bluestag

Thanks! Found it! Railwaycitytrains, not gladiator....

Hey guys, I have had my email address for Gladiator kicked back at me several times today, and I can only find on the website a form that refuses to forward my message. Anyone got a working email address and a phone number for Dave? Kevin

Hey guys, I have had my email address for Gladiator kicked back at me several times today, and I can only find on Dave's website a form that refuses to forward my message. Anyone got a working email address and a phone number for Dave? Kevin

Hey guys, I just bought a "new" Mashima 1824. There was no trace of solder on the tabs, so it had not been installed before. But it did not come with screws. The internet is a wonderful thing. (I think) I expect to be able to find screws if I know the size. Kevin

Yes, I am a rookie at airbrushing. And I don't have many good candidates for practice, beyond bean cans.

It is two part, so has an indefinite shelf life, and is meant to be airbrushed, which gives a superior finish if you have any skill with an airbrush. As I wrote above, I can get a rattle can of effective etch primer, but it is a lot of paint for a small project, and it does not lie down utterly flat.

Mostly. It is good for resin as well.

Thanks. What I am primarily after is self etch primer, the colors are just coincidental.

Yes, I am in BRNMA

Yes, it is an ageing hobby. I'm 64, all my operating chums are my age or older. But next week I am hosting a mid 20's enthusiast introduced to me by John Redrup of London Road Models. This kid is into my railway, the LNWR, despite living in N California. I at least lived in GB in my youth. I'm glad to take a part in encouraging a new enthusiast. Even if he is in 4mm, which I left for stuff that I can see in 7mm. I find getting packages from Britain brutally expensive. Happily I have two Brit chums who travel home regularly, and are happy to schlep kits back for me in their luggage. But getting paint back is another thing.

Montreal is not a small town. I'm surprised you have no hobby shops. My store is Burbank House of Hobbies. They have a web site.

John, My local hobbyshop usually has a full selection of Humbrol colors. Humbrol is owned by Hornby, which also owns Airfix. Hornby fills a shipping container once a month or there abouts, and my hobbyshop receives a bunch of stuff from them, being a plastic model kits dealer especially. I'm especially looking for two part self etch primer, which I cannot find in the US. I have used self etch rattle cans from the super store, and it is only adequate. Yes, Phoenix is remarkably unresponsive. Kevin

I read Phoenix's site to say that they CAN ship paint internationally, with adequate packaging. Has anyone experience of this? I'm in California and would really like to get several items of their range. Lordy, are they slow to respond to emails......

Yes. Any 1833 is too big. An 1824 or 1828 would fit. The motor is on the front driving axle. And 1833 is too long to sit down horizontally, and too long to stand up vertically. Got the 1525 today. It fits either way. But may not make enough torque for the loco. It is assigned to haul five inside bearing six wheelers, plus a four wheeler. That is not a trivial load. Best I can see our options are various 1833s, and a 1525. Nothing between. Am I wrong?

Thanks, Enjoying it. And as a LNWR man, I know you know the importance of having a Precedent in the collection.

Coupling rods got here. I've installed them and trimmed the coupling pins. There is a problem with a transitory short. The tender goes live to one rail while the loco to the other rail. And only briefly, the loco stops, the short clears, and the loco starts again. Gotta figure this one out. Waiting for a new, smaller motor, and assuming it can haul my train without burning out, I'll take it to my chum John's to have it programmed. Pity RM does not allow videos....

STILL waiting for the motor and coupling rods. The motor people had covid, so I am ok with that. I cannot explain the coupling rods, which supposedly were posted more than two weeks ago. Anyway, rolled the boiler, trimmed the cab to accept it, applied the smokebox front and the riveted wrapper. The formers for the boiler, the discs provided, were grossly undersized. I fired up the lathe and produced a front former with a hole that just fits the spigot on the smokebox door, another that has a very large hole in it, making it little more than a ring, set in the boiler about at the second boiler band. And a third with a bolt in the middle, pushing thru a hole drilled in the spectacle plate, secured by a nut. I am going to hold off securing the boiler until the last possible minute. Get everything else worked out that can be done. The chimney and dome are just set in place. They won't go on until the boiler is soldered irrevocably in place.

Oh, I see now. Those are screws standing the beams from the bearings. Very good, too. You can get the ride height dialed in exactly. I like that. If you do end up with a smaller wheel, you can make it up with the screws. V nice.

No, you have to build the bally thing to run, or it is a shelf model. I build my own locos, and have to make them run on my layout. They have no purpose for me if they do not run. As it happens, you COULD swap the rear wheel for a slightly smaller wheel, without needing to do much more than shim the interface between the bearings and the beams. That would not be any trouble. If you do have a touch and a short, you can resolve it in minutes.

Heavens! Nice work! " My plan was to move the pivot point of the rocking beam much closer to the driving wheel. In this way more of the mass of the loco would be transferred to the driving wheel, and the loco will hopefully pull a train (unlike the real thing!)" Barry Luck described the same concept in MRJ 20 many moons ago. I still refer to it when my ambition for a LNWR Problem Class single comes along. Now, that one has a few rivets on it.... The Problem Class is a smaller loco, and I need to find room for a speaker, as my locos are digital with sound. About the only place for one is the firebox. My practice is to solder a shelf of tinplate in the firebox and use the magnetism of the speaker to stick it to the shelf. A bit of insulating tape is required in my set up to protect the decoder from a short. The compensation beams look good. The driver will only move up and down a little, but the rear carrying wheel will move in relation to the body quite a bit. At least that is how I see it theoretically. I have been running slightly undersized carrying wheels of late to prevent a touch to the footplate. I'd suggest you test it on some less than stellar track while proving against shorts. Possibly arrange some deliberate humps in the track; solder a bit of brass to the top of a rail. Or both rails.

You likely are right. I'm losing my mind waiting for the coupling rods. The ones in the kit are hopeless. Supposedly they were posted a week before last Tuesday, so it's be ten or eleven days. The mail comes in about two hours from now, and the next club operating session is tomorrow. If they do come in I'll be scrambling to incorporate them.

Hadn't thought of it that way. I think this is still a Precedent or Jumbo, just that the designer made the splashers to scale and realized that scale wheels with over scale flanges were not going to fit.

Well, they DID specify drivers three inches small.

I only WISH that my track standard was good. Almost all of my track had served once before three other chap's layouts before it came to me. A bit of new track came from a club member who died without having used it. Some of my track had been used twice before. I probably would never have started my layout if I had had to buy all the track I used. I inherited about 2/3rds or the tortoises as well. So I have half a dozen or so spots where at a rail joint the track takes a distinct dip. The Precedent still has no coupling rods, so is running as a single. It just about runs that way. I'm counting on it being happy once the rods are in place. The center of balance, btw, LOOKS like it will be about 3mm behind the front driver. A little bit further back would be better, but 3mm is not tragic. I fantasize about having a LNWR Problem Class, ie a 2-2-2. It is a lovely loco. That one I'll build compensated, with a rocking front axle, and two beams between the driver and the rear axle. The pivot of the beam will be one quarter of the way behind the driver. If I put the motor in the tender, along with the decoder and capacitor for the keep alive function, I can get a huge chunk of lead between the front axle and the pivot, where the weight needs to be, and get a loco that hauls and rides over my track. I have learned at last not to use carrying wheels of prototypical size, but rather a few inches small. They look fine to me, and they clear the footplate, avoiding shorts.