New Road an update.

Thinking it's time for an update on New Road.

I shall be quick.

A couple of street lights of the old gas type.

platform lights from 70s vintage.

Control panel installed properly.

Signal box and some ground works have been completed.

I forgot to cut the arches where the baseboard join is. Will be disguised with a tv Ariel pole.

New Road, a canopy

The Canopy on New Road had to match the station building, something Art-deco then.

Looking through various books to get an idea. I found one with a reverse ridge with a gully down the middle.

5 uprights were needed to support the roof. Making 1 was fine but trying to make 5 all the same was beyond me, lots of curves and angles.

A friend of mine suggested contacting York Modelmaking, this was duly done.

I was asked to produce a drawing for Julie to use.

About 2 weeks later they arrived in the post. Made from white acrylic, I'm a happy bunny.

Thank you Julie at York Model Making.

Kernow/EFE Adams 02 window surrounds

Looking at Kernow's Adams 02, it was mentioned that the side window surrounds of the cab was in fact wrong. Kernow had painted the frame white, thinking this didn't look quite right.....

..... One delved a bit deeper.

Looking at some photos in the vast array of books I have obtained over the years on Southern loco's, this should be black.

Originally it's actually a brass band running around the inside of the apperature.

Southern days they all look to be painted black.

With a pot of Humbrol satin black and a very small paint brush I set about overpainting it.

Half an hour later, we have this.

Far better.

There newer model, No 182 is correct. An easy fix.

Ph Designs Buffer stops

Buffer stops! What else is out there other than your normal Peco or Hornby types.

Searching around I found these from PH Designs.

used all over BR and finding a good few photos of them in use on the Southern, spot on then.

PH Designs

The ones ordered were ph4bs1, the old fashioned way, a cheque or bank transfer. Bare with him, he's a busy guy.

Bare in mind that what you actually get are just the etch plates, there are templates to help you file out the rails. These are designed for code 75.

The easiest way to do these is to make yourself a jig. Consisting of nothing more than a piece of wood and some pins.

It helps keep all the sides the same. It should come out like this.

I made another jig for the crossmember.

The Southern seem to do something slightly different in there being only 1 crossmember with two shorter lengths of rail on each side.

I atctched them to some track as a stand alone unit. Obviously you will have to insulate them when adding to your sidings.

Thinking they look rather good after painting. Most seem to be painted white, although I found a couple with added wooden blocks with a red painted like across the middle.

Good soldering skills will be required and a fair bit of patients.

Need new motors?

Searching around on the net the other night, I came across a site that may be of interest to you.

Not being able to find Mashima motors any longer I thought I would share.

https://tramfabriek.nl/

They also have a eBay shop.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/tramfabriek

Tidy containers.

The state of my glue draw, its a mess. Little pots of falling everywhere, which was the one I've allready opened and which is the new one.

I needed to sort this out.

You can buy modules for this but me being me, I'm a modelist so I made them.

All you need is some 2mm card and some paint to your taste.

There, isn't that better.

Needed some fine dirt

Needed some fine dirt to use between the tracks.

I was out walking the dog and as it's been rather dry of late, noticed some rather fine dirt down the lane.

Using a doggie poop bag, I duly picked some up.

Its going to need a bit of a sieve through.

Duly sieved this is what I got.

Put in the oven on 180° for half an hour just to make sure anything alive isn't any longer.

Place in a jar, mark it 'Dirt' can be consumed at your leisure.

Bachmann N Class and Youchoos sound.

Once upon a time I took a trip to our local model shop for some paint, came home with the paint plus a Bachmann N Class.

Super loco for 50 quid it ran beautifully. This has to have sound fitted.

A phone call to Youchoose sourced a decoder and speaker.

I have weathered her a touch, added a crew, some real coal, vac pipes and a few other bits. Noticing the backhead had a fair bit of detail on it, thought it worth highlighting some of this.

There, that's looks better.

The front of the tender got the same treatment plus some real coal.

Putting the decoder in I had to do a slight modification, I had to remove the screw that holds the backhead in and replace it with a countersunk screw.

It later prooved necessary to remove the small ridge next to it.

Adding pick-ups to the tender was the next job, why don't Bachmann do this?

Thought I would try the ones from DCC concepts, they are shocking, I ended up cutting the wipers off and replacing with some spring wire locating them further from the wheel. There is just to much resistance with them.

Far better. Also, a friend of mine gave me probably the smallest plug and socket I have ever seen, bit fiddly but works a treat.

A few more picks.

And of course the video.

https://youtu.be/GxYnjcME6AU

An idea for a Class 73

I have had a Class 73 sat in the cupboard for a while now, what to do with it?

In just over a year it will be 100 years of the Southern Railway.

Let's imagine that Eastliegh have come up with a plan to celebrate this. They have spoken to there apprentices "there is a Class 73 in the yard, you can do anything you like"

What would they do?

First we will need to rub it down and give it a coat of primer.

Let's paint it Dark Olive Green.

Dew to legal requirements it has to have Yellow ends.

Then a Black boarder with white lining.

I have to say she looks stunning. 

This was the second attempt as the first attempt went drastically wrong. After a coat of varnish, there seem to be a reaction with the paint.

One of those occasions when you just want to sink in to a big black hole. Never has this happened before so I can't explain why this happened. She was left alone for a good few days before the varnish was applied. Hay-ho.

I bought Calbourne.

I don't model the Isle of Wight but having been over on the island the week before and seeing her in the flesh, I couldn't resist well, it's still an Adams 02 isn't it.

so, a nice box arrives, a bit bigger than the old box.

isn't she stunning, yes I forgot to take the foamy bit off the bunker, just to exited at the time.

In the accessory bag are Two etched name plates so I duly fitted them.

I must be lucky as she runs beautifully straight from the box. A bit on the pricey side but with this one it all goes to help the Isle of Wight Railway. A good thing in my book.

New Road, a bit of progress.

There has been a lot of white plastic on New Road of late. Now the Class 74 is complete, thought it was time to get back to some actual modelling.

The arches are brick colour and one of the arches has an industrial unit now (only 10 more to do)

A view of the terminus.

One of the industrial units.