Ultima Bug box

A freebie from Ultima were a couple of 'bug boxes'. A delightful little addition to the railway.  This is the first time I've attempted to make anything from brass etchings and they are really easy to fold. I've decided to make the roofline high so will need something at the ends to fill it in.

Now just to add a floor, seats paint and glazing. You may notice the red on the side of the folded coach. I may add white around the windows. Black or red for the ends?

Ballast Wagons

One easy conversion was this 009 narrow gauge wagon. The wheels and axle are metal but with a plastic isolator in between. This means with a bit of prising the gauge can be altered. Et voila one NN3 wagon.

Ultima Models and coach update

Well today I've ordered some bits and bobs from Ultima Models. A couple of coaches which I'm hoping will will be thin enough to fit the gauge and some NN3 bogies for the Kestrel Designs coaches as I'm now using the Marklin coaches for something "a bit different!". This is mainly due to the bogies being too long with the couplings unless I cut the Kestrel chassis to bits.

I'm pondering whether to buy one of their railbus bodies and splicing it in half to make a narrow gauge railbus or using one of my spare Minitrix VT98 bodies.

Kestrel coach

A lucky find on e-bay were three Kestrel NN3 coaches.

The kit is a simple six piece design where the bodysides glue directly onto the chassis.

Unfortunately there are no instructions in the kit so I've bought a Marklin coach to see if the bogies will fit the chassis.

Commer rail service van

All railways need service vehicles and this was a quick fifteen minute conversion. This was done by purchasing a cheap Oxford Commer van at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway during a quick visit on the way to this years Cosford Airshow.

Firstly I removed the wheels by prising the hubs from the axle, then I used a junior hacksaw to cut through the chassis before pressing in the plastic Z gauge wheels.

I'm not sure if the BR decals will remain.

Peco NG652 update

The Peco saddletank is slowly coming along now. The main work at the front of the loco has been altering the front so the boiler support is now vertical rather than splayed, the saddle has been extended towards the cab front.

The rear has seen the coupler and buffers changed. I'm thinking about making the bunker larger either by extending it upwards between the (now drilled) windows or changing its shape so it overhangs the buffers.

The cabside will be amended with larger hole, and grabrails.

Trackwork

NN3 gauge gives the impression of 3 foot gauge in British 1:148 scale modelling.

Most people seem to be using code 40 Z gauge track for their layouts or scratch building it, I'm too lazy to do that and don't want to spend too much money buying new track so I'm currently using wirecutters to chop ancient Trix 4906/Roco 2423 track in half then reverse the sleepers before gluing them on to cardboard and using Javis Countryside Scenics ballast chippings (JXGST) to hold it all in place. Humbrol matt enamel 113 is used to paint the side of the track and railclips to give an impression of rusting metalwork. The standard gauge trackwork is meant to have been reused and its bulk (even by N gauge standards) helps to give the impression of it being narrow gauge.

There is a slight gap in the middle of the track but its hardly noticeable.

When the track gets laid to the baseboard I'll fill in between the bases and as it's going to be a seaside layout I'm going to add a sand layer above the yet to be added grime layer. I'm using the sandblow at Barmouth as a prototype for this.

UPDATE: this cheap method was quickly abandoned when I realised making points would be too difficult. I quickly went on to using standard Marklin track. The cut up track will be reused for a diorama.

Peco kits (1)

Like many Nn3 modellers my first investments were the white metal Peco kits. 

These are rather crude but are the easiest way to get into the gauge. 

There are two steam locomotive kits available, a tramway tank (NG-651) and saddle tank (NG-652). Each kit comprises of several parts which fit on a Marklin z gauge steam loco chassis.

Each loco requires a lot of filing and bending in order to fit together. This is due to the age of the kit which pre-dates the Peco labelling.

As mentioned above each kit fits on a Marklin Z gauge chassis. There are several versions of the DRG BR89 0-6-0 available, two with three pole motors (8805, dating from 1972) and one with a smoother five pole variant (88051). 

I'll be attempting to modify both kits to give a less standard look.

Footnote: note the dual gauge track, this fell apart when I dropped it!

Welcome to the tiny tiny trains!

This is my new blogspot for my NN3 gauge railway layout and the trials and tribulations of trying to model in a pretty obscure gauge.

Like many narrow gauge fans I've mostly modelled in 009 and H0e before but as my main layout is N gauge I can't run trains on the same layout which is annoying.

So here goes into the world of tiny tiny trains!