SRman

Isn't it funny how one thing can lead to another unrelated thing? I decided to update all of the data sheets I have listing each sound-fitted loco or unit, their addresses, and all of their functions. It was something I did in the early days on small rectangles of paper, laminated and taken to exhibitions to assist both me and other operators. Some of those decoders have been updated or changed, some swapped into other locos, and some no longer existed. Anyway, as a part of all this, I include a photo of the item in the heading, but some never had photos taken, and I used manufacturer's photos originally, so that lead to me photographing several of the items to get new photos of better ones than I had before. This is what lead to other issues. In pulling some of these items out of the storage drawers, I found bits falling off or loose, so put them aside for repairs. Of these, some were very minor, but the two that needed a little more work were my Hornby class 92 with a Hornby class 60 chassis installed; this required both deflectors re-glued, and also one of the coupling pockets. The other problem locomotive was a Heljan BR blue class 47, which had a loose bogie. On investigation, the top clip had come loose. On further investigation, I found that it was actually about to snap along one side, and the one at the other end was ready to do the same and let go. I may plunder a Heljan class 57 that almost never gets run for the necessary bogie parts, or even take the whole bogies and substitute the side frames from the 47. I do have some Heljan spares around, but I'm not sure I have those top clips. They may possibly be available from Gaugemaster, but the postage for just those alone will be a killer unless I find some other "essential" items I need from them. In the meantime, the 47 parts have been put in a take away container to keep them all together. One good thing out of all this is that I now have a heap of more up to date photos of my stock - here are a few to go on with. I also have more up to date function lists. Wait ... that's two good things! 🤣

Another quick project this morning, with the arrival of a couple of decoders from Digitrains. I had ordered an ESU LokPilot v5 Next 18 decoder to replace cheaper and less satisfactory decoders I tried in the NER Autocar I bought from rails a few weeks ago. The ESU decoder has improved the running qualities and controllability noticeably. This was an impulse purchase but fits in with my DMU and DEMU collection. The other decoder is an ESU LokSound v5 with sounds for a class 28 Co-Bo. That installed fairly easily once I had persuaded the body off. The body is simply clipped onto the chassis but is very, very tight, and took me ages plus some damaged underbody pipework to get it off originally when fitting the non-sound Lenz decoder. It came off slightly more easily this time. One of the wires to the sugar cube speaker came off, so the soldering iron had to be fired up; having done that, I thought I may as well try one of the 8 ohm iPhone speakers instead. Being of a flatter profile, the iPhone speaker was much easier to fit into the chassis block ahead of the PCB with no modifications or fudges needed, just a spot of black goo to hold it in place on the very end of the PCB. The sound from this speaker is very good, so I will be doing a video of it at some time in the near future.

It's actually a Gloy Authentic Railway Colour colour labelled as "BR coaching stock M.U. stock green". I have no idea how old that is, but it was unopened until I found it at the back of the paint drawer.

Not quite there yet with the centre coach. The green looks close in daylight, but quite different under the train room lights. I have already added a little black to the varnish, but it needs more lustre as well as something ese to get the colour right. Ride height lowered (after the last photo), but a fraction high, still. Interior lights are working though. Once I have all that right, I can paint the door handles and grab rails, and add new headstocks. I did a couple of short videos of the latest stage but they are still too large to upload here, so the second photo will have to do for now - it shows it as it was before the last few tweaks I applied.

As I have been unable to sell my old Bulleid coach sets (nobody seems to want them, but I can't get more new ones until I sell a few items, both for the cash and for the storage space), I decided to get on with flush-glazing the crimson and cream set. I have had the SEF glazing sets sitting in a drawer for decades now, but like you, the one that I did years ago involved quite a bit of faffing around. The current set is no exception to this! I have completed a brake coach, with the other two still to do. It's a job I keep putting off or finding other things to do*, but they will get done soon. *In that time I have nearly completed a hack using two spare Bachmann 2 EPB bodies to create one centre coach for a 2H DEMU. I started this after doing the glazing on the Bulleid BSoK!

Oh, OK. Point taken! 😉 😜

Why come all the way to Australia to go to an Irish pub? It's a bit like me going all the way from Melbourne to Copenhagen (zoo) to see these! 🤣

On a different track (no pun intended), I have made a second attempt at creating a centre coach for the Bachmann/Kernow 2H DEMU to form it into a 3H. The first attempt used a modified spare chassis from a 4 CEP unit TSK, with a Replica Railways Open Second non-gangwayed body and seats added. The effect wasn't too bad, but there were obvious differences in the textures and mouldings on the sides and roof compared to the Bachmann originals. The new version uses the same chassis as before, but this time with the body made from two non-driving ends cut from spare 2 EPB bodies, which were left over from when Bachmann replaced the bodies on blue units because they had the wrong coach numbers when they left the factory. This is a work in progress, and the coach will have to be painted green to match the DMBS and DTCL of the erstwhile 2H. I have split the roof in a different place from the sides, all of which have been cut using a razor saw. The roof clips neatly back in, so my cutting has been reasonably accurate, although the saw strayed a little from the vertical on a couple of the sides. I used the door shut lines for the cutting points as they make it easier to disguise the joins, although I lose a few door hinge mouldings in the process. At present, I am in the process of reinforcing the joints with thin plastic sheet, after which I will apply some filler, before painting the sides and roof. While it is fairly important to match the colour of the sides, the roof colour does not have to match as these centre coaches were added a few years after the units entered service as 2-car sets. This is also why the centre cars don't have the exterior roof conduits whereas the driving coaches do (although some later-built units also did not have the conduits at all). That feature, or lack thereof, is a boon to doing this conversion, because the conduit paths on the two sections of roof (one from the DMBS, one from the DTCL) do not coincide at all. I am including a couple of photos of the first version with the Replica coach body in green, and of the first part of the conversion of the second version in blue. Also for amusement, the new nevvawazza "bubble car" EMU formed from the remaining EPB bits.

I didn't take any photos of the W1, unfortunately.

Look what I scored today at a BRMA meeting: They were $AUS5.00 each, so a bargain.

The lighting really adds to an already great atmosphere on this layout, Rick. Lovely modelling.

Are they bad runners due to pickup problems? I ended up soldering some extra phosphor-bronze strips to the existing soft pickups to allow them to stay in contact with the wheel-backs even at the full extremes of lateral travel. Having such a short, rigid wheelbase means that every pickup must work to maintain continuity.

A quick update on my repaint of the early Dapol release: I did a thin wash of BR blue mixed with some satin varnish, and the result is now much closer to the "correct" colour, or at least, a colour I am happy with. Once again, the Lima version is behind in the photo. Next I have to retouch the grey bits where I slipped with the paint brush.

As Cypherman said earlier, the problem is not the groove in the wheels, it is getting a nice smooth, even layer of Bullfrog Snot (BS) into the groove. Get it right and it works very well. Get it wrong, and the loco will bump and wobble a bit, but it is easy enough to scrape the BS off again and try again. My method is to invert the loco and apply power to get the wheels to turn slowly, then use a toothpick to apply the BS. This means that a nice, even layer can be applied, with any excess being scraped off while still wet while the wheels are still turning. In my opinion, while not cheap, a little Bullfrog Snot goes a long way, and is worth the investment.

On the subject of incorrect liveries, I bought one of the original batch from The Hobby Shop in Faversham. This was a special for them numbered E 6007. However, it suffered from the same wildly incorrect blues as all the other BR blue releases at that time, plus the lemon yellow warning panel that was too wide as well. The Lima colour has always looked right to me. As it has long been a source of dissatisfaction to me, I have finally plucked up the courage to repaint it. BR blue is generally a little different from the version English Electric applied to the earlier 73s, so I decided I have to mix it myself (it was never Electric Blue). My first attempt is shown here against the Lima colour for the same type and period. I'm not entirely happy with the result, as I think I got too close to Electric Blue, but with a bit of weathering and some matt or satin varnish, I think I can redeem it further. This is still a work in progress. The first pic shows the "before" colour.

That was quite common in parts of Queensland north of Brisbane: green tree frogs could grow to be quite large and like the moist porcelain. They are completely harmless, but it is surprising how many people (more usually female people!) will scream and insist on the offending amphibian being removed before using the loo. There's no danger to the frog in flushing the toilet as the sticky pads on their feet are able to withstand quite strong currents.

I have long liked the convenience of an estate car ("wagon" here in Australia, short for station wagon). My first was a 1979 Ford Falcon XD wagon, in a rather unfashionable burnt orange colour, which was worth $1000 off the sale price. I owned that for 21 years and loved the ability to hurl anything into the back, With the seats folded, I could comfortable sleep stretched out in the back (I am over 6' in the old measure). I don't have a scanned photo for the Falcon. I followed that with a fairly high-mileage 1994 Holden Commodore wagon (bought in 2002), and kept that for eight years, before getting a brand new Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback (i.e. a hatchback). That was a lot smaller than the Ford and Holden that preceded it, so not as convenient or as capacious but still handier than a saloon. I kept the Lancer for nine very reliable years. My current car is an SUV. I'm not really a fan of SUVs, but I am getting increasingly arthritic and was having difficulties getting in or out of the Lancer, so had to get something a little taller. I settled on a Honda CR-V, also bought brand new, and that is really another wagon, just on stilts. I am happy with this one for now and intend keeping it for at least 10 years, maybe more.

Beaten by Stu to the cab handrail modifications needed. I would suggest that if you are using the earlier 33/0 body, that had a rather too flat roof profile (obvious if you put it side by side with a 33/1 from Heljan, or the newer 34XX catalogue numbers of 33/0). this can be disguised a bit by filing/sanding the cab roof profile to round them off a bit, particularly where Heljan had a slightly squared off "shoulder" over the cab side windows. These are rather old photos but they show the 33/0 with modified cab roof profiles on the left, beside a standard 33/1 from Heljan.

I used to pick up "project" locomotives from swap meets. If they needed some body repairs they were ideal candidates for super-detailing and repainting. I have a few old Triang locomotives like this, with at least one, an ex-SR L1 4-4-0, still on the workbench. The L1 had cracked or broken cab window pillars, the 3MT and the pannier tank had triangular sections missing from the rears of their bunkers and required new plastic sheet panels and parts of their buffer beams to be fabricated (can you spot the new bits?). The 3MT still has its original chunky wheels, but the LT pannier and L1 gained new Romford/Markits wheels. None of these models was worth anything to a collector.

Yes, but you guys can borrow it for your Prime Ministers. It'll look great at the front of No. 10. 🤣

I'll be interested to see your progress on this, as I have a class 310 to build (eventually - it's not high on my priorities).

A wide-angle view looking towards that same paddock I showed before with the kangaroos, as it was a day ago. Scary stuff for our friends (they sent the photo). The Campaspe River runs in a wide loop around the back end of that paddock.

The vinyls can be persuaded to mould over the raised details by heating with a hair dryer. It takes a little time and perseverance, but it works. I have used ERG's vinyl overlays on quite a few models (in OO scale), but probably the ones with the most raised detail were some Hornby class 153 DMUs.

I have only just caught up again with this topic. You have some wonderful photos and memories there, Patrick. I have only recently returned from 5 weeks in Denmark, with excursions into Germany and Sweden, then had a week away in Adelaide (a little bit nearer home), all with limited Internet access because of the nature of our accommodations. I managed a good many bus, tram and train photos and videos, mostly snatched during our travels, so not specifically intended or planned shots.

A pair of NSE liveried cars were recorded at 60 mph on the main lines towards Eastleigh when on test before being sent to the Isle of Wight.