Hailstone

That looks like White city stadium in the background, so I assume that this is Wood lane depot Regards, Alex

same with me Dave, I have not received any replies to posts or pm's Regards, Alex

Mine seems to be ok - I think that these days Farish gear their locos for more controllability at lower speeds, that being said, I go to exhibitions and see beautiful exhibition layouts spoiled by trains being run at a scale 150mph. has anyone actually measured the top speed of the class 40 in scale? I think they might be surprised. Regards, Alex

For Dapol signals, try painting the light behind the spectacle plate with Tamiya clear yellow, it does make quite a difference Regards, Alex

I have just powered up the home signal on my portable layout, using a 9v DC power supply after 2 months away and it worked perfectly. Regards, Alex

The sound is quite impressive, certainly at low speeds, the exhaust beats are in sync with the position of the cranks. the only criticism I would make is the "clank" of the rods when coasting. when I was still at Didcot, and both Drsllwyn and Nunney were on shed, any tendency for the rods to clank would almost immediately mean taking them off and remetalling the bearings. unless very worn, Western engines don't sound like Black fives because the engineering tolerances are tighter. Regards, Alex

At least we had a sense of humour in those days

Welsh steam coal was very soft and was easy to break up, which was why they never built cenotaph type coaling stages on the western region - it wold have been dust by the time it reached the tenders! I remember when I was part of a service crew for 5051 Drysllwyn caste going on a Hereford - Newport railtour, on a previous trip the fireman complained that there were no decent sized lumps on the tender, and as we had found out that he would be on the next one, we loaded a lump fully 2ft long and almost a foot square that we had discovered in one of the coal wagons delivered to us. it was carefully loaded on the tender with a crane so that he would reach it only after he had been shovelling for a while. at the end of the trip he said "you lot did that on purpose, I spent 10 minutes breaking it up" our reply was "but you said you wanted big lumps" needless to say he never complained again! Regards, Alex

A standard of modelling not often seen outside of Pendon - Simply beautiful Regards, Alex

having come back from my club's open day where I had been exhibiting my N gauge layout Tremierten I decided to try and do something about the Dapol home signal which although lit, was not working. I removed it from the layout and opened it up, carefully unscrewing the circuit board. using a 9V battery I connected power to the signal and connected the 2 yellow wires to simulate a button being pressed. one of the components on the circuit board got hot very quickly, so I assumed that this was the cause of the failure. as an experiment, I then transplanted an unused circuit board from a distant signal that I did not need into the home signal which is not an easy job, and then reassembled the home signal. it worked a little and required several disassembly/adjustment/reassembly processes before it worked satisfactorily. I can understand why DCC supplies will not do repairs to these as it took me 2 to 3 hours to get it right, even having to re solder one wire from the motor which broke off. I am currently running it on 9V dc using a Maplins power unit, making sure that the power unit is plugged in before connecting to the signal, and so far it appears to be fine - watch this space... Regards, Alex

I have now had the body off my Castle and there is a weight in the smokebox, albeit probably Mazak. I tried to get it out, but despite undoing it's retaining screw it didn't want to come out. not wishing to use brute force at this stage, I hit on the idea of placing a strip of 1.2 mm lead on the keeper plate, this seems to enable my Castle to maintain a 12 coach train on the level an even on a slight gradient around a 14" radius curve. as I only run 12coach trains on the Club layout which is level, I think I will settle for that. Regards, Alex

They are similar to the latest form of Dapol Western tenders - I have scrubbed all of the wheels on my Castle with a fibre glass pencil - seems to make a bit of a difference but I am still testing.... Regards, Alex

How about a Hawksworth County 4-6-0? none of the maufacturers seem to have looked at this one, and the few kits available are too crude by today's standards. Regards, Alex

on the subject of haulage, I was testing a rebuilt Merchant navy loco that I had repaired by having it haul a 12 coach train of new mk1's. as it took this load without noticeable slipping, I decided to try the new Merchant navy and see how it compared, the results were not a surprise as I also have a Duchess and I assume that the motor is the same. A 12 coach train was no problem to the new merchant navy either, starting it without noticeable slipping, something that the prototype rarely managed. My point is that I will judge the new Castle's haulage capacity with my own eyes as it will probably use a similar motor/gear train and I will be buying at least one anyway, and I don't have any gradients to deal with and run 6 coach trains on my layout. Regards, Alex

I have ordered 2 and though my layout is supposed to be in Cornwall, I will imagine that the Saltash bridge was strengthened in early BR days to allow them into Cornwall (A variation on rule 1!!) Regards, Alex

I have to say the sound is pretty good, with the exhaust beats in sync with the position of the big end, one slight observation is when coasting the rods clank like a black 5! all you should hear is the vacuum pump but I suppose when they took the sound recordings it was probably in need of a light overhaul. Regards, Alex

i would be up for 2 in BR livery, I early crest, 1 late crest, but NOT as preserved as these have the cab roofs and safety bonnets lowered to enable them to run under the wires. Regards, Alex

Me too even though I built one as well Regards, Alex

I have just got round to unpacking and running in my D6571 and decided to compare it to my class 26 and 27 and was a little surprised to notice that there was no visible engine exhaust port, so I checked the pictures on the project managers blog and it appears to be missing there too! but only on the model with no yellow panel. has anyone else noticed this? Regards, Alex

Me too, they look terrific Regards, Alex

Yes, I agree either the front of the firebox is too high or the boiler taper is wrong, there is only about 4 inches difference between the top of the boiler and the top of the firebox - I hope it is an illusion, if not, I may be hanging on to my originals for a while yet! Regards, Alex

I don't think so, there are definite detail differences, such as the steam pipes to the outside cylinders and the cover over the inside valve chests which were modified in BR days ( of the two I helped rebuild at Didcot, Drysllwyn Castles front cover was restored back to its original curved shape, whilst Nunney Castles was left in its BR guise) never mind the early Castles which had joggled frames at the front end, although I doubt that Farish have gone this far - I would love to see them in detail, as even the pictures on the Farish website are not close up enough to be clear. either way my wallet will take a hammering when they are released. Regards, Alex

The Union Mills Dean goods are now on sale - here is my one Regards, Alex

The Item you refer to was an oiler for the regulator valve - as I recall, it had 2 tap screws, the bottom one would be closed, the top one would be taken out and cylinder oil poured in then the top screw would be replaced and then the bottom screw opened a little, crude but effective. Regards, Alex

These were cars 35 - 38and were delivered in 1941 as 2 pairs intended to provide increased capacity on the Cardiff to Birmingham route where the original 44 seat buffet railcars were hopelessly overtaxed. in fact even before Nos 35/6 were launched, it proved necessaryto further increase their capacity by adding a standard coach coupled between the two single ended railcars. With the coach modified to allow the control systems of the railcars to be linked, a three car DMU was produced. Though it pointed the way to the future with its two powered cars,it was not the first three carDMU, the LMS having experimented with an articulated three-car set in 1918. Cars No36 & 38 had seats for 44 passengers, a small luggage section and a buffet section. The inner end of the cars were fitted with standard GWR gangway connections. Cars no 35 & 37 had seating for 60, a similar luggage compartment and two lavatoriesat the inner end adjacent to the gangway connection. Nos 36/37 initially worked with 70ft inermediate coach No 4509 to give a total capacity of 184, but from time to time during their career they ran with other intermediate vehicles or as a two-car set. No 37 was damaged by fire in 1947 and its place was taken by No 22 for a while. eventually in1954 No 33 was rebuilt with a gangway at the van end to run with No 38. 35/36 were withdrawn in 1957 And all the other razor edged cars went between 1960-1962 (this info from a larger article on GWR railcars in Model Rail January 2006)