Following on from my post of a month or so back about accepting yesterday's standards as being "good enough", here's the sort of finished 93XX, now with the Comet cylinders as promised. They make a big difference I reckon.

I say "sort of" finished because the livery and tender transfers are just to get something into BR service without doing a full repaint from the original GWR green. I removed the latter's lettering with T-cut, then added HMRS transfers for the late crest. I opted for the larger of the two sizes as these seemed about right for a photo I had of a Collett goods tender in unlined green. Now I have to fess up and say I've not been working from a photo of a 93 in similar condition, but I've made the assumption some would have carried this scheme  - however that could be an assumption too far! However as mentioned, it's the easiest route to getting it into BR condition without a repaint into black or fully lined green. Another consideration is that the model as it stands lacks the weight added behind the buffer beam that was eventually removed and the engines then renumbered into the 73XX series. However, for now... 

The model was already DCC fitted using a hardwired Digitrax decoder, but after extensive running I found the performance a bit sluggish and inconsistent in speed. I've found that the inexpensive Laisdcc decoders seem to work well straight out of the box, so the model was taken apart and rewired, this time incorporating an 8-pin socket in the tender.  A Laisdcc decoder was tested and resulted in an immediate improvement in the running, having lots more power in reserve and not being prone to inconsistent speed in different parts of the layout. I'm no expert but my guess is that older decoders like the Digitrax one seem to be much more sensitive to varying current draw and voltage irregularities. In any case the cost of a Laisdcc decoder is low enough that I won't hesitate to try a swap if I suspect an older decoder isn't getting the best out of a loco.