SRman

OK, progress is being made: I have added the support pillar, although it's not quite as square as I would like. I'll leave it in place and see what I think after a while. If I decide I don't like it, I'll work on the mark 2 version. At least this one will be useful as a template. If I do keep it, I'll add a little corbelling and fill the gaps where it joins the main structure. Don't worry about the white glue - it was still drying wen I took the photos.

Like all the manufacturers, Heljan occasionally get one wrong or have manufacturing defects (mazak rot?), but overall I like their locomotives and particularly their mechanisms. I bought a few of the earlier class 33/0 locos with the flatter roof profile. They still looked much more like a 33 than the Lima models from many years earlier, and were improved by filing the cab roofs into a more rounded profile to disguise the flatter shape with "shoulders". Like you, Bert Cheese, I have now accumulated quite a few of their models, including one of the dreaded class 17. I did a quick count of mine and found I have 22 Heljan locos. Only one of these is the later class 33/0 models (in the 34xx catalogue series) and getting the body off that without damaging any of the underframe details was quite a challenge!

I was under the impression that Hornby's umber was a little dark. There was comment some time back that Bachmann's umber on their mark 1 Pullmans was much lighter than Hornby's umber, thus making the use of Hornby brakes on Bachmann mark 1 rakes less convincing.

Some of the BR-built Bulleid-style EPBs survived almost to the end - they didn't have blue asbestos in their construction where many of the BR-style units did.

Ironically, the Bulleid-style HAPs (and 2 EPBs) were built in 1959, well after the BR-style ones! This came about because they used the recycled underframes from the scrapped 2 NOL units, hence the need for the slightly shorter SR-style bodies. That's by way of explanation for anyone unfamiliar with the SR units, although I am sure St Enodoc knew all this already. And now, here is the bridge again from both sides, after a quick, and very rough, coat of grey paint to tone the work down until I am ready for the next stage of detailing. The whole bridge structure lifts off the layout for ease of access when doing such work. I must say I rather like the viewpoint from the platform, although it is not one I normally see. It involves a little bit of contortion to see through the camera lens!

The newer 33 bodies are clipped at exactly the same points as the old ones, with four points near the cab doors. The new ones are simply a lot tighter fit than the old.

The 4 CAPs used BR standard style 2 HAPs. I have plans to convert some spare body shells from Bachmann 2 EPBs in to a BR HAP. The Ayjay kits represent the Bulleid style HAP, just for something a little more different.

Hi Doug. Welcome back. I would like to put some "steel" cross-bracing between those pillars, given enough time and a bit of effort. In the meantime, the other side was easier as I didn't have to reduce the I-section to a U-section. Once again I have 'fudged' it a little with that silly little bit of girder projecting under the end at left. I thought it had to have some sort of support showing, but I can't do any sort of projecting brick or metal work low down there as the trains have to run under it. I agree with Doug regarding doing concrete pads - I was thinking the same for the surrounds where the small cross-girder "enters" the brickwork on that new bit (it is actually just butted flush with the brick face, but the illusion is there!).

Perhaps this is better, with the beam resting "within" the brickwork. I need to blend it better but I think this is an improvement. I can add a brick support column under the I-beam end and going up to the end of the plate girder too. That would relieve the plainness of the wall as an added bonus.

Do you mean the 2 HAP unit? That's Ayjay Models body shells and seats on Hornby 2 BIL chassis (all those cheap Southern olive 2 BILs that came on the market were a godsend as far as motorising and coupling the unit (and for the 'tin' 2 HAL I did earlier). I intend shaving off the moulded pipes and jumpers and adding white metal and brass bits instead. After that, it will go into BR blue with full yellow ends.

Back to the bridge: I have now added an I-beam from Plastruct to one side, under the plate girder. In fact, I filed off the back of the I-beam, making it more of a shallow U-beam, or even a low-relief I-beam ! I like the effect overall, but I will have to do something about the exposed end of the beam nearest the camera. An unaltered I-beam sits in the foreground. As I said, I like the effect, perhaps with some vertical ribs added out of plasticard strip. What do others think?

The Melbourne lines I am on (Belgrave/Lilydale) were running Sunday timetables for the public holidays: that meant trains every 10 minutes during the day. Not bad at all.

Could you assist with the email address, please, or details of where to find it. I will re-send my original messages sent via their "Contact us" section on their web site. Which "social media" are we talking about here, please? I checked the Facebook Dapol page and found nothing useful there, and I am not on Twitter or any other social media.

A few years ago, I picked up a Hornby green class 50 with aftermarket sound. 50 007, Sir Edward Elgar, was fitted with Olivia's Trains' sound, and was in generally good nick, apart from a little of the orange lining rubbing off. This particular model was a limited edition version with red name and number plates, representing 50 007 as preserved. I was not at all happy with the Olivia's sounds, so the decoder was reblown and fitted into something else completely different, and a Lenz Standard+ decoder was fitted in its place. I decided that I would order Fox Transfers lining transfers and etched nameplates with black backgrounds to put Sir Edward back into service as she/he was in active BR service before preservation. The original Hornby lining was scraped off with a wooden lolly stick and a little water - this doesn't mark the original paint finish or the plastic of the model's body. The new lining transfers slid easily into place, apart from trimming one side slightly to shorten it, and the etched plates were trimmed easily off their frets with a sharp pair of scissors. A little PVA-type glue smeared lightly on the backs of the etched components allowed them to sit perfectly over the printed plates and crests. I will varnish the sides to preserve the transfers and also seal the edges of the etched components, but it is best to leave them to dry out thoroughly first. Here are a couple of photos to show the results so far - sorry one is a little blurry because I can't take the camera any further back from that side.

Continuing on from that last post, I have been doing a comparison of the new Sutton's Locomotive Works (SLW) class 24 against my already modified Bachmann one to see what further work could be feasible to bring the Bachmann model closer to being accurate (or at least, looking accurate). I have previously modified the gutter line over the cab windscreens, and have been aware that the windscreen shapes were wrong, although they are the hardest thing to correct without having to do a complete repaint. The centre door could be beefed up just a little. Looking at the models, the roof looks easy to correct, with the Bachmann model needing a little backdating of the exhaust details. It could also do with the addition of the 'flaps' over the boiler water fillers, although these went missing on the real locos quite early on. My modelling period for the 24s is the early 1960s, when around 15 of them were on loan to the Southern Region for several years. The "L" shaped panel will be easy to produce in plain plasticard. As the Bachmann model side grilles are correct for the majority of class 24s, but I needed any of the first 15, I had arbitrarily chosen D5014 for my original renumbering. As it turned out, that was not a good choice as D5014 was one of the early ones with an extra grille on each side (as correctly modelled by SLW on D5000). Also out of contention were the first six locos, which had the horizontal divider in the main radiator grille (again, correctly modelled by SLW for D5000). Chacking photos (which were unavailable when I first renumbered the Bachmann one) showed that D5009 or D5011 were built without the extra side grilles - there were others as well - and D5011 was the easiest renumber because I only had to change the last digit. The rest is not too bad. The thing that spoils the character the most on the Bachmann model (the windscreen shape) is also the most difficult to correct, so I will have to consider my options on that. The rest should be easy. And yes, I do know the rake of the cab front is also not correct on the Bacchy model; I can live with that. (Note the extra grille on the upper level behind the main radiator on D5000 at the rear in the above photo). Well, it's something to contemplate for a workbench project this year.

Hi Peter. Wishing you and Leanne and Abbie a Happy New Year also. I will eventually weather the 24 a bit, but right now it's too new and too expensive to do too much to!! I have straightened up those bogie pipes, knocking a very small amount of paint off in the process, but they are to be very early candidates for toning down (probably painting black!). I will pose it next to my slightly modified Bachmann example soon. I just renumbered it to D5011 (from D5014) because the Bachmann model lacks the extra grilles of the very early batch. A few of that batch also lacked the grilles, and D5011 was one of them ... unfortunately, D5014 wasn't, although I didn't have that information when I arbitrarily chose a number from the batch sent to Hither Green. As an aside, the pictures in Haresnapes Fleet Survey #1 show D5000 in original, as-delivered condition, and it lacks the grille to the right, near the boiler grille (with the radiator end to the left). The same book has a later photo of D5000 (by then 24 005) and it has the grille added. I'm sure it was done fairly early on, but does anyone know approximately when this was done?

The same photo I posted before but in 1960s black and white.

Mike, it's more likely a setting in your controller - depending on what brand it is. If function 21 is set to momentary, then the lights would turn on then off again.

While I appreciate that they may well be still investigating, and that the Christmas holidays may also be "in the way" as far as that goes, I'm not normally one to criticise manufacturers, but their news item on the website ignores the fact that the lights were not corrected by their "fix" for the wrong direction running on DCC (suggested change to CV 29). Having put that on the website, something along the lines you suggested may have been better than wrong information. Also, a polite acknowledgement of receipt of the emails would also go some way to mollifying me (and probably others too).

Having posted that last entry, I decided it was time to do something about the 'lemon yellow' warning panels. This is a trick I have used before with some of Lima's 'too yellow' panels, where I use matt (or satin) varnish with just a hint of orange in (Humbrol #82 in today's case). The difference is subtle, as I prefer to built up the tint in layers (rather like weathering), so here is the original unmodified panel. And here is the panel with the first layer of varnish-tinted-orange. as I said, it is subtle and doesn't show particularly well in the photo.

So, summarising to date, ignoring the lemon yellow warning panels which are relatively easy to fix, the green JA and the GBRF JB models seem to be the best for accuracy, livery-wise. All would appear to have the faulty PCB design, though. I would add that on my early blue example, I also noted that the warning panels seem to be a little too wide and go right to the front corners of the cab, where they should stop a millimetre or so inboard of the corners - see the photo I posted against the Lima model earlier. Again, I can live with the livery errors on this particular model as they re not too obvious, but I have heard absolutely nothing from Dapol regarding fixing the PCB design under warranty (it is a manufacturing defect, after all), in spite of two emails direct to them through their website. Come on Dapol, if any of your representatives read this forum, get your act together and communicate with us ... properly.

Paul R: I had very similar occurrence years ago with a Triang-Hornby mark 2 coach left on the rear parcel shelf ... in Queensland, where the sun is even fiercer than here in Melbourne. Needless to say, the coach was a write-off, although the seat unit and bogies were re-used for other projects. Rick: try gently persuading the chassis straight again using boiling water (and thick gloves!).

That Lima underframe looks salvageable. It may be usable for a later conversion. Regardless of that, I hope you and Sharon have a Happy New Year.

S15 30830 shunts a single Sturgeon A wagon near Newton Broadway.

The S15 has also progressed, and I put some finishing touches to it and the Sturgeon A Engineers' Department wagon, so both are in serviceable conditions fit for photographic purposes on the layout. I made a rail load for the Sturgeon A as well. Details and blow by blow accounts of both of these projects as they progressed are in my workbench blog. Look what has also appeared at Newton Broadway: the new Rail Exclusive/Suttons Locomotive Works Derby type 2 (later class 24), D5000, with sound was delivered yesterday. I ordered jointly with through a friend, and both turned up on his doorstep just before Christmas. He delivered it to me personally as he also wanted to pick my brains regarding converting part of his layout initially to DCC, while keeping it safe from his split potential analogue system on his main lines. I found the top speed of the 24 a little too fast for my liking, so have tweaked the speed curve, and also added a higher value for CV4, the momentum, to take better advantage of the braking function.