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Silver Sidelines

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  1. Silver Sidelines

    The Long Haul

    By Silver Sidelines,


    Blog Post
    It would be January 2021 when Bachmann introduced their 94xx models.  I bought the basic version.  It had a lovely copper cap to its chimney and it ran perfectly without any trace of a wobble.  Three years later and I have just purchased a sound fitted version.


    Bachmann 9479 – 32-27SF
     
    I have titled this Post ‘The Long Haul’ in recognition of the time that I have spent in recent weeks changing CVs to enable the engine to run on analogue.  It would help if I knew what I was doing!  The 94xx has a coreless motor which is super efficient.  As a result the engine needs a whole different range of CV values to the ones I would usually apply.  I would say it is still a work in progress.  However I would say work is sufficiently advanced that I would give the engine a run around the layout.


    Hornby Bow Ended Colletts
     
    What carriages might be suitable?  I had rake of Hornby Bow Ended Colletts parked up in a siding.  These arrived on the layout in June 2021, so not long after the Bachmann 94xx.  Why were they parked up?  Ah well a quick trip around the layout reminded me that one of the coaches had a tendency to leave the track.  After exiting a section of curved track the leading bogie was reluctant to rotate and would jump the track.


    The offending Bow Ended Brake Coach
     
    These Hornby coaches are super detailed models.  Perhaps a little light weight.  I have close coupled my set using Roco 40270 couplers.  Now why don’t they stay on track?


    Hornby Coupling Mechanism Exposed!
     
    Removing the suspect coach from the track confirmed that the offending bogie did not always rotate smoothly.  With the coach upside down on the kitchen table the bogie could be popped out of its housing with the blade of small screw driver.  To fully investigate the close coupling mechanism it is then necessary to remove the keeper plate which is held in place with two screws.
     

    Bogie and Keeper Plate


    How straight is your Keeper Plate?

    On first inspection my keeper plate was bent in the middle and rubbing against the underlying close coupling mechanism.  A quick massage to straighten the plastic and ‘all sorted’ – so I thought.  Well it was nearly very good, especially after I had smeared it all with Vaseline.  Sadly a little later and the leading coach was still leaving the track.
    The coach and the Close Coupling Mechanism was given a further closer inspection.  Studying the mechanism at the opposite end of the coach suggested a possible cause.
     

    Stepped Close Coupling Cam

    Operation of the close coupling mechanism relies on a ‘Cam’.  I have retrofitted such a mechanism to a Mainline Buffet car and simply cut a Cam shaped opening in the coach floor.


    Home Made ‘Cam’ for Mainline RB

    Hornby however have made a stepped cam to accommodate the protruding ‘tooth’ which is used to hold the mechanism up against the coach floor.
     

    Hornby Mechanism with tooth.

    Comparing the two mechanisms from opposite ends of the coach showed that the faulty mechanism had a much larger tooth which was presumably interfering with the smooth rotation of the bogie.  A few quick cuts with a craft knife to shorten the ‘tooth’ and the issue was sorted.

    Now how does the 94xx perform with its rake of Bow Ended Colletts on analogue?  I would say rather well!
     
     
     
     
  2. Silver Sidelines

    The Little People

    By Silver Sidelines,


    Blog Entry
    For years my wife has been pointing out that my layout lacks people.  Enter my son-in-law Martin.  He likes his technology and he has invested in a 3D printer.  After making some War Game figures for his son he would turn his attention to some little figures for the railway.  Not only did he print the figures but he also painted them – that is skilful.


    Some of Martin’s 3D Printed and Painted Figures
     
    Problem is that printer files for suitable little people are in short supply, or are expensive.  Given that finishing and painting the newly printed figures also takes a lot of time and patience I would instead explore the range of readily available finished little people.  Suitable UK figures are available from Bachmann, Hornby and Modelu.  Bachmann USA, Preiser and NOCH also market figures but these are generally to HO scale which at 3.5mm to the foot is rather small for OO gauge at 4mm to the foot.  For layout use where the viewing distances are greater I chose some ready painted little people from the Bachmann Scenecraft range.  I thought these were a good compromise between cost and detail.  These figures are described as being 00 scale and as far as I can tell are mostly around 22mm tall, equivalent to 5ft 6in full size.  By shopping around these ready painted figures can be obtained new for under £2.00 per person.  At this price level it is even worth buying and making subtle changes to better fit with my 1960s period layout.


    Bachmann 36-043 before backdating (top) and after (bottom),  Brown paint on the barrow, silver badges and buckles, blue ties, not forgetting the green flag
     
    Historically to aid positioning of the ‘little people’, they came with a pre-attached paving stone.  What if I didn’t want the paving stone and what if I didn’t want to fix them permanently in place with glue?  My platforms are all topped with balsa wood.  I decided to ‘pin’ my figures using a short piece of wire, poked into a hole drilled in one of the feet.  The figures are formed from soft plastic. It is a relatively quick job to make a hole in one of the feet using a sharp micro 0.5mm twist drill bit rotated with the fingers.  It is then a quick job to gently poke a piece of 0.6mm wire into the opening which will generally stay in place without the need for adhesive.


    Painful!
     
    The wire is then trimmed to size to suit the thickness of the balsa wood topping.
     

    The Team prepared + Proxxon micro 0.5mm twist drill bit


    Members of the Team in situ
     
    In addition to the railway staff there is the ‘travelling public’.
     

    Waiting

    Then of course you have to be careful with the time frame.  Would the lady have been studying her mobile telephone in 1960?  No, it would have been a pocket timetable!  (Thank you John for the notion.)
     

    Still Waiting

    Adding ‘little people’ is quite addictive and it is soon apparent that figures are needed in locations with no balsa wood.  Most of my baseboards are a ½ inch medium density fibre board and it is relatively easy to drill a 0.75mm hole to accept the pin on the base of the figures.  The biggest issue I had was finding the hole after I had drilled it.  If the combination of 0.6mm wire and a 0.75mm hole produces too much movement, simply use a longer length of wire.


    A tool for making fine adjustments

    After the passengers and the porters there are the train crews.  It is not so bad if you are running big engines or locomotives of the LNER with their spacious cathedral sized cabs where you cannot tell if there is a driver or not.  However if you favour the old GWR locomotives where the cabs were too short to even need side windows it becomes very obvious that there isn’t a driver present.  It bothers my wife.  The idea of gluing a driver or fireman to the footplate of a £200 model also seriously bothers me.
    As an alternative to gluing to the footplate I would attach the driver and his fireman to a piece of black cartridge paper shaped to fit snugly on the cab floor.  I used offcuts of the Daler – Rowney A4 Canford 150g/m Jet Black card that I had used previously for making corridor connectors.


    First time lucky – my ex Mainline Dean Goods

    I should point out that you need to be prepared to trial two or three pieces of card.  Having cut out an initial piece of card this can be used as a template to shape and better fit a second piece.


    The crew for the Dean Goods in the making

    The little figures are pressed down onto tiny strips of 3mm wide double sided tape.  In order to achieve the best possible bonding I lightly file the base of the figures so that they are perfectly flat.  As a check I test to see if the figure will stand vertically without any support, the majority are able to.
    To date I have been able to slide my cartridge paper and figures into position without the need for any adhesive to touch the footplate.  This lack of glue is a huge advantage where expensive models are concerned but there is also the ability to remove the crew whilst on shed and to transfer them to another similar engine.
    Now what about those models where some of the space on the footplate is taken up with a seat?


    Ex Mainline 43xx

    I guess the easy solution might be to stick the driver on to the seat.  However to maintain the freedom to swap the crew to another engine I included a fold in the card to raise the floor beneath the driver’s feet sufficient for his backside to rest on the seat.  As said already you need to be prepared to have two or three attempts at shaping the card!


    Preparing the crew for the 43xx

    The crew for the 43xx are historic, a bit like the engine.  The driver had to be carved off the lump of plastic that he had been originally attached to.


    Spot the raised foot rest

    The next challenge was to fit a train crew into the cab of a tank engine.   I have been playing with a sound fitted J72 and I would give it a crew.  Having removed the bodyshell from the chassis, the lid of the Bachmann J72 is easily removed by undoing three pairs of screws.  This makes the fitting of a train crew relatively quick and easy.


    Bachmann J72 dismantled


    Bachmann J72 with crew

    Not all engines can be dismantled as easily as the J72 and my Bachmann / TM G5 falls into the category of “difficult”.  The plan for the G5 was to follow the same process as for the J72.  However I couldn't easily lift the lid.  The shape of the cartridge paper was cut initially from the J72 but because the lid on the G5 couldn’t be removed I gradually trimmed down the cartridge paper until I was able to feed the paper with the crew attached through the cab door opening of the G5.


    Ready and waiting for the Bachmann G5

    The result I think is nearly very good.   Manipulating the card has interfered with its snug fit so that the crew are a little bit more lively than I would have liked!


    Bachmann G5 + loco crew

    As already said I have become quite addicted to these little people.  There are more of my pictures in an Album on Flickr https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBd8P8
    Time now to finish writing this Post and to clock out.


    The end of another shift
  3. Silver Sidelines
    Recapping from my last Post, some fifteen years ago when the layout was conceived there was a Mainline Terminus and a high level Branch Terminus, both constructed up against the plasterboard enclosure housing the Aga flue.  It was not long before the Mainline Terminus was converted to a through station with the running lines skirting the outside of the plasterboard enclosure.  This provided for a dumbbell shaped layout with reversing loops and storage sidings at both ends.  Most importantly it allowed continuous running.  I do like to watch trains running.  How could the single track branch line be made into a continuous run?

    Life moves on, the Aga is now electric and the flu no longer carries hot gases.  I mused about a tunnel through the plaster board enclosure with a new connection back down to the through station (the Mainline Terminus that was).


    The Plaster Board Box
     
    The catalyst for this work was the appearance of some off cuts of ¾ inch plywood.  By stint of good fortune these were a perfect height and width to form a box for a tunnel.  All that was necessary was to glue and screw the bits together to form a solid box (almost square) which was just long enough to bridge the plasterboard enclosure.
     

    The Plywood Tunnel Box
     
    Forming the tunnel was the easy part.  Installing the wooden box was the first tricky bit.  Just a reminder, the tunnel had to pick up the running line from the buffer stops at the Branch line Terminus.
     

    The Buffer Stops before the Tunnel
     
    To minimise damage and disruption to the existing trackwork and platform the wooden tunnel box would have to be pushed in and across the plasterboard box from the side opposite towards the station.
     
    First the position of the track at the buffer stops was transferred to the opposite side of the plasterboard box and the centreline of the tunnel box marked on both plaster walls.  The outline of the wooden tunnel box was then drawn on the walls and four drill holes made at the corners.  These holes were used to start cuts into both the plasterboard and insulation board.  The plasterboard was cut from the outside with a Stanley knife.  The insulation board was cut from inside the loft space with a keyhole blade.  Both tunnel mouths were made in essentially the same way, the opening by the station being the trickiest because of the presence of the existing baseboard across the bottom of the required opening.  With holes formed in the wall the wooden tunnel box could be pushed into place supported at the correct level by cross members at each end within the loft space.


    Inside the Roof Space
     

    More Roof Space


    The Tunnel Box fitted - Jump?
     
    As with a lot of my ‘do-it-yourself’ works the gaps were filled with all purpose filler.  (What will we do without Wilkinsons?)


    Almost Level
     
    With the tunnel in place all I had to do was construct a ramp up to it (the second tricky bit).  As discussed in the previous Post there appeared to be a route around the reversing loop and up over the hidden sidings.


    The Plan
     
    The alignment was marked out and measured.  The length from the tunnel mouth down to the connection with the reversing loop was exactly 25feet (300inches)!  The height of the entrance to the tunnel mouth above the track bed for the hidden sidings was 5¾ inches.  This gave an average gradient of 1 in 52.  Experience indicated that whilst not ideal it would be acceptable.  Various ‘nay sayers’ have said I should have designed the layout with a flatter gradient.  Hindsight is wonderful but sadly as in the real world you have to make do with things as they are.  I put together quite a complicated little spread sheet to enable me to calculate the height of the intermediate supports measured from the start of the gradient taking account of the thickness of the fibre board track bed on the curve and the ¾ inch plywood for the straight section.

    Out with the jigsaw.  For the curved section I used the existing fibre board for the trackbed.  For the straight section above the hidden sidings I raided my stash of 3/4inch plywood.  Halfway round the curved section I realised that there was sufficient clearance above the lower reversing loop to ease the curve radius.


    On our Way
     

    Up and Around
     
    The hidden sidings had been arranged in pairs and in order to make space for supports for the overhead trackwork the last pair of sidings had to be shifted about half an inch outwards.  This done holes were cut through the fibre board surface to locate the cross members and attach new vertical supports.


    Up and Over the Hidden Sidings
     

    PVA is wonderful stuff
     

    Track Ready
     

    Completed – well first time round
     
    Some pictures of the completed works.  As with most real projects it is always better to have a second go.  As planned the lines through the tunnel would simply connect up with the existing station track and attached with nylon rail joiners.  Well there is a problem – the nylon joiners offer no support and create a nasty step in the track.  The solution second time around was to run a complete yard length of track across the joint and up to the existing station turnout.  The nylon joiners were moved to the other end of the yard length and ended up inside the tunnel – not ideal but workable.
     

    The Nylon Rail Joiners as planned
     

    Moving the Rail Joints away from the Tunnel Mouth – a better Solution
     
    Another issue was the connection with the existing trackwork.  As planned this would be a single turnout which would require a short section of wrong line running.  After an initial play I decided how much better to have a proper junction and the single turnout was replaced with a three points arrangement, negating the need for any wrong line running.


    The Single Turnout as first planned
     

    Three Turnouts – no Wrong Line Running
     
    Most of this work was completed in 2021.  Since then two tunnel mouths have been created and a halt has appeared.  There is a video on YouTube – just hope the driver and fireman have heads for heights.
     

    Postscript
    Early summer and it was hot.  The track through the tunnel is not fixed and expanded and moved sideways.  The tunnel is quite close to the slates and I would not be surprised if temperatures rose to 40C or more.  The track was relaid with larger gaps between individual track lengths.


    The perils of ultra hot weather.
  4. Silver Sidelines
    It has just been announced that the Rails Rapido Dynamometer Car has won the 2018 first ever Hornby Best OO Scale Wagon or Carriage Awards. Deservedly I would say. My model was purchased long before the awards were announced. The model is highly detailed and very well made. I think more a scale model than an item of model railway rolling stock.
     

    Ex LNER Dynamometer Car - complete with magic wand (to turn on the lighting)
     
    Over the course of a year I buy the odd item from Rails of Sheffield. This year Rails have been putting in their parcels, an advertising flyer for the ex LNER Dynamometer Car. It was made for Rails by Rapido, a Canadian business. The advertising flyer did not pass unnoticed by my wife who eyes, with a certain degree of suspicion, the various brown boxes delivered by our Postie. “Are you going to buy one?” she asked, followed by “I think you should get one”.

    Well – how could I resist!
     

    Ex LNER Dynamometer Car
     
    My layout is ‘60s based with the odd example left over from the ‘50s. I have attached here as an Addendum, a copy of the advertising literature put out by Rails. This literature provided courtesy of the National Railways Museum indicates that the Dynamometer Car remained in service until 1954. Rails offered two variants. The first represented the coach in 1938 on the occasion of Mallard’s record breaking run. The second modelled the coach at the start of ‘Nationalisation’ when it was used for the locomotive exchange trials comparing the performance of engines from the ’Big Four’ pre-war companies. I would buy the later version as used for the late 1940s locomotive trials and make believe that in the early 50’s the Dynamometer Car appeared behind some of my Early Emblem Pacifics.
     

     

    Ex LNER Dynamometer Car – 1950s view with Bachmann Commonwealth of Australia
     
    I say ‘make believe’ because pictures of the Dynamometer Car in use for the locomotive trials show engines with what I will call ‘transition’ liveries. For example the images of A4s below show the engines with their British Rail number, ‘British Railways’ written on the tenders, but without any emblem or crest. Although the pictures are only black and white my guess is that the ‘Lord Faringdon’ 60034 at Kings X is painted in a version of the old NER Apple Green rather than the experimental Blue or later Brunswick Green favoured by British Rail.
     

     

    Ex LNER Dynamometer Car during Locomotive Exchange trials, Courtesy 'East Coast Pacifics at work' Townsend PN (1982)
     
    The Dynamometer Car is highly detailed, for example it comes with full brake rigging for each bogie. The inside of the coach has also apparently been faithfully copied. Lighting is provided in the roof of the coach to assist with viewing the chairs, tables and instruments that are modelled within the coach interior. The lighting is switched on and off with a ‘Hi-Tech magic wand’ which has a magnet at one end to operate the reed switch in the roof of the coach. I have to say that operation of the lighting on my layout with Gaugemaster DS controllers appears erratic. Sometimes the lighting comes on straight away with the power from the controller. On other occasions the magic wand has to be waved over the roof of the coach to bring on the illumination.
     

     

     

    Interior of Ex LNER Dynamometer Car from Rails of Sheffield by Rapido
     
    I have posted a couple of videos on YouTube showing the car in use behind Bachmann A4 Commonwealth of Australia in ‘daylight’ and in ‘the dark’. It runs very well. Although a minor detail, I have changed the couplings to close the gap between engine and carriage. The coach comes fitted with what look like Bachmann straight type (36-30) and I have replaced with Bachmann short straight type (36-61).
     


     
    I spent a large chunk of my life working in engineering researching, at (I was told) the ‘Cutting edge of Technology’. At university computer input was from punched cards while data from experimental transducers was recorded manually. In my first position after university, agricultural engineers were trialling mini computers the size of big suit cases to collect data on board potato harvesters. Not many years later the first ‘Personal Computers’ appeared and I remember a trip to the outskirts of Edinburgh to buy an 8086 machine with 40Mb hard drive. Reading the history of the Dynamometer Car I had to smile that the vehicle was conceived prior to the First World War and was still in active service nearly 50 years later. One of my immediate thoughts was ‘how were the sensors calibrated’? The model sports a ‘measuring wheel’ beneath the centre of the car – I am guessing to record distance (and perhaps speed). If the wheel was nominally 3ft diameter, roughly similar to a standard coach wheel, it is fascinating to explore the magnitude of error due to a reduction in diameter due to wear. For example if the radius of the measuring wheel decreased by 1/16 inch it would have a smaller circumference and would have turned faster than when new and unworn. In these circumstances Mallard might only have been travelling at 125mph with instrument error accounting for the extra one mile per hour.

    The imitation teak, the clerestory roof and ‘north eastern style’ duckets all point to times long gone. Fifty years on from Mallard’s 126mph record run I used to travel frequently on HSTs from Newcastle that regularly topped 125mph between Darlington and York. These train sets worked day in and day out, with diagrams taking in Aberdeen, Bournemouth and Glasgow, often all in the same day. This progress was all made without a dynamometer car. The advent of the computer chip had encouraged the development of miniature transducers and compact data collection units that enabled performance monitoring to be carried out ‘on board’ trains with minimal interference to train crews and passengers.
     
    No longer is there a need for a dedicated and somewhat cumbersome special carriage.
     
    Addendum - Prototype History - Courtesy of the National Railway Museum.
     
    Designed and built by the North Eastern Railway, at the railway's York Carriage Works to diagram 10IA at a cost of £1500, the dynamometer car entered traffic in March 1906 in the NER's Crimson Lake livery with the running number 3591. The vehicle's first working was on the 6th March 1906 behind R class locomotive No. 2109.

    The purpose of a dynamometer car was to measure drawbar pull and speed, from which drawbar horsepower could be calculated. Over time the vehicles became more sophisticated and could evaluate coal and water consumption, along with combustion efficiency (by analysis of smokebox temperature and gases). All such data enabled designers and engineers to develop more efficient locomotives.

    In June 1924 the vehicle was repainted into imitation grained teak livery and was rebranded LNER with the running number amended to read 3591Y. Its first run in its new guise took place on 26th June 1924 behind No. 4419 on the GN section.

    The next notable event in the vehicle’s history took place on 3rd April 1928 when it entered York works for overhaul. During which time it received Gresley bogies and had corridor connections fitted. It also had a full repaint in imitation teak livery and received the running number 23591, before being released into traffic on 25th August 1928.

    Further alterations took place to its external appearance in late 1936 when NER style window duckets were fitted. On 3rd July 1938 a 'high-speed' brake trial brought class A4 locomotive No. 4468 'Mallard' and the dynamometer car to prominence with the record breaking 126mph run down Stoke Bank. Version one of our model portrays the car as it would have been seen on this famed journey. Soon after 3rd July 1938 the dynamometer car went into storage, where it remained throughout World War 2.

    Late in May 1946 the car re-emerged bearing the new running number 902S02 (as worn by version two of our models). It appears that no further work was done on the vehicle during storage. On 30th May the vehicle undertook a staff training run behind locomotives Nos. 484 and 1766, after which the vehicle saw constant usage on the LNER culminating in several runs on the GE section between London Liverpool Street and Norwich between 8th and 24th October 1947.

    On 26th February 1948 the car moved to Derby for calibration along with the GWR and LMS dynamometer cars. 8th April 1948 saw the start of the locomotive exchange trials. During this period the car saw extensive use and could be seen as far apart as Inverness and Severn Tunnel Junction. In September 1948 the car entered the works for overhaul, during which it received a full repaint, 'British Railways' branding and the running number E902502. It was eventually released to traffic in April 1949.
     
    The dynamometer car's last recorded journey was in October 1951 when it travelled from Stourton (Leeds) to Lancaster and return behind a Hunslet 500HP 0-8-0 locomotive, No.E6 that was destined for Peru.
     
    During the car's working life it undertook a recorded 1872 journeys, many behind locomotives such as Gresley W I 'Hush Hush', AI, A3 and A4 pacific's, Thompson A2's and B1's, plus an assortment of LNER freight and mixed traffic locomotives. During the locomotive exchanges of 1948, it could be seen behind SR Merchant Navy and West Country classes, GWR Kings and LMS Royal Scot and Coronation class locomotives as well as an assortment of freight and mixed traffic types.
     
    In the post exchange period before withdrawal, the dynamometer car was used on the Southern Region to test Bulleid's ill-fated 'Leader' No. 3600I, before going to the GE section to work behind Britannia No.70006 and B1 No. 61270 on the London Liverpool Street to Norwich services.
     
    The vehicle was finally withdrawn in December 1954 and subsequently preserved by the Science Museum. The dynamometer car is currently on display at the National Railway Museum, York, and wears LNER imitation teak livery which it has carried since 1963.
  5. Silver Sidelines
    The New Year has heralded a crop of new models. It is also the time of year when manufacturers and retailers clear out old stock. I have given in to temptation and I have purchased a second Hornby Class 52xx tank – ‘5239’ (R3224). My new model has a curved footplate to complement my existing model with its straight footplate.
     

    Hornby Class 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ with curved footplate over cylinders
     
    It would have been back in August 2013 when I took delivery of ‘5243’, one of Hornby’s first batches of Class 52xx ex GWR tank engines, R3126. It is a good looking engine with some very fine detail but I noted that the buffers were not sprung and the smoke box dart was moulded integrally with the smokebox door.
     

    Hornby Class 52xx R3126 ‘5243’ with straight footplate
     
    To their credit, Hornby have now provided the latest 52xx models with a separate detailed smoke box dart. However we still await the sprung buffers.
    The Hornby range includes a number of Class 42xx, Class 52xx and Class 72xx locomotives. Sometimes the differences are obvious. For example the Class 72xx has an extended bunker supported by an extra pair of trailing wheels. My original Class 52xx ‘5243’ (R3126) looks identical to Hornby’s latest Class 42xx ‘4257’ (R3223) – that is except for the detailed separate smokebox dart on the newer model. Perhaps the difference between the Class 42xx and the 52xx is simply the number series, 4200 – 4299 for the Class 42xx and 5200 – 5264 for the Class 52xx. But then why do some engines have a curved footplate raised above the cylinders?
     
    I would research the matter.
     
    First a look at my 1960 ‘bible’ by authors Casserley and Asher 1. They refer to Class 42xx/Class 52xx as a single class but there is no specific mention of straight or curved footplates:
     

    Number series: 4200/1/3/6-8, 4211-5/7/8, 4221-33/5-8, 4241-3/6-8, 4250-4299, 5200-5264
    Churchward 2-8-0T's, 4'7½" wheels, for heavy short-haul mineral traffic, built 1910-40. In all, 205 engines were constructed to this design: Nos. 4200-4299 and 5200-5294 between 1910 and 1930, and a final 10 in 1940. In 1934, Nos. 5275-5294 were reconstructed as 2-8-2T's and renumbered 7200-7219, while in 1935-6 Nos. 5255-5274 were similarly treated and became Nos. 7220-7239. These were followed in 1937 by 14 more reconstructions from the earlier locomotives, which were duly renumbered 7240-7253, their original numbers having been 4239, 4220, 4202, 4204, 4216, 4205, 4234, 4244, 4249, 4209, 4219, 4240, 4210 and 4425 respectively. Rather strangely, ten further engines were built in 1940 as 2-8-0T's, numbered 5255-5264, but they are, of course, entirely different engines from those which at first bore these numbers, and which are now 2-8-2T's, Nos.7220-7229. Several of the 4200 series were scrapped during 1959.  
    I also visited the Great Western Archive (GWA) web site.
     
    Again both the 42xx and the 52xx number series are grouped together as a single class referred to as the 4200 tank class. I have condensed the following points from the GWA.
     

    Running numbers: 4200-4299, 5200-5264
    The prototype 2 - 8 - 0T ‘4201’ appeared in 1910 with a straight backed bunker and no top feed.
    The first production batch had a top feed and the rear edge of the bunker was extended to increase the coal capacity. Production continued up to number 4299 and then from 5200-5204, finishing with the completion of ‘4200’ in 1923.
    For the second phase of construction the cylinder diameter of numbers 5205- 5294 was increased from 18½ inches to 19 inches. The resulting increase in tractive effort meant that engines from number 5205 were referred to as the '5205' class. The GWA states that these engines could be identified by their outside steam pipes.
    Towards the end of construction whilst building numbers 5275-5294 there was a reduction in coal exports which caused many of the class to lie idle. The relatively small size of the coal bunker restricted use of the engines and they were placed into storage at Swindon. Collett decided to increase the coal capacity and altered the batch 5275-5294 to a 2 - 8 - 2T configuration. The modified engines were renumbered and designated '7200' class.
    Further '7200' class engines were requested and the 20 next newest engines, numbers 5255-5274 were also rebuilt as 2 - 8 - 2T's. Even more 2-8-2Ts were requested and random engines appear to have been taken from the earlier Churchward '4200' series.
    Rebuilding the last of these '4200' class ceased at the end of 1939 and was followed at the beginning of 1940 by construction of a further batch of the '5205' class, numbers 5255-5264.
    The GWA states that when new cylinders were required on the '4200' engines, outside steam pipes were also fitted. Some engines at this time were given a curved front frame which included raising the height of the cylinder and therefore raising the running plate above the cylinder. However not all engines were modified in this way. Similarly, some members of the '5205' class fitted with outside steam pipes as standard had a flat running plate whereas most of the newer engines of this series had raised cylinders and therefore a raised running plate.  
    The notes above paint a rather confused picture. However I would say that it is well known that Castle Class and Hall Class engines coupled with Churchward tenders could enter Swindon Works for a major overhaul and emerge later coupled to a flat sided Hawksworth tenders (and vice versa). From personal experience in the north east of England it was also common for J26 Class engines with circular spectacle plates to the cabs to emerge from Darlington Works with a cab with straight sided spectacle plates from a J27. Might it be that when visiting Swindon Works for a major overhaul the frames and cylinders from engines in the series 5205-5264 were swapped with bits from engines in the series 4200-4299 and 5200-5204?
     

    Hornby Class 52xx Packaging – R3126 (top), R3224 (bottom)
     
    In these circumstances photographs become exceedingly valuable providing a definitive means of identifying the shape of running plate for a particular locomotive at a given point in time. The notes on the rear of Hornby’s packaging include a copy of a photograph of the enclosed model. ‘5239’ (R3224), one of the later production batch is pictured with a curved footplate and running with a late crest. In contrast sister engine ‘5243’ (R3126), with a higher running number, is pictured again with late crest but this time with a straight footplate. Whilst not shown here the packaging for ‘4257’ (R3223) an early engine, pictures the engine with late crest and I am guessing its original straight footplate.
     
    What about my new Hornby model?
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – footplate as received
     
    My model arrived with noticeable bend in the straight section of the footplate. Trawling through other people’s pictures including an image of the model on Hornby’s web site I can imagine that there is a production fault with the model that is preventing the footplate lying properly.

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ - disassembly
     
    The footplate can be unclipped from the side tanks. The only glue used to hold my model together was on a tab beneath the smoke box which I cut round and prised apart.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – unfolding the ‘outriggers’
     
    The front ‘stays’ or ‘outriggers’ are a push fit into holes at the front of the smoke box. These can be swung out of the way to allow the footplate to separate completely from the smokebox/boiler/side tank moulding.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – shave the motion bracket
     
    Having dismantled the body shell I set about trying to identify features that might be interfering with the fitting of the footplate. I should say that I could not identify a single cause and set about carefully shaving plastic from areas that I thought might be acting as ‘high spots’. Because of Hornby’s ‘clip together’ method of construction I was able to reassemble the footplate and check the effect of each operation before proceeding too far.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – gently file around the base of the smokebox saddle
     
    I was particularly suspicious about the base of the smokebox saddle. Rather than remove plastic from the saddle I would have preferred to cut through the matching opening in the footplate. However because of Hornby’s method of assembly I thought that removing the opening would leave the front of the footplate with too little support – I didn’t want to risk it.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – shortened steam pipes
     
    It did become obvious on my model that the steam pipes were too long. On my model these pipes were a push fit into the sides of the smoke box and it proved relatively easy to prise the glued end of the pipes out of their sockets in the footplate. The pipes were shortened by approximately 1mm. I took particular care to preserve the square spigot. Subsequently the pipes were reassembled without the need for any glue.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – packing washer placed beneath smokebox
     
    Finally I threaded a couple of thin washers onto the fixing screw beneath the smokebox. The total thickness of packing would be around 1mm similar to the original distortion in the footplate and also to the amount removed from the steam pipes.
     

    The proof of the pudding, Hornby 42xx R3233 ‘4257’(Left), Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’(Right)
     
    Nearly very good? As the view above shows I have removed the worst of the distortion and the buffers still sit at the correct level.
     

    Hornby 52xx R3224 ‘5239’ – a nice looking model
     
    As I said at the start of this post –I still think a nice looking model. It would be interesting to know whether the distortion to the footplate that I experienced was a Quality Assurance issue during assembly or whether as I suspect a design / production error perhaps associated with the use of common parts for both the straight footplate model (R3126/R3223) and the curved footplate variety (R3224)?
     
    Reference
     
    1. Casserley HC and Asher LL (1961) ‘Locomotives of British Railways’ (Spring Books)
  6. Silver Sidelines
    As a break from work work I took a day off to replace the buffers on my Hornby Duke of Gloucester (DoG).

    Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester as I think it should be with Sprung Buffers
     
    I was inspired by Matt otherwise known as ‘Bluebell Model Railway’ of this website.
     
    Fitting the buffers to the front was straightforward. I followed Matt’s suggestion and used Hornby Spare Part No. X9313. My usual supplier did not have the R (red) variant so mine were black and had to be painted red.
     
    There are two square holes in the back of the buffer beam which had been used to locate the original buffers. After cutting off the old shanks I used a 0.5mm size drill to extend these holes through to the front. I then gradually enlarged the holes from the front starting with 1/16 drill bit, moving up to 5/64 and finishing with 3/32. The Hornby body shell is made of relatively soft plastic and I rotated the drill bits with my fingers. Finally I used a craft knife again to clean the edges of the holes. I used Super Glue to fix the new buffers. This type of glue can dissolve the plastic so use sparingly.

    Engine Buffers Hornby X9313 fixed to buffer beam, left, grooves ground into chassis, right
     
    With work on the bodyshell complete l used a minicutting disc to grind two grooves in the front of the chassis to allow the sprung buffers to retract.
     
    Matt suggests X96202 buffers for the Tender. These are for the Hornby 28xx/38xx range and in my opinion are not a good match for DoG. I would try a different approach. I would swap the DoG tender underframe complete with buffers for a Hornby spare from a Britannia. There seems to be two variants available, X9601 has plain black axle boxes and a four pin socket to connect with the engine, and X9602 which has yellow painted axle boxes and a two pin socket. DoG does not have tender pickups and I didn’t need a socket, I would use X9602 and add a red stripe to the yellow ‘BR TIMKEN’ axle covers to match the engine.

    Masking the Timken Bearing Covers prior to painting red
     
    Whilst the DoG and Britannia tender frames appear similar, their construction is quite different. In fact Hornby would appear to have engineered the whole DoG from scratch without any attempt to utilise parts from previous models. I shall return to this point later.

    DoG Diecast metal tender frame - nice detail but a bit chunky
     

    ’BR TIMKEN’- good detail beneath the paint
     
    Now below a view of DoG tender underframe showing the parts that need to be removed and highlighting the difference in engine to tender couplings.

    DoG Tender Frame disassembled – DoG versus Britannia engine coupling bottom
     
    The Britannia Tender frame has a die cast platform but the rest, including dummy side frames, inside wheel bearings and rear buffer beam are all add on highly detailed plastic components. Luckily the adhesive bond between the die casting and the plastic is poor and both DoG and the Britannia tender underframes can be rapidly disassembled to assist with conversion and repainting.

    Britannia Tender Frame Part No X9602 - beginning to disassemble - and what is the little tank used for?
     
    The Hornby adhesive works well for plastics. If like me you wish to use the DoG front platform with the Britannia front tender steps it is likely that you will need to prise the plastic front steps off the Britannia front platform. Hot water is no help. Soaking in acetone nail varnish remover softens the adhesive – and some of the plastics – so be warned!
     
    The three views below show how to mix and match the axle keeper from DoG with the inside wheel bearings from Britannia.

    Mix and match-DoG keeper - top, Britannia chassis - bottom
     

    The DoG axle keeper top is not a good fit with Britannia chassis bottom
     

    Cut Britannia wheel supports and fit individually ready for DoG keeper plate - bottom
     
    I did try to leave the DoG components ‘unmolested’ however it is necessary to remove a small lip from the axle keeper plate as shown below.
     

    DoG retainer - need to remove lip at left hand side
     
    Reassembly is straight forward. Most important parts are screwed together. For the finer detail I again used Super Glue. Remember to insert the engine to tender coupling before gluing the front platform in place! Also for consideration are the two little side tanks that hang down from the tender sides (I have to admit I don’t know their prototype use). For Britannia the top green part of the tanks are part of the tender top and the lower black parts are attached to the tender frame. On DoG all of the tanks are part of the tender body moulding. As I have said already I tried to leave DoG parts unmolested. I chose to snap off the bits of black coloured tank from the Britannia chassis – the broken fixings being completely masked when the DoG tender top is lowered into position.
     
    Replacing the tender frame is more costly than swapping buffers but I would say there are added benefits.

    Duke of Gloucester Tender - left versus Hornby Clan - right
     
    Altogether I think a vast improvement.

    Hornby Clan Tender - left versus Duke of Gloucester with Replacement Buffers - right
     
    The spare tender frame for Britannia came without a scale coupling hook so I needed to recover the plastic moulding from DoG.

    DoG Diecast metal tender frame – note the chunky rear steps and plain cast buffer shanks
     
    I was lucky and after soaking in nail varnish remover for a good few hours the DoG hook was prised loose. – but oh dear the plastic buffers. The silver grey paint over the buffer heads was perfectly intact but the plastic inside has collapsed – so be warned. What I found more interesting was that the spigot on the coupling hook from DoG was about twice the size of the hole in the Britannia buffer beam. Yet another example where DoG seems to have been totally redesigned without reference to any pre-existing Hornby parts or models.

    Hornby R3191 Duke of Gloucester as should have been with Sprung Buffers?
     
    The trade price of a set of four Hornby sprung buffers must be around £2.00 whilst a plastic smoke box dart might be around 10p? It ‘beggars belief’ as to why Hornby thought that it was a good idea to miss these parts off the model and in the case of the buffers to substitute some rather clumsy, poorly detailed items not seen on a model since Triang days. Is the clue in the recent Financial Statement to the Stock Exchange? Are Hornby’s ‘trouble’ with suppliers similar to events back in the 1980s when I seem to remember Airfix did not own completely the rights to various models – hence Airfix, Mainline, Replica, Dapol and finally Hornby were all able to ‘sell’ ex GWR ‘B’ set coaches manufactured at the independent Chinese factory?

    Much improved
     
    So why didn’t Hornby spend just a few more pennies?
  7. Silver Sidelines
    It is 1987 and I have been given six months holiday on full pay in the West Midlands. As part of my education I had a trip up the Waterless Gas Holder at Swan Village Sandwell.

    1987 View from the waterless gas holder Swan Village Sandwell – scan of a copy of a copy
    The view was amazing. I was even allowed a peek inside. The more common column or spirally guided holders rise or fall to accommodate changes in the volume of gas stored. Volume change in a waterless gas holder is achieved using an internal piston designed much like an umbrella. Gas is introduced or withdrawn using a ‘blower’. There is a circular reservoir of tar or bitumen around the circumference of the ‘umbrella’ to provide the necessary gas tight seal. Tell tale black streaks of tar running down the outside of such a holder highlighted leaky joints or corrosion of the outer skin.

    Bachmann low relief model of a Waterless gas Holder 44-211
    Bachmann introduced their low relief model of a waterless gas holder in 2012. I would have liked to buy the model at the time but was discouraged by the high price. Now in 2015 some of the major retailers appear to have been discounting ‘old stock’. It was time to buy.

    Bachmann low relief model of a Waterless gas Holder 44-211
    Living remote from model shops means that purchases are frequently made without inspection of the actual product. A detailed study of picture on the front of the Bachmann packaging I would say is quite revealing and may well have influenced my decision to proceed with a purchase!

    Waterless gas holder shortly after removal from packaging
    My model was extremely well packaged and had survived handling by Royal Mail without damage – a tribute to the retailer. However all was not well. A lot of the ladders and railings were in my opinon at jaunty angles. Viewed at a distance as part of a back scene this is possibly acceptable. I had itchy fingers and within minutes bits of railings had started to come unattached.

    Stairs at a jaunty angle
    It was a challenge – I would improve the appearance. Previously I have successfully remediated ‘resin’ models by immersing in hot water. I applied the same technique to the gas holder. Initially I concentrated on the top flight of stairs which was the most visible and the most highly distorted. Gentle manipulation in hot water soon dislodged the railings allowing the resin stairs to be massaged into a better shape. Bachmann would appear to have assembled complete flights of stairs separate from the model. The finished flights of stairs then look to have been attached to a purpose made fixing at the top and with blobs of glue applied at the bottom - wherever the legs happened to land. Over the last week I have developed a lot of sympathy for the ‘little ladies’ in China who had the task of assembling these already part assembled items. It must have been very frustrating for them. Even without knowing about a ‘waterless gas holder’ it must have been very obvious that the distorted flights of stairs were not level and railings were not vertical.

    Slight adjustment sideways
    Reluctantly, as well as bending and massaging the stairs, I also had to separate the legs of the stairs from the landing. This was achieved with a very sharp craft knife. Now with the stairs freed at the base it was possible to develop a far better alignment. They were then reattached using Super Glue – in my case of the Wilkinson’s variety.

    Another pair of hands
    I could not readily separate all the handrails from the stair cases and in these instances I used ‘plastic ties’ to hold the realigned rails in place whilst the glue dried. My Super Glue seemed to soften the Bachmann resin moulding. This can be helpful where for example railing need to be slightly adjusted. Holes left from first removing the railings can be filled with softened material displaced from the new fixing position.

    Some bits of railing had to be removed
    On my model there was no way one set of stair rails would fit without cutting away some of the adjacent landing handrails. This was achieved using a Dremel type drill fitted with a miniature grinding tool.
     
    When everything was glued back in place I used the same arrangement of Dremel and grinder to remove surplus adhesive and resin from around all the fixings. Tidying up both my work and Bachmann's original efforts made a huge improvement.

    Looking good
    Finally I made good the paintwork. I had an old tin of Humbrol HR 111 ‘Stock Grey’ which I let down with some Humbrol gloss white. I added a dab of metallic silver and some white spirit to dull the mix. The result is not perfect but I would say more than acceptable. Certainly the model is good entertainment value and has kept me occupied for hours.
     
    Finally some views of the remediated model.
     

    Looking good

    Fettled

    Back to the beginning - but better!
  8. Silver Sidelines
    The past couple of years have seen a number of exciting modifications to the railway that have so far passed unrecorded.
     
    I was first alerted to the misuse of the initials GWR by George Behrend (Ref 1) in his 1966 book Gone With Regret.  In his recollections of the Great Western Railway he extols the virtues of God’s Wonderful Railway and notes that opponents of GW methods would dismiss the company as the Great Way Round.  (Something about Brunel’s original route to Bath and Bristol via Didcot and Swindon not being convenient for reaching Plymouth or Penzance.)

    In the 1950s the Reverend Awdry’s railway books were almost compulsory reading for children, well probably just boys.  However there was another model railway cleric, the Scottish Presbyterian Minister the Reverend Edward Beal (Ref 2 ).  He wrote and published a series of modelling guides later to be bound as a compendium and published as ‘West Midland, a Railway in Miniature / aka the ‘00’ Gauge Layout of a Lifetime.’  Over a period of 20 or more years Edward Beal constructed a number of model railways culminating in a massive model railway that escaped through the walls of its original room into an adjacent garage.


    West Midland Layout Plan

    The concepts behind Edward Beal’s layout design have stayed with me all these years and have encouraged me now to test the boundaries of my own layout.  I have a long branch line with passing loops (probably ex GWR) culminating at a ‘high level’ terminus.  The terminus finished up against a plasterboard enclosure housing the twin wall flue from an oil fired Aga.  Fifteen years later the Aga has been converted to electricity and the flue is in effect redundant.  I would tunnel through the enclosure and create a loop line back to the start - my own Great Way Round.  I do like watching trains go by.
     

    Longsheds Layout Plan as Projected
     
    Exiting the tunnel the line would have to be carried over the existing storage sidings.  Conveniently these had been arranged in pairs with a larger gap between the separate pairs.  Conveniently because there was space to insert supports for the new track above.  The line could then be looped down on the inside of the existing return loop.  The original loop was nominally six feet diameter. Reducing the inner loop below six feet was a compromise that I thought worth accepting.  I have titled the plan above ‘as Projected’ because during construction as the track climbed up I was able to move the track bed over the old loop below giving a small increase in radius.  Initially I connected the new and old trackwork with a single point.  This required a degree of ‘wrong line’ working and it was not long before I arranged the slightly more complicated arrangement shown above with three points giving access from both up and down lines.

    Construction of my Great Way Round took place in early 2022.  A lot else has since happened.  However to give some idea of the potential of the new track layout there is a video made back in 2022 immediately after construction.  The video was made using a Camtruck pushed by a Bachmann sound fitted Earl running on analogue.
     
     
    As a reminder I have included some historical pictures from before the works.


    The Buffer Stop back in 2008
     

    The Buffer Stops in 2011
     

    The Buffer Stop 2022 immediately prior to the works
     

    The Plaster Board enclosure
     

    The single point connection
     
    I plan to detail the construction in further posts.  For the present here is a short up to the minute video clip of the Great Way Round in use.
     
     
    References
     
    1 Gone With Regret,(George Behrend) Second Edition 1966, Distributed by Neville Spearman for Jersey Artists
    2 West Midland, a Railway in Miniature’ (Edward Beal) 1952, Percival Marshall
     
  9. Silver Sidelines
    The summer weather has disappeared so an incentive to spend time on railway matters.
     
    This Post was initiated by the purchase of a Dapol Fruit D van.
     

    One of Mr Dapol’s Fruit D vans
     
    Over the last twelve months I have been imagining a Welsh themed layout.  What better for inspiration but to follow Katerfelto’s pictures on Flickr https://flic.kr/ps/SokUv.
     
    I was fascinated by one particular picture which featured an ex GWR Fruit D in the process of being shunted between passenger trains.
     

    Machynlleth by Katerfelto
     
    Apparently a major source of the old GWR's parcels traffic was market garden produce.  Small growers would take their fresh produce and load it into a van at the local station.  The vans would then be moved speedily to market at the larger towns and cities.  To cater for the fresh produce the GWR provided vans with additional ventilation slats in their sides to allow cool air to circulate.  The vans could be attached to passenger trains.  The GWR used the telegraphic code ‘Fruit’ for these vans.  The ‘D’ suffix referred to in this Post indicates that the wagon was one of the 28ft 6ins designs, being the last and largest fruit vans built by the GWR.  As built they were fitted with gas lighting and with removable galvanised wire trays to carry the fruit boxes.  A final batch of vans was constructed in the 1950s under British Railways.  These later vans were fitted with electric lighting.  The vans were vacuum braked with through steam pipes enabling them to be marshalled in front of passenger coaches – hence the designation ‘Passenger’ painted on the side of the vans beneath the designation Fruit D.
     
    I read the words ‘Market Garden’!  My Grandfather owned a Market Garden.  As a youngster I spent time picking peas, beans and much else.  Growing tomatoes, soft fruit, vegetables and cut flowers in the 1950s and 60s involved long hours and hard work.  I think I can understand the worry and effort that would have gone into sending produce to market.  My Grandfather did not take his produce to market.  Instead he combined his market gardening with the collection and delivery of eggs from farm to packing station and then to shops and canteens which provided an opportunity to sell his own produce.  I have an old print of him with his ‘new to him’ Austin K8 Three-Way van.  “Three-Way” – because it had rear doors, side doors and access inside from the cab.
     

    1954.08Van No.2 Austin K8 Three-Way 25cwt van
     
    So far so good.  I would buy one (or two) of Mr Dapol’s Fruit D vans.  My stations don’t have names but from the Main Station there is a single track branch which goes via a ‘Halt’ and a ‘Junction’ to what used to be the Branch Terminus which has a Bay Platform – ideal for parking and loading a Fruit D. 
     

    Awaiting fresh produce
     
    The Branch is served by a couple of B Sets hauled by a variety of small engines; Earls, 43xx, and Ivatts.  The Main Station has a couple of long bay platforms which would be ideal for unloading and storing the Fruit Ds. 
     

    Unloaded and awaiting their next turn
     
    However there was an issue!
     
     
    The layout is around 15 years old and wood dries and moves.  Whilst the Main Station looks level the framing has obviously sagged between the supporting legs resulting in a gradient at the end of the platform sidings.
     
    What to do?  Re-engineering the timber support framework was not thought practical.  What about a mechanism to stop the wagons rolling down and away from the buffer stops?  Could I couple the trucks to the buffer stops?  I have a variety of spare couplings, some screw on and some for NMRA sockets.  Perhaps I could glue a coupling to the buffer stop?  I then remembered that I had replaced some bogies on my Bachmann Mk1s.  The Bachmann bogies (39-005A) are  distributed so that they can be used with or without a close coupling mechanism.  I already had the close coupling mechanism and I didn’t need the cranked bracket and coupling that came with the bogies.  As luck would have it the bracket was a perfect height to slot into the platform behind the buffer stops (modified Peco).
     

    Bachmann B1 BR Mk1 bogies (39-005A) showing surplus bracket and coupling
     
    My platforms are constructed with a base of ½ inch MDF and a balsa wood top.  I was able to use a small screw driver to form the necessary slot in the balsa wood with no disturbance to the rest of the structure.  Brilliant!
     

    Forming a slot
     

    The bracket and coupling are a push fit
     

    Buffer stop back in place
     

    Arrival and Departure
     
    What should have been a very quick operation was unfortunately prolonged.  I was using the vacuum cleaner to remove the balsa wood shavings and inadvertently sucked up one of the fire buckets from the station building.  I was then delayed by a good half hour whilst I rummaged through the cleaner bag and recovered the wayward bucket.
     

    Fire buckets – back from their holidays.
  10. Silver Sidelines
    The arrival of Bachmann’s new Class 43 Warship Pegasus has encouraged me to revisit my fleet of Bachmann Warships. I have counted four distinct variants of the Bachmann Warship: the early 'low' version, the corrected version, the lighted version and now the latest Class 43. I don't count Kader’s early Mainline models as being Bachmann, although they have a place in this narrative.

    Four ages of Bachmann Warship, left to right, Onslaught, Glory, Zenith and Pegasus
     
    First some history, Kader Industries introduced their first Warship under the Mainline label I think in the late 1970s. I certainly bought a couple in the early 1980s, now long since sold at auction. The Mainline models had a good shape and came with directional lighting. When Kader rebranded their UK models under the Bachmann label the body shell from the Mainline Warship was reused (with different fixings) right up until the introduction of the Bachmann Class 43 in 2015. The Mainline chassis had a ‘plastic’ mechanism and to counter the lack of weight rubber tyres were fitted to the wheels on the motor bogie. The plastic drive gears had a habit of cracking where they had been force fitted to the axles. Ultrascale still sell nice brass replacement gears. With brass gears and some additional weight the model was nearly very good as can be seen at the end of
    .
    Mainline Warship chassis
     
    Bachmann reintroduced the Warship I would guess during the mid 1990s with a much improved chassis and motor, not forgetting the sprung buffers. It would be 2008 before directional lighting reappeared. Among the first Bachmann branded models were Foxhound, Onslaught and Eclipse (32-050, 051 and 052 respectively). The first production runs of these models were deemed to be too low. That is the body and buffers were some 1 to 2mm lower than they should have been. This is evident in the view below comparing the latest Bachmann model of Pegasus with Onslaught (as bought new).

    Bachmann Pegasus (left) Onslaught (right) as bought
     
    A contemporary fix by Keith Norgrove shows how to grind away part of the chassis and insert some plastic spacers to correct the error.
    For their part Bachmann corrected the error in subsequent models such as Glory (32-059) by raising the height of the pivot point on the Bogie Towers. I don’t know how quickly these modified towers were introduced or whether any were fitted to later batches of the first models. Both Foxhound and Onslaught arrived on my layout too low. However I have a model of Eclipse (bought second hand) which was advertised and looks unused, which arrived with the correct height towers. Perhaps it was only the very first production batches that had the error and subsequent models were issued with corrected towers?

    Bachmann Class 42 Towers - original right, later models left
     
    Rather than grind away bits of chassis and manufacture plastic spacers I opted to source a couple of replacement towers for Onslaught.

    Bachmann Pegasus (left) Onslaught (right) with new bogie towers.
     

    Bachmann Class 42 Onslaught, ride height corrected with replacement towers
     
    When first introduced the Bachmann Warships were admired for their smooth running and super haulage capacity. They had a heavy metal chassis fitted with a big ‘can’ motor and they made a reassuring clunking noise as the heavy mechanism crossed rail joints.

    Bachmann Class 42 Chassis (Foxhound/Eclipse/Onslaught/Glory)
     
    Around 2008 Bachmann upgraded the Class 42 Warship. The earlier model was reworked to include cab/indicator lights and a socket was provided to aid the installation of a Digital Chip.

    Bachmann Class 42 Zenith
     
    The original and the reworked models share the same body shell. However if you compare the spacing of the top cab steps on ‘Zenith’ with the earlier picture here of ‘Onslaught’ it seems to me that the ride height of the reworked model is too high. I suspect that this is because of the spring contacts and circuit boards introduced as part of the lighting set up is preventing the body shell sitting tight on the underframe.

    Bachmann Class 42 Chassis (Hermes/Zenith/Magpie)
     
    The original and reworked models shared the same design of bogie / tower. However that is where the similarity ended. As shown below there were significant detail differences in the way that the towers were attached.

    Clip on Bogie Fixing Bachmann Class 42 (Eclipse/Onslaught/Glory)
     

    Screw on Bogie Fixing Bachmann Class 42 (Hermes/Zenith/Magpie)
     
    Superficially the ‘can’ motors were the same. However there are detail differences between the two motors, notably at the opposite end to the brushes, such that when swapping motors between models it is necessary to also swap the black plastic motor cradle. From my own experience I would say that the motors on some of the reworked models were inferior in performance to those in the original models. I have had to replace two motors that I would say ran slow and overheated.
     
    The overheating issue is interesting and has filled in many happy hours. The picture shown here above comparing the original (low) bogie tower with the modified bogie tower has differences in the shape of the axle holes. The original towers had an axle hole / bearing shaped to match the axle. Running was generally excellent. The modified bogie simply has machined slots for the axles. If these machined slots were made too deep the drive axle is no longer carried by the metal bogie side frames and instead the whole weight of the engine is carried by the nylon gearing. My observations suggest that carrying the weight on the gears increases the friction in the gearing leading to slow running and overheating, not to mention ‘wobbly’ running. (I do believe that Heljan ‘Lion’ has the same problem.) I did make a couple of spacers / bearings to clip to the metal side frames and pack the space between above the axle but it just seemed to slow the motor even more so it was abandoned.

    Axle spacers/bearings
     
    I am not sure if there is a ‘fix’ and I resorted to swapping gears and wheel sets to obtain the optimum solution, coupled with many hours of ours of ‘running in’ using the ‘Loco Tester’. ‘Zenith’, bought second hand ran perfectly. ‘Hermes’, bought brand new was a problem, eventually only solved by fitting replacement towers and a different motor.

    Bachmann Class 42 Hermes
     
    Because Bachmann’s Class 42 Warships have been around for some time I suspect the arrival of the Bachmann model of the Class 43 has not been given the prominence that other new releases have received. A pity I think, as it is a superb model which could teach a few other manufacturers a trick or two. Mine runs ever so quietly and is also rock steady. There are numerous clever touches, for example the casting of the engine/transmission visible through the side windows and the ‘yellow’ tint to the running lights.

    Bachmann Class 43 Pegasus
     
    I have added a view of the chassis. This too has been re-engineered and is a work of art in itself. I have not investigated further but I can see very little that would be interchangeable with previous models. The space for scale cab interiors and a sound speaker does come at a price and the Class 43 weighs 70gm less than the Class 42. Time will tell as to whether this is important or whether it will be an excuse for double heading.

    Bachmann Class 43 Chassis
     
    The only question remaining is, "When will Bachmann introduce a new Class 42 based on the tooling for the Class 43?"
  11. Silver Sidelines
    With all the rain outside putting a stop to gardening I have been grounded and have used the opportunity to tackle some longstanding issues.  Hornby first released their Q6 models in June 2016.  Having being raised in Middlesbrough I had to take delivery of two versions, an Early Emblem and one with a Late Crest.  They were tested and given a run around the layout before being stored away to make room for some BR (WR) trains.
     

    Q6 63443 Hornby R3425
     
    February 2018 and Hornby released a further Early Emblem version.  I dug out my two original models and ran all three together.  It soon became obvious that one of the first models, number 63443, was a much slower runner.  On handling the model I was shocked to realise just how hot the bodyshell had become around the motor.  With further running I could well imagine melting the smokebox.
     
    Some research showed a problem with Hornby motors of a similar vintage.  My engine was too old to return for a refund.  I would buy a new motor (X7148), but where from?  I couldn’t find one with any of the usual suspects; Peter’s Spares, AC Models or Lendons.   Hornby promised me a replacement at the beginning of May 2018.
     
    63443 was relatively expensive.  I think I paid around £117 at one of the big discounters, a lot of money to have sleeping in a box.
     
    I would contact Hornby again in September 2018 and in January 2019.  Most recently in September 2019 I was told rather brusquely that Hornby did not have spares for the Q6 and I should look at ‘aftermarket suppliers’ on eBay.  I messaged Peter’s Spares asking if they had any similar motors that might fit the Q6 and they trotted out Hornby’s message about being no spares for the Q6.
     

    Original Hornby Motor X7148 with short output shaft
     
    Stuffed comes to mind.  The Q6 motor is a ‘long’ motor the same as used in the Castle.  I contacted ‘Jack’ (jacclar_0) an aftermarket supplier on eBay.  He confirmed that the Castle type motor would fit the Q6.  I would buy a ‘Hornby style 5 Pole motor - X6152 X6481 X9979 X6898 X6545 X7041 - no worm gear’.  The lack of any gear or flywheel is a benefit as it means that there is no unsuitable worm or flywheel to remove from the new motor.  The new motor would however need one of the output shafts shortened and the brass flywheel would have to be transferred from the original motor.  Quote ‘Jack’ “as long as there is no plastic drive connections on the brass flywheel they can be heated over a gas stove quickly and then pulled off relatively easily compared to when cold.  The holes in the brass tend to be 1.98mm and the actual shaft 2mm, so Hornby knowingly make them hard to remove, or good build quality if you chose to look at it that way.”
     

    Expo and G & W gear / worm pullers
     
    I have form when it comes to gear pullers.  I wrecked a brand new Expo puller trying to remove a Bachmann worm only to be told that it was only really suitable for use with plastic worms!  I would try a G & W puller on the Q6 flywheel.  Sadly even with gentle warming it was still ‘no go’.
     

    Aga hot plate
     
    We don’t have a gas supply but we do have an Aga.  I decided that the motor had effectively expired and that it was time to use a more brutal technique.  I would stand the motor with the brass flywheel on the Aga hotplate.  I left it until it started smoking and then prised the flywheel off with the back of a screw driver.  Whilst the flywheel was still hot I slid the new motor shaft into place assisted with a few light taps from a hammer.  I then used a minidisc to shorten the output shaft to the same length as on the X7148 motor.  Hey presto – a replacement  X7148 motor.
     

    Replacement motor for Hornby R3425 chassis after shortening shaft
     
    I should have perhaps said that the Q6 motor is coupled to its worm drive with a plastic universal joint which is a sliding fit into the brass flywheel.  The worm itself is held in position with a plastic clip on cover.  It all comes apart quickly and easily.  Reassembly being the opposite of disassembly is equally straightforward.
     

    Replacement motor for Hornby R3425 chassis showing brass flywheel, black plastic universal joint and brass worm peeping through a black plastic clip on cover
     
    A good evening’s work.  There is a YouTube video with clips of the Q6 back in service.
     
     
    Growing up in the north east of England in the 1950s and 60s I have fond memories of Q6s.  They were used a lot for coal and coke traffic, and on Teesside  to haul steel products, sometimes as far afield as to York.  They are still one of my favourite steam locomotives.
     

    Q6 63443 Hornby R3425)
     
    Postscript
    Out of interest I dismantled my defunct  X7148 motor.
     

    Original Motor - X7148 no more than four hours' use - out of Hornby R3425 (63443)
     
    There is quite a splendid multi-groove visible in the commutator.  The brushes don't appear particularly worn as might be expected for a motor which has barely seen three or four hours' use.  Answers on a Post Card please!
  12. Silver Sidelines
    The starting point for this Blog entry is the Bachmann Coaling Stage:
     

     
    This was bought in full knowledge that the steps were in pieces and would need sticking back together. I used ‘Super Glue’. A couple of the joins are still visible but not in my opinion sufficiently obvious as to need immediate repainting.
     
    What was more obvious was the twisted and warped loading chute. This had to be fixed!
     
    The chute is separated from the rest of the loading stage by pushing out the ‘hinge pin’. At this point I am indebted to Graham (Shanks522) of this parish for pointing out that Skaledale Resin walls can apparently be moulded to shape using hot water. Perhaps I could use ‘hot water’ to remould the chute? I put the chute into a small plastic bowl of very hot water. After allowing it to soak up some heat it began to feel much like a lump of hard rubber, such as a pencil eraser. At this point I was able to gently mould and straighten the casting.
     
    Excellent – would I be able to improve my Skaledale footbridge with its crooked legs?
     

     
    Certainly worth trying
     

     
    The water was almost too hot for comfort. After immersing the bridge for about five minutes it was possible to start very gently manipulating the warped legs. I was very gentle and I kept returning the bridge to the hot water. To maintain the temperature I even reheated the water several times. Success:
     

     
    I am much happier now:
     

     
    Hopefully this will inspire others to correct their Skaledale structures.
     
    Perhaps I should have kept my twin track engine shed with wonky central pillar – that went back to the shop!
     
    As a postscript I am also attaching a picture of Hanson’s Bakery.
     

     
    Silk purses and sows ears come to mind. Hot water couldn’t have solved this problem. The metal frets for both the shop door and shop window were just too big to fit the openings in the resin casting. The windows were only glued at two corners and were soon pushed out from behind. The metal window frets were then filed to a smaller size. By reversing the frets in the window openings all the horizontal bars lined up. I cut some new glazing from acetate sheet, the sort that was used in photocopiers to make ‘overheads’. After repainting the frets the windows were reassembled. First the acetate glazing was pushed into position. Then drops of Super Glue were placed at the corners before covering with the glazing frets. The view ‘close up’ is still pretty frightening – but I think that Skaledale (and Scenecraft) are still quick ways of adding instant atmosphere to the layout.
  13. Silver Sidelines
    Black is black, I want my loco back



    It’s gone away for exchange they say, Ooh-Ooh



    What can I do? 'Cause I-I-I-I-I-I'm feelin' blue




    I am really very pleased with my black Heljan 47xx. I think it is becoming one of the best ever locomotives to grace my layout. It has been a long journey which will not suit everybody. However ‘job done’ and I am well pleased.


    Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl'

    When Heljan announced their 47xx I preordered a BR green model. I read with interest the associated thread on RMweb and noted the trials and tribulations with 4706 the ‘black’ model. I dithered. I cancelled my preorder. Then I reordered and took delivery – ‘Shades of Green’.

    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/880/entry-21211-shades-of-green-2018-version/

    I was well pleased with my green model; it ran like a sewing machine and arrived mostly in one piece. (It was only after I had written my last Blog Post and I was reviewing the pictures that I noticed that one of the lamp irons had ‘fallen over’ - now sorted.) I was so impressed with my green engine that whilst new models were still available I would purchase 4706, the BR black engine. Sadly all the stories I had read, about models arriving damaged and bits hidden in the cardboard packaging proved to have been true. Hattons must be very patient. I returned two models (plus an empty box). I could have returned the third model. However given the state of the first two rejects I realised that this third model was unmarked and whilst they were not all actually attached, all the bits were present and correct. The model was worth fettling.


    Engine No.3

    Having handled three black engines and one green engine I have gained the impression that there are two issues with the Heljan models. There is evidence that the consignment of black engines was subject to great trauma – dropped from a great height? The 47xx is a weighty model and a lot of the detail seems to have been added using super glue with minimal mechanical keying. Bits have shaken free, I would say before arrival at the retailer. Probably due to location within the consignment, some models appear to have been driven down into the vacuum plastic packaging with such force that the cab steps have been deformed or broken off. Butanone is wonderful stuff.


    Glued joint

    The second issue relates to the footplate in front of the smokebox. I received two models where the front section was loose (but still attached), and one model which was complete in one piece but where the buffers pointed skywards (it also refused to run but I chose not to investigate that aspect any further). On the third model, the one that I chose to keep, the front section of footplate was loose and one of the stays beneath the smoke box had popped out. However much pressure I exerted I couldn’t get the footplate to lie level. Was it excess dried glue, or is the shape of the Mazak chassis wrong?

    ‘robmcg’ in a Post on RMweb has some better pictures of the problem and solution where his model arrived with the footplate sheared off.

    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/92905-Heljan-gwr-47xx-night-owl/?p=3127512

    Because my footplate was still intact I set about dismantling the engine. This proved more difficult than I had imagined but I did eventually gain better access to the underside of the footplate and the top of the chassis, sufficient to be able use a small blade and to pare some material away.


    Exploded diagram

    The cab on the engine is a completely separate item and has to be released first by removing two screws on the underside of the chassis. The boiler with its weight enclosing the motor can then be released by undoing two further bigger screws. Beware - the weight inside the boiler is amazingly heavy and slides in and out like anything (as per Winnie the Pooh). I had thought that the footplate could then be lifted clear of the chassis. Sadly not, the footplate is attached to the pipework beneath the cab which in turn is glued to the bottom plate that retains the driving wheels. Too much flexing of the pipework and it starts to lose its coating of brass paint. On my green engine the footplate in front of the smoke box is glued down to the chassis. Seemingly this joint had failed on my black engine. I did try reassembling without glue but reluctantly the only way I could make a permanent fix was to reattach using super glue. Replacing the two metal stays beneath the smokebox was a bit like one of those Chinese Christmas puzzles. At the finish I lightly glued the stays into the smokebox before refitting the boiler and finally pressing the other end of the stays into the footplate. I tend to agree with ‘Coachman’ on RMweb who thought the Heljan stays are too short. He remade some to be longer and hence better able to press the footplate level.

    http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/92905-Heljan-gwr-47xx-night-owl/?p=3127859

    My black engine is not perfect, but then on close inspection neither is my green engine.


    Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl' (right) 4705 BR Green (left)

    Now what about the other issue, the elephant in the room?


    Cab side number plates

    There is the small matter regarding the size of the cab side number plates, not forgetting the red dot. Heljan’s small moulded plates had to go, and I purchased some etched plates from 247 developments. I bought plates with a black background and recoloured them using some Humbrol ‘signal red’ paint from long past.

    With the cab removed from the engine I set about grinding off the moulded number. The task is helped by the Heljan number being smaller than the finished engraved plates.


    Black Cab?

    Working on the ‘kitchen table’ I held the cab with a heavy G clamp and used a Proxxon drill fitted with a diamond coated grinding bit. The Proxxon is a relatively new purchase and it is worth noting that it runs beautiful and true – unlike the rather cheaper variant that I previously used.


    Tools of the trade

    Black on black is difficult to see and I cannot over emphasise the importance of some good natural light. Also the need to clamp the work leaving two hands free to steady the drill. I have to own up wrecking my first cab when I used a craft knife to speed up the grinding process. Luckily Heljan have had a few models returned and would sell me a replacement cab - although mine arrived with bits missing (fancy).




    Job done

    To avoid lots of repainting I attached my etched plates over the area of the original Heljan plates. Is this correct or should the new plates have been positioned centrally?


    Courtesy of Mr Roche

    Thank you John Tomlinson, on Flickr, for checking some David and Charles illustrations. These are reported to show the middle of the cabside number plate directly below the most forward part of the curve of the cab cutout, as mine have turned out.


    A good outcome

    The red dot lives on for another day. Black engines and crimson and cream coaches are a very distant memory but I am well pleased with the combination below.


    Heljan 4706 BR Black 'Night Owl'

    There is a video on YouTube prior to fitting the plates and blackening the wheel centres which confirms the excellent mechanical performance of the Heljan Model.




    - Now what about Black is Black:

  14. Silver Sidelines
    This Post brings a closure to my last two Posts.  Those of you who have read my accounts of rebadging a Hornby Clan and Britannia will know that there was some unfinished business.  Hornby ‘Britannia’ alias ‘Morning Star’ still needed cut outs around its lubricators.  Hornby ‘Clan McLeod’ alias ‘Clan Stewart’ needed its top lamp iron repositioning.
     

     
    A reminder, as received TMC Morning Star alias Hornby Britannia R2562
     

     
    Completed – my 1959 version of 70021 Morning Star with solid rods, lubricator access, large dome, raised sand box covers, front step and rear cab supports
     

     
    Lubricator Cut Outs, one with (right) and R2562 without (left)
     
    In the same way that Hornby have engineered the Britannia body shell to cater for different numbers of raised sand box lids, the body moulding has also been set up to make it easy to alter from an engine without lubricator access (the early 1950s engines) to engines with an access hole in through the side of the footplate.  With a sharp blade and a steady hand the thin panel can be cut away from in front of the lubricator.  As I have said earlier finding the little black handles would be the problem.  I cheated and have ‘found’ a complete new chassis.
     

     
    Hornby Britannia / Clan X9607 or R.Scot / Patriot X3875 – spot L8786!
     
    Those of you that have bought or played with old ‘Super Detail’ Britannias will know that the Main Drive Gear (X9607) is prone to splitting.  The part is a combination of two separate different sized gears force fitted onto a common shaft.  When the larger gear splits it causes the engine to limp or seize solid.  The fault is readily identifiable because ‘the tight spot’ occurs at different points in the revolution of the driving wheels rather than at the same point when there is a fault with the quartering or with the gear wheel on the driving axle.  The same gear (X3875) is used by Hornby in their Royal Scot and Patriot models.  The problem is that this spare part is frequently out of stock at the usual suppliers.  In all the models that I have come across it is only the larger gear that has split, the one stamped L8786. 
     

     
    Examples of Hornby Spare Part Packs containing gear wheel L8786
     
    L8786 is used in almost all of Hornby’s models but combined with different length shafts or a different size small gear.  L8786 can be eased off its drive shaft and there are packs for different models available from the usual Hornby spare parts dealers which can be raided to provide the necessary replacement.  These alternative spare parts can be considerably cheaper than buying the ‘real’ part at an inflated price off eBay.
     
    The unfinished business with Clan Stewart alias Clan McLeod (R2847) related to the position of the top smoke box lamp iron.  R2847 comes with a Late Crest and overhead warning plates.  As such it represents Clan McLeod at the end of its working life in the 1960s.  By this time the top lamp iron had been lowered for safer working under the overhead wires.  In contrast my model of Clan Stewart had retained its Early Emblem and represented the engine at the beginning of the 1960s.  It would be 1963 before it gained its Late Crest and had its top lamp iron lowered. 
     

     
    Hornby R2847 Clan McLeod alias Clan Stewart with repositioned top lamp iron as running in 1960
     
    I must have been lucky because after separating the bodyshell from the chassis I was able to use a tiny screw driver and to push out the existing lamp iron.  It was then a case of marking out, drilling a new hole and glueing the iron back into its new top position.  Getting the position correct is critical.  Get it wrong and it is very visible.  I used a 0.5mm bit rotated by hand to form the new hole.  This is perhaps a little small for the stub on the Hornby lamp iron but it does leave scope for elongating the hole to the left or right if the initial marking out proves to have been ‘off centre’.
     

     
    Perfect Plastic Putty coloured with Acrylic Paint (Wilkinson’s)
     
    Removing the lamp iron had left a reasonably clean hole which I filled using ‘Perfect Plastic Putty’ coloured black with acrylic paint.  I made a mixture of half putty and half paint.  I used my finger to push the putty from inside the smoke box until it appeared on the outside.  The surplus on the outside was carefully removed after it had started to dry.  Since the hole was unlikely to get any handling I left the filler with just a dab of black acrylic paint applied using a cocktail stick.  For me this was a quicker solution and more acceptable than repainting the whole smoke box door.
     

     
    Hornby R2847 Clan McLeod alias Clan Stewart with repositioned top lamp iron as running in 1960
     
    Another view of Clan Stewart, followed by another image of Morning Star (I do like these models).
     

     
    My 1959 version of 70021 Morning Star alias Hornby R2562
     
    For completeness I have added two views of the third engine from the previous Post, my 1960s version of Britannia.  I have swapped its tender top for one with a different shade of green.
     

     
    Hornby Special Duties Britannia Ex R3094 Set with Late Crest and BR (LMR) pattern deflectors
     
    My understanding is that Britannia never had its sand box lids modified in British Railways days.  I need to be more certain as to how the tops of the sand boxes were finished on the prototype in 1960 before cutting or making any further modifications to the model.
     

     
    Hornby Special Duties Britannia Ex R3094 Set with Late Crest and BR (LMR) pattern deflectors
     
  15. Silver Sidelines
    This Post is a continuation of my recent foray into Hornby Super Detail Britannias https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/25039-a-tale-of-two-Hornby-super-detail-‘britannias’-plus-a-clan-part-1/.
     
    Back in 2014 Hornby sold off a lot of Diamond Jubilee boxed sets.  These included 70000 Britannia in ‘Special Duties’ livery.  This was Britannia’s preserved livery as featured in 2012 when Prince Charles was a passenger and included an Early Emblem and the original ‘dangerous’ pattern smoke deflectors.  The model also featured a speedometer drive which Britannia itself gained around 1956.   My Hornby model also had fluted coupling rods which on the prototype had been changed to solid rods in the early 1950s.
     

     
    Hornby R3094 Diamond Jubilee Train Pack
     
    In a past Blog Post in 2014 I described overpainting the cab roof of the Special Duties model and backdating the overhead warning plates.https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/13640-shades-of-green-–-Hornby-britannia-r3094/
     

     
    My Britannia ‘Special Duties’ with repainted cab roof back in 2014
     
    I had tried to convince myself that the combination of overhead warning plates, speedometer drive, ‘dangerous’ deflectors and Early Emblem might have coexisted in the 1950s.  David Hey https://davidheyscollection.myshopblocks.com/ did not agree and the model really needed BR (LMR) pattern deflectors and a tender with a Late Crest. 
     

     
    Britannia in 1961 with London Midland Region pattern smoke deflectors (Courtesy Keith Long)
     
    After my big bid for Morning Star mentioned in the previous Post I had another bid on some bits from Hornby ‘Clive of India’.  I was attracted by the prospect of some BR (LMR) pattern deflectors but as a bonus I was able to salvage a front step, large dome, some sand boxes and rear cab supports all for Morning Star.
     
    Replacing Britannia’s ‘dangerous’ smoke deflectors with the BR (LMR) pattern from the donor was slow and fiddly.  Flexing the deflectors broke the glued joints between the deflectors and the dummy metal supports at the front of the smoke box.  Gently pulling the deflectors away from the smoke box eventually parted the top ‘pin’ fastening which pokes into the side of the smoke box.  In two cases this had not been glued, in two cases it had been well glued and I snapped the pin.  I finished up removing an intact fixing pin from a redundant deflector and gluing it back onto a deflector that I was keeping.  The bottom fixings into the footplate were the most difficult to separate and much time was spent with a small screw driver and craft knife poking around beneath the footplate.  Refitting is straightforward, the front metal fixings were loose fitted into their respective openings in the smoke box and only glued to the inside of the deflectors after the deflectors had been firmly fixed top and bottom.
     
    Whilst modifying Morning Star and against my better judgement I acquired a ‘cheap’ model of Clan McLeod.  It was not quite as described!  Coincidently I had some etched plates for Clan Stewart.  A quick trawl of Flickr showed that 72009 Clan Stewart kept a tender with Early Emblem (with overhead warning plates) into the 1960s.  Also like most of its sister engines, it retained fluted coupling rods for its whole life.
     

     
    72009 Clan Stewart in July 1961 (Courtesy of Brian Townsley)
     
    I had a plan, I would rebadge 72008 as 72009.  I could then swap tenders and rods between ‘Britannia’ and ‘Clan McLeod’ (that was) and I would have reasonable 1960s representations of two more engines.
     

     
    Hornby Super Detail Clan McLeod alias Clan Stewart
     
    The more astute readers will know that on Hornby Clan McLeod’s model, the top smoke box lamp iron has been lowered.  However from studying pictures of the prototype, Clan Stewart’s top lamp iron was only lowered when it gained its Late Crest, around 1963.  A modification that I have parked for a future occasion.
     

     
    Hornby Britannia ex R3094 Train Pack with BR(LMR) smoke deflectors
     
    Returning to ‘Britannia’ there was one final job to carry out.  I would over paint the yellow axle boxes in black.  I think another good outcome.  Mind you I do wonder about the sand box covers.
  16. Silver Sidelines
    I have a fascination for Hornby’s super detail Britannia and Clan models.  This Post looks at some variations that Hornby have not produced.
     
    Firstly I am also rather partial to things ‘Great Western’.  When I spotted Hornby super detail Morning Star rebadged by The Model Centre (TMC) I would make a bid for it.  It was a big bid and Morning Star duly arrived.
     

     
    Morning Star
     
    I am generally not bothered about details such as counting the number of rivets but on this occasion the position of the Morning Star name plates did not seem right.
     

     
    TMC Morning Star with high level plates
     
    There is a useful image on Flickr of Morning Star in 1958 shortly after it had moved from the Western Region to the London Midland Region.  It is still without its speedometer but clearly shows a single front step, raised sand boxes and the correct position of the name plates.
     
    https://flic.kr/p/NkD7We
     
    I repositioned the plates and repainted the deflectors – a better result I think.
     

     
    TMC Morning Star with repositioned plates
     
    A bonus for me was that the TMC Morning Star came with a tender with a Late Crest which would fit nicely with my 1960s layout.  However removing the TMC applied etched plates revealed the name ‘Britannia’.  TMC had evidently rebranded Hornby R2562 which was a model of ‘Britannia’ shortly after it had entered service in the early 1950s.  I would consult my encyclopaedia – the David Hey Collection. http:// https://davidheyscollection.myshopblocks.com/
     
    Hornby R2562 appears to be a reasonable representation of ‘Britannia’ as running in the early 1950s.  However for the late 1950s the dome is too small, the front step is missing, the coupling rods are fluted, there is no rear cab support and the sand boxes have not been raised.  One good point was that Morning Star kept the same ‘dangerous’ smoke deflectors for all its life and did not receive a speedometer until the early 1960s.  There would have to be quite a few changes to the R2562 bodyshell to make a convincing 1960s Morning Star.
     
    After my big bid for Morning Star I had another bid on some bits from Hornby ‘Clive of India’.  I was attracted by the prospect of some BR (LMR) pattern deflectors (more of that later) but as a bonus I was able to salvage a front step, large dome, some sand boxes and rear cab supports all for Morning Star.
     

     
    Hats Off, Hornby Britannia Domes, Large Late (L) Small Early (R)
     
    The domes on both Morning Star and the donor easily pushed out as if they had not been glued.
     
    Swapping the existing two front steps for the larger single step is in theory straightforward.  My original single steps appeared to have very little glue and pulled out.  In contrast the donor single step which uses the same fixings required a lot of persuasion with a craft knife from the inside of the bodyshell.
     
    The rear cab support is a separate moulding glued to the cab floor and is used to attach the two cab doors.  With more care it might have been possible to remove the item (and its handrail) in one piece for reuse.  In the event I folded the moulding backwards to snap it from the footplate.  Once released from the donor it was a careful cutting and gluing operation to form the required new tops to the supports. 
     

     
    The new cab supports
     
    The sand boxes were more difficult and were eventually forced from the donor by a mixture of cutting and pushing from beneath the footplate.  I had all manner of plans for marking out holes for the ‘new’ boxes.  I need not have bothered because it would appear that all Super Detail body shells come with indents / knockouts on the underside of the footplate for up to six boxes.
     

     
    Underside of footplate showing indents for sandbox fixings.
     
    I used a combination of 0.5mm, 1mm and 1.5mm drill bits to make a hole through the footplate.  Forcing the donor sand boxes out from the footplate had damaged their fixing pins and it was relatively easy to shape the remains of the pin to fit the newly drilled 1.5mm hole.
     

     
    Newly drilled holes for sandboxes.
     
    I fitted a new set of solid rods purchased from one of the usual suspects and I think I have a more presentable 1960s version of Morning Star.
     

     
    Hornby Super Detail Morning Star aka R2562 with modifications
     
    One issue that I will have to live with is that there should be an opening on the side of the footplate around the lubricator linkage.  Cutting the opening is not the issue.  Sourcing or fabricating the tiny handles for the lubricators is more of a challenge.  You might say that if you wanted a model of Morning Star with a Late Crest there are more appropriate models to start with rather than Hornby R2562.
  17. Silver Sidelines
    I was asked this weekend how both my Bachmann Dukedog (9017) and my City performed on gradients. Straight out of the box, the answer is 'With difficulty'.

    Bachmann Dukedog (9017) on local train
    9017 is a recent addition to the layout and after marvelling at the detailing and the super smooth performance I was prepared to overlook the fact that my model seemed incapable of hauling any load uphill. 9017 was relegated to shuttling between two stations on my branch line - on the level.
    I would investigate further.

    The front bogie detail
    Standing the locomotive on a flat surface highlights the likely problem. I haven’t counted the rivets but I am guessing that Bachmann have made a very good attempt at modelling the outside frame to the front bogie with the result that the clearance between the bogie and mainframe is really rather tight.

    Underside of 9017 showing the mounting for the front bogie
    Removing the bogie reveals the mounting boss on the underside of the chassis.

    9017 bogie with Bachmann fixing bolt, spring and washer
    The bogie is held in place by a threaded bolt which also carries a spring and washer. In use the spring and washer are compressed between the top of the bogie and the mounting boss. With my locomotive standing on a flat surface I was unable to press the front of the engine down on to the bogie suggesting in my mind that front of the chassis was in effect resting on the bogie and that in all probability the front driving wheels were being lifted from the track. To test the theory I reattached the bogie minus the spring and washer. Yes the locomotive would now press down onto the bogie. However the engine appears to be rather front heavy and without any support over the bogie the engine has a tendency to tip forwards lifting the rear driving wheels.

    Plan B – shortened spring on the right
    I think the bogie still needs some springing and after a little trial and error I came up with a shortened spring cut from a ball point pen. I also removed the washer – I don’t think there is space for it.
    .
    Success, 9017 would now haul two old Mainline B Set coaches all the way up my nominally 1 in 40 grade branch line.
    http://youtu.be/B9-yeu1GYxk
    For the record, the B Set is made up from Mainline coaches fitted with metal wheels and close coupled with Bachmann Mini (long) couplings using the existing fixings.
    .
    I had wanted a model of City of Truro for some time. Back in the 1980s I had started to add wire handrails to an Airfix kit. I had also purchased a spare Tri-ang bogie from Lord of the Isles for the project. Back in 2010 when City of Truro became available from the National Railway Museum it was just a question of timing and how to break the news to my wife.

    City of Truro – kit of parts
    I think City of Truro is a superb model and it glided around smoothly on the level. It did not like my ‘up and down’ layout. However when not ‘posing’ in the shed yard it substituted for my 2251 on the branch line hauling a couple of coaches.

    Underside of the City showing the mounting for the front bogie
    Bachmann have used the same construction pattern for both the City and the Dukedog.

    City bogie with Bachmann fixing bolt, spring and washer
    To improve haulage capacity I would reduce the spring load from the bogie. There appears to be more space between the underside of the City chassis and the top of the bogie, compared to the 9017 and I have retained a washer.

    City - shortened spring on the right
    I am pleased. City of Truro will now handle four coaches, both Bachmann Mk1s or Colletts, taking in the 1 in 60 gradient on the mainline and the 1 in 55 gradient on the reversing loop with only a small increase in power required from the controller to get up the slopes.
    http://youtu.be/lOhNbQhgzx0
    To answer a specific question the load was increased to five Bachmann Mk1s. With lots of wheel slip it was ‘just’ possible to restart this increased length of train at the top of the 1 in 60 grade. However four coaches looks in keeping with the engine and that will be its limit on my layout.

    Minus the keeper plate
    For those of you who have not looked inside the City (or the Dukedog) the wheels are all geared like on a motor bogie. 9017 even includes brass bearings. I am guessing that this arrangement will stop rough running due to faulty quartering.

    Wheel collectors
    I have included a view of the copper collectors. The 4-4-0 wheel arrangement, particularly with large driving wheels like on the City seems to me to be rather sensitive to how the chassis is ‘set up’. If the copper collectors are not all equally sprung there might be a temptation for the body of the engine not to be perfectly aligned with the track. My City had a tendency to swing from side to side at the front, which was accentuated when the spring load was reduced. I carefully rotated the front wheels, 45 degrees at a time noting the crank position and measuring the distance across the flanges. The measurements varied between 14.85 and 15.05mm. Gentle pressure squeezing the wheels together at the widest point seems to have been effective at reducing the problem.

    City of Truro on the mainline
    Again for the record the Bachmann Collett coaches are running on metal wheels and are close coupled by repositioning the original couplings slightly inboard. The corridor connectors are fabricated from black cartridge paper as described elsewhere on my Blog.
  18. Silver Sidelines

    Weighing up the Dean Goods

    By Silver Sidelines,


    Blog entry
    I have been taking advantage of the Spring Sales and have bought myself a BR black engine driven Oxford Rail Dean Goods.
     
    I bought my first Dean Goods back in 1985. It was a Mainline model with a tender drive. The perceived wisdom was that the model was conceived and designed by Airfix just before that company folded. I thought the tender drive came with an unrealistically high mound of coal, to hide the motor, and it could be noisy. It did have a good haulage capacity.
     

    Mainline Dean Goods from 1985
     
    I thought the model well detailed for its age and I believe reasonably accurate. It was one of the earliest mass produced models to feature blackened coupling rods.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods from 2017
     
    Moving forward to 2017, Oxford Rail introduced an engine driven Dean Goods. This model has generated significant ‘froth’ from modellers, particularly those interested in pre-nationalisation engines who note numerous dimensional and detailed deviations from the prototype. The first release by Oxford Rail had a mechanism with twin flywheels. This was well received. Subsequent releases have a different motor with a single flywheel. These later models, particularly the sound fitted version, have attracted negative comments reporting jerky and erratic running.
     

    CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE Oxford Rail Dean Goods – straight out of the box
     
    Out of the box my Oxford Rail Dean Goods ran smoothly and quietly – I was impressed. However when I took it up and down and round and about (with eight wagons), it couldn’t get up my 1 in 56 gradients. I was disappointed.
     
    The prototype Dean Goods is a little engine and it is not surprising that Oxford Rail’s model weighs under the 200gm (including tender). I would see if the weight could be increased.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods chassis – NB added lead beneath the flywheel
     
    On inspection there is quite a lot of unused space within the model and I was easily able to add 3gm of lead to the chassis beneath the flywheel. There is further space beneath the motor but I left this empty as I did not want the motor overheating.
     

    Spot the lead
     
    Turning my attention to the body shell I identified four locations to add some lead. I filled the dome and safety valve with lead shot, sealing the former with a plug of lead glued in place with super glue(6gm). I glued two circles of lead, cut from sheet, into the smoke box (8gm). Finally I fixed two slabs of lead, shaped to fit into the sides of the firebox (12gm). In total I increased the weight of the engine and tender from around 195 to 225gm.
     

    CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH A VIDEO OF THE Oxford Dean Goods – standing start on 1 in 56 gradient
     
    I had also read somebody’s blog saying that they thought that the tender was propping up the rear of the locomotive. The tender to engine coupling was certainly very rigid and I slackened off the coupling screw beneath the tender to give more vertical movement. As the video shows the newly weighted model with extra flexibility between engine and tender could now easily start eight wagons on my 1 in 56 gradient.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods – dummy vacuum pipe
     
    To fit the lead into the body shell I had to ‘get inside’. At the front the coupling pocket has to be removed to gain access to the single front fixing screw. At the rear there are two screws beneath the cab. I had to carefully angle the screw driver to prevent damage to the brake rodding assembly. However there is another problem which I hadn’t noticed. There is a dummy vacuum pipe running across the front of the engine beneath the buffer beam. I am guessing that I snapped this when I lifted the body off the chassis because the dummy pipe was loose in two pieces with a 5mm gap.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods – dummy vacuum pipe after repair
     
    There is a dummy coupling in the vacuum pipe which I suspect is meant to separate and allow the body to be lifted clear. That is how I have reinstated the pipe - using a bit of circular section plastic cut from an old handrail, glued at one end and left as a push fit at the other. All good fun.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods from 2017
     
    I now have a much more useful model. However I still have two ‘niggles’ to sort. Firstly I need to fit a front number and secondly I would like to better disguise the horizontal join beneath the boiler between the upper plastic boiler and the lower metal motor support. It occurs to me that if the body and chassis could be pulled more tightly together the latter join would not be so visible. I will share two more pictures that I made whilst body and chassis were separated.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods –chassis front end
     
    At the front end it seems to me that the body and chassis cannot be pulled completely together because of the wire fitting for the brake rods.
     

    Oxford Rail Dean Goods – chassis rear end
     
    At the rear end there is what I would call a ‘rats nest’ of wires that are supposed to tuck beneath the cab. Looking closely at the picture there are crease marks in these wires where the body shell has been cutting into the wires. To date I have not investigated further but for those modellers with locomotives that jerk and run erratically I would start investigating here for broken wires!
     
    As a parting thought I am attaching an image that I came  across on the web, appologies if I am breaking someone's copyright.
     

     
    - a super image showing a Dean Goods working out its last few years.
     
    For some thoughts on and actions regarding a pre-nationalisation model look no further than the Farthing Layouts:
     
    http://farthinglayouts.blogspot.com/2017/11/backdating-oxford-rail-dean-goods-1.html
     
    Yet more impressive work from Mikkel
  19. Silver Sidelines
    Coming from the North East of England I couldn’t let these new Hornby models pass me by.   Thane of Fife had already disappeared from my 1960 ABC books and I never got to see Cock o’ the North. There is a big red line through the number in my book, confirming its imminent withdrawal.  I did see the two A2/3s, Steady Aim being a York engine whilst around the beginning of the sixties Sun Castle was based at New England and then Doncaster.
     
     

    Thane of Fife after some adjustment to sand boxes and running plate
     

    Steady Aim after some adjustment to the speedometer bracket
     
    I hadn’t pre-ordered any of these Hornby models and was initially only interested in the two Late Crest engines.   The two Early Emblem engines were bought as an afterthought with some surprise earnings.
     
    All the models I have handled have run very well.  With some notable exceptions the models are also very impressive.  This Post summarises various issues (and fixes) that I have come across with these models.  
     
    I had to hunt around for Thane of Fife, my first purchase.  The seller, I will spare his name, had opened the box and checked the engine but it still arrived with its front lamp iron loose in the box along with another piece of plastic which I eventually identified as a handle from the front of the tender.  (There should have been two but one was completely missing.)  However the most serious problem in my eyes was the gap between the firebox and cab, the latter being attached at a rather jaunty angle.  The model was returned.
     

    Bits in the box –now which way round does the lamp iron go?
     

    Cab and firebox misaligned – model returned
     
    Then there is what I will refer to as the elephant in the room, the shade of green and the red lining – why?  A difficult choice – do you use a coat of satin varnish to improve the green or will that also darken the red lining?
     

    Bachmann lined green compared to Hornby lined green
     
    Sun Castle was the second model to arrive from Hornby and this was received in better fettle than my first Thane of Fife which was replaced with a much better model from the same shipment as Sun Castle.  One or both of these models  needed the tender water scoop turning through 180 degrees, not a difficult job as they were poorly attached (if at all).
     
    Hornby appear to have shipped Sun Castle (and subsequently Steady Aim) with only two sets of sand pipes.  The running plate on the A2/3s has three sand boxes and the wheel retainer (bottom plate) has mouldings to fit a third wire sand pipe – it just hasn’t been fitted. 
     

    Spot the space for the missing wire sand pipes at the right
     

    Sun Castle with three sand boxes and wavy reversing lever – it should lie tight up against the footplate (ignore the disconnected speedo I was inside adding lead).
     
    Subsequently it has been pointed out to me that that the reversing lever on my picture of Sun Castle needs some adjustment so that it lies tight up against the footplate.
     
    Returning to Thane of Fife I was not happy at the way the double sand box on the driver’s side stood proud of the running plate.  As with so many of the detail parts on the model it can be easily damaged if subject to too much manhandling.  I eventually added a fillet of black coloured Perfect Plastic Putty and gave both the putty and the sand box a coat of satin varnish – as shown in the picture at the top of this Post.
     
    Steady Aim and Cock o’ the North were bought together and inspected prior to posting.  Both arrived with the front lamp iron loose in the box.  Cock o’ the North had also lost the rear buffer beam from the tender.  I am guessing that the ladies in China must have special tools to fit these tiny pieces.  It took me a long long time to refit the lamp irons.  For Cock o’ the North I used some matt varnish on a piece of wire, for Steady Aim the varnish didn’t hold and I resorted to using Super Glue, in both cases holding the lamp iron with Blu-Tack.  Now which way round does the lamp iron fit?
     

    Cock o’ the North - Top lamp iron reattached using matt varnish
     

    Top lamp iron reattached using Super Glue
     
    What about the loose tender buffer beam.  There was little sign of any glue but then it didn’t seem to fit properly, in fact on inspection all the tender buffer beams seemed to droop downwards.
     

    Buffer beam droop
     
    I enlarged the holes in the tender behind the buffer beam thinking that this would sort the problem.  It made an improvement but I think I must still be missing a trick with this issue.
     

    Enlarged holes behind the buffer beam
     
    One of the cab doors on Cock o’ the North was hanging off at a jaunty angle.  It didn’t take much effort to remove the door, together with the driver’s seat which is all part of the same moulding.  There is a ‘peg’ at the bottom of the cab seat which fits into the cab floor, I would say a clever design but it does still need to be attached correctly.
     

    Cab door and driver’s seat moulding
     
    Time to play trains!  Two issues suddenly appeared.  Firstly Sun Castle jumped the track at a set of points that have never been any bother before.  Secondly Steady Aim came to an abrupt halt when the tender derailed and the wheels shorted out the point blades.
     
    I thought the problem with Steady Aim was simply that the water scoop was too low and had caught on point blades.  Removing the water scoop seemed to solve the issue but it soon became apparent that Steady Aim was a ‘lame duck’ in terms of haulage compared to the other models.  On further inspection I could see that one set of tender wheels was wedged at an angle by one of the phosphor bronze pickups.  On starting to dismantle the tender I realised that the brake rodding on one side was misaligned and that the bottom keeper plate was warped and would not lie flat.  Digging deeper I was able to see that the soldered connections to the pickups inside the tender had been made rather carelessly with the result that the solder had fused to the surrounding plastic forcing the phosphor bronze out of shape.  Luckily the solder was easily forced off the plastic and the pickups returned to the correct profile.  The moulding for the plastic wheel retainer and brake rodding was dumped into hot water and magically regained its original shape.
     

    The warped brake rodding
     

    Deformed phosphor bronze and the wedged wheel set
     

    Soldered connections fused to the plastic surround
     
    A good outcome but still none of these new engines would haul seven Bachmann coaches up my inclines (something that is not an issue for Hornby’s Britannias).  This brings me back to Sun Castle jumping the track.  With the engine on level track there is virtually no ‘up and down’ movement available at the front bogie – meaning that with the slightest unevenness in the track, or at a change in gradient the engine will be resting on the front bogie preventing it from easily moving from side to side and at the same time lifting the front driving wheels from the track reducing traction.  On closer examination it can be seen that Hornby have inserted a tapered spring between the bogie and chassis, there is no washer present.
     

    Bogie dismantled, showing the tapered spring – no washer
     
    Clearances must be very tight and at times I think on my layout this spring is causing the driving wheels to lift off the track.  Bachmann had a similar issue with their Dukedog and City class models https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/14484-Bachmann-gwr-4-4-0s-and-gradients/
     
    With the springs removed I can imagine my models run more freely and they certainly don’t derail.  As to hauling seven Bachmann coaches for my layout I solved this issue by adding  15gm of lead – a circular disc in the end of the boiler and some lead shot in the screw holes in the chassis block.
     

    Spot the lead disc
     
    The seam along the top of the boiler on some of my models is rather uneven.  Whilst ‘inside’ the various body shells I suddenly realised that I could ‘see out’.  These models are very delicate and I would say that glue has been used rather too sparingly.
     

    Cock o’ the North – from the inside looking out
     
    For completeness I have added some images of how I think things should be!  First the speedometer bracket that dropped off Steady Aim – it has to straddle the reversing lever.
     

    Steady Aim – speedometer bracket
     
    Some images of the reversing lever in I think its correct position, note the grooves in the footplate.  If the lever and valve gear are not aligned correctly and don’t sit in the grooves the footplate will be warped.
     

    The reversing rod tucked up under the footplate
     

    Grooves on the underside of the footplate for the valve gear and reversing rod
     
    There is a lot that is good about these models and they can be easily made to run very well.  The body shells are very detailed but very fragile and sadly from what I have seen they are not always glued together correctly.  Perhaps there are too many individual pieces to attach and not enough time allowed in the factory?  (The opposite problem to ‘Design Clever’ that produced Duke of Gloucester.)
     
    The shade of green and the red lining used by Hornby doesn’t seem right but perhaps for a layout setting it becomes less important:-
     
     
    Postscript
     
    Since writing this Post I have been contacted by ‘Dominion’ of RMweb and encouraged to fettle Sun Castle’s reversing lever and to sort the drooping tender buffer beams.
     

     
    The reversing lever seems to have been moulded or pressed from soft alloy.  It is easily pulled away from the body shell and can be gently massaged to the required shape.  It needs to tuck into the groove beneath the footplate.  I did wonder if the lever on my Sun Castle was too wide and I used a tiny screw driver to clean out the groove in the plastic footplate.  Having achieved the required shape and fit, the lever can be fixed in position with some tiny spots of Super Glue.
     

     
    The tender buffers had been a work in progress.  In addition to opening out the holes behind the buffers ‘Dominion’ suggested using a triangular file inside the rebate below the top edge of the black plastic chassis.  I could imagine that there is a moulding line behind the top of the left hand buffer which by standing proud, was stopping the red plastic buffer beam from sitting correctly.  Certainly after careful use of a file I was able to push and glue the buffer beam back into a much better position.
     
  20. Silver Sidelines
    The list of jobs to do is endless but finishing off the platforms must come near the top.
     

     
    This could be quite a long task but first what size to make the paving? The British Standard suggests that paving stones should preferably be 900 x 600, 750 x 600 or 600 x 600 (mm). However my layout represents the late 1950s, early 1960s, long before metrication. In those days, and for some considerable time after, the standard size of paving stone was 3ft x 2ft equivalent to 12mm x 8mm in 00 scale. Perhaps not surprisingly this is the size modeled by Superquick for their station platforms.
     

     
    However the 3ft x 2ft pressed concrete slab is relatively modern and a lot of railway platforms constructed in the 1800s will have used natural stone, probably York Stone in the north of England or maybe Purbeck or Cotswold stone in the south of England. The decision to standardize on 3ft x 2ft for the new concrete paving seems to be based upon the commonly available sizes of natural stone which in turn is likely to have been related to the maximum size and weight of material that could easily be handled manually.
     

     
    A search online indicates that natural stone paving is currently available in a range of sizes with widths up to 3ft. It would also appear that in addition to the standard 3ft x 2ft size, a larger 4ft x 2 ft slab is offered, perhaps as used above historically at Chester General Station?
     

     
    So much for what is currently available but what was used in the past? I guess those of you in the more populous parts of the UK will have the option to go and measure up some real station platforms. However for those others like myself, living in more distant and rural parts, this luxury is not available and it is back to searching through pictures in old books. The picture of Holywell above is good example of the type of view available and shows different patterns of paving for different areas of the platform.
     

     
    In addition to printed pictures there are vast numbers of images available on line. One of the most readily available sources must be that of the Flickr web site. The 'screen shot' above shows just one page of views obtained by typing 'Ramsbottom Railway Station' into the Flickr search bar. Just type in your favourite location and see what is available.
     

     
    In due course I will have to mark out my chosen patterns of paving. This is likely to be a long and tedious process. Not surprisingly the view above of Coldstream station is one of my favourites. I like precedents and if you get tired of marking out individual flagstones, well how about using some cast in situ concrete.
     

     
    I also like the above view of Barnard Castle Station. I think the modern Codes of Practice recommend that the platform slopes back down from the platform edge to prevent prams and platform trolleys accidentally rolling on to the track in front of trains. None of this in the view above. The platform surface obviously falls down to the platform edge to allow easy drainage of rain water. I seem to recollect that in those days each platform trolley was equipped with a cast iron 'wedge' attached by chain for chocking one of the trolley wheels. I guess also that in those days no one ever left their pram unattended?
     
    To be continued.
  21. Silver Sidelines
    I have lost count of how many Black Fridays there are in November but I used each Friday (and some of the other days) to stock up on more of Hornby’s Super Detail Black Fives.
     

     
    One of Hornby’s newer models with Combined Top Feed, 45190 aka R2904
     
    I bought 45190 my first super detail Black Five back in 2011.  I was underwhelmed by how lightweight the engine was and how little it could haul.  As a result it spent the next few years resting at the end of the engine shed headshunt.  Most recently I have been following Dan’s Stranraer Harbour thread on RMweb and have been inspired to revisit my Black Five.  http:// https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140736-now-with-videos-stranraer-‘themed’-loft-layout-1959-64/
     

     
    Some older models, 44781 and 44871 aka Hornby R2686A&B
     
    I don’t think that I had ever looked inside the engine but the front end of the boiler and smoke box is empty.  Despite what it doesn’t say on the box, all the super detail models that I have seen are DC ready.  The early models have an eight pin socket in the front of the boiler whilst the later models have had the socket moved to the tender.  To make room for the digital chip the front of the boiler and smokebox are empty—even for the models where the socket is in the tender.  Of course running a 12 volt DC analogue layout I can take advantage of the space reserved for the chip and add some lead ballast.
     

     
    A newer model, 44694 aka Hornby R3323
     
    Out of the box the Hornby Black Five weighs between 240 and 255gm. Hornby have produced a large number of models each subtly different.  Having the digital socket in the engine or in the tender will account for part of this difference in weight but I think there must be other factors in play which I have not been able to identify.  (Different recipe for the metal in the chassis?)  Sadly I didn’t keep detailed records of the start weights of all the different models but I thought 44694 was a 240gm engine whilst 44908 was a 255gm model. 
     

     
    44694 at 240gm
     

     
    44908 at 255gm
     
    My layout is rather up and down and experimenting showed that I needed an engine weight approaching 295gm.  Again after more experimentation I found it possible to add small rectangles of lead to the smoke box totalling around 40gm.  To get even closer to my target value I also added lead beneath the digital socket and in one case inside the top of the boiler.
     

     
    c10gm lead beneath the socket covered with insulating tape
     

     
    c15gm lead along the top of the boiler – clipped into the top feed and held by insulating tape
     
    I cut pieces of lead from ‘1/8th inch sheet’ as used by roofers for flashing.  For slotting into the smoke box the pieces must be less than 23mm length.  I used a selection of widths starting at 18mm maximum, through 17,16, 14.5 down to 13 or 12mm.  Depending on the actual thickness of the lead sheets you might be able to go down to less than 10mm.  The largest sheets have to be slid in first at an angle to avoid the chimney spigot.  The smaller sheets can then follow added horizontally.  I have deliberately left the sheets loose so that they could be removed at a later date. 
     
    Does all this weight in the front of the boiler make the engine front heavy?  Yes, but......  The engine to tender connection for both the old and new models, probably more by accident than design, transfers the weight of the tender to the engine and helps to hold the back of the engine down. 
    For the newer models with the digital chip in the tender there is even more space in the engine for lead!
     

     
    45190 aka Hornby R2904 a newer model with the socket in the tender
     

     
    c20gm lead in place of the digital socket - held in place with double sided tape.
     
    As noted above Hornby have produced a range of models and I have attempted to catalogue those that I might have seen in service in the late 1950s and 1960s omitting any weathered models.  (I doubt this list is complete as I keep spotting ‘new’ Hornby models.)
     

     
    Hornby BR era Super Detail Black Fives
     
    I have listed the models by running number showing also the Shed Code printed on the model.  I have then listed the different liveries that were carried.  I suspect that the plain black livery was only applied in the middle to late 1960s just before the end of steam.  Similarly some models have the top lamp iron moved down and to the right.  This again was an end of steam feature associated with running beneath the overhead wires dating from the early 1960s.
     

     
    Lamp Iron centre top 44668 aka Hornby R2322
     

     
    Lamp Iron right hand down a bit 44781 aka Hornby R2686A
     
    The Black Fives were introduced by Sir William Stanier before the Second World War and were completed in the 1950s under the direction of HG Ivatt.  The engines were built by both the LMS and BR (LMR), and outside contractors, with the result that there were numerous differences between class members.  Hornby have modelled three types of boiler, distinguishable by the position of the top feed: forwards, rear or combined. 
     

     
    Top Feeds, rear (top) and forward (bottom)
     
    There was also a difference in the wheel spacing on some engines between the centre and rear drivers – which might have been due to a difference in firebox size.  Hornby have cunningly engineered a plastic insert slotted into the mazac chassis to carry the rear wheel bearings which can be turned through 180 degrees to provide either the required long or short wheel spacing.  I have identified three different tender types: fully riveted, part riveted where the sides have been smoothed, and fully welded where both the back and sides are smooth.  In addition tenders come with an Early Emblem, or a Late Crest.
     

     
    Fully Riveted tender
     

     
    Part Riveted tender
     

     
    Fully Welded tender
     
    During their short lifetime it is quite likely that whilst visiting ‘the works’ engines might receive tenders and boilers different from the ones originally fitted.  I have carried out some random checks of pictures on Flickr and to date have not come across any conflicts with Hornby’s models.
     
    When you have added all the lead possible, the engine may still underperform.  Remember it is Hornby and you do need to check and adjust the phosphor bronze pickups or wipers on the tender wheels.  Frequently these springy bits of metal stick out so far that it is reminiscent of driving an old car with the handbrake on.  (If it is an analogue layout and the track is clean you probably don’t need the tender pickups anyway and they can be flattened.) 
     

     
    Tender bottom plate
     
    Further sources of unwanted friction are the axle slots in the plastic keeper (bottom plate) for the tender.  I had to run a drill bit through the slots and shave some of the plastic from around the openings for the socket and the rear coupling.  I first noticed the issue with one of the later models and wondered whether it might be due to wear on the factory moulding tools resulting in an oversize moulding with reduced clearances.
     
    On the whole I have been very impressed with the Super Detail Black Fives.  The cab wind deflectors are particularly delicate and don’t cope very well with travel by Royal Mail but that is common to a lot of Hornby’s models. 
     

     
    The Christmas Quiz model 44694 aka Hornby R3323
     
    The only real problem model that I have come across has been 44694.  When it first arrived I thought of posting its picture for a Christmas Quiz – spot what was wrong.  Even before it arrived I had discovered that the large steam dome was likely to be back to front.  I had not factored in that the cab wind deflectors would be upside down.  For good measure I also had to reattach the whistle that had been broken off in transit.  Fixing the dome was easier than I imagined.  I made a pilot hole by rotating a tiny drill bit by hand into the plastic spigot inside the boiler.  I then reamed the hole out with a Philips screwdriver until the dome popped off.  If you are careful there will still be enough of the original plastic spigot to pop it back in place, after rotating through 180 degrees.  The cab wind shields will have to stay upside down – who is going to notice?
     
    Lastly two of my favourite models; 45156 Ayrshire Yeomanry and 45157 Glasgow Highlander.  The latter was a real Scottish engine shedded in Glasgow for most of its life.  The former spent the final years of its life in the Manchester area. 
     

     
    45157 Glasgow Highlander aka Hornby R2449
     
    Hornby correctly depict 45156 with its British Railways combined dome and top feed – not to be confused with the currently preserved engine, originally numbered 45337, which now carries the Ayrshire Yeomanry name (and number) but which has a separate dome and top feed.
     

     
    45156 Ayrshire Yeomanry aka Hornby R2555
     
    Addendum 03.01.21
     
    Since publishing this Post I have gleaned further information on the different models produced by Hornby. 
     
    It had escaped my notice that some models have fluted coupling rods and some have plain rods.  Also some engines have an addition to the left hand cross head which I am told is left over from when early engines were fitted with vacuum pumps.
     

     
    Modified Cross Head with connection for vacuum pump.
     
    I have also updated ‘The Table’ above with some details of the sound fitted engines.  The first two sound models came with LokSound v3.5 chips and will run and play sound on analogue.  The newest sound model is TTS fitted and presumably will run on analogue but only play sounds on digital.
     

    Another Quality Control issue
     
    One of my latest purchases did not run well – the wheels beneath the cab seeming to jump around.  On closer inspection I could see that the two rear sand pipes had been fitted on the wrong sides.  Instead of the pipes being recessed behind the coupling rods they were stuck outwards pressing against the rods.  These were factory fitted pipes and I was unsure that would be able to rectify without cutting through the pipes.  I used a very sharp blade and started to cut the glue around the junction between the pipe and the sand box.  The glue cut quite easily and after not a lot of effort the pipe (with its spigot) could be prised free.  I don’t know what glue Hornby had used but it did not seem to have fused the plastic parts together.  Perhaps the sand pipes are nylon which would not fuse to the plastic sandbox?
     

    45458 - yet another Scottish Engine
     
    One more picture of a Scottish engine!  Hornby have 45458 with a Scottish Region blue background to its smokebox number and shed plates.  The 66A shed number is Glasgow Polmadie from where the engine was withdrawn.  It seems a strange choice of shed plate as a web search suggests that 45458 was a 63A Perth based engine for most of its life and may only have been at Polmadie for a few months before withdrawal.
     
  22. Silver Sidelines
    A conversation with a friend about changing names and numbers on old Bachmann or Mainline Jubilees prompted me to dig out some etched plates I bought perhaps two years ago, and get on and fit them!
     

    Mainline Orion with 247 Developments etched plates and newer Bachmann split chassis
     
    One of my all time favourite models was the Mainline Jubilee ‘Orion’.  I think ‘Royal Scot’ was my first Mainline model but Orion followed soon after in June 1981.  Pallitoy must have made thousands of models of Orion and they mostly ran well with their characteristic whirring noise.  When Pallitoy thought the market was saturated with Orions they brought out Leander.  By this time the quality control must have slipped because wheels began to shift on axles and I thought models did not run as smoothly.
     

    Mainline Orion from 1981 with black painted wheel rims
     
    I sold my original ‘Orion’ in autumn 2007 to coincide with the arrival of the Bachmann ‘improved’ Jubilees.  You cannot have too many models and more recently when the opportunity arose I purchased a replacement Orion.  I fitted this latest model with one of the newer Bachmann split chassis mechanisms with blackened wheels and motion.  I must also have bought a ‘spares and repair’ Bachmann bodyshell which yielded a couple of brass safety valves and some cab glazing (the hand rails and knobs being saved for another of those still to be completed projects).
     

    Mainline Orion on a Bachmann split chassis, cab glazing and brass safety valves – waiting for etched plates
     
    It was dark and wet here this morning, what could be better than to ‘finish’ Orion.  My chosen etched plates came from Brian Mosby at 247 Developments.  I think that they are suitably delicate without being too flimsy.  First remove the plates from the fret.  I have included a picture of my work set up, a piece of hard smooth Melamine shelving and a sharp craft knife.  I also used a 1.8mm precision screw driver, but more of that later.
     

    Tools of the trade
     
    In my experience the printed name plates on proprietary models are usually oversize, that is Hornby and Bachmann.  Heljan are the odd ones out and have form for making their plates too small. For comparison I have included a couple of views of the 247 etched plates together with the Mainline plates – the two types are different.  Significantly the 247 plates are more narrow meaning that the replacement etched plates will not cover the original plastic plates.
     

    Etched plate from 247 Developments versus Mainline Plastic Printed plate.
     

    Etched plate from 247 Developments superimposed upon Mainline Plastic Printed plate.
     
    This morning I took the craft knife and gently scored a line beneath the plastic name plate.  After say half a dozen passes of the knife blade, the ends of plate should separate from the support.  The middle section of the name plate is too thick to cut through but with the ends free the plate can be bent forward and snapped off.

    Mainline Plastic Printed plate separated from support.
     
    The Mainline plastic is very soft and I used the 1.8mm precision screw driver to scrape and prepare the remains of the support for the replacement etched plates.  Sometimes the original Mainline / Bachmann plates might have been applied crooked and scraping with the screwdriver provides a means of truing up the support.
     

    Finished and fixed in place
     
    The plates were then attached with super glue (matt varnish is a more friendly substitute which will allow more time for positioning of the plate).
     

    Orion with etched plates
     
    I think adding etched plates lifts a proprietary model to a higher level.  Generally I only fit plates when the opportunity presents itself.  However I have a black and white picture of Jubilee Invincible that I took at Carlisle Citadel – so it follows that this is another of my favourite models deemed worthy of etched plates.
     

    Invincible with etched plates.
     
    I don’t remember how these were fitted but looking at the pictures it would appear that the named part of the plate had been glued to the top of the Bachmann plastic support.
     

    Kolhapur with etched plates
     
    This is more obvious on Kolhapur where I thought it important to keep the green plastic support with its fine orange lining.  (Note the larger more correct size of the cylinders).
     

    Making access to the front body fixing screw
     
    When working on Mainline / Bachmann split chassis Jubilees (and Patriots and Scots) it makes sense to pull out the leading pony truck wheels to give screw driver access to the front bodyshell screw.
     

    Mainline chassis left Bachmann chassis right.
     

    Spacing washer added beneath the Mainline cab.
     
    I have probably also mentioned before that there is a height discrepancy between the old Mainline chassis and the newer Bachmann chassis.  One solution when fitting a Mainline bodyshell to a Bachmann chassis is to insert a small washer under the Mainline cab – taking care that it is not pushed so far forward that it shorts out the two sides of the split chassis.
     
    A good morning’s work.
  23. Silver Sidelines
    Continuing my BR(NE) saga I have resurrected a couple of elderly Bachmann B1s that have been quietly slumbering in their boxes.


    Bachmann B1s – Widlebeeste and Hartebeeste

    There is an issue with these particular early models and mine were not immune! For whatever reason the black plastic wheel centres expand with time and catch on the coupling rods preventing the wheels from freely turning. The affliction does not affect the centre driving wheel and rather puzzlingly it is the rear pair of driving wheels that is most at risk. Fellow modellers report that Bachmann BR standard 4MT models of a similar vintage are also affected.

    Bulging rear wheel centre

    Another view of the problem.

    Bulging Plastic

    The wheel centre appears to be a type of nylon and can be poked out from behind the wheel using a cocktail stick or very small screw driver. I think it is a push fit into the wheel casting but I cannot be sure.


    Bachmann B1 rear wheel set

    I guess it is possible to remove the wheel centre whilst leaving the wheel set on the engine. However I think it makes life a whole lot simpler to unbolt the connecting rods and lift out the complete wheel set.


    Bachmann B1 plastic wheel centre

    The outside edge of the plastic inlay can then be carefully rubbed with 400 grade wet and dry (emery) paper, at the same time gently massaging the spokes back into a flat shape (a bit of warmth seems to help). The ‘nylon’ is tough and it is a slow process to reduce the diameter such that the plastic centre is a snug fit into the cast metal wheel. I have repaired two models and have not used any adhesives to hold the resized wheel centres back in place.

    There is a short video here comparing before and after running:

    http://youtu.be/BaXy6XUSMoA

    Comments from fellow modellers suggest that the wheel centres will continue to expand with time. I have no knowledge of the type of plastic or the chemical mechanism that is causing the expansion, but given that the models are now at least 25 years old I am not expecting a huge increase in expansion over the next couple, or even the next five or more years. We shall have to wait and see!


    Bachmann A4 Split Axles

    The other issue with these old ‘split chassis’ models is the fragile state of the nylon axles. Bachmann refer to the axles as ‘isolators’. They are a force fit onto the ‘squared’ wheel stubs and over time they will crack and break even without any use.

    http://youtu.be/YWP0htE-4qM

    EBay has lots of listings where old Bachmann models are offered ‘for sale’ – tested working, where subsequently it is obvious that the nylon ‘isolators’ have failed. Even in their broken state the bits of nylon will offer sufficient grip to propel the mechanism backwards and forwards in a straight line. It is only when the wheels are subjected to side forces such as when negotiating a long curve that the wheels will be forced apart – revealing the true nature of the problem.


    Insulators and Circlips courtesy of Bachmann

    Salvation is at hand and sets of isolators are available to purchase direct from Bachmann Technical Department in Leicester.


     

    Thank you for your recent e-mail, we can supply a set of axle isolators (2 plain & 1 geared) for £3.00 and 4 circlips for £1.00 plus £2.00 p&p. The isolators may have different tolerances due to the wear on the tooling. If they are a little slack our technicians use a small amount of glue to keep them in place. If you wish to order please contact us on 01455 245 575 to pay via card, alternatively please send a cheque/postal made payable to Bachmann Europe with your order details, name and address. Please quote SD##### on all correspondence, offices are open 8.30am until 5pm.

    Why buy ‘circlips’ you ask? In order to replace the ‘isolators’ I find it best to remove the whole wheel set from the model. On Bachmann split chassis locomotives the valve gear and connecting rods are held by a circlip which slots into a groove on the end of the middle axle. Prising the circlip out of the groove with a pin or fine screw driver allows the valve gear to be disconnected, the connecting rods lifted off and the coupled wheel set lifted out from the chassis. The only problem being that the circlips are very ‘springy’ and if they haven’t shot off the model whilst being first removed, they are likely to disappear out of sight whilst being replaced. Life is too short to spend time searching for missing circlips – you just need a supply of replacements!


    Bachmann B1 – spot the circlip

    My experience over a number of years is that the ‘standard’ isolators fit the majority of Bachmann’s split chassis models. One exception is the old Bachmann J72, where the centre gear wheel is offset.


    Bachmann J72 Split axles – from an advertisement on eBay

    I have not tried to source isolators from Bachmann for the J72 but I have seen 3D printed copies offered ‘for sale’ on eBay. Bachmann isolators are ‘nylon’. I am guessing that 3D printed isolators will not be nylon and may have different mechanical properties.


    Bachmann B1 – disconnected valve gear

    Handling elderly models can be quite stressful! Bits just break and ping off – almost without touching! On one of my B1s the plastic motion brackets supporting the valve gear just fell off the mazak chassis casting. Luckily this is an easy repair - use a drop of Wilkinson’s super glue and push back into place.

    http://youtu.be/MKVoG1SsIOI

    The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I now have two nice smooth running models.


    Two Elderly Sisters

    For the moment I have two good runners which can be bought for a fraction of the price of the latest offerings from Hornby, Bachmann and Dapol – food for thought?


    A proper wheel centre - (19thC?) un distorted cast iron, from out of our garden
  24. Silver Sidelines
    Heljan to my knowledge have produced three models of D1000 Western Enterprise painted in its experimental Desert Sand livery.  Heljan model number 5204 represented the prototype when it first emerged from Swindon Works in 1961 with no warning panels.  Heljan 5213 had small yellow warning panels as applied in November 1962.  Both 5204 and 5213 had a satin varnish finish.  Heljan 5221 also had small yellow panels but it had a gloss coated ‘ex works’ finish.
     
    When the opportunity presented itself I would buy Heljan 5213 - D1000 Western Enterprise, with small yellow panel.
     
    This would be my second Heljan 5213.  My first was purchased in 2010 when the model was introduced and subsequently replaced in 2012 with Heljan 5204 – with no yellow panels.
     

    Heljan 5213, 2012 sales listing
     
    My 5213 models appear to have had a couple of manufacturing issues.  I think they would have been made around the time that Heljan was transferring production to China.  Firstly the body shell can be difficult to clip on to the chassis and secondly the shades of Desert Sand on the bodyshell, front valance and around the fuel tanks are all different.  Might this be why I parted so readily with my first model?  (A search for images of Heljan 5213 on the internet provides further confirmation of these issues.)
     
    With the bodyshell removed it was evident that the plastic cover for the wiring to the front lights was not sitting flat.  This plate presses against the underside of the cab seating unit and hence keeps the bodyshell and chassis apart.  (The seating unit appears to be a clip fit to the cab side glazing.)
     

    Heljan 5213, raised plastic cover to front wiring
     

    Heljan 5213, seating unit
     

    Heljan 5213, excess glue to front wiring
     
    The plastic cover can be prised off and in my case revealed surplus glue around the wiring.  My glue was soft and could be peeled away to allow the plastic cover a better fit.  I was not totally convinced that I had sorted this issue and so I also filed away some of the plastic from beneath the seating unit.  I had a better fit.
     

    Heljan 5213, underside of seating unit
     
    My latest purchase seemed to have three different shades of Desert Sand, the front valance and around the fuel tanks. looking to have different amounts of red colouring compared to each other and to the bodyshell.  I don’t know what shade is correct – if any.  However since the fuel tank and valances are removable I set myself the challenge of recolouring those parts to match the bodyshell.  As a starting point I bought some Desert Sand from Phoenix Precision Paints. 
     

    Heljan 5213, as first out of the box on my layout with red shading on the lower parts
     

    Shades of Desert Sand, Heljan 5204 left, Heljan 5213 right, Phoenix Precision Paint front valance right
     
    The Precision Paint was to my mind too light compared to the bodyshell and I set about making it darker.  I had pots of Phoenix GWR locomotive green, orange lining and black.  Over a period of a few days I mixed proportions of these colours and painted test strips on the old lids of cream cheese cartons and on an old CD case.
     

    Samples and Mixes
     
    I thought I had a solution simply by adding black and went ahead and repainted all the offending parts.  I was particularly pleased to be able to expose the white battery box tabs with a cocktail stick whilst the paint was still drying.  However I was not convinced about the outcome!
     

    Heljan 5204 back, 5213 front , lower body repainted with Phoenix Precision Paints Desert Sand with added Black
     
    The removable parts had now had two coats of paint with a third in the offing.  The moulded detail was fast disappearing.  I had previously researched removing enamel paint from plastic and had bought a bottle of Dettol.  I had spare front valances and I used these to trial the process.   Placing the painted plastic in a solution of one part Dettol and one part water for around one hour worked a ‘treat’.  The fresh paint disintegrated, the underlying old paint softened and was brushed off with a toothbrush under running water.  I took the plunge and placed the fuel tanks in a measuring cylinder of my Dettol solution and left them for an hour.
     

    Fuel tanks soaking in Dettol solution, one part Dettol, one part water, for one hour
     
    Again the recent paint could be washed off whilst the underlying older paint needed some encouragement.  I did use some white spirit to remove the final traces of old paint and the underlying black plastic moulding whilst undamaged did develop some white patches.
     

    Detail items after soaking with Dettol and brushing in running water.  Paint residue on the fuel tanks was removed with a little  white spirit
     
    Back to more paint samples and this time I made a mix of five parts Desert Sand, two parts orange lining and two parts GWR green.  In certain lights it was nearly very good!
     
    Now what about the white tabs on the battery boxes?
     
    Plan A involved purchasing a white fine liner.  I sourced a Uni Posca white paint marker with a 0.7mm tip.  It was nearly very good and would draw a permanent fine white painted line on a painted or plastic surface.  The problem that I had was that the nib has to be pressed down at the start of drawing and this produces a rush of paint /small blob.  Perhaps in more skilled hands this could be controlled.  For writing and general art work it would not be an issue but for highlighting discrete items such as the battery box tabs the pen did not appear suitable.  I noted that the white paint whilst ‘permanent’ could be removed using white spirit before it had completely dried.
     

    uni POSCA fineliner, 0.7mm tip
     
    Plan B, I had some surplus Railtec water slide transfers for smoke box numbers.  The number ‘1s’ were a perfect match for the white tabs.  I don’t have much success at fixing water slide transfers and in this instance I finished off by applying a coat of slightly thinned Humbrol Satin Cote.  I must have been lucky as nothing moved!
     

    Smoke box door ‘1s’ used for the white battery box tabs
     
    Something else that Heljan got wrong was the size of the Western Enterprise name plates.  The Heljan printed plates are too small.  In myBlog Post in November 2019 https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/22891-enterprising-plates-–Heljan-westerns/ I described fitting correct size C.G.W. plates and Crests to Heljan model 5204 – with no yellow panel.  This time around I went to ‘Shawplan’, and their range of ‘Extreme Etchings’.  (Interestingly Brian at Extreme Etchings tells me that he owns the C.G.W. range.)
     

    D1000 Western Enterprise (Heljan 5213) with plates and Crests from Extreme Etchings
     
    Brian also said that Extreme Etchings use a two stage process which results in a three dimensional etch.  I was impressed.  I think the crests from Extreme Etchings are in a higher league compared to the earlier two dimensional offering from C.G.W.
     

    A comparison, C.G.W crest to the fore, Extreme Etchings at the rear
     
    I have not acheived a perfect colour match.   The various body parts seem to change colour with different lighting conditions (and monitors).  The body shell is moulded in red plastic whilst the removeable parts are black plastic.  I think that could be part of the problem.
     

    Heljan 5213 etched crests and plates from Extreme Etchings, lower body repainted
     

    Heljan 5213 etched crests and plates from Extreme Etchings, lower body repainted
     

    Heljan 5213 etched crests and plates from Extreme Etchings, lower body repainted
     
    I still think a good outcome and the Heljan model does run superbly.  There is a video on YouTube prior to adding white to the battery boxes.
     
     
    And another on Flickr
     
    https://flic.kr/p/2jbu88L
     
     
  25. Silver Sidelines
    Four weeks ago a back of envelope calculation indicated a requirement for circa 3.5 kg of ballast. Four bags of poppy seeds were purchased. Now four weeks later the first bag has been all used up.
     

     
    My wife confirms my suspicions. Instead of four bags, the visible trackwork will probably require at least five bags. Four weeks to use one bag, 20 weeks to use five bags. A Christmas completion is still a possibility?
     
    There have been discussions on this web site regards the optimum width of baseboards. The Longsheds Layout was constructed with maximum 3ft width boards. This is fine for operating. However for ballasting the width is a bit of a problem. The solution presently adopted is to start ballasting at the most difficult postion - 'upstairs' on the viaduct at the back:
     

     

    Then when my back starts creaking the centre of operations moves 'downstairs' to the main station boards:
     

     
    The darker patches of ballast are still not dry. Interestingly there is a tendancy for the poppy seed to swell when initially wetted but it tightens up as it dries - will it sprout?
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