K1 painting – more good progress

    

new boards....done

The Two new boards were constructed today and all the locating pieces for static legs repositioned (5 of the 9).

Upstairs I booked the van for expoNG and also found time to drill holes for the Greenwich couplings to be used on the bugs everso often checking how many miners were safe - an incredible story just made for live tv news!

And if you're wondering what the second picture shows, I've bought an oil filled electric radiator to keep the garage at a suitable temperature!

K1 paint progress

etch primer on chassis, satin black on body! nice! 

Change of plan (another one)

After a considerable time last night playing with the hidden sidings I have come to the conclusion that traversers will not be reliable enough for exhibition running.  Aligning 6 lots of tracks up reliably with <1mm gaps is proving very troublesome and the extra strong magnets are not strong enough to align the tracks vertically, although they do a great job horizontally.  Also the magnets as currently designed wouldn’t let the widest stock through, so a redesign would be necessary anyway, probably meaning the removal of one track from each 6 track traverser and realigning all the other roads further apart.  ouch.

Thus, with just days to go until expoNG, a change of direction has been enacted:

I will exhibit Rhyd Ddu as a continuous run with a set of marshalling yards at the rear, one central hidden sidings if you like, rather than two traversers.  This requires the construction of two new boards, 6 foot long each (which avoids the silly 2 foot square board and means the siding points will all be contained on one board).  I’ve got all the legs I need and most of the wire so today I’ll start the woodwork and the track and points will be ordered soon (probably second hand N gauge stuff as it’s cheaper and it doesn’t matter when out of view). 

The new layout of the layout will look something like this quickly drawn example…

Boards a and b will eventually become scenic. c is the new marshalling yard and d exists already.

visitation

Enjoyed a visit from the family for thomas' birthday today. This meant that dad and I had a chance to catch up.

Super progress has been made on k1, Gelert now has sorted rods and 87 has been transferred south. Dad is to concentrate on Locos now.

I have now been able to add couplings to carrs 23, 20, 16, 2115, 2060 and the flying bench. The latter having a coupling on just one end to allow it to be tagged on the back of a rake as a bit of a joke! 2100 has had bogies added and a coupling one end, but the obs end requires a specially long coupling. A prototype has been knocked up. The only other carrs that require couplings now are the bugs which are likely to be fitted with Greenwich ones.

The next three days have been set aside for work on the hidden sidings wiring and alignment. Joy!

K1 and Vale update

coming along nicely…

photo update

Here's a quick photo update of progress:
- 87 both sides with handrails on and misc other piping added.
- Carr 26 with handles on and bogies.
- altered coupling throw to achieve closer coupling on the buffet and 25
- a new coupling system for the locoal (all steel bogie wagons) train
- two trays of carrs with bogies on and couplings!

87 moves on

Here the pipework for the other side of 87 is coming together – ejector added with associated ‘U’ pipework etc and steam pipes into the smokebox.  

News from the western works

   

It seems that the WHHR have opened a secret extension to Glaslyn Junction using dual gauge track  (2' and 4’) and borrowed rolling stock from the WHR.  The first train enters the station hauled by 'Gelert' and comprising modern Romanian-built coach 2060.  Also seen partly painted in Vale of Ffestiniog.

Actually, this was just test running 'Gelert' having done some work on the chassis.

In other news K1 continues to make good progress and two Col. Stephens era FR carrs have had their white details and wooden droplights added.

Catch up

Very little time to blog due to the impending exhibition, but here’s some highlights.  Firstly a comedy shot of the new zoo car in 009 painted and sat inside a 16mm slate waggon!

I had a short holiday to North Wales, the waterfall at Tanygrisiau was expecially good and this HDR shot on Pwllheli beach was nice I thought.

  

Also managed to finally visit the Vale of Rheidol, which now sits at No. 4 in the best UK narrow gauge railways.  The views were excellent and although the passenger facilities are frankly non-existant, the loco looked great and performed beautifully. 

 

Wait a minute, haven’t I seen these wagons somewhere before???

At Aber the new workshops’ concrete base had been poured.

  

On the way home, the road through the Cwmystwyth lead and silver mines was impressive!

I also had a look at the old FR line up to Llechwedd and discovered a few gems…

Ffestiniog Railway: The Fairlie Duplex Engine

The bogieman!

So here we go, the mass run of couplings being added to bogies…

Coupling up

I have found a solution to affixing couplings to the three types of bogies I use.  Some of the lilliput bogies are fine as is, they come with bemos on already and if the length is correct they go straight on (B wagons are like this).  If not then the bemo is removed and replaced by a bachmann OO DMU coupling (like bemo) with a small retaining piece of plasticard glued on.  The removed bemo is then used in the greenmax bogies, with some slight adjustments to the pocket.  Finally the parkside plastic bogies also take bachmanns with another small piece of retaining plasticard.  Fixed couplings on wagons etc will be real bemos. They are all compatible with each other as long as the height is right, which was the hardest part, but is now sorted.  From top above – lilliput (mainly for WHR saloons), parkside (for FR/WHR heritage stock), greenmax (for FR saloons). 

Boring but useful progress

Many many many small and fiddle door handles and grabs added to loads of carriages today.  Really makes a difference, but is quite a job!

More on 143

Forgot to mention yesterday that the smokebox steam pipe covers were cut from thin brass and soldered together.  They are really fiddly but should be fettled and attached today.

So far today, I have added the ejector and U pipe, bent the blower pipe and altered its position on the cab front and reattached a vac pipe that had come loose plus some touch-up painting.  Only the plates, some pipework and balance weight painting, cab spec plate surrounds and the wiring to do now.

Unfortunately though we hit a problem with the bugs – oddly as the powerbond dries it fogs the glazing up.  I first noticed this on a play drill I repaired for Thomas and the same fate has befallen the bugs.  One is passable, the other was taken apart again and has now been reattached with different glue.  The roofs were also given 2 coats of medium grey (tamiya).

143 progress

Or putting it back together.

New copper pipes to top feed
Boiler bands painted silver
Headlights added to tank ends
Cowcatchers painted black
Underside of roof painted
Whistle added to turret
Small grab handles added to smokebox saddle
Decoder added under oil tank
Small strips added to bunker sides
Ejector pipework and nameplates prepared for installation tomorrow.

I also glazed and roofed 2 bugs.

25 days to go…

Progress:

- woodwork – new breakfast bar style legs need installing and new board covers need building. Mostly done, board covers just need velcro now.

- track – painting to be finished on yard board, but well on now.  hidden sidings transitions need installing with work needed to finally align board joins using brass tubes which have been made ready

- pointwork – need to install tortoises on yard board and test, else done

- backscene – order mirror vinyl for ends. It may be that I just cut out the hills from current prints and mount on top of a generic sky for now. 

- electrics – yard board needs completion then carry through to hidden sidings required

- lighting – ready just needs a few screws driving home once backscene sorted.

- hidden sidings board alignment – do magnets work? in progress

- curtain around layout base – just needs velcro on layout. awaits layout being fully erected

- scenics – tart up board joins, add signs and details. Extra trees to hide any backscene issues. left to end

- carriages – much progress, but bogies need couplings adding, glazing needs installing, grab handles required plus transfers

- wagons – nearly complete, just need light weathering when airbrush out for other things and transfers

- check van size as my calculations reckon we will need a LWB transit. done, but finding such a van locally is still proving to be difficult

- locos

1) 143 – well on

2) 138 – Dad has begun painting chassis and detailing body, will be fine.

3) 87 – body detailing in progress, chassis with Dad.  MAY NOT BE READY.

4) K1 – MUCH progress, but will only appear in matt black livery for expong, rather than lined current livery.

5) Castell Caernarfon – nearly ready

6) Vale of Ffestiniog – basically just needs painting now in it two tone green livery.  base green done.

7) Merddin Emrys – needs pickups adding and lining, plus decoder.  Should be easy.

7) Russell – with Dad to finish electrifying and then ready to paint. 

8) Upnor Castle – body to chassis link basically done, many more details added, coming on. base green done.

9) Taliesin – NOW WILL NOT BE READY

10) Gelert – needs final painting and conversion to DCC may be tricky due to live chassis. 

a good weekend of progress

Rolling stock continues to make good progress. This weekend we:
Painted all roofs in varying shades of grey
Drilled out hundreds of holes for handrails
Installed handrails on many carrs
Added people to 24 and repainted Pullman seats in a better shade
Discussed details on k1 including the odd cab handrails. Holes were drilled for these.
Painted lettering on 23 and bugs the latter also getting varnish and the zoo car a roof.
Primed upnor's roof

And made a few decisions... For expong we will not manage:
Most glazing and vac pipes
The nwngr train which was obviously a bit silly anyway for a modern image layout!
A few carrs not required for running sets such as 26 and the admiralty brake 1001

Sorry! Just ran out of time.

carriage works

Work in progress today... Roofs being painted, grab holes drilled out etc.