RANGERS
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A pal of mine was a driver at CW in the pre-electric days and from what I can recall of his memories of working to Moorgate, the 127s were out of gauge for the Moorgate line (roof profile and vents?) whereas the 116 and 125 were both permitted to work over the MML connection, though in practice the 125s rarely did.
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A 4mm/ 00 layout depicting a canal or riverside wharf with adjoining industry, warehouses etc, in any period from the 1920s to the 1970s. The geographical location could be anywhere, buildings are mostly generic types typical of the period depicted. Stock, the personnel, vehicles and some bespoke features set the period depicted on the day. Operation is mostly digital, can be analogue operated as some of the locos for certain periods are non-DCC. Scenic section is 4’ x 18” deep, contained within a proscenium. Fiddle sections add another 20” either end so total is about 7’6” with an access from front to back required at one end also. Layout has its own lighting rig (a very grandiose name for an LED light strip!). Power requirements are a twin 13a socket or a single that I can use a twin adapter for. Shipping requirements are in a single car with two operators. Layout is based in North Northants/ Cambs/ Rutland border presently. Availability is from May 2024 onwards, possibility of a single day show before that. -
Not sure how relevant this is to earlier eras but as late as 1979 we had two merchants, both received coal by the wagonload attached to freights from Toton destined for the British steel plant, and one of which had their yard within the plant site, the other in the former station yard. It often looked a bit odd to have up to half a dozen 16t BR std minerals at the head or rear of a train of tube empties or BSC non-pool tipplers. The wagons were detached from the main train and one lot collected by a BSC shunter to take into the site via the internal network, the other dropped into the BR siding adjacent to the yard headshunt to be transhipped directly into bags. With a load of about 8 tons in a wagon, that would equate to around 160 bags or about two lorry loads by weight. At the time both were using 7.5t Commer and Bedford TKs, though the merchant on the BSC site also used Commer bulk hoppers for coke deliveries. I’m guessing the one originated from the BSC coke ovens, I don’t ever remember seeing coke coming in by rail.
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Where else would you plug it?….
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Now that looks as Ugly as they come, a real masterpiece.
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Midland Main Line Electrification
RANGERS replied to 96701's topic in UK Prototype Discussions (not questions!)
This is still ongoing, Connect services terminating at Wellingborough and all trains North of there diverted via Manton with only two trains an hour in each direction. The single platform at Corby effectively renders this stretch as single line which doesn’t allow much leeway in the timetable between Leicester and Kettering Southbound. Any late running delays Northbound trains from entering Corby. Works are expected to be completed by the end of Wednesday with a 20mph restriction over the affected length for the foreseeable future. -
Reading this almost with disbelief, I’d been talking to Ken at Caistor just a fortnight ago and having mentioned how pleased I was that Lapford Rd was still around, it turned into a long discussion about its future. Ken was one of life’s really nice guys, always had time to chat and always had some words of wisdom to offer. I’ll miss his company and his models immensely, shows will be the poorer for me without him, our thoughts are with family and friends. RIP Ken, we’ll miss you.
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Since I installed the electrified fence, I’ve never had much trouble. 😉
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Thanks, I'm passing through so planning to visit, good to have confirmation everything is going to plan, best of luck with it.
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Any update on this show?
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It was, famous for dropping valves but on this occasion the valves remained intact, the piston took the brunt of it. Separating the barrel and head proved more trouble than it was worth given there wasn’t likely to be anything worth salvaging so our scrap man had a bumper haul that week. I opted to leave the crankcase untouched and just renew the barrels, pistons and top end which seemed to work. It was treated to a new clutch and Weber carb conversion as well, though when I sold the car less than a year later, I swapped the carb back to the original Solex, the car wasn’t worth any more with the Weber and the conversion kits were worth a few quid, even used.
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All VW air-cooled engines had oil coolers, they relied on them for a large part of the engine cooling. The finned barrels were only capable of dispersing some of the combustion heat, the remainder was dispersed through the oil via the oil cooler which was cooled by the same fan as the barrels, though via a separate airstream. The lubricant is critical, though the slow revving reduced bearing, piston and cylinder wear, and to a degree heat generation, maintaining the oil integrity was critical to keep the temperature within tolerances. I learned that on the M6 on a July day in 1983 with my 1302S. The resulting strip down revealed one barrel that had welded itself to the head and a piston that had a chamfered edge to one side of the crown, the missing bit also being firmly attached to the head/ barrel.
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It doesn’t look like either of those, maybe a Holden HR?
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Don’t think that’s the same car is it? The Holden pictured has a Sun visor. That Holden’s another GM common platform job by the look of it, it has PB Cresta written all over it!
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Is the FC Victor next to the Capri a stock 1600 or an Oz special? Looks very tidy whatever it is
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Gresley D167 Buffet Cars 1950s conversions
RANGERS replied to ikcdab's topic in UK Prototype Questions
Not sure whether they ever recovered any genuine chairs but I seem to recall that when it was first restored in the early 80s, the chairs were reproduced along with some of the bar fittings. -
Thanks for all the comments and advice, there’s enough there to give some direction and compile an initial shopping list for some trials. Naively I’d assumed that with NEM pockets, this was going to be a straightforward exercise 😂. The majority of the stock is Bachmann 9 or 10 foot stock - BR mins, vans etc - so I’m hoping that there’s some commonality of a solution for most, and accepting that locos and the oddball stock will need a more bespoke approach, I’ll see how all this pans out once I have some coupling samples to play with. Thanks again for all your advice.
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I’m about to trial some Kadees fitted to mostly Bachmann 9 and 10 foot wheelbase stock, some Oxford, Hornby and kitbuilt also. I’m intending to buy a selection to try but does anyone have any advice on which work best?
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All those wrecker in the fleet suggests you need to spend less on those and more on maintaining the rest of the fleet?
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Sounds like more money to be spent.
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The group had fingers in all manner of transport activities, road, air and sea. Never flew on any of their flights but did travel on one of their coaches after it had been disposed of following the collapse, a 1973 L reg Ford R226 Duple Dominant. It passed to a local operator after the Court Line collapse who my school used regularly for trips and retained the three tone green scheme it arrived in for many years. The coach fleet was multi coloured just like the aircraft, each in shades of either yellow, green, pink or blue. When Richard Branson started Virgin Atlantic, he wanted to pay homage to his predecessors in the industry and intended to name the second Virgin aircraft Spirit of Sir Freddie, after Freddie Laker, but was discouraged from associating a fledgling business with a famous failure. Ultimately it was named Scarlet Lady and which its thought was a more subtle tribute to another predecessor in Court Line, who had named their pioneering Tristar “Pink Lady”.
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Called into the local farm shop for the week’s veg at lunchtime and struggled for a parking space thanks to these.
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After a couple of false starts, Kingfisher Wharf hit the road today for its first outing. Progress on developing it further has been slow but is now moving with a “to do” list that seems to get ever longer, but then is a layout ever finished?! Learned a lot about it today, several things need attention before it goes out again, couplings and a lack of DCC locos, not to mention being a little slicker in its presentation but overall a pleasing day.
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Surprising that, all variants of the L318 Disco 2 are rising in value, they do rot a bit but repairs are straightforward and are old school tech with pretty bulletproof mechanicals. The L322 RR is a much more complex machine, equally prone to rot but much more difficult to repair and with more, and less reliable tech on board. They are fantastic cars but can end up being a bit of a money pit.
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To be fair, the most reliable LR engine in the past 20 years was probably the 4.4 V8 diesel in the Range Rovers. It has a pretty solid reputation for longevity though it does like a bit of pampering and turbos can be a bit of a lottery above 100k. They’re very much the engine of choice in L322 and L405s, capable of nudging 40mpg and great for towing. Ive known two of them that have clocked 200k without drama, one of them now at 230k and has just come back from a 2000 mile trip around Europe. The 5.0 supercharged petrol is another that has a pretty sound reputation, though not one that tends to reach high mileages purely on account of the cost of getting it to that distance! Both are genuine Ford (US) engines whereas the fragile V6 was a Peugeot developed engine that Ford part funded the development of. The priority for PSG was to keep it short enough for FWD packaging, that made the crank journals incredibly thin. Little wonder they break.
