ScRSG

Just been looking at the ridiculous prices people are asking on ebay for SWS! C'mon, Hornby, do another release of this loco to stop this ludicrous situation - your tooling costs have already been spent so now saturate the market!

Pleased you guys are finding this mod. useful, but please remember that it will not work on set track curves. (minimum radius 2ft.) So I can see why Hornby go for the flangeless fixed wheel. I do not think there is a way using my mod. that you could have a fixed wheel - will someone have a go that needs this due to sharper curves?

See also this thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/102359-Hornby-oo-duchessprincess-trailing-pony/&do=findComment&comment=2952544 Go to post 20.

Depending on your tightest radius curves, this is not a particularly difficult thing to do, but will not work on settrack curves of any sort. The chassis casting on the swinging truck versions is slightly different from the newer version with the fixed truck. The way I have done this is to, firstly, modify the trailing truck by cutting away all the metal outside the wheels using a razor saw as in this picture - Then, taking your nice new X9834 spare part, get to work with the saw again and remove the portion containing the mounting hole to the chassis (the new style chassis is different in depth so you can't use the part, as supplied, on the older chassis. Cut the part in half by cutting the bar along the back so you now have two separate sides of the truck. Remove the excess plastic at the front of the frames just to follow the curved outline. See this pic, I hope this description is clear. To fix the new frames you need to remove the pipe detail from under the cab and also the moulded "pips" etc. that these were mounted in. The replacement frames are glued in place,I used 5 minute epoxy. From this photo, you can see how the mounting screw hole has been modified to carry the tender draw bar - this has also the effect of closer coupling of the tender. The screw is a standard 2mm, I used a spare 3link coupling spring. The pieces of plasticard glued to the sides of the chassis are to represent the firebox sides, this is to hide the "see through" effect of using the new frames. These mods. will allow the loco to run on minimum 2 foot radius curves. Hope this all helps. Note that this conversion is not appropriate for "Princess" models as the spare is for a Duchess and the frames on a Princess are quite different ( No holes and fewer rivets!)

A few more for you all, firstly 46220, then one of 46242, I am sure I read on this or another thread that someone with a "City of Nottingham" wanted to change it to another, beware, this was the only "red 'un" which had the non streamlned footplate and a de-streamlined tender, 46242 would be one of the few candidates to use this combination, but would need the full repaint! Finally, two of 46246, one as a "semi" the smokebox retained to Spring 1960, and, then, of course one of it after conversion.

A couple to be going on with, the first already shown on another thread.

That's very strange we use both the TowerPro and Hobbyking servos interchangeably, so don't see any reason why they don't work. Servo experts, please!

Needless to say, found it after my initial post! There are no details of etches and such like, though.

Can't find any listings of the kits/parts available, can you give me a clue?

See my post No. 4 on this thread for my "City of Liverpool" in this style which was most definitely carried by this loco.

That is what I thought, I have never seen evidence of it in BR lining style.

Sorry, guys but I was looking for, specifically, a colour photo of 46256 in this livery, as I don't think I have ever seen one of this loco in that variation. The reason for a colour photo is that in this livery a black and white photo does not prove green or red! I have looked at my collection of photos and not one shows this variation on this loco.

Anyone know of a colour photo of No.5?

Have now mounted two Mitsumi on to DJH gearboxes, if you have unused mounting brackets and you solder them up with the half etched line to the OUTside then the motor will almost sit vertically to the box, any slight offset is unlikely to affect fitting in the loco body.

Did have a quick look at these, interesting but unfortunately nearly all are outwith the period we are attempting to recreate, appreciate the heads up though!

The underlay material is a close grained foam some 3mm thick or 1/8th in old money. We obtained a supply from a company called Paulamar. They called it "PA45", but I can't tell you whether this is a universal code for this type of foam. It is glued down using copydex or a cheaper equivalent being carpet adhesive.

I also want software that creates standard files so I can use it with other machines. I've just ordered a cheap CNC milling machine, that I hope I can use to cut thicker materials than my Portrait will handle, and mill PCBs for the electronics that I'm using on my layouts. This would be the ideal, surely. Are you suggesting that Inkscape could be classed as a de facto standard for designing projects for all these types of machine? In other words, if we learned this piece of software then we could produce items from a laser cutter, 3D printer or any other type?

A couple of pics taken today to show the current state of progress. Trackwork is progressing and although not all fixed down until we are happy with alignments. The lower picture shows the South end of the station looking towards Glasgow etc. The sheets of paper either side are the plan drawings of the platform buildings. The upper picture shows, again looking South, the approaches to the station and the goods yard to the right. this whole area still has a fair bit of work to do to get the appearance right At the far south end, we are just about to start mounting point motors and setting them up with the Megapoints boards which, currently, are situated within the control panel. We need to test to see if this will work with the servos over the distance to ensure no servo issues. If we get these then we will have to move the Megapoints boards under the relevant baseboard. We shall see!

Here are a couple of pics of both sides of the MERG servo brackets. The two slots on each side are to mount and adjust microswitches for frog polarity or any other use for a switch. The switches are adjusted after the servo movement has been set so that the operating arm just moves the switch sufficiently to change. If you set the switch too near the arm the arm may not fully reach the end of its travel and will give you strange servo problems. As noted above these are only available to MERG members, but are extremely good value and if you need a lot, they will still be economic even with the MERG subscription!

Is there anybody out there...............

Some of the above posts re the use of the Silhouette Cameo Cutter, and to the same extent any 3D printer, CNC or laser cutter, is the question of suitable software. Why is it necessary to use two (or more)different packages to produce proper designs for these machines? The hardest part of using these is learning the software and I must confess is what puts me off buying any of these machines. We have discussed at our group the possibility of buying these as club property, and it would be so much simpler if the software that came with these machines did all that was required, even better if one piece of design software was available to power all of the above machines! Does such a thing exist?

Well, if you look long enough, you could get a Tri-ang/Hornby Caley 123, a Gem/PDK Glen, a DJH Jones Goods and I am sure someone did a kit of Gordon Highlander as well, so all four at a much less cost than new rtr versions! (Slightly tongue in cheek, I admit!)

The original Comet site is still available check www.cometmodels.co.uk.(Although you can't order here, you order through Wizard Models) Unfortunately the coach you are looking for is not listed, so they do not make this one. It is unlikely that Andrew at Wizard either has or will extend the range.

I can recall the first time I saw Biggleswade, a good number of years ago, watching the trains go by. At one point I was sure I heard a distant chime whistle, not 100% certain, but pretty sure. Anyway, suddenly an A4 appeared on a train, and I have to admit the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! This then happened more than once so we knew it was no coincidence. We questioned the operators. Turned out they had used a cassette recorder (remember them!) with a loop of tape with the chime recorded on to it - that was all it needed to create that atmosphere!

I've had one or two of these go "tight" in my time. The way I found to help was, first to remove the motor from the gearbox, It is likely that the motor is ok and will run freely off the box. You can them manipulate the gears by hand and they should begin to free off, by all means follow the advice above to help with any kind of cleaner and once free re-lubricate lightly.