Darius43

More progress on the cement wagons. Cheers Darius

Next project Cheers Darius

Both the Wexford and Tipperary books arrived today. Now happily immersed in the Wexford one Cheers Darius

Modified Bachmann 14 Ton tank wagons with homemade decals applied and a spot of weathering. Cheers Darius

I built these MIR kits a few years ago, however the resin axle boxes started to spread apart, which caused the wheels to drop out. Fixed today by inserting plasticard horseshoe shims between the bearings and the axle boxes. Cheers Darius

From an old album of photos from an Interail trip that I did with some friends from Belfast between school and university. Berlin ‘83 Looks a bit different now… Cheers Darius

And another makes three Cheers Darius

Built another one Cheers Darius

Arrived this morning Absolutely superb. The Accurathrash sound is amazing as this mediocre video hopefully demonstrates. Cheers Darius

Built yesterday afternoon and completed this morning. Great fun. I applied home made decals in place of the original Letraset rub down ESSO decals. Cheers Darius

Hi Noel, The body is a much modified Triang. The chassis is also modified Triang with the original bogies replaced with two of the new Hornby Class 37 motor bogies - which are available as spares. Triang English Electric Type 3 Cheers Darius

Wired the BR Blue Type 3 for DCC and fitted a sound chip and sugar cube speaker. Transformed from this:- To this:- Cheers Darius

A few more Hornby MGR wagons modified to add to the rake. To make the formation “reversible”, I modified the first and last pairs of wagons to have standard tension lock couplings. This enables the first and last wagon (with the tail light) to be uncoupled and swapped around in the storage yard without having to remove any of the fixed bar couplings. Cheers Darius

Batteries installed and light blinking wonderfully. Cheers Darius

Received today direct from Accurascale - very very nice indeed One of the wagons is fitted with an operational tail light that is activated by a magnetic wand - supplied in the box by Accurascale. I waved the wand as per the instructions with increasing franticness but the light refused to illuminate. The light is battery operated. Removing the hood assembly revealed the reason - batteries not included. I have now ordered some suitable batteries online. I fitted the buffer beam screw link coupling and hose details. Removing the spring loaded coupling housing makes the detail fit and look better. I had to drill out the holes for the detail parts as they were smaller than the lugs on the parts that are supposed to fit into them. Looking forward to fitting the batteries and finally getting the wand to work its magic. Cheers Darius

Looks like a fine upstanding character to me. It’s the signal box that’s leaning. Cheers Darius

Hi DJ. I drill out the window corners with a smallish diameter bit in a pin vice (to create the curved corners) and then cut between them with a new/sharp blade. I then clean the opening up with needle files. Cheers Darius

Tail lights added courtesy of West Hill Wagon Works. Cheers Darius

Some running this morning Cheers Darius

Terraced houses now in place on the layout. Cheers Darius

As far as I am aware there are no RTR models of Indian Railway locomotives or stock. There are 3D printed models on Shapeways and Langley did produce a white metal kit of a Darjeeling Himalayan narrow gauge steam tank loco. If you want a model of IR broad gauge stock, a combination of modifying non-Indian rtr models and scratch building is the “easiest” option in my view. These are the coaches (or “bogies”) that I am modelling. The full train is going to take some time… Cheers Darius

Doors added. Cheers Darius

Very sorry to hear this news. Darius

Window cutting out commenced… Shortened the bogie centre dimension. One side done… Cheers Darius

Made a start on an ICF coach for the Deccan Queen using plasticard sheets to build up the lower coach body. It is designed to fit on a cut down Triang Mk1 coach chassis. The coach sides will be thin plasticard with the windows cut out - similar to the Bombay Local. An internal framework of plasticard provides strength and something for the coach sides to fix to. The Triang coach roof is modified to fit. The scale is approximately 1:87 HO to match the WCM1 loco recently converted from an Electrotren HO model. I adjusted the coach sides slightly to match the Triang coach length. I now have rather a lot of windows to cut out… Cheers Darius