I wasn't sure what to do about adding couplings within the 4 SUB unit. The motor coach, using the Hornby 2 BIL chassis, already had NEM pockets; a rigidly attached one at the driving end and a swivelling one at the trailing end. I have a few of the NEM pockets, as marketed by Bachmann and Hornby, so thought I would experiment a bit with these.

I filed a gap in the resin bogie ends and superglued the pockets in. I wasn't too worried about exact distances as I was going to experiment with different couplings to start with. 

As it was, I started with Hornby tension lock couplings but these held the coaches too far apart. Similarly with the Hornby close-couplers. The 2 BIL rigid couplings were too short, as well as being less practical for handling a four-car unit. Kadees seemed like the way to go. I have settled on combinations of #17 and #20 couplings to get reasonable coach spacing while allowing for my tight-ish curves. 

Once I have settled everything properly, I'll reinforce the pocket-bogie joints and cut off the dropper arms from the Kadees within the unit (no need for automatic uncoupling in a permanently formed EMU!).




I can't settle the exact spacing until I fasten the floor to the body shell, because of the gaps at the underframe ends which will need to be filled with some plasticard. No doubt the mismatch was due to shrinkage in the resin as it set.

Hi Jeff,
Best of luck with this experiment.I am thinking Kadee coupling use myself.Never tried them.
I must find their site.My railway build has 36 inch min radius curves so it would be nice to get the right couplings.
Now its back to glueing down track.
Cheers,
Derek.

Kadee - The Coupler People

There you go, Derek.   :cool:

As mentioned earlier, I have experimented with Hornby/Bachmann NEM pockets superglued into small recesses in the bogie frames and these seem to be a success, using Kadee #17 and # 20 couplings. The couplings will have their dropper arms cut off within the units (Who needs automatic uncoupling within an 'indivisible' EMU?).

The reason I had to use the odd mix of Kadee sizes was because I needed to keep the coupler heads clear of the headstocks, and each type of coach has slightly different overhangs from the bogies. 

Here is a short video of the unit running temporarily as a three-car 3 SUB.

http://vid98.photobucket.com/albums/l265/jslynn/Rail/3SUB%20test_zpssxckqxrl.mp4

Great video Jeff. Those EMUs are looking right at home.

Marty

Yay! It makes the right noise, too. "Ter-ting-terting, Ter-ting-terting…"


D

I haven't been able to reproduce the sort of ringing, jingling noise the shoe gear made over point work, yet!

:hmm  

Agree they look a bit ghostly Jeff, but do sound good.


Ed

A little while back, I bought a Hornby N15 that was missing its dome. A quick phone call to South Eastern Finecast secured one of their white metal N15 domes, which arrived well before Christmas.

A few minutes' work with the drill and files on the N15 boiler cleared the area to allow the new dome to be glued in. Two coats of Humbrol HS 172 BR standard locomotive green (a very old tin of enamel from the old railway range of colours), including both the dome and the boiler segment between the bands has produced this, just awaiting a little weathering and toning down to blend it in properly.




Progress has also continued with the Ayjay 4 SUB, with painting of the unit. All parts were given a coat of grey primer, followed by a coat of matt black on the underframes and bogies, and a pale metallic blue on the coach bodies - the latter because I needed a base coat before brush painting the special green I have for Southern Region EMUs (mixed up for me by Haymes Paints in Nunawading). The pale blue was used because my green spray can had gone off! I include a photo of one of the bodies in this colour just for curiosity value - does it look weird, or perhaps it looks like a might-have-been (well, they did paint CC1 / 20001 in a pale silvery blue at one time)? The green is an acrylic but was not really formulated for painting models, so has to be applied in several thin coats. A few more coats are needed yet but the unit is starting to look like an SR/BR(S) electric. I ran it under test as a full four car unit and all works exactly as it should.

Feeling pleased with myself, having finally converted a Bachmann Lord Nelson to DCC. 30861, Lord Anson, now sports a TCS M4 decoder, mounted just in front of the chassis block. I was able to use the solder pads on the front to connect the red and black wires, as this one is an early release with extra pickups on the front bogie. It read straight away on the programming track, suggesting that I got it all right as far as insulating the split chassis halves and the motor brushes from each other.

I didn't pause to take any pictures of the conversion while the body was off or the chassis dismantled. Next time I remove the body I'll take a couple of photos to show how it was completed. The TCS M4 is really a little wasted as I don't need any functions at all for this one, but at the time I bought the decoders, there were none of my more usual M1 decoders available but the shop sold me the M4s at the same price.The weathering was done when it was relatively new, a good many years ago now.

A little lighter relief: I should start a new thread "How Unrealistic are Your Trains?".

I bought three pre-grouping vans from the local swap meet, all Roxey etched brass kits and well made, although a little battered from unsympathetic handling. Each cost me $20, (compared to the £27 each for the flat kits, still currently available) and was fitted with EM gauge axles and wheels. I have slowly regauged or replaced the wheels and axles, with two of the vans retaining their compensation at one end, while the S&DJR van had to lose its compensation unit as it was too wide to fit within the OO gauge wheelset.

I fitted NEM pockets from Parkside, with a 60 thou packing piece to negate the Parkside requirement for cranked couplings, and plugged in some tension lock couplings.

The S&D milk van is in a blue colour, which I may retain, while the other two LCDR/SECR luggage vans were in a rather insipid green colour. One is now in EWS red (a reasonably close match to what I can ascertain is SECR  red/maroon), while the other is in Humbrol leather colour to represent a teak finish, as used by the LCDR. All require further work before adding transfers, and two of them are rather stiff runners, so more work required there too.

Making up a rather unlikely combination, I have posed my two LSWR M7 tanks with the three vans plus the previously worked on SECR (ex-LCDR) brake van. It does make for a colourful combination, although the purists are probably screaming in the background!




(Edited to replace the photo with a slightly clearer one.)

Still fiddling and fettling the three pre-grouping vans, I have now freed up the running of the S&DJR milk van, and started trying to achieve a wood grain finish on the teak LCDR luggage van (second in the previous pics). Looking at Roxey Mouldings' website, I cannot decide whether the van is an 1878 or 1880 design; Roxey offer both but they look the same to me! Neither of the built up examples on the Roxey website has the torpedo vents, so mine is either wrong or represents a later modification. Either way, they will have to go!

As per the previous photos, I started by painting the who;e body in Humbrol leather colour. 

I have now dry-brushed some Revell dark brown on all panels, vertically streaked on the main panels and horizontally streaked for the waist and cant level panels.

This was followed by a coat of gloss varnish. The first photo shows it before varnishing, the second, after varnishing.






For a first attempt at a wood grain finish, I don't think I have done too badly.

Does anyone remember the two Cambrian Kits SECR 'Dance Hall' brake vans I started sometime in 2009 (or maybe even before that)? No? I posted a few photos of them sitting on the old layout at Middlehurst, minus glazing, couplings and handrails. Here's a reminder:




I have had them sitting on a shelf above my workbench, reminding me every time I sit down there that I need to finish them. Well, I finally fitted the glazing, added the handrails and added couplings, utilising the Parkside NEM adapters packed up with a piece of 60 thou plasticard to eliminate the requirement for Bachmanns cranked couplings, and allowing for alternate couplings to be fitted at the correct height if I so desire.

The first two shots show the standard brake van finished in BR light grey (slightly faded) with the handrails unpainted. The Ballast Brake conversion behind still awaits its handrails. There are a few minor paint touch-ups required but they are almost complete.






The third photo shows the handrails painted white. Both vans will be lettered appropriately to complete them.

Very nice, well finished sir!:)

Ron

Thanks Ron. The close-ups are quite cruel and show up the rough edges a bit.

:cheers

I'd call that gentle weathering!!:)

Ron

And here are two photos of the Ballast Brake Van conversion, the first with the handrails just fitted, the second with them painted white.

They look like heavy beasts!

D

Yes, they were 25 tonners, like most of the 'pill box' brakes that followed in SR days. The nicknmae 'dance hall' came about because of the very large internal area, which was actually hard to keep warm in Winter, hence when the 'pill box' type was designed, they made the body quite small (and cosy!) compared to the frame length.

The ex-SECR brake van kits are very nearly complete now. Just a few minor paint touches to fix up and some varnish and weathering to go, and they will be finished.

I have used the Cambridge Custom Transfers sheet 2b/c to add the lettering on the two vans, although some of it was just guesswork as to where it should go as there is a distinct absence of good photos of them in BR days (non-preserved state). They have both ended up as van S55476/DS55476 but I can doctor one of those numbers later.