roythebus1

We had the original generator 47s at Kings Cross in 1977, they were "quite quick". :) 47 401 etc. Opened up a bit at FP to keep out of the way of Deltics.

I suppose if you get one of each you could have the giraffe ducking out of the way when the sniper pops up? :). I had a Battle Space turbo car as well. on the MRC's test tracks it went so fast it launched itself across the club room! the vintage controllers they had at the time gave out about 24v.

thanks for that info, so they would have run in BR maroon as well? I replaced the wheels with Hornby 14mm metal wheels and fitted the Kean close coupling system. I presume the buffers are too small, they just don't look right and the corridor connections are too short. they look ok though. I'm getting too od to worry about a few bits of underframe missing or not being quite right. I do like close coupling though, seeing main line trains with a scale 6' gap between coaches doesn't look right. It doesn't take much effort to get them close coupled.

Rummaging through my drawers (as one does) and boxes of round tuits, I found a couple of Mainline/Palitoy LMS coaches in blood and custard livery. they have corridor connections and individual compartment doors and windows one side, and 3 doors and long windows the other side, both composites. Just wondering how accurate they are as models. They seemed to be good models when I got then in the early 1980s, along with Airfix and Lima Siphon G and Siphon H parcels vans, they also looked good for their era. I've just updated them a bit with metal wheels, Kean systems close-coupling and Kadee or Roco close-couplings. With the Mainline coaches, I'm wondering how long they lasted in service with BR. Jut remembered, there's also a couple of Mainline GW bow-ended coaches that have had similar clos-coupling treatment. I know thy lasted will into the 1960s as I took pictures of the real thing at Old Oak Common.

I had one of those back in the day. What happened to mine was the force of the spring broke through the sides of the plastic "box" it was housed in. The Giraffe car was fun as well. :)

The problem on locos supplying ac ETH current is if you connect another loco supplying ac ETH would be the phases not matched.

Yes, the loco has additional pipework on the bufferbeam for push-pull working.

I ended up getting a 2nd hand Lima model and grafting the Hornby motor and bogies onto the Lima chassis. Sadly the class 30 body was cracked beyond repair by the mazak breaking up. i'll put some pics on here when I get time!

It would never fit on a lorry of that era!

There was a set of lined maroon suburbans on the southern for a while, I used to see it on the Kenny Belle for a couple of months. It made a change from the usual green sets that appeared.

link here to my earlier article, there's also another on how to KK an Airfix B set. Have a scroll down this forum.

Thos couplings need to be mounted further back so the back edge of the C of the knuckle is level with the buffer face. It gives a good close coupling and should still go round sharp corners. If I get time I'll do some pics of my stock. I've just spent a couple of evenings fitting some old Mainline coaches with Kean close couplings and a mix of Kadees and Roco KKs. I've posted pics recently of Bachy suburban coaches fitted with the Kean system and a variety of couplings.My Applemac keeps losing my entire photo library when I try to post pics on the internet. Then they reappear!!

The oil must be OK if the bottle doesn't squeak.

I've done quite a few old Bachmann and others, use the medium length Kadee 147 whisker coupling I think, screw straight onto the wagon floor, drilling a new hole. The back edge of the knuckle should be level with the buffer line, that way you close up that horrible big gap to get close coupling. Just get rid of the old coupling mountings. the new whisker coupling takes the pain out of fitting the self-centring spring! I'm also fitting Kean close-couplings to my coaches and using either roco or Hornby close-couplers with Kadee 18 NEM couplers on the outer ends. Also currently trying the Kent magnetic couplings.

The 2EPBs did have a collector shoe on the outer end of the driving trailer, otherwise the unit would only have one collector shoe each side and would be liable to get gapped, something which most Southern electric drivers will have had experience of. :)

From my memory of driving EPB stock every day for 10 years, 4 car units didn't have shoe beams on trailing bogies, nor did the 2EP units either. Having said that the 2EPs had collector beams on the outer end of the driving trailer.

Try Harsig, signalling diagrams may have some of the siding lengths, or the District Dave underground website, someone on there will know, or the FB Metropoitan Railway past and present group.

Hornby Dublo tinplate clockwork is the answer, no wiring required. :)

John Bull printing sets spring to mind. :)

Blick Dry Print was another early form of press-on transfers. the Kings Cross range only done loco transfers as far as I remember.

Being old school, it's possible to use solenoid motors with a + and - pair to every motor and one wire to work the solenoids, same principle as two-way light circuits at home and the -12v and +12v mentioned above. You switch 15v ac round the + and - to every motor and on the control panel a single pole changeover switch to feed - or+ down the control wire. I've seen DCC wiring on club layouts, it's so complicated I really can't get my head round it. People say yes but there's only 2 wires required, maybe so to every board but under every board there's more wires than under my DC analogue layout. And loads of expensive electronic gadgets and more wires. There's no easy answer to wiring except a circle of track with 2 wires going to it.

You might find it beneficial to post on the "Handbuilt track and Templot" group further down the page.

Havig evicted the family of mice that have lived in the railway room outside for the last couple of years, most of my collection of transfers was unusable, most were well over 30 years old anyway. who does transfers these days? I'm looking for BR pre-TOPS wagon numbers, parcels vans like Siphon G, and DMU whiskers for the front of my railbus. 4mm scale, waterslide/pressfix/whatever. A couple of websites listed things but were then shown as out of stock.

You're doing a great job there. These sort of modelling skills are hard to find these days. Everyone seems to just want perfection out of a box from China.

I remember seeing a Cheltenham race train at Paddington in about 1964 which comprised a mixture of all liveries including a Bulleid coach in green , super Saloons in maroon, brown/cream Mk1, blood n custard Mk 1 and other maroon coaches. ISTR hauled by a sand coloured Western from platform 1! Sadly I never had a decent camera at the time. A bit later I did get some pics of GW super saloons at Old Oak Common..