jukebox

Thanks for that - it does look to be the one needed. Cheers.

I'm just finishing up a Chivers Dia120 ex-LNER pigeon van; Can someone point in the the right direction where to find the neccesary yellow labelling transfers ("GUARD", "E70xxxE" "XP")? Railtec's BR maroon non-passenger stock comes close - but I was wondering if there's anything elese out there / what other use. Cheers Scott

Steady, steady: With one carriage primed, I went back and started bringing the others up to prepaint stage; Attaching the vinyl overlays for the fibreglass roof hatches was a bit tricky, so I thought someone my benefit from seeing the method I ended up using. This is the sheet with the pre cut overlays: Initially, I thought the three sections on each would be firmly attached to one another, and my cunning plan was to use the shoulder film to get the spacing distance from the rain strip constant. But after mauling two stickers on the first sheet, I could see that was not going to work (luckily there are spares). So I came up with Plan B: Remove the outside shoulder (easy - it is not attached to the inner pieces): Then, using a sharp flat blade, carefully slide in under the short end, around 2mm - enough to shovel both the middle and centre sticker whilst still intact: Don't go too far - or it is too hard to remove as a whole on the model. And pick it up square, as this will aide placement. Carefully lift off the backing sheet: Once it is off the backing sheet, you can transfer it to the model, pushing half down firmly and then using that to anchor the sticker, and peel the knife out from under the sticker. It takes a few goes to get the knack, but there's spares. I ended up using the Mk.1 eyeball alignment system, and am happy with the result. *** While the primer was drying, I was going to go back and add the lifting eyes and brake backing plate to the chassis. To do this, I needed the bogies fitted. When I fitted the bogies, I discovered an unintended consequence of my cutting the 2.75mm off the well section; I had cut the locating lugs away, and my wells were not perfectly central as a result. That impacts the ability of the bogies to swing. This show each chassis with the bogie at full lock: Chassis #2 and #4 are close to correct - the bogies have equal clearance. But you can see #1 and #3 have generous swing in the top bogie, but interference in the bottom bogie, caused by the well being 0.5-1.0mm too far off-centre toward the bottom. My initial though was to Dremel cut the insides of the well away and fit a new dummy wall, rebated rebated 2mm in behind the well side, but my current thinking is I will simply solder up the bogie bolt hole, and redrill ~1mm inboard, to shift the bogie swing axis outboard - which will also make the gap between the well end and bogie sides equal - which cutting the inside well wall would not. Those of you who read my layout thread know I am happy to own up to my mistakes on here - I'd much rather see that not everyone gets it right, and that there are usually work-arounds when things go wrong. *** Lastly, as I had the primer out, I have gotten many of the other kits set up ready for final trimming and then colour. Here's the NER snowplow, with the primer bringing out all the lovely detail on the 3D print: Yes, I did replace the handrails... Cheers, Scott

And onward. Whilst I had planned to 'batch build' these four kits, the flaw in that it that one error becomes four errors when I get it wrong, so I've changed tack slightly, and am advancing one body a little further before stepping back and bringing the other three up to speed. *** I struggled a bit with the roof-body join. It seemed to take a *lot* of iterations of filling, sanding, and priming, to get a relatively seamless connection, but I did get there. Once I did, I used masking tape to mask of the area where the rain strip goes, and Zap CA gap filling cyno to stick the rainstrip down: This worked well, although when I went back and did the other carriages, some rainstrips ended up straigter than others. In hindsight, epozy may have been a better choice, as it would have given more more working time - the CA was about 10 seconds. The end details were also cyno'd on - fiddly little suckers, but I got there. Cruel close up: There was no coupling hook on the etch in the kit - luckily I had a loco kit with 8 spares on it - perfect! The tape for the weld seams came next - straightforward. The same adhesive decals are used for the skylights. These proved rather fiddley, and in the end I found that I could get a fresh flat knife blade under the surround and centre on one end, and lift if off as one (took me wasting 2 of three spares to get the knack of this...). Not trusting the sticker adhesive's longevety, it was straight to the paint booth for some primer: Those decals really work well to create subtlely simulated weld seams, but I can see one has lifted slightly, and I'll need to tend to it. But otherwise, I'm happy with what the body looks like. I'll sand any minor blemishes with fine wet and dry, and spray another light coat of primer before bringing the other three up to this stage. Cheers. Scott

With the bogies built, it was time to start tackling the car bodies. I bought myself 1m of aluminium angle and made a quick-and-dirty set of bending bars: These, or a hold & fold, or something similar are all but mandatory to build this kit. The carriage frames need to have solebars bent down. the car sides have to be bent, and pesky solebar bottoms folded up from fiddly etches. The bigger pieces were just fine, but the small etches that needed longitudinal folds, to form the angle on the bottom of the well section, were painful using the bending bars. A hold and fold might have helped. Also, the kit provides small angles for the *ends* of the well section too, but makes no mention of them in the instructions. My first one ended up a bit 'agricultural', but I eventually got a technique that worked for me, and they look okay. I cut 2.75mm off the well - the same thickness as the angle section that has to be soldered under it. It seemed about right, and my logic was that perhaps that dimension was mis-read when the kit was being scaled. It seems okay, but perhaps @flood's recommended 4mm is a safer choice. So at this point, I set up a chassis, to check the ride height and dimensions next to a Bachmann SLP I plan to run with these. It's not a pretty picture: Yes, I could shave 1mm or so off the Deralin hub the bogies sit on, but the dimensional issues with this kit appear to be all over the shop. The bogie height - even the axle centre - look to be okay - but that main solebar? It appears grossly over fed - it should be similar thickness to the angle under the well. If I shave the Deralin hub, the bottom of the solebar will be fine - but nothing short of major surgery can help the over height body. That's beyond my capabilities, so after a couple of days frustration, I came to the conclusion I will just have to live with the error, and I pushed on. Chassis ready for sides: ..and sides CA'd then Araldited in place: Cheers Scott

I, too, started with the bogies. It's a simple exercise to nip out the end bracing from the main bogie etch: And these fold up very tidily into the bogie frames themselves: Per the advice in the video, I soldered the main etch square, and also soldered the bearings in place, before trapping wheels in each bogie and then soldering the end braces on. After I'd done that, I saw Southern Pride provide an etch for mounting couplings - I may not use them, but it's easier to have them on and remove later, than to try and solder on at the end of the build, so added one to each bogie. I wish I'd soldered those on earlier - it was a bit of a juggle getting between the axle and the brace with the tip of the iron. I checked these were all sitting nice and square on track, and running freely, then filed and sanded back any mess, then gave them a good scrube with Jif, before attending to the cosmetic castings whilst they dried. These are the bogie castings - they are a pretty good representation of the bogies under the TCVs. A couple of my 16 had a pronounced bow in them, so it was going to be interesting how they sat on the frames. All went well, using full strength Araldite - I prefer that to cyno when I can avoid the latter - although I was two frames in when I realised the lugs on the back of the castings where moulding pips, and I could lside them off (otherwise only the bearings form attachment points). There was a lot of think flash around the bottoms of the castings - something to do with the need to get the resin into the fine details, I suspect. As I result I did bump one of the suspension lugs off - top left (and another came adrift thru handling). I glued these back on before attaching to the sub frames. This morning, I checked the production line to make sure all the wheels still spun freely - they did. I had clamped the bowed casting onto the thb frame - the rest just sat where they adhered - and perversely, as a result, it ended up a little bowed in the opposite direction. Not enough to be noticeable when painted black and grimed up under a carriage, and not enough to worry me, so that will be how it stays. Cheers, Scott

For reasons 10 years on that escape me now, I purchased 4 of these kits. I think it was my plan to run something of an abbreviated formation, as these tended to be 10-12 car trains; the West Coast version being 4TCV/BSO/RU/3SLSTP/3FK, whilst the East Coast had BSO/FK/RU/FO/6TCV. Anyway, here's what I'm working with: Inside the box, you get the following: Just needs wheel, paint, and some talent to finish. Oh, in each of those bags? Pre-formed brass sides, slotted floor, and ready-to-be-bent etched car well: The second baggie: Resin castings and whitemetal buffers: The last baggie: Bogie etches, bearings, and etched details - even some wire for the end hinges. There's also a vac-formed roof, styrene for the rain strip, and a full set of decals including lining & lettering, and a complete set of numbers, as well as vinyl stickers for the roof skylights. With four of these to complete, my plan is to batch-build. Hopefully I will get better as I go. There are some known challenges with this kit - I'll document those as I progress. It's been a number of years since I soldered a kit together, so it may take a while to find my finesse, but we'll get there! I'll make a start on these next weekend. Cheers, Scott

As I mentioned in the first post here since the re-birth, this sudden burst of mojo came about in part because Heljan decided to rain on my parade and produce RTR TCV Newton Chambers car carriers. When I have four in my stash, and I now know they are nowhere near as "fall together" as the Chivers pigeon vans. After grumbling about the state of affairs, and with a few weeks mandatory Christmas leave coming up, I decided to turn the situation upside down. I'm hoping I can build my four over the summer, and be looking at them sitting on the tracks of Stockrington well before Heljan's models hit the stores. That'll learn 'em. *** To start, I thought I'd gather links to a lot of the reference material I have into a post here, just on the off chance anyone else has one of these kits stashed away. There's a number of posts on RMWeb that reference the TCV's and Southern Pride's kit. @Flood of this parish was most helpful answering a few questions on the example he was building a couple of years back - thanks again. There is also a useful thread on the Western Thunder website about the 7mm model that discusses aspects of the prototype: https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/newton-chambers-car-carriers.3823/ And the go-to for detail photos of the prototype appears to be this site - in blue/grey livery but still relevant: https://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/proto_carcarriers.html There's a few other places to find photos, although not many exist showing these vehicles in crimson. This one is the best, and also seems to suggest there's a height difference between the TCV's and other Mk1 vehicles - or at least the sides are taller (this is a point of contention in a couple of the above discussions). There's a smattering of other photos around - useful, if not essential for determining the placement of the fibreglass panels on the roofs for specific vehicle numbers. The most pertinent aide is actually a recent YouTube video by "Wallsrail" who runs through his build of the kit. Thank you, and well done, sir! So with all that background material, me being 10,000 miles away from where these carriages were used shouldn't be a problem, right? Let's see how it goes. Cheers Scott

Good evening everyone. Just a heads-up that I forgot I had a dedicated thread for my layout Rolling Stock: I will be continuing my summer adventures over there. Cheers Scott

So with the snowplough ready for priming, I looked at my shelf and spied two Chivers LNER pigeon van kits that I'd grabbed when Matt Chivers did a fresh run of these back in 2020. So over a week of evenings these just about built themselves. Wonderful stuff, nice fresh, crisp mouldings, and easy to assemble. I made a couple of rookie mistakes as I've not done any kit building in years, but I was able to save myself too much grief (no one need ask why one van has a lift off roof, and the other has a lift off body...) Here's the completed kits, before any filling and priming: I've always wanted to take a stab at painting model LNER teak, so the plan is to do one in BR crimson, the other in LNER teak. That is still a few weeks away... Onto something rather more complex next. Cheers, Scott

And five years on, a second bit of thread resurrection here... The Second Coming, if you like (!!!!!) I was tending to my broken signature, and realised my rolling stock work that I should post here was in my layout thread. So I'll remedy that by reposting the material about the Nui snowplough I have underway, and take it from there. *** About six months ago, I had mentioned to my good friend Paul that I'd stumped up for one of Al's fro NUI models NE snowplough kits, and he recently saw a YouTube video of a large scale US outline slowplough actually ploughing - he pondered how well the kit plough would work... Needing little excuse for a diversion, I pulled the box of the shelf, and decided to build it. Here's the box from NUI: Inside you get all this: It's 3D printed, and the bulk of the "kit" is the body moulding, plus a roof, the plough blade, and an axle keeper plate. You also get wheels, spring buffers, couplings and decals. My kit cam sans the screws to attached the keeper plate, but that's an easy find in the parts box. Here's some views of the main moulding, so you judge the detail in the print - I was impressed with the crispness and fidelity: A couple of points: The body around the skirt area is a touch wavy. It's not noticable now, and wil be even less so under a coat of NE dark blue. The four handrails are well formed, and I am still wavering on whether to replace these with 0.3mm brass wire. It honestly probably doesn't need it, but I'll see how I go. "Building" the kit is a bit of a misnomer: you glue the buffers and blade on, the paint, and glue the roof. I used Araldite, my preferred adhesive for resin - others may prefer cyno, as the drying time for eposy is a PITA; I am happy to trade that for superior tensile and impact strength. So the kit is now ready for the paintshop. I did a dummy run, to see how it sits on the wheels (the roof is left loose for now, so I can glaze the windows after painting): Looks good from this angle, but a little lower and it does seem a tad high I can't imagine a plough blade that far above the rail head being much use... Reference photos are mixed - some show a very tight clearance, others do seem to suggest a higher placed blade. The profile on the box shows about half the clearance the model currently has. Lowering the ride would not be hard - just routing out the axle slots with a Dremel With that kit put to bed, bar painting, and not wanting to fire up the airbrush for just this one item, I looked around my kit shelf... Sittiing there were two Chviers Fineslines LNER pigeon vans. And then I opened my Hattons email to see Heljan have just announced they are producing RTR Newton Chambers car carriers. There's four of *those* in my stash, too. Luckily, my kit building mojo as been triggered. Turns out it's going to be a busy Christmas! Cheers, Scott

Makes sense, now that you say that. Curiously, the few reference photos around online suggest the slots should be in the frame underneath, not the blade: Which makes sense - you would not want those slots filling with icy slush and freezing up; having them on the body, the blade may offer some coverage/protection. I'm not OCD about it - will leave everything as is. Including the ride height. Cheers Scott

Welcome to December! Slight change of plans here Down Under. About six months ago, I had mentioned to my good friend Paul that I'd stumped up for one of Al's fro NUI models NE snowplough kits, and he recently saw a YouTube video of a large scale US outline slowplough actually ploughing - he pondered how well the kit plough would work... Needing little excuse for a diversion, I pulled the box of the shelf, and decided to build it. Here's the box from NUI: Inside you get all this: It's 3D printed, and the bulk of the "kit" is the body moulding, plus a roof, the plough blade, and an axle keeper plate. You also get wheels, spring buffers, couplings and decals. My kit cam sans the screws to attached the keeper plate, but that's an easy find in the parts box. Here's some views of the main moulding, so you judge the detail in the print - I was impressed with the crispness and fidelity: A couple of points: The body around the skirt area is a touch wavy. It's not noticable now, and wil be even less so under a coat of NE dark blue. The four handrails are well formed, and I am still wavering on whether to replace these with 0.3mm brass wire. It honestly probably doesn't need it, but I'll see how I go. "Building" the kit is a bit of a misnomer: you glue the buffers and blade on, the paint, and glue the roof. I used Araldite, my preferred adhesive for resin - others may prefer cyno, as the drying time for eposy is a PITA; I am happy to trade that for superior tensile and impact strength. So the kit is now ready for the paintshop. I did a dummy run, to see how it sits on the wheels (the roof is left loose for now, so I can glaze the windows after painting): Looks good from this angle, but a little lower and it does seem a tad high I can't imagine a plough blade that far above the rail head being much use... Reference photos are mixed - some show a very tight clearance, others do seem to suggest a higher placed blade. The profile on the box shows about half the clearance the model currently has. Lowering the ride would not be hard - just routing out the axle slots with a Dremel With that kit put to bed, bar painting, and not wanting to fire up the airbrush for just this one item, I looked around my kit shelf... Sittiing there were two Chviers Fineslines LNER pigeon vans. And then I opened my Hattons email to see Heljan have just announced they are producing RTR Newton Chambers car carriers. There's four of *those* in my stash, too. Luckily, my kit building mojo as been triggered. Turns out it's going to be a busy Christmas!

I noticed this morning as I was checking the forum that today is the 10th Anniversary of me starting this thread. Happy 10th Birthday to Stockrington! There's a fair bit to be melencholy about in the last decade - upheavals in home life, the passing away of family, and passing away of friends here on RMWeb, the evaporation of all those photos recording the progress as the layout took shape... But I'm still here, and the wheels of progress are still turning. Thanks everyone who has visited and continues to do so. Here's to shared interests, long distance friendships, and inspirational efforts. Cheers everyone Scott

So my week in the Pilbara got bookended by a request to provide input for a tender to a team based in Melbourne, and I have been racking up a few too many hours at 41,000ft and not very many hours at home, but I finally can catch my breath. Pilbara trainset: Back down in Perth, the green got a 30 min look in each weekend This was back in September - filling in the last of the diamonds on the green: I found some of the edges didn't infill, so there was a bit of precsion glue application and reflocking done; And eventually, after I'd finished green, and stuck down some heavier flock to form the fringe, I was done. The lads are about to dig a hole, and insert the pin (once I make one) Reverse view from the railway corridor That'll do. I hope Gordon would have approved. *** I'm going to switch gears and have crack at weathering some rolling stock next. My demo train of shiny 21T hoppers feels a bit incongruous... Cheers Scott