4railsman

Thanks for all your suggestions. Unfortunately all the low-relief resin buildings of High Street shops that I have bought cannot be bolted down as they are far too shallow with a lot of them also having images fixed to the bottom part of the buildings rear. The only other option, I suppose, would be to replace the high street resin buildings with card buildings which are available to download from the internet and are much lighter and easier to join together. In the meantime, I think I am going to have to manually remove all of the buildings each time I need to turn the layout on its side to do maintenance which is impossible from underneath the layout (eg soldering, wiring and installation of new features). 4railsman

What adhesives do model railway clubs currently use on their exhibition layouts to secure their resin buildings to the baseboard. I'm thinking principally about those layouts that are transported in pairs, fixed together scenic-scenic, where one board is upside down, and may also be stood on end for storage or during transportation. I have addressed my question specifically for Clubs and Exhibition Managers, as I am looking for advice from those that regularly transport their layouts in cars and vans to venues that are many miles from their home location and have the necessary experience in moving layouts around the UK. Large items, like Engine Sheds, Bus Garages etc are quite weighty, so are these normally glued down or removed and transported separately? With low relief buildings in large groups, such as shops that are in a high-street setting, are the resin models glued only at the bottom or also at each side to the next building? Many Thanks 4railsman

I have a similar requirement, albeit much longer than your layout, as mine is along the back wall of a 15ft long shed. Additionally, it is situated below a partially overhanging 8-inch deep shelf which limits some options that might not apply in your situation. I have been looking at the various flexible strip LED lighting as this can easily be fixed and is low-voltage (usually 12v or 24v). They come in various single types of daylight, warm white, cool white as well as RGB with a handheld controller so any colour can be produced. There are a vast number of suppliers on the internet, but one thing I have picked up so far ~ and the most important ~ is the power source that you use MUST provide for CONTINUOUS USE and be of a high enough wattage/amperage for safe use. There have been reports of cheap power sources overheating and drawing very high currents and which in some cases have caused a fire. The cheap offerings from "sheds" are probably best avoided. I'm looking towards buying from a speciality supplier that offers equipment for professional displays, exhibitions where these lights are on for extremely long durations without causing any health and safety issues. However, they will be considerably higher in cost than the cheapies you see promoted in "sheds" or on the various auction sites or market places. Please bear these comments in mind when making your final decision of which lighting to go for, amd post your decion in due course so others may benefit from your research Best Wishes 4Railsman

Ahh ~ you must have been perched on my shoulder last night when I was in the shed pondering all the suggestions. When I planned the 4mm layout, I fitted twinslot shelving to three walls of the shed to give me plenty of scope for the future. My 4mm layout uses the length and one width of the shed and merely rests on the twinslott brackets so that easy access is always available underneath the layout without layout legs getting in the way (as in past experience). What I was looking at is whether I could possibly have a rising gradient starting on the 200mm wide shelf and curving to the right to get on to a much larger bracket and trackbed fitted to the right-hand side wall of the shed, which is shorter at about 3.2metres max. At the present time, my 4mm layout is in storage as I am busy infilling the gaps between the twinslot uprights so I can fix a background scene for the 4mm layout to rest against. It was whilst I had easy access to the planned O-gauge shelf that started me off seeking members suggestions on trackplans. Noting Nearholmer's mention of height, I am limited as there is another wider shelf immediately above where the O-gauge layout will be situated. This means from trackbed to underside of bracket I have about 290mm at the front reducing to 260mm at the back caused by the shape of the twinslot brackets when fitted in the uprights. 4railsman

Thanks Nearholmer. Yes, you're quite right about the width being "blooming narrow". The reason for that is that it wasn't planned to have any railway built on it, just a storage shelf for storage of rail related items! But then, someone couldn't resist a bargain and decided to buy into O-gauge without thinking how he would ever be able to run it within his model railway shed ~ oh dear!! I take on board your suggestions and will carry out more research later tonight, when I'll have more time. Thanks again 4railsman

My issue is the limited width of 200mm I have available, whereas most of the posts I have seen are enjoying widths of 450mm or more. Whilst 2-tracks could be accomodated, that may look far to cramped, therefore I was wondering what other options might provide a better scenic option. All ideas welcomed. Thanks 4railsman

Above my existing 4mm layout, I now have an opportunity to expand into O-gauge. This is by means of a Plank 20cm wide x 4.3metre long resting on twinslot shelving brackets. The only rolling stock I own is the Dapol 7S-024-003 class 64xx Pannier and the Lionheart LHT-611 BR St.Ives #2 Suburban Coach set which I bought on impulse when it was offered at a very attractive price some months ago and which resulted in my unexpected expansion into O-gauge. At the moment all I have is 8 metres of C&L Finescale Bullhead flexible track ready to lay, but no points/crossings etc., plus a brand-new Morley O-gauge controller. My dilemma is a) what trackplan to use with the rolling stock I own, and b) whether to have it running on an auto-shuttle basis. Can anyone help me in deciding the best way forward? Thanks 4railsman

Yes, as Ikcdab said, DIY sheds or normal builders merchants are probably best avoided if you want quality timber. I would always suggest going to a proper timber merchant who has a good reputation for supplying quality timber, and who also imports their own wood directly from abroad. If you are in the Kent/Sussex, London area, I would recommend looking at Alsford Timber (https://www.alsfordtimber.com/branch-locator/), who also have a website from which you can place your order, but a personal visit is much better and should result in you viewing the timber and selecting which pieces you wish to purchase before they are cut to size.

I would like to see an underside view of the chassis and bogies together with clearance dimensions from the underside of the axle to rail height. This information is critical for all those people with 4-rail layouts that have the centre return-rail modeled correctly at a higher level than the running rails, as per the prototype.

If the diecast bus models industry is anything to go by, anything in London Transport Livery is a guaranteed winner and is often sold out in a relatively short time when compared to other operators models.

The next EFE Rail stock that should be worked up by Bachmann/EFE Rail is the London Transport 1927,1929, 1931, 1933 Standard Tubestock which has a very interesting power bogie in an upswept chasis at the driving end. This had a very long life, and when withdrawn by London Transport, was refurbished for use as the first electric train to work on the Isle of Wight from Ryde Pier to Shanklin. It has had a variety of liveries over its long lifetime, so plenty of opportunity for subsequent releases in later years. My guess is that the London Transport Museum at Covent Garden would also become a stockist for those visitors that are just members of the public and have yet to join the growing army of railway modelers.

...... but more likely to sell in much bigger numbers if produced by Bachmann/EFE Rail at the same time as they launch the motorised versions of the tubestock. It would also give a different take on earlier produced models, maybe by tooling modification rather than having to justify a completely new range of tools.

Now that Bachmann's EFE RAIL are to bring out a motorised version of the 1938 tubestock with NEM couplings on both coaches and the outer ends of the Driving Motor Cars, what we need to be produced to coincide with the launch is a BARRIER WAGON so that another mainline locomotive such as a Bachmann Class 66 or even Heljan's Met Vickers electric loco (Sarah Siddons etc) could couple up to a failed unit, or when being moved via Network Rail over non-electrified lines. Barrier wagons used on London Transport and its subsequent owners over the years have been varied, so modifying an existing tank wagon, brake van or 3/5 plank wagon to have one coupler at mainline height with the other corresponding to tube stock height would be very welcome. The Bachmann S-Stock made for the London Transport Museum could also then be coupled to a tubestock train in an emergency (which did happen on occassions when a train failed on a shared deep level/sub surface section of line).

That's great news about the EFE Tubestock being produced in a motorised version. I just hope they have made the clearances under the axles to allow for the slightly higher centre return rail of the prototype (which on my layout is 1mm above running rail height). If not, my only option would be to fit larger wheels to the power bogie and all coaches ~ an unnecessray cost which could be avoided during manufacture. After this release, I hope that Bachmann consider producing the London Transport 1927/1933 Standard Stock which is a more interesting profile imho. Well done, Bachmann for taking the EFE brand into useable motorised models.

Hornby Magazine featured a helix built railway in their October 2016 issue. The layout was built by Chris Jones ~ oh he of "The Corkscrew Lines" hall of fame. If you have never come across "Corky" as he is known, then you have really missed some good blog entertainment! Whilst his blog posting finished at the time of the Hornby Magazine article, both the Mk1 and Mk2 layouts he built during his blog posts are still available to read and well worth while. Let him introduce himself, and then continue to his blog pages. The helix he built featured a magnetic underlay to aid adhesion, which has to be installed prior to laying any trackwork.

I have a four-car set of the S-stock which I was able to easily modify by replacing the wheels on all coaches with a larger diameter. I did try to inform Bachmann of this issue at the time but they never got back to me, despite acknowledging my email. However, the bogies on the new 117 and 121 DMU's are different to the S-stock, and may be more difficult to swap wheels ~ but to have to do this on a model costing the best part of £300 is simply galling and just adds unnecessary cost for me when the issue could have been avoided at design stage.

I had to do that some years ago to a Bachman class 165 turbostar but that was a fairly simple "butcher job". I simply removed all the outer cover plastic over the axle gear and that did the job. Looking at this model again, the actual plastic gear teeth on one side appear to have been worn down over the years but the model still runs faultlessly, even over my complicated station approach tracks. This view shows the underside of the Bachmann class 165 Turbostar with the small gear covers removed. This provided sufficient clearance to the raised centre return rail. This view shows the clearance between the axles and wheels. By comparison, this is the new Bachmann class 117 NSE version showing no thought has been given to clearances below the axle. Looking directly down on the class 117 power bogie Looking at this view, even the coupling might be a problem, but I haven't checked that out so far until such time as I can get the model sitting properly on my track. One option I have yet to look into is whether it would be an easy job to fit larger wheels to the power bogie and all the unmotored bogies in the 3-car set, so as to raise the whole model enough to clear the centre negative rail. If anyone has changed the wheels for a larger diameter version, could they please let me know the procedure they used and how hard or easy it was to do the work.

I wish that were the case with both my new Bachmann 117's. I model 4-rail London Transport (Metroland) & Great Central Railway Joint ) so DMU's in the 1960's ran (and still do even today), over LT metals between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham. Beacause of the small wheel size fitted by Bachmann and the plastic moulding encasing the axles and a gear cover reducing the clearance below the axle even further, my power bogies just sit on top of the centre rail and don't pickup power to move. Not sure what I can do to sort this out, even if I butcher the plastic, so unless someone on this thread can come up with a practical solution, these otherwise nice models will likely end up in my static display cabinet. It seems other recent models from Bachmann and Dapol are also similarly afflicted. I can't understand why these manufacturers have overlooked the fact that negative power centre rails on LT are higher than the running rails and make suitable allowances in their axle designs.

Rather than order this book through ebay, if you go to the firms own website - https://www.booksetc.co.uk/books/view/-9781913295219 you will find the book can be purchased for £14.94 including FREE postage at the present time. There is no indication as to the stock level on their own website, but it is one less since my purchase a short while ago.

Libraries have to buy their books and presumably also have to pay for access to Pressreader.com for their members to be able to access, so no free lunch there. The benefit to the newspaper and magazine publishers must be that this provides a wider circulation for their titles that they would otherwise not get. For hobbies like model railways, it could also bring new people into the hobby that would otherwise not occur, so that's no bad thing. 4railsman

Provided you are already a member of your local library and hold a membership card, you can get access to a vast range of magazines to view on line. These cover a host of popular categories like gardening, photography, crafts and hobbies, transport,etc but importantly it's not only the latest issue that is available but back numbers too! Unfortunately not all magazines are available from this source (eg BRM) so do check out another source, RBDigital which is only available by linking through from your own libraries website. That is a much smaller offering but does have a few titles that are not available on the Pressreader website. For Railway magazines, click on the AUTOMOTIVE tab (yes, really!) and you will find ModelRail, RAIL Magazine, Steam Railway and RAIL Express but none from the Warners stable e.g. BRM. If you are with East Sussex Libraries, the best option is to use the PRESSREADER facility to get free 30-day access to their 7000+ magazines/newspapers. Here is what you need to do:- 1) Go to https://www.pressreader.com/catalog 2) click the Sign In (top right) This will open the Welcome to Press Reader pop-up. CLICK on the "Library or Group" tab which will bring up a drop-down list of all the libraries taking part. 3) Enter "East Sussex" (OR the name of the local authority library you belong to). This will locate your library. Click on the library name and a new pop-up opens where you are required in insert your LIBRARY CARD number. Proceed and you will be taken to the East Sussex area with 30-days free access (renewable) where you select the publications you are interested in from a list on the left side of the website. 4) Look at all the categories and click on any of interest. This will then load the cover page of all the titles in that category. Clicking on a title will open up that publication for you to read. At the bottom of the page is an index of the main features within the publication which can be clicked to take you straight there. In my view, the best way to view the magazines would be on a large (24"+) desktop monitor or a decent sized laptop rather that a mobile phone. So, all in all a fantastic way to continue to read any magazine of interest without having to go to the newsagents to browse the latest issues. I won't mention how long I have spent on the website reading some of these magazines, so how I will find time after the lock-down ends is anyones guess right now! Enjoy 4railsman

I designed my own Railway Shed as none of the standard Garden Building suppliers offered buildings with sufficient headroom. What you need is at least 6ft height at the eaves plus the height of the fluorescent lighting in order to avoid hitting your head (it hurts!) when attending to things at the extreme edge of the building. The other thing to remember is that most "off the peg" garden buildings only come with either standard roofing felt or tile-look roofing felt. Neither of these will last more than a few years before needing replacement (although you might be lucky and get 8-years use) before it starts letting in the rain or worse still getting ripped off by a winter storm. When that happens your model railway is likely to suffer from water ingress, probably causing major damage before you are able to make repairs. So, whatever you buy, my recommendation would be to have an additional METAL skin roof installed on top of the initial roofing felt before it starts deteriorating. The sort I am talking about is often seen on farm buildings, both as a roof and side panel. This additional skin is a simple DIY job and will save you much heartache in the long run. The important thing here is to ensure the supplier of your building makes the roof trusses sufficiently strong to enable the roof to take this added weight. Please give the roof specification serious thought BEFORE committing to any new building. Hope that helps.

Melmerby The barcode is also known as UPC and is the specific barcode shown on the vast majority of goods that go through a lot of channels before reaching the end user. The code is numeric. What is needed is a database that someone has designed for that product type or within the EPOS used when the item gets scanned at the warehouse or till when you offer to buy the item. Some mobile phone apps like CD/DVD/Movie or Book catalogue apps have a builtin scanner facility that links to IMDB or Amazon for example. The QR scanner you are referring to is usually used to take you to a location where further information can be obtained about the product or service you are viewing. Hope that helps

You might want to read the responses I got to my thread "Cataloguing my own model railway collection" which was srarted on January 1st 2020 on this forum. It can be found at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/150359-cataloguing-my-own-model-railway-collection/ Hope that helps.

Personally, I think one of the main issues with this thread is the lack of visibility on the forum index. Because the thread was started some years ago, newcomers to the BRM Forum probably don't find it when they could most benefit from it. I suspect that most of the regular posters are now those people that have bookmarked the page since newbryford started the thread after the original Bargain Hunters thread was closed down through inappropriate postings. On the other hand, maybe it's time to move to Bargain Hunters Mk 3 with much stricter control of what is deemed acceptable and have that new thread started as a Major Topic which has its own Heading on the BRM Forum Index Page. Could AY please consider whether this or a permanent link is possible from the main Forum Index. Thanks to all who take the trouble to post these true bargains, whether they are railway items or items that railway modellers need in order to follow their craft.