SRman

I have both Howes (on LokSound v3.5) and Legomanbiffo (on LokSound v3.5 and v4). I like both, although I would rate the Legomanbiffo sounds slightly ahead of the Howes, but it is good to have variations on the sounds too, as not all locos sounded identical, especially at idle. I also have a Digitrains class 33 on a Zimo decoder and that is different again, with a nice rough, rolling idle, but not quite so good on the thrash sounds. I have a few videos (some quite old) but these two will give some idea of the differences in sound (remembering that the v3.5 has a more restricted choice of speakers, which affect the overall quality of sound too). Howes sound: Legomanbiffo sound: Zimo/Digitrains sound:

As many of you know, I am also into model buses; here is the latest one off the workbench, with a couple of minor finishing touches still to come. It is a Little Bus Company resin kit of a 1936 London Transport country area forward-entrance STL (AEC Regent type). The strange doorless entrance took up two seating bays and was supposed to be draught-free ... it wasn't! The early greens varied somewhat and didn't weather well in service, but LT eventually settled on the more familiar Lincoln green for its country buses. I have tried to capture the look of the early lighter green livery as best I can with very little accurate information available. Note that this bus has been 'borrowed' for use on Green Line route Y1. These buses were intended for such use but deemed unsuitable, but were used when certain Green Line routes were reinstated during the War. Buses were known to be substituted for coaches on Green Line services many times to cover for failures or shortages. Green country buses were preferred, but red buses did appear on occasions. P_20200201_230619_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200201_230641_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr What's missing? I have not yet added registration number plates or fleet numbers, and the half-drop opening windows (three per side upper, two per side lower deck) will be represented with microstrip on the appropriate windows.

Just testing to see if I can use Google photos to share and display here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/VvajYY1SRPD8BvKe8 Edit: well. I finally got the link to work, but will have to see if I can work out how to get it to display as well. If I can do this, it means I won't have to remove photos from Flickr when I hit the 1000 image limit. [url=https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z15nqho8g1e3rPjz9/P_20200122_163743_vHDR_On.jpg[/img]

The farm scene has been positioned in its back corner of Newton Broadway. While there are still a few minor tweaks I can do to improve it, quite a bit of the detail is hidden from normal view anyway ... but I know it's there. P_20200129_090238_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200129_094719_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200129_090226_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

A recent European loco purchased was this Swedish SJ RC3 Bo-Bo electric locomotive. I got it at a very reasonable price, otherwise I would not have countenanced buying it because is is a Lima model, with the construction common to the majority their British diesel models, i.e. it has a pancake motor on one bogie with diagonally split pickup and the horrible brass wheels. However, for all of that, it is probably the best running Lima model I have ever come across, with excellent low speed control on both DC and (subsequently) DCC. It was worth purchasing and converting to DCC. I was even luckier in that the motor brushes are already completely isolated from the power bogie frame, so hard-wiring a decoder was simplicity itself. I connected the red wire of the chosen decoder, a Zimo MX600 with its 8-pin plug cut off, to the electrical pickups on the power bogie, adding a red heat-shrink sleeve to the bare wire coming up from the pickups. The black wire was attached directly to the unpowered bogie's brass clip. The orange and grey wires were soldered to each brush clip, and the loco was tested on the programming track. It worked perfectly, and very, very smoothly first go. It even went in the right direction for what I wanted to be forwards. The model comes with directional lighting using diodes and bulbs. The lighting wires and diodes were removed from the dummy bogie's clip at the same time as I was soldering the black wire to it, and the light's return wire removed from the motor bogie pickup wire where it was attached. After testing the motor wiring, I could now wire the blue wire to both bulbs and the white wire to what would be the leading bulb (I like the unpowered end to be the "front"), and the yellow wire to the trailing bulb. Once again, I tested this on the programming track, and all worked perfectly when Function 0 was selected. The loco was programmed to its running number, 1058, and sent around the main lines with a suitable train, where it is seen here. All in all, I am pleased with it for what was a very low budget acquisition. I will in the future do something about the light bleed where the body halves join, and give it some rudimentary cab interiors, which will also prevent the headlights illuminating the (empty) cabs as they do at present. The coaches are from Roco and NMJ (a Norwegian firm I hadn't heard of before), and are of a very high quality. P_20200126_113209_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I used automotive aerosol sprays on my class 455 to get the base colour (a Ford flame red in my case) before adding the windows. I used vinyl overlays from Electra Railway Graphics vinyls to complete the livery elements. Incidentally, for the window frames on the unliveried kits like you and I have done, I used a silver Sharpie pen to pick out the raised frames and sliding vents - a lot easier to apply than paint with a brush. The Sharpie may not be as durable as paint, but can be varnished, or, as in my case, covered by the clear vinyl of the overlays. The centre coach bodies have been primed here with grey primer. Bratchell Class 455-9 Under Construction - 8 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr All coach bodies have been sprayed with the flame red. I left the clear fronts unpainted because they need careful treatment - I usually hand-paint these. Bratchell Class 455-9 Under Construction - 10 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Next was to hand-paint some of the livery elements. These didn't have to be exactly right, but were done to reduce colour show-through when the vinyls were applied. Bratchell Class 455-9 Under Construction - 17 cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The window frames done with the silver Sharpie pen. Painting the Window Frames - 1 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr The fronts were painted to match. Colours here were approximate ones only. The final coats are done with the correct colours. Note also that I didn't worry too much about the roughness of the colour borders because of the vinyls to come. If you are doing the colours entirely through your own painting, definitely mask off carefully to get crisp edges. Bratchell Class 455-9 Under Construction - 21 1900 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Still more to do, but three of the coaches have the vinyls overlaid now, with one still to go. The front ends require more work, including drilling the lights out to accept LEDs. This how the unit is at present. As you can see, I haven't rushed this build, just doing things in easy stages. P_20191003_124418_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Good Luck with the completion of your unit, Callander, it will be rewarding, as well as a learning experience. I'm willing to bet yours will be completed before mine is.

Hi David, It does appear to be a form of PVA, possibly with additives. Straight PVA would work but would probably take longer to set. Another alternative would be Microscale Krystal Klear, which is also a glazing glue with a PVA base. Whichever you wish to try, they will dry clear and remain flexible to cushion any accidental knocks.

The scientists who want to milk the venom from these spiders to create the anti-venom are calling it a "funnel web bonanza"!

I washed my car before we did a trip up to the border over the weekend: drove to Kyabram where we stayed for two nights and went through a storm on the second evening, which nicely washed the road dust off again. We drove to Echuca, where we spent another night. It rained for most of that day in Echuca, and the car remained clean. Drove back to Melbourne on Tuesday, all good, nice and clean when we got home. After today's rain, the side of the car that remains exposed in our carport is now covered in dirty red-brown blotches!

I used 'Glue n Glaze', which dries clear. It is strong enough to hold the discs in place, yet not so strong that it would damage the paintwork or body if peeled off.

Having only just caught up with the comments since Friday (I was away for a few days), I had no problem with the lighting when I fitted a Dapol Imperium decoder; they worked correctly right from the start. That leaves me wondering what the CV changes in the supplied instruction sheet were supposed to achieve.

For the derailing issue, try slackening off the bogie retaining screws about a quarter turn. This will allow slightly more play in the bogie for up and down, fore and aft movements.

There were Hillman Minxes from Minix and Springside in 4mm scale, plus Imps from Minix and Oxford Diecast. Other than that, I have the Hillman Hunter kits from your range, Bernard, and there were the Sunbeams you mentioned, but Super Minxes seem to have been completely ignored., even though they weren't all that rare on the roads.

That was an American Ford Falcon with left-hand drive. Australian Falcons came onto the market from 1960 and a few found their way overseas over the years. they were better cadidates for UK roads as they were already right-hand drive. One car type that appears quite few times in the clip is the Hillman Super Minx, but I have never seen a model of one of these in any scale.

I gave up on Photobucket, Peter. Currently using Flickr, but there are other alternatives.

Coincidentally, I just had a phone call from a friend asking if he could use a computer PSU to power various aspects of his layout. Your link was very timely, and I have forwarded the link to my mate. Thanks.

Andy's videos show admirably how the coaches sort of glide through the transition from straight to curve and curve to straight with very little end throw going out of line with the next or previous coaches. i was watching a European model video (not one of my videos) on YouTube earlier, and it showed very well (by accident) the effects of not having transition curves. Pay particular attention to the double deck set being propelled into a loop at 4:44. [/url

Farm scene progress: things are happening more slowly as I get into the detail work. The gaps under the pig sty walls have been covered with a little thicker glue and scatter material. P_20200113_181938_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr I have added some rough turf along the embankment and at the end of the Long Field. A couple of Noch turnips have been planted in the farmer's vegetable garden, and ferns along the fence line on the embankment, as well as a couple of "escaped" turnips. Some ferns have also gone into the rough at the end of the Long Field. I have a couple more packs of the laser-cut ferns, so will add a few more to the scene later. There are nine ferns per pack. P_20200113_181953_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200113_181948_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Long Field cropped by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Addendum: I have fitted the detail pipes but left off the screw couplings. The ends of each of the supplied pipes are differently shaped and fit only on the correct recesses in the buffer beam. I left one end fully detailed (so I should fit the screw coupling as well!) with no tension lock coupling fitted, and snipped off the pipes closest to the centre on the other end to allow the coupling to swing from side to side - the pipes were snipped roughly level with the bse of the buffer beam, so there are partial pipes there but they can't interfere with the coupling. P_20200111_192555_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

If they have the old X04/X03 motor, then they are an easy conversion to DCC (with hard-wiring). These motors do take more power than newer motors, though, so a decoder with a reasonably good output is advisable. I have converted an old Triang Hymek diesel with the original design (pre-ringfield) motor bogies - I fitted two motor bogies and wired a TCS T1 decoder to both in parallel, and it all worked extremely well. Going back to the X04/X03 motor, I would suggest a decoder from the likes of Lenz, ESU or Zimo, as these all also have overload protection built-in (TCS are also good but that's because they have a "goof-proof" warranty, so if you blow their decoder up, they will replace it, regardless of who is at fault). The chassis on your locos will be live, as part of the return current. Some heat-shrink tubing on the brush spring wire will isolate the brushes completely (one will already have an insulating sleeve anyway, but replace it with the heat-shrink too, to make sure it won't move accidentally). Solder the grey and orange decoder wires to the brushes. Solder the red wire to the pickup wire that went to a brass tag that was attached to the originally insulated brush side. Attach the black decoder wire to the chassis - this may be done where the screw holding the spring wire goes through the motor magnet, or it could be done where the motor mounting screw attaches to the chassis. Test on the programming track before allowing full power to reach the decoder.

Hi Peter. My Dapol D6121 came with exactly the same paperwork as yours. I guessed that the body was only clipped on - it came off quite easily after spreading the bases of the sides slightly. Like you, I think it would have been helpful if Dapol had included a sheet showing which detail parts are supposed to go where. I installed a Dapol Imperium 21-pin decoder in mine, and it worked all of the functions without my having to modify any settings. As a matter of convention to fit in with all of my other locos and units, I do alter CVs 3 and 4 to values of 25 and 18, respectively, because I like a lot of inertia and momentum.

With industrial locomotives (and trains) it is much easier to use fictitious operators and liveries. Many of my industrials have only slightly modified liveries from their originals, but the recent Hornby Ruston DS48 I bought got a complete repaint, apart from the wasp striped ends (which is why I chose this particular model in the first place). The original was in Army green, but I wanted it to match the blue on my (ex-) NCB Peckett. I ended up using NSE dark blue, with a black wash and a coat of satin varnish. It's close, but not identical to the NCB blue. P_20200106_161134_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200106_161209_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I have been continuing work on the farm scene, which will sit in the back corner of my layout. The curved concrete retaining wall at the front will adjoin the railway. There are some more details and patches to go: I had to pull the fence out again (which seems a retrograde step, but in the longer term it will all come together) to fill the gaps behind the wall, which will then be painted when dry, and more vegetation added, including some rougher shrubs, weeds, ferns and vines. I haven't decided what fence style (or hedge) to use for the separation of the field at far right from the railway. P_20200107_145513_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200107_145529_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200107_145538_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200107_145542_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200107_145551_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20200107_151225_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Not yet. I have run out of nameplates at present, but have more on order from Narrow Planet, keeping with my theme of girls' names beginning with 'A'. I need a short name for this locomotive, so possibly it could end up as Alba, or it could do a name swap with Janus diesel electric No. 17, Amy.