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On 19/03/2020 at 10:27, Tony Wright said:

Has Hornby finally cracked the lack of haulage power in its steam-outline RTR locos?

 

1231270842_HornbyPrincessRoyalLMSR370909.jpg.71bf6591db145e5a61b9c1b4ba2e96a5.jpg

 

I've just finished photographing and writing my review of the latest Hornby 'Princess Royal'. 

 

Its haulage capacity is remarkable. Here it is on 14 kit-built bogies (and an RTR horsebox), which it's just walked away with. No Hornby A3 or A4 will touch this, nor Bachmann's Peppercorn Pacifics, either. 

 

At last!

 

1842192711_HornbyPrincessRoyalLMSR370908.jpg.5d25660e47377f5bd6c603fd7c0cd400.jpg

 

Here's the 'drive'. I have no idea whether this is different from what's gone before, but it's certainly impressive (it also includes a firebox glow). 

 

 

Just catching up on the tread. Bodes well for the coming Thompson Pacifics.

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6 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

Wasn't that the one where the crew of the spaceship have a mission to destroy unstable planets. And there is a suburb and subtle bit of interplay between the feminine voiced male bomb who doesn't want to be dropped on a planet and the husky male voiced female computer who is trying to convince it to release. In the end the resultant explosion destroys 'Dark Star' (the name of the spaceship) and the laid-back hippy crew end up surfing through space. It's a bit of a cult film.

 

Here's a miniature white metal model of 'Dark Star' that I made/painted many years ago. You can see bomb no.20, the reticent one, hanging below:

 

DSC_9224.JPG.8fff407a663771267284a3213796c7a7.JPG

 

 

 

That's the one Grahame.

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I wish people would stop clogging up the thread by reposting that boring Hornby model. Seen it, next please. Having been self-isolating for the last nine days, with not a lot else to do, the two Tony's constant sniping at each others modelling is far more entertaining, and. At least it displays creative modelling. Dark Star spaceships are defiantly appreciated.

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23 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

Wasn't that the one where the crew of the spaceship have a mission to destroy unstable planets. And there is a suburb and subtle bit of interplay between the feminine voiced male bomb who doesn't want to be dropped on a planet and the husky male voiced female computer who is trying to convince it to release. In the end the resultant explosion destroys 'Dark Star' (the name of the spaceship) and the laid-back hippy crew end up surfing through space. It's a bit of a cult film.

 

Here's a miniature white metal model of 'Dark Star' that I made/painted many years ago. You can see bomb no.20, the reticent one, hanging below:

 

DSC_9224.JPG.8fff407a663771267284a3213796c7a7.JPG

 

 

 

 

That's the only model I've ever seen of that spaceship, Brilliant, made my day.

 

Another personal film favorite.

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11 minutes ago, davidw said:

Just catching up on the tread. Bodes well for the coming Thompson Pacifics.

Good afternoon David,

 

I have no idea how the forthcoming Hornby Thompson Pacifics will be configured, chassis-wise.They certainly won't be configured in the same way as the DJH one I built for the firm. 

 

It's interesting that the forthcoming Bachmann V2 will have all the DCC gubbins in the loco. Should anyone (like me) who doesn't use DCC (and never will!) wish to add more ballast to improve haulage (which isn't bad at source), then the free-up space gained by junking the DCC stuff can be used to good advantage (is there any other form of advantage?). 

 

Because the DCC stuff is inside the Hornby Princess' tender, then the loco is already well-ballasted (as proved by my testing). For those who want to fit a decent-sized speaker in the loco (and a smoke unit?), then that advantageous ballast will have to go - at least in part. Thus, although it might 'sound' realistic, haulage capacity will be reduced. 

 

I know which I consider the imperative. 

 

The huge advantage of having the DCC items inside the loco is the lack of necessity for those hopeless (in my experience) plug-and-socket multi-pin connections between the loco and the tender. On the new Bachmann V2 (which only uses the tender for pick-ups), it's the simplest (and robust) connection I've ever seen.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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39 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

I don't just accept Buckingham and its locos. I embrace and cherish them, as I am sure you do your D9.

 

Both have their faults but the boiler diameter on the J11 isn't one of them! The boiler is 22mm over cladding, which is spot on! The chimney is the right height too but the washer he used for the top rim is too wide, so it looks shorter.

 

The base of the smokebox is too wide, which creates the illusion.

 

The McGowan D9 is a pretty ancient kit and very much "of its time" rather like Buckingham. When I started modelling, such things were all we had and I built several such kits, like the Wills J39 to fit a Triang mechanism and a Ks Bodyline J50 that went on a Hornby Dublo mechanism. The McGowan D9 and their other kits was that sort of vintage and quality.

 

Hopefully things have moved on and improved. Perhaps my prejudices are coming  to the fore. The rebuilt D9 with the larger boiler was pretty poorly proportioned compared to the original version with the smaller boiler. The one redeeming Robinson feature that remained from the "as built" variety were the splashers, the cab and the beading. Get them wrong and the best looking part of the loco has gone.

 

I would really love to see what you could do with either a scratchbuild or a new kit with the faults remedied. I am sure that you would see what I am getting at. An overlay for the cab side sheet/splasher part, with correctly shaped beading, plus a corrected cab roof, would transform it.

 

I started scratchbuilding a GCR period 11B with the small boiler several years ago. Then rumours surfaced of a 4mm kit, so I stopped. A few test etches appeared from Jeremy Suter for the large boilered version, shot down from a 7mm kit but the project died out. I may go back to the scratch build one day.

 

I do have a 7mm kit (Gladiator or David Andrews) so I may yet get to see one in all its glory!

 

Meanwhile, here is the flawed but lovely 11B on Buckingham, warts and all!

 

11B.jpg.3bba077ffe85ac5ad41fd299d55aeeba.jpg

 

    

Thanks Tony,

 

Though I doubt if I've ever cherished anything I've made; least of all that flawed D9.

 

I still think that J11's 'face' is too 'fat'. Could it be because the rising arc of the handrail over the smokebox door isn't in the right place?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

That's the only model I've ever seen of that spaceship, Brilliant, made my day.

 

Another personal film favorite.

 

It's a Comet Metal Miniatures model from that fantastic model shop in Battersea (now unfortunately long gone) that specialised in sci-fi and cult subjects. The CMM range was quite extensive featuring iconic vehicles from the genre. They were small, mostly no more than 2 inches long, had few parts and weren't particularly accurate but were charactureful.

 

I've around a dozen different ones, from around 30 years ago. I'll see if I can dig them out and take a pic.

 

Edited by grahame
Correcting autocorrected errors
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27 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

 

 

The huge advantage of having the DCC items inside the loco is the lack of necessity for those hopeless (in my experience) plug-and-socket multi-pin connections between the loco and the tender. On the new Bachmann V2 (which only uses the tender for pick-ups), it's the simplest (and robust) connection I've ever seen.

 

 

The new Bachmann V2 only uses the tender for pick-ups?!  That's unusual, and disappointing - for reliable running I much prefer pick up from as many wheels as possible, both loco and tender.

 

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1 hour ago, Headstock said:

I wish people would stop clogging up the thread by reposting that boring Hornby model. Seen it, next please. Having been self-isolating for the last nine days, with not a lot else to do, the two Tony's constant sniping at each others modelling is far more entertaining, and. At least it displays creative modelling. Dark Star spaceships are defiantly appreciated.

 

Did you mean definately appreciated - or did you feel that "defiantly" was more appropriate I wonder?

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2 hours ago, grahame said:

 

Wasn't that the one where the crew of the spaceship have a mission to destroy unstable planets. And there is a suburb and subtle bit of interplay between the feminine voiced male bomb who doesn't want to be dropped on a planet and the husky male voiced female computer who is trying to convince it to release. In the end the resultant explosion destroys 'Dark Star' (the name of the spaceship) and the laid-back hippy crew end up surfing through space. It's a bit of a cult film.

 

Here's a miniature white metal model of 'Dark Star' that I made/painted many years ago. You can see bomb no.20, the reticent one, hanging below:

 

DSC_9224.JPG.8fff407a663771267284a3213796c7a7.JPG

 

 

Definitely a cult classic.

 

"Let There be Light". BOOM!!!

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4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

The google wide-angle lens has distorted the actual view to some extent.

 

1975466093_StationRoadBridge20320.jpg.e0e947cff2fa87237b2b1333b1d1b1ca.jpg

 

I wonder if 'ghost trains' still run?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

I don't know if ghost trains still run, maybe somebody close by could keep an ear open and let us know?  :lol:

 

 

Alan

 

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In this Editor it does seem quite difficult to avoid re-posting all the contents of a previous post, including any pictures.

I find it particularly difficult (although possible) on my W10 tablet, but much easier on my conventional keyboard (even if I am still using an old but trustworthy W7 laptop).

 

It is certainly annoying when a complete post is repeated for the sake of a line or two of comment.

One looses track as regards what is new content in a thread.

 

Perhaps some computer-skilled person can advise us?

 

(I do have a project to commission a new W10 desktop machine, but am reluctant to spend time on it when there is so much railway activity to be done.

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35 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

 

Did you mean definately appreciated - or did you feel that "defiantly" was more appropriate I wonder?

 

My spell checker always does that, I'm haven't been well enough to care at the moment, though defiantly getting better. If it turns out that I have only had the flu or cold and I have to isolate again, I shall be most annoyed but it has to be done.

 

1 minute ago, drmditch said:

In this Editor it does seem quite difficult to avoid re-posting all the contents of a previous post, including any pictures.

I find it particularly difficult (although possible) on my W10 tablet, but much easier on my conventional keyboard (even if I am still using an old but trustworthy W7 laptop).

 

It is certainly annoying when a complete post is repeated for the sake of a line or two of comment.

One looses track as regards what is new content in a thread.

 

Perhaps some computer-skilled person can advise us?

 

(I do have a project to commission a new W10 desktop machine, but am reluctant to spend time on it when there is so much railway activity to be done.

 

The editor is not always brilliant. It is possible to select and delete the images to keep the text reply that people wish to post.

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1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Tony,

 

Though I doubt if I've ever cherished anything I've made; least of all that flawed D9.

 

I still think that J11's 'face' is too 'fat'. Could it be because the rising arc of the handrail over the smokebox door isn't in the right place?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

I was careful to say that the boiler was the right diameter. The smokebox is another matter!

 

The smokebox is just not quite round and the door is not quite in the middle! From about the horizontal centre line through the smokebox door downwards, the shape of the smokebox goes astray as the edge doesn't follow the curve of the door. On the layout, you look at the locos from the side, or 4ft away on the turntable, so the smokebox shape isn't obvious in normal use.

 

The Denny J11 and the McGowan D9 are probably pretty close in date (and standards) at over 50 years of age. The fact that the Denny loco isn't perfect doesn't make the D9 any better. The kit is probably more in line with the standards on Buckingham than it is with most of what runs on Little Bytham, which is why it sticks out a bit to me.

 

I would just like to think that we have improved the breed in the last half century.

 

I hope folk can tell the difference between a bit of lively banter and sniping!

 

 

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6 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

I was careful to say that the boiler was the right diameter. The smokebox is another matter!

 

The smokebox is just not quite round and the door is not quite in the middle! From about the horizontal centre line through the smokebox door downwards, the shape of the smokebox goes astray as the edge doesn't follow the curve of the door. On the layout, you look at the locos from the side, or 4ft away on the turntable, so the smokebox shape isn't obvious in normal use.

 

The Denny J11 and the McGowan D9 are probably pretty close in date (and standards) at over 50 years of age. The fact that the Denny loco isn't perfect doesn't make the D9 any better. The kit is probably more in line with the standards on Buckingham than it is with most of what runs on Little Bytham, which is why it sticks out a bit to me.

 

I would just like to think that we have improved the breed in the last half century.

 

I hope folk can tell the difference between a bit of lively banter and sniping!

 

 

 

If it is found entertaining....................................

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What strange and delightful avenues this thread wanders along.  Favourite films, The Horse Whisperer, Kelly's Heroes, Mash, Brief Encounter and In The Heat of The Night.  

 

Anyway as we are on lockdown here in France we have time on our hands. Fortunately  the weather is fine and much gardening has been done.  However  some modelling mojo has returned and I've been doing sone serious research to decide which loco kits to do next.  This has resulted in a lot of digging about Midland Tender types as I want to do the 4F that carries my old police number.  Eventually I found that it had  Johnson 3500 gallon one in 1923.  Fortunately Ragstone models do a kit for one so it has been ordered.  It looks like it will be a the 4F and a 2P next.  Time with a soldering iron beckons.  The kits were both bought off Ebay a few years ago and are part built so maybe some interesting times lie ahead.  The 2P has got Gibson wheels where the axles are kept together with tapered pins and I may come back to ask advice as to how to secure them.

 

Jamie

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1 hour ago, Headstock said:

The editor is not always brilliant. It is possible to select and delete the images to keep the text reply that people wish to post.

 

Indeed - as I said in my original post. It's just that it is harder and more time-consuming on my Tablet than it is on this desktop keyboard.

Are there are any short cuts?

(Such as an 'anchor point' which one can identify and remove?)

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8 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Of course Phil,

 

Sunday's job!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

I do happen to know that Tony has the odd Deltic or two to choose from...  ;)

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5 minutes ago, drmditch said:

 

Indeed - as I said in my original post. It's just that it is harder and more time-consuming on my Tablet than it is on this desktop keyboard.

Are there are any short cuts?

(Such as an 'anchor point' which one can identify and remove?)

 

I have found that if you click on the image with your pointing device, it becomes highlighted in blue. You can then press delete on your keyboard/pad or right click on a PC and press delete. The image is then removed. I hope that is of help.

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12 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Are there are any short cuts?

 

Indeed there are - as I have just done. Select the required text, and a pop-up appears, which, when clicked, will open a new post with the selected text quoted. Job done! :good_mini:

Edited by Nickey Line
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11 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

I do happen to know that Tony has the odd Deltic or two to choose from...  ;)

 

Poor old Crepello failed at LB and had to be removed from the train. 

 

It will be towed to Doncaster for maintenance in due course although the word on the street is that's its beyond economical repair and has been condemned and put in the scrap drawer on the scrap line. :(

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4 hours ago, 31A said:

 

The new Bachmann V2 only uses the tender for pick-ups?!  That's unusual, and disappointing - for reliable running I much prefer pick up from as many wheels as possible, both loco and tender.

 

Sorry Steve,

 

My wording was ambiguous. 

 

The loco has all-driver pick-up as well, but the tender is only used for pick-ups, not for anything DCC inside.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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20 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

I’m having to come out of isolation (semi-retirement) and return to work as I’m a pharmacist!

But I hope you all manage to get some worthwhile modelling done, after of course doing the household chores.  

Keep well and be sensible.

regards Robert

Tony, don’t want to lower the tone of this thread but with the amount of Viagra I supplied today I’m not sure how much modelling is going to get done.

Keep well and be sensible

Robert

 

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