ecgtheow

Thanks everyone for their advice. I will probably take up Tony's very kind offer as I really don't have the time to do all he suggested (I would have sent a private e-mail but his inbox is full). I need the time I have available to finish building my now much simpler than originally planned layout. I will however, put some photos on here at the weekend as the model is very nicely built in my opinion & it doesn't have a K's motor unless they have 5 poles. I can't remember if they do as the 1st loco model I built (I have only built 3) was about 55 years ago. It was a K's GWR 2-6-2T which waddled at best when it ran intermittently. William

Thanks for these suggestions. The loco is still in the UK while I am in Switzerland, but I will be in the UK again on 30 June so will try these suggested solutions if it can be done without damaging the loco too much. Otherwise it goes on eBay described accurately for somebody else to try. William

I bought a very nicely made (soldered as far as I can see) & painted kit built w/m 00 gauge LMS Garrett loco some time ago & then forgot about it while I built my "new" layout. The scope of that layout has changed (much less ambitious) so I no longer want the Garrett & decided to sell it on eBay. Obviously it needed checking out first. I found that it didn't go. On investigating further one armature of the motor is burnt out & the motor has been solidly glued in, as has the worm on the motor shaft without a grub screw. I removed a small screw underneath the chassis which should have released the motor, but there was another small screw which could not be moved, probably glued the same way. The glue looks like an epoxy resin though I am not sure about that. Has anybody else come across this problem & can anyone suggest how I might get the useless motor out? I don't want to spend much on this apart from fitting a new motor & worm as I want to sell it on. William

Lecorbusier was of course Swiss before he took French nationality aged about 42, but is the "Lecorbusier" on this forum Swiss or live here like me?

Tony, You are lucky. I bought a train pack consisting of 3 teak BR coaches & a blue A4 off eBay cheaply because I wanted the coaches. I pulled back the protective cardboard sleeve & the loco fell to the hardwood floor. The plastic tray holding the contents was the wrong was up! William

The Fordson Majors I drove as a teenager at Storeton Hall Farm in the Wirral, where I worked in the school holidays, were the same mid blue as shown in the link in Jonathan Weallans' post above. William

I am not a pedant because languages are living & so change over time but the Stationmaster may have got a bit mixed up. "Affect" is nearly always used as a verb whereas "effect" is used primarily as a noun though sometimes as a verb too. So writing that the affect of using a particular class of loco would be unusual (source Oxford English Dictionary). In good humour, William

Actually if you are ever in London with a couple of hours to spare as I was recently you might spend the time in the National Gallery rather than the Tate Modern looking at the landscapes as I did recently. I learned a lot about perspective, vanishing points, colours fading with distance, etc especially from the Canaletto paintings. It should help for my back scene & perspective modelling. Copies of these paintings just aren't good enough probably because they aren't big enough for one to grasp the skills of the masters, which most of us will never achieve (Tony excepted as a former art teacher?), but we too can start using the same techniques as they used. William PS. I am still at the baseboard track laying stage, but have built 3 locomotives. I though it was only 2, but forgot about the K's GWR prairie, which didn't look too bad, but waddled rather a lot & only went intermittently. I built it when I was a teenager. The 3rd build, an MR 0-4-4T, was much better, but since then I haven't had the time. However, my track plan is of a prototype & to scale but though GER it will have GNR, M&GN as well as GER locos on it, the signals will be in the correct positions & all the model railway buildings will be models of real GNR ones. Does that add up to enough points to make me a modeller or not because all my track, locos, coaches are bought in? I only build wagons now.

I hope Jol, for whose modelling I have great respect, doesn't include requests for clarification in his criticism of those who ask "where can I get X?" where a Google search will provide a quick answer? My request arises because searching the internet for GER goods vehicle liveries gives inconsistent information & the books on the GER that I have don't help either (another example where goods vehicles are ignored?). I have some GER goods vans to paint & decal. One source states that all goods vans were light grey with white lettering except ventilated vans which were cream with black lettering while another states the same livery as the first for most vans but that ventilated vans were dark grey with black lettering. A similar inconsistency occurs about the livery for the ends of brake vans. Some state red buffer beams only & others overall red ends. Does anybody have definitive answers? William (ecgtheow)

Unlike your namesake you weren't going fast enough then. When worn backwards a baseball cap creates lift until it flies up & away. I know - it can't be wear one worn backwards on a jetski for long. William

There have been references to 3D printing recently as the way forward so maybe this model serves as an example of what can be achieved currently? Created by Jason Liveridge, sold via Shapeways, built by Frank Bulkan & painted by Geoff Haynes on test it easily pulls a long train of white metal wagons. There is really no other way of me, an average modeller, getting a model of this GNR loco except by paying an expert to scratch build it in metal. Unfortunately I didn't locate the model carefully enough before photographing it so the sprung bogie appears to be lifting the rear off the ground. It doesn't do that normally though the bogie does take some of the weight off the driving wheels. William

Phil, Thanks for the suggestion & a cradle would certainly one cheaper, but when I wrote that a turntable would be "accessible" I meant by getting under the layout & then up into a space 700mm by 300 mm in the corner, so unfortunately a cradle isn't really an option. William

Thanks to you, Barry Ten & Chamby for your swift & helpful replies. I will probably buy the Roco one because it's readily available here & because it should match up well with the Peco Code 83 track with which all the storage sidings are being built. I chose that because of the availability of the large radius 5' curved points in that range giving a maximum length to one road of about 7m. A wye wouldn't fit in my round roundy in my 5.3m by 4.4m railway room. Otherwise it would have been a cheap reliable option as suggested by Chamby. William

The fiddle yard currently being built on my new layout needs a turntable so that the locomotives of a train which has just returned there from a turn on the visible part of the layout can be turned round to reappear later pulling or pushing a train in the opposite direction. The turntable appearance is not relevant, but its performance has to be good, because although it will be accessible it will not be very easy to access it. Can members recommend a not too pricey high performance turntable or direct me to articles or blogs in which turntables have been reviewed, please? Because I live in Switzerland I can easily buy Roco, Fleischmann & other European brands as well as those available in the UK. Thanks, William

I cannot remember any published or famous model like LB that has been run in more than one era, but the layout based on the M&GNR that I am currently building (all baseboards built by me & track mainly Peco bullhead bought) will be run as in the early 1900s, in the LNER era in the late 1930's & possibly in the early BR era.* I write about this to illustrate the general point that minor lines such as the M&GNR, which were not modernised much, so retained much of their railway infrastructure are those that make running them in different eras most credible. William *there will of course be occasions when crack BR steam expresses, New York Central luxury passenger trains or BR iron ore freights traverse the rails just because I like them!

Dear Tony, PC World /Currys is an electronics box-shifting company & retail staff are poorly paid, so although I sympathise with your experience it's not too surprising that they didn't know much about a specific camcorder. One really has to do all the research possible including WHICH perhaps before going to such a store. I hope & expect that your video filming goes well. Regards, William (ecgtheow)

Though I hesitate to champion things American in these days of Trump I am going to write about a locomotive long before his time. The A4s were magnificent, but the NYC 4-8-4 Niagara locos were "something else". Built in 1946/6 they achieved 6,600 hp at the cylinders on test, had a tractive effort of 61,570 lb-force, ran 26,000 miles/month hauling trains such as the "20th Century Ltd" with consists as long as 26 cars at sustained speeds of 100 mph & were as cost effective as the diesels then being introduced in the USA. Unfortunately they were introduced when competition with planes for long distance travel became intense so they didn't last long. William

Though I might know a bit more about the M&GNR than many on this site I am not an expert, but the photos & comments about Eric Fry's beautiful ex-M&GNR LNER locos could be a case in point about what is & what is not correct? At least according to one book on M&GNR locos number 13 was fitted with an extended smokebox AND a Melton chimney to replace the Johnson one in 1908 as were most BUT NOT ALL of the C Class which retained their original boilers. Does anybody know whether a Johnson chimney had replaced the Melton one by the time number 13 became 013 of the LNER in 1937? Does it matter? There were other locos in the C class that would have looked just like Eric Fry's model. So my point is really that being correct or not correct is a question of degree not an absolute especially when it concerns lesser known prototypes & practices. William

Tony, "Yes" - you have asked this question before & "Yes" I have one too & replied to that effect with a photo a few pages back. William

It's a small world. Though I live in Switzerland, I am a member of the E&DMRC, but make only occasional visits when I am in the UK, which I will be in April, so I will bring it with me to the club. William

Well I seem to have collected a few rarely modelled locomotives as I have a Coopercraft F3 seen here with an F4 in the photo. WilliamLNER 7144 F4 & 8096 F3 models copy.pdf

Wow! The YouTube video shows very impressive running & the DCC sound is great. Also the loco must be fully automated as it goes & stops without a driver. Just kidding, William

Tony, As I may have told you on told you on the couple of occasions that we met at exhibitions I was probably train spotting on Chester General when you were, but my main places were opposite the Lever Bros sidings at Port Sunlight/Bebington & on the Bidston Dock to Connahs Quay line watching 9F's hauling John Summers iron ore trains up the back to Heswall. They are dramatic in the evening against a setting sun. I now have a model of just such a train. On the Birkenhead to Chester line there was quite a mixture of GW Halls, Granges, Counties & LMS Jubilees, Patriots as well as 8F's, ex-LNWR 0-8-0's & more lowly tanks etc. I never saw a blue Semi but saw lots of red ones at Liverpool Lime Street. For me those really were the days. William

Mine is/was a white metal one as can be seen in the photo. As a result it's quite heavy & probably pulls a lot more than an etched brass one even with lead in the boiler. William

It is still kept in its original box - a Craftsman Models kit, though I think that became Sutherland Models, then Cotswold Models & now SE Finecast, but I could be mistaken & the order of the changes could also be incorrect. William