Pillar

Does anyone have an up to date price list by any chance?

I converted my Railfreight one a while ago. I can't remember all the details, but it was pretty straightforward using 14mm Black Beetle wheels and transfering the Bachmann gears to the axles. I don't think any filing was needed to fit the wheels between the frames but could be wrong. The recent Bachmann 47 needed the brake rigging thinning down ever so slightly; the class 20 may have been the same. I'd take a photo, but my 20 is boxed up at the moment. Hope this helps. Liam Edit - If using Black Beetles, make sure you get the ones which are insulated on both wheels. The new model has a diecast gear tower and will short out if the axle is live.

Just come across this photo on Flickr which shows a loco operated by Balfour Beatty during Tyne & Wear Metro construction: It definitely looks 88DS-shaped to me. Does anyone have any further details on the identity of this loco? Cheers, Liam

Thanks, I didn't notice that! Agreed, it does look much better.

The ICI livery version doesn't seem to be listed in the new Model Rail. I wonder if this one has been dropped?

Has there been any inidcation whether the blue colour on the National Power version will be corrected for the actual production?

Over the moon to see Billingham Enterprise being produced RTR with the new tooling! I was expecting to have to modify a bog standard railfreight version when the time came. The number 3s don't seem to be upside down though, which may be a deal-breaker 😉... (Not my photo): I've visited a few of the old ex-ICI and Phillips sites on Teesside for work, so have a soft spot for locos with that connection. Hopefully Accurascale will do 31327 Phillips-Imperial in railfreight too and save me another conversion job! Cheers, Liam

I've been detailing a Bachmann Class 40 recently - a class which has quite a few cables between the body and bogies on the prototype. My solution for the mdoel was to fit a tiny neodymium magnet to the body and another to the top of the cable. If the body-mounted magnet is recessed into a hole, the cable-mounted one can slot into it and be pretty much invisible. Here is a picture of the speedo cable done using this method.

I received my 55011 yesterday. It's a lovely model, but I must say I'm a tad disappointed by the P4 wheelsets which have been supplied along with it; specifically their diameter. The P4 wheels have a diameter of about 12.5mm, whereas the prototype’s 3’7” wheels scale down to 14.33mm diameter at 1:76.2. I believe the reason for Accurascale using the smaller wheels is that the model seems to ride a bit too high on its bogies (for negotiating trainset curves and gradients), thus requiring smaller wheels to avoid the buffer height being too high. I totally understand and accept why these compromises had to be made for 00 gauge, but I think most P4 modellers would have preferred the correct size wheels to be supplied in the conversion packs, leaving it to them to reduce the ride height correspondingly by modifying the bogie pivots (the sort of work we generally accept as inevitable for our niche corner of the hobby). Yes this would have meant that the buffers sat too high when converted to P4 ‘out of the box’, but at least this would require only one modification by the customer to correct. As it is, the undersized P4 wheelsets supplied are pretty useless to anyone wishing to lower the loco on its bogies. Once again, the Deltic is a lovely model and Accurascale should hold their heads high for having delivered it successfully. The sound in particular put a huge smile on my face! This is just my two cents as a P4 modeller with a long list of locos to convert! Cheers, Liam

Hi, Does anyone know if Ruston nameplates are available in 4mm scale, preferably as etches? Specifically I'm looking for the type which features in the front of a 48DS. Cheers, Liam

Another of my very infrequent updates. The Atlantean is finished in Northern livery. Liam

Excellent news! Are the steel ones the same basic dimensions as the later builds, as seen here?: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/snowplough/h36c3d1ca I seem to recall that the later builds we're similar to one of the earlier steel designs apart from a few details (flush cabin sides etc.) Not sure if it was the U20 though.

Shawplan make very nice EE horn grilles under their Extreme Etchings range. The fact that the Accurascale ones appaear to be brass etches over pre-formed holes should make these a straight swap - definately easier than fitting them to a Bachmann model which needs the molded grilles to be pared away first and holes drilled in their place. Maybe there is some scope for improvement to the Accurascale grilles, but knowing how fragile the Shawplan ones are there may be a limit for an RTR model.

Did all of the BR(NE) ones get wasp stripes in the end? I'm assuming this coincided with the introduction of yellow ends on mainline diesels in the 60s?

On the subject of sounds, will the 142s feature the prototype's iconic and excruciating flange squeal? Probably the most most memorable aspect of the pacers for me - especially the long crawl into Newcastle Central.

Are there any pictures out there of these in BR departmental service? There are a few on Paul Bartlett's website but all either internal user or condemned.

Is there a reason why the grilles are different on 31432 compared with the others?

Did the GWR make this type of van in plywood? The only pictures I've seen of them are planked but it's a bit out of my era so could be wrong. Edit - Indeed I was wrong as Paul Bartlett's site includes a few plywood ones by GWR. Regarding the grey paint, I believe GWR grey is quite dark? The shade on this wagon is a very light grey and definitely more like BR unfitted grey to my eye.

Came across this one last year near Penshaw, Sunderland. My research suggests it was a BR built van to a GWR design, either diagram 1/203 (fitted 12t vent), 1/205 (unfitted 12t vent, but some later fitted) or 1/207 (12t shock). I went back to it with a tape measure today and the length of the body is 17ft 6in, which would seem to rule out a shock van as the bodies on these were shorter than this. Not sure whether it's possible to distinguish between diagrams 1/203 and 1/205 just from the body, but the bauxite paint suggests it was vacuum fitted at some point. There are also clear traces of grey paint below the bauxite in places. Could this suggest it was originally unfitted (diagram 1/205), or could it just be a layer of primer beneath the bauxite topcoat? Any ideas? Liam

I think I've seen these, or something very similar, at auction before. It would appear then that loco lamps were used as tail lamps for light locos at least; but did they ever find a way onto brake vans or the end wagons of fitted freights? As Mike has alluded to, items often seem to be appropriated on the railways between one department or another. The descriptions for the loco lamps on Lanarkshire models' website also suggest that some of them lasted as late as the 1990s. I wonder what they would have been used for by this time, given that diesels had adequate head/tail lights.

Hi All, I'm working on a few brake vans at the moment and bought a selection of BR, ex-LNER and ex-LMS lamps from Lanarkshire models to adorn them (the ones on this page: http://www.lanarkshiremodels.com/lanarkshiremodelsandsupplieswebsite_025.htm). However I mistakenly ordered loco lamps rather than brake van tail lamps, not realising initially that there was a difference or spotting the second page on the Lanarkshire website ! I've now ordered some brake van-specific lamps from the same source, but am planning to hang on to the loco lamps and attempt to find uses for some of them. My questions are: a) What sort of uses would loco oil lamps have been put to in the diesel era which I'm modelling? b) Would loco oil lamps ever have been used for tail lamps on brake vans or at the ends of fitted trains (assuming they could be fitted with a red lens)? Looking at photos of brake vans in the BR era, I haven't come across any yet which show anything other than the standard 'tail lamp' of the type seen here: http://www.lanarkshiremodels.com/lanarkshiremodelsandsupplieswebsite_150.htm I'd be grateful for any advice on the above. I have to say I'd expected the different lamp types to be fairly interchangeable. I'm sure I've handled 1:1 examples which had switchable red and clear lenses, which would suggest that they could be used for different purposes rather than being dedicated head or tail lamps only. EDIT - I'm aware that brake van side lamps are a different matter, as they need to show clear and red lenses in opposite directions simultaneously. Cheers, Liam

Looks good. Crying out for some weathering though! They seem to have gone overboard on the size of the box for such a little wagon.

Agreed regarding the light switch sounds - they get annoying very quickly. I disabled them and dimmed the engine room lights via Lokprogrammer but didn't record which CVs were involved.

One other thought regarding changing white LEDs to red: paint over them or the lens with clear red acrylic, such as Tamiya X-27. I use this for my road vehicle tail lights - though admittedly I always use a red LED with it so I can't say for certain whether it would make a white LED appear red or not.

I don't think the single tail light option really needs a DCC function or switch allocating to it. One of the LEDs can be easily removed or covered over if a single tail light is desired. Given that most layouts are set in a particular era, I can't imagine many people needing to switch between single and dual tail lights while the model is running.