AyJay

I dug deeper into the terms and found a line that said 'we will contact you by email', so there we are. Well I have gone for the weathered Merchant Navy and the two Princesses. Although if they were offering the Playtrains set, I would have gone for that for my grandson. Had to think carefully about what to say though.

I also have 'misgivings' about the strategy employed in this years Advent Calendar from Hornby. I appreciate that they are a business, competing in very challenging times. They have to promote themselves and that means 'Social Media'. However, I am uncomfortable with the ask here. Clearly, the pattern is to connect with as wide a market as possible by the process on 'Liking' and 'Tagging', However, the majority of people that I know who do use social media in its various forms, would have absolutely no interest in model railways and if I start tagging them, or inundating them with anything relating to my interests...... Well, I think that their response would not be described as happy. So, this Advent Calendar is a disappoint for me. But not completely without hope, The only two items that have interested me, fortunately, have just required looking on Youtube and leaving comments. No social suicide required. But can someone please tell me... Hornby says that they will announce the winners and that winners must check-in and claim their prize. But it is not clear to me where one checks? Does anyone have an answer to this please? Thank you.

Mrs D used to in run a pub in a 'previous life'. She told me that they were near to finishing one evening and she was just about done with preparing meals in the kitchen when her other half put his head round the door and asked if she could rustle up a late order for food. She replied with something that appropriately reflected her mood, then next moment Rod Stewart popped his head round the door and apologised for the inconvenience. Well he got the food that he wanted. He was working on a recording project nearby and each evening for the next week, brought his custom there and played darts. I wonder if he remembers that occasion? I think that she would like to meet him, I know I would!

Is that Mrs TophamHatt speaking ? Like Monty Python, go and do something completely different and then come back to it when you feel ready. Don't worry, hits me from time to time. All the best.

I see that someone has already voted for Richard Trevithick's Pennydarren. I remember having the Airfix (?) working model of this as a youngster. I would love to see this, but think that there would be practical difficulties in reproducing an accurate working mechanism that is reliable. So may I suggest as an alternative, that other contender in the Rainhill Trials, Timothy Hackworths 'Sans Pareil'. However, if anyone did bring out 'Ivor the Engine', then it would really make me smile if it also has the correct 'chuff - a puff' sound. :-) A mention for the Casey Jones 'Cannonball Express' and Lady Penelope tied up in front of a monorail would cover my childhood :-)

We're staying put! I would so love to have a railway room that is a 'slippers on' solution, but the funds just won't stretch to the ideal property. Perhaps I might go and say 'hello' to my local club when I feel that it's safe to get out there.

Thank you for that Johnster, most informative. You have answered he question AND given me some useful background information. When I was in a club, I was able to run long rakes, so bought coaches like there was no tomorrow. Now, length is constrained and for most liveries, I can run two rakes. I guessed that the blue/greys did come later and would probably look better being pulled by a diesel, but then, I am into steam. The green livery of Southern with those brass door handles looks really beautiful, but I have no plans to go Southern. I also have a rake of blood/custard Collets and a rake of Pullman cars, but that's another story...

Apologies if anyone has mentioned this, life is just too short to read every page of a thread... The Rocket looks a lovely model and it opens up interesting possibilities for a themed layout, Rainhill Trials and the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway both spring to mind. Although it would possibly be in poor taste to place the unfortunate William Huskisson. But then that leaves the question, would this be a good marketing opportunity to release other period models? 'Locomotion', 'Sans Perail', 'Lion' and 'Iron Duke' all spring to mind. Is there anyone from Hornby reading this? If you listen carefully, you might hear the groaning of my wallet...

My carriages are mostly Mk1's in various liveries, Blue/grey, Blood/custard, Chocolate/cream, Maroon. Also my steam locomotives are all BR marked and representing each of the big 4. As far as running passenger trains go, I have always preferred not mixing liveries on a single train and I can, at a squeeze, run a 6-carriage train on my layout. What I would like to know is, where should I place this carriage that I have? e.g. do I consider it to be a brake carriage and put it at the back of a train? It's the Lima equivalent of the Hornby full parcels carriage. R4845 BR, Mk1 Parcels, M80584 - Era 4 (Hornby.com) I ask because if I can use it, it saves buying another brake carriage; the money tree is taking a big hit :-( . Also, during the BR years, would there have been trains made up of differing liveries? Thank you

J-Cloths! Of course. I'll wait 'til the coast is clear, then 'liberate' one from the kitchen Thanks all, I will look out for the Ten Commandments product, in case it does not work. Yes I have used the dreaded track rubber, but the consensus is that they are not a good solution. Thanks all.

The subject of track cleaning has come up before, although I cannot find anything recent on the subject, so apologies for digging it up again. Well... remembering that I had a Triang Hornby track cleaning car, I dug it out to see if it could be pressed into service. I replaced the original wheels with Alan Gibson wheels, so that it would run on my finescale track. The original piece of felt was so badly deteriorated that it was no use; so searching on the internet, I purchased a sheet of 3mm thick wool felt. Cutting a strip to size, I fitted this and then gave it a try. That's where my plan all went wrong. Firstly, the pad pressing down was lifting the wheels, so I placed a couple of big nuts in the wagon to hold it down. Then it caused so much drag that I had to 'tweak' the position of the pad so that it barely brushed over the track, I also had to dig out a heavy locomotive to haul it. Now it moves, but comes to a halt over the points as the felt is getting snagged in the point frogs, It is also leaving threads behind, caught on the track. I also started looking at a sheet of cork, but it would not bend the 180 degrees without splitting. Is there no way that I can make this work??? Is my only realistic solution, the Dapol motorised track cleaner, B800? I do also have the modern Hornby track cleaning car, R296, but refuse to use it because the 'point of contact' is a pair of abrasive pads. My choice of cleaning fluid is IsoPropyl Alcohol. Any suggestions? Thank you

I am getting a little 'concerned'. Having seen the article about the development of the Winston Churchill Funeral Car on the 'Hornby' programme, I was so impressed by what I saw that I rang up my stockists and asked them to add one onto the order that I already have for the soon-to-be-released Flying Scotsman in BR green. Now my dealers have come back to me to say that this order is cancelled! I have just e-mailed Hornby to ask for an explanation. Really now! If a new product is promoted on TV, it goes without saying that it will generate a lot of interest (i.e. orders) in that product and that puts the onus on them to hit the floor running. Has Hornby missed the mark here? This also gives me doubts as to when I will see my 60103 ? Spleen vented!

I use six of these: I Hove made a frame from plywood strips that sits across them to support the layout. Needs foam pads underneath to protect the floor.

Well I finally was able to get to the 'mancave' and fettle about with my turntable. There were two problems. 1. Where had put brickpaper wound the well wall and then topped it with paving slabs, this caused one end of the bridge to catch with insufficient clearance, so some work with scalpel/file put that right. 2. I needed to reseat the motor so the worm was in best contact with it's cog. i.e angled slightly. That seems to have fixed it. :-)

Quite a few years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to someone that he knew, because this gentleman was also a railway enthusiast. When we went to visit him, I was absolutely 'blown away' by the size and complexity of it. His story was that he lived alone, his offspring having fledged many years back. Also, being an alcoholic, he built this railway as a kind of 'therapy', give his mind something else to think of. In our conversation about his family, he indicated that his Son & Daughter were not interested in having this when he passed on. So wishing to lighten the tone a bit I said, "Oh I'll bring a will form round when I next visit" The thing is, six months later, he died. What gutted me was that I had borrowed a tool that he had made, a worm-gear puller, that I used on one of my Triang Hornby locos and then had given it back to him at my last visit !!! No doubt, either his Son had just chucked the lot in a skip at the council dump; or some house clearance chap was rubbing his hands with glee as he smashed up the layout and sold the rolling stock. Mrs D and I keep talking about writing our wills. I will make it clear that my collection is to be first offered to anyone in the wider family who shows any interest in having it. Failing that, it is to be sold to one of the dealers advertising in BRM. I have no illusions that the resale value will not be very high. But I do hope that someone wants the card buildings that I made, they are too nice to trash!

Very true Andy. Each afternoon, I see beautiful properties with vast rooms, suitable candidates for railways. They stand in their own grounds and there is no danger that the next door neighbour will suddenly build an extra floor onto his horrible extension, casting our property into permanent shadow. Then I have to ask, when there is 4ft of snow outside, will this idyllic property be isolated until the thaw and the answer is , 'Probably yes'. Steve, I like your suggestion of making a list. High on my list is keeping the place warm and the cost of heating. I may suggest that we just move within the county, there are plenty of lovely places in Oxfordshire.

Hello all. My layout has a Peco turntable, the LK-55, which is currently operated by the Expo motor kit. However, this kit is now misbehaving and is proving unreliable. I see that Peco now produce their own turntable motor, the PL-55 and I would like to know how good it is? Does anyone have one and would that care to comment on it please? Particularly, I would like to know: How easy is it to retro fit? Is it supported on the base of the turntable, or does it require additional support? What is its speed like? Is its operation reliable? Is there overshoot? Does it make a lot of noise? A photo of it in position would also be helpful. Thank you, Alan

Very true Zomboid. That is why I'm thinking of market towns, local shops, Supermarket, lively church, Hospital. clubs. Hello Q. My eldest sister and hubby moved to Norfolk some years back, now he is very frail and their daughters live way down south. Even aside from the geographical separation, I'm not sure it's wise to go too far down the property price gradient; you can never come back because it's too far uphill. I suppose we could just abandon the idea and stay put. It's not a bad house, although the kitchen and bathroom are crying out for modernising, we share a driveway with several others and the only place I could build a railway was in an outdoor building (note to any nefarious persons: Nothing valuable kept there when unattended); so with increasing fuel costs, any visit to my mancave in cold weather generates strong protest.

Gosh! That is a strong response. Yet again, I seem to have touched a point that provoked a lot of interesting, and varied responses. Thank you all for the humour, the soul-searching, sound advice and the honesty. Let's kick off by 'borrowing' the thoughts of a master wordsmith: "To move, or not to move, that is the question: Whether 'tis better in the life to suffer The expanse and pressing of invading neighbours, Or to get packing against a sprawl of development, And by moving end it." Sorry, just had to be done. I have also been known to play around with the work of that other great philosopher, John Lennon. Mrs D is already retired. It is also second time around for both of us and I moved in with her, so I never really saw this place as 'Mine'. We are also both fixed in our ways, so there is no shortage of friction, but somehow we manage. Mrs D hankers after moving south and west, get closer to the coast. Don't know why? I originate from the London/Essex borders and have sisters and their offspring scattered all across the south. I don't feel a calling to any particular area. Numerous times, we have discussed the possibility of moving, find a place that belongs to both of us, have a fresh start. Where we are is an expanding town, horrible soulless boxes going up everywhere. Also, on our road, we feel pressed on each side by neighbours, one of them not very nice. Our home is also not really a best fit for our lifestyle and is lacking privacy. So the weight in that pan of the scales is saying 'Move'. On the other pan of the scales is the security of what we already have, the risks of stepping out into the unknown and the financial cost of moving. Also, we are walking distance from the shops, including a supermarket and good transport links. We don’t share any common interests. When we met, MrsD enjoyed better health, we would pootle about on bikes when we were dating. Now her health has taken a downturn and all she wants to do is watch daytime TV. One programme that has caught my eye is ‘Live life in the Country’, just to see what other places look like. Although I have pointed out that this is an unrealistic view because these properties are picked to present what is best in an area and the participants have a few £100k’s more than we do. However, I do like the look of Somerset/Dorset (Anyone down that way recommend a nice place that has the amenities and community a couple of over 60’s need?) I have said all this because if we do decide to move, well that’s my retirement all mapped out. Yes, a Will is important and we will need to see a solicitor. 2nd time around with offspring on both sides will probably make it complicated. Due to the health issues, I think that I will be the last one standing and so I am working hard to maintain good links with my sisters numerous offspring, since my own are a serious letdown, thanks to the poison of their Mother. If we did stay, since I am already a ‘Friend’ at Pendon, I would probably volunteer there. I have also suggested that we look for a dance class together. There is one friend that I have made at my current employment, also a model railway enthusiast. We chat regularly over the phone and have gone to the Warley/Alexandra Palace exhibitions together; are currently considering travelling up for the Doncaster exhibition in February. Well, it’s now time to get down to work. Got a lot to do today. Been good chatting with you all.

Hello all. I would like to address all the 'Baby Boomers' and 'Young at heart' among you, on a subject that affects us all in our lives. And no, it does not involve little blue pills. There is an aspect of professional life that I would like to explore, but which I have never seen discussed; that of preparation for end of working life and entry into retirement. I enjoy my career, it is probably the best job that I have ever had. Yet retirement is now only months away and I am not sure how I am going to deal with it? I am not speaking of pension or money and do not need financial advice. I am a professional engineer and a member of the IET. Without an employer to pay for it, my membership will probably be allowed to lapse, so also my Union membership. Will I have need for them when I am no longer working? Thanks to Covid, I have been working at home for 20 months now and devoid of face to face contact with my peers in the office; Teams is a poor substitute. This has shown me that knocking around the house all day and being under The Wife's feet brings it's tensions. I had considered delaying retirement, just to continue working and give me that 'sense of direction' ; but as The Wife correctly points out, our health is not guaranteed and I need to slow down so that we can enjoy our time together. But how do I prepare for change? Sitting on committees, taking up golf or standing behind the counter of a charity shop are not for me. I have done school mentoring, Cubs and amateur dramatics. I have my interests, My Model Railway is an ongoing project and I live where there are no shortage of beautiful places to explore on my bike, but I cannot do that all of the time. The thought of endless box sets sounds like slow death. We will not be having any more pets. A few years back, I attended a 1-day course at work on retirement. All it covered was pension options and money. Very important, but not what I wanted to hear. Recently, I went along to a men's social gathering from a neighbouring church, my own church is too small for such things. Good to meet others, but I didn't feel that it fitted well with where I am. Similarly, I visited a 'Men in Shed' group. Thanks to Covid, there were only 2 members braving it, so there was little to go on. Being on the Autistic Spectrum, I have Aspergers, I don't really have friends and find it difficult to connect with others. I am in good health and reasonably fit, I have recently started the 'Couch to 5K' running programme and want to work up to doing a park run. So I would be very interested in hearing from others who are about to, or have already taken this step into a new life. How do you cope with it? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Where is your focus? How do you keep body and mind active? Additionally, I think that it is too easy to be defined in terms of what we do, this is a trait that I have particularly seen by men in groups; when meeting someone "what do you do" is one of the first questions as we seek to define each other in terms of our professions. Do you feel that your identity is affected by this change? Most importantly, what has stopped your partner from killing you? I would appreciate your thoughts, serious or humorous, but always helpful. Thank you

I'm due my next pot of Earl Grey, but I'm looking forward to my weekly tipple of whatever whisky I have on the go at the moment, currently an Irish brew called Clanceys. Pleasantly sippable.

The loco that stalls is a short wheelbase, 4 driving wheels, meaning that as it goes over the 'ridge', it only has one pair of driving wheels in contact, so it is prone to stall. I have a tendered loco with pony truck that tends to bounce as it goes forward, and so will tend to jump the rails at the slightest imperfection; pity Hornby did not have the foresight to add a spring to hold it down on the track. As for the errant wagon, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. The bogie on one coach is another matter and will stand further examination. Thinking further about soldering rains together, I have in mind something like this: Push the sleepers back to expose a few inches of rail, using some water to reduce friction and prevent damage if needed. Clean ends with glass fibre brush, as required. Offer up to another track length similarly prepared. Yet allowing for the joins on both rails not to be at the same place. Also allow for a short length of sleepers between where one rail join is an where the other is. (Difficult to explain, but hope you get what I mean. Using fishplates that are a tight, resistance, fit, add flux and solder together. This may also be a suitable place to add the wire dropper, to the underside of the fishplate. Push sleepers back into place. Put track into place, cutting the other ends to fit.

Good morning all, I have found this a most interesting topic, especially the different ideas posted on track, wheels, couplings, as I also have 'mysterious de-railings'. Most frustrating are those where it is just one wagon/bogie in a rake and I can see nothing obvious in the offending item. I do find the occasional dog leg. When I laid my track, I anticipated this problem by planning for the tightest part of the curve to be in one continuous length of flexitrack (Peco, finescale, OO gauge, droppers on every length). Thus I could, almost always, confine joins to the gentler curves. The exception being that my layout is composed of connecting modules, not more than 1.1m across and where it happened to be a corner, then I'm technically breaking that rule, but I think I kept my radii not too tight. Would the gentleman who advocated offsetting the rail joins please share how he performed this technique, as I am struggling getting my head around how to do this? The two biggest causes of derailments for me are: 1. is at the joins to the boards. The track is laid on cork and at the board edges I have pinned and glued (2-part epoxy resin) lengths of copper strip on top of glued strips of softwood that were planed after fixing, so that the copper strip was at the right height for the track to sit on top and be soldered in place. This was fine at the time, but now a small 'hump' has appeared in the track at one place over such a join, causing the wheels of one locomotive to lift off the track in the trailing 'dip' at that place and stall; a couple of trucks derail there. Being a lazy g1t and wanting to avoid major surgery, I have tried prising up the track on the trailing side of the hump to lessen its effect, but I don't think its lessened the problem. 2. Where a length of track crosses a baseboard joint at an angle i.e. not at 90 degrees.... My method was to lay a length across the join and secure in place. Then when all tracks were laid, I would go down the join with a razor saw. Where the track is perpendicular to the join, this was just fine. But where it crossed at an angle, this meant the the cut was not perpendicular across the rail and so left a 'lip' that could catch the flange of a wheel. If I do another layout, I shall use a dremel and cutting disk to cut each rail individually. I like the idea of soldering at joins and have done so where there is a short length near a baseboard edge that connects to a point. However, There is still the need to maintain at least one expansion joint per track length per baseboard. My layout is not in a controlled environment, fortunately not exposed to direct sunlight. When I laid the track, I left 1mm expansion gaps. A most interesting discussion, thank you. Alan

My layout cannot hold all of my stock, just isn't room. So I normally have about 30 carriages out at any one time. The wagons get rotated regularly, as the whim takes me. There is room for all my locomotives in the engine yard, but for security reasons, I never leave them out when not in use. I don't use the boxes for 'everyday' use, so that they don't get damaged; instead, I use a crate shaped stock box with trays for the loco's. The carriages and wagons live in aluminium tool cases. I'm thinking of weeding out the boxes for my oldest carriages, but keeping all the rest.

Hello Ian, I will happily swap a 'Lucille' for your 'Cynthia', I have 3 of them.