Les1952

On the topic of models selling out/not selling. Don't compare with Accurascale, Rapido etc. They don't make stuff for every model shop to have a bite at. What we DON'T know is the size of the Bachmann stockpile at Barwell to compare Hornby with...... A lot of drums being banged with little knowledge to base the opinions on. Les

Latest video- note a few more trees have appeared. I'll be taking the layout down to wire in the signals over the next couple of weeks- I'm waiting for more trees as I've run out, and also for some more people and animals. There are some pics still to process. Happy new year. les

I'll jump in again and predict three classes we WON'T see from anyone- 1. A North Eastern/LNER D20 4-4-0. 2. A North Eastern Atlantic 3. A Jersey Lily. having said that I'd like them all in TT..... Les

I'm looking onwards to 2025 and wondering.. Who is going to poke their head above the parapet and make Locomotion No.1? If it is to be released on time the work should be well on by now.... Les

Quite a bit done on the scenic side- albeit slowly. A lot of trees gone in, and even more grass tufts. The five signals have been planted but not yet wired in. This morning I ran the first train since October- and needed to add a couple of droppers to cover for where paint had got into the gaps between rails and rail joiners. I don't like soldering upside down! A lot better for the banking being finished and about a third of the trees planted.. At the other end more trees, signals and street lights. More pics in the camera Les

I'm going to jump in and say that if MOST locos perform well on a layout even with a fault on that layout, then ANY loco that doesn't is not fit for purpose. My layout NO PLACE has industrial track in the colliery- deliberately wonky because that is how collieries were in the last couple of years before they closed. I don't expect more than a select handful of locos (mainly Hornby J94s and Bachmann 03/08s) to cope with that track. On the other hand the passenger and preservation side is laid to a much higher standard and I expect ALL suitably-sized 0-6-0 or 0-4-4 tanks to cope with it. The only ones that haven't have been Bachmann Panniers where there isn't enough flexibility in the wheelbase. These have been sold on. The 15xx copes well with the layout, though it hasn't ventured into the colliery yet. A prototype observation. At Shotton Colliery less than a year before it closed in the seventies I watched as a loaded 21-ton hopper wagon was put back on the track. How? Sleepers brought over from up the yard by the engine (STAGSHAW) and laid in the mud on either side of the track. Heavy duty jacks on the sleepers with another sleeper across under the buffers of the wagon. The wagon was then lifted up clear of the rails. Sledgehammers were used to bash the rails until the track was underneath the wagon, which was then dropped onto the newly misaligned track. Industrials led a hard life. Les

The safety valve assembly on mine has broken off- rather too fragile. Talking to them at Warley they said it was an issue and they offered a replacement. As mine is the NCB one i've done what the NCB would do and substituted Ross Pops from a Triang loco in the scrap box. On QC- I've had QC issues with Heljan (buffer beams and steps that fall off (two models), a railcar where the top and bottom halves don't meet all the way round) Also with Accurascale- door bangers on wagons that aren't glued on very well and get lost on the layout and a Deltic that lost its bogie safety chains and other small details round the layout - on a 24 by 12 foot club layout things that fall off are usually never seen again. And with KR Models- I gave up on the Fell, plus Planet Industrials where the valve gear jammed straight out of the box- another one where the repaired loco was no better than before the repair, plus Bachmann locos that have gone back. In TT:120 my Hornby Blink Bonny arrived without any wheels under the cab. In N gauge I've had stripped gears, a non-functioning Deltic and A2 from Graham Farish - plus the saga of incorrectly milled wheels on their WD, where one in three (including mine) couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding because their traction tyres didn't actually touch the rails, dead-on-arrival locos from Fleischmann and Liliput, and rejected every Dapol Terrier a local dealer had in stock before eventually finding one that ran well enough. Not to mention US outline locos from three different manufacturers where handrails were visibly broken and where the locos went back without even being removed from their boxes. Rapido are a lot more up front about issues than many- the Farish traction tyres issue wasn't admitted for over two years and then only in conversation during which time I'd received a lot of stick from those who had good ones. Yet people reckon I'm less picky than most..... My take on all of this is that we have long passed the point where the detail we demand is going to survive. We pay more and more for details that can't be seen when the loco is running and which are so fragile they break without being touched. Is the hobby being driven by the wrong people? Les

Not yet been announced at Nurnberg, which is where most of the Continental shops place their orders. Les

Union Mills in N gauge all worked that way- tender drive with traction tyres on one side and pickup on the other only, with the loco picking up from the "driving" wheels on the other side (which were unpowered and free wheeling. Worked fine, even on 4-4-0s. Les

My N-gauge Black Forest line "Bregenbach im Schwarzwald" has 1 in 25 gradients which are less steep than the prototype 2 valleys South (the Hollentalbahn). My German outline locos have a pair of traction tyres each and are mostly Bo-Bo electrics. When I run a tyre-less Farish or Dapol loco it generally slips to a stand with more than two wagons. The Hollentalbahn (1 in 17.8) became part of the Freiburg S-bahn three or so years back. Until then summer holiday trains would be a rake of 6 to 7 double-deck coaches with an electric loco (nominally) on the downhill end of the train. Can you imagine modelling that without traction tyres? Les

frequently to the extent that all of my TT stuff has magnetic couplings - Dapol Easi-shunts for stuff that gets shunted and Hunt couplings for the fixed rakes. Problem solved. Les

As of 23.14 on 12th Dec Modellbahnshop Lippe have the Maersk container wagon in stock. they have DHL and ONE available to pre-order. Price is 46 euros 49. Hope this helps. Les (found by chance as I was browsing for something to add onto a signals order.)

It looks like a J94 in many ways the old Farish one just didn't quite manage,,,, That sound conversion has me thinking that if Hornby's TT one isn't good enough when it comes Broken Scar could yet be N gauge. All I need is a J50 to go with it.... Les

Looks good. That NOHABs runs very nicely. I've got the layout set up in the shed again and I've made a start on the front. The front contoured board is now finished, and painted black, which in itself is a major improvement. The white at the front is the plaster bandage for the contours here. Bregenbach is on end in the corner until next summer as its next show is currently Stafford next back end, by which time this one will have been out three times. One day later and the plaster bandage is now an improbable shade of green ready for the static grass to be put on. After that there are 25 or so more trees to add, by which time (the first?) four signals will have appeared. Taking Bregenbach im Schwarzwald to Warley gave me chance to get ideas from other layouts that were there. In particular I need to think about overhead power lines on posts and increasing the vegetation around the station and yard. To quote Mr Simon "much to do".... Les

Some recent pics. Starting last year with Gerry operating at Belper. Loughborough went well but it cost me £950 to get the dent in my car mended after a minor collision with the undamaged bumper of a van in the confines of the yard. As well as wagons from John Catling I tried his Aspinall radial on the layout to see if it was worth buying it. It didn't like too many of the points so I sold it on for John's widow. An unusual view of the coal road taken at Loughborough. Shows up some lifting grass to sort and an edge of coal stack to blend in. Not normally visible either from the front or the back of the layout. Now three from Hinckley in October Close up of the royal photographer, with the young Barry O in the background with his notebook. Rare view taken from the back of the layout. Sir Topham Hat is on his day off and has been caught out by the royal visit. But he was present at Hinckley signing certificates on our club layout next door..... The venerable number 7 shunting at either Hinckley or Retford shows.... The layout is going to County Durham next year. All for now Les

Despite being tucked right away in what used to be the Squires corner the Bregenbach im Schwarzwald team had a very good weekend overall. The pic gives those who have never been an impression of just how big the hall actually is. Going left the far side is the third row of columns and the other end of the space is the far wall. Getting in- easy (apart from the computer bit at home where the software isn't as intuitive as they claim). We arrived at the North Lorry Park just after mid day for a 1pm slot but were sent straight down. No queue, drove to stand B07, unloaded and car out in about 10 mins, leaving plenty of time to get the layout running properly. Getting out - not quite as easy. We were told that we could park immediately outside door 8 (correct) and carry out through it. However the doorkeeper hadn't been given the same information (NEC failing) so we carried out through door 7 and along the road upsetting the shuttle bus drivers as we went- wearing hi-vis and flagging them to a stop... (the area outside Door 7 had by this time filled). Just as I got the last part of the stuff into the car ready to drive off door 8 was opened- I think someone else had had a row with the NEC supervisor.... However I was on the road by 6pm. One other problem - I picked up a screw in one of my tyres inside the hall.... I didn't see everything by a large margin, and only found the last stand I was looking for (the Gresley Society) late on Sunday afternoon, despite Chris Nettleton arriving within 15 mins of me on Friday. Such is life. Purchases? trees, Easi-shunt couplings and some Gresley Society Christmas cards. On pics and vids- I don't mind either, and have got to know Richard of Trains in the Attic quite well over quite a lot of shows. If anyone wants to use a pic of mine or of my layout commercially I have no issue with that, though if I took the pic I would wish to be acknowledged as the photographer. A few years ago a manufacturer (no longer trading) used a picture of an EM1 taken by me to advertise his kit, and was less than pleasant when I asked him to acknowledge the origin of the pic on his website. Lastly, a big thank you to all those of Warley Club who worked very hard to put this on. All very polite and helpful. As retired Show Manager for South Notts Show I know just how much work goes into even a small show- double the size and you almost square the workload. Would I bring a layout again if asked? Yes. Les

The rest of the useable Warley pics A view showing where we were in the hall- and for people who have never been, showing the size of the hall.... European Railway Association to the right and German Railway Society to the left. Probably a repeat of an earlier pic, but the Glass train stands while its punters enjoy a brewery tour. The brewery loading dock with Italian wagon loading. A close-up of the Italian wagon. And that is it until Stafford next October. Now to get Bregstadt ready for South Notts Show in April with three more in quick succession. Les

The threatened promised video from Warley. Taken late in the afternoon on Sunday when there were fewer punters around. I'm still getting used to this video business. The next video will be of Bregstadt now I've got it set up. All the very best Les

Some of the recent photographs Set up at Ruddington show. The lack of the German flag meant no end of people asked "Is this in Switzerland?" ROCO Taurus powers over the viaduct. At Nottingham and Warley it was running the other way round the layout. Close-up of the fork lift truck NGS Hunslet in the brewery yard That's it for the Ruddington pics. The rest of the Warley pics to follow. Les

Not a lot posted since Ruddington as I've been too busy during each show to get much taken in the way of pics. Two new ones (there is a video to go with it once uploaded to YouTube... The layout set up this weekend at Warley. Note the idea shamelessly nicked from Dave Paylor, the big German flag to let everyone know where the Schwarzwald is... And the Warley show plaque to prove we were there. Pics from the last few shows and the video to follow (eventually) Les

One thing you MIGHT see after I had a chat with Joel at Dapol this weekend is a sticker applied to packs of their Easi-shunt couplings or some marketing from them to point out they are suitable for TT:120. Dapol were not aware that they fitted TT NEM pockets or that people like me were using them. Indeed the prospect of selling something into a new market without spending heavily to develop the product seemed interesting to them. Will it happen? Time will tell. Les (who finds they work better in TT than in the N they were designed for due to TT kinematic springs being stronger and TT stock being heavier- just like Kadees work better on heavier US stock than on lighter British)

There are still plenty of model railway shows around, enough to give my layouts almost a full run up to September 2025. However as my largest will be the TT gauge Bregstadt at 8 feet by 2 feet 6 ins I can probably fit most venues- oddly enough the smallest is NO PLACE at 7 X 2 feet, and that is the OO one..... Anyone coming to Warley can find me on Stand B7 (as far into the corner as you can get and still be a layout) with Bregenbach im Schwarzwald, where despite the layout only being 8 feet by 2 feet a train leaving the fiddle yard will travel 31 feet before arriving back at the other end of the yard... Bregstadt's successor, Broken Scar, won't be started until I have tried the Hornby J94- if not controllable enough I'm not building a layout round it. the 08 still has a few issues with Hornby points on Bregstadt- no problems with Peco. Les

It does seem to have a "collectors item" status by some - though definitely not by me..... Les

The coupling box on the Farish vans is also a little fragile for exhibition use. When you have (as I had) trains running at scale 60mph (goods) and scale 80mph (passenger) at a show it takes only a slight distraction for an operator to pile one train into the back of another in the fiddle yard, either through setting the road incorrectly or not spotting the tail of the train was out of punter's sight so it could be slowed down. I have three or four Farish vans left over from Croft Spa that are missing a coupling box- lost at a show. These will eventually get Dapol nem boxes glued where they were for an new club N-gauge project (Croft Spa's goods stock being about 95% sold on). Les

Update on the sticking. Giving it an extra two hours running seems to have solved the sticking. I've been shunting it slowly up and down the test track most of the day and it has refused to stick once. Lets see what Retford show brings next week when it works turn and turn about with others of the preserved fleet on NO PLACE. Checking- the firebox glow mostly corresponds with the shovelling. For a tank loco it is probably fired a lot more frequently than the prototype. Les