For my pre-grouping trains, I rather admired Hornby's forthcoming Crystalate wagon, but the catalogue illustrations showed the huge, clunky coupling. I had rather hoped they would use something finer, but when it came out very recently, sure enough, clunky and chunky couplings were present. However, a little bit of investigation showed that they were of the Dapol-style clip in type. A while back, I discovered that the first release new-style Hornby Pullman couplings were a direct clip-in replacement for the larger couplings. As the all of my early Hornby Pullmans were modified with the slightly later NEM pocket couplings and revised bogies (parts that Simon Kohler, in Hornby's name happily supplied), I have a reasonable supply of these finer couplings. 

The original coupling type, removed from the wagon:




The replacement ex-Pullman coupling:




The underside of the wagon with the replacement couplings in place.




And the wagon as it is now. I'm much happier with it with the finer couplings. Perhaps it could do with a little weathering, but then again, a lot of my other P. O. and railway company wagons also need that.

Well, I got cracking and fitted the Kadee #20 couplings to both units. I was also going to perform a decoder swap with another (completely different) unit that I had recorded on my spreadsheet as having a Lenz decoder, but only requiring two functions. However, on reading the decoder on that unit, it turned out to be manufacturer 48, i.e. Hornby, which means I have now located my second Sapphire decoder! The result of this was that the Zimo MX634D decoder had to remain in the TC for the time being, so I decided to have another go at programming a Zimo to work the lights properly in these TC units. 

I am extremely proud to announce I got it to work.

I started by programming a value of 3 into CV8, then 3 into CV 124 (actually already in there but I wanted to be sure). Then I moved to JMRI Decoder Pro to read the functions, and changed a few checkboxes. The screen shots below were actually a dummy run to duplicate the settings as I didn't take screen shots while I was actually doing the programming. The first shot is the "before" and the second is the "after" - the area with the orange highlight is the section I was playing with.





The upshot of all this is that both units now have operable interior lights. The following shots and video show the combined train in action, with blue unit 416 (with Lenz Silver 21 decoder) leading blue/grey unit 404 (with the Zimo decoder), propelled by Heljan 33/1 D6520 with legomanbiffo sound (ESU LokSound). The video also shows bif's drive lock feature in action; the speed is held while the engine has been ramped up to full thrash. The interior lights on the Lenz decoder work on F5, while the Zimo one works them on F3. I didn't want to tempt fate by fiddling further to try to get them on the same F keys!







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Hi Jeff.  Good work as usual. I am still faffing about with screws for Kadee , my growing dislike for eBay and my goods travelling half way around the World to get here usually Hong Kong or similar , Perth WA being the latest along with the waiting for the stuff to arrive.  Best wishes. Kevin

As if I need more rolling stock, I have been doing another quick kit-build, this time it's a Parkside BR/SR plywood sided CCT, which were actually built in BR days to the same basic design as the previous SECR and Southern Railway versions. I pre-painted the sides before assembly to allow easier adding of the window glazing and bars. The bars are just plastic micro-strip, although the thicker ones are actually a fraction too wide, but they were the closest I could get. The first pic shows it in a raw state, with a few bits still to add, while the second shows it in nearly complete form awaiting a few paint touch-ups and some transfers.






This gives me yet another minor variation on the SECR/SR style CCTs and PMVs.

Yet another older locomotive has now been converted to DCC. This one was quite a decent runner to start with, but is an earlier Bachmann class 45 chassis, with an even older Mainline body. 45 048 has the giveaway moulded roofline that allowed Mainline to separate the roof colour on the BR green versions - Bachmann themselves used slightly updated mouldings with that raised line correctly eliminated from the cabs back.

I needed a fairly thin decoder but the footprint was unimportant as there is lots of room in that regard; a Lenz Standard+ decoder with the 8-pin plug cut off was what was required. I analysed the fairly simple PCB and wiring to see what was needed. The brush wires were easily identified and desoldered, then the orange and grey wires were soldered to those. The track feed wires were soldered to the PCB bus tracks at each end, again easily identified and left alone. The red and black decoder wires were soldered to the relevant PCB tracks (red to the right).

The trickiest bits were isolating the headlights, which had a small side track on the PCB and what I thought were resistor in line, but were more probably diodes. I cut the side tracks with a slitting disc in the Dremel, then soldered the white wire to the point where the diode connected to the headlight wire, and did the same with the yellow wire at the other end. The blue common return was connected to both ends, to the desoldered return wires for the headlight bulbs. 

A test showed that the motor worked on DCC, but the wheels desperately needed cleaning. That task accomplished, I then tried out the directional headlights; forwards worked but reverse did not. At that point I decided that I had done enough for the night, so ran the loco back and forth a few times on the main lines, then took the photos. For some reason all of the photos came out slightly fuzzy, but they'll do for now. I'll deal with the non-working light tomorrow.






After this, I need to cut off the body-mounted buffer beams and put them where they should be, on the bogies. I'll see if I can eliminate that bogus gutter line too.

A while back, I bought three Slaters Private Owner wagon kits from an eBay seller. These are very easy to build kits, so I finished the first two fairly quickly. I substituted Hornby or Keen-Maygib metal wheels for the plastic ones supplied in the kits. The Hornby ones, being slightly larger in diameter, required a small amount of filing the brake blocks to ensure clearance.




the third wagon has been sitting around for a little longer, but I chose to do it last night as a 'quickie' job. I'm still painting the underframe bits, but it is coming along rapidly. All that remains to do is a little retouching of the ironwork on the wooden underframe, and the fitting of Parkside NEM coupling adapters and some suitable Bachmann or Hornby couplings.

I have been doing some preparatory work for extending the upper level track to its final, full extent. Conditions have been too hot in the last couple of days to go outside and actually cut the wood, although I have marked some of it out, ready to cut or trim.

In the meantime, we have just had an air conditioner installed, which has meant I could do some indoor modelling in the cooler environment (over 40 degrees C outside). I started tackling the second of the two Cambrian Kits Sturgeon A wagons I bought over a year ago (maybe even longer). While not a difficult kit, it does have some fiddly and repetitive stuff to do - 28 handrails to be bent and fitted, 28 door bumpers and 28 door stop springs at solebar level. The first wagon took me ages to do these, but this one has progressed quite quickly, with some swearing when bits pinged off into the carpet, or failed to stick after several attempts at gluing while holding them in position. The First wagon was posed behind it, more because I was using that to see what I had done before where the instructions were a little unclear.

Anyway, the first three pics show the wagon under construction with the sides and handrails fitted, and some of the parts still on sprues, while the last two also show the door bumpers in place and a close-up of the detail in the mouldings (also showing my less than perfect fitting of the parts!).

Another 'quickie' kit-building project, after the ex-LNER horse box: a Parkside ex-GWR Beetle prize cattle wagon. I started this last night and finished the basic construction this evening after work. It will be painted in BR maroon, with a coat of undercoat to be applied first, very shortly.

There is a small amount of brake rodding still to apply, and, of course, the window glazing, which has to wait for the painting to be completed first.

exGWR Beetle - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

exGWR Beetle - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Jeff. How do you get enough time to fit work in?? Kits never go together for me.    Kevin

The Parkside and Cambrian kits mostly go together well, although a few of them require rather more effort. I still have that second Cambrian Kits Sturgeon A to finish off - that only requires painting now.

With the Beetle, I found the brake shoes were annoyingly fragile, and I broke several of them getting them off the sprues. Fortunately, I didn't lose any bits, unlike with the earlier LNER horse box, where one of the door opening dampers sprang off into the wild blue (well, motley brown) yonder of the carpet! I never found that bit again, and carved a replacement out of some 20 thou plastic card, using the remaining kit one as a template.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you, and there was me thinking I had the “exclusive right” to pinging kit parts , and then trying to find them.   Best wishes. Kevin

Nope, you two are not the only ones, as a ridiculousy tiny brass brake rodding bracket flew across my work room over the weekend, to be lost forever. Fortunately, the kit builder, well aware of the dangers of unscheduled flying lessons, provided spare brakets on the etch. Bless 'em.

Happy kit building and I'm looking frward to the many Parkside builds waiting for me.

The race train looks just great Jeff.

Best,

Bill

Thanks Bill.

:cheers

I wish Parkside and Cambrian would include a few extras of the small, delicate bits. Things like torpedo vents for the roofs are also easily lost, although i do have spares for them. The Sturgeon A was another case in point; the 28 door bumpers and springs have a habit of flying off too. I had to make a few bits up from plastic card of various thicknesses.

Hi Bill.   Nice bit of info, but , please tell, what kit  manufacturer was that, and what were you building??Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Kevin,

I was fitting emergency braking rods to the Shirescenes etched brass coach ends to fit the Ratio 4 wheelers, as part of my Clifton Downs autocar bash.

Cheers,

Bill

Hi Bill.  Thank you. I have.an RT Models Brass Etch Brake van which has been awaiting my attention for a 12 Month or more .But, with the kit there was an NB instruction “ lightly score the 2 half Etch lines on the inside to make it easier” as this is my first brass Etch. Kit, I want to build it well ( considering my track record with plastic kits)
Best wishes. Kevin

And here's the Beetle again, glazed and with a few coats of paint in BR maroon.

exGWR Beetle - 4 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

exGWR Beetle - 5 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


The Cambrian Sturgeon A has also had coats of grey undercoat and semi-matt black, with more hand-painting to go.

Hi Jeff.   Very good, how many coats of paint did you use on the ex GWR beetle, and do they come with tension lock couplers ? Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Kevin. I used one coat of red oxide undercoat, followed by two coats of BR maroon and one of black for the ends and underframes., which needs an extra coat on the ends only. I also flooded some thinned black into all of the open grilles.

The Beetle only had adapters for the older style tension lock couplings, and no couplings actually supplied. I used Parkside's own NEM fishtail adapters and Bachmann couplings in the NEM pockets. The LNER horse box actually had the NEM adapters included in the kit, but otherwise the same thing applied.

One thing to note, though, is that the Parkside NEM pocket adapters are designed to be used with the Bachmann cranked couplings, a policy I disagree with entirely. I use bits of sheet plastic card to pack the coupling height using standard straight couplings, which means that if I ever require it, I can change to any other fishtail style NEM couplings, such as the Kadee #17 - 20 types later on.

Thank you Jeff . It is the painting job that puts me off, but I must give my “ own scratch built wagon/ bodge” using the Hornby chassis to take the Lanarkshire model Supplies Track Cleaner , after the original Brake van smashed to smithereens when it fell off the bench. I think BR Engineering livery for the body and Matt black for the chassis.Best wishes. Kevin