I expended a little bit of energy tonight and fitted the side frames to the motor bogies on the 455/9 unit. Like the previous 455/8 and 319/1 units I built, the side frames had to lose 1mm from their wheelbases to match up with the Replica motorised chassis I used for each of them. The chassis bogies have clip in side frames that are blank, and also act as a good, solid backing for the kit side frames after they have been cut and rejoined. I usually cut either side of the central bolster/air bag moulding and rejoin the 'arms' with the axleboxes and springs to the central unit after a small amount of filing - the cuts themselves lose almost enough material, but need just a little more taken off.

After that, I filed the backing plates to match the profile of the kit side frames, then press-fitted them back onto the relevant bogies.

A quick test (still on address 3 until I get the vinyls with the unit and coach numbers on), and all is well with it. I'll have to note on the motor coach (MSO) base which way is 'forwards', for future reference when forming the unit up.

A photo of what I was talking about in yesterday's post.


Power Bogie Frames Adapted and Fitted cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

After concentrating on the railway layout for the last few years, my model bus building activities have been a bit slow. There are a good many half completed projects on the workbench at present.

There isn't a "happy ending" to this … I have just been adding three more buses to the list of unfinished projects on the go!! 

     

First up is an LBC early Bristol RELL/ECW, going into Tilling red and cream, most probably as a Thames Valley vehicle. This was only a first coat of red, acting as a base coat.

There are two Southdown vehicles currently drying in the spray booth (actually an old microwave oven with the cord cut off): both are LBC kits, and both have had a coat of a 'generic' pale green in preparation for painting in Southdown colours, a Duple Coronation Ambassador coach, and a Leyland PD12 East Lancs double decker. As the paint is still wet on these latter two vehicles, photos will have to follow later.

The figures visible in the background are from Hatton's, intended as locomotive crews for their Andrew Barclay industrial locomotives, and are stuck to a lolly stick ready for painting - the plastic is naturally red!


LBC Early Bristol RELL ECW - 1 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

And the two Southdown vehicles: Duple Coronation Ambassador coach on a Leyland Royal Tiger chassis, and Leyland PD12 with East Lancs bodywork.


Duple Coronation Ambassador and Leyland PD12 East Lancs - 2 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


Duple Coronation Ambassador and Leyland PD12 East Lancs - 1 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Jeff.  One could be excused for thinking that you were a bit of a “ rivet counter “? Personally I don’t know the difference between a “ Dean Bogie “ and a “ Bulleid Bogie “ I am sorry to say.  So much for my ambitions, for building an accurate railway or part thereof.   Best wishes. Kevin

I don't consider myself a rivet counter, Kevin, as I prefer to go for overall atmosphere rather than total accuracy. 

Even so, there are accurate models on my layout, and also some that are representations only: the pretend London Transport Dreadnought coaches are a case in point, being actually Graham Farish non-gangwayed 'generic' coaches.

The shortened wheelbase on the motor bogie sideframes for the class 455 is another compromise I am quite happy to accept in the interests of having a decent running model rather than a 100% accurate static model only suitable for the display shelf.

Those Hatton's crew figures are perfect for many other locomotive uses, not just the ones Hatton's say in their description. :)

:cheers

Hi Jeff.  Personally speaking I don’t go for “Crews in Cabs “ , train drivers don’t have blank faces and a permanent pose , unlike the passengers.  Best wishes.  Kevin

True, but on the other hand, locos with very open cabs look a bit bare (understaffed?) without some suitable figures in the cabs.Modern tank locos with fully enclosed cabs are very low on my priorities to crew, but things like the T9, C or 700s, for example, really need something to look more like working locomotives. The open-cabbed Andrew Barclays also fall into this category for me.

I made an effort for the SECR C 0-6-0 to get a suitably bewhiskered crew with clothing to match the early 1900s period. It can be a bit of fun painting these up, too.
 :cheers

Hi Jeff.   Thank you.  But for the “ Older Novice “ like myself, I have a Hornby Terrier and a couple of ex Dapol L& Y Pugs that need hard wire Decoders, that could crowd the cab? and I keep making excuses that prevents me doing them, buying a Loco , and having a Professional do the job is an easy way out though, depending on the postman delivering the Loco when I am at home is another excuse? Meantime nothing gets done.Best wishes. Kevin

Kevin, re Terrier & fitting decoders -
http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=3832&forum_id=52&highlight=terrier#p62161

Hi Ron. Thank you for your reply. As I wrote, I am full of excuses, and Max did a terrific job on your Terrier.It is the Hornby “ chassis “ pick ups, I have read so much about, and put a lot of thought into the prospect of taking on such a job. A “ blow by blow” description is fine but drawings could be better? There’s another excuse.The Decoder , you that Max used is that all in one with the sound? and then there is the speaker to consider, the Hornby way of doing DCC is really awful , almost destroying the Loco.   Best wishes. Kevin

Kevin, my earlier two Terrier DCC conversions had the decoder sitting vertically in the cab; the crews hid the decoders nicely from view. For the last Terrier I got more inventive, and managed to mount the decoder horizontally on top of the motor, making it a much neater conversion. All three used TCS Z2 decoders.

I had two parcels in the mail today, when I got home from work. One was from Kernow Model Railways and contained my second Wickham trolley from Bachmann. The DCC conversion will await a time I can do it in daylight.

The other parcel was from Hatton's and contained my two Andrew Barclay locos. Before DCC fitting, I ran them on DC analogue on the rolling road … together! The photos show them both running in under power - the blurred wheels and motion demonstrate this.


Hattons Andrew Barclays on Rolling Road - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


Hattons Andrew Barclays on Rolling Road - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


After this, I fitted the CT Elektronik DCX75 decoders I had freed up for them, and tested them again. Both ran very smoothly and controllably.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. The Decoder you mentioned is that the one with the “ Goof Proof Guarantee?” .You mentioned , when you got home from work, I have been retired for a long time now, but I am not sitting indoors awaiting the Postie, who arrives anytime between 10.00 and 19.30, and you can bet your bottom dollar, that as soon as I go out the post arrives. Speaking of Kernow , the DJ Models 1361 Black BR Loco that arrived out of the blue,
Has got its critics , something to do with “ splashers “ but that don’t worry me too much.  Best wishes. Kevin

Yes, I still work full-time in a high school, with over two years to go before I retire.
All TCS decoders have the 'goof-proof' warranty, but they sre getting harder to find at reasonable prices now.

Those 1361s do look good. The Kernow one looks better made than the Heljan one, but has the spurious splashers when they shouldn't be present at all. Like you, I could easily live with the inaccuracy with the knowledge I have a good looking, well-finished, and smooth running model.

Yesterday (Saturday), I fitted YouChoos sound into one of my Bachmann E4 0-6-2 tanks. There is a bit of a saga attached to this: I started by consulting with John from YouChoos as to the best decoder choice, and we decided that a Zimo MX648 with harness and 6-pin connector would be the way to go, with the proviso that it still may not fit the available space with the decoder socket and PCB in place. I found that while the decoder would just shoehorn in below the socket, there was no room for a speaker doing it that way. I had in mind fitting the speaker at the front in the smokebox, so had bought an extra sugar cube speaker with a rounded top at the same time. I had already drilled out the chimney to allow sound to come out that way. After juggling things and even removing the rather bulky chokes to give more space below the decoder socket, I eventually pulled the PCB and socket out, cut and ground the mounting spigot off of the chassis to give a flatter area, cut the 6-pin plug off and trimmed the harness back to allow hard-wiring to take place. I found that I could fit the decoder flat at the bottom, with the curved top speaker on top of that, and it would *just* squeeze in to the boiler of the E4. I added a layer of Kapton tape to ensure no short-circuits would occur from that source.

I always test these installations on the programming track with my NCE Power Cab at every stage: having tested the decoder with the speaker loosely perched on the chassis and found all was well, I then squeezed it all into the body, but left the body loose and tested again. Once again, all was well. I added the body screws, and carefully sat it all down properly, then retested on the programming track. This time it was a failure, with the Power Cab reporting a dead short and cutting the power to the track.

Off came the body again, to discover that I had done the same thing as happened to one of the Pecketts, that is I had managed to trap and sever a wire - perhaps 'guillotined' would be a better word to describe it! So it was out with the soldering iron and heat-shrink tubing again to repair the damaged wire, then tuck everything much more carefully out of the way. I used a few lumps of black mastic to secure the decoder to the chassis, and the speaker to the decoder, plus a few of the wires to tidy them out of the way, and I went through the testing processes again, this time culminating in the body being secured to the chassis and the sound and motion working perfectly. 

The volume from this small speaker was actually too loud for my ears, so I duly turned it down a bit, and was happy with that. I had considered putting the speaker in the cab but that would have involved flying leads and possibly a way of separating the speaker from the decoder using 2-pin connectors; I think the way I have done it is neater and completely self-contained.

Anyway, being pleased with myself, I took it to my friend Doug's place to show it off. It acquitted itself well on Doug's layout too, until I caught it with my sleeve and sent it crashing to the wooden floor. Electrically it survived well, but the unexpected meeting with the floor cracked the chimney off, and sent the dome flying (no damage to the latter, it just clipped back in), dislodged the crew fro the cab, bent the whistle, and dislodged and bent the handrail along the left-hand side of the boiler. Fortunately all buffers, lamp irons and couplings remained undamaged. I have repaired most of the damage, although there is still a crack evident at the base of the chimney and 579 now sports a Markits' LSWR whistle. I also discovered that the left-hand cabside handrails had gone missing so replaced them with some brass wire, which had only had a single coat of black paint at the time of the photo, hence the scrappy appearance. 

She doesn't look to bad on the SECR birdcage stock, and sounds really good now. I'll try to post a video of 579 in action in the near future.


​Bachmann LBSC E4 - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Hi Jeff. Very good . Keep up the good work. have you got a Terrier that you have “ Hard Wired either with or without sound”. As it looks like I am going to have to DIY my Terrier, or even one of the Pugs ? I could do with some ( nay a lot ) of advice. I have purchased a Decoder from Digitrains already, but, as a “ hard wire virgin “ I am aware of disasters, especially like knocking one off the workbench is concerned.Best wishes. Kevin

Hi Kevin. Hard-wiring is not actually difficult; it's the fitting of everything back into very confined spaces that is the difficult bit.

There's not a lot of spare room in the Dapol/Hornby Terriers, but I fitted TCS Z2 decoders into all three of mine. Two were threaded through a slot cut under the firebox door in the cab, the third was much neater and had the decoder mounted on a piece of thin plastic card on top of the motor.

If I was to do them again, I would try out the absolutely tiny CT Elektronik DCX76 decoders, which would easily fit on top of the motors - again, one would have to put a strip of plastic there to prevent the decoder dropping into the motor's works.

There are modellers who have fitted sound into their Terriers, but it would be extremely tight. I would guess their speakers would have to be on the cab floor.

The E4 is somewhat larger but still doesn't have much free space. It does have a lot of weight filling most of the potentially free space. Even the rear coal bunker doesn't have much room under the plastic coal load, although it may have been possible to get a small sugar cube in there if my ideas hadn't worked.

Hi Jeff.    Thank you. I had best try one of my “0-4-0 fits all” chassis Pugs first.    Best wishes. Kevin

On RMweb, a young gentleman under the name of TurboSnail has designed and had 3D printed a pseudo Maunsell diesel shunter with an 0-4-0 configuration. The body and chassis are available from Shapeways at what I think are quite reasonable prices, and I have a lot of the detailing bits required to complete it, including spare Hornby 08 wheelsets and axles. While TS has finished his in Southern Railway black with Bulleid 'sunshine' style lettering, I decided mine will join my industrial fleet in a fictional blue colour scheme.

Anyway, here's some progress on mine, mostly told by the photos. Apologies that some were taken in poor lighting conditions. The photos do show some rough areas in my workmanship I need to correct, including one of the side doors on one side being taller than the rest. The photos also show some of my livery experiments. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the red trim along the footplate sides; I have already changed from red buffer beams to yellow, which brightens up the image considerably. The initial blue was BR express steam blue, which seemed a little dark for the effect I wanted, so I have gone for a lighter blue from the Humbrol standard colour range.

For the cab roof, I am thinking in terms of a bit of sheet brass curved down at the edges.

Buffers are Bachmann's oval sprung ones, but I am also considering swapping them for some larger diameter round ones.

I have followed most of TS's recommendations for the motors and gears and bits and pieces. I already have handrails and whistles and other bits and bobs in my workbench stocks. One thing I have found, though, is the Scale Link axle gear with its shoulders is just a teensy bit too wide for the chassis to allow the Hornby axle bearings to sit in properly - we're talking probably 0.5 mm here. I will be removing the gear and grinding a little off each side of its shoulders, and that should fix the problem.

Anyway, see what you think of my efforts so far. 


IMG_20180514_204352 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180514_204405 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180514_204451 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180514_204534 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180516_182214 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180516_182230 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180519_100554 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180519_100609 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr


IMG_20180519_100623 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr