Progress (or otherwise) on Jeff's new layout

Good looking piece of kit there. Just an idea, but what about altering the destination signs to say charter or private hire? Then you could get away with the livery.

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

That look excellent Jeff.  :thumbs

As you say, slightly dimmer would have been better but it beats no lights at all. ;-)

Any way you could reduce the overall blue colour a bit  ?

I can alter the colours and brightness of the LEDs, Peter. this was a blue with a little bit of red in it. The interface does allow me to mix my own blends of light colours too, but I haven't got that far yet,

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

Good looking piece of kit there. Just an idea, but what about altering the destination signs to say charter or private hire? Then you could get away with the livery.

I agree, and have that in mind. I am also wondering if I can open out the destination and route number apertures to let light shine through them as well.

Yet another class 73 has taken to the tracks around Newton Broadway.

I have a number of spare bodies from Lima and Hornby versions, and a few spare Lima chassis as I have been slowly converting all of them over to Hornby chassis with their much nicer 5-pole motor drive. The ready to run versions have 8-pin decoder sockets making DCC conversion easy.

I recently noted that Lendons of Cardiff have the Hornby class 73 parts going at very reasonable prices, so ordered a chassis, motor bogie and a complete dummy bogie, plus some crankpins and screws for Hornby steam locomotives, for a grand total of £29.14, including the postage to Australia. 

This allowed me to utilise one of the spare bodies I have, of E6015 in early BR blue with small yellow panels and grey roof and windscreen surrounds (a repaint I did some years ago). I had a set of suitable buffers that plugged straight into the holes in the buffer beams. The Pullman rubbing plates were already fitted to the chassis. I took the cab interiors from one of the surplus Lima chassis, and also found one of the central chassis weights from a Lima version.

All that remained was to solder some wires to the pickups and brushes, and hard-wire a decoder (I chose a Lenz Standard v.2 decoder with the 8-pin plug cut off). A quick test on DC with the wires loosely held together proved the pickups and motor were working perfectly, then the decoder was wired in. I painted a wash of red paint onto the buffer beams, and cut off the oversized sand pipes from the bogie mouldings (something I have done to every single Hornby or Lima class 73).

And E6015 is ready and waiting to enter revenue service. I can, of course, change its identity at any time with one of the other spare bodies, but for now this one suits the time period I am running.

It's a pity about the blue Jeff but where do you find all these spare bodies and chassis ?  I see this one came at a stunningly bargain price from Cardiff but what about all the rest ?  I've been looking for a more modern Class 37 chassis to mount an old Hornby body onto.  I've always liked the Class 37 but today's prices are pushing "like"beyond where I'm prepared to go …..

I think I've asked before but how many locos do you have in your stables ?  Presumably it's like Hattons oft quoted stock levels - "more than 10" !   :hmm

Answering the last question first, Peter, more than 10!

Actually a few hundred if you count all the multiple units as well. I have 14 operational class 73s, mostly Hornby, or Lima bodies on Hornby chassis, but a few Dapol ones too. They cover a fair time span, though, with liveries from the original green ones in the 1960s, through BR blues to modern privatised schemes.

I have gradually replaced all the Lima chassis with Hornby ones, mostly bought when they were bargains from the likes of Hatton's. that's how I ended up with spare bodies, some even with duplicate liveries and numbers (ideal for repaints). I'm thinking I should have ordered a couple of each item from Lendons to utilise yet another spare body.

I have "reengined" a Hornby RailRoad class 37 (actually the Lima body moulding) using a ViTrains chassis, and another using the RailRoad chassis under a Lima body - Lima really had a myriad of liveries available that have never been released by anyone else. Likewise, a Network South East class 47; Lima body on a ViTrains chassis. I had to hack the cab mouldings to fit the ViTrains light units. That NSE livery is one I really don't fancy trying to paint myself.

I have also taken a couple of bargain RailRoad class 31s and swapped detailed Lima bodies onto the chassis. I sold the remaining Hornby body on Lima chassis. Likewise I sold off a Hornby class 37 body mounted on the Lima chassis, but I still have four of the Lima class 73 chassis sitting in a drawer - there were no takers when I put them on eBay.

We had a friend drop in for the first time in ages. He brought a few unusual visitors to Newton Broadway.














You could say it was a real gas!  :twisted:

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

……………..

You could say it was a real gas!  :twisted:

 


Some interesting locos there Jeff.  :thumbs

What's the orange one on the end ?

Judging by the plate, a Porsche GT3 operating "undercover"


 :twisted:

It's a gas turbine Peter. I don't know much about them, but that's what it is. As for the 3; third attempt or 3 turbines? Someone will know.

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

It's a gas turbine Peter. I don't know much about them, but that's what it is. As for the 3; third attempt or 3 turbines? Someone will know.

That's pretty well it, Peter. 18000 was the first gas turbine, 18100 the second, GT3 the third. 

18000 is the new Rails/Heljan model (my friend also has a Silver Fox version he brought along to compare side by side).

18100 is a Silver Fox resin body on a commercial chassis (possibly a class 47), but my friend has now pre-ordered the Rails/Heljan one to come!

GT3 is the KR Models version.

18100 was later converted to an electric test-bed/trainer for the 25kV electrification on the West Coast Main Line.

We tested 18000 on my layout with its sound. The scream of the turbines was a little too loud for our ears so I turned the volume down a bit (it's an ESU decoder so volume is on CV63). What we did find was that it had some difficulties with my third and fourth radius curves when facing in one direction, but was fine facing the other way. That's for my friend to sort out - something is obviously catching slightly. He shouldn't have too much trouble working it out, he's a watchmaker by trade. 

While the kit is based on a Continental prototype, I saw the possibilities for this structure in allowing a better view of the underground trains running past, with one of the under-bridge shops becoming an entrance to Newton Broadway LT station from this side of the tracks (with subways being understood to be there). The other shop is to become a cafe, in an ideal location to catch passing commuters.

I have been building this up as almost a diorama in its own right, as the whole roadway with buildings and pavements slides out from under the bridge structure. The cobbled roadway is being treated as access to a level crossing that no longer exists (assuming also that the tracks were lowered somewhat), so the remaining dead-end road is now purely for pedestrians and bikes. There will be bollards across the front to block cars and larger vehicles. There is assumed to be a road in front, parallel to this part of the viaduct, but off-scene. There will be low walls and fences at the back. separating everything from the railway, bit hopefully leaving sufficient space for some decent photographs or videos of trains passing.

What you see here in the first photo shows the a first coat of paint on the cobbled road and the Slaters pavements, with more paint and weathering in the second and third, but with lots more to do yet. Also, the first attempts at creating a more substantial surround to the station entry, using the round pillars and some rectangular station names above to be added. There will be the tops of some escalators visible through the open entryway, and some wrought iron gates at the back, which is otherwise also open. I added some strips of card under the embossed card cobbled roadway to create a bit of camber, and need to fill and blend the surface at the front to match. I will be adding kerb stones and drains as well.

 The third photo shows how the entrance relates to where the platforms are.

 As this is all fictional, I am trying to make something that looks feasible for the given location.

Hi Jeff.  Very nice, but, this isn’t like you? I thought that you were a scratch built modeller, I shouldn’t really criticise any work from any modeller because I am a lazy person. Best wishes Kevin 

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff.  Very nice, but, this isn’t like you? I thought that you were a scratch built modeller, I shouldn’t really criticise any work from any modeller because I am a lazy person. Best wishes Kevin 

Ha ha, no. I am more of a kit-builder or kit-hacker than a scratch builder. Very little of what I have is scratch built.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. I must be thinking of someone else, who or whatever you are more creative than me at the time of writing. Afaik I haven’t been near anyone with COVID-19, but, I maybe coming down with something. Best wishes Kevin 

Hi Jeff, looks fantastic, that lovely Sarah Siddons brings back happy memories of my childhood spent on Rickmansworth (Met) station watching the process of changing over from electric to steam, Sarah Siddons to/from Baker street and chunky Met tanks (steam) to/from Amersham and beyond, still lots of goods shunting in those days to that could be viewed from a footbridge crossing the yard throat  :)
Regards

[user=2213]fourtytwo[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff, looks fantastic, that lovely Sarah Siddons brings back happy memories of my childhood spent on Rickmansworth (Met) station watching the process of changing over from electric to steam, Sarah Siddons to/from Baker street and chunky Met tanks (steam) to/from Amersham and beyond, still lots of goods shunting in those days to that could be viewed from a footbridge crossing the yard throat  :)
Regards

Many thanks, Roger.

'Sarah Siddons' is in preserved condition, but I do have 'Sherlock Holmes' in 1950s-60s condition. As I recently fitted sound into 'Sarah Siddons' I have been running her more frequently, lately.

Most of my Underground memories come from the 1960s on the Bakerloo line, with some trips on the District and Circle lines (using flare sided stock at that time). Living south of the Thames meant fewer opportunities to ride the Underground, though.

Sound installed in an electric loco - won't that just be a gentle hum Jeff ?  :hmm

The bridge area looks good - reminds me of some of the German inner city railways but, as you say, it is a continental kit.  :thumbs

I remember the racket those '50's and '60's underground electrics kicked up. Weren't the Sarah Siddons type called growlers?

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

I remember the racket those '50's and '60's underground electrics kicked up. Weren't the Sarah Siddons type called growlers?

I uploaded a short video to YouTube a couple of weeks ago - can't remember if I posted the link before, so here it is (sorry of it is duplicating earlier posts). You can hear the growl and the clonk of the contact breakers.

[yt]JmWbZaq7tEU[/yt]