SRman

With a view to the fact that I am hosting a BRMA meeting in August, I decided it was time to do a few improvements to the bridges and viaducts, as well as continuing work on the village roads and levels. The viaducts at the end of the layout are only currently set up as 'dummies' to make them moderately presentable. They do not represent the final arrangement or appearance, either before or after this work as it stands. The whole lot is only lightly Blu-tacked into place and the lattice girders have no visible means of support (yet!). The railway bridge at the other end of the station has also only had temporary girders and fittings previously and looked like it needed a central support structure as well. I have Blu-tacked some supporting girders into place to judge the effect and whether I think the girders look substantial enough. I do have some new Peco girder kits to use to replace the recycled ones that were previously there. The village roads are being laid in card, with various infill pieces of expanded polystyrene being added or bits cut away so that things 'flow' more. It is tedious and time consuming, particularly waiting for glues to set before doing the next bit. At the time of the photos, I had one section still weighed down with locomotives and buses. I will have to look at the car parking in the village: that AEC Merlin is going to have a tight squeeze getting past the parked mini and Austin Atlantic!

Hi Mark. I'm sure if it will arrive in time for my BRMA meeting in August, so if you are able to come to that I'll be more than happy to show it off. As for the Signal Box, I had good service from them on the few occasions I used them. The last order I did with them was in the mail even as they suddenly closed (whew!!).

After resisting the temptation for another SECR version (I already have the first, more ornate release), I decided to put one in my shopping cart on Hattons website - they had three in stock. I thought about it for a bit ... "Do I really need this?" "Yes, but I want it! It will provide a second matching pre-grouping train for running sessions." "Oh but I shouldn't spend the money." And on it went. I refreshed the page for the shopping cart. Two in stock. "Should I commit or shouldn't I?" Refresh page again. One in stock! "Ummm ... " Refresh page - none left!! Problem solved! Except ... two days later, i have ordered one from Hereford Model Centre, with whom I have also successfully dealt before. Oh! The weakness and the humanity of it all! [Heavy sigh.]

Hi Peter. I agree, pure black is usually overkill. I knocked the handrail off during handling and can't find where I put it for safe keeping. If you can supply a spare I would very much appreciate it. Thanks. Jeff.

Ha ha. Thanks Paul.

The transfers have now all been added and weathering improved/added to. There were a couple of minor setbacks: the matt varnish on the roof dried a lot glossier than the satin varnish on the sides, and one of the numbers dissolved in the satin varnish (I was probably too rough with the brush!). I have reapplied the missing number and added blue star coupling codes on the ends. I revarnished the roof area using a Testors lacquer, which tends to dissolve any paint layers beneath it if one dwells on the spot too long, leaving one or two spots that need re-weathering. For the first photo my phone camera somehow decided to turn the flash on (I always leave it turned off) so, while it is not a good photo as such, it does cruelly highlight any errors or omissions in my modelling. In this case it has picked out the bright yellow plastic interior of the body, so it looks like I'm going to have to source some cab interiors and paint the insides of the body too. These next shots show it in a better light (no pun intended but it works!!) and I think it has come up looking OK. Looking at the front end, I need to do a little weathering around the doors and seams, flooding a little black wash into them to eliminate the slightly plasticky look.

Well, just short of their sixties! I'm 59 and do remember steam on the Kent coast lines, watched from my grandparents' back garden or kitchen window in Petts Wood. I remember Bulleid pacifics and the steam hauled Golden Arrow but I was too young to notice details like locomotive names and numbers.

Nice photos, 69843, and a good variety. Somewhere in my video collection there is some footage of a few of those Mersey 0-6-4Ts in service. I always thought they were incredibly ugly!! They are also very interesting with the very heavy looking rivets and the outside frames and cranks, plus the rather odd spacing of the driving wheels. In my collection of (my own) photos, I have a couple of shots of the 620/720 motors in service at Newcastle. I have been scanning in several historic photos, mostly of Queensland Railways but there are a few NSW ones and Flying Scotsman in Australia too. The 620/720 shots are a little blurry and probably not really worth posting here, though. Edited to correctly reflect the class references.

Continuing with the class 31 where I put a Hornby RailRoad chassis under my previously detailed Lima 'skinhead' body. I added the buffer beam cowls as shown in my previous blog entry. Then, after filing the lower cowl shapes down to clear the couplings, I removed the numbers and central BR arrows, which also entailed removing a bit of the paint work. Fortunately, Humbrol/Hornby's BR blue acrylic paint is a very close match for the Lima shade so I was able to patch paint. Once I complete the weathering, the patches won't be noticeable anyway. Here I have not only painted the cowlings and the patches, I have also started weathering the roof and below solebar levels, but not the main body sides yet, as the replacement transfers have to go on before weathering. Then, I applied the new transfers from Fox (the BR arrows) and Cambridge Custom Transfers (numbers). I have deliberately used the old-style numbers, minus the 'D' prefix, because in the early days of the blue livery, many of these locomotives received the 'wrong' style - it was supposed to be the new Rail alphabet style. The CCT numbers come as pre-made up numbers for a range of diesels. The number I chose, 5528, wasn't on the sheet but I was able to combine parts of two pre-made numbers, 5547 and 8128. Doing it this way makes it easier to align the numbers and keep the whole number straight. There is still a little bit to do. Blue star coupling codes over the buffers, a little more weathering is needed on the sides and roof, and a coat of satin varnish (sides) and matt varnish (roof, bogies and underframes), plus I STILL haven't added the handrails that go on top of the gangway door bulge, and the little 'ears' for the windscreen washers.Edit: And replace the missing handrail that I knocked off earlier in the task!! Overall, I am pleased with the effect so far, and the running is so much better with the Hornby chassis.

When I was digging for information on brake vans, mainly pre-grouping southern ones, I found that on at least one of the illustrations too, where the buffer shanks were black against the standard end colour (vermillion, I think). I can't quote my source at the moment but going from memory it may have been an LBSC or LSWR van in SR livery. There are definitely precedents for this but I don't know the reasons or the applications for sure.

A few months ago, I bought a Hornby BR early green N15, 30737 King Uther, at a very reasonable price, with the knowledge that it had a little damage on the tender rear, including missing a buffer and the lower corner of the buffer beam, plus a bit of the upper fairing being broken. I have slowly been repairing this damage using plasticard and filler and a pair of Bachmann sprung buffers. Repairing the damage was relatively easy but touching up the pre-weathered paintwork took a little bit of fiddling, particularly as my BR locomotive green was a slightly yellower shade than Hornby's original paint work. I have used washes of dark earth and one of the Humbol black wash enamels to try to match the effects as closely as possible. I think I have managed to get pretty close to a realistic effect while closely matching the original. A touch of red paint on the buffer shanks blended them in. I topped it off with a layer of real coal to complete the job. Sorry about the poor quality of the photos: all were rattled off quickly on the mobile phone between jobs.

School holiday jobs: I have re-chassised my green Hornby Brush type 2 (class 30), D5513, as the original was one of those with the dreaded metal "cancer". That was all right, except I got the bogies at the wrong ends, initially; the difference is in the wire lengths! I had carefully noted the wiring before disconnecting all the wires from the pcb but, on reassembly, I found that the lights weren't working properly on DC or DCC (I started with the decoder removed and the original Hornby blanking plug inserted, to ensure I didn't blow up the expensive sound decoder!). After several attempts, where I had tail lights at the no 1 end and either all, or no lights at the other, I pulled it apart and started again. This time only the tail lights at the number 1 end didn't work, which is probably due to the cab contacts not sitting quite right. I'm not too worried about that, to the point that I might even disconnect the over bright tail lights from the other end as well, next time I take the body off! It ran perfectly every time, it was just the lights that defeated me! Anyway, once it was OK on DC, I inserted a cheap Hattons decoder and tested with that on board, then refitted the LokSound decoder and speaker. Then I repaired the small cracks in the body from the original chassis expansion. Then I moved on to the Lima class 31 004 that I had previously detailed up and shown here. I was not happy with its Lima motor's running characteristics on DCC and managed to score a cheap Hornby RailRoad class 31 (R3067). The chassis swap is straight forward as both bodies fit either chassis. However, the Hornby model is a little bit of a hybrid of characteristics from earlier and later days of the type, and the chassis lacks the fairings around the buffer beams and below the cab ends. I filed the detail on the Hornby chassis smooth and cut and shaped some fairings from plasticard, using the D5513 and the Lima chassis as guides. While these are not quite exact, once painted blue they will give the right character to the model. At the stage shown in the photo, I am leaving the solvent to set properly before filing the lower parts of the buffer beams to match the sides. I also forgot to file those little pointy extensions back a bit so the outer surfaces are inboard of the main fairing, which should continue the straight line angled up towards the cab doors. That will be corrected when I remove the body later. I have also removed the BR arrows and cab numbers so I can repaint (patch painting) those areas and renumber and decal to represent an early blue example from the later batch, which means BR arrows on each cabside and pre-TOPS numbers on the bodysides behind the cab doors. It will most likely become 5539 or 5555, both of which are from the later blue star series, both with the green livery style number typeface, and both without the 'D' prefix, in or around 1969 and 1970.

Bachmann have listed the SECR 'birdcage' stock as coming in SECR livery, so I would assume they will be suitably lined out and decorated. The SECR C, latest issue is very tempting and I keep fighting with myself to resist spending money I don't have. The fact that it is selling out very quickly may save me from myself! I do have the original fully lined out release and am very happy with that model.

Chelmer is on the Ipswich line and has four tracks through it (as far as Corinda). The line continues beyond Ipswich to the west so there are many loco hauled freights passing through on the main lines (the northern pair of tracks) while suburban EMUs mostly use the suburban (southern pair of) lines. If you go a few stations further to the west, to Corinda, the Tennyson line forms a junction and has even more loco hauled freights going to and from the south. Follow the Tennyson line to Yeerongpilly and you'll meet the standard gauge from NSW and points south. I'm not sure how much traffic travels through that line now but the vast majority will be loco hauled freights, with daily XPTs to relieve the "monotony"!! I once lived in Sherwood but tended to use Corinda station more as the service was better from there (not all trains stopped at Sherwood in peak hours). I'm sure some of the other, more local members can suggest more activities for you.

I'm pretty sure they were either black or a very dark grey - probably depending on which workshops painted them. Edit: Or another thought occurred to me: maybe they appeared grey after the chalk was rubbed off on the previously black background.

It didn't drive you B/Army then, Rick? I also have a couple of the Lima ones, repainted with new transfers, and they don't stand out at all against the newer and more detailed Bachmann ones - most of the extra detail on the Bachmann model is in the underframes.

I agree, adb968008. With variations on front ends, you could also include classes 302 and 307 - then we are almost back to the Southern EPBs of classes 415/2 and 416/2 (the latter already produced by Bachmann), plus the HAPs/SAPs and CAPs (classes 413/414). Looked at in this way, there may be some hope for all those other EMU classes. There are many, many detail variations even within the classes but I am sure an enterprising manufacturer could cope with these. The same reasoning could be applied to the more modern 'families' of EMUs. Classes 313-315 and 507/508 share many commonalities, as do classes 317-322 and 455, allowing for overhead and third rail versions (both, in the case of classes 313 and 319).

Sorry Nobby - I can only click on one icon: I also agree with you!!

A slightly better photo of the Cambrian Kits BR Sturgeon A wagon, still under construction and unpainted, awaiting fixing the door stops being attached to the underframes.

That really looks superb David. Wonderful job!

Maybe it was the paint that was holding it all together!!

Well, they are Australian too!!

I haven't seen the Markits ones - it is difficult to get Markits stuff over here in Australia. Markits don't have an online shop which makes things more awkward. I would be interested to see them if you do get them. They should save you a bit of work.

The red bellied black snakes are only considered mildly dangerous! There are lots of scorpions, as well as lots of centipedes, all of which can give very painful stings but never, as far as I know, fatal!!

I couldn't find any suitable clack valves so made up my own (very crudely) using wire and Milliput. That Z looks really good in the sunshine. Nice!!