James The Red Engine - Improvements

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Percy the Small Engine - Running Test

As flawed as the Bachmann Percy model is, I like it. With the addition of DCC, I've been able to get very smooth running from mine, which will be assisted with a few wagons/coaches fitted with a plug'n'play pickup system I have designed.

 

Edward The Blue Engine - Running test

One of the more accurate Bachmann models, with a bit of tweaking here and there along with a decent DCC decoder. Not a bad model at the end of the day.

 

N gauge - Harvey The Crane Engine

Well, I guess I'd been holding this one off for a while but now it's revealed. Tomy/Yujin's range of wind up Thomas characters seemed to be around 2mm scale or thereabouts, making them ideal conversion candidates. Having converted Rusty into a passable OO9 locomotive, I set to work on one of my favorite characters.

Having around 9 Ibertren Cuckoo chassis for OO9 use, I decided to employ a spare one for this project, simply as it's slightly smaller than the Fleischmann option.

Just a final picture to show how small he really is!

That's all for now, just going to go to sleep!

Destruction

Well, to whoever wanted to know how I get a face.

This reminds me. I need to work on Arthur.

Jack

N gauge - Henry The Green Engine

Quite happily, I've been looking at doing N gauge models. I really like the scale, which works out at roughly half OO/HO. One range of items that caught me, unsurprisingly, is the Tomix range.

Sold in Japan, there are multiple locomotives, coaches, wagons and buildings you can buy. Whilst the buildings aren't anything special, the rolling stock is amazing.

So far, I have a Henry and a Percy. I'm aiming to get the other two in the range, Thomas and James, then complete the gaps by making my own locomotives. It'll take time but it'll look decent.

Jack

Arthur - Work commences

Well, I kept this one quiet. On the subject, it's an oddball.

Whilst you could say he was a Standard 3MT on the show, they were never LMS locomotives. Given his livery, I'd put my money on him being an Ivatt 2MT as used by the LMS. That said, I feel the 2MT is far closer to the one on the show.

I bought the donor model a few years ago with the aim of making him, but I guess I wasn't sure on how to go about it. The obvious modification needed was removing the top feed from the boiler, and this thankfully came off with a few scrapes of my trusty scalpel. I then sanded it down and got it smooth, before filling in holes left by the cuts.

The donor also had it's rivets removed, as these are not present on Arthur in the Television series. This meant sanding the roof, boiler and sides to get them flush.

A coat of primer later showed a few imperfections, although these were later sorted out. As he stands now, it's coming along nicely. Some transfer paper has been ordered so I can complete him as a fully accurate TV series model. Posed here with his wooden face, which may be thinned down so it doesn't stick out as much.

That's all for now :)

Jack

Duke The Lost Engine - Steady Progress

Whilst I find the colour of this loco a little dark, it's also more to my liking. Got to say it'll be a nice change compared to the other locomotives in red and black. As soon as it has a crew, nameplates, chassis fixed and lining, hopefully it'll be a good addition to the motive power.

Even when positioned with some of the Mid Sodor Railway stock, it looks the part. Hoping to get a few more of the Skarloey engines done and out the way, always been something I've wanted to do and now I'm getting it done. Do prefer them in the books though, the rainbow liveries of the Television series

Jack

Stepney - Complete

Whilst this is a somewhat lazy model, I've yet to add a few features such as the extended bunker and a crew. Certainly looks more appealing in his real livery though.

As always, running test will be up soon on my YouTube channel.

Jack

Bachmann Duck in 2012 Range

All I can say is, it was inevitable.

Duck's face is almost a mirror to my own at the minute.

Original reveal, and I expect more news to come, can be found by clicking this link.

Jack

More bashing fodder?

Well, as soon as I get the Jouef 0-6-0 bash looking how I want it to, Hornby go and announce this.

The locomotive in question is a Sharp Stewart product. Suffice to say, I think i'll have a fleet of these 0-6-0s by the end of the year.

Jack

Hornby R9684 "Murdoch"

Got to say, this is one of the newer characters I like. When Hornby announced they were making him, I knew I had to get him. When I did, I wasn't disappointed.

Video coming soon!

Jack

HO Jouef 0-6-0 Tank Engine

Managed to pick up a Jouef "Junior" range locomotive the other day, and first impressions are generally quite good. I do like the size of the locomotive, which turned out to be smaller than the Dapol/Hornby terrier. Model features NEM couplings and blackened metal components, giving it a modern feel. Need to sort out the livery though, not keen on keeping it French forever.

More pictures:

Jack

Duck The Great Western Engine - Donor Chassis

After being asked, I've got a picture of the donor chassis I am using. It's only fitting that it came from a 57XX, and suprisingly lines up well for making Duck. The body has been designed to fit this chassis, and as such is now being worked on by a friend so I can make the master to work from.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me!

Jack

Duck The Great Western Engine - Working from the prototype

So if you were bothered to use Google to translate it, you'd find it was simply "Duck" in Dutch. If you're wondering why it was Dutch, I will reveal that at a later date.

Onto Duck's body, this has been aided with re-watching the classic episodes, and screen capturing several key shots of him to produce the body from. It's good that there is enough reference material to work from, but it would have been nicer had he been produced by Bachmann.

Working from these, I already have a rough model designed to suit the donor chassis, it's just a case of getting it completed, and then making the casting masters to work from.

Jack

Duck The Great Western Engine - Planning it out

All I will say at the moment in time is the face and chassis are sat on my workbench, and the body is being worked upon. Body itself will take a while to do, as it'll be done in numerous parts, but it should leave me with a rather nice locomotive, regardless of manufacturers announcing it next year.

Jack

Thomas The Tank Engine - Front Coupling

Well, the Bachmann Thomas range is certainly great, don't get me wrong on that. The biggest problem however lies with the earlier models featured, such as Thomas, Percy & James. Considering they were designed when the range was started, it's easy to forgive Bachmann on the minor errors that appear on them.

However, one thing does annoy me with them. The lack of a front coupling.

Every locomotive character since, starting from Gordon and Henry, has had one. It makes sense to have one too, as they are commonly seen either running cab first or shunting within the television series. To solve this, you can glue couplings onto the main three, but for Thomas at least there is a way around doing so.

As you have seen from the pictures above, my Thomas has a front coupling. In this case, it's one of the metal Tri-Ang/Wrenn examples found commonly on many older items of rolling stock. This was picked as it was at the top of my parts box, but other tension lock couplings can be fitted by following my method.

Please note that this is written for the Thomas model from the "00682 Thomas' Holiday Special" train set. Other Thomas models lack the extra parts on the underside of the footplate.

The real fun starts when you get the model out of the box. Removing the novelty Christmas hat (as seen in at least one episode) you'll find the snowplough on Thomas is removable, leaving two lengths of plastic rod hanging from below the front buffer beam. This is part of a one part casting, and as such can be unscrewed with a small Philips screwdriver.

The donor coupling, if using a standard tension lock, will have three holes. Normally, you'll find two raised lumps that sit on the outer holes, with the middle one being used to screw it in. Unfortunately, the holes used to screw the snowplough in are a few millimeters short of the outer holes, so you have to modify the coupling. Whilst this may seem awkward, it's nothing a good Diamond coated file won't sort. Having altered the coupling to fit, simply screw it back in with the existing screws and Thomas will be ready to shunt wagons and pull trains backwards.

Hopefully, this will help anyone wanting to give their model a front coupling, although I can't say it will work for all tension lock couplings. Please remember however this modification is only suitable for the Thomas from the Holiday Special train set.

Jack

Churchill The 8F

"Ex-Turkish 2-8-0, now North Western Railway number 26, shown here after rebuild and restoration into British Railways livery, Crovans Gate Works 1985."

Yes, I finally got around to it. For what I am wanting to do however, I need two of these, one in this condition and one as a Turkish example. As can be seen, it's the older Hornby model. Reason being the smokebox door easily comes away allowing for a face to be fitted as needed.

Jack

Stepney - Pictures

As promised the other night. Not much of an update, but my camera messed up on the front on shot. Will update this at a later dad to rectify that.

I'll add a picture of the real thing so you can compare it. (Attribution: Bluebellnutter at en.wikipedia)

Jack

Stepney - Purchased

So today I got the Bluebell Railway's famed locomotive in the mail, none other than Number 55, Stepney. Whilst initially looking at this model I was happy, but I later noticed it has a numberplate on the smokebox door and the splashers on the model are correct for an A1X, not the A1 that Stepney is. Small faults, but faults none the less.

It's a shame, because the model itself runs smoothly and is a fine addition to my collection, even if it has a few errors. Compared to the "Thomas" version that Hornby currently sell, the Dapol version is far superior. A fun fact that is useful is that the face from the Hornby version happily fits the Dapol model.

Pictures will be up tomorrow.

Jack