Chuffnell Regis

[Graham T]

48 minutes ago, Gopher said:

Morning Graham,  exactly the same issue with my Dapol 6 wheeler.  Not much of a solution, but I ended up replacing the centre wheel set with slightly smaller diameter wheels (as recommended by someone on my own thread).  So visually (from a distance) it looks as if all the wheels are in place.  It stopped the derailment, but just have to remember not to take any close up photos😃  

 

Thanks for the suggestion Clive.  It's got me thinking - often a dangerous occurrence - that maybe I'll try switching out the full wheel-set first...

 

[Graham T]

No idea why, but a change of wheel-set seems to have done the trick, fingers crossed.  The offending wagon has also had its underparts (!) daubed with my favourite mix of black and leather brown, as the first stage of the weathering process.  I think it already looks better than the factory applied "weathering", which seems to be nothing more than a waft of brown paint all round.

 

 

One of the CWS tanks was also missing its tank-top platform, so I've cobbled one together from some plastic strip and a bit of checker-plate card.  Next to crack on with painting the beasts.

 

 

 

[John Isherwood]

5 minutes ago, Graham T said:

No idea why, but a change of wheel-set seems to have done the trick, fingers crossed.  The offending wagon has also had its underparts (!) daubed with my favourite mix of black and leather brown, as the first stage of the weathering process.  I think it already looks better than the factory applied "weathering", which seems to be nothing more than a waft of brown paint all round.

 

 

One of the CWS tanks was also missing its tank-top platform, so I've cobbled one together from some plastic strip and a bit of checker-plate card.  Next to crack on with painting the beasts.

 

 

 

 

I seem to recall that, when these Dapol milk tanks were first released, derailments were almost universal.

 

I think that the ultimate conclusion was that the wheel profile did not conform to anything conducive to staying on a rail!

 

CJI.

[Graham T]

I experimented with a variety from the spares box - no idea where they're originally from - and eventually came up lucky 🙂

 

[Graham T]

The terrible trio of tanks has now been painted and weathered.  A mix of black and a touch of leather brown for the chassis, and then the same mix used on the tanks, but as a number of washes of varying intensity.  Those were blended together with either cotton buds or a wet brush.  From what I've been able to gather, milk tankers tended to get pretty grotty, so these have been treated accordingly (although I've probably got that completely wrong and overdone it).  I also gave the axleboxes and so on a dilute wash of frame dirt, then picked out the ends of the brake levers with white, and the buffer shanks with oily steel.

 

[Graham T]

And a closer look at the weathering.  The wagons look a bit clunky like this, but not so bad from normal viewing distance (better still that they now stay on the rails too).

 

[Graham T]

Back to black at Chuffnell R, at least briefly.  I’ve spent the last couple of days sorting out the Ivatt 4MT with a sound decoder.  I got this loco second-hand a while ago, and she needed a bit of TLC.  Starting with the easy stuff, I repainted the backhead, added some real coal in the tender, and screw link couplings.  The front vac pipe had gone so that was replaced with a brass one. 

 

Then I removed the 8-pin decoder and the PCB socket, so was just left with four wires – and not much spare length to mess about with.  Red and black, as you’d expect, but then an orange and a green rather than a grey – I guessed that green equals grey and it worked…

 

I also had to remove the cast mounting studs for the socket with a razor saw, to make some more room in the smokebox.  Then I really started to take my soldering “skills” to the limit.  Removed all the wires from the Zimo MS480, then attached the four wires from the loco, plus the speaker and stay alive.  So far so good.  A quick test and the loco ran ok and made suitable chuff-chuff noises, albeit a bit quiet.  It was also going backwards when it should have been going forwards, so a quick tweak of CV29 was required.  While I was at it adjusting CV266 also gave the little speaker a bit more oomph.

 

I’ve also replaced one of the front steps, and have tried to sort out the snakes’ wedding of pipework under the right hand side of the cab.  Very nice details provided by Bachmann, but a casting might have been better, or else use a more flexible plastic – this one is fairly brittle and was in a bit of a mess when I got the loco.  A previous owner had clearly tried to do some repairs…

 

Getting everything back inside the loco was also a challenge!  I’d hoped to be able to get the stay-alive in the boiler, and then the speaker and decoder in the smokebox, but ‘twas not to be.  After a lot of firtling and fettling, which included detaching and re-attaching the speaker to reduce the amount of excess wire, I was eventually able to barely squeeze the stay-alive and decoder into the boiler (I had to remove the shrink wrap sleeve from the decoder and replace it with kapton tape – every millimetre counted!)

 

And so now she runs again, complete with noise.  There’s still a bit of cosmetic work to do.  I need to add the loco brake rodding, a smokebox dart, a fall plate, and some cab doors (the original model has them I believe, but mine didn’t come with any).

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Graham T

[John Isherwood]

17 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

 

A coat of Klear, inside and out, will greatly improve that cracked cab window.

 

CJI.

[Graham T]

2 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

A coat of Klear, inside and out, will greatly improve that cracked cab window.

 

CJI.

That’s actually some of the pipework on the backhead that you can see!

 

[John Isherwood]

1 minute ago, Graham T said:

That’s actually some of the pipework on the backhead that you can see!

 

 

Oops - so it is; aging eyes!

 

CJI.

[Harlequin]

4 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Oops - so it is; aging eyes!

 

CJI.

Still a good tip, though!

😊

[Graham T]

10 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Still a good tip, though!

😊

 

Phil, I just wanted to check that you'd seen my latest PM ref CR Mk II?

 

[Harlequin]

4 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

Phil, I just wanted to check that you'd seen my latest PM ref CR Mk II?

 

Hi Graham,

 

Yes, sorry, I'm concentrating on other things at the moment and you've asked a very difficult question! I'll get back to you when I can.

 

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

Hi Graham,

 

Yes, sorry, I'm concentrating on other things at the moment and you've asked a very difficult question! I'll get back to you when I can.

 

 

Thanks Phil, there's no hurry at all, obviously.  Sorry it's a tricky question, but then you'd expect nothing less from me, surely?!  😀

 

[Graham T]

When I do build Chuffnell Regis Mk II the plan is to paint my own backscene, and so I've just ordered a copy of this:

 

 

Like many I'm guilty of supporting Jeff Bezos' evil empire far more than I should, but I balked at the prices Amazon UK wanted for this book (over £110 for a used version).  A quick online search turned up a new copy direct from the publisher for £15!

 

Edited August 6, 2023 by Graham T

[gwrrob]

The author @PJBambrick is a member.

[Graham T]

27 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

The author @PJBambrick is a member.

 

Ah, I didn't know that Robin - thanks!

 

[Graham T]

All the cosmetics are now done, just need to wait a little while before I can paint the new details.  Then she'll be ready for the layout.  This loco is really a bit modern for Chuffnell R, but I do like the powerful look that they have, and so Rule 1 comes into play yet again!  It might be interesting to get an Ivatt 2MT some time, just to see how they look next to each other...

 

 

 

[Rowsley17D]

Going over to the dark/black side again, Graham?

[Graham T]

23 minutes ago, Rowsley17D said:

Going over to the dark/black side again, Graham?

 

Trying to resist Jonathan, but I do have a soft spot for black locos as I think you know.  But the Great Western still has the upper hand at Chuffnell Regis - I have 14 green locos (well, one of them is a diesel railcar), and only 8 black ones!

 

[Graham T]

And here she is completed, apart from adding the crew.  I don't know what the lever is that runs from the cab alongside the firebox, but I suspect that it should be straight?  Not the most beautiful of locomotives perhaps, but she looks pretty purposeful I think!

 

[Rowsley17D]

It's the reversing lever, Graham

[Graham T]

58 minutes ago, Rowsley17D said:

It's the reversing lever, Graham

Isn't that the lever running just above the footplate?

 

[31A]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

I don't know what the lever is that runs from the cab alongside the firebox, but I suspect that it should be straight? 

Regulator rod.  Maybe replace it with a bit of wire?

[Graham T]

Thanks - I'll fix it one way or another.