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JANUARY 2024 UPDATE
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STEVE HARROD
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GREG BROOKES
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STEVE CARTER
With the festive season eating into available modelling time, a relatively easy project was
sought from the to-do pile. In 1956 the LMR region of British Railways came up with a plan
to create a dieselised special saloon which initially was to be for a one-off occasion. Thus
M79649 (a Derby Lightweight DTCL to Diagram 509 from Lot 30241 Derby 1956) was selected and
given temporary fittings. After the event the project had made such a good impression that
enquiries were made to see if money could be made available for constructing a dedicated
two-car unit but sanction for this was not forthcoming. However due to spare capacity,
M79649 had now become permanently available and so was extensively modified internally to
provide a mobile 'board room' with catering facilities (externally no changes were evident
with it remaining in an as built configuration). During use it required the provision of a
similar yellow diamond lightweight power car but as this became more difficult to arrange
its wiring was changed in 1960 to allow use with blue square power cars. Initially allocated
to Reddish depot It was later renumbered to became DB999510 and allocated to Carstairs before
finally being withdrawn in 1979.
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KARL CROWTHER
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JONNY DUFFETT
Following the terrible winter of 1946/47 where the lowest temperature of -21Celsius
was recorded in Kent, and the severe cold snap in February 1948 which mainly affected
the South East with snow drifts and temperatures down to -18C, two more were ordered.
These were built by British Railways as S3 and S4. Further information has come to light
and the plough was in fact a copy of a North Eastern Railway 1907 design. Hand wheels
are made from brass strip and fixed with dressmaking pins in the model.
My 3D designs are available free at
Thingiverse
for you to print yourself, or visit *********************************************************************************************************************************************
KIER HARDY
Some wagons and coaches (example as fitted to a Heljan tank wagon shown right) have
non-standard axles, so fitting replacement wheels can be hard work. This simple tool
has been converted from a small vice, with a 1.5mm hole drilled down the centre to
protect the pin points, when spreading the wheels after flange reprofiling.
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MIKE WHITCHURCH
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I have managed a few hours on the works building which was primed a good few months back,
so I managed to get a base colour of brick using enamel paint.
The rest of bricks on the works building will be picked out in various brick colour tones,
then finally adding the mortar by using acrylic paint.
I have made a start on the individual brick painting on the wall beneath the glazing, but
still need to add a few other shades.
Accidents happen! Peak D4 overruns the goods loop just short of the retaining wall.
YEC Janus from BSC Shenston shunts ore hopper wagons in the exchange sidings.
Built from Jonny Duffett's 3D prints, these three 24t ore hoppers are new into the wagon
fleet, just awaiting numbering.
Also new into the Shenston Road loco fleet is 47005, looking shiny and bright. I'm going
to keep this Bachmann Class 47 in ex-works condition, seen here at Hornsey Road depot.
Captured at the head of a freightliner service is 45003 - a Heljan model.
Fortunately it is possible to procure a correctly decorated / glazed body shell for conversion
from the Bachmann Spares website (Part No. E3251-200-04), this being DTCL E79621 from set 32-516A
(underframes and bogies can be sourced from the same site but my chosen chassis came via a well
known on-line auction site). Thankfully the only changes needed are the removal of its Felixstowe
destination blind, no smoking labels and E79621 numbering.
The destination blind and no smoking labels are easily removed using a cotton bud soaked with
methylated spirits but the number requires a slightly different approach. My chosen method is to
use an off cut of 1.5mm thick plasticard with a sharply shaped corner as a scraper and by wetting
the numbers (with saliva!) and using a reasonable force the numbers come away quite easily after
a few minutes.
A rather cruel close up shows the area after the number has been fully removed (in this instance
from a Class 105). The only real evidence of the procedure is a slight sheen but because of the
soft nature of the plasticard there is no scoring of the paint finish (during the process you
should be able to feel the plasticard react to the thickness of the applied numbering and if
removal is slow then simply cut the plastic back to a sharp corner).
The lot from which M79649 emanated were given nine first class seats in a 2 + 1 formation and
conversion saw these retained (at a later date they were exchanged for six fixed rotating seats
and the vehicle reclassified by BR as Diagram 565). My chassis had arrived minus any of the
seating components so the necessary items have arrived from the confines of my scrap box,
suitably modified although they still require arm rests.
The 'boardroom' element of the vehicle consisted of a large table surrounded by five chairs
per side with one at its head, a small writing desk with chair and a drinks cabinet! The chairs
were of a tubular steel design (fortunately the excellent Railcar.co.uk website has a number
of detailed interior pictures) and have been fabricated from a 5.5mm wide brass strip (from an
old etch fret) bent into an L shape measuring approx 6 x 6mm. By securing in a jig two U shaped
sections of 0.45mm nickel silver wire are then soldered to this to form the legs (L) and then
by use of another wooden jig a similar section of nickel silver wire bent into a U shape is
soldered on to represent the arms (R).
A 3' x 11' table is made in a similar fashion using brass again with slightly thicker legs
(0.6mm section brass).
Each segment of the interior is being done on a modular basis and for this element a 60 thou
piece of plasticard was carefully marked out and drilled to allow the fitting of the furniture
elements. Fitting the chairs can be a little time consuming in getting the legs aligned with
the holes but using the more robust nickel silver means that they are more resistant to bending
should they not do so.
A drinks cabinet, fabricated from plasticard, seen in position alongside the boardroom table
with its eleven seats and the small writing desk (presumably fitted for the use of a secretary
to record proceedings). Next to do will be the kitchen area fittings and two cupboards which
were housed in the two rearmost door vestibules.
First things first – I’d like to say Happy New Year to all our followers and I sincerely
hope it was an enjoyable Xmas break for you all. Now to the layout. As promised last month,
work has commenced on the lever frame for Kendal, using the Scalefour Society MK2 fret as
designed by Howard Bolton. It all goes together superbly well and the results thus far look
very encouraging. The levers are a 3-part lamination of the 18 thou Nickel-silver - a lot of
soldering! Both Kendal and Kentside will have 25 lever frames and you can see here how they bolt
together in multiples of 5. The plan is to do just Kendal for now and leave Kentside for later on.
Close up of the assembled lever. The lovely turned handles are also from the S4 Society, though
you do need to be careful that the flux doesn’t rust them. At the catch handle pivot, I found
it useful to chemically blacken that area of the lever so the handle didn’t get soldered solid
(i.e. I managed to do this previously!) Care is also needed to avoid soldering up the catch box
as well (the curved fitting you can see around half way down the lever). You can also see the
spring that pulls the catch handle back down into position at the end of each throw. The next
task now is to get the levers painted in the appropriate colour.
The signals you saw last time have now been fitted to the layout and connected up to their
servos. Here is the Heversham Down Home – the LH post for the main route to Kendal, and the RH
post is the branch to Hincaster Junction. The arms still need a bit of adjustment, and the
lighting is still to be connected.
The Patriot project has also moved to completion, now with the sound decoder fitted (Youchoos /
Zimo) and a total 4 farad stay alive capacitors (via Lifelink circuit). Also, as can be seen,
it’s now weathered as well.
Home Guard all ready for the Leeds to Morecambe / Kendal workings. Crew figures by Modelu.
This weird looking beastie is a double ended snowplough, two of which were built by the
Southern Railway in 1929, numbered S1 and S2. The winter of 1928/29 was particularly
severe being the 5th coldest of the 20th century in the UK. The design is double ended
so could be propelled in either direction as a plough. It was normally stored with both
headstocks raised (using the beam on the top), and then one headstock lowered into the
body to become a plough.
On the workbench recently was a Bachmann Class 37 (2022 version) which although out of
period for the layout has been converted to EM gauge. The bogie frames are just held
in place with 2 screws, making wheel removal simple.
As with most conversions at the Hornsey workshops, the existing wheels are used and
the flange width reduced from 1mm to 0.6mm by facing off the back of the wheel and
dressing smooth with a needle file. This reduces the amount that the wheel has to be
moved on the axle resulting in a back to back measurement of 16.5mm.
It's appreciated that not everyone has a lathe (or access to one), but the cost of
replacement wheels could easily outweigh the cost of a small machine to do this
conversion work. Most replacement wheels have plastic centres which can prove very
troublesome for the model's existing electrical pick-up arrangement. Long lead times
for delivery makes the lathe method quick, easy and virtually cost free, without having
to remove the wheels from the axles. Particularly useful for models with
quartered driving wheels.
Although EM wheelsets will fit within the brake rigging on most Bachmann models, it's
tight and could potentially wear the paint off the wheel face, so these are carefully
trimmed, tweaked and bonded flush to the inside of the bogie frame.
This project has satisfied my urge for bells, whistles, lights and a completely
different way of operating the layout. However, for the most part I'll be sticking
to the early 1970s with simple cab control and section switches, whilst the Class 37
watches on from the display cabinet.
Having seen Kier's adapted vice above, I thought I'd just share my version with you. This
is a commercially available tool with a top hat bearing soldered into a 2mm i/d brass tube
to protect the pinpoints when pulling the wheels on the axle..... now on to the latest
happenings at Wibdenshaw.
Current work is being centred on the spirelix end of the layout, some tentative woodworking
being carried out to assess the practicalities of the inclines and curves. A home brewed
system of supports with built in levelling adjustment was devised with 6mm and 4mm bolts
/ studding being utilised.
This is a view of both of the spirelixes in position. Track was then temporarily laid on
the steepest of the inclines, and seven 'out of the box' Bachmann Mk1's were able to be
dragged kicking and screaming behind a Heljan peak, so with more free running stock I
think the concept is a goer.
Showing the new infill boards for the main lines, cut to odd shapes to avoid the spirelix lines.
Another view from the side showing the infill boards.
Various video clips from recent running sessions at Hornsey Broadway (2023 part 3) have
been uploaded to Youtube. Please click on the above image to view the latest videos.
