I decided that I should separate some of the things I have been doing into layout related and work bench related. Up until now I have tended to be lazy and put everything in my layout thread. To kick things off, in the Queens Birthday thread I mentioned building two Cambrian Kits SECR brake vans. Here are a couple of pics to show progress.

Also shown at left in the pics are two earlier builds of a Cambrian Kit for a standard SR style brake van - the kit allows for three major variants and I built two of them. Far left is a LH ducket even-planked version (awaiting handrails to be fitted) while next on the right is a RH ducket uneven planked version which is a rare item on my layout as it is complete! Next is the ballast brake conversion of the SECR "Dance Hall" brake van (all the parts are in the kit) and closest to the camera is the standard build of the SECR "Dance Hall" brake van. These two have only received their first coat of paint and have no glazing or handrails as yet.

Hi Jeff

Your Cambrian Kits look good, did you have any problem with them at the building stage, did all the parts fit well, and did the instructions fully explain how to build them, I only ask because Peter built a couple of Cambrian kits, and found them hard to put to-gether.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as an SECR "Dance Hall" brake van!
Learning something new every day is good for you they say.
Always nice to see what other members are working on.
Nice one Jeff.

In answer to Alan's question, I found the instructions to be very helpful, including for the conversion to ballast brake van, and all the parts fitted very nicely together with only minimal filing of flash or moulding marks. The SECR vans have the newer, modified roof profile as there were a couple of mildly adverse comments about the original kit release roof being too deep and not quite to the right profile.

They were nicknamed "Dance Halls" because of the very large enclosed area. They also had reputation for being rather cold in Winter because of the huge area the stove had to try to heat. That was the reason the SR design went for a much smaller body on the long wheelbase chassis. The left-handed duckets were also a design faux pas. as they meant the guard got trapped in that area if someone opened the door off the verandah into the body. Changing the design to right-handed duckets meant the door opened away from the ducket area. In spite of this, some of the LH ducket versions survived for a very long time, certainly into the 1990s in departmental service, possibly even longer.

 

I should add that building the two SECR design vans took me around 4 hours, including cutting and filing out the extra windows for the bbv variant (the windows are marked out clearly on the backs of the side mouldings.

I like 'em. And the turntable :thumbs
 Is that the Ratio SR concrete shed?

 Mike

nice builds,i too like the turntable best one i have seen.

:doublethumb:cool:

They look good Jeff and it's great to see some Southern/SECR stuff on here. Put some more up any time you want.:thumbs

Les

The turntable is standard Fleischmann with the "glasshouse" removed from the other end of the table.

The SR concrete hut is indeed the Ratio one - good guessing there!

Like them and also the turntable.

Forgot about this layout and how good it was, have to revisit to refresh my memory.

Phill

 

 Very nice Jeff, and loads of detail too:doublethumb

I like the dance hall wagons Jeff i will have to get a couple of them.

Mind you i have quite a few wagon kits as yet untouched so they will only go on the pile at this stage.

And the fliechmann turntable looks very good aswell

cheers brian

A few of you who are members of other forums will recognise this post - still, it's worth putting on here as well as it may help someone somewhere.

I have been plagued to distraction by a Hornby rebuilt West Country that developed quite a jerky motion and a click every time it paused. I should add that it started off being very smooth but developed the problem later (out of warranty!).

I tried various tweaks before completely dismantling it a few days ago. I checked the wheel quartering, the valve gear, the crossheads and cylinder slidebars, checked the gears for burrs or splits (none found) then ran the chassis without the motor by pushing it back and forth over a fair distance, and it was as smooth as silk.

Ran the motor on its own and it also was as smooth as silk with no wobbles or throwout on the worm or shafts.

Put it back together and it ran like a dog again.

I though that maybe the worm was catching on a projection inside the gear tower capping, so lightly milled that to get rid of any burrs or flash. No difference!

Over the next few days I tried slackening of various screws holding the motor and the gear tower and that did improve things a bit, especially with the body off.

Today I had an inspiration. I cut a small sliver of 20 thou plasticard and stuck it beneath the motor front bearing as a shim, using a small blob of black-tac (Homelux Bath Sealant) to keep it in position until I screwed everything down properly. Screwed the motor back down and then the gear tower capping, and it has now been running beautifully smoothly for the last hour or so, albeit still with small grinding and clicking noises.

Now, after all of that, I have to find all the missing bits of pipework off the back of the cab area, and glue at least two of the lubricators that I dislodged back on. I can also now think about gluing the brake rigging on. I might lightly glue the speedo drive back into the running plate too, since that is now quite loose from all the "offing" and "onning" of the body!

I can finally feel a bit pleased with myself as this problem really was annoying me.

If anyone else has had a similar problem, maybe this will help. I hope so, anyway. Incidentally, I tried the various cures both with and without a DCC decoder installed, on DC and DCC.

Good to hear you have more or less cured the problem Jeff but are you quite sure that it isn't the chain drive playing up in the oil bath again :questionmutley

This one was a rebuilt version - no chains!!!! :cool wink  :cool wink

I did over-oil it a bit though!

:hmm

My latest projects involved buying some of the bargain Hornby models from Hattons. I bought two of the DCC-fitted class 153 units in First North Western blue livery, and some Electra Railwy Graphics vinyl overlays for them, to convert the liveries to some of the Wessex Trains Mural styles; one light blue the other a reddish pink base colour scheme. I did the first one and modified the paint schemes on the roof and ends to suit before applying the sides, with some assistance from a hair dryer. Pictures of the before and after will follow soon.

The other Hornby items I bought were two class 73s in Dutch livery - I have swapped the bodies for some of my older, cherished Lima ones in earlier liveries (two variations on BR blue) - and a class 121 "Bubble Car" DMU, which has now swapped chassis, with slight modifications, with my Craftsman conversion of a Swindon class 120 cross-country DMU (I thought the "Swindon" might get Jeff Gwent Rail in!!). I fitted decoders at the same time as swapping the bodies.

The Hornby chassis work so much better with DCC than the older Lima mechanisms and they are easier to convert (plug 'n' play!!).

I still have another set of vinyl overlays to do at the same time as hard-wiring a class 158 Sprinter DMU. These are also for Wessex Trains "Richard Trevithic" unit with murals and other graphics on the sides.

Finally, I won a class 158 two-car unit from Rails on eBay, at a good price; this one is in the livery of … wait for it … Wessex Trains, Alphaline version. Once I fit Kaydees to the ends of all of the units I can run them in multiple in various combinations. The only thing is, I won't have a layout to run them on for a while.

here are the photos of the Hornby class 153 as promised above. The First North Western one at the back shows the model straight out of the box. The front one has the new Electra Graphics vinyls applied plus some paint touches; mainly black on the driving ends around the front foot steps and light clusters and below the corridor connection level (solebar level?). The grey of the roof had to be extended down to the cant rail gutter level on this particular livery, as FNW apply their blue and gold above that line. The orange safety line was painted over as the new vinyls have this on anyway.

 

Incidentally, the instructions with the sides suggest for most liveries that BR Falcon Grey is a good match for the roof colour; for this particular livery I found that Humbrol 66 was a near perfect match - I have not repainted the centre section of the roof at all.

 



 



 



 

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

…………The only thing is, I won't have a layout to run them on for a while.

OK, Jeff, explain that last sentence please !!

I have mentioned this before, somewhere: I will be dismantling the main part of the layout because SWMBO has decided that the rumpus room (read train room!) and the sitting room are going to change places. The existing sitting room is smaller but a much more practical room as afar as plain walls and door placements go. The intention is to build a new layout that I don't have to crawl under to get at the controls.

In the interim, I want to build a very simple fiddle yard to attach to the Middlehurst branch so I can play trains and keep the inspiration going until the new layout is under way. The branch would effectively become a terminus to fiddle yard layout based on a single track exit, with the existing double track second line becoming an extra headshunt. All of this would be temporary as the branch is actually the oldest part of the whole layout and a few bits of track (mainly points) are showing signs of fatigue … a bit like their owner!!

I now remember that now - fatigue (mental) has struck here as well.

Very interested in this as I also got a batch of vinyls.  So far I had only done the Class 158 and was disapointed as they simply did not fit very well.  As a result I lost interest and never got around to even touching the Class 153!