dpgibbons

I read that the acid fluxes sold by Carrs and others for brass/nickel silver and for whitemetal soldering are no more than phosphoric acid of various concentrations, plus a surfactant. If that is so, does anyone have a recipe?

I have the set linked by Enterprisingwestern and I'd second his recommendation - it's very well made for the price. I got mine on eBay. I'd also recommend a device to magnetise your screwdrivers as this makes small screws much easier to handle.

The keeper plate thread is clearly longer than the screws used, and there is a unused mounting hole in the chassis under the packaging retaining screw. So yes, my impression is that this is a production rather than a design flaw. But only a few locos have been damaged, and those in the ungentle hands of the postal services, so it's unlikely that handling at home would be an issue.

Update - thanks to suggestions here and some helpful advice from Dapol I was able to secure the keeper plate to the damaged threads using slightly longer screws - M1.7 x 6mm did the trick

Project update from Hattons. Given past delays and the absence of any project updates from Dapol I assume the Late 2020 delivery date remains highly elastic. https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=810&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=mar-0633-dapollightpacific-75yrs&fbclid=IwAR0CpfxHu9zl_neiDbAqjciTHf1L6uEuavR2F9p8t5O82qzGgnBeIe7aAUw

Apologies for not mentioning the scale - it's easy to miss that this was posted in the 7mm+ forum! I'll try the Peco RO-3 buffers - thanks for the tip. Any thoughts on transfers please? I've perused a few GW transfer sheets online without finding the HYDRA lettering.

Thanks - their GWR no-rib buffers look the right type but they are whitemetal like those in the kit.

I'm finishing my brass kit makers' entrance exam with the Connoisseur GWR Hydra wagon build and thought I might celebrate with a fittings upgrade. Could somebody please point me towards any ready-made transfers and to a better set of buffers than the whitemetal ones in the kit. Thanks!

Would anyone be kind enough please to let me have soft copies of pages 5/6 and 13/14 of the instructions for Slaters GWR 4 wheel coaches? I've tried Slaters but to no avail. Many thanks.

I have emailed Dapol about the keeper plate issue. If they can supply a replacement keeper plate and longer securing screws then it's a simple fix. Going forward the packaging design needs to be improved with more robust screws secured directly into the chassis. Meantime I estimate the securing screws required are M1.6 x 8mm or 10mm, so I'll buy some on eBay and see if they do the trick.

I hadn’t realised that the stripped threads might be bypassed with a longer screw. Any idea what size replacement screws you used please? I’d be very happy if I can repair rather than return.

On further investigation the screw on the right secures the keeper plate via a lip on a moulded projection underneath. This has sheared off. Inspection with a digital microscope of the front securing holes suggests that the threads have stripped, which would explain why the screws won't engage. The likely reason is that the screw securing the front of the loco to the packaging mount does not pass through into the metal chassis but attaches to the plastic keeper plate alone, which has torn out its flimsy securing screws under the stress of transit. This seems a very poorly executed packaging design.

I'm planning to form two summer excursion trains from the LMR and the ER for my 50's/60s N Gauge SR/WR layout in Dorset. Any suggestions please as to appropriate carriage formations within the constraints of what's available RTR? I'm assuming there would be a lot of older stock and plenty of SOs and luggage capacity, and little or nothing in the way of first class or refreshment capacity. Haulage would presumably be SR/WR locos with an occasional MR/ER loco working through with a local crew.

Thanks again. Hard to see how they could have ripped out without damaging the brake rodding. Very strange.

Thanks. I have found a second loose screw in the box identical to the first, both of ~ 5.75mm L x 1.5mm shaft dia. However they appear too small for the threads under the upper and lower holes, which would explain why they became detached. So I'm wondering if the wrong screws were used by the factory.

Sad to report, my 48xx has arrived in several parts. It seems the new packaging is still not up to the job of a trip to Oz. For starters, can somebody please tell me how the front axle keeper plate (below) is meant to be secured? It was flapping loose and the one loose screw in the box does not appear to belong in any of the four holes. The hole at left is for the packaging fixing screw and the screw under the hole at right is present but does not engage the keeper plate.

Anthony - if you are looking for railway room atmosphere I suggest some reproduction Welsh railway posters such as those here

Does one need a sophisticated sandblaster to clean metal kits? Paasche recommend 65psi for their air eraser, which is beyond the capability of many airbrush compressors. Badger's cheaper mini sandblaster works from an aerosol can but is it up to the job?

Yes, I meant radius. It's not that I'm short of space (or rolling roads), but the large hole in the middle of a circular O gauge layout is rather a waste of it. Two circular layouts on one set of boards means less baseboard building, less setting up and packing away and the potential to share use of power supplies etc. The boards would be divided by a two-sided backscene with the O gauge tracks - a mainline with perhaps a loop or two - on the outside. The N Gauge layout would be raised and viewed from the inside and with a ~36ft run could be considerably larger in scope. The difference in track height would allow eg an N gauge fiddle yard over an O gauge tunnel section.

Keith - does the Dapol tender from the 2mm shop come with all the detail fittings please?

Do you need to seal the speaker enclosures with sticky gaskets?

More great work. One reason I hesitated over a shed layout is that I wasn't confident that smaller steam locos would handle a lot of slow running over pointwork. Perhaps that explains your enthusiasm for stay-alives.

With a previous RTR soundfit I was advised to use a sticky gasket on the speaker to help seal the sound enclosure and improve sound quality.

Thanks. Looks like it takes 2x standard 15x11mm sugar cube speakers. No we just need to know if there is room for a decent stay-alive.

It's not very illuminating, but the link here illustrates the slide-out pcb with speakers underneath. According to the Hornby Mag review, a pair of 15x11mm sugarcube speakers clip in to enclosures under the pcb with no soldering required. Their review model - presumably the factory spec - used a Zimo MX644 decoder with a custom sound set. Hopefully we'll soon know what third party options will fit and if there is room for larger speakers and stay-alives.