Ucwepn's custom engine shed

Ucwepn

Hi guys and gals I will kick things off here.

VR R class custom built from Trackmaster Hank

Trackmaster Dennis custom with painted details and light

Plarail Arthur custom with metal handrails, bachmann OO scale lamp and metal buffers

Trackmaster Dart custom moving rods

Plarail Oliver custom with metal lamp irons and metal handrails

Plarail Duck (reverse switch) and Oliver customs with new funnels

Trackmaster Stephen custom, parts from OO scale Dapol kit

Custom coach for Stephen

Trackmaster Freddie custom with moving rods outside the frame, drilled cab windows and painted details

Trackmaster Jinty 2.0 custom with metal buffers and metal handrails

Trackmaster SR USA class custom with metal handrails and brass smokebox door

Trackmaster 2012 Diesel and Paxton customs with moving rods

Plarail Luke custom with light and new funnel, dropped tanks and painted wheels

1999 TOMY Stepney custom with new funnel, light and painted handrails

Donald and Douglas 2013 from Trackmaster, New funnels, short couplings, painted handrails and black axles

2012 Trackmaster Thomas super detail, White running plate, new funnel, blue axles, silver rods

My 4.5v TOMY Gordon transformed with metal handrails, white running plate, black underframe, blue axles, silver rods, working headlamp and metal lamp irons.

Same Oliver but green wheels now. Might re-do them soon

2012 Trackmaster James and 2009 Trackmaster Edward customs, metal hand rails, new funnels, painted details.

HiT Trackmaster Emily custom, more to do on this one. Going to change the front wheels for 4 smaller ones.

Trackmaster "working hard" faces 2014 fitted to my custom Thomas and Diesel

Plarail Derek custom made from a DD51 with wooden railway Derek face

Trackmaster Duncan custom, new funnel, rear cab windows, metal buffers and painted details

Trackmaster Rosie custom, this later version lacked the detail of the earlier TM and plarail versions, I added them and a new funnel, still a WIP

Some of my custom trains at the shed

Custom 2013 Trackmaster Percy, new funnel, white running plate, black underframe, drilled cab windows and painted details.

Custom 2012 Trackmaster Thomas with step up voltage converter powering a single LED lamp from 1.5v.

2014 Trackmaster "working hard" faceplates put to good use.

Trackmaster 2012 Thomas converted to hired loco ucwepn 😃 first use of the airbrush for this one.

Ucwepn

updated 1st post with Stepney, Donald & Douglas

Super

Love to look at all your mods Ucwepn. You have so many, you have great ideas. How is the black paint holding up on all your steam mods? Have you tried different brands to see which works best? Its funny, I get ideas on who to modify and I think they are my own until I look at your pictures and videos and see that you have already done one

Ucwepn

Thanks mate! yes I had allot of ideas some are ridiculous like a Garrett and Triang shell conversions but the idea well is drying up, its getting hard to find new and exciting mods. But the quest continues hehe! The black paint is holding up well, on the earlier spray painted ones the paint is getting thin on the sides of the wheels where they rub the track, even with clear coat. The Humbrol brush painting is much more durable.

Ucwepn

Updated first post with super detail 2012 Trackmaster Thomas

Super

I like the white deck on Thomas, did you paint it yourself? And I like the funnels you add to your steam engines. Do you create them or are they HO parts? I really like the headlight on Luke, is it an LED? And those wheels look great of what I can see. Are they black but painted silver on the outer ring? What does "dropped tank" mean?

Ucwepn

Hi I make the funnels myself from brass tube, Thomas' running plate I painted white, Luke has a conventional bulb and the wheels started grey i just painted the centers black. Well I felt the tank (water tank, it is a tank engine hehe 😛) sat too high so i trimmed the bottom of the tank down so it would sit a few millimeters lower in the chassis and give the loco a more low profile look as the battery compartment is on under side I was able to do this.

Super

Awesome funnels, what do you use besides brass tubing to give them that detailed look at the top?

Thanks for the new YouTube video "The Customs of Ucwepn #4" Love the details.

Its no secret that I am not up on all the Thomas and Friends characters so I had to look up Oliver and I see that your modifications are true to the real ones from the show. The metal handrails are authentic as are the Lamp Iron and white Running Plate. Even your new funnel seems to be the right height to. Fantastic job. Is Oliver very rare? I can't seem to find much of anything about this motorized one. Not even many pictures. And thanks for the chance to see some of these close up and running. Now I can see what exactly you did when you "dropped the tanks" on Luke.

Ucwepn

Hi super the top of the funnel is the original funnel I just sort of Frankenstein them together and paint it black (black hides everything haha). I believe there was a trackmaster oliver from HiT early on but was only a short run, it is available from plarail still but is getting harder to find for a decent price he is a VERY popular character! Interesting fact on oliver his front wheels are unique. Thanks for the kind words on the video it was quite an effort to film it like that with a look at each loco then its run, I filmed all the looks at once then all the runs at once and I had to sort them into order afterwards 😃 Can you believe that I dropped Oliver off the table last week and he sustained no damage 😮 not even those lamp irons were hurt, was very lucky

Super

"Hi super the top of the funnel is the original funnel I just sort of Frankenstein them together and paint it black (black hides everything haha)."

Brilliant...I would have never guessed that. 😃

Got lucky on the Oliver fall eh? I seem to remember on one of your videos or two some other falls during filming. We don't have to worry about falls on our layout...LOL which is one advantage of a floor layout but I would much rather have a table top layout because the sight lines and viewing angles are much better. To get some good sight lines on our layout I have to lay down with my head on the floor which isn't very comfortable. Say...how is your Dads set up doing? I would really like to see a video review of his Coca Cola train and his comments of how he did it. Does he have any other mods he worked on?

Ucwepn

Hi Super, I will get him to join or I will film it next time I visit and get him to say some words about it.

Updated 1st post with Gordon evolution

Ucwepn

Updated 1st post with Oliver, James, Edward and Emily.

Super

Ucwepn

I love your work with metal hand rails. Are those holders hollow so your rod runs through them. Of course your funnels are great and your detailed painting excellent. 4 Smaller wheels for Emily? Sounds interesting although wouldn't she bottom out on the rails?

Ucwepn

Hi Super yes the holders are hollow and come already fitted on the rails so they are very easy to fit by drilling small holes and gluing them in.

Here is Emily with 4 wheels on the front

Super

Emily looks awesome Ucwepn. Where did you get the 4 wheel truck and how did you manage to attach it. How does it roll? Was that her in the latest review video? She looked to have trouble on the one curve that seems to give other trains a workout too. I wonder why that is? Do you think its the way the drive gear is off centered on the rear wheels and the torque kind of pushes it to rub on the outside of the rail in that direction? And why only on that particular turn...strange. At any rate, good job!

Ucwepn

Hi She rolls well, the truck is from Ferdinands short wheelbase caboose, it is attached with super glue but as you probably know all the small wheels have external holders on the ends so that's why I had to put the whole bulky unit with holders underneath. it seems to be a grip issue with the tender (its tender powered) and even after adding a 7gm weight it has improved slightly but needs more weight over the driving wheels.

Oh dear that corner, when I designed the layout I knew it would end up causing problems for longer trains as they turn left and lose momentum and immediately need to turn right over a slick section of double track switch (there are minimal track grooves so I will slice some more). It is also slightly up hill. If I run trains in reverse the other side closer to the roller door becomes the issue.

Super

Fine job and quite imaginative with adding the 4 wheel truck to Emily.

They have some nice small bits for a rotary tool that could rough up those rails for ya. I really like engineering problems with our layout and trying to come up with solutions. Did I hear a hint in the video that you may be thinking of a total rework of the layout?

Ucwepn

updated 1st post with more pics. Super not at this stage but always thinking about it 🙂

Ucwepn

updated 1st post with newest customs

emilyfan101

love your customs ucwepn! I think I have an idea for plarail yellow victor or trackmaster victor. maybe a headlamp?