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!