thenudehamster

I built this lovely little controller from Ken Stapleton (http://www3.sympatico.ca/kstapleton3/851.HTM) before switching to DCC via MERG. Still available as a kit, it's one of the smoothest controllers I've used; excellent low speed performance, and small enough for hand-held use. You may need to figure out a way to connect it to power and to track (I used a 5-pin DIN plug and socket on the home-made transformer box...) but it's well worth the effort.

Before anyone tells me, I know that pretty well all modern UK diesels - even those built across the pond - don't technically have a 'front ' or a 'back', being equally efficient in both directions. They have an 'A' and 'B' (or no.1 and no.2) ends for maintenance identification; this I know - but DCC control of model versions needs them to be defined, so the Command Station knows which way is 'forward' and which is 'reverse' - and so do I for that matter. To make life easy for me, mine will have the 'A' (or no.1) end as 'forward' - but which end is that? Is the exhaust at the front or the back of the loco when the A end is forward? Are the two large grilles on the right-hand or left-hand side? Come to think of it, how does one tell the difference on any UK (or elsewhere, for that matter) two-cab Diesel? Or electric?

I'm not going to take up space with quoting stewartingram's list again, but taking matters a little further, I would really have liked to model actual GER days. Out of his list, most are Gresley rebuilds of GER designs, imports from the LMS (obviously Riddles influenced) or BR Standards. For all that. the Stratford section had the last 2-4-0's in service; ran the most intensive steam-hauled commuter service in history; gave the eponymous name of "Mogul" to the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement; introduced class colour-stripes on the Jazz trains to make life easier for passengers; ran some of the best continental boat trains; had oil-firing long before anyone else (admittedly to help dispose of waste oil from the carriage gas-lighting plant), and held the record for the longest steam-hauled non-stop run (Liverpool Street to North Walsham) without taking on water; and more. All this yet everyone - including BR management in the early fifties when Gerard Fiennes wanted the new Britannias for Norwich expresses - ;look upon the GER (and the Eastern section of its later successors) as nothing more than a country tramline worthy of nothng more than a passing mention in railway history. Is it just because the GER didn't have huge 100mph express Pacifics, getting world records into the press? Only one named engine? No glamour, just a hard-working, professional railway? My preference is not for the glamorous Pacifics anyway. I like the smaller engines, the ones that did all the unglamorous, but essential work that made the railway money. But, it seems. people like me aren't in a big enough majority to persuade manufacturers to make those models - so we have to suffer new models of existing types from railways everywhere else in the country. The unique Caledoinan single has been produced in more model forms than you can shake a stick at, as were the Midland singles, but Holden's equally attractive an efficient ones don't get a look in. Do I sound bitter? Damned right I am - which is what my present project is N-scale, based loosely on the Boston and Maine. At least I can get models to run on it! Bazza An even more disgusted GER fan.

Sorry, but that's a cop-out. You can easily tell from the driver's seat because modern cars (and trucks and buses) have a green light on the instrument panel which tells you that the lights are on.. Driving in the dusk/twilight without head and tail lights happens because modern instrument panels are illuminated day and night, so there's no change in their appearance as it gets dark. Drivers simply do not pay attention to what is happening in and around their cars. GM introduced automatic headlights nearly 30 years ago to alleviate this problem - we had them on a 2002 Pontiac Grand Am, and they're fitted on my 2019 model Vauxhall Crossland. If you're driving without headlights, you've only yourself to blame. It's NOT a design fault, it's driver error. Incidentally, if you think headlights on British trains are bright and distracting, have you seen what American locos look like? More lights than a fairground!

It's an interesting aside to my initial question to learn that the designed top speed of the 08's resulted in bent con-rods, while steam designs of similar power - I'm thinking of the ex-GER/LNER J69 et al - which, on 4ft drivers were known to hit 60 mph when pressed into Jazz Train service. Even the J70 trams, travelling to Stratford for service (with governors disengaged) would reach 45mph or more without trouble. And, of course, City of Truro went even faster with outside cranks, and, apparently, no damage... Or was anything untoward simply never reported? Bazza

Thanks to all who took the trouble to reply. I suspected that 'taking the easy way out' might have been the manufacturers' choice, but not being too well informed of diesel designs, I thought it wouldn't harm to ask. Incidentally, it seems that the current Farish by Bachmann N-gauge model does have outside cranks and frames. Thanks again Bazza

I suspect that this may have had something to do with distinguishing long-distance or express trains from local or commuters. On the old GER lines, suburban electrics were green, loco-hauled expresses had corporate BR colours (remember 'blood and custard' coaches?), then the later Clacton expresses had the 'jaffa-cake' orange and brown. SWT, before the change to SWR, operated a similar policy; they had basically white long-distance (for them!) expresses, blue for outer suburbans, and red for inner suburban. Incidentally, those of us on the ex-GER main lines had steam withdrawn for local services in 1949, though we got Britannias for the Norwich expresses before anywhere else. However for a kid growing up in the mid fifties to early sixties, variety was all around. Green 1500v DC electrics (slammers and sliders), Britannias and B1's, occasional J15's, and more, then Type 4 1-Co-Co-1 English Electrics (TOPS 44? not too up on the reclassification), Type 2 Brush A1A-A1A (31's) North British (Class15?) freight diesels, and a couple of Railbuses at Romford - then in the sixties after the 25Kv conversion, the 'jaffa-cake' Clacton electrics. Penalty of that? No models of the electrics or the NBL diesels, and only in the last couple of years a J15. Why don't i model that era? What with?

Forgive me if this seems the wrong forum, but it concerns prototype design, not just models. I've always had a soft spot for any coupled loco with outside cranks, so the Class 08 shunters are one of the few diesels with 'character' (IMHO - to save arguments).However, when browsing models on a certain well-known auction site, I've noticed that several models, in both 4mm and 2mm scales, and from various manufacturers, differ from what seems tot be the 'standard' prototype design of springs outside the wheels and outside cranks. Some models appear to have inside springing and connecting rods directly onto the wheels. Despite perusing various 'prototype' sites, I can't find any definitive evidence of the presence - or absence - of, or even reference to - this configuration. So - were there any 08 shunters built with inside springs and wheel-mounted con-rods, or were they all outside cranked, and the model manufacturers taking a cheap and cheerful attitude to prototpyical accuracy and hoping we wouldn't notice? Regards Bazza