Some varied news at Easter time: firstly we visited the Golden Valley Light Railway today for a trip up the line behind the yellow simplex (pictured). A nice run, a bit short but friendly and despite the hailstorm that hit us 5 mins from the end of the trip, it was pleasant.
On the modelling front, I tested a section of hairy carpet underlay to see how I got on. I had bought the necessary strong PVA (febond) earlier in the week, and using an off cut of ply, I glued down small pieces of the Burnley (see earlier posts) underlay. When dry overnight, nail scissors were used to cut off the excess and then a hair trimmer to literally mow the grass down to a sensible height. The results are good and I am confident that this procedure, with extra detail added later of course will deliver the results I hope for. PS The image shows the underlay before trimming!
Below are 6 bogies with bemos glues on (the bogies are ex liliput - the coaches went for about £8 each on ebay with the 'replacement' bogies so I'm happy) - note the long length necessary to keep the bogies in the prototypical situation under the carriage, but also to place the couplings in a sensible position too! I also wanted to make sure the couplings were attached to the bogies as these huge carriages will need all the help they can to get round my 12 inch radius curves (even though my curves are transitioned).The clock behind the bogies also has a story - I showed a guy from Yarra trams around the NET tram depot last week and he gave me this as a thank you gift - it is crafted from an original tramway block used in the early days of Melbourne trams - cool! Best corporate gift I've had in a long time.
Tonight, I've also tidied up various boxes and found loads of little bits and pieces I had forgotten I had but which will be useful in the months ahead and I also soldered 3 Ffestiniog wagons together using low melt - 2 covered vans and a coal wagon.
I won a model of Jerry M (Mills class Hunslet) on ebay last week, it even has outside frames - well one side's finished and the other needs some work...ho hum. The other Jerry M (or Cackler) I have is sat half finished, so it might be time to get that to a state where it could be sold.
and finally, the additions to the Bachmann dynamis have been announced: the pro upgrade (to allow multiple controllers) is just £14 and an extra infra red receiver (to help avoid the coverage problems I have been hearing out) is just £17 - all good and it now almost certainly means that dynamis is the way forward.
Happy Easter
Colin
4 comments:
Good to hear about the Dynamis. I'm very tempted to get one, even though my current projects are very small, mostly for the much vaunted slow/fine speed control of DCC. Do let us know how you get on if you go for one.
Hi Colin, i've got a Dynamis for my 009 layout. Where did you hear the pro box would be £14? I've heard this rumour too, but then heard it was a misprint by Bachmann, and that it should be much more than that.
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17212&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=dynamis+pro+box
Sorry to bring a downer on your plans, should still be worth it though compared to other systems. I had considered the NCE powercab, but this too has had it's drawbacks with recent software updates not enabling it to run certain functions properly.
The price for dynamis pro was found on this page:
http://www.gaugemaster.co.uk/item_details.asp?code=B36508&style=main&strType=
The previous pro box item was withdrawn:
http://www.gaugemaster.co.uk/item_details.asp?code=B36506&style=main&strType=
Colin
Ok, i think someone may have got hold of the wrong end of the stick, and the prices quoted on RMweb would be for the pro package. Hopefully the upgrade will be the price on the gaugemaster site as i'm going to need two handsets for my next layout!
Thanks for the link.
Look forward to the next blog post.
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