Hi Ron.   Thank you for your reply. In what shape were your weights?
Bearing in mind the dimensions of the M7, It may be a necessary evil, but I don't like (being clumsy)  taking locos apart. I have taken all manner of things apart and sweated putting them back together in the past.  
all the best. Kevin

Absolutely, Ron. The Hornby 5-pole motor bogie is a quantum leap better than the Lima one, but obviously (to us, not, apparently, to Hornby!) it won't have any traction unless it also has some weight on it! Several of mine have traction tyres. While that could be considered a retrograde step, in relation to Lima's originals it is no different in that respect, seeing as Lima deemed traction tyres necessary as well.

At least the Hornby axles are reversible, with a central drive gear, so the traction tyred wheels can be distributed as one on each side of the motor bogie, instead of both being on the same side.

Being the Lima chassis with modifications to take a different motor bogie design, the Hornby one still has plenty of space to add more weight … and sound and/or lights as well, if desired. Two of mine have sound fitted, one with a huge speaker, which didn't actually deliver as much as I was expecting!

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

Hi Ron.   Thank you for your reply. In what shape were your weights?
 
all the best. Kevin

Kevin, the extra weight was lead flashing sheeting folded as required.

Like Ron, I also use lead flashing sheets for most model railway weighting applications.

A while ago, I bought a second bargain Bachmann class 350/1 unit, and some more of the Electra Railway Graphics class 450 vinyl overlays, with the alternate unit number, with a view to eventually running an 8-car South West Trains composed of my existing conversion, 450 107, and the new one, which will be 450 084.

Both units are fitted with ESU LokSound decoders with Legomanbiffo's class 350 sounds adapted slightly to eliminate the pantograph air compressor start up sounds (the 450s don't have pantographs!). 

Taking advantage of being on school holidays for the term break, and with lessons learnt from the first unit, I decided to roughly paint the new unit to reduce any livery show-through from the basic light grey and blue livery of the 350, through the vinyl overlays. I used a Humbrol matte dark blue (Oxford Blue, I think) as a basic body colour, and pre-painted the red and orange swoops and red doors. None of this had to be done with any great accuracy, and I have probably gone for overkill, but it doesn't look too bad even before adding any vinyls! I re-did the pointy ends of the swoops on the earlier unit to match photos of the real ones, as the vinyls weren't entirely accurate going around the cab fronts. The roofs, coach ends and lower edges of the tumblehomes were all then painted with First Bus 'Barbie Blue', which is a close (but not identical) match to the SWT blue on the vinyls - it is a shade darker, but even where this shows on the roofs, it doesn't look out of place because the real units' roofs weather to both darker and lighter shades than the sides.

The first photo shows the previous unit before much painting had occurred, to show the original Silverlink livery.




The next two photos show this intermediate stage on my workbench.






Finally, for this report, I posed the two units on my yet to be completed viaducts just to gauge the overall effect of running the two units together.








The next stage is to add the vinyls. It isn't really possible to show pictures of the vinyls being applied as I need both hands to ensure they go on straight and without any air bubbles. I'll post pics of the finished results, though.

In case anyone is wondering why I don't just paint the units fully (I am capable of doing a reasonable job!), the vinyl overlays take care of all the SWT insignia, numbering and stripes, window and door markings and labels, and all those other tricky little details.

I have combined the two class 450 units as a DCC consist for a quick test of the two units in multiple. They aren't well matched, presently, because one has a v 3.5 decoder while the other has a v 4 version. I have a series of reblows in progress that will end up with both 450s having v 3.5 decoders, while the v 4 decoder will go to a new DJM class 71.

I took a panoramic shot showing the two units posed on the viaducts, then a few short video clips of them in motion.



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

The class 450 redecoration continues:

The roof 'swoops' in red and orange have been added, as have various destination blind vinyls - Waterloo at one end and Southampton at the other, repeated at the trailing end side windows of the Driving Motor cars. I can live with the compromise of having two different destinations showing from the sides at different ends.

The swoops need a little adjustment to tidy up the slight mismatch where the sides join the roofs, and, like the previous unit, the cab end stripes need careful adjustment and a little hand-painting to get them right. I hand-painted the black upper halves of the corridor end doors on the cab ends of the previous unit, rather than using the vinyls, and I think I'll do the same with this on as well. The vinyl unit numbers have also been applied, confirming the unit's identity as 450 084.

Another trick with these vinyl overlays where they have to wrap around corners or be settled over raised detail is to use a hair dryer to heat them. This softens the vinyl and makes it a lot more malleable. I now have singed finger tips, but the vinyls are sitting a little more snugly over some of the details, particularly on the roofs.






In the meantime, while awaiting paint drying and vinyls settling on the 450, I was giving one of my oldest class 73 models a run, and noticed how crappy my painting of the roof grilles for the electrical compartments was. I had weathered them early on, but never tidied it up, so the grilles were indistinct and just a grey-black blur. 

Now the Lima class 73 body mouldings have some of the finest moulded grilles you'll find anywhere. So fine that, with careful painting, they can actually look better than etched see-through grilles, such as those on the much newer Dapol class 73, or Heljan's newer class 33/0 efforts. All I needed to do in E6002's case was to dry brush some roof grey over the grille mesh and surrounds to tidy them up to my satisfaction. 

I noted that E6002 actually needs to be renumbered to one of E6004 to E6006, or else I needed to replace the buffers with oval ones, as sported by E6001 to E6003 when new. I think round buffers were fitted at the same time as the first three went into BR blue.

E6002 started life as a Lima model of 73 005 in BR large logo blue livery. Unfortunately, while all the livery elements were nicely done, the blue had a surface finish like fairly coarse sandpaper. I repainted the loco into green with grey roof and skirts. Much more recently, E6002 was the first of my Lima models to receive a Hornby DCC-ready chassis, from one of Hatton's bargain-priced class 73 models in Dutch livery (I bought several more of the Dutch model to re-chassis some other Lima 73s as well, over a period of months). 

Next, it received Howes' class 73 sounds on a LokSound v 3.5 decoder, fitted with a large, bass reflex speaker and a standard 23mm round speaker in parallel.

When taking the photos, I realised that the replacement Hornby chassis still had black buffer beams, so they have had a coat of red in the last photo only.

Having mentioned the wrong buffers for the locomotive number, I decided it would be easier to swap the buffers than to renumber E6002. I had some rather nice brass oval buffers in my bits boxes, so removed the Hornby round buffers (they were a good force fit only) and glued the replacements in, then painted them. The paint is still wet in the second pic.

Another class 73 has now received etched name plates and shields. This time, it is royal locomotive, 73 142 Broadlands, with Shawplan plates. The locomotive has a Lima body and chassis, with a Modeltorque motor replacing the Lima 'pancake', and the addition of a newer Hornby unpowered bogie with its better wheels, extra pickups and NEM coupling pocket.

I removed the printed Lima name plates and shields using a trick I learnt a long time ago: stick some sticky tape over the printed elements and press it on very, very firmly with a fingernail, then peel it off complete with the Lima transfers.

I roughened the backs of the etched items then used some Krystal Klear glazing medium as a glue - any that squeezes out can be wiped off with a damp cloth.

Not the best photo with limited light available, but here it is.




And still on Lima class 73s, E6012 in early blue has a Lima body on a Hornby chassis. It also has legomanbiffo sound fitted. I tidied the roof grilles up, much as I did with green E6002 before. Once again, this emphasises just how fine the original Lima moulding was - pity about the mechanism!

Having played around with my early issue Hornby Hogwarts Castle by converting it to DCC and adding headlamps and flickering firebox glow, plus a crew, I was less than satisfied with the running qualities of the Airfix-derived chassis.

Someone on one of the forums mentioned that the newest Hornby RailRoad County 4-6-0 chassis would be a good DCC-ready substitute, so I duly ordered one from Rails of Sheffield.

The wheelbase is spot on, but on comparison of the two chassis side by side, I discovered that there are several discrepancies that would make the swap slightly more difficult, with the two major problems being the cylinder positions and the position of the rear combined tender drawbar and body mounting screw, which was slightly further forward on the County.

After much head scratching, I decided that using the cylinders in the position of the County would be better as it more closely resembles that of a Hall, which is what the 'real' Hogwarts Castle is (Hornby didn't have a Hall model at the time, so used the Castle). I had already worked out that the chassis differences would not allow for an easy swap of cylinders and connecting rods. Allowing for the cylinders to fit under the Castle body meant filing down the depth of the footplate towards the front, which means that my Hogwarts Castle now has a shallow valance extending back to where the old cylinders sat. The repositioning of the cylinders also meant the 'S' shaped steam pipes were now leading from the smokebox to empty air, so they had to come off too; fortunately, they are separate mouldings which plug into holes in the smokebox and footplate.

In the meantime, I pulled the TCS M1 decoder back out of the old chassis and resoldered the main track pickup wires (black and red) and the brush feed wires (grey and orange) back onto an 8-pin plug, but left the white, yellow and blue wires from the decoder soldered to the 3-pin connector plug I used to allow separation of the body from the chassis before. A quick test of the chassis showed that this was all successful.Back to the adaptation, I decided that the tender coupling should remain where it was on the Castle body, which meant that it didn't line up with the hole at the rear of the County chassis; I milled away a crescent shape at the rear of the metal County chassis to clear the screw while allowing it to set the chassis height at the rear, being hard against the rear of the chassis. The front mounting screw actually does most of the work of securing the chassis to the body.

A few minor adjustments to the footplate, mainly involving drilling holes to clear bits of the County cylinders and valve gear, saw everything sitting nicely and running well.In all of this, I managed to dislodge the Hogwarts Express headboard, one of the headlamps, and the fireman I had previously glued in, so a quick session with the superglue saw all of those things restored to their 'correct' positions. I found some plastic tubing that was approximately the right diameter for some new straight steam pipes (maybe a teensy bit anaemic!), so set about trimming and fitting those by trial and error.

I'm not too worried about accuracy: we are talking about a fictional engine on a fictional train, running on a fictional line from a fictional platform at Kings Cross to a fictional destination! With that in mind, a hybrid locomotive with an identity crisis really fits in! Poor old Hogwarts Castle doesn't know whether it is a Castle, a Hall or a County!    

Here are a couple of photos of it with the County chassis fitted but minus its headboard and steam pipes, no fireman, and with one headlamp pointing off into the scenery.






And after the fixes were applied.








For anyone interested, the Knight Bus is one I hacked from two EFE models bought cheaply with the conversion in mind.

I think I'm happy with it now, although I may restore the valance depth a little behind the cylinders at a later date … much, much later.

I bought a second Sutton's Locomotive Works class 24, D5016 with sound, and it duly arrived in Melbourne. On test, it worked fine but emitted clicks and pops from the speakers whenever it was placed on powered tracks, programmed, or power was switched on when already on the track. There were a couple of anomalies with the functions but a decoder reset fixed those. Jamie from SLW suggested I swap the decoder into my previous SLW class 24, D5000, and D5000's decoder into D5016 and see what happened. The clicks and pops persisted with the decoder when in D5000, and the other decoder now in D5016 was silent when it should be, thus indicating a fault with the decoder itself. Jamie immediately sent me a replacement decoder, which arrived within a week, and all is now perfectly well with both locomotives.

I cannot praise Jamie and SLW enough for their excellent, polite and very helpful follow up service. 

Having ascertained that I won't have to return the locomotive itself, I have now renumbered D5016 to D5017, which remained on the Southern Region for around three years, as opposed to D5016's stay on the SR which was only for a month. I removed only the 6's, using a wooden toothpick and a little moisture, then added the 7's using HMRS pressfix transfers - the height of the transfer numerals was slightly greater than the SLW ones, so I cut the bottom off the leg of the HMRS numerals to line up (one has a fraction too much lopped off, but I can easily disguise that when it dries properly). However, I may have to redo the other numbers because the HMRS ones are very slightly bolder, but it will suffice for now.

Anyway here are a couple of pics, the first showing the newly renumbered D5017, and the second showing the two SLW locomotives, D5000 and D5017 in multiple (i.e. a DCC consist).



   


For running in consist, I modified the decoder settings to allow functions 1, 2, 5 and 6 to work with the consist address, thus allowing the sound to be turned on for both at once, the brake function (F2) to work on both (otherwise applying the brake only stopped the front loco, with the rear one pushing it on!), and the engine sounds of both to be returned to idle. Function 5 reduces the inertia/momentum to simulate light engine/light load running.

Hi Jeff.  Nice one! I would not be so bold, but, the Suttons Locos are they the "Super Dooper Locos" that come in their own padded out tin travelling case, that I saw on a YouTube video?(with all the accessories ).A very good choice for any Southern Fan with a good run, like yours. I was thinking about extending a shunting puzzle with a Loco spur and a "Brakevan siding" or whatever it's called? But I was going to settle on a class 47 in two tone green waiting on the spur waiting for the 08 to finish the shunting .    all the best. Kevin

Hi Kevin. Yes, these are the "Super dooper locos" you refer to. It was probably rather extravagant of me to buy not one, but two of them, but these early class 24s were very much a part of the Southern Region scene, firstly to cover for late delivery of what became their class 33 locos, then to supplement the 33s when they arrived because there wasn't enough electrically heated coaching stock, so the 24s were required to provide steam heating (resulting in some super-powered trains!).

The running and sounds are superb, even though I didn't choose to add the optional super capacitor stay alive system. They are a bit dearer than the equivalent Hornby, Bachmann, Heljan or Dapol locomotives, but they are also that little bit finer too, although the actual mechanisms in many of the other manufacturers' locos are equally as good. SLW did go the extra mile with the circuitry to allow control, under DCC, of the cab and tail lights separately (even without a sound decoder), as long as you install a decoder with enough function outputs.

The detail differences SLW have allowed for mean that they can cover most of the variations that occurred through the locomotives lives. My two both have the extra side grilles fitted to some, but not all, of the first 20, with D5000 also having the divider in the main radiator grille. D5017 (ex-D5016) has the large hexagonal Athermos axle boxes fitted to D5010 to D5019 originally. Both of mine have the original fuel and water tanks, but these and the battery boxes are all separate mouldings, and SLW also have some with the shortened fuel and/or water tanks of later production versions, or in certain late blue models, they are offered without the water tanks fitted at all. Both of mine also have the full valancing around the lower body sides.

The chassis design has mouldings and clearances that correspond with the window positions of the later style class 25/2 and 25/3 locomotives, and that, combined with the completely removable fuel and water tanks and battery boxes, suggests that they could well produce class 25s of all styles and variations as well. If they produce the roof headcode box version of the 24/1, those also could be done as the first 25 class 25/0 locomotives, which essentially had class 24 bodies and features.

With your shunting puzzle, are you going to have sound-fitted locos? They do add another dimension to the challenges. The SLW locos would certainly be suitable for shunting, and with the Zimo sound decoders set up the way they are, you would have to actually use the Function 2 braking to great effect. If, on the other hand, you intend to use only an 08/09 shunter and have the other loco just sitting waiting, then the SLW locomotives would probably be expensive overkill. 

I haven't done a proper video of my SLW locos running yet (I will do eventually), but one of my "cab ride" videos does have the first one, D5000, departing ahead of the camera train (link below) - it's only a short bit with the 24.

[yt]EoBWJiy4XKc[/yt]

Hi Jeff.  Regarding sound Locos , I have touched on this subject on an earlier thread , I am in favour of DCC sound and my first Loco was an 08 diesel from Kernow, and Paul Chetter did an excellent job for me, then I purchased L94 as I couldn't resist driving a Lillie Bridge night engineering train, and Paul fitted that for me. Both these Locos are excellent runners and have really good sound effects, and if I was to have too many in sound at the same time? then the good work becomes more of a racket. And living in a terraced house with near neighbours.And my neighbour( a lady with a besom and a black cat) would "kick up a fuss" if she heard such a racket. all the best  Kevin

I know what you mean about it becoming 'noise'. I usually have no more than two sound locos running at any one time for that reason.

Volumes can be turned down (CV63 on ESU LokSound), but the Zim decoders in the class 24s have two functions set to turn volume down (F27) or up (F28) on the fly … or was that the other way around?? :D

First day of school holidays: two Cambrian wagon kits that arrived in the mail yesterday are now built, except for couplings, painting and transfers. The wagons represent LSWR D.1410 10T vans, and I have built them entirely according to the instructions. The photos were taken before I had fitted the buffers.

These were very easy to put together, although I did manage to stick a bit of the brake gear to my fingers!

The kits go together very easily, and the instructions are clear. One trick, though, is to glue the buffer heads to the collars while the latter are still attached to their sprues, then once the glue has set, cut the collar/buffer head assemblies off the sprue and glue to the shanks.

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Hi Jeff.  Very nicely put together, in record time, while my Hurst Nelson Brakevan kit is languishing in its box, mind you it will be in etched brass and would be my first attempt in tha material, perhaps I should follow your example?And try a Cambrian kit , which reminds me I still have Wills Kits awaiting. all the best.  Kevin

The LSWR vans have progressed fairly rapidly, slowed only by the need to let the paint dry!

I applied a spray coat of grey primer, followed by a red oxide primer.






This was followed by a thin coat of Humbrol #10, Service Brown, a colour that is really too dark, too glossy and not red enough, but applying only one thin coat allows the red oxide to show thorough a bit, and when finished, a coat or two of matt varnish effectively lightens it as well.






You may have noticed that one has a white roof, the other a grey roof. The one with the grey roof will be weathered, while the white roofed van will be nearly pristine. The grey is Humbrol #128 (an arbitrarily chosen colour that looks 'right' to me), while the white is Humbrol's acrylic #34, with which I have a lot more success getting a good finish than with the equivalent enamel. It does take a more thin coats to achieve good coverage, but the finish is much smoother.

Lettering has been applied using HMRS pressfix transfers. I still have to apply the tare weight markings, to the right of the "Load 10 Tons" inscriptions, but my eyes and head were aching after putting all the rest on, so that will have to wait a little longer. Once those are on, a coat or two of matt varnish will tone down the paintwork and seal the transfers in place.

After that I only need to add couplings, for which I usually use Parkside's NEM adapters, spaced for height with rectangles of 40 or 60 thou plastic sheet. 






All in all, these have been a very quick and easy build. Perhaps for the future, I'll do another but with the more common wooden underframe for this diagram, or even one of the meat van conversions.

According to the historical information, some of these vans survived into the 1960s, albeit in departmental service. However, I wanted more early types for my pre-grouping goods trains, and these two vans fill the bill admirably.

Hi Jeff.   Forgive this slow building amateur, but I would thought ( without trying? ) that the planking detail would be obscured by the paint, wrong again! And please tell me your secret, more guesswork on my behalf , how do you spray without clogging up the bearings? Do you use the primer from shops like Halfords( Motor Spares)?all the best. Kevin

Hi Kevin, I do use the local equivalent of the Halfords sprays. The trick is to do quick passes to keep the paint layers thin, so they don't clog up the detail. Likewise with brush painting; don't try to get a complete covering with one thick coat pf paint, but go for several thin coats. If there are bits showing through, another thin coat or two or three will eventually cover them, unless you want to go for a slightly tatty finish, in which case, one thin coat of final colour is all that should be needed, as in these LSWR vans' cases.

For these vans, the bearings are well protected from the sides and ends, so didn't require covering, but another trick to use if in any doubt about protecting them, is to smear a spot of oil or Vaseline on the bearings, or use a small square of tape to cover each of them.