turbos

The main thing with battery powered tools is to find a brand that will suit your current and future requirements, you really don’t want to end up with various different chargers and batteries. The brands to avoid for DIY and model railways are Milwaukee and top end DeWalt, their ideal if you spend your life up on a cherry picker steel erecting or specialist critical engineering etc. but are a bit OTT for our purposes. There is no perfect or best brand to have, like I’ve already said, find a store that has a good selection on display and find the tool you’ll use the most that feels the most comfortable to hold and is in your price range. If you have a mate, colleague or your workplace has a particular brand and they are happy for you to borrow them then get that brand of drill for the batteries and charger. Otherwise what’s best for you is what you find is best for you. Brian

The starter Drill-Battery-Charger sets are almost always discounted in some way so as to hook you into their range of battery tools, the prices between the each brand level starter kits are quite small in the bigger picture. The more expensive brands usually have a certain amount of repairability. If you have the opportunity then go to a local outlet that has a good range on open display and see how they feel in your hand, they all have different ergonomics and balance, this can add or detract more than most people realise from the tools useability. Brian.

One common cause of a smoking drill can be from stopping the drill to soon after use, if the drill is air cooled (it blows air when running) then when under load it dissipates the heat by blowing air through the motor, the heat can still be there after the load is removed from the drill, always run the drill for a short time after drilling to clear any heat build up. Frustratingly batteries are not interchangeable between brands, not even when different brands are the same company such as DeWalt-Stanley or Milwaukee-Ryobi but the batteries and tools are almost always fully interchangeable within a brand, so once you’ve purchased your initial set you then only need to purchase bare units and batteries individually. Think very carefully about which brand to go with, price is only one factor, range of tools and batteries, local availability are others. Brian.

I’m not sure you both understand the point I and possibly the GER were making. The GER were maybe making a carefully worded ‘CR is a bad railway company’ statement on these wagons. Timeline wise they fit, they were expected to travel far off GER metals, though probably not as far as Scotland, but if they did they wanted them to be kept well away from the Caley’s over width carriages. Maybe they hoped other companies would follow there lead on this. Brian.

Having read through this thread this thought occurred to me ‘What was happening on the CR to provoke the GER to put such wording on a wagon?’ Something in a dark recess of my memory Ibrecalled that I’d read something about a legal spat about the gauge of CR rolling stock. The GER machinery wagon was built in 1907, this ties in with the introduction of the CR 65ft. ‘Grampian’ stock. Page 195 Ch.9 Para 3 of Mike Williams bible on CR Carriages: ‘The end and side throw coupled with their extreme width of 9 feet and 3 3/4 inches concerned the North British, whose contemporary carriages were 9 feet wide at most.’ The CR modified the door and commode handles and granted an indemnity to the NBR ‘so far as the extra width of the carriages is concerned.’ The introduction in 1907 of the 68 foot long Dia. 105 non-corridor, 11 compartment,Third certainly didn’t help the issue of the CR running carriages that were quite clearly outwith its own loading gauge. Only the NBR were in a position to go to the bother of getting the indemnity, the other Scottish railway companies appear not to have taken part in this battle. The GER machinery wagons operational wording could well be their reaction to the Caleys ‘Grampian’ behemoths. Brian.

For a bit of inspiration and interest, a very rare picture of an empty 6,7 and 8 roads at Haymarket Depot. 8 road (the nearest) is used for HST power car maintenance, 6 and 7 are for complete ScotRail HST rakes and class 170 maintenance. The extraction hoods are aligned for 170s except at the ends of 6 and 7 roads which are aligned for HST power cars.

Or you could use a mixture of pit wall types. Haymarket 6 road.

I agree, images 5 and 6 in this link https://www.crassoc.org.uk/web/sites/default/files/Archive_Catalogue/CRA7_1_1_1 Carriages.pdf show an Aberdeen Railway composite complete with luggage rails and brakemans seat grounded and in use as a Bothy. Brian.

They could look good on any pre-Beeching semi-forgotten branch line, I think Hattons numbering and marketing them as stock for a slightly obscure specialist branch line is unwise. They should be easy enough to renumber and heavily weather. Hopefully they’ll sell as well as all the other liveries and help fund the future batches. Brian.

These appear to be made to satisfy a ‘Hiraeth’ in our hobby, Hatton’s Genesis coaches are a different generation of carriages from 1920’s carriages, also there’s nothing rtr to pull Balerno coaches. Hopefully the Batch 3 Caledonian Railway 4 wheel carriages will be done in a more typical CR 4 wheel carriage livery. Brian.

No they’re not 4mm scale, they’re 3.7mm(ish) length and height, nearer 4mm on there width though. Brian.

BRT Whisky Blue, the moulds Bachmann use for these actually date back to the 1960s and aren’t even 4mm scale!

If Railtec are unable to supply Plasmor Blockfreight transfers then Modelmaster MM4866 ex-Cambrian decals might be what you’re looking for, just don’t expect the same level of service from Modelmaster that you get from Steve at Railtec. Brian.

On the other hand, it may arouse interest in the LNWR and we may see an increase in the number of (ex-Ratio) Peco Parkside LNWR coach kits purchased and some may even get built and painted! Then they may progress on to brass kits and joining the LNWR society and before you know it you have the next generation of serious LNWR modellers pontificating on the livery rendition on the latest LNWResque RTR item. Long may history repeat itself in our hobby! Brian.

The Hornby shorty Clerestory coaches can be redone as Caley 45ft coaches, there were hundreds of 45ft and 48ft Caley coaches, built around the turn of the century, almost the ‘standard’ Caley coach. The roof and underframe need reworked the rest is up to you. The First/Composite is the easiest, Thirds and Brake Thirds require cut ‘n’ shut. I’m currently doing a First class 45ft Caley coach. There are some good pictures and lots of information on them and all Caledonian Coaches in Mike Williams ‘Caledonian Railway Carriages’. Brian.

Rainbow Railways have now opened a shop in Linlithgow, it opened on Wednesday. It’s within the cafeteria of ‘Playbugs’ children’s soft play centre in the Littlemill Business Park. Unit 24 Little Mill Business Park Linlithgow Bridge Linlithgow West Lothian EH49 7DA. Arran Aird of C-Rail will be there on Saturday with some of his latest products. Great to see a new Model Railway shop opening and when the play centre reopens, hopefully helping to create a future generation for our hobby. I have no links with this business other than a satisfied customer. Brian.

Some recent photos of Jon’s ‘Finnsbay’ model railway are now up on its thread. His widow Sue has decided ‘Finnsbay’ will be dismantled and most items sold. Brian.

Jon’s widow Sue has decided that ‘Finnsbay’ will be dismantled and the majority of items and rolling stock will be sold. Contact me if interested. Brian.