orford

When I mentioned the handrails, etc I was not in any way implying that Hornby have done any less than a fabulous job. After all - whoever thought that we would ever get a RTR J15 at all? I have a whole batch of them on the way and they will form almost the entire motive power on my 'Aldeburgh Branch', just as the prototypes did. Three years after starting the layout I finally have appropriate motive power, especially when they are joined by the D16/3's in a few more weeks. Now Hornby - How about that long-overdue complete re-tooling of the B12 that I keep banging on at you about? (For info - the 'banging-on' seemed rather easier when Simon Kohler was still there).

Quite possibly Nimbus and as I say - it probably won't bother very many people anyway - but as I have also just noticed that the rear-most pair of hand rail stanchions are also fitted on the wrong side of the boiler washout plug (they should be in front of the foremost plug, rather than between the two), I will certainly be re-working my 3 examples anyway before putting them into service.

Actually after further investigation, I'll correct that. The handrails are actually at the correct height when viewed from the side. It's the stanchions which are mounted too high on the boiler barrel and thus protrude horizontally from the boiler on the model, rather than at the correct 'upwards angle' of the prototype. Shame, as that makes it harder to fix as new lower holes would need to be drilled and the existing ones filed smooth and filled. May still do that though as it is a very distinctive feature of the prototype.

Comparing the pictures (above) with many prototype photos it is clear that Hornby have got the angle of the handrail stanchions (to the boiler) wrong resulting in the long boiler handrails being fractionally two low when viewed from the side. Also the cab roof rain strips look a bit on the heavy side ..........but otherwise I can't fault it. Both issues would be easy enough to sort out, although I doubt whether either will bother too many people.

Checked with Hattons this morning - they seem VERY vague as to when they will be getting stocks. Does indeed seem they are low on Hornby's priority list - Roger5591 Result - I just cancelled my 14-month long pre-order with them and re-ordered direct from Hornby. All locos now arriving at my home by Monday, I am assured. Yippie.

Market - What sort of DCC socket does it have in the tender please? (i.e. how many pins?)

EEEEK - I've been waiting 14 months so far for my pre-ordered three ......................and absolutely no word whatsoever so far from Hattons ****^£$^&"%!%£U*£@@***

To be fair - I have bought a couple of half-decent items from Lineside and Locos - but almost all their stuff is second-hand to start with and sometimes of dubious quality. I once bought a j38 from them on which the body was excellent but the chassis appalling. to be fair, they sent me another and were happy for me to make one good one out of the two by combining the original body with the replacement chassis and they took the unwanted bits back. Which I thought was fair enough. I do get irritated though by the words 'Super Item' against every listing, regardless of whether it is or not!

Going back to an earlier post regarding the buying of emply boxes on eBay - if you study eBay regulations in depth, the selling of empty boxes is actually against eBay rules! - but they never seem to enforce it.

You never can fathom eBay buyers/bidders. Yesterday I decided that I needed another 12-wheeled Pullman first class kitchen car. Just so happened there was one on eBay with about 20 mins left to go, so thought I might make a bid. However, I was slightly bothered about one aspect of it on the photos, so I didn't. Anyway - 20 minutes later it duly went for £52-odd, plus postage. ...........So 5 minutes after that I phoned a model shop in Yorkshire and bought myself a brand new example for £42.50, postage free. They had 6 in stock at the price! Hmmm. The eBay mind, huh?

Sadly way behind many of the superb photographs/models in this thread, but for what it's worth - a pair of elderly Gresley's lurking in Wickham Market yard on my 'Orford' layout - an imaginary might-have-been extension of the Aldeburgh branch in Suffolk. - Don Mason

I first used these couplers WAAAAY back when they were first introduced and known in those days as the 'Billingborough' coupling (after the village in Lincolnshire where the original inventor lived). For those not in the know or who may only have heard of the Lincs. Auto Coupler via this discussion, may I offer the following based upon my own experience with them: 1) Assembly is very quick and easy, provided you have the 'jig' (which really is essential). 2) They are so simple that not only is it brilliant, but they are also virtually fool proof. 3) They proved (for me) to be totally reliable in operation. 4) They are mounting-tolerant, both in terms of positioning along the buffer beam and (within reason) in terms of height. 5) You can indeed have a fixed hook on locomotives and operation is unaffected. You could also in theory have a fixed hook on one end of a wagon and a full coupler on the other (but the wagons would then all have to run the same way round every time - i.e. you cannot have two fixed hooks coming together). One time I took even this further by having a fixed hook protruding from under a siding's buffer stop which was situated at the uphill end of a slight gradient (not particularly prototypical but I wanted to provide a talking-point). This affectively held a string of wagons shunted uphill to the buffers. To disconnect and drive away all you had to do was back the wagons up slightly to the buffer stop, which created slack, thus allowing the wagon coupler to be depressed by the magnet in the track directly below - and off goes the train. The principle here is that the couplers will not depress whilst under tension. It was a deliberate gimmick - but it worked and as I say, was a talking point at shows.

Got hold of some of the magnets recently mentioned by Mark (aka Barnaby) today, along with a couple of other types to assess.....(thanks Mark). However whilst thanking Mark for the information I do feel that he should be immediately hung, drawn and quite possibly quartered too in front of the other participants in this discussion for failing to point out the following dire warning from the now irritatingly customary 'Health & Safety' sheet, which came with each pack of magnets. I quote: 'Do not place these magnets up your nose' (seriously - I'm not joking - there's more). 'These magnets will compress the tissue and as the magnets get closer together they will steadily increase in force until they cannot get any closer. This will cause considerable pain and they will be difficult to remove from the nostrils.' ....................Now I know for certain that the world truly has gone completely mad ! - Don Mason

Thanks Mark.

No need really - I used the originals years ago and they work very well indeed and are also very simple to make up and install. They are also unobtrusive to my eyes, although personally I prefer to chemically blacken the wires/hooks, which renders them all but invisible unless you really look hard. Just ordered a batch for my new O Gauge layout.

Barnaby - That magnet web site is a minefield. Do you by any chance have the product number of the shirt button magnets you are using? - Don Mason

Hi everyone. Just wondering whether there is any further news/update on the re-introduction of the Lincs Auto Coupler? - Don Mason

Re: "Sandy as you kindly sent me a photo I've made it available to orford too as I expect you'd be doing prep for tomorrow's show. I hope that's ok with you............" Hmm - I never got that................Orford. Thanks for trying though.

Sandy - Any chance of a photo or even a sketch of your system ??

I am also champing at the bit to get my hands on some of these. I used the O Scale version about 30 years ago when they were originally introduced and they were known back in those days as the 'Billingborough Auto Coupling' ...and I found them to be excellent. Now that I'm back into O Gauge with a little industrial concept 'micro-layout' I could really do with some of them. Don Mason