Dominion

This Turtle crossed our road yesterday. My neighbour says it is the largest snapping turtle they have ever seen an that it is at least 50

I started track building by reading John’s thread “Hayfields turnout workbench”, watching the Norman Solomon DVD Tony mentions, and reading Gordon’s Eastwood Town thread. I then started using Martin Wynne’s fabulous Templot software. This allowed me to configure and print build templates that exactly matched the geometry I wanted. I am also learning a lot about real track as I use Martin’s software as he has built a vast amount of knowledge into the software and notes. I build in OO-SF with mostly plastic chairs and both plastic and ply timbers and the techniques I think are applicable to EM. I have built dozens of turnouts and slips now and one 3 way so far. They work much better than I thought they would when I started. Then British Finescale started producing kits in 4mm scale in the gauge I wanted and they are really excellent. I now use those whenever they suit the geometry I want and handbuild only the items not yet available from Wayne. I encourage you to try. My first turnout from individual components was okish but not used, the second one was quite useable, and all subsequent ones run better than ready to lay commercial track. Good luck, Tom

I interpreted the email I received from Hornby as the shipment was coming in two lots, with the second part arriving soon, and much sooner than if it was actually a second production batch. I preordered immediately on announcement and just received mine in Canada. Tom

It’s just brass rod, soldered as a butt joints at the Queen posts. Then I have small bits of wire insulation over the brass rod to represent turn buckles and other larger diameter sections. That approach seemed in keeping with the vintage of the tooling. I am sure much more accurate detailed parts are available. I don’t know the specialist suppliers and their list of bits very well as postage makes experimenting with small purchases tricky to Canada.

I pursued the twin first sleeper idea 34theletterbetweenB&D mentions. I stalled last year as I needed another sleeping car donor but I have that now so I should continue. I did both chassis already, and the 3 bogies and it runs well. The length can be made very close to correct. The Window width and spacing is not quite right and I should try to fill one of the left hand windows. The right door on the corridor side shown has been chopped and moved in a few mm. The compartment side will have different but similar compromises. Overall I think it will look like a twin first sleeper in a moving train. When painted up like the old one on the far track I will be happy to run them with the more modern sleepers. Tom

Here is my LNER publicity department photo line up. Four P2 Boilers, very different front ends. I think Hornby have done a great job with the new ones. The P2 rebuild on the right uses a spare Hornby 2001 firebox cab and running plate, spliced with a Hornby A3 boiler and a Graham King resin front end. Still needs a little bit of work. It was 501 for most of its LNER time but carried 2001 for a while. Tom

I have 4 Oxford Rail locos and many wagons. The locos all run very well, and I see very little inventory available of the items in their range I would still like. I for one think Oxford have already made a very good contribution to the models available to us and I hope they continue. Tom

Agree with all above. You may also find helpful to test with the socket empty. Assuming it is an 8 pin socket, 2 diagonal corners of the socket should connect to the motor terminals, and the other diagonal pair should connect to the left and right wheels. Tom

I have this type of sleeper pair project in progress. Well kind of in progress, it is about half done but I stopped waiting for a second sleeping car body and haven’t got back to it yet. I will post photos next week. Mine are no where near as good as Captain Mumbles brakes above though, and no paint yet either.

Sadly I was mistaken 2 posts above. It seems the 108 boiler with the longer combustion chamber stayed with 2006 for its full life as a P2. Tom

I am only going from memory but I think the unique boiler was swapped to a different one of the class before they were rebuilt to A2/2s. I was mistaken, see 2 posts below. If that is correct then Wolf must have had the regular boiler at some time. Will look it up in the green book when I get home.

The Lord President tender is also interesting in that it has a the streamlined non corridor tender with a lower front plate than was typical when that tender type was coupled to the A4s in LNER days. I think that is correct for 2003. The Lord President tender is on the right, the left hand one is from the recently released 1946 version of Flying Scotsman and it has the higher version of the front plate, as fitted to the Hornby A4 models.

This is R3985 Lord President. Plenty of room inside for more weight, though it just pulled 11 RTR coaches fine on my layout with no slipping (no grades), so extra weight does not seem necessary with its 4 axles. Also plenty of room for a large speaker up front. I am guessing they left space for the steam fitting components still to come with the later version of Prince of Wales. I am very pleased with mine. It runs very smoothly, and looks very good. Tom

The note “d” is in the number of seats column against the FO, so I think that means meals were served at all seats of the FO and the RU, not the other two. Tom

Graeme’s resin parts are very good if he has any left. There is also an accompanying metal etch for valve gear modification for some of the Thompson Pacifics and also a smoke deflector etch including Great Northern’s.

Yes in BR green like Sandwich for instance that may also have the right tender. However R2441 and some other NRM Flying Scotsman releases are the only ones with that combination in LNER green.

I had very good service and fast response from them last month. Communication I used was first on Facebook messenger and then email. Tom

I changed my approach and prefer this solution. The L-shaped white "bracket" takes the place of the original Rapido NEM socket. (made from short lengths of 6.2 x 2 mm and 1.6 x 3.5 mm Evergreen strip bonded together) The bracket is sandwiched in place by the end molding and the original Rapido screw, like the original was. In the replacement bracket I tapped a small hole for a number 80 screw as they happen to be available here in Canada and as I have a tap for that size. Then a 3/8th long screw holds the kadee in a regular kadee draft box. The coupling is a 141, (long under-set). screw. Tom

Here is a Kadee 19 fitted roughly in position. It is temporarily held by a longer screw fitted in the existing hole, just gently clamping the tail of the Kadee. I could add another screw through the NEM shank of the Kadee and into my plastic spacer to take more load through the coupling than relying on a friction fit on the tail. However I may be able to use a thinner spacer and one of the more North American style kadees designed for pockets with a central screw.

John, your and my hunch was correct. The screw does hold a plate molded with several of the end details in place with the NEM dove tail socket between it and the rest of the wagon. One end of the molding was glued to the bottom of the wagon's side plate but the joint freed up with a little rocking persuasion from tweezers. Tom

Yes thanks, that is my current guess too. I have one on the way to Canada so I will find out soon enough.

Thanks GWRRob, very helpful illustration. Do you think that small cross head screw in your image holds the dove tail socket in place on the wagon ? I am wondering if that might be used as an easy and reversible mounting point. Tom

I have just installed the LMS junction signal. It has a finer looking mechanism than the GWR junction signal. Also the counter balance weights move with the signal arm which is fun to see. I like it enough to plan to buy another.

I was not sure where to post this, hopefully this is OK. I just bought 2 locos directly from KR Models, both new batches of previous releases. One was excellent straight out of the box. One had a small issue that I wanted to try to fix myself. Communication with KR Models was excellent. They gave me permission to try it. Unfortunately I was was unable to fix it. They have already sent me what I needed to get things working well. Both the communication experience and the resolution were very good. If there is a better place to post this, please let me know. Regards, Tom

I have sometimes put a join in the middle of the stock rail in about the place Templot says would have been present on the real turnout, to get the rail length I want at the toe end. I prebend both bits of rail to be about right and the.Ln they line up nicely with no kink. You can also use a Peco bullhead joiner in the stock rail at the join and it looks good. They work well on the rail section Wayne uses.