Dominion

These are great Mick. I especially like the LNER green A4s. Tom

Excellent, I have a Robinson O4 with Bryan's chip in that sounds really good, and I will get an O2 chip once available.  Tom

Graeme, in my version it is the last page of chapter 9 "The changing scene"

I just came across another good picture of the 2 canopies at the North end, in the early 1900s in "The Great Northern Railway, by OS Nock, 1958. Page 128

And also a very close in picture of Peascliffe tunnel mouth, from track level on the up side with some brickwork detail, and the lower edge of the copse and also the fence.  Plus an immaculate 2750 about to plunge into darkness. It's in the LNER Scene by Maurice Earley. Photo 80.

Let me know if you want more details.  Tom

I think they are called selfie sticks.

I also wonder if then photo stitching together 2 or 3 photo's (my camera has that function for a panorama shots)  would add to to the image length possible under the canopy or if it would look distorted.  

Or perhaps Gilbert needs one of those cameras that rotated that they used for the old school photos, that allowed a pupil to appear at both ends of the photo. Tom

Hi Gilbert,

I just picked up the recent Middleton Press book "Peterborough to Newark" when I was over in Blighty. 

Some of the Grantham pictures are new to me and show some infrastructure without the trains in the way.

So the section on Peterborough may be fun for you to look at. There are about 10 Steam era pictures of Peterborough in total.

Of course, you may already have it :-)

Tom

Graham, you are bound to have seen these published photos in the Middleton Press "Peterborough to Newark" but I will just mention in case they evaded you.

Photos 72 to 93 are of Grantham. 73 has good views of both canopies at the north end for instance.  If you don't happen to have the book, let me know and I will tell you what is in the other pictures in case helpful.  There are also 2 full pages of 20 inch to the mile plans, labelled 1929.

Regards, Tom

Dear John, Martin, and Gordon S,

I am posting this picture of my first completed slip just to say thank you for your threads and content on RMWeb on track building.

This is to 00-SF and is a 5.5 angle single slip.

I still have to remove the copper clad form the central 3 timbers, but otherwise it is tested and seems to work fine.

I would probably never have tried without each of your contributions on here.  

So many many thanks.

Tom

Yes thanks John.  I really meant what tool do you use to cut back the K crossing copper clad.

You cant approach from the side as you would with a a common crossing.

My slip is a 5.5 frog angle so the closure rails end on the timbers right next to the central timber. So there is not much room to get a slitting disc in, and I suspect if I tried to use rail cutters from above or below it would distort things.  So just wondering HOW you actually cut the copper clad.  Tom.

Now down the final leg of the build

 

100.JPG

 

Tiebars fitted and the remaining slide chairs

 

 

99.JPG

 

 

Next is to cut through the tracing paper exposing the first of the 3 sets of copper clad strips which need trimming

 

102.JPG

 

Cut off the excess and file flush. Put a drop of superglue on each piece of copperclad and replace the sleeper and let set

 

 

101.JPG

 

Now do exactly the same with the other outside set of strips, leaving the centre ones intact

 

103.JPG

 

Now add the chairs to all but the centre 3 timbers, this will give strength to the crossing to keep all in gauge

 

104.JPG

 

Expose the centre strip and cut back to the rail sides and superglue the copperclad to the central timber

 

105.JPG

 

Remaining chairs now added and slip can be tested.

 

To be quite honest thinking about it, building a common crossing like this would be quite difficult. Not impossible but in my view a lot harder than the method I use.

 

Hope this helps clear up any query's about how to build a crossing.

John, what method do you use to cut back the copper clad in the central ties of the crossing to the rail sides, without putting much force on the assembly ? For the common crossing I just nip back close to the rail with old rail cutters, and then file, but I think that would add too much force for the middle of the crossing.

I have a single slip built and working, and do not want to mess up this last step. Thanks, Tom

Just sending all the team good luck from Canada. Your visitors are in for a real treat.

I did try to get my niece to move her wedding (and my trip over) from October to better align with Grantham's showing.

It was a reasonable request I thought, but sense did not prevail and so will miss the spectacle.  

I hope you enjoy operating the schedule.  

Tom

Thanks Roger.  I only had information on the 12-wheelers.

 

Incidentally, I don't suppose you are able to shed any light on the following which I posted above but which no one has responded to?

 

Speaking of LNER Pullman trains in the (late) 30s.  It's easy to find details of the Queen Of Scots when it received a new full set of all-steel K type carriages but other than assorted references and mention of odd carriages plus indistinct photographs (in terms of the whole train), I am struggling to find details of the make up of other LNER Pullman workings.  It would be particularly interesting to know the make up of one of those mixed bag Pullman trains with, perhaps, all-steel K types, earlier K types and 12-wheel brakes.  The kind of train a C1 would have pulled after being elbowed off the ECML by the A3s and A4s.

Hi Teaky, I have just been searching the really interesting "Coupe News," hosted by the Southern E group, for LNER and Eastern region Pullman formations. 

Initially, I found it quite hard to search as tehre were so many individual documents.

However, I wanted to pass on what was an innovation for me. 

Try entering in your search engine ....  "Coupe News" in quotation marks, and the name of the service you are after, say Tees Tyne.

From there you will get search results of individual Coupe news editions that Google thinks have material on the service you want.

Then open each document in turn, and then press Function and F3 simultaneously (on my lap top at least) and type in the name of the service you want in the little box that opens top right, say Tees Tyne again

It will then highlight each mention of the service in that news letter, and let you step through them with the arrow key, or scroll to the mention where the yellow bars are in the right scrolling bar.  So it quickly helps you get to a section that may be relevant.

This maybe completely obvious to many, but it was a revelation for me.  Hope helpful, Tom

Quackers, I think it's a tad over exposed.

Mine just arrived in Canada.  I have fitted the shorter Roco version of the close couplers and they work a treat. It leaves a gap of about 1 mm between the corridor connections on straight track and they negotiate my curves and crossovers forwards and backwards with no problems. I had wondered if I may need to use the longer Hornby close coupler on one end of each car but it was not necessary with these. I am very pleased with them.

Here's a couple of photos of the tender with alternative spoked wheels. These are spares for the Hornby P2 (part no. X6659) and as far as I am aware are identical in all proportions to the disc wheelsets provided with "Book Law."

 

Note that the cartazzi wheelset now stands out like a sore thumb being painted black. There is an alternative flanged wheelset for this included with the model, presumably for display purposes. Also, the buffer height adjacent to the leading coach suggests that the tender might be riding slightly high and this has been mentioned earlier. If anyone would kindly furnish me with the correct, expected height from rail to running plate then I shall check this.

 

Running: out of the box this tender was like a millstone round the loco's neck as such... it was being dragged reluctantly round my test track. I knew there were problems but it was only when I swapped the disc wheelsets out for the spoked versions that I could actually see how each wheelset was rotating/behaving. I could detect no obstructions caused by moulding flash nor the electrical pickups fitted.

 

At the outset I should say that the running problems I have experienced with my tender could well be isolated, in the absence of any confirmation from others. I haven't had this problem with other Hornby eight-wheeled tenders.

 

Initially the third wheelset was not rotating at all and riding up in the frame on 22.5" radius (4th radius) curves. The axle retaining plate (held in by three screws) removed, it became clear that the second and third axles are designed to move higher up into the tender than the leading/training axles. I found that the only way I could stop the third axle from riding up too high, preventing the wheels from having any adhesion with the rails, was to limit vertical travel by inserting a carefully shaped sliver of hardwood (about 1/32" thick) above the axle, i.e., before inserting the axle into it's retaining slot in the underneath of the tender body itself. Bodge job..? Feels like it. However, it works well. I shall replace the wood with a piece of suitable Plastikard...

 

In order to relieve the poor-running in general I briefly took out the drawbar between loco and tender and experimentally bent it very, very slightly to relieve/increase the pressure on the axles. I thoroughly recommend that this route is not pursued as the slightest change can result in an A3 that won't pull the skin off a rice-pudding. I went from my benchmark standard for this A3 of being able to haul seven Hornby 62' Gresley coaches (fairly heavy) round a 22.5" radius loop with straight sections of about a yard in length to being barely able to haul four of the aforesaid coaches with lots of wheelspin. Ultimately, the running issues have eased with running and lubrication but don't expect any high-precision engineering down there... Hornby have designed those axles to slop about all over the place in order to negotiate tight 'toy-train curves'.

Tightening the weight at front and back can sometimes help the chassis become flatter.

The keeper plate with its 4 deep U sections can flex a bit in length, and so can lead to rubbing on one axle or another. So if I have a wheel set that is troublesome, sometimes loosening and tightening some of the keeper plate screws can resolve it. Tom

A sample size of four is taking a nasty veer towards the conclusive. I feel your pain.

 

You may be pleased to know that the front running plate distortion is quite correctable if you're keeping your A3. But it does involve a certain amount of very careful and slight bending with the body off over a block of wood (good grief). There is also a nylon washer about 3/32" in thickness between the chassis and the brass threaded insert in the front of the body that can be removed (it's not as if the fixing is designed to move) which will allow you to bring the front down further... aim being to get a flat line across the top of the cylinders which I appear to have achieved.

 

And yes, I did fiddle, I did modify the distortion, cut the backs of the bucket seats off, swap the ash pan lever over, repaint the washout plugs, etc. and I know I really should've sent it back but by and large I am arriving at the A3 I was after. To those that may feel I've let the side down, I do hang my head in some shame at not venting my disappointment to the suppliers or indeed Hornby but I hope the photos uploaded will dissuade others who don't want the hassle and may highlight the poor assembly QC to Hornby themselves if they ever get to read in here.

 

My limited experience with Hornby is now "once bitten; twice shy"... exercise caution!

Pom Pom, would you mind elaborating on how you straightened the front running plate? Did you place the wood just behind the steam pipes ? Any other guidance appreciated

Thanks, Tom

Hello folks, going back to the motor replacement issue. I notice that the 5 pole motor option is one way of improving the stickiness at move off with the P2. However, I was wondering if anyone has replaced the motor with a non Hornby motor? Eg a really nice high spec smooth motor? I admit I haven't read through the whole 93 pages of the topic, so please forgive me if this has already been covered.

Only some of the 3 pole flywheel motors are sticky. Once I got hold of a good one I think it runs as well as the chassis in which I had installed the Hornby 5 pole motor.

I have been using some "fast track" jigs (in Canada) recently for my fiddle yard, and they recommend using a triangle needle file. That works well too, and creates less PCB dust than a dremel. Tom

There is a large capacitor in the tender of my LNER version.

It is a similar physical size to the DCC concepts stay alive capacitor, but the J11 thread here indicates Bachmann put it in the J11 for suppression. 

Has anyone removed it from the C1 ?

I ran in on DC but just put in a Bachmann 36-557 chip and its not running well so far on DCC so I am considering cutting out the capacitor if it is for suppression.

Tom

I had to slightly straighten the con rod on the other side this morning too to avoid rubbing on the crank rod. The 2 main lengths that I assume should be parallel were not parallel with each other as the dog leg bends were not matched.

My non LNER C1 is fine in this respect incidentally. 

No drama, but I didn't have to bend it very far. If I "had" to try to straighten them more for visual reasons I would be tempted to try a little heat, but I am not compelled to take the risk 

Has anyone had any more success with smooth running from this chip ? 

I had to remove one of my conrods today, on my LNER version. It had been over bent at the factory so the rear part was slightly fouling on the crank rods on each revolution.

Well I was able to take a little of the bend out so it ran better, but the feeling of the material didn't give me any confidence to go any further.

I agree the added length if someone does straighten one more fully does not look like it would be an issue.

I would also think that fouling on the leading crank pin would be the issue that would need managing.

It's a great looking model.

Tom

A Freudian slip!

Is that like a Baeseler slip ? Popular in other parts of Europe I hear. Tom

One area were Rapido could make a revolution would be to include on board firebox glow and cab light.

We have had diesels fitted with working lights for years as standard on most modern RTR locos.

But the last loco fitted with firebox glow was a Hornby 8F, not the recent super detailed loco drive one but the old tender drive one.

Maybe some clever system to add working lamps too. A system whereby the user can plug lamps on the brackets of their choice and they light up.

Perhaps I will be asking for too much if I say smoke as well.

I just received my new Rapido Via Rail F40, and it has illuminated steps below the drivers cab, which I have not seen on any other model before. Tom

On heavy duty bogies, the Hornby Gresley Buffets have the extra line of rivets along the top.  Tom