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Model Railway Partwork - Your Model Railway Village


John M Upton

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Probably because, while a model of a coach at £3.99 is a bargain, a station building at £17.98 isn't..!

 

Hit the nail on the head!  I can think of 3 different manufacturers (publishers?) of reasonable value card station buildings.  They're fiddly and similarly under-scale, but they require more patience than skill and are much more in keeping than what I've seen of the Hachette building.

 

Alun

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Issue 4 was on sale in Asda today and on inspection the level crossing looks OK but not worth the money. You are better off with the old Airfix one.

 

in-issue-4.jpg

 

It looks rather better than the Airfix crossing, as you get the pedestrian gates and the track (such as it is) as well. I don't know whether the planking 'grooves' are raised* on this one too.

 

*An all too common serious fault. It used to be a Tri-ang trademark (the otherwise good ex GWR horse box and SR utility van come to mind -underframes excluded of course), but they are not alone (die-cast vehicles for example).

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Can anyone recommend a replacement coupler to get the coaches to close couple? I was going to use the Fleischmann profi one but it's too short :-(

 

Hi Simon,

 

Just in case it's of use to you, have a look at this set of pictures and in particular the photograph of 2 Bachmann Mk1s close coupled.  I haven't tried this with the Hachette coaches, it hasn't been relevant yet, but let me know how you get on.

 

Alun

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I'm not sure though, how you fit the modified coupler in the NEM pocket of the coaches?

 

 

Hi Simon,

 

I think you're looking at the wrong picture(s), possibly close coupling the Hornby (Airfix) aircon Mk2s.  Check out the link I posted above, it has a photograph and caption of 2 Bachmann Mk1s close coupled.  I simply used the Bachmann 36-027 (short and cranked) NEM coupling, available at a well known online auction house and quite possibly your local model shop.  No mod was carried out as such.  As the mechanisms on the Hachette coaches are similar dimensionally and mechanically to the Bachmann's, quite possibly reverse engineered, I'm presuming that a similar method might work.

 

As I said above, I haven't tried this myself yet.  The 2 Hachette coaches I've spruced up so far are intended for the yard and awaiting transfers and a final finish.  I am unlikely to run them in a train, and I will be fitting Hornby 14mm 4 hole coach wheels if I do.

 

Alun

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Apologies if this has already been asked, but how long before you have something that can actually run? I was thinking that if you tried to encourage a youngster to enter the hobby they may well get bored before seeing the fruits of their labour. Alternative would it be possible to have something running by Christmas for those who maybe financially challenged and building/paying for a layout on a weekly basis could be an option? Just a thought out of interest.

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Can anyone recommend a replacement coupler to get the coaches to close couple? I was going to use the Fleischmann profi one but it's too short :-(

I've actually had a very good result (ironically enough) with the Bachmann "brake hose" couplings originally designed for their Mk1s... they clip straight into the "not-quite-NEM" pockets on the Hachette coaches, and hold the coaches with the gangways about half a millimetre apart on straight track. Then again, my curves are rather gentle so they may not work so well on smaller radii... And they're not exactly suited to coupling and uncoupling on a regular basis.

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I've actually had a very good result (ironically enough) with the Bachmann "brake hose" couplings originally designed for their Mk1s... they clip straight into the "not-quite-NEM" pockets on the Hachette coaches, and hold the coaches with the gangways about half a millimetre apart on straight track. Then again, my curves are rather gentle so they may not work so well on smaller radii... And they're not exactly suited to coupling and uncoupling on a regular basis.

 

I think the brake hoses work fine and I've used them successfully down to 17 1/4" (2nd radius) curves.  The reason why I eventually employed the 36-027 was because of the uncoupling issue, that and the need to somehow manhandle potentially long rakes of coaches from their sides to their wheels.  If anything, the 36-027 actually brings the coaches a little closer together than the hoses.

 

Alun

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Apologies if this has already been asked, but how long before you have something that can actually run? I was thinking that if you tried to encourage a youngster to enter the hobby they may well get bored before seeing the fruits of their labour. Alternative would it be possible to have something running by Christmas for those who maybe financially challenged and building/paying for a layout on a weekly basis could be an option? Just a thought out of interest.

 

I think the consensus was that it would take more than a year and in excess of a thousand quid to build an oversized train set using the Hachette partwork.  "Operation Build It" in the "Hornby Magazine" seemed to win some plaudits in this thread, although I haven't seen it myself.

 

Alternatively and for a good deal less money, someone could make the same mistakes I'm about to and have a layout up and running for Christmas.

 

Alun

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Has any body purchased issue 4 because I would like to know if it says what you get with issue 5 and I'm too tight to buy one myself.  :jester:

It looks like issue five is on the way out to subscribers along with the model tractor and trailer model. Still no idea what you get with issue five until it arrives. I must remember to cancel now I have got the "freebies" ! At least its gone beyond issue four this time round.

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Yes me too!

I'm going to probably save up all the issues with that in and build it in one hit at the end. Anyone know how many it's running for? Might be a Binder job.

 

I've got a folder set up for all the downloads and stuff that I might need on the computer so it's there and ready when the time comes.

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The local Asda had 2 of part 5 this morning. A roof, which appears to be for the cottages, and a piece of what passes for track.

 

The roof is moulded in tile colour, but the individual 'tiles' are the size of large slates.

 

They also had 2 of part 22 of a 'Batmobile' effort, which I seem to have missed up to now! Since I already have a 'Hot Wheels' version of the T-bird based one from the '60s TV series, I abstained

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