Hastings Thumper

Wow 🙂

Definitely has the opening vent below the smokebox

I has a similar scenario a while back with three led spotlight bulbs in the same fitting. One of them started to fail albeit intermittently, and would flash on and off when the power was turned on. After a couple of days, all three started doing the same. I checked back to the original failing bulb by a process of elimination and once that one was replaced, all was fine again. I suspect its some sort of radiated emissions from the failing bulb which are picked up by the electronics in the other bulbs, or something transmitted very locally over the power lines. So might be worth checking your bulbs one by one in the fitting to see if you can find a suspect. Hope this helps

Thanks for the responses guys - yes, let’s hope these are either well protected by the packaging, or at least made of sturdy metal such that they can be tweaked back to vertical. Looking forward to these nonetheless. Sam

As you can probably tell from my user name, I live very close to the old SECR territory, so I am looking forward to the arrival of the D1s. A question though. Looking at the recent photos on the Rails website, the SECR grey and Southern liveried versions have very odd looking lamp irons on the top of the smokebox as per the view below. Ordinarily I'd have put this down to a production sample with a bit of wear and tear under it's belt, but all the aforementioned versions look the same. So is this a prototypical lamp iron design from the SECR ? Not one I've seen before, and my D class has a normal looking vertical lamp iron. (Sorry if the above is a dumb question). Sam

My very best wishes for a happy retirement. Thanks for all the fantastic models over the years Simon Sam

I found the same when trying to remove the couplings by pulling. A note of caution when removing the keeper plate though. On my (urmm four) examples, the keeper plates seemed very tight and needed very gently levering off at each end. The reason they were reluctant to release was that the guard irons are glued to both the keeper plate and the chassis. The glue gives up fairly easily but I have had a couple of individual guard irons launch themselves into the middle distance - subsequently located and re-fixed. I now have a mixture of guard irons glued to either the keeper plate or the chassis - not that it matters when the keeper plate is re-fitted. Hope this helps

My six SE&CR versions turned up safely yesterday - just fantastic !!

My staff riding van and tool van arrived this morning. Excellent paint finish and printing, and a lot of separately fitted detail. As mentioned earlier, there is light bleed on the staff van. I've had a go at reducing it with black insulation tape on the inside of the blanked off windows. Seems to do the trick except in total darkness as I can't quite get to the edges, but I think it looks a lot better. I found it easier to take the luggage racks off the seats to get to the windows inside - they were just lightly glued on so came away without any damage. Looking forward to the SECR versions next.

Ah - didn't realise that - thanks, will check some photos

A bit of a long shot this one !!. A bank holiday project to resurrect a Bachmann Freightliner class 57. It was always a bit of a poor runner, but have now sorted that. Just missing one of the yellow lamp brackets from the corner of the chassis as per the photo. I have searched through the Bachmann spares site but no luck there. Anyone out there in RMweb land happen to have one spare ?? Thanks Sam

Finsbury Park line-up - back to the 80s A loose chain on '15 and '18 for me to re-attach. and a missing air horn on '18 which hopefully the Accurascale guys can sort for me. Apart from that, all good.

I did some experimenting with various close couplers yesterday. Firstly, the Roco and Hornby similar versions don't reach far enough to enable the wagons to be coupled up. I moved onto the Hunt couplers. The 'short' version at 9mm long works fine, but I think the ultra-close version at 7 mm will work too - I'll order some for further testing. A note of caution though. I was careful to try and hold the NEM pockets in pliers while pushing the various couplings in from the front. In several cases though I ended up with distinctly droopy couplings as per the photo. I couldn't work out what was wrong from underneath the wagons, so ended up taking the body off. The problem was that the cover over the cam mechanism had popped off allowing the mechanism to float around. There are two very small locating pins that locate the cam covers and it looked like the glue had failed. Easily fixed with with a couple of spots of strong glue (I use Powerbond 806). Just be careful not to get any glue into the cam mechanism or onto the moving part (the part shaped like a stealth bomber). An easy fix in the end. The tricky bit is getting the body off the chassis. There are four clip arrangements per side each of which look like three locating lugs on the side of the wagon. They have to be eased out while pulling the chassis down gently. I found it best to release one end entirely and then the rest unclips fairly easily. It all re-assembles with a re-assuring click. So 2 wagons done - 7 to go. Hope this helps someone out there. Sam

A quick update to the Bachmann single road inspection shed as a winter evening project. I carefully removed the resin moulded light fittings from the side and end walls and fitted LED wall lights and an illuminated clock from Kytes Lights. The original frosted effect glazing has been replaced with 1mm perspex with the glazing bars re-fitted. Internal lighting fitted too. Quite pleased with the result as this was my first attempt at modifying a resin structure and using LED lamps. Next job is to add a depot name board and some weathering on the track and concrete base. Sam

With a number of new prototypes for trials, the shedmaster got a bit carried away and set-up his own impromptu open day line-up

Another arrival this morning. Well packed and all present and correct. Couple of photos to show the lighting function and spring hangers on the tender - hope they help. Very pleased with GT3 - sound is fantastic, even if there have been a few 'what the hell is that noise' comments from outside the railway room.

Really impressed with this pair. Both turned up today (thanks Kernow team). A initial panic with 21C7 when it just sat still and buzzed when power was first applied - no drive whatsoever. Luckily I spotted a short universal coupling loose in the ice cube tray. With the body off, it was clear that it belonged between the flywheel and worm drive and was easily fitted back into place, and 21C7 is now smooth as silk. It must have worked loose in transit or maybe wasn't quite ciipped in properly when first assembled. Just 35017 to turn up now ..........

This arrived at the depot this evening - presumably ready for a railtour duty tomorrow. The shed master was very complimentary about the shade of green, and I have to agree it looks very good. The air turned blue though when the fitters attempted to connect the tender to the loco. It's the old design of a metal bar with a small peg under the tender for it to engage with. The coupling bar is very loose at the loco end so a right fiddle to get it to engage and then turn the whole lot upright again without it letting go again. Seems Ok once on the track though. Shiny motion looks good. It's a sort of brushed steel effect rather than the chrome painted approach from years ago. I was hoping to have a pair of these to run as a double header, so quietly hoping that Burton Agnes Hall comes with the same finish.

Yes, this was indeed the 'Excalibur Express'. From 'Empire Mail Order Catalogue' in 2004 for £96.

A very nice set with the full spec A4 and coaches. I have one of these and my list says it was from 'Choice Catalogue' in 2011 for a very reasonable £117.

I haven't seen a photo of the Churchill version in the thread so far, so here's mine which turned up today. Very nice.

Five packs of freightliner versions checked (some supplied with containers, some not) and all OK. Four packs of Fastline versions - three Ok, but pack J has a long crack along the top of the spine on one and 'mazak failure' like distortion on the other one.

Thanks for posting this. I had exactly the same issue with my 20306 which arrived this morning. After a few mins of trial and error with the thickness of the folded paper, it was all sorted and is now an almost silent runner.

Good to know that they'll be be working out of Tonbridge. We could be seeing them on the Mountfield Gypsum trains then.