DaveSmith

I saw this thread last week and got in touch with the author of the book, he sent me the book before I'd even written the cheque. Thoroughly enjoyed reading it, especially as some of the locations are familiar to me. Thank you for bringing the book to our attention.

I agree completely - I still have quite a few boxes of magazines I haven't listed yet and from time to time consider taking them to a local charity shop as there is a fair amount of effort involved in getting the magazines out of storage boxes in the loft, addressing envelopes and queuing in the post office. I'll probably have another think about it at the end of the year.

I used to buy a few magazines (mostly R/C aircraft) but the last few I bought never arrived and I was unable to get a reply from the chap who runs it. I've sold several hundred magazines (also R/C aircraft!) on ebay over the last year. It's a fairly easy way to shift things with residual value that have outlived their usefulness. Just need to remember to allow for the fees before listing too cheaply. I sell at £4.75 including postage, but after eBay has taken their cut, I've paid for the envelope and post, I get about £1.20. Still worth it as I started out with well over 1000 to sell.

I received the 3D printed converters for my Bachmann Small Prairie from Matt at Bluebell Model Rail today. Very nicely designed and printed, my fears about them being brittle proved to be unfounded, they were an excellent snug fit in the NEM pockets on the loco, and Kadee 18s were an equally good fit fit into the NEM pockets on the converters. Conversion took little more time than it's taken me to write this, and when checked with a Kadee height gauge, they were spot-on and work perfectly with my other converted stock.

What times does the Long Hanborough exhibition open and close tomorrow? Not too far from Standlake, so would like to drop in.

That's a clever idea, and it obviously works, but I'd be concerned about the strength of the glue join.

I often used to sit in the Blue Peter garden to eat my lunch when I worked at TV Centre. A tiny oasis of peace and quiet.

Thanks for the link, I've just ordered some of the Bachmann cranked link converters.

Well, here i am, 3 1/2 years later having just resumed my attempt to have a layout with functioning coupling. I have bought a few more wagons and a Bachmann 64xx, all of which miraculously have NEM pocket tension lock couplings at the same height. I have replaced a few of these couplings with Kadee #18 which I had in hand from my previous efforts and they were a direct fit and work as advertised. I still have my older wagons with TLCs mounted directly to the body moulding which I hope I replace with one or another variety of Kadee couplings. The trickiest ones to adapt would seem to be the earlier Heljen & Bachmann locos which have NEM 362 pockets at the wrong height. The Bachmann uses a cranked TLC and the Heljen simply uses a straight one at the wrong height so it doesn't work with anything. I'm planning to experiment with new NEM pockets mounted at the right height so I can use straight Kadees. All adds to the fun, hopefully.

I can now consider this problem to be solved. I cleaned the rather stiff grease off the gears using a switch cleaning aerosol, applied a small drop of oil to each end of the motor shaft and a couple of drops to the gears - result was a perfect smooth & quiet running loco. As I have primarily been an R/C aeroplane and boat modeller for over 50 years, I was happy to solve the issue at zero cost and also learnt a little about how these locos are put together and how they work.

Weirdly, I removed the screws under the loco yet again this morning, and the this time the body came off very easily. I ran the bare chassis and I'm fairly sure the noise is the motor itself, so shouldn't be a problem.

I recently dug out my Bachmann 4575 loco, which I bought new a few years ago and has been stored in its box indoors and never used. When I put it on a length of track and applied power, it was mechanically very noisy. I have carefully oiled the axles, motor gear and the linkages, which might have made a small difference but it is still unacceptably noisy. The contrast with my new Bachmann 46xx which I received new this morning is very noticeable - the 46xx is quite and runs as slowly as I could reasonably expect straight out of the box. Any idea what could be causing the noise? I was not able to remove the loco body to access the motor, so any advice on how to do that without causing any damage would be most useful. The noise is the same whether it is running on the track or held in a cradle and power carefully applied to the wheels. Rather annoying, but in future I will test locos as soon as they arrive. I can't even remember where or when I bought the 4575 now. All advice much appreciated.

Thank you, I'll try that. Have avoided reading the rest of the thread until we've watched it.

The recorder messed up, so will have to wait for the repeats to see the final instalment of this long running saga.

This might inspire some rustic modelling

I started watching Morse when the DVDs came out. I was living in Finland at the time, and they were a good reminder of my home town (Oxford). My wife & I have watched them all all several times, likewise Lewis and Endeavour when they are on TV. We watched the latest on Sunday but neither of us can remember a thing about it!

They weren't hanging about when they went through Radley, either. That sound….

I was at Abrail most of the day yesterday, but we left early enough to catch the two Castles tearing through Radley station on their way to Oxford. I was a too close to get any decent pictures, but they did sound wonderful!

I had a look at their second hand stock a few days ago and almost decided not to go, but as it was only a ten minute walk from the bike shop, and I had nothing else to do while they sorted the bike out, I had a look in Howes. Far more second hand stock than their website suggests.

I was in Howes today while my motorcycle was being serviced round the corner at Kings Two Wheel Centre. I was served by a helpful and knowledgeable chap who rounded prices down when I had finished making my choices from the second hand wagons, etc., in the display cabinets. I grew up in Oxford, so Howes in the city centre had the bulk of my pocket money back in the 60s. It's a very different shop today than it was back then, but they have done what they needed to do to survive. As an added bonus, it is now next door to a brewery and the brewer there is a friend of mine!

Thank you, I saved the link.

Last night's show was the first I've managed to catch. It was pleasant to watch people fiddling around with model trains, not so keen on the Mr Bean stuff - surely that character has long since left our screens? Having spent 16 years working in TV, I certainly don't believe much, if any, of what is shown and said, but at least it showed our hobby in a non-patronising light. Even my wife quite enjoyed it!

There's a regular in the local pubs here in Oxfordshire who tells very similar tales - his brother either built/designed/piloted the space shuttle (depending on which version of the story he wants to tell), and his son was chosen by Eric Clapton to be his student. Known to most people round here as someone not to get talking to. His son once introduced himself as 'son of Bullshot Bob'!