Milk tanker - first wagon for the milk train

Modelling railways in North Devon during the 1970s means that certain types of freight wagons are a necessity, principally china clay wagons and milk tankers.  Barnstaple Junction was handling both types of traffic throughout the 1970s, with the milk traffic stopping sometime in the late 1970s and clay traffic in the early 1980s.  So in preparation for getting the Charlton layout ready for its first exhibition I have made a start on these wagon types.  The first wagon out of the paint works is a milk tanker.  This is the ready to run Dapol offering, which has been much lambasted in the modelling community.  The underframe is rather crude, with the wagon seemingly somewhat a generic representation of a myriad of different types of wagon.  I opted for the weathered version as a first attempt.  The crude underframe and generic representation of the wagon does not bother me too much, although if a decent kit was available for this wagon I would certainly prefer to build my own.  However, with time pressing I am more than happy to convert RTR stock.  Anyhow, the finish on the wagon was genuinely awful!  The weathering revealed paint patches everywhere (caused by spraying over the finished wagon) with the tanker itself having mould lines clearly visible.

  

The out of the box finish.  Masking of the weathered finish is clearly visible.

So the first job on unpacking the wagon was to dismantle the wagon, which did require a little bit of pressure (Dapol seem to use some form of superglue to make these) and tidy up the various components.  Fitting the 3 link coupling was painful and required chopping away some of the chassis and supergluing the 3 link coupling in place.  However, after a few hours work the wagon was ready to enter the paint works.

The wagon ready for painting, after fitting couplings and sanding off the mould lines.

Close up showing the underframe, with a cut out made for inserting of the 3 link coupling.  This has been glued in place.

Given the variation in the original finish by Dapol, combined with the additional sanding of the worst offending mould lines, the surface for painting was highly variable.  This automatically meant that the wagon would have to be pretty heavily weathered to blend this all together.  However, some web perusing revealed this not to be a problem, as most of these wagons were absolutely filthy in the 1970s.  Various shades of weathered black, rust, sleeper grime, matt white and underframe dirt were applied to the wagon. The various components were then varnished before reassembly.  

Finished milk tanker posing on Charlton.

Although the underframe is pretty crude, I did try to bring it to life a little, through the use of different colours and highlighting certain details such as the axle boxes.  Overall, I am pretty happy with this.  Yes it is a crude wagon, but with a bit of work I think it can pass off as a milk tanker - at least for now.  So that is one down - and three left to go!  Hopefully the milk train will not take as long as my parcels train to complete!

LMS 20T Brake Van

Another wagon has exited the paintshop, this time a 20T LMS brake van, finished in BR grey.  This was the second brake van built some time ago (alongside the Dance Hall brake van) and has finally been completed.  This was another build I was not happy with, there were a few errors (the replacement of the hand rails was not quite right) and thus motivation to finish off this wagon was lacking. However, as part of a concerted effort to finish off some projects, this wagon has finally been moved out of the paint boxes. The wagon runs a treat and a good paint finish can hide a multitude of sins.  Photographing the van up close I can see a slight gap between the body and roof, so this has just been glued down (post photographing!) and will require a little bit of touching up.  However, from normal viewing distances this wagon will look just fine so it will be lovely to see it running around the layout.

Finished brake van.

The wagon used Lanarkshire white metal buffers and has been fitted with 3 link couplings.  The wagon was painted as per normal using an airbrush and railmatch enamels paints.  The transfers are from the PECO minipack.  All in all, I am reasonably happy with the wagon, although when I have finished something I am always overly critical of it.  In a few months when it finally ventures onto the layout for a proper run , I will have forgotten about the little issues with it!  

Another 12t pipe wagon

Over the last few weeks I have quietly managed a few hours of modelling here and there.  In that time I managed to put the finishing touches to a 12t pipe wagon.  This is another Parkside model that I built several years ago.  It has languished around before painting over the last few months.  As per normal it has white metal buffers fitted from the Lanarkshire range, 3 link couplings, and is finished with a mix of Modelmaster and CCT transfers.  The application of transfers was not quite right, but this is only visible on a super close up shot, so I am going to live with it for the time being.  I had originally intended this wagon to fit into the engineers stock, however, somehow it has managed to come out in a faded bauxite livery, so it is going to stay in revenue earning service for the time being.

Finished pipe wagon.

The underframe colouring is visible in this shot.

A few other projects are also coming to fruition now, notably a MK1 GUV newspaper coach with lights, a few wagons and Maroon Warship.  I also still have to finish off the station properly on Charlton layout ready for its first exhibition.  However, I have a little bit more free time at the moment - so plenty of time for modelling! 

Class 22 with Howes DCC sound

A few of my recent posts have shown a class 22 pottering around the Charlton layout, so I thought that it was high time I wrote a post about the finished locomotive.  The class 22 is a Dapol locomotive, one of the first batches of this model. There are a lot of good points about this locomotive and also some not so good ones too!

The Class 22 during running in, showing the factory finish!

As with all my locomotive detailing projects I took the locomotive apart and weathered the bogies separately to the body and chassis.  With this Dapol offering, there are separate side valances to stick onto the locomotive, which seem resistant to most types of glue!  To be frank this is a poor design by Dapol and some blobs of super glue are required to get these valances to stay in place.  However, with a bit of faffing around I managed to glue these to the chassis ready for painting.  This does make painting a bit awkward though, as the body really needs to sit on the chassis to be able to paint the valances too, which does require a little bit more masking than normal!

During painting with the body resting on the chassis, to enable the side valances to be weathered at the same time.

Anyhow, the first coat I give a locomotive is a wash of heavily thinned weathered black/frame dirt.  Like with the Class 122 detailed in an earlier post, this attacked the paint finish, so be warned!  However, this locomotive was always due to look pretty desperate, so this was duly disguised with more painting.  Using some pictures of Class 22 around North Devon as a guide, shades of white, and various shades of weathered blue, were then airbrushed over the body before weathering of all the various components, such as bogies, chassis, etc.  Like with all my projects, weathering was achieved using an airbrush and shades of weathered black, frame dirt, sleeper grime, brake dust and matt white.

The headcode fitted to plast glazing before adding to the body shell.  These were simply cut to size with scissors.

The headcodes were added to clear plastic before cutting to shape and inserting.  A Loksound 21 pin DCC sound decoder was added, with the sound files by Howes.  The decoder was soldered up to a Road and Rails double Ipone speaker and the locomotive reassembled with baited breath.  On testing I was absolutely delighted with the sound quality.  The pick up of the locomotive when moving from a standing start is just like I would imagine.  I can only regret being born too recently to have heard these locomotives chugging through the North Devon countryside.

The finished class 22 ready to run a parcels service out of Charlton.

Here is the finished locomotive running out of Charlton back to Barnstaple.

When I started programming the locomotive I went through some of the decoder functions and one of the cab lights refused to work.  A quick google and I found this was a common problem with the early batches of Dapol class 22 locomotives. In typical Murphy's law, the end which has the working cab light, is the end without the driver! So half marks for Dapol here - a poor quality paint finish, one cab light doesn't work and the valances are a nightmare!  However, with a bit of work, I am delighted with how this locomotive looks and sounds.  It is definitely a favorite of the growing Charlton fleet of DCC sound diesels.

The class 22 emerging from the tunnel at Charlton, into bright sunlight.

The pick up from the idle to running is fantastic on this sound project I think.

And running the evening passenger service into the station on a summers day in 1970!

So with a class 42 sound chip just in, a class 37 sound chip about to be reblown, and a class 47 sound chip about to be ordered, there is plenty of modelling to be done on the workbench.

Hornby Class 31 - Howes DCC sound now fitted

Not much has happened on the modelling front in the last couple of weeks, with a work trip to North Africa slowing down modelling progress.  However, previously I did manage to upgrade the DCC sound on my Hornby class 31.  I experimented with the new Hornby TTS sound system as a cheap DCC sound chip.  Whilst I thought the sound reproduction was quite good, the control over the train whilst driving was poor and I upgraded the locomotive to a Howes DCC sound system with a Road and Rails double Iphone speaker.  This is now my standard way of detailing locomotives to run on the Charlton layout.

The finished locomotive.

The original post on finishing the locomotive is here  http://choppersrailway.blogspot.com/2018/03/hornby-class-31-with-tts-sound.html

So here are a couple of videos with the new Howes DCC sound chip fitted.  It now sounds fantastic and importantly it now runs a like a dream.  As I have said before the addition of sounds to a locomotive really adds a whole new level to the running of trains. I have certainly come to the view that a few sound equipped locomotives is better for layout running than a lot of non-sound fitted locomotives.  Whilst of course this is only my opinion, running a small layout like mine only needs 4 sound chipped locomotives and this cost is broadly equivalent to eight non-sound models.   However, it is much more fun to drive locomotives with sound!

The start up of the Class 31.

Class 31 running around its short train, with plenty of flange squeal!

Class 31 buffering up to its train after running around.

Running light out of the station at the end of the day - the driver is opening her up a little!

Chalton Progress - up and running

This week saw some substantial progress on the layout detailing front.  I lugged the layout around last week and kept knocking the very tall backscene, and working it loose.  So the first job after setting the layout up was to cut down the height of the backscene and reglue it securely with superglue.  This was actually really easy to do with a scalpel and was a quick job.  Yes the backscene is now a bit lower, but it doesn't half make it easier to carry the boards about.

The original backscene.

The overhang from the back.

During cutting down, with the height difference evident.

And the new height of the back scene.

The second job was to fit some static grass to the rest of the platform edge. I had completed half of the job here, with the second half not taking long.  I put down some blobs of PVA glue and then using tweezers put small clumps of static grass on these.  I then collect up the loose static grass, give it hoover and a blast of hairspray once the glue is dry.  I think it is very effective.

A somewhat bald looking platform edge.

Blobs of PVA glue with lumps of static grass added.

The platform edge with the weeds added.

I also managed to finish off the area by the tunnel, adding in more hedging and bushes to break it up a little.  I am pleased with how this area turned out, but I must paint the edge of the cobbles on the baseboard join.  Other than that, this area and board are all ready to go!

The tunnel end, although the baseboard join now needs painting - with the terracotta DAS clay showing.

The view back towards the tunnel.

And the other way to the station.

So with that all done, the layout had a few items of rolling stock added and I had a good old fashioned session of playing trains - it was great!  To my relief the electrics all worked first time too.

Class 22 on the morning parcels train.

Running out the station.

Class 22 on the evening passenger turn.

Class 31 brings in a short freight.

So items to finish are the trees behind the station, gluing in the station signs and adding the lights to the station.  I think that is probably a weekends worth of modelling and then it is all complete.  Close, but not quite there.  I must resist the temptation to start another layout before adding these final touches in!!

Class 22 running the evening passenger service from Exeter into Charlton.

July 1973 - the end of the line?

It is July 1973 and there has been a proposal to cut all services to on the Charlton branch, one of the last twigs on the Withered Arm, despite the station being revamped with new BR signage only 2 years earlier.  A class 22 enters the slightly overgrown station with an engineers train, with locals worried that this might be part of the salvaging before closure. 

Class 22 with a short engineers train - the beginning of the end??...