jonhall

from a photocopy of the SNCF society journal #108 (Dec 02), Andy Hart did a brief run down on the type. The Airfix seems to be a UIC-ORE type 1 (funny that -that's what the Airfix decal sheet says! ) - strictly continental loading guage, there is a drawing 6600mm w/b, 11740 over buffers, 3920 from rail head to top of roof. Numbers 525000-019 (built Brugeoise & Nivelles 1956) had internal meat rails, and 525100-499 (built Cadoux 1957/8 ) didn't. Andy Hart suggests that there were multiple country registrations. l'Obsidienne do etched N/S railings/ladders, and Andy Hart does 3 types of transfers - two STEF types, and a late design of INTER FRIGO with the stylised snowflake - I have his contact details and a more up to date list of his transfers if anyone wants it. Jon

Nice idea, shame it dosn't bloody work the bluepoint mechs should in theory only need about 5mm throw, which handily is about what the scalefour society leverframe provides. Unfortunately they take so much force to get over center that with the slop in the pushrods you cant throw one without having nearer 10mm movement at the lever end. Having extended the bottom of the s4 lever to get that much, I can now just about get one to throw, but the co-acting pairs have so much resistance I'm bending the brass tube in the leverframe rather than getting both points to reliably go over center. I'm trying to decide if I need to go to 1 lever per point, or cut my losses and chuck the blue points in the bin and get a handfull of tortoise. I'm feeling very disenchanted right now! Jon

So this is the Scalefour Society lever frame, in its 'stored' position it just about fits without protruding beyond the backscene at the outer end - the reason thats important is so that the baseboard can be laid on the backscene if reqired. The intent is that there will be a spar that crosses the back, more or less where the ruler is in this photo. Obviously there is no room for fingers to get behind the lever to operate them with the frame in this position. Here the frame is in the operational position. it only has to move about an inch. This is whats going on underneath, the two photos show the stored and operational positions. The final conections between rods and levers have not yet been made, they will probably happen a bit lower down, but its better to have too much and trim back again, than cut them too short! Jon

Hamworthy has been a bit moribund over the last few months, I've been reluctant to install the point rodding until we have a lever frame to work it from, and are certain whether we need a pull, or a push for activation. Until the point rodding is laid out we won't really know where the wiring to switch the frog polarity needs to go, and without all that we won't know which areas underneath are available to add bracing between baseboard and legs. Fortunately at Railwells I acquired the requisite lever frame (well one of the two required) from the Scalefour Society stores, and over last week I've built it. After Sunday nights club meeting I brought the baseboard home to have a concentrated session setting all of the rodding runs, the results of my efforts you see here. All of the points are attached to 'bluepoint' mechanical actuators, and then model aircraft polyethylene wire-in-tube and a few cranks have coupled them all up. The lever frame will sit in the arc of the backscene so that it doesn't protrude too far, however this won't give enough finger room to pull the levers, so it will sit on a subframe that can be slid about an inch away from the backscene. The only way I can achieve that is by using the flexible tubing, which can flex to accommodate that movement (just like the brakes on a bicycle the actuation only requires a differential movement between inner rod and outer sleeve). There are 5 turnouts on this board, two form a crossover (1 lever), two more are a point/trap pair, that will also co-act with a single tortoise on the neighbouring baseboard (1 lever), and there is a single point giving the coice between two sidings (1 lever) this leaves me two spare, which will probably control the isolation on the main running lines through the station. The second board has a similar number of points to control, but I haven't calculated which will share a lever. Why mechanical actuation? two reasons, firstly HCMRS's track record with electricity is truely dreadful. Secondly the prototype is still controlled by levers from the signalbox on platform 2, so it seemed appropriate. Jon

I'm always interested in anything that might show things from the 'railway' side, eg the back of the signal box, which you can't see from the public areas of the station (I'm aware of Mark Jamieson's fotopic site http://www.mark-jamieson.fotopic.net/c1458662.html ) That omision wasn't entirely accidental, we have found that people see hand built track and make an assumption that isn't right. My view is that if you hgave to ask, why would it matter. although I'm sure those who are practicing in EM/P4 are more likely to notice.. Thanls Paul, that's a great connection, which will make posting progress on RMweb worthwhile! Jon

The baseboards were a bit of a challenge, they took 18months of sporadic activity to get sorted out, and we have only just started to think about finishing the job with 3 fiddleyards. The Wessex will be my third (and I have all the bits for a fourth) the existing pair will each get a partner so I can either run a 10 car set (but not on Hamworthy) or pass two identical sets on the layout. Here are No's 1 and 2 We could of course have straightened it all out, but it would have lost all the character, despite appearances, it is of course, in model railway terms, almost straight, the tightest curvature is 2.5m radius around the back of the platforms, the mainline is >5m radius going up to about 10m as it reaches the Weymouth end! I'm going to have a go at the Powell Duffrin coil hoods, but not just yet. As well as the Hamworthy Cardif Tidal steel traffic there was also a weekly speedlink that did, Eastleigh>Hamworthy Goods (collect or deliver steel)(rr)> Poole yard(rr) > Furzebrook (clay tigers)(rr) > Wareham(rr)> Wool (MOD traffic, later fertiliser)(rr)>Eastleigh. The gas tanks might only be a short rake as we won't have very long fiddleyards, which probably also rules out the cross country's. There was also a variety of nuclear flask traffic to and from Winfrith, I understand that they tested the flasks there, so almost any type of flask wagon could appear on the service. Sadly there isn't enough room at the London end to get the bridges in, and the embankment isn't quite high enough, we have had to compress that end quite a lot. For a station with platforms only barely long enough to fit a 5 car Wessex, the total length of layout is huge! Jon

You could do, and we did once take one of the other layouts out that way, but you do carry quite a lot of dead weight around, and I dread to think what would happen if it started to move whilst on the tail lift! The case is actually significantly over-engineered, it should have only been 1/2" ply, but due to a breakdown in comunications it ended up in 1 inch ply - it weighs far too much. Our other boxes tend to be a wooden frame with only a thin ply skin. Most of the station is still the same, the biggest problem is the cement terminal just off the branch, that's now gone, and there are only a couple of photo's in the published books (oakwoods rails Around Pooole Harbour, and the Middleton Press Bournemouth to Weymouth). After the cement terminal closed, it was briefly used by a group who were restoring an ex-Turkish 8F and an LMS diesel shunter, I hope to find a photo of one of these that has the details that we need shown in the background... Jon

I don't think I've posted progress on Hamworthy before - certainly not on this version of RMweb. Hamworthy is Hampton Court MRS's new finescale layout. It is prototype location, Hamworthy, and the trackplan is as it was shortly after it's electrification as part of the Wessex Electric scheme in 1987/88. We have had to shorten some of the sidings at both ends, but the curvature is pretty much as the prototype. The first two photo's are from a couple of years ago, they show the baseboard shape quite well In this view we are looking toward Poole, Bournemouth and London. And from the oposite end, towards Hamworthy Goods (top left) and Weymouth (top right) These next photos show the current extent of work. Showing the platforms under construction. The Wessex electric is Hurst ends on Jouef mkIII's and it's being used to gauge the platforms. The embankment that is emerging from the front of the layout is the remains of the original line, that came into Hamworthy from 'Castlemans corkscrew' and which joined with the S&D line at Broadstone. The view towards London, showing the construction of the platforms. This is hopw the layout is stored between club meetings, packed face to face, and in a wooden crate. There are a few more photos at http://www.metropolitanrailway.co.uk/hamworthy.html Hampton Court MRS meets every Sunday evening between 8pm and 10.30 at the Tolworth Recreation Centre, Fullers Way North, Tolworth. If any RMwebber wants a look in the flesh, you are more than welcome to come along one Sunday. We are always open to new members, and with a few more active, progress would be a lot quicker! Jon

Merfyn, I think you mean RoxLey models, Roxey (no L ) do lots of 4mm kits, but mostly etched brass coaches! Jon

I'll be resin casting more crew bus bodies at St Albans this weekend.

I poped into the 4D modelshop the other day and noticed these http://www.modelshop.co.uk/product/1%3A100_chair_basic_Pk6_MU21012# whilst peering at their architectural parts, they might be a bit small, but would do the job, and would be a consistent size. They do a much larger pack as well. Jon

Bare Jouef polybulk castings used to be available from 'Southern Model Railways, I've used these to scratchbuild two Polybulks and two grainflows, although neither are actually finished. The Grainflow was written up in DEMU's Update magazine. The attached photo should give an idea of relative lengths, top to bottom Grainflow, Polybulk, Jouef polybulk. Jon

Looking good!

I think these must be newly loaded, as I don't remember seeing them before (although the search function is so poor...) http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10546895&wwwflag=2&imagepos=36 http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10546894 Jon

John Peck, but I rather suspect he regreted doing it, and isn't expecting to sell any more. jon

:icon_clap: Very nice indeed. I've had my custom transfers for the Tcefs back, it will go in the club showcase at Tolworth Showtrain next weekend, then into hiding until it appears in print in DEMU's Update mag... still need to write that bit.... then I'll post some pictures. Jon

I think that most people who care about such things, won't have actually bought one, so suggestions might be thin on the ground. I haven't yet seen one in the flesh, so I haven't yet made my mind up whether the body is redeamable if Dapol were to do the bogies properly. This crop from the Bachmann website shows their MBA brake gear, where Dapol seem to have 4 flat bars that run from side to side, Bachmann have the control levers for the air brake distributer. Bachmann seem to be including all of the plumbing down there as well. The body is much harder to tell from photographs, the top rail where the sides meet the ends seems to have been muddled, it should look lile a hinge (anyone know why the MBA/JNA are built like that?) should be easy to fix. The flange should be easy enough to add to the bottom ribs, although quite tedious to do, at least the paint match won't be critical if it's in shaddow. The big area of concerm for me, is the fabricated plates at the bottom of the ribs (circled on the Bachmann), the photo's of the Dapol don't seem to have captured that very well - which is why I'm waiting to see it in the flesh. Jon

Nick, I think youve rather missed Arran's point, there are a number of Ltd editions out there that REQUIRE a decent level of pre-order before they get the go ahead (e.g. the Hornby mag Stove R and the container flat that I believe Arran is involved with). Pre-orders will effectively provide a bridging loan to the developers, but to get to minimum numbers, they need both the 'finescale' and 'its my trainset' buyers. If Dapol's half baked releases put the 'finescale' people off 'investing' in the new vehicle until after it's been produced, how many new projects won't get to minimum numbers and therefore never happen at all? Jon

I see the new Hornby Railroad YGB Sealion is out http://www.newmodellersshop.co.uk/images/Trains/wagons/r6372-ews-lwb-open-wagon.jpg Might not be perfectly accurate, but as always, when run in a train from a few feet away* it really looks the part. Hornby should be commended for supporting the modern modeller. Jon *eighty or so.

What wheelbase is required? I got so fed up of the bogies for the Cambrian Sealion, that I did my own etch, but that's for the cast type, not platebacks. Jon

The KTA is quite nice, I have minor quibbles with the ferry rams horns and handbrake wheel being too big, but I assume that's to make them more robust, and I can easily do something about that, and the bogies don't seem quite right, but overall not bad. The FEA as produced is very nice indeed, but it was heading for disaster at one point, to their credit Dapol did respond to the critisism and made changes before production. The silver bullet isn't out yet, so I'm not sure it's really a good example, the test shots look like a really nice body, although I wait and see what the bogies, buffers and platforms end up looking like. The Grampus, nice body shame about the chassis. All of these models have good parts, the problem is they have all had bad parts as well, Dapol always seem rush the job. A certain Telfordian seemed to think that getting it right didn't cost more than getting it wrong, I know that's not right, getting it right does cost more and take longer. Dapol seem to be getting to 90% and then stopping, I don't expect them to get to 99.999% because at some point you do have a diminishing return on effort, but they need to get nearer to 99% before they stop. Someone has suggested that the Bachmann one will be about three quid more, and not out until next year, well that sound about right, 15% more effort to get a product thats a lot better seems a pretty good deal to me. Jon

Unfortunately I'm begining to believe that NOT having further releases from Dapol might actually be a good thing. It looks like we arn't going to see an MCA/MDA from Bachmann because Dapol is already in the market, and presumably Bachmann believes potential sales will be reduced, so what else could they 'block' by being first with a poor attempt. The problem is we are no longer in that era, what was acceptable when that model was brought out 40+ years ago, wasn't acceptable 20 years ago, and certainly isn't now. Why should we cut Dapol some slack, they want our hard earned money, and therefore I expect them to have earnt it. Bachmann have shown pre-production shots of their equivilent wagon, which seem to show that it can be done right. Jon

Further to my previous negative reply... when I said no, obviously I actually meant yes, but I don't remember doing so... :icon_redface: turns out i built the master soon after measuring one, but didn't bother casting any as you can't get the bogies.... :icon_frustrated: Jon

But they do look like an MBA, rather than a characature of one, so I think it would be worth the wait. jon

No, but I have measured one, and I know I can cast that size of wagon because I've done MBA and cut down, but I can't see the MBA mould ever being filled again, but at least the batch of 5 MCA/MDA's that I had finished were sold just before the rash of new RTR's was announced (a rare example of good timing....) Watch out for anouncements about RTR inter-war Belgian ferry wagons, then I'll have proof... or maybe not. Jon