Tallpaul69

Saturday at 16:11

On 19/04/2024 at 16:27, Nick Gough said:

Easter weekend we visited our local Heritage line - the Northampton & Lamport:

This was the former double tracked line between Northampton and Market Harborough. Most of the route was converted into a public footpath and cycleway - the Brampton Valley Way, but this has left enough room for a single line alongside. So you can follow the railway from end to end:

This coincided with the opening of their southern extension and new station at Boughton:

Making the railway up to 1 1/2 miles in length.

They have two GWR locos on site, 5967 Bickmarsh Hall and 2884 class 3862, though both are still in the early stages of lengthy restorations.

We had our young grandaughter for a couple of days, in the school holidays, last week. So I decided it was an appropriate time to introduce her to the Leighton Buzzard Railway:

Glad you enjoyed your visit to Leighton Buzzard.

April 17

Good Evening everyone,

With Easter having come and gone, we are a bit nearer returning to normal, but there are still a number of things to sort before we can move on.

On the plus side, we managed the first day out for ourselves yesterday. Aylesbury is easy to get to on public transport and one of our favourite towns to visit, so we thought it a good choice for a first trip of the year. We had a good day, there were a few showers, but we managed to avoid them.

However, on the minus side, when we went to our favourite café for morning coffees and slices of their glorious cakes, we found that the lady who had run it for many years had retired before Christmas, and that it had "had a makeover".

The coffee was up to standard but oh dear, the cake! Choice, quality and price had all gone the wrong way, and the new manager's story that there would be a new set made tomorrow didn't help. So next visit we will sample the other non chain establishment.

On the railway front, I have a stack of jobs to attend to, hopefully tomorrow I will get to compile a list!

Hopefully too, I will get the time to post a regular report in the coming weeks.

Best regards to you all,

Take care,

Paul

March 26

On 25/03/2024 at 17:32, WCML100 said:

We are also looking at getting the signal box custom built along with the semaphores required for the layout. These are key points to really setting this location so we are keen to get these as accurate as possible. If any of you know anyone who can help with these please do let us know.

Hi There,

Stephen Freeman (who has a topic here on RMWeb), is a specialist in signal construction. He made the GWR signals for my GW&GC layout, and I can highly recommend him.

Don't know about signal boxes, but Stephen may know someone?

Cheers

Paul

March 23

Hi Folks,

Apologies for the "Radio Silence",

Things have been a bit tricky for us in the last couple of weeks and still will be for a while yet, which is why I have not posted recently!

We have been busy supporting my brother in law who although coming up to his 89th birthday, has lived on his own just outside Northampton, with some support from us, his only relatives, and friends local to him.

Unfortunately his health has deteriorated and he has been in and out of hospital and his mobility is now poor. So we have been up there sometimes at short notice to support him. We are currently trying to find him home help that he will accept. Up till now he has resisted such a move, and to be fair, a month ago we did not think it necessary.

Hopefully he will improve in the next couple of weeks and we can find someone as a home help that he can get along with.

So I think it will be after Easter before we are back to normal, and I will then update you further, and hopefully be in a position to give railway matters some attention.

Best regards

Paul

March 22

1 hour ago, amdaley said:

I was reading through this thread today & I was wondering did you ever get sorted with a system ?

Tony.

Hi Tony, for various reasons, mainly outside the railway, that I won't bore you with, this problem has been parked for some time while other matters are resolved. I hope to get back to railway matters after Easter.

Cheers

Paul

March 8

Good evening everyone,

I am trying to decide appropriate liveries for Freightliner containers for my GW&GC line model set in 1990-2. Did substantial numbers of the containers carry the original red and grey livery until that period? If not what livery were they in then?

Many thanks

Paul

February 29

6 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

I would suspect the passcode should be supplied with the loco (as the chip is factory fitted) is there nothing in the loco documentation?

Thanks, I cant find anything.

In the "Bad old Days" each Hornby loco instruction leaflet used to have stamped on the top front, the locos R number followed by the sequential identification number for the individual loco.

Off course, I understand such an approach is far to "low Tech" for the current era, but didn't it make the customers life easy if there was a query?

Never mind, thanks for responding quickly,

Paul

February 29

Hi All,

I have got stuck with getting the HM7000 app to work.

It is installed fine on my I phone. The screen seems to be showing as described in the leaflet supplied with my new Loco with a HM7000 factory fitted chip.

When I run the scan, In the "Ready to Link" box I get one item under "Resettable Devices" with the identification "HM7000_C9F1" and 15 items under "Unfiltered devices" , mostly with the label "Name N?A but including one I can identify as our television!

Concentrating on the "HM7000_C9F1" item under the heading it shows "Reset device>". I f I click on this I get a box which says "Reset Passcode" "To reset this device please enter the reset passcode. This can be found on the device manager screen. If you have lost this please contact Hornby Support". Below this is a box with a flashing curser (For the passcode to be entered?). there are also cancel and ok buttons.

My problems

1) I have no idea which device this is. I have three locos with HM7000 chips in, is it one of those? none are currently on a track or powered.

2) I have no idea where the Device Manager Screen is or how I access it.

Can someone please help me, preferably in plain English not techispeak!

I have gone through the HM manual all 166 pages of it, but cannot find anything to help!

Many thanks

Paul

Many thanks

February 22

Afternoon All,

Greetings from a (once again!) wet and soggy south Bedfordshire.

No venturing to the railway room today, which is a pity as it is the first day since they arrived that I have time free to ~~play with~~ set up and test run my first Hornby 7000 fitted diesels.

Also, my BR liveried Toplights arrived today. Have yet to open and inspect them, but am expecting a real treat!

my first Hornby 7000 fitted diesels to

I have committed to a 3D printed 12 ton Rail mounted Diesel crane. It looks splendid, and hopefully my mate Malcolm can do the works on assembly and weathering.

I am also debating upgrading my Bachmann Classes 31 and 69 orders to SFX specification to give the new DCC uncouplers a go.

Cheers,

Paul

February 22

Afternoon All,

My BR liveried Toplights arrived today. Have yet to open and inspect them, but am expecting a real treat!

Cheers,

Paul

February 8

12 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

I’d completely forgotten about the Dapol Autocoach (how embarrassing)

That makes two of us!

February 8

6 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

.................and a 14xx complete with a fully detailed Auto coach, pretty please with bells on

You want the bell to ring??

February 8

24 minutes ago, robertcwp said:

No! The 27 Peaks cover the various time periods that my layout can run it, so there are usually at most 7 or 8 out at once. I have never seen all 27 together.

Glad I am not the only one running their layout in multiple eras although my dates ate a little wider spaced being 1962ish, 1992ish, 2006ish, and 2019ish.

I say -ish because I do tend under Rule 1 to allow items I like from a year or two each side of the date. So just this week, after being fairly strict on the 2019 date, I have pre-ordered 69001, which of course is a 2021 product!

Yes, I know the infrastructure and areas outside the railway fence (and the fence itself!) have altered from 1962 until now, but with careful choice of prototype area and a little Rule 1 I think things are manageable!

February 8

Nick,

Glad to heart your positive progress report, hope you can soon get back to modelling and the reporting of your structural efforts!

Best regards

Paul

February 7

Things are on the up (a little!).

Our decorator finished tonight, a day early, so tomorrow we can get the house back to normal.

As a result of today's Bachmann announcements I have lined my wallet up for a substantial hit later in the year with three sound fitted items.

So there are pre-orders for a Bachmann class 31 (Mainline livery), and an Accurascale 31 (Intercity livery).

These are backed up by taking the plunge on a pre-order for 69001. Yes, I know the 69ers didn't arrive until 2021,and my modern rendering of Bradenham is supposed to be 2019, but I decided that the 2019 dateline could be a little elastic as I thought the 69er sharing the 56 bodyshell would make an interesting comparison with my Cavalex 56.

I will now take a more leisurely look at the Mk1 releases.

Cheers All,

Paul

February 7

11 minutes ago, figworthy said:

More panniers ?

Adrian

Disappointment??

February 7

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I recommend nipple height. Armpit height is too high to reach across comfortably.

Steps??

February 5

Well folks, there is not a lot to report!

I have ordered and received an Accurascale GUV in BR Maroon, and a lovely model it is.

Also arrived is my Cavalex class 56 in Loadhaul livery for the early 2000s running of Bradenham. Again a very good looking model but I have yet to get it running on the layout. No problem with it, just lack of time on my part!

The scenic planning that I mentioned in my last post is going very slowly.

I think it will be another three weeks before I get much done on the modelling front:- This week we have the decorators in and then in two weeks our youngest son and family are visiting.

I hope you are all making better progress with your modelling projects?

Lets hope we all get something we have wished for in the Bachmann announcements this week.

Cheers for now,

Paul

January 31

On 23/07/2021 at 11:17, macgeordie said:

Hi Simon

I am pleased to hear that you are enjoying the build, it’s not the easiest model to build but makes up into a nice van.
It wouldn’t be cost effective to do a 7mm version, every time I have redone a kit in 7mm in the past it has never covered the cost of doing it. The other problem is that the spring and axle box were a special commission from Justin at Rumney Models and I don’t know if they would be available in 7mm scale.

Ian

Hi Ian,

Just found out about this wagon!

Are you still able to offer this kit, or are you up for a further batch, if not now maybe sometime in the next couple of years. I could be interested in 4 of them?

Also reading this thread, I have the impression you have done/do other 4mm kits. If so, where can I find details?

Many thanks and kind regards

Paul

January 30

14 hours ago, drduncan said:

Let me guess:

cyclone stopped play

venomous spider stopped play

convict stopped play…

These were what India were wishing for as England put them to the sword!

January 27

10 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

Described in the spec as BRw grey.

OK, gwrrob and Miss Prism, I was only looking at retailers pictures, where the "darker" O18s do not look a lot lighter than the black N19s!

The same query applies, apart from those in a very worn/bare wood condition, did this "darker" grey livery remain in wide use until 1962/3 or were the vast majority that remained in the "light" grey? (or worn?)

Thanks

Paul

January 27

Hi All,

These new Rapido wagons look very good , if a trifle expensive, even in todays prices!

Bit a quick question?

Can any one explain the use in BR(W) days the use of the black(?) O18s? I understand the N19s were black for loco coal, but were the O18s also used for Loco Coal.

If the black O18s were used other than Loco Coal, did they retain this livery into the 1962/3 period?

Many thanks

Paul

January 27

Meanwhile, returning to my original question, there has been replies on most of the tanker liveries except the Hornby "United Oil Importers".

One reply seemed to say generally that the silver with red lettering of this type came in before WW2, but I wonder how long after the war it was used?

R. Tourret's book has an illustration of a similar 20 ton wagon built in 1927, but as the source was Procor, the builder that took over the Chas Roberts wagon builders, it is likely that this dates from the time the wagon was built, so gives no clue as to its post war history!

January 23

I am looking for some expertise that can tell me the periods (e.g.:- pre WW2, or 1950s or 1960s) in which the following rail tankers were used, in the livery the models carry, and their routes used:-

1) Hornby (ex Airfix) 20T in silver -United Oil Importers R6012

2) as above in black - Yorkshire Tar Distillers R6011

3) Bachmann 14T (type 5) in blue-green- Lee and Green (water) 37-670X

4) as above but type 4 in buff - BP Ethyl 33-676

5) as above but type 3 in brown- BOCM 33-509

I appreciate they would not have been seen together!

Many thanks

Paul

January 22

Good Evening All,

Not a lot of modelling done in the 12 days since my lasty post, so just a quick update.

I have done some planning towards the future scenic presentation of Bradenham, and a revue of some current/future rolling stock.

The scenic planning has been a bit of a nightmare. I've been through a number of versions, none of which I am happy with, so I will keep the details to myself until I have something I am a bit happier with.

On the rolling stock front, firstly, I have looked at the Accurascale 16 Ton Minerals, and decided that I will hold off on the first batch, and see if the second batch includes any weathered versions, or any versions useable on my layout which are not covered by my Bachmann versions.

Secondly, I have reviewed my stock of iron ore hoppers as I will need some for my rule 1 chalk train (which in fact never ran south of Ardley). I knew most of my unboxed ones were Mainline ones whose chassis is not up to modern standards as the brake shoes are not in line with the wheels. Luckily I find I have sufficient Bachmann ones for my needs, so the Mainline ones will be heading for the Bay.

Hopefully my next update will be in around a week's time, by which time the scenics plan will be looking better!

Cheers for now,

Paul

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