Ugly loco hauls skip wagons

 

All finished, it was time last week to take the Hudsell Clarke for a run on the club track, and stick it on the head of a skip wagon train. 

As you can see, it worked really well. 

 

New number

 

James posted, "Wouldn't 4 be a more appropriate number in that livery? Then you could use it for Thunderbird services."

And after a day with this floating around the back of my mind, I couldn't resist. Off came the vinyl number 8, and a 4 from the same pack went on. 

I seriously considered a read line around the edge of the battery boxes, but decided this was a step too far. If you get the joke, you get the joke... 

 

Ex-works photo

 

With the sideframes on, driving controls fitted, and a nice big numeral on the side, the Hudswell Clarke is looking pretty good in my opinion. 

What it now needs is dirt. And rust. In real life, the yellow paint is a bit luminous, and those poorly painted rivets could do with a bit of grot to blend them in.  

I'm glad I opted for yellow over the more common grey though. There's nothing in my fleet that looks like it, and I hope the model stands out when on display. Choosing a livery is always tricky on a freelance locomotive, much like it is when having a car resprayed. You don't get the full effect until it's too late to do something about it.  

Switch upgrade

 

In the end, I decided that I couldn't live with just an on/off switch in the loco. Admittedly, this was partly driven by being able to pick up a couple of DPDT toggle switches with centre off positions, at a show. 

Fitting the thing was the next challenge. There's not a lot of space. 

 I could have cut another hole for the switch, but by this time the drivers seat was already fitted, and any drilling would have interfered with that. Having the toggle stick out at a slight angle isn't a problem, in fact it probably improves access. 

To cover the rectangular hole, I made a piece of black Plastikard, and even added fake rivets! 

Wasp striped bufferbeam

 

Wasp stripes - done. 

Last week's advice about using masking tape passed me by, because by the time I'd read it, this was all done. Having said that, I wanted to try this method anyway, and it seems to work. 

There's nothing sophisticated here - I made a guide 10mm wide, marked the centre of the buffer beam, and used a 45 degree square to draw the first lines. The guide allowed me to do the rest. 

Then, using a bow pen, I marked the edges to get a nice, straight line. After that, I filled in the middles with a paintbrush.  

Buffers and rivets were added to finish things off. Spraying those black rivets yellow was a paint. You need a lot of paint to cover the base colour, and to be honest, I've not really achieved perfection. This loco is going to be weathered though, so hopefully this will cover it up.  

Yellow

 

I know that PS Models show their loco in industrial grey, but I've decided I want to paint mine yellow. That's an industrial colour too, and a bit different from anything else in my fleet. 

The MDF parts were treated to a couple of coats of sealer, sanding between them. Then nice thick coat of white primer - yellow is a pain if you don't undercoat with white.

Finally, a coat of Fiat Broom Yellow, from my new favourite spray can supplier, The Range. The paint is good, I just wish they would put a price on the stand (it's £4.99) as I'm sure that would encourage sales. 

The sharp-eyed will notice that I haven't put the rivets on yet. That's because I fancy wasp strips on the ends, and reckon it will be easier to paint them on a flat surface. We'll see how that pans out, I may go back to pure yellow! 

Ugly loco - first run

 

Time to give the loco a blast on the club track. As you can see, it runs well, but slowly. The 90-yard circuit took almost exactly 5 minutes. 

Looking underneath, a little tweaking is required. 

The gear mesh isn't perfect, the one on the axle having moved slightly. Recentring it quietened the model down, and it kept running. A bit of glue to stop it sliding around should solve this. 

Ugly wiring

All the wiring materials are included in the Sharples kit. That is a 2-cell AAA battery box, bit of wire, and a switch. 

The modeller just has to poke the wires through the holes in the floor, solder one to the motor, the other to the switch, and join switch to motor with the spare length of wire. If you know which end of the iron gets hot, it's not too bad a job. 

Hold on though, the switch is just on/off. What about reverse? 

Basically, if you want to run in both directions, you are on your own. I'll admit, I looked through my collection of double-pole-double-trow switches, and couldn't find anything with a centre off. You can sort of slide these into a centre position, and the motor will stop, but finding that exact position is a faff, as I've found out in the past. 

So, I need to source another switch one day, but for the moment, I'll live with just on and off. After all, the driver will be looking in one direction, and can't turn if we stick the loco in reverse (yes, I'm sure there is a clever way to do it, but not this time), so if I sort a switch, he'll be looking the wrong way!

Longer term, maybe some sort of radio control could fit. I'm playing with this for a Garden Rail project. That still doesn't solve the driver problem of course. For the moment, the loco will just run hauling wagons without shunting, so I'll ignore it. 
 

Motor into the chassis

 

Back to the Hudswell Clarke, with the motor dropping into the chassis. It's a tight fit, but that means we're not going to need any glue to hold it in place. Under the front, there are supports, at least in 45mm gauge, to hold it in position for the gears. 

Underneath, there has been a rattle-can coat of matt black. Once dry, the wheels are fitted, along with the gears. A quick burst of 9v battery on the motor shows everything works, but then it occured to me that there is a 4-wheel drive kit available. I'm pretty sure I bought one at the time, but now can't find it, so quick order on the website, and a few days later, this arrives. 

 

Like the rest of the range, it's pretty basic, but I'm interest to see how well this works. In the packet are a couple of 3D printed pulleys, and a rubber band (posh one). Off come the wheels, the pulleys go on, and it's all the off-road capability of a Land Rover!

OK, all the wheels go round when the power is on, and that's pretty good news.  

Blog news: This is the 7000th post! 

Ugly chassis

 

The Hudsell Clarke chassis is easy enough to build. The modeller has to knock out a couple of tiny blanking plates in the floor to allow the frames to fit at the correct gauge, and it all slots together. 

Before doing this, plastic bearings are forced (I put them in a vice) into holes. They don't need any glue, as they are a nice, tight fit. 

Bufferbeams glue onto the ends, motor supports are fitted because I'm building this to 45mm gauge, and we are ready for a bit of paint and then mechanical bits.  

An ugly locomotive, just how I like 'em

 

I love an ugly loco, and so when I saw Phil Sharple's kit for this Hudswell Clarke, at the 16mm show last year, I wanted to buy it on the spot. The only problem was that lots of other people felt the same, and he'd sold out!

This year, I managed to bag one, and looking for a simple project, it's landed on my workbench. 

For £45, you get a proper multimedia kit. Most of the body is laser-cut MDF, but there are 3D printed details, plastic wheels, metal axles, a motor, battery box, gears and a switch. And some self-adhesive rivets. That's pretty good value as far as I'm concerned. If this thing goes together well, it could be an ideal kit to get people modelling.