47137

I got the feeling the production quantity was less than 2000, because someone wrote here (much earlier) that DC (DCC-ready) models got odd-numbered certificates and DCC/sound fitted models got even-numbered certificates. If the total run was exactly 2,000 then this implies exactly 1,000 of each, which sounds unlikely. Then again, I have read too much into things in the past.

- Richard.

Spotted in a book shop in Stow on the Wold a few weeks ago.

- Richard.

At the point of the "not OK" arrow in the gap between the universal and the rest of the drive shaft  place something small and flat like the end of a small screwdriver and push forward in the direction of the arrow and the universal should click into place.

Rotate the motor shaft 180deg And check that the other side of the universal is ok.

Sorted.

In fact, the other side of the UJ was already "home" and as you say a prod with a small screwdriver does the trick.

I've put the model back together again and I must agree with others who have pointed out the coupling mechanism gets easier after the first one or two goes.

Edit: this still leaves us to solve Matabiau's problem at post 3311.

- Richard.

This is my 42nd post and I was hoping to answer the answer to life the universe ETC

But I spotted something in Richard's 47137 APT-e that looks wrong( although 47-1+3-7 does equal 42 So maybe this is the correct post to spot this)

Is this PC2 a bit noisy?

What I noticed was one of the universals doesn't appear to be correctly seated

The image should explain it better than words

universal.jpg

 

John

Funny what a photo can show up.

I've not noticed any mechanical noise, but then again the turbine sounds would probably drown this out. And the model has only run six feet in each direction because of a pinch point on my layout.

Could anyone advise, is re-seating the universal a DIY job? Before I take it to bits again.

- Richard.

Has anyone suffered from bowing bodysides? My replacement PC-2 has arrived and the bodyside is not flush with the base near the front of the vehicle, I can push it into place but it won't stay there. The body appears warped. Is there a simple cure to this?

I have no idea whether this will help but here goes. This morning I took my PC-2 to pieces because I wanted to try to adjust the nose alignment (I didn't) and to see what was inside. If you pull off the nose assembly first, then run a thumbnail along the body joins both sides the body top lifts off.

So if you do this, you will see whether the body top is straight, and also see where the top clips into place. For reassembly, I fitted the nose assembly to the model, then put the body top back on. This was easier than disassembly.

Six photos here but I'm afraid I put it back together before I read your post.. This is a sound-fitted PC-2.

- Richard.

A great idea, but even touch tone and cell phone still have the corresponding letters to numbers. Or am I missing something? 

What I am trying to say is "dial A-P-T-E", that's all.

- Richard.

DCC units with old telephone dials instead of keypads, now there's an idea!

This would work for me - twenty-odd locos all addressed using the first five digits on the dial with two rotations.

The trouble is, the zero is at the far end, and nowadays every other UI designer delights in inserting leading zeros for us to type in.

- Richard.

Thinking about the dcc address (discussed many pages ago) this could be 2783,from the old telephone dial.

Richard.

BBC News this morning had an item about some sort of performing arts festival for people on the spectrum. The item focussed upon a 12-y-o lad who plays the drums to reduce stress, but there was clearly a great deal of talent of all sorts being demonstrated. In an era when disability is no longer a dirty word, this looks promising for these people to fulfill themselves in sympathetic company, which may enable them to gain more confidence in life generally. 

Absolutely agree, and thinking about my own school life and indeed life in employment, your closing words (my bold) do highlight something which has got a lot better in our world in the last 40 odd years.

- Richard.

Hi Richard,

 

I have the stainless steel ones, you can also get powered clear Perspex brackets where you can operate the functions of the APT-E  from your controller,(don't floor the throttle though!)

 

I agree they are a bit pricey but worth it, at the moment I have the vision's in 1.2m & 600mm, and the travel in1.2m.

 

Also got on order a 900mm vision, another 1.2m travel and a 3m travel for the service use apt-e.

 

Regards Craig.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for all of this. I went back to the Trainsafe web site and discovered they also do hanging brackets to let you suspend tubes from the ceiling. I've ordered up a pair of these so I can put the tube behind the layout, above the backscene. I went for the unpowered brackets but they do an "electified" version as well, with the suspension cables being the electric wires. It does seem a very well thought out system.

In the meantime, the house is so cluttered it will be best (safest) to keep the APT in its box and the tube stored on its end.

- Richard.

Train-Safe in Germany, they do vision where you can literally drive the loco in and it's a display case aswell.

 

Also the travel tube is the same, but locks the train in place and is stackable and easy to move.

 

Regards Craig.

I've just bought a 1.2m "train safe" for my APT-E, also an adaptor to fix to the end of a siding to allow the train safe to attach to the layout - the system does look well-designed and above all dust-proof. A bit pricey for my run of the mill models though so only this one to begin with. 

Are you using their wall brackets? At the moment I've got my tube destined for the mantle piece, not ideal.

- Richard.

Glad to hear they go alright on kato track - I have a heap of unitrack that creates the temporary layout all around my little apartment whenever I find time to run my fleet, so its good to know that the APT-E is a happy chap on that track

What a good idea for those of us with an APT and a plank.

- Richard.

Hi Richard,

 

I'm sorry you don't like my pictures. But I'm not too clear what you mean by "waded in". I have posted many times in this thread, the first time being on page 5 of now 28 pages, here:

 

...

 

 

Martin.

Sorry Martin - 

I couldn't make sense of your second photo of Titterstone Clee, and I missed the first one altogether.

This was largely due to incarceration at one of our airports, the ensuing decision to surf the RMWeb on a smartphone, not understanding what I was looking at, and then feeling the need to post a reply. Actually I rather like your first view (golf ball and ruined building), it seems very British indeed.

I could have taken a pic of the airport, but whilst particularly British I think it would have lowered the tone and deemed somewhat uncalled for.

Keep 'em coming, but for "guess the location" I agree we could have another thread.

- Richard.

Something different. Are pictures like this welcome here?

 

Near Cleobury Mortimer. Camera at OS grid ref: SO 67533 76590

 

cleobury_barn_1280_rp.jpg

click image for better quality

 

Martin.

There are plenty of ways to capture "British" (and none to define it) and I for one will always have a soft spot for the run-down and the eccentric.

- Richard.

Scotch Corner, June 2012

Events pre-Templot.

 

pilleth_3_1280_rp.jpg

 

click for better quality image

It is indeed a lovely view. I was born in Shropshire, I lived there for years. Doesn't make Martin Wynnes post any more relevant.

Richard.

Yet again, one man has waded in to ruin a super thread. The radar station might as well be anywhere in the World where grass grows. And no, I do not use Templot. Fed up.

Richard.

I read "Positive Personality Profiles" by Robert Rohm, this helped me a great deal. It doesn't address Aspergers specifically but it helped me to see how I fitted in and especially how to work better with others. It was a good read.

Richard.

Can you tell us about the yard lamp? I want something similar for my Quayside.

Richard.

For me (mid '50s):

1. On the test here I got 25 - just below borderline

2. On a different online test a while ago, "seek medical help"

3. On a formal test, "a few borderline characteristics, but not AS"

4. My present customer thinks I am absolutely AS, and he says he is glad because I need it to stay with the subject matter

5. My driving mentor thinks yes to AS, as does the wife of my mate, my girlfriend and one other long-term friends (these are the only people I could ask and hope for a reasoned response)

6. I met some pupils of a special school for AS on an outing (at Didcot Railway Centre as it happens) and realised I'm nowhere near as extreme as these people.

I've been self-employed for eight years, the move from employment did me the world of good, I do find selling myself extremely hard work but it's not impossible and the rewards to me are good. My present view is I'm not certifiable as AS, and if I was I'd only get a badge and it wouldn't help a jot.

I hope some of this is reassuring to the OP. Certainly, don't rule out self-employment without giving it a try. You need to find something you like, and package it to do it for other people for money - that's all.

- Richard.

There may well be.

This website gives a lot of information on companies that eventually formed unigate.

 

http://www.rooksbridge.org.uk/cvd.htm

 

There is the suggestion that some of the rail served areas in the West Country had some or were near to bottling plants.

In truth, I made the small float depot first, then went ahead with the whole thing as a layout; it seemed a shame not to incorporate it somehow.

An important distinction to make is that in general, milk processed at the creamery was rapidly sent on to the big cities by rail if applicable. At some creamery locations it was then moved on to a bottling plant, nearby.

Some sites have facilities that have been lost in mists of time. An egg packing and checking plant was up the road from Chard creamery, and is visible in old aerial photographs, in the era of Wilts United Dairy.

It seems incredible how an operation the size of Unigate could slip away like this. And now the Express Dairies operation in Hatfield Peverel, which has been Arla Foods for some years and has managed 240 commercial vehicle movements every 24 hours, will probably go later this year.

I went to the Transport Museum at Wythall a few years ago - they have a selection of milk floats including Smiths and the W&E three-wheeler. They would be worth a visit (or perhaps some correspondence) to see about information they hold about the operators of the floats.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of your model.

- Richard.

I remember small "local" dairies which received bulk milk from farmers, processed it and distributed bottled milk by electric float to individual households - 1970s and early 1980s.

A modern dairy (2016) imports bulk milk from farmers by road, strips off the cream and mixes it back in, and exports bulk cream and graded milk products - all movements by HGV; but this is an age after the doorstep delivery.

Is there a precedent for a rail-served dairy processing and then distributing directly to households (by electric float) or is this a bit of "modellers licence"? I ask because my Father worked in the milk float business from around 1960 to 1980, selling milk floats across the UK, and never mentioned a rail-served customer.

- Richard.

Was there any provision for luggage in the VIP compartment? I'm thinking, what I might do for my TC3 and TC4.

- Richard.

Nearly a year on I have had a go with Gordon's method for ballasting with some success so here are my photos for anyone "still putting it off". It seems better to bounce this topic than to start a new one.

This is my very first attempt, the day after I did it, on some SMP track. The black foam track bed is showing through on the edges, it would be better to give this a quick coat of paint first

For the second coat I added a little IPA with more water to thin the mix as suggested by Pete (Trisonic) and I took this next photo to show the consistency of the glue I ended up with

I am applying the glue on the outside edges with a "Mono-jet" spray, then using the brush to push the glue into position, this speeds up application (no brush reloads) and was extremely helpful along the bottom of the station platform

So this is my result after the second coat, the colour will not be to everyone's taste but I can tone it down a bit one day - the standard "children's art" spatula is a perfect width to go between the upright bits on Peco platform edging

I also had a go with some gapped Peco streamline code 75 - the ballast has ended up half-way up the sleepers which will be quite useful for my somewhat "secondary" line and its sidings but I imagine a second coat of ballast will take it up to the tops of the sleepers - as it stands there is room to add some weeds

This lot has taken me about two hours in all and just like a Woodland Scenics video there wasn't any mess - well hardly any :-)

- Richard.

Please don't mention how late you ordered it. Someone is bound to get upset.

 

Indeed - was in the tyre shop this morning and thought of some of the earlier posts here:

- Richard.