Jo's non Western Region bits and pieces

[ewsjo]

Here I'll post anything that isn't specifically to do with the Western - so I guess for me that means anything not painted blue and pink  ;D
I'm going to start this section off with some previous projects to give you a flavour of my work.
Right, have read the help section, but still it's not letting me attatch a jpeg, so here it is hosted on Fotopic

Graham Farish 60074 resprayed and using Precision decals and Shawplan plates. Such a simple livery was so hard to get right 

60054 started out in Transrail livery, it's a partial respray with homebrew sector logo decals and numbers. Inkjet paper is a good thing  ;D

47635 started out as one of the first release 'new 47s' in BR green, that suffered the ride height issues and much whinging when it was released. It's been lowered, life extended (no underframe tanks, headcode panels added etc) and resprayed in faded Parcels sector colours

59004 is produced from a 3D printed bodyshell from Valve Design (Rods of Revolution on here) with custome decals and Shawplan nameplates on a heavily modified Dapol 66 chassis. Much hacking and soldering went into the underframe - and it didn't help that I dropped it  :vista:

N Gauge society Autoballasters, still need an airbrushing to blend all the weathering together. The Carillion one has home made decals, again inkjet printed

A detailed Dapol dummy skip - the bufferbeam has had pipes, ETH and a swinghead buckeye added as well as a good weathering all over an a tail lamp. Now I need a powered one to sit at the other end of the rake based on the Cardiff - Taunton FGW loco hauled sets
Hopefully I'll have some progress on some new stuff soon
cheers

jo

 

[Neil]

Mighty fine stuff you've got there Jo, being a bit of an old f@rt I'm particularly drawn to the Brush type 4 which I'd be hard pressed to guess the scale of. Is there any likelyhood of a new universal standard coupling to replace the Rapido jobbie, it's high time the vastly improved standard rtr models, let alone the tweaked models we see here, got something more fitting.

 

[Jordan]

One thing's for sure... UK-outline N scale has come a long way in recent years; only the couplings give away the scale on those models, otherwise I'd think they were 4mm.

 

[ewsjo]

Cheers guys - yes couplings are a bit of a sticking point though.
I've got to admit, I do like the Rapido, in so much that it does what it says on the tin - it reliably keeps the items of stock coupled and can easily be uncoupled. However, the visual side is far from appealing as you've said.
Neil, Bachmann US are developing an N scale knuckle coupler that will eventually spread to the Graham Farish range, supposedly offered in NEM and non NEM to fit both types of coupler pocket. Microtrains keep saying maybe to developing an NEM version of their coupler, so who knows, soon we may have two choices along these lines.
A new standard would be nice, but it would take a lot of work to introduce it market wide, and to introduce it reliably at that. I can't see it happening any time soon, but then I'm happy to do my own thing, varying couplings as necessary
cheers

jo

 

[Rods of Revolution]

Awesome models Jo! The 60 and hoppers are my favorite, mainly because the weathering is spot on.

The talk of couplings reminds me of someone I was talking to at show who when I suggests they could use Microtrains couplings in place of rapidos responded with "Nah, it wouldn't look right because most british stuff doesn't have buckeyes". I just laughed  ! Of course silly me I'd forgotten that BR scrapped the screwlink and replaced them with 5ft Rapidos.....

Regards,

Jack

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi Jo,

nice to see the RES liveried 47, looks great.

regards

Mike

 

[ewsjo]

Hi guys,
Mike, I'm sure you'll agree the livery sits rather nicely on the duffs  8)

Awesome models Jo! The 60 and hoppers are my favorite, mainly because the weathering is spot on.
Of course silly me I'd forgotten that BR scrapped the screwlink and replaced them with 5ft Rapidos.....

The RMCs are in the process of being re-weathered as it had started chipping in places. They should look pretty similar once done though
Anyways, didn't you notice that Rapido on the front of that 59 we fotted at Westbury the other day  ;D

How do you find the Rapidos for any shunting moves - without the direct use of the Hand of God ?

Err, yeah that is the downside, it does require a piece of bent wire and the hand of god to uncouple, though to be honest if a lot of shunting was involved I'd be looking at something else. Most of the layouts I regularly use are roundy roundys, so reliability of staying coupled is more important than shunting. Watch this space though, for some alternative couplings. Still needs the hand of God, but there was no way I was gluing a Rapido onto the nose of an HST power car  ;D
cheers

jo

 

[Ressaldar]

Hi guys,
Mike, I'm sure you'll agree the livery sits rather nicely on the duffs  8)
cheers jo

Hi jo,

and I think that the 08 might end up with the same livery as well.

regards

Mike

 

[ewsjo]

Mike,
8) 8) 8)
No more to say  ;D

jo

 

[Phill Dyson]

I'm very impressed with the 3D printing  8)

 

[ewsjo]

Phill, Jack's the 3D wizard, though I keep meaning to learn a 3D software and have a go at some basic wagon bodies myself

Hi Jo :wave:
Yes the strengths of 2mm are trains in the landscape

As I mentioned to Jack, B&B's etc. may be an option :scratch:

Trains in the landscape may be the next project after Baby Laira, but we'll wait and see. Certainly it's where N outstrips 4mm by a long way
The majority of my stock has only had odd runs on club layouts, so couplings has been more about compatibility, but I'm determined to find something better for locos, so B&B or DG may be worth looking at for that sort of thing. One day I'll get round to that side of things, one day... ;D
cheers

jo

 

[iploffy]

I remember reading an article about permanently coupled rakes that used a piece of bent brass wire between rolling stock it seemed to work quite well and closed the unprotypical gap up it looked heaps better the only problem being they could not be readily uncoupled

Ian

 

[ewsjo]

That's interesting Ian, it's something I'd thought of, but not given serious thought to.
Hmmm....

jo

 

[lancer1027]

Hi Jo , some great stuff there, tooooo modern for me but you have done an exellent job on them

Rob :wave: