SteveyDee68

From whence did one acquire the big shiny dome, squire? Asking for a friend

Guy with hand over button … ”Wanna bet?”

Quick glance at eBay and the cheapest (running) Vitrains Class 47 is currently at a high bid of £47 - but is missing a buffer and housing, and is in a different livery and so would some work to make suitable for my chosen time period. However, a two tone green Vitrains 47 is also available with a starting bid of £68, which seems very reasonable. I did wonder about the video, however, as the seller shows it running at express speeds (from stationary) and it does sound quite “gravelly” - is that normal for a Vitrains motor, I wonder? HOURS OF FUN! PS A couple of Bachmann 47s have also appeared, but have LOTS of watchers so guessing those may sell for £££

Those two do, at least, have more “ship like” lines to them, although the second one is looking a bit bulky midship. Wonder which Russian oligarch/Saudi Prince/tech billionaire/UK PPE Contractor they belong to? Steve S

It’s such a nice, non-gaudy maroon in the flesh, so to speak, and beautifully lined out. You would really regret not acquiring one, and up to 31 December you can still order one at £99 if given the not-so-secret code! I know how you feel with pre-ordered locos due to arrive (and be paid for) but PayPal Pay-in-3 makes acquisition of a Victory relatively painless over three months, interest free! No link to Planet Industrials, Light Railway Stores or PayPal, just a shunting loco addict desperate to ensure stocks are sold out so that if/when I try to order yet another one on New Year’s Eve I shall be thwarted by there being none left! 🤣 My name is Steve and I’m a shunting locomotive addict. It has been 10 days since I last purchased one…

Watching some intermodal wagon sales on eBay - practically brand new pair of wagons with containers starting bid of £5 … and no interest?!! Others have empty wagon sets starting at £45 with no interest either. Doesn’t bode well for offloading out of era stock! 🙄 Steve S PS Whilst reading through the “Improving and Detailing RTR” thread (starting on the last page and working forwards) a couple of articles prompted me to remember that I also have a Bachmann Class 66 in Freightliner livery … I may even have a Lima Class 59 and 60 (in random liveries) too! I really should dig that box out from under the eaves and check what on earth I have acquired and then forgotten about!

I am guessing that as the buffer has “snapped” and is loose that I need to remove the remaining part of the buffer housing, then completely replace the whole buffer with the new spare part and then “make good”. Thanks for the advice - just saved me from spending way too much with an eBay ‘body snatcher’ * for a lower frame assembly because it has all four buffers (although the PC** also has an identical frame for sale less one buffer for exactly the same price! 🫢) Steve S * What I call those folks on eBay who split down perfectly working models in order to sell the components as spares at massively inflated prices! ** Pernicious Chiseller - see the eBay Madness thread!

Your new scenics really help put those running lines “into” the landscape, and the fact it is in front (rather than behind) also makes the scene “believable”. Your layout is one I keep returning to for inspiration of how to build a large layout and achieve the right balance between intensive track and scenery - but I am kicking myself for not having downloaded your photos onto my hard drive as most of the photos have disappeared into the RMweb Server Black Hole! Particularly disappointing as I think seeing the development of the freight line to the wharf by the flour mill is hugely inspirational for micro modellers, as there are so many elements that combine to make an ideal “extended” micro (wharf being the initial micro, the roadside running being an excellent scenic extension idea for example). I imagine restoring all the photos would be a job and a half - I tried to do that on my micro layout thread only to discover that some were taken on a device which had since died (taking the images with it) etc which meant the process stalled before it even began - and that was for a micro layout, not the huge layout you have built! Steve S

I reread my email carefully and they say - We would say "don't tell everyone", but actually - do! I could (like you) have posted on here but didn’t as I felt that (likewise) that didn’t quite fit with what they wrote - If you have a railway modelling friend who might be interested in one of these powerful, smooth running industrial tank locos why not let them know about PI and what we do? [emphasis added] But I did DM @Nova Scotian with the details as he had obviously decided to buy one but then missed the deadline. Felt like the right thing to do! 😉 Steve S

A couple of years ago I had exactly the same thing happen to me! How bizarre! Thankfully I was able to reassemble the GTech again despite the ‘help’ (which by a quirky coincidence was from my mother, too!) WHY said GTech now ran in reverse was (and still is) a mystery, and a couple of weeks ago I finally took it to a repair shop to find out what was wrong. They said “We don’t do Mark 1s any more” (not helpful) then watched it run backwards and were intrigued enough to have a quick look (“Never seen one do that before!” - still not helpful). After some poking about, they declared that a short may have reversed the polarity from the battery thereby running the motor in reverse… I didn’t bother arguing that a short would (should) simply kill it dead and brought it home, still no clearer as to why, after replacing worn brush head rollers, the motor now runs backwards and so (a) flicks items out from the rollers instead of into the machine and (b) propels itself contrary to what it did before! I am sure @Happy Hippo will assemble his vacuum cleaner with more success than I did with my GTech!

Have picked up a Bachmann Warship as a surprise Xmas gift for a friend returning to the hobby, only it has a broken buffer ie the “sprung” buffer is loose and no longer “sprung”. Is it possible to replace a broken buffer, or will I need to acquire a complete lower body moulding complete with all four buffers intact as a spare? Bachmann Spares website lists said lower body frame but also says “without buffers” which suggests (sort of) that these can then be added. However, they don’t list the buffers themselves (at least not in the Warship spares section). Any advice or suggestions welcome - after this repair, I need to sort out renumbering and a nameplate so it matches my mate’s name ready for Xmas/New Year! Cheers Steve S

Ain’t so secret - and they want it passing on to anyone who might just fancy a Victory for themselves but didn’t know about them! Me? I’m resisting the urge* for just one more Victory but who knows what might happen if I’ve had a few Baileys on New Year’s Eve?! Steve S * Especially as I have pre-orders due to arrive Jan 24!!

Spill chucker strikes again - surely you meant “The Wicker Man’?!

Can barely tell that is a ship, it blends in so seamlessly with the tower blocks around it. I believe the acronym “UAF” applies. Whatever happened to the graceful lines of cruise liner design? Left with these ugly behemoths, floating tower blocks with as much grace as a hippopotamus in a tutu. Steve S

Just revisiting this old thread and the fact suddenly struck me (as in being hit over the head with an idiot stick) … When I asked the original question, I already owned a Bachmann Class 57 which, if I am not mistaken, is basically an updated Class 47? That loco ran super smooth right out of the box and had lovely detailing, so how come I had forgotten I had it? When I first started back in the hobby back in 2017, I had this brilliant idea to do a “modern image” Inglenook using pairs of Freightliner intermodal wagons instead of the traditional single 10’ wheelbase wagons used on such layouts. My plans were for a 3,2,2 configuration serving a wharf based upon the wharf at Irlam on the Manchester Ship Canal, and I amassed a Freightliner 08, 57 and a 73 (ugly thing) before the penny dropped - why shuffle wagons about when you could just lift the boxes off the wagons?! Everything went into a plastic box and I forgot about it all… What I should do is sell it all off*, together with the Bachmann RES livery coaches I also acquired and … OMG … I have a LIMA class 47 in RES livery! 🤦‍♂️ HOURS OF FUN! * If I do, will I get back what I paid for them? More importantly, should I decide to do something “Freightliner” in the future, will I ever be able to afford buying those models again?!! 🫢🤣

January edition of the H@rnby magazine has an O gauge branch line measuring 14 feet long by 3 feet wide that I’m looking at and thinking “flip the track plan horizontally and then vertically and it’ll work for Woodhey Quay”! Of course, in 4mm/foot the layout should (theoretically) scale down to 8 foot long by 18 inches wide, so no longer a micro layout. I suspect that to keep the open feel of that design that it cannot really be shrunk down any further - but it’s something to ponder whilst sweating out the lurgy! It features a halt platform which maybe precludes using the Wisbech coaches and tram locos… Oh dear, I feel a more W&U inspired micro may end up being ‘justified’ and return Woodhey Quay to being a ‘proper’ railway! HOURS OF FUN!

Lying in bed with the lurgy* 🤧 I am thinking about how I get hold of my most recent Victory tank, as I had it delivered to my Saturday morning workplace. As I may not be there tomorrow. 🤒 Meanwhile, lying here I’ve just been informed that my cheeky bid for four Bachmann hopper wagons on eBay succeeded, and also that the payment for the Bachmann Commonwealth bogies I sold on to a fellow RMWebber has also arrived, and that the latter pays for the former including the postage! 😁 So that has cheered me up, as it is four more hopper wagons for my Victories to shuffle about! 😆 My set track based C&HPR inspired micro layout “Blackford Wharf” is built around a four wagon train length to fit in with my imaginary scenario of it serving “White Peak Tar & Macadam” but I can see myself having to plan a “maxi-micro” industrial exchange sidings** to justify running my collection of Victory tank locos. Suggestions on an electronic postcard please, whilst I dig out the formula and maths I did for expanding the Inglenook shunting puzzle concept*** HOURS OF FUN! * Thank you, small child who constantly sneezed in my direction for an hour on Wednesday afternoon in music class. 😠 ** Probably titled “Castlebrook**** Sidings” to reuse a layout title that was “parked” in favour of “Blackford Wharf” (as that name mimics ‘Cromford Wharf’ by using “Blackford”, which is local to me - “Blackford Bridge”) *** I found a working formula to calculate numbers of wagons required etc - thought I posted it on RMWeb somewhere but can’t find it! **** Named for a local stream “Castle Brook” but more importantly my secondary school name “Castlebrook High” … all my layout lanes have local connections … oh … except one! 🫢🙄🤣

So, someone has one more model than there were prototype locomotives! 👏 The competitive part of my brain has heaved a huge sigh of relief - there is absolutely no point in trying to compete with that! 🤣 Also a relief to discover that someone has the Victory fever worse than me! 🤣 That Euro Lottery winner was on TV a short time ago - he’s not a railway modeller by any chance is he? 🤔😁 Thankfully the deadline has passed and I can no longer be tempted… Oh, what’s this email message from your good selves I see in my inbox? … Noooooooooooooooooo!! 🫣

What? Left?! If so, amazing and well done! Steve S

My wallet will be ecstatic! 🤣 Problem is that pesky thing called PayPal pay-in-3 which is interest free and splits payments over three months… So £99 in one hit becomes £33 (for three months) and you barely notice the next two payments! Of course, if you end up buying THREE of them in rapid succession then you are back to the £99 hit … but for three consecutive months!! 🫢 My name is Steve and I’m a shunting locomotive addict. It has been 5 days since I last purchased one…

Crikey! The imaginary devil sitting on my left shoulder has taken physical form and is posting under the pseudonym of @Paul_sterling! 🫢🤣

Anything railway related always looks so much better when collected/shown in odd numbers … Just saying … Steve S PS Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on!* * Two can play at that game! 😆

And we are now into the last few hours of the sale … And it might be a long time before these are produced again … If ever … The FOMO is strong … 😵‍💫

It’s that time of year, when the urge to be home 30 seconds earlier overcomes common sense and drivers do plain STOOPID things… Sorry you’ve been in the wars - rotten timing too, leading up to Christmas. Can you make a claim for “lost modelling hours” against the other driver’s insurance? Hope you heal soon and it doesn’t give you too much hassle. Best wishes Steve S

The seller has the gall to say “They could benefit from restoration” yet still wants £30 each for them! Personally I think they would benefit from the application of a hammer. Steve S