Blimey I see what you mean about the bridge, hopefully it will be an easy fix mate. Very jealous of your go in the shunter! I had a driving day 24 years ago in a standard 4 tank loco 80080 and a class 40 at the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley in Derbyshire and then a few years ago driving an 0-4-0 narrow gauge steam loco "Jane" on the Amber Valley light railway at the Midland centre. Both experiences fixed permanently in the memory!! Cheer's, Pete.
Pete Having done it once on a few hundred yards of track you can imagine this is an experience I'll have a go at again some time. Class 40 at the Midland? Hmmmm.
Hi Tony Yes it is the 45 Class. First thing I noticed when I turned the loco upside down was there is an arrow on each bogie pointing towards the middle. To my mind this looks wrong and they should both face the same way or both face outwards. I'd be grateful if you could confirm how yours are configured.. Second thing - I have removed the kadees but how in heavens to you get into the body. It feels like you have to insert your fingernails or a small screwdriver but I am concerned any pressure may not be a good idea for the less than robust body. Am I missing something? I'd rather know before trying this with some force! Thanks in advance Dave
Hi Dave, On an actual train now on the way to work so can't check mine. You can download instructions from the AR kits website, easier to just Google this though as it is in a funny section of the website. From memory it is a pain to take apart, think you just have to be really careful as the body basically snaps onto the chassis I'll check on the arrows tonight Cheers Tony
Hi Dave, Just had a look at mine and yours would be the same as mine, both arrows pointing into the middle. Also you will notice that the arrows point towards the axle of the bogie that is further away from the other two, so in other words the closer paired axles will be at opposite ends of the loco. The same arrangement was used for the 48 class locos, so you can double check the spacing there if by any chance some parts of the 45 bogie have been put on backwards before you got it. Hope that makes sense, hopefully someone will know the reason why the axle spacing in the bogies of these was not even, I assume it was to do with traction motor location, but this does not seem to be the case in later locos. Cheers Tony
Thanks Tony - I have found the website entry and downloaded the instructions. Unfortunately I have not been able to separate the body and have managed to dislodge a few smaller parts. Patience (and a gin) are what is needed. Dave
The cold bank holiday weekend reminds me there are only some 8 weeks running left this year and we are away for at least two weekends. Better get onw ith it then. D
I don't know if this will help. Mine was modified many years ago and the body is held on with two screws. cheers Bob Comerford
Thanks Bob - after much struggle the top is off. The wiring problem Tony has suggested above does not seem to be the issue. A mate reckons it might be something with the back to backs and is going to coach me through a fix. Dave
My mate Nick has reported the back to backs are "well off" and will be sorting the problem as soon as he can. That however may be too late as the end of the operating season at Wallace Creek may come to a premature end as I go under the surgeon's knife on Monday and he has warned me that I could be sidelined for several weeks by which time the weather will be a bit too chilly for only the quickest of operating sessions. I will however be dragging my 5x4 lightweight Honeypot Lane layout out for a few winter operations and that may well be the thing that gets me through the recuperation period (well that and the products of the Hop Studio brewery in Elvington). I have managed to acquire 4 Auscision NKLY vans from a UK seller (so no customs etc) at a reasonable price. They now means I have a very respectable NSW van train which operates between Mowarra Junction and Enfield Yard (Sydney) either early morning or late evening. During the operating day the vans are run to and from various sidings as part of the local pick up freights sometimes overnighting before they return to Enfield Yard the next day. A Victorian railways equivalent runs to Tottenham Yard (Melbourne) . Speaking of Honeypot Lane, I bought a very reasonably (£20) Hornby Railroad industrial Bagnall/Brush shunter. Got to admit I have a thing about industrial railways and Honeypot Lane (which is a very transient layout) will occasionally be Port of London, occasionally a private siding and occasionally a BR operated layout (Class 04/08 with an 03 to come). Some photos from a session the other week will follow.
Hi Dave Hope the coming cooler months do not interfere with your railway interests too much and that you recuperating period goes very well. Very best wishes Richard
Recovering slowly from my knee operation and a very mild weekend it was time to get back into the garage for a clear up and set up WC for its hibernation. The 45 class has returned from shops and on the side of the layout that works (I'd taken the controller from the other half for my inside shunting layout) it ran perfectly with one exception but that was a known trouble spot already. Have stated experimenting with an air brush for the first time and am quite pleased with some of the results (and not so pleased with other ones!). I think the mix of paint may be too thin.
Great to hear from you Dave and that your recuperation from the knee surgery is progressing. I will face that in the future but for now specialist opinion is to hasten slowly or as he says, Richard, you will know when it is necessary. With air brushing, I have found that the major issue is to ensure that the surface has been thoroughly prepared. I use 600 grade wet and dray and sometimes even finer, then steady sweeping passes seems to be the trick. I had a running session on my Dargan layout two weeks ago with Gary, Gormo and Dr Tony. Great fun particularly with DCC operations and all the shunting options available on Dargan. Even though we have an online community, it is fun to get together on occasion and I hope to do this again. You will be pleased to hear that my new Auscision 48s performed flawlessly, with the triple headed wheat train the star. I have also obtained another 48 in 4836 which is in the 125 year anniversary colour scheme. Looks great. Cheers for now and happy modelling Richard
Thanks Richard - I saw the pictures and naturally loved your 48s. I have the original Powerline 4836 (acquired second hand) and I agree that the 125 livery was a corker. I'll order some of that sandpaper before my next go. It was an encouraging start (on some old Golden fleece tanks) and some UK stock but more practice needed. Cheers Dave
As the 9167 people who have read this page (well allowing for the times I read it perhaps that should read as the 27 people who read this page) Wallace Creek is not exactly the home of high quality modelling. So if like your rivets highly polished and meticulously counted then best look away now! Don't get me wrong I look with admiration at the far better modellers at work elsewhere on this site. I also think it is important to share failures in the hope this site can educate the lesser skilled modellers and encourage everyone to have a go. When it comes to modelling I cannot bear shiny freight trains or locos so grottying (?) them up is a must. . Given I am not gifted in that direction I have tried to improve my modelling skills and today I have had my first serious go at air brush modelling. Now I have tried dry brush modelling with mixed results and some of those can be seen on the pages above. I am pleased with some of these and not so with others. Anyway first up was my rake of Powerline Golden Fleece tanks. Now I had tried dry weathering these - they did not look great and an abortive attempt at air brushing them was unsatisfactory. So attached are some pictures. If I am honest I think I should have removed the original weathering and started from scratch. I think they need more work in the underframe area. Next up was a UK 16 ton mineral wagon from my Honeypot Lane industrial estate model (which I am thinking of converting into something different after Xmas.
I decided to have a go at this as I have a number of factory weathered 16 tonners and this stood out like a shiny thumb. I actually decided to dry brush them and then spray them later. I was reasonably pleased with these. After that it was a couple of NSW candy liveried passenger vehciles. The KB parcels van had been rubbed down with some fine sandpaper (thanks Richard!) dry brushed with dust wash and acrylics on the underframe and I sprayed this with the dust wash. The other vehicle ( a passenger carriage) only had the underframe driy brushed and this was then sprayed with dust wash. I think experience will see me improve but I was reasonably happy with the results here. The last purchase I made was 4 x NKLY vans and here they are in factory state at Wallace creek I decided to just apply the dust wash for a start here - there is a difference (I should have photographed a weathered and non weathered one together) showing the accrual of a little weathering on the road. Need to do some more work on the underframe.
Unseasonably warm December 2 so a brief shunting session using my UK stock on the Wallace Creek side of the layout (the other being disconnected).