PAL

Thanks so much to all who responded. Flying Pig, I take your point - the more of an integral structure you make, the stiffer and more robust the whole thing will be. And the next one I do. I'll try making a more substantial fixing point at the solebar end with a bit of plasticard. Interesting stuff too from well-formed contributors about the mechanism itself.

I like making wagon kits (00 gauge) but the bane of my modelling life is undoubtedly brake levers and v-hangers - coming adrift, breaking off, snapping, both during construction and everyday handling thereafter. The plastic levers that come with the kits are usually nicely to scale but I find they're so easily broken at the thin bit in front of the handle. I'm too cack-handed to deal with the brass etched ones. I now use Wizard Models' white metal jobs which are nice and bendy. The main problem tho is always that the fixing points at either end are so tiny. I've tried drilling holes to insert pieces of wire but there never seems enough there to drill into even with the smallest drill bit. Members' ideas on making them more robust and trouble-free would be gratefully received.

Having just finished weathering my USA 060T, I find the toy-like coal load stands out even more annoyingly. Has anyone had a go at replacement surgery? I've tried undoing the four screws inside the back-end of the body shell with a view to getting access beneath the bunker to make the job easier but can't get anything to move. Has anyone managed to get it apart?

Thanks to both. I've never used microswitches. From what you say, I think they might be worth investigating.

I wonder if members can cast light on a strange phenomenon I encounter from time to time. I have ten electrofrog points crammed on to a 5ft by 20 inch layout (00 gauge, Peco point motors, CDU fitted). Sometimes, at the start of a session - it's always at the start, after an interval of at least 12 hours since the last one - I find one of the points is dead - that is, the motor throws it across all right but the loco stalls on it. it's usually a different point every time but there are one or two repeat offenders. But then after a few minutes and a bit of switching the point back and forth the point always begins working again - so far anyway. I'm pretty sure it's not the blade or wiring connections because all the points work faultlessly otherwise. It occurred to me it might be something to do with the CDU, but what do I know? Possible explanations and remedies from members with more expertise would be gratefully received. Is it going to get worse?

I'd like to pick up on Grif's and Barclay's contributions. I've got a steel calliper and a 6-inch steel rule that are both decades old. Over time, they've got so discoloured - I read somewhere it's the acid in your sweat that does it - that I now have difficulty reading the markings. I'd have bought replacements long ago if I knew what to buy that wouldn't discolour in the same way, be as robust as what I have and isn't too expensive. I'm also interested in the rival merits of the calliper and the micrometer. Members' observations and recommendations would be most welcome

Tho I'm no DIY type, I was so frustrated by this problem that I made myself one of these; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHCyHRWCvUc Looks like an alien from a video game, doesn't it? You can get the coolant pipe very cheaply on ebay. I made an immovable base with a sandwich of roofer's lead sheet between two sheets of ply, and only fitted two arms, anchored by Milliput. The shrink wrap is a good idea if you're concerned about damaging delicate items. Do zap the inane music track before you start or it'll drive you mad.

Latest contributions much appreciated. My layout is small but it's all points, so I need all the advice I can get. The way forward appears to be: nickel silver joiners sawn-off enough to slide fully on to one rail-end or the other then pushed across the join, which takes care of the alignment problem. Cut off one side of the insulation joiners just short of the pip in the middle and try to finaigle them on at the same time - failing that, plasticard in the gaps. Then solder - solid across the track ends or use droppers. The track pins go in last. I assume that as my layout resides in a centrally heated house it won't be subject to the temperature problems mentioned by David and Doilum. A sudden thought: what's the best way - no blood, no split fingernails, no swearing - to trim a Peco rail-joiner to size? Thin cutting disc? Slow speed or high? Thanks again to all contributors.

My grateful thanks to all who chipped in. It's one of those problems, isn't it? The solution's obvious, really - but only after someone's taken the trouble to spell it out to you; the joiners serve two separable functions - dealing with the current and aligning the tracks. The alignment can be left just to track pins, but as Harold emphasises, it has to be done ultra-precisely, and perhaps using a few extra to make sure. And the current can be carried by soldered wires or cut off by a bit of plasticard or just leaving a gap.

I need to replace a Peco Electrofrog point (00 gauge, medium radius, with PL10 motor); the trouble is, there are other Electrofrog points joined to three exits, all face to face with them, and I can't think of a way of inserting the new point without tearing out the other three - a prospect I don't want even to think about. The problem is, now I've taken the old one out there isn't enough wiggle room length-wise to slide in the rail joiners - 4 insulated, 2 metal - and if you're familiar with Pecos you'll know that you can only push joiners on to them for a certain way. Oh, and the whole setup is ballasted as well, tho it's soft stuff. I'm completely stumped but I'll bet there are members out there with more experience than me who've met this kind of problem and I'd greatly appreciate their advice.

My rather belated thanks to all contributors. The main problem it seems to me is the angle at which you're forced to work to keep control, not far off 90 degrees to the surface you're working on, so most files and sticks aren't suitable. Dagworth: I thought the wet and dry would come off with repeated wettings but I now find that ordinary Evostik will keep it on ad inf. Hibelroad: the glass fibre pen is a clear alternative but it gives me the Itch very badly, and I can't seem to get on with gloves. Enterprising: this looks promising. I don't live too far away and I'll go and have look at it, as they don't give dimensions or say what the abrasive surface is. Jim: Thanks for the link to the Proxxon thing but the business ends do look rather too big, don't they? And nowhere can I find any details on the sizes. Torper: I couldn't get your picture up. I had a look at CM3's site but could only see files and sticks. Colin and Theq: The Axminster pen seem to me to be just the job - a very neat little tool. The only thing that gives me pause is the price - £30 with refills at over £6 a time. I'll probably get one in the end but it'll have to wait for that time for incautious/indefensible purchases - after a good Sunday lunch when I've had one or two. Further contributions most welcome.

Not for the first time, I've come up against the problem of sanding - in my present case a poor paint job - areas of a few square mils too small and enclosed to use my fingers and a piece of abrasive paper with any real precision. It's particularly hard to get into corners properly. At the moment I'm using a length of stripwood 5mm square to one end of which I stick a tiny square of abrasive paper. It does the job, but I find myself all the time having to cut off the bit of abrasive when it gets clogged or worn and replace it, and I have a lot of these areas to do. It must be a common problem and I'm sure there'll be members who've come up with a better solution, or perhaps know of a tool someone sells to do such jobs properly.

After some damage, I made a mess - as you can see from the photo - of repainting the driver's end of my Bachmann 00 BR crimson and cream autocoach. I think I can remedy everything in time except that I just can't think of a way of neatly re-doing the two black linings above and below the crimson stripe at the top. It's a distinctive flat-topped curve across an angled bow-fronted end that I haven't seen on any other stock and I can't find any transfers on line that would do the job. For me, a lining pen would be out. Does anyone know of a transfer out there I've missed, perhaps for another type of coach, that would suit? I'd be most grateful for any advice or wizard wheezes. I'd like to get it right; when you're running these things on a layout, the front end seems all too horribly visible.

I've always avoided ballasting - putting all that water, grit and glue into intimate proximity to electrics and tiny mechanisms is just asking for it, right? God knows, there's been plenty of agonised testimony to that on this forum over the years. And I have a shunting layout, all points and no long runs. I always thought there must be a better way. Admittedly there's the always-inventive Chris Nevard's use of Das to create that ash-ballast look. However, a long time ago on this forum, a member of this fraternity, 28XX by pseudonym, mentioned that he uses DIY ultra-fine filler for the same purpose (Goods Yard Ballast? 13/8/2015 - can't do hyperlinks). And as I recollect, no-one followed up his post. 28XX's post set me thinking. This stuff is acrylic. Finally I got some tubes of acrylic paint in the relevant colours from Hobbycraft (£2 for a big tube) and sieved some sharp sand (another Nevard favourite). If you mix the filler with the sand, it's hopeless - it won't stick together, and the filler is brilliant white anyway (28XX, incidentally, said he painted his with emulsion of choice - another acrylic, I believe - after it had dried). But if you begin to add gobs of the paint to your favoured shade plus a little water a bit at a time, you eventually end up with something like a toothpaste consistency - plastic enough to be controllable but not runny. I applied it to one of my short runs with a nice bendy sawn-off artist's palette knife, then used a stiff flat artist's brush on the sleepers and the sides of the rails. It was fingernail-hard in a couple of hours, and solid in six. I don't have a smart phone or a camera to supply a picture, but I venture to say the result looks pretty good to my eye. Adhesion to the cork underlay, which I thought might be a problem, is solid. No cracks in the stuff have yet appeared - tho it's only been 24 hours. Before I move on to doing a point, the ultimate test, I'd be most grateful for members' comments. Has anyone else tried something similar? Most particularly, are you still out there, 28XX?

GWR & BWs: Thanks so much for your posts on availability. BWs ; thanks particularly for the steer to the Model Rail database - I had no idea it existed.