Wright writes.....

[Andy Reichert]

Hi Andy

 

Which standard is this you are on about? Is it one where the all track and rolling stock manufacturers all abide to? Can you direct us all to it, via a hyper link of course?

 

http://www.nmra.org/index-nmra-standards-and-recommended-practices

 

The HO section is the one Hornby and Bachmann use.

 

Andy

[BrushVeteran]

The flanges on the coupled wheels look nice and shallow, but I bet I know a man who is already contemplating his order for Gibson wheels and EM axles whilst hoping that Heljan haven't glued spring mouldings in place trapping wheel sets in the chassis on this model.

I think the man that you know is going to cast his beedy eye over it tomorrow afternoon!

 

It did a running session on Peterborough North this morning on DCC and performed faultlessly. No doubt Gilbert will be posting one or two of his pictures as well.

 

As Tony has mentioned it is almost there and performance of this sample was outstanding with just one or two more cosmetic issues to get to grips with before Heljan press the Chinese button!

[teaky]

How many Rs in the real Lor®aine?

Just one.  My typo.

 

Correct spelling is Loraine.

 

(I'm not the only person to do this it seems.  The text of Ford's Pullman Profile has the correct spelling but the contents page has two RRs.)

[Andy Reichert]

I think the man that you know is going to cast his beedy eye over it tomorrow afternoon!

 

It did a running session on Peterborough North this morning on DCC and performed faultlessly. No doubt Gilbert will be posting one or two of his pictures as well.

 

As Tony has mentioned it is almost there and performance of this sample was outstanding with just one or two more cosmetic issues to get to grips with before Heljan press the Chinese button!

 

I think that's rather indicative the state of affairs Tony was lamenting a page or so back. UK Modelling seems to have become 95% dependent on there being a "Chinese button". With a following generation lacking suitable skills and experience, there may no longer be any alternative to just buying

 

Andy.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Andy Reichert

[pete55]

The flanges on the coupled wheels look nice and shallow, but I bet I know a man who is already contemplating his order for Gibson wheels and EM axles whilst hoping that Heljan haven't glued spring mouldings in place trapping wheel sets in the chassis on this model.

 

You do indeed!

First thing you notice underneath are screws, and springs are not glued in the way either!

Also the width between the tender outside frames which looks good for EM too...

 

And good to see you again Tony.

Edited July 30, 2015 by pete55

[Paddy]

Hi Tony,

 

Watched your original DVD presentation on Little Bytham this evening - fantastic. Just wondering if you have any new DVD updates planned?

 

Many thanks

 

Paddy

[gr.king]

First thing you notice underneath are screws,

I'm not sure why they went for glued fittings on the Garratt instead. Most other Danish things I've seen include plenty of screws :-)

[Barry Ten]

Here's the end result of that Comet Prairie chassis I mentioned a few weeks back on Tony's thread, where one of the wheels had the wrong crank throw...

 

I eventually got the right set of wheels together and the chassis works a treat, with just a few minor headaches encountered, mostly around the slidebars. The body (an old Airfix one from my teenage days) was heavily damaged and needed quite a bit of remedial work, but it all came good in the end.

 

 

The model is running on DCC with an SWD sound decoder. The headlamp code is wrong for a passenger train, but it's inspired by a Prairie in a Barry Freeman painting on the wall of my railway room.

 

Again, thanks to Tony for encouraging many of us to have a go and improve our skills.

 

 

Alastair (barry ten)

Edited August 2, 2015 by Barry Ten

[KalKat]

That looks rather magnificent! Well done Alastair

[Tony Wright]

Hi Tony,

 

Watched your original DVD presentation on Little Bytham this evening - fantastic. Just wondering if you have any new DVD updates planned?

 

Many thanks

 

Paddy

Thanks Paddy,

 

The answer to your question is 'not at the moment'. Since I no longer front DVDs and have retired from BRM, the decision is not mine, though it would be good to produce an update. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Tony. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Any hints whether Heljan might consider the mouldings - especially for the GN pattern tender - as a separately available item?

 

...With a following generation lacking suitable skills and experience, there may no longer be any alternative to just buying...

That's spectacular pessimism. Quite apart from those directly employed in engineering in all its forms, there is an army of hobbyists who learn as they go by 'doing stuff'. Among my direct acquaintance a classicist building an airframe (he's planning an extension to Vitruvius' seminal tome as an academic in-joke), a reverend gentleman restoring an early Riley, and a young woman who is building (from discrete components) the electronics for a sound system. All well under 40, and none of them 'trained' in formal education beyond the CDT or whatever they abandoned at about age 14 in the UK school system.

[Paddy]

Thanks Paddy,

 

The answer to your question is 'not at the moment'. Since I no longer front DVDs and have retired from BRM, the decision is not mine, though it would be good to produce an update. 

 

Best wishes,

 

Tony.

 

Hi Tony,

 

Well that is a real shame. I hope they can convince you to come out of retirement to do an update.

 

Kind regards

 

Paddy

[bbishop]

Tony,

 

If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Your health is more important.

 

Bill

[davefrk]

How about a new format Tony - 'The TW Modelling Series', to be done at your leisure.... And, no pressure.

 

Hope you're keeping well.

 

Dave Franks

[Andy Reichert]

Any hints whether Heljan might consider the mouldings - especially for the GN pattern tender - as a separately available item?

 

That's spectacular pessimism. Quite apart from those directly employed in engineering in all its forms, there is an army of hobbyists who learn as they go by 'doing stuff'. Among my direct acquaintance a classicist building an airframe (he's planning an extension to Vitruvius' seminal tome as an academic in-joke), a reverend gentleman restoring an early Riley, and a young woman who is building (from discrete components) the electronics for a sound system. All well under 40, and none of them 'trained' in formal education beyond the CDT or whatever they abandoned at about age 14 in the UK school system.

 

I'm not sure I've seen any evidence in the last 10 years or so of any modellers here in the US scratch building a mechanism for HO scale or smaller. OTOH, there are masses of duplicated effort to add various GUI's for smart phones and various wireless and battery apps for "avoiding the complexity of wiring track". The latter field of which, regularly receives lots of up votes here on RM Web.

 

While industry has engineers, it doesn't use or train much in the way of hand craftsmanship any more. Their tools for shaping metal parts in miniature, if needed at all, are typically in the $50,000 and up bracket.

 

I remember when Railway Modelling was a hobby where we learned about electricity, carpentry, soldering, basic mechanics, amateur fitting and and all the various ways of making scenery and buildings with craft knives and various thicknesses of card. Now look at most of the questions that are asked here. It's nearly always "this manufacturer's product vs. that manufacturer's product".

 

Andy

Edited August 3, 2015 by Andy Reichert

[Allegheny1600]

This very thread is ample proof against that last statement, Andy!

Edited August 3, 2015 by Allegheny1600

[Tony Wright]

How about a new format Tony - 'The TW Modelling Series', to be done at your leisure.... And, no pressure.

 

Hope you're keeping well.

 

Dave Franks

Thanks Dave,

 

I'm brighter than I was, but still the dreaded 'black dog' hangs over me like a cloud. For those who've never experienced depression, it is impossible to even describe it. But, it's an inherited condition and I have to live with it. Diagnosis/prognosis over!

 

As for another modelling DVD series, I don't think so. When Chris Walsh (Activity Media) approached me in 2003 with a view to doing a DVD on locomotive kit-building, I don't think anyone had tried the idea before - not to a very high technical specification production-wise with broadcast-quality cameras and a pedigree of expertise in how to make/edit a DVD. Chris and his partner (now wife) Wendy just wound me up and let me go. I suppose over 20 years as a teacher gave me a good background in explaining things, and the first two proved very popular (we ran out of DVDs at the launch at Doncaster!). So much so that the whole series just grew, highlighting the skills of those far more talented than I, including Ian Rathbone, Barry Norman, Geoff Taylor, Norman Solomon, Nigel Burkin, Tim Shackleton and so on.............. All were perfectly shot and perfectly edited as the Right Track series. Chris and Wendy are now retiring. 

 

When I look back at the locos I built for the first two DVD, all are now available RTR. The GWR 61XX had been available, but only as a rather poor Airfix runner. Now Hornby has improved its mech' and Bachmann has introduced an A2 and a 4F. We did start a kit-build DVD in 7mm, but other time commitments on my part took over. A DVD was shot of my making replacement chassis in 4mm for a Dean Goods, 2P, 4F, B1, V2, a Lord Nelson, plus one or two other sundry items but it was so badly made (not by Activity Media) that it was binned before it was even edited. Would such a DVD have mileage today? I doubt it, especially since most of the tender drive/split chassis rubbish has been abandoned. 

 

So, I try to keep busy by doing odd bits still for BRM and writing for Irwell. But, more DVDs; not from me I'm afraid. But, thanks again.

 

Best,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

I'm not sure I've seen any evidence in the last 10 years or so of any modellers here in the US scratch building a mechanism for HO scale or smaller. OTOH, there are masses of duplicated effort to add various GUI's for smart phones and various wireless and battery apps for "avoiding the complexity of wiring track". The latter field of which, regularly receives lots of up votes here on RM Web.

 

While industry has engineers, it doesn't use or train much in the way of hand craftsmanship any more. Their tools for shaping metal parts in miniature, if needed at all, are typically in the $50,000 and up bracket.

 

I remember when Railway Modelling was a hobby where we learned about electricity, carpentry, soldering, basic mechanics, amateur fitting and and all the various ways of making scenery and buildings with craft knives and various thicknesses of card. Now look at most of the questions that are asked here. It's nearly always "this manufacturer's product vs. that manufacturer's product".

 

Andy

Commenting on the last two posts above (not mine), I think I can see both sides to some extent. Having attended the Southwold Show over the weekend (an excellent event) there was certainly great evidence of craftsmanship skills, in all the disciplines. There were some splendid demonstrators, though all were quite 'mature' - I saw no younger demonstrators. I mention this last point because when I first started as a demonstrator at shows I was in my late '20s (and I'm still demonstrating 40 years later!). Nobody of such 'youth' was evident as far as I could see explaining things to folk. Whilst most of the 4mm mainstream OO layouts had a high degree of 'someone having built the scenery/structures', there was far more in the way of RTR locos and stock than might have been evident a few years ago. Cause and effect? That said, it was good to see some beautiful kit-built stock on Thurston (my period/my region). There was also some lovely kit-built stock on Borchester, plus a fair bit of modified RTR. In most ways, this stock was superior to Frank Dyer's original, certainly in terms of detail and appearance. This fact rather confirms the lessening of the need to kit-build locos and stock now in 4mm. What would Frank have given for an RTR A3, B1, B17 (seen on Thurston), K1, K3, L1, O4, V2, Austerity, BR Standard 4, plus the appropriate diesels? That said, the kit-built B16 and O2 variants were good to see. 

 

But, all the 'modern image' layouts (whatever that might might mean) as far as I could see were running RTR stock, admittedly weathered in some cases. Such is progress!

[coachmann]

I remember when Railway Modelling was a hobby where we learned about electricity, carpentry, soldering, basic mechanics, amateur fitting and and all the various ways of making scenery and buildings with craft knives and various thicknesses of card. Now look at most of the questions that are asked here. It's nearly always "this manufacturer's product vs. that manufacturer's product".

Very true Andy, but there is plenty of railway modelling going on in the UK. Railway modelling is a different place where people often take their chosen hobby seriously, just as one would golf or any other hobby, and do not feel they have to apologise for it. So it's a case of if you poll the wrong people you get the wrong answers. RMweb today is about ready-to-run and related species.

Edited August 3, 2015 by coachmann

[peach james]

While I may not do much hand modeling, there is lots which I have done over the last 15-20 years.  I haven't "built" a chassis since the sentinel that is about  1/2 done, which I did after I had joined the RCN, so somewhere in the last 19 years or so.  I've spent so much time building Lego models rather than making OO trains that I haven't had a lot of interest in building non RTR models.

 

In terms of kits, I have built a couple of kit engines since I joined the RCN- Toby from Thomas the Tank engine (conversion), a Nu-Cast Sentinel (which donated it's spud to the Toby, and resulted in the hand made chassis mentioned above), and a slowly progressing P4 100hp post war Sentinel.  I've worked on a fair # of steam engines too- although that is in a shop which has well more than the $50 000 of tooling mentioned !. 

 

The tooling required certainly costs less than $50 000, and less than $5000 IMO, for OO scale work. 

 

http://www.leevalley.com/en/Wood/page.aspx?p=43104&cat=1,330,50260&ap=1

 

Lets put it this way, you don't need more than that in terms of lathe to build an engine to ride behind...so building a OO engine on similar is relatively easy.  Hand tools in addition would add up to most of that $5000, if you were starting from 0.

 

James

[BrushVeteran]

Last Thursday whilst I was in Lincolnshire I had the privilege and pleasure to meet up with Tony and Roy Jackson on 'Retford'. Tony was testing his Beames 0-8-4T on Retford which he has built in EM for a mate so I was asked to photograph it. Tony has asked me to put the images on his thread, the last one being the Heljan O2/4, which is balancing on the EM trackwork of 'Retford'. (Having looked again at the image it appears the tender wheels are in the ballast!), so apologies for that and the fact that the images were taken on a mobile phone. So the Tango has graced 'Little Bytham', 'Peterborough North' & finally 'Retford' during last weeks tour..................well it has got a 36E shedcode on the smokebox!  Thanks to Tony, Gilbert and Roy for their input and comments.

[Market65]

Hi. Good to see the photo's of the Beames 0-8-4T on the Retford layout. I have tried to count the wagons which it is hauling in the photo', but can't seem to get beyond 20! (too blurry after that).   It really is good to see something of Retford as well. This is another of those inspirational ECML layouts of which there are several these days - Little Bytham, Peterborough North and Grantham.

 

With regards,

 

Market65.

[St Enodoc]

Commenting on the last two posts above (not mine), I think I can see both sides to some extent. Having attended the Southwold Show over the weekend (an excellent event) there was certainly great evidence of craftsmanship skills, in all the disciplines. There were some splendid demonstrators, though all were quite 'mature' - I saw no younger demonstrators. I mention this last point because when I first started as a demonstrator at shows I was in my late '20s (and I'm still demonstrating 40 years later!). Nobody of such 'youth' was evident as far as I could see explaining things to folk. Whilst most of the 4mm mainstream OO layouts had a high degree of 'someone having built the scenery/structures', there was far more in the way of RTR locos and stock than might have been evident a few years ago. Cause and effect? That said, it was good to see some beautiful kit-built stock on Thurston (my period/my region). There was also some lovely kit-built stock on Borchester, plus a fair bit of modified RTR. In most ways, this stock was superior to Frank Dyer's original, certainly in terms of detail and appearance. This fact rather confirms the lessening of the need to kit-build locos and stock now in 4mm. What would Frank have given for an RTR A3, B1, B17 (seen on Thurston), K1, K3, L1, O4, V2, Austerity, BR Standard 4, plus the appropriate diesels? That said, the kit-built B16 and O2 variants were good to see. 

 

But, all the 'modern image' layouts (whatever that might might mean) as far as I could see were running RTR stock, admittedly weathered in some cases. Such is progress!

Cyril Freezer coined the term Modern Image in 1964 - 51 years ago. It probably meant something until sectorisation and privatisation, which themselves started nearly 30 years ago, but seems to me to have outlived its usefulness now. Doesn't time fly when you're enjoying yourself?

[unclebobkt]

 

I'm brighter than I was, but still the dreaded 'black dog' hangs over me like a cloud. For those who've never experienced depression, it is impossible to even describe it. But, it's an inherited condition and I have to live with it. Diagnosis/prognosis over!

   .... .

 

 

     Disclaimer - I am NO dietician or Nutritionist, but here are my two pennies' worth:

 

    Today I read on Yahoo! of a series of tests carried-out on very young children and their intestinal flora, (bacteria in the human gut.),.

  While the tests have NOT been conclusive initial thoughts are that there are lines of communication between the gut and the brain.

  Reportedly infants fed on a pro-biotic diet fare better in terms of overall & mental stability than those fed on more conventional diets.

  Now - I realize that initial tests are far from conclusive but mightn't you profit from visiting a Dietician/Nutritionist and discussing your diet with a view to over-coming your 'Black dog.'?

      

[coachmann]

I consider the term 'Modern Image' still holds good today. We as modellers are either recreating scenes from the steam-era or are modelling scenes with the new form of motive power that replaced 140 years of steam - the 'Modern Image'. We can't have an ultra modern image or whatever when some things have barely moved on 55 years and other changes have taken us backwards 180 years.