Clagsniffer

I placed a pre-order for 7 wagons yesterday. But I wasn’t asked to pay a deposit and haven’t received an acknowledgement of the pre-order. Does this happen after a few days?

I had been following the development of Anthem, but I’ve really gone off EA. They just seem such a scummy company. Never really forgiven them for messing up mass effect to be fair. I actually have less and less faith with the majority of big game companies now that I struggle to get excited for games like I used to. So much so in fact that I’m playing through older games instead. I’ve just started playing L.A. Noire again, absolutely brilliant game. I also play a lot of World Of Tanks, so much fun!

I'm looking for a PCV to pair up with one I already have. Preferably finished in RES livery but would consider others.

Just wanted to say a big thank you to all the replies and supportive comments, really appreciate that you have taken the time to come up with positive solutions. I've just finished reading through the replies sitting here with a cuppa after work. So I thought I'd take this chance to give a bit more information and background of the location selection and some of the difficulties I've faced. So why Penzance? I picked up a copy of the Great Western Journal and it had an article about Penzance. In the article there was a brilliant track plan of the station and of long rock, and I thought it would make a brilliant layout. I also love the coast, so the fact that the station was pretty much on the beach was a bonus. I then started to research about the station and various workings. After a couple of posts on here I was given a working timetable which included the train formations and coach types etc (thanks Flood) which was a big help to someone like me with little knowledge. The period of the timetable was early to mid 70's, so BR blue was the period I would model. I liked the different types of working that made it to Penzance, parcels trains, sleepers, short local trains and long expresses. The motive power also appealed to me, westerns, warships, 50's and 47's all amongst my favourite classes. I also enjoy shunting, so a terminus seemed to be the logical choice, that also meant I didn't have to worry about the curves at either end of a through station. So in short I picked Penzance because of the track plan, variety of traffic, motive power, BR blue being my favourite period, shunting opportunities and to a lesser extent the proximity to the sea. So that was it, decision made, I was going to build Penzance. I the proceeded to buy far more MK1's than I would probably need, parcels stock and locos before I'd even drawn up any plans or even had the space to build it. Lets just say I got excited/carried away. So then time went by and I moved into my house with my fiancé. Lots of things needed done to the house but I headed straight to the garage. Got the floor all insulated, nice flooring, installed new lighting and sockets and painted all the walls. I finally had a railway room! At this point I downloaded Anyrail and started trying to replicate a track plan. This is where the problems really started. So I roughly had 16ft x 8ft to work with. I eventually came up with a plan that fit the space and ordered some track. I had all the track laid out as per my design and was quite happy. I hadn't thought about the cross members of my baseboards interfering with the point motors! So that was the first set of tweaks. I then wasn't happy with the curves leading into the station, this lead to the next lot of tweaks. After this I posted on here with my progress and was horrified to read some of the pitfalls I hadn't been aware of. The one that stuck out in my mind was the comment made about how 'straight' my platforms all were. I had to agree that with Penzance having a gentle curve to it, my track plan didn't capture the character of the real thing. This lead me to taking an extended break away from the layout, I just couldn't build in the curves to match the prototype whilst keeping the parcels sidings etc. So now looking at it with fresh perspective, the compromises I wasn't prepared to accept were, losing any width therefore losing the parcels area as a lot of shunting would be lost and I didn't want to lose any length to the platforms and not have the full length trains. Also the curves leading into the station looked very train set like and thought it would spoil the overall effect. This led to me thinking that the space I had just wasn't going to cope with what I wanted the layout to be or how I had pictured it in my mind. So here we are, with the feeling I'm back to the drawing board. Hope this gives a better picture of where im at currently, ill try and post a link to the thread I posted way back with the track plan on it and you can have a look if you so wish. At this point im open to any comments or ideas. Thanks for reading. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/89606-penzance-ish-track-plan/ edited to add the link to my track plan thread.

So, where to begin. For years I’ve had this ambition to build a layout of Penzance. I’ve posted a few bits and pieces on here on the subject of track plans and train formations etc. In hindsight I went about it the wrong way. I started buying up the rolling stock and loco’s even before I had space available. I finally bought my first house with my fiancé and had use of the garage. I then built the baseboards and started to develop the track plan to suit the space. And that’s the stage I’ve been at for going on 3 years I reckon. I’ve been going in and out of the garage every few days “tweaking” and coming out frustrated. I’ve tried everything but I just can’t get it to work how I want it without compromising. So this is the crisis. It’s slowly dawning on me that I’m not going to be able to build this layout. So I’ve got baseboards built, stock purchased, timetable worked out it doesn’t look like it’s going ahead. As a result I’m so deflated, I just don’t know what to do. Has anyone else gone through this? Any tips on getting over it? Thanks.

Nice to find a thread on gaming, and especially talking about my all time favourite game, mass effect! Man I love those games, except andromeda. I actually compare all other games to mass effect, rightly or wrongly. I find myself mostly saying "that game was ok, but it's no mass effect". A close second to mass effect would be the gears of war series. Come on, who doesn't enjoy carving up grubs with the lancer? I really got into online gaming with the first one, really slick shooter. The first titanfall game was one of the better games for Xbox one, frontier defence was a great game mode, played it for hours on end. Gutted they took that mode for the second game. I'm currently playing red dead 2, but I just can't seem to get into it. Really enjoyed the first one but I'm just not as keen on the second. Can't really put my finger on why though? I could talk about gaming all day but I'll leave it there for now!

Morning View by Incubus. Reminds me of being stoned and drunk on cans of Fosters when I was younger. Happy times! Brill album though.

What’s the difference between a flan, a quiche and a tart? And also when does a boat become a ship?

So just a bit of an update. I've sat down to my bench ready to perform surgery on my hopper and I've noticed I've got a packet of 10.5mm wheel sets for the sturgeon wagons I've got in the to do pile. I know they're the wrong size but I popped them into the hopper and guess what? No wobble! I'm 99% sure they are Romfords. Now I know the chassis I've built isn't perfect as discussed but I do think the major problem has been the wheels. So I've put it to one side with the other kits and I've ordered some Romford wheels and also some of the wizard models wheels together with a DOGA back to back gauge. Once I've received those I'll have another go and follow the advice I've been given in this thread and see what happens! I can just imagine all you experienced builders tearing your hair out at my dumb questions and mistakes, but really this is my first proper venture into kit building and clearly I have a lot to learn! Thanks again to all who have contributed, I can't thank you enough!

Can’t thank you all enough for the help. At the end of last nights modelling session I couldn’t even bring myself to think about doing anymore, but now I’m looking forward to getting back home and having another crack at it! Just to pick up on a couple of points mentioned. I have tried the suspect wheels in an RTR wagon and that wobbles the same so it must be in part at least down to the wheels. Every single parkside kit I’ve got in my stash has Alan Gibson wheels, they come sealed in their own packet with the bearings and a label on saying Alan Gibson. So maybe it’s worth getting some Romford wheels to try? Or maybe try the OO wheels from wizard models? I’m going to remove the sole bars and try, as suggested, to glue one in place leaving it to set before fitting the other.

Thanks again for all the advice, there’s plenty of things to try when I get back to the workbench tonight hopefully. I think I’ll try and remove the solebars and start again, see if I can achieve a better fit.

With regards to the solebars being too far apart, they actually sit hard against the ribs on the edge of the subframe, not sure how I would get these closer to each other?

Again, thanks for all the replies so far, really appreciate it. I must admit to feeling a bit of a numpty for having to ask for help about this, it’s pretty embarrassing not being able to build a wagon. Anyway I managed to get a quick snap of the underside of one of the wagons this morning, looking at the picture it would seem the bottom wheels as you look at it seem linked inwards? I don’t know if it’s the camera angle but it really doesn’t look quite as exaggerated as that but I’m guessing this could be the problem? Unless there’s other things I’m not seeing?

So which brands of wheel should I be looking at?

Thanks for the swift responses chaps. I'm just using the wheels supplied in the kits, I believe they are Alan Gibsons. From what I gather they're pretty well though of? I'm pretty sure it's the wheels as I've just swapped the Bachman wheels from a lowfit wagon with the suspect ones and the lowfit now wobbles. Then put the Bachman wheels back in and it runs fine. Now I could accept that, but I've then tried wheels from 5 other kits and they all wobble, am I just unlucky? I never thought about posting some pictures, I'll do that tomorrow, I've left the model bench in a strop now.

I've been building a number of Parkside kits recently and I've got to be honest I'm really thinking of giving up. Every wagon I seem to build (21 ton hoppers, iron ore tipplers and 13 ton opens) the build goes fine until I put the wheels in and the wagons wobble from side to side. I've been so careful to make sure the solebars are square, I use a plate of glass to make sure the chassis isn't twisted but they all seem to wobble to some degree. When I turn the wagons over and spin the wheels I can physically see the wheel spinning out of true. What I don't get is that it's every kit I've built so far that I see this problem. I bought a back to back gauge to see if I could re-adjust the wheels on the axle but that only seemed to make it worse. I've even tried to fit some Bachman wheels but they don't fit, they foul up on the body of the hopper wagons. I'm really desperate for any help here, I just can't even contemplate building any more kits as I just know they're going to wobble, it's very soul destroying. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Sorry for the poor quality, my mate took this picture of a very tame Robin feeding from my hand! Seemed rather partial to a bit of Greggs mince pie crust!

Big thank you to everyone who has replied, appreciate it.

Hi folks. I'm thinking of making a charter train using mk1 coaches for a bit of variety. I would just like to ask a few question before I go any further. First off is the formation. Now I know from various searches that they could be quite lengthy trains so I will need to compromise but my thought is: BCK, FO, RBR, FO, FO, RBR, FO hauled by an RES 47. Would this be a good compromise? Secondly is regarding the FO coaches. I don't have any, but have FK's so was planning on using them, was it only FO's used in these sets? Lastly is the painting. As far as I can tell I will need to paint the roof white, axle boxes yellow, springs red, blue for the rod thingy (torsion rod?) and white wheel rims. Because I'm using Bachmann coaches I'll need to change the InterCity branding for the executive style lettering. Have I got this right? As always, any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Bumped into this rather soggy looking fella as I was coming out of an HV switch room at work. Reckon I could have stroked him he was that game. not that I'd risk it!

Saw this chap the other day. I'm not great with butterflies but think it's a Comma?

Hi folks. Im looking to create a sequence of operations on my layout to simulate the renewal of a section of track around my terminus area. What im after really is the sequence that particlar trains arrived and left the job site. For example I presume trains of empty flat wagons would arrive first to take the old track sections away, followed by the spoil trains for the old ballast, flat wagons with new track panels then the fresh ballast trains? If I list the 'engineering wagons' I have could somebody help suggest the make up and order of some trains for the scenario? I have quite a large fleet of engineering wagons, I seem to have more than any other rolling stock! For track panels I have salmon wagons and sturgeons, some with cranes mounted and some without. Were the wagons with cranes just for carrying lengths of rail? If so how were the sleepers removed/replaced? In seperate wagons? Ive got a couple of Loriot wagons for carrying mobile plant, Hymac and Drott type excavators, Would these arrive with the spoil trains? For the spoil I have a right mish mash of wagons including Medfits, 13T opens, Ex iron ore, Grampus etc. For the fresh ballast I have Dogfish, Mermaids, Sealions, Tunnys, Lings and Herrings. I also have a couple of shark brake vans. I appreciate im asking a lot but would really be thankful for any insight. Time period is very loose 70's/80's. Thanks.

Hi folks. I'm looking to secure some mobile plant on my Loriot flat bed wagons. Can anyone tell me where I can get some accurate sized chain and shackles? And how to represent the tie down rings on the wagons? Thanks.

Hi folks. I'm about to start building some unfitted grampus wagons, consisting of a parkside chassis with Dapol bodies. I would like to replace the moulded buffers with nice cast ones. But I am at a loss as to which types are suitable for my 70's ish unfitted wagons. From what I can gather they had quite a few different types but if somebody could advise which ones are suitable I'd be very grateful! I've been looking through the lists by MJT and Lanarkshire models but I'm confused by it all to be honest. Cheers.

Haha I can't believe this has been classed as "weathered" and not just "s**t" http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/351472579066