Richard Lee

I really wanted the SR Maunsell Green ones, so I bought a set (and am pleased with them). However, I am glad that I have a branch line, and don't aspire to run longer trains. At that price, it was touch and go for something that was attractive and distinctive, a good model (I understand), and would fit the layout well. I don't think that I would have shelled out for something at that price if it had been even a little outside the main scope of the layout. Maybe the cost of OO models will rise to the same heights as the costs for HO. If so, I fear that I will be buying models less often than previously.

Have to say that I am happy using Kadees. However, because of the cost I might not have gone for them if I didn't have a small layout with not too much stock. Must admit that I don't bother with the auto-uncoupling, and often snip off the shiny dangley bit, particularly from goods wagons. I find them reasonably discrete (without the dangley bits), easy to shorten the distance between stock, can just lift a vehicle from a train, cope with the 30" radius curve, and seem to work well. On the other hand, if manufacturers fitted them, they would probably have to fit ones long enough to cope with set track radius 2 curves, which would reduce the ability to shorten gaps between stock. A few years ago at an exhibition, I saw a OO layout that used Dinghams. I was impressed with them, but I understand that you have to be careful with minimum curve radius with them. I don't like tension-lock couplings, but accept that they may be the most practical commercial option for manufacturers to fit.

I have one on my main layout. I got it because I want to concentrate more on the central sector of SR. The only (relatively minor) bad thing about it is there are no NEM pockets on it, so you have to muck around a little bit to fit Kadees (or less intrusive tension locks if that is your preference).

My experience as a long-distance customer of Kernow is that their service is usually blinding fast, and occasionally, just reasonably fast. I can't comment on problems with orders because so far, I haven't had any with them. I understand that they have had a busy time recently though.

I wish that I had bought a few buildings in SR colours for either a revamp of my current main layout, or the possible new project I am hoping to do. I am sure that if the proprietor were ever able to restart the business, there would be customers. Still, lack of building kits is a minor problem, and I got the impression that the poor gentleman's health problems were a major problem for him.

Recently I bought 3 new coaches from Hattons that were sent Royal Mail Priority Airmail or something similar. I was given a tracking number that never even made it onto Royal Mail's computer. I did receive the coaches as ordered, I am happy to say.

My set of SR Maunsell green ones came today. I fitted Kadee number 18s in them, which seemed to work okay with an E4 with Kadee 17s on my layout (which has a 30" radius curve). I am very short of Kadees at the moment; when I re-stock I might experiment with 17s.

My stock stays on because my two small layouts are in the house. However, if I do go on to make a "three-seasons" layout under cover, but not locked away and open to various creatures, I will bring the locomotives, carriages and wagons back into the house, in case of attention by two-legged creatures.

The Maunsell green composite is indeed shown as being in stock at Hattons (or it certainly was yesterday afternoon). This morning I had an email from Hattons saying that my order of the composite plus the two brakes had been packed. The Royal Mail tracking site hadn't yet got the parcel number on, which leads me to suppose that Royal Mail hasn't collected it yet from Hattons. You might have a bit of difficulty getting a complete SECR liveried set from Hattons, but you may still be lucky at somewhere like Kernow, who might not be that different in price. I couldn't navigate the Rails of Sheffield site, so no idea of availability there. The SECR liveried set looks fantastic to my eyes, but is too early for my main layout and too late for smaller my 1900ish-mucking-up-kits-to-be-pulled-by-Hornby-Terriers layout.

An excellent idea, if you are lucky enough to have a model shop that does UK outline within reasonable travelling distance.

I probably will, about a month before I go over to visit. If I thought that the householders would want to read them I would order earlier, of course.

Firms that post a lot of stuff from one country to another particular country sometimes seem to have mechanisms to get very good deals for postage for that country. Perhaps they send large consignment that are split up and distributed by an agent? Recently, I was looking for hard copies of some of the earlier "Judge Dee" novels on Amazon that are not available for Kindle. No problem - a lot of book shops in California seem to have the books that I was interested in, and the postage to the UK seemed very reasonable. I live in Bulgaria, and thought that the postal charge from the USA to Bulgaria would be similar to postage from the USA to the UK. It wasn't; it was about 10 times as much. I imagine that these firms might send a reasonable number of books to the UK, but very few to Bulgaria. I decided to do without my detective stories based in Tang dynasty China for now.

It sounds strange, but while I might consider getting a retooled SR Terrier in Maunsell green for my main layout, I am happier with the older tooling for my smaller, 1906ish layout. The SR layout has a station at each end of the 'L', and the locomotives run round the trains at each end, and so don't need picking up routinely. The SR Terrier shares the layout with a Kernow 02, a Bachmann E4, and a brace of Hornby M7s amoungst others. A delicate, but more detailed loco would not suffer too much. On the other hand, my smaller layout is a branch line terminus to basic fiddle yard on an 8' by 18" baseboard. It relies on the locomotives being lifted and replaced onto the fiddle yard track. The current Hornby Terrier is ideal for that. One of the reasons that I made the loco release a bit small was so that I wouldn't be tempted to add anything like an LBSC Railway E4, or another detailed but delicate model.

If you cut the battery boxes and truss rods off the Smallbrook Studio kits, it makes quite a difference to the looks. Very easy to do if you have one of those cordless multi-tools from Lidl or Aldi, or something similar. What I didn't do which I would if I was to do again was to is use a little bit of thin plasti-card to cover up the panelling on the guard's ducket. That probably isn't so noticeable though. When I painted mine, I undercoated with grey car primer first, and then mahogany from a shop that does spray cans for cars. I understand that 'mahogany' then was a bit redder than some shades called "mahogany" now. I didn't bother to do the lining, I am afraid. One of the Brighton Circle members who posts on RMWeb was kind enough to let me have some transfers. There are some very good etched brass kits from Roxey Mouldings that give more than the 3 types that Smallbrook Studio do. Unfortunately, I don't think that I have the skills to make them, so I went for the Smallbrook ones. If you are looking for loco crew, Langley Miniatures do Victorian/Edwardians, as well as suitable potential passengers.

You are best shopping around for Terriers as they are frequently discounted. I wouldn't to wish to stump up £85 for a Hornby Terrier either. My latest (July 2017) was £54.99 from a certain Cornish model shop that sells over the internet, and has the Cornish name for Cornwall (with a 'K') as the major part of its name. The Terrier is in a loverly SECR livery, and has pushed my smaller layout 6 years later than it was, and moved the fictional location eastward towards the border with the SECR.

When I noticed that Hornby had not announced any Terriers this year I speculated on another forum that they might be thinking of moving it to the Railroad range. I had hoped that they might do another non-Isle of Wight one in SR Maunsell green. Someone who also posts on this forum made what seemed to me to be an intelligent comment that they might choose to make on this forum as well. By the way, I love the Hornby Terriers despite their flaws. My first locomotive was a mainland Hornby Terrier in SR Maunsell green. They are a bit noisier than some newer models, but they go nice and slow. There is daylight under the boiler (not much because of the size of the loco). You can pick them up without worrying about detail breaking off, which can be useful if you have a fiddle yard. (I would be a bit wary of routinely picking up my Bachmann E4 or my Hornby M7s several times per routine operating session.) At the same time they are a lot more detailed and generally nicer looking than, for instance, the old Hornby E2.

Thank you to everyone who replied to me. @Chamby - On my smaller layout (inspired by Hayling Island) only the bay and the 2 goods sidings are isolating. That means that I can have 2 locomotives on scene at once. I can put the passenger train into the bay platform after running the engine around it, then bring the goods train in and do a bit of shunting, then send the passenger train out. On the larger layout, I used to have the sidings where I stored trains use separate switches to isolate them, but when I re-did the smaller layout I found that power routing was a lot more convenient, and altered the larger layout's track feeds to use power routing. So far I have found it far better, as I don't need to remember to operate the switches as well as the points. @gr.king - Thanks for you comment. If I understand you correctly, I imagine that would be more of a problem on points that were not used for power routing (where the track beyond them was powered). I will give that some thought, and also look out for people reporting that potential problem when operating. @The Stationmaster - Thanks. I will decide whether or not to trust Peco's wiring when I get hold of the new points,and see them in the flesh, bearing any reports of problems that I come across in mind. One thing that I don't trust is the use of rail joiners to transmit power in the long term, so every bit of track gets droppers, even if they are just from another piece of track rather than the 'bus'. @ Pint of Adnams - Thank you. I may have come across something like that on either RMWeb or another forum. @ martin_wynne - The last time that I tried installing (non-functioning) ground signals the cat ate them.

The issue of power routing has made me think about it because I am hoping to do a new layout using Peco Bullhead track within the next couple of years. I use DC, and like to use points for power routing, for instance, to isolate sidings. It is easier, and avoids unexpected train movements that can cause derailments by going over points set the wrong way if you don't have to remember to operate a separate switch as well as change the points. To use uni-frog points for routing power, I believe that I would need to power the frog from the switch that I use to set the points (as I do now), and put insulating rail joiners on the rails coming from the frog. The rails on the sidings beyond the insulated rail joiners would get fed from the switched power to the frog (as I do now for isolating sidings). Effectively, the only change would be that it would be necessary (rather than optional) to use insulated joiners in those circumstances. If anyone has any different ideas (or better still, experience) I would love to hear from them.

I think that threads such as this are valuable, despite being uncomfortable reading. I am thinking about people fairly new to modelling who may not know about the current state of Coopercraft and are looking for kits that are relatively easy to build. If they are lucky then they might come across the warning on one page of the website when searching. If they are unlucky then they won't.

May I thank the original poster for this thread? Coreless motors apparently shouldn't be used with "electronic track cleaners" such as those from Relco or the Gaugemaster HF1 and HF2. I installed a switch on the 16v AC power supply to the HF1 on my layout when I bought the Kernow O2. If possible, I want to know whether or not a loco uses a coreless motor before I buy it. Conversely, if I am unsure whether or not to buy a loco, the fact that it uses a normal motor is a point in its favour whereas a coreless motor is, for me, a significant point against it.

Thank you for drawing my attention to this firm. I have bookmarked the link.

Not to minimise the criticism of Hattons, but at least their website is easier to use than some shops. If, for example, you are trying to find how much they will be selling the Bachmann Birdcage Stock in Maunsell Green you don't have to plough through every item of Bachmann's that they sell, or every possible coach from every manufacturer from early railway models to the present day. With Hattons' website you can easily get it so that you are just looking at Bachmann coaches in OO for the Big Four period.

...unless you are modelling something like the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway perhaps?

I understand that slavery was cheaper than mechanisation in the short term, so no financial incentive.

I suspect that real life may be taking priority over the actions of the person or people running that group. You might have been lucky that your first post was seen and attended to relatively quickly, but less lucky with your subsequent messages. Yahoo groups are quite often set up so that new members are moderated. On the Yahoo group, I run I take people off moderation after they do their first post (unless they are spam or suchlike). Others might not have the same habit. Sometimes new members and attempts to join have to wait if I am away from my computer, for instance, if I am travelling to the UK. At one time I had a moderator to help me, but he left the group.