Dominion

Looking at Gay Crusader, I think the steam dome is mounted in the wrong position. From front to back are Hornby's Gay Crusader, Windsor Lad, a Fairway body (from the tender drive tooling) and Sandwich. The front 3 are all 94A boilers while Sandwich has the A4 type 107 boiler. The bodies are lined up with the cabs running plates and wheel bases aligned. Correctly I think, the boiler bands and front of the firebox line up with each other on the three 94A boilers and are a little further forward on the Sandwich boiler. Also correctly I think the steam dome on Sandwich is further forward. However the steam dome on the Gay Crusader is further forward than it should be I think, as though it were on an 107 A4 boiler. Gay Crusader never had an A4 boiler fitted according to the green book, and they didn't start being fitted to A3s until well into BR's time anyway. The inspection ports and wash out plugs and boiler bands are all correct for the 94A boiler Gay Crusader had at the time modelled as far as I can tell. The box art also has the steam dome in the correct position. Do others agree ? I may try to push the dome off from the mounting spigot underneath and see if there is sufficiently little visible glue or paint damage to it move back.

I just lucked into an idea that seems to be working. I have 4 power districts run through DCC specialties PSX circuit breakers. Two of them have a software version recent enough so that I can set them to power up in “off”mode. (CV66=0) I also have 2 NCE mini-panels. I just realized that the mini panels have an “extra” input, 31, that runs when ever the mini panel gets powered up from the cab bus (instead of being run by push button later.) I have programmed that input to have a delay and then power up the PSX boards by sending a 1 to their accessory addresses but with different amounts of delays. Now I have the power districts firing up at intervals instead of all at once. I wouldn’t buy any of this kit just to do that but if you happen to have it as I did it was all spare features I hadn’t been using till now.

My issue has been similar to above. Hornby A1s A3s A4s when going from the toe end with the blades towards the heal, especially tender first. The shorting I have experienced is the wheel backs touching the other closure rail just before the knuckle. It has occurred in some other stock too. I have a lot of hand built track in my scenic section built to OO-SF so I have already got rid of most of the back to backs that were set much too tight from the factory, so now a back to back of less than 16.3 is very rare in my stock. Measuring a couple of the Bullhead turnouts I have here, the track gauge at that spot varies from 16.4 to 16.5 mm. The gap at the end of the closure rail seems to be about 1.5mm. That leaves 14.9 to 15mm between the 2 inside rail faces. If the wheel flange is only 0.6 mm as it is on some RTR products then the back to backs would need to be above 14.4 mm to make sure the wheel backs don’t touch the inside closure rail. I will start using that as a minimum when I experience a short or when I am setting new back to backs and see if I can weed the issue out that way. In the meantime I have applied a little nail varnish to the inside of the closure rail on a couple of turn outs where the issue was frequent and that has fixed it for now. It is funny though that the electrical format Peco has chosen for the closure rails to the knuckle requires more precision in back to backs than my OO-SF hand built track.

I use white glue, PVA, for some repairs like that. It is no where near as strong as superglue but sufficient if the part is small with a good seating. The advantage is there is no chance of messing up the paint finish as it can just peel off. I saw suggestion first in Rapido product manuals.

The interlocking objective intended is to set only one diagonal route at a time. The diagram looks like they are showing only some of the connections. They sometimes have a series of diagrams showing motor power on one and frog power and or control on a different diagram. In this version if either crossover is set to the diagonal route then it looks like the push button signal is turned off to the other route. I do my scissors interlocking slightly differently. I route the motor power itself though the spare switch on the opposite diagonal. That way the interlocking is effective whether I use a lever or an accessory command to switch the opposite diagonal. Tom

I have a British car built in 69. It had no seat belts. No requirement to fit them in Canada, but once I fitted them, they must be worn.

I intend to curve 2 single slips once they are available. The doubles I have installed are all straight. I had got as far as thinking that the slip should be curved around the centre line so that the distance between the crossings at each end would not change. I also thought I would leave small straight sections where Wayne has more material to hold the V noses and K-crossing parts. I will have to experiment once I have one. Tom

Woodland scenics medium size, grey. You may notice nothing else is ballasted yet. Wayne's instruction advise that the 3D printed base is best glued down to avoid potential curling at the edges. I took the opportunity to spread the area with glue, secure the track, and then sprinkle ballast over the top while the glue was still wet. So it is not properly ballasted yet. I figured the medium size would would make the depth shortfall less obvious than if I had used fine sized ballast, at least for now. Not sure which size I will go with eventually.

I have 8 of Wayne's OO-SF products installed so far. Each one is modified in some way or another; curved, or spliced, or mixed square on with equalized timbering in the scissors. In each of those cases I was using Templot to figure out how to fit the elements together, and where to cut the track bases and where to add separate chairs and timbers. There is no doubt Templot is extremely helpful in adding to the versatility of Wayne's kits. So far, the timber spacing in the kits has matched the timber spacing in the templates Templot has generated for me, not surprisingly as I assume Wayne is using Templot as the starting point for his designs. Consequently, I don't currently see anything that would be beneficial to add Martin. Tom

The fourth corner of my scissors formation is now populated, again with Wayne's excellent OO-SF double slip kit. This second one went together as well as and more quickly than the first. I don't think I will show a photo of the underside wiring though, it is too messy. However I have managed some crude interlocking, so that if either diagonal route is set through the diamond crossing, the other diagonal route cannot be set. These really are excellent kits. If I had struggled through hand building all of it I may not have bothered with the interlocking.

Three corners of my scissors formation now populated with British Finescale products. They go together very well and they run very well. Thank you for developing them Wayne. They will look better once I clean up the rail head of paint a little more on the double slip. These are OO-SF

As requested I have found and added back the photos, to the original posts. Page 17 of this thread, Jan 24th. Not as brave as the more adventurous approaches shown by others but it is still working, and will do for me for now.

Glad that worked for you. Sorry the pictures are missing.

I just weighed Lemberg and Knight of the Thistle. The locos are between 35 to 40 grams heavier than the earlier loco drive A1s and A3s I have. 340 vs. 300-305g I didn't notice at first as I had added a bit of weight to some of my older ones. Subtracting about 20 grams taken by the sprung front bogie that means the driving wheels carry about 13-14 % more weight than the previous generation. Both run nicely, the foot plates are straight, the top seams on the boilers nicely aligned, and there no assembly issues I have noticed yet on my two. The all black Lemberg looks very sharp.

I have Lemberg and Knight of the Thistle. Very pleased with both.

Thanks John. The C&L rail is from a few years ago when I visited Pete at his premises while I was in the UK. Yes my plan is from the ever useful Templot.

This is not a never before seen curious formation. I am just experimenting with different rail and timber/sleepers as I consider where to join the different elements in the scissors formation hybrid I am working on. On the left is one of Wayne's track bases. On the right are Peco bullhead flextrack sleepers. From the front the rail is Wayne's, Peco, C&L, Peco, Wayne's. All three rail sections fit both chair types here and all seem to come to the same level. (The C&L rail is not quite snug in the printed chair bases but I think it will work fine at the joins.) I think I can mix and match whatever is most convenient for the different joining locations.

I am attempting this scissors cross over. The diamond in the middle will be C&L rail with Exactoscale chairs and timbers. I have already soldered up the common crossings. The 2 turnouts at the bottom will be Wayne's products. The 2 double slips at the top will also be Wayne's products, at least that is the plan. I will Use Wayne's provided rail for in his track bases, except for a chair or two of overlap with the central diamond crossing. The C&L rail is slightly loose in Wayne's chairs but I think it will work OK. I don't know whether to think of it as a cut and shut or a Frankenstein. I will report back once I have made more progress, wish me luck !

Excellent, thank you Wayne. Number 7 single slips please would be my vote for next.

Jonathan, what is your reasoning for wanting to turn the brake cross shaft around ? When I tried to introduce a representation of a Morton clutch on one side I at first thought the central rods were push rods. However Compound pointed out clasp brake normally had pull rods, not push. (Pg5 of this topic) I looked at a GE fitted van in Tatlow Volume1 pg. 205. (Not banana but fitted). That shows no Morton clutch when the vacuum cylinder is on the left. So I switched my Morton representation to the other side. The crank on the Oxford model would then be consistent with them being pull rods. The problem is I cant see the crank or the rods in that picture. Have you ever seen a set up where the crank could act above the cross shaft for both ends ? e.g. in pull mode to one set of clasp brakes and push mode to the other ? The drawing in "Yes we have no banana vans" by John Watling of the GERS (that PaulG posted on page 6 of this topic) looks like that may be how it worked if I am interpreting it correctly. Tom, (now perhaps more confused than before !)

I solder the blade pinching the top against the stock rail just as Wayne describes (when I am building from components). I use a very thin piece of paper between the 2 rails. That works well too. I normally use my finger nail too, instead of tweezers. It ensures I do it quickly ! Looking forward to the new releases, Wayne. Thank you for developing them. Tom

Kadee 17s fit and close the gap usefully compared to 18s. I have been using them on the Oxford tankers too.

I just inserted a piece of plastruct, 0.4mm thick, by 6.2 by 17something I seem to remember. Pictures on page 17 of the New V2 thread. Still working fine.

Agree. I was also thinking of the new Bachmann V2 tender drawbar which must act as a fixed link but can still induce crabbing.

This is the articulation approach I am using on a cheap and cheerful project in progress. The vertical nylon screws are in tapped holes in the bogie, so in a fixed position that suits my curves. However, a slot, washer and nut would allow them to be moved closer or farther apart. It is the upside-down of the Mailcoach approach I guess. It exploits the slot in the old Hornby Gresley coach ends. They run well like this so far, with 8 cars behind them. Fabulous news that they are designing proper HD bogies in 2 lengths.