SRman

I paid a little over £70 for the two Siphon Gs. Accurascale offer 10% off for two, plus I had reward credits and no VAT payable, so overall I think I've done well. DougN had dropped over to return some models to me, and picked up the box and brought that in as well, so I gave him one of the Siphon boxes to open while I opened the other. He spent a while admiring the model and in particular, the detail on the bogies, which is very, very good.

I've done that before, too. There can be such a time lag between ordering and delivery of items that we forget we've ordered in the first place. 😆😆

Duplicating my post from my own layout topic: "... freshly arrived today (Sunday) are my two Accurascale Siphon G vans. I ordered a maroon one for the late 1950s to 1960s trains, and the TOPS coded blue one for the 1970s onwards. However, the blue one doesn't seem to have the TOPS code on it (not in any obvious places, anyway), so I can safely get away with mixing that and the maroon one into a late 1960s early 1970s train if I want. The LT pannier was still doing laps of my upper level when I wanted to photograph the Siphons, so this is not intended to be a prototypical train." I am in Australia, so the delivery time was excellent. Thanks Accurascale and DHL.

accidental duplication

And freshly arrived today (Sunday) are my two Accurascale Siphon G vans. I ordered a maroon one for the late 1950s to 1960s trains, and the TOPS coded blue one for the 1970s onwards. However, the blue one doesn't seem to have the TOPS code on it (not in any obvious places, anyway), so I can safely get away with mixing that and the maroon one into a late 1960s early 1970s train if I want. The LT pannier was still doing laps of my upper level when I wanted to photograph the Siphons, so this is not intended to be a prototypical train.

I decided this morning to redo the wiring in the LT pannier to make more room and see if I could get the speaker inside the boiler. It worked! I hard-wired the decoder, and sat it on its side vertically beside the speaker, ahead of the motor, and they both just fitted into the boiler between the tanks so the body could slide on. the decoder (Zimo MS480) was just narrow enough to allow the body to sit down properly on the chassis. I drilled out the weight under the chimney to allow sound to come from where it should and then I fitted a Hatton's 3D printed crew in the now empty cab.

I sat down this morning (a Friday) and set up the soldering iron to allow me to do some delicate work, soldering the wires of a Zimo MS480 sound decoder to an 8-pin plug to get my London Transport 57XX pannier going again; it has been sitting languishing on my workbench for about a year awaiting solutions for the installation. I had intended fitting an iPhone speaker in the bunker, losing the metal weight and cab back plate in the process, and even got as far as making a new plastic back for the cab to hide the speaker. Also in the plans were fitting some working lamps and a firebox glow, but it is all so cramped I have just fitted the decoder and put a YouChoos sugar cube speaker in the cab space, which is really obvious from outside. I cut off the spigots under the pcb/decoder socket to lower that assembly somewhat, but it is still tight. The decoder came from Buckambool Models in NSW, loaded with the YouChoos sound. Anyway, it does work and actually sounds quite good. I put together a very short video clip, posted on YouTube.

Just a small amount of detailing work done today. One of my Accurascale class 92s has had some of the printed blinds added and a driver at each end - whichever end is leading, the other driver is just being a passenger, or maybe a guard. I colour the edges and backs of the blinds with a black marker or paint pen before gluing them in place with some Glu 'N' Glaze (PVA would be just as good). I should have turned the headlights off at the trailing end for the photo - the cab lights are set to be directional but are separate to the headlights. 92 032.

My thoughts: would it be possible to make up a thin brass faceplate for the gangway, with the lamp iron. Possibly a PVA type glue might be the best to adhere to both brass and rubber.

Seeing as I'm in the middle (roughly), it wouldn't make much difference to me! 🤣

As Accurascale have said they weren't loaded in any order on the pallets, it might depend as much on which ones they find first as they unpack them.

I posed the JHA wagons with my old Lima/Hornby hybrid class 59 this morning. The model has an original Lima body, modified with lights at one end only, plus etched plates, fitted to a more modern Hornby chassis with 5-pole motor bogie. While much smoother than the original chassis, it is very light-footed, but fortunately the Dapol wagons are very free rolling. The Kadee #17s fitted between the two converted end wagons in the middle of the rake seem to create exactly the right gap to match the Dapol standard spacing. Unless you know what you are looking for, they can pass by without being obvious at all.

Well, I succumbed and ordered two: a combination of 10% discount for two, no VAT, and using my reward credit meant I paid only a little more than one full-priced Siphon G.

GBRf 73 212 has had a little further work done, with the missing buffer now restored and the horns at one end replaced with some white metal cast horns. I also used some polish on the sides to even the paint up a bit where I had removed previous numbers and names. I also realised that the Pullman gangway buffers are absent, so Ill have to find a pair of those from my spares boxes and drawers. For my Dapol class 59, I wanted some suitable wagons, but the Dapol JHAs have been a little on the dear side to buy a whole rake at once ... until last week. Modellbahn Union shop in Germany had several of the Dapol JHAs in variations on Yeoman livery available for 20 Euros each, so I jumped in and bought six wagons, although there were more end wagons than centre ones available, so I took a leaf out of SR policy and made up two sets of three to order. The end wagons have working flashing lamps and DCC sockets, but the price was the same, regardless. Minus VAT but adding 45 Euros post & packing, I still ended up with quite a bargain. I have already modified and added details on some of the wagons. The buffers pull out easily so two of the four end wagons are now pseudo-centre wagons, with Kadee #17 couplings replacing the tension locks, albeit at the lower standard NEM height rather than the buffer beam/headstock height Dapol have used for the internal set couplings. One other end wagon has retained its tension lock at the outer end to couple up to locomotives, but I may replace that later as there is only one locomotive destined to haul these wagons, Dapol's 59 206. The wagon which will be the dedicated tail-end wagon has retained its lamp, but all the others have had the lamps removed and the lamp irons provided in the extra bits fitted. Again, only the tail-end wagon has had the air pipes and screw couplings added, and it's tension lock removed altogether and not replaced with anything. I may ft pipes to the other wagons later, but these might have to be cut down to allow for coupling swing. At a later stage I can disguise the converted end wagons further with a little plastic sheet on the end buffer beams to hide the holes left by the removal of their buffers and also the centre slot for the screw coupling and hook. I can't pose them with 59 206 at present because that is currently at DougN's house (not at all far away from me), due to me suffering a medical episode at the monthly BRMA meeting on Saturday, and departing in the back of an ambulance. Doug and our other friend Rob took my trains home for me - we had car pooled so Rob was driving. The episode was essentially caused by a new medication working in tandem with my normal medication and dropping my blood pressure too far, but I am fine now - the hospital let me go home later that same evening. The hospital visit was further complicated by a false positive on a RAT test for covid: everyone treating me had to put full PPE gear on for their own safety, but a later PCR test proved negative.

I hadn't noticed that, although in my photo it looks like a steering wheel on the left of the bus - that could be an optical illusion too, or maybe it got converted later. Edit: I just realised you were talking about the red trolleybus not the yellow one. It does appear that the steering wheel is on the right.

... And more Danish Tramway Museum photos.

Further Danish Tramway Museum photos.

I can't remember if I posted any of these before, but the chances are the photos will have lost their links anyway. These date from my September 2018 visit to the Danish Tramway Museum at Skjoldenæsholm, a little way outside of Copenhagen, where they also have a rather nice collection of well preserved buses under shelter. Some of the earlier buses were based on Leylands, but with Danish content as well. One in particular, the Triangel looked decidedly odd, with a half-cab layout ... the cab is on the right, as are the passenger doors. This apparent anomaly was due to the Leyland engine being fitted needing mechanical access from the British side (of course!). One of the other earlier buses solved the handedness problem by having a central driving position. The other one that intrigued me was the bus (in the third post) that appeared to have no headlights whatsoever. There were a couple of rather poor condition vehicles as well, awaiting restoration, but they were definitely in the minority of the displayed items. On the other hand, there was a beautifully restored Leyland Royal Tiger, of the same type as the decrepit one here, taking passengers around the Museum's road system. there were a good few more modern buses on display as well, and many trams in another shed, and out on the tracks in operation. The photos have to be placed in multiple posts because of the size limits.

Horses! Go to just after the 4 minute mark in this Qi clip (or enjoy the whole thing anyway!). 🤣

Bunnings. It is water soluble, so my friend said he dilutes it a bit when he uses it, but I used it neat on a cotton bud. You leave it for a few minutes then start rubbing the transfers/printing off. I rubbed a little too vigorously on the second side and took a small amount of the blue paint off as well.

One more entry for luck: a friend put me onto this Grafitti Remover which is kind to plastics, including glazing. It works on removing printed numbers and names, as in this case with 73 206. there is still a slight shadow there, but I can live with that, as the new numbers will mostly obscure that, and the nameplates will cover completely where the old ones were. The new name and number is visible on the lower left. A very light weathering later on should fix the problem.

Here's the photo of the PCB with the new wires. The tracks were cut with a small drill. The first two photos below show the headlight and headcode lighting, and the light grey bits behind the main grill having been painted out, but the bit behind the window showing the original colour. The lower photo shows the cab light a the No. 1 end lit up on F1. The headlight and headcode light are on F0 and are directional (corrected using JMRI on a computer as mentioned in my previous post).

Well, I've gone and bought another Dapol class 73, unfortunately one of the early batch with design faults on the PCB. This one was at a very good price from Hatton's second-hand section, in GBRf livery as 73 206 'Lisa', with one buffer missing, one horn missing, and one coupling missing. The latter was the easiest of all to fix as the NEM pocket was intact! I have the parts to remedy the other faults later, so all in all, I think I've done OK. The running qualities on test on DC were perfect, so a decoder was fitted and tested, also fine. For the PCB lighting problems and reverse headlight directions on DCC, I reprogrammed the Zimo MX634D decoder I fitted (initially set to MX634C but programming a value of 4 into CV8 switches that), then using JMRI Decoder Pro, swapped the ticks in the checkboxes for the headlights on F0f and F0r (for forwards and reverse), also adding 1 to the value in CV29 so the radiator end becomes the forward end, following the convention for all my other class 73s. Fixing the permanently on cab lights I used the technique posted somewhere on the Internet that I had saved and used on E6007 which had the same (factory designed) faults. Using the photo downloaded at the time (sorry, I don't have a link or address for it), with the decoder connection to the left of the chassis, and the solder pads just to the left at the bases of the decoder pins on the PCB, the two we needed were third and fourth from the bottom. Then: cut PCB track to R1, cut track between R1 and R2, add wire from aux 1 on decoder socket to R1 resistor, add wire from aux 2 on decoder socket to R2 resistor. Result, I now have the cab lights independently controlled through F1 and F2. If these don't work at the expected ends (mine didn't!), JMRI comes to the rescue again, using the Function checkboxes again, swap F1 and F2's outputs. I wanted F1 to logically work the No. 1 cab end, and F2 to work No. 2 cab. This locomotive is destined to be renumbered and renamed using transfers from Railtec (excellent service, by the way), to become 73 212 'Fiona'. I'll do another post shortly with a photo of the internal mods, as I just noted that I need to blacken the side edges of the PCB to make it less obtrusive in the windows. Fortunately, the body comes off very easily.

Thanks to Gwiwer of this parish, I have now got my Heljan FGW class 57 running again. Gaugemaster didn't have the designated top bogie clips for the class 47/57 in stock, but my preliminary comparisons with a class 58 showed the clips appeared to be the same, and so I ordered some of the class 58 ones that were in stock. On reassembling the bogies, the class 58 clips proved to be identical to the damaged ones and the loco has been happily trundling around Newton Broadway for a while now, after a major wheel-cleaning exercise (it still has the original horrible brass wheels!). I found that the tail lights at one end aren't working, but that's no bad thing really as I can make sure that end is at the train end of the loco when hauling stock. I'll check the wires and plugs at some stage, but it really isn't much of an issue. There has also been some progress on the Silver Fox class 74, with the paintwork getting better (but nowhere near perfect!), and a bit of super-detailing in the form of some grill mesh applied to the roof grilles on either side of the main radiator fan, and the exhaust port. The upper two photos of this look a little odd because there was still water on the body after washing it to get rid of the swarf from the drilling out of the grill apertures.

Ray, the ends you have look like classes 304/305/308 or 504 type rather than a 303/311. For the domed roof end, always a bit tricky, see if you can locate a Triang EMU roof or Hornby 2 BIL one. They aren't entirely correct but might give a good starting point. You'd still have to add a headcode box. As for the 2-character headcode, that's a bit of a hash-up: classes 304, 305 and 308 had 4-character boxes, whereas the 2-car class 504 had only a destination box above the windscreens (in the roof dome) and 2-character headcodes displayed in the centre cab window. more akin to standard SR practice.