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Ravenser

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  1. 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
  2. Ravenser
    Having decided on a target loco (31 415 , MR then BS) http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-14486-a-decent-31-prototypes-and-problems/ and with an Airfix body in hand , what needs doing?
     
    Firstly, remove the numbers and symbol with surgical spirit and a cotton bud. Next , a swift appraisal.
     
    The Airfix model was state of the art in it's day, but that was 35 years ago. Still, many competent judges seem to rate the moulding highly in terms of basic shape
     
    The body side steps and roof filler recess need removing. An etched fan grill to be fitted - A1 Models etch in stock. Nothing to be done to the main radiator grills. Flushglaze - SE Finecast pack in stock. Engine room pipe runs - I have a set of whitemetal castings in stock to use . These will sit behind the glazing and have to be done after glazing and therefore after painting. Cab door handrails are beyond me to replace neatly, so leave them.
     
    Much of the work is on the cab front. Cab doors should be plated - I have an A1 Model etch available. The moulded inverted-L handrails are grim and must be replaced in wire , and a top handrail added. Replacing the lampirons is too ambitious.
     
    The buffers are almost 2mm too short compared with a drawing. A1 oval buffers are between 0.5mm and 1mm too long but more substantial - a marked improvement even if not quite perfect. Once Kadees are in place on the chassis it will be possible to see whether any buffer beam pipework can be fitted.
     
    As far as I'm aware, no significant modifications apply to the chassis . This was one of the better runners on my teenage layout - with a decoder fitted it runs quite nicely even if it growls a bit. It didn't see a lot of use so it's a virtually new mechanism
     
    Airfix took the yellow right down the front to the bottom of the buffer beam. A few locos - I think on the WR - had this but normally the buffer beam was black and this substantially changes the look. Photos show a recess under the cab doors producing a notch in the bottom edge of the cab front. Airfix don't model this. All shots except very early ones show two little wings on the shoulders of the cab doors . They're quite noticeable - but Airfix omitted them and I don't see a way to model them neatly so they'll have to be omitted. Possibly windscreen wipers
     
    There's no cab interior of any kind - some basic provision needs to be made
     
    This little list does show why the Airfix 31 didn't really convince me from the front
     
    And here's a shot of the bodyshell with work well under way
     

     
    An A1 etched roof grill has been fitted (I think this is actually meant for the Lima 31 not the Airfix model) , and all the side steps and roof recess filled. The filler I have is not great stuff - it crumbles away at the slightest provocation leaving a pockmark - and I really need to invest in something better. For once the Milliput worked and set - evidently this time the stuff wasn't past it's working life - and was much better to sand down
     
    The etches for plated doors are in place: these were quite difficult to get flush , or reasonably flush , over the underlying moulding despite my filing down.
     
    The replacement handrails are on. It is surprisingly difficult to bend them up exactly alike on both sides despite using one of Bill Bedford's handrail jigs. I was rather nervous about this part having recently acquired a roughly modified second hand Airfix 31 for a spare chassis and seen how crude its replacement handrails were - but mine seem ok
     
    The new buffers are in place - AI Railmatch oval brass buffers from the bits box . Possibly fractionally long - but a good deal better to my eye than the anemic Airfix efforts
     
    The body has been sprayed in Rail blue with a Railmatch aerosol
  3. Ravenser
    Blacklade is in the North Midlands, with services to Birmingham, Nottingham and Sheffield via Chesterfield. The latter either extends through to Leeds or is worked by W Yorkshire units.
     
    In the 1980s this means that 3 depots would obviously supply units - Derby Etches Park (DY), Lincoln (LN) and Tyesley (TS). Oddly South Yorkshire never had a DMU depot, despite being a fully fledged PTE - their units came either from Lincoln or Neville Hill (NL). There is a minor metaphysical issue about Etches Park, since Blacklade and Hallamshire replace Derby and Derbyshire in the scheme of things, and Blacklade is not on the main line nor a major rail centre. I assume the Midland had their headquarters at Nottingham , their main works at Toton, and where the alternate for Etches Park depot ends up in this parallel reality is anyone's guess (Chesterfield? Burton? Long Eaton? Ilkeston? Swanwick?))
     
    Lincoln had the 114s - all of them - and some 105s. Etches Park (which sounds like it should have had a pile of Craftsman conversion kits and Comet sides) had 3 car 120s until they were replaced by the first production Sprinters of Class 150/1 in 1985. That leaves Tyseley and Neville Hill as potential homes for my 101.
     
    TS looked the obvious candidate till I got out my various ABCs for the period. TS was an exponent of hybrid sets, and when I hunted through the numbers I could not find any pairs of DMBS + DTCL on their books in the period. In 1988 they had DMBS M53222 on the books (scrapped by 1992) but no DTCL. The first relevant listing of TS formations I have is the 1992 Platform 5 volume, when 101 DMCL 53242 was working with 116 DMBS 53073. Even finding 3 car 101 formations to match the original Hornby set was tough although I found M53303/M59124/M53328 all allocated in 1988. No idea if they were in the same set though. TS doesn't work for my 101 unit
     
    Hornby's W-prefix numbers are taken from a photo in Morrison's book of a 3 car Canton unit C813 at Cheltenham Spa in 1982 (p56, bottom). That won't do either - such a unit would not have got past New Street.
     
    At this stage we are down to Neville Hill. You then start hunting through books and looking at photos , and realising that a lot of power/trailer sets were allocated to Chester (CH), Heaton, Hull Botanic Gardens (BG) , Cambridge (CA) and Norwich Crown Point (NC) , and are out of contention. A photo in Morrison just above the one Hornby used shows the end of DTCL E54218 at Leeds in 1983.My books show it allocated to NL in late summer 83 and still there in 85-6, having survived the arrival of the 141s. That's a start. The caption claims it has S Yorks PTE branding , which would be great - but MetroTrain was W Yorks PTE's branding. 101s definitely worked into Sheffield from Leeds - these will have been Neville Hill units - and definitely worked Sheffield- Doncaster: those must also have been NL units
     
    A hunt for a suitable companion found DMBS E51250, also at NL on both dates. Since NL does not seem to have maintained fixed unit formations it's anyone's guess whether they were paired - but you can't prove I'm wrong, either.
     
    The yellow stripe is an issue. Another photo notes the abolition of first class in W Yorks in 1983 - with a TCL which has been downgraded to TSL and lost it's stripe. However abolition of first in W Yorks would not affect units supplied for S Yorks PTE services (On the other hand the People's Republic of South Yorkshire in the 80s might have thought a tumbril to the guillotine a more appropriate vehicle for first class passengers. When BR reintroduced the Master Cutler a few years later as a Pullman, Sheffield City Council officially objected to the new service and called for its withdrawal as elitist.). I found a photo of DTCL E54365 on a Sheffield service around 1990 , with double arrows but no yellow stripe - as I couldn't find an obvious DMBS partner , that was a non-starter, too
     
    Another point which I missed - never overlook your own resources . It was only when I was compiling this - well after I'd finished -
    that I remembered I had this photo. Slightly tweaked as to brightness, contrast and colour for the occasion and with a sharpening tool applied to mitigate its photographic awfulness:
     

     
    In December 1981 we flew back from Sydney for contract leave over Christmas. Dad hired a car at Heathrow, and when we got home he was somewhat frustrated to find that the car hire company's nearest return point was Nottingham - especially as the weather had taken a turn for the worse. So we drove to Nottingham , and I got the rare treat of a train ride back from Nottingham Midland on a freezing day (The rare treat of a train ride on BR that is - train rides on the NSWGR were available for the price of a mile and a half walk to and from the station with some fairly steep hills on the way, and a 30 cent day return)
     
    This was taken at Lincoln St Marks - the 3 car 101 on the left had just brought us from Nottingham. From the fact we were hanging about on the platform at St Marks for me to take photos I think we were waiting to connect into a Newark Northgate - Grimsby train to take us to Market Rasen.
     
    (For younger readers - in those days Lincoln Central could not be reached off the Newark/Nottingham line, which continued through St Marks, over the High Street about 100 yards south of the surviving crossing , and joined the GC Lincoln-Barnetby line at Durham Ox, a few hundred yards east of Central station, just before you passed Lincoln DMU depot. A new connection into Central via the northern part of the former Lincoln Avoiding Line was opened in mid 1985 and St Marks and the last mile or so of the MR route into Lincoln closed. A facinating glimpse of St Marks in its MR heyday can be seen here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/30999-lincoln-st-marks-engine-shed/&do=findComment&comment=1624075)
     
    The salient point here is a comparison of the cab ends with these on the Lima model:
     

     
    Both 101s - presumably based at Derby Etches Park and certainly refurbished (a shot taken at Nottingham before departure shows the lefthand 101 in blue/grey) - retain the original single windscreen wiper, despite my belief these were incorrect for the 80s. The lamp irons are quite noticeable - against my decision not to try fitting the Craftsman ones. And I'm quite certain that the destination boxes are significantly deeper than Lima's letterbox slots. I couldn't get Worksop or Derby from Charlie Petty's sheet into the Lima boxes (Not that I'd have used Derby since Blacklade replaces Derby ) Here DERBY fits with room to spare despite being a much larger font than DONCASTER which only just fits vertically in the box on the model
     
    The reason for this is something raised by other modellers and quite clear in this comparison : the cab windows on the Lima model are rather too tall and more like those of a Derby unit (Yes I know I said these two 101s are probably Derby units. Just not that sort of Derby unit...)
     
    All of this is way beyond my ability to correct and I haven't attempted it.
     
    The difference in yellow is more complex. The Hornby yellow is definitely too orange, though I've toned it down a bit with washes and varnish. But it's not as orange in normal light as it appears here, and it represents the post '84 Warning Panel Yellow , which was a more orange shade. The DMUs in the photo are displaying the pre '84 yellow , which was a paler, more lemon shade .
     
    PS
    (By the way, it's very sobering to read this , when checking back down the blog to make sure I've got the tags right .
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-5627-ive-started-so-ill-finish/
     
    Sorting out the 101 was then a pending job, possibly later that year, as the bits were in hand. That was four and a half years ago. Painting the interior of the 108 and weathering was seen as a quick win for the near future. It's still seen as a quick win for the near future
     
    The Pacer had one brief splutter of progress about 2 years ago . I have hopes of doing something about it later in the year. The Bratchill 150 is indefinitely stalled. Realtrack still haven't got round to a 144 in earlier W.Yorks livery .
     
    The loco-hauled replacement set is a reality. So, as of last autumn , is the upgraded Airfix 31. The Cambrian Dogfish and Shark mentioned are built and in traffic . It only took almost 4 years . So is the LNW set
     
    Some of the rest could be reposted....
     
     
    And I'm shocked to think how long the resin WD road van and DOGACOV B have been pending)
     
    http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/johnsons/idler/chap88.htm
  4. 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
  5. Ravenser

    Magpie's Nest

    By Ravenser,

    A couple of weeks ago I was meant to have someone round to see the layout . Unfortunately they went down sick on the day, Blacklade was up so I had a bit of a play - and things weren't running especially well. So I started fixing things and well...
     
    In fairness I'm not sure the layout had been run more than once since Shenfield last September. My attention has been fixed on sorting out the Boxfile for the 4 months. If you don't use things it shows, so action had to be taken. I bought a rolling road at Warley, and while it proved very effective in freeing up the shunters on the Boxfile I hadn't used it for any of Blacklade's stock.
     
    First things first. I treated myself to a Bachmann 4 wheel track machine a couple of months ago . It is best described as a small self-propelled crane/ballast wagon in yellow. I duly fitted the Gaugemaster direct decoder I had bought , and programmed it. It wouldn't run on DCC. It would run, a bit roughly, on DC but not on DCC . A session on the rolling road on the Boxfile failed to cure it, nor did a little oiling - eventually another decoder (too big to fit under the diecast ballast load) revealed the Gaugemaster Direct was a dud
     
    The 37 was running badly. A thorough lubrication and a decent session on the rolling road along with wheel cleaning sorted that out. Unfortunately it kept stalling on the point at the entrance to platform 3, as did the Airfix 31, indicating that the whole frog might be dead. I decided to give the 31 some oil as well, and while I was about it a support clip on the motor bogie was reinstated , along with a whitemetal piece representing interior pipework that had fallen out and was glued back in - though you can't really see it through the grime on the bodyside windows.
     
    By now I was on a roll and the kettle-tanks came into my crosshairs. The Ivatt 2-6-2T got the running in on the rolling road it never received when I bought it last year, plus a little oil . I'm convinced there's something very slightly bent in the motion of the Fowler 2-6-4T somewhere , though I don't know where , and doubt I am capable of straightening it without making matters worse even if I knew where it was. Certainly it doesn't run as easily as the L1 or Mickey Mouse tank, can "stick" occasionally , and certainly needs its motion kept well oiled if it is to run well (I have a shrewd suspicion why I got it "new second-hand" of a decent price).
     
    The Bachmann Ivatt Co-Co had lost a bit of its sparkle . So I cleaned the wheels thoroughly, gave it a good run, and decided to take the top off, for a good lubrication. I then found myself confronted by a large metal block, with no obvious way of getting inside to get at the worm/gear. Oh, and there appeared to be a unit under the fan grill, with sprung prongs onto pads on the circuit board. The 150 equally has a massive block....
     
    The man on the Bachmann stand at Ally Pally assures me you aren't supposed to break in, and that the gear trains oughtn't to require additional lubrication by the user. And the fan isn't supposed to work. It is possible to oil the axle bearings, but you need an electrically conductive oil.
     
    Having done the 101 and 108, I got to the 155. And it wouldn't run at all, despite a current draw of 0.63 amps... I suspect that the central spindle of the Ringfield has seized (again) and that this is probably the reason for all the troubles with this mechanism over the last 2 years. The problem presumably originates from the years it spent in store without being lubricated , but I think we are probably past the point of no return with this motor bogie now - it's never going to run well. I tried to find a suitable replacement Beetle at Ally Pally (12mm x 34mm) but without success.
     
    I now have two options - rob the motor bogie out of a second Hornby 155 which is languishing at the bottom of the stock pile and has been there for nearly 20 years, unrun - or rob the Beetle out of the Bratchill 150/2 kit which has been standing stalled on the bookcase for many years. I'm strongly inclined to the second option, as it should produce better running , and allow full seating throughout the unit. But doing that will probably finally kill the Bratchill 150. It might possible to finish the trailer car and use it as a trailer with the 150/1 - as was done with some of the real things to build them up to 3 car I've invested too much effort in upgrading the 155 to scrap the thing now.
     
    Next on the list was the Turbostar - and the problems uncovered prompted a thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/132711-help-Bachmann-170-turbo-threatening-national-grid/
     
    I haven't had the heart to open up the 158 which popped it's drive shafts to see if the same problem has manifested itself there....
     
    Oh, and the feather had fallen off the starter signal to platform 2 and was nowhere to be found . I managed to rework a LH feather I had spare to replace it , and I was able to buy a spare LH and RH feather at Ally Pally - I still have a couple of Erkon kits in stock
     
    My other find at Ally Pally was this:
     

     
    which is going to be built as this https://transportsofdelight.smugmug.com/RAILWAYS/LOCOMOTIVES-OF-BRITISH-RAILWAYS-EASTERN-REGION/TYPE-C-442-LOCOMOTIVES/i-MxPHtMm
     
    Honest! I even bought a Mashima motor for it from 3SMR (a 1024) . All I need now is wheels gears, courage.and time...
     
    The real thing was shedded at Louth from 1925 to 1955, and then seems to have ended up around Peterborough , working the Stamford line until withdrawal in 1958 . So it's more or less in period and not far away from Blacklade - and it would look rather more sensible on a 2 coach train than a 2-6-4T
     
    At £35 I reckoned I had a bargain - Craftsman had a good name , and etched brass should be readily solderable. On peeping inside the box, the kit is unstarted, and it has preformed cab roof, tanks and boiler. Very promising
     
    Wheels - well that's a question. A full set of Romfords for this kit is listed at £44.74 - and that's the 2013 price. Those are 20 spoke drivers . and I'd like insulated wheels both sides, as this will be DCC. Meanwhile Scalelink offer plastic centred 18 spoke drivers for just under £4 a driver. Is 18 spoke right? I can't see the whole wheel on a photo. But if I count a half wheel - I get 10 spoke if I include both the start and finish spokes of the semi-circle, and 9 if I only include one. But if I include both doesn't that mean there are only 8 spokes left uncounted....?
  6. 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)
  7. 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 .....
  8. Ravenser

    DC Kits 128 - Bodyshell

    By Ravenser,

    [This is my third attempt at posting this - both the previous two having been wiped and returned to an incomplete draft entry by the software correction]
     
    Progress so far is shown below . Put simply - we have a bodyshell.
     
    I'm not sure it's absolutely perfect but as this project boils down to a bodyshell on a Replica MLV chassis with trimmings, it's a decent start.
     

     
    Bodyshell assembly has been slow . You get four half-sides, two cabs and a roof. The roof has to be cut to length , and then - as I found - you have the fun and games of making sure the cab ends fit square to the roof in both planes, and filing back the roof a millimetre or so in order to match the length of the sides - which at this stage are being dry assembled in a dummy run as a check
     
    It is possible that Charlie has a niche market of Hindu gods residing in West Yorkshire and modelling Modernisation Plan BR multiple units - ideally this assembly process would require 3-4 hands and I come with only two. The instructions recommend that you build down from the roof, and that all the vertical joints between the half sides and the cab are only glued together at a late stage. In other words you have lots of bits of ABS hanging off the gutter and waggling about in the breeze.
     
    The instructions suggest that you assemble the lot on a flat surface. This should be excellent advice: unfortunately I can't quite see how it can be easily combined with building down from the roof using ABS and Plastic Weld. Quite simply by the time you've got the brush to the joint you're frightened there won't be enough solvent left to weld anything, and by the time you can turn it upside down and get it to a flat surface you're irretrievably committed with the joint. There is zero adjustment time.
     
    In short I have a bodyshell that, despite my best efforts at adjustment when welding up the vertical joints, is about 0.5mm out of square diagonally across the corners. Under normal circumstances I'd just shrug my shoulders and reflect that the bogies hang off the floor and flex, it will stay on the track, and nobody will ever notice the very slight twist in the body. However this body is going on a dead square chassis block with a protruding solebar :
     
    I'm hoping that the spacer pieces which I've added inside the bodyshell will push the sides out and straighten the body, and that there will be no visible misalignment against the solebar
     
    A word of warning - the MLV chassis is surprisingly fragile in places . When I tried to pull the coupling out of the NEM pocket the whole coupling assembly came away and one of the mounting rings broke . I've reassembled it and it seems to be holding. Since the maximum load this unit will take is 1 x GUV/NRX + 1 x CCT drawbar pull should be limited and I'm hoping the coupling will be okay
     
    More seriously I found that one bogie was tilted. When I attempted to snap it back into place I found that the mounting bracket above the bogie pivot had broken on one side. The plastic is hard and shiny and I reckoned that superglue was the only option, but it was necessary to force it over with a jewellers screwdriver to get it into place against the break, and it seemed to take an eternity before any bond started to form
     
    eventually, in desperation, I dropped a sliver of microstrip into the joint - and the whole lot bonded firm in about 20 sec.
     
    Presumably this bridged the joint , and meant that there was only a thin layer of cyanoacrylate to bond
  9. 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....
     

  10. Ravenser
    We left matters with a part-fixed Limby DMU and a mild crisis of conscience about details, identities and my general rate of progress on things in general.
     
    Happily the 101 does not add to the latter as it's now finished - despite all the little extras that kept crawling out.
     
    The first little catch was when looking at various photos in Morrison's DMU book and online. Whatever the faults of the former as a piece of scholarship (The Railcar Association compiled 9 pages of errata to it, and I only managed to print off 3 of them before the Railcar website disappeared for protracted and extensive rebuilding like a medieval cathedral), a photo's a photo and dates are normally reliable. Lima produced 101s with both the early 4 cab marker lights and the later 2 + lower 2 digit code panel. What Hornby did not issue was a DMU with 2 marker lights, one over each buffer , and plated headcode box - which is what happened after their refurbishment in the late 70s /early 80s.
     
    This had to be fixed - which meant out with the Xurons and crunch , followed by a good deal of rubbing down with emery boards. Patch painting was also needed, and since Hornby's yellow is a bit orange this meant tinting the Precision Paints post 84 yellow with a spot of Royal Mail red (Railmatch - and to hand from work on the NRX). Since the coats showed further rubbing down was needed, and since yellow takes about 3 coats to cover adequately, this was fun and games - especially with all the colour-matching by eye .
     
    I chickened out on a full repaint because I doubted I'd get near Sandakan's finishing with 3 brush coats, there was a risk of getting on glazing and other areas it shouldn't be , difficulties with achieving neat boundaries and avoiding bits of the old colour showing through at edges and elsewhere. What I did do was give a thin wash over the rest of the cab end with surplus paint (I was painting ends alternately) and apply a satin varnish with a drop of Precision yellow. This should blend everything and knock back the orange tint a little - and it seems to work.
     
    Somewhere in all this I managed to ping off one of the plastic windscreen wipers and a micro-wormhole in the carpet swallowed it. It will probably re-emerge under the headboard of the bed in another room in 6 years time. The plastic wipers aren't great - but I now had to replace them anyway, a job I'd been hoping to avoid. I managed to find an etch of wipers from A1 Models and fitted a pair at both ends, as this seemed to match what was shown by 1980s photos. I know have my own photographic evidence of two refurbished 3 car 101 sets in the E Midlands in 1981 with single wipers so this obviously wasn't a standard change at refurbishment , but is probably correct. Whether the wipers used are entirely correct I'm not sure - but they're much finer than the original plastic and also the right colour
     

     
    The plastic gangways were replaced - I was lucky to have the rest of a packet of MJT British Standard gangways , part of which had already been used for the Ratio LNW set. This time I needed to use the cast whitemetal bases, and I made up new faceplates from 20 thou plasticard, using the gaps in the etch where the original etched plates had been as a template for the scriber. I now have proper touching gangways .
     
    A thin wash of blue-grey Humbrol wash mixed with dark brown wash was applied to the roof and the gloss shine subsequently removed with matt varnish.
     
    A little blue-grey wash with a touch of brown , heavily thinned was applied to the sides and any surplus drawn off with the brush to tone down the finish and blend in the transfers and patch painting . The wash also picked out the door lines, and I dry brushed the hinges with a little dirty black. Inner ends received a couple of wash coats of the blue-grey wash
     
    The underframe was given a wash coat of Railmatch frame dirt
     
    One major issue I ducked was the underframe "black box". I would certainly have had a go if the front bogie wasn't being held together by superglue , and liable to fail if subjected to the stresses of repeated disassembly and reassembly. The "black box" on this unit isn't bad actually - there's only a small area of plastic that shouldn't really be there , and for some time I couldn't work out how it could be cut away anyway. Enlightenment dawned when I saw a posting on another forum. Lateral thinking - or at least lateral cutting - is required. The black box is cut along its length, behind the moulded detail , leaving a thin "façade" on each side , then you file out the bits that shouldn't be there and build up the various boxes behind.
     
    But , as I said, because there is a patched glue repair on the power car I've ducked it for the moment. What I might do , however, is experiment with the "spare" chassis removed from the trailer when converting it from DMCL to DTCL. I could then relatively quickly convert to a power twin set if I ever wanted simply by swapping the interior and bogies from trailer to power chassis moulding and clipping it back into the bodyshell (The trailer car numbering would then be wrong, but how many people would notice?)
     
    What I did do was adopt a bodge mentioned on Jim Smith-Wright's P4 Newstreet website. This consists of painting the few bits of plastic that shouldn't be there with matt black - at which point the underframe equipment stands out and the spurious areas merge back into the shadow under the vehicle . He found it sufficiently effective that it was several years before he got round to doing the full underframe rework, and as the photos show it's quite successfu
     
    I reassembled everything , tested it quickly , then decided to remove the capacitor to improve slow speed running . Having snipped off the beige blob, I decided to remove the wires back beyond the collar . This was a serious mistake - when I put the chassis back on the track, it was dead as a doornail. Panic!
     
    Further inspection revealed not one but two loose wires. The horrible realisation dawned - the capacitor was soldered directly to the motor terminals along with the feed wires, and in wielding the Xurons to take out the remains of the capacitor I had also neatly cut the wires off the motor terminals.....
     
    Having dropped out the motor bogie (it's held into the chassis frame by a screw from above) I managed to resolder the wires to where they are supposed to be and we were back in business.
     
    It's now been cleaned, oiled and thoroughly tested through a full operating session after a proper running in session on club test tracks (something it never got when originally bought). Performance is pretty satisfactory, though not quite as good as other units with the same motor bogie but no traction tyres
     
    That, I think, constitutes a result

  11. Ravenser
    A large part of the problem with this unit is the underframe, and the black box masquerading as a large part of it . This was fouling a point motor casting on the layout [quite possibly the one I've now resited] so it needed to go if the unit was ever to run again, quite apart from the fact it looks unrealistic and unsightly.
     
    Fortunately I had two packs of MTK castings on hand . Not all of the castings are actually needed, since the engine blocks and a number of the boxes are already free-standing mouldings. And some of the castings are no use to man nor beast - especially the 4 cast whitemetal dartboards which are supplied in lieu of air tanks. The definitive proof that Dapol sent a development model to China for tooling which used a set of MTK castings is provided by the presence of these same curious dartboards on the RTR model.
     
    The black boxes simply unscrew and drop away, which is great. That on the power car contains a great shiny rough-cast block of a soft but very dense metal. It couldn't possibly be lead - the notoriously rigorous Chinese H&S regulations , tightly enforced by vigilant and incorruptible officials, would never permit that. But there's a lot of weight there and it needs replacing.
     
    I've araldited in place the replacement castings, built up the fuel tank to a box and stuffed in some more lead - fixed with more araldite. I've also removed the moulded underframe exhaust pipe and silencer and replaced them with the equivalent MTK: it looks slightly better and every bit of weight helps . I've left the Dapol/Hornby moulded exhausts on the end - although there is no fat cylindrical section (filter? silencer?) on these, there isn't on the MTK castings either so there's no point in changing them.
     
    The metal plate between the chassis and the seating moulding has been replaced with lead flashing to compensate for the considerable weight lost when removing the black box beneath. Electrical insulation tape has been wrapped round the edges to protect the wires from the trailing bogie which run alongside - I don't want any sharp edges cutting through wires from the pickups. One slight drawback to all of this is that the lead is not rigid and therefore the power car chassis is now a little flexible in a way that it wasn't, even when the seating unit is screwed back into place.
     
    Here's a view of the finished result:

     
    I've also filed down and refitted all the glazing along the sides to achieve a flush result. It was an awful lot of work, and I must admit that I'm now in two minds about the result, especially where the main side windows are concerned. It is not nearly as neat as I would wish, and it does rather shout "hand-made!" at you. It's more accurate, but I'm not confident it's a lot more convincing. I'm seriously thinking about leaving the main windows alone if I tackle my second, long-forgotten, 155 at some time in the future. The small windows in the doors would still need doing, but when surrounded by a very dark blue the main windows are much less obvious and the RTR finish is much neater than I can achieve. The Hornby Pacers, where the inset of the windows is much greater, and the number of windows involved much smaller , are another matter.
     
    Further upgrading work on the ends involved fitting etched gangway plates robbed from an A1 Models 156 upgrade kit (I have all the necessary bits for a 156 in the Hurst kit someone on here sold me), and adding Hurst cast brass snowploughs. The projecting lugs on the latter around which you pour superglue gel need filing down a little to get the chassis to seat neatly at the ends.
     
    One key upgrade, though a fairly simple one, addresses the problem that Dapol simply omitted the solebars and extended the bodyshell down to where the bottom of the solebars should be. The chassis clips inside as if this were an integral construction coach like a Mk2 - which it's not.
     
    The traditional fix for this is to paint on a fake solebar, which is what I've done, using Tamiya masking tape and brush painted Revell anthracite - a useful "off-black". I also added lifting points over the bogies with scraps of 40 thou plasticard filed to the body profile (These actually now help to get the body off)
     
    Roof aerial plates (A1 etch) have also been added. Snowploughs from Hurst Models brass castings (remember Hurst Models?) were deferred as I was hoping to get the unit ready for Blacklade's first show, so I could display multiple unit working with a 155 + 153 consisted.
     
    However the 155 had other ideas and fought back at the last moment, stopping dead......
  12. Ravenser

    Winter Wonderland

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    This post is partly to link back to the card Met Bo-Bo, which has certainly been on my workbench and bookcase even if it got a seperate thread of its own: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63781-elementary-my-dear-watson/&do=findComment&comment=832586
     
     
    It is now even more finished than before - the shoebeams are on, and a good deal of time was expended on the DOGA test track at Ally Pally trying to make the thing run. With very indifferent results until the wire detached from the back bogie and I bent the pickups away from the wheels. Then it ran fine. I'm still not sure why the MJT bogie etch was shorting out, but shorting it evidently was.... So much for my extra pickups to improve running. This fixed, it proved capable of shifting one of my Ratio LNW coaches and one of L49's featherweight Ashburys (front and back, like certain push pull trains) . I ended up buying a pack of card Ashburys , and although they won't be tackled in the forseeable future I will at least be able to build some suitable stock at some point. The pack also includes some detination boards , which should be a good deal neater for the Bo-Bo than any effort of mine . Thanks to all for kind comments on the model.
     
    Ally Pally proved a rather expensive show, despite my continuing intentions to economise . Despite the push to provide stock for a steam period on Blacklade it has become apparent that I'm rather short of locos that can actually run on a DCC layout for this period. Assuming I don't intend to operate a suburban service with a Frodingham O4 , I currently have just one serviceable loco - my L1. I was therefore looking for something cheap and vaguely appropriate , but the Bachmann stand seemed to be devoid of tank engines , and I ended up acquiring an early BR Fowler 2-6-4T from someone - this appears to be "secondhand new stock" and cost all of £56. It's also more authentic than some alternatives - a quick look at photos seems to show E Midlands LMR locals in the hands of 2Ps , 4Fs, 2-6-4Ts , 2MT 2-6-2Ts, and more rarely 3MT 2-6-2Ts, 1P 0-4-4Ts and Tilbury tanks. Admittedly the 2-6-4Ts seem to be on heavier trains such as 6 coach Nottingham/Lincoln St Marks services, but the Fowler tanks , as the oldest 2-6-4Ts, do feature. The model is not DCC Ready - but as I have a small stash of TCS MC2 decoders and Digitrains couldn't supply any 8 pin harnesses for them this should not be a problem...
     
    Another £50 went with Digitrains - two decoders (UK direct plug and a TCS Z2 to get the Standard 4MT up and running - having read Bromsgrove Models' installation guide I am not looking forward to this...) plus an NMRA plug harness for a T1
     
    £30 more went with a trader who had some Kirk/Mailcoach coach kits - a 51' LNER non-gangwayed full brake , and a Tourist Brake Third . I need some Parcels stock , and for preference something short, and this fitted the bill (as well as Platform 2) - it looks a straightforward kit, so long as I can attach Kadees, and being a parcels van I don't have to worry about getting matt varnish on the windows. The Tourist BTO will be a bit more interesting , as the sides are moulded in clear plastic - the rationale is that I need something with Pullman gangways to run with the BSL Gresley steel CK on the day when actually pluck up courage to build it , and this is something you can't get RTR , is not too grand and new, and delivers lots of third class seats. Both were modestly priced plastic kits
     
    Add in two packs of Modelmaster coach transfers - rumour had it that the HMRS can't get carrier film for their transfers , so I got what was available at the show - a replacement spray can of etch primer, flushglaze for the Dapol LMS noncorridor brake, nose door etches for an Airfix 31, bits for a possible NBL diesel electric Type2 and £25 in petrol and you get to quite a bit of money.... At least I have pretty well everything I want/need for the early period now.
     
    As for the show in general - well, perhaps I'm biassed but it seemed a good one, though something about the atmosphere , remarked on by many can perhaps be explained by the weather. Instead of the joys of spring , Jack Frost had Ally Pally in his icy grasp - and I think the cold did chill the atmosphere. One factor in the perennial debate about prices is easy to miss and bears comment. Car parking at Ally Pally is free (and easy) and getting from the car park to the venue is a 5 minute walk through wooded parkland in daylight. Compare and contrast the NEC where the price of the car park is almost as much as admission, and getting from car park to show means 5 -10 minutes wait for a bus on what is often a cold wet night
  13. 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
  14. Ravenser

    "Here's One I Made Earlier" - 2

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    The first part of this project was written up here PART 1 but it's now more or less finished.
     
    And there's a picture to prove it. 
     

     
    As it was finished a while ago some of the details are now a bit hazy but here goes... One of the centre (first class!) compartments has been retained for staff riding and this gives a long and a short tool compartment in the rest of the vehicle. Kadees have been fitted (I think they were long) and a lot of time spent touching up, lettering and weathering. 
     
    I can't remember all the details of weathering. The basic black is Citadel Chaos black, from a can, touch up was Chaos black with a brush - the difference between the two is minimal. (I know they should be absolutely the same, but there's a very slight difference) . Weathering on both vehicles involved AK Interactive enamel weathering washes - Light Dust Deposit was just too light and white and I think I used Shaft and Bearing Grease over the top to knock it back to something acceptable. Other ad hoc enamel washes may have been used along the way , and I think I just mixed up a suitable grey for the roof
     
    The Starfish is an old Cambrian kit someone gave me a while back, which seemed suitable for a vintage engineers' train and for which I had no other obvious use. It has been built essentially as it comes , and though I think a little care and possibly the odd scrap of microstrip packing in the joins were needed in assembly, there is nothing much to remark on in its construction. This is a very small wagon (which is ideal in the context of a small layout) and even with lead sheet araldited underneath it was little more than 25 g - about half the target weight. It therefore has a load - ballast glued onto a rectangle of 40'thou  styrene sheet with artist's matt medium (to avoid discolouration). There is lead sheet under the styrene , to give the additional weight.
     
    Lettering both was a pig. I didn't have suitable Departmental transfer sheets , and couldn't find anything obviously suitable and modestly priced. A large sheet that only does part of the job at £10 was not a sensible approach. So transfers are made up of bits and pieces found on various transfer sheets I have , words had to be made out of several donor bits, and the whole thing took about 4 evenings , with lots of care , and application of microsol in stages to bond the bits in place. They were then given weathering washes to tone them down . I hoped to suggest patch repair of panels . There is at least one lettering element missing on the Starfish, but I'm prepared to live with it for the moment. These wagons survived in this condition into the 1980s so I have a bit of flexibility of use on this. The wagon number is correct - the coach number is a wild guess conditioned by transfer bits as I have no relevant GW reference and online reference here was limited. I have a nasty suspicion I've numbered it as a diesel railcar or an autotrailer.
     
    The intention is to "borrow" the black Grampus and the olive Shark to make up an engineer's train (politely ignoring the TOPS boxes on the borrowed vehicles) . This leaves me one wagon short - the half-built ex LNER Toad B from an old Parkside kit has been mentally allocated as the second brake van . That finds a sensible use for another model, so I have an incentive to finish it. The stumbling block on that project has been the need to contrive wire handrails on the sides
     
    And now  for a 21st century variation on the same theme......
     

     
    I don't know the provenance of this kit. It is a resin-cast body with integral solebars, which was on the second-hand stall at the Stevenage exhibition this January for £4. Included in the polybag were some Cambrian pedestal suspension units. I assume it was being disposed of because there were some small air bubbles in a couple of places and because the solebars were so thin they'd broken away in one place along the edge. That was repaired with a little superglue - I'm not convinced the solebar is 100% parallel on close inspection but it's not noticeable. Wheels are Hornby discs , fitted with disc-brake inserts. These seem to catch slightly underneath  - they are slightly bigger than the 12mm Romfords that may have been intended. I've gouged away at the underside of the mounting (remove the pedestal unit then work on the fixing) and they are a lot freer-running than at first but may still need a little more work
     
    The Bachmann PNA is 5 rib , this is the 7 rib version. Base coat is BR loco green, weathered with various rust potions /browns, and a wash of green let down with off-white. Transfers were again "interesting" and had to be made up with bits and pieces from various sheets - the green and blue patches were done by brush-painting onto some Fox blank transfer paper, then applying transfer lettering from other sheets (sometimes in bits) on top . The patches were then cut out and applied as transfers to the wagon. This has all been another slow lettering job, and I still have to source the Caib transfers and apply a sealing coat of matt varnish. There may be some more weathering too - the originals were pretty beat up vehicles (see below)
     
    The resin used is a soft white substance, not the hard resin more commonly seen in kits.  This vehicle may actually be a purely amateur exercise - I think Jon Hall may have done a few wagons a bit like this as resin casting demos over the years. It has been weighted with lead sheet underneath, but Kadees are still to add. I bought two commercial resin wagon loads at Shenfield , intended for the Bachmann PNA : unfortunately they are fractionally too wide, and more seriously about 3mm too short for this wagon, so a suitable load will have to be made up. . (I have a Bachmann PNA that can use one of the commercial loads and at £2.65 primed it's hardly a great expenditure)
     


  15. Ravenser
    [What with a new job and sundry other distractions I've been pretty quiet on here for a while, though a certain amount of modelling has taken place. This entry has been sitting unfinished in draft status for some months - rather than delete the thing I've finally tidied it up and released it into the world out of its time slip....]
     
    I had the layout up and the result was a bout of decoder fitting and test running. And I'm beginning to see why some folk view DCC as black magic.
     
    Four locos or units were involved, plus that long-term problem child the West Yorkshire 155.
     
    First up, the little Hornby J50 which I bought at Ally Pally because I thought the bank might pull the plug on Hornby in the near future so this might be the only batch of the models we ever see. I managed to get a late crest loco for a decent price off Hereford Model Centre - this is a J50/4 and a little online checking reveals that 68982 was at Immingham, Colwick, and Frodingham , probably the only J50/4 with a long term E. Midlands career, most being London engines. Possibly I should have got an early crest J50/3 instead, but the deed is done, and at some point I shall renumber - I just hope that the transfers I have match Hornby's printing and I only need to change the last digit
     
    I had a TCS UK direct plug decoder in stock, so that went in, there was no need to remove any weight,and it runs very nicely.
     
    I have previously toyed with the possibility of using a station pilot when Blacklade runs steam - I have a GBL Jinty and Hornby chassis in stock and wondered about giving them something to do. Once all the decoder fitting was completed I had a kettle operating session and I found that having a shunter as pilot substantially improves operation. It gives you an alternative way of releasing locos when you're boxed in, it's excellent for rearranging parcels vans and a very useful and interesting addition to operating . So I definitely don't regret spending the money: the J50 will see a lot more use than expected.
     
    Here it is in the fuelling point having taken out the LNW set to release a kettle:
     

     
    I was also very pleased with the sudden improvement in reliability when running the kettles. The L1 ran an entire session without falling off, despite it's still unmodified pony truck, the LNW set ran without problems now a bearing has been eased, the MR set behaved itself perfectly and so did the parcels. I found the newly operational electromagnets under platforms 1 and 2 useful to uncouple locos , and generally it was a confidence-building session. The BR Blue period has worked pretty smoothly for a while - now the kettles are getting there, too
     
    I'm even toying with the idea of resurrecting the elderly Bachmann 03 diesel which has been lurking in a drawer since Ravenser Mk1 was dismantled. It will mean hardwiring a decoder and fitting Kadees, but it's very small and I should be able to find somewhere for it to lurk amongst the Blue period stock. There's a Bachmann 08 hiding away in that drawer as well - from the first issue, so there's no socket and hardwiring will again be necessary.
     
    Second up for a decoder was the Replica MLV chassis for the 128. This took a large Gaugemaster decoder, tucked in with double-sided sticky tape, and duly programmed. I found it a distinctly slow-running mechanism until I started doing some tweaks to the motor control on other locos and suddenly discovered that I had input max volts to CV5 as 128 when in fact the values go up to 255. In short I'd halved the maximum voltage... It's been corrected.
     
    Third up for a decoder was the Fowler 2-6-4T which I bought second-hand at Ally Pally a couple of years ago. I took the body off to see what would be involved in hard-wiring the thing - and found that there was a decoder socket in the thing. If I'd known that I'd have had it up and running ages ago....
    A Gaugemaster Opti Small went in this - and the thing barely ran. As it had run pretty happily when I got it (I took the precaution of testing it on the DOGA test track ) I applied a bit of lateral thinking and carefully oiled the valve gear and motion, and anything else that the service sheet said you should oil, using some .033" handrail wire to apply the oil. After two rounds of application, the Fowler tank ran pretty well, though it's not quite as smooth as the L1. I suspect that sustained use will help this over time, since friction in stiff motion is evidently the problem .
     
    The Fowler tank has since received Kadees - another job which I'd been dreading, but which proved surprisingly easy in practice - and is in traffic, replacing the O4 which found the undergauged spot in Platform 3
     
    The fourth loco to get a decoder was a Lima 37, picked up for a song at DEMU Showcase a couple of years ago because it was in two tone Sector grey and carried the number of the intended target loco. That - as far as I can now recall - got one of my last TCS MC2s, since it is a (straightforward) hardwired installation. As this is a vintage Lima ringfield mechanism - albeit a sweet-running one -the speed curve had to be tweaked to hold down the volts at the midpoint : this means that the loco is much more controllable in much finer gradations at lower speeds. In fact you have to get past speed step 90 before you are going to see any surge in speed. On an 8'6" long layout nothing ever gets turned up that far. Whatever may have been the case for Spinal Tap my PowerCab doesn't go to 11....
     
    One problem did emerge during test running - a tendency for the unpowered bogie to derail in platform 3 (yes that bit of track again) . This was tackled by adding the weight taken out of the 155 when I rebuilt the underframe. Unfortunately this proved a bit too much for the motor to handle with comfort, and I resorted to cutting down the weight to about 2/3rd size with a hacksaw. Although a silver metal on the outside , inside it was a soft dark grey metal. It couldn't be lead, of course. After all no Chinese factory would dream of breaking health and safety regs by electroplating a lead weight to disguise what it was....
     
    And so to the 155 , which simply refused to move when taken to the club test tracks a few months before. I put it on the tracks . I checked the programming . It ran fine . I checked if DC was enabled . It was. I have no idea why it refused to run on DC previously.....
     
    (But the wretched thing still derails on a 3' radius crossover, so it needs a third attempt at inter-unit Kadees. I do have some Parkside mounting blocks to take NEM swallow tail sockets, and I hope that will solve the problem
  16. Ravenser
    In which the Author maketh a prosperous Journey towards Penydarren in South Wales - where he suffers a sudden Misfortune which leaves him stranded upon a remote Shore...
     
    It has been some time since my initial post on this model  Part 1  when all seemed so promising.   Now, like a message sent in a bottle by a castaway washed up years later on a distant beach I suppose I should write up further developments with what is currently a stalled model.
     
    After much internal debate I finally decided not to attempt a wooden cladding to the boiler, as painting and assembling the cladding round the boiler and the valve gear and gubbins round the cladding just all seemed too much.
     
    Slowly but steadily good progress was made. Yes - I managed to stick the cross-saddled holding the axles in the wrong place and had to remove them and reposition. The carcase of the model was spray-painted matt off-black (Games Workshop Chaos Black from a big aerosol can) as were quite a few of the valve gear and drive components. I was careful to assemble everything so that it would move where it was supposed to move , although the meshing of the gears isn't quite perfect - as can be seen here - and it isn't really free turning in one direction
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
    The crosshead moves reasonably freely , even after painting - as a railway modeller I set about making sure everything slid as freely as I could , and gear teeth were checked over to ease any meshing difficulties. The wheels were on, the motion more or less erected....things turned, fine in one direction, not quite so fine in the other, and I was still harbouring hopes of ultimate motorisation ,once I had finally got my head around what Airfix envisaged happening underneath the plastic stand. A motor was supposed to be fitted there, along with a battery - and presumably a switch as well - and I think this was supposed to drive something and thereby turn one of the wheels , so that the motion moved . Effectively the locomotive would work backwards - the wheels driving the motion.
     
    The display base itself was built up, though I'm not quite sure if the stand mounts would hold the loco perfectly level , or so that the wheel would be in contact with whatever's turning underneath. (There's a slot in the base , where this would have protruded, and come in contact with the rim of one of the wheels.)
     
    But still - so far , so good, or reasonably so , and all the problems looked as if they might ultimately be resolvable with a little thought, care and ingenuity.
     
    Then I added the big flywheel and - disaster!
     
    I tried turning the drive train. It was very stiff. I pushed a little harder - and the great flywheel sheered off.....
     
    Somehow the shaft at the back had become  stuck to the bearing when I added the flywheel (presumably solvent got where it should not have been) - and the simply twisted off and sheered at the bearing as I pressed. The damaged area is visible on the bearing bracket at the rear of the boiler.
     
    I tried to drill out the shaft end to take a short piece of brass handrail wire to pin the flywheel back on - but couldn't drill centrally
     
    The only thing I can now see to do is to melt  a short length of 0.45" brass wire into the end of the shaft from above (i.e. the side) , and drill a hole to take it into the centre of the flywheel. A (very small) drop of superglue would then be used so that the wire would "pin" the flywheel to the shaft.
     
    I suppose I could just glue the flywheel in place and abandon all hope of a working model. But having taken quite a lot of trouble to build the kit with moving parts that actually move I'm very reluctant to do this.
     
    Woe is me! The poor mechanical trilobite has been consigned to the shoe box for some months while I get on with other projects that I haven't broken (yet)
     
     


  17. Ravenser
    I've been pretty busy on the hobby front in the last few weeks. The trouble is that it hasn't involved making any models....
     
    A few weeks back I was helping with the DOGA stand at a show in the Midlands, which meant a couple of days away. Very nice and hopefully productive, some nice layouts , and I was a good boy on the spending front.
     
    Then the following day someone from one of the magazines came over to photograph the layout for an article, which will (I hope) appear in the next few months. This meant that the week before my show trip was spent frantically tidying up the flat cleaning the layout and the stock, and sorting out one or two minor issues - a dummy point motor reseated so that it doesn't foul the underframe boxes on the coaches (which it was doing in one direction) , and one of the accessory decoders remounted - I'd initially fitted it with double-sided tape, which NCE and Tortoise assure us is adequate for mounting purposes, but it must have shaken loose on the way back from the show. It's now held on with two screws as well.
     
    I've written the article, and gone through it three or four times to ensure it reads as easily as possible, unnecessary words are taken out and as much as possible covered within the word limit (I could have probably filled another 500 words, to be honest). Copies of the photos came by post - I've done the captions and the whole lot has gone off to the magazine
     
    After that came the club show and two days of stewarding and help breaking down.
     
    I'm afraid the cheque book suffered this time - when working with the etches for the 128 I was reminded yet again that a bending tool for etches would be very useful. So I treated myself to the smallest size of Hold And Fold - I'm not intending to build any 7mm etched brass Pacifics, so that should be adequate for my needs
     
    And given the shakiness of Hornby I decided I would definitely buy a J50, as there's a risk this might be the only chance I ever get. It's not a loco I definitely "need" but I've occasionally toyed with the idea of a cheap Lima body detailed on some chassis, so - I grabbed an early crest J50/4 off a boxshifter at a good price. A bit of renumbering will be required but 68982 seems to have been allocated to Colwick, Immingham and Frodingham at various times. That will do - I just hope Modelmaster numbers are the same size as Hornby's tampo printing, otherwise I'll have to replace the whole number
     
    Then there's my embarrassing little purchase. Someone had a couple of second hand coach kits for LMS Portholes - punched aluminium bodyshell affairs that I thought were BSL, and a fiver for a Brake Third seemed a great bargain
     
    Unfortunately it's actually MTK . Next time, read the label
     
    Blacklade runs very smoothly with DMUs. We're more or less there with the 31s and loco-hauled trains, though the Airfix 31 is a little sticky - no doubt attributable to its mechanism (I am starting to wonder if a drop of oil may be needed again), and I have had very occasional thoughts that a 25 might be an idea
     
    But the steam stock still has some bugs to be shaken out of it. The L1's pony truck is a particular offender, though it seems this is a well-known issue with various fixes being tried.
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51794-Hornby-l1-front-bogie-derailing/
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/87326-Hornby-l1/
     
    (This is by way of a note to myself, so I can find the threads again) .
     
    I was somewhat less than chuffed to discover that Hornby's Fowler 2-6-4T has the same arrangement: that's supposed to be near the front of the queue for a decoder in order to improve the motive power situation
     
    And I'm even more convinced that the MERG accessory decoder must come out - rebooting the layout after a short is getting very tedious
  18. Ravenser
    Some years ago I was in a toyshop buying Christmas presents for young relations. While I was scanning the shelves I noticed an Airfix Gift Set in a large box marked down to the absurdly low price of 10 quid. (I think it had started off at around £30 and even that may have been somewhat below the list price.) For a tenner you were getting FOUR plastic aircraft kits in 1/72 scale. most of them interesting and unusual subjects, with acrylic paints, glue and brushes thrown in . That's an absurd £2.50 per kit, or - if you attribute value to the paints and brushes - about £2 a kit. This was value too good to pass by. So I bought the set, even though I had no obvious use for any of the kits, and hadn't touched an aircraft kit since I was a boy.
     
    And there it sat, as a box under other boxes, in the study....
     
    The Gift Set in question, produced in collaboration with the Imperial War Museum, is titled VC Icons and features aircraft flown by 5 RAF VC winners in 1940-1. The four kits are for a Hawker Hurricane Mk1, a Fairey Battle Mk1 (was there ever a Mk2 ?? ), a Handley Page Hampden, and a Bristol Blenheim Mk IV.  When I came up with the scheme for an inter-war military narrow gauge railway on some islands in the North Sea (see here )  it seemed a nice idea to have an aircraft on final descent hanging over the layout: there is deemed to be an RAF station just behind the backscene , and aviation fuel and armaments will be brought up from the port by train.
     
    In the context of a boxed diorama OO9 layout 4'3" long any 1/72 aircraft suspended from the lid had better be as small as possible, and the smallest aircraft for which I have a kit is the Hurricane Mk1. (I also have a Revell Mk1 Spitfire kit , which the Daily Telegraph were offering as a promotion a few years back, claimable free from ModelZone on presentation of a voucher. But a Spitfire is bigger than a Hurricane, and Spitfires did not become operational till 1939)
     
    However this is not an account of a Hurricane build....
     
    I hadn't built an aircraft kit since I was about 11, and I don't think those I stuck together as a young lad ever achieved the dignity of paint. I'm not an aviation enthusiast: I've visited Duxford twice in the last 5 years, and flown as an airline passenger a few times over the years, and that's it; although coming from Lincolnshire I'm well aware of the RAF's presence.  It seems only sensible to build something else as a learning exercise to get my head around 1/72 aircraft kits properly, before I venture on building the Hurricane kit.
     
    I want to make a decent job of that one, and some preliminary online explorations have already revealed that RAF markings and colour schemes changed several times between the summer of 1938 and the Battle of Britain. I will certainly need a replacement decal sheet for the Hurricane, and the aircraft as finished will almost certainly pin the layout to the period between the start of the Munich Crisis and the outbreak of war. Whether any other modifications or upgrade parts would be required I don't currently know.
     
    Arthur Ward's "Boys Book of Airfix" (a serious company history, despite the title) has a listing of Airfix kit introductions in the back. From this it appears that the Hurricane kit dates from 1979; the other three kits in my set date from 1968.
     
    Having cleared the old broken computer desk from the study and installed three bookshelves I have a little room to breath. The OO9 layout moves from theoretical concept to possibility; although in practice it would foul and force out the new minimal computer trolley  back into what is a narrow room. Not sure if I want to do that... . The right hand bookshelf in the living room could do with a middle ornament with more presence on its top. Though I think a two-engine aircraft may be too much.
     
    So the test-build kit will be the Fairey Battle. As a single engine aircraft it should be a simpler kit, but it's a bit big for the prospective layout and an aircraft with a very long canopy really isn't suitable for suspending from a length of fishing line: there's no convenient fuselage to act as an anchor point. If it lacks sufficient presence as a  bookshelf ornament, I could attempt a  very simple diorama to be stored in one of two hatboxes I seem to be hoarding - it should be small enough
     
    This is apparently a notoriously inaccurate old kit . It's faults are outlined here: Airfix Fairey Battle rework  That documents a pretty heavy rework. As a learning exercise I intend building it as supplied, according to the instructions and see how neat a job I can do. Any aspirations to upgrade kits are best kept for better basic raw material where a decent result is in fact possible, once I have some idea what I am doing. Using the worst kit in the box as sacrificial training material makes sense
     
    As noted I've no background in aviation modelling. My sole practical reference is a section in Christopher Payne's Encyclopedia of Modelling Techniques, which is veering towards a coffee-table book. This is something but still... Deep breath
     
    I claim no real knowledge of the prototype, but rapid internet checking reveals that the Fairey Battle was designed in response to a 1933 Air Ministry specification for a monoplane to replace the RAF's existing biplane light bombers. A prototype flew in March 1936. It was the first RAF aircraft to be powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin. It was certainly a lot better than the biplanes it was to replace but even this early there were concerns that it's range and bomb load were inadequete for it to be effective in a war with Germany. However the RAF needed to expand, the Battle was a monoplane and could be put into mass production immediately, and so it became a priority. 2,201 production aircraft were built between June 1937 and September 1940
     
    The Battle was effectively obsolete within a year of entering service. It was slow (240 mph maximum speed - the Spitfire could manage 370 mph), and it's defensive armameny consisted of one machine gun in the wing and a gunner with a machine gun poking out of the back canopy. They were sitting ducks for fighters. 160 Battles were sent to France in 1939 to support the BEF. When the Battle of France began there was carnage: in six weeks the RAF lost almost 200 Battles in France. For want of anything better the Fairey Battle remained in service on anti-shipping raids until mid October 1940, and that basically was the end. The RAF operated no more single engine "light bombers" in World War 2: tactical support  /ground attack was left to fighter-bombers - varients of fighter aircraft compromised to take bombs and rockets. Wikipedia  here
     
    I had hoped for a nice simple start to construction. But the first thing  to be done is to assemble the cockpit: and that means figure-painting the pilot and gunner. Ouch. Since some sources recommend painting smaller parts on the sprue I went beyond the crew figures. For model railway work I would use enamels, but this set comes with a bag containing a large number of small pots of acrylic and two brushes , so I used them. The point carry the colour number on the lid - there is no list and the painting scheme diagrams omit detail, but I have a Humbrol colour card booklet which allows  identification
     
     
     
    And here we are so far. Undersurfaces painted in Revell matt black (as I had a pot on the bench) , Humbrol cockpit green for the cockpit, figures in a mix of Games Workshop Macragge blue, Vallejo tierra oscua (flying coats) Tamiya red brown, Humbrol Flesh, and Railmatch warning panel yellow....

  19. 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
  20. Ravenser

    News and Parcels

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    I've made a very slow start on things, but there is some progress to report with the Ratio Southern parcels van.
     
    I've seen some adverse comment about this kit on here - notable Roger Chivas' remark that having seen somebody build one he went off and designed an etched brass kit because it would be so much easier. Given that most people are frightened by etched brass [I'm not saying they ought to be, just observing factually the way people actually react] this makes it sound like the Ratio kit is unbuildable and may put people off even thinking about trying it.
     
    I'm far enough in now to make some comment on the kit. It is certainly much more intricate and fiddly than the older Ratio MR and LNWR kits. Take the roof - which I'm currently tackling. This is moulded with a slightly textured surface - probably to represent canvas. You have to drill out holes for seperate whitemetal torpedo vents - the instructions say 1/16" drill which equates to 1.6mm in new money. I've still had to ease every hole a fair bit with a broach to take the torpedo vent casting. And at first glance the roof moulding looks a bit long - so I may have to file back at each end. Now compare with the older Ratio kits - a one piece roof with the vents moulded on in the plastic. No doubt not quite as effective but much quicker and simpler.
     
    Take the sides. These require seperate doors to be fitted to the basic side, and etched drop light mouldings to each door window. Not to mention seperate droplight mouldings for the guards' door. The Ratio LNWR coaches have a single injection moulding for the whole side
     

     
    Take the underframe. Each battery box requires the addition of 4 lengths of microrod. The dynamo comes in 4 bits
     


     
     
    There's nothing exactly difficult about each operation, and everything is supplied. It's very far from difficult to build so far - bear in mind that I've not attempted a coach kit since a few teenage attacks on Ratio MR kits, so I must be counted as a novice builder here. But there's no doubt it's a much slower, more laborious and intricate process than the older Ratio kits.
     
    I've added lead flashing along pretty well all the floor to bump the weight up to 130g+ . I know 4 x 25g is the standard formula for a 4 axle vehicle , but that seems a bit light for a 50' coach
     
    Two detailed gripes - not exactly with the kit design. The transfers cover SR and BR pre 1965. Nobody seems to do BR Corporate image post 1965 transfers in white. [The same situation exists with the PMV - the only "4mm" transfers available are actually to 7mm ] This is odd, because these vehicles were well known as the last surviving pre nationalisation coaching stock and ran for over 20 years after the Corporate Blue livery came in. And it's not as if there were only one or two survivors either. There must be plenty of modern image modellers who fancy a bvit of variety in their fleet by adding some Maunsell vans in rail blue
     
    And somehow quite a few of the brake blocks have come out of the sprue, and despite a hasty search on Sunday I'm now two short. I am reasonably certain I had one floating around on the workbench earlier and didn't realise what it was. Somehow I'll have to improvise for the one wheel I can't cover...
     
    I've even made a start on the Dapol open I bought at St Albans , to turn it into a retro-fitted LMS wagon. This is a very simple conversion - a spare Parkside vac cylinder cut down for height, remove the old couplings and securing lugs which hold on the chassis , glue body to chassis , cross shaft from plastic rod, scrap of plastic rod for the crank off the vac cylinder , and there we are, ready to paint. Can't think why it's taken 6 months to do...
  21. Ravenser
    One of the "benefits" of a blog is that it records just how long certain projects have actually been stalled.
     
    This is a case in point - behold I bring you the world's slowest quickie loco kit!
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-14093-baby-deltic-1/
     
    The Silver Fox Baby Deltic has been stalled and lying in the paint-drying box for a horrifying 4 and a bit years....
     
    I am at least now making some progress
     
    One issue was highlighted here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/137857-traction-tyres-repair-or-replace/
     
    I now have a traction tyre from Kernow - their last of that type apparently. On comparison with the wheel it looks a little small - but there are no other more suitable traction tyres available. (I also have a kind offer of large section heatshrink)
     
    For the moment I'm going to gamble and hope the superglue bodge actually holds in traffic. Tyre replacement , and heatshrink are fallback plans 1 and 2
     
    In the meantime matters have advanced this far:
     

     

     
    The bodyshell has been weathered, and given a coat of matt varnish to seal. The glazing has been fitted.
     
    The stretched cl29 underframe, which had been floppy to the point of breaking has now been heavily reinforced and is solid. I'm not convinced it's actually 100% straight, but I hope any error (of the order of 0.5mm-1.0mm over its length) will be taken out by natural flex as it is fitted into the body
     
    The etches for the fuel tanks etc have been formed and superglued in place. I've added plasticard between them to make the whole thing look vaguely solid rather than simply two facades. One of these has acquired a hand-carved shallow curve after I spotted that the thing projected rather lower than the bogie frames and panicked. The resin generator/alternator/whatever has been cleaned up (outside - resin scares me) and glued in place
     
    The motor bogie, which has been cleaned and oiled now needs a test run with clips before fitting into the bogie frame. Then it only remains to wire up, add a decoder (a TCS MC2 is in stock) and test run on the layout. A good run in on the rolling road can follow.
     
    Oh, and add another cost of glass varnish to the headcode boxes and side windows
  22. Ravenser

    Bits and Pieces

    By Ravenser,

    I've had the layout up for a few days, and as well as a couple of operating sessions, I've taken the opportunity to sort out various jobs , as someone is slated to come and see it...
     
    The big one is that at long last the station building has been finished off, with an end, back wall and door, and the "bomb damage" is no more. Quite deliberately the effect is that a section has been taken through the building - rather than paint the back wall black , I used some Superquick red brickpaper - this marks the fact that this isn't really a wall of the actual building, but goes with the brown of the fascia, and gives a more muted effect. The overall result adds a seemingly substantial building as an end view block and adds surprising "weight" to the station. It does now look like a significant terminus in a substantial town.
     
    In a similar vein, the buffer stops that I started about 2 months ago are now done and in place. These are balsa buffer planks , painted red with some spare buffers fitted - a packet of old brass buffers which the header card described as GWR but which must have dated from Sir Daniel Gooch's reign , as they seemed to be Victorian solid buffers, plus two spare Mk1 coach buffers - the latter for the centre platform which is supposed to have been added by the LMR in the late 1950s when they were planning to divert trains from the Chesterfield Central line into Artamon Square ahead of the GC closures.
     
    Half a packet of Bachmann TMD figures have been installed - we now have a shunter on Platform 3, to avoid any awkward questions about how the driver of a departing loco-hauled substitute service can see the aspect of the starter when the cab of his 31 is past the signal
     
    While I was about it I had a rummage through my compartment box of small scenic details for any other figures. I came up with some rather useful BR figures and others which now turn out to be these http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69215-1980s-model-people-in-00/
     
    A driver plodding down the platform with his bag, a member of platform staff , a woman in a leather jacket and a standing male passenger have been installed. I don't want a crowded platform - just a handful of people dotted around a half deserted station. After a hasty field survey of prototype examples locally I've come to the conclusion blonde is extremely difficult to paint effectively because it's generally a variable overlay over a darker colour . (I hasten to say I'm not married.... "Oi , what are you doing?" "Researching model figure painting , officer") Basildon station platform at 8am would be a figure painter's nightmare assignment .
     
    Otherwise a second Kadee uncoupler magnet has gone into the fiddle yard , for the release of kettles of the 2-6-4T and 0-6-0 varieties (it should also handle a 20 or 23) . The first one , on the long road, has proved effective in uncoupling the 31 on an incoming loco-hauled : meaning less physical handling of stock/fiddling with poles , which is useful when access to the fiddle yard is restricted and getting things on the rails properly distinctly awkward.
     
    Running with the BR Blue stock is now pretty rocksolid reliable, and certainly better than the steam stock - I have a feeling I'm going to have to do something about the pony truck on that L1 and the bearings on three axles of the LNW TK have been eased with an Antex so it runs reasonably freely
     
    The next job is sorting out the wiring on Tramlink so I have a proper DC test track.....
  23. Ravenser

    Points Arising

    By Ravenser,

    Things are a bit heavy at work at the moment which is probably why this posting's three weeks late, but the wiring is finally done. Well, sort of just about.
     
    The new DS64 decoder is in , the NCE switch it is disconnected, the last two motors (Cobalt and Tortoise) are in , they're all wired up , and they work. I admit that one half of the slip is only about 98% reliable, but this was clearly the stiffest tie bar on the layout and always going to be the place where any intermittant incomplete throw was going to appear
     
    The whole lot is very tightly packed , as you can see - which was always the issue and why it took so long:
     

     
    The Cobart Blue seems slightly more positive in its operation than the Tortoises, even though I've now replaced the wire supplied by Circuitron with something thicker. Also very useful is the solder free connector block - if you have to disconnect or swap over wirews to reverse the direction of throw it's dead easy
     
    A minor benefit is that theboard is potentially self sustaining. Although the DS64 is powered by an independent 12V DC supply from the stabilised converter, and this requires the 16V AC feed from the other board, , in its absence it defaults to drawing power through the DCC data connection. This means the decoder works even without being connected to the other board. The Hoffman motor controlling half the crossover doesn't work (since this draws 16V AC) but the other 4 motors do
     
    The next stage, when things calm down a bit and I can have another play with the layout, is to draw up a panel diagram, showing which way is normal and reverse for each point and their numbers, to stick on the back or end of the layout. And once that's done, I can program Route Macros (a feature provided by the NCE system) for each possible route. So in future all I need do is key in the correct macro and an entire route through the layout comes off, complete with signals. The PowerCab supports 16 macros - there are a total of 14 possible routes on the layout . (For the curious - Platform 1 to fuelling point, FY branch, FY main 1, FY main 2; Platform 2 via crossover to pl 1, to fuelling point, FY branch, FY main 1 & FY main 2; Platform 2 straight ahead to FY branch, FY main 1 and FY main 2; Platform 3 to the three FY roads). Full entrance/exit route control with no extra wiring or cost, and no control panel at all
     
    I've also noted the wiring colour code on the back of a business card and stuck it in a suitable spot under the boards
     
    What hasn't been done is to install the ground signal under the bridge controlling exit from the fuelling point - it will be on the left of the track in this view, taken from the chair in front of the computer looking to my left...:
     

     
    This is because I've run out of contracts on the relevant point motors (the Hoffmann has only one, for the frog, and the spare contacts on the Tortoise at the other end of the crossover are used to switch the 16V AC supply to power the Hoffmann) . The only way to work the ground signal is as an opposed pair of LEDs inserted into one of the power feeds to the Tortoise: one LED will light if current passes in one direction, and the other if current is reversed....
     
    I also intend to install a spare Erkon 3 aspect signal + feather in the fiddle yard as a visible indicator of what routes are set, in an effort to minimise the risk of driving into a point set against the train, and I have to sort out the electromagnet I wired (and which doesn't work) and wire up the other two. I suspect the issue is that I didn't scrape the lacquer off the wires throughly enough to get good electrical joints- afriend suggested using avery large iron (I have a 70W in the workbench) to burn off the lacquer
     
    But I'm leaving thisfinal round of wiring for the moment - the next major task is going to be building the screen walls round the station , the last big scenic job outstanding. Then it's down to detailing, stock, and operation
     
    It should now be possible to use the layout as a programming track while in situ in the study - meaning I don't have to set the whole thing up in the sitting room first. I just need to get at a suitable power socket...
  24. Ravenser

    Loco Hauled Substitute - 1 : Overview

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    In the latter years of BR a little bit of interest was added to the DMU deserts of secondary lines by emergency loco-hauled workings. By the 1980s the Modernisation Plan DMU fleet was dwindling and ageing, while both passenger traffic and passenger services had begun to increase again. Any depot that didn't keep on top of maintenance or saw its DMU fleet racked by some infirmity of old age could easily find itself short of sufficient serviceable DMUs to cover all diagrams . This was particularly the case in areas with Pacer fleets when they suffered their gearbox problems but it wasn't necessarily confined to them. By this stage nearly all first generation DMUs were hitting 30 years old, and being worked more intensively than ever before
     
    The alternative to simply cancelling random chunks of the service due to "shortage of serviceable rolling stock" was the "loco hauled substitute". Provided you had some means to run round or change engines at destination, the hapless depot scraped together some elderly loco-hauled coaches generally surplus to requirements, found a spare Type 2 or Type 3 , and sent them out on a suitable DMU diagram as a "loco-hauled substitute".  ("Top and tail" was not a recognised practice at this time. If it was ever done, it would have been seen by contemporaries as a very desperate lash-up)
     
    For additional operational interest Blacklade has one "loco-hauled substitute" running:  two blue/grey coaches and a pair of 31s which change over Minories fashion. One of the 31s is used to haul any other loco-hauled going - the morning and evening parcels , and the engineers' train
     
    For about the last 7 or 8 years the Loco Hauled Substitute set has consisted of a Bachmann Mk1 BCK acquired cheap as a return off the Bachmann stand, and a Mk2Z TSO bought discounted along with a few other Bachmann coaches when my local model shop closed down. (They can be seen lurking in the back platform in the heading photograph to this blog). They were weathered and given Kadees and they've given sterling service over the years; but it's about time I rang the changes , or at least gave myself another option for this slot.  After all I have a modest sized pile of RTR coaches  and donor vehicles for coach projects, not to mention a stock of bits to rework them. It's just that only two of my diesel era coaches have been breathed on and released to traffic.
     
    So - what's in the pile?
     
    Well :
    - a Bachmann Mk2Z BSO, Mk1 BSK , and SK. All blue/grey , only needing commissioning - Kadees and weathering. 
    - The remnants of my teenage layout Flaxborough, to whit , a Lima Mk1 SK, a Hornby Mk2 brake (presented as a BSK, actually a BFK) , an Airfix Mk2D TSO, a Triang Hornby  RMB roughly repainted into blue/grey and two Lima Mk1 BGs 
    - A vintage but essentially unbuilt Kitmaster kit for a Mk1 SK.
    - Comet sides for a Mk1 CK and BSO, acquired second-hand
    - A Mainline Mk1 BSK acquired cheap secondhand at DEMU Showcase 
    - An InterCity liveried Hornby RMB , representing the last Mk1 in regular traffic (a regular on the 18:00 Liverpool St- Norwich)
    - A Comet Mk1 underframe kit
     
    There's also a Mk3 DVT in ONE blue with neon bars, and a spare Midland Mainline Mk3 TSO, but we can ignore them in this context
    The stock off my teenage layout can be seen here. (For the record one of the two CCTs has been rebuilt and detailed for Blacklade, the other still awaits)
     

     
    Certain reservations must be noted.
     
    - The Lima BGs are 64' instead of the correct 57' - they are therefore only of use as donor carcases to take etched brass sides. The presence of two sets of etched sides in the list isn't an accident
     
    - The Mainline Mk1s have windows that are far too shallow. I was thinking about converting this coach into a bullion van , but that has an extra end window and it all looked a bit difficult. As did justifying the presence of a bullion van on the layout, and doing the blue/grey paint job. An NNX courier van would be easier to justify, but the cut and shut work would be much easier on the old Triang -Hornby Mk1s . This develops into a separate story....
     
    - Some years ago in an expansive mood I decided I would flush-glaze one of the Mk2 brakes. I rapidly came to the conclusion that a lot needed doing to it, this wasn't going to be a quick job and it went back in the pile. I subsequently disposed of the other Mark 2 brake at the club show. One Hornby Mk2 rework was going to be quite enough
     
    Since we have been in lockdown, and since my attention has been wandering from the straight and narrow path of only finishing what's been started, I thought I would do some coach modelling. I've produced enough sets of steam-era coaches for the "Kettle period" in the last few years, so it's time to give the Blue period an alternative to the long-standing loco-hauled substitute set
     
    Where do we begin? A 2 car set is all Blacklade can handle. Ideally I need a brake and a little first class accommodation too. It is winter. I started this lark in early December, at a time when spray painting is going to be questionable for a few months. Especially in a shared landing in a high infection area during a lockdown. I am more than a little nervous about attempting to spray a two-tone livery anyway.
     
    We can agree that an airconditioned FO has no obvious place in a 1980s loco-hauled substitute set. Nor do buffet cars. 
     
    The two Lima BGs are likely to be donor carcases for the Comet BSO and CK sides. They could make a well matched pair. But those will be the two most demanding projects on the list - metal parts, comprehensive underframe replacement, respray in blue /gray, make up interiors. Not perhaps the best place to start...
     
    Simply commissioning a couple more Bachmann RTR coaches is something of a cop-out. This is the time to do some modelling. And I have a pile of MJT coach bogie etches and cast bogie sides in stock. I've had them for years, since I discovered the Engine Shed at Leytonstone and went a little bit mad on the coach bits on offer. That must have been over 15 years ago.
     
    Let's start with the brake coach . There are three options : the Bachmann Mk1 BSK and Mk 2Z BSO, and the Hornby Mk2a brake , which should actually be a BFK and on which I had already made a tentative start.
     
     
     
    (Bachmann BSK - I admit it's had the interior painted, Kadees fitted, and end steps removed. More of that in the next post..)
     
    For the second coach , the options are : Bachmann SK, Kitmaster SK/TSO (interior wasn't supplied and the bodyshells are identical) and the Lima SK
     
     

     
    Now the SK was the most numerous type of Mk1 built . But by 1992 they had all gone from revenue service, while there were still modest numbers of Mk1 TSOs and small numbers of CKs, FOs, and brakes in service. (BSKs, BFKs, and BCKs survived in penny numbers. The BSOs had all gone) . 1992 is my earliest convenient reference point, in the form of a Platform 5 volume.
     
    There is a reason for this . TSOs have 2 + 2 seating  across the centre aisle, for a total of 64 seats. The ER, LMR and ScR specified their SKs for 3 a side seating, with armrests. That gives just 48 seats per coach - a relic of a more spacious age when express trains did not expect to fill all their seats. The WR and SR, whose main lines carried heavy holiday traffic on summer Saturdays, specified Mk1 SKs with plain bench seats and no arm rests, officially rated for four a side seating
     
    In my coach modelling box were two Replica Mk1 TSO interior mouldings. I really shouldn't be running 3 x SK and no TSO in the late 1980s... I already have a  maroon Hachette SK running in Set 4 for the kettles.
     
     

     
    The options now resolve themselves. The Lima SK is nominally an upgrade project to a RTR coach with a ready-painted body. The Kitmaster kit is well, a kit, and it would need painting. Swap the Lima interior for a Replica moulding and flushglaze , and we have a result - a straightforward Mk1 TSO (There's rather more to it, as we shall see, but still at first glance this is the quickest, easiest project...)
     
    We need a brake vehicle and some first class accommodation. Only one project gives me that - the Hornby Mk2a BFK. These two projects are also relatively well matched in terms of the standard of the base model. If the flushglazing turns out so-so then at least you aren't faced with direct comparison against one of Bachmann's better efforts. Unfortunately this project does mean some repainting, as we shall see. And that in turn means it's not going to be finished and ready to enter traffic before at least Easter.
     
    The simplest stop-gap until then is to commission the Bachmann Mk1 BSK. If I can't bring the Lima TSO up to an adequate standard to run alongside (which means acceptable flushglaze)  , then  I simply push ahead with the Hornby Mk2 BFK. If the two end up well matched - it doesn't matter if the BFK hangs fire.
     
    That opens a further can of worms - finding a suitable long term partner for the Bachmann BSK . The Kitmaster SK/TSO, which does have flushglaze and is at least a plastic kit, would probably be the easiest answer
     
    Oh, and along the way I sourced a replacement Triang-Hornby BSK for the NNX courier van - so that got added to the projects, too
     
    (The heading photo is not a loco-hauled substitute or even on BR . It was in fact taken on the GCR at Rothley in 1977, but it does show what blue/grey Mk1 BSK + CK would look like, even if there are other coaches behind the photographer. And at least there are definitely no copyright issues with it)
     
     

  25. 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
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