Project Railbus (1) Getting Started....

Not a sunny Sunday today,  so I decided to make a start on my Railbus project....

The 0-4-0 chassis removed from the Diesel loco (the loco body has gone into the spares box).

The Sylvanian families tram, is held together with screws. So taken apart into three sections - upper side panels, roof and base with lower panels

I chopped the sides to just have the cab ends, also removed the lower side panels from the base...

So now I have three main parts to work on. The base (which will have the chassis attached), the floor with control consoles & seats,  the roof with cab ends.  

I marked out on the underside of the base, the hole through which the chassis is going to fit through...

I drilled holes along the 'cut line' and then cut through any connected bits. The edges of the hole were then filed smooth.  The chassis has had some parts narrowed by about 10mm so it will fit nicely inside.

The proposed plan of attack is:

• fix the chassis to the base and do a test run.
• make the roof section up
• fit the flooring round the chassis, add some seats
• build the sides

along with lots of bodges and twiddly bits 😀

Next project - Railbus

 The starting point will be Sylvanian families tram, picked up for £5 in a local charity shop.  Comes with control consoles and a couple of seats (spare seats are available online).

The cab ends are suitable, but the sides not so....

It will have some running gear using a chassis with 25mm diameter wheels off an old Marklin(LGB) toy train diesel which cost me ~£60 from Ebay.

Rolling Stock shelf tidy...

 I picked up some more cheap 45mm track (guage 1), from a gift shop near Poole Quay which has a model railways and diecast cars section.

The two pieces of track are just the right length for the rolling stock shelf...

The Lynton&Barnstaple bogey rolling stock on the track, looks neater...

Sunny Sunday (14) - mixed train...

A new wagon finshed off today; made from a snap together kit by Hartland Loco Works. Its a convertor wagon with Accucraft chopper coupling at one end and LGB coupling at the other.

 Another lovely sunny Sunday - a short mixed train run today....

Sunny Sunday (13) - running session - GVT loco's first outing...

I decided to start with running the Bagnall 2-8-2 and some bogey coaches. ..

the loco kept derailing, so did the van and the brake coach (some heat problems I expect). I gave up on the loco - later inspection showed a trailing bogey had come loose and was causing most of the problems.

I swapped to the single Fairlie, much better and minimal derailments

Finally set up a train to run with the completed GVT loco

Glyn, looking nice in its all black livery...

the loco ran really well with no problems....

Signal box move...

 I didn't get a chance to run a train yesterday; but in the evening after watering the garden in the cooler evening air I moved the signal box....

The old position of the signal box, now has a foot pad for safe access to the grass area in the centre of the layout. Last time I tried to get across here with my large stride I knocked over the signal box and cut my ankle, so the new scheme is much safer.

The new location for the signal box, right next to the station, it fits in quite nicely....

LocoWorks - GVT Loco (5) - last bits and ...

At the rear of the cab, frames for the window

A little trim to fill the gap between the cab front and roof; frames for the windows...

a small coal bunker in the back of the cab....

Filled the gaps with some Millput, added some thin cosmetic plates to hide the mess where the couplings were orginally

A start on the cab backplate....

final cab backplate, just approx right shape with some bits on it. This will be hidden in the cab once the roof is on so very basic look will do...

and thats the last bits done and today it got a coat of primer....

final coat in black livery, couplings, nameplates, some crew and it'll be ready for service....😀