Taigatrommel

I would imagine that some journalist contacted them for comment, and out of goodwill and in the interests of PR they responded.

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/techniques/how-to-create-rust-with-hairspray/#:~:text=Hairspray rust effects are pretty,dry%2C paint the top coat.

NEM 355 specifies 6mm from buffer face to coupling pocket for close coupling. I'm curious as to which Tillig stock you have that doesn't correspond to this. All my Tillig coaches do, which includes: DB UIC-X coaches Eurofimas Halberstadts (centre door and end door) Type Y/B Third generation double deck coaches FWIW I have a selection pack of Hunt couplings, but I would much prefer to have one type across my stock. At this point coupling choices aren't my question, it's whether or not Hornby have followed established practise and NEM spec.

The traverser comes as a complete kit with a base so it joins up to other G&H boards easily. I presume the turntable would be the same

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to measure how far back from the corridor face the front of the coupling pocket is on the mk3s. Seeing pictures they appear to have quite a gap on straight track rather than nearly touching like my continental TT coaches do. According to Hornby technical support they conform to NEM 355, but I'm not convinced. As it stands it's the only thing that really detracts from an otherwise lovely model.

Hi Ken, In the direction they slide, the Grainge & Hodder traversers move all but 50mm of their width, in the case of a 400mm board, that's 350mm of movement. In the other direction, no movement! So in your plan layout track A can align with all fiddle yard tracks but layout track B would only only align with fiddle yard tracks labelled B. Now I realise two tracks exit the layout to fiddle yard, I think traversers may be the most sensible option, as aligning track A with a turntable might be awkward.

Hi Ken, I'm using Grainge & Hodder boards, I quite like them. In your planning, bear in mind that the traverser only slides one direction with the supplied runners, so a track coming in from the centre of a baseboard will only be able to access half of the tracks on the traverser. If a turntable board is long enough for the trains you wish to run, it will have an added benefit of reducing the handling of stock. However, I opted for traversers to be able to run as continuous or end to end and to be able to use two as one longer fiddle yard.

I presume it was scrapped, I've had one of the plaques off it in my possession for nearly two decades. Apologies for thread drift, I literally only just saw this post.

I think Photoshop, they had only just had the tooling samples which hadn't yet been assembled on April 2nd.

Freight continues to be the theme as I've also started on the Laderampe (loading dock), a high level platform which will mostly be used by vans.

I hadn't even thought about the Nohabs, they're a rather long in the tooth model now! I had a selection of BTTB examples at one point including a Belgian one. The V36 is one of the BTTB models needing least work to be presentable in my opinion. Now that's got me thinking of mixed German and British stock in North Africa and the middle East, a G12 alongside an 8F... I was only really thinking about RTR in my statements, I've seen some really good Swiss outline modelling from 3D prints - in that respect, anything is possible!

Although a lot is said about TT being available on the continent, really it's only Germany and eastwards that it's popular in. Even Austrian is only represented with types commonly seen in Germany. In terms of French, there's not even a TGV, and they operate into Germany. There's the odd relivery of a wagon, and there was a start set with a 285 in Fret colours, though IIRC it was a German registered machine actually operated by SNCF owned ITL based in Pirna (near Dresden). On the Dutch front, I've seen some stock of varying accuracy, but it's not something currently available. I think most was made by PSK. In terms of UK stock operating overseas for bulking out sales, the 56s and 86s in Hungary would seem the best bet. Would the extra sales there match that of cult types such as Westerns and Deltics though? There's a decent potential in some lineside bits though. There's all sorts of road vehicles from the late 80s on which would be useful whether modelling Prague or Peterborough. Freight complimentary buildings such as cement or stone loaders would be brilliant. The equivalent of Wills sheets ... Auhagen do some good bits and bad bits on that front, there's certainly space for more.

There's not anything I'm aware of in terms of container wagons that ran in the UK. Although my desire for a DMU hasn't yet been met, I did think that the J50 was a pretty good choice for a tank engine given that the steam locos that have already made it to customers are LNER designs. Maybe not the most numerous type, but with the additional context of having recently been researched for OO I can see the reasoning behind it. Hornby still seem fairly bullish about TT, I'm cautiously optimistic that in the not too distant future I'll be able to plan a sector era layout sharing the fiddle yard with my German TT. For now though, my only pre-orders are a 50 and mk2Fs, which in spite of many saying they don't go together certainly could be seen in one train south of Birmingham in the 80s. I do understand how at this point modellers would be reluctant to take the plunge, even though the launch announcements went far beyond what I could have imagined I was still saying to friends that I would guess five years before a really era/location coherent layout could be put together using RTR. We're not even 18 months down that road! I'm very interested in TT, but I think realistic in my expectations.

I'm already interested in what tomorrow will bring. Work means I'll be late to the foam party, so I'll throw my predictions in now and see how good a guess they were tomorrow lunchtime. Like lots of people are saying already, I think we'll see what the first small steam loco release will be. My guess is a Jinty. Further mk1 varieties make sense. The lowest hanging fruit are SKs or SOs, then BGs and RBs. The first two are already announced, the last is in the 00 range. Both the latter will sit nicely with the mk2Fs. As the VEA is planned, a vanwide could slot in nicely. I'm not very clued up on wagons, but my hazy memory suggests that the chassis could be useful for other types. Lowfit and 16t mineral wagons? Rather than being a prediction, the one thing that could push me into taking up British TT is a DMU. 101 is the most obvious, but for me any of 101/108/116/117/118 would be all the carrot I need. A 150/2 would do it too! Really though, all I'm expecting is some more detailed information on the phase 3/4 models laid out in the initial brochure.

Today I've made a start on the Ladestraße , forming cobbles and edging stones in foamboard. It's slow but relaxing work.

Yeah, if the SmartControl Light WLAN had Loconet I'd be snapping one up, or if the throttle could communicate by any other protocols the way the DAISY II WLAN can. I hadn't twigged that the SmartControl Light was no longer being sold by Piko. In light of this, I'll revise my recommendation to the Uhlenbrock Daisy II, though it costs a bit more for the start set.

How about a Piko SmartControl Light? £145 at DCCTrainAutomation, controls up to 24 functions. As Loconet devices there's absolutely heaps of add ons available from various manufacturers (e.g. computer interface), and you'd be able to use the throttle with other systems such as Digitrax or Z21. It allows a library of named locomotives with a selection of icons which you can further adapt by adding icons above the functions to represent their use on a given loco - useful for sound. The SmartControl Light is basically a rebranded Uhlenbrock Daisy II - this is my go-to throttle whether I'm using the Fleischmann Twin-Center that runs my coffee table layout, or the YaMoRC YD7001 that I use for my main projects. Even having Z21 on iPad and phone I'm far more likely to plug the throttle in.

I cut short my waffling because every time I tabbed away on my phone I lost half of what I'd written. To continue... Starting with an existing plan for which I have a vision in my head speeds up the initial build. I've ordered traverser fiddle yards from Grainge & Hodder, but they'll probably be a few weeks yet. Once they're here I'll have enough to make a continuous run. The curves are a little tight, but I've tempered that a little by adding some cant. Control is DCC for both trains and S&T. I've updated my DR5000 to be a YD7001, and have made a panel in the Z21 app. In practise though it's more convenient changing points with my Daisy II while shunting, but that will be a different matter once I've added signals. I have some Alphamodell DR Hl signals, but it turns out that the shunt aspect is just a dummy and doesn't light up, so I'll have to source some Erbert signals - these aren't quite as nice cosmetically, but if I'm having signalling, I'll make it fully functional! While Z21 will allow me to have an operational panel quickly, I'd like make a push button panel that talks to Loconet via an Arduino Mega and Loconet shield. I experimented with Dapol knuckle couplings, they're OK on short wagons but with the long coaches they uncouple on the curves. As I'd rather not have multiple coupling types, I'll stick with the standard TT coupling, using a magnet from above while shunting freight stock and having an remote uncoupler disguised as a foot crossing for passenger run rounds. This uses a REPA uncoupler. There's a 12v DC bus round the layout for Arduinos, so it's fed from that. Platform edging is balsa, I'll fill in the space in front of the station building with XPS foam sheet. The very narrow island platform has precedents in Germany, even if it looks odd I liked the quirkiness of it. I sprayed the tracks with Humbrol 173 acrylic, and painted the rail sides with Humbrol 113. I'll weather the tracks further once ballasted, but there'll be a lot to do before I'm at that point.

I've been struggling to find a station building that I like for Unter den Tassen, but with mojo actually flowing I've embraced it and started on something to display my TT stock on. A few years ago I built an H0 terminus called Bad Horn which was quite pleasing, I always wished it had been just a bit wider - the scenic section was 8' x 1'. There'd been chat with modelling friends about how it could work as a thorough station, and how a loco spur could be good extended to be a loading siding. Having some baseboards kicking around (Grainge & Hodder laser cut) it occurred to me that I could revisit Bad Horn, and the standardised baseboard ends would allow setting it up in multiple configurations. There wasn't any need to work out a plan, this being a revisit of an old idea. Though modelling German outline I try to support my local model shop where I can, so bought Peco code 55 TT track rather than my previous Kuehn (now Roco). I like the finer rail appearance, though Kuehn's sleeper configuration is somewhat more accurate for German outline. Horses for courses I guess. There isn't a double slip in the code 55 range yet, so I trimmed the sleepers down on an H0m example. Point actuation is through servos in MERG mounts driven by Arduino Unos running ArCoMoRa Mardec, I.e. DCC controlled. Microswitches on the mounts switch frogs as necessary. Having flat topped baseboards I wanted to try and have a little relief, so I've used 3mm cork roadbed. At baseboard ends I've used ModelTech rail aligners, with pattern makers dowels further keeping things in place. Enough words for now, it's time for pictures. A Piko 228 awaits departure with Tillig Halberstadts and an Arnold Reko van. The station building is Busch's Bahnhof Elbingerode, and not yet finished. Looking the other direction we see a Roco 201 shunting Tillig covered hoppers (Tds) under the road and rail stone loader. Some old Berliner wagons laden with sugar beet wait collection from what will be the main Ladestraße. There's another siding on the building side.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2024/03/20/100-year-old-british-lner-train-carriage-rises-from-the-flemish/ The article describes it as a carriage, to my eyes it's a container, but I don't know a lot about LNER stock.

I find dead marjoram stalks can make for convincing logs in TT and H0, sometimes it even grows nice and straight!

None of the mentioned models from Bachmann have traction tyres. Having a quick look at your YouTube channel, there are fairly tight curves. These could be creating resistance that affects the different units within a train at different moments.

There's not really a comprehensive range available in N, although of course kits and 3D prints fill some gaps. A good friend of mine models Dutch N and voices his frustrations often, though he does enjoy it. A few from memory, not all are currently available Units Mat '54 Hondekop: Piko Wadloper: Fleischmann Koploper: Minitrix PTT Post: Railcar from Arnold, wagons from Roco Electric locos 1100: Piko 1200: Piko 1600/1700/1800: Fleischmann, Minitrix 186: Arnold Diesel locos 2200: Piko 2400: Piko 6400: Minitrix Non NS types that run in the Netherlands include Vectron (Fleischmann), G1206 (Piko), Class 66 (Kato), ES64F4/BR189 (Hobbytrain/Minitrix), Traxx E186 (Arnold/Minitrix), Stadler GTW (Piko) That's just a starter off the top of my head, there is more but I can't remember what offhand!

If any reader finds themselves considering a Fleischmann Twin-Center (basically an IB), I'd suggest making sure it has V2.0 software already installed as Fleischmann's website no longer generates the code for upgrade even if you buy the CD with serial number. V2.0 allows access to very high numbers of functions and using the unit as a Loconet slave throttle, plus other nice features such as detecting the address of a loco newly put on the layout. If you do find one, it can be a decent bit of kit for not a large spend secondhand. There's PC interface (you'll need a USB-serial adapter, they're cheap enough), Loconet T & B, s88, plus a blanked off DIN socket that I don't know the purpose of! On one of my two the "3" button is getting a bit unreliable, I must investigate it. These days a DR5000 is my main command station, but it's reassuring to have backup. I had an automated layout running with a laptop hooked up to a Twin-Center.

I would say the red stripe sits a bit lower on the mainline liveried 37s and the Bachmann release, about two slats so on the visible grilles on Denny's 37409 picture.