Doesnt time fly....

Well first off apologies for the lack of updates to this blog. I had intended to update this far more often than i ended up doing. Anyway whats new, well very little. Ive finished the buffer stops on Studley after starting them 4 months ago.

The main change to Studley has been the addition of another two AHM trams and also the conversion to an up to date layout. Ive just bought one of the Bachmann 150/1s in FGW colours and its kind of moved Studley round to the Bristol area. Essentially its based on the premise they actually built the LRT that they have been arguing about for years. The conversion work involved removing the third rail which took about 30 seconds. The rest of it is just the vehicles that are placed on the layout. So now its more normal to see a F/L class 66 or DBS class 66 parked up than a 50 or 73.

Ive also been building up the stock for the 90s Highbridge with the introduction of a NSE mk1 Thames rake ( i still need two more SOs) the mail rake ( I need one more royal mail guv) and the I/C rakes which ive managed to complete with a bulk purchase at warley where i bought two complete rakes of 9 coaches. The only rakes i havent started are the provincial one which will be made of blue/grey mk2s and the Wessex NSE rake which is also made up of mk2s but this time in NSE colours. The latter of these two i hope to have completed by the end of Feb with the other by the end of May. Even these two rakes will total 14 odd coaches so including the ones above ive still got 17 coahces to buy!

In terms of freight stock there are still a few gaps, mainly in the PGA, Seacow and Silver Bullet departments. Of the first rake there is one rake in exsistance that can be used but it needs work. I need around 4 more seacows and all 12 of the silver bullets. At the moment im concentrating on stuff i think might become hard to find so its mainly coaches at the moment but i hope to add a few silver bullets every month so i can have a full rake!

Anyway moving on to Llwydd and basically i havent done anything with it apart from move it and find out the signal box is removable! I hope to start work on that later on in the year.

Anyway enough for now. Hopefully it wont be 6 weeks till the next update!

Tramage

Ive now got another two trams to play with. They are made by a firm called AHM (which i think is made by mehano). I have resprayed two of them into orange and white, one is showing a reversed livery. The other is just a plain green and white livery which is as produced but with yellow front ends.
Theyve cost around £30 each but they arent that well built as most of the bogies were detached in every one ive bought but the pins just push back in so its not a difficult job to do but they arent super smooth but having fitted dcc chips to them it does help.
I can only really fit one or possibly two at anyone time so i might remove the motor from the worst one and just run the other two with that one.

Now all ive got to do is to fine some lima mk3s for my other project. More about tomorrow.

Tope is more than a colour part 2

Ive been going through this week and sorting out my fleet of ballast and spoil wagons. This has included weathering them with both the powders and washes available from Humbrol. They work fairly well but they dont tend to leave a crusting that you get from others so i might try some of the mig weathering powders to see what they are like.

The other thing that ive been looking at is renumbering them so that they are all different. Ive created a template that i can print out and fit in the numbering i need. This means i have more than just the same consecutively numbered wagons which you tend to see.

Ive also been using the wagon loads from wagon essentials which i purchase from model railways direct as they are pretty realistic and for spoil wagons you can add the odd little bit of weathering so it looks even more realistic.

I just need more seacows!!!!

Giving people a ride

One thing i need to concentrate on for the early 90s fleet is passenger stock. Its one area where i am very short. I realistically need the following -

2x I/C hst sets. I dont have these but there are a pair available so these are a low priority.

2x I/C LHCS rakes. Im planning to use dapol mk2 vehicles in I/C for these two rakes. They will be formed in standard rake style BSO,TSO,TSO,TSO,TSO,TSO,TSO,FO but the other rake will have a replica RBR in place of one of the TSOs.

2x Mail rakes. For these i will be using various replica BGs and lima guvs. These i will be a mix of BGs in Blue, Blue/Grey, Res, Royal Mail and I,C wheras the Guvs will be in Blue, Res and Royal Mail.

1x NSE LHCS. This will be formed with Lima mk2s detailed up and flush glazed. Id like to have bachmann ones but cost is simply not on my side. This will be 8 vehicles long.

1x RR LHCS. These again will be a sort rake of lima mk2s again blue/grey or RR colours. This will be 6 vehicles long.

There is also a provisional charter rake made up of replica mk1 FOs in white roofed I/C and theres also the sleeper rake but i dont know how this is formed up so im still researching this one!

This will fill 8 roads of a 20 road fiddle yard. With all of the freight rakes and DMUs i think i have it all sorted now. But i suspect the best laid plans and all that.....

Tope is more than a colour for Highbridge

Well the step towards the Highbridge early 90s fleet has been the purchase of 7 Tope ballast wagons. Ive now got around 12 of them so with the addition of a few dogfish ive got a nice ballast rake. This is in addition to the Seacow rake which is the Meldon stone rake. For this i purchased a very cheap 33004 in BR Blue from Heljan. This will be one of the pair with the other being a dutch example which will be renumbered to 33057 Seagull.

This means that im really now only short on parcels stock and passenger stock. Ive got enough freight rake although a few more HEAs (of which i managed to pick up another 5 for £25 yesterday) and a few more seacows and some more assorted speedlink wagons. One thing i do know is im going to need to be alot more focused than i was on what i need to get. The trouble is when you see something cheap the temptation is sometimes too great!

Anyway more later!

Vi ing the livery

This week ive been trying to change some of the numbers and nameplates on my vi trains fleet but it seems vi trains used a very thing paint application so it tends to eat through the paint despite trying some new suggestions. The only bonus is that it can be touched in as the paints are very close to railmatch shades but i suspect quite a few things will need to be partially resprayed.

The other thing i have to do is to begin fitting some kadees to the fleet as vi trains didnt use standard NEM pockets but they can be made to fit with a little modification but for a model produced post 2000 its very poor that it doesnt have it. 

Im still missing a few more 47s to add to the fleet but the 37s are nearly done. Id just like to get a dutch centre headcode version and an i/c mainline livery version to complete the fleet.

In terms of my freight stock im pretty much there, i just need to get the stone rake sorted and get some HEA wagons for the domestic coal rake.

Anyway back to work!

Vi for the future

having been comparing the Vi trains and Bachmann 37s and 47s ive finally come to a decision. ive decided to go down the Vi trains road. The reason for this i think is simple. Firstly theres a good range of liveries and versions, secondly while harder to get there are around £20 to £30 cheaper than the bachmann model secondhand and thirdly i dont like the rather chunky look of the bachmann model. The vi trains model looks a little finer. needless to say the change has already taken place with 6 bachmann models having been replaced by 8 vi trains models which i think is a good swap. Ive got some renumbering to do which i know is a little more difficult with vi trains models but the paints needed to dust in the areas are very close match to railmatch shades so it should be fairly straight forward.

 Anyway enough babbling for now.

Tanking along and mixing it up a bit.

Well the beginning of the new stock fleets began today with the lucky purchase of 8 lima TEA tanks in Total grey livery. For £7.50 each i thought they were to good to resist. They will form a rake with some Bachmann TTA wagons and should look good with a petroleum livered 60 at the helm. Theres still plenty to go though for example im on the look out for cheap PGA wagons to build up to 30, i currently have 11 so theres plenty of work to do there. I also need around another 20 odd HEA wagons to build up the rake a bit but i do have a rake of freightliner flats but with 20 roads to fill theres plenty left! Im also looking at forming up two speedlink rakes and these will be mixed an varied workings with both opens, vans, scrap wagons, PCA cement tanks, cargowagons with other oddities. Together with one rake of seacows and one spoil rakes that means i have 12 roads left. Reduce that to 10 by having two sets of light locos, then take out another two for DMUs. This leaves 8 but that goes down to 6 when you take into account the two HST sets which can then be reduced to 4 once you add in two I/C LHCS rakes and then add one each of a Regional/provincial rake and an nse rake leaves me with two to find rakes for. I could add one charter rake with a steam loco but it leaves me with one road spare. What goes in that road, im not sure but im sure i will be able to find something to fill it but i will need a few spare wagons and coaches along with an odd rake extra incase i have issues. Anyway plenty of time to do it all but time is ticking.....

Has 25KV come to Llwydd Town

Well work has begun on Llwydd Town but there been on thing that im not sure whether to go through with or not. Theres a small temptation to add 25KV OHLE on the rear passenger line. It would change the layout but im not overly certain whether to do it at the moment but its a possibility but i suspect it will be a later mod. In terms of the rest of the layout ive got the point motors to fit and im also going to do a route setting system for the four fiddle yard roads. im also going to put in a power bus system using figure of eight cable and choc blocs. One bonus is that the wiring is already red and black so it should make identification quite easy. I do have to cut two rails as there are electrofrog points but im quite happy i thought i might have to cut alot more! There are also some signals to install. Im going to use the Berko range of signals simply for cost as i already have two that i need. Im also going to put in some shunt signals. Because of all of this im going to have to do a small mimic panel but thats ok as ive decided that the set of legs supporting the middle board are going to be wider so i can add a shelf the length of the board. The end boards will hang off the centre boards and will have 9 inch wide legs as oposed to 16 inch legs for the centre board. Ive also got to box up the board for protection and also for ease of transport and also to keep the dust off during storage! The only other jobs are small ones such as refitting the bridge and replacing the fence round the fuel unloading point which was damaged while in storage!

Back to basics modelling pt 37

Ive been looking at this more and im comming up with a potential list of models id like to aim for. The 37are the most difficult to decide upon as for a centre headcode example its best to get one of the updated lima moulds which had the horns fitted and also the plated boiler area of the roof. It is possible to do the horn mod on a non fitted one with simple sticking the top of the roof but ideal they would need to be inset. The roof near the boiler port can be done using a flat blade knife to shave off the ribs and a little plasticard or filler to sort out the actual port itself. There arent that many models which have the mod fitted so for base models its quite a limited so to do its most likely there will be some respraying required. I know i will need two departmental ones and one coal one. I have one departmental split box 37003 which has been done as 003 in is BR Blue colour scheme with its Tinsley unofficial name and i might cheat and a 37069 from lima but i would prefer to get a centre headcode version. One thing i will be able to do is to get 37308 as it could be used a domestic coal version. Im also looking at getting a pair of 37/5s from the St Blazy pool. Now i know the lima volcano set of 37/4s does have the later body but id like to do one of the sector liveried ones. Now they did a few of the St blazey pool but only 37674 in its transrail scheme has the updated body so its either a partial respray or a roof mod to 37671 or 37673. For class 37s thats pretty much it as i would need to a few but the temptation to do just ex split box ones is too tempting to the extent im doing everything i can do resist it. Ill see if i can upload some photos in my next blog update to show what i mean.

Motoring Maintenece

No not of the 12 inches to the foot kind. Im talking more of the 4mm kind. The last few weeks ive been servicing up some old lima mechs. They really are incredibly simple to work on and very easy to get running to a smooth if not quiet standard. I find with most of the mechs i need to check all of the gear trains for damage or moulding flash. I then run the motor with a small amount of toothpaste in the gear train. Toothpaste has a slight abrasive quality which cleans the gears up a treat, but make sure you clean all of the toothpaste out once youve finished. The other thing i find people dont do is to lubricate the motor bearings. Only the tinyest ammount is needed but it will make heaps of difference! Im currently going through a doing a fleet of older Lima locos possible for Llwydd but maybe a 1990s club layout but i have to say that it makes a nice change working on something so simple and quite rewarding when at the end you get a mech that keeps up with most of the newest models on the market. Over the next few weeks i will document the introduction of some of these locos that i plan to do.

Summer Time Modelling or Top Landing Gear

With the summer now well and firmly here its now the time when the modelling season like the real world has a holiday. Its the time of year when modelling is fairly low down on the scale of things. Me personally I prefer to fly my RC aircraft despite there being a distinct windy feeling this summer it is still possible to get up to the flying field and fly until your hearts content or until the battery gets flat. My current flight is this

Its an FMS P51D Mustang. It features flaps, retracts with sequenced gear and I quite frankly a hoot to fly. It was always my aim to get one of these and given ive only been flying around a year or so (in fact a year in 7 days time) im pleased my fight skills are now good enough to get hold of one. Loops, rolls and even things like Cuban 8s are possible although it does lack a little power when doing low strafing runs to make it look really realistic. This is all despite it being both electric and foam and it can be had for around £220, the lipo battery, charger and radio gear will cost extra but a dx6i radio set and battery can be had for around £190. Im currently looking at what to get next and my choices are either a P38, lightning, B25 bomber or the DH mosquito. I did find a nice stuka which id get simply so I could do dogfights with the mustang but im not sure whether its worth the outlay or not. Anyway chocks away!

Llwydd Lives again pt2

This last week ive been reconsidering Llwydd's rebuild and im considering reinstating the semaphores as previously I was going to use colour light signals. The problem is the colour lights don't really work and I think id also be doing the layout a disservice. This leads to an important question which is, which signals do I use? The Dapol ones aren't available at the moment so realistically it looks like a lot of ratio kits which to be honest is what the layout currently has. Answers on a postcard please?

Down the Drain

Today ive been working on some transfers for the Birmingham R.C.E drain train. This was a rake of 4 TTA tanks recoded to ZRA which were used to clear the drains in the Birmingham Area. They were bright yellow wagons. . The could be seen pretty much as far as Preston and down as far Watford area but mainly seemed to have been stored at Bescot. The transfers are now home made as the black lettering is pretty standard and I now have a template for the Tops panel which means I can whip up some very quickly. along with a new ink jet printer it means that I can do most of my own transfers again. The trouble being I cant do white however which is slightly annoying to say the least.

Back to basics modelling

One thought thats recently come to me was to get back to basics modelling. This will involve making use of the of older lima locos and using bits of plastic, etches and other bits and ending up with detailed models. Thats how we used to do it but it seems now all we do is get a loco and stick it on the track. That to me isnt really modelling and i have to say i feel like i dont have the skills so i also felt this would be a good way to improve my skills. The bonus being i would end up with a fleet of unique locos and it would also be relativley cheap. There are a few layouts that the stock could run on so it most certainly wont be a wasted effort. My thoughts are on the 31,37 and 47. Obviously they would need etched fans, and in the case of the 37 and 47 there would need to be removal of the roof straping on the 37 where needed and the the boiler port on the 47. On the 47 id also like to do the correct fuel/underframe tanks to the correct type for the loco. The 37 would also benefit from the correct window frames but i might leave this, they also need roof mounted horns as but they might be slightly compromised as the real ones are slightly inset but that cant be seen once the horns are in place. The 47 would also get the flushglaze. The 31 doesnt really need to much modification other than handrails which the 37 and 47s already need. Obviously all of these models will have full bufferbeam detailing. The other classes i will be looking at will be the 50, 56 and 60. The 60 doesnt require too much work and most of the work can be completed with requiring repaint. If you avoid the first 5 sector liveried models 60001/002/003/004/008 have an incorrect sized grill on one side wheras later ones have the grill corrected. The grills themsleves can be replaced without a repaint as they can be masked up once its been replaced. It will also need the internal equipment added as with grills opened up you can see straight through. The 60 also needs bufferbeams and the bogie footsteps. The 56s are only really correct from 56056 onwards without alot more work to modify the front ends. Apart from etched grills and working lights the bodyshell is pretty good. While some of the paint jobs are ok, the yellow is generally a very odd shade so needs to be repainted but again it can be done quite easily without needing a full repaint. Flsuhglaze is also required to help improve it. And finally the class 50. This could do with alot of work as the body has numerous detail faults. Below the underframe the biggest problem is that the bogies are incorrect and undersized however lima class 37 bogies can be fitted with ease with the footsteps modified. Above the underframe the model will obviously have etched grills, opened out exhaust ports and filled in sandboxes as they were removed when the refubished them back in the early 80s. The front ends could do with the wires for the multiple working boxes. Also the indicator box needs to be correctly plated over but etches are available for all of this. One other thing that can be added is the lifting points which are just behind the doors. This model also benefits from flushglaze. most of these models should cost no more than around £30 each and that includes the purchase of the original model. I would then have a completely unique fleet which might not worth much despite all the work its still a one off fleet and it will be all my own work.

New Layout possibility

Well while ive been away ive been thinking about the possibility of doing a small engineers layout. I did build one a few years ago but it was never shown but im planning to do it again as ive too many engineers wagons and need somewhere to put them. The track plan might need a little tweaking as ive been given a few points that I can use which will mean I only need a few small radius points and some lengths of flexi track.

Llwydd goes south!

Some people may be away that Llwydd Town had been sold. Well its now safely back at home in my garage. The plan now is to do a few little jobs that I feel it needs. These are essentially the following - - Fitting DCC - Adding point motors - Boxing the scenic boards up to protect them - Build some legs (they weren't included in the sale) - Replace the semaphore signals, they were only temporary nearly 10 tears ago so I will now have to look at replacing them, just not sure whether I need colour lights or semaphores. At the moment there isn't any time frame on when the work will take place but id like to have it done by next summer. In terms of the stock, some of it was purchased with the layout but there will be additions from myself and the era and location will remain the same.

Its back for good.

Well the blog is back. Ive been meaning to get it back into it so I will get the posts flowing again and begin showing what will be going on as quite a lot has been going while this blog has been off line. I will be updating it over the course of this week and hopefully there will be some interesting posts to follow.

Studley which did have a road but it seems to have gone missing?

Well i know its been three months but its impending show booking at Cheltenham has meant ive had to divert my time to something a little more important but the work is more or less complete. i will update the blog in a few days with a full update showing the photos taken during the rebuilding.