GWR AEC railcar day 5

All the wiring was completed yesterday and test run on main track. Some remedial work around the lights and cement the cracked drivers cab window frame before commencing the cream paint. 

The tale of two Warships D821 'Greyhound' Chipped

The chip arrived today and was fitted so far things are looking good. I took the opportunity to strip the old motor.  Closer inspection revealed the bearing closest to the commutator was tight on the shaft, having remove it and searched the workshop floor for it I found it on the workbench! A quick wizz with a 2.1mm reamer to clean the bore it turns much smoother. I’ll run it up tomorrow and check how much current it draws.  

GWR AEC railcar day 4

Finally fitted the six directional lights into the chassis and fixed with epoxy the lighting circuit board made and mounted in the chassis. When all the glues are cured I’ll wire in the fine lighting wires onto the lighting circuit board. That’s all for today stay tuned.

The tale of two Warships D821 'Greyhound' or should I say ‘Ghostrider’! The sequel

Yesterday D821 'Greyhound' ran off at full speed again as I finished programming the ID into the hand set white smoke and the smell of burn PCB wafted from the loco. This morning I stripped out all the wiring tested all the PCB’s for faults nothing untoward was found with the lighting board disconnected I ran it on the rolling road using a DC supply. Then my chance I noticed the motor stall and pick again. OK check the current it was drawing 0.8 of an amp occasionally peaking to 2.2 amps. Fortunately I had the original motor bogie with the broken mounting spigot a swap of the motor and test run on the rolling road using a DC supply show the replacement motor pulled 0.12 amps things look promising for the new chip when it arrives.

GWR AEC railcar day 3

Today saw a light coat of white primer inside and out. Nano LED type 1206 arrived from China boy are they tiny!

Adding directional lights involved flattening the moulded lights with a Swiss file then drilling a 0.3mm hole in the centre opening out to 0.5 then to 1.0mm. Next fit chassis back onto body and mark the rear of the drivers console with the 1.0mm drill in order to position the LED’s in the correct position. I made a test run with one white LED and a short length of 1.0mm plastic fibre optic filament I must admit the result is encouraging. 

GWR AEC railcar the full Monty

Day two drastic action on the body shell stripped back to the bare plastic using Isopropyl alcohol and a stubby paint brush washing off in warm soapy water. Due to the inclement weather here down south the white undercoat will have to wait. 

GWR AEC railcar a winters tale

I’m making a start on my winter’s project refurbishing and detailing the Lima hybrid GWR AEC railcar.  Nano LED type 1206 ordered from China in warm white and red bargain at £10 for 40.

The tale of two Warships D821 'Greyhound' or should I say ‘Ghostrider’!

Yesterday afternoon D821 'Greyhound' ran off at full speed headlong into a parked train at the terminus.  At the time of the incident the locomotive was at rest although the ID was programmed into the hand set.  I was sitting at the work bench making directional lights for the GWR railcar so there was no time to hit the stop.
I powered down the layout after a brief pause on powering up all directional light were on but no response to the handset. I removed the chip and observed burn marks on the heat shrink. The locomotive has been tested on dc with a converter plug and performs as expected in both directions.
Last night it was run at medium speed on the club layout on DC and performed flawlessly.
Fortunately the dealer agreed to replace the chip form me, thank you cm3models. 

Way back on 29 November 2014 “Disaster hits my 14xx after a run in on the rolling road yesterday. Today when it was left on the track white smoke and the dreaded smell of burn PCB wafted from the loco. I have no idea why the decoder went puff I need to check all the wiring in the loco before I install another chip! At first glance there seems nothing wrong with the wiring very strange.” The chip was replaced and has run perfectly ever since 

The tale of two Warships D821 'Greyhound'.

A lot of progress on Greyhound, lights wired chip socket fitted and wired tested on DC chipped and resembled.  Phew… test run for its début photo shoot.

Just a few fiddly bits todo buffers and pipe work.  

The tale of two Warships D832 'Onslaught'.

Onslaught had a good run on “Radlingdon” at the Letchworth Model Railway Society last Wednesday http://www.letchworthmrs.org.uk/ it’s a good mechanism and the slow running is impressive very pleased with the outcome, today I airbrushed the body shell with Vallejo satin acrylic varnish then added etched nameplates, focus now shifts to D821 'Greyhound'

The tale of two Warships the chequered flag is in sight.

D832 'Onslaught' is all but finished a few detailing pars to add and the etched nameplate when it arrives. 

It’s still a waiting game.

Cab numbers not arrive yet so I decided to start reassembly. Window frame edging courtesy of Sharpie more to follow. 

It’s a waiting game.

As I am waiting for a Hornby ‘railroad range’ donor for ‘Greyhound’ from Hatton’s I guess I can make some headway with ‘Onslaught’ company logo applied to both locos. Next refitting the handrails and applying cab numbers. 

The continuing tale of two Warships 2.

Today I tackled the roof panels masked and airbrushed med/dark grey. 

Then it was on to tackling the head codes, I used word to produce the following, example taken from photographs on the web. This was printed in Century Gothic at 9 points in bold in a black box measuring 1cmx2cm. The artwork is printed on photo paper on my trusty HP inkjet. Most importantly the finished result is sealed with matt acrylic clear sealer.

Cab hand rails are highlighted with a metallic silver ‘Sharpie’

The continuing tale of two Warships.

With the two body shells primed and painted with Halfords Rover Damask Red and Ford Laurel Green; the front of D821 masked and painted yellow. 

The tricky part is fitting nano LED’s for the directional lighting these tiny LED’s prove challenging a spot of cyanoacrylate hits the spot job done.