Covkid

Thanks to those who posted piccies of these wonderful beasts. They look really nice and I am pleased they are totally off my radar - could have been expensive. Well done Graham and KMRC for a wonderful product, I wonder if that class of Southern 2-6-0s which worked into north Cornwall might be rising a little further to the top of the list !!!!

Amazing. If you aren't happy with the price you really don't need to buy it. Some do some don't. It's like everything else in life, you either pay xx GBP for a premier league football match, or you don't. You can pay xx GBP for a football shirt if you want to. You can even buy handbags and Gucci watches, the choices rest entirely with you. AFAIK the reason it is EFE branded is because Kernow are involved, and IMHO when Kernow are involved in a product it is pretty good - after the DJM era that is. It is not for me because I don't model the Southern stabilizer rail territory, but would definitely have one if I did. I have hivered and hovered over a Heljan 10800 because I would love one, but sadly cannot justify it. Would never suggest no one else does though.

Many thanks indeed Andy Product ordered !!! Great stuff

I noticed quite few months ago there were some paths in the timetabling system for Mossend-Hams Hall trains reversing at Nuneaton. At the time I guessed they were supposed to be Orion services using the class 768s, using 25kV on the trunk haul, then diesel power from Nuneaton to Hams Hall. As far as I know these trains never materialised. From what I understand ROG sister company Orion had two of ten class 319s converted to 768s and one of nine class 319s converted to a class 326, and those three units are stored at Castle Donington. The Varamis operation is up and running and I believe they have two converted 321s in service on the Glasgow-Birmingham International flow which has been extended to Wembley. The video of the huge new Royal Mail centre at Daventry is amazing but just a pity they need a diesel to shunt the class 325s in and out of the terminal. Maybe a case for a Clayton dual mode shunting loco to charge under the OLE, then shove the 325s in and out of the facility. Thanks for the video link.

Hi all I am a 61 year old decrepit who wears varifocal glasses. I feel I need some kind of illuminated head-based magnifiers to do close up stuff in my hobby. As its is post Christmas I have an Amazon voucher to use, and having chatted to James Hilton recently, he used a non descript headset visor thingy from the far east. Looked on the Amazon site and confusingly there appear to be dozens and dozens of products on there. My main requirements are LED lit, preferably rechargeable, and able to use in front of my own glasses. There have to be a number of people with this kind of requirement. Can you please tell us what you use ? Thanks

Can I assume you have Ned Williams' book "The railway to Wombourn" published by Euralia press in 1986 ? Ned has photos in the book of Car 40 on the initial passenger journey over the line, and of car 53 at Dunstall Park approx 1930. Although the photos are unsurprisingly monochrome they are very useful from a modelling perspective.

With the greatest of respect, you are not doing yourself any favours by harping on about deltic speaker issues in a class 37 thread. From reading your post you appear to have beef with Accurascale, so why not deal with them direct. They are a really good bunch of people, and if you approach them in a positive and respectful manner I am sure you will achieve a positive result. Airing your dirty washing in this thread will achieve nothing for you except perhaps damage your reputation.

The dip switches under the decoder need to be set for either ESU or other decoders. I imagine Accurascale's models representing the first five class 37s (6700-6704) have the same lighting options, unless there is one featuring the late 1980s onwards square headlight.

That is a good call John. I think both kits had the lamp(s), but IIRC it was just a bit of moulded plastic

The OO market is not the same group of consumers at all. My modeling period is 1960-1974. Therefore, not matter how outstanding the Cavalex 56 and 60 are and no matter how fantastic the Accurascale 92 is etc etc - they are of zero interest to this particular consumer.

At first glance the vehicle looks a little like the three Daimler Freelines acquired by Coventry Corporation. Nos 401 402 and 403. They didn't have a long life and were disposed of by 1970 after being modified a few years earlier. May consider trying to butcher one if it is worth it.

Every time Brian and the team release the poll entry, I always put the LMS "motor train" as one of mu submissions. I am surprised Bachmann have not announced one up to yet because their Jinty and Ivatt "Mickey Mouse" could both run with the vehicles, although we could dream that Bachmann are waiting to announce the ex LNWR Radial tank as another match. LMS and BR used Motor Trains on a number of branches on and off the WCML. Of the top of my head ; Watford Junction-St Albans Wolverton-Newport Pagnell Blisworth-Northampton Stamford-Seaton (Rutland) Coventry-Leamington Walsall-Dudley Amlwch-Gaerwen Horwich-Chorley Probably plenty more examples just for the ex LMS cars were just three, plenty more up in Lancashire rtc.

A very busy couple of weeks has simply flown by and I now have D6702 kitted up and sounded good. As I responded to a the flyer I discovered the sound fitted ones were all sold, so I decided on a DIY project by buying the loco and the sound decoder, without considering I really need the speaker to get the optimum enjoyment. Accurascale were out of stock so I ordered an EM1 from Roads & Rails, then discovered I should have clips to clip the noisy speaker into the loco, which involved a Black Friday order to Accurascale for clips crew, buffers etc. Received the message from the parcel courier DPD to say they were waiting for the parcel from Accurascale. Ten days later still no parcel so contacted both DPD and Accurascale, and the latter claim the former mislaid it, but sent me a duplicate which arrived next day. Took to roof off the loco and found a bundle of wires running down the middle of the loco, where big speaker needed to be, so removed the little black tapes and slid the cable bundle over to the side, then installed it. The sound is fantastic, but I initially had some concerns because the sound was sometimes cutting out at start up. A little bit of lateral thinking resolved this - the loco needs to charge the capacitor when you put it on the track, so just apply patience and serenity and let the loco charge for a minute or two - then press F1 to start. After some initial concerns I am very pleased with the loco and now need to fit appropriate headcodes then weather it. The loco in it's 41A guise will be a little wobegone and grimy having worked plenty of coal, coke and steel trains around Yorkshire. For me it will be working coal, coke, iron, steel and genrral freight into the Black Country. Thanks Accurascale for setting the bar high.

The Bagnall I have in mind comes between them. One of those from Stoke on Trentshire with a Geisl ejector, and it is preserved too .This is an excerpt from the Scaleforum My research has identified that eighteen of these beasts were built between 1942 and 1955 initial being sent to Preston Docks and a variety of collieries. 16" x 24" Bagnall 0-6-0 saddle tank. Build number Name Destination Date despatched 1 2680 No 4 Birchwood Coal and Coke 12/1942 2 2681 William Sneyd Collieries 12/1942 3 2682 Princess Preston Docks 02/1942 4 2818 No 17 Norton & Biddulph Collieries 08/1945 5 2838 Energy Preston Docks 6-7/1946 6 2839 Perseverance Preston Docks 6-7/1946 7 2840 Enterprise Preston Docks 6-7/1946 8 2891 Process Preston Docks 11-12/1948 9 2892 Courageous Preston Docks 11-12/1948 10 2893 Conqueror Preston Docks 11-12/1948 11 2991 No 1 Florence Colliery 09/1950 12 2992 No 3 NCB Deep Pit Unit. 08/1950 13 3059 Florence No 2 Florence Colliery 01/1954 14 3060 Sneyd No 4 Sneyd Colliery 02/1954 15 3061 NCB No 6 Rawdon Colliery 10/1954 16 3075 Berry Hill No 4 Berry Hill Colliery 11/1954 17 3077 Hem Heath No 1 Florence Colliery 6-7/1955 18 3078 Hem Heath No 2 Hem Heath Colliery 6-7/1955 This is a rather large hint to RapidoAndy !!

Well spotted. I hadn't noticed that tiny bit of new yellow paint. Now you mention it, looks like a bit of new blue under the radiator grille as it appears to have the nameplate removed too. Pity really LSL should have run it like this for the 2024 season, then maybe repainted it for 2025. Won't ever get bored with large logo blue tractors !!!

Having got the parcel back from James on Friday (very speedy service thanks) I had a play with the loco over the weekend. I really cannot enthuse enough over the loco and am blown away by what the Zimo decoder does to the Bachmann chassis. I have always rated Bachmann's mechanisms, particularly after seeming the performance of one of the original Bachmann class 25s totally transform by the fitting of a good decoder to replace that the loco was fitted with originally. The Zimo controlled practically imperceptible crawl in speed steps 1, 2 and 3 is testament to the Bachmann mechanism, but it is in my view enhanced by the sound of the Gardner when the gearbox hisses as the loco selects the gear. I assume the CVs can be changed if required but the Digitrains sound file on the Zimo decoder "changes up into 2nd gear" at about speed step 23, and again around speed step 40. A dab of F2 "applies the brakes" and makes the loco a real joy to shunt with. I am assuming other "Drewry" files for decoders are similar in terms of function to the Digitrains product on the Zimo MX590 decoder, but I really cannot recommend it highly enough to those who choose the DCC path for their toy trains. "Sam Trains" would be blown away by the crawl I can tell you !!!!

Have you seen the rather nice piccies of the loco at Nemesis Burton which used to be 37606 in the DRS fleet ? It's new owner has gas-axed off those awful wipac headlight clusters and reinstated the Crewe refurb flush marker lights / centre headlight comboon the nose ends. Then added red stripe railfreight grey and large 37508 numbers. Now that is what I call retro !! Outside my modelling period but it would be great as an Accuraexclusive.

Both would be really useful, although the aircon would be slightly too modern formy personal time frame. RTR Mk 1 catering vehicles would fit really well into the Accurascale portfolio in my view but also with manufacturers and purveyors or aircon Mk2s and Mk3s actually. I would certainly second a Mk1 BfK in maroon. Mine would have a dual purpose - as a 1960s passenger brake vehicle as well as one of the pair based on the Chasewater railway and used in regular service with a class117 DMU trailer on the passenger service.

Yes. All refurb 37s had their nose grilles changed to be a uniform shape on all four ends, but I believe these varied between styles. I recall Graham Shaw of Shawplan telling me the differences with the strengthening bars etc. Another difference on the refurb 37s was the plating over of an engineroom window on some examples, predominantly the "heavyweights", but as "Jools" asked, the 37/6s were developed from the refurb 37/5s. And while we are on this subject the new owner of 37606 has removed the wipac lighting from the nose ends and has reinstalled the "refurbished" or flush lighting arrangement of the loco as well as painting in red stripe railfreight colours with it's post refurb number of 37508. There is a rather appealing image of it as 37508 on Railway Herald

Yes Jools. The 37/6 variant for EPS was created from already refurbed 37s, which were 37/5 prior to EPS modification. You will also note that both kinds of 37/5 were used - ex split headcode and ex centre headcode types. Your example of 37609 which was originally outshopped from EE as split headcode D6815, and becomig TOPS 37115. After HGR refurb at Crewe it became 37514, and was later modified into 37609. This means the traditional method of starting the engine by "motoring" the traction generator, was replaced by starter motors.

Interesting to see the Accurascale video of 50008 running on Pete Waterman's layout. As built the tail lights on the class 50s were below the cab windscreens and lit when trailing. In preservation 50044 was modified to to have the drivers side taillight converted to display a white headlight when leading. This was because 50044 had the 1980s headlight removed in preservation. More recently 50008 has had the tail lights modified as white marker lights when leading, and Accurascale have clearly designed the new model with this feature, as that is what the Accurascale prototype runs as. Nice one Accurascale

Of absolutely no interest to me personally, but leaves me speculating on whether Hornby / Hattons ought to consider something like a DCC controlled powered 6 wheel luggage / brake vehicle in the generic range. Such locos as above could then be propelled around the layouts bereft of motorised encumbrances. Struggling to remember which manufacturer produced the motorized 12 ton van back in the 1960s for the same effect.

That is a surprise it is not currently available. A very nice and very versatile wagon

All all those hoses hung up neatly "Nidge". Just how a loco should be presented eh !!! Lovely piccies and thanks for sharing

Been having a bit of experimentation with painting the insides of coal hoppers recently. I started off with ochre colours but then I saw a reference to Typhus Corrosion paint by Citadel / Warhammer. I bought some online and having used it I am very impressed. Have to say I try to avoid online purchasing and would rather go and browse a shelf full of products in a real shop, My nearest Warhammer store appears to be Walsall so I sallied forth yesterday afternoon to the address shown online - Old Square shopping centre in Walsall. Knowing parking would be an issue I chose to park on the Asda carpark as I needed some shopping, then wandered down the marketplace and into the Old Square shopping centre. My wife used to work in there fifteen odd years ago, but I wasn't disappointed to see so many empty premises. Anyway walked from one end to the other and back and no sign of Warhammer so walked along Bridge Street, then wondered whether it might not be in the centre at all, but actually in Freer St. The reaosn being Warhammer advertise as being open until 2000 but the centre locked its shutters at 1800. Walked up Freer St passed "Brrgrr" and found the Warhammer store, and a very helpful guy in charge. My brief lesson in their paint was that Warhammer and Citadel are the same company but this one traded as Warhammer. The shelves of paint contained Base, Contrast, Shade and Technical types and I understand wargamers are very into shades, washes and highlights. Wanting to sample them I picked up three pots Base - Dryad bark Shade - Agrax Earthshade Contrast - Snakebite Leather Will update you, but thought it worthwhile advising anyone not to walk through a "dying on it's feet" shopping centre when you really don't need to. Perhaps much easier to catch a 51 or X51 then walk around the corner !!! HTH