08221

90037/90020 pass Colwich on a southbound freightliner from Mossend to Daventry on 16/7/21.

45596 "Bahamas" passing Colwich on its journey from Keighley to Southall on 16/7/21.

‘Tornado’ passing Colwich en route to Chester on 15/7/21.

Why not try a set of wheels from Peters Spares. I’ve used a few sets of their replacement wheel sets for Lima motors and they are excellent.

Hi Dave. The rail is all nickel silver, if I were to transition to 16.5mm, I'd do it on plain track well away from the turnout itself in order to maintain the structural integrity of the turnout. The turnout is very smooth once built, no jumps, hops or tights spots at all - proven by pushing a brake van through my completed unit - wheels set to OO-SF to match my layout.

I was one of those lucky enough to be selected to test build one of the FinetraX OO-SF point kits. Postie knocked on my door and proffered me a substantial cardboard box containing the kit, well wrapped in bubble wrap to protect it. The kits is professionally presented in its packaging. The kit I received was the B7 left hand standard turnout kit, OO-SF with code 75 Bullhead rail. The components of the kit are below, comprising 1 x turnout base, 1 x cast V crossing, sufficient code 75 Bullhead rail including 2 switch blades which are pre-formed and a tie bar. The first thing I did was to solder a wire to the bottom of the V crossing, then I glued the V crossing into its aligning holes in the sleeper base. Next, I cut the 2 check rails to length and slid them into position on the sleeper base. Next I cut the 2 rails to length to fit against the V crossing and slid them into place, taking care to leave a small gap between each rail and the V crossing. The next step was to attach one of the switch blades into its slot in the tie bar. The switch blade was them marked off where it meets the V crossing, cut to length and slipped into place - again taking care to leave a small gap. This process was repeated with the second switch blade. Finally, the 2 stock rails were cut to length and slipped into position. Wires were soldered underneath to bond each stock rail to its neighbouring switch blade. That completed construction - what a pleasure it was to build this kit! From opening the package to the completed point took me about 1 hour of work, its far more fun building pointwork this way than using copperclad sleepers and rail which I have done on my OO-SF layout. The kit is very well designed, goes together extremely well and does not require a high skill level - just take care when measuring the rail to the required lengths and get the rails ends clean with a small file and you can't go wrong! Only basic tools are required - I used a circular rail cutter, a hand file, flat nose pliers, tweezers, a ruler and a soldering iron - nothing too special! Thanks very much to Wayne for producing this kit and for allowing me to do a test build. This kit and the whole range of products deserves to be a game changer for those of us who seek realism on our layouts. I greatly enjoyed the experience and its got me thinking of ways I can use this track system on a new layout in the future!

Grrr!!! Tyseley??

Small Heath??

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/service/gb-nr:S00619/2021-06-17/detailed

A “one for the record “ shot passing Rugeley north junction.

60103 ‘Flying Scotsman’ passing Colwich on the 5V44 1010 Carnforth Steamtown to Southall Wcr working on 18/5/21.

25083 awaits its next duty in the bay platform at ‘Rectory Lane’

08011 awaiting its next turn of duty sits on the spare road at 'Rectory Lane' depot.

Very gently twist the wheels on the axles and they will move until the B2B gauge fits tightly, no need for brute force required!

Checking the B2Bs is the first thing I suggested, it’s a simple thing to do and makes a huge difference to achieving reliable running. Before any new stock gets put on my layouts, I check the B2Bs, only takes a minute and saves a lot of frustration.