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CloggyDog

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Everything posted by CloggyDog

  1. Not sure if this has been picked up, but some Continental retailers now have stocks of Hornby's TT120 range - had an email from one the Czech retailers I've had Czech H0 and TT models from to say they have the UK range in stock. https://www.ben-zerba.cz/e-shop/cz/vlaky/tt-1-120/Hornby-tt-120.html By coincidence, I'll be in Czechia in a week or so, was planning to pop over to the shop, but not for an Gresley pacific!
  2. Spurred on by my club's annual modelling competition, I have finally painted, decalled and weathered the beast. The 'TRANSFORMER' and 'No loose shunting' came from the HMRS Pressfix BR freight sheet, the rest cobbled together from a variety of old decal sheets.
  3. Clear styrene sheet seems much 'harder' than normal styrene sheet - where my Portrait will cut through 10 thou white evergreen sheet (3 passes/blade 10/force 33/speed 5) with the Evergreen 10 thou clear it won't cut right through. Even with a brand new blade and upping passes to 5, 8 and then 10 it still only scores, not cuts. 😒
  4. My preference is KS #8149 1/16 square brass tube with 0.9mm wire within. I inset the tube into my trackbase of 2mm eva foam sheet (cheaper/better than cork, imho). Keep the run straight and at right angles to the track. At the point end, the wire is bent up to engage into one of the holes in the tiebar. At the other end, it runs through the fascia and I use a section of 'chocbock' as the handle.
  5. I'm doing some windows for my H0 24/1 on my Portrait 1 - it won't cut through the 20 thou(ish) clear plasticard I scavenged from a DPM building kit - even on max blade/downforce/10 passes - but certainly no scuffing experienced. Just awaiting some Evergreen 10 thou clear and I'll give it another go.
  6. Yes. Yes they are 😁 If they are available, pm me what you'd like for them & postage, please.
  7. I have a few wagons on those - the flange is a little chunky. The Oxford Warwell wheels are fine and is a 3-hole disc (rather than a plain disc), hence my preference for them.
  8. I'm after some 10.5mm disc wheelsets from the Oxford Rail Warwell (diamond-frame version) as they are perfect for my H0 wagon fleet. And if the modern-bogie version uses the same wheelsets, then those as well, please. So if anyone has rewheeled/regauged one/some or swapped the bogies and still has the surplus wheelsets around, I'd be interested in as many sets are available, suitably recompensed, of course. And if anyone knows of a source of the wheels as spares, please let me know (I've tried Oxford Rail direct, no dice) TIA!
  9. Finished off the Stanier brake van this evening, ended up in unfitted grey, based loosely on a Paul Bartlett photo.
  10. It's been a while, but I have been working on the stock for Dounreay, with some 16t mins (my own resin bodies on shortened Lima chassis), the Salmon is finished with a load of track panels and, most recently, I've scratchbuilt a Stanier 20t brake van body for a spare Lima Toad chassis.
  11. Pretty much there with my pair of scratchbuilt H0 scale ex-SR PMVs.
  12. Another option for Bo diesels with 8ft6in bogie wheelbase is the NS2200 in H0 from Roco or Piko. This has a 29.5mm bogie wheelbase (just 0.25mm short for 8ft6in) at 76.3mm centres (21ft10in ish) which is close for the 15, 16, 20 and 22. The NS 2200 is a end-cab bonnetted design, much like the 20 The Roco one is OOP, but fairly widely available second-hand whilst the Piko one is a much newer release and in current production. Piko do sell the complete bogie for their 2200 as a spare, EUR22.25 each plus shipping. https://www.piko-shop.de/en/artikel/ersatzteil/xref_suchtext-55902.html
  13. Will 60010 include it's extra stickers?? 😉
  14. The solution then is to remove that troublesome rail>wheel>pick-up>motor path, and go dead-rail with onboard li-po batteries and an RC receiver - the excellent demo at Scaleforum last year showed how possible it is, even down to a 009 Simplex 'Tin Turtle' with batteries and receiver on board and running very, very smoothly. Sadly, I missed out on one of the semi-assembled starter kits being sold there, else I'd have used deadrail/RC on Dounreay. Hopefully they'll have them again this year. The kits use components from Micron http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/rc_model_rail.html and there's quite a bit of useful discussion on the public side of the Scalefour Society's forum: https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=137 I may yet bite the bullet and get a Tx22 kit and a couple of Rx45 receivers, batteries and low-voltage motors for Dounreay's small loco fleet. I've often heard the 'all or nothing' excuse for not going DCC... Do you really use every single loco during an operating session on your layout? I converted my EM locos over time as funds allowed - starting with the better/most used locos (and even now, some 15 years on, there are a couple of the historically least-used locos which remain DC - I must either chip them or flog them!). As further funds permitted, sound was fitted to a couple of locos, releasing non-sound chips to DCC other locos. Seriously, the 'tweakability' of a decent DCC decoder to fine-tune the running of a loco does make that difference you're looking for with a DC upgrade. Hmmm... is it possible to drive a layout via a DCC decoder? So just one decoder required, irrespective of fleet size? Still have the rail>wheel>pick-up interface issues though... 🤔 And wouldn't solve a multitude of motor types. All that said, aside from my EM locos, all my other layout projects currently us analogue DC, usually* via Gaugemaster HH units, which I find work well with the range of motors I use (old Minitrix to very recent releases). There is a Duette (and a Clipper) knocking about somewhere, used mainly to power my minidrill or provide 16v ac or 12v dc supplies - even then suitable wall-warts would be equally useable! I had/have somewhere a really neat hand-held DC controller which, like the fabled H&M Walkabout, had a vertical slider, but with a microswitch at the bottom of the slider to change direction, really easy to use one-handed for shunting. Was advertised in the mags probably 30 years ago, disappeared after a year or two. Must try and find the crate it's in and see if it still works. * I have also built a couple of hand-held battery controllers using PWM modules, a DPDT switch and a 6 x AA battery pack, all popped into a 0.2l Really Useful Box - these give very smooth control and a set of rechargable 2400mA/h will last all day at an exhibition. Cost was under £5, less batteries.
  15. Dounreay had it's very pleasant debut at Kenavon exhibition today and ran well, with plenty of positive comments and feedback. My thanks to @RJS1977 for the invitation, as always a nice friendly show with plenty of interesting layouts. A few minor stock-related things to sort before the next outing (DEMU Showcase in June) and I'm aiming to get at least 1 more loco into service by then, possibly 2 if I can.
  16. Found a slightly knackered Lima 20t brake van in the stash, one end of the body cracked and broken. Chassis still in reasonable nick, so I've started scratchbuilding a Stanier LMS 20t brake van body from Evergreen car-siding and assorted microstrip. Probably won't get it done for Kenavon on Saturday, but may have it with me as a wip for display.
  17. Some final testing before Dounreay's debut on Saturday, with the fiddlestick made and wired up last evening. This did reveal that the Derby Type 2 was a tad light and struggled to haul trains, so this had some weight added this morning, which helped. Apart from that though, things seem good to go.
  18. And, befitting the c1970 setting, some blue & grey stock to mix in with the maroon, plus some completed vans and a lowfit.
  19. The layout was featured in the October 2022 Continental Modeller, my thanks to Andrew Burnham (CM editor) for the excellent photos he took at Globalrail back in the summer of 2022. Nové Město has a few exhibition invites confirmed for 2023: Wealden Railway Group at Steyning, Sunday 12 March Bentley Model Railway Group at Calne, Sat 15 & Sun 16 April TT Modellers Day in Cheltenham on Sun 2nd July Mid-Essex MRC at Shenfield Saturday 16 September Newbury MRC at Newbury, Saturday 28 October And I have a few days over in Prague in late March, there'll no doubt be a few trips out to model shops 😉
  20. The scratchbuilt Salmon and the 2 Grampuses that accompany it are decalled up and just need some grot, while a bunch of 16t mins, assorted VB revenue vans, highs, lows, Plate and Tube are getting their numbers and letters. The VB stock is also having the Lima brake gear reworked to bring the shoes in line with the wheels and tiebars fitted. I did find my spare Toad chassis, so am pondering making a Stanier 20t brake van body for it out of Evergreen car siding... watch this space, as they say...
  21. Much progress with stock, ahead of Dounreay's debut at the Kenavon exhibition in east Reading on Saturday 18 February. Reworked my bogie inners to correct the wheelbase and finished 6 pairs, so the Mk1s are pretty much done, the pair of PMVs have wheels, paint and glazing, the 24/1 is decalled, glazed and fitted with Kadees and I'm working my way through the freight stock. The Bulleid Third Open is finished as Sc1466S, one of the dozen or so sent north of the border in the mid-1960s to replace Mk1s converted to REPs and TCs. The layout also now has it's own section on Maidenhead club's website: http://www.mmdmrc.org.uk/dounreay.html
  22. Early/mid-90s for me. The interesting traction (20/25/40/45) had mostly been withdrawn, older units and rolling stock likewise and the simplification of the railway just didn't grab me the way it had when I started taking a proper interest in the mid-70s. Same as the airshow scene, once the Lightnings, Bricks, Shacks, Phantoms, Vulcans and Victors had gone, my interest in attending airshows died.
  23. Definitely looks like a Mk1 Portrait. Blades - I buy proper Silhouette blades via Amazon, you'll need the basic manual blade. Non-branded blades just don't last or stay sharp as long. Mats - 'low-tack' non-branded mats via ebay - I got 3 for about the price of 1 Silhouette-branded one and they work fine, just make sure 'Portrait' is in the search/item name.
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