Heljan O Gauge Class 25 - DCC sound and detailing completed

I have been building an O gauge layout for at least 3 years now, and frankly progress has been very slow. The layout is all wired up and scenic work has started, however, two house moves in two years has really disrupted progress. The other big limiting factor has been a lack of rolling stock ready to use and completing the fiddle yard for the layout. Well I have partially managed to remedy one part of this equation with the completion of the class 25 detailing project.

Weathered and sound fitted class 25 on the test track.

The model is the first release of the class 25 by Heljan and I pre-ordered it as soon as it was announced. A mere 7 or so years later I have installed the DCC chip and finished the weathering. The transfers on the locomotive are from Railtec, and all weathering was done using Railmatch enamels from an air-brush. The decoder fitting was an ESU Loksound V5 Xl with screw terminals and figuring out how to wire it up was a good challenge! Once I had got my head around the common return, it was relatively straightforward...... 

Screw terminals on the Class 25 DCC sound chip, after complete removal of the PCB board - take a deep breath when you do this for the first time!

After weathering the bogies, underframe and body separately - I reassembled the chassis first to fit the dcc chip. I placed a speaker on two small pillars of foam packing, glued to a piece of plasticard, so it sits above the drive shaft. I also added the headcode transfer to some very thin clear pasticard (from food packaging - after washing) and trimmed these to fit the headcode boxes.When I was reattaching the body I realised I had lost one of the red tail lights (typical) and had to fudge a new one using some red plastic. Once all this was done I reattached the body - which I really struggled with. Getting the body to sit on the chassis correctly was really hard work and took me about an hour. I, of course, scratched the roof when doing this, so I had to touch up some paint (I do not think this is too noticeable - but it was very frustrating). Handling these big O gauge diesels is tricky - but once it was back together - I did having a wow that looks great moment.

I removed the bogies and weathered these separately.

Chassis reassembled.

The speaker cradle constructed from plasticard and two pillars of foam packing, so it sits above the drive shaft and the bogie pivot.

Headcode transfers applied to some very thin plastic - these were then trimmed to size.

Beyond these tribulations - putting this locomotive on the test track and hearing the sulzer engine was a delight! I am however, not that impressed with the speaker and might add some more packing around it, it has a somewhat tinny vibration at the moment. I have turned down the volume a little and this has helped. Anyhow, it is now fully operational and whilst I might replace the speaker in due course - this locomotive is finished. Taking some photographs of the locomotive - I must say I am pretty happy overall with how it turned it. It was also a great learning experience, being the first O gauge diesel I have sound chipped. Like all modelling projects, there were bits I could have improved, but it is all learning.

Body side view, showing the layering of faded paint and bodyside detailing.

The other end of the locomotive, showing the wobbly headcodes - a characteristic feature of the 1970s.

In my experience, the smooth running of Heljan locomotives is the best there is - and this model is no exception. I spent a good few hours letting the locomotive potter about the little test track with the sound running - really great fun.

And the first passenger train leaves the station on the test track behind the class 25.

Class 25 coupling up to its train.

From here, I have a clear set of modelling priorities, to fit around the ongoing house renovation. First up is to finish some buildings and add some detail to the micro-layout/test track. The only rule for this, is I have to use stuff I already have lying about (except for maybe the backscene), just to keep costs manageable in the short term. I have a couple of Slaters wagon kits on the go atm, alongside rebuilding a Dapol milk tanker and these projects require finishing off. I am also weathering a class 03 shunter and fitting a stay alive to this locomotive - that will be perfect for operating the microlayout. I am also about to detail and dismantle a Dapol class 122 and a Heljan warship. These are the the priorities for the next 6 months or so, alongside the painting of various wagons already in the paint boxes. The aim will be to have the little micro-fully operational in a few months - and if it looks OK I might take it to a few exhibitions. Then from summer onwards, it is back to the proper O gauge layout - I have the traverser ordered for the fiddle yard, - so when that arrives it will really help with the running of the layout and getting the layout over the line.

O Gauge test track

We are still renovating the house and this has really impacted my opportunities to set up my O gauge layout. This is really frustrating as I have several O gauge projects that are nearly complete and I need somewhere to test rolling stock, especially the DCC sound fitting to the O gauge diesels. So over the last week or so I decided to build a small O gauge micro layout/test track. I had a 5ft scenic box that I purchased from Tim Horn several years ago - I had made the box up, but had gone no further. So I dragged this out of the garage and started to arrange some track. I was keen to see what track I could get into a 5ft box in O gauge - the answer is not much!!! However, I added in two points, wired in the polarity switches (Gaugemaster), and used the Express Models Powerbus kit all soldered up. I also added in a small internal light and added a control panel for the NCE powercab on the front. By the end of Sunday it was operational - fantastic. I cut out some simple paper templates of buildings to see how things could fit, and  I now plan to add a couple of buildings to the layout, alongside a backscene and some simple scenery to provide a photographic plank, as well as a fully operational test track.

Test track operational. This is with the lighting unit switched off, showing the real benefit of O gauge and coach lighting.

So now there are now excuses for not finishing off some DCC diesel detailing projects. I am determined to finish off the Class 25 project this week and reassemble the locomotive. I cannot wait to try it on the test track. Otherwise wagon building and painting continues, with a Conflat now ready for transfers and the SR pill box brake van and the SPV being painted. Lots of fun and a satisfying weekend... I plan to spend this evening building another wagon!

Aerial view showing the very limited track layout.

The internal lighting is visible to good effect in this picture.

End of 2023 and back to modelling in 2024

The end of 2023 and it has been a quite a year for us. Looking at the amount of modelling done this year is quite disappointing, but this is hardly surprising given we purchased a new house and then set about renovating pretty much all of it - certainly more than we were originally anticipated. However, the majority (not all) of the renovating has been completed downstairs and certainly in 2024 I will have much more time to model and for my other hobbies.  This is a real relief, as the second half of 2023 was a bit of a slog. Anyhow, over the xmas break I slowly started to reawaken the modelling projects that were dutifully put away before the real mess of the house renovating started. It was difficult coming back to modelling projects after a gap of several months, as I had forgotten where I had got to with each model.

The class 03 that smashed onto the floor sometime in early summer was an expensive mistake. The locomotive has now been completely disassembled and I have slowly started rebuilding it. The main body is now finished and this will be heading to the paintshop later today. The chassis needs a bit more work to glue some broken bits back on and make sure it runs properly, alongside adding a stay alive to the decoder. Ultimately, the poor running of the locomotive was the cause of the crash, so hopefully the stay alive and rebuild will cure the temperamental running. I need to source some new buffers for it, but otherwise I am optimistic I can get this locomotive back to running pretty soon. The sheer number of components that I removed from the the locomotive is a little daunting, but hopefully I will remember how to get it all back together.

Class 03, only lacking buffers now.

I have also been building some new wagons, first up is a GWR diag 032, from the Parkside kit. This is now finished and will be washed and enter the paintshop today. It was pretty straightforward build and was done a few hours each evening over the festive period.

Diagram 032 wagon, ready for painting in BR bauxite.

I had also started a Slaters GWR 6 wheel milk tanker and of course in the intervening months of no modelling I had lost some of the sprues. So this project has stalled a little whilst I await the spares, although I have built the tank and now need to fill this and sand it down. Earlier in the year I also set about destroying(!) a Dapol milk tanker. This is now finally dismantled and I will now wash and paint the milk tank before reassembling and detailing the chassis. I have ordered some Slaters spare sprues at the same time to use on this wagon, so it will become a bit of a hybrid build and I will be happy to produce any useable wagon from this process - this is one of those projects where I wish I had left it alone and not started!

Slaters GWR milk tanker making slow progress.

Dapol Milk tanker - now a total mess and the rebuilding and painting can begin.

The air brush has also be set up and is running again. I have got some transfers on the Vanwide, the Conflat is making steady progress with painting and the Pill Box brake van is heading to completion. It is great to be painting again and I am optimistic that I can get several wagons finished over the next couple of months.

SR Pillbox Brake van, part way through painting in faded olive green.

So what modelling plans do I have for 2024? - well of course plenty! The biggest problem at the moment is that the house still needs plenty of work done and this will essentially curtail me setting up the layout. I think that not being able to run and test locomotives easily is a real drawback; whilst setting up the layout is doable, it will take up a lot of the lounge and I need to be finishing off various projects in the lounge and kitchen. Therefore, for use over the the next few months I am going to build a small DCC test track, something that will probably become a micro layout in the fullness of time, but for now it will be something where I can just test the rolling stock that I am finishing off. I have a 5ft Tim Horn scenic box already built for this purpose and I have ordered the track for the project.   I have a the class 25 to reassemble and check, plus the class 03, a class 122 DMU ready to be weathered and I am also about to start a class 42 warship. Therefore, having a test track to easily set up and test locomotives has become essential and I am looking forward to starting this project tomorrow. So for now a happy new year to everyone and I hope to update this blog with a lot more content and projects in the new year.

Happy Xmas Everyone!

Modelling has been pretty quiet for me over the last 6 months - hence the lack of updates! We have been busy renovating our house - and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I should be able to get my airbrush up and running again over xmas - ready for the new year. I am also optimistic of a little modelling time over the Xmas hols. 

However, until then - I hope everyone has a very merry xmas and lots of train shaped presents!

O Gauge Layout progress.....

I have been a bit quiet on updating my blog recently, due to a variety of reasons. There is a lot of renovating on the house going on and this will continue for most of the summer, coupled with a change in my professional life.  This is all great news, as come winter I should have plenty of modelling time, which I am really looking forward too.  I have numerous kits stashed away to build and a number of locomotives that I really need to get around to detailing, however, I never have enough time!  So from November onwards the house will be largely finished and my work commitments will be significantly reduced, freeing up a lot of time to do other things in life.  We are about to knock out what is left of the kitchen, rip up the lounge and replace the diner and bathroom. However, before this all begins (and the mess that goes with it!) - I set up the layout in the lounge to really push forward on some of the detailing aspects. There were lots of little niggly thing I just needed to get sorted out before I pressed on with adding some of the detailing elements.  

So to start with the ballasting is all but finished (I have a couple of bits to tidy up today).  It was a longish job, but a little bit each evening soon saw completed. I took the opportunity to rectify a few areas of poorly running track in a couple of places whilst gluing in the ballast and everything now runs as it should - fantastic! The points are all free and I cleaned the track and test ran a few locomotives..... The Heljan class 03 was running like a bag of old spanners, so I gave the wheels a good clean and popped it on the track - it spluttered than ran straight off the baseboard onto the hard wooden floor. The class 03 It is a bit of mess now - so there will be a complete rebuild of this locomotive over summer - a very expensive mistake that one.

Completed ballast looking into the platform.

I have added a small crossing by the platform for people/road vehicles and glued this in.  This is just some wooden coffee stirrers and brass wire, suitably weathered.   I also used some fine sand to build up the ground level in a handful of places around the layout and this has been glued in.

Level crossing added at the end of the platform.

I had also been dithering about the tunnel and had made no progress with this. I completed a tunnel mouth last summer, but it is very big. However, I have now decided to bite the bullet and use this - so this has been glued in place.  It will need the scenery building up around it when I add in the backscene, but this can be dealt with, when the house renovations are complete. It just about fits across the baseboard - but it is a tight squeeze.

Tunnel mouth now in place.

On the quay side I have been building up the water level using coats of PVA glue - this is an attempt to even out what had become a very rough surface and provide a rippling effect for the application of some water gel. This has been largely successful, although there is more to go here, finishing this off. I will get one more coat of PVA on it today, alongside adding in some wooden posts on the quay side. These have been made and will be glued into place later today.

PVA glue drying off for what will be the quay side.  I really like this sort of scene - looking up at the trains as they come into the platform and edge along the estuary.

Lastly, the buildings for the layout really needed some progress. I recently completed the pub and have made a lot of progress on finishing off the dairy office. I have added the interior detail, popped in some lights, and added the roof. It is now just a question of a little more detailing of the doors and gluing these into place, adding some lead flashing to the roof, then weathering the down the tiles and finishing the guttering. This will be a job for over summer, when I can snatch a moment of modelling time in the evening.

Guttering being installed into the dairy office.

The interior lights really help bring this model to life.

So plenty of layout progress, even if it has been in fit and starts; I can now finally see this all coming together. Tomorrow morning I am packing down the layout for the next 2 months or so, whilst we move through the real life house building projects. In the mean time, I intend to build a couple of wagons and continue with the finishing/detailing of the buildings. I also have the Class 03 to rebuild and weather, alongside detailing the Dapol Class 122. In addition, the Class 25 just needs reassembling, then I can start on the detailing of the next locomotive. I have a Hymek, Warship and Western sat in my modelling boxes. It is really fantastic to now have an operational layout, although ideally I also need to get the fiddle yard sorted - being O gauge this will need to be a traverser, as handling these O gauge trains is somewhat tricky. However, I can see that by Christmas, I will have a layout that is largely finished, with a handful of O gauge trains detailed and some kit built rolling stock finished to play with - happy days!

An O gauge Pub and a start on the dairy buildings

Recently I have decided to finish off a number of projects that were started a while ago, but have subsequently sat around. I am hoping that over summer I can get the layout set up properly and finally finish the ballasting, add in the backscene and do a lot of the detailing projects, i.e. have a usable model railway. Right now, the O gauge layout has stalled somewhat, after moving house and having to install a new kitchen/diner, etc.  When I finally get around to setting up the layout, I want to be able to add in some of the buildings and then move relatively quickly into adding small details/scenery around the layout.  So to be able to do that I need to get cracking with finishing off some of the buildings.

Finally finished the pub - now I just need to set it within a 'scene' on the layout.

The pub has been an ongoing project, having been close to finished for a while. Some final bits and bobs needed to be added, such as a few piece of guttering and a bit of painting here and there. The basis for the model is a Petite Properties kit and this was first my attempt at producing a model building like this. I have learnt quite a bit from doing it, especially that sanding down Polyfilla goes everywhere! However, it has turned out OK and I can see how I can improve the overall finish on subsequent models. I have installed some lights in the pub and it has a fitted interior. Modelling in O gauge does provide the opportunity to install lights/interiors as features of model buildings and quite a few of the buildings will have lighting installed.

The pub has working lights and the local landlady visible. She is well known to the locals......

With the pub finished I am now detailing one of the dairy buildings and make a proper start on painting the Quay masters cottage. After this I have the second dairy building to do, that will sit on the top of the dairy platform at the end of the layout. If I can get these bits knocked off in the next few weeks then I can really make a start with some of the basic detailing elements over the summer (once the kitchen has been installed anyhow!). The other big job, is to sort out a tunnel exit - I have now purchased two tunnel kits and neither of them fit the bill, so I am just going to have a go at scratch building something - fingers crossed. I need something smaller for the end of the layout - as the purchased tunnels are just too wide. The other thing I am planning to do relatively soon is install the water scene on the quay - I am going to buy some AK interactive water gel and give this a try - although I plan to do some experimenting first.....

Another O gauge wagon - Slaters 12T standard van

Who knows where the time has gone in the last few months - life has been really busy and modelling time has been somewhat limited. The little modelling time I have had, has been spent building some wagons very slowly in the evenings and the odd spray painting session with the airbrush. I currently have a couple of wagons nearly built in O and OO gauge, and a couple of O gauge wagons nearing completion in the paint box.  My biggest challenge right now is to focus on the finishing of some ongoing projects on the O gauge layout, particularly some rolling stock, alongside finishing off some of the basic scenery detailing and buildings. I have far too many projects half finished and I would like to move at least some of these to the finished pile.

One project that has been ticked off and is now finished is a Slaters 12T box van. My first Slaters kit took me about 6 years to get around to finishing. This 12T van was the second one I did, started in 2020, so a mere 3 years later it is finished. Undoubtedly, I have now become more used to Slaters kits and can get a really good build from them - they are great kits, but they do require a bit of time and patience. This van was painted with Railmatch paints via the airbrush and had Railtec transfers applied. All good and another one finished for the layout. The next one of these I do, I will be a little more adventurous with the painting of the body, adding some in some different coloured planking, however for now this finish is fine.

Finished 12T standard van - the rolling stock for the layout is slowly getting built......

The layout has made slow (non) progress in recent months, with only a little ballasting being finished. I am still mulling over the tunnel exit and likewise the landscaping at the end of the layout. This all needs a little more thinking about, so next steps are to finish the ballasting nd get the tunnel mouth and embankment at the end of the layout sorted. Once this is done, I can get the backscene in and really start cracking on with the detailing.