Les1952

I'm waiting for WILLIAM WHITELAW to arrive. At that point I'll check its cabside numbers against all of the transfers I have in stock to see if any of the existing ranges are the appropriate size (largest N-gauge and smallest OO gauge). I'm after an A3 with blinkers and a GN tender to do Lemberg (guess who was asked by the then Dapol Dave which late crest blinkered A3 they should do first.....) Les

Thinking about it, I think the next occasion we will get an update from Hornby on the Class 66 could well be Nuremberg Toyfair, when I would not be at all surprised to see some in the Anold announcements. Les

One reason I ordered the set with the A4 in it is that 60004 was the only A4 I photographed in BR service, replacing Kenilworth as standing pilot at Darlington when the A1 was away somewhere. 60004 was by the turntable the wrong way round. A few days later I was waiting just out of sight of Faverdale bridge for the bus to school and the loco on the daily pickup goods didn't sound right- it was most often a J94 but could be anything running in out of Darlington works. I let the bus go (there was just enough time to race from the bus stop to school at the other end from the next bus) and investigated. What was shunting hoppers onto Grieveson & Whitwell's coal drops at Faverdale bridge? 60004. Les

like this? There won't (hopefully) be that much more of this stock to come here but it gives me something to run and experiment with while working out what the exhibition layout is going to look like. Les

To those of us coming from N gauge the tyres on TT locos don't look so wide. (with apologies to AYMod for cropping one of his pics of my erstwhile trainset to illustrate the point). Les Trouble with Andy's brilliant pics is that at that magnification they really show dust and wonky number plates and lamps.....

A musical director I worked with had the maxim that anything you did was only as good as its weakest part. We have long passed the day where the weakest part of OO is the fact that all the models are 4 feet 2 inches gauge instead of 4 feet eight and a half inch. Yet there is still this clamour for "higher and higher standards of accuracy"........ Just a thought Les

They can, but really only if they can be put on the track and then not have to be lifted and moved by hand. For exhibition layouts fine detail is a nightmare. Too often these extra details end up on the exhibition hall floor. Having built four exhibition layouts where the locos travelled in a communal stock box and then one where to protect pantographs locos travel in their own boxes undoing boxes to get locos out protects the locos very well, but takes a deal of time. The ten trains of Bregenbach take as long to set up and test as the 24 longer trains on Croft Spa did. For exhibition use, give me locos without added bits any time- hence the heavy use of elderly Hornby J94s on NO PLACE. Les

Could be 1839 so far. We just don't know. Les

If these numbers are right then 828 presales into a depressed economy are encouraging. I've just ordered a set, expected in a few days - I preordered the Easterner but fancy the Pullmans as well and the money has unexpectedly become available. It will be interesting to see the number on the box.... Les

I had a Hornby Terrier then a Rails Terrier on NO PLACE. Both are no longer in stock as failures- The Hornby- nice but it suffered from Bachmann 74xx disease- the wheelbase didn't have enough play to cope with my Peco small Y point with a small point straight off it.- Not alone in this, DJM J94s have needed surgery and about 1 in 3 locos have failed and departed. The Dapol/Rails- ran much better but there wasn't room for Digitrains to put in a stay-alive when sound fitted. Result is that it stalls on every dead frog point as soon as punters start breathing over the layout at shows. Oddly enough the two B4s with a pair of wheels less run beautifully without a stay-alive, but the rudimentary compansation plus them being a big bruisers of 4-wheelers puts them in a higher league. Both expensive locos- what are my workhorses? Hornby J94s (plus a Dapol one) from years back, all sound and stay-alive fitted. The Dapol one is one of the earliest, now with sound, stay-alive and a Lambton cab but will run all day quite happily. Do I need high end locos on NO PLACE? Not at all. Hence my looking forward to the TT:120 J94, of which plans are for anything up to half a dozen on Broken Scar. Les

Technically TT:120 is the new range for 2023, so one (of two) sets available with track pieces (the curved bits at the end of this test track- the straights are Peco) being sold, and the Class 08s due in Jan 23 are on the boat. and yes, these boards are the beginning of a new exhibition layout, Broken Scar. Les

Our club still has members who are not on the internet and who get their club info by print. Two of these don't buy model railway mags either, so rely on looking through ones that appear in the clubroom or being shown models by other club members. You don't have to work all that hard to be ignorant of the new entrants, just being off line will do most of the work. Les

If you email Hornby include a copy of that marked-up pic as proof it is exchange material. Hornby are vastly better than some of the others when it comes to problem locos. Les

I'm not sure about The Great Bear but the five Raven A2s lived a very productive life as they were as good in most respects as the original Gresley A1. What they weren't was upgradeable, apart from gaining bigger tenders. The one fitted with an A1 boiler (mainly to reduce works time by having a pool of spare boilers for the other four) was not really any better than the others. As a result by the time their original boilers wore out it was more effective to replace them with more advanced locos than build new boilers to give them another 15-20 years performing at that level. In mileage and performance terms they kept up with the original Gresley Pacifics, though became outclassed by the A3s. If a 12-15 year life coping with the expresses of the day isn't productive then the A1s, rebuilt Merchant Navies and Britannias fall under the same headline, all were well up to the job at time of (re)building but the job moved away from them. Les

Downer may not be but I for one am getting rather tired of attending funerals of fellow modellers- three in the last 12 months alone. OK, one was an N-gauge modeller but the other two had collections in OO. In addition to the funerals I've been asked (wearing my club chairman's hat) to help with the disposals of two more local model railway collections, one gentleman deceased and the other gone into a nursing home. Are there enough people hitting the "post-expensive-children" age taking up or coming back to the hobby with the aim of acquiring expensive OO models to replace these folks in the market place? Hornby are hedging their bets with a product that is cheaper than OO or N and designed to go into smaller homes. Les

as promised, Dapol and Hornby-Tillig couplings on the same curve. Dapol Easi-shunts. Loco is a Piko DB Class 290, about class 20/25 in physical size, coach is a trad German 4-wheeler. track is Hornby Radius 2. I might get a half-circle of R1 to experiment with but the Easi-Shunts stay coupled on this pairing round R2. If I go with Easi-shunts it will be for 4-wheeled wagons, so no issue here. The loco has nem mounts. The coach are also nem pockets but I'm not sure about the swivel mounts. For comparison further down the same train a pair of Tillig 4-wheel wagons with Tillig couplers (as Hornby). Note the couplers are on nem mounts that swivel. All part of my playing trains while waiting for my Hornby stock to arrive. DPD did bring me the first scenic item, an NER footbridge, which can't be opened until Christmas... A package earlier in the week from Modellbahn-Lippe included the two wagons and 56 Tillig couplers in kit form. The Piko diesel and anything by Roco can at least now get the right couplers added. Les

Worse, the basic frame length was different between different batches of J67 and J69, and not constant within either class, with different cabs and tanks. Some even ran with a different wheel arrangement- 0-4-2 rather than 0-6-0 Les

Joining Hornby to Peco track is possible but not easy using Peco rail joiners. Tip- Use the pointed end of a flat needle file (or similar) to open out one end of a Peco rail joiner. Push this onto the Hornby track as far as you can with your fingers. Use the side of a small pair of pliers or similar to gently tap it onwards to about half its length. Now bring the Peco track to the Hornby and push them together carefully. The Peco joiner should go onto the narrower Peco rail a lot easier than it did onto the Hornby rail. As I've only just built a test oval (and not pinned it down) I'll wait for the Hornby fishplates to be in stock before going for the permanent layout. As an aside- using a pair of Dapol easi-shunts on a Piko diesel and a Tillig coach they ran quite happily round Hornby Radius 2 track. I'm not sure about R1 as I haven't any (yet?). Pics have been taken but are on the phone which is charging upstairs, maybe later. Now I've found out how to reassemble Tillig/Hornby couplings I'll be able to experiment on Hornby stuff when my Easterner set arrives next month. In the mean time I'm playing with a very short train of German stock. Les

I did some research on the J69 and there are a vast number of diagragms of various bits of the loco that were made for one batch and then changed for the next, and so many rebuilds, upgrades and even regressions to earlier versions that, although a large class barely two were the same. A nightmare to tool to the standard of accuracy we now demand of our manufacturers. Les

On Hawthorn Dene and Croft Spa I needed a 4 car and an 8-car DMU to represent the trains running on the North Eastern region. BR did at least come to my aid with there being a pair of units that were lengthened from 3 to 4 cars by adding a centre trailer. However most 1st generation class 101/111 or 108 4-car sets had driving motor composites at both ends with the brake in the middle. 8-car sets (two 4-car sets coupled together) were used on Middlesbrough-Newcastle-Carlisle, York-Newcastle-Berwick and Darlington-Saltburn trains amongst others, with the buffet sets being half of a train on the longer routes. Mr Simon built the sets for me by cutting and shutting a DMBS and a TS to create a DMC and a TBS, and in one case converting a TS into a trailer buffet. Even getting hold of class 101 and 108 centre trailers separately was far from easy. It would be nice to think someone would make one of the North Eastern Region's 4-car buffet sets, but it means tooling three different cars and having a power car that has seating throughout. I'm not holding my breath. Les

I'm not complaining- I lose 200 and gain about 2000. Les

I never could resist an NER standard footbridge... Another sale to Hornby.. Les

Club loco a useful raffle prize. Facebook incantations easily made apart from working out where the emojis were.... Les

Code 55 still needs to be painted, even in N. Wrong A4 for the TT:120 Pullman set expected next year... Les

Any particular reason why the Limo Cab has been left off the 2022 wishlist? Les