TT scale trains and models

Hi all,

Though I mostly buy RTR models, I have some older BTTB stuff that I could do with improving and I'm getting interested in the Czech kits that are available.

Regarding wheels, are there any particular brands to recommend? I was just going to buy Müller ones owing to availability.

I have large numbers of BTTB Fals/OOt type hoppers, and I'd like to economically get them closer coupled into rakes. Peho produce various close couplings mechanisms, are there any other options? I also found the close couplings in the SDV kit unsatisfactory, so finding a reliable product for this purpose would be great.

I'm also looking for transfers for ISO containers- now I've found a decent model in TT, I'd like to have a variety of owners.

To follow up the questions, I'll offer some tips of my own. Halfords red primer is very close to standard European freight brown, so much so that after weathering it's almost indistinguishable. It's near perfect for the lighter, flatter finish of Czech freight stock. Halfords also sell spray cans of "workshop red" which are RAL 3020, ie DBAG Verkehrsrot, and "racking grey", RAL 7035, which suits the doors and light grey stripes of Regio stock.

Hi Rich,

I highly recommend the Müller wheels. Changing just the wheels is improving a cars rolling characteristic by more than 200% (my estimate!) When you also use the PEHO brass axle bearings you will gain another 100%. I have done this with around 50 cars so far.
PEHO is also the way to go if you want real close coupling on BTTB material. I used a few of these, just to repair old and broken BTTB cars. It works very good but is a hassle to do. If you want to couple your cars only closer for a few mm, I recommend cutting a new slit in your coupler. I did this and got the cars 3-5mm closer together.

Bjoern

I second CN-TT. Muller wheels and Peho bearings and couplers. I've used both with good results.

Hi Rich

I have never heard of a "standard European freight brown". Each European national railroad company had its own standard freight brown. Perhaps, it is getting closer now when many of the national color standards are being replaced by German RAL. At the same time, some national railroad companies do not use the brown as standard at all.
You have mentioned the Czech kits. The standard brown for them in CSD time was not any RAL, it was CSN 8440 (Czechoslovak state norm) - and the new standard color for Czech freight cars is according to RAL, but it is blue...
Danish freight cars were brown, but again different brown than German brown. DSB introduced RAL colors as late as 1987!
Even Austrian colors are different from German.
German standard brown was RAL 8012, Austrian standard brown was RAL 8016, Danish standard brown was approximately RAL 8016 until 1971 and then RAL 8025.
German railroad colors are described here:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAL-Eisenbahnfarben

The only standard European brown I can think of was the old 19th century "caput mortuum" brown. It was made of blood and bone powder mixed in linseed oil.

In general, I would not use a primer as a final paint unless you want to make cars without lettering. Decals need high gloss surface. It would be fine for pad printing directly on the cars. I just don't expect anyone to do that for a single car.
You can order any color in spray, not only RAL, but also any car paint color. My biggest challenge was Pennsy Dark Green Locomotive Enamel, it does not exist as RAL (the closest RAL color is black). I have found a dark green Renault color, which looks OK on pictures. (not tested yet)

- Jan

By the time the browns have been in service, most European browns be it bauxite or oxide end up looking very similar. Exact matches for such vehicles isn't as crucial as brighter, better kept, paintwork. A pristine wagon in the exact shade looks odder than a grubby one that's somewhere close.



Transfers on primer, doing fine after ten years careless storage and use that's knocked the buffers off one end.

You don't have to match the color exactly, of course. The sun, the weather, and "railroad dirt" would change it anyway.
But making it "standard" for all cars would be somehow wrong. A weathered German car would always look different than a weathered Austrian car.

I also use the Müller axles.

A another coupling mechanims is from SYMOBA. You need the parts 111 ("Kulissenführung") and "Schacht" 109 (see "SYMOBA Restposten und Angebote").

Rich, are you a member of "TT-board.de"? Here is a new method to avoid milling for Peho coupler parts. The guy made a, let's say "heat-punch". I like this method.
http://www.tt-board.de/forum/showthread.php?t=49853

Hi Rich and Others,

I have been looking for some printouts of as way of shortening the 'Schlitzkupplung' ... the one with the new Tillig coupling at the end. Fitting these in their standard form results in a gap of about 10mm between buffers. The obvious thing to do is to simply cut a new 'slit' into the plastic so that it doesn't stick so far out. However, because it isn't symmetrical this mucks things up and it doesn't stick out quite right afterwards. There is a need then to adjust the geometry in other ways. That is where the printout comes in. It provides a template of what to cut away :)

Of course, this method does not have the same properties as the PEHO or SYMOBA solutions. However, it is a lot cheaper! the PEHO solutions seems to be almost 2 euro per set or something like that. If a new slit is cut about 3mm further out on each coupler, then the buffer distance is reduced to about 4mm or so. The cars can still get around a 396mm radius curve without the buffers touching, but perhaps not smaller radi. So, it is a matter of trial and error to find the right balance.

I will continue to search for my printouts. I originally found them online somewhere. CN-TT and MacG, you may know what i am talking about ??? If I can't find it I will try to reproduce the recipe from a coupler I already cut according to this method in the past.

Oh, I recently came across the 'Clipskupplung' - also from PEHO. Interesting, but not for Rich's use.

Juup

Juup, I think I know what you mean but can't help you with the printouts. I've done a few so far, now I know where to cut pieces off.