big jim

yeah, im going to use glue and glaze on them, next job is the roof though anyone know of a producer of a bracknell wills pantograph, i think hurst used to do them, wonder if anyone does a 3D printed one?

they have a lip on them, just noticed though the long window on one side is a touch wonky though!

Fired up the airbrush earlier, took me a while to clean as last time I used it I forgot to properly strip it and clean out so it was gunged up Gave Mentor a first top coat of Phoenix network rail yellow which has gone on very nicely even over the grey primer, will need another coat but that can wait until after the weekend to give this coat plently of time to go off

Some from last night, calibration runs with the SGT between stoke and Macclesfield It does 3 runs st 3 different speeds to calibrate the equipment, it actually only records between Longport and kidsgrove but you need to go to Macclesfield to crossover and return The reason they choose kidsgrove as a calibration area is in a short distance you have OHLE structures, a tunnel, a cutting a with limited clearance bridge, junction, station platforms and falling and rising gradients, all in less than a mile! Trip 1 Stoke on the up Macclesfield Trip 2 Stoke on the down Trip 3 back on the up, had a result here, vending machine on the platform, put £2 to get a bottle of coke and it vended it and gave me £2:35 change, best part of the night!! Final run, back to Macclesfield Then back to derby And away for the night It was an unusual formation last night, one for mick, DBSO, sgt1, UTU, sgt2 as we were calibrating both trains at once. the unusual formation was because there are no through power jumpers on the ends of the SGT coaches so the UTU coach was providing electrical power to both of the SGTs and as my DBSO also needs electrical power to actually move I had the generator running in there to provide me with power, basically electrically I was independent of the rest of the train (apart from the power jumper to the loco)

i think the interior now bears very little resemblance to how it originally looked, the biggest change being the fitting of a generator which takes up a fair bit of space the roof window seats are accessed by steps from the vestibule and are quite 'laid back', extremely comfortable and watching the wires is very relaxing as ive done a couple of times while travelling in the coach on bit of jobs where im travelling passenger and having a break away from the loco anyway, got some etch primer, tetrosyl, from a local motor factors and gave the coach a light coat, went on lovely, will have to have a look at the roof window etches again as when i reglued them after rubbing down the plasticard ive not done a good job of getting them straight! couple of places to add a bit more squadron putty to on the roof now the primer has shown up any imperfections

Nowt much happening, been training a driver on 37s in Derby and in tonight on the SGT doing calibration runs so I may get some pics later, not really been in the mood for pics this week to be honest

I'd have to post them from the dole queue if I did that!! It wasn't in the yard yesterday when I got there unfortunately so no more prototype pics to be had

A bit more done, when I revisited Mentor earlier I realised I'd put a number of the windows in the wrong way round (there is an inside and outside to them) luckily is only used glue and glaze so they were easy enough to remove, clean the recess' and reglue the frames in with superglue this time I wanted to get them in without touching the glue or getting any on the body sides so this is what I did.... Frame ready to fit Stick it to low tack masking tape Glue the rear And position with the tape And repeat until all windows are in Then I glued on the fiddly door hinges And Sorted! Also added the fire pull handle surrounds to the genny end of the coach I gave it a quick coat of primer by brush to see how it looked but it went on poorly so I took it off again, wasn't until afterwards I remembered I'd need etch primer to go straight onto the cleaned/buffed up metal sides, unfortunately the thinners I used to remove the primer have reacted with the plasticard and Hornby roof a bit so I'll have to rub them down with wet and dry to get a smooth surface again, not a major issue but something I'll need to do before retrying the primer, I think I'll also get the airbrush up and running for that now the weather is warmer as I 'should' get a better finish

very carefully! not really thought that far ahead but as i have extra window etches on sprues i can use those as templates and cut something like blister packs to suit and attach them with glue and glaze the real thing has tinted windows, i do have some tinted window film but if i fit that then i wont see the interior if i decide to detail it

mentor is looking good, this has been one build ive really enjoyed doing, only a couple of evenings work to get to the stage shown below and an absolute pleasure to build this is how i clamped the sides while the glue set, left it overnight and it is solid! scraped, cut and rubbed the detail off the ends cleaned off glue residue from around the window holes etc marked up and curved the end panels and glued them in place back to the roof, filled in gaps with squadron putty and cut the remaining roof area at an angle for the observation window and fitted up superglued those in place and again squadron putty in gaps also filled in the edges between the etches and when set rubbed them back it was then onto someohe finer detail bits of the etch, shane says he had trouble with some of these parts not being produced correctly with no fold scores but i managed to do something with them generator intake fuel tank this one i did struggle with though body on the chassis end gangway spot glued in place, will be removed to paint the coach few more its to add, these make up fire pull handles,hinges, door handles and fuel tank gauges then last job, window frames (on one side) secured in place with glue and glaze the big bit is going to be the roof areas, luckily as well as prototype pics i have the real thing to use as refrence in work this week! im going to have a nose inside tomorrow with a view to getting the floorplan as i am feeling like detailing this inside with lights etc, i have a spare lightbar from a Hornby mk2 that is ideal for the job one final question, my model has the wrong bogies, do Hornby do suitable ones on any coaches in their range?

Pair of fastline 66s ready to depart ironbridge power station Next up an ex works loco on test

Did the rolling pin trick earlier, worked a charm, didn't get any pics as my wife was giving me dirty looks at the time for rummaging through her baking cupboard!!

i was going to message you about curving the sides, whats a nice easy method of doing it (ie free with bits i may have in the house!)

Almost finished 37254, silver to add to kick plates, new horns, buffer head and pipes on one end and finished So with that out of the way I made a start on the next project, this one has leapfrogged the TRU as it's a relatively simple job compared to that Start off with a Hornby railroad MK1 bsk and hack it to pieces (never thought to get pics until this stage) Mark out the roof And cut most of it away too Then add some plasticard instead [/url Same on the other end Thanks to wolf27 I have a lovely set of etched sides that I will glue to the coach sides to produce test coach Mentor in its current highly modified guise Test fit And on its chassis I'm thinking of using 2 pack type epoxy to secure the etched sides to the plastic body shell clamping them tight with crocodile clips while it sets unless anyone can think of something else to use (glue wise) there are also etched ends to add too Chassis wise there are extra boxed to add, plastic bits of the Hornby chassis to remove etc then source things like the pantograph, insulators etc, the remaining roof needs cutting back ever so slightly to put the etched 'viewing window' at an angle but that's a simple job with a micro file Quite pleased with how far I got tonight with it, may have a bit more time tomorrow to do a bit more or I may decal up my NMT coaches (although 2 still need the laserglaze adding)

Nothing layout wise tonight but I did a bit to clear my work bench a bit Practically finished 37254, added the numbers and logos that I got from railtec, stupidly forgot to ask for nose end numbers though! This is basically 37421 with old style nose grilles added at both ends and replacement headcode box panels,wire nose handrails, minimal touching up paint job and etched Cardiff canton shed and nameplates added, also added a modelu 'little willy' driver looking back along his train And as I broke one of the lamp brackets off I have glued a Dapol tail lamp from the freightliner hopper wagons in it's place Just need to source some replacement roof horns and a buffer head for it, add some pipes to the front end, paint the rubbing plates under the door silver and job done The rest of what I've been up to is here.... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/106497-big-jims-workbenchits-all-gone-a-bit-yellow/page-2

Popped down to crewe station to collect man van just as there 2 locos were departing the platform for Basford hall Swify sent me a message last week about them working a train later today, anyway thought nothing of it then I realised they are on the train I'm working in the morning from Llandrindod wells to shrewsbury, will have to remember my camera later and hopefully get some shots of them in Llandrindod station at 03:00!!

Some poses are in hi-viz but the driver ones are mainly in polo shirts so could be backdated if required I suppose but 60s drivers would have been in shirts back then The driver in jonas' 66 above is 'tall paul' he has his right arm at the height of the class 66 centre console so not really suitable but there other poses we did

That 47 looks lovely, hard to believe it's a 'classic' livery now though!

67003 in Crewe by jim scott, on Flickr next up........ an electric loco away from the wires

too easy.... next up, a train with me driving it!

Not screwed it back on yet while I finish it but squeezing it tight doesn't make the lights work Simple solution, have it pushing my DBSO train and stick a portable tail lamp on it!

Some from this morning, IM train Doncaster to derby with 37025 pushing Nice bit of graffiti in the dirt on the 31

a rarely photographed halt, longsight staff halt, i actually picked someone up from it a couple of weeks back one not mentioned yet is penhelig n the cambrian, a lovely little station

far too wet for pics today, was planning on hanging round doncaster station for some pictures but couldnt be bothered in the end, even missed out on fotting an IEP on test 60085 from toton to doncaster toton changing ends in marshgate to run back through platform 1 to the carriage sidings and safely stabled there is a fenced walking route from the staff carpark to the station, had it not been raining id have got some more pics from here with the proper camera as its quite a good viewpoint and safe! and that was that, back in at 04:30 for a pair of 37s back south to derby

now the station side of the layout is coming together nicely im turning my attention back to the yard side, been mulling over the mainline inclines where they split, i was running a few long trains yesterday and watching them coming down the outside incline (the steeper of the two) and as the rear of the train came over the top the coaches/wagons began to push the loco causing the couplings to override each other and either derail the lead bogie or uncouple when the train got on the flat, the sametrain running down the softer incline on the same line to the inner edge of the layout causes no such problems i recon im going to remove the top part of the outer incline and rebuild it at the same level as the inner line to give me a smoother and longer downward grade, should be a simple enough job, just cut back the wood in the corner and replace the trackbed area with the polystyrene risers which i have a load of spare of the same gradient