Causeway Junction DCC Modern Image Railway

Its been along time since this has been updated, modeling has taken a bit of a back seat recently with work commitments and a new arrival in the household.  There hasnt been much in the way of new rolling stock either sadly, just a few containers and intermodal wagons, I have become very interested in this form of rail freight over the last few months, probably alot to do with all the new wagons and containers that have become available.  One wagon that I wasnt heppy with when I first got my hands on one, was Dapol's IKA megafret, I had been really looking forward to there release, with all the freight company's using them are very popular indeed.  However the model when released had a couple of major flaws, firstly being the buffers, and lack of buffer beam detailing.  Secondly  and the most disappointing was the side frame of the wagons being connected to the bogies, meaning that this would incorrectly pivot with the bogie as it turned!  Although I have grown to like these wagons, they run superbly because of there metal chassis, and do look quite good in a long rake!  When new the bright blue finish is just too unrealistic, so weathering is a must, I have just finished my first attempt, and I have posted a few pictures below showing the results, I have included a factory weathered version for comparsion.

Not much time for modelling recently, but I did manage a trip to Model Rail Scotland last weekend!  It is three years since my last visit and I have to say it is a very good show indeed, and was enjoyed alot!  I managed to pickup a couple of new loco's from the Model Rail Magazine stand, firstly a bachmann 66722 in Metronet livery named "SIR EDWARD WATKIN" this is another superb livery that suits a class 66 well, and the other loco is the Bachmann class 20 904. Also bought the Network Rail support coach. 

Not much happening on the workbench the last few weeks, however a new loco arrived this week, this being EWS tug 60071 named Ribblehead Viaduct.

The newest Tug arrivied today, this being 60011 in DBS red, this livery does look superb!!

I have been asked a lot recently about the Hornby class 60 derailling wagons when running over points and curves.  I have decided to show you what I do with my tugs to improves this problem.  I will explain with the aid of pictures below, any questions please feel free to leave a comment,

First up remove the Hornby Body shell,

Next the two small star screws either side of the 4 connections to the cab need removed and the plate protecting the coupling mechanism can be removed,

Now the v shaped cam and spring have to be removed, be careful with the spring I used a small set of tweezers to unhook it and then the cam with NEM pocket can be removed completely

Now we can see the problem with mechanism from looking at the picture above and below you can see the little v shaped tip in the middle (mark with screw driver tip below) this is were the coupling returns to via the spring.   When wagons are being pulled and the spring tries to return to the centre, it becomes stuck to either side because the tip in the middle is too sharp the coupling jams to one side and when a  wagon goes to straighten up after a point or curve the wagon's coupling fouls against the locos and so just derails especially with a small light weight wagon.

The solution I have used is too simply file the little point in the middle smooth which stops the cam from jamming, therefore it will slide back and forward without catching.

The finished pictured below shows the cam which has now been filed down and will  slide back and forward smoothly without jamming, even when hauling a train.  The cam can now be refitted and along with the screws and the loco body.  Becareful not to file away to much!

Over the last week or so I have been weathering my 4 Dapol JNA'S, the paint job on these wagons has not been great from new  , they tend to look a little see through in certain light conditions and plasticy.  I decided to paint the inside of the wagons a rusted colour and dry brush/wash the outer body and bogies with different colours to tone the wagons down.  The painting of the insides has helped the wagons alot giving the yellow body sides a more solid look.  I have uploaded a few pictures below showing the weathering so far, I think the insides looks a little light so will give these another coat to tone them down a bit.

Newest addition to the fleet is 66152 in DBS red livery.  The couplings have been modified as per all my 66's, and has been fitted with lenz silver decoder.  I was not sure about this livery when I first seen it but I have to say it looks rather well on this 66, it would be nice to see it on a 60!

The lastest addition to my fleet this week is the long awaited Freightliner 70001 POWERHAUL, first impressions of the loco are superb, bachmann really have capatured the look of it very well!  It has three swithches mounted underneath the body for controlling tail, cab and headlights!  It as usual for bachmann has a 21pin decoder socket.  I havent run the loco yet as I am waiting a decoder arriving in the post. 

This week the long awaited Realtrack FLA wagons arrived in the post.  The box they come in is superb quality before we even get to the wagons, and the fact that the complete wagon fits in the box rather than being split is another nice touch, Dapol should take note!  On to the wagons themselves they are superb indeed, with good attention to detail, and the air pipe which is fitted between the wagons is a nice touch, they come with a great little bag of bits also.  For the companys first 00 gauge model it is top notch they will have to keep this standard up now.

Thought i would start up a workbench page today, I havebeen working on a couple of Bachmann class 66's today. Since the 66 wasreleased I have always been annoyed by having to remove the frontskirting to allow me to fit a coupling to pull trains, this a keyfeature of the looks of a class 66. Two possible solutions to this wasfirst to just fit the skirt at one end, and then a kadee at the other,or fit the skirt at both ends with a screw link coupling but thislimited what trains I could pull as only a few of my wagons have screwlinks fitted. My latest solution involves fitting both a screw link anda NEM pocket. The pocket is glued on the front of the 66, and then theskirt can be fitted with a little notch cut out to allow the pocket tofit, and also the screw can be fitted above this at the normal height,this solutions allows me to fit air pipes at both ends even if I use akadee coupling and I am hauling to train. The only set back is that theNEM does restrict the swing of the bogies a little but not by much. I have taken a few pictures of the work as I have went long....

First up the NEM pockets on the 66 bogies must be cut off, I used a sharp knife, I also trimmed back the around the bogie.

Then the screw link was fitted, in place of the Bachmann dummy coupling supplied.

I then glued a NEM pocket to the chassis ( I used a hornby one removed from a class 60 )

The skirt was then fitted by removing a notch for the NEM pocket and gluedin place as normal, you can just see the pocket behind the screwcoupling.

The finished loco's below which are now fitted with screw links, NEMpockets, Shawplan air pipes and with the skirting retained looks so much better than normal (without the skirting), if I remove the kadee then the loco looks prototypical, and then to haul to train I simply plug the Kadee back in.

I will be standardizing all my 66 like this over the next few weeks!

Just a quick update today, I have recently received my IKA Dapol megafret wagons back which had been away for a weathering job, the weathering has made a big difference to the wagons, they were just too bright before. They have been weathered to represent the real wagons, which are very dirty along the decks and the sides but were the data panels are has been wiped clean, there almost to good now to hide with containers now.

Two new Loco's arrived this week both bachmann class 66's in Freigthliner livery, the first is 66532 "P&O NEDLLOYD ATLAS"  this loco has been lightly weathered, and has been modified to show correct lighting with 3 head lights on at each end, it has also been fitted with Lenz gold decoder.  The next arrival was 66576 "HAMBURG SUD ADVANTAGE" this loco has also been lightly weathered, had the lights modified and been fitted with a South west digital sound decoder.  Both ends of 66532 has been detail with coupling and pipes, howvever 66576 has been modified so that skirting can the retained at both ends, the NEM pocket has been removed from the bogie and mounted on the chassis, which looks alot better and the loco can still pull trains at both ends, I will also fit pipes to this loco, because the NEM pocket is fixed then they will not get in the way.

More new wagons arrived yesterday these being the newly released network rail JNA ballast wagons from Dapol.  Like the IOA they have been released in 4 running numbers to start with, another 4 weathered wagons being released through hattons as limited edition models.  When opening the boxes I discovered that their was wheels, and complete bogie's loose in the box, which was a bit alarming for a brand new model, although they were quickly and easily fixed back in place, I dont think this is great start!  However the biggest problem I noticed was with the wagon body itself which on 2 of the wagons was bowed in the middle!!  These wagons havent quite lived up to the standard of IOA wagons released by Dapol earlier in the month, and all in all are a bit disappointing.  I had intended to have a nice long rake of these on the layout but this idea will be put on hold until, the next batch are due for release to see if Dapol can correct the mistakes.

A new loco arrivied today also, a  Bachmann Freightliner liveried class 66 numbered 66952, this "Fred" has been weathered and detailed at one end, and has been fitted with a lenz gold decoder. It will be a great partner for the new IOA's seen in the last entry.

Dapol's latest release arrived today in the form of the network rail IOA ballast wagon's.  They have initially been released in 4 different running numbers which is a good move from Dapol when compared with Bachmann who insist on just releasing new wagons in single running numbers all the time, when most people will be buying more than one.  There will also be 4 limited edition wagons released through Hattons, and again these will have individual running numbers and will also be factory weathered.  The wagons themselves I have to say are superb, they have a nice weighty feel to them, and the detailing underneath is good, with fine extra detail parts fitted.  The paint job does however seems a little bit  false, in certain light but I think when running around behind a loco and with a little weathering will look fine! The lettering is neatly printed. They have also installed a closing coupling mechanism to the wagons, similar to that used on the Hornby class 60,  I will have to see how this operates when the wagons are in service.  All in all then another solid edition to the growing collection of modern image wagons.

Two new wagon types arrived at causeway junction today in form of the newly released bachmann MBA and MOA's.  These are a superb wagon with great detailing especially the ribbed sides and under body, they have also captured the look of the these wagons well, all have been weathered.  They are a huge improvement over the Dapol version, the only thing I have noticed is that when coupled using the knuckle couplers provided they do seem a little far apart especially the ones without buffers but this can be easily sorted with a short Kadee coupler. The MBA'S come in two different forms with and without buffers, the moa's are simply cut down versions of the mba's, this was for easier loading and unloading of ballast/spoil at worksites.  I have posted a few pictures below of the 2 wagons, and will post more in the next few days...

Dapol's latest new wagon release arrived today, in the form of the IKA megafret wagons.  The wagons are designed to carry high cube containers within the uk loading gauge.  These wagons have been built using diecast metal for the wagon bodies rather than plastic as normal, which gives them a really good weight even without containers, this helps them run really smoothly.  The detailling around the end of the wagons is a bit poor, being very basic indeed, and the buffers look a little bigger than they should be but all said they are another great wagon from Dapol, and these will fill a big hole the ready to run market for intermodel modellers.  Also released with the wagons are the infamous Stobart containers, these can be seen in the second image below showing container numbers 83 and 57!

The latest arrival today from hattons of liverpool were the newly released pocket wagons from Dapol, these are the weathered version.  First impressions are good, with details all very well represented and they have a good solid feel to them.  I posted some pictures below, I will add a video of my running very soon!

My latest class 60 to arrive back from peakdalesworks over the weekend was ex mainline liveried EWS 60044.  This loco has a few added little features, the light clusters have been painted silver, and also around parts of the window frames to match the real machine, marks to represent were the nameplates once were are painted on, and finally a set of big beastie EWS stickers to cover were the mainline logo once were, as always she will be fitted with a Lenz gold decoder!

I have fitted one of my class 60's number 60040 with a ESU sound decoder from Howes, I have fitted both the standard speaker and added an extra larger ESU 100ohm speaker, in order to fit this speaker the doughnuts had to be removed from the chassis.  The picture below shows the completed chassis with the large speaker fitted upside down, and the standard speaker fitted at the opposite end of the chassis. I have also posted a new video of the loco in action!