Albie the plumber

Look forward to seeing a few pics of these pootling around someone's layout to whet our appetites 

10 hours ago, robmanchester said:

Can anybody help me concerning the directional lighting on a 'Slim body' Heljan class 33. It is running on DC without a decoder and when placed on the track I see a red glow behing the headcode box when moving forward and no light at the tail end. I removed the body from the chassis and there is two bulbs mounted on each end of the chassis. When you run it with the body removed the upper bulb lights at the forward end and the lower one lights at the rear end - when the direction is changed the bulbs swap over so the upper one is lit at the forward end etc. There is a light tube that runs across the inside of the body at boths ends with a cut out where the lower bulb is located on the chassis which I thought would send some light to the lenses mounted on the bodyshell - but you can see nothing from the lower lenses.

 

I assumed that the lights would be white at the front and red at the rear and they would change colour according to the direction of travel like many other locos. Am I missing something ? The model is one of those without the extra headlight that is mentioned in the instructions as being also available.

 

Thanks.

Rob

 

The as delivered class 33's didn't have tail lights fitted .

Instead , they used the roller blinds set to show 2 red panels .

The marker lights were white though someone recently pointed out to me that they may have had removable red lenses .

In any case , many marker lights were plated over in later years .

HTH

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Or, for smoother running & stopping/starting, replace the traction tyre wheelset with a plain wheelset (Peter's Spares).  Traction tyres are IMHO Satan's expectorant, and ruin electrical pickup, leave crud all over your layout, then stretch and catch on things, causing derailments.  The motor in this model is powerful enough to manage a three-car set without them.  But still do the B2B and freedom of bogie movement checks.  The bogie needs to be able to swing freely to the limit allowed and be able to pitch up and down about 2mm as well, also some rocking side-to-side play is needed.

I agree that traction tyres are indeed the work of the Devil but when I rewheeled  my Lima Western with Ultrascale wheels at great expense  , it could barely pull itself ! 

I hope that isn't the case for the original poster .

I did have a lima Bubble car and both bogies apart from side frames were done away with and refitted wiith Black Beetle motor bogies though admittedly , that isn't a cheap option .

35 minutes ago, Richard RK3 said:

Hopefully we will finally see the release of the re-tooled Class 25 that's been in the works for goodness knows how long!

Its been suggested elsewhere that release of that model  will be around July .

5 hours ago, 37081LochLong said:

I too would would like to know the answer to that as that is the version I wanted

Perhaps Kernow are the people to ask 

20 hours ago, johnd said:

Should have mentioned left Denmark 

Could one assume it left Denmark on a ship ? 

13 hours ago, Cliff M said:

Thanks all. Very helpful and detailed. So I think I will place a pre-order for the Hornby 08 with sound fitted at £237.99 from Kernow.

 

Do I need a stay-alive fitted as well with the Hornby?  Can I do that part myself?

 

My layout has no radius 1 curves at all. 

Regarding stay alive , my  advice would be to suck it and see .

If the performance over paintwork is poor then it could be an option .

Aftermarket V5 decoders usually have the 3 wires for the stay alive pre attached but I'm not sure if that is the case with factory fitted decoders.

Certain companies will fit stay alive for a reasonable fee e.g. Roads and rails .

The Hornby model is IMO  the better model  in terms of running qualities and indeed detail .

I did own Bachmann versions of the 08 but they used to pick up dirt from the rails like mad .

While both models can be converted to DCC sound , again , the Hornby model has more space .

I've got an 07 waiting in the wings for sound treatment .

It's a lovely model but would benefit from having stay alive .

There are videos on YouTube showing installation of sound and stay alive .

Personally recommend stay alive in the 08 too as I have models both with and without and the difference was notable .

HTH

Very sad to hear of this though I understand the reasons why .

Will miss my weekends in Brum as I often 'stayed in town' to take in the German Market and lots of other cool stuff that the city had to offer.

I'd long forgotten that at the end of the day , the show was organised by volunteers who did it for no reward .

Maybe I shouldn't have forgotten but I'm grateful to the people who made it happen all the same .

22 hours ago, Brian Hawkins said:

Disapointed not to recieve 25 324 as of yet, at least i have 17 SLW class 24's to keep me occupied, i'm sure it will arrive very soon, I'm just a very impatient  person ☹️

17 Class 24's ? 

I haven't enough room to store 17 of their biscuit tins !

Could be worse though , If Accurascale made them , I would need to buy a bigger house !

I use decent thickness Cork as it allows me to use the wire in tube method for points in places where I cannot use a point motor .

My biggest problem is glueing the cork down .

i wonder what people think is the most effective method ?

53 minutes ago, johnd said:

OK who is considering whose sound files/decoder for this loco? 

 

Just asking as it will come with a speaker fitted. 

I for one will be .

It cant be any harder than fitting sound , lights and stay alive on the Hornby model surely .

Sound file is likely to be an existing 08 project as the '11s used the same EE lump unless somebody knows better of course .

Looking forward to these turning up now .

1 hour ago, zr2498 said:

If D7599 is being packed, then surely I should have had a payment request by now? Not wholly confident!

They will probably have many hundreds of people to ring , myself included so we're probably at the end of a very long queue 

4 hours ago, APOLLO said:

Memories.

 

180 Smithdown Road. Small shop front but seemed to go on forever inside.

 

 

Second shop just down the road - much bigger.

 

 

Widnes shop / warehouse

 

 

This in the Liverpool Echo

 

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/hattons-model-railways-announces-closure-28411645

 

Brit15

Nostalgic feelings at seeing pics of  the original shop in Smithdown Road . I used to regularly visit the place when staying at the inlaws in South Liverpool back in the mid 90's .

Norman Hatton { In his trademark brown coat } was still there in his twilight years always ready to do a deal with you . I really miss those trips now .

My laddie who now lives round the corner from the newer shop in Liverpool , alerted me to this after Hattons had posted their announcement on his local community Facebook page .

Shocked to say the least and very sorry for those who will lose thier jobs 

I recently read in Model Rail that they had been 'signed off ' for release so a slight delay of a couple of weeks . shouldn't be long now 

This month hopefully .

Whatever the make of the decoder or the sound file, there is in all probability a CV that will silence or maybe turn down the volume of the door clunk .

Its worth contacting the sound author of that project , they're usually very helpful.

12 hours ago, hminh2005 said:

Hello

 

I am a new member. I have a loco of Bachmann class 37, DCC sound.

However, its sound is very low. How to increase its volume?

 

Thanks

V3'5 decoders used 100 Ohm speakers .

The ohm rating is usually printed on the underside of the speaker 

The Howes project I believe is an old one grafted on to a V5 decoder , happy to be corrected though 

Haven't  heard the Marwick '73 but I have heard the alternative sounds ( Farm animals , sound of Big Ben etc.) Different ! 😁

I have heard Biffs sound file and it sounds great , rather like all of his other sound projects .

Biff would be my first choice 

1 hour ago, Steve Wilson said:

I've recently purchased a Heljan 3340 with 'Howes Sound Fitted' (possibly a LokSound V3.5?) from an auction site.

 

I see that the directional lights are not LEDs, but bulbs, so I'm guessing this particular model hasn't been manufactured for quite some time?

 

This is my first Heljan purchase, so not sure if this is a common issue with this manufacturer, but does anyone know of a guide that might exist on how to upgrade this model (or all 'old' Heljans) to LEDs?

 

Thank you

If you look up Express models online , you will see they do an LED lighting kit for the Heljan '33/0 and 33/1 but with the high intensity light included,

However , both are shown as being out of stock currently .

Stickswipe on ebay may be able to produce kits for you if you supply dimensions but no fitting guide is likely to come with it .

HTH 

4 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

May I ask what end lights it should have?

Mine's arrived this morning; decent Auction purchase and works fine.

Route Indicator boxes light up but there is nothing else, either on DC or now that I've fitted a Decoder (latter was easy for a change). I've not checked the decoder ability other than L that switches the Indicators.

There is no description on any of the Paperwork other than the mentioning Indicator ones as far as I can see.

I'm also a bit dim so can't tell if the Exhaust it comes with is what it should have (not that I'm that fussed).

Sorry to be a bother.

Phil

The original '33's were delivered without tail lights .

There were 2 white marker lights and the headcode .

The headcodes either end could show 2 red blinds to act as a tail light .Don't know if the few mainline registered examples which run today are different. 

Bought 37 305 from TMC for £170.00   £45-£50 less than I paid for the green centre headcode version .

Something to open on the big day Along with a split box AS '37 

1 hour ago, westernfan said:

Thanks to all who replied.

The replacement pick-up wire is brand new and I tried using a flux paste. Even trying to tin the pick-up wire the solder won't "stick." Tinning the wire from the motor presents np problems. I'll just have to persevere.

The pick up may have tarnished over the years , if i try to solder onto tarnished copper pipe , the solder simply will not take ,

even with ' self cleaning flux ' 

 For copper pipe , i use wire wool but fine emery cloth will do the trick here .

I would always try to fit the biggest speaker I could into a loco (Always Diesels ) but I would always try them out on a decoder tester beforehand. 

I would place the chosen speaker under the removed bodyshell before making a judgement. 

You'll find different speakers suit different sound projects .

I've used EM2 's in lots of class 37's and while some are great , others are not so great.

It all depends on the sound project chosen .

 The ability to now adjust the bass and treble sounds on ESU chips might help things further. 

HTH

Albie 

If they get the top of the door curving slightly as per prototype , they'll be on to a winner 

TMC advertising the latest centre headcode Growler in green at £159.00 .

Same as an A/S version which isn't out yet .