Its Just Playing Trains: September 2006

Brake Lights

Here's a couple of pictures of the newly installed lamps on the brake - they are simply a couple of Brandbright white metal lamps drilled hollowed out with a dental burr for the lense and a side opening. A red LED in each, a small resistor and a battery - and soon there will be a switch too!
The battery will live in a cupboard in Marcel's Guard's Compartment, and all of these bits will be hidden up in the roof. Note the really tidy globs of hot glue used to tack it all down - I use this stuff all over the place these days.

Special mention to David Halfpenny for his seminal work - "Lamps for Models" (I think that's right - I'll check it tomorrow) which finally moved me away from grain of wheat bulbs onto LEDs. Thanks David!

These photos are a bit pre-production - but it was great to see the red glow on the line when I left the brake out in the dark the other night. More when it's finished.

TREAT! Welsh Highland Railway SuperPower Weekend

Just a few pics from the train - a really smokey moment, and this was downhill!

Delighted to have had a good look at a coal fired John Brittain made NGG16 running in the gloom of the goods shed, the pictures are really floomy and don't do it justice. Thanks to Chris from the GO&OA for taking the time to talk us through all the questions while running his baby! You will be reading more on coal firing quite soon I hope......

Another day, another project

Here are a few pictures of my indoor narrow gauge project - it's a completely freelance industrial scene based on Roy C. Link's excellent range of trac, rolling stock and locomotives.

First is a flatbed bogie based on 2 skip chassis.

Then a skip wagon. These are 7mm scale running on 14mm - ie 2' track.

A Lister Auto-Truck by Classic Commercials.

The diminutive layout based on foamboard on ply. The track is made up on photocopied templates, so planning is easy - just cut and paste! More on this soon....

Smoking pot.....bellied stove

I have been asked for more details regarding the smoke effect for my bogie brake, so here they are:

The chimney is made from bits of brass tube, scrap brass, and a readily available metal disk that costs 1p from any bank...

Not very obvious from this side view is that the platform that the cone sits on is tilted up from the back so that the tip of the cone is under the tube. I did have a notion to use a hood but it proved easier to use the ramp.

The stove is just Femo clay and cocktail sticks for legs.

The cones are available in many stores that sell incense or jossticks.

This is the side view with the "smoke on" as they say in the Red Arrows!

The smoke sometimes misses th echimney and appears from any available orifice - I'm sure this is prototypical!

Front - or normal viewing angle view with the cone mostly hidden - once the thing is installed in the brake you can hardly see anything anyway!

The smoke is hard to photograph, but it is quite a good effect, and it smells good too!

Next instalment will feature the working lamps.....

Little gems

Seen in the metal for the first time at the Llanfair show were these delightful gems from Tolhurst Model Engineers:

Alice class quarry Hunsletts that offer interchangeable coal, gas or meths power and super detail.

Of course it all comes at a price, but each one is hand crafted to order and the results are terrific.

There's a VoR model too with even more bells and whistles and coming, but not soon, a Welshpool & Llanfair Earl/Countess that will have everything, including a huge waiting list!