Geep7

I did the same on all my US stock, standardising on the #148. As I was operating an exhibition layout, they had to work every time.

The Bachmann wagon I find the most frustrating is the TTA tank.... You may as well (as I do) just throw away the NEM pocket, and replace with a kadee box + coupler of your choice. Personally, rather than the #5, I use the whisker couplers, as I find these seem to be more positive in action.

Everard Junction over on YouTube (I think Richard has a thread here on RMWeb as well, but not updated in some time) has a very similar track plan. Richard recently had issues with using curved points and set-track in a similar fiddle yard set-up. Namely that some of his newer rolling stock, such as the Cavalex TEA bogie tanker wagons, kept derailing on them. To resolve this, he re-laid his fiddle yard with 3-way points. Might I suggest you have a look at the updates on his channel for some ideas, although i'm not sure if your space is smaller or not.

Is it me, or do the horns still look a little bit on the tiny side? I think if Hornby ever get around to issuing one of these newer ones in Blue/Grey I might get one. The SWT one is so very tempting, as I think my last ever time on a slammer on the mainline was an SWT Vep.

Lady Writer - Dire Straits

Yes indeed, Bachmann have done a fantastic job of producing them, and I own a set of the Kernow Delabole Slate versions. But, and I hate to talk about the cost of modelling, you could have 3 of the Airfix/Dapol Presflos for the cost of a single Bachmann example. And i'm probably preaching to the converted here, also the enjoyment in making them as well.

Speaking of the Airfix/Dapol presflos..... There is a mix of heritage to these 6 presflos. 2 are new builds from the Dapol kit and 4 are from the Airfix era, 2 of which I built in my teens, and the other 2 reworked from part-built kits I picked up cheaply from a job lot purchase on eBay. All have had metal pin-point wheels fitted in brass bearings, kadees fitted, and weighted to about 50g each. These all still have the kit buffers, and i'm tempted to revisit them and change them to white metal. The ladders could probably be upgraded to etched brass, although I think from the photos i've seen, the ladders were fairly substantial anyway. I also still need to do the transfers, something I keep putting off, then I can weather them. For those that may be interested, I have used Vallejo Model Color Mahogany Brown for a fairly close match to BR Bauxite brown (in my eyes anyway).

Wow, every day is a school day. Having been recently modelling Spanish railway, I knew they had fouling point markers (similar to the German concrete ones, but painted white with black stripes), but I didn't realise we had them in the UK. So now something that we can prototypically place to mark our uncoupler positions....

I think you can still replace the wheels on the axles, rather than drop it replacements, but it is rather more involved, and I wouldn't know where to start.

One benefit to buying an EFE Hymek, as opposed to a second-hand 1st generation Heljan one, is that you can guarantee the EFE one will have decent wheelsets. You're pretty much 50/50 on whether the 1st gen Heljan one has the original brass wheels or not (unless the seller specifies they have been replaced), and you can't get replacement wheelsets anymore.

I've now got my Western fitted with a LokSound v5 and the Engineman sound project. It sounds great, well, once I had replaced the rubbish mini sugarcube that came with the decoder with a Bass reflex speaker that I had spare. However, I wonder if anyone else has fitted theirs with another speaker combination to give even better sound?

I'm pretty sure that much, if not all, of the (standard gauge) high speed lines in Spain are 25kV, whereas the rest of the broad gauge network is mostly 3kv DC. Obviously there are the odd patches of other stuff. I can't remember what the ex-FEVE lines are electrified at, for example.

My HO American layout 'Bad Aston' had a couple of industries named after fictional movie companies. Namely a manufacturing company called Nakatomi Industries and a packaging company called Universal Exports.

That was my thought too.....

With apologies to the owner of Rossiter Rise.... I've never heard North-west London described as thus: Ascend to new heights with Rossiter Rise, a mountainous model railway that takes you on a journey through towering peaks, deep valleys, and awe-inspiring landscapes. Marvel at the engineering marvels of bridges and viaducts as trains conquer the challenging terrain. Rossiter Rise is a testament to the indomitable spirit of railway engineering.

I do wonder sometimes if the time-lords invented the TARDIS in the age old quest to find more space for a model railway......

Had a quick search, and looks like it could have been the Old Oak Common Open Day in September 1985. Thanks @Rugd1022 for the correction of location.

I think the intention is just for one link, joining the Waterloo - Reading line at Staines, as far as I understand it.

Interesting.... possibly during one of the depot open days then I would guess? 1983 would probably be why I don't remember it.

I think we've got to the stage now, where pretty much all the major diesel classes have been modelled to a fairly high-fi standard, and those that are lacking, are on there way. I know at least one of those still to be released (not by AS), the jury is out on, but otherwise, we're going to have the majority now available. As mentioned, there are a couple of gaps.... A Class 42 Warship to the standard of the Class 43 would be good, as (for purely selfish reasons) the Class 42's were the more likely to get onto the Southern. As regards the current crop, I think the only thing "wrong" with the current Heljan/EFE 'Hymek' offering, is the lack of the option for the second door handle lower down the cab doors. Other than that, it's a pretty decent model, of which I have 2. Heljan's Crompton I think is a really good model, especially now they've fixed the roof profile and done the early roof arrangement. I have 4 of the newer tooled one's, 2 standard, 1 pull-push fitted, and a slim-jim. And i've never noticed the printed panels. I have 2 of the previous generation Bachmann Class 47's, and I thought they captured the class well. I also have a Bachmann 08. The body itself is pretty good, the mechanism is fine, but, the pick-up arrangement is woeful, and I needed to add extra pickups to get it to run smoothly. However, the 4 models above I have mentioned all have one thing in common. They are a pain to fit really decent DCC Sound. In fact, the 08 is a pain just to fit plain old DCC in.

We could be waiting a while then..... 😁

The 4-Cig's could pretty be seen anywhere on the Western or Central Division. The 1965 Phase 1 Cig's and Big's were pretty much confined to the Brighton and Arun Valley lines, but the 1972 Phase 2 Cig's and Big's could be found pretty much all the way to Bournemouth. In the latter years, whenever I took a train to London from Guildford, it would usually be a Cep/Cig formation, and I would make a beeline for the Cig, hoping to find the 2nd class compartment empty. Now, I currently have 2 4-Cig's to build. 1 MJT/Replica scratch build, which will be a Phase 1 in Green, and 1 Southern Pride kit in Blue and Grey. What's the betting that I start either one (or both) and an r-t-r one is announced?

A couple of photos from my father's collection.... 50005 Collingwood arriving at Didcot. It looks pre-refurbished to me (no headlight), so probably around about 1980. 50033 Glorious in Large Logo at, I think, Bristol Temple Meads. Can anyone confirm that? Both photos by Malcolm Chinery I have loads of Class 50 photographs taken by my father to scan in. I intend to eventually get them all up on my website.

With being in my mid-40's, i'd like to think I have a fair few years of modelling left in me, but as @Northmoor mentioned, you never quite know what's around the corner. More for insurance purposes than anything, I have started a spreadsheet list of my models. If you ever want to find out how much you have spent over the years, just make a list, and add the replacement value. You'll be shocked by how much it quickly adds up. However, I am under no illusion, and my wife also, that when my model collection finally needs to be disposed off, it won't be worth even a third as much, if anything at all. Without sounding too morbid, i'd like to think that in 30-40 years time there is still a large model railway hobby. My 12 year old son has very little interest in model trains. He seems to enjoy taking photographs of trains when I take him out on the odd trip to Didcot, but there are only so many IET's, Class 66's and multiple unit's you can photograph before it gets a bit boring. At home, he'd rather play video games, which seems to be the norm these days. But you never know, maybe once he's older, he might think about taking up a hobby. You never know, it might even skip a generation?

I have a few exhibiting mishaps, that now in the past, I can look back on with mild humour. Exhibiting my first HO American layout at my local all American Exhibition (that sadly is no longer held), and we ended up tripping the electrics for the entire hall, due to a faulty US-UK adapter for the NCE PowerCab we were using. No spare to hand, but fortunately, the group holding the show had some rather clever electricians, who managed to patch it for the day. Then exhibiting my second HO American layout at the Seaboard Southern show, we pack up the car, commenting that it went in much easier this time, drove all the way to Horsham, put the layout up, only to realise we had left the entire lighting gantry at home. Quick patch up with some duct tape (that stuff is wonderful), and we were grateful for the hall having such great lighting, otherwise exhibiting would have been a struggle. Not at the same show, but throughout exhibiting Bad Aston, we also had a couple of SEEP point motors fail. Fortunately one was one a siding at the back of the layout that we could just switch out for the rest of the exhibition weekend, but one failed, leading to the car float. Fortunately, using screw connector blocks, it was easy enough to swap out the point motor, but not having any spares to had, I had to borrow the point motor from the point from the siding mentioned above. I now have a couple of SEEPS soldered up, just in case of any failures. Then West Sands, well Blackhurst as it was known then, and it's first (and only) exhibition. I can honestly say, and recommend, DON'T commit to exhibiting a 16 feet long layout that is just bare baseboards and track, 6 months before an exhibition, and try and use a hitherto untested magnetic uncoupling method. Plenty of things went wrong that weekend, apart from the aforementioned uncoupling (or not as the case was). I didn't give myself enough time to test the layout to ensure it all worked properly, which meant I went to the show with a point (only the main point to the station) with a dry solder joint on the frog feed. Loco's that hadn't been properly configured correctly on DCC, and you could almost still smell the wet glue on some of the scenics. A lot of things can be mitigated by better planning, check lists, etc, but sometimes, as already mentioned, the unexpected can happen. Oh, and another recommendation, don't leave your rolling stock and locos, especially when DCC fitted, in the car overnight when the temperature is going to drop down below 10°C. They don't seem to like it.