SRman

I like them and they seem to be very good, accurate models of the prototypes. See my earlier post for a solution to the pickup problems caused by the pickups being too soft and the leading axle having too much side-play. These minor niggles, to be honest, exacerbated by uneven track or tight curves. The latter is a little ironic because the very reason for being for the real locomotives was to be able to work tight curves on the Southampton Docks lines. The actual motor and gearing is quiet and smooth.

A class 74 electro-diesel kit and 4 COR conversion kit arrived from Silver Fox yesterday. Starting on the 74, it is a very nice casting, but I have been grinding lots of resin material out of the 74 body shell to get it to fit over the Hornby 71 chassis, removing material from the lower cab ends and from inside the roof. The kit was designed to fit the Hornby class 90 chassis and the instructions reflect this, but I wanted to use the superior Hornby class 71 as its basis. It looks very promising. I will be shaving off the handrails and moulded jumper cables and horns to replace them all with separate fittings, in due course. It can only be one livery for realism: BR blue with yellow ends, although it can have E 61XX numbers or 74 0XX TOPS numbers. I had to use a little Milliput to patch up where I slipped with the Dremel! The kit comes with some rather nice bogie side frame mouldings, but I am in two minds as to whether to replace the Hornby side frames or adapt them. I want to fit legomanbiffo sound eventually. I think I can get a sugar cube speaker in the space vacated by the Hornby internal machinery mouldings, but it will still need a micro decoder - the existing one is an ESU LokPilot micro.

I rejigged my K's Q1 many years ago, with Markits wheels (the K's ones were never concentric - dreadful things they were). I fitted a Mashima motor with a Comet double reduction gearbox (my third attempt at getting a running model, this time successful), so it grinds a bit but could pull the side out of the house ... it certainly pulled some couplings out of their mountings on some of my wagons! I also reshaped the top casting a bit as it was rather flat. I have never tried to convert it to DCC as there is very little room inside the thick white metal castings, and a real danger of shorting a decoder out if I don't get it exactly right. Also, it will require a physically very small decoder with lots of power handling ability. A pity in many ways as it runs nicely (but noisily) and I rather like it, even though it has way less detail than the Hornby offerings.

There is one Q1 preserved. I believe it belongs to the NRM, but last time I saw it it was stabled on the Bluebell Railway. I'm not sure if the sounds I have are generic or genuine, but I do know that Bryan, of Howes, was careful to try and match sounds as closely as possible to archive footage where high quality or bespoke recordings were not available.

The weathering looks good. Q1s were generally filthy all over. One of mine has an early sound project from Howes on an ESU LokSound v3.5, which I actually quite like. There are probably more up to date sound projects now, as well as much better speakers available for the Zimo or ESU LokSound v5 decoders you would be looking at now (the v3.5 uses 100 ohm speakers, for which the choices are limited). On top of that, there are now much smaller versions of those decoders available, meaning fewer potential problems with fitting them and the speaker in.

Hornby! Sorry if that's being pedantic, but Bachmann have never made a Bulleid Q1. Moving on, the Hornby model is a good one. I have two of them, with both originally having the same number. Renumbering is easy, as any shiny bits on the base black can easily be disguised with some weathering.

A recent project involved reverting eight old Hornby ECC CDA china clay hoppers to HAA coal hoppers. The reason for this was demonstrated in an earlier post of mine (see photo below repeated for ease of reference) showing the new Accurascale CDAs that I bought sitting with the Hornby version in the same train - they didn't match at all well. Attempts to sell the Hornby CDAs failed, so that left me with the problem of what to do with them. I had already fitted metal wheel sets into them a while back for better running. The answer was to reuse them in a form that could be run without direct comparison with the Accurascale wagons, so the easiest course of action was to remove the clip-on CDA tops and the glued-in vents at each end, and convert them back to HAA wagons. Some thin, 5 thou plastic sheet was used to patch the end holes left by the removal of the parts. I did lose some of the cross bars in the end framing, but I can replace those with some plastic bars later; they aren't too obvious when in service. I used some graffiti remover from Bunnings which has been proved safe on plastics and most painted surfaces, to remove the ECC logos although it did remove some silver paint on some of the older wagons - not really a problem as I was repainting parts of them anyway to blend the patches in, and they will be weathered in due course. I repainted some of the framing in a bright red similar to Railfreight red, but left three still in ECC blue, thinking that they aren't too far off the Mainline blue. I think I will have to do a quick brush over with a darker blue though, as they do show up as being too light a colour. I have to put some new insignia and markings on all of them, before varnishing and weathering them. These are candidates for the first use of my airbrush as I think I can weather them as a bulk lot. I decided to supplement them by buying two of Hornby's more recent 3-packs of HAAs in Railfreight red, bought at a reasonable price, so here are a few photos showing the whole rake being hauled by a Heljan EW&S class 58. The new wagons are better than the old ones in several ways, but at least are not obviously different when mixed together. The old-style large couplings are a bit of a giveaway for identifying the older wagons. Also, I tend to use a lump of Blu-tack on each of the swivelling axle carriers on the older wagons to stop them turning while still allowing a little resilience. The new wagons have fixed axles and the much smaller couplings.

There's also "British Railway Pictorial : First Generation DMUs" by Kevin Robertson. Again, not specifically WR, but deals with all the classes. I don't think it is still in print, but seems to be common enough on the second-hand market, together with the equivalent First Gen Southern EMU volume.

SRman, sir ... they took one pace back!

Then there was this in todays news feed: https://www.9news.com.au/national/spiders-insects-new-species-news-australia-around-the-world-in-pictures/f09ab836-2b61-4457-a656-f6c6d3be625c

These were ones Hatton's marketed for their Andrew Barclay locos, but they, and some others I have, were really from ModelU, 3D printed loco crews.

My Rapido Hunslet now has a crew fitted, with the fireman leaning on his shovel, and both driver and fireman bathed in the flickering glow from the open firebox. I pulled the roof off the cab to make fitting the crew easier - it was only lightly glued in place. The next job is to put a little real coal in the bunker. *Note, this is a duplicate of a post in my own layout thread, just in case you've seen it before and think you are going mad. 😉

The Rapido Hunslet now has a crew fitted, with the fireman leaning on his shovel, and both driver and fireman bathed in the flickering glow from the open firebox. I pulled the roof off the cab to make fitting the crew easier - it was only lightly glued in place. The next job is to put a little real coal in the bunker.

I had actually thought something along those lines, but I want to have erasable surfaces on the 'tags', so they would be like miniature, moveable whiteboards. Yeah, those fridge magnets are very easy to come by - I have thrown out so many real estate agents' ones. p.s. Kindly do not mention the word "plumber"! 😛

As it happens, I checked mine not long ago, and the centre coupling rod hole allows enough vertical movement on the centre axle for it to travel its full distance vertically anyway.

Yes, I found this when I fitted the blinds to one of mine. The headlight thingy pulls out and down (do this carefully, it isn't glued in), then you can ease the cab mouldings out by spreading the body slightly. Mine did put up a bit of a fight, but they did eventually come out without me damaging anything. Putting them back in was easier, with the light box going back in last.

I agree there. Even though mine ran fine right from the start, I did note a couple of bits of track where mine *almost* lifts a wheel to come off the track. I can't help wondering whether enlarging the hole in the centre of the coupling rod might allow slightly more vertical play. or whether that would ruin the running qualities altogether - assuming there is sufficient metal in the centre to allow this. The rods do seem fairly chunky, but I haven't had a really close look to investigate this further.

I have actually been thinking along those lines for the future, but because I have so many locos and units, it could become unwieldy. If I could do the same basic idea but write the numbers on the magnetic strips it would be less difficult to manage, but the strips then need to be like a miniature whiteboard themselves. Still, this is by no means the final solution for my partly hidden storage areas.

I bought a small magnetic whiteboard with the idea of using it to keep track of what locos and units are stored in the engine shed area, especially the ones I can't see to read the numbers. I have drawn a rough outline of the tracks in red paint marker, and can use whiteboard markers to write the numbers in. This one is a bit rough, but I can redo it more neatly later if it works out for me. Also, the whiteboard is double sided so if I mess one side up completely, I can use the other.

This is good, and in one announcement Accurascale have answered probably the two most criticised aspects of the Hatton's 66: the falling-off-rotating-axleboxes, and the damage to the steps done when lifting the body off to fit a decoder - that removable roof hatch is a great idea, carried over from their Deltic. One other criticism of the Hatton's otherwise excellent model was the wobbling evident on some as they moved, caused by the holes in the side frames not quite aligning properly with the axles and their rotating bits. some people addressed that by drilling out the holes a bit (I did this myself). I daresay Accurascale will address this too as it would show up in their test running of the EPs. I'm not sure I need any more 66s myself, although I would be happy to trade my Bachmann models in for similar Accurascale ones. 😁 😁😁

Now, getting away from building or kit-bashing rolling stock, I did some more fiddling, this time on a job on the layout I have been wanting to do for a while. Having cleared the clutter from the floor (well, some of it anyway!), I can now more easily get behind the layout at that end. I have removed the underlay from the Engineers' siding beside the engine shed, which involved pulling up the bullhead track and buffer stop, and scraping most of the sticky residue off the boards then relaying that bit of track. Reason? Because the wagons were tending to roll down towards the points. Modern models are too free running!! The "dead" man in one of the photos was knocked off his perch on top of the sheds - he was restored to his rightful position in the last photo. All of this involved much swearing! 🙄 While I was round there, I noticed that the state of the track was appalling and it's a wonder anything ran round there at all. Rail tops easily cleaned up and looking nice and shiny again. There is still much scenic work to be done around this area.

Now all but complete, the Hudswell Clarke, No.70 'Beatrice', is ready for service. The first photo shows it still in a gloss finish (better for sticking transfers to!), and the second shows it after a coat of satin varnish. It now just needs a little weathering to tone it all down a bit.

My blue NCB Hunslet arrived a couple of days ago and I am happy to say I am very pleased with it, both for its appearance and for its running qualities. After a quick test on DC on my programming track, it seemed smooth but my old analogue controller cannot reduce its lowest voltage sufficiently to try out the really slow running. It was sufficiently good for me to install a Hatton's Next 18 decoder (the only one of this configuration I have spare), and tested again. Slow running was good but it needed a slight tweak to the starting voltage - CV2 = 6 - and it would creep almost imperceptibly on speed step 1. Testing on my main lines proved the slow and smooth running was really good, the electrical pickups were all working, and that it worked fine through my pointwork. The firebox glow works on F1 with this decoder. Another quick tweak using Decoder Pro on the programming track set the firebox LED to flicker. All of this meant that I could do my usual adjustments to the appearance to fit it in with my fictitious industrial fleet. I removed the "NCB" lettering, and applied some etched name and number plates I have from Narrow Planet. I chose one of the longer names so the new plates completely covered the existing printed "Holly Bank No.3" plates, negating any need to remove them. She is now No.72 "Beverley". I have left the printed works plates on the bunker. Maybe with my next order from Narrow Planet I'll order some etched ones to go over them. These are a couple of before and after photos. It will benefit from having a crew installed soon, and a little weathering.

A small update: etched plates now fitted to the class 92 and the Hunslet. 92 032 'IMechE Railway Division'. I have also modified the pantographs slightly to allow the heads to sit flatter when folded. Looking at this, I will have to remove just a spot more metal from the stop on the arm. The Hunslet is now 72 'Beverley'. The Narrow Planet plates fitted neatly over the previous name so there was no need to remove the printed names, only the 'NCB' lettering.

The Hudswell Clarke (H-C) is now very near to completion and has run a few laps on test. It then suffered a dropped connecting rod, but I repaired that with a 14BA screw drilled into the back of the crosshead, after having to break the glue on one of the slidebars where it is held to the support bracket to release the crosshead to get at the back. I also filed the inside face of the screw to clear the leading crankpin. After a little more running back and forth on the main lines, and a few minor tweaks, it ran reliably and smoothly after that. In the meantime, the postman delivered a couple of boxes this afternoon, one from Rails, the other from Kernow. The latter had my long awaited third class 92. A quick test on DC showed 92 032 was smooth running, if slightly tight in reverse, so I fitted the prepared sound decoder into it. Apart from having to turn the volume down slightly, all went well for this loco, which is destined to be one of my favourites - love the livery as well as the superb job Accurascale have done on these models. I will do the pantograph mod as per the other two to get the pan head to sit more level when they are folded down. I have not fitted the etched plates yet. One thing I noted on this one is that the PCB doesn't appear to show through the grilles, so the edges must have been blackened already. I parked her carefully, just in case Hattie manages to get in again! In the Rails package were some Rapido items, one of the Hunslet 16" o-6-0ST locomotives, plus some SECR 9or ex-SECR) wagons. The van in full SECR livery is destined for the pre-grouping trains I run from time to time, while the others fit better into my more usual 1950s and 60s era. The engineers wagon may even suit later periods too. The loco was smooth enough on DC on test, but my old analogue controller couldn't supply a low enough voltage to test slow running properly. I was sufficiently happy to put a budget Hatton's Next 18 decoder into it (the only one I had spare at present), and after a little programming, I found that it would run extremely slowly and smoothly, in contrast to some other reports online. I had to give it a slight startup voltage on speed step 1, setting CV2 to a value of 6, after which it moved barely perceptibly on speed step 1. Running through my points on the main lines was smooth in both directions and there were no derailment problems or hiccups in its running. I noted the firebox glow works on F1, but is a steady glow, so a quick bit of programming through Decoder Pro on the programming track turned that into a flicker. I did manage to damage one of the small steps on the side of the tank when removing it, but I will fix that up later. I will also be removing the NCB branding and putting my own nameplates and numbers on it in my fictional fleet.