Dominion

This was a Bachmann B1 High fronted tender where I performed some butchery to remove the tool box. I filled the remaining hole with some strips of plasticard to try to represent the louvers to the coal gate.

My mum was 13 at the start of the war. She said one of the girls that lived near them had a medical condition that meant bananas were very good for her. Apparently “the authorities” somehow managed to keep the child in supply. My Mum said she and her friends were envious.

I have some Tam Valley juicers. They appear to be instantaneous to a human rail side observer, and to the loco driver !

The isolation breaks either side of the frog are very close to the frog to allow people to use the points without powering the frog if they don’t want to. Unfortunately several people have experienced either of 2 different kinds of shorts relating to this, depending on loco, wheel profile, wheel back to back settings, direction of travel, and angle of approach. The one I have sometimes had is the back of a wheel touching the opposite closure rail before the frog as things approach from the point blade end of the turn out. I have mostly eliminated that by applying a little clear nail varnish to the inside of the rail (not the top) for a couple of mm next to the insulation break. I have only had to do this on 3 of my Peco Bullhead turnouts. The problem has not occurred on the rest. The other type people have reported is the outside of the wheel tread touching the opposite rail head in the branching track. I have not experienced that one and don’t have a work around for it. Suggest you first try to figure out which if either of these 2 problems you may have, and proceed from there. Good luck, Tom

I just had a pleasant surprise looking at Knight of the Thistle and Doncaster (R3989 and R3990). They both represent A1s in LNER livery, and they have the die-cast foot plate. I had noticed that Doncaster has bucket seats and the raised cab cut outs while Knight of Thistle has the earlier lower seats and deeper cab cut outs. However today I noticed something else I had missed before. The steam pipes on Knight of the Thistle transition to being more vertical at their foot. That is correct for a North British Built A1 and I haven't noticed Hornby modelling it before. I am pretty sure they continue in a straight line on Doncaster as they should for a Doncaster built A1. It is hard to be completely certain as Doncaster has the lengthened valve covers but I think on Knight of the Thistle the turn under starts above where the valve cover plate would be. The reversing rod on both models is straight, without the correct North British kink in it for Knight of the Thistle, but I recently changed one of those for a different loco and can do for this one, especially now that I have realised Hornby have made the more difficult variation on the external steam pipes.

And likewise for the tender coupling retaining plate. Actually the photo of the top of the tender chassis is from the Flying Scotsman Dublo 103, but I think it is the same set up.

And here are a couple of shots under the loco retaining plate.

I was just investigating the new tender connection set up. Mine is working fine, I was just exploring in case I want to couple them more closely in future. Thought I would post some pics in case helpful, and in case anyone one else already made any modifications. This is the gap as it stands on the straight and the view from the underside. Fortunately the gap does not open up much on the straight with 10 coaches behind, only around curves.

I just opened the tender on 103 to fit a decoder. I thought I would take a picture of the top side of the tender part of the coupling arrangement while the top was off. Works fine a 8 Hornby Gresleys behind it.

I think the count is at least 8 released or announced - for the one and only …

Just 2005

On the cast frog type or the all rail type ? The cast frog type had the pins soldered to the blades. I found some of these were a little long and could foul on the thin part of the web. I was worried filing the bottom of the pin may brake the fine solder joints or distort the little plate so I used rail nippers to shorten them. On the all rail type I think what has happened on some of mine is that the edge of the tie-bar rubs against the edge of its slot. It would have been properly centered and smooth when I assembled it but perhaps migrated if I introduced any different curvature, or more likely migrated along the chairs with heat expansion and contraction. So what I have tried to do is use wide square nose pliers to pull or push the rail back into position so the tie bar is centered again. I now also follow Wayne's actual instructions and use a couple of spots of superglue to stop the rail from moving lengthwise in the chairs.

I also bridge the frog rails as above. And I also solder the wing and closure rails together. I then only need one feed for 6 rails in the frog assembly. For bridging the frog rails or blades to stock rails I use resistors which I seem to have lots of. The legs are pre tinned. The length makes it easy to locate them while soldering and then I nip out the overhanging lengths afterwards.

Excellent, I really like the look of the the P2 with the single chimney. Tom

I notice the LNER black lined red is in stock at Rails again having been sold out for a couple of weeks, for anyone that was looking for one. I am very pleased with mine. https://railsofsheffield.com/products/sonic-models-s4101-05-robinson-a5-gcr-class-9n-4-6-2-tank-locomotive-lner-black-red-lining-no-5024

Sorry to hear that. I have installed several and have not had that problem yet touch wood. I use multi strand thin wire for the power feeds. Also I generally have the wires soldered in a horizontal direction (rather than straight down) and then going through a hole just inside the edge of the timber line as it should get hidden with the ballast. I find it easier to lay the units and get the alignment right doing it that way. Tom

I bought number 103. It is a lovely model. The die cast body has no seam along the top of the boiler. The paint finish and colour look very good to me. It runs extremely well too, smooth, powerful with no waddle. The wheel back to backs were all good, unlike some earlier releases. The running plate is dead straight. The front buffer beam sits at the right height. The smoke box seems to have a less shiny black than the normal satin paint which looks very good. I don’t know if they are all like that. The loco tender connection is less easy to modify than the wire and plug version which was very easy to close couple, but on the straight the gap is less than the previous factory setting and looks good. Also there is no sign of the skewing problem shown by the Bachmann V2 tender connection. Yes the tender wheels are green but easy to swap or fix, it will give me something easy to do to improve it :-) There are a couple of issues with mine but they will be easy to resolve. Overall I am extremely happy with it. Tom

I received mine last week in Canada. I fitted it yesterday and all went smoothly. It is nice to see the all the great detail inside. It’s done a speed run already behind an A3.

You can certainly do what you are proposing in the photo. You can probably do one more as the curvature difference will be small. It could be taken up by slightly increasing the curvature further back in the turn out or in the slip exit by removing a little material with a saw cut in the triangle between the diverging tracks. It may not be necessary though. If you do leave the turnout at full rail length it will look better if you remove the 2 angled stubby Timbers at the end and replace with a straight one angled to match the slip.

One of my Thompson Pacific tenders had the whole rear buffer beam not correctly seated so it pointed downwards. It was easy to pursuance to separate. Then I had to remove a small amount of flash or sprue remnant. Then it seated back horizontally fine.

Mike Pett miniatures, Supercast. Can’t find an online listing but the name fits my what I thought I remembered and I found an article online saying Holmes and Watson was in his range. May be easier to find search for 4mm instead of OO

Yes that rings a bell. Perhaps one of the small makers of metal figures. I would have been looking for driver and fireman figures and saw them by accident.

Agreed on running quality and assembly both being good. I guess they are also trying to clear stock of it before Airborne is released.

Ok agreed. How about "less strikingly pretty" for a general goods train :-) Tatlow also says the GN may have done the same so that would be at least 20 added up.

In the search for the more "ordinary" I also noticed that the North British and the North Eastern downgraded 13 and 6 of these wagons respectively to regular merchandise van use. Twelve of them were still running in 1947. There is a picture in Tatlow LNER volume 3 pg. 99 with small letter LNER livery. That's another one I would buy if Rapido added it.