ocarolan

I have found that a couple of my Peco curved turnouts needed longer check rails - easily done by pulling out the old ones and cutting some rail to the required lenght, bending one end of the check rail slightly , threading through chairs and then adding a slight bend to the other end. presumably the same process would work for the setrack points?

Received my 4555 from Tower Models today (ordered 5 years ago), so have spent a pleasant afternoon "testing" it on my shed layout. Nice model. Only two quibbles so far - wheel rims and motion are very shiny (easilysorted) and the loco is rather growly in action - hopefully will improve with some off track running-in (my layout is a 14' x 11' BLT-fiddle yard setup). Keith

Had a call this morning from Tower Models who hope to despatch shortly - delivery to me early next week. Keith

Tower Models website news 06-03-22: "At Kettering show at the weekend Dapol told us of the progress with the long awaited 45xx Prairie. They hope to have the test samples around May, assuming these are all okay they then have suggested the end of July as a release date for the basic models with the sound fitting being done here in the UK." We'll see! Keith

So sorry to hear of Lez's job loss. There may well be difficult times, though hopefully not for too long, and in any case it's the worrying about what might happen that's the worst bit - what actually does is not usually anything like as bad. I have no doubt you'll be able to prioritise the important things. You both have my full sympathy - some 20 years or so ago I was obliged to take early retirement for medical reasons and it took 5 years before my pension was properly sorted out (NHS...), during most of which we had no proper regular income. The up side was that I got to spend much more time with my growing daughters than I would otherwise have been able to. A major blessing. Wishing you both all the very best - enjoy your holiday and return with renewed optimism and enthusiasm. Keith

My 48xx arrived from Tower Models this morning - their usual excellent service. Also happy to see how well Dapol have packaged/boxed this loco, it being screwed into a plastic frame before boxing . Runs v well indeed and looks lovely.

Tower Models phoned today (14th) - they should have them Tuesdayish and hope to despatch Wednesday. Yay! Keith

That'll be a very long fence! I made a loco shed out of this sort of coffee stirrer, many of which I acquired over a period of several months last year visiting one of my daughters in hospital and making numerous visits to the cafe there. Fairford was the inspiration for the shed, though the model is much shorter. The building needs a bit of dirtying and bedding in when I get around to doing some "ground" .

I have a Dunster House log cabin which was built 5 years ago. Excellent design and construction. Erection (or as Dunster House coyly refer to it - installation) took two blokes 3 days, though they would probably have managed it in two but for torrential rain on day 2. I think it would have taken me and a mate considerably longer! I opted for 45mm walls and extra floor and roof insulation. It has served extremely well so far once a couple of teething troubles were sorted out by Dunster House - a faulty lock and a poorly manufactured window frame. The customer service was not great - it took multiple emails plus photos to persuade them to send a bloke out with replacement lock and window unit, but several weeks later it happened and all was fixed in an hour or so free of charge. I think the problem was that the person receiving my emails knew nothing about the construction of their products. Once he actually passed the problems on to someone else, all was sorted quickly. Yes, it does need some minimal heat to keep frost free in winter - I use a low-wattage tubular greenhouse heater, plus a 2kw convector switched on 1/4 hour before using the shed in very cold weather. During the summer it can get extremely warm -if the sun shines directly on the larger roof slope for too long. Keeping the windows and doors wide open helps, but 30-35 is not unusual when the outside temp is 25. Two fans make this bearable, but do little to bring the temperature down. My railway runs along two sides of the shed, mostly away from the windows (which I shade during sunny weather) and has not suffered unduly from the temp conditions. The only problems so far have been - i) one turnout (Peco) suffered a buckled rail (where the section is thinner) last summer where I hadn't left enough gap at the joints either side - easily fixed by sliding the fishplate out of the way and sawing 2mm from the rail end. ii) My sector plate fiddle yard requires occasional attention to rail heights either side of the join. Once the shed was up I made reasonable progress on the layout for a while, but during the last couple of years as a result of family illness I have hardly had any shed time. When things ease off a bit maybe I'll do something of a retrospective build thread about my shed and railway. meanwhile here's a pic of the shed not long after, er, installation and after I'd begun "landscaping" its surroundings. Keith

Just seen that Peco have a full page ad in May Railway Modeller showing the 0 gauge Set Track points...... Keith

Spent an idle half hour in WH Smiths this morning and saw a full page advert in May Railway Modeller for 0 gauge setrack - including points! Keith

I've really enjoyed reading through this thread, which I came upon by accident in a Google search for something else. Very nostalgic. In the late 1960s-late 1970s I built K's kits for 14xx, 57xx, Dukedog, Dean Goods, and I think it was a 44xx - all straight out of the box. They were my first attempts at loco kitbuilding, some whilst living in some pretty grotty student accommodation, but later in more salubrious surroundings. All went together with little fuss using only a very basic toolkit and ended up running reasonably well on my tiny folding 00 layout and mty later spare bedroom permanent layout. I really enjoyed building them and was quite pleased with the results, especially the 14xx and Dean Goods. I also made their 40ft PBV, the GWR bogie siphon and 6-wheeler, and an abomination of an autotrailer. 4mm modelling now a long distant memory! Have to say I had a greater fondness for my Gem Cambrian 2-4-0 though. Keith