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Post by kevsmithnkp on Jul 25, 2016 15:07:57 GMT -5
And there was more. We had sold one of our Class 47s 47 501 that was surplus to requirements. The new owner had repainted it back into BR two tone green. Amazingly this immaculate finish was brush painted by a master craftsman So all in all a very busy, tiring but highly enjoyable day and I was glad to get on the train home to give my poor feet a rest. Changing at Lancaster to get onto our Cumbrian Coast stock I noticed a few guys with cameras on platform 3 Lo and behold along came 46233 Duchess of Sutherland on the Cumbrian mountain Express. Nice end to the day really Needless to say, with all that shunting I shot a lot of video (20gb) once edited into a managable size I'll post the youtube link Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Jul 25, 2016 15:00:48 GMT -5
Busy Busy So the first surprise was the naming of 37 424 as 37 588 Avro Vulcan XH558
This celebrates the restoration of another icon of British technology, the Delta wing Nuclear strike bomber Avro Vulcan one of which has been an awesome presence at air shows over the last few years. Members of the Vulcan trust were presented with the third nameplate at the unveiling In another surprise class 47 47 712 was re-dedicated back into its original name of Lady Diana Spencer after its repaint back into its Scotrail livery. Our new managing director debbie Francis did the honours this time
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Jul 25, 2016 14:52:54 GMT -5
Now we had a couple of surprises for the railfans attending at the weekend. One of which would be the naming of our most recently overhauled Class 37 37 424. This has had a lot of work done including a full re-skin of the bodywork and the result is immaculate. To stop the trainspotters getting a sneak preview we covered up the nameplate and bodyside number. More of this later So, Saturday morning dawned and after we had the team briefings I went to see how big a queue we had!! starting at the top of the drive it stretched down to the main road round the corner, past the Mornflake factory up the hill past the Butty shop and all the way to Crewe Alexandria's football ground over the horizon Don't let anybody tell you that interest in railways is in decline based on this evidence! Once the gates opened it was manic Entrance fee was a £5 donation to charity. All proceeds from the show were in aid of charity
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Jul 25, 2016 14:43:19 GMT -5
Two 68s and a class 57 wait their next job these two Class 57s are painted in a special livery to haul the ' Northern belle' luxury excursion train You may be wondering what all the gubbins on the front of the loco is. This is a Delner coupling that allows these locos to rescue failed EMUs and DMUs that are not fitted with conventional buffers and drawgear. Halfway through the shunt and we still don't appear to be making much progress. Next thing to dig out was Class 40 1-C0-C0-1 D213 Andania privately owned by a couple of my mates.They have made an absolutely fantastic job of restoring this 2,000 HP 1958 built machine in British railway's green with a view to getting it back out onto the main line in the future The similarity to the smaller Class 37 Co-Cos can be seen The factory in the background is the 'Mornflake oats' breakfast cereal company which I have always thought would make a good low relief backdrop for a z gauge layout
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Jul 25, 2016 14:29:51 GMT -5
DRS Gresty Bridge Open day 2016 or- What I do when I'm doing 12" to the foot railroading as some of you are aware I work for an independent, highly specialised railway company in the U.K. Every year we hold an open day at one of our depots which are highly popular because of our mix of high tech modern motive power and also our extensive collection of heritage traction. This years Charity Gala was at our Crewe depot at Gresty bridge. So my weekend started on Friday when I travelled down by rail to do the show prep.We supply locos and rolling stock to support Northern rail's Cumbrian coast services and powering the train that morning was class 37 37 401 'Mary Queen of Scots' This works Push-Pull on the train with a driving car at the other end so despite appearances is actually at the back of the train on arrival at Preston This is one of the locos that we have finished in the 1980s 'Large logo' British rail livery Once at Crewe we had about four hours shunting to get the locos in the right place and also to release some engines to go out on jobs Class 68 68 011 is one of our ultra high-tech locos that we supply to Chiltern rail for their passenger services. These Vossloh built 3,800HP Bo-Bos are still being delivered at present with some more due this autumn Now we also have some hybrid versions of these under development that can work diesel or 25KV electric at the flick of switch. It was hoped that 88 002 would be available for the show (88 001 is on the test track in the Czech Republic for now) but it wass not to be so we brought two of our venerable old Class 20's over from Barrow Hill for the weekend Seen alongside is one of the Deltic Preservation Societies star engines D9009 Alycidon also to be displayed to the public When introduced in 1961 they were packing an astonishing 3,300 HP to blast 100mph passenger trains up the east Coast main line more soon
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 28, 2016 14:31:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind comments. As a sneak preview I took the opportunity to do some preview pictures of the layout in British form An Intercity liveried Class 47 on an intermodal train passes a DRS class 57 on a rake of Bitumen tanks. An ancient Class 24 switched in the works yard and in the background a Class 07 diesel switcher works the finished products yard spotting telescopic roof coil steel cars under the crane A DRS EMD Built Class 66 on a Yeoman stone train passes a class 47 still in 'railblue' on empty four wheel steel plate wagons. One of the preserved Southern railway Merchant Navy 4-6-2 speeds past with a railtour One thing to point out is the change of road vehicles to european ones including the London double decker bus cheers Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 28, 2016 9:23:19 GMT -5
Thanks Rob. Sadly my SD70ACE couldn't make it in time to be in the pictures. Anthony has posted it but it has to get past U.K customs yet!
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 28, 2016 3:48:03 GMT -5
Back in 50-60s form the highline now features a Z-Thek SW1 and a GP35 on switching chores You can see how the high line terminates for now until I trial fit it to Cuyahoga. An AZL Mikado works a coal train past the furnace In a busy scene a Western Maryland F unit combo pass pacific hauled train 6. the yard is busy with 'Torpedo boat' GP9 switching the furnace as two GP35s work the finished product yard Twp AZL GP7s pass on a Caboose hop Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 28, 2016 3:34:49 GMT -5
I have now got the layout to a point where I felt confident enough to photograph it for the forthcoming magazine articles. Most of the lighting is done, the open heart furnace is pretty much complete so... In 1990s form 3 AZL SD70ms pass a Stonysmith SW1500 switching the furnace as an MKT SD40-2 waits to take the M/T Gondolas out of the ore yard in the background 2 Canadian Pacific Geeps switch the finished products yard. You'll notice the the foreground seems bigger. I have made some clamp on sections of flat board with scenery on to make photography easier and to hide the baseboard edge. These are only used for taking pictures and will not be used at Shows. On the high line a Missouri Pacific GP35 switches alongside a Stonysmith Railking switching machine The 70ton ore cars are Roy Stevens on Shapeways ones, Gondolas are MTL Two MTL SD40-2s work a short cut of cars past the furnace. A Showcase miniature Ballast regulator waits its next job Again in this shot you can see the add-on foreground scenery as SD70ms and GP35s pass by the blower house. Bethgon coalporters are a mix of AZL and Freudenreich. The high line finishes as it does pending the layout getting its first trial connection to Cuyahoga More in a mo Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 16, 2016 14:58:22 GMT -5
The cast house cries out for more detail. I've fitted the skimmers to the slag and molten metal channels, the large steel plated used to cover them. The crane now has a hook although it needs more ropes and falls adding and a couple of barrows dotted about An inspection platform has been put above the tuyiers and the tap drill was made from a 1/32nd scale handbrake lever from a model car kit! LED lighting added to the upper and lower levels I spent last night adding lighting to the hoist area behind but here is a video of the effect so far. I'll explain about the smoke later but you can see how the animation of the layout is starting to take shape more later this week Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 16, 2016 14:48:29 GMT -5
Well I've kept busy since getting back from the show. A couple of magazine editors will probably be interested in this so I'd thought I'd try and get it more detailed. Now the basic Marklin Blast Furnace kit is a bit simplified compared to the real thing, it is nicely moulded but looks far too clean. I started with the Dust catcher and gas washer. You'll see how I've used captive 8BA bolts to hold the building down onto the baseboard as there is a chance it might need to come off again at some stage. The stack has had the aircraft warning light added, the lift tower has been lit and access platform and steps installed. A few 50mm street lamps have been put on as well. Installed Moving on to the furnace itself the tower cried out for detailing and lighting. the tapping holes and inspection holes were drilled out carefully at the base, quite tricky as I had already glued it into place. I held my breath as I drilled them out using a 6 inch long 3/16" drill bit with the battery drill on the slowest possible speed! Krystal Kleer liquid glazing was used to fill the holes and then a bank of Flickering yellow and red LEDS installed inside. At the same time a high intensity red led was fitted into the top of the tower pointing upwards More shortly Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on May 2, 2016 13:22:51 GMT -5
A cropped photo shows the whole of the frontage on display at the show this weekend. Would have preferred to use the plinth but the trestles are really stable The despatch yard has steel slabs and coils ready for loading A GP7 trundles past the blower house while the 0-6-0 switcher works the highline The universal power pack that I use on all of my layouts sits at the rear. This also supplies the DCC switchable on the inner track. The big blue light on the power pack indicates the inner is energised DCC as a warning NOT to put a DC loco on the track! I would have done more switching at the show but a couple of bits of high ballast on the approach to the furnace meant some locos stalled. A bit of 'Skrawking' with a scriber point should soon sort that this week I wasn't really going to take any bookings for it for now but Fleetwood show have asked for it and that show is one of my favourites. The organisers of Cleckheaton show also do a one day one in Brafdord in October so I'm going to take it there but in 'British' form with Class 47 and 56s running around hauling U.K coal and steel wagons. It means I'm going to have to start bidding for some of Laszlo's European cars as the Caddy's and Buicks won't really look right Keep you posted Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Apr 30, 2016 15:52:09 GMT -5
So..Thrashing along quite well last weekend but thought I'd better make sure it fits in the X-trail. Doh! Couldn't get the layout and plinth in at the same time. Tried everything including putting the plinth in through the sunroof! A weather forecast for sleet and snow meant putting the plinth on the roof bars was not really an option. I decided in the end to display the module on two steel telescopic trestles I use in the workshop to support the layout.these were given a quick spray of satin black to tidy them up. Parts of Cuyahoga's lighting rig were pressed into service and I set off on Friday morning a lot happier than I was on Monday morning.
The layout worked straight out of the box.There were a couple of high bits of ballast to clean out but other than that it worked DC and DCC from the off. Sat in my hotel room tonight I'm listing jobs still to do but it is detailing mainly.
Have not had time to take any photographs as yet as I spent a lot of time explaining to show visitors how much Z Scale has come on in the last few years however did manage to shoot some video footage. I'll do a fuller report after the weekend
more soon
Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Apr 23, 2016 7:55:35 GMT -5
Racing against time a bit now to get it ready for next week's show. I am going to use the plinth I use on Midsomer Mardy to support the layout at this show. Eventually the module will haver its own legs to match up with Cuyahoga so I can connect them together Still lots of detailing to do but it is lookin a bit more like it The AZL Mikado has found some high bits of ballast that the GP7 seem to miss so there has been a bit more scraping A Pennsy GP7 switches the high line quite a lot crammed into 4 ft 8 " by 2 ft more soon Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Apr 13, 2016 14:03:26 GMT -5
In British mode a class 07 shunter positions an iron ladle car at the blast furnace Kev
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