Star-rider

The Autocoach is very welcome and will go on the shopping list. It would have been so much better if Dapol could have worked with Hattons on the 14/48XX, secured the existing body tooling and come up with more reliable underpinnings. There would have been the opportunity to link the two components to give pick-up on 6-7 axles and install a shared sound decoder somewhere near the non-driving end of the coach. Many people have complained about the running qualities of the Hattons model but mine is OK once it is running at speed, I suspect that poor starting and stalling it suffers may be more of an electronic problem…

I couldn’t agree more – if all the manufacturers are working from one or two source books they will all come up with the same result, even if some of them would be happy to stick the same livery on a 4 or 5 plank body (I’m sure I have one example of this practice up in the loft). It’s probably up to the more knowledgeable* of the modelling community to push correct examples in front of Rapido for them to consider for future batches. One could almost justify a “wishlist” poll for liveries on these wagons alone… My own interest is in the GWR lines around the Black Country so I’m not sure if there are any strong candidates out of this batch for me, but maybe next time round. Anyway, I think my budget is already in Rapido’s hands with recent releases and the forthcoming Minks and Opens. *I exclude myself from this category.

The caveat about these being generic is noted. I did fancy the Ferrocrete design from the current batch just to give a bit of colour to the mainly grey trains I seem to be assembling at the moment, but was unable to verify that it was a pre WWII livery so I held back. I have seen a photo dated in the late 1930’s of a Blue Circle example though so I am now once again tempted even if the livery is not on quite the right vehicle. It’s going to take me forever to find that photo again, I’m pretty sure that it was on the Warwickshire Railways website… My stock is not usually weathered but if I do go for it I might have to have a crack at toning it down a bit though 🙂

It’s a pity there is no prototype to justify a white/red paint job, it would have livened up some trains. However, hopefully if we are all well behaved customers and snap up what GWR wagons have already been offered to us maybe a different MICA or TEVAN will be presented to us soon by Rapido. I’d certainly be in the market for one – the wagons I have purchased so far (Iron Mink, GPVs, SR opens) have all been exceptional products. I believe the GW 4 plank opens are not far away and I’ll certainly be picking up a few vans and opens when details are confirmed.

Let me share with you from my rather limited knowledge the most important thing I have learned about DCC: Not all decoders work well in all locomotives Not all locomotives are suited to a single decoder I’ve accumulated a few different types over the years and when I get a new toy engine to play with I start with a Bachmann 36-553 as my default (new model is 36-566) – readily obtainable, fairly priced and most of the time will work well. If the loco runs poorly sometimes dragging another brand of decoder out of the box will present a solution. (Also sometimes space precluded the 36-553 and I need something physically smaller). A copy of my current fitting list is attached to inform and entertain you all. It tells me there is a 36-553 in my own Kinlet Hall and shows the current settings. My notes say it was running well last month…One of the reasons I like this decoder is that it comes “shrink wrapped” and fits in the loco in the little channel that is designed for it, I’m probably unjustifiably nervous about “naked” decoders and am too poor or mean to by that special tape people wind round them. DCC fitment.pdf If you go down the Bachmann route I recommend that you check the current offering is manufactured by ESU. In the past they also sourced some from Soundtraxx as best as I recall and gave them the same reference number – I found that to be awful and I think I tied it to a swallow’s leg one autumn to get it as far away from my loft as possible. Also, CV settings are a personal thing; I like to drive off the throttle with very low braking and acceleration values, others prefer a more automated approach. As far as chuff rates for the sound decoders, I haven’t even started to get my head round that yet… I hope that there is something of value here, but now I’ll go away stop hijacking Rob’s topic. Pete.

Looking good sir. I used to cut clear plastic glazing to size and rub it up and down diagonally in two directions on a bit of fine emery paper. More recently I have used some of the plastic protective film that comes at the front of the lining from Fox Transfers (is that what you use?) It gives a nice "Hammered" finish, in truth it may be a little overscale but sometimes such fine details need a bit of a push to be seen at all. Pete.

I have one of the original releases of “Wellington” which I stuck “Devizes Castle” nameplates onto to backdate it a bit. It is DCC ready, loco drive and runs reasonably well, but as I move toward sound fitting I wouldn’t mind a newer model with electrical pick up on all tender wheels. However at £200+ I’ll have to live with what I have got unless the new releases start turning up in the bargain bins. My last two Hornby locomotives (a Grange and a Star) were acquired that way for £99 which is the sort of sum where “nice to have” comes back into play, especially if I can sell off the older model to part finance it.

Thanks for pointing that out so quickly, I hadn’t had chance to dig into it. No sale here then - the increasing cost of models against a fixed disposable income means that I’ll be buying fewer items and my Bachmann model looks sufficiently like a Macaw for my own needs. A different prototype may have extracted some of my cash. Would @Miss Prism or some other knowledgeable soul be kind enough to give a quick critique of the Bachmann model? If it is very deficient I may reconsider as I’m not averse to upgrading if the Hornby model would be substantially more accurate or detailed. (It’s very much the same with the new “Castles”, I’d rather like one to replace one of my older models, but I don’t need it – They would however have sold me a “Saint”).

Hornby are pretty established with larger GWR locos, so a Saint remains a possibility. I do wonder if everyone is thinking it is such an obvious target that they are avoiding it for fear of duplication - that said it has not stopped them deliberately going head-to-head in some instances. Perhaps adding the missing full brake and brake composite diagrams to the Collett coach range may be being considered up against the forthcoming Dapol toplights. Of course, I’ll look at the new announcements with interest but I’m not over exited, TT will probably have sucked the life out of Hornby’s capacity for next year. There are several new GWR wagons, a 44XX and a pair of coaches coming from Rapido, plus the aforementioned Dapol toplights so my disposable income has probably already been more than claimed for 2023.

I’ve got two Hornbix pairs in running order, I will probably replace one pair with the Rapido offering but likely won’t be able to afford both. I’ve attempted conversions of these before but found it to be more hassle than building a comet kit, but I have purchased old "B-sets”* for less than a tenner in the past as a source of acceptable well running 7’ bogies complete with wheels and couplings. The bodies are lying in the back of the loft somewhere and may end up in a plastic shredder one day. Second-hand values of these may become negligible, you may get better value from them as a source of bogies as I have. *Of course, they are not actually B-sets here in the West Midlands…

That really is interesting and has thrown me a glimmer of hope. I’d really like to buy some of these, it fits in with my recent policy of buying fewer, better models with my limited pocket money but as my interest is in the west midland GWR lines in the 1930’s I didn’t expect them to fit in. Is it possible that the Southampton to Market Drayton working or something similar would have run pre-war? Could some SR liveried banana vans have trundled through Stourbridge or Wolverhampton in small numbers?

Ageed - My reassembled tender caused a short at first until I spotted the same problem - fortunately no decoder was harmed in the operation. I also seem to recall that I bent all of the tender pick-ups out of shape when trying to take it apart, it seemed an easy job made hard somehow. Let us know which kit you go for with your sound fitting - one of my Stars will be on the list for later this year but there is not much room in the tender. I'd prefer not to do any hacking around of the model and find something that is an easy solution. Personally I won't worry about stay-alive on a loco with this many points of contact so I may just go for the "easy install" from Youchoos fitting guide (MX649R + 6mm Ice Cube).

I was already the proud owner of two “Stars”; KGC “ Now with added spokes at no extra cost!” and then Princes Alice split from the train pack by RoS. I wasn’t particularly looking for a third but when searching on Amazon last year for a totally unrelated item a “pop-up” advert appeared on screen for Lode Star at £99.00. With free next-day delivery I couldn’t pass it up… Amazon is not somewhere that I would normal by model railway items from, I prefer to deal with model shops for all of the obvious reasons (even if mostly on line), but it is now always worth an idle search for a bargain. All three are beautiful runners, certainly among my favourites. Interesting that Neal suffered a break on the tender connection pin on a similar model, that happened to me with “Tintagel Castle”, in the end I ordered a replacement tender chassis from Peters Spares and swapped the whole thing out – it must be a common weak point.

Thank you - I suppose it may be possible to have someone adjust a sound file for the whistle. I could probably just avoid pressing the button for the brakes... As for the sound of the crew gumbling, this will probably be masked by my own complaining over which of my locos is not running as it should, or some sticky point motor. If it's too far off I may just leave it, there are 30 odd locos without sound at the moment and for budgetary reasons I'm never going to get them all done in my lifetime.

Firstly I should say how I admire the work you have done with your conversions, I have attempted a couple of “sides on RTR” myself in the past but found myself disappointed with my results. For my own abilities I find that a Comet kit is far less work… I really would recommend that you take a gamble and have a go (even my limited skills can knock up a body and chassis, all soldering is out of sight) but no doubt others will already have tried to persuade you; if you are not comfortable with it then that must be respected. Spend some time thinking about which Diagram you want to build – these days I select what I believe to be a prototypical train formation and then go about acquiring the models to suit. When I bought my first kits I fancied some 70 footers as they were different from RTR offerings but failed to think through what I might actually need. The result is a 70’ restaurant car that has been sat on a shelf for about 7 years as there is no gainful employment for it. That may end up on the world’s favourite auction site in the near future. Also watch out for the underframes on early 70’ stock. Another lesson I have learned is that the underframes were supported on strap and turnbuckle trusses on some coaches rather than the bulky angle iron trusses under your RTR donors. To get it as near right as you can I think you might carve everything off an RTR chassis and end up with a bit of flat plastic! Your existing conversions look very nice but I’m intrigued by your roof colour – you have gone for something very dark as I did myself on my first builds. Having been taught the lesson that a dark grey was generally applied during the war period (after the 1930’s which we have as a common interest) I have set about changing mine to white. I know that with chemical aging, smoke and smut they would not have stayed that way for long so I suppose a bit of weathering is in order or perhaps I should have gone for a light grey? Keep up the good work, I’m enjoying following your progress…

It may be that this should have been posted in the DCC sound section of RM Web, but I suspect that the expert or informed answer may be more likely to be drawn from here… I’m contemplating my next sound fitting and the Bachmann ROD is a candidate. Presumably the sound file sold for a Robinson O4 will cover off most of the “mechanical” sounds but I have found myself wondering if there would have been differences when the locomotives were “westernised”, for example is it likely that they would have had a new and different whistle sound from the NBL as-built item? Thoughts and advice would be appreciated although reasoned speculation is all I am expecting as none have survived. Cheers, Pete.

I’m very much looking forward to the arrival of my Siphon, come the glorious day. Looking at the images provided so far and the exceptional detail that will be coming made me think about the shortcomings of some of the stock that I have been building and I started to wonder if others with an interest in this type of vehicle and era of modelling would be in the market for certain components and if the interest would be sufficient for Accurasale to consider knocking out some extras of some items as spares and to satisfy a kit builder market? I’m particularly thinking about the bogies, the tooling is / will be to hand and I can’t imagine that the cost of injection moulding a few dozen more would be great or interfere much with production schedules in terms of time. I’ve been a frequent purchaser of Bachmann’s spare Collett bogies and would probably have bought a few sets of the seven footers that Hornby fitted to their 57’ stock had they have been separately available. The idea of rubber gangway connections as an alternative to plastic or whitemetal is perhaps also interesting to kit builders. I know that a manufacturer’s main interest will be focused on marketing a range of RTR models, but I wonder if a bit more profit could be squeezed out of tooling and development costs to the advantage of both themselves and the customer?

Ah, OK, thanks... I too usually sit coaches on scavenged RTR bogies or 3D printed ones so the Comet supplied sets usually eventually go on Ebay as unopened, I have not had a dig inside to see what is included for ages.

I do enjoy seeing a coach build coming together. Can I ask about the round bosses you have on the underside of the Comet chassis? The first few Comet kits I bought (some years ago now when the late Geoff Brewin operated the business) included a threaded brass turning that looked something like that. Later kits did not include them and when I enquired I think he told me they had been dropped for cost reasons although he did sell me a few more that he had to hand. Using them gave me the perception that the coach was more stable than sitting them on nuts and washers as the last dozen or so of my coaches have been. To be fair the “ride” does not seem to be a problem but I’d be interested in what you and other builders are using.

I have just finally assembled this train formation and this post is really to tie up various loose ends and bring together some topics and questions that I had asked relating to the individual coach builds as noted below. Once again thanks to those who offered help and advice on the individual threads. I was seeking to build credible rather than factual train formations to run on my railway and referring to “Train formations and carriage workings of the Great Western Railway by WS Beckett” a portion of the 21:50 Shrewsbury to Paddington service looked as if it would provide something interesting passing through the West Midlands. This is what I have arrived at: 1] Siphon G – An out of the box Mainline outside framed model with 3D printed bogies from SRMW / Shapeways 2] Van – I asked for a definition of “van” and several offers came along! I decided to utilise a Lima inside framed Siphon G that I had to hand, again it was fitted with replacement SRMW / Shapeways bogies that gave me the benefit of an NEM coupling pocket. Having invested a few quid on the bogies I am now slightly miffed to find that Accurascale are bringing out a newly tooled high spec model this year, I have one on order now which will replace the one I have. 3] Full Brake (non-corridor) I chose a K40 for this, I had something that I had previously built by using Comet sides to overlay an Airfix suburban coach but I was never really happy with it. After spending some time trying to get it right I abandoned it and built it as a complete kit, finishing just this week. As is my usual practice I robbed an Airfix suburban coach of its bogies rather than build the Comet ones. A tie rod between the axle boxes was formed from wire. In truth there is still a bit to do, some handrails require fitting once I have acquired a jig. 4] Siphon J The big task here was actually getting my hands on something to work with. SRMW offer 3D printed components to build something but the cost was above what I was prepared to invest. Patience paid off though and after regular searching on Ebay I was able to pounce on part built Blacksmith kit after an aggressive bid. SRMW once again got my business for the bogies though. 5] Brake Composite (70) Another tricky vehicle to source – I was aware that Haye Developments produced an E117 but like the Siphon J above it was no longer commercially available. Once again I got lucky with an Ebay purchase although I needed a considerable amount of advice from RM Web contributors to get it together. Much of the underframe was missing so some generic brass channel and turnbuckle trusses from Comet were utilised. The coach rides on 9’ American bogies from SRMW. As no roof was included with the kit I purchased and the standard Comet GWR extrusion did not fit an MJT LNER roof came to the rescue. The previous owner of the kit had soldered the droplights in place so I was left with no alternative but to try to paint them insitu, I much prefer to pre-paint droplights and add them later. 6] Brake Third Corridor This was easy, nothing to see here… An out of the box Hornby Collett bow-ender to diagram D95 of fairly recent tooling. 7] Full Brake I purchased a Frogmore K36 (really just sides and ends) for this as I had not built one of their kits and it gave a bit of variety being a toplight design. It did not go together too badly. Once again I used a Comet chassis and put some turnbuckle trussing under it, this time from an MJT etch. SRMW Fishbelly bogies were purchased from Shapeways to sit it all on. An all-over brown paint job was applied which I think is OK for a full brake in this period. I’ve had the whole ensemble out today for the first time. It ran much more smoothly than I ever dared hope, in fact an aging Hornby Prairie (not the recent tooling) that is about to get its redundancy notice pulled it round nicely without tripping up or stalling, there’s a fair bit of metal in this train so it’s a bit of a load. I can’t get a decent photo of the whole thing together so I have done a short video of it passing by hauled by a Dapol Mogul if it is of interest to anyone – sorry about the quality, I don’t really have any proper video equipment. https://youtu.be/jgplBcjOAd4

Thanks for the confirmation, it's the very one I have just waved my debit card at.

Maybe I have misunderstood what I have read, I believed the O59 in the image was a conversion back to a Siphon after WWII (c. 1945) and I jumped to the conclusion that it was outside the period Neal was modelling. My thoughts were that only the O33 (without ventilators) was suitable for 1930s?

Neal, I think the image you have picked there is the "transitional" livery option. There are two other Siphons available without a W prefix so make sure you pick one of those for 1930s operation. (I'm just about to order mine ) Pete.

Perhaps how numerous the prototype was may have a bearing on desirability of a model? For example, the Loriot Y recently announced by both Rapido and Hornby amounted to two real world examples, I can't see anyone being in the market for three of them, sales will probably be limited to a single purchase of the model with minimal opportunities for the manufacturer for a re-run in 5 years time.

Exactly so - I'm learning all the time and when the Bachmann 64XX came to market I had become aware that the top-feed (as well as the livery) would exclude it from the general 1930s period I had decided to focus on. I therefore declined to purchase one. The 57XX/8750 models that I have were already in my posession and until something better comes along they will no doubt do their duty. Although they have an undesirable top-feed they do trundle around my railway quite nicely though and give me more enjoyment than some recent "better detailed" models that have to be poked in the bunker with a forefinger now and again. I was watching a DCC ready shirtbutton pannier on Ebay yesterday, I think it finished up at £126.00 so people still want them...