snowy1051

Hello, I have amongst my roster an old and weary Bachmann 57xx, model number 31-901, running number 5796.

Recently it has started to show its age by slowing down on its own. Then it will speed up again and slow down again. Now it just starts, runs for a few seconds and slows to a stop. There are no horrible noises. Is there anything I can do to restore it to its youthful exuberance please? I don't mind removing the body and having a tinker, but I have little experience of taking apart Bachmann locos. Many thanks. 

Thank you, I used to find servicing Bachmann engines a little daunting. After years of Tri-ang locos, my clumsy fingers tend to break the finer details off. But I've just this minute lubed my Jinty and hey presto, a nice quiet running engine again. 

Hello, a few years ago I acquired a used Bachmann Jinty, product number 32-226 running number 47354 which may give an indication of its age. I have removed the body once only to renumber it and add PP gear. Until recently it ran very nicely. Now it is getting a tad noisy and occasionally when starting from cold, it will screech something horrible  and will run slower than at which the controller is set. The noise does not last long, it will stop screeching and then run almost normally. Is there a way please, I can eleviate this problem or is it the death knell for this engine?  I hope I can fix it as the engine either runs my branch line or is yard jocko and is in frequent use. Very many thanks for any advice. 

I would appreciate some info, if possible from this picture. The train is the 8.00am milk empties from Shrewsbury to Dorrington on July 22nd 1966. Could some one please tell me a little about the van next to the engine. Unfortunately the negative does not show any more of the vehicle. It apprears to have Gresley bogies and some panel "modifications". Many thanks. 

Hello, is it my imagination or what? Is the BRITISH RAILWAYS on the side of Bournvilles 42338 smaller than the numbers?

Then there is 42400 with BRITISH RAILWAYS super large and not on the same line as her sister. According to BR database info 42400 was fitted with 8" numbers and 6" letters in late 1948 at St. Rollox. A year later she was in Kilmarnock works and in this 1950 picture of her at Glasgow Central one can be certain then, that she was fitted again with the same livery but with larger numbers etc. My query is, was there a set rule for size of numbers letters etc. or was it random, especially on the "bread and butter" locos? my layout is set around 1953 so that livery and the "lion and wheel" are both used. 

Thanks for any info re number and letter sizes. 

Hi there, can someone please give me the why and wherefore of this LNER mobile canteen please? 

I am guessing it is about early World war 2. I would like to know just where they went and how long did they last. 

Maybe an easy conversion, but how close to a conflat A is an LNER conflat V? Is that a date under the "Return to Doncaster"? 

And do the letters BD signify anything in particiular.

Many thanks for any info. 

Hello, I guess this subject may well have been discussed before. I'm pretty sure the GWR 2251 class had 3 different types of tenders, but is there a difinitive list of which engines were fitted with which tender or were they randomly exchanged between engines? I am not a GWR officiando, so I have no idea of the visual or otherwise difference betweeen the Collett and Churchward tenders, so I would greatly appreciate a visual guide. Many thanks. 

Didn't the Standard class 3 2-6-2 tankies that worked in South Walkes for a bit, have to have their bunkers modifieds to carry more coal, due to not having enough for their diagrams? 

Good to see the Fowler class 4 tankies got a mention for their Swansea to Shrewsbury runs, they had the same coal capacity as the Flatiron, 3½ tons. Swansea to Shrewsbury is, I believe, 115 miles. 

At Saltley, before I started, they had a Peterboro' lodging job with a 3F, starting with a full tender at both ends and empty at destination. 

Hello,

might seem an odd question, especially when Rule 1 can be so easily invoked. But, I like to diagram my steam locos ever so slightly realistically. Being ex footplate, Saltley in he 60's, I know what can happen to the fire after a certain amount of miles worked with a loco that does not have a rocking grate. That is always in the back of my mind when I arrange my roster. I also diagram my coaches, with Saltley Carriage siding and Gloucester as originating points. My question is.....would it be realistic to diagram my ex Midland Flatiron a round trip of 150 miles with it's bunker full to overflowing with 3½+ tons of coal??? Maybe I am getting a little too engrossed with my hobby, but one part I enjoy is rostering my available fleet. I have worked out my timetable on a 24 hour period.  My layout is a 22' end to end terminus layout with a PP operated branch and scattered about are several private sidings just for operational interest. Without my timetable and loco roster, I would get bored very quickly just running trains up and down. I much prefer to work out the t/table and loco roster, then work to it. (my trains all run to time)!! this is the part  I enjoy. I hate ballasting and only "do" scenics when and if. I also enjoy converting things, mostly wagons. I have just finished putting a scatch built freelance MOD LWB van body onto an old Hornby brakevan chassis. (shades of Colonel H.F. Stephens, my hero) It generally takes me 11 to 12 hours (not continously) to run through my t/table. All one man operated and all controlled by one analogue controller. We do have a model railway club here , tho' is N & Ho gauge and is all DCC and radio controlled Canadian railway stuff, but very nice and impressive. Pardon me for digressing and excuse my while I exit my 1952 world. I have to go and do the washing up..(which I find very therapeutic)...Thanks, Snowy. 

Hello, could any kind person please point me in the direction of 00 gauge platform end water columns? Preferably Midland or anything that would look ok on an early 50's BR (ex LMS/MR) station. I don't mind having a go at making something myself, but my modelling skill level is, at best, representation. 

Thank you. Gordon. 

Looking closely at the original picture, is that a crossing or siding that the second wagon is crossing? maybe this could help pinpoint the location. 

You may find more information on this site

www.llanymynech.org.uk

is this the beginning of the end for this loco?

I have a Bachmann Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 that occasionally sparks by the right hand side centre driving wheel and sometimes stops.  If one looks at the engine with the chimney to the right, the sparks appear to come from above axle height and at about 2 oclock inside the wheel area. It only seems to happen on curved track, on straight track there is no sparking. I have no idea of the age of the locomotive, the only clue would be its orignal number, which was 43106. I feel I must add that I have some fairly tight curves on my layout, tho' I tend to keep this one on the straights and medium radius curves. But the shed area has some small radius Peco points. Could the tighter curves perhaps have anything to do with this sparking? Many thanks for any info that could help. I dont really want to take it all apart. 

Thank you, most informative. Would this also apply o the Ivatt 2's? 

Did Swindon use 6" numerals when they built the BR standard 4MT 4-6-0, the 3MT 2-6-2 tank and the Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0's ?  Thank you. 

Hi there, could someone please tell me if these engines were turned out when new with or without lining. This one, 43081, I guess has just been shopped as it now carries the later BR crest. It was built at Darlington in 1950 so would have carried the earlier crest when new. 43070 is carrying the earlier BR crest, also Darlington built 1950. I have several pictures of the Horwich built double chimney locos, all lined out, but now would like a large number single chimney loco. Plain black is so much easier than lined!! Many thanks for any info. I do not know who took the pictures, so unable to credit them. 

A few years ago I converted my single chimney Ivatt 4 to a double chimney version and letered the tender B.........R........S as my period modelled is/was early 50's. Now I have this urge to bring my layout forward into the late 50's. So I now need to replace that double chimney with a single. Here in darkest Southern Alberta, there are very few places that can help me, maybe none.  Can someone please recommend to me a UK suppier that could furnish me with a single chimney for my Ivatt 4.  Also, not long after I fitted said double chimney I realised that I had goofed big time. The engine has a tablet catcher tender, and as far as I know, none of those had double chimneys. So fitting a single chinmey and renumbering away from 43017 will rectify said goof.  Many thanks for any help and info, gratefully appreciated. 

Thank you Michael for that info. Even tho' 10844 survived into BR days, it never received its BR number. Being withdrawn and scrapped in late 1950. And we'll probably never know if it was PP fitted or not. Oh well, my engine will have to run as it is for a while.  I'll eventually choose a new number for it, even if it means removing the pp gear. And just to complicate things, I believe most of the long bunker PP engines had Belpaire fireboxes. Thank you again for responding to my post. I appreciate that. 

Hello, I recently renumbered and added PP gear to my ex L & Y 2-4-2 tank loco. I have no idea who the manufacturer of the kit is as that most excellent model engine builder, Alan Tregenna, ex Saltley driver, built it for my wife as a pressie for me. (How lucky am I?) Anyway, I've enclosed a photo as I have a sneaking suspicion that I may have numbered it incorrectly. I have seen pictures of 50644 but none clear enough to show whether the bunker has been enlarged or not.  When the kit was introduced, did it represent a small bunkered loco or was there the option to build either? If my loco is a large bunker engine, then I guess I will need to number it yet again. 

Thank you. 

I am modelling BR in the early 50's. I have just "improved" a Wrenn ex LMS brake van, now I would like to add vacuum bags to it. I would like to know please if these brakes would have had XP on their sides? I have seen pictures of various brakevans with this addition, especially the ex GWR Toad. Enclosed is a photo of an ex LMS brake with white pipes to the vac bag, suggesting this van is just a through pipe brakevan and does not have a brake cylinder underneath.  Another picture shows an ex LMS brake van in grey with vacuum bags. I understand that the LMS had both grey and brown goods vans that were vacuum brake fitted, the colour suggesting nothing.  In BR days, if I remember correctly, a brown goods van or brakevan would have been vacuum brake fitted. Would these vacuum brake fitted brakes have had the XP on their sides?  Many thanks for any info. BTW, I have no books on brakevans  specifically to refer to. 

Another difference between the Ivatt and the Riddles 2MT tanks was that the Ivatts had top feed covers and the standards had clack boxes and the standards had slightly sloping inwards cabsides. So, except for the cabsides, (not too readily noticeable) fairly easy to convert an Ivatt to a Riddles. 

Just a quick question or 2 re these engines. According to all my reference books (not that many tho') the PP fitted engines were 41210n to 41229 and 41270 to 41289, but I have a picture here of 41327 at Barnoldsdwick in the fifties clearly PP fitted. Can someone please confirm the PP fitted engines in this class. Many thanks. Also, the LMS built Ivatt 2MT tender engines, apparently had smaller, lower pitched boilers and a lower running plate than the BR built engines. My second question is, did this also apply to the LMS built Ivatt 2-6-2 tankies? I have a couple of  Bachmann Ivatt 2-6-2 tankies and would like to renumber one of them. Many thanks. 

Hello, I recently purchased a Hornby R857 Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 which was described as a poor runner. Which indeed it was, so I changed the motor, again and again and again. I have 5 locos with that motor and 2 spare motors. I eventually found one that was ok and put that in the Ivatt. Now I have 7 motors of which 3 are pretty useless and one seems completely dead. On one of them it requires the controller to be turned to max to get it even to do just a scale walking pace. could these problems be related to the condition of the magnet. All have been cleaned and serviced. I would greatly appreciate any tips or advice regarding these motors. Thank you. 

Hi, I have just started to build the Ratio 5723, the MR Express Clerestory brake 3rd. I would like to know please the layout of the doors to the lavatory. I assume that occupants of only the two adjacent compartments would be able to use the loo. I like to do at least some interior detail when I build coach kits including passengers etc., and would therefore like to at least show the doors to the lavvy as I finish the partitions. 

Sadly I am not able to access the recommended reading suggested in the kit instructions.

Also, would any of these survived to at least WW2?

Many thanks,

Gordon.