Wright writes.....

[coachmann]

 I use the glue, lay & ballast in one go method and the absolute plus for Peco streamline track is it is so darned easy to handle, cut and lay. One begins to appreciate this after laying some of the various bullhead flexible tracks that are on offer. This didn't stop me using Peco bullhead though.

Edited October 20, 2017 by coachmann

[Mallard60022]

 I use the glue, lay & ballast in one go method and the absolute plus for Peco streamline track is it is so darned easy to handle, cut and lay. One begins to appreciate this after laying some of the various bullhead flexible tracks that are on offer. This didn't stop me using Peco bullhead though.

That's how Mr Soloman does it and the bit on the DVD he did with Tony where he shows this is quite shocking in the way you see a huge area of white glue and then on goes the track etc. However the result is excellent. Dare I ever do it that way.......not this time.

Phil

[coachmann]

That's how Mr Soloman does it and the bit on the DVD he did with Tony where he shows this is quite shocking in the way you see a huge area of white glue and then on goes the track etc. However the result is excellent. Dare I ever do it that way.......not this time.

Phil

Think back to the days when you stood in the dance hall doorway in your crepe soles and drainies summoning up courage to walk straight up to the blossom of your dreams and and say "Do you do a turn................Around the dance floor I mean..."  You have to lay out your stall, make sure your tools are to hand, then go for it.   

[robertcwp]

To complete the testing of the ex-Gamston Bank stock and new Bachmann Thompsons, here is a 14-coach train behind a Hornby B1:

 

P1080184am by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

It slipped a bit when starting the train with most of it on a 3' radius curve but had no great problems with the load. Apart from changing the couplings and putting on some lamps (I've since changed to using Lanarkshire Models ones, before anyone asks), the B1 is as it came, with no additional weight.

 

The brass carriages had to lead as the floppy couplings on the Bachmann Thompsons could not handle the load.

[Anglian]

I think with railway modelling you have to choose or at least realise which aspects are most import to you and then focus on getting those things right, which usually means there will be inevitable compromises elsewhere. This must be especially true with large layouts where the sheer scale of the project alone is simply time consuming at any level of finesse. The advantage of a team effort is presumably to have a mix of talents, so that the whole can be of an equally high standard.

 

With the Norman Soloman method how is the track held in the correct position and to the right curvature, as the glue dries?

[Jon4470]

Tony wrote "Most people will be watching the streamliners swishing through"

 

I plan to do just that this weekend!

[Headstock]

To complete the testing of the ex-Gamston Bank stock and new Bachmann Thompsons, here is a 14-coach train behind a Hornby B1:

 

P1080184am by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

It slipped a bit when starting the train with most of it on a 3' radius curve but had no great problems with the load. Apart from changing the couplings and putting on some lamps (I've since changed to using Lanarkshire Models ones, before anyone asks), the B1 is as it came, with no additional weight.

 

The brass carriages had to lead as the floppy couplings on the Bachmann Thompsons could not handle the load.

 

Evening Robert,

 

surprisingly powerful the Hornby B1.

 

 The advantage of a team effort is presumably to have a mix of talents, so that the whole can be of an equally high standard.

 

 

 

That's my strategy, get somebody else to do all the difficult bits.

[robertcwp]

Tony wrote "Most people will be watching the streamliners swishing through"

 

I plan to do just that this weekend!

Which show is that please?

[robertcwp]

Evening Robert,

 

surprisingly powerful the Hornby B1.

 

Yes, it surprised me. I had expected this one to do better as it seems heavier but it could not manage 14:

 

P1080185am by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

Bachmann Standard 5MT.

[Jon4470]

Which show is that please?

Hartlepool ( I hope!)

[Headstock]

Yes, it surprised me. I had expected this one to do better as it seems heavier but it could not manage 14:

 

P1080185am by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

Bachmann Standard 5MT.

 

I did a weathering job on one of those for a friend. The extra weight of paint did nothing for it, puny. Fortunately we have a DJH job on the Pool Bradford going up the big hill, plenty of grunt.

[robertcwp]

I did a weathering job on one of those for a friend. The extra weight of paint did nothing for it, puny. Fortunately we have a DJH job on the Pool Bradford going up the big hill, plenty of grunt.

I had a DJH one, bought second hand, but sold it. My three Bachmann ones, of which this is the most recent acquisition and not yet used in service, do the job I need them to do. I have a flat layout (apart from the boards needing levelling in a few places) and don't run huge trains so they are fine for me but a larger layout or gradients would certainly show them up. 

[St Enodoc]

Think back to the days when you stood in the dance hall doorway in your crepe soles and drainies summoning up courage to walk straight up to the blossom of your dreams and and say "Do you do a turn................Around the dance floor I mean..."  You have to lay out your stall, make sure your tools are to hand, then go for it.   

Quite so.

[Michael Edge]

Martin/Robert, I think that "dreadful" and "awful" are a bit strong. Following the disappearance from the market of GEM in the 60s and Formoway/Liveway in the 70s there was little choice in the way of flexible track, with a consistent range of points and crossings that worked reliably, for those who chose not to build their own for any reason. Fortunately, that is now changing.

 

There was never any Peco track on the Leeds club layouts you were involved with, all handbuilt and SMP from back in the mid 70s.

[St Enodoc]

There was never any Peco track on the Leeds club layouts you were involved with, all handbuilt and SMP from back in the mid 70s.

That's right Mike. It was you, Nick and the rest of the Leeds Victoria team that made me realise that I could do better (and cheaper) than Peco code 100. Since then I've only used SMP track and copperclad points, until I started the present layout where I use Peco code 75 track in the off-stage areas (but still copperclad points though).

[unclebobkt]

        Further to the general conversations about 'Weathering.',  quite by chance - as one writes - I was reading the Airfix Model World. issue for September 2017, #82., ((price GBP.04.50.), and espied a short article concerning weathering, with an introductory few words abut how accurate weathering was becoming more important in many modelers' minds, and referred us to the following, (Spanish.), website: >> www.migjimenez.com <<

 

        Usual disclaimer, of course.     

Edited October 22, 2017 by unclebobkt

[Jol Wilkinson]

MIG weathering powders have been available from Phil at Hobby Holidays for some time. The AK products are also reputedly very good.

 

http://www.hobbyholidays.co.uk/categories.php?cat=57

[RThompson]

Hello everyone,

 

Heres some photos of my D16/3 built from a Mallard models kit using the chassis as designed.

 

The driving wheels are in a separate chassis to the mainframes the pivots within them.

 

This is demonstrated by the screw driver, note the bogie has no up and down movement what so ever and its sideways movement is controlled by a large piece of rod.

 

I have cheated, in that by getting it out, I have added the screw couplings, cleaned as much weathering off as possible and given a coat of Humbrol clear which needs rubbing down and another coat added as I felt it should depict when in a special and to make those brass framing's stand out more, part of the reason for liking these locos. All this done on Friday and photographed earlier.

 

Edited October 22, 2017 by RThompson

[glo41f]

Robert

 

The Claud looks good. When it was working a special (at the end of its days) the smokebox door ring was burnished too.

 

There has been much comment on DCC here including the difficulties experienced with wireless DCC in exhibition halls. I was at a show at the weekend where this proved to be an issue for one layout and it was giving the operators quite a headache. Whilst having a welcome "cuppa", I read an article by Bob Essery in an early BRM in which he set out his view that when one takes a layout to a show, one owes it to the public that it should be run properly with stock and particularly operators fully up to speed with the job of working the railway to its best advantage. In some cases this means that trains do not run as frequently as they might otherwise do. I have to say that I have some sympathy with his views and on the layout I was associated with as an operator, we were all practiced at running it to a very high level so much so that communications were very limited as each person knew what was supposed to happen. Nothing was allowed on the railway that had not been tested before and proven to work as required. What I saw at the weekend was the antithesis of this where folk had turned up with locos and stock and some of it frankly did not work resulting in the display being downgraded as issues were resolved on the hoof so to speak. In this context DCC seems to add a further complication in that fault finding could lead to the stock, the equipment, the track or the digital links and the operator. Not the best picture to present to the paying public.

 

Is this a counsel of perfection or should the public see us "warts and all"?

 

Martin Long

[St Enodoc]

Robert

 

The Claud looks good. When it was working a special (at the end of its days) the smokebox door ring was burnished too.

 

There has been much comment on DCC here including the difficulties experienced with wireless DCC in exhibition halls. I was at a show at the weekend where this proved to be an issue for one layout and it was giving the operators quite a headache. Whilst having a welcome "cuppa", I read an article by Bob Essery in an early BRM in which he set out his view that when one takes a layout to a show, one owes it to the public that it should be run properly with stock and particularly operators fully up to speed with the job of working the railway to its best advantage. In some cases this means that trains do not run as frequently as they might otherwise do. I have to say that I have some sympathy with his views and on the layout I was associated with as an operator, we were all practiced at running it to a very high level so much so that communications were very limited as each person knew what was supposed to happen. Nothing was allowed on the railway that had not been tested before and proven to work as required. What I saw at the weekend was the antithesis of this where folk had turned up with locos and stock and some of it frankly did not work resulting in the display being downgraded as issues were resolved on the hoof so to speak. In this context DCC seems to add a further complication in that fault finding could lead to the stock, the equipment, the track or the digital links and the operator. Not the best picture to present to the paying public.

 

Is this a counsel of perfection or should the public see us "warts and all"?

 

Martin Long

I agree with all of that Martin, except the bit about DCC adding further complication. Any of the fault finding activities you describe could apply equally to a DC system, with "digital links" being replaced by "wiring" for example.

 

I believe that the public certainly should NOT see us "warts and all". When we display a layout at an exhibition we are in effect putting on a theatrical show, which people have paid to see. They deserve to watch, and we are obliged to present, as faultless a production as possible. Would you expect to pay to go to the theatre, a concert or an opera that had been under-rehearsed? No, nor would I.

 

Regarding wireless DCC, I can only speak for NCE equipment which I use. There is only one radio channel available so all wireless layouts within range will be under the "control" of each other. You might get away with it if all your locos have different numbers but it is not recommended. My own club only uses cable-tethered throttles at exhibitions for this reason.

[Headstock]

I agree with all of that Martin, except the bit about DCC adding further complication. Any of the fault finding activities you describe could apply equally to a DC system, with "digital links" being replaced by "wiring" for example.

 

I believe that the public certainly should NOT see us "warts and all". When we display a layout at an exhibition we are in effect putting on a theatrical show, which people have paid to see. They deserve to watch, and we are obliged to present, as faultless a production as possible. Would you expect to pay to go to the theatre, a concert or an opera that had been under-rehearsed? No, nor would I.

 

Regarding wireless DCC, I can only speak for NCE equipment which I use. There is only one radio channel available so all wireless layouts within range will be under the "control" of each other. You might get away with it if all your locos have different numbers but it is not recommended. My own club only uses cable-tethered throttles at exhibitions for this reason.

 

Wouldn't amateur dramatics be a better analogy?

[St Enodoc]

Wouldn't amateur dramatics be a better analogy?

You still pay to go and see it.

[chris p bacon]

Hello everyone,

 

Heres some photos of my D16/3 built from a Mallard models kit using the chassis as designed.

 

The driving wheels are in a separate chassis to the mainframes the pivots within them.

 

This is demonstrated by the screw driver, note the bogie has no up and down movement what so ever and its sideways movement is controlled by a large piece of rod.

 

I have cheated, in that by getting it out, I have added the screw couplings, cleaned as much weathering off as possible and given a coat of Humbrol clear which needs rubbing down and another coat added as I felt it should depict when in a special and to make those brass framing's stand out more, part of the reason for liking these locos. All this done on Friday and photographed earlier.

 

 

Many thanks Robert, that is very helpful and makes it a lot clearer to me.

 

Out of interest what motor/gearbox combo did you use? I think my notes had a Mashima 14?? with a simple roadrunner which looks similar to yours.

[Clive Mortimore]

I agree with all of that Martin, except the bit about DCC adding further complication. Any of the fault finding activities you describe could apply equally to a DC system, with "digital links" being replaced by "wiring" for example.

 

I believe that the public certainly should NOT see us "warts and all". When we display a layout at an exhibition we are in effect putting on a theatrical show, which people have paid to see. They deserve to watch, and we are obliged to present, as faultless a production as possible. Would you expect to pay to go to the theatre, a concert or an opera that had been under-rehearsed? No, nor would I.

 

Regarding wireless DCC, I can only speak for NCE equipment which I use. There is only one radio channel available so all wireless layouts within range will be under the "control" of each other. You might get away with it if all your locos have different numbers but it is not recommended. My own club only uses cable-tethered throttles at exhibitions for this reason.

Fully tested, all locos and stock work perfectly two nights before the show. Day one no problems with layout only minor operator problems. Day two, Anglo-Saxon mutterings are coming from under the baseboard. When fixed all locos have a hissyfit and operators have lost any discipline. Things go wrong....and if your layout is perfect good on you.

 

I am not a actor, stage manager, lighting engineer or anything else that goes with entertaining. I am a modeller exhibiting my modelling. If I go to a military modelling exhibition I do not expect to see Grants knocking two ton of  **** out of Mk3s in some mock battle, but to see some nice modelling, we are railway modellers  not part of a touring theatrical company.

Edited October 23, 2017 by Clive Mortimore

[chris p bacon]

I agree with all of that Martin, except the bit about DCC adding further complication. Any of the fault finding activities you describe could apply equally to a DC system, with "digital links" being replaced by "wiring" for example.

 

I believe that the public certainly should NOT see us "warts and all". When we display a layout at an exhibition we are in effect putting on a theatrical show, which people have paid to see. They deserve to watch, and we are obliged to present, as faultless a production as possible. Would you expect to pay to go to the theatre, a concert or an opera that had been under-rehearsed? No, nor would I.

 

Faults are not restricted to one type of control system.

 

The club layouts are pure DC, before attending a show they're put up and tested extensively and given a full and deep clean (and stock). In the morning of shows they are again cleaned and yet as the day progresses they start to exhibit minor issues and almost always come back with faults. These are caused by either dirt/muck building up on the many polarity switches under the baseboards or when springs from the same switches fire off into the great unknown.

We have joked with the stock owners that as the only faults we have are with section and polarity switches,  the way to overcome these is to make the whole layout live and DCC.

 

Regarding what the public expect. The clubs philosophy is that we are there to entertain, although we all enjoy the outings they are not a 'club junket' and the paying public come first.