Dominion

First foray to swap the brake lever from the side that should have a Morton clutch on the banana van with the side of the GE van that should not have the Morton clutch looked promising. The lever has a small hole in the back, and the V hanger has a small pin in line with the cross the shaft. So far so good. However, the brake lever from the GE van does not have both parts of the clutch molded with it. It has the top boss and amazingly its drive cog molded on it, (and so is slightly different than the one that comes with the banana van.) But the lower boss and its matching drive cog seem to be molded with the V hanger. Sorry that is slightly out of focus below. The upper of the 2 loose levers below the van is from the GE van, the lower is from the banana van. That upper lever is not badly cut from the sprue, it is actually a representation of the Morton drive cog. I may as well swap the levers over between the vans now that they are both off, and will reposition them. But no need to buy vans in pairs to make the swap easy. I may try to slice the lower cog off the GE V hanger to try to reuse it on the banana van, but if that does work I will represent it on that van with a bit of stripped wire insulation, like I believe Niles did with the LNER 6 planks. PS the vans behaved like the opposite of falling buttered toast. The first side I looked at to start work was always the correct side that didn't need work. I guess the opposite will be true when placed on the track for any vans I don't do the conversion on !

I lined them up with a straight edge behind. New on the right, interim new chassis version on the left.

I have been looking in Tatlow volume 1 while I wait for arrival in Canada. I see a total of 90 of the existing diagram 47 and 72 vans were converted to “improvised insulated vans without meat hooks.” I am wondering what external or livery differences that would have lead to. Might they (deleted) look a bit like the banana van, but without steam heating? I can’t find any pictures or descriptors yet, and any pointers welcome.

This is the V front of Dapol cab. Very slightly above the firebox cladding. I hadn't noticed it before.

Glad that is working for you. Easy to reverse if you decide to try anything more permanent. I wondered if there was an easy CV fix for the smoke box led brightness. Using a lokprogrammer I could see that the red and yellow leds are on aux1 and aux2 and each was set to a brightness of only 15 out of 31 max. However higher values did not give any brighter output that I could tell. Lower values did give dimmer output. So no solution there. I recently followed an Rmweber’s advice to line a black painted area around another locos led with aluminium foil and that worked a treat on that loco. Perhaps it was the J72. I may try that but only if I have to take the loco body off for something else.

The speaker is in the loco, as is the decoder and socket.

I tried inserting the new plastic flat "anti-crabbing" bearing face without disassembly, and I could not manage it. I had to remove the cover plate to insert it. Reassembly was not difficult though. You can see the spring wire that the Bachmann mechanism relies on as designed. It is very fine.

Not the drawbar, but I have got rid of the crabbing. The white part in the attached photo is a piece of evergreen strip. 6.2mm wide, 0.4 thick and about 13.5 mm long. It is just inserted between the front of the tender draw bar and the tip of the petal shaped 2 lobe hole at the front of the tender chassis. It has the effect of making a flat bearing face for the tender draw bar, so load does not create any tendency to pull left or right. So far it has stayed in place nicely with no fixing mechanism, just a snug fit. The bottom edge is sitting just above the forward projection of the draw bar. I inserted it with tweezers from the top as I had the top plate off anyway. There is a fine spring in there which I have not bothered to reinsert as the plastic strip is holding the draw bar to back of its travel anyway. The loco just pulled 10 Bachmann and Hornby lit Pullmans with no crabbing. Tom PS 0.75mm was too thick. 0.5mm might work but I didn't have any in stock. Also it may be possible to insert it from the underside without disassembly though I have not tried that yet.

An earlier class 40 thread discussed pick up problems on some versions. One solution shown was to add pick ups, home made or parts Bachmann made available. However I seem to remember cleaning oil out of the bearings and that helping too.

Hornby also show the "promotional" LNER green one in stock.

I had that screw out of mine last week. It looked just like the others from the front or back driving wheels of any of the Hornby Eastern Pacifics I have had apart over the last few years. I haven’t tried it but would be happy to if it helps. Let me know if you have a loco there you want to borrow a screw from and fair chance I have similar and can try the swap for you. The job is much much easier if you have a socket driver tool for that head size. The screws from the Hornby Eastern Pacific centre wheels or rear wheel with a speedo connector are smaller on the thread diameter. For the larger screws with the shoulders that I think you need I have even found ones off older chassis sometimes fit fine. Tom (In Canada so I know it’s a long wait for spares for you !)

I curved one to look almost like the opposite hand for one application I needed. There are a couple of posts with photos of the turn out dry fitted and also the underside currently on page 38 of this topic. I will try to post a link to it and apologies for linking to my my own post, it just seemed like the easiest way of showing the bend again. Tom

I just tried a partial but simple botch for the flangeless wheels. It makes some improvement to my eye at least. I dropped the keeper plate with 2 kadee brown 15 thou washers and retightened. The weight of the wheels allows them to drop to around the rail head, or more specifically the centre part of the tread does. On roughly straight track the visible gap is removed and the wheels turn for much of the time. On curves the chamfer and lack of flange mean the gap reappears and the rolling stops but it still looks better to me much of the time. Also there have been no derailments so far forwards or backwards, I assume because of the chamfer on both sides. (I think Peco grey washers may be the same thickness as the kadee ones I used). Tom PS I meant one washer per screw

I agree, I have bought a few over the years for different rail types angles and formations. They are great. Wayne, Tim Warris of Fast Tracks has some great videos on his site of how to use his tools and jigs Tom https://www.handlaidtrack.com/

There was a coal rail over the corridor side of the tender but not on the left hand side. I think Hornby have this correctly modelled, for the first time on any of their LNER Pacifics (or bigger.) The LNER A1s with non streamlined corridor tenders should be the same. However, previous Hornby releases have used the same version they use with their A4s and Flying Scotsman as preserved. These were correct for those models as they had had the side fairings raised from their original build, but not correct for A1s in LNER configuration. I back dated one of mine as per Graeme Kings method which was fun to do.

I think this is a D52. Not built by me but by a fellow named John Struthers in Chicago I think. I can't see a kit makers name on anything exposed on the underside.

I used to see them regularly at Books and Company in Picton, (more than I noticed them in Toronto), but I have not been there since Covid started. I agree with GreenDiesel, an old one off my shelves often seems as interesting as a new one. Tom

My 00 Bachmann-TMC model is fractionally under122 mm over the buffers.

The rail lengths provided in the kits are plenty to extend either end of the track base for the stock rails. However for the one I am installing now I needed a bit more than one of the provided rail lengths in the kit. The longer C&L rail I have here is a different profile and a loose fit in the Finetrax chairs. Instead I was able to join 2 Finetrax rail segments about half way along the stock rail, just like the real thing ! That's a Peco rail joiner on the far stock rail. Sorry it is out of focus.

Just reporting that the one I received was good. All parts attached, nothing bent. Initially stalled sometimes till I adjusted the tender pickups. But runs well now. The only criticism I would have is that I am not sure the speaker installation does justice to the ESU V5 and the sound project on it.

As requested. The gaps are very hard to see so I took a close up of the centre section so you could see the ones I did there. The parts either side of the close up are simple to describe. Every outer web towards the heal beyond the photo is cut, except the 2 either side of the crossing nose, though I think you could do those too if you wanted. None to the toe end are cut as that area of the template I am matching to is roughly straight anyway. I would avoid cutting the ones under the tie-bar, and also the out-rider ones so the gap doesn't open too wide there. You may also notice the base seems to be 2 parts joined together is a shape that reminds me of old Scalextric track. I left those intact too. The whole assembly is much stronger than I feared once the rails are in. I would say the trick is having a good template, (e.g. Templot) and pre-curving all the rails as closely as you can to what you want, before inserting them.

These are versatile products. This is an OO-SF B7 kit in progress. It is actually a right hand kit, with the mainline curving to left. I cut most of the outer webs on both sides from just beyond the 2 webs that sit further out. Where the 2 remaining inner webs are close together at the heal end third of the base that was plenty for the baseplate to adopt the curve on the template, and could have probably cut fewer links. Where the 2 inner webs are further apart around the middle of the base, I cut every second inner one on one side only. The toe end of the turn out is on a transition towards the opposite curve and is nearly straight so I only cut a couple of webs on one side there. I carefully pre bent all the rails to match the template. The base is not attached to the template, it is just naturally sitting in the desired curve. I am very pleased with how it can match the template. The first few webs on the outer side I cut with nippers as they would open up naturally. Be gentle as the material is slightly more brittle than mass produced track bases. On the inner side I used a razor saw to create small gaps. I made a set bend in the right hand stock rail as that is actually the diverging route. With many webs cut and without the rails, the base obviously needs to be handled carefully, and probably gently until installed. The mainline radius on the template is about 55 inches.

Agree they have always been helpful by email. For the IP digitalis you have, you would use the 3 momentary S lever outputs to the 3 momentary IP Digital push button inputs, with the common as the centre of each range of 3. (Like 3 wires from 2 independent push buttons). I don’t know surface mount motors nor the signatrak controller. Some accessory control inputs may only need or take the equivalent of 2 unpowered wires from one momentary push button to change the point motor status. If that is what your surface mount or signatrak needs, then you use the S lever momentary common output for one wire, and you use both of the other momentary outputs for the other wire, bridged together. Good luck getting it working. Tom

Thanks John. The clearance at the open blade tips is less than it should be. Now it is on the layout I will run some full trains through it forwards and backwards and see if they need adjusting.

I wanted to show off my first double slip. I have been avoiding tackling one for ages ! Many thanks to John and Martin, for the advice and knowledge imparted through this discussion topic and through Templot, and also to Gordon whose posts on Eastwood Town first got me interested in 00-SF and gave me the confidence to have a go. In the end I did not find this double slip significantly more difficult than a single slip. So if anyone is procrastinating like I was, have a go !