Andy Y

One of the questions that I had surrounded the colouring of the driving wheels which as seen in the pictures looks an unfinished steel. The final product to be shipped to stockists in around 3 weeks will have darker wheels cast. I would note that the wheels on the model reviewed are of good finish which is at variance with the sample reviewed in MR. As will be seen in the images there's no glue residue around the nameplates either.

I'd held this review back pending clarification of a couple of points from Dapol but unfortunately Dave has been unavailable with show commitments etc to get back to me. I've decided to post it now as it's also within MR148 and will follow up on the other points in due course.

Best steam loco in N? *All images clickable for larger display Dapol will shortly be releasing the Britannia. This loco continues to push the detail boundaries in the 2mm arena and brings new innovations into the equation for the future. Not only does it look impressive it works the part too whilst still considering the necessity of new models to be able to live on a 'train set'. The aim is to bring improved reliability and performance up to the visual standards which I think it achieves admirably. Looking at that image above now it has some presence for a 2mm loco! The loco offers the following features: Super Creep Motor bringing the extremely fine control of the Class 67 and 58 to a steam loco) 30:1 gear box to give a speed range in proportion to the real life equivalent See through solid cast metal profiled wheels Phosphor bronze self-lubricating axle bushes Tungsten boiler weights Tungsten split frame chassis Traction tyres fitted to rear drivers DCC ready tender Close coupling between tender and locomotive Semi-permanent wired electrical connections between loco and tender to reduce heat build up on spring connectors during stalls and shorts. Weighted front bogie NEM coupling boxes to front and rear Etched brass name plates Accessory pack containing buffer beam detail, 'buckeye' couplings, screw link couplings, spare loco/tender connector wires and 2 traction tyres. The smoke deflector plates being made from plastic are over scale thickness which does impact on the front face but due to dimensions relative to the boiler diameter seems less conspicuous than on the 9F. To achieve the close coupling there is a small degree of compromise with shortened footplate doors on the loco although it would be an easy task for someone to fit longer doors if they did not need the capacity to perform around 9" curves that this loco has. There is also a very slight reduction in the height of the roof at the end of the tender to ensure it does not lock on tight curves. Against the general drawing it looks as though there is a difference in the shape of the boiler dome but is not incongruous when compared to the prototype - Prototype image The electrical system within the loco is a new concept with 'positive contact' wheels on the loco and tender wheels which make contact with the brass cups on the axle ends under gravity. This will reduce the issues of electrical connectivity and friction on small scale locos. The image below shows the semi-permanent connection between loco and tender. In normal usage the loco and tender should be handled as one unit. The connection is robust but if the cam becomes unseated it is easily re-inserted to the cup at either end using tweezers or very small-nosed pliers. The tender body is easily removable to access the decoder socket shown below with the 6-pin blanking plug removed adjacent to the motor. Very simple and clean. The image below shows that there is no footplate backhead detail as a consequence of the cam drive to the gear in the loco, not that you would notice in normal usage due to the exceptionally close coupling of the loco and tender. The diagram below shows the instruction leaflet for disassembling the loco which seemed straightforward enough. A note of caution should be made that it is potentially a little less straightforward as the chassis, wheels and running gear separate from the running plate before the boiler does. As the chassis loosens from the running plate it is then possible to access the small clips that hold the boiler in place. The footplate handrails are lightly glued onto the footplate but separated with leverage from a flat-headed jewellers' screwdriver. Once that is done the boiler (less smoke deflectors in variance to Dapol's diagram below) will separate from the running plate. Note the placing of the weights inside the boiler in the image below in case any of yours drop out during disassembly. The loco worm gear is now clear for lubrication. Re-assembling the loco is a bit fiddly and I failed to seat the reversing rod correctly in the hole in the cab front. This should be considered whilst re-assembling. The performance of the loco is excellent in smoothness and haulage potential, the tyres on the rear drive along with the combined weight of 97g give it some bite on the track. There is a unobtrusive amount of noise from the drive mechanism at the loco end but this is without the recommended lubrication or any period of running in. I believe this sets a new standard in N gauge steam outline locos to match the step forward that the Dapol Class 67 gave a year ago. This post has been promoted to an article

Remembers those Solvite ads decades ago where they papered a bloke to a plane and flew around and the one where they pasted him to a board and swung him from a helicopter? I never believed them for one minute but I now reckon they used this stuff: It's 1mm thick, 38mm wide, double sided and self-adhesive on a thin core of foam. I thought it would be worth a go for laying the track on the train turntable onto expecting something that would allow secure fixing without the use of pins ( being unsatisfied with latex-based adhesive last weekend) and the ability to lift and adjust if necessary. WRONG. This stuff must rate high amongst 'sticky things that don't do what you want them to' with it's propensity to adhere to any organic substance within a 3 yard radius rather than where you want it to go. Face, body hair, clothing etc. Once it's in contact with wood or track that's it, fixed. Forever. Eventually I did get part of the TT and the approaches sorted; when I've got a day when I want something more agonising than a needle in the eyeball I'll get the other end done. I'll now be trying to work out how to slide some copper-clads under and solder for additional rigidity at the join as the only weakness is in the chairs - certainly not in the track being fixed to the board! Source: K2yhaven

For the second time I've had to remove images that have been uploaded to the site which are copyright or to be reproduced in accordance with a Common Licence. Can you please ensure that we don't breach rules. Thanks,

It's a lot sturdier than it looks Jack thanks to leg sections at 90 degrees and the rigidity when all boards are together. Plus I'll opt for using barriers with this version which I hadn't before with K1yhaven as some of the operation will be done from the front. It'll definitely be a 2 person job to keep the activity up.

Another day shower dodging. Baseboards connected, train turntable cut out, front scenic boards knocked together and the boards corked. I've not decided yet whether the water (front middle board) will be done as before with paint/PVA/varnish layers on the flat ply top or to invert the board and create some depth to the water within the well. I'll try a couple of ideas and see where it heads. When it's all locked together it's reasonably stable; I did manage to disassemble and get it back indoors inside 5 minutes as another shower headed our way. Source: K2yhaven

"Ooh, I didn't expect it to be that big", long time since I've heard that one. Whilst showers just about managed to hold off I was able to get the main baseboards and legs knocked together. I hadn't properly considered the leg issue when I made the previous board so that's also been replaced which now means the legs are interchangeable between boards with an easy slot in. No more bulky steel trestles! A little more time would have enabled me to fit the internal angle bracing and baseboard connectors but I don't think it's too bad for an afternoon's work. There's still two more boards to make for the front section but they're scenic only. Source: K2yhaven

Got the crayons out and had a scribble. And then tried to put it into a 'real world' context. That's definitely not to scale, that ferry would be huge! For anyone who hasn't been to Keyhaven (which is probably in excess of 99% of the population) this snap shows where the car ferry ramp would be. http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/19508 Source: K2yhaven

After months years of chewing over the next phase of Keyhaven everywhere I turned there were self-created compatability issues and also the legacy of bits that could have been better so I'd decided some time back that its offspring would recreate some of the old but improve upon it, especially from an operation viewpoint, and take the idea a stage further. If I keep deliberating and looking for problems it'll never happen so now is the time of year to make a start, a time when you can traipse in and out of the house fetching and cutting things without turning the rest of the house distinctly nippy. A pile of wood, today. A picture of a pile of wood shouldn't really merit an illustration but it's there to say that I thought that part through too and saved myself a whole bundle of time in return for a fiver by getting Jewson to cut the ply. It seems fewer and fewer of the DIY tin sheds actually trust their staff to cut bent timber in straight lines or for customers to not end up with splinters and claim inordinate levels of dosh for psychological trauma of timber related injuries. It's hardly top quality but with the construction techniques I'll be using it won't be a problem. Within 30 minutes a ply sandwich forms the first 3'6" x 2' baseboard frame, fairly lightweight and reasonably rigid (well it will be when the cross-member goes in when I've finally decided on point locations). Another layer of ply or foamboard will sit upon the ply deck. I was tempted to go with foamboard for the whole thing but some recent experiences told me I'd possibly get frustrated with the amount of bracing required to eliminate any variations in level that could happen if unsupported. Another timesaver was to use a staple gun as the principal tool rather than ommer'n'nails or screwing it together. So what will K2yhaven look like? It will be the equivalent of turning the existing layout through 90 degrees (on the right of the plan) with the station at 90 degrees to the quay across the back of the layout. The station will be a terminus formed from a truncated branch route. The left foreground will be a boat yard with a ramp down onto a car ferry with the centre foreground being the harbour water. My target is to get it reasonably complete by Taunton next April. The topic will run here but significant posts will be copied over to the blog as a digest. Source: K2yhaven

A wow from me for that one Andrew (and for Rich's above). Some of the content in this topic gets better and better.

he's made a lovely job of those Ian; I can see why you took that approach.

Welcome Damian. The comments are very well deserved, I think you've got one of those well regarded superstar layouts on your hands.

Seems OK at this end; it links through to a pdf (a very useful one). The virus catcher may have freewebs.com blacklisted due to other freewebs sites' contents.

Every now and again I suppose many of us go beyond what we'd normally expect as our own "it'll do for me" criteria and get carried away with something. Keyhaven wouldn't have been right without a late 60s Crompton rattling away on idle and so the saga of the 33/0 began with much hacking to get a 33/0 with decent roof profile and one thing just led to another. To follow on from the blog link above the Archer's rivet transfers never did surface so I got round to ordering some more. Once you start to look really close another 'find' creates more work and I thought I may as well make handles for the roof panels rather than Heljan's distorted nipples. Then there's the louvre/grille debate which, having gone an obsessive step too far, meant that I spent time creating ambiguity rather than a definitive action. See, it's getting silly isn't it? Whilst deciding to slim down the tanks a fraction rather than just slice out some unseen bits I decided that fitting a bass reflex speaker and mounting the tank sides onto that would be another way of upping the spec, adding unnecessary cost (but it don't 'arf sound beefy now!) and creating another to do task. Virtually every snap of a working Crompton shows the roof to be a fairly overall sooty charcoal but having taken some snaps of a 33 with a comparatively clean fibreglass roof I could make out there were some ribs under there which affected the uniformity of finish so it would be nice to give a hint of that. Oh, and I mustn't forget the slightly fibreglassy tone to those parts, and the normally less filthy exhaust (but of course some snaps show a hint of rust spots). And then cover it in grime. I must be mad. Now I'm not that stupid to have been at this weakness full time but I did start it 23 months ago and I've finished Now for the really silly bit: 1 x Heljan 33/1 £55 1 x Heljan 33/0 body £20 1 x Howes sound decoder £115 1 x Bass reflex speaker £10 1 x Archers Rivets £11 Transfers / Paint £15 Replacement wheelsets £5 Time @ minimum wage £don't even go there and it would have been even worse if I'd seen Pugsley's body scraping at some time in the process. Total > £230.00 No thanks; I don't want one that much! Having learned some useful lessons along the way I fancy one in original livery. Utter madness. (don't be silly) done all that I can until Mr Hanson can get some extreme etches for the grilles and laser cut windows sorted*.*Other nags are on his list I'm sure. Source: Unhealthy obsessions .....

That's not the half of whatever that acid fuelled modeller was on: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130401372104 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130401373943

Glad to see it's not been all work and no play Mark! Look forward to seeing it again in 3 weeks.

Here's a shot of the TS that I'd sat on an occupation chassis for a snap. Not the best photo. Click to enlarge.

.

This was the first time I'd seen the decorated Hawksworths. Click to enlarge.