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Ravenser

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  1. Ravenser

    Filed under box van

    By Ravenser,

    I've been building stock boxes : one last weekend and one this. And here are the results:

    which is the air braked box and

    the steam age stock for the shunting plank.
     
    There is absolutely nothing original about this - the idea was taken from Chris Ellis' book "Next Steps in Railway Modelling" , published a couple of years ago, in which it is credited to Stuart Robinson. The construction should be obvious from the photos - take one box file (price 3 quid) , rip out the spring clip and insert dividers using corregated cardboard from a dismembered box and parcel tape. The result is remarkably effective - because the compartments are close fitting and sometimes even a shade tight, the stock doesn't move around and doesn't get damaged. And because of the honeycomb effect , the partitions are strongly reinforced by other partitions and end up pretty rigid
     
    It also saves a lot of space. 2 box files for the shunting plank contain a total of 35 wagons and 4 locos. I reckon you save about two-thirds of the volume storing stock this way compared with leaving wagos in the manufacturer's boxes. Not to mention that the vast majority of my wagons for the plank are kits so there wasn't a box to start with. It's also much quicker and easier to find things in these boxes - just lift the lid and it's all there. As opposed to using the long cardboard loco boxes they sell for a couple of quid, where you have to hunt from box to box and unwrap everything to find the wagon you want.
     
    This was brought painfully home to me when turning out the collection of long boxes that was housing a lot of this stuff before. I found a Conflat or two I'd forgotten about and never run- not to mention a Red Panda Lowfit I'd forgotten I'd ever owned - built for Ravenser Mk1 and rarely if ever used, not least because it was stored somewhere else and forgotten about. Once fitted with S+W couplings it can go into use on the shunting plank.
     
    As well as helping to clear up some of the debris around the place and bring a bit of order and accessibility to my fleet, this exercise has helped to define my wagon building activities for the medium term. As you can see, there are a number of vacant slots. These will take the wagons I'm currently working on, plus the ex WD road van and the etched COV B which have both been sitting on the bookcase for an embarassingly long time. There are slots for a couple more wagons to be recycled out of the fleet from Ravenser and fitted with S+W couplings for the plank. And that leaves just 2 slots for further steam-age wagons.... Plans for Tranche 4 of stock for the shunting plank have therefore been abruptly curtailed, especially as once I'd turned all the "overspill" stock out of it's boxes it was clear I was already almost there anyway. So this just leaves space for a rebuild of a Hornby refridgerator van and an elderly Ratio coke wagon kit I picked up unbuilt at the club, and tranche 4 is done.
     
    On the airbraked side, there's no real need for most of the revenue vehicles now I'm less actively involved at the club. With a little bit of work with a knife, and some more parcel tape I relocated a partition in one of the stockboxes I built about 2 years ago - a further advantage of thistype of construction is that, if push comes to shove , you can modify the size of the compartments. This now provides a home for the Walrus which has acquired its Kadees (no 49 long overset , if you're interested) and in a burst of enthusiasm I coverted two more wagons to Kadees while I was about it. With some wagons transferred from the old box to the new, there are now slots for a Dogfish and a second Shark from the bag of Cambrian kits I was given earlier this year (The idea here is to have an engineers's train for both early and late periods - in the early period it runs with Walrus , Dogfish, grampus and Zander , using an ex GW Toad and a Shark - in the later period it has Seacows, Rudd, PNA, and a pair of Sharks. Hence I could use a Shark in olive green, which could run in either train) I could also probably squeeze in a Starfish with a bit of ingenuity (another kit from the cupboard) . On the other hand there's no slot for a scratchbuilt PNA . And the fact that there's a convenient slot for an old Lima CCT as well as for my PMV means that sorting it out has risen up the To Do list..
     
     
    Suddenly the way ahead on the wagon front is much more sharply defined. If it's in the boxes, it will probably get run....
     
     
  2. Ravenser

    Safety Valve

    By Ravenser,

    This is by way of a moan... I'm trying to sort out various bits-and-pieces jobs, and one is to replace the Bachmann/ESU 3 function 21 pin decoder in the 150 , which doesn't support advanced consisting, with a rather expensive TCS 1344 21-pin decoder that does. I have no need whatsoever for 6 functions - it was just that 21 pin decoders are few and far between, and a DMU that won't work in multiple is rather a nuisence on a layout where operational interest is supposed to be boosted by joining and splitting the things
     
    (Memo to Messrs Lovatt and Kohler - consisting is a Useful Thing, and even your cheap decoders should support it. I don't give a stuff about Mars Lights, function mapping and flickering fireboxes, but I do care about Advanced Consisting in DMUs)
     
    Attempt one was an ignominous failure - I couldn't get the body off because the two small screws at the gangway end wouldn't come out , being too small for any of my jewellers' screwdrivers . Having bought a new set of jewellers screwdrivers from a local shop, for a couple of quid - this time with some very small ones in - I managed to get them out with a 1.0mm flat screwdriver . The screws, though crossheaded, were way too small for my smallest crosshead Phillips screwdriver (00 - what else - it seems crosshead screwdrivers are numbered like paintbrushes or model railway gauges...). Thankfully I hadn't mashed the heads fatally in the first attempt
     
    The game plan was to switch the Bachmann decoder into my nice new ROD 04 . The decoder sits in the tender and all you have to do is remove the tender top . Carefully poised upside down , using the packaging as a protecting cradle, out come the back 2 screws withb a 1.0mm flat , cos they are way smaller than 00 crosshead. The front two won't come out.....
     
    The ROD is not going to be up and running this Bank Holiday weekend
     
    A hasty check of the Squires catalogue reveals - in 3 pages of jewellers' screwdrivers - just one set with 0000 screwdriver , at £13.99 . Which I will have to order - tools, Bachmann locos, for the opening of....
     
    Question to Barwell - why are you fixing together parts of your models which lots of people will need to undo , using fastenings that require tools which are very difficult to source in order to shift them???
  3. Ravenser

    Postcards from the Layouts

    By Ravenser,


    Operational
    As Blacklade is effectively completed, and so is the Boxfile there isn't too much to post in the way of layout construction these days. Lockdown efforts have mainly been focussed on sorting out the litter of unfinished stock projects - and if the truth be known, drifting into one or two more. And those things have gone onto my workbench blog..
     
    However just to prove that the silence is not that of the grave, here are a few snapshots from when each of them was last up - "Pictures from an Exhibition" as it were.
     
    Firstly , the last time Blacklade was up. As well as test running the NBL 21 and having a Blue Period operating session I got some of the post-privatisation stock out of its boxes to check it still ran and give it a touch of maintenance. For some reason - probably that the 1980s are of more interest to me, and I have a full suite of stock for 1985-90 whereas there are one or two things I need to sort out for post-privatisation - I've not run as 2000-7 for a long time.
     
    So the Type 5s got an outing each :

     
    57 011 has always been a pretty reliable performer, and as my most compact Type 5 , is designated for fuelling point diesel traffic and engineer's trains in the post-privatisation period. Here she is test running the two green Railtrack opens to check they are fine. (They were.) I really ought to apply a little mild weathering to this one. The loco-hauled substitute set can be seen in the background.
     
    (This loco was bought as a return off the Bachmann stand for about £40, over a decade ago in the days when Bachmann sold their repaired returns off the stand at Warley and Ally Pally. I think the Fox transfers and the plates to renumber her added 50% to the price... Someone else in the group already had 57 010)
     
    And here is the other green Type 5:
     

     
    This is more of a ghost from my involvement with an abortive club layout project some years ago.  66 532 isn't really that suitable for Blacklade being a good inch and a bit longer than the 57. The container train has nothing to do with Blacklade: I acquired two FEA twins , a Realtrack "ball-bearing" twin and a pocket wagon and built and painted some C-Rail containers. Several of these containers are work-related from the days when I used to work for a carrier. The Hapag 20'OT is a resin Mendip Models kit that hung around in the cupboard for years. This is as many of the wagons as I could get on the layout.: they hadn't been out of their boxes for about a decade.
     
    And now for the Boxfile:

     
     
    Construction of a Parkside OHV steel High and reconstruction of a Slater's rectangular tank from my youth were written up here . However handsome is as handsome does - they were built to replace one or two existing wagons of questionable reliability in the Boxfile's fleet. So they can't be deemed fully and finally "done" until they've run through an operating session and behaved themselves. Here we see the rectangular tank in action, and as a bonus I've finally fitted coupling bars for Sprat & Winkle couplings to the Hornby Ruston 48DS I bought at Warley last year. It runs nicely - so I also have an extra loco in traffic.
     
    And yes, both wagons are good 'uns. They slide in and out of the back siding very reliably.  Which is something of a relief. The Ruston 48DS also runs nicely, at a very satisfactory and controllable speed for the Boxfile. There is too little space for it to run with the supplied runner wagon for additional pickup so occasionally it hesitates at a frog, but that can't be helped, given the nature of the loco and the layout. All in all I'm pleased with my purchase, and the price at which Hornby pitched it was excellent.
     
    But... on checking the two boxfiles which hold the stock, I find I still have five wagons "carded".  One - the LNER unfitted van - is at least serviceable if run the right way round. More damaging is what is carded. Total stock currently stands at 13 vans (incl Conflats); 10 minerals (incl 1 tank) ;  6 opens. The correct ratio for the layout is supposed to be 4 vans, 1 open, and 2 minerals for an operating session. In other words I have 6x the opens, 5x the minerals  - and only just over 3x the vans. And what is carded is 1 van, 2 Conflats, a Bachmann 16T slopesided mineral, and a Dapol 13T LMS open. At the most optimistic view, I have 11 serviceable vans when I should have 18-20 vans. One of those 11 is questionable, another is slightly questionable, and a third is a rather rough Lima van with a new chassis
     
    And every single RTR chassis - a Conflat, a 16T mineral and a 13T open - falls off entering the back road. That's a very sobering situation.
     
    Surveying the stockboxes I find myself forming some further resolutions to address all this. An old Hornby refridgerated van is being reworked as an ex NER vehicle. It now has a scratchbuilt underframe so I gave it some test runs without couplings using the Ruston , and it seems to run very reliably. Lurking on my bookshelf is the long-unfinished DOGA etched van kit.  These two should at least address the fact that I'm light on LNER vehicles. The kitbuilt chassis on the  Conflat V is tight and rigid. Melting in a bearing with a soldering iron to create a little slop at on end might fix it. And ferreting in my modelling cupboard turned up a Parkside LNER Conflat S kit, and a packet of Bachmann small insulated containers. Since I can clearly build a kit chassis so that it stays on the Boxfile while RTR chassis fall off, this would be a possible nil-cost solution. With a bit of juggling I think I can just about get this into the stockboxes as an extra.
     
    I'm not sure what I do about the RTR wagons to make them run, so if  this ultimately replaces the Bachmann Conflat A a further slot opens up. I have two old Parkside BR van kits in the cupboard, one of which might fill the gap. That would get me up to 15 serviceable vans - a roughly  50% improvement on the current situation, at nil expenditure. 
     
     I ought to think about adding a figure or two to the Boxfile: nothing too much , but just a touch of life.
  4. Ravenser

    Single Yellow

    By Ravenser,

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

    Counsels of Despair

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    Things have not been going particularly well for Mercia Wagon Repair recently. As a result I've become rather disheartened and I've been wondering whether I should in fact pull the plug on the project.
     
    Issue number one can be seen here:

     
    A key point, buried fairly deep in the track plan has broken up at the tie bar.
     
    This is the second point to break up at the tie bar out of 7 points I've bought so far (The first large radius point disintegrated at the tie bar before I even laid it.). That is within 9 months of starting work on this project. This particular one failed a few weeks ago during use. It uses a Peco motor fitted to the designed-in attachment holes: in other words I'm using a proprietary product exactly as it is designed to be used.  I've never had such failures in forty years in 4mm.
     
    At this stage there seem to be two possible approaches:
     
    - Extract the plastic tiebar, somehow, and try to wiggle a replacement PCB tiebar  under the rails and also over the actuating pin of the point motor. Not a nice or easy job  
    - Buy a replacement point. Cut out and extract the old point, wire and lay the new one. Reconnect wires ...
     
    Then there is the matter of frog switching
     
    The Peco leaflet with the Code 55 N gauge points makes no mention at all about connecting the frog to a switch to supply it with power. I've read the thing 4 or 5 times carefully through, and  such a reference to frog switching simply isn't there (though from memory such instructions do appear with 16.5mm electrofrog points). All that the leaflet says is "Turnouts are ready for immediate use - seperate levers are not necessary ."
     
    On 4mm electrofrog points there is a wire run to the side , for the purpose of feeding the frog off a switch. There is a linkage wire under Code 55 N gauge points , connecting the swtich rails and the frog - but there is no "loose" wire to link to a  polarity switch     
     
    There is every sign that Peco expect purchasers simply to lay their Code 55 N gauge points as they come, and rely on contact of the switchblades with the stockrail. That is an unreliable contact, and risks leaving the entire switchblade /frog assembly dead - about 3" of track.
     
    (Not a theoretical comment . I've seen this on the wagon works fan , and it is a serious issue for a layout designed around shunting wagons with an 0-6-0 diesel shunter. You should get away with it when running a bogie diesel with all wheel pickup, especially a long one like a Class 66, but wagons are supposed to be shunted around the Works by 0-6-0s)
     
    I tried to tweak the tips of the switchblades on the offending point to ensure contact. I think it may have been the point I had to tweak for switchblade contact - which may have ultimately led to the failure. You can understand why I'm less than impressed with this product...
     
    Having recounted this in a thread elsewhere , someone (with whom I've previously crossed swords several times) appears to state that you can in fact lift the linkage wire "frog jumper" underneath Peco Code 55 points and attach a wire to this "jumper" in order to connect the frog to a polarity switch on the point motor , thus providing a switched power feed to the frog and switch blades. (Which is the best way to wire a live frog) . But -
     
    I've already laid the points. To get at that wire connection and solder on a feed wire to a polarity switch I'd have to lift the points. 
     
    The track is laid and wired and running. Lifting it all and replacing the cork  would amount to "scrap and start again"
     
    It might - to a 4mm mind - seem possible just to accept the issue and carry on. But over the past few months I've picked up disturbing vibes that shunting and shunting/operational layouts are "not what N gauge is about" :
     
     
    It may be unfair to seize on a single comment, but it crystallizes a vibe I feel in the air.
     
    Shunting in N using the "standard" Arnold coupling seems to be regarded as pretty iffy. I have gone for the replacement Dapol Easi-Shunt knuckle couplers - effectively NEM Kadees in N. But they are costing me over £5 a vehicle. They frequently require packing of the NEM pocket to limit or remove drooping , which results in the tail fouling pointwork . And my impression after 3-4 operating sessions is that they are rather less certain and reliable in coupling  than the Kadees I use in 4mm on Blacklade. They uncouple over the fixed Dapol uncouplers, not always conveniently. As usual, successful delayed action is rather elusive.
     
    Put another way - can you remember seeing many "shunting planks" in N? (Either at shows or in the magazines.) Many branch line termini?  An N gauge Minories?  Micros or Boxfiles using N? N gauge inglenooks and other shunting puzzles?
     
    On reflection, the typical N gauge layout seems to be a longish continous run. Commonly on a 2'6" deep solid board , with 12" return curves at each end, and the fiddle yard hidden behind a backscene set 2/3rds of the way back. Operation consists of firing a train out of the fiddle yard, sending it round the the circuit and back into a road in the fiddle yard.
     
    "Cavalcade" layouts do not interest me. I don't want to build one, I don't have the space for one. That is not what Mercia Wagon Repair is about.
     
    Am I trying to do something in N that everyone knows cannot and should not be done in N? A project that cannot and should not be?
     
    When I've raised the issue of shunting in N - apart from the implications of trolling and being offensive - I've been assured that the NGS Hunslet is the very bee's-knees in N gauge running. There can be no question of things being possible in 4mm that are not possible in N.
     
    So I bought one, and here it is:
     

     
    It is indeed a very small locomotive. It cost me £82 which in this day and age is a remarkably keen price (I stuck a wagon kit for a TTA in with the order to bulk it up). The finish and printing is admirable. It does indeed run very slowly, being heavily geared down. But it does not run as sweetly or quite as reliably as my Farish 04.
     
    What it reminds me of is many a kitbuilt small locomotive on 4mm finescale layouts. It waddles a little. It runs slow, and it keeps going , but it waddles. Not quite a even movement. It's a decent locomotive and it will do a job of work on the layout. I'm not the "toys out of pram" type who returns things in a huff because they do not meet his exacting standards 100%... But it's not as sweet and smooth running as the 04.
     
    And it will  be obvious from the photo just how short the wheel base is and just how long the switchblades and frog are on the adjacent point. Any hesitation in contact - they're dead. And the Hunslet will stop. 
     
    Dare I blaze ahead with this project with electrically compromised "live frogs"?? Do I dare spend £145 on a Farish Class 14 in British Oak orange as an additional shunter??? Nobody has mentioned that one as an outstanding shunter. In 4mm I'd have not a shadow of a doubt that a modern RTR 0-6-0T would run shunt very happily over live frog points, smoothly, slowly, reliably all day. But in N??
     
    Disposable income is a little tight at the moment. My savings may be ample - but I'm not necessarily prepared to dip into them to buy a loco that turns out not to be capable of the job required
     
    I started the Chivers N gauge SSA kit. The Peco chassis used is wrong - leaf spring suspension not pedestal. In 4mm  that would be a show-stopper. But in N - nothing can be done.
     
    Then I read this in the current NGS Journal:
     
    That's me told then - the Chivers SSA kit and the NGS chemical TTA kit I'm currently working on can never be good enough to sit alongside a Dapol or RevolutioN wagon with any credibility......  not unless my name's Tim Watson
     
    I painted the main sprues in the TTA kit white - the suggestion in the instructions that they could be left as self-coloured plastic took me aback. Then the bag with the rest of the kit disappeared . Could I find it? I could not.
     

     
    The cars are some cheap plastic ones I managed to find in a model shop's box, which I'm trying to paint up and make passable. Modern cars are quite difficult to find in N . I've got boxes of the things in 4mm/HO needing a good home...
     
    How many more points will fail at the tie bar, and how soon???
     
    At this stage there seem a number of options:
     
    - Press on and hope. Try to fix the tie bar and leave other pointwork as is.
    - Replace the bust point . Maybe try to fit frog feed wires to one or two others.
    - Rip up most of the points and trackwork , and replace them, fitting point feedwires to the replacements. This would mean major reconstruction and rewiring
    - Pull the plug. Decide this project can't be made to work satisfactorily and get out of N. Dispose of the N gauge stock and bits for whatever I can recover before I sink more money time and effort into a quicksand  (I spent over £150 at Warley on a new loco, wagons and bits for this project)
     
    Since two of the locos were given to me and have personal connections, I couldn't dispose of the lot. 
     
    If I scrapped it , what would I do? 
     
    - I think the plan could be done in TT120. There would be some loss of train length, but with mostly 4 wheel wagons it could be manageable. Width might be a more serious issue in a larger scale. 66s and an 08 are promised in TT:120, and in some respects the project might be better done in BR days , with a 37 and 47 as the main line power. But the 66 is 10-12 months away in TT, and I'd have to buy every single item from scratch. This was a project to use a core of existing stock....
     
    - If we're talking about stuff I already have, that points towards either 3mm, (where I have a bag of wagon kits, some second hand Triang and half a dozen Peco points in stock), or OO9. But I have no serviceable 3mm loco, and no design. I have two OO9 Baldwins and some stock, but the design I came up with is 18" wide , not 11" , although I have more length than I drew out. 
     
    - I suppose I could try to come up with an LCC tram scheme in 4mm
     
    - Even Son of Boxfile in OO ????
     
    Or I could box the whole lot up, and put away all N gauge modelling until at least September . When I would re-assess what is to be done about this , in a more cheerful frame of mind.  All my modelling time has been going into N recently - I haven't done any 4mm for about 9 month's let alone had Blacklade up. I know 4mm works, and even more importantly I know I can make it work , within reason. Time to do what will work, instead of plunging deeper into the swamps of N?
     
     
  6. Ravenser
    It's a sign of something - not a good something - that I find myself doing my New Year stock take /resolutions in the middle of January
     
    Twelve months ago I set myself a fairly ambitious programme of catch up and finish. This was tempting fate, I suppose, and Fate duly obliged, wielding a large blunt instrument. At the end of that January, my then employer embarked on a third major round of redundancies . The redundancy process and jobhunting took up most of my time and energy in the first half of the year, and railway modelling didn't happen. Nor did a lot of other things. I then decided, as a preliminary, to try to get on top of the piles of debris and the backlogs which had built up on various fronts. Since I had been seriously overcommitted anyway for several years this has taken a lot longer than I'd hoped, and I haven't been around here very much in recent months.
    Come to that, I've been to my club twice in the last 6 months
     
    It's still not done. A trip to IKEA after Christmas produced a small bookcase, what is billed as a DVD tower but which can also serve as a narrow bookcase (good for society magazines, Oakwood branch line monographs and old combined volumes) and two magazine boxes - that wasn't sufficient to clear up the piles of books and it will be back to IKEA for another DVD tower and a lower DVD case (for use as a book shelf) to finish the job. The clear up went as far as removing the long defunct board from Ravenser Mk1 which has been cluttering up the study for an appalling numvber of years. I still have a few shelves with books jammed sideways in the top for want of space but I can see and find things and the study looks like a habitable room not the scene of an explosion. A trip to my Mum's at Christmas removed the last salvagable bits of my teenage efforts at buildings from the Blacklade Corporation Tramways, and the BRMs have disappeared into a box.
     
    So what's been cleared and what's to be done for the new year?
     
    Wagons:
     
    There's little or nothing outstanding on the air-braked front. As I said last year, I don't really have much use for airbraked wagons these days . I duly bought a Dapol KQA to support the cause and handle the couple of 40'HCs I'd acquired. Although the container train has no immediate use at present, it's one thing I'm definitely keeping regardless, and (in a very desultry, unurgent way) I may quite possibly acquire a Realtrack FLA set at some point to complete a train from my own resources. Otherwise this front's been closed down for the foreseeable future
     
    I made further progress with the steam era wagons in the autumn - I really must post the results and fit them with Sprat and Winkles. This leaves those stubborn perennials the ex WD road van and the DOGA COV B on the bookcase. The road van will have to wait till the spring because resin has to be worked outside on safety grounds- for that reason I never seem to get on with the kit , and the awkwardness of using this material puts me off exploring it further. A Cambrian Dogfish and Shark for early period Engineers trains might be on the cards, and perhaps one or two more wagons to round off the collection for the boxfile. I need to fit Kadees or Sprat and Winkles to a few more of my older models to get them back in service. And that, essentially is all that needs doing on the wagon front
     
    So this year really needs to be the one where I finally move on beyond wagons into achieving things in other areas . Starting with -
     
    Coaches:
    The Ratio Van B needs finishing , top priority . The sticking point was that the roof needs shortening at both ends. And 2 of the brake blocks have disappeared along the way. An upgraded Lima CCT might be a sensible follow up. Then there's the question of sorting out some loco-hauled coaches from Blacklade as a DMU replacement/steam special set. This is not urgent , and given the complications of fitting Kadees to Bachmann Mk1s, and the fact that DMUs are much more important, it may quite possibly not happen this year
     
    The Ratio ex LNWR BCK got as far as one teak undercoat on the sides and stalled. Unless the group BLT shows signs of progress , there seems no point diverting my efforts in this direction.
     
    I shall probably get rid of the rake of Mk3s I acquired: I can't see I'll ever have the space or need for an HST, and it would reduce the clutter in the study
     
    DMUs:
    Now we get serious. Immediately behind the Van B comes finishing the Provincial Pacer I started and which I haven't touched in over a year. This one's needed for the layout, so must take priority. Behind this comes finishing the Bratchill 150/2. Now I have laser cut windows, the last major stumbling block to further progress is removed. A "quick and dirty" rewheel of the Skipper + DCC installation + Kadees may not be not far behind
     
    About the one thing I did get done on this front last year was to buy a Provincial 150/2 from Trains 4U. Retail therapy is quick and easy..... I fitted a Bachmann ESU decoder , and added Pete Harvey's sillhoutte seat etches which look a treat. Unfortunately the Bachmann decoder doesn't seem to support consisting - awkward when the whole point of the 150/2 is to work in multiple with a 153 joining and splitting. So I've got to take it out , replace with the rather pricy TCS 21 pin decoder I bought at Warley, and weather the underframe. The recovered Bachmann decoder can go in the ROD. As I don't propose modelling Worsborough bank before electrification I can't see I'll ever need to consist my O4
     
    Other modest jobs in this area include populating and weathering the 108, and sorting out the 101 - the replacement underframe mouldings are to hand.
     
    And if I've got time on my hands, a DC Kits Cravens needs building
     
    On the RTR front, a Wagon und Maschinbau railbus would be ideal for the group BLT , and a Realtrack 144 in the earlier W.Yorks red and white would be ideal for me. However as that livery won't appear before 2012 , it can be parked until then. As can the railbus unless a) the BLT makes progress and B) no-one else in the group gets one
     
    Plenty to keep me busy on this front
     
    Locos:

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

    New Year's Resolutions, Part Umpteen...

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    It's that time of the year when I take stock and make a plan for the year - which then ignominously fails in the next 12 months.
     
    Twelve months ago I decided I really would finish the Tourist Brake Third. And after a lot of struggle I actually managed it - though it still needs writing up here.
     
    The Baby Deltic was another "promise to finish" - and lo and behold it's done. And written up.
     
    There the good news stopped.
     
    However I have recently managed to clear away a lot of obstacles to various projects, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-21655-retail-therapy/ so I hope there will be more progress in the year to come.
     
    Work has actually started on the original condition NBL Type 2 diesel electric, and this is looking promising. I think I have all the bits now
     
    (After that I can contemplate the task of putting a detailed Hornby 25/1 body onto a Bachmann Rat chassis, for a good mid 80s Class 25, but this isn't urgent)
     
    The Ratio GW 4 wheel coach rebuild (to an engineer's tool/riding van) still needs to be finished, but should be a relatively quick project.
     
    Now I have a replacement power bogie I hope I can finally get the detailed 155 up and running and (finally!) into traffic.
     
    And with the damaged bogie of the Replica chassis repaired I can finish the 128 and get it into traffic as well. This (I hope) will give
    me some better options for consisting Modernisation Plan DMUs - 2 x 2 car DMU is awkwardly long but 1 x 128 + 2 car DMU should be much more manageable. It will also bring the NRV and the GUV into play for operating sessions
     

    There are still a number of long-standing projects which need finishing.
     
    The Airfix Trevithick kit proceeded a lot further before hitting a problem with a seized and sheered bit of motion. I have an idea about how to fix this , but I need to find the courage and the focus to do it.
     
    Once other projects finished and the decks have been cleared I can restart the upgraded 142 which has been lying stalled in bits for a long time. This too would improve my options for consisting - and therefore the operating interest of the layout - if I can get it finished.
     
    The two brake vans , long stalled, are somewhere down my list of priorities
     
    But there is a lot to be done on the locomotive front in the next couple of years, turning projects, aspirations and materials already in hand into actual working locomotives.
     
    Type 2s are likely to be the major focus . The Hornby NBL body is well under way, and all parts to finish this should be in hand. It might turn into a quick win I now have the second-hand locos to do a "high spec" 25/1 with a Hornby body on Bachmann chassis. The combined cost of these two should be around £125.- a new Bachmann 25 would cost around £145 at a box-shifter
     
    Then there are the 31s. I have a roughly -detailed Airfix 31, with filed-off body bands bought for £15 second hand as a mechanism donor. Not that the Airfix mechanism is a wonderful thing. But the body is in fact salvageable - at least to my eyes - and I think I could strip , clean up and redetail it as a refurb 31/4 (Transpennine South, for the use of) with decent result. The target loco would be 31 462 in plain departmental grey, and I've ordered the PH Designs etch - which at least takes care of the biggest issue, the roof fan grill cowling
     
    I then have the 1978 body I removed from 31 415; a secondhand body with body bands on but buffers cut off; and the wreckage of Hornby's 31 270, with Mazak failure and a blown circuit board. I got to it before the body split - but there's an issue. In my experience, the Hornby locos are track-sensitive, and my other Hornby 31 (31 174) does not like the crossover outside Platform 2 which forms part of the run-round loop. This means it is relegated to Loco Hauled Substitute duties , and is in fact my back-up 31 , whereas the detailed Airfix 31 415 is front line and handles engineers and parcels trains as well. I like good quality mechanisms with smooth low-speed running , but I also like locos that stay on the track. This means that the obvious approach to providing a decent mechanism - ie stripping out the Hornby mechanism from the unhappy 31 270 and installing it under something else - is problematic.
     
    No matter how you slice it, I have 4 x Class 31 bodies and 2 mechanisms both with question marks against them. I managed to get hold of a Railroad 31 chassis frame - but missed out on unpowered bogies and couldn't find a Railroad motor bogie. I also missed out on Hattons cheap Railroad 31, though that would not have improved the chassis/body ratio. I do have a spare (second) Athearn PA1 chassis, but that doesn't have quite the right wheelbase /wheel size, and would mean cutting and shutting a Mazak chassis frame and a drive shaft, and converting to DCC.
     
    And there is no obvious route to the missing bodyshell variants - a "skinhead" at any date, or of any sub-class; or the Golden Ochre Brush 2 (successively Stratford, Tinsley and Immingham in the 60s , and therefore suitable for Blacklade, an E.Lincs before closure project, or any transitional GE layout)
     
    I shall be on the scrounge for cheap serviceable mechanisms at Stevenage . A donor loco with a wrecked body going cheap; a Lima motor bogie and bits capable of receiving a remotor ...
     
    I also have a vintage Triang-Hornby 37, bought second-hand from a junk shop in Louth in 1978 for a fiver, and used on my teenage layout, where it ran like a dog - a three-legged dog with emphasyma. Mechanically it was - by a country mile - my worst loco.
     
    It has so far failed to be rebuilt as 37 688 or a Baby Deltic because more promising donors turned up for less than 20 quid each . I have an Athearn PA1 chassis, and Dave Alexander replacement bogie sideframes - this time it's a cut and lengthen job. So the long term plan would be to redo it as 37 172 in plain BR blue, on PA1 chassis (not entirely accurate - but it's only a cheap old 37). This because in 1977 we returned from a scout trip to Guernsey via the 01:05 KX Leeds night train (only Deltic haulage I ever got) , changing into what I now know to have been the Manchester-Cleethorpes newspaper train at Retford Low Level at 4:30 am - hauled by 31 172 in blue.
     
    There are all of the issues of stripping and cutting the Athearn chassis, converting it to DCC and the small inaccuracies in wheel size and wheelbase - but this would give me a decent-running 37 of an earlier vintage than I have and I could manage the bodyshell work.
     
    And wild horses and red-hot pincers would not persuade me to put that wretched Triang motor bogie under a 31
     
    Then there's the stuff I have but need to get working....
     
    The 155 has already been mentioned.
     
    There's a Hornby 29 I detailed up years ago as 6119 in blue. Looking at it with fresh eyes , it's rougher than I expect the new NBL Type 2 to be, and it has a 3 pole motor bogie converted to all-wheel pickup with Ultrascales, which will be an inferior mechanism to the new loco . It also needs conversion to DCC , and with the original Hornby Ringfield this is not a simple task. So I intend to delegate the job to someone else at Stevenage....
     
    I also have a Bachmann 4MT 2-6-0 which is compact , has a tender cab and would be ideal for Blacklade's kettle period if I managed to install a decoder. I now have a suitable decoder.
     
    Then there's the Bachmann 08 and original split-chassis 03 (both BR blue) which have been lying in the storage drawer for years because they need hard-wired DCC conversions. Those, too, need sorting out and getting up and running on Blacklade.
     
    Not to mention a few running repairs to coaches, switches and the like
     
    Another purge of the unreliable wagons in the Boxfile fleet might be in order
     
    Some of the things on the bookcase have been unfinished for an appallingly long time. Pacer anyone....
     
    I really mean to get stuff finished and into action this year 
  8. Ravenser
    It's that time of the year again when I contemplate the modelling cupboard, and mortality and start muttering bits of Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress".
     
    Virtually nothing has been done on the modelling front since I got back from Gaydon on 11th October. Post-show exhaustion, helping on the DOGA stand at two large shows , the DOGA half-yearly, a busy time at work, minor controversies , other interests, the run up to Christmas and being away with family during it have seen to that.
     
    The only jobs that have been done are to remount the Kadees on the Airfix 31 so it couples to the stock reliably, and to lower one of the Knightwing point motor castings so stock doesn't clip it. The Digitrax DS64 accessory decoder is still in its packet on top of the cupboard
     
    However I should have a lot more time to do some modelling in the coming months, so it's sensible to take stock and sort out a task list.
     
    Actually I already have two - the original pre-show list and the fault list from the show . So perhaps I should make a start.....
     
    The main task list ended up with three blocks, depending on how critical they were to the show and whether they looked like quick wins. Inevitably things from the first block got left and things from the second got done...
     
    Still outstanding from the Basic List then:
     
    - is the W Yorkshire 155. I'm at least 2 substantial postings behind in terms of writing up progress to date, but the current state of play is that I have an almost complete unit on which the connecting plugs for the Express Models lighting kit are fouling the gangways and causing derailment on any curve. And the motor bogie, which stopped dead before the show, and was diagnosed and fixed at the show with the Chairman's assistance, is now dead as a doornail again. I took it up to the Half-Yearly at Keen House to give it a run round the test tracks and get to grips with the problem of the lighting cable - and it sat there and refused to budge.
     
    Possibly the DC running function has been disabled on the decoder, possibly the thing has seized again, and possibly the problem is beyond the wit of man to solve. At which point I may find myself fitting a replacement Black Beatle and contemplating full-scale reconstruction of the bogies and more internal seating
     
    - A clutch of items are interlinked - and as they weren't relevant to the show they were left. The second board of Tramlink needs rewiring and while I'm about it a point motor installing .
     
    That will then give me a meaningful DC test track back, all of 6' long . At which point I can proceed with DCC installations on the Lima 37 and the Fowler 2-6-4T . From there is becomes possible to run them on Blacklade and start to think about Kadee couplings and upgrading the 37
     
    The rest of the Basic List is done, so we can move on to consider the Second Tranche:
     
    - The Baby Deltic really needs finishing off - it was dropped from the Basic List because it wasn't directly relevant to the show. But it might be useful to have a DC test track while doing so
     
    - And I need to build the DC Kits 128 I've had in stock for several years, and which has always been "next but one cab off the rank". Now I have a completed NRX van I need this to work it, and it would give me some more convenient options for consisting with my Modernisation Plan units: 128+101 or 108 is more convenient than 2 x 2 car units
     
    - Express Models lights fitted to the W Yorkshire 158 are another fairly small job with operational benefits - though in view of the problems with the 155 I will need to make sure that the inter-vehicle connection does not foul the ends of the vehicles on curves. (This unit has been closed up as far as I can with Kadees). I've decided there's no point fitting Kadees on the outer ends as the mechanism in the 158 is completely incompatible with the 153s, and 2 x 2 car units won't fit on the layout when the vehicles are 23m long. (It's not really a proper fit even with 57' vehicles).
     
    - The 150 can't be closed up because of the electric coupling bar. However I do have some A1 Models gangways in stock which can be fitted to sort out the gap. Not perfect but an improvement.
     
    As far as the layout fault list is concerned
     
    - The DS64 accessory decoder needs to go in. Some slight adjustments to the Knightwing point motor castings have been made but more may be called for.
     
    - The couplings on the olive Shark keep parting. I've made one attempt to fix this but will have to try again (the issue seems to be that the plough is deflecting the tail of the Kadee on the other vehicle)
     
    - The existing DS64 was held in place with double-sided sticky tape and this has failed
     
    - The Airfix 31 has caught on the platform edge at the entrance to Platform 3
     
    That then brings us to the Third Tranche - the stuff that last autumn seemed to be over the hills and far away.
     
    - I need to finish the rebuild of the Provincial Pacer with a new Branchlines chassis that was started ages ago
     
    - Weather the 108, paint the interior and add passengers
     
    - The fiddle yard track on the boxfile is damaged and needs replacing. Flexible track for this is already in stock
     
    - Now I have a Hurst Models upgrade kit, I can sort out the 156. This will be a fairly major project
     
    - Finish the WD road van. This took a tumble off the bookshelf and some repairs are needed as well. One for warmer days, given the danger of working resin indoors
     
    - Assuming I can't tweak the current stock, I will need to replace the point into the cripple siding on Tramlink with something gentler and relay the siding itself. I have a point in stock - Streamline small radius live frog - which would be a significant easement , but involves chipping out old track. All a bit messy - which is why I've fought shy of tackling this for a long time. I did think of using Peco's recent code 75 concrete sleeper track , but ripping up all the track and completely relaying and re-ballasting is more than I have a heart for (I'm not Coachmann)
     
    - Insert a Hornby 0-6-0 chassis into the Great British Locos Jinty, and perhaps even getting a DCC decoder into it.
     
    This highlights one issue - I'm getting a bit stale. Blacklade has been my main modelling project , and indeed for much of the time my only one, for about 7 or 8 years. It might be nice to strike out with a fresh challenge. But with such a backlog , and so much other stuff in the cupboard a completely new direction seems a bad idea.
     
    Trying to finish off Tramlink, and knock the bugs out of it would give me a project that's quite different, but which is 60% done already - and it wouldn't add to the oppressive burden of unfinished projects . I haven't built a building in ages......
  9. Ravenser

    "I can see clearly now the rain has gone..."

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    Things are looking up a bit for Mercia Wagon Repair, and the business seems to have escaped the liquidator's clutches.....
     
    Two or three weeks ago I was feeling more than a little hopeless about the whole thing here , partly (if truth be known) for one or two reasons external to the layout. Although there were enough problems arising within the project to cause dispondency.
     
    In the end after a certain amount of glum staring at N gauge points, I decided to see if  the second of the list of increasingly drastic options - fit frog wires and lift and replace the damaged points - would be viable.
     
    And it was. I managed to attach a frog feed wire to three of the five undamaged points. Awkward but, as it proved, quite doable. The other two points were hopeless cases, One , up against the backscene, did not permit me to get at the relevant areas with a soldering iron. And the other had gaps at the joints patched with plasticard scraps superglued in place. You do not solder anywhere near cyanoacrylate bonds, because in the presence of serious heat it decomposes to give off ..ahem cyanide gas . (The clue is in the name, cyanoacrylate...). 
     
    These happen to also be the points where the motors are SEEPs without switching. Not that SEEP's point motor switching is anything to celebrate, as we shall see.
     
    I already had Peco switches in stock, so these were stuck to the motors with Gorilla Glue contact adhesive and wired up . Excellent! I also wired up the one switched SEEP. Not so excellent...
     
    The "switch" on a SEEP motor consists of a small spring fitted round the vertical actuator rod. The point motor is built onto a PCB : there is a slot through it  for the actuator rod to move along when the point is thrown. On each side of this slot , there is a broad metal contact track on the PCB . On one side it ends in the pad to which the frog feed wire is soldered. On the other side it comprises two short sections, seperated by a gap. One of these sections ends in the pad to which you solder  the positive feed wire  , the other in the pad to which you solder the negative feed.
     
    The spring round the actuator rod presses against the PCB and shorts across from the track on one side to the track on the other ... When the actuator rod is at one end of its travel that is the bit of track connected to the positive feed. And  when it is at the other end of its travel, it's the bit connected to the negative feed.
     

     
    The words that come to mind for this bit of electrical engineering include "crude", "bodge", "primitive" and "Heath Robinson"
     
    The throw of a 9mm gauge point is of course rather less than that of a 16.5mm point. And the problem that this causes can be summed up in the words of The Grand Old Duke of York: "And when they were only half way up / They were neither up nor down" . Or positive , or negative....
     
    In one position the spring didn't quite reach the track connected to the feed. So the point is dependant on blade contact when set that way. Unfortunately that way is into the wagon works - which will be the route the shunters take most often . This is unfortunate. I tried fiddling about with the thing, but the PCB base is screwed into pads of thin balsa and I can't shift the motor along by about 1mm
     
    It seems that holding the switch across for slightly longer (say 2 sec not 1 sec) may induce sufficent travel to establish contact. What that will do to the blades long-term is an awkward question - remembering that this all started with a switch blade broken at the tiebar. And the point with this SEEP motor is the only point even more deeply buried in the formation, and even more disruptive to operation if it goes, than the point I've had to replace.
     
    But there are certainly a few issues with the shunters finding the blade dead when they shunt the works fan
     
    Speaking of which , the replacement job is done and here is the proof - point on the right .
     
    It works ok. (Peco point motor here so no switching issues. Just a dirty great hole in the board top). 
     
    So the Board are pleased to report that Mercia Wagon Repair is no longer facing liquidation. I just have to finish laying the track.
     

     
    In the meantime several other issues have been resolved. When I was in the nearest model shop buying the replacement point and a few other bits I spotted a recent issue yellow Network Rail 57 for sale second-hand at a reasonable price. A little discussion with the man in the shop ended with me returning and exchanging my Freightliner 57 and £20 for his Network Rail 57.  
     
    I now have 57 312, in a state current from about 2012-2019  (I can't now find the video of her emerging from repaint in order to confirm whether she lost the custard livery in early 2018 or early 2019).  She was hired out to a freight operator (I think DRS - again I can't refind the reference) so it's perfectly reasonable to have her turn up on a train of stock for repair/ recently repaired .  But she shouldn't really be seen with the Dapol 33, which with a little stretching of reality is good to about 2003 but no further. On the other hand the Freightliner 66s are fine as companions.
     
    I am starting to realise that "post-privatisation" has become rather a long period, and I am being more than a little hazy about the exact dates of various "modern" airbraked wagons....
     
    No plates were supplied with the loco although she has carried various names at various times.
     
    Here she is , along with my first two efforts at kit-built wagons in N .
     
    These seem to have taken forever to sort out but they now have couplers and can be used, even if they still need weathering/varnish coat. A degree of approximation applies with both, and I'm not entirely sure the chemical tanker really made it to the late 1990s never mind the present. As I said, "contemporary" suddenly seems to be about a 30 year period. It's startling to realise that the 57 must have originally been built by Brush almost 60 years ago...
     

     
    A further excursion has been provided by the question of backscenes. I was pondering the need for some kind of photographic work - or at least something - at the left side of the layout. Then Peco gave away a fine photo -backscene of a townscape with the January Railway Modeller (it's actually Exeter - the cathedral can be seen near the middle of it)
     
    This seemed ideal , even though I had already repainted the backboards with a clean sky colour. But it's just over 5' long, and the layout is 6' long. By the time I thought to phone Peco about the availability of an extra copy of that issue they'd run out
     
    And by that time I'd bought some Gaugemaster photo-backscene for the ends. But those sheets are rather closer up.
     
    Hmmm
     
    I have at least decided to disguise the non-exit at the left-hand end by a road bridge on a rising gradient , at a slight angle to the board. If I were ever to cut a hole at the end and go to an external cassette fiddle , this might disguise it. And in the meantime, it occurs to me that a mirror buried here might help, scenically
     
     
     
     
  10. Ravenser

    A Lot of Wiring For A Little Layout

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    The N gauge project is firmly analogue DC. This is because the core of the stock has been sitting in a drawer for nearly 15 years and none of the four locos concerned are "plug and play" DCC ready . Indeed the Farish 04 isn't DCC Ready at all and would be a real pig to convert. (I understand current production of the model will take a decoder)
     
    Electrical wiring was long one of my blind spots. The wiring of Tramlink (Kent) consisted of a few bits of bell-wire and an on/off switch. Points were dead-frog. The Boxfile marked a huge step forward: live-frog points with - gasp - point motors . But it was and is extremely small. The club project launched me into a supporting -player involvement in DCC which bore fruit in Blacklade, which has a fairly sophisticated DCC and lighting installation for what is a small terminus to fiddle yard layout.
     
    So Mercia Wagon Repair is the first time I've attempted conventional analogue DC wiring on any real scale. There will be six live-frog points - the Boxfile has just three. There will be six electrical sections and two isolating sections - the Boxfile is in practice one section. There probably won't be any signals - the real thing wouldn't have any - but there might be a little lighting.
     
    Tramlink (Kent)'s boards were built of 2" x 1" timber and 4mm ply. This precludes the use of stall-motor point motors like Cobalts and Tortoises. There simply isn't the frame depth to accomodate them. So point motors are by necessity solenoids - Peco and SEEP types.
     
    There will be no control panel as such , just local switches along the front edge of the two boards . I have learned my lesson about operating positions: if the layout is operated from the front, the switches had better be at the front, conveniently to hand. There is no reason at all to operate from the back with the backscene in the way. This is essentially a shunting layout intended for interesting operation at home. It is portable enough - the whole thing will box up as a unit 3' x 11" x 12"  - so theoretically it could be exhibited . But the last two and a half years have altered the dynamics of the hobby considerably. The exhibition circuit is currently a shadow of what it was three years ago, the next 18 months may be somewhat restrictive, and it is getting difficult to see things going back more or less to where we were in February 2020 in the foreseeable future. In this climate , building a new layout principally for exhibition starts to feel like an act of denial. Put another way - this year I reckon there will be just 3 events within 30 miles of me involving layouts from outside the organising club.
     
    Mercia Wagon Repair is therefore going to be an extremely conventional analogue DC layout. Control gear is borrowed from the Boxfile : a Gaugemaster 100M controller and this:   Hanging By a Thread  .  The inter-board connector with its DIN plugs is also borrowed from the Boxfile.  DIN sockets had already been bought for the intended re-wiring of Tramlink (Kent) and can therefore finally be used. (Tramlink was run from a little Gaugemaster Combi , which also has a 16V AC output, so in theory the four input wires from the Black Box could be connected to that. I haven't seen any need to do so yet as the Gaugemaster 100M is a reliable unit, but it might be worth experimenting with its use on the Boxfile since the Combi takes up less space and might not need the use of an extension block to reach the wall socket)
     
    Only one problem there - taking the high current power to the point motors from an external CDU means a comparatively long length of wire to reach the point motors. This is especially the case with the satellite board, where the current would have to traverse a long DIN connector lead as well. As I had bought a new CDU without really thinking why I needed it, I decided to use it after all on the second, satellite board (the left-hand board) and avoid the issue. 
     
    This means that I need three circuits : 12V DC track power from the controller, 16V AC high current pulse from the external CDU to the point motors on the right-hand board, and 16V AC low current continuous to power the CDU on the left-hand board and, potentially, any other accessories requiring a 16V AC supply. That could include a regulated power supply delivering 12V DC to lighting LEDs
     
    The DIN plug from the output side of the Black Box is 6 pin, and the inter-board  DIN connector cable is 5 pin, So far, so good: the necessary number of connections are available. However you will have noticed that the external CDU was wired up with only 2 circuits (12V DC + 16V AC to/from the CDU). The first step was therefore to open up the Black Box, and add two by-pass wires from the input connector blocks of the CDU (ie the 16V AC continuous input) which were soldered to the two spare wires in the output DIN cable. While I was about it, I found out what went to each connection on the matching 6 pin DIN socket I was about to install on the layout. The equivalent socket on the Boxfile is sealed inside a building, so I had no idea what came out of each pin.
     
    Dropper wires are 7/0.2 wire in red and brown - the electrical trader at Ally Pally didn't have any off-cut packs in black. Every piece of rail has a feed , and longer lengths of rail have two. I find soldering droppers below the rail much more difficult in N than in 4mm, and the sleepers are much more vulnerable to melting. Longer runs are in 16/0.2 or even 24/0.2 wire left over from Blacklade in order to minimise voltage drop
     
    Here we are at an early stage of proceedings. Some bits of the wiring and connectors from Tramlink are still in place: the tag strips from the old wiring were re-used.

     
    A hole at the back to take the DIN socket for the interboard connector is visible on the right hand board.
     
    There are to be 3 electrical sections on each board . No section can bridge the board joint because there aren't enough connections on the connecting cable (Also DIN sockets are relatively tough and 28-way D sockets aren't and are rated for a surprisingly limited number of connections. Anyway, I had the DIN sockets and cables already.)
     
    The usual rule "black to the back" applies to the 12V DC traction supply, though brown is the new black. All the section switching is on the brown side, so red is common throughout. Switches for the sections and point motors are mounted at the front of the boards , a small group of switches on each board. The brown patch on the right hand board reflects the fact that I left the low platform of Tramlink in place, and two layers of 4mm ply is too thick to get the switches through. So I had to chop it out with a chisel and a 16mm wood drill from below
     
    This will show the issue. The front siding - mainline departure siding - is laid along the inner edge of the old platform . At the time this was taken the cork to ramp it to this level was still to go in. The gradient is about 1 in 75 and does not seem to cause any issues. The dots are breakthroughs from the wood drill and mark the location of the switches. The rest of the old platform surface will be covered by ballast and sceney in duie course. The complications of re-using existing boards....

     
    And here we have two shots of the undersides of the boards , largely wired. So far I've laid the "mainline" side of the layout (loop and front siding) amounting to 4 points, 3 electrical sections and the basic electrical architecture. That amounts to about 2/3rds of the wiring.
     
    This is the right hand board, as it currently is. One point still to go in, and also the dropper wires for the works siding fan (the 3rd section on this board). The plethora of dropper wires does eat up tag strip connections. Blue and yellow are high current 16V AC for the point motors - the heavy 24/0.2 wire used for the long runs of the AC common is obvious. The back of the layout is at the bottom. (The 16V AC low current circuit is grey/purple)
     
    Point motors are a mix of SEEP and Peco. I already had two SEEP motors but thought I would need motors with switching for the frogs. In fact Peco code 55 short radius points have no frog switching and rely on the blades. But the medium and large radius Code 55 points are unifrog, and need a switch in live frog mode.... I bought 5 Peco point motors (nearly all "new second-hand") and five switches, but only 3 Peco motors and one switch will be used, because I don't like chopping big holes in my baseboard.
     

     
    And here we have the left-hand board,  in the heat of battle.
     

     
    The second point motor - a SEEP - is still to go in. The small hole it requires is visible below the packet of solder, and the ruddy great crater left by installing a Peco motor is visible to the right. The heavier 16/0.2 wire used to reach the satellite tag strips will be obvious . Using heavier wire here should minimise voltage drop : there is another 18" of interboard connector and internal wiring on the other board so this is actually quite a long run. The CDU is bottom centre and the AC common is just starting to be wired. There is an isolating section  to hold a loco at the far end of each board.
     
    As I said - a lot of wiring for a little layout
  11. Ravenser

    Paint Your Wagon

    By Ravenser,

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

    Shock to the system

    By Ravenser,

    The small shunting plank is firmly Transitional. It may use diesels (or an honourary diesel - Y3) but it's the sort of inner city goods depot you really can't justify existing after about 1970. Consequently the modest fleet of stock for it is very traditional indeed: no air brakes here. The ex LMS fish van is meant for it , and various circumstances resulted in me acquiring and building one of the new generation Parkside kits for the BR standard 12T van . Potentially very useful for the plank
     
    In the last couple of years I've been fairly heavily committed on a number of fronts , not least with Blacklade, and not much has happened on the plank side of things . In fact the little depot has hardly been operated - I seem to have been too busy. However with one or two commitments winding down I've a little more time , and one Parkside kit sparked off another and another.
     
    Ravenser Mk1 was a compact shunting micro of an unorthodox design, taken from a plan called "Swan Yard" in RM June 1988 (I think) . For various reasons it didn't work terribly well, but when the trains weren't falling off the tracks the operational interest was high. A fleet of about 20 wagons and half a dozen locos was accumulated over about five or six years. It was set in North Lincolnshire, and, largely by accident, in 1983 - I had some 16T MCOs and then discovered unfitted operations ended in December 1983. The Speedlink airbraked stock was RTR but the traditional stock was virtually all kit built . This was my first serious venture into building wagon kits, and nearly all of them worked . It was also my first attempt at proper weathered stock.
     
    When I moved into my present flat about 7 or 8 years ago, I had grand ideas about building Ravenser Mk2 . The study was earmarked for it. However I'd joined a club and a couple of societies, and became actively involved with a club project and one of the societies, which ended up meaning quite a lot of commitments. I'd also started a light rail project , and Ravenser Mk2 never actually happened. The shunting plank was built as a micro for a competition a little later and then I built Blacklade for the RMWeb Challenge to act as the larger layout I'd never actually managed to get. Ravenser Mk2 was quietly abandoned as an aspiration at that point. The main rationale for the early period on Blacklade is to provide a use for locos and passenger stock acquired for Ravenser Mk2; the later period provides a home use for various items acquired in support of a club project , though in both cases the core of what I had anyway has been expanded with new purchases
     
    However, this means that for the last 6-7 years all the wagons from Ravenser Mk1 have been sitting in a stock box in the study, unused. When I built the current shunting micro , I realised that it would have to be set pre 1970 and it became an excuse to build all the kits which were completely out of period for a TOPS era BR Blue layout but which I had somehow acquired or really fancied - fish vans, Palvans, wooden PO wagons, cupboard door and slopesided minerals , prenationalisation vans etc etc, and Silver Fox bodied shunters. It also became a test bed for trying something better than tension-locks - Sprat &Winkle couplings. TOPS lettered wagons with tension locks didn't suit, and there they sat. I've ended up with three completely different OO fleets, one of which hasn't been used in years .
     
    So, with one or two commitments off my plate , and a nice new Parkside kit under my belt in double quick time, I had a rush of blood to the head. Out came the old stock box and I had a look through it for suitable candidates for a set of new couplings and a revived life on the shunting micro.
     
    I said earlier that nearly all my early ventures into kitbuilding worked. One didn't. I built a Red Panda Shockvan , and it looked very pretty. Unfortunately the chassis wasn't square and it fell off the track with much more enthusiasm than the other wagons. Effectively it was useless . And Red Panda underframes are delicate and fragile and this one got some knocks and was rather battered with bits missing.
     
    A Shockvan would be very nice on the shunting micro , and a Red Panda underframe kit was found in the kits box in the cupboard.
     
    Not a pretty sight at first:
     
    .JPG]
     
    The old underframe has been removed. The problem has been identified - one end is very slightly lower than the floor at one side (the body is smaller than the underframe, since this is a shockvan). This has thrown it out of square. A little work with the file and we are in business. The kit provides for a sliding body and thus fills up part of the area between the solebars . This made it awkward to break out the old chassis bits , and it also means that there isn't much room to add lead . Sadly I didn't remember to put it inside the body in those days. the van turns the scales at about 35g - once the couplings are on and a bit more lead stuffed into the last orifices, I hope to get it up to about 40g , though that's really still too light
     
    I was rather pleased with the finish of the body and have managed to retain this. I was trying to retain the vac cylinder , but unfortunately stuck on the new solebars the wrong way round. I resorted to stuffing clippings of lead inside the replacement cylinder before supergluing it in place , in a desperate attempt to add a fraction more weight. Fitting the brakeshoes was not a nice job - the mouldings have to be cut down severely to fit and are easily damaged in the process. I got them in, just, but not all the push rods (45 thou wire) are dead straight . I've added rain strips of the 3 part variety from microstrip , after cleaning off most of the incredible never-drying matt varnish on the roof ) with white spirit. The van used to stick to the plastic lid of the stock box and was a mess. But I didn't dare try adding a canvas roof - I reckoned I'd damage the finish on the sides in the process
     
    I haven't posted in the first and latest models thread , but this one will have to do. "And here's one I made earlier". Its not in fact amongst my earliest efforts, but shows an old Lima body with vents added on a spare Parkside claspbraked underframe, which was a RTR upgrade for Ravenser Mk1 inspired by reading Rice's book. And next to it is a brand new Parkside kitbuilt van . (The thing they are standing on is my Sprat and Winkle fitting gauge)
     
    .JPG]
     
    The kit provides alternative ends and alternative planked and plywood doors. I went for plywood doors/planked sides for the hell of it , with the later hydraulic buffers. It seems ply doors/planked sides coincided more or less with the change to clasp brakes. Thus the conversion to the left is wrong - the doors shouldn't be planked ,or if they are , it should have push rod brakes; and that on the right is questionable - the clasp braked underframe would arguably have been more common on these , though lot 2990 apparently featured ply doors on the older underframe, and the wagon will carry a number from this lot. But the only photo I've found shows the older buffer design....
     
    Oh dear! I can only plead that published info is limited, and when I did the original conversion years ago I had almost zero info on BR 12T vans
     
    The body and underframe are now painted and await transfers and weathering. I've got Spratt & Winkle couplings on this one andthe LMS fish van , so they are useable on the shunting micro - unfortunately there is a minor clearnece issue with the 12T vent van in one place, so a little discreet carving is called for.
     
    Getting Sprat and Winkles on the Shockvan will be more interesting as the lead sheeting prevents the normal mounting block and melt in staple attachment. It can be done , with wire fixing and the baseplate glued onto the lead sheet but it won't be as good and I'm uncomfortable about hanging a heavy load behind it. Fortunately on this layout it won't have that issue
     
    And with an excess of enthusiam , I've dug a kit for a Parkside LNER fruit out of the cupboard and made a tentative start on that as well....
  13. Ravenser

    Fruits of my Labours

    By Ravenser,

    After a rather more protracted effort than it should have been, I've finally finished the vans and here they are:
     

     
    From left to right , ex LNER fruit, BR vent van, and rebuilt BR Shock. And yes , the Fruit and Shock still need couplings.
     
    Unfortunately I've noticed the chassis on the vent van is not 100% square . It seems to run fine, because it's been out on the shunting plank without trouble - it was only some time later that I noticed a fractional rock when stood on a mirror. Since I built it on a flat surface and (as far as I was aware) it was fine then, i don't quite know what has happened . I suspect part of the problem may be the excellent fit of the parts . On the other two vans the wheels are a little loose in their bearings , and there is a bit of slop which will accommodate any slight irregularities. But on this van the whole assembly is tight and the axles have no slop at all.
     
    I'm not sure what , if anything, I can do. The van seems to run fine in practice , and possibly will do, though now I know it's not 100% right I'm uncomfortable and a touch annoyed with myself. The only thing that comes to mind it to attempt to shift the errant bearing slightly with the tip of a hot soldering iron - either down fractionally, or in, which would then make the wheelset a slightly loose fit, and the slop would presumably solve the problem
     
    The box lettering on the Fruit is rather larger than the photograph I have (in Cheona Wagons 2) shows. However an old set of BR transfers (GeeDee?) had a ready made up transfer for the BR built batch of this wagon type and so I used that . The vac cylinder was replaced with an ABS one (I needed extra weight) and the buffers are ABS LNER fitted.
     
    The Shock shows why I thought it worth preserving the body. The brake shoes and cross rods on the new underframe aren't perfect - trying to cut down the Red Panda shoe moulding is not nice and I had to work round the lead weights stuck on underneath. I've added as much more as I can, but it's still only a fraction over 40g and really a bit light
     
    Fruit and BR Vent vans have canvas roofs (one ply of tissue stuck to the roof with solvent - I didn't dare try it on a painted body) and a suitably motley array of rainstrips, based on photos in the Cheona book (micro rod or strip ) . The end cappings were slivers of very thin card or think paper
     
    And yes , I will try to get the couplings on this weekend
  14. Ravenser
    It's officially a day for quiet reflection and I'm back from Warley after what inevitably seems to turn into a spot of retail therapy. And since I've not actually made or done anything - I've simply flashed the plastic in various directions - it seems inappropriate to muse on the fact on a workbench blog. That's for making things.
     
    I finally succumbed to an order from Hattons a week or two back . I'm now the proud owner of a Central Trains 158. It needs a decoder fitting of course, but that is one of the shortfalls in stock for the late period covered. There were also two new Skaledale buildings because they're from my home town and I knew the businesses concerned (strictly speaking Mawer & Plenty is actually Rubery's the Chemist where I used to get the meths for my Mamod traction engine, and Rubery's isn't , if you get my meaning , but I digress) . And while I was about it I had a quick hunt through the bargain list and splashed out on a Base Toys 70's lorry because it was only ??2-50 and spreading the postage across more items helps. Just the sort of thing that might come in handy one day - and then you won't be able to find one for love nor money
     
    How much stuff do we buy "because it 'll come in handy one day" even though at the moment we don't, strictly speaking, have any use for it all?
     
    I've got a cupboard full of the stuff .And a small chest of drawers. A hasty check behind me reveals an S-Kits air-con unit etch sitting on top of a card kit for a building in Barcelona (in 1:100) and one of the Maurice Bradley Bilteezi sheets which was intended for the light rail project.
     
    Which has been stalled for at least five years. The heavy rework of a Bilteezi semi detached (cut down to 3/4 relief) is still in a plastic bag in the topmost of the chest of drawers, unfinished. There were supposed to be two pairs of semis. I can't remember if the second one was started or not. If not , the sheet is presumably in the same pile, underneath the building from Barcelona . Along with the part used sheets for a firestation , started but not finished for a competition, and destined for a club project which may have been overtaken by events. The bulk of it is safe in a shoebox cluttering up the sitting room. Now I've got a bit more time - if you ignore the fact I've been out the last 2 Saturdays and will be out next Sunday and the Saturday after that , and then it's almost Christmas - I may actually get it finished and out of my life
     
    On top of that lot is two Knightwing oil tank kits. They were bought for the fuelling point on Blacklade but proved far too big so were never built. They could well come in handy one day..... Or , more realistically, I forgot to get them into the second hand stall at the last club show. A set of C+L plastic windowframes seperates them neatly from a yellow box containing a Ratio Southern bogie brake. This is meant for the parcels train on Blacklade - along with the LMS BG I've already done - since 2 x 50' vans + 31 will fit neatly into the middle platform without hanging off the end. 50' van + 57' GUV won't - though it didn't prove a real issue when I had the last operating session. I sprayed the sides BR blue when I was starting the SR PMV kit - and that's as far as it got, though I have sourced transfers .And on top of those are some blue and white ABS packets newly bought at Warley. They had axle unit castings for a BR CCT along with clasp brakes , and MJT supplied some suitable etched BR plate W-irons. Somewhere in the depths of the pile of stock are two boxes with twenty -odd year old Lima CCTs from my first modern image layout , which I'm hanging on to, with a view to upgrading for parcels use on Blacklade (tail traffic perhaps) . Though now the PMV's built, the need is less urgent.
     
    The light rail project does see occasional use as a DC test track, by the way - though the electrical connection onto the second board has broken and so it is temporarily only 3' of test track. Another job , midway down the list, that needs sorting. Which is why, when I succumbed to the siren call of the Bachmann stand at Warley and bought a medium sized black kettle, cheap, it went round the test track, to check it worked and run it in before chipping.
     
    Yes, I know I shouldn't have succumbed to a loco I don't strictly need. The idea was that it could serve as a sensible sized railtour loco on a club project (it's a preserved example) - I'd resolved I wasn't going to succumb unless and until I saw it heavily discounted : and there it was. Thank you! Which way is the cash dispenser?
     
    The fact that the project in question is a bit up in the air at present , and things could go in a direction where the kettle wouldn't be needed isn't a great objection. It was "only"??50 , and since it has a tender cab it could - I suppose - appear on Blacklade with a 2 or 3 coach steam special without looking completely stupid. And I could actually use the small number of Mk1s and Mk2s I bought when the local model shop closed down . Not to mention the BCK I bought off the Bachmann stand a while back for a tenner, or the unbuilt Kitmaster Mk1 someone in the local group gave me. Or - assuming we ever manage to build the thing - the little Eastern branch terminus the group intends building. I shall probably find the ER never had any.
     
    Anyway , it's a nice loco. And I don't strictly need it. And in its last 3 outings, the Bachmann stand has caught me 3 times in this way to the tune of ??150 in total. All of these locos might run on Blacklade - but strictly speaking they're not necessary. They're nice locos and they run well, though....
     
    And in the top drawer, on top of the plastic bag with the unfinished semis there is now (since last night) a bag with some laser cut sheets for red pantiles, and some laser cut doors and uPVC window frames. Which I'm sure will come in very handy for- something. These are from a new firm York Modelling , and are some of the first British outline products I've seen using this technique. Its been around in the States for a little while I think. He's also done a low relief terrace kit in 4mm as laser-cut MDF. It requires you to add your own brickpaper or plasticard cladding but that's no problem. Unfortunately I've no obvious use for it at present - Blacklade's far too narrow for such luxuries . So I managed to resist it. (We don't seem to have a smiley with a halo...)
     
    I've also sourced 20 swg piano wire from Eileens - who seemed think Xurons could cut the stuff without damage to themselves. This removes the one obstacle to fitting the last few point motors, unless you could the inertia unit fitted to my drive.
     
    And it looks as if I'm going to have to paint my 150/2 myself, somehow. Anyone know any Halfords car colours that match colours in Regional Railways livery?
     
    The two major omissions were a lighting unit for the Pacer - no sign of Express Models - and a replacement underframe for the 101 , though E. Kent gave me a list , which shows this as a spare. However I risk buying other bits to make up the order.
     
    I'm trying to be good and not buy stuff I don't need, or start more projects . But I reckon I must have spent close to ??150 yesterday - excluding travel
     
    (And I'm not even mentioning the tram habit. 4 kits (etched LCC F, whitemetal LCC snowbroom, Keilkraft W Ham balcony, Streetlevel LCC M) in 4 months. I'm not committed to building Highgate Archway circa 1936. Honest. I haven't got room or time even to consider it. I keep telling myself this, at regular intervals)
  15. Ravenser

    Gremlinology

    By Ravenser,


    Electrical
    In February I had the layout up after a couple of months and all was not well. Things stuck and stalled because they needed a thorough cleaning, the 128's body sat visibly too high, the NBL 21 needed a wheel adjustment, I was reminded that the NRX van needs one Kadee re-setting...
     
    And most importantly, the point that leads into the fuelling point (and which forms part of one end of the run-round loop) stopped throwing . I tried adjusting the motor to release it with my fingers, tried adjusting the throw wire. And all I achieved was a motor that ground and whined without moving anything. 
     
    There had already been a problem here - about 18 months ago locos with limited pickup started stalling on the frog when the road was set for the fuelling point. Checking wires, remaking screw connections didn't fix it.
     
    In short - a new point motor required.  Because of the very constricted space under the boards in the throat area I had used a Hoffmann motor  on this point . And on searching the forum I found an old post from Dagworth reporting that he'd had problems with Hoffman /Conrad motors when the switch failed. Clearly that had also happened to me.
     
    The Hoffmann motor was originally sourced from Finney & Smith, who have been gone for years. A cheap grey clone was available from Conrad, and one or two people swore by them; but on checking the Conrad website these motors are no lonnger available. A like-for-like replacement was therefore not possible.
     
    The original installation is described in an old post here but here is an old photo of the relevant area:
     

     
    It is the upper board that concerns us,  and the Hoffmann motor is the little black and red thing in the bottom left corner of the board.
     
    Here we are again - and the tightness of the location is obvious . You can also see in this shot that the point itself is located to one side , under the board framing , a piece of which has been chiselled away to allow the throw arm to operate. Dear reader - do not create this kind of situation, except from dire and compelling need. 
     

     
     

     
    Clearly a Tortoise was never going in here, and the best and smallest thing I could find was a Cobalt Blue . One has already been used satisfactorily for a good few years - the blue motor just below the Hoffmann.  So a Cobalt Classic Omega motor was ordered from DCC Concepts as the cheapest option. This now comes with 3 switches: one low-powered LED connection and two high power switches. The Hoffmann motor had only one switch, which is why the Erkon ground signal controlling movement off the fuelling point was never installed. Now, potentially, it can finally go in.  (I should say here that the colour-light signals on the main board have been a minor disappointment. Because the platform roads are not in line  with the board edge, the signals are slightly turned - so it's difficult for an operator to see the aspects without deliberately moving to look. As a result they don't really serve as an indication to the operator of what route is set)
     
    There  is, of course, a catch. Cobalts and Tortoises are designed to work a point immediately above them. The throw wire is driven from a mounting in the centre of the casing, through a fulcrum hole positioned on the side of the casing. Making them work a point which is off-set to one side of the motor is  not exactly obvious. And quite clearly there is no way a Cobalt (or for that matter a Tortoise) can be positioned directly above that hole right up against the baseboard frame. Which is the whole reason [sorry, pun not intended] why I orginially used a Hoffmann motor in this location.
     
    Fortunately there is a commercial solution, at least for the Tortoise. Exactoscale have for many years sold a moulded plastic mounting plate to which a Tortoise can be screwed, and which is then fixed to the baseboard by further screws. The throw arm then moves a thick plastic bar which slides from side to side beneath the mounting plate - and a secondary pin projecting up from this then throws the point. The arrangement should be pretty clear from the photos below.
     
    I bouight a number of these adaptor plates when Blacklade was originally built, but only used one of them. Now a Tortoise won't go in this location - but the adaptors aren't designed for Cobalt motors. 
     
    But they can be adapted to take a Cobalt motor - so this posting may be of wider interest to anyone who needs to use Cobalt motors in an awkward location. Details should be fairly obvious from the two photos below.
     
    The recess in the Exactoscale mouldings is just too small to receive the lower flanged base of the Cobalt. But it will take the sticky pad supplied with the Cobalt. All that then needs to be done is to mark locations for new holes for the fixing screws inside the recess. Using the Cobalt as a template to mark the locations I drilled a pilot hole with a pin vice then opened it out with something much larger.
     
    Several of the fixing projections have been removed from the Exactoscale moulding to get it to fit, and I also had to saw a sliver off the back of the moulding. The loss of these fixing points doesn't matter, as the fixing screws supplied with the Cobalt are long enough to go through into the baseboard , so the original fixing points are a little bit of a belt-and-braces exercise.
     
    The sticky pad is then inserted in the recess in the Exactoscale moulding, and the Cobalt added on top - this holds it well enough for setting up. The throw wire needs shortening and fits into a hole drilled in the Exactoscale bar (I left the wire too long, drilled too deep and found I'd effectively pegged the bar to the underside of the baseboard when I tried operating the motor. Once the wire had been shortened a little more all was well)  
     
    The photos were taken before the  main fixing screws had been inserted into the new holes, and before the wires had been connected up, but the details of  installation should be pretty clear.
     
    The current design of Cobalt has 3 switches , compared with 2 on the original design (see the other blue lump in the picture). One of the high-current switches is used to switch the live frog. That leaves at least one switch available to control the Erkon ground signal that was originally going to be installed to control egress from the fuelling point. As there wasn't a contact available on the Hoffmann this never happened, but now it might. However now I am back at work time is limited and the list of  outstanding modelling jobs is long so don't hold your breath... (I am not quite clear how the low current LED switch works. Does it switch either DC feed to a wire , meaning that an LED will light up /not light depending on which way it is connected to the wire??)
     
    The replacement point motor has been thoroughly tested through a full running session - it works reliably, and the frog is live and properly switched. Since it is part of a crossover it is connected to the same output terminals on the accessory decoder as the other point motor with which it works in conjuction. This ensures the crossover always throws together , and saves the cost of an extra decoder output. Since stall motors are low current devices the total current drawn from the output is perfectly acceptable

     
     

  16. Ravenser

    Message in a Bottle - 2022

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    I am very late with my annual review this year, even though a stub has been in draft for several months . But rather more has been done than might appear.
     
    The 1:72 Fairey Battle took up much of my modelling activity in the last months of 2021. A full write up is here , and it has now recieved final painting (which needs writing up..). It is already a bookshelf ornament on its stand, and I still intend to build a simple runway diorama as a test piece, on which it could be posed.
     
    Inevitably this activity led to a rush of blood to the head, and I purchased more Airfix kits - a Cromwell tank (1:76) to "bulk out" the purchase of display stands, and a Gloster Gladiator, with one eye on the proposed OO9 layout. Further research has revealed that RAF colour schemes and markings changed sharply with the Munich crisis in the summer of 1938, and the familiar serial letters and camoflage schemes of World War 2 were not used by the RAF prior to that date. Consequently I could either build the Airfix Hurricane Mk1 I have in a very early non-camoflage scheme, valid only for a few months in spring-summer 1938, or I finish it in camoflage with early squadron letters which is valid from summer 1938 to September 1939. Either way replacement after-market decals will be required. The Gladiator (introduced February 1937) is a noticably smaller aircraft than the Hurricane and smaller is definitely better for a OO9 diorama layout. The suspended aircraft is intended to be demountable anyway, so the models could be changed over - which would allow the layout to be dated at any time from early 1937 to the outbreak of war.
     
    Once I started building the Battle I had grand thoughts of following it up quickly with another kit from the gift set, this time a twin-engined one with greater presence on the top of the bookshelf. The Handley-Page Hampden was earmarked for this, and upgrading parts are available to do a better job than straight out of the box. Fortunately I didn't rush out and buy anything as the Battle has taken rather longer than I expected, and this bright idea has receded into the middle distance - however it is still the likely follow-on on the aircraft kit front.
     
    The Cromwell tank was bought with an eye to providing a load for one of the DOGA etched Warflat kits I bought . It would be somewhat out of period for anything I actually run, but it is the last British tank that would fit on a Warflat inside British loading gauge. However in the process of checking Paul Bartlett's website I realised that some Warflats were used to carry coach and DMU bogies in departmental service - and that is something I could credibly run on Blacklade.
     

     
    The Cromwell tank was built before I returned to work, the Warflats are still therefore on - but they are on hold at present as my N gauge project is absorbing all my modelling time. I have at least managed to write up some of that one.... Mercia Wagon Repair
     
    One thing that was finished was my upgrade of an old Hornby Mk2 "BSK" into a decent Mk2a BFK . This now makes up into a reasonably well matched 2-car set along with my ex Lima Mk 1 TSO. The pair were taken along to the DOGA AGT for the modelling competition, and I need to get them into regular service. (Blacklade, I'm afraid, hasn't been up much in the last few months). Again, a write up is outstanding.
     
    I got nearly all the way with a conversion of an old Triang Hornby Mk1 BSK  to an NNK courier van. This needs finishing, assembling and weathering but the BFK took precedence when it came to getting something ready for the AGT and I've done nothing in 4mm since - not helped by a bout of the Dreaded Lurghi some weeks ago (I now seem to be back more or less to normal). Again it needs a post to write it up when it's done.
     

     
    And I really must finish off the 128 Parcels unit this year - if only because it is what will pull the NNK and the NRX conversions . One minor job that was done early in the year was fixing the too-short Kadee on the NRX so it now runs without derailing on curves
     
    I made a start painting the sides for a second Mk1 TSO, this time based on an unbuilt Kitmaster SK /TSO kit, which will have a second Replica interior and MJT bogies. I hope this will come out rather crisper and to a higher standard than the upgraded Lima Mk1, and make a better partner for the Bachmann Mk1 BSK
     
    Beyond that, the Airfix kit of the Trevithick loco is still stalled here: Airfix Trevithick kit
     
    It would be good to get my old detailed Hornby 29 rewired, upgraded and running on DCC

     
    But I doubt if I will get much further than that in 4mm this year - if even that far , considering we are already in the second week of August. The Pacer will doubtless have to wait for yet another year
     
    There is rather more going on in N. Obviously I have started building a layout, and despite my  attempt at a strict "no new purchases unless to finish a job" policy I've been able to indulge myself in a little retail therapy. Four or five new wagons have joined the fleet, although I've been trying to look for bargains that fit the theme instead of sheer indiscriminate buying. This has included one "weathered" TTA that had obviously been hanging around because everyone was put off by the "plaster it with brown from an airbrush" factory "weathering". My efforts to tone this down and rework it spilled over into trying to take some of the plastic sheen off several other wagons , and I'm now the owner of  a  mildly weathered Dapol VTG hood  wagon which I'm reasonably pleased with.
     
    I have also joined the NGS, basically so I could buy their new Hunslet shunter. This has now arrived , along with an NGS TTA chemical tanker kit I couldn't resist adding to the order. Watch this space...
     
     
  17. Ravenser

    "What the Hell....."

    By Ravenser,


    Constructional
    I was trying to be systematic and focussed, and work on things in good order, but while I was hunting through boxes looking for bits for the 128 the packet of handrail knobs turned up in my DMU projects box...
     
    As noted in my "programme" posting here, my attempt to press on with the long-stalled ex LNER Toad B (an elderly Parkside kit) stalled when I couldn't find the handrail knobs. Suddenly the brake van was back on the agenda. And as I worked steadily through the things I could see a way to do on the 128, the tasks started to seem more and more demanding, like riding into an ever-stiffening headwind. 
     
    In short there came a point when almost all the obvious things had been done on the 128, and almost all the bits in the bag had been sorted out and applied, and my resolve  fell to critical levels , so that it seemed easiest to pause (the polite term for halt) and to tackle the brake van which ought to be an easier, quicker win
     
    So - the awkward long handrails went in , in an afternoon. I chickened out of attempting an accurate single piece H-shaped handrail - presumably soldered - and the long horizontal handrails are separate from the vertical rails by the door. Feeling emboldened , I was contemplating adding the handrails on the end , when I spotted a problem. When I started the kit, in the reign of George VI [not quite], I got one of the sides upside down . And by the time I added the duckets, somewhat later, there was nothing  much I could do about it. So one ducket is almost 1mm higher than the other. This is not a problem as you don't see both sides of the van, and the discrepancy is slight. But the moment you add end handrails - which must align with the horizontal rails on the side, and with each other- the discrepancy would become horribly obvious.
     
    So I've left them off. Otherwise matters have proceeded as envisaged by Messrs Parkside, the painting has been done, weathering has been carried out, a final varnish coat applied to finish, and the current state of play may be seen here:
     
     

     
    The steam era engineer's train now has a suitable second brake van - the full formation is visible in the short
     
    It was while I was hunting high and low for some lamps for the Toad B (they eventually turned up in a little plastic box hiding in plain site on my workbench) that I found, in tobacco tins buried in an old plywood scrapbox, the mortal remains of two Airfix wagon kits from my childhood. The BR Brake Van is the easier proposition . I painted the parts quite nicely before assembly - I forget what glue I used, but as it was attempting a paint-to-paint bond the whole thing rapidly reduced itself to a kit of parts again, and was shovelled away in the scrapbox.
     
    Unfortunately I really don't have any use for more brake vans. If I did, then I could sort out the poor battered WD road van; and if I needed a BR brake van I have one nicely finished as an air-piped CAR from Ravenser Mk1 which would only need the couplings changed.
     
    Also in the tins were the bits of an even earlier attempt at an Airfix cattle wagon kit. These are not in such a good state as the brake van kit. But when I dug them all out I found that almost all of it is there. I'm missing one end (I've a nasty feeling I threw it away a few years ago as obviously useless) and the doors. Also one buffer beam. And the stations above the sides have taken some damage. But nearly all the necessary bits are there,
     
    I have absolutely no need of a cattle wagon either. But - I was looking through the Cheona book covering brake vans (so as to check painting details for the Toad B) and that volume also covers cattle wagons. At the end is a photo of two BR cattle wagons converted to tunnel inspection vehicles taken at Rotherham in 1989. The roofs have been removed and the vehicles cut down to about 18" above the top of the sides, and a substantial timber platform built on top, carried on heavy longeditudinal timber beams.
     
    That is firmly within my period. And a tunnel inspection vehicle could run perfectly credibly in the 1980s engineering train
     
    The two wagons in the Cheona book are BR built Southern wagons to dias 1/35? and 1/35?  , not the GW-derived BR standard cattle wagon dia 1/353 done by Airfix- which is demonstrably a final version of the GW MEX. I have only managed to find internet pictures for one cattle wagon to tunnel inspection vehicle conversion to show you what I mean - this is a little different as it is based on a dia 1/353 wagon, but the vehicle has not been cut down and the platform is quite thin  DB893928. The photo was taken at Belper in 1980 and the vehicle belonged to the District Civil Engineer at Nottingham, so it's not that far from Blacklade. By 1982 this vehicle had been acquired for preservation and was at Quainton Road
     
    The damage to upper stantions would make this particular conversion difficult from the parts I have. But a similar vehicle cut down by an extra 2 planks and given the much more substantial platform seen on the two vehicles photographed at Rotherham should be doable and ought to be plausible. A hybrid - possibly, but definitely a possible BR conversion . And I rather suspect it will be quite hard to prove it definitively never happened...
     
     
     
     
  18. Ravenser
    We left the 1:72 Airfix Fairey Battle here . Actually that's a slightly generous interpretation because all I had managed to do was to assemble the two cockpit units  and fix them into one side of the fusilage. Several issues had already come to light, though.
     
    Since then very substantial progress has been made: in fact the kit is now assembled and part painted.
     
    By the standards of plastic kits in railway modelling, the assembly and fit of parts in Airfix kits is extremely good. However as I flagged in the pervious posting, there are some problems with the fit of parts in this kit, and they are mainly found underneath the model. The fit of the two halves of the fusilage is fine on the top surfaces , but underneath there is significant misalignment of the parts . There is also the unfortunate "bubble" in the lower surface between the wings. the wings fit fine, but there is slight misalignment of wings and wing roots on the undcerside
     
    Remedial action to such things is fairly familiar to any experienced railway modeller, and suitable bodging was duly undertaken with files, filler and emery boards.
     
    The scene of battle is displayed here:

     
     
    Filler has been added to one side of the join and the whole thing filed down to even it out . A length of microstrip has been added alongside the wing joint on one side and filed down and the wing root on the other side filed and smoothed to fit.The bubble has been filed down as far as I dared without risking breaking through the plastic, and the hole for the clear plastic stand opened out , possibly a fraction too much. I ended up using a medium size Airfix stand, but the model won't quite sit level. Long-term I intend to construct an experimental basic airfield diorama and the Battle will probably end up adorning this.
     
    A representational air intake has been fabricated to replace the missing part. I have filed it back a little but I suspect it is still oversize. 
     
    There are some optional parts in the kit and choices have to be made about how the model will be presented. The gunner's rear cockpit can be modelled closed, or open with  machine gun poking out; the bomb bays can be modelled open with bombs mounted , or closed; and the undercarriage can be modelled either down or retracted. I decided to keep things relatively simple, and opted for a closed rear cockpit, closed bomb bay doors, and lowered undercarriage. The latter is essential if the model is to be dispalyed on a diorama at any time; open bomb bays restrict you to an aircraft on the ground; and the rear cockpit would be closed both on the ground and most of the time whilst flying. The combination I chose allows the finished model to be displayed on a stand  as if in flight (either in take off or landing) or posed on a diorama.
     
    Here is a rather prettier view of the model right way up:

     
    I had something of a fight trying to get the rear sections of the canopy to seat themselves and I had to resort to filing down the rear gunner's head. (I suspect I may have transposed the figures for the pilot and gunner when building the cockpit sections). I have managed to get a reasonable result with applications of Humbrol Clearfix but it isn't a perfect fit I'm afraid.
     
    I have pre-painted parts of the kit where there should be a sharp line between colours prior to assembly using the acrylic paints supplied, although the underside has been painted in Revell matt black, as I have a pot of that and I'm not sure the small pot of black supplied in the boxed set will be sufficient for all four aircraft .
     
    Otherwise this kit has been built strictly as supplied, without upgrades apart from fabricating a missing part. There seems no point trying to run before I can walk , especially when the kit has some fundamental inaccuracies which cannot be removed without very major work which is well above my level. Once I've built this one I'm sure that more advanced techniques and methods of refining and upgrading kits will make a lot more sense to me.
     
    At this point there are still a few small parts to add before final painting and application of transfers. And painting the canopy is starting to present itself as an awkward task
     
  19. Ravenser
    This one's gone wrong somehow - try the link
     
    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2497&start=25" page on Old RMweb
     
    Comment posted by russellwar on Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:34 pm <br />
    <cite>jim s-w wrote:</cite>
    <br />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<br />
     
     
    Cheers
     
    Jim
     
    />If you do, I will quite happily rip out my windows. Let me know too.<br />
     
    <br />The thought of ctting all those windows scared me until now <br />
    __________________________________________</]
    posted on Wed Jan 30, 2008 5:58 pm
     
    They've done it again.
     
    First Bachmann announce a 150 shortly after I buy a Bratchill kit. I still think I will probably get there before they do though - we've not seen a preproduction model yet
     
    Then Hornby announce a 153 , knocking the project to convert an elderly 155 into 2 x 153s on the head. That's not a problem - I could probably use a Provincial liveried 155 suitably detailed, the beetles can be diverted.
     
    Now Bachmann announce a Cravens. Building the DC Kit in my cupboard (acquired second hand) was going to be next cab off the rank after the 150, given that the 153s have been taken out of the pipeline. This because it can only be plain BR blue - which is the sort of livery even I can do.
     
    Questions, questions. Do I simply plough ahead , on the basis that it will be at least 2 years before I get my hands on one of Bachmann's? Do I really want 2 Cravens ?
     
    Do I try to build my kit as one on the parcels unit conversions of the late 80s ? These would arguably be slightly closer in period to a newly converted 153 , and I think some of the conversions amounted to a stripe down the side and removal of some seats . But this leaves me without the passenger DMU for at least 2 years . Should I convert a Bachmann unit to parcels condition in due course??
     
    Questions, questions....
     
    __________________________________________
     
    Comment posted by PaulCheffus on Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:53 am
     
    <cite>Ravenser wrote:</cite><br />They've done it again.<br />
    <br />Now Bachmann announce a Cravens. Building the DC Kit in my cupboard (acquired second hand) was going to be next cab off the rank after the 150, given that the 153s have been taken out of the pipeline. This because it can only be plain BR blue - which is the sort of livery even I can do.<br /></font></blockquote><br />Hi <br />
     
     
     
    Yep its annoying. I had a DC Kits 105 in the cupboard for about eight years then last year decided to make a start, but I will finish it.
     
    Dapol did something similar to me. I spent two years scratchbuilding a pair of Telescopic Steel Hood wagons. Finished the first one and started applying the transfers to the second when they announced they were doing one in N. I have again decided to keep mine and finish the second as they haven't cost me much and to replace them would be about ??????‚??30.<br />
     
    Cheers
    Paul
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by <b>Platform 6</b> on Thu Jan 31, 2008 10:54 am
     
    <cite>Ravenser wrote:</cite><br />They've done it again.<br />
    <br />First Bachmann announce a 150 shortly after I buy a Bratchill kit. I still think I will probably get there before they do though - we've not seen a preproduction model yet ....<br />Questions, questions....</font></blockquote><br />
     
    I know exactly how you feel. I've a DC Kits 108 unstarted but now have some Bachmann 108s. I really think the DC Kits window bars will not 'cut the mustard' compared to the Bachmanns'. http://www.rmweb.co....es/icon_sad.gif
     
    And then there's the 8T cattle trucks just announced! <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....on_rolleyes.gif">
     
    I've slowly been building up a collection to detail/weather from Dapol - and then along comes Bachmann again. <img src="http://www.rmweb.co...._frustrated.gif"> <br />
    You just can't win! <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....es/icon_lol.gif"> <br />
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:14 pm </font><br />
    I've finally managed to do some modelling (does layout building count?) Well, stock modelling anyway.
     
    I had all sorts of good intentions about kits to be built . With it being so fine I even thought of digging out the resin WD road van kit and having a go at it in the garden - as resin dust in the home isn't good for your health. Only a passing thought though and as its set to rain tomorrow the moment passed.
     
    After attempting to weather a Harburn chemical toilet and not liking the results entirely - I wiped most of it off and touched up the roof - I had the acrylics out. So I decided to experiment with weathering a wagon in acrylics - normally I stick strictly to enamels. Out came a few recent RTR engineers wagons which were embarrasingly untouched ... and I spent most of the afternoon weathering two wagons.
     
    A factory weathered Hornby Seacow was the first victim. I didn';t much care for the effect on the underframe and the interior seemed to have had a faint coat of some spare LMS crimson. The inside of the hoppers and the ballast shoots got a coat of Humbrol matt leather , which proved very satisfactory and makes a big difference. I got enthusiastic and gave a Bachmann Limpet a thin wash of the same over the factory painted interior (much better than Hornby but a shade dark)
     
    I'm not too keen on Railmatch Brake Dust - frigteningly yellow and light when wet and darker but still pretty yellow dry. Rescue for the bogies came with a coat of Tamiya Flat Earth XF52 - the fag end of a jar left over from painting the sleepers on Blacklade. I didn't mix it properly and the thin part proved a very effective wash on the underframe of the Limpet , though things like the air tanks need a proper coat
     
    The chequerplate end platforms on the Seacow got a wash of matt leather, followed by a wash of flat earth. That was it for the Seacow - Hornby had effectively taken care of the sides for me. There will be better Seacows out there - a good few owned by folk on RMWeb - but I'm rather pleased with the result and its certainly a considerable improvement. The Limpet has had a few bodyside streaks but the body needs a proper working over with enamel washed and dry brush to tone it down and give it that faintly rusting washed out look<br />
     
    One thing is nagging at me - I presume I can apply Railmatch matt (enamel) varnish over acrylics? I know one way goes and one way doesn't between enamel and acrylic - I take it it is enamel over acyrilc? I normally apply a sealing top coat of matt vanish and it does tend to lighten and tone down , which the Limpet needs
     
    Overall impressions are that it's worked so far and seems effective over large areas. Thin washes can be problematic , and covering power seems poorer than with enamels . On the other hand , speed of drying means you can almost keep working. With enamel washes the Seacow would surely have taken a couple of evenings
     
    And a photo of one of the kits that didn't get built :
     
    <img src="http://img119.images...1024x768ko0.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    an etched kit for a Warflat , courtesy of DOGA. I'm rather looking forward to having a crack at this because it looks fairly simple and the nearest thing to a quick win possible with an etched kit. However it will have to wait till the vacuum based vice I've ordered from Squires arrives
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat May 10, 2008 2:18 pm
     
    Having just lost a long posting , this will be short but I did manage some modelling over the bank holiday. The Warflat didn't get done , for lack of a vice (Squires didn't have what I ordered) and photos are in short supply because the other thing that didn't get done was sorting out the ground cover and fitting the storage tank to the fuelling point on the layout- at which point it should make a nice little diorama for taking photos
     
    I finished the Limpet - wash of "off black to tone down the rust/black and wash of faded rail red + Humbrol 94 to tone down the orange. Excavating in my boxes to find the WD road van kit turned up a VGA I'd forgotten about which acquired Kadees and a wash of Tamiya Flat Earth on the underframe. Representing a coat of dirt on the stainless steel sides probably needs an airbrush and I haven't got one.
     
    In the same box I found a VDA bought off someone else a decade ago as a doner. I didn't much care for the basic weathering so reweathered in washed of enamel and acrylic andI'm very pleased with the result In a burst of enthusiasm I fitted Kadee no5s - well if it went wrong this was a spare wagon - which was my first genuine Kadee installation . In a further burst of enthusiasm , I added a kadee to one end of the Limpet to replace the pocket I robbed for the VGA. Possibly an underset coupler would have been better than packing it - I suspect it's slightly high
     
    On the wagon kit front, the WD road van progressed as far as cleaning up the flash and drilling holes for the handrails. Being resin, working with files drills etc in the flat is absolutely forbidden onsafety grounds, so I had to wait for a fine day and go outside. The instructions are a possible entrant for Metropolitan's Rubbish Instructions competition. They give tips on using cyano, and on painting, they tell you how to prepare the Dapol chassis and drill the holes. They do not contain any instructions on assembling the parts in the kit, though there's an exploded drawing attached
     
    These 2 can rarely have appeared on the same workbench:<br /><img src="http://img356.images...1024x768xq3.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    The Slaters MR asymmetric box van of 1880 must be the earliest prototype available as a plastic kit. This is for someone else. With the POA Blackadder I have copious amounts of Blood On My Hands [ the last 2 elastoplasts were removed this morning - it seems to be twist drills not craft knives that do the damage]
     
     
    The chassis came from a monstrosity Triang Hornby claimed to be a Winkle - the body went in the bin. That also surfaced from the boxes in the cupboard. Suitably cleaned up and with the V hangers filed out and representational detail . Then I made a blunder - digging in my boxes I found some A1 18" railfreight buffers , which sounded right late on a Bank Holiday without a photo in front of me, and fitted them. Photos of similar wagons in the Cheona books show "two stage" oleos on POAs and TTAs They are very firmly stuck - and they're staying.
     
    The thing is , I'm not attempting to build "the definitive 4mm POA Blackadder" for desplay on the DEMU stand at a show. Its an attempt to knock up another airbrake wagon from bits out of the cupboard at nil cost on a Bank Holiday Monday . I actually havbe a 51L /Wizard Models kit and will build that properly - the likely fate of both is to form a rake of 6-7 scrap wagons for use on an exhibition layout , and quite probably there may be several such rakes required. This wagon is making up the numbers, and I suspect most of the effect is going to lie in painting and finishing . It is already dawning that things like the black and yellow stripes on the top won't be easy. Does anyone do Railease logo transfers?
     
     
    Also the TTA chassis is representational at best - and a hasty look at Paul Barlett's site suggests it may be wrong for this body style:
     
    Wagon with TTA chassis?:<br /><a href="http://gallery6801.f.../p23292324.html" >http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p23292324.html</a><br />
     
    Wagons with same body style as jonhall's resin casting from his demos- which is what I found in a box:
    With FAT suspension but longer brake levers:
    <a href="http://gallery6801.f.../p23292333.html" >http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p23292333.html</a>
     
    With pedistal suspension:<br /><a href="http://gallery6801.f.../p23292307.html" >http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/p23292307.html</a>
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sun May 11, 2008 5:16 pm
     
    Most of the ground work around the fuelling point was done last night , so we have pictures of the stock. Unfortunately I still have to resort to flash , despite a sunny day , so quality isn't perfect :
     
    Weathered VDA and Limpet<br /><img src="http://img122.images...p1010312bi3.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    home mixed greys in acrylic , Railmatch faded rail red plus a coat of railmatch matt brushing varnish on the VDA . The varnish does bring out the faded silver grey
     
    Weathered Seacow and partbuilt POA Blackadder<br /><img src="http://img158.images...p1010321uu8.jpg" alt="Image" />
    __________________________________________
    posted on Thu May 29, 2008 9:30 pm
     
    Some folk can nearly finish a DMU kit in 72 hrs (my 150 still sits as a black reproach on the bookcase). Me , I had a bank holiday and what did I manage in 72 hrs . Err... I fitted Kadees to two wagons, and part painted the Blackadder . The POA and a detailed Hornby TTA now have Kadees and I've used up all the number 47s in the packet. Possibly I should have used something shorter as the buffers look a bit far apart. The Blackadder is off-black , (except for the underframe which is suitably brown and the interior which is suitably rusty ) I'm in the corse of sourcing transfers. And that's all folks - except I waved the chequebook around in the direction of various detailing bits
     
     
    It may not be quite right in the underframe department , but the POA is starting to look quite good - if you don't know your stuff on the details of wagon underframes
     
    A rummage through boxes turned up some MEA bodies bought for 50 p each off the Bachmann stand. Dangerous things, cardboard boxes . I need some more TTA underframes, cheap
     
    The MR box van was finished, painted in what may be too dark a shade of grey and dispatched to its new owner. I used acrylics cos I was rushing the job , and I have to admit I'm not entirely comfortable with athem as a medium at least for basic painting. Covering power is not as good as enamel - I'd hate to apply yellow acrylics - and they have a habit of drying up very fast - potentially disasterous if you've mixed a shade .
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:41 pm
     
    A little progress over the weekend. Some of the shopping arrived on Saturday, and with a packet of flushglaze in my hot sticky little hand I attacked the LMS BG. It's rather embarassing to have to admit this is my first serious coach project - assuming a couple of Ratio MR coach kits in my mid teens are excluded (results were slightly better than might be expected, but not in the "keeps all feet on the floor" department). The last 2 layouts were freight only , the light rail project was a different ballgame , so its nearly 20 years since I had to worry about coaches
     
    The flushglaze went in neatly enough with UHU - there's probably a much better way of doing it, but this seemed safer than superglue - and an excellent flushglaze effect was achieved [ There is a sequel to this- it doesn't go without saying ].The bars behind the glazing were reinstated with white cotton , a pair of tweezers and more dabs of UHU top and bottom. The old wheels were replaced with Hornby coach wheels , and while the body was off I started weathering the underframe. As it came , the van had the solebars painted blue , and I initially set about painting them black as it gave a most odd appearance, before spotting that the new Bachmann GUV also had blue solebars , and removing most of the black acrylic in haste with a fibreglass pencil. Black and white photos were no help at all here.
     
    The underframe was then treated to a coat of dilute (enamel) Railmatch frame dirt as this seemed a suitable darkish brownish shade to approximate the colour of underframes in various colour photos of coaches. In a fit of enthusiasm, I then tackled the new GUV with the same stuff . It's remarkable how long painting an underframe actually takes , once you've got in around all the detail and painted the fronts and backs of the wheels (as they weren't primed , I'm not sure how durable this will be , but I don't make a habit of handling my stock by the backs or centres of the wheels , so it should stay on . At least it seems to , where wagons are concerned ).
     
    This makes a big improvement to both vehicles and the BG is now starting to come together. I need to weather the ends suitably (the upper footsteps have been removed, as they had gone by this stage - electrification) and fit Kadees. The GUV is a very nice piece of work , and has NEM pockets at the correct height (I think) but a lot of parcels vans got truly filthy and this is a bit of a challenge of one of my first attempts at coach weathering
     
    I'm still not particularly confident about the BG in this livery (blue/grey) and condition (gangwayed) in parcels traffic as late as the 80s, though a little less unhappy than I was. The relevant Cheona book turns up 3 photos - one gangwayed in all over rail blue in parcels traffic in mid 1975, and two with the gangways removed plated in all over blue, one c1980 . Paul Barlett's site turns up photos of derelict vans in the mid -late 80s , but blue, and with gangways removed/plated, and one photo of an LMS BG in blue/grey , from 1968.
     
    So - blue/grey is a geniune livery, and gangwayed vehicles were used in parcels traffic , and to at least the mid 70s . However the only photo of this is in blue .. Blue/grey gangwayed Mk1 BGs were certainly used in parcels trains in the 80s, and LMS BGs were certainly used in parcels trains to some point in the 80s , probably the mid 80s , but the only photos found show vehicles in plain blue with gangways removed. So a blue/grey gangwayed LMS BG in a parcels train in the period 1985-90 is not proved impossible but seems a bit unlikely...
     
    I'm not doing a repaint , and the gangways are rather nice work anyway . But there is enough flushglaze left to do another van, so if an all blue van turns up (they were certainly produced RTR) a pukka plated conversion might well be on the cards . [ Since then another one has turned up...] Overall , the base model seems quite good
     
    In a rush of enthusiasm, I extracted a very elderly Hornby Mk2 from the bottom of the stockpile , in the naive expectation that similar improvements could be made. Alas , this is a very much worse proposition. For starters , the sides are about 4mm thick, so the "flushglaze" doesn't fit flush - there is still about a 2mm step , and it is not going to look too plausible against modern models . Then , the flushglaze doesn't fit. It's necessary to file back the inside of the window apertures to get it in at all , and with all the vents this is a major task, and one that is likely to result in a loss of crispness/minor damage. I wrote off 2 sets of windows before I worked all this out
     
     
    Then the coach is not, as billed, a BSO Mk2c but a BFK mk2a, of which most of us have much less need . The rail blue is self coloured plastic . There is no white lining between blue and grey .There are probably some more faults I was too disheartened to spot. It's now gone back , literally , to the bottom of the pile
     
    But the parcels train could end up looking rather nice...
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:04 pm
     
    The blue/grey BG is now done, barring Kadees , and the wheels on one side which I forgot to brushpaint. Since it's now dawned that a parcels train has a gaurd and a guard needs a van its a necessary item at a practical level 'cos he can't ride in a CCT, the Maunsell Van Bs had gone by the 80s, and there's not really sufficient length for a Mk1 BG and much else, though I shall probably end up with a Mk1 BG in the end because they were so much a staple of parcels and van trains in from the 60s to the end
     
    The Bachmann GUV is also more or less done, and as a payment on account here are some rough shots . You can see that "on Ravenser's bookcase" is not a figure of speech and the Branchlines 03 chassis just visible has made zero progress in at least 18 months . Despite being taken in daylight flash was necessary and played its usual tricks, and without a tripod, strewn with digital noise and not quite pinsharp they are blatently snapshots...
     
    <img src="http://img223.images...3quartertc9.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    <img src="http://img225.images...rguvsidedv4.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    This is my first attempt ever at weathering a coach : I wouldn't use some of these methods on a passenger coach but NPCS notoriously got covered in grime and I can live with the results . The photograph over emphasises colour contrast but clearly the bogies need another wash of track dirt
     
    I've sourced a TTA chassis and it clearly doesn't fit the MEA bodies. I suspect a scratchbuild will be needed . Anyone know a source of suitable heavy plate W irons and FAT suspension?
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by PMP on Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:56 pm
     
    The bogies and underframe look too shiney, and the wheels are too brown vs underframe. I'd give the wheels a wash of matt dark grey/black to take the 'earthyness' away, and then give the underframe a coat of matt varnish first, before applying any more weathering. That way it'll harmonise your colours so none stand out above the others!
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....n_thumbsup2.gif">
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Wed Jun 18, 2008 10:18 pm
     
    The underframe is the bit that didn't get the treatment with matt brushing varnish..... Washes of Railmatch Frame Dirt seem to come out semi-gloss. The bogies aren't quite so shocking in real life as in the photos , but the brown wash was clearly far too weak here and needs redoing, and the ? battery box suffers from the same problem. With varnish on the whole lot , not just the body/solebars/roof , it should look more uniform
     
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Sun Jun 22, 2008 4:16 pm
     
    I've patched up the GUV , the bogies no longer look like a fright (though I think I may have missed one wheel) and if Imageshack would stop running like extremely viscous glue , some pictures could be posted:
    <img src="http://img57.imagesh...41/brguvfg3.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    <img src="http://img57.imagesh...3640x480cd4.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    And here's the LMS BG:
    <img src="http://img57.imagesh...7/lmsbg5vk5.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:45 pm
     
    I've finally got round to doing some modelling , and some Townstreet castings are decorating bookshelf and workbox
     
    These are for some 3/4 relief buildings. You may be unaware that there are any 3/4 relief buildings in the range - this is 'cos there aren't . Once again I am suffering from my usual inability to build anything in accordance with the instructions, compounded by delusions of grandeur. The original intention was low relief but they seem to have grown in stages at the back.
     
     
    In short I'm attempting to kit-bash plaster castings , and I'm not sure if it was a bright idea. The main building I've been working on is by way of a trial piece - the housefront casting (acquired via someone else) suffered some slight damage to guttering and downpipe , which I've attempted to patch - successfully with the guttering, more questionably with the downpipe . If it doesn't work out - well it was a test piece and the bits might otherwise have been ditched.
     
    The main problem is the side walls: Townstreet's only stone side walls have very Scottish stepped gables: entirely authentic for Fife but I'm not a Scot and have no intentions of modelling Scotland. This leaves stucco castings and the need to reface them , or provide an alternative.
     
     
    The low relief fronts are square ended with stonework continued round the edge. The stucco sides are mitred. Option one, based on something I'd seen from someone else, involved sawing off the edge of the end casting to allow for the depth of the front, then cladding the thing in Slaters rough cast stone plasticard, with a suitable cutout to fit round the casting for the front . This was for the chimney end. Option two involved a new end in 1/8th balsa, clad in the same Slaters plasticard, but this time with a sizeable overlap across the end of the facade casting . I had hoped to cover the end completely but there is a small gap : with the edge of the plasticard suitably treated/cut out at the mortar courses this is not very noticeable
     
    I then painted up the castings and the plasticard stonework . First problem - you get a different shade on the plasticard and the plaster with the same paint (I was using Humbrol 94) . This was blended in by a hasty wash of Humbrol 93 on the side/end of the front casting, and the result is a fairly decent match. However a dry run suggests that Option 1 produces a very noticable butt joint with the two castings being very difficult to fit exactly to each other. This is unacceptable : the plasticard has been ripped off the side casting - it was stuck on with Evostick - and a new plasticard overlay will be prepared without the cutout , in the same was as for Option 2
     
    As the building will be part of a terrace, you may well not see the side walls at all , which is the only reason I'm prepared to contemplate these approximations and bodges . What may well be visible is the gable and very top of the side wall, so something has to be done, rather than simply a plain bit of balsa
     
    Its also very apparent why the full relief buildings (from which the side castings come) use mitred corners - I can't see any other way of securing a reasonably neat join between plaster castings. I suppose I could have tried filing a 45 degree mitre onto the front castings , thus sacrificing the cast stonework detail on the edges - the castings are about 9mm thick
     
    I've also painted up castings for a three storey bank. These are over a centimetre thick, and I'm inclined to use the plasticard with a slight overlay onto the casting - anything less than about 9mm out of line with the adjacent building and all you'll see is the cast plaster detail on the side . Anything more - well , a dressed stone facade and rough stone sidewalls aren't exactly unknown , and any difference in texture /colour can be accounted for by the change of material. I suspect this is mainly going to be an issue at the gable and the top storey
     
    I'm also having to cut down slate roof sections to fit the house ( involving careful use of a junior hacksaw ) and it looks like I'll have to cut pantiles to size for the bank
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:47 pm
     
    A little more work on the Townstreet castings, and some pictures.
     
    First the scene of battle (or as the Anglo Saxons preferred, the place of slaughter...)
     
    <img src="http://img507.images...orkbenchpb2.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    You can see I've recently peeled off the Slaters cladding from the end plaster casting after a certain amount of shaking of head..
     
    Here's the rework , showing the large overlap .This time I've gone a bit further and I've cut round individual stones , wherever possible, as well as filing back the edge of the plasticard to a bevel to avoid a prominent line, and filing out the mortar courses at the edge .
     
    <a href="http://imageshack.us" ><img src="http://img224.images...treetendrq2.jpg" alt="Image" /></a>
     
    Here we have the frontages - I have still to paint the window bars white
     
    <img src="http://img507.images...rontageswy4.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    I've been experimenting with the slates. Initially I used Humbrol 112 Tarmac - and after comparing it with some roofs visible out of the window, I decided it was far too dark. The small test piece (off cut from cutting down the roof) features half painted with 112 tarmac then given an acrylic grey wash composed of Tamaya matt white and matt black (roughly to the shade of the darker Railfreight grey) . The other half was an attempt to mix the tarmac with some white enamel to tone it down.
     
    I'll be going with the Tamaya wash.....
     
    <img src="http://img232.images...eettilesbf7.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by c37408 on Mon Aug 18, 2008 6:15 pm
     
     
    How odd, I just spent some of Saturday dirtying up a very similar looking Parcels BG! I'll post some pics later. Yours looks great to me though, I especially the variety of shades of blue it now has in that second pic!
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:28 am
     
    The GUV is partly a demonstration of the difference made by decent photography, as I didn't actually rework the body weathering at all. First shot is taken in haste with flash , close up - which tends to do awkward things to colour and certainly accentuates any contrast. The later shots are taken in natural light . The underframe needed a bit of reworking though
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat Aug 30, 2008 12:40 pm
     
     
    Not too much to report, but on account , as it were , here is a hasty snap of the POA Blackadder, which still needs wasp stripe on top edges and buffer beams , and further weathering
     
     
    <img src="http://img370.images...p1010494zd5.jpg" alt="Image" />
     
    I have been struggling with the roof of the larger Townstreet building , which is pantiles - the supplied castings need to be cut down in both dimensions, and the break on the narrower roof at the back has not come out straight - as it is the back of a 3/4 relief building against a backscene I am pressing on , in the expectation it won't be noticable when in position on the layout
     
    Painting is Humbrol 82 , lining orange, which was the nearest enamel I could find but is still a bit bright and well orange. I have applied an extremely weak wash of matt leather acrylic toned down a little with matt flesh. Perhapsd this is slightly too light a weathering coat , but the results of tests using thicker heavier coats on off cuts were not good at all
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:35 pm
     
    Moderate progress has been made with the Townstreet buildings. The small house is now complete, the windows properly painted , and the bank is complete except for its roof - I think I need a final toning down acrylic wash on the pantiles which are still a bit fresh and new.
     
    I had quite a few problems with the roofs . No way could I get the slate roof of the small house to fit without gaps, and I ended up filling the gaps at the top of the gables and at the ridge with very fine grade milliput (about the first time I've got milliput to work well - maybe using a pack that was less than 5 years old helped ) The gap around the chinmey base was filled in the same way, and painted to resemble concrete flashing (121 pales stone ) this worked rather well.
     
    The stones picked out in 110 chocolate stood out a bit too much even after a grey acylic wash - I had to apply another yellow brown acrylic wash then reweather with very faint dark grey to tone the whole lot down
     
    But I must say the bank looks a very very impressive structure when the pantiles are put in place as a dry run
     
    To give a glazed effect to the windows I painted over the black with Humbrol Gloss Cote
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:19 pm
     
    Well, a bit of progress to report. The bank is finished and I'm pleased with it. I still haven't cracked weathering pantiles, but as reasonably new tiles it looks fine. I've also had a go at paining and finishing two buildings which someone else built, using the same approach. These seemed to come out a bit darker - perhaps ~I was slightly heavy handed with the dark acrylic weathering wash, perhaps I made it too close to black and it should have been more of a grey. But still the overasll effect is good , and stone buildings which have been cleaned up a bit a different times are not exactly the same shade.
     
    Blacklade, my Challenge layout , has been a bit stalled in recent months. The two major outstanding jobs have been fit the point motors /decoders and build the screen wall , and somehow other tasks, commitments, work and so forth have taken priority. But I have at least taken a first step , and built up the first of two MERG accessory decoder kits , kindly sourced by paulcheffus. Now I haven't actually tested the thing yet - it was only finished on Sunday night - but the thing is finished, and I'm very hopeful I haven't accidentally fried the IC chips.
     
    Considering I haven't attempted any form of electronics circuit construction since I was in my teens - and that was only a few very simple projects at school , most of which didn't work - this may seem like tempting fate . However I have to pay tribute to the kit design and technical support provided with it , in that I assembled the thing , slowly, but without any serious difficulties or real problems . Apart from one hasty appeal here to discover which way is positive on a capacitor , there was nothing that actually proved a stumbling block .
     
     
    I think I know the real reasons why my teenage school efforts at simple electronics were normally a failure:
     
    1.They didn't teach me anything about soldering . To be specific , they didn't teach me the necessity for cleanliness of the work pieces and tip to achieve a joint, anything about recovery time, or the role of flux. Maybe something was said at the beginning of the lesson and perhaps I missed those 2 sentences , and perhaps I wouldn't have missed key points like that if it had been an English lesson or a history lesson. I don't know. But I'm quite sure nobody ever actually showed me how to make a solder joint or taught the theory of good soldering - if they did it can have been no more than 10-15 seconds by the desk and half a sentence
     
    2. Nobody ever mentioned that you can destroy an electronic component by overheating it. I didn't hear that till years later.
     
    I remember lots of repeated attempts to remelt joints with a lingering iron in the hope that they would flow properly and not be dry. No wonder most things didn't work - I must have cooked several of the components in the assembly process
     
    This time I've been very careful - fine tip bit , straight in and out, minimal time on the job , give components a chance to cool before the next joint - and the bit time to recover. As I say it's not yet tested , but fingers crossed - the joints look neat bright little cones, as they are supposed to
     
     
    Another job under way is weathering a Hornby PO open for someone else. This is the 4 plank open - acquired second hand for not very much when my local model shop was closing down . Modifications have been slight - I removed the brake gear on one side as a granite company's 4 planker is most unlikely to have had independent brakes like a bottom door mineral . The wagon is beaing worked into post war condition - ie very tatty . After a "toning down " wash of a lighter grey to fade the lettering and a further wash of a timber colour , I've painted out several of the planks in a different timber mix.
     
    I am not quite sure I've cracked a suitable mix for timber. My first effort, concocted out of Humbrol 94, some Railmatch Centro Grey (not sure what use I have for Centro grey.._) and 53 Gunmetal had a faint greenish shade - gunmetal is recommended under these circumstances , but any noticeable quantity seems to have a substantial and not wholly desirable effect on the shade . The second attempt, for the planks, featured Humbrol 110 , Centro grey and a faint trace of Gunmetal and seems rather better , though perhaps rather yellower -
    "representational "; pine planking rather than a faithful shade , which would surely be more of a silver - grey . The solebars got a second wash with the revised wood mix - it's very noticeable in shots of weathered wooden POs that the solebars end up similar colour and of a piece with the body
     
    __________________________________________
    Comment posted by PaulCheffus on Thu Oct 23, 2008 8:13 am
     
    <cite>Ravenser wrote:</cite><br />1. They didn't teach me anything about soldering To be specific , they didn't teach me the necessity for cleanliness of the work pieces and tip to achieve a joint, anything about recovery time, or the role of flux. Maybe something was said at the beginning of the lesson and perhaps I missed those 2 sentences , and perhaps I wouldn't have missed key points like that if it had been an English lesson or a history lesson. I don't know. But I'm quite sure nobody ever actually showed me how to make a solder joint or taught the theory of good soldering - if they did it can have been no more than 10-15 seconds by the desk and half a sentence
     
    2. Nobody ever mentioned that you can destroy an electronic component by overheating it I didn't hear that till years later.
     
    /blockquote>
     
    I was originally taught to solder by my Father at the tender age of eight but you are right school never did explain things properly. As one of my hobbies during my teens was electronics (possibly influenced by my Fathers interest as a Radio Amateur) I learn't quite quickly that certain electronic components don't like heat.
     
    Cheers
     
    Paul
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Fri Oct 24, 2008 4:51 pm
     
    A photo of the wagon - transfers are now on, and a wash of off-black "dirt"; will be added over everything. I'm not entirely sure about the ironwork - flash tends to exaggerate things, but it is slightly red in natural light, and perhaps something a little further towards chocolate brown would be better
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=39204" alt="">
     
    __________________________________________
     
    posted on Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:02 pm
     
    The wagon is now finished - unfortunately I didn't think to take another shot before delivering it . It recieved the thin wash of black (which picked out the planking slightly)and the lower regions got a thin wash of Railmatch trackdirt which makes the wheels stand out less, before an overall coat of matt varnish. To be honest the whole lot didn't radically change the appearance from the photo
     
    A certain amount of time over the weekend was spend playing about with DCC - I was supposed to be sorting out points on Blacklade , but with the layout up it seemed like a good chance to use it as a programming track - one of its functions in life.
     
    The Hornby-Lima NSWGR 422 class was duly fitted with a decoder. Breaking in was something of a nightmare at first as I couldn't get the body off , even though it is supposed just to remove from the chassis . I resorted to business cards down both sides to get some leverage , (and I mean cards plural...) and eventually managed to free the ends . I suppose I should at this point post a photo of the interior /chassis : unfortunately I didn't take one at the time and you can guess why I'm not anxious to remove the body and take one now.... Consequently you'll just have to use your imagination and picture - a chassis with a very Lima looking round pancake motor complete with beige blob , plus a largish circuit board amidships with a DCC socket in it, and at the far end a recessed open area. The loco has working headlights - a twin white LEDs in a block at at each end centrally above the cab windows- which are powered by 4 brass strips fixed to the interior of the roof, pressing on contact pads on the circuit board. There are no cab interiors<br />
     
    The general effect can be judged from the photo - this is in fact an 80-class of 1981, taken at Broken Hill in Dec 1983, and not the earlier 422-class (1969) or 442- class (1971) as the copyright is mine,but the effect of the front end is very closely similar (for the record the top of the cab of the 422 is a lower shallower profile , and it lacks the cut away recess at the apex of the cab in which the horns are fitted on the 442 class and 80 class - I've been doing some hasty looking at photos)
     
    <img src="http://www.rmweb.co....le.php?id=40692" alt="">
     
    There are some pictures of 422s on the Aucision site in support of their forthcoming high-spec 422 class
     
    I fitted a TCS T1 with harness - the new version with Back EMF , which was stuck in the convenient recess at the end with double sided tape and the harness wires restrained with parcels tape . Unfortunately the harness can be seen through the cab windows at one end - the recess is where there might be a cab interior but isn't
     
    Performance is good. With a bit of tweaking (and track and wheel cleaning) I managed to get it to move at speed step 2 of 128 . Start volts were set at 1V [entered as 18], and I've played about with the speed curve by making mid volts 4.6V [80] and top speed 11V This reduces the tendency to high speed running at the upper end while leaving a good top speed : an excellent moderate and controllable speed is maintained up to about speed step 70 I left the suppression capacitors in place - it performs as well as I could hope from a pancake motor and rather better than I expected . I tried experimenting with dimming of the LED but it really doesn't seem any dimmer . There is only one function required - for the lights - though the headlights are directional. The decoder has all sorts of wierd and wonderful US light effects , but as I'm not sure if any of them are relevant to NSWGR operations I haven't used them
     
     
    All in all , it looks like a good 'un and I'm very pleased with it. Many thanks to Shortliner and Chris Ellis at MTI for selling on the review copy [ Now all I need is some wagons . And mayby a CPH tin hare for the passengers. And about 6' x 18"; plus fiddle for a small terninus , plus some rock moulds , and some gum trees ... And space to put it... Stop !]
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sat Feb 14, 2009 2:54 pm
     
    Contrary to appearances , I've actually been doing a bit of modelling recently .
     
    New Year is an appropriate time for taking stock, and I duly did. There are an uncomfortable amount of projects outstanding , and accordingly this years New Year Resolution comes from Magnus Magnussen : "I've started, so I'll finish" . Or in other words - no new projects . This doesn't mean I'm not going to start anything new - it means I'm trying to avoid buying anything new in order to sort out the stuff to which I've already committed , and which is adorning the book case or sitting in the cupboard. Or worse still sitting on top of the cupboard forming a pile of debris
     
    Buying 153s doesn't count, of course . They were already on the list as a carry over from 2008 , because Blacklade needs 153s to enable multiple unit working . My Central 153 has been rushed into service , with a TCS T1 decoder , the floor, tables, and seat backs painted (I used a spare bottle of Railmatch Centro Grey , for which I have no use at all) and passengers added - Slater's figures painted up with acrylics and the legs cut off. I tried to modify them to remove some of the period air (eg WWI forage caps) but you can't see much inside beyond the shapes
     
     
    I've also had a fit of putting Kadees onto everything with NEM pockets . The 153 requires a long and an extra long Kadee - two longs together are not enough separation with 23m vehicles. The 57 I picked up cheap off the Bachmann stand at Warley has has another T1 fitted and runs very nicely , and has acquired long NEM Kadees - anything shorter fouls the 3 link coupling . So have my FEAs . These were ordered basically to support the venture without any actual need but I decided that if I had container wagons there really ought to be some containers for them , and I've bought some C- Rail kits . Four 40's are now built and nearly all the transfers applied. Yang Ming , in particular, is something of a pig on the livery front with 8 seperate transfers on the door alone. Being a cheapskate I mixed up my own blue for the P+O box and I think its come out a bit light. The containers are the first time I've used Microsol - quite essential given the ribbed sides - and its proved very effective
     
    I've also got a couple of tank containers - on the first one I tried painting after assembly and discovered it makes painting the framing in black very difficult indeed. The second kit has therefore had the framing prepainted before assembly - much easier. I have also struggled to get a decent white finish to the tank barrel - I'm up to 3 coats now on the first tank
     
    The one perminent Kadee fitting was to the 422 class , where I cut off the very obtrusive forward projection from the bogie which carried a Roco coupling . After much headscratching the best I could come up with was plasticard packing behind the buffer beam to create a platform , onto which I glued a piece of 10 thou plasticard overlapping the buffer beam, then glued the draft box in place on top with solvent and reinforced the joint with a fillet of Zapagap cyano. Kadee used was #24 Talgo , but with the draftbox only. I've only done one one end at this stage because I'm not confident of the strength of the joint
     
    There's also the new stock box, mainly for engineers wagons , which I've knocked up out of a boxfile , based on an idea in one of Chris Ellis' books, not to mention the Parkside PMV which keeps failing to get done, and the possibility of sorting out the old Airfix 31 , thanks to a useful note by K9-70 in the DCC forum
     
    __________________________________________
    posted on Sun Feb 22, 2009 10:23 pm
     
    Things are looking up...
     
    I've built the Parkside PMV , although perhaps it's not my best kit ever. Things kept going wrong and having to be bodged. Firstly , when I assembled the underframe there was a slight rock , and the solebars were too firmly stuck to remove one and pack it. After trying to drift the bearing by opening out the hole slightly I was driven to the horrible bodge of getting out the soldering iron , and drifting the bearing with a 25W Antex. That wheel set is now a little loose and sloppy , giving enough float to ensure all 4 feet are on the floor, which is a potential problem with a wheelbase this long.
     
    On the floor is also where two of the roof vents ended up , and as the carpet is green , there they'll stay.... I resorted to bodging up a representation of the roof vents with scraps of microrod and solvent
     
    I had glued on 4 footboards before I checked Paul Bartlett's website and found that by the 1980s all footboards seem to have been removed . I've removed mine and cut away the struts for the lower footboards, though I can't remove the strap across the spring and I haven't represented the brackets which used to support the footboards. The final bodge was that I needed tall vac pipes - I don't have any SR ones, and I resorted to some LNER pipes from ABS
     
    It's going to get Kadees and then I can have DMU tail traffic. Maybe the SR bogie brake comes next.
     
    The Airfix 31 is up and running on DCC as well , as reported elsewhere, though I need to get in and oil the worm gears. Then I just have to produce a detailed body....
     
    __________________________________________
  20. Ravenser

    "Think Thrice, Measure Twice"

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    A fair amount of progress has been made with Mercia Wagon Repair over the last 6-8 weeks. However this has involved a number of revisions and minor tweaks.
     
    The layout - or at least the "main line"  side of it , which was all that had been laid - had been test run  a few times. This amounted to running in a train behind a type 5, the loco running round and picking up a train of wagons waiting in the departure siding , then returning whence it came. The shunter would then shunt the incoming wagons into the departure siding. I have bought one of the NGS Hunslet shunters in Railtec blue and white livery to supplement my Farish 04. It's a very small loco, and modestly priced at £81, and it certainly runs very slowly, which is a plus for a shunter. But despite all the plaudits it doesn't run as smoothly as the 04. I'm reminded of a lot of small 4mm kitbuilt locos - it seems to have a certain faster/slower waddle though (like them) it doesn't stall. I don't regret my purchase, but it isn't my best loco and I'm not sure I'd buy two
     

     
    Along the way I had set about converting the couplers from Arnold Rapido to Dapol Micro-couplers . This is an expensive exercise : even buying packs of 10 couplers it works out at just over 5 pounds per vehicle. I bought a pack each of medium and long , and then found that the long version is something of an embarrassment. On almost anything it looks a bit like the couplers on 1930s Hornby tinplate, projecting far beyond the vehicle. The shorts are too short for most stock, but I did  just about manage to find homes for the contents of the pack. The medium is the bread-and-butter coupling, and I'm now on my third pack of mediums.
     
    To the point. I went to start work laying the wagon works itself , and discovered that I seemed to have bought the wrong handed points...
     
    Acxtually I hadn't. I'd merely not bothered to check the plan and had happily proceeded on normal railway principles. The plan is to be found here   and you will notice that the bottom road of the actual works comes off the upper road of the loop, via a reverse curve and there's a somewhat odd arrangement whereby the topmost road comes off a wrong-handed point and goes round the back of the works on an awkward reverse curve. I'd assumed that everything came off in the normal way through a nice conventional fan of points.

     
     
    I contemplated ripping up the recently laid top road to follow the plan as drawn for about half a second, and decided I didn't much like the idea of shunting wagons through all those reverse curves and access through the loop being required every time you wanted to shunt in or out of one road of the workshop. Nor, I think, would the real railway. Presumably the plan was drawn that way to save on length and get everything on a 6' long (ahem 180cm) board in HO
     
    I am not short of length when it comes to the wagon works. The space constraints are the length of the loop, and the length of the entry/fiddle siding to the left , plus the length of  headshunt required to take an FEA twin-set plus a shunter. Those constraints limit me to a 66 + 3 bogie wagons and a 4 wheel wagon in my 6' in N . But the wagon works sidings are pretty long, so I don't need to compress the fan of points into them.
     
    Then it became apparent that a short and a medium point weren't going to fit in before the board joint . The second point just overlapped the joint - largely thanks to the fact that you can't join Peco code55 N points one after another like you can in OO . They foul each other at the divergance, so a small length of plain track needs to be spliced in.
     
    So I bit the bullet - the second point was displaced onto the left hand board , clear of the board framing, and I decided to go for a large radius point at the divergance of the first workshop road
     
    All this shoved the start of the hard standing in front of the workshop about 6" to the left of the board joint. That was the end of my plan to use the change from ballast to hard standing to disguise the board joint. An access path across the tracks will have to do the job instead.
     
    Here we have progress , with only one siding to go in. That siding is now going to incorporate a Peco inspection pit inside the shed, though not for the full length of it. Since this requires me to cut a slot in the board laying this has been deferred .... 
     

     
    Having got  something like a layout laid, of course it had to be test run, to check nothing fell off (and also to see how it would actually feel if operated as envisaged)
     
    The front siding is the departure road, where wagons that have been through the works are held pending a mainline loco  taking them back onto the network. A train of wagons for repair is standing in the "fiddle" road, representing the connection to the national network. (The limitations on train length are obvious.) As this is in front , it will have to be scenic - I have added a spare bit of flexible track in front as the stub end of an abandoned siding , where an abandoned wagon can be held. This should really be slightly further forward : the intention is to imply that a former double track approach line has been singled. I intend to add a "holding track " at the front , between the two groups of switches . This will be firmly off stage and this front area painted stage black.
     
    What you see is nearly all my serviceable N gauge stock... It became painfully obvious that to run the layout when complete everything I have , including unbuilt kits, would need to be pressed into  service. I am therefore compelled to buy more rolling stock.
     
    I have also been checking dimensions and trying to mock up backscene buildings , based on possible downloads and the Pikestuff material I have. (N gauge stock boxes found a use here)
     
    This is a closeup of the  actual wagonworks area. My various pencil marks as exact arrangements were amended can be seen

     
    The IPA twin and the Network Rail open mark the location of the actual works shed, more or less. This has now shrunk to 12" long from 15" , and it should have a lean-to store/office along the front. It will be a Pikestuff 2  road shed , extended  and with the roof omitted except for a short strip front and back. The rear track is behind the shed : the missing road with the inspection pit  will fit in the gap. Dapol uncoupler magnets have been laid across the door positions: all this area will be inlaid into concrete flooring so they will be hidden . The Cargowaggon is in an area behind the shed which will be used for holding wagons that have arrived and are awaiting their turn in the shed. Behind it is the NGS Hunslet - there is an isolating section here, to hold a "back shunter"
     
    The VTG hood marks the location of the paintshop. This will be the Pikestuff Atkinson Engine Facility, which has a front leanto office . That office, it is now apparent , will block road 2 of the shed, which will have to stop short
     
    And here we see how Mercia Wagon Repair uses my hifi speakers as trestles. There are plates of single ply faced in baize for them to rest on, to protect the speakers - the controller and external CDU box sit on top of the hifi cabinet.
     
    This is a lot less disruptive of normal use of the room than Blacklade , which has to be erected diagonally across the room
     

  21. Ravenser

    Troublesome Bogies

    By Ravenser,

    This is by way of a short bump or plea for help , sparked by a few comments in the MBA thread.
     
    One of the wagons I'm currently working on (or should be instead of typing) is the wretched Walrus. An ancient kit from deceased estate. As I mentioned somewhere down below , the bogies as supplied are unbuildable. I can't get them together for modern wheels ,. The only way forward I've found is to use some A1 Models H- frame etches.
     
    The bogies are GWR Plate type, and even this approach is a bodge. The minimum wb permitted by the etch is about 1mm too wide. The second problem is that the brass of the A1 etch protrudes beyond the sideframe - which will now be cosmetic. I can trim the brass but not quite enough to eliminate the problem completely . It will look okay unless and until you compare it closely with the real thing - at which point it will be not much better than Dapols efforts on the MBA
     
    The frames are soldered up, but before I'm finally committed to this compromise (like it won't get done tonight) does anyone have any really bright ideas for alternative solutions? Anyone built this dratted kit themselves - if so what did you do?
     
    Comments , gentlemen, please....
  22. Ravenser

    Back in Business

    By Ravenser,

    I've had a fairly strenuous 6 months, involving being made redundant at the end of May . Thankfully I found a new job and started work again just three weeks later, but as all my time outside work was taken up with pursuing avenues for future employment no modelling got done at all. In fact very little else got done at all , with the result that I've spent the last 6 weeks in catchup and clear-up mode, and only now am I getting to the point where I really ought to start doing some modelling again.
     
    However my personal circumstances have changed , and that has a bearing on my modelling. Fortunately I've had only a small drop in income once travelling costs and other factors are netted out, and as I had over 10 years service with my previous employer the payout reached 5 figures, so overall the financial impact is negligable. I've been very much more fortunate than a lot of other people in my position, and I know it.
     
    The big changes are not financial. In the previous job I was commuting by train for about 2 hours a day, leaving home at about 7:20 to get home 12 hours or more later. Now I'm working locally, and driving to work in about 35 minutes. That's meant I've got an hour and three-quarter a day of my life back. It also means I've had to get a small car, after a good many years of not driving. And since my club is near to where I worked and I've surrendered my season ticket, I'm not likely to be going very often in future
     
    There's no doubt that up until late last year I was heavily overcommitted. I was heavily involved with a club project and with other club commitments that meant two nights a week at the club. I'm also actively involved with a society and that took up further time. Add in long working hours, a few shows a bit of time on here, and the rest of my life and interests and everything seemed perpetually to be crowding out everything else.
     
    All this has now been drastically simplified. I can't be involved in club exhibition layouts (except perhaps as an occasional operator or builder of stuff off-site). I suppose now I have a car I could join one of the clubs "near" where I live - but all are about 10 miles or more away. This, obviously, frees up a lot of time and eliminates a lot of commitments
     
    The flip side of this is I may now be in a position to take a layout of my own to a show, though I haven't even checked whether Blacklade would fit with the back seats folded down. And to be quite honest, my feelings about exhibiting are ambivalent. Getting to some shows and events would be possible in a way it wasn't before (bringing the car down from Lincolnshire I broke the journey by calling in on the Nene Valley Railway - somewhere I hadn't visited for a couple of decades). In the past there was no hope I could get to a members' day at Butterley or Chasewater - now it might be an option
     
    I also lose easy and instant access to the big smoke and won't be travelling by train on a regular basis (something I've been doing for best part of two decades). On the other hand I still live next to the railway and my new office is in a former station building. There's a model shop in the high street of the town where I now work - it doesn't sell model railways, but it does sell brass section, styrene sheet, paints and tools . Having lost our local model shop about 4 years ago , this is a useful plus. I should also be able to reach two other model shops within 15 miles drive if I need to
     
    At which point we can cut to the chase. How does all this affect the "catch-up and clear the cupboard" programme I ambitiously committed to in a posting at the start of the year - just a couple of weeks before I got poleaxed by fate?
     
    Actually , almost nothing changes - other than the fact that half a year has gone up in smoke with zero modelling. Pretty well everything on that list was for either the shunting plank or for Blacklade. The few bits that were'nt were for the potential group GE BLT . If I can actually focus on those things without distractions, and with more time at my disposal, I might start to get somewhere
     
    The obvious place to start now is the same as it was then... Finish the Southern bogie van so I have a suitable length parcels rake. Build the Cambrian open kit and fix up the wagon I bought at St Albans for the plank. Sort out the Pacer
     
    Not to mention chip and weather the Provincial 150/1 and the Central 158 . Someone remind me which member does the etched seat outlines for the 150/1 and where I get them? I only want to take the body off once, to fit decoder and seat sillhouettes in one operation
     
    Thankfully change of circumstances has limited effect on my collection of stock and plans . In future I won't have much access to a large continuous circuit . The full set of HST coaches I'd assembled is almost certainly redundant and I may decide to dispose of it at some point (fortunately I never got any power cars). The half a container train is a slightly different matter. I only bought the FEAs to support the cause , the locos can be re-used in a very limited way on Blacklade to haul an oil tank, and the eight or ten boxes are not a problem (I'd have wanted some of them anyway for personal reasons). I'll probably get a Dapol pocket wagon anyway- I've a high cube to accomodate
     
    The Voyager can be stored - those things are short enough that at some time in the future I'll probably build a layout which can accomodate it.
     
    Otherwise I'm more or less fine. The cheap black kettle I bought at Warley can probably just about be used for a steam special, and would not look out of place on the GE BLT. I will still , almost certainly , get an O4 to support the cause- it's just I want to wait to see if the NRM version gets discounted (she was a Frodingham loco until 1966). It would be a bit over the top on a GE branch freight, but not entirely impossible. I may even get an L1 if any end up cheap at the boxshifters - not only would it be suitable for the possible GE BLT, it would be more sensible as motive power for a steam special on Blacklade than the other two
     
    [ I know none are preserved. Blacklade doesn't exist either... And I did say , if I see one going cheap at a boxshifter]
     
    The only other change is that the forthcoming RTR class 144 would be very suitable for Blacklade and a lot easier than fixing Hornby 142s. I think I shall probably end up getting one.
     
    Everything changes , but things remain the same
     
    Now all I have to go is make a start
  23. Ravenser

    A Boxing Post.

    By Ravenser,


    Mercia Wagon Repair
    I don't think I've ever done a product review on here before, but here goes....
     
    A fortnight ago I went to Railex. Most of my purchase list was 4mm stuff, even though I don't seem to have done any 4mm for about a year because of the N gauge project (which is why my annual review and resolutions post for 2023 hasn't happened). But the previous weekenmd I went to a local show - only my second show this year - and picked up the body of a Kirk Gresley 61' full brake for a quid. Everything below the solebars had gone , but I bought a set of MJT Gresley bogie sideframes I didn't need at Warley, and with a few other bits sourced I reckon I can rebuild it and get a decent vehicle for the kettle-period on Blacklade for under £20.
     
    I digress. While wandering round the show I came upon a trader new to me , WWscenics. I was browsing their stand wuith a vague "this looks useful stuff for the hobby" benevolence, when I noticed some brown cardboard boxes labelled as N Gauge Loco Storage boxes. I've started to build one or two N gauge wagon kits, bought a few more , and the issue of how to store them was starting to raise its head. The storage drawer under the bed which contains the Boxfile and its stock also houses the N gauge stock, all of it in the original boxes. I'd pretty well run out of room in there, and I'd more or less decided that my purchases of N gauge rolling stock had reached a limit.
     
    Here was an N gauge storage box, at the price of one modestly-priced N gauge wagon. I don't have 10 N gauge locos, but 10 locos might perhaps equate to 20 wagons. 
     
    At that point my interest moved rapidly from the vague "He seems to have a range of decent stuff" to the immediate "This could be useful". I asked if they had a made-up example: they did, and it was remarkably compact. I promptly bought a kit at the exhibition special price. (It now retails at £29.99)
     
    And the next afternoon, in an unwonted burst of energy and enthusiasm, I actually got on and built it. 
     
    The product is here: WWScenics N gauge loco box and it took me a couple of hours to build.
     
    Here we have the key things:

     
    The material is laser-cut 3mm MDF , with chocolate burnt edge colouring and a pungent mildly acrid smell. The instructions are plain and well drawn, although to be honest what goes where is mostly obvious. Nevertheless what you think you know may not be quite the way it should go together so the instructions are useful. The fit of the parts was excellent. No fettling was required.
     
    I assembled the unit with aliphatic resin, not so much because this is the ideal glue for the job but because I have twice bought a bottle of the stuff from Rocket under the impression it would be useful . Having found no obvious need for aliphatic resin over a good many years I am now trying to use up the bottles on any job where they  might be vaguely suitable, in order to preserve my stocks of PVA, a much more generally useful glue. Aliphatic resin leaves something of a stain despite intermittent attempts to be careful. But then PVA leaves a mark, too  .
     
    The finished unit is small- about a hand span in length and width. This means it fits nicely into the limited space left in the storage drawer after the Box file, 4mm stock storage files, and controller are packed away in it. The cardboard boxes and plastic jewel boxes in which N gauge RTR is supplied are a lot smaller than the boxes we are used to in 4mm , but they still aren't a particularly effective use of space. This unit improves the packing density of the stock by 2x-3x. What that means in practice is that I now have a home for pretty well all the kits I've bought once I've built them - and the drawer is less crowded than it was. Since in a small flat the limit on your fleet is the point at which you run out of space to store it, this is very helpful.
     

     
    It has multiple internal partitions so it builds up into a pretty sturdy unit . Clearly it wouldn't take being stood on or sat on , but otherwise it's pretty solid and I can't see it coming apart easily. The tabs visible on the top surface are designed to interlock with a second box on top. I may or may not buy a second unit: on the whole I think I prefer to keep locos in their original padded boxes, and without the locos I doubt if I would do more than half fill a second box. So the saving in space probably isn't there.
     
    A bonus is that it will make taking models out to run the layout a lot quicker and easier. It also means less scattered debris in the living room. I have been trying to use the boxes to give an impression/mock-up of the backscene buildings but that's only a short term measure.
     

     
    The holes on the ends of the trays are just about big enough for the end of your little finger and there is a recess on one end which is presumably there to take a label. A loose intermediate divider is provided with a series of slots to allow it to be placed so as to stop the models moving about. It is just about possible to arrange the drawers to take two 4 wheel wagons , if one is shorter than the other: the divider always has to be a little more than half way down
     

     
     
    I find it a useful product at a moderate price
  24. Ravenser

    Troublesome Wagons

    By Ravenser,

    Now for a proper update (rather than transfers from the old forum)
     
    Some progress has been made in the last 2 months, though sometimes it doesn't feel that way.
     
    The two SSAs are finished , though I'm not 100% satisfied they're OK... One is in blue and is not quite as free rolling as I'd like , while the other is in EWS red and has given a good deal of trouble with the weathering. Really , I think the proper tool for the job - depositing a fine even layer of grime - would be an airbrush. I haven't got one, and painting with washes has resulted in a slightly uneven effect. I hoped a second wash coat would even it out - in fact it looked pretty bad , and in desperation I resorted to the technique of trying to wipe it away with cotton buds and white spirit. The result is a lot better and may even have had an effect on the first wash, which was added weeks ago. But I'm not convinced by the muck in the corner framing - not on these vehicles in this condition. To my eye it looks too much like "model railway weathering - heavy" and not the real thing
     

     
    And next to it is that other problem child, the PMV, possessed with gremlins to the last. I boosted the weight with a bit more lead - and duly cracked one of the improvised roof vents while doing so. Trying to reattach it with a brush full of solvent resulted in the solvent attacking the paintwork around the vent. I've managed to touch it up. And once again I broken one of the underframe tie rods. The dirt on the underframe "makes" the wagon - the light tone works well , but it has very much been a case of pulling out all the stops to patch up an acceptable result. If I'm p[lease with this one its not because of any particular excellence - it's more in the spirit of "we got a result"
     
    Here's the other SSA , in grubby condition, with the LMS Fish next to it. The latter just needs Sprat + Winkle couplings but has weathered up well
     

     
    A very little progress with another beast of a wagon, the Walrus - I've stuffed bits of lead strip between the hopper base and the side to weight it. This throws up an interesting conundrum. The common formula for weighting wagons is 25g per axle . Therefore this would give 50g for the PMV , and 100g for the Walrus.
     
    But both vehicles are the same length. It seems very odd to make one twice the weight of the other.
     
    The NMRA have a formula which is based on so many grams per inch of length, but simply to work on linear measure and ignore the difference between bogie and 4 wheel seems problematic as well. I suppose almost all US vehicles are bogie types , so this does not arise for US modellers
     
    Anyway, I reckoned the PMV was a bit light at 50g and I've managed to push it up to 65-70g with a bit more lead. That should do. The Walrus is now nearly 60g and counting - I haven't even added the bogies yet so we may make it past 75g. Given that the adhesive weight per wheel is reduced because it is spread over 8 wheels, I think it needs quite a bit of weight, but 100g seems over the top
     
    So - 3 wagons off the bookcase, one very close to it, and a very little progress on the Walrus and Pacer.
  25. Ravenser

    Bits and Scraps

    By Ravenser,


    Reflections
    This should have been a posting about ballasting, that being the next logical step with Mercia Wagon Repair.
    Ballasting began last autumn and quite a bit of work was done, even though it has proved a slow and painful process. There was also the little matter of swapping out four solenoid point motors and replacing them with MTB motor drives after I was warned that continued use of solenoids would ultimately lead to the breakup of the Peco switch blades. Given all the trouble caused by having to dig out one failed point from within the formation even at the unballasted stage, further failures would probably have doomed the layout, so the solenoids had to come out .
     
    Unfortunately life and other things then got in the way. I had an operation on my right eye just before Christmas, they put an air bubble in the eye, and dire warnings were given about the implications of getting dust in the eye during recovery. Did that include plastic dust from model making, I asked? They thought it probably did, so anything involving shaping plastic was out.
     
    (The operation was pretty successful – the sight in that eye has got rather better, not worse. It was this eye condition that panicked me into starting Mercia Wagon Repair since the initial mis-diagnosis by Vision Express was pretty bleak and not properly handled; I thought I'd better do something with the N gauge bits while I still could  since the eye might be gone in 5 years. Happily that is absolutely not a possible scenario.... I just need my new spectacles to arrive now)      
     
    The result was that the only modelling done during a little over two weeks off work was this:
     

     
    Two huts and a weighbridge hut built from freebee card kits given away with magazines over the years. Two of them are courtesy of BRM some years ago and one came with RM a couple of months before Christmas. I’ve accumulated a good few kits from magazine giveaways over the years but nearly all of them are 4mm scale. These three huts represent everything I could find in N from my stash that was usable. And you could fit the lot on the palm of my hand. It feels like quite a lot of effort for a very small reward.
     
    The BRM models were printed on glossy card and the sheen was unacceptable. I have a big bottle of Winsor & Newton artists matt medium bought years ago because someone claimed that it could be used for ballasting in place of dilute pva and the ballast wouldn’t turn purple. It proved unsuitable for ballasting as the stuff is too viscous, but it’s useful for killing the sheen on art paper and card. The printed card roofs on the BRM kits were way too light to be acceptable as slate and since I’m new to N I’ve got virtually no brickpapers in stock. What I did have was a small pile of Model Rail giveaway booklets from about twenty years ago containing various brickpapers. These included a set of printed slate strips in a decent dark grey.
     
    Now I’m pretty sceptical about relief on slate roofs even in 4mm and building up a slate roof strip by strip is pretty laborious, but needs must. I’m sure the rows should have been a little more even, but critically the colour is good. The printed sheet was brushed over with matt medium to kill the  glossy paper sheen : it swells a little but relaxes back into shape as it dries. The white edges were dealt using a green charcoal pastel pencil, with another coat of matt medium to seal it and stop it rubbing off. Similarly cut edges of the card elsewhere were treated with red/brown pastel pencils to remove any white line. Chimney pots were improvised from bits of kit sprue painted, then I remembered I have some whitemetal castings in stock…
     
    It’s been some years since I’ve had the opportunity to do this kind of modelling, so it was a matter of easing myself back in and I’m reasonably pleased with the results. It’s just that a week’s worth of work sits in the palm of my hand. I feel like I‘ve achieved almost nothing.
    It’s been way too long since I did any 4mm modelling in a scale I’m comfortable with and know what I’m doing.
     

    This is the bits of an NNK courier van conversion from a Triang Mk1 BSK. The bits had been sitting on the bookshelf almost finished for nearly a year. This one needs its own workbench post, but I finally fitted the vertical door handrails and blackened them, rubbed down and repainted the ends through several coats of black to erase the vestiges of removed detail and assembled the bits. I’ve even started adding the cantrail lining from Fox transfers.
     
    I’ve also been trying to finish off a clutch of N gauge wagon kits which have also been sitting on the bookshelf gathering dust. These too deserve a post of their own in ORBC, but there’s a Chivers SSA, painted with transfers applied, an NGS chemical tanker ex caustic soda in china clay traffic, and a BH Enterprises resin PNA body.

     
    These now at least now are painted, have transfers and are weathered to my reasonable satisfaction. They just need couplings to go into traffic. But applying 11 tiny scraps of transfer to each side of a chemical tanker was a painful reminder of why N gauge and I don’t necessarily see eyer to eye (I left off a couple of the solebar markings, too).
    While I was at it, I had a go at weathering a few of the RTR bogie wagons, since with N gauge you are always going to mix up way too much of a weathering mix for the job in hand. A useful technique has proved to be a tinted varnish – in other words the weathering wash mixed about 50:50 with matt varnish. This allows a much thinner weathering coat to be applied evenly to the model, since the varnish acts as a filler meaning you are applying rather more volume in a more viscous form. A china clay hopper, a Cargowaggon van, and a Tiphook hood acquired at Warley have all been treated and now look reasonable.
     
    And at Ally Pally I finally succumbed to the Model Rail/Rapido J70 I’ve been resisting for some years. The unskirted versions with waggly bits were marked down to £99.99 on the Kernow and as this was the version that tempted me, I bit – having first put the model up against a SR diesel shunter on the stand to check it was a lot smaller. (I know an 08 is too big to look right on the Boxfile, and I wasn’t spending a tidy sum on a loco only to find it wasn’t suitable). The skirted BR versions have sold out – soon after release I think -  but all the unskirted versions were still available and discounted . Given that 500 each of 10 versions were originally ordered, it’s fairly clear that people want Toby in his classic skirted form and pre-nationalisation liveries are something of a drug in the market. It’s now nearing 4 years since this model was released - how long it will take finally to shift the LNER unskirted models is an interesting question. Rapido
    I’m well aware of the reasons why the cost of new RTR has increased well above the rate of inflation and real wages in the last decade – and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. It costs what it costs, there is not much to be done about it and nobody is making a packet in RTR. At the same time I notice that at a personal level I will buy a loco I don’t strictly need but like when it‘s priced in double figures. Once it’s into 3 figures I won’t. I have a Hornby Peckett and DS48 for the Boxfile – both were bought at shows for about £75 a time after I’d been resisting a while because I didn’t strictly need them – they run beautifully and are now front-line motive power. My last few loco purchases have been an N gauge Class 33 for £80 off the Dapol stand (I needed something earlier than a 66, shorter, and I wasn’t up for splashing the cash), an NGS Hunslet shunter (£81)  a Hattons Barclay (I finally succumbed when the 14” version was discounted to £84 in a decent livery) and Hardwicke (she’s do on railtour duty with 2 x blue/grey Mk1s). There’s a pattern here. I most emphatically do not expect manufacturers to aim at this price point, but I have more stuff than I actually need and at some point I’ll be out of the game – though hardly out of the hobby – at least as far as unnecessary impulse purchases are concerned. Someone’s 31 at 170 quid – er, maybe not. I’ve already got two 31s , and a pile of bodies, and a 37 as backup that sees little service, and a Rat project to do…      
     
    I had the J70 up on the rolling road for almost an hour each way to run her in the following weekend, and here she is.
     

     
    I‘m delighted to report it’s a diminutive loco, pukka Great Eastern, and runs beautifully. Ideal for the Boxfile . I also took the chance to commission the Barclay – that this has been sat in its box unused for 18 months was another reason to hold back on the J70. It now has buffer wires glued in place to take Sprat & Winkle couplings and I had an operating session for the first time in months to give it a run. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem quite as smooth or sweet as the two Hornby locos or indeed the new J70. Good but needs a prod too often. And then a feed wire to one of the points broke, and the session was truncated. (The wire has been soldered back: all’s well again)
    How many locos does a boxfile need? I’ve got eight…
    Meanwhile ballasting of Mercia Wagon Repair hasn’t made a scrap of progress in 4 months.
        
     
     
     
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