Bad choice of paint for the roof..... I brush painted Phoenix Network Rail roof grey enamel on to the roof........ subsequent tests on a piece of plasticard reveal that Humbrol acrylic matt white primer and matt varnish react spectacularly with this enamel paint.....

I've abraded the excess grey away from below the masked roof line but I need to find a material to seal the enamel paint under the edge of the masking tape to protect it before applying acrylic white primer.

First try: Humbrol matt enamel.......  still a bad reaction...... Acrylic spray on top of enamel is clearly a bad idea!

Next try: Tamiya & Revell brushed acrylic paints....   Tamiya is very watery & has poor coverage over the grey enamel. Revell is thicker & I've exactly simulated the masking tape edge scenario here. Both appear to have gone on without damaging the grey enamel. Overspraying with acrylic matt white, then acrylic gloss yellow leaves no damage. I've subsequently removed the masking tape (very carefully) and both test samples have a clean undamaged interface between grey & yellow.

Plasticard test areas using brushed acrylic paint to act as a barrier between enamel grey and sprayed acrylic white then gloss yellow.

Next I'll apply a test transfer on the yellow & when its dried, I'll overspray enamel matt varnish to see if this can be used to seal the cant rail without damaging either the yellow or the grey......

Good news! spray-on enamel matt varnish can be sprayed over the acrylic spray yellow and the enamel roof grey without any adverse reaction! (the test transfer applied on the yellow is also OK)

Summary of paint findings:       Rule 1: If painting with a mix of acrylic and enamel, always test first, for an adverse reaction that might destroy your paint scheme!

                                                                 Rule 2:  DO NOT overspray any enamel paint with acrylic spray paint! (The solvent in the acrylic spray paint attacks the enamel paint surface.) 

                                                                 Brushed acrylic paint is probably OK to use on top of enamel paint (But check on a test piece first). (Brushed enamel paint must use a different solvent to acrylic spray paint.)

                                                                 Enamel spray paint is probably OK to use on top of acrylic paint (But check on a test piece first).

                                                                 Acrylic spray paint is OK to use on top of a previous coat of acrylic spray paint by the same manufacturer.

                                                                 Acrylic spray paint is probably OK to use on top of a previous coat of acrylic brush paint (But check on a test piece first).

The paint scheme on the Standby Generator Coach based on the above research has gone O.K.......

The standby generator Car 977995 (complete with grey roof)

2 down & 3 to go  !!........

As a result of some Google searching, I've discovered that there is a better way to extract the windows and roof moulding from the Hornby/Lima TGS coach body: After removing the coach body end plates, Make a vertical cut in the inner end wall, from roof to floor (after removing the overhanging window material tag). The body can then be flexed outwards much more easily, as the windows are flexed inwards. The roof & windows moulding can then be removed more easily, before the body sides are painted..... eliminating the need for window masking!  Upon re-assembly, the cut can be re-bonded for strength and is then hidden by the end plates.

The dismantling process is as follows:

1) Remove the coach end mouldings (gently lever off using a small flat screwdriver inserted into the gap at the bottom of the corridor connection.)

2) Remove the two bogie assemblies from the under frame (these just pull off).

3) Separate the coach underframe from the body. (Insert a suitable size flat screwdriver between the lower edge of the body end and the top surface of the under frame and carefully apply separation force by twisting the screwdriver. When the end clips have separated, move the screwdriver further into the gap between the underframe top and body underside and twist again to release the clips. Repeat at the other end until separation is achieved.)

There are no buffers fitted to HST stock, so these were later removed.

4) Break off the window tabs at the top of the body ends.

5) Make a vertical cut down the centre of the body end wall. (Using a sharp Stanley knife or equivalent.)

6) Ease small sheets of thin card between the inner side of the body sides and outer side of the windows. (Flex the body sides apart to make this process easier.) Being careful to minimise the force applied to the roof/window moulding (which is quite brittle) separate the roof/windows from the body.

7) Cut the painted-over toilet windows away from the roof/windows moulding as these will be glued to the body sides and filled flush before painting.

The roof/windows moulding is then carefully wrapped and stored away. It wont be needed again until re-assembly of the repainted coach!

8) Remove the seat moulding for modification to include the operations centre with computer racks and VDU stations.

Next a bit of fun: ..... I think the track monitoring laser and camera systems of the real NMT are incorporated into the coach bogie assembly(s), but on my NMT, they will be a bit more visible, with light sources near the ends of the lower centre section.

The Track recording coach will be fitted with wheel contacts on both bogies, connecting to an FL4 decoder to enable the lighting effects: White track camera illuminators, red track lasers & green adjacent track laser beams plus 8 illuminated VDU screens inside the coach for the three operators.  A two way connector will go to the pantograph car, to activate the 4 white OHL illuminating spots surrounding the pantograph. The power car decoder programming will have to be re-mapped to free up at least 2 coach control buttons within the 0 to 12 range of the FL4 to control the coach lighting.

The proposed lighting circuit

VDU resistors are all 10k, Pantograph resistors are both 2k7

(The diode bridge means the pantograph car connector can be used either way round)

Using a Network rail video that I found on Youtube, some idea of the coach layout can be obtained. (Click here to see the Network Rail video)..... There is a sideways orientated operators desk with 3 technician stations and 8 computer screens approximately half way along the coach. on either side are racks of computer equipment. My VDUs are too small, but are made from white LEDs with painted fronts, which can be illuminated. The train crew seem to predominantly wear orange safety trousers with orange & silver safety vests either worn or ready to use.

(VDU LEDs are not yet powered)

Crew in place in the highly modified seat moulding assembly

Laser and camera lights are fitted in the under frame moulding: Tower LEDs are mounted in 2mm holes drilled through the plastic:

Red track scanning lasers and green adjacent track scanning lasers are fitted

Showing the coloured tower LEDs inside.

The white illuminating lights for the high speed track video cameras.

 (The FL4 decoder will fit inside, beside these LEDs)

FL4 decoder (in yellow wrapper) wedged under the ballast weight.

Wheel contacts installed on (both) bogies. (Before plasticard is painted black)

I know the real track recording car is now painted in plain warning yellow...... but I prefer its earlier livery!

No need to mask the windows on this one! .........Just got to apply the matt varnish when the transfers have fully dried out, then I can remove the masking and tidy up any overspray on the inside walls of the coach, before thinking about how best to put it all back together again :-)

Just hope the windows still fit, with the extra paint around the frames!

The Function decoder in the Track Recording Car is wired as indicated in the circuit diagram:

Green wire: Track camera lights and lasers

Purple wire: Track recording car VDUs

Brown wire: Pantograph car OHL spot lights

The initial button assignments are:

Button 9: green wire plus purple wire

Button 12: brown wire

The EMT TGS coach was dismantled in the same way as the track recording coach. The roof & window moulding was then covered using polythene bags and Tamiya masking tape, to protect the roof and windows from damage while the pantograph mounting bay was constructed. A Stanley knife and small drill were used to remove a rectangle of roof somewhat smaller than the final mounting bay size. With great care, the sides were pared down using the knife and a small flat file to the final size.

Internet sourced photos showing the pantograph in some detail were used as a guide.

The mounting bay was constructed from plasticard sheet and when this has been fitted, the same material was used to make a miniature version of the pantograph assembly and the monitoring equipment. Four white tower LEDs were mounted to simulate the spot lights used to illuminate the OHL near the contact point.

Plasticard pantograph deck	Monitoring equipment & pantograph base added
Pantograph fitted and equipment painted	Spotlights under test
Spotlight components on the underside of the pantograph deck (the two wire link to the decoder in the adjacent coach will connect to A & B)	Two more Network Rail staff to monitor the equipment.

 

The entire replacement seat moulding with two large sets of computer racks on each side of the monitoring stations.

 

The central coach moulding masked up, ready for painting (note the filled end windows).

 

Pantograph Car complete.......4 down 1 to go!

 

Night Ops

I've just ordered a razor saw on Amazon........ I'll have a go at modifying 2 of the windows on the non-kitchen side of the coach and see how that goes before I decide on the full scope of the modifications.

Too impatient to wait, so I made my own razor saw by removing the fixing pin from a fine tooth junior hacksaw blade. The window modification process is shown graphically below:

The two reduced height windows adjacent to the three full sized windows on the non-kitchen side of the coach need to be replaced by another full sized window to the left, and a narrow, but full depth window mounted to the right and offset to the right. The two new windows are taken from a donor Cross Country TGS coach..............

Pin removed from hacksaw blade..... (This was used to cut vertical slots in the original window strip inside the coach.)

Showing the first two cuts (indicated by the arrows).

Had to use a chisel to separate the sections of window from the body plastic... The Chinese have certainly improved their window gluing process!

Now working from the outside, the rectangle of plastic to be removed was defined by masking tape strips. The Stanley knife was then used to scribe the lines along the edge of the tape.

Repeated scribing eventually took the knife right through the plastic and the original reduced height window frames plus the area below required to accommodate replacement full depth frames.

The new full size window frame from the donor Cross Country TGS was very carefully trimmed to fit the left side of the aperture.

The smaller full depth window was then also carefully trimmed to fit in the right of the aperture, offset to the right.

The body side profile of the Lima/Hornby TGS is slightly different to that of the Hornby buffet car, so some filler was needed to blend the underside of the new window frames to the buffet car sides. Further detailed filling and smoothing between the window frames may be required after the initial coat of overall white primer is applied.

O.K. Now we have a technique, I'll tackle the other side too! First, the equivalent change on the kitchen side........

A rectangle of coach side is removed (complete with window this time).

A new full size window is inserted and the small window is then re-fitted further down the coach side.

Filler is applied and the new window sections are filed flush.

Next, the small window beside the area modified above is re-positioned and apertures are cut for the louvered grills near the end of the coach.

Ready to apply filler to the re-positioned small window surround.

The frames for the louvered grills are mounted over the aperture surrounds. (The grills are represented by a computer printed pattern glued to plug-in plasticard pieces, which will be inserted from the inside when the painting has been done.) The final bodywork mod is the addition of the extra end window on the kitchen side of the coach:

Bodywork mods now complete (except for the new window transparencies which also go on after painting.)...... next comes the masking-up process.

(I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the window mods won't look so obvious after painting!!!!!)

The TGS coach windows are not quite the same as those of the original buffet car...... but I think it'll do, nevertheless!

That's the final NMT coach complete!   Just a bit of tidying up (e.g. adding C3 labels to the coaches not already fitted.) Then I'll see what can be done for YouTube!