josh_will

Sorry for the amateurish question but I haven’t tried to add lamps to locos before. I’ve got these Springside N gauge lamps and I’m not sure how to break these off the fret. I assume they’re made of white metal. Also should I leave the ‘stem’ on them and drill a hole for them in the running plate or should I cut them flat and glue them straight on? Regards, Josh

Hi CS, From my experience just send a draft of the article text via email and a couple of general-view type photos, they don’t have to be amazing just good enough to give an impression of what the layout looks like. They’ll get back to you and probably ask for more info like a track plan which you can send by post, and probably ask whether you’ll provide photos or if they need to send someone round. Hope this helps.

Hi all, can anybody advise me on the best way to renumber a Union Mills loco? Should I use thinners, T-Cut, or something else? The model is quite old and the numbers are fading. I’d be gutted to get it wrong and spoil the paintwork as this is obviously now an irreplaceable model.

The other day I tried to apply the original Methfix transfers that came with a Peco Jubilee I bought. It was a disaster: I did manage to apply the cabside numbers but when I went to wipe away the gummy residue the tiny little 5XP markings came right off - and I really was careful. Therefore I decided to redo it with Fox Waterslide transfers, which was much better, but my slight gripe is that the shade is paler than the factory-applied LMS lettering on the tender and the lining. Also the characters are smaller than the factory-applied ones, even though I went for the ‘larger sizes’ transfer sheet. Should I replace the tender letters with the transfers? I’m still quite new to this so any help would be much appreciated.

Hi all, Can anyone help me with finding a suitable wire for my old Graham Farish models? I’m looking for the sort of super flexible wire that Farish used to use before they stopped fitting tender pickups (pictured). I don’t like using decoder wire (which is what comes with the BR lines kit) as I’ve got nothing to strip it with and I always feel that it’s going to break.

Whenever I try to remove a Hornby ringfield motor block from a plastic tender chassis, I can't seem to prevent the plastic from becoming distorted when I prise out the block with a small screwdriver, no matter how much care is taken. When I've done this with Hornby diesel bogies the plastic seems to be a bit tougher. This isn't a major problem but I'd like to know if there's a way to do this without causing damage. My A4 needed quite considerable force to get the block out, but I needed to do this to fully clean up the ringfield. I found that the D49 has a much better setup, in which the tender chassis is cast metal and the ringfield block is held in with a screw. The service sheets for such models (dating from c. 1977 - c. 1983) seem to suggest that you need to use the drawbar pin for leverage and push out the metal block from the underside, but I've no idea how this actually works.

Here’s a silly question. I know nothing whatsoever about DCC. I’ve got a locomotive (Atlas N scale) which was sold as “spares/repair”. It is factory-equipped with the DCC-ready light board. It didn’t work very well on DC, and the directional lights only worked intermittently. I suspected that it had been programmed on DCC, so I took it to my club and luckily we found that it had been given the model’s running number as its address. It ran fine. It ran fine on DC also, and the lights worked as they should - but then they stopped working as they should, for no apparent reason. I want to sell it with “factory settings”, i.e., able to run on DC but has DCC capability. So does that mean I need to “wipe” the chip? And how would I do this? Or, would anyone with knowledge of Atlas happen to know if they actually set the running number as the address by default? I haven’t got a clue I’m afraid. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks for all of the responses. I’ll take this figure of 14-15 coaches - sounds good to me. Apologies for starting a … lively debate. I myself have no particular allegiance towards any of the constituents of the Big Four…

Apologies if this sort of question has been asked before. I’m trying to work out how many coaches would have been in the LNER A1 vs A2 trial trains in the summer of 1923 running between Doncaster and King’s Cross. I have to hand some relevant info which gives the total weight of these trains - around 470 tons - but how much would a single LNER (possibly ex-GNR) teak coach typically weigh? And how much did the weight of the passengers affect this? (Silly question.) These were, I believe, just normal services running on the ECML, one in the am, one in the pm, although I think the ex-NER dynamometer car was also part of these trains.

Thanks, I’ll let you know as I’ve put the project on hold for the time being but if I return to it I’ll get back to you. Regards

Hi, the book is: Peter Tatlow, The Dingwall & Skye Railway There are quite a few similar books, all of which are very good.

Does anybody know which shade of Phoenix Precision BR Green would be the best match for this model? According to their website, the pre-1954 green would be more suitable, but it looks a bit dark to me.

I don't think that the YouTuber in question here necessarily exhibits these kinds of traits, if I'm interpreting your words correctly. I believe that these videos show enough evidence of a rather different - I shall describe it as a 'condition' - that could explain the slightly immature actions, but also provides an answer for the person's obvious obsession with trains. The individual's continued love of Thomas and Friends into adulthood is, I believe, further evidence of this 'condition', and it does not necessarily imply a lack of intelligence but rather an inability to outgrow obsessions developed at an early age; I think that this person is actually highly intelligent, but this manifests in a 'high-functioning' way... I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Regards, Josh

So I’ve had a go at modifying the shape of the cylinder chest with Milliput. I think it looks reasonable but could have been better. I did manage to break one of the bits of brake rodding on the tender though, so I’ve carried out a bodged repair and reinforced all 6 of the rods with micro strip.

Your post is very timely, I was just about to come on here and ask for some advice on this. I think I have 3 options: -Use Milliput to fill in the curved sections -Use Plastikard to do the same -Or cut away the cylinder blocks and replace with the Phoenix Precision white metal part. I’ve not done anything like this before. I’d imagine I’d need a dremmel or a razor saw, neither of which I have