Tony Teague

I am using the close coupling bar provided with the Hornby EMU's, but I am confident this is a motor / electrical issue rather than anything caused by how they are coupled. Tony

I have to say that I am in awe of your tenacity & determination to get things right, from what it is now clear was a very poor kit!! Tony

This is a nice idea, however, the dummy motor bogie is fitted like the other non-powered bogies, wheeas the motor bogie is pivoted from much higher up and so one cannot be substituted for the other without the sort of surgery suggested by 34theletterbetweenB&D Tony

Nice idea, but no, no feedback and other double-headers work (two very different locos) Tony

This sounds worth trying - relatively little effort involved. Thank you Tony

Multiple soldered connections - and switchable sections. These are no problem with other double-headed trains. Gaugemaster Model 100 / UQ in multiple - no feedback. DCC is not an option, I have over 200 locos! Your suggestions on trialing the pairs and on how to rebuild are very helpful, thanks. This is very helpful, thanks. Standard Gaugemaster analogue, no feedback. Tony

I am having problems when running Hornby EMU's in multiple, especially at low speeds. I use traditional DC control and what happens is that the train will slow down and speed up irregularly; this effect reduces at higher power settings. It has been suggested to me that this is because the motors are "unmatched" - but how would I match them? I had decided to remove the motor from one unit so that it became an unpowered trailer, but unpowered motor bogies are not available, so the only way to do this would be to completely remove or isolate one of the motors. (The motor bogies are fitted into units in a different way to all of the other bogies within the units). has anyone else experienced this issue and / or solved it? Tony

I can offer this as a freelance contribution: It is not finished in that I have yet to build the roof, as well as a bit more dry-brushing on the external brickwork and other painting: It is my second scratch building, so I am quite pleased with it. Tony

Headstock: "However tension lock couplings are rubbish." Andrew Do you have a preferred (& better looking) solution for reliable remote uncoupling? Tony

I am responding very quietly given recent postings, but I use the smallest, most recent Bachmann variety as being least conspicuous - as I said, I concede that they are all pretty ugly; for reliability, it is best to standardise on a single type. Tony

Jack Many thanks for your kind comments - and also for putting me right about the brewery; I had no idea that Faversham had more than one! Tony

Fair comment - much more practice needed, plus those referred to had only had a single pass of the airbrush as I recall. Will try to do better! Tony

To add to the tension locks debate, I certainly agree that they are ugly, but as has been said, they work. I also share the view that with coaching stock, corridor connections are the higher priority - and once these are in place the couplings are far less obtrusive. I see no point in Kadee's fitted to coach bogies, but I have tried (and still have some rakes) where they are fitted to the headstocks; this looks better for buck-eye fitted coaches but I have found it really unreliable where changes of gradient are involved, and so those rakes are confined to the flat! In terms of freight I have tried everything - Kadee fitted coal wagons included! - but it is when it comes to reliable shunting without recourse to the "hand of God", that I believe tension locks plus Heathcote uncouplers (no connection) excel; these are totally reliable and I now have around 20 (uncouplers) fitted at key locations. Obviously for fixed rakes there are better looking alternatives. Tony

You really are building up a sizeable fleet and all to a very high standard of finish - looks good! Tony

Here now is the first attempt at installing Wadleys Churminster Brewery - you may remember their advertising: Please bear in mind that I have yet to detail the central courtyard, which will have granite sets, the brewery siding, and the surrounding streets, plus the small site to the left of it which looks set to become a wood yard: Here comes the Wadleys' brewers dray: You can see here the extent to which the brewery obscures the buildings behind, yet the space could not be left empty: All of this has meant that no further work has been undertaken on Churminster Goods Shed, however, in these shots you can see where it will fit in relation to Wadley's Brewery: The brewery siding runs right behind Churminster Goods Shed. So, plenty to do - finish installing the brewery, complete the Good Shed and install, build the woodyard, design and build the "Brewery Tap" pub that will stand opposite the brewery entrance, etc, etc! Tony

Well it has been a while since my last update, but I have not been idle - just diverted, and here's why. Some time ago, after taking delivery of Geoff Taylor's wonderful model that now forms Churminster Station, I rashly mentioned to him the nearby vacant building plot which I had earmarked for a brewery. Following our conversation I visited Faversham in Kent, the home of Shepherd Neame, one of the two breweries that claim to be the oldest in the UK - the other being at Hook Norton in Oxfordshire - and I took a series of pictures which then formed part of the brief to Geoff. The other part being the site plan, or footprint, as seen here: So after a period of gestation, and rolling things forward to February 6th 2018, I visited Geoff and took delivery of an amazing set of completed buildings, seen here on Geoff's workbench: So this was the source of my diversion, keen as I was to get the buildings installed, however, what was immediately obvious was that there was a significant gap just behind and above the brewery, which I had been meaning to fill, but was still on my "round-to-it" list. The gap is shown centre here, with two loose Bachman Scenecraft resin buildings standing on it, in front of the 'Hudsons' warehouse: So I had a rummage through the unbuilt kits department and the only largish building I came up with was a P&D Marsh laser-cut wood kit for 'Wenford Clay Works', and so I set about building this as speedily as possible. I built the kit more or less as it is designed to be except that it came with a puny chimney which I replaced with one twice the size - with the following result: I am pretty pleased with this as an industrial building, although it still needs some detailing, but as you will see later, it will be more than partly obscured by the brewery once installed; nevertheless I don't think it can be a clay works as it is not in the right surroundings - so I need to decide what it is - a custard grinding factory, or a glue refinery perhaps - suggestions welcomed! So at last I am now ready to install the brewery, and in my next post I will show pictures of the first trial fit. Tony

Tony I can't see that anyone has yet congratulated you on winning the RM Web Modeller of the Year Award - so let me be the first! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/131477-british-model-railway-awards-2017-%E2%80%93-the-winners/ Well deserved, hearty congratulations! Tony

Wot? Like these two?? (Both at Sandtoft) [Apologies to Tony for turning this into a Trolleybus thread!] Tony

Here is said 6-wheeler on a running day: Lots of other stuff there, both from LT and other operators. Tony

It won't dry as quickly as superglue but given how small the parts are I would have thought that it would be strong enough. Only way to find out is to try it! I use it for all glazing as it dries clear and does not frost clear plastics. Tony

Mikkel To avoid frosting, use canopy glue: https://eileensemporium.com/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=1143&name=formula-560-canopy-glue-2-oz&Itemid=443&category_pathway=4048 Tony

A good CDU ought to be able to fire 4 or 5 Peco solenoids; mine will fire 5 plus 2 or 3 relays simultaneously, but you do need maximum input voltage AND resasonably robust trigger wires - especially if the points are some distance from the CDU. I use one of these: http://www.blocksignalling.co.uk/index.php/capacitor-discharge-unit-cdu1c-cdu2c-cdu4c (the big job!) and feed it at 24v DC. I use 24/.02 wire to trigger the solenoids. Tony

I have a few of these in odd places where I could not get an old style Peco solenoid fitted and I have experienced 'bounce" with them. What I found was that they are so light that unless they were fitted absolutely tightly to the side of the point, the plastic arm within the solenoid that moves the point could actually bounce off of the top of the point "throw" lever. I took the rather drastic action of gluing the two offending parts together with super glue - with 100% success and no other problems created! Clearly you need to be VERY careful as to what is glued to what, but my conclusion was that this only happened because the PL-11 is so much flimsier that the old style PL-10. In terms of the switches, I have in the past used the old Hornby levers which work the same way as the Peco ones and I have never experienced any problem with the double firing & speed of re-charging that Pete the Elaner refers to. I have found that when firing multiple points at once, the gauge of wire used to connect points to the switches and through to the CDU is very relevant and if you are going to be adding points in the future then I'd go for the largest CDU running at the highest voltage that you can run to! There is no down side to this, other than cost. Tony

Given that Olympus have introduced two upgrades since the model I have (which is only about 18 months old, it may be possible to find 2nd hand versions of the Mk.1 available; providing the firmware is updated to the latest version, this model supports focus stacking. I would just say, that there is a lot of hype around about mirrorless 4/3rds cameras such as this replacing DSLR's and whilst this might be a very long term outcome, I can categorically say that for sheer image quality my (albeit fairly top-end) Canon DSLR beats the Olympus hands down - it just doesn't do focus stacking, and its also a lot heavier. So my point is, there is a need to be clear about what you want the camera for before you trade what you already have. Tony

John Neither really, you just set up the shot - this camera has a tiltable LED screen on the back - and press the trigger; the camera then takes the series of 8 shots before merging them together; so you get 8 RAW files and one .jpg at the end. Tony