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Bill Eaton

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  • Location
    Ivybridge
  • Interests
    GWR and Cambrian Railways circa 1905. ScaleSeven.

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  1. Thanks for the recent update but I am not clear on the position with 14mm gauge for the locos. The Lionheart website and the leaflets available on their stand at Guildex each say "Adaptable to 14mm track gauge" which I have, until now, interpreted to mean that the model is designed to allow the purchaser to carry out a conversion with reasonable ease, and by that I mean that it should be possible to regauge the supplied wheelsets and it should not be necessary to carry out surgery to the model or substitute a new chassis. I have ordered a loco and three coaches on the basis of this understanding. I am not anticipating any issues with the coaches, as it looks as if it will be simple to either regauge the existing wheelsets or insert new ones. But what is now being said about the locos is a little concerning. Does anyone have any further information?
  2. I have available complete sets of Railway Modeller for 2020 and 2021, Hornby Magazine for 2019 and 2021 and BRM for 2021, free to a good home, a club or school preferred. I am in the South Hams in Devon.
  3. I much enjoyed a day there on Friday. HLJ is every bit as impressive as I had expected, not only the sheer size but also the very high quality of the modelling. I spent two long periods moving slowly round, stopping to watch the trains go by from a number of different vantage points. All very absorbing. It was busy in the morning, but not so busy as to prevent me getting a very good view, and in the afternoon there was more space to view. I will definitely go to see it again in the future, in particular when the marshalling yard and station projects are further advanced. It adds a lot to the experience that perhaps about half of the trains make a signal stop then restart, but I too was puzzled by the way that trains always stopped some considerable distance from the signals, and overheard comments about this from others. As far as I could see, no trains ran on the dive under on Friday, was there a technical problem? One odd point (maybe it's just me) but the level of the track on the dive under where it enters the tunnel appears to be very much the same as the level of the road under the upper tracks just to the west! Having several other quality layouts there was a valuable bonus, as was the presence of some traders. I had a very interesting conversation with one trader which has led to a subsequent order, and my debit card saw some action with two others on the day! Overall it was a great day out and good value for money.
  4. These photos show my Dapol Class 55 Western, converted to EM using Ultrascale drop in wheelsets. The brake shoes at the outer ends of the bogie are on a push in spigot and were adjusted by simply pulling out then fixing with a spot of superglue. The other brake shoes on the outer wheels were cut off and then spacers made with small pieces of plastic card 1mm thick were glued in place and then the brake shoes were glued to the spacers. The spacers are hidden behind the brake shoes and are invisible when the loco is on the track. The brake shoes for the centre wheels were cut off and not replaced, they are almost invisible anyway. The photos (taken on my phone) make it look as if the wheels are not parallel but they are, it runs well! Yet to be weathered.
  5. Great to hear confirmation of the next showing, I will definitely be there.
  6. Thanks for all the responses to my query. I have sent Tim a PM in response to his kind offer of help.
  7. This layout is an inspiration to me as I continue to build my rather more modest EM layout, which is also set in the steam/diesel transition era. I have converted many RTR coaches and wagons and a couple of RTR diesels to EM and will do several more diesels when my order arrives from Ultrascale, but I have yet to tackle a steam loco conversion. I have had some Alan Gibson wheels in stock ready to go for a long time now! Is there any info available on the conversions of the steam locos used on Leeds City?
  8. The reserve price does not have to be disclosed. Auctioneers can start the bidding wherever they wish and if there are no bids then the auctioneer can go lower until someone makes a bid. But the auctioneer can take bids "off the wall" until such (fictitious) bids reach the reserve. Good auctioneers are very adept at making off the wall bids seem real. Therefore, the existence of a reserve may not be apparent to people in the room, they might well get the impression that there was no reserve when in fact there was. Unless the auction house has a minimum bid and the seller is prepared to sell at that figure, putting an item up for auction without a reserve is a dangerous game for the seller as the item could (literally) be sold for a penny.
  9. Is it not the case that most items offered for sale at auctions other than on eBay have a minimum price, otherwise known as a reserve? And in most cases the amount thereof is not disclosed.
  10. As I live in South Devon I have been wondering why Martin keeps referring to our area, as I am sure that we don't claim to be subject to different rules to everyone else round here, and I have just twigged what this is about. For Martin's information, the village of Beer is in the area that is usually described as East Devon, even though said village is on the south coast of the county. You have to be west of the Exe estuary to be in the real South Devon.
  11. On my EM gauge layout, currently still at the track laying stage with the track on the scenic part on three sides done and the storage sidings on the fourth side yet to do, I have used the Peco bullhead rail joiners at the joins between the separate (nominally metre) lengths of EMGS track. The track is, of course, manufactured for the EMGS by Peco and the Peco rail joiners are sold by the EMGS stores. My personal view is that the appearance of these joiners is quite acceptable, certainly at normal viewing distance. If there is a trade off between appearance and the absence of running problems by misalignment of the rails then the latter wins out for me. My track is laid on Templot templates which show joints at scale 60 foot intervals along with correct sleeper spacings at the joints, and I have arranged, as far as is possible having regard to where the baseboard joints are, for the end of each length of flexible track to coincide with a rail joint, even though this does lead to some wastage of track. At the locations within each length of track where there is a rail joint on the template I propose to have a dummy joint where I will make a cut part way through each rail and either glue in or solder one of the brass fishplates also sold by the EMGS stores, thereby creating a dummy rail joint which should look right but with no complete break in the rail. I have yet to do this, as I plan to finish the track laying and then test it all thoroughly before proceeding further. I will therefore end up with two types of fishplate, one functional and one cosmetic. In due course I shall await with interest for the first visitor to spot this.
  12. Possibly, it is the nearest imperial measurement to a metric figure that is a round number. For example, 600mm (a common gauge in continental Europe) works out at 23.62205 inches, which to the nearest 1/8th of an inch is 1 foot 11 5/8ths inches and to the nearest half inch is 1 foot 11 1/2 inches.
  13. This is great news. I am currently building an EM layout using entirely the EMGS ready to lay track and turnouts, as manufactured for the EMGS by Peco. I have previously made some handbuilt track and turnouts with C&L components with some success but am not confident that my efforts will stand up to repeated use and, anyway, it would have taken me a long time to lay what I have been able to do reasonably quickly with the EMGS items. I have laid about 40 metres of track and twelve turnouts. The only drawback has been that the only turnout currently available is a B7, so the track layout had to be drawn up accordingly, which restricted me somewhat. This new product has come along a little late for me for the current layout, but for a future layout and, maybe, any alterations I decide on for the current one, this looks as if it would be ideal. I feel sure that you will find a ready market for your products.
  14. Having been on all three of the weathering courses ( with and without an airbrush and advanced) I too can vouch for the excellence of all of them. I have also been on the DCC sound and the detailing the scene courses (the latter earlier today) which are equally excellent and I am now looking forward to the figure painting course I have booked for April 2020.
  15. I have just got home from the Detailing the Scene course at Pendon, a one day course this but otherwise my experience was much the same as Pinehill has said about the tree making course. I guess the two courses are complimentary and intend to go on the tree making course although (sadly ) I cannot make the only one in 2020 with vacancies. I have also been on several other Pendon courses on weathering and DCC sound and all are excellent in all respects, especially as regards value for money.
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