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Hornby 2021 - 4 & 6 wheel period coaches


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2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

But how could you possibly resist that so expressive 6-wheel brake? It's just looking at you saying "build me"!

 

I never said I have enough 6 wheel stock.

 

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

By the way, who was on Stroudley's drawing office staff?

 

I'd have to get back to you on that, unless someone else beats me too it

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You will be pleased to read that I have now received my R.40072 LB&SR 4 wheel brake baggage coach no. 102 from Kernow in a jiffy bag.  A cardboard cover protected the Hornby box so it arrived intact. On the box it says that it is a detailed scale model. I have pre-ordered the rest of the LB&SCR coaches from Kernow but after many years it is nice to have a passenger brake coach to run with my LB&SCR locomotives.  My main interest is the Swanage Railway, which was a London and South Western Railway branch, but I often used to visit the Bluebell Line, I lived in Worthing for a long time and I have got a collection of Southdown buses.

 

I like the brake wheel inside and the glazing at the end of the coach.  The coach ran well on my second radius curves and points but occasionally derailed above a baseboard joint where the curved track met the straight track so I cannot run it unattended.  I am looking forward to receiving the remaining LB&SCR coaches and a rake of LSWR coaches which are due in April.

P1000446.JPG

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I have realised the true justification for having some of these carriages: it's so one always has a spare CR2032 cell to hand for when the one in the kitchen scales gives up.

 

The supermarkets sell CR3032s in packets of two: they know perfectly well that you'll never find the safe place where you put the second one from last time the scales gave up.

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9 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I have realised the true justification for having some of these carriages: it's so one always has a spare CR2032 cell to hand for when the one in the kitchen scales gives up.

 

The supermarkets sell CR3032s in packets of two: they know perfectly well that you'll never find the safe place where you put the second one from last time the scales gave up.

I use these things all over the place, it seems. Bathroom scales, DCC command station, clinical thermometer, bank card-reader......

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29 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

The supermarkets sell CR3032s in packets of two: they know perfectly well that you'll never find the safe place where you put the second one from last time the scales gave up.

 

IIRC, IKEA do them in packets of 8 or 10

 

18 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

I use these things all over the place, it seems. Bathroom scales, DCC command station, clinical thermometer, bank card-reader......

 

And my bank card-reader uses CR2025...which are like hens' teeth in comparison. :rolleyes:

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Regarding CR2032 button batteries,

 

Firstly, NEVER let/leave them for toddles/infants to play with. They swallow them with awful consequences.

 

Secondly, a lot of us modellers are well capable of letting a decade, (or two!), slip by before re-opening an item of rolling stock for that project "you were just about to start".

We just never seem to get round-to-it.

How many have been sold, for an "intentional" long term project, and had the batteries removed - not many I bet.

 

I would hate to see the results of festering batteries on models of this quality.

 

 

Kev.

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36 minutes ago, SHMD said:

Regarding CR2032 button batteries,

 

Firstly, NEVER let/leave them for toddles/infants to play with. They swallow them with awful consequences.

 

Secondly, a lot of us modellers are well capable of letting a decade, (or two!), slip by before re-opening an item of rolling stock for that project "you were just about to start".

We just never seem to get round-to-it.

How many have been sold, for an "intentional" long term project, and had the batteries removed - not many I bet.

 

I would hate to see the results of festering batteries on models of this quality.

 

 

Kev.

 

That's why I ordered mine without lighting!

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1 minute ago, JSpencer said:

 

That's why I ordered mine without lighting!

 

I (pre-) ordered one with lights because I was curious about the Hornby system and how it compared with the latching relay system I've used.

 

I'm sure it will come out if I don't like it.

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1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

I have realised the true justification for having some of these carriages: it's so one always has a spare CR2032 cell to hand for when the one in the kitchen scales gives up.

 

It's all very well for you lot to laugh. It wasn't your muffins that came out soggy.

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3 hours ago, SHMD said:

Regarding CR2032 button batteries,

 

Firstly, NEVER let/leave them for toddles/infants to play with. They swallow them with awful consequences.

 

Secondly, a lot of us modellers are well capable of letting a decade, (or two!), slip by before re-opening an item of rolling stock for that project "you were just about to start".

We just never seem to get round-to-it.

How many have been sold, for an "intentional" long term project, and had the batteries removed - not many I bet.

 

I would hate to see the results of festering batteries on models of this quality.

 

 

Kev.

I bought some 2032s yesterday and was amazed to find some with a special bad tasting coating. There you go. I would never consider carriage lighting by means of batteries. Split axle pickups and a smallish buffer capacitor (220 microFarad or so) and charging resistor/diode works just fine to kill flicker.

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7 minutes ago, sparaxis said:

Split axle pickups and a smallish buffer capacitor (220 microFarad or so) and charging resistor/diode works just fine to kill flicker.

 

But flicker may be what you're after, for oil lamps at least.

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9 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

But flicker may be what you're after, for oil lamps at least.

True, but the brighter - darker sort of flicker. (Actually dim and dimmer) not the Sahara desert at midday/dark side of the moon type of flicker. Not to tabulate rivets or anything...but Hornby's lighting is way too bright for both oil and gas. I suppose the "public" would complain if their nice new illuminated carriages had only a glimmer of light instead of glowing like a fireball. 

 

I have a gas lamp in my front garden and I am old enough to remember kerosene lanterns at my grandparents house, before they had electricity. No-one tried to read after dark.

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For a DC layout, I would never consider anything other than on-board battery supply for coach lights.

 

Lighting on layouts is by and large far, far, too bright.  We have all seen the exhibition layout with overbright station and depot lighting, trains lit to an insane level, signals that would burn a driver's retinas out at 1,000 yards, street and building lights, and of course the obligatory flashing road works lights, police/ambulance/fire engine blue flashers, blinding oxy cutter in a building, and a bonfire.   Aren't we clever, just look at our lights, they flash, LOOK AT OUR LIGHTS, LOOK, LOOK, LOOK!!!!!  You get the gist.

 

Steam era lighting was pathetic, I mean really pathetic.  Even electric lighting in coaches was measly 24volt 25watter filament bulbs, a feeble dim yellow glow that was feebler and dimmer in the smoking compartments as a layer of yellow tobacco stain covered everything.  Signal lighting for semaphores was oil, as were loco head and train tail lamps, and even yard lighting was nowhere near as bright as it is now and has been since the 60s.  Platform lighting was mostly 60 watters, 100 watters tops, and of course where oil or gas was still used a good bit dimmer than that.  Flicker wasn't really noticeable unless the wind was very strong, but brake van side lights were vulnerable.  Building interiors were lit by 40 watters, 60 tops.  That's about the level of a 10 watt modern energy saver lamp when it's warmed up.

 

As a rule of thumb, if you can see steam era carriage lighting or semaphore signal lamps in the layout's normal ambient lighting, which represents daylight, they are far too bright and need to be toned down.  I do this by painting over the leds with a dilute cream acrylic, building up coats until I get the look I want; this method is perfectly adaptable to coach lighting.  Cool cast lighting is wrong for steam era; filament, oil, and gas lamps give off a warm yellow/cream glow. 

 

Post 1960s, the world rapidly morphed into something resembling it's current condition, cool and brighter flourescents in buildings and coaches, better street and platform lighting, and eventually powerful leds giving off a very white light.  High Intensity loco lights are still very noticeably brighter than other lights, so some wobble room must be built in to your lighting system to allow for this.  Much coaching stock built during the 70s and later has tinted windows, and it is important not to overlight such interiors because of the light loss through the windows.  Any flashing lights are usually fairly resrtrained, even emergency vehicles have a lower setting for use at night, and roadworks flashers are there to inform drivers, not blind them.  Flashing train tail lamps are fairly bright, but not as much as they are usually modelled.

 

Since the 60s, both the amount and level of ambient lighting in the real world has increased exponentially, especially in urban areas, and it is becoming difficult to see stars even in the countryside within 10 miles or so of an urban area because of light pollution.  It is perhaps difficult for those who do not remember how things were back in the dark ages to appreciate just how gloomy it all was, but a subdued approach is vital for realism.  Obvioulsy, an RTR firm supplying coaches lit as a feature wants the lights to be visible all the time they are on, otherwise what's the point from a marketing pov, but realism suggests that lighting should be at a very much lower level.  On my layout, I sometimes turn the layout lighting down to it's lowest level and turn on the building and platform/yard lamps to create the look of a dull and rainy day, or dusk.  I have a lit auto set and will be providing more lit coaches, but cannot do full night running as there is no way on a DC layout to have working loco head or train tail/side lamps that can be removed and placed on other brackets (this is a DC BLT where everthing changes direction) but winter mornings and evenings can be simulated. 

 

Experiments with my cheapo rubbish Chinese Amazon CR2032 powered coach lights show that they will, left on, run for about a week at full power and another week with the lights getting progressively dimmer; well sufficient for normal layout use, and not the end of the world if you leave them on overnight.

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25 minutes ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

ISTR that in the days of mark 1 coaches the lights were usually left off during daytime unless the train was going through a tunnel — on the ECML at any rate — while nowadays they are always on, no matter how bright and sunny it may be…

Tinted Windows......

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On 03/02/2021 at 13:52, BlueLightning said:

and to think, I started modelling the LBSC precisely because it's wasn't "easy"

 

If you really wanted to model something that is not easy , why not try The RVR/KESR. There are a couple of loco's available in kit form and one RTR, but as for rolling stock and station buildings if is all down to scratch building and kit bashing.

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It was normal in my time on the railway in the 70s to leave the lights off in the daytime.   If you were working  a summer Saturday or Bank Holiday 116 to Barry Island, it was obligatory to switch the lights on as you approached Cogan tunnel, then switch them off for the scream, then back on again.  It was a tradition, expected of you, and all part of the fun...

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25 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

It was normal in my time on the railway in the 70s to leave the lights off in the daytime.   If you were working  a summer Saturday or Bank Holiday 116 to Barry Island, it was obligatory to switch the lights on as you approached Cogan tunnel, then switch them off for the scream, then back on again.  It was a tradition, expected of you, and all part of the fun...

Blimey luxury......driver/guard controlled lighting......I remember the compartments with switches for the lighting over the seats.......but don’t remember gas lighting.....:lol:

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3 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

..but don’t remember gas lighting.....:lol:

I don't remember gas lit coaches but I do remember that Crystal Palace station was gas lit in the late 60's and early 70's. As a teenager I was rather upset when they replaced the old gas lights but at least I can still see a gas lit station as Alresford on the Mid Hants is gas lit.

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43 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

I don't remember gas lit coaches but I do remember that Crystal Palace station was gas lit in the late 60's and early 70's. As a teenager I was rather upset when they replaced the old gas lights but at least I can still see a gas lit station as Alresford on the Mid Hants is gas lit.

 

The school I worked in in the 1990s still had gas lit fire exit signs.

 

Can you guess the cause of the fire that we had?

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24 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

 

The school I worked in in the 1990s still had gas lit fire exit signs.

 

Can you guess the cause of the fire that we had?

The fires we had in school (oh yes, several) were usually from Bunsen burners.....oops :lol:

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