peteskitchen

I think my 29 is poorly. It's making a loud noise when running. I thought it just needed running in but it's getting louder. I took the top of to see if a bit of lube would do the trick but the motor is not accessible without a major strip down. Has anybody had any experience with Dapol's guarantee? Do they just swap locos or do they fix them? Thanks in advance!

It's okay, I already have a model of the GSYP version, I would just like some with a different number to go with it.

Has anybody seen or heard anything about Dapol doing another production run of class 29s? I was a little disappointed there there was only one GSYP version (which quickly sold out). I could do with at least a couple more.

It seems that gaugemaster, or should that be gaugerobber are cutting all the parts from a sprue and selling them for at least a £1 each, so what used to cost about £4 from Howes is now well over £20. I'm not impressed Mr Gaugemaster, I'll be avoiding you from now on.

I saw such a thing happen at Foxfield many years ago. The wagon behind rode up on top of the remains. Very dramatic to watch, and also a demonstration to how much momentum stock has even travelling slowly.

It should be an easy job to remove it AFAIK its plugged in to the Sentinel. I intend of changing mine for a Bachmann or Hornby shunters truck instead. Should be a relatively easy job to add some extra pickups to the wagon and plumb them into the wiring harness.

That's my usual trick! I have just finished an A5 tank after about 8 years of on and off tinkering, so I thought that was going to be a dead cert, but it looks like I got away with it! Just looked on Hattons, it's a different style to mine which is a bonus. Not a bad price either. Have they done that version at all so far? I've a feeling that Bachmann isn't too keen with doing new tooling at the moment, probably due to the upheaval of moving home.....

Class 5 in L&YR lined black is a surprise, as two versions have already been released via the NRM. I'll be interested to see which style this one is. I only got one of the NRM ones so I'm hoping its the other. Make a good excuse for buying it.

I ended up buying a Hornby one as I found one for sale for peanuts in the right livery.

Anybody had or heard of issues with the PCB on these locos? Mine has been running like a little sweetie every since i got it, but this evening going up 't bonk into the station I gave her some beans up to about 90% full power and as she accelerated suddenly all the lights went out. It seems some component has died, or maybe a track burned out. It's impossible to tell as the PCB is multi layered with micro surface mounted components (It's not DCC) I've got everything working again simply by wiring up the LEDs to the power pickup with inline resistors. Trouble is it's not really an ideal fix. Thanks Pete.

Has anybody re motored one of these to get a bit more performance out if it? I really prefer the over all look and detail, and especially the paint of the DJM model, but with a large layout the performance is not good enough. Rather than buy a Hornby version I would prefer to buy a DJM one and re motor it.

Its very easy to do. The tender top is held by three hidden screws, and underneath by four. That releases the metal weight. Cutting it is the hardest part as it's horrible stuff to cut.The dcc gubbins is just lightly stuck to it. When you chop the middle out just leave the ends with enough metal for the outer screws. When you've reassembled the dcc bits can just sit on the top of the chassis. Check the tender picups whist you do it as mine were like hard on brakes! Mine will easily pull 16 Hornby Railroad Gresleys up a 1:100 now it's totally freed off. Shall I pop a picture up later of what it looks like under the tender body?

were any selling?

It's getting better and better each time I run it, plus I've hacked a great lump of cast out the tender!

It is a beautiful body, captures the prototype perfectly. Just a pity the cooling fan grill is very dated looking

Are the Hymeks the same body shell as before, or have the been updated at all?

I bit the bullet and bought a model of 4705 in BR lined green. It seemed well put together with non of the issues that have been noted. However it didn't run particularly well, seemed to need a lot of power to get it moving, but then it seemed to go quite fast. Not easy to control at all on DC. I good look over it and the front axle seemed quite stiff so I lubed up all the axles and this seemed to improve things somewhat. However pulling a train, even gentle curves slowed it right down, and hills very much so. It wasn't lack of traction, just lack of grunt. The tender seems ludicrously heavy, to the point that I've chopped out the centre section of the metal weight in there. It was considerably heavier than an old Margate tender drive! I also nobbled the pickups on the front tender axle as they were super draggy. Wow what a difference it has made! Corners don't slow it down at all, and hills slow it only as you would expect. After all it is a very heavy loco. An hour of running has freed it up the front axle as well. Anybody else find theirs a bit lacking power wise as standard? As a footnote... I wish Heljan (and Hornby) would adopt Bachmann's method of making the tender draw bar adjustable. The one you get with this is just way too far apart or way too close to be useful. No in-between.

Very interesting this. Just look how complex this model is, so much detail that surely must be added by a workforce, the most complex rtr model made so far? yet the end total is only £69! Makes you wonder how an overblown motorised carriage with windows in the ends could cost 2 1/2 times as much as this.

Did this have some work done on it at Rileys engineering at the ELR about 10 years ago? Seem to remember the frames and bits of a loco looking like this there.

It is superb on a superb model. Your photo edit makes it look so close to the real thing, I think it would have to be the real thing to be real............ermmmm yeah!

Not a GWR fan as a rule, but the castle model is just breath taking. Makes me want one!

3. All in LNER livery. A railroad Scotsman, I just couldn't say no to a brand new loco at £39.95. I've fitted an old margate tender top to it which has far superior lining than the railroad mess which has improved it's looks somewhat. The other two are Woolwinder and Firedussi, both ex Sir Nige 75th anniversary models purchased very cheaply indeed. I love the gloss green on them.

I got a BP one this week, ran very rough straight from the box, but 15 minutes of running it smoothed up nicely. I'm sure another few hours of running it will be great. Are the motors in these coreless?

I think that if they do do a second batch they will fill in the livery holes. Going by the way the 102XX diesels sold, I would say it's a cert these will sell well.

I asked everybody I know who isn't interested in model railways if they watched it. They all said no. However I asked everybody who does as well......they all said no too!