DCB

Is it a European narrow gauge line or a UK one? There doesn't seem to be much operational potential nor do the stations seem to be delineated

There is not much headroom between the just light voltage and the smoke and die voltage of LEDs typically 1.8 to 4 volts. LEDs are non Ohmic and don't obey ohms law, a very small increase in forward voltage causes a massive increase in current. Testing with 9 or 12 volts will kill them stone dead. I use 2 x AA cheapo non rechargable batteries in a double AA holder for testing coloured LEDs and 3 X AAs for clear ones.. Coloured ones smoke and die on 3 X AA nicads and barely blink on 9V before expiring. I am sure Bachmann will be delighted to sell you a new lighting module, but whether that will cure the original problem

Track can go dead. I had some Hornby super 4 which went dead when I laid it outside. Sort of went rust colour and crumbled. The thought of soldering droppers to set track is enough to make me turn to on board battery power. I have never found any problems with fishplates or point blade contact to provide connectivity indoors on DC with 1 amp circuit breakers. I would just provide a feed every 6 feet or so. However Fishplates do fail, usually on curves where continued expansion and contraction with temperature kinks the track after 25 years and the joint sleepers and fishplates need renewal though I leave the rails down. Laying for minimal gap between rails on a hot mid summer day is a good ploy to minimise kinks. I don't think soldered track joints would survive the first winter in our shed. DCC is a different matter and neither fishplates nor point blade contact can cope with over 2 amps and DCC can be way over this with a heavy lighted train or a partial short. I don't know why DCC types don't provide fast acting resettable 1 amp breakers in their rail feeds to take the load off fishplates etc instead of spending hours drilling baseboards and soldering droppers but c'est la vie. It is in my to do plan for my fully sectioned dropperless DCC test track. Maybe its a gap in the market.

Streamlining makes no appreciable difference to a steam loco and train as they have such a small frontal area compared to length. They reckon Bugatti over estimated the effectiveness of the Gresley streamlining by a factor of 10 so we are talking 100 hp at those 125 mph speeds. I think the highest speed ever recorded by a service train with steam in the UK was 108 by a double chimney King on the CRE by Athelney, and by a train with paying passengers 112 down Stoke Bank with Sir Nigel on a SLS or RCTS special. Both Coronation and Mallard seem to have "Hung" at a certain speed, Coronation around 112 mph Mallard a bit more, Coronation had already run out of track and Mallard only exceeded 120 by over stressing its inside big end. The only way to settle this argument is a re run, King, MN, Duchess and A4 down Stoke Bank...

Its not really an option. You can either permanently couple the tenders and run a wire from the metal tender chassis to one side of the smoke unit and earth the other to the loco chassis or fit pickups to the loco, The first is a lot of fiddle and the second a lot of fiddle and then the wheels skid. A better solution for the class 5 is fit an X04 motor and pickups as per the same vintage Hall class and then you have the electrics and an a more realistic performance especially if you bin the Hornby Tender in favour of a Mainline/Bachmann one. Smoke units don't generally look that realistic but my old Triang Diesel Shunter body on a Jinty Chassis looked good as smoke oozed out just about everywhere.

It is surprising how few model railways feature the main lines diving under a canal just off the station throat... Maybe because no one would believe it.

In my experience some civil servants have greater political allegiances than any elected politician and are responsible for most of the disastrous details which ruin otherwise sensible policies. After a lifetime of working in their luxury offices from 10 till 4 with 2 hour lunches they retire with an honour and a hand shake from the Queen and maybe an invite to a Buckingham Palace garden party. To be honest you would have to pay me to go to a Buckingham Palace garden party, so maybe I don't care. Still think "Lord Button of Frome" has a ring to it while "Sir Lewis Hamilton" is strangely redolent of Nelson's era. That Horatio not Mandela.

I well remember a light tank of the Scorpion/ Scimitar type overtaking my dad's car near Okehampton in the late 60s or early 70s, it was doing around 60 mph so it made quite an impression! They would usually travel by the troop as a minimum which I guess is 16. I'm sure someone will correct me. There were two long military sidings at Okehampton which I believe were used by the Surbiton Okehampton car carrier and as a shunt neck for Okehampton station.

The GWR was pretty astute when it came to penny pinching. The unlined green livery was a pragmatic solution to Swindon not having a separate paint shop. Locos were painted during erection and slapping green paint on was a quick and easy solution to making the finished product look like someone cared instead of a no one gives a ***** unlined black. Lined black was more difficult in that really they needed a day of so extra after repair to for a skilled painter to paint the lining, this is why lined black was so rare on the WR. Unlined Green vs lined black for secondary locos cost few bobs worth of green pigment and saved a day on repairs. BR Green looks different to GWR in that the lining is different and the running plate valance is black in GWR and green in BR. I think GWR wartime green may not have been varnished (can anyone confirm) as pics seem to show it faded to a lighter green whereas the BR version looks shinier and seems to weather to a darker colour. The old Hornby Dublo Duchess with Tinplate Tender always seemed the best model match to me. Hornby 2000's looks Khaki and quite ridiculous and later Bachmann too "Blue" but acceptable. Dirty Kings were pretty rare as they were top link locos till the very end, and as for dirty cab windows, it was a quick and easy matter to clean them. For accurate BR Green circa 1964 first spray the loco matt black then cover it with fine ash before it dries...

There are at least 4 major variants of the Hornby 9F. The original 6 traction tyre 6 wheel drive tender with loco pickup by wipers both sides with permanently attached tender and wires, the 2 traction tyre tender with pick up on the loco and a detachable tender, The superdetail Chinese version of the 2 traction tyre tender drive and the loco drive version. The loco drive chassis fits the Chinese tender drive loco, I've done it. The cylinders are different as are some some chassis details so some parts will not interchange between Chinese loco drive and tender drive chassis. There is a good chance the earlier bodies fit the latest loco drive chassis. The tender chassis seems to interchange between tender bodies, the railroad loco drive uses a Tender drive chassis less armature etc. Ours crumbled to bits and was replaced by a 1980s Hornby 47 trailing bogie chassis which is lighter, stronger, better. The loco drive chassis needs a big lump of lead if it is going to pull the skin off a rice pudding. The 1970s 6 traction tyre version will pull about three of the loco drive railroad versions backwards.

One advantage of using a resistance controller for testing is it shows up tight spots and the like. The old Hornby Dublo Marshall 3 is good as you can hear the overload cackling to itself when resistance is encountered. Worst possible testing DC supply is a car battery with a diode based controller like a Playcraft which can deliver huge amounts of amps at very low voltage. I did sort of wonder what your "Bench supply" was.

In 2011 Redgate Models posted picture of a then current Hornby model with a BR1 tender (low dome) The step with the step/platform is shown arrowed for a query about steps. So why not use a Hornby Tender if you need a BR1? IMHO the lack of cab to tender bellows is far more prominent than any water pickup detail.

I can get some pics on Thursday as I can't find any this evening. I lay two ordinary connector block strips in parallel and stretch 1N400 diodes across between them, sleeving the bare wires and usually with careful design and using the small 3 amp blocks there is no need to solder anything. I just use plain insulated wire where back feed is not an issue. I tend to use multiple small matrix with common return and a single electric pencil control though I also use rotary switch selection with push button activation. It would be useful if you uploaded your diagram for comments. You may find CDUs struggle with multiple point motors, I never could see the point of CDUs so I just put a big 30 volt or more Electrolytic capacitor across the uncontrolled DC output of the transformer and bang 5 or 6 over at a time. The downside is I have to add extra point motor solenoids as "Dead Loads" so at least 4 solenoids are energised when for instance only a crossover really needs to be operated. Pics of a couple of my diode matrix modules now attached the modules are adjacent to the points there must be six of them but they have never given any trouble in 25 years so I tend to forget where they are!

To be honest I prefer to buy quality products which work from a manufacturer as opposed to inferior products from companies with a fully staffed PR department who sub contract production to third parties with dodgy quality control. If Morley don't want to go into the 110 volt 5 loco lash ups plus helpers US market that is their affair, but it is not as simple as just changing the internal transformer. If you want a DC controller which gives good low speed control and allows double heading and banking by dis similar locos with excellent speed control at line speed up hill and down dale then Morley is about the best there is. Asking for a 110 volt one is a bit like asking Roll Royce why they don't make a 900cc turbo-diesel version of their Phantom

You could run 156s as 3 car units like scotrail did in the 1980s , by splitting two car units, a power triple! I always run a steam loco and set of suburbans as a replacement for a failed DMU to avoid these issues. The green MK 1 is not going to work, it would look plain daft, ,like the Hawkesworth coaches added to GWR railcar sets and the SR's infamous Tadpole units.

That loco to tender gap again. I get a Duchess round 2nd Radius with a scale gap between loco and tender so why the yawning chasm? Can't see many pudgy fingered 4 year olds getting one for the 25th December multi faith midwinter festival so why the gap. Oh well I suppose closing gaps and adding weight is the modern equivalent to fitting separate handrails, Romfords and a repaint of 30 years ago.

Depends on the baseboard surface, Stanley knife for fibre board then scoop out the middle with a chisel, Jig saw for ply.

If you were starting this layout from scratch I would have suggested trimming the upper baseboard edge to follow the tracks which would have allowed the turntable to go further towards the terminus and allowed maybe 6" more operating well length which would help reaching the terminus. Extending the turntable roads /engine shed towards the docks would be an option, Loco sheds are pretty much generic industrial buildings so loco shed one end and engineering works the other, one building two viewpoints. I mentioned my lift out section, I should have said hinged, it is hinged on car bonnet hinges and even with a hinged bridge which lands on the lifting part we can get someone in and out of the shed and tracks realigned well within 30 secs without stopping trains. the wires twist along their axis just below the hinge line rather than droop and have been very reliable for 30 odd years. The hinged section gets embarrassing when half the station lifts and we had forgotten there was an auto train in the bay. I suggested filling in the area around the station buildings with board to bring the roads etc to platform level which would reduce the visual difference between upper and lower levels. It looks

If I was to fit a 3.1 mm bore worm to a 3.00 mm shaft and it would definitely wobble and then fall off. Unless you are an engineer or watchmaker I would suggest you get the right worm for the motor or the right motor for the worm. Boring the worm oversize is tricky and you could damage the worm in the process, it would be easier to fit the 3.1 bore worm to a 2mm shaft than a 3.00.

I think it would benefit from more roads or longer roads off the turntable and forget the cassettes. You can never have too much loco storage and modern RTR and elderly Kit built locos don't take kindly to being handled and seldom survive falling from a cassette onto the cold hard linoleum or your soft warm foot. I would try to operate so locos from the down side can can access the turntable via the upside roads from the left hand end rather than popping out into the scenic area at the right hand end. I would have have tried to get one more through road on the up side for a loco line to facilitate this. Using the old Hornby Dublo "Railers" or a home made version on the end of a couple of roads would facilitate changing stock

DC and on board battery power for me.

Getting locos especially old direct worm drive locos to run smoothly downhill is a problem, hunting and slowing randomly causes (annoyance on my layouts and Spectacular) derailments on other people's layouts where they don't use Peco H/D style couplings. PWM works better than smooth DC but I run locos Half wave which makes the gears rattle and stops the worm winding up, flat out on half wave works well for most of my old locos. Getting up again is a bigger issue, there is a lot of twist in sharp radius spirals in the 2nd Radius range and old fashioned long wheelbase steam locos even Pacifics only have 3 wheel tyres on the track with the 4th guided only by he flange, It is less of a problem as the radius increases or track gauge decreases but always have the uphill track on the outside if at all possible. Notable the train on the Pecorama spiral goes downhill never up...

Which age groups are we talking here? To be honest 4 X 2 means N gauge for continuous run which is terribly fiddly for beginners, or a 00 shunting layout. Oddly enough British TT gauge is almost bang on the industry standard of 1 : 100 for architectural models and plans for many thousands of buildings are available at 1;100 on local authority planning websites. A TT gauge continuous run could be a possibility but the stuff is a bit like Hens teeth. I think you need more space for a layout. Even thinking laterally 4X2X1.5 only gives enough storage space for three 4X2 boards which is still only a 6X4 single level layout. G scale outside sounds really good. Lets face it with Battery Radio control you don't even need metal track. For straights Run a plough plane along some timbers to make two grooves with the inner edges to gauge, dowel the ends in a jig so they fit together. Or Use old aluminium Green house frames bolted together separated by wooden spacers, Curves probably have to be bought in but technology students may find a way to make it, and that would really stretch the kids abilities...

The Lima power bogie should run nicely, they growl but jerking suggests dirty wheels or a bad connection between pick up wire and the trailing bogie pivot pin or pin to pick up strip. Remove the body as described and have a look see. I think the buffers go through body and chassis so have to come off, mine is/ was modified to have cut away skirts so mine are on the chassis. Lube is a two edged sort of sword, the metal armature bearings like a drop but oily gears pick up abrasive dirt especially if the track is ballasted which wears the pivots and teeth. The ModelTorque and similar motor conversions run more smoothly and don't have the power and speed of the Lima original which makes the gears last a lot longer but I wouldn't want to try hauling scale length passenger trains at scale speed (100 for a 47/7) with one in the way the Lima original does. The Hornby 47 power bogie from earlier years is worse than the Lima, the inline with X04 like armature is absolutely hopeless with short life plastic armature bearings, and the Ringfield not much better. My Ringfield version has been retrofitted with a Hornby Tender Drive unit with is a direct replacement and has nearer to scale wheels if you ignore or fill in the spokes and with matching wheels on the trailing bogie and looks and runs a lot better.

A couple of points, Jaguar LandRover seems to be making a go of production in the UK. Peco seems to. Perhaps the realisation that the Hornby range needs a few people working full time in a small production facility not a lot of people just doing a bit now and again between banging out all sorts of stuff for competitors in a huge one is overdue. There is no way to repatriate moulds and dies from China so companies should factor that into their calculations before outsourcing production beyond EU laws. Model Railways are terribly sensitive to fashion, first it was GWR, now its BR LMR, a tiny minority model the SDJR, the MSWJR, First Great Western, Scotrail, M&GN, RHDR and Dajeeling Himalaya, with their weird liveries but the number of units they can expect to shift off model shop shelves of these items is tiny compared with mainstream BR LMR or BR/GWR. or even Thomas the Tank It makes sense to make models of what kids and parents can see. 42XX, 64XX, 57XX, Kings (With cropped cabs) Castles, Halls, Tornado, Flying Scotsman (In this years livery/chimney/Smoke deflectors) with the right numbers in preserved condition so folks can buy what they saw running.