Even less activity than last month in the workshop: I have been very busy helping to revive the Littlehampton Miniature Railway, guess who created the website?
​ I did paint some loco head and tail lamps; they are a mixture of Roundhouse and GRS cast white metal lamps. 
 The lamp bodies were painted with matt acrylic white, the headlamp lenses were polished with a fine brass wire brush attachment fitted in a Rotacraft drill, and then given a thick coat of gloss varnish. The tail lamp lenses were painted with BR Maroon enamel paint - just happened to be the maroon I had in stock - and then coated with the gloss varnish. Initially I was going to paint the tail lamp lenses in a brighter signal red; you may have noticed however, that the lenses of the full size lamps are actually quite dark in colour and only appear to be bright red when they are lit. These are my daytime lamps - I have some working lamps for night use - so I opted for the darker shade of red.  

 Actually, not much has happened in the workshop this month; there has been no progress at all on the Schull & Skibbereen van. I have been running trains instead;  I had 15 running days in June and 7 days so far this month.
 The workshop activity has mainly involved minor maintenance to the track and some locos and stock: one major repair was carried out on van No.3. The van contains batteries and radio control equipment, and powers several of the electrically powered locos. In June the vehicle failed, it was completely dead, although the battery would still take a charge. 
 I first checked the fuse and then all the wiring, all seemed to be in order; I did a rewire anyway: this did not solve the problem. I then wondered if the speed controller had failed, so I replaced this with a new unit; still nothing: so I purchased a cheap 2.4gHz receiver and once it was bound, tried this with one of my existing transmitters, the van was still dead.
 I eventually found the problem, the switching contact in the charge socket was not completing the circuit when the charging plug was withdrawn; I replaced the socket and have now wired it to the 'off' side of a double throw switch, avoiding the need to rely on the bypass contacts on the socket itself.
 The original speed controller and 40Mhz receiver were put back in the van; the new receiver and speed controller have been earmarked for another project, so the expenditure on these was not in vain.

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Progress with this project is still very slow; sanding the top of the van sides to match the roof profile took ages, and was extremely boring! I have assembled the doors; fitting the metalwork and fixing the underframe and roof to the body will be the next tasks.

 While attending the Llanfair Garden Railway Show in 2014, I visited the Atropos stand and enquired about their Irish rolling stock kits. I was informed that these were being discontinued, so I decided there and then to buy one example each of what was still available. I came away with the following; 1 x Schull & Skibbereen (S&S) 12ft van, 1 x S&S small livestock van and 1 x Cork and Muskerry dual purpose cattle/goods van.
 These kits are all scaled to 16mm to the foot or 1:19, meaning they are a bit overscale for my 1;20 scale railway, but being models of the smaller Irish vehicles, their modest proportions will fit in well with my existing stock. For example the 12 foot van scales out at approx 12 ft 8 in long by 6 ft 6 in wide, about the same size as a TBLR standard goods van.
 I decided to start with the simplest kit - the 12 ft van -  and began work in March this year, progress has been a bit slow. I will not give a blow by blow account of how I built the kit, it is no longer available so a review seems a bit pointless. It is however a very fine kit, comprising pre-cut wooden parts and a wealth of brass fittings; the instructions and parts list are very detailed and are accompanied by a set of superb scale drawings. If one follows the instructions to the letter, and periodically checks the work against the drawings, one cannot go wrong. So far I have completed the underframe and the van body, the working sliding doors are next.

 After 23 years of faithful service, loco No. 2 'Errigal' has given up. I noticed a severe lack of power during it's most recent - and last - run. Further investigation revealed that the worm drive to the rear axle was stripped, both the nylon worm wheel and the brass worm were affected. The power unit is a Playmobil motor block, this is no longer made, but unused examples have been available on E Bay.
 The loco has not seen much use in recent years, only coming out on special occasions: I decided therefore, to remove the motor so that the loco can run freely: if I want to run it, I can propel it with the powered van No.9. I just need to wire up a plug that is compatible with the socket on the van, I will then be able to power the headlamp from the van's battery.

 I don't like too much 'bling' in the form of shiny brass on my locomotives; I prefer them to look like working engines rather than expensive toys. The exception to this rule being loco No. 1 'Stephanie', the pride of the line; but even on a special engine, one can have too much 'bling'. A wise man, well Tag Gorton - former editor of Garden Rail Magazine - once said that a loco could have either a shiny brass dome or a shiny brass safety valve bonnet, but not both: I agree totally.
 Having purchased a small tin of the correct colour - Victorian Maroon - from the Locoworks stand at the 2016 National Garden Railway Show, I set about remedying the situation on number 1. Painting the safety valve bonnet was my chosen option as it is smaller than the dome and therefore less painting would be involved! After giving the safety valve bonnet a good degreasing in the dishwasher, I applied a coat of black self etch primer. The next day I applied the first coat of Precision Victorian Maroon, followed by a second coat 24 hours after that.
 I gave Loco number 6 - a Roundhouse 'Millie' - similar treatment, as the loco is black, two coats of self etch primer were all that was required in this case.

There has not been much activity in the workshop this month as I have been unwell. I did manage to fit lamp irons to the remaining four cattle wagons: all rolling stock is now equipped with the means of carrying a tail lamp, and can therefore run at the rear of a train - handy when dropping wagons off at intermediate stations.
 The plan for March was to build an Atropos kit of a Schull and Skibbereen van, but all I have managed to do so far is to check the parts off against the parts list!

 In my 24 May 2015 blog, I said that I would remove the burnt out motor from railcar No.2, the CVR railtruck, and build a powered van - fitted with radio control and diesel sound - to push the free wheeling unit. Well I finally got round to it.
​ First I removed the motor and gearbox from the railcar and wired a connector plug to the headlight lead; this to connect to a corresponding socket on the van.
 The basis of the van is an IP Engineering freelance laser cut goods van kit. I only intended to use the body, some of the floor and the headstocks; the running gear was put in the oddments box.
 As luck would have it, the internal length of the van is the same as that of the chosen Playmobil power unit, which I had in stock. The power unit was prepared by removing the pick ups, painting the red wheels with black acrylic, and then attaching the headstocks from the IP kit along with my standard Accucraft chopper couplings.

  The floor of the van had to be cut in two to allow the power unit and its large diameter wheels to fit up inside the body.
 I did not stick to the kit instructions when it came to detailing the van, I used vertical bracing on the sides - made from offcuts of the laser cut material - instead of the diagonal bracing supplied. The diagonal bracing on the doors, and vertical bracing on the ​van ends was glued plain side out, as I did not want the laser cut bolt heads showing. GRS wagon corner strapping was added; I used some thinner wood strip for the solebars, rather than the material supplied; this was to ensure the large cast dummy axle guards (GRS) were not too close to rail level. The axle guards were glued in place and rivets inserted in the solebars above these to represent fixing bolts. Some bits of paper clip represent door handles.
 At this stage the body was sprayed with acrylic matt grey paint applied with a rattle can. The solebars, axle guards and headstocks were then painted matt black. Rub on lettering and numbers is from Letraset.

 The corrugated roof was made from a piece of Brandbright roofing material; in order to achieve the correct size, I used the roof material supplied in the kit as a template. The roof was submerged in boiling water for a few minutes, and then strapped to an aerosol can for a few days, to form it to a curved profile. I made some formers from the IP roof material and glued these to the underside of the roof: this not only helps maintain the roof shape, but also provides a rigid structure, like a lid, which can be easily removed and replaced.
  Brake shoes from GRS and Accucraft (for the handbrake) were attached to the power unit: V hangers, made from scratch, and a brake handle from IP, were added to the body. The chassis and body were then united by glueing the underside of the van ends to the top of the headstocks. Vacuum pipes were fitted and the whole was given some light weathering by spraying a waft of matt acrylic olive drab over the van.
 Once the van was cosmetically complete, it was time to fit the electronics.

 The loudspeaker is a bit large, it was too wide to fit it facing down, but when stood on its side in one corner of the van, it fitted in below roof level. The speaker was glued in place, then the original 9.6v rechargeable battery pack was fixed to the floor. The motor is rated at 0-14 volts: lower than its LGB equivalent, so I thought the lower battery voltage would be sufficient - and it was.
 I made a control panel for the on/off switch and charge socket, from a bit of scrap MDF; this was fixed in place with wood screws so that it can be removed for maintenance/battery replacement. The lead for the headlight connection was wired to the on/off switch.
 The various electronic bits were then wired up as per the diagram supplied with the sound unit. Before fixing them in place, I tested that the set up worked: I switched on, nothing happened; then I noticed the polarity of one of the connections was reversed - oops! - this was soon rectified; still nothing, but replacing the 3A fuse solved the problem - always fit a fuse, it could save your expensive equipment when things go wrong.
 I am very pleased with the result, the diesel sound: including start up and shut down is superb, there is a horn too. Speed control is smooth and the top speed with the 9.6v battery pack is a very respectable scale 25mph.

I have found controlling the gas flow on the Accucraft Dora loco very difficult, so much so that the loco was impossible to operate, making it a rather expensive doorstop. 
 I was interested to see that Jason Kovac of The Train Department in New Jersey, USA, offers a precision made replacement gas valve for use in Accucraft locos. My Accucraft GVT tram loco runs reasonably well, but the gas control could be better, so I decided two order two replacement valves, one with a built in handle, for Dora, and another without handle for the GVT loco, which already has a nice handle on the gas control valve.
 The replacement valves arrived from the USA in around a week from ordering. The original valve is in one piece, with a single 'O' ring providing a gas seal: the replacement unit is in two pieces, comprising an outer sleeve, which screws in, in place of the original, and a finer inner control valve with two sealing 'O' rings, which screws into the outer sleeve.
 In order to provide a good seal, the thread on the outer sleeve needs to be sealed with either a small amount of thread sealant or some PTFE tape. Despite the fact that I have some PTFE tape somewhere, I ordered some thread sealant to arrive along with the valves.
 Fitting the replacement valve to Dora was straightforward, once the loco body was removed to improve access. The loco now steams more easily and the gas is very controllable, the flame is still a bit erratic, so I may also try a replacement precision gas jet (from Chuffed 2 Bits) but the loco runs fairly well now.
 I didn't have much success with the GVT loco, after fitting the replacement valve, the control became very stiff to operate, but the gas could not be shut off. I took the new valve out and tried the old one - same problem. I finally diagnosed that some thread sealant had attached itself to the valve seat and then hardened, making a tight seal impossible. I withdrew the valve again and used a 5mm drill bit, held in my hand to gently clean the valve seat. I re-fitted the original valve, and all seems to be well. I haven't put the replacement back yet, I think I will use PTFE tape as a sealant this time!

In the period between Christmas and New Year, I have retro fitted lamp irons to most of the rolling stock; any vehicle so fitted can now be marshalled at the end of a train and there is no need to ensure that a brake van is the last vehicle. A mixture of GRS and Roundhouse lamp irons were used, once bent to shape, they received a coat of self etching primer followed by a top coat of enamel or acrylic paint. The lamp irons were held in place with cyano adhesive, rivets were then used to ensure a secure fixing. Due to a shortage of lamp irons, the four T&D cattle wagons have not yet been equipped, these will be done once further supplies arrive; all future new build rolling stock will be fitted with lamp irons during construction.