Those wagons are looking pretty good, as is the loco

Having bought a new Hornby Huntley & Palmers Peckett 0-4-0ST (probably the last one in Melbourne, if not Australia), I tested it on DC then added a decoder, using a TCS M1 wired to the 4-pin 'looping' plug. During that operation, I managed to lose the whistle, so crudely turned one up from some brass wire in the Dremel (shown earlier). That worked as a stopgap until I tried a second time and came up with something that looked a little more like a whistle.

After I was happy with that, I weathered the Peckett using black powder. there's more to do but I think it looks more like a well-used example while still showing off the lovely H&P lined blue.

A few months ago, I swapped an original Bachmann London Transport body from its split chassis onto a new DCC-ready chassis. The split chassis was converted to DCC some years ago and wasn't too bad a runner, albeit not up to the standard of the newer chassis. The LT swap left me with a heavily weathered BR black pannier body sitting on the old split chassis. I thought that this would not be a likely seller, so decided to have a bit of fun and make it into a might-have-been Huntley & Palmers loco (without logos as I may eventually remove the legend from the Peckett to make it more generic). I started by painting the pannier body in a rather lurid Revell blue. With the already red coupling rods, this didn't look too far off the H&P colours, although I was well aware it would need toning down somewhat.

I was going to apply a second coat of blue but decided that for industrial use, a second-hand loco would probably have had the paint slapped on carelessly to give an idea of identity.

Some white edged black lining from an LNER sheet of transfers applied to just the tank sides aided the identity change, together with an arbitrary number 8 on the cabside completed the main work. I touched up the black parts where I had gone over with the blue, then dry-brushed some more black onto the upper surfaces of the tanks and boiler, followed by a heavy application of black weathering powder.

I have posed the pannier tank with the Peckett so you can all judge from the photos how well I have succeeded, or how far I have fallen short.



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Looks to me like you did a pretty good job!

Looks like the Peckett has been acquired to relieve the poor old Pannier of some of it's work, Jeff  :thumbs


Ed

Thanks guys.

:cheers

One more photo: this time, with the locos actually on the rails on the layout.

I have long held a dislike of Hornby's own DCC decoders (their Sapphire excepted), so when I purchased the Peckett W4 saddle tank loco, I declared at the outset that I would use something different, even if it meant hard-wiring it. Unfortunately, Hornby are the only manufacturer offering a 4-pin decoder. I never took photos of that conversion, so when I received Hornby's Sentinel diesel shunter, I resolved to treat it the same way.

The decoders I favoured for these conversions were TCS M1 (2-function) or M4 (4-function); they cost me the same at the time I bought them and the shop had run out of M1s. I doubt that I'll use the functions in the short-term, but if I ever get brave later I might fit lights, firebox glows … that sort of thing! These decoders are smaller than the Hornby one, so they actually fit in the places provided with room to spare.

I did have a brainwave, though, and decided to retain the 4-pin socket and use the 'blanking plug' to connect the decoder by the relatively simple expedient of replacing the two looped wires and soldering in the correct decoder wires. Hornby have wired the plugs so that the track feed wires are on the outer pins and the brush feeds on the inner ones, so even if the plug is accidentally (or deliberately) reversed, no harm will come to the decoder.

The metal sockets can be slid out of the plastic shell by lifting the little plastic tags. This allows the Hornby wires to be removed - I just cut mine off flush but you can choose any method you like to get rid of them.

After this, the decoder wires were soldered on, using the end tags on the metal bits to clamp the wires in place as well.

Then the assemblies can be slid back into their respective sockets, ensuring that they are correctly positioned - black - grey - orange - red.

Spare wires on the decoders were cropped short and secured with a bit of heat-shrink tubing.

The idea worked well with the Peckett, making it easy to restore to DC or swap decoders later if desired. However, the Sentinel wasn't as cooperative, and I ended up stripping it completely and rewiring it, including hard-wiring the decoder. The photos show how it all worked for the Peckett, and how it could have been for the Sentinel.





Photo Storage

Photo Storage



​Photo Storage

When I arbitrarily chose a running number for the private owner pannier tank, I selected 8, forgetting that I had the London Transport (ex-Metropolitan) Bo Bo #8, Sherlock Holmes. To prevent clashes with both locos being selected at the same time, I renumbered the pannier to #9, an unused number in my lists. That follows on from the Huntley & Palmers Peckett ('numbered' D, which I translated to 4 for DCC purposes), and precedes the Sentinel diesel shunter which is #10 now.

For the pannier, I used Southern Railway transfers (they must have been bought by the private owner company as surplus materials after nationalisation occurred!): Bulleid style for the cab side numbers and rear, and Maunsell style for the smokebox plate.






I have just received a second Peckett, in Peckett's own pale green. This one will be allocated number 5, and having checked my spreadsheet first, that does not clash with any other items in my stock lists.

Having previously described modifying the plug and wiring for fitting non-Hornby decoders to the Hornby Huntley & Palmers Peckett W4 and Sentinel diesel shunter, I failed to take a photo of the decoder actually in place to show just how easily the TCS M1 fits inside. Being smaller than the Hornby 4-pin decoder, there is room to spare, so I use a small blob of Blu-Tack to stop the decoder moving around.

Having just received a second Peckett, this time the Peckett pale green Dodo, I went through the same process again, only this time it took half the time to do and came out a little neater as well.

​The blue, white and yellow wires are neatly bundled out of the way with a spot of heat-shrink tubing. If I ever want to add lighting or other functions, the wires are still available for use.

The paint job and transfers on the pannier are quite acceptable Jeff. Nice job.
cheers

Marty

Thanks, Marty.

:cheers

Hi Jeff.  There is one thing that I noticed on your layout, that takes me back to my working on LT, Section Isolating switch boxes, and they do look realistic. Like a pair of sentry boxes.   All the best.  Kevin

Yes, those section switches are rather nice. They are from Metro Models, who actually have two different styles. Mine with the peaked roofs are the older style, while the newer ones have a curved roof.

Hi Jeff. Thank you for your reply. I have had a look at their web site, plenty of rolling stock and station signs, but I couldn't see the switch boxes, I 'll give them a call next week.  All the best. Kev

Hi Jeff.  Second reply, it is still early.but after a second look I found the section switches.  Kevin

I have been working on an original form Merchant Navy locomotive sporadically over the last few years, but am making an effort to complete it before the new Hornby model of 35023, Holland Afrika Line, arrives, probably in June.

The chassis was adapted from a Hornby rebuilt MN, with Hornby's air smoothed West Country/Battle of Britain connecting rods and cylinder assemblies. I hard-wired a DCC Concepts Z218 decoder to it with its 8-pin plug cut off.

The Golden Arrow Productions MN tender body was a bit flat-sided so I had to file and sand it to a better profile. I suspect I may need to take around a millimetre off the bottom edges too, as it still seems to sit a fraction too high.






This was followed by some final fettling and adjustments to the locomotive body. When I removed the front fairings from ahead of the cylinders, I took a little too much material off, so have added a strip of plastic micro-strip to each side, then a bit of filler, followed by filing and sanding back once the filler had set. There were a couple of other places on the body and at the cab/firebox joint that needed filling, too.

Once all that set, I filed it all smooth again, then repainted. The body and tender still require a little more finishing as the paint surface is just a little rougher than I would like.  The photos take us to the current status. Once I have finalised the finishes, I can add lining and names and numbers. My current thinking is for 35027, Port Line, but I could still change my mind.

A nice project, Jeff.   :thumbs

Hi Jeff.  You have certainly got the patience of a saint, and the skill of a model engineer, which sadly I am lacking.Another good job, keep up the good work.  All the best. Kevin

Thanks Kevin.  :)

With the arrival of Hornby's new Merchant Navy, 21C3 Royal Mail, in original original form (a model I never intended getting, but the price I bought it for was too good to pass up), plus the further work on my kit-built original in slightly later form, I have gone off on a Merchant Navy kick! I did an inventory of all the rebuilt versions I have from Hornby to work out which ones still required DCC fitting, bearing in mind that all the ones with sockets had already been done. I found three models still not converted, all to be hard-wired jobs.

I started off today with 35021, New Zealand Line. I found a suitably small decoder with (apparently) 4 functions, which I'll probably not use, but it was stored in among some Hornby decoders. I haven't identified it yet as the MN had very dirty wheels and wouldn't give me a reliable reading at the time (I got three different readings for the manufacturer code!). I'll put it back on the programming track later and try again, having cleaned the wheels and successfully programmed the address. There is not a lot of room in these MNs so a small decoder like a TCS M1/M4 is required.

In the meantime, 21C3 also had a decoder fitted, a straight 8-pin plug in to the tender, using a DCC Concepts Z218 decoder.

Both have been run successfully around the layout with coaches in tow, and have been posed for their portrait shots for the records.








There are two more rebuilt MNs to be fitted, currently numbered and named 35023 Holland Afrika Line and 35024 East Asiatic Company, although I will be renaming and renumbering a couple of existing rebuilt models. 35027 Port Line (already decider-fitted) is a candidate for renaming to 35029 Ellerman Lines or 35013 Rotterdam Lloyd, with a 5100 gallon tender fitted (I have checked the polarity of the coupling and it works with 35027, but shorted on one of the others - it would be nice if Hornby had been consistent with their wiring on these models). This would be its second renaming as it started off as a duplicate Clan Line, 35028!

To round all this off, I already have rebuilt 35005, Canadian Pacific, in blue (authentic for preservation only), 35012, United States Lines, and 35028, Clan Line, in rebuilt form, and unrebuilt 35023, Holland Afrika Line, with sound on order. A couple of older photos follow.






I also have a non-runner 35028 in original form from an unsuccessful Millholme kit. I will try to shoehorn a Hornby chassis into the white metal body and get that running eventually. It looks great, but goes nowhere!

Another Merchant Navy converted this morning. I am having some difficulty because of the longish spells of standing, since I had a heavy fall a few weeks ago, landing on my hip and taking some of the impact on my shoulder and neck, which means that by the end of the wire stripping and soldering sessions, I am getting quite shaky. However, it all works in spite of the hand shakes while soldering the last few connections!

This time I have selected 35023, Holland Afrika Line, a locomotive I bought second-hand with a few 'enhancements', such as a rather nice firebox/ashpan moulding and Kadee couplings added at both ends. I have swapped tenders, with Port Line receiving a 5100 gallon version pending a renaming, and the weathered 6000 gallon tender from that locomotive going to Holland Afrika Line. This tender also has the coal space opened out (something I should do to some of the other 6000 gallon tenders too), and real coal added. The polarity of the connections were compatible on both locomotives.

To show the style of conversion, here are a couple of photos of the finished job before replacing the body. This one used a TCS M1P decoder with the 8-pin plug cut off. As a part of all of these DCC conversions I have replaced the wires from the electrical connections on the locomotive's tender drawbar with longer wires. With the previous one I tidied all the connections up and shrank the heat-shrink tubing before checking the brush polarity, so ended up having to use CV29 to reverse the locomotive's direction of travel, but with this one I checked first … I got it wrong initially so swapped the two brush feed wires (orange and grey).

The body is a very tight fit over the motor and gear tower, so I had to reroute the orange wire lower down the side of the motor after the photos were taken, and also watch the red wire coming up through the chassis at the front end - that wire has to have some slack and also has to go over the top of the decoder, not to the side as in the photo. Yes, it really is that tight!

Anyway, having tested all was well, some duct tape was used to secure most of the wiring to the motor and gear casings, and the body replaced.






And here are the usual (obligatory?) posed portrait shots of 35023 in service.