St. Blazey's Works and Depot

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Well I never thought I'd be writing this when I started my modelling journey, more in the initial mindset of buy, plonk, play but as I've gone along I found myself, with the help, instruction, education and confidence bestowed by all you excellent forum members , to be tweaking rolling stock and the occasional loco more and more so I thought I'd start a parrallel thread to my layout thread just for such things.

To kick things off, at the moment I am working on upgrading some Intercity Mark 4 coaches (running numbers 12408 and 12410 I think from the 225 train set?). There are the ones with the black roofs and the silver lined windows and are a lot longer than their grey roofed counterparts.
So far I have taken them apart, added new Hornby R8069 12.6mm wheels (the ones that came on it were atrocious with some sort of hard green stuff on them? ), sprayed the seating with a whiteish /grey spray paint not realising how light it actually was as I have no lid for the can but at least it's better than the horrible pink they came in, I have painted the underside of the roofs with a couple of coats of black paint and I have started to paint around the windows, again with black. This is to stop light leakage for the lighting I will add.....eventually.
Here's the original seating unit in it's glorious shocking pink

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Here's a couple of pictures of the windows. They are one peice with the roof but each window extends to fit in each window hole in the coach.
The coach in front has been painted, the coach behind is how the windows came originally. Just to note they are opposite ends of the same style coach.

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The method I used was to use a thickish black wash and pipette it onto the window surrounds on the front. It needed to be a thickish wash or otherwise the paint would not have stuck to the flat plastic.
As the windows sitck out it was easy enough to drip-run the paint on and then kind of scrape the paint into the vertical recesses with the end of the pipette. It has taken about 4 washes so far and it takes ages to dry but today I am onto the other sides of the coach which the first coat is nearly dry.
One thing to mention is to MAKE SURE each layer is properly dry before attempting the next as the end of the pipette easily scrapes of the previous wash coat.

I have been wracking my brains trying to work out how I will light these. The first 2 ideas fell flat but it may just be the case of something a little more drastic and permanent.
Thanks
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[Bufferstop]

Great start to a workbench blog. Must update mine

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Thanks Bufferstop.
One thing I omitted to mention was the blacked out window at one end of the coaches.These are as-standard blacked out for part of the toilet. The small window next to it being frosted.
To this blacked out window I painted the inner-side of it with full black paint to stop light leakage making sure to ONLY paint behind that single window and not any neighbouring windows.
Also another thing to mention is that because I am using acrylics any over spill onto any windows can be removed with a wetted cotton bud.
Thanks
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I got my hands on another darker grey spray can so today set about turning the seating from this....

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To this...

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Much better.
I have also painted the undersides of the windows with black to stop them acting as a prism, possibly shining light downwards.
Left to do for the windows is to clean off all the paint over spill. Once I've finished I'll show pictures of them.
I have ordered some bridge rectifiers for the lighting but they may take a while to get here so I am considering what I can do next.
Thoughts turning towards what the seating should look like, the electronic circuit needed and how it will fit inside.
Im thinking orange for the seating but does anyone have a more prototypical suggestion? I've looked on google but of course you cannot see the exterior as well as the interior so I'm not quite sure which would be correct.
Thanks
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[m.levin]

A guy on eBay sells some seat detailing sheets on eBay, not sure if he does HST coaches but could always have a go at making your own.

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Ahh you mean ihpmedia. Unfortunatly he doesn't and I've looked on ebay for something similar to no avail.
As for doing them myself. I wouldn't have a clue thus the reason for looking at a product I could buy.
Thanks
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[m.levin]

You might have to just paint the seats.

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You may be right m.levin.

Next in the works is a quick job on a new wagon to the fleet in today. Another Hornby Great Wheal Prosper wagon R6594.

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What I am going to do is change the original Hornby couplings to previously made up Bachmann couplings with a staple attached for the Brian Kirby uncoupling method. This Hornby coupling is one of the easier couplings to replace as it is just a simple screw affair

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Next we have one of the original couplings removed. Below those are a pair of Bachmann couplings with the staples attached. With this wagon the bachmann couplings sides need cutting down as shown on the lowest pair of couplings in the picture because of the 2 pins on the buffer beam(?) of the wagon.

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Here shown with the cut down coupling screwed in place on the wagon.

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And a final picture of both cut down couplings in place on the wagon.

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A very quick and easy job.
I also checked the back to backs with my wheel gauge. This is I've found, a neccessity on any new rolling stock I buy.
Thanks
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[Dad-1]

It's often surprising how 3 years of involvement can turn
the novice into a respected advisor.
Glad to see a Workbench thread as there are always improvements
and modifications that don't fit in with ones general layout thread.

Geoff T.

[m.levin]

All us masters started out as a novice Geoff

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Thanks for the words of confidence members.

OK coming back to the Intercity coaches now. Only the last steps of the windows to show at the moment.
Here's the last but one stage. The windows with paint over-spill.

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And the last stage, now all cleaned up ready for when the internals of the coach are finished.

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Next will possibly be working out what /how to decorate the seating unit as the electronics I need have only recently been ordered.
I need a new plan for siting the electronics for the lighting. I wonder if a different shaped capacitor is available as my cylindrical capacitor is too large for both sensible places to put it.
Anyone know?
Thanks
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[m.levin]

You could swap the 1 capacitor for 2 slightly smaller ones.

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That would be really useful. The best place for the main electronics I think would be sat in the plastic clip on tray that's supposed to represent the undercarriage. I tried it in the coach toilet but you'd definatly be able to see something.
Could I ask for suggestions on what the 2 capacitors should be rated etc please?
The big ones I have used previously have 470uF / 25v printed on them but like I say they are physically too big to fit in the undercarriage, hitting the coaches solid underside.
Thanks
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[TimberSurf]

Two equal size capacitors in parallel, gives twice the capacity at the same voltage. 220uf+220uf=470uF. Capacitor size is highly affected by voltage, so if you obtained 16V capacitors, the same capacity would come in a much smaller package!
There can also be different sized capacitors for the same value from different manufacturers, choose well and you can find much smaller than average offerings.
The best I could find is http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50Pcs-Electro ... SwKOJYIO1q
At only 6mm dia, if you have space, you could have 3 or 4!

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Thanks for the link Bufferstop. Yes those are definatly smaller and would fit in the undercarriage.
After measuring, the ones I have at the moment are roughly 10 x 15mm.
Can I just ask, you mention linking them together for the capacitors you linked to.
How would I wire them up into the circuit and how many should I use for upto 12 LED's in the coach from DCC track power?
I would definatly consider buying those linked to unless there is something even more suitable.
Thanks
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