mcowgill

Steven Wilson's Nowhere Now from his new album, a video including a roundhouse! Scenes filmed at Baquedano station and railway museum in Chile Martin

I was lucky enough to meet David Shepherd at the NRM back in 2004 on the press/preview day for Railfest. I was with the Ffestiniog Railway GM in the cafe and he came and joined us for lunch in something of a bad mood, he'd found that the NRM had broken one of the spectacle plates unloading the tender for 92203, he was threatening to march into the Great Hall with a screwdriver and cannibalize 92220 for parts! Since then my daughter took up painting and did an animal project for her A-level, she found his wildlife paintings an inspiration, particularly when she had the chance to see some of the originals. RIP - a sad loss. Martin

Steven Wilson - To The Bone Excellent new album, grows on me with each listening. Entered the album charts at No 3, kept off the top by the King and some red-haired bloke. Martin

Yes, it was in steam for a few years up to 1980, it ran under it's own power in the Rainhill cavalcade in 1980, see the opening scene of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkJj6XclF48

Tinsley Open Day with 673 & 4027 was June 1980 Martin

You might run into problems with clearances on a Leek & Manifold style transporter wagon. They were low slung vehicles with a raised centre section over the top of the bogies and lower platforms either side with flangeways and running surfaces that the wagons sat on. I scratchbuilt one many years ago and ran into issues due to the conflict between needing an over scale upper body width to allow for bogie swing on model curves and the back-to-back clearance for the standard gauge wheels being narrow in 00 gauge. I solved it by making it for EM gauge instead. I blame that transporter wagon for a lot of future trouble, shortly afterwards my standard gauge modelling moved to EM and then P4, all because I messed about with the back to back on that wagon on the transporter! Martin

I wonder if there's an opportunity here that Suttons have overlooked. If they could make sure there was enough room at the top of the tin for them to include layer of biscuits we could safely display the contents to the household authorities in the event of an interrogation on delivery. Luckily SWMBO doesn't appreciate the cost of a sound fitted ultimate class 24.... Martin checking over shoulder while typing

Must be an Airfix/Mainline version- it covers the tender drive. Note also the smaller splashers and circular boiler as confirmation. I've already got my hat and coat... Martin

I've used microswitches in fiddle yards mounted on the baseboard alongside the point, operated by the tiebar. You need to be careful that the switch isn't too close to foul the track, outside cylinders and bogie coach battery boxes are the most likely problems. In a few cases I extended (or bent) the switch operating arm to make sure there was enough clearance. Martin

It's a while since I reported on my wayward Yeo but knowing that Exe was also on it's way from the Bure Valley Railway (bet you didn't know they had a strategic reserve of 2' gauge locos there ) I wanted to see how that fared. The assumption that my little tramway layout's ancient Peco points might be at fault has also been tested now and I can give an update. Exe has no discernible side-to-side snagging on the pony trucks so the pickups don't seem to be causing a problem, but it still spends most of it's time dropping the leading wheels onto the ballast on the layout. I've set up a little test track on the dining table with newer design Peco mainline and 12" points including a reverse curve through the points and curves straight onto the points in attempt to give the locos something of an assault course. I'm pleased to report that both locos passed with flying colours, both only managed one chimney end truck derailment each after 10 minutes of shuttling backwards and forwards at all sorts of speeds, both on the mainline points from the heel end off a sharp bend (Roco setrack) onto the point, coming off between the crossing and the point blades, an odd place to derail - at the moment I'm blaming the point being uneven as the power was connected to the toe end of that point. So they look to be running fine on decent track and I'm now a happy owner. Martin

An update on the derailment issues I reported. The pickups aren't the cause of the problem as with them temporarily taped up out of the way there is no side-to-side resistance so Steve's fix would be unlikely to resolve the derailments. However the points where I'm seeing the issue are all pre-2010 Peco 009 versions which are known to have a some issues, although these are mostly around the V crossing rather than the toe end of the blades where they regularly seem to ride up over the thin end of the blade. The locos were never intended to run on this small layout so I'm not that worried if others are getting good running on decent pointwork. I'll be hand building the pointwork for my L&B layout so if it doesn't run it will be my fault! Martin

Here's both instances of the same loco (assuming the frames identify the loco) in Boston Lodge last month, new frames in the foreground and the old ones up in the air on the wagon in front of the new set: New frames and cylinders but the original wheels with new crankpins and overhauled motion. Martin

Running with a train may well solve the problem but with a pony truck at both ends that still leaves one end leading at all times. I've done some more running and also managed to carefully tape up the pickups under the rear end - interestingly it made no difference to the rear pony truck derailing so it may be that there's more to it than that. It looks like the wheels are splitting the point blades, so that suggests the wheel/flange/rail interface and back to back/check gauge. The back to back seems ok and playing about with adjusting it to slightly wider or narrower doesn't seem to be making any noticeable difference. One thing I have noticed is that it seems fussier about curves than was previously suggested, definitely a hint of lifting inside wheel here over the yet to be installed GVT cattle grid: It doesn't seem to like some of the Peco points on the layout, but others are fine so I'm beginning to point the finger at the track and will give the loco the benefit of the doubt at the moment. The loco (and its on order sisters) were not intended to run on my current little layout but on the L&B layout I'd been planning on and off for years, it should finally get built. That will have handbuilt prototype points which I'm sure the locos will love! Martin

From Bachmann's point of view the Baldwin is mechanically another DCC ready N gauge loco, they've managed plenty of those without any recurrent issues. I'm going to have another close check of Yeo tonight, still having problems with the pony trucks derailing on turnouts that don't affect anything else, the back to back of the wheelsets are fine so I'm suspicious of the pickup arrangements. The problem now is that I'm hesitant to remove the pickups in case I later suffer from the exploding motion bracket/slidebar problem. What's the view, would removing the pony truck pickups to make it run properly invalidate the warranty if I then had valve gear troubles? Martin

There was the slightly amusing sight in Boston lodge last month of both Welsh Pony's sitting next to each other in the erecting shop... Actually each component is being assessed and reused where possible. The frames are an interesting conundrum as with modern CAD systems and laser cutting it's quicker and cheaper to replace the frames than repair them. Cab, tanks and many other components are being refurbished and refitted so it's still a rebuild, you wouldn't expect much to be reusable on a loco that's been out of traffic for 70 years. I was told by the person who organised the last couple of overhauls that probably the only components that left George England's works in 1863 remaining on 'Prince' are the wheel centres, but then the FR renewed three of the small England locos by replacing almost everything in the late 19th C. to a different design based on Welsh Pony & Little Giant. For a proper 'rebuild' take a look at Welsh Pony's stablemate Taliesin. 'Dismantled' in the 1920s and then rebuilt to different dimensions in 1999, it's still a rebuild (the works plate says so) as it reused the original reversing lever (since broken and replaced). Martin

The problem with FR Fairlies is that while a quick glance suggests they are similar, once you get to know them they are all very different, length, height, bogie centres, superstructures etc. The two most alike are actually the two that on the face of it are poles apart, Merddin Emrys & Earl of Merioneth (1979 built Square, not the renamed Livingston Thompson), as these were both built/rebuilt around the 1960s Hunslet boilers. Which ones would you pick for RTR? The current locos are significantly larger than the Victorian locos, but none of them were ever the same in the way that the L&B or VofR locos were. I think that's where Roco got cold feet, they were probably looking at a generic loco and if you are going to charge £200+ each that may well rule out a lot of people, the same way I decided not to buy a Minitrains 2-6-2T as it's not 4mm scale and will look wrong alongside a Bachmann Baldwin. If you are interested in FR Fairlies I thoroughly recommend 'Fairlie Locomotives of North Wales' http://www.festrail.co.uk/content/publish/news/516.shtml - 310 pages primarily covering the design changes and differences in a small fleet of locomotives. Martin

The postie arrived a short while back... A tiny bit of a wobble on the lining above the cab side on the right, but a lovely little loco - and I only noticed it when I looked at the photos. It's had a few shuttles up and down the loop, I'm assuming it's my track at the moment but the rear pony truck seems to have an affinity for the ballast, I'll check the B2B to see if that's out a little but it runs well straight out of the box. Martin

Anne Marie Helder of Panic Room has posted a wonderful tribute to Tim on Facebook, please have a read https://www.facebook.com/groups/panicroomies/permalink/1498997446817312/?pnref=story Martin

I just heard that Tim Hall (aka Kalyr http://www.kalyr.com/weblog/) of this forum passed away today after being ill for several months. We used to bump into each other regularly at exhibitions and Prog Rock concerts where he was an ever present member of the crowd, equally well known to fans and bands alike. I'll raise a pint in memory of Tim at the Panic Room gig in Cambridge later this month, we would normally have put the world to rights there over a pint. Martin C

I would say that the 1948 picture and the 1958 post repaint photo are the same occasion, just different angles, the other locos in the shot look to be the same. Martin

There have been no end of atrocities in the news over the years but this one has upset me far more than any other, partly as a father of a daughter in the same age group as many of those in Manchester last night, but also as I heard the news just as I boarded a train at Liverpool Street on the way home from a concert myself. Just 20 minutes earlier I heard KT Tunstall refer to the experience of coming together for live arts and music (apologies for her colourful language): "This is something that people have done for millennia, come into caves or rooms and you come together and it's just us. Nobody cares what colour you are, who you're shagging or who you vote for. None of it matters. This is special, it's a sacred space and we should appreciate that" It upsets me that people have gone to one of these places for a joyful experience and they lost their lives through a random act that was no fault of their own Martin

But in many of these cases it's the companies that supplied systems with either with embedded XP or which will only run on XP, things such as MRI scanners, who should be helping migrate to newer systems. Microsoft aren't responsible for these systems, their manufacturers are. I recently had a CT scan on a machine with an XP interface, the results were saved to the hospital network, so that's a potentially vulnerable machine for starters. It's quite a widespread issue, we have a number of CNC machines in our factory running Windows XP or even MS-DOS that can't be upgraded as the hardware is built into the machines and isn't capable of being upgraded. We protect ourselves by taking these devices off the network and programming them using either USB sticks (in the few cases that are modern enough to have a USB port) or serial ports - have you tried to find a laptop recently with a serial port??? I am told that our 1920s machine press is not likely to be at risk. Martin

I think there's a mandatory requirement for two locos. Back in 2010 one of a pair of 20s on the Willesden to Sizewell train failed on the outward run. A class 37 was brought down from Stowmarket to Ipswich and added on the front of the service to ensure that the return run that afternoon had two working locos. 20305 & 20301 newly repainted and still without DRS lettering pass BentleyTriangle at 06:45 in the morning heading for Sizewell, 20301 had failed. 37038 added to the consist departing from Sizewell at 15:20 HM Nuclear Police took an interest in me that afternoon and I received 'Stop & Identify' form in return! Martin

The Powercab makes it fairly easy, but whether you can do it depends on your juggling skills and layout design. As Johnb says, you can run two (or more) locos at once but can only control one at any point in time, the others just carry on regardless with whatever speed/direction you set them. The general process goes something like: Select loco 1 Start it moving Select loco 2 Start it moving Use the recall button to bring loco 1 back under you control Look around the layout with increasing panic to try and find loco 1 (did you put a buffer stop at the end of the siding with a sheer drop?) Wrestle it back under control to prevent a collision Remember that loco 2 is still moving, where's that got to? And so on... If you've got a double-track circuit it's not too bad and you should be able to manage it fine as long as both trains have a clear road. I use it fairly regularly on my Minories layout as I've got a long enough run to forget about departing trains for a few moments. Locos released from the buffer stops follow the train out of the platform and stop at the platform starter just as I remember them doing years ago at Norwich. We do however get the odd SPAD due to distractions! My class 08 shunter also gets used this way as it's set to have a realistic top speed and generally crawls about, although my memories of station pilots are that in reality they careered about like teenagers in hatchbacks. Martin

If you are connecting the frog to the switch output of a point motor you need to cut the wire links under the point - they make the blades and frog/crossing a single electrical unit. As you are supplying the power from the switch you don't want that feeding back to the rest of the layout through the point blades. The jumpers are to remove the risk of poor connectivity as the point blades rely on contact with the stock rails for power, no other reason form them although I always add them. You don't cut the links if you are going to feed the frog through the point blades, any use of a switch or point motor to supply it means they need to be broken. Martin