roythebus1

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..

yes, well worth getting.

They may find the Volks stock more comfortable than some of the modern offerings.

I've used the Kean coupling close-couple adaptor on my B set. It needs a bit of fettling to get it working properly but certainly looks a lot better as does most of my other coaching stock. I've managed to get some coaches down to having the corridor connections actually touching. Yet to be tested on very sharp train set curves, they run ok on my layout. Fitted with the little magnet couplings make them run even better

I suspect there weren't many small locos that had inside valve gear, there wouldn't be room for it, plus it would need a pit for very basic inspection.

I was about to mention brass wire hammered flat as well! Been doing that for many years for lamp brackets and now for diesel handrails.

Yes, don't try to re-invent the wheel.

Somewhere in my collection I've got a lot of close-up detail shots of either 2-car or 4car EPB unit taken at staines sidings back in the 1980s. Not sure what type, I only used to drive them! they were all the same to me, big brass handle for go, little silvery black handle for stop.

There's plenty of instances in Europe, especially the eastern countries. Belgium seem to have a lot. of level crossing incdents i the clips on FB are to be believed.

Re the Wooton Bassett incident, it turned out the drive used to work at the same depot as me back in the 1980s. I was a bit shocked to discover that a few years after the event. I've not seen him for many years so have not broached the subject with him, but we're still in touch on social media.

I happened to work at WH Smith in earls Court in 1969/1970. their main kiosk on the Earls Court Road District Line concourse was brown varnished wood, as was the small rush-hour only kiok on the Eastbound District Line platforms. Gold lettering. Manning the concourse shop got a bit tedious with the lift to the Piccadilly Line announcing "stand clear of the gates" every 2 minutes!!

You might find it in the Grauniad. :)

Sounds interesting. black Beetle bogies are indeed still available as CCTrans says above. I recently bought about 6 of differing sizes for 1959 tube stock, Kitmaster Blue Pullman and Q23 motor coach, and a few to spare. Are you sure different motor bogies were fitted? I thought they were the same as those used in LT Standard Stock. They had one motor bogie in the driving cars.

Both. :) And using different combinations of KKs.

Thanks, on this Lima Siphon I changed the BR type bogies for cast bogies, but that was so long ago I forgot whose make they were!! Keen KKs with Kadees now fitted, jus the buffers to sort out.

Considering most models sit in boxes for most of their lives is speed a problem?

2mm usually.

I'm going to do a test track with a load of Peco 2' points forming crossovers. If anyone has seen the Keen test track over the years he done something similar with no problems on propelling on reverse curves. I've also found wht I think is the answer to fitting KK at the motor ends of DMUs: https://www.roco.cc/static/frontend/Casisoft/Roco/en_GB/doc/AN/1/DE/8040343920.pdf €35 for a box of 10. these seem to take up a lot less space than the Keen adaptors and may be easier to fit. they also have centering springs. There's also some earlier rcp retrofit KK units which I've got on some German stock. Still haven't found it yet!

Agreed, on some of my stock I use ABS BR buffers, he made extended and closed buffers. Non-corridor stock did not have the ability to rettract that I can recall. Only stock with the Pullman type gangway used them. I worked on the short suburban stock out of KX in 1977/78. The rules for coupling were that the buffers should just touch when coupling on the straight, not compressed, then hook up and tighten the screw shackle, that would take up a little bit of slack and prevent the coaches bumping about. On main line stock with gangways the buckeye coupler used with buffers retracted. On the outer end with screw couplings, buffers extended. If the loco had centre rubbing plate like the 33/1, 73 and some of the later locos, buffers retract and use the buckeye.

The centring is also required if the bogie doesn't move the coupler across. Sometimes the couple sticks to one side and causes a derailment. The Roco close coupling units use a small coil spring attached to the chassis and the coupler. But they are a pig to fit!! (not the Roco KKs themselves) Having just said that, I've found the answer to the DMU question, use the Roco screw-on close coupling unit they sell for wagons. I've got a few redundant German wagons I can pinch them off.

But with the figure of 350-odd deaths a year from people falling out of trains, that's nearly one a day!! There's still nothing to stop WCRC running their train with hired-in compliant stock. For the air supply a small IC powered workshop compressor in the brake van would do the job. Or a diesel loco between steam loco and compliant air or vac braked stock. the diesel loco acts as translator vehicle between vas steam, air-braked loco and vac or air braked train. Simple really, much fuss about nothing if you can hire a suitable train for a while.

There was a "value" put on life in the Hidden Report, the cost/benefit of fitting trains with seat belts following the Clapham disaster. It ran to many millions er life saved.

I've just started fitting some Bachmann BR suburban coaches with Kean close couplers, buth this time tried the Hunt magnetic couplers instead of the Kean bar couplers which I never liked. I've used Roc/Hornby KKs or Kadee 18's up till now. the Hunt couplers come in a variety of lengths. On some other coaches, notably the Airfix LMS coaches and other 56' stock the Hunt C coupler was too long, so a search through their online catalogue show a really short 6mm coupler for modern freightliner wagons. They ought to get the gap down even further on the short stock. The bonus is that they can always be replaced with Kadees or any other NEM coupling. I've not found the need to use self-centring springs yet, I rely on the bogie slot doing the job. It would be helpful if Kean could make a shorter version to go on the outer ends of DMU motor coaches and under some of the RTR diesels like the Hornby 31.