Les1952

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

Rule 1, your train set. I'm applying it the other way at the moment, with the first layout set in Germany but with some Hornby stock running on it until there is enough to stock a completely British TT120 layout. Just a point about secondhand stock. Check the coupler mounts. I'm not sure there are compatable exchange couplers available for quite a bit of the older stuff. Les

The only Railadventure stock that fits the UK loading gauge are the two pairs of buffer-fitted HST power cars they bought. Rule 1 wouldn't prevent you having the Vossloh on a model, however.... Les

There are three varieties of Piko 0-4-0 diesel available at Osborn's Models. Les

While waiting for Hornby to get enough stuff together for me to buy - I've got all I can on pre-order (an Easterner, an A3, a couple of extra coaches and a rake of freight stuff I can re-livery to 1957-1968) - I've been investing in Continental - largely so the proceeds of Croft Spa's sale and its stock slowly selling don't disappear into non-railway projects. Today's parcel was a Roco BR38 4-6-0. A spur to get the layout back on its trestles and test the bits I've built so far. I don't know how long 3SMR had it in stock but it took a lot of persuading to run at all. I only got chance to run it in for 5 mins each way today - the instructions say 30 mins - and it now runs quite smoothly at 50 speed steps out of 128. The loco is factory DCC Sound fitted. Is it money well spent? £350-odd. It looks good on the front of the Pullman coaches, though it can't couple until I've swapped the Fleischmann Profi-coupling it came with for a Tillig one from stock. Not the most expensive loco on the roster- the Arnold 2-10-0 was more, and gained me a pleasing number of Hornby points. Next loco in should be the A4 from the Scotsman set, which will be off for sound fitting almost as soon as it arrives. There are 5 locos in the current roster to play with - one each from Hornby, Arnold, Tillig, Piko and Roco. In the meantime I'm also waiting for Peco to get the small radius points onto market- I need a couple for the yard area. But as I've said before I'm not really Hornby's target market for TT:120, and Simon Kohler agreed when I talked to him about it at Gaydon. However he also said he would appreciate the sales he got to modellers like me. No pics yet of the BR38, but here's one of Blink Bonny head to head with the 2-10-0. Shows how much smaller UK stuff is than German, more noticeable when they are the same scale. Les

Any examples for the rest of us to look at? And what items in 1:120 scale have you actually ordered? Les

So far I've counted about sixty posts on the various Facebook groups from people who are totally new to railway modelling and are asking for information/assistance. I don't know what proportion of TT:120 sales it represents, but if it is the same proportion as RMWebbers to serious modellers it means Hornby have found a good supply of new modellers to sell to. Les

We are on the brink of the Nuremberg Toyfair- I wonder if we are about to find out what Arnold Class 66s are planned? Les

Oh good, I prefer being one of the chosen few...... Les

I don't know, but my A4 might be the first one to Digitrains for proper sound to be fitted.... Les

The dead frog itself isn't an issue with most locos, but the switch blades are rather relaxed as there is no centre spring to hold them over. The problem is that on some points once the loco is sitting on the switch plade assembly its weight causes enough movement to cut the power to the blade. All short wheelbase locos have the same problem. Fleischmann have contacts built into the bottom of the frog which the wheels are supposed to contact- finescale wheels have flanges that don't touch these. Hopefully this photo of one of Bregenbach's points under repair will explain the construction of the thing. Sorry I haven't one without an overhead wire in the way. Hope this helps. Bregenbach uses Fleischmann track as Peco doesn't have the geometry to make the layout work and my preferred option of Tomix was unavailable due to lockdown. The layout is at the N Gauge do at the NRM in May if you want to examine the offending points more closely. Returning to TT, once the Scotsman set arrived I looked at the point and compared it with the Peco ones I had already got. The length of the Hornby dead frog is horrendous, the sound-fitted 08 will need quite a large stay-alive top keep going, and I have serious doubts as to how slowly the analogue ones will run through Hornby points. My smallest loco for Bregstadt will be an Arnold Kof, a 4-wheeler with a short wheelbase. With Peco points it has a chance of running very slowly through them. Les

and still does, though it isn't yellow any more... Pictures taken in the early seventies and 2007. A lovely little engine, smaller than the 16" Hunslets and just ripe for Rapido or Planet to consider as their next industrial..... Les

"Are we nearly there, yet?" Les

Sadly the low speed of the Hunslet and the size of its stay alive almost guarantee that it has neither the speed nor the coasting distance to avoid stalling on Fleischmann points, where its weight is enough to take the blade away from the stock rail. Its nice fine flanges then mean it doesn't contact the strips at the base of the frogs so it stalls as it can't coast to the next power, even at maximum speed. hence my Hunslet isn't a lot of use for shunting Bregenbach in Schwarzwald. On the new TT gauge Bregstadt I'm using Peco points with a firmer action and a very short frog, which can become electrofrog if I wish to switch it. In this scale I should be able to use 4 wheeled shunters without stay-alive with no problem. The only fiddly issue is connecting Peco and Hornby track together reliably. Les