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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 3, 2018 15:59:15 GMT -5
I'm a great believer in weathering where appropriate but I'm also not afraid to go for a gloss finish.
I quite like the contrast that way. certain things really benefit from weathering like the AZL 60ft high cubes but I always try to do them to different degrees to ring the changes
Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 2, 2018 12:36:58 GMT -5
Over the intervening years there has been a lot changes in the layout shed. The first four Z Layouts I built were all sold to new homes to make room for Shasta, my big Southern Pacific layout and subsequently Republic Steel, my Steelworks. It was always the intention to make Republic connect to Cuyahoga via the high line and the first opportunity came at the Accrington show where they appeared together for the first time Logistically it was a bit of a chore as the combined layouts wouldn't fit in the Nissan so I ended up using one of the call-out vans from work. putting all the rolling stock out on the layouts (and taking it off again on Sunday teatime) was also time consuming but the effect was great. The ground level tracks are not connected so there are three trains running on Cuyahoga and two on Republic at all times so always something for the public to see. The high lines were connected across so you could switch the ore yard behind the blast furnace. In reality not a lot of that happened as keeping tabs on the running lines took up most of my attention span In this rear view you can see the universal power pack and the control panels for the two layouts. Republic was running DCC and Cuyahoga DC Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 2, 2018 10:27:12 GMT -5
If you fancy a challenge you can do an Alco FA using the GHW model on Shapeways designed to fit the MTL F7 mech It was printed in what used to be called SWF plastic which has a grainy finish so needed a couple of coats of primer sanded down between each one to smooth it out. In fact it needed a fair bit of rubbing down but the end result was worth it The truck sides were resin copies of the ones under the Hallmark turbine glued onto the side of the F7 trucks that had been rubbed down flush. because I lost a lot of the grill detail on the side I scanned the FA drawing and printed some clear decal ones that look O.K I've also started one of his EMD FTs in the same material. Again this had a lot of grain and is seen here in the first coat of reveal primer. Since I took this shot I've added the dynamic brakes on the roof and will finish it in Northern Pacific livery when I get round to it Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 1, 2018 15:17:28 GMT -5
I've got a couple of the Hallmarks and was originally going to fret out the windows etc but ended up motorising them, repainting and shoving them straight into traffic. They are slightly oversize but look fine with the repainted Marklin streamliners. They are The most beautiful diesel loco ever produced in my opinion. They are in the classic Nickel Plate Road 'Bluebird' livery and I would dearly like to see an injection PA come out one day to replace them Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 1, 2018 15:00:53 GMT -5
A lot of work went into the scenery and the development of the high line on top of the scenic divider with its associated buildings gave the scenery a natural break. With the roundhouse roof removed the stalls are full of locos (Must be Sunday morning?) The Coach servicing building is complete and the power house. All these facilities are based on the ones at Calumet with drawings scaled of photographs I'd still like to create a Cleveland city skyscape as a backdrop with the terminal tower as a feature one day. So the layout is not a pure representation of the Cuyahoga flats area of Cleveland more a flavour of it I hope The two PA1 'Bluebirds' head train #6 towards Buffalo The L1 4-6-4 displaced from front line passenger service sits on the ready track after coaling as an AZL light Mikado drifts past light engine The Pennsy has trackage rights and a mTL F7 trrundles past on a passenger. The EMD SW1 is shunting the Lockside spur and the roundhouse is really busy To get the layout ready for the show did not take much time. The two baseboards live in their flight cases out in the layout shed are are well protected. The only thing that needed sprucing up was the water which had gone really dull so a couple of coats of Polyurethane gloss varnish perked it up no end you can see it reflecting on the sides of the boats again The 1960s era tug is part of a drive to get the marine vessels more in keeping with the rest of the layout. Most of the ones on now are too modern More tomorrow Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 1, 2018 14:39:57 GMT -5
Well time flies. It doesn't seem ten years since Cuyahoga, my Nickel Plate Road' layout made its debut at Zedex 2008 so to celebrate I'm taking it to this years show to celebrate its anniversary. Back then I was really struggling to get it ready for the show and there was some doubt whether it would be ready but a serious thrash got it into some sort of running order The scenery was really sparse and it has a paper diagram on the control panel! Guest operator Colin Burns gets his head round the trackplan Even the photographs were a bit naff back then! The area intended for the coach servicing area was bare so a quick intermodal yard (completely out of period) was thrown together. I had to run what little stock I had, hence the very out of era TTX spine cars rake had to do. The layout was well received by the public and there were some kind comments about the boats. More importantly it ran well and the trackplan showed its potential in regards to switching the docks and roundhouse, There then followed an improvement program and the show invites mounted up Once I was happy I submitted articles to Z-Track and Continental Modeller magazines and it duly appeared in them and carried on taking it out to shows across the U.K. By now I was picking up a lot more rolling stock AZL, MTL, Full Throttle and converted Marklin. The drive was to keep it authentic, right railroads, right era so things like the AL GP7s were a godsend Although the NKP in real life only had one GP35 I've repainted two MTL ones, as like the GP7 they are superb runners. I keep a log of loco hours and NKP GP7s #422 and # 426 have now clocked up over 250 hours each of show running and all I've ever done is clean the wheels More soon Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Oct 1, 2018 14:18:41 GMT -5
Shot in natural daylight?
Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 13, 2018 16:18:07 GMT -5
Diesel hydraulics Rare beasts in the USA apart from the Krauss Maffei ones, but in England we had a whole raft of them thanks to the Western region of British Rail. The WR was the direct descendant of the Great Western railway which always had a knack of doing things differently to everybody else! So, flying in the face of all the other regions they decided to order some diesel hydraulics based on designs from Deutsche Bundesbahn in Germany One result was in effect a scaled down version of the V200 that was a highly proven design in West Germany at the time.. The class 42s and 43s were named as the Warship class and named after examples of the same Thankfully they were not all scrapped after BR deemed them non standard and some were preserved D821 'Greyhound' retains its BR Maroon livery outside Swindon works back in 1978 Once again designed by Ivan industries on Shapeways ' I use the SBB 460 chassis as it has a nice blank underframe seen here are D821 'Greyhound', D815 Glory and D870 'Zulu' Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 13, 2018 16:00:42 GMT -5
Finished, apart from the windscreen wipers. Loco is finished as 37 013 'Vampire' . Decals came from Precision Decals range of Tinsley locos that also include the 08 shunters and Class 47s that also got the treatment Rounding the curve on Republic with an 'Enterprise' freight working. I've got the layout at Carnforth exhibition this weekend so it can have a good running-in turn Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 15:33:00 GMT -5
Small tank locos The last surviving steam locos in the U.K were not the glamorous main locos. these succumbed in 1968 and this year sees a lot of 'The last of steam' celebrations. In private industry steam was still active well into the late 1970s and 80's. The Marklin BR 89 is a good donor chassis apart from the size of the vertical motor and Ivan has recreated the USATC 0-6-0T shipped over to Europe in large numbers from the USA during the second world war. Couple of minor mods to make the chassis fit and it can be used in many ways Firstly as one of the ones inherited by British rail and deployed as shunters in Southampton Docks, sadly I never saw these running in real life With Cuyahoga standing if for Southampton two busy themselves by the dockside. Both of these have had powdered tungsten weights cast into any space available to up their tractive effort After they were retired some went into industrial service and this one works the high line on Republic Steel Also allocated to Republic Steel is this typical British 0-6-0T. Ivan describes it as 'LBSC E2 like' but to me it is much more reminiscent of a Kitson or Barclay design. Again it fits the BR 89 chassis with some mods and is also available in Lost wax brass as well as acrylic Seen here on Republic, finished in N.C.B (National Coal Board) livery with a rake of 27 ton iron ore tipplers, designed by Stonysmith on Shapeways. These take the Fox valley wheels and I really must order some more of these as we have something exciting come out in a few weeks to pull them Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 14:47:43 GMT -5
Now the English Electric designed 37s, originally called 'type 3s' by railfans shared their looks with the mighty Class 55 Deltics. These 3,300HP Behemoths were the most powerful single unit locos in the world when they were introduced and displaced the famous LNER A3s (Flying Scotsman) and A4s (Mallard) off the LNER main line as the passenger services were accelerated to 100 MPH. with their twin Napier Deltic engines which are triangular with three crankshafts and 16 cylinders with horizontally opposed pistons sound like nothing on earth when the throttle opens up! My own favourite one was 55018 Ballymoss, which was the last one I saw in BR green when I was collecting numbers as a very young trainspotter and the by co-incidence the last one I got in Railbue. Seen here at Doncaster in 1978 on an Anglo-Scottish express The Z version is again by Ivan on Shapeways but in this case sits on an MTL SD40-2 chassis with the circuit board and lugs on the top removed, Painted in Humbrol railblue with nameplates by Fox transfers Seen on the 'Tyne Tees Pullman' The coaches are from the Atlas editions 'Golden arrow' set with MTL trucks behind it you can see some of the fruits of our labours over the last few weeks If you want to see these beasts in action I recently combined two of my youtube videos into one. Firstly 'Alycidon' is seen on shed at Barrow Hill roundhouse leaving light engine and heading south The smoke and noise at 6.12 was by arrangement! what follows then is the infamous 'Day of the Deltics' when three of the preserved Deltics that were still main line registered were let loose on the east Coast main line on a series of high speed charter trains. Only in England Eh? Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 14:25:37 GMT -5
Hi all Although not specifically AZL but I thought I'd give you a heads up on the progress a few of us are making on British Z modelling In my thread on the DRS open day I feature the Class 37 diesel. These versatile and long lived locos are the British equivalent of the F7, every rail company seems to have had some and the variations of colour schemes is hard to keep a track of Introduced in 1960 and put straight into production off the drawing board their looks were dated even as the appeared. because the operating division wished to retain gangway doors in the ends it resulted in a curios split headcode box arrangement In a picture taken by late father in May 1964 D6800 (later renumbered 37 100) is seen on a sad picture at Duckmanton South lifting the track on the former Great Central main line after its closure Many,many years later one of our Split headcode 37s 37 069 trundles through Askam on a Barrow Docks to Sellafield trip. So this was one class of loco I really needed in Z, Graham Jones and Ivan Industries had one in development in 3D printing so after some prompting a Beta version was uploaded to try out. Seen here with the donor loco, A Marklin BR103, the prototype has had a coat of Acrtlic reveal primer applied, some rough layer lines cleaned up and a second coat of primer sprayed on. The chosen loco was to be 37 013, one of the famous Tinsley depots unofficially named examples ( The nameplates were just painted on !) in this case the loco was named 'Vampire'. Still in Railblue in September 1991 and looking a bit tatty. I've got the decals for the name on order and am in two minds about how much weathering I'm going to give it more soon Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 14:02:53 GMT -5
One thing that drew the crowds was a 'Thrash' basically revving the nuts off a loco for the noise. Dean fired 'Tireless' up with its distinctive 68 rumble (Think of a pair of trainers in a washing machine on fast spin!) 37 407 and 66 421 were run at the same time but the the 37 drowned out its American counterpart Another way to raise money for charity was to auction off some redundant nameplates and framed publicity pictures. I bid for a couple but I suspect the big dealers were in as I didn't win any In addition to our 'Sammy the Safety bear' mascot we have a new one 'Sparky the Cat' Of course I had to sneak some Z in somewhere so I had one of my newly completer FAN models in a jewel case in my pocket to show people Network rail kindly loaned us 'Caroline' the unique inspection saloon converted from a Southern region EMU which we provide the motive power for. Link to the video which starts with the shunt on Friday afternoon, which seemed to be endless followed by the madness on Saturday. The guys on the gate had misplaced the clickers so we had to estimate the attendance but we were looking at about 4,500 people through in five hours Final total raised for charity £37.800 or $47,800 in your money! Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 13:44:06 GMT -5
The other loco to be named was one of our EMD (Ontario ) built Class 66s. These are the dominant freight design in the U.k with over 400 examples having been delivered to various companies. 66 424 and 425 are seen near the fuel road at the depot Sister engine 66 421 was revealed as 'Gresty Bridge TMD' its home depot in a service conducted by DRS M.D Debbie Francis and local M.P for Crewe and Nantwich Laura Smith So. After the mega shunt on Friday we went out for a meal and a few sherberts before regouping on saturday morning to do the rest of the prep as the traders, caterers and the rest of the volunteers arrived. First order of the day. Safety brief Once that was done it was time to go and have a look at the queue! You'll get a better idea when I put the link to the video in but for anybody that knows Crewe this was bordering on the insane! starting at the depot gates its stretched down the drive, under the Gresty Bridge, past the Mornflakes Oats factory complex (we had to put marshalls on to stop the queuing fans blocking the delivery truck entrance and seemingly all the way to Crewe Alexandra's football ground. And they just kept coming! From the lessons we learnt two year ago we dispensed with the cab visits in the shed as the gantries really blocked things up Kev
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Post by kevsmithnkp on Aug 6, 2018 13:37:01 GMT -5
Just in time the two locomotives we have had at the Velim Czech republic test track arrived back on the depot. These were part of the testing program with the new Mk V coaches being built by CAF ready for the launch of TPEs new revamped Trans Pennine services 68 021 'Tireless' is a bit weathered having not long come off the boat 68 019 'Brutus' is also in the new TPE livery. Personally I can't get used to the lack of yellow ends. Group standards now deem these as not mandatory due to the use of high intensity LED headlights but I'd still rather see a big yellow blob approaching when I'm on or near the line. There were two naming cermonies. 57 007 is one of our Class 57s. These were originally Sulzer engined Class 47s but were repowered with EMD motors to create the 57 class The naming ceremonies have become very popular over the last few years and I was constantly asked what it was going to be. The answer was 'John Scott' a memorial to one of my colleagues in Engineering who passed away in 2012 Kev
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