AndyGWR

Hi Pete, I'm assuming that with Covid still ongoing and other things there hasn't been much progress, but just a quick message to let you know we're still routing for you on this "great and noble undertaking" :-) I'd love to see this marvel of modelmaking making an appearance as I've never seen this inspirational layout in the flesh. Kind regards Andy

Hi Andy, are the signs still available? If so I'd be keen.

Here we see the plug showing the wedge shaped pips. (The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the damage I caused to the wires in previous clumsy attempts at trying to remove this unholy plug). The solution is so simple, it hurts! You simply shave off the two wedge shaped pips flush to the body of the plug, using a modelling blade. Then plug the errr…plug back in to the tender socket as before. Push it home so it can’t go any further and you’re done. “That can’t be right, Andy! Won’t the plug just fall out without the locking pips?” I hear you cry. No it won’t. The friction fit of the plug body to the socket hole PLUS the friction of the pins themselves will hold that plug in and it will not fall out. I tried all sorts and unless I want the plug to come out, it won’t even under excessive vibration and jolts. If you want to remove the plug again, simply use the Hornby special tool that nobody has, or grasp the bundle of wires and pull firmly (but don’t yank it) and it will come out easily. Having tried this first a few weeks back I’ve just completed converting all my Hornby locos and I can relax knowing that I can remove the tender from any loco with ease whenever I need to and I won’t create a problem to fix any more. I hope that helps you folks! Kind regards Andy Twickenham and District Model Railway Club

The socket in the tender has two small holes inside, that small wedge shaped pips on the plug engage into. Tricky to photograph, but you can see the dark square holes near the bottom of the socket.

So, you get your brand new loco out of the box and just want to see it running. You plug the tender to the loco and it runs and all is well. So what’s the problem? The problem is, if you ever want to remove the tender from the loco again, you’ll soon realise why they call it “Satan’s plug”. That plug hangs on like trying to get your dog to go through the door of the Vet’s. If you do manage to remove the plug from the socket, it will have been an epic struggle and it is very easy during the fight to break separately added details like handrails, sheet rails, lamp irons or brake handles from the tender and the fall plate from the loco. Ask me how I know… Now, if I was choosing a plug and socket for something that would need to make a good connection and would never, ever need to be disconnected again in its lifetime, such as an electronics system on a car, then I’d chose this plug. Once connected it makes a very firm connection and any vibration will not shift it. Fantastic. However, considering we need to remove the tender from the loco simply to put it back in its box, let alone those times when you’d want to separate the two to service, detail, weather or repaint the loco or tender, this plug is a poor choice by Hornby. I’m aware that Hornby can supply a tool for this purpose, but as they don’t include it with the loco then most people, like me, won’t have one. Besides I’ve heard that it isn’t that much easier using the special plug removal tool anyway. I finally had enough of this, so I looked very carefully at the plug and socket to see if I could do something that would enable easier tender removal without the plug falling out when I didn’t want it to. First off, here’s how I managed to remove the plug : First remove the tender draw bar completely by unscrewing the screw from the tender AND the screw from the loco (watch out for the world’s smallest washers under the draw bar). Here’s what I am now looking at: Then I managed to get a small screwdriver under the small lip on the end of the plug facing each wheel and gently lifted each end at a time. Eventually it came out (although I may have shifted the back to back of one of the wheels in the process. Grrrr And relax… this is the last time you’ll ever have to do it like this!

Hi all, I was put off these by the quality problems but I just saw that Olivia's Models are advertising repaired and repackaged ones as clearance on the well known auction site. Search "Heljan 47xx Class. 2-8-0 ‘Night Owl’ Options" £140 each and seem to have all the livery options. More importantly, they seemed to have addressed many of the parts that break in transit due to Heljan's sub-optimal packaging. I can't wait for Mr Postie!...

Ooh yes please! :-)

Hi Pete, May I thank you for saving Maindee East. As I returned to the hobby only a few years ago and being an avid GWR fan, when I saw Maindee East photos on the scalefour society website for the first time I was absolutely stunned by the quality of the modelling, attention to detail but above all that elusive quality “Atmosphere” that Stefan created so well. So much so that I tracked down a back copy of the write up in one of the Railway mags and was inspired enough that I would build a GWR engine shed layout and aim for stefan’s results even though I’d probably miss. I was desperate to see it in the flesh but then I realised it was on the circuit years ago and then when I read that Stafan had sadly died my hopes of seeing it in the flesh were dashed. Oddly enough I occasionally google images of Maindee East and did this only this week and saw the Auction site had it for sale at a disrespectfully low price. No date on the auction page so I assumed it was current and I did put some thought to bidding for it. But as your original post said, I stalled because of it being P4 and because it wouldn’t have been built by me. Then I found this thread and I’m glad it has been saved. I hope you are able to find someone who will exhibit it, even if it is a static diorama at Didcot, Swindon Steam Museum or Pendon, perhaps even the NRM? I understand Didcot’s comment that it doesn’t model a real location but for anyone who wants to represent what the working conditions were like for shed workers in the early 60s with grimy dilapidated buildings and wall to wall filth and junk and ash everywhere, I can’t think of anything better. Many thanks again and good luck and I hope I will be able to see it at some point. Kind regards Andy Twickenham and District MRC