Falling Behind: A Leader Story (Pt8)

After an hour or two of further running trials, I decided that I would fill the chain drive transmission box full of weight as that might help with making sure that the loco adheres to the track a bit better across its entire length. You could argue with the weight of the bogies that this isn’t needed, but as it does slip a little while pulling my weighted coal trucks, I thought it might be a good idea.

I took the loco apart for hopefully a final time to see why I was having the stuttering reversing issues, fully prepared to fit some additional pickups, but then it became quite apparent that most of the pickups I’d fitted were not making contact with the tyres, particularly on the trailing bogie (which explains a lot). After a bit of gentle jigging around, re-soldering one pickup that seemed to have gone a bit ‘rogue’ and glueing down a section that had broken free, I gave 36001 its final track test and it ran great in all directions. I designed the pickups a long time ago to collect power across both bogies, so now all is making contact it is unlikely the loco will face many challenges from here on in.

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I have ‘approved Leader for operational service’. For now, I plan to keep Leader in my display cabinet, as I’m hesitant to put it back in my foam-protected case after what happened the first time.

I doubt this is the last you will see of Leader on this blog, the next task will be identifying some of the coach stock it hauled during trials, so I can create some accurate trains to run on my garden railway next year.

I hope you have enjoyed this series of articles about making my kit of Leader and I hope someone somewhere finds it all useful.

As this is now complete, I’ll attempt to link all the previous entries below.

Pt7 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/1925

Pt 6 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/1930

Pt 5 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/1646

Pt 4 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/1643

Pt 3 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/500

Pt 2 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/449

Pt 1 – https://wordpress.com/post/grasslandsmodels.wordpress.com/273

The kit fairly fresh out of the box back in 2008

Driver Bob poses with Leader

Attempt no.1 (probably around 2009)

Attempt no.1 (probably around 2009)

Completed (2023)

Completed (2023)

For now, Grasslands out

Falling Behind: A Leader Story (Pt7)

As continuing work on the garden railway through the winter months is challenging, I have moved back into the house and back to my model desk. I am nearing the very final stages of working on my Green Arrow Kit of 36001 Leader, which is really exciting. I am actually conducting running trials and I have got myself a carpet railway!! I ordered some of this Kato HO track that has a plastic ballast frame and easily clips together. I did consider it as a possible option in the garden, but I’m not sure it will work.

Anyway, I now have a full loop of the above, which allows me for the first time to test some of my model’s hauling and long-term running abilities, particularly how they cope with curves. Brewery Pit is very much a back-and-forth trial and also an excellent test of how stock copes with complicated point work, so much of my stuff stock has had those tests, but not curves and with the garden railway likely being operational next summer, I thought it might be sensible to conduct some of these tests in the safety of the house (on my horrid peach carpet to see if any bits fly off and the like).

The ride height of Leader’s frame on its massive chain-driven bogies was always going to be an issue as the body shape risks clashing with the rear of each bogie on sharper turns, the obvious solution being to lift the body further off the bogies, but the gap between the body and bogies soon looks pretty ridiculous. Perhaps lost to time now, but the plates that fix the bogies to the body include ribs that allow the bogies to swing at angles as they turn, but, for some reason, one of my two plates is formed in the wrong aspect and won’t fit unless upside down (thus no ribs). In some ways, this isn’t too much of an issue as this did take the ride height of Leader a bit too high anyway (but I could have filed them down). Past Tom had been quite inventive in a DIY way with making small squares of plasticard to adjust the height and making washers from white metal. 2023 Tom ordered some 0.5mm thick washers and fitted them around the bogie pivot. I also noticed that my pickup system was running foul of the casting of the cab interior, which I have sorted by fitting them deeper into the cab and at a slight angle (you can’t really tell, but needs must).

I also found the fitting of the transmission box (between the two bogies) a bit unnerving as I had previously fitted this with little screws into the resin case. It also didn’t quite sit equidistant between the bogies, so I decided to do a quick upgrade of this and installed it using a small high-powered magnet instead. I did this by fitting the magnet to the end of a brass tube fixed inside the transmission box. This should make it a little easier to make chassis adjustments for maintainence in the future.

After these changes it ran wonderfully, the best I have seen it run actually. It still suffered from the occasional short, which was cancelling out my DCC controller, and for some reason, it does not care for travelling in reverse around a clockwise curve as it stutters and shorts out.

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I suspected the reason for the electrical short was my floating middle axle in each bogie. I know many don’t like this arrangement in Heljan locos, but honestly, it was the easiest thing to do (it is quite a long wheelbase to not allow that type of movement). I imagine it is probably the rim of the axles touching the white metal bogie inner frame on corners causing the sparks and pops. Again, DIY Tom of the past had attempted a fix by putting some black insulation tape on the frame of one of the bogies. 2023 DIY Tom decided to mask off the inner face of the tyres using some dark brown masking film and used a scalpel to cut away the excess.

And Horrah!!! No more shorting!! Not a spark and not a single decoder or DCC controller wobble, so I think we class that as sorted. I do still have the stuttery reverse clockwise issue to face, but I note it is now slightly different and one of the twin motors does often attempt to run. Weird how it will do the same manoeuvre in reverse on an anti-clockwise curve just fine, hmmm… having wiggled the bogies I’m pretty sure it is just to do with pick-up contact on the tightest section of curves.

When I finish my coffee I’ll have a look, but this is really final tweaking business and I am very happy to finally see Leader running so well. It does make me wonder about the £300-odd I have paid for this RTR model, to be honest. Hopefully, they will show some pictures of the lined grey version soon (as I couldn’t really be bothered to do that lining*).

* -he says in full knowledge that he spent 6+ hours adding rivets to the the thing using the same technique as lining.

Grasslands out

Falling Behind: A Leader Story (Pt6)

The update of my Bulleid Leader kit is nearly complete now. It pains me somewhat to think how long this project has been on my workbench. All of the shots of my original attempt are staged on Brewery Pit back in its first iteration with a retaining wall, probably from around 2009.

Here is a brief recap, but you can read about what has taken so long in my previous blogs. Basically, the cellulose acrylic paint I previously used never really set properly and it started to react badly to being placed in a foam protective box, and then I wrapped it in one of those soft plastic sheets (that models come in these days) and the paint stuck to that too.

So the need for an overhaul was needed and it was stripped back and I started again (as I say, see previous posts).

I decided to add some rivet transfers this time, which are little embossed rivets on transfer paper. It took a fair amount of patience to apply over the existing panel lines I had tried to scribe onto the model based on its actual panel layout. I used, I think Archer’s transfers, and I cut them into the strip lengths required and tried to fit them. The rivet strips had a tendency to rip on the transfer paper, particularly for longer lengths which was quite annoying. I think I started by submerging the transfers in water first, but soon started laying the strip of transfer paper, on its backing paper beside where it was to be placed so I could gently move the transfer a minimal distance onto the model’s surface (after applying some water). If I recall correctly I also had to work on distinct sections each time, to allow the previous line of rivets sufficient time to dry and adhere. Not the most fun job in the world, but it does give the model a rather nice finished effect.

Once all the rivets were laid over my former panel lines, I then took Leader to my airbrush booth and applied a new primer coating and attempted some shading on the panel lines before applying a new ‘white aluminium’ coating. I then added some burnishing to the casing where I assume it would have occurred if the prototype was indeed run in service with an aluminium-like finish. This is a fantasy at this point really, as my model depicts the only known colour photo of Leader, when it was literally being painted for a photoshoot at the time.

In real life, it was finished in all-over photographic grey with one large BR symbol on one side for a works photoshoot. Not long after that the BR insignia was removed and panel lining was added to the grey and it went out on its trials in this state. Photographic records seem to show it never got cleaned or at least repainted again, as you can clearly see the ‘shiny’ panel where the BR insignia was once applied.

There is a RTR model of Leader coming out soon from KR Models and they seem to have made the odd decision to go with one livery option that is very similar to my model but with the BR insignia. Pretty basic research would show this to be inaccurate to be honest, as the loco was clearly matt or satin grey based on B&W photos, but perhaps they have been looking at the photos of my model too long and got confused.

Anyway, back to my Green Arrow kit build: I finished off the bodywork with some coats of satin varnish to protect the bodywork and hope I don’t have some of the previous troubles I’ve had with it. There is no tackiness this time and I also left it for a long time to cure to prevent such issues.

I then refitted all of the glazing and door handles and remade a few in the process and I think it is really looking great now. It’s been almost a year since I did the bodywork and I’d actually forgotten I’d done the undershading to the panels, but it really shows up well in photos, like some slight darkening near the panel lines, so I’m really happy about that. I am tempted to finish it with a wash of black, but I’m fighting that urge as it looks pretty good as is.

Now onto the final aspects, which involve its running abilities. I fitted two Lenz decoders to the bogies (each bogie is powered) and the last time I tried to run it (at the 2018 Peterborough Model Railway Show) it kind of just stuck its finger up at me and refused to go across most of Brewery Pit’s track work, so it ended up being a static display with Santa, his reindeer at the head of the Coca Cola Train.

I saw a few connections had dislodged from my pickup arrangement and some of the pickups were in odd places so I sorted all that out and gave it a test run and to my surprise, it ran incredibly well. Hoorah!!

It doesn’t run so well with the body on, though, but granted still better than my 2018 effort. I must admit the chassis support mounts are a bit odd, and I suspect I mounted them differently to prevent the ride height from being REALLY high!

I think I need to adjust the leading bogie height by a few mm just to make sure the pickups clear the cab interior mould as I suspect the pickups are colliding with it and messing up the running a little.

After staring at it for an evening, I suspect that an M5 washer will resolve this issue most simply, but we shall find out later today.

Oh!!! And because I am so close to the endpoint, I even fitted coupling this time around. In a show of how time has moved on in my modelling world, I have fitted two types of coupling: An NEM pocket for normal coupling hidden on the bogies; and a wire bar to allow it to couple up to my ‘sprat and winkle’ equipped stock. The reason for this being that Leader will likely be a regular runner on Brewery Pit (which uses Sprat and Winkle couplings) and on my large garden railway too, where I might want it to haul some stock that isn’t modified.

Now onto the oncoming KR Models version. I have ordered one and mine will hopefully be Leader in its final livery of lined grey. The profile of the KR one seems slightly straighter and the cab windows look to be more correct in overall form. It looks like a slight improvement, but they’ve recently added massive rivets to the prototype model (much like I have done, but I think there’s are bigger). If we really want to get into rivet counting, they should be countersunk and not so prominent, but I don’t know, it has looked a bit odd in pictures, but might be better in real life. I was paying the money for fidelity and accuracy, so I feel a bit mixed about it.

My biggest gripe with the incoming KR Model from photos is how they have modelled it with all vents and doors closed. As Leader was well known as a heat trap of death, it seems pretty unlikely you would have ever seen it running with all the roof vents and doors closed. This was why I modelled mine with all vents opened and doors slightly opened. The under chassis detail looks good and no doubt it will run smoothly, but I have been watching its development thinking ‘does it really look that different to mine?’ Probably not helped by all the prototype photos of the model being in my model’s silver colour scheme too.

I have seen some discussion on the internet about the KR model ride height, but I don’t know, it seems an unfair criticism as the original was clearly tall and pretty ridiculous. My model is the tallest thing I have on any layout and I had to modify all the tunnels on Brewery Pit to allow it to get through. You only have to find that great picture of the water-filling rig created by the engine crew who couldn’t get it to fit under watertowers at stations or other pictures of it running on coaches to see, in comparison what a monster this thing was.

More to come

Grasslands Out!

2022 project recap and leaping into Spring’s big railway plans in 2023 (and beyond)

Greetings everyone, I hope you are all doing well? It’s been a while since I last posted on my model blog (whoops, sorry). To be completely honest with you all: I set myself a rule a while ago that I wouldn’t do exactly what I’m doing right now (i.e. post about how long it’s been since I last posted). I think a lot of us that write blogs and stuff get caught in this loop of constantly apologising for how long it has been between postings, which then brings some guilt about it and a feeling that you need to explain why you haven’t been sat at a computer typing away. So, dear reader: please take this as a one-time, holistic apology for any past or future absence or significant gap between postings (I wonder if that chap is still waiting to hear about how I plan to finish off my static boiler on Brewery pit, sorry!!). The blog will continue and always will as far as I’m concerned (perhaps changing format and location based on the whims of social media barons from time to time). To make matters more challenging as I write this, my blog text is gently jumping backwards and forwards on the screen due to some random glitch in the WordPress site. Oh the fun.

2022’s projects:

Although there haven’t been any updates since my last entry in Feb 22 (for the ace Model Rail Scotland show), I can assure you that a lot of modelling has indeed taken place. Here is a brief selection from the past 12 months:

Hawthorn Leslie Shunter

My most recent work has focussed on my Hawthorn Leslie Diesel Electric Shunter, which was the kit trailing behind all the others in my Five (coming on eight) Shunter Challenge series of articles. It now looks quite likely to be the next model to be completed (see below). Just before Christmas I got the kit back out and finished off the final works on the chassis and gearbox, including fixing some past mistakes. I’m now at the stage of putting together the main bonnet and it is now looking like the real prototype.

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Shed Paint Shop

In one of my previous blogs, I also discussed my plans to recreate my garden potting shed into a paint shop. This project progressed quite far last year with the majority of internal wiring complete and insulation in place. I was planning to have this all completed last summer, but various life emergencies took priority, but I plan to get back to this project this year.

Steam Crane Dock Tank

My tiny Backwoods Miniatures Dock Tank also progressed surprisingly far and I’d just got to the point of fitting the mind-bogglingly complicated motion and quickly decided perhaps I should build something else.

Car for Gaslands

I made my first custom car for the game ‘Gaslands’ which looks particularly awesome. I talk a bit more about this game over on this gaming blog. I spent a lot of time deciding on a colour scheme for it too (perhaps an indication of my growing model pedantic-ness).

Warlord Titan

I 3D printed a big old Warlord Titan mech for my game of Adeptus Mechanicus and painted it in the theme of another giant robot I’m a fan of.

Necromunda Gang

I started painting a group of lowlife sci-fi gangsters for the Necromunda game system and even started printing a massive land-train for a heist mission.

The Fell

After being messed around with my order and payment for the KR Models Fell, I decided to make one myself from the excellent Judith Edge Kit, which has progressed to the chassis stage.

Corris Tattoo

I started work on converting a ‘Thomas & Friends’ Peter Sam toy loco from Bachmann into a more prototypical Corris Tattoo.

Painting Bulleid’s Leader

Leader’s repaint and upgrade are almost complete too with a new lovely white aluminium shell and weathering, varnishing and extra rivets all progressed.

Shed Lamp for Brewery Pit

Me and my Mum fitted a lamp over the top of the engine shed on Brewery Pit too.

Most of my ‘instant gratification’ updates on model projects tend to be added to my Instagram account, which should be viewable to the right of this blog, so if you are missing some of my updates on particular locos and want to be kept more up to date on things, then perhaps give me a follow on there. I generally use Instagram as a way of noting my progress on various projects, so you’ll find lots on there.

Here is a link:

https://www.instagram.com/grasslandsmodels/

2023’s big model railway plans

It is safe to say that my plans for 2023 are pretty ambitious. I celebrated my 40th Birthday back in September, so I feel this should mark a bit of an evolution in my modelling projects, so I’ll give you a quick overview of my big plans:

New Layout Project – Narrow Gauge OO9

I’ve been working on Brewery Pit as my main layout for over a decade now (as detailed here) and I am keen to move on to a new model project. I want to do the complete opposite of Brewery Pit’s heavy industrial, midland aesthetics and go for lush woodlands, rivers, cliffs and beaches this time. For my 40th birthday I asked Tim Horn to design me some lovely new baseboards for this new countryside model railway, which will be a Narrow Gauge OO9 affair. The premise being a ‘what if’ alternate history of North Devon’s Narrow Gauge systems around the 1900s to the 1920s where commercial logging of the woodlands was attempted. Can I anglicise those great North American Narrow Gauge logging operations? Will I give in and do something simpler? Stay tuned, I guess.

For those that are not in the know, I’m talking about making a UK version of this kind of thing…

… by way of this kind of thing:

Garden Railway

Not content with starting a new model railway project in narrow gauge, I’ve decided to try my hand at constructing a garden railway, primarily in OO Gauge. Something, I’d like to add I always said I’d never do, always considering OO Gauge not being a sensible gauge to risk taking out into the garden. As time has gone by, I’ve started to consider ways I think this could work and I’m at the early stages of planning out a raised platform based on the ‘ladder frame’ system of garden railway design. If space and design allow, I might also include some larger gauge track too. Ideally, this railway will lead into my garage and shed, but the garage terminus will have to wait until further work is done in the garage, but I hope to start work on this soon.

Complete the Shed Upgrade

I also plan to finish off my shed upgrade from last year. The next steps are linking up the newly wired shed to the mains in the house and cladding the interior walls. Hopefully it won’t take too long and fingers crossed that the winter months haven’t caused any issues inside the shed.

So there you have it, a rather comprehensive update! Please do keep an eye on my Instagram feed if you want some more immediate updates, but I’ll be back with some progress updates soon. I also have a few older blogs that are currently part written to add too.

Brewery Pit out at the shows

I’d also quite like to get Brewery Pit back out on the model railway exhibition circuit now it is near completion and hadn’t really had a proper outing since late 2018. If anyone heads of any shows interested, just get in touch with me.

And if you want to see what I’ve been getting up to in the more wildlife and music-leaning side of my life, I have a new e-newsletter about all that stuff here.

See you soon

Grasslands Out!

Five Shunter Challenge Pt16: Too many shunters

Continuing my retrospective of updates on building far too many little brass shunting locos. This update about updates is from the 7th and 8th June 2020:

Procrastination really is an impressive skill. It certainly keeps me away from my modelling bench on a regular basis. I also think that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with x5 shunter challenge (which has now become x8 challenges if you factor in other hunters that have arrived since).

Here is recent my progress:

11001

In my previous session on Bulleid’s super shunter, I had fixed down the box pox wheel fascia and constructed the gearbox and rebuilt the compensation/balance beam system. Sadly, upon returning to the model after 12 months, the steel axles had started to gunk and rust up and barely any of the motion was turning. After a stressful 30 minutes forcing the motion back into life, I managed to relax.

I remember coating the axles with Vaseline before I soldered the bushes into place and I wonder if this is what is causing part of the problem, but I have already started to store axles and wheels in a little sealable plastic bag which I lubricate with model lube. This I hope keeps the parts fairly clear of rust, but time will tell.

Hawthorn and Leslie

I finished building the first parts of the gearbox today but noticed that once the bushes were in place that there would be insufficient room to fit the gearbox between the chassis bushes. I came across this problem with 11001 too, and I guess if you are modelling in 4mm or EM Gauge, then maybe the additional width means these things don’t happen.

After 30 minutes of filing, I managed to get the gearbox to fit.

I then degreased and bathed all the chassis’ that I’m currently working on in an ultrasonic cleaner (using a little ultrasonic cleaner fluid) and then I left them to dry out in the sunshine.

I took apart the axles and wheels of 11001 too and bundled the wheels and axles into a little lubed-up bag.

This whole axle/wheel rusting up thing is the most demoralising aspect of my current builds. I’d be happy to hear how others deal with these types of things, I guess the Markit wheels don’t do it as they are not made from steel.

Tomorrow I start work on the final two gearboxes and I also want to try and get some of the break rigging and other details onto the chassis’, as I’m dying to do some bodywork.

Grasslands out!

GT3 Arrives

This week I’m busy working on some garden projects, but a wonderful distraction in the shape of GT3 arrived in the post. GT3 is the first locomotive release from KR Models, who have already announced some great prototype locomotives including The Fell, Bulleid’s Leader and the Super Clayton.

GT3 from KR Models

GT3 was an experimental prototype for a gas turbine-powered locomotive demonstrator built by English Electric in 1961. The chassis was based on a BR Black 5 (or possibly a similar design), with the tender storing kerosene fuel.

I was already part way through building a resin cast kit of GT3 made my Golden Arrow Kits with some additional bespoke detailing etches that I ordered from a member of RMweb. I didn’t really mind deprioritising this kit as I have plenty of locos to make. I might finish it in a fantasy livery instead

The finish of the KR Models GT3 is a really vibrant satin-gloss brown and includes diecast bogies and chassis. I was lucky enough to receive a version with DCC digital sound, and it is fascinating to hear the gas turbine generators whirl into life before the loco starts to move. It sounds like something out of Thunderbirds!

Sound test of GT3

The running of the model is very smooth and the whole model is well built. The front end of the gas turbines, visible through the front grills is particularly detailed.

I look forward to giving to more of a run and seeing how it fairs with some complicated trackwork.

Five Shunter Challenge Pt15 – Gear Box for 11001

Continuing my recap of recent work on this silly plan of mine to make too many brass shunters at the same time, let’s take the clock back to what I was up to on the 28th May 2019:

Gearbox parts and chassis

Now that the wheels are looking good on Bullied’s super shunter, 11001, I turned my attention to putting together the High Level Kits gear box and test fitting it into the the chassis. It is useful to make sure there is a decent space between the gear box and balance beams inside the main chassis frame and noting that all four washers bearing down on the axle can be quite a load on the motor, so plenty of lubricant is required.

The motor connection harness for the gear box (before adding gears).

This is one of those moments where my plan to build all these models together works out quite well, as I’ve now become quite adept at putting together High Level Kits format of gear box (I think this is my 5th or 6th build), and I was particularly pleased with the smooth running.

Most of the High Level Kits gearboxes are built on two main etched parts: the motor connection harness; and the drive wheel connection harness. Each only has two folds required. The folds need to be as square as possible, but feeding the metal rods through them does help straighten them out. The two pieces are then connected together via a metal rod that feeds through both and acts as a pivot (see the video below).

Test running of 11001’s high level kits gear box (noting that the final drive gear isn’t fixed in place yet)

All that is needed beyond some folding of the etches is making sure the right diameter rod is pushed through the appropriate holes and some careful reaming and a minimal amount of soldering. I make some of this sound easy, which it is, but I do have various tools to help (like a set of gear puller and pusher tools).

The chassis with gear box and motor installed

Five Shunter Challenge Pt14 – Balance beam harnesses and wheel laminations

I haven’t written about my attempts to build a myriad of little metal shunting locos in a while, but I can assure you a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes. To make things easier, I’ll post up progress from my last few sessions in separate posts (I tend to take notes while I work, but I never posted them here).

What follows is progress from around 27th May 2019 (this won’t really matter to you, but it very much helps me). It is also made extra amusing by past-Tom not remembering exactly where he got to many years prior:

May 27th 2019

Positioning of the new balance beam harnesses on the inside of the Hawthorn & Leslie chassis (the balance beam itself is just out of view)

Mike Edge sent me an email regarding how best to fix the compensation balance beams from flapping around inside the chassis of his Judith Edge kits (thanks Mike! {Tom2021} ) and he advised either bits of scrap etch or 0.5mm wire soldered to the inside of the frames near the axle brush works well (see the photo above).

I decided to have a go at this on 11001 first and as I rummaged through my project box for the loco I found a small bag full of etch bits which was labelled ‘etch bits for balance beams’. This seems to imply that I had come to this exact conclusion a few years ago (maybe I asked Mike then too?).

Soldering one of the balance beam harnesses in place (granted, with too much solder)

This system seems to work quite well, but I am becoming slightly concerned about the tip of my soldering iron which seems to be blackening more and more and seems to be making dry joints often. I think I have a spare tip, so I might fit that one before doing anymore soldering (I’m pretty sure I did do this {Tom2021}).

I repeated the procedure of fitting these balance beam restraints for all x3 of the locos with this type of set-up, which includes the Hawthorn & Leslie and the 88DS.

New balance beam harnesses on the chassis of the 88DS (to the left of the left axle)

BFB Wheels

I then decided to tackle the next awkward stage of works on 11001, which was fitting the face of Bulleid’s special wheels.

Bulleid Firth Brown (BFB) Wheels are disc wheels with wedge-shaped cut outs and holes which were considered to be lighter and offer better traction. Bulleid fitted these to various locos including the Leader, Q1, Merchant Navy and 11001.

Some examples of BFB wheels from Robertson’s book on Bulleid.

For the Judith Edge kit, these are made up from a two layered etch. I made sure each etch layer was in line by using cocktail sticks.

The separate layers and the laminating process.

I then placed the etched overlay ontop of the Alan Gibson spoked wheels and applied some heat from the soldering iron, which melted the plastic spokes and allowed the etches to sink slightly into the frames. This seems quite a risky procedure and has put me off working on this loco for a while. For the most part the heat causes the plastic inserts to pop out of the steel tyres, but I then fixed them back in using super glue. All of the etches also needed fixing down.

Despite my concerns the final wheel set up does look impressive. I just hope that I managed to push the front of the etches into the wheels far enough to clear the coupling rods, but time will tell (just for those paying attention, time still will tell {Tom2021}).

The completed wheel sets with BFB fascia.

I originally planned to make up the pickups next, but it seems that this might be more sensible to do when I have made up the body, so watch this space.

Next up for this loco is building up the remainder of the gearbox.

Five Shunter Challenge Pt13: Chassis Jiggery Pokery

It’s any wonder that any of the kit manufacturers stay in business with the speed at which their customers make their models (if I am a representative customer). I have heard it suggested that 75% of the kits purchased never get built anyway. I’m trying hard to get past this myself, by building a whole bunch of locomotives at the same time, but even this has taken much longer than I would have preferred.

The Five Shunter Challenge was my way of forcing myself to crack on with making models and to try and make myself worry less about everything being perfect, or there being an ‘ideal’ time to do this. Life often makes it clear that there is rarely an ideal time for anything and you just need to crack on!

The challenge had a good flow through 2014-2015 but it came to a grinding hold in July 2015 and I am only now starting to reacquaint myself with where I left the challenge back in 2015. I wrote a blog about my previous attempt at remembering.

The original plan was to build all of the locomotive chassis’ first, which has now almost been achieved (except for one loco).

The final chassis enters construction!

The Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE has been lagging behind all of the other models in the challenge, and today I decided to change that and start work on the chassis.

After some test fitting and a bit of filing, I plucked up the courage to set up the side frame on my chassis jig and soldered down the one set of axle brushes in a fixed axle. The balance beams were also soldered up on the chassis rig, but I put some paper between the beams and the side frame (to prevent the beams soldering to the side frames). I then soldered the spacers onto one side of the frame and then soldered the opposite part of the frame on top of it all. This was all achieved easily by lining up the jig using the locos coupling rods. I had to widen the holes in the rods a little to do it, but I only used x2 parts of a layered etch, so I don’t think there will be any issues with the final coupling rods.

English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE (Judith Edge Kits) on the chassis jig with coupling rods fitted to the jig axles.

Spacers soldered onto one side of the chassis frame for English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE (Judith Edge Kits)

The pivot hole is missing from the balance beams (as described in the instructions), but it is easy to mark up and drill out once you have everything in the right place.

Drilling out the hole to pivot the compensation balance beams for English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE (Judith Edge Kits)

The chassis came together really easily, but I can tell that I have slightly twisted one of the balance beams, as the axles can be a little tense within the chassis.

The completed chassis for the English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE (Judith Edge Kits)

The underneath of the chassis for the English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE (Judith Edge Kits) including compensation balance beams

Fixing previous (and forgotten) chassis mistakes

My poor model of the Bulleid Paxman 11001 Shunter hasn’t really had any work progressed on it since January 2015 (see the previous blog), where I built the balance beam system. Upon returning to the Five Shunter Challenge, I was somewhat perplexed as to why the balance beams had been removed.

The compensation balance beams and chassis for 11001 Bulleid Shunter (Judith Edge)

I think I removed them because there wasn’t enough clearance to include the width of the axle brushes AND the gearbox brushes, or they just came free in a test fitting (the real is lost to time and a bad memory).

Although I was happy with fitting the balance beams using track pins, I did find this left them quite vulnerable to being de-soldered while testing fitting parts and I would really like to find a way of ensuring the balance beams stay flush to the insides of the frames. I have seen someone use springs threaded around the axles to achieve this, so I might try this later today.

For now, I have replaced the track pins with a single brass rod which feels much more structurally sound. The brass rod doesn’t stop the balance beams flapping around inside the chassis, but it greatly reduced the chance of them breaking free (as they are fixed at either side of the chassis).

The compensation balance beams and lower gearbox for the 11001 Bulleid Shunter (Judith Edge)

How does everyone else keep their balance beams flush to the side frames?

The next step for this loco is to build up the gearbox.

P.S. I see Mr Edge of Judith Edge Kits has responded with some suggestions as to how to fix the balance beams flush, so I will try out some of his suggestions some other time

Here are some notes on progress for each of the locos:

x5 Shunter Challenge Progress

BR Class 02 Diesel Shunter – DJH

Chassis complete and ready for final bodywork and paintshop

Sentinel post war 100HP 0-4-0VBT – RT Models

The Sentinel chassis and gearbox is complete, other than fitting a white metal ash pan beneath the chassis, which I didn’t do as it doesn’t quite fit, and I wanted to fit the body first. I am itching to fold up the frames, but I am going to try and hold back for now. Annoyingly, a few very fine bits of etched details have been bent out of shape while I played with the etched frames (that will teach you not to fiddle with things, Tom), but I have unbent the damaged bits for the moment.

Ruston & Hornsby 88DS – Judith Edge

The Ruston 88DS has a completed chassis and gearbox and is also ready for the frame build. Both this kit and the sentinel have the same super small gearbox.

For some reason, I seem to have removed the inner plastic wheels from the tyres, and I can’t remember why (it might have been to do with rust).

11001 – Judith Edge

The balance beams are re-attached using brass rod across the chassis frame, but I may still include a different system of keeping them flush to the side frames. This loco also has a High Level Kits slimline chassis to be fitted, and I have started building the motor harness, but never got around to fitting the gears.

English Electric/Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0DE – Judith Edge

The Hawthorn Leslie chassis is complete and balance beams are fitted. Similar to 11001, it needs a method of keeping the balance beams flush to the frames. There is also the outside frame to consider too (and the gearbox).

Grasslands Out!!!

Brewery Pit at the National Festival of Railway Modelling 2018, Peterborough

I took Brewery Pit on a road trip from Swindon to Peterborough to exhibit the layout at the National Festival of Railway Modelling in Peterborough.

Over the weekend of the 8th-9th of December I exhibited Brewery Pit at the National Festival of Railway Modelling which was held in the East of England Arena in Peterborough.

I have been very busy preparing Brewery Pit for this exhibition in recent months and have made many changes to the layout including building a new back-scene, making a lighting rig, motorising the points and creating a control panel, all of which I plan to discuss in future blog posts.

Setting up Brewery Pit

I travelled over to Peterborough with my car packed full of model railway on the Friday night before the show while suffering from a bad cold and set up the bulk of the railway in the arena that night. This gave me chance to check that the new point motor system was operating. I then retired back to a hotel to do some last minute work on some other items including the lights on my rig and some of the models I planned to run at the show.

Me and my brother (who kindly acted as my second operator) got up bright and early and got into the arena to make sure everything was working on the model. I got myself a bit confused while connecting up the various lights and I also had a spot of last-minute soldering and wiring to do. Everything was working just fine as people started to come into the show for the advanced ticket bookings.

Days 1 and 2

The first day went by quite quickly as I spent much of the day behind the layout trying to get my Christmas-themed Coca-Cola train to run across the rear line of the layout without crashing into tunnels and buildings. I built the Coca-cola train over the Thursday and Friday nights before the show and although it was a little bit stubborn on that first day of the show, people really loved seeing it and hearing the theme-song playing from inside the containers.

Coca-Cola Train on Brewery pit

Brewery Pit in Peterborough

I decided to make the Coca-cola train a static display for the Sunday, which gave me more time to operate the layout and talk to visitors. Me and my brother had a fairly consistent stream of discussion about Bulleid’s Leader that was coupled up to the Coca-cola train with many people asking what it was or asking for more information about the kit. A nine-year-old boy eagerly told his Dad about Leader (much to his Dad’s confusion).

Santa driving Bulleid’s Leader

Leader Pulling the Coca-Cola Train

Having left my brother in charge of Brewery Pit, I went off to look at some of the other layouts and there really were some amazing ones on display.

Habbaniya, Iraq 1941

My favourite model of the show was Habbaniya, Iraq 1941. This is a fixed perspective model where the buildings and other items gradually get smaller to the rear of the model giving the impression that the landscape travels much further into the distance than it actually does (I have discussed my love of these models before). This model is a particularly clever one in that it includes various planes, trucks and trees that all scale down gently enough to appear as if you are seeing a whole desert runway scene. It must have taken a lot of planning to achieve.

Habbaniya, Iraq 1941

The Bridge of Remagen

Another model that was amazing was The Bridge of Remagen, which is a fascinating large-scale N gauge layout set in Germany in World War II and focusses on the Ludendorff Bridge. There are lots of fascinating little cameos including bunkers, and flat loaders carrying plane parts and armoured trains. The best feature of the model to me is the river and bridge crossing with very realistic ripply water that seemed to be made from resin and various boats under the long bridge.

The Bridge of Remagen

The Bridge of Remagen

The Bridge of Remagen

The Bridge of Remagen

Bournemouth West

Bournemouth West was just behind my layout and is a really realistic model set in the 60s with onboard sound, steam effects and realistic lighting, and the club operating the layout were a really friendly bunch too.

Byway MPD

Beside Brewery Pit was John Gay’s Byway MPD, which is another very realistic model with automatic lighting and a touch panel control panel and some nice onboard engine effects including flickering fireboxes and sound.

Byway MPD

VIP Engines

John had recently digitised Model Rail Magazine’s soon-to-be-released J70 steam tram and Chris Leigh from the magazine brought along the digitised tram to run on his layout for a bit, and sure enough, I ended up having the wonderful opportunity to give it a run with my kit built steam trams for a while.

Model Rail J70 visits Brewery pit

John also let me run his sound-equipped USA Dock-Tank. He’d also fitted a stay alive capacitor system to the loco (much like my trams), which made it perfect for running on Brewery Pit. Find out more about his projects here.

As the final hours ticked away, I bought myself some LED circuit equipment, some nano LEDs and some lamps for setting up over winter and then I and my brother started the job of packing down Brewery Pit and we made our exit from the arena.

It really was a great show and it was so very nice to have such nice comments about Brewery Pit after all the time I’ve put into improving the layout for the show.

Here is a video I made of the show, I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas and a happy new year!

Grasslands Out!