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About this blog

When ignorance is not always bliss and improvisation has its cost

Entries in this blog

Ballasting

Since I relaid the whole track using cork underlay instead of the previous foam underlay I have been faced with the problem of decent ballasting. Since, for reasons explained in previous posts, I used a 5 mm thick cork, I now have the problem of how to disguise this steep step. I tried gluing 7 mm wide cardboard strips at an angle to form a hypotenuse and, in some places it seems o.k. but in others not because I did not get the ballast to stick properly. Finally, I decided to glue a twine in the
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Practically at a standstill

Hi all! Since before Christmas I have been able  to do nothing. The Christmas period was spent in part away from home and then occupied with family events. Then in January I had vascular problems in both feet and the specialist had me shut up in hospital for twelve days. I still have problems and difficulty in walking due to a constant pain in the lumbar region. The cold weather and lack of a suitable heater make working in the garage difficult.  However, since this web is for airing modelling t
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New platform

I mentioned in my last post that I was building an additional new platform so that I could have two trains running simultaneously and both would have where to pick up and set down passengers as required or otherwise one would have to run continuously with nowhere to stop. I can now report that the new platform is in an advanced state and enclose some photos of its construction. In the first place I would point out that do not have any CAD program, silhouette or laser cutter, 3D printer or instru
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I am still alive, in spite of all.

I have just realIised that six months have passed since my last post and a lot of things (not all pleasant) have passed in the meantime. To be brief, In May I was rushed into hospital with a lung edema (lings full of blood) and was discharged a week later with a new addition, namely a stent. Then I had a couple of short visits (a few hours each time) for a nose hemorrhage and a heart block). On the pleasant side, there was a trip to the UK to visit relatives and old friends (in spite of my age a
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New material received

Further to my post of last Friday, I have received the new material, the Jinty was pre-owned and i decided to have the chip hard wired by Hattons themselves since it is becoming increasingly difficult for me to handle very small parts like the screws used to hold the bodies in place on the chasses and other small accessories. I fitted both the autotrailer and the locomotive with kadee couplers, put a composite brake coach between them and set them running. The whole outfit runs very smoothly. I
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An update

Good evening all!. I have just seen that it is nearly 4 months since my last post. Since then there have been events such as I got the Fowler tank to run but, as mentioned on the Forum, I cannot get it to run well through the points. In November I purchased a new Hornby R3553 and in December part of the crank mechanism fell apart. Since sending it back from here for repair under guarantee would have cost me more than twice what it cost me to have it sent out, I used devious means to have it take
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Some success

I have been rather under the weather for the last three days but, while far from being OK, I can at least get out of bed and do something other than watch TV. So, after lunch to-day, I decided to have a look at one locomotive that was a poor runner, namely, the Hornby R505 Fowler LMS tank. From previous tests I hd the feeling that something was binding and blocking the motor or, less possibly, the chip settings were interfering with each other. A quick check showed that the loco answered to its
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Railway Model shops in London

Hi all! This is probably not the best place to request information, but in view of its nature, I don't know where to place it. I need to have the names, addresses and e-mail adresses of model railway shops in London with good repair facilities for Hornby models. Can anybody help? Thanks in advance
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One hard task finished

Good evening all. Two and a half years after relaying the track I have finally finished the ballasting. Unfortunately, in spite of my efforts, it has not been a tidy job, in fact it is rather messy, but it is the best I have been able to do. Some of the earlier work will need touching up but, after a clean up, I can start start fixing down certain buildings and other scenic items now that they don't represent an obstacle for working. The engine shed will not be a fixture, since it will surely ha
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Signal Box repair

Good eveninng all. I think (i.e. hope) that the end of ballasting is reasonably near. There are only a few metres lest to be done. The downside is that, no matter how hard I try, I cannot do a neat job. On the other hand, one of the two signal boxes (Metcalfe) kits was a bit decrepit and damaged, namely, it had lost its steps (kept safe in another place) and the top storey had become separated from the ground floor on three sides, whereby it could be opened like a box. Its chimney also fouled th
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Story of an Engine Shed, part 2

I can now update on this subject. In the last entry, I placed several photos and will repeat one, namely, the shed in the wrong place In the end, I decided to chop the shed down to its original height by removing the supplements I added several years ago. The photo also shows the door posts I had to remove. When I relaid all the track early last year to improve the dcc feeds I did not take into account the track centre-to-centre distances nor was I too careful in seeing that the straight sectio
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The story of an Engine Shed

When I started placing scenic elements on the layout, I discarded resin made items because of their weight (to avoid overloading the electric motor raising and lowering the baseboard) and price and opted for a Metcalfe Card Kit. I then decided to place it in a different site from the one shown on the layout. It was not fixed in place because, at that time, I had Hornby buffer stops which clip onto the rails and any slight blow from a locomotive can dislodge them and it would have been very diffi
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Lima Collection - Trams

In October, my wife and I had a holiday in Geneva with a daughter who was working there with the WTO. On the Saturday, she took us to the flea market where there was a lot of rubbish on offer, but one lady had 3 or 4 of the Lima Tram collection. I didn't buy then, because I wasn't quite convinced of its suitability for my layout. Nevertheless, a few weeks later another daughter went to see her sister in Geneva and I asked them to buy one for me, It is the Düwag Partywagen, nº 208041 as shown bel
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Frustration!

As mentioned on other occasions I have problems with my Hornby 2-6-4 Stanier tank 4MT Class 4p. It just refuses to perform correctly. I have yet to be able to use it for hauling the three coaches I bought for it last year. I have managed to get it to circulate at low speed but once I up the speed a little it derails here, if not here, then there and if not there, elsewhere. I have other rolling stock that offers no problems. I have spent all this afternoon checking cambers, I ripper up part of t
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Success confirmed

As mentioned in the last but one post, it is now nine years since I started out on this adventure and I think I can now say that we are in in a position to play trains. The layout is far from finished scenically, as ripping up and relaying the track caused a lot of damage. but no dead spots appear on the track. It seems, however, that some vehicles do not like the track, as mentioned in a previous post, and one of my best runners, the Class 150 DMU, started playing up again. When travelling forw
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Some success

It is now nine years since I had the bright(?) idea of building a layout. Originally conceived for DC operation, I upgraded it to DCC, but inadequately and this year, as mentioned in a previous post, I made the drastic decision of ripping up the whole track and relaying it with a multidude of droppers and bridges across rail joints in places. I think I can now say that I have solved the electrical problems, but soldering droppers and relaying the track has left a few imperfections to be sorted o
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Some hard work done

Since my last post, I effectively refitted the point motors, then turned the layout edge on to be able to work underneath without contortions and set about getting the droppers connected to a bus. I made a query on the Forum, got some good advice and, while I did not follow it too closely, it was a a great help. After almost two weeks, in sessions of 1-1/2 to 2 hours or a bit more at a time, I to-day managed to connect the last droppers and wire up the bus wires. I still have to wire in the plug
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Some joy at last

Hi all! As mentioned on previous occasions, have a lot of old (30/40 years) Lima H0 rolling stock incompatible with my modern locomotives because of a difference in coupling height. I also have two old Lima H0 locomotives which I had previously unsuccessfully tried to digitize (one was returned to the analogue state and the other is still disassembled). I have read a lot of forum entries on remotoring Lima locos, with the differing opinions and recurrent comments and, in view of the complicatio
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Another one rewiring

Since my last post I have been renovating elements of infrastructure and reorganizing the wiring under the baseboard. As indicated in previous posts I have had problems with my point motor control. The Hornby passing lever switches worked O.K, but were not suitable for the present state of my fingers. The pushbutton switches used in their place were not designed for working with Hornby motors and both LEDs remained alight, whereby there was no indication of point direction. Finally, as I browse
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Progress(?) report

What is progress? Is it having more on your board than you had before or is it that some things that didn’t work well now work a bit better? I had to replace a surface mounted point motor. Previously all units had passed well, albeit by a hair’s breadth. After replacement I discovered that the non-powered driver car of my push-pull double deck commuter rake (the first double deck units introduced by RENFE prior to the genuine EMUs) was hitting the motor. The point in question is situated right
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Progress(?) report

What is progress? Is it having more on your board than you had before or is it that some things that didn’t work well now work a bit better? I had to replace a surface mounted point motor. Previously all units had passed well, albeit by a hair’s breadth. After replacement I discovered that the non-powered driver car of my push-pull double deck commuter rake (the first double deck units introduced by RENFE prior to the genuine EMUs) was hitting the motor. The point in question is situated right
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One step forwards, more backwards

I have been hanging on since my last contribution hoping to be able to report some real progress but, far from that, I have to report regress (i.e. retrogression). I have mentioned elsewhere my problem with arthritic fingers and the risk of hitting the wrong lever of the passing switches for the point motors, with the risk of damaging the motors. I replaced two damaged motors and, furthermore, installed pushbutton switches. These are supposed to give feedback information via leds but do not do s
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Slowly but surely(?)

Since a request was made for photographs of my progress, while I did say that there were no real visual changes, I have decided to show an overall view of the underside of my baseboard as of when it was upturned two or three weeks ago and a couple of scratchbuilt items, namely a Park Shelter and a Bus Shelter. The Park Shelter was originally intended to be the Bus Shelter, but it turned out too rustic so I built another one. The Park Shelter has suffered vandalism (actually to avoid overbalancin
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Feeling a bit like a fool

I have done a bit more work on my layout. I finally obtained the new tips for my soldering iron, together with some decent solder. I managed successfully to solder some droppers direct to the track without making a mess of it and fixed the loose track back again to the base. I also replaced some previously installed droppers (which were relatively thick cable and connected to an elevated portion of the track) with some thinner wires which adapt themselves much better to the contour and in fact h
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Frustration again

Just a short note to vent my new frustration. After an exchange of comments and receiving good advice from fellow members concerning DCC track wiring and a few trials, I came to the conclusion that my wiring, albeit not perfect, was not bad and that certain anomalies observed with certain vehicles were due to the vehicles and not to the track wiring. Then, when one problem seemed solved, a new one arose. My whole point activation system (analogue) went dead. In view of the way the system is wire
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