Layout work recommences

The house move is nearly over and although there is much yet to do at the new house (picture hanging etc), I managed to get 30 mins to add sleeper grime to the last board. I did the whole of one side and turned the board round so I can do the other side tonight. I then plan to connect this up to DCC power and test the points decoder.

New look

the blog has a new look. Let me know if you like it - this is also easy now - there are three check boxes - cool, interesting or boring - at the bottom of each post.

Colin

Brilliant - 16mm slate splitting!

Find more videos like this on Garden Railway TV

Crazy or relastic? You decide.

Colin

Loksound oh yes

My loksound decoder has arrived and it's absolutely fantastic.

I've only used it on my decoder tester so far, but I love the startup and shutdown sequences, the horn, guard's whistle, compressors, coupling sounds and everything basically. Just brilliant.

I will be installing it in the warship chassis asap and then testing without a body for a while, before I add the etched brass Funkey body (due to the short circuit risk).

I will post a youtube video on here when I get a moment.

Cool! Oh yes.

ummm, cheeky

Noted from expong, by my online friend fairlight works:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fairlightworks/4065264795/sizes/l/in/set-72157622588263769/

Available soon from Parkside for the princely sum of £125 (source: parkside dundas) - an RTR chassis with outside frames(!) and an amended body kit to go with it. nice! I expect you can get 10% with a 009 membership.

But then you can get a backwoods kit of the same (not an RTR chassis though) for £79!

Choices, choices.

Moving home

This weekend we have been mainly moving home, as have Tal and ME - From Boston Lodge to Dinas. Cool - this means I can run Tal and ME on my layout! see below...

various

Last night I gave 143’s front tank and roof another coat of satin black, painted the cab side number plates blue and added the cradle side plates too. I also patched up some areas where handling had caused paint to come off and weathered the smokebox slightly with thinned black paint. It is fair to say, that although it still requires conversion to DCC and the reattachment of its roof and top of its oil tank in the bunker, plus a final coat of satin varnish to blend the blacks together, the loco is pretty much ready to go.

I have taken some shots, but these are on my SLR and will take some time to download as I’m in Newcastle for the next 2 days and then will be moving house.

I also painted my FR hearse waggon’s body black and added black strapping to another FR covered van.

87’s front tank also had its wooden tank top boarding repainted in humbrol acrylic ‘natural wood’. I will mask this off before repainting these in what I expect to be a blue livery, if Boston Lodge rumours prove to be correct.

On the layout, I added some filler to one of the baseboard sides, where after planning, parts of the plywood had come away. This has tidied it up nicely ready for the house move.

PS I still can’t get the smokebox door off 87’s somkebox, ready for the smoke unit’s installation – it protests and I don't want to snap or damage the white metal casting!

Update

Today I have:

- Started adding chassis details to Upnor Castle, as the kit contains nothing below the running plate.

- Added recessed doors for Conway Castle from plasticard - the kit is of the earlier form of Conway which has doors flush with the body sides.

- Sprayed the roof and front tank of 143 satin black.

- Corrected a slight error with one of the legs of the water tank at the Waunfawr end of the layout.

- Removed the chimney and drilled a 2mm hole (to be widened to 3.6mm later) through it in order to prepare for the installation in NGG16 No. 87 of a seuthe smoke generator, to be powered via a decoder aux function. More info here (by the way gaugemaster is my mail order supplier of choice given their excellent postage policy). The seuthe 21 is just 3.5mm wide and 24mm high and so it fits in the NGG16 smokebox (just). However I will have to remove the smokebox door to install it - one step forward, one back. To see one in action check out this video.

- Cut off the trailing shaft on the replacement mashima motor and installed the worm. I tested it at every stage and this time, no mishaps!

- Purchased the new DVD on weathering available here.

Colin

Boards update

I have been gently pressing ahead with the board joins work this last few weeks (to improve the gaps) and can report now that all of the board edges have been planed and sanded and now abut nicely. The scenery needs touching up and making good, but this is a minor job.

The wrixoyd latches are now in stock and ready for installation and I have also procured the brass tubing for the sections between the hidden sidings and the boards (tube soldered to rails, pin inserted to assure good alignment). It looks like it's just one joint now that will be sub-prime (2mm gap), and this can be easily cut off and relaid - it's also a straight joint so it's no bother to alter.

Also today a replacement mashima motor has been delivered by backwoods, so work can start again on the NGG16.

However, we are moving house at the weekend, so this may be put back a bit!

Colin

'won' on ebay

Recently ebay has been a bit of a joke with 009 items - far too often hugely inflated prices are paid for items. However I'm pretty pleased with these two:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220495397218&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_975

and

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220495398186&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_500wt_975

You may note that neither has a chassis(!), but this should not be a major issue.

For Linda, I will use the outside frames it sports to fabricate some similar ones for Blanche, and after considering how good the tender motor might be, I will then probably get a bullant with extended axles and use meridian flycranks. I will however need the rods and valve gear, but I think parkside will supply these for a small charge.

Beddgelert is more interesting, I have a mostly complete but not painted kit. I will reuse that chassis and sell the body. Buying this puts me ahead with my painting backlog. I may also convert the minitrix 2-6-2 to outside frames to take account of the frames, cylinders and hornblocks present on this example.