Thunderforge

Haha, “goofs shed” Edit: referenced a typo which has now been corrected :-)

Capstan Shunting, Lesson 4: Care should be taken to remember that just because the capstan CAN be used, it doesn’t always follow that a capstan SHOULD be used.

Haha, that’s the perfect excuse to use any unusual piece of rolling stock; “who ordered that? Must have been a mix up at the depot!”

Just a thought, if your station is the terminus of a branch line, any goods coming down that branch line should be for stations along it, and the only wagons remaining in the goods train should be destined for this station anyway. So all the wagons should be 'dropped off' and an either the engine returns home with just the brake van or collects a new train which is made up off any loaded outgoing wagons available. Logic, right?

Check out the Empire buildings from Warhammer, they are a good mix of steampunk and ‘old London town’:

I’m sure it’s been drawn before, but...

I guess there’s nothing for it but the company will have to shell out for a station pilot!

What if the train arrived to the top left siding (ie the headshunt to the goods yard), shunted what it needed to collect/deliver, then reverse back to the main line, and forward into the platofrom loop to run around and sort out it's brake van? It looks like whatever you do you'll be doing a lot of back and forth, and the goods shed headshunt will have to be kept clear for access.

I think there’s definitely a space on the market for ‘bottom end’ O gauge kits. 7mm seems to be dominated by expensive super detailed things which have limited market because of their ‘niche-ness’ For example you can get brass LNWR buffers, which are only useful to the modeller of LNWR of a certain era. Thus the company will release buffers for NER, SR, GCR, GWR, LSWR, etc, and have a lot of products with very narrow sales targets. Now I don’t want that to change, I think it’s awesome. BUT if someone realeased a vacuum plastic kit for a 0-6-0 tank engine with say, two four wheeled carriages, including a cheap five pole motor, a roof switch and plastic wheels, it would appeal to a very broad range of people. Yes it wouldn’t be very good but it would be a cheap base to work up a ‘proper’ loco with Romford wheels added, or a kids carpet toy otherwise. Maybe a shelf piece like the Dapol plastic OO kits once weathered up? O gauge used to be the top seller...

Crediton’s LSWR isn’t it?

We have the technology. With a computer controlling the vehicle speed it should be able to send co-ordinated sounds based on the change in speed (ie increase in speed = open regulator, slowing down a little = coasting, slowing down a lot = brake squeal, etc etc)

Glad you solved the problem, stuff like that is definitely irritating when there isn’t an obvious answer. Would it be worth informing Hornby of the problem? They might tweak the build or something for future sales. (Okay I doubt they will but it’s gotta be worth trying, right?)

Thanks for the ideas and feedback chaps, I shall post my results (good or bad) once I have got round to it. I’m still cutting chassis and awaiting motors before any tests can happen. I’ve never tried proper dcc with sound and smoke yet, and to be honest I’ve not been too impressed by what I’ve heard. There are some amazing things people have done out there but the budget rtr items are tinny and (as you say, Johnster,) staticky. No proper engine should go “shh shh shh”. I like the idea of a continuously running diesel engine, and I wonder if using a vibrator with an echo chamber attached might work, which might also give it a little shuddering movement... unfortunately diesels are a little late for my preferred era, but worth throwing the idea out there. Of course it might be difficult to explain away your browsing history when looking for parts! Personally I’ve always preferred the simpler mechanical solutions to better electrical solutions. As an example the electric window in my car has failed so I have to awkwardly reach around my open door to use multi storey car parks, seriously what was wrong with a hand winder?!

I had a Hornby Railroad LNER tender engine a while ago with what I can only describe as a ‘mechanical cam chuffer’. One of the tender axles had a cam with a rough surface which rotated against a little piece of spring steel with a similarly rough surface. The sound was amplified by the empty tender body to give a reasonable good ‘chuf’ which directly sped up and slowed down with the loco. I thought it was an amazingly simple and effective and maybe I could replicate it myself. Before I started I wondered if anyone else has tried it and what you might recommend for the ‘rough texture’? Course sandpaper?

I like those 0-4-0s! It’s funny how some look like they should have outside cylinders and some look like they should be inside. 0-4-0 tender engine as a suggestion? Also you need to consider how later engines would have turned out if single driving wheels remained a thing. Imagine the Scotsman with one 12’ driver, or what about a Super D or 9f!! Food for thought...

Not sure if this forum supports animated gifs, but you get the idea. I guess there’s precedent in Henry’s nickname “Old Square Wheels”!

It has a section titled “Non-Circular Wheel Locomotives”!!

^ I'd like to think they were named opposite on the other side, so they could never be split as a rake!

How frustrating, I have an unfinished wagon which has wonky wheels; on the track it sits with one wheel about two mil above the rail. So I pop the wheels out and switch them to a chassis which I KNOW is level... and the result is the same. One wheel two mil in the air. So I switch the wheels back to the first wagon and they sit perfectly on the rails! I assume Richard Trevithick never suffered from problems like this. Also he wasn’t using a material which has the structural integrity of damp cardboard. Still, at least I have two wagons which sit flat and run smoothly, even if one of them isn’t the nicely painted box van. On a more positive note I have hit upon the idea of removable loads with the aid of a magnet hidden in the top. I can use my uncoupling device to hoik out the load quickly and easily. The magnets came from an old phone case, the coal load is styrene and bits of gravel. I’ve started making a load of covered hay (painted fur wrapped around a styrene block), I’ll take some more photos when I get round to it. Jim Read has kindly let me have instructions for his home-made locomotive and controller, I’ve ordered some parts so watch this space! :-) Edit: horn blocks probably wouldn’t work on a wagon, I think the axle boxes would be too small to hide them. I thought about increasing the height of the holes the wheel bearing sit in, to give them some vertical play, but I can’t help thinking that it’s a Bad Idea.

There’s a war game company called Bolt Action who make figures of the Dad’s Army platoon, I think the scale is 1:53, so maybe too over scale for O gauge, but might be funny to see an open wagon full of them all waving rifles and broom handle spears.

I've toyed with the idea of making some UNTIED DIARIES tankers myself!

As a kid I never had enough money to buy big trains, and even Christmases and birthdays didn't seem to stretch to a Flying Scotsman, so most of my time was spend wondering if I should spend my thirty quid on a Smokey Joe or a new set of points. Somehow this has forged my taste into preferring small engines and four wheeled carriages, even though I could afford Castle with a rake of chocolate and creams.

Any children I've let near tension lock couplers have always used the same method of uncoupling. A wagon in each hand and a technique somewhere between a Chinese burn and a terrier tearing up a newspaper. Makes me cringe every time!

Looking awesome! - the sheep and trainspotter should give it that final little realistic touch. There one thing that nags at me though... can you remove that fishplate?!

Fair point Johnster, then it would depend on whether it was being toured around exhibitions or used by one person or club. Edit: kudos on fitting ‘heretoforward’ in a sentence!