nightstar.train

Yes! And at the same time noooo. My wife might get suspicious, it's not easy to hide an Accurascale loco box. Much easier to smuggle in a Bachmann 009 loco than the 3 37s I still have on order. Will the Network Rail exclusive be in a bright yellow box? That'll be even harder to hide!

Just the one announced so far in classic green/yellow: https://www.accurascale.com/collections/class-66/products/class-66-freightliner-green-yellow-66507-dcc-sound-fitted

I wonder if Bachmann could make them for a price that people would buy at? Bachmann seem to have much higher production costs than a lot of other manufacturers. They have recently done a run of their auto ballasters and IPA car transporters. When they made these they said that production costs were too high for wagons with many parts and so they could only produce them as a collector's club model as they could save the retailer profit margin. Make of that what you will. They're not cheap though!! Auto ballasters are £94.95 and the IPA are £149.95 for a twin. So I doubt they'll make more Polybulks, or if they do you'll need a second mortgage to buy a rake.

I think 2006 is a few years before the DBSOs started being used by Network Rail. (As an aside Network Rail call them Remote Train Operating Vehicles). At that time one of the UTU sets was still formed up with the Class 101 power cars as seen here: This photo shows a right mix of liveries, NR yellow, Serco red/grey and Railtrack blue/green, top and tailed by DRS 37s, roughly the formation you've outlined above. By the end of the decade (2009/10) though it had changed and a fairly fixed formation for the UTU was Class 31, Mk 2E/F, UTU coach, RTOV with generator.

If you go to flickr.com and search for "scottish sleeper 1999" etc then you'll find quite a few photos of various trains. Most of the pictures are taken in the highlands so might not be useful for you for the English end of things. Not sure of the exact details of the motorail services but they seem to have ended sometime in 1994/5. But a typical formation of the Fort William portion was NHA-RLO-SLE-SLEP, although in summer this could rise to 4 sleepers. Also during this time there was a shrinking of the sleeper services and forming into the 2 ex-Euston trains as we have today. At the start of the 90s the Inverness sleeper was a separate service and could load to 16 coaches, including Motorail GUVs. There was also the cross country sleeper Edinburgh-Plymouth that ended in 1995 (I think). That was typically BG-4 x SLE/P-RFO-BG. You should join the https://brcoachingstock.groups.io/ message board. Some very knowledgeable people over there who can give chapter and verse far better than I can!

I wonder why on Earth they thought a bundle was the way to sell these? Obviously they have a couple of hundred in the fictional liveries to get rid of. But why bundle them instead of just a normal sale? I can’t imagine someone wanting both fictions liveries. And you’re not even getting a particular good discount with the bundles either, only 10%. To me it smacks of them having a looming bill they can’t pay so they’re desperately trying to shift some stock, but can’t afford to discount it too heavily. I hope I’m wrong on that, but that’s how I see it.

I'd also like the massive Grainflow wagons and Scottish Malt Distillers wagons. Annoyingly they're built to a few different diagrams so would need a lot of different tooling. Sort of thing that Accurascale like doing though. https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/maltsterspolybulk https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/grainflowpolybulk

I bought a TfW rake of these over the weekend and have been fiddling with the DVT. It's good having the day and night lights as options, but very disappointing that they're not switchable under DCC. For a model at this price point they really should be. So I've added them myself. Using the excellent wiring diagram provided by @SForrest10 a few pages back I've made the following modification. I've removed the switch in the bottom of the DVT. Then added wires from the switch terminals to the pins on the 21MTC connector. Aux 1 to the day light and Aux 2 to the night. Adding the wires from the switch terminals preserves the resistors etc that are wired to the LEDs. Chucked a chip in to test and it works! DVT with just the marker lights on: And with all the lights on: I'm going to order a Lokpilot 5 FX chip I think. Ideally I want it setup as F0 day lights on, and F1 (with F0) switches to nights mode. F2 cab lights and F3 just marker lights. This is a bit advanced for the Rails Connect chip I was using to test, so a Lokpilot will be ordered.

Will this update fix the problem of the spirax valves not working and the lights being on the wrong function compared to what's listed on the card? And will it apply to the sound decoders you're offering after market? And are they still on track for tomorrow as the website says? (Sorry for all the questions)

I got my first HM7000 sound decoder today to have a bit of an experiment with. Setting it up was absolutely flawless, which was a welcome surprise. I updated the firmware, then loaded the sound profile and motor profile first time no problems. I'll be using this for a Bachmann 08 and it sounds pretty good. Must say overall my impression is very favourable. My only downside is that there is not yet a profile for them in JMRI DecoderPro, so I can't add and control them from that yet.

Rapido announced it first, but it seems Sonic were already well advanced with theirs when Rapido announced. So Sonic decided to keep quiet until theirs were literally arriving into retailers warehouses.

Kicking myself now. I uhmed and ahhed for too long and missed out on 92032 again. Oh well, I did pickup 92001 in the gorgeous EWS livery.

I think usually the way it happens is you claim against whoever immediately hit you. I was in a crash once where I'd just parked and a British Gas van hit the parked car in front of me and pushed it into me. I claimed against that car, and that car claimed double against British gas. So unless Alley's insurers step up and just say "all claims to us, we'll take care of it", it's going to be a hell of a mess of claims and counter claims.

There's this photo of a VDA at Kensington Olympia in March 79. https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/brvda/e3ede5f39 The livery is slightly different than that applied later and it's incredibly shiny, so this suggests it was a launch event for the new livery. So i would think you can certainly have VDAs in red/grey in the early to mid 80s.

Not today I think.

1) Usually Lokpilot comes with very basic function mapping, so F0 for headlights and rear lights, F1 to Aux 1, F2 to Aux 2 and so on. You’ll probably want to change some of that to map the functions how you want, but you won’t HAVE to. 2) How are you programming it? The easiest way is with a computer if you have a DCC system that can connect to one. Decoder Pro (part of the JMRI suite) makes it easy. Otherwise you’ll need to download the full Lokpilot manual. It has a list of CVs for function mapping in that. Write down what F key you want to operate what lights and then work out the required CVs. It’s a bit daunting to look at initially, but is fairly easy to understand. 3) Do you want it to? You can give them both the same address so that they work together, or give the Mk5s a different address. You can then consist them on your controller to still work as a set.

Is it not possible to change a few CVs and disable the automatic wheel slip? I expect many people will want to consist them and this feature seems to make that difficult. Surely if the Loksound is sophisticated enough to have this feature it’s also sophisticated enough to have a way to disable it?

They also hired in a Mk2e BSO 9497 from Eastern Rail Services during this period that was painted in CS livery.

AAIUI a set of tools costs at least high 5 figures, and more likely 6 figures, even for a 'simple' item. The new Bachmann class 47 tooling suite is reported to have cost a million pounds. Bachmann obviously intend to use that for many years and produce dozens of different variations and liveries. But with the Caley 123 or the Caley coaches you've basically got one variation and you won't shift huge quantities of it. Certainly won't be popping out a new one very year. So I would imagine a new tool would be uneconomical.

Rapido did scan the Jones goods at the Riverside museum in Glasgow, where 123 is also kept. I would be amazed if they didn't scan 123 at the same time, and possibly the Glen class as well. I wonder if it's the coach or loco moulds they can't find or are broken? If Rapido did do a 123 all singing and dancing like their Stirling Single, would Hornby quickly make a batch of Railroad ones?

How on earth were they blocking lines for 3 days! Couldn't they get a diesel and drag them clear, at least stick them in the siding to the right there.

It is 977996, a converted Mk3 TGS. It was used as the “tender” for Hayabusa, the hybrid test bed HST power car Hitachi made. It carried the batteries and associated equipment. After testing was over it was surplus to requirements and Bachmann bought it as an office for their headquarters. So the odds of it ever being produced are vanishingly small.

One day I'll be able to convert my loft and build my dream layout. In this dream I have a large roundy roundy to watch trains go by, with two large terminus stations so I can run trains between them. One of my ideas is to have a modern extension bolted onto one of the terminus stations, rather like Waterloo International. So hopefully I could do exactly that. Set off the Nightstar sleeper from one terminus with a pair of class 37s (need Accurascale to make the 37/6 in EPS guise) and Generator van on the front, few laps of the track and into the international station. Attach a class 92 to the other end and away for a few more laps before disappearing to a fiddle yard. Repeat in reverse next morning. I have a mad soft spot for sleeper trains, I have far too many of them relative to day stock. My dream layout will feature Intercity Swallow Highlander, Scotrail purple Highlander, Mk2/3 Caledonian sleeper Deerstalker express, Mk5 Caledonian sleeper Highlander and Mk 3 GWR Night Riviera. Plus the Nightstar international services of course.

Yes, the original Flying Scotsman service when launched in 1928 had a barber's shop onboard. Don't know how long it lasted, probably a bit of a publicity stunt.

Indeed! I've been fascinated with them since I discovered their existence in the late 90s. One of these days I will build myself a whole rake to run with my 92.