Jump to content
 

DCB

Members
  • Posts

    6,702
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by DCB

  1. Looks good. What drawing did you use? It looks pretty much like the illustration in "The Stars Castles and Kings" by O.S. Nock showing the the Hawksworth Pacific. Not too sure it was a shame they never built the Pacific, judging by recent ish you Tubes of Stanier Pacifics slipping on South Devon Banks. The proposed roller bearing Kings with streamlined steam passages would have been a better bet... Unless they upgraded Cornwall to double red and decided to run Penzance to Paddington without an engine change , like Exeter Saints and Stars used to on the West Country Postal.... Which begs the question....
  2. Last time I went some of the bridges were not wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass.
  3. That only works with Local Authorities as the tyres come from the maintenance budget which is completely spent whereas the Bentley is capital expenditure and can be taken from the capital account. Likewise the bloke to empty the ashtray is from revenue but the new car with an empty ashtray is Capital. A larger car with a larger ashtray could result in significant savings whereas an electric car with no ashtray would result in the constructive dismissal of the ashtray cleaning operative, and a series of 3 day strikes whenever the sun came out and repercussions for the ashtray cleaning team line manager who would probably go sick from the stress of having no one to manage and a pool of money he/she/they could not spend.
  4. Anyone familiar with the A 86(?) road along this route will realise how impractical and expensive such a route would be. The A 86 is a fantastic road to drive, ideally in the evening after the motor homes have pitched up for the night, but sweeping round the bends by Loch Treig at 60MPH on cruise control is great fun (Don't try it in a Skoda) (Or an evie, your battery will go flat) . The road can be seen in in Monarch of the Glen repeats as the main location, the big house if on the A86 and the line would probably pass alongside the lake (Station is Broomhill on the Strathspey maybe 60 miles North) The West Highland has genuine social benefits, the road to Mallaig is single track in places and there is only one road and no diversion route what so ever. The train is faster than the road at the Western end, and in icy weather the road must be challenging to say the least. It is a question of resources. Some lines and services can never cover their costs,let alone make a return on their capital investment. and yet serve no real social need. They are called "Commuter Networks" and their routes are duplicated by roads and public Taxi and Bus services. No body needs them. yet trains run hourly or better. Not three a day like the West Highland. Why live in Brighton and work in London. It's mad. Get a job in Brighton or work from home. Selling off the southern3rd rail network real estate for development and the infrastructure for scrap would make Millions for several MP's personal portfolios, people could work from home and we could easily fill the redundant offices with the homeless. But Popularism always wins over logic People hate change, why they would have to find hobbies and a life to replace 10 hours commuting per week. In summer 40% of Mallaig trains are steam hauled and around 75% of the passengers. So there is my plan Scrap South East commuter services, bring back steam on the main line and introduce a 3 minute interval service on the West Highland and a 3 a day in the Southeast. Redress the balance. (Damn got the date wrong, thought it was going out Monday.)
  5. Those springs look very long for Mainline. It's a long time since I had one apart but I don't remember the brush being a cylinder I thought it had a reduced diameter where the springs engaged like the Hornby ones. When you get it running I would suggest putting it on eBay quickly before the wheels fall off. Fitting pickups from frame to the back of one of the wheels each side helps and kept my 03 chassis going for the past 20 years my only surviving Mainline loco, which oddly enough replaced a Bachmann 03 chassis which the wheels fell off... ,
  6. A fence along the mainline boundary would make a big difference differentiating between mainline and heritage elements, Fencing is a legal requirement in the UK and often missing from models.
  7. Some short bridges in the sort of sub 12 foot range are remarkably thin when viewed from the side even ones on 20 on axle load lines. The trouble is with a longer span the girders needed get larger quite rapidly. If you really want minimum clearance the river Thames(?) goes under the Thames and Severn Canal near Latton by diving down an ole and coming up the other size,no real reason a river couldn't go under a railway that way.
  8. I am just glad I'm too mean to have anyone build a loco for me, I did however have a major battle with some loco kits my father in law had built by a professional model maker. There was a mis communication and an ability to pull trains was not emphasised enough and as a result the locos were really display cabinet items and when used as motive power they could not pull respectable trains and even on light duties they rapidly failed. The 47XX was not too bad, with a solid brass chassis and MW005 motor . but a 90XX and a K's 28XX body for which he had a comet chassis built with DS10 and DS11 motors were hopeless and I spent ages trying to fix them burning several motors out before sticking the 28XX chassis on eBay . Very frustrating. Anyone want an OO BR Black Cotswold 47XX? Its on eBay. Might go lined green if I get bored over Easter.
  9. York, where Leeman Road goes under several platforms en route to the NRM. Stroud Gloucestershire where the platforms extend onto a viaduct which crosses a road Nairn Scotland on the Aberdeen - Inverness line the road drops down under the platforms.
  10. Aha I found some coach wheels which may be Hornby or possibly Bachmann which push nicely on to the p[lastic axle when their own bushes were pressed out.
  11. That's not the issue, the unifrog is NON ISOLATING, ( Not power routing in PecoSpeak) something which has been just about extinct since about 1955 so you need lots of isolated sections if you want to run more than 1 DC loco. Even a pair forming a trailing crossover on an oval will mean both tracks will be live to the same controller all the time or both if isolators are not used. Electrofrog would short if one was set straight and one to cross, Insulfrog would connect both circuits if both set to cross. Best bet for DC is to cut the unifrog under side connections and connect the frog to the running rails beyond and treat it as an electrofrog. You can't really use it as a dead frog as it has no isolating mechanism
  12. I don' think it will end well. Those curves are mighty tight for flexi track. I use Peco set track for anything below 20" radius to avoid kinks appearing especially at rail ends, 75 flexi might be better, but with much RTR being on the limit on 2nd radius even when it's laid perfectly I think you are pushing your luck with running for the sake of appearance. The join will be between adjacent points and across 7 pieces of track several at an angle. 2 X 5 X2 and a 4X2 for the station would make assembly a lot easier. There is nowhere for trains to go, one goes round clockwise then the other anticlockwise and then the hand descends and changes the train. Its OK with 1960s Triang but 2000s era RTR sheds bits when treated like that. Rev Awdrey's Ffarquar (?) Branch layout had a hidden fiddle yard on a similar footprint.
  13. My coaches average under £10. Second hand. My son averages around £35 second hand. Many people think they are space limited when really they are cash / quality limited... When it comes to seven/ eight coach rakes it sort of averages out as the small lettering and details becomes less noticeable and the poor track holding abilities of newer stock becomes a pain. Then again some folks have multiples of £350 locos. I have a pile of damaged points bought for about £2 each repair damaged flexi track by swapping sleepers from short bits to make long bits and have been stock piling bits for 60 years,
  14. In my case "I like model railways and play in a Brass Band" she replied "So does my Dad." We have been married almost 39 years.
  15. Generally 3 aspect colour lights are not compatible with semaphores. UK Semaphores are 99.9% two aspect. Quite often two aspect colour lights, either two lens or single lens were quite often substituted for semaphores on a one for one basis where sighting issues or "Modernisation" made them suitable. When 3 aspects came in they were generally automatic signals controlled by track circuits normally green when semaphores are normally red and evenly spaced as the old stations where signal boxes and the old semaphore signals were located no longer existed.
  16. I am struggling with the idea of a small chunk of a 12 volt LED strip working. Most LEDs like about 2.2 volts ish So I would expect them to be wired in blocks of 5 or 6 in series to work on 12 volts or need multiples around 2.2 / 2.7 volts depending on how many you have in circuit. I would test the chunks with variable voltage supply, I use my Morley controller and a voltmeter starting at about 1 volt off load to see what voltage the start to glow at. I have a load of LEDs in buildings off a couple of 3 volt buses, many are oranges and yellows but in my colour light signals the reds need much bigger resistors than the greens , but on 3 volts the resistors run cool. You will struggle to set the house on fire with LEDs but the resistors are a different matter, I have several scorched card buildings where someone else has used LEDS on 12 volts and put the resistors in the building. The good way to start a fire is to use rechargeable batteries and short them out in the vicinity of cardboard., I haven't managed it myself but I melted a Lima class 37 body when 2 X AA batteries shorted.
  17. I spent a few minutes with set of needle files a craft knife and a photo of a photo and one of mine earlier. Not finished yet but I am quite pleased with it.
  18. I don't think any two Dapol Hornby 14XX were alike, the chassis slots spring tension, coupling rod length all varied. The chassis design is poor, What is needed is a no traction tyre chassis with leading axle drive, floating centre axle and a driven rear axle. That's what I have planned...
  19. The 'Andles is out of gauge . I chop mine off and stick clock gears on the spindles so they look a bit better but still have the play value. This is one someone shortened the handles on and this week I straightened the bent spindle leave a short stub, chopped ff the surplus with end cutters drilled out two clock gears and pressed them on.
  20. A 20 volt 2 amp supply should operate the points without a CDU. I would not use a Laptop PSU for an intermittent supply. I use them for Lights etc, but old DC transformers with 16 volt nominal AC outputs are cheap as chips and useless for speed controls. Many CDUs are pretty minimalist and could use a doubling or quadrupling of the capacitance, some are fine on 24 volts AC. but some are basically a waste of space. Mine throw 6 big H&M point motors simultaneously on a 16volt AC supply from an ancient Hammant and Morgan controller
  21. There was no link between UK platform length and train length pre about 1980 apart from terminus platforms. Obviously people need platforms to climb into and out of trains so 98% or more of the time the whole train was in a terminal platform, just occasionally another engine shunted the tail into another platform, or the tail was picked up from another platform. More often 2 coach trans left ten coach long platforms,7 trains a day used 5 platform stations or often long trains 13 coaches used 10 coach platforms by stopping to let the front coach passengers in or out and then pulling up to let the back coaches be served. Cheltenham LMS was lengthened to take 12 coaches just after the trains were shortened to 10.My local station "Chedworth" had a 180 ft platform (3 coach) and occasionally 8 coach trains were run, presumably folks were told which coaches to ride in. Platforms the correct length for trains look very Toy like or modern era Our shed is 24ft long and in 00 gauge three platforms on our through station holds 8 X Mk1 coaches plus a 4-6-0 in 00, so about 8 feet. One can hold two trains as it has a centre crossover one other takes 7 and the Bay 3 plus a small tank. The main terminus holds 7 Mk1s and a 4-6-0, which limits train length except one train has a tail load of parcels vans at the non buffer stop end. The small through station only takes 3 coaches but only stoppers stop there, My branch terminus "Ugleigh" takes 4 X 60ft coaches in its single platform. and is only 7feet long in a 7ft 9" Rabbit Hutch. Personally if I feel apart from terminus it's what looks right, real platforms are hardly ever straight, so its getting good viewing angles, in a loft full of struts put the station where you can see it. My platforms and many tracks are angled for best view but the very best views are still from camera angles no human eyeball can access. It like how long is a piece of string. (Mine is 6 feet 3 inches)
  22. I am not at all sure Smoky Joe will run on Bullhead. I would use centre off DPDT switches, and have one each for Red , Dark Blue, Light Blue and Green. so any one can be connected to either controller but not both controllers at he same time The diamond crossing does not sound like a good idea, I would avoid them and use ordinary points as live frog ones are complicated and dead frog promote stalling.
  23. Are they dirty, in which case a cotton bud will work or is the tyre tread burnt where you really need a file or an abrasive like fine emery cloth. If acceleration is an issue why not invert the loco in a cradle, and use Peco or Hornby wheel cleaning brush and scraper, just use light pressure until it gets up to speed. I usually use one with a crocodile clip to fix to the chassis and a scraper for the insulated side which lets me rub the tread with rubbing down paper. The burning comes from running on dirty track and not using a Relco, some of mine have the plating burned through.
  24. "Frog Juicer" sounds like one of those people who run migratory toads over in their Rage Rovers. Turning Live Frogs into Dead Frogs.
  25. Come to think of it my ideal layout would be a copy of an existing layout, the Sea wall scene at Pendon, with nose to tail summer Saturday passenger services
×
×
  • Create New...