pheaton

so no more hattons and rails massive Hornby sales then.....

By Far the best suggestion you have had is to ask to record a preserved box, im pretty certain most of the signallers at the gloucestershire warwickshire railway would happily assist, if you wrote to the railway and asked. My personal view would be to have random lever pulling as a contiuously running sound, and you can have the bell codes on a momentry funcion press that way you can have whatever bell code you like, failing that, you can "theoretically" have all the bell codes (well atleast the common user ones) on a function and have them play randomly. Along with the odd ring of the telephone from the lineside, and also if your box is serving a station you can have the platform bell on a momentry function press as well (IE Sound for as long as the function is held down). Obviously the downside to this is that you have to be in control of the chip in the box rather than your locomotive, so having all the functions on random might be a good idea. and at just under £100 that's going to be an expensive signal box

Unfortunately not, the only recordings are for refurb class 50s, and ive not yet heard a decent recording for a "hoover" id like to know what they sounded like, i might be wrong but the 16s and 22s were made using recordings from "similar" engined locomotives.

Bear in mind the 108s underframe equipment is different from a 101

No i was in the cab of 26043 making sure it behaves

Hi, I have on my layout adjacent to my station a small stabling point of 3 sidings for locos, and along with a fence and a depot crew room, wondered what else you might find on the floor/on the ballast in a stabling point as its looking a little barren at the mo...have tried to look at photos of say newport godfrey road and there isnt anything of use really so wondered if anyone had any ideas or photos of the sort of junk you might find lying around in stabling points? My era is the 1980s/90s Thanks Simon

Also bear in mind that the Napier fitted to Nasty class destroyers and various other RN boats was a turbo charged version whereas the rail traction version was scavenge blown, which meant a dirtier exhaust and diferent operating temperatures in the combustion chamber which has an impact on how well fuel burns amongst other things which then determines how much rubbish gets left behind after each 2 stroke cycle... As Johnster rightly says.... The deltic (and the equally strange napier sabre) fundamentally whilst complex were not unreliable engines, the main issue in terms of the deltic was what was being demanded of it, it wasnt suited to the varying demands of rail traction, it was designed to run at speed for long periods, for example you take your deltic thrash the living daylights out of it up stoke bank.....you get it red hot and your fans kick in....what happens when you run down the other side and drop back to idle to keep the speed down, so the fans slow down (because in a deltic they were engine driven) and the engine receives insufficient cooling IE thinner oil, more wear! However they were non standard which was one of the many nails in the coffin, and standardisation was one of BRs favourite reasons for getting rid of a loco....in addition they were remarkably poor on ETH, because they didnt have separate ETH generators/alternators so a tapping was taken from the main generator, this doesnt work well with MK2s and Mk3 coaches because they rely on on motor generator sets for the power of the train heating/cooling systems, and when dropping the engines back to 1/4 power this would cause the motor generator sets to cut out due to the insufficient voltage..... on top of this it was also an unregulated supply to the motor generators on the mk2/3s didnt cope well with what was being supplied and were prone to damage, this is why deltics never hauled mk3s and mk2 aircons was the exception rather than the norm....

thought you looked familiar.......

Correct but if the cutout signal is constantly being tramitted by the controller (either because it just does that) or there is another railcom decoder on the track then there is the potential for the current involved with the cutout signal to damage the decoder. Perhaps the more DCC savvy amongst us will know? SWD dont really go into the issue or how they have come to the conclusion (which to be fair they dont have to)

Because rough service bayonet fitting incandescent 110v bulbs are now incredibly difficult to get hold of...dmu bulbs are even more obscure.....

Railcom is reported to damage newer TTS decoders by southwest digital, would reccomend you follow TTGs advice!

Posted on SWD site yesterday! Please be advised that the new Hornby TTS decoders will FAIL when used with RailCom enabled dcc systems. The older TTS decoders were more tolerable of the RailCom cutout signal so would run. Please note this is NOT an ESU issue and all concerns should be directed at Hornby customer service. Is your controller railcom enabled?

SRman is correct, the 37 and 31 engine to all intents and purposes are the same, the 31 just lacks intercoolers, however......and this is open to correction also if they followed the sulzer tradition then ETH equipped 31s will idle at a higher speed than a traditional 31 or 37, the loading up is different (with a bit more finese) on a 31 due to the brush electrical equipment, and not the crude electronics and load regulator fitted to 37s. The power unit is broadly the same accross all EE types 31 37 40 50 56 the power unit is basically the same with a few refinements to the cylinder heads over the years just have different turbos and more or less pistons....

Im secretary of the CMDG (owning group of 26043 and 45149) and im in charge of 26043s restoration and operations, and i look after 45149s electrical systems. I also drive it on the GWR and when it goes out to visit other lines i often go to make sure it behaves itself, ill be at the GCR this friday.... Criticism is always welcome indomitable trust ive said far worse about it, while trying to shoe horn two new traction motors into it, it can be a right royal pain in the bum!!! Scotrail did a lot of strange things to 26s, most of them internal but there were an awful lot of "bodges" in the latter years i think you have got most of the differences, the only ones i think may be missed is i seem to recall some only carried two piece snowploughs, and i dont think the early 26s had the gravity catches on the battery box drawers either.... also note on the battery boxes some have the XX on the side the box where if you look at 26043 its a plain box which you can see when you compare a picture of 26043 to 26037, the beading below the windows is another area where there were changes, and also extra lamp irons on the front.

Its missing a number of key details like.... the discs are hash up, but there was so much corrosion in the yellow ends compromises had to be made unfortunately, its also not possible to re-instate the tablet catcher on a dual brake fitted 26 as the FV4 valve is in the way.... Did carry that configuration in the late 70s, granted with the water tank still present, but that livery was carried with the arrows on the door and the D number, dont worry though the correct doors are planned to be returned and possibly snowploughs and TOPS numbers re-instated, provided the major repairs required dont take too much time and go to plan! Might sound good but produces a bit too much smoke for my liking...... yes the beading has been removed due to excessive corrosion above the cab windows....when the ends are replated that and possibly the west highland lamps may be re-instated but that requires the movement of an Air tank, and that all a long way off.... Windows have never changed on 26s, they dont use a "fillet" on the seal so the seals are larger. The livery is due to a "1976"policy applied at the gloucestershire warwickshire railway" it would be back in civils if i had my way..... As regards the doors....they were not blanked off 26s were given entirely new doors on refurbishment, the original doors were discarded, 26043 current carries a set of ex 33 doors, the doors it carried at the end are made entirely of wood with a fibreglass skin. If you need to take a closer look at it for moddeling purposes do drop me a line...

not always, the air compressor on the 9f has nothing to do with the brakes, in the case of the 9f its there to power the doors on iron ore hoppers..... And random in reality isnt far from correct, The air compressor (on locomotives) runs until the main reservoir reaches 155 psi, and cuts out, when reservoir drops to ~110psi it starts the compressors up again, (units may be different pressures but the principle is the same) remember however that the brakes on a diesel/electric locomotive is not the only thing power by air the engine is sped up by air, the traction motor contactors and reverser are powered by air AWS warning tones are powered by air. Obviously different braking and power control is going to use the air up more quickly and slowly. so random is probably the best choice when you scale down from the real thing.

They are more common in the uk than you may think terry, a lot of austerities had them, and a number of 9fs as they were required to operate the doors on a certain iron ore wagon https://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB762GB762&biw=1920&bih=974&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=steam+hauled+iron+ore&oq=steam+hauled+iron+ore&gs_l=psy-ab.3...1107225.1111000.0.1111084.23.22.1.0.0.0.125.1255.21j1.22.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.15.820...0j0i67k1j0i10k1j0i24k1.ldlvBlUWUvw#imgrc=dw1FBOx7aOu3mM: the 9f in that picture has 2 fitted. Paul chetter would be able to tell you which cv you need to alter, send him a PM

It is fitted on the newer limby DCC ready chassis, and would be a better fit as i may be mistaken but that particular unit is a power twin whereas bachman have not produced a power twin to my knowledge... however, the lack of flywheel on the newer chassis means the running qualities still wont be as good as the bachman chassis. And the limby model does not have lights.

Its been seen in 50s as far as i can tell though its only affects the cab floor plates and not the actual main casting. Its not been seen as far as i know in 56s or 60s. The simple way to tell if your model is likely to be affected even before damage has occurred is to pop the body-shell off and look carefully at the sides of the main chassis casting if the model is affected you will see something that looks a bit like a stain, normally about an inch or so across if you reflect light off the chassis it will show up easier its more matt than the chassis surface, and looks different from casting marks (as it will have an even consistency) which would be a collection of pits or raised bumps. If you look under a magnifying glass it looks like a rough surface and this is where the alloy has started to oxidise. if this stain is present the absolute way to confirm it is to put gentle pressure on the cab ends, if they snap off this is an affected model the cab ends of an unaffected model will require considerable force to break them (trust me ive tried ) and no i dont take any responsibility for you trying this

No its a manufacturing defect, caused by impurities making there way into the original alloy used for casting. As an aside if anyone has any intact cab floor plates that screw on the the bufferbeams from an affected chassis drop me a pm, im in the market for a couple of them

dc voltage transformers do indeed exist http://www.telcon.co.uk/PDF%20Files/DCVT5S.pdf ive have bought that very one to fix a solid state automatic voltage regulator in one of our locomotives However......when i first bought tortoises......i was shocked to work out that they recommended 2 power supplies for potentially 1 point motor.....therefore i did come up with a circuit with a relay, which did the job with one 12v power supply which could automatically operated two points opposite each other. and even had circuit boards printed for it, and it worked very well...but then i switched to DCC....and it was a lot easier But i do miss operating my tortoises with these and my modratec lever frame.

According to www.greatwestern.org.uk 5055 Earl of Eldon. Originally built as Lydford Castle, June 1936. First shed allocation Old Oak Common. Renamed August 1937. August 1950 shed allocation Old Oak Common. March 1959 shed allocation Newton Abbot. Last shed allocation Gloucester. Withdrawn October 1964. If it was based at gloucester could have been a positioning move for a Padd to Cheltenham train, not sure if the panniers were taking still it on the last leg to cheltenham at this point though....

So the easiest way is to specify a transition based on speed step but you can have multiple transitions. So one transition might be if speed step <23 then play sound a but another transition from the same container might be if speed step <15 play sound b.

Hi Rick, Any chance you could post a screenshot of your sound layout please? but it sounds like you have defined a condition on the shutdown sound, or the transition from idle to shutdown, which i dont think is allowed. Thanks Simon

Cracked cab corners implies a problem well known already in Hornby products, are you able to pop the shell off and see if there are any "blemishes" on the chassis? Interestingly are the ones with the cracked corners the later chassis design, where Hornby have changed the coupling mount and swivel area?