SRman

A little improvement to the upper level scenic area in the form of some track painting. I really should do this before I ballast the track, but once I put the third rail in, that has to go in after the ballasting anyway, then has to be painted - any other order results in difficulties and bare areas on the rails where they have slid through the 'pots'. I have left the inside areas of the point blades unpainted where they contact the running rails. The ancient Mainline brake van has Bachmann metal wheelsets fitted, and is being used to test flangeway clearances after ballasting. P_20190708_223238_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190708_223335_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Another major improvement was to wire up the Heljan turntable, which is now fully operational, albeit I am still on a steep learning curve as far as programming it goes. The tracks leading up to it are not yet properly laid and are not yet wired, either. Excuse the clutter around the turntable - this whole area is still very much a work in progress. P_20190708_223252_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190708_223305_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Some 6-pin decoders do not have the ability to run on DC, but otherwise I agree with all of the advice above. Try it on DC and if it works, all well and good, there will be no need to change anything. If it doesn't work on DC, do as suggested and buy (beg, steal, borrow) a 6-pin blanking plug and swap out the decoder. From memory, fitting the decoder was not that difficult to do in mine, so in reverse, it shouldn't be too difficult to remove - just two screws hold the chassis to the body.

Earlier this year I purchased a green Heljan Western diesel-hydraulic, D1002 Western Explorer, off an eBay seller. I got it at a good price, and it came with etched plates fitted and a bit of nicely done weathering. I like the Heljan Westerns, but they do have the error in the cab roof shape that results in a large peak over the windscreens. With my previous Heljan model, D1007 Western Talisman in maroon, I filed the roof shape down until I had it much closer to the correct profile. I couldn't match the maroon precisely, so weathered the whole roof to disguise the colour mismatch. I have now spent an hour or so filing down the peak on the green one, although the shape is not quite right yet, looking slightly too domed. I was able to closely match the green, and once I get the final shape right and can weather the newly painted cab roofs, I should be able to blend the new back into the old. While I was at it, I also fixed a loose lamp iron, which the previous owner had fitted, then painted all four of the lamp irons. Here is the 'before' for the cab roof shape: P_20190309_121728_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr And the 'after', as it stands now. Western Talisman is posed beside Western Explorer to show what I think it should look like once I refine the shape a little further. P_20190707_162431_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190707_162443_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Western Talisman also features some home made wire brake rigging and adapted (hacked!) Heljan mouldings for the brake blocks.

I have a quite old Howes file on a Heljan Western with a LokSound v3.5 and twin speakers in parallel. There is a minor bug with this sound project that only manifests itself at a particular speed, but overall I like this sound project and haven't heard anything better, yet. You can have a bit of a listen here:

Oh dear! The ballast is a mixture of Woodland Scenics stuff: some fine grey ballast, some fine brown ballast, some fine turf in dark brown soil colour, some desert mix (i.e. dry brown and yellowish) turf, and for the finishing touch, a little real sand. I deliberately vary the proportions of each colour for every strip of ballast laid to get away from any uniformity of colour. For the powdered glue, I managed to get hold of some Cascamite on eBay as it just doesn't seem to be available anywhere in Oz. I even drew on DougN's knowledge of the building industry, and he didn't know of any equivalents available here in Australia. I used (very) approximately a quarter of the volume of the ballast in the mixing jar for the successful mix. The first, unsuccessful, attempt used rather less of the glue. This is a very unscientific process, basically the try-it-and see-if-it-works method! One thing I will say, though, is that in spite of the extra cost of the glue, it is a big labour saver for me, and also a lot kinder to my back.

The track ballasting has been successful this time, with the powdered glue setting properly on the inner track. Here is BR(S) N class 2-6-0 31860 with a ballast train. I think the men working on it must be on their tea break, perhaps hiding somewhere in the village High Street nearby. P_20190707_104554_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190707_104639_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Projects for the last couple of days, on and off: Ballast the curves at the 'eastern' end of the layout. I am experimenting with powdered glue mixed in with the ballast but am unsure of what proportions I need. Result with the outer track was that it didn't set at all, and I had to do it the old fashioned way of soaking with detergent and water then dripping diluted PVA glue in. The inner track has a lot more of the powdered glue mixed in, but is still wet in the photo, so the jury is still out as to the success or otherwise of this mix. P_20190706_171610_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr I have also been constructing some Hornby deciduous trees, varying my techniques a bit to improve the appearance. I also bought a job lot of trees from our friend Malcolm's deceased estate, with some being quite usable with a bit of thin wire drilled into the bases of their trunks. I planted four of these plus one of the Hornby ones beside the overbridge where the main lines cross the underground tracks, and a couple more of the Hornby trees next to the steep road hill near the programming track. None are permanent, yet, while I assess in my mind how successful or appropriate they look. More of the Hornby trees are drying at the moment on the workbench. P_20190706_171552_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190706_171754_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190706_171833_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Jeff Lynn, £30 deposit for class 92.

There is one advantage to using addresses 100 to 127 as long addresses rather than short: if you take your locomotive to someone else's layout with a different DCC system, it will probably work, whereas a short address between those values may not be able to be called up, because many systems only go up to 99 for short addresses, then automatically 'assume' that anything 100 or over is a long address.

I have long intended to add a small rise or mound leading up to the bridge sides, to get away from the flat baseboard appearance along the front, while not blocking the view of trains. Work commenced yesterday with a block of foam, followed this morning with a coat of hurricane grey paint, and some scenic grasses this afternoon. The glue is still wet in these photos, and there is plenty of loose scatter material to vacuum up once it has dried, but this gives an impression of the final look. The bridge has been shifted slightly to one side to prevent it accidentally being glued down, as it has to remain removable. P_20190703_161022_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190703_161042_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

The NCE consist addresses are used but not specifically reserved: you can use addresses in that range for individual locos, just don' confuse them with any allocated to consists. As to using address 114, when you go through the steps to reprogram your locomotive to 114, you will be given the option to activate the address. 114 is an address that falls within the 'normal' range of short addresses (1 - 127) that NCE systems can address. If you activate it as a short address, you should be able to simply 'Select Loco', type in 114 and 'Enter'. However, the NCE can also treat any address from 0 to 9999 as long addresses. If you program and activate 114 as a long address, you will have to enter '0114' with the leading zero when you wish to select that locomotive. The display will have an asterisk (star, if you prefer) in front of the number to indicate it is a long address. In other words, NCE systems can have two parallel sets of addresses in the 1 to 127 range. Edited to correct the long address range: address 0 is also valid in the long addresses but not the short ones.

I have been playing around with couplings on my set, with a temporary Maunsell composite in the centre until the proper Bulleid version arrives later. I tried the Hornby close couplings and the coaches were much too far apart for my liking. Next I tried the Bachmann rigid imitation pipes from their mark 1 coaches, and that was no better. I don't have any Roco close couplings spare at present, although some are on the way from Modellbahnshop-lippe. So, I went for my more usual couplings for use within fixed formation sets, the good old Kadee. I tried #17s first (too short!), then #18s, which gave the best result, and matched what I already had on the Maunsell coach as well. P_20190630_210026_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190630_210058_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I had a quiet and relaxing Sunday morning running session with some of my European trains again today. After a while I decided to take a few videos of the trains as they ran around the double-tracked high level main line. The running trains include a mixed freight hauled by Piko Hobby (i.e. a basic model) DB BR 185 540, Kassel Huskies, with wagons from mainly Piko and Roco. In the other direction, sharing a track, are a Heljan DSB IC3 in Swedish State Railways (SJ) Y2 guise, and a Brawa DB double deck set propelled by Piko Expert (i.e. has all the 'bells and whistles', so to speak) DB Br 112 121. I discovered that F12/13/14 will dim the coach lighting in each individual coach of the double deck set - these Brawa models are really fully-featured, and included a PLuX22 decoder which works all three coaches, and even any further matching coaches added to the rake. One thing I have not mastered yet with the Brawa set is the coupling arrangement. They provide a template piece that is supposed to guide the couplings together or allow easy uncoupling: I always end up giving up on this and inverting the set onto the adjacent track and doing it manually, so far!

Ha! Come to Australia and find out what 'hot' really means!!

I have been fixing up what has long been a minor annoyance: Hornby's otherwise superb model of the Maunsell S15 4-6-0 no. 30830 had the cabside number on one side on a slight downward slope. This was common to the whole production batch. I got out the cotton buds and T-cut and polished off the numbers on either side of the central '8' - a slightly harder job for me as I had weathered and varnished the loco previously. I chose to retain the '8' as a reference point for the rest. I dug out the HMRS pressfix transfers, which were an exact match for the size of numerals. I carefully applied a strip of Tamiya masking tape below the remaining numeral and aligned it very carefully so it was parallel to the footplate. Then, to make sure there were no slight colour differences, started with the '8' from the HMRS sheet, then worked on the numbers on either side. I am aware that the spacing has gone slightly adrift, but I will fix that before varnishing the cabside again and blending the weathering back in. The first pic shows the 'before' with the slightly sloping number, the next two show it as it is before I do further fixing up. S15 edited by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190628_210003_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190628_210019_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

I really must take exception to the condition of the drivers. They should not be allowed to drive legless; there are laws about that!!

Still on the subject of the Swindon Cross-Country class 120 units (sorry to bang on about these!), many of these eked out their last days as two car units in blue and grey. The potential is there for these to be offered as a 2-car with an optional centre car, much as Hornby did with at least some of their class 110 sets many years ago. No prizes for guessing that I wouldn't mind a rtr version of a 120 in OO.

Yes, there was a 10' container in use as an office on the construction site at the school I work in until very recently.

For accuracy, the Swindon class 120 DM underframes need to be deepened when compared to the centre coaches and most other units. I'm not sure if it applies to any other Swindon types (classes 123 and 126 come to mind).

This and your 501 unit are coming on great guns. I must admit the task of adding the door hinges is one I put off and pretend doesn't exist in the hope that it will somehow magically get done while I am not looking! I have a nearly complete class 206 'tadpole' and a disintegrating 4 EPB to finish from DC Kits kits (the EPB suffered a minor fall and the sides separated on one of the coaches).

If you are running SR trains, you can certainly mix Southern green (revarnished pre-nationalisation Bulleid green with BR markings) together with crimson and cream coaches. All the new BR mark 1 coaches of the time were delivered in c&c. Of course, with the Bournemouth Belle, you would use mostly Pullman coaches, but other trains could use the aforementioned 'ordinary' stock of Maunsell, Bulleid and BR coaches. There were interregional trains too, with SR stock going north and west, and LMR, WR and ER stocks coming south or east, as the case may be. That gives us good excuses to have 'foreign' stock on our layouts too.

truffy, the photo shows 10203 in BR green with orange lining and the later crest. It never ran on the Southern Region in this livery. However, if you are modelling 10201, it would be worth checking to see when she underwent the repaint and change of crest, because not all of the Bulleids were done at the same time. All three were transferred to the LMR in 1955. That's only if you are concerned with total accuracy, otherwise you could exercise a little modeller's licence and run your 10201 with the blood and custard and maroon coaches. It is also quite possible a few such coaches survived in LMS maroon with BR markings through to 1956, although they would then have been among the first to be repainted into BR maroon.

Thanks for that, Ian. I had in the back of my mind that the first class end of the compo went towards the lower-numbered brake coach, but I was at work and had no access to any of my usual reference materials, so preferred not to just guess; the links you provided confirmed my notion.

Getting them out is easy. Getting them back in is more difficult, but, as Cheesysmith said, the bogies are completely made up from clip-together components.

There was a convention on the SR as to which end of the composite was nearer the lower numbered brake, but I cannot remember it off the top of my head. The SEMG or Blood & Custard websites may be of help here. Personally I am not too bothered as the coach numbers are all but unreadable at normal viewing distances, especially while the trains are in motion. Come to think of it, some of my converted Bulleid coaches (with Comet sides) don't actually have coach numbers at all ... round tuits, and so on!