hayfield

They were listed in the Ks catalgoue, though these days they are in the GEM range.

 

Ks cat.jpg

Which of the GEM kits are the K's narrow gauge please,for instance is it the 3 Ffestiniog coaches, the van looks like the L&B, the wahon I have looks like the Hudson, is the bowed end wagon the L&B wagon ? If so where did the other wagons come from ?

I have bought and built one of these using a Kato chassis, very pleased as I have fitted a pantograph to it

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/009-BOX-CAB-KIT-Etched-brass-bodyshell-Easy-to-make-starter-kit-/142474620658?hash=item212c262ef2:g:6x4AAOSw2GlXEry-

Also does other style of bodies

Copydex or other Latex glue, coat both surfaces allow both to dry and use as an impact adhesive

Or

coat one side, join both together and weigh down until the glue has set

Just bought another K's un-built Van, but with a roof, it also had 4 pairs of N gauge wheels all for £2. Very pleased

The High Level chassis kit was designed to fit the forthcoming Bachmann 94xx, based on the best information available to us at the time. When this was delayed, Jim Smith-Wright decided to see what could be done to fit one to a Lima 94xx and at the same time, Tim Shackleton used a High Level chassis with a Wills Finecast whitemetal body kit.

 

The Wills kit is a good 50 years old, and the Lima body dates back to the 1970s. Inevitably there will be compromises because expectations were different back then. However if you don't mind doing a bit of work then either route can produce an excellent result. How far you take it – fitting a fully detailed cab interior, for instance – is very much down to the individual modeller. Some will be happy to go the whole hog, others will accept a few compromises as the price for getting a good-looking and comparatively inexpensive 94xx model up and running.

The Southeastern Finecast kit has had the Wills body revised but still uses the Triang/Hornby Jinty chassis. BUT there are so many Wills kits available second hand at low prices many having Romford wheels fitted, so for the price of a set of Markit wheels you could have a donor body and wheels for the Highlevel chassis.

These kits usually are dismantled quite easily and if any parts are either missing or broken replacements are available from Southeastern Finecast along with the additional parts (cab details) from the revised kit.

On the other hand unmade Wills kits again come up quite regularly, again at quite competitive prices 

Retro man

All right I am confused? ? ?

I thought and have new in boxes identical motors to fitted to your L & Y engine but there Airfix/MRRC 1001 but you call yours a mw1005 ? This isn't helping as I get confused enough with which is which as in

1001= XO4 but five pole

1003= Airfix 61Xx/14xx slight difference I know but very similar

10??= keyser mark 1/2 double ended between frame motor(slimeline)

????= high speed double ended for slot car but identical to above usely have clubman on the box!

Any one else help complete the list so we can all sing from the same sheet, even if it results in a wirring grind noise

It might be worth chatting to Chris at Highlevel, I have found his gear boxes to be some of the best around. Not had time to chat to him about a suitable combination as I still have plenty of spare Airfix motors, but a modern gearbox and motor would be far superior  

Just got off the phone to Phil  after placing an order  on Tuesday  he got back from rail-wells and was unpacking  early week but had god my order printed off and was  about to start picking it  I had placed another order today for rail   ( 7mm) he is happy  to  pack as one but due to  delays with  setting up the courier  it will be coming by the post office and cost 12 pounds . the two orders together are over 12 pounds  so im getting  a bit of a refund   

 

he is a very nice chap  apologized for the delays  but he is still learning and sorting out all the stock he  inherited Personally  i am all for giving him plenty of support and allow him to get  up and running . too many  people are moaning but at least he took on C&L  otherwise  we would have lost it as has happend so often in the past

Nigel

Thanks for supporting Phil, I have assisted him at several shows and he is fully committed to providing a high quality of service and an improved range of products in this new business venture for him. Like many before when starting a new business unexpected things crop up, as lots of things happen behind the scenes that go unnoticed by customers. He has his own ideas of how things should be done which includes some new ideas, some may have to be tweaked or modified over time.  

Thanks John. If the rail is PSM it must be old - I bought some of their copperclad sleepers in the very early 1970s and I have several packs of their cosmetic fishplates that I might or might not get round to using.

The rail is fine and I am planning to use it  on my next layout, It is probably of a similar age to these kits and certainly a closer colour match than C&L HiNi rail

Surely that would make it more economical to live in the city, and thus make it even more congested? Especially if not only it brings in the money earner but their family as well...

Or move jobs which are not city dependant out of the city making life better for those living there. As for the cost of property, thats for another thread

John, I'm watching that and the copperclads too. I thought that it was strange to see SMP kits with ready-prepared vees and blades. I wondered if it might be you from the vendor's name.

A friend who was recently widowed has downsized and wants to dispose of most of his railway collection (which another friend is doing). As my house is being remodelled cant do any modelling so I thought I would go out to the shed with some old PSM rail and using the EMGS jigs file up some Vees and switch rails which would add a bit of an additional value to the kits, all the net proceeds are going to the hospice

The issue with the curved turnout is the rail length being longer than a large envelope, which increases the postal costs. As the stock rails are in 2 pieces on older prototype turnouts a quick snip will halve the postage

By the way the components can be used for other turnout sizes and or gauges, with the latter the tiebars will have to be replaced

Better plans available from Templot

Thanks John.

 

I've put in a bid!

 

Terry

Thanks the proceeds are going to a good cause the Fairleigh Hospice who cared for my friends wife. Happy to fit and solder the Vee if it helps

Given the fact of major traffic pollution within not only London but also other major city's perhaps we are looking at the wrong solution, we should have cheaper public transport costs, but should we be encouraging long distance commuting? Why not tax long distance commuting to encourage less congested city's. As I said before the best thing I ever did was to relocate from the west end to the shires

I've actually sourced an Airfix/MW 1003 motor on Ebay. I will fettle up a front mount to use that in place of the X04.

 

Tim T

 1003 is a Slimline which does not have the locating sprogs

A straight forward replacement is the Airfix MRRC 1001 replacement, 5 pole motor and the same motor mount

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=MRRC+1001+motor&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiO27e-2dvVAhVFKlAKHcCGAIIQ_AUIDCgD&biw=1280&bih=894#imgrc=aPE2u12vFicUwM:

Just look out for them on eBay

Is a small amount of hand filing to open out the existing slot in the block to allow access for a modern fold up two (or more) stage gearbox really unacceptable? It will result in a drive much superior to the best five pole XO4 equivalent you might find, directly driving the axle (MW005 or Romford 'Bulldog' were two such once readily available).

 

A fold up gearbox inside a model of this size will probably permit a motor like the Canon 1833 to be installed, if that is any temptation.

I would go for one of the Highlevel gearboxes, ask Chris for a slimline version that would fit ( measure the gap between the frames)

Jason, the only problem with the SEF adaptor is finding the D11/D13 motor to use it with - just looked on Ebay, zilch :^)

 

Tim T

There are plenty that come up on eBay, just bought one for £9

I have listed these kits in "what have you done with your k'S kit) but it also falls into this thread

Only a couple of days ago in the other thread  K's narrow gauge kits were mentioned. I bid for a lot of what I thought were 009 models described as TT gauge

And as I thought these were 009 items

Initial thoughts were they were GEM or similar

But looking at the way the sides and ends joined each other, very much in the K's style

By shear accident I may have found the K's narrow gauge van and wagon body kits. I looked at an eBay lot which was described as TT gauge, there was a plastic bogie with a 12mm wheelbase but I thought these were perhaps GEM or similar

Were not arranged as clearly as this in the listing

Nor close up shots

But this is the dovetail connection K's use in their coach, van and wagon kits which I have not seen used by others

Any thoughts please

Here is a link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122641129338?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

the Vees have to be slid into position then soldered, happy to fit these and solder if it helps

Being someone who commuted to London several times during my working life, when the business was relocated to the suburbs turned out to be the best thing that ever happened. Business flourished for all due to better life/work balance  

Why are there so many jobs in London especially as costs to business are so astronomic, I can accept so may need to be in the City, but with modern working practices the need for all to be there is now not as strong, perhaps only keeping essential staff at a city location and having spare office / meeting rooms for visitors

I am all for cheaper rail fares for all, but there is a cost in taxes, plus we would be subsidising businesses.

Also is long distance commuting something we would want to encourage ?

Thanks all for the replies, the chassis instructions relate to adapting the Airfix body plus calls the chassis H.D.

My thoughts are this was a ready made, has the design and characteristics of an Eames chassis with the exception of curved ends on the frames, also the pickups for the wheels look manufactured not home made, also not in the Romford Eames style of the day

Terry

I am selling on eBay a left handed one on behalf of a friend with the proceeds going to the local hospice. The kit is very easy to assemble, I have included pre-prepared Vee and switch rails (I have EMGS Vee and switch rail jigs which make life easier)

Like all things if you have the tools life is much easier, all that is needed is a couple of decent files, a pair of side cutters, a pair of small pliers and a soldering iron

Filing the rails is not really rocket science, threading the rails on to the bases is very easy. Just need to solder the Vee in place, switch rails to the tiebar and a couple of bonding wires, all very simple and not very hard

I think given it mentions Airfix rather than Kitmaster dates the chassis to the late 50's / early 60's when 3 rail control was still much in use, which is also backed up by the Peco Simplex couplings enclosed

As for the motor, I have no idea of its origin. it has a 3 pole armature

In one way the conversion was quite ahead of its time with the motor not entering the cab, but I guess the saddle tank helps a lot. I will also need to fashion someway of attaching the cylinders to the chassis bars. From memory I have a spare kit squirrelled away where I can rob some parts from the frames. I will also need to do something with the slide bar fitting

As I have said, very happy with the loco

I bought a similar body from another company and fitted it to a Kato chassis, well worth the effort

The loco duly arrived today and the instructions refer to the chassis as a H N chassis. Looking at it I think it was a ready to run item as the instructions only refer to it fitting the Airfix Pug and adding the Airfix cylinders, coupling rods and crosshead

The wheels are on plastic axles and has a very sprightly motor

Looks to be set up for 3 rail as the wipers for both wheelsets are soldered to the brass chassis, also the second motor connection is missing

I have unattached one set of wipers so a quick adaption to 2 rail running should be quite easy to make, also need to fix the cylinders to the chassis

No idea what H N stands for, but well worth the investment

That's interesting. It is not what I have found.

My track bed is cork on the entire layout. The cork is fixed throughout with pins & PVA.

Track is glued on the scenic section with latex (Copydex) & pinned in the fiddle yard.

Even before any ballasting, trains were a lot noisier on the scenic section. When I left something running in, I could easily hear when it is passing over the glued track from the other end of the house. I could not hear it at all when passing through the fiddle yard.

I have since ballasted the scenic part & the difference is slightly more noticeable.

It is still not as noisy as any track ballasted with resin (PVA) though.

It may well be the scenic area is deading the drum effect of the baseboards or their construction differs. PVA locks everything up solid, plus high density foam is much better at noise reduction than foam. Latex also keeps its elastic characteristics  

Southeastern Finecast SR M7 with both the Markit wheel and 1054 motor packs along with a set of Cavendish sprung buffers all for just under £55 inc postage. MRRP about £150, just could not resist it. Must sell some of the Wills M7's I have with cast chassis

One issue with this is that the chassis spacers are 00 gauge, I hope I can either rob some spare EM gauge etched spacers from another kit, I may have some SEF spare in my spacer box. Just being lazy as using the tabs I find is easier