Darius43

Don't know if they would be useful, but somebody is selling 3D printed cabs on eBay which might complement the body sides more than the white metal ones?

 

I have seen and purchased these - they are resin casts of 3D printed parts.  They look good but the profile (most likley correct) does not match that of the brass bodyshells.  The eBay parts are the first in a series of parts to make a complete kit with the alter parts to follow.

 

I have decided to persevere with the NNK/MTK kit because I am an awkward sod

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I thought about leaving the flush doors in place but it would have bothered me so I decided to cut them out and re-mount them inset from the main body.    Sliding the bodyshell over the edge of the modelling table onto the cutting mat helped with this.  The pre-curved tumblehome did flatten out a bit with this process but it was reasily re-profiled.

 

 

 

Only three more bodyshells to go

 

To rest my aching arms, I moved on to the bogies.  These are provided as white metal sides with the standard chuncky plastic MTK mounting frames.  I had bought a bag of plastic bogies cheap from somewhere a few years ago and this included a load of Class 508 style bogies.  These had better and more consistent detail than the white metal sides and were modified to fit on the MTK mounting frames, which were themselves cut back to redued their "chunkiness".  Wheel bearing holes were marked out and drilled.  They run quite freely.

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I have finally started this kit, which has been in the stash for a few years.  Its the No Nonsense Kits (ex MTK) kit for a 4-car Class 508 EMU.  

 

 

The bodyshells are in folded etched brass and the ends and other detail bits in white metal.   The bodyshells are quite nice and a pre-folded to the correct(ish) profile with the curved tumblehome.  The sliding doors are part of the sheet and so are almost flush with the bodysides, which is incorrect and looks odd. 

 

 

Much has been said on other posts om RMweb about the MTK white metal ends (and I have read a few of these as research for this project).  Theydo  still look better than a recently produced resin kit of this subject and so I decided to persevere with them and did a small amount of work to improve the "face".  I cleaned up the part, widened the main windows with needle files and drilled out the lights.

 

 

Before:

 

After:

Hello,

 

I built the Southern liveried Bratchell Class 456. You need to scratch build the underfloor equipment and third rail pickup beams. I also added jumper cables to the cabs and led lights.

 

The kits are well designed and easy to build but you need to add details - especially to the cab fronts.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/118946-southern-class-456/

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I do like that bridge. Is it kit or scratch built?

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Don't worry Darius, the Donald wasn't for you. 

 

Hi Paul,

 

No offence taken - I actually thought your "Donald" post was quite funny and responded in kind.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Hmm...make one comment about wanting to see model trains running at a model railway exhibition and I am called a miserable old git, a moron and Donald Trump.

 

What a wonderful world the internet is.

 

Darius

Found it - it was on RMWeb - see post #83:-

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67511-improving-the-Hornby-apt/page-4

 

Darius

First off im not sure if this is the correct place to post this so if then can an admin move it to the correct location please..

I have a few Hornby Eurostar sets that i want to run in 14 car lengths but the power car is just not up to this so i was woundering if anyone has converted the power car and if so what they did to improve this.

The only option i can think of is to run a power car at eachendand may be add a good amount of extra weight ??

All options considered

There is an article somewhere on the web (possibly on RMWeb) that I read a year or so ago where someone modified the power car with a central motor driving booth bogies via articulated driveshafts. I'll see if I can find it and post a link.

 

Darius

TrumpShouts_moretrains.jpg

The Donald would run lots of trains. And they would be big beautiful trains, bigly beautiful. But he wouldn't let you see them because they would be behind a wall. An amazing, beautiful, big wall. And he would get you to pay for that wall.

They wrote letters to magazines and newspapers.

At least I don't post like Mr Angry from Purley.

 

Throw the phone down.

I would like to say that my only gripe was the (in my perception) lack of running trains.

 

The standard of modelling was high and I took the unfinished nature of some layouts to be work in progress rather than a lack of skill in the builder - this from someone that operates his model trains on a friend's layout with no scenery or ballast or anything.

 

Electrical problems are a perfectly good reason for the lack of train movement on a layout and I can empathise with the exhibitors if that happened to them. I know there were layouts with moving trains, such as the excellent Crewlisle, I just could not see past the crowd to get a better look.

 

I do have a prejudice against timetabled operation at exhibitions as this does, in my view, inevitably leads to long periods of inactivity - after a few hours of not sitting down my patience for standing around watching nothing happen wears somewhat thin. As I said, that is my prejudice and not an indictment of timetabled operators.

 

That said, I did enjoy the Ally Pally show and will be going again next year.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

...and another thing...

 

Why is the Ally Pally show always in London ???

Probably for the same reason that Oxford and Cambridge always get into the boat race final.

 

Darius

I've wondered on-and-off if the rather orangy colour of the carriages in Dalby's illustrations for the Thomas books might actually reflect what the artist saw (around Leicester) in the late 40s / early 50s, unbiased by any knowledge of official descriptions? I suspect this idea falls down on the 1945 date for his first illustrations - he'd be seeing faded LMS crimson lake rather than faded BR crimson - not the same starting colour. Or LNER brown on the ex-GCR and GNR lines?

I always imagined Annie and Clarabel were teak coaches as illustrated. Of course I haven't really considered this in 45 years but there it is.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Nice photos, what is the NSE EMU in the cabinet please? (4-TC or 4-REP?)

It's a 4-TC - being produced by Bachmann for the Kernow Model Rail Centre.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

that wharehouse looks stunning!

Steve.

Careful now. Down with that sort of thing.

 

 

 

Darius

This was my fourth visit to the show and it was noticeably more crowded than previous years. Perhaps I was unlucky but, to me, there were a lot of "static" layouts with no trains running. Every time we arrived at a layout, after trying to get a view through the crowd, there appeared to be nothing happening. My friends made the same comments.

 

The large Freemo layout was impressive as an example of railway modelling but I concur with the previous poster - not a lot going on.

 

I will probably attend next year but one of my friends, who I had encouraged to come, was not impressed and will not be returning.

 

Clearly the show is popular - hence the crowds - so perhaps it's just me that wants to see some trains actually running.

 

I did have a nice chat with someone from Bachmann in their enclosure and with Ajay Models and YouChoos so it was still, to me, a good day out. Just run more trains!!!

 

Darius

While I have no direct interest in the 4-TC, I do have a viewpoint on this debatable subject of perceived 'accuracy'. While ultimately there will I suppose be some degree of compromise in any model I do also strongly agree with Ian J's point that it is indeed possible to strive for 100% accuracy. Why? Well, to illustrate my point, growing up back in the 70s and if you wanted a Class 37 then this was your only option in RTR...

 

Hornby Class 37.jpg

 

Okay, it's a somewhat crude representation of a 37 and actually has Class 47 bogies underneath and is finished in a totally fictitious livery to boot, but if you squint a bit then it looks like a Class 37, right?

 

In which case why strive for anything better? After all, it's vaguely right, and RTR will never be perfect, people are buying the product, so again why offer anything/strive for any improvement?

 

At the end of the day it's all about what degree of compromise each individual is willing to accept; and amongst all of that debate there will be those that disagree and those that are deemed pedantic/over-zealous for insisting on better. What must be considered is that as annoying as those over-zealous/pedantic individuals may be perceived, I happen to believe that these people simply want as best a representation as possible and I'd hazzard a guess that most are quite passionate about whichever model might be under discussion. It is in a way that approach alone that ultimately results in better models. Keep settling for second best and well, we'd all still be buying/running those crude Triang/Hornby 37s...

 

In short, I believe it's called progress.

 

An extreme example perhaps, but you get my drift?

Extreme examples never really convince me. I was keen on model railways as a kid in the 1970s but got into model aircraft (the Airfix variety) in later life only to return to model railways in recent years. I was on several model aircraft web forums and there were many vehement arguments played out about whether new kits had shape issues and incorrect details. The arguments were similar to those played out here on RMweb, ranging from the "It's only a model" camp to "this evil manufacturer has ruined the only kit produced of my super-adored subject and so no-one else will make a better kit and my life is ruined".

 

There was even a character called "Gaston" (amongst other monikers) who claimed most kits were wrong and proved his assertions with photos of real aircraft with MS Paint red and green lines added to show why. No amount of pointing out about perspective, viewing angle, image distortion etc. would convince him ("him" is assumed - it is the Internet after all) and he proceeded to cut up and butcher his kits in pursuit of perfection. He is totally entitled to do so of course but one wonders if this is the path to true happiness.

 

As for the 4-TC, some photos of prototypes show the front cab base level and some show it raised by a few inches (but not a whole foot). I dug out an old copy of Colin J. Marsden's "Motive Power Recognition:2 EMUs", which has a couple of photos of 4-TCs in it, both of which "appear to show" the base of the door to be higher than the bottom of the cab. Maybe it varied from prototype to prototype, who knows.

 

As for the Triang-Hornby Class 37, my friend with the railway shed has one from his childhood in the 1960s and we recently dug it out and tried it out. It still goes - albeit with that electrical burning smell. We have hatched a plan to clean it up, convert it to DCC with led lights and sound and detail/repaint the body and chassis. What larks Pip, what larks.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I'm not sure about that. The angles look pretty similar to me.

I'm just not prepared to spend £269 on a model that when I look at it I'll get a niggling feeling that it looks wrong. If others think it looks right then I'm pleased they have a 4TC to buy, and I hope KMRC make a healthy profit on them. I shall keep looking at photos of the model, too: maybe I'll be persuaded that I'm wrong.

Fair enough - that's one more unit for everyone else

It's usually part of the CV29 calculation

Thanks Phil, I think it needs to be set to 2 to disable DC - will give it a try.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

If smoke is only coming out of the whistle then you've got some oil blocking the chimney. Blow down the chimney to clear it.

Thanks Nick - I'll give this a try.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I wonder if the little loco will manage 18 wagons around my layout! The same way SRmans S15 did...

Last Saturday, my Huntley & Palmers Peckett hauled 35 PO wagons plus a brake van from a standing start in the sidings and thence around the layout with no problems

 

What a little beauty!!!

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Update - DCC Supplies were unable to repair the locomotive and so a replacement has been sent out by Dapol, which I received today. It works fine on the short test track I have in the flat. Will see how it works on long runs in my friend's shed at the weekend.

I would like to say that I have received excellent service from DCC Supplies and Dapol.

Cheers

Darius

Ran Golden Eagle on the large layout in my friend's shed today. Sound seems to be on all the time irrespective of whether F1 is selected and the smoke comes out of the whistle but not the chimney. It ran ok for a few minutes but then started stopping for no reason.

 

Dreading the prospect of another return, the problem was traced to dirty track, after track cleaning it ran fine but still with permanent sound and wonky smoke. I will set the relevant cv to default" smoke off" next time I am in the shed - had F7 selected to turn smoke off for now. Big relief that it runs ok (so far).

 

I am wondering if the dc mode setting (I run dcc) is the cause of the sound being on all the time rather than being controllable using F1. Does anyone know the cv setting(s) to disable the dc operation mode?

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I have had the same problem with my Black Label "Golden Eagle" - it ran OK and then just stopped and made a noise like the drive train had failed. It's gone back to DCC Supplies for repair under the guarantee.

Darius

Update - DCC Supplies were unable to repair the locomotive and so a replacement has been sent out by Dapol, which I received today. It works fine on the short test track I have in the flat. Will see how it works on long runs in my friend's shed at the weekend.

 

I would like to say that I have received excellent service from DCC Supplies and Dapol.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Received Scotrail 68006 "Daring" today courtesy of Collets Model Shop via eBay. Absolutely stunning with no issues.

Very happy bunny indeed.

Youchoos sound on the way...

Cheers

Darius

Youchoos sound chips with stereo "3D" speakers installed in both DRS and Scotrail locomotives. Sounds amazing

 

Still a very happy bunny

 

Cheers

 

Darius