SRman

I didn't change the pockets and just used the supplied magnetic couplings straight out of their packet. Initially I used some Hornby short magnetic couplings which also worked well but left a very small gap on the straights. What didn't work with the Hornby couplings was the Bachmann to Accurascale join: the levels of the pockets were different and I had to mix the coupling lengths as well. Accurascale do supply alternative pockets which are set further back, but I haven't experimented with those at all.

I have been using the Accurascale supplied magnetic couplings on the Accurascale Mk 2Bs, and Hunt couplings on the two Bachmann Mk 2As that are currently forming my West of England rake. The Hunt couplings with a combination of lengths are now forming the connection between the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches. The set has been running like this for a few days now with no problems to report. The corridor connections are touching on the straight sections.

With the BRMA meeting due at my house in less than a fortnight, I am continuing to tidy the room up and complete small improvements, while all the time trying to ensure that nothing will stop the trains from running on the day. I have tweaked how the track sits on the revamped viaducts, keeping an eye on the very tight clearances at the curved end of the Wills viaduct. I removed a short section of the wall capping and filed a slight downwards slope on that end of the wall, but I will have to do something better with it later on. For the present, everything clears it properly. I also adjusted the rail lengths to eliminate a couple of excessive gaps at the joints. On the other end of the layout, I have added more railings alongside the goods yard to protect the main lines. I have used some modern key clamp style fencing, which is bright safety yellow, but I will eventually paint it all in a more neutral grey or silver-grey to suit the 1960s, which is basically what the layout is intended to represent. For the modern image stuff I'm currently running, the yellow is correct. Also in the last couple of days, I have printed out a track diagram for the upper level control panel, laminated it, and cut a section of acrylic sheet to mount it on. While there is no way I'll have any of the point motors wired in and connected for a while, I will be able to mount the Dapol signal control buttons in the panel. At present, they are hanging loosely off the edge of the layout below the running lines to the left. With the Underground control panel, I mounted the laminated sheet behind the clear acrylic, but that was prone to collecting the swarf from drilling the holes for the point control between the laminated sheet and the acrylic sheet. This time, I intend to mount the laminated printed sheet outside of the acrylic, so the acrylic being clear becomes a little academic; it's there purely for support.

I have to say the maroon grilles accentuate the superb detail that black paint on all the others tends to hide.

I don't know if this counts as a mistake or a historical change, but Leeds has a suburb called Cross Gates, but the station signs all say Crossgates as one word. I have seen it referred to elsewhere with both versions of the name.

You would most probably have to update the firmware. I had to with all of mine. As you say, it is easy enough, and quite painless! 😁

Hi Rich. I haven't tried the cranked Hunts, and don't actually have any here. A pity I didn't have that in mind when I put a recent order in with them for lineside items. What I am finding is the slight angle of the straight one caused by the Accurascale being slightly lower seems to alleviate the rubbing problem between the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches. I did note a slight scraping with the two Bachmann coaches but it doesn't seem to affect the running of the coaches at all.

I didn't intend doing the next stage of the viaduct conversion until after Sunday's meeting, but I changed my mind, thinking it wouldn't be too hard. While it didn't turn out to be really difficult, it did need a bit of manual labour, which my still very sore neck and shoulders didn't like. The main part was removing a little bit of the mdf track bed from the curved end bit to make room for three full arches of the Wills viaduct. The viaduct itself is being modified to have two arches in a straight line, and a third arch at an angle to lead the track into the end curve. This means I have to fill a gap in one side (the outer side) and also in the track bed. I haven't decided what to do with the pier under the widened bit, yet. There are three possibilities: Cut the pier down the middle and widen the outer end and fill all the consequent gaps; Add a section to the outside of the pier and blend that all in; Build an entirely new pier, using the old one as a guide to the style. Anyway, I have it all in place, but unfinished, so all trains are suspended and a replacement bus service might (or might not) be running. I can guarantee that currently any long bogie vehicles will not clear the side walls of the viaduct at the curved end. I'll have to anchor the track carefully, and also probably lower the ends of the side walls. The photos show the stage it's at now, but I had to suspend operations because my neck was causing me problems and I was getting too shaky to continue (try positioning fishplates with very shaky hands ... it's a recipe for the Chinese bamboo under the fingernails torture, using fishplates instead of bamboo needles!. 😂😂 Work will resume once I have rested a while.

While photographing the track, coaches and couplings, I also swapped the class 56 off the NSE coaches and put a Hornby class 50, 50 035 'Ark Royal' in Large Logo blue. I had actually intended to use an NSE liveried 50, but that hasn't been run for a while and was playing up just a little on curves, with pickup problems - that could be a loose wire somewhere. As I have a meeting here on Sunday, I can't spare the time for fiddly repairs to the loco, preferring to make sure the layout will run reliably while I have visitors. 56 120 is now on a mixed freight (Speedlink?), replacing 92 009 'Marco Polo', which posed for a photo just before being removed from the layout. Firstly the track shot. 92 009 'Marco Polo' on the goods train taken over by 56 120. 50 035 'Ark Royal' on the NSE set. 43XX 5320, visiting Newton Broadway, has picked up a couple of Southern CCT 4-wheel vans, possibly to carry more bananas than would fit in the dedicated banana vans. I should add some milk tanks to provide some cream to go with the bananas! 😅

Test running and minor track improvements have continued. The older bridge that runs diagonally over the Underground tracks is refusing to sit down properly at the inner end, creating a bit of a bump upwards for trains on the inner circuit. I have ground the rail heads down a little, and packed the adjoining track end up slightly. That has improved things considerably, but there is still a slight but noticeable bump as trains travel over it. All this testing also allowed me to test the close coupling arrangements on the Accurascale Mk 2B and Bachmann Mk 2A coaches. I have swapped the Accurascale ones to their own provided magnetic couplings. The Bachmann pair caused more problems though: within the pair I used a matched pair of Hunt magnetic couplings, but the join between the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches was more difficult due to the differing heights of the coupling pockets and also the different distances they have between the pockets and the outer edges of the corridor connections. I tried a pair of Hornby magnetic couplings, one short and one long, but that caused the accurascale bogie to lever upwards and derail on certain curves. The current arrangement has one medium and one short Hunt coupling, which seems to be able to cope with the slight height difference better than the Hornby set did. The coaches do look good with the close couplings, with almost no gap at all on straight tracks.

For many years the main shopping street in Gladstone, Queensland was the subject of arguments: some saying it's Gondoon Street, others insisting it's Goondoon Street. Which one was correct seems to have been settled now as all the signs say Goondoon nowadays. Google Maps also agrees with that.

No analogue ones left, but they still have the sound-fitted DCC versions for £210 each.

I got energetic for a while and got everything back together and running again. The outer track alignment needs a minor adjustment, more for appearance than anything else. Everything runs nicely on the new stuff, and the Underground S Stock has more clearance on the other side at the lower level (it was very, very close to the pier caps on the Wills viaduct before). Video posted to YouTube:

Many thanks for all this. I have been copying the information from the various posters who have helped, and saving them in a Word document for my own use later - it saves searching for it all later. I have cut in a new viaduct on Newton Broadway, and the first test train was a Cavalex class 56 on the Bachmann Mk 2As and Accurascale Mk 2Bs that I have so far. Yes, I know the 56 is really a freight loco, but it's on a special excursion! 😁

I'm still a bit shaky today, but I decided to bite the bullet and start on installing the viaduct, after joining the two halves together once and for all. That meant removing the adjoining bridge complex to its left (facing the front of the layout). I carefully marked the line I have to cut first, then removed the angled bridge complex, and then the Wills stone viaduct. The new one slid into place easily enough, and having slightly narrower footprint, allows more clearance for the Underground lines behind. I started cutting the track, then the wood and plastic floor and girders on the adjoining bridge, then tested it briefly, before trimming a tiny bit more off part of the joint. I am ready to put it all back together, once the glue sets from repairing the supporting girders on the long diagonal span over the Underground lines - they got dislodged in the manhandling involved with the cutting operations. All easily repairable, and anticipated in any case. So, the photos show the new bridge in its new location, and the adjoining bridges on the dining table awaiting the glue setting on thee first bit of the repairs, before I can glue the bottom support and remaining girder in place. Overall, I think this will work very well and achieve exactly what I had hoped - you can see just how much more visible the trains and station are behind the arches. I will have to relay a section of track along there, keeping an eye on clearances at the right-hand end of the viaduct, but that's not a huge task at all. There's 8cm of double track to replace on the end where the gap is.

It was quite common for small firms to start the wagon numbering much higher up than the actual number of wagons they possessed, to give the impression of being a bigger and/or more important concern. Wagon No. 50 may have been one of two wagons, for all we know. 😅

That's good news for me as I bought the blue and grey 17107 for use in my set. 😎 Did it get to NSE branding on blue and grey, or even into NSE livery at all?

I hadn't opened the accessory packs at that particular time, but had the Hornby ones handy in the train room. I may swap them over later. There are a few other bits, like air brake pipes, in the accessory packs I have to investigate whether I can fit them (or some of them) and run on my curves. I might also swap the buffers on just the end coaches, as soon as I finalise the formation. There's another coach to come yet, and later on, a Mk 2C TSOT to go in the middle of the set. At present I have left the improved Hornby coach in, but it does stand out just a little now, against the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches.

These photos show the lighting and the coaches as they are with the magnetic couplings installed. The lights are a little bright for my taste, but I don't know if there's an easy way to dim them.

A mixed bag to report on today. I attended the Diamond Valley model railway exhibition in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, on the British Railway Modellers of Australia stand on Easter Sunday. While I take things along to model, it really is more of a P.R. exercise to get like-minded people interested, and to chat to the public. I did achieve a little bit on converting one of two Dapol Turbot wagons to London Underground style, using 3D printed parts from Kim Durose (12A Models). I only did the main support parts and the end handrails, because I didn't want to lose the tiny bottom hinge parts; if any of those went pinging off into the distance, I would have no hope of ever finding them again at the exhibition, whereas at home I would at least have a chance of recovering them. Very conveniently, the holes in the ends left by removing the spill trays are exactly 13mm apart, which matches Kim's specifications for bending the end handrails. The photo was taken after I got home again. Unfortunately, after I had lunch and went for a wander around the exhibition, I fell backwards, landing fairly heavily on the wooden floor. I have jarred my neck, shoulders and back, but fortunately I didn't hit my head (not that there's much in there to damage!). I was quite shaken so that was the end of my modelling for the day. I have been refining the paint and weathering on the viaduct, and I am happy that it is ready to plant. There is still some scope to do a little more, but that can be done in situ. I will have to work out how to support the two adjoining girder spans before I do that though. I actually got it to this stage the day before the exhibition, but being rather stiff, sore and shaky after my fall, I have deferred trying to put the viaduct in just yet. Today, I had two parcels arrive simultaneously, one from AJM and one from Rails. Dealing with the Rails one first, it had the answer to a storage problem I had with the Roco Swedish IORE LKAB locomotive. this is a twin electric pair with a ribbon cable connection between the units to supply the second motor and lights from one decoder. That ribbon cable dislodges very easily while the loco is being handled, so now, with four of the new-style Peco loco lifts locked together, the whole loco can be easily lifted onto or off the layout without putting any strain on the inter-loco couplings and connections. This is what it looks like out of the cradle. There were a couple of other items in the Rails package for future use - several packs of Hornby coach wheels to convert the remaining Heljan locos with brass wheels, and some chain mesh fencing with a specific location on the layout in mind. Now to the remaining package: that had four of the Accurascale BR Mk 2B coaches. There are two TSOs, one in NSE livery and one in blue and grey with NSE branding, one FK in NSE livery, and one BFK in blue and grey with Inter-City branding, which I intend to remove and replace with NSE branding. I may or may not renumber this one in the future, but when all is said and done, who actually reads the coach numbers when they are travelling around at normal viewing distances? I have already experimentally replaced the tension lock couplings with Hornby's short magnetic couplings, which close up the inter-coach gap very nicely. The first photos show them with the original couplings in place. These coaches have not yet been run in a train, and have only been just placed on the layout for photos to be taken. More photos follow in the next post.

In Melbourne's suburbs (Australia) we have a suburb called Mont Albert. In the days when it was mainly green fields and bushland, the railway came through and put a station in to what was then Mount Albert. When the enamel signs for the station were delivered, they had omitted the "u" from Mount, and as it really didn't affect many people, it was decided to stick with Mont Albert as the name for what much later became a busy suburb. Not so much rail-related, when Matchbox released a model of their 1920 K type bus in East Surrey's blue livery, the destination screen had "Coptworne" on it as an intermediate point. That was supposed to read "Copthorne", a place I didn't live too far away from in the 1960s. Similarly, Corgi/OOC released a Southdown 'Queen Mary' Leyland PD3 bus with "Porchester" as its final destination: that should have been "Portchester". One of the worst on road vehicles was in the tiny legal lettering on the side of a support vehicle for Birmingham City Transport (Corgi 96895 Morris J van), which should have read "General Manager", but actually said "Genetal Manager"! They corrected it, but some escaped uncorrected (photo from Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianz-toyz/51274493088/).

If the locos are stopping on it and the outer two rails are powered, then it suggests that connecting the rails to the adjoining tracks may not work either. There may be a problem with the contacts connecting the through path for the electricity. As Graham108 suggested, try bridging the rails with wire first.

If you use a VPN, disable that temporarily. I find that mine sometimes interferes, but it's not every time.

Subsequent to my previous post, I looked at the SEMG site and there was a pic of a BFK in NSE livery. Thanks go to all the posters with the information on the types and formations too. Currently I have a mixed set based on nowhere in particular, with Bachmann Mark 1s in NSE livery (FK, CK, BSK, TSO), a Hornby Mark 2A TSO in NSE livery (flush glazing improved this one a bit), and a couple of Bachmann Mark 2A TSOs, one in NSE livery and the other in unbranded blue/grey. I realised that adding just the one Accurascale 2B TSO was going to stand out because of the lighting, with a Mk 2C TSOT pre-ordered to come later, meaning I would have to add lights to all the others, or make sure I always turned the lights off on the two Accurascale coaches. Hence, I put in the order for four more Accurascale coaches from AJM, so I only have two Bachmann Mk 2As to add lights to, and maybe the Hornby one, although I may retire that one and sell it. I'll have to see about getting another BFK now, preferably in NSE livery.

I very recently ordered some more of the 2Bs, from a retailer who could still supply certain of the models. I wanted a Brake 1st, but the only one they have is an Inter-City branded version, whereas I want NSE branding, so I'll be doing the reverse of what you intend. 🙃 I'm not sure if NSE had Brake 1sts or downgraded them to Brake 2nds, but that's something I'll worry about later.