Locos

Four Stratford (SF) 47’s

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

Today I am going back to the late 80’s – early 90’s. During this time Stratford gathered a diverse collection of Class 47’s released from other duties. When I saw them they were mostly on Engineering trains, but they are likely to have been on a variety of trains. From what I can remember they always seem to have been very well looked after hence my models are only light to medium weathered. I have also picked locos that were not manufactured by the mainstream modelling industry, 47711 excepted.

All the Locos are first generation OO Heljan and have buffer beam details at one end and tension lock at the other. Again it is hoped they may run on ‘Osier Fen’ Layout, if not they will be sold.

Two Class 31’s in 1960’s

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

These two 31’s are the first two of my recently purchases Heljan Locos from the 2nd batch. I will not go through the problems encountered after delivery, but these two loco’s needed a lot of remedial work due to poor packaging in transit.

I consider both locos to be weathered in a light to medium level after researching colour photos.

Back to OO – Class 47’s weathered.

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

Here are two original Heljan Class 47’s that I detailed about ten years ago for a proposed new layout. This layout never happened and after detailing I just put them away. I am hoping that these will eventually run on my new OO layout Osier Fen, if not be sold.

In fact I detailed about twenty Locos at that time and I hope to work through them during lockdown and weather the lot! Watch this space!

Both Locos are light to medium weathering. They have one ends buffer beams super detailed and the other ends with tension locks left.

47482

47570

Two further Heljan Locos weathered

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

Two Locos from two different eras. Both are weathered to a light to medium standard.

Class 31 – 31205 as running in the late 70’s.

Class 37 – D6720 as running in early 60’s

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Repair and Numbering Session.

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

This is a story of delight turning to horror. Between us my friend and I had ordered four of the just released Class 31 from Heljan in O Gauge. Imagine my horror when on opening the boxes and finding three of them damaged because of poor packaging. This was the first time I have ever had damage on a Heljan loco (although I know others that had) and immediately rang my supplier, sadly I seemed to be one of many, I was asked to return the three damaged locos for replacements. After testing the locos all were excellent runners – I made the decision that I was going to do the repairs myself and I asked for a discount from the supplier/Heljan – I was refused as it was not Heljan policy. I thought that was an awful decision but decided to keep and repair anyway as the replacements could have the same problems.

The damage on these loco included – Buffers torn off, bogie sides loose, Buffer Beam details fallen off, bogie ends missing and couplings broken. I have now repaired the lot and now have excellent locos, I guess it took me about two hours and I am happy.

The photos below show the finished Locos, the one that was not damaged and a 37 that I am also doing. They all need to be varnished (over the transfers) and then weathered.

Latest O Gauge Diesels posed on Merlins Lane

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized , ,

Here are the latest batch of O Gauge Diesels weathered and detailed for my friend Graham in Australia.

I took these photos on two different days, one quite dull day and the other was early in the morning with the sun shining on the layout.

I hope the blend of Locos and layout helps the realism.

Pair of Bachmann Class 37’s

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

Both these Class 37’s have been weathered to a medium level. Although from different eras the method was the same – wash and wipe followed by airbrushing and a little dry brushing.

37026 Loch Awe

This loco is from the Early 80’s Scottish Region and was part of an influx of 37’s that replaced small Sulzer powered locos. This was one of the first locos to carry the Scotty Dog emblem of Eastfield Depot.

37423 Spirit of the Lakes

This is a loco that is currently running in this condition as part of the DRS Fleet. This loco is one of a few locos that have had their original lights replaced by light cluster pods. The Loco was purchased by a friend from Rainbow Railways who did the conversion. I super detailed it and weathered it only.

40080 Heavy Weathering

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

As the title says – this is a heavy weathering on a Heljan Class 40. This Loco has become a labour of love over the last few days with extra washes and special attention to the tops of the nose. I would call this about a 8 out of 10 as far as weathering goes, certainly the roof, underframe and bogies could not be much dirtier, the body is subtly streaked with shadow using dark grey and a little light grey for wear and tear.

This was a multi method job using ‘wash and wipe’, airbrushing’, ‘dry brushing’ and a little powder here and there.

Just noticed that I have not done the headcode discs – these will done before calling it finished.

Class 50 SWIFTSURE

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

Today I have weathered 50047 to a Light to Medium standard. I think it would be fair to say that the bodysides are lightly weathered and the Roof, Underframe and Bogies are Medium. Most trips through the Washer Plant usually kept the bodies slightly cleaner than the rest of the Loco – I hope I have caught ‘the look’.

Class 37 – 37054

Kelvin Barnes Uncategorized ,

This is another of my old friends from the late 70’s. 37054 was a March (MR) engine as modelled, but it did spend some time at Stratford (SF) as well.

This is a light to medium rendition of the Loco in what I would call its heyday. I have subtly highlighted the boiler and safety valves as per the below photos.