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lankylad

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  1. Son of a biscuit-eater! After the pre-Christmas tidy-up, can I find the parts for the "problem" class loco?!? Meanwhile I put some "Quik steel" in the tender chassis of "Lion", thinking to mount a tension-lock coupling, but it was too low, so I went back to the old idea of a bar across the buffers. So far, not so bad... but then there was a mystery short-circuit. It took ages to trace it: the screws holding the chassis together were coming out and touching the backs of the driving wheels... They've been fixed back in with superglue, so I hope I never need to change the motor... and Lion is a runner again: though frankly I find the wheels need constant cleaning. Oh well...
  2. The tender has received a light dusting of Halford's etch primer and the spud bogie has been temporarily located. I need a 4BA brass washer but wouldn't you know, that's the one size I've run out of. However, the good news is that with the tender in place, the spud can propel the loco chassis. The bad news is that the loco chassis repeatedly derails on curves. Time to check whether the wheels are in gauge and whether I need to increase the amount of play in the axle boxes. Check twice, cut once...
  3. Thanks, Pete! 1 metre of chain duly ordered Regards, Phil.
  4. Does anyone know of a source of oval/elliptical link chain, 4 links per inch? Thanks in advance.
  5. The bearing eventually stayed put and was opened out with the broach. It was surprisingly easy to fit the driving wheels even with the footplate in place and with some patient tweaking with the hand drill the leading and trailing axle bearings have been teased so that all the wheels sit on the track. So far, so good; to coin a phrase. The chassis is quite free-running even before lubrication: but the spud bogie won't shift it. No great worries yet: the spud is very light in weight, so with the tender on top it will have more traction. And there's always Plan B...
  6. A K's cast white metal kit for LNWR 'Problem' class 2-2-2 "Lady of the Lake". Retrieved from the fabled Round Tuit box and still on the vacuum-packed cards. Silly me, I've fixed the footplate before fitting the driving wheels, so this is going to be fun. One of the bearings still needs opening up with the broach, but has twice come unglued from the chassis. The tender is going together slowly: I'm fitting a Tenshodo spud bogie with about the right wheel spacing. The wheels themselves are a bit undersized, but once the bogie is in place the tender sits level. Whether it will have the oomph to move anything more than the loco and tender is something I'll find out later. The boiler was squashed in storage - or perhaps before - but lucky me, I found a length of dowel which is a good fit inside, so it's been possible to tweak the metal back into shape. The marks left by the pliers can be removed later.
  7. Does anyone know of a good source with a wide range of modelling chain? I'm looking in particular for an oval-link chain with links 1/4" long x 1/8" wide (6.3mm x 3.2mm). Thanks in advance.
  8. I like the Skipton show, so I was pleased to be invited to take Leighmoor Bois there this year. Bearing in mind that Hornby-Dublo went out of production in 1964, you can always expect problems but there were only a few. Those blasted speed bumps and potholes had the stacker boxes bouncing around in the trailer to such an extent that they caught on the baseboard edges. Fortunately the trains still ran. One of the fiddle yard roads sprang a short circuit which wasn't there when I tested the layout on Thursday. and the Silver Jubilee set, which ran fine on Friday night and Saturday morning, then decided not to co-operate. On the other hand I was able to run a "Monster" of ~25 tank wagons behind a type 1 bo-bo with not a single breakaway, thanks to the neo magnets between the couplings. "Clan Gunn" in her fabled tartan livery made her début at the head of six ER blood & custards, and even my Dorchester ran properly. The TPO with its big red button was popular with the youngsters, and I was assisted by Garry Hall, Richard Walker and Graham Roberts. Being Dublo, sometimes all three circuits ran themselves and I could stand around doing my Joe Cool impersonation and at other times all three circuits simultaneously threw wobblers... That's 3-rail! Now there's just over a week to the next show, 2nd & 3rd of September, at Leigh in Greater Manchester. (Usual shameless plug.)
  9. My Hornby-Dublo 3-rail layout at the Woodvale Rally last weekend. 12' x 6', seven baseboards, three of them scenic. Hornby-Dublo track throughout, with some cutting and splicing: rod-and-tube across most baseboard joins. Almost entirely Hornby-Dublo stock, with several repaints and nevershuddas. Buildings mostly Metcalfe, with some Superquick. The Woodvale Rally is now at Victoria Park, Southport; a smaller site but superior facilities. The ground is still wet and uneven, though.
  10. lankylad

    power supply

    With the entire layout rotating, there was the problem of how to transfer power from the static baseboard to the revolving track. The technical term for this sort of set-up is "slip rings". I call it a bodge job. Looking for a cheapo way of doing this made me think of cake bases. Phoning round local wedding party organisers drew a blank until one of them mentioned her supplier: a shop only a couple of miles away. I bought two 18" wedding cake bases, stuck masking tape around the edges and then copperfoil tape on top. The cake bases were glued to the layout, and wires from the track were soldered - as delicately as I could manage - to the copperfoil tape. Power from the transformer goes to two sets of wipers on a post; these then wipe along the copperfoil tape et voilà! Le travail, c'est un bon un!
  11. Finding a way to motorise the Lazy Susan was harder than I'd expected. Places like Halfords and auto repair shops no longer carry stocks of spares: their efficiency is my delay. I found toothed belts at a local lawnmower shop. The pancake-style motor came from a model railway exhibition. The spring... I had trouble finding a spring until I tried a real hardware shop where the owner said: "How many do you want?" Using a strip of Meccano did give me a certain satisfaction. Unfortunately the motor isn't beefy enough. Uppards, anyroad!
  12. Although working the layout from the front makes it easier to talk with the public, it also means that you can be more easily distracted and can also obstruct their view. Will Grime Street appear at Manchester?
  13. Regrettably I wasn't able to find a pair of Lederhosen with a 72" waist. But the layout does come with a Noch sound system with cow bells.
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