thegreenhowards

John, That spurred me to do some more tests. I have two Bachmann B1s, one split chassis and one more modern/ DCC ready. It was the DCC ready one which was struggling. I tried the split chassis one today, which is Hitchin’s 61027, Madoqua renamed from Kudu. That managed the load perfectly. So it just seems to be my one post split chassis Bachmann B1 which has a problem with it. Typical that that’s the one I chose to number up as a KX example and therefore right for the Hull fish! I suspect there’s room for some weight so I may try that. Regards Andy

Thanks for that comment Gilbert. I have done a test on the same rake this morning with an unweighted Hornby B1 and it passed with flying colours. The trouble is I ‘only’ have three Hornby B1s and they’re allocated to Immingham, Cambridge and Hitchin. This Bachmann one is my only KX example. I think this will require another purchase and I therefore think you are guilty of inciting a locoholic! Andy

I agree that so far they’ve held in both directions but I have dowels in place as well so I don't know how much is down to the rail joiners. I just used my normal flux for soldering. I don’t think paste is necessary.

I’d love to have ridden the S&D but it was clearly a hopeless case economically, so I don’t think it quite fits Gilbert’s criteria. I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Swanage - that was in Dorset last time I checked and is a beautiful line which serves an area which is difficult to access by road. I know it’s semi reopened but it was still shut and therefore qualifies. Swanage gets my vote with Minehead second just to keep up the theme of preserved railways.

Unless I’m missing something I can’t see any lip. I think mine just do horizontal alignment. This link is to the Modeltech user manual and doesn’t seem to show a lip? https://bae8ca78-54b1-45f9-998d-b32cddd9a653.usrfiles.com/ugd/bae8ca_29e1272113ff41a584b70785ba2b1dc5.pdf

It’s fish time again, the second up Hull headed by KX B1, 61394. Sadly the harsh light rather shows up my weathering but it looks fine in normal light/ from a distance as the next photo shows. One of the Hull fish trains seemed to get a KX B1 on a regular basis so that’s what I’m showing here. I have a basic fish train which covers all the New Clee and Hull services but I try to ring the changes by changing a few vans at the front. The last one with Boadicea had some of the early ‘60s light blue container flats on. This one has a few blue spot vans borrowed from my Aberdeen fish empties. This is an unweighted Bachmann B1 and it struggled a bit with this full rake with a lot of wheel slip and a helping hand on the bends (hence no video today). I think it will have to be relegated to the unstrengthened version of the train in future which it handles OK. Here are a couple of going away shots.

I received by Steady Aim today and having run it in for 60 mins on DC, I’ve just chipped it and it worked fine. I did have to employ your trick of scraping the inside of the tender wheels to get decent pick ups from there but it’s now working well. Overall I’m pleased with it. It’s missing one lamp bracket and the footplate is marginally wobbly but quite liveable with. Even the tender scoop is on the right way round! I ended up giving up on getting 60501 to work on DCC and sent it back to Collets who were very good about it and a new one is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I feel for poor Leigh at Collets as he said he had 20 different locos to return to Hornby - not all A2s. Andy

A lovely looking J3 Tony. Rather better than my lumpen K's effort built c.40 years ago when I was a teenager. It's the oldest loco I still have running so I'm quite fond of it. However, I was shocked by your carefree attitude to the tender - you wouldn't say that about a Gresley Pacific! Before you mention it, I'm sure mine is wrong for 64140. Andy

Today, it’s the 2121 KX- Royston hauled by B1, 61097. It’s formed of a standard non corridor six set of Mark 1s and Thompsons. This set ran ECS back to Hitchin from Royston so I assume it would have been a Hitchin engine like long term stalwart, 61097. For the video, I’ve tried a telephoto look as it comes round the reverse curves.

Good to see you back posting Rob. I can recommend retirement for getting rid of that pesky work thing!

They provide good horizontal alignment. I’m not convinced they offer any vertical alignment. Was that claimed?

This evening it’s the arrival of the 2054 all stations from KX headed by BRCW type 2 D5301. Firstly seen approaching platform 4. ...and then at rest.

This afternoon it’s time for another fish train, the 1730 from New Clee, headed today by Britannia class, 70036, Boadicea. Britannia’s worked these services for a couple of years in the early ‘60s when they were based at Immingham. Here are a couple of wider views of the whole train.

John, How could I forget the trussing - Just as well someone’s on the ball! I did know about it and it will be turnbuckle (made from 0.7mm brass wire and without the turnbuckles themselves) but I’ve managed to paint the underframe this morning without putting it on first - drat. I believe it’s the later longer twins which had the regulator boxes. I think these had battery boxes both sides but I’m not 100% sure on that. These were built in 1929. The door grab handles are just 0.45mm wire bent to shape in a jig I built by drilling a couple of holes in a piece of wood. You’ve reminded me that I need to paint the plastic door handles. Andy

Well that was an enjoyable and busy weekend. I enjoyed two virtual courses with Missenden Modellers and watched some Gauge O Guild virtual show videos. This gave me plenty of time to do some modelling while I watched. In the main, that’s meant getting on with my second O gauge twin, a Gresley F-T from a Kirk kit. I’m now on the home straight as I hope the photos below show. I still have the following jobs to do: Painting the ends, roof and underframe; Connecting the V hangers and gas cylinder; Decals; Couplings; and Step board on underframe and bogies. If anyone can spot anything else I’ve missed or got wrong then please let me know. Andy

Thanks on both counts. The MGB was my first car, bought in 1989 and still going strong....although its a bit like Trigger’s broom!

I agree that the screw or PCB strip solutions are much more cost effective. However, I think that in the overall scheme of things this is not too expensive and is worth an experiment. I am also taken with the idea of the DCC Concepts dowels but fellow club members have ruled them out on the grounds of cost! “We have perfectly good dowels and you want to spend £15 to save plugging two wires together?!” I think I may invest in a couple myself just to try them out. My plan is that there should be no need to do up any bolts or connect any wires when we put this up. With DCC I think that’s achievable. My other solution is to use standard dowels for alignment and connect the wiring via the heavy duty spring clips which will hold the board together. Andy

A bit more progress over the last few days, although it’s been cold in the garage so I’ve done it in short stints. I’ve built the translator board which will act as the entrance to the fiddle yard and will supply two cassettes on the outer roads and a reversing track in the centre. The fiddle yard in the club room will have to be narrow as a wall comes in to restrict the available width. I anticipate club running nights will only have limited stock so this will probably be adequate. For exhibition purposes we will have to do something different but I we haven’t planned that yet. The cardboard mock up in the middle distance shows where a bridge will cross the station throat. I have used the Modeltech rail aligners at the baseboard join. They seem to work well producing a prefect alignment and look fairly neat. Whether they’re worth the £10 for the pair only time will tell - if they work and we have problems with the other baseboard joins then I guess the answer is ‘yes’. Otherwise they seem quite an extravagance but worth an experiment.

Tonight we have a light engine from Ferme Park to New England. This is shown in my 1953 WTT but I don’t know what sort of loco it would be. I’m guessing that as the loaded coal trains were about 60 wagons and the empties could be up to 80 wagons a surplus of engines built up in the London area, so this would be a heavy goods engine returning home. Hence, I’m featuring a WD2-8-0, 90158. If anyone would like to suggest an alternative possibility then I’m all ears.

Oxford-Cambridge for me too.

Today it’s the turn of the 1705 Newcastle- KX which was a 10 coach train including a Gresley triplet RTS. The back 3 coaches came from Bradford and were attached at Doncaster. Tonight it’s headed by A4, 60001. Here is the full train. This loco is sound fitted so crank up the volume if you like that sort of thing.

If the other Thompson Pacifics can sell well, then why not 60113. I appreciate the alleged spite which went into the choice of loco for the conversion, but that is ancient history now. I bear it no malice as I’m too young to remember any of them in service. I just know that I ought to have one to depict the GNML in the ‘50s. Andy

Having been shamed by Gilbert’s research yesterday, I decided to rerun this train, so here is Seagull on a revised 1502 Grimsby- KX. Seagull was the only one of Gilbert’s list of locos that I have available and I think it is making its debut in the sequence. This is a Wills body on a Hornby chassis and can pull anything.....so a bit of a waste on a six coach train. The full formation is now: LMS BG Gresley BCK Mark 1 TSO Gresley SK Gresley BCK GW full brake I hope this captures the flavour of the train better than yesterday’s effort. Finally here is a video of it.

I’m not convinced that is the issue. Most O gauge stuff gets reduced after a while. The (relatively) cheap ‘cute’ tanks started at a higher price and came down. I think that some alleged build quality issues have dented the potential market but it was probably always going to reduce in price at some stage. I’ve just started dabbling in O gauge. We’re building a Minories type layout at my club (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/160690-minories-inspired-layout-in-0-gauge/) , and I did consider one when the price reduced but was put off by a Combination of the reliability issues and a preference for a coal rails tender which they say they will produce next. I’m working on the basis that an A3 could work an evening peak commuter special of 4-5 corridor coaches for which we have space. Andy

Tony, No, I didn’t take the exGamston bank A1/1. I came to you to buy the ex silver jubilee triplet (I think it was the first time we met) and went away with an ex West Riding twin and 60508 as well costing me much more than I’d intended....but well worth it. I now have examples of all the ex LNER RA9 power except for Great Northern, so I’m very much in the market for one. I may well build one but I have a lot of things higher in the queue. If the W1 sells then why not the A1/1? Andy