Amand

I'm guessing it's just a summary of new stuff as no Rxxxx numbers or prices quoted.

When you have a prostate like mine any toilet is a huge relief!

The retaining clip should be a tight fit where it locks into the chassis block. I’ve soldered all my ringfield models to this clip and never had a bad contact. If you leave the clip in place when soldering the block will act as a heat sink, drawing the heat away from the area being soldered, so it’s best to remove it. With regard to the nylon screws I’ve used them too on models that have a live connection. Trim the last few mm from the end first. Screw half a turn, wind it back 1/4 then forwards 1/2 turn so the block cuts the screw thread to fit. With practice you will get a screw that drives fully home and locks the arm in place. It the screw is too slack then use one winding of PTFE tape. A better solution is to fit one of the CD type motors and use diodes to reduce the voltage if running on DC. For DCC my standard fit Zimo decoders are used with the output voltage CV changed to limit the top speed.

Easiest way is to remove the brass coloured gear retaining clip. After removing any surface oxidisation it takes solder well, and when removed it doesn’t use the metal block as a heat sink. I take it you’d be soldering onto the brush retaining arms, do all three in one go.

Tasks completed: dogs walked, shave, shower, my breakfast eaten, wife is going to have breakfast in bed so I can have the living room TV to myself, think I'll have a laugh watching 1 hour of Sam Strains as a warm-up before the main event Please lots of LNER like a C12, Diagram 93 railcar, J39, D49 retool.

LNER diagram 96 Sentinel railcar please - my dad remembers them from when he was a lad, and cycled from his home near Stocksfield to catch the Prudhoe to Newcastle train. His uncle drove them, and let him keep his bike chained up for the return journey! Would make my dad's day to see one running on my layout. I did attempt the cast metal kit many years ago but it was a spectacular failure

Why oh why do we need to have Facebook, Twitter, Instantgram and probably other social media accounts just to enter? I'm not anti-social face to face with friends and colleagues but I am anti-social media.

The “open frame” motor was discontinued a long time ago. The silver can motors initially had a high top speed, this was changed a few years ago. I think the internal windings were altered, maybe the original motors were really intended for 6 volts. There are two ways of moving to the slower speed motor. Easiest is to buy part number X8961, straight forward swap out. New chassis, wheels and slower running motor. Alternatively, buy just the motor X8964, though this will require a little bit of soldering and dis / reassembly. Make sure that the parts are labelled with the above X numbers, there could be someone selling other motors with the faster speed.

I thought every APT passenger carrying coach had at least one bogie shared with the coach is it was coupled to? Can't find the prototype coach that this Hornby example is modelled on?

It's no different to the way finance companies "credit score" people when determining wha deals they get on interest rates, whether a lion is approved to not etc. If Hattons have done something their contract with Hornby forbids them from doing then they aren't going to get the best deal. Making the same model, wholesaling stock to the trade (either their own or Hornby's) would cause friction. Whatever Hattons did in the past resulted it in them no longer receiving supplies of Bachmann products. Hornby may be looking at the same behaviour but not going as far as cancelling their account. Hattons may only be allowed to order items in Hornby's warehouse that have not been allocated to other traders. Given they frenzy over new products there's probably not much to choose from?

I understand neither Peter's Spares nor Bob from N Gauge Lines no longer repair N gauge locos. My cousin has sent a loco to LP Rails https://www.lprails.co.uk and had a successful repair carried out. No connection with any of the above 3 businesses etc

Man saws through branch, not many more strokes as he's quite a way through. Branch falls to the ground. Ladder pivots on the ground, as its already leaning against the branch, falls toward the woman. Man lands on woman, man isn't injured and walks away. Woman ends up in A&E. The end.

I expected it to say "grandson"!

Probably easiest to buy an orange LED that flickers? Then wire it up as above with an appropriate resistor. I think that Bachmann are using a combination of red and orange LEDS in the J72 / 94xx. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-x-Orange-Flickering-LED-3mm-Candle-Flicker-Effect-UK-1st-CLASS-POST/121552102287?hash=item1c4d11e38f:g:LCMAAOSwxEpYxH0V No connection etc, just found them as looking for LEDs online.

Thanks for the DCC info. I'll be ordering the DDC ready version. Just need to decide on the livery!

I'm just at the point of placing a pre-order, but need some advice about the DCC fitted loco. I've fitted £20 Zimo next18 decoders to my Bachmann J72s and V1s, both a very simple task taking a couple of minutes per loco. As the price increase for DCC locos is £45 which decoder are you using, and does the loco body easily come away from the chassis? £45 does seem a lot to me.

At the other end of the country there's some interesting holes to dive around Beadnell....... https://fifthpointdiving.com/dive-blog/dive-blog-beadnell-24jul19/

Yes it can, but the chassis block and the lower brush holder are live, so two "Digihat" insulated carbon brush holders will be required. From the description it's a very early example, with motor bogies in each unit. They only drive the rear bogie of each HST power unit, and from memory they only pick up from the motor bogie, not the dummy units at the front. It didn't take long for Farish to re-tool this and the similar 101 DMU to a central motor in jut one of the power cars, but with pickups and drive to all wheels, a solid chassis block etc it has much better running. So - 2 decoders needed, and 2 Digihats (from DCC Supplies) - looking at approx £48 for the parts. Personally I'd try to find one of the later ones with the central motor, only cost £24 for decoder and Digihat. A Chinese made version would be simpler still, just a decoder but still need to hard wire it in, the only DCC ready HST to date has been by Dapol.

I'm sure I read here that some decoders have a CV setting that determines how many factions of a second they will run on after the DCC signal has been interrupted? Could be useful if a loco decided to leave the track and power itself over the edge of the baseboard!