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.