SRman

It is a pity they have gone. It has been winding down for quite a long time, but the final crunch has come. Dave Cleal was always extremely helpful to me, and had a great range of useful bits and bobs.

And here it is in service. I have painted the pantograph a light grey to match the photos of the real one. It sits a little higher than it should, but I can't do much about that. Maybe later when I can get some supplies of smaller plastic sections I can redo the major parts of the support framework and lower it a little. For now, it looks the part. Once gain, this is a blended photo with two different focal lengths because of dim lighting , which is not conducive to good depth of field. At a later stage I will be fitting working head and tail lights to the driving trailers.

After a very hot Melbourne day, last night's sunset at Brighton Beach. We were out with DougN, Mrs DougN, and the two smaller DougNs (Master and Miss), and enjoyed some fish and chips plus a dip in the cool waters of Port Phillip Bay. IMAG0574 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr IMAG0576 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Edited 01/08/2018 to replace the photos previously on Photobucket.

Some minor additions to the "wiring" in the pantograph well. There should be more of it, but even the bits I have done are not entirely clear in the photos I have. I know one of my runs has no obvious purpose, but I could say the same about what I can make out in the photo of the real one. What I have done is tried to get something that looks representative, rather than being slavishly accurate (beyond my skills!).

Yes, we spent part of yesterday evening at Brighton Beach (Melbourne) eating fish and chips with DougN, Mrs DougN, and the two young DougNs (Master and Miss), watching the sunset as it cooled off marginally. Still an uncomfortable night and not good railway modelling weather.

Personally, I find the Warships to be ugly, but the Bachmann models are very good and capture their character well. Modelling the Southern Region as I do, I had to have one Warship myself. I also have two Westerns,for which I have no excuse, except to say I think they are the most attractive diesel ever. Ironically, there was an original styling proposal for the Warships that would have seen them more closely resembling the Westerns.

The Q23 and Q27 stocks weren't really flush glazed, but they weren't as deeply recessed as my models have ended up. Still, the result is not too bad. Once I put transfers on, I'll matt varnish them too. I am trying to glaze the Q38 car now, but am not really happy with the result. I may rip out the moulded glazing again,and just do my own.

The camera is a Panasonic HX-A1M "wearable camera". I use it on an older Bachmann bolster wagon, held in place with Blu-tack, and controlled wirelessly by an app on my (Android) mobile phone. This photo was actually taken on another modeller's layout.

Yet another project which has been sitting on the back-burner for a while is my Bratchell Models class 319. The pantograph, salvaged from a Bachmann class 350/1 being converted to a class 450, should sit on quite a substantial framework. I have a good photograph of the pantograph well, kindly supplied by another modeller, so used that as a guide to make up something resembling it, albeit rather cruder. Some of the plastic sections I have used are not only too big, but also the wrong cross-sections, but I had to use what was available. The insulators are from Somerfeldt. There are still a few finer details to add, but I think I have captured the effect, if not quite super-detailed. And after adding a couple more details and painting: The pantograph is sprung and capable of being used, but on my layout it will only ever be in the down position, because it is all on third rail!

Just a thought, Doug, but if you drop over with the Q6, we can stick it on the rolling road with my Power Cab and measure the current draw.

I received my Collectors Club calendar yesterday.

A job I have been putting off for ages and ages is to glaze the various London Transport Q Stock cars. Part of what slows me down is that I like to paint matt black (or dark grey) into the window rebates. Anyway, I tackled the first two cars of the five car set yesterday, with a Q23 DM and a Q27 Trailer now done. I chose to flush-glaze the windscreens on the DM, and the glue (Krystal Klear) was still wet on the centre screen in the photos - it starts of like a white PVA glue but dries clear. The close-up shows every blemish in the finish on the Q23 car! I had hoped to get hold of some flush glazing for these, but Phil Radley didn't answer my initial query (I believe he has not been well in recent times, so maybe he just forgot). I ended up ordering the wrong glazing, so have had to settle for doing things the hard way. The black rebates help disguise the depth of the glazing.

30584 arrived today, and was quickly tested on the rolling road on DC analogue power. After running for a few minutes, I removed the body and fitted a DCC Concepts direct plug-in decoder, which just fits below the bunker floor. Another quick test on the rolling road showed all was well, so she was allocated number 584, had CVs 3 and 4 altered to values of 25 and 18, then was tested briefly on the running lines. There were no hesitations or problems running light engine. She was then set on the rolling road again for an hour of running in each direction for running-in purposes, then tested on the running lines again with a load of three Hornby coaches and a Bachmann PMV. Once again, there were no problems whatsoever. Currently I have the radial running with a slightly lighter load, with the Bachmann PMV (again) and Hornby's 2-set of ex-LSWR coaches. Running qualities are very smooth and controllable, although it seems just a teeny bit buzzy. That may settle down with further running. I think the hauling power is commensurate with the real Adams radial tanks, or possibly even better.

I suppose I should add installing passengers to the list of things to do!

If this is any help, the unit is so light it has difficulty registering its presence. I kept a heavy finger on mine to press it down on the track while reading and programming, and all worked perfectly. Not pressing down on it gave me a few strange numbers on the readback.

After several soldering sessions over some days, I have been adding lighting strips to each coach in turn of my Underground S Stock train from Bachmann and the LT Museum. I have tried a few different resistances to lower the brightness, which mostly failed to dim them. I also tried a different lighting strip with a slightly warmer colour and lower light output in the third car, but that too wasn't satisfactory. The results are shown in the photos below, with the first showing the car with the warmer lighting (actually a composite shot put together from three photos with different focal points): I had a bit of a session with the soldering iron again today, adding a 470k Ohm resistor to each of the S Stock cars in turn, plus wiring the final driving motor car for the lights. Car #3 has had its warm white lights replaced by cool white to match the remaining five cars. The first photo in this second group shows two of the cars (nos 3 and 4 in the train) for comparison of the before and after; the one on the right has the extra resistor in the line. The other two photos show the entire 6-car train with "tamed" lighting fitted. I am much happier with the result now. This last photo in the dark shows that there is still a bit of light show-through in the car bodies, so a coat of paint along the insides may be in order for the future. I suppose the next job will be to paint the seats, now that the interiors can be seen so clearly, and perhaps tidy up one or two stray wires.

I had a bit of a session with the soldering iron again today, adding a 470 Ohm resistor to each of the S Stock cars in turn, plus wiring the final driving motor car for the lights. The first photo shows two of the cars (nos 3 and 4 in the train) for comparison of the before and after; the one on the right has the extra resistor in the line. The other two photos show the entire 6-car train with "tamed" lighting fitted. I am much happier with the result now. This last photo in the dark shows that there is still a bit of light show-through in the car bodies, so a coat of paint along the insides may be in order for the future. I suppose the next job will be to paint the seats, now that the interiors can be seen so clearly, and perhaps tidy up one or two stray wires.

I don't think a cat would fit in that box!

Beat you to it! Actually, my wife's car.

I have been fitting cool white to my 6-car set (one car left to do, still), although I experimented with a different lighting strip in the third one I did, which has a slightly warmer colour. It doesn't really show in the photos, though. All of the ones I have done are too bright at the moment, so I will be experimenting further with extra resistors in the feeds. Mine are wired directly to the bogie pickups, so remain permanently on on DCC.

I succumbed just before Christmas and ordered the BR early crest version from Rails. I got it for £69.50 minus VAT, but must have got in just in time, because I noted it was £10 dearer in Rails' sales section after Christmas. I was looking to the Hornby model, but when that price came up, I decided I could certainly live with the minor shortcomings of the Oxford model. It's called excellent value for money! It could take a little while to get here to Australia with the holidays and seasonal mail traffic, but I can wait. I was considering getting a sound-fitted radial, but would like to know how good (or bad) the sound is first, and also, echoing tender's post, what manufacturer the sound decoder comes from.

Sorry for the late reply. I use a method suggested elsewhere but cannot remember by whom. It involves drilling a hole through each of the pins on the brake rod mouldings, with just enough clearance for Peco track pins, so they are a good interference fit. Insert the track pin through the brake rodding pins from the back, so they project through the holes in the hangers and can be cut off nearly flush. They can be secured with a spot of glue as well if desired. It does require a steady hand and a good eye (or a magnifying glass) to drill straight along the inside of the locating pins on the rigging. I had deliberately left pins projecting in the photos so people could see what I had done. A couple of the photos are a little out of focus but I think they are clear enough to show the pins. The first photo shows the tools I used - nothing out of the ordinary there! This method works for all of Hornby's Rebuilt Merchant Navy, and both original and rebuilt West Country and Battle of Britain locos.

Inspired by Andy Y and some others here, I have been fiddling with a Bachmann Wickham trolley to convert it to DCC. Visually, there is no difference compared to an out of the box example, but the conversion method I chose involved removing the PCB from the unpowered trolley and replacing it with a TCS Z2 decoder hard-wired in - I have previous experience with this decoder, having used several in Dapol and Hornby Terriers. To fit the decoder in the space, I had to remove the metal "finger" that previously retained the PCB; it is now quite a snug fit lengthwise, with plenty of room at the sides for spare wiring to allow some free play for maintenance purposes. I identified which wires were doing what by desoldering the outer pair of wires and connecting test leads to them; nothing happened, so I then tested the remaining two wires, which (as I expected) powered the motor through its brush connections (it's actually a coreless motor, so probably doesn't have real brushes!). Having connected the decoder to the correct wires, I tested on the programming track and all worked properly. I ran it on the main lines but it was a bit hesitant. Further investigation showed that the PCB also had two contact pads for the pickups from the trolley, so I had to dismantle it and solder two more wires on to get all-wheel pickup again. That was successful, initially, (including on the programming track) but after some running, I found the rear, unpowered axle on the motorised trailer was very hot, so there is a short-circuit somewhere. Possibly, due to the light weight of the trolley and trailer, the pickups were not all working at once, but after the running had bedded them in a little they have a dead short - I'll have to check that the pickup wires are all connected to the correct side. Further investigation revealed that there were two possible causes for the short; one was a piece of heat-shrink insulation had slipped, exposing some bare wire, and the other was one of the rather delicate springy pickups had got caught up when I reassembled the trolley, allowing it to contact the wheel back and the chassis at the same time. It has now been sorted and runs nicely, although slightly hesitantly over my third and fourth rail in places (clearances?). Overall, though, it runs well and will be even better when I put some white metal figures in it. Assembling the trolley and trailer is quite fiddly, but having succeeded, I'm feeling quite satisfied with myself now!

Looking at the quantities of each Peckett in stock in the shops, they seem to be selling very well. As DougN has observed, any that made it to Melbourne, Australia, seem to have sold out almost before they hit the shelves, and the same appears to be the case with Hatton's stocks in Liverpool. Of the models available from some UK retailers, the MSC one seems to have the highest numbers, followed by the Huntley and Palmers, leaving 'Dodo' on the endangered list, and almost extinct! ( just had to work that in somehow ... I'll duck for cover in a moment! ) I have to say that these Pecketts look very appealing, and, while I have no need and no use for one at all, I am fighting the temptation to buy one for myself, just for the lovely appearance of the things. The Huntley and Palmers blue looks particularly appealing. I wonder how it would look hauling my ancient Wrenn/Dublo Peak Freans van.

It looks like Heljan hav used their cranked couplings; I would guess that substituting straight ones should fix the problem.