WEST ORTON

[Steve M]

Yes, but totally impractical as they still need to charge and have relatively fast discharge rates. But rechargeable batteries would work if contained in an attached wagon.

[Steve M]

As if the building and installation of stay alives wasn’t challenging enough, today I decided to fit one in an old Hornby 8F with a pronounced stutter. On this model the DCC socket is in the loco, great for non-sound, direct fit decoders but it will put up a fight when adding sound.

I found a home for the TTS decoder in the smokebox after adding the two stayalive wires and extending the wiring for a sugarcube speaker. I managed to find a route for the two pairs of wires back through the cab and into the front of the tender under the fall plate. I may need to revisit this and use a slightly thinner wire for the stayalive wires - time will tell.

Inside the generous tender is a large ballast weight which, combined with the slope of the coal space means there is little room for the SA and speaker. So I had to get creative with the layout of the capacitors a d other components to get them into the narrow space between the tender top and the weight. This was version five.

It’s taken a significant amount of time but it absolutely transforms this old beast.

2023-07-04_03-31-19 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Steve M]

Oooooh!



It's been challenging finding these in the UK a) at a competitive price and b) in stock.

These have just arrived, free shipping, from Texas in less than 48 hours.

[bulleidboy]

That should keep you busy. Are the pre-wired plugs and sockets the same size as the Hornby version?

[Steve M]

That should keep you busy. Are the pre-wired plugs and sockets the same size as the Hornby version?

As you say, should keep me busy for a while, Barry.
No, I did look but could not find a supplier of prewired plugs - believe they are JST SUHR (I may be wrong) - and I’m told they are almost impossible to make yourself. I opted for JST 1.25mm - plenty small enough to fit inside a loco and possibly between loco and tender.
I will work the actual cost of these at some point and let you know. I have enough parts for about twenty stay alives and I anticipate that some of my TTS locos will still need the smaller Hornby version.

[Steve M]

More to be said on this later.

2023-07-09_06-27-59 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Steve M]

I’ve mentioned a new service coming from ModelU on another thread - I have today been painting a few of my first home printed figures

After printing, the figures need to be carefully cleaned and separated from the printing supports. It always pays to print a few extras to allow for some of the finer parts to be damaged in the process. I choose to glue my figures to barbecue skewers ready for painting (this backfired on me this time so I may try an alternative next time).

20230710_095521 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

After a light spray with white primer, I paint the faces, hands and arms.

20230710_100236 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

When it comes to painting, start in the Centre and work towards the outside of the model, so after the flesh tones, paint shirts/blouses, then more on to jackets and trousers, finishing with hats and shoes.

20230712_162053 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Finally, I dipped these figures in a thin black wash to bring out shadows and creases then dry brushed light grey to accentuate the highlights. To separate the figures from the sticks, a drop of IPA will usually release hot glue but on this occasion, three feet got left behind.

20230712_184518 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

20230712_184613 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr


20230712_184448 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Simon_100]

That's really Impressive and handy too as I have a pack of a dozen or so unpainted figures to work on when the cold winter nights return ...

[Carl L]

Incredible detail, very impressive (as always).

[Steve M]

I returned to my ongoing stayalive project this morning, fitting a ‘home brew ‘ to my RailRoad ‘Evening Star’ with a TTS decoder.
I also did the maths - these stayalives cost just £5.77 each plus a bit of brainpower working out where to hide them.