GEOEng03

it looks like they may have changed the way they manufacture the wheel sets to get the brake disc effect. I wonder if there are limitations to casting such small details, which is why they have now got an over sized flange. I have just started looking at my 3 sets and a number have the wobble. This frustrates me a bit and will look to see if there is a quick fix. Cheers

The Old Oak Common and VTEC sets did have them, but not other named versions such as Harry Patch. No rhyme or reason to how they're supplied

I nearly flipping did - for some reason, I checked the version on Rails and it all came crashing down for me... :-)

Hi, Does it have etched nameplates included? Cheers

I've spent a fortune at SDR and with derails this week and I am really tempted by the Vulcan set as well. Having done a quick search, it is bang up to date with what I would use it for and would work amazingly with the Nuclear flask area I have planned... It's a bit big to sneak into the house via courier mind... Edit - just noted it the N gauge version... Bryn

Thanks for clearing that up. Ordered then saw the name and location and it clicked. Glad they have helped you with this offer and you've had more of the money paid and I got a good deal. Same for the SDR as well Will keep an eye out, easier to get the wife to agree if its cheap like that Cheers

Noted that earlier today and done for both. Absolute steal I think. Problem is, will spend a fortune on the coaches for the NR set given a full set is not upcoming... Also got a GWR 158 from South Devon railway for £185. So, I've done my bit for small businesses (I visited there yesterday as well and it was full price, but the wife brought lots of cars/food trucks at 20% for the layout...) Cheers

Looking good. Really like the weeds and grasses around the relay boxes. Does the Wills kit come with railing as well or is that sourced from another kit/scratch built Like the rock cutting as well, is this pre made or from a mould. Cheers

Thanks. Have relieved them of the MSc 66 and a number of buildings and accessories. Cheers

A couple of new purchases arrived today, both Realtrack Class 156 and resparys from Rainbow Railways. First is a Latest Northern by Arriva white and blue, this will Compliment the earlier purple livery I ordered. 20200606_163124 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200606_163131 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Second is the latest EMR livery applied to the 156 and I am blown away by how good this is. Printing is crisp and clean and the colours are brilliant. 20200606_163144 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200606_163156 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Just need to source a set of sound chips for the EMR Set, may just standard chip the Northern one until funds provide. Looking forward to testing both units. Cheers

I can relate to that. Rather than not do anything have gone for a small DMU layout. The progress you have made in weeks is amazing and why I've gone small as well. I've spent quite a bit a time running trains back and forth between the platform and sidings and it's been good fun. Will be watching as it grows Cheers

Had a similar issue with my build and point close to platform end. Retooled Class 158 and mark III's coaches all fine, but tried a older Class 158 and it doesn't make it round the without collecting the platform. Why it's not odd that all stock measures different in gauge, the difference between the two Bachmann Class 158 models is apparent at this point. It's more than enough to make me need to rearrange the platform ramp end. Even the 800 was fine being the longest coach I own... Great progress in the time frame as well. Ballasting and scenery is excellent.

There has been some intermittent work on the layout due to personal circumstances, but the biggest job undertaken was the wiring underneath, which always takes hours to sort. I have used several units on the track and test points etc… and all works fine, which is great. Part of the initial decision was to use concrete sleeper track, but the points I wanted were all wooden sleeper, so there is a mixture of both. I had placed a concrete section in initially, but felt this looked odd, so this has been changed for wooden sleeper for now. So have used wooden for the entire entrance to the sidings – not fully correct for a modern image layout. 20200527_191909 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Area now I have replaced with wooden sleeper. This also shows the point work that will lead into the hidden storage yard. The bridge has been placed there for an idea of what will act as the scenic break. 20200605_112300 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I will construct some form of wall or scenic picture to hide the storage yard. Haven’t decided what to do to the front of this yet but have a two road engine shed on order and to be delivered, plan on a small Diesel/electric area for additional playability. 20200605_112250 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I have one eye on the move and taking this with me, so I have made attempts to make this portable. Some sleepers have been fixed to the board and will act as the join when I later come to cut these – they have not yet been soldered. This is my first attempt at this and while not neat, they are not interfering early on with the track – I may have to revisit this mind. As it stands, there is at the moment a further one in the visible track area and then five joins within the storage yard. 20200527_191903 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200527_191859 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Look back at the station area and points that will lead into the two main platform lines and then DMU stable I have at the moment. 20200605_112303 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr This gives a general and unfixed view of the storage sidings and pointed area I have planned. It gives me a good amount of flexibility and playability to shift stock between the two platforms. Appreciate that it is not perfect, but I feel it works well with the space I have available. 20200605_112246 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I have done some more work since these and will capture later, but I need to solder a few additional points and drill holes for droppers and point motors. The track is currently wired and working with no faults (I remember to break the brass sleepers). Finally, a new purchase is this East Midland Trains Class 158. I could only find this DCC Ready, but at an excellent price from Derails. I have pinched the sound trip from my GWR 158 and will use this way for now, given the location of this layout. I must admit, the changing of chip for the Bachmann model is superb and really should be how all manufacturers allow access to change chips in units. 20200605_112312 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Plan on doing plenty more over the weekend and have a few new purchases on the way, including a couple from Rainbow Railways…

Evening everyone, I have tried and failed to get anything of decent size up and running for a number of years and decided that after accepting a new job that will required a relocation north to the Bristol area and the associated house move that will follow in the next 6 to 15 months, that I would do something much smaller, so that I can spend lockdown (what is left) building a layout, that I can learn from and hopefully port into a much bigger layout – or not, at a later stage. The only real space I have available is a corner of the spare bedroom that had been used for the larger layout and now as an home office for me during my work from home stint, so I can only really use part of this. I have an interest in the SW and have a number of 800’s and HST for FGW/GWR. However, I come from the north and spent many years commuting on many Northern Rail/ East Coast and TPE trains into and out of Bingley/Leeds/Huddersfield/Wakefield/York and London, also working all over the network, so have a found memory of this area and the DMU’s that operated in this area. So, I have shelved the SW stock that I have, shifting a few items and started to purchase some northern area stock from the past 10 years. The aim is to build a small station for operating typically 1/2/3 car DMU’s (but can facilitate a XC 220 just) with the occasional other visitor. The collection will comprise Northern 153/156/158’s (I likely won’t get a 144 at a decent price – but can hope!), while also running a few EMT DMU’s such as a 158 and possibly a 156. I need to try and limit the extent of the time period, as I like Central Trains as well… This will give the layout some operational variety and much needed colour, which the GWR lacks these days, while allowing me to remember the days I spent working on and around the network. I also have a fond interest of northern transport. Basically, the aim of this layout is to give me a manageable target to build a layout, while we are in the process of switching areas. The inspiration for the start of this layout and the possible track layout came from ‘The BRM Guide to Trackplans & Layout Design Volume 3’ with a number of end to end layouts shown in this issue, but the one that impressed me and fitted with my thoughts was Peter Harvey’s St Peter’s Street. I was taken with the ability to showcase 2 car DMU’s on this layout and was a key aspect of what I wanted in mine. The orientation has been dictated by having only Peco Large Radius right hand points to hand as well, during the Covid-19 shut down. The biggest thing I liked with the angled station area, something I have adapted in my layout, to try and break up the linear affect of the straight boards and room corner I have. The workable area is 3m (9ft 8in) x 1.2m (4ft), with the boards being 0.6m (2ft) wide. The small dogleg at the end, will likely be for a scenic area, once I have determined how much of width the storage area will take. Track is Peco Code 75, with electrofrog points being used and I am using a NCE Powercab controller. Where possible, the units will all be sound fitted, as cost and time permits. While not neat, I have added foam board as backing to the layout, just to give me a defined working area while constructing and not damaging the walls any further! All boards are made of 9mm ply, glued and battened together to create 1.2m x 0.6m boxes, bolted together and supported on timber legs. The layout is nameless at this moment but will give it a suitable name I am sure as it continues to develop. This is always something I struggle with. A few pictures of where I am to date. General view of constructed board area - ignore the cork track bed, this has been removed, as i had considered a sectional layout, but gave up on that. 20200524_073128 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr The station area will be a two-line centre platform set up, with the Bachmann Great Central buildings providing the station access and egress - via a small elevated scenic area located to the end of the layout. There is also at this stage, an additional siding to stable DMU's when not in use, providing some additional capacity when moving units between the scenic and siding area. View looking from end of platform towards pointed area and what will lead into hidden storage area. 20200527_164345 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I haven’t decided what to do with the area to the left in this picture yet – either it will be a number of old cottages, some industrial buildings or a couple of diesel sidings for freightliner etc… I will consider this as I concentrate on the station and fiddle yard area. Some general station pictures 20200527_164329 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200527_164352 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I was lucky enough to get hold of a Rainbow Railways Respray Norther Class 156 and I am very impressed with the quality of the reprint and how far it has come. These units will form the backbone of the layout as I continue to develop it and this has to be as good as what comes out of the factory for resprays and I will endeavour to get more from them. 20200527_164355 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr That’s the update from the past few days and I am doing bits as when time permits. The good thing about the layout is that if I am having a few minutes from work, it is just there and allows a break for 5minutes.

Excellent, thanks for this. I had cocked up and got them running the same way, but this sorted it perfectly...

Unfortunately, the happened to me. Took 3 weeks to arrive after ordering beginning of January, although the order was missing an item. It took days to get hold of them, they reassured me when I did that they'd get back in touch to confirm - they didn't. Follow up email ignored. Took only course of action and went via PayPal, they then reacted very quickly after 2 months of not doing so and refunded missing amount. Suggest as half-full says, open case and it'll sort it... PayPal can restrict account etc... so it should work. They're blacklisted for me now. Issue was that they showed stock online, even though they didn't have it... hence partial order. Cheers

Email from TMC suggests the Scotrail and XC TGS should be in stock in the next two weeks. Cheese

Hi, I recently acquired a GWR HST unit that needed a small amount of work where damage had occurred to the lighting and wiring. In a nutshell, i have replaced both the dummy and power car lighting wires with new ones that i had, to save soldering, but i have a question with the power car lighting. Basically, the lens is missing as shown in the first picture below and i cannot find a spare part code or any sign of spares anywhere. So, do Hornby make these (i will drop them an email later)? This is the second generation HST without the sprung lighting board. 2 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr and this shows the lens units within the power car. 1 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr When looking in other cars, there is an additional piece that sits here, that runs from the lens via a tube. Without this, the inside light on the left side (looking at the unit) does not light up as it should. I have sorted wiring up easily enough, but need this lens to complete the look. I can probably grin an bear it, or use some form of liquid glue to complete the look, without the light working, but thought i'd ask if anyone was aware or knew of a source of this part... Cheers Bryn

Hi Sorry for delay. Yes, looks shorter, but there the same length, just the angle the phone was held... Fantastic coaches and you won't be disappointed... Cheers

Evening. I thought I'd do a quick initial review if it helps others. My sets have arrived today. Must say, I am quite impressed with these. Decided to get both GWR sets, as I'd regret if I didn't and they sell out and XC01... Have shown the original old tooling versus the new tooling - think for something that has been around a while, the old tooling isn't actually too bad, but the newer tooling shows how things have moved on. Windows are much better on the sliding door coaches, not looking as clunky... but I'm unsure about the tinting and if it is better or not... guess just used to what is on the other MKIII's... 20200426_134040 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200426_134050 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200426_134112 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr Close coupling is closer, but much more fiddly, think the hunt couplings would be the way to go here, given I feel the pockets may suffer like the Oxford releases. It appears to be the same mechanism underneath and looks to rely on being held in place... I may be wrong mind - so care will be taken when removing the shell... 20200426_133924 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I've a number of small imperfections on the sets I've had, particularly thw doors on some of the XC coaches. Some damaged and sloping decals, but will easily hide from some weathering, but QC perhaps could've picked something as obvious up... but at £35RRP... 20200426_132629 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200426_132911 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200426_133450 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr 20200426_133624 by Bryn Jones, on Flickr I must say, it's nice to see a representative interior for each coach type and the disabled and catering coaches actually looking like you'd expect instead of a painted window panel... Will still benefit from seats being painted etc... Overall, great model and really are eye catching and a great model by Hornby. Look forward to running these in ernest... Let's hope they revisit and update the original MkIII model now... Cheers

Hi Looks fantastic. Have you scratch built the houses of are they kit/resin. Enjoying the work going into the build Cheers

Lovely follow up email to check all was well with the order as well. It's the little things that can go a long way sometimes. The nickname 'Little Dan' made me smile as well. :-) Cheers

Yeah, I can see how my wording may have suggested that The earlier post was that the sliding door MK3 in GWR area showing as sold out on Hornby.com now, which suggests that they have all gone to retailers - aside from one that is showing as available. Either way - the GWR and ScotRail HST are a very modellable unit with the length that can be prototypically run... Cheers

Hopefully they will be the same for the GWR. Was referring to the original batch of XC coaches versus these. Will be interesting to see if Hornby have migrated to the Bachmann XC shade or not... Difficult to tell from the pictures that are being shown - but they look fantastic, regardless. Cheers

I was referring to the GWR sliding door sets on the Hornby.com website. They are appearing online there in a slow trickle.