TheGunslinger

I pondered on the subject and decided that it defeated some of the S&W's appeal. The current kit is a flat etch of up to 32 couplings with some magnets and wire, which makes it very cost effective to buy and post. The overall setup is incredibly simple which means whilst there is some difficulty in preparing sufficient area to mount the coupling, the design itself can be adapted to fit nearly any item of stock. Which isn't to say it couldn't be done; the counterweight could be replaced with a tiny spring (Kadee have already demonstrated such setups can be reliable) and the entire thing made from plastic with a NEM clip on the end, easy sleazy. At that point though you basically have a slightly finer tension lock which would probably have the same obtrusive plastic loop arrangement unless manufacturers agreed to stick with fine gauge metal wire, and we can chase this rabbit down the hole discussing why don't we just replace the loops on the current OO tension locks with fine wire and so on and so forth... Anyway, as The Johnster mentioned, nobody can agree on what height a NEM pocket it supposed to be at, and proper height alignment is a critical aspect of S&W couplings.

I could argue this point vehemently with you but this isn't the place for it, but suffice to say that nearly half the time an aftermarket part will be better. Hondas have hilarious whiplash with this, for example. My motorcycle's aftermarket fork seals are junk but so is the genuine drive chain! You are right that a "genuine" part will be made to the company's standards, but there is nothing to say those standards aren't utter crap. Despite it's claim of superior German engineering, the Ford Fiesta has woeful plastics and electronics that eat themselves, because the standards for parts materials were kept cheap and loose. Citroen have been plagued with the same issue for the better part of a decade, especially with their diesel components. In many cases someone seizes the opportunity, and offers a better part that still comes out cheaper because it doesn't have the brand-name mark up. I can also cite situations where no-name brands are produced literally from excess part stock of big brands. There's an off-brand make of power tools that are literally Ryobi tools without the brand stickers. Great Wall Motors started off as a Mitsubishi at heart, produced in the same factory, and "Mitsubishi" could be found cast into some of the components!

We literally just had duplicate posts about a guy trying to sell a 90% empty etched fret while feigning ignorance on how (in)complete the item was. I'd agree that the majority of listings are simple ignorance or petty greed, but make no mistake there are some slimy operators about.

If you are seriously debating whether people engage in shenanigans with multiple accounts, on an 850 page thread dedicated to the shonky nonsense ebay sellers get up to, I'd have to wonder if you'd recently hit your head...

Wait and see if it pops up on his page for 200...

As an aside, that's a really nice kit. I'm tempted to bid despite modelling south Wales (Rule 1 and all) but I won't be surprised if someone slaps down a bid for 5p less than a full kit brand new from DJH.

I have the instructions for the Toplight third, brake third and composite.

Might you be thinking of this?

There's a few of the older Spectrum ones going for cheap, if you're willing to risk needing to rebuild the motor bogies after the gears strip... Personally I'd bite the bullet and find a seller in the US that has a large assortment and buy as much as you need in one transaction to get the most out of combined shipping. I basically do exactly the same thing with UK sellers.

I would totally understand if it were a case of breaking down a damaged/faulty locomotive for parts or a shell that came off a defective mechanism, and there was a profit margin on the parts that made the sum price more than the whole, but in the case I posted they are literally taking a functional locomotive, popping the shell off and selling both parts with individual price tags greater than the reasonable price for a whole locomotive! £35 is pushing it for the price of a second hand Mainline/Replica 57xx, and he wants that much for just the chassis! By pure luck I stumbled across a bulk lot of 57xx chassis parts, with nearly ten locomotives' worth of spares that I can go completely buck wild with, but that took a lot of time and effort and patience to nab, and I was fortunate enough to have the money to fork out on bulk rather than wait around for a reasonable price for just one chassis. It irritates me because 1) they have a multitude of spares they'd rather let rot on a shelf than budge on the price, which leads me back to going overbudget buying complete locomotives because they're still cheaper than the overpriced spares, 2) it encourages copycats and shylocks to raise their own prices regardless of what people are willing to pay, and inevitably some moron takes the bait and suddenly their greed is vindicated; "the market has spoken" they'll say with puffed chest. What annoys me most is that it is apparently working as I'm seeing more and more listings with that hideous green curtain!

The problem is too many UK sellers only specify domestic shipping and say "Contact me for international shipping price", which banishes them to the bottom of the pile and gives priority to schmucks like this because they bothered plugging in some arbitrary parcel data into EBay's shipping quote system. Sorting by cheapest price (sans shipping) opens another can of worms that you're now dealing with "cheap" items with exorbitant shipping! That said it may still be preferable to sift through the results that way

I don't know if this jerk has been named and shamed but I feel like Gostude has inspired some other shylocks. https://www.ebay.com/itm/MAINLINE-GWR-57XX-PANNIER-TANK-LOCO-CHASSIS-ONLY-No-1/142598914271 Pretty much his entire "store" consists of mediocre 2nd hand locos that he pulls the shell off, and sells the shell and frame individually for more than a fair price for a complete locomotive! I see modelling blogs that mention getting old Mainline 57xx shells for a tenner and split chassis for less than twenty and then this guy keeps finding his way to the top of my search results and my blood boils.

Behind the Curtains of Night - Dimmu Borgir

The logic is sound, however people seriously underestimate the power of their radiator fan, and the fact that their entire radiator is engineered as a big scoop to let things flow in. If the fan is running (or the water shorts the contacts on your thermostat!) it throws water everywhere into the engine compartment, causing all kinds of mayhem. For instance, water in the spark plug chambers can cause a short between the terminal and the block, bypassing the cylinder and stopping you dead in your tracks. More throttle makes the problem worse as the increased resistance across the electrode increases the amount of current flowing through the short. If the water is deep enough to reach your radiator, you may think the bow wave is the water moving out of the way, but a significant amount will still be flowing into the engine bay.

"She's right mate, it's a 4WD!"

Without the "Road Closed" sign you just know some pillock is going to try it and get stuck.

So how does Australia as a nation come to terms with our embarrassment of a cricket team? By mercilessly taking the p*ss, of course.

Oh, if only! I'm surprised Wizards et all haven't commissioned a version as I'm sure there's a market. Something like an injection moulded baseplate with NEM fitting and sprung plastic hook (much like modern T/Ls) with a fine wire drawbar. At that point you're basically making a finescale T/L by another name but RTR manufacturers seem to be set on keeping things "chunky" which is a big negative aspect for modelers. Unfortunately that's a tradeoff that the modeller has to make; Kadees are so easy to fit and work nigh flawlessly, and for American layouts I absolutely adore them, but for English prototypes it sticks out like a bulldogs ######. S&W couplings are, as you accurately surmised, a lot of faffing around, especially because the design itself is very simplistic. Rather than a proper axle to pivot the coupling on we have the "staple" hinge design, and a large counterweight rather than a spring. There's potential for leaps and bounds in improving the S&W coupling, but part of the beauty of the current iteration is that it's just an etched fret, some magnetic chain links and some fine gauge wire, which makes it extremely cost effective for both the retailer and the consumer. Part of what sold me on S&W couplings is that I can buy a big fret of 32 couplings for not a lot of money. I feel like people have "forgotten" that the original intended S&W drawbar was a "staple" shape set to a predetermined length from the drawbar, rather than a long bar across the buffers (which is more obtrusive but discovered to be much easier to install). Regarding buffer lock, I recall an ancient guide that recommended reaming out the hinge holes slightly to enable a bit of lateral motion on the hook which helps with tight corners and close coupling. Or you can be a crazy person like me and replace fully half your buffers with sprung units

That look better, are easier to magnetise and allowed delayed uncoupling for shunting... For "hands free" operation I feel they're the clear winner for English prototypes.

The rules were more in regard to speed limits and proportions of fitted and unfitted stock. If you had a few unfitted wagons tacked on the end of a vacuum fitted train you could still run at higher freight speeds, and you could have a few more if you had a brake wagon, but they tended to play it safe with trains and just consider the whole train as unfitted. Each railway had their own specific rules.

Code 100 track is fine to be honest. For the detail oriented modeler finer scale track looks better, but Code 100 is popular because it's extremely forgiving of uneven track bed and raggedy old locos. You'll frequently find even high detail layouts will use Code 100 track in hidden and hard to reach areas like tunnels and elevated track, just for the improved running conditions and lower chance of derailing. Code 83 is your happy medium, and is the popular "fine scale" for American prototypes, since in many cases even the older Rivarossi locos with pizza cutter wheels will still run on it.

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that Bachmann white box locos are OK. Nothing stellar but compared to contemporary offerings from Hornby and Lima they are decent. Their Achilles heel were the nylon gears in the drive train, which were prone to cracking/splitting and causing no end of headaches, much like the early Branchline stuff. Support on the US side of things is much stronger though, and depending on the locomotive Bachmann offer replacement gears made from a higher quality nylon, and in some cases metal gearsets. Spectrum locomotives are personal favourites of mine, they have excellent levels of detail and great running properties. The older 'black box' Spectrum locos have the same weakness of splitting gears. I still adore them.

Coal is another good example of this. On coal branch lines especially the stock will be 99% the owning railroad, with the occasional outside hopper perhaps on lease to cover shortages or a handful of cars may be regularly sent off abroad and thus cars from the destination railroad are preferred, rather than sending your own stock away and potentially never seeing it again!

My bad, I work in aluminium extrusion so someone says they want a "U shape" I immediately assume they mean square channel.

As mentioned, scoring the inside edges of your folds drastically improves the ease of bending, and also helps form a "sharper" corner on the outer edge. Don't be afraid to remove a fair bit of material; there's a decent margin of forgiveness before you've removed too much and risk cracking the brass along the fold. Triangle files are perfect for making bend-friendly scores. After the fact you can come back and run some solder along the inside seam to strengthen it and file it to a nice square edge.