brynna79

Thanks Chris, Must admit to be very impressed of your work as well. But that makes decisions around cost for the 2 car DMU's easier as well. The layout won't be more than 4.5m over a L shape, so slow running for now, is all they will ever see...

I'm looking at the PRMRP O Gauge HST kit and wondered if anyone on here had built one of these. It would be my first foray into kit building and I'm interested in other builds people may have done. I've only been able to find pictures on the website itself and not really seen much on the forum pages. Cheers

That looks very nice. Did the kit just come with Resin Shells?

Yes, those kits look something special and the 150/1 and 2 kits really have my attention. I have had some reasonable success with buildings etc... when painting, but I guess when something costs as much as this, you think twice a little bit - until you get used to it. I think a start with the 150/2 kit is worth trying, just need to learn how to bend and solder metal effectively. I think the plain purple of FGW would be much easier than say the EMT or Norther livery and something to try initially. I'm guessing that a single powered bogie may not be as reliable as two, given that is an option, although these things only pull themselves around! I've just committed to a swap for some HO to a O Gauge 50. So the slippery slope has commenced you could say! As anyone done these builds where photos are available, there are a few excellent threads on here, but no pictures as we all know! Cheers Bryn

worth noting. I am seriously tempted by the Peter Clark 150 kits. In my mind I would love to do a First Great Western DMU setting with a pair of these (150/1 and 2), plus the 158, then have the rest as diesel loco workings. Does anyone have any pictures of what the kits look like and what progress has been undertaken on these. Cheers

Thanks for that, have started to take a look at the various discussions on the group. Everything I am seeing, is right up my street. Cheers Bryn

Thanks all for the time you have taken to expand my knowledge and for putting opinions across. There is clearly more than one school of thought with the scale, as there is with all other parts of the hobby and differing scales. I can see that detailing and scratch building/kit building are big at this scale and that the use of metal does provide for more fidelity. I think I'll start with RTR and see how I progress from there, especially as my daughter approaches 2 and time perhaps is easier to find. The main reason for starting this discussion was to see why and if there may be something on the horizon, as buying a DMU as a impulse purchase is not really as forgiving in the smaller scales (or as forgiving as it used to be a few years back!) Cheers all. Bryn

Hi Craig, Thanks for the reply - yes, had seen Cromer Road and it is what made me consider the lack of 2nd Gen locos. I am not sure I would have the skill or patience to build such units from scratch, but then again, I guess until I do, who knows! I need to carry on with the thankless task of selling what I won't use in HO (believe me, I am bored already and haven't gotten to the fiddly stuff yet!). But Looking forward to the new start. I actually am mulling over a Sectorization/initial privatization setting, will allow me to run the new 66's, but also some of the more available units and wagons and will better suit the limited size/space that I have. Cheers

I seem to have got that feeling from some of the comments and content of the group and forums. Was aware of MIOG, but not the other, so will reactivate my FB account and take a look. Cheers

Agreed, they are quite relevant to what other RTR stock is available. NSE is a draw for me, even though I have no memory of this time.

Thanks for the link. I registered for the free month trial last night to see a bit more of the guild. Two articles in the forum really caught my attention. the first being the amazing work and build of a Class 195 in Northern livery from scratch by one of the members. I can only say wow, the build was done in 6 months and looked truly amazing given the scale and materials that had been used. Certainly leagues above my skill ability. There are some epically skilled and talented people out there as I have seen on this forum as well. The other was the lack of modern image, even within the BR Blue and sectorisation times compared to here. There was a forum discussion on the start up of MIOG and the impact this may have had as well. Without forming an opinion, the forums were a wonderful place to see how skilled these people are, but most of what I was outside my range of interest. I will continue to review, before committing to joining, but certainly a useful place to see so much regarding O Gauge. I think I will remain RTR initially, then maybe in a few years time, try a kit or two, maybe wagons first :-) Cheers

Thanks Craig. It's interesting that they chose the Bubble cars and I guess that the uptake on BR blue/Sector liveried layouts means they would sell well. The 153 would certainly be a good entry to more modern machinery, and I guess that in time, we may see these appear. Haven't stumbled upon the PCR website before and the prices seem reasonable for what you are getting, but I, like others, wouldn't even know where to start with such kits, guessing the skill required being more than a plastic kit. The painting of liveries would be the most daunting aspect for me. Have you built any of the kits? The DMU's look very good indeed and I am surprised that a Voyager/Super Voyager are available as well, given the size of these units! Cheers Bryn

I am considering the jump from US HO to UK O and find it interesting that there are yet to be any RTR 2nd Gen DMU's such as the 150, 153, 156 and 158's. Would such units be popular amongst current O Gauge modelers. Given the time frame that they have operated in, they would span a large timeframe. Clearly, this is my opinion and the manufacturers know there demographic and markets best, but I would imagine the 153 would sell well - given its single car size and range of liveries. Being in my 40's, most of my memories are from the 90's onwards, although more from the noughties when I took a real interest. Some of the hesitation for me at the moment is my liking of up to date stock, but I must admit to liking the BR Sectorization stock that Heljan have been kicking out recently. Cheers

I've noticed that the full price paid does appear as a notification at the top of your phone, if the app is installed. Often, I've seen it account for 30-50% of the sold price of the loco. Crazy... GSP stopped my US purchases as well, as it added that much as well.

Bumping this as would be good to hear if there is any news. Cheers

That's an excellent picture. Great justification for using such a big engine on a small layout for shifting box and grain cars. Cheers

Thanks for sharing. I must admit to being rather jealous of you being able to just go out for a walk and experience the area like that - the views are breathtaking and the trains are a added bonus. Cheers

It interests me that the RRP in $ is the same or similar to the £ price for this, when you factor in the exchange rate, then that is cheaper than RRP or typical savings in the UK. Obviously I appreciate that you couldn't import and there may be differing import costs etc... to the US. Guess it is the same when you see Rails and the price of some Athearn stuff as well being cheaper than Stateside. I remember buying the Paddington IET from Australia, ended up paying the same price as what I would have done in the UK, even with import charges, after they had sold out. The interest being how the fringe markets are priced to sell this stuff over the home market

As mentioned above, I recently purchased a pair of Athearn Genesis SD70M-2 for the layout. These being units 431 and 432 that have been with Vermont Railway since 2016. I wanted to have some short line action on the layout and these to me were perfect as they were larger traction being used on a short line in what i consider to be a very scenic part of the world, while being close enough to model other Class 1 lines that i have a affinity for, including CN, CP, NS and CSX. These came DCC Ready and i had a pair of Loksound chips spare (1x v4 and 1x v5) that seemed perfect for re-blowing with sound files from ESU. This appealed to me further as aside form the ScaleTrains units I have (which are all GE), all other are Tsunami sound files and I wanted to see what EMD sounded like with the free to download files. Said locos below - i really do like the red livery of these units and they do suit the EMD well. 20220720_133014 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The bigger issue with this was what speakers would be best suited to the unit, given the lack of space present in modern RTR locos. Looking at pics available of the DCC Sound Fitted units, it appears that Tsunami provided a sugacube speaker housed in a premade housing from Athearn. However, unlike ScaleTrains, this was not present with the Athearn unit. Total space available was at the rear of the loco beneath the cooling area and was very limited. At best a pair of sugacube speakers would fit this area, but would struggle with the housing to make them sound better. I had a chat with Richard at Road and Rails and he suggested using a 26x14x7 speaker which was bass enhanced (https://www.roads-and-rails.co.uk/collections/4-ohm-speakers/products/26x14x7-bass-enhanced-dcc-sound-speaker-4-ohm) and a pair of these (one for each loco) was duly ordered. The 26x14x7 Bass Enhanced Speaker 20220718_092157 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Limited Space in the cooler group housing 20220718_092803 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Final positioning of the speaker - lets hope the contact pins remain reliable over the service life. 20220718_092419 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Completed installation of 432 prior to reattaching the shell. 20220718_092750 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I must admit that i was really impressed with the performance of these speakers for the price and size of them and they handled the sound range really well. I may now look to start replacing a number of my other ESU Sugacube speakers as a single one of these as far as I am concerned is markedly better than a pair of Sugacube speakers fitted as a pair. I'll try and get a video for comparison against one of the other Soundtraxx EMD's that I have, but other than a number of CV tweaks, i am really impressed with the free sound file ESU have made available for these units when comparing to the Soundtraxx version as well especially now there is no need to replace the Athearn board to achieve this. Cheers

I've seen some YouTube videos of CP and NS running through, but nothing significant. More research is needed. Hence why i was thinking of a small branch with a small industry for a part of the layout and a change over to mix up when i feel like it!

Thanks for some very useful points. Correct it is a 10ft L-shape I have a few kits that can be bashed into a repair/overhaul facility and as you have suggested this gives the ability to have guest locos around. The interchange sounds good, i just need to figure out how to get that to fit in the scale I have - it may be that i concentrate on three main areas and then look to build a modular layout for other ideas at another point. I definitely like the cassette idea and this works well as it would sit behind where the desk i use as my office is, while allowing access to the full layout still. I just wanted a bit of variety on the layout and really wanted a short line involved as well - FEC stuff is rare as hen's teeth (so is VR as well), but NE States is much more industrial and allows for a bit more diverse modelling than the flats of Florida... In my head i will be using the Rolling Mill for one end of the layout and then a grain facility at the other end. I may run out of space with this, but the cassette idea really helps with the storage issues that may prevent a bit more detail. I alos want to make sure that less is more is adopted as well.... This is the rolling mill to fit one end - it is a big kit at 36", but I feel it will be a real eye opener and centerpiece for the layout, especially with its height. 20220719_100822 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I recently brought a chunk of supplies from Model Junction from the closing down sale pile they have. Most were 50% or less, so some will end up in the stash for another day - might be worth others taking a look. 20220718_155835 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Cheers

Hi, I have just recently made a start on building the baseboards for a corner of the spare room that has some space. Progress is somewhat slow with other parts of life being busy, but i managed to get two baseboard built and on the wall last week. The layout is to comprise of 5 boards in a right hand L-shape, with a total length of 3.18m x 3.10m and board width of 610mm. A copy of the board plan is shown below. A small issue is that my measuring was a bit out and the length of board 3 is more like 0.81m rather than the 0.7 shown. Obviously this needs to be the former so that the wall supports can be used. I will have to try and use one of the spare pieces i have to make a bigger length. 20220412_143725 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr First two boards in place - the under area is likely to be used to store our daughters toys and other undesirables in the future, which is why i ended up going for 1.1m height on the layout, the other reason being my 6'5" height and helping in that regard. 20220714_191518 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Underside of first two boards. Boards are supported by a wall brace, with a sole leg per board being sufficient to carry the weight at the front. 20220714_191531 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Close up of the wall brace. 20220714_191524 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Next is to work on the remaining boards, this may take a few weeks and to start considering what industries i would like to see. Theme is north East States/Canada, with the majority of rolling stock I have acquired being Norfolk Southern Canadian National and CSX. There is a pair of Vermont Railway locos on the roster as well, I am have thoughts of splitting between the Class 1's that i have and then having an connection to the VR line. I have a big love of Canadian Railways, but managed to secure a good few NS locos recently. I may switch these at some point as the layout develops. All this while trying to keep the track plan simple as possible. I have a around 10 turnouts for use, so will go with a much easier layout in that regard. I think my intention is to have a grain feature at one end and then a mill at the other, with the in between curve made up of a few buildings etc... I will try and hide some sidings to rear of each area. Time will tell if I am trying to hard to fit stuff in.

It would seem that the crossing is elevated (humped) from the road either side and a dirt track in effect. I watched a news broadcast that had the NTSB discussing what they had seen on the video from the cab and that there was dust being slung up as the truck approached the crossing. They had said there could be a number of factors that meant the truck did not stop at this stage, including line to sight clearance due to the rail road being elevated. They went on to say that this crossing was due and will need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. It was a useful video to watch - link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhum4zg_Kw4 Again, it was interesting because it was the NTSB that were providing the discussion points, something that perhaps would not be as forthcoming in the UK. Cheers

I have a number of UP locos that have the red sill rather than yellow which was changed around 2005 I believe. I just wondered if anyone else has changed the sills from red to yellow. If so, was this using paint or decals from someone like Microscale. If the latter, can these just be added over the top, or does the red need covering to better show the depth of yellow. The only problem i see is that, particularly on my ST Dash-9, there are the various tags and labels in this area as well. TIA - Cheers Bryn