stewartingram

That has just reminded me of when I was an apprentice at Pye in Cambridge, our line manager was an oldish guy who sat at the end seat on a long bench which was the production line, all the operators were female (no sex equality at work in those days). He was a man of routines! After lunch, he would walk to his chair, and do a sequence of moves as though he was picking something up, moving it, then repeating himself with different small objects for 3/4 times around the desk, before he sat down. (Easier to show than describe but I think you will get the drift). We all quietly giggled at this every day. Then one day 1 of the girls had some cherries for lunch; she placed 2 of these bright red cherries exactly where Cecil's fingers would go for the !st move of his routine..... Poor chap, it put him off his stroke for the whole afternoon, funny thing was he never repeated those moves any day after that!. Stewart

The way I've heard it quoted is this: FIREmen work at a FIRE station POLICEmen work at a POLICE station BUS crews work at/from a BUS station RAILWAYmen work at/from a RAILWAY station besides.....Its proper Inglish like wot I was brung up wiv to say RAILWAY station.... Stewart

Would do me fine Stewart

How about this one I took at Duxford? Got platform doors though so probably used on the long distance London route? Stewart

Well I'll take a new Hornby chassis block off anyone who's got one going! Stewart

Further to the above, my method of wiring is quite simple (note - DC user not DCC) I superglue a small length of copperclad sleeper strip to the loco & tender chassis, near to the coupling. It has previously been pre-gapped. To this the 2 wires are soldered so making the connection between loco & tender. If on occasion I need to separate the pair, a quick dab with the soldering iron will do it. Sometimes one of the pcb pads can be omitted if the wiring in the loco or tender is close enough to the coupling. Stewart

Just to add that mine are also permanently wired in most cases, as I add pickups to as many wheels as possible. Though I have to say I actually LIKE the Hornby plug/skt arrangement (working with PC's I'm used to them) so if the loco has them from new they stay. Stewart

Why does permanently coupled mean one can't change a tender for a different type? Undo 1 screw, substitute new tender, replace screw surely? Most of my locos have shortened drawbars which are then screwed in so same priciple. Stewart

Yes I realise that, but they are complete & fully working chassis. I'm asking for them to sell as a normal spare (via East Kent or wherever) a chassis BLOCK as they do/have done for other models in the past. Then up to the modeller to build it up to a working chassis using the good bits of his crumbled chassis. Stewart

Surely would have been a Bristol K with ECW lowbridge body (long seats upstairs with sunken gangway)? Stewart

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned the idea of a replacement chassis block being made freely available as a spare item. Surely as modellers we would be able to transfer the bits across to a new chassis block & eradicate the problem. Yes, I know about Hornby & responsibility etc but there comes a time when this is no longer needed or whatever. Surely a new block, already designed and tooled up, could sell for less than a tenner. Stewart

Usually because they park ON the pavement and can't get that door open. They are off-roaders aren't they?

Guard? GUARD?? Whats one of them then - we only get a driver, fat chance he has of sorting out anything inside the passenger section of the train. Stewart

You are all wrong - its green so must be a GWR loco, they all look the same so I can't tell which one it is though. Reason it is hidden away in the shed is that it is in GER territory and is scared. Stewart

Earlier in the thread I mentioned Whittlesey, and I believe someone else quoted that the LMS locos got through to Whitemoor. I've been looking through my books & found the following: Rail Centres: Peterborough Peter Waszak ISBN 0 7110 1389 6 (1984) p74 is referring to Spital Bridge shed (where the powerbox now is, alongside the ECML) in the 50's. I quote: ......."Familiar visitors too were the Garratt 2-6-6-2s on heavy coal trains. Garratts were passed to work the Midland line to Peterborough and on the GER passenger tracks only to Whittlesea, with a 10mph restriction on the Black Bridge. In practice, while the Garratts did work block loads through to Whittlesea during the war to avoid blocking yards at Peterborough, in the 1950s they did not work beyond Spital Bridge." On p75 is a photo of 47981 (quite clean) at Spital locoshed in 1951, with a second Garratt in the background. So, a good excuse (just) for anyone wanting one on the ECML or GER sections? Stewart

Just to add interest, I've seen a picture of one passing through Whittlesey station between Peterborough & March, though I've no idea where I found it. Stewart

I have visions of that hump being rounded off the way we did a layout many years ago.... if you are squeamish look away now! My mate acquired a roundy-roundy built with Wrenn fibre track; never one to waste anything, he proceeded to resurrect it. In the centre he constructed a polystyrene (ceiling tile) hill/mountain, which was duly carved to a smooth shape (using the wife's carving knife, another story!). Upon running a train round, the overhang in the centre of the bogie coaches fouled the hill, so it was decided to take a slice off the base of the hill, to reduce its diameter. (It wasn't fixed down yet). A redundant electric fire element was found (remember them? a coil of resistive wire wound on a heat resistant former, operated at mains voltage). Also 2 household bricks, a couple of pairs of strong pliers, and a mains lead. Oh, and me of course! The wire was unwound from the element, stretched taut across the bricks, held by the pliers, and connected to the mains lead. It promptly glowed, and I was ordered to push the hill towards it, thus hot-slicing the base off! Oh the joy and fun of real modelling - don't try this at home! Stewart

You have a pm. Stewart

Guys, re: this controller. I'm already in contact with Brian777999 about emailing a copy over to him; having been away in Yorkshire for a few days I've not yet done so but was intending to do this tonight. Having emailed this to someone else before, it takes a number of emails to get the whole thing across. Basically I have a scan (poor but readable) of the original, which I guess is copyright but due to its age possibly would not be contested, but I have no intention of publishing that on here! I have written for my own benefit a number of pages including circuits, component layouts and wiring diagrams to enable repeat construction to be made. Can anyone suggest a better method of posting this (maybe even snail-mail!). 13 page mixed pdf/jpg, 14.6MB in total. If anyone can, then you can all have a copy. Stewart PS pm me if you wish Edit to show content of file.

That sounds like the same one, based on the new fangled power drill speed control. 21w car bulb and a 2N3055 power transistor. Never having tried DCC and I don't want to - enough modelling to do without getting into too much electronics (& expense) as thats my day job, I can't comment. I'll just quote my two examples of its use: 1)as before, standard Triang Jinty chassis, see through spokes but unplated wheels, X04 motor, 20:1 gears I believe; the motor "cogs" over between poles. On the track, you can drive it so slowly you can control the rate at which the tension-lock coupling hook rises over the next coupling loop. 2) A Wills J69 whitemetal kit, with a 5-pole version of an X04, forget the make? Fitted with 60:1 gears, and obviously the quite small driving wheels. This was placed on one end of the track, close up to the crocodile clips on the end of the rails. The track was a 1/2 circle of track from a Hornby Thgomsa set, laid in an S - shape. The loco fell of the other end exactly 29 mins & 20 secs later. Satisfies me, I have enough original components left to build me 5/6 more so should see me out, no need to change! Add a Relco in circuit, and an ammeter, along with good pickups and it keeps me happy. Good luck to those who go DCC or whatever though. Stewart

You mean when the 3 commuters they've actually persuaded NOT to use their cars all turn up at once? Stewart

Thats not silly...our school overlooked the line just south of Hills Road bridge in Cambridge, we saw it every day.........except when the prototype diesels appeared on the CBE instead! But Heljan have done those already anyway. Stewart PS true story time. We had Taurus come through one day on a goods (yes, it did actually). For those who don't know it, Taurus was an 0-8-0 centre cab diesel. My mates house overlooked Coldhams Lane disel shed in Cambridge; having missed seeing it pass the school, he woke up the next day to see Taurus visible inside the shed behind the opaque glass. He dashed to the shed, & asked the shedmaster if he could go in & photo it. Got a rather blank look, but he was escorted in, only to find 2x 03 shunters parked cab to cab.....

Brian, you have a pm. Stewart

I think another point has been missed here. Ignoring the rights/wrongs of the driver (not anticipating the lights to change etc) the operation of the lights and camera could be better understood. Traffic lights operate basically on a timing sequence, supplemented by road sensors. These sensors can usually be seen as a thin tarmac rectangle on the approach, they are basically inductive loops to detect the presence of a vehicle. Gatso (speed) cameras work on a doppler/radar type signal, sensing the movement of a vehicle. 2 pictures are taken over a precise time, giving proof of the distance moved by the vehicle. This is usually supplemented by white lines on the road; these would be used in court as proof of speeding. Note that the Gatso always faces the rear of the vehicle. An alternative make, the Truvelo, faces the front. The Gatso can differentiate between cars and larger vehicles, so can enforce differing speed limits. Traffic light cameras are triggered either by using ground loops in the road surface or radar. With loops, when the traffic lights turn red the system is actived, a vehicle passing over the loop after this time is then photographed. Radar based traffic light cameras work the same way as fixed Gatso speed cameras. In addition, it has been stated that a lot of these can/will be converted to act as speed cameras as well.

Strange one this, the clean track syndrome. I have a thing about good electrical pickup for slow running. My track is all copperclad homebuilt code 75, so no dead frogs. The track is.....a tad crude.......to put it mildy, but it certainly works, though I cannot claim it to be 100% level. The layout (not complete but with enough track wired to allow test running) is located in a garage, so the atmosphere is not ideal, the railhead certainly does discolour. The track has been cleaned, but I only do this after weeks/maybe months of nothing moving. The controller is a superb homebuilt pwm controller from an ancient Wireless World article, it can make a standard Triang X04 Jinty tick over reliably between poles with no worries if pickup is perfect. Anyway, the Y3. Straight out of the box, sweet runner apart from the nodding gait, referred to in an earlier post, caused by the bent axle(?) and that is only just noticeable at higher speeds. A bit noisy, though how much is due to the pwm controller I'm not sure (used to it with other locos). After I stripped it to look for the axle problem, and with care in re-assembly, along with the mandatory oiling mentioned in the instructions a further test run showed immense improvement. There had been just the occasional stall caused by poor pickup (proven by gently moving it along by hand finger); now it is 101% reliable, even over the inevitable dips/bumps in my railhead, and including trying it on track which has not been cleaned for at least a year. I can only think that a slight stiffness in the mechanism, eased by lubrication, was not allowing the flywheel to do its job. Moral here is read the instructions, and lubricate (sparingly as always). Stewart