Matt Roe

Another vote for Wickness from me. I've bought a couple of decoders from them (Digitrax DN136PS) an the service has been excellent. The last one I bought arrived next day and the post & packaging cost was very reasonable - it was either cost or slightly less than cost. Good price on decoders too.

First order from Kernow arrived this morning - as everyone says, very speedy service. The order was dispatched in under an hour from delivery and arrived around 20 hours later. It was well packed (interesting to see the recycling of a Airfix catalogue!) so everything is in order. Sadly no signed receipt as they seemed to have moved to printed e-commerce printouts instead of till receipts. I can't blame them as I write and e-commerce system for a living so it makes more logistical sense! I'll have to see if I can 'engineer' a slight diversion through Camborne next time we go on holiday to St Ives.

Ha, sadly due to the current austerity measures imposed on the network Thomas is currently too expensive to be added into stock. The cost-to-benefit ratio is not high enough for the reward to outweigh the financial demand. Although a certain cousin would be most pleased if this decision was reversed; but as he is not supplying any funds to the TOC his opinion was ignored. The Fat Controller (aka Dad) has decided to supplement the existing 0-6-0 Pannier tank with a 2-6-2 Prairie, although in a used condition from the Lima works. The prejudice toward GWR is almost mandatory in this house...

Looking at the picture of the layout, from left to right, there is one 4x4' baseboard and then two 4x2' boards. The 4x4' board has a leg at each corner, the middle 4x2' board has no legs and the end 4x2' board has two legs at the end. The main reason for the leg configuration is that in it's largest configuration the layout will most likely have to span a bed of some sort. The join between the 2nd and 3rd boards holds well enough but it's not flat enough so I'm going to brace it with some more pieces of timber. I need to order some coach bolts that are long enough.

Thanks for the replies. I think the nomograph you were mentioning eastglosmog was something like this: http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_equip195.htm#inclines thanks for the tipoff. So for the most common locos on the level the haulage capacity of 10 tonne wagons and coaches (I'm kind of guessing here) would be: Loco ---------- Class ----------- Wagons ------------ Coaches King Special Over 90 13+ Castle D 75 11 Hall D 75 10-11? Collett Goods B 52 5600 Prairie D 75 4500 & 4575 Prairie C 54 5700 Pannier C 54 1400 Tank <A <46 Seems like some good numbers to start... Another table in the link above shows that on some routes locos hauled unto 100 empty wagons on some routes. With the limited amount of stock I have for my layout it does not seem that any locos I have will have any un-prototypical problems of hauling the various combinations of stock.

Hi, Can anybody tell me if there is a ready reckoner to covert loco Power Classifications into the number of coaches or wagons that can be hauled? I was just wondering what a reasonable number of wagons something like a GWR Prairie or Pannier tank could pull. Hopefully someone can help!

Track Laying I bought myself a pin pusher to make the track laying easier, however things did not go well when I tried to use the Peco SL-14 pins; they were useless with the plywood top. This delayed the track laying until I could get to the shops to buy some replacement Peco ST-280; these worked like a charm. Using the pin pusher was loads easier than trying to hammer them in, I didn't even bother drilling the sleepers - although it you wanted to make sure that you didn't deform them, then you would need to drill holes. All the pointwork had previously drilled holes. In the end it only took about a day to lay the track. I installed an aligned the point motors at the same time as laying the points, this made things much easier and was necessary because I used some M3 screws inserted through the baseboard to secure the point motors underneath. I'll post some photos later. Everything went OK, and I used a 21" Tracksetta for the outside track, but I got the inside track geometry wrong so had to re-lay it (coaches would clip each other). I used an 18" Tracksetta to make sure I didn't create too tight a curve. I hadn't laid track for over 20 years, so I'd simply forgotten about all the required clearances etc. This is how it all turned out: Next time: wiring.

Baseboards I decided upon just using 2x1.5" unplaned timber to provide the support, with a 9mm plywood top. As the baseboard was going to split into three pieces I ordered some alignment dowels to keep everything straight: It seem strange that considering the low price no local model shops stocked these - but maybe baseboards that separate are in the minority? In order to make the attachment of legs easy I decided to give these style of bracket a whirl: They seem to work out OK - it doesn't make for the most stable table, but they are fine for the purpose - with additional bracing I'm sure things could be made rock solid. To finish things off I gave each of the legs an adjustable foot. Here's how the top turned out: I'll add some pictures of the legs/feet and the baseboard joins when I take it all apart next.

Just ordered the King from KMRC for £69.99, could resist (another) shunters truck too for on £5... let's see how it all turns out!

Well, my 'proper' layout in Code 75 track has been stalled for quite a few years now, and in the meantime we have moved house and welcomed a daughter - with another one on the way! My daughter is now 2 (time flies) and she has a collection of cousins. Because of our proximity to Beer we have Annual Passes to Pecorama, and she has always enjoyed the 'choo-choos' and finds the exhibition fun. I've been keeping all my old Code 100 track and basic rolling stock, controller, point motors etc up in the loft waiting for 'a time in the future' to build a layout for the kids. This Christmas, to keep the cousins amused, I laid 5 yards of flexi down on the carpet and ran a train back and forth. It then struck me that it was silly to wait for a later date, and I may as well make use of the things I had now to allow the kids to get maximum enjoyment from the trains! Also the notion that trains are just for boys is a bit last century - my daughter gets very animated when watching the train pass by! After messing around with some track plans I came up with this: The idea is that it will split into three pieces, one 4x4' piece with all the points, then two 4x2' pieces. The middle 4x2' extension piece will be optional allowing two layout configurations: a smaller 6x4' layout and the full 8x4' layout. Next step - baseboard building...

Hattons may want you to do this, but under consumer law (Consumer Rights Act) your contract is with the retailer - Hattons. If something goes wrong in the first six months you are entitled to a full refund, after this a repair can be done or a partial refund given. Really you should return the item to Hattons - it is up to them (and their expense) to get it repaired themselves or send it back the the manufacturer. The limit of this is 6 years - but the fault has to have been there from the manufacturing process - I guess most model trains are going to break due to 'wear and tear' which is not covered.

I agree Johnster, and £5 is about right for the model you describe, but when others seem to want to charge £30 for models that do not run and 'need work' it seems to be getting a bit silly. But then if you are of the mindset that you must have that particular model - then I supposed someone will pay the asking price.

I know that I am resurrecting a two year old thread - but on the subject of secondhand prices: I've recently (finally) built a simple test track / round-and-round layout so that I can run locos round for my daughter and her various cousins etc. I have a collection of locos, but all of them are converted to DCC apart from one 20+ year old Hornby 0-6-0 pannier tank that I left as analogue. The pickups are a bit useless so I started to look around for something a little larger with more pickups so that running would be smoother. I've been really surprised at the price of secondhand models - they all seem to be fetching a premium. I can only put this down to (a) the price of new models and (b) the larger(?) number of people wanting to 'collect them all'. When you can buy a Railroad A1 from Hattons for £55 and a King from Kernow at £70 then some of the secondhand prices seem crazy. Admittedly the prices mention are at discount, but if you are just looking for a larger loco (as in my case) it makes anything secondhand seem unattractively priced. But it also seem mad to buy a new model, because surely a secondhand loco should suffice. It seems you can get nothing decent for less that £40-45 - the amount of what I would regard as 'tat' that is listed for £30+ on ebay and the big box shifters sites is plentiful. Am I being wishful here - but where are the decent secondhand locos for £30? It seems that if you own locos that you bought 10 years ago they will give you a good return - because new models have increase in price so much. However I agree with RANGERS - it makes the price of entry high for new entrants to the hobby. Am I missing something here?

Regarding the "King James I" R3331 - am I missing something, is there a reason no-one is buying this particular model? Did Hornby over-estimate demand, is everyone 'Kinged out'? At £70 it seems rude not to get one - in these times of more expensive models it is almost the cheapest new large model you can buy - apart from the Railroad A1s.

Thanks Ian - I'm not sure if you can get replacement connectors stand alone, but eBay will probably allow you to source a replacement lead - usually it has short length of Roco track attached. Suzie - yep I was aware you could gang together a couple of boosters/amplifiers, just forgot to mention it. And having looked inside, yes they are the same but without the sockets! As Ron said the 10785 and 10772 are rather rare and when I have seen them they are rather expensive - that's why I didn't mention them - a SPROG is the cheapest addition to the Multimaus for this IMHO. Ron - fair point on the consists - I've added 'automated' to the review to clarify, that's what I meant away - obviously anything that allows you to program CVs means you can manually setup a consist - although this may be too long winded for most people! Glad someone read the review ;-)