wainwright1

The cattle wagons would look something like this when lime-washed.

The only one which had the panelling picked out in brown against the cream panels, but no lining, was the one in the Thomas range, but that had a face on the end of it !!!

I have had another testing session with my original S.E.C.R H which had the motor replaced and the Southern liveried one which did not display any problems. Both seem o.k. Mind you this is only running forwards and backwards on a fairly short length of track. The new S.E.C.R was collected on Monday. They are supposed to be replacing it, but have not heard anything yet. RB

An informed sourced has advised me that Hornby received these locos before Christmas and have spent the time since then replacing the motors ! Apparently a lot of the motors from the original batch, the push pull set and now these were poorly assembled. Also seems that the replacement motors that they have been using are are a bit dodgy. Anyone else heard about this ? RB

I had a similar problem with my first H from the first batch, also full Wainwright livery. That took longer for it to start smoking on my layout at an exhibition and did not damage the body. My retailer was standing in front of the layout and saw it happen. It was returned it to Hornby who replaced the motor. RB

Hi All. Received my Hornby Collector Club H Class yesterday. Looked very nice and was well finished. The two headboards enclosed are a nice touch. Took it down to the club to give it a test run. It ran a bit, stuttered and started, stalled and then I noticed it smoking. Took it off and brought it home. Checked it this morning and noticed that the area behind the dome had started to melt. Also noticed that one of the front sand pipes was half broken off. It seems that Hornby still have a problem with these motors. Spoke to the repair section this morning and will have it collected for replacement. The very helpful lady on the phone said that she had only one other faulty one reported, although they have only been sending them out the last couple of days. RB

Hi All. This is regular problem with Humbrol paints. I did a test a few years ago for matt varnishes trying enamel, acrylic and some artists types and found that the Humbrol enamel was the best for drying to a dead matt finish if you got a good tin. Now the problem is that the production appears to be inconsistent and sometimes it does not dry fully matt or it has creamy steaks in it. I have therefore produced some test cards with patches of dark coloured matt paints on, dark brown or matt black are best and I always mix and test the varnish on them before risking it on a model. This way you should be able to determine if there is going to be a problem. You must mix the varnish thoroughly and if it consistently fails to dry properly I take it back to the retailer and ask them exchange it for another tin from a different batch. Note that all Humbrol tins now have a label on the bottom which shows a batch number, so make a note of any dodgy paints and avoid buying any from the same batch. N.B. I did also complain to Hornby about one tin and they told me to send it back to them with a description of what was wrong with it. They sent a replacement through the post, which I did not think that they were allowed to do, but did not comment on the problem. I have not tried airbrushing varnish, but do not think that there should be any problems once the base colour is fully dried whether it is enamel or acrylic. Here is an example of what can go wrong if you do not test the varnish properly before applying to a model. These are two Bachmann models that I weathered. The one on the right was done with untested vanish and got a patchy bloom on it. Fortunately, I was able to touch it up and make it look like a well weathered wagon, but it could have been much worse especially on a prized locomotive or similar. I hope that this helps. RB

Using a diode in this way would divert some of the kick from the solenoid which would probably not affect a single one, but would it not reduce the effectiveness of throwing multiple points ? We use Peco solenoids on our club layouts and my Hawkhurst layout, all 00 . I currently have three points on Hawkhurst, (Peco code 100) , more than 30 years old, where a point blade has broken from the tie bar. These have been temporarily repaired, but the points will need replacing. We had a similar point on another club layout, also code 100, which broke and has been replaced. Our Crystal Palace High Level layout (Peco code 75), which is approaching 30 years , originally had Seep solenoids which we found fell to bits after a while. It now has Peco ones, but no breakages to date. On this layout we have a route setting control panel which does throw up to five points in one go from one switch and we did in fact add extra capacitors to make sure all the points threw positively. I can only remember one of the miniature toggle switches burning out in the last 30 years and that is with quite a few exhibition appearances for each layout. If you open up one of these switches to look inside, there is not much in there and you can see where they would arc and burn. We have also used the small buttons particularly for route setting in fiddle yards and these do burn out, so we now avoid them. Where possible on replacement or for new layouts, we now use the large buttons which should have enough meat in them for the lifetime of the layout. Hope that this helps. RB

The two types of brake van are completely different animals and the old road van is ideal for use with Isle of Wight 02s, Terriers and E1s. If recall correctly, Kernow are planning to do three or four versions for the island. RB

Here is the Hawkhurst goods shed. All scratch-built from multi-layered 2 mm laminated mounting card overlaid in Prototype 4mm yellow brick paper. Unfortunately this brick paper has been out of stock and out of print for some time from Freestone's. Despite my chasing him on numerous occasions. I need about six new packs so I can build new more accurate versions of the water tower and loco shed, using proper scale drawings. Something that was not available when i built the originals. RB

How much difference is there between the Caledonia Pug and the North British one ? They were both built by Neilson and look similar in photos. Perhaps Hornby could produce a new model of the latter and use the new motor and gears and chassis/footplate casting to upgrade to old one, reinstating the tank side handrails, a separate smoke box handle etc. It is interesting to note that with all the generated interest in pre-grouping locomotives and especially their new J36, Hornby have the old J83 in the Railroad range, but have never produced it in North British livery. 2020 range ? RB

A reader wrote in to the Railway Modeller a few months back saying that he had spoken to Locomotion and they had told him that they were looking at getting justification to fund the commissioning of a Wainwright D class. I did a follow up saying that I thought that this loco had great potential with a wide variety of liveries and should be a Bachmann mainstream model using the existing C class tender. Someone else also sent in another letter supporting letter after this. Of course if Locomotion do produce it, it is likely to be very expensive and modellers won't be able to afford maybe more than one, if that . The old Dapol/Hornby Terrier would make a nice train set loco although it does have a number of small parts which might preclude sales to younger modellers. I wonder what price Hornby would be able to pitch it at, as the last 'old' Terrier was on sale for only about £5 cheaper than the new one. I have never seen this picture of the loco before. I have one of the original ones of these which I think is moulded in green plastic. It could certainly be improved with separate handrails etc, plus a decent chassis, motor and gears plus a full set of valve gear. I don't know how many liveries it carried and seem to recall that it was converted to oil burning for a while, but I doubt that it would have made a great difference to the appearance of this small engine. Of course the downside is that being only one loco the cost of upgrading could not really be justified. RB

They are all new stock. I have obtained some from my local supplier Kent Garden Railways. The 3 plank, 5 plank, coke wagon, small van and cattle wagon have also been re-released. The larger vans are I think on hold as I believe that the moulds for the roofs have been lost. RB

Hi Dodgerman. For the card kits I have built and also models I have scratch-built for my Hawkhurst layout and other club layouts, I have always used ordinary Evo-Stik from a tube. Always use a new tube if possible, as after a time it will string a bit. Other Impact Adhesives such as UHU and Bostik tend to be a bit stringy from the start. I do not like using water based glues like PVA on card kits or brick paper as there is a high risk of marking or damaging the surface. When using Evo-Stik, if you get any excess on the visible surface, leave it for a couple of minutes and it will turn rubbery and you will find that you can rub it off quite easily without damaging the surface or leaving any marks. But do not leave it too long or you will not be able to to shift it. I also use Evo-Stik for gluing on brick paper using the wall paper technique: spreading a thin coat of the glue onto both surfaces. This allows you to manoeuvre the brick paper and line it up easily before the glue starts to go off. All the buildings on Hawkhurst, mostly double skinned from card, have been built and assembled with Evo-Stik and are very strong and still looking good after 30 years. RB

From memory I believe that some people have made a clerestory full brake by cutting up two of the short non corridor coaches and joining the brake sections together with a guards compartment in the middle, something like a 40ft van. Not sure if they used bits from the Ratio 4 wheeled coaches, which I think have similar panelling, to stretch out the middle section a bit. RB

P.S Our local Tescos at Surrey Quays no longer stocks it.

When I looked at the BRM stand at Ally Pally they had piles of the latest mag with a DVD attached. When I asked to buy one, I was told I could only have one if I took out a subscription. I finally got hold of one in WH Smith's in Lewisham during the week. There was nothing attached or bagged. Makes us feel like third class customers.

Yes the No.1 was my local route when I lived near to South Bermondsey Station. Also the 199 and for a time the 60. Not to mention the 202, the only red RF route in our area due to the low bridges in Trundleys Road. Not that it stopped at least one RT trying to go down there and taking its roof off on the Deptford Wharf Branch bridge. There were green RFs on the the 701, 702 and 703 Green Line routes up the Old Kent Road. Ray

Hi All. Just catching up. Went to the Ally Pally exhibition last weekend and we took RT1702 to the RT80 event at Barking yesterday. Ally Pally was good, though very little of tram interest and I did not spend very much money either. (In between I have had a dose of the lurgi that's going round with a sore throat for four days. It has now gone onto my chest a bit, but I think that it is fading off). Yesterday was very nice with good sunny weather most of the time and a mass of RTs and other buses. We ran in service and took part in the cavalcade of RTs at the end of the afternoon over the 62 route. Around 40 in total starting with RT1, including one RTL and a RM at the end. Picked up some press studs from Sainbury's on Friday and put them in my stock box. They come in a pack of other clips which might also come in useful. Question for Colin: Do you know what happened to the tram photos that Lens of Sutton used to do ? The railway pictures ended up with the Lens of Sutton Association and are available, but the tram ones seem to have vanished without trace. The other range which was very useful was Pamlin Prints which had good selection of tram shots, but I think that after Ken Carr died they just got discontinued as well. Question for Tony: How is the layout getting on ? I do not think I will be doing any tram modelling in the near future as our club currently has eight exhibition bookings for this year involving four different layouts and most of them require some work done on them before they go out. Look forward to hearing from you. All the best Ray

I see that it is the degree of penetration. Are you referring to the length of the handrails on the smoke box sides ? I am pleased to see that they have fitted shorter handrail knobs to the handrails on the smoke box rings. The ones on the more recent old type Terriers were ridiculous, with the handrails sticking out about a scale foot from the front. I have also just noted from Howard's pictures the new scraper pick-ups on all the wheels. This should make a massive improvement in the performance of the locos. Ray

Hi All. Contrary to previous comments about the buffers, I have noticed that in some of the recent pictures issued by Hornby that the Southern liveried version in particular certainly appears to have buffers with extensions back behind the buffer beam. On close inspection, some of the other models also appear to have the back part of the buffer mounting overlapping the buffer beam slightly, perhaps 25% and painted black in contrast to the red painted section at the front. In these two pictures I cannot see anything much on Rolvenden, but on 32655 there appears to be something on top of the footplate behind the buffers. I am hoping that my Rolvenden will arrive at my local stockist this week so that I can have a closer look. Ray

Don't you mean Dave ?

Hi Workbench52. This looks very nice. Its a pity that Hornby don't upgrade some of their older fairly accurate wagons to more modern standard. The L.N.E.R. bogie brick wagon and Southern bogie utility van also spring to mind. I seem to remember an article in a magazine some years ago where a similar upgrade was carried out on this van. In that case, the whole chassis was replaced with a Peco one, as used in their Wonderful wagons. Basically they had to plot the position of the prongs for the chassis components onto the underside of the van and then drill holes for them. This obviously gave them the bonus of a wagon with working buffers and suspension, but I cannot remember if they cut off the mounts for the Peco couplings. Then the steps were added. I think that the Peco chassis components may still be available. I hope that this is of interest. Ray

Hi All. It looks very nice to me. I have seen these in the flesh and they look very good. I think that my local supplier has virtually sold out of the first one. I note that the second black BR one and the Kent and East Sussex one are due next week, the latter of which I have ordered. As a matter of interest, can anyone who has a Southern Electric layout with the Peco third rail fitted tried a new Terrier on their layout and does the brake gear rodding foul the third rail ? The old Dapol/Hornby one used to ride on the conductor rail which was a pain. All the best Ray