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Robert, In the meantime - the Bo-Bo arrived, has had its Kadees fitted and given a trial run. Runs very nicely and smoothly. Thanks very much. More later. Jeremy.

to merlinxlili, Robert. What is wrong with your email address?. (realgone@merlin.priv.no) My emails are all 'bouncing back' saying that the above address had permanent fatal errors. (reason: 554 5.7.1 Recipient address rejected: Unknown recipient) Jeremy.

Of course this loco with the black smoke box is my own version rather than that of Kieran (Kirley?). Jeremy.

This is my own version of the J15 (an SSM kit). At the time I put together this one I was informed that the smoke box was to be black rather than the grey which itself is not all that different from Kirley's. Is that correct?. Jeremy.

Thumbnail loco looks like one in Thailand?.

Leslie, I would like to buy one of your brown vans for a start. Maybe more later on. What would be the cost, including postage to Canada?. Do you take payment via PayPal?. If so to what email address?. The only 'special' request is for you to send the van without couplers as I prefer to use my own Kadees. Jeremy. .

From what is said and seen it looks like the model is a good representation of the brown van. And It comes with proper metal wheels from what I can see. I expect to buy one or two. I will just change the couplers to Kadees. Jeremy.

That Hornby R8220 coupler looks very like some Roco ones that came with an SNCF 2-car RGP set. I found them quite hard to couple and uncouple and I will replace them with Kadee ones in due course. Apart from those newer Hornby R8220 couplers what sort of coupler does Hornby now supply as standard on its models?. The new R8220 one like or one like the Bachmann TLC one which is narrower than the monster TLC one Hornby still appears to use on its 'railroad' series?. I think that dates from the days of train sets where there was a need for wide spacing to go round very tight radius curves. I find the Keen Systems constant buffer clearance unit works well on coaches. Jeremy.

Kadees - the way to go. That huge TLC has outlived its acceptance and should be phased out. Next thing is to replace those plastic wheels on the Bachmann wagons with metal ones.

It seems that the brown van roof is part elliptical in contour like on a coach whereas the usual goods van (wagon) has a roof that is basically part cylindrical in form. A small detail but it makes a big difference to the overall appearance. The attached photo of a van at DCDR clearly shows this and it can be seen on David Jackson's photo of a line of wagons if you look carefully. I have a question:- The model van is shown in a near red. Were the brown vans originally this colour or is that because it is a pre-production version. I just remember the vans in a faded greyish brown. I assume the ones on sale are unpainted. Jeremy.

Thanks for that. It does seem to work now. I found a very tiny black 'spot' in the middle of the greyed out area and I clicked on it and, 'lo and behold' it all works again. You live and learn. Thank you. Jeremy.

Kirley, Excuse me for troubling you. I Think you know a lot more about RMweb than I do. Can you or anybody help me?. I tried to add to the comments in the Brown Van (Provincial Wagons UTA Brown Van) posting but for some reason but it is 'greyed out'. I can't open it to make a posting. What did I do wrong and how do I get it working again?. Jeremy

Only problem I see there is that it is necessary to rework the roof to the correct profile (low arch with more sharply curved sections at sides). The roof detail is a characteristic feature of the brown vans. Jeremy.

I made recordings of the original Crossley powered CIE A class and the re-engined (EMD 645) version, plus Sulzer B101 and C re-engined class. Also MED, AEC, MPD etc. Jeremy.

Kirley, Maybe I am a bit pedantic about wheel profiles. I could suggest to Hornby that they supply as an optional 'add on' to at least their steam loco's alternative sets of wheels made to the more modern standard. The wheels on steam locos are much more visible than on most other rolling stock. Re couplers:- Kadees are the way to go, preferably body rather than bogie mounted. The Keen Systems constant distance device allows coaches to be coupled with buffers almost touching.

I assume the current 'Railroad' range is the old Hornby range which was current before the coming of Bachmann 'put the cat among the pigeons' as they say, forcing Hornby to more scale realism to stay competitive. If so, the older Railroad moulds and dies should have long since paid for themselves and the the vehicles should be correspondingly cheaper. Is that the case?. I found that the older Hornby stuff had a narrower back-to-back dimension on the wheelsets which made them not take kindly to my track which is to suit the RP25. I assume that the newer current Hornby scale stuff has less obtrusive couplers than the one-time huge obtrusive big bumper which held coaches very far apart. That screamed 'toy train set'. Jeremy.

I didn't read your write up fully. You say that is a modern Hornby Jinty chassis. I don't know how 'modern' that actually is, not being a Hornby devotee. Those wheels/flanges do seem very much overscale for recent models.

Looks like you also replaced the wheels as part of the work. Flanged centre wheels as opposed to flangeless on the original loco. Are those Alan Gibson wheels?. The look like them. Jeremy.

Kirley, Thanks for that info. That looks an impressive and well though drive unit. In particular the belt drives, rather than gears down to the main axle drive shafts will make for much quieter running. I assume that Geoff also makes the Black Beetle drives. I wish I knew of Hollywood Foundry at lot sooner as it would have saved the bother and waste of time making my own gearboxes for my railcars. At the time I couldn't find any suitable single axle drives. Jeremy.

Good work on that A class". I can appreciate the effort to make a Q Kits version presentable as it is a bit like 'making a silk purse from a sow's ear". Was your a resin or white metal version?. I believe that both were made. My own one is of resin and I had to do major surgery on it. I made new aluminium sides to replace the wavy wobbly originals and made new roof details. It has to be said that for all its faults the Q Kit A class has much more realistic cab front ends than do the Silverfox ones. I am curious about the Bull Ant under frame and drives. I don't know a lot about them. Am I right in saying that yours has a centre motor driving to gearboxes on the bogies?. I was lucky to come across some Athearn gearboxes with the correct unequal axle spacing. I made my own plastic bogie sides as Eoin Murray wasn't around making them at the time!. The motor in my A class is an old open one which I had at the time. It goes away too fast. It is a candidate for replacement with a modern flat can motor for more realistic speed. The unequal axle spacing is of course to accommodate the centre axle traction motor facing the one on an end axle. That is of course not needed on a Sulzer which does not have the centre axle motored. Do the 071's and 201's have unequal axle spacing?. Jeremy.

The AEC's (the CIE ones at least) had a similar Spanner type of boiler. It was located in the guard's compartment (no enclosure that I saw other than a simple wire mesh screen) on the left side, against the outer wall, when looking toward the gangway or on right when looking toward the cab end. Its exhaust flue was very similar to that on the GN coaches as just discussed but obviously at an angle from vertical and closer to the side. There was a 'Danfoss' temperature probe installed in the flue to confirm firing. The previous lower capacity Vapor Clarkson boilers had a smaller diameter flue with a cap but no surrounding 'box'. As far as I know the GN, later UTA AEC's had the original boilers right to the end. The old type VC boilers, flash tube type with downward firing from the top, a standard 'Vapor' design, were significantly noisier in operation. Colm's Diesel Dawn book makes refers to the railcar boilers. Jeremy.

Looks different from what I saw. The boiler compartment door was facing the gangway rather than to one side. The boiler was at other end of the coach so that the corridor was on right side of the coach when you were standing facing the boiler compartment door. The boiler was right in front of you when you looked in the doorway. Obviously there were variations in the layout in individual coaches so I would say that either arrangement would be acceptable. Jeremy.

Glover, This is what I remember seeing:- The boiler in the end of the coach was located on the centre line of the coach roughly 10 ft from the end of the coach. It looked very similar to the one in the tin van although maybe a little smaller - most likely a 'Spanner'. The enclosure had an access door facing toward the corridor connection. The corner of the enclosure was angled at approx. 45 deg (or thereabouts) to give more room for people going towards the corridor. I don't know where the fuel and water tanks were. There was an exhaust vent protruding through the roof directly above the boiler. Basically there was an open top box, about 6" high and about 30" square. There was a flat circular rain cap visible inside the box, approx. level with the top of the box. In appearance it was basically similar to the ones on the CIE AEC's after these had been fitted with larger Spanner boilers, replacing the original Vapor ones. I hope that is of some help. Jeremy.

071, Thanks for info. on couplers. I don't know if any of the Kadee ones made to fit the NEM socket would be of any use. Nos. 17, 18, 19 etc. They come with various shank lengths and heights (offsets). I have used the NO.7 one very satisfactorily on Bachmann UK wagons. There are also lots of plastic 'knock-offs' of the Kadee. I think Dapol makes some. Some might fit. I could visualise you making a reversible dummy coupler/drawbar to join your bubbles & ballast wagons. It could be reversible to suit the high or low NEM sockets. I have a question:- Is it likely that you will ever be selling single wagons in the future?. Regards.

You should, if possible, add some older Irish railcars!.