Andy Hayter

The pitched roof is typical of those from the mid 20th century FS Italian wagons.

This one from Roco is similar but not identical:

https://www.reynaulds.com/products/Roco/56066.aspx

I have expanded the view and think I can make out FS at the end of the third row up on the markings at the far end.

50 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 ?????????????  Hmmmm. I do the briefing the first time. I get my name ticked off. The end.

Try that during the safety briefing on an airliner and see where it gets you.

Just a few thoughts based on the observations above - and also assuming that the weathering effect has the same cause in all of the observed occasions .

I have never seen this effect on any of my layouts.  Track on the scenic side is painted to represent rusting but track in fiddle yards is left au naturelle.

The comment about cleaning the crud off with HP sauce points very strongly to oxidation.  Incidentally tomato ketchup is more commonly  used to remove such corrosion but to each his own taste.  Nickel Silver does not normally oxidise even if its components of copper, nickel and perhaps zinc does have metals that are fairly reactive.

So why should track in the garden or in a summerhouse show corrosion.  Boxes of track stored in shops for perhaps months or years before being stored at home for longer do not show any signs of this.  

It then occurred to me that by  soldering our electrical connections to the nickel silver, we create a situation where electrolytic corrosion can occur.  This is where 2 metals or alloys in contact with one another, when also in contact with water create an electric cell where the more reactive metals corrode.  The less reactive metal is protected.  This is used in galvanising corrugated iron sheets, where the zinc coating corrodes over time but protects the mild steel sheet.

So where that leads me is that lead/tin solder is less reactive than copper and zinc in the nickel silver.  All you now need is water to create the electrical circuit to allow electrolytic corrosion to occur.  The garden is obviously open to rain and a summerhouse with wide temperature ranges could well provoke a degree of condensation on the metal track.  It will be a slow process so a single dousing in water (eg when ballasting with PVA) would not in itself be enough to create the effect.  

That would explain why I have never seen this effect

If this is correct, then layouts in uninsulated lofts should exhibit the same darkening of the rails.  

As to sleepers breaking up - this is almost certainly uv degradation of the plastic base.  PECO used to claim that their track was resistant but this is resistant not guaranteed to last forever.  

Or of a friend, who left our organisation for a (friendly) rival.  In doing so he raised the average IQ of both organisations.  

I apologise Tony.  I thought your comments related to those models brought to you for repair, not those selected (randomly or specifically) for review.

6 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Mike,

 

Since I don't usually read threads about RTR models, I've no idea what 'lots of reports' or 'some reports' mean.

 

What I would say is that several (maybe not 'lots') of new RTR locos I've had through my hands during the last year or so have not worked as well as expected and lots of bits have fallen off. Not working as well as expected also means a tendency to 'waddle', which I won't tolerate on a kit-built loco. Granted, I don't incorporate anywhere near as much slop in chassis I make because I don't expect my (big) locos to negotiate train set curves. 

 

So, as an observer, though I've had some real duds through my hands built from kits which I've fixed (where I can) and then sold on behalf of bereaved/distressed families, it would seem that some modern RTR locos aren't universally excellent when it comes to their running. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

In fairness Tony, you will not be looking at a representative sample.  People (at least those here who know your preferences) are not going to bring you their perfectly running but ordinary rtr models.  You get the lame, halt and badly built ones.  

Now of course in a perfect world no rtr model would run badly or have bits missing or dropping off.   However, you see a self selecting sample of these failures.

4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

I read that much of the Spanish Seville orange crop comes to Britain for marmalade; are Seville oranges grown in the Americas, at all?

Seems so.  From Wiki:

History[edit]

The bitter orange spread from Southeast Asia via India and Iran to the Islamic world as early as 700 C.E.[7]

The bitter orange was introduced to Spain in the 10th century by the Moors.[8][9]

It was introduced to Florida and the Bahamas from Spain,[3] and wild trees are found near small streams in generally secluded and wooded areas.

55 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

Which takes me back to the point of this ramble, the seasonality of Seville oranges. Obviously they're all picked at around the same time, mid-late January, so it really surprises me that it takes three weeks longer to ship them from Spain to the Pacific coast of North America than it does to Britain. Do they send them by boat? Anyway, hardly surprising they're in poor condition by the time they get to you.

 

The supply difficulties being experienced could be a conspiracy on the part of the commercial marmalade manufacturers to stamp out home production and force us to buy their adulterated product.

I would be surprised if they didn't ship by boat.  Airfreight over that distance is going to cost around $6US/kg so adding $12 to that 2kg bag!  It is a bit different from shipping say green beans from  Kenya to Europe - half the distance so half the cost divided over 5 x 200gm packs so perhaps 45p per 200gm pack

Anyone coming to France this summer could look out for alcool à bruler - literally burning alcohol .  It is around 90% ethyl alcohol and will certainly do the job of clear meths.  I also use it for track cleaning and with a lower boiling point it evaporates off quicker than IPA.  To be found in most supermarkets and DIY warehouses at around £3/litre in 1 and 5 litre containers

The composition of nickel silver / German silver can certainly vary depending on how much zinc is incorporated in the alloy.

However, I wonder just how many companies around the world are rolling nickel silver strip to make the rail sections needed - various codes in FB and bullhead section.  I suspect each rolling mill would have an optimal composition for ease of creating the necessary sections.  
I think the options for different compositions are limited and with no guarantee the a manufacturer would not swap supply.

My guess therefore is that differences of alloy composition will be limited.  

My own observations are that European models do leave a deposit on the rail that needs cleaning from time to time, whereas UK models with traction tyres leave deposits that need cleaning more frequently.  That might seem black and white but I will throw a further complication into the comparison.  My European models have exclusively metal tyres.  My UK models have mainly metal tyres but there are still some models with plastic tyres where replacement is less than easy.

In the past at least, plastic wheels have been accused of causing crud on the track.  Is this because they can pick up and accumulate the crud on the tyre to then later deposit it in thick blobs, rather than having a thin coating that has limited negative effects but is everywhere?  

Anyone desperate for driving wheels, may find suitable ones at AMF87.fr. 

They have 16mm, 19mm, 20mm, 21mm, 22mm, 23mm and 24mm available although you will need to check if the number of spokes and position of the pin for the coupling rods is in the righty position.

NEM standard at:

https://www.amf87.fr/prestashop/68-roues-nem-amf

11 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Finally, on the subject of copyright: why haven’t the corporate lawyers of far-too-many-to-mention companies descended on Amazon, en-masse, like the proverbial ton of bricks? Any time you type in a name brand item (such as - for sake of humourous illustration - a Bosch Cordless Bear Tormentor) into the Amazon search engine, amongst the first things that pop up are not only the Bosch item but also many crap Chinese identical-looking copies* of the Bosch machine with names like XFGXZL and STARDRIVER.  And that’s if you’re lucky, many times I’ve looked for a name brand item on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.it, only to be offered just the knock offs (although sometimes you can bypass the Amazon search engine by going to Google and typing in something like “Bosch Cordless Bear Tormentor on Amazon.de” and get a link directly to the item).

 

I am not sure how not showing you what you searched for is a breach of copyright.

It is just a measure of a cr@p search engine - deliberately designed thus  or though incompetence.  

Amazon, Ebay, Google, Yahoo and many other please note.

52 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

 

I'd like to get an actual properly sourced answer one day because if you think about it, if  brought to it's actual nutty  conclusion ANY  commercial model built as a copy of an existing prototype would be in the same situation, from   rolling stock and locomotives  to   platform seats!

 

 

I cannot claim to know the ins and outs of such a situation but IIRC when Jouef were taken to tribunal by Accor Hotel Group - then owners of Wagons Lits and its accoutrements - they were taken to task for trade mark infringement  for unauthorised use of the CIWL logo and crest.

Note: nothing to do with copyright.  Everything to do with trademark infringement.  
.

I am coming to the conclusion that the General Election is going to be ABC - anything but Conservative.

4 minutes ago, fulton said:

Out of interest, had a look at the link, does not appear to give the temperature range, what is it? 

Without switching on and changing one of my pre-sets I am not absolutely sure.

I have used it at 100° for 70°C low melt and have used it at 430°C for heavy duty  soldering 

This is the one I have been using for probably over 4 years now.

The temperature control coupled with the high wattage means the iron temperature does not change perceptibly.  75W should be plenty for thick 0 gauge items.

It has changed my soldering enormously and soldering is now never a thing to be afraid of.

https://www.circuitspecialists.eu/csi-premier75w-digital-temperature-controlled-solder-station-with-75w-soldering-iron

When I got mine, they shipped from Manchester  to me in deepest France in 47 hours!  Even Amazon cannot match that most of the time.  

As @BroadLeaves reports, we will find out the results shortly

As for how the data will be transferred I doubt we will know, nor do I see any reason why we should be informed.

At one extreme the data may have been printed out and some poor soul will be entering the data manually.

At the other end, the data will be sent directly as data from its order system to Rails order system.

My guess would be that the solution will be somewhere in between.  The Hattons data will be sent electronically to Rails.  They will have a software package that reads the data and then converts it to a format that the Rails system recognises as an order.

Whichever system is actually used, the first thing or one of the first things that needs to be done is to install all of the Hattons Genesis items into the Rails system - a product number (unique to Rails system), a description, probably the Hattons item number for cross reference, a picture, possibly a link to the Rails website (if so does not seem to have been done yet), price  etc.  This is far from trivial work. 

(Professionally I was involved in two such data transfer projects.)

Only then can the orders themselves be loaded to the Rails system.

12 hours ago, stivesnick said:

 

 

There does appear to be a consensus about not liking depot based layouts. I agree. The often appear to be just locomotives moving around for no obvious reason on a site that no railway company would ever consider suitable for a depot in the first place.

 

 

 

Nick 

I have had the experience to exceed even that.  The small layout represented a corner of a French steam depot. 

This was perhaps the ultimate curse of DCC magic.   Smoke drifted from loco chimneys.  Firemen could be heard shovelling the occasional shovelful of coal or briquettes.  Occasional blasts of steam were released from valves or cylinder cocks, accompanies by suitable sound effects.  Westinghouse brakes could be heard clanking and  steam seen drifting intermittently  from not quite sealed joints.  In 30 minutes (at least) absolutely nothing moved. 

It was probably 100% realistic but interesting?  Not after a couple of minutes.  

23 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Alas. Marketing.

No government and environmentalist coercion. 

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

Absolutely. The Little Red Driving Box is 14 years old and fully compliant. 
 

It’s the diesels which are not. And a lot of people bought diesels when that was cheaper than petrol. 
 

Some of those are now regretting that choice. 

A lot of people bought diesels because they were told they were more environmentally friendly.  Lasted longer, so did not need to be replaced by new steel, plastic, copper etc..  And fuel consumption was better so less CO2.

2 hours ago, 62613 said:

 

 

They certainly like their train horns in the USA!

Our local heritage railway requires the locomotive whistles on approach to each and every crossing and in addition if something is on the track - usually sheep or cows.  On the approach to the terminus, there is a stretch of about 1km where there is an ungated crossing about every 100m so there is a lot of whistling.

Maybe US regulations are similar.  

8 hours ago, MartinRS said:

 

 

I have not seen the type of couplings on your models before though I don't model Continental railways. If you are going to buy any rolling stock you need to couple it to your existing wagons and coaches. Modern rolling stock usually has couplings which fit into NEM pockets. This is just a standard which makes it relatively easy to change from one manufacturer's type of coupling to another's. (Your rolling stock almost certainly pre-dates the adoption og of the NEM coupling standard). One trick is to buy a wagon with NEM couplings and fit a Piko coupling to one NEM pocket and your preferred coupling to the NEM coupling at the other end of the wagon if you want to buy something not equipped with the Piko type coupling. Another alternative is to buy wagons  and convert them to the Piko type coupling.

 

On the issue of couplings, these are standard continental couplings.   There are more modern "close couplings" but most stock that you buy from continental manufacturers (and there are very many  manufacturers) will have compatible couplings.  Note however, these couplings are not really compatible with couplings used on models from UK manufacturers.   You might be able to couple them together but there is a good chance that they won't work well and may separate as your trains run or even cause the stock to fall off the track.  

It does all sound a bit complicated but it really isn't once you become familiar with a few basics.  

1.  The set is continental H0.  The track is the same as UK 00 unless you want to start getting very technical.   You can therefore buy new/extra track from companies such as PECO or Hornby.  You may have to do some juggling where these tracks meet up with your existing Piko track.  If you have problems just post here and we can collectively help.

2.  It is a 12/14 Volt DC powered set.  You will need a controller that provides that feed and the idea above to try and get to a shop and test one of your locos is very good advice.

3.  Your set will be compatible with most other continental models.  The exception is those models made to run on 16 Volts AC.  This is predominantly models made by Märklin, although other makes have made models to be compatible with that system.   Stay clear of models that say they are "3 rail", "16V AC" , "stud contact" or Märklin. 

SE Finecast offer a chassis kit for the K3.   I believe the range has been taken over by Squires.

http://www.sefinecast.co.uk/PriceList.pdf

I use crocodile clips.

Re use of brass strip: Brass is weak with regards to work hardening.  Bending back and forth - as I guess your strip will do as cassettes are added and removed, lakes the metal crystalline and cause it to fail.   It's the same process we use when that rusty nail fails to come out of a piece of wood.  Waggle it back and forth and lo, it snaps off.  

I understand that concern Ian but there is a real difference between an exhibition run by amateurs (no matter how good they are) doing what they can in their free time and paid professionals who will be allocated so many hours in their work schedule to achieve various objectives towards the end result.   Those hours being adjusted as necessary as the project progresses.  

That does not mean however that this will be easy.  there will be problems to sole and issues to resolve but as Andy has already said they have people in their team versed in staging exhibition stands.