roythebus1

Railway wheels don't run very well in tramway rail, the flanges are too deep and, in true model railway form, the back-to-backs are different.

I doubt "proper" Warships would have pulled TC stock unless they were fitted with air brakes. :)

Remember you only need trailer bogies under the parlour car. the kitchen car has one of each!

Maybe bore the chassis out to take Romford bearings? :) Meanwhile, I recently found my K's Motorail bogies we spoke about a couple of years ago, along with some of the Motorail transfers if you're still interested.

I've never known such a basic layout plan generate so much interest over such a long period of time. As I mentioned in a much earlier comment, I spoke with Cyril Freezer about this layout in the 1980s and asked him about the kick-back loco spur. As he based this layout on Moorgate Widened lines , as rebuilt in 1967 this had a loco spur from each platform. These spurs were accessible directly from the 2 platforms to save time and movements. Cyril said he done his as a kick-back to make working such a layout a bit more interesting. The original Moorgate Widened Lines station also had 2 separate loco spurs, one for the Eastern and one for the Midland. another terminal platform had a loco spur for the Metropolitan electric locos. In a later conversation with Cyril, he complimented me on my Tidmouth Junction "Thomas" themed layout which done the rounds in the late 1980s. It had a continuous run, a separate branch, a main line terminus, loco shed with turntable, a goods yard AND fiddle loops, all in a space of 11x4, built in a short time frame of 3 weeks! It could also be run as a proper railway. He admitted it was something he tried to achieve but never quite managed it. some kind soul on here posted the link to the RM article on Tidmouth Junction a while ago. I tried building several of Cyril's ideas over the years, none of them quite worked out!

I've got a spare XT60 if you want to keep it original.

At least the SUB units worked. i loved driving them. Westinghouse brake and handbrake, everything works on line volts and as someone said, hang out the front window to change the headcode. :)

Yes, I've got a later Finecast P with etched chassis and the commercially produced model, Bachy or Hornby, I can't remember which. I intend keeping the original original if that makes sense with vintage detailing but with a small modern motor. Plain black or green livery, I dare not try the SECR livery! I've got. video of the modern SEF model pulling over 40 wagons on my layout! .

During my visit to India in 1987 I was lucky to have a BR travel permit and priv facilities. I was made most welcome at Bombay VT and was introduced to the station Master, a man of great Importance. I was introduced to a couple of the local train drivers who showed me the cab of a couple of the local trains. the controls were remarkably the same as the Southern Region VEP/CEP etc units that I was used to driving out of Waterloo! Pity I didn't have time to go for a cab ride in one as we had a later train to catch overnight to somewhere. Sadly my photos of the holiday were largely lost by the film developing company. I was left with 4 rolls out of 18! A fascinating system. I had a cab ride on the Nigri Hills line as well as a main line ride out of Golden Rock towards the coast to a place that had a layout similar to Cambridge.

i too have a box of doom of kits started way back in the 1960s that are still far from complete, or have been built and dismantled a few times since then, the oldest being a Wills Finecast P class, then a couple of wills 02s... Lost parts are a bugbear for completing some of the kits!.

The original motors seem to have badly worn brushes and gear problems. I'll have to re-visit the Warship fleet!

This lot's going on Ebay soon, open to offers!

the BattleSpace turbo car was fun. I had one and ran it on the MRC's test tracks. As the time they had some really vintage controllers that would put out 20volts. The Turbo car went so fast it came off the end of the straight bit and took off, landing somewhere near the doors of the lower hall at Keen House. Some of the older members weren't impressed! Grumpy old gits.

Yes if I remember correctly. there' also a problem with gears that is a known fault with them. If someone can point me towards CD motors, maybe I'll give those a try.

Not one of my favourite locos, I've got a few of the originals that don't work, looking foe new motor bogies or someone who wants them for spares. There's a spare modern mech that I got from someone on here. Mazak rot made it unusable.

Back in the late 1960s there was an article in one of the model mags about a system using a centre third rail of steel with thin insulated copper wire round it, making a very long electro-magnet. What it omitted to say or I forgot to do was to bare the top surface one the insulated copper wire! 2 magnets were placed under the rail vehicle close to the rail top. a pair of insulated brushes rubbed on the long centre rail. The theory was that 12v was collected from the 2 running rails and was passed to the third rail "coil" which acted as a long armature. As that was energised the magnetism in the coil would attract and repel the magnets under the rail vehicle. While couldn't get mine to work I understand others did!

The helicopter car was fun but after a few launches the spring in the helicopter wagon split through the sides!

Hastings still has semaphores at the Ashford end.

The semaphores at Hatings were replaced about 4-5 years ago with...new semaphores! The reason being something to do with overlap requirements for colour-light replacements were not possible with the existing track layout. they're not planning any upgrades in the near future so they simply renewed the semaphores at the Rye end. Not sure if there's any on the Eastbourne end.

I found a similar situation when I got some Black Beetle motors recently. Had to pay UK import duty as the order was over £110plus UK VAT. Had I split the order into 2 batches, obviously post would have been dearer, but the whole lot would not have attracted import duty or VAT! the joys of being outside the EU...

More of a coincidence. :)

It's called Craven Cottage, he's a Fulham fan. :) He's also the local window cleaner!

If you need any pics of Garsdale, my brother lives in one of the railway cottages next to the station. I'm sure he wouldn't mind popping out with his phone. He's a Fulham fan so you can guess the name of his cottage!

You ought to try driving one all the way, all stations! We had an early job at Waterloo that was literally all stations except Vauxhall and Earlsfield to the Harbour. Left Waterloo at about 0615, got there about 0930! It should have been a VEP/CEP etc but sometimes a 2 EPB stuck on the front.

That really looks the part depsite being on a Lima chassis. I've never had a problem with them apart from the cheesecutter flanges. We had a problem with them on the MRC's New Annington which used f/s bullhead rail on pcb sleepers, the flanges rode on the sleepers. John Jesson took a set home and turned th flages and they ran perfectly after that.