Hattons Garrett

Hornby Magazine have an article in their June issue about the forthcoming Garrett from Hattons and I am really glad that I pre-ordered one!

It will feature a motor for each set of driving wheels and have a DCC sound speaker under the chimney ready fitted so sourcing a sound chip suitable for this magnificent beast has to be the next step.

Currently the CAD drawings have been signed off and the metal is being cut for the first moulds to be approved sometime in July. The final release date for the model is now early 2013.

Got a bargain

Today I think I got a real bargain. Went into the local model shop looking to see if they had any more coach kits and saw a Hornby Railroad Flying Scotsman with a price tag of £39.99. I asked if that was the correct price and was told it was so it was out with the wallet and this lovely little model was mine.
Its a very neat model with wire handrails and very fine looking motion. Pickup is via the main driving wheels and the front 6 wheels on the tender so it should be a good runner. I hope to give it a run this weekend but that does depend on getting the garden finished (the railway is currently under a pile of tree branches!) and the weather holding up.

A quick update

I have put the class 24 in the diesel loco's list and I will be updating the projects pages as well as adding a new one for a Dapol coach kit that I have purchased with my birthday money.

Bloody Weather!

I have done very little on the railway since March as the weather has been very wet.

One job started is the new control panel which I am cutting out the holes for the controllers. The supports for the panel have been glued into the case and I am currently deciding on the layout for the switches.

For my birthday recently I received a couple of trucks from my friends one an open truck and the other a tanker to add to my growing collection.

Hopefully we will get some nice weather so I can get out and run something as well as doing some work on adding sockets to the wiring to make connecting the control panel easier.

I have added a new video about the first runs of the Deltic, the Class 24 and the Princess.

What a twit!

I admit, I am a twit!

I have finished painting Kestrel and after a nice coat of gloss varnish I aimed to get the decals on the loco today so that I could put the final couple of coats of semi-matt varnish over them to finish the model.

However, whilst putting the decals on I was surprised that they appeared to be far too big which is not like Fox Transfers which are always spot on. A quick search on their website showed me that their decals were dead on, trouble was I had ordered the 'O' gauge ones!

Oh well, luckily they were still wet and came off easily. Now to order the correct ones!

As I said before, What A Twit!

Playing with the airbrush

I have finally used my new airbrush and have highlighted a few things I need to do.

Most importantly I need to build a spray booth with extractor fan and lights in it as the fumes in the workshop go to nasty levels so that even using a face mask didnt help much. In the end I put a small fan in the window to suck out the fumes.

I also need some more glass jars with tops to allow me to mix up paint and then store it as at the moment any spare has to be cleaned away and its a waste and messy.

The Baby Deltic and Metrovick have both aquired the first coat of paint to their body shells with a couple more to follow plus I have now finished all the painting on Kestrel so tomorrow will see it gain a coat of gloss varnish so that I can apply the decals.

First operating session of 2012

I have 3 models that have not been run on the railway, my Dad's old Triang Princess, the Prototype Deltic and the Bachmann Class 24.

I decided to give them all a tryout so it was out with the track rubber and the old control box and they all got a good session.

The Class 24 was first. It is a brand new model purchased at the 2011 Warley Exhibition and it ran perfectly even on my half cleaned track. The lights all work nicely and it is a smooth as silk.

Next came the Deltic, a Dapol kit on a Lima Deltic chassis, and it was very reluctant to run. After a few circuits it started to run cleaner until once it had done 10 or so it was running well.

Last to run was the Princess which now has a motor from an even older Princess model, and it ran smoothly away as the controller was turned up. That was until it got to the diamond crossing where it immediately stopped. I thought it was simply a pick up problem until further investigation showed it was the front wheel set on the bogie which was out of gauge. A bit of a tweek and it was back on its way and running fine.

I then got a few coaches out and ran the Princess and Class 24 in front of them for a while.

All was recorded on video and I hope to put a new film on YouTube soon.