A while back I wrote about trials I was undertaking, Throwback Paint with a mix of paint types.
This was the result for Shelfie2 under natural lighting which I was quite pleased with. That then was used to fill in the backdrop for Shelfie2 and the same technique used on Shelfie4.
Shelfie 4 Maple River
Getting the backdrop to work is for me a big part of the layout presentation, if it doesn’t work then attention is drawn away from any modelling to that back scene. That was one of the reasons that Shelfie 2 sits as it does.
The view above, if you’ve followed the blog, socials and seen it at exhibitions will be familiar, but it has always sat uneasily with me, because I know the better viewpoint is actually looking into the layout from the opposite side.
A different perspective of Shelfie 2
Over the past few weeks this has been one of those areas that has concentrated my thinking I’ve started to brush off the Forest of Dean plans again and deciding if Shelfie2 needs a makeover. If it does go that way then the whole backscene will need to be reworked. If I do that then there’s the opportunity to make this fit with into the bigger story. Shelfie 2 could be worked up into a industry associated with the Sling tramway, either the colour works or the heavier industry of Watkins and boiler and pipe repair.
After selling a car, space has come available within the man cave, and a few batches of wagons have arrived 16t minerals mostly to add to the coal train fleet. They are an eclectic mix of kits built from Cambrian, Parkside, Airfix and some Bachmann RTR too. Those too will undoubtedly be joined in due course by some of the latest Accurascale releases, which are just arriving onto the market. I doubt that the differences will be too noticeable between the various types of wagons. Thats not disrespecting any of the manufacturers, the whole idea behind the style of presentation I do is to try and make everything ‘blend’ so no one item be it scenic, track or motive/power rolling stock stands out.
Dolgellau by Geoff Taylor
Geoff Taylors Barmouth layout is one of the projects that has underlined that for me. Some stock uses tension lock couplings, and as you get so engrossed in the layout, its atmosphere and operating the system the tension locks aren’t (for me) as noticeable as I thought they would be.
Dapol 14t Tank Wagons
The view above is similar to what I mean, the tank wagons above aren’t immediately noticeable as fitted with traditional tension lock couplings, as your eye hopefully isn’t drawn to them with the other visual features on the layout.
Dapol 14 ton Tank Wagon 4F-059-005
However these tank arrivals will get couplings replaced, most likely to three links. Together with the mineral wagons that Forest itch is definitely getting more pronounced, and one location that can act as a stand-alone layout is the Berry Wiggins Bitumen terminal at Whimsey.
In my heads schematic system plan, Whimsey sits at the furthest extent of the branch line, which reflects reality.
2020, that was quite a year. Seems mad that we’re talking best part of five years ago!
Shelfie 3 Lower Millside
So looking back at some of my first one in posts the 2020 entry caught my eye. In it I refer to the concept of a CJ Freezer Minories type layout I wanted to do, and it’s one of those projects that’s progressing slowly. It does exactly what I wanted to it to do, it’s engaging and surprisingly so for just three turnouts and the time lapse shows it.
Shelfie 3. Lower Milside
As usual other plans are ticking over in the background, there’s still 009 influenced by the Snailbeach line, and an N Finescale project which is sort of a 4mm project that’s been put through the shrink ray.
New Burn N Gauge Finescale
The main project for the Forest of Dean is a very slow burner in the background. With Peco’s expansion of the Bullhead range with a Y point and the asymmetrical three way due within the year, this may make that progress accelerate. The slow accumulation of twelve and sixteen ton mineral wagons is taking place.
Bachmann OO 87xx Pannier
I’m pretty much there with the motive power, a few more 16xx’s might be on the cards. The large panniers roster are I think ‘full’. However I regularly go back and tweak them, finding small improvements, the only thing being that any change then needs adding across the fleet….
So that’s us into 2025 then, two exhibitions, one with Shelfie 4 at Railex in May, and another show later in the year with one of them, not sure which!
This is the last one from this year, as we head towards the new year tomorrow, we’re still in the no mans land of old year/new year and perhaps scratching round for something to do, but not a big involved thing.
Heljan OO B Tank
At the Warners NEC show one of Heljans announcements was the reintroduction of their B tank wagons, and this had me thinking about a set I’d got which I hadn’t done anything with. The model overall is pretty good, it sits a little high, but I can live with that. The thing for me with the weathered set I’d got, was the heavy uniform weathering that we often get with factory finishes. I’d had a look at this previously but not found a solvent that would remove the weathering, and I didn’t want the full repaint route. One of the things I do with my modelling is if I find a product I like I tend to stick with it. This is the case with Revell’s painta clean, a brush cleaning product. Basically it’s Mek and as such needs treating with real caution. Having been at a loss to find a suitable solvent I tried a small area round the tank filler, and found that this worked in removing the weathering paint. I quickly found that if used too much, it will remove the livery lettering that we need to keep on the model. The difference this technique made gave a real transformation in the wagons appearance and worth sharing. Again I must emphasise the hazardous properties of using the solvent. Work in a well ventilated environment, and remember the solvent will actually damage the model so you must treat it with respect!
Reworked Heljan OO B Tank
Realising that this was a useful development I thought that its not a technique that would easily transfer to the step by step process of print media, and have done a video showing how to use this to get a significantly improved weathering effect.
So adopting the picture speaks a thousand words protocol, here’s the video.
As far as other projects go, there are a few in progress, Shelfie 3 is still challenging me in how it should be presented. The operation is really fascinating and engaging for such a simple layout, and I want to do that justice with its presentation, even if that means it becomes a stay at home layout.
Shelfie 3 Lower Millside
In closing again my thanks to you for following the blog and its associated channels. As ever if you have time please follow and read the other blogs and websites linked here, they are always worth reading or viewing. Thank you again and have a great new year.
A quick note to wish all readers a good Christmas. I’m lucky not to be working this year, but I always spare a thought for those that are, regardless of industry or location. A shout out to the other bloggers and content providers linked via the blog. Always worth reading and spending some time enjoying their work if you have some downtime in the festive season.
A high five too, to those doing the unseen ‘work’, the carers. Sometimes the most difficult and unrelenting tasks looking after loved ones or animals with care and compassion. Have a good one!
This weekend the ‘Warley’ show is on. It will be different this year, no longer run by the Warley club, the slot has been filled by Warners Publications.
I’m there with Shelfie4 and helping me out will be James Hilton . It looks an excellent show, one or two ‘regular’ traders won’t be there, but most will. It’s always been a great run in to the festive season, and I think it’s well worth supporting as well as being a good social interaction between trade and us, the customers. Earlier this year there was much wailing that the hobby was in serious decline when both Hattons and Warley announced they respectively were closing and stopping the NEC show.
What we have seen this year are changes, and this show is one of them. We too will be ringing the changes. As the layout is ‘timeless’ in addition to my 70-80’s equipment, James is bringing more up to date Maritime Canadian stock from Beaverbrook, and we’ll ring the changes through the day. I’m looking forward to it, we’re stand 51L, please drop by and say hello!
Over the past week or so there been some concurrent internet discussions regarding the latest RTR releases and what DC controller is the best to use if you’re not using DCC. This discussion has been rumbling around for a few years, and going back many years theres been talk of the effects of using a poor controller and how that impacts the quality of models running properties.
Back in the 1980’s I bought a duette from where I worked. I kept it and looked after it, but a couple of years ago it started to give very erratic running for no apparent reason. As it was old I threw it away, mainly for safety reasons. If 240v are going into it from the wall socket, and it’s got a metal case, well you don’t need to be an electrician….
What I did was to standardise on Gaugemaster W or Combi controllers. I’ve rarely read of any problems with them, and they have a lifetime fixing warranty, which I had to use on an HH controller I had. A common comment is that people are using controller X from years back and they worked then, what’s the issue? Well the video above shows the potential problem, and the poor performance from it was similar to that which I had from my thirty year old Duette. The solution?, buy a contemporary controller, no regrets. And critically now when I run a DC locomotive for the first time, if it runs poorly it’s not a factor of the controller.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been revisiting my layout building plans and aspirations, having worked over a Bachmann 3F ‘Jinty’ for a future bookazine article. That tasking took me back to the makeovers I’ve done in the past on Bachmann GWR Panniers. In the week preceding the Warley NEC exhibition in November 2023 Accurascale announced their introduction of the GWR ‘standard’ 57xx pannier locomotives to the product range. When I say ‘standard’ it’s just to lump them all together coming from the Genesis 57xx locomotive. This then includes, 36/37/46/57/67/77/87/96/97xx panniers, and exclude the 15/16/34/54/64/74/84/94xx families for clarity.
Accurascale OO GWR Low Cab Pannier EP
Three engineering prototypes were available to view and I was fortunate enough to be allowed a quick look at them outside the display case. The news of the large and pannier introduction was well received, notwithstanding the pretty good model introduced by Bachmann albeit about 20 years ago. The big news with the Accurascale announcement is the volume of variants they’re going to be producing. From the first look it’s clear that both high and low cab will be covered, and perhaps the most time consuming make over element on a Bachmann model, the top feed removal, will not be required on appropriate Accurascale versions.
Accurascale OO GWR High Cab Pannier EP
Over the years I’ve done a good few detailing and conversion makeovers of the old Bachmann faithful. It’s safe to say unless you really want to do them, the Accurascale range as they are introduced, are going to render the need to do those redundant. I’ve still got a few in stock, and don’t see me passing on my existing fleet, just adding to it.
Accurascale OO GWR Pannier
The main thing that struck me was the overall finesse of the fittings and mouldings. With one glance at the three EP’s you could see a wealth of detail differences to the cab and superstructure of all three types.
Accurascale GWR Pannier Rivetted Tank
The obvious differences are the two cab styles, the low and high cab versions. Then perhaps the top feed, and following that the mass of detail differences that come from the different batches, built either by the Great Western themselves, or sub-contracted out.
Accurascale OO Early GWR Pannier
The differences include tank types, tank fillers, tank steps, bunkers, whistles and their respective guards. Cab sides, doors and other njectors akdo enter the mix in this mass of detail variations. For example in the above picture we can tell this is an early GWR version, no top feed, no cab side doors, no whistle guards, no bunker steps. Looking at other EP’s we can see the changes where the prototype developed over the years, and these changes reflected in the tooling and details fitted to individualise each model as we see in the model below.
Accurascale OO Late Low Cab GWR Pannier
The chassis is interesting too. A look underneath indicates a centre drive axle, from a tower gearbox. This means the motor must be quite a compact unit, likely similar to the coreless motor fitted to their J69 family. Anyone either a Bachmann 57xx family model will recall the motor drives to the rear axle, with some of the mechanism visible at the right (wrong), angle. The drive on the Accurascale models is totally enclosed, pick ups being wipers on the rear of the wheel rims.
Another feature which caught my eye with the EP’s is the coupling rods are one pice rather than jointed. My preference is for the joint to be functional or alternatively hidden in an overlap on the central drive wheel. Accurascale have used solid rods on the J69 family and that works really well through second radius set track points. Other manufacturers have used them too recently, Heljan and Rapido so it may be a ‘habit’ thing for me. Brake pull rods are etched and this gives a marked visual difference to previous RTR models and sit very close to the wheel face, they also include the rear double pull rods which I don’t think has been on any previous RTR Pannier model. As part of the assembly the cross rods are alloy with plastic fittings to attach the pull rods to eliminate any electrical shorts. That seems a quite complicated assembly, but if they can be manufactured consistently it’ll help with the fine scale appeal of the model. The wheels look like they are fixed to 2mm diameter axles with shoulders, the spoke profile on these early EP’s is a bit one dimensional, not quite capturing the look of the prototype wheels. The wiper pick ups indicate these will be a conventional axle rather than a split chassis. The running plate is a metal casting and it was difficult to tell how much room there is between the wheel face and the inside of each splasher. This isn’t an issue for OO modellers but it may make conversion to wider gauges such as EM or P4 more challenging as there’s unlikely to be a simple drop in replacement without some work to be done around the brake gear assembly.
Accurascale OO GWR High Cab Pannier
Both low and high cab versions are to be released and feature sliding cab roof shutters.
The rear of the cab faces have etched glazing bars which opens up the access for light to get into the cab, as does the roof vent. This will make quite an impact visually, having done similar on my Bachmann conversions the amount of detail that is then illuminated in the cab is very noticeable.
Albion Yard Bachmann Pannier Modifications
So with the future release of the Accurascale family of 57xx panniers end my conversions? Almost certainly it will for the core structures.
However, while the conversions I’ve done work and look good, there’s still a few areas that can be lifted to bring them more into line with the Accurascale offering. I’ve not lost out by any means, the enjoyment I’ve had from my fifteen or so Bachmann models is irreplaceable and they taught me some new skills too. However, if I feel the need for a new one then I’ll save my time and look closely at these Accurascale models once released (Q1 2025 estimated). If they run as well as the J68 EP has done they’ll be well worth the money, and the time saving, which is my most precious resource!
There are some models that just ‘do it’, and the past week or so has had me just enjoying the Accurascale class 31. It’s funny how those connections work, 31’s aren’t the glamorous express, high profile engines, but almost the polar opposite.
Accurascale Class 31
The fact that it’s a ‘dull’ locomotive isn’t really an issue, because the character is captured so well.
Bachmann Class 08
The Bachmann and Hornby class 08’s also have it, even if Bachmann’s original version needs a bit of magic wafted across it, and if you’ve got an early Hornby ’screamer’ there’s potentially a gearbox rebuild and lube waiting for you.
I think for me this connection has two links, one the familiarity of the prototype, I saw 31’s every day, and two, the desire to see them. I rarely saw an 08 or similar, a shunter at Welwyn Garden City yard was really unusual, and meant trying to sneak into the yard to see it. I can remember seeing a Hymek on the East Coast Mainline, or rather, I think I did. It would have been so, so, unusual though, and the Triang model lit a flame for them with me.
Heljan OO Hymek
Heljan’s model above is also one of those captures, and I found recently a picture of a Hymek at Cambridge that had visited on a special or charter. So there’s just the tiniest possibility that I actually saw it if it routed via the ECML. Another of those everyday locomotives that meant relatively little at the time.
Peculiar then, that these prototypes and their respective models really resonate with me, which is simultaneously odd, and cool…
Albion Yard 
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