Les1952

The danger is if the flat blade comes into contact with the far rail, which some ham fisted eejit like me is bound to achieve..... I've seen something similar with a piece of old credit/store card used. Les

Still under construction, one for Mr Parker. The unfinished allotments on Burch Green. The notice affixed to a lamp post advising of filming going on is off scene. Mr McNee and Mrs Rigg are waiting for their cameraman and director to arrive.

WRONG! The NCB in Lancashire also ran some quite ancient locos from pit to pit along the main line to collect and deliver wagons. Bellerpohon even hauled excursion trains to Blackpool in its youth. NCB in Lancashire and in Yorkshire also used their locos to pilot BR trains where the poor things couldn't make it up the bank into the yard. Lancs WD saddletanks regularly rescued BR Class 37s, then on reaching the yard coupled up to the train and took it away up their steeper line unassisted.... There is a nice pic in one of the industrial books of one of the 1960s built Hudswell Clarke 0-4-0 saddletanks (NCB South Yorks/Barnsley areas) out on the main line shoving heartily on the back of a BR train that had failed to make it into the sidings, and another of it pulling a BR train out onto the main line so the train engine on the other end didn't have to run round.. Wensleydale branch and other LNER locations. Y1 and Y3 sentinels outstationed at a branch line station would go to the next one on the line to pick up and deliver odd wagons. Your BLT could have a Sentinel outstationed there that would work to sidings back down the line a couple of miles to shunt and bring wagons back more centrally. That is one of the jobs the LNER bought them for, and why the Y3 had two gears. Les

for a fairly generic For a fairly generic Hawthorn Leslie you might be best off with FARADAY. Les

I've been running the Mark 1s again, far too fast to the extent the A4 was only just staying on the track on my R2 bends. No issues at this point with the coaches. Then I made a right bog up of uncoupling the coaches, and two of the coupler guides popped out of their slots, leaving the couplers a lot lower than they should be and stiffer. I tried running one of these coaches round with the offending coupler trailing- and got a grinding noise on the curves. It would not couple to a coupler that had not dropped out of its slot, but would couple to the other affected coach. These ran with grinding on the bend but not on the straight. They also jammed on a facing point, sticking in the Vee of the blade. Clicking the coupler back into its guide cured the problem and the coaches ran with no other issue. I'm wondering if grinding coaches just need their couplers checking and the self-centring mechanism pushing upwards into the guide? The other problem could be missing washers. Has anyone checked if there is a washer between the bogie and the coach underframe on a coach that doesn't grind? Les

I've not noticed mine to be any noisier than my Tillig 4-wheelers..... Les

I don't know but 60004 has one chimney that appears lined... Les

Yes and magically, in that order Les

The set is out of stock again. With the batch number for the third iteration being 828, this looks like it is well North of 2600 sold so far. Impressive if it is so. Les

Testing the hoppers and weathering them.

Bregenbach is no longer going to Howden show at the end of March. At 59 miles they reckoned I live too near for overnight accommodation. The fact that my two operators for the weekend live in Leicester (Gary) at 88 miles and Lutterworth (Eric) at 104 miles doesn't appear to enter into the equation. In any case I wasn't asked. Weekends away always cost me a lot of money as I buy the meals for my team. .

Biggest layout this year is the exhibition debut of Wilford Road, Bingham Club's new 24 feet by 8 feet line based on the GCR South of Nottingham. and- no, I hadn't noticed the handrail on the J94 needing fixing..... More details to follow.

I can see Piko or more likely Tillig coming up with classes 86 and 87 if they enter the UK market, mainly because both these classes operate in Bulgaria so would get sales outside the UK. Classes that work alongside them on the Continent are already in the Tillig range. Class 92 is a possibility for a similar reason. Les

My A4 is likely to be a showcase queen eventually. 60004 was the only A4 I photographed in BR service and the only one I actually saw working a BR train- that was the Faverdale pick-up goods and it was shunting Greiveson & Whitwell's coal drops. This was used as a running-in turn from the works from time to time, which is probably why it was there. The bug I have with Hornby's A4 is that I can't model the return working of that, which would be tender first. My UK outline layout when it arrives will be operated mainly by J94s, as the most common shunting class where I grew up. There were a few 08s knocking around, so that would be appropriate. If they get round to a J50 or a jinty that will be added as Darlington repaired Jinties, turning them out with the number on the side of the tank, and there was an allocation of J50s at darlington for a time. BTW, the Dapol Easi-shunt works on Hornby TT stock and is quite happy at Radius 2. I've not changed over yet as I don't want to buy in another supply, but the UK outline layout will very likely use them. Les

I suspect that when you reach an age beginning with a 7, with the onset of arthritis and RSI now of ten years standing, you may well find N gauge getting difficult. By that time there should be a lot more choice available and the change will be a more welcome prospect. In the meantime I'm enjoying working out new ideas to fit a lot less into the space than I could in N and still get it to look reasonably realistic and perform like a viable exhibition layout. Les

I had an issue of spinning wheels when testing my A4. It turned out the brake rodding had come detached and had caught in the track. Ten seconds to see the problem and less than a minute to fix (followed by another ten minutes later to glue the brake rodding in place to keep it there....) The spigots are a lot smaller than in OO (naturally) and my N-gauge A3s and A4s don't have the rodding separate. My layout has a slight incline as the workshop floor isn't level. Haulage before I started monkeying around with the loco was three Pullmans, 3 Mark 1s, 2 6-wheel Umbauwagen coaches and three 4-wheel Thunderbox coaches, equivalent to nine bogie coaches at least. No spinning going up the slope and round the R2 bend at the top. With a bit of monkeying around I've reduced this to five to six bogies, but that is my fault rather than Hornby's. There seem to be 888 sets in the first batch of Easterners. Les

My parcel this morning was the Easterner. More exciting but less immediate use than the pack of track I'm also expecting, but never mind..... So now we know there are 888 sets in the first batch. The layout is still under construction but here is William W in all its glory. I remember it with black-backed nameplates - "The Easterner" has Scottish nameplates. I think I can find out how long 60004 ran with these but I'm not that bothered. The first nameplate order for 1:120 scale will include replacements for these. I would imagine 90-odd percent of the buyers of the set couldn't care less what colour they are or think the blue ones pretty...... Running on the test track was fine, so I chipped it straight away and ran it in DCC fitted. Like Blink Bonny it has a tendency to lift a bogie wheel on the inside of a bend on Radius 2. No issues at all on Radius 3. Having learned a bit from Blink Bonny I first tried a small amount of lead strip (from d-i-y leaded window kits) under the bogie. That helped. Two strips cured the issue but catch on trailing points. I took the bogie off and tweaked the bend on the bogie arm, and that has cured it completely at the expense of some haulage. My shed floor slopes slightly to one end, so the baseboards do also as the trestles are level on level floors. Before I tweaked the bogie it would pull all of my passenger stock (3 Mk1, 3 Pullman, 2 three-axle Umbauwagen and 3 4 wheel thunderboxes, equavalent load to 9 bogies) without a hint of slipping. Now it manages five bogies, just. A sixth causes a little slipping on the uphill bend. Not an issue to me as the loops in the storage yard only take an A4 plus 4 bogies and a 4 wheeled van. I did find a possible cause of Blink Bonny's occasional shorting. There is a tiny plastic washer on the bogie securing screw to stop accidental shorting to the main frame from the bogie. I may have lost this reassembling Blink Bonny. I'll check that tomorrow. Meanwhile my Roco 4-6-0 has another passenger train to play with. Another indication of how much bigger Continental stock is- the BR38 is a branch line/ cross country loco at heart.... Les

I have something coming within the next 39 minutes (DPD time), but it could be an order for track I put in on Thursday evening.... Les

My Hardy's RING HAW went on an outing today to Digitrains for sound and stay-alive to be fitted. The folks at the shop liked it a lot. I'll see it again in about three weeks time apparently.. Les

If they follow usual DPD from Hornby practice they'll email you again when it goes onto the van with a one hour slot (eg 2.17pm to 3.17pm) that they will probably deliver in - to within about half an hour either side from my experience so far - five deliveries. Les

Available to pre-order as analogue again. They must have a third batch either just arrived or known to be in transit. Les other types of van are available.......

I'm in the UK. You don't get the 15% on Arnold but you do get the 10% in reward points. My 2-10-0 gained me £39 worth, a nice discount off a future purchase. Les

Likewise- looks like it will arrive a couple of days after my trip to Digitrains. Still, it can go next week when I collect my Rapido RING HAW. Les

that seems logical as I can order Arnold TT from the Hornby website. I got a whole heap of Hornby points from my 2-10-0 order... Les

They all have the old Piko couplers mounted in NEM pockets, so are swappable for the new Tillig style used by Hornby. Les