55020

Mil-17, nice, but I bet that was a bit "different"? Your outbound trip would have been on G-BCEB, which was an S61 that was modified just for the Scillies run from Penzance. It had a unique baggage bay arrangement, in that the the doors were external and were down the left hand side of the fuselage. This allowed for very quick turnrounds. All other S61s had internal access to the baggage. This modification meant that BCEB was no longer designated as an amphibian, as the doors weren't water tight. However it would still float if needed, due to the large sponsons and supplementary floatation bags. Both aircraft are still active, with BCEB now being N618CK with Croman in OR; and BFFJ is C-GRMR with Rotor Maxx in BC. Not bad for airframes that are 50 years old. Steve

"One of these" - it's a thing of beauty 😂 I have many hours flying 'FJ, although not to the Scillies but out of Scotland to the rigs. I did take one S61 (G-ATBJ) to St Mary's for a compasss swing in 2002, after flying it from Aberdeen to Penzance. Steve

I spent 7000 hours flying S61s out of Aberdeen, Sumburgh and Brunei. Done a small amount of time on the Puma family, but been S92 since 2006. Although I spend most of my time in the office and simulators these days! @jjb1970 Where did you fly from/to? Steve

I always find the safest path to a successful fitting of bufferbeam bits and pieces is the dry run. Even with the Accurascale bits and bobs I found that the removal of a bit of paint is sometimes necessary. I never found I had to enlarge the holes, something that is very common with other manufacturers..

It is possible. @jonnyuk if you let me know which functions you would moved and to where I can give you a list of CV changes. Steve

I've just read through Diesel Dawn Part 6 on Readly using Firefox on my PC. It didn't display any of the strange behaviour you've described. I thought I'd also try Chrome, and it was also fine. If I click on the top of the page, it opens the at the top; if I click the middle it goes to the middle; and if I click on the bottom then it zooms to the bottom. Mouse scrolling also works as I'd expect. I can't explain why you're seeing odd behaviour and I'm not, unless I've misunderstood your issues. Steve

Just to provide some balance, I've currently received 5 locos to date (55s & 37s) and none have needed any rectification by Accurascale. A couple of 55s had a couple of loose items that were very quickly and easily sorted with a tiny dot of glue. The 37s have been immaculate. 37001 next 😎 Steve

My experience was that the flights always went Eastbound, which generally takes advantage of the prevailing winds and also the rotation of the earth. SIN - EWR used to always end up over Alaska and then across Canada to about the Toronto area. My first EWR - SIN flight definitely confused me as I was expecting to head "back the way we came", but of course we headed towards Europe. A few of the flights routed over the UK, and a few went over the pole into Russia and then pretty much due South back to Singapore. I did get to Krisflyer PPS at one point, but a move to Vancouver put an end to that, although the accrued miles were very useful.

It's great that we all have different opinions, as my least favourite current widebody to fly on is the B787. The best passenger experience is upstairs on an A380. Sitting in the middle of my list would be A330s and B767s. I have yet to fly on an A350, so can't comment on where I'd rank them. Of course, the airline's choice of cabin fit is a major influence on the experience. If we were to rewind the clock, I did the non-stop SIN-EWR and return quite a few times in the all business SQ A345s. It always felt special being on the world's longest flight at the time. I also had the priviledge of a JFK-LHR flight on Concorde in 1998.

Presumable you're talking about the "clumsy uprights" on this model? 😉

There's been some more files added recently by ESU on their website. There's now free diesel sound files for Loksound 5 covering the following classes: Class 08 Class 20 Class 31 Class 37 Class 40 Class 47 Class 55 Class 57 (EMD 12 645E3) Class 57 (EMD 12 645F3B) Class 59 Class 66 Class 67 Class 69 Class 150 MPV Windhoff All available from here: http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/7?type=all&order=date&country=gb Steve

Sorry, that's just a silly response to a very well thought out and considered posting.

That's purely a function of what Accurascale have recorded and given to us, it has nothing to do with ESU vs Zimo. Although I suspect you know that, I want to head of the impending decoder manufacturer debate at the pass 😂 Steve

A very familiar sight at Bank Top station in the early seventies, although I never felt brave enough to climb all over it. Steve

It's got to be an English Electric Class 40. I saw them making steam on many occasions. 😉 Steve

I so get what you're saying. I guess I should have finished my post by saying I don't feel loyal towards any particular brand. I'll buy the products that deliver quality at a price I can afford. I just know sometimes saying anything against a certain manufacturer can be met by a barrage of criticism. I worry about Hornby's longevity. They do have a loyal following, but I suspect this will wane over time if they don't sort out their fundamentals i.e. quality and value. Niche products may get some sort of short term injection of interest, but someone in Hornby needs to look at the big picture with regard to what the customers want; as well as what other manufacturers are doing. Back to the thread, does Oxford Rail fit with the "big picture" view and provide something that isn't available elsewhere? Steve

Nostalgia is a strange thing. I'm a diesel modeller and in the 70s Hornby were peddling rubbish (Classes 09, 37, 47; dreadful coaches, etc). Consequently I have no "warm and fuzzy" feelings about Hornby at all. In fact the opposite is probably true, as they continue to peddle rubbish for the 70s/80s B&G period modeller (note I am generalising, of course, some of it is OK). Steve

And yet I hold my model up against the photo and can't see anything to comment on. A small tweak is possible, a quick and easy removal of the glazing and a run around the edge with a fine black Sharpie or similar and it just adds that final piece of finess. This has been mentioned elsewhere in the thread. Steve

I saw another comment about the dynamic brake feature being on F29 not being in an ideal location, so that prompted me to go back and revisit my original post. The original CV changes were copied off Lokprogrammer, but for some reason it didn't show all changes that are required. It was missing one CV change. If you'd like to try again, the following will work. I know it works as I have reprogrammed my two 37s using these values. The one missing value is in bold for clarity. (I will also go back and correct my original post). Note, two more CVs added later to also move the latching and associated function info. Hopefully you saw my earlier response regarding the Index CVs 31 & 32. To swap the current function mapping of F29 & F2 on the AS Class 37 decoder the following CVs should be changed: CV31 = 1, CV32 = 1 ---------------------- CV261 = 64 CV262 = 59 CV315 = 160 CV316 = 2 CV31 = 16, CV32 = 8 ---------------------- CV340 = 8 CV346 = 0 CV31 = 16, CV32 = 10 ---------------------- CV356 = 0 CV362 = 32 Steve

A fantastic idea, which will hopefully raise awareness and appetite for your book. I wish you success. Steve

A great summary, succinct and on point as far as I'm concerned. Steve

Very nice. Here's a couple of photos from November 1994. The first is of the post storage test flight, the second is on the ramp at Medford.

I spent a fantastic week flying a UK registered S61 helicopter East to West coast US from Baltimore to Medford , returning it to Erickson Aircrane. The company owner has a fantastic collection of aircraft based at Madras, OR and one of his aircraft is PBY N2172N. This aircraft was stored at Medford and the day after we arrived it was going to reposition to the museum at Madras. So after some begging with the pilot we were allowed to climb aboard for the trip north. Amazing, especially the noise and vibration and definitely something I'll never forget. Even the trip back to Medford in a bosses Cessna 441 was fun. Definitely one of the highlights of my career.

The AS Class 37 Loksound decoder utilises AUX5 & AUX6 for the headlights. Steve

I received my notification a few hours ago. If it helps, I paid the balance on 3rd August 2022. Steve