not going to be easy , and I've decided to cheat , and do them as 3 seperate handrails. I'm still not looking forward to this at all...
     
    The windows to the veranda have been glazed and areas that will be difficult to get at once the roof is on have been painted
     
    In parallel , I started playing about with the WD road van as well. More of the handrails have gone in - I'm about half way through the job now. One or two of the holes may need redrilling - which will have to wait till the weather improves . One handrail is not absolutely straight, but several attempts to adjust have not brought an improvement -- the problem is that one of the horizontal handrails touches it. The van has a further weakness in that one corner is not absolutely square . I didn't know that resin could be bent slightly if it's dropped into hot water and left. I now think I can get it very close to being finished - to the point where an afternoon's work outside will be enough
     

     
    The two brakes and the trailing car of the Pacer have had lead sheet araldited into them as ballast
     
    As my "quick win" was looking distinctly problematic , I went looking for another quick win, and dug out a Cambrian Dogfish kit....
     
    This is not a quick win. It looks like one of the most challenging wagon kits out there. The problem is that there is almost nothing to it . There is a nicely moulded one piece hopper, but that is no help at all because you don't build the wagon round it . Instead you are supposed to build the pretty skeletal underframe on its own. In fact the instructions tell you to assemble the headstocks and solebars on their own with nothing else attached to them. And you're supposed to get it square. Somehow. Multi-armed Indian deities are at a big advantage here - ordinary mortals may struggle
     
    I rapidly decided that this was simply not on, and I fitted the end plating to the two half-underframes, on the basis this would at least give me two reasonably strong, reasonably square, halves to join. A quick look at Geoff Kent's 4mm Wagon Pt 1 shows that he had serious problems with this kit . (Strictly speaking he built the Catfish , but I'm pretty certain it's actually the same kit with a different, shallower, 1 piece hopper) . He had to resort to bodging to get a square underframe , and I'm hardly in his league as a modeller. In the end I held the two halves together with large blobs of blu-tak at opposite corners ,with the wheels and bearings trapped in place, and tweaked it intil it sat square on the mirror, at which point I ran in the solvent at each corner , and waited till it set
     
    The pretty-well inevitable result was blu tak stuck to the plastic in one or two places . Not good, and not entirely unexpected, but by this point I didn't think there were any good routes out of this one. I've removed it, and the only visible damage is to the detail on about 4-5 mm at one end of one solebar. I have managed to clean this up, more or less, and once painted it should not show. This sort of thing is highly undesirable, obviously, but I think the only alternative would have been to abandon the kit as effectively unbuildable
     

     
     
    A second area where Geoff Kent had difficulties - and I'm struggling too - is in fitting the hopper . In order to get this to sit on as many places as possible I've had to add scraps of microstrip to the tops of the lower struts - a quick look at some photos shows that there is in fact a plate here to reinforce the join. Any residual difficulty will hopefully be taken care of by melting of the plastic when solvent is applied . The poor quality photo shows the hopper still loose in position . Getting the hopper to sit level in both planes also requires careful adjustment
     
    All in all , not a kit for a novice. I'm not a novice when it comes to wagon kits, and it's taken all the tricks I know to build it with some imperfections
     
    Why tackle such a difficult kit in the first place when there's a perfectly good Heljan RTR model? Well it was one of four Cambrian kits for Engineers wagons I was given by a friend about 18 months ago. It cost me nothing, it would suit an early period Engineers train for Blacklade and before starting
    I thought this was going to be the best kit in the bag (Also the alternative was a Shark - I didn't fancy a third brake van)
  17. Ravenser

    Way and Works

    By Ravenser,

    As well as floating various tramway pipe-dreams I have actually made a bit of progress with Blacklade in the last 2 months. A sustained attack during part of my holiday last month has cleared a number of outstanding jobs . The remainder of the station screen wall has gone in , and although the back of the station building needs adding (I'm not actually basing the model on Kings Cross circa 1942, even though it looks remarkably like bomb damage!) , we are more or less there in terms of the station building
     
    Various other nagging jobs have been sorted out as well. I originally painted the baseboard fronts black, "as you do" but a friend urged me strongly to change the colour as he reckoned black was far too strong and dominant. As the frontage needed a second coat anyway, I decided to do something about it: unfortunately I couldn't find a small pot of a suitable gloss paint and had to shell out for a full sized tin - £10's worth , even sticking to the cheap B+Q range. The closest I could get to the recommended brown was something called "Cocoa Bean" , which is a purplish brown. It's much less prominent, and being much closer to the red-brown of the brickwork helps as well. I painted the plywood bracing straps on the legs while I was about it, which
     
    I'd had problems with running out of the back platform: somehow, despite my best efforts when laying the track , the back road had become misaligned at the board joint and although trains running out of the centre platform seemed to cope, things running out of platform 3 tended to come off. I know its a fudge, not recommended in the best finescale circles, but I unsoldered the rail ends and eased them across a bit so they aligned reasonably well, using a roller gauge to maintain the track gauge . There may be a very slight kink in the alignment as a result, but it's dramatically better than the status quo ante, and trains no longer derail. I also sorted out a minor programming error in one of the macros, resoldered a stray signal wire that had come loose , and Blacklade seems to be running well.
     
    A few other DCC jobs were also sorted out - the 150/1 is now fitted with a replacement TCS decoder so it can be easily consisted, the Bachmann 21 pin decoder I removed has been cascaded to the ROD which is now up and running (not that there's much call for it on Blacklade) A cheap Central 158 acquired from Hattons last year has also been chipped and runs very nicely
     
    A couple of shots of the station area as it now is:
     

     

     
    There are still a few things needing finishing off - I should probably fill in some more of the gap along the top of baseboard and touch it over , the Kadee electromagnets need sorting out (the red button is for the first of them, but for some reason , the magnet doesn't seem to be live - I've now got a further 2 heavy duty push to make button switches from Squires for the other electromagnets), and a couple of signals on the other board. Not to mention "make good and touch up" some holes in the ballast
     
    But for the moment I shall probably focus on the stock. The 3 long outstanding jobs - Van B kit, Pacer upgrade and Bratchill 150/2 - are all still outstanding. I seem to have backed myself into another parcels project, and have ordered a Replica chassis and DC Kits 128 Parcels unit body kit. Van B and Pacer are quite badly needed for operations, and the 128 is apossible workround , as 31 + 57' coach+ 50' coach hangs over the edge of the central platform and stricklythe Kadees on the Bachmann GUV are too high . And an awful lot of stuff needs weathering . Starting with the 150, the 108, and arguably the two 158s . The 156 and 155 are another matter - both need underframe surgery and sourcing castings is a problem . The 155 , being worse, and more frequently used, is probably the higher priority. I might even sort out the unused Provincial 155 sat somewhere
  18. Ravenser
    You may have noticed in these postings occasional mutters that "I must build the screen walls for the station" . In most postings in this blog , in fact.
     
    Well, with the electrics more or less done (only the Kadee electromagnets and a couple of signals remain to nag at my conscience) I've finally attacked what is the last big scenic job on the layout. Quite a bit of tidying up, fettling and detail work remains but this is the last big block of new construction
     
    Here we have the back screen wall - the remains of a former trainshed - under construction. Main materials are mounting board and Howard Scenics brickpaper, treated with pastel crayon (Terracotta) to redden it
     

     
    And here is the vaguely ecclesiatic end elevation of the old trainshed, facing out towards Artamon Square, under construction
     

     
    The lancet windows (echoes of Liverpool St) were worrying me a little , but a peek in Observer Book of cathedrals revealed that the real things are based on an equallateral triangle. Place your compass point at the top of the vertical on one side of the window, and strike an arc upwards from the top of the vertical on the other side of the window. Turn the compasses round, repeat the process from the top of the other side. Where the two arcs intersect is the top of your arch. Cut carefully along the drawn arcs - bingo, a lancet . Phew
     
    The door is a spare from the Scalescenes Retaining wall/archway kit
     
    Only two sides are finished , but the improvement is dramatic:
     

     

     
    In the second view you can see the unfinished section of the wall - this still needs external brick pilasters adding , plus the brickpaper to represent the bricked up former windows . For this I have used Superquick red brick , toned down with pastels (Burnt Sienna, Terracotta) and the arches are from the Prototype models brickpaper sheets (red again, with pastel weathering). It is assumed the LMR Architects Dept vandalised the original station in the late 50s/early 60s. The gap will be taken up by the surviving station building, which is supposed to act as a "viewblocker" at this edge of the layout (I'm not entirely certain about the concept , now I come to execute it, but I hope it adds rather than detracts from the visual impression.)
     
    Just how all this has transformed the station and made it gel can be seen by comparison with an earlier show of the same area:
     

     
    Although width is desperately restricted , I have managed to space the rear wall off the backscene slightly - very slightly where it passes in front of the brown brick office - but enough for there to be a small gap between the wall and the backscene , meaning that the backscene is visibly somewhere behind it
     
    Giving a station this small a trainshed is not in fact implausible . Lincoln St Marks (ex Midland) - which could only take 3 Mk3s on the platform - clearly originally had one , and in its later days had it removed:
     

     
    and this seems to have been a pretty standard scenario for medium sized stations built in Lincolnshire during the late 1840s:
     
    New Holland Town (MSLR - opened 1848)

     
    Market Rasen (MSLR opened 1848):

     
    (Gainsborough Central follows the same pattern)
     
    Louth (GNR opened 1848 - here , as typically on the GNR , the roof was a two pitched affair , supported by cast iron pillars between the tracks )

     
    with Boston being similar
     
    Firsby retained its overall roof until closure in 1970 , and possibly Alford Town may have done the same (all GNR 1848)
     
    In fact the only surviving overall roof is Grimsby Town (again MSLR 1848) which was renewed in 1976
     
    I've leant more to MSLR practice as those are the examples I'm most familiar with, although lacklade is supposed to be an ex MR station
  19. Ravenser

    Single Yellow

    By Ravenser,

    Progress on the wiring continues, though more slowly than I'd wish.
     
    The three station signals were finished and duly installed. . Wiring has proved a rather lengthy and tedious process with 8 fine short wires and two resistors needing to be soldered under the boards for each one. Resistors have been fitted to scraps of veroboard and the various wires soldered to these small boards in situ: the job's done now , but it's taken an evening's work per signal. They are driven off the spare contacts on the Tortoise point motors , and while this isn't perfect it gets a reasonably prototypical set of aspects.
     
    The only real anomaly is that if the roads are set out of platforms 1 and 3, you get a yellow out of platform 2, even though the next point is against you. To achieve a proper aspect here would have required a third set of contacts on the point at the entry to the back platform, 3 , to select between red and yellow. As it is. using the contacts I've got, BL 22 displays either green for route out via crossover /platform 1 or yellow/feather indicating route via the diverging road down the middle. It's almost certain that any route out via Platform 1 must be clear right through - hence the green , - but not certain that the middle road is clear right through - hence it gets the yellow . BL 20, the starter from Platform 1 does all the tricks, as in this case a second point motor on the same board is available for switching. Red shows the crossover is set against it, then switching by the next point gives either yellow ("main" roads in the fiddle yard via the slip on the second board) or green + feather- branch or fuelling point. Since the crossover on the second board is wired as such, there is no possibility of an incompletely set route in this case, hence the green.
     
    And BL 23, the Platform 3 starter at the back, gives either red or yellow. The feather has been wired to two of the pins on the bulgin plug, so that it can be switched by the motor for half of the slip, which is on the other board.The said motor has not yet been installed
     
    All should be a little clearer from the pictures and especially the signalling diagram in the thread I posted on how to wire the Hoffmann motor: Hoffmann point motor
     
    The only catch is that to see the signal aspects you need to stand at the far end of the layout. Unfortunately I tend to operate from the other end - the NCE socket panel is on the fiddle yard board , since this has the fuelling point road / programming track. Thus the signals don't really help check whether I've set the road. At least I know they're there....
     
    The Hoffmann motor is now in place: in fact it's the only new point motor I've installed. The 16V AC is taken directly off the auxilary power bus, with one side switched by the spare contacts on the Tortoise . It is not 100% reliable in throwing and cutting off - ithe motor's shown a tendency to stick and stall in one direction . though the point itself is fully thrown. A quick reach under the board sorts this , and since there isn't space for a Tortoise in this area I didn't really have much alternative. One complication is that there is only one set of switch contacts on the Hoffmann. With the spare contacts on the Tortoise at the other end of the crossover in use for switching the 16V AC supply to the Hoffmann , this leaves me with nothing to switch the ground signal at the exit from the fuelling point . However NCE suggest that a pair of opposed LEDs can be wired into the power supply between the decoder and Tortoise on one side and the Tortoise will act as a suitable current limiter so that no resister is necessary. As the direction of the current changes with the throwing of the motor, the current will flow via one or other LED. They envisage this as a panel indicator - I don't see why it can't work a ground signal instead
     
    Other jobs finished include connecting up the Express Models lightting kit I installed in the Portakabin to the 12V DC stablised converter unit on this board. I found an old rocker switch in my electrical bag that came from I know not where and wired this in. In daylight you hardly notice that the Portakabin's lit : in poor light it's horribly apparent I didn't fit an interior...
     
    I also wired up one of the Kadee electromagnets as an encore, having found a substantial push to make switch in the electrical bag. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work - there's no buzzing noise when you push the button. I suspect I haven't scraped the protective coating sufficiently effectively off one of the wires on the electromagnet. Power supply for this is a variable transforfmer from Maplins , set to 15V (the max) to deliver up to 4A . I presume this is adequete.
     
    I then gave the layout a test running session , which had mixed results. Slow speed running is good . But there were derailments , seemingly caused by the unrestrained slip and dead patches , allied to the board joint , which is not ideal. Coupling issues probably played a part too - the Bachmann GUV has it's NEM pockets set too high , and one Kadee on the PMV needs the spring replacing . And I think the 3link on the Hornby 31 may foul the Kadee slightly. Added to which 31 + GUV + 50 van just fouls crossover 1 at the end of the centre platform - replace the GUV with another 50' van and all would be well. Another reason to finish the Van B. The 101is a little suspect too - almost certainly where there wasapatched repair to the chassis unit after accident damage. I have a replacement chassis in stock, so this could be a priority
     
    And an attempt to fit a replacement TCS decoder in the150 failed because I couldn't break inside - the two end screws just wouldn't shift
  20. Ravenser

    Mind the Gap......

    By Ravenser,

    The trouble with lists is that they show you up.
     
    So how far have I actually got with my ambitious list of jobs? Well.....
     
    5 out of 6 points have had their drive wire replaced with 0.9mm wire . The other seems to work ok anyway. This has pretty well cured the problem of point blades not closing fully. One point , where the commercially available offset drive Tortoise mounting has been used (possibly from Exactoscale?) is still slightly uncertain , perhaps because I've not replaced the final link from the subterranean plastic tie bar to the actual copper clad tie bar. Another point, which I couldn't quite get to close reliably, resulted in so much fiddling, filing, and tweaking that the blade came loose. I then resoldered it , slightly further out, and that fixed the problem of reliable closure . 0.9mm wire does Xurons no good at all by the way: I used the cutters in a large pair of pliers instead, and these survived largely unscathed
     
    On the wiring front, I've installed a 0.5A 12 V dc stabilised power supply unit , from All Components, on one board. That, er , is the sum of it. Very frustratingly I haven't been able to install the Hoffmann point motor , for want of two eightpenny diodes..... One of the consequences of having changed my job is that I no longer walk past a branch of Maplins in the lunch hour, and I can't simply buy a Bumper Bag of Diodes for £1-60. The nearest branch is now 15 miles' drive away. So I've had to order some diodes from Squires, and after a murderous week at work , I only got round to doing so on Friday afternoon. At which point I forgot about the large illuminated push switch I was going to buy to isolate the programming track . So I'm going to have to improvise that bit using the toggle switch and mounting I already have
     
    Being blocked in that direction , I've attacked on another front and built three Erkon signal kits for the station board,. I'd seen these used on afriend's layout and they looked quite effective. Unfortuately the type with a feather - and all three for the station have feathers - have a pair of fine wires coming out of the side of the feather , which is not quite so good. I've painted them black, along with the solder joints onto the diode, which makes the intrusion much less obtrusive , and in 2 out of 3 cases , the offending wires will end up facing the backscene and therefore should largely be hidden. A further complication is that one of the signal heads is rather smaller than the other two.Clearly they've changed/upgraded the kit at some point. I suspect that variations between signal heads aren't unknown on the prototype - after all colour lights have been with us for 80 years, and I would be surprised if signal heads have remained exactly the same size and style throughout that time - and therefore I'm afraid I've just ploughed on. I couldn't really have shuffled the kits around to avoid having one head different, and they aren't the easiest kits to find. It's assumed the area have been changed from semaphore to colour light through slow piecemeal replacement
     
    I also painted the signals. My friend didn't - they looked ok but slightly toylike. Normally I'm sceptical about the idea that prototype info is easy for modern image , but I had only to look up from the bench and look out the window - and there is a colour- light signal. This quickly showed me that posts are grey, and not silver , and that only the signal head itself is actually black. And all the colours are weathered. A hasty coat of Humbrol 183 grey resulted in a much better colouration and also improved the proportions of the signal, as the grey goes further up and down the post, making it look taller, and the ladder is also now grey, and not black . The signal head, phone box, and one or two other bits have been painted with Citadel Charadon Granite, mixed with some matt black . This improved the look of the signals considerably - never use pure black or pure white . All I have to do now is add the signal numbers and install....
  21. Ravenser
    Having chickened out on fitting 4 small etched brass stips as hinges to every door of the Van B, I've decided to tackle finishing the point motors and associated wiring under the layout. This posting is largely to draw the attention of non-DCC users to the query I've just posted on wiring one of the motors here : Hoffmann query, since the solution I've come up with - hardwiring and switching through the spare contacts on another point motor - isn't really a DCC method at all
     
    However this fits into the bigger package of stuff I'm hoping to tackle this weekend (and no doubt next week as well):
     
    - Sort out the unreliable throw of the existing point motors. This is because the wire supplied with the Tortoise is too springy and flexes rather than moving the point blades. Where possible the old wire will be taken out and replaced- where not possible, I aim to stiffen the wire using a tip from an Iain Rice book. There looks to be one point motor I can't get at at all
     
    - Remove the NCE Autoswitch - which doesn't actually work - and fit a DPDT switch to isolate the bulk of the layout when programming
     
    - Install the remaining 3 point motors . I now have a new Cobalt Blue motor (bought at Ally Pally after seeing jim s-w's recent review in DEMU Update) and aHoffmann - these , with a Tortoise , will fit where 3 x Tortoises wouldn't. I'll make sure the wires are stiff enough....
     
    - Install the 16V AC auxiliary bus onto the second board, so it can power the Hoffmann motor, and an Express Models 12V DC 1 amp stabilised power supply
     
    -Install 12V DC stabilised power supplies on each board to power signals, Digitrax decoder, and lighting circuits
     
    - Install Digitrax DS64 decoder to fiddle yard board , to power all points , and replace current NCE Switch It
     
    - Connect up the lighting circuit in the portakabin and hope it works
     
    - Built one or two Erkon signal kits and install - connect up to 12V supply and point switching
     
    I think I've actually got all the bits now , so this lot should keep me quiet for a while.......
     
    Items trial positioned on the boards:
     

     
    And before I started:
     

  22. Ravenser

    Motley Assortment

    By Ravenser,

    It's about time I posted some stuff I've actually done, rather than grumbling that I've not got much done. These wagons were done in September , but I've not got round to posting them till now. A mixed bag of elderly wagons on their last legs...
     
    Exhibit A , as they say in court, is a down at heel Walrus, unaccompanied by a Carpenter:
     

     
    I have to confess that I've tweaked the photo very slightly in Microsoft Digital Image 2006, to compensate for the effects of flash , though the adjustments to colour balance and contrast
    are only a couple of notches. I feel a bit guilty but the contrast/border between different weathering washes always seems to leap out and hit you on a photo in a way that it doesn't viewed in natural light by the eye. Here the jarring note is the boundary between the track dirt on the wagon (Railmatch brake dirt/track dirt mix) and the general browny muck on the sides
    (wash Precision LNER coach teak - I'm not likely to paint many LNER coaches, and somehow I've ended up with two tins...) It's quite subtle viewed with the naked eye, and I'm fairly pleased with the overall result. This wagon has finished up much better than I'd dared to hope at one time. It's now been fitted with Kadees - I'd no hope of getting S+W couplings under those platforms. - and is destined for the early period (1985-90) engineers train on Blacklade. The SReg off-loaded them on an unsuspecting LMR at the start of the 80s. Not sure I'm up for building another of these though...
     
    Next in this collection of clapped out opens is a Cambrian coke wagon, a kit of very elderly vintage bought off the club second hand stall.
     

     
    I discarded the moulding for the underframe members after using it to set up the solebars - I want to put lead sheet under the floor, not stick a large injection moulded obstacle in the way. Construction is very conventional, and much as it comes. Painting and weathering is according to the recipes given by craigwelsh in his MRJ article, using Games Design Workshop -although I'm certainly not in his league I'm very pleased with the result. This type of wagon with the coke raves is a pig to get into all the nooks and crannies and the photo really shows any spots I missed. I think I've got most of them since then. Transfers are Modelmasters
     
    Next come two LMS opens:
     
    The first, bought at St Albans last year, started off looking like this :
     

     
    and now looks like this - a D1892 open retrofitted with vacuum brakes by BR
     

     
    once again any imperfections are cruelly exposed by the enlargement, such as the tie rod... A glass fibre pencil was used to cut back the weathering, and transfers are a patchwork of Modelmaster bits to give a plausible seeming number
     
    Finally there's a more or less as-it-came-in-the-packet Cambrian kit for the wooden chassis D1666, possibly the most numerous open wagon ever built in Britain and arguably second only to the 1/108 16T mineral as the most numerous wagon diagram ever
     

     
    Much of the effort has gone into an attempt to represent an unfitted wagon showing the remains of late 1930s LMS bauxite, which is a bit more washed out than the photo shows - again the greater contrast under flash is a factor . I've either missed the base of the hook , or the thing's come out and been glued back in...
  23. Ravenser
    It's a sign of something - not a good something - that I find myself doing my New Year stock take /resolutions in the middle of January
     
    Twelve months ago I set myself a fairly ambitious programme of catch up and finish. This was tempting fate, I suppose, and Fate duly obliged, wielding a large blunt instrument. At the end of that January, my then employer embarked on a third major round of redundancies . The redundancy process and jobhunting took up most of my time and energy in the first half of the year, and railway modelling didn't happen. Nor did a lot of other things. I then decided, as a preliminary, to try to get on top of the piles of debris and the backlogs which had built up on various fronts. Since I had been seriously overcommitted anyway for several years this has taken a lot longer than I'd hoped, and I haven't been around here very much in recent months.
    Come to that, I've been to my club twice in the last 6 months
     
    It's still not done. A trip to IKEA after Christmas produced a small bookcase, what is billed as a DVD tower but which can also serve as a narrow bookcase (good for society magazines, Oakwood branch line monographs and old combined volumes) and two magazine boxes - that wasn't sufficient to clear up the piles of books and it will be back to IKEA for another DVD tower and a lower DVD case (for use as a book shelf) to finish the job. The clear up went as far as removing the long defunct board from Ravenser Mk1 which has been cluttering up the study for an appalling numvber of years. I still have a few shelves with books jammed sideways in the top for want of space but I can see and find things and the study looks like a habitable room not the scene of an explosion. A trip to my Mum's at Christmas removed the last salvagable bits of my teenage efforts at buildings from the Blacklade Corporation Tramways, and the BRMs have disappeared into a box.
     
    So what's been cleared and what's to be done for the new year?
     
    Wagons:
     
    There's little or nothing outstanding on the air-braked front. As I said last year, I don't really have much use for airbraked wagons these days . I duly bought a Dapol KQA to support the cause and handle the couple of 40'HCs I'd acquired. Although the container train has no immediate use at present, it's one thing I'm definitely keeping regardless, and (in a very desultry, unurgent way) I may quite possibly acquire a Realtrack FLA set at some point to complete a train from my own resources. Otherwise this front's been closed down for the foreseeable future
     
    I made further progress with the steam era wagons in the autumn - I really must post the results and fit them with Sprat and Winkles. This leaves those stubborn perennials the ex WD road van and the DOGA COV B on the bookcase. The road van will have to wait till the spring because resin has to be worked outside on safety grounds- for that reason I never seem to get on with the kit , and the awkwardness of using this material puts me off exploring it further. A Cambrian Dogfish and Shark for early period Engineers trains might be on the cards, and perhaps one or two more wagons to round off the collection for the boxfile. I need to fit Kadees or Sprat and Winkles to a few more of my older models to get them back in service. And that, essentially is all that needs doing on the wagon front
     
    So this year really needs to be the one where I finally move on beyond wagons into achieving things in other areas . Starting with -
     
    Coaches:
    The Ratio Van B needs finishing , top priority . The sticking point was that the roof needs shortening at both ends. And 2 of the brake blocks have disappeared along the way. An upgraded Lima CCT might be a sensible follow up. Then there's the question of sorting out some loco-hauled coaches from Blacklade as a DMU replacement/steam special set. This is not urgent , and given the complications of fitting Kadees to Bachmann Mk1s, and the fact that DMUs are much more important, it may quite possibly not happen this year
     
    The Ratio ex LNWR BCK got as far as one teak undercoat on the sides and stalled. Unless the group BLT shows signs of progress , there seems no point diverting my efforts in this direction.
     
    I shall probably get rid of the rake of Mk3s I acquired: I can't see I'll ever have the space or need for an HST, and it would reduce the clutter in the study
     
    DMUs:
    Now we get serious. Immediately behind the Van B comes finishing the Provincial Pacer I started and which I haven't touched in over a year. This one's needed for the layout, so must take priority. Behind this comes finishing the Bratchill 150/2. Now I have laser cut windows, the last major stumbling block to further progress is removed. A "quick and dirty" rewheel of the Skipper + DCC installation + Kadees may not be not far behind
     
    About the one thing I did get done on this front last year was to buy a Provincial 150/2 from Trains 4U. Retail therapy is quick and easy..... I fitted a Bachmann ESU decoder , and added Pete Harvey's sillhoutte seat etches which look a treat. Unfortunately the Bachmann decoder doesn't seem to support consisting - awkward when the whole point of the 150/2 is to work in multiple with a 153 joining and splitting. So I've got to take it out , replace with the rather pricy TCS 21 pin decoder I bought at Warley, and weather the underframe. The recovered Bachmann decoder can go in the ROD. As I don't propose modelling Worsborough bank before electrification I can't see I'll ever need to consist my O4
     
    Other modest jobs in this area include populating and weathering the 108, and sorting out the 101 - the replacement underframe mouldings are to hand.
     
    And if I've got time on my hands, a DC Kits Cravens needs building
     
    On the RTR front, a Wagon und Maschinbau railbus would be ideal for the group BLT , and a Realtrack 144 in the earlier W.Yorks red and white would be ideal for me. However as that livery won't appear before 2012 , it can be parked until then. As can the railbus unless a) the BLT makes progress and B) no-one else in the group gets one
     
    Plenty to keep me busy on this front
     
    Locos:

    The one bit of "progress" on thisfront is that I bought a discounted 63601 at Warley. A Frodingham O4 withdrawn in 1966 is as good as I'll get. Its a bit over the top for the group BLT , and if that doesn't make progress it's way over the top for Blacklade , but it's a very fine loco and I've redeemed my pledge on the LNER Consensus thread. I now have 2 kettles in need of chipping. And if I succumb to a discounted L1 (Hornby have done one from one of the local sheds.. perfect for the BLT and suitably compact for a steam special - yes I klnow none are preserved but Blacklade doesn't exist either - we're talking alternative realities) that'll be 3...
     
    The Baby Deltic kit has gone to a good home - someone brave enough to build one
     
    The 57 seems best candidate for aType 5 to trip one TTA, so that ought to be a priority for weathering, followed by repairs to the hapless 60
     
    Beyond that, DCCing and upgrading the old 03, and trying to finish the Drewry 04 for the boxfile are the obvious targets, followed by a detailed bodyshell for the Airfix 31 if I get ambitious
     
    That should keep me busy
     
    Layouts require aseperate posting
  24. Ravenser

    Paint Your Wagon

    By Ravenser,

    My attention span has obviously atrophied and my focus suggests an eye test is required urgently. In short , rather than pressing vigourously ahead with the van B, I've become side tracked into finishing two wagons.
     
    The Walrus has been the subject of long-standing lament round here. In a fit of mental aberration I decided to paint the thing - only to find that it is clearly determined to fight me to the death. A first coat of my home-mixed tin of "off-black" produced a distinctly thin coverage . How can black not cover ? - especially Humbrol which normally has far better covering power than the dreaded Precision . Well, I could have tried mixing the stuff thoroughly . That then produced a shade I thought to grey - and still a slightly streaky uneven finish. I visited the model shop near my new office and , having investigated the Revell Anthracite Black, ended up with the Humbrol equivalent , number 85. That still didn't give a totally even finish - how can thishappen with black. And - whisper it - there was another imperfection: one or two nibs in the finish.
     
    I then did what I should have done in the first place - having rinsed the brush thoroughly in white spirit , I worked it thoroughly on a bar of wet soap . Alarming numbers of little black bits came out on the soap. Rinse brush and soap well. Try again. An almost equally alarming number of black bits came out on the soap. After 5 or 6 separate bouts of working on the soap, teasing out and rinsing, the bit count finally dropped almost to zero. Many of them may have come from the stock of the bristles, but it was still a very sobering exercise.
     
    The wagon side was rubbed down gently with fine abrasive board where there was an imperfection (possibly fine wet and dry paper, wet, would have been better) and a final coat applied. It's acceptable rather than perfect , and my mood wasn't improved by finding I already had a tin of Humbrol 85 on the workbench....
     
    The hopper interior has had two coats (inevitably) of Humbrol acrylic leather and will have a slightly lightened final thin wash
     
    Meanwhile the Dapol ex LMS open collected 4 coats of Precision Bauxite before the old lettering disappeared (I bought a large tin of the stuff - one of my worse purchases)
     
    Transfers were a struggle as well. I couldn't find any suitable waterslides for Walruses in my various packs of engineers transfers. As the wad of transfer packets is over an inch thick, this was just a bit vexing - and I wasn't really prepared to pay about a fiver and wait about 10 days to source a special pack just for one (miserable) wagon.
     
    So I ended up using the elderly rubdowns in the kit. The first broke up partly - I have found the secret is to cut the transfer out, very close to exact size, and them apply , thus making sure it sits exactly flat and in place and ensuring it does not move while rubbing over. The first attempt was patch painted and a second data box transfer was salvaged from one of the other Walrus kits I was given. The rest of the elements came from various Modelmasters packs, plus electrification flashes from a very decrepit sheet of Woodhead transfers (the latter largely held on by a liberal application of microsol - the vulnerable bits will have a coat of varnish to seal them). The lettering elements don't exactly match any of the 5 photos of Walruses in black I've found , but are a free amalgam of all that covers the key needs.
     
    Thus I didn't copy the way "Walrus" has been painted out of the lettering box when YGV was applied over:
     
    Walrus - York 1985 - Paul Bartlett
     
    and that wagon hasn't got electrification flashes - in 1985 I doubt if there were overhead wires on any part of BR within 100 miles of York , and these wagons were not exactly likely to wander, given their crippling limitations. As Blacklade is somewhere in the Midlands and sees a few DMUs from Birmingham, I suspect my Walrus spends much of its time lurking at the back of Bescot Yard, where it most certainly would need electrification warning flashes.. I've also added "min 3 chain curve" lettering and I've still got to add the coat of chocolate brown muck
     
    (I'm just puzzled who else has pushed Walruses into the week's most popular photos. I can't have looked at each shot 5 times. I'm sure of it..)
     
    Transfers for the LMS open have also been improvised . I couldn't find anything suitable, and I'm afraid I bodged it, by cutting out number and other elements from the Modelmaster ex revenue Engineers wagon sheet. They were supplied in a post '64 data box - I cut out the bits I needed for pre '64 style. The number has only one digit wrong for the type, and it really ought to be bang in the middle of a block of LMS opens - only , as it happens, it isn't. You'd have to have a very good knowledge of the subject or careful reference to Essery's book to realise the number is actually wrong
     
    All I have to do now is add vac pipes, tie bars and we're done
  25. Ravenser

    Marking Time

    By Ravenser,

    This is by way of a holding entry - because of a difficult period at work I've not managed to do any modelling for about 6 weeks, and consequently there's been nothing to report. I was really hoping to make some serious progress on the backlog this year , only life comes along and throws a spanner in the works...
     
    However I did manage to get to Ally Pally this weekend, and while I was there managed to purchase some laser cut flush glazing for the Bratchill 150 from Shawplan. I gather these are the "beta" or test version of the thing and they are not yet openly on sale : he had some tucked away in a box. Anyway , £20 and enough for 2 cars was mine.
     
    Some weeks ago I showed a friend the completed Walrus (see below) . A week or so later, when I saw him again he said "I've got something for you" - a plastic bag containing some Cambrian kits. "I'm not going to build these now - you can have them". So I'm now the owner of two Shark kits, a Dogfish kit, and two more Walruses. I admit my feelings about the last are a little mixed, but I sourced some replacement plate bogies for them at Ally Pally. Plus some Modelstrip as I'd run out.
     
    My Provincial 150/1 from Trains4U arrived a week or so ago, and very nice it is too. I remember these units in Provincial on the Lincoln/Nottingham services when they were new and based at Derby Etches Park, so it's a very appropriate addition to the early period for Blacklade. However with pressure of things at work it hasn't even been out of the box and run yet, let alone fitted with a decoder. There seems to be little prospect of getting Blacklade set up to programme and try it out in the next fortnight, the way things are at present. My other purchase at Ally Pally was the 21 pin version of the Bachmann 3 function decoder (for £12 - I'm counting the pennies) . The one I have in my 108 produces excellent running and according to the paperwork the decoder now supports 4 digit addressess . The old version didn't - my addressing convention is class number for the Modernisation Plan units (ie within 2 digit) and for locos and 2nd/3rd generation units - first 2 digits , class, then last 2 digits of the TOPS number . Hence 150 135 needs to be 1035 (I'm never going to own a Western or a Hastings unit so there's no risk of duplication) - there are so many 15x classes it seems best to drop the middle digitof the class number to get a distinctive ID
     
    This may be more or less the last RTR I buy this year as things look at the moment: I've more or less completed the stud for Blacklade, as far as RTR spending goes. The gaps are the things that need to be built, not bought - ie Pacers, 150/2, Cravens , and longer term 114. I've got the kits , I just need to build 'em. There's quite enough on that front to keep me busy for at least 2 years without flashing the chequebook around
     
    About the only thing that's made any progress is the Van B. The droplight etches are painted, the windows glazed, and the etched bars from Roxey have been sourced and fitted behind. Doors are fixed in place and the interior of the van sections has been painted a suitable brown. And that's as far as it's got...
     
    I now have both the Cambrian LMS 5 plank and LNER 6 plank open kits - thanks to Barry at Cambrian. The LMS kit is sitting on the workbench - I've not had chance to start it. And it's looking as if I won't make it to York this year, though if travel disruption during and after Easter is bad enough I may well find myself with some time stuck at home and perhaps something might happen on the modelling front
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