Platform 1

Well done James, very well deserved - will look out for a copy . Not at the NEC today then? Tony.

Hi MIssy, Is this page any help? It's for a two car unit and a different decoder, but the wiring colours should be the same, so it may help. Also shown is a CV programming table. Tony.

Hi Jim, Yes, that's really helpful - If only I'd blogged here sooner... All I need to do now is add the little cream bits to all the seats! Many thanks. Tony

Hi again... Sounds daft doesn't it? Of course they were all green/brown stripe in the '60s, weren't they? Or were they? Does it matter? Such a simple question, but oh so difficult to find the answer. Butterley has restored M79900, the sister unit latterly known as 'Iris', and there's a bunch of really great photos on the web (such as here and here). Current upholstery is blue, but long research found several useful pics of the exterior in colour, but the few interior shots were mostly in monchrome. As can be seen from the earlier post, I eventually concluded the consensus is maroon for 3rd class and blue for 1st. As M79901 had only one class, it was settled. Of course, if you know different... So as can be seen from the last 2 posts, there is a collection of parts to fix together - another pic below. This is going to be, uh, interesting!

Tut! Someone left the lid up! Fantastico!

Hi! Last time I set out the stall so to speak. So I thought I'd reveal a little of the motor bogie troubles encountered along the way. In them olden days, MTK offered a motor bogie kit as an option to add to their DMU kits. It was set of plastic and copper parts which went together to make a 4-wheeled bogie with electrical pickups. In fact it was much easier to assemble than their coach or DMU kits! Add an X04 or a Romford motor and bingo! a pile of useless junk . This unit may have been OK for some kits, but in mine, the motor armature fouled parts of the chassis which were designed to hold the pivot clip. Also, when the clip was installed, the tension it placed on the bogie effectively squeezed the motor creating friction to the point of stalling! And this was before it was anywhere near the body it was designed to power!! Many hours were spent trying to resolve this, but eventually the brittle plastic (now 25 years old) snapped and I abandoned the whole unit. Here's the wreckage: So now I had a spare Romford motor to fit into another loco, and a problem to solve: how to power this thing? Much research and thinking ensued - more modern technology is available now, so several options, e.g. black beetle (expensive, does this kit warrant such a good motor?), other proprietary units. But I hit on a cunning plan - why not obtain a RTR power bogie as a spare part and just tweak the side-frames? To cut a long story short, I placed an order and waited nearly a year, then cancelled and tried another supplier, then just happened across something similar enough to do the job at a local railex. This hobby certainly needs patience . Here's the 'new' bogie - much nicer! Which brings us nearly up-to-date. Next - what colour should the seats be?

Thanks for your good wishes - I guess I've a long path to catch up! Hopefully it'll be fun when this 'orrible MTK nasty is out of the way...

Returning to the hobby after, errrm, 25+ years, a rummage through old boxes revealed a few unmade kits. "What a great way to spend those dark winter evenings", I thought. I chose the MTK Derby Lightweight Single M79901 because I'd not attempted a DMU before and it would be summat small to fit into a simple end-to-end layout. Some construction progress was made, but nothing fits, the parts are poorly made, the air was often blue , and then the days lengthened - everything slowed to a halt (short platform, trains stop by request). Just very difficult to stay motivated... But that was last year! So this year, maybe a blog would provide a focus - a driver (5ft? please, no more silly puns) - to continue and actually get something built and working. Or not, and you can all have a good laugh . So first a little background... Back in the early 1980s, I had a 10x8 ft insulated shed and a never-finished roundy layout in OO. Whatever I build now will re-use some of the old track and rolling stock - primarily because of cost. But that nice shed was 5 house moves ago, so now very little room for track or wiring. DCC seems to be the way to go, and early trials are very promising for realistic slow running in confined spaces. Anyway, back to M79901... Last season, the shell was painted, the driving ends were glued and painted, and the seats were cut, stuck and painted. A start was made on the motor bogie, but that was a disaster (more about this in a future post). So a major rethink was needed on bogies and motor arrangements. I realised early on that the finished article wasn't going to be an accurate model, because there are too many issues, e.g. the engine castings are wrong, the cab panels are for a different unit, the motor bogie is a joke, but the overall 'feel' is reasonable. So this will be a valuable learning exercise - maybe tackle something newer and better later? So this is where we are at the moment: The body shell: The seats and partitions: One side underframe: Next step is to decide how it'll all fit together in a way that enables maintenance, since the instructions have some funny ideas about how to fasten things .

Very effective! It may be a trick of the light or camera angle, but do the inside fishplates foul the running wheels? Your other blogs are always interesting too Tony