jazzer

I don’t know, but I heard a story about a bloke that tried it but he still hasn’t got round to painting the two halves so all he has now is a Harley Deere and a John Davidson. I am trying to think who it reminds me of ,

The one I read had a wonderful story line. It was about a handsome prince who was very rich nut very lonely. One day he heard of a beautiful princess in a far off land so he set off to woo her. He took with him all kinds of expensive gifts and jewellery which impressed her . He swept her off her feet, took her dancing and to the best restaurants in the land .She became , besotted with him but when he asked her father for her hand in marriage, sadly her father refused. So the handsome prince returned home, bought a Harley Davidson and a Ferrari , had his mates round for a party every weekend with plenty of loose women, built an O gauge model of Peterborough North, qualified as a driver on the NYMR and lived happily ever after.

The secret of life is to enjoy the passing of time. Is there a better way of passing time than looking at trains ? ( Well pre- privatisation trains before the world went mad, anyway )

That’s helpful Ray. Thanks. I understand the importance of the alignment but I dont understand why it worked originally. Anyway you have given me something to think about and investigate further. Thank you.

Thanks for that John. I don’t mind forking out for a better point motor if it cures the problem but I am a bit miffed as it is a brand new motor. I don’t want to fit a new motor and still have the problem though. I feel it seems like the point motor because of the fact the problem is still there now I have replaced the points. I give it some thought and might phone guagemaster.

With the point motor built in switch.

Hi, I am being driven mad by a points problem and desperate for help/advice. I have been building a new layout with a small terminus and a run round loop. Three electro frog points have been wired up, all identically . Two work perfectly , but the third, a left turnout had an intermittent problem in that frequently the frog would go dead so the loco would go straight on but the track would be dead on turning left other times the track to the left would be ok but the ,”straight on frog would be dead . Usually the could be cured by switching the points two or three times and it would all be ok for a short while. Eventually it packed up completely and would only stay live for the left turn onto the run round loop and was “dead “ when set to go straight on. I desperation I have just replaced the points with a spare set, and now I have he opposite problem , ie it is ok when set to go straight ahead but dead to the left. Apart from replacing the points I haven’t changed anything. All the connections seem ok but I can’t work out why it works one way and not the other . Could it be something to do with the point motor itself, which was bought new for this layout ? Any ideas or suggestions gratefully received.

Great stuff Clive . You can’t beat a good ol’ foot stomping tub thumper. That’s the best song you posted since “ He Wants Me Back.”. 2-4-6-8 Motorway must surely be in the party pipeline.

No problem there then, Clive can just get another one, then he can have one lined black and one BR Maroon. . As for performance, I’ll have to defer to your L&Y expertise, being a Suverner myself, but I thought weight was a problem for the Dreadnoughts as well. I know what you mean about locos getting a bad press. I feel the same about Thompsons L1’s. Quite often when locos ate coal it was lack of understanding of essential dimensions of things like chimney diameter, blast pipes and boiler tube diameters in the era they were built. As for Staniers 2-6-4 tanks, I dare not say too much in support of GWR ex-pat on Clives thread but hammering through West Horndon bunker first at 80mph with 11 on, coming home from a day in Southend was something special .

I don’t know why but locos that were not a great success , always seem quite attractive to my eye, especially the 3P. This is just a thought but the Dreadnoughts seemed to look good in photographic grey rather than black but since you have a bit of a free hand in the BR era, I reckon it would look great in the same BR maroon that looked so good on the Duchesses. Otherwise there is always the option of GWR green …………….( I’ll get me coat )

Not if you are a trainspotter on a Bank Holiday Monday with all the Cleethorpes excursions coming through and a few stopping for water

I don’t know about Skeggy, but from what I observed from Market Rasen , it seems the the soporific effects of an afternoon in the “Jolly Fisherman”, made the journey home from Cleethorpes rather pleasant !

Indeed Gilbert. It will be interesting to see what loco was rostered for this train. Presumably it would come from Doncaster, but it seems highly unlikely they would have a Pacific or even a B1 available at peak periods, when there are already extra trains running.

I spent a week in Brixham in June. The weather was fantastic and I took the train from Paignton to Teignmouth then walked the SW coastal path from Teignmouth to Dawlish and back with brilliant views from up on the cliffs out to sea and down to Dawlish station and back ( you can see where we are going with this ). It was all supplemented by a trip to Kingswear and a ride on the River Dart on the Paddle Steamer “Kingswear Castle ( built 1924, ). So on a strict interpretation of the Rules ( best combination of mainline and seaside terminus) I have to say the Kingswear branch , from Newton Abbott 1958-60 , Kings and Castles still supreme, a few Warships creeping in, almost every other class being pressed into service including 28xx 2-8-0’s on ECS work and 47xx’s on the 1.30 pm Paddington - Kingswear via Bristol. Then Newton Abbot a hive of activity with 4 or more Panniers on station pilot duty, Down trains being split, Up,trains having branch coaches added, double headers over the gradients between Paignton and Kingswear, Panniers banking trains out of Torquay, and probably Bert Weedon or Max Bygraves at the Princess Theatre , Torquay . What’s not to like ? ( except Bert Weedon or Max Bygraves ). Unfortunately it was all a part of train spotting history I was too late for, mores the pity . Oh for that time machine.

Hi Clive, your Stanier 2P was a bit of a blast from the past for me. Almost a life time ago one of the first railway magazines by Dad bought me, ( from memory the Model Railway News ) had an article with precisely this conversion of a Triang Jinty. Judging by your pictures , yours could well be an old Triang chassis so it’s possible that your model was one inspired by just that MRN article. Goodness knows why the article stuck in my mind for all these years, probably because I thought that one day I might try one myself, but never did. Recently , and possibly still, Ernie Bay had a 2P body . Is it a decent runner ? I would have thought that chopping a Jinty around would cause weight distribution problems.

I can’t think what adjective would describe this layout. Words like superb, excellent, and breathtaking seem inadequate. It really is , too my mind one of the most outstanding layouts I’ve ever seen .

Thanks for that Brian. There is a video of North Woolwich- Palace Gates which briefly shows the set number as Set 12. Does that throw any light on what set it is ? Apologies for drifting away from PN

Thanks Clive , that’s interesting ( to me anyway). The North Woolwich branch was where a lot of old stock ended their days, primarily I suppose because most passengers would have been factory or dock workers in dirty clothes or overalls rather than shoppers or City gents, so I suppose what I saw might well have been the sole surviving Hertford set.

Personal preference of course, but that seems much more atmospheric to me. The little bit of light reflecting off the loc makes all the difference, I think.

Hi, Clive. Do you have any idea when the GE Quads were in use ? I am ( or was) a compulsive carriage counter for some reason and I am sure I saw a four coach articulated set at North Woolwich, my original spotting ground at the end Of Steam. In by very youthful innocence I assumed it was a Quintart set with one over the middle carriages removed but I think possibly it was one of the Hertford Quadarts on one of the Through trains to Hertford which ran once in each direction per day. I don’t think the platforms at North Woolwich were long enough for five coach trains. My distant memory is that Liverpool St - Hertford trains were seven coach non articulated sets but Liverpool St suburban was never good for viewing so I could be wrong. Why would they want to have Quadarts for Liverpool St - Hertford but normal non articulated sets for Liverpool- St - Bishops Stortford which was more or less the same distance ( 6 miles further) and exactly the same route for over half the distance , as far as Broxbourne? Seems odd to me.

Gilbert, you never do a bad picture, but for me the loco only in shadow with the train in daylight doesn’t seem to work . A little further down the platform might.

I have to say I have been happily married for two years...............and forty years altogether. ((old joke )

Ah, it all falls into place now. Sheffield Exchange takes its name from the days when brown envelopes were passed around in the dark alley way behind the ticket office in exchange for blind eyes being turned and “favours” being given. I am shocked.

I think a photo is necessary. Within the last two weeks I have bought a couple of Code 75 electro frog points which had the gaps ( or rathe holes ) in the plastic which enabled them to, be modified with no trouble at all.

Well, that link threw up an unintended result. Ever since the BR version of the Oxford Rail N7 came out I’ve been moaning about the coal guards over the rear spectacle plates being the wrong type ie they were the full height of the spectacle plates , not the GER half height type, that were correctly fitted to the pre- nationalisation OR models. I have been able to trace photographs of every N7 except, tantalisingly ORs 69612 , and all those have a rear view had the GER standard type coal guards ( except those modified by Gresley which were totally different so we won’t go there,). However the link in your post second picture, top line shows 69629 with the full length coal guards over the rear spectacle plates as per the OR model of 69612. Joy of Joys the is at least one photo showing the OR model is true to at least one prototype. For those who haven’t a clue what I am talking about the first two pics in the second row show the Gresley modifications ie round spectacle plates with full coal guards, and a curved bunker. Further down there is a pic of an N7 running bunker first into Wheathampstead, with the half length coal guards and straight bunker to As 69612 was built at Stratford and 69629 built at Gorton these full length coal guards seem to be non-standard modifications probably as a result of damage to the previous design , unless anyone has better information. Oxford Rail still got the shape of the steam dome horribly wrong for the later years of the class.