DCB
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Posts posted by DCB
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15 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:
Who on earth released 802010 to traffic in that state ! ✋
Quite a challenge to model that livery. Better than the boring green IMHO
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On 07/03/2024 at 09:10, uax6 said:
Plastic axles are easy. Force the old triang wheels off, and then get some Hornby coach wheels. Push the insulated bush out of the middle of the wheel pan, and then it will fit on the plastic axle.
Andy G
The A1A plastic axle with moulded gear fits the NON Insulated Triang wheels There is a larger axle used on cheap 0-4-0 chassis which fit the insulated wheels if you bash out the bushes.
6 hours ago, roythebus1 said:There's something wrong with that motor bogie, the wheels should sit central to the axle boxes regardless of wheel diameter. It's possible an MTK sideframe grafted onto a Triang motor bogie, the whole thing sits wrong.
Definitely does not look right. Might need MTK sideframes mounted higher up the bogie to get it right. Axles out of line with axle boxes is common. See Mainline /Hornby Collett tenders up to 2010 approx
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The H/D crane gets round 15" radius curves with its non flanged centre wheels. I have 2 neither to hand at present but I'm pretty sure the wheel holder is rivetted to the cast chassis so removing and more awkwardly refitting the wheels is not easy. You can grip the axle force it hard left and force off the left hand wheel and change it and vice versa but I think changing to metal rim flanged wheels will require drilling out the rivets as will shortening the axles so they limit side play and stop the wheels touching and shorting on the outside frame and on the metal inside frame, you coule use washers but I wouldn't. It's so much hassle that I have neve changed either of mine despite changing the handles for gears etc.
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@RobinofLoxley You are down to 1st radius on the lower return loop if the O P is correct and the loops are limited to 450 mill which is 18" in American. The square 15 from left 3 from bottom is critical , if you can build over it you can build it albeit with 1st radius or delete the 2nd track if not the plan is a non starter. I'm struggling to understand the shape of the available space
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I don't see room for a double track oval. To be honest a double track oval is a lot more prototypical than a figure eight, you can do most real train things on a double track oval with two crossovers and a siding. Even Minories is a bit far fetched. It was a portable showcase for Hornby Dublo and Triang Tank engines and suburban coaches dating form about 1958. Its never been bettered but the operation with a different loco taking trains back out is a bit niche, Liverpool street (Broad Street?) and Moorgate are the only places I know of where this happened.
It would be useful to have the sizes of the available area as it looks ideal for pair of helixes.
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The biggest issue I have with model turntables apart from they are generally far too big , is they move too stiffly I keep plotting how to make a decent motorised table but then again my hand operated cut down Dapol table is a model of a hand operated table so maybe a powered one would be less realistic. Current plan revolves (Pun intended) around some Ford Escort wheel bearings I acquired, Present terminus one is a 75 or 80 ft Triang and as I don't have anything bigger than a Duchess to turn another 65 ft like the middle station will suffice
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I can see Beet etc being moved in railway company owned i5 and 7 plank "Coal" wagons but how would the wagon hire have worked using P.O wagons which were privately owned, and maintained. prior to pooling in Sept 1939. In the absence of photos I would stick to Company owned wagons, these were pooled earlier than P.O wagons and often strayed far from home. I understand the Great Eastern area retained quite a lot of old wagons including wooden frame wagons for seasonal traffic. I have always worked on the basis of the only legitimate load for PO coal wagons is pit props.
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2 hours ago, Paul H Vigor said:
Looks like the speed model turntables revolve, Like someone used a speeded up clock.
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Basically the end of a turntable revolves at walking pace, say 3 mph, I will work that out in RPM when I have a spare lifetime
Timing YouTube videos the York outdoor TT seems to take 6 blokes about 3 min for 180 degrees. The Didcot table 3 mins for 2 blokes to crank round The NRM about 80 seconds, Ferryhill 80 and Pickering about 65 secs , Some TTs used vacuum power to turn, I think NRM is electric. Starting and stopping are problems, especially stopping and several attempts to engage the locks were quite common, What modern RTR especially DCC can't match is the precision with which they place a 66ft long 57ft WB V2 loco on what looks like a 6oft table
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3 hours ago, 33C said:
You could try grinding them down with a Dremel tool. I did all mine and the results are pictured after polishing with wet-n-dry. (Left, before, right, after.)
If you fit a TT single start worm to one end of the armature and a standard2 start to the other the power bogie with knurled wheels make a wonderful rail cleaner/grinder
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2 hours ago, simon b said:
Thanks, but I need to go with bigger wheels. The motor bogie wheels look to be 11 or 12mm, so look very undersize compared to the rest at 15mm.
I did read that the triang class 81 was fitted with larger wheels so perhaps that's a solution?
Is this a plastic axle chassis like the Hymek and A1A or metal axle like the dock shunter /Transcon. The Dock shunter takes Romford Markits wheels on the "Triang" conversion knurled centre axles, 14/15/16 mm. Just fill in the spokes with araldite or similar.
The plastic axle type are more difficult as I think ( could be wrong) the gear is smaller than the Dock Shunter, X04 Nellie/Polly/ Connie axle gear. There may not be enough clearance for 14/15mm wheels but the problem is finding a wheel thick enough to fit snugly on the plastic axle. I have opened out Jackson coach wheels to fit the plastic axles but they are too thin where they fit on the axles and they don't go on straight and /or work loose.There are some brass wheels intended for plastic axles from H0 US Locos around 15mm ish, I have some in my scrap box but no idea if they fit the Triang plastic axles, I believe the Triang plastic axle is the same diameter on the end as the 1970 era metal axle, For example you can fit two Hymek wheels on a metal axle if 3 rail is your thing,
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On 03/03/2024 at 15:29, GDR said:
Fizzgog common in N.West in 70s/80s.
Fizzog and words like Cropodist (Bloke who crops yer toenails) and Loyer (lawyer/liar) are sadly disappearing from country areas as house prices start to look like mobile phone numbers and only those with a public school received pronunciation eck-sent can afford to live in Country areas
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A few nails and a decent file will soon create some decent buffer heads, especially if you have a lathe. You would be hard put to make anything worse than the Lima buffers The usual mistake with MK1s is that the buffers are modelled in the extended position whereas they are retracted when Corridor Mk1s are coupled to other BR standard corridor coaches and use the buckeye coupler for buffing and as draw gear. The buffers are only extended when coupling to stock without buckeye couplers I close coupled several Lima Mk 1s with Peco couplings and some with mainline ones by moving the couplings inward so the corridor connections almost touched when propelling around 2ft radius curves. The improvement in appearance was dramatic but sadly the pics on RM Web disappeared a while ago and I can't find them on my many discarded computers and SD cards
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That's a lot of track and points for a layout where only one train can run at a time. The 3 sidings lower centre are just about useless . Its great for watching trains run round sharp curves, and you can keep several train stationary while you run The one.
I Would put sidings inside the return loops goods yard in one terminus station in tother.... or terminus with loco depot like my doodle, just needs one reversible feed for terminus between station and turntable,Ideally loops would drop down a bit but i would extend an overall roof over the loop with station building beyond and try to hide the loop s. At least mine lets you shunt while a train runs round the loop line and you can have three more in the loops to ring changes |Obviously loop with turntable acts as return loop to get trains reversed to go back into the station and leave in either direction Just set station polarity to suit direction around the main loop Electrics just need a couple of DPDT centre off switches and two controllers for DC. Sky and your credit card's the limit for DCC
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There isn't a definitive material, soil, coffee grounds ash are all soft materials and very difficult to fix down. I wonder if contact adhesive (Copydex?) is the answer to fixing them. I found some carpet backing i sprayed green for grass looked convincing as ballast when I accidentally sprayed it grey, and my coaling stage ballasted with anthracite grains looked pretty good but Antracite only comes in black (and granite chips in grey)
The ballast will vary with the period modelled, for 2000 era static grass is good, you can barely see the track in some sidings let alone the ballast. back pre WW1 the ballast used in yards was generally to top of sleeper level or above for the convenience of Horses among other things and much was sourced locally, Limestone or ash and clinker from loco sheds. 1923-68 sleeper tops visible and ballast almost level seemed typical. For really grot sidings cutting lengthways grooves in the baseboard wide enough for the rails and flanges to run and ballasting with chips, spraying with gunge coloured paint and having no sleepers at all is pretty convincing, maybe not even have rails if no locos enter the siding, as in a short bit in my coal yard or for 23-68 ballast the whole area and then lay track with card sleepers, because a lot of photos show rails and sleepers on a flat level layer of ballast, Apart from code stupid rails and hairpin bends and the rest a lot of early post WW2 model laid straight on a baseboard does look uncannily like the real thing where lovingly ballasted track just looks contrived, especially when there is no definition between the wooden sleepers and the stone orash ballast
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On 29/02/2024 at 08:34, ColinK said:
Well spotted, the green wire wasn’t connected when I took the photo, but it is now.
Did that cure the problem?
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10 hours ago, dasatcopthorne said:
. Find some pictures of the track you want.
Dave.
Could not agree more. Look at pictures. Steam age track ballast 1920 -1968 was basically manicured with crisp ballast edges and clear walking routes , cinder paths, much of it with signal wires alongside. Usually with plenty of gap between ballast edge and the edge of an embankment. Post steam it became a scruffy mess as tracks were raised on heaps of ballast which spilled down embankment sides and post 2000 plenty disappeared into a mass of weeds.
A lot of model ballast looks out of period, 2000 ballast on 1950 layouts..
Painting the rails first makes sense, but pre coloured sleepers don't usually need much if any paint, maybe just touching up where the rail paint has smeared and then use the right colour ballast. If you use the wrong glue it will sound like a steam roller is crushing the track and you will wish you had not bothered. Do a trial stretch first -
It seems to me while we are discussing small details there is a small problem in that at a glance the Mainline 56XX doesn't look much like a 56XX In particular the cab aperture is much smaller than it should be on a 56XX , More like a 1938 31XX cab than a 56XX as there is a large beam below the cab roof on the Mainline / Bachmann 56XX which is rain strips are massively oversize, you can barely see them on many photographs of full size 56XX .
One item missing from or greatly undersize on the Bachmann model is the tank brace (?) over the boiler at the leading edge of the tanks which many had vertical hand rails attached .On the flip side I have two of these so a five minute makeover with a few files and a bit of sandpaper is on the agenda, filing out the cab aperture and filing down the cab angle irons where there should be rain strips will be the first steps.
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The Helicopter car has a large knob almost the full width of the platform IIRC which has a c lock spring and has to be would up before the Helicopter is fitted. It is released by a trackside striker, like the satellite launcher, Unlike the Satellite launcher the Helicopter wagon has a bracket to take the Helicopter's tail. The bracket holds the fuselage in line while the rotor spins up and lifts the helicopter off, this stops the fuselage rotating for about a nano second while the copter takes off and thereafter the fuselage picks up speed in the opposite direction to the blades until it hits the ceiling and crashes in an undignified heap. My Helicopter has a damaged tail but the wagon was around fairly recently, definitely since Christmas.
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The original Bachmann panniers have a split chassis and a right PITA to convert to DCC. As a minimum they need pickups added to at least one axle to prevent pick up issues even on DC. I would sell it on if its split chassis and get one with proper pickups.
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Am I right in assuming the supression issue went away with the change to Digital TV? I remember our Bachmann B1 interfered with the bloke over the road's TV.nothing else did, and my Hornby Dublo which absolutely blotted out my parents 405 lines black and white TV 60 years ago no longer raises a flicker on our Digital TV.
The B1 gained some ceramic capacitors but I think we just parked it in the end.
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It depends on whether you want your stock on the layout or in storage
With 40 foot cars you can get 10 into about 6 feet length and at least 6 parallel roads of 6ft lengths so you can either lay lots of track to switch your stock on or have a few tracks and a lot of scenery.I'd prioritise track, and switch cars, not trip and spot them spurs for loading or unloading, just switch them . Busy yard full of cars, Urban setting, cars awaiting sorting for onward transit.
2nd hand Insulfrog and DCC sounds ominous, Unifrog are designed for this type of application. and most US outline locos have plenty of pick ups to bridge the dead frogs if run out of the box
I would try to arrange parallel running and simultaneous moves with the DCC for more visual interest. The "Hockey Stick" Traverser concept would fit well with this site.
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Unifrog are non isolating points, Unlike Isolating points or Peco Electrofrog points they have no switch contacts to fail. If the plan was DCC or one engine in steam DC it would work without any insulated joiners, just like Insulfrog. For more than two locos on a DC layout I would sell the Unifrogs to someone using DCC and get some Insulfrogs and run trains instead of head scratching over wiring. If you put a short straight between Jeremy's siding and crossover to take a power clip and use controllers with an off position you don't need any isolators with Insulfrogs, just 2 controllers and 2 power clips. And they have much smaller dead frogs
Unifrog needs an isolator for any siding where a loco is to be stabled, Insulators between crossover points plus a frog polarity switch on each point and a change over switch for the section between crossover and siding.
2 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:With insufrog points (the inside loop feed must not be placed between the crossover and the yard points),
That is wrong, for minimum wiring the feed should be between the crossover and Siding, that allows the inside train to remain stationary when the outside train accesses the siding
Unifrog makes a lot of sense for DCC or for using DC outside in the rain on a one engine in steam layout ( as I do) or using more than 1 amp DC ( asI have) but it's an enormous amount of hassle otherwise -
Can't really comment about track in an uninsulated loft as my layout in my uninsulated loft is A) largely steel track and B) essentially abandoned as it is very hard to access , But the N/S points go dark along their sides, but still work electrically (electrofrog) with no modifications and Peco sleepers breaking is very rare. Some of it is cheap GT track and has lots of broken sleepers. Solder. Outside it lasts about a couple of years, then goes grey and falls off leaving the rails with white deposits which clean off leaving more or less undamaged rails. The outside track on the electrically dead section N/S rails go brown. They were .laid mainly 30 plus years old and, ballasted with mortar mix laid on concrete or stone . The spare lengths kept in box indoors are pristine The outside dead rails suffers failed fishplates which split and a few failed chairs mainly on curves but the ballast stops it flexing so the sleepers only shatter when disturbed some due to Cats, over time it goes tight to gauge even on straights. The powered outside track is newer and fishplates fail electrically, but not as quickly as the soldered joints fail electrically and its on a wood base which distorts with temperature an moisture content is pinned and or lightly ballasted and suffers lots of failed sleepers, It does face south though (UK) and the dead rail is largely East West. As related elsewhere the more power I put the outside track power section the quicker it fails, if I get a short and it needs frog polarity switches IN ADDITION to blade contact.
Same ones inside the shed no problems. The lifting section suffers white /yellow powdery corrosion on the rails. It lives vertical 99% of the time. and the double main line across it is the only place in the shed trains slow noticeably until the track is cleaned. In the shed many soldered joints are 40 years old and have never given any problems Diode matixes 4 pole relays,Rotary switches using exactly the same solder and soldering iron which gives issues outside. Needs Ercule Parrot to sort it out
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Bachmann class 56xx replacement couplings
in Modelling Questions, Help and Tips
Posted
Its amazing a Mainline chassis has lasted long enough to burn out as mine all slipped their wheels out of quarter 25 years ago. I think there are several variations of the Bachmann 56XX chassis, probably made in different factories. Is yours NEM pocket style with the wedge fitting. I am pretty sure mine have ordinary Mainline screw fitting couplings. Do you have a picture from underneath? It might help with the query