Banbury in N scale - A great time at the Abingdon in March 2024

[Jon Gwinnett]

Looking good

[George Leacon]

I came across this model tonight for the first time. You've done a truly excellent job with it: it is instantly recognisable as Banbury and the level of detail is outstanding - I've not seen undertrack orange cable piping been modelled before! Keep it up pal.  

[PaulCheffus]

Last night I managed to spend some time working on the 150.

 

The PH Designs etched window infills fit superbly well. To give them strength I have fitted styrene pieces recessed into the openings. Before they set the etch is positioned and a straight edge put across the body hello surface to make sure that the are flush with the body side.

The window that has been completely blanked off is filled with a piece of styrene rather than the etch.

The door infill was a bit trickier as the door edges are angled so the etch needs chamfering. One edge is pretty good but the other is slightly go proud hence the use of some filler.

I Wi get some paint on the body side thrn have a close look to see if more work is required.

20130713_070622-picsay.jpg

 

Hi

 

How did you do the curves on the bottom of the doors? I tried the plain one and failed miserably so have replaced it with a piece of plasticard but I can't do that for the others. Any tips would be useful.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[roundhouse]

Paul

 

The door blank I didn't use but instead I infilled the original with styrene then applied filler around it.

 

The windows and door grilles I rolled the bottom edge using a screw driver shank on a cutting matt. Need a bit of pressure but eventually they do start to curl then it gets easier.

 

I also filed down the wider edges of these infills. The wider bits of the doors / infills are meant to go into the curvature either side of the recessed moulded door but I found that  superglue and filler was better to fill these gaps but scrape the paint off first. To help get the infill to sit correctly I also used microstrip stuck to the moulded doors, vertically on the straight part and horizontally on the lower curved part..

 

Just a short update on progress on this unit.

I have now brush applied about 4 coats of yellow. The paint is thicker than I would like but think I will get away with it. The grey roof was panted this morning after a couple of mornings masking up the sides to get a uniform straight line. Hopefully tonight (assuming we don't have further problems on the trains home) I will put some gloss varnish locally where the decals go and also make up the cab front cameras out of styrene and wire.

 

Ian

[7APT7]

Hi Ian

 

Great cl150... making good progress, look forward to seeing the finished item, great work all round too...

 

Jamie

[roundhouse]

Thanks Jamie

 

 I didn't realize how long it would take to water Mums plants - she has hundreds of them! I could use the hose pipe outside but inside took two of us quite some time!

 

So last night , I only managed to get some gloss varnish on the areas where the decals will go.

 

Tonight should hopefully see some more progress. I really want this unit finished in time for Midland Railex plus there's plenty of other tasks to work on such as a new set of Chiltern Mainline plug door mk3's to do. They are a little bit out of the era modelled of 2011 but they will make a change to the sets already running on the layout.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

Work on the NR 150 has slowed in the last week as the orange can't rail has been added one side at time then left to dry.

Tonight whilst scanning more negatives from 1987 (mainly signal boxes in the Nottinghamshire coal fields) I managed to fabricate the cab front cameras. Once these have set there are some brackets to be added before painting them.

 

Here is the progress below.

Ian

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

Don't know if it helps at all with some end details and the camera, but i've got a shot of the unit here at Norwich a while ago.

 

 

N-gauge snow ploughs should be fun!

[roundhouse]

Thanks for the photo.

 

I think I have some ploughs from a Dapol unit somewhere otherwise yes they will be fun to fabricate.

Ian

[Gordon D]

Ian,

There should have been some ploughs supplied with the unit, in a accessory bag. http://www.Bachmann.co.uk/service/gf_assmbly.php if you 'click on the 150 service sheet you will see it talks about the ploughs.

 

Or was that a 'returned' / second hand one you got? If so might be worth asking Bachmann / Fraish to see if they can supply them as spares.

 

BR,

Gordon

 

 

I think I have some ploughs from a Dapol unit somewhere otherwise yes they will be fun to fabricate.
Ian

[cornish trains jez]

Work on the NR 150 has slowed in the last week as the orange can't rail has been added one side at time then left to dry.

Tonight whilst scanning more negatives from 1987 (mainly signal boxes in the Nottinghamshire coal fields) I managed to fabricate the cab front cameras. Once these have set there are some brackets to be added before painting them.

 

Here is the progress below.

Ian

 

20130729_211310-picsay.jpg

 

 

That's really starting to come together now Ian. Will you be modelling any of the other Network rail units? Maybe the class 31 with MK2's and the DBSO once Farish release it.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

[roundhouse]

Thanks Gordon

 

Just checked the bags and yes they are in there. Shows how much attention I had paid to those bags!

 

Regards

Ian

[roundhouse]

That's really starting to come together now Ian. Will you be modelling any of the other Network rail units? Maybe the class 31 with MK2's and the DBSO once Farish release it.

 

Best regards,

 

Jeremy

Jeremy

 

Oh yes plenty more NR stuff to between us including all those lovely 3D units on this forum. There's so many things that we can do such as DRS 37's either end of NR yellow coaches that I photographed passing through Banbury a year or so ago. It's just having the time to do them.

 

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

I didn't sleep to well last night so didn't get up quite so early to work on the 150 but did fit one of the brackets made out of some fine brass etch - a Gold Medal stanchion for USA locos handrails. It appears to do the job so will be glued into place tonight and the one for the other cab end made up and fitted.  

 

I also opened up one of the little bags that came with the unit and have now clipped the snow plough into place ready for priming and then a few coats of yellow paint..

 

I hope to get the rest of the decals on in the next few days plus the remainder of the roof details so I can matt varnish before fitting the glazing and putting the bodies back onto the chassis. 

 

The Bachamnn 6 pin decoders arrived today so hopefully they will be fitted tonight into both the dummy and powered chassis. This time i will try not to blow the deocders!!

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

Last night I intended spending the whole evening working on the 150 but the newly arrived Dapol class 22 got attention first. It was run in for an hour after oiling and now runs very nicely, fitted a 6 pin decoder and weathered it.

It will not see much action on Banbury but might have the odd outing.

 

The 150 did receive some attention. The ploughs and dummy coupling were fitted.

The cab front cameras had the brackets fitted and primed.

This morning they got the first coat of yellow.

After checking that the bodies still fitted the chassis I took these photos.

[Removed a/c]

Looks good!! 

[roundhouse]

Thanks

 

No progress on them tonight unfortunately but hope to resume first thing tomorrow morning.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

This morning a added another coat of yellow to the 150's ploughs and camera then started painting the aluminium window frames. The first few went will then I made a bit of a mess up of two of them so decided to stop. Should be able to clean those two windows without reprinting once they have dried by tonight.

 

Once the window frames are done I can add the body side decals and then it will be time for spraying a coat of Matt varnish.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

This morning I managed to add the silver framing to more of the new Windows.

 

It's not perfect but I think that once on the tracks at normal viewing distances no one will see it this close up. I had thought about masking the edges but still think that would leave more imperfections than bring done by a steadyish hand under a magnifier.

[beast66606]

Looking good.

 

I've got a lot of photos of the 150 (including the roof), let me know if you need anything.

[roundhouse]

Thanks, that would be handy.if you have some side on shots as most of the ones I have seen are 3/4 ones so positioning the decals on the sides (or are really close up so you cant work out the relationship with the windows) isn't easy from them.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

PS the roof shots will also be useful as I hope to get the alterations to the roof done over the weekend.

Edited August 2, 2013 by roundhouse

[Removed a/c]

Looks pretty good to me judging by the photos.  

 

 

 

 

Now do you fancy doing one in OO?  :D
 

 

Regards 

Scott 

Edited August 2, 2013 by thebritfarmer

[roundhouse]

Scott

Ones enough for now!

Not much progress on it in the last few days with a busy weekend including helping on a layout at the Tinkers Rail Gala on Sunday. Then a blocked cold water pipe some where between the water tank in the loft and airing cupboard resulting in me Having yo spend some time in the loft. Still not resolved.

However, this morning I did manage to do a little bit of work on the unit.
I had made the mistake to paint a silver frame around the new small windows but on closer inspection it should only be around the top lights so a bit of scraping and then then touching up with yellow paint has now corrected this.
Decals on the sides is next.

Less than two weeks before we take the layout to Midland Railex

Ian

Edited August 5, 2013 by roundhouse

[shreives]

Hi ian your work on the 150 Is exceptional. I am hoping to get out and see Banbury again I could only get away for 5 minutes at tonbridge but what I saw was outstanding.

Stuart

[roundhouse]

Stuart

 

Thanks for your comments.

 

Our next show South east of London  will be the Seaford show in October 2013 if that is  in your area of travel.

 

Regards

 

Ian