Edna Clouds

My first Manor started to grumble more and more into its running in period and upon a little peep into the gear chamber, not one bit of lube was to be found. Of course, the damage was done and grease made no difference. I'll not be asking for a warranty repair because I then seemed to 'go on the rampage'! Trapping wires, shorting two sound decoders, and equally unforgiving, soldering the broken wires wrongly. (What a plonker). Various stuff now ordered from Accurascale and a recovery plan put into place. My grandson gave me very appropriate feedback on my performance! Fortunately, my two other Manors arrived later than the first, so they have benefited from an input of model grease before they turned a wheel and, of course, run beautifully quietly. They are, as you so rightly put, gorgeous models.

Please no, anything but wallpaper!

And I turn up the volume on my hearing aid which helps tremendously!

.... or develop certain mannerisms.

Has anyone fitted the non-coupling plough to the DT? Quite likely, rather like the gravy I make, I'm a bit thick but it's got me flummoxed. I wonder if the coupling type one splits in two but I can't see how. A bit later ... worked it out at last - the two end bits are able to be pulled out and fitted to the required plough. Sort out the gravy next!

Of course, thank you. I must get Matron to up my memory tablets!

A simple (and poor!) attempt at a joke: as I understand it, platelayers call the 'v' in a point a crossover, whereas railway modellers tend to refer to them as frogs. I was once called in to my grandson's nursery class after he had regaled an upsetting story to his class regarding spending time with his grandpa and his model railway and dealing with live frogs and dead frogs. I didn't hear the explanation 'Miss' gave to the assembled children the following morning!

Don't mistreat your point crossovers too much, otherwise your trains will derail!

Well, after paying my £250 in December 2019 and never seeing a Fell loco model to enjoy or complain about, I received my refund last week. The money was in my bank within 24 hours of the emails between Keith and me which shows their efficiency and customer care certainly in that department!

Yes, Legomanbiffo's custom made one for the Heljan 45 with an EM1 speaker. Two little cutaways were required on the speaker in order for it to fit. The speaker being only half a watt does sound a lot softer than I like (old chap, hearing aid, tinnitus etc!) so I'll try it with other speakers and see (well, hear) if they're any louder. Lovely loco, great joy!

My response from KR - my not having received the Fell yet - was that they are working very hard to get the Fells out and that Royal Mail will deliver. This was just over a week ago. Perhaps a visit to Warley is in order .

I always assumed that the 4 flangeless wheels didn't touch the rails so that they wouldn't cause a short when swinging out traversing points and slips. At last, I have received an unbroken W1 (the new double blast pipe version) and I lowered the 4 wheels - filing the pips on the retainer- so that they touch the rails and therefore, revolve. And they don't short on points! Later today. I will be fitting Locoman's sound, so hope that all runs equally well on DCC.

Another point on that when to buy/don't buy spectrum applies to us older chaps mostly ... I bought and paid for my Deltics at the end of 2018 when I was rather unwell, and wondered if ever I should see them! Happily, the chemo and radio therapies worked a treat and here I am in the playpen with my 5 delightful Deltics. Great joy!

That's what I'm doing!

In the meantime, to get 'em off a tiny spot of 806 does the trick while to put'em back on, a similar tiny drop of super glue works equally well. Decent specs and instructions to your hands to stop shaking also help us old so-and-sos.

I have always thought that the 'wives stories' were made up in order to have a non-woke chuckle, that's why I introduced the idea of 'Matron' in a nursing home for those of us already there some pages ago. Also 'gone along' is my greatly missed partner who once informed me of her disinterest in my "sodding trains". Hey-ho!

Wives? No problem. Wait until you have 'Matron' to deal with!

Quite simple - get 'em!

And then there are those of us who wear hearing aids because of our poor hearing to start with. My Lima and Bachmann Deltics already have a throbby low thrumm that has nothing to do with the decoder or sound file ... It's my tinnitus! I guess I'm in for a real treat when my Accurascale Deltics arrive!!

I'm already enjoying quite a bit of vroooooooom ... two Lima Deltics (plenty of room inside) that I have are stuffed with two EM2 speakers in one and an EM3 in the other, both with Bif's sound file. As brill as these are, I expect next week's arrivals will be better.

I've given up now on R3840 and have ordered R30126 due in the summer when, hopefully, the clamshell business will be sorted. Cheers, Pete.

It was from Leigh Collett and it's not to do with him, his packing was exemplary - it's the clamshell that pushes the smoke deflector inwards with nothing behind it. Perhaps my bucket list should include acquiring one in one piece!

Hey-ho, just sent back my third R3840 with the same fault ... the driver's side smoke deflector with the top broken off.

I quite like the idea of steam exhaust rather than the smoke that Seuthe produces and the Flying Scotsman demonstration looked good on the video. Sadly, still only two and a half chuffs (and puffs) per driving wheel rev though. Perhaps they'll get it better in time.

After glueing my W1 smoke deflector (same break as most others) I gave the fix a little wipe with 806 unbonder on a soft cloth. It did improve things a bit but I still know it's there! Having the playpen layout being principally 6 roundy roundy tracks with me in the middle, the best solution is to always have the W1 on one of the clockwise circuits, thereby only seeing the good side of this remarkable loco!