SteveyDee68

Crikey! You’re not wrong! 🤣

Well, I just got a list of football managers… Are you sure you didn’t google “Swedish models”? 🤣 Steve S

Further exploration of his other items reveals this In his description he reveals that “The loco's one connecting rod piece is broken, it is an easy repair however as-is the loco will not run.” [sic] If it is an easy repair, why not do it? However, the statement that further justifies awarding him the accolade of MC of the Day is … “It has been priced accordingly for the faults.” He wants £260 for it … wonder how much he would have wanted if it had been complete and working?! Steve S

Searching eBay for “Rivarossi 0-4-0”, I came across one in semi-dismantled state and, in usual nosy fashion, I took a look at the seller’s other items to see what else he might have (it’s how I found my Triang Swedish coaches!) Now, I understand that Bachmann On30 Shay locomotives are desirable pieces of kit, but my first thought on seeing this item was “that valve gear looks way too low” … The description says it is in great condition but won’t run and includes the line “the motor smoked”! So, basically b*ggered although the seller states “Just needs a new motor, or clean?” In which case, why not do just that and figure in the extra cost into your selling price?! Or is it that the necessary new motor is not readily available? Whatever the case, does £150 for a dead loco mean this seller wins the Mendacious Chiseller Award of the Day? Steve S

Looking at the state of the roads around Trafford Park due to being pounded by heavy goods vehicles, it does in retrospect seem short sighted to have abandoned an extensive rail network which could/should have been better exploited. It’s just a shame that the political will* and foresight weren’t around in the past to recognise that rail transportation is environmentally more friendly than HGVs. Steve S * Not helped by the Road Transport Lobbyists and (no doubt) many lucrative post MP positions offered on the boards of various major players as “incentives” to sway the aforementioned political will!

Hi John In the hopes that I am not “teaching my grandmother how to suck eggs”, I have two distinct strategies for bidding for things on eBay… 1) I see something that I like then I put a maximum bid on it that I am prepared to pay, and then ignore it. If I win, I win, happy days; if I get outbid, that’s life! 2) I see something that I want then I watch it, and put an alarm on my phone for a few minutes before the auction finishes. I’ll keep a regular check on bids - if it goes above what I am prepared to pay, then I stop watching it and start again. If not, I work out my maximum bid, submit my bid and then wait at the CONFIRM page until the final few seconds of the auction before confirming (and submitting) the bid. Usually I bid around the 6 second mark to allow it to register before the auction ends. That’s a late enough bid to not allow anyone else to outbid me, or if unsuccessful I don’t have time to be caught up in “auction fever” and put another bid in!! Most recently I stumbled across two Triang “Swedish” four wheel coaches, which I have been wanting for several years after seeing Kevin Wyberd’s upgrading of his own on his “Little Narrow”. I’ve been outbid again and again in the past - they’ve sold for up to £35 (!) and Gosturd has a set of four available for £99.99 (!); I understand that they are relatively rare, but I wasn’t going to pay silly money for a “starter set” coach. The bid was at £1.99 … at 6 seconds before the end of the auction, I submitted a bid of £32.30 for the pair (or £16.15 each) which I was prepared to go up to. I won - for £3.20 (a tenth of my max bid) Patience pays off. Some canny bidding also. Good luck getting your coach chassis! Steve S

‘No good deed goes unpunished’ Or so the saying goes! 😉 Steve S

How is that in terms of loading gauge? Have to say that I really like it! It looks … right! Steve S (self confessed shunting loco addict)

Oh look - what a bargain! 🙄 Perhaps it’s actually gold plated beneath the big standard factory applied finish?! Steve S

Pick up four Bachmann VBA/VDA van bodies* off eBay for a song… Compare against the “tanker” chassis under an UDV … Take a ruler and make a few pertinent measurements … 1) Remove one centre door from the sides and shorten the roof, and the shortened body is more or less the same length as the chassis! 2) Remove buffers and bufferstocks (buffers to be glued into the bufferstocks moulded on the van ends) … 3) Glue body together (and provide suitable strengthening inside) and make body good with filler, before fitting a false floor to fasten the underframe to … 4) (Possibly) Shorten underframe slightly to fit between headstocks … 5) Fasten chain anchor points along chassis appropriately 6) Repaint as fictional European train ferry van I’m up to step (2) … pictures to follow! HOURS OF FUN! * It’s not cheating - it’s doing something with the underframes!

Maths Update Well, that made for an interesting read in that from page 2 onwards I was scratching my head and rereading what I’d just read in the hopes that it would make sense if I looked at it again… It didn’t! Despite teaching Functional Maths to trainee hairdressers, car mechanics, painters & decorators and computer programmers (amongst other subjects) and several years experience teaching Foundation GCSE to secondary age children, my own maths training ended with my O Level back in 1984 and so that academic paper very quickly started talking in a language wot I dunno much about… My own formula has one stipulation in order to work - the two shorter sidings must hold the same number of wagons and the assembled train is the sum of those sidings minus one wagon and fits into the longer siding exactly. The headshunt must be equal in length to a short siding plus the length of the loco (L). Maximum number of wagons is equal to the train length (TL) aka the length of the siding the train is assembled upon, plus the length of one shorter siding: INGLENOOK Siding A = 3 Siding B = 3 Siding C = 5 (A+B-1 = 3+3-1 = 6-1 = 5) Headshunt = A+L Max No of Wagons = A+C = 5+3 = 8 MIN INGLENOOK Siding A = 2 Siding B = 2 Siding C = 3 (A+B-1 = 2+2-1 = 4-1 = 3) Headshunt = A+L Max No of Wagons = A+C = 3+2 = 5 INGLENOOK expanded +1 Siding A = 4 Siding B = 4 Siding C = 7 (A+B-1 = 4+4-1 = 8-1 = 7) Headshunt = A+L Max No of Wagons = A+C = 4+7 = 11 INGLENOOK expanded +2 Siding A = 5 Siding B = 5 Siding C = 9 (A+B-1 = 5+5-1 = 10-1 = 9) Headshunt = A+L Max No of Wagons = A+C = 5+9 = 14) Let’s go a bit daft for a moment … INGLENOOK expanded +6 Siding A = 9 Siding B = 9 Siding C = 17 (A+B-1 = 9+9-1 = 18-1 = 17) Headshunt = A+L Max No of Wagons = A+C = 9+17 = 26 HOURS OF FUN!

I spent an evening simply working out how to increase the Inglenook puzzle ensuring the headshunt remained correct etc, but all that work pertained only to the Inglenook! I shall read the link with great interest - many thanks for providing it @BroadLeaves Steve S

I found it! For anyone interested in expanding the traditional 5-3-3 Inglenook formula, DM me for some geeky fascinating maths explaining how adding wagons proportionately (to retain the Inglenook formula) rapidly expands the possible moves into the thousands of millions! Reduced Inglenook requires 5 wagons Inglenook requires 8 wagons total Inglenook+1 = 11 wagons total Inglenook+2 = 14 wagons total Inglenook+3 = 17 wagons total Inglenook+4 = 20 wagons total etc Steve S

This thread is proving very informative for my eventual reimagining of Newhaven as Broadhaven; I won’t be sticking to historical accuracy (I’m going to put a train ferry terminal there, for instance!) but I suppose I could ask a theoretical questions and get a considered answer - 1) Could the Co-Co “Booster” locos have handled the Night Ferry service (to Dover)? 2) Did they ever do so? (I can only find reference to Class 71 electric locos). 3) Being able to handle the heavy Newhaven boat trains*, would they have been able to cope with the Night Ferry formation to Newhaven? If the answer is “yes” (even theoretically) then a pre-order for the new EFE model may be required! Steve S * Didn’t the Newhaven boat trains use 6 axle Pullman cars?

Well, it is certainly a splendiferous addition to the loco, and will be a head-turner on the finished loco! I reckon your 4mm crew will take great pride in their charge, and keep that dome well polished! Steve S

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!