Rhydgaled

Doesn't look too bad from those angles, but when I ran mine while kneeling on the floor (so I was looking up at the model) I could see a bit of red glow below the tanks just in front of the cab - it looked like the fire had melted a hole in the bottom of the loco! Are they all like that or has mine been sub-optimally put together? I won't be sending it back as it ran wonderfully - going smoothly through a shutting exercise when everything else stalls at least once. It does make a slightly unhealthy noise at higher speeds but I'm guessing that would iron itself out if I was able to run it in properly - my brother asked me to see how fast it could go but I can only turn the knob so fast and my shunting plank is quite short so by the time I'd reached full speed and started slowing down again the rear tension lock had put a slight scratch on the Peco buffer stop at the end of the siding. No damage to the loco fortunately.

For years I've been planning to make up new boxes for my unboxed rolling stock using the white stuff that is like little balls all stuck together (I think it's called expanded polystyrene) that Hornby used to use for train sets and loco packaging. Because I will be using random bits of this polystyrene from incoming packaging etc. I intended to line the inside of the box with cotton sheeting (I think I read somewhere it should be undyed cotton to avoid damaging models) as a barrier to avoid reactions between the polystyrene and the paint. I've finally obtained a hot wire cutter to cut the polystyrene but as well as a bit of white cotton I've been offered some silk and some muslin fabric. Does anyone know if silk and viscose (which, according to Google, can be a component of muslin) are safe to use in contact with models for a prolonged period?

According to that link, that colour is available in Satin (Dull) and Gloss finish and is used for "signal arms, vehicles, brakedown trains and Warning Panels from introduction until 1985." For post 1985, there is this shade which is available in Satin (Dull) finish only. I've not tried either shade myself so cannot vouch for the finish. Railmatch also do the post 1985 colour in acrylic (and possibly the earlier colour too, I'm not sure), but I cannot vouch for the finish on any of these either.

If you haven't already weathered them, could you make sure to grab some pics before you do please? Mine will not be weathered, although if my GWT respray goes well I am toying with the idea of doing a fictional version of Swallow livery with a 91-style white front end which if I go through with it will need some light weathering on the white bits.

Railtec have 'by livery' pages, for example here is the page for First Great Western (though don't ask me why the LSL Midland Pullman is on that list) which is mostly dynamic lines stuff but also includes the Fag Packet transfers including some gold bands here. Unfortunately for you this apparently "contains the gold band / fading white lines" while the Barbie livery has no fading white lines and instead has a pink line running along the top of the gold band. You would also need gold 'Great Western' lettering on a blue background interupting the gold/pink band. On the plus side, if you can print transfers at home I'm not sure the 'gold' band looks particularly metalic in the pictures I just found by searching Flickr eg. this one.

You can see Llansteffan castle from trains going through Ferryside. Although I'm not sure if you can see the castle from the station itself (the footbridge is probably the best bet), this photo was taken not all that far from the station. Another one is Cardigan - railway long gone but I'm pretty sure you'd have been able to see at least parts of the station yard from the castle. A few years ago I did some messing around with Photoshop and created this (very much a fictional image - lots of things 'wrong' about it):

See the red text I've added to the quote from what appears on the website, I may have made some incorrect assumptions... Obviously the plan has changed a little with the addition of GWR livery (RT-143-311 and RT-143-312), possibly replacing the 'Visit Bristol' version, but what's happened to the ValleyLines version that was going to be in the second batch of 143s?

Railtec do a complete ex-GWR loco transfer pack which includes the power classification circle. I'd message them first to be sure, and I've never bought anything from them, but given some of what they've written on this fourm they seem to do their research so would probably make sure the white A was provided. Might have to wait a while for a response though, as they seem to be really busy.

Years back, on the livery Photoshoping topic, @Markmiller2008 asked... I had a go at Photoshopping the image of 82302 that Mark provided, but I had no idea what Chiltern intended so the result probably bares no resemblance. I had assumed the original plans would never see the light of day, and 82302 would remain a mystery. However, a few weeks back I was looking for information on non-standard mark 3s (the Chiltern/WSMR Galley coaches being one such item) and stumbled across this where DapolDave (as I believe he was at the time) implied that he had seen the artwork for the full set including class 67. I know it's a long shot, but does anyone still have said artwork and if so would you be willing to share it please?

A word of warning in case anyone is looking for reviews on Google and comes across this topic... I have read elsewhere (see below) that the HM2000 is not compatible with some modern Ready To Run rolling stock. Specifically, it has the potential to kill coreless motors.

Did you mean that last sentence to be the other way around? Because if it performs well on DCC but not on analogue, changing the settings on the digital chip won't help on analogue particularly since the chip wouldn't even be installed if running on analogue? In other news I see there are now photos of all 22 variants on the Model Rail offers sales pages, Yay! However, despite most of the models featuring the BR early crest, the only one with an early crest and brass safety valve cover is the BR green one. Thus recreating this or this (pictures of the preserved one in BR black, one with a copper cap chimney and one with an all-black chimney) will require more than just a re-number. I note from the picture of the CAD earlier that the saftey valve cover is a seperate part, I wonder if it is easier to remove that for repainting to resemble brass or to remove the late crest printing from MR-304B and apply an early crest transfer.

Don't suppose you have some Isambard Kingdom Brunel nameplates for 43003 in there too?

I think Fox do a few of them if this is what you mean. I've not seen them 'in the flesh' though so can't vouch for the quality/accuracy of the finish.

Has anyone got a black one AND one of the green 1638 variants? I'm starting to wonder if the black livery makes the tank weld seems look more obvious than the green and am wondering if somebody can confirm that. First time I've seen the BR green one, looks rather nice but this illustrates that the descriptions are not enough to go on for choosing between the different variants. The colour of chimney caps and safety valve covers is not included in the descriptions, and is it me or is the BR crest on this one smaller (or positioned higher up) than on the 'vinegar castle' model? There seems to be more space to add lining around the crest on this one. Want I'm looking for is a minimal-effort path to getting 1638 as-presevered with brass/copper safety value and chimney cap but in inauthentic lined black (because I've wanted both a 16xx and a lined black pannier for ages and this kills 'two birds with one stone' by saving me buying an 8750 as well). Ultimately, I may chicken out of adding the lining but would be hugely helpful if there is space for it and I don't need to redo the BR crest. Apparently, there are also tooling differences between the variants beyond the spark-arrester chimneys: If the top of the bunker is plastic presumably there are different styles of bunker. Which of the black ones are suitable for renumbering to 1638 as preserved (and please don't feel the need to rush to answer, I can be patient as long as the models don't sell out)?

I wouldn't hold out much hope if I were you. The photoshops for the LNER and BR/LNER farewell tour, 407xx buffets both show the standard TF/TS roof (both Pullman buffets (here and here) are shown with the plain roof too). Since they presumably have a correct 407xx image they could photoshop into the desired livery, this suggests they are expecting/intending to use the wrong roof on the 407xx buffets. Only the dynamic lines one (probably a Limby RFM) and the Network Rail buffet seem to be shown with vents in the middle of the roof. I would say that the mark 3s (livery errors and use of wrong rooves/interiors excepted) are of an equal level of detail, the problem is the inconsistency and lack of tooling variants. There is a huge range of different mark 3 vehicles; you have the basic types 3a, 3b, sliding door and plug door (is there any visible different between the IC125 trailers and the mark 3b?), with/without central door locking and various buffets with different window layouts plus of course the TGS and BFO. I'm quite happy with the level of detail, and wouldn't want to pay more for fine seperately fitted details which could easily be snapped off, but Hornby do need to at least get the rooves right, tool up a proper 4-window IC125 buffet and ideally make tooling slides (or something) that allows them to include/exclude central door locking lights from all the different vehicle types at will (no more being stuck with CDL lights). I agree; I thought the Blue Pullman power cars were more expensive because a tooling change had been necessary, now it doesn't appear there is any reason for the price increase. Even without the price increase, the super detail HST power cars are firmly in the 'finescale super detail model that I'll probably just ruin by heavy handling snapping off fine details' bracket for me. At that price, I can sympathise with those who expect the details to be spot on, down to the exact number of 'rivets' on the 'washer' around the headlight. I'm not in the market for the Blue Pullman livery one anyway, but even if they produced one in accurate Swallow livery I think I'll stick with Lima; the super detail model is just too expensive.

I know this is an old topic, but I thought it better to keep related queries together rather than starting a new topic to ask a similar question. I have found most of the colours for Great Western Trains livery on the Fox Transfers site (which seems to stock both Pheonix Precision and Railmatch paints): PP241 Great Western Trains Green PP242 Great Western Trains Silver White PP243 Great Western Trains Buff RM2202 Warning Panel Yellow (late version) What I'm planning to do is brush-paint some squares of plasticard and send them off for analyis to have some matching spray cans made up. I may also use the tins to touch up any scratches on my existing Lima GWT HST (the spray cans will be to paint a Hornby Railroad power car to match), can anyone confirm that the Pheonix Precision colours are a good match for Lima's GWT HST? However, I'm not sure whether I should also order the transfers to complete the livery from Fox. Does anyone else do them? I know it's N gauge and mine is OO, but this is the only GWT HST respray I've been able to find photos of (other than one on Hattons where, apparently, the paint had faded) and the green paint doesn't seem to be a good match to the green on the transfers at all. Fatadder's 47830 appears to be a better match than either, but of course the class 47 requires a different set of transfers to the class 43. Anyone have a HST done with Fox transfers and Pheonix paint they can share pictures of? I'm also after the Isambard Kingdom Brunel nameplates for 43003, strictly speaking I don't think they are correct for the GWT era but the plates realy made an impression when I saw them on the real loco. However Fox's picture isn't very clear so I'm not sure if the image of Brunel really comes across properly when scaled down to 4mm scale. I think Shawplan do the same plates as well. Anyone have pictures of the 4mm scale plates (any make) to help me decide whether it is worth fitting fictional (for my era) plates to my 43003?

Yes, it's entirely possible. I bought some second hand Lima and Bachmann stuff (IC125 and old-tool class 158s) before I knew there was such a thing as coreless motors. Had any of those items been powered by coreless motors I could have killed them with no idea why. Even now, the list of coreless models on this topic may not be exhaustive, so even if I check here before buying I could be in trouble. Even if new controllers are labelled 'not suitable for models with coreless motors', those already sold will not be carrying said labels. On controllers (not models obviously) perhaps the label should also be afixed to the item itself not just the box (I don't have the original box for my HM2000). Coreless motors may have advantages, but if fitted it needs to be made at least as obvious as a DCC-fitted model.

Thanks Bill, much appreciated - assuming I finally make up my mind on which version to buy (I am terrible at making decisions) before they are all sold out I can now rest easy knowing my controllers shouldn't wreck the motor.

Thanks. The motor is not coreless then, so should be fine with feedback controllers; good to know.

It's still a subset of controllers regardless of whether it is a majority or a minority. If I understand correctly, controllers (the superset) can be divided into feedback and non-feedback, and the feedback ones can be further subdivided into high and low frequency. Low-frequency feedback controllers may make up only a small proportion of controllers, but they are still controllers. Given that Hornby is a major player in the model railway industry and (as far as I'm aware) both my Hornby controller models are feedback (and one of them was bundled with every Hornby train set for a fair period of time) I'd imagine they are quite common.

Just thought I had better check, are these models compatible with low-frequency feedback controllers? The advert in the magazine lists the J70 as having a 'Coreless' motor and the 16xx as having a 'Five-pole' motor so I assumed it would be ok, but I believe even coreless motors have poles. I'm also assuming that, since only one price is listed and there is no indication either way, that these are DCC-ready models (not DCC-fitted).

I have a few kicking around, most of them from train sets. Given that I don't have my layout set up in a fixed location at the moment I use whichever controller is easiest to hand whenever I want to run something. As a result about half the time I use one speed dial on my HM2000 (have no need of the other at the moment) and the other half I use a Hornby R.965. This webpage lists both as feedback models. Yes, it is made by Rapido, but the specification page in Model Rail lists the motor as "Five-pole" while the J70 is listed as "Coreless" so I assumed the 16xx would be ok. That said, I think I did read somewhere that a motor can be both five-pole and coreless so I'll ask on the 16xx topic to make sure. I agree, if there's a compatibility issue between different products one might use together it needs to be made obvious. I too dislike the idea of having to change my controllers because RTR producers have started using motors that are only compatible with a subset of controllers. Thanks; I'll have to keep an eye out for Bachmann releasing a second batch.

No first class vehicle with accessible toilet; was the accessible toilet only added at the Mallad refurb or has Hornby removed the wrong first class coach?

Does this apply to the Bachmann (OO gauge) 64xx as well? I'm avoiding coreless motors because I am led to believe by at least one website that my controllers have feedback, but was planning to get a 64xx if Bachmann does another batch of liveries with one I actually would want. Do I need to change my plan to avoid a 64xx (in which case my autocoach would be fictiously worked by a Model Rail 16xx - I'm assuming that they won't be coreless)?

Thanks for this. 12.15mm on the sliding door mark 3s is closer to the 11.5mm diameter of my Limby power car, can you post some pictures of power cars and mark 3s together to see if they look like they are riding at the same height? Here's what the standard Hornby wheelset looks like with a Limby power car: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/91035-ride-height-comparison-coach-e-and-power-car/ If the new wheelsets fix this problem, can Hornby sell them as spares for those of us with the slam-door mark 3s?