Stevelewis

Bob ………. Tim at ARCADIA MODELS SHAW Nr OLDHAM (!) UK has just one in stock, I am sure he would post to the USA I know he does send items overseas But you would have to telephone him as although he has a website (arcadiarail.co.uk) he does not have an online ordering provision the UK phone number is 01706882900 Obviously inserting the UK code and omitting the first zero ( I think!) His trading hours are UK TIMES 0930 until 1630 (approx.) Saturday,Monday, Wednesday Thursday & Friday Hope this helps Steve UPDATE www.gaugemaster.com appear to have stock also

Just a follow up from my post from the other day re the MW, The only out of the box 'adjustments' I have made are to ease off the pony truck centreing springs so they have almost no effect on the actual centering and remove the top bar from the 'cow catchers' centre section only not the sides, to allow the couplers to move freely and hence not inhibit free sideways movement of the pony trucks ( as the couplers are a direct fit onto the ponies), I have not made any adjustment to the pony wheel power pickups! The loco runs fine on Peco 12", 18" and 'Y' 009 points.

I have dealt with Rails via Mail order for some years now, only had a couple of promptly dealt with issues, I ordered another L&B Manning Wardle last week, and feeling lazy ordered decoder fitting service, it arrived in just under 24 hours, and no issues with the loco.

I took delivery of yet another MW a few days ago, Taw in Southern Livery, although I have been digital since 1997 and have fitted more decoders in locos than I care to remember, feeling a little lazy I ordered it with a decoder pre fitted by the retailer, I was a little concerned that all would not be well, but within 24 hours the loco arrived, it runs extremely smoothly no derailments at all. I am contemplating a Black liveried Next.

Sorry for late reply, The 2095 is V E R Y powerful and will haul at least 8 ROCO bogie coaches which weigh approx 2X more than Peco L&B Bogie coaches up a 1 in 25 gradient on a approx. 12" radius curve. On a previous 009 Layout which was L&B themed I had Both a 2095 and A Bachmann Liliput D15 Bo Bo diesel both resprayed in dark green livery and named with nameplates attached One was Lynton The other Barnstaple, cannot find the photos though although they did appear on this forum so more searching may locate them

Arcadiarail Shaw sells Fl and other continental brands the website is accurate but recently there has been de stocking probably due to lack of sales, Gaugemaster site is good for fleischmann and accurate I deal with them quite often and their service is excellent.. Hattons only sell pre used Fleischmann Steve

Just been watching ( or half watching!) film on talking pictures TV, Police Drama from the 50s I suddenly woke up to a shot of a train Passing EUSTON Power Box hauled by either Earl Haig or Lord Kitchener ( 70043/ 70044) it was in its pre Smoke deflector condition when it was testing braking systems I believe, Both these locos were a familiar sight to me as they used to pass our school play ground very frequently in Manchester, the locos were sheded at that time at Longsight 9A. It was not possible to see the cabside number in the film clip though, it was the lack of smoke deflectors which pinpointed those 2 locos!

I have purchased one unit ( Brand New) but still looking for at least one more!

I am on the lookout for a couple of Graham Farish Green Liveried 4 car, 4 CEP EMUs Not important whether SYP or Plain. If you have one to sell ( or know of any for sale) Please contact me Thanks Steve

One would have thought that when it was placed in the obviously locked display unit, the person doing so would have checked that all was well! I speak from my own experience as a Product/Account Manager ( retired!) who spent time getting things correct at exhibitions ( not Model Railways I hasten to add )

Re SDJRf88 Video above I notice the Farish 8f appears to have a bit of wonky motion on its left side, not an omen I hope!

I have now received received the required information from Sountraxx in the USA, should any reader require the CV setting details for their Stearns Forney locos drop me a PM

I posted on here the CV settings which enabled the lights on the Bachmann 0n30 Stearns Heisler loco to be changed to directional and dimmed, with the passage of time, I have managed to lose the slip of paper with these settings on! I can send Tsunami an eMail they are very helpful, but thought I would ask on here if any one has the CV info?

Fairly typical (ie EXCELLENT) service from Kernow I have used them for many years , never had a single problem and orders delivered next day

RE Pin Dropout...…….It may be worth visiting a local optician!!!! Seriously opticians usually carry many sizes of small screws etc to repair glasses, and they also have the facilities to actually see what they are doing. They may be willing to help for a small fee or the promise of an order for specs in the future -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Answering Swsjames query above...…...screw in fit VERY tiny, I keep small tweezers handy so I can frequently check the pins, and that needs a bright light and magnifier.

Its very annoying, my latest one EXE is running digitally and performs OK, ( Modified ponies removed the centreing springs and flattened the brass power pickups against the underside of the chassis so they do not touch the pony wheel rims) Haulage power is good 3 coaches, 3 bogie goods wagons & 1 4whl van up a 1 in 25 no problem. One thing I am doing on a regular basis is checking the pins are tight and not gradually unscrewing, but it would be quite a feat to actually replace one!

I was round at a friends today who has a couple of the MWs one has been modified as per my loco as above and runs fine now, Surprisingly the other which had not been modified was running and that was running fine! Strange I thought he has managed to do it himself,HOWEVER when I asked he told me what he had done he answered ' I took the pony wheels off!!!!' He had simply removed the wheelsets by unclipping them, and there it was pulling a train successfully, as the layout is fairly low around 1metre high the lack of wheels was just not apparent! May be not a fix for every one but interesting

FURTHER UPDATE. Decoder now fitted, in the process of doing this I removed completely the centering springs and also flattened the brass power collection strips against the underside of the chassis so that they do not contact the pony wheels, the pony trucks are therefore totally free to move. I would point out that prior to fitting the decoder , whilst the pony trucks were removed I tested the running qualities of the chassis to make sure that power collection from the 6 drivers was sufficient, it was and it ran exceptionally smoothly. After reassembly I tested the loco again hauling rolling stock it ran for long periods without any problems, ( the layout is continuous run which has 8 Peco 18" &12" radius points in the circuit which also includes 2 gradients on approx. 14" radius curves) So I may buy another, not immediately just waiting to see how the market goes, I note that there are already some reduced prices appearing!

Further testing of EXE today, I have disabled the rear pony centreing springs (front ones were disabled yesterday), fitted couplings without any modification, which seem to be OK relative to PECO rolling stock, Temporarily removed front cow catcher, may remove tip bar of it. Have run the loco extensively hauling 3 coaches and a couple of 4 wheel wagons, up hill and down dale on the layout ( my excuse for a layout that is!) I have had to adjust a couple of sections of track which were not quite level, to eliminate 'dips' which caused the loco to slow with drivers spinning. I will attempt to upload a short poor quality video!

I never had any problems with my first 3 using the Peco couplers and the cow catchers in place apart from heating up the couplers and bending them a bit, never got to try them on No.4 it went back to retailer too quickly!!

WELL! I gave in to temptation and my Fifth MW arrived today ( New readers please note the first 4 were all returned as faulty) Its a Southern transition livery EXE which I quite like short lived, but not quite as 'in your face' as the later SOUTHERN livery. I tested the loco on the layout under construction today ( the layout is a U shaped oval in an 8x6 shed, this format allows entry without a 'duck under' the continuous run incorporates 8 points mostly PECO 18" radius but there are a couple of 12" also) After the first 5 minutes of running I was all for packing up the loco and returning it! But I took a deep breath and decided to examine the problems and try to apply a cure, Initially the loco was derailing on every point in forward direction and around 75% in reverse. I carried out just one modification so far I disabled the centreing springs on the front pony only, this resulted in perfect running in both directions ,I am unsure why it cured the reverse running, possibly the inhibited pre modified front pony had an effect on reverse running. Although the layout has minimum curves of around 14" I found that there is a slight tendency for the loco to slow at certain parts of some curves where these are on a gradient I need to check the track there may be a little re fettling to do In addition to continuous run I have a yard under construction which uses Peco 12" & Y points the loco ran through these fine I would add also that I checked the pins on the motion to ensure they were secure and this is something I will continue to do from time to time I still have to fit the couplings and decoder, but will not rush to do this until I have given the loco some further test runs. I hope that this is of value and will perhaps encourage those who have held off buying PS take a look at RAILS prices ( only valid for a short time I think)

There have been many comments regarding the problems you have experienced, I have now owned 4 of these locos from 1st & 2nd production all failed with valve gear problems and have been retuned to retailers, however before the problems occurred my fix on the derailing problems was to remove the pony truck power collection strips and on the 2nd version disable the brass centreing springs as well, thus allowing the ponies to move more freely. The locos run perfectly well from the power collection pojnt of view with power collection from the drivers only, but they do require more gentle curves than sometimes found on 009 layouts the minimum radius on my layouts is around 13". Attached pic of one of my failures! There is also a lot of info on the NGRM forum in the trade matters section

If any one is looking for a Baldwin 009 PEGGY in red livery, there is just one available at Arcadia Rail Tel: 01706882900 This is due to a cancelled pre order, which was not collected.

PEGGY anyone?? Due to a cancelled pre order TIM at ARCADIA RAIL has ONE only in stock now Peggy is the red liveried one Tel 01706882900

Personally I have had no problems with any Hattons decoders, However as suggested above it is necessary to test the loco with the decoder removed and the analogue blanking plug inserted. I had to return a MW loco recently which had similar running problems as you describe, but this had not been with me long enough to even fit a decoder! The loco had valve gear failure after about 10 mins running!, This was most likely in this case to be the cause of the poor running I do urge you to get in touch with Hattons, request a free return label and get a refund or replacement ( They do have plenty of stock still!)