DCB

It looks good to me, terrain like Moertonhampstead. Only the kick back siding jars, it will be awkward to shunt and should need quite a few wagons per day to keep the town supplied with gas. The "Signal Cabin" could well be just a ground frame as there seems to be little scope for anything but one engine in steam operation.

Bachmann Panniers vary, the older ones pull better than the DCC compatible ones. However I find the newest DCC compatible Bachmann 57XX (and 45XX) are happy enough with 4 Bachmann BR non Corridors on a 1 in 36 including a 3rd radius curve over a distance of about 20 feet.

I did much the same but did not remove the wheels from the axles but removed the inserts as described and reduced their size with sandpaper to a loose fit and then refitted them with Evostick Pipe Weld which is a strong solvent and softens the insert enough to let it sit flat. It seems to work on most Bachmann / Mainline split chassis though the B1 still runs like a three legged crustacean. Fitting pick ups between chassis and wheel backs helps with the arcing and heating which causes some of the issues with distorted plastics around the wheels.

There is a bookshop opposite Pickering station which sells railway books for about £3 a throw, not rubbish, OS Nock British Steam Railway Locomotives that sort of thing, shelves full 20 feet long six shelves high all in good condition so lord knows how little they pay for them. Another at Grosmont NYMR is similar. Got an Immaculate "Stroudley Locomotives" Alec Swain for £4 at Newton Abbott market. Some heritage railways get donations and try to sell them at silly prices but by and large the bottom has dropped out. We enthusiasts are dropping like flies and no one wants our prized collections. No one wants middle aged magazines, even some heritage railways won't accept them. I reckon any mag newer than 1973 is essentially worthless. You either donate them, get ripped off by a dealer or waste hours putting them on Ebay.

Hornby had short Mk3s in original HST livery in early HST Days. My son has a set. They look sort of reasonable unless you have full length versions around and look a lot less ridiculous on sharp set track curves than the full size ones. MK 3s are over 12" long in 00. Mk1's and Mk2's are 10" nominal around 11" over couplings. Class 47 are almost as long as a Mk1, Class 43 rather shorter. Modern practice requires platforms at least as long as the trains using them. In steam days and on heritage railways platforms could be much shorter than the trains. In Steam days Bournemouth West terminus could take an 8 coach rake and regularly served 12 coach trains, If you have a run round loop you need an additional 18" for two medium radius points at the buffer stop end. You will need a 5ft platforms for 5 Blue Pullmans (departing) and 6ft for an arrival. I think at Bodmin a small GWR Terminus, the platform was about that long.

See my post #8 The "set track" curved point comes down to around 16" radius and the angle at the frog is wider, The modified point is less sharp at the point blades than the set track but the set track point itself can be carved down to a much smaller unit, though the set track has a long dead frog and live frogging it will be a lot of work. The modified curved point I did needed a mod to the "Inner" point blade as it became too long if the tie bar was to remain parallel to the sleepers so my fix was a standard fishplate so the blade slides in and out instead of pivoting. It has worked faultlessly for quite a while now and allowed a run round loop at the junction which no standard off the shelf point work would allow.

I habitually mix Peco Streamline flexi with Peco set track. I use peco streamline points with set track curves and carve set track to length and adjust the curves by cutting the webs on the sleeper bases but find while streamline can be curved sharply it won't stay curved and straightens out at rail joints to create awkward kinks. I use Set Track for anything under 2 ft radius. If the entire curve can be formed from one 3ft section of flexi then it might be OK but you usually need at least one join.

Just wondering if the underlying issue is the capacitor is too large for the application. We had a point fail several times on a crossover exiting the fiddle yard, rail puled out of tie bar, and I eventually realised only two points moved on that route while up to five moved on other routes, so I wired in two old broken point motor solenoids in parallel to soak up a bit of the surplus energy and no more problems (Touch wood) It may be a smaller capacitor or running the existing system at a lower voltage, daisy chain of series diodes maybe, would ease the issue. On my latest board I y use a 22 000 uf 25 volt cap on floating across a 12 volts DC aux output from an H & M to shift three points at a time, three points are energised every time. Cap cost £2.50 from a (Lower) High Street store.

Shows the advantage of a fully sprung chassis. If that was a H0 scale train would it need code 30 rail?

The second version looks brilliant. Are those Dapol Girders? I guess you have to trim the deck where the hut was located was this difficult?

A 2400mm X 300mm baseboard is easily manageable by two people but a struggle single handed, I made up such a beast for additional hidden sidings over the new year and slotted it under existing baseboards. I find the transitions from up to level (or level to down) can be much more severe than level to up (or down to level) as most current bogie stock has insufficient clearance above the front bogie wheel to allow it to rise enough for the trailing bogie wheel to stay on the track, or for its flange to remain below the rail head level. Triang had their buffer height 1mm above scale to avoid this but I have been carving away bits of Bachmann current Hornby etc chassis to allow stock to cope with my transitions. The Hornby T9 has almost no ability to cope with level to up transitions as the leading bogie wheels hit the running plate. The awkward locos going from level to down are 6 wheel and 10 wheel drive chassis without flanges on the centre wheels which derail sideways as soon as they rock on the centre axle... Unsprung 9F s and Triang Jinties with Romfords and flangeless centre drivers are worst I know of.

No wonder the French had such low speed limits, I reckon it would wriggle itself off the track at anything over 100 (Kph)

You are in good company The GWR had broad gauge locos with the names Sampson and Goliah cast in brass!

Didn't need them. The soft blast from the Kylchap double exhaust caused smoke to beat down over the cab windows. The first so equipped (Humorist?) way back in the '30s I believe had full size Peppercorn A1 like deflectors.

I have read a number of engine-man's reminiscences over the years as well as the writings of O.S.Nock and others re locomotive performance. One curious discrepancy is that of the Robinson 2-8-0s. These are described as very sluggish slow locos which would pull a house down, stronger than a Stanier 8F by most writers, especially the GWR 3000 series. However some writers report 04's running fast on the GC line on the Windcutters when 01 class were not available, and the original GC vacuum brake locos were used for running excursion passenger trains. I am aware the GE section engine men had trouble with the Robinson A5 tanks which disliked being driven with short cut offs and wide open regulator so I am wondering if the supposed sluggishness was just bad driving. The references to high speed refer to using small regulator openings and wide cut off which would give plenty of port opening to exhaust. Was this the key to getting the best out of these locos? The mechanically similar Jersey Lilly 4-4-2s were noted for their speed. Does anyone have any ideas?

Combining point operation with DCC track power sounds like a bad idea. Separating the two systems with isolator switches would be a good start, but for any but the tiniest layout division of track supply into manageable chunks of say 9 points , and up/ down lines has to be a good idea.

I always find the bargains are at the end of the Swap Meets in any case, by which time the back doors are open and traders and hangers on walk unchecked between car park and sale. As for Charity Shops, Ox rip off seem to check the new list price online, and I find books are a lot more reasonable at Swap Meets. One branch had a book for £12. I refused to pay and waited for the price to go down, after three weeks I noticed I already had a copy....

I think consistency and craftsmanship is the key to a good model. Wheels which are not concentric will spoil anything other than "Far Twittering and Oysterperch" clones. Main line tracks which are not laid straight and level or in a beautiful even curve on Steam era layouts but twist and turn like a US short line or modern BR tracks break the spell. Too many otherwise good layouts are spoiled by trains with widely differing buffer heights and cant rail heights where in the prototype these dimensions are generally constants. One Plastic Triang Coach in a Tinplate Horrnby Dublo train shatters the illusion, or mixing different manufacturers models of the same locos seldom works. Layouts laid out for operation with no good viewpoints and layouts laid out for appearance which you can't operate sensibly. But an ability for trains to actually run without stopping, falling off the rails or constantly uncoupling has to be the most important thing surely

Putting plastic waste in the bin is the obvious answer. Whether Landfilled or incinerated it does not find its way into the oceans that way. I was involved in the recycling scheme for Cotswold District Council. Waste was carefully sorted into multi coloured bins by terribly nice middle class environmentally aware people and instead of one bin lorry three different ones were deployed and a high percentage of the recyclables were contaminated and went to Landfill. I am sure I have thrown several grams of sleepers and N/S rail away over the years, but I have a very big pile awaiting reuse which will never be used. As for waste packaging I just use second hand jiffy bags and cardboard when I sell items and I have not bought anything new and boxed since about 2010. In fact my latest Baseboard frame came from a skip (It was an internal door in a previous life). I think when I am dead and gone my Hornby Dublo locos might take a few centuries to decompose.. Logically the biggest threat facing the world is over population so equally logically a cataclysmic depopulating nuclear war would be good for the environment. Better people than I are working hard on project cataclysm so I will stick to building a layout

The loco overhangs the table in many cases. I turn a Duchess on a shortened Dapol turntable around 10 inches long. 65 foot tables were common, 70's restricted to the largest depots. Finding a turntable which moves smoothly is likely to be a challenge. A lot move at set speed and jerk to a halt. Watching the prototype they start slowly pick up speed to quite a lot faster than most model,s and then slow gradually. Two or three attempts usually being necessary to line them up. The big 75 ft tables take up an awful lot of space and if used for engine shed access make getting locos from the back of the shed more trouble than it is worth. I have a scale 75 ft table which is awaiting shortening and a 12" one hand turned in the hidden sidings which has to be long enough to leave a bit of fiddle room as you can't see it clearly. If you want to save space with a turntable you can save length only at the expense of width. I would check you have sufficient width. If you do go RTR Dapol Girders on a Heljan Table would be worth considering.

I would go for something basically Set Track except the terminus station and the sidings which should be Peco Streamline to keep the width to a minimum . CJ Freezer did some brilliant ones but rather than plagiarise one of his I suggest Terminus, Continuous Run and return loop which will need a bit of thought to wire up. Couple of hidden sidings. See Pic . Just turn a blind eye to the train appearing from the back of the goods yard when using te reversing loop and it should give some some realistic operating potential and could be mad to look half decent. Edit. Is the size now 8 X 5 with an operating well?

To get your service frequency in a fictional small terminus I would suggest it has to be somewhere more than one line terminates, a small Town maybe 30 000 population where more than one pre 1923 (or 1948) company had lines and where the tracks were rationalised and one of the stations closed, leaving the other to serve two lines. That way you could have one breed of York based DMU on service A to Yorkd and a different breed of Newcastle based DMUs on service B to Newcastle. To bring it into the 2000s you could have DMUs on the Newcastle service and Heritage Steam and Heritage Diesel on the York service one now truncated to Pickering... (Thinking Pickering here) Those NSW service frequencies are very suburban by UK standards, I think you are looking at 8 coach formations on double track for the UK, and these will be HST or Electrified. The 1960's era DMUs are fun to watch and easy to create compared to 2010 era but they ran empty and infrequently on run down tracks with huge over capacity while in 2017 we have impossible colour schemes and services running on pared down infrastructure which absolutely maximise track capacity. If you do build a terminus you need either a portacabin or Bus shelter for 1970s on or a full largely derelict North Eastern Railway terminus from the 1860s which last had a lick of paint in the 1930s and lots of disused track and semaphore signals with lots or arm less out of use signals. Just thinking of it makes me depressed.. Its why I model pre 1963 or post 1985....

Are you sure this in the North East? The frequency sounds more like the London Underground. Try train A arrives at 7.50 and departs at 8.00. Train B arrives at 8.50 and departs at 9.00, Train C arrives at 9.50 and departs at 10.00, Train A arrives at 10.50 etc Bit like Barnstaple

Looks to me like Gordon had one of the big full width "Fowler" Tenders like Royal Scot took to the USA and which ran with the first two Princesses nos 6200 and 6201. Higher and wider than the Hornby 3F Tender....

DavidCBroad, on 30 Dec 2017 - 04:49, said: Colour light signal spacing is usually by distance unlike Semaphore which was usually by station or within a mile or so of a signalbox so signals seldom line up with anything like station platforms any more and splitting junction signals are usually so far back from the fouling point of the junction that they would be at the far end of the Hall in 00 at the average exhibition. Equally bizarrely at some congested places stop signals are beyond the fouling point so they can be hung from a nice gantry.