chaz

One of those days when you work hard but don’t seem to have much to show… I cut some ties from the PCB sheet I recently acquired, these I glued into the slots in the engine house floor. I had to put some card packing under the PCB pieces so that the top surface is flush. Code 83 rail will be soldered directly to the copper. I have also glued down some packing (cereal box card) between the turntable and the engine house ready for track to be laid. The rectangular hole is for an ash pit: the rails over this will lay along girders so that the space between them is open. I will need to sort out the details of how to make the ash pit before I can lay any track. I have also glued some card pieces down ready for the tracks that will continue beyond the shed. Chaz

I have just spent a day and a half converting the last six turnouts on the layout, at Stoke's Ferry, to control via DPDT toggle switches. This involved fitting and wiring the switches, removing the unwanted DCC accessory decoders and re-routing the wiring. I also wired relays to switch the polarity of the crossings so this no longer relies on the internal switches in the Tortoises. The last time a friend came round for an operating session we both got fed up with the number of button pushes that were necessary to get the handset to change the route setting when switching cars. Now every turnout on the layout can be set at the flick of a toggle switch. So much more straightforward. The toggle switches are positioned, as closely as possible, in line with the tie-bar and switch stand so no labelling is required, and if the route is set wrongly then the toggle is reversed, if not then it can be left alone - again no labelling needed. We don't even need to remember the switch numbers - these become irrelevant unless a fault develops. A very tedious job after the first turnout but definitely time well spent. Chaz PS - a couple of sheets of PCB arrived today from Rapid Electronics so there is no excuse, the track can be laid across the engine house floor.

Improving the hopper car coal loads… Bachmann’s effort at a coal load isn’t bad but can be improved. #83 has a load that has already been modified a bit... The ends have been shaped with a file to allow the load to sit a bit lower (my own feeling is that the hoppers, out of the box, do look rather over full - and I am going to add a layer to the top!). Sorry - the photo is not one of my best but I'm sure you get the idea. Here is a Bachmann original side by side with the improved version. I coat the top of the plastic with PVA and sprinkle on Woodland Scenics B93 Coal Lump. There are two glue-coated loads hidden under this generous heap of coal lumps. I will leave this overnight to allow the glue to harden. Once the loads have been dug out (!) the excess coal can be poured back into the pot for re-use. The edges and ends of the load plate can be cleaned up by working them up and down a sheet of 120 grade abrasive paper until they are smooth, with no projecting pieces of coal on the top edge. Here is #83 loaded with the more realistic coal. Compare this with the first photo in this post to decide whether you think this improvement is worth the work and then apply Rule One! Chaz

A modeller's fall back position - if you know then try to get it right. If you don't know then use your best informed guess, if it later proves that you were wrong then put it right if you want to, otherwise Rule One always applies. Love the pictures of Persimmon, single chimney, GN tender and a convincing well-cleaned finish. More! More! Chaz

Next step is to lay the track, once that's down I will finish the engine house. it's my intention to make the roof removable so that the interior can be detailed. So much to do.... Chaz

The engine house floor progresses... I assembled the pits which went together very nicely. As Simon Cox of Kitwood Hill Models pointed out to me I could easily have made these from scratch. However it was worth getting them laser cut to save the time required for something else - it took a while to cut the baseboard top to allow the pits to drop in. A close up of the steps down into the pit - these are at both ends of the pits. I glued the pits to the underside of the floor. I used "sticky" PVA and put lines of the glue both on the underside of the floor and the top edge of the pits. Of course you might question whether all this is worth the effort, inside a building and often invisible under parked locomotives... Chaz

Thanks for that information Jeff, useful. Some tanks had a pulley to take a cable (chain?) down to the valve so I might not need the lever. Chaz

Seven down, five to go. Please excuse the lurid caboose, which will be weathered eventually. Chaz

Sometimes you have to switch your modelling focus to avoid getting very bored. So setting aside the hopper cars that I have been weathering (seven down, five to go) I had another look at the engine yard. Yesterday the two packs of water tank fittings arrived from Paul Martin of EDM (he got them for me from Bill Banta). The parts of one set are laid out in the photo above. At the top a very nice spout, then three pulleys, two of them in brackets, ten band tensioners and a bracket - whose function escapes me. Any ideas? I also received a floor for my engine house from Simon Cox of Kitwood Hill Models laser cut from 3mm MDF. Simon warned me that the Bachmann ten-wheelers are a fairly close fit through the doors so I have moved the position of the building to include nine inches of straight on the approach. This should mean that a loco will have fully straightened up and not be at an angle as it passes into the building. Simon suggested I should treat both sides of the MDF to a coat of PVA to prevent it warping when a treatment is added to the top surface. In this photo you can see I have cut the links to the waste pieces in the pit openings and gaps for the PCB ties. I positioned the floor carefully and then marked through the pit openings. I enlarged the planned cut to include the 2mm sides and ends of the pits and then cut the long sides through with a tenon saw. I made the short end cuts with a Stanley knife. Cutting plywood (especially good quality birch ply) is hard work. As the cut gets deeper the wood grips the side of the blade harder. I relieve this drag by shaving off the inner side with a chisel. The holes for both pits have been cut and just need the edges cleaning up a bit. A slight waviness doesn’t matter as these openings will disappear when the floor is in place. The last two photos are a trial fit of the two side walls of the engine house (or shed - either is OK). After all that work it has to be done! I have a feeling that it won’t be long before the track is laid from the turntable and across the floor. I just need to source some PCB from which to cut the ties. Chaz

Obvious really... If weathering powders are applied over a tray of some kind (here a rather nasty old school palette) the loose powder that falls from the model can be reused - and it doesn't stain your trousers or the carpet. I keep a small pot for this powder as it's usually a mixture of colours. A train of six empty hoppers are being hauled back up the valley to the mine to collect the next load. my collection of twelve cars will be divided into two rakes. The empties will run in one direction, the loaded ones in the other. I have finished weathering seven of the hopper cars, the five remaining are at various stages but might well be finished by the end of the week. This is the last posting relating to the weathering of the hopper cars, the next post will deal with making the little mogul look well used. Chaz

Mrs Theodora Westwood and her daughter Emmeline pause as the mogul heading a short freight clanks passed the depot at Stoke's Ferry. "Be careful of the smoke Emmeline, and you mustn't wave to the engineer!" "Did you hear what that man said to me Emmeline? Terrible! I suppose we must get to Dixon some other way if there are no passenger trains today." "Is this really the best hotel in the town, Mama? After that awful, dusty road I was hoping for a little comfort." Chaz

Nothing very exotic Steve. It's known by all On30 modellers as "the Bachmann mogul", their first effort in the scale. The loco depicted is a Rogers mogul, a type that first appeared in the 1860's (or at least that's what Mr Wikipedia told me). It survives on the FVRR as the railroad keeps it for light duties, and they have a fondness for it....

My next weathering project... I will need to do a few jobs on it before I get the paint and powders out. It has a DCC (non sound) chip fitted in it and is a sweet runner, smooth, quiet and runs as slowly as I will ever want. Chaz

I have got a couple of water tank spouts coming. Paul Martin of EDM models got me them from Bill Banta - they come in a bag of white-metal bits that include some band tensioners - they would be tricky to make. ______________________________________________________________________ I visited the Continental O gauge show in Winchester this morning. Picked up this dinky Bachmann Mogul from the 7mmNGA stand. It runs really sweetly, slow, quiet and smooth so I will keep the non-sound chip in it for the moment. Pity I didn't notice the cobweb on the headlamp before I took the pictures. The pilot will need to be changed as it has that useless non-working coupler - what were they thinking? Fortunately I have a Bachmann replacement pilot which will be fitted very soon. There it is standing on my excellent Kitwood Hill turntable. I will need to look at the slide bars, they really shouldn't slope up like that but this is a common problem with the Bachmann Mogul. Maybe the motion bracket needs some attention. #12 reverses back past the (scratch built) water tank... ...and later is glimpsed among the trees. I may well keep the number 12, but the lettering on the tender will have to come off and be replaced by the words "Furness Valley". Chaz

The next hopper car, #417, is to have fewer rust patches and look less down at heel. To speed things up a bit I use my airbrush with no colour cup to waft air over the model to speed up the drying off of the solvent in the rust effect. I turn the air pressure right down to avoid the colour “spidering” across the surface. One side of the car with all three colours of “Crusted Rust” used. Three panels have had weathering powders added. The last two photos show the two sides. As with all this weathering I will set the model on one side and look at afresh after a day or two to see if any further work needs to be done. Chaz

More work on the hopper cars… I have found the “Crusted Rust” enamels on their own less than convincing. It may be the way I am applying them but they make the cars look afflicted with some strange disease. However adding weathering powders to the surface does the trick. Brushes - the two small ones on the left are very useful for picking up small amounts or powder and applying it just where it’s needed. The third, larger one is a soft mop and is good at spreading the powder over an area. The brush on the right has had a hard life. Having been demoted from the front line it was used to spread dilute PVA when I was doing scenic effects. This has left the hairs a bit stiff and it now has a new role. Working it over a powdered surface with a scrubbing action it will blend and tone down patches of powder whose colour is too obvious. #402 has powders applied over “Crusted Rust” daubs. Before I put the powders on I used some Vallejo matte black to obliterate some of the daubs, which I thought I had overdone. This has resulted in this mottled surface effect that looks so good I may well use it again. ​Great fun this weathering lark - as the effects develop I have to remind myself that it's bedtime and I can't do all twelve cars in one session. In any case it's good to leave the work and return to it the following day, to be appraised with a fresh eye. --------------------------------------------------------------- OOPS! Not the best of pictures but it illustrates a problem I had. I used some Humbrol weathering powders on #403 because I thought their rust colour a good one. However brushing this over “Crusted Rust” daubs had the effect of polishing them and making them glossy. I suspect the Humbrol product is coarser and a bit more abrasive and might have an effect akin to T-Cut. Chaz

Ugly devil, but interestingly different. I was told that it left a strong scent of fuel (paraffin?) at any place it passed through. Chaz

More on weathering the hopper cars: this post covers how I deal with the insides (but I ought to say that other methods are as good). All the paints I used for this are matte acrylics - I think you would get as good an effect with matte enamels but you would need to stir them really thoroughly to ensure they dry matte. The first thing I do is to give the whole of the inside of the hopper a quick coat of rust colour. This one was done with Humbrol 113. I don’t worry too much about getting perfect coverage as this first paint layer is an undercoat - I just keep all the brush strokes (no need for an airbrush) vertical down the sides or parallel down the slope of the inclines. Once that rust undercoat is dry I paint streaks of all four rust colours - 113, 62 leather, 426 orange & 418 maroon red. Again all the streaks should be downward but they can blend together. Once that has dried (overnight) I use Vallejo Metal Colour 77.712 steel. This is an acrylic colour that contains metallic particles. As these settle out quite quickly the pot contains a ball, like a rattle can. I give it a really good shake and then dispense a small amount on to a scrap of plastic. I dry-brush it onto some of the edges of the car and, here and there, to the streaked surfaces. It shows up well in the photo on the inside edges of the top rim. I have also added streaks of weathering powder. Car #83 is nearly finished. The camera again reveals a fault, some of the rivets are a bit too yellow and need toning down but apart from that I think it looks good. I was more thorough with the decal “83” on this car. I applied it over two coats of Vallejo gloss varnish brushed on to just that panel. After leaving the transfer overnight to allow the glue to dry off I gave it two coats of Vallejo matte varnish. The transfer film is almost invisible. Once the varnish was dry I toned down the white figures with a light brush-over of Humbrol “Smoke” weathering powder. I will repeat, there is no need to varnish the powders provided they are applied to a matte surface - which by its nature has a rough surface. The Vallejo matte varnish seems to give a particularly good key. On the occasions when I have put on too much and the colour is too obvious it has proved difficult to remove - in that case I just go over it with small amounts of black powder which will tone down rather than cover it completely. Chaz

Thanks Steve. The trucks were brush painted with Tamiya flat black and once this had dried I added DCC Concepts weathering powders, rich rust (a dark red-brown) and black and traces of dry rust (yellow-ochre). I don't see much need to airbrush the black paint. Chaz Edit - I should have said that I keep both paint and powder well away from the moulded bearing insets - one reason why I prefer to brush paint - no risk of overspray.

A couple of Bachmann On30 trucks. These do not belong to a hopper car but they do illustrate a problem. The wheels are unrealistically bright and shiny and will not “hold” weathering powders and the trucks are a shiny black nylon-type plastic which will similarly offer no “key” for powders. I paint the truck bodies with Tamiya flat black. To allow this one to be painted in one go I have mounted it on a tapered paint brush handle. No need to jam it on tight - just snug enough so that it doesn’t move. I paint the wheels with a rust colour. One wheel and the axle (but not the pointed ends) are painted first. I pop them into a pre-drilled wooden block to dry. You can handle the unpainted end with tweezers or snipe-nosed pliers. Once the paint is dry the other wheel can be painted. I don't paint the inside faces or the underneath of the trucks - these are completely out of sight when railed. I do paint the sides of the cross beam which is quite prominent in an end view. I take the dried paint off the wheel treads with the end of a six-inch rule with a chiselling action. This is easier than trying to keep the paint off them. Both the wheels and trucks have had weathering powders added. Don’t bother to do too much of a job on these - remember that once the cars are on the rails the trucks and wheels are tucked away under the body and are not very visible. You just don’t want to glimpse those bright wheels and clean black trucks - in reality they might well be the dirtiest part of the car. Chaz

A comparison shot. #94 was done with chipping fluid and #402 with the Crusted Rust Deposits. Both have had weathering powders added. I will leave you to decide which one you prefer. The use of different techniques and materials has resulted in cars with differing looks but as they share the same restricted range of colours I can couple them together without either looking out of place. Chaz Memo to self - don't forget to fit and weather the brake wheels.

Before I move on to painting the interior of a hopper car, or its trucks and wheels, I thought I would look at another approach to weathering the outside, not involving the chipping fluids. Two of my hoppers were black straight out of the box. I decided to finish these two as cars that were lettered as the property of the Furness Valley Mining Company (FVMCo). This was an accountant’s ruse, temporarily dividing the ownership of the fleet of hopper cars between the mine and the railroad. #402 was one of the few cars that were relettered and renumbered before the idea was abandoned by the company. After I had applied the transfers (decals) I gave the car a coat of Vallejo flat varnish to provide a key for weathering powders. The next step was done with the three “Crusted Rust Deposits”. These are enamel based and need a good shake before use - the pigments settle out. Using the light colour first I use a finely pointed brush to put on spots and patches of rust. I don’t know what the solvent is in which the pigment is suspended but it evaporates quite quickly leaving some flat gritty looking patches. Adding patches and blobs of the other two colours gives a most unconvincing, mottled look - but no need to panic yet. Adding DCC Concepts weathering powders, black and rich rust, toned the effect down and gave me the realistic look I wanted. A little more soft brushing removes some of the powder allowing the colour of the rust patches and the number to show a bit more clearly. Some of those vertical streaks, where the pigment of the “Crusted Rust” has run along edges might need a bit more work and I certainly need to put this car next to the others to see if they work together. Chaz

I suspect there are some who can't see a mistake without jumping to point it out. As I said before if you can understand what was meant it really doesn't matter. The confusion between "the number of" and "the amount of" has me shouting at my radio, but it never gets offended. Any amount of people make that mistake (see what I did there?) but if it's in a face to face conversation, or here on the forum I try not to wince too obviously. My advice is twofold - avoid correcting other peoples' errors - and try not to take offence if someone points out yours. Life is too short and this forum should be fun. Chaz Nuff said?

Mon Dieu! What could have happened to the south to make that relief run wrong line? I bet the crew on the footplate of that lovely A3 weren't happy until they regained the down line. Of course a fiddle yard is necessary to make it all work and a transition inevitable. Saving grace is that the photo is still worth a second glance, the finish on "Doncaster" is excellent. Chaz

I'm not dyslexic but I am a very poor typist. I often return to edit a post of my own when I spot an error - it's how I'm made. No matter, I can live with any number of spelling errors or even "would of" or "could of" from others without feeling the need to upset anyone by correcting their text. Providing I can make out what is meant it's fine. Mistakes do jolt a bit and sometimes amuse me but it would be bad manners to return to my former life as a teacher. We are so lucky to have such a vigorous forum with so many excellent models featured. Enjoy that! (edited for numerous errors) Chaz