Great progress Jeff,
I like your conversions and getting old locos running on DCC.
Keep up the good work.
Derek.

Result, Jeff.  :thumbs

They look great.

Thanks, Max and Derek.

I do seem to go for a bit of variety, don't I!

:cheers

I ran my Bachmann sound-fitted Silverlink class 150/1, 150 123, yesterday and was irritated that it kept stopping every so often, with the resultant engine restarts after every stop. I decided to investigate the cause, thinking maybe a pickup wire had come loose. On dismantling it, I found that it had the same pickup arrangement as on the much later class 40 I dealt with recently. The fix was to add wire pickups bearing on the wheel backs, just as I did for the 40, and also to add hard-wired connections between the bogie contacts and the PCB.

Having done that one, I decided to do my other class 150/1, a BR Provincial sector liveried unit, 150 148 to match. This one had a history of resetting its decoder randomly, probably due to the same intermittent pickup problems.Dismantling is relatively easy, once the three body fixing screws are removed from the chassis. Two very small screws hold the PCB in place, and two larger screws retain the bogies. A flat-bladed screwdriver at the inner ends of the bogie side frame mouldings will release those (easier to do before removing the bogie retaining screws), and the axles just pull out with a small amount of force.

This is what you should have before any soldering occurs:




Insulated wires are prepared by tinning the ends, and the copper pickup strips on the bogies are also prepared with blobs of solder - one up near the step, another just above the "tee" formed with the strip along the bogie sides. The wires are soldered at one end to the strip. Meanwhile, some brass (or copper or phosphor-bronze) pickup wires are prepared by cutting to length (a little shorter than the bogie wheelbase) and the centres are tinned with solder.




The pickup wires need to be bent outwards and slightly downwards to bear on the wheel backs when the axles are reinserted later.The insulated wires are fed up through the slots in the chassis block. The wires can then be soldered to the springy strips that bear on the tops of the bogie strips.










Reassembly is mostly the reverse of dismantling, although I found it better to screw the bogies back on as soon as I had soldered the wires to the PCB. Axles and sideframes were clipped back into place, ensuring that the wires go behind the wheels. From outside, one would never know there was anything different!




After a quick test, the body is replaced and the unit is ready for service, with no more hesitations or flickering lights. I', not too sure whether the Provincial liveried units would ever have run in multiple with Silverlink ones, but here are the two units posed together, regardless!

After leaving it aside for quite some time, I have now got around to glazing the Little Bus Company Bristol MW/ECW bus. I have opted, like with the previous Wilts & Dorset one I did, to glaze it using the outside mounting method, which meant cutting each piece of glazing material to fit each of the window apertures.

The photos were taken in fairly poor light, but the first one emphasises that I need to redo the driver's side windscreen as it is not straight and also not sitting correctly.

I use Micro's Krystal Klear to glue all windows in as it dries clear and also fills in any gaps I may have left by over-trimming the windows. A couple of the windows in the photos show the Krystal Klear hasn't quite dried and is still milky white, but rest assured, the glue will be invisible very soon after the photos were taken.






There are a few things left to do before I can say it is complete: one of the headlights needs a little filler, there are some very minor paint touch-ups to do, and then the transfers may be applied, including that for the front grille.

Well, the Little Bus Company Hants & Dorset Bristol MW has taken another step towards completion. I filled the ragged edges on the driver's side headlight and touched up the paintwork there.

I have put the grille, Bristol 'wings' badge and fleetnames on, leaving just the registration numbers and destinations to add, plus painting in the tail light clusters.

The photos show up a few ragged paint edges rather cruelly, but overall it doesn't look too bad. I will try to fix up the worst bits before I declare it "finished".

Bratchell Models had a sale recently, offering £30 off the cost of their class 456 model in Network SouthEast livery. I quickly ordered one of these units, together with the wheels and coupling pack.

While Bratchell's kits are not exactly cheap, they are well thought out, well moulded and well finished (for their pre-painted ones). They build into robust and usable items for normal model railways. As such, I have already built (and documented here) the class 455/8 and class 319/1 kits from them, which are in service on Newton Broadway, although both awaiting a few finishing detail touches.

My class 456, 456 007, is intended as a dummy unit only, to run in "multiple" with the 455 835, which has a Replica Railways motorised chassis, which has more than enough power and traction to deal with hauling itself plus five coaches.

456 007 arrived in kit form on Thursday. By Thursday evening, I had fitted all of the windows, using my usual Micro Krystal Klear as the glue. For those who haven't read my previous entries, Krystal Klear is intended as a glazing medium itself, for smaller windows or apertures (head and tail light 'holes' are ideal for this) but it also makes a good glue for any clear glazing material, since it is sticky like a glue but can be thinned or washed off with water and dries clear. Two of the window apertures at the leading end of one of the coach sides needed opening out slightly to allow the glazing to pop in properly, but all others were perfect fits right from the start, making this a relatively quick and simple job to complete. The windows were left to set overnight.

Today (Friday), I have assembled the now glazed body shells and the bogies, and put them together with the baseplates push-fitted in.

They will require some added weight, and the underframe details are yet to be added, but I couldn't resist a quick photo on the mobile phone.

​


The front ends will need quite a bit of extra detail added (not in the kits) for the jumper cable boxes and other bits and pieces. I will also be drilling out the lights and adding LEDs later, plus end coupling to allow for use with the 455 unit.

Continuing on with the Bratchell class 456, I have now fitted the underframe details as supplied in the kit. 

I have posed the nearly complete unit with the Bratchell class 455/8 on my layout, although this is a little bit of a cheat, since neither unit has yet been fitted with end couplings!

Both the previously shown Bratchell Model kits of classes 455/8 and 456, in Network Southeast livery, running "in multiple" departing Newton Broadway LT station. I had just fitted the unit ends with Parkside kits NEM coupling adapters and Kadee #18 and #20 couplings, respectively. Unit 455 835 has a Replica Railways motorised chassis, while 456 007 is actually unpowered.

Both videos are straight off my mobile phone but I will try to get some better footage later and string it together into a single, more coherent clip.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Vnk2ZNXTrhw?version=3

Avant d'accéder à YouTube

Looking good Jeff :thumbs


Ed

I recently ordered one of the Realtrack Models class 143 units in First Great Western Local Lines livery. To go with it, I decided that I wanted a class 150 to complement it. Bachmann have already produced a class 150/1 in FGW plain blue livery, although that seems to have sold out. I may still be able to get hold of one in the future, so there is no point in doing one myself … yet. That leaves a 150/2 in the more interesting, but superseded 'local lines' livery.

With that in mind, I kept an eye on eBay for a relatively cheap 150/2 that I could use, having already ascertained that Electra Railway Graphics (ERG) produce the necessary vinyl overlays.

I located a Regional Railways unit in Rails of Sheffield's eBay shop and made an offer, which they accepted. At the same time, coincidentally, I bought a Bachmann Silverlink class 350/1 from Rails website shop on special for £99 or so, with a view to doing a second class 450 conversion, also with ERG vinyl overlays.

The two sets of vinyls were ordered from Adam at ERG, and he very kindly offered both sets with postage at an inclusive price.

So far so good! The 450 conversion has been dealt with in my previous blog entries, so I need say no more on that. I commenced work on the 150/2 by removing the bodies and pushing out all of the door glazing, with a view to pre-painting the doors in pink. The ERG vinyls include overlays for the doors but I prefer to simply paint them. I used an initial coat of a standard Humbrol light pink, followed by a coat of the correct 'Barbie' pink.




I then used one of the side overlays to test out what areas would need any paint touches. The vinyls seem a fraction short, so I used First 'Barbie' blue to paint all of the necessary end and door edges to blend them better with the vinyl overlays. I know that the 'Barbie' blue is not quite correct but it is close enough to do what I need from it.




The other vinyls will follow once the paint dries. Here is the initial one that I did, though.




As usual when I am trying to do these jobs, I have just snatched the photos somewhat hastily on the mobile phone camera, so the quality is not the best. It does show what I am talking about though, so they will have to suffice. Once I complete the job, I'll take some better ones of the finished product.

Further progress with the Bachmann class 150/2 re-livery, using Electra Railway Graphics vinyl overlays. The job is nearly complete, with just a few finishing touches required.

I haven't used the door overlays, although I intend to use the driving cab door ones, once I can remove the handrails. At present, they are First 'Barbie' blue blending into the Provincial/regional Railways blue!

Application of the vinyls generally went smoothly, although the toilet window doesn't line up properly. There are a few bubbles I missed and the gutters over the doors gave me a few problems, but from normal viewing distance, it looks fine to me.

I missed pre-painting the filler recesses in the middle of one side on each coach. Will fix that later.

As described in my layout topic (it probably would have been better in this one!), I swapped chassis and cab interiors around between Bachmann class 150 units, so that the new First Great Western unit now has the old solid block chassis in the motorised coach, while my Silverlink unit now has the new chassis with lights. I also swapped the sound decoder back into the Silverlink unit, with a new 100 ohm speaker installed as I didn't feel like dismantling the old chassis to extract the speaker from under the motor!

The result is that I can run the two First Great Western units in multiple without the oddity of having one with an opaque motor coach and no lights and the other with lights in both coaches.

The FGW units, 150 128 and 150 219 (the one I added the Electra Railway Graphics vinyls to) are seen in the storage loops, so not a great photo, while the Silverlink unit, 150 123, is shown in all its new glory on the tracks below.






Meanwhile, my order for some transfers and etched plates from Modelmaster arrived a couple of days ago. The first candidate for improvement was my Hornby Gresley P2, Cock O' The North, which now sports etched nameplates. I think these are an improvement over the printed ones, and even more so compared to the plastic ones Hornby supplied.




Finally, for this session, I have been adding coal loads (Wagon Essentials drop in loads from Model Railways Direct) to a few wagons and weathering some of them as well. The photos below tell at least some of the story. The Dapol Saxa Salt wagon was already weathered, but any others are ones I have done. All of the bright red ones were particularly lurid to start with. A wash of dark brown and some matt varnish have helped tone them down a bit.

Was it really as long ago as November 2013 that I first reported on this and another LSWR 'road' van from Smallbrook Studio (see post 206)? I have taken all four of the kits I purchased (LSWR and 'Met' versions) along to a couple of exhibitions with a view to continuing construction but ended up operating the BRMA layout on each occasion, with no productivity as far as kit construction went!

Anyway, continuing with the pre-grouping theme, I dug out the previously started LSWR 18 tonner and fitted the handrails last night, followed by the glazing, roof, gutters, chimney and couplings tonight. There is still a bit of painting to do and transfers and weathering to go, but it is now very close to being finished.

I have posed it with the Bachmann LBSC E4 0-6-2 tank locomotive for effect.






Next to complete will be the diagram 1545/9 20 ton van.

Much later, I'll do the as yet unstarted Metropolitan Railway version of the 20 tonner, and the D.1541 10 ton brake van.

I have made further progress with finishing the Smallbrook Studio LSWR 18 ton 'road' van (D. 1542) - the right-hand van in the photos below. Transfers from HMRS have been applied, although much of what I have done was guesswork, based on photos of other types of brake vans in LSWR livery, since all of the photos I have been able to find of D. 1542 vans were in BR grey, in various states of decreptitude! I used the smaller LSWR lettering as the panels are a bit tighter in dimensions than the other vans.

The D. 1545/1549 20 ton van has had a few more paint touches applied and all the holes for the handrails drilled out, and couplings fitted, but otherwise looks the same as before - middle van in the photos.

I commenced work on the D. 1541 10 ton van and it has now caught up to the 20 tonner, apart from the roof not being painted. This is the single-ended van on the left in the photos. I pre-drilled all the handrail holes before fully assembling the shell on this one. Both this and the 20 ton van's roofs are only black-tacked on at the moment, pending fitting the glazing.






The 18 ton van will have a coat of matt or satin varnish applied and some weathering, although it can already now run in traffic if I wish.

I recently scored a Hornby DCC sound class 08 off eBay, from a reputable dealer acmodels2 in Eastleigh, for £75 including postage to Australia. This was described as running well with working sound but in poor condition with "lots of detail missing" and unboxed. This was still a bargain as the sound decoder alone was worth in the region of £100.

When the model arrived, it was missing all of the footsteps, one handrail for the footsteps with the others being loose, and the cab roof ventilator hatch. The condition was much better than I had anticipated, notwithstanding the accurate and detailed photos posted on the listing and, after straightening the coupling rods slightly, a quick test run on the rolling road showed that it behaved impeccably well for both running standards and the not very good Hornby sounds (easy to get reblown!). All in all, I'm very happy with this purchase.

I have ordered some PHD Designs 08/09 footsteps, although I could have tried to knock some up from plasticard. The roof vent has already been covered with a piece of 20 thou plasticard cut to match my Hornby D3963 (which was reblown a while back with legomanbiffo's sound project), and the missing handrail will be replaced with a piece of wire and fine handrail knob in due course.

I have ordered a Zimo sound decoder (21 pin) with Paul Chetter's sounds on for the 08 as I have rather fancied his version of the 08 sounds with the lovely exhaust rasp. I also want a BR blue 08/09 but all of mine are so far have been either green or in post-privatisation liveries, so here was an excuse to do a repaint as well. The yellow wasp stripe ends were already applied and this one had yellow buffer beams so I don't have to do anything to the ends of the loco at all.

The ESU sound decoder from the 08 will be reblown and fitted into something else.

Here are a couple of pics of the 08 after a first coat of BR blue. It requires a second coat before numbering in pre-TOPS style, followed by a good dose of weathering. I will, of course, repaint the handrails after the next coat of blue. I have yet to decide which number this locomotive is to become.






The ESU sound decoder will go into another suitable candidate in the near future after a reblow from either Howes or legomanbiffo.

Hi Jeff, very nice! I have a Bachmann 08 with one of Paul's sound files on, it's a great sound file and very realistic!

Cheers
Ron

nice job Jeff Ihave two both Hornby they do run very well
:thumbs;-):cool:

Thanks. I like both Hornby and Bachmann 08/09 shunters, but the Hornby ones have the edge on fine detail.

Now, onto another quick project, unfinished from before: I decided to resurrect my Hornby Stanier Black 5, which had been playing up last time I ran it. I tested it on DC analogue after removing the Hornby decoder and it ran perfectly for several hours on the rolling road. I added a Hattons decoder and that ran perfectly.

Next, I decided to continue with the weathering process I started before it played up. Doing the dirty bits is not difficult; the problem I have is with matt varnishes not drying matt. I have used several different brands, all shaken and stirred thoroughly, but the results are very unreliable. At present, it is still not right but looks reasonable (only reasonable, not especially good!).

Here it is on the late 1950s/early 1960s parcels train at Newton Broadway






Definitely more work needed on the Black 5. The weathering still needs refining a bit. Then I have to do battle with the varnishes again!

I gave the blue 08 a second coat of paint, then later touched in the white cab handrails.

I gave it a quick test run on the layout and it completed one circuit before coming to an abrupt halt with one coupling rod detached. 




To see if I could recover the missing crankpin, I sent another 08, D3963 around with a neomagnet (intended as a Hornby Dublo ringfield replacement magnet) attached with some Blu-tack. It came back with two track pins and a few bits of magnetic detritus attached!




In the absence of the correct crankpin, I quickly ascertained that the thread for the pin is 12BA, so used a short 12BA countersunk head screw to secure the coupling rod. I put a small smear of glue on the thread beforehand to ensure it wouldn't unscrew accidentally. The screw head is a little on the large side but once it is painted it won't be all that obvious.