NickBrad

Indeed there it is on page 197, I must have glossed over that or forgotten reading it previously. One to add to the collection after I purchase the 3D printed 04 that's now available and merge it with a suitable chassis. I just hope it doesn't turn into such a farce as my attempts to buy a Ruston 165 body to merge with a Peckett chassis

On 27/01/2024 at 18:03, NHY 581 said:

Spent the best part of a day pottering in the Room of Doom. 

 

One long term 'need' is for a Sentinel to run on Ewe, simply for variety. Aside from the Y10, a 'normal' sentinel was trialled in the late '20s, shortly before the passenger services were withdrawn. It was not a success. 

 

In my world, their occasional use continued and today I dragged 68184 out.

 

 

The search continues for a suitable East Anglian example and until one is located, 184 will have to do. 

 

 

 

Rob

 

 

 

 

 

I've seen mention of the single cabbed Sentinels being trialled on the W&U, nut as yet, despite multiple books on the line, I've never seen evidence of this. Do you perchance know where I can find such a thing, I'm holding off purchasing and running one on Outwell Basin depot until I know for a fact that one was trialled and it isn't confusion with the Y10s.

This is looking really impressive, I was wondering if it would be possible to turn my Grimsby trams into working models and now I have confidence that it can be achieved.

On 06/11/2023 at 19:19, NHY 581 said:

 

 

 

* oh....oh.... and I've also collected two of Rapido's lovely W&U tramway bogie coaches........yum. 

 

 

Aren't they just delightful too. I have another two on pre-order in the form of the J70 teak pack, so i'll end up with more coaches than the real railway, but then I pre-ordered the Titfield pair before the tram pack was announced

On 08/09/2023 at 23:40, F-UnitMad said:

Oi..!! That's my line!! 🙄🤣🤣👍..... ok and I copied it from a t-shirt I saw a chap wearing recently...🤔🤫

If I had to guess, I'd say it was an LMM t-shirt, quite popular in my group of friends. I personally have one saying "Oh look, Gubbins".

On 28/07/2023 at 21:33, John Besley said:

 

Crying shame someone didn't see fit to save one, particularly with them being well known from the Rev Awdrey books... or is there one squirreled away in a barn in Upwell...

Sadly no barns remain at Upwell, my sister lives on a housing estate on top of where the yard used to be

On 28/07/2023 at 11:18, NHY 581 said:

A quick question to the assembled masses.....

 

I've bought a couple of PECO track rubbers, to replace my ageing ones. They've changed. 

 

The old ones were rougher to the touch. The new ones, though textured, are a lot smoother. 

The old ones did leave a bit of "dust" behind but not much. After using the track rubber, I normally follow on with a bit of ipa on a cotton bud or three. But if doing a quick cleanse, I've found this isn't always needed. 

 

The new ones leave quite a bit of residue and having tried them,  I'm not happy to use them at a show as I obviously can't hoover the layout. If not removed ( hoovered) then the residue will coat the wheels which kind of defeats the object of the exercise. 

 

This was discovered when testing the J70 on Ewe, yesterday. In short, they've made a perfectly adequate item a bit rubbish. 

 

What is everyone else using on their transets ? 

 

Rob. 

I personally just place a piece of lint free cloth, (cut up old t shirt is perfect,) over a small block of wood and put some IPA on it before rubbing down the tracks. Never needed or want to use anything more harsh, even track rubbers can cause micro abrasions in the rails which in turn can trap dirt etc, meaning more heavy duty cleaning which leads to more micro abrasions which leads to.... you get the idea 😄

That's just amazing, shame you don't do commissions, other wise mine would be in the post tomorrow. I am going to take a wagon or 2 with me on holiday and give this weathering malarky a go, if it doesn't go the way I like, then it's just a couple of wagons to clean off, no harm, no foul. If it does work out though, it may give me the confidence to weather my own J70 when I take it apart to fit a decoder.

Now, I shall be watching closely as I have a J70, (along with another on pre-order) which could do with a weathering tickle, but seeing it laid out like that makes me nervous about whether I could reassemble satisfactorily

If I come across one at around the £100 mark, i'll take the risk of buying another and fettling it if need be, but the full £170 was too much judging by the lemon I received.

I'm on the hunt for a cheap Peckett W4, for a chassis, if I happen to find one and it has a Dapne body, consider it yours as i'll have no need of it in my plans

Edit: On reflection, it seems that particular body is desirable if the inflated price over all other examples is anything to go by.

Will you be able to resolve the issue now the chassis is no longer required for the show, or is it beyond reasonable repair?

Some great progress there, it may inspire me to tackle the 2 Grimsby trams I have currently in the post.

16 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

Hi Nick, 

 

They ( Hattons ) literally have none left. You'll need to place a pre-order for one of the next batch due in December. 

 

Either that or do as I did and add to a wishlist on Hattons website. That's how I got mine. 

Ebay seems to see these either offered by chancers or auctions going a bit daft. 

 

Rob

Yep, went last night, ended up with 2 on pre-order in the GER stratford livery and somehow a Ruston 88DS as well

I think I may have to order one of those Hattons coaches, looks just the thing for replicating the grounded coach that once resided at Outwell Basin

That is so atmospheric, exactly the type of thing that attracts me to US stuff, (alongside my W&U fascination). 

I think if you keep looking at stuff like that and find a 44 tonner loco at the right price, there's hope for N-ewe Sheepton in the future yet ;)

Looking in the books, they don't unfortunately, it's the age old problem of rolling stock not being considered of interest at the time, something I wonder will happen in the future with all the multiple units we have running now, so many people write the modern scene off as being boring, but will probably rue those thoughts 30 years or so down the line

On 05/04/2023 at 22:22, NHY 581 said:

I've mainly been playing trains this evening. 

 

M7 on Bleat Wharf. 

 

03 on Sheep Dip

 

J15s on Ewe. 

 

A nice diversion from what has been a hectic few days.

 

Rob. 

I read that and thought hang on, ol' sheepy has gone all American and featuring LIRR multiple units now? Then I remembered that the M7 would have nowhere for the 3rd rail pickup to draw from..... 

On 04/04/2023 at 10:40, No Decorum said:

Absolutely. Kernow had a replacement sent to the despatch room on the same day as my faulty one was received. It arrived yesterday. There is a lot to be said for it, even if many of the criticisms are valid. There is a lot of separately applied detail and it runs well. There is a slight waddle but nothing I find unacceptable. It’s very controllable and smooth and has no trouble negotiating points. Infuriatingly, though, a rear sandbox and sand pipe are missing with no sign of them in the box. The girder at the bottom of the front buffer beam has been glued on crookedly but is barely noticeable. (The rear one was broken off on my original model.)

 

The cab light functions in a most curious fashion, apart from being too bright (has Modelu produced a driver with sunglasses?) On DC, apply the power and the light comes on. Switch it off with the wand and reduce the power and the light comes on again briefly before power turns off completely. Stop to reverse direction and the light comes on again. Even more disconcertingly, at shunting speed, the light turns on again randomly. The instructions say that the light can be controlled by the wand or a decoder, so the problem might not occur on DCC. Is this a universal fault or specific to my model?

I had similar issues with the light coming back on randomly, I do think it's a DC only problem though, not that I had a chance to put a decoder in mine. Sadly, I will not be receiving a replacement, all the remaining models at Rails had varying degrees of body fitting issues and under testing, a few of them started out silent and then developed noisy running as it progressed, suggesting that the gears are not the best quality used in these models either. The sales guy said that in good conscience he couldn't send any of the models out to me unless I specifically said I wanted one and so we've put the money towards other pre-orders I have placed instead. 
All in all, a negative for Heljan here, but a big positive for Rails of Sheffield.

Mine is on it's way back to Rails, they've confirmed that they have assigned a new one to me and that it will be checked over for defects before shipping. I cannot fault their service thus far, it's important to remember that the fault lies with the factory Heljan are using rather than the retailers.

Well, I had mine arrive today, Heljan 9770  (Industrial Yellow) and yes, warped running plate, like others have mentioned and unfortunately what sounds like an angry wasp under the bonnet. It's coming up to the 30 minutes running in the 2nd direction and hasn't quietened down, so sadly it looks like the first ever model I have had to return as I simply do not have the experience or expertise to correct the faults, especially as I don't know what is causing the sound, whether it's mis-meshed gears or whatever. 
I decided to buy based on the fact that I already have a Heljan class 07 and the differences are night and day. Had I paid £70, I may have accepted it, but £170, not a chance.

6 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

Morning Nick. 

 

What have we told you about this common sense thing you keep using........... ?

 

Will you never learn ? 

 

Rob. 

Not me Gov, I stopped tryin ta learn the day I left skool. I am common tho, so I naturally have the scents of it I suppose. 

Seems Mark Forrest also has the same musings and I'm sure he has more brain cells than meself, so maybe this idea is indeed using common scents. (I'm now wonder how to evoke the smell of diesels from my layout....)

On 21/03/2023 at 18:37, John Besley said:

How about a bus bar using two lengths of brass rod spaced an 1" apart this can be fixed in place with a brass cleat made up 2 or 3 per length.

 

I've used 1/16th brass rod inside buildings as bus bar in 16mm garden railways station building and a loco shed

 

Further thoughts on the above to fix you could use strips of 15amp Choc block  (terminal strip connector) - thread the bar through the choc blocks clamping in place and screw the blocks in place with 3.00mm wood screws through the mounting holes if you use a block 3 wide it will give you plenty of segregation allowing room to make connections by soldering to the bar

Following up on this idea, why not simply grab a length of code 100 track, (that I'm sure most of us have hung on to, even after switching to code 75,) and use that as your bus? Already held apart by the plastic sleepers and a bit cheaper than brass rod

I personally go with Caboose Industries throws, a bit oversized, but then I use them as functional switches rather than just cosmetic jobbies. Those Tony Sissons ones look great, just wish I could actually buy some rather than a google picture of them 🤨

On 09/02/2023 at 18:35, Limpley Stoker said:

Out of interest,  is adhesive copper tape suitable for use as a bus, to which to solder the ‘dropper’ wires,

I have used it both on Friday Bridge and one of my previous layouts without electrical issues, the only thing I would mention is that "adhesive" was a loose term in my experience, great at looping and sticking to itself as you un reel it, (best to stick one end to the board and move it along as you unwind,) but hopeless at sticking to any other type of material. I may have had a bad reel, but I advise sticking down with ca glue, just to be sure.