Tallpaul69

Thanks to everyone for their input. I am persuaded that I can justify a 78xxx on my GW&GC line, but I have yet to decide which one!. I may wait a while and see if a second batch are produced, maybe including some weathered examples? The other alternative is to buy one via TMC who I am sure will do a first class weathering job. I am also wondering whether Hornby will produce a suitable sound file in their new TXS system? Another loco I am considering is Model Rail's upcoming class 11/12:- I think the best bet here will be to get TMC to produce a heavily weathered ex BR example which I can use as the yard shunter in the Wagon Works on the (Rule 1) Wycombe End branch off my GW&GC line. There were WR examples, but most of those spent their early 60s life at Cardiff Docks, apart from one that was variously at Bristol and Swindon. With their 4ft wheels, I don't see them wandering even as far as the larger wheeled 08s did! As anyone who has read my other threads will know, my skills lie in scenery, not weathering or Chip fitting, so I will have to rely on others for the weathering work etc.. Cheers All, Paul

Hi Everyone, With the imminent arrival of the Hornby 78xxx I am trying to work up an excuse to buy one for my GW&GC layout. So has anyone any knowledge of any visits of 78xxx 2-6-0s in the period 1960-63 to the London Area via the GW mainline or GW&GC? I am thinking mainly of the WR allocated examples that were at Shrewsbury, Gloucester, Worcester and on the Cambrian line, but might the Chester, or Lancashire examples come that way for instance double heading a football special to Wembley? Many thanks for any relevant info or suggested sources of info! Cheers Paul

Afternoon All, In my last post i speculated on sound for my newly acquired class 15 and class 16 diesels. It turns out that they both had Paxman engines, so probably sounded different to the class 20 English Electric engine. I have also found that DC Kits do sound files for both, but Is it worth £232 plus fitting to get accurate sounds in locos that will not run every day? This little project is on the pending pile! A more immediate concern is to solve the Kadee uncoupling on the main line problem, where I don't see permanent magnets working ! . The easy solution is to say "fit electromagnets"! Yes I know that! However, the two contenders I know about, one from Kadee themselves, and the other made by Rapido in Canada but stocked by Rails, both have their downsides:- The Kadee version has a large casing hanging down below the uncoupler, and The Rapido version requires a 1and 3/4 inch circular hole below the track, but does not hang down very far. Neither seem easy to retrofit, as is the case on my layout. I might buy one of each and have a play? It is a while since I put up any photos, so here are a few of my yet to be installed signals. An update on the NG with shots from the Annual running day last weekend, will have to wait as I realise they are still on my phone! Happy modelling to you all, Cheers, Paul

Thanks for the info, I have now found them on Rails website! Is their any video of your layout using them on U tube or elsewhere. Have you any experience of the Kadee company's version? One reason for my interest is that I thought one of the Rapido version might work at the end of my curved platform. Any thoughts? Your comment about orientation is a slight worry! Cheers Paul

Testing, testing 123.... Yes, you are right, I have, as predicted in my last post been busy testing new locos! So far I have tested my 15xx steamer and the class 15, and class 16 diesels. First on the test track, then on Bradenham. The 15xx, thank goodness, is first class! No wobbles, no glue spots, and no loose or missing livery items or parts! If I was picky, I would say the smokebox door, or the front numberplate is a few degrees off horizontal, but I can live with that! I will probably fine tune the CVs to enhance the sound and acceleration, but I will wait until after it has run with a tail load. The class 15 and the class 16 run well, but I notice the silence, so I will be looking at swapping the chips to sound versions. Simplest might be to fit TTS from class 20s. If I cant find loose chips, I might buy two sound 20s and swap the sound and non sound chips over before moving them on. I think I have enough sound fitted 20s not to need any non sound ones. However, I need to research the engines in these classes. The EWS management train has arrived, so I have that and my Accurascale 37 still to test. On the horizon is my Manor, due at the end of the month. Cheers for now, Paul

I am pleased to report that my 1505 (lined, early emblem), sound fitted, bought via Hattons, arrived in the new packaging a few days ago, and is great! It does what it says on the tin. No wobbles, no glue, no missing parts. The sound is very good, might play with the CVs etc. to get it a bit louder, but no complaints! If I was really picky, I might say either the smokebox door is slightly crooked or the number plate is. But its only a very few degrees, so I am not worrying. I hope all those with problems get them sorted out quickly. Cheers Paul

Good Evening Everyone, Apologies for the "radio silence", things have been a bit busy over the last 10 days or so! It's time, I think, to take stock:- Discussions are moving forward on the integration of my two layouts:- I have a number of things that I need to provide the potential builders with information on, while they need to cost some items they have not yet detailed. I have been in touch with Rapido in Canada as they market an electric Kadee uncoupler, which seems to be smaller than Kadee's own product which is a tight fit in some of my locations. Rapido in the UK say they cannot supply it , although they do supply some Canadian products. Meanwhile, my 15xx has arrived, as has my first Accurascale class 37. I need to get them tested, and I also have other recent arrivals to check out. These include class 15, and class 16 diesels, both DCC but without sound. It seems that in the 1960s class 15s visited High Wycombe substituting for 31s on a return run of a timber train which supplied timber to the yard at Marlow. The inward route was via Maidenhead. Awaited and due any day is a sound fitted version of the EWS Management Train, to replace my DC version, which will be going into the "sale" pile! This purchase worked out cheaper than sound fitting my existing set. This week I have also been catching up on jobs delayed while I was out and about from Friday through Sunday. These trips were most enjoyable, so I mustn't grumble! Some layout and trip pics next time. Cheers for now, Paul

Hi Gordon, I would have thought that anyone who has used this item would know what they look like, or am I missing something? As far as I know this item is relatively new to the market, and has not been supplied to the likes of Hornby, Bachmann, etc., under their own branding. I am looking for the experiences of people who have bought, installed and operated this uncoupler on their layouts, with Kadee couplers. Preferably on 00! Cheers Paul

Hi to all the Rapido community in the UK I am looking for a more compact electric uncoupler for Kadee couplers than the Kadee product. I have come across the Rapido Trains Inc. RailCrew uncoupler. Before going to the expense of buying one from Canada to evaluate, I wondered if anyone had used this item in the UK? If so, what were your results with it? Many thanks Paul

Hi Folks, Anyone received a sound fitted Draycott Manor yet? Cheers Paul

Hi Roger, I have just found out about this uncoupler, and I am investigating it for my layout which is about to be fitted out for Kadee operation. I take it then that the Hornby TTS decoders or even their new HM7000s wont operate this Precimodels unit? On another point, any thoughts on how you get kadee operation on a curve. I have this situation at the end of a platform on my main lime where I think magnets will just uncouple all my trains instead of just particular ones? Many thanks, Paul

Thanks John, I don't mind spending time going through a particular thread, it was the prospect of going through who knows how many threads that was a bit daunting! Cheers Paul

Good Afternoon All, pardon me for hijacking this thread, but I can't find one for Kadee related queries so here goes.... Has anyone tried using a Loco mounted actuator marketed by Precimodels.com? This, being loco mounted(it looks very small!), allows you to uncouple from a loco, but not between wagons or coaches, anywhere on a layout via your DCC loco drive. It sounds a good idea for certain locations?? There is a u tube clip on it in operation and it looks to work ok. Any thoughts?? Cheers Paul

Good Afternoon fellow modellers, This time yesterday, I was pretty miserable as it was beginning to look like there was no one able to meet my requirements for work on my layouts in a reasonable timescale:- One builder was, after a postponed job was set back in play, talking about doing my jobs in two years time, and there was some doubt as to whether the other builder could do two important parts of the work. However, a phone call from the second builder this morning sorted out a misunderstanding and while there is one item he cannot do, in fact, what he can't do is in the "nice to have" rather than the "vital to have" category! So we are on the road again. Admittedly even he is now talking about April to do the jobs, but I can live with that. So we have talked through my query email that I sent him over the weekend, agreed what he had included and not included and confirmed he will send me costings for the additions later this week. Meanwhile, there a a few things on the layouts I need to photo and forward to him. This weekend is a 12 inch to the foot steam weekend (weather permitting!). On Saturday I will be going to the village of Turvey, just outside Bedford to the Bedfordshire Steam Preservation Club annual rally. There I will enjoy the sights and sounds of over 100 Traction Engines, Steam Lorries, and the like. Sunday is the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway annual rally, with all of their locos on the go, and an intensive (for this line!) timetable. Meanwhile, I wish you all a successful weekend whatever your liking in transport, be it Full Size, or model, steam, Diesel, or other means of propulsion. Best regards Paul

'Evening All, We got home earlier than anticipated this afternoon, so I have been able to move on with my review of the estimate I have received which, for ease, I will call estimate A:- As suspected from initial reading of it, It is not clear whether all the items on my "Wants List" handed over when the builder visited, have been included. Some probably have, but there are others that do not readily fall into any of the items costed. Originally I had worked on the basis of whoever does the job taking "Bradenham" away to work on, leaving me with "Wycombe End" and its existing fiddle yard (which will be replaced by a new fiddle yard board joining the two layouts) to keep me occupied. Both builders have suggested they would get a better running system by taking all the existing boards away, and this is ok with me. There are other benefits in them having all the boards:- Firstly, it will be easier for them to equate the slightly different levels of the two layouts. Secondly they will be able to provide a set of backscenes to the whole system. Currently Wycombe End has a backscene that I like, but this is in a hardwood surround, so probably not easy to integrate on site with additional backscenes. I will also be asking them to come up with a scheme for computerised controls with a Mimic Diagram on a large monitor screen, rather than their suggestion of a traditional Mimic with toggle switches. The traditional Mimic seems to me to be getting complex in my situation with the need to operate points, signals, and electric uncouplers for the Kadees. Estimate A specifies a Heljan turntable. I was a little sceptical of this having in the back of my mind that I had read of layouts having troubles with this item. However some research suggests that it is ok provided it is not in a continuous track layout where 180 degree turns have proved to not quite line up! More thoughts and updates anon, and if I am lucky, the first review of the second Estimate (Estimate C, there is no Estimate B!) Best regards Paul

Given your experience with the Heljan turntable, would you recommend it for installation in a new baseboard by a professional layout builder (not me!)? The turntable controls are to be included in a mimic diagram being made at the same time. If not the Heljan, what is recommended and why? Many thanks Paul

Good evening everyone, I am pleased to tell you that earlier today I received the first of the estimates for the work to combine my two layouts. The first thing to say is that it is within the budget I have for this project! We are out tomorrow, so I will be busy over the weekend digesting the details and composing a list of queries- I can already see a couple. Best regards Paul

Be careful what you wish for! Many of us remember the last time SK was consigned to the scrap heap (well, the northern wastes of Locomotion, actually)! It was not pretty. While we have a more sensitive man at the helm (Bravo Taff!!) this time, he cannot do everything and looking back at the Hornby Programs on TV, I can't remember any obvious candidates to do a better job in SKs shoes? Maybe there are folks hiding at Bachmann, Dapol et al, to nick? Also, trying to be all things to all modellers is doomed to failure, so where should Hornby concentrate?.......Discuss!! (Grabs coat and beats a hasty retreat) Cheers All,

Yes, I have seen the photos on PBs site, although mainly earlier than 1992! It is beginning to look like they had all gone by 2008 although I thought i remembered them on cement workings after 2002 into St. Pancras, but might be confusing with the straight topped variety!

I run a modern image version of my GW&GC layout in c1992 and c2008. I have a lot of Lima, Hornby, and Dapol depressed centre ("V") tankers and I am wondering what south of England flows they were used on in the above periods? If there are some possible uses then I will think of weathering them, otherwise i will sell on! Many thanks Paul

Dear readers, Due to this family weekend not quite going to plan, I have not yet completed the timetable I promised you in my last posting! All was going fine, until an hour before we were due to leave for a family meal on Saturday. Then our eldest son was on the phone to tell us that their family of four would not be attending as our daughter in law had developed Covid! So as well as their missing the meal, we were two cars out of three missing! Our younger son has to be commended for filling as much of the gap as he could by doing two 60 mile round trips instead of one to collect and return home those without a car, although it did mean us and the rest of his family spending an extra hour in the restaurant as he dropped us off on the way to do his pickups. Our return was via a taxi, which or youngest granddaughter loved, as she had only previously been in a taxi in an urban setting, so at lowish speed, whereas this involved 5 miles or so on a country road at some speed. Our Daughter in law is not too poorly, we think she may have contracted Covid on the return journey from Spain the weekend before. Luckily no one else in her family caught it, neither did her brother and his family who were on the holiday with them! Meanwhile, I have some encouraging news, on the model railway front. One of the builders I had been discussing the upgrade of my layout with, emailed me on Sunday to say he hoped to get a proposal to me over the bank Holiday weekend and that due to him being messed around by a client who was in the queue before me for workshop time, subject to us agreeing his proposal and the costs, he expected to be able to do my project before Christmas rather than after. I do know that I will have a bit more preparatory work to do than I expected, as he has decided it would be better for him to have both Bradenham and Wycombe End in his workshop to ensure that the new linking baseboard tracks connect correctly to the existing tracks on both layouts. So I have the "storage" under Wycombe End to move, as well as that under Bradenham. But I do want to ensure everything links and works correctly. Maybe, I will get the timetable done for next week, depending on when I get the proposal and how much work I need to do checking and evaluating it. If it is necessary to have a fair bit of backwards and forwards between the pair of us, then the timetable will have to wait! Happy Modelling, Cheers for now, Paul

Hope, you have all enjoyed todays weather? After a busy day out and about and in the garden, I have ended the afternoon by doing some timetable planning. When looking at timetables previously, I tended to look at the busy times, but this time I have taken a different approach:- I have been working out a standard hours timetable which allows some variations and thus can cover the periods from 09.00 to 17.00 (say). This is based around the hourly expresses from Paddington to Birmingham and varying points on the ex GWR, the ultimate of course being the 10.10 from Paddington, the Cambrian Coast Express! So for passenger workings we have an hourly Paddington express, an hourly Marylebone suburban to various points beyond High Wycombe, and an hourly combined headway local passenger between Paddington via Maidenhead, or from Maidenhead, to High Wycombe, Princes Risborough, Aylesbury, Banbury , or Oxford. This last item sounds complicated, but what it means is that at (say) 09.00 at Bradenham a WR local stops which is travelling from Paddington, via Maidenhead, and High Wycombe to Aylesbury. At 10.10, there is no train because this slot is used by a Maidenhead to High Wycombe local, and a Princes Risborough to Banbury Autotrain, so that the High Wycombe to Princes Risborough section sees no train. Other variations fill the later 10 mins past the hour slots. On the goods side, we have a Neasden or Acton to the GCR empty mineral, a alternate hours High Wycombe or Wycombe End to Bradenham inter yard trip, and a Acton or Slough to High Wycombe or Princes Risborough, or Aylesbury, or Oxford pick up freight. These trains, if they continue beyond High Wycombe, then they spend a whole hour in Bradenham Yard. The train in the following hours slot cannot be one that goes beyond High Wycombe, unless it passes non stop through Bradenham. Thus, in each hour we have six paths, three passenger, three freight. The running times cannot of course be evenly spaced due to the differing speeds of the different classes of train. When I have developed this idea a bit further I might introduce an extra path for (say) a light engine, or an engine and van, or an engineers train, etc. etc. While the above sounds simple, the complications may set in when I put in the up trains, because they will have to match what the down trains are doing. For instance, when a down freight is spending an hour in Bradenham Yard, it is probable best that up freights pass through, or don't run! This design means that most of the more individual trains such as the parcels and oil trains need to run between 05.00 and 09.00 and after 18.00, which to a large extent they did in real life!. In my next post I aim to put up a sample up and down timetable for one hour. Cheers for now, Paul

Good evening one and all, There is a (slight) movement from the layout builders. One has suggested that he would prefer to take both Bradenham and Wycombe End to his workshop to have confidence that the alignments off of Wycombe End onto the new link board and off the new link board onto Bradenham work reliably. I have said that that would be ok. While I thought to have Wycombe End to operate while everything else was being sorted, there is still plenty I can do without either layout. For a start I can use my DCC test track which is located on a desk below Bradenham to test and recode my pile of boxes of chipped locos ready for the installation of the new set up. I also have plenty of Kadees to fit to stock and locos. Talking of the test track desk, I need to try it in other locations in the room as the current location by the door, while having the advantage of sticking out from under Bradenham, so making its use easier with Bradenham installed, moving it could make access into the room much easier! There are also some jobs needed in the room such as shortening the curtains, and sorting out cables for some under baseboard lighting that i bought ages ago but have yet to install. So, I will be busy, even without a layout! Still, mustn't grumble , it should be great in the end. Cheers for now Paul

Hi everyone, Prompted by info on other threads on RM, I have been invstigating a couple of additional trains for Bradenham. Both these have a rule 1 element, but i think they are reasonable ideas:- Firstly, the thread about the Newton Chambers car carriers lead me to speculate on the make up of the summer only Dover to Newcastle Tuesday and Thursday evening train, described in the WTT as "Cars and Sleepers", which ran via Kensington and High Wycombe leaving Dover at 9.45 pm swapped engines at Kensington and passed High Wycombe in the early hours of the following morning. There were return trains leaving Newcastle on Monday and Wednesday evenings. The WTT suggests that LMR engines were used throughout as it details LE movements to and from Kensington from Cricklewood to effect the loco change. In my world the trains run late so that they appear later in the mornings as I intend to run my WTT between the hours of 5 am and 10pm. They also run from Dover behind SR locos and change engines at Bradenham. Thus I can have an SR engine sitting on Bradenham shed for a day! While the trains will be made up of ER stock (GUVs and Sleepers, they will also have a SR green composite brake coach for a little variety! The second running will be (when mine arrives!) a 15XX loco running LE from OOC to Wolverhampton works. Some of these locos, the tread on them , tells me, were overhauled at Wolverhampton. Another possibility is that the 15xx left Acton on the morning Acton to Banbury pick up good, but as it needed overhaul, by the time it reached Bradenham, it was on its last legs and had to be replaced by the Bradenham shunter!. After recovering it proceeded towards Banbury LE! Are the above scenarios too far fetched? Well, maybe, but wasn't truth was often stranger than fiction on the steam railway? Cheers Paul

Any idea how these got to Wolverhampton? I want to run my example (when it arrives!) through my GW&GC layout, but were they sent from OOC as LE or perhaps on the daily Acton to Banbury pick up goods? Cheers Paul