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Ravenser

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  1. Ravenser

    Waste Not, Want Not

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    I have to confess that I've slipped off the straight and narrow (no, I'm not modelling the Nullarbor Plain as 3'6" gauge...) 
     
    The plan was that I was going to systematically work through the litter of stalled unfinished projects on the bookcase, to clear the decks , clear my head , and achieve a maximum of result for a minimum of effort . No new projects!
     
    However I've come off the wagon, fairly spectacularly..
     
    There were two catalysts. Firstly, there was the ex LNER Toad B which I reported stalled here  as I couldn't find the packet of handrail knobs. As you may have guessed, the packet of handrail knobs duly turned up, so work resumed . Secondly, I dug out the Boxfile to have a running session. And I dug out the second stockbox - and into use went an LMS fish van that fell off at every turn. Closer investigation reminded me that I have two ex LMS fish vans, after I bought a built kit off a second-hand stall under the misapprehension it was a plain ordinary ventilated van. One is - just about - okay: the other isn't . This was the one that isn't....
     

     
    A couple of years ago I had a big push to sort out the problems of reliability on the Boxfile. This brought on the realisation that all was not well with the wagon fleet, and a determined effort to sort it out: Troublesome Trucks  . Unfortunately, like a lot of my determined efforts, this one petered out about 4/5ths of the way through, leaving a substantial improvement in the situation and a pile of unresolved loose ends. Or at least, 6-7  wagons that definitely derail. Worryingly, at least 3 of them are RTR chassis , which really ought to be square.
     
    So another push seemed needed - especially as 3 of them are vans, and I am under quota for vans anyway, whilst being over quota for opens and minerals.
     
    You will now realise that my latest efforts have improved the availability of serviceable opens and minerals...
     
    The ex Hornby Dublo steel High (OHV) had been a nagging failure for a while, and it sat carded in the storage file. Checking the thing revealed that the Parkside chassis was tight and not quite square. Never going to stay on like that.  I've melted in one bearing to create a little slop - an ugly bodge, but it won't be good enough for the file. (I've been here before with a Parkside BR van that ended up redesignated to Blacklade).
     
    In a box in the modelling cupboard amongst other unbuilt kits lurked an old Parkside kit for said wagon. This was the version without the "dimples" in the side for securing. I'd prefer the more characteristic dimpled version, so I was thinking about building this for a friend's EM shunting layout and buying the more recent retooled Parkside kit... Nothing got done .....
     
    Coronavirus simplifies matters - I'm not sure he still has the said EM layout. Besides, there will be no shows until at least next year. The club's 4mm steam project is therefore stalled. And the employment situation prohibits unnecessary spending. 
     
    So I decided simply to build the thing as a straight replacement, and dug out the kit. While I was about it, I also dug out of a box from the depths a Hornby refridgerator van. This was always vaguely planned as a conversion for the boxfile. I'm convinced it is ex NER from the body style, but I have no firm details. Buying an entire volume of the new Tatlow 4-5 parter on LNER wagons for reference for one wagon, when I also have the old one-volume version was never justifiable. (Pt 1 GN/GC/GE was an indulgence. Pts 4a and 4b a necessity)
     
    So - from a livery diagram in the preface to Tatlow Vol 1  I think this Hornby model may be based on NER dia F3, 17' over headstocks / 10' wheelbase, wooden underframe, presumably clasp-braked. No kit exists for a 10'wb /17' long wooden fitted underframe. (Of course not) The Hornby body seems to be 67mm long - 1mm short (unless I am measuring over angle irons and it's 2mm short.) . I intend to live with this slight discrepancy. A scratchbuilt underframe will be needed - I have plenty of etched W irons in stock. Since the axles are displaced well to the ends, I intend to "adjust" by reducing the wheelbase to 9'9" to compensate and maintain proportions - it's only a matter of where I set the W-irons on what I believe to be a clasp-braked vehicle. 
     
    A packet of ex MR buffers from ABS had been bought years ago as the nearest available match for NER buffers. These will be set on spare Cambrian buffer beams surplus from a mineral wagon kit - which neatly provides the round base. After more hunting through boxes, I found the Mainly Trains etch of wagon strapping where it should have been - so I have crown plates and other garnishings for the solebars
     
    The wagon has been stripped of old paint and a coat of primer and a first coat of white applied
     
    And the remaining MR buffers  have a use too....
     

     
    Many years ago, in my early teens, I bought a Slaters rectangular tank wagon kit and built it. (Not particularly well, obviously.) It ended up painted in a fetching cream lined grey along the edges (not especially accurately) and the battered thing has been lurking in the depths of a box for several decades as not bad enough to chuck.
     
    So I dug that out as well, and stripped off the paint at the same time. 
     
    One solebar broke loose under gentle pressure - the other didn't, but that was enough to rebuild it square. The buffer beams were removed , cleaned up and replacement whitemetal MR buffers fitted, as 3 of the originals had broken away. The whole thing was reassembled, a missing brakelever replaced with something of an old sprue , and another one patched up. A missing V hanger was reinstated (another bit from the boxes of accumulated spare bits from kits  ). As much lead sheet as I could was jammed in underneath - I reckon it's at least 40g which I hope it just enough, though ideally I aim for 50g . Cross-shafts were installed from plastic rod, brass bearings and a pair of split-spoke wheels  fitted from another box and we have this:
     

     
    Transfers are bits and scraps from various sources including the sheet numbers on Modelmaster transfer packs. I'm not sure a wagon with only two brake blocks should carry a fast traffic star but some things that shouldn't really did, and tank wagons could be rather archaic in the 1950s. The fetching weathered effect is where one transfer started to break up under the weathering wash... A little further weathering of the chassis , then a coat of matt varnish, is still required.
     
    Prototype reference is here RMWeb thread and here: Paul Bartlett - Croda Rotherham, 1984   I will repeat my astonishment that such archaic vehicles survived so late, when I was discovering blue 31s on Transpennine South loco-hauleds and approximately the date of Blacklade's "blue period".  Just to ram it home - this wagon kit was originally built 6 or 7 years before the prototypes were photographed at Rotherham. Nobody mentioned I was getting a contemporary wagon kit....
     
    The OHV is a reasonably straightforward kit build, complicated only by my possession of a copy of Geoff Kent's "4mm Wagon". This means that I've done most of his upgrades - whitemetal buffers, profiled brake levers, better whitemetal brake cylinder - and whitemetal clasp brake shoes, though that was much more about trying to build in as much weight as I could. I also made the effort to suggest the drop doors from the inside as the interior is very visible, and the Cheona LNER Wagon book includes shots of the interior of a wagon preserved at  Quorn on the GCR. The door area is cross-scribed with a scrawker to represent the chequerplate, and fine microstrip added on both edges then sanded down
     
     

     
    And painting has reached the point where we now have:
     
    The number is reasonably accurate for the contractor-built fitted wagons with smooth sides and steel doors. Again the underframe needs more weathering washes and the whole thing a coat of matt varnish
     
    I still have to reletter the original OHV that started all this off, and which seems to behave itself on Blacklade, and to sort out the couplings  all round. And the LNER brake van has been given a trial trip out in traffic - though it too needs an underframe wash and some matt varnish to seal the transfers
     
     

  2. Ravenser

    This Time I May Be Committed.....

    By Ravenser,


    Layout schemes
    I mentioned in a previous posting   Shifting Sands  that recent developments in RTR had tempted me to consider a possible 009 layout. Things have now moved on...
     
    In the end, the Bachmann Baldwins proved rather too tempting to resist. I think the tipping point was when a little internet research revealed that 2'6" gauge was a de facto British military standard up to WW1, accounting for the Admiralty operations at Chattenden and Devonport and the RNAD explosives factories and depots. 9mm gauge is of course just as "accurate" for 2'6" gauge as it is for 2' gauge. But lines like the Welshpool & Llanfair and the  Leek & Manifold were very much more "proper railways" in character compared to some of the 2' gauge quarry and industrial operations, or the traditional 009 "rabbit warren" layout - and as I noted in the earlier posting, I am after something a bit more substantial than the usual cute 0-4-0Ts and 0-6-0Ts. (The Festiniog was (and is) a substantial operation, but it's loading gauge is very tight - witness the saga of Russell's cab - and this makes its stock seem rather more modest.)  Now one Baldwin was re-gauged for the 2'4 1/2" Snailbeach, so re-gauging  to 2'6" ought to be possible... And if it was possible, why wouldn't a 2'6" gauge line operated by the British military have done exactly that? There must have been hundreds of Baldwins going spare....
     
    In short OOn3 representing 3' gauge would have been a significant hassle to do, but 009 representing 2'6" gauge is now dead easy, and would have some prototype justification. The Peco 009 "main line" track would be ideal for this look.
     
    So - the Dogger Light Railway it is to be. The back story is more or less as described in my original posting: the need to bring fuel, munitions and stores in by sea, and move them up from Doggerport to the RAF base provides a raison d'etre for the line, and a justification for running plenty of freight trains. The fact that the Great Dogger Mole is the only causeway linking the two islands will tend to force inter-island traffic onto the train, justifying some local goods (how else would you move livestock from one island to another?). In the inter-war period there would be hardly any private cars here - probably little more than motorcycles and bikes
     
    I can also justify running prototypical vehicles from other English narrow gauge lines. Some re-equipment would have been needed during re-armament in the late 1930s - the ex WD WW1 stock would have been nearing 20 years old by then. What would be more natural than that the Dogger Light would buy serviceable rolling stock from lines that were closing down, like the Leek & Manifold (1934 - and the same gauge) or the Lynton & Barnstaple (1935) and the Welsh Highland (1936)? In Ireland the West Clare - as the last 3' line to close - ended up with a motley collection of survivors from other 3' systems operated by CIE. A quarter of a century earlier the Dogger Light might have done something similar - after all the Longmoor Military Railway collected quite a few cast-offs from BR as well as its own ex WW2 WD-ordered equipment
     
    I have been quietly buying a modest amount of 009 RTR. I am now the proud owner of two Bachmann Baldwins. A decision has been taken to standardise on Bachmann WD opens , and Parkside kits for ex WD vans - not least because getting lead weight into vans is easy , and the Bachmann open wagons have the merit of weight. (This was after I bought 1 Parkside open wagon kit).  I bought an L&B open in plain grey, and an L&B composite in plain Indian Red. The latter was something of a mistake. I meant to buy the brake composite to give an instant passenger train. And these are really rather big vehicles - a slight embarrassment on tight curves. 
     
    An error when clicking to add to basket resulted in my buying two of the Golden Arrow Models whitemetal kits for the Southwold's 0-6-2T "Wenhaston" when I only meant to get one. Still they are entirely credible as locos ordered as part of the Royal Navy's pre-WW1 buildup. I assume that the railway's earlier locos - or most of them - were worn out by intensive use during WW1and the Baldwins represent replacements in 1918 or so, using what was then readily available. A scout round Newark show at the weekend produced a Minitrix 2-6-2T off a second-hand stall for a bargain price of £30 - it runs very nicely, though I'm a little daunted by the need to cut down the chassis block. Provisional names for these will be "Dogger" and "Fisher" ("German Bight" was vetoed as too long for the side tanks and conceding rather too much to the opposition... )
     
    I also acquired a Dundas 4-wheel passenger guards van at Newark - the composite needs a brake, the goods trains also need a brake and this option was cheaper than buying a Peco Glyn Valley brake and repainting into Indian Red - as well as an Irish 4 wheel open to go with it. This latter is no doubt a relic of the pre WW1 railway... I have a resin kit for a Southwold van tucked away somewhere, and I bought a pair of Peco flat wagons recently because you get two wagons for £17.25... Two whitemetal kits for IoMR bogie coaches (brake and full) from NNK  are tucked away as well. These are more modestly proportioned than the Peco L&B stock.
     
    Liveries of Bauxite/Indian Red for coaching stock and grey for wagons have been adopted.
     
    The concept for the layout is shown here - unusually for a concept sketch this one was drawn to scale.
     
    Dogger Light.pdf
     
    I have my eyes on the Airfix RAF Bomber Re-Supply set: a fuel tanker and trailer is needed to move aviation fuel from the railhead to the RAF station, bombs can be wagon loads, and many of the other items can find a use on the layout. Motor transport on the island is likely to be military. Having bought a boxed set of four Airfix 1/72 aircraft kits cheap a few years , I'm very tempted to have a Mk1 Hurricane coming into land dangling from a little fishing line. They became operational with the RAF in 1938, so that sets the date for the layout - military activity is presumably being prompted by the Munich crisis. Clive Mortimore suggested at Newark that a Bofors gun would be appropriate as both anti-aircraft and anti-shipping defences - Airfix do one of those, too.
     
    I haven't tried any Airfix military kits since I was a young lad - this gives me a chance to dabble in another branch of modelling
     
    I have also acquired two semi-circles of Peco 009 Setrack curves. So I now have a basic circle on which trains can run round on the dining table . Table-top railways indeed!
     

     
    Fortunately the IoMR coaches are at least a centimetre shorter than this one...
  3. Ravenser
    I promised someone I'd post a few notes over the weekend on some of the bits I'd been doing to the Pacer ; it's Monday, I haven't, so here we go.
     
    I've assembled and fixed in place the rear trailing wheel assembly. Unfortunately its not absolutely spot on: I reckon the hole is about 0.35mm out to one side. I've made one attempt to drift the hole sidewards with a file , and stuck in a scrap of 40 thou plasticard into the recess above to take the thread , and drilled it out. However this doesn't seem to have eliminated the error, though I hope it did manage to reduce it. The wheels are square and in line - just very slightly off set. Remove the off set and they're about 87 degrees to the chassis.. The Hornby Pacer had a swivelling truck here originally , and the Branchlines assembly is not actually immovably tight to the chassis - it will pivot under a little pressure. I'm not sure whether this may not be deliberate.
     
    At any rate , at this point I don't think I can do a lot about it, and I'm inclined to live with it, proceed with the build and see how we go. If it proves to be an issue, I'll see if I can revisit it
     
    Meanwhile I've been removing the Black Box for the weight , and here are the shots to show the results:
     

     
    This shows the lower view of the chassis - the black underframe box has been taken back to solebar level and a new floor added with 30 thou plasticard. The detail on the side of the black box has been fretted out with files and knife. I've also salvaged the engine block shape marked on the bottom of the underframe box and built it up with 3 layers of 40 thou plasticard, filed to shape. This will be glued onto the new raised floor of the underframe weight box
     
    Here's the top view, showing the remaining recess for weight. I intend filling this with lead sheet, araldited in place - as lead is a much denser material than steel, this should compensate for the fact that the recess is much smaller than when it contained Hornby's steel block. And if that's not enough, the seating moulding is raised , and there should be enough room underneath it to glue another strip of lead
     

     
    As an aside , at a show a few weeks ago I picked up a bargain for ??4-50 :
     

     
    I know the first release Hornby wagon was heavily criticised when it first came out and they subsequently retooled it . I assume this wagon was so cheap not just because it was unboxed , but presumably because it must be the first version and nobody wants it? Without detailed info readily to hand (cue usual moan about state of BR wagon books ) I can't identify what may be wrong with it , so I'm inclined just to weather it and hope. Does anyone recall what the problems were supposed to be - or whether this is in fact the original version? It's just possible I might have struck lucky. I've fitted the usual long NEM Kadees
     
     
     
    I've been doing one or two other things, but they're from a completely different area of interest , so will go in a seperate post.
  4. Ravenser

    Motley Assortment

    By Ravenser,

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

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

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

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

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

     
    Much of the effort has gone into an attempt to represent an unfitted wagon showing the remains of late 1930s LMS bauxite, which is a bit more washed out than the photo shows - again the greater contrast under flash is a factor . I've either missed the base of the hook , or the thing's come out and been glued back in...
  5. Ravenser

    Work in Progress

    By Ravenser,

    I didn't get round to my annual New Year's Resolutions posting this year - a bad sign. Thanks to a new job and various domestic renewals not a lot of modelling was done in the couple of months before New Year, and even less posting on here took place.
     
    Nevertheless rather more modelling took place in 2016 than was written up in this blog. The trouble is, it left rather a lot of unfinished business. For the last few years I've been stating with depressing regularity that I'm not going to take on any more projects - it's time to catch up with my backlog. And somehow it never happens.
     
    Four years ago I decided that it would be a great idea to get various unbuilt kits and unused kettles out of the cupboard and field them as a scratch team to work a (not terribly authentic) steam period , c1958. Four years on, and my best estimate is that the number of outstanding coach kits and upgrade project has reduced by - a big fat zero, thanks to further additions. Mind you , four years ago my coaching stock comprised a few RTR items plus various kinds of material for projects - and only about 2 vans ever turned a wheel on the layout. Since then 10 items of coaching stock have gone into regular service, one more awaits a partner to do so, and 3 more are nearly there. Yes, I keep picking up bargain projects but the total spend including bits has been under £200.
     
    And I now have 6 kettles and LMS 10001 up and running and earning a crust. There are still a couple more that need sorting out, but we're getting there.
     
    So what is currently lingering on the bookcase?
     
    Various items to comprise Sets 4 and 5 of the steam stock are in various states of completeness. This saga started with a BSL Gresley steel CK , which was going to be paired with an LMS non-corridor brake 3rd - until I realised the BSL kit was actually gangwayed. So I bought a Coopercraft /Mailcoach Tourist Brake Third Open, back in the days when Coopercraft still had a few coach kits actually available.
     
    I've heard unfavourable comments about this kit from far better modellers than I , and I now understand why. I started it in the middle of last year, thinking a plastic kit would be a pretty manageable task, and it's proving a pig. It will be paired with the Hachette Mk1 which I upgraded last year having succumbed to the lure of an astonishing bargain - that one did get written up ,http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-17819-set-4-modernity-on-the-cheap-part-2-sidetracked/ though the wretched Tourist Brake Third hasn't been . All the Hachette Mk1 needs is a replacement set of Kadees, as the NEM pockets are at the wrong height.
     
    At Ally Pally last year I bought what I thought was an astonishing bargain - a metal coach kit with punched aluminium bodyshell for an LMS Porthole Brake 3rd "almost complete" for a fiver. Unfortunately it turned out to be MTK , not BSL.... I am told it is one of their best items and perfectly buildable. "Almost complete" turned out to mean "missing one guard's ducket" - replacements were sourced - and it was while I was turning over all the bits to assess what needed to be done that I drifted into starting the Tourist Brake, on the theory it would be an easier job than a metal MTK coach. I'm starting to think that judgement was seriously misguided.
     
    But this has spawned a further project. The LMS used "British Standard" gangways which are not a particularly good match for the Pullman gangways used by the LNER and BR. Dapol produce an old model of a 60' Stanier Corridor Composite, and Coachmann seemed to rate it http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67996-making-use-of-Dapol-lms-coach-kits/ So at Stevenage a couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and spent £13.50 on a CKD one , plus another £8 on underframe castings and etched frames - some of which will go to other projects. This is in carmine and cream - in 1958 there ought to be at least one vehicle in the fleet still in blood and custard, and I'm scared to attempt it myself. Getting a discount in order to be spared the trouble of dismantling a built coach is a bonus , and work has begun, after an order went into SE Finecast for flushglaze . (This included flushglaze for an old Lima Mk1 SK from my teenage layout which may finally get a heavy upgrade and re-enter service. I sourced three more of the Phoenix Precision Mk1 underframe trusses last autumn , and I've got some Comet BR underframe castings in stock. Maybe a TSO interior can be substituted)
     
    Beyond that the vista opens up of combining Sets 4 and 5 to produce a mainline train, which would look the part behind 10001 if I ever have access to a larger layout. Buried deep in the cupboard is the second hand Triang-Hornby RMB I bought as a teenager and repainted into blue/grey with a basic brushpaint job. Stripped back, repainted back into maroon with a replacement underframe truss and Comet underframe castings , and other detailing , something adequate to sit between the two 2-car sets could result. That's a 5 coach corridor set. Add, in the fullness of time, the BSL Gresley composite...
     
    I digress - which is the problem. I have an exhibition booking for the layout in 2 month's time (bit less actually) . I should be focussing on BR Blue stock for that.
     
    Top of the pile is the 128 Parcels unit, which is most of the way there, and would let me get the NRX and GUV into service - both are too long for Platform 2 in a loco-hauled parcels.
     
    Next priority is the Lima 37 which runs , has a decoder and Kadees, and is part detailed. This needs to be finished as a spare loco in case one of the 31s has a problem at the show
     
    The gangways on the 155 need finally to be sorted out. They still won't take a crossover. This will be attempt 3
     
    And once we are clear of the show I can turn to the Provincial Pacer. I played about with this a little, for the first time in some years , a couple of months ago - though all that was done was a little interior painting . If I can finally get to grips with this unit, which will be a pretty heavy DMU upgrade project, I will have a lot more options for joining and splitting DMUs using consisting
     
    I also really ought to finish off the Baby Deltic. It's not a priority, because it's not suitable for the show, but it's another stalled project that really doesn't need too much to finish...
     
    Something is stirring on the N5 front. I may be going to extend my skill set and we might get another kettle into traffic later in the Spring
     
    As for things like the WD brake and the Toad E, the GBL Jinty, and what have you, they are a long way down the list. Not to mention a few smaller jobs, like lights and weathering on the W Yorks 158, maybe working gangways on the 150, and even weathering the 108. I really ought to install the detailing bits on 20 052 - and it's high time I did something about the failed decoder in 20 063.
     
    There's the maroon ex LMS 42' GUV I bought for a fiver at a show in October (Comet bogies needed?), and the Mainline Mk1 bought at Showcase for a few quid for a possible bullion van conversion (I've since realised why it was so cheap - the windows are wrong. However with this conversion only one compartment window per side will be retained and as it would run in parcels trains I might get away with it)
     
    But if I can finish off most of the projects that have been started, that should go a long way to clearing the decks
  6. Ravenser

    For One Night Only...

    By Ravenser,

    Blacklade had its first tentative public appearance a few weeks back, when I took it along to the CMRA Workshop event as a display item. It's been taken along to a society area group meeting twice, but this was the first time it had gone into the wider world.
     
    Chiltern Model Railway Association is the federation of model railway clubs and societies in the South East of England and beyond (Indeed over the last few years they've picked up members well into the North of England, and seem to be growing into the nearest thing to a national association of clubs we have.) As well as organising the St Albans exhibition each year in January, for a good few years they've run an event for members of CMRA clubs at Watford in July. Essentially it's a bit like the demonstrators section of an exhibition - except that there is no general public, just the folk demonstrating and other club members . (There's also a programme of talks and a couple of traders)
     
    It's a good event , and I've gone for a number of years and enjoyed it (both my club and a couple of societies I'm a member of belong to CMRA). This year I decided to take something along to display, under a society banner
     
    The theory was that the layout, spread across two tables on its side, would be a demo of DCC for layout control - as opposed to DCC for loco control. I don't claim to be any kind of guru , techie, or expert, but after being involved with a club project and my own layout where all the points etc were DCC controled without a conventional panel , I suppose I must know more about it than most. With three types of point motors, and three types of decoders on view , working signals interlocked with points , and route control by macros , I was hoping there would at least be something to talk about and show.
     
    If I'm honest , I wasn't exactly knocked down in the rush . A couple of people were interested to see the working signals, and whenever a potential punter came in view I gamely launched into my "what this is all about" spiel. I'd prepared some handouts on DCC , plus a sheet giving the background of the layout and a copy of the DOGA OO Intermediate standards, but I think only one of the DCC sheets was taken. However I did get a potential invitation to demo at a show so someone must have been moderately impressed, and I think there were some tables that were quieter than mine
     
    While in theory Blacklade was there as a static item, I did bring some stock on the sly, and for the last hour and a half I turned the layout right way up and ran it . What I hadn't realised was that Bradfield Gloster Square was also going to be there , and inevitably made my little effort look like a clockwork torch in competition with Spurn lighthouse. Even worse , the gremlins came out for a carnival as soon as they saw one of the Bradfield team was watching - and no layout on the circuit runs as flawlessly as Bradfield . I think part of the problem may have been that access to the fiddle yard is tight, and it is difficult to see if all wheels are on the track - some stock may not have been on the rails when it left the fiddle yard....
     
    Once this was sorted out, things settled down and it ran reasonably smoothly while a couple of people from the adjacent EM gauge tables were watching. The main weakness of the layout has been reliable throwing of the points - the Marcway points are very stiff , and I didn't cut adequete recesses in the cork before laying them. In the run up to the show I had done a lot of work digging out the cork around various points to free them up , and this paid dividends. I also refitted the Hoffmann point motor , which in one direction was buzzing - meaning that it wasn't moving quite far enough to work the cut-off switch . The overall result was that everything bar No 1 crossover worked every time and point derailments, except at No 1 crossover (which has teeth and likes a Hornby 31 for breakfast) stopped.
     
    In the run up to Watford Workshop I also , finally, managed to sort out various ragged edges to the ballasting , and touched in exposed cork with brown cork acrylic, as well as touching up a few bits of the hard standing. That dealt with the obvious defects - the rest of the scenic work had to wait till after Watford (and merits a separate post)
     
    One discovery was that Blacklade is most comfortably operated from a chair at the station end , with the layout set up on a pair of tables. Unfortunately the clutter in the study at home has prevented it ever being set up as originally intended - on top of the bookcases and modelling cupboard. It only ever gets set up in the sitting room with the (very basic) legs....
     
    I also had a running session with the layout the week after Watford . One of the Bradfield crew recommended a Peco railer, which does seem to help get things on reliably in the fiddle yard. The main problems seem to be with the parcels train - the body of the kitbuilt Van B was lolling to one side enough to catch the bridge abutment and derail (I've tightened up the fixing screws on the bogies as far as I can , though one bogie is still loose) and the 31 and No 1 crossover kept disagreeing. As this is one end of the runround loop, and as at present the Hornby 31 is the loco that works the two parcels trains and the trip TTA , this is unfortunate. One solution may be to get on with the detailed body for the old Airfix 31 (not to mention the fitting of Kadees) on the theory that Hornby 31s are a little track sensitive, DMUs seem to cope, and a loco with a slightly coarser wheel profile may be better
     
    (This is in no way a problem of the track standard - it's a question of the wire from the point motor to the tie bar being a little too flexible leading to closure not being quite positive enough. A more drastic step is replace one or both Tortioses with Cobalt Blues - meaning shorter, stiffer wire, over £30 and a certain amount of rewiring work.)
     
    It's clear I need a second 31 if I'm to run loco hauled stock as a DMU-substitute - that will have to go into Pl 3 as the only platform long enough, and that doesan't have access to the run-round loop. So the Hornby 31 will still be needed, and it's not as if I'm adding an extra project to the list
     
    Also on the subject of Pl 3 , despite efforts to ease the clearances of the edging slab - through repeated rubbing with an Xacto knife handle to crush the balsa down - the 108 seems to stick , derail and somehow this scrambled the decoder. I tried to reprogram in haste, forgot that the MERG point decoder is sensitive to programming commands , and scrambled that... Reprogramming the thing requires flyleads , taking down the layout etc so that was the end of a running session.
     
    I hope this is the last time for this particular problem. Some time ago I removed the NCE AutoSwitch which was supposed to switch off the rest of the layout when programming - because it didn't seem to be doing anything. I fitted a DPDT switch instead - and that doesn't seem to be doing anything either. It looks like I have somehow created an inadvertant connection across the isolation of the programming track (the fueling point siding) . However all this meant I had an unused NCE Auto Switch in the decoder bag, so I installed it between the MERG decoder and the DCC bus.
     
    Oh and a fault book is now in operation , to identify any gremlins...
  7. Ravenser
    We left this saga a couple of months back with me finding that the NEM pockets on the Hachette Mk1 were way too high, and that I therefore couldn't couple it to anything. Pro tem the Coopercraft Tourist Brake 3rd was coupled to the Dapol LMS Stanier  Composite from Set 5 and pressed into service as an improvised set:
     
    https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/21622-baby-deltic-released-to-traffic/
     
    I don't seem to have written up the final rounds of my bitter fight with the Tourist BTO. The Wizard aluminium roof was cut to length, filed back on each side at the ends, and stuck on with Evostick. The roof detail is plasticard strip, stuck on with superglue, and with a distinct tendency to break off. It may be a little heavy, but it was the best that could be done under the circumstances. The whole lot was sprayed with Halfords Grey Primer which proved to be too light, then weathered, patch-painted , re-weathered.. The body was patch-painted again, transfers and Modelmasters post 1956 lining were applied, and the whole thing was brush-painted with gloss varnish. Then the underframe was weathered.  A working gangway was added to one end , and we were done.
     
    It's not wonderful but it will pass as a layout  coach and to be honest, given the "quality" of the kit and the number of coats of paint that have to be applied by brush to get sufficient opacity, not much more could be hoped for from it. Very much better modellers than me have struggled to get good results with this kit. There is a metal kit available from Wizard Models , and if the Coopercraft kit is never seen again I doubt we've lost very much.
     
    So to the present...
     
    I went to Ally Pally last weekend , and by chance I came across a Hornby Gresley BCK in blood and custard at a silly price. After a moment's reflection it was too good a bargain to miss , so I bought it. (The awkward lack of first class accommodation in Set 4 and the fact these BCKs were intended as through coaches was also in the back of my mind when I bought it)
     
    I also managed to source a solution for the coupling height problem on the Hachette Mk1. After a lengthy conversation on the Keen Systems stand (during which I was repeatedly told that Kadee couplings don't work) I acquired a converter pack for a Bachmann Mk1, which is intended - amongst other things - to put the NEM pocket at the correct height. 
     
    I've never before dabbled with Keen Systems products. This is mainly because they are based on rigid fixed links between the vehicles, and that is not much interest to me when I run 2-car sets on a portable layout and want some flexibility in how I can deploy my stock. And the quoted ability to get a rake of coaches round first- and second-radius curves close-coupled is of limited relevance  when my tightest curve is 2'6" and the general radius on Blacklade is 3' or greater. In any case I fit working gangways to the inner ends of my coaches and my DMUs - and there's only one set of gangways in a 2 car set.
     
    Sadly the replacement resin close-coupler cams are nowhere near a drop-in fit for the Hachette, despite the latter's origin as a back-engineered "Bachmann knock-off".
     
    I had to file out the cam to get it to fit in place on the coach,  and of course the profile of the resulting hole isn't a great match for the taper of the Hachette original. Then I found the Keen Systems cam wouldn't seat correctly . This was because the head of the screw holding the coach together was fouling on it. Cue more filing to create a suitable recess to clear the screw head... Because you really don't want to breath in the dust created as the screwhead grinds away at the soft coupler arm....
     
    I thoroughly dislike anything that involves working with resin castings because of the health risks from the dust - and the huge awkwardness imposed by the  precautions you have to take as a result. All working of resin has to be done outside in the open, wearing a mask - with (of course) no modelling bench - meaning that every check or new round of fettling means running up and down two flights of stairs to the flat and though one or two doors with Yale locks. And the need to wash down and decontaminate the tools means carrying water jars and kitchen roll up and down as well. Not to mention the fact that washing your files thoroughly in water isn't exactly very good for them. Oh, and under normal circumstances it also means that resin items can only be worked on during British Summer Time or at weekends , otherwise it's dark outside.....
     
    Fortunately on this occasion I'd taken the day off, and the job was done reasonably quickly, without it (so far) killing me. I suppose white lead from dust-shot and PVA or working depleted uranium are much greater health risks. But this was one occasion where a drop-in fit would really have been appreciated.
     
    You will not be surprised to hear that I decided that sorting out one end for a Kadee was quite enough. This will be the end where the loco couples on, and the intention is to use one of the NEM plastic steam-pipes Bachmann supply with their Mk1s as the coupling within the set. This can adjust for the mismatch in NEM pocket heights between the vehicles.
     
    However this does mean that the Hachette Mk1 can't run with the Coopercraft BTO, which has fixed Kadees. It will have to be paired with the newly acquired Gresley BCK.
     
    So Set 4 as it was originally conceived is no more... Long live Set 6!
     
     
     
    (This isn't the end of the matter - I still need to resolve the mismatched scratch-set of Tourist BTO+ Stanier CK. And there is the question of blue/grey sets as well
     
    Here we take a detour through ancient history, set out in an earlier posting on my layout blog:   Flaxborough Almost all of that layout's coaching stock is visible in the photo , and it has all been in stock, pending reworking...
     
    One Lima CCT has been thoroughly reworked and written up. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/9843-a-small-parcel-arrives/
    I decided that all the lettering was really too much of a bind to do a second time, so I salvaged the Hornby-release body, swapped it onto an old Lima underframe as the next "donor vehicle" and disposed of the hybrid Lima body/Hornby underframe CCT on the club stall this weekend.
     
    I started trying to upgrade one of the vintage Hornby Mk 2 brakes (really a BFK) a few years ago but it rapidly became clear this is not a quick or easy exercise. Partial repainting will be required, the window openings need filing back....It went back in its box, and I decided I didn't have the moral fibre to do it twice. So the second Mk2 brake , still in its box, was also disposed of on the club stand. Thus the BCK is nil cost in terms of both space and money...
     
    In the course of time I have also acquired two sets of Comet sides (Mk1 BSO and CK), sundry Comet castings, a large pile of MJT and Bachmann bogies, assorted SE Finecast flushglaze and an unbuilt Kitmaster Mk1 SK kit. Not to mention a Tony Wright DVD showing carriage conversions and quite a few vague aspirations.
     
    When Blacklade runs as BR Blue , I use a 2-car loco-hauled set  composed of a BCK off the Bachmann stand and a Mk2Z TSO acquired when my local model shop closed down almost a decade ago. In the same closing sale I bought a Mk2a BSO, and a Mk1 BSK and SK. I have had various aspirations to sort out some more blue/grey coaching stock, but it has never seemed urgent - DMUs are a higher priority. 
     
    In steam mode Blacklade requires at least three 2-car sets plus a parcels train to operate - which explains why most of the carriage-building activity has gone into the steam-era stock. The dates on my blog reveal it has taken just over 6 years to reach the dizzy heights of five serviceable steam-age sets plus a parcels train.
     
    Building the MTK LMS Porthole Brake 3rd as a proper partner for the Dapol Stanier CK is still firmly on the agenda. But that means I need a new partner for the Tourist Brake 3rd to form Set 4. The best option, given what I have available, is to build a Mk1 CK using the Comet sides on one of the old Lima BG bodyshells, but to put it into maroon livery, not blue/grey. I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of spraying a single-colour livery like maroon, whereas the challenge of doing blue/grey properly , with its rounded corners and white lining, is a major obstacle to tackling several modelling projects. Most if not all of the Lima underframe will have to be removed, but I have all the necessary replacement bits in stock. It would be a chance to do a first "proper" coach conversion project, though obviously I'm not in the same league as Larry Goddard.
     
    And as a medium term project I could strip down the Triang-Hornby RMB, upgrade it as far as it can be reasonably taken, and put it back into maroon. Sandwiched between a pair of my 2-car corridor sets, it would  provide an instant 1960 5 car train...)
     
     
     
     
     
     

  8. Ravenser

    Electrifying

    By Ravenser,

    More of a brief note but - in between other distractions the layout has been up and run, and while it was out, I took the opportunity to sort out some outstanding electrical business
     
    The NCE PowerCab does not seem to have full short-circuit protection. I'm not sure of the technical details but I've finally installed some additional protection. This takes the form of a cheap and basic circuit breaker from Halfords, price £1.70 or so.
    http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/10a-auto-reset-circuit-breaker-ak07h?gclid=CPiBicHY5ccCFRI6Gwodp54PwQ
     
    As I understand it , the PowerCab doesn't shut off the juice in the event of a short. This little circuit breaker may not be a proper fast-acting breaker - those cost £20-30 - but it will turn the current off fairly quickly, limiting the time the PowerCab is exposed to any short. Instead of a screen full of gibberish and a reboot (pull out the plug, put it back in) you get a blank screen and a reboot . It's a damage limitation device , installed just behind the system socket on one wire of the feed into the traction bus
     
    While I was about it, I had a go at making the Kadee electromagnets work. When the layout was originally built , I installed three Kadee electromagnets beneath the track in the station - in a fit of enthusiasm for flash kit and clever tricks.
     
    I tried wiring one up ages ago - but nothing seemed to happen. I was under the impression that electromagnets were supposed to make a loud buzzing noise , and I assumed that the electrical joints were bad somewhere - presumably due to a failure adequately to strip the lacquer off the ends of the coil wire. (The lacquer made it impossible to perform the usual continuity test with the multimeter to check the joint - so I was stumped as to where the bad joint was). At that point I gave up...
     
     
    After a lapse of several years, I had a go at wiring the second electromagnet. I stripped back the lacquer using an emery board, carefully soldered up the joints, connected the transformer. No buzz.
     
    Then I noticed the coil was jolting when the button was pressed. This could not be mechanical action of the fine wire - and the coil was warm. We were in business. A check with a couple of parcels vans revealed that the electromagnets were effective. One remade joint later, and the electromagnetic uncouplers for both Platforms 1 & 2 were working
     
    (The transformer used is a switchable voltage DC power supply with a highest setting of 15V , which was being heavily discounted in Maplins a few years ago. It is rated for 5A at the lower voltages - no doubt a bit less at 15V. Kadee's recommendation is for 5A at 16V DC / 18V AC - my transformer gives a bit less than that , but it still seems to work)
     
    How much practical use these gadgets will be is a moot point. I installed them suitably placed to split 2 x 153 units , (or 153+Pacer) so they are too far down the platform to suit uncoupling a class 31, though they may suit a 128 unit. Practical experimentation is called for
  9. Ravenser

    Payment on Account

    By Ravenser,

    I haven't updated the blog for rather a long time. The truth is that I've been rather quiet on the modelling front - but a bit less quiet than it appears.
     
    Now the prospective exhibition booking has slipped into next year, I'm suddenly feeling a bit disinhibited. All the things I couldn't really work on because they weren't relevant to a BR Blue period I can now work on again. So.…
     
    Some progress has been made on the wretched Coopercraft Tourist Brake Third this year. Unfortunately it is never going to be my best coach - there's been a further minor issue with the glazing - but it does now possess a roof, and that roof is now weathered and ready to stick down . Detailed post will no doubt appear at some point
     
    I've bitten the bullet and acquired two of the new Bachmann OO9 Baldwins . So the possible OO9 layout sketched here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-20376-shifting-sands/ is now a project not a pipe dream. The second Baldwin came as a bargain from Rails so I also acquired two Bachmann WD opens - on the premise that vans are more expensive and can be built from Dundas kits, with weight inside. Both locos have been run in on the DCC Concepts rollers I bought last year at Warley. I also now own a Peco brake coach in nondescript Indian red (shades of the NSWGR..)
     
    I have made further progress with the Airfix Trevithick loco. Unfortunately one shaft bearing gummed up and the motion sheared off the flywheel. I need to sort out reattaching it , somehow - having come this far , I'm not giving up on working motion. Another detailed post to follow....
     
    And I dug the part-finished Baby Deltic out of a box. That looked like a quick result might be possible , until I found this: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/137857-traction-tyres-repair-or-replace/
     
    And I haven't got hold of Kernow during the week, so the project is still stalled, although I have at least given the body a weathering wash this afternoon - the roof was already done. The motor bogie has at least been dusted off and oiled, and can be tested. Once this issue is resolved , it should be fairly quick to finish the loco
     
    And a strictly off topic distraction... During my holiday , the local WH Smiths had the first issue of a Games Workshop partwork . I thought £1.99 for 3 pots of Games Workshop paint and a brush seemed a bargain , so I got one - the "magazine" and figures effectively coming free. For the hell of it I read the painting instructions and painted the figures, in pursuit of developing figure painting skills . Something was learnt , though more colours are plainly needed to do the job properly. I was even tempted to pay another fiver for the next issue with three more figures, another pot of paint, and the basic items for games play - but as WHS didn't seem to stock it I didn't. Still, a good deal more than £1.99's worth of value has been obtained
  10. Ravenser

    Way and Works

    By Ravenser,

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

     

     
    There are still a few things needing finishing off - I should probably fill in some more of the gap along the top of baseboard and touch it over , the Kadee electromagnets need sorting out (the red button is for the first of them, but for some reason , the magnet doesn't seem to be live - I've now got a further 2 heavy duty push to make button switches from Squires for the other electromagnets), and a couple of signals on the other board. Not to mention "make good and touch up" some holes in the ballast
     
    But for the moment I shall probably focus on the stock. The 3 long outstanding jobs - Van B kit, Pacer upgrade and Bratchill 150/2 - are all still outstanding. I seem to have backed myself into another parcels project, and have ordered a Replica chassis and DC Kits 128 Parcels unit body kit. Van B and Pacer are quite badly needed for operations, and the 128 is apossible workround , as 31 + 57' coach+ 50' coach hangs over the edge of the central platform and stricklythe Kadees on the Bachmann GUV are too high . And an awful lot of stuff needs weathering . Starting with the 150, the 108, and arguably the two 158s . The 156 and 155 are another matter - both need underframe surgery and sourcing castings is a problem . The 155 , being worse, and more frequently used, is probably the higher priority. I might even sort out the unused Provincial 155 sat somewhere
  11. Ravenser
    The last few months have been somewhat difficult. At about the time of my last posting, my elderly mother had a fall , and I went up to Lincolnshire on quite a few weekends after she was discharged. Then there was a second fall at the start of December, and then we discovered that her cancer was terminal. I spent a fortnight over Christmas / New Year up in Lincolnshire driving back and forth across the Wolds each afternoon to Lincoln hospital to see her: we finally managed to get her discharged into a care home near my brother, and she died peacefully in mid January. After that came the funeral in Lincolnshire and what was to be done about the house; and then coronavirus descended on us. After initially working from home I was furloughed after Easter - when a majority of your shipments are airfreight and high-end goods, things were always likely to go quiet. (I remarked to several people during March that September 1939 must have felt much like this...)
     
    Naturally, very little modelling activity took place during all of this - I've effectively had a 6 month layoff. I managed to get to "Lincoln" show at Newark showground on my way back from one of the early trips, and some things for the prospective OO9 layout were bought - though not the Bofors gun Clive recommended for airfield defence. Thoughts of visits to Spalding and Peterborough shows proved impractical, I managed a day at Warley, and snatched a couple of hours at Stevenage, and that in practice was it until April. Not surprisingly my normal New Year's Resolutions survey on here didn't happen.
     
    I now find everything very much up in the air. With some kind of inheritance to come, there was the possibility of moving from my flat (which is rather full) to a modest-sized house. That rather called into question the OO9 scheme I was drawing up here, since that was predicated on decommissioning of the old desktop PC and using the space for shelves and a boxed diorama layout. If I were to move, there might be a different, larger site. But with the ongoing pandemic , and the resulting economic mayhem I cannot be certain whether I will have a job in the medium term, or what the chaos might do to my savings, (or for that matter the value of my late mother's house.) So that project is very much in limbo. I have stock, a few kits, a little track, and some buildings in store for it - but whether I go ahead with the current plans is now a moot point, and under present conditions there's no question of commissioning a baseboard unit from Tim Horn or buying other items. So starting work on it is for the moment out of the question.
     
    I have been slowly digging my way out of the piles of admin that built up during the autumn and winter. But the model shops are shut (like nearly all the other shops), there are no exhibitions (and probably won't be until late this year or even 2021), and mail-order now involves decontamination and quarantine. My club is closed for the duration, the Area Group can't meet, it's not exactly safe to go anywhere or to see anyone. While I have an adequate income at present courtesy of the Government, that may only be the case for a few more months so it doesn't seem a good idea to spend any money unnecessarily. 
     
    Added to which I have a cupboard full to overflowing with unbuilt stuff, various projects left where they fell last September - and if I'm honest, piles of unread books and various other stuff I really meant to do, watch or sort out . I'm starting to realise that the accumulated backlog - and it's not just railway modelling - is very large indeed. I've tried to be good in the last decade and restrict myself to "one in, one out" but all I seem to have done is slow the progressive accumulation of stuff to a crawl. The size of the modelling pile - and even more, the amount of work it represents - is very sobering. The BBC series on Hornby introduced me to a new acronym from the world of plastic kit modelling: STABLE - Stash Beyond Life Expectancy . I think I know what they mean...
     
    So - the only sensible approach seems to be to work steadily through the various unfinished projects currently littering my bookshelves, and finish them. That would be good for my mental health - not an irrelevant consideration when you haven't actually seen anyone except once or twice in the street for 2 months - since it would clear up a series of nagging dangling loose ends, resolve various outstanding problems, and tidy the flat up a bit. It should also not cost me any money - and if I do need to buy anything it will be strictly necessary and not destined further to clog up the modelling cupboard. Furthermore this approach should provide the biggest return in term of modelling results for the least investment of effort by me.
     
    And once the decks are clear, I can launch into some new projects from the cupboard. There really isn't any need to go purchasing extra projects. 
     
    Added to which, I really ought to run the layouts more often. I don't think anything had been run for at least 6 months.
     
    So what do I have lying around outstanding?
     
    1. OO9 
    I bought - and painted the body parts for - a Parkside brake van kit at Newark. The bits were lying on my table for months , along with a WD open kit. That has been built, with Bemo couplings, and painted, lettered and weathered. Along the way a Bachmann and a Peco open, and two Peco flats were weathered, too, and the WD open kit started. Couplings are an issue with that one so it's not finished... At some point I'll do a posting on OO9, and I still have to finish the larger scale drawing of the intended plan, but this side is more or less tidied up for the moment.
     
    2. OO wagons
     
    There's rather more outstanding here. I managed to finish weathering the resin PNA kit I bought second-hand at Stevenage last year, and while I was about it, I weathered my Bachmann PNA - and I'm pleased with the results. One of the resin loads I bought at Shenfield last September was eased to fit and painted: unfortunately these don't really fit the resin kit. Flushed with success, I moved onto this , which had been sitting unfinished on the bookcase for a couple of years:

     
    Handrails were the issue , and how to do them - this is an elderly Parkside kit bought second-hand. I fitted the vertical handrails, slightly simplified, decided to use handrail knobs either side of the ducket to hold the horizontal handrails - and could I find the packet of handrail knobs?? I think I may have put them in with a loco kit - but I haven't found which one. The idea is to use it as a second brake van for the engineers train now I have some 1950s engineering  vehicles to go with my kettles 1950s engineering stock - but the project has stalled again and it's back gathering dust. Mail order for a single packet of handrail knobs it a bit extravagant.
     
    The poor resin WD road van has taken a tumble or two from the bookshelves, resulting in serious damage to the upper part of the veranda ends. I'm frightened enough of resin dust at the best of times, so any shaping has to take place outsider. And going outside now means hospital-level sterilisation procedures for me, the kit, and the tools. Added to which I don't actually have a use for the thing at present - so the WD road van is near the bottom of the action list.

     
    Then there's this - a 5522 Models kit sold by DOGA a good few years ago, and as it would be quite useful on the Boxfile I ought to finish it, once I am confident enough to fire up the soldering iron. I've managed to trap the supports for the brake gear, so the solebar will have to come off...

     
    And if I'm feeling inspired, while I've got the soldering iron out, I could actually start on the Judith Edge Vanguard Steelman kit I have in the cupboard - which is body-only and would suit the Boxfile...
     
    Finally, rooting around in the drying box (which has sadly degenerated into a debris box) I find the bits of an incomplete Connaisseur Models LNER single bolster. It's twin was finished and sits in a storage box along with the rest of the Boxfile fleet, even though it has no actual use on the 'file. As the whitemetal axleguards failed, it needs etched W-irons fitting, couplings, painting, etc. 
     
    3. Locos
     
    First cab off the rank in this section is the NBL Type 2 diesel-electric I was working on last year: Class 21 . This one needs a full posting to itself, but here it is sufficient to say that although it's been fighting me mechanically all the way (entirely prototypically!) I think we're finally there....
     
    This then brings another loco into view. Twenty years ago (gosh!) my first diesel detailing project was a Hornby 29 I can bought cheap, second-hand, for Ravenser mk 1. Early last year I attempted to convert it to DCC. This was part of a whole block of DCC work, most of which failed for mysterious reasons, blowing decoders in the process.  It was a very frustrating episode - all I got out of it was a resurrected Bachmann 08. I came to the conclusion that the whole of the DC wiring for 8 wheel pickup on the 29 had better be ripped out and redone. The loco also needs a damaged grill replacing, and the cab front windows reworking. This - like the Baby Deltic - can be excused as an RTC loco.
     
    (And if I get very ambitious I have a blue Hornby 25 sans power bogie and a green Bachmann Rat with slight body damage and a good blue 25 could be produced by combining the two with some Shawplan etches and glazing , which I have in stock)
     
    There is also the Airfix Trevithick loco kit in 1/32,  see here At the Dawn of Time 2 which became stuck (literally!) when solvent got in where it shouldn't and a component of the drive train sheered. I really quite want the drive train to work and the wheels to revolve - motorising it , as originally intended for this kit would be excellent. So I need to work out how to pin the relevant components back together.
     
    Then there's this: 
     
    This, too, has been gathering dust for at least a decade - a Branchlines chassis for the old Airfix plastic kit for the Drewry 04 shunter. Someone persuaded me it should be made compensated - and I didn't quite understand what I needed to do with beams and pivots. This has always been intended for the Boxfile. I've never actually built a chassis - perhaps when the decks are getting a bit clearer I should try to finish this. 
     
    Buried deep in the pile of stock for Blacklade is a Hornby 60 which suffered a little bodyshell damage at one end . I really ought to patch it up and get it back into traffic...
     
    And finally there's the problematic 76xxx Standard 4 Mogul with its mysterious short that fried two decoders. I will have to be very confident before I have another go sorting out that one.
     
    4. DMUs
     
    The first priority here is to finish the DC Kits 128 . I am not happy with the headlights, or the underframe equipment, as I originally did them, so these will need sorting out. As will the remaining handrails and the doorhandles. This will at least give me convenient options for consisting Modernisation Plan DMUs (as opposed to inconvenient ones involving 2 x 2 car short frame units ) . And it will allow me to use the 57' Mk1 parcels vehicles (BG , GUV, and NRX) which have been sitting idle for ages, since the centre platform on Blacklade - the only one which has access to the run-round loop - will only just take a Brush 2 and two 50' vans. It will however take a 128 + 57' vehicle.

    (gratuitous picture of weathered GUV)
     
    Spray-painting the body will be "interesting" during lockdown , as the landing outside my flat where it would need to be done isn't exactly a safe sterile area during the epidemic.
     
    Then we get to some very long-standing projects, which bristle with problems.
     
    There is the Pacer:
     
    This is supposed to be getting a Branchlines replacement etched chassis. However I decided I really couldn't tolerate the large black underframe box that replaces the engine block. These have been cut off, replacement weight installed and engines fettled out of plasticard. This lengthy process essentially killed the impetus needed to sort out the new chassis itself. There is also the question of whether it's possible to improve the body - I'd love to flushglaze it but I'm not sure that's practical - and upgrade the interior. Lights are supposed to be fitted, and Kadees, and gangways and DCC...
     
    The first push on this one is recorded here - Pacer - and I'm horrified to see the project has been stalled for exactly a decade....
     
    This too would be give me more options for multiple unit working on Blacklade and it really needs to be finished off.
     
    While I'm about it , I have a second Pacer - actually a Skipper in chocolate and cream - and an Ultrascale rewheeling pack in my DMU box. This would be a less drastic upgrade since the second model is in somewhat better condition, and it would "simply" be a matter of fitting replacement wheels, decoders, lights Kadees and a little detailing. However I am also now committed to doing something about the underframe to match the first Pacer....
     
    The West Yorkshire 155 is a case of "so near and yet so far" . At the last stage of the project, the motor bogie failed. Someone diagnosed a seized central motor bearing , oil seemed to fix it - and then the motor bogie failed finally and irretrievably. There are really only two approaches to sorting this out - rob the motor bogie from a second 155 , in Provincial livery, which has been sitting unused in its box for two decades , or else use a Black Beetle. The latter option would remove the large black motor unit visible inside and would involve me putting  more of the interior into the unit.
     
    This should provide the best result - but the only way to get a suitable Black Beetle is now to rob one out of the Bratchill 150:
     

     
     
    A project which has been stalled a very long time....
     
    The killer issue is that I fitted some etched window frames from Jim Smith-Wright . The model took a tumble at Ally Pally one year during breakdown, several came off, I picked them up - and when I got home I was one short. Since Jim no longer does the etches - I'm stymied.
     
    I really can't see this making any progress in the foreseeable future - hence the decision to take the its motor bogie for the 155.
     
    Getting the second 155 up and running is a possibility, but I'm not sure I can face a second full-dress rework on one of these.....
     
    5. Coaches 
     
    Nothing to declare, officer... 
     
    But if I clear up all the above, starting the MTK Porthole Brake third kit is an obvious option. I could also use the Comet etched Mk1 CK sides and a Lima donor to build a second coach , and break up the scratch set with its mismatched gangways. 
     
    (Though on reflection I started upgrading a Hornby Mk2 BFK and gave up because it was looking a lot like hard work. I suppose that could be finished as well...)
     
    6. Layouts:
     
    Nothing I can see to be done on Blacklade or the Boxfile as layouts, other than to run them more often.
     
    But Tramlink (Kent) needs sorting out, and nothing has been done in over a year. It would make a decent DC test track, and there are buildings to be finished. Not to mention light rail units.
     
    I really don't need to buy any more models given all this...….
     
  12. Ravenser

    Contain Yourself - Assorted Conflats

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    I suppose it is inevitable that I would want railway containers to feature on the Boxfile. I've spent nearly all my working life involved with containerised seafreight, in one capacity or another, and in the 1950s railway containers were a significant part of British Railways freight traffic. Since it represents an urban goods depot, the Boxfile is heavily skewed towards van traffic and as I've said a couple of times recently my wagon fleet for the Boxfile is light in vans. So the remedy is obvious.
     
    This all started with my efforts to sort out the unreliable running on the Boxfile, and the unhappy discovery that  much of the wagon fleet wasn't really  serviceable. Along the way I found out that both my Bachmann Conflat A and the homebrew Conflat V  were dodgy, and weight and wheel changes weren't  enough to cure them.
     
    When I went rummaging in the modelling cupboard, one of the things I found in the box of wagon kits was a Parkside kit for an ex LNER Conflat S.
     
    So I bit the bullet and decided that the Bachmann Conflat A would have to go -  meaning to reuse the Parkside BD container from the Conflat A on the Conflat S which was to replace it. The kit comes with an ex LNER DX open top container - these were pretty rare beasts and in BR days were only to be carried in Lowfits, since they were thought not to stand up to the stresses of chain restraints. (I do in fact have a Bachmann Lowfit body in stock and will ultimately build it as an ex LNER wooden underframe vehicle , as in Iain Rice's book, to carry the DX . That can be traffic to a London building site. I have a second DX kit in stock now, to provide an empty sat in the yard as an extra scenic detail . But this has been on hold till I found the brass strip, as the plastic lifting basrs are terribly fragile)
     
     But for various reasons the BD container wouldn't quite fit on the Conflat S. So I ended up buying a new Parkside Conflat A kit, and building the FM meat container out of that, which is slightly smaller and which will fit the Conflat S. In due course the Parkside Conflat A will be built and given a Bachmann AF insulated container froma pack of 4 I found while rummaging in the cupboard. See below... (The AF wouldn't quite fit the Conflat S either. Before you ask.)
     
    The unloved BD was eventually found a home in a Dapol ex LMS 5 plank open , which had also shown a strong propensity to derail.  Tight, but after a little work, in it went... TI put lead inside the container when I originally built  so what was a lightweight open now weighs 50g. And suddenly the LMS open is running reliably . Result!
     
     

     
    Here we see the Conflat S , awaiting couplings, final weathering and chains. Behind is the ex Hornby ex NER refridgerated van.
     
    The Conflat A was a bit of a performance. In fact I ended up with a vehicle in which Messrs Parkside played only a limited role. I built the wagon - and then found that for reasons I can't quite understand the chassis was significantly and irredemably crooked. I can't remember when I last had a chassis so far out of true. Attempts to break out one solebar and adjust failed miserably , so the only way to sort the mess out was to cut away the plastic W-rons, fit etched compensated ones, and find a suitable spare solebar in the scrapboxes to replace the damaged one. Axleboxes and springs are ABS castings, as are the brake gear. Not that there is anything much wrong with the Parkside versions, but every scrap of weight is needed wherever you can with a Conflat.
     
    here we have the result , unpainted , without couplings and no securing chains. The various whitemetal bits are obvious. Tierod is 0.045" wire
     

     
    The container is one of the aforementioned pack of four AF insulated containers from Bachmann, finally finding a use. It's been stuffed with a decent amount of lead sheet. Another one these containers has become a sacrificial weathering test piece after a heavily diluted weathering wash removed much of the lettering on one side. White is a nasty weathering job without an airbrush.
     
    The surplus Bachmann Conflat A  was then reworked as a service vehicle carrying wagon bogies, in line with some photos on Paul Bartlett's site. These carrier TOPS codes FAV ior ZVV and were also used by Derby Works for carrying DMU bogies. I contemplated some ex Triang Metro-Cammell DMU bogies in the box and thought "perhaps not". So my wagon carries a GW-type plate bogie - one of the wretched original bogies off the Cambrian Walrus I built some years ago, which are almost impossible to build square. Wheels are the Gibsons out of the Parkside Conflat A kit, which I replaced with Hornby wheels. Baulks are bits of balsa, securing chains are spare bits of the Ambis etches left after I had fitted securing chains to my replacement Conflat A / AF container (seen finished, behind) . The wagon is now fitted with Kadees , but requires new TOPS codes applying. It can now be used as a Loco Dept / engineers wagon on Blacklade, at least occasionally.
     

     
    All of which means I now have a reasonable fleet of Conflat wagons, which can do a job or work, instead of falling off.
     
    I have only one problem still remaining- this:
     

     
    Or at least the semi-scratchbuilt Conflat V on the right . Bachmann container - the original load of their Conflat A - Red Panda chassis, spare Parkside floor and the edging/chain pockets scratchbuilt Despite an attempt to improve matters by melting in one of the bearings to give a little rock ("bastard compensation") it still falls off. It's currently sat on the bookcase , pending further thought. I'm not even sure if there's still a slot to squeeze it into in the stock boxes
     
    The old Ratio MOGO on the left is fine. That one's never given any trouble in its years of use.
  13. Ravenser

    Letter from Lockdown

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    My annual review and New Year's resolutions are a month late this year - which is rather better than I've managed in the last couple of years. Not only that, I can report that that the delay is due to Making Stuff, rather than as in previous years meaning to , but not actually doing it.
     
    I'm not saying I'm completely cured of that. Despite my best resolutions, the amount of modelling I've actually done during various lockdowns , furlough and the like has been much  less than I intended , and less than I ought to have managed. I'm probably not the only one in that situation.
     
    Early in the pandemic I made what amounts to a Statement of Good Intentions here.   Some things in it have since clarified themselves.
     
    I was made redundant at the end of July, and although there has been a resurgence of activity in the jobs market in the last few weeks and a couple of interviews, at this point I'm still looking for work. The legacy will be significant , as the value of things has not collapsed. While I need an income, I'm certainly not broke either in the short or medium term - but it also isn't sensible to spend money without a good reason. Lockdown and furlough have enforced an economical lifestyle on me - and probably on other people. Vaccines are being rolled out, I'm hopeful that I'll find work in the next couple of months; but at present the shops are shut, I'm going nowhere except for my daily walk and it's become blatantly apparent that I have enough projects already in the cupboard to keep me going for a long time - years even - without me spending money to buy any new ones. 
     
    Quite a few of my Good Intentions were carried out last year. I tidied up the 009 stuff on hand, and I did a little weathering of it. I ran the 009 stock a few times. The NBL Type 2 was finished and released to traffic: I've even finally written it up. After years of procrastination an article on the Boxfile for the DOGA Journal was finally written and published . The ex LNER Toad B was finished off. I made progress with the 128.
     
    It was at this point that I strayed from the straight and narrow....
     
    My plan was to work steadily through all my unfinished projects before I started anything new. Unfortunately, once I'd finished off the Toad B I started to reflect on the fact that I hadn't built any wagon kits  for several years. While I was on a roll, perhaps I could build some more, and finish off my purge of the non-runners in the Boxfile fleet, which was discussed here.  That reflection produced a burst of activity, and I replaced a detailed-up Hornby Dublo OHV with a much better Parkside kit that actually stayed on the track, and resurrected and rebuilt  a Slater's rectangular tank wagon from my teens , described here.   
     
    And whilst I was hunting through the relevant boxes in the cupboard all sorts of things turned up, which prompted me to see what else could be done in this direction. (As you do..)
     
    Discovery of the mortal remains of an Airfix cattle wagon kit from my early teens spurred wild schemes of rebuilding it as a tunnel inspection vehicle, based on a conversion photographed at Rotherham in 1984 I spotted in a Cheona wagon book . The battered bits were treated to some Modelstrip and bagged up for safe-keeping, but it's not actually a priority. An Airfix brake van from the same period, nicely painted but which dropped to bits in short order, was also bagged up for future use. But at present I have no need of another brake van. So that's not being built. (I've got a perfectly decent Airfix brake finished as a piped CAR in a storage box)
     
    More constructively , I sorted out the discarded ex Hornby Dublo OHV as an engineers wagon for Blacklade. The chassis was tight, so I loosened it by melting in one bearing a little with the soldering iron to give a spot of rock and slop : "bastard  compensation". It acquired new transfers, along with a load comprising a builders' compressor unit (from a Mendip Models pack that I found in the cupboard) and a spare whitemetal signal cupboard . I should have cleaned up the castings slightly better before I painted them, as rubbing down the paintwork took forever and yellow has rotten covering power to start with.
     
    The elderly Hornby refrigerated van has not only been cleaned up, it has also acquired a scratchbuilt wooden underframe , been painted, and been given transfers. Much of the weathering has been done - I simply need to finish the weathering off, and fit couplings. 
     
    It was at this point that I wandered off into containers. Vintage 1950s railway containers.
     
    Some years ago I bought a Bachmann Conflat A with a rather attractive Speedlink container. Further research discovered that the Conflat A wasn't right for Speedlink operations, and I concocted a more appropriate Conflat V  from a Red Panda clasp braked underframe kit, a spare Parkside wagon floor and a few scraps of plasticard. (It's stretching a point to call this scratchbuilding.)The Bachmann Conflat A then acquired a suitable Parkside BD container.
     
    Unfortunately both wagons proved to derail on the Boxfile. Since Conflats count  as vans , and since I'm underweight in vans anyway, Something Had To Be Done. Especially when I found a Parkside kit for an ex LNER Conflat S in the box of wagon kits.
     
    So I built the kit, meaning to reuse the Parkside BD container off the Conflat A , which it was to replace. But for various reasons the BD container wouldn't quite fit on the Conflat S. So I ended up buying a new Parkside Conflat A kit, and building the FM meat container out of that, which is slightly smaller and which will fit the Conflat S. In due course the Parkside Conflat A will be built and given a Bachmann AF insulated container froma pack of 4 I found while rummaging in the cupboard. (The AF wouldn't quite fit the Conflat S either. Before you ask.)
     
    The unloved BD was eventually found a home in a Dapol ex LMS 5 plank open , which had also shown a strong propensity to derail. I had to file away at the projecting bumpers on the bottom edge to get it in, but after a little work in it went... The container has lead inside it so what was a lightweight open now weighs 50g. And suddenly the LMS open is running reliably, without any need for me to rebuild the chassis . Result!
     
    One more wagon credited to the "vans" , a segment where the Boxfile fleet is light on numbers, and off the total of opens (where I was overweight).
    Here we have the OHV - showing that Hornby Dublo made the sides too tall - and the BD container jammed in the LMS 5-plank open. High security shipment...
     
     
     
    As result of this I now have a spare Bachmann Conflat A knocking around , which I'm thinking of repainting blue  and transferring to Blacklade with a DMU bogie sat on top of it.
     
    And while I was sorting these vehicles out  I fitted coupling wires to the little Ruston 48DS I bought at the last Warley show , and finally got it into service. A further product of this burst of enthusiams was the addition of a few scraps of detailing to the Boxfile, which was looking a little sparse, (Better sparse than too busy). The British Railways delivery van (someone's resin kit) that I built some years ago and never glazed has now received side windows courtesy of Glue and Glaze, and I need to cut windscreen glazing out of clear plasticard to finish the job (It's not the Morris Minor van visible in the photo, by the way. That was a more diminutive replacement, in better keeping with the Boxfile . I gave that a coat of matt varnish to dull it down while I was about it)
     
    The Ruston needs weathering. Another little job for 2021. It does run very nicely - slowly and controllably , thanks to the low gearing - and it's ideal for the Boxfile.
     
     

    After all this progress I succumbed to the urge to buy more wagon kits. The fact that I didn't have any Southern wagons at all in the fleet was starting to nag, and given that the Boxfile is heavily skewed towards vans and the fleet is short of them, there was no doubt that the Southern wagon needed to be one of their distinctive vans.
     
    Given the fact that most of the wagons that fall off the Boxfile seem to have RTR chassis, and nearly all the RTR wagons fall off , not to mention the sordid question of money - the Southern van had to be a kit. A Ratio kit for the wartime plywood type was therefore acquired from Dutfields between the second and third lockdowns, and I've actually built it. (I'm at least trying to ensure that any new project I buy is built and doesn't add to the stock in the cupboard) . That too awaits final weathering and couplings. I will paint those buffer heads.... That reminds me that I modified the kit slightly to represent those fitted by BR in the 1950s, some of which received Oleo buffers
     
     

     
    Then I got distracted by coaches . BR blue and grey ones. A Lima Mk1 from my teenage layout has been extensively upgraded as a TSO and needs finishing off. I have started work on upgrading a Hornby Mk2 a to a BFK. In a moment of weakness I bought a Triang-Hornby Mk1 BSK as "feedstock" for a NNX courier van conversion, and I've made a reasonable start on the job. To add to the list, a Bachmann Mk1 BSK I bought years ago and have got into traffic is being commissioned and weathered as a short term partner for the TSO. More of all this in a separate posting...
     
     
     
    But this does mean that all the three new project purchases (Ratio SR van , Parkside Conflat A, Triang-Hornby BSK) have actually been started and reasonable progress has made on them. My cupboard is at least emptying, and not being refilled....
     
    Also in the coach department there's the two Fisons weedkilling coaches I bought from Invicta . These were ordered in 2019 but I let the order stand when Invicta contacted me duringb the year to say they had come in. The coaches need couplings and weathering , and I have to sort out two suitable TTA tankers for use with them. The lack of an actual spray coach is nagging at me slightly, but I can't see an easy solution. No-one bit when I asked on the relevant Invicta thread about a colour match for the Fisons green.
     

     
    So that's what I actually built in 2020, despite all the expansive plans and good intensions. As far as running the layouts is concerned, the year was equally mixed.  The Boxfile came out and was used a few times: it's a convenient way to test things do in fact run properly. Blacklade has been up three or four times, but it should have been much more...
     
    Now for 2021 - and resolutions aspirations:
     
    - First priority is to finish off  the TSO and the Bachmann BSK and get them into traffic. Followed by the Hornby BFK and the NNX courier van when it's warm enough to spray paint with confidence (i e about Easter)
    - The various wagons need finishing off and releasing to traffic in the next month or so.
    -  The 128 needs to be finished to the point where it too can be painted and released to traffic. Otherwise I have nothing to pull the NNX and my NRX van. Since those vehicles will be/are in Royal Mail / RES red, I'm now leaning to finishing the 128 in Mail red , not BR Blue - this would arguably be slightly more in period for 1985-90. That would mean the 128 would be sprayed at the same time as the NNX van.
     
    This then leaves outstanding on my bookcase and elsewhere:
     
    - The Airfix Trevithick 1/32 loco kit , which I haven't touched in 2020
    - The West Yorks PTE 155 , whose motor bogie seized when it was almost finished - I have a Hornby Javelin motor bogie ready to install
    - The Class 29 , which needs rewiring, a decoder installing , and the cab front windows reworking.
    - The Pacer , which was started a frightening 11 years ago,  and has been largely stalled for at least 8 years... Finishing that may be the biggest project for 2021, especially as I should try to fit Ultrascale wheels into its chocolate and cream  twin, and fit decoders and Kadees.
     
    Not to mention the long-term lurkers:
     
    - The etched brass LNER van, which will require some reshuffling of the stockboxes for the Boxfile fleet in order to find a slot for it.
    - The somewhat battered ex WD road van resin kit (see "brake vans, no real need of more.." above)
    - The  long-stalled Drewry 04 etched chassis, which is a bit daunting
    - The long-term stalled Bratchill 150
    - DCC conversion of the very troublesome 4MT 2-6-0
     
    Beyond the coach projects I'm already committed to, the one that I might well attempt if I get that far is to build up two Kirk kits I have to make a Gresley 2-car push-pull set. Since these are plastic kits they shouldn't be impossibly demanding, I should have everything necessary to upgrade them already in stock, and this would give me an extra two car set for the kettles. The MTK LMS Porthole brake 3rd seems likely to slip into 2022
     
    I've got 3 DMU projects that need finishing. I don't think thoughts of building a DC Kits kit are realistic this year.
     
    If I got far enough down the list to contemplate a new loco project, then a high-standard Class 25 using the Hornby body on a Bachmann chassis would seem the logical candidate. Doing anything with my stockpile of 31 bodies means sorting out a reasonable mechanism to go into them - which isn't so straightforward.. GBL Jinty body on Hornby 0-6-0T chassis is not urgent either
     
    But when it comes to new purchases, I might be a bit more extravagant this year. 
     
    The fact is, I've always half-promised myself that if they ever did Hardwicke, that would be the special limited edition I might go for. Seen on the mainline in 1975-80, usually ran with 3 blue/grey Mk1s: that would be a steam special that might look half-way credible on Blacklade. It would certainly be more plausible than an appearance by the Stirling Single.
     
    I have also been mildly tempted by both the Bachmann MR 0-4-4T and the Oxford N7. Both are moderate-sized passenger tanks, and would not be out of place in Nottinghamshire /Derbyshire in the 1950s: more so, arguably, than 4MT 2-6-4Ts on 2 coach trains . Colwick not only had N7s, some of them were push-pull fitted. However at present a suitable BR black version of either isn't available. I'm not paying for DCC sound, and the round-top N7 hasn't yet been released.
     
    More urgently, I'm half-promising myself the Hattons Genesis 6 wheel full brake in crimson - very close to a GSWR vehicle, and short parcels coaches are always useful. I'm even toying with the idea of a totally unnecessary LNER branch set : Hornby all 3rd 6 wheel, Hattons Brake 3rd + composite. No lights.
     
    And I'm very seriously toying with the idea of a Hattons Barclay for the Boxfile. Something I've considered in the past , but given that it wasn't urgent, it had to be a 14" loco, and on discount. The planets are now aligning...
     
    And someone does a Gloucester DMU trailer body as a 3D print. Not cheap, but it could be an option for the missing weed-killer train spray coach. If I can match that green.
     
     
     


  14. Ravenser
    Having chickened out on fitting 4 small etched brass stips as hinges to every door of the Van B, I've decided to tackle finishing the point motors and associated wiring under the layout. This posting is largely to draw the attention of non-DCC users to the query I've just posted on wiring one of the motors here : Hoffmann query, since the solution I've come up with - hardwiring and switching through the spare contacts on another point motor - isn't really a DCC method at all
     
    However this fits into the bigger package of stuff I'm hoping to tackle this weekend (and no doubt next week as well):
     
    - Sort out the unreliable throw of the existing point motors. This is because the wire supplied with the Tortoise is too springy and flexes rather than moving the point blades. Where possible the old wire will be taken out and replaced- where not possible, I aim to stiffen the wire using a tip from an Iain Rice book. There looks to be one point motor I can't get at at all
     
    - Remove the NCE Autoswitch - which doesn't actually work - and fit a DPDT switch to isolate the bulk of the layout when programming
     
    - Install the remaining 3 point motors . I now have a new Cobalt Blue motor (bought at Ally Pally after seeing jim s-w's recent review in DEMU Update) and aHoffmann - these , with a Tortoise , will fit where 3 x Tortoises wouldn't. I'll make sure the wires are stiff enough....
     
    - Install the 16V AC auxiliary bus onto the second board, so it can power the Hoffmann motor, and an Express Models 12V DC 1 amp stabilised power supply
     
    -Install 12V DC stabilised power supplies on each board to power signals, Digitrax decoder, and lighting circuits
     
    - Install Digitrax DS64 decoder to fiddle yard board , to power all points , and replace current NCE Switch It
     
    - Connect up the lighting circuit in the portakabin and hope it works
     
    - Built one or two Erkon signal kits and install - connect up to 12V supply and point switching
     
    I think I've actually got all the bits now , so this lot should keep me quiet for a while.......
     
    Items trial positioned on the boards:
     

     
    And before I started:
     

  15. Ravenser

    Mind the Gap......

    By Ravenser,

    The trouble with lists is that they show you up.
     
    So how far have I actually got with my ambitious list of jobs? Well.....
     
    5 out of 6 points have had their drive wire replaced with 0.9mm wire . The other seems to work ok anyway. This has pretty well cured the problem of point blades not closing fully. One point , where the commercially available offset drive Tortoise mounting has been used (possibly from Exactoscale?) is still slightly uncertain , perhaps because I've not replaced the final link from the subterranean plastic tie bar to the actual copper clad tie bar. Another point, which I couldn't quite get to close reliably, resulted in so much fiddling, filing, and tweaking that the blade came loose. I then resoldered it , slightly further out, and that fixed the problem of reliable closure . 0.9mm wire does Xurons no good at all by the way: I used the cutters in a large pair of pliers instead, and these survived largely unscathed
     
    On the wiring front, I've installed a 0.5A 12 V dc stabilised power supply unit , from All Components, on one board. That, er , is the sum of it. Very frustratingly I haven't been able to install the Hoffmann point motor , for want of two eightpenny diodes..... One of the consequences of having changed my job is that I no longer walk past a branch of Maplins in the lunch hour, and I can't simply buy a Bumper Bag of Diodes for £1-60. The nearest branch is now 15 miles' drive away. So I've had to order some diodes from Squires, and after a murderous week at work , I only got round to doing so on Friday afternoon. At which point I forgot about the large illuminated push switch I was going to buy to isolate the programming track . So I'm going to have to improvise that bit using the toggle switch and mounting I already have
     
    Being blocked in that direction , I've attacked on another front and built three Erkon signal kits for the station board,. I'd seen these used on afriend's layout and they looked quite effective. Unfortuately the type with a feather - and all three for the station have feathers - have a pair of fine wires coming out of the side of the feather , which is not quite so good. I've painted them black, along with the solder joints onto the diode, which makes the intrusion much less obtrusive , and in 2 out of 3 cases , the offending wires will end up facing the backscene and therefore should largely be hidden. A further complication is that one of the signal heads is rather smaller than the other two.Clearly they've changed/upgraded the kit at some point. I suspect that variations between signal heads aren't unknown on the prototype - after all colour lights have been with us for 80 years, and I would be surprised if signal heads have remained exactly the same size and style throughout that time - and therefore I'm afraid I've just ploughed on. I couldn't really have shuffled the kits around to avoid having one head different, and they aren't the easiest kits to find. It's assumed the area have been changed from semaphore to colour light through slow piecemeal replacement
     
    I also painted the signals. My friend didn't - they looked ok but slightly toylike. Normally I'm sceptical about the idea that prototype info is easy for modern image , but I had only to look up from the bench and look out the window - and there is a colour- light signal. This quickly showed me that posts are grey, and not silver , and that only the signal head itself is actually black. And all the colours are weathered. A hasty coat of Humbrol 183 grey resulted in a much better colouration and also improved the proportions of the signal, as the grey goes further up and down the post, making it look taller, and the ladder is also now grey, and not black . The signal head, phone box, and one or two other bits have been painted with Citadel Charadon Granite, mixed with some matt black . This improved the look of the signals considerably - never use pure black or pure white . All I have to do now is add the signal numbers and install....
  16. Ravenser
    ORBC
     
    by Ravenser
     
    original page on Old RMweb
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri May 04, 2007 5:24 pm
     
    As I'm hoping that I will actually get something done over the bank holiday weekend, I thoughtt I'd better salvage the spiel about the Bratchill 150 from the old forums.
     
    Having gone back to RMWeb2 , I was confronted by my New Years Resolutions from January last year:
     


    I must make some progress on other fronts this year. I have a lot of DCC installations to sort out: the 31 where I misconnected a loose wire and fried the decoder, an extra 20 I bought because the number was the first 20 I ever saw, a Voyager for the club layout, probably a 60 (ditto)
     
    Then there are various MUs and locos. An old Lima 20 which I rewheeled and fitted with added pickups needs the body sorting out (yes I know, but I've already got the stuff and in the immortal words of Magnus Magnussen "I've started so I'll finish...") A decoder could sensibly go in that at the same time. There is the Bratchill 150/2 kit - should be simple and therefore an early candidate. Its about time I chopped up the Hornby 155 into a pair of 153s. More Beetles, more T1 decoders. Can I finally get round to the Home Made 37? Will the Ultrascale wheels for the Athern chassis turn up before 2007?
     
    Then there is the Branchlines chassis for the 04 I started almost 12 months ago . Not to mention the small Dark Secret in the cupboard
     
    And I really should do something about the light rail project this year (Other than operating it with a pair of 153s) . Even your average cowboy builder doesn't take 3 years over a pair of semis
    Well.. most of the DCC installations are done (the Voyager still needs more work and the 31 needs sorting out)
     
    The Athearn wheels for the 37 did turn up - but nothing else got done. The 153s are still an aspiration - though my Challenge project gives them an immediate use (once the Challenge Project is far enough advanced). The Sentinel got built
     
    The rest didn't , though I got a fair way with the 150/2...
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri May 04, 2007 5:30 pm
     
    So here we go (just under 13 months ago...)
     
    Quote:
     
    Not a lot has happened recently but now DMUs seem to be on the agenda.
     
    The other evening the Bratchill 150/2 kit came out for the first time. Fit of parts seems reasonably good : a little bit of filing was needed around the corridor connection on the ends. One area that will need careful attention is at the front end , around the interlock between sides and roof . There is a visible bump here and this will need filling and filing down as no such bump is visible on photos of the real thing.. It will also be critical to ensure exact alighnment of sides and roof so there is no "step effect" as you go round the rim.
     
    I'm also agonising over whether I need to fill the join lines where the end fits into the roof. I'm a bit short of 150 photo reference especially for internal ends and have resorted to gawping at a few other Mk3 MUs . Yes there seems to be a faint seam , but not a prominent one...
     
    One thing I didn't buy at Ally Pally was a set of Lima 156 bogie mouldings, as recommended by cloggydog
     
    Nothing has actually been glued together yet.
     
    Unquote
     
    4 days later a start had been made:
     
    Quote
    Posted - 12/04/2006 : 14:19:34
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    I've actually managed to make a start on the Bratchill 150/2.
     
    Progress to date amounts to gluing in the ends and making a start on gluing the sides in place. I'm having a spot of bother with one side, - there's a kind of interlocking step between side and roof at the cab end and the side isn't absolutely seating properly here, meaning that there's a hairline crack between roof and side towards this end. So of course the solvent wont grab at this end, and the side is only glued for about 2/3rd of its length .
     
    Fixing in the cab end might help. Unfortunately the instructions say that glazing should be fixed with contact adhesive - I'm not sure if this applies to the clear ends as well, and I don't think Uhu is going to give me a great bond here. I may have to slip in a sliver of microstrip or micro-rod to get a bond at the cab end and resort to a bit of filler to fill in any residual hairline cracks. (The other side's fine)
     
    I've started to fix the sides of the second vehicle - at this stage just at the inner ends . I've still got room to work on the interlock at the cab end to make sure that this time it really does seat properly
     
    Unquote
     
    By the end of the month , one concern had been allayed by the Fatadder:
     


    I have never had any problems using my normal Mek poly or plastic weld gluing the clear cabs onto by bratchel 456s, so there shouldnt be any problems.
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    Rich
    Dreaming of Mountains and Snow.


    Fatadder:
     
    Thanks. That's one problem out of the way then . The ends can hold the sides in place and I sort out the hairline crack over the last 2 inches with filler
     
    I didn't really fancy trying to slip slivers of microstrip in - it would probably have been too thick and over done the correction.
     
    I might actually get some 21st century modelling done tomorrow then...
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri May 04, 2007 5:36 pm
     
    By mid June , things were far enough along for a first assessment:
     
    Quote
     
    Is it just me?
     
    I took yesterday off and full of good intentions decided to do some modelling. Hoping and expecting to make Some Serious Progress on several fronts.
     
    The net result? Er 8 small holes and a couple of bits of whitemetal stuck with Araldite . And no we're not talking big subtantial structural items like boilers and footplates . Try a few underfloor casting bits...
     
    The 150/2 has now reached the stage of 2 bodyshells. Yes , I should have drilled out the headlights before I stuck the ends into the bodyshell . No, I didn't . (And no it didn't turn out to be mission-critical). An Express Models lighting pack for the Dapol 150 has been procured as I'm not up to doing my own LED lighting installation , and I've managed to drill the headlights out to suit (actually starting with micro drills and opening out with broaches. If I'm honest, despite my best effort trying to centre the drills on the headlight , the results are only 98% straight, but they are the same size)
     
    After much effort with the needle files and fibreglass pencil I finished/gave up on cleaning the main engine and gearbox castings (given that the castings are ex MTK as cleaned up and sold by NNK , finishing and throwing in the towel come to much the same thing. In fairness the engines were always going to be the roughest and most awkward castings by some way).
     
    These are now araldited in place, after much comparison of the ex MTK instruction sheet, Jim Smith-Wright's Update drawing, and drawings in Railnew Stockspot 2. All show slightly different positions for the engines and transmission relative to the windows, meaning much poring and moving of bits of whitemetal , but Update and Railnews are pretty close here
     
    Also aradited were a pair of brass coupling hooks for the Dublo 20 (and one exhaust pipe on the 150/2 before the araldite went off). This now has main handrails one one side - the second side was going to follow the 150/2, but I didn't get that far....
     
    I still need to sort out some ex Lima 156 bodies for the Sprinter - so no progress on running gear.
     
    I think I'm now at the point where some intelligent comment can be offered on the Bratchill kit. Where Bratchill's own work is concerned, assembly is pretty straightforward and results good.
     
    But I'm a bit disquieted by the amount I'm going to end up discarding - basically everything below the bodyshell - and the amount I'm having to source from elsewhere. The underframe boxes etc supplied with the kit are nothing to do with a DMU and have been put aside. The bogies are well designed , and would be easy to build and attach - but they've got damper arms so must be discarded and alternatives sourced . I do hope I can fit the Bratchill centre bolsters , otherwise I've got to devise and fabricate alternative arangements
     
    So all I'm going to get from Mr Bratchill is two body shells - not including the seating , which is courtesy of DC Kits (and looks like Modernisation Plan benches - more work with file and paintbrush. ). Considering the kit cost me ??????‚??67, this seems a bit meagre. I'm having to source bogies, underframe detail castings , motor bogie, wheels, seating, and lighting units myself . That's quite a lot of the finished vehicle. And some of these items will require some work. The additional items will cost about ??????‚??85 -90
     
    Ouch.
     
    Obviously things look rather better if you're building one of his EMUS , where the bogies and underframe detail are right. But still, the 150/2's not cheap and it's not complete.
     
    Unquote
     
    Quote:
    Speaking of MTK, I've spent the afternoon sticking a few bits of whitemetal. Here's the base of the Bratchill 150/2 kit.
     

     
    Most of the bits on the side are now stuck to one of the underframes.
     
    Working out what is what and what goes where from Jim Smith Wright's drawing, Railnews Stockspot2 and the NNK/MTK leaflet is a bit difficult. J S-W and Stockspot seem basically to agree, but the castings don't necessarily match. The two objects on the left with round fillers are the two ends of the fuel tank. They are neither the same shape , nor remotely the same length (one's about 2/3rds the length of the other) nor the same height. The circular discs appear to be meant as representations of the ends of the air tanks???
     
    Its going to have to be strictly representional , I'm afraid , but at least it will be a represenatation of a DMU , not (like Bratchill's bits) a representation of an EMU
     
    Gives the thing bags of weight though
     
    Having discarded chunks of the kit to replace them with detailing bits from elsewhere, I'm now discarding detailing bits to replace them with bits from the kit...
     
    Those curious objects looking like whitemetal archery targets seen in the piccy above which are alleged to be airtanks , or at least the ends of airtanks (one of the late Mr Massingham's less plausible fibs) to be precise. I stuck them on, found they were wonky, shakily attached , and didn't even begin to resemble the air tanks found under Mk3 derivative stock , or the drawings or anything else really. Sanity dawned, I reached into the relevant bag of Bratchill bits, retreived 4 x plastic air tanks and stuck 'em on. A plastic rod drive shaft between gearbox asnd engine went in to
     
    Apart from that I've been adding plasticard sides to MTK/NNK's cast facades for battery boxes etc
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri May 04, 2007 5:46 pm
     
    By the time I reached the bogies , we were into mix and match territory...
     
    Quote
    No work done, just some shopping
     
    I finally phoned MB Models in quest of the Lima 156 bogie frames recommended by cloggydog. Unfortunately they're now out of stock , as they've had quite a few people buying them recently . Wonder why that would be....? Perhaps I'm not the only person who's actually building a Bratchill Sprinter
     
    So I resorted to Plan B , and ordered some Hornby Networker bogies and one or two other bits from East Kent Models . Service was exemplary - stuff ordered on Tuesday afternoon was waiting for me when I got home yesterday
     
    The sideframes will need to be sawn off the bogie mouldings and superglued to etched H-frame units - I have a pack of A1 Models etches in stock. It looks like I will have to fill in the slight recesses around the bogie pivots , and possibly file down the mounts as well (fortunately the holes are the same size in the Bratchill floorpan and the etches)
     
    The trailing vehicle is the easy bit . More awkward is the powered vehicle. Gluing the sideframes to the Beetle is not difficult . However I will have to provide pickups on the trailing bogie and that's a bit more problematic.
     
    Soldering a wire across the top of the cross stretcher for wiper pickup from the top is easy enough, but means the H frame is live to one rail. Fitting a second pickup is then more awkward. Last time I tried this , on a light rail vehicle, I ended up with through wiring to 2 trailing bogies , each one live to one side, because attempts to fit a second pickup on a bogie resulted in shorts.
     
    Through-wiring an articulated LRV is one thing, but I'm not going to do that on a 2 car DMU. And there must be a chance of simply fitting an excellent set of brakes to the trailing bogie
     
    Seating is another problem . I took the Hornby 155 out of its box last night and a number of problems started to emerge for the 153 conversion. The moulded seats in the 155 are nothing like the seating units supplied by DC Kits - which I'm increasingly certain are 2 + 3 high density seating for a Modernisation Plan unit, and not 2+2 seating for a Sprinter. So they are completely unsuitable. I'm not sawing down 3 seat units one by one into 2 seat units (This is despite being quite explicit on the phone to DC Kits about what I wanted , and being assured they would provide a suitable pack)
     
    Unfortunately E Kent's Hornby spares list does not include seating units for the 155. The candidates are Networker seating (almost certainly 3+2 suburban), Mk3 seating , and Eurostar seating . If anyone has any comments , I'd be glad to hear them , but present thinking is to go with the Eurostar seating units as being 2 + 2 and presumably having plenty of airline seating
     
    I'll need more seating for the 153s anyway , as the seating needs to be extended at both ends to fill the unit, as well as installing end partitions. And I suspect I will have to replace the bogies with etched H frames when I do the conversion - the Hornby versions are the very opposite of open
     
    There's also the complication of the wiring and installation for the decoder on the 150 . I'm making the coach with the toilet the powered vehicle with a view to hiding the decoder in the toilet compartment
     
    It doesn't seem to be getting more straightforward
     
    Unquote
     
    By mid July the tale was looking still more like a corkscrew :
     
    Quote
    And things have got even less straightforward , as the person who was going to paint the unit (and any 153 conversions) can't now do it intil the New Year , if even then
     
    The gubbins has now been installed under the second floor pan , and here is a picture for anyone else who is trying to reconcile a bag of whitemetal bits with a couple of drawings and concluding that the two things don't exactly match.....
     

     
    This is the second and very slightly better underframe. You will see that the two ends of the fuel tank bear no relation to each other....
     
    I don't guarantee this is absolutely accurate compared to the real vehicles - in fact I'm sure there are some differences (fuel tank for starters , and the exact shape of the exhaust arrangement being two). However it is a reasonable approximation of the equipment underneath a 150/2 , as opposed to the excellent model of the underneath of a 321 MS which is what you get if you s8imply use the bits in the kit
     
    After further investigation , I've decided the best way forward for the seating is Mk4 TSO coach interiors from E.Kent Models. These have the right sort of seats in a 2+2 arrangement with a fair amount of aircraft seating in the mix . A fair amount of chopping up of the units will be necessary, but it's the only route that offers something approximately correct
     
    It's perhaps worth adding that there are two black plastic airtanks underneath the exhaust unit, both mounted laterally , not transversely, with the smaller tank towards the centre. Black on black hasn't shown up well
     
    Unquote
     
    The start of August saw things working towards the rails:
     
    Quote
     
    I had a day off yesterday, and actually got a bit of modelling done
     
    Thankfully the weather is now cool enough to dig out the soldering iron. 3 x A1 etched H frame bogies were folded up and soldered, and the sideframes cut from the Hornby Networker bogies stuck on with cyano. The brass of the etch does project slightly above the cosmetic side frames but I think I'll have to live with that.
     
    I've fitted two to the trailer vehicle, using the Bratchill screws and attachment points. The recessed wells in the floor pan have been packed down to floor level to provide a bearing surface for the fold up bearing tabs
     
    And suddenly I've got a vehicle, instead of a collection of bits and sub assemblies. All it needs is windows, interior,lights and one or two details. Photo will follow
     
    Even better, my Boy's Bumper Bag of Kadees arrived from MG Sharp, and a little experiment showed that a dropped head Kadee should mount at the correct height via the enlarged coupler slot I filed in the front
     
    I'm told that The Thing To Do is to use a medium shank Kadee at one end and a long shank Kadee at the other , as this will get it round a 2' radius curve. There's a packet of medium shank overset Kadees in the Starter Pack, but no long shank equivalent, and the separate packet of #49 long shanks I ordered is still on back order..
     
    I've decided to make the DMSoL the motor car as this gives me a toilet compartment in which I can hide the decoder
     
    I've even started to contemplate the supplementary pickups off the trailing bogie in a cheerful frame of mind .
     
    And I've found someone else to do the paint job. It's starting to come together
     
    Unquote
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Fri May 04, 2007 6:23 pm
     
    Quote
    As promised, a photo:
     

     
    I'm afraid black plastic doesn't produce the clearest results. We'll have to say its currently a Stealth Sprinter. But it rolls very freely, sits very steady and weighs quite a bit
     
    As the Mk4 seating has arrived from E.Kent Models, I've started some desultry hacking. I was going to fit interiors after painting , but I've come to the conclusion I'm going to have to fit the interior on the powered vehicle before it goes away for painting, so that I can get all the wiring round it. (to be specific , Decoder, leading bogie pickups, Beetle pickups, and Express Models lighting)
     

     
    The problem of the snowploughs seems to have a solution , and I'd better order some for the 153s as well
     
    Unquote.
     
    It was not long after this that we managed to break RMWeb1.5....
     
    A hasty knot in the thread and we rejoin RMWeb2 late in September...
     


    The cast brass snowploughs for the 150 have arrived from Hurst , so we may see some progress on that front , too.
    Some comments from bigjim, who had done some 153 conversions :
     


    quote:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Originally posted by Ravenser
     
    The cast brass snowploughs for the 150 have arrived from Hurst , so we may see some progress on that front , too.
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    they are good those ploughs, i find when fitting them put a dummy bsi on and glue the plough to the body and rest them on the coupling too, otherwise they fall off, or use miliput, they really make a world of difference to the 153 models, i have done loads of them now, far too many, i can do them in my sleep now!!
     
    heres one of my efforts, i know you have seen my "times are changing" so heres a different one "heart of wales"
     
    And bigjim again:
     


    quote:
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Originally posted by Ravenser
     
    Thanks for the comments. I'm afraid I don't have any bright ideas to sort the bogies, so a little bit of trickery with a mk 1 paintbrush looks the only option
     
    The Hurst snowploughs do seem to "lift" the 153s. My 150 looks very naked around the front end withough ploughs .
     
    Whose conversion pack did you use for the 153 conversions ? I've got a Hornby 155 to rework at some stage and some A1 packs in stock .
    And how were the vinyls done?
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
    the kit i used was the hurst one, really good quality and simple to do.
     
    as for the vinyls i took pics of the real thing and measured the dimensions (got some funny looks off the passengers as i did it during a turn round at crewe a few years back!!) and got someone to make them for me (lettering only) but the big pic on the side was simply done by photographing the real thing side on and reducing it in size on the computer then printing it onto a sticky label!!
     
    if you want some "heart of wales" decals i have some left over and a set of "times are changing" too, i also have loads of arriva decals
     
    i tried to fit a spud motor to another 153 i did and it ran like a dog, i got it in a mtk class 150 kit which i ended up using the motor/underframe castings on a 153 and chucking the rest in the spares bin (where it is still languishing) i ended up putting the Hornby motor back in
     
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Edited by - big jim on 16/10/2006 21:36:01
    And rather embarrasingly, there the matter has rested ever since, as a couple of locos , a Challenge layout and the club project plus various bits of admin have been ahead of the 150 in the queue
     
    With most of those disposed of, I'm hoping the 150 and the Challenge project can make some progress this weekend.
     
    The delay hasn't entirely been a bad thing. Thanks to one or two people I now have some much better ideas about how to install the Express Models lighting kit. The circuit board will now be mounted on the roof, avoiding much awkward sawing up of the interior seating to fit round it. This will also mean that the LEDs can stay firmly inserted into the cab front, and there will be no complications in routing the wire+ plug to the slave lighting unit in the trailer via the gangway. Effectively the whole thing becomes part of the removeable top - not the underframe
     
    This also means that the partitions can be glued in place and I just have to cut a notch in the top for the wire to pass through. And it leaves the underframe clear to install a Tony Wright style simple wire coupling between cars. This gets round the possible problem of Kadees uncoupling between the cars if standing in the wrong spot
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Tue May 08, 2007 5:22 pm
     
    I had lots of good intentions for the Bank Holiday weekend. I was going to crack on and sort out the bogies for the poweered car , pickups, motor bogie , that sort of thing.
     
    And what happened?
     
    Er, well I almost finished the trailer car instead.
     
    It now has an interior, with seats concocted out of chopped up bits of Hornby Mk4 interiors. Unfortuately part way through the process I rechecked my references and realised that 150s are supposed to have 3+2 seating , not 2+2. At least nearly all of them do. I'm afraid I was led astray by too many miles on 153s and 156s . The HornbyNetworker interiors would presumably be more appropriate, and I suppose I should have written off for some and called a halt till they arrived...
     
    In fact being a OO bodger , not a P4 modeller , I'm afraid I assembled the interiors using 2+2 seating , set in "airline seating" on the principle that it is going to be pretty difficult to see the details of the interior through the windows and so long as there are shapes , of a suitable shape , in a suitable place , of approximately the correct colour , the eye will be happy and not enquire further
     
    Lighting has been fitted , using double sided stickytape to hold the slave unit of the Express Models lighting kit to the roof and the cab front (sticky pad behind the gangway door)
     
    I've also added part of a Hurst Models detailing kit (for the 155). I took some effort to file the profile of the top of etch to match the moulded gangway, and on checking a photo I find that the top of the gangway seems to have less of a rounded corner - like the etch. Are the Bratchill moulded gangways not quite right?
     
    I'm struggling with the other bits on the etch. I've identified the door opening buttons (already used A1's), the windscreen wipers (moulded on the glazing) but there are 2 square brass frames which sat inside the gangeways on the etch and some other tiny bits, and I've no idea what they are....
     
    All that needs doing to the trailer car now is fit the etched roof aerial pod and the brass snowploughs - plus painting and fitting of the glazing
     
    Then I've really no excuse for not sorting out the power car
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Wed May 16, 2007 9:24 pm
     
    Over the weekend I actually got the pickups installed on the power car. Two bits of brass handrail wire soldered to a piece of copperclad strip (as sold for building points - spare from a Mainly Trains sample pack) , with a connection to the inside from some strands of computer ribbon cable.
     
    The copperclad was pared away with a craft knife before cutting off to length so that the whole lot would be low enough to fit on the cross beam of the H frame without fouling underneath the floor. I added loops to the ends of the pickups - much easier to adjust than bare ends
     
    The worst is almost over. Can the end really be in sight now?
     
    Thanks to several threads several new loco projects float back into view. The Airfix 31 should definitely be tarted up. I even have a spare painted body , bought as part of the Dapol factory clearance along with the body I used for the 20 (as well as a battered and crudely painted one bought for 50p) I shall probably spare the original body ton please collectors and rework the spare.
     
    However a hasty check throws up no photos of 31 402 - and besides it seems she went from FP to the WR . Besides , the Airfix body is pre refurbishment, and couldn't easily be altered. I'm not certain of the visible differences between an unrefurbished 31/1 and original 31/4 conversion so I'd best stick to an early 31/4
     
    Checking through a Cl31 site threw up another, better candidate loco : 31 408 . This is well recorded in photos , was at MR, BS , and CD in 1985-90
     
    And best of all is this:
     
    http://www.class31.co.uk/picture/31408-bk-090383_t.jpg
     
    a JohnTurner shot of her at Brocklesby in March 83 with a Cleethorpes/Newark local service ( 4 x Mk1s) - allocated to IM and working in N.Lincs. Any unrefurb 31/4 is going to be slightly out of period on Artamon Square in 1988-90 (a Steve Jones shot at Stafford in 1988 shows her refurbished) but 31 408 is going to be spot on for my theoretical ultimate N.Lincs early 80s interests
     
    And thanks to Jim S-W , the scrapbox 37 is definitely back on as Athearn PA1 chassis can be DCC'd. The second Athearn PA1 chassis is earmarked for the battered 31 body to give a green headcode box Brush 2 for the little GE BLT project I've got involved with (We'll try to keep it to the Gresley compo kit and the Dublo 20 not the ex LNWR BCK and the road van)
     
    A further thread took me to Russell Saxton's livery site. And a photo then raised an interesting possibilty for the Ultrascaled Lima headcode box 20 lurking in a cupboard. Maybe not a mid-late 80s blue IM loco. Nor a late 60s blue loco for the cancelled Thamesside plank.Try a late 70s green TO loco?? I hadn't realised 20 177 was still in green , at Toton, in late 1976. That could easily find itself in the Scunthorpe area
     
    Speaking of Ultrascales I must write off for repleacement wheelsdets for the Pacers to sort out the binding problem in the diverging roads of the points (what was that Capain Kernow was saying about a Jinty and an A6??) . With any luck I should have them by the start of 2008. I don't think sorting out the Pacers is going to be an early priority
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Pennine MC on Wed May 16, 2007 9:39 pm
     


    Ravenser wrote:
    . I'm not certain of the visible differences between an unrefurbished 31/1 and original 31/4 conversion so I'd best stick to an early 31/4
     
    None, bar the ETH gear (which Airfix didnt model anyway). Some (non-ER) 31/4s had the boiler exhaust plated, but so did some 31/1s - an easy mod with thin plasticard. So with another Fotopic trawl, you *might* just find a 31/1 that was still unrefurbed in the late 80s
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Phil on Thu May 17, 2007 7:03 am
     


    Ravenser wrote:
     
    Try a late 70s green TO loco?? I hadn't realised 20 177 was still in green , at Toton, in late 1976. That could easily find itself in the Scunthorpe area
     
    Ravenser - try 20141. I think that was the last, or one of the last 20s to carry green livery - possibly even into 1980. At least, I think it was green under all the dirt !!!!
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Phil on Thu May 17, 2007 7:07 am
     
    The ever helpful Brian Daniels fotopic site :
     
     
    http://briandaniels.fotopic.net/p38615978.html
     
    Continued thanks Bri !!!!
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:45 pm
     
    This is by way of a blatant bump , in order to stop the thread being locked.
     
    The melancholy fact is that with various distractions, I haven't actually made any progress on any of these fronts in the last month. In particular no progress at all has been made on the Sprinter.
     
    Maybe tomorrow, or possibly next weekend. At least the external distractions are clearing, and I'm hopeful some of these projects can be finalised in the next few weeks.
     
    In the meantime I have managed a little bit of modelling , and have started a very elderly building kit, which is going to need a lot of upgrading. Yet another large cardboard box with a half built project in it is cluttering up the sitting room
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Mon Oct 22, 2007 8:49 pm
     
    Resurrecting my workbench thread from the depths , I'm shocked to see exactly how little I've done, and for how long. Building a layout does seem to preclude building any stock. There has been zero progress on the Sprinter
     
    However the purpose of this is to record a way forward for dealing with the factory weathering on a Hornby 31. I didn't really feel comfortable with the weathering or the colour it left the blue - photos suggest the sides of 31s were fairly clean and blue , not covered in brownish gunk on their lower half - that stayed below the body
     
    You are of course always advised to try out a new weathering technique on a piece of old junk in case it goes horribly wrong. So I tried it out on a new Hornby 31... In reality if you want to see what you can do about a particular factory effect , you don't have a lot of choice.
     
    I took a scratchbrush , aka a fibreglass pencil , to the paintwork. At the top of the thread I mention
     


    the 31 where I misconnected a loose wire and fried the decoder,
    I now have 2 x Hornby 31s: rather than risk 31 174, which works, has a bodyside band and was allocated to IM in the 80s, I tried to minimise my risk by using poor 31 270 , which is none of these things and is still stopped. I started from the bottom , and worked up , very gently - the whole process was rather hair raising when you recall the price of these things, and the idea was that if it went horribly wrong and I went through the finish, it could be patched up and rescued as rust affected/paint stripped areas, which appear on the bottom of the body in shots of run down 31s
     
    Thankfully it worked , and the preliminary results are seen here.
     

     
    I haven't finished work - I've simply gone far enough to be sure it's working. When I do press on , the intention would be to apply a thin weathering wash of grey over all then pick out grills in black . Applying my usual matt varnish overcoat might be awkward here.
     
    And if I'm going to put that effort into weathering, I have to get the thing to work again....
     
    I've also started work on adapting the inevitable Pikestuff kit for a low relief building. After the long struggle with the ballast, quick results are morale boosting.
     

    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by Platform 6 on Tue Oct 23, 2007 1:29 am
     
    Thanks for the update on your thread - especially on the Hornby 31. I have a couple but I don't admire the Hornby "weathering". I really want to do my own. Removing it is a first step I've wondered about.
     
    I've also got a Pikestuff 3-road shed from a few years ago and again, I don't know what to do with it. I don't know of any sheds in "Pikestuff blue" - I'm thinking of a light grey to respray it. I'm modelling pre-TOPS blue.
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:03 pm
     
    Platform6:
     
    I've treated the Pikestuff shed with Humbrol Metalcote, a light silver, and it seems to give a very satisfactory result (details in the Blacklade construction thread near the end). You could also try mid green : there certainly seem to be some green sheds near us
     
    I know the Challenge is over , and I really shouldn't be working on Blacklade but... While trying to sort out the photos on Sunday I posed an unbuilt card kit for a warehouse in the right place to show the effect, and well.. I couldn't help thinking that all it needed was layering up and one thing led to another and I had yesterday off and by lunch time we were well under way to a warehouse.
     
    The kit is one of those added to the Bilteezi range in the early 80s as a sort of postscript and drawn very nicely by Maurice Bradley - I think he was an architect as he has "letters" - ARIBA.
     
    I've bought 2 kits , and I'm layering them using mounting board with the printed windows and cut out. This gives some genuine relief to the model. Photos to follow - the basic principles should be applicable to the Bilteezi range in general and also to Street Level Models kits
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by MartinWales on Tue Nov 06, 2007 6:55 pm
     
    Nice work on the 31-I'm just plucking up the courage to weather mine!!
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:48 pm
     
    I've been working on another building for Blacklade . This is one of the Bilteezi sheets - not the original Vacy-Ash sheets from he 50s but one of the low relief buildings drawn by Maurice Bradley in the 80s. He seems to have letters - ARIBA - so I assume he was a qualified architect
     
    The original building was in Hampshire I believe but similar Victorian brick warehouses are common enough in the E.Midlands and therefore right for Blacklade.
     
    The big issue with the Bilteezi sheets is they're flat. The printed windows can be worked round but part of the character of these buildings is they're chunky and have deep inset brickwork.
     
    Never fear - heavy rework time ....
     

     
    Here we have the bits. At ???’???‚¬????????‚??1.50 a sheet (actually 2 x A4) , buying two isn't a hardship. One front has had the recesses cut out, and been mounted to 1mm mounting board. The other has had the windows cut out and been mounted to 1mm mounting board. All brickwork has had a light rub over with a suitable pastel pencil to tone down the yellow and give it more of a Midland redbrick look - in this case, Derwent Terracotta
     
    To minimise warping , I'm using permanent Photomount to fix the thin card to mounting board. Blacklade isn't going to be exhibited (for lack of means to move it) and I hope this will be perminent enough
     

     
    Here we see some hasty masking up with freezer tape to keep Photomount off the bits that will be visible after layering up
     
    A fair bit of the afternoon was spent cutting slivers of card from spare bits of the kit and sticking them over the exposed mounting board edges . All the windows and all the doors have been done as well as the recesses. Not quite as bad as it sounds, and the finished result can be seen here
     
    Close flash photography is quite cruel to my felt tip and pastel pencil touching in of the edges, but there is an awful lot less edge to touch in than if I'd just left the mounting board unclad (brown seems better than red , and a rub with something called Sanguine de Medici seemed to help - this pencil is from another range , grabbed cheap in a closing down sale . Quite why the Medicis are supposed to have had a darker shade of blood I can't say....)
     
    And here is the result. :
     

     
    The imperfections are not quite so obvious in life ("honest guv!") and the result is a very chunky frontage with heavy relief . You'd not think it was a flat card kit to start with
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:26 pm
     
    The warehouse is now finished and awaits installation.
     
    So last night, between sneezes, I opened one of the packets of Ultrascale wheels for the Pacers, expecting that this would be the usual 5 minute drop in job.
     
    It isn't
     
    There are no instructions, which is a good start.
     
    I've removed the trailing wheels , only to find the replacements won't fit. They have a dirty great boss on the back of each wheel which fouls the plastic moulding very comprehensively. Still worse , this moulding is a bearing surface - the pin points fit into an open U where the W irons whould be , and are held down by plastic in the centre on which the axle runs . Except that on the placement wheelsets thereis a rubby great boss in the way. So somehow I've got to file the plastic down , on both sides , to get the replacement wheelset in.
     
    I can't simply leave the original Hornby wheel set in place (it was the driven axle that caused the problems over point work). This is because the Ultrascale wheels are smaller diameter than the Hornby wheels they replace
     
    The driving axle is more fun. It looks as if I have to knock the old axle out with a nail (and the gear wheel!) to extract the old wheels , then remount the gear wheel on the new axle - somehow - and add the wheels
     
    I suspect a tiny drop of superglue to secure the gear wheel may be appropriate - I don't have any Loctite (And I do mean a tiny drop)
     
    I bought a Pacer replacement chassis from Branchlines a month or so back , and compared to this it looks relatively straightforward , reliable and well engineered. Significantly easier to do , in fact. I never thought I'd ever say that about attempting a chassis kit....
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by jim s-w on Sun Jan 06, 2008 12:36 pm
     


    Ravenser wrote:
     
    The driving axle is more fun. It looks as if I have to knock the old axle out with a nail (and the gear wheel!) to extract the old wheels , then remount the gear wheel on the new axle - somehow - and add the wheels
     
    I suspect a tiny drop of superglue to secure the gear wheel may be appropriate - I don't have any Loctite (And I do mean a tiny drop)
    Hiya
     
    Out of interest are the Ultrascales 10.5mm diameter or 12mm like the Hornby originals? Rather than Gluing the gear on a better bet is to knurl the axle by rolling it with a file a few times.
     
    Did you get your 150 finished? Did you have any window frames off me
     
    Cheers
     
    Jim
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Jan 06, 2008 3:44 pm
     
    Jim:
     
    1. Hornby 13mm diameter; Ultrascale 12.25mm
     
    2 There is roughening /knurling of the replacement axle at its mid point. However alignment may be interesting as the gear will have to be fittted in place - you can't extract the wheelset , as it slots through a metal casting with the gear sitting in a cut out in the centre.
     
    The more I look at this, the worse it gets . I can't even fully disengage the motor unit from the chassis without unsoldering connnections
     
    3. The 150 is still unfinished. Having got the warehouse out of the way , I was looking for a nice quick win before turning to finish off longer term projects , and I thought an Ultrascale rewheeling pack would be a doddle: 10-15 mins at most....
     
    A final push on the 150 should be the next item on the agenda, or pretty close to it
     
    I haven't had some of your etches, but I probably need them. How do they fit into the build sequence ? I'm having the unit painted by someone else, and they asked for it before the glazing is fitted, to simplify masking. I assume the etches must go on before painting as the paint partly covers??
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by jim s-w on Sun Jan 06, 2008 4:44 pm
     


    Ravenser wrote:
    Jim:
     
    I haven't had some of your etches, but I probably need them. How do they fit into the build sequence ? I'm having the unit painted by someone else, and they asked for it before the glazing is fitted, to simplify masking. I assume the etches must go on before painting as the paint partly covers??
    Thats right - etches go on before paint.
     
    If it were me I'd use the Branchlines or High Level kits for the 142. Ultrascale sounds like a bit of a pain and will result with the wrong sized wheels anyway.
     
    Cheers
     
    Jim
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:10 pm
     
    Jim: This may be a stunningly stupid question but - can you fit the glazing after the etches - or does this require the sequence glazing/etches/paint , meaning the glazing has to be masked for painting?
     
    I've a feeling I may be parking the Pacer in the too hard basket for the moment . Making up the girders for the bridge looks like a more productive use of a Sunday evening
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by jim s-w on Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:32 pm
     
    Hi
     
    No, you fit the glazing after the paint. You do need to cut your own but there is a small overlap between the etch and the hole. I have asked a lazer cutting company about the costs of getting windows cut - if its viable i'll let you know
     
    Cheers
     
    Jim
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:35 pm
     
    So I'd have to throw away the window glazing in the kit?
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by jim s-w on Sun Jan 06, 2008 5:44 pm
     
    Yeah
     
    Its means you loose that god awful prism and the over thick frames effect too You do re-use the door glazing though
     
    Cheers
     
    Jim
    __________________________________________
     
    ??? posted on Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:22 pm
     
    Hmm.
     
    I'm starting to wonder just how many bits of this Bratchill kit I'm actually going to use , having already discarded virtually everything below the floor and replaced with components from other sources
     
    I made a little progress with the Pacer. The trailing axle can be pullerd out and worked on seperately. The moulding has an open U-iron on each side - the wheelset is held in place by running through two slots in plastic lumps that project upward between the wheels (ie within the back to back). I reckon you need to file these back from the outside to get the wheels in place. It may or may not be necessary to file down the projections to the bottom of the slot . I did, over filed , and will now need to cannibalise a spare moulding off the second Pacer. As I have a Branchlines pack for the second Pacer, that's not a problem . Anyone with just the one Pacer and an Ultrascale pack would now be tearing out his hair.
    ________________________________________
  17. Ravenser

    Wagons Roll!

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    So - the wagon works layout project described here is now on. And very much as forshadowed in the subsequent comment.
     
    Several things have pushed me into actually doing something. The first and most powerful is a problem that has developed with my right eye. Gloomy reflection suggested that if anything was to be done with the N gauge bits it had better be done quickly, whilst I was capable of it. 
     
    (I am glad to report that I saw the eye specialists yesterday, and they stated firmly that it is not macular degeneration, but something completely different , which is eminently treatable with an 85% success rate - and also that my left eye is entirely fine. To quote Mark Twain  reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated, and I should have a long term future in constructional model-making. I am feeling a great deal more cheerful.)
     
    Secondly, the "corporate developments at work" duly resulted in redundancy as I privately feared. However I have found a new job and start there on Tuesday, so I've actually only been off work for 5 weeks or so.  This gap created a little time to do things, though rather less  than I had been expecting. The labour market, at least in freight, is quite strong - indeed at one point, for the first time in my life, I actually found myself with two job offers.
     
    Over and above all that, I haven't started a new layout project in over 15 years (January 2007 with Blacklade). The previous 28 years saw 8 layout projects  (Flaxborough, versions 1 and 2 of Blacklade Corporation Tramways, Ravenser, Tramlink (Kent), the club project, the Boxfile, and Blacklade, if you ask). So I've been getting a little stale and restive and it shows, in the various speculative layout postings in this blog. .
     
    Of all these schemes, the wagon works in N is the only one that is "oven ready" in the sense that I have a  core of rolling stock available and a place to put the layout. The OO9 scheme comes close, but the space isn't quite there. The possible house move is definitely on hold until I have my feet securely under the table in the new job and the eye is sorted out, but it remains very much in the frame thereafter. At which point the OO9 layout should become a genuine starter. In the meantime the OO9 bits can be test-run on the N gauge layout, rather than the N gauge bits test-run on the OO9 layout....
     
    And the last few months have prompted some very sobering reflections about just how many projects and things that "might come in very handy at some point" -  points that have failed actually to arise in the last 20-30 years - I have stuffed into various cupboards and drawers. Not to mention how slowly I am building things. As Dr Johnson remarked "the prospect of imminent hanging concentrates the mind wonderfully". Lockdown only grazed the surface of this mass, and the last 12 months have managed to produce two coaches and a 1/72 scale aircraft.  I am not quite in the mood to start disposing of stuff, but the clamp on buying any new projects is firm. Purchase for immediate constructional need only.
     
    I was a good boy at Ally Pally , except for bits for the N gauge project.
     
    If I am being more ruthless with my prospective commitments, then a half-built diorama layout started in 1999 and untouched since 2007, that needs significant work to restore to operation, and a lot of work on stock and scenics to finish - but has limited operating potential and some reliability issues - is a good place to start.
     
    So poor old Tramlink (Kent) is no more.
     

     
    The buildings have been carefully salvaged and boxed up in one of the many cardboard boxes lying around since lockdown ("Waste not, want not..."). Most of the scenery was mounted on foamcore packing and came off fairly easily. The track and ballast has been removed by pouring on hot water and scraping with a kitchen fish slice, ready for reuse of the boards.
     
    Track will be Peco code 55 live frog, which was bought at Ally Pally. Although this will be an essentially RTR layout, I see no reason to compromise and use less than the best available commercial products . These will be live frog and control will be DC analogue. I am not up for the hassle and expense of trying to fit decoders into N gauge stock, and I'm not sure the job can be done with the one shunter I own, an 04.  In practice, the layout will need a shunter and a mainline loco, perhaps with a backup for each. There is no obvious benefit from DCC in such a scenario (unlike Blacklade with its multiple units and intensive operation). Point motors will be solenoid, because the framing of the Tramlink boards is quite shallow and Cobolts won't fit. This is entirely acceptable with commercial track, and Peco motors have given reliable service on the Boxfile . The Gaugemaster 100A and external CDU box used for the Boxfile can be redeployed for this layout too, along with the interboard connector - DIN sockets had been sourced when this was simply going to be a rewire of Tramlink
     
    A roll of 1/32 cork sheet was also bought at Ally Pally , and I've sourced some Pikestuff N gauge buildings. However they are quite small, and I'll need more material to construct a rather larger shed.
     
    The layout also has a provisional name: Mercia Wagon Repair - Guthlac Road Site. This is suitably generic - Mercia was a large kingdom, so the layout could in principle be anywhere from Grimsby to Gloucester, or from Cambridge to Chester, inclusive. We are in a largish Midlands town, housebacks will be seen along the backscene, and that's all that needs to be said. The business is generic and not tied to any particular railway company, so the stock tells no real tales.
     
    Site clearance has now reached this stage:

     
    If you are wondering why the old platform hasn't been removed, well it's very firmly stuck down 4mm ply. My intention is to lay the front siding (departure/finished wagons) on top of it, which means the siding will sit about 3-4mm higher than the other tracks. This introduces a little bit of accidental relief onto the site : it amounts to a 2' difference in levels full-size. Sanded cork underlay will provide an approach ramp at 1 in 75 to 1 in 100, which I don't expect to be an issue when shunting a single wagon. 
     
    One issue still not quite settled is the couplings to be used. I'm dimly aware that the "standard" N gauge Rapido coupling doesn't have a great reputation as a coupling for shunting. Everything I own has NEM pockets bar a Farish VBA and VGA , and those look fairly easy to convert. So Dapol's replacement knuckle couplers , or even Kadees, look like a practical option
     
    I am also likely to join the N Gauge Society. Their Hunslet loco would be ideal as a shunter for this layout, and a few of their wagon kits would be suitable and interesting
     
     
  18. Ravenser

    Work in Prospect

    By Ravenser,

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

     
    Now I know this is full of ghastly anachronisms . Nothing can be done about the station signage - that was always a reason why any "steam period" was not going to be a serious exercise, and would simply be a case of giving my out of period items an occasional airing and a raison d'etre
     
    But it does show progress and problems,,,,
     
    Set 1 (ex LNW) is up and running. Set 3 (Grouping non-gangway) is also up and running , though the coaches need weathering . After I found the Hornby Thomposon non-gangwayed stock is delayed till next year, I thought laterally , and acquired a carmine Gresley CL instead of a maroon Thompson CL
     
    Set 2 is still progressing, slowly.
     
    But we have a motive power crisis. I have 2 serviceable kettles, and one's an O4/1 and totally unsuitable for suburban passenger working. I have no serviceable green diesels (you can't readily DCC an ex Hornby Dublo Class 20). I ended up using 31 174 and a blue Bachmann 20 just to run trains and check that the coaches ran and a Minories style shuttle could be operated. Really , I need 4 locos to run 2 or 3 trains
     
    Someone put a decoder in my secondhand whitemetal N5. I got the 4 digit address programmed then the whole thing started shorting. A check with the multimeter showed a dead short across one pair of driving wheels . It went back in its box pending detailed examination (I suspect it may work fine when the body's removed....)
     
    I bought a Fowler 2-6-4T as "secondhand new" at Ally Pally. It needs a decoder hardwiring (when I pluck up courage to get the body off) and more seriously , somehow I have to fit Kadees
     
    So I've dug out the resin Silver Fox Baby Deltic kit I bought cheap second-hand at St Albans , and started painting. Then I found my warning yellow had dried up. Now I've got some replacement from Precision at Shenfield (but I dread to think how many coats will be needed - Precision have poor covering power and yellow's a problem at the best of times )
     
    So - finish Set 2 . Two Type 2s to be done (D5901 first - as the RTC Derby loco it only needs a slight stretch to have her survive into the 80s in the Midlands , or indeed to be preserved, then 31 408 ) Finish the NRX conversion . Finish the Cambrian Shark . All of those are existing commitments
     
    It becomes a question whether the 128 kit or a heavy upgrade of the W Yorks 155 is next cab off the rank behind that lot. I have no steam age parcels stock . A 51' Gresley full brake (Kirk kit) would be a fairly quick win , and I have 2 old 12T vans with no obvious use which could be done with new chassis and Kadees for parcels tail traffic...
     
    That should keep me quiet
  19. Ravenser
    There are so many things to sort out with this one it's difficult to know where to begin. I began with the trailer
     
    To my surprise and relief , when I removed the screws holding in place the Black Box on the underframe came off "just-like-that" , and it was empty . No messy sawing and cleaning up needed. Since the weight in this vehicle is all above the floor, there was no need to sort out alternative replacement weights. And if I ever feel bold enough to tackle my second 155 it should be possible to cut out the representational equipment box fronts for re-use, since further underframe castings are unlikely to be forthcoming.
     
    The enigmatic archery targets by the bogies were removed and replacement air tanks fabricated from Plastruct tubing with milliput stuck on each end and filed round when set. I had to buy an entire packet of Plastruct tubing - this should keep me in underframe airtanks for several lifetimes
     

     
    The interior mouldings are the same in both power and trailer cars, and so are the chassis mouldings and bogies. The interior therefore stops well short at both ends of the vehicle leaving vast empty zones in the ends. Remedial action is necessary - and the work done can be seen below. Obviously nothing can be done about the driving end on the power car: as you can see this is filled by the motor bogie. The only possible solution here would involve replacing the motor bogie with a Black Beetle, complete rebuilding of the bogies throughout, new trailing pickup arrangements and completely new pivot arrangements.
     
    The bogie pivot arrangements at the outer ends preclude carrying the floor right through the trailer . I cut away the projections on the bogie unit (which is the base of the power bogie with the mechanism left out) to allow extension of the floor on that side. Additional seating was cut from spare Hornby Mk4 interiors left from the Bratchill 150 project . Not an exact match but packed up to height with 20 thou styrene and painted suitably it is effective. Saloon end and toilet partitions are made from 40 thou styrene. On the trailer I used some Bratchill interior partitions for the cab partition and vestibule/saloon partition , then realised I will need to make replacements if I ever finish the power car on the 150. Photographic evidence for W Yorks Pacers shows red upholstery - so both interiors have been suitably painted with Humbrol acrylic crimson
     

     
    The satellite half of an Express Models 155 lighting kit has been installed running along the vehicle roof (and through cutouts in the cab end bulkheads). A hole for the plug/socket has been drilled out and removed at the base of the gangway
     
    Kadees (number 42 - medium overset with 1 mounting shim) have been fitted to the outer ends . So far the trailer car has a medium underset Kadee at the inner end - there is no need to observe the Kadee height standard on a coupling internal within the vehicle
     
    The biggest and nastiest job is the one I didn't manage to duck - flush-glazing. Nobody does flushglazing for a 155 or is ever likely to - so I had to do it the hard way - remove the glazing strip, cut it into pieces, and file them down until the window glazing fits into the aperture. To minimise any damage to the surface of the glazing during the long and tedious process of filing down I applied sellotape over the raised section of the glazing. In one case - I still don't know why - a small crack appeared in the bottom of the glazing , visible when seen from one direction. The filed-down glazing was held in place by running gloss varnish thickly round the frame of the window aperture with a small brush , then pressing the glazing into place from behind
     
    This took over a week of work, three or four windows at a time - and that's for only 1 vehicle out of 2. There are 60 windows in the sides of a 2 car 155 unit
     
    Yes, it's a big improvement. It has to be, for the effort. And now I'm committed to doing the same with the Pacers, which only makes it worse.
     
    (One additional point - before removing the glazing it was necessary to cut through the downward projections, and glue them in place on the bodyshell using solvent run in under capillary action, very cautiously. This is necessary because these projections contain recesses into which the body-retaining lugs on the chassis fit.
     
    I laid the glazing in the bodyshell overnight - next day I noticed that one strip had become slightly clouded in 2 places. I don't know why , and a coat of gloss varnish on the back was only a partial fix. The final effect is of 3 dirty windows - not perfect but not a disaster. Windows did/do occasionally get coated with a scurf, presumably in the carriage wash, but I could have done without this weathering effect)
     
    The fight goes on...
  20. Ravenser

    Retail Therapy

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    Last weekend but several was , of course, Warley. Feeling a little buoyant after completing the Baby Deltic I went with a list...
     
    It was one of those occasions when you end up buying all sorts of things you didn't know you needed until you got to the show. And I didn't get some of the things I did know I needed.
     
    But the result of all this is a number of new projects opening up so -
     
    - The first cab off the rank is an attempt to follow the Baby Deltic by assembling a home-brew NBL Type 2 diesel-electric from bits. (That's a Class 21 in decimal money, but in 1958 TOPS was a long way away). I have long had a second-hand Hornby 29 body , bought for a couple of quid. The Baby Deltic used up the chassis and bogie frames I had bought for it - so I sourced some more from Peter's Spares
     
    But they didn't have a power bogie.
     
    So I went to Warley on the scrounge for a cheap second-hand loco to cannibalise for one. With the further thought that if I managed to get a Hornby 25 then the body is reckoned to be better than the Bachmann one, so putting it on Bachmann chassis is a known route to a 25....
     
    And I found a Chinese-production Hornby 25 in BR Blue with 5 pole motor and all-wheel pickup for £39.50 . Thank you!
     
    A tip-off from the Chairman on the stand sent me scurrying across the gangway to Shawplan for their etched NBL cab window surrounds - which radically improves the cab end of the Hornby 29. I also bought a suitable etched fan and a set of laserglaze windows for the Hornby 25. 247 Developments supplied NBL worksplates
     
    Dart Castings visited us to advise of a new etch allowing the fitting of couplings to bogies. I went round to their stand and bought a couple.
     
    And then there is the GBL Jinty which I've recently disassembled. I think the wheels on the Hornby 0-6-0 chassis - or at least their flanges -may prove a bit big for the moulded chassis. But an etch on Brassmasters' stand for a fiver, intended for the Bachmann Deeley 3F , offers replacement splashers for a larger wheel.
     
    I sourced a Zen Nano Direct for a Bachmann BR Standard 4MT 2-6-0, and a couple of other decoders from Digitrains , including a big stay-alive to help the 29
     
    Two weekends later was Peterborough. The list was shorter, but I still needed sheet lead. I took my part built 128 - or at least it's Replica chassis with a damaged supporting yoke at one end - and Replica fitted a replacement part for me for a modest sum - I bought a few small bits from them as well. That unblocks the 128 project , which I hope to finish in the New Year
     
    And I also managed to find a second-hand Bachmann class 25 , at a very reasonable £49.50 - probably because all the cab handrails were broken. But I don't care about the cab handrails because I have a Hornby 25 body....
     
    Also part of the Peter's Spares order was a Hornby Javelin motor bogie to repower the recalcitrant 155 with its seized motor bogie, and a Hornby Railroad 31 chassis frame . All I need is some suitable bogies so I have a mechanism for another of the stored Airfix bodies.
     
    I hope to make some inroads into the list of outstanding projects in 2019
     
    Meanwhile I think I have found a solution for the Baby Deltic's annoying tendency to stall. The culprit is almost certainly the deep flanges on the old-style Hornby wheels combined with code 70 bullhead track - removing prominent bits of ballast has eased but not quite cured the problem. After various wild ideas about somehow turning down wheels in a lathe I don't possess , I realised there was a simpler solution . A quick rummage in a box produced the remains of a packet of Bachmann coach wheels. Pinpoints were quickly sawn off and the wheels replaced on a trial Hornby trailing bogie .
     
    But I could have sworn there were 4 axles in that packet when I found it, and when I went back to do the next pair - there was only one axle left. I've had to buy another packet from the local model shop...
  21. Ravenser

    "Which way shall I turn me?"

    By Ravenser,


    Layout schemes
    I have a new job, and (for the moment) most of the time I will be working from home. When I'm in the office I find myself within walking distance of the mortal remains of the Ipswich dock lines, several of whose locos feature on the Boxfile. The shops are open again. The sun shines and we see blue sky. I've had my first dose of a vaccine. 
     
    In the meantime, over the last year of lockdown, there has been time for reflection and clarification. The awkward fact is that I've made much less of an inroad into the backlog of projects than I hoped. Nothing has been done about OO9 modelling  and the putatative OO9 layout here for at least 9 months.  The study has not been cleared; the possibility of moving from a 2 bedroom flat to a 2 bedroom house is back on the table. Nothing has been done about long-dormant Tramlink either. My energies have been focussed on coaches for Blacklade and wagons for the Boxfile. The list of questionable wagons on the Boxfile is now getting quite short, and one good push should finish off the remaining projects already started; I've hit some problems with the coaches, or more specifically a lack of suitable spray cans of paint. Everything seems to have coasted gently to a halt now I'm earning a living again. I still have plenty of projects to go at in the cupboard; there are no exhibitions, so there should be few temptations to buy more .
     
    Into this situation drops an Industrial Railways supplement to the May Railway Modeller. Having looked through this, one layout scheme caught my eye: for a "Basic Exchange Siding" , occupying 9' x 1' as drawn. That could fit along one wall of a small bedroom /study in a 2 bedroom flat or house. The logical thing to do with that kind of space would be to have Blacklade set up permanently, rather than have the hassle of setting up/breaking down every time. But possibly Blacklade could be supported at a reasonable height on brackets - say at 4' (6" higher than on its legs) - as the upper level of a 2 deck arrangement . It's narrow enough - 12" outer ends, 5" in the middle - not to obstruct access to a lower level too severely. 
     
    The Railway Modeller plan depicts a set of sidings with a running line treated as a former double-track route singled . It's basically open country with almost the only structures a road bridge at each end , and a retaining wall and bank at the back. The scenic section is 6' long, and features a run-round loop on one side , with a  pair of exchange sidings on the other: from this a connection to an industrial site runs offstage . There is a long fiddle yard of 2' at onme end, and a short fiddle yard of 1' at the other end. If this were sat on top of shelves and cupboards 30" high, this would allow 3" high boards and 12" separation from the bottom of Blacklade. That ought to be workable
     
    The photographic quality is truly dire but this picture, taken at Louth in (I think) 1978,  looking north from Keddington Crossing, shows very roughly what such a setting might look like . (The station and goods shed was behind me on the other side of the crossing). I certainly have no intention of modelling snow, but this kind of thing is very open and has little height to it . Access for operating would be easy enough, especially if the lower deck were moved say 3" forward of the upper deck. There would be almost no obstruction of the critical centre section of the layout by the upper level; and equally there would be nothing much to lean on and damage when operating Blacklade at the higher level.  Construction should be straightforward and fairly quick. I would presumably use the new Peco Bullhead, though the threeway might have to be from Marcway
     
    Why am I even toying with this?  Well, I have a moderate amount of modern image freight stock which has no use,  left over from Ravenser Mk1. I also have a potentially growing number of Type 2s (not to mention a couple of Type 1s) and a supply of shunters which might be excessive. A simple modest sized layout that gives them something to do on freight operations, a feature missing from Blacklade, would get these models into regular use . The Railway Modeller plan provides all this, in a modest space with limited demands in terms of layout building . 4 points, one slip , a three-way, no buildings, one hut. And it looks like it might be possible to fit both this and Blacklade in the same space for permanent availablity, without causing any serious problems. Anything less minimalist would start to create problems with buildings obstructing access, or becoming vulnerable to damage
     
    In terms of setting , I would be looking for a rather tatty residual railway operation in an industrial area in the Seventies or Eighties. This would probably need to be in an industrial area, not Lincolnshire (although the sugar beet factory at Bardney comes to mind) . South Yorkshire or West Yorkshire would be the obvious choices : a low retaining wall at the back made of soot-blackened massive rough cut stones would suit nicely.  At those dates, the most numerous industrial locations would have been coal mines and coking works, courtesy of the NCB. Those, however, tended to be big complexes and something more minimalist is perhaps called for.  A quarry would push us into the Peak District or Yorkshire - but I don't have any aggregates wagons. Scrap traffic looks a better option: I have a number of air-braked scrap wagons and kits , intended for the club project, which have never seen use. Mineral wagons were also used on scrap traffic , and I have a few of those kicking about. A small industrial shunter would be reasonable: trhe scrapyard north of Bradford had a Sentinel. I have two Judith Edge kits unbuilt in the cupboard. 
     
    There are chronological issues. The line should also have a  basic passenger service. The left hand fiddle yard is only 12" as drawn . The only DMUs that short are 153s (not introduced until 1990) or Classes 121 or 122, which were strictly WR specialities. Unfitted mineral wagons (MCO / MDO) disappeared in  1983, and vacuum-braked minerals in 1988: you can't credibly run them with a 153. A Class 105 or Class 108 will require at least 20" length to accomodate it.  Pacers will come out at about 15" or 16": but Class 142 did not enter traffic until 1985. Class 141 was in service in West Yorkshire from 1983: but they were narrower than the later Pacers, and not available RTR. (Class 140, a one-off prototype, would be a complete scratchbuild).  An extension of the left fiddle yard to 16" seems essential . 
     
    A Class 31 is almost 10" long, a Class 37 slightly over 10". TTAs and equivalent scrap wagons are 5" long. That doesn't give you much of a train in a 24" fiddle yard. Extension to 30" seems essential. Yes  a Rat or a Class 20 is shorter and gives you another couple of inches to play with, and 17'6" underframe wagons are a whisker over 3" long. Brush 2 + 4x SSA/POA , or 20 + 4x MCV/MDO + brake are your limits. Neither really allows much scope for the rest of the train (what rest??) to carry on down the line with some other traffic in vans or some other kind of wagon. And at best the other fiddle yard will take loco + brake van or one wagon
     
    The layout could readily be backdated into the 1960s , at which point a railbus or a single car Derby Lightweight solves the passenger problem . But the other train-length issues remain (In practice I think I would want to try to run both 1970s/80s Blue Period , and mid 60s , as I have green diesels available. Freight stock for the earlier period would be the only issue). This plan may well have been intended for steam operation: a medium-sized 0-6-0 (say J15, J11, J25, 3F, 4F) or a moderate sized tank engine (think Jinty, N5 , J50, Pannier, LNWR 0-6-2T) would allow 1-2 extra wagons. An 0-4-4T plus one pregrouping brake would make a passenger train
     
    A minimum length of 9'9" seems inescapable
     
    While these issues are pondered, along with the possible availablity of a site I don't actually possess, here is a gratuitous picture of a CGO grain hopper at Louth (not at all usual for ABM malt traffic). I have somebody's etched kit unbuilt in the cupboard.
     
     

     
  22. Ravenser

    Pardon My French - or Paint Your Wagon

    By Ravenser,


    Layout schemes
    I started a new job after Easter, and the big lockdown modelling push basically ran into the sands in May and June. But the sale of my late mother's house has now been completed;, and a long-overdue attempt to reduce the chaos of the study has taken place. Out went a large broken computer desk and the very old desktop it housed , and in came a small computer trolley; the office chair moved from the sitting room to the study, the study chair went in the bedroom, and a broken chair from the bedroom went to the tip. 
     
    As a follow up, three new shelves went up on the wall that had just been cleared, giving me an extra 12' run of shelving. To be honest, it would probably take almost the same again finally to clear all the build-up of books and magazines in the flat, but the study is now a lot better than it was, so is the rest of the flat, and a great many things are now readily to hand that weren't.
     
    The new shelves are set at a level to clear the proposed OO9 layout I have been evolving here - Dogger Light Railway   However.... an 18" boxed diorama will severely compromise the new minimalist laptop workstation and drive it well back into the (narrow) room. The curve at one end looks really rather tight with a Lynton & Barnstaple coach.  All in all - possible, but cramped and awkward. 
     
    I've decided that no final decisions will be taken until at least next Spring. I have a lot of other things to sort out before taking on the big commitment of a new layout project. The possibility of moving from a flat to a house using the legacy also needs to be considered , but I am taking no decisions on that front either until next summer, pending some corporate developments at work. 
     
    And in the course of finding homes for piles of stuff, a copy of Loco-Revue dated Septembre 2017 turned up. I read it carefully - there were several articles on a compact modern(ish) wagon-works layout in HO. Total footprint 180 cm x 45cm (interesting to see the French still think in imperial underneath - that's in practice 6' x 18") 
     


     
    The prototypes shown in France can be as simple as a 3 road steel shed , with an additional siding on either side, plus a connection to the SNCF system.
     
    Such prototypes do and have existed in Britain. The wagon works opposite the island platform at Peterborough station comes immediately to mind. Ipswich wagon works closed in the early 80s, but there are other facilities around Britain - probably rather larger , although I haven't seen photos of them. In short , unlike the entirely fictional "Any TOC TMD " layouts we saw around shows before the pandemic,  there is an actual credible basis for transplanting this kind of facility to  a British setting. Such a wagon works  also offers a plausible scenario for shunting large modern wagons singly, in a modest space, without the need to accomodate lengthy block trains. This is very promising.
     
    I have some bits of modern N in store, which spiralled out of being given a presentation Dapol 66/5. Halve the dimensions in the article and you are at 3' x 9". If the wall above the workstation and below the shelves is problematic, what about about the wall on the right hand side? There's now 3' clear on that side before you reach the pile of boxed stuff with forlorn forgotten Tramlink boxed on top of it.
     
     

     
     
    It's at this point that the difficulties start surfacing. For starters, British N is 59% of HO. That immediately takes you up to 3'6". x 10.5"   A class 66 in N is 15cm long. A Dapol Cargowaggon bogie van is only fractionally shorter. Just those two  together therefore come to 30cm , which is longer than the fiddle siding as drawn. And either is about as long as the headshunt at the other end, if not fractionally longer. But you would also have to fit a shunter into the headshunt, otherwise you can't operate at all. A Farish 04 is 6.5cm long....
     
    And since the N gauge locos I  have are 2 x Freightliner 66s, a Freightliner 57, and an 04,  and the rolling stock includes an IWA , a VGA and a curtain sider   any N gauge layout needs to accomodate these vehicles. If it doesn't use  the stock I already have there's not a lot of point doing it.
     
    You suddenly realise that short diesel locos like Rats and 20s disappeared a long time ago.
     
    My calculations suggested I'd need at least 3'7" , which is starting to intrude significantly along that wall. That would allow a fiddle yard 33.5cm long , which would just take a 57 + 2 wagons, or at a pinch a 33 + 3 wagons (A Class 33, the shortest mainline diesel loco still in traffic in the 21st century,  is 10.5cm long). Peco short radius points in N are 123mm long. In contrast the layout in Loco Revue manages 3 wagon trains with an assortment of shunters used in the works
     
    Hmmm. Not quite so simple. And none of this would accomodate my FEA twin-set. It's a bit awkward if your wagon works handles exclusively Freightliner locos, but no container flats ever appear.
     
    Any layout  would use Peco code 55 track. There's no reason to use anything coarser, and pointwork on a shunting layout ought to be live frog. (N gauge actually equates to 4' 4.5" gauge - closer to scale than OO, but still not quite there . However nobody ever seems to notice this.) It would be DC, because none of the locos I have are plug-and-play for DCC, and I don't fancy the hassle and extra expense of trying to fit decoders. I have a perfectly serviceable Gaugemaster 100M and a Combi in the cupboard to run this - solenoid motors could be used.
     
    There are certainly issues. But there are also genuine possibilities, and such a project would use stock I already have which doesn't currently have an obvious use
     
  23. Ravenser

    Payment on Account

    By Ravenser,

    Just before Christmas , Mallard60022 started a thread on "The first models I am going to build in 2010 are.., which you can find here: 2010 model promises
     
    As I said in there, I seem to have posted rather a lot of implicit promises - or at least pointed memos to self - just below in this blog. And as Mallard60022 has recently posted shots of his efforts to redeem his own pledge, I suppose I ought at least to post an installment payment...
     
    Well, for starters , the Walrus is done. Not painted , but done:
     

     
    Everything in white or metal has been added , and the bogies are replacements - current Cambrian 1piece items which are as easy to work with as the ancient originals were impossible . Quite a bit of work with pieces of microstrip, scraps of plasticard and bits of handrail wire was needed to cobble together an approximation of what was visible at the ends in photos in Cheona and Southern Wagons - it would have looked extremely denuded and empty if I had built what was in the kit and stopped there . I'm not saying it's spot on , or all there , but it's passable. And I'm rather pleased with the result. Not in any sense of cutting edge perfection - if I want to see its weaknesses I need only set it next to a Hornby Seacow and look carefully but in the bleaker more basic spirit of "we got a result" - an ugly draw ground out away from home for essential points . Ravenser, 0 - The kit, 0. I beat the kit , the kit didn't beat me... With all its limits, it will be able to sit next to a Hornby Seacow without too much embarassment - a decent weathered paint job can cover a multitude of sins.
     
    (I should stress this is an old kit - my example may be 30 years old - and has been retooled and replaced by Cambrian. Comments are not indicative of today's Cambrian range - other than the favourable ones about the new bogies,- but they may well be indicative of what you get if you dive into your club's rummage sale)
     
    One minor point - the Walrus has effectively decided that the early period Civil Engineers' stock from the crane train will get Kadees not Sprat and Winkle couplings. I can't get the S+W mounting plate under the platform without fouling the wheels - in fact I couldn't fit a full width mounting block under the platforms without fouling the flanges of the wheels. Thus a narrow mounting only , and therefore Kadees. Which means that a spare 31 or a 20 would be motive power and I can stop worrying about how I fit a decoder to the 29 which was never going to get Kadees - that little problem can be crossed off this year's list
     
    First cab off the rank in terms of projects for 2010 is a Ratio ex SR Van B , and I've made a start:
     

     
    This photo does reveal that I missed the top edge of the droplight , which is showing green , and that there is rather a lot of dust on the centre section - it will be washed off . The doors are not yet attached , which is why one has slipped. The bodysides and doors were sprayed on the sprue with Railmatch aerosol - the first coat was done when I was prespraying the PMV, and I gave it another coat at New Year. Unfortunately, the guard's doors are moulded on the sprue in reverse, so the back got sprayed. I painted the door fronts by hand in Railmatch BR blue - and it's come out gloss. I'm hoping a thin coat of matt vanish will leave it a near match for the sprayed version, and weathering will obscure any remaining differences
     
    I will need to touch round the etched droplights by hand which poses the same issue - again I hope differing materials on the prototype and a little matt varnish will deal with any difference
     
    Progress will now slow, as thanks to a link someone posted I've discovered that Roxey do etches for the bars behind the windows . This is infinitely better than messing around with cotton thread , though a hasty look at the relevant section of Paul Bartlett's wagon site suggests strongly that most Van Bs were grubby enough that you couldn't actually see through the windows. Anyway , an order is in the post to Roxey, and I won't be able to fix the doors in place finally till it comes
     
    I've also spotted in the instructions that the interior was largely a reddish brown - I was thinking of the guards compartments in Mk1s which I think were a greyish white. The photos on Paul Bartlett's site also suggest most of these vans actually retained their footsteps till the end, although a shot in the Cheona book indicates some had them removed in the late 70s (PMV seem generally to have lost them). Since trying to fill the slots in the solebar which take the footsteps would be problematic, this van will have the footsteps
     
    Over New Year I put a first brown undercoat on the sides of the two Ratio LNWR coaches. This doesn't mean that I've actually started them - I sprayed the sides for the Van B months before I started it - but I've come to the conclusion that Precision Umber , though in line with the darkest proposed interpretations of LNER carriage brown , is too dark. I let it down with some Precision Teak , but even that's on the dark side : I reckon I will feel most comfortable with a moderately darkened Teak rather than a lightened Umber
     
    And at St Albans I seem to have broken my resolutions to avoid filling the cupboard back up. Not only did I acquire a second hand Dapol wagon , which I take to be LMS dia 1892 - but repainted into a private owner livery and hand lettered on one side - but I also acquired a prepainted Slater's PO wagon kit from C+L "just in case" (it's much easier weathering an existing PO livery), and a wagon body for a spare underframe I have. Paul Bartlett's site only seems to have photos of these LMS opens which have been retrofitted with vac brakes by BR : I suspect as a steel underframe 10' wb type they may have been extensively targeted for this. So strip the current paintwork, add tie rods, vac cylinder and new fitted buffers and repaint. On top of this I've just ordered two wagon kits from Cambrian...
     
    I've made a little progress with the Pacer , in that I've largely removed the "black box " on the second car , but as this is the same work as I've already done on the first car , there's no point posting any pictures.
     
    And the replacement underframes for the 101 have turned up
     
    Focus.....
  24. Ravenser
    As I've mentioned before, in my teens a CJ Freezer article turned me into a modern image modeller , and I attempted a layout set in contemporary Lincolnshire: Ghosts opf Flaxboro'
     
    Eventually the project foundered under many problems, but I hung onto the stock and over the years I've slowly been recycling the stuff as reasonable scale models.
     
    In the photo contained therein, you can see an Airfix 31 heading two blue/grey vehicles entirely washed out by the flash awaiting departure for the E Lincs line at "Grimsby Town"  . They are in fact a Hornby Mk2a "BSK" and a Lima Mk1 SK , and a second Hornby Mk2 brake brought up the rear of the stopping train set.
     
    The Lima Mk1 was resurrected and rebuilt here :  Lima SK to TSO . But at the end of the day the contrast between the SE Finecast flushgalze on the TSO and the flushglazing on the Bachmann Mk1 BSK I commissioned from unused stock to run with it was just a bit much. Added to which the set had no first class accommodation.
     
    So I decided to aim for consistancy of modelling standard and return to another long-abandoned project, an attempt to make something of one of the two Hornby Mk2 brakes from Flaxborough.
     
    The state of play 8 years ago is summarised there:
     
    I started trying to flushglaze one, and it became clear the flushglaze wasn't fitting well. I tried filing out the window apertures from behind , it all started to look very messy, slow, and difficult , the coach would need repainting, there were moulded lining ridges... 
     
    So I boxed it up again and forgot about it. The second Hornby Brake was quietly sold on at the club show a few years later, as I certainly wasn't doing this twice. But the one I had started was now unsaleable, so I kept it.
     
    I've been very evasive how I describe these models because what Hornby produced and sold as a Mk2 brake second is in fact a 4 compartment BFK , and not a BSO. Having decided that finishing this project would give me a coach which would sit better against the upgraded Lima TSO , it was always going to be reworked as an actual Mk2 BFK, thus providing the missing first class accommodation in the set.
     
    The starting point is here:
     

     
    The moulded lines seperating blue and grey were peeled off with a chisel blade and rubbed down. I'm not clear if that had already been done when this photo was taken
     
    The shade of grey was visibly wrong when set against the Lima TSO, the Bachmann BSK - or anything else. I haqd some difficultiers finding suitable aerosol paint - it being the pandemic - and I made do with Tamiya TS-81 to respray it
     

     
    Having hacked away at it to remove the lining moulding, I had to repaint the self coloured plastic in rail blue , and I just about got away with the result. The interior was painted and peopled, and as it is a First , I even went as far as to add white patches for antimacassers
     
    Replacement transfers were applied and sealed with satin varnish. I managed to apply white lining neatly, although I did not attempt it on the part of the top edge where the yellow stripe is. Transfers didn't really fit for the stripe , so I resorted to hand painting (I had left the raised strip in place at the top of the grey area)
     
    The bogies wouldn't do - they had visible lumps above the B4 bogie frame which looked quite wrong. And as this is to run with the Lima Mk1 TSO with MJT B4s, they had to go. A pair of replacement bogies using MJT cast sides on MJT rigid 8'6" etched frames were built up . These are fitted with the MJT NEM etch. This provides useful extra weight in a good place, low down - they were suitably painted with blue coil springs and yellow roller bearings. Nothing much could be done about the underframe boxes , although a plasticard step was fitted below the guards doors. Replacement whitemetal buffers were fitted
     
    The whole vehicle was reglazed with SE Finecast vac-formed glazing .I had this in stock - supplies are getting difficult although I believe SE Finecast intend re-running them. This is the biggest and most critical job, as the lack of flushglazing is the killer with these old coach models. I cut off the flange at the back to get the main pane to seat forward and flush, and I used the glazing for the ventilators as backing and filled up with Glue and Glaze, which was also used to disguise the edge around the glazing. 
     
    One end gangway was plated over to recieve the black paper gangway from the companion Mk1 - the other had its gangway door painted the correct lime green. Underframe and roof recieved mild weathering
     
    And a photo revealed that the orange curtains in First were very noticeable. A rummage in the parts boxes found some MJT whitemetal curtains which were chopped up (Mk2 windows are wider) painted a suitably lurid orange , and stuck in place on the compartment side with UHU
     
    Here's the result in its set :

     
    It won't stand close up comparison with a new Bachmann Mk2a, but it's a perfectly serviceable layout coach , sits ok with the Mk1 , and is a vast improvement on the starting point.
     
    Anyone with a China-made Hornby Mk2a , with its much better standard of finish , has a head start
  25. Ravenser

    Taking Stock

    By Ravenser,

    It's the time of year for casting an eye over projects unfinished and unstarted, reviewing progress and considering what's been achieved, and making resolutions for the New Year.
     
    We could start with the 2009 New Year's Resolution (buried in a transfer off the old site far below):
     
     
    That one I actually kept, more or less. A few bits and pieces were bought - a couple of second had wagon kits, a 153 (but that was a carry over from the 2008 Rolling Stock Programme) , a Central 158 and a cheap black kettle. But I did manage to avoid racing out and buying a lot more unfinished kits. The two Parkside kits acquired are in the thread below , finished. I got round Warley without committing myself to anything significant new...
     
    There is still a large backlog, and some of it has been outstanding a long while. But having wholly or largely shed one or two commitments at the club recently, I have more time and there are signs of progress. So where do I stand?
     
    Wagons
    Air braked stock:
     
    Blacklade was designed as passenger only - apart from a couple of oil tanks (built) and maybe a short Civil Engineer's train it doesn't need wagons. Given the way things are developing with club projects, it's unlikely I will have much requirement for airbraked wagons in the next couple of years, and what I have may be unsuitable anyway . Apart from the PNA (see below) which is not really a priority, I'm not sure there's any point working on more airbraked wagons - I haven't got a use for them. That simplifies things a bit
     
    Steam age stock.
     
    I seem to have launched into a new round of stock for the plank. With 4 vans in the bag , or almost there, this means I need 2 minerals and an open. There's an MCV in the box with the stock off Ravenser Mk1 - a quick change of branding and some Spratt and Winkles and that's one mineral - the second hand kits included an old Ratio coke wagon - that's two. All I need then is an open - there's an ABS LNER 6 plank in the cupboard , and possibly a battered body or two somewhere. I could also very usefully finish off the DOGA LNER COV B which has been lying about part built for an embarrassing length of time, and was supposed to be part of a previous round of stock for the plank
     
    I'd almost forgotten the Walrus and WD brake, both of which need finishing
     
    Coaches
     
    Here it gets a bit more serious. The PMV is built and in traffic. The LMS BG is also finally in traffic. I can run a parcels train on Blacklade . However 50' BG+ 57' GUV + 31 is a bit long for the platform. I can manage, but the train hangs off the end by an inch. And a blue/grey LMS BG with gangways may well not be accurate for 70s/80s parcels - all blue with plated over gangways would probably be better
     
    So the Ratio ex SR BG is right at the top of the list to do. At Warley I got the underframe bits to rework one or more of the old Lima CCTs which were originally acquired a very long time ago for my first teenage modern image layout, so a revamped BR CCT should also be on the agenda this year . I acquired an all blue ex LMS BG secondhand at a show late last year but reworking that is less urgent - maybe 2011?
     
    Then there's steam age stock . The small GE BLT which a little group I'm involved with is nominally supposed to be building hasn't made much progress, so I've done little about stock in that direction. But some old comments I found in Michlner's workbench thread- have sparked a few stirrings. (My minor thread hijack is below all the pictures of fine LNER models...). A hasty check of the boxes has revealed that actually I chucked out the old Ratio clerestory kit as past redemption during a clearout, and I'm increasingly confident that the M&GN would only have had corridor vehicles transferred from the LMS , since Birmingham/Yarmouth on a summer Saturday is a long way for non-corridor coaches. (The kit I kept is a MR suburban, and therefore no use).
     
    For those interested, the Ratio MR clerestories Ratio MR clerestories are those in Historic Carriage Drawings 2 p96-7 ; the 51L clerestory kits, which may well be the corridor vehicles confirmed on the M&GN are covered in the same book p101-3 (and the well known Ratio MR suburbans are covered in the intervening pages). (NB I have no knowledge of the supplier linked to - he's just a convenient source of suitable images)
     
    And the ex LNWR 50' corridors known to have been transferred to the M&GN in the early 30s are these Ratio kits. Once again - I have no knowledge of this retailer, it's simply a source of images. My 2 kits (Brake compo/all third) came from a local model shop's closing down sale . Some survived past 1948 on the GE Section and like other pregrouping coaches maintained by Stratford, would have retained LNER Brown under BR until scrapping (see this rather fine model of a GE brake by Buckjumper). I'm not saying they'll be built instantly, but thanks to the thread discussion, I now have some idea how to do LNER brown, and painting the sides will be the first step.
     
    As for other bits and pieces- the 3 or 4 Bachmann Mk1s and Mk2s bought in the same sale, the Kitmaster Mk1 kit someone gave me, the two Phoenix/BSL kits - not this year. What use have I at the moment for a Gresley buffet??
     
    It's very unlikely I'll have a fresh stab at cleaning up a Hornby Mk2b which I started then dropped in haste when the problems started emerging. There are plenty of more productive uses of time (The coach is off my first modern image layout, again)
     
    Maybe this year will finally get to be "the year of the Coach"
     
    DMUS
    And here it gets very serious indeed. One Pacer is already started, but will be a big job - new chassis, lights, modifications, DCC, Kadees. The second, a chocolate /cream reprobate exiled to the E.Midlands , will be a rewheel/DCC job , and I should have a go at the rewheeling asap as James Makin reports no problems... . That gets 2 unserviceable models into traffic.
     
    Smaller high priority jobs include weather/paint and people the interior of the 108 . (That's a "quick victory" to get another unit for Blacklade completed and looking the part). DCC installation on the Central 158.
     
    And a replacement for the damaged and patched underframe moulding on one car of the 101. A spare has been ordered from E Kent , along with a trailer moulding to allow a power/trailer conversion while retaining easy reversion to a 3 car unit. I'm in several minds where to go with this unit. 3 car is a bit too much and blocks up the fiddle yard. But the unit in question was a Tyseley unit at almost the right period. Did the TS 3 car sets sometimes run without their centre cars? Or should I convert it to a 2 car power/trailer unit - then hope one was allocated in the right area at the right time, and renumber? Leaving a surplus centre car?. Either way, the "black box" underframe needs tackling and if I have to replace the power car moulding anyway, that is the obvious time to do it. This looks like morphing very easily into "upgrade the 101"
     
    I really must build the DC Kits 105 this year - before Bachmann get their's out. It has to be the 105 because the 114 will be in blue/grey - a much more difficult paint job. The original idea was that the 101 could be sorted , slowly, once I had the 105 built to replace it......
     
    And yes - it is high time I finished the Bratchill 150/2. Just to make it more difficult the person who was going to paint it in Regional Railways livery has backed out, and somehow I'll have to do it myself.
     
    What are the automotive spray can equivalents for Regional Railways livery - or at least the Hornby version: 'cos this will probably run with a 153 from time to time.
     
    And I've a Trains4U 150/1 on order which will need the usual weathering etc....
     
    There's a lot of work to be done on this front (We'll ignore the Dapol railbus for the GE BLT..)
     
    Locos:
    None of which are weathered. There's an off chance my 57 might be needed elsewhere so an early weathering is desirable. And it's the smallest of my 3 Type 5s, so the most suitable for fuel tanks on Blacklade
     
    The 60 needs a small bodyshell repair - that's urgent. It and the 66 need weathering - not so urgent.
     
    Now for the more serious stuff. There's an elderly Bachmann 03 off Ravenser Mk1 lurking in a cupboard. I could usefully convert that to DCC - it would be ideal for tripping in a single TTA or shunting a CCT or PMV in the early period. And while I'm about it I should add supplementary pickups as I've done on the Silver Fox 05 (well, large Hunslet) which runs on the plank. And the recent George Dent book on Detailing & Modifying RTR Locos (Diesels) contains some notes about upgrading the handrails, cab interior, and windows....
     
    There is also the case of the Airfix 31. It's running with a decoder but I have a spare body which I'm intending to detail up for it as 31 402 in blue. This may be an early project, and it's just occured to me that with all that fresh air inside if I ever wanted to have a DCC Sound loco , this would be the one to go for. It would give it something over and above the very serviceable Hornby 31 that's its rival (The loco is another vetern off my first modern image layout)
     
    (And while 31 174 is fine, I must check if I really can get the body back on the unhappy and stopped 31 270 - or whether it's a mazak casualty)
     
    Putting a decoder in the 29 was abandoned when it became clear it was one of the earlier Ringfields and not a straightforward hardwired installation. If I have time on my hands , chipping the Bachmann 08 (also ex Ravenser Mk1) would be more productive .
     
    There is also the Dapol/Branchlines 04 Drewery I started building for the plank rather longer ago than is comfortable, and whose part built chassis still adorns the bookcase. I really ought to do something with that, too, this year. It's not made any progress since this:

     
    This is rather a lot of stuff. Visions of stuffing Athearn chassis into a further spare 31 body (whether ochre or not - for the GE BLT) and an old Hornby 37 body, etched loco kits, whitemetal Y5s , Lima 20s etc etc can wait for another year. And speaking of weight, it seems sensible to decide at this point that the wretched A1 Models Baby Deltic kit has a promising future as ballast weights:
     

     
    The Sentinel got built , by the way .
     
    And I will have an ROD . A Frodingham one , if I can afford it...
     
    Then there's
     
    Layouts...
     
    You're probably as sick of me muttering "must build screen walls/motorise remaining points" about Blacklade as I am of saying it. It will get done in the next few months. Promise.
     
    There are a couple of structures I ought to finish for a club project
     
    I'm not even going to think about the half built light rail project , though as it's my occasional DC test track , I must repair the broken wire on the second board....
     
    And if I get even 2/3rds of all that done in 2010 , I'll have had a busy and productive year.
     
    But - and it's a sobering thought - I don't need to buy much for all these projects. It's basically all stuff already bought and projects already committed to. It doesn't even clear the whole backlog.
     
    And the other theme is that a lot of this is about getting stuff from old layouts back into use and circulation. I've quite a lot of stuff that for one reason or another is "stored unserviceable". If I could recycle some more of my yesterdays , I'd have a lot more toys to play with and a lot more to show for myself.
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