NHY 581

Very. It was the only thing I really fancied from them in probably two or three years, if only for a probable light railway application. Rob

Looking forward to the re-build, Alex. Your recent layouts, Upwell Drove, Yelverton and more recently Lydbrook are just fabulous. I credit your enthusiasm for all things East Anglian ( amongst a few other notable suspects ) for not only kick starting my own enthusiasm but helping to maintain it. Rob

Tidy

Careful Michael........ You'll find yourself getting told off by a Rails fan boy................ But.......... I, along with many others I'm sure, have received comprehensive updates only last week about the Andrew Barclay and P class from Accurascale. As I said, it's a pity that Rails seem incapable of keeping their Genesis customers updated on progress. But then again, they are apparently only distributing Batch two out of goodwill......... Rob

Afternoon all, I've decided I'm going to work through this and rather than air any further irritation/ frustration/ general malaise/ grumping / desire to literally hurl the toys from the pram on here I'll update if and when I've made any progress. There are obviously options available but scratch building using copper clad sleepers or wooden/rivet sleepers is not one of them. As I say, I'll report back in due course. Rob.

Thanks all.. Having discussed things trackwork with Tim before all of this there is no way I'd go 00 F/S. Frankly, I don't see the point ( ! ). I want a finescale appearance and functionality which copes with the varying wheel standards we appear to have encountered. The 00 British Finescale A5 appears to offer this and I am aware that Tim has tried various locos, RTR and kitbuilt, through his without incident. I no longer believe that the Peco Bullhead medium radius pointwork offers this. Mine will be now be consigned to a dark corner and forgotten. Last weekend , I built a baseboard on which to test out a few things along with a small additional board, which could act as a fiddle yard. They are very simple with more than a few rough edges but they'll do for now. I'm honestly quite happy with them, considering I've not built a baseboard in probably 15 plus years. Even this provided quite a few "learning opportunities ". The top is temporarily in place and needs to be removed to be notched for wiring etc. The breakfast tray beneath provides sufficient support as the baseboard currently weighs in at 2.5 kg so nice and light....and I have more than enough trays to support this plus any fiddle yard. I made it 100mm deep to accommodate large point motors such as those by Tortoise or Cobalt which is a good thing as the original idea was to try PECO twistlock point motors with the Bullhead points. However, using kit built points means that I'll need a point motor suitable for "non latching" points and I'm pretty certain the Twistlick jobs aren't. But at least the basics are there to carry on if I can get through the current frustration. Rob.

I'm pretty much there, chaps. as mentioned in my earlier post. Or I simply say sod British 4mm, go European HO ( which has been brewing for a long time ) just to stick with Code 75 electrofrog pointwork......... I already have a start in both Czech and Italian Railways............( Czech is most likely ) I'm trying to control the frustration I'm feeling right now. I'm determined to have a no rush approach to any new 4mm projects so I may just have a complete stop on everything until this is resolved......one way or the other. Rob

Morning all, I have been experimenting with Peco Bullhead medium radius points and plain track. Due to the temporary lash up nature of the ensemble, power was confined to track, none to frogs. Running was interesting. I have already been chatting elsewhere about the issues some have had with these points but the summary of my experiences this far is this........ There is gauge narrowing through the curved section of the point. Others more qualified than me measured and established it's 16.2, which I understand to be consistent with 00/FS. I, like others, have a nice selection of wagons by Rapido. They're lovely, state of the art ( Darling ) and I intend to use them, a lot. However, the B2B vary up to 14.8 for reasons detailed above. Combine this with narrow pointage and as I saw during my test sesh it makes for interesting progress through the points. Locos..........I want to use short wheelbase locos. For testing purposes, I used a Hattons P Class, actually a couple and a Dapol Rails Terrier. Neither type coped well through the frogs. The P class stuttered but got through. The Terrier just stopped and sulked. The Terrier lacked side play on the driven axle ( in this case beneath the cab ) so reversing through the frog just didn't happen. Forwards there was an improvement but only marginally. Be mindful that these locos run excellently on normal Peco FB code 75 electrofrog pointwork. Other locos were tried. A Hornby J 15 was fine though the tender was a bit tight going through. I think this was due to the tender chassis base plate being a tad tight thus reducing side play and the centre axle being a bit tight. Bachmann USA tank sailed through as did a Bachmann 1F and Jinty. A Dapol B4, normally a benchmark for good running wasn't particularly happy, neither was a new Hawthorn Leslie but both types stuttered through. I didn't do any measuring of loco B2B but I think the main issue was that of varying wheel profiles/ flange thickness. The Terrier certainly looked chunkier to the eye than say the J15. I'm therefore in a bit of a quandary. Do I persevere with the Bullhead points for any future projects, lay and wire them properly but with the chance I may not obtain the running I want ( mindful that to do this may well require the re-wheeling of any Rapido wagons used thereon ) or do I revert to Code 75 Streamline points, laid and wired as per as I know all the above locos run well through them. However, given the reason I want to adopt Bullhead points is for a more finescale approach/appearance, this is a backward step and actully one I want to avoid. Therefore, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that I should now use British Finescale kit built points on anything in the future, in light of the above. However, given the space constraints I normally work under, I really want to stay with proprietary ready to lay points at this stage as I question if I'm proficient enough to make my own pointage but then perhaps the only way to know is to have a go.....and the main reason for this 'test piece was to make sure I understand fitting point motors, powering frogs adding droppers etc etc, not the evolving trackwork issues which should have been the most straightforward aspect of all of this. Rob

Kent ! ?

Oooo....... you are awful........but I like you.......

Top stuff . Rob

Bless Ewe!

Maestro.

That's no way to talk about the show going folk ! Rob.