OFFTHE RAILS

Yes - this is exactly what would have happened to the railway companies in 1923 as it did with the actual merger of the LYR/LNWR and the MR. Add to that melting pot other important railways like the GWR, LSWR, GNR, GER, NER, CR, NBR etc. etc. and .........................................!!!

Is the chassis made to 2mm finescale standards i.e.2mm/ft scale 1:152 or N scale I.e. 2.0625mm/ft 1:148?

I'm irritated by the actors talking over the continuous music and sound effects. The latter are quite entertaining but ruined by the mumbling of the cast......

In order to separate this thread from the optimistic (!) original Dapol announcement back in 2011 and the years of froth following that, I would suggest that the 2018 postings on this thread be included in a new thread titled "Dapol Air-Smoothed West Country/Battle of Britain" as the company have clearly stated that the "Modified / Rebuilt" version is not planned for development at this time.

No. The "scissors" valve gear was not Stephensons. It was a version of Walschearts valve gear between the frames and was only used on the prototype GWR #40/4000 "North Star" .It was not used on further GWR locos as (a) it was found to be difficult to be set up and (b) Deeley the MR CME inferred he had patented such a design

Easy. The Stephensons valve gear on GWR 2 cylinder locos (Saints Halls Granges Manors 28xx Prairies etc) is between the frames on the real locos and therefore not visible so therefore not modelled in RTR locos. The "motion" parts that do appear on these locos are coupling rods, connecting rods, crossheads, slide bars and piston rods, NOT valve gear - whatever any parts suppliers may state. rods

The Bachmann N 2-6-0 was introduced as a "Blue Riband" model and has a modern chassis (NOT SPLIT CHASSIS) I have an early model (not DCC ready) but I've fitted a decoder (Hornby r8249) easily in the firebox. It's now available in DCC ready guise. Lovely loco. Ian

Interesting - In the same book where Smith condemns the 4F as having a weak boiler he rates the LMS 2P 4-4-0 highly. They have the same G7S boiler...... Possibly the firebox ashpan airways differed.... Ian

Yes, Atlas code 55 rail is a real 55 thou' high. The Peco N "55" is around 80 thou' high and it's hugely overscale profile (though hidden in plain track) is horribly visible when you look at pointwork. I use FiNetrax code 40 track in visible areas with my UK steam N gauge stock (made since around 2005) and the wheel/flange profiles are fine with this close to scale track. BTW I use the robust Peco and Fleischmann code 80 track in the hidden and fiddle areas.

Is the motor the type which requires a "digihat" brush insulator when fitting a decoder? Ian

Thanks Simon!

Yes it looks good but having read through this thread a few times I still don't know : - what kit this is - whether the scale is actually 2mm/ft (1:152) or 2.0625mm/ft (1:148) as 2FS people seem to use either or both. Can anyone enlighten me? Ian

So, although you've explained Hornby's production problems etc. you can't actually answer what I asked which was: what has changed with the Hornby Schools 4-4-0 bogie......

If you want to buy code 40 bullhead rail you can get it here - no 2mm Finescale society membership fees to pay up front. https://www.britishfinescale.com/ Ian

Could you expand on this a little please. I have three of the early super detail loco drive Schools (R2744 Blundells, R2815 Haileybury, R2844 St. Lawrence) and two have had broken plastic bogie pivot pins which I had to replace with BA bolts. How has Hornby changed the bogie? The Hornby service sheet HSS330C doen't show an alternative bogie bit if the bogie has been improved I'd like to get hold of one. Also how has the wiring been improved ? All my Schools have the white plastic plug which fits in the socket in the tender. Has this changed on recent models? Ian

Did you mean NOT letting turps etc. any where near paint????

Now that Dapol has shifted it's emphasis to 00 and 0 gauge locos perhaps Farish would now update it's previous "air-smoothed" Bulleid West Country and Battle Of Britain and BR "modified" Merchant Navy pacifics. The current Farish "air smoothed" Merchan Navy is a beautiful model! Ian

A small correction: The Castle model (and the real thing) doesn't have any external "valve gear", I think you mean the coupling rod and con rod pins. Ian

Just a minor addition to The Johnster's excellent review of 00 Castle models - The original late 1950s Dublo Castles (and 8F) had an open frame motor as used later in the R1 0-6-0. In these models the motor did intrude into the cab but nothing like as bad as the later (1961? on) ringfield motor! Ian

Dapol are offering N gauge black BR manors at £50 and DCC fitted at £70 on their special offers page Ian

The Hornby R4293D livery is BR (early) crimson / carmine or "blood" not the later maroon. I don't know which of the BR crimson paints would be a match though,

As an engineering project the "Leader" development was out of control. Nowadays risk assessments would be made at each stage regarding the design especially the novel features. Also a major requirement change became necessary. The initial design was for an oil fired locomotive as the government was encouraging and financing oil firing on the railways. When the oil firing push was halted the Leader had to become a coal fired loco. The firebox design was changed and the grate area (and thus potential power) was reduced. The off centre boiler (to allow crew movement within the loco) obviously produced a potentially unstable loco unless (as was temporarily done) many many tons of ballast metal was dumped on the corridor floor. The resulting loco was grossly over design weight with axle weight averaging around 25 tons!. It was a heroic attempt to keep steam competitive with diesel on the railways but it was a design and financial disaster from the start..

http://news.sky.com/story/Hornby-to-change-hands-as-rebel-investor-sells-stake-after-failed-plot-10922061

The loco in your Bournemouth Belle train pack is a Bulleid light pacific (Battle Of Britain and West Country) class loco not a Merchant Navy type. The MNs were bigger and heavier than the light pacifics. I don't understand your second sentence at all......................